Insurrection (Athena Lee Chronicles Book 5)
Author: T S Paul
Date: 2016-04-19 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction & Fantasy; Military; Teen & Young Adult; Science Fiction; Space Opera; Space station; Engineer; Lesbian; Marines; Space; special forces
Description: Athena Lee and her planet are still reeling from the revolution that swept their part of the galaxy. The Space station has new management and Athena's ship has left without her on board. The Empire ship Paney is still on patrol and is being threatened by the Bad Penny Pirate clan. Mutiny, piracy and general mayhem seem to follow her as she discovers that a secret plot threatens the known galaxy. **

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 1

Staring out the observation port, Captain Hugh Pigot tried to work through his problems. He was worried. His ship, the EOM Paney had been on patrol for over a week with no communications from either the fleet or the sector government. While that was not unusual for fleet, not hearing anything from the governor’s office was very strange. In the past, there was always some crazy request or demand for information or something coming down the pipe. To top that off his new XO, Commander McCoy, was acting a little strange. Crew changes are always hard, especially when it involved more than half the ship. Hugh was still unsatisfied with the explanation he'd received for stripping out half his crew and replacing them with these poorly trained ones. His orders said it was a training “experiment” but Hugh wasn’t sure of that. Several of the ‘replacements’ have what look like mercenary or pirate tattoos. They barely know how to take orders and have zero military habits. If he didn’t know better he would almost swear that they had just hired a merc company and dumped them on his ship. Fleet didn’t do things like that. He had sent a ‘back channel’ communication to a friend he had at Fleet HQ. But his friend should have gotten back to him by now. The current orders for the ship were to patrol the outer edges of the sector eventually looping back to the station.

The captain looked down at his console display. Navigation’s current estimated time of arrival was almost exactly three more days until they reached the planet Hong Kong and the government station. Hugh decided he would send another request for clarification to fleet again. The next navigational course correction took them in range of a Communication satellite. He would use one of the priority codes and contact his superior directly.

“Captain on the bridge”

“As you were” Captain Pigot walked on the bridge. He turned to the XO and ordered “Go ahead and get some lunch, Commander I’ll take over here.” The XO started to say something, but when Commander Glatkowski on weapons shook his head, he changed his mind.

“Thank you, Captain I will.” The XO turned and left the bridge.

Seeing this exchange the captain made a personal note to keep an eye on this other new officer, Commander Alvin Glatkowski.

“Lieutenant Allendale, plot a course to the nearest Communications satellite, there should be one close to the next navigational point.” This Allendale was yet another of the new crew.

“Uh, yes sir, Captain Sir. I will get right on that.” The stuttering lieutenant rather inadequately acknowledged the captain.

Sitting in his chair, Captain Pigot stared off into ‘space’ as he thought about the crew he was surrounded with. His Chief Engineer was an old friend, as was the head of medical Lt Commander Smith. All three of them had been on the old Jupiter together in the last war. He could trust them implicitly. Only the crews in engineering, food preparation, and the marine force had remained unchanged. And he only had five marines on board. This was a destroyer, not a cruiser. Hugh shook his head as if to clear it. He was just over thinking things, but he made a note to have his friends meet him for dinner. Seeing plots and problems before they happened was not a healthy preoccupation. Hugh began putting his message to the Admiral together. As a side note, he would mention his fears and observations of the new crew. They could laugh about it later.

A soft ding roused the captain from his musings. On his console was a notification that the ship was in range of the nearest satellite. Carefully inputting the override code, the captain accessed a little known emergency fleet channel. This was a direct line to Fleet HQ, only to be used in case of dire emergency or invasion. Even the Sector Governors did not know of its existence. If he was wrong about the situation he would be reprimanded and could possibly lose his stripes. Knowing this he sent the message anyway better to be fired than dead. Shutting down his system and wiping the message code Captain Pigot left his cabin and returned to the bridge.

The bridge was quiet when Captain Pigot stepped through the door. The XO was bent over the navigation station deep in conversation with Lieutenant Humphrey. Neither noticed his arrival until Ensign Carson announced “Captain on the bridge.”

Captain Pigot waved everyone back to stations and sat in his chair. The XO approached him asking about the course change. Hugh made sure he sounded dismissive as he answered. “It’s is just routine commander. We were asked by the scientific division to check the orbits of some of the satellites if possible. A minor course correction to make the wonks happy is always a plus, especially if we have upgrades. I have a light dinner with some of the department heads this evening. I’m not to be disturbed unless it is an emergency. Wake me at the next way point. You have the bridge, Commander McCoy.”

“Aye Captain, I have the bridge. Have a peaceful evening, sir.” The XO turned without further thought and walked back to the navigation station.

The eyes of the new weapons commander Alvin Glatkowski followed the captain as he left the deck.

___

The three old friend and shipmates met for dinner in the Captains private dinning room. Commander Tadeusz Kościuszko the Chief Engineer, was the first to arrive. Know as Tad to his friends, the commander was a large strapping man in his mid 50’s. He was a proud graduate of the Kraków school on planet Warsaw. He and the Captain had been on the old Jupiter. The Medical Officer Zack Smith was a curmudgeonly older man with short thinning hair. He gave as good as he got and was the one that you wanted with you when the fire was the hottest. On the Jupiter, the three of them had all been just starting out their careers. The Jupiter was an old Gemini class cruiser. The twelfth to be built. The three officers had participated in many adventures before the war. Fate had put them together on this ship. Well that and a case of scotch to the personnel clerk at HQ.

“This dinner is a bit out of the blue, Hugh,” remarked Commander Kościuszko.

“I agree, not that I’m complaining. But just why did you bring us here tonight?” The Dr. turned and looked at his old friend.

The Captain stroked his mustache and looked to his old friends. “Have either of you noticed anything funny or unusual about out new crew replacements?”

“Funny ha ha or funny strange? Is that what you mean?” The old engineer was now acutely focused on the Captain. “If you mean funny strange I agree with you. Something is not right about the crew that we picked up. They know how to do their jobs but something is off with…”

The Dr looked at his old friends. “Fine. Yes, there’s something off about them. I have run a few physicals and treated a few for minor injuries. I have noticed some oddities. Tattoos. They seem to all have quite a few. While that's not remarkable, they try to hide them. That alone makes this group unusual. The other thing would be scars. They have lots of them, too. Far too many for some of their ages and ranks. One crewman, a member of the hanger crew I believe, had a colony prison implant. He explained it away saying it was from a juvenile offense. Since I saw him though, none of the new crew has been to see me.”

“Just between the three of us and the walls — and by the way I scanned the room for bugs.” He had their attention now. “I sent a covert message to fleet during the recent course change. While the orders for the crew change-out appeared to come from the fleet, I am starting to question it.” He watched the faces of his oldest friends. “Other than you two, I really only trust Lieutenant Mutai our marine commander. He and his men were with us before all of the changes.”

“Hugh, let’s get that marine up here then. Why waste time?”

The Captain thought about it, then stepped out of the room and whispered to his lone security guard. “Can you have your lieutenant come up here to a private meeting? Is there a way to arrange it without going out on the radio?”

The marine guard looked at the captain sharply and then nodded. He held up one finger in acknowledgment. Tapping the radio communicator at his collar the marine muttered a few word and letters on his security net, “Duty NCO to lima tango RFI zoomie charlie delta romeo possible QRF.” The marine cocked his head to one side as if listening. He replied “Wilco.” Turning to the captain he held up two fingers. Two minutes. The Captain went back into the dining room.

Almost exactly two minutes had passed when after a faint knock the door reopened. The marine Lieutenant Kinno Mutai entered the room. “Captain, Sir.” He said coming to attention.

“At easy lieutenant. Thank you for your prompt response.”

“How could I not with that canny message you had sent. I take it this meeting is about the mercenary company that we have on board?” The marine lieutenant looked at the officers speculatively.

“Damn. I never thought of that. Mercs, are you sure Kinno?”

“Yes sir. One of my guys spotted a tattoo on one of the replacements and brought it to my attention. It was a round disc with a man’s profile on it and the letters BP on the bottom.”

The captain slumped his shoulders and sighed. “Really? Someone doesn’t like us. That’s the symbol of the Bad Penny Clan.”

“Who are the bad pennies?” The Dr asked, bemused by the name.

The engineer mouthed to the lieutenant, “What’s a penny?”

“The Bad Pennies are a pirate gang.” The captain nodded his head slowly/ “That explains how they know how to operate ships but don’t know navy procedure or terminology. I can’t believe that fleet put them on board us.”

“Could the orders have been faked?” asked the lieutenant.

“No they had the authentication that proves they were genuine.” Thinking for a moment. “All of our orders go through the Sector Government first. I must be someone in those offices that changed the orders.”

“Sir, I think they intend to take the ship.”

“Yes lieutenant. We think that too. That’s the reason we called you in. I’m pretty sure that our new weapons officer is the leader of this bunch.”

“What is our small arms status, Lieutenant?” Captain Pigot was starting to think about the future.

Catching his drift, the lieutenant pulled out his tablet from inside his pocket, but didn't really seem to need to check it. “Sir, we have five sets of marine power armor, twenty sets of un-powered armor, thirty assault rifles, thirty handguns, and one crew mounted machine gun. That does not include ammo and the survival gear.”

“Lieutenant, how hard would it be for your men to start moving that equipment?”

“It depends on where you want to move it to? For defensive purposes I think we should concentrate on the aft section of the ship. Make our stand in the engine room, life support, and the medical bay. Those three sections have the most armor. We need to booby trap the access tubes as well.” The marine officer head tilted his had skyward in thought.

Chuckling with dark humor the captain looked at the young officer. “Thought about this have we, son?”

“Yes, well, it’s something that they teach us, sir. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. When I first came aboard I ran several training scenarios with the men: hostages, pirates, and boarding. Those are what we deal with the most. This will be hard sir. Who else are we sure we can trust in the crew?”

“Hugh I have the solution for that I think.” The Dr thought he had the answer.

“What do you have Zack?” the captain prompted.

“Let’s start with those crew members that we had before coming to this sector. Any that came after could be moles or mercs.”

The captain pulled up the information on his console. Checking his numbers he smiled. “OK so we have the kitchen staff, some of laundry, and your whole engineering department, Tad. It looks like we may have a few stragglers from all the departments but they are embedded pretty deeply.” Checking the time the captain looked at the marine officer. “Third watch is about to come on. Have your men start moving their equipment. Use the access tubes if possible, Tad here can get his boys to help. Get the powered armor and as much of the rest as you can. If you can’t take a weapon, take the firing pin, that is the hardest to replace. If anyone asks tell them it’s for the scheduled marine exercise next week. Send any messages to my link or by code to my security. Don’t put anything on the main net. I’m pretty sure they’re monitoring it. When I changed course I think I scared them. Let’s not do that too much. OK get moving.”

The officers said their goodbyes and started getting organized.

Chapter 2

Moving about a ton of equipment in 8 short hours while trying to stay covert was a stone cold bitch! At least that’s what Lieutenant Mutai was thinking to himself. Fortunately it was third shift and most of the crew were asleep. His men had been stopped only three times by navy officers. On all three occasions the marines had told the truth, mostly. Their general response had been along the lines of “The commander has us practicing night maneuvers," or "A crazy-ass young officer has a burr up his backside over something” His favorite had been “Stupid officers-stupid navy-stupid regulations.” His men could be very creative when talking to officers.

Engineering was beginning to look like a storeroom. Carefully stacking the ammo and other explosives away from the fusion engines the crew were having to stash things in, over, around and under all the other equipment. With an hour to spare before the next shift started, Lieutenant Mutai told them all to stop. All efforts now shifted to making what was left in the armory ‘safe’ for the loyal crew. Working in shifts, the tired marines began removing the firing pins from the handguns and rifles. All of the remaining weapons were tossed into large bins. If someone wanted a weapon they would have a ‘build-it-yourself’ type project. Not much could be done for the remaining ammo. Chief Engineer Kościuszko provided the Marines with a corrosive agent, which they sprayed on the boxes, but short of spacing it, they could not destroy it in the time that they left.

Under the guise of standard maintenance the engineering crew began working in the access tubes. Their task was to seal them off from the rest of the ship or at least make them as inaccessible as possible. Access codes were changed and doors were welded shut. A few electrical conduits were rerouted and reprogrammed. Without a major overhaul, not much could be done to change the internal passageways without giving away that some of the crew knew about the mercenaries. The only question now was when it would happen. What were they waiting for?

___

Captain Pigot sat on the bridge watching his crew. The XO was flitting between the weapons and navigation consoles. His excuse was that both officers were new and had questions about the procedure. Uh huh. They were waiting for something. The captain could not figure out just what that was. His marine guard had passed along a message explaining the work that had been done the previous evening. His biggest worry now was determining which of the crew were loyal without giving the game away to one who was not. Signaling the XO the captain left the bridge and headed to the mess hall. Chief Gomez the head cook, had been with the captain on two different ships. His muffaletta sandwich recipe was to die for. It was not unusual for the captain to go into the kitchen and Chief Gomez cook his food personally.

The captain found the chief in deep discussion with his cooks over a pot of boiling soup. The chief was yelling at them about flavor and too much salt. Seeing the captain, he broke off from the other cooks. “El capitano, welcome to my kitchen.” Gomez made a sweeping motion with his arms.

