Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (14 page)

Caho turned to Captain Elco, a hint of
fear in her eyes.  "I'm sorry, Captain!  It's just that there's something
out there right in front of us, something really big, and-"

"No harm done, Lieutenant,"
Elco assured her, "as long as we don't crash.  And maybe you'll get my
chair someday, too, but not for a while, ok?" he finished with a quick
grin. 

The inertial dampers were still offline,
so they felt Avenger change course ever so slightly, the process taking much
longer than normal since only maneuvering thrusters were available.  Suddenly
there was a dull thump that rocked the crew a bit in their seats.  A few
seconds of something scraping, digging into the outer hull followed, and then
it ceased.

A bead of sweat rolled down Lieutenant
Caho's temple now as she became completely immersed in her task.  She studied
passive sensor inputs, gravitic distortions, energy signatures and was even
able to bring up a display showing where objects within the immense tractor
field were blocking the sun's light and creating shadows.  Her hands danced
over the controls, and twice more she issued course changes, though this time
they weren't so urgent and she was able to offer them as recommendations to
Captain Elco and let him give the orders.

Suddenly, she saw several new contacts at
once.  Some were much closer than others, but they were all powered and
maneuvering.  "Oh damn," she muttered, and Elco heard.  He took a few
steps to get back to her station. 

"What else is out there going wrong
for us?" he asked her quietly.

She used her sleeve to wipe another bead
of sweat off the bridge of her nose.  While the ship was apparently getting
power back, the environmentals were still offline, and without the fans and
fresh air the bridge was starting to get warm and a little rank.

"More contacts, from two different
directions," she replied distractedly.  "I count three close abeam,
no wait, make that four.  They look like... Captain, they're ours.  Looks like
two Intruders and two Talons.  Captain Sosus is getting her fighters outside!"

"Excellent," said Elco,
relieved that something was going well.  "What about the other one?"

"Looks like two, actually," she
replied, the excitement gone from her voice.  "I make them out as Priman
cruisers."  She turned to Captain Elco.  "Two of them are following
us inside the shipyard."

Halley was trying to figure out her next
move.  With the admission by First Officer Daemon about the real purpose behind
the cargo pod exchange, she was now on the clock.  She had to assume that most
of the pirates didn't know the whole story, and that most were still just your
garden variety villains engaged in the time honored tradition of theft and
son-of-a-bitchery.  But it wouldn't be long before the pod transfer was
complete, and once that happened she doubted they'd have enough time to
investigate every pod destined for the Callidor system without revealing to the
entire crew what was going on and dealing with the resulting chaos and
potential mutiny. 

No, she had to fix this before they
reached their destination if there was any way for her to salvage the mission. 
Which meant she needed to identify the explosive-filled pods and rid the Solar
Venturer of its pirate infestation.  What she really needed was Web, but he and
the captain still weren't back from his cabin, which was starting to seem like
a whole other sort of trouble. 

She was caught off guard when her data
pad vibrated twice.  Not expecting any sort of call or notifications, she
covertly checked the screen and saw a plain text message from Web. 
Much more going on than thought
, he began. 
Captain in neck deep with
third party, need to meet at our rendezvous.  Took out two pirates, things will
turn to sheifah soon
. 

Leave it to Web to help keep things
interesting
, she thought
as she surveyed the room.  They were down to a single pirate at each access
hatch now, and she realized it was time to act as if their lives depended on
it. 

"I have a plan, but you may not like
it," Halley said to Daemon.  "If you don't, I don't care.  Just stick
close."  They walked near the hatch on the port side of the compartment
and stopped when the human pirate at the door wearing the scarred EVA suit
parts started to brandish his rifle at them.

"Excuse me, Mr. Pirate," Halley
said, trying her best to sound meek and scared.  "First Officer Daemon
wants me to open up the food locker and hand out some ration packs.  Is it okay
if we go into the galley?"

