Pirates (BOOK ONE OF THE RIM CONFEDERACY 1)

by Jim Rudnick

  Choking billows of dust often drifted throughout the tunnel around them as they worked in their drudgery, slogging the full carts one way and the empty ones back in their place. Food was not provided until work was done and they left the mines and returned to their own separate walled compound, and while it was plentiful, it was plain and barely nourishment for one and all. After cleaning up, each was to be locked up overnight in their barracks, and no one even thought about escape as it was plainly visible to all that the guards would simply kill anyone who even thought about getting out.

  Roison and her aunt were hostages who were also Adepts, and while they'd only been there a few weeks, already she’d learned to turn off her mind when confronted by a guard. Once one of her crew mates had tried to ask her what she could “see” and what was planned for them all, but that young boy had been grabbed by two guards and beaten before Roison could even try to find the answer from those around her. Adepts can see but she knew the time and the place to try, and so far, both had not presented themselves to her with enough security to escape any backlash. She waited for her chance ... it would come she knew ... but not soon ...

  # # # # #

  Leaving high orbit, the Baronial frigate, the Sterling with it’s Royal Crest glowing prominently on the bridge nacelle, moved off DenKoss and pushed out of the planet’s gravity well to begin the TachyonDrive to jump to Elbo. While on board, Lady St. August seldom ever went to the Bridge and today was no exception, as she was in the gym on Deck Eighteen when the klaxon sounded warning the shipboard inhabitants of the imminent jump to FTL.

  “Damn,” she said, stepping off the treadmill onto the side supports and mopping her brow with a quick toweling off. She stood still while beneath her the track continued to move at her nine miles per hour rate, and she looked around to see who else might have been present. No one, she thought, not another soul here in the gym except for her two constant companions her Barony EliteGuards in their black and china blue booted uniforms. I wonder if everyone else knows that I usually come here to the gym soon as we embark, and they stay away from me because of who I am? Or are they all busy with shipboard duties? She shook her head … not important enough to waste time on. There were other more important—

  As the TachyonDrive candle kicked in, she felt the momentary feeling of falling and then that feeling disappeared. They were at FTL and she smiled as she stepped back onto the treadmill and quickly accelerated as she got back up to her normal workout speed, the sweat already dripping down her china blue leotard, making it two-toned. She ran for the full half-hour and worked hard after that routine on the free weights and the isometric leg lifts, and then she was done.

  As she once again toweled off and wrapped herself in her robe, she left the gym and moved off to the turbo-lift to rise four decks to the Royal’s stateroom which she claimed as usual on this ship. I could, she thought, use any of the Barony cruisers as my right, but the Sterling seemed to “fit” her sense of what she wanted, at least at this point. Not that a frigate was beneath her, but she had been told—“TOLD,” she said to herself, “that she would only ever be able to use a Barony frigate and not one of the two Barony destroyers.” The destroyers like the Compass that the Baroness reserved for only her use, with their bigger quarters, better gym, and where she could have brought her own kitchen staff instead of just her personal chef and a couple of cooks. A breath escaped her and she pursed her lips, but her bodyguards also in the lift paid carefully no attention to anything as a matter of course. That was their role, to totally ignore her and anything she did, but to protect her at all times in all situations at all costs. Which she noted was a good thing as her face darkened then for a moment as she thought about her step-mother, the Baroness, who had taken over the Barony after her father’s death.

  “Damn her,” she said to herself and almost stamped her foot, her bodyguards still looking straight ahead, noting nothing. That woman, she thought, was not even Royalty … not now and not ever. She swept out of the opening lift door and walked counterclockwise to her stateroom door, pausing only long enough to let the auto-door acknowledge her ID via the ship’s AI and into her rooms, as the bodyguards took up their duty positions on either side of the doorway that was now closed.

