Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga)

by Peter Grant

  "That's amazing!" Steve breathed. "I knew nanotools could form themselves into wrenches and sockets, but I'd never heard of them being used to form weapons!"

  "Military services have stuff like that, but I've never heard of civilian tools being used that way before," Cardle admitted. "I suspect the manufacturers wouldn't approve! I programmed this template on the fly, basing it on a picture of an ancient weapon I remember seeing one time. We need something to help us tackle those armed guards. In the absence of bead carbines of our own, this is the best we can do. They'll extend our reach, so we can take out guards up to a meter or two away from us. Stabbing spears won't help much if they see us coming, but if we can sneak up on them, this should take care of business - and get us carbines of our own while we're about it!" The older man looked at him quizzically. "D'you think you can kill someone in cold blood?"

  Steve shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I killed at least one of those Dragon Tong bladesmen back at Old Home Earth, although that was in the heat of a fight. If I'm likely to die unless I kill again, I reckon I can do what I have to do to stay alive."

  "That's the right way to look at it. Your primary purpose is to keep yourself alive. The fact that you can't do that without killing some of them is their fault, not yours, and therefore the blame belongs on their shoulders. Now, I'm going to copy this template to the other two large-size nanotools. How many smaller nanotools do we have?"

  Steve counted rapidly. "Including the toolbox I brought from the other shuttle, there are eight of different sizes."

  "Good! I'm going to set up knife templates for them. The smaller ones will be belt-knife size, the bigger ones machete-type blades. None of them will be super-sharp - nor will these spears, for that matter - but the edges and points will penetrate flesh and clothing if you put enough force behind them."

  "Why make eight knives, Bosun? There's only two of us."

  "Only two so far. If they bring other prisoners aboard, we may be able to free a few of them and get them to help us. If we do, they'll need weapons of some sort until we can obtain more from the pirates. I'm planning to have knives ready in case we need them."

  "I get it. You think of everything, don't you?"

  "Oh, hell, no! There've been plenty of times I wished I'd thought of something earlier - but those memories help at times like this. You know what they say. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment!" They chuckled together.

  Steve glanced at the console clock. "One hour till the final hyper-jump to the rendezvous. I guess we'd better eat and drink something, to be ready for whatever happens."

  The Bosun grimaced. "Yeah. I loathe the taste of those emergency ration blocks. I know they provide all the nutrients you need, but they taste like moldy cardboard! If someone ever invents a better-tasting emergency ration, he'll make a fortune!"

  "I looked at the expiry date on the packages. They're supposed to be good for ten years, but these are already nine years old. Maybe they taste better when they're fresh?"

  "Maybe. If we get out of this in one piece, for sure I'm going to get the Captain to replace them with something better!"

  "We found that coffee-maker in the pilot's locker, remember? I reckon Tomkins must have left it there. I can brew us some coffee to go with the ration packs."

  "I could kill for some coffee right now, but you'd better not. If anyone decides to search this shuttle, we don't want them smelling fresh coffee and wondering who's been brewing it."

  "Good point. They might come looking for whoever's responsible!"

  ###

  They were listening over the ship's systems as the pirates rendezvoused with their boss. Immediately it became clear that something was wrong.

  "Constandt played hell!" de Bouff told Styles over the radio circuit. "He took a nice fat freighter just after it arrived at the system boundary, no trouble at all - then a Lancastrian communications frigate came out of hyper-jump less than half a million clicks from him! I don't know what the hell it was doing there - it wasn't a Commonwealth planet, so you wouldn't expect to find a Fleet ship there at all.

  "Trouble is, instead of playing dumb and letting 'em go about their business, Constandt fired on 'em! Blew the frigate to hell, but a bunch of her crew escaped in lifeboats. Would you believe the damn fool picked 'em up? He's got thirty-seven Fleet spacers on board his ship right now, including three officers!"

