Andromeda's Pirate

by Debra Jess

  "The beauty of living on the edge of the galaxy with no law except the Queen of Heart's law is that I don't have to care whether or not people believe me. So believe me or not, this is the real reason why I will be the first to step foot on the Majesty of the Stars.”

  From her ear jack, she projected the image of the cloud she'd created. Her artwork left something to be desired, but it wasn't so horrible that the pirates wouldn’t understand the general idea. While the image hung in midair, she told them everything she remembered but hadn't said before: what she saw, heard, smelled. Delving even deeper, she confessed her terror even as she relayed how the cloud had let her live.

  "That's it, all I have to give. I hope it's enough for you to understand why this is so important to me. If you don't believe me, that's fine. Think of me as nothing more than a caged ave in an ore mine. If there's nothing on the Majesty of the Stars, then you have nothing to worry about while you plunder it. But if I'm right, and the alien is still there waiting for me, then you can be the ones who help me kill it. What do you say? Will you follow me?"

  Before Ezick could make a comment that she knew was coming, Darvik’s ear jack chimed.

  “Hart. What is it?”

  She couldn’t quite hear the voice at the other end, but the background noise sounded as if he were talking to the pirates who covered the night-cycle shift on the bridge.

  "We found her!” Darvik shouted as he jumped out of his seat. “The Majesty of the Stars! Everyone, back to the bridge!"

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Silt checked the countdown to exit the slipstream. Even traveling faster-than-light by many magnitudes, it still felt as if the Silt moved at the pace of a submerged stylomat. No amount of pacing would make the slipstream spit them out the other end any faster, so he retreated one more time into his office to review Shade's log entries. Getting to the other side of the slipstream was only half the battle. Once there, he would have to engage the Queen of Hearts and the Firelight. The Silt had the state-of-the-art offensive and defensive systems, and with his expertise, fighting off two ships at once shouldn't cause him any trouble. The question remained though: on which ship would he find Shade? Who knew what had happened once the Firelight disappeared. Plenty of time had passed for her to switch ships if she was on Firelight in the first place.

  Hart, on the other hand, would have already transferred to the Queen of Hearts. On one hand, it would make sense for Shade to stay close to Hart if they had a deal, but Hart had escaped capture not by outgunning his enemies, but by outmaneuvering them, just as he had Shade.

  Still, knowing Shade could almost match him toe-to-toe on the battlefield, he wouldn't put it past Hart to give her the captaincy of the small cargo ship.

  Between the two outlaws, the chance of one of them scoring a critical hit and damaging the Silt beyond his own ability to overcome grew exponentially. Yet Silt couldn't risk destroying the ship carrying Shade. Once he confirmed her location, taking down either Firelight or the Queen of Hearts would be easy.

  All he needed to know he could find in Shade's logs. Once again, he opened her file and started reading random entries.

  As before, he found exactly what he needed. Shade had, in fact, managed to sneak up on Hart once using a short gravitational acceleration jump. It was a tricky move because she wouldn't have had time to calculate her exit point while in transit. Instead, she had to estimate the exact location of the Queen of Hearts and pray to the Guardians that the ship wouldn't change position between the time she started the maneuver and the time she exited.

  Of course, Shade knew how to make such a move work to her advantage even in the middle of combat. The only thing she hadn't anticipated was a tail gun Hart had installed on the Queen of Hearts. Silt couldn't imagine Hart used a tail gun often, at least not for combat. A tail gunner had no control over his own ship's movement and relied on his target being stupid enough to fly into range on its own.

  Regardless of his need to use one, Hart had it, and Silt knew to avoid it.

  His door chimed. Just as well, he had what he needed from Shade.

  "What is it?"

  The door dissolved so his second-in-command could enter.

  "We're about to exit the slipstream, sir. Should I sound the alert and prepare to engage the Queen of Hearts and Firelight?"

  "Yes."

  The second hesitated.

