Fatal Blade (Decker's War#3) (13 page)

Broadside after broadside hammered at the marauder, plasma rounds streaming out until the AI warned Zack to slack off and spare the capacitors from premature burnout.

“Tell me we’re going to FTL soon.  I’m…”

The second reiver, mortally wounded, exploded, giving birth to a minor nova.

Talyn touched the controls, and Decker felt his stomach shoot up through his throat.  A fraction of a second later, the shock wave sped through empty space,
Phoenix
already far away, in her own bubble universe, crossing the void at many times the speed of light.

***

“It almost seems unfair,” Kinnear said after watching a replay of the reivers’ destruction.

“As a wise man once said, if you’re in a fair fight you screwed up somewhere along the line.”  Decker took a long pull at his bottle and sighed contentedly.  “I’m glad we were able to give you a taste of what we can do and clean up a part of the Protectorate, be it ever so tiny, at the same time.”

“Your ship has impressive weaponry, Ser Whate, and I’m equally impressed that you’re carrying Shrehari ale of this vintage.”  Steiger raised her drink in salute.  “A man after my own tastes.  And you said you didn’t provide entertainment, Captain Pasek.  Consider me satisfied.”

“Glad to hear it,” Talyn replied with an ironic smile.  “You realize that we’ll be tacking the cost of the expended munitions and the booze to your final bill, right?  And we’ll need to discuss where you want us to take you, preferably now.  I put us on a general course back to the Rim, but when we come out of FTL at the end of this jump, I’ll need a destination.”

Steiger and Kinnear glanced at each other, and the latter nodded once.

“We need to meet up with others like me who bought merchandise in various places and hired ships to carry it before we head to our final destination,” Steiger said.  “The plan is to travel in a convoy for mutual defense.”

“Your final destination is perilous?”  Talyn asked with a raised eyebrow.  “Depending on the risk, we may have to charge a danger premium.”

“Let’s just say some parties might try to prevent us from handing the merchandise over to its new owners.  You’ll get paid what you’re owed once that’s done.”

“Glad to hear it.  People who short us when it comes to payment, find their lives considerably shortened.”  An evil grin briefly lit up Decker’s hard features.  “Always keep that little video of the unlucky reivers in mind.  It’ll help you make the right choices.”

“Our destination, Sera Steiger?”  Talyn asked again.

“It’s in interstellar space, far from any of the usual star lanes.”  The mercenary fished a data wafer from her breast pocket.  “The coordinates are encoded.  I’ll have to feed them to your AI myself.”

“What makes you think I’ll let you anywhere near my ship’s systems?”

“He who pays the piper calls the tune, Captain Pasek.”  A grin to match Decker’s appeared.  “And we’ll be paying you very handsomely indeed.”

“Touché.”  Talyn inclined her head.  “If you’ll follow me to the bridge, we’ll get this sorted out.  Perhaps Ser Whate can tend to his ordnance in the meantime.”

“Sure.”  Decker drained his bottle and tossed it in the recycler.  “Tran, I could use another pair of arms down below.”

***

Later that evening, Decker was checking the forward missile launchers when he heard footsteps on the other side of the open hatch.  He closed the panel that covered the manual controls and turned around.

“Not tired enough to rack out?”

“A good fight always gets me so revved up I’m restless for a while,” Miko Steiger replied.  “You?”

“Same here,” he said, leaning against the smooth housing.  She had a predatory gleam in her eyes that reminded him of a hungry Shrehari.

“Since Tran’s fast asleep, I figured I’d roam the ship for a while so I don’t disturb him.”

“And you ended up here,” his mouth curved into a smile, “figuring that I might be a kindred spirit in need of coming down from a combat high.”

“Sure.”  She approached him until they were only a few centimeters apart.  An exciting, earthy female scent tickled his nostrils.  “The best thing to get nice and tired in our condition is a horizontal tango.  Fighting makes me so horny I can barely stand it.”

When she reached down to touch him an equally predatory smile joined the gleam in her dark brown eyes.

“Are you and Pasek a thing?”  She asked, closing the remaining distance between them.  “Or do you play the field?”

