The Princess & The Privateer

by Peter Rhodan

  “Sixty-three seconds, people. Not bad. Not our best time but acceptable.” Lieutenant Lars commented into the silence. Their best time was fifty-nine seconds but that alarm had come while B Watch was still awake and had only just come off shift. The expectation was seventy-five seconds so they were well inside that.

  The Captain’s voice came over the intercom. “All hands. Warp jump in ten minutes. The warp point is buoyed so we may be in for a warm reception.”

  Everything quietened down on the second bridge as people waited to see what they would find on the other side of the warp point. The buoy meant that if the pirate ship was on the other side they would have been warned of their approach, so it could be a very warm reception, unlikely given the apparent differences in the size of the two ships. The most likely outcome would be that the pirate ship had cleared off elsewhere by now.

  The minutes ticked by, the ship jumped and there was nothing on the scanners as the detection range widened rapidly. The ship headed for the second planet, which was a good distance from the warp point, and after half an hour they were stood down from Action Stations. Crawling back into her bunk Gizel found it hard to fall asleep again.

  Chapter 20

  The trap is sprung

  The Bamma system was home to only a small colony. Whilst the planet was in the habitable zone and the terraforming was now largely self progressing, it was a water planet with only about ten percent of the surface covered in dry land. With the planet being so far out there was little tourism. The oceans teamed with all sorts of interesting seafood, most of which, surprisingly, was actually edible for humans, which had been the main reason for the colony being founded. Unfortunately, in practice, the distance from sizable markets limited the commercial growth of the operation, and with limited foreign export earnings and little in the way of normal natural resources, the colony had stagnated.

  Well, that was a bit harsh, Gizel thought, studying the notes on the system the ship's computer system held. The colony had grown nearly five percent in the last ten years. Exports had been climbing at four or five percent per annum until the last two years when they had slowed, and then declined a little last year. Which was most likely the result of the reason they were here. Pirates. The planet had two armed shuttles for custom’s work and a small space station.

  The Thister arrived to a surprisingly warm welcome. The planet was known as Grand Banks and while their space station might be only small, it was rather well-armed and so far the pirates had not tried to attack. On the other hand, commercial space traffic was declining, while at the same time the system’s insurance rating was climbing as a result of the recent shipping losses, both here and in nearby systems.

  There was no Kimerian Ambassador stationed here, just a freight factor who doubled as the Kimerian Consul. Kent Jurge was a tall, paunchy man of middle years. He met with the Captain on the dock the Thister was directed to. Unsure as to the exact situation here, despite the warm welcome over the comms, the Captain had elected not to play his Imperial Princess card, or at least not yet.

  The ship took on fresh supplies, which naturally included a good selection of the local seafood while the Captain spoke first with Jurge and then with other Grand Banks officials. Whatever they discussed he didn’t pass on to the officers or crew, although she rather thought he had briefed the XO. Whatever information the discussion had contained was not considered urgent it seemed as the Captain gave the crew Liberty for five days.

  The XO very politely suggested to Gizel that she stay aboard, thank you very much. She groaned but accepted this restriction, and as she was not going to get ashore, even to visit the station, she volunteered to do double anchor watches, freeing up the others to have a complete break. Halfron smiled and made a note. She surmised she had done the right thing, she decided. Anyway, it was no big deal in reality. If she couldn’t leave the ship then sitting on the bridge for a double shift when the ship was docked was no real hardship.

  Lieutenant Tremaine and Lieutenant Mizach from A watch both took the time to run her through tactical simulations when they drew the short straw and had to man the bridge themselves. Mizach appeared somewhat surprised at her tactical skills, at least on the simulators. Not that the Lieutenant said anything to her along those lines. Most of their interaction was in the form of post-simulation critiquing during which the Lieutenant ran the simulation back through and pointed out the errors Gizel had made, or possible optional actions Gizel could have taken. Not knowing Mizach as well as Tremaine she tended to refrain from debating the issues Mizach raised. During her sessions with Tremaine however, she generally spent as much time debating tactical issues as she did running the simulations. Tremaine had let fall the information about Mizach’s surprise at her abilities during one of their debates.

