I wondered what the Valhalla Platform might be and my imagination ran wild for a few moments.
"Nick, where are you?"
"Engine room."
I made my way back, "I heard from Belcose. Slight change of plans. Have we already paid for everything?"
"Like what?" he asked.
"Repairs, armor, upgrades."
"Oh, almost none of it. I paid for the clothes, carpet cleaning bot, and the replicator for the septic parts."
"Perfect. I have an account number for everything else. Belcose doesn't want to put a price on anything, but we have an open account to cover repairs, fuel, etc. We need to jump it to the next level with the repairs and improvements we can get done before we get kicked out. Pay premiums and bonuses to get it rolling."
"I see. Does that change things with Marny?" he asked.
"I seriously doubt it. You got this?"
"Yup."
My comm channel chirped and I moved into the galley so I wouldn't annoy Nick. "Hoffen."
"Got a present for you. How are you set for cash?" It was Bertrand.
"Solid. What do you have?"
"Four Samsung Maelstrom missiles. They want fifty apiece. It's a heck of a deal."
"You think about our conversation last night?"
"I'm in."
"Sweet. What's the best way to get those missiles? Will they deliver?"
"I'll take care of it. Who gets the bill?"
"Nick or me. When can you start?"
"Knock, knock," she replied.
I stuck my head around the corner and looked through the airlock windows. Marny's smiling face was on the other side of the door. I let her in and extended my hand, "Welcome aboard!"
Nick must have overheard because he came down the narrow hallway of the airlock. He sent instructions to the ship. Add crew member Marny Bertrand. Add exterior access, bridge access, armory access. Make recommendations on security based on the role of gunnery officer. Accept. The ship's AI was proposing security access. Accept. Accept. Accept.
"I got gear on the deck. Where should I stow it?" she asked.
"Probably the forward bunk room, BR-1. BR-2 will be converted into a brig for the trip. Meet me in the bridge when you get squared away."
"Aye aye," she replied.
A few minutes later, I heard her say, "Permission to enter the bridge."
"Enter." When she came in, I said, "Grab a seat."
"I just came from the station. They aren't budging. We have sixty-two hours before we become persona non-grata. Are we going to be ready?"
"With your help, yes. Nick will get the ship ready to fly, but I need you to get us ready to transport a prisoner and defend the ship."
"Wish you hadn't sold me all of that ammo," she said ruefully.
"Can you buy any of it back?" I asked.
"How much money do you have?"
"Mars Protectorate gave us an open account."
"I can buy it back. Captain Stabos is cheap. If I offer him a 50% bonus he'll load it himself."
"Do it. Let's see what open account really means. I don't want to die because we ran out of bullets."
"What else?"
"A crew is coming over to build the brig. Can you coordinate that? If you stick around, you own security. Coordinate with Nick, though. No sense double ordering things."
"Do you have a ship insignia or ship colors?"
That took me off guard. "How's that?"
"We need armor suits. Might as well get them to match. Who is doing the chandlery?"
"Figured we would go with meal bars."
"Probably not," she answered dryly.
"Can you put it on your to do list?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Need coffee," I pled.
A workman appeared at the door of the bridge. "Mind if we take over in here?"
"All yours," I said.
Lockdown flight controls. Open contractor access, Marny instructed.
By the middle of the third day, most of the work was wrapping up. Marny had outfitted the armory with half a dozen high quality blaster rifles. The missiles had been inspected, repaired if necessary, and installed. Sixty percent of the ammunition we had sold had been re-purchased and loaded back onto their original shelves. New armored vac-suits were stowed in our footlockers.
Nick had overseen the installation of all of the vid screens on the bridge and a fully functioning heads-up display. The HUD was tied into the ship's AI system and could display tactical and navigational information onto the retina of any person on the bridge.
Nick had also installed a refrigeration unit, the Galley Pro, a dish sanitizer, and our very own Class 2 Replicator. The replicator was large enough to manufacture moderately complex mechanical items with diameters less than twenty-five centimeters.
I sent a message to Gregor Belcose, letting him know when we would be taking off and asked for any up-to-date information he might have on the converging ships. He had sent a few updates and it looked like at least three of the four ships were close enough to be a problem by the time we took off.
We were exhausted, but I felt pressure to get off of Baru Manush. I wouldn’t feel better until we were underway and out of range of the pirates. Baru’s stationary guns could disable one or two attacking ships quite well. But the Red Houzi had enough ships coming to overwhelm the station's defenses if they made a coordinated effort. Somehow I doubted they would, though. The smarter move would be to spread out just outside Baru’s defense system and wait for us to leave.
"I think it's time to get our prisoner," I announced to Marny and Nick over lunch. The food from the Galley Pro tasted great.
"How do you want to do this?" I asked her. Marny had done a great job turning BR-2 into a brig. An armor-glass wall with a narrow door and food-tray slot spanned the room a third of the way in. The larger section of the room had only a single bunk in it. A vent circulated air between the brig and the remainder of BR-2. Marny had explained the advantage of the design. By not using the entire room, we would be able to have someone inside, on guard if necessary, with the hallway door locked. The only point of vulnerability would come during trips to the restroom. Marny had thoughtfully provided a privy, which was nothing more than a bucket, for Xie to use in an emergency.
