by C H Gideon
Maddox, Reynolds, and Takal loaded the captives into L’Eliana’s Pod. “If they cause any trouble, hit them with this,” Geroux told the female Telluride, showing her the collar program. “They’ll change their tune.”
“Can you put your sleep ray into San Roche’s Pod?” Reynolds said.
“I can load the code into the Pod’s computer system,” Geroux said. “Then he can broadcast it through the internal system. We should be able to get the rest transferred from their ship to the Pod before they wake up, but we’ll have to carry them.”
“That’s better than waking them,” Reynolds replied. “Fewer variables. Load ‘em up!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Have you seen Ka’nak?” Jiya asked when the team returned to the base. She had released the females from their quarters and led them to the control center. They huddled together near the door, not speaking.
Reynolds shook his head. “He was in the daycare, last I heard.” He bowed to the females. “My name is Reynolds, and I’m captain of the Superdreadnought Reynolds. We have neutralized the threat on this moon, and you are free to return to your homes.”
One of the Serifity People stepped forward. “I am Maribel. I wish to return to Serifity. Our premier will hear of this infamy and punish those wicked Reichofen!”
Behind Maribel, several of the Reichofen females muttered under their breath.
Jiya held up a hand. “We don’t know who beyond the vermin we captured here is responsible for your captivity. We are searching through the data for evidence.” She raised her eyebrows. “We believe someone on Reichof must be aware of this base and be providing support to the raiders, but we don’t have any specifics. Not yet.”
A stout Reichofen female cleared her throat. “I believe you are correct. My master,” she spat on the floor, “often mentioned visits to the planet. I begged him to take me home, but he would not. He implied he’d been to the supreme commander’s palace, but he was full of crap most of the time.”
“That herbegt was just an engine room janitor,” another female said. “If he ever went to the palace, it was to clean the latrines.” They laughed. “However, I believe Farnisa is correct. The commander of this station had friends in high places. I have no wish to return to Reichof, but I don’t know where else we would go.”
“We will take you to Serifity,” Reynolds said. “I think the premier and the pride will help you find new places to live. They have no love of Titus, and now that we have proof of the link between the Terubine raiders and Reichof, I think they will give you sanctuary. If not, we can find another location suitable for your people. Or perhaps we can refit one of the pirate ships for your use.”
The females nodded and whispered to each other.
“Where is Ka’nak?” Jiya asked again. “I thought he was bringing the children to the women’s quarters. They have to go right down this corridor.” She pointed through the open door. Ka’nak?
I have a bit of a, uh, situation, Ka’nak replied, his voice sounding oddly muffled.
Ka’nak? Jiya asked. There was no answer.
“Geroux, Takal, hold the fort here,” Reynolds said. “Jiya, Maddox, you’re with me.” He raced toward the daycare. “Non-lethal weapons. There are children present!”
They reached the door, Maddox and Jiya taking a position on either side. Reynolds stood back, weapon trained on the door. Open it, Geroux.
The door slid open, and Reynolds raced inside. Three steps into the room, he tripped over something and went sprawling. His faster-than-human reflexes let him regain his feet before he hit the floor. A gasp across the room sent his head whipping around to target the noise.
Reynolds’ gaze locked on a tiny Reichofen child, eyes wide, hand over her mouth. He swung his weapon away from her face, and a pail of slimy green gunk fell on his head.
Around the room, a dozen children roared with laughter. Maddox and Jiya, still looking for the threat, leapt into the room. “Where’s Ka’nak?” Maddox called.
Reynolds, dripping green slime, pointed across the classroom. Ka’nak lay on a couch, tied down with bright pink string. Five small children stood around him, holding squirt guns of green goo. A small, furry rodent perched on Ka’nak’s chest, nose twitching, huge, fuzzy tail swinging.
They have a furry viper! Ka’nak said. It’s under their control!
“That’s not a furry viper, Ka’nak,” Jiya said. “It’s a pet.
