“I know. I know.” Catriona sighed. “Just don’t do it again.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Alberta couldn’t help letting out a grin. “I promise.”
“Good. And goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Catriona.” Catriona’s face vanished from the visual screen.
An hour and twenty-eight minutes later after Daughter had journeyed through the queue. She was happy to see a pair of Kansbar corvettes patrolling the area that should give the Lorkiiz starships pause if the still dare to follow us.
“I just got confirmation from the laser station, captain.” Agatha Gee announced from her communication station. “We’re to proceed to the launch location. They’ve sent us an automated program for our computers to get us there.”
“Good. Thanks, Agatha.” Alberta said. She glanced at her map screen and a data screen. “Send them a big thank you from me.”
“Yes, captain.”
“Donna, did you get the program?” Alberta asked her pilot.
“Yes, captain. Got it.” Donna and co-pilot were working on it.
Alberta rubbed her chin. In a few minutes the map screen showed the image of Daughter as she maneuvered into the launch location behind the hyperspace laser station. Most of the station consisted of the ultra gigantic laser, while the spacestation attached to it was just there to control the giant beast. Hyperspace lasers were able to jump a spaceship into hyperspace and out of it. Designed by scientists on old Earth over a thousand years ago. It was the standard ability of traveling between stars for humans within civilized human space. Outside of civilized space only great starships like Guinevere with her huge FTL engines could travel between the stars. The reason for this was how incredibly expensive hyperspace lasers were. Of course FTL engines weren’t cheap either that’s why they were used only by military, corporations or large clans.
“Bring up the sail, Donna.” Alberta ordered.
“Yes, captain. Raising the sail.” Donna replied.
Alberta looked at the map screen where she could see the electro-magnetic sail appear behind the rocketship. The sail was six times the length of the rocketship. Then the center of the sail moved forward over the rocketship to engulf most of it.
“The sail is raised and ready to be struck.” Donna announced.
“Agatha tell the station chief that our sail is raised and we’re ready to be struck.” Alberta gave her a thumbs up, which Agatha returned.
“Yes, captain.”
By the time Alberta looked at her map screen the hyperspace laser struck their sail and they were in hyperspace.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDFIFTEEN
Looking for help
Guinevere’s Daughter jumped out of hyperspace just outside the Augustine XX star system.
“Home sweet home!” Alberta chuckled. “Shut down the sail, Donna.”
“Yes, captain.” Donna replied. “Shutting down the sail. Rocketship has begun cooling at a normal rate.”
“Good job, Donna.” Alberta said. “Fiona, launch a probe. Let’s see what’s out there.” Then she sent a call to Jo Grant Williams. Jo appeared on a visual screen.
“Captain?”
“Hi, Jo. We need to talk about sending an official legal complaint against the Lorkiiz starships that attacked us. Can you get to work on that?”
“Yes, captain. Will do that immediately.” Jo shrugged. “Actually I’ve been working on it. Do you want me to included a complaint against Ellie Williams and Tawny Williams too?”
“Yes, Jo.”
Jo nodded before vanishing from the screen. Alberta quickly checked the data screens for the info dumps that the nearest buoy should have sent them. I wonder if any of our friends are in the neighborhood?
Daughter journeyed towards the planet Kentucky. Its main spacestation was named Bobcat.
#
Hours later Guinevere’s Daughter docked at spacestation Bobcat. After the docking was complete Alberta stood up from her command chair and stretched. She heard a call coming in and tapped on a visual screen. Jo’s face appeared on the screen.
“Sorry to bring you bad news, Alberta.” Jo rubbed her nose for a second. “But right after I placed a lawsuit against Ellie, Tawny, and the Lorkiiz I received a counter-suit from Ellie.”
“Counter-suit. Is it an old one?” Alberta sat back in her chair.
“No.” Jo shook her head. “It just arrived, which makes me wonder about its authenticity. If Ellie resigned like she promised then why do this, unless the Lorkiiz forced her to it.”
