Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

Dave quickly replied, “No Julia, I’m not selling you to him, nor am I giving you away to him. Here you are not property, here you are a free person, you can make your own choices. He is simply willing to let you go with him and have a break from this place. He won’t hurt you. Actually, I think I’d be dead if he thought I’d ever hurt you.”

  She asked, “Will I be allowed to be with you again?”

  He replied, “It depends on what happens to me. I’m not sure whether I’ll go to prison here, or somewhere else. If it’s here, you can visit me in jail till I’m released.”

  She looked back and forth between Dave and Colin before simply saying, “Okay, but I want to see you again.”

  She was taken to pick up her meagre possessions which included a tablet device capable of displaying photographs. It was loaded with photos of her and Dave side by side, mostly on his ship. Once she had her things, the DNI agents took them all back to the apartments they were staying in. Julia is about the same age as Anne, blond, blue eyes, pretty with an expressive pixie face, slim, and with small perky breasts. She didn’t have very much clothing suitable for planet side use so Colin realized he would need to buy her some. Going clothes shopping was not his idea of fun so, in the end, he handed his credit chip to Anne and Siobhan and asked them to go with Julia to help her buy some clothes. The three women all trooped off down to the nearest shopping precinct as Carl laughed at Colin’s discomfort. It turned out Anne and Julia got on very well, even though they had nothing in common with their backgrounds. Anne was brought up to be an independent woman, while Julia was born and raised a slave. Julia told Anne about how good Dave was to her, how he protected her and even tried to give her some education. She said Dave wanted to leave the Peschal Alliance ever since she became his but knew the Federation would most likely arrest him on Piracy charges if they went there openly. When Colin heard all this, he began thinking about ways to capitalize on the knowledge to hit at the heart of the Pirate society. Colin thought of one scheme after another, some wilder than others but none of them were completely viable. He knew that, and his scheming wasn’t very much more than useless.

  After a few days, Julia began to relax and became more comfortable and open with them. At first, the girl behaved like a slave, always running around cleaning up, being ready to serve the others when they sat to eat and a lot of other things a free woman would only do as a favour or for guests in her own home. Julia would even ask permission to go for a walk outside. They kept explaining to the girl that there was no need to do any of these things, she was free now, no longer a slave. Colin still wanted Julia to inform him, or Anne when she intended going out, and the expected return time, but only so they knew when to start worrying. He obtained a credit chip for her with a limited amount of credit then he and Anne took her to show her how to go shopping with her own money, how to work out if she had enough money to buy something she wanted and how to spot when something was too expensive. They taught her to look around, comparing prices for most things.

  Finally, the five of them came to the last day of their stay at the resort. Julia asked Anne if she would go to the market with her. She told Anne they’d all been very kind to her and she wanted to cook a meal for them that night. Anne agreed, so the two women left to do a little food shopping. As it turned out, Julia was excellent in the kitchen. One of her responsibilities before Dave bought her was to cook meals for her previous master and his guests. He’d sold her when he found a younger, prettier girl to play with. The meal that night was very enjoyable, with Julia earning a lot of praise for her efforts. Afterward, they all pitched in to help her clean up, another educational experience for her. When they climbed into the ground car the next day for her trip to the city, she asked Colin if he could take her to see Dave after they arrived. He agreed, she’d seen massive changes over the last week, and still needed the connection with her past, at least with the few healthy and happy memories she had from then.

  When they arrived at the facility where Dave was being held, there was no demur about letting her see him, in fact, they seemed to be happy to let the couple have some time alone together. When she saw Dave, she flew into his arms, apparently glad to see he was still alright and hadn’t been hurt while she was gone. As Colin left the room, she was pulling the credit chip Colin had given her out of her pocket to show him, telling him how they treated her and took care of her, and about all the other things she did.

