The Princess & The Privateer

by Peter Rhodan

  Lothar’s head appeared out of the flight deck hatch.

  “Am I looking for anything in particular?”

  “Four bodies and a bunch of female clothing.” came Karvon’s chirpy reply.

  Lothar took this in his usual matter-of-fact way even though he hadn’t spotted the girl on his way to the flight deck but he spotted her recumbent form now.

  “Oh ho, who is that then?”

  “No idea, but four nasty types were trying to do her in and I objected.”

  “Ha. One of these days your knight-errantry will get us all killed.”

  He didn’t wait for a response and retreated to the flight deck to check on what the drone was seeing. A solid-looking woman in her mid-thirties bounced up the ramp at this point.

  “Hi Corinne,” Karvon said casually watching the incoming lights.

  “There’s a girl over there, check her over please.” He said in a more formal voice.

  Corinne noticed the tone, shrugged and went over to the unconscious form, and gave her a quick going over. As the crew’s medical officer, she had a wide range of experience. She’d been with Karvon for nearly five years and had recognized what was his no arguments command tone.

  Before she could report back Lothar stuck his head out of the flight deck hatch again.

  “Found your victims, boss. We have got two air launches coming in at speed. I’ll let you know what zey do.”

  “Keep on it, Lothar. Prep the engines so we can blow out of here too.”

  “Sure zing boss” came the laconic reply and the large man’s head disappeared.

  “She’s unmarked apart from a lump on her head. Bit of a rough wooing method you have going on there Cap.” Corinne said coming up to Karvon.

  “Yeah right. Four guys were trying to put her down. I stepped in to stopped them.”

  Corinne didn’t seem at all disbelieving of his story, nor was she surprised by his gallantry.

  “Was she running around naked then?” came the intrigued sounding query.

  Before Karvon could answer another member of the crew arrived in the form of Juxton Orvid, who was tall, lean, dark-haired, and looked pissed off.

  “Why the recall boss. Mif Suns Rare was just about to start,” he said in an aggrieved tone.

  “Sorry man. Got us into a bit of trouble.”

  Before he could explain Lothar’s head once more popped through the flight deck hatch.

  “We have twenty plus grunts on the ground boss. Looks like they are setting up for a systematic search.”

  “Shit!” replied Karvon. “Where’s Moxy?”

  Just then a disheveled-looking male, perhaps twenty-five or so, staggered up the ramp. “Hey yurz boz” He slurred, obviously completely under the weather.

  Karvon hit the ramp button and pushed the newcomer inside and onto one of the beds.

  “Get comfortable Moxy. Recall the drone,” he yelled at Lothar on the flight deck and headed that way himself.

  “Strap yourselves in,” he said to the other two and disappeared through the hatch.

  Lothar looked up from his display as Karvon moved into the pilot seat.

  “What do the grunt ships look like?”

  Lothar waved his arm. “Two air transports with two crew and ten passengers. There’s no chance of them keeping up with us.”

  Karvon strapped himself into the pilot chair and started punching buttons.

  “Flight Control this is shuttle K567A1 requesting departure from parking bay cee twenty-seven over.” He said into the headphones he had quickly thrown over his head.

  He missed the direct implant communication of the military shuttles he had used during his service in the Brython Navy. The Navy technology wasn’t sold commercially, well not tech that was good enough to be worth the enormous price asked

  “Shuttle K567A1 hold one,” came back a voice.

  Karvon got the shuttle main engines completely ready.

  “Shuttle K567A1 lift off now. Come to course two two four degrees and climb to one thousand meters and level off at five hundred KPH.”

  “Roger that control. Course two two four at one thousand meters and five hundred KPH.”

  Karvon pushed the lift control forward and the shuttle rose on the grav field generated beneath it. Karvon took the manual controls and brought the shuttle round onto the correct heading and pushed the throttle forward increasing the speed. Five minutes later the shuttle was doing five hundred kilometers an hour at an altitude of one thousand meters and rapidly leaving the area the unknown bad guys were busily searching.

