Resolute Omnibus (The War for Terra)

by James Prosser

  “It smells delicious,” Melaina said. “I haven’t eaten anything much since we left Perigee.”

  “Well you chose the right morning to come down,” Bonnie replied, dropping the ladle back into the pot with a loud slurp. “Don’t worry about the mess, we don’t really have a wait staff and I haven’t had the time to go hose the place down.”

  The woman returned to her pot and away from Melaina. The olive-skinned woman made her way over to a small booth set into the wall and tried to push aside the tray that was already resting there. It toppled off the table and to the grated floor with a loud bang which made Bonnie turn and look for only a moment and then turn back to her kitchen.

  Melaina sat on the bench and picked up her spoon, blowing on the hot stew carefully to cool it off. She really had not eaten much more than the few field rations that Henry Moore had brought along with them after she had first seen the salon when they left the station. Tuxor had offered to share the special diet food that he had brought in his large bag, but the strong smell of rotted mollusk had finally forced her to go looking for her meals elsewhere.

  As she lifted the spoon to her lips, feeling the warm breath of spicy vegetables across her chin, the door to the salon opened once again to admit the ship’s rogue captain, Connor Jakes. She set her spoon back down into the bowl untouched as she watched the man walk across the dirty floor to the window and ask for a bowl of soup. The man had changed into a clean, cream colored shirt with long sleeves and a pair of pants that looked practically new. She also noticed that he had trimmed his beard to a comfortable five day shadow. His hair appeared clean as well and was tied up into a tail that reached just past his shoulders.

  “Mind if I join you, Precious.” the man asked, striding over to Melaina’s booth. “There ain’t too many clean spots left and I don’t wanna get these pants dirty.”

  “Why do you do that?” Melaina asked the captain. “Why do you never call people by their names?”

  “Well,” the man replied with his customary grin. “I ain’t real good with names, ya see, so I just make stuff up. Now can I sit before my legs start to cramp?”

  “Fine,” she replied, sliding over in the booth to let the man in. “But you have to call me by name if we are going to sit together.”

  Jakes nodded and slid into the booth next to Melaina. He picked up the bowl and held it under his nose, inhaling the fragrant scent of vegetables and spice as it slowly curled up under his nose. When he set the bowl back on the tray, he had a wide smile across this narrow face.

  “I love it when Bonnie cooks,” he said. ‘Don’t tell any of the guys, but I really don’t eat meat.”

  Melaina looked across the table at Jakes. He had dark eyes set behind a sharp, thin nose. As he raised his spoon to his lips, she noticed burn scars on the backs of his hands that she had never seen before. The scars ran up his hands and under his sleeves. She tried to imagine the pain the burns must have caused the man and how he always seemed to have a grin on his face.

  “Captain Jakes,” Melaina began. “How did you end up on Harpy Station? I don’t mean to pry, but I was there too as a prisoner of the Ch’Tauk.”

  “I was a thief, Miss Petros,” replied Jakes, setting his spoon back down in his bowl. “I got caught and the Confederation sent me to that place. When the Ch’Tauk took over the station, they took over us that were left behind. End of story.”

  “I’m sorry if I upset you, Captain,” Melaina replied, seeing the man’s discomfort. “My friends and I were kept for our engineering knowledge. They tortured us to make us work for them, but I wouldn’t break. When it became obvious that we wouldn’t cooperate, they took a group of us and said we were going to Earth to work in their labs forcibly. We took over the prison ship and that’s when Captain Pearce rescued us.”

  “Yep,” replied Jakes, picking up his spoon and slurping down a thick mouthful of the fragrant broth. “’bout the same for me, except without all the heroic holding out by me and the other inmates. The Ch’Tauk only fed us every couple of days. Otherwise I don’t think they had any idea what to do with us.”

  “I had no idea, Captain,” Melaina replied, shocked at the ordeal the man must have gone though. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Miss Petros,” said the captain with a grin. “You didn’t do anything to hurt me. Hell, you didn’t even know I existed until Captain Pearce dragged me out of that hell-hole.”