  It was almost an hour later after a shower and drying session that the door chimed, and Lady Helena admitted her Adept, Gillian, her veil and hood dropped in this environment, glided in to stand in front of her. She searched the face of the Issian and wondered about her life, the life of an Adept and how it progressed from childhood with those strange thoughts that must come to adulthood and knowing what will happen to yourself and to others too. Must be quite a thing, she acknowledged to herself and must be even more interesting to the parents too as those powers developed. She shrugged; wouldn’t happen to her, she knew, and children were still a long way off … and she sighed.

  “Gillian, yes, you asked to see me?” she said to the black-robed woman in front of her. Gillian’s face pursed as her lips drew tighter, and she seemed to gather her thoughts … and then spoke slowly and succinctly, her tone almost apologetic to her Lady.

  “Mistress, I come to you tonight, to speak of a change that is coming, to you and to the Barony and RIM. And this change, Mistress, will not be a controllable one, but one that we can help you to play a major role in enabling its success,” she finished up quietly. Her head nodded a few times, Helena noted, and she waited for word back, but Helena said nothing. More to learn here, she knew, and as her father’s daughter, she knew that listening was always a great strategy when faced with news. So she waited.

  The Adept swayed from one leg to another, as she too awaited something back from her Lady, and while her eyes never left the blue eyes of Helena, she was uncomfortable it appeared to Helena as she stood there, still swaying.

  Helena gestured her to sit off to the side in a tub chair, and her Adept did so quickly and then stared once again at her. And she stared while Helena did the same, until she couldn’t wait anymore.

  “And just what do you want me to say, Gillian,” she said quietly as she continued to look directly at her. She knew there was more coming from Gillian, and she knew that just from the severity of this initial discussion that something was going to take some real hard thought.

  “And what role might that be, Gillian,” she said putting just the tiniest bit of steel into her voice. She was the next in line to the Barony; she was the progeny of the second Baron of Neres, and as such, the rightful ruler of that nine-planet Barony and no interloper would ever—

  “Mistress, please … understand me that I come on Issian command, from the Grand Master Adept, with news and a request to you … not to order you, Mistress, to do or to help, but to ask that you aid us to gain back our recent hostages taken by the Pirates just a few months ago. Please, Mistress, may I explain?” the Adept said plaintively.

  Helena nodded and waited. Here it comes.

  “Mistress, we know via our Adepts all over the RIM that there will be a way to defeat the Pirates that involves you, if you allow this, and one Captain Tanner Scott of the RIM Navy, whom if you remember, we met back on Conclusion—”

  “Remember, I do! Do you not remember, Gillian?” Helena said stridently, almost barking at her. “We met him when those damn prissy Navy men landed and then later that night when they showed up drunk and took one of our robo-cabs as our guests were leaving after the banquet in honor of the Ambassador of Leudi! He was rude and he was drunk, and he cannot even help himself let alone help get back the Pirates’ hostages. I can not believe that you—even an Adept—could council such an idea! This is impossible, Gillian … this cannot be any kind of a workable idea …” she said as her anger waned a bit and she quieted but continued to shake her head at her Adept.

  “Mistress, please let me explain,” Gillian said quickly, and she pressed on with the tale, stopping often to provide a degree of explanation when needed, but pressing on nonetheless. The whole discussion took more than an hour
and was oft interrupted with a rant of anger from Helena, but eventually, she was left with nothing to disagree to … and that perhaps was the worst part.

  “Gillian, I am sure that this is supposed to work, and yes, you’ve explained it as well as can be hoped for, but your whole plan hinges on this drunk Navy captain. And that, I’m afraid, will be the downfall of this plan … you mark my words,” Helena said, and she stood to end the talk.

  Gillian also stood, smiled at her Lady, and offered up one last thing.

  “Mistress, one thing we do know is that this officer will play a major role, not only in the hunt for the RIM Pirates, but also, Mistress, in your future too!”

