Smuggler's Dilemma (20 page)

We slid between the two cutters and I watched the energy in the batteries spin down below fifty percent. Our hunters - turned quarry - must have realized the danger they were in as they were now accelerating on combat burn to get away. Marny continued to pour on the fire and I accelerated hard to keep up with them. We were pinned back in our seats, the gravity generators unable to keep up with the demands of the burn. I hoped Mom and Dad had locked in.

"Number three's making a run for P-Zero," Nick said. I glanced up and saw the ship exiting the area. I knew it had originally burned toward us to participate in the takedown, but at some point the captain had changed his mind. "We've got to get him before he calls in reinforcements."

"Marny? How long on these two?" I asked.

"Ten seconds, Cap," she answered. As if in response, one of the two cutters exploded. Marny directed all three turrets onto the second damaged ship which, in turn, exploded.

"Nice shooting." I flipped the
Hotspur
over so that we lined up on the fleeing ship.

How long before we overtake
? I asked.

Twelve hundred kilometers
. The AI could be frustrating when it randomly chose to take me literally. I really wanted to know how much time, but on quick reflection I realized that the distance was more relevant. We'd started at twenty-three hundred kilometers out and the AI was letting us know that we'd almost be back to the Colony's core by the time we caught up with it.

"Frak. We've got to get him," I said, uselessly.
Emergency burn one hundred ten percent
.

"Let him go, Liam," Mom's voice came over the comm. I really didn't want to mute her too. "Listen to me. Use this time to regain your cover. It's not like they aren't going to figure out what happened."

"I agree," Nick said. I pulled back on the throttle stick and veered off.

Engage silent running, take us out of combat
. I briefly considered how we'd evolved to such a spot where I'd do what Nick said without question, but not my mom.

I tipped the directional stick to the side and continued to accelerate at a thirty percent burn. We'd skim past on the outside of the colony's main core. I wasn't ready to test if the
Hotspur
would be picked up by the colony's sensor array. Not yet, at least. I laid in a course to take us out an hour away from Colony 40.

"We're going to heave-to and let things settle down. You should be okay to take off the combat harnesses," I announced.

"I got up and walked back to the bridge stations where Nick and Marny were still seated.

"Nick, how bad does our armor look?" I asked.

"We took some hits, but it's holding okay."

"Marny, weapon systems?"

"All green," she answered.

I turned to where Big Pete and Silver were still both seated on the bridge couch. "Are you guys alright?" I asked. "I'm sorry I cut you off before, Dad."

"Had to be done. You put me in my place and good, son. But if you thought that'd piss me off, you'd be wrong. I had no business interrupting your chain of command." He held his hand out to me to shake. I took it and pulled him in for an embrace.

Mom gave me a hug. "It's good to see you, Liam." She let me go and then pulled Nick in for a hug.

"Silver, Pete, I'd like to introduce you to our security officer, Marny Bertrand," I said. Marny had walked up behind Nick.

"Good to meet you, ma'am, sir," Marny said, extending her hand.

"Call me Pete. I work for a living," Pete shook her hand, responding with a twinkle in his eye. I'd never seen him respond to anyone like that before.

"And pilot, Ada Chen," I said before Marny could say anything.

Ada stepped forward and hugged a surprised Big Pete and then Mom, in turn.

"Let's head down to the mess," I said. "There's plenty of room to sit and I bet you're hungry, living down in that hole."

"I've got a clean suit liner that I bet would fit you, Mrs. Hoffen. And the head has a wonderful new shower in it," Ada said, walking next to my mom, behind me.

"Please call me Silver, and that sounds wonderful. We've been in these suits since we got Liam's message," she answered.

Marny had engaged Dad. "Mr. Hoffen. Liam tells me you were active in the Amazonian war."

"Both of us were. I don't think Liam knows it, but that's where Silver and I met. She was a combat drop pilot. You carry yourself like you served. Am I right?"

My mind was blown. Who was this guy? He was positively chatty.

"Aye, that I did. Five years on the ground in Africa," she said.

Pete shook his head. "I don't miss that place."