  The DNI Officer took Colin into a side room and said, “You know, Dave needs to stand trial, but in all honesty, we’re inclined to charge him with the minimum charges we can get away with. He’s been completely honest with us, our instrumentation has shown us that, and he seems to be in awe of you. On more than one occasion he’s told us he’d like to work for you, helping you with your mission. It seems he was becoming disillusioned with the Peschal Alliance even before you captured him. Just before his last job, he killed two men who tried to drag Julia into an alley. If ‘the Boss’ as he calls him didn’t need Dave for his operation at Lahoshar, Dave may have been summarily killed. One interesting thing you might like to know. He was always acutely aware of where you were in Lahoshar right up to the point where the Commodore’s task force arrived in the system. He transmitted a message to the Boss, telling him you’d left not long before you started attacking those eight ships using your ship as the weapon. He effectively made it possible for you to win. He tells us, his ship is the only one the Peschal Alliance had with those capabilities, and he believes that absolutely.”

  Colin mulled all this over for a minute before saying, “So he enabled our victory. What form would the trial take? Could we sell him as a deep cover DNI agent? He may actually be a useful asset to me especially given the way I’ve taken care of Julia for him.”

  The DNI agent said, “As I said, we’ll probably use the lowest possible grade of charge. That would be aiding and abetting the activities of a proscribed organization. With the cooperation he’s shown, we may be able to arrange for him to work his sentence off, working for the Navy. Do you want to send him back in undercover?”

  Colin said, “No, I don’t think undercover would be the right way to utilize his talents. Besides, we’d have to repair his ship to send him back. Do you want to risk giving the Pirates an asset like that back? I don’t want to put Julia into unnecessary danger either, she’s just an innocent bystander in all this. I think he’d be more useful to me on my ship perhaps helping with the Sensors. I could keep a close eye on him there as well.”

  “You’re right of course,” said the agent, “he wouldn’t be running loose here so we wouldn’t need to keep a close eye on him. You could do that on your ship. What about the girl, though, what do we do with her?”

  Colin told him to leave that problem with him, he would see to it. They went next door to see the happy couple chatting and holding hands. When they walked in, Dave looked up at Colin and thanked him for everything he’d done to look after Julia. Colin explained he hadn't finished that task just yet, he had to find somewhere a little more permanent for her to live, somewhere she was safe and able to visit Dave. Dave told Colin to name his price. If Colin could do all that for Julia, Dave would gladly pay it. Colin warned him there was a price, but he thought it wasn’t a steep one. Julia left with Colin, and the two of them went back to the Fraser home. When they arrived, Anne came to greet them, a smile dancing in her eyes.

  She asked, “What is it with you and waifs and strays, you always seem to be collecting them?”

  Colin laughed at the comment and replied, “I can’t toss her out in the cold and alone, to live rough on the streets. I made a promise. Besides, I remember another waif I picked up along the way, and that worked out quite well. She’s even saved my life a couple of times now.”

  This was nothing more than simple banter till Colin asked, can Julia stay there till he could find a more permanent solution.

  Just then, Siobhan swept through the door, took Julia by the arm, and said, “C’mon dear, your room
is ready, let’s leave these two to talk their nonsense without us.”

  Julia, looking a little shell-shocked, meekly followed Siobhan out of the room.

  When Colin looked towards Anne, she was laughing and said, “Either mom or dad will be here most of the time. If it isn’t them, it’ll probably be grandfather. He’s another one with a soft heart, she’ll be okay. Colin, you don’t get a say in this one, mom has already decided, and you know what that means.”

  It turned out the extended Fraser family all quickly learned Julia’s story, at least how she came to be Colin’s responsibility, and there was a lot of good-natured laughter at his expense. She seemed to slot in quite nicely, even helping with the catering when they had a family get together. Of course, they had to make her go and change into some nice clothes she’d bought and join the party as she seemed to easily slip into slave or servant mode, but she was becoming easier to convince as time went on.

  A few days later, Colin departed for his ship, to run a few short patrols around nearby Systems, there were reports of increased activity, so Sonya had decided to implement more aggressive patrolling, to convince the Pirates it wasn’t good business to operate around Cambridge.

