The Queen's Pardon (Alexis Carew Book 6)

by J. A. Sutherland

  Fang was, indeed, in range, though still distant, but closing and Alexis could well imagine the chaos and uncertainty aboard the only ship the pirates still held. Claw was already damaged and with little to show for their first exchange with Mongoose, they were now facing two foes, with one high enough in orbit to fire on their exposed flanks no matter how they rolled.

  “Signal to Claw, Schwal —”

  Bloody hell, but I’ll mangle the man’s name if I try —

  “Signal to Claw — Strike your colors, instanter.”

  Thirty-Nine

  The pirates of Erzurum’s gunboats and their routines were, Alexis thought, quite the most satisfying thing she’d seen in some time.

  Going by Blackbourne’s word and some schedules left in Mongoose’s systems by the unlamented Tinkham, Alexis, Kannstadt, and Ellender determined that their timing in taking the orbiting ships could not have been better, as the crews of the gunboats were due to rotate back to the planet’s surface in only a day’s time. Just long enough to work up Mongoose, Fang, and Claw with their small crews, leave a few men aboard the more heavily damaged Talon to keep watch over the captured merchantmen, and sail for Erzurum’s planetary-lunar L1 point.

  Their crews were more to each captain’s liking, as well, with Kannstadt’s more numerous Hanoverese manning his Fang and the damaged Talon, while Ellender had Claw and Alexis’ boat crew, augmented with the New Londoners and a few Hanoverese from Kannstadt’s group, had Mongoose at nearly half her full complement.

  “Transition,” Alexis ordered, then before the screens in Mongoose’s quarterdeck could even register their return to darkspace, “Sail crews to the hull, drop main and fore — Layland, put us on the starboard tack. Ready on the gundeck!”

  Mongoose’s optics caught up with her change and displayed the surrounding space, dozens of gunboats hove-to around the Lagrangian point, some come together for their crews to come and go, and all waiting for a ship from Erzurum’s normal space to appear loaded with replacement crews.

  Though what those pirate crews were expecting — fresh men to take their place while they returned planetside for their own fortnight of revels after the tedium of sailing about Erzurum’s shoals — was quite a bit different from what they got from Mongoose, Fang, and Claw.

  “As you bear!” Alexis ordered. “Fire!”

  Coherent light lashed from Mongoose’s sides, followed quickly, but still beating them, Alexis noted, the same from Claw and Fang.

  Even at the half-charge she’d ordered, noting Blackbourne’s description of just how close the gunboats would heave-to around the transition point, the damage done was stunning.

  Shot burst through the thin hulls of the gunboats, sending vapor, clouds of thermoplastic mixed with air, from the holed boats, spewing away in great gouts.

  The gunboats’ bare masts were shot through where some shot missed the hulls, cut cleanly or notched so that they’d not hold a sail.

  Where two boats were set together, some shot ran clean through both, Mongoose was so close and their hulls so thin.

  “I’ve bite to the rudder, sir,” Layland said from the helm. “We’ve a way on. Starboard tack, aye.”

  “Fall off a point,” Alexis said, eyeing the crowded space around the Lagrangian point. Ellender and Kannstadt were maneuvering as well, taking their ships toward other clusters of gunboats.

  Mongoose was the fastest and most maneuverable of the three, so her purpose, truly, was to make it free of the boats and ensure none escaped the other two. Still, one path to that was as good as another, and falling just a point off the wind and a bit down would take her directly between those …

  “And down twenty, Layland, make for that space between those four there.” She highlighted her targets for the helmsman to see.

  “Aye, sir.”

  “A guinea for every man aboard,” Alexis said, “if the guncrews can reload both sides and fire as we pass.”

  It was a hard challenge, undermanned as they were. With only two men per gun, and that fighting only one side, there’d be empty shot canisters rolling about the deck as they dumped them from the breeches in their hurry. Cleanup could come later, though, once they’d assured not even a single gunboat could escape them.

  “Aye, sir!” Creasy called as he passed the signal on. “Bless Boots, and they’ll see it done.”

