"We were just finishing up here. We can be done for now. Marny may have other ideas, but at least we could offload supplies and get the bots working," he said. "And it's nice to meet you, Eliora. Merrie has been talking about you."
"I'm Ada and she's Silver," Ada said pointing at my mom. "We're headed back. I was thinking of landing on the street in the city near the broken gate. Will that work for you, Eliora?"
"Yes," Eliora answered, overwhelmed by the experience of being on the bridge.
"How are the bots coming for clearing the city?" I asked.
"We made ten of them and should be able to clear the city in an hour," Nick said. "We'll start closest to the Keep and work back to the ship."
"I want to outfit Eliora with an armored-suit and a blaster rifle," I said.
"Agreed," Nick said.
"What do you want me to do?" Mom asked.
"Would you help Eliora get into an armored vac-suit? After that, how about organizing medical supplies with their doctors? There are a lot of wounded," I said. "Ada, could you stay with the ship? Run a defensive perimeter so we can offload supplies?"
"Yup, will do."
The ship settled on the ground.
"Marny, I'm sending the bots out," Nick said.
"Got 'em," Marny replied on our general tactical channel. "Tabby and I will bat cleanup."
"I'll send Eliora out in a suit to help," I said.
"Copy, Cap," Marny replied.
"May I make a request?" Jonathan joined the conversation. I hadn't seen him for a while, but I knew he didn't feel the same needs for physical proximity as the rest of us.
"Go ahead, Jonathan," I said.
"We'd like to talk with one of the indigenous. It would give us a chance to start learning their language," he said.
"Bag 'n tag it is," Marny replied. "We're packing duct-tape grenades. We'll get you a couple of lizard boys to chat with."
REBORN
Fold-space, middle of deep dark
We'd chosen thirty-four hours as our deadline for leaving Yishuv. We had no idea if Belirand would follow us to Ophir, but I didn't want to be there if they did. We'd deal with Belirand after we finally rescued the crew of Cape of Good Hope.
Before leaving, we'd buried most of the corpses, repaired the gate, and brought one more of the defensive guns back online. We also left Eliora and her second in command, Gabe, with armored vac-suits, blaster rifles and plenty of FBDs.
"Captain LeGrande, come in, Hotspur calling," I said once I loaded up the comm crystal.
After a few tries, she finally replied. "Liam, thank Jupiter." I was surprised by her lack of formality. "Tell me you have good news."
"We do. There was excitement on Ophir and we had to reroute. What's your status?" I asked.
"What do you want, the bad news or the really bad news?"
"Worst news first," I said.
"Two corvettes just arrived in-system and appear to be searching for us," she said. "We're running lights out, but they'll find us sooner or later."
"What's the other news?"
"I had to shoot my first officer and lock up three other crew."
"What? Why?"
"An attempted mutiny," she said. "The idea of not returning home wasn't very popular."
"But we agreed to take people back if they wanted to risk it," I said.
"We had a meeting and decided it was too much risk to the rest of our families."
"Is he dead?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, Katherine," I said.
"Thank you, Liam. Strange to say, but it's almost a relief that he finally made his move. He had been boiling for weeks. I don't think he would have accepted life on another planet," she said.
"We'll need your crew to be ready to move when we get there," I said. "We can't afford to abort our fold-space flight at this point. I'm not sure where we'd end up, but if those corvettes find you, we'll really be in a spot."
"We'll be ready, Liam," she said.
It was impossible not to think about what awaited us when we dropped out of fold-space near the Cape. The hours seemed to drag on. It was a good move on Belirand's part. Hotspur could outrun their heavy cruisers easily enough, but corvettes were another thing entirely. Even worse, with two, they'd more likely box us in.
All my worrying turned out to be for nothing when we finally arrived. The corvettes hadn't found Cape of Good Hope and we had plenty of time to transfer the Cape's crew and much needed medical supplies to Hotspur. Unfortunately, our plan to add a fold-space drive to Cape wouldn't work. It was too risky to attempt with the corvettes in the area.
