“My engineer informs me that our primary weapon will be back online in a short span. Your assistance is accepted.”
I closed comm and rolled my eyes. It wasn’t as if I was giving Captain Fateh a choice. A frigate was likely to have at least a dozen crew. I wasn’t about to stand by and watch the pirates take them out.
“Frak, Liam, we can’t take out two cutters on our own,” Tabby said.
“Just like defending a pod-ball goal when there’s a breakaway. We don’t need to win, we just need to buy Shetak Blossom a little time. Find me a weakness I can exploit.”
“Painting them as red and blue,” Tabby said. My vid screen updated and the ships took on the colors she’d indicated. “The ships are nearly identical. Blue is the preferred target with slight damage near aft engines.”
The cutters wasted no time in attacking the Shetak Blossom and seemed to pay us no heed as we approached. It soon became obvious they expected us to jump through the wormhole as opposed to rendering aid. I adjusted course so the Genteresk ships would get very comfortable with that assumption. We were sailing up on the cutters from the opposite side of the wormhole. Captain Fateh quickly recognized our ruse and smartly turned to pull the cutters into our vector.
“Ready?” I asked as we closed the final kilometers.
“I can’t wait,” Tabby said.
The cutters’ guns were small for taking on a frigate, but the damage they were handing out was adding onto damage already done. Fully operational, I don’t believe the Shetak Blossom would have struggled against the smaller ships. As it was, the frigate would be disabled in several minutes if it couldn’t escape the pestering ships.
As we entered the wormhole space, I considered simply activating the wormhole transition engines. We’d be transported to the Tamu system and far away from battle. I shook off the idea and jammed the throttle to full. Tuuq didn’t really have a combat burn capability, but she wasn’t entirely a slug. We were pressed into our seats as the inertial systems started to reach their maximum capacity.
Thut-thut-thut. Tuuq’s anemic turret stitched a line of fire into the aft engine of the cutter outlined in blue. Anticipating Blue’s move, I broke off our acceleration, slapped the stick to the side, rotated one hundred sixty degrees and jammed the throttle back to max. As predicted, Blue spun around and accelerated to match our speed. My move had caused Tuuq to slide around the aft side of Blue in an arc.
Tabby didn’t waste time and continued her focus on Blue’s engines. “Point, Masters!”
The cutter only had two engines and Tabby had knocked out one of them. The last thing I wanted to do was leave the wounded ship, but with half its power gone, it no longer had the capacity to keep up with the fleeing frigate. And we had another problem; our actions had earned us the ire of the cutter highlighted in Red on my vid screen. Sure enough, blaster fire erupted on our hull.
“Liam, we can’t take much of this,” Tabby warned, her voice filled with frustration. At the moment, she was a passenger in the fight — something she was unaccustomed to. Tuuq had extremely limited offense when being chased.
“Copy,” I said and angled toward Shetak Blossom. We’d successfully given the larger ship a break from the constant pounding of the cutters, but had redirected half of that punishment in our direction.
Sailing in a flat line is a bad idea in combat, as predictability will get you killed. My chest ached as I flopped us around while beating my way over to Shetak Blossom.
“Incoming hail, Shetak Blossom.”
“Hoffen,” I grunted.
“My engineer has a single turret online. Move Genteresk cutter into position to bow of Shetak Blossom.”
“Copy,” I replied.
It wasn’t as if I had a lot of control over where the battle went. I was mostly responding to Red’s moves while trying to catch up with my only cover — Shetak Blossom. We struggled together in an odd three-way dance where Tabby attempted to find open shots, Red attempted to predict our position, and I tried to orbit the larger frigate, dragging Red into position.
“Captain Hoffen. On seven count, we request your smooth flight for eight micro spans on attached vector. Our targeting systems are damaged.” Captain Fateh transmitted a vector that would have us sailing across his bow.
We’d successfully brought ourselves to the forward section of the frigate and I’d been dismayed at Shetak Blossom’s hesitance. Eight seconds on a flat line in space combat, would feel like an eternity. Red would have clear shooting and there was no guarantee she’d also flatten out her flight to match ours.
