“Indeed it is, Mister Carew,” Grantham said. “Save those holding a knighthood or peerage, Queen’s officers are forbidden to duel.”
“Ha!” Lieutenant Ames guffawed. “You’ve done for yourself now, boy.”
Edmon looked perplexed. “What?”
“You struck a Queen’s officer, Edmon, in front of witnesses. I can’t call you out to satisfy my honor, so that task falls to the courts. Prison or impressment if a magistrate finds you guilty,” Alexis told him smugly.
“A Queen’s magistrate, boy,” Ames added. “Not one of your locals.”
“Not to worry, lad,” the marine, Culmer, put in, never taking his eyes or his rifle from Edmon’s men. “We’ll take good care of you aboard Merlin while we search out a magistrate. Safe as houses in our brig, there.”
“Aye,” another agreed. “We’ll take right good care of the man what struck our Mister Carew, we will.”
“But … what she said …”
“I said not a word about you, Edmon,” Alexis said softly. “Only about your father.” Though perhaps the ‘mewling’ comment brought some things to mind. And if they did, I’ll not regret it. “It’s upon him to satisfy his honor, not you.”
“He may complain to her commanding officer as he wishes,” Captain Grantham said. “And I will certainly speak to her about her … harsh and intemperate demeanor. But, unfortunately, Mister Carew is mistaken about the sentence you're likely to receive.”
Edmon drew himself up and smiled slightly.
“No,” Grantham continued. “Mister Carew was performing her duties as an officer when you struck her, Mister Coalson, that would make the offense capital, should the magistrate so choose.”
Edmon blanched, his eyes wide.
“Hanging, Edmon?” Alexis whispered so only he could hear her. “Prison or a year before the mast if you’re lucky?” She watched his jaw work, but no sound came out. “Tell the captain, Edmon. Tell him where your father is and I’ll let this go.”
“You’ll pay for this,” Edmon murmured.
“Perhaps. But your price will be the dearer if you don’t speak now.
* * *
“Mister Carew, sir?” Culmer asked, pausing beside her as they boarded the ship’s boats.
“Yes, Culmer?”
“Just for the future, when you’re interrogating a man … it’s more usual the suspect what gets smacked in the gob, sir.”
“Yes, well, we must all play to our strengths, mustn’t we?”
Alexis preceded the captain up the ramp and seated herself, looking up with surprise as Captain Grantham sat down beside her instead of his usual place at the fore.
“Mister Carew,” he said, staring forward.
“Sir?”
“While I do appreciate your zeal, I should wish that my officers were struck about the head … somewhat less often than has been the case since you came aboard.”
“Aye sir. I had that very thought myself.”
* * *
Alexis stood by the navigation plot, watching as the ship’s boats made their way towards the large asteroid. The domes were dark and there was no visible movement, making them appear abandoned, but other sensors indicated there were both heat and power in the facility. The boats landed and she waited anxiously for any word from the surface. She noticed that she was drumming her fingers on the plot and casting quick glances to the signals station. She forced herself to square her shoulders and look calmly at the navigation plot.
“Be some time afore we hear aught, sir,” the sailing master said.
“I know, Mister Gorbett.” She smiled at him fondly, glad that he’d recovered once under the care of the ship’s surgeon. “It’s simply …”
“Harder to watch others go off a’times than to go yerself, sir.”
Alexis nodded. “Exactly.” She took her hands from the plot table and grasped them behind her. She realized with a start that she was standing exactly as Captain Grantham did when going into action.
I wonder if he does so as not to fidget as well.
The location Edmon Coalson had finally given them for his father surprised everyone. The elder Coalson, surely in anticipation of his arrest when word of Merlin’s taking of Rancor and Grappel arrived, had fled not only his homestead, but the planet itself. He’d run first to Port Arthur, then aboard a waiting ship. Edmon had refused to admit to any knowledge of his father’s dealings with the pirates, insisting that he knew nothing of the matter. But he did admit that the Coalsons had been secretly mining the asteroid belt for years. He claimed no knowledge of what they were mining there, but Captain Grantham was convinced that the only thing worth the trouble and expense would have to be gallenium. And the only reason to mine it secretly would be to sell it on the black market, bypassing the restrictions on the sale of the vital metal to other nations.