  “I guess we both owe Captain Pearce for our freedom,” Melaina said, taking another sip of her broth.

  They both sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts and memories. Melaina continued to look at the man across from her as she ate. He seemed to be much deeper than she first assumed. He, in turn, glanced over his spoon with every sip, looking at her with an appraising eye each time. She normally felt such attention uncomfortable, but with Captain Jakes, she was beginning to get used to the attention.

  “Captain Jakes,” she started to say before being interrupted.

  “Look, if we’re gonna talk, why don’t you go ahead and call me Connor,” he said, dropping his spoon into the empty bowl. “I make a big deal about being Captain and all, but that’s really just for the crew.”

  “And you may call me Melaina,” replied the woman. “I’ve never really liked being called ‘Miss Petros’. It reminds me of being back in school.”

  They both laughed for a moment before Melaina finished off her soup. Jakes leaned back in his seat and belched loudly. The sound elicited a hard peel of laughter from Melaina that she didn’t realize that she needed. They both laughed together, his sounding like a man who enjoyed laughing and hers like a person who had not laughed in a long while. As they finished, a small belch escaped her lips and they laughed for a few moments longer.

  “Now that’s a mighty fine compliment to the chef,” said Jakes. “I’ll pass it along to Bonnie when I get the chance. Now you were about to ask me something before all this merriment began?”

  “Yes, Connor,” she said, wiping at the edges of her mouth with a small towel that Bonnie had placed on her tray. “But now I’m afraid it will spoil the mood.”

  “Spoil away, Melaina,” he replied. “It’ll go with the other furnishings.”

  “Well, Connor,” she said, smiling at the joke. “It’s just that Harpy Station was a maximum security facility. They don’t lock up thieves there just for stealing. Was there something else that got you there?”

  A dark cloud seemed to pass over the thin face of the man. His customary grin vanished to be replaced by the most serious look Melaina had ever seen on a man’s face. He looked down at the table again and seemed to contemplate the correct answer to her question. When he looked back up to her, she saw that his face had changed from the fun-loving privateer captain, to a young man who had been deeply injured by life.

  “When I was twelve years old,” Jakes began. “I was abandoned by the man my mother had called my daddy. She had died years before and left me with that abusive bastard for a father figure. I had to fend for myself, begging or stealing just to eat on so many worlds that I forgot which one was supposed to be my own. As far as I remember, I ain’t ever been on Earth, so I guess I still don’t know which is mine.

  “About six years ago, I fell in with a group of pirates who specialized in hijacking luxury yachts like the Liberty here. One job, the crew of the ship decided to be heroes and defend their owner’s property. My gang cut those men down where they stood. I ended up below decks, struggling with a deckhand who thought I must have looked like an easy target. I wasn’t that easy. I managed to get hold of a kitchen knife and the next thing I knew I had gutted that man.”

  Melaina looked at the captain, horrified. She knew that he must have done something terrible to end up on the prison station, but killing a man like that was truly beyond anything she had imagined. Jakes took another deep breath and continued.

  “The next ship we hijacked,” Jakes said. “The authorities were waiting for us. The leade
r of the gang I was with tried to resist and was shot down in a space station shower stall. The rest of us were rounded up and sent off to prison. End of story, Miss Petros.”

  As Melaina tried to make sense of the man’s story, the salon door opened up again, admitting a huge, dark skinned man wearing a shirt without sleeve, dark pants and boots. A string of diamonds studded the man’s earlobe and twinkled as he walked under the mess hall lights.

  “Captain Jakes,” the man said in a deep voice. “A jump point is forming exactly where we were told. Should we prepare for boarding?”

  “Yeah, Greg,” Jakes said, standing and stepping away from the table. “Get the hooks ready and prime the umbilical.”

  The big man left the salon at a near run. Melaina had seen a look of excitement on his face that bordered on psychotic. Despite the meal, she could feel her stomach begin to churn once again, this time with fear.

