Eric Olafson: Space Pirate

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  Ship’s voice said, “Shea, it works. I think I isolated the Barracuda’s trail.”

  Narth went back to his OPS console and his fingers flew over the input contacts, then he said to me, “Captain, we have the trail of the stolen ship, and I am feeding the sensor data to Krabbel for navigation in case you want to follow it.”

  I smiled at Har-Hi. “Looks like they managed to do just that. Mr. Krabbel, set a course following that trail, and Mr. Chitauli, increase our speed a notch still within Kartanian capabilities.”

  The trail became stronger and then Narth reported, “Three contacts on sensor horizon. One of the contacts has clear Union energy signatures and conforms to those of a Barracuda. The other two appear to be of Kermac T configuration.”

  Yeoman O’Connell, who was never far from me, said, “Kermac T ships are not civilian or available for civilians. That means the Kermac have violated the Free Space Treaty.”

  Shea said, “For the chance to get their hands on Translocator technology, they would risk anything.”

  Narth put up a tactical map of the region, and I could see the three contacts near a small white star. The map identified the star as Auriga Xi, which, according to the Union Star catalog, had only been optically surveyed. There was no detailed data available, but it was assumed to be uninhabited, as it only had a few gas giants and one rock core planet that was very close to its sun.

  There was no other artificial contact within sensor range.

  I leaned back, my right hand on the Intuitive Controls. “All hands, battle stations! Mr. Narth, I know it is not Kartanian, but I understand our Janus device is capable of cloaking us against sensor detection.”

  “Yes, Captain, we can mask our sensor signature in that way.”

  “Render us invisible to their sensors half a second before we drop out of Quasi-Space. If it is a mystery to them how we did that, so be it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Mr. Chitauli, take us as close as you can before you drop out of Quasi-Space and coordinate with Mr. Narth.”

  “Understood, Captain, I can take us as close as 250 kilometers.”

  “Excellent. Mr. Vouza, stand by on QGP and Froth casters, load one kg AM load into our sniper cannons and fire the TL simultaneous to mask the translocators. I want you to target the drive sections of all three ships simultaneously, and yes, I authorize Ship to assist you. I want them unable to maneuver before they even know what happened. After the first volley, Mr. Chitauli will take us with a micro jump back out a light minute or two.”

  My friends made the necessary computations and adjustments, and I said to Hans, “Mr. Kleinschmitt, prepare your Marines for boarding action.”

  My command seat was in battle mode and once again it was as if I was sitting outside on the hull with an unobstructed view of space. Of course, it was a simulation and the image our visual sensors received, as the human eye had no chance to see that far or make out objects as small as ships in an environment where size meant nothing. The individual departments represented in floating icons, as well as important data about speed, course, weapon range, shield strength, and a host of other information I found necessary. The display was customized to my preferences.

  Har-Hi’s icon blinked and expanded to show his face, and he looked at me. “You told me to play devil’s advocate and you made me your XO to keep you in check, right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then I suggest you do not go with Hans and lead the boarding action!”

  His suggestion caught me off guard. “We haven’t even engaged the enemy yet, and I didn’t think that far yet. I was just playing with the idea… and how did you even guess I was thinking?”

  “First of all, I know you by now a little. All this sugar and girl stuff can’t fool me; underneath all that dominatrix leather is still the same ready to rumble Eric I know. Second, I noticed you trained with Hans to use the new Gilgamesh suits and third and finally, you already asked Ship to prepare your Auto-Dresser.”

  I felt like a child caught with my hand in the cookie jar. “I am supposed to be a pirate and that is what they do; besides, I don’t like to send men into harm’s way without them knowing I am there as well.”

  “You are not a midshipman anymore; you do not lead a group of cadets as dorm eldest. You’re the captain now.”

  He disconnected before I could say anything, and I knew he was right. Union Fleet regulations were as clear as glacial water. The captain’s place was on the bridge and not leading a boarding party of Marines. But then Captain Zezzh had done it and my idol Stahl did it countless times and was famous for it.

