“Fred,” Marny answered. “George got a good jump on us. We’ll have to burn hard to catch him. Ada estimates ninety minutes.”
“Copy that,” I said. “Hoffen out.”
With prisoners in front, we worked our way aft, opening the remaining two doors within the passageway. The scene reminded me of my first time aboard Sterra’s Gift. The rooms were littered with trash and there was a high concentration of methane and biological particulates in the air. It wasn’t toxic, but I knew from previous experience with those air quality signatures that it must stink badly of waste.
“Are there any more crew?” I asked. “Only one chance to get this right. I’ll space the lot of you if I get another jack-in-the-box.”
The two prisoners looked at each other, confused. No doubt my jack-in-the-box reference wasn’t something our translation circuits would do well with, but I suspected they could figure it out, even so.
“Three of us. What has happened to our companion?” the smaller of the two asked as I pushed them into the room where the third lay dead.
I ignored the question and moved the mag-cuffs around to the front and loaded a baby sitter program onto them.
“The cuffs are programmed to painfully disable prisoners who take provocative actions. I recommend not testing them. We’ll be notified if you do. To be clear, you’re a pain in my ass right now and I wouldn’t mind tossing you out the airlock.”
I left the room and headed forward.
“I'll clear the rest of the ship,” Tabby said.
“Copy that.”
It would have been safer if I’d joined her, but this was still an enemy ship and I needed to make sure we were secure.
The bridge of the small cutter was as cluttered as the rest of the ship. I kicked debris out of my way and sat in one of the cracked-hide chairs.
Fred's controls were like Tuuq's and I did a quick survey of system statuses. To the extent I could get status on a system, it was generally not good. The ship was in poor shape, although fully loaded with fuel. As I searched the systems, I discovered I didn't have full access. Worse, a distress message had been sent on a tight beam.
"Jester Ripples, do you read?" I called over our comms. I wasn't surprised that I couldn't raise him as Intrepid was on hard burn, chasing the second cutter — and would be for the next ninety minutes.
"Calculate round trip message from nearest destination. Show as count-down timer." Six minutes showed on my HUD and continued counting backward.
I jumped from my seat and headed back to where the two prisoners sat with their backs against the forward bulkhead.
"What happens when your bosses get that message you sent?" I asked.
Tabby joined me in the room.
"What message?" the larger of the two asked.
"One of you sent a message after we boarded the ship," I said. “We have about six minutes before any response makes it back here. I'm guessing we'll either be locked out of the ship by then, or worse."
My translator had a difficult time keeping up with a rapid-fire exchange between our prisoners. The gist of it, however, was clear; the larger of the two was angry about the message that had been sent.
"You will die with us," the smaller said with contempt. "You sent your ship away, but Belvakuski will remotely destroy this ship and we will all die. My name will be spoken as hero. You are not so clever."
"Get these guys to the airlock, Tabbs," I said and sprinted from the room. Once back in the pilot's chair, I turned the cutter away from the fleet that was sitting hove-to near our position.
"Tutt, this is Hoffen," I called. My AI established a channel.
"Are you done playing pirate yet?" Tutt asked.
"No. We have about five minutes before this ship will be remotely destroyed. Don't follow us."
I cut the comm and programmed the ship to accelerate toward Bargoti at ten meters per second or roughly 1g. I ran back to the air-lock. Tabby was looking down at the smaller prisoner as he lay unmoving on the ground.
"What's going on?"
"Tried to jump me and the cuffs demonstrated baby-sitter discipline," Tabby answered. "The airlocks aren't responding."
It made sense. The pirates wouldn't want us getting off the ship, but if they'd locked out flight controls, it would have tipped us off sooner.
"Back to the bridge," I said, roughly pulling on the Pogona who lay on the floor. He resisted. "Your choice, dumbass." I let go and ran back to the bridge.
Four minutes. I couldn't believe how long every small action seemed to take.
Back on the bridge, I pulled a breaching cord from my pack. I wasn't sure if it would break through the glass and thick steel mullions, but we didn’t have a lot of choice.