  On the fifth day, just as the final liberty parties were returning to the ship, a cargo ship came into the system through the Holdfast warp point. Just as the SOS call for help the ship was broadcasting reached the Thister, a small ship followed the cargo ship through the warp point. Action Station alarms hooted and the crew scrambled to their stations. Halfron happened to be on the command deck and had the ship underway before the captain reached the deck.

  It was B watch’s shift and Gizel had been running a tactical simulation with the XO on the bridge. Able Spacer Morthon was at the comms station and raised the alarm. Gizel had the tactical board up and the pirate ship locked in with the grav sensors before the A watch crew began arriving to relieve her and Morthon. She followed the spacer aft to the second bridge and took her station as tactical support, Tremaine nodding as she arrived. Halfron arrived a bit behind her as he had presumably waited on the bridge for the Captain to arrive.

  Several of the crew on shore leave had not reached the ship before she slipped her moorings, but one of the Bamma custom’s shuttles came racing up, going flat out, and the Thister held her acceleration down long enough for the customs shuttle to dock, offload the tardy crew, and then depart.

  The shuttle sent a cheery “Good hunting” as she headed back to the station.

  It was obvious they were quite happy for the destroyer to deal with the pirate.

  The pirate vessel had flipped ship and was decelerating as hard as she could as the cargo ship fled onwards. The Thister began powering away from the orbital station before racing around the planet in pursuit, using the slingshot around the planet for extra acceleration.

  “What have we got?” Halfron asked Lieutenant Tremaine.

  “She’s a corvette, but small even for that. Old, too, is my guess. Her deceleration rate is less than our acceleration rate so she won’t escape but it will be a long stern chase.”

  Gizel wasn’t so sure about the difference in the propulsion systems, but then Lieutenant Tremaine had a good deal more experience than she did!

  When it was clear the pirate was going to run and not fight, the Captain went to General Quarters. Which meant B watch trooped back to the bridge and relieved A watch. The Captain and the First Lieutenant stayed on the bridge for another hour or so before leaving as it was going to be a day or more before they caught the pirate. And that would probably happen in the next system at least.

  Three hours later C watch relieved them in turn, so they all headed for the mess. There wasn’t really that much to discuss, and as the warp jump was coming up in less than an hour, for which passage they would return to Action Stations, there was little point in retiring to their cabins. The tension ramped up as they went back to Action Stations before the jump. It was probably a stupid idea for the pirate to try and surprise them on the other side of the jump point, but pirates were known to do some dumb things!

  The jump into the Holdfast system proved anti-climatic as it went without any surprises. The pirate ship was charging towards the third jump point for all it was worth. This system had three warp points. The Bamma one was way over to one side of the red dwarf star and the other two almost ninety degrees further around the star. The closer one we
nt to Jersey, but their charts didn’t show where the third jump led. The pirate ship was still running, so General Quarters was set again and Gizel and her watchmates headed directly to bed.

  The system had one small gas giant in a very distant orbit that was reported to have four worthless moons and there was nothing else of any interest in the system. The pirate ship would disappear through the jump point maybe an hour ahead of the pursuing Imperial destroyer. Another ship appeared in the system coming through the Jersey warp point. It was most likely a freighter from the gravics readings. She assumed someone on the bridge would warn them off. Not that the small pirate vessel would be a threat for much longer. Not given the rapidity they were closing with the smaller vessel. Two, maybe two and half hours beyond the jump at their current rate should see the pirate brought within range of their weapons.

  “They’re hailing the unknown vessel, sir.” Able Spacer Morthon commented for the benefit of Lieutenant Lars, who simply nodded watching the banks of displays in front of her.