  My musing thoughts had to take a backseat now. The Tigershark approached the three ships fast. Narth displayed a more detailed sensor report now as we were close. The enemy ships were two full-size Kermac T Class Cruisers. Kermac technology was behind Union tech, but not by much, and they were well armed and shielded.

  I could not rely on Loki torpedoes or large TL loads that would ruin our disguise, and the chances that someone else was watching was likely.

  Narth said, “They are ready to make the deal and plan to land on the third moon of the first gas giant. The Barracuda still has a functional translocator cannon; I can sense that one of the Union officers was able to disable the auto-destruct feature. The Kermac have no intentions of keeping the Barracuda crew alive, except the one who has Translocator knowledge.”

  Ship counted down the seconds until we would drop out of Quasi. “Eight, seven, six, five…”

  The disguised Tigershark was a true marvel of technology, but my crew made it a terrifying tool of power and might. No regular helmsman would have ever dared to come that close to a planet and other ships out of Quasi-space. No tactical officer in the entire Fleet could rely on a computronic that was not just a machine, but his friend, and understood what he wanted to do. What captain could rely not only on the ship’s sensors but on the senses of a Narth? Science officers would usually sit back during a battle situation, but Shea used every bit of data from sensors, Narth, the vast data banks and processed it in her brilliant mind, to give Mao millimeter-precise target data of weak spots.

  The Barracuda, however, was a modern Union destroyer with modern shields and designed to take a pounding. Everything was at least triple redundant; we all knew that first hand. Of course, the Barracuda had one big handicap; it had no crew. Flying and operating it was no problem even with one person, but taking it into battle was another story.

  Our ship dropped out of Quasi-space and there was no time interval measurable by human senses when our weapons pounded all three ships. The Kermac Drive sections were destroyed with surgical precision before they were even able to really sense our presence. The Barracuda computronic, however, reacted fast and established shields automatically, but Ship acted without permission and without waiting for my command and laid a barrage of five-kilo loads at exactly the same shield nexus point, sending a sixth through before the Barracuda could raise its shields to full strength. The sixth load of antimatter exploded inside the Union destroyer’s engineering compartment. It ripped open the entire starboard side and peeled Ultronit armor away like the skin of a fruit. It would take the services of a dockyard to make this wreck into a flying ship once more.

  All this had taken less than maybe six seconds when we already accelerated back into Quasi-space.

  I knew that we better not let anyone escape. What we did was certainly not within the capabilities of a Kartanian armed freighter. I also contemplated if I should scold Ship for her initiative or not. Cracking the full established shields of a Barracuda with simulated Nul and Kartanian weapons would have been impossible and facing the Destroyer’s functional translocator cannons would have forced us to establish ParaDim shields and jeopardize our disguise just as well. I decided to actually commend her for showing initiative, something no other Ship AI could, as far as I knew, and I said, “Good thinking, Ship; that saved us a lot of headaches.”

  Ship made a soun
d almost as if she was releasing air in a relieved fashion and said, “Thank you, Captain. I knew you couldn’t even speak an order that fast, so I improvised as I noticed the Barracuda computronic was already in battle mode.”

  I smiled toward her symbol and then said, “Ms. Petetis, open communications to the Kermac and the renegades.”

  I lowered my seat out of the battle view dome, and Har-Hi handed me a black mask that matched my outfit.

  Narth said, “Bridge background filters in place, all they will see is an old Kartanian bridge.”

  I closed the lace strings of the mask, and Elfi gave me the signal that she was ready.

  “I am Black Velvet of the Silver Streak. You are unable to escape, and I can destroy you as easily as I damaged you. I will search your vessels for valuables and let you live if you comply with my demands. I will show no mercy if you resist in any way. Now deactivate all remaining weapons and energy shields and prepare to be boarded.”

  The first responding was a Kermac officer, and he snarled at me, “You attacked Kermac vessels, killed crewmembers with that cowardly sneak attack, and interfered with our business. The Kermac will hunt you; render captain Black Velvet, you made yourself a powerful enemy!”