"Fire in the hole," I said, pushing the larger prisoner back through the hatch and into the first room. It occurred to me that I wasn't giving clear instructions, but I was way down the path of improvising. My HUD showed four minutes as I ignited the breaching cord.
"Frak," Tabby exclaimed. The fact that we hadn't violently depressurized was a good clue the cord had been ineffective.
Three minutes thirty seconds.
"I'm setting a charge," I said. "Go to the back of the room and hunker down."
Tabby brusquely pushed the prisoner out of my way. I glanced down the passageway to where the smaller prisoner spasmed on the deck. Apparently, he continued having difficulty accepting the baby-sitter's lessons.
The char on the windows showed that the cord had burned through a considerable depth. The glass, however, was an excellent insulator. I'd have to remember that for next time. I placed a charge into the center of the glass panel I'd tried to burn through with the cord. My reasoning was that I'd likely weakened the area and my charge would be that much more effective.
Three minutes.
I set the timer for ten precious seconds I didn't feel I had and sprinted for the back room where Tabby had pulled up the same soiled mattress to crouch behind. On the way past, I grabbed the smaller Pogona and dragged him through the hatch. He resisted and I gave up, diving for cover next to Tabby.
Debris pelted the interior walls of the ship as the charge exploded. Almost instantaneously, the flow reversed as the pressurized atmosphere rushed to fill the void of space, dragging crap along with it.
"Go!" Tabby said, pushing the Pogona prisoner.
Two minutes thirty seconds.
As we passed, the smaller pirate grabbed at our legs, causing us to pile up at the doorway. Once again, he spasmed as the cuffs jolted him unkindly into passivity. Tabby pulled the larger Pogona from the pile and stumbled forward.
"We won't escape the ship's gravity," the Pogona complained as Tabby pushed him toward the hole.
Tabby jabbed him with the end of her blaster rifle. "Stop arguing or we're leaving you."
The pirate climbed through the hole and onto the outside of the ship. As he'd predicted, the ship's artificial gravity held him to the hull. The effect extended several meters beyond the ship and a suited crew member would have difficulty escaping. Generally, this was considered advantageous, as most crew wouldn't want to be separated from their ship. Currently, however, this feature was not to our advantage.
Two minutes.
I followed Tabby through the jagged hole. Our course of action was obvious and we grabbed the prisoner under each arm and pushed our grav-suits to separate us from the ship. We were in deep space, with little in the way of gravitational fields to work with; it was where our grav-suits were at their weakest. Even so, we slowly floated away from the cutter, accelerating with every second.
At zero, we'd gained a hundred meters of separation, but were still being pulled along in the wake of the ship. At that range, we were in considerable danger of being struck by shrapnel.
"Are you sure they're going to blow it?" Tabby asked.
"Depends on how quickly someone responds to the message," I said.
Minus thirty seconds.
The ship was two kilometers from ou
r position when it brilliantly exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions. I counted ten and then checked our bios on the HUD. No issues. We'd survived and had picked up a new friend.
"Incoming comm request, Aantal Tutt." My AI chimed.
"Go ahead, Tutt," I said.
"You live." Tutt stated the obvious.
"Ship was compromised. We had to take an alternate course of action," I said.
"Tell your ship to turn around," Tutt said. "You can see this is not a profitable venture. The Genteresk would prefer to destroy their ship rather than allow you to take control. I demand that we get underway immediately."
"Intrepid is under hard burn and won't be available for comm for another hour," I said. "That said, we could start burning for planet Bargoti. The area is clear."
Ten minutes later, Tutt's freighter, Dullo, lumbered toward our position and matched our velocity.
Once we cycled through the locks, we were met by Tutt and three armed crew. "Captain Hoffen, you will relinquish your weapons while aboard Dullo."
I nodded my head in agreement. When I put myself into his shoes, it wasn't hard to understand. Tabby and I had just forcibly boarded an armed warship and it had been blown up. Precaution was reasonable.