I didn't have to announce our arrival to the crew, as we'd all been counting it down on the bridge.
In preparation for the Cape's crew, we'd secured the bridge deck and locked down the berth deck as much as possible. There was no way to fit everyone in the hold, nor would it send a very good message to them if we did. That said, we weren't opening up the bridge.
"Captain, we've an incoming hail from Lawbringer," Ada said.
Accept comm.
I wasn't sure why I was going to talk to one more Belirand captain. So far, the conversations had been one-sided.
"Hotspur," I replied.
"Hoffen?" I recognized Lorraine Tullas' voice.
"Admiral Tullas, you've upgraded," I said.
"What are you doing, Hoffen?" she asked.
"What's it look like. We're rescuing your colleagues from the awful death you sentenced them to," I said.
"You're taking them to Ophir?"
"Yes. It's not such a stretch, is it?" I asked.
"You shouldn't give away our plans," Tabby said, muting the comm.
"They already know. They're tracking our jump destinations," I said. "Why else would we have gone to Ophir?"
"She's a snake and you can't trust her," Tabby said.
Perhaps I shouldn't, but I felt like Tullas had a level of integrity in her zeal.
"Ophir colony failed centuries ago," Tullas said.
"You mean your predecessors left them to die just like you're doing with the Cape of Good Hope?" I asked. "We found the settlement - what's left of it anyway. At least this crew will have a chance on Ophir. It's better than what you're offering."
"To die at the hands of beasts? That's better?"
"It would be for me. I'd rather go down fighting than suffocate. Would you take that away from them?" I asked.
"You're not going to try to bring them back to the known universe?" she asked.
"You shouldn't have killed my parents," I hissed at her. "You told me you'd only go after those people we drug into this mess. You lied. Have you already started murdering their families too?"
"MacAsgaill acted without authority. He's being disciplined," she said.
"For murdering three people? Seems like all in a day's work for your team."
"You've got me wrong, Hoffen. I take no joy in this. We do what we do to protect humanity," she said.
"By lying to them about the existence of sentient life outside our systems?"
"Don't be naïve. We're the good guys here."
"Not from where I'm sitting. And why harass us now? By your own logic, Cape's crew is going to die on Ophir. Why try to stop us? You and I both know forty plus crew isn't enough to create a viable colony."
"You can have Ophir, Hoffen, for as much good as it will do you. You've sentenced that crew to death, alone on an inhospitable planet, and you'll have to live with that," she said. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for the death of your parents. It shouldn't have happened, but don't take my sympathy as weakness. You show your face in my corner of the universe and I'll hunt you down."
"Just like you would if you were a hundred thousand kilometers closer right now. I read you just fine Lorraine, no loss of fidelity. You might consider what will happen when you finally get us in a corner," I said.
"Careful," Nick said, muting the comm. He could tell I was starting to get annoyed.
"How's
our transfer going?" I asked.
"Just finishing up and those corvettes have been closing on us at high speed for the entire conversation," he said.
"Jump when ready," I said. "There's nothing more for us here."
The last person to board Hotspur was Katherine LeGrande. I left Ada at the helm and worked my way through the crowded berth deck, finally finding her in the hold. Davi, the Marine who'd been at her side when we'd first met, stood at her side.
"Welcome aboard, Captain," I said. "Where's Rastof?"
"Over here," Rastof said. I'd forgotten he was about Nick's height and would be hard to find in the crowd.
"Could I get the two of you to join us on the bridge? Davi is welcome, also," I said.
"Certainly, Captain," she said.
The trip back to Ophir was considerably less nerve wracking than the trip out had been. Other than a slightly funky smell in the air, we arrived without any incident only two days after we'd left.
"Taking us in for a low flyover," Tabby said as we came up on the settlement.
The amount of progress they'd made in those two days was astounding. Signs of the battle were still evident, but it was clear that the two construction bots we'd brought with us hadn't rested.
