by R. E. Graham
Maybe he will be much more helpful to me than I first thought.
"I agree, Tribune. For the time being, I have been instructed not to pursue Redbeard or his people, so for now, we will presume that he was not involved."
Aries’ eyebrow arched. “Is that wise?”
“Our investigation has not even begun, and we have already been blocked from being open to all possibilities. We will do as ordered for now and will assess as we go. I am not about to participate in some internal politics. My goal is to enforce the law.”
“Where should we start first?” Tribune Aries asked genuinely interested in the conversation. As a military man he understood following orders, but his career had forced him to be able to make decisions while out in the field when plans fell apart. He was willing to give the Inquisitor a chance.
"In fact, I do. There is a flotilla of ships that move from planet to planet between the Siimon, Colonial, and Stardust prefectures. Currently, they are heading for Marie. I have heard rumors that some of the ships part of the drifting group are pirates," Cyrus said as he used his hands to zoom the map into the region near the planet Marie.
The holo table’s camera recognized the motion and instantly reacted to enlarge the projection.
“Do you feel it is likely that those responsible would be so close to where the attack took place?”
The Inquisitor shook his head. “No, I do not.”
Aries’ head turned to the side as he was confused.
“The dust trail from the attacking ship was distorted by the time the emergency responders arrived on the scene in the asteroid field. At the moment it is possible that the raiders responsible are a rogue group. If they are, they could be stationed out of any of the nearby worlds or some colony. For now, we are going to start knocking some heads together of pirates we can locate, and sooner or later, they will point us in the right direction.”
Chapter 8
Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 14
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Noire
Location: In orbit
After hopping in the system at the traders' jump point for Noire, the pirate ship continued the rest of the trip to the planet with its thrusters. Joker handled lying to the Republic's blockade and got them clearance to land. Thankfully since Noire was bordered with the Outer Rim Colonial Alliance things were a bit more laidback than they would be on worlds bordering other nations.
As they drew near, Mikhail re-secured his harness in his captain's chair as his mind wandered and continued to process their situation.
Joker brought the Only Hope into the planet’s atmosphere and headed for the secondary spaceport, High Tower. He reached over and flipped a switch which slid large thick panels of metal in front of the main viewport just before the outside hull of the transport reached deadly temperatures.
Vibrations rocked the vessel as it descended. The Captain looked over to Nina on his left. She returned his gaze and nodded as they hit a pocket of turbulence.
She trusts me, but does everyone else? Things could get dicey when we touch down.
He glanced at Hernando to see his face was very stoic and fixated on his station’s screens. Seeing as how the Only Hope wasn't always in combat situations, the ship's gunner would often monitor sensors for picking up pursuing vessels. The crew was well aware of his obsessive and abrasive personality. While he didn't make a good friend outside of the pirate's life, he was an excellent shot and was the best gunner Mikhail had ever seen.
Will we ever be able to escape this life, or is this all we have to look forward to? What would Pa think of this? No, there's no time for that. Focus on the run and get everyone home safely.
The Captain shook his head, and his eyes burned intensely as he refocused himself.
"We are about ten minutes from the secondary port Captain," Joker called out above the shuttering ship.
"Nina!" Mikhail shouted above the noise.
"Yes, Captain."
"Send a secure message to Lord Horsh's people. Tell them we have some items they will be interested in."
"Yessir," she replied as she began typing up an encrypted message. Long ago the Republic had devised ways to intercept video transmissions between vessels as they waged their internal war on piracy. While it was much harder to layer on encryption for a video message due to the inner workings of the stream, it was extremely simple to protect text messages with enough security that any Republic lawmen that could intercept the message that it would take too long for them to decrypt before a deal would be done and over with.
The Only Hope began to stabilize as it entered Noire's stratosphere.
"I sure hope this is gonna be worth it Cap," Hernando said in a non-challenging tone.
So do I...
"It will be. Don't you fret," Mikhail said confidently as he struggled to not show the doubt in his own mind on his face.
"We received a reply from Onyx," Nina said emphatically.
"What does it say?" Mikhail asked as he turned back to his comm's officer.
"They said for us to head for the teal facility in the downtown district once we land."
Joker grinned. "Do you think it is a trap?"
Mikhail looked to Nina before he answered. "I would say we have fifty-fifty."
"Oh, great," the pilot said as he guided the Only Hope to High Tower's empty space dock.
High Tower was a strange spaceport especially since it was such a busy place. While it stretched out for miles in every direction, it only had one skyscraper in the entire city. The lone obelisk-like tower reached high into the sky to overlook the inhabitants below it. Strange enough, it was actually against building code for any developer to construct a building taller than five stories. This was done so that the massive tower itself stood apart from everything else.
When Noire was colonized, the main spaceport, Jacksonville was formed. Cycles after the main city and capital flourished, housing became so expensive that residents were forced to live in the outskirts and push through incredible traffic to go to work. High Tower, on the other hand, had started out as a dream of some eccentric trillionaire who built the tower along with a small town to house his personal servants. As the demand for new housing and new jobs went out, the wealthiest man on all of Noire decided in his old age to begin construction on High Tower and create a rival spaceport that brought with it tens of thousands of jobs.