"Suit up. We are all going. Once we have the prisoner, she will be cuffed and Nick will have a shock cord on her. Liam will lead, Nick will walk beside her with the cord, and I will follow. Liam and I will be armed with blaster rifles. I wish we had spent a little more time training with them, but our armor suits will help with aiming if it comes to that." We had been through this plan a few times already and I had walked our route earlier that day. Marny didn't think we could be too prepared.
I felt a combination of pride and silliness as we walked through the hallway of the station carrying blaster rifles and wearing armored vac-suits. Just as I had come to expect, Marny radiated power. Her well defined legs were even more impressive with the extra bulk of the armor. She caught me looking at her and simply winked with a slight grin. I think she was used to getting some attention when she armored up.
Xie Mie-su had been held in a cell a kilometer away from our ship. I had tried to figure out if we could move the ship but Baru Manush Defense wasn't interested in granting any us any new permissions, so we took the walk.
Nick looked like he might have swallowed a goldfish or something. His eyes were opened wide and I thought he was going to hurl. Marny noticed it, too, and moved over to walk beside him.
"Looking pretty fine there, Mr. James."
"I'm no good at this," he said.
"And yet when push came to shove you stood tall. Remember, I reviewed those vids."
"That was different, it all happened so fast."
"All you can do is prepare and then react. No amount of worrying is going to make it better. You gotta live in the moment. We're just taking a walk," she counseled.
"Just taking a walk. Fine." Nick still sounded unsure.
> "Have a little faith. Shit hits the fan and I want you to do two things. Get flat on the ground and lay on that shock cord. It won’t hurt her and if she doesn't move, it won't do anything. You aren't carrying a weapon, so she can't steal anything from you. That also means your job is to stay alive. Repeat those two things: hit the ground, hit the shock cord." Marny sounded like she was teaching school.
"I can do that," Nick said with a little more conviction.
"I know you can because you did it on Perth when your buddies needed you."
We walked in silence to the holding cell. When we got there, a man in a crisp new uniform greeted us at the door.
"Captain Stabos, I didn't expect you to see us off," Marny said with guarded humor.
"Sure you want to do this, Bertrand? Offer still stands. The path you are on ends poorly and you know it." Apparently the Captain wasn't one to mince words.
"Got to see this through, Cap."
"Your funeral. You're gonna need to leave those rifles here though. Station policy," he said smugly.
Marny's temper flared, "Since when?"
"New orders. Just came down. You must have missed the memo. You can fill out some forms and get them back of course. Majeed, confiscate their weapons."
We handed the rifles to Majeed, who looked a little cowed by Marny.
"Won't forget this, Cap," Marny said through clenched teeth.
"I'm sure of that," he replied.
"The prisoner?" she asked.
"Majeed, bring Ms. Mie-su out please," The captain commanded.
Majeed put the rifles behind a counter, then turned to open a door. Xie, dressed in her black vac-suit, walked unescorted through the door.
"I'll need to search her for weapons. Hands on the wall." Marny was still fuming.
Xie looked to the Captain who replied, "That won't be necessary, Bertrand."
"My prisoner, my call," By now, she was menacing enough to even frighten me.
"Suit yourself."
Marny searched Xie and didn't find a weapon.
"Satisfied?" the Captain asked.
"Yes."
"Good enough for me. You need to leave now."
"Need to put on cuffs and a shock cord, or are they illegal now too?" Marny was pissed.
"Hand over the shock cord, but the cuffs are certainly okay." The Captain was enjoying himself.
Marny nodded to Nick to hand over the cord and then grabbed Xie roughly, pulling Xie’s arms behind her back and placing magnetic hand restraining cuffs on her wrists. Marny raised her face shield.
Security channel one. I heard her say and Nick and I obeyed.
"Nick, take lead. Liam you will have to escort her. If we take fire, listen for my instructions. We are going to jog back double-time."
Nick and I acknowledged. Once we made it into the hallway, we started walking briskly.
"Five hundred thousand m-creds if you release me right now. Otherwise, you'll end up dead." Xie said, once we started moving.
"Keep it quiet or I will gag you." Marny said menacingly. I had no doubt she meant it.
"Call off your dog, Liam. That's half a million m-creds. If you want to be a businessman, I guarantee you don't want to piss off Red Houzi like this," she continued.
Marny didn't waste time and pulled a black sash from a pocket and wrapped it around Xie's mouth. Xie struggled, but in the end was gagged.
"Might as well get us on the right path, right out of the box," Marny said humorlessly.
I would like to say we made it back to the ship without incident, but that wasn't the case. We hadn't made it more than a hundred meters when we picked up a tail.
"Get ready boys. The guy behind us is there to keep us from escaping. The main attack is coming from the front or the sides. Liam when it comes, sweep Xie's legs out. Nick, I want you to launch yourself at Xie and keep her down. And Liam, I need you to get the guy who is behind us.
We only made it another twenty meters. The attack came from a crossing hallway. I had just cleared it when two figures emerged, one on each side of us.
