by Carl Hubrick
Jeremiah looked over his shoulder at Lars. “I guess you know how hard life is on a black rock planet, Lars,” he said.
The young man nodded. He was sitting on the cockpit floor behind Caroline and Jeremiah. There was only seating for two on the pirate ship’s small flight deck. He would just have to trust the gravity compensator. Directly behind him was the access door to the cargo hold where the pirates had once stowed their ill-gotten gains.
“Well, it was harder then, thirty years ago,” Jeremiah went on. “Back then, the going was tough, life and death tough. Lumai was one of the frontier planets. Royal rule barely touched her. Wild she was, and only the meanest and perhaps the lucky, survived.
“Seth had lost his folks earlier than he could remember, and I don’t reckon I ever had any. The two of us just grew up the best we could. Turning pirate was as natural as breathing and a lot more profitable. But we were never killers like some – Peach Jones, Hong, Angel, Rodriguez and others. We just took what we could find, and if the owner objected we took it anyway.” Jeremiah gave a shrug. “But those lawless days had to end and the old king did a thorough job on that…”
“Yes, but that is all past history now,” Caroline broke in eagerly, “and those days have long since been forgotten. You and Old Seth do not need to worry. I’m sure the queen will understand…”
Jeremiah shook his head sadly. “No pirate’s ever been pardoned,” he replied quietly. “And it ain’t about to happen now.” He stared out into the star jewelled darkness. “The young queen’s got her hands full now, miss. And she’s got to prove her strength. She has no choice. There can be no pardons – no turning a blind eye. The Commonwealth can only survive if its ruler is strong. It’s the first law of nature. Only the toughest survive.”
“But this is different,” Caroline protested. “You may have been pirates in the past, but all that has changed now. By using the Stellar Gypsy to take us…”
Jeremiah raised a hand abruptly. “Ah, sorry to interrupt you, miss, but we need to shut down our engines.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Megran warships, miss, dead ahead. See there, on the scanner.”
Caroline stared horrified at the screen. “There must be a dozen of them,” she breathed.
“More likely closer to fifty, miss. The scanner’s only picking up those directly in front of it. At this distance, it won’t pick up those in line behind, unless I focus it to pinpoint them.”
“What do we do now then?” Lars asked quietly from behind them.
“Nothin’. Just sit and wait. We’re too small to be seen on their scanners at this range. Besides, we’ll shortly have company that’ll provide us cover. Have a look out the starboard scope, Lars, and tell us what you see.”
Lars leaned over and put his eye to the scope, which protruded from the cabin side.
“Nothing but blackness out here,” he said. “No, wait a minute. I can see something.” The young man adjusted the scope until he could see out across the ring of solar engines at the stern. What he saw caused him to catch his breath.
“It’s another planet,” he said in awe. “No, it must be a moon, one of Megran’s moons. But it’s like a giant white planet coming right up behind us. It looks like it’s going to run us down.”
Jeremiah chuckled. “Don’t worry Lars, there’s little risk of that. Actually, it’s the smallest of Megran’s moons Vosta, and it’ll be an hour or two yet ’fore she’s close enough to be of any use.”
“How will it help us?” Caroline queried.
“Well miss, those warships are scanning for any ship trying to move in or out of orbit. And even if they missed seeing us, their scanners would pick up the waves of our photon engines when we broke orbit. In other words, they’d hear us. Right now, if they did pick up anything from our engines before, they probably assumed we were some sort of sub-orbital craft, like a shuttlecraft, or even a high flying aircraft, since we’ve stayed well in orbit.”
“But then, how do we break out of orbit?” asked Lars. “Even if we do use the moon as a blind they’ll hear our engines as soon as we move.”