“I ‘have’ been here before, Chief.” replied the captain.

“Ah, but every visit is a new adventure when it comes to food! Are you here to try my new fritatta? So far the crew is ‘eating it right up,’ heh heh heh. My own little joke.”

“No, Chief, no. I actually came about a dinner idea of mine.” He directing the chief toward the office. “Let’s go in your office and talk about it.”

The captain and chief entered the office and close the door behind them.

“I’m sorry or the subterfuge, Chief, but I have something important to discuss with you.”

The Chief perked up and looked at his captain.

“What is your honest opinion of the new crew that we took on?”

Thinking a moment, Gomez looked at his friend the captain and replied, “I don’t trust them. They don’t ‘feel’ right to me, sir. Something about the way they carry themselves is not proper. They have made advances toward one of my cooks and navy folk just don’t do that.”

“Advances Chief? This is the first I have heard of this. When did this happen? If the XO is covering up something I’ll…”

“No, sir! When it happened, I responded immediately. These are MY people! Mine. I took care of it.”

“May I ask what you did.” The captain was interested now.

“I jumped the counter and held him at knife point then told the pinche pendejo that if he messed with my people, I would cut his cajones off and feed them to him.” The chief smiled at that.

“Remind me to never make you mad, Chief.” The Captain smiled and then frowned as his thoughts turned serious. “What I wanted to speak with you about is those new people. I have reason to believe that they might be a mercenary group called the Bad Pennies and that they may be trying to take over the ship.”

The Chief’s eyes grew enormous, then he grabbed a chef knife off of his desk and began waving it in the air cursing. “Hijo de la chingada madre! I will catch them and I will cut their cajones off and make criadillas with them.”

Half laughing at the response he got the captain told the chief to calm down a bit. “Sorry Chief no chopping off their balls today. I need for you to not let on that you know. Can you do that?” At the chief’s nod he continued. “We know we can trust your department, engineering, and the marines. Several of our officers around the ship like Dr Smith are with us too. I will have the marines drop some weapons by later today. Hide them if you can. Tell only your regular crew, no others.” He paused. Eyeing the chief and his knife he thought that maybe the cooks were far more afraid of the Chief than the captain. “We are not sure how far this goes, or when they'll strike. The fall back position will be here in the galley and down in the engine room. Understood?”

“Si, El Capitano. I will do as you say. If those pinche puta’s come in here and attack us, we will carve them up.”

“As you say, chief. But keep it quiet, OK?” Still chuckling at the chief’s response the captain went back to the bridge.

___

The first glimpse of who might be behind the plot to take the ship came when communications intercepted a communique to all ships and outbound traffic. It was a non-government broadcast.

“Sir, we are picking up a broadcast from the planetary government.”

“The planetary government? Not the Sector one?”

“Yes, sir. It is directed to any outbound ships with a request to rebroadcast if possible.”

“Can you put on screen? Let’s see this broadcast. The planetary government doesn’t have that kind of authority.”

Looking at the main screen the captain watched a planetary newscast of farmers with their families peacefully marching to oppose the new government taxes. The sheer amount of people in the march was shocking to him. Were there really that many people even on the planet to begin with? The screen captured the undivided attention of the bridge officers. When the ESS troops opened fire, Captain Pigot jerked back in shock. They watched in horror as thousand of unarmed civilians were cut down and killed. The slaughter, for that was what it was, continued for over 30 minutes. The images of a heroic man trying to protect a group of children would stay with him his whole life.

The newscast switched to a written message begging for anyone receiving this to rebroadcast it so the truth would be known. The broadcast claimed that the Sector government was locking down the satellites preventing messages from going out.

“Communications? Start scanning all frequencies. Try and find some government response to this or any official news if you can.”

“Yes, sir, right away sir.”

The captain closed his eyes, and deep in his thoughts, he missed the brief conversation between the XO, navigation and weapons officers.

“Excuse me, sir? Communications has found a Government Broadcast.” The XO touched the captain on his arm waking him up.

Opening his eyes, the captain jerked awake. “Sorry XO, I guess I dozed off. What was it you were saying?”

“Captain, we received a Government broadcast.”

“Excellent. Put it on screen, please.”

Once again the screen lit up and different newscasters could be seen. This news report was very different from the previous one. According to Government sources, the protest was a violent insurrection that had touched off a civil war on the planet Hong Kong. Rebel forces opposing the government killed the brave ESS troops that tried to prevent mobs of protesters from killing innocent children. The video showed a space battle with local forces shooting down ESS troopships. The Sector Government was calling for all navy ships to return to base to help to put down this insurrection.

“Did we receive any navy messages to return to base?” Captain Pigot asked the communications officer.

“No, sir. Not that we can find. Nothing official. There are some personal mail messages and the usual navigational beacon changes. One brief message mentions the satellite network going down for repairs. Nothing else, sir.”

“Thank you commander. Go ahead and log those messages. Notify me if you find anything else. I will be in my Ready Room XO you have the conn.” The captain got up from his chair and left the bridge.

___

Commander McKay, the ships new XO, looked to his boss ‘Commander’ Alvin Glatkowski. His boss was better known as Alvin-the-taker, leader of the Bad Penny gang.

The communications officer Lieutenant Humphrey waved them both over to his station. “Sir, we received a communication from the Governor. He said to take the ship as soon as possible and deliver it to Legation Station security. He said that we would be paid double for a quick delivery.”

“Good. Waiting was risky. Start spreading the word to our men. Have them meet us in cargo hold number one tonight at the start of third shift. We will strike just before shift change when as many as possible are asleep.” The mercenary Captain was pleased.

“What should we do with the crew, sir?” the ‘XO’ asked.

Looking to the communications officer Alvin asked “Were there any instructions about the Navy crew?”

“No, sir, just to deliver the ship. Nothing about the crew.”

“We should have some fun, then. When we are done, we can just space ’em. Less mouths to feed that way.” He thought for a moment. “If the Governor had not paid us so well I might think about trying to take this ship, but crossing him is not a good idea. OK get back to work. Look at it this way, only 12 more hours of this navy BS to put up with.”

All three ‘officers’ returned to their duties. Unknown to them a new security camera now located on the main door captured their entire meeting.

___

Captain Pigot and Lieutenant Mutai sat watching the meeting on the new security cameras. “Well, at least we know for sure now.”

“Yes, sir. They are meeting in cargo hold number one. They must have weapons stored there. It can’t be very many or else our scans would have told us of their existence. They must plan to use what they have to take the armory. They should be in for a surprise there. We moved out what we could. The rest we sprayed with a corrosive Chief Tad gave us. It should make the ammo, mostly unusable and difficult to handle. That will limit how much they can come at us. We set up defenses inside the CIC and the medical department, and we prepared the engineering department as a main base. The access tube hatches have either been welded shut or had the codes changed. My marines are booby-trapping the tubes as we speak. I have the Chief’s techs trying to reroute the navigation controls from CIC, to engineering. If they can do it, we will still be able to steer the ship.”

“Lieutenant, you and the rest did all of this in less than 15 hours? That’s- incredible. If we survive, I promise you a commendation for this!”

“We still have to survive this, sir.”

Chapter 3

One hour before the start of first shift was when the mercs made their move. The crew was just waking up to start the day when the hull breach sirens went off.

“Attention there is a Hull Breach in Section 2……..Attention there is a Hull Breach in Section 2”

The standard operating procedure was for personnel to evacuate away from the breach, which in this case was the armory. Surprised crew members in many states of undress, were clustered in the forward part of the ship. They had been herded there by armed the now armed mercenaries. The flashing lights and alarms stopped. The ‘XO’ accompanied by ‘Commander’ Glatkowski approached the crew members and called them to attention.

“Attention please!”

“Can I have your BLOODY attention!” The XO pulled his weapon and shot one of the half dressed crew members, a male ensign.

Amid cries of surprise and of fright, he tried calling attention again. This time they listened.

“Let’s get a few things straight, shall we? We are now in charge. My name is Richard McCoy. I am the second officer for the Bad Pennies mercenary group. This ship is now in our possession. You will do as you are told or we will kill you.” The crowd settled down and were silent but for a few murmurings. “Now, where is Captain Pigot?” The group was silent, some looked around as if to search for him. McCoy pointed at one of the armed men. “Go and search his cabin. Check the Ready Room too!”

After a few minutes the armed man returned looking excited. “Sir, the captain isn’t here! We searched the whole bow, no sign of him.”

“Damn it! We need the Captain!” Yelling at his men he pointed them toward the mess hall. “Take these prisoners to the mess hall. Make the cooks prepare food, then lock them up too. Get moving!” He watched as his men shoved the people forward. Grabbing one of his men he said “Separate out all the good looking women. We need some fun and sport later, after we capture the captain.” The now smiling mercenary laughed, rubbing his crotch with excitement. He turned and trotted after the prisoners.

The former XO grinned at the thought of having a little fun time after the weeks he spent playing nice for the unsuspecting captain. One of his men exited the bridge and ran up to him. “Sir, we searched the entire bow area. We even put on suits and peeked outside. The Captain is not here. It’s possible he went aft. You did say he was friends with the engineer.”

McCoy nodded his head. “It’s out of character for him, but that might be the answer. Get with the armory team and make sure he isn't hiding in there. What’s the status of the crew? Did we get everyone in the bow?”

“No, sir. Including the captain we are missing about 20% of the crew. About half of that should be in engineering. We know from ships orders that they were conducting an engine tear down. It’s possible that the Chief called in crew early to get it repaired.”

Looking sharply at his man, McCoy asked “Just who else is missing besides engineering crew?”

“Sir, all of the Marines, Dr Smith and his orderlies, and several of the older officers.”

“So basically everyone from the aft section? We may have a leak! Put more men on the armory door, we need those weapons NOW!” The mercenary crewman ran toward the armory grabbing a few others as he went.

“Sir! Sir! All the kitchen staff is gone!” The man he sent for the women was yelling at him.

“What are you saying? Who is gone?” This day could not get any worse.

“I did as you told me and started rounding up all the women when we noticed that the kitchen area was dark. All the cook staff is missing and the food stores are gone. We checked, even those nasty emergency food bars are missing!”

“Damn it to hell! We have to have a traitor among us! When I find him I'll frighten his whole family! Send an armed party aft. We need to know what we may be facing.” Bracing himself, he headed toward the bridge, he now had to tell his boss the bad news.

___

Captain Pigot, along with Marine Lieutenant Mutai were watching the mercenary force that was on board their ship via closed circuit cameras. The captain had gotten lucky so far. The mercs had chosen to consolidate the bow section first before moving aft. As Lieutenant Mutai had predicted they were trying to break into the armory. That will be a surprise to them. The captain regretted not being able to save more of his crew. That decision was already haunting him.

Chief Kościuszko’s engineering crews were working overtime getting the fighting positions built. Working with the kitchen staff, they managed to find a storage place for all the food and ammunition. The small Marine force was outfitting the crew with body armor and giving basic shipboard fighting refreshers. The medical staff had set up a small aid station in CIC and the main hospital in engineering. The various other crew were laying out supplies and arming the weapons.

The captain called his officers together in Chief ‘Tad’s’ office. On the screen in front of them was a map of the ship.The sections had been delineated by color. All of the bow section including the holds were marked in red. Everything aft of hold three was marked in blue.

“We don’t have a lot of time, so listen up. We have defensive points here, here, and here.” The Captain was pointing on the map to the hatch to hold number three, the main corridor, and the access tube down the center of the ship.

“There are small units covering the emergency exterior access ports. I don’t expect them to hit us from outside. But we need to be covered. So far they have not spotted the cameras we set up. When they do, we will lose all intelligence so watch them closely. They have the rest of the crew locked up in the mess hall.” His face grew grim. “They separated out the women and have them locked up in hold number one.” He motioned to Lieutenant Mutai.

“Of the crew with us only about 10% have any kind of battle experience. Those that do are now our front line of defense. My Marines will be floating between stations when the fighting begins. Regardless of rank when they give you an order obey them. They are the professionals here.”

One of the engineering crew came into the room. “Sir, we have movement. A small force of 5 armed men is making their way down the corridor toward us. Orders sir?”

Lieutenant Mutai looked at the Captain. “I guess that finishes what I had to say. Good luck all of you. Kila la kheri!”

“Team leaders get moving, everyone else to your stations. Move people!” Captain Pigot was fired up now.

___

Wylie O’Malley was happy to have the ruse of being a navy crewman out of the way. Once a pirate always a pirate was his family's
motto. The boss had told him to check out the aft section and look for the missing crew members. He had grabbed four of the other pirates and was making his way toward engineering. He had been told that there was crew in engineering. The engineers had been working on a disassembled engine. But where was everyone else.

His boys were having a grand time searching the storerooms and cabins along the way. Lots of loot to be found. They had already filled their pockets with small bits of jewelry and other valuables. Engineering should be ahead right around the next corner. The boys laughing and joking were passing around a bottle they had found in a cabin. One of them called “I get the next one!” and jogged around the corner right into a hail of gunfire. His torn body was thrown backwards sprayed his companions with blood.

Wylie yelled at the others “Down, down ya fekking idiots! Get your guns out and fire back!” Ducking into a doorway Wylie grabbed his communicator and started screaming into it. “Taking fire, taking fire!”

