The Privateer 2: AN HONEST LIVING

by Zellmann, William

  He hailed them on the ship-to ship frequency. "Space station! This is Cale Rankin on Cheetah. You know my ship, and you know she's armed. Surrender at once, or we'll start punching holes in you." He shot a nervous glance toward Zant and the Din-class, but the Din-class was not returning fire. It appeared to be drifting, not under control.

  "Cheetah! This is Greeners' Pride. We surrender!" "Cheetah, this is the space station. We surrender! Do not fire!" The last transmission almost overlapped the first.

  And suddenly, Cale realized he had a problem. Tor-Jen and the Din-class' crew wouldn't be arriving for hours. Only he and Dee were aboard Cheetah, and of course, Zant was in the Strengl, which was not equipped with an airlock. He was faced with the requirement to take and care for an unknown number of prisoners with only two people!

  He took a minute for thought. Then he called the station. "Space station," he began, "Stand by. Do not attempt resistance, or you'll see what a Strengl can do, first hand."

  He switched to Zant's frequency. "Zant, park that thing right in front of the sensor for their main viewscreen. This could get tricky! Tess," he continued almost without a stop, "Take us over to Greeners' Pride."

  Making certain he was not still connected to anyone, he said, "Tess, we're going to need your help. There are at least three and maybe four or even five crewmen aboard that ship. They may or may not be spacers, but at the least, they're experienced combat troops.

  "I'm planning to bring them aboard one by one, but I'll need you to be watching them very carefully. Once they're all aboard and confined in one compartment, can you pump in some sleepy gas or something to keep them from causing trouble?"

  "Sleep gas is standard equipment aboard all vessels since the Borome mutiny in 2364," Tess replied. "But the stateroom doors are not airtight. I recommend that once they are confined, my 'bots seal the door as well as possible. We don't want to put you and Dee to sleep."

  Cale grinned. "No, we don't. Okay," he continued, "Here we go."

  "Greeners' Pride," he called. "We are approaching, and we are armed with a laser and a quickfirer. Of course, you know what a Strengl carries. At any sign of resistance or failure to comply with our instructions, we will turn you into an airless hulk.

  "You are to suit up. We will approach within a few yards. One by one as instructed, you will jump across to our airlock. Once the airlock is sealed, you will unsuit. You will be scanned, and if any weapons are detected, you will simply be ejected without your suit."

  Tess nudged alongside the Din-class. "You know of course," she told Cale, "that I could not eject an unsuited human from the lock even if he were carrying a nuclear weapon."

  Cale grinned. "I know that, and you know that. But they don't know that." He shrugged "I hope it'll keep them from doing something stupid. Dee," he said, turning to her, "I think you should suit up, and get the biggest, nastiest-looking blaster you can find. A suited figure is a lot more threatening than a beautiful woman, even one with a blaster."

  Dee grinned. "More threatening, maybe, but not necessarily more dangerous!" She turned and headed for the lock before he could think of a reply.

  "Greeners' Pride, this is Cheetah," Cale called. "How many crew do you have? Be advised that we will board and inspect your ship. Anyone found hiding will be executed."

  "Cheetah, this is Greeners' Pride. There's only three of us. Just enough to run to and from orbit. We don't even have an Astrogator."

  One by one, the men jumped across from Greeners' Pride, and unsuited in the airlock. Tess scanned them for weapons, and then opened the inner door, revealing Dee with a large shoulder model blaster. Without a word, merely gesturing with the weapon, she escorted the men to the selected cabin. When the cabin's lock clicked after the last man, Tess' 'bots swarmed to seal the door while she flooded the cabin with sleep gas.

  "Tess," Cale said, "Would you send one of your 'bots over to Greeners' Pride to check for hiders? It shouldn't take long to use the ship's surveillance equipment from the bridge."

  "Of course." One of Tess' largest 'bots scuttled for the airlock. It was back in twenty minutes, confirming the ship was deserted. Cale breathed a huge sigh of relief and told Tess to head for the space station.

  "We need a different solution here," he told Dee and Tess. "We can't keep all these people asleep for months. But we can't have them sitting up here watching and reporting our every move to the General, either."

