Spindrift
Chapter 15: High-Jacking a Pirate

“Lady Anak, do the Sisters paint?” Windridge, Ari and I studied the Image of thecourier and the ground around it.

Anak raised a curious eyebrow at my question. Do youmean for work or amusement? Shecrouched on the ground near us, her eight legs folded under her.

“Either, though I think we’ll need a lot of paint for whatI’m thinking.”

“And what are you thinking?” Ari asked.

“Can the Sisters recreate the color of the Free Worldersarmor? Can they do it quickly?”

Ari frowned. “Can’tyour armor do that for itself, sergeant? The chameleon feature I mean. ”

“I’m afraid not, milady, it’s programed to imitate backgroundcolors and textures only. Though I cansee requesting such a feature for future marks.”

The answers to yourquestions, Rhodri Morgan, are ‘yes and yes’. We are starting work on it now, but I’m not certain we can make asufficient quantity quickly enough.

“Thank you. Howevermuch, it’ll be gratefully received,” I said.

“So it’s a false-flag operation then?” said Ari.

“Unless we can think of a better plan on short notice,” Itook Anak’s tablet and sketched it out. “One of the Sisters’ tunnels opens onto this ridge here.” I tapped the screen. “We can travel unobserved to this outcroppingof rocks, here. Windridge will march usas his ‘prisoners’ from there to the courier; about five hundred meters. Every second we can fool them will beprecious.”

“Five hundred meters,” Ari sighed. “Across flat, open ground.”

“Could be worse,” said Windridge. “They could have regular patrols andsentries. They seem to be relying on thesensor arrays of the landed ships instead. Half-assed measures; just right for our half-assed operation,” hechuckled.

“Speaking of ships, what’s in those five shuttles settingthere? They’re awful close,” observed Ari. “We’ll be walking right past at no more thana hundred meters from the nearest one.”

We don’t know. Since we’ve been watching there’ve been a lotof people coming and going, but no large groups.

“We can see that each has a 25mm chain-gun in a nose turretfor ground support,” I switched to an image of the shuttles. “Only two out of the five are a threat.”

“They don’t need more than two,” grumbled the sergeant.

“Well,” said Ari. “It’s a good thing we don’t have more time. We’d worry ourselves out of doing it. Let us know when the paint is ready, Anak.”

The yellow paint was brought to us within an hour andquickly slopped onto the marine’s power armor as they stood. There was no effort to be neat. It was only necessary to fool at ranges overa hundred meters. While they were stillwet, we headed for the exit. There wesaid our good-byes to Anak. But for theabsolute need for secrecy, she would have given us more support.

Eventually we made our way to the rock outcropping, where weorganized for the crossing. Thesergeant, Yuri and Shiro would lead. Ari, with me carrying her, Justin and Jen were next, guarded by Galt, Abe,Elezar and Wan. Ulric and Enik broughtup the rear.

Ari shifted and tightened her tail’s grip on my middle andwrapped her arms around my neck. “Don’ttrip love,” she whispered into my ear.

“Just keep your head down,” I replied.

“Sergeant!” She turned to Windridge. “Remember Quintus Fabius and ‘hurryslowly’. We can’t appear rushed, it’llraise suspicion.”

The Sergeant saluted. “Yes, Ma’am!”

Then to Justin, “Are you and Jen alright?”

“I’ll carry her if needs be, milady.”

Jen smiled and nodded.

“I guess we’re ready Dri.” Ari patted my shoulder.

“Let’s go, Sergeant!”

With that, we emerged from the shade of the rocks out ontothe hot, dusty plain. The courier-packetshone, an all too distant golden triangle in the harsh sunlight.

I tried to observe as much as I could while keeping my headdown, like a sullen prisoner. Ari wiltedover me like a too-dry mermaid. Icouldn’t be sure if she were acting, given the heat and sun.

After we’d gone about a hundred meters, I noticed that theturret on the nearest shuttle had started tracking us. Shiro was carrying his rocket launcher looseand casual. “Think you can take thatturret out if they open on us?” I said softly.

“Sure,” he replied. “Unless they hit me first.”

There was no sound except for our trudging and a breeze toosoft to raise more than a spoonful of dust. I wondered what the enemy was thinking, trying to get into hishead. Who are these people? Is this apatrol? Are they transporting prisonersor did they just now capture them? Whoever’skeeping watch from the shuttles ought to be asking for instructions now. How farup is that going to go before someone makes a decision? What’s their chain-of-command like? Do they even have one?