___

“Taking fire!”On hearing this the pirate commander cursed. So much for taking this ship without a fight! How in the nine hells did they know? He swore to cut the balls off the traitor and feed them to him when they caught him! Alvin, the leader of the Bad Pennies, had not been very happy to hear that the Captain and others were loose on ‘his’ ship. If McCoy had not been needed, he might be floating in space right now. He needed to check on those idiots at the armory. Without those weapons… well, he didn’t want to think about it.

Entering the armory and Marine area McCoy started yelling at his men. “Status report, got that door open yet?”

“No, sir. We were about to blow it open.The cutting torch wasn’t working. Someone switched the acetylene tank with a carbon dioxide one.” Several men were lining the edges of the door with plastic explosive instead.

Waving the men to cover McCoy ducked down behind a desk with his ordinance man. “Fire in the hole!”

With a loud explosion and a bright flash the door crashed inward striking the floor. Smoke billowed out of the armory. Several of his men rushed forward with fire suppression devices and sprayed through the door. The smoke now had a chemical ‘taste’ to it. It began to dissipate allowing access to the room. With a yell of victory several of the pirates rushed into the now open armory.

“Well, what’s in there? Are the weapons undamaged?” One of his men stepped out of the armory, he was dragging a large container behind him.

“Sir, there seems to be ammo aplenty, but as for weapons? Here look for yourself.” He pointed down.

McCoy looked into the container and cursed. “Fekking bastards! Are all the weapons like this?”

“This is all we can find, sir. All of the armor is gone and a large chunk of the ammo. Since we’ve never been able to get in here before we have no idea what they have.”

“My question is how? How in the nine hells did they manage to move all of this without our seeing them? How?”

His face blotched red with rage the pirate commander had to shake his head to clear it. “Put your men on getting this mess straightened out. I want those guns reassembled and reissued as soon as possible.” Taking a huge breath of air McCoy braced himself and headed back to the bridge. He, yet again, had to take bad news to Alvin.

___

Alvin was not a man to be trifled with. First this upstart of a navy captain thought he could get away from him and try to fight him? And now he though it funny to mock him by making them build their own weapons. He would show this ‘captain’ a thing or two about being funny!

“Someone get McCoy here a first aid kit. Next time you will do what I tell you to! Sending those idiot O’Malley clan bozos was the wrong move. It will cost you the whole hand if there’s a next time. Go fix your finger and get the men together. We are going to have to assault those positions now.”

Alvin-the-taker tossed his second in commands finger into the cryo box he kept strapped to his hip right next to the sheet metal shears. The first finger he takes is always a warning. The trick was to not let him take more.

___

His stub of a small finger wrapped and sealed in gauze, Commander McCoy was red faced with both pain and anger. He would follow his orders. Having crossed Alvin once he had no desire to do so again. He gathered his men, making sure that all were armed. “OK boys, it seems that we have found our missing captain! He and some others are hiding in the aft section. The Boss, has set us a task. Capture that engine room and then we’ll all have a little fun. We saved all the women for one big ‘party’ after the battle!”

Shouts of glee and smiles were everywhere. Usually only the bosses got the ‘fresh women’- the men got what was left over.

Breaking the men up into squads of 5, McCoy’s lieutenants started moving everyone down the corridors. McCoy had an inspiration and pulled his chief lieutenant Seth, aside. “Seth take one of the squads and go down the engineering access tube. You should be able to get into one of the side compartments and flank them. If nothing else you will draw off some of their fighters.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do that.” Seth approached the small group that had been hanging back. “You five will do nicely, follow me.” They just stared at him like they were deaf. “What did I just say! Get your asses over here NOW! When I say NOW I mean right this fekking minute!”

The five men wandered over to the lieutenant. They stared at him and the taller one said “Sorry sir, we didn’t hear you.”

Pissed off now Seth glared at all of them and growled “What names do you go by? Tell me as we walk. We’re going down the engineering access tube. Our job is to flank the enemy and end this thing. I have a nice blond all picked out.”

The men’s names were Flint, Barnaby, Duke, Cooper, and Charlie. All of them had a dusty, rural sounding accent.

“Are all of you from the same planet? I don’t remember working with you boys before.”

“No, sir. We all signed on when our family joined the clan last year. Our ship the Willy Moran was destroyed by the Feds just before we joined y’all.”

All Seth could think was that add some cowboy hats and these hicks could be western vid stars. Whatever. “OK, the access point is over there. Let’s get moving.” Taking out a small kit of hand tools the lieutenant pried off the access cover. Just big enough for two men side-by-side the tunnel was dark and filled with electrical conduits. The smaller of the group went first, followed by Seth and the rest.

____

Chapter 4

The sounds of gunfire echoed down the corridor. So far only the pirates had taken damage but the day was young.

“Lieutenant pass the word to conserve ammo. We are going to need it more later than right now.” The Captain was watching the pirate forces on the camera feed. Small groups of the Penny clan were making their way cautiously down the corridor. Another small group was entering the access tube. That group should meet with a few surprises. After witnessing the leader of this bunch cut off his subordinate’s finger and then keep it, Captain Pigot knew they could never surrender to these people. These were not honorable opponents.

Ducking to try to avoid being hit by ricochets, Lieutenant Mutai worked his way down the corridor until he reached the furthest defensive point. Three former cooking staff and one of his Marines were exchanging fire with foolhardy pirates who had stepped out into the corridor. Looking down to the end of the hall, Kinno could see the splattered remains of one pirate his blood now drying on the bulkheads. The cameras had seen four others hiding in the open doorways. The pirates’ fire was beginning to wilt as they ran out of ammo. If he had more Marines he might try for a charge, but Captain Pigot had nixed that idea. Those pirates had reinforcements on the way and it was too risky with only cooks as backup.

“Good work men. We shall have to make you three honorary Marines, after this. The Captain said to try and conserve some of that ammo. We have a great many more pirates to shoot, it would be nice to have ammo to do it with.” He smiled at the men. They really had done good work. Huddled with ‘his’ men Kinno took stock of what was here. He looked at the shorter of the three cooks, “your name is Todd, right?”

“Yes, sir. Just call me ‘Terrible’, sir. That’s what all the kitchen staff call me.” The little man smiled.

“I have to ask, why call you terrible?”

“It’s because of the grease traps sir. I’m the only one small enough to get down there and do a proper job of it. After a long day of working down there I have a pretty strong odor about me, sir. It’s pretty terrible, they tell me when I climb out. Hence the name. It sort of stuck. I suppose it could have been worse, they could have called me Todd the slimy or Greasy Todd.”

Lieutenant Mutai laughed right along with ‘Terrible’. “Well,Terrible I have a job for you. Run back to the base area and gather some more supplies for this post. The Captain says that those pirates are about to be reinforced, so lets get ready shall we? Keep low, Mr. Terrible, you don’t want to get hit.” The cook took a quick look at their supplies and took off running.

The other Marine, Sergeant Sveldig, smiled at his lieutenant. “That was a good thing you did sir. That little man is tough but he needed a boost.”

“I’m not quite sure what you mean by that, Sergeant, but I’ll take any positives I can out of this mess.” His smile turned a bit grim. “According to what we have seen on the cameras the will attack us in force. If it gets too heavy, pull out. Drop back to the next defensive line. If you need help ask for it. No last man standing BS. You understand me Marine?”

“Yes, sir. I understand. No heroics.”

“Good. See you on the other side, Marine.” With that Kinno ran down the corridor ducking to avoid fire.

___

The fire from the navy had let up. Wylie cursed: “Póg Mo Thón.” His best mate John Bowmaker lay bleeding all over the floor. Willie-boy was hit pretty bad in the arm and was bleeding like a stuck pig. Those fecking cowards Maurice and Aaron had crawled back about thirty feet and claimed they were ‘covering him.’ When this was all over he would make sure those two got theirs!

His radio crackled “Wylie, Wylie are you still alive? Wylie answer the fecking radio!”

“This is Wylie. I have one dead, one wounded, and two fecking idiots I would like to shoot! We are pinned down by what looks like a half dozen or so navy pukes behind a bulkhead wall.”

“Hold on for a short while more, we have a whole bunch of folks headed your way. The boss sends his regards and is glad you held out.” A cold shiver went down Wylie’s back at the thought of getting ‘regards’ from Alvin-the-taker. That was one crazy máthair!

After about ten minutes that seemed like hours Wylie looked behind him and saw several groups of men, pushing a couple of wheeled carts in front of them, coming down the corridor. They pushed the carts into the center of the corridor and locked the wheels. Instant barricades. Wylie quickly slipped out of the doorway and behind the first cart.

“Am I glad to see you boys! Help me grab poor Willie-boy over there, he’s hit pretty bad.”

With help the pirates dragged the half conscious man out of the room and down the hall. Unfortunately for Willie they did not have a Dr. with them. The Bad Penny Clan’s plan had counted on using the ships Dr. for any problem. Theirs was a ‘live and let die’ society. If you got hurt you had better have good friends to take care of you. If not, they would strip your ass bare and toss you out an airlock.

“So Wylie, what is the situation here?” It was Reuben the boss’s enforcer. He had heard the boss call him ‘Mickey’ a time or two but neither he nor any of the others were brave enough to do so themselves.

Wylie explained how he and the others ended up pinned down. Pointing back at the ‘heroes’ talking it up big to the other pirates, he explained how they had led from the rear and had run like the cowards they were.

Reuben was a big man with a deep dark voice like the echoes inside of a crypt. Dark and mysterious is what some would say. Fecking scary is what Wylie would call him. “Don’t worry if the boss doesn’t get them, I'll take care of it. Don’t you give them another thought.” The big scary man had turned toward the two ‘cowards’. Turning back to Wylie he grumbled. “So, all you have seen is a half dozen or so? Is that what you are saying.”

Not liking the attention Wylie began to stutter. “Y-yes, s-s-sir. We thought we saw them get a runner with more ammo but we weren’t sure. It’s hard to tell with that wall they built. Our guns barely scratched it, so it has to be a slab of armored bulkhead.”

“Well get yourself some food and take a rest we are going to bust through that bulkhead with some toys we brought along.” The big man motioned behind him. Wylie could see the other pirates unpacking a large machine gun and what looked like some sort of heavy gun.

___

“Get Lieutenant Mutai up here immediately!” Captain Pigot had seen something on the cameras that worried him. Those pirates had some sort of heavy weapons! How in the nine hells had they gotten those weapons on his ship? If he got out of this situation alive he swore that heads would roll over this.

“Sir, you called for me?” The lieutenant was panting a bit having run the whole way.

“Yes, sorry about the run. We were watching the cameras caught a flash of something. It’s hard to see from this angle, but that looks like some sort of rocket launcher.” He pointed at the screen.

The image was blurry and in the left corner of the screen. Three men were unpacking something that looked to the lieutenants expert eyes, like a Mark 45 Anti-Armor Rocket launcher. Those things dated from before the last war. They were popular with some colony worlds because they were inexpensive to buy. Most of the units barely functioned. Quite a few had exploded before launch killing the operators. Kinno wondered where they got it from.

He explained to Captain Pigot what he knew about the system. “Captain, this one has about a 50% chance of blowing up when they fire it. They must be insane to use a rocket launcher on a spacecraft.” Kinno looked back at the monitors. “Sir, if they have that we need to figure out what else they might have. They seemed pretty desperate to get into the armory. They must not have much in the way or ammo. They might have explosives. We need to watch for bombs or suicide charges.”

“Surely your aren’t serious, are you? Suicide charges in this day and age? Even in the last war we never saw anything like that.”

“Crazy is like crazy does is what my father used to say, sir. Those pirates know that if we win this battle they face prison or death. We have the authority to just space them for being pirates. What do they have to lose?”

“It goes against everything that I believe in, but OK. Give orders to shoot first: armed or unarmed shoot to kill, because you do have a point, it’s the death penalty for them anyway.”

One of the message runners knocked on the door. “Sirs? We need you. Something is happening at the forward location.”

The Captain waved at the Marine lieutenant, “Go, go. It’s you they want. I will be here to watch over things.”

Kinno followed the runner out the door and ran up the corridor: things were about to get hairy.

____

At Reuben’s direction two of the largest pirates in the clan, the Medved brothers, unpacked the rocket launcher and a antique looking machine gun. Ivan and Issac were from the Russ Colony. That colony had failed and only a few hundred of its scattered colonists remained there. The two men had deep guttural accents gained from living ‘rough’ in the dangerous wastelands of their former colony world. With long, matted hair dangling from their shoulders, they dragged the guns into position. How they ended up in the Bad Penny clan was a mystery. The rumors about them were many. Most claimed that they were cannibals. This was said because they braided their big, bushy beards with finger bones and bits of cloth like souvenirs.

The other pirates watched as Reuben put his ‘game face’ on. Reuben was close to the top of the Galaxy’s wanted list, a wanted fugitive on 30 colony worlds. Reuben aka Mickey, aka Dr Skull, aka Doom was a master in the art of face makeup, quickly turning his already scary features to those of a grinning skull.

Reuben made a pumping motion with his arms and yelled, “Bring them forward and chain them to the guns!” Several beaten and bloody navy crew members were shoved forward. With their arms tied behind them they could only stumble and walk unsteadily forward. Pirates held guns on them as they continued to push them forward. The prisoners were chained to the front of the big guns as human shields.

