A Pirate's Tale: The Only Solution Is Retribution (38 page)

The Security Chief sat in his office shaking his head at the needless death of that crewman.  Suddenly, the door to his office slammed in and two armed security guards rushed in and pointed their blasters at him.  He quickly raised his hands above his head, “WHAT’S GOING ON!?”

“Come with us!”  The guards pointed toward the door, took him to a vehicle, and then walked him up to Serge’s Office.  He was escorted into a room where he saw Serge sitting in a chair next to a large one way mirror.  He looked through the mirror and saw his wife strapped into a chair with an electrical helmet over her head, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!”

Serge looked at him and pointed to a chair twenty feet from him, “Keep him covered.”

The guards marched the Chief across the room and threw him into the chair.  One kept a blaster pointed at him while the other strapped his arms to the chair’s metal arms.  Serge nodded toward the woman being interrogated in the other room and they heard her scream in pain, “Your wife is the one that has been working against me.”  The Security Chief started shaking his head as Serge said, “She’s confirmed that you knew nothing about what she was doing.”

The Chief looked at Serge with tears in his eyes shaking his head in disbelief, “But why…why would she do it?”

“You were never told that she is my daughter.”

“WHAT?”

“I originally introduced the two of you and told her that she should convince you to marry her so I could make sure she was safe from any possible kidnappers.  She got greedy and began plotting to take the business from me before I died.  But first, she had to eliminate Ana and her family before she could get rid of me.  If I died before them, they would be given most of my holdings in any court, since I do not have a will.  She’s waited in hopes I would find Ana and remove her.  She already had plans in the works to kill the sister and baby.”  The Chief stared at his wife in the other room screaming in pain.  “I’ve wondered how the one working inside my organization seemed to know everything that was going on.  We changed our frequencies multiple times and it didn’t stop her.  Now I understand why.  Every time you went home she would examine your communicator and take the new frequency from it.”

The Chief immediately remembered how whenever he went home his wife would take his dirty clothes to wash them and offer to put his communicator on the table while he showered.  He stared at the mirror and said, “Tell them to ask her if she loved me.”

“Do you really want to know?”

“ASK HER!”

Serge sighed and lifted his communicator.  He spoke into it and turned the volume up.  One of the technicians inside the room asked, “Did you love your husband?”

She screamed and yelled, “That pig came from my father!  I wasn’t given a choice!”  She screamed again and sneered, “Everything my father touches turns to…”

Serge turned the volume down and looked at the Chief, “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”

The chief lowered his head into his chest and wept.  Serge looked at the guards, “Take him back to his office and wait there.”  The guards nodded and released him from the chair.  He stumbled out of the room and went back to his office where he broke down.  The guards moved outside the door and waited.

Serge shook his head and his communicator beeped, “Sir, the President has left the planet for a meeting.”

“When will he be back?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Thank you for letting me know.  Inform me when he comes back.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You will find a reward in your account.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

• • •

The Thermopylae arrived at the specified coordinates and Leonidas ordered, “Wait here.”

An hour later, a giant Unity Battleship came in off the filament and moved toward the Thermopylae.  A shuttle left the battleship and headed toward the landing bay.  Leo stood up, “Desiree, you have the ship, Embree, come with me.”

They arrived in the landing bay and saw Victoria waiting as the shuttle settled to the deck and the port opened.  A tall distinguished man walked out and headed toward Leonidas, “What’s so important that you told my assistant this meeting is critical?”

“It’s good to see you again Mr. President.  If you will follow me to my conference room, I’ll explain.”

Ninety minutes later, the President stared at Leonidas and started shaking his head, “We have to remove those devices.”

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because Romanov will immediately know and detonate them.”

“But…”

Leonidas interrupted him and said, “Embree!”

Embree lifted his communicator and the President heard, “Sir, the President has left the planet for a meeting.”

“When will he be back?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Thank you for letting me know.  Inform me when he comes back.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You will find a reward in your account.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

• • •

The President was silent and Embree said, “That conversation was one of fifty sent to Romanov informing him of your absence from the government.”

“WHAT?!”

Leonidas looked at him, “If you order a search for those modules, Romanov will immediately know.  Your government is saturated with his spies and there is no possible way for you do anything about those modules without him knowing it.”

“How many devices are on the planet?”

“More than half a million and I’m pretty certain all of them are operated by one button.”

“What if we destroy Romania before he could push the button?”

“That’s not possible, Mr. President.  He would know the moment one of your fleets moved on the Romanian filament.  You should also be aware that most all of your warships have those devices on board.  They’ll never get close to Romania before they’re destroyed.”

“What can I do?”

Leo sighed heavily, “I don’t know anything you can do.  I don’t think he will activate the devices until you show back up at the Government Building.  But he won’t wait forever for that to happen.”

“He’s planning to kill billions of beings if he goes through with this.”

Leo shrugged, “His craving for ultimate power outweighs any conscience he might have.  He’s probably planning to feign shock and demand that the one who did it be found and killed.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“How will anyone know it was him?  He blew up one of my shuttles to prevent anyone outside of his organization knowing about the devices.  He was told that everyone on my crew was executed on Tortuga so he believes he’s in the clear now.  He can destroy the Unity and no one will be the wiser that it was him that did it.”

“I’ll know.”

Leonidas turned to Victoria, “Yes, and he’s doing everything in his power to find you.”

The President looked at Victoria, “How do you know?”

“I’m his adopted daughter.”

“Adopted?”

“My sister and I were bought as babies to pass off as his children against kidnappers that might try to extort a ransom from him.”

“This man is a devil!” the President sneered.

“He has no soul!” Victoria agreed.

The President turned to Leonidas, “There’s nothing I can do to save the Unity.”

“No, Mr. President, there isn’t.”