  "Aw, shit! How could he have been such a dumbass? Sorry, Boss, I know he's your son, but... "

  "Just this once, I won't argue with you! It was the stupidest thing he could possibly have done - well, the second stupidest thing, I guess. The most stupid was tackling a Fleet ship in the first place! I've never operated in Lancastrian Commonwealth space because their Fleet's hell on pirates, and I didn't want them to have an excuse to come after me. Now they've got all the excuse they need!"

  "Maybe not, Boss."

  "Huh? What do you mean?"

  "If they don't know that you - or, rather, Constandt - blew their frigate out of space, they won't know who to look for, will they?"

  "You mean... "

  "If we kill those Fleet prisoners, plus the crew of that freighter Constandt took, plus any other prisoners who might have heard about it, there won't be any witnesses to tie him to the frigate. We'll lose the merchant spacers' ransoms, but what's more important here - money, or our survival?"

  "You got that right!" De Bouff suddenly sounded much more cheerful. "I gotta hand it to you, Styles - you come up with some damn good ideas sometimes! Can you take care of business for us while I take Constandt, his prize and ours to meet our buyers?"

  "Sure. Send 'em all over."

  "I need bigger prize crews, so I can't spare any more guards. Will you have enough to take care of about eighty more prisoners?"

  "I'll lock 'em all in one of this ship's cargo shuttles. Its load compartment will be big enough to hold all of 'em, easy. That way they won't be going anywhere, and I won't need any more guards to keep 'em under control. Say - send a nuclear demolition charge over, too, will ya? I'll put it in the machinery spaces of that cargo shuttle, then shove the whole thing out of the docking bay. When the charge goes off, it'll vaporize all the witnesses."

  "Styles, you'll get a double bonus for this! That's a great idea! Even if something goes wrong with the demo charge, we're in deep space. The nearest inhabited planet's fourteen light years away, and a cargo shuttle can't hyper-jump; so the prisoners are still guaranteed to die out here, either through oxygen deprivation or starvation. We can't lose!

  "I'll send them over in two or three batches, so my guards can handle 'em safely. Wait to jettison the shuttle until just before you jump, so you'll be light years away from it when it blows. No sense in risking damage to your ship."

  "Will do, Boss."

  Steve looked grimly at the Bosun. "Nice people, these pirates, aren't they?"

  "I don't think! OK, we've got some planning to do. If possible, we'll wait until de Bouff's other ships have left before we make our move. If they see or hear that this ship's in trouble of some kind, they may fire on us, or send more boarders to help - and we can't cope with any more pirates than we've got already! On the other hand, if we have to move quickly for some reason, we may have to attack the pirates here while the other ships are still around. That'll mean we'll have to make a fast hyper-jump to get away from them before they can interfere; so we'll have to free the skipper and take the bridge right away, so he can use the navigation and control systems. Problem is, if they're going to load their prisoners onto a cargo shuttle, they may find us in the process. We can't have that. Any ideas?"

  Steve thought rapidly. "If there was some way I could get out into the docking bay, I could disable the airlock on the other cargo shuttle, so they'll have no choice but to put the prisoners aboard this one. That way, if we can take out the pirates guarding them, we can try to take back the ship with their help."

  "Good idea! Fleet spacers are all trained fighters, altho
ugh not all of them keep up their training once they're aboard ship. They won't be any worse than the pirates, at any rate! Let me think for a moment."

  The Bosun fell silent, cupping his chin in one hand, eyes far away. After a few moments he looked up. "I think I can record imagery from the ship's security camera in the docking bay. After I've captured a few minutes of it, I can set it up as a loop in the ship's systems, and feed it into the security circuits instead of the true image from the camera. That way you'll be able to manually open our airlock, get out into the docking bay, and do your stuff on the other shuttle without anyone seeing you."

  Steve blinked in surprise. "How can you bypass the security systems? I thought that was impossible!"

  "It is, unless you have command access to the ship's systems. I'm one of four who have it, along with the Captain, the First Mate and the Engineering Officer. The idea was that any one of us might have to take control of the systems in the event of something going catastrophically wrong. It's going to come in real handy now!"