With the guns now ready and set up, small support crews moved forward to assist the Medveds. Ammunition was brought out and the brothers opened fire.

____

“Do we know who they are?” Lieutenant Mutai asked quietly as he watched the men being chained down.

“Yes, sir. It’s Maurice and Dale from the quartermasters office. I don’t know their last names.”

“The only thing worse than pirates, is smart pirates. We will have to kill out own men to take out those guns. If we don’t take out the guns, this fight is over before it begins! Damn it! Those mkundu’s” He looked at the former cooks assistant turned sniper. “Can you hit the pirate gunners without killing our men?”

The cook gazed at the pirates through the scope of his rifle. “Not really, sir. I might hit one of them by accident.”

“Take this message back to Captain Pigot. Inform him of the situation. Tell him that we have no choice, that once they start firing we Will have to kill some of our own people.” The Marine Lieutenant sent the runner back to base.

The sudden whoosh of the rocket attack shocked the lieutenant. The bulkhead defense wall shuddered and shook as the first rocket hit. The explosion blew bits of shrapnel and wall dozens of feet in all directions. Several of the men using the wall as cover were peppered by the bits of metal. One of the former cooks cried out as he clutched his hand to his now bleeding eye. Another explosion knocked the Marine off his feet. The wall could not take too much more.

“I can’t wait on the Captain to decide. Take the shot!” As he said that another rocket hit, penetrating the wall and exploding. The body of the sniper was all that saved Lieutenant Mutai. It took the full force of the explosion, blasting gore and bloody bits all over the other fighters. Those standing next to him were thrown to the ground by the explosion. The wall was shattered and useless.

Shaking his head to clear it Kinno took in the remains of the defensive position. He shook the nearest man lying next to him. Waking him up they dragged wounded men down the corridor. The next defensive position was only about five meters away, and navy defenders from that location rushed out to help.

Lieutenant Mutai waved the second group of defenders off. “Get back under cover! We can’t risk all of us getting killed.”

___

With each successive explosion the pirates in the corridor cheered. That last explosion looked as if it had penetrated the wall. What looked like blood splatter coated the walls of the corridor surrounding the navy defensive wall. Reuben signaled the brothers to hit it one more time. The resulting explosion shattered the defensive position. Unfortunately there was no one to kill. The navy had already evacuated it.

“Move the guns up and get the next one.” So far so good,/ thought Reuben. The boss will be glad to hear about this.

___

Alvin-the-taker was extremely happy right now. Kneeling before him were two ‘cowards’ who ran from the enemy. Both men were clutching their bleeding hands tightly against their chests. “Next time, if there is a next time, I will cut off something a little lower for my collection. Get out of my sight and back to work!”

He looked at his navigator ‘Lieutenant’ Allendale. “Allen-a-dale, how far until we reach Legation Station?”

“We should be in communication range in 12 hours and within sight of the the station in 24, sir.”

“Good, good. So far things are going to plan. What do you say about that, Jenna?” He looked toward the woman at the weapons station.

Jenna the Butcher was wanted on at least ten worlds. She was a known cannibal having been caught by local authorities ‘feeding the homeless to the hungry’ at her husband’s butcher shop. Of the husband nothing was ever found. Tried and convicted of mass murder she had been sent to the prison world on Rustof 3 to serve a life sentence. En route to the prison the ship carrying her and 350 others was waylaid by pirates. Since her release she had been spotted on various worlds buying spices and cooking utensils…

“I still say we should keep this ship, park it on a moon somewhere and have a big barbecue.” She smiled, her sharp pointed teeth, gleaming in the dim light.

“Jenna, Jenna, you know who is boss here right? This job will bring us closer to this sector governor. With him backing us we can do anything! Get away with anything. You can practice your culinary delights without fear of prosecution. Won’t that be fun? Now, put the caps back on your teeth, I think you’re scaring young Carson here.” Alvin patted the young looking ‘ensign’ on his back. “So, Carson? Have you broken into the captain’s computer system yet?”

“No, sir! Not yet. He has the newest military encryption on it. I did get into the communications system backups, though. The Captain did send some kind of message from that satellite. It used a protocol I’ve never seen before.”

“Keep working on it, Carson. We need whatever leverage we can get with Governor Norton. Make sure you have something tangible before we get there or I will let Jenna here take you out for lunch.” He smiled at the computer wonk. “Someone find McCoy and tell him to take over here. I’m going to see what is going on with the navy.”

Alvin gathered his bodyguards and left the bridge.

___

Still shaken by the explosion and death of someone under his command Lieutenant Mutai took stock of the men and supplies at the new defense point. His two lightly wounded men were now joined by the rest of his Marines and a burly engineer. The cook with the bleeding eye had been taken to the first aid station. “Set up your sniper rifles and take out those guns. Try not to hit the crew members, if possible. This is a ‘needs of the many’ type of situation.”

The four Marines began taking pot shots at the Medved brothers. In the flurry of shots the two quartermaster loaders were unfortunately shot and killed. With their human shields now gone the pirates were forced to abandon their positions and retreat back to their defensive line.

The Marines tossed several improvised explosive grenades built from plastique and scrap metal at the two heavy guns. The resulting explosion destroyed the guns setting off the ammo like a string of firecrackers. Echos of the explosion were heard across the whole ship.

___

Alvin’s head jerked around at the sound of the explosion, the repetitive sounds were magnified by the corridors. “What in the hell was that! Contact McCoy, that better have been him destroying those navy pukes or I’m working on my collection tonight!”

“Sir, Alvin, sir! Please don’t kill me..” The messenger dropped to his knees.

“What ..Is..It! If you didn’t do whatever it is then YOU have nothing to worry about! What?”

“The navy killed the human shields and blew up both big guns!” The pirate looked scared as he huddled on the floor.

“What the Hell are those idiots doing down there! You, get up! Stand over there by the wall.”

“Thank you sir, thank you.” The pirate got off the floor and turned away from Alvin. He started to walk away when Alvin pulled his pistol and shot him point blank in the head. The messenger fell to the floor with half of his head now gone.

All of the other pirates looked away or at the floor when Alvin passed. Once he was out of sight, money began to change hands. There was a large pool over how long a messenger would survive.

___

Deep in the access tubes a small party of men were still carefully making their way toward engineering. Seth was about on his last nerve. The western hicks that he had picked for this mission were driving him insane. They had claimed to be from a known pirate ship but the world they all came from was a backwoods hellhole that had nothing but horses and hicks on it. They had zero knowledge on how to open airlocks or access doors. They kept telling these god-awful stories about something called a wagon train. Seth had scratched his head on that one. How DO you train your wagon? That must be a fecked up planet for sure.

“OK you idiots. We have about another 200 meters or so to go. Once again don’t touch the conduits they have electricity in them. Like we learned last time. I think Flint may have feeling coming back to his hand by now. Whatever you do don’t pee on them, right Duke?

“Uh, yes, sir, lieutenant, sir.” He was scratching his beard. “Uh, sir? What do you think all those ‘splotions were a bit ago?”

“What I think is that we need to get moving. The dang battle will be over before we get there! Damn it, now I’m talking like y’all again. Aaargh!”

Chapter 5

Captain Pigot sighed with relief. Good news at last. Hopefully that was all the heavy ordinance those pirates had. There were still too many of them to attack head on. He looked at the schematic of the ship. His forces held engineering, medical, and life support. The pirates had everything else. “If I was a pirate what would I attack first?” He stared at the screen for a few moments then yelled for his aide to call the Marines.

“Did you call for us sir?” The Marine Lieutenant had arrived with his four man squad. One of them, Sergeant Sveldig, looked a bit tattered and worn.

“Is your sergeant there OK? He looks a bit bedraggled.”

“Sir, he is fine. The sergeant was up front at the barricade with me when the rockets hit. We were both rattled around a bit but we are OK now.”

“If you are sure. I have been trying to think like a pirate. I think that life support is their next target.”

The Lieutenant slowly nodded his head. “You may be right, sir. I still think that they will try a frontal attack to save face. Do we have any idea of where this ship is headed?”

“The last look we had of navigation showed we are still on the course I laid in, Legation Station.”

“Captain, why would we be going there still? Do you still think that someone in the local Government is behind this?”

“We, that is the other officers here, believe that it is Governor Norton. Of late the Governor has been behind several unpopular land deals and new taxes on the Hong Kong farmers. That clip we saw from the rebels may be for real and the Governor may have hired these pirates to help him take over.” Captain Pigot stared out the window at Engineering. “Who knows? Maybe we are wrong and they have all ready changed course and are taking us somewhere worse.”

“Sir,” the Marine Lieutenant said hesitantly. “Didn’t the engineers rewire the navigational controls? I’m pretty sure I heard Chief Tad say that he did it.”

The Captain pressed the intercom button on his console. “Ask Chief Tad to come in here please.”

“I do believe that he may have said that. We'll just have to ask him.”

The door to ‘his’ office opened and Chief Kościuszko entered the room followed by one of the computer techs. “Sir, did you call for me?”

Captain Pigot smiled at his old friend. “Tad, have a seat. Did you need something too?”

“Sir, this is Computer technician Kovak, she is here to disconnect your computers sir. All of them.”

“Tad! What is going on? I need those to keep track of the pirates and our people.” He watched as the young looking technician disconnected all the systems in the office then short circuited the system. Sparks shot in all directions as the built in computer panel died. With a smile on her face the young woman exited the room.

‘What the hell was that? Damn it Tad, what is going on?”

“I’m sorry sir, but that young woman is the only tech that we have at the moment. She detected a computer intrusion that was just about to compromise everything we’re doing here. Every time you pressed a button in here they could track it from CIC. We couldn’t take any chances.” The Chief smiled and looked down at the table. “If its any consolation, she shut down all the computers except for those in the engine room. We separated them from the system so the pirates couldn't take control of engines, too.”

“Too? What else do they control?”

The Chief looked grim. “They gained control of of life support about an hour ago. My engineers are trying to get the system back under our control but, whoever they have over there is a kick-ass computer specialist.”

One of the Marines raised his hand like he was in school. “Uh, sirs? Why don’t we shut down the system on our end?”

The officers all looked at the Marine in surprise. “Shut it down? What about life support for us? Without it we die! Explain yourself Marine.” Lieutenant Mutai looked mad.

Private Ascot cleared his throat and spoke. “Sir, you said yourself that we’re still on our way to Legation Station. Uh, Chief Tad, we are, aren’t we?” The Chief nodded. “If we’re still on course then we should be there in less than a day. My parents own a small freighter, I was born in space. Any spacer brat will tell you that if life support fails not the freak out. Unless the hull is holed due to battle damage the air inside will keep you alive for several days a week at least. Plenty of time for a rescue or for us the recapture the ship.”

“Out of the mouths of babes…” The Engineer looked at the Captain. “We have been concentrating on the pirates so much we forgot the basics. He’s right. Hell, Hugh you should remember this from the Tri-Space battle back on the old Jupiter. We lost life support for almost a week, remember? Old Chief Martin had to link in the shuttle craft so we didn’t all die. I know you remember that one.”

Nodding his head the captain smiled back at his friend. He chuckled, “I remember Chief Ricky yelling at you when you almost blew up the ship connecting us to that …” He stopped himself. “Sorry gentlemen, that mission is still Top Secret even after all these years. Anyway, yes, losing life support is no big deal under these circumstances. Tad, have your team start ripping out the controls.”

Captain Pigot looked at the Marines. “Good work Ascot! I will have to think of some reward for you. Maybe a feather in your cap, so to speak? Anyway, since my idea of a mission has changed lets try and plan a new one. Is there any way we can either free the hostages or regain the bridge?”

“Sir, the only way that my men and I can gain access to Cargo hold one is to exit the ship and and come back in through the engineering repair hatch here right below the fueling station. To get there we would have to cross the outside of the ship without any of the anti-grav units or jet packs. Those are stored in Cargo hold two.” Yet the Lieutenant and his men were all smiling.

“Kinno, that’s crazy! Anything could happen to you out there and we would not be able to help. There'd be no rescue at all.”

“Sir, we have thought about it and discussed a few tricks to doing it. If we make it they won’t be suspecting us at all. It is rather insane, and we'd have to take several packs of weapons with us, but we think we can do it. Do I have your permission to try?”

The Captain looked at the smiling men. They looked as cheerful as if this was a ‘Sunday picnic’ or something. Fine. Let them try, they were the professionals. “Approved. Permission granted. Don’t die.”

The Marines stood up and left the room. Laughing, Sergeant Sveldig turned to his commander. “You didn’t tell them the real reason we want to do this.”

“We're professionals. I don’t think they know or care that by doing this, we become Marine legends!”

___

“OK ‘heroes’ don’t think I didn’t see those smiles back in my old office. I’ve been around Marines my whole life, I have two brothers in the corps. Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?” Chief Engineer Tad was staring at the five Marines.

“Sir, we don’t have a choice. Eventually those pirates will rush us or use them as human shields. If I had more Marines I would do something different. All I have is cooks.”

