Privateer (Alexis Carew Book 5)

by J. A. Sutherland

“Indeed,” Alexis allowed.

  “So, then.” Skanes lifted her own glass of wine and raised it. “To our coming victory, yes?”

  Having now seen Ezurum, Alexis was rethinking their strategy. The shoals here were so much more than she’d imagined and the thought of her ship becoming trapped in those, with virtually any opposition, made her doubt the outcome. Had they found they were able to simply sail in and transition, then Mongoose and Hind were a match for any pirates they might find, but as it was – Alexis thought they might be better served to seek the other private ship captains, perhaps try to persuade Malcomson again, and come at the problem with more in the way of force.

  “Commodore Skanes,” she began, carefully keeping the bit of stress she found herself wanting to put on the rank from entering her tone. “I think we may have overstepped things with regard to the shoals here. Perhaps we should return to Enclave and seek assistance from the other private ships? With more ships we could map out routes through the shoals and spread the gunboats thin. Hind, powerful as she is, must certain draw too much mass to enter these shoals.”

  Skanes waved a hand. “Nonsense, Carew. Other than your mythical frigate, these pirates are said to have, what, some few gunboats and a sloop or two? Enough to take those smaller merchantmen you’ve retaken, but nothing to challenge Hind, surely? There’s a reason, you know, that Marchant Company vessels are so seldom troubled by pirates. Larger, more heavily armed, and, frankly, better crewed than others. Why, I expect our mere entry into the system will see the blaggards surrender in an instant!”

  “With respect, commodore, such might be the case if Hind were a Naval vessel, but your crew has seen no action while the pirates —”

  “Hind drills her guns weekly, Carew, as any Marchant ship must. Your fears grow tiresome.” Skanes glared at her a moment, then seemed satisfied that her point was made. “Now, as to the approach, my sailing master has recommended that your ship, being of less mass, scout the approaches for us. For myself, I think this unnecessary — my crew’s well-drilled and able to back and fill with the best of them — but he’s a cautious fellow and I’ll humor his wishes.”

  Alexis nodded, glad that at least one man aboard Hind was not prepared to rush the massive ship through those shoals with nothing but a leadsman to guide them. She didn’t relish the role of scout, but would like Hinds’ guns to be of some use, not laid up in the outer system and beat to pieces by the winds.

  “So,” Skanes went on, “Hind will remain at the system’s edges, just inside the halo, while your Mongoose lays out our course through the shoals. We’ll want to transition at the habitable planet’s L1, so make your way there. Then we shall see if your information is correct and Hind shall put paid to any piracy hereabouts, yes?”

  The slow, creeping approach through Erzurum’s shoals had the entire crew on edge. Those on the quarterdeck, Alexis included, spoke in hushed whispers, as though the Dark itself were alive and they wished not to draw its attention. For all Alexis knew, some of the crew might actually believe that — Creasy being the most likely, and he did seem to hunch unusually far over his signals console, calling out the fall and curve of each shot of the lead in a harsh whisper.

  “Pulled to starboard ahead and down,” he said.

  Alexis watched that herself on the plot’s images and noted where more of the hidden dark matter might reside ahead.

  “A quarter to port and up five,” she ordered.

  “Quarter port and up five,” the helmsman repeated, easing his controls.

  “Lighten sail by a third, as well,” she said after a moment’s thought. Despite Mongoose’s already negligible speed, she could almost think they were traveling far too fast.

  “Aye, cut projectors by a third.”

  The sails, what little Mongoose had on, were already sparsely charged, barely glowing at all in the images from outside. The cut to the particle projectors lowered that further, and the ship slowed quickly, dragging through the accumulated dark matter.

  There was a sudden jerk, more sensed than felt — at least by those on the quarterdeck inside the hull with gravity generators and inertial compensators. Outside, the sail crew stumbled, some losing their footing altogether.

  “Back sail!” Alexis ordered. “Quarter charge when they’re backed!”

  “Aye, sir!”

