“You're going to miss it,” Slick informed him, already calming down.
“Shhh!” Ronin shot back, increasing thrust. The engine struts creaked under the pressure.
“You're going to lose engine two!”
“It's fine, can't afford to miss this landing otherwise we'll be back in line behind everyone else.” Their trajectory finally pointed towards the landing bay and Ronin redirected the engines to slow them down. Out of the corner of his eye engine two flamed out as its strut bent backwards and the cables carrying power to it tore. The sudden failure caused the fighter to spin as the landing bay loomed. He cut power and braced himself.
“Too fast!”
Ronin didn't have time to reply. He knew it wasn't as bad as it looked, but second guessed himself as the Uriel starfighter struck down on its side and skidded several meters before stopping. He opened his eyes and looked around. They'd managed to stop on one of the elevator pads that led into the Triton’s secondary hangar. It began lowering, drawing them into the main body of the ship. “Perfect, considering what's left of this thing.”
“You are not going to tell me that was on purpose,” Slick objected.
“Sure it was, and you can't prove otherwise,” Ronin chuckled.
"I hate you."
The airlock door above them closed and the chamber pressurized before the elevation pad proceeded. Another elevation plate slid in place above them and gently rose to touch the other side of their fighter. As they emerged onto the pressurized secondary hangar gravity reversed and increased. The secondary elevation plate took the weight and an emergency response team rushed to extract them from the fighter, putting experience from countless drills to use.
The longest armoured plate from the side of the starfighter was unscrewed and removed in short order so Ronin and Slick could climb out with the team's assistance.
“What the hell are you doing out there? There's nothing left of this! It's not a collision derby! You should have ejected!” The Assistant deck Chief exclaimed at them furiously. Her hundred thirty centimetre tall frame wouldn't be intimidating except for the enormous voice that screeched forth from it. Paula had become notorious for her raspy, high pitched voice and for scathing beratings.
Ronin didn't bother looking behind him and smiled. “Nothing some shrink wrap and sealing tape can't fix. Have your teams ready a Ramiel fighter, I'm heading back out.”
“My ass you're heading back out! Anyone who wrecks like this with a SIO right behind them shouldn't go out in a solo fighter, especially right after touching down!” Paula exclaimed exasperatedly.
“She's right, Minh, you should hit the flight control deck, help Oz direct things from there. Besides, he said things are cooling down,” Slick said.
“I'm fine, better than. The Clever Dream is running rescue ops and we'll have two fighters left to patrol after our damaged birds get aboard. I'm going back out.”
“Listen to your Sensor Intercept Officer Ronin,” Paula pleaded irritably.
“Get a Ramiel down from the racks and into the punter now, that's an order, Assistant Chief.” Ronin told Paula, pointing to the racks of pristine, predator like single seat Ramiel fighters lining the port side hull.
“Do it. He's the Wing Commander, it's his call,” deck Chief Vercelli reinforced quietly over the communicator.
“I'm taking your wing. You're not going out alone,” Slick told him.
Ronin looked at him with mild surprise and nodded. “All right. Stay close.”
“Cancel that. You're pairing with Hood. Slick's stress levels are too high,” Oz interjected from the flight control deck. “You're going to help Triton cross the barrier now that we've disabled the larger ships and turned them back inside.”
“Sounds like a plan. I'll be out in a couple minutes,” Ronin turned to Slick; “Sorry, looks like you'll be on your own next time.”
Slick nodded. “I'll head to ready quarters and cool down. Oh, and congratulations.”
Ronin cocked his head. “On making it back alive? That's no surprise.”
“No, on making ace your first time out. I counted six kills.”
“It's not hard when we were so badly outnumbered.”
“You should get to the punter if you want to help coordinate out there, Minh. You're in shaft nineteen,” Oz informed him over the comm. “You launch in three minutes.”
Chapter 7
Plans
“We have an update from the boarding squads Captain,” announced Oz. The bridge above him was abuzz with activity as they finished extending a gravity net around the disabled Palamo and redirecting it to slowly descend back into the obscuration field. “You have to look for yourself.”
Jake pulled it up on his control pad, inviting Ayan to look over his shoulder. The situation at a glance was alarming. “Stephanie, get four squads together and ready for pick up. I'm calling the Cold Reaver back and you're going to secure the station personally,” he ordered over the comm.
“Aye sir. We'll be on deck in five ready to board,” Security Chief Stephanie Vega replied.
“I'll have Ronin relay the order, he's on his way through the field right now,” Oz added on the command comm channel.
“He's going back out?” Ayan asked.
“Punting him in a minute, yup.”
“Are you sure he's good for another go out there? He just put down six fighters and disabled two mid sized ships.”
“His stats are healthier than mine, as cool as a cucumber,” Oz replied. “Besides, things are pretty much under control and we need a good pilot to coordinate our passage through the barrier.”
“Figures. Get him in a cockpit and he's right at home.”
“His SIO is pretty shaken up though. Not that I can blame him. What Minh managed to set down on the deck didn't look much like a fighter. I think he left half of it out there.”
“But they're okay?”