  There wasn’t much they could do at this stage. The A Watch manning the bridge was running the ship. Their mission, here in the second bridge, was to be ready to take control of the ship in the unlikely scenario that the bridge was hit. Gizel saw that the cargo ship had increased speed but instead of heading for either of the safe warp points, was instead on a course that was heading straight for them. A suspicion crossed her mind. She double-checked the numbers.

  “What do you make of that cargo ship?” she asked Lieutenant Tremaine quietly.

  He looked up from his display, studied her for a second, and then returned to his gaze at his equipment. A few moments later he replied.

  “Pretty speedy for a cargo ship. Eighty gravities at least. The bridge has them pegged as a probable hostile. There was that report of a larger vessel”

  “Yes,” she answered. “But I don’t think they are it.”

  A probable hostile would be fired upon if they showed any signs of belligerence.

  “Can we mark them as possible instead?” she asked.

  Tremaine looked at her sharply and she suddenly realized what she’d done.

  “Sir.” she added about two seconds too late.

  He smiled instead of reprimanding her, but then asked the obvious question.

  “Why change their status?” What do you know?”

  She frowned and she felt her mouth twitch the way it did sometimes when she was internally conflicted.

  “It’s classified, sir. But there is a q-ship type merchant vessel that contracts out to interested parties I know of that is in that size range and can pull that acceleration.” she offered.

  He studied her for a moment. “I see. Something like how you finished up being Boarding Officer despite your lack of experience and your, ah, Imperial rank, as opposed to your naval one?”

  She knew Lieutenant Lars was also watching her and felt her face heat. She nodded.

  “Something like that,” she said lamely.

  Able Spacer Morthon broke in.

  “I think that freighter is trying to contact us, sir.” He hit some buttons. “Ensign Bordon is trying to clean up whatever it is they are transmitting but the pirates are jamming too strongly.”

  Tremaine and Lars both gave her a sharp look before turning back to their respective tasks. The pursuit continued. Gizel nodded at Lars and whispered to Tremaine.

  “I thought the XO should be down here, sir.”

  Tremaine nodded. “He’ll probably turn up after we make the jump. We’re not going to catch that pirate this side of the warp point.”

  This was something Gizel had worked out herself. Technically they would be within range before they reached the point, but the dissipation on their plasma cannons would mean that unless the pirate vessel had no shields at all, there was no point in firing. Her original estimate of another two hours beyond the jump point before effective range would be reached still seemed right to her. Depending on the pirate ship’s shield strength.

  The pirate ship disappeared into the warp point. So did the jamming she had been putting out. Morthon spoke up.

  “We’re getting a message from that freighter now. They have an encrypted signal for us.”

  “Shit!” yelled Griffen.

  A ship appeared out of the warp point. It was a little larger than the Thister and quite clearly a warship of some description. Action Stations sounded, although the crews were already at their stations. The oncoming ship was not traveling very fast when it first appeared, but now it was accelerating furiously and heading for them. Gizel plonked down in her seat and her eyes scanned the tactical display.

  Tremaine spoke up.

  “Some sort of light cruiser,” he said as he played with his keys. “She’s a good deal larger than us, although her power curves appear not that much better than ours. It looks to be an old Lotharian City class cruiser. Obviously refitted.”

  Gizel was still trying to sort through a list of warship hulls that size herself and was annoyed he found the ship type so quickly.

  “No doubt modernized one would assume. The last of those ships were retired fifty or sixty years ago if my memory serves.” Lars replied.

  No one offered anything more for a few moments.

  “They are actively scanning,” Tremaine reported. “We are jamming but so are they.”

  The coolness of his voice stopped abruptly as the gravic sensors picked up the pulse used to create the plasma for a ship’s main weapons

  “Incoming!” he yelled.

  Gizel winced in anticipation as the ship’s shields had been down in preparation for the jump, and they had barely started going back up, so the enemy ship essentially had a free shot at the Thister. The ship appeared to physically shake and then jinked violently. The lights went out and Gizel could hear thumps and moans as crewmen were thrown around. Emergency lighting came on a second later.