  On the bow, the two leadsmen acted as quickly and without needing orders, firing their laser charges to either side. The one to starboard curved almost immediately, warped away by some mass of dark matter they hadn’t noted before.

  The sail crew heaved the boom around, taking the winds on it in such a way as to stop Mongoose in her track and even back away a bit.

  The hull groaned and creaked as the ship neared, then backed away from the unseen pressures.

  “Hard a’starboard, roll forty-five to port. Bring her back.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Eased away a bit, Mongoose resumed some forward motion, rolling away from the shoal and turning to port. Her long keel, fully extended for better maneuvering and lacking any gallenium at all to shield it from the effects of so much dark matter, caught the edge of the shoal and the ship jerked again, then again with a low, creaking groan that sent shivers down Alexis’ spine.

  With a shudder she couldn’t be certain was the ship or herself, Mongoose was past and back to edging farther in-system.

  Alexis shook her head. There was no way that the Hind, as massive as she was, would be able to follow through that turn. Mongoose’s task was to seek out a path the larger ship could take, and this was clearly not it.

  “Prepare to come about,” she ordered. “We’ll rejoin Hind and try another way.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  With that began the laborious task of retracing their route, save, at least, the false turns and reversals of their attempt at entry.

  “Is it any wonder no one wishes to come to the bloody Barbary?” Alexis muttered, studying the plot for their next try.

  “Civilized systems would have pilot boats and beacons out,” Hacking said with a sneering curl to his upper lip.

  “Signal from Hind,” Creasy said. “Captain to repair on board.”

  Alexis sighed.

  “Is it truly so very much to ask, one wonders,” Skanes said, “to find a simple path of entry to this one system?”

  Alexis, kept waiting and without benefit of being offered a glass or even to sit on this visit, had had nearly enough. Mongoose’s crew was exhausted from the constant sail changes and the stress of keeping to such narrow channels, her sail crews and leadsmen even more so, for it was upon them to remain outside the hull, receiving the full brunt of so much nearby dark matter with only the little protection their vacsuits offered, and Mongoose herself was showing the stresses as well. Lines were worn, her hull was stressed, and the bottom of her keel was certainly damaged from dragging through so many shoals.

  All to no good end and with never a sight of any other ship near Erzurum.

  She was beginning to wonder if this “pirate base” were some fantastical imagining of Captain Katirci, as, if Mongoose could find no way through the system’s shoals, how could these pirate crews manage it with a bloody frigate?

  “Well?” Skanes prompted.

  “Perhaps on the morrow,” Alexis said, voice as tight as her shoulders and jaw.

  “On the morrow, of course.” Skanes traced figures on the copy of the navigation plot shown on her tabletop. “Perhaps Hind should find her own way in, since your little ship has had no success.”

  “The shoals are quite extensive, commodore, I would truly not advise it.”

  “It’s not your place to advise or not, though, is it?” Skanes rose. “It’s your fancy, this ‘pirate base,’ this supposed location of, what, thousands of men off warships? All while no ship can apparently even enter the system? How is it, then, that they even got there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “No, you don’t. All you know is what some merchant captain t
old you — told you.” Skanes’ voice dripped scorn. “A merchant captain, I’ll add, who’s likely involved with the very pirates we seek. A merchant captain you’ve let slip through your fingers — twice, mind you. And one who’s now sent us on a wild goose chase, leaving the systems I’ve ordered you to patrol entirely free for these pirates and their vessels!”

  Skanes stood, strode to her sideboard, and poured herself a glass of wine, pointedly not offering any to Alexis.

  “So you don’t believe there’s anything here now?”

  Alexis wondered at Skanes’ rapid change in mood. She went from enthusiasm at the prospect of taking Erzurum to doubting the information that brought them here in so short a time.

  “No, Carew, I don’t. I now believe you were deceived by this Captain Katirci and sent off here to no good purpose.” She paced the limited space behind her desk like a caged animal. “I should not have listened to you, but you were so certain you convinced me of this … this fancy. Drawing Hind off her proper station to no good ends. Clearly due to your youth and inexperience — oh, I know you’ve had some small success, or luck, in your Naval career, but now?”

