The Princess & The Privateer

by Peter Rhodan

  And he was sure she was still attracted to him. He had forced himself to ignore the teenage crush she had developed for him during their first adventure. The fact that she still appeared keenly interested in him got him thinking about the very nice body she had and wondering how a more adult, military-hardened version would look. Damn! He moved his position as it was getting uncomfortable down there and he tried to admonish himself for such thoughts.

  She was still ten years younger than him. She was still the third highest-ranking person in the Kimerian Empire. He was still just the second son of a Brython Baron of limited means. Well, not so limited perhaps, but he wasn’t what anyone would regard as a suitable husband for the KimerianPrincess. Socially he could meet her, but her parents would regard a low-ranking person like him as being well beneath her, let alone the fact he was a foreigner. Actually, he smiled to himself, being a Brython was probably a plus in terms of diplomacy, given the long alliance the two states enjoyed. He thought about the Brython Royal Family, but there were no suitable husbands for Gizel there, thank goodness. The only unattached males were the six years old Prince Rikard, son of the King, his younger brother Philip, and his even younger cousin Alex, who had only been born a few months ago to the Queen’s younger sister, Angelia.

  He looked down at the young woman next to him and found his pulse quickening. Shit. Now he had butterflies for God’s sake! No. No. It wouldn’t happen. True the Kimerians had never been ones for truly arranged marriages but he would never be looked upon as a suitable husband for Gizel. Not unless he did in his older brother and his father, and even then he still had his doubts. Yet, he found himself being drawn to this new Gizel in a way he hadn’t expected. He could feel she was still the same person underneath, but she sure carried off the confident Imperial Princess role very impressively!

  And then they were back at the pirate ship and there was work to do. They visited Moxton first and he sent a report to Captain Peron. The drive could be repaired, Moxton felt, but the power supply was toast. How they would overcome that problem he couldn’t hazard a guess. Karvon sent him back to the Kormorant in expectation of Imperial engineering personnel turning up shortly, and they moved along to visit the prisoners. The three female pirate crew members had been pulled out of the hold and lodged with three civilian women they had found aboard. The woman who her uncle had held hostage, and two female friends she had invited to accompany her for the cruise. Everything was under control there, as expected.

  Captain Lumath was happy to see her back, they looked over the bridge, which was open to space, and shook their heads at the destruction. The secondary control station wasn’t a full bridge like the one on the Thister but at least it was still operational, or it would be when the power supply problem was dealt with. The emergency power batteries were running down fairly quickly and Gizel ordered all unnecessary power usage to be cut.

  An hour later a shuttle arrived bearing an enthusiastic engineering Lieutenant, an engineering mate, three engineering ratings, another mate, and a half dozen sailors for damage repair of the more general type. Gizel met them in the bay.

  “Lieutenant. Get your people looking over the power supply problem. That is the most critical matter. The emergency batteries are running down fast.”

  The Lieutenant drew himself up and saluted.

  “At once, Your Highness.”

  Someone had briefed him on her using her Imperial rank, she surmised. Karvon rather thought it was simply because she was Her Imperial Highness and everyone could see it. The Lieutenant turned to the other engineering personnel.

  “Right lads. We’ll see what’s what down there.” And led them out of the bay.

  She turned to the other men. “You are?”

  “Gunnery Mate Sargan, Your Highness. Where do you want us to start?”

  She waved vaguely at the ship. “Wherever you want. Until we get the power back on there will be limits to what you can achieve. Just do your best for the moment. If you need a hand let me know, likewise keep an ear out in case the Engineering Lieutenant needs an extra hand or two. Leave the other shuttle bay alone as that is under Imperial Security control, there is a bunkroom with some women prisoners under Imperial Security guard, so best to avoid that as well. We’re not looking to make this wreck spick and span, just safe to sail in. You follow all that?”

  “Yes, Your Highness. Me and the lads will get to work then.”

  “Good man,” she smiled and saluted.

