THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (37 page)

“Your authorization and clearance codes, Captain!” The Captain turned his head.

“Send them. Send them immediately before this mad woman blows us out of space.” Ellis took the time to look down at the console, seeing a small screen with a targeting reticule, understanding its purpose. “Two degrees to port, and up one degree, Jack.”

“Huh?” He looked over at her. “Oh, right.” The Cruiser shifted on the little screen until she had it dead center. Her next shot would take the Cruiser head on, up the skirt to be more precise. An analog meter off to the side of the weapon console kept bouncing against its stops, but she had no idea what that meant.

“Authorization and clearance codes received, Captain.” Jack announced.

“I’ll check these against my orders Captain, and they’d better be correct.” With a sweeping motion of her hand, Jack killed the connection and let out a long sigh of relief.

“Jesus! What now, Ma’am.” Just then, the intercom buzzed.

“What’s going on up there?” Garry Asher called from the engine room.

“What’s up, Garry?”

“Not sure what you are doing, but the reactor is going crazy. It’s pumping out energy to somewhere, and some odd looking equipment down here is starting to overheat.” Garry sounded agitated.

“Stay where you are, Garry. I’m in the middle of some delicate negotiations with an Imperial Cruiser.”

“Oh shit!” He muttered. “Well, you’d better do something quick. Two auxiliary power busses just blew. I’m fixing them, but whatever is causing this is overloading the system.” Just then, Gwen pounded onto the bridge, but before she could say anything. Ellis held up her hand and pointed at the main viewer. Gwen didn’t need a road map to tell her they were in deep shit.

“Stay out of sight, Gwen, and keep anyone else from barging in.”

“Got you.” She exited and stood to one side of the hatch as Ellis keyed the comm system.”

“It appears your clearance is in order, Captain…” Just then, the light flickered and the screen went dark.

“Now what!” She growled. For a moment, nothing worked and they stood there until the emergency lights came on. “Chief?” She asked, tapping the intercom.

“Engine room here. I’ll have the lights on in a second.”

“What happened, Chief?”

“Don’t know, but that massive power build up is gone for now but it tripped all the main breakers before it when offline. I’m resetting the breakers right now.” The lights came back on, and gradually the consoles came back to life.

“Oh shit!” Jack murmured. Ellis snapped her head round and looked at the main viewer. Of the Imperial light Cruiser, nothing remained except an expanding cloud of debris and a hot plasma cloud. Jack looked at her, eyes wide.

“But I didn’t touch…” Was all Ellis could think to say. She hadn’t touched the button on the odd console, so what had happened. Gwen walked in and looked at the screen.

“Did we just blow that Imperial Cruiser to bits?” Before she answered, Ellis turned back to the console and turned the weapon off. Wondering if the energy build up might not have blown her ship up if the weapon hadn’t discharged on its own. She had little sympathy for the three thousand odd souls aboard the Cruiser. Its destruction was just a little payback for all the destruction the Empire had inflicted on Earth. The beam must have torn through the engines and into the engineering section, it might even have breached the fusion reactor. It would explain why the whole ship had vanished.

“Whatever this weapon is, it’s too unstable to use except in an emergency.” It was no wonder it wasn’t mounted on more imperial warships. The damn thing was just as liable to blow the parent ship up as the enemy. Just then, Garry came onto the bridge and heard the last part of her statement.

“You’ve got that right, Ma’am. The electrical systems in the engine room are a mess.”

“Any idea how long it will take you to fix them?”

“A day or so. Thankfully none of the critical systems such as environmental and engines were affected, but you won’t have the other weapons online for a while.”

“Hopefully we won’t need them. Can we move?”

“Oh sure, just don’t push the engines too hard until I’ve had a chance to check things out.”

“Jack. Move us back out of the system so we can jump.”

“Ten-four, Captain.”

“I’m off to take a shower and get changed. Gwen, you have the bridge.”

“Aye-aye Captain.” She smiled and took Ellis’ vacated seat. She waited until she was sure Ellis was out of hearing range. “Jack. Now tell me what the fuck just happened, and the both of you are wearing all that horrible makeup?” He looked over his shoulder and smiled.