"I want some first," the
grizzled man replied, eyeing up Halley and the FO in a way that made it fairly
obvious what was on his mind.  Maybe she could use that.  "It's in a
storage locker in the back of the galley," she continued, painting a
picture of seclusion that would tempt him if his mind was headed down the dark
path she seemed to notice on his eyes.

"I'll go with you," he said,
eyes lighting up with everything Halley had come to expect of him since she'd
made her assessment a few seconds ago.  He turned to Daemon and pointed a
finger in her face, so close she had to tilt her head back to avoid contact. 
"I'll just be a minute; anyone leaves here, I'll kill you first before I
go finish them.  Clear?"

Daemon nodded, then looked worriedly at
Halley, who just nodded and tried to not appear too eager to get this piece of
human garbage alone.

"It's this way," Halley assured
the man, and they disappeared through the hatch into the galley spaces.  She
caught a glimpse of the pirate on the other side of the compartment grimacing
at her and the man following, and felt assured that the intent was clear. 
Nobody would expect this man back for a little while.

They walked into a closed storage locker,
and Halley turned around as soon as she heard the hatch close.  He locked it
with a twisted grin and before she knew it he had his right hand on her throat,
pushing her forcefully against the wall.  She grabbed his hand with her       left
and struck his face with her own right hand, then brought her own left elbow
over his arm and created an arm-bar as she spun as hard as she could to her
right.  The maneuver forced him to lean forward and he hit the hard metal
bulkhead face-first; she followed with a vicious chop to the back of the neck. 
He went to the ground, groaning softly as he lapsed into unconsciousness.  She
ran to a shelf and grabbed a handheld package-sealing device, then returned to
the pirate and bound his legs and hands around a support column.  Then she ran
it over his mouth, gagging him that way.  His nose wasn't broken, or breathing
might have been impossible in that situation.  She felt no pity for him either
way as she grabbed his rifle.

As quietly as she could, she crept back
out of the locker and set the rifle on the ground where there were boxes of
ration-pack meals ready to use.  She hefted two boxes and brought them to the
galley/mess hall pass-through.  "Ration meals, everyone," she called
out in a neutral voice, and the two dozen or so crew in the mess hall
immediately headed for the counter.

Using the swelling crowd as a
distraction, she retrieved the rifle and headed to the hatch leading back into
the galley.  She saw First Officer Daemon standing by the hatch, shifting
weight back and forth from one foot to the other.  Halley walked out slowly,
rifle held low against her leg as she backed towards the hatch.  "

When I move, you do the same,"
Halley commanded to Daemon, whose eyes went wide as saucers when she saw
Halley's newly-acquired rifle.  Halley simply grinned, and it seemed to
unsettle the first officer a bit.  Good. 

Halley waited for her moment, then saw
it.  With the milling crowd hovering around the serving counter, the other
pirate's view of the hatch they were standing by was blocked.  Halley reached
back with her free hand, smacked the release tab and the door slid into the
frame.  She spun out into the hall, bringing the rifle up in a practiced move
in case there were any unexpected patrols in the area.  Daemon followed her.

"We'll have some time before the
other guard gets jealous of the one who followed me," she said softly to
the FO.  "That gives us a few minutes before anyone notices we're gone. 
Let's get moving; we're going to find a place to access the computer functions
of this ship and track those cargo pods.  All the obvious places are either
occupied or probably locked out, but I have another idea.  You know that cargo
loadmaster who's new to the ship?"

Daemon just nodded as she kept within a
step behind Halley as she fast-walked through the corridors, rifle to her
shoulder and pointed downrange.  "Name's Barazian, I think.  Pretty good
with the computers, if I remember.  Maybe that's why they took him with the
captain before."

