Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (13 page)

"They'll detonate," finished
Halley.  Suddenly, this wasn't a good plan at all.  "Other than the fact
that you'll probably kill a ton of locals who aren't involved, have you
considered that once the Primans realize this ship was responsible, they'll
follow her itinerary until they find her and destroy her?  And that's if you're
lucky.  Pray they don't try to take prisoners.  You'll get every last person
onboard killed."

Captain Two-Swords stood across from Web,
the pirate's pistol shaking in his hands.  "I can explain what's going
on," the captain began, "but we can't stay here.  Give me your
gun," he commanded Web, who simply stood there and gave him a glare that
could have melted the bulkheads.  "I'll shoot you if I have to."

"No you won't," Web said
instantly.  "You're not a killer.  You can barely hold back the shakes
you're getting from pointing that gun at me.  You've probably never shot one,
either, have you?  You have no idea what sort of travel that trigger has, which
direction you're going to pull the shot because your grip is worthless, and
when it recoils it's going to fly out of your hands."

Two-Swords took a breath and began to
compose himself, though the effort fell short of complete success.  "Let's
have this conversation elsewhere.  I promise I'll tell you everything.  But can
you just drop your gun first?"

"No."  Web remained stock
still.

"Oh, fine," the captain replied
with an air of resignation.  "We'll probably get killed for what you just
did here anyway.  What do we do?"

Web thought for a second.  "We stash
these two in a room near here.  My cabin isn't far off, actually.  It'll
probably buy us some time while the rest of these pirates wonder where we went
and if we're cutting our own deal with the guys in here.  Pirates are a
suspicious lot.  So, we'll hide these two, and then you and I are going to have
a nice sit-down and you're going to explain yourself in thirty words or
less."

"You're giving
what
to
who
?"
Web asked in astonishment.  He and Two-Swords were in a vacant crew quarters,
the only light coming from the backlit door control panel and a few dim escape
path lights that led to the hatch.  The pirates were in the tiny bathroom
through the hatch on the opposite wall from where they sat; the Trin leader
bound and gagged, the other not requiring any such devices.

"I'm delivering information and
material to the Primans," the captain said softly, but with some manner of
conviction.

"That's what I thought you
said," said Web ominously.  While they were sitting in matching chairs at
a small table dividing the room in half, Two-Swords was the only one armed. 
Web had promised to keep his gun in his back waistband for the time being, and
was starting to consider making a grab for it after hearing what the captain
had admitted to.

"So those manifests are exactly what
I thought they were," confirmed Web as the captain nodded.  "You just
go along the route your company filed, and where appropriate you offload
information and supplies to the Primans at your destinations?  Who's in on
this?"

Two-Swords only paused a minute before
admitting the rest.  "There are a handful of high level people in the
company that feel like I do.  They build the routes and make sure people like
me get the assignments."

Web knew they didn't have time to dig
deep, but he had to ask.  "Why?"

"Because we need order, Mr.
Barazian," the captain replied earnestly.  "Look at all the various
governments up and down this spiral arm.  I know; I've traveled clear across
the galactic core in my work, and I'll bet you've seen plenty moving cargo, too. 
So many kingdoms, republics, and empires are a corrupt, disorganized mess. 
Regardless of whether you believe that the Primans made us all and are
returning to complete their work, aren't you at least tempted by the idea that
they could eliminate the corruption?  They could restore order, get things
organized and running like they should be?"

"But who put them in charge?"
countered Web.  "Who gets to decide that their way is the best way for
everybody?  Hey, if you don't like the Confederation, then move somewhere
else.  Go to the Talaran Collection if you want a government that's run like a
business.  Go to the Carada Monarchy if you want a royal family to call the
shots and own everything.  There are a thousand different ways to run a planet
or federation in this galaxy; go find one you like and try it out.  You don't
have to help an invading horde tear down everything in the galaxy because
you're having issues.  What it boils down to is this: if somebody has to force
you to act a certain way, it doesn't count as a success.  You can't make people
act like your ideal, and if you try, they're going to fight back."

"No, you don't see!" said
Two-Swords excitedly.  "I used to think the same, but then I saw the
light.  We need someone else to administer things for us; take us out of the
equation.  We keep screwing it up, so why not give the Primans a chance?"

"Ask the Enkarrans how that
went," said Web acidly.  "The Primans turned on their allies and
stole an entire empire's worth of planets from them."

Before the captain could stammer a reply,
Web held up his hand.  "I know how to fix this.  First, we go to my
quarters.  Nobody will look for us there, plus I might be able to use some of
my own tech to get us access.  Because the main thing is that we destroy your top
secret Priman data in the computer.  Then there will be nothing for these
pirates to find.  Plus I'll get the personal satisfaction of ruining the
Primans' day.  And if you're really nice and help me convincingly, I might not
even tell your crew what you were doing."

Web let that threat hang in the air for a
minute, but he could tell the captain was resigned to following in his wake.

Captain Elco could hear somebody
stumbling across the bridge in the pitch black.  Boots scraped on the decking,
hands patted down hatches and panels until he heard a small exclamation of
success.  A panel clicked open and Elco heard more noise; finally a bright
white light emerged from an emergency flashlight in the hands of his
communications officer.

She held the remaining three flashlights
from the emergency equipment locker located near the turbolift, and Elco could
see the crewman from the station on the opposite side of the bridge do the
same.  He took the flashlight that was offered to him and clicked it on.  With
eight of the flashlights now on, the crew could at least see what they were
doing.

"How come the emergency lights
aren't kicking in?" he heard someone ask.