We were more than halfway there now. My heart was pounding so hard, I was certainAri could feel it. What the hell are they thinking? Don’t they have any concept of security? Damned pirates! Don’t they haveany discipline? Both turrets weretracking us now. I was beginning tothink that the uncertainty would kill me.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! Thefirst turret to track us fired a burst. All three shells impacted the ground about five meters in front of theSergeant. They’re telling us to halt. Thatwas the gunner’s last mistake. Shirosnapped the launcher to his eye and fired. The missile whooshed from its tube, penetrated the glassteel of theturret and filled it with fire and shrapnel.

That kicks thescorpion nest! Thought Ari.

BOOM-BOOM! The secondturret opened up then stopped. One shellsnapped through the gap between me and Yuri. I have no idea where the other went. They must have jammed! I got a brief mental image of the gunnerpounding the breach of his weapon as his turret fell victim to Shiro’s secondrocket.

“Run!” Shouted Windridge.

“Run!” I repeated. We had less than two hundred meters to go.

Soon, the air buzzed and cracked with bullets. Windridge turned and loosed a burst in thedirection of one of the shuttles. Nowall of the squad was firing. Next, myleft foot was knocked out from under me, Ari screamed and we went sprawling. I expected a bloody mess when I checked myfoot, instead I found the boot-heel missing. They shot part of my boot off, thebastards! I leapt up, grabbed Ari bythe waist and tucked her under my arm like a parcel. Running without the boot heel wasawkward. Justin, now carrying Jen overhis shoulder, passed us.

We were almost to the courier ship’s ramp. Windridge motioned for the marines to form afiring line to cover our boarding. Justin with Jen ran up the ramp.

“Wait, dammit! It maynot be safe!” I shouted, then ran up ita few seconds behind them.

When we reached the top, my fears were confirmed. The ship’s ramp led into a small passengerlounge. There stood Teo Parthans, theKeeper’s traitorous cup-bearer, holding a knife to Jen’s throat. At his feet was Justin, lying in a spreadingpool of blood.

I froze. “What thehell are you doing here!?” I spat.

“Waiting for the king! We’re going to New Aragon!”

“I’d say you were going to New Aragon.” Ari spoke calmly from her awkward position.

“That’s enough!” Parthans growled. “Now close theramp.”

I didn’t move.

He tightened his hold on Jen. “Do it or I kill her! NOW!” Hewas near panic. She stood panting, hereyes half-closed.

I moved my hand toward the control, as slowly as I could, withoutbeing obvious about it. We could hearthe firefight outside. At any momentWindridge was going to attempt to break-off and board. I racked my brain, hoping to come up with anycourse of action that didn’t leave Jen’s throat slit.

Throw me at him! He won’t expect that!

What! You’re crazy!

Can you think ofanything bet…

As quickly as a snake, Jen raised her left hand and graspedthe blade at her neck. With her rightshe drew forth a knife and sliced Parthans from ear to ear, severing histrachea and every blood vessel that mattered. A crimson spray filled the air between us. Despite the pain, Jen’s fingers tightened onher attacker’s blade. The man’s eyesbriefly registered surprise then glazed as his brain emptied of blood. He fell backwards with the young woman on topof him.

I dropped Ari. “Takecare of her!” Ran for the bridge andburst in. It was empty. I jumped into the pilot’s seat and powered upthe repulsor-lifts; at the same time running the more likely flight checkliststhrough my head. Fortunately, everythingaround me looked familiar. I’d neverflown a courier before but had piloted ships of similar size many times.

I slapped the intercom button. “Sergeant! Get aboard! Now!” Hopefully, the sound of the lifts revving hadalready warned him.

“Everyone’s on!” Ari’s voice came over the speaker. “Closing the ramp now!”

“Hang on to something!” I put the lifts on full and shoved the throttles for the main enginesall the way forward. Even with theinertial dampers, the acceleration pushed me back into the seat.

As it clawed its way upward, the small shipshuddered from the impact of chain gun shells exploding against her hull. Would they be enough to cause serious damage? Probably not. I put my head back against the rest andexhaled. “We’re on our way.”

Over the next few minutes, the sky beyond the view screenturned from steel blue to purple to black. I activated the navigation computer. The door behind me opened and I heard Ari’s scales slide across thedeck. I looked to see her pull herselfinto the co-pilot’s seat. She was arather frightful sight, caked with dust and drying blood.

