Privateer Tales 3: Parley (25 page)

I jetted over to the damaged section and met him. He was trying to get a good gauge of how a repair might be applied. With the amount of missing material and the limited tools we had, our goal was simply to restore some level of safety and function. That level was yet to be determined.

“Do the best you can. Like I said, you’ll need to be creative,” I said.

“How is this anything but a total loss?” he asked.

“Baby steps, buddy. Let’s get her safe to sail.”

“Cargo’s lost.” He was still processing the implications.

“Bond will cover that. I need you to focus on getting us back in sailing shape.”

Nick sighed audibly over the comm. I knew him well enough to know that he was doing the math of how bad a loss we’d just taken. I wasn’t going to think about it. We were all alive and that mattered to me the most. I knew that was the case for Nick too, but it was a lot to take in.

I needed a couple pieces of armor that I could cut out and make patches for the through-hole. I’d have to scavenge the armor that was hanging uselessly around the shredded engine. I instructed my AI to project an outline of the top-side hole onto a piece of the hanging armor. The plasma cutter had to work hard to slice through, but in the end I had two decent looking, mostly perfect, four centimeter thick patches.

I grabbed the patches and jetted over to the top side. It turns out that perfectly fitting pieces are really hard to apply since they want to simply slip through the hole. I resolved this by jetting back to the ruined cargo bay and cutting off a thin strap to tack across the opening. This held everything in place while I welded the seams. Pleased with the first patch, I was considerably faster at applying the second to the belly of the ship.

I caught up with Ada and Marny who were working hard to plug the hundreds of small holes in the armor. To me, it looked like they’d taken care of all of the atmosphere leaks and had moved on to the less critical, albeit uglier scars.

“I think Nick’s going to need our help in that cargo bay,” I said. “When you feel like you’re in good shape, come on up and join us.”

“Lipstick on a bulldog, Cap.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, at this point we’re just putting lipstick on a bulldog.”

“I don’t follow,” It wasn’t a term I was familiar with.

“I think she’s saying we can help
him now,” Ada said.

I didn’t have time to argue, or maybe I just didn’t have the energy. We’d been at it for a couple of hours and between the adrenaline leaving my system and the sheer physical effort, I was tired. I was sure that was true for everyone at this point.

In the end, we did the best we could for the cargo bay and shredded engine, overlapping our scavenged pieces carefully until we were confident the new walls of the cargo bay would hold atmo. We found large enough pieces to patch every possible weak spot, including the hatches and doors. Hopefully, the fixes would keep the ship from blowing a seam if we had to put her under more stress. I didn’t think I’d be trusting
Sterra's Gift
’s hull integrity anytime soon, however.

Finally, Nick was satisfied with the job we’d done and it was time to head back in.

“Lipstick on a bulldog?” I asked, the phrase had finally sunk in far enough that I could ponder it. “Why would anyone put lipstick on a dog?

It was hard to express how grateful I felt when Tali and Jordy greeted us on the bridge with a banquet of rehydrated and heated meals. They’d thoughtfully brought enough supplies forward for a crew twice our size, or so I thought.

“What’s next, Liam?” Tali asked, once she’d given us a chance to work through the food for a while. I hadn’t been this hungry for a very long time and was enjoying the process of simply sitting and eating with nothing crazy happening.

“I haven’t really thought that through yet,” I said. I knew people were looking for me to provide leadership, but I’d been running on instinct and urgency for so long I hadn’t been thinking about the big picture.

“It’s a problem common to junior officers,” Marny said. It sounded like a jab, but that wasn’t really like Marny.

“Oh?” I asked, not ready to take the bait just yet.

“Yeah, your mind is overwhelmed by all of the details and you’re carrying too much of the load, Cap. Take it from someone who’s been there. You’ve got several amazing strategic minds within arm’s length. Use them.” I was glad that I hadn’t snapped at her like I’d wanted to.

I turned to Tali who was watching me intently. This was a woman who’d seen more combat in her thirty years of life than I ever would - at least I hoped that would be the case.

“Tali, Jordy, surely you’ve been contemplating our situation. What do you see as our options?”

