"What changes?" The two men turned as Maria and Derrik entered the room.
"People do," said Brian jumping from his seat. "Jack's getting married!"
It happened so fast, Jack couldn't stop him. The little voice in his head was screaming in slow motion Nnnnooooo... A little late he told it. He wanted to tell Maria alone, explain things...
But Maria beamed. "Married? You? That's wonderful!"
Jack's little voice only had one word, Huh? That was not the response he was expecting from her at all.
"Who's gettin' married?” asked Mike as he entered the room behind the others.
"Jacko is," volunteered Derrik.
"To the Ice Princess? No kiddin? Wow!" Mike looked stunned.
"Hey, hey, hey!" countered Jack, rising from his seat in mock anger. "Watch how you talk about the woman I intend to marry... I might shoot you at the dinner table." There was a short round of laughter as Paul entered, followed by Walrick and LaNareef.
"What's going on?"
Mike spun around. "Hey, Pappy! Jack and Alité are getting married!"
Ok, thought Jack, I've totally lost control of this, it's getting way out of hand... Perhaps this wasn't the best venue for this... or maybe I should've added, please don't say anything in front of the Velorians!
Paul expressed surprise, Walrick expressed indifference and LaNareef expressed horror and rage. "How dare you!" he screamed, lunging forward.
Jack dropped the charging Velorian to his knees with a stiff-arm to the chest. "Get a grip," growled Jack sarcastically.
"She is..." LaNareef gasped, trying to get his breath back. "She is Royalty! A Princess!"
“I am fully aware of that... You do realize, she has some say in this, right?”
LaNareef was clutching the ache in his chest and breathing hard. "She will lose her crown if she marries outside the Royal Circle. I can not allow you to do this..."
"You cannot allow?" Jack chortled defiantly, his hands on his hips. "Just who the hell do you think you are? The marriage police? I can't believe you have the balls to stand on the bridge of my ship and insult me... I think you'd better do a reality check, pal, because you're not at home anymore." The others stood about in silence as Jack continued. "Alité will always be a Princess. The difference is, here, she has the freedom and safety to do what she wants. So find solace in her happiness because she is happy. And if that proves difficult, just remember who saved your sorry butt from the pirates." Jack pointed his finger at the kneeling pilot. "Because if you give me a hard time about this, or cause Alité grief, any grief, you'll find yourself on the wrong side of an airlock. Is that clear?"
Walrick stepped forward and clamped his hand over LaNareef's mouth from behind. "He understands completely," said Walrick. "And if he doesn't," he squeezed his hand tighter, "I'll explain it to him again."
Jack stared at the two as if he was trying to make up his mind about something. "Fine. Then it's forgotten." He turned away. "We have some ship's business to discuss, take a seat." He turned back.
"You mean she's really a Princess?" asked Mike, grabbing a seat.
Jack smiled and pulled up his chair. "Yeah, pretty amazing, eh?"
"Does that make you a Prince?" whispered Brian.
"I don't think so," chuckled Jack. He glanced at LaNareef who stared silently at the surface of the table, sullen and gray-cast. They're losing the war, thought Jack, and all this idiot can think of is, who's supposed to marry whom... like they did such a great job of protecting her in the first place. Maybe space wasn't so different from Earth after all, you can't fix stupid. Steele realized for the first time, he hadn't thought of that emerald and sapphire planet as home. Merely a place. He guessed Voorlak would have something insightful to say about that.
■ ■ ■
The briefing went as planned and a strategy for constant fighter patrols was hammered out. The patrols would run until repairs to the Freedom's power plants could be effected, which was not likely to be until they reached the space station at Blackmount. There they would use the station's indoor facilities to install any parts they might acquire along the way.
Halfway through the meeting Trigoss rang in on the intercom. "Sorry to bother you Captain... remember that generator we built before we left?"
"Yeah, what about it?" answered Jack.
"Well it just quit, for good. The armatures just melted down. We're back to one large and two small."