  "Zant," he said on a secure channel. "We've got a bunch of people to deal with, and not many of us to do it. I'd like you to dock your Strengl in one of the lifeboat bays, and go aboard the station. Stay suited, and carry a weapon. When you get to the bridge, trigger the sleep gas. It's usually a big blue button on the Captain's console."

  Zant's image grinned. "And then what?"

  Cale shrugged. "I'm hoping they've been using the lifeboat to get to and from orbit, like we did. If so, we'll dump the whole lot of them into it and cut them adrift. When they wake up, I figure they'll head for the colony. That'll get them out of our hair."

  Zant frowned. "Temporarily, yes. But what if the General packs the lifeboat full of armed troops and sends it back up?"

  Cale shook his head. "I don't know yet. Tor-Jen's coming. Maybe he could station some people on Greeners' Pride or something, for the time it takes us to ground and unload the Din-class. Once he's unloaded, he can come back up and play high guard for us. Sheol, he might put his crew aboard the station, and keep a high eye on the General's activities." He shrugged. "I dunno, Zant. I'm playing this by ear. But we can't hang around up here while Ochoa-Mariden takes over Jumbo."

  Ochoa-Mariden called less than an hour after the ship and station crews grounded in the lifeboat.

  "All right, Rankin, what do you want?" he asked sourly. "You have no business here. We are a legal colony, and you have illegally seized property belonging to that colony."

  "What I want, General, is to drag you back to Ilocan in chains for trial and execution. But I don't think I'll manage that. So, I'll have to settle for fighting you here. I can't, I won't let you hijack the colony and turn it into your own little empire. As for your 'legal' nonsense, Jumbo is not under the jurisdiction of any other planet, and there is no single planetary authority . . ."

  "I'm the single planetary authority!" Ochoa-Mariden interrupted, his face contorted with fury. "Or the colony is, and I'm in charge of the colony. Don't mess with me, boy. I'll rip your heart out and eat it."

  Suddenly, his face cleared, and his manner turned friendly. "But there's no need for this antagonism. You've misunderstood the situation. You've been listening to those whiners on Ilocan, who want to take revenge on my people.

  "Yes, we fought hard, and we fought tough. Better a short, sharp war than a long, dragged out affair. But the war is over. When Ilocan won, thanks to you, I knew that my people would be targets for revenge charges, because they were the roughest, toughest, meanest unit on Ilocan. We joined the colony to escape persecution, not to take it over. We were refugees, not conquerors.

  "I'm not trying to hijack the colony. I'm trying to protect it. When Belen was killed in that nomad raid, the council panicked. They asked me to assume authority. They want to be safe.

  "Yes, I had to invoke martial law on the colonists, and I do have to get tough with the locals now and then. And it might be a little hard on them. But in the long run, all the people of Jumbo will benefit from a united planet working together to regain the stars. Once I beat back the nomads and unite all these little vest-pocket kingdoms, the colony will be safe. I'll be able to cancel martial law and we can hold free elections.

  "It may be a bit rough at first, but in a generation we'll have a single, homogenized people, rebuilding the planet together. If you really want to help the locals, tell 'em to stop fighting and join us."

  "No, General," Cale said. "What you'll have is a static, military-ruled caste system, with masters and slaves, and even the 'masters' ruled by the military." He shook his head. "The Greeners just wanted to
build farms and help the people of Jumbo regain what they have lost. And that's what I want, too. But we have to get you out of the way, first."

  The General looked irritated. "Pah! I'm not in the way. I'm here to help the colonists and the natives. Don't you see how much more quickly and efficiently Jumbo will develop with everyone working together? We can guide the development of Jumbo into a peaceful, united planet. All that's needed is a little leadership and discipline."

  Cale shook his head. "You're the one who doesn't understand, General. Freedom doesn't come from conquering armies. It comes when people demand it.

  "Yes, you can probably beat the nomads, and even the villagers. But you can't just kill and conquer them, and then suddenly say, 'There. You're free. Let's have some nice, free elections for new leaders. Don't worry, the army won't interfere, unless you pick someone we don't like.'

