Rookie Privateer (29 page)

Xie looked to the Captain who replied,
"That won't be necessary, Bertrand."

"
My prisoner, my call," By now, she was menacing enough to even frighten me.

"
Suit yourself."

Marny searched Xie and didn't find a weapon.

"Satisfied?" the Captain asked.

"
Yes."

"
Good enough for me. You need to leave now."

"
Need to put on cuffs and a shock cord, or are they illegal now too?" Marny was pissed.

"
Hand over the shock cord, but the cuffs are certainly okay." The Captain was enjoying himself.

Marny nodded to Nick to hand over the cord and then grabbed Xie roughly, pulling Xie’s arms behind her back and placing magnetic hand restraining cuffs on her wrists. Marny raised her face shield.

Security channel one
. I heard her say and Nick and I obeyed.

"
Nick, take lead. Liam you will have to escort her. If we take fire, listen for my instructions. We are going to jog back double-time."

Nick and I acknowledged. Once we made it into the hallway, we started walking briskly.

"Five hundred thousand m-creds if you release me right now. Otherwise, you'll end up dead." Xie said, once we started moving.

"
Keep it quiet or I will gag you." Marny said menacingly. I had no doubt she meant it.

"
Call off your dog, Liam. That's half a million m-creds. If you want to be a businessman, I guarantee you don't want to piss off Red Houzi like this," she continued.

Marny didn't waste time and pulled a black sash from a pocket and wrapped it around Xie's mouth. Xie struggled, but in the end was gagged.

"Might as well get us on the right path, right out of the box," Marny said humorlessly.

I would like to say we made it back to the ship without incident, but that wasn't the case. We hadn't made it more than a hundred meters when we picked up a tail.

"Get ready boys. The guy behind us is there to keep us from escaping. The main attack is coming from the front or the sides. Liam when it comes, sweep Xie's legs out. Nick, I want you to launch yourself at Xie and keep her down. And Liam, I need you to get the guy who is behind us.

We only made it another twenty meters. The attack came from a crossing hallway. I had just cleared it when two figures emerged, one on each side of us.

Knowing what to do and doing it when the crap hits the fan are two different things. I took two hits right away from flechette guns. Fortunately, the armored vac-suit prevented the darts from penetrating. I tried to sweep Xie's legs, but she was already in motion. She jumped before my leg swept around, so I fired my arc-jets and barreled into her, crashing us both into the wall. Nick was already moving and landed on top of both of us.

I rolled out of the pile and saw the rear goon rushing our way. He could tell Marny wasn't paying attention to him, but then he wasn't paying attention to me either. I could understand that. Marny was the real threat in our group.

He had his flechette drawn, but with all of the friendlies walking around, he hadn't taken a shot. We were in almost full gravity, so my arc-jets didn't easily make me fly, but they could still give me a significant boost. Assisted by the arc-jets, I blindsided the man while at a full run. His gun clattered to the floor and he slumped downward, stunned. I snagged his flechette before he came around, put the barrel two centimeters from his knee and fired five rounds directly into it. He woke, screamed and fell over again. I winced at the pain I had caused and may even have apologized to him. It was the heat of battle. Who remembers? It had been necessary, but I still felt bad.

I looked down the hallway and saw Marny down on one knee. Body language told me she was tiring or had taken a significant amount of damage. There were two bodies on the ground near her and two baddies still attacking.
The rest of the crowd had been smart and scattered. I tried to calm down. I was too far away to jump in physically, but now I had the flechette. I dropped to one knee and swung the gun up as one of the guys took aim at Marny. I was going to be too late.

All of a sudden, Nick bounded up from his position on top of Xie. He collided with the gunman whose shot went wild.
They both landed in a heap against the wall. This gave Marny enough time to turn her head and address the attacker behind her. Instead of standing up, she rolled, twisted and sprang up under her attacker’s arms, grabbing his crotch with one hand and his neck with the other. The poor man screeched and went flying, headfirst into the wall. He didn’t move.

Marny walked over to Nick and offered him a hand
up. "My thanks, Nicholas, for protecting my flank." Neither Marny’s words nor her smile faltered a bit as her foot shot out to the side, delivering a head blow to the guy squirming on the ground. My first thought was that she was one tough woman. My next thought was that I was glad she was on our side.

The fight was over, but we still had to get Xie to the ship.
I’d kept her in my peripheral, so I wasn’t surprised she’d managed to get her cuffed hands in front and was standing up. I was not in the mood for any of Xie’s crap. I stepped forward and leveled the gun at her chest just as she was about to run.

"
Xie. I swear I will empty this gun into you if you move," I said with as much vehemence as I could muster. I must have been convincing because she remained still. Nick collected the remaining guns and Marny limped over to where Xie was standing. She unlocked the manacles and then re-locked them behind Xie's back.

"
Marny, can you make it back to the ship?" I asked.

"
Aye, just a strain. We need to move now," she said intensely.

We made it to the ship without further incident.

"Marny, stow the prisoner. Nick, fire up the engines, then bring the med-kit to the bridge." I made my own way to the bridge.

Open bay doors. Show system's status. List new communications from Kuznetsov
.

The disembodied female voice of the ship's AI replied, which was unusual. I didn't like to hear from the AI and preferred to read status.