  “I wouldn’t be so loud proclaiming Kermac business in Free Space and aboard Kermac military ships. My Nul contacts will be very interested in the recordings I am just making. Now comply with my demands or face destruction!”

  Narth’s voice said in my mind with an urgent tone, “The Barracuda is about to launch two of its Loki torpedoes.”

  There was no way I could outrun them, and while I was sure our full shields could withstand their impact, it would weaken even our excellent shields. I had no choice. “Mao, use the QLP and target their torpedo tubes.”

  Two invisible bolts of Quark Gluon Plasma, traveling through trans-space tunnels based on the same technology as the anti-light tunnels space trains used, hit the torpedo doors almost at the same time as the Loki torpedoes appeared. Once in flight, a Loki was shielded, and so fast it was almost impossible to intercept, but in the initial launch phase, the shields were still off, and the Barracuda had to create temporary holes in the ship’s shields to let the torpedoes pass. The effect was devastating. Both torpedoes carried enough antimatter to severely damage capital ships. Not even the excellent armor and shield protection of the Barracuda could withstand two such explosions halfway in its hull. The Barracuda was instantly and completely destroyed. I knew I had to do it, but destroying a Union ship was not something that made me feel proud.

  I said, “Close in on the Kermac, maximum tech stop, and paralysator rays. Scan for dark spots in your energy scans and target them, be prepared for small, fast escape cr—”

  While I was still speaking and the Tigershark closed in again, the command section of one of the Kermac cruisers did detach, and Mao singed its aft with a QGP shot.

  Instead of destroying it, the Kermac craft changed course and dove straight into the thick atmosphere soup of a moon circling a nearby gas giant.

  We managed to reach the other T-cruiser and came within tech stop and paralysator ray distance.

  I had a hard time remaining in my seat as Hans and our Marines floated across and boarded the second ship, while Mao followed my orders and destroyed the remaining aft section of the other.

  Shea told me that she was able to estimate the landing area of the command section, but due to heavy electromagnetic storms in the moon's atmosphere, she was not able to give details.

  I listened to the battle progress reports of the boarding action, glad that everything seemed to be going smoothly so far.

  Narth said, “We must go after those who escaped to the moon’s surface, Eric. They already obtained Manual 15 from the Barracuda, and they have a long-range telepath with them. The telepath seems to be wounded or momentarily unable to send, but once he can, he will be able to transmit all the information in that manual to Kermac. You know that manual contains all information needed to service and repair and thus reproduce a translocator cannon.”

  Har-Hi said, “We got P Bombs; let’s drop one or two on that moon, and we can be certain they won’t transmit anything.”

  I shook my head while keeping an eye on Hans’ helmet Visuals and said, “P Bombs are a weapon unique not only to the Union but specifically to Terrans.”

  He said, “Then we pound the area with TLs until Narth confirms they are silent. We must prevent them from transmitting that information and can’t take chances, Captain!”

  I knew he was right and called Hans, “Status report, Mr. Kleinschmitt.”

  “Only a little resistance from Kermac Battle robots. The crew who were not in shielded suits are sleeping, and the rest have surrendered. We are in control of this vessel.”

  I said to him, “That is good news. I am sending Cirruit, Shea, and more hands to gather anything useful, computronic files and valuables and pack the officers in stasis boxes. We will be back shortly. We must go after the ones who escaped onto the sixth moon of that gas giant.”

  “Aye, Captain, this is a big ship, and it will take a little to go through it all anyway.”

  I ordered the ship into a geostationary orbit and was about to give firing orders to Mao when Narth held up his hand, and I received his thought. “Stop!”

  Narth turned in his seat and said, “The Kermac are not alone down there. I am sensing something, another life.”

  Three-Four, who had replaced Shea on the science console, said, “Life sensor readings inconclusive, due to the strong electromagnetic interference, I am not able to get a clear reading on the Kermac or anything else. The environment down there is Class 9 and extremely hostile to unprotected carbon-based biological. Atmosphere consists mostly of carbon dioxide, sulfuric dioxide, and a soup of noble gasses. Surface pressure is at 86 bar; the moon receives a high dose of radiation from its mother planet at every rotation that would sterilize most known life forms.”