“OK Lieutenant, it’s your show. Now come over here and look at this view screen.” The gruff sounding engineer led them over to a tabletop screen viewer. “In case you didn’t know already, this ship is a Fubuki class destroyer. It was originally made for the Pan-Pacific-League navy before the last war.” He stopped at their expressions. “Yes, our ship was built pre-war and is older than all of us, including me. The PPL built 24 of this class. It was originally designed as an anti-pirate ship which given todays circumstances is ironic. Only two of this class survived the war, our ship the Paney and the original one the Fubuki.” He paused and just glared at the Marines. Touching several buttons on the table the Chief brought up a close up of the hull.

“This is important because this ship is rare. It has a few features that other Destroyers don’t. Size is one. We are about 30% bigger than most Empire destroyers. The ship builders envisioned having to do hull repairs en route to new locations without the benefit of a shipyard. At the time these were built there were only about three major yards in the galaxy. Surrounding each hatch is a series of rings or pitons. These were to be used by suited up engineers, they would ‘hook up’ to the ship and be able to move about outside without fear of flying off. We don’t use these anymore. That is what we have shipyards for. But, the pitons are still there in most places. Many have been damaged or removed with successive repairs but there are some there. You can take the rope and carabiners that we found use them to ‘Climb’ the ship.”

“Chief are you sure the rings are still there?” The lieutenant was uncertain of this man’s plan.

The Chief ignored his question. “Every hatch on every Navy ship has a secret pass code known only to engineers. It allows us access to hatches in out of the way places.”

“Wait, what? Do you mean to tell me that anyone can just walk right in with this code? On any Navy ship?” All five Marines were just staring at the engineer with wide eyes. “Do you realize what a huge security risk that is? Who knows this code?”

“Son, you worry too much. That’s why it’s a secret! The code is passed from one engineer to the other. It’s like a rite-of-passage to be let in on the canon of engineering.” He took off his glasses and wiped his forehead and eyes. Putting his glassed back on he glanced at the Marines. All five stood there with their palms of their hands on their faces.

“Chief, if we survive this we need to have a talk about the code. OK? Now what is this mysterious code?”

The Chief Engineer cleared his throat and began to speak in a formal tone. “As it was told to me, in the distant past an Engineer named Tommy got locked out of his ship called the Jenny. Unable to remember the number to get back he was trapped without air and dying, he wrote his wish on the wall for those that came later. In memory of this poor engineer the numbers were at first written on the wall. Later they were learned by all as a remembrance of the Jenny and poor Tommy. The sacred engineering numbers are 8675309.”

One of the Marines, turned his head and started laughing. “Sorry Chief, but that sounds like the biggest bunch of crap I have ever heard in my life.”

“Well private I suppose that if I told the same story but changed it to Corporal Steve White from the Mars Colony that lost his life would you still think that?” All the Marines’ demeanors quickly changed to outrage.

“Sorry if that angers you but I was only using it as an example. I told you that I have Marines in my family. I know that the Corporal’s hand-to-hand battle against the rebel General on Mars is legendary. No offense was intended. Like the Corporal’s statue in Mars Prime city, the Engineering Corps has a mural done in mosaic tile at the Academy. The black and white shades make Tommy come to life on the wall. I will admit that the story is an allegory to always have an escape route planned.” The Marines were grudgingly nodding their heads; having an exit strategy was something they could understand.

“So, back to the ships plan. Just below the number one hold is an access port. It’s a leftover from the original layout of the ship. Before the torpedoes were added this ship could act as a mine layer. There is a small hatch on the bottom of the ship. The larger mine door was sealed and plated over years ago so don’t try and use that. The hatch should be dead center, look for a recessed access panel. It opens up to a small room with a ladder going up. At the top of the ladder is another hatch. Make sure the outer hatch is closed before opening this one.” He stopped and met each of their eyes.

“Understand this, if the lower hatch is not closed all the way, depressurizing alarms will go off everywhere and they will find and destroy you. But we can prevent them from seeing the outer hatch opening. The old system was never updated up on the bridge.”

“Chief where does the inner hatch open up to? I don’t remember any hatches in that area.” The lieutenant was peering at the schematic and scratching his head.

The old Chief chuckled, “No you haven’t seen this one. That’s because it opens up into the waste disposal area. There is a crawl space here,” he pointed on the map. “Once you crawl about five meters there is another ladder leading up. That hatch opens up to the cargo deck lavatory. It is set into the wall in the last stall. I would suggest borrowing a remote stethoscope from the Dr. That may help you to detect if there is someone in the lavatory before you climb through.”

The Chief Engineer stood watching the Marines digest this information. “Do you or your men have any questions for me, Lieutenant?”

“Do you have any suggestions how we should get out with the hostages? I thought that we should try and take the bridge or assault the CIC, but there will be too many mercs for that.”

“I’m not a Marine, son. Should you need to, use this code to seal the hold doors.” He slid the lieutenant a slip of paper. “Because they lead into the hold, the doors are double armored in case of blow outs. From what we have seen on our cameras they don’t have much in the way of cutting tools. So anyone you leave there should be safe.”

The Chief pressed a button on his tablet and there was a knock at the door. The door opened to the smiling face of computer tech Kovak. “Chief, those suits are ready for the jarheads. Was there anything else you needed?”

“No, go ahead and get back to your computers.” Motioning after the tech Chief Tad looked at the Marines. “She got your space suits all tuned up and firewalled against this hacker the pirates have. We have you set up by the fusion vent tubes. Be careful out there, boys.” He handed the lieutenant a small electronic stethoscope. “I figured you would forget. I stole… I mean borrowed this from doc Smith earlier today. Good Luck.” As he watched, the Marines got ready and began putting on their suits. Novak and of the other engineering staff pitched in to help the men.

Novak leaned down to kiss one of the privates goodbye. The Chief saw this and yelled at her, “Novak, he’s a Marine you don’t know where those lips have been!”

___

The tight space of the fusion vent tubes was pure hell in a space suit. If it was this bad going down, coming back up is going to be even harder. Lieutenant Mutai was now considering exiting the suits at the forward hatch. The skin suits they had on, along with the helmets would give them enough air to get in. But it meant no going back if they dumped the suits. He decided to wait until they got there before making that decision.

All Marines are trained in space combat and in using the suits. Most of that training is on a stationary ship with jet packs and anti-grav belts. The acceleration of the ship could be felt immediately when they exited the vents. There were hand holds and as expected pitons within reach of he exit. All five Marines had on makeshift harnesses that held clips, carabiners, and extra rope. They had all clipped on and were very slowly crawling across the bottom of the ship. Single file seemed to be the best option. The first man would clip on and the man at the end would unclasp the carabiners as he passed by them. Sergeant Sveldig was the only one of them with actual climbing experience so he led. Lieutenant Mutai was second followed by privates Ascot, Diamond, and Khat.

The first six meters or so was fairly easy. Clip on and clip off, repeat. They then came to one of those sections that they had been warned about. No pitons. Using the magnification setting on his helmet Sergeant Sveldig peered into the darkness looking for a hook up. The flashes of light from the ships thrusters dimly lit the hull of the ship. The sergeant strained his eyes searching for something, anything to hook up to. There! Off to starboard about two meters away was a piton. Two meters! It might as well have been a mile. With the ship moving they had zero chance of making that if they unhooked.

The sergeant was communicating this to the lieutenant when he was tapped on the shoulder by Private Diamond. “Sergeant what if we swung one of us over to it. These ropes are more elastic then rope. What if we dangle one of us then swing back and forth and ‘throw’ them over to it?”

“Private, that is a crazy idea that we will not be attempting! No gravity to swing from. You will just float off and die.” He thought for a moment. “OK new plan. We backtrack. I think there were some pitons that headed off to starboard about 2 meters back that way.” He pointed behind them.

The Marines reversed course twice more when they could not reach pitons or did not want to chance it. They would need every man for the rescue and assault. It took over two hours, almost to the limit of the air in the suits. Though they had brought emergency back ups along with extra weapons for the rescue.

They finally reached the former mine laying hatch. Lieutenant Mutai had to feel around for the recessed keypad. Up here by the bow there was no light except for their suit lights. Event the stars gave off little lights. The ships movement made it a faint blur, not enough light to see by. Feeling seduced by the moment, the lieutenant said a silent prayer to Jenny and punched in the number. The hatch gave a little tremble and slowly slid open. They had made it.

___

In Engineering computer tech Novak was staring at an antiquated signal board. It had been over two hours and hope for the Marines was beginning to fade. She was typing on her computers working to keep the ‘hacker’ out of the engine systems. Whoever this guy was, he was really good. Just then, there was a soft ‘ding’ and a red light lit up on the board.

“Chief! Chief! They made it! The light lit up!” The tech was jumping up and down.

“Well all right!” Chief Engineer Kościuszko immediately sent a runner, one of the cooks, to the Captain.

Captain Pigot was tired of all this inaction. Finally, some good news! With the Marines in the bow, it was time for the diversion to draw the troops away. He stepped out of his office and looked at the waiting officers and crew.

“The Marines are in position, it’s time. Remember, don’t worry about prisoners, just attack. Let’s go!”

Taking a page from the pirates the crew members pushing an engineering cart in front of them rushed up the corridor taking pot shots at the pirates. Arriving at the secondary defensive point, the ‘assault force’ armed back up and then pushed forward. The force of cooks and assorted crewman were now led by Commander Garcia. Captain Pigot, at the urging of the officers, had elected to stay in the relative safety of the defense point. Garcia was cursing the pirates and yelling at them in his guttural Spanglish.

Pushing the pirates back even further the loyal crew regained the now shattered primary defensive point. Directly in front of them was the burnt out remains of he two pirate guns. The interior bulkheads had sustained severe damage and were bowed in several places. The Dr’s office had been looted and burned in the explosion. The goal of this push was CIC; if they could reach that room their chances of beating off the pirates increased.

Grenades were readied and the navy crew took positions in doorways and behind their rolling barricade.

___

Alvin conferred with ‘Mickey’ his Chief Lieutenant. He had to laugh about that name. As the boss, only he could get away with calling him that. Reuben had gotten drunk one night, really, really drunk and had told Alvin a story about his mother.

Mickey was a lifetime criminal. His parents had been panhandlers and swindlers. Fake home repairs and insurance scams were his fathers game. His mom did it all, everything from selling fraudulent furs to credit fraud. As a child he had been responsible for acquiring the ‘fine fur’ for the coats that his mother sold. That story was so evil, maybe he should tell Jenna that one. The name Mickey came from the other scam she would pull. She would dress him up like the children's cartoon mouse and rent him out to parties. He would conveniently have to use the lavatory or find some other reason to go inside the house. He would rob them blind. Who would suspect a big kid in a mouse costume? Cops would. Nothing beats sitting in the juvie facility dressed like a toy mouse. That was how Reuben ended up making his bones and got so scary. Beating the living crap out of anyone who dissed the mouse!

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.

“See you later, Commander!” I ran for the door. Time to make nice.

As we entered the main hallway Pastafarians were marching behind a giant bowl of noodles yelling “bless you” and throwing noodles. I bowed, caught the noodles and yelled back “Ramen.” Dar was just staring at me.

“Hey its a tradition!”

“Uh, huh. Sure it is.” She was still looking at me kind of funny.

___

On the Station’s command deck Major Minerva Lee was hard at work. She was the new temporary station operations manager. She had passed her squadron off to her second in command. The station crew needed a firm hand and she was the best at that. The crew was a mish-mash of trained Navy and local technicians. Other than the recent runaway fighters there have been no problems so far. She was actually glad to be here. Her father was on the planet dealing with Governor Stoner and some internal strife within the Militia. Politics. She hated all of it. Minerva had dipped her toe in Sector politics once, along with her now former husband, and hated every minute of it. Let her father deal with that mess.

Everything was quiet. Min was hunched over the quartermaster’s desk trying to make sense of a recent requisition for 200 plastic flamingo’s and 30 wading pools. The paperwork was correct and even had her own signature on it. Someone on this station was playing games and heads would roll when she found them. She was just about to start interrogations when the lights in the command center started to flash.

“Major, a ship just entered the system. It is coming in on an erratic path. It just dropped out of light speed. It’s engines appear to be off, they may have suffered a malfunction.”

“Is it a hostile ship or one of ours?” Her techs were the best trained on the station.

“Ma’am it’s the EOM Paney. She wasn't due for another week.”

“What is that ships armament? If it turns hostile can we stop it?”

“Ma’am, the computer records show that it’s a Fubuki class destroyer configured for anti-piracy. So torpedoes, laser batteries, and anti-fighter defense systems.” Her intelligence officer looked concerned. “Ma’am that ship is powerful enough to do some serious harm to this station.”

“Is the Paney answering any of our hails?” Minerva was all business now.

“No, Ma’am. It is yawing a bit to port, the helm would appear to be unmanned.”

“Screw it, Battlestations! I want everything but Ghost squadron in the ‘air’ in five!”

All over Legation Station red lights began to flash and air tight pressure doors flashed warnings, then began to close. Crew and visitors alike ran for the shelters. The Pastafarian bowl was left in the main hall, abandoned.

___

With volunteers in tow the five Marines, slowly made their way toward the command deck and bridge area. So far they had only encountered three unsuspecting pirates. All had been killed silently by the Marines. By Marine standards this operation was becoming a walk in the park. The command deck was one deck up. The lift system opened up in the main corridor between the entrance to the bridge and the weapon stations. There were sure to be hostiles there.

