A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (41 page)

He was thankful the Commander of the Squadron didn’t question his actions.  He was a pretty smart officer and saw that, for the moment, they should be out of any action that took place and out of danger.  He sat back in his chair and waited for Serge to start his speech.  That should prove to be interesting; he wrote most of it.

S
erge sat at his desk and watched the video director raise his five fingers and start a count down by going to four fingers, then three, two, and then one.  He pointed at Serge and closed his fist.  Serge looked directly at the camera, which was located directly in front of a huge teleprompter with his speech written on it in letters that were easily visible from Serge’s desk.  The viewing audience would never know he was reading.

“I know that all of you have questions about what the former President accused me of doing.  I’ve done everything in my power to find out why he was making such an outrageous accusation and I’ve failed to come up with an answer.”  Serge paused and leaned forward as he stared into the camera, “I am outraged by his accusations and I promise all of you that I had nothing to do with what happened to the Unity.  It is due to the peace the Unity has brought to the galaxy that has allowed my business to thrive and prosper.  Why would I ever want any harm to befall it?  I am absolutely innocent of his charges and I request an open investigation to find the monsters that did this and exonerate me from his ridiculous charges.  I find it interesting that he was not on Cruet when the destruction took place and I firmly believe you need look no further than the President to find out who did this horrific deed.”

Serge looked like he was about to cry and he wiped the corner of his left eye with a tissue.  “I know that there is going to be a time of uncertainty while all of the inhabited planets in our galaxy try to come to terms with what’s taken place.  Starting immediately, I am reducing the price of everything Romanov Industries produces to one third of its current price in hopes that I can assist planets that may be struggling economically with the uncertainty we are all facing.  I am willing to do anything I can to help bring order out of this chaos and I pray whoever did this is brought to justice…”

• • •

Leo looked at Embree and pointed at him.  Serge continued reading his speech but unbeknown to him, Leonidas’ image appeared beside his on every communication device listening to the speech.  “I really hate to interrupt such a wonderful acting job being delivered by Mr. Romanov, but there is some things all of you need to know.  The devices on Cruet that destroyed the planet emit a frequency that is almost impossible to detect.  However, I have that frequency along with the instructions on how to modify some of your communication devices to detect it.  I am sending that information now and I ask that you record this and start looking to see if any of those devices are on your planets.  When you find them, and you will find them, please notice that they are all embedded in electronic devices that were manufactured by Romanov Industries.  The President was absolutely right about Serge Romanov covering Cruet with these devices and he possesses a device that is capable of teleporting nuclear explosives into the receiving devices on your planets.  He is making his prices so cheap to get more of them to your worlds so he can hold every planet hostage against not doing as he commands.  He also plans to put all of his competitors out of business in the process and prevent any new competitors from entering the marketplace.  I believe the devices that are currently on your planets have been made inactive.  So, for the moment, you’re safe.  If you allow more Romanov electronic devices to be brought to your worlds, you’re inviting Cruet’s destiny.  Romanov intends to rule you with an iron fist and you’re insane if you allow it.”  Leo looked at Embree and he ended the transmission.

• • •

Serge continued speaking and completed his speech.  He wiped another tear from his eyes as the director ran a hand across his neck indicating the camera was off.  “Well, how did I do?”

The director shouted, “Bravo!” as the video crew started clapping.  Serge leaned back in his chair and smiled.  The door to his office few open and his assistant rushed in, “The speech was hijacked!!”

Serge looked at him in shock, “What are you talking about!”

The assistant connected his communicator to the huge wall monitor and fast forwarded the recording.  Serge sat there and saw Leonidas start talking in the middle of his presentation.  His eyes went wide and then they went to slits.  He had been played for a fool. His message board began lighting up and another assistant came rushing in, “We’re receiving word from some of the planets that they’ve found the devices in numerous Romanov electronics.  They are ordering you to stay away.”

Serge watched the video again and his anger grew by the moment.  He forced himself to think and then he pressed some buttons on his console and began scrolling through the list of frequencies.  He found the one he was looking for and pressed the button next to it.

