Insurrection (Athena Lee Chronicles Book 5) (7 page)

The increased sounds of gunfire drew both mens attention. “What the hell is that?” Reuben began grabbing random pirates and almost literally throwing them into battle with the Navy. Remembering that his boss was here, the big man spun around. “Alvin, sir. We need to get you under cover. It looks like the Navy is attacking us.”

“Screw that! I’m ready for this fight. I need to work on my collection anyway.” He said fingering the cryo box at his side.

Alvin pointed at one of his guards, “go forward. Tell those idiots to move the women back to the number one hold, then come help us here.” When his man ran off, Alvin looked back at Reuben. “No point in having double guards. We can use those guns up here with us.”

___

The Marines now knew why the Chief engineer and some of his people had been smiling and laughing at them when they got ready for this mission. The space suits proved too bulky to squeeze into the ship with. They had to be abandoned. Kinno’s men disabled the location beacons and then cast the suits loose. A sacrifice to the space gods. The hatch to outside did indeed come out in the waste disposal area. Right in the middle of it to be precise. Private Ascot was the first victim because he climbed the ladder. The hatch seemed heavy so her pushed harder. With a sucking sound the hatch opened and raw sewage poured down onto the Marines looking up the ladder. With brown vicious fluid dripping down their bodies they cursed all engineers in every language they could think of. They would not have to worry about shooting the pirates, the stink coming off them would knock them right out. Kinno swore to his gods that if he got out of here he would get back at those engineers.

Using the stethoscope they listened to several pirates peeing and telling dirty jokes. Finally they left the room. After ten minutes of silence the lieutenant and his men popped the hatch and climbed out into the lavatory. This was a familiar part of the ship to the men. The Marine stores were kept in the number one hold. Exiting the lavatory the Marines carefully crept down the short corridor towards their target.

___

Markus and his brother Isaak really hated guard duty. It was even harder to guard the door knowing what was inside. They both had been looking forward to raping the rewards after the ship was taken. It would have made up for the weeks of pretending to be ‘good navy crew.’ They had both had enough of THAT in the Rus militia back on their home world. Judging by the explosions and screams the battle must almost be over. It was always a good time watching Alvin torture his victims. His brother Isaak was a little slow, but when it came to chopping up the enemy he was a genius. Unfortunately, he pissed off Reuben by calling him Mickey to his face. Besides the black eyes and cracked ribs, the both of them now had permanent guard duty and last pick of the women. He cuffed his brother again as they passed. Back and forth, back and forth, they had been walking for what seemed like hours. Isaak did not like being hit for no reason and this time reared back returning his brothers punch. Soon, the two of them were in a knock-down-drag-out battle for who was the better brother. Neither man saw or smelled the approaching Marines.

___

The door to the cargo hold was being guarded by two large and hulking pirates. Suddenly the two began exchanging blows. To the Marines’ incredulous eyes the pirates began fighting each other rolling around on the floor. Weaponless, the two were beating on each other to no avail.

Markus finished breaking Issak’s nose and rolled off him onto a couple of large booted feet. Wincing, Markus turned his head to take his punishment for fighting on the job. The last time this happened Reuben broke all his fingers. He looked up into the faces of a couple of angry Marines holding assault weapons to his head. Crap!

Lieutenant Mutai looked at his men as they duct taped the pirates and locked them in a storage bin. “This may be easier than we thought” he commented to Sergeant Sveldig. The door to the cargo hold was unlocked. The five of them opened the door and stepped inside. Using the code that the Chief had given him, Lieutenant Mutai closed and locked the door. There were two groups of prisoners chained up in circles before them. The women to port and the men to starboard.

——

Ensign Enyo Tisiphone had seen all the pirates that she wanted to. The ensign had been looking forward to spending some time with family at the end of the deployment, not being molested by disgusting pirates. To think these people had been shipmates not two days before. She had been peacefully sleeping when they had grabbed her and her roommate. Fortunately she slept in pajamas. Her roommate, not so much. The pirates had roughly searched them for weapons then after tying them up had locked them up. From the comments and leers, her and the other women had expected to be raped. Suddenly they were tied up and moved to the cargo hold. The men were already there tied up. Vibrations from the deck plates meant that somewhere someone was fighting back. Internally, she cheered them and said a prayer for her safety. FSM and the space gods were fickle, but just.

She heard the door open and footsteps approached her. The pirates had all of them tied face down of the deck so all she could see were dirty feet. One of the feet knelt next to her and she could see hands reaching for her. “Just get it over with you dirty, smelly, pirate.”

“Is that any way to speak to an officer, Ensign Tisiphone?” That voice! That wasn’t a pirate! She felt her hands being untied. Rolling over she saw the ships Marines all untying the other women.

“Is it over? Did you kill all the pirates?”

“Not quite ensign, this is more of a rescue mission. Can you stand?”

The ensign stood up with a little help. It had been hours since she had been able to stand. She rubbed her wrists then reached down and did her ankles. Lavatory breaks for pirates were few and very far between. The women were starting to get organized and were helping the Marines untie the men. Many of the men were hurt very badly. Facial contusions, broken noses, ribs, arms, and other maladies were common. Of the almost 50 men that had been tied down, six had died of their wounds.

“Can I have everyones Attention!” Lieutenant Mutai stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled.

The group of officers and crew stopped talking and all looked toward the Marine Lieutenant.