Jeremiah gave a low chuckle. “Good thinking, Lars, you’d have made a good pirate. But there’s another trick yet, one Seth and I used once to take a fat freighter by surprise. Only this time we’ll use it in reverse to sneak away.” He grinned happily at his memories. “When the moon comes up, we’ll simply drop into secondary orbit around it – and then, when we’ve got the moon between us and the Megran fleet, we’ll fire our engines. We won’t need so much power to break Vosta orbit, and the fleet won’t hear us anyway, ’cause we’ll have the moon between them and us.” He grinned at his two passengers. “Meanwhile, we just sit and wait. Know any good word games?”
* * *
“Oh Johnny, your moustache tickles.”
Cheryl York took a step backwards into the doorway of the women’s barracks. She was still in her uniform. The solar lamp above the entrance came on automatically and cast a circle of pale yellow around the couple. It was late and most of the barracks lights were off save for the security lights along the wire fence that secured the compound, and the guard box at the gate.
The night was cool and leaden clouds obscured the moon.
Captain Johan De Vries grinned. “They say once you’ve kissed a man with a moustache you can’t kiss a man without one.”
The captain was clad in his best civilian clothes. The brown trousers were smartly creased, his white shirt perfectly ironed, and his black leather jacket the most expensive his pay could afford.
The young woman leaned forward suddenly and kissed him on the nose.
“There, that will have to do, or if I know you, you’ll be wanting more than a kiss.”
Johnny gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oh well, you can’t blame a guy for trying,” he responded. “Especially when he’s with the woman he loves, the most beautiful woman under the eight suns of the Commonwealth.
Cheryl York smiled. “Oh Johnny, you’re very sweet.” She sighed. “But I haven’t been very nice to you lately, have I?”
The captain shook his head. “You’ve had things to worry about girl. I understand. From what you’ve said, I gather your family life growing up wasn’t that great.”
He took her hands in his. His face was pale and indistinct in the dim light as he spoke, but his words said it all.
“Cheryl, I’d like to offer myself as your new family, today and forever, ’til death do us part. That’s if you’ll have me.”
The young woman looked hard at him for a moment, exploring the shadowy face, and then a joyous smile animated her being.
“Come here you gorgeous man, you,” she murmured.
In that instant, the Earth moon came out from behind its dark mantel and the grey night turned silver.
Chapter 25
HMS “Defiant”
The blast of the light-bolt shook the Stellar Gypsy from stem to stern. It had not hit the little ship, but passed close by her bow. Inside the cockpit, the occupants were momentarily blinded by the flash, as if they had looked directly into a sun.
They had been caught completely unawares. Having already travelled some distance without incident, they had imagined themselves safe.
The second bolt was closer than the first, tumbling the Stellar Gypsy like a leaf in a storm. Jeremiah shut down the engines that now threatened to shake her to pieces.
Caroline struggled to sit up. The violent motion of the vessel had almost dragged her out of her seat harness.
“What on Earth was that?” she muttered in an awed voice. She glanced over at her companion and her eyes widened in alarm. Jeremiah’s mouth was bloody. “Jeremiah, are you hurt?”
The old man wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, and felt inside his mouth with his tongue. He had struck his face on the instrument fascia when the blast hit.
He worked up a smile. “Yeah, I seem okay.”
“You all right too, Lars?” Caroline asked. There
was no answer. She twisted her head round. Jeremiah saw her hand shoot to her mouth and the colour drain from her face.
“Lars!”
The young man was floating weightless above them, suspended as it were from the cockpit ceiling. The ship’s artificial gravity system had failed after the second light-bolt, and Lars, who had no safety harness to hold him, had been thrown bodily round the cockpit when the ship plunged out of control. Now he was floating face down, eyes shut, his arms hanging limp, his breathing laboured.
“Lars!” Caroline cried out again in near panic.
Lars responded with a moan. His eyes opened. A look of horror crossed his face and his legs and arms began to flail helplessly.
“Hold still, Lars,” Jeremiah shouted. “You’re only making things worse.”