Lieutenant Mutai considered his options. The only alternative he could think of was to send some of his group up the maintenance tube to try to get behind them. Looking over his volunteers he spotted Ensign Tisiphone. If memory served she was a gunnery officer. “Ensign Tisiphone, do you know where the maintenance tube comes out in weapons?”

Finally something to do. She thought for a moment, picturing her section in her mind. “Sir, I believe that it comes out inside the storage closet between the two main batteries. If fact, Engineering technicians were just in there last week switching out the conduits.”

“Do you think that you could lead one of my men and two or the others up the tube to your section? My Marine will help, but since I can’t be in two places at once, you will have to retake the section. Are you up for it?”

“Yes, sir. Count me in!”

“Good; now according to Chief Tod these numbers will open the interior hatch.” He gave her a slip of paper. “Be very careful to not make noise when you exit the hatch. There may not be very many pirates in the section but sound carries. We have noticed that they can be very lazy. Strike hard and fast. Don’t stop for prisoners, just kill them. They all have death sentences anyway and know it. So be careful. Once you control the section, lock the doors down using the second code. Like the cargo bay, that door is armored. The pirates lack the cutting tools to get inside.”

He gave a look of encouragement. “I am taking my group and we will attack the bridge. The Captain’s distraction seems to have worked most of the pirates have been sent aft. Good luck, Ensign!. See you on the other side.”

Ensign Tisiphone watched the lieutenant leave, taking with him the other three Marines and four volunteers. She turned to her new crew and directed the Marine to open up the access tube.

The tube was tight and cramped. The ensign did not know how they did this every day in engineering. Lining the inside of the tube were hundreds of multicolored conduits and wires. How did anyone keep all of this crap straight? She had decided to lead the way. Her weapon skills were as good as most of her small command. And if they ran into trouble in the tube all she would have room to do is point and shoot. For her, climbing the ten feet or so up was not a big deal, she was fairly athletic. Two of the volunteers were from the quartermaster section and looked to be about ten pounds overweight. They almost got stuck climbing up.

Entering the code, the ensign listened carefully before opening the hatch. The lights were off inside the small room. Marine Private Diamond produced a small light from his pocket. He quickly scanned the room looking for threats. The ensign stepped out first, followed by the Marine private. The last three in her party were careful not to make noise. Private Diamond was proving to be a man of many talents. He handed her a stethoscope as she tried to listen to the door. It was dark but she smiled a thank you to him.

“Mitch, it’s your bid, Hey! Mitch! Pay freaking attention! Bid or pass?”

“Sorry, Craig. I thought I heard something.”

“You heard all your credits going into my pocket is what you heard. Bid or pass?”

“OK, OK, bid, bid.”

“What about you Eddie? Bid or pass?”

“I think Eddie has had too much to drink. He will pass and I will take what he has in front of him. You snooze your lose Ed.”

“Hey you're gonna share some of that with the rest of us, right?”

“Sure, sure. Split three ways.”

“Deal the damn cards, Mitch!”

Ensign Tisiphone looked whispered to Private Diamond. “There are four, and they're playing cards. One is drunk and asleep the others sound like they've been drinking.”

The Marine quietly checked his weapon. “You open the door and I’ll slip out. I’ll get their attention with a flash bang, Then I need you to come out blasting. Don’t slow down just shoot them. The rest of you cover the door and watch for reinforcements. Once we're inside, get that door closed and input the code as fast as you can. Everyone understand? OK, let me out.”

Private Diamond slithered out the door his pistol and knife at the ready. The Marine hugged the far wall out of sight of the card players. The three pirates were still arguing over the cards, money, and the bottle they were passing around. Pulling a flash bang grenade from his pocket, Private Diamond took a knee and rolled it across the floor under the table. Less than 3 seconds later the small bomb exploded in a bright flash of light and smoke. The four pirates fell backwards out of their chairs. They jumped up and stated yelling.

Ensign Tisiphone burst out of the closet assault weapon blazing. The Marine private stayed on his knees, firing at the stunned pirates. The other crew members did as they were told and secured the door. As the smoke cleared, all four pirates lay dead in various positions. There was a sudden pounding on the door that cause the young ensign to jump. A few pirates had heard the explosion and were yelling for the four to open the door. “Ignore it,” she ordered the three volunteers. “Help Private Diamond get those bodies moved while I make sure the guns as still operational.”

___

Giving the ensign time to get up the tube, Lieutenant Mutai waited before boarding the lift. He listened up the lift shaft for any sounds of commotion from above. He counted to ten then engaged the lift controls. His men had their guns at the ready, not knowing what was at the top. Halfway up to the next floor he heard a loud bang. This was followed by gunfire. The sounds of running and yelling closely followed. The doors of the lift opened to a now empty corridor. Sounds of banging and loud voices could be heard toward weapons. The ensign had been successful.

With no time to lose he and his men crossed the hall to the bridge entrance. No guards in sight. The door had even been left ajar in the commotion. Very carefully he pushed the door open his pistol at the ready. A womans voice surprised him and he stopped.

“Did you figure out what those idiots set off? Why we put up with those beach bums is beyond me. I’ve tried more than once to get Alvin to just kill them. What do you think, McCoy? McCoy, answer me Dammit!” Jenna turned in the Captains chair to find four Marines and several others pointing guns at her. She bared her sharpened teeth and jumped from the chair directly at Sergeant Sveldig. The surprised sergeant jumped back firing his shotgun directly at her removing most of her head in the process. The rest of the stunned bridge crew opened fire on the Marines.

Ducking behind the Captain’s chair Lieutenant Mutai began firing at the pirate in control of navigation. Sergeant Sveldig yelled at the volunteer troops to “close the damn door.”

Pirates seeing the navy personnel began firing through the open door. The volunteers rushed back to the door to punch in the locking numbers. They began taking fire, and two crewmen went down in a spray of blood. As the fire intensified remaining crew member John Bigbootee one of the janitorial staff managed to get to the door. Slipping and sliding in the blood and gore he entered the numbers that closed and locked the door. Inside, the bridge fire fight was still going on. A pirate sitting behind the communications console opened up on the Marines with, of all things, a rocket launcher, blowing a giant hole in the navigation station. Another hit with the rocket launcher blew Private Khat to pieces as he tried to pull the sergeant to safety. Shots from all sides killed the rocketeer in seconds.

The bridge was now a smoking ruin. Navigation was a total loss. Communications was still on fire and weapons had smoke pouring from it. Not being a bridge officer Lieutenant Mutai only knew the basics. The ship was in jump but would exit into the Hong Kong sector in less than an hour. The ship ‘could’ still be controlled from CIC if they could recapture it. Everything rested on the Captain and his force of cooks, now.

___

Minerva had given the flight squadrons five minutes; they did it in three. Within three minutes the station was fully armed and operational. The Paney was still coming in at an odd angle. Min ordered one squadron of fighters to intercept the destroyer. The other was to patrol the system.

Militia commander Bob Conrad was the commander of the Black sheep fighter squadron. His unit was composed of misfits and one-offs. Most of his pilots flew Fuglies and Stuka’s. When the FLEA scientists had dug into the warehouse looking for things to fight with, they had uncovered a few hanger queens and fighter prototypes. Someone had taken the idea of a vid ship and had twisted it. He now flew Fuglie 1 which closely resembled something a Sith lord would fly. The fighter had nice guns with a really cool targeting system. The problem was that the controls were very touchy. He would need all of his skill and experience to fly this thing.

“OK sheep, form up. ‘Dive bomb’ get back into formation!”

“Sorry ‘Papa-san’ I hit the wrong switch.”

“Dive bomb, put down the sandwich and start flying. Don’t lie to me.”

Commander Conrad call sign ‘Papa-san’, sighed and thought, “Fighter pilots are nothing but big children.”

“Everyone knows the mission. Don’t fire first. This ship could be on our side! If they do ‘attack,’ take out their engines and power supply first. The Paney is an anti-pirate destroyer is designed to destroy fighters! Let’s go.”

The rogue destroyer was still at the systems edge. The fighters would not be able to intercept for at least thirty minutes.

____

Alvin-the-taker was angry now. This whole charade was poorly planned. He should have taken control of the ship the first night they were on it. He just had to listen to that Dammed Governor who told him to wait until needed. What a crock of crap that was! Somehow, the Navy pukes had figured out they were not really replacements and had been prepared for his move. To keep control of the ship they NEEDED to take that damned engine room!

“Alvin, Alvin. I found it, I know how they knew!” His computer hacker Carson was chasing after him. His bodyguards grabbed the young fool before he got himself killed.

“What are you trying to tell me? Knew what! Speak!”

“They have cameras everywhere. It’s a separate system, not listed in the specs. That is how they know what we’re doing. Sir, look over there” he pointed above the door. “See that little bump there, it’s a camera. They are watching us!”

“What camera?” Alvin drew his gun, blowing a large hole in he bulkhead where the ‘camera’ was.

“Find the rest of those cameras and destroy them! Good work Carson! You get to live a little longer.”

A series of explosions and gunfire caused his bodyguards to react, heads swiveling they covered Alvin bodily.

“Get off me you idiots! That was behind us. Find out what that idiot McCoy is doing!”

His second in command Reuben came around the corner.

“Mickey! What in the hell is going on?”

“Damn it, Alvin you know I hate that name. The Navy pukes are attacking us from the aft. And somehow, a small force attacked the weapons room and have closed and locked the door. We lost the bridge too. Our boys killed a few of them, but we can’t get the door open to kill the rest.”

“You lost the Fecking Bridge! And Weapons! You idiot, they have us trapped in the middle of the ship! What kinds of fools did you leave in charge up there!” Alvin drew his gun and was using it to make a point. He waved it at the surrounding pirates. “You. Have. Killed. Us. Did you hear me? Mickey? You have killed us!”

Reuben’s face was bright red and he was shaking with anger. “Alvin you son-of a bitch! You were the one who left Jenna in charge up on the bridge. It was your cousin Eddie that was in charge of weapons. My fault. You say that this mess is all my fault? It’s you Alvin, you caused all of this.” Reuben wore two pistols in a cross draw over his chest. He quickly drew both of them and began firing at Alvin’s bodyguards. Reuben was yelling as he fired. “Your dammed body guards are ‘pixie-dust’ feckers if they think they can protect you!”

Two of Alvin’s guards were down, bleeding out on the floor. Alvin had his pistol out and was blasting away at Reuben. Stray shots had already hit a few of the pirate bystanders. Many had jumped for cover. Hiding in doorways or behind consoles. Very few had any thoughts of stopping them. Killing for position was the pirate way.

His left arm now useless with a hole in his shoulder streaming blood, Reuben dropped his pistol and reached for one of his grenades. Unlike the grenades of old this only required a button sequence to be pushed. Grabbing one at random one-handed, he lobbed the small bomb at his former boss. Alvin was crouched behind the pile of his bleeding, dead, and dying bodyguards. He saw the grenade arcing toward him. He dove to port, rolling behind a rolling cart filled with ammunition. Realizing his mistake too late, he pressed himself flat to the floor saying one of the first prayers to the space gods in his life.

Reuben’s grenade was a fragmentation-white phosphorus type explosive. It landed next to the rolling cart and exploded. Flaming white phosphorus was sprayed in all directions. The burning metal is very dangerous to flammable things like clothing and skin. Once ignited it will burn until it runs out of material or oxygen.

A shard of the burning metal landed on Alvin’s back, setting him ablaze. Other flaming shards landed on some of the cowering pirates and amongst the cart load of ammunition setting it ablaze.

Reuben slumped to the ground and began to choke, hot acrid white smoke began to fill the corridor. Many of the pirates doubled over as their lungs burned from he exposure to phosphorus. The smoke began cooking the pirates from the inside out. Ship smoke alarms began to blare, red and yellow lights flashed as the fail-safe systems alerted crew to the danger. The air-tight corridor doors slammed shut in a effort to contain the ‘fire’ trapping the pirates inside.

Alvin staggered to his feet; his back was on fire, melted bits of his ship suit dripping to the floor. He drew his knives and lurched toward Reuben. He tried to curse his former right hand man but his tongue and throat were burned raw from the hot smoke. Stumbling over the burning bodies of his guards, Alvin fell to the floor. He caught his fall with his arms. The more than third degree burns on them caused him to scream out in pain. Crawling now, he gripped the blades in his hands beating them upon the floor as he crawled.

Reuben got to his knees, he recognized the burning for what it was and knew to escape he had to get to safety. He had just regained his footing when Alvin struck him from behind sinking both knives into Reuben’s hip and upper thigh. The two pirates fell to the ground one on top of the other. Alvin pulled out his knives and struck again. Screaming in pain Reuben twisted his body throwing Alvin off. The smoke was getting thicker now as the fires burned off all of the oxygen. Both combatants were bleeding heavily and were short of breath. Neither had the strength to escape. The fire on Alvin’s back had burned into his organs. The pain was excruciating. The pirate, breathing his last choking breath, threw his bloody knives in Reuben’s direction. Both knives missed and bounced off the bulkhead wall.

Reuben groaned in utter agony. He gripped his wounded hip and thigh but had nothing to stop the blood with. His throat now burned and raw he was unable to even talk. The wounds that Alvin had inflicted spelled his doom. Unable to walk or even crawl Reuben tried to take a deep breath and failed dying just within reach of his enemy.