  “Melaina,” Jakes said, turning back to face her. “A man ain’t always what he done. Sometimes he ends up as what was done to him, you see. I didn’t choose to kill that man, but when it came down to him or me, he lost the coin toss.”

  Jakes turned back to the door and exited. Melaina saw Bonnie leaved from the kitchen as well, leaving her alone in the filthy room amid the stale food and dirty plates. For the first time, she wondered if her decision to accompany the privateer on his quest was a good one, and whether or not she would ever be able to look at the captain the same way again.

  12

  The private transport vessel Red Sweeney cast off the corona of M-Space reversion as it slowed to a stop. The sensor suite fanned out its reach and tried to identify any potential dangers that awaited them. Although it was a civilian transport operated by Holkan merchants, the slave business was always dangerous and the need for a watchful eye was constant. The sweep revealed nothing in the system worth noting, just a single, main sequence star orbited by ten planetoids that were unable to support life and one gas giant that glowed a pale salmon color as it reflects light.

  The ship was waiting for a contact who had promised to meet them here in less than a day. The captain of the ship, a fastidious Holkan named Reeva, had been told to arrive early in case his contact needed to alter the schedule. He didn’t like waiting, but he didn’t like transporting humans any longer than he needed to. The creatures, he thought, smelled funny if they were left in the hold for too long.

  As the Red Sweeney began searching for a safe port among the smaller planetoids, a shadow pulled up alongside the big transport. It was small and sleek and resembled one of the high priced luxury yachts that Reeva had once thought of as a retirement gift for himself. There were no markings on the smaller vessel and its hull was pitted with dark scorch marks.

  As the yacht moved in closer, completely undetected by the expensive sensors of the transport, small ports opened along the side and hooked projectile tips extended themselves from the ports. Beneath each hook was a small, flat roundel that seemed to pulse with magnetic energy. As the ship drew closer, the grapples fired, sending the hooks straight into the side of the transport. The magnetic plate slammed over the puncture, instantly sealing the holes and attaching the cables to the larger ship.

  The cables drew taut and the two ships began to inch even closer to each other. A larger panel opened in the side of the yacht and a large, round tube shot out of the side. When it reached the other ship’s hull, it clamped on to the metal hull and magnetic plates pulled it tight to the metal. The umbilical tube sealed itself against the transport’s hull and the two ships were joined fast.

  A bright red laser began to cut a hole in the hull of the Red Sweeney, carving a portal between the two ships. The hull metal fell inward to the transport as the higher pressure from the umbilical pushed the metal inwards. Smoke had filled the tube and it quickly filled the inside of the slave ship. Another door slid open leading from the Sweet Liberty to the umbilical tube and into the Red Sweeney’s interior. A dozen pirates ran through the tube, each carrying a weapon of stunning lethality. Most of them had long knives strapped across their waists as well in the pirate tradition.

  Captain Connor Jakes followed his men into the heart of the transport ship. Their destination was the bridge and then to the cargo hold. His men spread out, looking for hidden corridors and transit lifts. Jakes had studied the schematic of the Sweeney that his informant had provided him. The horned man had not wanted to provide any information until Jakes had let one of his men remove the left horn against his will. After that, he had been very helpful with information and details.

  Holkan crew began to pour into the hallway and fire at the pirate invaders. Jakes’ men quickly found cover in open doorways that led into the crew’s own quarters. Jakes flattened himself against the inside bevel of the umbilical tube, knowing that if the crew got off a lucky shot, he would be blown out into space.

  Pulling a thick barreled chemical pistol from his waist, Jakes counted to himself and then leapt across the hallway, twisting in the air and firing the gun. He heard a scream as he hit the deck plate and slid into an open doorway. One of his men was slamming his rifle on the floor.

  “Damn thing jammed again, Captain,” said the thin, greasy haired man. “I can’t get it to fire.”

