Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (50 page)

They left two marines behind to finish secure the prisoners and
the compartment as they rushed through the ship. Five minutes later Lewis
reported in through his implants that they had taken the ship without firing a
shot.

“They should all be this easy,” Lewis said, grinning.

“I wish,” the Admiral said. He knew it would only get harder.
Hopefully the other corvette would go down so smoothly.

<---
-*----*----*---->

Chief Roberts frowned when he recognized CTA42E2357. He'd seen
images of her often enough, his brother had practically shoved them up his nose
in his excitement when he had gotten the posting. Echo was hard to miss even
though her aft was in pieces. He didn't envy them that task; working out
there... it was too easy to go Dutchman. And too easy for a crew to just write
you off too. He shivered.

The ship wasn't broadcasting an IFF but his little brother had
told him he was on board the ship and that it was assigned resupply escort.
They had planned on hooking up when they met up.

“Skipper, permission to make a personal call?”

“What is it Roberts?” Captain San asked, sounding distracted and
annoyed.

“I'd like to call forty two echo if I may ma'am. Personal call.”

“Got a hot lover on board? Maybe you should kick the girl you've
got chained under it out first. Unless she goes three way?”

Roberts snorted. He'd picked up quite the looker from a soldier on
Hidoshi for a bottle of whiskey from the ship's still. She was quite a looker,
with long black hair down to her ass like he liked. She was shy too, which he
also liked. He hadn't been brutal with her, he didn't like to bruise flesh much
it dropped the slave's value, and besides, he hadn't needed it. She'd been meek
and sweet.

“No,” Roberts said. He pictured Jacques expression when he saw the
girl. “No, my brother is on Echo ma'am. I thought I'd give him a call. Make
sure he's doing his job and find out if he has any mail from home,” he said.

The Captain looked up from the report she was reading. She nodded
thoughtfully. “All right. And see if he's got any of the latest magazines and
videos from home as well. We've watched the finals of 'Alien Invasion' and
'Fergies world' too many times to count.”

Roberts grimaced and nodded.

“And see if he's got any sports footage,” the Captain said. He
nodded again. She waved a dismissive hand.

He turned to leave but she called out again. “And any major news
broadcasts,” she said.

“Geesh, I should be writing this down,” he muttered.

“I heard that,” she said mildly; making him flinch and pause, then
continue on his way.

When he got to his quarters he looked down at the girl. She was
snoring softly under the bed. He nodded and sat at his small desk and tapped at
the controls. “Chuck, put me through to Echo. Captain cleared it,” he said.

“Don't forget to get the files that the Captain said,” Chuck
replied. “Putting you through now,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Roberts exhaled noisily. He looked over to the girl.
It would be nice to get a quicky right about now; he'd finally trained the girl
on her oral technique. But no, he had to go back on duty in a half hour. He
didn't have time to shower and didn't want to start his shift sticky and too
relaxed.

“Signal received. We have the Captain,” Chuck said.

“Captain Alverez? This is Chief Roberts on T12783. By any chance
is my brother Ensign Roberts available?” There was a long pause. Roberts
frowned. “Hello?” he asked. “Anyone there?”

“This is Echo. We're here,” an unfamiliar voice replied. That got
to Roberts, he knew Alverez. He and Alverez had gone through the academy together.
“This is... Captain Mack. Ensign Roberts isn't on this ship.”

“Mack?” Roberts asked, wrinkling his nose. “Mack, Mack,” he said
softly to himself, trying to place the name. It didn't ring a bell. “I'm sorry,
what happened to Captain Alverez?”

“I've never heard of a Captain Alverez,” Captain Mack replied.

“That doesn't make sense. He's been Captain of the Echo for three
years,” Chief Roberts replied, now confused.

“I don't know, I... um, was just transferred,” Ian said, trying to
recover. “There has been some shifting about.”

“Um... and my brother? You said he's not on board?” the Chief
asked. “That doesn't make sense. I spoke to him six months ago on the ship...”

“I don't know what to tell you. He's not here,” Ian said. He
frowned. “Look, I'm in the middle of a big repair here Chief, so if you don't
mind...”

“Yeah um... oh!” he heard a soft mew as he woke the girl. He
looked over his shoulder to her and then back. “My Captain and crew are going
stir crazy. Captain San asked if you can get us any video from home you've got.
Specifically in the past year.”

“I don't have anything recent,” Ian said. “Just material older
than that. Sorry,” he said.

“Yeah sure,” Roberts mumbled, cutting the connection. That made no
sense, no sense at all, he thought. Ships lived on videos and data from home.
Movies, television, E-books, sports... it didn't matter. They were all homesick
for it, and they passed copies along any chance they could. In fact it was a
standing order from command to do so to help with morale.

If Mack was new, why didn't he bring any material when he came on
board? That didn't make sense. Nor the sudden replacement of both the Captain
and his brother. And the current Captain had no idea where they went?

He rubbed his chin. It could be that they were off doing Intel
work but he seriously doubted it. His little brother? Fresh out of the academy?
And the Captain? Why them?

They could be dead, he thought with a sick pang. He sat up
straight, frozen. Yes, that could be, something could have happened. Or they had
gotten in trouble. That too was also possible, Ed had a way of sticking his
foot in it from time to time...

He shook his head. No, something was off. He got up and walked
out.

As he walked, head down, hands in his pockets he thought about the
situation. Captain Hathaway had made it clear he wanted all the shuttles back
when they returned, no exceptions. “And yet he didn't protest much,” Roberts
muttered. He slowed his pace. The ship, yes, there was something off there too.
Where were they getting the parts? T9591? But how?  

He turned about and headed for the bridge. He needed to talk to
cooler and wiser heads.