  Alexis’ elation at catching the gunboats so unawares fell a bit and she wondered if Kannstadt might trade her a signalsman — Schwalheimer’s English was not so bad, after all, and at least he didn’t seem the sort to set up some kind of religion around the Vile Creature.

  “Port guns ready!” Creasy announced a moment later.

  Alexis watched the plot as Mongoose slid between the two pairs of gunboats.

  “As you bear! Fire!”

  She’d have preferred to fire in broadside, wanting the satisfaction of seeing those boats crushed in one blow, but the ship had too few men aboard for that, not when asking them to load and fire both sides, at least.

  One gun lashed out, holing the nearest gunboat. Then another, then a third, all on target and well-laid.

  “As you bear to starboard!” Alexis called out. “Fire!”

  And the corresponding guns on Mongoose’s starboard side began firing, as their crews rushed from the just fired port guns to lay and fire to starboard.

  These shots were a bit rushed as the ship slid past the still stationary gunboats, but any hit did devastating damage.

  One boat was stern on to Mongoose, and a shot struck the gunboat, splintered on some reflective surface inside, and fully three of the splinters made it through to exit the boat’s hull further on, one even striking, but not holing, a second boat.

  Alexis felt her cheeks pull back in a predatory grin and pushed down all thoughts about the devastation inside those boats. In all likelihood the pirate crews had not even been suited, thinking the ships coming from Erzurum’s normal-space were friends and anticipating their fortnight’s pleasures on the planet’s surface before returning to their cramped patrols.

  These boats were not only fragile in their hulls, but small, without the interior bulkheads and compartments to seal off a holed space and retain what air they might. Any hole would dump all their air into the surrounding vacuum and there’d be only seconds for the crew to don vacsuits or seal helmets if they were wearing them already.

  Moreover, she knew from Blackbourne that the pirates over-crewed these gunboats, in order to cow the arriving merchantmen and protect the system.

  The carnage aboard each boat as her shot struck them must be horrible.

  To starboard, a boat’s stern was breached, cracking its fusion plant and turning it, for a few moments, into a miniature sun — perhaps the only one in darkspace at that particular time.

  Alexis watched in fascinated horror. She’d never been this close to such a thing before and without the distortions of more distance in darkspace, she could see that what she’d always taken for a single, vast explosion when a plant went up was more of a progression.

  The light of the reaction expanded in a ball from the boat’s stern, its brightness overcoming Mongoose’s optics to flash the image white before the ship’s systems compensated.

  Then, from the stern, the ball of plasma made its way toward the bow, taking only a second or two. She could make out its movement as it ate away at the gunboat’s hull, consuming all before it until there was nothing left and the raging ball of fire began to slowly dim and dissipate.

  Alexis shuddered, wondering at the fate of those aboard and whether they’d had a lungful of air or were suited. Had they been aware when it came? Had they seen, even for a fraction of a second, that wall of blinding fire coming for them, devouring all within its path, and known it came for them?

  She pushed that thought down as she did so many others.

  No matter the horror of their fate, those men had chosen their path and known it could end here or at the gallows. They’d taken ships, murdered crews
, sold others into slavery, and untold other acts just as vile.

  Other images on her plot were of greater importance at the moment, and she could wonder at how many had just met their fate at her hands another time, likely in the dark of night.

  For now, there was a suited figure on the hull of a gunboat to port, just one, but laboring to swing the boat’s yard about on its fore-and-aft rig in order to get under way.

  They’d strike soon, she thought, once the surprise wore off and the extent of their foe sank in, but for now they were the enemy and she was determined to leave them in horrified, shaken awe when they finally did so. There were few enough of the freed slaves crewing her ships for the moment and she wanted every pirate so trembling with fear that they’d not think to raise a hand.

  “Gunners to port!” Alexis ordered. “And I’d admire it did that bloody boat not gain a scrap of sail!”

  Forty

  Kannstadt and Ellender looked around at Alexis’ cabin on Mongoose and she couldn’t help but flush with embarrassment. The pirate captain, Tinkham, had not been the tidiest of men, but she suspected their own quarters, now aboard Fang and Claw respectively, were still no better. It was the first time they’d all met together since leaving Erzurum’s surface, there being no time if they wanted to take the gunboats by surprise, and there’d not been time to fully clean the ship either.