  "I'll say! Can you use it to do other things to help us take the ship back?"

  "I've been thinking about that ever since this went down. I've got a couple of ideas. I'll record that imagery, then set it up so you can get out."

  The Bosun busied himself at the console, asking Steve's assistance now and again to pass instructions through the cargo shuttle's interface with the ship. At last he sat back. "OK, I think that's done it. Cross your fingers. I'm cutting the docking bay camera out of the security system and substituting my looped imagery."

  He pressed a button. The security display on the monitor flickered momentarily, then resumed its imagery of an empty, lifeless docking bay. Steve couldn't tell that he was no longer looking at a live camera feed.

  "There you are. Go do your stuff, quick as you can!"

  "I'm on my way!"

  Steve raced from the pilot's console down to the airlock, picking up an emergency tool from the workbench in the machinery spaces as he passed. He used the internal manual handle to crank open the inner airlock door, crossed to the outer one, and did the same thing there. He put his head out of the airlock, looking and listening carefully. No alarms sounded, and he couldn't see or hear anyone nearby.

  He crossed to the second cargo shuttle, inserted the emergency tool into a socket next to the outer airlock door, and cranked rapidly. The door slid back into the fuselage. He stepped inside, repeating the process on the inner door. The ship's systems would have reflected any use of the shuttle doors' electronic locks; but by opening them manually, he knew no warning would be displayed.

  He hurried to the machinery spaces and took a multitool from a drawer. Returning to the airlock, he cranked the inner door closed, then used the multitool to disconnect the electronic circuits from the control rods of the locks on the outer door. Once the door was manually cranked closed from outside, its electronic controls would no longer be operational. The only way to open the airlock would be with an emergency tool like his - and there was no such tool in the docking bay. The pirates could get one from the Engineering Department if they wished, but he was willing to bet they wouldn't take the trouble to do so. Instead, they'd simply open the other shuttle's airlock and usher their prisoners inside. That would be much less effort.

  He made his way back to the pilot's console. "I disabled the other shuttle's electronic lock, and secured our airlock behind me."

  "Well done! Now, let's figure out how we're going to deal with the guards and free the prisoners."

  "I did some thinking about that while I was working on the other shuttle. See that locker?" Steve pointed to a long horizontal locker beneath a row of smaller, upright units. "It's low to the floor, so you can't open it without bending down. We keep towing straps and other stuff in there - things we hardly ever use. We can push 'em to the back and slide in next to them. Unless a pirate opens it, then gets down on his hands and knees to peer inside, I doubt he'll see us. I can take the lock off the inside of the door and lube its hinges, so it'll swing open easily.

  "We can rig up a monitor inside, so we can watch what's going on through an improvised feed from the shuttle's internal cameras. They're in the load compartment, the crew compartment and the machinery spaces, so we'll always know where the guards are. We can also run a link to the command console, so we can listen to radio conversations between the ships."

  Cardle scratched his chin dubiously. "What if the guards stand close to that locker? We may not be able to open its hatch without hitting their legs."

  "True, but what's the alternative? All the other lockers and hiding places are easier to search. They'll find us too easily if they look around."

  "You have a point. If worst comes to worst, we'll have to have our stabbing spears and knives ready, and try to deal with the guards as we slide out."

  Steve nodded. "Another thing. We can disconnect the feed from the shuttle's cameras to the ship's systems. They haven't used it since they took over, so they may think it's been inoperative all along. That way they won't be able to monitor inside this bird, and they won't see us take over from their guards."

  The Bosun slapped his thigh approvingly. "We'll do it. I can also make vid loops of the present security camera images of the ship's main passageway and other vital spaces. If I splice those loops into the system just before we make our move, they won't see a bunch of former prisoners running around and start wondering what the hell's going on. All right, we've got a lot to do, and very little time before those prisoners get here. Let's get to work!"

