by Debra Jess
After all, just finding the Majesty of the Stars was half the battle. They would still have to plunder it and tow it to the nearest underground auction, which would take a month at least to arrange, dodging the Silt the entire time.
Shade might not appreciate watching the home of her youth destroyed, but the riches it offered made keeping it intact impossible. If the Queen of Hearts were a run-of-the-mill salvage ship, licensed to locate abandoned ships, then the notoriety of the find alone would jack up the value of keeping the ship intact for a legitimate auction.
But the Queen of Hearts wasn't a salvage ship, and his crew would profit the most if they carved up the ship into parts. It couldn't be helped. If Shade didn't understand this, then there would be trouble, and the last thing he wanted was trouble, either with Shade or his crew. But that was assuming she would even be on board at that point, which he wasn’t sure about. After all, a lot could go wrong between now and then, and he knew deep down to his core that Shade was holding out on him.
"Counting down to exit, Captain," Rusa said.
"Mirin, get our cannons online, loaded, and ready to fire."
He leaned forward as a general alert rang through the ship, reminding everyone to secure themselves. Exiting a slipstream shouldn't create any extreme gravitational shifts, so no one would get tossed about, but one never knew what waited on the other side. The downside to traveling via slipstream: no contact with the target destination. If something went wrong before a ship exited, there was nothing it could do to warn the ships queued at the other end. The opposite also applied, so he always prepared for the worst.
"Three," Rusa announced, "two…one."
A flutter of light tickled the holo-viewer, followed by the Stars aligning themselves as normal pinpoints in the background.
"Throttle power,” Darvik ordered, his standard procedure on autopilot. “Find us…"
"Incoming!" Mirin brought her hands up to chest level, leveling the cannons, getting ready to fire.
By the Stars, what had happened? Darvik adjusted the holo’s view. "Identify."
"Single-person fighters,” Mirin reported. “Their weapons are hot."
Combat craft? Here at Jarvis Station? It made no sense. Jarvis orbited Dawn's Landing, a secure Manitac colony operated by one of their more ruthless directors. "The Shadows?"
Mirin didn't say a thing for a moment, so he let her concentrate. "No identifying codes, signals, or marks, so yeah—I'd say it's the Shadows."
Guardians curse them. He could handle Manitac and their corporate nonsense, but the revolutionary group calling themselves the Shadows…he'd never had any direct dealings with them.
But he knew someone who did.
Punching his ear jack, he opened a comm to her quarters. He should have given Shade an ear jack before now.
"I'm here."
Thank the Guardians, her voice calmed his ruffled nerves. "How much do you know about the Shadows and their tactics?"
He waited out her short pause. "Probably more than you, why?"
"It appears Dawn's Landing and Jarvis Station are under their control."
"Incoming comm, Captain," Rusa announced. "They're demanding we identify ourselves."
"I'm on my way." Shade's voice disappeared, but even using the compressor, she wouldn't get to the bridge fast enough.
"Transmit the Firelight identification."
Fooling Manitac with false ID codes was child's play. The Shadows, however, would have used similar techniques for their own clandestine operations. They'd know what markers to look for and would have a heightened sense of suspicion. He would need some fast-talking to get out of this without a fight.
"Transmitting."
Complete silence enveloped the bridge as Rusa made the connection. The slight gurgle of plasma from the compression gate alerted him to Shade's presence.
"Status?" she asked. Even though she sounded like the officer-in-charge, he knew better than to balk. No amount of strutting on the bridge would save the Queen of Hearts in her diminished state. He motioned for Shade to sit beside him, but out of holo-view. She could read the incoming transmissions as well as he could.
Judging by the look on her face, she was as perplexed as he was. "If the Shadows have managed to wrest control of Dawn's Landing away from Manitac, then they must have their own warships. I don't know how, but it's the only way to launch fighters such as these."
"Not the only way." His thoughts flew faster the longer the Shadows delayed their response. "Small fighters can launch from the ground."
"Yes, they can," she agreed, "but they don't unless it's an emergency evacuation. The drag would tear at the shields. One and done, they couldn't do it again."
"Incoming comm from Traffic." Rusa paused, listening. "We're being ordered to head to these coordinates and wait for further clearance."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shade look at him, waiting for his analysis first.
"They're stalling." It wasn't an unexpected response, now that he had an idea of what was happening. "Those coordinates bring us closer to the station and away from the slipstream. The station has weapons, but the fighters are the bigger threat. We need to find a weakness in their defense."
"Working on it," Mirin growled. "With the secondary shield down, our cannons will cripple the lowest ring of the station but will leave the command center intact. We have enough firepower to take out the fighters we can see. At my count there are seventy."
Seventy ships would deplete the Queen of Hearts of the majority of their artillery. With the Silt following them, he couldn't afford to waste any of it in a misunderstanding with a militia group with whom he had no quarrel.
"Tell them who we are," Shade said, her voice quiet enough so as not to be mistaken for an order, but a strong suggestion. "Send a message requesting to speak to whoever is in charge and let them know the pirate ship Queen of Hearts seeks passage to the Vaynix hub."