The old man tested the switches on the panel in front of him. The solar battery indicators glowed green briefly then one by one flickered out. He tried the reserve circuit. The panel came suddenly to life, all circuits green, returning the artificial gravity to the ship’s cockpit and Lars to the ribbed steel deck with a painful thump.
“You okay, Lars?” Jeremiah asked as the young man sat up.
“Just barely,” he groaned. “Jeremiah, could you warn me before the next lot of aerobatics so I can get out and walk?” He rubbed his head ruefully. “I thought I’d had it that time. I feel like the whole Megran army just marched over me – again!” He straightened his shoulders and stretched out his arms. “Ouch! I ache all over.”
“Sorry Lars, but that wasn’t me,” Jeremiah said. “We were shot at.”
Caroline’s brows arched. “Shot at?” Her startled stare flicked round the cockpit. “Is that scanner still working?”
“Aye miss,” Jeremiah answered. “But we don’t need the scanner. Look out there.”
Caroline followed the line of his eyes. Ahead of them, standing motionless in their path, was a darker shape in the darkness; the long cigar shape of a large warship, a cruiser.
And she’s not alone,” their pilot added.
Lars peered over Jeremiah’s shoulder. “I can only see one,” he said frowning.
The old man smiled grimly. “It takes practice to see,” he said in a low voice. “But there’s more than one out there, believe me. I can almost smell ’em.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Caroline cried. “You said this ship was fast. Get us out of here.”
Their pilot shook his head. “No miss, they’d shoot us to pieces in seconds.” He looked out into the dark. “No, we must wait. Those were warning shots. They shorted a few circuits, but I don’t think they’ve done us any real harm.”
“Warning shots?” Caroline exploded. “Warning shots? They could have killed us.”
“No miss, I don’t think so. They weren’t aiming to kill. Whoever they are, they know their business. Those were well placed shots. First class gunnery, I’d say.”
Caroline stared out at the warship, her brow creased in anger.
“Well, what are they doing now?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “I guess they’re waiting for their sensors to finish sniffing us out.”
“Well, I for one don’t intend to sit here and wait for them to make up their minds,” Caroline expostulated. “There must be something we can do?”
Jeremiah nodded. “You may be right, miss. Attack the best means of defence, eh?” He glanced from one to the other. “Okay, keep your fingers crossed. Here we go.”
He flicked the switch on the ship’s communicator.
“This is Stellar Gypsy,” he huffed into the mouthpiece. “What ship are you? And what authority gives you the right to fire upon a peaceful vessel?” He switched off. “That should do something,” he muttered with a nervous grin, “one way or the other.”
Lars studied the long black shadow in front of them. The predatory shape was a cruel stain on an otherwise diamond-speckled universe. The three of them had come so far. Success had been so close…
“Calling Stellar Gypsy. Calling Stellar Gypsy.” The communicator crackled into life, its tone cold and imperious. “This is Her Majesty’s warship Defiant. You are travelling in Earth’s territorial space without authorization. Please consider yourselves under arrest. Prepare to be boarded.”
“It’s a royal patrol,” Jeremiah shouted excitedly over the last part of the message. He clasped his hands together above his head like a triumphant pugilist. “We made it!” he cried. “We made it!”
Caroline reached over abruptly grabbing the communicator microphone and pulling it to her.
“This is Lady Caroline Tudor, first cousin to the queen,” she declared sharply. “And this vessel is on important royal business. Voice-print me immediately and stand-by for further instructions on my voice-print confirmation.”
Lars’s face cracked wide in a grin. “That’s telling them!” he murmured into Jeremiah’s ear.
Jeremiah nodded and grinned. “I’d love to know what they’re thinking,” he said. “They must be wondering what hit them.”
The communicator came on again and a new voice spoke. But the tone was hardly warmer than the first.
“Voice-print confirmed. This is Captain Willoughby here, Lady Caroline. Please explain your business and your presence aboard the unauthorized vessel.”
