A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) (15 page)

"Don't mess with my girl," I said.

That stealth move wouldn't work a second time. With all the atmo we were venting, Tullas would have no trouble tracking us.

We cleared and I flipped around to allow Tabby to line up on the ship. Our battery was down to twenty percent and dropping a percent every second, given her constant fire on the weakened spot. Still,
Fist
continued its relentless fire on
Mastodon
. What I wouldn't have given for a third set of missiles.

The battery continued to slip downward. At five percent, I flipped the starboard engine to power the battery. We'd lose more than fifty percent of our thrust, but the battery built back up and the damage to the exterior of
Fist
increased.

"We're doing it!" I said.

"Get us out of here," Tabby cried.

I didn't hesitate and flipped power back on to the starboard engine and we lurched forward as fast as
Hotspur
could accelerate. The battery dropped to zero and our turret spun down.

A brilliant light caught my attention and we both paused for a moment as
Mastodon
exploded. A shock wave of material rolling out from the massive ship pelted against
Hotspur
.

Locate combat bridge. Track objects that could contain crew
.

"We have a new problem," Tabby said.

She didn't need to say it, the thumping of blaster fire lighting up the starboard side of
Hotspur
was all the information I needed.

"Frak," I said as fire ripped into the bridge, tearing across, starboard to port, destroying the station where Nick would ordinarily have been seated.

I instinctively turned
Hotspur
away from the fire, which later I decided had been the wrong thing to do. I was successful in averting the fire from the bridge, but the starboard engine spun down, damaged beyond its capacity for continued operation.

I reached my hand over to Tabby, who grabbed it. It very well could be our last moment together. I felt regret for not recognizing the danger I'd led us into.

"
Incoming hail, Fist of Justice
."

Accept hail
.

"Hoffen," I snapped. I was pissed and beaten.

"You should have taken the deal, Hoffen. I've destroyed your jump ship. Ordinarily I'd count that good enough and just leave you here to die. It's a horrible death. But… I'm not going to subject you to this. Consider it a favor - warrior to warrior."

"Gloating. Very dignified, Tullas," I said.

"Don't be petulant. You made your decision, live with it. Well… perhaps that wasn't a good choice of words."

Terminate comm
.

I pushed the thruster down. With just the port engine, we could accelerate at about thirty percent of normal, the ship expending much of its energy trying to keep us from spinning out of control.

Our battery recharged to twelve percent and Tabby laid on the blasters, picking at the wound we'd opened on
Fist
. Pride surged as we defiantly delivered what was likely our last salvo.

Fist of Justice
opened up. It would be only a few moments before it was all over.

My eye caught movement on the holo as a fourth ship slowly crept into the battle space. A cruiser of similar make to
Fist of Justice
slid between us. I was shocked as it opened up a broadside fusillade on
Fist of Justice
.

"Where the frak did that come from?" I asked.

"No idea. Our sensors are barely picking it up even now," Tabby said.

Indeed its signature was very dark. Only the reflection from the armored skin was visible to our sensors.

Understanding dawned on me.

"That's LeGrande and
Cape of Good Hope
," I said. "She must have worked her way over."

Send location of hull damage we caused to Cape of Good Hope
, I instructed my AI.

I watched in fascination as
Cape's
turrets turned on the newly discovered weakness and ripped into her bigger sister.

A moment later,
Fist of Justice
, trailing a line of debris, burned away from our location. We watched in fascination as it jumped to fold-space in retreat.

Hail Cape of Good Hope
.

"What is your condition, Captain Hoffen?" Captain LeGrande's emaciated form showed up on my forward holo.

"We're intact, mostly. The rest of our crew and Anino were aboard
Mastodon
. Without your intervention we'd have been goners too," I said.

"We've tracked the debris of
Mastodon
. There is a large section that appears to be intact. You'll want to inspect it. Sending location and vector now," she said.

"Copy that," I said.

An irregular shape appeared on my forward holo. Steel struts, wires and even a large piece of decking hung from it at odd angles. At its center appeared to be an armored capsule large enough to be a combat bridge.

"Go!" Tabby's voice was hoarse with emotion.

I pushed the throttle down and tipped the flight stick over.
Hotspur
shuddered forward. We'd clearly damaged the inertial damping system. Debris clanked off our armored skin as we sliced through the remains of
Mastodon
. Our target was tumbling away, moving at only twenty meters per second and we caught up to it easily.

It was always a conundrum, mating up with a tumbling object. To make matters worse, I had limited maneuverability due to only one remaining engine. I asked the AI to help me match the tumble and maintain speed as we slowly closed on the target.

"Frak. Feel free to stop this anytime," Tabby said.

We finally made contact and pushed against the rotation. It took several minutes, but with the AI's help we leveled out our mated flight.

"We'll grab tools on the way out," I said as Tabby and I made our way over to the lift.

My heart fell as I assessed the damage to the bridge. It was as if a hand had punched through the starboard side of the ship, not quite exiting on the port side. The effect to the interior was devastation on a scale I wasn't sure could be repaired. A trough had been furrowed through the floor into the tween deck between the bridge and berth decks. The destruction had shredded the unimaginably expensive equipment that stood in its way. Both Marny and Nick's workstations had been completely obliterated. If they'd been seated there, they would have also been destroyed.

