by Jay Toney
The grassland softened giving way to mud. Suddenly, Elaunae found herself waist deep in water and muck. She did her best to keep near the trees growing in the swamp. The land was usually firmer with their roots spreading through the soft soil. There are areas where the mud is soft and stepping in the soft patches could make a person sink deep and get stuck or disappear under the surface entirely.
Elaunae took a knife from her belt and cut her skirt short and stepped out of the material. She couldn't afford to let the material entangle her legs while wading through mud and water. The dress was ruined anyhow by the quagmire. She slowly circled back to the north and then the northwest. Elaunae hadn't heard any sounds from her pursuers since she entered the bog, but she was sure that the hunters are still searching for her.
Elaunae felt things biting her legs under the surface of the warm water. She didn't want to think about what they might be, but couldn't help herself. She knew about the animals, insects, and parasites most commonly found in the swamps of her planet. The worst of which are snakes, swamp rats, spiders, ticks, flies, mosquitoes, and leeches.
She could feel leeches biting her, and knew that there were a lot more that she couldn't feel. She didn't have enough time to deal with the bloodsuckers now or to clean the open ulcers that they would leave on her skin to prevent infection. Later, when she had more time, she could pull the leaches from her skin and take care of the bleeding bites that they left. That is if she evaded the people that are trying to kill her. She feared them more than the thought of having her blood drained.
The biting flies and mosquitoes were a nuisance, but other than leaving an irritating bite that itched; they were harmless. The water got shallower, and soon Elaunae was walking through wet marsh and grass. As she suspected, her legs are covered with leeches, swollen with her blood and still feeding.
Pulling the leeches from her legs would leave their mouthparts and teeth embedded beneath her skin. It was better to convince the worms to withdrawal their teeth and mouth. Elaunae removed a bottle of distiny powder from the pocket of her vest and sprinkled the powder on her legs. In moments the leaches started dropping off. The medication wouldn't kill them. It only left a sour taste in their mouths. After the leaches were free from her legs, she sprinkled more of the powder on her legs to stop the bleeding and to prevent an infection from setting in.
Elaunae carefully stepped over the bugs and slowly made her way through the grass. She had to use extreme care pushing her way through the sharp blades of the grass. She couldn't afford to lose any more of her blood.
Her comm vibrated for her attention. She removed it from her vest pocket. Elaunae missed several messages from her bond mate and friends. She took the time to play back the messages. Most of them were concerns for her safety. Others, let her know that anyone related to her house is being hunted and killed. That wasn't typical of her people. They were generally a peaceful people, but they maintained a military to patrol their borders to ensure no one trespassed without an invitation. Punishment for anyone caught without a permit is death. The last message was from Su'Gateol. "My love, it looks like I will not be able to join you. Get to the transport and get out of our solar system. You are not safe here. I will join you when I can." The message ended.
Elaunae didn't want to leave without her mate. The Iniguar mated for life. That was a literal fact, not a metaphor. If one mate died, the other would suffer what her species called the slow death. Her people used a device that bonded the mates together permanently by sharing portions of their very essence. When one mate died, their piece of soul died within their partner starting a death cycle that lasted for four to six weeks.
The lights from the buildings surrounding the landing field are visible and only a short distance away. So far there are no pursuers nearby, but she was sure they are still searching for her.
A fence bordering the landing field stopped her. It is only about 12 feet tall, made of chained links, and topped with barbed wire. It isn't designed to keep people from climbing it, or it would be electrified. It was erected to stop animals from wandering onto the landing field.
Elaunae slid her comm unit under the fence where she could retrieve it on the other side of the barrier. Then she tossed her sack of coins over it and began climbing the links. When she reached the barbed wire at the top of the fence, she removed her vest and used it to cover the wire. The barbs still penetrated her hands, but not deeply. She was able to pull herself over the fence and climb down the other side to the ground.
The few belongings that she had were lost with the vest. Elaunae would have to wait until she was aboard the transport to heal her hands. She picked up the sack of coins and her comm unit and headed across the landing field.
There are only three spaceships on the landing field, two patrol ships and a small transport ship commonly used by couriers to travel to nearby star systems. Elaunae jogged towards the small spaceship. She suddenly dove towards the ground. She was alerted by movement seen in the dark. People were already here searching the grounds for her.
The spaceship is only a few hundred yards away. No one is guarding the transport or its boarding ramp. Elaunae wasn't spotted yet. She kept close to the ground, crawling until she reached the landing pad. Then she stood and ran to the transport ship's boarding ramp. Her feet slid out from under her when she hit its smooth surface. Shouts calling for her to stop encouraged her to get back on her feet and hurry to the top of the ramp. She hit the door controls and the ramp raised and locked into place. She locked out the door controls so that no one could open the hatch from outside of the ship.
Elaunae isn't safe yet. She hurried forward to the cockpit noticing that she is the only person aboard the small courier ship. Elaunae never piloted a spaceship before, but she had seen it done. The people in her family are gifted with the instinctive ability to pilot spacecraft and navigate starships. Elaunae sat in the pilot seat and stared at the control console. She is sure that she can figure out the controls, that is if she had more time.
