The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  Alexandra managed to get four of her five shots on target. The first three struck the pirate ship and brought down its energy screen. The fourth ploughed into the ship and blew a hole near its engines. Two of the ship’s three engines failed, though the third continued to try and accelerate the pirate ship away from Destiny.

  In a vain effort to save itself, the pirate ship fired two hypervelocity missiles. Destiny was too close for the missiles to lock on and track her. However, because of the damage to the pirate ship’s engines, the pirate ship had inadvertently rolled, presenting her missile tubes with the perfect shot at Destiny. As the hypervelocity missiles rapidly accelerated, they closed the distance to Destiny in less than five seconds. Acting on pure instinct, Sarah threw her ship out of the way of the incoming missiles. Both of them shot past, missing by just a couple of hundred meters. They both exploded, trying to score proximity hits, yet Sarah’s maneuver ensured that the explosive forces barely brushed Destiny’s energy screen.

  Even as Destiny turned, Alexandra used her rear laser cannons to strike the second pirate ship. Laser beams destroyed her remaining engine, her laser cannon and her missile tubes.

  “Target two is disabled,” Alexandra reported.

  “Acknowledged,” Sarah replied, her focus already elsewhere. The remaining three ships had split into two. One was trying to get away on its own. The other two were sticking together. All three had used the time it had taken Destiny to disable the second target well. They had opened up the range again. The further a target was away, the harder it was to hit with a laser cannon. Nevertheless, Sarah and Alexandra continued to fire beam after beam at them.

  *

  As he stared at the holo projection of the unfolding battle, Divar felt his hope waver. Destiny had turned to pursue the two pirate ships that had stuck together. Every second longer it took Destiny to disable them, the ship he was on got further and further away. If they opened up enough of a gap, Divar knew the pirates who been abusing him would escape into subspace. Realizing he was going to have to do something, he took a moment to think. When he was ready, he slowly moved across the bridge towards the pirate Captain.

  Before he got close enough to act, she spotted him. “What are you doing? Get back to your corner slave,” she ordered, already turning back to the holo-display of the battle.

  Rather than stop, Divar continued to move forward. “It looks like we’re going to get away, I thought you might want to celebrate,” he said, holding up the chalice.

  As the pirate Captain turned back towards him, a look of pure rage on her face, Divar threw the chalice and its contents at her. It struck her right on the forehead and almost immediately, the creepy crawlers within the chalice began to run around her body. Divar saw at least one of them bite her.

  Even as she let out a scream of rage, Divar rushed past her towards the pilot’s command chair. The pilot, wearing his interface helmet, was unaware of what was going on in the bridge and so was not ready for Divar’s assault. With two arms he grabbed the pilot’s neck and began to strangle him. With his other two hands, he beat repeatedly on the interface helmet trying to disorientate the pilot. His attack lasted all of three seconds. Then, an unbelievable wave of pain shot out from his slave collar and right across his body. He didn’t have time to scream out in pain before fell to the ground and was thrashing around in utter agony.

  *

  Sarah was so focused on taking out the two targets in front of her she almost didn’t notice the final pirate ship twist and turn in an unusual fashion. “Fly the ship,” she ordered Alexandra while she replayed Destiny’s sensor data.

  As she watched the final pirate ship more closely, it was obvious something strange had happened. The ship had been accelerating towards Lileaon’s mass shadow. Then, suddenly, it had wavered off course and began to twist and spin. It looked almost as if the ship was out of control. It must be Divar, Sarah thought. There was no other explanation.

  “I’m back in control,” she said to Alexandra as she switched her mind back to the present sensor feed. “Target these two pirate ships with our hypervelocity missiles. We’re going after the final pirate ship instead.”

  “But what if Divar is on one of the two ships in front of us?” Alexandra protested.

  “He’s not,” Sarah said with a confidence she didn’t know she had. “He is on that final ship, and if we don’t go after it now, it will disappear. Probably forever.”

  Already, Sarah had thrown Destiny onto a new course. She paused her turn only long enough to allow Alexandra to fire off six hypervelocity missiles.

  “I’m sending a message to the pirates demanding they surrender,” Alexandra informed her.

  “Fine,” Sarah said, not wanting to be distracted. “Do what you want, just don’t let them get away.”

  The other pirate ships already forgotten, Sarah lined up Destiny’s laser cannons on the final pirate ship as soon as it came into range. Without needing an order, Alexandra opened fire. As it was running away from Destiny, the pirate ship could only line up a firing solution with one of its laser cannons. With ease Sarah dodged every beam the pirate ship fired at her.

  Working together, Sarah and Alexandra quickly depleted the pirate ship’s energy screen. As three gamma beams struck the pirate ship’s engines, the ship stopped accelerating. Swooping in on the stricken vessel, Sarah allowed Alexandra to destroy all of its weapons. Then she brought Destiny to a halt alongside the pirate ship.

  Focusing all of her powerful active sensors on the pirate ship, Sarah looked for Divar. “I’ve got him,” she shouted with delight when the sensors detected a life-form from Divar’s species. “Open a visual COM channel to the pirate ship. Create a hologram of the previous Captain of Destiny and use it to speak to the pirates.”