  "Was there something else?"

  "No, sir. Nothing else, sir."

  The second left, and a moment later, the alert rang, sending all available crew to their designated stations.

  Only then did Silt leave his office to return to the bridge. Rushing to the bridge every time an alert sounded made captains look as if their crew were too stupid to carry on their duties without them. In the case of the Silt, that might actually be true, given how much of Shade's influence he'd still had to root out. Still, appearances were everything, and he would not appear weak in front of his underlings.

  From the holo, he watched the stars return to their normal pinpoints.

  "Scanner, report. I want the location of the Queen of Hearts and the Firelight."

  He waited, and waited, and waited.

  "Report! Where are those ships?"

  The starboard scanner spoke up. "No ships in this sector, sir."

  Not possible. Hart had to know that Manitac would track him down despite his efforts to evade them. Why hadn't he set up an ambush at the gateway to the slipstream?

  So where was the Queen of Hearts?

  "Keep scanning. We're in the middle of nowhere, and those two ships wouldn't leave us at their backs by entering the nebula. Unless…the science station. That's why there's not an ambush. Hart would have docked at the science station. If he selected a slip on the far side, we'd never see his ship until it was too late."

  A cough from his second turned Silt's attention away from the useless scanner. "Sir, we've found evidence of an explosion. The location and estimate of the amount of debris indicates that something the size of a small station blew up in this area."

  Silt examined the information for all possible conclusions.

  "Amazing. Hart must have found a way to access the records of the station, records that gave him the location of the Majesty of the Stars. Then he, or Shade, decide to blow up the station to make sure we couldn't follow."

  Silence on the bridge gave him a moment to consider his next move. There was no help for it. "The Queen of Hearts and Firelight must have entered the nebula. The station's explosion would have destroyed any residual chemical runoff from the engines we could follow."

  "Should we deploy our mass detectors, sir?"

  "Does it look as if we have a choice? We'll have to deploy our mass detectors, but also search for beacons the Majesty would have deployed and any other disruptions already inside the nebula: ice rings, chemical propellant discharges, NO2 fluorescent bands, gravitational shifts…everything. I want to know what direction the Queen of Hearts was headed after she blew up the station."

  Various calls of 'aye, sir' echoed across the bridge. He couldn't fail now, not when he was so close. He'd go down in history as the captain who killed a traitor, captured an entire pirate crew, destroyed their precious ship, and brought home a long-lost cruise liner with all its riches.

  Well, most of the riches. Who could blame him for keeping a few trophies for himself? No one, because no one on the Silt would live long enough to find out.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  "Where are the beacons?" Darvik demanded before she could. It was getting harder to remember the Queen of Hearts was not her ship. She slid into her seat while Darvik and the rest of the pirates took up their positions at their stations.

  No one answered him right away, all of them busy checking their systems. After a minute, Rusa spoke up.

  "Found them. We drifted past the area we calculated it would be."

  "Good." Darvik's shoulders relaxed, but not too much. "We'll have to destroy them to keep the Silt from findin
g us."

  Even as she heard the words, she saw the most beautiful sight in the galaxy centered on the holo-screen. The Majesty of the Stars hung in space, silent, with a slight rotation. Its white-painted hull reflected light from the nearest star, illuminating its starboard side against the background of black velvet. How she remembered the sleek lines with a power plant twice the size of the Queen of Heart's, with twenty decks dedicated to the pleasure of its passengers.

  "I can’t believe we found it." Mirin brought her weapon controls up to her chest, always ready for a fight.

  "I never had a doubt." Ezick's nervous laugh told the truth about his lie.

  "Let's not get excited just yet." Darvik's words of caution were lost among the excited jitters of the rest of the crew. With nothing to occupy her, Kelra couldn't fight her emotions as they washed over her.

  "Start scanning the exterior," he continued. "I want to know what this lady has been up to for twenty years."