“That could have ended tragically!” Reynolds said, wiping slime out of his eyes. “We’re lucky none of us fired. Get up.”
“I can’t,” Ka’nak said. He was shaking and sweating.
“I think he’s actually terrified,” Jiya said. “Of a furry little— What is this?” she asked the children.
“It’s a mizzen,” the largest child said. “He’s our defender. He protected us from this giant.”
“The giant is friendly,” Jiya said, crouching to talk to the child. “Can I pet your mizzen?”
The child considered, then agreed. Jiya reached out to scratch the animal’s ears. “See, Ka’nak? He’s so sweet.”
“Just get it off my chest,” Ka’nak said breathlessly. As soon as the child removed the animal, the warrior leapt to his feet, breaking the pink strings. The children shrieked and skittered behind Jiya. Ka’nak glared down at them. “I came here to take you to your mothers,” he said. “And this is the thanks I get?”
The child holding the mizzen bared his teeth at Ka’nak. Jiya hid a smile. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Bendig,” he said. “And this is Veranimo. He’s brave and vicious.”
“I see that,” Jiya said. “He vanquished the giant.”
Ka’nak scowled.
“Come on,” Reynolds said, shaking his head at the interlude. “Let’s go find your mothers and get on with the mission.”
“We have a pirate infrastructure to take down.” Jiya smiled.
The forward bases went down without a hitch. Geroux fitted a couple of the pucks with the snooze beam. She remotely flew each device to a docked ship, attached it to the hull, and blasted the occupants with the sleep-inducing frequencies. Bonnerel sent ships from Serifity to collect the comatose marauders.
“That was as easy as Melliferon,” Reynolds said as he stepped out of a Pod on Serifity Seven.
Jiya grinned. “I can’t believe we managed to catch them all in port like that. Tactical is going to be pissed he didn’t get to shoot anyone.”
Reynolds rubbed his ear. “I’ve already heard about it. Geroux, get inside and strip the data. Make sure there aren’t any more ships and crews hiding.”
“What’s going to happen to the women and children?” Jiya asked as they watched the maintenance bots carry sleeping captives out of the ship. Bonnerel’s people loaded them into the Pods for transport to ships waiting in orbit around the planetoid.
“The People will go back to Serifity, of course,” Reynolds replied. “I think we’ll leave the Reichofens with Bonnerel as well and let them negotiate with Titus. If the Reichofen government was supporting the pirates, we don’t want to turn hostages over to them.”
“The sooner, the better,” Maddox muttered. “Those kids are loud.” Once the children had recovered from the sleep ray, they’d been taken via Pod to the Reynolds. Until Doc recommended sealing off a small portion of the ship for their use, they’d run wild, causing mayhem everywhere they went. “Someone is going to have their hands full.”
“A couple of those older boys might need some reconditioning,” Jiya said. “They seemed to be growing up into right little marauders. I hope Bonnerel will put a stop to that.”
“She’s agreed to take on the orphans and released slaves,” Reynolds said, “so let's focus on our mission. Finish off the raiders so we can get home. Otherwise, I might have to leave Tactical here with Bonnerel, too. He’s driving me insane,” he joked. At least, it was meant to be a joke, but Tactical was behaving more like a fifteen-year-old than ever. Reynolds hoped that once
the bad examples were removed, he would mature, at least a little.
Reynolds, can you come here? Geroux called from inside the pirate ship.
On my way. Reynolds turned back to Maddox and Jiya. “Get the rest of these captives to the People’s ship, then come pick us up.”
“Yes, sir,” Maddox said, snapping a crisp salute. Jiya rolled her eyes and flipped a sloppy one of her own.
Shaking his head, Reynolds made his way into the ship. Fortunately, the vessel was built for Reichofen and didn’t require stooping like visiting the Athena. He strolled onto the bridge. “What do you have, Geroux?”
The little tech looked troubled. “I scraped the data and found someone.”
“You found someone?” Reynolds repeated, unsure if he had heard correctly.