Elaunae's hands instinctively found the power switches and cycled them to internal power. The courier ship's interior lighting brightened, and the instrument panel came to life. Threats filled the cockpit of the small spaceship. She tried to ignore them but couldn't. Adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream fueling her with energy. Time seemed to slow for her giving her the semblance of more time. Every movement happened in slow motion.
Elaunae turned on the two MFD (multiple function displays) and the SDU (sensor display unit). Her hands flipped the switches activating the spacecraft's central computer, navigation computers, and weapon computer. Next, she started the engines and repulsorlift drive. The courier ship raised off the ground and its landing gear retracted. Elaunae grabbed the controls and pushed the throttles forward. The spaceship shot skyward increasing in altitude and speed.
She isn't safe yet. The two patrol ships launched from the spaceport pursuing Elaunae and her stolen spaceship. She preferred to think of it as borrowed. After all, it was waiting for her and her bond mate to use.
Threats from the pursuing patrol ships filled the cockpit, threatening Elaunae with the spacecraft's destruction if she didn't power down the drives. She is dead anyhow. If she stopped, she would be executed. Her death wouldn't be a punishment for any crime that she committed. Her people are trying to end a prophecy, one that didn't necessarily bring danger to her people. It was also prophesied that the person born into her family might equally be a savior.
Elaunae pushed the throttles all of the ways forward and diverted power from other systems to the engines. They are operating at 110% accelerating the transport ship faster than the patrol ships could follow.
Elaunae queried the navigation computer for nearby star systems. To even have a chance of getting away, she needed to leave Iniguar territory. There is one so
lar system within the jump range of the courier ship. It is a human-occupied star system, Corriban. Her people traded across their border with the humans in this star system but they rarely entered the inner system. She should be safe there. At least long enough to refuel her spaceship and jump to another star system.
Elaunae queried the navigation computer for the coordinates and transferred them to the central computer. Bolts of green energy shot past her ship. Elaunae changed the course of the transport ship to the jump point and transferred power from the ship's forward shields to its aft shields. She couldn't afford to slow down by diverting energy from her engines to the energy shields.
Elaunae instinctively spun and rolled the ship to evade the weapon fire. Her ship's sensors detected warships moving to intercept her. It was going to be close. There is nowhere else to run to. If she is to have any chance of escape, she would have to enter hyperspace before they stopped her.
Her ship's sensors detected missile fire and more energy weapons were fired at her spaceship. Elaunae activated the spacecraft's ECM and dispensed chaff and flares to confuse the missiles. The ship rocked with explosions, but she is still alive, and her ship is undamaged, but warning indicators showed that her shield energy is dropping. The courier ship wouldn't last much longer under the barrage.
Elaunae piloted the ship for what seemed like hours doing her best to evade weapon fire. Finally, the Navigation computer alerted her to let her know that it was safe to enter hyperspace. She reached for the lever that would engage the hyperdrive. The ship shook more violently than it did with the last set of explosions. Elaunae didn't think that the transport ship was hit, at least not directly.
Warning lights on the spaceship's annunciator panel lit up to let Elaunae know that the ship's sublight engines are inoperative. She didn't know how severely damaged they are. She couldn't tell without suiting up and going outside to take a look for herself. Elaunae couldn't do that, at least not now. She doubted it would do any good anyhow. She wouldn't know what she is looking at and didn't know the first thing about repairing the engines or any other system or subsystem. She could only hope that someone in the Corriban solar system will help her. She still has the temple donations. She could use them to barter for repairs.
Elaunae didn't know if the hyperdrive would work without the sublight engines. It didn't matter. If she didn't escape now, she would be killed. She pushed the lever forward and engaged the hyperdrive. The stars she could see out the cockpit windscreen stretched into streaks of light as the ship accelerated. The streaks merged into a white disk ahead of her, then that vanished leaving her in darkness.
Elaunae escaped her pursuit but not her pursuers. She felt the moment of her bond mates death. To ensure that Elaunae died, her pursuers killed Su'Gateol. At least his death was quick. Elaunae could feel her soul slowly dying. The slow death started. Elaunae is alive, but only for the next few weeks. Her strength and reason to live are fading away with each passing minute.
Antares
Doc had no problem selling the cargo and the freighter Argos, now renamed as the Albatross. He made more than he expected from the sale of the Sybilian Nectar and the cargo ship sold for above value. Doc still had all of the weapons his crew found in the freighters smuggling holds to sell. He planned on doing that at there next stop on Antares IV.
The Alliance was paid their cut from booty. Less, the sales of the drugs that weren't mentioned in the ship's logs and the weapons and armor that are hidden inside of carefully concealed smuggling holds. After the cost of replacing the missiles and paying the crew, there was little profit left, or so the tax collectors thought. Doc had the credits he made carefully hidden under the deck plates.