Jack closed his eyes and pinched the bridge if his nose. "Dammit." Everyone else in the room sat in silence.
"The good news," continued the Engineer, "is that I managed to pull an undamaged large off the freighter before we had to run..."
"That's great!" interrupted Jack. “Y'know, you could've led-off with that tidbit of information…”
"But, I can't install it without shutting most of the systems off for at least several hours."
Jack sighed, “Yeah, well that figures. Ok, how about this Chief, pull the old one now. Mount the new one in it's place and get it ready to hook it up? We'll shut down and you can do the installation hookup in the salvage yard..."
“We can prep the new one, but we can't touch the old one since she's wired in... We're liable to damage computer systems without shutting them down first.”
Jack groaned, “But we can do this in the salvage yard, right...?”
"Before we go to Blackmount Station..? Yeah, sure we can. But we'll be awful vulnerable out there..."
There was a lot of space between them and UFW Blackmount in the Feerocobi System, four or five systems to Jack's recollection. And from where they were, that was the closest location. He was pretty sure doing repairs at a protected facility, with proper equipment, was ultimately the way to go but that was a long time to be running underpowered, under-shielded and under-gunned while your ship was undermanned. He hoped the salvage yard would be a quiet out of the way place where they could find some parts and make a few critically needed repairs. If they could find salvage that they could use for more extensive repairs at Blackmount, that would be a bonus. "Well," Jack paused, "I don't expect there to be too much traffic out there, but we'll pack the pilots a lunch, put out every bird we can, charge the ship's gun pods, then, go dark and play possum."
“Play possum..?”
“Never mind, I'll explain that later.”
"Ok. In the meantime, we need to cut down on some of the systems so we don't overtax these gennys."
"If it's necessary..."
"It is," confirmed Trigoss. The comm beeped as the conversation ended.
Jack set his elbows on the table and his face in his hands. "Holy crap, what next..?" He mumbled. It was a rhetorical question.
The comm-link chimed again. "Captain, we have two ships at full sensor range."
"How big are they, Mr Ragnaar?" The pilots rose from the table in unison.
"Not very big, sir, but fast." Until the Freedom could acquire more parts for its aging and damaged sensor array, clear identification of ships was impossible beyond one third of its normal range.
Jack looked up at the pilots, stalling them with a wave of his hand. "Any guess Lieutenant?"
"They're using a standard UFW patrol sweep, and they're too small to be destroyers... The pirates rarely use anything smaller than that. I'd say UFW interceptor ships. Crew of about thirty."
"Thank you, Lieutenant, maintain course." Jack ended the connection and turned to the pilots. "Paul, Mike, you two are the welcoming committee. Take Lancias and get going." They turned and left. "Derrik, Bri, you sit on standby. Lancias. Mister LaNareef, are you ready to fly?" He nodded. "Ok," continued Jack, "You and Walrick are ship's cover. You'll launch last in Warthogs." They also turned and left.
"Hey!
What about me?!" complained Maria.
Jack stood, shaking his head. "How soon we forget." He tapped his head. "You are grounded until the Doc clears you for flight. I want to keep your brains in your head where they belong. You're no good to me if your gray matter comes running out of your ears."
"Aw c'mon..."
"Ok, you want to be useful? Tell you what. Go down to the flight bay and have one of the techs hook that Zulu up to a simulator. Find out everything you can about it. How it handles, range, arms, you name it."
Maria screwed her face into one of distaste but decided it was better than sitting around. "Well... Ok."
"But if anyone catches you near a live ship," added Jack, "zoom!" He swept his hand. "Back to the infirmary where the Doc can keep an eye on you. And that's after I put you over my knee and take away your wings."
Maria smiled as she turned for the door. "Yeah?" she said playfully. “You and what army?" She strolled out without looking back, the door swishing closed behind her, leaving Jack alone.
■ ■ ■
Jack sat in the command chair watching the view screen and could feel the bridge vibrate as Paul and Mike's Lancias launched through the tubes. Then he saw the flares of light as they ignited their engines, appearing from under the nose of the Freedom. "Freedom, this is Pappy. Flight One is clear."