You have a message from Baru Manush Defense regarding a security lock down of Sterra's Gift. One message from Lieutenant Gregor Belcose.

Relay Baru Manush Defense message to all crew.

"
Captain Hoffen, you and your crew will report to Baru Manush Defense Station for questioning related to an incident during prisoner transfer."

Marny stopped short of the bridge door.
"Permission to enter bridge."

"
Enter." I would have thought that she would skip that given the situation.

"
They are trying to delay us," Marny informed me.

"
Without those doors open, we aren't going anywhere." I retorted.

"
I can get those doors open," Nick said from the doorway, making his way onto the bridge.

I wasn't going to waste time questioning his plan. If he said he could do it, then good enough.

"Will they fire on us?" I looked to Marny.

"
Not sure. Feels like that would go beyond the Captain's pay grade. I doubt he would want to blow up Mie-su in any case."

"
Nick, do it."

"
Marny, can you cover me?" Nick asked.

"
I'll do better than that," she replied.

Activate ship defensive perimeter
. Marny instructed the AI.

"
Right behind you." She followed Nick off the bridge.

Play message from Kuznetsov
.

The ship's AI started by displaying a map of the local 3D space. In the center of the display was Baru Manush. The view pulled back from the station and blinking lights showed a net of defense gun positions. The view pulled back even further and the station and Ceres continued to shrink until they were no longer visible. Four ships, magnified, were coming from three different directions. Deceleration vectors showed behind them, indicating both direction and change in velocity.

One of the ships wouldn't be a real problem. It was at least twenty hours behind the others. Two ships traveled together and were the closest to our path away from Baru. We would have to deal with them first. They were close enough that if Captain Stabos, or anyone else from Baru Manush Defense provided them with our departure information, they could easily overtake us.

Skirmishes in space can generally be measured in seconds. If two ships are equal, the fleeing ship only needs a few minutes of thrust to get well beyond range of the other. My concern was the two ships traveling together were small attack craft. The rendering in my HUD showed them as two-thirds the size of
Sterra's Gift
.

I reached up into the rendering and pulled the ships toward me. Apparently, the
Kuznetsov
had received high-def scans of the ships. I expected them to be low quality models, but these ships were extremely detailed.

Belcose didn't provide any narrative, but I appreciated the information nonetheless.

The two ships varied minimally in design. Both were narrow and long with engines all on the back, just like
Sterra's Gift
. They weren't made for dogfight style attacks like you see next to the large battleships in entertainment vids. These ships were built for chase and flee.

I started working on exit simulations
to get us past the pursuing ships. Using my best guess as to their capabilities, the best case scenarios weren't looking good. We might be able to get out thirty hours before they caught up with us. Once they caught us in open space, they would shred us. We had less than even odds of survival.

It would have to be Plan B.

"Door will be opening in twenty seconds." Nick's voice broke my concentration.

"
Roger that," I replied.

The
normally well-lit docking bay had turned dark and red alarm lights were flashing everywhere.

Fire has been detected in Docking Bay. Recommend vacating
. A yellow alarm pulsed in the bridge. The ship was fairly impervious to most fire, unless the temps got really hot and started to fry our systems. Fire was one of the most dangerous events in a space station, as it quickly consumed breathable atmosphere. I grinned. No system had a higher priority than fire suppression - not even security systems.

Inform me when all crew are aboard and the airlock is secure
.

I grabbed the flight stick and thrust controls and watched with satisfaction as the docking bay door opened.

Crew is aboard and airlock secure
, the AI informed me.

Assist flight controls. Quickest exit from station. Keep free of floor and ceiling
. I couldn't afford to spend so much time getting out this time. A twist of my wrist caused the ship to spin and move quickly toward the opening doors.

Incoming communication from Baru Manush Defense.

Inform them that we are exiting station to protect our ship from a station emergency
.

I pushed forward on the stick and we cleared the exit.

Prepare ship for acceleration. Cease telemetry link with Baru Manush
.

A familiar lurch in my stomach let me know the inertia and gravity systems were once again communicating.

"
Sterra's Gift
. Return to Quarantine Bay 2 immediately and report to Station 1."

At full thrust we were less than thirty seconds to the defense perimeter.

Ship address
. "Battle stations. Max acceleration in five seconds. Acknowledge!"

Nick and Marny both ran onto the bridge and threw themselves into their chairs.

"Go, go, go," Nick yelled excitedly.

I pushed the virtual thrust bar forward and twisted the flight stick to avoid an approaching ship. I hoped it was just a miner.

"
Sterra's Gift
. Return to Quarantine Bay 2 or you will be fired upon."

"
Cap, he could do it." Marny warned.

I didn't reduce the thrust.

Hail Baru Manush Defense
. "Baru Manush Defense, you are interfering in a legal prisoner transfer. We are under contract with Mars Protectorate Navy. We are transmitting this conversation. Please repeat last."

If he wanted to stop us, he should know what he was risking.

"Captain Hoffen, stand down. You have ten seconds before I instruct our defense perimeter to disable your ship."

Close communications. Show perimeter gun effective range and Sterra's Gift in one tenth scale
.

The
HUD showed an uneven sphere around Baru Manush.

Audible count down for Sterra's Gift exiting perimeter gun effective range
.