Dark Star Rising

by Bennett R. Coles

  “So,” Chief Butcher asked, “do we have Dark Star himself on board?”

  “I don’t think so,” Amelia answered immediately, before Liam could open his mouth. “He’s someone important, but he’s not the heart of this whole operation.”

  Gazes turned to Liam as he took his seat at the head of the table.

  “I see no reason to disagree with the quartermaster,” he said. “And she had a conversation with him to which I wasn’t privy.”

  Amelia breathlessly relayed the full conversation with Blade, and Liam was impressed with her quick thinking to pose as a pirate mole. Getting him to name another pirate ship was gold.

  “There’s definitely some sort of political agenda to all this,” she concluded. “We’ve seen it all along from senior pirates we talk to. At first I thought it was just the odd radical who’d fallen in with criminals, but it comes up too often. Blade might be a disaffected intellectual, but Mary on Windfall is a grounded realist if ever I met one. And they both share this vision of taking down the Empire.”

  “It seems to be a common purpose that motivates them,” Templegrey said. “No doubt something invented by their leaders to build loyalty beyond just petty thuggery.”

  “Or it might be real,” Amelia snapped.

  Templegrey’s eyebrow arched, but she offered no further comment. Liam watched Amelia, curious at the fire still burning in her eyes.

  “It’s definitely a common thread across all our interrogations,” he said. “And something we need to take seriously. I’m glad Amelia was able to make that connection with the prisoner.”

  “Nice work,” Sky agreed, nodding her appreciation. “And now we know the name of another nearby pirate ship.”

  “Our next target?” Brown asked.

  “Well, slow down,” Liam said, gesturing at all the documents in front of them. “What else are we looking at here?”

  Brown and Sky had been leading the investigation of the Black Hand intel, and over the next few minutes they summarized their latest findings. The destruction of the base in Silica by Daring and the Sectoids had clearly disrupted the pirate agenda, and it appeared that a new base, or at least a concentration of forces, was emerging in the frontier system of Morassia.

  “Lot of brutes on Morassia,” Butcher commented. “It’s the only planet where the two races freely mix.”

  “Plenty of freedom for criminals to move about,” Sky added.

  “But there were also quite a lot of instructions regarding Honoria,” Brown continued. “The pirates always speak vaguely in their messages, but I’m pretty sure that something is being planned for Honoria in the future.”

  “What’s on Honoria?” Amelia asked.

  “One of the Imperial treasuries,” Templegrey replied immediately. “Enough gold to buy the entire Halo.”

  “Or an entire army,” Sky muttered.

  “Black Hand was at Honoria,” Brown said, “and she was met by a ship, a fast cutter, if the records of the rendezvous are accurate, both before her visit to the planet and afterward. I wonder if the cutter was Dark Star’s personal ship, because Black Hand’s logs do mention, during the visit to Honoria, how the captain moved out of his cabin. I think he was making room for a special guest.”

  “So Dark Star was in Black Hand at Honoria,” Liam concluded. “We just didn’t get there in time.”

  “I believe so, sir.”

  “Okay.” He cast his eyes around the table. “What else do we have?”

  “I examined that piece of ore I lifted from Windfall,” Sky said, reaching down into a bag by her feet, “and I discovered why the pirates would care about it.”

  She pulled out a chunk of dull, rocky metal, then turned it to reveal where she’d smashed it open. The interior glittered as jagged edges caught the light.

  “Gold,” she said simply. “Carefully hidden inside fragments of regular ore that, to a quick survey, would look like any regular hunk of rock.”

  “So the pirates are moving gold between the systems,” Liam concluded, “using regular merchants as mules.”

  “I suggest we start tracking shipments of unrefined ore out of Labyrinthia,” Sky said.

  “Yes, good.”

  “Here’s something else,” Templegrey said suddenly, tapping her finger thoughtfully on the pages of a thick book. “There’s an entry here, one of the last ones recorded on Black Hand before we caught her. It’s a comment by the captain in his log, saying that he’s ignoring an order to head for Cornucopia to collect some seized goods—because he knew he was being pursued and needed to hide out in the nebula.”