  He returned the salute and led his men out. She turned to Karvon.

  “What do you intend to do?”

  He smiled down at her. “I intend to stay here with you.”

  He replied and was rewarded with an appreciative smile.

  “I’ll send all the others back to the Kormorant, and she can take formation with this ship and provide a last line of defense. If one is needed.”

  She felt herself slump a little.

  “Thank you.”

  She breathed out a sigh and looked up at him gratefully.

  The engineering Lieutenant took all of thirty minutes to devise a way of replacing the power supply for the ship. Which just showed Gizel the advantage of using an expert. The replacement power supply unit wouldn’t be sufficient to provide enough power to use the weapons, so they couldn’t afford for the ship to get into a fight. Given the easily repairable damage to the engines, it should mean they could get underway at least. His solution was to dump the whole former unit into space and pull a power unit out of one of the big Marine Assault Shuttles the flagship carried. He had everything ready to go by early the next day, ship time.

  The flagship’s chief engineer, Commander Batselec, came over to supervise the operation and was a bit taken aback to find that Lieutenant Trumann’s work crew included an Imperial Princess and a Brython merchant ship Captain. He tried to tell the Princess it wasn’t her job, but she waved this away with a sooty hand from where she was disconnecting some burnt-out cabling and scorched wall panelling.

  “Nonsense, Commander. I have nothing better to do, and while I am not an engineering officer I do have some knowledge of what is required. Besides, at the moment most of this is just scut work, which pretty much anybody can do. Even Brython merchies.”

  She grinned a sooty grin at the tall man working alongside her who shook his head, but grinned as well, and kept dismantling the wall panel he was clearing.

  The Commander shook a bemused head and went back to supervising the overall operation. Twelve hours later the bulky, but fortunately modular power unit from the Marine shuttle was carefully floated in with the gravity off and secured. Then came the laborious task of force-fitting all the power connectors, which were not the same as the Kimerian ones. This was where Lieutenant Trumann really earned his pay, while the Commander carried out the repairs to the engines. Another two hours later they had power. Which was just as well as the batteries only had about thirty minutes left!

  The Commander and his men packed up and left shortly after that. It wasn’t long before another shuttle arrived carrying a Lieutenant Commander, a Lieutenant, and two ensigns, along with a couple of mates and ten sailors. These people made up the crew who would be responsible for ensuring the prize ship, and all the evidence she contained, made it safely back to Kimeria. Lieutenant Commander Keegen had been the executive officer on the heavy cruiser Hordwin and had been assigned as Captain of the prize by Captain Peron. He was careful to address Gizel as Her Highness on all occasions. He was dismissive of Karvon, not appearing to put much store in merchant ship captains. Neither Gizel nor Karvon chose to enlighten him.

  At the start of the second watch, two days after the relief force arrived, the entire task force got underway, which Gizel thought was pretty amazing given the circumstances. The patched-up pirate ship was using its repaired engines while the Hordwin took the Thister under tow. It was doubted that she could be made space-worthy without a space dock to make the repairs needed to return home, so Peron had decided that she be towed
home rather than emptied and scuttled. Such things were more common in war than during peace, and Gizel felt strangely relieved, even happy when she heard the news. With the fleet now underway, she finally got to crash, having worked straight through for nearly thirty-two hours. Despite her protests, Karvon had chosen to work right alongside her. Why he wasn’t quite sure. Partly it was to show he was willing to work hard, partly it was to not leave her unguarded with all her Imperial Security fellows occupied with the prisoners or catching sleep themselves. And if he was being honest with himself, mostly it was in an effort to impress her.

  As he lay in his own bunk after Gizel had finally decided to pack it in, he finally had a few minutes to himself to just relax and let his mind wander. During this time of self-contemplation, he realised that he was genuinely attracted to her, not just her body, far more than he should be, or ever thought he would be! Well, that was stupid of him! Nothing good could come of this, nothing at all. Their estates were too far apart. Yet he had to admit that all the qualities and idiosyncrasies he had found so attractive in the schoolgirl version of the Princess, an attraction he had forced himself to keep under control, were still there, just now she was a woman. Yes, she was definitely a woman.

