Chapter 20
Captain Klaus Henricks leaned over his sink and splashed cold water on his face. He had just stepped from his shower stall and the small head was still hot after his shower. The cold water helped revive him. He stepped out of the head into his cabin. He dressed in his uniform quickly in order to return to the bridge. He loved spending his time on the bridge or at the back of the bridge in CIC. But he always completed his afternoon workout. It was important to get exercise to combat the sedentary lifestyle one can slip into while aboard ship. Now that the afternoon gym ritual was completed he could return to the bridge with a clear mind. He moved from his cabin, through his day cabin, and out the hatch into the CIC.
“Captain present!” A sensor operator spoke out as the first man to see the captain emerge. All the CIC personnel acknowledged his presence by standing, or with respectful nods by those manning stations and could not rise. Henricks smiled and nodded at the CIC personnel as he moved to the front of CIC and stopped next to the duty officer who served as both CIC duty officer and the bridge officer of the watch. Lieutenant Karl Strassman was the duty officer for the afternoon watch.
“Nothing to report, sir,” Strassman formally reported to his captain. He went on a little less formally. “There were two freighters on long range sensors fifteen and thirty minutes ago. We checked out their credentials through their IFF and it was all normal.”
Henricks nodded and thanked him. He moved to the front of the bridge and peered out the large rectangular portholes. Of course, there was nothing to see but pinpricks of lights in a large black void, but he never tired of looking out. The bridge personnel were used to the captain loitering on the bridge and calmly went about their duties. Henricks leaned on the thick glass and peered out.
Although he couldn’t see them, he knew his three escort destroyers were out there on the edge of sensor range. The four ships of his division were conducting a sweep along the likely trade routes on the sun side of the planet Agra 2. This was in response to the recent destruction of a patrol craft leased by the Sunrise Grange by a pirate ship. A week ago, the Imperial Navy moved several ships into this area in response to the Sunrise cry for help and protection. The mission was twofold. The first was to escort Sunrise sanctioned freighters from the Agra planets to their offload points, and the second was to conduct sweeps to engage pirates and to catch renegade freighters attempting to carry produce not part of the Sunrise Grange. Henricks had his doubts about the whole mission. Rumor had it the Sunrise Grange was tied to Prince Joseph. This connection with the royal family was probably the reason the Navy quickly moved ships into the area to provide protection to the Sunrise corporation as it tried to monopolize food production in a large segment of the Badlands. Henricks was all for hunting and destroying pirate ships, but to help a company bend the local population to its will was a little outside his comfort zone. He also wasn’t happy about corporations having their own patrol craft. He mentally shrugged. It wasn’t the first time he wondered about his orders and it wouldn’t be the last.
He was happy to be out in space. His ship was the heavy cruiser Valkyrie, a new unit originally assigned to patrol the Empire’s border with the Aurora Empire. She was a fine ship with a great crew. The three destroyers were also recent additions to the Navy. His division had arrived here three weeks ago and had conducted two short sorties already. There had been no real action. They encountered the odd freighter occasionally and twice met Sunrise patrol craft. Valkyrie had been doing much the same duty on the Aurora border although the quarry there was smugglers. They had chased many and caught their share. This looked to be much the same, hours and days of boredom with a few moments of excitement. This was Henricks’ first tour of the Badlands. He had heard Badlands stories for years and, upon arriving here, had read several official reports. Clearly, there was much more action here than on the other borders but, so far, all was quiet. It was fine. Henricks was a patient man and this mission was open ended. There was plenty of opportunity for action ahead.
“Contact reported from Absolut. Three ships on the port side. Ten degrees up.”
Henricks turned and walked to the sensor station to view the screen himself. With the contact, the Valkyrie had tapped into the Absolut’s sensors, and Henricks now watched three blips move along the edge of the sensor scan.
“Come port thirty degrees, up ten.” Henricks was making a broad swing toward the bogeys. His division turned and set up an interception course. They maintained the same line abreast to continue maximum coverage as they closed on the contacts. The four warships increased speed to maximum sustained speed. These ships could be innocent freighters moving in convoy, they could be decoys to draw in patrols and let others pass by, or they could be trying to run the gauntlet.
“Time to intercept is three hours at current speeds. IFF is the freighter Cat’s Eye, the freighter Psychic, and the freighter Hurricane.” The long-range sensor operator kept a running commentary.
For fifteen minutes the Goth division closed on the three ships.
“Targets increasing speed. Adjusted intercept time is three hours forty-four minutes at current speeds.”
Henricks frowned. Innocent ships would let the naval ships close on them. They might even welcome the escort. This was a new variable. He moved to his command chair at the front edge of CIC just behind the bridge. He sat and brought up his screens. The captains of the three destroyers were already online. “Gentlemen.” Henricks said to acknowledge the connectivity but added nothing more. Idle chatter or pointing out the obvious was not his command style.