  Isom had set about some tidying, but with Mongoose so undermanned, Kannstadt having retrieved most of the Hanoverese for his own new ship, cleaning simply wasn’t a priority.

  “Sit, gentlemen, please,” she said, indicating her dining table, which was, thankfully clear of Tinkham’s detritus.

  Kannstadt, attended still, oddly, by Lieutenant Deckard, for all the junior officer was from New London, was dressed in a ship’s jumpsuit now, as was Deckard, rather than the snakipede skins he’d worn on Erzurum. Ellender had changed from his ragged slave-garb, as well, but his jumpsuit was shabbier, perhaps there being less to choose from aboard Claw. Ellender, too, had an officer with him, but Alexis couldn’t recall his name.

  The man had also brought along a full boat crew, rather than only a pilot and one or two others as Kannstadt had, which must have left his newly taken ship even more severely undermanned.

  Isom brought bowls of nuts to the table, part of what few provisions she’d had aboard that might have survived the depredations of the pirates taking Mongoose, and a rough beer that seemed to be all the spirits left aboard.

  Alexis sat with them, Dockett beside her and looking decidedly uncomfortable with the company. The bosun was the closest she had to an officer, though, unless she elevated one of her remaining crew, none of whom seemed up for the task.

  Perhaps Aiden — he was eager enough, and seemed competent, despite Kannstadt’s complaints, but he was also from outside of her own crew and not yet fully accepted. He might make an adequate midshipman if she could convince Nabb to let him go.

  In any case, she had Dockett as her only other watch-stander at the moment, and as good as first officer for those aboard.

  Blackbourne had a seat at the table too, and both Kannstadt and Ellender eyed the pirate with thinly disguised disgust. Blackbourne simply smiled back at them from his seat and nodded.

  Alexis raised her mug, sniffed, then set it back. She pushed her bowl of nuts to the side as well — they’d only make her thirsty and increase the risk she’d drink the poor beer.

  “Well, gentlemen,” she said, “standoffs seem to be the order of the day for Erzurum, do they not?”

  They found themselves in much the same situation as her own private ships had when they first arrived, though with no force to windward in darkspace.

  They held Erzurum’s orbit, with all the pirates’ ships plus merchantmen, and all of the gunboats taken from darkspace — all horribly undermanned — with their small force of rescued spacers, while the pirates on the surface had more boats and men, making any assault to free more slaves to man the ships impractical.

  And all with Ness’ return, with more men and ships than we have, including his thrice-bedamned frigate, more and more imminent.

  “A bloody mess,” Ellender huffed, sipping, then spitting back a bit of the beer in his mug. “Is there no proper drink?”

  “If there were, I’d have it served,” Alexis said. “It appears the pirates went through Mongoose’s store of spirits right off and we’re left with this local brew.”

  “My new ship is the same,” Kannstadt said.

  “Well,” Ellender said, “we’ll have proper drink once we’re back in civilization. I presume that’s why you’ve called us here, Carew? To decide where we sail for?”

  “Sail?” Alexis frowned.

  “Yes,” Ellender said “I’ve been reviewing the charts and prevailing winds, and, while I’m no fan of Hanoverese, you understand, it does appear we can reach a proper Hannie system quickest.” He shot a glance at Kannstadt. “With the cease-fire on and never having been properly captured you understand, I expect we’ll be allowed to resupply and be on our way.”

  Alexis stared at him with shock. True, she didn’t like the man, but she’d not have expected this from him. There were thousands of spacers still enslaved on Erzurum and, small though their forces were right now, she, Ellender, and Kannstadt were only just above them, wanting only a plan to free them. What sort of man’s first thought was to sail away?

  “I had thought, Captain Ellender, to discuss how we might rescue those still in captivity on the planet. We have the ships to carry away some large number of them, perhaps all.”

  There was considerable debate about how many spacers were enslaved on Erzurum, the practice having been ongoing for some years, perhaps even decades. It was even unclear how many were naval men, captured from broken ships as the Hanoverese and New London fleets fought their way through nearby darkspace. Both Ellender and Kannstadt agreed there’d been hundreds of ships lost from the fleets, but how many spacers Ness might have taken up was unknown.

