Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  She carried something that looked like a small Humanoid skull with fangs, set into a gothic lattice of black steel with an attached handle.

  “That, captain, is a proper pirate captain coffee mug. Specialist Warner purchased it at the Pirate’s Market and wanted you to have it.”

  “Uh, is this thing real?”

  “Yes, we think so. Lt. Schwartz thinks it is the skull of a Narwuk. Nasty semi-intelligent hominids often used by the Yotenen as mindless, bloodthirsty shock troops.”

  “I wonder what other surprises you guys bought. Ah, well, I really appreciate the sentiment, but who knows where it has been—”

  Shea giggled and the yeoman also had a mischievous glitter in her green eyes. She said, “No worries, captain, this is a ceramo-plast copy of the real thing. Circuit made it only a few minutes ago. The real thing now sits on a shelf in our den.”

  “I sure have a respectful and thoughtful crew.” I took the monstrosity from her. “Ceramo-plast, right?”

  Elfi tried to make a serious face and nodded approvingly. “Yes, that cup fits you well. I mean your Black Velvet persona, of course.”

  Even Narth chimed in, “Did you not once drink fresh warm fish blood out of a real skull cup, fashioned from a slain enemy’s cranium? I don’t see much difference.”

  Mao shuddered. “Warm fish blood, and they call us savages.”

  I glared at them. “It is an old tradition and when it comes to those, Neo-Vikings are very serious. I was just 12, and I did what I was told.” I pointed with my new and terribly ugly cup toward the main screen. “Let’s get back to the job at hand.”

  I leaned back. “I still need to call the admiral before we get out of GalNet range. Elfi, keep an eye on that, please.”

  “Captain, we have reached GalNet limit now and won’t be able to receive at all, but we should be able to pick it up again once we get closer to Ithema.”

  Shea nodded. “We should. SII and several other corporations maintain trade relations with the Karthanians there and that means there is a repeater or two between there and Union Space.”

  Har-Hi came from the IST. “I lost the connection but I was able to talk to my fathers.” Then he approached his chair, but stopped in his tracks and pointed at my new mug. “You sure take the pirate thing very seriously, I must say.”

  “Don’t you get started, too. This ceramo-plast abomination was a well-planned assault of my loving crew.” I eyed the thing and gave the yeoman a side glance. “Ceramo-plast, right?”

  “Of course, captain.”

  Har-Hi plopped into his chair and said, “I am sorry, captain, it took a little longer than planned. I simply had to talk to my father about the Dai situation and the attack on the Corridor.”

  “Being the XO means you can be a little late, not that you really were. So, what did he have to say?”

  “Father is very concerned about this, but it wasn’t completely surprising to him. The news that Cam Elf Na has united a large number of clans has already reached the Union public. Father was on his way to the Assembly already. My lord thinks Cam Elf Na is mad enough to try to attack the Union, but he is also not a fool and will it do in a way that causes the most destruction and terror. Attacking at the Corridor, however, is foolish, with the Klack on one side and the rest of the Union on the other.”

  I said, “I wish we had some better intel for him.”

  Har-Hi nodded. “I am sure Fleet Command would love to know as well. Countering such a massive force needs lots of Fleet movement.”

  “If Cam Elf Na simply picks a few border colonies, he could do that for months without Fleet being able to catch up,” I said while I called up a strategic map of the region with a finger gesture. SHIP knew what I wanted and enhanced the view, focused onto the right region, highlighting the known civilizations and spheres of influence.

  Har-Hi also stared at the projection. “Father thinks he is not ready yet and believes there is still a lot of internal squabbling going on before the 3,000 clans he supposedly has under his command become a unified group ready to fight. The seemingly mad action at the Corridor involved only a few clans. Perhaps a diversion tactic or somehow meant to show the Shiss that Dai can be reliable allies.”