She smiled. “Nicetake-off.”

“Thanks.”

She reached for the controls.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean, ‘What am I doing?’” She frowned.

“Don’t tell me you can pilot a ship.”

“I can pilot a ship. Iused to fly my father’s personal shuttle. Don’t act surprised! You know aswell as I that nothing larger than a pennace uses foot-pedals. I don’t need legs to fly this ship!”

“Alright,” I grinned mischievously. “Don’t get testy. Take the controls while I lay in acourse. Where would you like to go,Milady?”

“New Samarkand.”

I wrinkled my brow trying to remember what was there. “Why New Samarkand?”

“That’s where the fleet is gathering.”

“The fleet?”

“There was always a high probability that my mission on Riiwould fail. Hence plan B. The entire Rimward fleet plus the Home fleetare rendezvousing at New Samarkand, where they wouldn’t attract attention.”

“That’s two fifths of the entire Imperial Navy! That’s agood bit of over-kill for the likes of Edgar. Not that I wouldn’t like to see him squashed flat, mind you.”

“If we do the job properly the first time, we won’t have todo it again,” said Ari. “Besides, how dowe know Edgar’s fleet is the only one we’ll be facing? There are other pirates who might have a finger in this pie you know.”

A warning buzzer went off and a red light lit up on theinstrument panel.

“What’s that?” Sheleaned forward, looking concerned.

I checked the tactical display. “Fighters from the second planet. At that vector they’ll never catch us.”

“Good.” Arinodded. “But what’s that?” Another, larger set of blips had justappeared.

“Uh-oh.” I switchedback to visual. A squadron of warshipspopped over the horizon, headed by a hulking beast. It had to be a battlecruiser at the veryleast. “I was wondering where those guyswere. Dammit!” It was the worst possible vector for us. Even at maximum thrust there was no way wecould avoid crossing within lethal range of their weapons.

“How bad is it?”

Another alarm went off. It was the torpedo lock-on warning. “We’re screwed.”

Ari looked incredulous. “Are you sure? Can’t we jump?”

“Not for another eighty minutes. If they launch, those torps will be on us inless than five.” I reset the navigationcomputer and started it calculating a new course. “We’re gonna have to make a micro-jump.”

“What’s that?” Hereyes widened.

I grinned at her. “Don’ttell me there’s classified information out there that I’m aware of and you’renot?”

“Well, tell me about it! I’m sure my security clearance is high enough!”

Generally, making a hyper-space jump in a gravity well, suchas a planet, is a bad idea. It makesunpredictable distortions in its course that could leave a ship stranded deepin interstellar space, years away from a system, with insufficient fuel to makeanother jump.

Lately, the Imperial Navy had been experimenting with usinghyper-space jumps in tactical battle maneuvers. A micro-jump of just a few million kilometersuses very little fuel and a distortion of a few degrees is much less of aproblem at such short distances. Thedown side is that such maneuvers are very hard on both equipment andpeople. A five-percent casualty rate isnot uncommon. Even the jump-drive itselfcan become disabled. I quickly explainedall this to Ari.

“I’d always heard it was certain death. How bad is it really?” she asked.

“The Navy quietly encourages the belief that it’s deadly. I’ve been on a couple of micro-jumps myselfduring Fleet war-games. It’s rather likehaving an ogre reach down your throat and yank you inside out.”

“I guess that’s better than being vaporized by a torpedo ora particle cannon. We’d better warn thepassengers.”

I let Ari do that while I kept an eye on the tacticaldisplay. I wanted to delay as long aspossible, not only for our sake but also because we could end up revealing aclassified maneuver to an enemy, if they can figure out what we did that is. I set the emergence point at a hundredmillion kilometers solar north, perpendicular to the plane of theecliptic. The nav computer repeatedlyreminded me that I was crazy but eventually let me lay the course in.

“Everyone’s ready back there,”

I sighed. “I’ve beenafraid to ask. Who do we have left?”

“Justin’s hanging on. If this jump doesn’t kill him, he should be all right. Ulric had an armor penetration, but not toobad. I’m afraid Jen has ruined herhand. A surgeon may be able to fix it,I’m not sure…”

The torpedo warning light went from amber to red. “They’ve launched. Prepare for jump.”

Ari nodded and took my hand. I threw the switch. Everythingwent black.