“Expect me in your office in a few minutes, Jo.” Alberta told her second shift crew’s lawyer. Alberta stood up. The main engines could be safely examined by the engineers now and she expected a report from Catriona Zhou in an hour or sooner. Alberta handed the bridge command over to Donna and left for the elevator.
The elevator took Alberta up to deck three. On deck three Alberta walked through corridor b. She passed several doors until she reached one that was partly open. A sign on the door read Jo Grant Williams, Attorney at Law, Second Shift Crew. Alberta pushed the door open the rest of the way as she entered. Knowing Jo she probably opened the door once she was told the captain was one her way over. I guess a little brown nosing smooths things over with the boss. I recall doing that myself with my moth- Alberta forced back a thought to focus on what she needed to do right now.
“Hello, captain!”
“Hello, Jo!” Alberta said and took the cushioned chair that Jo waved her towards. After Alberta sat then Jo sat back down in her chair.
“Coffee? Beer?” Jo asked.
Alberta could smell the aroma of coffee coming from the blue cup on Jo’s desk. “Coffee sounds good, Jo. One sugar cube and no cream.”
Jo smiled and told a robot to bring another cup of coffee for Alberta. Seconds later Alberta accepted a steaming cup from the robot and took a cautious sip of the hot drink. “Mmm.” Alberta smiled. “Now what do you have for me, Jo?”
Jo flipped a data screen around, so Alberta could read it.
#
Alberta and her wife Piper got eat out at a Flavor Babe restaurant on the spacestation. Piper nods as she listened to Alberta talk about the legal problems that Jo Grant Williams had gone over her with. “The local Yin navy agreed to go check out our fears of aliens kidnapping our starship and family. They sent a frigate USS Storm over there.”
“Just one frigate is all they sent?” Piper paused while lifting her spoon of oyster soup to her mouth.
“They didn’t want to send anything else, unless they knew for sure.” Alberta snorted. She stirred her potato soup. “I suppose I can’t blame them. We don’t have any proof and we’re just beginning to figure them Lorkiiz out. Or at least to make the attempt.”
“At least something is happening.” Piper tapped Alberta’s hand. “And stop playing with your soup.”
Alberta frowned, until she saw the twinkle in Piper’s eyes. They both chuckled.
#
Later on Piper chewed a bite of her catfish fillet and Alberta cut into her sirloin. “Mph. I forgot to mention that I found out Martha Clarke was missing.”
“Did we leave her on Guinevere?” Alberta asked as she lifted a hunk of meat up to her lips.
“No. She never returned to Guinevere.” Piper waved a her fork in the air. “I suspect she might be in the Lilith star system with Erica.”
“Oh. At least we know where that kid is.” Alberta shook her head in disapproval.
“Oh. You hush.” Piper stuck out her tongue. “I think they make a cute couple.”
“What?”
“Yes.” Piper smirked and Alberta felt a light kick on her shin.
“Yes.” Alberta relented to the onslaught.
“Better, dear.” Piper leaned in to give Alberta a kiss.
Alberta chuckled. She tilted her head at Piper. “Will there be more of that later?”
“If your good.” Piper shook her finger.
#
Janet was always a big help in organizing
these meetings. Now I have to do it on my own. Alberta waved all of her department heads into the meeting room. Everyone around the long table chatted as the late comers eventually trickled into the room. Alberta struck her gavel on the table top.
“Meeting begins. The main order of business is my wish to take Guinevere’s Daughter back to the planet Yin and Williams HQ. Opinions?”
The department heads mumbled amongst themselves, until Catriona Zhou spoke. “I still think we need to replace main engine number two before we leave this spacestation. I can’t guarantee it will function effectively. I do ‘not’ recommend you push them to their maximum speed, until I get it replaced.”
Alberta heard her loudly emphasize the word not and forced back a chuckle.
“Shouldn’t we be fine if we don’t push them to their maximum speed, Catriona?” Donna asked.
“Well,” Catriona frowned at the rocketship’s pilot. “I suppose it will…but I don’t want to promise it will last.”