  She turned and left the stateroom as Helena just stared at her back, and in the turbo-lift down a deck to her own quarters, she smiled to herself. A drunk indeed, she thought and waited as the lift dropped below her …

  # # # # #

  Gillian sat and waited for the linking, and around her the cabin was quiet. On a shelf near the computer terminal that had never been used sat her black sculptured icon, a single obelisk that stood almost two feet tall, plain and unadorned except for a single symbol on the front side. There, the ringed planet of Eons was carved within that face, in faint but distinct relief, the symbol, of course, of the Issian Adepts. No matter where on the RIM they were, that obelisk went with them to be displayed.

  The rest of Gillian’s quarters were what can only be described as bleak with a lack of any personalization or owner’s contents or furnishings. Clothes were kept, all black and as few as there were, in the wall panel and built-in drawers, and the nightstands on the side of the bunk were empty of any items save the ship’s communication console. Without that single black icon, the room looked like it was uninhabited, truly the Issian way.

  She drew in the three deep breaths to quiet her psyche. She sat still on the edge of the bed, her ankles crossed below the hem of her black robe. She waited … and fell and waited and fell and waited … and suddenly, she was not alone.

  Linked to her consciousness were others … other Adepts, their personas seeming to fill her mind like a circle of friends at a séance. She nodded to their faces all un-hooded that seemed to shimmer around her. As she glanced at them, she knew them all … except that one, she noted.

  That one's mind said her name was Michelle. Michelle with the dirty face and not even clad in black but in a simple dull beige jumpsuit. Michelle the miner on ITO she was; a strong mind there and knowing more about the Pirates and the mine there than anyone else.

  Now that the circle was complete, the Grand Master Adept at the center of the circle dropped the hood away from her head, smiled at one and all, and spoke in her mind.

  “Adept Gillian, a well done I see is in order for your talk with the Lady St. August just a bit ago. She now realizes her place in this quest to rid the RIM of these Pirates,” she said slowly, her voice strong in Gillian’s mind, as if she were sitting here in her cabin. She nodded back to the Grand Master Adept as did some of the other Adepts in this link from this ship through other worlds and back to Eons itself.

  “And, as needed, she knows not yet of the Baroness’s involvement, and that must not become apparent to her until the very end game,” the Grand Master Adept intoned once more to more nodding heads, Gillian’s among them.

  “We then await the next step...” she said quietly, “and that comes soon …” She finished, and slowly as the Adept link faded, she and the rest of the circle members faded … and Gillian felt the disconnect as she always did, as a momentary blackness before her eyes. And the link was gone.

  She stood then and moved to the door to leave her quarters, the thought in her memory that all was right so far … and would be as long as the Lady St. August could be led. She moved to the lift to go to the ship’s dining room to join her charge for a meal. And she smiled …

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Entering high-orbit around Neres, the Marwick quickly began to circuit the planet with its pale indigo blue oceans, cluttered it seemed with small continents and archipelagos that stretched out almost one into the other. As Tanner looked down, he suddenly realized that he’d not noticed how beautiful the planet looked, and he wondered how he’d missed it the few times he’d been there before.

  “Must have been the beauty of the Scotch,” he said to himself as he sipped his freshly-spiked double-double in the captain's chair on the Bridge. Gained a couple of pounds, he thought. He added going to the gym to his list of items to do. Or maybe just another Scotch.

  As he turned to the Ansible officer on duty, he simply asked him to ask for their permission to land, and they awaited word back from the port authority on when and which landing pad they had been assigned to.

  After almost an hour awaiting word, he began to fume and asked for an update on their landing request, and again the Ansible officer made the call down to the planet. Again they awaited word, and he was thinking about saying the hell with it and landing anyways when the Ansible officer announced they’d been granted clearance and assigned to landing pad sixteen.

  After giving the command to land to the Helm, Tanner sat back and tried to recall all the information he knew about the Baroness and her recent rise to lead the third largest member nation of the Confederacy. From what he knew, or rather from what he’d heard, she was a beauty that had married far, far above her station and had used the marital bed to end her much older husband’s life. He did know there had been about forty years between the two of them, and he did know that she had come from inward about five years ago and had once it was said worked at the best brothel somewhere in Pentyaan space that catered particularly to humans only—no Pentyaans allowed. Whether or not this was true, he couldn’t say. Navy men talked about women out on the Rim like anywhere else, and that meant that one that had been a gold-digger and turned herself into the richest woman in the Rim would always be talked about … and despised too, it seemed.