  Skanes looked her over with such contempt that Alexis flushed.

  “Now it’s clear that you are just a little girl … playing dress-up.”

  Alexis felt her face burn further at that, but bit her tongue.

  “No, Carew, you’ve delayed me enough. I will now take Hind in-system myself — show you how it’s done — and prove your fancies for what they are, a trick of this merchant captain you’ve let go for some ends of your own. Then Hind will return to her proper station and you may be sure my report to my superiors will make clear her absence was entirely upon your head.”

  “What do we do, sir?” Villar asked.

  Alexis watched the plot, along with her officers and Dockett. She noted that the rest of the quarterdeck crew had at least a small copy of the plot displaying on their own monitors.

  It’s rather like watching from a hundred meters away while a man walks straight at a pigsty all engrossed in something on his tablet … one wants to stop it, but there’s little one can do and, after all, shouldn’t the fool know a bit better?

  “We wait, I suppose, Mister Villar.”

  “They’re going for that bit we tried at the last yesterday,” Dockett said.

  “She’ll tear her bottom out on that last turn,” Hacking predicted.

  “Oh, the money’s on her quagging down long before that, sir,” Dockett murmured.

  Alexis looked up at that. “The ‘money,’ Mister Dockett?”

  “Ah, not that there’s a book aboard ship, sir, certainly,” he said quickly. “I mean as to say, it’s a prediction of sorts.”

  “Of course.”

  Forty-Five

  Alexis could feel the tension on the quarterdeck as the Hind neared the last of the bit Mongoose had scouted the day before, the sharp turn to port where she’d given up and turned back. Hours had passed since Hind first entered the shoals, pulled along by Erzurum’s outermost gas giant, and Mongoose’s officers had come and gone from the quarterdeck — sometimes attending to other bits of ship’s business but, like her, drawn back to watch.

  Hind rolled, as she must, and began her turn.

  “She’s too much way on her,” Villar said.

  “Far too much sail,” Parrill agreed.

  Alexis could see it too. The larger ship was moving too quickly for the sharp turn she was coming to. The roll would help, but not enough, and there was the other, indisputable fact — that the Hind was larger than Mongoose. Larger by far and carrying far more mass, with taller masts and a deeper keel.

  That channel and that turn had almost caught the livelier Mongoose, and the larger ship had no chance.

  Mongoose’s quarterdeck echoed with a collective groan as the Hind’s sails and masts shook — once, twice, and then the huge ship simply stopped. The hull, at least, as the sails, still set and charged and far too much of both continued their pull. The masts twisted, pulling at their stays and, for a moment, Alexis was certain one or more of them would snap, but then Hind’s sails went dark as someone in command had the sense to cut the ship’s projectors.

  Alexis sighed, wondering if that had been at Skanes’ order or if her ship had been saved by a quicker thinking officer. One who might, even at this moment, be feeling his “commodore’s” wrath despite having saved the ship.

  “See to preparing tow lines, will you, Mister Dockett?” she said. “We’re some hours from her, but I’ll want to waste not a moment when we arrive.”

  With the expected end to the day’s excitement and with the expectation of a great deal of work to come in pulling the massive ship out of the shoals, the group clustered around the navigation plot began to break up.

  “I believe I’ll take a nap before our next labor,” Alexis said. “Mister Hacking, you have the watch, do you not?”

  “I do, sir.”

  “In your hands, then.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Sail, sir!” Dorsett called from the tactical console.

  “Bloody hell,” Villar muttered. “Is that fool going to try and work her way off?”

  “Not the Hind, sir! New sail — three … four … ten, I think, sir, all in-system of the Hind, but making way!”

  Alexis rushed back to the plot, as did the others, in time to see the new ships appear as Dorsett confirmed them and transferred the data.

  “Gunboats, sir,” Dorsett said.

  Alexis expanded one of the images, zooming in on the other ship to find Dorsett was correct. More like a ship’s boat than a proper ship, the single-sailed, lateen-rigged gunboats carried a minimal crew, but placed either a large gun or a pair of smaller ones in the bow.