Jack acknowledged him. Scant moments later, the flight tower notified the bridge, Flight Two was ready, and Flight Three was standing by. It seemed to him the flight crews were getting faster at prep and launch.
It wasn't more than a couple of minutes before Paul and Mike were able to see the ships on their Lancia's sensors. "Flight One to Bridge, you can stand down Flights Two and Three. We have confirmation, two UFW interceptor patrol vessels."
"Roger Flight One. Is that Visual?"
"Negative, sensor only. We'll be in visual range in approximately five minutes."
"Understood. Continue standard patrol after visual contact," advised Jack. He decided to keep the other flights on standby until after Paul's visual confirmation of identification. The next five minutes passed slowly. But it passed... finally. "Flight One, identity confirmed, proceeding on patrol route."
Jack acknowledged and called a stand down for the other flights. A short time later, the Commander of one of the patrol vessels hailed the Freedom as the two vessels slowed and staggered their formation in a defensive tactic. "Hello, Commander," began Jack politely. He stood between the helmsman and Ragnaar at the Nav station. "What can I do for you?" The face of the UFW officer appeared on the view screen, he did not look trusting. His skin was blanched and drawn in a perpetual scowl.
"Identify yourself," he said bluntly.
"His shields are up..." whispered Raulya.
Jack moved his hand behind his back to indicate he'd heard her. He hoped Paul and Mike hadn't gone too far. "I'm Captain Jack Steele. This is the cruiser Freedom, Raider Class. Our home world is Earth and we are allied with the UFW."
"Stand by." The screen went blank while the Commander consulted with his crew and the other patrol ship. The screen winked back on. "We can find no records on your ship. And as far as your origin, Earth has no space travel capabilities to my knowledge."
"We do now," countered Jack.
"What is your mission, your purpose..." inquired the patrol vessel Commander.
"Right now," began Jack, "we are heading for parts and repair, then home."
"You're headed the wrong way my friend." The Commander sneered like he'd caught Jack in a lie. "Beyond us is pirate territory." The three ships came to a stop, facing off miles apart. "So why don't you tell me what you're really doing out here? And why is your ship so well armed?"
"Well gee, I heard there were pirates out here..." said Jack, sarcastically. “As I said before, this is a Raider Class cruiser, the guns kinda come standard on this model...” Jack could see where this was going and motioned behind his back to cut communications. Petty Officer Stacell caught the signal and ended the connection. "Thank you, Stacell." He turned to Raulya. "Call the tower..."
"You can't launch," she interrupted, "he'll read the power surges of the launch equipment on his sensors. He could gun us to pieces before I could bring up our shields."
"I know..." he snapped. "Have Brian, Derrik, LaNareef and Walrick, taxi and launch out the bay door, engines off. Have them wait there." He turned back to Stacell, "Ok." The screen winked back on. "I'm sorry, Captain. Where were we?"
"You were about to tell me, you are a pirate heading for pirate territory in a pirated ship." His sneer was back. "And that you surrender so I don't have to blow you out of existence."
"He's powering up weapons," whispered Raulya. Jack acknowledged again with a discreet hand movement.
Jack shook his head. "Untrue, Commander, untrue. We took this vessel from the pirates who took it from you the UFW. This vessel was originally the Ynosa and we simply stole it from the thieves. So, by the interspace law of finders keepers we have confiscated it for ourselves."
"Finders keepers..?" The puzzled Commander glanced off screen for an explanation from his crew. There was none.
"Right," confirmed Jack, "while aboard the Princess Hedonist. In fact, if you contact Captain Gantarro, he can confirm this..."
"Did you say the Princess Hedonist?"
"Yes. Why? Do you know Gantarro?" Ragnaar reached back and tapped Jack on the leg, out of view of the other Captain. He pointed to his sensor screen. Jack could casually glance at it without being noticed. It showed the second patrol vessel swinging wide in an attack posture.