Joker saw a request for communication on his main display light up. He pressed his touch screen and tried to speak as clearly as he could. "Hello command tower. This is the pilot of the Only Hope. ID number sigma-beta-zero-zero-beta. Requesting clearance to land."
"Roger that Only Hope, head for platform three. Welcome to High Tower," came back the tower's flight director.
"Roger tower, platform three."
The large Goto transport came to a slow halt above the designated platform as another cargo freighter on their right was taking off. Four big legs extended from the hull of the ship as Joker carefully brought it down.
Each of the legs compressed quietly as the Only Hope came to a rest. The large cargo door along the side of the ship slowly slid open and the ramp extended to the stonecrete dock below.
Mikhail undid his harness and stood up. "Joker, get the ship refueled and ready to get out of here if things turn bad. Keep your radio with you at all times."
“Yessir,” the pilot said as he finished flipping switches and typed away on his hologram keyboard.
“Hernando, you’re with me. Nina, I want you to keep an eye on the new kid.”
“Yes Captain,” Nina said as she stood up and checked several readout screens.
The ship’s gunner stood after he disconnected his own harness and followed several steps behind the Captain.
“Captain, I want to…” Hernando was interrupted as Mikhail spun back around.
“I’m sorry?” the Captain asked with a confused tone.
“I wanted to apologize for m
y reaction back on the raid. I shouldn’t have spoken up so aggressively.”
Mikhail clapped his gunner's shoulder. "I appreciate that Hern. We've worked together for a long time now, and I do value your insight. But there is a time and place for everything."
"Aye," Hernando said as he let out a sigh. "It won't happen again, sir."
The Captain gave his crewmember his classic big toothy grin and again clapped his shoulder. “Come on, we have a job to do.”
As the Captain led the way down the hall heading for the cargo bay, the gunner again spoke up. "Uh, Cap…do you want me to travel heavy?"
“No, no, no. That won’t be necessary.”
“You sure? I heard these Onyx guys on Noire are some real shady fellas. Might come in handy to have a rifle.”
Mikhail rounded a corner and continued on his way. His footsteps echoed off the metal floors with each step of his heavy boots. He shook his head before he looked back over his shoulder. "We aren't here to cause any problems. Just a quick transaction and we will be on our way back home. Just bring your two pistols."
“Yessir,” the gunner said as he headed off for his personal quarters.
The pirate captain strode up to the blast door to the cargo bay and stood up straighter. He waved his hand over the door panel, and the door slid to the right into the interior of the wall.
Inside the cargo bay, the raiding party members were organizing the last few pieces of equipment and were preparing to leave when the Captain arrived.
Rhonda was waiting next to the hovertruck when she spotted Mikhail. “Everything is all set Cap!” she called out.
Jaymes and Lenny were working on something off to right while Riko and Poli, the ship’s assistant tech and engineer, were doing some minor maintenance to the Goblin.
Jax was standing awkwardly to the side of the opened cargo door. Mikhail grinned wolfishly and walked over to his friend. The overrider didn’t hear the Captain approach from behind and jumped when he spoke. “Don’t worry Jax, we will be in and out.”
"Oh, Captain," he said as he tried to suppress his surprise. "I…I know. Just a little jumpy. There's no way to know who might be one of their people, so I figure I'll stay out of sight."
Mikhail nodded. “I think that’s wise. I’m sure you have some gadgets to work on.”
“Ah yeah, you know me, always tinkering.”
“Why don’t you go work on that then. Jaymes and Nina can take care of any of the checklists.”
Jax’s eyes lit up. “Thank you so much Cap. Thank you!” he said as he quickly exited the cargo bay and headed for his work station.
Might as well have him make some progress on something than be down here all jittery.
Now in his quarters, Hernando pressed a hidden button on his wall that flipped out an assortment of weapons. Various pistols, knives, grenades, ammo mags, and two long guns hung in place by magnets and specialized hooks. He kissed two of his fingers then reached out and caressed a large red rifle that was positioned in the middle of the assortment. "Next time my love."
He reached to either side of the rifle and took off a pair of small pistols that had holographic sights on top. Hernando kissed the barrel of each of the weapons then set them down on his bed with great care. He then walked over to his closet and pulled open the door. After retrieving his brown leather holsters, he slid his arms through and got the straps situated over his shoulders.
When he went back to his bed, he lifted each pistol up one at a time and flipped the sights down. He holstered both handguns then retrieved his long coat from his closet. After fixing several of his knives in concealed locations across his body, he hit the secret button again and the weapons flipped back into the wall.
Mikhail walked over to the female rifleman. "Is everything loaded, Rhonda?"
“Yessir. If we run into any lawmen, they should find plenty of medical supplies before they find any of the other loot,” she said while her hand rested on the door of the hovertruck.
"Excellent. We're just waiting for Hern, and we will be rolling out."