“We’re just business associates.”  He put his arms around her, cupping her buttocks in his large hands.

“Good.  I wouldn’t want our good captain to get jealous, and I really have to scratch this itch now.”  Steiger’s mouth closed on Decker’s.

***

“You might want to shower,” Talyn said when he entered their cabin.  “I can smell the two of you from here.  Was it fun at least?”

“It scratched an itch,” he replied, stripping off his clothes.

“Yours or hers?”

“Hers, mostly.  On top of a launcher housing isn’t the most comfortable place.”

“But it is original.”  She chuckled.  “When was the last time you had sex that close to your beloved ordnance?”

He considered the question for a moment.

“It’s a first when it comes to missiles.  I’ve had my fun inside a gun turret before, though.”

“I know.  I was there.”

“That was you?  Wow.  You sure have changed.”

She threw a pillow at his head.

“Wash, mister.  We have a busy day ahead tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir, Captain, sir.”  He tossed off a mock salute, did a perfect about face and stepped into the heads.

“Smart-ass.”  Talyn smiled at his naked back and settled down into her bunk again.  “At least she’s not a scratcher.”

FOURTEEN

“I’m glad they decided to use
Mikado
instead of a regular supply ship.  That way we have a better chance of keeping up the pretense.”

“True,” Talyn nodded, her eyes on the navigation readout, waiting for the Q-ship’s appearance.  “But it’ll make the transfer a much bigger pain in the ass.  They don’t have all the fancy systems the big boys use to toss missile packs at your cargo hatch without missing.”

“I’m sure they thought of that,” he replied with the tone of an indulgent uncle.  “Are we a tad nervous, Commander Talyn?”

“
We
haven’t performed replenishment underway in more than twenty years, and back then I did it under the steely gaze of my captain who’d flawlessly accomplished said feat countless times.”

“Again, I’m sure they thought of that.  We’re not the only spy ship in the Navy, so this is hardly a one-off event.  Someone aboard
Mikado
must know how this is supposed to work.”

“Changing the subject slightly, how did our passengers react to the cloak and dagger announcement that they were to be locked in and deprived of anything more sophisticated than a deck of cards?”

“Tran took it in stride, but Steiger wasn’t happy at all.”

“That’s what happens when you scratch someone’s itch, Zack.  They start expecting special treatment.”

“Present company excepted, of course.”

“Of course.”

The AI’s chime drew Decker’s attention back to his console.

“We have an emergence signature approximately one hundred thousand klicks aft.  No IFF beacon.”

“
Mikado
?”

“If it isn’t, I’m going to end up firing whatever ammo we have left.  After that, we’ll be tossing empty bottles with the tractor beam.”  Another chime.  “We’re being hailed.”

“Put it on.”

“Hello,
Phoenix
,” a cheerful voice rang out from the speakers.  “We got your grocery list and are here to deliver.”

“Tell me you have Shrehari ale,” Decker replied.

“
T’Klach
vintage no less.  Is the disreputable lady you work with on board, Rookie Trooper?”

“Hi Tom,” Talyn said, smiling when the video feed finally locked in.  “Since when am I disreputable?”

“Since you started working with that big lug of a Marine.”  He grinned at Decker.  “No offense.  She was respectable not too many years ago, but that changed when you joined the black gang.”

“Offense is taken, Captain, but since you’re offering me some
T’Klach
vintage, I’ll hold off on exacting my revenge.”

“Every man has his price, I suppose.”  The opening pleasantries over with, he became all business.  “We’d like to do this on the run so I have to ask, when’s the last time you did a replenishment underway?”

“When you were still in high school, Tom,” Talyn replied.

“I figured as much.  They put a replenishment pod in my port cargo hold.  It has all the appendages of the big boys, but I’m going to guess you don’t have a force net to catch anything I’ll toss out.”

“No, and I’m not sure I’d be much help even if we did have one.”

He nodded.