  From the outside, the scans read clean. All the ship's defensive weapons were retracted and flush with the bulkhead. There were no hull breaches or scorched metal indicative of an attack of any sort. All cargo holds remained closed and the hatches locked. Even the sick bay, which should have ejected at the first sign of trouble, remained in place.

  To all outward appearances, the Majesty of the Stars drifted among the stars of the haunted nebula undisturbed.

  Darvik ordered his pirates to begin a deeper internal scan, looking for anomalies, fuel leaks, chemical spills, anything that could endanger them once they boarded.

  Once she boarded.

  Her own sniff took her by surprise as her vision fragmented under the gathering tears. She clamped her jaw shut to avoid making any further sounds that would draw attention to her.

  It was too late. Darvik turned his head to watch her from over his shoulder. The damn broke, but before she could escape through the compression gate, Darvik twisted around so he could reach out to grab her hand.

  "You don't have to stay here." He nodded toward the holo. "The internal scan will take at least an hour. You should rest before you head over there."

  She should, but she didn't want to. Her home was so close. Leaving the holo for others to explore felt like a betrayal. Whose betrayal, though? There was no one on board to know if she stayed to watch or left to rest.

  "I'm fine."

  Darvik tightened his hand over hers, so she twisted her hand around in his to clasp his in return. They hadn't touched in so long, and she needed this. She needed him, but for now, she could only absorb what he was willing to give. It wasn't love, but support, which was enough to get her on board.

  "I know you're fine, but you should rest. You could be over there for hours, maybe even a full day. If the alien is still there, you'll need your strength to fight, to run, to outthink and outmaneuver it. Besides…" He handed her a holo. "I prepared another plan for you to kill the cloud. Just in case plans one through twenty don't work."

  Now he was making fun of her, but he was also right, so she retreated to her quarters and lay down on her bed. Reviewing his plan made her realize she'd forgotten one element over the past twenty years of planning. She never considered she would have someone at her back, so the idea of having extra ammunition from another ship opened a whole new strategy. Darvik's plan wasn't all that detailed, but it didn't have to be. Once she was on board the Majesty of the Stars, all her plans would need to evolve, depending on the situation.

  With that thought, the quiet hum of the Queen of Hearts lulled her into a light doze. After an hour, a chime from her ear jack woke her, and she directed the compression gate toward the launch bay where her shuttle waited for her.

  Darvik met her there, along with Johza and Ezick. While the other two finished inspecting the shuttle, Darvik drew her away, slipping his arms around her waist.

  "You can still back out."

  "No." She said the words before he'd finished his own.

  "I can still send someone over with you. Johza and Mirin have volunteered."

  Really? "Tell them I said thank you, but I need to go alone. I know they mean well, but I…I've grown fond of your band of pirates, Darvik. I don't want any of them to get hurt, just like I don't want you to get hurt."

  "I know."

  How she wanted to fall against him, pull his body to hers and never let go. He gave her an out, but she wouldn't take it, and he knew that.

  Without warning, he pulled her against him, just as she had wanted to but lacked the courage. He covered her mouth with his, reminding her of their romp at Vaynix hub. Any apology he had held on to while they avoided each other poured forth through his kiss, which was fine with her.

  How well they worked together. Maybe, if the alien wasn't waiting for her on board the Majesty of the Stars, and the pirates plundered the ship of all its riches, and they escaped the haunted nebula before Silt found them, they could find a way to make their relationship work. Wasn't that a lovely thought?

  Before she was ready, Darvik released her. Johza and Ezick waited for them at the aft end of the shuttle, pretending they hadn't seen them kiss.

  "As best as we can tell from the internal scan, the ship's systems still work," Johza said. "Plenty of fuel left to generate energy and fly the ship out of the nebula under her own power if we have to. You just need to get her up and running again to access all the emergency systems."

  Kelra nodded her understanding, noting that he didn't say anything about using the emergency systems to fight an alien.