“Fine. I can live with that.” Donna smiled.
“Oh you daredevil pilots!” Catriona grumbled. “You never do listen to us sensible engineers. We’re the ones that know how things work.”
“Yes, Catriona.” Donna nodded. “And we appreciate your hard work.”
Catriona shook her head and then smirked.
“I could use some help with all this legal mess we’re in with the law suits and counter-suits. Both first shift and third shift crew’s lawyers are back on Guinevere, so some help would be greatly appreciated.”
“But would they help us?” Piper tossed in.
“What?” Jo replied.
“Ellie Williams. Acting Senior Captain of Guinevere has hit us with a law suit. She accuses of stealing Guinevere’s Daughter. How do we know Williams HQ won’t take her side in this matter?”
“I guess we don’t know how they’ll take it, until they tell us, Piper.” Jo rubbed her nose.
“Great.” Piper frowned.
“Regardless of whether they except our point of view or not.” Alberta added with a tap of her knuckle on the tabletop. “We still need to get the children safety. I think that Williams HQ would be the best place for them.”
Alberta gazed upon the faces in the room. Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Good. Then we’ll go.” Alberta struck the tabletop with her gavel. Then she added with a friendly smirk at Catriona. “And we’ll try not to pushed the main engines too much.”
Everyone in the room chuckled at that, even Catriona.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDSIXTEEN
Space pirates!
Guinevere’s Daughter jumped out of hyperspace outside of the Diana star system.
“Good job, Donna.” Alberta complimented her pilot. “Shut down the sail.”
“Yes, captain.” Donna replied. “Shutting down the sail. Rocketship has begun cooling at a normal rate.”
“Thank you.” Alberta said. She glanced at her data screens. What’s that? “Fiona, is that our ghost?” Ghosts were reflections of spaceships that were seen by sensor scans just after the jumped out of hyperspace. Scientists considered them optical illusions, though a few believed they were your passed selves.
“No. It’s no-” Fiona stopped in mid sentence as the ghost turned into another spaceship. It approached along side them without contacting them.
“Launch a prob-” Guinevere’s Daughter shook as the pirates fired a mixture of docking clamps and tractor beams at the rocketships to latch on to them. “Damn it!” Alberta cursed. Pirates? Fuck! “Fiona?”
“Grappling hooks!” Fiona warned.
“Tiffany, can you fire our lasers at them?”
“They’re on our blind spot, captain.” Tiffany slammed her fist on her armchair. “How did they get this close to us?”
“Some kind of stealth technology.” Fiona commented. “Probably military.”
“Where could a bunch of pirate scum get that?” Tiffany snapped.
“Damn it!” Alberta cursed. “Agatha try to get a distress call out to any friendly ships in the area!”
“Yes, captain.” Agatha went to work with her frightened mouth open.
Alberta called her wife. “Piper we’re in the clutches of pirates and their grappling hooks. They’ve got us. I need you to work on a strategy to fight them.”
“I’m on it, captain.”
#
“This is Junior Captain Alberta Williams speaking. We’ve been captured by a pirate ship. They’ll be breaking in soon. I want everyone to go to the engineer deck. To all crewmembers on duty shut everything down before you leave your station, unless your in engineer. Captain Alberta out!”
“I got that repeating throughout Guinevere’s Daughter, captain.” Agatha Gee said. “And I’ll begun shutting down my station.”
“Thank you, Agatha.” Alberta was shutting her command chair down. The executive chair hadn’t been running at all, since Janet hadn’t joined them. Alberta walked over to the elevator doors to join the others. Everything was quiet on the bridge for not a single station was running. The screens were all blanks. Alberta nodded grimly. “Let’s get out of here.”
Alberta pulled out her tablet as soon as the elevator doors shut. Tiffany gave a command that sent the elevator heading down to the engineering deck. Alberta tapped her tablet to make a call.
“Hello?”
“Saul, I want you to make sure all those children get to the engineering deck.” Alberta told Saul Menendez.
“We’re on our, captain.” Saul replied.