“To repeat myself, I figured as much, so here’s how we’ll do this.  I’m going to come up on your starboard side at about a hundred meters, give or take, and grab you with my tractor beams.  Once we’re locked tighter than a pair of love-sick wrestlers, I’ll have you open your cargo hold doors and then I’ll very gently push the containers into it.”

“Okay.  So far, so good.”

“I’m hoping you have an exoskeleton frame, because the boxes, especially the missile packs, are big and hard to shift.”

“Yes and that would be Zack’s gig.”  She glanced over her shoulder at Decker, who gave her a thumbs up.

“What I’ll need you to do, Hera, is keep your ship on the current vector and follow the orders of my ship handler.  From the moment we’re within ten thousand kilometers until we accelerate away again, I own your helm.”

“Understood.”

“We’re going to get close enough that at this speed, any deviation will end in the kind of disaster that won’t even see us face a court-martial because we’ll be mixed in with the wreckage. We don’t normally like to get so close, but since we have to spoon feed you in the absence of a jackstay, there’s not much choice.”

“I get that.”

For the first time since he met her a few years back, Decker heard real strain in Talyn’s voice, and he realized that her nervousness was getting to him.

“Good.  Get your end ready and Zack, don’t try to play catch with the containers.  They’re bigger than you, and they weigh a lot more than you’d expect.  Let us do the work of getting them down on your deck.  You can shift them out of the way once we release the beam, and don’t worry, my folks have done this before.  They have an artist’s touch.”

“I guess I’m off then,” Decker waved at the video pickup before heading aft to don his pressure suit.

“Your chain of command must be a few atoms short of an antimatter load,” Tom said once Zack had gone.  “The idea of putting a naval officer who hasn’t stood watch aboard a warship in twenty years and a Marine with a gunnery fetish in charge of a miniature Q-ship strikes me as very strange.”

“I won’t argue the point.”  She chuckled mirthlessly.  “But since we’ve sailed her before, out of necessity more than anything else, it isn’t as much of a stretch as you might think.  I could ask you the same sort of question: since when did you start doing grocery runs?”

“Since they told me to.”  He shrugged, unwilling to elaborate.  “As they say, orders are orders.  You’re not our only customer, so don’t be flattered by the impeccable service.”

“I’ll complete the satisfaction survey once we finish inventorying the goods.”

“As if I would short-change my favorite spy.”

“In a Shrehari second.  You Q-ship yahoos are all pirates at heart.”

“I’m reminded of something involving pots, kettles, and the color black. 
Phoenix
is
Mikado
’s little sibling beneath the fancy camouflage, don’t ever forget that.”

He suddenly held up his hand to forestall her reply and turned his head to the left.

“My ship handler tells me we’re about to enter the controlled zone,” he said looking at her again, “so we’ll have to shelve the witty repartee.  Prepare to take helm orders.  Make sure Zack reports when he’s ready to receive.”

“Acknowledged.”  Talyn’s earlier nervousness returned.

A few minutes later, the intercom came to life.

“I’m suited up and in the hold.  You can depressurize and open the space doors.”

“The exoskeleton’s working?”  Talyn asked.

“Yup.  I’ve got it on, and it’ll do just fine.”

Talyn looked up at the main screen.

“He’s ready.  I’m depressurizing the hold now.”

“Acknowledged,
Phoenix
,” Tom said.  “Keep the channel with Zack open.  My cargo handler will want to speak with him directly.”

Soon, a new voice, a feminine alto, came over the open frequency.

“
Phoenix
cargo, this is
Mikado
, I’m transmitting a list of the containers we have for you.  You’ll have to figure out in which order I should send them.  I understand that your space is limited, and we need to make sure everything will fit the first time around.”

Decker examined the familiar compartment with an unfamiliar feeling of anxiety.  He’d read the relevant protocols the night before, but faced with the reality of a replenishment operation, he felt well out of his depth.

The hauler with the two containers took up a healthy amount of real estate, as did the missile launchers.

“You should have the list now,
Phoenix
.”  The alto voice cut through his brief disorientation, and he pulled out his tablet.

“This can’t be any harder than combat loading a pathfinder troop for an extended operation,” he muttered to himself reading the specifications of each container.  “Just on a different scale.”