“You wouldn’t believe the bluff, the old lady just pulled.”

“Don’t let her hear you call her the ‘old lady’, bucko. She’ll have your guts for garters.

“Oh… right. Didn’t mean any disrespect. Old habits.” Jack went on to relate what had happened, seeing Gwen’s eyebrows climb up her head.’

“Whew, that lady has one set of big brass balls.” She breathed.

“To hear her tell it, her husband has an even bigger set.”

“Jesus. I’d like to meet him someday.”

Ellis had to laugh when she opened and read Captain Lessco’s orders. They were typical of imperial orders and mostly boilerplate and ‘fill in the blanks’. He was tasked with a search and destroy mission to suppress smuggling and drug running along the border of the Empire. His orders and clearance were countersigned by the Director, but again nothing more than his electronic signature. For Ellis, it was a simple matter to substitute her new fake name to make them her own. Nowhere was the name of the Imperial Cruiser mentioned, so again anyone would assume her Corvette was the ship in question. With these they could at least get across Tellurian space, and bluff their way past any other imperial ships they encountered. Ellis sat back with a sigh. That was one headache taken care of. Getting across Thrakee space would be something else altogether. They had no way of knowing exactly where Tellurian space ended and Thrakee space began, so all they could really do was to keep on going until they ran into something and hopefully it wouldn’t be a Thrakee Battle Group.

Chapter Nineteen

Bluff and Con

Richard Penn eyed the next station in the chain with a certain degree of distaste. Without Class, his opportunity to sabotage the station was limited. A nice bomb in the fusion reactor would do the trick, as it had done with his old ship. Other than that, a Battle Group or a Heavy Cruiser would do, and he could stand off and blow this place to hell and gone.

“Your orders, Sir.” Lieutenant Hassar asked. Penn remained silent for a moment, playing the part of the brooding, aloof IMPSEC Colonel to a tee.

“I want the Marine detachment lined up in the docking bay in full battle armor in twenty minutes. That includes you, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it.” He quickly left the bridge as the pilot took them in to dock with the station.

Penn didn’t bother changing out of his fake uniform, he simply brushed himself off and slowly walked to the docking bay, hands behind his back, eyes straight ahead, shades covering his eyes. This gave the crewmen the impression he was in complete command of himself, and the situation around him. Having no need to interact with anyone. He only had to look at someone and his gaze had them shaking in their boots. Penn well knew the effect he had on people, even aliens, and used it for all it was worth. If he could get what he wanted with just a look, instead of a fully-fledged firefight, so much the better. As he entered the docking bay, the troopers came to immediate attention, most hardly daring to breath.

“All troopers present and accounted for, Sir!” Lieutenant Hassar announced, coming to attention and saluting. Penn walked slowly down the line of five troopers, stopping to look two of them up and down. There was nothing wrong with their battle armor or weapons, but just the act of stopping made them think there was. A tick at the corner of his mouth went unnoticed, and he killed a smile that attempted to pull at his lips. Any one of these troopers could literally rip him apart in their powered armor, yet just the appearance of him being an IMPSEC Colonel prevented them from moving a muscle. They might think it, and wish they could do it, but only in the privacy of their own minds and dreams.

“You will accompany me to the station commander’s office. I don’t expect any of this scum is brave enough to take any action against you, but be on your guard.”

He made it seem that any attack would be against them, not him, which was opposite to what a Var Officer would have told them. It was a subtle distinction he hoped wasn’t lost on them. It also gave them tacit permission to shoot and kill anyone who even looked like a threat. Penn turned, walked to the hatchway and stood there without speaking. It only took a second for Lieutenant Hassar to catch on, and he quickly moved to the control panel and cycled the hatch open.