An hour later, we finally received our first communication from Intrepid.
"Liam, I'm not showing Fred on sensor," Ada said.
"Small problem with a remote destruct."
"Copy that. Jester Ripples defeated a similar problem on George. We're burning to the fleet and expect to arrive in sixty-five minutes."
"Copy. We're hanging out on Dullo. Captain Tutt is quite the host. Who's sailing George?" I asked as I eyed the guard who was posted at the door to the small room we'd been placed in. According to Tutt, the guard was to prevent the Pogona pirate from escaping. I suspected he also appreciated showing me who was boss.
"Sempre and Roby," Ada said.
"Roby and Sempre were on a boarding party?"
"Sempre, yes. Roby no," Ada said. "Marny and Sempre boarded. We sent Roby over once it was clear.
“How did you know to stop George from being destroyed?
“That was Jester Ripples,” Ada said. “He intercepted the command override from Genteresk. George’s systems are now fully within our control."
"Copy that," I said.
"You received a comm from Anino. Do you want me to forward it while you wait?"
“Of course.”
“What does it say?” Tabby asked, having overheard Ada’s offer to send along the message from Anino.
“It’s not much. He’s had more contact with Jonathan and thinks they might be in Adit Pah. Munay’s crew is alive and they’re hot on the trail.”
“Any word on Sendrei?”
“Nothing. According to Anino, he’s received less than thirty-two bits of data in total, so he’s actually guessing on everything he’s telling us.”
“Thirty bits? That’s ridiculous. No one can communicate anything useful with that little data,” Tabby said after a moment’s pause. I suspected she’d used a few seconds to identify what the data measurement referred to.
“Maybe Munay will uncover something.”
“Maybe,” Tabby agreed.
Chapter 23
Pooni
“That was amusing,” I said, joining Ada, Marny, Jala, Arijeet and Jester Ripples in the wardroom. With Roby and Sempre aboard George, we were starting to feel the pinch of being short-handed and there was no reason to separate crew from officers for meals.
“Amusing — right,” Ada said, pursing her lips. “I believe Tutt would argue over the color of bathroom tissue.”
I’d listened to the exchange between Tutt and Ada as she worked to convince the surly trader to stop his acceleration long enough for Tabby and me to transfer back to Intrepid. In the end, she’d placed Intrepid nose-to-nose with Dullo and dared him to ram her. It was an uneven match as Intrepid’s nose was heavily armored. While Dullo had a small sheath of armor, it was nothing in comparison.
“Cap, what did you learn from Anino?” Marny asked.
“Not much more than we’re headed in the right direction,” I said. “Anino believes the Kroerak ship is headed for the Adit Pah system — if it isn’t there already.”
“And, there’s no word on Sendrei,” Tabby added.
“What happened to Munay? I thought he was taken out,” Marny said.
“There weren’t a lot of details. Jala, what can you tell us about planet Bargoti?”
Jala smiled demurely at the attention. “It is cold, but with substantial water resources,” she said. “Most people gather around the middle band of the planet where it is warmest. It is the third planet inhabited by Pogona and most known for the great, furred beasts that inhabit the icy wastelands. They are called Svelti. The most common tribe on Bargoti is named for these creatures who serve as companions.”
Ada flicked a short video she’d found showing a Pogona wrapped in furs, walking across a frigid, barren landscape. Behind the Pogona, two extremely wide-shouldered humanoids covered entirely in thick, dirty white fur pulled a sled through the snow. The Svelti’s pitch-black faces were devoid of fur and bore peaceful expressions, even though their massive hands sported long, sharp-looking black claws.
“Are Svelti friendly?” I asked. “Those claws are terrifying.”
Jala smiled. “Svelti are simple creatures who have adapted to living in an extremely cold climate. They are adept at clawing through ice to find sustenance. They are passive and have a simple language. Occasionally, one will turn back to its wild ways and have to be put down.”
“Looks like slavery to me,” Tabby snapped.