Once in the mess, I pulled two cups, filled them with coffee, and handed them to my parents.

"How long are we hunkering down, Cap?" Marny asked.

"Nick?" I wasn't the right person for that question. In the heat of the moment, we typically leaned on my tactical skills, but for long term strategy Nick was often thinking well ahead of me.

"Not sure. Did you get any word from my family, Mr. Hoffen?" Nick asked.

"Five days back, after we got your message, we ran to P-Zero and talked to several people. We'd thought to pick up supplies, but once communications were down, all of the supplies evaporated," Mom said. "We asked Wendy and Jack to come out to the claim with us and hide, but Wendy said she had a plan."

"Any idea what that plan was?" Nick sounded a little better knowing that his Mom was aware of what was coming.

"She said they were getting off the station, but she didn't say where to," Mom answered.

"How about, Mr. Masters? Tabby's dad," I asked.

"He was on one of the ships that got out. At least that was the plan. We've been in the dark for a few days," Mom stared at the table. The stress of the last several days was evident.

"Mrs. Hoffen, there's nothing you could have done. It's an impossible situation and we're lucky to have found you alive," Ada said. "You can't feel guilty for that. These pirates killed my mom, but her last act was to save me. Not a day goes by where I don't think about it. I know my mom wouldn't want me to feel like I'd failed because I lived."

"And we're not giving up," Marny interjected. "We've got something these pirates have trouble understanding and that's purpose."

"Thank you," Mom said quietly. Big Pete slid an arm around her and pulled her in close. It made me think of Tabby.

"I've got bad news on your home, Mr. Hoffen," Nick said. Pete and Mom looked at him and he continued, "I replayed what the
Hotspur
recorded, those cutters broke through your rock wall. It looks like they pretty well destroyed everything. I sent the video over to your queue."

"Thank you, Nick," Mom reached out and patted his arm. "There's not much that can be done."

Marny stepped up beside Nick and changed the conversation, "It will take fifteen minutes to get something worth eating down here - and that's if I have help. Liam, go to the armory and get an armored suit for Silver and Pete. I noticed that Silver's packing a laser pistol. Pete you have anything?"

"I don't," he said. I found that unusual. Last time I'd seen him, he was packing.

She pointed at the door. "Take Big Pete with you, Liam. He no doubt knows his way around an armory. Everyone needs to be armed at all times. I don't think we'll get boarded, but if it were ever going to happen, this would be the place for it."

Ada had disappeared and returned holding a suit liner. She handed it to my mom. "There's a head on both decks. The door right behind us is the main head. I'll show you where the suit freshener is when you get out."

Dad followed me out to the cargo bay. I led him through a small maze that ended in the doors to the container we'd welded to the floor of the cargo bay.

"Where'd you learn to sail like that?"

"It's not a lot different than an ore-sled, just bigger," I said.

"You must have gotten that from your mom."

"I didn't know you guys met in the service. For that matter, I didn't know Mom had seen active duty." I turned up the lights in the container. "What do you think?" There was a row of pistols, both laser and flechette, blaster rifles, grenade marbles, flash bang discs and several things I didn't recognize.

"Where'd you get your hands on all of this?" he asked.

"Last mission. We borrowed it all from the Navy. It's possible we left them with the impression that it had all been destroyed when the pirates blew up our ship. About Mom. You tell complete strangers how you met her, but not me. Don't you find that weird?"

"It never seemed that important before. Besides, your mom says I need to open up more, that maybe you'd have stayed closer if I had. You don't buy that, do you?" he asked.

"Dad. How about you pick out a suit and weapon and I'll get one for Mom. She's the same size as Tabby or at least pretty close."

"I see you've upgraded your flechette. You have another Ruger like the one you're packing?"

"I think so. They're on the left," I said.

He looked over the selections and asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"Communications being down is making it hard. We were lucky that you hunkered down and were out on the edge. We couldn't have pulled that off if you'd been on station," I said. "We'll talk it through and come up with something, though."

"Count me in," he said selecting a pistol, which he handed to me. He then grabbed an armored vac-suit.

