A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) (30 page)

"Why did they send you now?" Peraf asked.

"They didn't. Thomas Anino, the inventor of the fold-space technology did. We are fugitives from Belirand, much like you and that's not the end of it."

"This is where he tells us what he wants for having saved us," Peraf interrupted.

"Quiet, old woman," Bedros said.

"While cynical, you're not entirely incorrect," I said. "Belirand has abandoned a ship with forty-five crewmembers under similar circumstances to your own and they need a place to live."

"You're not taking us back to Earth?" Bedros asked.

"No. If we did, Belirand would kill each of you," I said.

"You don't know that!" she snapped. "I'd just as soon take my chances."

"I do know that. They killed my father in cold blood to keep us from rescuing that crew. Finding your settlement was just a happy coincidence," I said. "Currently, you are safer on Ophir than you would be on Earth."

"That's a load of bull crap," Peraf said.

"Be that as it may," I said. "My ship is leaving in thirty-one hours to pick up that crew and bring them back to Ophir. If you don't want to welcome them, that is your decision and we will find an alternative location on the planet for them to live out their lives."

"And you'll take your supplies with you?"

"Many of them, yes. But it's not like that. We'll do the best we can for you in any circumstance. What I need is a decision within the next few hours on whether or not you'll welcome this crew."

"They will be welcomed," Bedros said. "Your news isn't as good as we'd hoped, but we won't forget that without your efforts we would have perished."

Peraf looked angrily at him but didn't otherwise correct him.

"Good. My crew is constructing small flying robots to search building-to-building and make sure they're clear. After that, I believe the priorities will be removing bodies and tending to your wounded. If you'll provide a location, we could get started right away digging graves," I said.

"Those all sound like sensible things to do. Eliora, how many protectors remain?" Bedros asked.

"Six," she said. "Do you have the capability to repair our main defensive guns?"

"You have more than one?"

"Three in total. One broke just recently, the other hasn't worked for fifty stans or longer," she said. "If they were repaired and the south gate rebuilt, we'd be able to defend ourselves."

"I'll ask my partner to look at them. He's pretty handy, so the odds are good. I'd like to get you and one more of your choosing set up with armored suits similar to what I'm wearing. You won't be able to fly, but they'll insulate you from most physical damage."

"In exchange for what?" Peraf asked.

"My ship is leaving in thirty hours, give or take. We can stand around being suspicious of each other or we can get to work," I said, giving her a hard look. "Either way, I'm done being polite. Eliora, do you want a suit or not?"

"Yes. Of course," she said.

"Then hang on," I said. I placed my helmet back on, stepped in close and wrapped my arms around her small body and lifted up, flying through the open trap door. I oriented on
Hotspur
, two kilometers away, and flew in its direction.

"Ada, hold on a moment. I have another passenger," I said.

"Understood."

"What are you doing over here?"

"They had a camp set up. We're dismantling it," she said.

Once through the entry hatch, I set Eliora down.

"Let's see what's going on," I said and led her through to the berth deck, requesting that she put the blaster rifle I'd surrendered to her back into the armory. "I'll give that back when we disembark, but I'm not crazy about visitors having weapons inside the ship."

"It's all so clean," she said in wonder.

"Hold on." I took her arm to steady her as we stepped on the lift. To her credit she only wobbled a little as we popped up to the bridge deck.

"Eliora!" Merrie greeted us as we arrived. "The Ophie are running up the mountain; they're retreating!"

"Nick. What's your timing look like?" I asked. "There are a lot of wounded back at the settlement."

"We were just finishing up here. We can be done for now. Marny may have other ideas, but at least we could offload supplies and get the bots working," he said. "And it's nice to meet you, Eliora. Merrie has been talking about you."

"I'm Ada and she's Silver," Ada said pointing at my mom. "We're headed back. I was thinking of landing on the street in the city near the broken gate. Will that work for you, Eliora?"

"Yes," Eliora answered, overwhelmed by the experience of being on the bridge.