  "This is the newest ops tracker we could…find." Ezick handed her the small, ball-like gadget. Her security squads always used them, so she knew how they worked. "I've slaved it to your ear jack, so it'll follow you wherever you go. Everything it records, from your location to your vital stats, will be transmitted to us. We can help you if you run into trouble."

  She wasn't so sure about that. Having Darvik shouting orders in her ear if things went wrong could distract her more than help her. She'd deal with that if it happened.

  Or she could deactivate the ear jack.

  Putting that thought away, she tucked the ball into her pocket.

  "Okay. I'm ready."

  With a final tug on her arm, Darvik pulled her in for one last kiss. Johza and Ezick backed away, once again ignoring their affection, though not without Ezick smirking.

  "Don't die." Darvik ran his fingers through her thick hair, tucking a few strands behind her ear.

  "Same back to you, Darvik. When all this is over…" She couldn't complete the sentence because she didn't know where it ended. Happily ever after sounded nice, but making it work was something else entirely.

  "We'll find a fancy resort, and I'll fill the room with more flowers than you can count," Darvik finished for her.

  "Ummmm, flowers. And I'll finally get to wear gold teddy I bought along with the red one."

  "Gold, huh?"

  "Or maybe the white one. Or maybe…nothing at all." She licked her lips to add to the enticement.

  A rumble of appreciation escaped Darvik’s throat before he responded. "I think I like that last option."

  “I think we all would.” Johza jammed an elbow in Ezick’s shoulder for that remark, but Kelra didn’t care.

  "Me too."

  They shared one last deep kiss, and then she retreated onto the shuttle. From her dashboard safety sensors, she could see Darvik standing where she'd left him, waiting until the last minute before she launched.

  You can still back out.

  Nope. She jammed the tether release with her thumb before her conscience could talk her out of it. As the tethers retracted, she lifted the shuttle. Double-checking, she made sure Darvik had left the bay. The place where he had stood was empty, so she dissolved the bay doors and piloted the shuttle into space.

  Though it had been years since she'd flown anything this small, she kept a steady hand on the controls. Good thing, too, because the closer she got to the Majesty of the Stars, the harder her heart starte
d to pound. She'd have to get that under control before she activated the ops tracker.

  This is it. Two years of planning, and the mission comes down to using an old passcode you spent two months digging out of Unity's archives to activate the Majesty of the Star's bay.

  It worked. The bay lights lit up and the door dissolved, welcoming her home. With all the systems working, it didn't take long for her to get the air circulating again, pumping fresh oxygen into the ship while the temperature warmed so she wouldn't have to wear an exo-suit. Gravity still worked as normal, so no worries from that angle.

  While the ship returned to normal human conditions, she kept a sharp eye on the bay itself. Not the exits, but the vents and the storage compartments. As she expected, no skeletons floated around, so the vac system did its job handling the rotting corpses after she'd ejected.

  Don't think too hard in that direction. Stay in the here and now. Watch for the cloud.

  Once it was safe for her to leave the shuttle, she headed toward the cargo in the aft section and activated Ezick's ops tracker. The small gadget vibrated a second to let her know it was activated before floating upward. It would stay over her head where it wouldn't distract her.

  For the next two hours, she worked at making Majesty of the Stars fully functional, all the while directing her equipment to follow her on a grav-resistor pallet. On the bridge, she performed a systems’ reboot, checked the status of the remaining escape pods, and made sure the sick bay doors would dissolve and reform on command.

  So far, so good. Her ship, her home, returned to normal status as if nothing had happened at all. If only her parents, the crew, and the passengers could reboot as well.

  Her heart contracted, but she took a deep breath to ward off the onslaught of grief. After twenty years of mourning, she would have her chance to avenge their deaths.

  With her focus on Majesty's systems, she missed the first low hiss of her nightmares until it became loud enough to echo across the Queen's bridge. She turned just as Darvik shouted in her ear jack.