The time passed quickly as the warships closed on the three freighters. The freighters had pushed their speed up even more as the warships closed the gap. They were at their limit now as the warships continued to close. They were making for a planet with four moons. Henricks saw no advantage there, but people tended to move toward objects in space rather than remain in the cold, black void depending on their instruments to keep them on course. Henricks had seen it before. This was not unusual at all. Just the same, he would ensure those rocks were scanned for evidence of a potential ambush.
“They are separating.” The sensor operator intoned with a slight edge to his voice.
Henricks looked at his screen with sensor readings. Sure enough, two of the ships were accelerating away from the middle ship and continuing toward the planet. The increase in speed matched the closing naval warships. The two departing ships now maintained a steady gap with their pursuers as the third ship was still being overtaken.
Henricks turned to Lieutenant Strassman. “Those two bogeys are not freighters with that burst of speed. Need an ID on them.”
“Aye, Captain.” Strassman turned to his screen and the accompanying databases.
Henricks ordered his force to close on the single lagging ship identified as Cat’s Eye. The three destroyers slightly altered course so the four pursuers would arrive at Cat’s Eye together. Henricks wanted his ships to be able to mutually support each other in case those two ships out there got an idea.
Time continued to pass as the pursuers closed on their quarry. The bridge was quiet. Valkyrie had been in several similar pursuits chasing smugglers and other ships during their previous tour on the Aurora border. Although in a pursuit, there was no sense of urgency or anxiety as crewmen quietly went about their routine duties. Once the quarry was overtaken, there would be the possibility for action then, and the crew would be ready. Interception of the lone straggler would be in forty-five minutes. “The lone ship is confirmed as the Cat’s Eye out of the Edinburgh System. Old bulk carrier of two thousand tons. Unknown captain. Still researching the other two.” Strassman was doing his research.
“Very well,” Henricks gave a rote reply to acknowledge the information. “Scan the planet and the moons as we close on them. I want to be sure nothing is hiding there. Ensure a subspace scan in detail.”
At thirty minutes out from Cat’s Eye, klaxons sounded on all four warships sending their cr
ews to general quarters. This was a Navy-wide standard operating procedure as a chase came to a conclusion. So far, there was nothing to indicate this would be anything other than routine. Henricks silently flipped through all his screens as crewmembers bustled around him. He was compiling all the information available as his division closed on target. The two running vessels were an unknown and he detested unknowns. With that speed, they were warships, or smugglers, or both. They were not a creditable threat to his four warships in their current position, but they were a variable that had to be taken into consideration.
The sensors scanned Cat’s Eye. The old freighter had started to slow down. The scans revealed a great temperature differential between the ship’s two engines. The port engine was overheating due to a maintenance casualty of unknown origin. The engine was reducing its power output and this accounted for the gradual slowing of the target. Interception in eighteen minutes now.
The two other ships continued to move away from their recent comrade. They maintained a forty-five minute gap with their pursuers.
The sensor operator sounded off, “Analysis of the freighter indicates a coil in her port engine has dislodged from at least two of its four mountings and is vibrating on its stand. This is causing overheating in her port engine and power fluctuations. The crew seems to have moved additional cooling pumps to the area trying to keep the coil online.”
Henricks shifted to the audio sensors. He could distinctly hear the banging within the port engine each time the sensor bounced a beam off the target, and the sound travelled back along the beam to his ship. The crew would have to shut down the port engine to secure the coil back on its mount, and they wouldn’t want to do that during the chase. “Well, the chase was almost over for Cat’s Eye,” thought Henricks with a bit of satisfaction. He wasn’t sure what his force would encounter when they overtook Cat’s Eye, but clearly, the freighter was involved in something of a dubious nature, and taking her would be a step forward in this region. Henricks smiled to himself. It would be nice to score a small victory every now and then to justify the long boring sorties. Interception in nine minutes.
“The two unknown ships are slowing,” the sensor operator spoke with a note of alarm. His voice then returned to normal. “They are holding position forty-three minutes out.”
Henricks viewed them as they hovered just beyond the missile engagement envelope near one of the moons of the nearby planet that had been their destination. They would come within the missile engagement envelope if they maintained their current position as the Valkyrie and her escorts overtook Cat’s Eye. But they would barely be in missile range, and if fired on, they could move away and absorb only the single salvo. Henricks wanted to take the single salvo shot, but not if it had no chance to score at least a lucky hit. He couldn’t do that until he knew the identity of the two ships sitting out there, and what type of defense they could muster.
As if reading his mind, Strassman sounded off. “One of the ships is the Firestorm under Frederich Halder, and the other is Marauder under James Concannon. Firestorm is associated with two other ships under Halder’s two cousins, and Marauder is associated with Raferty Hawkins.”