  When he boarded FNS Theseus, Colin went to his office and said, “Good afternoon Theseus.”

  The AI replied in her Contralto voice, “Good afternoon Captain Gordon. I trust you had a pleasant vacation.”

  “Yes, I did thank you. How did your upgrades go?”

  “Very well thank you, our top speed has been increased by five percent, more powerful Lasers have been fitted for Point-Defense, and our Sensors are now significantly more sensitive. Thor and I are the first two ships with these capabilities. We have detected an anomaly on the outskirts of the system Captain. It is moving in a way that suggests it is intelligently guided. We believe you should investigate it.”

  “Thank you for the information Theseus,” Colin replied, “I need to let Commodore Nicholson know what I’m doing before I go running off, though.”

  “Captain, based on my past observations of your behaviour, I computed a 99.63% probability that you would want to go and look at the anomaly, so I have taken the liberty of informing the Commodore of your probable intentions and filed for a departure slot.”

  “When you told the Commodore of my intentions, did you do it in my name?”

  “No Sir, the Commodore is fully aware this was my assessment of your probable intentions. I even told her my calculated probability and that I had not yet asked you. Did I do wrong?”

  Colin considered what the AI told him for a few seconds and then said, “No Theseus, you did the right thing. For future reference, it is permissible for you to file reports detailing my probable intentions provided you sign them and do not use my name other than to say this is what you believe I am likely to do. Is that okay with you.”

  “Yes Captain, I will remember what you have told me. We have a departure slot for ten minutes.”

  “Very well,” Colin replied, “would you be kind enough to inform navigation that I would like the least time course towards whichever Jump-Point is furthest from your anomaly, then a course that takes us out into the black and around behind it. If he sees us coming, I want to push him away from the nearest Jump-Point if possible.”

  A few seconds later, the AI said, “I have notified Navigation of your requirements and given them some alternate courses they may like to use.”

  Colin thought about how the ships AI was showing a lot more initiative than some people he knew. He climbed to his feet and made his way to the CCC ready to depart for his combat patrol. When he arrived at the CCC, there was a short, text-only message that only said. “Good luck.”

  FNS Theseus left the shipyard and began the trek out to the chosen Jump-Point. When the ship entered the event horizon, Colin ordered the ship to go dark, hiding them from most passive Sensor types. FNS Theseus then took a long loop up over the elliptic heading toward the Jump-Point nearest their anomaly. Whatever it was, it was still relatively close to its original position just inside the system’s Kuiper belt. FNS Theseus came down between the visitor and the Kuiper belt, so if his Sensors picked them up at all, they would need to distinguish Theseus from all the background clutter. Once again, they coasted up on the other ship. It was clearly another spy ship, sitting there quietly taking in all it could. By now, it would know a lot about what was going on in the System, including exactly how many Warships were here to defend Cambridge. Colin told his people to keep an eye on it then telling Sam and Anne to come with him, he went to his office. When everyone had settled, Colin asked for suggestions. Sam seemed to have made a lot of progress because he suggested using the same technique they used to capture the ship with Dave and Julia on board in Lahoshar system. Anne smiled agreeing it would be the right approach. Then Colin asked Theseus for her opinion. Theseus told them there was a 96.29% chance the ship was working for hostile forces and agreed they should use the same technique as before. Colin considered their opinions for a few minutes, then directed Sam to position Theseus so they could target both engines simultaneously. One thing concerning him with this ship was she was obviously far better armed than Dave’s ship, and he had FNS Theseus’ Shields stepped right down.

