A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (44 page)

Leo looked at Desiree, “I love you.”

Desiree’s eyes moistened and she smiled, “I love you, too.”

Leonidas turned around and said, “Now I understand what the original Leonidas went through at Thermopylae.  Impossible odds, no chance of winning, but he fought until the end and saved Greece.  It’s my turn now.  GO, Desiree!”  The Thermopylae leapt forward and headed toward the waiting Romanov Formation.

• • •

Blakely stopped addressing the surviving Pirate Ships and some began turning away as the Thermopylae and Play Toy accelerated toward the Romanov survivors.  They watched as they moved around the formation firing thousands of missiles into it and Romanov Warships began going up in giant explosions.  He heard over his speakers pirates yelling, “That’s suicide.  He’s crazy!”

Blakely watched and said to his pilot, “Boost the ship, we’re going in.”  Blakely accelerated out of the Pirate formation and after a brief moment, the other ships joined him.  Geoffrey yelled to his crew, “Who wants to live forever!?!”  He screamed a pirate yell and his ship went to maximum speed.”

• • •

The Romanov survivors were packed so tightly in formation that huge numbers of them were destroyed by the vessels close by blowing up.  The twenty thousand warships rushing forward from the planet saw the destruction and went to full speed.

• • •

Blakely stared at the oncoming wave of Romanov Warships and suddenly heard over the loudspeakers, “WHAT THE HELL!!”

He looked at his monitor and saw thousands of sleek silver colored warships passing his ship like he was standing motionless.  They passed the blasted remains of the Romanov survivors and paused only long enough to fire missiles at any Romanov Warship that was still operational.  More than twelve thousands of the sleek warships accelerated toward the second Romanov fleet and launched a massive barrage of missiles at the oncoming Romanov Wave moving toward them.  The Senior Fleet Commander saw the wave of missiles coming at him at incredible speed and suddenly realized that the ships moving in on his fleet were from the Insectoid Planets.  He shook his head and sighed as his ship went up in a massive blast.

• • •

Leonidas hear Carl yell, “I HAVE THOUSANDS OF WARSHIPS ENTERING NORMAL SPACE AND HEADED OUR WAY!!”

Leo hit his communicator, “Gem, break away, break away!!”

The Play Toy and Thermopylae turned away from the Romanov survivors and turned to meet the on rushing wave on new warships.  Embree looked up from his panel, “They’re Insectoid Warships!!”

“Blakely, pull up and stay out of the way of the Insectoid Fleet!!” Desiree shouted over the fleet frequency.  The thousands of surviving Pirate Warships came to a stop and watched as the Insectoid Fleet began pulverizing the remaining Romanov Warships.

“Is that what those ships are?” Blakely asked.

“Yes!” Leo answered.

Gem and Ana appeared on the wall monitor as Gold came rushing on the bridge.  He said, “The Queen has sent the fleet to bring the Prince back home!”  He looked up at the wall monitor and saw Ana put her arms around a human.  He heard Leonidas say, “What are you going to do, Gem?”

The man on the monitor said, “What’s done is done.  I will not go back and leave Ana.”

Suddenly, Gold’s communicator activated and everyone heard, “I have come to take the Prince back to the Queen.  I have been unable to find him on any of my scans.”

Gold looked up at Gem on the wall monitor and saw Ana holding him tightly with tears in her eyes.  Gold lifted his communicator, “The Prince chose to command of one of our attack units and his ship was destroyed during the battle.  If you had only arrived an hour ago, he would still be alive.”

The Insectoid Fleet Commander appeared on the wall monitor next to Gem and Ana’s image and said, “Where was his ship when it was destroyed.  We will take his remains back to be buried in honor befitting a member of the Royal Family.”

Gold tilted his head right, “His ship was disabled by two blaster beams and then eight more ships opened fire on it vaporizing the ship.  Nothing remains of it.”

“I intend to do a thorough investigation.  I will scan everything on and around this planet.”

• • •

The thousands of Insectoid Warships spread out and began moving toward Romania.  Serge knew he stood no chance of escaping them and ordered his ship back to the ground.  The Fleet Commander saw the thousands of advanced warships moving his way and made a critical decision, “Attention all ships, shut down your weapon systems and cut power to all systems but environmental.  No one will make any move, activate a weapon, or any other reaction unless I directly order it!”