  “Flight Control. Shuttle K567A1 requesting course for orbital insertion,” he asked over the comm unit.

  “Roger that Shuttle K567A1. Come round to heading one eight zero degrees and climb to five thousand meters. Switch to channel two four and talk to Orbital Control. Over.”

  “Roger Flight Control. Changing course to one eight zero degrees and climbing to five thousand meters.”

  The shuttle turned and climbed. It took some time to reach the correct altitude then as he leveled out at five thousand meters, he got on the comm again on the new channel.

  “Orbital Control. This is Shuttle K567A1 requesting orbital flight to our mothership, SS Moonlight Five at bay one six on Station High Rise.”

  A female voice responded almost immediately. Which was novel. Orbital Control carried far fewer ground to space traffic controllers than the regular air control on the surface did.

  “Roger that Shuttle K567A1. Wait one.”

  A pause.

  “Shuttle K567A1, we have your flight path ready. Standby to relinquish control to Orbital Flight Control. Maintain current course and increase speed to one two zero zero zero and wait.”

  “Roger that Orbital Control increasing speed to one two kay.”

  He pushed the throttle forward a bit more. Some ten minutes later Orbital Control came on again.

  “Shuttle K567A1, center controls, and open Auto Flight channel.”

  “Roger that Orbital Control. Controls free, Auto Flight online.”

  And he tapped the button to turn on the auto flight controller. He hated not having control of his ship, but most populous planets had automatic flight controls for space traffic due to the extremely high speeds and potentially large kinetic forces involved if there was a collision, with the wreckage falling onto the planet below. As the Imperial capital of the largest Empire in the region, Kimeria insisted on controlling all small ships and even large ships when docking or undocking.

  Already the shuttle was picking up speed and altitude as the automatic system began bringing it up into orbit. Karvon, with nothing to do, went out to the bay. Corinne saw him coming and stood up with her hands on her hips.

  “So you just stripped this poor girl and then went through my locker to find something for her to wear?” She didn’t look happy. “Did you have a nice feel while you were at it?”

  “Now Corinne, don’t be like that. I had other things on my mind I can assure you. Besides the only reason I stripped her was because one of her clothing items had a tracker in it. The bad guys were using a tracking device to locate her, so I had to get rid of her clothes quickly.”

  Corinne stared hard at him for a few moments. His morals weren’t that great, but molesting an unconscious teenager probably was going a bit far, even for him she decided.

  “She was hit by a shock gun, then banged her head on something. Or vice versa. Other than that, she seems okay. I should wake her up, but I am not sure I can without using a drug I am not keen on using.”

  Karvon stood and stared down at the unconscious girl.

  “And just who are you to warrant so much attention?” he asked the prone form before turning to speak to Corinne. “All right. Too much coordinated muscle was after our little chick here so we’re going to break orbit and get on with our planned delivery, seeing our fun has already been interrupted. If she hasn’t woken up by the time we undock, we’ll take her with us. I can put her off at Lenniste
r Station when we call there.”

  He saw the shocked look on Corinne’s face as she grappled with his high-handed actions.

  “I can’t just throw her out on the station here when there was a team of armed thugs chasing her around. Well-organized and well-equipped armed thugs at that. Besides if she’s still unconscious from a shock gun it would need some explaining to avoid the police getting involved.”

  Corinne nodded reluctantly at his explanation.

  “She looks very young to be hanging out at Starfire,” she said.

  “That’s what I thought too. I’ll give her enough money to buy a ticket back here from Lennister Station when we get there.”

  “Expensive,” Corrine commented.

  “No more than some of the other women I’ve picked up now and then.” he grinned at his long-time friend. “Anyway, we’ll see what happens.”