  Their small size and low mass made them perfect for systems such as Erzurum, as they could easily sail through shoals a more massy ship couldn’t, allowing them to outmaneuver better armed foes, even if that foe wasn’t dead in space as the Hind now was.

  “Beat to quarters, Mister Dockett,” Alexis said.

  Mongoose’s own preparation for battle might have been as premature as the Hind’s the day before. They were still some time from the Hind, and while the gunboats were not limited by the heavy shoals, they were also not limited in the foresight to see that coming out to meet Mongoose was the poorer of their choices.

  Like a pack of dogs harrying a larger beast, they stayed in-system of the Hind and the shoal she was stuck fast to, sometimes darting in to just within range of their guns and taking a single, poorly aimed shot before scurrying back again.

  Nonetheless, Alexis kept a keen eye on their locations as Mongoose made her own way into the system.

  “Another miss,” Hacking muttered as a gunboat sailed just within range of Hind and began its turn away even before firing. The gun, jerked away from its targeting by the boats change of course, fired far wide of its target. “One wonders why they don’t simply mass as one and attack her from all sides.”

  “Their boats are quite fragile, I imagine,” Parrill said. “And these are pirates, after all, with only a thought to their purses and none for duty or their mates. Were they to mass and close, Hind would certainly get off a broadside and her guns are heavy enough that even a single shot might do for one of those boats all entire. Then, of course, there’s Mongoose — and we’re almost within range of Hind. Another hour or two yet, surely, but to truly surround their target would mean coming within range of our guns — or come about Hind so closely that they’d be easy prey to her broadsides.” Parrill squinted at the plot. “Still, they might shoot before turning aside as that last one did and have a far better chance of a hit.”

  “Yes, of course,” Hacking said. “How could I have missed all that?”

  Parrill hunched her shoulders. “I’m sorry, but you did ask after all.”

  The quarterdeck crew was all in vacsuits, though without helmets yet, and both Hacking and Parrill were present with Alexis. Villar had tak
en command of the leadsmen in the bow himself, not wanting to waste a moment nor rely on the men themselves. Alexis thought it an unnecessary precaution, but did appreciate his diligence.

  Dockett was on the hull minding the sail crew, and he was a better sailor than either Hacking or Parrill, so neither of them were needed there. The gundeck was still sealed against darkspace, though prepared to fling the ports open in a moment should the guns be necessary.

  This left Hacking and Parrill at loose ends, so to speak, with nothing to do but mind the plot with Alexis, and Alexis was nearly at wit’s end with the pair. She was half determined that Hacking dangled such question in front of Parrill so that she might bite at them in her — admittedly annoying — way, thus giving him something to sneer at. A thing the man seemed to live for.

  “There’s a boat leaving Hind, sir,” Dorsett said.

  Indeed there was, as the images of the other ship showed.

  Skanes had launched one of her boats, little lugsail raised and making way slowly away from the ship. It sailed back toward the outer system, until just within the last, thick bank of shoals Hind had made her way past before sticking fast.

  Vacsuited figures poured out of the boat and the craft’s large cargo hatch opened. The spacers hitched and shoved a large block out of the boat.

  “They’re dropping a kedge,” Parrill noted.

  “As we can all see,” Hacking said.

  “A bit of decorum, Mister Hacking,” Alexis said, as there’d been no cause at all for his comment, despite that everyone on the quarterdeck had been expecting Skanes to attempt this very thing for some time and was perfectly aware of what the Hind’s crew was about without Parrill’s pointing it out.

  The kedge, a large block of the thermoplastic that made up most of a ship’s hull and bulkheads, but without the embedded gallenium that insulated from darkspace, would stick fast in the shoal — more solidly than a much larger ship, in fact, due to that lack of gallenium or any particle charge to enhance it as a ship’s hull had. Once the boat moved off, as it was now, there’d be no hope of moving it except at the whim of the shifting dark matter that held it fast.