"How are the bots coming for clearing the city?" I asked.

"We made ten of them and should be able to clear the city in an hour," Nick said. "We'll start closest to the Keep and work back to the ship."

"I want to outfit Eliora with an armored-suit and a blaster rifle," I said.

"Agreed," Nick said.

"What do you want me to do?" Mom asked.

"Would you help Eliora get into an armored vac-suit? After that, how about organizing medical supplies with their doctors? There are a lot of wounded," I said. "Ada, could you stay with the ship? Run a defensive perimeter so we can offload supplies?"

"Yup, will do."

The ship settled on the ground.

"Marny, I'm sending the bots out," Nick said.

"Got 'em," Marny replied on our general tactical channel. "Tabby and I will bat cleanup."

"I'll send Eliora out in a suit to help," I said.

"Copy, Cap," Marny replied.

"May I make a request?" Jonathan joined the conversation. I hadn't seen him for a while, but I knew he didn't feel the same needs for physical proximity as the rest of us.

"Go ahead, Jonathan," I said.

"We'd like to talk with one of the indigenous. It would give us a chance to start learning their language," he said.

"Bag 'n tag it is," Marny replied. "We're packing duct-tape grenades. We'll get you a couple of lizard boys to chat with."

Fold-space, middle of deep
dark

We'd chosen thirty-four hours as our deadline for leaving Yishuv. We had no idea if Belirand would follow us to Ophir, but I didn't want to be there if they did. We'd deal with Belirand after we finally rescued the crew of
Cape of Good Hope
.

Before leaving, we'd buried most of the corpses, repaired the gate, and brought one more of the defensive guns back online. We also left Eliora and her second in command, Gabe, with armored vac-suits, blaster rifles and plenty of FBDs.

"Captain LeGrande, come in,
Hotspur
calling," I said once I loaded up the comm crystal.

After a few tries, she finally replied. "Liam, thank Jupiter." I was surprised by her lack of formality. "Tell me you have good news."

"We do. There was excitement on Ophir and we had to reroute. What's your status?" I asked.

"What do you want, the bad news or the really bad news?"

"Worst news first," I said.

"Two corvettes just arrived in-system and appear to be searching for us," she said. "We're running lights out, but they'll find us sooner or later."

"What's the other news?"

"I had to shoot my first officer and lock up three other crew."

"What? Why?"

"An attempted mutiny," she said. "The idea of not returning home wasn't very popular."

"But we agreed to take people back if they wanted to risk it," I said.

"We had a meeting and decided it was too much risk to the rest of our families."

"Is he dead?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, Katherine," I said.

"Thank you, Liam. Strange to say, but it's almost a relief that he finally made his move. He had been boiling for weeks. I don't think he would have accepted life on another planet," she said.

"We'll need your crew to be ready to move when we get there," I said. "We can't afford to abort our fold-space flight at this point. I'm not sure where we'd end up, but if those corvettes find you, we'll really be in a spot."

"We'll be ready, Liam," she said.

It was impossible not to think about what awaited us when we dropped out of fold-space near the
Cape
. The hours seemed to drag on. It was a good move on Belirand's part.
Hotspur
could outrun their heavy cruisers easily enough, but corvettes were another thing entirely. Even worse, with two, they'd more likely box us in.

All my worrying turned out to be for nothing when we finally arrived. The corvettes hadn't found
Cape of Good Hope
and we had plenty of time to transfer the
Cape's
crew and much needed medical supplies to
Hotspur
. Unfortunately, our plan to add a fold-space drive to
Cape
wouldn't work. It was too risky to attempt with the corvettes in the area.

I didn't have to announce our arrival to the crew, as we'd all been counting it down on the bridge.

In preparation for the
Cape's
crew, we'd secured the bridge deck and locked down the berth deck as much as possible. There was no way to fit everyone in the hold, nor would it send a very good message to them if we did. That said, we weren't opening up the bridge.

"Captain, we've an incoming hail from
Lawbringer
," Ada said.