Penn strode out with the Lieutenant behind him, and the troopers behind them as he marched across the bay. The landing crew quickly moved out of his way, including a heavyset individual who had probably come down to collect the landing fees. Ordinary people don’t argue with Imperial Marines in powered armor, even supposed tough scum like those on the station. As Penn marched out onto the main concourse, people simply moved out of his way, eyeing the group with downcast eyes full of hatred and fear. The word that an IMPSEC officer was coming was all over the station, and most wondered why he was here. Many of the most notorious and most wanted criminals had already departed the station for greener pastures elsewhere rather than face the possibility of being arrested, or shot out of hand. Penn kept his eyes to the front, fully aware of the looks, but his eyes missed nothing, including the ‘gunslinger’ walk, as it was known in law enforcement, of many of the inhabitants of the station. That peculiar walk meant they had hidden weapons, or were trying to conceal something in their belts or inside their jackets. This meant their weapon arms didn’t make a full swing as their other arms did, as they wanted to constantly reassure themselves that their weapon was there and ready to use, or keep something concealed against their side. Those he paid particular attention to, just in case one of them felt brave enough to pull a weapon and take a shot at him. None did and he marched up several levels to the station commander’s lavish quarters and office. Doors and hatches opened as if by magic and he had no need to slow his pace even once. Sadly, he couldn’t detect Ellis on the station, nor had she been there.

“You are?” He asked coming to a standstill in front of the desk. The Tall, pale Tellurian eyed him with suspicion.

“I’m station commander Var Usury, and you are?” Penn remained silent for a moment, dragging out the tension.

“It is usual for officers to stand in the presence of a senior officer, is it not?” He said at last. The Tellurian looked at him with an expression of suppressed fury, but stood.

“I’m not military…”

“No, you are one of Director Markoff’s pet Var bitches.”

“How dare you call me that?”

“Sergeant, if this person opens his mouth again without permission, shoot him.”

“Yes, sir.” The Sergeant’s voice rumbled from the suit speaker. Usury’s face paled.

“Now then, it has come to the attention of the Director that your quarterly transfer of funds to the imperial treasury has declined. I am here to find out why and correct it.”

“But… please let me speak.”

“Granted.” He answered, and began to pace back and forth across the office in slow measured steps, stopping every so often to take his shades off to look at some gaudy nick-knack or other.

“I’ve sent everything I can, but I can only squeeze this scum so hard before they all leave.”

“That is no concern of mine, or the Director’s. I will conduct an immediate audit of all transactions over the past solar cycle. Open your safe, now!” Penn knew he’d been skimming, it was just a matter of how much and where he was hiding it.

After a momentary hesitation, and a quick looked at the troopers he moved to a wall and punched a code into a concealed keypad. Penn raised an eyebrow as the whole wall slid to one side to reveal a massive safe. Clearly, this one was greedier than the last if he needed a safe that big to store his loot. Var Usury opened the safe and stood back, his expression running from anger to fear with a good helping of self-pity thrown in for good measure. The inside of the safe was even bigger than Penn had imagined, being something on the order of thirty foot square. The room was filled with floor to ceiling shelves, all packed with bags of gold credits.

“Your retirement fund?”

“Damn you, yes. I’ve worked my ass off for twenty two years in this hellhole.” he stuttered to a halt as Penn took his shades off and turned to look at him. One look into those bright yellow eyes and he looked away, seeing only death in them.

“I’m sure the Emperor will find you a nice safe retirement post after your willing donation to the Empire’s coffers.” The subtle hint that he might be in some forgotten grave was sufficient to demoralize the Var. Emperor Cytec wasn’t known for his generosity to Var he was displeased with.

“Sergeant. Arrange to have all this transferred to my ship.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Shall we go to your quarters and see what other donations you’d like to make to the Emperor?” In all, Penn netted several hundred million imperial gold credits, and left an impoverished Var crying into his silk hanky.

Penn’s only wish was that he could find a way to destroy the station. As a reward, he deposited two bags of gold credits on the Marine mess table without a word. One look and the troopers all came to attention and saluted. Greed is a wonderful motivator Penn thought as he left the Marine deck. Most grunts hated the Var officer class as much as he did, and from now on, he didn’t have to worry about having them at his back. Nobody wanted to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

“Well, what do you know. We got our back pay.” Sergeant Brask murmured eyeing the piles of gold credit coins.

“They say all humans are stark raving mad. If that’s true, I like this human’s madness.” A trooper put in, bringing a round of laughter.