The Pirates of Clew

by Taylor Smith

  Haley thought about it for a moment and made the decision. They were in the deep end now, and there was no telling when they’d have a chance to get back to Allied space. So she compromised. “A copy. You have to give the originals back and promise to get Saundi and I back to the Alliance. No tricks. I can smash them right now.”

  “Deal. You have to get that to your commanders, but if there’s something in there that could help us find Andrelli,” he paused and left the rest unspoken.

  Haley slid the small devices across the table just as the door to the room opened. She looked up to find the man who called himself Captain Johns.

  “We have to get ready for transit. These two,” the man said pointing to Haley and then to Saundi standing outside who looked irritated but unhurt, “need to be in tanks within the hour.”

  Haley felt fear creep back up her spine. She had let herself get a little too comfortable with Cade, and she regretted it immediately. They would have found the devices she carried at some point, so she may as well use it all as leverage to get them back. But there was one thing she decided to keep to herself: the beacon. Each time they needed to meet the recon ship, now known as the Reaper, it would signal by using a subspace beacon. Regardless of Andrelli being the receiver, the Alliance would be able to track it as well. She could use this later, hopefully sooner, if another Alliance ship were to pick up the signal. It gave her a chance at rescue anyway.

  ***

  Haley and Saundi were ushered into a small room with a row of tanks along the back wall. They were older tanks, but they looked to be in working order. She’d heard horror stories about malfunctioning tanks and tried to shake her mind of them.

  “You gonna stare at us while we get undressed?” came Saundi’s annoyed tone.

  The man guarding them rolled his eyes and said, “Fine. I’m leaving anyway.” He left the room but not without a look back before shutting the door and locking them in.

  Haley shook her head and looked around the room. There was nothing but the tanks and the walls around them. “Well, I guess we won’t be making our grand escape from here.”

  Saundi shook her head. “The tanks are on isolated power systems too, I bet. The most we could do is break our own tanks and be left hungry and awake until they jumped, then it would all be over.”

  Haley began undressing for the tank and then looked up and said, “I’m sorry. Benley and I thought it would be a good plan but…” she left the rest unsaid and gestured around the room.

  “We’re not on Valiant, girl! I’d say that’s a win,” Saundi answered and looked around. “But you’re right. It’s not quite what we were expecting.” She paused and looked to Haley. “You didn’t tell them anything, did you?”

  Haley shrugged. She wasn’t sure how much she should tell Saundi about what had been said. She’d pretty much laid everything out to the pirate and knew her friend would be upset. “They have the drives.”

  Saundi thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “Can’t do anything about that. That’s hard data. Did they ask about shipping, or Alliance weak spots? Fleet movements? Where we hide the buried treasure?”

  She grinned at her friend but then paused. “No.” The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t make any sense. “He didn’t ask anything like that.”

  “Okay. Then what?”

  She smiled. “He asked my name.” She couldn’t help but think there was more to Cade. There was no reason for her to even care, but there was something about him that tugged at her.

  “Oh, hell, no,” Saundi suddenly said.

  Haley jerked upright at her friend’s reaction. “What?”

  “Let’s just keep our game faces on? Please?” Saundi said with an aggravated huff. “You were never like this in the academy.”

  Haley ignored her friend’s irritation and finished getting ready. “That’s just it, though. It’s confusing. He didn’t ask me anything that would compromise the Alliance. He’s just a guy.”

  “Criminal,” Saundi said as she stepped into her tank and donned her mask.

  “You’re wrong,” Haley finally shot. It was rewarding to see Saundi’s face. She knew her friend really wanted to get the last word in but the mask had activated and was now putting her to sleep.

  As she activated her own mask, she couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen to them. Cade had told her they wouldn’t be hurt, but she couldn’t believe anything he’d said. Still, as she drifted to sleep she found that she wanted nothing more than to trust him.

  Chapter 13

  “Reaper approaching on final,” Andy relayed to Clew Station as they approached.