“Captain Pigot sent us here to free you. We do have a plan. Those of you who can fight we need help. The Captain is attacking the pirates right now to give us the diversion that we need to take the bridge. Without it they will still have control of the ship.” He looked at he bedraggled men and women. “We could use some volunteers.”

Ensign Tisiphone looked around at her fellow crew members; many were looking down at the floor or just not paying attention to the Marines. Were there that many cowards on this ship? Is this why we hadn’t put up more of a fight? Not this descendant of warriors! “Lieutenant Mutai I volunteer!”

The flood gates did not open up, a choir of angels did not appear. Two other young crewmen raised their hands as well as one of the former bridge officers. Everyone else elected to stay, using the wounded as an excuse.

The Marines located clothing to replace the lost clothing of their new troops.

Ensign Tisiphone watched as the Marine officer showed her fellow volunteers how to work the assault rifle. Her family lived out on the Lost Archipelago back on Hong Kong. She had a gun in her hands from birth. Lots of dangerous animals on home planet.

She gave each of the Marines a big hug before changing clothes. When she got to Private Ascot she sniffed and did not hug him. “What have you been rolling in?” The stink rolling off the Marine was starting to make her eyes water. “Just stay over there!”

Chapter 6

You would think that after a revolution it would be a lot quieter. I, Athena Lee, sat in ‘my’ cafeteria observation area. I could be found here most days. I was in charge of repairing the damage caused by the assault on the station by the Militia forces. Some of that damage I helped to create. The station had a full squadron of Navy fighters to work on too. The FLEA scientists were helping but their hearts were not in it. Other than them I was the only trained Navy engineer on station or in this part of the galaxy. The EOM ship Laffey was a destroyer that had been in port before the planetary revolution. It had a faulty engine and had been in pieces before the attack. The ships crew had elected to be interned along with 95% of the other navy personnel, below on the planet. I had chosen to stand by my world against the corruption and murder that the Sector Governor had brought here. For better or for worse this was where we would make our stand.

I was not alone in my convictions. Many good people stayed. Our 5% were those who felt that this planet was worth saving. They were some of the most skilled or outrageous crew on the station. So, it all evened out.

“Athena? Are you in here?” I heard my name and looked up from my musings.

I spotted my girlfriend Marine Lieutenant Dar Zakaszewski and Commander Wang my previous XO from the James Cook. They both were walking toward me. I smiled and rose to greet them.

“Hey sweetie! I missed you.” Dar gave me a wonderful full body hug and kissed me on my cheek.

I looked over at Commander Wang. “What, no kiss? Just kidding Commander. What brings both of you up here today?”

Commander Wang spoke up first. “Militia command wants Dar here to train some of their station crew in hand to hand.Your father says that if it worked this well for you…” He stopped talking when I started laughing.

Still laughing I quickly apologized to the Commander. “Sorry, sir. My father has come a long way from trying to marry me off.”

“As I was saying, she needed a ride. I was coming up anyway to look at the Laffey so I gave her a ride.” The Commander just loved these two women. They meshed together so well.

“Athena, we saw the strangest thing; as we exited the shuttle bay there was some sort of festival and parade going by. All of the people had these perforated round hats on and were dressed like Old Earth vid pirates. There were serving girls passing out bowls of pasta and singing.” Dar looked around the cafeteria. The kitchen staff, dressed as pirates were wearing colanders on their heads. They all were watching the vid screen that was focused on a section of empty space. “Those people are dressed that way too. What is going on?”

I laughed at her and the Commanders facial expressions. “It is a planetary festival honoring the FSM faith.” I smiled.

“FSM, what is that? I saw the temples on the planet but was afraid to ask.”

“It’s either a planetary obsession or a religion, take your pick. FSM, stands for Flying Spaghetti Monster. Blame the Canadian colonists for that. About half of them had claimed FSM as a religion and they were exiled for it. As a joke they continued to worship here on the colony and after time had passed it became a honored tradition.” I pointed at the vid screens. “They are the true believers, the Pastafarians. They believe that his noodleness will descend from the heavens one day and save his followers from injustice. A sign of a true follower is the wearing of the colander. Old Earth pirates are considered to the Prophets of the original faith, hence the costumes. Later tonight they will march around blessing everyone by throwing noodles on them and crying ‘Ramen’.”

Both my girlfriend and the Commander were now looking at me like I was crazy.

“That is not what I personally believe so you can wipe those expressions away right now!” I gave them the look that my sister Min gives me when she knows I’m trying to pull something. “I told you before, this planet has a great many religions. Who are we to discriminate?”

“Sweetie, you come from a very strange planet, but I love you anyway.” Dar gave me a big hug. “I have to get to work, can you show me to the main gymnasium?”

“Can I direct you somewhere too, Commander?” I looked at Commander Wang expectantly.

“No lieutenant, I think I can find my own way. By the way, I heard you were in charge of repairing the Navy fighters. Did you ever figure out what made them go crazy and nearly kill those two computer techs?”

“No, Wilson claims that it was a hold over program from the initial testing more than 20 years ago on that system. I don’t totally believe him but the only person who would know for sure was killed by the Governors men so I guess that we have to believe him.”

Commander Wang nodded his head. “Were the fighters damaged? I used to fly one of those before I became a line officer.”

“Did you really? Does Militia command know that?” I smiled at him. I'd learned one of his secrets!

“Please Athena, don’t tell your father. I like larger ships now no more speed trips for me.”

“Ahem,” My girlfriend looked a little mad at me. Oops I forgot she needed directions.