"We've got a second head on the bridge deck. Can you shower in five minutes? You don't want to be late for dinner," I said.

"That Marny runs a pretty tight ship," he said.

"You have no idea." I handed him the flechette he'd selected and led him back into the berth deck. We took the lift up and I showed him the head. "We'll be in the mess when you're ready. There's a suit freshener just outside the door."

It occurred to me that I'd left Filbert locked in the grav-box for the last several hours. When I opened the door, he looked up at me lazily and stretched a small arm up. I slid my hands under his blanket and pulled him out. When I got back to the mess, I handed him to Ada.

How Marny always seemed to come up with an amazing meal continued to surprise me. Somewhere she'd hidden a large sim-beef roast, which she and Nick presented with steaming potatoes and a thick brown gravy. She poured two large carafes full of a pinkish wine.

"I didn't think we were probably strong wine connoisseurs and decided to play it safe with a blush," she said almost apologetically.

"It looks delicious. Do you always eat this well?" Silver asked.

"Only on special occasions, which today certainly is. War is uncertain. We have to celebrate our victories when we have them. Today we recovered family and kept them safe from pirates. I'd say that qualifies," I added.

My dad looked at me, "Hear, hear." He raised his glass and drank deeply from it. "You've only been gone several months, but you talk of war like a veteran. I'd hoped you wouldn't have to go down that path."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hoffen," Marny said, a little proudly, I thought. "But our dear Captain Liam has already seen more combat than most maggots will for their entire career - Amazonian deployments excepted, that is."

"It's not hard to see it in his eyes. War takes a toll on good people," Mom said.

I needed to stop this. "We only do what we have to do. We aren't fighting a war, we're just trying to keep our heads above water."

"You have a real problem keeping your nose out of other people's trouble, though," Ada said. "And I, for one, am grateful."

I raised my glass and nodded my head appreciatively to Ada. Somehow she'd become the sister I'd never known I needed, but she was as much family to me as my parents, Nick, Tabby or Marny.

"So, Pete. From what I've heard, you were a cage monkey," Marny said.

"Cage monkey?" I asked.

"Guilty as charged. Three tours," he said.

Marny smiled in my direction. "Mechanized Infantry, Liam. Us squishies referred to the mechs as cage monkeys because they were all locked up in their cages. Navy used to hang 'em from rails in the drop ships like so much laundry, hung out to dry. I thought we talked about this."

"We talked about mechanized infantry and squishies. We never talked about monkeys," I said.

"How did you and Pete meet, Silver?" Ada asked.

"I was a Marine drop pilot," Mom said, smiling at Pete. "He actually rescued me when we got shot down."

Big Pete cleared his throat, "Didn't actually work like that. I agree, it was my plan to rescue her, but in the end she was the one doing all the rescuing. If I'd just left her alone, we'd both have been home and in bed a lot earlier."

"But, we'd never have met. I'd like to think that fate was on our side that day," Mom rested her head against his shoulder.

"Then you'll never believe what we picked up," Marny said.

Pete just stared at her, not really being the twenty questions type of guy.

"A suit. Well, actually three of them. Brand new, still in the box," she said.

"Well, that's illegal. Where'd you find them?" Pete asked.

"The Red Houzi outpost we sacked. We'll probably have to give them back to M-Pro, but they're in the hold at the moment," I answered.

"I'd like to see that," he said.

Marny winked. "I thought you might."

For the next forty-five minutes we continued to chat and it felt almost like old times, like we were sitting around the table after a long shift of mining. The main difference was that Dad was chatty. Something about Marny caused him to open up. Maybe he saw a kindred spirit in her.

After dinner, while cleaning off the table, an idea struck me. "Nick, I was thinking. If the comm device in my quarters is quantum, I bet it can't be tracked. We should have the ability to talk to Belcose."

"You're right on both counts," he said.

"If they're willing to put one of these devices on our ship, what are the odds that there's another one, maybe on the station," I asked.

"You think the Navy has a contact on Colony 40?" Pete asked.

"Wouldn't have to be a spy. Probably not the local sheriff, given how well that worked out. But, it could just be someone they trust," Marny said.