“Will comply,” I replied.
“Liam!” Tabby voted her opposition at the idea.
“Eight seconds,” I said as the countdown displayed on the vid-screen. “We’ll make it.”
I took my hand off the flight stick and pulled back on the throttle. I might sail in a flat line, but I could at least adjust acceleration so we weren’t quite sitting ducks. Blaster fire exploded on the hull of the ship. The power cycled and the bridge was covered in inky blackness.
“Rerouting power,” Tabby said, the glow of vid-screens all that illuminated her face. I looked over to her, panic starting to well in my chest.
A burst of light illuminated the bridge just before a cacophony of sounds filled the small space and debris collided with our hull plating.
“Got it,” Tabby said and the lights of the bridge came back up.
I flipped Tuuq over to get a better view. Red cutter was nowhere to be found. I searched the combat display and located Blue, burning as hard as it could for Fan Zuri. For a moment, I considered chasing it down, but then thought better of it. We’d taken a beating defending Shetak Blossom and I wasn’t remotely interested in seeing just how much more we had in us.
“Captain Hoffen. On behalf of Rai Group, I thank you for your brave intervention,” Captain Fateh said over our still-open comms. “Is there assistance you require at this moment?”
“Tabby?” I asked.
“We’re bruised but we’ll be okay if we don’t run into more trouble,” she said.
“Negative, Captain Fateh,” I said. “We’ll be on our way to Abasi Prime. Safe travels to you.”
“We will accompany you,” Fateh said. “The damage we have taken is too great for us to continue our journey, much to the disappointment of our shareholders.”
“If you want to continue, you might stop off at Petersburg Station over Zuri,” I said. “I imagine they’d be able to get you fixed up. It’s not too far out of your way if you’re heading to the Brea Fortul system.”
Zuri wasn’t exactly on the way to Brea Fortul, but he’d save at least eight days travel over heading back to Abasi Prime.
“Petersburg Station is not a familiar destination.”
I sent a data burst to him with Petersburg Station’s location and services. “Just set up within the last twenty short spans.”
“And Petersburg Station is friendly to travelers?”
“Copy that,” I said. “Flagged under House Mshindi.”
“Rai Group’s debt to you grows,” Fateh said.
“Be safe, Captain,” I said.
It took us twenty minutes to sail back to the wormhole.
“I sure hope he was right about removing the threat in Tamu,” Tabby said as I engaged the wormhole engine.
Unlike travel through TransLoc, there was virtually nothing beyond a slight lurch as we transitioned from the Santaloo system to Tamu.
“I’m picking up a small debris cloud,” Tabby said. “Whoever Shetak Blossom duked it out with has limped away.”
“All right then. Abasi Prime, here we come.”
Chapter 14
Survival of the Fittest
“What in Jupiter is all over my bot?” Nick asked as Tabby and I manually unloaded Tuuq’s cargo hold into Nick’s workshop on Zuri.
We'd had an uneventful return trip from Nadira on Abasi Prime, where we’d picked up the anti-grav components rejected by Bakira Corporation. U
nfortunately, Nick’s stevedore bot had succumbed to the dried animal crap when it expanded to fill the hold. I suspected the bot’s damage had something to do with the fact that, when we’d opened the cargo bay door, it had been ejected by the pressure of the expanded crap. Worse yet, it was left to me to dig around in said crap to extricate the beleaguered bot. I wasn’t sure if the bot was actually broken, or if it was merely on strike due to poor working conditions.
“Exactly what you think,” Tabby said. “Give it a good whiff; I think you’ll recognize it.”
“Animal waste?” Nick looked at me skeptically.
“Not proud that things got out of control,” I confessed. “Apparently, dried bales of Fegoota feces absorb fifteen times their volume in water very quickly.”
“But where did the water come from?”
“It was raining when we loaded and I still had the bot running slow due to the demonstration at Gasepi Corporation — which, by the way, went very well.”
“True statement on Gasepi,” Nick said. “They’ve ordered two bots and will pick them up next week.”