“What was that,
Phoenix
?”

“I was saying that I got your transmission, and am figuring the sequence out now.”

“Good.  For a moment there, I thought I heard something about pathfinders lost on operations, and we know that never happens.”  The alto voice held a hint of laughter.

“It must be due to the poor quality of the Navy’s commo gear,” he replied.  “We don’t have hearing problems in the Corps.”

This time, she laughed outright.

“They warned me about you,” the unknown woman said.

“Did they also tell you I make a mean duck à l’orange?”

“No, but I’ll have to pass if that was an invitation.  We’re expected elsewhere after this.”

“Okay,” he said making up his mind.  “Container one five five comes first.”

“The one with food and drink?  That would have been my call as well.  No point in burying the good stuff under a pile of ammunition.”

“Glad to hear I got it right,” he replied with an edge of sarcasm.  “After that, well go in the following order…”

When he finished, there was a moment of silence, then she said, “Sounds like a plan.  I can’t fault the sequence from my end.  You, on the other hand, still have to figure out a way to stack them, but I can’t help you with that.”

“You’d be surprised at how much time I spent on civilian freighters.”

“Probably not.  Like I said, they warned me about you.”  That laughing lilt again.

Talyn’s voice overrode Decker’s reply.

“Time to stop flirting, Zack; I’m about to open the space doors. 
Mikado
’s on final approach.”

“Acknowledged.”

He studied his pad for a few more seconds, memorizing the order, then looked around at the hold one last time to sear the planned placement of the containers in his mind.

A red light began flashing, and the wide doors opened to reveal the Milky Way in all its glory.  Zack felt irresistibly drawn into the abyss-like void and was startled when a large, dark mass slowly pulled level with
Phoenix
, occluding the stars.

Mikado
seemed close enough to touch, so close that Zack could see the details of some very hard service etched into her skin.  The radio came to life again.

“
Phoenix
cargo, a word of advice.  If you’re watching the containers come across head-on, you’re standing in the wrong spot.”

Decker blinked a few times and then noticed a large, lit rectangle had formed on the side of the Q-ship’s matte hull.  A small figure in a pressure suit waved enthusiastically at him.  He returned the wave and then, feeling slightly sheepish, he moved to one side.

“We have positive tractor beam lock on you,
Phoenix
.  Stand-by for the first transfer.”

“
Phoenix
helm confirms.”

“
Phoenix
cargo confirms.”

“Number one away,” the alto voice announced.

A standard container emerged from the opening in
Mikado
’s flank and slowly crossed the chasm between both vessels.  The Q-ship’s cargo handler had a sure touch: it came through the space doors dead center and gently dropped to the deck.

“Clear,” the alto said.  “I’ll let you get this one out of the way before I send the next one over.”

“Acknowledged.”

Using the powerful arms of his exoskeleton frame, Decker picked up the massive case and shifted it to the spot he’d chosen next to the inner hatch, where it could be unloaded quickly.

“Ready for the next one.”

“Number two away.”

And so it went until the only thing left was the missile pack.

“This is going to be a bit trickier,” the
Mikado
’s cargo handler said.  “We don’t have much room for error due to the size.  What I’m going to do is bring the pack to your doorstep, then have you grab the side and guide it in.  I’ll keep the tractor beam on until you’re happy to have me drop it.”

“Okay.”  Decker took a last look at the remaining space on the deck and hoped that he hadn’t made a calculation error.  “Send her over.”

The missile pack was flatter but much longer than the standard containers, and when it got close to the space doors, Decker had a moment of panic wondering whether it would actually fit through.  When it stopped, he extended his exoskeleton’s arms as far out as they would go and took hold of a handling bar welded to the side of the case.

“I have it.”  He felt a thin bead of sweat run down his forehead.  “Slowly now.  There’s not much room to spare on either side.”

His heart almost stopped when he felt the vibration of a hard contact between pack and ship run through his exoskeleton.  A quick glance showed him that he’d shifted too far left.  Careful not to overcompensate, he pulled it to the right and took a step backward.  This time, it cleared the opening.