• • •

Embree looked up from his panel, “Uhhh, Sir.  I have a call coming in from Serge Romanov.”

“Really.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Well answer it and see what he wants, Embree.”

Embree stared at Leonidas and then shrugged as he pressed the receive button, “Hello, Mr. Romanov.  How may I help you?”

Serge saw Embree and immediately recognized him.  He lowered his eyes and said, “It appears I missed you.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over that.  I had the communications relayed to the shuttle and I wasn’t on board; it was a mistake anyone could make.  I will say that the shuttle went up in a very bright blast, so to speak.”

“Since you are still alive, may I also assume your Captain is as well?”

“He is and asked to me to inquire as to the nature of your call.”

“Put him on the channel!”

“Mr. Romanov, whatever happened to basic courtesy?  You try to kill me in an explosion and don’t have the decency to say please?”

“You miserable…”

Embree ended the call and looked at Leonidas, “A communications officer can only take so much, Sir.”

Leonidas laughed and Embree looked down at his panel again, pressed a button, and said, “Yes.”

“Connect me with Leonidas…please.”

“Now was that so hard?”

Leonidas saw Serge appear on his console with a red face, “Hello Mr. Romanov.”

“You are going to be hunted down and killed.”

“I look forward to the chase.  Is there anything else you wish to discuss or is the purpose of this call just to make threats?”

“You breeched our contract!”

“Oh come on, Serge!  You made a contract with a pirate, what did you expect?”

“I expected you to keep it!”

“Well, I would have except for a small matter of discovering your modules were pretty much everywhere in this galaxy including being on some of my ships.  It was easy to figure out that they were there for a reason and quite frankly, I just couldn’t work with a murderous psychopath intent on dominating the galaxy.  Your destruction of my shuttle pretty much proved I was right.”

“You lied to me from the start.  You never had any idea where Ana was and extorted me.”

“I’m cut to the heart, Serge,” Leo said with dripping sarcasm.   “Ana is right here with me now and has been the entire time.  Matter of fact, you’ve met her face-to-face.”

“And just when did that happen?”

“Hold on a moment and let me see if she’ll speak with you.  I must tell you that her opinion of you had changed quite a bit since I first met her.”  Leo pressed some buttons on his panel and Ana appeared, “I have Serge on my display and he’s calling me a liar about having seen you.  Are you up to speaking to him?”

“Patch me in.”

Serge stared at his display and an image of Leonidas appeared on one half of his monitor and the ditzy blonde appeared on the other half.  The blonde looked at him and said, “What’s the matter Daddy, got nothing to say to your daughter?”

“You are not Ana!”

“Remember the small black and white puppy you gave me for my sixth birthday.  I named him Serge to honor you.  You had me take the yellow ribbon out of my hair when I graduated from elementary school because you didn’t like it.  You took my sister and me to Lyris when we graduated secondary school and had to leave to sign some contracts.  You wore a navy blue blazer with grey pants on that trip.  Oh, I’m Ana, and I really regret not killing you when I had the opportunity at the Black Flower Restaurant.”

“You do not have Ana’s DNA.”

“Come on, Daddy!  You don’t have a corner on the market of all advanced technology.  I learned that you are not really my biological father and I will make you pay for killing my sister and her baby!”

Serge smiled, “The purpose of this call was to simply ascertain your location.  Now that I have it, I have a gift coming your way momentarily and you will be joining your sister shortly.”

Carl announced, “Captain, we have two hundred warships moving on the filament toward our location.

Leonidas smiled, “I do hope none of your real family members are on the ships you’ve sent.  I’ll be coming to see you shortly.”  Leo looked at Barney, “Drop the stardrive and enter normal space.  Ana, we’ll separate when they move into firing range.  Use your greater speed to stay outside their blaster range.  Try not to waste your missiles.”

Gem replaced her on the display, “We’re moving away from your vessel now and will hold position until the ships are inside our blaster range.”