<----*----*----*---->

 Captain San sat poised behind her desk as Chief Roberts finished.
She mused over his report, and suspicions that something was wrong. He was
right, she knew Brian, Brian Hathaway was a marionette. A by the books officer,
bucking for a flag. He had pitched a snit over her borrowing the shuttles...
she remembered it well. She'd thought she'd catch hell from him when she showed
up with half of them, but he'd not even blinked. He was never so easy to give
away resources, let alone fuel and parts. That struck her as odd.

“So, what your telling me Chief, is something is fishy. What do
you propose I do about it?” she asked. She studied the Chief as he squirmed
uncomfortably. That was another thing; the Chief wasn't an excitable person. He
had initiative he took care of things. He was a good leader. She'd occasionally
had to call him to heel when he took too much initiative, but that was fine.
She'd rather he handle something than wake her every time there was a hiccup in
engineering.

“Ma'am, can you scan the ships? Something is off. I keep coming
back to that. I remember grams told me a story. I know it's silly, but I
remember it. A... fairy,” he said and winced. He knew he sounded like a nut. “A
changeling,” he translated weakly.

“A changeling?” the Captain asked, lips pursing in a smile.

The Chief winced. “I... my grams was Scottish ma'am. She passed on
stories of the ancient times. One told of how fairy folk or trolls would steal
human children and replace them with one of their own.”

“You're saying someone swapped our ships and people for boogie men
Chief?” the Captain asked, laughing.

He shrugged. “Please ma'am, just humor me,” he said.

The Captain sobered, looking into his eyes. He was serious. “Very
well. She hit the key on her desk that connected her to the bridge. “Bridge,
scan the ships.”

“Aye ma'am.”

She ran a scan of Bounty. The ship had been changed she realized.
She checked the visual and frowned pensively. The ship had indeed changed; some
of her had obviously been rebuilt. She had served on Bounty briefly as an
Ensign; she knew the tin can like the back of her hand. Things didn't add up.
There was no way she could make milspec equipment with a replicator, the
lockouts prevented it. No, something was wrong, she though as the hairs on the
back of her neck stood up.

“Call the corvettes,” she said, looking up. “Let them know
something's up and standoff,” she ordered. Until she figured out what was going
on they should stay away from the ship. She looked at the plot and swore. It
was already too late for Romeo, she was already docked. Juliet however was
three hundred meters out and closing.

<----*----*----*---->

“Admiral! I'm intercepting a signal from the collier to the
corvettes! They made us!” Bounty warned.

“Corvette two is maneuvering. Her weapons are charging!”
Lieutenant Nobeki warned.

“Helm! Ninety-degree roll Z-axis hard! Execute!” Irons barked.
“Guns suppression fire now!”

Corv
ette 2
received the warning too late. Her Captain wrestled with the hysterical
insanity the collier was spouting for a minute before he barked an order to
back off. It couldn't be true! He thought, someone was wrong! But just to be
safe he ordered the ship to abort the docking and raise her weapons.

RCS flared wildly to arrest her approach to the ship. Bounty was
shaped like a Terran angelfish, with most of her hull in a rectangular box that
was taller than broad. The corvette fired into Bounty as the ship rolled to
present her keel, her smallest face. The little ship fired at under a hundred
meters, which was poin
t
blank range, but only with a two-centimeter rail gun. Most of the shots missed.
Those that did hit penetrated her stern armor and reeked carnage.

Bounty retaliated with her point defense lasers. The lasers were
primarily designed to take down incoming missiles, but they easily tore through
the thin armor on the corvette as if it wasn't there.
The small corvette had just gotten her
main drive back online and bucked as the fire came in, tearing through her
still energizing force field to tear into her hull. She vomited debris and
atmosphere and then drifted.
The
corvette was torn apart, left adrift in pieces.

“Damage report?” the Admiral asked. He'd felt the bucks as the
ship took hits.

“Midships keel damage going several decks deep. The breaches
aren't big however. We've got reports of injured there Admiral. Implant
signatures report one severe casualty,” Bounty said quietly. “Medics and damage
control are en-route but they ha
ve to cut their way in.”

The bridge crew looked up in alarm. The Admiral scowled.

“Bounty's keel near the midships has been damaged. We have
thirteen-wounded Admiral. Keel compartments two decks deep have been reported breached.
Fortunately it didn't breach the boat bay.”

“Good,” the Admiral replied.
 

<----*----*----*---->

“What happened?” Yuri asked and then coughed. He looked over to
Yosef. Yosef was out cold and pinned beneath a pile of crates.

“Something did. I don't know. Did someone shoot at us?” Paul
asked, holding a hand to his head. He looked around. “Why do I hear a sucking
sound?” he asked, trying to wipe blood out of his eyes. They stung badly. It
bothered him, but the sound bothered him more. “Are we breached? Should we get
out of here?” he asked, voice rising.

“Calm down,” Yuri said and then coughed again. He raised his fist
as he couldn't stop coughing and saw blood in the weak light. “Damn, looks like
I bit my tongue,” he said. As he moved he felt pain. “Or something else,” he
said, gingerly touching his right ribcage. That set off a wave of pain and
another bout of coughing.

“What the hell, did you catch a cold?” Paul asked, sounding off.
Yuri got his breath and looked at the other man. He'd gotten enough blood off
his face so he could make him out. He was a mess.

“Head wounds bleed profusely. Keep it covered. Shouldn't the
implants kick in?”

“That'd be nice right about now,” Paul replied, still holding his
hand to his head as he searched around with his other hand. He found Yosef and
checked for a pulse.

“He's alive but out,” he reported, and then moved on.

“Can you get a signal out?” Yuri asked. He tried but failed. The
ship had poor signal reception in the cargo bay, something about all the walls
and metal, and the nearest node being out in the companionway ten meters away
from the hatch door.