Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (51 page)

“No,” Paul said frowning. He tilted his head back and then winced,
rubbing the back of his neck. “Damn, going to feel that in the morning,” he
said.

“Pain?” Yuri asked. He could tell he had broken ribs. “We need to
get out of here and get to sickbay,” he said.

“Pain yes. Not bad. Yeah, we do. We need to get him out too
though,” Paul said. The Chief had sent them down to the cargo bay for parts to
rebuild environmental on deck nine. He frowned, looking around. The compartment
was trashed.

“Where the hell...” Yuri looked around. “Now I'm hearing it,” he
said. He watched Paul feel around a crate near the wall. It was tilted at an
angle. “Got someone here!” he said, voice picking up in anxiety.

“Coming,” Yuri said, and gingerly moved over. “Who?”

“It's Buck Allen. He's hurt man, hurt bad. The crate's got him
pinned against the bulkhead. There...” Paul felt around but then snatched his
hands back. “Damn, it's a breach!” he said. “Don't move it!”

“We've got to!” Yuri said. He pushed but then had to stop, gasping
and coughing. The thing must have weighed close to a ton, maybe more.

“Don't,” a voice croaked out. Paul knelt and looked under to see
Bucky's eyes looking out at him. The man waved a hand weakly. “Don't he said.

“Hang on partner, we'll get you out,” he said. He looked up.
“Help! We're in here!” he yelled.

Yuri winced.

“Yuri, get to the hatch. Get a medic in here now,” Paul ordered.
“Get Yosef out if you can,” he said.

“I don't know if we should move him,” Yuri said. He grunted and
headed for the hatch.

“It'll be okay Bucky, we've got a great doc now, he'll fix you up.
Marty's damn good with that tech the Admiral gave him. He'll fix you up...
better than new,” he said.

“I'm done,” Bucky, gasped a ragged breath. “I know it. You know
it,” he said. Paul felt something warm and liquid touching his knee. He looked
down to see a spreading pool of blood. He looked inside to see Bucky holding
his abdomen. Something had speared him from behind, through the deck and
bulkhead, right into the man, tearing him open. He was bleeding out before
Paul's eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn't even get
to the man to save him!

“Damn it!” he raged.

“Don't,” Bucky gasped. “Keep fighting. Don't stop,” he said, tears
forming.

“We'll do it together buddy, just hang in there,” Paul said. He
looked up to see Yuri tugging on the hatch door.

“It's warped!” he coughed, and then sank to sit next to the door.
He rapped on it with the flat of his hand. After a long moment there was an
answering rap. “Someone's there!” he said. “Hey! We're in here! We're in here!
Four of us! And we're wounded!” he called out, roaring hoarsely. “Get your
Asses in here!” he yelled.

“Don't... don't stop fighting,” Bucky said. Yuri turned to Bucky.

“Don't...”

Yosef groaned. He slowly moved, then jerked. He rubbed his head.
“Damn, what a hangover,” he said. He opened his eyes. “We're not in a bar are
we?” he asked.

Yuri grunted.

“Don't... stop. Keep fighting,” Bucky gasped out. “For me. For the
kids. For those who can't. Someone.... someone has to stop... stop them,” he
gasped out.

Yuri forced himself to his feet and looked around, looking for a
first aid kit or a communications panel. There was a fire extinguisher but no
kit. He swore. He turned back to see Paul frantically looking around as well,
then stop. Bucky's hand flopped out from under the crate and then lied there,
limp face up.

“Come on man, keep... keep with us. We'll get you out,” Paul said,
voice foggy with tears.

Yosef looked behind him and saw the limp hand. Paul clutched at it
and took a pulse. “Damn it! Don't you die on me!” he said.

“He's in god's hands now,” Yosef said softly. He turned to look at
Yuri. Yuri slowly sank back to the deck, face tearing up. He angrily rapped on
the wall, pounding it until he stopped, gasping for breath.

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

“Helm, move us away from the wreck,” Irons said.

“Sir? What about any survivors?” Nobeki asked.

“Sensors scan for life. I'm more concerned about their weapons,”
he said. “I doubt anyone had time to get into a suit before that exchange,” he
said.

The OPS officer looked up and shook his head. “We're getting heat
buildup in her missile cells Admiral. I'm not certain what's going on,” Enric
replied.

“I do, something shorted,” the Admiral said.

“We're moving away at ten KPS Admiral, but with the corvette
attached...”

Irons nodded grimly. “Did we take some damage there in the roll?”

“Yes Admiral, I was going to report that. The docking clamps were
warped. The ships are locked together. It may take a few minutes to get it
released so we can maneuver properly.”

“Guns get the shields up,” the Admiral said.

“Shields already coming up Admiral,” Nobeki reported. “Two minutes
to full charge.”

“Understood,” Irons said.

The little corvette's munitions detonated and she was torn apart.
Bounty's shields were just coming back up and they shrugged off most of the
incoming debris cloud.

“Admiral, the collier's engines are warming up. She's trying to
make a run for it,” Bounty reported. “Also, one death has been reported. Mister
Allen has succumbed to his injuries,” he said.

“Damn.”

“Twelve other injuries reported.”

The Admiral nodded. “Communications raise the collier. Warn them
to shut down their drive and prepare to be boarded.”

Bounty frowned. “No response Admiral,” he said after a moment.

“Oh, we'll get one,” the Admiral replied, turning to the tactical
station. “Miss Nobeki, give her a warning shot across her bow.”

Nobeki's face was frozen. She bit her lip.

“Miss Nobeki,” Irons said. She flinched.

“Sir?”

“Warning shot,” he said again.

“Aye sir,” she said, using her implants. “Firing port rail gun.
Clean miss, twenty meters from her bow,” she said.