Leonidas pressed the Battle station’s alarm and announced over the internal speakers, “Only use a missile if one of the approaching warships moves inside their blaster range.  Blaster Teams, hit them quick and hit them hard!”

Two hundred Romanov Warships emerged into normal space a hundred miles out and began boosting toward them.  At twenty-five miles, the Play Toy and Thermopylae turned and moved away from the Romanov Warships’ line of approach.  All six blasters on the Thermopylae were charged and at twenty miles, the Play Toy opened fire first.  Six Romanov Warships exploded into huge balls of fire.  A moment later, The Thermopylae exploded six more.  The chase was on and Romanov Warships began exploding quickly.  The Play Toy was hit by a single blaster beam but the hardened Insectoid hull shrugged it off.  A missile destroyed the ship that had managed to get too close.

• • •

The Romanov Squadron Commander swore and yelled at his Communications Operator, “Order them surrounded and pinned in.”

“Sir, they are too fast for us to do it and their blasters have fifty percent more range than our blasters.”

“Well order them rammed.  I want them…”

The Squadron Commander never finished his statement.  Billy tracked his transmissions and ordered a missile to take out his ship.  Forty minutes later, the surviving twenty six Romanov Warships energized their stardrives and fled for the filament.  Fifteen of them were chased down and blasted into rubble.  The eleven survivors fled toward the intersection at maximum boost and the senior surviving Ship Commander contacted his Fleet Admiral.  He sent the recording of the battle just as four hundred Pirate Warships came through the intersection and blasted the eleven survivors into vapor.

Leonidas watched the destruction of the survivors and smiled.  “It’s good to see you, Captain Blakely.”

“How many ships attacked you, Leonidas?”

“Two hundred.”

“My, my, I am impressed.”

“How far behind you are the rest of the ships?” Leo asked.

“They all should be here within two hours.”

“We should start getting them organized and go over our plan of battle.”

“That I am going to leave to you.  I’m accustomed to organizing about forty ships.  The sixteen thousand or so coming here are far beyond my expertise.”

“According to a ship that left Romania, they counted more than fifty thousand warships moving into formation there.”

“I hope you have a means of escape included in those plans.”

“We’ll do what we can; we are not going there to commit suicide.  However, if we run, you know they will be going straight to Tortuga.”

“Then we might as well stay and enjoy the party as long as possible.  What are we trying to accomplish here?”

“We have to reduce the number of warships Serge has at his disposal to impose his will.  We don’t have to destroy all of his fleets to win.  We must hurt him enough to force him into keeping his surviving warships at Romania to protect himself.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Blakely replied.

Leonidas chuckled, “Simplicity is like that.  Sounds simple but it’s never simple to accomplish.”

Blakely smiled, “I need to write that down.”

• • •

Gem looked at Billy, “That was a great idea taking out the commander of that squadron with a missile, they lost their organization after he was taken off the board.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Once we get into the real fight, I want you searching out the Romanov warships with their Fleet Leaders and do the same thing again.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

“Jack, contact the Thermopylae and let them know about this idea.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Ana looked at Gem, “Those missiles are real killers.  How many do we have on board?”

“I had the storage bay loaded with them.  We have about eight thousand and the Thermopylae has about half that number.  We have more because the Toy is about twice the tonnage and double the storage space that Leonidas has on his ship.”

Ana shook her head, “That’s not near enough to take on more than fifty thousand warships.”

“You’re right.  But using them against the right targets can make a critical difference.  I don’t believe that Serge will send all of his warships at us in the initial wave.”

“Why not?” Ana asked.

“Because all tyrants are cowards at heart.  He will not leave the Romania defenseless and the bigger the coward he is, the more he will keep at home to protect him.”

“What are you thinking he will do?”

“He’ll send half of them out and then send the other half if he’s losing the battle.  If things get really bad, he’ll board a ship and leave the planet with an escort of the remaining ships to allow him to escape.”  Gem paused, “However, I don’t see that happening.  He outnumbers us by far too many for that to happen.”