• • •

Carl turned around and looked at Leo, “Sir, the warships above the planet are shutting down their defenses.”

Leo pressed his communicator, “Blakely, move the fleet in behind the Insectoids and surround the Romanov Warships above the planet!  Get moving quickly!  Gem follow me and get there as quickly as possible.”

“What are you planning?”

“To take advantage of the situation.”

• • •

The five thousand Romanov Warships watched the thousands of Insectoid Warships move into orbit above Romania and then begin spreading out above the planet running scans of the planet’s surface.  The surviving Romanov Fleet Commander’s Communications Leader said, “Sir, I have two of the advanced Pirate ships arriving and the others will be here in five minutes.  What do you want us to do?”

The Commander saw he was in a bad situation.  If he activated his defenses, the Insectoids would launch those killer missiles at his fleet.  If he didn’t, he’d be wide open for the Pirates to attack.  He pressed his communicator, “You will keep your defenses shutdown unless you are fired on!”

He sat back in his chair and a few minutes later, a man appeared on his console.  “It appears you are in a bad place.  I am going to offer you a way to live and I really hope you take it.”

“What is that?” The Romanov Fleet Commander asked as he activated the Fleet’s general frequency.

“You will order the crews on all your warships to board their shuttles and leave for the planet’s surface.”

“I’ll be killed if I do that.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that.  We intend to handle Mr. Romanov before that becomes an issue.  However, you will be killed if you stay on your ships.  I have all of your ships targeted with multiple blasters and I will fire on you if you don’t agree to leave.”

The Fleet Commander knew he was in a no-win situation but he wasn’t going to die trying to be a hero.  “I will do as you ask.”

“One more thing, if you activate even one self-destruct circuit on your ships, I will order my ships to follow your shuttles to the planet and vaporize the city you land in, am I clear!!”

“Yes.”  The Fleet Commander had opened the general fleet frequency during his conversation with the pirate where all of the ships under his command could hear the conversation.  Before he could issue orders, shuttles were already leaving his fleet and headed toward the planet.  By the time the insectoids completed their scans, the five thousand warships were empty of all the crews.

The Insectoid Fleet Commander appeared on Leo and Gem’s monitors, “It appears we have suffered a great loss.  The Prince was the best of us and I know the Queen is going to be greatly upset.”

“Why did you delay so long in coming?” Leonidas asked.

“The Queen felt that the humans had it coming for putting her planet in danger.”

“What changed her mind?”

“The Prince sent her a recorded message telling her that humans were much like our species.  He said that some of us refuse to see differences between members of other species and some of us see them clearly.  Some of us won’t fight for honor and some of us will die for it.  She was very upset and ordered us to leave immediately.  If the Prince had sent the message earlier, we would have probably arrived in time to save him.”

“Tell your Queen that I am truly thankful for her support and I’m sorry for her loss.”

The Fleet Leader turned his head left acknowledging Leo’s comment and said, “There is another one of us with you.  The Queen has ordered me to bring him back with us.”

Gold was listening to the conversation and stepped behind Leonidas where he could be seen, “If you would send a shuttle…”

“I’m launching one now.  I am also leaving a transport close to the filament in normal space with enough missiles to resupply your two ships.”  Gold tilted his head and the Fleet Leader said, “The Prince said in his message that you would be using all of your inventory to kill the ones that put us in danger.  I think it was that comment that changed her mind.”

Leo smiled, “Tell her we greatly appreciate it.  We did exhaust our inventory.”

The display went dark and Gold looked up at the monitor with Gem and Ana on it, “I am going to miss you, Majesty.”

“And I you, Gold.”

Gold turned to Leonidas, “I’ve never thanked you for having that conversation with me about valuing other beings as much as I do my own species.  I’ve learned that everyone I’ve been with here are honorable beings and you changed the way I see the universe around me.  Thank you.”

“I wish you could stay.”

Gold clacked, “At some level, so do I.  But my destiny lies with my people.  I hope we’ll see each other again; it is, after all, a small universe.”