"Mr. Steele, the Princess Hedonist was attacked and disappeared about two days ago. Its fate is unknown." Jack could feel the heat rise in his face as he hazarded a quick glance in Raulya's direction. Her eyes were wide with astonishment. "About the same time, a Royal Velorian freighter was attacked and destroyed back in the direction you're coming from. There was quite a battle. The freighter must have done well. But by the time our cruisers got there, it was over. Only a crippled pirate carrier was left." Jack was still in shock about the Princess Hedonist and did not answer. "I'll just bet if I searched your vessel, I'd find either equipment or prisoners from one of those ships, wouldn't I?"
"Whoa, hold on a minute!" exclaimed Jack. "You got some good facts there, but they're in the wrong order! Not to mention missing a few vital pieces..."
"I think not," claimed the other, with a face somewhere between a sneer and a scowl. "I have a man in space from a world which hasn't the technology, in a ship that is not his own, knowledge of a ship that has since disappeared, and coming from where another has been destroyed. Now I see no signs of physical damage, but my sensors tell me your ship is operating well below its standards... did we over exert ourselves in combat? Blow a few systems?" He shook his head, "No Captain, I think I have plenty..."
Jack kept telling himself this man was just doing his job. "Look, Captain, I can appreciate how all these circumstances coincide, and that's just what they are, coincidental... But we can clear all this up if you'll contact the UFW Directorate on Tanzia. That's where our wings and ranks were issued from..."
"Do you think I would really waste their time on the word of a pirate? Do you think me a fool?"
Well yeah, thought Jack, actually moron might be more accurate.
The Commander waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "No, Mr. Steele, we will wait here. The cruisers I summoned will be here shortly, and their Marines will board and take over your ship. Your pirating career is over."
Jack was seriously beginning to lose his patience. This man had appointed himself both judge and jury, convicted him and was about to pass sentence. "Look, Commander..."
"Mr. Steele," Jack noticed the man no longer addressed him as Capt
ain. "I hope you won't do anything foolish, because I will not hesitate to destroy you. We would prefer you and your crew alive, so we might interrogate you." He grinned wickedly. "Besides, it would look better on the citation I will receive for this..." His grin faded. "But I must warn you, ANY actions on your part, we will consider hostile." He frowned again and the screen winked off abruptly.
"We're on the same side, you ass!" Growled Jack at the blank screen. "What a moron." Stepping over to his command chair, Jack keyed the comm to engineering. "Trigoss, I'm gonna' need every bit of speed you can muster in a couple of minutes."
"I'll give you what I got..." came the answer.
"No more mister nice guy," growled Jack, "I'm not playin' their stupid game, they want to fuck around? Fine! Let's see if they can play with the big dogs! Tower, silent signal protocol. Alert Flights Two and Three, they will split and attack on the outer flanks on my order." The tower acknowledged. Neither Paul or Mike were visible on any of the sensors, but Jack had to believe they were not far off and had somehow found an obvious place to hide. "Raulya, shields up on my command, not before, Ok?"
"But, sir..."
Jack held up his hand to cut her off. "They're gonna' have plenty to think about. Hitting us is going to be the least of their concerns." He palmed the red button on his console and the alarm klaxons blared their Red Alert warning. Jack was betting a multitude of instant actions at once would confuse the crews in the patrol ships, stalling their reactions long enough to gain the upper hand. He didn't want to have to destroy them, just run them off or damage them enough to be able to effect an escape. He wasn't about to delude himself or the crew, that surrender was a viable or safe solution.
"Forward guns manned, Captain," reported Raulya.
Jack nodded and thumbed the mic on his headset. "All flights TALLY HO!" Four white trails arced around the rear of the Freedom and headed for the flanks of the patrol vessels. Jack spun on his heel. "Shields up Raulya!" He switched the comm channel. "Trigoss, full reverse, Now! All guns, fire at will! Make em count!"
Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) Page 40
