Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (49 page)

The young man gasped and lunged to his feet. Yorrick's hand on
his shoulder slammed him down hard. The young man winced but froze when he saw
the pistol barrel pointed at his skull.

“I'd think about the next few seconds if I were you. Don't do
anything stupid,” Yorrick growled. “Believe me, I so want to shoot you, but
they'd make me clean up the mess,” he said. He looked over to the wall and then
adjusted his aim slightly. He shrugged after a moment. “Still, worth it in my
opinion,” he said, finger tightening ever so slightly.

“Bobby,” Sprite said. “Bobby, look at me. Look at me,” she
emphasized. The young man's terrified blue eyes cut from the pistol to Yorrick
and then finally to the AI's image. He looked at her in raw appeal, lips
blubbering. His face showed fear, anxiety, and terror. “I'm on your side,” the
AI said softly. “But you've got to help me. I've got to give my boss something
to save you. Otherwise he's going to pass judgment and you will be out the
lock,” she said.

The young man paled, gulping. He shivered uncontrollably. “What
do you want to know?” he asked in a small voice, tears dripping.

Sprite didn't allow a trace of her satisfaction over Yorrick's
performance as she began her list of questions.

<----*----*----*---->

The new wave of former slaves were hesitant boarding Bounty. They
were each run through sickbay and the mess, then either assigned temporary
quarters or shipped over to Deianira or Le More. Some had a mental breakdown,
sobbing over the kindness. They were still shook up by the sudden change of
events and relief.

Others spoke with the ship's crew and found out not only their
history, but also their intentions on fighting back. That made the scuttlebutt
rounds for a few hours. After they were cleared by sickbay, had a meal and
rest, some former slaves demanded to join the crew.

They were informed they would get the opportunity to do so when
they are judged healthy. Sprite, having prior experience now, provided them
with the propaganda material as well as the recruiting material.

Sprite, Defender, and Bounty listened to and recorded all their
conversations for further security review.

Once the slaves were settled Sprite received requests from
personnel on Deianira and Le More to man the new freighter and tanker.

“We're still cloning their databases,” Sprite said. “But we've
got a lot of people raising their hands to volunteer Admiral. It seems that the
successful taking of the three ships has woken some of the remaining crew from
their apathy.”

“Or they just don't want to be stuck in the other ships,” the Admiral
replied.

“No...” Sprite drawled. “I don't honestly think that is it. They
had over a hundred and forty people on Deianira before the pirates captured her
Admiral. With the repairs we've made to her, she's more than capable of
handling that number or more. I think some are honestly interested in a fresh
start.”

“And there is no talk about making a run for it?” Defender asked.

Sprite looked at the other AI as she frowned. “You and I both
know we can't know that. They are on a civilian ship, so we don't have access
to what they say there. It is however something to consider sir,” Sprite said,
sounding uncomfortable.

“I don't think it will be a problem. I'm not sure about the
command team. Each ship needs a solid command team. And I want a navy crew on
the collier.”

“The collier sir? It doesn't even have a name. It's a captured
freighter, that much we've confirmed. But she's been rebuilt so often...”
Sprite shook her virtual head. “And the survey crews didn't find a builder's
plaque.”

“She's a Clydesdale. That's obvious. Right now I don't mind if
she has a civilian enlisted crew, but I want our officers and noncoms on board
her. For now an officer on the tanker as well.”

“We'll be spread thin Admiral. And we still haven't finished
manning the corvette. I'm guessing you have someone in mind for that?”

“You might say so...” the Admiral replied. “If he'll go for it. I
think he's more than up for the challenge though...”

<----*----*----*---->

Commander McGuyver took command of the corvette with Sindri as his
engineer and exec. The Admiral was sorry to see them go, and not just because
it made a big hole in his command structure again. For now Lieutenant Bounty
would act as his executive officer. The two humans were well liked by the crew
and had an easy air of competence and leadership few others could project so
easily though, and a command slot such as an executive officer or a Chief
required a body normally. But this wasn't normal times. They would have to make
do with what crew they had available.

