Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 (86 page)

“They’re
what
?  Oh hell no they are not!  That’s my fucking ship!  No way in hell am I going to let them steal it out from under me.”

“Sir, we’ve lost contact with the three pinnaces.  Their comms are out and they’ve lost power.  They’re completely adrift.”

“Damn it!” he howled.  He brought the gun in both hands up to his forehead, resting the long edge of the barrel against his forehead, the business end up at the overhead.  He breathed heavily for a long moment, watching as the icons for the various ships moved inexorably closer to both the fueling station and to the bulk freighter.  “They did this.  Those freighter bastards.  They sabotaged our ships.”  He paused.  “And they must have attacked us too.  This… this… this… virus problem… it’s them!  Do we have comms back up?  Can we reach the orbital?”

“Five more minutes, sir,” the comm technician said, frantically splicing wires and entering commands on her console.  Sweat was beading on her upper lip and forehead, but she didn’t slow down in her work.  It was probably that that stayed her execution.

Goris Hana paced around, his impatience growing with every second, though surprisingly he did not interrupt the technician.  When finally she gave the thumbs up to him, he clumped over to her console to check for himself.  “Good.  Call the governing council on the orbital.  Tell them to release some of the defense ships to our use.”

“Sir!” the exec protested.  “They won’t do it!  Those ships are protecting the shipyard.  I can’t imagine they’re going to let us take even one of those ships.  And even if they release them, what good would they do against those ships?” He pointed at the cruisers on the display. 

Ulla-tran had more in the way of defenses than just a half-dozen pinnaces.  In fact, there was a full dry dock and shipyard on the far side of the system from the fueling station.  Two ships were currently undergoing construction and final outfitting, a light cruiser and frigate, respectively, though the frigate was much further along than the cruiser.  The frigate was undergoing final outfitting and shakedown, only awaiting a crew.  The cruiser was about sixty percent complete, with her engines, shields, and hyperdrive completed, but no weapons and only about half of its internal sections completed.

The system also boasted two squadrons of blocky and rather ungainly looking Sigma-class fighters.  They could do the job, and were well-armed enough to do it well, but they wouldn’t be winning any awards for aesthetics.  The system also employed three sublight gunships, little more than hull, engines and weapons, each with a crew of ten.  They were lightly armored, but carried heavy laser cannons and a trio of rail guns.  They were little more than eggs with teeth.  Right now all of those ships were clustered around the shipyards and the dry dock, to keep the new ships and the industry here safe, but the defense ships were doing little to protect the rest of the system, as evidenced by the eight newcomer ships arriving in system completely unchallenged.

Hana glared over at the exec, aiming the gun at the man.  “I keep hearing your voice and it’s squeaking at me, XO.  You need to stop the squeaking.”  He turned to the comm watch.  “Tell them about the ships that have entered the system.  Tell them that we need to have at least
some
deterrent since our pinnaces have been disabled.”

The comm watch officer nodded.  “Yes, sir.  Sending transmission now.”

“We did it!” Stella crowed.  “The pinnaces are adrift, completely unpowered.  They’re no longer actively pursuing.”  Her voice was smug.

“Are they dead?”

“Yes, Captain, the ships are.”

“I was referring to the crews,” he commented.

The AI shrugged her holographic shoulders.  “No way to be sure.  But if they don’t get systems back in short order, they will be in a matter of hours.”  No remorse in her voice, no pity.

The captain looked as though he was going to speak, perhaps to order her to try and cancel the malware that she had infected their systems with.  The bridge crew was quiet, to see if he would give that order.  But he didn’t.  And no one spoke up about it. 

“Continue on course,” was all he said.  The ship was still running all-out for the hyper limit, with the pinnaces floating along behind, losing ground on the bulk freighter now that they were no longer accelerating.  The pirate cruisers and corvette were still gaining, rapidly, and according to estimates, it would not really be a race to the hyper limit.  They were
going
to catch up well before then, it was only a matter of what the warships would do once they caught up. 

“Do you want to talk to them, Captain?” Stella asked, appearing on his display.  Her image had vanished from the holo projector.  “See if you can get them to leave us alone?”

“You’ve already identified
Ganges
on your sensors, Stella,” the captain reminded her.  “I can’t imagine that the good Commander Tyler is going to be very generous after we humiliated him back at Hecate.”

“Perhaps not,” the AI admitted.  “But maybe you can distract him and keep him talking long enough to get us to the hyper limit.”

“They’re going to catch us about an hour distance from the limit,” he pointed out, his face sour.  “There’s not much that conversation is going to do to change that.  Anything he says to us is going to include the words ‘cut your engines and prepare to be boarded’.  You know that, Stella.  That’s if he doesn’t just start firing.  And if he does, we are beyond screwed.  We are a giant target.”

“Are you calling me fat, Captain?” she asked, pretending to be indignant.

He smiled.  “First of all, this was
my
girl before she was yours, Stella.  She’s big and perfect.  But she’s not meant to try and evade and outfight a cruiser.  Much less three.”  He sighed.  “No, for now, we continue on.  We can try your malware package once they get a little closer, but I can’t count on that working a third time.”

“We are entering the extreme edge of our weapons range, Commander,” the tactical officer on
Ganges
’s bridge reported.  “Locking on with forward batteries.”

“Fire
only
on my order,” Tyler stressed.  “Not before.”

“Yes, Commander,” the officer replied.  His controls were set.  “Ready on your order.”

“Hold for now,” he ordered.  “Wait until those targeting solutions firm up a bit.  I want to be able to take them down with a single salvo.”

“You are not going to desstroy that sship, Commander,” Verrikoth warned him.

“No, sir, I’m not,” Tyler said, nodding.  “But I want to make sure we get the point across to those freighter jockeys.”