“Unauthorised, be damned!” Caroline’s voice roared unladylike into the mouthpiece. “The Stellar Gypsy is travelling under my authority and for the queen’s eyes and ears only.”
The young woman scowled. “By the planets,” she exclaimed hotly. “It strikes me that the Royal Space Force goes about its business more like a bunch of pirates than officers of the queen.” At this, Lars and Jeremiah grinned gleefully at each other. “From what I’ve seen,” Caroline continued relentlessly, “we stand more chance of being shot to pieces by trigger happy officers of the queen’s fleet than any foe. And, as I don’t intend for us to run that risk again, I demand that you leave whatever you should have been doing and act instead as our escort to Royal Fleet Headquarters.”
The warship did not answer straight away, and Lars could almost feel the disquiet on the warship’s bridge as her captain puzzled over what response to make.
On the one hand, he had the voice-print of Lady Caroline Tudor, first cousin to the queen, and on the other, no doubt, a report from his computer’s shipping record stating that the ship, Stellar Gypsy, was not registered at any port – did not exist.
At length, the communicator hummed back into life.
“Captain Willoughby here again, ma’am. I shall have to contact Royal Fleet Headquarters for authorisation.”
“Then do it!” The young woman snapped back. “And be quick about it. This has top priority.”
Jeremiah chuckled. “Needs help to make up his mind.”
The wait this time was brief.
“Ah! Captain Willoughby here again, ma’am. The admiral’s flagship acknowledges. The Defiant will lead you in. Please follow me.”
Chapter 26
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
Joel 3:10 (New King James Version of the Bible)
Two soldiers in the queen’s red escorted Lars into a small alcove of comfortable chairs at the far end of a large chamber. The chamber had a high ceiling of dark timber trusses, like the inverted frames of some ancient sea-going galley. The timbered walls were lined with rank upon rank of shields bearing the crests of the aristocratic houses of the realm; a blur of rich colours to Lars’s sweeping glance.
At the other end of the chamber, under a canopy of rich velvet the colour of grapes, was The Most Royal Throne of All the Planets – a tall wooden chair of obvious antiquity with elaborately carved arms and back. High on the wall behind the chair was the royal coat of arms; a golden lion rampart on a field of six gold-edged tetragons – red, green, white, black, yellow and blue – the colours of the six planets of the Commonwealth.
* * *
“Lars!” The v
oice was rich and warm. “We have heard much from our good cousin, the Lady Caroline, and are well pleased.”
The figure from so many portraits come to life had suddenly appeared before him, the swish of her gold silk gown the only sound. A jewelled tiara crested a tumble of shiny dark hair. Her figure was willowy, the curve of her alabaster neck, long and slender. Her skin was that of a young woman, though Lars realised the queen must be well in her forties. Caroline, now arrayed in a gown of blue, stood in close attendance. Lars was suddenly aware of the striking family resemblance between the two women. But it was hardly surprising, given they were, after all, first cousins born of a close-knit aristocracy. They were too, without doubt, the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
Lars gazed into the queen’s smiling and bewitching hazel eyes and felt their all-knowing scrutiny. Then, with a sudden rush of blood to his face, he realised he had been staring open mouthed at his monarch, the queen of 14 billion people, like an ignorant farm boy. He dropped to one knee and kissed the bejewelled fingers.
“Come, come, you need not kneel in our presence. Sit. Sit.” A creamy white hand waved him to a chair.
The queen took a chair, the gold silk rustling like a fall of zephyr tossed autumn leaves. She sat, her back straight, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Lars sat down next to Caroline, across from the queen.
“Now, Lars, tell us your story and how you came to fall foul of our traitor, Ferdinand.”
“Well, Your Majesty, my sister and I were ploughing a new field outside of Vegar when we saw smoke…” Lars began.
The queen nodded. She had toured the new fields of the black rock planet, Lumai, the year before. She resolved she would visit Trion too, when all this was over. It was good for the people to see their queen.
