Black Dawn (34 page)

“For the past year or so we’ve been trying to
earn an honest
living, but with all the pirate activity it’s been hard to get anybody to
trust us . About the only mercs anyone will trust is the famous BlackFleet. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to see if we could sign on or work
out a deal or something. At least I could make a buck to finish paying
off the
Starwind
.”

Coy had been right.
It didn’t have time for this. “Captain
Zachary, it is not that easy to join the BlackFleet. I personally screen
and interview every candidate. We are trusted because we have worked
very hard to earn that trust.”

“
You know me! We worked together!”
“As I recall, you were always a competent captain. That your
crew chose to remain loyal to you does speak in your favor as well.
But I still do not have time to initiate an entire crew into my Fleet at
this moment.”
Zachary opened his mouth to protest more, but Coy put a hand
up to indicate it was not through.
“I will do this much. Where is your ship now?”
“Servati.”
“If you are sincere, take your ship to the coordinates I will
send you. We can meet there, and talk face to face.”
“Seems like a lot of hoops to jump just to join a merc outfit.”
“Then don’t. Lamont out.”
After the com went silent, Ken looked over at Coy. The only
other time he had seen its face this void of expression it had been laying on a bed in Sick Bay.
“So do you trust this guy or not?” he asked
carefully.
Coy thought for a long moment before answering. “I’ll let him
come and have a conversation with me and a dose of pentha. After that
I’ll either use him or disable his ship. I admit his cruiser could come in
handy. But I’m not counting on it.”

“Why the other co ordinates?” Mara asked.

“I’ll meet him on the
Rook
, at a place where he will not see the
actual Fleet. In any event, I will take care of Mr. Zachary. You have
you own problems.”

“Problems. Thanks. How inspiring,” Butler grimaced.
Coy stopped them with a dead serious expression. “Take care
of my people.”
Their salutes were just as serious. “Aye, aye, sir.”
* * * * *

Zachary was escorted through the
Rook
and delivered to the
waiting Commodore Lamont. He stood gaping at the ancient looking
bulkheads of Coy’s temporary office.

“Is this a joke? This is the ship that has been striking terror in
the hearts of pirates?” he scoffed.

“
Perhaps it is not what you have, but how you use it,” Coy told
him. It wished for a moment that Andrea Pierce was present to prove
the point more graphically. “Sit down Captain Zachary. I have some
very specific questions to ask you.” The crew member who was present, Orson Terrell, stepped up closer to Zachary’s chair. “By the way,
Captain, do you have any objection to Pentha?”

“
To what?”
“Pentha. Truth drug. Are you allergic to it?”
“No, but why would…?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”
It gave a brief nod to Terrell who
pressed the hypo against Zachary’s neck before he could react. When
he was limp and co operative, wearing the typical blank expression,
Coy began. It stuck to relevant questions, no matter how tempting it
was to find out what the former “Commando” had thought of Lamont
in the past. When Coy was satisfied that Zachary was not a pirate
plant or operative, it had Terrell administer the antidote.

Zachary was furious. “How dare you!” He lurched out of the
chair and stood with fists clenched. “What right…?”

Coy stood and faced him.
“I am Commodore Coy Lamont
owner and commanding officer of the BlackFleet Mercenaries. And I
have a lot of planets counting on me right now to stop the terror and
destruction these pirates are causing. I think in the big picture that
takes precedence over your personal affront,” it said icily. “Now then,
if you are serious about joining us, we are on our way to hit the pirate
base. Your ship can be added to my battle group immediately.”

Zachary stared, shock overwhelming the anger of a moment
ago. “Fight pirates! Where’s the profit in that?”
“The BlackFleet does not exist to make a profit. We exist to
help people. Period. Occasionally we get paid for our efforts, that is
true.”
“Do-gooders.” Zachary scoffed in disgust. “A whole merc unit
of do-gooders.”
Coy paused. “Let me make myself and my offer clear. I am not
asking you to join the BlackFleet. As I have said that is a more involved process than we have time for. What I am offering is a chance
to join an alliance of planets and help the Beta Region by ridding it of
the pirate activity. If that has been what has been interfering with your
getting employment, then it would be to your advantage as well to stop
them.”
Once again, Zachary was speechless for a second. “Wait a minute. You’re telling me you got every planet in the Beta Region to
work together!? I mean you, personally, are heading this thing?” he
sputtered when he found his voice.