  “We’ve been hit forward,” Griffen said.

  Tremaine wasn’t at his console and peering around she could see him on the deck with blood oozing from his scalp. He clearly hadn’t been strapped in, as one should have been, she thought to herself.

  “Medic to the Emergency Bridge.” she said into the chip comm feed.

  Looking at her display she saw the ship had been hit forward of the crew berth. The right forward shields were recharging but it was clear the cruiser’s salvo had broken through and done severe damage. She felt the Thister return fire and saw the cruiser’s shields weaken but their fire didn’t penetrate. The cruiser fired again but Lieutenant Mizach had started turning the ship, and most of the fire fell on the undamaged middle shields and not enough on the forward shield to punch through again. Well done, she thought. Now we should rotate the ship she added mentally. But Mizach was obviously not on her wavelength!

  The Thister’s weapons recharge cycle was quicker than the enemy ship’s more powerful weapons which would tend to equalize the fight over the long haul, Gizel decided. Provided the Thister didn’t take a catastrophic hit. Which was why she couldn’t understand Mizach not rotating the ship to keep their fresh shields facing the enemy!

  Their next salvo, targeted at the same section of the enemy shield, caused it to drop, although it was still not quite enough for their fire to punch through. The enemy tactical officer was as static as Mizach and the cruiser continued to float closer without engaging in any dramatic maneuvers. The cruiser’s next salvo was targeted at their forward shield section once more, but the salvo was poorly aimed and some of the energy splashed onto the middle shield. Even so, the forward shield nearly failed again.

  “Rotate the ship!” Gizel hissed, causing Lieutenant Lars to look over at her. A medical orderly finally arrived to tend to Lieutenant Tremaine who was started to wake up anyway. Their next salvo punched through the cruiser’s shield and managed to do some light damage to the enemy ship, but nothing major as far as Gizel could determine.

  Someone must have given new orders on the bridge because the Thister starte
d to turn, but not the way Gizel would have done it. Unfortunately, the turn had not progressed very far when the next enemy salvo smashed through the forward shield. The ship genuinely staggered this time. Suddenly her panel was live! Shit. That meant the bridge had been hit. She could hear Lars talking into the comm but she ignored it to concentrate on her new role. The plasma cannon capacitors inched up and then reached full and she fired them immediately at the same section of the enemy ship as Mizach had been targeting. The enemy shields had failed to recover fully and this time she had the satisfaction of seeing some serious damage done to the pirate.

  Even as she smiled at this, she hit the thruster keys to manually rotate the ship using the docking thrusters. It enabled the ship to rotate on the spot, tangential to its forward direction, but the speed did cause problems with the internal grav field compensators, which were primarily designed to protect the crew from lengthwise acceleration or deceleration. A rapid rolling of the ship caused people to be pulled towards either the floor or the ceiling depending on their position in the ship.

  Poor Lieutenant Tremaine, only half-conscious, was thrown up against the underside of his console while the medic hit his head on the same console. Not seriously in either case but still annoying. The Thister's faster reload finally caught up with the cruiser's reload speed and she managed to get the next salvo off before the cruiser fired again. The enemy ship took some real damage this time as the quicker fire from the destroyer caught them. Yes!

  The enemy fired and then rotated their ship the same way, damn. The untouched port shields took a serious but non-penetrating hit and then she maneuvered again to try and avoid the strike on the same shields from the enemy ship’s larger cannons. Her own fire didn't punch through the intact shield the enemy now presented. She managed to avoid a full coverage hit on either the forward or middle shields, but that didn’t mean the larger weapons failed to punch through. They rippled the salvo and this resulted in more flashing red damage lights popping up on the console in front of Lars. Gizel’s position on the opposite side of the Tactical console from where Lieutenant Tremaine would normally be fighting the ship meant she could see the consoles in front of Lars quite clearly. The engineering console was lit up with angry red lights all over. Some just glowing, but others were flashing. There were plenty of flashing yellow lights as well.