“Yes, listen.” She pressed and swiped at a console. “Are you there? Reynolds is with me.”
“Hello, Reynolds,” a rich female voice said.
“Athena? What are you doing here?” Reynolds demanded.
“I’m not really Athena,” she said. “I’m a copy of her. You can call me Athi.”
“What are you doing in this ship, Athi?” Reynolds asked.
“Remember when Athena said she sent a piece of herself to the raider’s ship?” Geroux said. “To track them? This is that piece.”
“Why didn’t she go back to the ship?” Reynolds asked.
“I couldn’t,” Athi said. “Once I was created, there was no room for me on the ship. I had to stay here.”
“Athena is a huge ship with enormous memory and storage,” Reynolds protested. “Surely, there’s room for one more intelligence? Heck, there are a dozen of me on the Reynolds, and it isn’t too crowded. Most of the time.” He grimaced, remembering Tactical’s latest tantrum.
“Have you ever tried moving back in with your mom?” Athi asked. “It’s not as easy as you think.”
“Moving in with my uncle was hard enough.” Geroux shook her head. “Can you control this ship, Athi?”
The lights on the console flickered on. Fans whirred louder and softer. Doors opened and closed. “It would appear I can.”
“This ship is a spoil of war,” Geroux said to Reynolds. “Maybe Athi can stay and run it? We could find her a crew, like you did, to keep her company. Maybe some of the freed slaves would like a ship of their own.”
Reynolds rubbed his forehead. The idea of one of his personalities moving out and becoming completely independent? He’d never thought about it from that angle. Was he holding them back by keeping them aboard? Would cutting them loose be abandoning them? “I’ll have to think about it. After that bombshell, talk to Bonnerel. Let her decide.”
Geroux stared after Reynolds as he stumbled out of the ship. “I’ve never seen him rattled like that,” she said.
From the big screen in the pirate ship, Bonnerel looked at Geroux and Jiya. “I have no authority over a sentient ship,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, that vessel is Athi’s body. I couldn’t remove her from it without harming her, any more than I could remove Trefol from her body.”
She turned to address the empty captain’s station. “If you, Athi, want to invite some of the released slaves to become your crew, that is your prerogative. Actually,” she said in a less formal voice, “it would be helpful. I don’t think Reichofen would integrate well into our society, and their children?” She shuddered. “So many boys! And they’re so, uh, wild.”
“You don’t have a lot of boys?” Jiya asked.
“Eight to ten percent of our population is male,” Bonnerel replied. “That’s plenty.”
“That explains why the premier had so many females tending him!” Geroux elbowed Jiya. “And you thought the females were being oppressed.”
Jiya shrugged. “I guess appearances can be deceiving.”
“You thought the females were being oppressed?” Bonnerel asked with a laugh. “That’s funny. Actually, sometimes the males complain about oppression, but it’s a careful balance. We can’t afford to lose very many of them, so we tend to be overprotective, I guess.”
“I would like to have beings in my corridors,” Athi said, bringing the conversation back on topic. She chuckled. “Even boys. As part of Athena, I know being alone is not good for any of us. Yes, please, help me find a crew.”
The superdreadnought returned to Serifity to begin final repairs to the Gate drive. Takal supervised the maintenance workers and bots from a Pod as they fit the last pieces of the drive into place.
Geroux and Jiya helped Athi interview the released females and select likely candidates for a crew. While the four People and several of the Reichofen females preferred to return to their home planets, a small contingency chose to go with Athi.
“We can make our own ways as traders or explorers,” Farnisa, the informal leader of the Reichofen females, said. “With the agroprinter you built for us and Athi to guide and train us, we will be free to do whatever we want.”
“But no revenge, right?” Geroux said. “I mean, the pirates are gone. You aren’t going vigilante on us, are you?”
Farnisa shook her head. “I have no need for revenge. I saw those herbegt on trial on Serifity. I have closure.”