  At the bottom of the slow movement down toward the surface lay the huge painted number sixteen, and as they settled on the landing pad, Tanner received all the closing-down reports from the XO who happened to be at Tactical this shift and motioned to him.

  “Commander, please join me on the away team. Give the rest of close-down to the Helm, and Sander, join us as well.”

  He rose and went to the lift to disembark, and as they moved downward in the lift, he took a moment to caution the two officers with him.

  “Gentlemen, the most important thing that can come out of our meeting today with the Baroness is the permission to visit ITO. It is imperative that somehow we get that permission, and I will do just about anything to gain that permission. Please, if anything should arise that you see that might imperil that opportunity, please nudge me or give me a high-sign.” With that caution, they both nodded to Tanner and left the lift to take the boarding ramp down to the tarmac where port authorities awaited.

  Not only port authorities, Tanner saw, but also four members of the Baroness’s EliteGuard, dressed in their midnight black and royal blue uniforms with the highly polished china blue boots and those Sam Browne leather belts that were ivory white. They were led by a major if oak leaves meant the same here as other places. Tanner was at first surprised and then realized they were probably their escort over to the Baronial Palace.

  At the bottom of the ladder, RIM Navy base Commander Heath saluted and then went to introduce the officers from Health and Customs but was interrupted immediately by the EliteGuard Major.

  “Captain, is this man,” he said as he pointed directly at Sander, “an Adept officer?”

  With the ringed planets so plainly visible, Tanner didn’t think he could lie, nor he realized did he have to do so either.

  “Yes, Major, he’s an important part of my away team. Why do you ask?” he replied cordially to the major.

  “No Adept officers are allowed to enter the Palace, Sir. This is a directive direct from the Baroness herself, and part of my job here is to enforce all standing or
ders, Sir,” he snapped back.

  “Well then, perhaps we’re at an impasse then, Major. Looks like the Baroness will not get our visit this time around,” Tanner said as he looked at the port authorities, his Navy base commander, and his team. No one spoke for a full minute. Feet were looked at and hands put in pockets as the silence grew. Moments later, the major then cleared his throat.

  “Sir, it’s my understanding that you requested this audience with the Baroness yourself,” the major said, and that fact now lay out for all to see.

  Tanner was at a loss. Yes, he needed to see the Baroness to get permission to go to ITO, and yes, it was as he knew very important, but now he couldn’t, it seemed, take along the one person that would help him get the permission he needed. He sighed. This would have to work without the advantage of using Sander, and he turned to his lieutenant.

  “Lieutenant, please return to the ship and monitor everything from there and make full notes as usual.” He had no doubts they were under the watchful eye of the Baroness here on the tarmac, and while what he’d just said couldn’t work, he knew, he also knew she didn’t know that for a fact. Some Adepts, admittedly less than a tenth of one percent, could still read people over a distance. He was sure the Baroness had no data on Sander as he’d just come into the Navy a few weeks back and was fresh from the naval training base on Eons before that. What the Baroness didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, he figured, and this way she’d be too busy thinking about Jack and Jill to be able to think about refusing his request to visit ITO. This might work, he thought as he took the lieutenant’s salute and then turned to the naval base commander.

  “Commander Heath, our check-in team will be right down. Please await them while the commander and I accompany the major to see his mistress.” He again saluted and then followed the major and his squad over to the open-topped troop carrier. Tanner climbed into the rear seat behind his commander, and they moved off the tarmac and toward the long, wide boulevard that would take them to the east and the palace in the distance. As they moved along, the commander gave him a wink, and Tanner grinned out the window. They were down for a moment there, but far from out as yet.