“
Not
every
planet. And some that are part of the alliance are
not actually able to contribute battleships. Some will help with repairs,
some are patrolling the region – doing the job we’ve been doing for the
past couple of years. But a large problem needs a large force to stop
it,” Coy said casually, downplaying the achievement.

Zachary squinted his eyes and peered at Lamont as if he had
never seen it before. “I was wrong. I thought you were someone I used
to know. But I would have remembered if I had met anyone powerful
enough to order around an entire Region of planets. What happened to
you?”

Even if Coy had had the time, it sure didn’t have the inclination to tell this person all of the radical changes it had undergone,
physical and emotional, in the past couple of years. In fact, it would be
impossible seeing as how it had never stopped to figure them out for
itself.

“
Captain, we could use your help. But we cannot afford your
interference. Either you are in on this or you are not. I need your answer. Now.” It seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

As he thought, Zachary looked around the room more closely.
“This isn’t your ship is it?”
Coy allowed itself a small smile of appreciation. “It is one of
them, yes. Perhaps you shouldn’t judge by outward factors.”
Zachary paused and looked at Lamont thoughtfully at that. “I
wouldn’t usually ask my crew to risk their lives for no pay. But anybody that could accomplish everything the BlackFleet seems to have
done and now this…” he stuck out his hand. “The
Starwind
will join
your alliance, Commodore.”

* * * * *

It was very early in the morning. Although the palace guard
stood at full attention outside the door, little else in the royal residence
was stirring at this hour.

The ruler of the Royal house of Tenetia had been checking his
chrono for quite a while, and it was finally time.
He slid out of bed,
and went over to his personal com station. After triple-securing the
message, he keyed in an address. He waited only a second or so before
the naval officer appeared on the screen.

“Mongoose,” the Ruler said simply. The officer nodded and
cut the com. And with that, the ships began to move…
* * * * *

The
Rook
and its attack group hung motionless, several light–
years from much of anything. A ship made transit back into normal
space, and approached the group of waiting vessels with the
Rook
at
their center. After passwords were exchanged, a shuttle left the new
arrival, and docked with the armed merchant ship. Coy, Rebel, Drake,
and the rest of the gathered commanders of 9 other ships were seated
in the conference room, when the last commander was escorted in.
After all were settled, Coy opened up the briefing.

“Each of you knows why you’re here. I appreciate your patience with the need for this high a level of security, and I hope to
reward not only your patience, but that of your worlds as well.

“I’ve promised myself to put a stop to what’s been going on
out here for the past few years. It’s finally time, and your worlds have
graciously lent me your help. Here is how I intend to use it…”

With that, Coy brought up a holo map for everyone to see. It
displayed an area of space surrounding a small planetoid within the
Thrackston Nebula.

“According to the extensive intelligence we’ve been conducting for the last several weeks, this is most likely the main base of operations for the pirates who have been disrupting shipping all over the
Region. However, we also know this to be only one of three main bases, and we plan to hit all three in a simultaneous attack. Given tachyon communications, it is essential that none of the three bases warn
any of the others about what’s coming.
And it’s even more vital that
the base in the Nebula get no warning at all of the other attacks; this
one is far more important than the others.