With the pirate command shattered the remaining pirates started searching for ways to escape. With the central corridor locked down all access to the escape pods was blocked. The pirates guarding the shuttle bays were surprised by the fleeing survivors of Alvin’s battle. The flight bay only held two small shuttles a battle started for access to them. Only one small group of pirates led my the former XO, McCoy, survived the fight. The small party of eight split up and each took a ship. They launched their way to freedom, right into the ‘arms’ of Commander Conrad and his flying Black Sheep.

Chapter 7

Commander Conrad’s Black Sheep were closing with the rogue destroyer. The ship’s course was still very erratic. The commander had ordered his pilots to scan the ship and search for hostile activity. He, very carefully, brought his ship in close and peered through the bridge windows. The inside of the bridge appeared to be scorched and blackened as if from battle damage. He could see movement inside, so maybe their communication array was damaged. Broadcasting on all frequencies was met with silence.

“Papa-san, the flight bay doors, starboard side, are opening!”

The Commander checked his readout. No hostile activity and no scanning from the destroyer. “Cover the the bay, watch for surprises. If anything comes out lock it up and demand it surrender. I can see battle damage on the inside but no out here. Something is not right on this ship.”

“Yes, sir. Right away.”

All of the fighters called in an affirmative to the new orders. The commander continued to scan the exterior of the ship. No recent battle damage detected. Did they have a fire inside?

“Sir we have two potentially hostile shuttles exiting the destroyer.”

“Roger that Skid mark, form up and escort them to the station. Tell them to surrender. If they try to run shoot them down.”

“Roger that commander.”

____

Former Commander McCoy was freaking out. He had a ship load of wounded clan members who were looking at him to lead. With the death of both Alvin and Reuben, the leadership role had fallen to him. For greater survivability he had told the burned and bleeding survivors to go in opposite directions. The Bad Penny clan needed to survive. When the shuttles left the destroyer they had run smack into a Fuglie squadron. These ships just had to be planetary Militia.

“Unknown shuttles, unknown shuttles, you have violated Hong Kong planetary space. Shut down any weapons and follow us to the Station. Failure to do so will result in your destruction.”

McCoy was racking his brain on how to survive this when he had a thought. Alvin had a deal worked out with Governor Norton, the Sector Governor. Maybe this could still work, everyone was always open to profitable deals. “Signal the other ship, tell them to surrender. We can still get out of this alive. The Sector Governor is a friend to the Bad Penny clan.” The other pirates all smiled.

Maybe McCoy would be good as leader.

___

Major Minerva Lee was watching the progress of the Conrad’s squadron and the flight path of the destroyer Paney. If no course corrections were made, the ship would strike the fifth moon in 12 hours and most likely be destroyed. One of her aides lightly tapped her arm, she jumped slightly.

“Sorry, Ma’am. Commander Conrad reports that they intercepted two shuttles trying to leave the destroyer. They are being escorted in to us. He further reports that they left the hanger bay doors open. This might be an opportunity to board the ship and change its course.”

“Thank you Ensign. Alert our security forces, I want the hanger bay on full lock down and extra security. Who knows what is going to come off those shuttles. Call me when the ships dock, I want to be there to assist in the interrogations. Also, see if you can contact Sergeant Yannos Thoukudides and his Special forces unit. I have a job for them.”

She dismissed the ensign and continued to watch the ship tracks on the big screen. She really wished that she were out there with them. Maybe one day. What was it that her mother used to say ‘if wishes were fishes we would be up to our necks in scales.’

___

Sergeant Yannos had a desk full of paperwork in front of him. He was watching his core unit of special forces wizards training the next generation. Small groups of young people were being screamed at, made to complete complex tasks, exercised till they fell down, and get the young beaten out of them, figuratively of course. Good times. It was a glorious time to be an instructor. Except for the paperwork and requisitions, those sucked. He had just turned back to the pile when his link chimed. He stopped and checked the time. Lunch had been over for a few hours so it wasn’t the little woman. Checking his mail he read the first line and whooped. His security raced into the room, guns drawn looking for the threat. He calmed them down and sent them off on a mission. Locate his first and second squads and sent them to him immediately. Like right fecking now!

His squads were assembled in front of his field office. Yannos left the office, uniform gone and weapons at the ready. “OK everyone, go get your space togs. We have a mission up there that is perfect for us.” He pointed towards the sky. In less then twenty minutes both squads were dressed, loaded, and gone. Yannos was not the only one in a hurry to get away for a while.

____

New clan leader McCoy watched Legation Station come into view. He could see construction drones repairing what looked like battle damage. There was another Militia squadron of fighters patrolling the area. He looked back at his fellow clan members and reminded them of the story they were to use. “Tell them that there was a mutiny and that you are survivors. We only have to pretend until I can get in touch with Governor Norton. He is a friend to the Clan and can help us get back on our feet.”

The station slowly filled the viewscreen. Had there been a battle here? Something was bothering him about the look of the station, but he could not think of what was wrong. His communication system crackled and a voice was heard.

“Unknown shuttle, lock on and follow the landing beam in to the hanger bay. No deviations will be allowed.”

McCoy was starting to worry. Was the Governor still on the clan’s side? It was at his orders that Alvin had brought the Paney here. He punched the buttons on the console and locked on to the guide beam. His ‘escort’ of fighters broke off and circled back behind him. He could see anti-ship turrets, along with laser batteries locking and tracking their guns in synch with the movement of his shuttle.

The hanger bay was empty but for five suited workers that directed the two ships into a landing platform. The hanger doors began to close with a loud grinding groan. A loud BOOM signaled that the doors had closed. A loud rushing noise could be heard as the bay was re-pressurized.

Several squads of station security moved in and surrounded the shuttles. Squad mounted weapons were set up, all aimed at the shuttle doors. McCoy pressed the button that cycled the door open. Fresh air rushed into the cabin of the shuttle, allowing all inside to breathe freely. As the one in command he stepped through the hatch and onto the ramp. Immediately he was surrounded. He felt his guns being taken from him. Several heavily armed troops brushed past him and shouted at the rest of his people. “Everyone out of the shuttle. Hands in the air. If we see any weapons we will stun first and ask questions later.” He then repeated the instructions in Spanglish, Rus, and Greco-chin.

The rest of McCoy’s people slowly filed out of the shuttle, down the ramp. Many of the clan members were still bleeding from gun and knife wounds. Others had third degree burns on their arms and exposed skin. Some had to be carried off the ships.

Station security took one look at the burned and battered people and immediately called for medical assistance.

McCoy was led to a small holding area and a large woman with the oak leaves of a Major sat down in front of him. She asked him some basic questions to begin with. Who he was, what were they doing on the Paney, and why was the ship off course. He answered all of their questions carefully. They were trying to trip him up. More questions were asked. Then they started over. On the third time around he demanded to speak to Governor Norton. “The Governor is a friend of my family.” He would not allow this interrogation to go on. He had a business deal with the Governor and was here to negotiate with him. The ‘major’ in front of him had stopped her questions at the first mention of Governor Norton. Finally, if they could just put me in touch with the Governor he could clear everything up.

McCoy asked himself a question. “Why had everyone in the room gotten so quiet?” He studied the woman in front of him. She was dressed in the same uniform as the troops who had arrested him. The ‘something strange’ that his mind had been struggling with finally rang a bell in his brain. No Empire symbols. On the outside of the station they had all been removed. The womans uniform and that of the others in the hanger bay had been Militia. Uh, oh.

____

Minerva could not believe her ears. Norton! This supposed ‘refugee’ was associated with Norton. This sheds a new light on what this ‘Commander’ had said, interesting. She decided to keep this Commander McCoy locked up along with his crew members in the hanger bay. The wounded would be placed under guard. It was time for Yannos and his team to solve this mystery for them.

Her prisoner was put in chains and dragged out. He was yelling at her to listen to him. She turned, cocked her head to one side and said, “OK I’m listening. What do you want?”

“Connect me with Governor Norton. He is a close friend of my family.”

Min nodded her head at him. “That is very interesting ‘commander’.” She smiled. “About a month ago your ‘friend’ killed about 10 thousand of our people, when he had the ESS security force open fire on a peaceful demonstration. Among the dead were my bother and sister-in-law. This callous murder of our friends and neighbors resulted in a planetary revolution. Your friend lost. This station is now under the control of the Militia! What is really funny, is that I was starting to believe your story about a mutiny and false orders. That is until you mentioned Norton. If you had kept your mouth shut, you may have survived what is to come.” Waving the guards back in she said, “take him away and lock him up.”

“Is the special forces group here yet?” Her aide informed her that they had arrived on station and were waiting for her.

“Excellent! Lets go solve a mystery.” With her aide and bodyguards in tow, the Major strode off toward her ready room.

Sergeant Yannos could not be more excited. A ship assault and boarding. Just getting a shot at more of that bastard Norton’s friends was a bonus. These kinds of things is what he and his team lived for. The Major had given him the recap of the information that they already had.

“Yannos, so far it is like this. This commander and his people all claim that the ship had a mutiny, they claim to have fought off the mutineers and escaped. This McCoy got very descriptive about false orders and plots against the Empire. Very believable until he mentioned Norton’s name. Most of his people are sticking to that story. However, we have about a half dozen of them in the hospital. Under drugs and careful questioning we now have at least part of the story.” She paused.

“There was a mutiny. These people were the mutineers. They are really members of the Bad Penny clan of mercenaries and pirates. Our former Governor Norton put them on board as replacements with the goal of taking the ship. For what purpose only he knows. There was some sort of battle on the ship where a phosphorus grenade was involved.” Yannos and his team all winced at that. Someone actually used that on a ship? Idiots.

“These people are fleeing that disaster. Most of them are pretty incoherent so we still have zero idea of the real status of that ship and those still on it. Your job is to find out what in the HELL is going on! Either get control of that ship or get the loyal crew off. You have about six hours before it impacts on the moon.” She looked Yannos in the eye. “I see a question in those eyes of yours. I have sent my best interrogation specialists to go and have a little chat with the former Governor and his aide, my husband. We should have some answers soon about his ‘need’ for a Navy destroyer. Now, get moving soldier!”

___

I was working on the upper level lift system when the station had gone to red alert and lock down. Wilson my ever present AI had informed me of the situation. I had him working with the computer tech ‘twins’ trying to rebuild the lift electronics. During the troubles last month this system has been fried during the assault. Even though it had been repaired it still kept stopping between floors, not going to the correct floor, or in one case the doors opened but no lift was present. So I, as ‘Chief Engineer’, decided use an old Engineering adage. “When in doubt, rip it out!” Full replacement for the system. I could hear Wilson talking to the two computer techs through one of their tablets. Even though the little maniac contests my accusations, I think that he may be behind the wild ride they both took. Talking to them will be penance for him.

My link dinged so I stopped trying to fit the lift motors into place. It was hard work. OK I will admit that I am supervising, but just watching is hard work. I told the maintenance techs to take five. “Sergeant Yannos, what can I do for you today?”

“Lieutenant Lee, are you available to help my team and I with a mission?”

“I would need to check with Major Lee since she controls the station now, but I think can do that, What is going on?”

The good sergeant explained the situation, telling me of the out of control ship. “Let me check something.” I put the conversation with him on hold. “Wilson I need you.”

“What’s up Athena? Those two girls are really funny. I like, should have talked to them more when we went on, Oops. Uh, I meant to say that I just met them and like how funny they are.”

“When we get back we will have a conversation about wild rides and other strange happenings on this station, OK? For now I need you to focus. Dig up everything you have on the EOM Paney. Class, schematics, crew, orders, whatever it is I want it.”

“OK, Athena you got it.”

I reconnected with Yannos and his conversation. “I have someone checking into information on that ship. What I do know is that it’s an old one. From the design it looks pre-war. Without knowing the modifications that have been made to it I can’t be sure I can get control. But I would be willing to try. Do we have a way in or do I need to find us a hatch we can open. That number I gave you last time should work on that ship too.”

Yannos chuckled, “we still need to have a talk about that number. I had forgotten. The security concerns alone boggle my mind. Does the Navy fleet commanders even know about the all the backdoors into their ships and stations? Don’t answer that yet. We can talk about it later. Your sister the Major, has given approval if you wish to come along. We could really use your help.”

“OK sergeant let me go get my things, where can I meet you?”

“We are in hanger bay one. See you in thirty.”

___

Back on the Paney, Lieutenant Mutai was helpless. Between he and his Marines they could perform basic command functions on the bridge. That had been part of their training. Of course that training was on a functional ship. Not one with burnt out bridge controls. The fire alarms had gone off a short while ago, all the air tight doors had slammed down. It was either a hull breach or something more serious like a ship fire. None of them had their ship suits anymore so either would be very bad. The readouts on the bridge had stopped working so he and his team were trapped. All they knew was what they could see out the view ports, which was not much. His hope was that Captain Pigot had been successful and had retaken the rest of the ship.

Captain Pigot was at a loss to understand what had happened to his ship. The attack on the pirates had been going so well. The CIC had been recaptured and a new temporary defensive wall had been built. The increase in gunfire has shown that the diversion worked. More pirates had been pulled away to help fight his men. Hopefully the Marine attack went well. The smoke and fire alarms had gone off after an explosion toward the bow. His men had reported white smoke boiling down the corridor just before the air tight doors had slammed down sealing the ship. CIC was a mess. The pirates had ripped out systems to deny control of the ship to the crew. Commander Kościuszko’s techs were unable to repair it. Monitors set up in Engineering could tell that the ship was no longer jumping, but not its location or what had caused the fire. It was all very maddening for the captain. He missed his readouts and computer controls, without them he felt lost.