The ship’s boats had lifted from the Coalsons’ homestead and rushed to rejoin Merlin in orbit, the masts and sails being raised even before the boats were aboard and setting course for the belt. It was possible that Coalson’s ship had already left the belt and was en route to virtually any system, but Captain Grantham hoped that the man’s greed would trip him up. If he was secretly mining gallenium, then he would not want to leave behind any of the valuable metal. His ship would have to stop at the mining center, the location of which they’d further sweated from Edmon, and load the material. If that took him long enough, Merlin might arrive in time to catch him.
With Lieutenant Caruthers still in his berth and heavily medicated to spare him the pain of his badly broken legs healing, Captain Grantham had led the boarding party himself, taking Roland, Philip, all of the marines and most of the crew, as they had no idea how many men would be present at the mines. Alexis and a small number of spacers were left aboard, along with the recovered sailing master in case the captain needed them to maneuver the ship.
Alexis looked to the signals console where Peters was stationed, having served her so well in that capacity aboard Grappel.
“Is there any word?” she asked.
“No, sir.”
Merlin was in communication with the ship’s boats, but neither she nor the boats had been able to contact the boarding parties since they’d entered the complex. The stealth systems which had hidden the complex and its activities were just as effective at keeping the boarding parties’ suit radios from contacting them.
“Sir! There’s a boat coming round the far side of the asteroid!”
Alexis ran her hand along the navigation plot, bringing the new target into view.
“Heading dead away, sir. Toward that other great rock circling with this one.”
“Are we in contact with Captain Grantham at all, Peters?” Alexis asked.
“No, sir … sir, that boat’s signaling … can’t make it out, it’s encrypted. The computer’s working on it.”
Alexis hesitated only a moment. “Man the guns and get us under way, Mister Kinsley. Keep trying to reach the captain, Peters and inform the boats of our intent.” She turned to the helmsman. “Takes us right around after them. We’ve enough power to overtake them with the conventional drive and not man the sails.”
“Aye sir.”
“And lucky at that,” she murmured to Gorbett, “for we’ve not the crew to man sails and guns both.” She grinned, heart leaping at the prospect of the chase. She considered the limited crew she had available and turned to the bosun. “Mister Kinsley, have them load both broadsides and the starboard bowchaser. Two men, the best gun captain still aboard, to the bowchaser, all the rest we can spare to the gundeck. Should it come to it, we’ll fire one broadside and then work the guns we can with full crews —” She grimaced. “— that will be, I suspect, an intimidating two guns.”
“Aye sir.”
Gorbett nodded. “You think Coalson is in that boat, sir?”
“Coalson or some other of import in this matter, Mister Gorbett.” She paused and caught her lower lip between her teeth, suddenly uncertain. From
the moment the fleeing boat had been detected, she’d acted on instinct, simply giving the orders as quickly as they popped into her head. Now that she had a moment to consider, she wondered if she ought to have waited for contact from the captain. “I hesitate to ask, Mister Gorbett,” she said quietly, “but do you agree this is the right course of action?”
Gorbett’s face softened a bit. “You were left in command, Mister Carew,” he said, equally quietly, though it was certain the crew on the quarterdeck could hear everything. “The decision is yours to make.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “But it would be a poor commander who didn’t seek out the opinion of those more experienced, I think.”
“Trust yourself, Mister Carew, as Captain Grantham does.”
As he trusts himself or as he trusts me? Alexis thought, but decided any further questioning would reveal an uncertainty the crew shouldn’t see. She clenched her hands behind her, still wondering if she’d made the right choice and feeling a gnawing doubt.
Is this what command is, then? A lot of standing about worrying if you’ve made the right decision? A part of her wished she was on the gundeck herself, with nothing more to concern her than encouraging the crews and hauling shot.