"My thoughts exactly.  Guy like that
will have some of his own tech in his quarters; I guarantee it."  Halley
was leading Daemon into the cover identities she and Web had created.  Even
though they needed to meet up, if she had the FO believing it was a
coincidence, they could quite possibly deal with the pirates without blowing
their cover.  To do that, she still had to meet Web, and now that she had the
FO believing he was an expert hacker it wouldn't be a stretch to want to gain
access to his quarters.  It would just be a pleasant surprise that Web would be
there when they arrived.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Web, by the same token, was trying his
best to buy Halley some time before having to decide on a course of action. 
Captain Two-Swords was jittery but not suspicious; that would change the longer
they stayed put in Web’s quarters.

"So what do we do?" asked the
captain.  "I assumed that since you needed a hardwired terminal to access
the manifests in the first place, you'd need another one to delete them.  Do we
just go back to my quarters?"

"No," replied Web. 
"That's a point of interest to the pirates now.  They know your safe is in
there, and they'll be watching it.  We need to find another access point, maybe
in the cargo center now that the computers are carrying out the pod releases
automatically."

That's when Web heard the lightest of
taps on the outer hatch.  His hand went to the gun in his rear waistband, and
he had it out and pointed at the door before the shaky captain could raise his
own.

"Don't just shoot anything that
comes through there," Web cautioned.  "In fact, take your finger off
the trigger and rest it on the slide above the trigger guard, ok?"

The captain grudgingly obeyed, and Web
slid to the hatch.  He hoped it was Halley out there, but wasn't going to take
any chances. 

He waited for the hatch to release and
slide open, then held his gun up to the head of the first person to enter.  It
was Halley.

"You'll want to stop right there,
lady," he said, trying to not break into a big stupid grin at the sight of
her.  "I've got the drop on you."

"You sure?" she asked
innocently, then gestured with her eyes downward.  Her rifle was held up just
high enough that the barrel pointed right at Web's privates.  "Let's not
do anything silly."

"As long as you're not here on
behalf of the pirates, you're our new friends."

"Agreed."  Halley lowered her
weapon and gestured with her chin for Daemon to enter.  She and Captain
Two-Swords exchanged surprised looks as the hatch closed behind Halley.

"Captain!"

"First Officer Daemon!"

They quickly approached each other,
neither having the slightest idea of the other's affiliations. 

Web and Halley took the opportunity to
strike up a quick conversation, though they knew the freighter's top two
crewmembers would be listening.

"So," Web began, "you're
the cute girl from Engineering the guys have been talking about."

Halley gave him the eye.  "And
you're the cargo guy my department told me to avoid.  What was your name? 
Barbarian?"

"Barazian," Web said proudly. 
"And you should give me a chance."

"We'll see."  Halley looked
around at Web's quarters, a place she hadn't been able to visit while aboard. 
She looked at the captain and first officer while doing her survey, and saw
they were deep in conversation about something or other.  "How many did
you take out?" she asked Web.

"Two," he replied with a
sheepish look, "but the first was really sad.  I'd call it more like one. 
How about you?"

"Only one, but he got a hand on my
throat before my setup was ready."

"I'll bet he regretted that."

"Let's call Round One even between
us.  I still think I'll take down more than you," she challenged.

  "Then let's start with the pirate
in charge," Web continued.  "I have him stashed in the bathroom of a
vacant crew quarters.  If they've been swapping in cargo pods, he should know
which ones were filled with explosives.  Maybe we can figure out a way to keep
their two escorts from blowing us up as well."

"Provided he knows anything,"
said Halley guardedly.  "He’s probably just in charge of the boarding
party."

"Let's find out."

"What's the plan?"

"We're going to a decontamination
chamber in the cargo control center, and we'll need the pirate to come with
us."

"What about these two?" Halley
asked.  "Do they both know they're supplying the resistance on the
surface?"

Web just stared at her, mouth hanging
open.  "Two-Swords is a collaborator.  He's been handing off information
and supplies to the Primans at their ports of call.  Daemon is with a
resistance movement?" 