“You should get back to chastising Liam about crapping up your bot,” Tabby needled, grinning as Marny joined us in front of Nick’s workshop.
“I didn’t consider making the bots crap-proof,” Nick said, giving me a look. “I’ll have to figure out what bricked it.”
“Have you stopped in at Petersburg yet, Cap?” Marny asked.
“Not yet.”
“They had unexpected visitors, thanks to you. Apparently, you made quite an impression on the captain,” she said. “According to Silver, the captain said without your intervention, they might not have made it.”
“I’m surprised Abasi won’t do something about pirates setting up shop around the wormhole,” Tabby said.
“I’m guessing that’s what they think a Letter of Marque is all about,” Marny pointed out.
“No prizes for us this round,” I said. “So, not to change the subject … Apparently, Gasepi wasn’t just impressed with the stevedore bots; they liked the quality of steel Merrie and Amon are making with the zero-g manufactory. We have new orders for forty kilo tonnes.”
“All for Gasepi?” Nick asked.
“Gasepi and two other Manetra companies. All word of mouth, too; we never contacted them. Merrie is kicking production into high gear, but she’s going to run into supply problems with the ore. Do you think you could push Hog on identifying miners? Merrie has been talking with House Gundi about getting her ore orders onto their commodities exchange, but that’s a long play.”
“No grass growing under that woman’s feet,” Marny said with a laugh.
“She lives on a space station,” I said. “How would grass grow under her feet?”
“Earth idiom, Cap,” Marny said.
“Any chance you can get that bot fixed before we take off?” I asked. “We have a stop in Azima before heading back to Petersburg.”
“No need,” Nick said. “I’ll exchange it with one of the Gasepi prototypes. They’re not due for another week and I’m sure I can fix whatever you broke.”
“How is our cash flow?” I asked.
“Tight,” Nick said. “Paying off that note was helpful, but between Intrepid’s repairs, Petersburg startup and manufacturing, we’re burning through credits. Selling steel helps, but we need a lot more income than what that’s generating. I had to take out another short-term note.”
“How much?” I asked.
“Two hundred forty thousand,” he said. “Our share of the steel sales will keep us afloat, but we need to keep that rolling. Tell me you have an idea on how to use Intrepid to bring in cash while you’re hunting for Jonathan. I’d like to keep Tuuq close to home for running deliveries.”
“Sure, but I assume you know that Anino isn’t here just to be nice. He’s going to ask for something and I bet it won’t generate cash,” I said.
“Anino is getting antsy to leave, Cap,” Marny said. “He said he’s been holding TransLoc open so he can return home.”
“Word is that Intrepid is ready to sail. They repaired all essential systems and started on the less important ones,” Nick said. “Better yet, Anino is offering forty thousand in platinum fingers to give the Norigans a ride back to Chitundu.”
The mention of the space station we’d once visited above Abasi Prime's moon Rehema made me smile as I recalled Jester Ripples accidentally discovering a group of Norigans who were headed home. His joy in finding family he hadn't seen for a decade was one of my fondest memories.
“That fits in with an idea I have to make money and get us over to the Tanwar system,” I said. “What did we end up doing with my proposal for switching out Intrepid’s crew-country deck for an expanded cargo hold?”
Intrepid was originally designed for a crew complement of eighty sailors. In that we rarely exceeded twenty crew, I’d proposed a substantial reorganization — primarily, taking the lower deck of the forward section and converting from quarters to a twelve-hundred cubic meter hold. Between our new hold and the existing three-hundred-meter hold, we’d be able to carry two and a half times as much material as Hotspur.
“Just like you requested,” Nick said. “We even have enough power to run a pressure barrier when the hold is open. Speaking of Intrepid, I have a load for you to take back with you.”
“Do I have enough room with the supplies I’m picking up in Manetra?”
“Just,” Nick said. “I’ve programmed both loads into your new stevedore.”
I took in a sharp breath. “You programmed the new stevedore while we were standing here talking?”
“I might have had some warning on your cargo problems,” Nick said, his eyes flitting for a moment over to Tabby.