  "That method has been tried hundreds of times, as far back as old Earth, and it almost always created a military dictatorship. If you really want a free Jumbo, tell the council you're stepping down, and will place yourself under the orders of whoever they appoint Administrator."

  Ochoa-Mariden shook his head. "You're an idealistic fool. I guess I'll have to administer a dose of hard reality." He cut the connection.

  Tor-Jen arrived, and he joined Cale, Zant, Dee and Tonio in a planning session. They had planned for nearly every contingency except this quick and easy success. It left them rather at a loss.

  Tonio frowned. "Ochoa-Mariden is unimaginative, and tends to substitute savagery for tactics, but he's not stupid. He's been using this station as an observation post to spot any large groups. Then he mounts an attack with those armed flitters of his, along with a few squads of shock troops. He knows how valuable it is, and he knows we'll use it the same way against him.

  "So, I think Zant's right. He'll load that lifeboat with suited troops and send it back up. He may even try to improvise some sort of weapon to mount on it. He'll assume there aren't many of us."

  Tor-Jen grunted. "He's right about that. His troops won't be used to fighting in suits, but if they're spec ops, they've certainly been trained for it."

  Zant seemed undaunted. "So, we just have to catch them before they disembark. Remember what a lifeboat is for. It's intended to save lives in space. It only has a single-person airlock that just fits around a suit. That way it doesn't have to waste time pumping out a lot of air, and it preserves the boat's air supply. They can only cycle through the lock one at a time. So, if we can catch them before they unload, it won't matter how many there are, or how well they're trained. They'll know we can just watch the lock cycle, and pick them off one by one as they come out."

  Cale grimaced and nodded. "Yeah. And that lock is the only way to board. It was a royal pain to use. Okay," he continued, "that boat grounded about half an hour ago. Ochoa-Mariden will need time to learn what happened, question the crews, and take reports. Then, he has to pick an assault team, equip them, and maybe try to find a way to mount a weapon on that thing."

  "Yes," Tonio put in. "I would estimate a minimum of six hours. Five and a half, now. We must mount a sensor watch, to detect a lift-off."

  "As you say," Tor-Jen said, "But that won't be enough. He'll wait until we've over the horizon to launch. I recommend we station ourselves around the planet. Maybe even put someone in a geostationary orbit. We've got Cheetah, my ship, and that damned Strengl."

  "We also have that new scout ship," Cale added. "And maybe even Greeners' Pride, if she isn't too badly damaged."

  "She isn't," Zant commented sourly. "They didn't even give me a chance to take out her engines. One warning shot. Just one!"

  Tor-Jen snorted. "We've got more ships than we have people. Crewing is gonna be the real problem."

  Tonio was frowning. "Don't forget, the target is this station. They won't want to chase it halfway around the planet, there's too much chance of being detected. If I were the General, I'd launch on an interception course, in the direction of our orbit, just before the station approaches over the horizon, and hope we don't detect something as small as the lifeboat."

  "Well," Zant said thoughtfully, "They won't disembark until they're close. Trained or not, those troops won't be comfortable in space with just a suit for protection."

  "Of course!" Cale said excitedly. "We don't have to spread out to watch them. We'll put a ship a few thousand miles ahead of the station in its orbit to watch for a launch. Or, better yet, we'll put a ship in a Geostationary orbit. That way, they're sure to be spotted launching."

  "Then the rest of us can stay near the station, to deal with the soldiers," Zant added. "I like it!"

  They decided that Cheetah would be the watcher. Cale was an impassioned advocate for this, since he knew that Tess would never fall asleep or become careless. With Dee aboard as 'pilot', Cheetah would assume a geostationary orbit above the colony site, offset by a thousand miles to avoid detection. Upon detecting a launch, Tess would transmit a warning on a rarely-used frequency, and the others would set up their ambush.

  "That's all well and good," Dee said. "But it doesn't solve the main problem. If we keep sending his raiders back in a ship capable of spacing, he'll just keep trying. Somehow, we have to find a way to send them back that won't let them relaunch."

  Tor-Jen frowned. "I'll put my Engineer on it. He's a good man. He'll come up with something."

  "Cale," Tess said in his ear as soon as he was alone. "I have a suggestion for the lifeboat problem."