As if on cue, the ship’s gunner entered the cargo bay and stomped up to the truck. He always had a glimmer in his eyes whenever he was going out with his guns. It was as if he lived for fighting. Which is exactly what he would tell you if you were to ask him after he had a few drinks.
"Ready to go, sir," Hernando said confidently.
"Alright, now listen. While we are going to meet with Onyx, I want you to be on your best behavior, Hern."
“Me?” the gunner asked as he sounded insulted. “What about her?”
“Rhonda has never “accidentally” shot a man because he blinked at her,” the Captain said sarcastically.
"I told you, Cap, I thought the guy was blinkin'. Like he was signaling someone or somethin'."
"He was paraplegic!" Mikhail said as if talking to a child.
"Well, how was I supposed to know he wasn't lyin' or nothin'?"
Mikhail shook his head in disbelief and opened the passenger door in the front seat. “Just control yourself on this one. These guys are not going to play well.”
Rhonda got in the back while the gunner took the driver's seat. Hernando started up the hovertruck, and loose dust in the cargo bay blew around the vast room as it slowly pulled out and exited the ship.
Poli waved to the crew heading out as she walked over and closed the bay door behind them.
Chapter 9
Cycle: 434 Month: 2 Rotation: 14
Corre Republic Space
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Noire
Location: High Tower, downtown
The pirates hovertruck had followed the navigation system that led them straight to the teal building. They turned off the road and pulled up into the parking lot. Mikhail looked around but only spotted one other old vehicle parked in the lot. The building itself appeared to be very old and desperately in need of a coat of paint.
To their right was a large loading door to the facility, but there were no markings that said what the building was used for.
“You think this is the place?” Rhonda asked from the backseat.
The Captain noticed the metal door slowly raise up.
“Yeah, seems like it,” Mikhail said as Hern drove the truck up to the door and slowly guided it in.
Inside the building, it seemed very dark, but from what they could see from the headlights of the truck was stacks of crates and old manufacturing equipment.
Hern steered the truck forward. He put it in "park," and the hover vehicle lowered itself to the ground and then the engine was cut.
The door behind them lowered, but the lights were still off.
“Okay Hern, remember what I said, no shootin’ unless I give you the signal. These guys are real touchy.”
Hern looked emasculated. "I got it, Cap, you don't gotta worry. I'll play nice."
Suddenly the lights turned on, and they realized that they were surrounded by a sizeable number of armed members from Onyx. Each of the men had tattoos covering their arms with many also having some on their faces. Most of the other pirates were carrying military grade rifles.
“Holy…” the gunner started to say under his breath before the Captain cut him off.
“Easy Hern…” Mikhail whispered back.
The Captain slowly reached over to the door handle and opened his passenger side door. He took one step out and poked his head up. “Hi there.”
Rhonda and Hernando followed suit and exited the vehicle slowly and kept their hands clearly by their side.
None of the Onyx pirates made a move. They just stared at them with blank faces.
“Uh…my name is Captain Mikhail Tarvus, who am I supposed to speak with?” Mikhail asked trying to move quickly beyond this strange awkwardness.
“That would be me,” came a gruff voice from the behind the crew.
Mikhail spun around and saw a rather short man with long bright yellow hair formed into a mohawk. The other man was also cov
ered with tattoos but had decided to amplify his appearance by having a small animal bone pierced through the bridge of his nose.
“I am Otto,” he said. “Do you have the goods?”
It was strange to the visitors that the group leader seemed so tired in the way he spoke.
His brain was probably fried from drug use…
“Uh yes, yes we do,” Mikhail said as he slowly walked around Rhonda and went to the back of the truck. He reached in to push aside a box on top of the heap when several of the Onyx pirates raised their weapons.
The Captain froze in place while Rhonda raised her hands. Hernando stood absolutely still but was ready to spring into action if anyone even so much as twitched wrong.
“I was just going to show you the gold.”
Otto’s eyes appeared heavy as he raised his right hand signaling his people to lower their weapons. As the guns aimed downwards, Mikhail also lowered his hands.
He again reached down into the bed of the truck, but this time was able to move aside the box and lift the sheet covering the gold beneath.
The other pirate leader seemed entirely indifferent to the glimmering dragon sculpture. “Where did you find all this?” he asked looking up to Mikhail.
“We appropriated it from some fancy mansion on Marie,” Mikhail said hoping that Otto would buy his lie.
“Hmm,” the Onyx pirate said as he walked up to the truck. His men kept their focus on the three rogue pirates.
“Seriously, where did you get all of this?” Otto asked as he rummaged through some of the different boxes.
“Like I said, from some house on Marie,” Mikhail said calmly.
Otto looked up from the loot and looked at the Captain with a tired face. "You mean to tell me that you flew all the way from Marie and came to Noire to offload all this?"
Mikhail licked his lips as he thought. “Well yeah. You’re right, it probably does sound suspicious. It would have been a much shorter trip to deal with the Rubies, but those guys are stupid inbred bastards.”
The Onyx pirate got close to the Captain’s face and stared intently into his eyes.