  “Very well, Reaper. Flight plan uploaded. You’re clear to dock,” came the reply.

  “Wow,” Cade whispered. He’d never seen Clew Station from the outside before. He may have when he was a kid, but he couldn’t remember, and the dents were never allowed out of their tanks until after they were docked.

  Clew Station was a massive cylindrical space station flying across the empty space between stars. Upon seeing it, with several ships moored directly to the outside of the station you would never know it was moving at all. Eight hulking engine mounts, remnants of when the station was still a seed ship, still sat behind the structure. The engines had been removed and scavenged for parts to build the station once it was set on course, but the large steel girders that once held them in place still remained.

  In front sat a massive, squat structure filled with windows. Cade had never been inside of the control center himself, but he’d seen pictures. He knew it was eight levels, surrounded by real views of space all three hundred and sixty degrees. From there each function of every system was administered and monitored by hundreds of people.

  On the outside of the station sat an oddity. Down one long side of this perfect cylinder there was a long, shell-like structure that protruded from the front all the way back to the engine mounts in the rear. Cade knew this wasn’t part of the original station, but the great beast of a warship named Leviathan. The founders had created a docking cradle directly on the station for the massive ship. As he thought about it, he realized that old Julian Neese must have been a genius.

  Cade’s eyes widened as realization crashed down and he slowly turned to eye Andy who sat calmly in the captain’s chair. “Neese,” he whispered.

  Andy quickly turned his head to find Cade staring with a star-struck look on his face and shook his head, trying to ignore him.

  “So you’re like, royalty,” Cade said with a slowly forming grin.

  “Shut up,” Andy replied, not breaking his chiseled exterior and continued to work his control panel.

  “You’re like a real space pirate princess, aren’t ya?” Cade pressed.

  Andy laughed. “I said shut up.”

  “Yes, your highness,” Cade quipped and turned back to his console.

  “Cade, I swear…“ He started, unable to hide a wide grin.

  The Reaper flew gracefully across the upper portion of Clew Station and around several moored vessels that were attached to the station by gantries. Those ships, like the gigantic cargo haulers and repair platforms, were too big for the docking bay. Cade watched his telemetry closely, following the flight plan Clew Control had sent him and settled into a slow final approach lined up perfectly for the station’s single enormous docking bay.

  As they neared the hull of the station that now filled the entire view screen, the bay doors opened to reveal a short tunnel that burrowed into the heart of Clew.

  “Reaper, this is Clew control,” came a woman’s crisp voice over the speaker. “Please release your guidance systems to me.”

  Cade entered the sequence Andy had shared with him during transit and then nodded his readiness to his Captain.

  “Guidance released, control. She’s all yours,” replied Andy.

  “Thank you, Reaper. I have you now. Enjoy the ride and welcome home.”

  Cade sat back wide-eyed and full of wonder as he watched the
scene play out. In all his ten years as a dent aboard the Grim Shoals and in the weeks of hell that had followed, he never imagined he would be piloting a ship into Clew. His daydreams usually hit the ceiling at hoping dinner didn’t taste like crap and spending a little time with Asaya. He tried not to feel a twinge of pain at the thought of her, but couldn’t help it.

  ***

  “How do you feel?” asked the doctor.

  Cade lifted his left arm and stared at it again for the hundredth time. Its metal frame gleamed slightly in the hospital lights, and as he closed his fist he could see the movement of the wires and gears inside. “Fine,” he responded, though he wasn’t sure exactly how he felt. When he touched something, he could really feel it, but it was different, faked in an exasperated way. “Maybe the feeling is a little high,” he wondered aloud.

  The doctor nodded and turned back to a large touch screen on the wall. “I can fix that. Try now.”

  Cade reached the alien arm out and grabbed the railing of the bed, then released it. “Better. It still doesn’t feel real, but it’s not as intense.” He jogged in place a moment, trying to adjust to his left leg again. It didn’t need to be replaced like his arm, and it wasn’t loaded with receptors like his hand was, but it was still odd. At least the limp wasn’t as bad. He hoped it would go away in time.