  “Done,” Alexandra replied moments later. “The COM channel is open.”

  “On behalf of the Elder Empire you have all been sentenced to death as pirates. However, I have been given authority to spare your lives and take you into custody. If you prove able to provide information that leads to the capture or destruction of other pirate ships, you will be released. You have my word as an Elder Captain. Abandon your ship now, leave any slaves on board, and you will have an opportunity to regain your freedom. Refuse my orders and I will destroy your ship immediately.”

  Through Destiny’s active scanners, Sarah watched as almost all the lifeforms on the pirate ship moved towards the outer sections of the ship. In quick succession, escape shuttles began to launch.

  “Launch one of our shuttles,” Sarah ordered. “Get it to dock with the pirate ship. Then launch a boarding drone. I want to hack into the pirate ship’s on-board COM system.”

  In silence, Sarah watched as the shuttle and drone made their way across the short distance to the stricken pirate ship. As soon as the drone had hacked into the ship’s main computer she sent a message to be transmitted throughout it. “Divar, it’s Sarah. I suspect you already know we’re here. I sent a shuttle to dock with your ship. If you can make your way to the shuttle bay, we will have you home in no time.”

  If Divar answered, the ship’s audio sensors didn’t detect it. Nevertheless, Sarah knew he heard her for she watched him make his way to the pirate ship’s shuttle bay. She ordered the interface helmet to disengage. “Keep a lookout for any more pirate ships or any other threats,” she said to Alexandra. “I’m going to meet Divar.”

  Chapter 18

  As the rear ramp of the shuttle descended, Sarah ran forward, intending to pull Divar into a firm hug. When she saw him limping, she pulled herself up short. Instead of crashing into him, she reached out to give him support and help him down the ramp. “Are you all right?” she asked in concern.

  “Not exactly,” Divar replied. “But I will be. As soon as you get this damned thing off me,” he added as he reached up and shook the slave collar that was around his neck.

  “Alexandra?” Sarah asked out loud.

  “I’m working on it,” the artif
icial intelligence replied.

  A few seconds later there was a distinct click. The collar split in two and fell to the floor with a clatter. Immediately Divar’s hands went to his neck and massaged his shoulders. “Thank you,” he said.

  “You’re welcome,” Alexandra replied.

  “Do you want to rest?” Sarah asked. “I have to get back to the bridge to deal with the rest of these pirates. I can take you to your quarters first.”

  “No,” Divar answered. “Take me to the bridge with you. I want to be there to see this through.”

  “It would be my pleasure,” Sarah smiled.

  As they hobbled to the bridge, Sarah probed Divar with a few questions. She knew she would get the full story later but she wanted to find out just how the pirates had treated him. As Divar filled her in, her stomach turned more than once. The pirates had been far worse than Draxler. They had tortured Divar out of a sick sense of pleasure.

  “They will pay,” Sarah promised him.

  When they got to the bridge, Sarah helped Divar to the tactical station and then moved over to the pilot’s chair and sat down. The interface helmet automatically descended and attached to her. As soon as she could, Sarah stretched her mind out through Destiny’s sensors to survey the space around her. The three disabled pirate ships were still drifting lifelessly through space. Of the two Alexandra had fired hyper velocity missiles at, one had surrendered. It was currently holding station where Alexandra had ordered it to. There were only debris left from the other pirate ship. It had foolishly thought it could outrun an Elder missile.

  “What has happened since I left?” she asked Alexandra.

  “The other pirate ships have been quiet,” Alexandra answered. “The escape pods from the ship that held Divar are just floating in space. I think they are waiting for directions from us. The freighters in orbit have sent a number of messages thanking us for intervening. We’ve also been hailed by the Elder enclave on Lileaon. They are requesting an update on what has happened.”

  “They obviously don’t know we are in control of this frigate,” Sarah said. “Prepare a visual COM message for them. Use the hologram of the Elder who captained the ship again. Tell them we were sent here to hunt pirates and that we will be delivering the pirates to them so they can deal with them.”

  “I will send the message as soon as I have prepared it,” Alexandra answered.

  “Now,” Sarah said. “The question is what do we do next?”

  “We need to get our platinum back,” Divar said. “Then we need to deal with the pirates. Alexandra’s analysis of the pirate ships suggests that the ship that surrendered should still be fully operational. We can commandeer it and take it back to Elaijar with us. I assume you intend to return to purchase our anti-matter? We can sell the pirate ship and use it to finance our deal with Rozella.”

  “Great idea,” Sarah replied as another thought occurred to her. “Alexandra, is there any way we could take the other pirate ships back with us as well?”

  “We could try towing one of the ships through subspace,” Alexandra answered after a moment. “I just ran some basic simulations. If we attach a towing line to the ship and alter our subspace projectors so they tear a wide enough hole in subspace for both Destiny and the pirate ship, we could tow it through. It will depend on the pirate ship. If the pirate ship’s own subspace projectors are too heavily damaged, it won’t be able to stay in subspace.”