  They were almost in firing position when Theseus automatically snapped the Shields onto full power. Only about a second later, the Shields absorbed the impact of a Rail-Gun strike. The Shields on the enemy ship came up at the same time. Colin didn’t say anything, he only waited to see what Sam would do next. As soon as the other ship fired at them, Anne sprinted for the Secondary Control Centre. Meanwhile, Sam ordered a full spread of missiles readied for firing and began using the Rail-Guns and Lasers to lash and weaken the other ship’s, Shields. Tactical reported the weapons on-line, and Sam ordered them fired while still maintaining pressure on the other ships Shields with Lasers and Rail-Guns. The other ship spun in space and fired ten missiles of her own. Theseus’ Point-Defense took out three of the weapons almost as soon as they cleared their launchers. The remainder were destroyed soon after. Colin realized the Sixth-Generation AI really did give the Cobra superior fire control. Two of the missiles fired by Theseus were killed en route, but the remaining eight reached the enemy ship. The first six battered the Shields down and the last two, detonated inside the ship, destroying it, leaving nothing but a debris field behind. When Colin looked over at Sam, he was as white as a sheet with the shock of what he just did.

  Colin decided Sam needed a little praise to build his confidence up a little, so he said, “That was good work Lieutenant. It seems their Sensors are better than we thought Lieutenant, but you recovered well and finished what we started. Now, no recriminations, no regrets, understood. You did a good job of work here, and we prevailed. Launch a recovery shuttle if you please. We should see if we can gather useful intelligence from this. I suspect Commodore Nicholson will be wondering where we are and what’s happened to us. I’d better let her know we’re still alive.”

  Colin went to his office and opened an FTL channel to Cambridge. He explained what happened to Sonya, telling her Sam was coming along quite nicely but would need a little more seasoning yet.

  Chapter 8

  After the spy ship, was destroyed, FNS Theseus spent a day carefully looking for survivors or anything else of interest to the intelligence services. They found a few pieces of electronic equipment, some damaged computer cores, but not much else. There were no survivors for them to find, in fact, the only organic matter they found were a few charred body parts. After completing their search, Colin told Sam to take them home. Theseus arrived back at Cambridge three days after their fight with the spy ship.

  As soon as they arrived, Colin asked Anne to overload Theseus with ordnance. He wanted as many missiles and Rail-Gun rounds on the ship as they could manage. Something about the presence of the spy ship was bothering him. After what happened at Lahoshar, then with the presence of a spy ship in both locations, it felt to him like the Pirate
s were about to pay a visit to Cambridge. When he finished with Anne, he copied as many images as he could of the spy ship to a chip. He boarded Theseus’ Shuttle, and it undocked then dropped down towards the Shuttle Station near Headquarters. From the Shuttle Station, Colin made his way directly to the Commodore’s office where he planned to lay out his conclusions about the Pirates. It was evident to him, they were beginning to pay an unhealthy amount of interest in this sector and Colin thought it inevitable they’d be knocking on the door, or more likely trying to kick the door in at Cambridge sooner, rather than later. Right then, he didn’t have any long-term solutions, though. He was concerned that at least some people from the Peschal Alliance seemed to have access to some splendid Sensor technologies. This meant they’d need to keep a close watch on the system outskirts for more spy ships and hope these more advanced Sensors weren’t available on their Warships.

  When he was shown into Commodore Nicholson’s office, Colin launched into his report, detailing what he knew and his conclusions. Sonya seemed to accept Colin’s assessment, commenting that she wasn’t the one who needed convincing. One of the things concerning Colin most was the appearance of two fleets, one of four ships, the other of eight in the Lahoshar system. There was no record of four ships operating together before FNS Destiny encountered them on her voyage home from Earth and even then, they weren’t all functioning as a single cohesive fleet, they just seemed to be cooperating trying to achieve a specific goal. In Lahoshar, the situation was a very different one, there, each of the two fleets entered the system together, operating as a fleet and tightly organized to provide mutual defense. While their discipline wasn’t up to Federation Navy standards, they were more disciplined than anyone had experienced during previous encounters. Colin couldn’t help but feel they needed to begin preparing for trouble now or they’d be caught flat-footed when the time came. They also needed to be keeping a close eye on the surrounding Systems, aggressively patrolling them but also making sure the ships leaving Cambridge for patrol activity could be recalled quickly if the need arose. He wasn’t sure how to achieve that.