Sindri took Yosef and a small team with him to man engineering and
some of the systems on the corvette. Lieutenant Trey Ulster took over for
Commander Sindri as Bounty's Chief engineer.

Ensign Tirana Platt and Lieutenant Bill Peters were the only
officers on the Collier. Since the ship lacked a proper name they had
rechristened it Lassie. The Admiral didn't like how thin and wide spread his
people were getting, but at least Sprite had copied her bot software to the new
ships after their computers had been cloned. They were integrating well, and
taking some of the load off the organic crew while also helping to locate and
stamp out problems on the ship. It would be weeks before the ships were back to
Federation standard, but they were on their way.

Once the Admiral judged the corvette's crew was sufficiently
settled in the Admiral called to check on them. “You two got your ship in
order? Or do I have to send over help?” he asked, only half teasing.

“We're fine,” Ian said. “Though I keep bumping my head,” he joked.
“And don't get me started on my tiny bed.”

“This ship was made for men like me,” Sindri rumbled as he entered
the conversation. “She's all right, but I see plenty of room for improvement.
If we have the time and materials,” he said. The Admiral nodded.

“Which is what I thought you'd say. So I've already made up a
list,” Sindri replied smugly.

“Send it over,” the Admiral chuckled.

“Small man on a small ship. It's about time they built something
my size,” The dwarf joked.

“There are no small men of stature here, only freedom loving
people,” the Admiral replied.

There was a bit of an uncomfortable pause as they digested that.
“Ah quit, your making me blush,” the dwarf finally growled. That got a laugh.

“Seriously,” the Admiral said. “You will be missed.”

“Yeah well, keep the engines warm for me. And don't abuse that
reactor. She's a beaut,” the Chief replied.

“We will. After we've properly broken her in,” the Admiral replied
with a lurking smile.

“Sadist,” Sindri said, and then chuckled. The chuckles were a
little too much for the speakers on the bridge, the reverb kicked up a slight
whine that the Admiral heard. He grimaced slightly in annoyance.

“I've got the list and I've added it to the replicator cue,”
Sprite reported. “You're priority items will be first of course. Some things
may have to be bumped back since we may not have the proper materials for it
all.”

“Are we recycling all the old hardware?” Sindri asked. “Shouldn't
we keep some for replacements?”

“Yes we're recycling the hardware when we can. We're recycling it
into spares. Proper spares.”

“Oh. Zipping up now,” Sindri said gruffly. “Show's what I know,”
he grunted.

“You've been busy,” Sprite replied.

“Cut the chit chat or we'll be here all day,” Ian said. “We've
sent our report Admiral. The crew is shaking down nicely. I'm looking forward
to putting this ship into action.”

“You've got some tactical training to go along with the ship
repairs Commander,” the Admiral replied. “And now that we have two ships, I
plan on running you ragged in the simulator at least a couple hours a day. So
get your ship sorted out.”

“I'm ready when you are Admiral,” Ian said.

“I'll have a sim ready in fifteen,” the Admiral replied. He nodded
to Bounty who nodded back. “If that's okay with you?” he asked.

“Me and my big mouth,” Ian replied quietly. The Admiral smiled
slightly. “Yeah, sure, that will give me time to get a bite to eat.”

“Roger that. See you in fifteen Commander,” the Admiral said.

“It's nice to have capable people,” Sprite said. The Admiral
nodded in agreement.

<----*----*----*---->

One of the things Lieutenant Gustov suggested and others
including Irons agreed with was a self defense class. Some of the recruits were
hesitant to join, but others were grimly aware of the need for not only the
self discipline, but also the return of self confidence the training would
allow. And they loved to picture what they would do to a pirate the next time
they came within reach of them.

When he could, the Admiral taught a class. He had run the Marines
through a refresher once they had downloaded combat moves from his recruiting
files. Knowing the moves in your implants were one thing, a Marine or other
recruit had to train to
use
the moves, make them part of their muscle
memory so they would act on instinct.

All of the Marines were in the martial arts courses, that was
practically a given. Most of the officers found time in their busy schedules to
work out at least once a week.