“I make no judgment about this,” Jala said. “The Pogona of the Svelti tribe are, however, very protective of their lesser companions.”
“I’m not sure we’ll have a chance to visit the surface,” I said. “We weren’t able to find any manufacturing or shipping operations interested in our stevedore bots.”
“You’re looking at the stevedores, right there,” Tabby said, still annoyed.
“Tabitha is correct,” Jala said. “The tribe protects all manual labor for the Svelti. It is their contribution, which they enjoy. I have seen this firsthand, if only briefly.”
“Five days,” Ada said. “Fortunately, planet Bargoti’s orbit is close to the wormhole locations.”
“I imagine that’s all part of Tutt’s master plan,” I said.
Pooni Station bustled with activity as we arrived. Each ship in the convoy was given a docking bay along the outside of a great ring that was connected at four points to an interior, tube-shaped station that had capacity for twenty thousand souls. According to Jala, long ago both ring and station had rotated to generate gravity, but had been converted a few centuries back. Orientation of the artificial gravity on the ring was outward, with our feet pointed to space and our heads toward the station.
The arrival of our nine-ship convoy caused quite a commotion. A herd of squat, furry Svelti flooded out from the spokes of the station and onto the decks of the ring to greet each ship.
“Glub, glub.”
Two ivory-furred Svelti approached Intrepid’s forward cargo bay, pulling a heavy, rustic, wheeled cart. Their front paws gripped the thick neck yoke, which sat at the end of a long wooden falling tongue attached to the wagon.
The offered Svelti greeting had a musical quality to it.
“I’m sorry, my translation isn’t working,” I said, looking for help from the fur-covered, young Pogona that sat high on a bench, at the front of the cart.
“She is greeting you,” the Pogona said, jumping down gracefully. “Her name is Glub Glub.”
I nodded. “Liam Hoffen.” I smiled, careful not to show teeth as I did. I’d yet to run into any species beyond human who thought showing teeth was a friendly gesture. “It is nice to meet you Glub Glub.”
Glub Glub’s black face bore a peaceful, childish expression, but I wasn’t about to offer my hand for shaki
ng. She had thick, long claws that grew along the backs of her fingers instead of protruding like nails. A malodor hit me as she and the other Svelti stood, bobbing their heads as if listening to music.
“I understand you have a load of sheet steel and armored glass?” The Pogona pronounced the last with an up inflection, making armored glass sound like a question.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ve a new orbital steel mill in Santaloo system and are delivering samples. Skanti Manufacturing?”
At the mention of Skanti, the two Svelti started bobbing more quickly. “Anti, anti,” Glub Glub sing-songed, making me wonder if her name was actually just Glub.
The Pogona nodded. “That’s what I have. Looks like a small load. We’ll get right to it.”
Tabby and Marny stood further back in the forward hold. We’d agreed that it would be best if we didn’t approach the Svelti as a large group, just in case they were skittish — which didn’t seem to be the case.
“Glub, bring the cart inside. No hurt.” The Pogona stepped into the translucent energy barrier that stretched across our forward hold.
Docking at Pooni had presented Ada a significant challenge and we weren’t confident in the seal between ship and station. We had decided, therefore, to leave the barrier in place.
Glub Glub lowered her head. She and her smaller twin pushed the cart into our hold as I indicated the stack of steel and glass to be offloaded.
The Svelti weren’t particularly fast in their task, but were more than strong enough to lift a hundred kilograms of sheet on each load. With little help from the Pogona, they completed the task in thirty minutes.
“Thank you, Glub,” I called, after signing the Pogona’s offered pad.
“Glub Glub,” she called back, looking over her shoulder for a moment.
A chime sounded, notifying me that payment from the convoy had been transferred from Tutt and in turn, I sent payment to the crew.
"We're clear, Ada," I called over tactical.
A moment later, Intrepid's magnetically attached glad-hands released and retracted. The station's locking clamps also released, setting Intrepid adrift.
Corsair Menace (Privateer Tales Book 12) Page 28