She had a plan, no doubt of that, but this was a pirate ship with a crew who answered to no one but the captain. If Shade thought for one moment he would surrender to the Shadows just because they weren't Manitac or Unity, she had a lot to learn about pirates.
Rusa looked between Shade and himself. Of all his crew, it was Rusa who would work in tandem with Naz to keep the ship operating and safe if he himself died or was incapacitated.
Yet Shade had as much to lose here as they did. The Shadows mission to destroy Manitac didn't leave room for negotiating with pirates or searching for long-missing luxury cruisers. Shade wouldn't have made such an outlandish suggestion unless she was certain that it would serve her own purpose.
For the moment, her purpose served his.
"Send the message," he ordered.
Rusa didn't even blink before returning to her holo-screen.
He shot Shade a questioning look, who still stared at the holo, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Care to explain why you exposed us to a murderous terrorist organization?" he asked.
With a twist, Shade turned far enough to send him an amused smile. "Practicality. This shift for the Queen of Hearts…it’s ingenious, but we are vulnerable. If the Silt somehow sees through the Queen's altered state, we're going to have to either fight it out or retreat. Fighting at Vaynix would result in unnecessary deaths for the civilian population, no matter how careful your plans are. Those deaths will negate the whole point of your design. So in choosing to retreat, we'd need a location to retreat to, someplace with enough firepower to knock out Silt and keep us safe until we can return to Calypso."
"A risky strategy," he said. "Why would the Shadows protect us?"
"They won't have a choice. Once a Manitac warship exits the slipstream, Dawn's Landing defenses will react as they did to Queen's. Silt will have no choice to fire back."
"Which they'll expect and be prepared for because we'll make sure of it," he said, catching on to her strategy. "How does that make our retreat here any easier? The Shadows could sit back and watch us fight it out w
ith the Silt."
"They won't," she answered. "The Shadows have a point to make, and how much better if they could advertise defending a helpless civilian cargo ship. Little by little, the Shadows are going to rebuild their reputation as the group who defends the innocent, that they learned their lesson at Stratos. Even if the entire Dawn's Landing population learns that we are a mere pirate ship, it's still points gained if it brings them closer to proving their strength as a viable force that could break the back of the monopoly holding space travel hostage."
"We are not a mere pirate ship." It was all he could think to say because by the Stars, he understood her now. She also said "we are," which he tucked away for later examination.
"Incoming comm," Rusa interrupted. "Not from Traffic, but from the administrator's office. It looks like it's the colony's director. Should I raise the holo-grid?”
He had no time to think through the consequences, so he shook his head. "Let them see me for who I am."
Rusa nodded. He noted the grim satisfaction on Shade's face. This had better work. With a quick glance at the record Johza had dug up, he at least had the name of the Dawn's Landing director.
"This is Captain Darvik Hart of the Queen of Hearts. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
Charm might not work on this particular director, but it also couldn't hurt. An image replaced the record; long red-gold hair fell along feminine shoulders, framing a face that exuded strength, confidence, and danger all at the same time. Judging from the taut skin, he had to assume she was on reanimation to keep looking as if she were in her twenties instead of much older as indicated in their records.
"Aura Kazimitiru, but you already knew that."
A ripple of muttering rolled across the bridge. The director either knew or assumed Hart researched Dawn’s Landing or Jarvis Station before he arrived. It was an elaborate game of autodam that they were about to engage in, except this time Hart had to win.
"Funny," she continued, "My records indicate that the pirate ship Queen of Hearts is a destroyer, not a cargo ship as its appearance suggests."
"You are correct. We are a fully armed and armored destroyer."
"Your ship does not appear to be a destroyer,” she repeated, the subtle threat promising violence.
He smiled at her. "Appearances aren't everything."
A small smile acknowledged what he implied, about his ship, the colony, and its director.
"Agreed. As you can see, Dawn's Landing has changed. We're an independent operation now."
He raised an eyebrow. "Working with the Shadows?"
If she were surprised by the accuracy of his question, she didn't show it.
"Yes, the Shadows provide protection from a direct assault by Manitac while we provide a stable location for their forces."
"An equitable solution," he agreed. "If I may be so bold, we're looking for passage to Vaynix through your slipstream."
The director leaned back, her gaze never wavering while she considered his formal request despite the fact that Vaynix was the only reason why they would be here in the first place.
"A bold move, raiding Vaynix. Are you so desperate that you need to bring your pirating activities into the middle of a civilian population?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a new holo window open, a message scrawled across it. He risked appearing weak and let his gaze drop away from the director to read the message.
Promise her this is just a supply run. Tell her we’re using an abandoned cargo ship to guarantee that civilians will not be harmed. ~K
He agreed with Shade's assessment, which matched his line of thinking, but not quite identical. "Not desperate at all," he replied. "The Vaynix hub has supplies we can use, but in truth, we have a different goal, one which we're reluctant to discuss. The word of a pirate might not mean much to you, but I give you my word on the honor of my family. We're not heading to Vaynix to hurt anyone, especially civilians. We will defend ourselves if necessary, but the whole point of using this cargo ship is to avoid fighting, not provoke it."