  “So he had advance knowledge of our pursuit?” Liam said with a shrug.

  “Yes, but what struck me was the order he was ignoring. Do you think he’s talking about the Brightlake estate? What other ‘seized goods’ would there be on Cornucopia at exactly that time? And why would a pirate ship be given an order to go and collect it?”

  Liam’s eyes locked with Templegrey’s, and he knew she was thinking the same terrible thing that he was.

  “If a bunch of crooks on the surface robbed somebody,” he heard Butcher say, “they might need a quick transport off the planet with their loot.”

  “But it wasn’t a bunch of crooks who seized the Brightlake estate,” Templegrey said quietly. “It was Lord Silverhawk.”

  Liam broke her gaze and offered a half shrug. “Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe there was a criminal raid on another location around the same time. Cornucopia’s a big planet.”

  “Still, I’d like to find out where the Brightlake treasure has gone.”

  It was quite a leap she was taking, he knew, and would probably result in a lot of wasted time chasing down a false lead. But it was just unsettling enough to make him not want to dismiss it as coincidence.

  “Okay, inquire into what you can.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Shall we start searching for Storm Wind?” Brown asked. “It’ll probably take weeks.”

  “No,” Liam replied, smiling as an idea formed in his mind. “I’d like to play this game of pirate informant a bit longer. Amelia, send a brief message to your friend Mary on Windfall and tell her that Black Hand was lost in a storm as it evaded a Navy attack. You and a few survivors—including Double Swords—were picked up by a fat merchant ship called Sophia’s Fancy, laden with gold. Can Mary get word to Storm Wind to rescue you? Be sure to give her Daring’s basic description and course.”

  He sat back, appreciating the admiring looks from Butcher and Sky.

  “We don’t need to find Storm Wind, Charlotte. She’ll find us.”

  Chapter 5

  “Are you sure this is the smartest idea?” Templegrey asked.

  Amelia finished adjusting her belt, grimacing at the lack of weapons hanging from it. A part of her shared Templegrey’s doubt. Pirates were closing Daring, and they were not coming for tea. She looked up at her colleague.

  The doctor stood in the ship’s corridor, her arms crossed as she gave Liam a stern, questioning gaze. She was wearing an elegant off-the-shoulder gown, with her hair tied up in a fashionable style. Large diamonds hung from her ears, matching the necklace that followed her plunging neckline. In the drawing room of a country home it would have looked beautiful, but here in space the outfit struck Amelia as fairly ridiculous.

  “You have to catch their eye,” Liam said from behind Amelia, “and draw them this way.”

  Hunkered in the open doorway to the crew cafeteria, he was in full armor and weapons, with a pack of sailors behind him.

  “Once we get their main boarding party tangled up in here, Chief Sky and her assault team will board their ship and take them while understrength.”

  “Don’t you think,” Amelia added, “that the pirates will think it strange for someone to be dressed like that in deep space?”

  “In the heat of battle they won’t be thinking that clearly,” Liam replied. “All they’ll see is a target.”

  “Oh, splendid,” Templegre
y sighed.

  “Trust me,” Liam said with a reassuring smile.

  “Stand by for boarding,” Brown’s voice suddenly called down on the speakers, “starboard side, Two Deck.”

  Amelia had known Liam long enough to recognize one of his classic traps, but it was the first time she’d been part of the bait. The pirate ship Storm Wind had found them in remarkable time and was closing even now. She took Templegrey’s arm to lead her a few steps down the corridor. She was dressed in common sailor clothing and was at least thankful to be in trousers rather than a dress. The gentle sway of the solar winds was interrupted by a sudden bump, and Templegrey’s hand reached out to grip Amelia’s shirt.

  “Remember,” Amelia said, “we just have to look scared. As soon as they see us, we hightail it to cover.”