  Chapter 3

  Starfire concert area

  Lena awoke and found that she was lying on the ground next to Teron. Teron! She thought in a panic remembering what had happened and she rolled him over. He had a bad wound on his lower left abdomen, which was bleeding profusely, and his skin was burned around the edge of the hole.

  “Oh God!” she whimpered and looked around frantically but could see nothing through the crowd standing around them.

  “That looks bad.” A voice said.

  An older woman was kneeling beside her and looked at the wound without actually touching Teron.

  “Take your jacket off and jam it into the wound. I called the medical people, but it could take a while for them to get here through the crowd and there is a good chance he could bleed out before they arrive,” the woman said.

  Lena shrugged her jacket off and bunching it up pushed it into the wound in Teron’s gut, shuddering as she did so.

  “Can you hold it, please? I have to call my father,” she said to the woman who looked reluctant to help, but she finally nodded and applied pressure. Lena rolled away and sat up to retrieve her comm. She clicked on her father and waited for him to answer.

  “Lena. You’re ringing late.” His voice came through sounding sleepy. “Anything wrong?” he queried.

  His voice suddenly sounded sharper as his brain woke up. And then he really got worried as he remembered his daughter was calling from a public event halfway around the planet.

  “Oh, daddy!” she started crying uncontrollably.

  “Teron’s been shot and they’ve got Gizel!” she wailed.

  “Teron’s what? Gizel! What do you mean they’ve got Gizel?” he said harshly.

  “Gizel snuck out of the palace and came to Starfire with us. Somehow someone found us. Oh God daddy, they’ve shot Teron and have taken Gizel.”

  “Shit!” he bellowed. Then in a more controlled voice continued. “Stay there. Leave your comm on and we’ll home on that.”’

  “Yes, daddy. Hurry. Teron’s dying!” she cried, tears spilling down her cheeks.

  Why did it have to take a tragedy like this for her to suddenly realize just how much Teron meant to her? She may have thought she was being smart resisting her own body’s cravings and playing it cool with him, but look where that had got her. Teron unconscious and bleeding out, right in front of her own eyes with no way of letting him know her true, deep down feelings of desire for him. Please, please let Teron live, I promise I will make up for all the time I have wasted stringing him along like a silly little schoolgirl. I personally will nurse him back to good health, she prayed to whatever deity was listening on this godforsaken far-flung region of the planet.

  What a disaster, if it wasn’t already scary enough having Teron on death’s door, trying to safely locate Gizel on a planet that currently had upwards of two million people was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. But even that wasn’t the worst of it, she was going to have to face her father in his official capacity as head of Imperial Security and explain their impetuous, ill-conceived actions to him. All Lena really wanted to do was be beside Teron as he was transported to the hospital. She would wait patiently at his bedside for however long it took, praying for him to regain consciousness so she could stare deeply into his beautiful blue eyes and reassure him everything would be alright. That is if his eyes ever did re-open, and she started sobbing uncontrollably.

  “I’m coming, honey. Hang on.” her father said and cut the connection.

  Lena turned back to the older woman who plainly wanted out of this and Lena took back charge of holding the makeshift bandage on Teron as the older lady edged away. Fortunately, a medical person turned up almost immediately. He looked at the wound and exclaimed in surprise. He immediately got on his comm to call for an air ambulance.

  “What happened here ma’m?” he asked getting equipment out of his bag.

  “Two men tried to kidnap our friend. Teron attempted to stop them and they, they just shot him!” she said tearing up again.

  “Where’s your friend?” he asked as he cleaned up the wound and prepared another, proper bandage.

  “I don’t know!” she replied with tears streaming down her face. “She managed to break free and ran, they knocked me out and oh I just don’t know!” she sobbed.

  Beyond the edge of the crowd there suddenly appeared flashing lights announcing the arrival of police vehicles and dimly at first, the wail of sirens could be heard in the distance. Three small patrol vehicles converged on her position and one descended, causing the crowd to edge outward, along with many curses. Three police officers jumped out and took up a position around Lena and Teron.