* * *
“A transmission from the Chase, sir,” Peters announced. “Says he’s a Daviel Coalson.”
Alexis stopped herself from asking if there’d been any message at all from the captain, knowing that Peters would have informed her immediately if there had been.
“Put it on my monitor here, please,” she said.
A moment later, a monitor near the navigation plot showed Daviel Coalson’s face, flushed and eyes narrowed with rage. “What are you about Grantham? That’s a private mine holding you’ve invaded! It’s my claim and you’ve no business on it! I demand you recall your boats immediately!”
Alexis reached out to record an answer while Coalson’s transmission continued to play. She glanced at the navigation plot and estimated that there’d be a three or four second delay before her transmission reached him, all the while becoming less and less as Merlin closed the distance to the fleeing boat. At least we’re in normal space and can do it without closing to a few kilometers and flashing lights at each other.
“Good day, Mister Coalson,” she said, speaking clearly for the recording. “Captain Grantham is unavailable at present, and I’m afraid I must ask you to heave-to for inspection and boarding, sir. Please do so immediately.”
She transmitted the message and waited for a response, watching Coalson’s own transmission carry on with demands that they break off pursuit and leave his holdings immediately. After a few seconds, the man’s rantings broke off and his eyes widened.
“You!” Coalson’s nostrils flared and his lip curled up in disgust. “Put your captain on immediately, Carew! I’ll not be spoken to so by some jumped up bint playing at being in the Navy!”
And here I thought I was quite polite.
“Mister Coalson,” she said, starting to record for transmission again. “It is Captain Grantham’s intent that you be taken up for questioning in some matter. I am in command of Merlin and will see his wishes carried out, sir.” She had to resist a certain urge to grin as she announced that she was in command. Serious as the situation was, she couldn’t help but feel a little thrill that the ship and all aboard were responding to her will. Grinning would certainly not be the appropriate expression for this message. Though even the nervous flutter in her stomach at the thought that she also bore the sole responsibility for the ship, crew and her decisions couldn’t completely quell it. “Heave-to, sir, and let us put an end to this matter.”
She examined the plot for a moment after sending the message. “Have the bowchaser fire, Mister Kinsley. Well clear of them, please.” She saw the bosun hesitate and start to speak. “I do know we’re not nearly in a range to put the guns on target, even were we to try. I merely wish to give them something to think about. I much doubt Daviel Coalson knows the effective range of our guns or has ever been fired upon. I hope to impress upon him his situation.”
“Aye sir. Sorry, sir.”
A moment later, the bowchaser fired, flashing instantly into the distance, quite unlike the lazy, condensed flow of shot in darkspace.
“Are you insane, Carew?” Coalson’s next message came a few seconds later. “This is a civilian craft! We’re unarmed, you stupid bitch!”
Alexis sensed the men on the quarterdeck tense with anger. Even the genial Gorbett clenched his jaw and the bosun’s hand rose to his belt as though to grasp a weapon. She thought of Captain Grantham’s comments about an officer’s demeanor and setting the tone for the crew. There’s a time for that anger, but this is not it, I think.
“The very worst thing about being a woman in this Navy,” she said to the quarterdeck-at-large, “is that the insults are so very limited.” She turned to the bosun. “You men get called all the imaginative ones.”
“Aye,sir,” he said. “A quite limited repertoire, these Coalsons have.”
The helmsman stifled a laugh, clearing his throat and staring fixedly at his station, and Alexis realized that her baiting of Roland on the subject must have made its way to the crew, as well as the gunroom. No secrets aboard ship, she reminded herself.
“Quite.” She reached forward to record a response to Coalson’s latest. “When an insane bitch armed with sixteen heavy guns is rapidly closing on one, Mister Coalson, it is, perhaps, best to do as she instructs. Heave-to, sir, that is my final instruction. Merlin out.”