Knowing what to do and doing it when the crap hits the fan are two different things. I took two hits right away from flechette guns. Fortunately, the armored vac-suit prevented the darts from penetrating. I tried to sweep Xie's legs, but she was already in motion. She jumped before my leg swept around, so I fired my arc-jets and barreled into her, crashing us both into the wall. Nick was already moving and landed on top of both of us.
I rolled out of the pile and saw the rear goon rushing our way. He could tell Marny wasn't paying attention to him, but then he wasn't paying attention to me either. I could understand that. Marny was the real threat in our group.
He had his flechette drawn, but with all of the friendlies walking around, he hadn't taken a shot. We were in almost full gravity, so my arc-jets didn't easily make me fly, but they could still give me a significant boost. Assisted by the arc-jets, I blindsided the man while at a full run. His gun clattered to the floor and he slumped downward, stunned. I snagged his flechette before he came around, put the barrel two centimeters from his knee and fired five rounds directly into it. He woke, screamed and fell over again. I winced at the pain I had caused and may even have apologized to him. It was the heat of battle. Who remembers? It had been necessary, but I still felt bad.
I looked down the hallway and saw Marny down on one knee. Body language told me she was tiring or had taken a significant amount of damage. There were two bodies on the ground near her and two baddies still attacking. The rest of the crowd had been smart and scattered. I tried to calm down. I was too far away to jump in physically, but now I had the flechette. I dropped to one knee and swung the gun up as one of the guys took aim at Marny. I was going to be too late.
All of a sudden, Nick bounded up from his position on top of Xie. He collided with the gunman whose shot went wild. They both landed in a heap against the wall. This gave Marny enough time to turn her head and address the attacker behind her. Instead of standing up, she rolled, twisted and sprang up under her attacker’s arms, grabbing his crotch with one hand and his neck with the other. The poor man screeched and went flying, headfirst into the wall. He didn’t move.
Marny walked over to Nick and offered him a hand up. "My thanks, Nicholas, for protecting my flank." Neither Marny’s words nor her smile faltered a bit as her foot shot out to the side, delivering a head blow to the guy squirming on the ground. My first thought was that she was one tough woman. My next thought was that I was glad she was on our side.
The fight was over, but we still had to get Xie to the ship. I’d kept her in my peripheral, so I wasn’t surprised she’d managed to get her cuffed hands in front and was standing up. I was not in the mood for any of Xie’s crap. I stepped forward and leveled the gun at her chest just as she was about to run.
"Xie. I swear I will empty this gun into you if you move," I said with as much vehemence as I could muster. I must have been convincing because she remained still. Nick collected the remaining guns and Marny limped over to where Xie was standing. She unlocked the manacles and then re-locked them behind Xie's back.
"Marny, can you make it back to the ship?" I asked.
"Aye, just a strain. We need to move now," she said intensely.
We made it to the ship without further incident.
"Marny, stow the prisoner. Nick, fire up the engines, then bring the med-kit to the bridge." I made my own way to the bridge.
Open bay doors. Show system's status. List new communications from Kuznetsov.
The disembodied female voice of the ship's AI replied, which was unusual. I didn't like to hear from the AI and preferred to read status.
You have a message from Baru Manush Defense regarding a security lock down of Sterra's Gift. One message from Lieutenant Gregor Belcose.
Relay Baru Manush Defense message to all crew.
"Captain Hoffen, you and your crew will report to Baru Manush Defense Station for questioning related to an incident during p
risoner transfer."
Marny stopped short of the bridge door. "Permission to enter bridge."
"Enter." I would have thought that she would skip that given the situation.
"They are trying to delay us," Marny informed me.
"Without those doors open, we aren't going anywhere." I retorted.
"I can get those doors open," Nick said from the doorway, making his way onto the bridge.
I wasn't going to waste time questioning his plan. If he said he could do it, then good enough.
"Will they fire on us?" I looked to Marny.
"Not sure. Feels like that would go beyond the Captain's pay grade. I doubt he would want to blow up Mie-su in any case."
"Nick, do it."
"Marny, can you cover me?" Nick asked.
"I'll do better than that," she replied.
Activate ship defensive perimeter. Marny instructed the AI.
"Right behind you." She followed Nick off the bridge.
Play message from Kuznetsov.
The ship's AI started by displaying a map of the local 3D space. In the center of the display was Baru Manush. The view pulled back from the station and blinking lights showed a net of defense gun positions. The view pulled back even further and the station and Ceres continued to shrink until they were no longer visible. Four ships, magnified, were coming from three different directions. Deceleration vectors showed behind them, indicating both direction and change in velocity.
One of the ships wouldn't be a real problem. It was at least twenty hours behind the others. Two ships traveled together and were the closest to our path away from Baru. We would have to deal with them first. They were close enough that if Captain Stabos, or anyone else from Baru Manush Defense provided them with our departure information, they could easily overtake us.
Skirmishes in space can generally be measured in seconds. If two ships are equal, the fleeing ship only needs a few minutes of thrust to get well beyond range of the other. My concern was the two ships traveling together were small attack craft. The rendering in my HUD showed them as two-thirds the size of Sterra's Gift.
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