“Then why did you want this meeting?”

“There’s nothing we can do to stop it but we can make sure all the planets in this galaxy learns about it.  Serge thinks that he will smoothly move in and take control with all the former planets in the Unity welcoming his help in bringing back order.”

“That’s not much.”

“It’s probably more than you know.  If all the former planets refuse to trade with Romanov after he does this, he may deny the whole thing and do nothing while you attempt to remove the teleport modules.”

The President looked at Victoria, “Do you think he’ll do that?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because the Unity has stood in his way of creating a monopoly and he figures it won’t matter.  I’ve seen his books and there are trillions of credits that appear to have just disappeared.  I now believe that he has been building warships against the day he destroyed all his possible adversaries.  He will use those ships to force the inhabited planets to accept him as their ruler.”  Victoria hesitated and said, “Sort of like what the Unity has done.”

“Child, we brought peace to the galaxy!”

“By forcing your rule on most of the inhabited planets against their wills.  There’s no certainty that the galaxy will mourn your loss and Serge is banking on that.”

The President looked at Leonidas and he sighed, “She’s right, Mr. President.  If Serge was certain that the other planets would not accept his actions, he might hesitate.  I wouldn’t put it past him to have already contacted his major trading partners and asked about how they feel about being ruled by the Unity.  I suspect he will give them a role in the new order.”

“He’ll just send those devices to every inhabited planet and hold them hostage against being destroyed,” the President snapped back.

“I suspect they are located on just about every planet that uses Romanov Industries Electronic Components,” Leonidas agreed.

The President sighed, “That’s just about all of them.”

“Mr. President, I asked for this meeting to let you know what’s going on.  I don’t believe anything can be done to prevent what’s going to happen but I owe you for your courtesy to me and I just couldn’t not tell you.”

“What are you going to do?” the President asked.

“I’m going to do what you intended for me to do when you gave me a Purple Card.”  The President stared at Leonidas and he said, “I intend to make Serge Romanov pay for his actions.”

“Do you think you can do it?”

“I’m going to make the effort, Sir.”

The President stood up and extended his hand, “Thank you for your honesty and I pray you do make him pay.”

Victoria asked the President and said, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to blow the whistle on Serge Romanov so those that are in the unity know what kind of viper he is.”

“That will probably cause him to act.” Leo replied.

“He’ll act either way.  At least I can make things difficult for him.”  Embree stood and led the President back to the landing bay.

“Have you heard from Gem?” Leo asked Gold.

“I have.”

“And.”

“The Insectoids choose to stay out of this and allow as many planets as possible to destroy themselves.  They don’t care about any species but their own.”

Leonidas sighed.  He took a deep breath and blew it out, “Well, let’s get moving.  It won’t be long.”

• • •

Gem looked at his mother on the display, “Mother, I beg you to reconsider your position.  The Unity will be destroyed soon and we need your help in confronting the forces that did it.  If the humans had not warned you about the explosive devices on our planets, our worlds would cease to exist.  They deserve our assistance.”

“It’s because a human placed those devices on our planets that we were endangered in the first place.  We’ll watch them die and celebrate the death of all of them.  You are ordered to come home!”

Gem stared at his mother and slowly turned his head right, “I cannot do that, now.”

“You will do as I order you!” she demanded.

“Mother, I would rather die acting honorably than rule in dishonor.  I have never been more ashamed of my people than I am right now.  For the first time in my life, I am shamed by a total lack of gratitude for those that saved us from total destruction.  What if they chose to act like you?  I choose to die among beings that know the meaning of honor.  I renounce my title and my standing among my people.”

“But…”  Gem ended the contact and the display went dark.  He went to the bridge of the Play Toy and said, “Jack, take us to the assembly coordinates.”

“She still won’t help us?”

“No, she will not.  I’ve given it my best effort but she just doesn’t understand that not all humans are like Romanov.  She hasn’t gone out and seen the universe and is prejudiced by only knowing our species.  She paints all humans with the same brush.”

Gem sat down in the Command Chair and knew the Pirates were going to be outnumbered by Romanov’s fleets and, with the destruction of the Unity’s warships and his species staying out of it, the outcome looked dark.  He wanted Victoria back on board to enjoy the last moments of their lives.  His communicator vibrated and Gold appeared on the display, “Majesty?

“She will not participate in what’s happening.  You should take a shuttle and go home.”

Gold jerked his head right, “My place is here, Majesty.  There may have been a time when I first came on board this ship that I would have turned my back on this crew.  But I cannot do that now.  I’ve seen their honor and I will not desert them.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“I will take one of the weapon consoles on the Thermopylae and do all I can to destroy as many Romanov vessels as possible.”

“You know we’re going to be heavily outnumbered.”

“I do.  But like Leonidas said when he was fighting the Condon, what would be the fun in fighting a weaker opponent.  When you go back, you should continue to persuade her to help us.”

“I will not be going back!” Gem replied forcefully.

“But Majesty, you’re next in the succession!!”

“I have renounced my title and standing among my people.  I will fight with my crew and at least die with honor.”

Gold stared at him and clacked softly, “I never would have thought that we would arrive at this point when I agreed to go with this ship.  But I understand why you can’t go back.  I still honor you and thank you for inviting me to take part in this enterprise.”

Gem turned his head left, “I’m proud of you.”

“This is worth dying for, Majesty.”

“Yes, it is.” Gem clacked a chuckle, “Get prepared quickly, I don’t think we have much time before Romanov acts.”

“Good-luck, Majesty.”

“The same to you.”

Gem looked at Jack, “You have the ship.”  Jack nodded and Gem went to his quarters and prepared the bath.

• • •

“Leonidas.”

“Yes, Desiree.”

“I will be staying on the Thermopylae.”