"It seems like you do this all the time," Sprite
teased. "You'd think you'd get bored of it after a while."

"I like to teach," the Admiral replied, moving smoothly
through work out katas. It felt good to move, to stretch, to relax and just be
for once.

"And you like to work out. To take frustrations out, and you
like to make certain your people can fight back."

"It's a good way of bonding yes. But really, I like
it." He shrugged, rolling his shoulders. "It's as simple as
that."

"Of course you do. But you seem distracted though. You
aren't putting your full effort into it. You seem to be delegating more."

He grimaced slightly. "No choice Commander. I'm being pulled
in various directions all at once. I
need
to delegate. I have to trust.
They need to feel needed, to have a job."

"True," Sprite said after a moment. "I'm glad to
see you are getting back into practice
Admiral
," she said.

"We'll see," he said.

The Admiral considered sending one freighter to Pyrax to warn
them, another to Hidoshi's World. However, whatever was waiting in Beta101a1
would kill the freighter, there was no way they could cross the system without
getting caught. That was out. Heading North to Kathy's World and then back down
through B452c could land them in trouble too. That too was out. He couldn't
chance running a gauntlet low on fuel.

He was still trying to decide what to do when the decision was
taken momentarily out of his hands.

“Sir, we have an unexpected jump signature at the Hidoshi jump
point!” Bounty said.

“Well,” the Admiral said.
“It looks like they came out to us. I guess that solves that
dilemma,” he said.

“Yes, yes it does. And causes another. We're a bit off balance,”
Sprite replied. “The corvette's drive is offline. It's actually in pieces if
you look closely. ETA to getting it back together and online is three and a
half standard days, possibly longer depending on what
else
they find."
The admiral grimaced. They had been forced to rebuild several components,
setting back the planned schedule three times. The Horathians were apparently
making their own parts, but the parts were still a bit crude and wore down
quickly. A good thing in his book. "And the other ships are just sitting
there. Not to mention the orbital works,” the AI reminded him.

Irons grimaced. She was right. There was no way of hiding all of
it. They could cut power, but what was the purpose. The energy signature was
already speeding its way to the enemy ships even as they spoke. “Then we'll
just have to see how much bullshit they can stand before they get wise won't we
Commander?” Irons replied.

Enric and Irina sputtered in amusement. He looked at each of them
and then Sprite. “Or should I say see how well you can get them to dance to our
tune and lower their guard.”

“Oh lovely. Lay it all out on me,” Sprite muttered.

“In the meantime,” the Admiral said, turning to the ship AI's
avatar. “Bounty, let everyone know through their implants or by whisker laser.
Trojan horse. Keep the comm lines clear.”

“Aye sir.”

“Commander,” Irons turned to the AI. “Create a back story. The corvette
suffered an engineering casualty and we're working on it with the crew.”

Sprite's eyes shifted back and forth as she ran a sim on that
idea. “That... might buy us some time. How much I'm not sure sir,” she said.

“We'll have to make do with what we've got,” the Admiral replied.

“Time to intercept?”

“Ninety one hours Admiral.”

“Very well.”

“Admiral, they won't see us for some time. We could go into
stealth,” Bounty suggested.

The Admiral's eyes cut to the plot. The corvette's icon was there.
He shook his head no. “Tempting to use them as bait, but no. They are really
helpless. If the enemy took their ire out on them...”

“Understood,” Bounty said quietly.

“Besides,” Sprite said in an aside to the AI. “I know the Admiral.
He doesn't like leaving a man behind.”

“Understood,” Bounty said to her.

“I am guessing we are going with a repeat of Trojan horse?” Sprite
asked.

The Admiral nodded. “Better get your game face on Commander, I
want a Broadway performance,” he said.

“I'll do my best to break a leg sir,” Sprite replied dryly.

“As long as it's one of theirs, I don't mind in the slightest
Commander,” Irina replied with a grin.

<----*----*----*---->

The two Apollo class corvettes came in with the large freighter,
another Clydesdale turned collier/troop transport. They had kept the ships on
their sensors for the full three and a half days it had taken the Horathians to
cross the system and match speed and orbit with Bounty.