"What the hell," Halley
muttered.  "People are such a pain in the ass.  Yeah, she's admitted that
some of these pods were filled with goodies for the resistance on the surface. 
But at least one or two of these pirates is in on it as well.  A few of these
pods were probably identified by the resistance as ripe for the picking, and as
payment for the information the pirates do them a favor while they're taking
what they want from this ship; they know some of the pods are destined for the
surface to resupply the resistance and so leave those alone, while some of the
pods they took are going to get swapped back aboard filled with explosives. 
The pirates get a few containers of goodies and head off on their merry way. 
Meanwhile, the ship completes her run to the net port of call not knowing they
have some pods aboard filled with evil little surprises inside.  They go down
to their delivery points and then explode."

"That's why all the feeds from the
cargo areas are out," Web realized.  "We won't know which ones are
filled with bombs or even which ones they took in the first place."

"And if we hadn't intervened,
Venturer would have just picked up where they left off before the hijacking,
gone to the Callidor system, and offloaded her pods.  I wonder how many are for
Callidor."

"I moved at least twenty since I got
aboard," Web replied.  "We could just jettison everything bound for
Callidor."

"Then you and I wouldn't have a ride
to the surface since there would be nothing to deliver.  No, we need to figure
this out if we can."

"Captain's going to keep his mouth
shut," Web assured her, "and in return I don't tell the crew about
his collaborator agenda.  What about Daemon?"

"She seemed pretty ashamed when I
confronted her about the collateral damage.  She thinks she's pretty tough from
a distance, but this close to the action she's having a little trouble thinking
like a revolutionary." 

The forward section of the cargo deck had
two decontamination chambers which were nothing more than sealed rooms that
were part of the external airlocks.  The reason was that if any sort of
hazardous material or contamination escaped a cargo pod, the crew could hide
safely inside and enter lock-down with their own food and air supply, or also
use it as a decontamination chamber where they could be treated for various
forms of illness or contagion.

Right now, the Trin pirate was regaining
consciousness while locked in one of them as Web, Halley and the rest looked
on.

"What are you going to do to
him?" asked Captain Two-Swords from out of view of the compartment where
Web and Halley had instructed him to stand.  Web had just told the captain to
play along and forget about the collaboration business, and they let Daemon
assume the captain was simply protecting the ship's safe when he and Web had
gone off earlier with the pirates.  The First Officer was likewise told to keep
quiet about what she knew.  Web and Halley had agreed that the two senior
officers were best off not knowing their ideals were at complete odds with each
other, at least for the time being.

"Use him to help save your
crew," replied Web.  He figured Halley had the constitution to do whatever
was required, but he didn't know that he did.  He knew what Loren had done to
that Priman in Avenger's airlock, and gave thanks every day that he was never
put in that situation.  He doubted this guy was some sort of fanatic; money was
probably driving his decision, and if that was the case there was very little
chance he'd die for the cause.  Web was also hoping that by running things
right now, he wouldn't have to go that far and by the same token not make
Halley have to go to that sort of extreme either.

"Hey, you in there," Web said
into the microphone grille on the hatch frame as he held the transmit button
down.  "Wake up; we have things to discuss."

The Trin stood up, wobbly at first and
then gaining his composure.  "You're only going to have one chance to open
that hatch and let me go," the pirate warned.  "My crew will kill you
in the most gruesome way possible."

"Or they'll steal everything in your
bunk and fight about who gets your boots after you're dead," Web
countered.  "Look, I don't have a lot of time to threaten you, so let's
cut to the part where you answer my questions.  I want to know which cargo pods
you're putting back aboard are filled with explosives.  And we only have a
little time before you're done with the swap, so the clock's ticking."

The pirate stiffened a bit, but his face
remained impassive. 