  “The artificial feeling is normal. You’ll get used to it. Are you ready for the eye?”

  He took a deep breath and nodded, then winced at a sudden headache that seemed to pierce the back of his scalp before it dissipated. “Oh,” he said when he recovered.

  The doctor grinned. “You’re one of the lucky ones.”

  “So they say,” he grumbled and turned his attention back to his vision. It was odd at first, not quite working in sync with his right eye, but it was beginning to clear up. After only a few moments, he smiled. “That’s amazing.”

  The doctor’s smile widened. “Why, thank you,” he said, obviously pleased for a compliment.

  Cade looked around and genuinely smiled again. “Thanks. I can’t tell any difference from before.”

  “That’s where you’re in for a treat!” the doctor began excitedly. “I’ve installed a new module in your implant. Access it now, please. The new module is called ‘eye’”

  Cade thought about his implant and it activated. “Original, I guess.” He dropped from his normal helm implant functions and accessed the main menu, then the eye program. “Oh,” he said looking at all the options. “Night vision. Translation. Targeting?” he asked.

  “Oh yes!” the doctor said with a gleeful flail of his entire body, then rummaged around in a nearby cabinet. He rounded back to cade holding a gun.

  “Oh, hey, hey now,” Cade said holding up his hand in front of the doctor.

  “It’s all right, son,” the doctor said in that disturbingly calm voice. “It’s fake. Here, activate the targeting subsystem and hold this.”

  Cade eyed the doctor, and then took the gun. Upon activating the targeting system, a small crosshair appeared at any point he aimed the pistol, along with a small label that read ‘test42 sidearm replica’. “Whoa.”

  “Indeed! The program will identify the weapon you’re holding and estimate it’s point of impact by calculating gun type, ammunition type and environmental variables such as gravity, wind speeds – “.

  “Ok, Doc, I get it. Pretty cool,” he interrupted and laid the fake gun down. “I don’t think I’ll be in a gun fight any time soon, though.”

  “Pity,” the doctor replied.

  Cade raised an eyebrow at that, then looked back to the options he had. “Damage control and repair, engineering?”

  “Precisely. You may load any schematic of any form for any machine you wish to work on, and the eye will guide you through troubleshooting and repair. Even routine maintenance.” His smile was ear to ear.

  “Ok. Lucky,” he relented, which seemed to please the doctor even more.

  “Cade,” came Andy’s voice from across the room as he entered and approached them. “Come on. The council wants us up there.”

  Cade released a long breath and nodded, knowing it would come sooner or later. All the activity recently with Valiant and Captain Torbeck was sure to earn a summons to appear before the council. He had dreaded it, even though Andy said they were all blowhards and nothing Cade could say would make any difference. “Ok, let me get dressed.”

  “Your bill will be issued by the end of the day,” said the doctor.

  Cade turned back to the doctor with a scowl. “Bill?”

  The doctor tilted his head in confusion. “You didn’t think this was free, did you? That’s some top notch work there.”

  “But I don’t have – “

  “He’s good for it,” Andy cut him off. “You’ve got plenty. I just deposited your share of that hauler the Reaper picked up after,” Andy looked away for a moment. “You know. Anyway, your contract is still good, and that’s your share.”

  Cade grimaced, trying not to let his memories surface again and nodded. “How much?”

  Andy eyed the doctor. “We’ll talk about it later.”

  He shrugged and turned to grab his clothes, happy to be able to get out of the hospital garb and caught his reflection in the large mirror on the other side of the wall. He had intentionally avoided mirrors since he woke up in the Reaper’s sickbay, but now he got a full view of the destruction Andrelli had caused, and he couldn’t help but pause and stare.