The director's eyes narrowed in thought. "I'm inclined to believe you, Darvik Hart. Despite the distance of time, I'm familiar with the Iron Heart and her crew. Losing family to Manitac is one of the driving forces behind my alliance with the Shadows."
This time she was the one who broke her gaze to nod to someone off screen. Judging by the sudden flurry of Mirin's hands, he guessed the director had called off the Shadow's navy. From his other side, Shade sat back down again, her posture more relaxed.
"I'll grant you passage, Captain," the director continued, "if you will answer one simple question for me."
"You may ask, but understand that I will need to consider the safety of my crew before I answer."
The director nodded. "Do you have puppets serving on board your ship?"
Of all the questions he was expecting, he never considered she would ask about puppets. He scrambled to figure out her angle. Nothing came to mind, so he risked looking at Shade, who shook her head, and then Johza, who also shrugged. Ezick looked as if he were going to jump out of his skin. With no one else offering input, he turned back to the holo.
"Yes, we do have a number of puppets on board." He refused to give her any more information without context.
She didn't request any. Surprising him even further, she nodded once again to whoever was off screen. "When you're ready to return to the Calypso arm, you're welcome to travel through Dawn's territory. However, we would request a meeting before you leave to discuss your puppets."
Before he could respond, the director turned off her screen.
"The slipstreamed has opened," Mirin announced. "I say we get out of here before she changes her mind."
"I agree." For the first time since they began this operation, he relaxed, but not too much. "Bring us around and pray we get there before the Silt."
Chapter Eighteen
"What a strange question to ask." Kelra had decided to remain on the bridge until they exited the slipstream. By the time she returned to her quarters and got herself settled, they'd be arriving at Vaynix hub, and she wanted to make herself available for Hart in case the Silt had arrived before they did, or at least she kept telling herself that was the reason.
"Agreed." Hart had a distant look on his face, his fingers steepled under his chin. "A colony lost to the Shadows would attract not only aggressive action against them from Manitac but also bad press in the news. Everyone remembers the Stratos disaster. There are very few sympathetic outlets where the Shadows would find open arms for their cause. So the question is, why would a colony director make such a deal knowing the consequences?"
Mirin grunted. "Maybe she figured she could triple her income and her power with her own feudal state instead of constantly begging Manitac for funding."
"Couldn't be," Kelra replied, keeping her voice low and steady. She knew Mirin had a twitchy trigger finger, so she took extra precautions with crafting the rest of her response. "The Shadows wouldn't tolerate such a deal. They would see it as leaping from a meteor shower into a black hole."
Hart nodded. "Dawn's Landing has something the Shadows want, something that guarantees both groups' survival against an attack."
Her mind whirled. What would the director have that Manitac didn't?
"Shielding." She said the word before she considered the full implication. Shields that could protect a ship, regardless of size or function, from long-distance space travel was one thing Manitac didn’t have.
"I don't believe it." Ezick pushed his chair back from his station. "Manitac has better shielding. They just won't share it…or sell it. It doesn't mean they can't use it themselves."
Speculation about better shield technology created by Manitac but not distributed for various reasons ran rampant, albeit quietly. Having read enough public research and development profit statements available for investors, Kelra knew better. "Better shielding requires too much of an investment for Manitac to not profit by selli
ng it on the open market."
"They don't have to sell it," Ezick insisted. "Better shields means the bastards could travel from planet to planet, plunder the colonies for everything they’re worth, and leave."
Kelra widened her eyes dramatically. "Ooooooh, just like pirates."
Her remark, of course, didn't go over well judging by the looks on Mirin, Rusa, and Johza's faces. Mirin, in fact, reached for her sidearm again. Hart gave her a rock-solid “you started this, you finish it” look.
Dialing back her snark, she tried again. "Manitac is not holding back new shielding technology. If everyone stops using the slipstreams, Manitac will have to pay to dismantle them. The streams are too much of a hazard for free-range traffic. They require too much maintenance to upkeep otherwise."
Poor Ezick slammed himself into his seat, arms across his chest.
Rusa stood and walked over to Ezick, squatting down in front of the kid, whispering something to him. Whatever Ezick was to this crew, they sure put up with a lot from him.
Hart leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "I'll tell you about Ezick later."
He'd known exactly what she'd been thinking, just as she knew his thoughts moments ago. How was it possible to meet someone who matched her every criteria for a perfect…what? Lover? No, her criteria, while a higher standard than most, wasn't so high that she could remember everything about them, or they her. If she had higher standards in that area, she'd remember this Hyeph Silt. The fact that she didn't annoyed her more than anything.
Obviously, Silt's supposed relationship with her didn't bother Hart enough to stop him from sleeping with her. But did he believe everything this Silt told him about her? No, Hart was smarter than that, and Silt had yet to prove he was smarter than her. All Silt had going for him, as far as she could tell, was access to her logs.
Silt didn't know her. Over the years, she'd cultivated a careful distance between her ambition and her mission. It had taken her a while to figure out that her ambition was a natural part of her personality and not a personality facet she'd invented for her mission. Which made survival beyond killing the alien all the more difficult for her to see.