  Narth dropped his head to his chest. Since I still could feel him, I knew he was neither dead or in pain, but I sensed he was greatly disturbed by something. I gave him a few minutes, knowing that I could not hurry him by interrupting.

  He finally raised his head and said, “The Kermac did not randomly choose this location for the exchange. It was only convenient because they have been here already. They have stolen or taken something from that moon. Something that should never have been taken. Something old and unknown to the Narth is down there! Something dangerous!”

  Just as he finished, we received a call from Shea. “Captain, there is something very alien and strange in the cargo hold of this Kermac ship. It appears to be a glowing blue egg-shaped rock, of approximately twenty meters. The material composition is a mix of crystals, rare earth composites, and minerals. Even though it emits light, I cannot detect any energies, and now we all can hear a faint music-like humming emitting from it.”

  “Shea, get out of that hold and let robots check it out. We don’t know what we are dealing with,” Elfi said with a dry voice, “Communication to our people aboard the T-cruiser has been lost. I am unable to raise any of them.”

  Narth said, “The Kermac on the surface made contact with something, and they managed to convince whatever it is that we are responsible for something terrible. I can feel rage on a level I did not think possible!”

  A voice thundered over the bridge speakers, “Woe to the rock breakers! The crime is unspeakable and so must be the punishment!”

  Elfi recoiled from her console and said, “Something has activated our communication equipment!”

  I was almost lifted out of my seat as something hit the Tigershark with enormous force, making the lights flicker.

  Chapter 18: Bereaver

  I tried to keep a cool head and made sure I didn’t raise my voice even a notch. I didn’t like those commanding officers who barked or yelled orders. I preferred the style of Captain Zezzh and Captain Harris and said with a calm voice, “Mao, full shields, extend Exo-load tur
ret and load both bomb shafts with P-Bombs. Har-Hi, sound battle stations and give me a full damage and casualties report.”

  Mao said, “Full shields activated. All weapons active, Bomb shafts loaded and ready for P-Bomb deployment.”

  Har-Hi looked over his readouts. “The Janus Device is damaged, and so is our projected appearance. The simulated Kartanian shields are completely destroyed but our real hull held and received no detectable damage. Petty Chief Gorragh reports a three-degree burn after being doused with hot water in Environmental. Lines are being fixed, and the Petty Chief is almost ready for duty again.”

  I acknowledged with a nod. “Elfi, hail me that voice on the same channels it called us.”

  “Channels are open. Systems are free of external controls since shields are up, Captain.”

  “This is Captain Black Velvet of the Silver Streak. Calling the entity that threatened and attacked us. I am open for dialog and establishing contact. I offer peaceful dialog, but I will not accept any further attacks. I have the means to turn your moon into atomic dust.”

  The voice answered, “You are the rock breakers! You destroyed Olours! You stole Olours! We are Lkare.”

  Another massive bolt hit the Tigershark.

  Mao reported, “Shields at 44 percent. This bolt was stronger than the first, by a magnitude of 120 percent, equal to the Union’s strongest FTL cannons.”

  “I think whoever is down there doesn’t believe me. Mr. Three-Four, can your sensors pick up the approximate location of the Kermac escape ship?”

  “I am able to narrow it down to a twelve-kilometer radius. I can see their distinct energy signatures between all the other disturbances.”

  “Close enough. Mao, target that area and plant an exo load. That should take care of the Kermac and show the others we are serious.”

  I turned to Narth and said, “Any objections? Do you sense anything or do you think you can communicate with them?”

  Narth actually shrugged as he said, “There is so much rage, so much anger, that I am unable to get through. It is a truly alien mind. One I have never touched. I am currently in conversation with the Narth Supreme and no Narth has ever encountered a mind like this. All I can say is that it appears to be a mind of great power, able to manipulate transdimensional energies. Narth Supreme suggests that your approach might be as good as any other.”