  “Miss Travgar?” one of the officers asked.

  Lena nodded through her tears. The police vehicle rose and another took its place almost immediately, disgorging two more officers who took up protective positions, enlarging the circle.

  The one who’d spoken nodded at her.

  “We are ordered to protect you and the wounded man. There is an ambulance inbound. Where is your companion?”

  Lena took a couple of deep breaths and tried to regain some composure.

  “I don’t know. Teron told her to run, which she did, and then he was shot and someone or something hit me on the head and when I regained consciousness there was just the two of us.”

  “I understand miss. Ah here comes the ambulance,” he said as another vehicle came in and hovered before landing, pushing the crowd back even further.

  The two paramedics from the ambulance jumped out and took over tending to Teron from the local medical aide and the policeman started talking to someone on his comm.

  “Sir. We have Miss Travgar and her injured companion. What do you want us to do?”

  He listened to the reply and nodded.

  “Roger that sir.”

  He turned to the ambulance crew.

  “Take him to the hospital in Hironishi as quickly as possible,” he ordered.

  They nodded and started getting organized to load Teron onto the gurney they had already unloaded. The officer then turned to Lena.

  “You are to come with me, Miss,” he said.

  “No. No. I need to stay with Teron!” she wailed.

  “I’m sorry miss but you have to come to our station. Your father is coming to meet you there,” he said firmly. “He needs to know what has happened, miss.” he continued.

  Lena slumped. “Yes. I understand.”

  She turned to the ambulance people who looked to be about ready to depart with their patient.

  “Is he going to die?”

  The male half of the team glanced over his shoulder at her.

  “Unlikely miss. Lost a lot of blood but he should be okay. May have to spend a few weeks in regeneration though.”

  Lena clasped his arm.

  “Thank you, please take good care of him, he means everything to me,” she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks once again.

  The ambulance crew soon had Teron loaded up and took off. A police vehicle landed in their place and the officer who had been talking to her took her
gently by the arm and guided her aboard. They took off and headed to one of the temporary police stations scattered around the edge of the Starfire area. Landing there, Lena was guided into the temporary building and given a cup of coffee. She had barely taken a sip when there was a screaming noise outside announcing the rapid arrival of a suborbital vehicle, one in a real hurry. Within seconds a squad of fully armored Imperial Security troops poured into the office and started taking control.

  “What’s going on here?” the officer with Lena demanded.

  Another Imperial Security man with officer markings on his armor stalked into the room and looked around.

  “This office is now under the control of Imperial Security. I am Major Marsden. Who is in charge here?”

  “I am Lieutenant Porling. I am in charge of Station Six.” the officer who had escorted Lena said.

  “Good. Round up your people. They will be fully debriefed by Imperial Security personnel as soon as more forces arrive from the capital. No one is to talk to anyone about this case. This is now an Imperial Security matter. Is that understood?”

  Lieutenant Porling looked puzzled but nodded. He and his fellow officers were soon seated in the back of the station with a half dozen Imperial Security troopers standing around trying not to be too obviously guarding them. The Major came over to Lena.

  “Miss Travgar?”

  “Major,” she answered.

  She knew a lot of the Imperial Security staff on a personal basis not only due to her father’s position but also because of her best friend status with the Imperial Princess. Marsden however was unknown to her. Probably a local fellow she thought.

  “You had better start with how you came to be here.”

  Lena sighed and began her story.

  Baron Travgar stepped down from the orbital transport and headed straight for the police building. His daughter was sitting by herself with a female Imperial Security Lieutenant keeping an eye on her. Several other Imperial Security personnel were engaged in tasks at the station that were normally carried out by police officers. The police officers that had manned the station when Lena arrived had been given a quick rundown on the Imperial Secrets Act and the penalties for revealing such secrets and then sent off to other stations. The only police officers remaining at Station Six were what he assumed were two plain-clothes detectives who were currently sitting on the opposite side of the room from Lena.