"Eliora, where would you like us to set down?" I asked. "We've a load of new settlers who are anxious to meet their new neighbors."
"We weren't expecting you back so quickly, but go ahead and set down outside the front gate," she said.
"Got it, babe," Tabby said to me. "Get your delegation onto the ramp ready."
We'd agreed that it would be best to have Katherine and Moon Rastof, as representatives of the Cape's crew, be the first to meet the Yishuv settlers. And, while it took some effort for Marny, Nick, Katherine, Rastof, Davi and me to work our way through the crowd, we were successful in doing so just about the time Tabby set down.
I palmed open the door and enjoyed the fresh Ophir breeze that met us. A cheer welled up from the crowd behind us and we hastily cleared the loading ramp, lest we be trampled by the crew who not so long ago had been sentenced to death.
When I looked up to the proud gates of Yishuv, people were streaming onto the top wall, all waving brightly colored scarves. A band abruptly started playing as the gates opened and we were greeted by what I could only imagine was the entirety of Yishuv.
Bedros and Peraf hustled through the crowd to take their place at the front of the smiling greeters.
"Cape of Good Hope, Yishuv welcomes you," Bedros announced, his voice carrying over some sort of public address system. The crowd cheered and spilled out through the gates.
"Wow, what a greeting," I said, shaking Bedros' hand as he approached.
Even Peraf was smiling and I wondered what had changed for the old girl, although I wasn't about to poke that bear to find out.
"Our settlement needs new blood. Just a tenday ago we were faltering, failing, and on the brink of ruin. Now, look at us," he said. "We're reborn!"
"Councilman Bedros, Councilwoman Peraf, I introduce Captain Katherine LeGrande, formerly of Cape of Good Hope," I said.
To say the Yishuv settlement knew how to throw a party would have been an understatement. If I'd expected their recent losses to mute the celebration, I'd have been wrong. It was something I could understand, however. The pain of losing Big Pete was still fresh on my mind and now that both Yishuv and Cape's crew were out of harm's way, I was more than happy to join them in drinking heavily.
It was late in the evening when Jonathan found Tabby and me lying on a blanket in front of the roaring bonfire just outside the gates of the city.
"Jonny Boy, sit with us and tell me you all experience the joy of drinking to excess," Tabby said, slurring her words. It was quite a feat for her to get this drunk, given the accelerated metabolism from her replacement parts.
"It's something we've often wondered about," he said, taking Tabby up on her offer to sit on our blanket.
"You need to work on that, because it's a shame to miss out on all the fun," she said.
"Captain, I thought you might be interested to learn we've deciphered the indigenous people's language," he said.
"That's great," I said. "What'd you learn?"
"I just told you, we learned to communicate with them," he said.
"Ooohh. Right… anything else? Like… did they say why they attacked Yishuv?"
"It will take more conversation, but from what we were able to discern, the Ophie very much enjoy battle. To die in battle is their highest honor and calling," he said.
"Sounds like a horrible neighborhood," I said, sending Tabby into a fit of giggles. I smiled at her, loving the fact that she understood drunk Liam.
"That may be exactly correct," he said. "From the basic continent plotting we gathered from Hotspur's two landings, we believe it is possible that there could be locations on Ophir that would not be next to this particular species."
"That's a lot of syllables in one sentence. Seriously, Jonathan, I'm not completely tracking. Did you just say there might be a safer place on Ophir?"
"I did," he said.
"Well, frak, let's go check it out."
"Captain Hoffen, perhaps we should have this conversation tomorrow," Jonathan said.
I giggled, which I think might have given away my current state of mind.
Jonathan stood up.
"Don't go away mad," Tabby said. "We just need a night where there aren't any problems to deal with."
"We are not mad," Jonathan said. "We simply believe we might not be achieving our desired objective."
"Oh good. In that, you're right," Tabby said.