The Alliance captain that Captain Roberts reported to, Captain Braxton, is a pompous ass who is in need of a good ass kicking. Doc held his temper as the inspection team examined his personal logs, computer logs, and searched the cruiser to make sure he is in compliance and not cheating the Alliance. All of that after giving them their percentage of one of my biggest hauls, but they didn't know that nor would they find any records concerning the contraband that Captain Roberts sold and what he still had carefully hidden from them.
The inspection team examined the Queen Anne's Revenge's main guns to ensure they are still out of commission. They did that on every inspection. The Alliance didn't want anyone to have weapons that could be used to attack their warships. What they didn't know is that the guns are fully operational. Jane and Randolph relocated their power feeds and control circuits to a remote location hidden under the floor plates in the missile room. The inspectors would have to unload the missile magazines and remove the missile tracks to get to the deck plates hiding the new control circuits. They are too lazy for that.
"Stand by to exit hyperspace," Natasha's avatar announced. The ship gave a slight shudder as it reentered real space. White streaks of light shortened to pinpoints and filled the viewscreen with stars. The engines velocity dampers retracted and resumed normal thrust. Antares is centered on the viewscreen. It is a binary star. Two balls of bright fire, one large and one small grew larger by the minute. Natasha adjusted the starship's course, and the cruiser angled away from the star on course for the fourth planet.
Natasha added a diagram of the star system to our viewscreen with our course projection to Antares IV and its six moons. The planet is a tiny dot on our forward viewscreen, and its satellites still are not visible, and they wouldn't be for hours.
"Captain, the long-range sensor scans have detected four Alliance starships in orbit around Antares," Jadsia reported.
"I have their transponder signals. One of the ships is the Alliance destroyer Achilles. The other three ships are freighters: the Forget Me Not, the Blackjack, and the Aces and Deuces. I am also receiving transponder signals from 10 gunships," Devin added.
It is standard procedure that the Queen Anne's Revenge entered hyperspace with its transponders turned off, and Doc kept them off until after our scans were complete and he is ready to announce our presence. That ensured that if something like this situation happened, he would have the element of surprise on his side. It is highly illegal and only practiced by a few pirates. Of course, Doc Roberts is one of the few that practiced this tactic. If caught, the fines are high, and he could lose his starship, but they would have to kill Captain Roberts first.
Antares is the Queen Anne's Revenge's base of operations, Doc Roberts was granted this solar system for his personal use and the surrounding star systems for his hunting grounds. The very people that he paid for his exclusive use are stealing from him. Targeting Alliance warships is prohibited, but so is their presence in his territory. There is no way in the seven hells that Captain Roberts is going to pay the Alliance for his territory and let them steal from him too. "Sound condition red. All hands report to battle stations!" Doc ordered Devin.
"Natasha, run dark, cut our drives, and Start calculating missile solutions." Natasha cut power to our engines, turned off the exterior lights, formation lights, and anti-collision lights. Armored shutters covered the cruiser's viewports. Emergency bulkhead doors closed to prevent explosive decompression throughout the starship in the event of a hull breach. Natasha held off raising our energy shields and alerting the Alliance ships to their presence, but she charged their power cells in preparation for their use.
Jadsia replaced our course plot with the tactical display. Eleven red symbols for the Alliance destroyer and gunships appeared at the top edge of the screen, and three blue icons were added for the freighters they are escorting. There was only one green symbol centered on the tactical display. It is for my starship. Two yellow lines appeared on the tactical screen between my starship and the Alliance fleet that we are approaching. The first line is for the range of our energy weapons. The second shows our missile range.
"Natasha, charg
e our main guns." They hadn't been used since the ship was taken out of service two hundred years ago. It was a good time to use them now. They wouldn't be expecting them to be functional.
We coasted into weapon range. It was time to let the Alliance captain know that he royally screwed up by stealing from Captain Roberts. His freighters and gunships had landed on the planet, leaving him the lone target. The Alliance destroyer is more than a match for any smaller warship or even most starships its own size. The Queen Anne's Revenge is much bigger. Now that it is fully operational it is a match for any two or even three destroyers. The Queenie is a heavy cruiser with thick armor that hasn't been manufactured in over 200 years.
"Devin, jam all transmissions!" Any survivors could beg for forgiveness after Doc is through with them, not beforehand. Natasha raised our energy shields, and Devin turned our transponders on.
Captain Roberts got out of the command chair and took a seat at the weapons console. He wanted to personally take revenge. The missile ports opened, and he fired a full salvo of missiles at the destroyer. As soon as the rockets cleared the launch tube, the ports closed and the launch crew hurried to reload the missile tubes.
The Queenie's gun crews began firing at the destroyer. The Alliance captain tried bringing his ship to readiness, but it is too late for him and his crew. His warship's energy shields are down, his bulkhead hatches open, and his weapon turrets unmanned. The crew barely had the time to fire the warship's point defense cannons (PDC). Two of the missiles got through the destroyer's defenses. One struck amidships, and the other hit astern. The destroyer spun wildly, escape pods jettisoned, and lifeboats launched, but the warship isn't out of the fight. It regained control and fired its particle beam cannons at us.