  Templegrey steadied herself, surveying her outfit with an arched eyebrow. “I’m just glad the XO didn’t insist I wear high heels, or you might have seen my tail going very high as I tripped over myself.”

  Thumps against the hull caught them short. Amelia’s eyes scanned upward to the emergency hatch in the deckhead above them. Metal creaked, and she heard the distant hiss of a skirt pressurizing.

  “Here we go.”

  Templegrey moved to stand in front of her.

  “Let them see me first,” she said, “but then I’ll lead the running.”

  “A noble lady abandoning her commoner friend?”

  “It’s in character,” she admitted, “but more to the point your butt looks better in those trousers than mine in this silly dress. Give them something to chase.”

  Amelia’s laughter broke the tension in the silent corridor.

  The circular handle on the hatch above them squeaked as it began to turn. Amelia took a couple of steps back, but no longer felt afraid. The familiar rush of adrenaline coursed through her, and she stepped to the side to allow Templegrey a clear path to flee.

  The hatch swung upward, and a pirate jumped down heavily. His cutlass was up and he looked around quickly.

  Templegrey’s scream was loud enough to shatter glass. She froze in place, her hands up dramatically against her cheeks.

  Another pirate dropped down, predatory eyes already focusing on the noblewoman before him.

  “My lady,” Amelia shouted, tugging at her, “run!”

  Templegrey turned and fled, screaming again. Amelia paused for a moment, watching as a third pirate jumped down. As one, the attackers started to move. She turned and bolted, following Templegrey through the open door to the main cafeteria. The large space was flooded with shadow, only a single lamp casting a dull yellow glow from the far wall. Another scream directed her to the right to follow Templegrey, and then she felt strong hands pulling her behind the line of defenders. She crouched down, struggling to hear the rumble of the approaching pirates over Templegrey’s dramatic sobbing.

  The pirates burst into the room, their swords up as they peered into the darkness.

  “I can’t see anything,” one of them shouted back as they slowed to advance cautiously.

  “But you can hear well enough,” came another, educated voice from the corridor, “capture that noblewoman!”

  There were now fully six pirates in the room, all Humans, spreading out to search. One more stepped through the door, dressed in more expensive armor and with an elegant longsword instead of a brutish cutlass. Experience told Amelia that this was probably the entire pirate boarding party, with barely enough crew still on board to man the guns and sails.

  “Fire!” Liam roared from the darkness, obviously sharing her assessment.

  The flashes of pistols blinded her, but she heard the cries of alarm and awful thuds as bullets ripped through padded armor and flesh. The deafening barrage continued, then was replaced by the heavy shuffle of sailors advancing. A few clangs of blade on blade indicated some resistance, but within seconds her crewmates were pouring out into the corridor.

  Liam surged ahead, shouldering the collapsing pirates out of his way. Up ahead, the pirate leader was running for the escape hatch. Liam raised his pistol, taking careful aim.

  The shot tore into the pirate’s unprotected leg, and he stumbled to the deck. Gripping the wound he crawled beneath the hatch, but couldn’t pull himself up. Another pirate jumped down to help, but Liam put his last two bullets into the newcomer.

  Sky and her team burst out from the senior mess, where they’d been hiding, and charged for the airlock.

  “Ambush!” the wounded pirate leader screamed up through the hatch. “Cast off!”

  Without hesitation the hatch slammed shut. Liam grabbed for the circular handle seconds later, but already he could see the mists of freezing air from an emergency withdrawal.

  “Secure that prisoner,” he barked, directing his sailors to the pirate leader, who gripped the wound in his leg.

  Chief Sky knocked the pirate’s longsword away and threw him roughly down on his stomach. She grabbed his hands and manacled them behind his back, resting a knee on him before motioning Able Rating Song forward. The medic ripped open his pack and started tending the wound.

  So much for the second part of his plan, Liam thought, frowning at the closed airlock. But at least they had a prisoner, and Storm Wind now only had a skeleton crew. She’d be easy to capture once Liam got his boats manned.