“Not a scratch. I'm taking Slick out of rotation for twenty hours though. He'll be taking debriefing duties instead. Minh has a note here saying that he wants him to get familiar with the paperwork so he can take the second squad leader position.”
“We have a problem,” Jake said, pointing at the end of the boarding squad's report. “Stephanie,” he opened a comm channel to the Security Chief. “We're dealing with a slave crew, they have det implants.”
“You're kidding. Did they set them off down there?”
“Yup, a whole incursion crew was killed as our team surrounded them.”
“All right, taking it under advisement.”
“What's a det implant?” Ayan asked.
Jake's eye was drawn to where Ashley was taking her place at the helm. She looked completely recovered. She had already overheard Ayan's question and looked unphased. “It's a slaver's tool. They implant a device with three or four compounds that combine in different quantities to kill, disable or detonate a slave if it suits whoever holds the controller.”
“I wore mine until Jake bought me,” Ashley commented as she quickly, calmly reviewed all the helm status information. Larry, her navigator, was at her side bringing up the most pertinent bits of information and making manoeuvre recommendations.
Ayan looked to her for a moment, stunned before returning her attention to Jake. “She was a slave?”
Jake nodded. “They had a remote disabling device implanted in her breastbone when she was two. I removed it with nanosurgeon bots when she joined my crew.”
“I had no idea.”
“I bought three slaves while I was running the Samson.”
“I'm not the only one?” Ashley asked. “I'm hurt.”
“There were two before you.”
“I'm hurt,” she repeated with a feigned huff.
“You were the most expensive, if that makes you feel better.”
“It does, thanks Captain,” Ashley beamed as she worked with Larry to prepare for their descent into the gargantuan obscuring field. “Why are we doing this again?” she whispered to hi
m.
“Because we need a place to hide from the Order of Eden and Regent Galactic while we power our main systems down and replace two of our main engines.”
“Gotcha, just wondering,” she giggled as she settled into the pilot's chair as though she was resigning to being there for several hours.
“You know, I think I like her.” Ayan whispered to Jason.
“Everyone does,” Jake nodded.
“Now what do you do about slave crews?”
“Generally you stay the hell away from them, especially when they're wired up like live bombs.”
“Can't you jam them or something?”
“There's a small chance the jamming could set off the devices,” Jason interjected. “One in a million but-” he shrugged.
“He's right. I was thinking about jamming them, but he's right.” Jake admitted. “I'm going to have to make a deal with the Captain. He'll be one of the only life forms aboard without a det implant. Can you scan the Palamo Agameg?”
Agameg Price nodded and passed the order to his tactical team. They started a focused scan of the slowly descending carrier beneath the Triton. “There are three life forms without a det device, nine hundred and three with and they're all armed.”
Jake sat back and slowly shook his head. “The Captain's ready to blow his whole crew if he has to.”
“So he's holding his own crew hostage?”
Jake brought up a larger diagram of the rough, rectangular small carrier. The Palamo had been mapped in detail by the Triton’s advanced scanners. There were a few damaged, decompressed sections but for the most part the ship was active. Red and white dots were scattered across the length of the vessel, designating several hundred life signs. “It looks like they're affecting emergency repairs. They really don't want us to take that ship.”
“I'm detecting several tons of highly dense material, it could be raw diamond,” Agameg highlighted.
“That would do it. A haul like that is worth a fortune, especially to a captain who doesn't have to pay his crew.” Jake stared at the cross section of the damaged vessel as he thought about the problem. “I hate slavers,” he muttered at long last.
“From what I'm seeing it would take them weeks to repair the engines and there's too much damage to their emitter systems to even try to get into hyperspace.” Ayan offered.
“All his other ships are either in the same or worse shape,” Agameg advised.
“He's cornered,” Jason commented.
Jake nodded slowly. “This couldn't be worse. I'm going aboard personally. Have a team assembled and order the Clever Dream to land on the Triton as soon as they finish recovering pilots.”
“Are you sure that's a good idea Jake? You're the most experienced commander aboard.” Oz objected.
“I'm also not sending someone else aboard that ship. If the worst happens the only person I want to blame is myself. How are we for manpower Stephanie?”
“We have sixteen squads left, four with boarding qualifications,” she replied over the comm.
“I'll take three. Are we covered after that if we have an incursion on the Triton?”
“Barely, but yes, we're covered. Do you know something I don't Captain? Should we be expecting a boarding party?”
“You never know. This group of ships could be just a part of a larger syndicate. I'll try to get all the intel I can from the Captain when I board the Palamo.”
“The Clever Dream's here, good luck sir.” Stephanie said before closing the channel.
“You have the bridge,” Jake said to Ayan. “Just get the Triton inside the energy barrier and establish a micro wormhole so you can monitor things outside the field.”
Ayan took a deep breath, let it out and nodded. “I'm ready, barely.”
Jake stood, Ayan caught his hand. He looked to her in mild surprise. His eyes met her deep blues and he recognized her concern. It had been a long time since he'd seen anyone worry about him, it was disarming.
Randolph Lalonde
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture
“Be careful,” she whispered.