  “Wait here and I’ll try and get you something to use,” replied Jakes, getting to his feet and preparing to reenter the corridor. “If I don’t come back, throw the thing at them. Your aim sucks anyway.”

  Jakes took a step back from the door, watching the plasma fire pass by the open doorway. He ran at the door, curling up as he jumped below the blazing energy bolts. He rolled into the corridor, raising his gun and firing wildly. He advanced on the crew position as the Holkans tried to find cover. Jakes found the body of the man he had shot first and pulled the weapon from the man’s dead hand. His men started firing behind him, covering his retreat back into the open doorway from before. He tossed the rifle to his man.

  “This one seems to work,” he said. “Now get back on the line.”

  The pirate caught the rifle and stood, approaching the door and priming the rifle. Although Jakes’ advance had caught the transport’s crew unprepared, they had quickly recovered and were now redoubling their efforts to defend their ship. Jakes knew that the operation was already taking too long and he thought of a way to speed the process up.

  “Find cover and close the doors,” he ordered over the radio sewn into the color of his white shirt. “I’m popping the umbilical.”

  He heard the shouts of his men down the hall as they pulled back into the quarters. At the far end of the hall, the Holkan crew began to advance, apparently believing that they were winning the battle. Jakes pulled his own man back into the room and slapped the door control, sealing himself and his crewman inside.

  “Pop the seal, Bonnie,” Jakes ordered his ship over the radio. “These guys are pissing me off.”

  He heard a loud pop and his ears suddenly stabbed with pain. The sound of the Holkans was instantly silenced as they were blown out into space through the open hole. He waited for a few more minutes until he heard the sound of a seal being made outside his door again. When he opened the hallway door again, there were no more crewmen and the umbilical was reattached.

  Jakes looked down the hall to see his men emerge. They sent out a loud cheer as they gathered together around their captain. He tried to remember which direction the bridge would be on this ship and pointed down the direction that the crew had attacked from. His men raised their guns and advanced the direction their captain had pointed. He checked the pirates as they passed, noting that they were now one man short and praying that the man they had lost had been dead before he had popped the seal.

  They continued down the corridor, encountering only a few Holkans as they advanced. Jakes knew that the real fight would be nearer the bridge as the slavers fought to save their own lives. They came to a set of transit lifts that could hold his men in two separate cars. A quick search found a stairwell and he divided his m
en into three groups. He stepped into the port transit lift and waited as the doors closed.

  Jakes almost laughed as the lift pushed upwards through the ship. He heard faint music playing from a hidden speaker in the lift. The absurdity of a slave ship with piped in music struck the Captain. His crew reacted to his laughter with nervous chuckles themselves. As the lift slowed, Jakes pushed the door hold button. He kept his finger pressed hard on the button until he heard a whistle from his collar radio. When he lifted his finger, the door opened.

  The command deck of the slave ship was serviced by one long, wide hallway. To either side of the corridor was a series of doorways that held computer consoles and workrooms. As the pirates approached the main door, they each stayed close to the doorways, expecting an attack from the lone door. One of Connor’s men stepped close to the door and pressed himself against the nearby wall. The man reached up and tapped the control pad and the door slid open.

  Instantly, the corridor was filled with red streams of plasma fire, scorching the floor and ceiling and setting fire to the strip of carpet that ran along the center. Jakes held tight against the inside of the doorframe he was hiding in. He could feel the heat of the blazing energy beams as they passed within centimeters of his arm. There was a loud snap and a flash of white light and the deadly beams stopped. Jakes blinked to clear his vision from the grenade blast.

  The pirates roared from their hiding spots, rushing the doorway in one massive wall of screaming bodies. Jakes rounded his own doorway and watched as two of his men fell under return fire. The rest of the pirates became crazed berserkers as they stepped past their fallen comrades to enter the command bridge of the slave ship. Jakes heard his men firing inside the confined space and the dying screams of the Holkan crew as they tried to defend their ship. When the last scream died down, Jakes entered the bridge and surveyed the damage.