“
Therefore in two hours, I will send a signal as we begin our
attack. At that signal the other two units will begin their own strikes.
“Many systems have lent the use of ships and crew for the action at hand.
Not all were able to, of course, as not all of the systems
in the Region even have navies. But of those who have sent ships for
the battle, we have, altogether the use of some 5 light patrol ships, 12
destroyers, 4 light cruisers, 5 heavy cruisers, and 2 battlecruisers.
“The battlecruisers especially are valuable assets and I have
assigned one of them to the battle we’re involved in. The other will be
used at DeGaulle. The rest of the ship resources are spread pretty
evenly throughout the attack.
“Now, our part of the operation is this:
“The
Rook
will be the first to transit back into normal space
out here,” it said, indicating the map, “about 125 million kilometers
from the main base. Not quite on their front doorstep, but within their
outermost defense perimeter.”
“They’ll immediately know that you’re there,” one of commanders offered.
“Correct,” Coy replied.
“And be quite angry about it too,” another said.
“Also correct,” Coy replied. “We’ll give them a story about
being lost and ending up in their space by accident. Something we’ve
done once or twice before.”
“Do you expect them to buy that?” yet another commander offered in disbelief. “Especially if you’ve done it before?”
“No,” Coy replied, “I don’t expect them to believe it. In fact
I’m counting on them not to. I expect them to send out some of their
defensive units to ‘check us out.’ And while they’re doing that…”

* * * * *

Mara Hendricks sat at a similar conference table on the
Nighthawk
surrounded by a similar group of ship commanders. After
thanking them for coming as well, she began outlining their phase of
the three-pronged attack.

“
The bad news is that our target is in the asteroid belt outside
the DeGaulle system. Navigation and attack strategies are made more
difficult by all of the debris in there. The good news is that of the three
attacks occurring in this operation we will be working from the most
complete intelligence on the target in question.

“
It is heavily defended by between 10-20 pirate ships of various classes, and an automated defense net surrounding the base on all
sides.” She watched as faces winced at this bit of “good news.”

“
We have been able to determine something of the schedule of
rotation for the ships defending this place. That’s part of the reason for
our timing of the strike. They should be on lowest guard just about the
time we set this off.”

“We’ll come in through the “
top” of the asteroid field. Since
the field is at the fringes of the system, we should be able to transit into
normal space right in their faces. Our attack plan will depend on
speed
. They have to notice our task force only
after
their automated
defenses have already engaged us. Then we’ll be able to…”

* * * * *

Ken Butler was also busy outlining the attack plan for his
group aboard the
Raven
. “We’re attacking a moon within the Tai Han
system. We have been able to positively locate the base itself.
However, we’ve
been unable to pin down the exact number of ships defending it. Extrapolating from the greater knowledge we have about the defenses
surrounding the base in the De Gaulle system, we’ve been planning for
between 15-25 ships of classes ranging from fighters to light cruisers.
We believe their defenses to be ship-dependant and mobile, rather than
the largely fixed defenses surrounding the base at De Gaulle.

“Unfortunately, our plan will depend upon putting a good bit
of strain on our JP.s.

“
The difficulty in opening transit points increases the closer
they are to the gravity well of the central star in any system. The moon
which is our target is inside the orbit of Tai Han. We will need to get
as close to it as we can in C-space, but the bottom line is that we will
have to transit back into normal space while we’re still pretty far out
from the target. Our Pilots simply could not handle the strain of getting us in as close as would be ideal. So we take it in as close as they
can bring us.”

“
Then what?” someone asked.
“Then, we drive in toward the base, assessing the true nature
of the mobile threat as we advance. I know,” he said holding up a
hand to stop the flood of protests and questions which surged at that
statement. “It is a great risk we’re asking each of you and your crews
to take. But this operation is time intensive. We are coordinating a
simultaneous strike against these people, so that we can deal with them
once and for all. The other attacks can’t wait on us to get all the information we should have about this one. We need to hit them now.
Besides,” he added, “the
Raven
is…not quite what she appears to be.
Despite appearances, she’s at least the equivalent of a heavy cruiser.
“The element of surprise in this plan is the key. First, this base
isn’t planning on getting attacked by anything at the moment, that’s
another reason we need to get in there as soon as possible. Second,
they won’t be expecting anyone to put the strain on JPs that transiting
back into normal space that far inside the gravity well would represent.