  Mao was listening and said, “What about logistics and supplies? Every fool can raise an army but will run into trouble at dinner time. From what I gather and learned from you, it is already difficult to get the supplies and raw materials needed to maintain one clan. If I was Cam Elf Na, I would want some sort of success action that cemented my position as leader and something that feeds and supplies them all. That is my guess for the reason of this skirmish. The Shiss have almost unlimited supplies, at least compared to the space-born Dai.”

  SHIP chimed in, “The most logical approach would be to raid a few Karthanian worlds. Unlike the Togar, they don’t have a huge fleet ready to move at any moment and rely mostly on hiring Oghar to do their fighting. The Karthanians have tremendous stockpiles of raw materials and supplies. Even more than the Shiss and better tech. There are advanced shipyards around any world they control. It would take the Karthanians months to muster enough assets, Assets they then use to defend what they still have instead of attacking the Dai. The Togar, sensing their chance, might take on the rest of the Karthanian Guilds, ending a few thousand years of status quo that existed between Karthania and the Togar. This is certainly not lost to the Xenophobes of Kartha and will make sure the Bone Faces of Karthania have other things to worry about than trying to take back the worlds the Dai raided and occupied. Two major players locked in all-out war will also benefit the Shiss.”

  “That sounds real enough to be true. You are quite the analyst.”

  “Well, that is part of what a computronic does. I mean, analyzing things, but this prediction and choice of colorful descriptive words does not originate from me. It was part of the briefing Admiral Stahl just gave to the Military Council of the Assembly 39 minutes ago. Sadly, we lost GalNet before I could hear the rest.”

  “You can listen to that?” I asked.

  “Yes, I usually listen to everything on GalNet; it is a hobby of mine and I always learn something. The briefing is on Channel One. It was not a closed briefing. Everyone could listen to it.”

  Har-Hi slowly shook his head. “Not to second guess the Eternal Warrior, but I am not convinced that this is what Cam Elf Na is going to do; he is a maniac and he is mad and wants revenge for what happened three years ago. He is not known to act on logic. Like my father said, it will take time to make them really follow him. Dai Than clan leaders are a stubborn lot and don’t easily follow a single leader. It is much like on your world Nilfeheim. There are old alliances and also old feuds, and they need to stay spread out to sustain their clans until such a grand plan could be realized. Don’t forget, we do not have planetary bases and we do not have GalNet. Communication is a crucial factor in this.”

  He also looked to the ceiling, addressing SHIP, “As powerful as he feels right now, the Karthanians are not as easy a target as you made it sound. The Karthanians do have strong contracts with the Oghar-Ogrs and they tend to honor their commitments. Neither are the Karthanians fools, and Oghar fleets are most likely already deployed and on their way to protect Karthanian worlds and systems.”

  “You got a point, frontier colonies don’t have enough resources for one clan. The Karthanians might be a tad too big for him right now. However, the admiral thinks it is a possible scenario,” I said while glancing at the main screen and watching the Red Dragon jumping to trans-light, while the Intruder struggled to build up threshold speed.

  Har-Hi agreed, “Father believes that once he has sufficient control, he might move against one of the smaller independents, such as the Jooltar or perhaps even one of the weaker Oghar kingdoms. The other Oghar species won’t lift a finger to help their brethren.”

  Mao interrupted us with urgency in his voice, “Fast approaching contact on our scanners. captain, a Togar Womptar battle cruiser has just dropped ou
t of Quasi and they are under shields and weapons charged.”

  Elfi said, “They are hailing us.”

  “All right, SHIP, sound battle stations. Mao, stand by on shields but don’t raise them yet. Elfi, put them on.”

  A magnificent Cat Warrior became visible and he growled, “Pirate, you are identified as one of the ships and individuals involved in a transaction involving a Togar fugitive and criminal of the highest order. We demand that you stand down and be boarded and searched for evidence and details. Do that and we will consider letting you live. Do it not and we will have no mercy.”

  “I have no Togar criminal aboard. I sold that Cat.”

  “We will search your vessel now.”

  “I don’t let just anyone come aboard.”

  “You have no choice; your little freighter has sharp claws but not enough to prevent your doom. Your Froth Casters do not have the range.”