It was the last thing I clearly remember about that night. The next morning, I awoke with Tabby lying across me and the blanket pulled tightly around us. My head was pounding and I had to do the needful about as badly as I could ever remember.
"Oooh," Tabby complained as I disentangled our vac-suited limbs.
"I'll be back," I said and ran over to the ship, where I found Jonathan working at assembling a project.
"Good morning, Jonathan," I said on the way past. My mouth tasted like cotton.
"Good morning, Captain," he said.
On the way back out, after placing a sober patch on my temple, I stopped to talk with him.
"Hey, sorry about last night. I wasn't intentionally being disrespectful," I said.
"No apology necessary. Intentional intoxication is one of the more puzzling behaviors of humankind, although Ms. Master's explanation was sensible."
"Did I hear you right? Do you really think there might be a better place for Yishuv?" I asked.
"We theorize that it is possible," he said. "We would like to lead a party to locate a more appropriate location for a human settlement."
"You might receive resistance from the settlers, especially now that we've successfully pushed the Ophie back."
"We will most certainly receive resistance," he said. "That does not reduce the value of the objective."
"You make a lot more sense when I haven't been drinking," I said, smiling.
"Would you believe that over sixty percent of us found that statement humorous?"
"Oh you devils! You do get humor," I said.
GIVE NO QUARTER - PREVIEW
The Yishuv council presented a significant number of objections to Jonathan's suggestions, but in the end, they agreed to review whatever findings he came up with. It felt like a significant win on his part, although it might have had something to do my pointing out that the Class-F Industrial Replicator was his property.
It had been six tendays since we'd arrived at Yishuv and the settlement was humming with activity. We'd been taking almost daily trips to drop off surveying bots. Jonathan thought that within fifteen or so tendays we'd have a relatively complete map of the planet, complete with indigenous populations. So far, it had become clear that somehow the Yishuv settlement had been established in the most highly populated region on the globe.
We'd also had t
ime to put Dad to rest. We'd originally thought to send him off into outer space, but Mom reminded me that he'd come from humble beginnings as a farmer. It was a simple service and I felt like he would finally be at rest on Ophir.
Something broke inside me when MacAsgaill murdered Big Pete. I'd felt it trying to get loose when I'd first run into the Ophie and single-handedly slaughtered over forty of them. It was an unresolved anger that I hoped I'd buried with him in the Ophir soil.
As for the crew and passengers of the Cape, they were starting to fit. There had only been fifteen actual crew, the remaining thirty had been passengers, bound for service on Tipperary's TransLoc gate. The higher level managers had more difficulty adjusting to a less refined existence, but mostly they all appreciated having a plentiful supply of atmosphere and a safe, warm place to lay their heads.
After all that, our lives became routine, which, if I had any sense, should have concerned me.
"What do you suppose happens to the Co-Op and our claims?" I asked, taking a pull on a light amber beer.
"It's in litigation," Jonathan said. "I've hired legal teams on Earth, Mars and Curie to regain control over these properties. We'll be successful. Not only that, we're putting pressure on Belirand for the wrongful death of your father."
"Let me guess, Nicholas, you already knew this," I said.
"It's difficult to get updates, I didn't want to say anything until we knew more," he said.
"What I've been wondering is what became of Cape?" Tabby asked.
We were all playing cards and relaxing in the warm afternoon.
"Captain's last order when she exited was to hand controls over to Loose Nuts Corporation – just in case any representative of your company ever found it," Moon Rastof said.
"She did?" I asked.
"Yup. Surprised she didn't tell you that herself."
I hadn't had much time to talk with Councilwoman Katherine LeGrande. We were on friendly terms, it was just that I was biding time and she was trying to build a new life for herself and her crew.
"Don't you think Belirand grabbed it?"
"I doubt it," Rastof said. "I set her on a random path… well, random to Belirand at least. I just happen to know someone who can pinpoint her location - that is, if Belirand didn't chase her down while they were still in system. She's almost impossible to track and only wakes up once every forty hours or so to change course.
A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) Page 30