“There are four warsshipss chassing them, Commander,” Verrikoth said wryly.  “I think that they will undersstand the point we are trying to make.”

“They need to heave to and allow us to board.”  Tyler was adamant about this point.  “And we know that they sent some sort of transmission to those pinnaces chasing them.”  He pointed to the display.  “Look, they’re completely dead.  That’s no act.  The freighter hit them with some sort of cyber attack.”  He punched his fist into his open hand.  “Damn.”

“Then open a channel and order them to ssurrender.”

Tyler nodded, a wicked smile on his lips.  “Yes, let’s do that.  Communications, open a channel to Target One.”

“Channel open, Commander.”

“This is Commander Jensen Tyler of the warship
Ganges
to pirate freighter
Grania Estelle
.  You will heave to immediately, lower your shields and prepare to be boarded, or we will fire upon you.  Respond.”

“This is Vincent Eamonn, Captain of the
Grania Estelle
to Commander Tyler.  Under whose authority are you demanding I stop?  This is an independent star system, of which you are
not
a part.  And should you try to push the matter, you’re only proving yourself to be the very pirates you claim I am.  I am continuing on course. 
Grania Estelle
, out.”

Tyler ground his teeth in frustration.  “That arrogant bastard.  I warned him.  I
warned
him.  I gave him the chance to surrender and he spit in my face.”

“Am I going to have to liszten to you whine
all
day, Commander?” Verrikoth asked, amused.

“Guns, open fire on
Grania Estelle
’s engines.  Disable them.”

The light cruiser’s forward turbolasers opened up, pouring coherent energy into the aft section of the freighter.  Tyler had to marvel at the strength of the big ship’s aft shields.  It didn’t take long however for the constant hammer blows of charged particle spears coming from
Ganges
’s forward weapons array to batter down the larger vessel’s shields.

“Once the shields go down, I want pinpoint accuracy, Guns.  Disable their engines but don’t destroy them.  I want to be able to recover that hull.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Damage report!” Eamonn bellowed over the howling of alarms.  “And shut that damned thing off!”  George pressed a control and the alarm ceased.

“Aft shields have failed,” he reported.  A jolt shook the ship as another shot lanced over from
Ganges
.  “Damage to the aft section.  Engines still online.”

“Helm, alter course, port six degrees, up nine degrees,” the captain ordered.  It was a small enough change that they wouldn’t waste too much time, fuel and effort, but enough to throw off the targeting of the
Ganges
, if only for a few moments.  Another hit rocked the big ship and damage markers flashed over the Captain’s display. 

“Engine two is out,” George said, trying to maintain calm.  “Engine three is showing damage.”

“Shut down power to the engines,” the captain ordered, his voice completely flat.  “Bring us to zero acceleration.”  The bridge crew all looked at him in astonishment.  “We can’t outrun them and they’re just going to keep pounding us until we stop.  We can’t stand up to that.  Get security on the line, tell them to prepare for boarders.”

Engineering was a madhouse.  Techs were working their consoles and stations furiously, while others were running, carrying tools and trying to lock down damaged components.  Damage control parties were dispatched from engineering to the after sections to cut fuel lines and patch up any hull breaches, which were thankfully few.  Quesh stood at the main console, rerouting around damaged systems and other components. 

“We better not keep taking hits like that,” he muttered to himself.  “Or we’re going to be dead.”  He pressed a comm button.  “Engineering to bridge.  You’d better do something about those ships and fast.  My engines are not going to stand up to that.”

“We’re cutting the engines, Quesh,” the captain replied.  “I’m not even going to try and outrun them anymore.  Our inertia will keep carrying us forward and hopefully we’ll be able to reach the hyper limit.”  The captain’s tone told the Parkani how hopeful he was at that possibility.  “But keep the engines on standby.  If possible, I’m going to need you ready to accelerate all out.”

Quesh sighed, rubbing his forehead with one hand.  “Aye, Captain.  I’ll be ready, but remember, two of the engines are out.  We won’t have as much acceleration as before.”

“Understood.  Just be ready.”

“They’ve cut acceleration, sir.”  The sensor watch officer sounded confused.  “But they’re not slowing.”

“They think that if they follow the letter of my orders, I won’t blast them into oblivion,” Tyler replied.

“You won’t, Commander,” Verrikoth reminded him, hissing slightly.  “I want that sship in uzable condition.  Move uss closser and uze the tractoring beamz on the cruiserz to sslow it down.  I don’t want them accidently reach the hyper limit and escape.”

The commander nodded in agreement.  “Yes, they’re going to try and do that again.”  He nodded to the helmsman who complied with the order.  “Communications, order Target One to drop their shields and keep their weapons powered down or we will open fire.”

“Captain, the cruisers are closing in on us from three sides,” George reported.  “They’re pulling in damned close, too.  They’re moving to ten kilometers off. 
Ganges
is taking station above us and the other two on either side.  They’re deploying tractoring beams.”  The ship lurched a bit as the cruisers locked on.  “They’re using their own thrusters to slow us down.  Apparently they’re not going to let us sneak across the hyper limit when they’re not paying attention.”

“Well, it was a dim hope at best.”  The captain rubbed his chin.  “But that does give me an idea.”  He pressed the comm control on the arm of his chair.  “Quesh, Captain.  Begin increasing atmospheric pressure in all the cargo bays.”

The Parkani sounded harried.  “What?  Why?”

“Because I’m going to blow the doors of the cargo bays open and shower the cruisers with the cargo like missiles.  And if the overpressure is enough, the mass of the cargo will shoot out like bullets.”

The Parkani sighed.  “Roger that, Captain.  I’m on it.”

“Pressure is rising in all of the cargo bays, Captain,” George reported a moment later.  “Boat bay is remaining normal.”