  ###

  The tramp of many feet approached the locker once more. Steve and the Bosun peered at the small display unit they'd set up. A thin cable led from it through a hole in the locker's rear panel, and from there to a hastily-rigged connection beneath the pilot's console. They watched as the last group of prisoners was escorted into the load compartment, menaced by the muzzles of bead carbines in the hands of a dozen pirates.

  "Siddown over there with them others an' shaddup!" the leader snarled. The prisoners obeyed wordlessly as he turned to one of the pirates who'd captured Cabot. "That's all of 'em. We gotta move. Boss's ready to jump as soon as we get back."

  "We can handle it from here," the other assured him. He lowered his voice, so Steve and the Bosun had to strain to hear his words, their ears pressed to the loosely-closed locker door. "Didja bring that demo charge?"

  "It's in the docking bay. Timer's only good for an hour, so don't set it until you've loaded it aboard this boat and are ready to eject it, you hear me?"

  "You betcha!" He raised his voice again. "Don't have too much of a good time while you're selling those other prizes. Bring back some good booze for the rest of us!"

  The other guffawed coarsely. "I'll spend my money on warm, willin' wimmen, not booze! You can always rig up a still in Engineering if you run out o' rotgut!" He waved to his followers. "Come on, let's go!"

  They clumped out of the cargo compartment. Steve and the Bosun watched through their connection to the ship's systems as the pirates boarded their cutter. Its airlock door closed, and a few moments later they heard the faint vibration through the hull as the docking arms were withdrawn.

  "All right, you lot," the pirate in charge announced harshly to the prisoners - about eighty of them, as far as Steve could judge from the small display. "Keep your mouths shut and don't make a fuss, and you'll be OK. I'm leaving four guards here, with orders to shoot any troublemakers on sight. Don't tempt 'em!" He turned and followed the others out of the shuttle.

  "They've behaved 'emselves so far," the pirate in charge of the four guards observed idly. "I reckon we can relax. Anything to entertain us in here?"

  "I found a coffee-maker in the pilot's compartment," another offered.

  "Coffee? I ain't had a decent cup o' java since we took this ship! Rich, you keep an eye on this lot while we brew it. I'll send someone to spell you in a few."

  "OK, but save some for me! Don't drink it all yourselves!"

&n
bsp; Joshing each other cheerfully, three of the four pirates left the load bay and entered the crew compartment. The door automatically slid closed behind them.

  The remaining pirate paced back and forth in front of the line of lockers, watching the prisoners on the far side of the load compartment. Steve and the Bosun watched him on their display unit. There were at least ten meters between him and the nearest prisoners, enough to give him a feeling of security, Steve thought.

  "What now?" he whispered.

  "We probably won't get a better chance. He's closer to you than to me. Can you wait until he turns round, then lift the door, slide out and stab up at his thigh with your spear? Remember what I told you about blood vessels. If you get the blade deep into the inside of his thigh, high up near the groin, you'll take out his femoral artery. He'll bleed out in thirty seconds."

  "What if he screams?"

  "We'll have to risk it. The closed door between here and the crew compartment may muffle the sound, if it's not too loud. I'll jump out and grab his carbine, then we'll go after those three. Even if they hear something, they've got to come through that doorway one by one. We'll have a good chance to take 'em all out."

  "And if they come out shooting?"

  "That's a chance we have to take. If we don't move now, we'll die anyway when they jettison this bird with a nuke aboard to keep us company!"

  "I hear you." Steve took a deep breath, trying to still the butterflies in his stomach and stop the trembling in his limbs.

  "Maxwell?"

  "Yes, Bosun?"

  Cardle's voice was warm. "Just in case, I wanted to tell you that you touched a nerve when you told me last year I'd been a sort of father to you. I never had any children of my own - at least, I don't think I did!" - they shared a laugh - "but if I'd had a son, I'd have wanted him to be like you. You're a fine man and a fine spacer, Steve. I've been proud to know you."