“That's right, keep coming. Fat dumb and happy. Boy have we got a
surprise for you,” Nobeki growled.

The Admiral glanced her way and then smiled grimly in wordless
agreement.

“It's getting to be a regular ship's swap meet here,” Ian said
over the laser link. Irons chuckled. He'd heard about ship swap meets. Ships
would come together in a system and exchange parts, crew, or materials. Two
swap meets were quite famous from this century, one a wedding had been
performed, another a funeral of a rather popular Captain.

“We have ID's on the ships. The lead corvette has an IFF
broadcasting an identifier of CTA1R667. The second corvette playing rear guard
is broadcasting CTA2J899. Either they have caught a lot of ships, or they have
built quite a few over the years,” Sprite said.

“Or they did those identifiers in a random method to make people
over estimate their numbers Commander,” Defender reminded her. Sprite felt
irritation but ignored the other AI.

The Admiral studied the sensor read outs. They had run tracking
exercises on the incoming ships several times over the past three days. He
could tell the crew was nervous but now excited. After what had happened with
the last convoy, they expected a repeat. Hopefully they wouldn't be
disappointed. Hopefully they wouldn't be overconfident either. “Tag Alpha one
Romeo as Romeo. Tag Alpha two Juliet as Juliet,” he ordered. Romeo had some
issues with her power. He could tell even though the ship was in the lead she
had only half the power she should have. Apparently they were moving at her
pace.

“Aye sir,” Nobeki replied.

“ID on the collier?”

“T12783 sir. T stands for tender or transport I believe,” Nobeki
reported.

“Yes it does,” Sprite said absently. “ID?”

“Let's just call her Collier two for now,” the Admiral said. “We
can think of something else later.” He refocused on her image on his HUD. “Are
you ready?”

Sprite shrugged. “Ready as I'll ever be Admiral,” she said.

“All right, you are on when Bounty opens a signal.”

“Sure you don't want to wait for them to call us Admiral?” Sprite
asked nervously.

“You'll do fine Commander,” the Admiral replied.

“You are on Commander,” Bounty said.

“This is Captain Hathaway of the Bounty. How did it go?”

“Impatient Captain?” the audio response came a few minutes later.
There was laughter in the voice. “I can't blame you.”

“More like boredom,” the Captain replied. “Though we're keeping
the engineers busy lately.”

“We see that,” Captain San replied, amused. “Are you trying to
build your own yard Brian?”

“No, just wishing one was nearby right about now,” the Captain
replied, sounding amused.

“Taking that planet was like taking candy from a baby! If all of
those jewels are so easy to pluck,” one male voice said. Irons frowned. This
was tricky, these people obviously knew Hathaway, so they could easily trip
Sprite up. Sprite had orders to cut the conversation short if it became too tangled
for her to handle.

“She certainly is a beautiful marble,” Captain San said. She was
obviously the most senior of the group, though she was stuck on the collier
instead of captaining one of the small warships. Either there was something
going on there, a gender bias, or something else.

“Taking her was dead easy. She was ripe all right. An agro world
though, not much there. The idiots had nothing to use for defense either. A
push over,” one of the corvette Captain's scoffed.

Sprite knew better than to ask names. Fortunately Bounty's records
were clear on who was on each of the ship's. Unfortunately none of the ships
had an active IFF at the moment.

“The planet has one space port near the capital city and no
communications to speak of. Colonel Wizenbeck's people took the capital easily
and spread out to take the remaining large towns and villages.”

“Excellent.”

“We weren't needed,” one of the corvette captains said, sounding
annoyed. “There was nothing in the system.”

“Pity.”

“I'm glad the colonel grabbed your shuttles. I know you were
reluctant to part with them Brian, but they came in handy. The mudball has
roads, but they use animals for transport,” Captain San said, sounding
disgusted. “If you can believe it. Animals. Backward hicks. We're doing them a
favor,” she said.

There was a soft growl from the bridge crew on Bounty.

“So, the planet is secure?”