“As far back as the Roman Empire there’s been an understanding about the nature of combat and bold action. This crew is the living embodiment of the simple phrase ‘fortune favors the bold.’ Honestly, it doesn’t work for everyone. It takes a disciplined, focused group to take advantage of the slim line between insanity and acceptable risk.”

“I’m not really following. How does that apply here?”

“Let me try a different tack. What if I could wave a magic wand and we all got transported to a bar on Puskar Stellar?”

“Sounds pretty good at the moment,” I said.

“You’d hate yourself,” Nick interjected. I looked at
him. I was missing something, of that I was certain. Nick wasn’t just my business partner and best friend, he was very often my conscience.

It dawned on me, “Frak. Qiu.” Nick nodded sagely at me.

“Give me some options,” I said. I was coming up with nothing on my own.

“We’ve got to stop that ship,” Tali said.

“What then?” I asked.

Jordy almost always let Tali do the heavy lifting when it came to strategic conversations. I didn’t think it was for lack of good ideas. I just expected it was because they were so in-tune with each other that he didn’t mind letting her run with the conversation. So it came as a surprise when he answered.

Jordy’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “Get us on that ship with a four-man team and we’ll take it.” Jordy so often presented himself as the light-hearted playboy that it felt like we were talking to a completely different person.

“I count three real soldiers,” I said. It wasn’t false modesty. I knew darn well I wasn’t in their league.

“You’re right, of course,” Tali said. It hurt a little to hear her say it, but it was the truth. “But Jordy already did that math. Would we rather have our whole team here right now? Absolutely. Guess what, though? Combat is all about making do with what you have. It’s time to soldier up.”

“How are we going to stop that ship?” Nick asked.

That was the moment I got it – the feeling of dead certainty. I knew what the right thing to do was. The plan formed in my mind like concrete. Nick was going to hate it, but I was committed to it.

I explained my plan to the group.

“That’s suicide,” Nick said.

“Not even close. It’s the only way. Qiu’s dead if we don’t do this. You didn’t see her Nick, somebody used her for a punching bag.”

“There’s no guarantee she’s still alive.” As predicted, Nick hated the plan. I knew him well enough that I could see him working through it.

“Does that really matter?”

We stared at each other for what felt like several minutes.

“Fine. No. Frak.” Nick finally relented.

“Marny, what’d you hear from Belcose? When will Mars Protectorate be here?”

“They’re still a day out.”

“Jupiter. You’d think with all their ships, they’d have something a little closer.”

“I think most of their efforts are focused within the Mars ecliptic. Jeratorn’s a station of a few thousand. There are fifteen billion Mars citizens to protect. Bottom line is, they just don’t hang around out here.”

Marny and I walked Nick and Ada back to the airlock. I knew Nick felt like he’d drawn the short straw. He was probably already having second thoughts.

“I hate this,” Nick said.

“I know, buddy, but it’s the right thing and you know it.”

“I don’t have to like it.”

Nick and Ada exited the airlock and jetted back toward the waiting
Adela Chen
. If this didn’t work out, he’d never forgive me.

I entered the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge,” Marny announced. We’d dropped that formality recently and I was a startled to hear her use it again.

Sterra's Gift
shuddered as we started our burn. I didn’t know exactly where we'd find the frigate, but it had to still be close to the co-op’s asteroid. Even with a giant hauler, the convoy couldn't have gone very far in the last six hours. Especially since they had to come up with some sort of way to fasten the asteroid to their hauler.

My HUD outlined the triangularly shaped frigate while we were still well out of its weapons range. The hauler Flark had procured was indeed massive and almost entirely engines. There would be sizeable living quarters and likely more than one bridge, but the engines were so large it was hard to see anything else.

Hail the frigate
.

I waited a few minutes.
             

Hail the frigate, tell them we’re requesting a Parley
.

I was a little surprised when this got me a response.

“Parley? You little shite. I already ran you off once, I won’t be so nice next time.” Flark’s red face appeared on the forward HUD.

“Give us Lieutenant Loo and we’ll be on our way.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll end you.”