* * *
Alexis watched the plot carefully as the arcs indicating the effective range of Merlin’s guns approached the icon of the fleeing boat. The arcs were widest to port and starboard, where the ship’s main guns could be brought to bear and shortest fore and aft, where the smaller, four-pound chasers were. She could turn the ship to bring the main guns to bear, but then they’d lose ground to the fleeing boat.
“My compliments to the gunner and would he see to the starboard bowchaser, Peters? We’ll be within range shortly and perhaps a shot or two nearer than the last will change Mister Coalson’s plans.”
“Aye sir.”
Within a few minutes, the gunner reported that he was ready at the starboard bowchaser and the boat carrying Coalson was within range.
“Fire when you’re ready, Mister Breech,” Alexis transmitted to the gunner. “Not into them, but make our intent clear, if you please.”
A moment later the gun fired, the beam of the laser shot passing the fleeing boat to starboard and above.
“The pilot of the boat’s transmitting, sir, not that Coalson fellow” Peters announced. “Claims he’s unarmed and about legal business.”
“Respond with Heave To, please. Nothing more. Please inform Mister Breech that I’ll have another shot when he is ready. A bit closer this time.”
The next shot scorched past the fleeing boat at less than a hundred meters. It was well within range of the four-pounders now and would be an easy target for the six-pound main guns.
“Send Heave To again, Peters, and inform them that the next shot will be into them, please.”
“Aye sir. Sir, they’re transmitting encrypted again.”
The boat was very near the other asteroid now, with Merlin rapidly gaining.
“If they get round that rock, we’ll lose them for a time,” Gorbett remarked.
“Mister Breech will put a shot straight up their arse before that,” Alexis muttered. She glanced up to see a shocked look on the man’s face. “Apologies for my language, Mister Gorbett.”
“I … no doubt he will, sir.”
“Sail, sir! Coming out from behind the rock.”
Alexis looked at the tactical monitor and saw the image of a ship coming out from behind the asteroid, its sails already charged and glowing but still furled as the ship waited for the fleeing boat to arrive. She returned to the navigation plot.
“She appears to have more sail than Merlin, Mister Gorbett.”
“Barque,” he agreed. “Three masts. If she’s lightly laden and tunes for Dalthus VIII, she’d pull away from us easily even if we had a full sail crew aboard. As it is …” He shrugged. “If she drops sail before we’re in range, we’ll never catch her. Even after, she’ll be gone out of range as soon as she drops them.”
Alexis studied the plot. It was just bad luck that the gas giant lay in an orbital position that would allow the other ship to run almost directly away from Merlin. With more sail area, the barque would be able to outdistance them unless she carried far more mass.
The other ship would have to wait for the boat, then let loose her sails. Meanwhile, Merlin would continue to close, but to continue the chase with such a reduced crew, she’d have to pull men from the guns to man the sails — and even then, she’d likely be outdistanced. She opened her mouth to give the order.
“The boat’s dropped something, sir!”
A new symbol appeared on the navigation plot, small and rapidly falling behind the accelerating boat and toward Merlin. Alexis had no idea what the object might be, but she was certain Coalson didn’t intend it to be to Merlin’s benefit.
“Thrusters hard a’port! Starboard battery, in broadside on my mark!” She waited as the Merlin turned to port, presenting her starboard guns to the fleeing boat. “Fire! Roll ship to port! Ninety degrees, put our belly to it!”
She watched the monitor with satisfaction as four of the six guns in Merlin’s broadside found their mark in the fleeing boat, ripping it open to space. She pushed down the thought that, even if they were suited, four six-pound guns would likely have killed everyone aboard outright, The turn was gradually forcing Merlin off her previous course, bending a slight curve away from her previous path, and the roll had presented her heavier bottom hull and keel to whatever the object was.
“We’ll come back to course and be after the barque once we’re well past whatever it is they dropped,” Alexis said.
All of the monitors showing external data went dark.
* * *
“Should have the thrusters cleared in an hour’s time, sir,” Alexis heard over her suit radio. “Sensors’ll take a bit longer.”
Into the Dark (Alexis Carew Book 1) Page 26