  The doctor had removed all the bandages from his head and left side. What was left was hard for Cade to take. His hair was gone. Just gone. There was a spider webbed scar that ran down the left side of his head, down his face and continued across his neck. He took the hospital top off and found it covered the entire left half of his body. His left eye was silver with a hint of a blue aura and didn’t quite match his deep brown right eye. His left arm was a stainless steel skeletal abomination that looked more like a robot’s arm than his own. The muscles that had been replaced in his left calf and thigh matched the arm, there was just less of it.

  Cade took a deep breath, unable to tear his gaze from the mirror. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “I’ve seen worse,” Andy said from beside him. “Come on, beautiful. Those old crones get whiney when people are late.”

  Cade found a chuckle rise through the gloom and started getting dressed. “Right. Don’t want to piss the council off.”

  “Look on the bright side,” Andy said as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “You’re a pirate of Clew now. And damn, you sure look the part. I wouldn’t mess with ya.”

  Cade strapped his boots on, donned Kova’s sword and looked back at his friend. “I never wanted to be a pirate.”

  As they left the hospital, Cade and Andy walked onto the main habitat of the station. The sounds of hundreds of people moving by assaulted Cade’s senses. People walked by talking on their implants, vendors shouted their specials, and the transit cars roared overhead as they shuffled people from one end of Clew to the other.

  Cade smelled the air and found it comforting. The food, the people, the machinery; it delighted him. Clew was his home. It had been a long time.

  He glanced upward to the many holographic flags that waved as if they were being tussled by a breeze. Each flag carried the name of a ship, a ship known to be destroyed in service to Clew. Grim Shoals was being honored alongside them now, as well as the Crazyhorse. He took a quiet moment to pay his respects and once again vow vengeance.

  “All of it,” Andy suddenly said, jerking Cade from his thoughts.

  “What do you mean all of it?” Cade asked, not understanding what he was talking about.

  Andy stopped and shook his head. “That mark was a Grim Shoals catch. You were the only survivor and once the doc decided you would pull through, the operation turned from salvage to rescue.” He shrugged and said, “the Reaper would have taken a twenty percent cut, but since Torbeck was instrumental in the destruction of the Grim
Shoals, that cut was forfeit, as well as…” he winced.

  “What?” Cade was still trying to wrap his head around what his friend was saying.

  Andy took a deep breath and seemed to steady himself before saying, “As well as full share for the salvage of the Grim Shoals herself. Two point seven million credits in total.”

  Cade’s brow shot upward. “You’re kidding.” He couldn’t believe that amount had been transferred into his account. Even in dreams he never expected to have an account that big. He decided then and there that he would divvy it up among the families of the Grim Shoals crew who were lost.

  They walked onward, through the masses and finally up to a pair of large wooden doors that stood near the center of the station. Emblazoned above the massive door was the age-old skull and crossed swords. The Jolly Roger.

  Andy went ahead, placed both hands on the doors and pushed. They parted with an eerie groan that Cade thought was rather over the top. If the council was rude, he would come back and oil the hinges out of spite.

  The two men crossed the threshold of the old doors and entered a large room with no doors or windows, which confused Cade until he saw Andy working a control panel on the far wall. Two new doors closed, and the room jerked slightly. Cade realized it was a lift, and it was quick, too. The doors opened onto a dark, grand hall that was oddly quiet and smelled musty like an old real-leather jacket. As they entered, Cade realized the room wasn’t lit customarily, but with rows of torches that ran down either side of the hall. He figured they were illusionary. Who in their right mind would light an open fire on a space station?

  Their boot steps echoed in the shadowy hall as they walked, and Cade’s slight limp registered sharply. They neared the center and Cade realized there was a huge wooden table surrounded by a good number of men quietly watching them. Each man seated seemed to be dressed different from the next, but the tying factor was that each seemed up in their years, and each wore the Jolly Roger proudly, along with a ship name beneath it.

  “So this is the boy who killed Torbeck,” ground out one of the old men in the same accent that Cade recognized as Kova and even Torbeck.