Pirates (BOOK ONE OF THE RIM CONFEDERACY 1)

by Jim Rudnick

  Contents

  Pirates on the RIM!

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Epilogue

  Book Two of the RIM Confederacy

  “Tanner Scott, a RIM Confederacy Naval officer, has fought many battles against both humans and aliens. Years ago, he proved victorious against a band of aliens. His ongoing fight with his own alcoholism however remains a stalemate.

  And suddenly, Pirates have appeared out on the RIM. They have kidnapped the passengers of many craft and sold them into slavery and Scott is ordered to find them and rescue them.

  But the pirates aren't acting alone. They are sponsored by a powerful Royal with ambitious plans, and she isn't about to let some Navy captain stand in the way of her mining empire. Scott must rescue the slaves while simultaneously navigating the treacherous space of interstellar politics.

  If he fails, a Royal will gain more power, the entire Confederacy may unravel, and Scott's alcohol addiction will be the least of his worries…”

  BOOK ONE OF THE RIM CONFEDERACY

  Pirates

  By Jim Rudnick

  This is purely a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  This book may not be re-sold or given away without permission in writing from the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, or distributed in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means past, present or future.

  Copyright © 2015 Pirates

  Jim Rudnick

  RUDNICK PRESS

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9939410-5-4

  For my Susan…

  Prologue…

  From deep space, the Pirates came, each of them boarding with what could only be called glee. They had come up behind the merchant passenger ship from due aft, on the way back from the ringed planet of Eons to Juno, about four light-years off DenKoss. They had matched TachyonDrive speed with the quarry, and had used the newest weapon in their arsenal, to slow and then stop the merchant passenger ship dead in space. When they came aboard using the aft boarding port, they blasted it open with magnetic mines and stuck a force-field in the hole once they were in.

  The two boarding teams split up upon entry, with one heading directly to the cargo holds on this deck. Pushing thru the corridors with sleds for hauling away their spoils, the team burned off the locks on the cargo hold and entered quickly. Inside, they took an aisle each and searched for cargo chests with the correct bills of lading, and finding the right nine containers, they began to load up the containers to move them back to their ship. One Pirate said, "Nine, right?" and got a nod in reply from the team leader who made a notation on his wrist-mounted PDA as they began to manhandle the sleds out of the bay.

  The other larger team had made their way up one deck and was moving from passenger room to room, where the passengers simply cowered and accepted the stunners that were applied to each of them and then lay like cord-wood, ready for a fire. Not a one of these Issians had bowed or called on their own God to help; the devastating depressurization made them imagine they had only seconds until they imploded. As lambs to the slaughterhouse, they fell where they trembled. Even those among them that were Adepts—humans who had the power of reading another human’s mind—shrunk as they were approached and answered none of the questions that their families left unasked.

  Within one passenger’s quarters, a small girl hid in the cabinet in her cabin's bathroom, burrowing under the collection of personal care products and towels. As an Adept, she knew why the boarders were there; she knew they would take all on board and that her Aunt had already been stunned and lay paralyzed out on the sofa, and she knew that she too would be found and cried into the towels with anguish. Where she was going, she had never even heard of, but judging by the feel of the name in the boarder’s minds, it was a place that many went and none ever left. Her cries went unanswered until the boarders entered her cabin, and then in her mind, she heard a voice snap, “Bathroom cabinet, bottom shelf.” She turned to stone at the image of that mind so close to hers. She tried to inch around it in her consciousness and watched in fear as the mind turned toward her. This too was an Adept, but she quaked at the power within that mind and tried to fight it, to push back, but she was losing ground. She knew power-wise her mind was not as strong. She felt the power of the Adept Pirate, and then had to shy away, trying to burrow back and into the shelf itself. Moments later as she was dragged out into the deck hallway, she looked up at a tall woman who stood watching her, a woman dressed all in black, her robe clinging to her slim frame. This was the mind that had scared her so much, and she watched as the woman crossed off the name Roison on a list grunted in agreement, and stunned her onto the floor. In a low voice, she said, “Powerful little one … too bad …” and moved out into the corridor again.

  In the Bridge, the captain still shouted at the comm officer to get around the jamming and let Juno know that they had been attacked. The lieutenant shouted back that he couldn’t and asked if he could send out a probe ahead to Juno to let them know and was rewarded with a huge yes from the captain. Pressing the launch sequence to start, he quickly typed in the message about the attack and the facts that the Pirates had come up from due astern, had been able at a distance to somehow cause their FTL TachyonDrive to slow and then quit unexpectedly, and that they were now taking all the passengers and crew off-ship to no one knew where.

  As he typed, around him the other ship’s officers were passing out their meager projectile weapons and awaiting the assault on the Bridge doors. As he flipped the final switch, he knew the probe would be launched, take word back to Juno about the attack, and get the Rim Navy out and on search and rescue.