Leo smiled and Gold left the bridge for the landing bay to board the arriving shuttle.  Blakely appeared on his monitor and said, “What are you planning to do with these warships.”

Leonidas shrugged, “Some of our Leaders have sustained damage to their ships.  The ones that have the most damage will replace their ship with one of these.”

“You know that’s going to cause a fight.  Everyone is going to want one of these new modern warships whether or not their ship was damaged.”

“Then send enough crews to fly the ships back to Tortuga and the Council can decide how to distribute them.”

“What do we do now?” Blakely asked.

Leo looked at Embree, “Can we send a message to the planet that will be heard by pretty much everyone.”

“I can power it so that it comes in on every communication device.”

“Tell me when it’s ready.  Ana, it’s your show now.”

“What?”

“You are the only surviving beneficiary of Serge Romanov and you are a Romanov.  Tell the planet what’s going to happen if we meet resistance going down to take him into custody.”

Ana smiled as Embree looked up from his console, “The channel is set up.  I’m going to relay anything you say to the planet.”

Ana lifted her communicator’s microphone and began speaking.

• • •

Serge sat in his office and was issuing orders to his ground forces to prepare to repel attackers.  The wall monitor illuminated and he saw that blonde appear on it.  The Commander of Serge’s ground troops stopped and looked at the monitor with Serge.

My name is Ana Romanov and I am the adopted daughter of Serge Romanov.  I have come here with a fleet of warships and we have destroyed all of the ships my father had to defend Romania.  We are currently in orbit above the planet with more than ten thousand heavily armed warships.  I want to make something very clear to you.  I am sending three individuals down to the planet to take Serge Romanov into custody to pay for his crimes.  If you do anything, and I do mean anything, to hinder us, the fleet has been ordered to raze the city Serge is currently in to the ground.  The fleet will then bombard the rest of the planet and it will appear very much like Cruet after Serge destroyed it.”

Serge’s eyes narrowed and he turned to his Troop Commander, “Get our men organized and prepared to stop them!”

The Commander was staring at the monitor as Ana’s image disappeared and he turned to Serge and pulled his hand blaster out of its holster, “Come with me, Sir.”

“WHAT!?!”

“You will not cause the destruction of this planet.  Now get up and start walking or I’ll deliver your body to them.”  Serge was too frightened to move.  The Commander nodded to two soldiers and they went to Serge, grabbed him by the arms, and roughly pulled him to his feet.  They left the office and headed toward the elevator to take them up to ground level.  Serge was hiding in his armored bunker far underground, which would now do him no good.

• • •

Ana, Desiree, and Leonidas arrived on a shuttle and stepped out in front of Serge’s Headquarters’ Building.  They had been notified by the Commander that Serge was under arrest and was waiting for them to come and take him.  A large crowd was gathering but they stayed far away from the shuttle.  No one was going to risk causing a planetary bombardment.  The two soldiers held Serge by the arms as Ana walked up followed by Desiree and Leonidas.  Ana looked at him, “Serge, you look tired.”

“What, are you too good to call me father?”

“You are my adopted father, but I was little more than a tool you intended to eventually throw away.  Like you did my sister.”

Serge sneered, “I should have killed you long ago.  But you were a dutiful child.  What are you going to do with me?”

Ana’s eyes narrowed as Desiree walked forward and pushed Ana aside, “Do you remember at the restaurant where I told you that I could kill you before your body guards could save you?”  Serge’s head went back and he nodded.  In an instant, Desiree’s sword took his head off.  Ana screamed, “HE WAS MINE!!!”

Leonidas grabbed Ana and held her back from Desiree as he shouted to her, “You couldn’t do it, Ana!!”

“I’ve dreamed of doing nothing else!!”

“But if you did, what would happen as a result of your actions?”

Ana looked at Leo with an expression of rage on her face, “What are you talking about!?”

“Ana, you are the sole beneficiary of Serge.  If you killed him, you would lose your inheritance.  This planet needs you to get it straightened out and to remove all the teleportation devices still here!  If you can’t take the planet, then chaos will follow and who knows what will happen with all those teleportation modules.”

Ana was taking deep breaths and the Troop Commander said, “You are now in command of my forces, Miss Romanov.  What are your orders?”