The information came up on the sensor screens next to the images of the two ships. The three destroyers would also see this information now if they hadn’t already found it on their own. Henricks considered this new development. Firestorm was the pirate ship that had attacked the Grange patrol vessel, so it wasn’t surprising she was here. But Marauder was a new variable. Henricks was surprised to see the ship here. He was familiar with Raferty Hawkins from the reports he read as part of the transition into the Badlands. Hawkins had not been reported in this area and, in fact, he and the majority of his ships had been laying low for the last several weeks. Naval intelligence was split as to what Raferty Hawkins actually commanded. Some thought he commanded several ships with a chain of command very much like that seen in the Navy. Others thought pirates were basically an independent group who went their own way and only teamed with Hawkins when it was to their advantage to do so. These ships spent the majority of their time alone or in small groups for short times. Henricks had noted the Hawkins’ group had gotten together three months ago and allied themselves with the small Zeke squadron in response to an OrCon battle group that had entered the Badlands. That particular report had many holes in it, and Henricks knew there was much more to that particular story than was in the report. Gossip among naval officers was awash with the details of that episode. None of the details very clear or very enlightening.
Henricks considered the pairing of the ships. Firestorm was definitely not a member of the Hawkins group. The fact Marauder was now teamed with her made Henricks think Marauder was raiding independently of Hawkins and had joined Firestorm as a matter of convenience.
Henricks considered his courses of action. He could push past the disabled freighter and continue the pursuit. He would have to drop off one destroyer to take control of the stationary trading craft. The two pirate vessels were certainly as fast as his ships and, if reports were to be believed, slightly faster. His force could pursue them for a long time with no results. Henricks could try to call in other naval units patrolling in nearby sectors to attempt to establish a net around the two fugitives. But it would require many ships and a great bit of luck to bring them to heel. Also, the two might draw him into the chase and circle back to their freighter and the lone destroyer would be left behind. Henricks shook his head. Too many variables for that course of action. Take what you have and go from there.
He talked to his destroyer captains. “We’ll stop at Cat’s Eye and conduct a search of that ship. Absolut, you will take command of her. I will provide an overwatch capability. Zigeuner on my port and down. Harmonie on the starboard and up.”
He had established a circle around the freighter with one destroyer taking the freighter while he provided protective cover if required. A second destroyer would be to his port and have responsibility for the space below the formation while the other would be on the starboard side with responsibility for the security above the formation. All three destroyer captains acknowledged their orders and began to adjust their positions to quickly slide into the appropriate spot when the formation overtook the still moving Cat’s Eye. Interception in three minutes.
The communications station spoke up with a note of surprise in her voice. “Incoming message from one of the pirate ships. Ten second delay time.”
Henricks raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected that. “I’ll take it.” He smiled to himself. Maybe they wanted to surrender he thought mockingly.
A man appeared on his screen with a serious manner. “Captain James Concannon of Marauder. We were escorting a freighter engaged in lawful commerce of moving produce from Agra 2 to market. You have violated several accords and agreements by stopping us.”
“Mister Concannon,” Henricks never addressed commanders of pirate ships, smugglers, or such with the word Captain. That was a term of accomplishment and respect he would never give to people such as this. “I am Captain Klaus Henricks of the Imperial ship Valkyrie. You and your companion are pirates. Both of you are wanted in several systems. Your companion recently attacked a patrol craft while it was engaged in lawful duties. Surely you don’t believe we should just sail away and let you go about your business.”
Henricks waited for a reply as his force overtook Cat’s Eye and the destroyer Absolut moved into position on her starboard side opposite the damaged port engine pod. Absolut began broadcasting for the limping freighter to heave to and prepare for boarding. The glow from the failing port engine was dominating all the sensors whenever the sensor strobe swept over her. Finally, the freighter shut down both engines and began to glide to a stop. Absolut matched her slowing momentum and maintained a close position on the starboard side. Despite the shutdown of engines, noise continued from the port engine pod. The crew must be attempting to fasten down the coil mount, and they were still using the cooling units to re
duce the heat so they could get in close to do the work.
Forty seconds later a reply came from the Marauder, “The patrol craft was, in reality, a blockade vessel attempting to stop any trading from the Agra planets except for that trade conducted by the Sunrise Grange so that corporation can maintain their monopoly on food distribution in this area. I‘m sure you already know that even if you won’t admit it. After all, it is your government that gave them the…”
Another voice and image broke in. A large man with a broad, homely face stared into the screen and at the Goth Captain. “You’re the pirates here, Captain Henricks. I’m engaged in trading foodstuffs with a two-ship escort and you are attacking me. Your pursuit has caused damage to one of my engines. We will not let you board us.”
The transmission abruptly ended. Apparently, when the freighter captain jumped into the conversation, the pirate had not realized it and he had continued to speak. The delay time would have allowed the pirate to continue to talk before he would realize the freighter captain had overrode him, but whatever he had said would have been lost to the override from the freighter’s transmission.
Henricks decided to respond to the freighter captain to try to get this resolved with minimum effort.
“Who is the freighter captain?” he asked Strassman.
“Face recognition has turned up a master’s license in the name of Mather Lake. Records state he is a qualified captain in this quadrant.”
Strassman continued, “Nothing else on file. Apparently, Cat’s Eye has never had any trouble with any authorities. No report on her over the last several months doing much of anything. She is just a tramp freighter running any cargo which comes along.”
Payback Is a Given: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 2 Page 16