  He considered the Issians for a moment; most likely as the Rim religious sect that advocated non-violence, all their passengers were giving up below without a fuss. But we’re not Issians, he thought, grabbed an extra clip for his weapon, and turned to face the captain as he barked tactical orders about defending the Bridge. The cargo bay alarm still rang, and he wondered what that was all about. As he glanced over the ship deck LCD, he saw the boarders were now only two decks below the crew deck … soon, he thought, they would be here soon.

  Outside the merchant ship, some of the Pirates moved a weightless gangway between the two ships to link them via their aft boarding ports. Once linked, they killed the force-field and began to push each passenger through the walkway and into their own ship where they were all put in a cargo hold. None of the stunned passengers was able to speak or move, though they were aware of the new ship and each had to content themselves with awaiting freedom in a few hours. The black-clad Pirates worked quickly as they’d done this before and ensured that the cargo sleds moved all nine of the containers into their ship at the end of the passenger movement. They slapped up the force-field again, took back the gangway, used their Inertial Drive to move off, and then went to faster-than-light and disappeared. Gone.

  On the Bridge, the captain and his small crew still wondered about the sudden departure of the Pirates and were busy buddying-up and starting out to search the
ship for any passengers left behind. Everyone had their doubts that any had been missed, but still the search must go on, and they went armed in case there were any other surprises awaiting them. Only the captain and two ensigns stayed behind to re-start the TachyonDrive and to again take the heading to Juno, still six days away at full-speed FTL through the blackness to the very edge of the galaxy, returning to the Rim Confederacy.

  A loose confederation of more than forty planets was the place where the detritus of the galaxy ended up ... where the inhabitants were for the most part lonely, iconoclasts or mavericks or hermits. Stellar worlds and republics, Duchies, Baronies, feudal planets and systems, and more made up the Rim Confederacy. Aliens and humans combined into one large left-out slice of the galaxy that was more than 25,000 light-years from Earth, from where man had come centuries earlier. And now at the edge of the galaxy, the Confederacy looked outward ... at nothing within reach. Deep space ... and the Rim.

  CHAPTER ONE

  In the XO’s cabin, Tanner Scott slipped a bit on a wet spot and spilled more Scotch to join what was already on the floor. He sneered down at the smeary floor.

  “You piss me off, Mr. Scotch. You’re hard to hold onto and hard to come by this trip. Yessir, six days out and seventeen to go, and there’s not more’n a case left. Now that’s a serious problem, what?” he said to no one and swayed as he held onto the light fixture beside the bunk.

  “And it was our old XO, Commander Lyons who wouldn’t get me the okay for that other case either ... hope he enjoys himself in UrPoPo land.” He lifted his plas-glass to drink, downed the Scotch, and toppled into the bunk. He quickly grinned at his lumbering drunken clumsiness, and he slammed the glass against the bulkhead as revenge. Bits rained down on him and stuck in his hair as he continued to slump further on the bed.

  “Stupid Scotch, stupid bloody stupid ...” he swore. “And those lieutenants of mine, all five of them, bloody awful the way that they scurry out of the cabin soon's as I walk in after duty and that Lieutenant Torres, always with the scowl. I’ll fix them ... I will ...” His eyes closed as he raised a hand to wave gloriously about the room.

  As he slept it off, the frigate Kerry moved at regular TachyonDrive speed of approximately one light-year per day and ate up the distance between Roor and Juno, the Confederacy capital world. As he was the only lieutenant commander on board, he’d grabbed the private cabin and left his own bunk back in the lieutenants’ shared quarters. At least this way, he could drink to his fill each and every hour he was off duty.

  The more than eighty crew and twenty-two officers who manned this class of ship carried out the duties of a regular Navy frigate around him. The next morning, they approached the boundaries of the Barony of Neres, and the bridge duty officer, one Lieutenant Garrison looked to his comm officer.

  “Anything yet, Simpson?” he said, turning to again glance at the Sensor display to his left. There, an astrophysical display showed that the RN Kerry moved quite close to the outer boundary of the Barony, and as yet, they’d not been challenged by the Baroness’s own Navy. He looked forward again to see the main forward display that showed their motion within the fringe of the Rim and the wispy Tachyonic-affected stars and noted that as yet, even though close, they were not quite encroaching on the Baroness’s domain.

  “Attention: Frigate class ship, this is the Barony Cruiser Mephisto; please heave to,” the voice said over the Ansible speaker as the ensign held out his hands.

  “They found us, Lieutenant. Looks like they were here all the time,” the ensign said as he nodded toward the Sensor display that now clearly showed the Barony ship dead ahead.

  “Helm, heave to,” Garrison said, and watched as the helm ensign, slowed the TachyonDrive and the stars jumped back out in the main forward display.

  “Notify Shuttle Three that they are free to deliver." They watched the screens as the shuttle moved out and away from the frigate towards the much bigger Barony Cruiser. It hovered for a moment or two as it negotiated with the Landing Control AI and then moved into the shuttle bay on the Barony ship.