Accept comm
.

I wasn't sure why I was going to talk to one more Belirand captain. So far, the conversations had been one-sided.

"
Hotspur
," I replied.

"Hoffen?" I recognized Lorraine Tullas' voice.

"Admiral Tullas, you've upgraded," I said.

"What are you doing, Hoffen?" she asked.

"What's it look like. We're rescuing your colleagues from the awful death you sentenced them to," I said.

"You're taking them to Ophir?"

"Yes. It's not such a stretch, is it?" I asked.

"You shouldn't give away our plans," Tabby said, muting the comm.

"They already know. They're tracking our jump destinations," I said. "Why else would we have gone to Ophir?"

"She's a snake and you can't trust her," Tabby said.

Perhaps I shouldn't, but I felt like Tullas had a level of integrity in her zeal.

"Ophir colony failed centuries ago," Tullas said.

"You mean your predecessors left them to die just like you're doing with the
Cape of Good Hope
?" I asked. "We found the settlement - what's left of it anyway. At least this crew will have a chance on Ophir. It's better than what you're offering."

"To die at the hands of beasts? That's better?"

"It would be for me. I'd rather go down fighting than suffocate. Would you take that away from them?" I asked.

"You're not going to try to bring them back to the known universe?" she asked.

"You shouldn't have killed my parents," I hissed at her. "You told me you'd only go after those people we drug into this mess. You lied. Have you already started murdering their families too?"

"MacAsgaill acted without authority. He's being disciplined," she said.

"For murdering three people? Seems like all in a day's work for your team."

"You've got me wrong, Hoffen. I take no joy in this. We do what we do to protect humanity," she said.

"By lying to them about the existence of sentient life outside our systems?"

"Don't be naïve. We're the good guys here."

"Not from where I'm sitting. And why harass us now? By your own logic,
Cape's
crew is going to die on Ophir. Why try to stop us? You and I both know forty plus crew isn't enough to create a viable colony."

"You can have Ophir, Hoffen, for as much good as it will do you. You've sentenced that crew to death, alone on an inhospitable planet, and you'll have to live with that," she said. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for the death of your parents. It shouldn't have happened, but don't take my sympathy as weakness. You show your face in my corner of the universe and I'll hunt you down."

"Just like you would if you were a hundred thousand kilometers closer right now. I read you just fine Lorraine, no loss of fidelity. You might consider what will happen when you finally get us in a corner," I said.

"Careful," Nick said, muting the comm. He could tell I was starting to get annoyed.

"How's our transfer going?" I asked.

"Just finishing up and those corvettes have been closing on us at high speed for the entire conversation," he said.

"Jump when ready," I said. "There's nothing more for us here."

The last person to board
Hotspur
was Katherine LeGrande. I left Ada at the helm and worked my way through the crowded berth deck, finally finding her in the hold. Davi, the Marine who'd been at her side when we'd first met, stood at her side.

"Welcome aboard, Captain," I said. "Where's Rastof?"

"Over here," Rastof said. I'd forgotten he was about Nick's height and would be hard to find in the crowd.

"Could I get the two of you to join us on the bridge? Davi is welcome, also," I said.

"Certainly, Captain," she said.

The trip back to Ophir was considerably less nerve wracking than the trip out had been. Other than a slightly funky smell in the air, we arrived without any incident only two days after we'd left.

"Taking us in for a low flyover," Tabby said as we came up on the settlement.

The amount of progress they'd made in those two days was astounding. Signs of the battle were still evident, but it was clear that the two construction bots we'd brought with us hadn't rested.

"Eliora, where would you like us to set down?" I asked. "We've a load of new settlers who are anxious to meet their new neighbors."

"We weren't expecting you back so quickly, but go ahead and set down outside the front gate," she said.

"Got it, babe," Tabby said to me. "Get your delegation onto the ramp ready."