"Yeah, we figured it out," Web
replied.  "Some of you are in on this little scheme.  Certain pods had
goodies waiting inside for you, and in return you had to replace them with cargo
pods you brought on your own freighter.  Send them down to the surface on
Callidor, then
boom
.  Only problem is all the damage you're
going to do to people not involved in the resistance's movement.  So we need to
stop that from happening, and leave that sort of thing to the pros."

"You're ready to kill me?" the
pirate asked defiantly.  "You can remove all the air from in here, so why
would I help you if that's what you have in store for me anyway?"

"Oh, there's no need to kill
you," Web assured the man.  "That's why we're here and I'm not making
you walk the airlock.  I don't want to have to kill you to prove I'm willing to
kill you.  So, that leaves us with this decon chamber.  Would you prefer I go
right to removing the air, though?"

"You don't know this ship as well as
you think you do," the pirate countered with an air of satisfaction. 
"There are a slew of safeties that'll prevent you from doing something
like that.  You'd need dockside root access to bypass those."  The pirate
looked at him, smug expression on his face.

"No problem," Web assured him. 
He tapped a few commands into the control panel on the hatch frame. 
"Computer, confirm removal of safeties and my root access override with
audio response."

"Confirmed," stated a gravely
male synthesized voice.  "Root access granted."

"I have you to thank for this,
actually," Web said with a smile.  "Remember when you were so
desperate to get into the captain's safe that you had me grant myself admin
access?"  Web paused.  "Surprise."  He returned to tapping on
the panel.  

"So, back to business.  The idea is
that I don't have to do any irreversible damage to you right away, which is
good for you.  I can start by replacing the oxygen in the atmosphere with one
of the inert gases available.  How about argon?  That sounds like fun, right? 
Or, I know Trin need a lot of humidity.  How about I reduce the humidity in
there to zero and mummify you?  I take consolation in knowing you'd do the same
to me, so let's cut the garbage here and get to it."

Web and the Trin pirate stared at each
other, neither wanting to be the first one to do anything.  Finally, Halley
stepped into the conversation. 

"Oh, if you won't do it, I
will," she grumped in an exasperated voice.  "I like the argon idea
myself."  She began tapping on the keypad.

"Fine, fine," the pirate
muttered.  "I want to keep the cargo pods we took, though."

"You'll keep what we decide you can
keep," stated Halley firmly.

Captain Vol had dispatched two of his
three cruisers into the shipyard.  One of them was of the new escort carrier
variant his people had been producing, an adaptation required by the
Confederation's dependence on small fighter craft.  His people had nothing
similar in their doctrine when they'd invaded, but having to constantly defend
against the small craft had forced them to produce a counter.  Like the
anti-fighter Reaper ships, the escort carrier was a post-invasion design meant
to put a stop to the Confederation fighter menace. 

He kept his own ship outside of the
tractor field as overwatch in case the Confed ship tried to make a break for
it.  There were enough gravity wells around that his adversary couldn't just
jump to hyperspace and be gone; any direction they chose would still give him
time to launch torpedoes.  He wondered idly whether their desperate decision to
cut all power had saved them.  If it had, his cruisers would finish off the
helpless vessel anyway. 

He was still a bit concerned about not
letting the local Caradan navy detect him; he was under orders to not antagonize
any government entity that his people had not already engaged.  It wouldn't do
to encourage uninvolved parties to join in the battle before his people were
ready to take the war to them.

Cory waited as her small squadron formed
up.  She had three Talons and three Intruders so far, and the next wave was
hampered by a Talon that had suffered an unexpected electrical failure on the
launch cat.  Even though the hangar was still completely without power, having
a dead ship spotted on the catapult pad blocked everyone else behind them. 
Rather than wait, she had decided to roam ahead with the six ships she had and
have the remaining launches hold formation on Avenger until she could get a
tactical picture.  Hampering those efforts was the fact that Avenger's comm
systems were still offline.  She had been told by a runner from the bridge that
they had basic passive sensors operational, so even if Cory couldn't get a
message in, Avenger could at least still see what was happening.