  “Okay then, launch drones towards each of the pirate ships. Instruct them to carry out a detailed survey of each ship and report back on the status of their subspace sensors,” Sarah ordered. “I also want you to load one of your transport drones onto the shuttle. Send the shuttle back to the pirate ship Divar was on. Instruct the drone to look for our platinum. Hopefully, they haven’t spent all of it and most of it is still on board.”

  “With the pirate ship’s energy screen down, I should be able to detect if there is any platinum or gold on board the pirate ship,” Alexandra said.

  Sarah sent Destiny on a slow spiral around the pirate ship to allow Alexandra to scan the entire vessel. Sure enough, Alexandra quickly identified one cabin within the pirate ship filled with gold and platinum.

  “If we can commandeer the one pirate ship still functioning, we might be able to get it to tow another one of the damaged pirate vessels,” Divar suggested as they waited for the shuttle to take the transport drone over to collect the booty. “We should also scan all the pirate ships and their escape pods for platinum or gold. We may as well take advantage of the situation.”

  “Good thinking,” Sarah replied. “Alexandra, send a COM message to all the pirate vessels instructing them to abandon ship. They are to leave all their heavy metals and any slaves on board.”

  “Done,” Alexandra responded.

  “Okay then,” Sarah replied. “Once we collect this gold, we can see just what the pirates had on the other ships.”

  *

  Two hours later, Destiny was slowly flying towards Lileaon. The one functioning pirate ship was keeping station with her, Alexandra commanding its central computer via a laser link. The other two pirate ships were being towed behind them. In front of Destiny, there were over forty smaller sensor contacts. All the pirates who had survived the battle with Destiny were in their escape pods being herded towards Lileaon. Off to one side, three other escape pods held the liberated slaves. Sarah had already instructed Alexandra to make sure the locals on Lileaon knew the difference between both groups.

  “Is the particle lance fully repaired yet?” Sarah asked Alexandra. They had recovered far more gold and platinum than they knew what to do with from the damaged pirate ships. Already vast quantities had been fed into Destiny’s material processors to allow Alexandra to fully repair the frigate. For the first time since Sarah had taken command, she would be fully operational.

  “Yes,” Alexandra answered. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m sure the locals would appreciate getting out from under the thumb of the Elder enclave,” Sarah explained. “Would the particle lance be able to destroy the Elders headquarters through the planet’s atmosphere?”

  “Yes,” Alexandra replied. “Destiny’s particle lance and gamma lasers are powerful enough to destroy ground targets. I don’t recommend you use a hypervelocity missile though. Their anti-matter warheads could devastate half a continent.”

  “I don’t think using any weapons is a good idea,” Divar said, breaking into the conversation. “Sooner or later an Elder ship is going to visit the system. If they find the Elder enclave destroyed, they won’t care who did it. They will just destroy the entire planet. I can’t imagine they would tolerate even a hint of rebellion. We’ve seen what lengths the Elders will go to before, have we not?”

  “You’re right,” Sarah said, berating herself for being so naïve. As soon as she had seen the opportunity to give the natives a small chance at freedom, she got carried away in her excitement. The facts were simple, the more they helped anyone, the more likely it was the Elders would simply destroy them. “We’ll make sure all the pirates are taken into custody, and the freed slaves land safely. Then we’ll get out of here. Hopefully the Elders will never catch on that Destiny isn’t controlled by their species.”

  “I think that’s for the best,” Divar responded.

  “Captain,” Alexandra said. “The Elder enclave is hailing us again. They’re asking us why we have allowed the pirates to live and what we are doing with their ships.”

  “I guess Elders don’t usually take prisoners,” Sarah replied.

  “According to my databanks,” Alexandra said. “There are no recorded incidents where Elder warships spared either a pirate vessel or its crew.”

  “Reply with another hologram message. Tell them it’s a new policy. All pirates are to be captured and interrogated so as to identify pirate hideouts,” Sarah said. “After that, send a message to the pirate escape pods. Order them to land just outside Lileaon’s capital city.”

&nb
sp; “I’ve sent both messages,” Alexandra informed Sarah a few seconds later.

  “I guess it’s time to pay a visit to our friends,” Sarah said reluctantly as she disengaged the interface helmet and stood up. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

  “I’ll manage,” Divar replied. “A couple of hours sitting here has helped. You’re going to need backup.”

  Sarah wasn’t going to dispute that. The idea of facing the pirates in Destiny’s second shuttle bay unnerved her. She had seen first-hand many of the atrocities they had gleefully carried out over the last two years. Even unarmed, she wanted nothing to do with them.

  When they got to the shuttle bay where the pirates had spent most of the last two months, Sarah keyed the control panel to the access hatch. As it opened a COM channel into the shuttle bay she gave out orders, “Listen up. This is Sarah, we are letting you go. We’re going to transfer you to another shuttle bay and then we’re going to put you in a shuttle and let you land on a nearby planet. There you will be able to seek your own fortunes. I’m going to open the access hatch now. You are to line up single file in front of it. If any of you makes even one hint of an aggressive move, I will blast you. You’ve been warned.”