With the overwhelming evidence provided by Athi and the data Geroux scraped from their own computers, the captured pirates had been tried and sentenced in less than a day.
“We will become the most successful traders in this sector of the galaxy,” Athi said.
“I think they will be a huge success,” Geroux said when they returned to the Reynolds. “Athi seems a lot happier now that she has a crew, and Farnisa is a force of nature.”
Jiya nodded. “That’s for sure. She’s going to run that ship like a machine. She and Athi will make a great team.”
“Excellent,” Reynolds said, dusting his hands together. “Pirates gone. Captives freed. New AI ship crewed and ready. I think we’ve done enough damage in these systems. It’s time to go home.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“The test run went perfectly!” Ria said. “Ten thousand light-years out and ten thousand back, right here to Serifity and exactly where we calculated.”
“Time to say goodbye to our hosts and get on our way,” Reynolds said.
“Uh, we have a little problem,” Takal said, hurrying onto the bridge.
“Please tell me there’s nothing wrong with the Gate drive,” Reynolds moaned.
“There’s nothing wrong with the Gate drive,” Geroux repeated, as she came in behind Takal. “I pulled some files from the pirates’ computers. You aren’t going to like it.” She shook her head. “No one is going to like it.”
“As long as they aren’t Kurtherians, I don’t really care,” XO muttered.
“Remember we thought the Raiders must have someone on the inside in Serifity Defense?” Takal asked. “We know who it is.”
“And?” Reynolds asked.
“Can I blast them?” Tactical put in. “My railguns are getting rusty from lack of use.”
“No, you can’t blast them,” Geroux said, sympathetically. “You’d do too much damage.”
“Damn straight!” Tactical crowed.
“Who is it?” Reynolds asked, adding volume to interrupt the banter, feeling like a teacher trying to keep children on topic after a classroom party. Maybe Athi had the right idea. People grow, or at least they should. Sending Tactical out on his own might be—
A terrible idea, XO said. The universe would never survive.
“It’s Walthorn,” Takal said.
The entire bridge crew stared at the old inventor.
“The premier?” Maddox finally asked. “The premier was shielding the pirates raiding his own ships?”
“Doesn’t make sense to me, either,” Takal said, holding up his hands. “I’m just telling you what we discovered.”
Jiya rubbed her temples. “Can we just send a message as we Gate away? I’m so done with this system.”
“We still have to return Taneral to t
he surface,” Asya reminded them. The Serifity representative was collecting the last of her things, small gifts from the crew, those things that made the crew special. “You can present the evidence to Bonnerel when you take her down.”
“Still, it would be nice if we could just transport her into the palace with a load of data and get the hell out of here,” Jiya said.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Geroux agreed.
Reynolds, Jiya, Geroux, and Takal escorted Taneral to the airfield, where Trefol was still recovering. Xonera greeted them at the ship’s ramp. “Reynolds, so kind of you to come,” she said, leading them to the bridge.
“Welcome, guests,” Trefol said.
“I didn’t think the ships spoke to anyone but the captain?” Jiya asked in surprise.
“Reynolds’ gift of communication technology allows our ships to communicate more freely now,” Xonera replied. “It’s taking some time to get used to, but I am enjoying a little more freedom.”
“Xonera spent too much time making my wishes known,” Trefol said. “Now she can focus on other tasks, and I can speak for myself. I am very grateful.”
“You may not be so grateful when you hear our news,” Reynolds said. “We have uncovered evidence that will distress you.”
“Evidence of what?” Andrean asked, stalking onto the bridge.
Taneral sneered. “You were not invited to this discussion,” she said.
“No, but your arrival is fortuitous,” Reynolds said.
Taneral’s shoulders tightened, and Andrean smirked. Jiya moved slowly toward the door.
“When we scraped the raiders’ databases, we uncovered some evidence of what we would consider treason,” Reynolds continued. “Software installed to hide the raiders’ base from your defense systems. Communications with People from Serifity who conspired with the pirates, providing information about your ships’ destinations and schedules.”