“Ha ha ha … you’ll end me? Go home to momma while you still can.”

“Liam, we’ve got company,” Marny said.

Four dart-sized ships had launched from the hauler and were headed straight toward us.

End comm
.

“Well, we have our answer,” I said. In our current shape, four darts were going to be a problem.

I pushed forward on the thrust control stick. I couldn’t out-accelerate the darts, but I might be able to spread them out a little if I was moving fast enough. Their damage would come from the forward guns. The problem was, once you got past a dart, they’d just flip over and come right back at you.

Marny was strapped into the gunnery chair and fire lanced over the armored cockpit toward the darts.

“Any missiles left?” I asked. I wasn’t hopeful.

“None, Cap.” Marny was concentrating, as her voice was tense.

“Get ready for a change up,” I said.

The darts had split into two teams. One team would fly below, another above. They wanted to flank us and fly up on our tail, where we’d be more vulnerable. With two teams, one could always be behind us.

The first team was set to pass above us and I knew they would flip over and accelerate hard so that they could catch up to us. Just as they passed over, I pulled back on my stick and partially rolled over, putting us on a collision course with the two darts. One of them was able to roll out of the way but I caught the other one with the back end of my ship. The noise was horrendous but no new red statuses popped up. No sane pilot would have made that maneuver, but we’d already taken so much damage, I was willing to trade for a little more. The dart I’d contacted cartwheeled away.

I hit the forward thruster hard and pulled back harder, so I would be facing the remaining three. We were once again taking heavy fire. A red status popped up in my HUD. We’d lost atmo in the main portion of the ship.

Normally, in a fight, I’d be doing my best to keep my heavily armored belly to the adversary. Here, our only chance was if Marny could finish the other three off before they shredded us.

“Got one!” she exclaimed.

Another red status popped up and we lost a significant amount of thrust. It was the top-side engine. We were now sailing on a third of our normal power. That might have been okay against something large, but against darts it would be fatal.

Right in front of us a large explosion lit up one of the darts, vaporizing it. A quarter of a second later the
Adela Chen
flew through the debris at high speed. I watched on the HUD as Ada spun the freighter like a top and accelerated like a fighter pilot. The remaining dart dodged Ada, but Marny was waiting for the miscalculation and blasted it with
Sterra's Gift’s
turret.

“Nice job!”

“Finish it, Cap.”

I turned
Sterra's Gift
toward the frigate and pushed the thruster stick forward. I was used to a lot more acceleration, but this would do just fine. We’d passed over the frigate like this once before and no doubt their gunners were looking forward to another shot at redemption.

The frigate was not without some capability to fire from its stern. In good shape, the hits would have been insignificant, but the plinks and plunks we received were doing real damage and I was concerned for the integrity of the bridge.

The captain of the frigate was trying to position it into a broadside turn, but Flark had apparently been embellishing a little when he suggested they were in good shape. It was clear that the damage we’d done affected the frigate's ability to maneuver. What I wouldn’t have given at that moment, for just one missile - although I suspected Harry Flark had a similar sentiment.

Finally, I found the opening I was looking for. I positioned the ship just below the frigate and well behind its engines. I was in their blind spot from a gunner’s perspective and traveling at the same speed they were.

“Prepare for impact!”

I mashed the throttle forward. On our current course we would pass directly beneath the ship. At the last moment I snapped the flight stick backwards and brought the nose of
Sterra's Gift
up ninety degrees. The bright flash of the frigate’s engines boiled all around the bridge as we passed through their wash. Our momentum, however, carried us into the actual engine housing and
Sterra's Gift
ground into the rear of the ship. The inertial system attempted to absorb the impact, but it was too much and we all flew into our flight harnesses. It felt like I would snap out of mine and then through the armored glass in front of us.

The bridge of
Sterra's Gift
went dark, emergency lighting snapping on, providing an eerie glow.

“Everyone okay?” I asked.

I heard some pained breathing, but eventually they all replied. I had to cut my harness off with the knife Marny had required I strap to my leg.

“That went well,” Tali said when we were all finally standing in the middle of the darkened bridge
.