"Those Priman EMP charges probably
fried the batteries or their relays," he replied quickly.  "I had
Chief Fyr scram the reactor in the hopes that if it wasn't powered, it wouldn't
be affected by the weapon.  The problem is that he needs to get it restarted
ASAP or we're still dead meat."  He looked around, pointing at the comm
officer and the junior ensign who manned the ship's systems and auxiliary
engineering station.  "Lieutenant, head to engineering as fast as you
can.  See what the chief has for me and get back to the bridge.  Ensign, get to
the hangars.  Tell Captain Sosus and Commander Elder to launch their fighters. 
They can have the deck hands suit up in EVA suits and push them out the doors
by hand of the need to, but if those fighters are serviceable they might be the
only thing that keeps us from getting pulverized.  Go!"

The officers took off, one down each of
the steep stairwells in the emergency escape trunks on each side of the bridge.

He heard jumbled footsteps from the
starboard side stairwell and turned to see Lieutenant Commander Sarria Mastruk
from C3 come charging out onto the bridge, flashlight in hand.

"C3 is dark" she said quickly,
scanning the bridge, "just like you are here.  Any orders?"

"Just be ready to work with whatever
we get as soon as we get it," Elco said fatefully as he turned to the helm
officer.  "The maneuvering thrusters should have a supply of reaction fuel
so they'll work even with the reactor offline," he began, "but we
won't know what to do until we get some sensors back."

He knew his crew was working as hard as
they could, and his desperate maneuver might have bought them some time, but it
wouldn't do them any good if they smashed into a parked ore hauler while
running blind.

Ensign Lya Stryder ran as fast as she
dared through the darkened corridors of Avenger.  With no turbolifts working,
she'd had to use the occasional access ladder or maintenance tubes that were
part of the turbolift network.  Now, sweaty and grimy, she was on the home
stretch to the hangar level.  She was pretty sure she was on the way to Captain
Sosus and her Warbirds on the starboards side, but she'd never been to the
hangars before and couldn't be sure.

She was only an ensign, after all, the
lowest rank of commissioned officer.  In fact, she'd only been on Avenger for a
few weeks, having rotated aboard with a batch of replacement crew all fresh from
the academy.  She'd been overjoyed when she'd received her posting; Avenger was
already famous for her wartime exploits and it was considered a great honor to
be assigned to her.  People said the captain had a nose for finding critical
situations, and they hadn't been wrong.  She only hoped she'd live long enough
to see the end result of this particular operation.

Finally, out of breath and sweating in a
very un-officer-like state, she arrived at the main hatch into the hangar area
of Avenger's Intruder squadron, called the Warbirds.  The problem was that
there was still no power anywhere, and her lonely flashlight beam was the only
illumination in the area. Needless to say, the hatch wasn't going to obligingly
swoosh open for her as she approached. 

She put the flashlight in her teeth to
get both hands free and fumbled with the bottom of the panel that held the
hatch controls.  A second later, she heard a compliant 'click', and the panel
swung open revealing a few boards, some wires, and a small lever.  She pulled
the lever from its upright position down towards her, which now blocked the
panel from closing, and in the process heard a deep 'clunk' from inside the
frame; the hatch's lock was released.

She pushed on the hatch, slowly sliding
it sideways into the frame.  After she had it about halfway open, there was
enough room for her to squeeze through and she did exactly that.  She was in
the large ready room where Captain Sosus would conduct briefings for her
squadron, but there was nobody in sight.  She heard a loud noise, like a tool
dropping on the armored decking, and her head spun towards the platform where
the ready room adjoined the hangar itself.  The fact that the pass-through
doors were closed was possibly a good sign; it meant the hangar was ready to be
used for combat operations.

Picking her way through the darkened room
and walking across the operations platform, she saw a sight that gave her the
faintest hope that things might still be alright.  In the hangar, crew were
running about in mad fashion, yelling requests and reports, flashlight beams
cutting the gloom and highlighting areas of interest.  She saw Captain Sosus at
the same time that her own flashlight beam gave her away, and the CAG of
Avenger's fighter craft jogged over to the ensign from where she had been
directing the crew in the hangar.

"Ensign Lya Stryder, Captain,"
she said, snapping to attention as Cory passed through the hatch and stood on
the ops platform with her.  "I have a message from the captain."

Corinne Sosus nodded sagely and waited. 
"He says to launch everything you have and defend Avenger while we try to
restart the ship."

"That's exactly what we're working
on," Sosus replied with a determined look on her face. "Please tell
the captain we'll start kicking ships out in a minute or two."

"Yes, ma'am," Stryder replied,
and turned to begin the long trip back up to the bridge.

Captain Elco stood on the bridge staring
at the empty holo generator at the front of the room.  Perhaps if he simply
willed it into existence, he could make an image spring forth from the
projectors...

He heard a series of clicks behind him,
then the thrum of equipment drawing power.  He turned in excitement as the
center overhead light ballasts flashed to life.  It wasn't the whole system, but
it was a heartening beginning.  Among all the dark and lifeless consoles and
screens, a single one lit up and started showing information once again.

It was Lieutenant Caho's Sensors station,
and if he wanted any one bridge console to have power right now it was hers. 

"What's going on out there,
Lieutenant?" Elco asked quickly.

Lieutenant Caho spun her chair back into
place and took in everything.  "Just getting raw data for now; combat
computer's still offline, but I can make out the inputs, just give me a
sec-" Her eye widened and she turned to the helm officer. 

"Jax!  Turn us fifteen to starboard
right away!"

The helm officer obeyed instantly,
something about her tone enforcing a sense of urgency that made him bend right
to his task.