“You guys suck,” I said as a stevedore flew out of Nick’s workshop and started loading crates onto Tuuq. “What’s in the crates?”
“Vid screens and holo projector parts,” Nick said. “Petersburg could have made them, but I have better access to the specialized materials.”
“I hate to rush off, but I’d like to get back to Petersburg and check out Intrepid,” I said.
“I’ll be coming along, Cap,” Marny said. “Give me a second and I’ll grab my go-bag.”
“You sure?” I asked. “We’re going to be out for a while.”
“Roger that, Cap. Nick and I are squared away.”
I glanced at Nick, who didn’t look quite as certain as Marny. I remembered the feeling very well when I’d watched Tabby leave me to go off to the academy. It wasn’t quite the same, but I certainly understood.
“Take as long as you need,” I said. “We’ll be aboard.”
I opened Tuuq’s hatch and followed Tabby through the starboard airlock. As a group, we weren’t interested in traipsing through the hold. It was mostly cleaned out, but still transferred odors to anything that entered.
“Permission to be about the bridge,” Marny called from the short hallway.
“Granted,” I held my fist out to her and she bumped it with her own. “Glad to have you aboard, Marny. Tabbs, you have the helm. Could you take us to Azima?”
“Copy that, Liam. I have the helm,” Tabby said.
I’d been working on an idea for making money as we traveled through Pogona space to Tanwar. While I wasn’t about to ignore Anino’s warning about attracting undo attention, it occurred to me that the right kind of attention might be just what Loose Nuts needed.
The idea had to do with the trouble we were constantly running into at the Tamu/Santaloo gate. I’d queried several shipping companies about providing armed escorts from Tamu through to Tanwar. The issue was that we had no reputation, and what company was going to pay an unknown, heavily armed ship to escort them into dangerous territory? For all anyone knew, maybe we were the pirates. Our brush with Rai Group was helping to build our reputation, but we needed something even splashier — and I had just the right idea.
The second issue was that not a single person on Intrepid knew a t
hing about Pogona, the Nijjar government, or Genteresk pirates. I couldn’t imagine sailing into potentially hostile alien territory without help. The best guide I could come up with lived in Azima and as luck would have it, I was feeling like grabbing a spicy lunch wrap.
“Azima ground control, this is Tuuq. We’re on approach to Blue Zone. Please advise,” I called as we closed in on the small city. I’d already cleared our plans for taking on supplies, mostly because I wasn’t sure if anyone might be holding a grudge, given our last visit.
“Tuuq this is Azima ground control. Welcome back and you’re clear for landing in Blue Zone.”
I chuckled as I closed the comms. We’d paid mightily during our last visit and I suspected our warm welcome was related to some freshly lined pockets.
“It’s going to be tight on the way back to Petersburg Station,” I said as Tabby landed. “I’m hoping to take on new crew.”
“What kind of crew, Cap?” Marny asked.
“Pogona,” I said. “Figure if that’s the direction we’re headed, we’ll be better off having someone on our side who can speak the language. Tabbs, would you mind supervising loading while Marny and I go talk to our potential new crew?”
“I think I can handle it,” Tabby said.
I followed Marny off the bridge and strapped a heavy flechette to my waist. With our grav-suits, I wasn’t concerned about trouble from locals, although I suspected our reputation for dealing with trouble would be a sufficient deterrent.
“Cap, you’re thinking Koosha will come along? What about his business?” Marny asked as we made our way down the narrow streets through the shopping bazaar. I was once again struck with how poor Azima felt in comparison to Puskar Stellar of Mars.
“It was his idea. I’m not even sure how Koosha knew where we were going. He said he had a proposal, but wouldn’t talk about it through electronic communications.”
“He’s an unusual bird,” Marny said. “But I get a good feeling from him.”
“Liam Hoffen, Marny Bertrand.” The sound of Koosha’s solicitous voice caught me before I saw him. “I have been ever so anticipating a chance to speak with you. Please sit and share tea with my family. Jala, bring tea and the boys. We will sit and drink with our friends.”
Corsair Menace (Privateer Tales Book 12) Page 17