  I cut him off.

  “Narth, turn on our real sensors and check if he is alone. Mao, full Giga Load as soon as I give the signal.”

  Our real sensors reached light years beyond the ones a Karthanian Freighter would have and also showed Quasi Space traffic. There were quite a few signals, both Karthanian and Dai, but only one Dai signal was coming this way as well.

  Narth said, “He is about to call for back up and tell his superiors about us.”

  “Mao, fire!”

  Chapter 19: A Third Way

  The Giga Load Translocator bomb detonated right in the command center of the Togar ship, engulfing it in a sun-like sphere of bright expanding energies. I was well aware that this explosion would show on every sensor in the region and that we had not much time.

  “Elfi, did he send his message?”

  “No, he just started sending his ID sequence and their communication systems are much slower than ours. It will take over 22 hours before this code sequence is received. He was unable to add more.”

  “However, someone noticed the explosion,” Shea said. “Two long-range scanner contacts, a Dai and two Togar, have changed course, and they will be here in less than five minutes.”

  “We need to get out of here. If we keep using Translocators, they get wise to the fact that we are not pirates.”

  Har-Hi warned me, “Captain if we accelerate too fast, all patina of our disguise is gone. They are close enough for their sensors to detect us. An anti-matter explosion could have other reasons than a Translocator bomb. A ship accelerating with TL8 speeds, however, screams Union.”

  “Shaka, get us going Silver Streak maximum.”

  It was not fast enough for us to reach threshold speed before they arrived.

  A Dai ship dropped out of Quasi Space, followed moments later by two Togar units.

  The Togar almost immediately fired upon the Dai Joth-Yi destroyer, only to receive a salvo of the Dai destroyer raking their shields with nuclear plasma.

  I felt as if there were needles in the upholstering of my command seat and I sat on its utmost edge, “Guys, it is about time we take our leave.”

  “Two minutes and six seconds to threshold,” Shaka said.

  The other Togar fired at us, and while the shields held, the kinetic energy of the missiles hitting us knocked us out of the acceleration path and Shaka had to recommit.

  We had to show the world that we had only Karthanian shields. They were fed and simulated by the Narth-designed Janus projectors of our disguise, and it would take a lot more than that to make our simulated shields buckle, but a straight and uninterrupted acceleration was still crucial.

  I decided to let them worry why their blasts did not drain our shields as they should have.

  Shaka was taking us to the maximum acceleration our disguise permitted.

  The second Togar fired at us again and that gave the battered Dai an opening it did not waste. It hit the first Togar with a concentrated volley of all its main weapons, breaking the already-strained shields of that Togar destroyer. A secondary onslaught of Dai weapon fire sliced through the tough Togar mineral-foamed composite armor and soon bright beams of destruction perforated the Togar’s engineering section. That ship was done for! Greenish plasma fire leaked a heartbeat later out of the still-bright glowing holes the Dai weapons had left behind.

  Har-Hi had his fist clenched and slammed it on his knee. “She’ll go any second now.”

  We watched as a handful of escape pods detached from the doomed Togar ship. The rest of its crew didn’t make it, and the ship exploded violently.

  The remaining Togar changed course and fired three Vagroorr missiles. Now, these weren’t Loki torpedoes but the Togar were almost at par with the Kermac and our tactical systems instructor aboard the Devi once said that 20 of these hitting simultaneously could ruin the day of a Union battleship.

  One was intercepted by the Dai gunners; one exploded with force in the Joth-Yi destroyer shields and tore them down. The third was on our tail. We were committed to threshold speed and could not evade. Mao fired the Nul Froth Caster and destroyed it before it could reach our aft but to escape the graviton shockwave, Shaka had to maneuver and change course and that meant he had to interrupt threshold acceleration once again and commit the ship to a new run. In all this, I realized what a gigantic difference just two tech levels made. The Tigershark easily maneuvered at 20 times the speed and it would have taken us seconds and not minutes to threshold speed.

  “Shaka, stop acceleration and go to zero thrust. Take us around as soon as they are past us. Mao, target the Togar and fire when in range.”