  “Chief Sky,” he said, “get the boats ready for boarding.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he jogged back down to the cafeteria and looked through the door. More lamps were being lit, and the pirate bodies were being expertly searched by Flatrock and Hedge.

  Amelia stood nearby, a pistol out and covering in case any of the pirates were not quite as dead as they appeared.

  “Everyone all right?” Liam asked the entire room.

  “Cafeteria secure, sir,” Amelia responded. “No friendly casualties.”

  “Well done, everyone,” he said. “Secure this space and get the team ready for our own boarding of the pirate ship.”

  His words were punctuated by the sudden roar of Daring’s cannon.

  It was answered moments later by distant clangs that echoed down the masts. He knew what that meant, and it wasn’t good news.

  “I’m heading to the bridge,” he said.

  He hurried back up the corridor, staying clear of the pinned prisoner. The man lay in stoic silence, glaring at Liam with that same zeal seen in too many of these pirates. But there would be time later for interrogation; right now there was a battle underway.

  The clang of chain shot smacking against Daring’s masts echoed again as Liam hauled himself up the ladder to the gun deck, and then to the bridge. He emerged through the hatch to hear the quick but quiet voices of Riverton and Brown as they maneuvered the ship. The deck started to heel as Daring moved into a turn, but Liam could already tell that the movement was sluggish.

  Riverton turned at his approach.

  “They’re shredding our sails,” she stated.

  He glanced up through the canopy, noting the wild flapping of torn sheets. Storm Wind was trying to escape, and slowing her pursuer was now top priority.

  “I’m turning to follow,” Brown added, “but I’m having trouble catching the bow wind with so much tearage.”

  “Have we switched to chain shot,” Liam asked, “to slow them down?”

  “They’re already out of range,” Riverton replied. “We can pepper them with round shot, but we can’t slow them down.”

  Liam watched as the starscape continued to shift in Daring’s broad turn. Storm Wind came into view as a silhouette against the glow of the Hub, her shape indicating that she was already turned away.

  “Sailing control,” Riverton ordered through her comms, “enemy fire has ceased. Get those sails replaced.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” came Swift’s reply from below.

  “She’s a fast ship,” Riverton commented. “It’s going to be hard to catch her even when we’re at full sheet again.”

  “We captured their leader,” Liam
offered. “He’ll survive for interrogation.”

  Riverton nodded, her eyes still on the fleeing ship. Liam waited, absently listening to Brown as she coordinated the crew.

  “So your little ruse worked?” Riverton asked finally.

  “Yes, ma’am. I heard the pirate leader specifically order his men to ‘capture that noblewoman.’ There’s no question they’re specifically targeting the aristocracy.”

  “Is Sublieutenant Templegrey unharmed?”

  “Completely. As is Petty Officer Virtue.”

  “Any other prisoners?”

  “No, ma’am. The ambush was overwhelming. No casualties on our side.”

  “Good.” Riverton sat back in her chair. “Get the prisoner secured. Then stand down your team for now. It’s going to take a while to catch our prey.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Liam cast another glance toward the distant silhouette of the pirate ship, her four masts at full sail as she tacked against the steady wind pushing out from the Hub. It was a slower course than simply turning Halo-bound and putting the wind behind you, but Liam could see from the lie of the sheets that Storm Wind was cutting across the headwind efficiently. Daring’s sails were larger but not as nimble, and it would no doubt take all of Brown’s skill to close the distance.

  But Liam had faith that they would hunt their quarry down.

  Amelia read through the last lines of the stores report on her screen, satisfied that all was well. The ship’s sudden departure from Cornucopia III had made it impossible for her to meet the captain’s order for forty-five days’ worth of rations, but their quick port visit to Windfall had allowed her to make up the shortfall. If there was anything she hated about her job as quartermaster, it was being unable to comply with the captain’s orders. Otherwise, she thought as she stood up and stretched, she pretty much loved her job. This office was her own private kingdom, the cargo bays her dominions. She did a twirl in the middle of the room, much as Templegrey had done when she danced with Liam.