  And no, he would not countenance a casual fling during the voyage back to Kimeria. She definitely appeared to still have a huge crush on him, but he was too much of a gentleman to take advantage of her, even if she was an adult now. And what an adult! Watching her walk right over the top of that Admiral had been worth the next thirty hours of hard work!

  He awoke late the next morning, found his clothes outside his cabin, cleaned and pressed by someone. After a long shower, he felt almost human. He had left his power armor in the shuttle bay when Gizel had announced her intention to pitch in and help with the repairs. He gave it a quick once over on his way to the mess. With the power back on it was showing one hundred percent charge. Good. Not that he expected to need it now but better ready than dead!

  The Lieutenant who came aboard from the cruiser was eating what looked like his dinner when Karvon entered the room. A couple of ratings, a few of the marines, and one or two Imperial Security chaps were also there. The marines and Imperial Security men were all sitting in a group at one table, the naval fellows at another with the Lieutenant eating alone.

  Karvon got a tray of food and headed over to the Lieutenant, he nodded and pointed at a chair and the Lieutenant nodded so he sat. “Karvon Alistair,” he offered.

  “Lari Haliton” the man replied. “You’re the skipper of the merchant ship, right?”

  He could see the speculation in the man’s eyes.

  “Yeah. Got there just in the nick of time,” he said before picking up his knife and fork.

  The man nodded. “We’ve heard all sorts of rumors. What really happened?”

  Karvon glanced at the man for a moment before taking his first bite of breakfast.

  “Well. From what I gather they were chasing a small pirate corvette that fled through the warp point. Just as they reached the warp point this ship comes through and opens fire straight off without any warning. The Princess says one of the first salvos took out their bridge and half the forward shields.”

  He paused for more food. The other man waited patiently.

  “The Lieutenant, who was the Tactical officer in the reserve control, hadn’t done up his restraint and was thrown to the floor by the force of the strike and was knocked out. The Princess was the trainee tactical officer and she ran the battle right through from then. We were racing up as fast as we could and I tried to keep the Thister between my ship and the pirate. I assumed that because their focus would be on the Thister, and with us being just a lowly cargo ship they’d ignore us. Worked, too.”

  He took another mouthful of food and noticed that a couple of the naval crew had moved to a table nearby so they could listen in. He smiled to himself before continuing.

  “The Thister was seriously outgunned, but the Princess did an amazing job, not only hanging in there for as long as possible but dishing out some severe damage to this ship as well. She kept it up for far longer than I thought possible, but in the end, the superior firepower and the damage the Thister had taken right off the bat rendered her pretty much a wreck. Fortunately, we had just got into range when the power on board the Thister went down completely and I popped up from behind the Thister and took these clowns out with one salvo.”

  “Holy cow,” the Lieutenant said.

  Then the next most obvious question had to be asked.

  “So what’s the go with all the Imperial Security carry on?” he studied Karvon. “You know, don’t you?”

  Karvon nodded. He looked around.

  “Right. I’m a Brython, so you didn’t hear this from me.”

  The man nodded with a smile. The couple of naval ratings within earshot made out they weren’t listening at all. Ha!

  “As I understand it, her deployment orders were changed between when they left the hand of the Admiral of the Fleet on Kimeria and when she received them. The orders for her Imperial Security chaps were also altered to match those of the Princess. Only somebody with some pretty high-power access would have been in a position to achieve this. Then coincidently the ship that the falsified papers assigned her to gets sent way out from civilization on its own. Where this cruiser just happens to be already waiting to ambush her.”

  He smiled and took another bite.

  The Lieutenant sat back in his chair and studied Karvon for a moment.

  “Shit!”