  Mao fired our simulated Nul Froth Casters and chaotic oscillating graviton waves pulled and pushed the matter of the war cat’s ship in every conceivable direction, developing gravitational whirlpools and pulverizing much of the warship’s engineering.

  The Dai was damaged and without shields but it still fired at the Togar. With its shields gone and a shredded aft, the Togar finished off the Dai destroyer with another missile.

  Shea looked over her sensor readings. “The Togar won’t go far either. The froth effect did a number on these old-fashioned reactors and without the necessary systems, they are overheating. Whoever isn’t killed by the radiation will suffocate as life support is no longer active.”

  I rubbed my hands. “Good news then. Krabbel, plot a course to Itheamh.”

  Elfi reported, “Captain, the Togar is hailing us!”

  I signaled her to put them on.

  A singed Togar commander appeared; his bridge was damaged and I could see the distinctive flicker of open fire in the smoke-filled background.

  The Togar coughed. “Pirate, I am Roghor, commanding the Vighrr, I should command you now to stop your engines and tell you we will board you, but we lost life support and my engineers are dead so I don’t know if we are to lose containment. I appeal to you from ship commander to ship commander to give me the honor of death and to take my surviving crew to Kaliment. Don’t sell them as slaves; my Lead Cats will make sure you receive a reward on Kaliment.”

  Shea said, “Circuit thinks they have about 12 minutes before containment goes.”

  They were Togar; I didn’t like Togar. The less I had to do with these Human-eating cats the better, but he was a captain knowing his doom was imminent and he’d asked me to help his crew.

  “Commander Roghor, you have about 10 minutes before your containment fails. Tell your crew to suit up and evacuate. I give you my word I will not sell you as slaves, but treat your wounded and take you to Kaliment. You have my word on that. You, too, must leave, commander!”

  “I will give the order, pirate.”

  “Any tricks or subterfuge, and you will wish we were slavers!”

  “No tricks, pirate.”

  Narth said, “There are survivors aboard the Dai wreck as well; four of them have survived but are injured.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “Maybe we’ll make it to Itheamh by the time the Red Dragon retires of old age.”

  I turned to Har-Hi. “Take a few marines and see if
you can get them alive. Hans, take a team and collect the cats and make sure they are unarmed and kept in one of the empty hangars.”

  Har-Hi gave me a thankful look before he left.

  We spend much longer drifting in space than I’d hoped. We ended up collecting the few escape pods of the other Togar as well. The hangar across our Pirate Den was the last room we had left and it was now filled with almost 200 Togar cats.

  Not all of them, so Narth told me, were happy about the commander’s decision to accept help, but Hans and his marines had stripped them one by one. Even the formidable warrior cats were quite terrified and docile as they saw Hans, our Nul prince, and TheOther telling them what would happen if they did not fully cooperate.

  Har-Hi had no problems evacuating the Dai; they were more dead than alive and in no shape to fight or resist.

  Cateria and her team was busy saving their lives.

  I went down to see if the Togar commander had made it and stepped through the force field curtain that was transparent for crew of my ship only and also projected the image of an old Karthanian ship corridor as I stepped onto the Togar-filled Starboard Hangar B.

  Most of them sat on the floor and one of my Pertharian marines, in pirate costume, of course, was serving soup or something similar in plastic cups while our Takkian pushed a hover cart with the bowl and more cups behind him.

  The Pertharian, despite his pirate costume, could not switch off being a marine and as he saw me went to attention. “Captain Black Velvet on deck.”

  I cringed and wondered just how thin our disguise was at that point. I was certain it would take little to convince even the densest Togar that we weren’t really pirates.

  TheOther immediately moved from his spot next to the door like a tremendous shadow behind me.

  It was a reassuring feeling to have a real Y’All warrior watching my back. Not that I felt threatened but I disliked Togar, and now I was in a closed room with a lot of them. While they weren’t armed, they still had claws and jaws filled with dagger-like teeth just like a Fangsnapper.