“I'm sorry about earlier. I'll see you soon,” he reassured.
Chapter 8
Relentless
The running lights along the hall ceiling whipped by like illuminated dots and dashes as Nerine's bare feet caused the old deck grating to clang and creak under the pressure of her hurried gait. Her left arm, shoulder and cheek stung unlike anything she'd felt before, the mild pain killers she had hidden in her crew pouch made it bearable but she knew there would be scarring.
Other crew members moved hurriedly through the narrow halls and compartments, affecting emergency repairs. The Triton and her fighters had taken out the entire squadron, most of their support ships and the Palamo was completely disabled. She never had a great affinity for engineering or power systems but she knew that when the crew started pulling cable free from the corridors and cross wiring things that they were in serious trouble.
She knew it wasn't worth the effort. Captain Gammin had to surrender, there was no other logical option, especially if the holograms she'd seen when she visited her father in the Enreega system were true and Captain Jacob Valance was commanding the Triton. He was a bounty hunter, a privateer and a criminal wanted across the galaxy. If Captain Gammin actually thought he'd survive an encounter with him he was crazier than she could have imagined.
She stopped at a ladder leading to the deck below. The lifts were out, she'd have to climb down with one arm. The ship rocked violently. The air stirred her hair and she heard the distant squeaking and grinding as an emergency bulkhead door slid into place. For a moment everyone stopped what they were doing. Somewhere on the ship, and not too far off, part of the ship had decompressed.
It would be easy to hate the Triton, her fighter pilots and her Captain, but if the rumour was true, if Captain Valance was actually a freedom fighter and not the scourge the Order of Eden made him out to be then Captain Gammin was on the wrong side. He was a slaver, and the first thing she'd heard about Captain Valance was that he freed slaves. She hoped Kadri wouldn't regret sending the distress message to the Triton earlier that day.
“There you are!” David shouted from below. “What happened?”
“I got caught when something exploded in the hall.”
“That looks bad,” he climbed up nimbly. He was an engine room grunt, with enough mechanical know how to fix any of the old systems on the third hand carrier and enough sense to move very slowly up the chain of command. Out doing your superiors too quickly was a good way to disappear mysteriously. “Here, loop the Captain's bag around my neck then get on my back. I'll climb down for both of us.”
Nerine nodded and looped her Captain's sealed satchel around David's neck. Wrapping her arm and legs around David was painful but better than staying in the corridor. The bridge was the safest place and they would be welcome there. “Is it true that Captain Valance is trying to board? This isn't the station firing on us?” Nerine asked, still trying not to get her hopes for freedom up.
“Aye, Gammin's trying to escape, he just didn't want to leave this behind. He'll leave you in your condition though.”
“I know. It would be cheaper for him to buy a new cabin girl than getting me fixed up.”
David carefully set foot on the lower deck and put her on her feet. “Don't worry, I'll make sure we make it through,” he reassured.
“If what I heard about Captain Valance is true we won't have to worry.”
David gave the satchel back, knowing that, with her beauty spoiled, that bag was all that could make her valuable to the Captain. “Don't get your hopes up. Gammin's doing everything he can to get away and he's not taking chances. He activated the detonators on the crews raiding the core of the station.”
“What? So they're all-”
David nodded, his square jaw set. “Everyone on the cutting crew is gone. I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping him from doing the same to us is the fact that he's s
till aboard and there's a chance we could get the engines going. Just stay quiet and do what you have to until I find us a way out.”
They rounded a corner. The bridge was only twenty paces down the main corridor. Captain Gammin spun on his heel. “Finally! Get your ass over here!”
Nerine started to run but was knocked off her feet as something collided with the outer hull. The hall lights went out, leaving only the white and green glow of the bridge lights ahead. To her right she heard the sounds of metal grinding against metal and realized she was right in front of a primary airlock door.
David hurriedly helped her to her feet as sparks showered the deck in front of her.
Captain Gammin was just getting to his feet. “Throw it!”
She did her best and it landed half way.
“Stupid bitch! Pick it up and get in here! We have to leave!”
She braved the sparks, raising her right arm and trying to duck under them. One caught in her hair and she burned the back of her finger batting it out. David was right behind her as she picked up the bag, ran to the Captain and handed it to him.
“Get these doors closed!” he shouted as he pounded the emergency seal button. The door inched part way out of the wall, the motor squealed with the effort of moving it further but failed. "God dammit! If we don't get those doors closed the bridge can't separate! Hurry!"
David turned to check it. “That impact warped the jamb,” he reported, kicking the leading edge of the door hard. It made no difference. “I need to pry it straight,” he brought out a ten centimetre tool and with a flick of his wrist it extended into a meter long pry bar.
“We're being boarded! Hurry!”
The other slaves on the bridge looked near panic, even more so after looking at Nerine's injuries. Paudi, the First Officer looked at her and shook his dark brown and green pocked head slowly. “I think we leave this one behind. She is damaged.”
Captain Gammin looked at her and was immediately furious.
Nerine cringed. She was in enough pain already, she raised her good arm to fend off what she knew might come.
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