  “Precisely.” Karvon concurred.

  “I heard she relieved Admiral Jestwick of her command.” the Lieutenant said after a moment’s contemplation.

  Karvon nodded. “Guess who issued the orders for the Thister to come way out here.”

  “Shit!”

  The Lieutenant looked shocked. Then shook his head.

  “That’s just, just, wow!”

  Karvon nodded in agreement.

  “Personally, I don’t think Jestwick was guilty of any deliberate action to get the Princess killed. I think whoever was behind this plot already knew of the plan to send the Thister out this way. They took advantage of this knowledge and somehow managed to falsify her deployment orders to make sure the Princess would be aboard. I imagine that it will all be looked at very closely by Imperial Security once we get back to Kimeria.”

  Haliton nodded. “God yes. Damn. Explains the isolation of the prisoners though. I guess that empty suite has lots of evidence?”

  Karvon studied the young man for a few moments.

  “Some interesting evidence. Certainly. You’d have to ask the Princess about that, though.”

  He broke off then and smiled as he saw Gizel enter the mess. She grabbed some food and a coffee and sauntered over to their table. She didn’t look as tired as she had, but she still had a haunted look around her eyes, Karvon noticed. Having a bunch of friends and shipmates killed around you will do that to a person, he thought sympathetically.

  “Karvon.” she smiled at him almost in relief, he decided.

  He felt himself reply with what he knew was a stupid smile.

  “Gizel.”

  He nodded to the Lieutenant.

  “This Lari Haliton off the Hordwin.”

  “Lieutenant,” she said then sat.

  “Are you coming off shift or about to go on?”

  “Just off, Your Highness.” He said, trying to sound casual but Karvon could tell he wasn’t used to Imperial Princesses having breakfast with him.

  “Ah. Is Lieutenant Commander Keegan on the bridge?” she asked.

  “No, Your Highness. We’re conning the ship from the secondary control center for the duration. Too much damage up forward.”

  Karvon nodded. “Sorry. We were a bit heavy-handed.”

  “For which I will be forever grateful.” Gizel offered with a smile.

  “Well. Yes. I figured we only had time for one salvo before they finished you off with your shiel
ds going down like that. Mind you, we all thought you put up a good fight.” he smiled back.

  Gizel could see the Lieutenant was feeling a little left out so she turned to him.

  “Where are you from Lieutenant?”

  “A small town called Gerton on the south coast of Kerica, Your Highness,” he answered.

  “Ahh. That’s about thirty kilometers south of Lomax, isn’t it?” she queried.

  Her apparent knowledge of where his small hometown was seemed to surprise him considerably.

  “You know it, your Highness?”

  She nodded. “I’ve never been there but I flew over it when I was at the Academy. I used those rock spires to the north of the town to hide in when we were doing one of those exercises, you know the foxes and gundigs?”

  The Lieutenant nodded. “They were fun, although I never made it back as a gundig.”

  Gizel nodded. “I thought they were great too. That was the one time I made it back as a gundig. I got my ship right down almost to the ground under an overhang and the foxes went whizzing past overhead without spotting me. Then I snuck back to the school at wave height, detouring south, and managed to sneak in behind a civilian cargo transporter.” she smiled at the memory. “The flight officer wasn’t impressed with the scraped paint, mind you. But even he seemed to be impressed with me getting back.”

  The Lieutenant laughed and slapped the table.

  “Damn that’s brilliant. I’ve never heard of anyone getting all the way back as a gundig before.”

  Gizel nodded. “I was only the third since they started the exercise, or so I was told.” she smiled smugly.

  Karvon felt himself smiling as well. Just for a few minutes she was back to almost being the Gizel he had loved the first time, the enthusiastic, dare anything, overgrown schoolgirl. Only she wasn’t that anymore, even though she was sharing a happy moment with the Lieutenant, he could still see the steel he had seen beginning to form in her soul during their first encounter was still there.