“Yes. Oh, there are some yahoos holding out here and there,
pockets mostly with hunting rifles or improvised weapons. Hillbillies I think
the colonel colorfully called them. And some of the natives ran into the hills.
The colonel is expecting some resistance for some time, but he assured us he
has enough fire power on hand to deal with anything the natives try.”

“Understood.”

“Due to the colonel's need for air cover and transport on the
planet, I was asked, and I granted that half the shuttle compliment remain
behind,” the Captain said sounding a little nervous. Hathaway's image scowled.
“It's not like you need all of them Captain,” she said hastily, expecting a
protest. “At least not right now. This system lacks a decent planet and you're
boat bay is full as it is. So don't complain.”

“True,” Hathaway grudgingly admitted.

“I kept two shuttles for each of your two prizes Captain. That way
they have a spare. They need some TLC though. They've been on my outer hull.
I'll be glad to be rid of them,” Captain San said pointedly.

“We can handle that,” Hathaway's image replied. Sprite felt
hampered by the conversation. The time delay between exchanges worked in her
favor, but the lack of a visual image hindered her efforts. She couldn't read
any body language, just garner what information she could form their tone of
voice and content. Still, she did what she could with what she had available.
“It will give the crews something to do.”

“Bet you wish you were there!” the Captain said. “A little
action...” She paused expectantly.

Hathaway's image shrugged. “Yes well, orders are orders. We all
have to play our part in the grand scheme of things.”

“Yeah, but you've been busy,” the corvette Captain responded and
then whistled. “More ships? And you've made some repairs!” There was a bit of
jealousy and envy in his tone.

“Three of the ships you are seeing are the resupply train. The
collier brought in a replicator. And we picked one up in one of our...
acquisitions,” the Hathaway imposter replied. “You can tank up shortly,” he
said, sounding dismissive.

“Ah,” the Captain nodded sagely. “I see. My thanks, we'll no doubt
need the fuel for the next leg.” He cocked his head as someone whispered to him
off camera. “Say, I don't suppose we can get in on that? We're in need of some
parts,” he said hopefully.

“I don't know,” the image of Hathaway responded. “We're pretty
full up on stuff and limited on materials.”

“We can trade for it. We picked up some choice food items on the
planet. Plus some other exotic treats,” the corvette Captain said slyly.

“Maybe we can work out a deal then Commander,” Hathaway's image
replied thoughtfully. The Admiral smiled coldly when the Commander perked up.
“Send over a list of what you need and what you wish to trade. I think we can
push collier T niner five niner one's departure back a day or two without any
harm,” he said, smiling slightly.

The Captain chuckled and cut the circuit.

<----*----*----*---->

Corvette CT alpha one Romeo six six seven docked with Bounty. The
larger ship had insisted they move away from the downed corvette to give her
work crews room to focus on their jobs.

Once the ship was docked and the docking clamps secured, Lewis and
a pair of marines boarded the ship with a cargo crate. The crew met them
grinning like idiots.

“First load,” he said gruffly. The eager rating reached for the
cover. Lewis slapped a hand down on top keeping the lid shut. “Uh uh. Show us
the goods first. Captain Hathaway's orders,” he growled.

“Fine, this way,” the rating sighed, clearly expressing his tried
patience. He waved them inward. Lewis struggled with the push pull over the
knee knockers. He looked over his shoulder to see the bored rating smirk
slightly.

“Put your backs into it,” Lewis growled to Yorrick and Reiner as
the two men struggled to lift their end. They got it over the hump and then
onward.

 Lewis moved with them through the ship to its tiny engineering
compartment. There Yorrick shut the hatch and then they opened the crate. Three
female marines spilled out. Lewis, Yorrick and Reiner took down the gaping
Horathians and then grabbed their weapons.

Hand signs flashed as Lewis ducked into his body armor and then
took his weapon from one of the female marines. One of the others was already
zip tying the enemy prisoners. Grimly he nodded to Yorrick by the hatch.

Yorrick nodded back and then yanked the hatch open. He did a quick
peek and then lunged through the opening with Reiner, Cherry, and Lewis on his
heels.