  “This shouldn’t take long,” he said, and they all waited while Confederacy cargo and Council documents were being delivered. This was the standard method of handling the business of the Confederacy and all RIM Navy ships used the same procedures. Moments later, they watched as the shuttle reappeared, coming out of the Cruiser shuttle bay, and made its way back to their own ship. And shortly after that, the Ansible squawked again.

  “Attention: RIM Navy frigate class ship, please follow us through the Barony, and please allow synchronization of TachyonDrive speeds and headings. As the voice spoke, the comm officer nodded and sent the vectors and speeds over to the Helm, and soon after they were underway again.

  Following the Barony Cruiser, the Kerry moved through the Barony in quick order, and in just three more days, they left Barony space and moved again through free space towards Juno.

  To their left side, though not see able on the main forward display, lay the galaxy. A glowing mass of stars more than two billion strong with the Confederacy perched out here at the Rim. From here, you couldn’t see the core, nor for that matter much of the Perseus Arm or any of the normal landmarks that humans had once had in their night sky. Here, more than 25,000 light-years from Earth, the stars were ultra-thin in number, and while still fairly close grouped, they ended just past the Confederacy in a line running from UrPoPo on the easternmost flank to Randi on the western side. A grouping of no more than a hundred stars, forty of which were members of the RIM Confederacy, jutted out like an isthmus into a black ocean. It was the final spot for humankind to come and to await whatever lay out there, and for that, the waiting would continue.

  # # # # #

  In the XO’s quarters, a few days later, Tanner stirred, rolling to his right, and had to catch himself from falling out of his bunk. The mere effort required to hold his weight off the floor with one shaking arm unleashed the contents of his stomach, and he retched on the floor. As a dribble dripped from his lips and then hung there not letting go. A wry smile appeared on his face, as his eyes crinkled at the corners. He knew not to shake off the spit icicle; to do so would again make his temples pound, and he didn’t want to do that. He wiped the yellowish spittle with his free ’sleeve, and the grin faded as his temples throbbed anyways when he let himself go and dropped into the puddle of vomit at the side of the bunk. He waited for breath, ignoring the ugly smell and even the taste of last night’s dinner again and wondered if he could drop off and back to sleep again. With a sigh, he pushed himself to his knees as he realized that he had duty in less than an hour and crawled to the head for a quick shower and shave. He hoped that his almost forty-year-old body wouldn’t rebel again.

  On the Bridge, he reported as always by saluting the bridge duty officer, Lieutenant Garrison and requesting takeover of command.

  “Lieutenant Commander Scott requesting the Conn, Lieutenant” he said as he pushed the last of his wrinkled shirttail into his uniform pants. His eyes were about the only thing on his face that was up to par; sunken cheeks with a razor cut on the left were offset by the dripping still-wet hair that badly needed a trim. His collar insignias of rank, the gold oak leaf, were twisted, and one was in danger of falling out while his shoulder epaulet on the right side was bent almost in two. He was here to assume command of the Bridge, but as some on board had guessed already, he really wasn’t capable of much more at this point in his life.

  Lieutenant Garrison frowned and saluted back.

  “Aye, Sir, you have the Conn. Update, Sir?” he questioned.

  “Aye, Lieutenant. Go ahead,” said Tanner as he poured a coffee for himself, a big double-double from the Bridge’s supply brought up by stewards every so often. Turning his back to the rest of the Bridge, he popped two hangover pills into his mouth and swallowed them as he added a third sugar for luck. In a few minutes, he thought as he stirred the brown liquid, he'd pop down to quarters and have a shot or maybe two to help
start his day.

  “We rendezvoused with the Barony Cruiser Mephisto three days ago and passed over our Confederacy cargo and such. Normal it was though a bit unusual, that meeting itself … it was like they weren’t there, and then they were, Sir. Neither on the long-range sensors nor even short-range Mass sensors either. Then they just popped into view, sorta like a ghost.” He nodded at Tanner, his superior, and looked around at the rest of the Bridge crew for support and they all nodded.

  “Thing was, LC,” piped up Thompson, the bull ensign, “we really did a quick all frequency search as we hit the coordinates, and they suddenly ‘popped’ up even though we had scanned that sector dead ahead and it was empty.” As the bull, he was in charge of all the ensigns, and it had fallen to him often to walk Tanner back to his quarters after a night in the Officers’ Mess had given them all a load. He considered himself a friend as well as a subordinate though he never let his perceived friendship interfere with neither his duties nor his respect for the rank. He shook his head once more.

  “Fact is, we’ve got the logs here too that we printed off earlier in the shift to take a better look at too, LC. And we’re still stumped—more so in that once we’d cleared Barony space, that cruiser the Mephisto again just disappeared. We couldn’t find her at all again on either sensor at all. Again, they weren’t there.”

  Tanner sat in the captain’s chair at the center of the Bridge and sipped his coffee, savoring the extra sugar that would keep him going until the next one, food the farthest thing from his mind.

  “Okay, Bull, I’ll look at them later. Dismissed if there’s nothing else?” he said.

  “Aye, Sir." The new Bridge crew took over from those ending their shift and got squared away.