  "What is it, Tess?"

  She explained, and Cale hurried off to present it to the others.

  "How good is your Astrogator?" Cale asked Tor-Jen.

  "He's pretty good. He can calculate a course and program a nav comp as quickly as anyone I've seen. What do you have in mind?"

  Cale shrugged. "I've had an idea, but I'm not good enough with a nav comp to pull it off. Let's get him over here, and he can tell us whether it'll work or not."

  Tor-Jen's Astrogator was Raye Termil, a cheerful man with a seemingly endless supply of jokes, most of them unsuitable for mixed company.

  Cale began explaining Tess's idea, claiming it for his own, of course. Even Zant couldn't be trusted with the truth about Tess.

  "Could you program the lifeboat's nav comp to begin its orbit-to-ground program automatically after a time delay?

  Raye shrugged. "Sure, but why bother? If they don't start down quickly enough, we can give 'em a shot across the bows."

  Cale nodded. "Yes, but that wouldn't give you a chance to add another little routine to the program. I was thinking that you could slip some code into the landing sequence so that when they shut down the engines, it would send a massive power surge through some circuit that's required for liftoff. They won't have any spares down there. If we can burn out something essential for liftoff, we've grounded them, without hurting anyone or seriously damaging the boat."

  The Astrogator thought for a moment. Then a slow smile spread over his face. "I get it. The extra code doesn't execute until they shut down the engines, which means they're grounded. No crash, nobody hurt. I like it."

  Tor Jen frowned. "It sounds complicated to me. My Engineer says he can rig a small bomb on a timing circuit that will damage the reaction engine. Much simpler, and nobody has to board the boat."

  "Yes," Cale replied, "but bombs are unpredictable. A little too powerful, and the lifeboat will never fly again. Remember, once we leave it will be one of only two space-capable ships on Jumbo. The colony will need it, and I'd rather not risk it."

  Eventually, everyone agreed, and Raye set off to work up his programs.

  Cheetah set off on her mission, and the others suddenly found themselves with unexpected down time. Tor-Jen's crew set about exploring and searching Greeners' Pride, and Zant decided to explore the space station. He professed himself interested to see how stations were equipped five hundred years ago.

  Cale suddenly realized that he now had a chance to inspect and test fly their new exploration vess
el.

  He suited up and jumped over to Tor-Jen's ship. For convenience, and to avoid damage to sensitive cargo, a ship's holds are usually kept pressurized while in space. He hurriedly unsuited and almost ran to the number 1 hold in his excitement.

  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but only Cale could have thought the stubby vessel in the hold beautiful. The ship Dee had christened "Explorer" was only some forty-five meters long, essentially a flattened cylinder in shape. The nose was rounded, but not pointed. Some streamlining had been sacrificed for a large windscreen/viewport, similar to the one on the lifeboat, though larger.

  That streamlining was important, since the ship was designed to operate in atmospheres and to land vertically, belly down, on unprepared ground. A medium-sized vertical tail fin provided a control surface in atmosphere, and was matched by retractable wings.

  Ion-fed jet engines and enlarged versions of a flitter's antigrav repellers, located on the folded wings supplanted her ion normal-space drive for in-atmosphere flight.

  As with all compromise designs, Explorer was neither as efficient as a pure intrasystem ship in space, nor as practical as a pure aircraft in atmosphere. But for Cale's purposes she was perfect, and, yes, beautiful.

  Inside, the small size of her normal-space drive and the external location of her repellers and jet engines meant that Explorer was much roomier than the lifeboat. The rear of the cabin was occupied by a compact but well-equipped laboratory for processing soil, mineral and organic samples.

  Two comfortable acceleration couches that converted to beds faced the windscreen at the front of the cabin, with the two sets of controls for space and atmosphere flight. The rest of the cabin was occupied by a sketchy galley, a complete 'fresher, and a med cabinet crammed between storage cabinets and bins. It was tight, it was cluttered, and it was just what Cale had ordered.

  Her navigation comp was likewise a compromise. Her standard in-system nav comp was supplemented by an additional nav comp, designed for aircraft, which had been programmed with the detailed map of Jumbo that Tess had prepared during their first visit.