“Open a channel,” the Admiral said turning to Bounty. He let Nobeki
recover the remainder of her composure. Death in a crew hit everyone
differently. Some took it hard. And in this tightly knit crew, hard indeed.

“Channel open,” Bounty said.

“This is Fleet Admiral Irons. This ship is under my command. As
you just noticed, you are in our weapons envelope. Stand down your drive and
prepare to be boarded. Any resistance and you will be fired upon. If you
attempt to maneuver I will order your ship turned into a colander. Stand down
now,
”
he growled. “No one else needs to be hurt.”

One minute passed, then two, then three. Finally the blue glow
from her engines faded. “Admiral, the collier's engines are standing down,”
Enric said.

“We're receiving a signal,” Bounty said. His image flickered to be
replaced by a sullen looking woman.

“You've got us,” she said bitterly. “We surrender.”

“You sound so happy,” Enric growled. “Tough.”

Apparently the bridge microphone picked up his comments. The
woman's eyes flashed. The Admiral shot Enric a quelling look.

“Marines will be boarding your ship shortly. Do not offer them any
resistance Captain; I think you know the drill. You've had plenty of experience
with it from the other side after all,” the Admiral said, jaw tightening.

“Open a data channel and keep it open. I want my people to keep an
eye on your systems. No funny business Captain, we both know where that will
lead wont we?” he asked.

The woman flinched and then nodded. Irons studied her for any
tricks but didn't see anything; her defiance was gone, replaced with an urge to
survive. “You won't get away with this,” the woman said.

“We'll see. And I bet you've heard that line often enough
yourself. A bit ironic being the one that's saying it now huh?” the Admiral
asked coldly. Again the woman flinched.

“Do you expect me to beg for my life? For the lives of my crew?”

“No, I expect you to do as you are told and no one will get hurt.
The first sign of resistance and things will get ugly. And if any of your
prisoners are harmed... I have no problem drawing up a court to handle such
things Captain. And hold those responsible for their actions,” the Admiral
said, voice frigid. “And, since my crew is made up of former slaves, I'm pretty
certain we both know what the verdict would be,” he said.

She bit her lip and looked down. He could see her shaking ever so
slightly. “We will be seeing you shortly Captain,” he said as he cut the
channel.

“Data channel open Admiral,” Bounty reported. “I am in their
system. They are attempting to purge their memory files,” the ship AI reported.

“I'm on it,” Sprite said, surging through the Admiral's link to
the ship and into the cyber fray. “I'm putting a read only block on all files
and recovering the destroyed files. They think that by hitting delete it
destroys a file,” Sprite said a moment later. She sounded amused. “All it did
was delete the directory to the file and listed the space as empty and
writable. I'm recovering petabytes of data now.”

“Good,” the Admiral replied with a nod.

“And I've made it so they think they are still deleting the
files,” Sprite said. The Admiral opened his mouth in confusion. “I want to see
what they find so important to delete,” Sprite continued.

Irons nodded. “Carry on then Commander. Good work everyone,” he
said, turning his attention to the bridge crew. “Lieutenant Nobeki, keep an eye
on that ship until the marines board. Bounty are the marines ready?”

“Boarding the pinnace as we speak Admiral,” the AI responded.

“Good, tell them to launch when ready. Damage control?”

“We're working on it. Fortunately most of the damage was minor.
The crew has secured the equipment and compartments and are working on
temporary hull patches now.”

“I'm glad we drilled on damage control,” Enric said.

“Yes,” Irons said. “There is a method to it all. Sickbay?”

“Full right now Admiral. They have their hands full with surgery,”
Bounty reported.

“Then I won't go jog their elbow right now. I'll head down to
inspect the damage and lend a hand. Mister Bounty, you have the bridge,” he
said.

“Aye sir,” the ship's AI replied as the Admiral exited.

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

The Marines found two hundred fifty slaves on the freighter. Some
had important rolls, engineers, medics, but also a few children or young rather
beautiful women. Most of them were medics; Hidoshi's World was an agro world
and lacked heavy industry. The engineers were little better than blacksmiths or
retired spacers. Two were people who had worked at the planet's one and only
space port as air mechanics to crop dusters.

Lewis reported that several of the women and children had been
found in the crew quarters, chained to beds or in cages. They were filthy and
half starved, but when his people had let them out and informed them they were
rescued they had broken down.

What bothered Irons were the children. They found that they
weren't there as slave labor or to be brainwashed, most had been
requested
by some sick people in Horath. The requests went so far as to list age, hair
color, and body type.

“There are some seriously sick people in Horath Admiral,” Sprite
said.

“Yes. Yes I know,” he said tightly, keeping a lid on his rage with
difficulty.

“At least we saved these before they got their filthy hands on
them,” Sprite reminded him.

“Yes. Yes we did,” he said after a long moment. He stared at the
LCD for a long time with eyes that didn't see.

“Admiral, we know what triggered this, Commander McGuyver reported
a call from the collier just before she warned the others. Apparently he was
tripped up by a call for Chief Roberts' brother.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. But he also mentioned a call for entertainment material. That
got my interest. I was ignoring it or overwriting the material. Apparently that
was a mistake.”

“Not your fault Commander,” the Admiral replied. “It happened. We
didn't know they would want it,” he said.

“But we should have. Ships far from home crave tastes of home,”
Sprite reminded him. He frowned and then nodded. “But that wasn't the oversight
I meant. I meant the material itself. Some is rather basic, sporting events of
one sort or another. But there is a lot more there. Most of the films or video portray
aliens and Neo's in a negative light.”

“Propaganda,” the Admiral said and nodded. “Brainwashing the
masses,” he said.

“Yes, but not just that. There are seriously some sick people.
There are game shows where they torture and kill aliens Admiral. For fun and to
win money,” she said.