"The lift is frozen, berth deck must be pressurized," Tabby said.

"This way," I said.

I fired my suit's arc-jets and exited through the side of
Hotspur
. On the way by, I surveyed the damage to the starboard engine. It wasn't completely obliterated, but it didn't look like a field repair either.

We entered
Hotspur
through the starboard hatch and locked it open, exposing a pressure barrier in its place. We made our way to the tool cabinet, just above the armory. I pulled a heavy steel hammer, a torch/welder combination and some lock-down cables to hold us in place as we worked. We'd have to come back if we needed anything else.

I handed the torch to Tabby and we sailed through the pressure barrier.

"Liam? You there?"

My heart hammered in my chest. It was Ada's voice. She was alive.

"Are you in the combat bridge?" I asked.

"Not sure… yes. Yes, I'm on the bridge," she said.

"We're coming, Ada. We're right outside. How about Marny and Nick?" I asked.

"I'll look. Things are pretty messed up," she said. Her voice sounded weak.

"We're coming, Ada," I said. My throat seized up with emotion. "Hang tight."

"Liam. Here," Tabby said.

I jetted over to her. She'd located a hatch of some sort. By the time I reached her, she'd found a panel, showing a standard air-lock indicator.

"Hit it," I said.

She complied and the green arrows drained downward on the display, replaced with red indicators as they did. The hatch opened to a narrow hallway, which we squeezed into, then cycled the other side of the airlock. I found it to be a positive indicator that the bridge remained pressurized.

As soon as we made it through, Ada came stumbling through the wreckage. Blood ran down her forehead, confusion evident in her face. I ran to her and helped her sit.

"Take it easy, you're bleeding," I said.

My HUD identified that she had a concussion, but wasn't otherwise critically injured.

"Liam. Here," Tabby said.

"Hold on, Ada," I said.

Marny was on the floor, lifeless beneath a crumpled bulkhead that had detached. When I got there, I saw that she was lying on top of Nick. I sighed heavily, adrenaline pumping through my body.

"We need to get this off them," Tabby said.

I planted my feet and pulled up. The wall moved slightly, but it wasn't until Tabby joined me that we were able to push it over and off. Marny's back armor was ripped open and her skin torn. My HUD wouldn't commit to life signs.

"Her back, we have to be careful," I said.

"Hold on," Tabby turned and clambered off over the debris.

I knelt down by Nick's head and lay my hand on his suit. My AI immediately communicated strong life signs. He was unconscious, but okay.

I was clearing rubble from the deck, making room for Marny, when Tabby returned with a backboard. We lay the board across and deployed the medical foam that would both lock her body to the board and immobilize her.

"We've got you, Marny, you're safe," I said. I wasn't sure she could hear me, but I needed to say it.

Finally, we rolled her off Nick.

Locate medical triage unit
.

A blue arrow on my HUD indicated a collapsed cabinet and I found medical supplies spread over the floor. My AI outlined the packages and triaged by placing Ada, Marny and Nick's names above them in priority - Marny being the highest.

I tossed Marny's package to Tabby and brought one over to where Ada sat, staring dumbfounded at nothing. I applied a dressing to her head and waited for my AI to finish its analysis now that I had dermal probes applied. Her diagnosis was about what I expected, internal bleeding and a concussion, easily treated.

I picked up another package and brought it to where Nick and Marny lay. Tabby was working furiously to cut open Marny's suit and apply dressings. It was a bad sign, generally a med-patch would inject sufficient nanobots to aid healing. If the AI was calling for multiple dressings, the internal damage was severe and immediately critical.

"Get Nick, I've got this," Tabby said.

I leaned over Nick and my AI indicated that he could be safely rolled to his back. His eyes fluttered opened and he groaned in pain.

"Hold on there, my friend. You're safe. Battle's over. We're missing Anino and Jonathan, they were supposed to be on the bridge with you," I said.

"Somewhere else on the ship," Nick said.

"There's no ship, buddy," I said.

"No good, can't get home," he said, still having difficulty talking.

"We'll worry about that later. We're moving you to Hotspur," I said.

"Where is
Fist
?" Nick asked.

"They're gone," I said.

"Captain LeGrande, what's your situation? We have wounded." I said. I had to remind myself that we were in the process of rescuing refugees.

"Our medical bay is fully functional, but we are critical for O2 and food," she said.

"
Hotspur
has extra supplies, we'll bring them across," I said. "You should know Anino and his companion are missing," I said.

"Copy that. We'll start a search. LeGrande out," she said.

"We'll move Marny first," Tabby said.

Moving barely conscious people through an airlock is an exercise I hoped I'd never have to repeat. It took the better part of an hour, but we finally punched through a pressure barrier onto a loading deck on
Cape of Good Hope
, where we were met by eight crew members.

The crew of
Cape of Good Hope
wordlessly set to helping Marny, Ada, and Nick. To a person they were emaciated and slow moving, which made their efforts all the more noteworthy. When we returned with a large crate of meal bars and then again with O2 crystals, their plodding pace perked up and smiles replaced the long, desperate looks they'd been exchanging.

"Captain LeGrande, any word on Anino?" I asked, feeling like we'd finally reached a sort of equilibrium.

"We have several possible vectors. We can split them up," she said.