  Ellender snorted. “As you said at the start, a standoff. Though we hold the orbital space and the ships, we have few enough boats and the pirates have more. More men, as well. Any assault on the planet is doomed to failure even if we concentrate our forces — they’ll simply concentrate their own and bring far more force to bear than we can.” He popped a handful of nuts into his mouth and chewed. “Those men’s best chance, Carew, comes from us passing word to Hanover and New London about what’s happened here.”

  “Sir,” Alexis said, “this Ness fellow’s due to return in, perhaps, ten days’ time — thirty at the outside.”

  “The more reason for us to be well away beforehand,” Ellender said.

  “Yes, but we’ll not have a chance to bring word to even the closer Hanoverese systems, assemble a force, and return before then. Mister Blackbourne here tells me that this Ness is not the sort to —”

  “Your Mister Blackbourne, of course,” Ellender said.

  Alexis grimaced at the necessity of defending the pirate, but there was no doubt he’d been helpful. “Mister Blackbourne proved himself quite useful, I think, in the retaking of Mongoose, and the taking of the rest. I think —”

  “Trying to save his own skin at the expense of his fellows,” Ellender said.

  Alexis nodded. There was no doubt of that, but the man’s desire to keep his skin intact, and his neck unstretched, was exactly what they needed at this time. “His motives are clear, yes. If I might finish, Captain Ellender —”

  “What is there to finish, Carew? We haven’t the men to crew what ships we’ve taken, much less fight the pirates on the surface — certainly not to fight some unknown number of fully-manned pirate vessels when they return — with a frigate, mind you. Your own force — though private ships and not proper Naval fellows — saw the right of it themselves, which is why you’re in this mess with us. The only sense of it is to sail now!”

  Alexis looked to Kannstadt for some sense of support, but the Hanoverese captain simply sat
and looked back and forth between her and Ellender, managing, somehow, to appear both amused and thoughtful at the same time.

  “This situation is different,” Alexis explained, “in that the pirate forces have no ships pinning us to Erzurum’s orbit. We have only one front, that of the planet, and I believe Mister Blackbourne has given us the means to free our fellows there.” And find Delaine, though she didn’t say so — and did try to ensure, for her own comfort, that her desire to find and free him wasn’t coloring her thoughts on what they must do. “But this does require your assistance, Captain Ellender — and you, Captain Kannstadt — as senior naval officers in the system. Now that you have a ship again and are no longer held captive.”

  “I don’t see how things are different — your fellow private ship captains were offered an escape from their predicament and took it. The pirates are in no such state. They need merely wait until their fellows return.”

  “A few minutes’ time, Captain Ellender?” Alexis asked. “To hear Mister Blackbourne out, please? A small return for his assistance in putting a ship around you again, don’t you think?”

  Kannstadt stretched and cracked his neck, holding his cup out to Isom for a refill, then sipping. He shared a look with Deckard, who nodded.

  “I will hear this,” Kannstadt said.

  Ellender sighed as though long-suffering. “Oh, very well. Let the pirate have his say.”

  Blackbourne grinned. “Thankee, cap’n,” he said, bobbing his head. “Old Blackbourne appreciates that, he does, and —”

  “Before he’s hung,” Ellender said.

  Blackbourne’s grin never wavered. “Aye, and it’s that very thing Old Blackbourne’d speak to, sir.” He drained his mug and held it out to Isom for his own refill. “How much are y’knowing about pirates, captain?”

  “That they wave about quite handsomely when strung up to the mainmast,” Ellender said.

  “Aye, sir, we do aim to go out with a bit o’ style, when we can.” Blackbourne held up two fingers. “There’re two types o’ pirates, sir, if you’ll pardon Old Blackbourne actin’ like a schooler for a time.” He changed to holding up a single finger. “The first — oh, pardon, sir —” He corrected the single finger he held up to one less offensive. “— first are those come by it natural-like. Now, Old Blackbourne’s one o’ them, he’ll tell you true, and come to his first ship with nary a scale o’ doubt nor fantasy o’er his eyes, see? Knew what it were and what it were about, for a certainty.