“Thank you, Saul.” Alberta said and Saul’s face vanished from her tablet screen. She turned to her communications chief. “Agatha, I want you to get a distress call out when we get to engineering.”
Agatha nodded. “If you don’t mind I’d like to get some help from Mindy Bettencourt. I’m sure she can help me break through any communications jamming those pirates try on us.”
“That’s fine with me, Agatha.” Alberta squared her shoulders and tried to look brave when the elevator doors opened with the engineering deck in front of them. Alberta led the way out of the elevator and Chief Engineer Catriona Zhou was waiting to greet them.
“Goddess save us from stinking pirates!” Catriona grumbled. “At least my wife came in with Saul Menendez’s group before we left Guinevere. I’ve given Piper and her security women a room to work in. Come this way.” Catriona led them through a corridor.
“Good.” Alberta gestured to her communications chief. “Agatha needs a place that she can work on getting a distress signal out.”
“Already ahead of you, captain.” Catriona stopped and pointed towards a diverging path. “Mindy is waiting for you in Auxiliary Monitoring Room eight. Just follow the door signs.”
“Thanks, Catriona.” Agatha waved and left them.
Catriona walked on and then turned left. Eventually they neared a room with a lot of noise going on the other side of the door. “Here they are, captain. Piper and her ladies.” The door slide open and Catriona stepped through the doorway. Alberta followed.
#
Inside the security women were bustling around trying to get everything set up. Alberta recognized Keiko at one spot, but kept searching for her wife. Then she saw Piper heading towards her.
“Well this is quite a mess we’re in, captain.” Piper reached out and pulled Alberta in a hug. Alberta smiled and enjoyed her warmth and scent for a few second. Then they parted. “Earlier I assumed that when you told everyone but engineering to shut everything down engineering, you weren’t referring to security’s internal sensor net. So I left the sensor net on and turned on the private areas just in case.”
“Of course I knew you would.” Alberta nodded.
“Thought so.” Piper smiled.
“I could help with the sensor net, captain.” Sensor Chief Fiona Williams offered.
“Yes, Fiona. I’m sure they appreciate your help.” Alberta said. Piper nodded briskly in agreement.
“Hey, boss!” Keiko called out
. “The pirates just come aboard. We got visual and audio.”
“I assume your recording it, Keiko.” Piper said.
“Of course, boss.” Keiko looked back with a hurt look.
Piper chuckled. She walked over to where Keiko stood behind a seated security woman with several visual screens and data screens around to see. Alberta followed Piper. One of the visual screens had been enlarged. It showed about thirty dirty rough looking men and women. They all carried blaster rifles and their coveralls were full of all imaginable weapons; knives, swords, hatches, clubs, blasters, and stunners. Their faces were covered in piercings. Most of the piercings were made of bone. Knowing pirates they’re probably the bones of previous victims. Pirates didn’t believe in mercy and some rumors were that they had no qualms with cannibalism. If they can capture her crew they’d sale them all. Not in the Yin Confederation of course, but there were places that you could do that. Like the damn Dinesen Empire! The children would bring the highest prize for they’d be easier for slave owners to control. Alberta couldn’t imagine what that life would be like for the children. Probably pure terror. Not going to happen. Alberta told herself firmly.
“I think we have enough security to take care of this bunch, boss.” Keiko waved at the screen.
“Could there be more on their ship?” Alberta asked.
“Possibly, captain.” Keiko replied.
“But probably not very many,” Fiona added. “I scanned that little ship of theirs. That thing wouldn’t be able to hold too many people. At least not for long. The life support scrubbers -n- filters would give out from the high level of carbon dioxide in the air and dirty water.”
All spacecraft and spacestations used some form of scrubbers-n-filters in life support keep the air and water clean. Most used a combination of natural(plants) and artificial devices for that. Alberta turned her mind away from such thoughts. We need to stop them.
“I could lead a team to take them out.” Keiko recommended.
The Star Traders: The Star Traders Series Volume One Page 31