We'd agreed that it would be best to have Katherine and Moon Rastof, as representatives of the
Cape's
crew, be the first to meet the Yishuv settlers. And, while it took some effort for Marny, Nick, Katherine, Rastof, Davi and me to work our way through the crowd, we were successful in doing so just about the time Tabby set down.

I palmed open the door and enjoyed the fresh Ophir breeze that met us. A cheer welled up from the crowd behind us and we hastily cleared the loading ramp, lest we be trampled by the crew who not so long ago had been sentenced to death.

When I looked up to the proud gates of Yishuv, people were streaming onto the top wall, all waving brightly colored scarves. A band abruptly started playing as the gates opened and we were greeted by what I could only imagine was the entirety of Yishuv.

Bedros and Peraf hustled through the crowd to take their place at the front of the smiling greeters.

"
Cape of Good Hope
, Yishuv welcomes you," Bedros announced, his voice carrying over some sort of public address system. The crowd cheered and spilled out through the gates.

"Wow, what a greeting," I said, shaking Bedros' hand as he approached.

Even Peraf was smiling and I wondered what had changed for the old girl, although I wasn't about to poke that bear to find out.

"Our settlement needs new blood. Just a tenday ago we were faltering, failing, and on the brink of ruin. Now, look at us," he said. "We're reborn!"

"Councilman Bedros, Councilwoman Peraf, I introduce Captain Katherine LeGrande, formerly of
Cape of Good Hope
," I said.

To say the Yishuv settlement knew how to throw a party would have been an understatement. If I'd expected their recent losses to mute the celebration, I'd have been wrong. It was something I could understand, however. The pain of losing Big Pete was still fresh on my mind and now that both Yishuv and
Cape's
crew were out of harm's way, I was more than happy to join them in drinking heavily.

It was late in the evening when Jonathan found Tabby and me lying on a blanket in front of the roaring bonfire just outside the gates of the city.

"Jonny Boy, sit with us and tell me you all experience the joy of drinking to excess," Tabby said, slurring her words. It was quite a feat for her to get this drunk, given the accelerated metabolism from her replacement parts.

"It's something we've often wondered about," he said, taking Tabby up on her offer to sit on our blanket.

"You need to work on that, because it's a shame to miss out on all the fun," she said.

"Captain, I thought you might be interested to learn we've deciphered the indigenous people's language," he said.

"That's great," I said. "What'd you learn?"

"I just told you, we learned to communicate with them," he said.

"Ooohh. Right… anything else? Like… did they say why they attacked Yishuv?"

"It will take more conversation, but from what we were able to discern, the Ophie very much enjoy battle. To die in battle is their highest honor and calling," he said.

"Sounds like a horrible neighborhood," I said, sending Tabby into a fit of giggles. I smiled at her, loving the fact that she understood drunk Liam.

"That may be exactly correct," he said. "From the basic continent plotting we gathered from
Hotspur's
two landings, we believe it is possible that there could be locations on Ophir that would not be next to this particular species."

"That's a lot of syllables in one sentence. Seriously, Jonathan, I'm not completely tracking. Did you just say there might be a safer place on Ophir?"

"I did," he said.

"Well, frak, let's go check it out."

"Captain Hoffen, perhaps we should have this conversation tomorrow," Jonathan said.

I giggled, which I think might have given away my current state of mind.

Jonathan stood up.

"Don't go away mad," Tabby said. "We just need a night where there aren't any problems to deal with."

"We are not mad," Jonathan said. "We simply believe we might not be achieving our desired objective."

"Oh good. In that, you're right," Tabby said.

It was the last thing I clearly remember about that night. The next morning, I awoke with Tabby lying across me and the blanket pulled tightly around us. My head was pounding and I had to do the needful about as badly as I could ever remember.

"Oooh," Tabby complained as I disentangled our vac-suited limbs.

"I'll be back," I said and ran over to the ship, where I found Jonathan working at assembling a project.

"Good morning, Jonathan," I said on the way past. My mouth tasted like cotton.

"Good morning, Captain," he said.