___

Admiral Emily Kane, the new fleet commander, was hard at work in her office. Pirate attacks were on the rise all across the Empire. The recent destruction of the O’Malley clan and its leaders had helped to stem the tide but it was like a raging forest fire. Put out one spot and another pops up behind you. It almost seemed organized. She made a personal note to put the Intelligence service on that thought. Maybe an outside force was influencing things.

As she studied her monitors, making notations here and there, her screens went red and an unusual symbol began flashing on the screen. She sat up straight and quickly typed in a very long access code. She was receiving a report on a little used, mostly unknown communication system. This system was supposed to only be used in cases of dire emergency or potential invasion.

Reading the message here eyes widened. She pulled up all communications and orders that had been sent to the EOM ship Paney in the Hong Kong system. There was nothing in official Navy communications that ordered the replacement of half a ship’s complement of crew! What was going on in that sector? She pressed a control on her console. “Margaret? Get me Commander Nelson in Intelligence as soon as possible. Tell him I want everything he has about the Hong Kong system and Sector Governor Norton. I want him in my office no later than an hour from now.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Right away.” Her aide was very efficient.

If what this message from Captain Pigot says is true, they may have a fully armed Navy destroyer in the hands of pirates. She needed to respond to this threat.

Commander Barry Nelson was in her office in thirty minutes. Smart man. “Admiral, I got here as fast as I could.” Holding up a tablet he stated, “this is everything that we have on Governor Norton and the Hong Kong system. We actually have been tracking him for some time. The recent corruption accusations against many of the sector governors have allowed us to investigate them. He is living beyond his means. Corporate sponsors have been using him to gain control of the local government and its people. The primary planet in the system is an important agrarian world. They supply about 10% of the food we use to make ship rations. The Norton has raised taxes and has been building casino’s and red light districts on the planet. We in intelligence, think that his goal is to bring in the corporate mechanized farming guilds and push out the locals. He is raking in a lot of credits fleecing money from visiting navy ships in his casinos and strip clubs.”

Admiral Kane showed the Commander the message she had received. “What do you make of this? If the orders came from the Governor, why does he need one of our ships? As a Sector Governor he can just order them to do something, that is his right.”

“Admiral he may be working with the pirates in that sector. We have reports” he stopped and searched his tablet. “We have reports of several pirate clans working openly in that area. What if he is keeping us off of them for some secret agenda? I am just speculating here.”

“Put more people on it Commander. Start looking deeper at those other Governors with similar accusations. I think we need to send a fleet response to this threat. That will be all, for now. Dismissed.”

The Admiral considered her options for a few minutes. “Margaret? Can you get Admiral Darlan on the phone for me?”

Within moments Margaret had him on the ‘phone’ for her. “François I need for you to send a task force to the Hong Kong system. Pirates may have taken over one of our ships. We need to figure out what is going on and stop it.” She nodded her head as he argued not sending a fleet and just sending one ship. “No, NO. Damn it, Follow my God Dammed orders! You will send Task Force 25 to that system or I will bust you so far that you will be the oldest damn ensign in the whole frigging fleet! Do you understand me, Admiral! Fine, good, tell Commodore Vakulinchuk that he is to investigate the pirate threat and to stop it if possible. Any other issues he it to refer to higher upon. We do not need another incident with a sector government. We have already had two more than we should have had in recent months.”

Damn that man! He is another one that intelligence needs to take a hard look at. Too many officers in the navy these days act like orders given are only a suggestion. Maybe a few executions are in order. Oh well I can only dream.

___

Commodore Vakulinchuk was the commander of Task Force 25. This group of ships was his baby. He had conceived of a anti-piracy fleet that would jump into a system wipe out the pirate ‘nests’ and then jump out. The local forces would take care of clean up. His goal was to take the fight to the pirates, not the other way around. He had a personal grudge to settle, pirates had killed or enslaved his whole family on Tendra 2 in the Rus system. Unfortunately, in his rush to put the fleet together and find targets, he made a few political enemies. Because of that, his recent assignments for the fleet had been very quiet systems, not a pirate in sight.

His new orders took him completely by surprise. He carefully read his new orders noting the fine print about contacting higher authority. He had heard rumors about corruption charges and other crimes surrounding some members of the government. He was from Rus, that sort of thing was not that unusual there. He alerted his aides to sound a recall of all crew members from liberty. He should be able to get there in a week or so.

Chapter 8

I held my briefing during the shuttle ride out to the destroyer. I looked at Sergeant Yannos and his two squads. The ten of us were about to enter the unknown. Should be fun!

“OK boys and girls here is what I know about the EOM Paney.” I typed a quick message to Wilson on my tablet and a holographic representation was beamed out of it.

“It is a pre-war Fubuki class destroyer. It was originally configured as a pirate fighting ship. Things you might need to know. It is bigger than most destroyers by about 30%. Most of that is in length and girth. It has more armor too. According to the fleet records that I was able to access, it has double the armor and more compartments than newer vessels. This is one tough ship. From talking to the fighter squadron shadowing it, I learned that the ‘pirates’ left the hangar bay open. We should be able to get in from there. If not we could use the fusion vent tubes, again.” I heard audible groans after I said that. “So hangar bay it is. The special code that I gave Yannos should work on most doors. If I can get to the computer system and access it, I have a few other tricks I can use.”

I looked at the time counter. “We have just under four hours before this ship makes contact with the moon and is destroyed. Don’t get bogged down. Any questions?”

Corporal Anton raised his hand. “Yes, corporal. Do you have a question?”

“Yes, Ma’am. This feature here,” he pointed to the hologram. “Does that tunnel go the length of the ship?”

“It does. It is similar to our engineering tubes back on the station. When this ship was built, shipboard engineers did most of the repairs, not shipyards.”

“My question is, can we use it to access the ship?”

“Of course you can, I thought I said that. If you do, be very careful. Most of the ship’s electrical conduits run through there as well as the navigation and communication lines.” I left the hologram up, so they could map out routes and look at the ship.

“One more thing. I got this information from fleet engineering records. Not every ship’s engineer reports every modification that they do. There may be differences when we get inside the ship. Be very aware of that.”

“Excellent briefing Lieutenant Lee. More information that we were expecting. Where did you get so much of that information?

“Sergeant, it is in most Empire databases. I am not a computer expert. You would need to ask one of the station techs, try either DI or DJ. But, why I know is because every network on the major ships and stations are linked. When they update everyone gets the same information. You do need special access keys to see some of it, but the information is there.”

“That surprises me, because any time that we had asked for information about a target we were always told that it was unavailable or hard to obtain.”

“I’m sorry Yannos. Most likely your briefer was unaware of the system or just too lazy to go and look it up.”

“Attention back there we are five minutes out, five minutes people!”

In a loud voice Yannos got his group’s attention. “OK everyone. Suit up! Let’s get ready.”

___

Lieutenant Mutai had a new hope about his predicament. He and his squad of Marines, were still trapped on the bridge. None of the controls were functional except for life support and they did not dare tamper with that! Private Ascot had seen movement outside the ship. Kinno had ordered the men to scrape off some of the smoke and fire residue that coated the bridge windows. A squadron of Fuglies and one strangely, evil looking ship was now escorting the destroyer. Unable to see very clearly, the Marines concluded that they must be a pirate group come to finish them off.

If there were more pirates his men would fight them to their last breaths. Better to go down fighting than work yourself to death in the radiation mines.

___

Seth and the five idiot cowboys were still alive. When the fire alert had started the tube they were in lit up like a casino sign. Bright, flashing lights everywhere. Recognizing them Seth forced the first hatch they came to open and pulled the cowboys in after him.

“Seal that hatch you flaming idiot. This is not the time to go lallygagging around getting your breeches all knotted up, shit fire.” Seth stopped talking and covered his mouth with his hands. What is association with these hicks doing to him?

Looking around he realized that they were in one of the quartermaster storerooms. Prying open a crate he hoped that maybe they stored alcohol here and he could get rip-roaring drunk. Fate is cruel. Paper products and and cleaning supplies. Seth checked the air tight door to the corridor. It was warm to the touch and sealed up tighter than a minister’s daughter on Sunday.

He had to get away from these five cowboys. He just had to.

Turning around he saw that they had placed boxes in a circle and were telling stories to each other. They were passing around a bag of chewing tobacco. Sighing, Seth sat down next to Flint as he told his story. When the bag came around he just stared at it for a while. Finally he took a chunk and started chewing.

___

Surprisingly, no one contested our landing inside the hangar bay of the Paney. We knew that it was not a dead ship because Commander Conrad swore, that someone was on the bridge. We parked our assault shuttle for best possible exit with the bow facing outward. Depending on what we found inside, we might have to leave in a hurry. The two shuttle pilots were not part of out group and stayed behind. They had been assigned personal weapons and space suits, but we told them to stay safe inside their ships. If we did not return within one hour from the destroyer’s impact on the moon. They were not to come look for us. They had orders to save the ships and their lives first.

We decided to leave the hangar bay doors open. They were shuttles not tanks. If we had to leave in a hurry, we might not have time to open the doors. Crashing through the doors would destroy the shuttles and us.

The airlock controls were covered in what looked like dried blood. There was a story here. I said a prayer to Jenny and punched in the override numbers. The airlock door hissed open. Sergeant Yannos and his team entered first with me last. I punched in numbers again and the door closed. There was a hissing and blowing noise as the air inside the airlock equalized. I was about to open the door when Yannos grabbed my hand.

“Hold on Lieutenant. Let me check the door first. The interrogations that intelligence did said something about white smoke or gas killing some of the pirates.” He pulled out a sensor package of some kind and affixed it to the door. Lights began to blink rapidly then settled into a pulsing pattern.

My hands started to itch. I really wanted to examine that little thing. I subvocalized to Wilson. “If you get a chance, scan that thing and get the spec’s on it. I want to build one of those!”

“Did you say something Lieutenant Lee?” Sergeant Yannos was looking in my direction.

“Sorry sergeant. I was mumbling to myself I do that sometimes.” Quickly, I changed the subject. “What does your little ‘toy’ say about the door?”

“This?” He held the gizmo up, then quickly put it away. “ That is something that was made for special forces, it isn’t that important. The door is fine. Oxygen levels on the other side are a little low and there are large amounts of phosphorus pentoxide in the air. I would suggest we keep our space suits on just in case.

“Phosphorus pentoxide,” I thought for a moment. “You only get high concentrations of that when you use phosphorus munitions like smoke grenades. Who would use something like that on a spaceship? The effects would be horrific.”

The whole team was looking at me with surprise visible on their faces. “Oh, very good Lieutenant. I didn’t know that you knew combat engineering, too.”

I laughed at the special operations team. “You look at me and all you see is a short, but cute, blond playing dress up. Don’t you? You forget that I had 15 years to do lots of reading and studying on a variety of topics out in my little ‘retreat’ in Diablo sector. I am smarter than you think I am Mr. Yannos.” I had moved close to him and was poking him in the chest to make my point crystal clear. “Any more comments any of you would like to make?” I looked around the room at the others. “Good. Let’s go find some people shall we?” Reaching over I pressed the open button.

The airtight door opened with a whoosh. Lying on the deck, directly in front of the door, were the remains of five or six pirates. From the amount of dried blood and gore it appeared that several had been shot, the rest cut into pieces during some sort of fight. There was a blood trail leading off to starboard. Someone had crawled away from this.

Yannos motioned to two of his squad to go check it out. We didn’t touch the bodies, except to move them out of the way of the door. The two men returned, they found one dead pirate about twenty feet away in a pool of blood. Staying together, we headed toward the bow of the ship. We knew that someone was alive on the bridge. Ahead of us was another airtight door, this led to the main corridor running the length of the ship. Once again Yannos used his scanning device to check for danger.

In my head I heard Wilson. “Athena that little thing he has is pretty cool. It has more computing power than three of your engineering tablets. I got a good scan off of it. I think I can tweak the system a little and build you a better one if you like.” I nodded my head, you bet I wanted one of those things.

Yannos motioned me over to him. “Lieutenant the main corridor is highly contaminated with phosphorus pentoxide. Can we go around?”

I pulled out my tablet and brought up the schematics for the ship. If my map was correct, the only way to get to the bridge was through the main corridor There were a few air ducts that might work but we would not fit inside in the spacesuits we had on. I explained all of this to Yannos to get his opinion.

Carefully, I opened the door to the main corridor. Using an override code I slowed the door. Wisps of white smoke and flakes of ash rolled through the doorway. The fire had gone out with the lack of oxygen to fuel it. Battle damage was evident in both directions. Since we knew for a fact that people were alive on the bridge, we went there first. As we approached the bow we found more dead pirates. The effect of the phosphorus pentoxide at full concentration in a sealed corridor, caused many of these people to choke and die on their own vomit, the bodies were surrounded by dried pools of it on the deck.

We skirted past the dead, trying not to look too closely. The battle damage to the walls was worse here. This is what had killed the pirates. My skilled eyes could trace where the explosion occurred. From my reading, I knew what a grenade blast in an armored corridor was supposed to look like. Only a fool would use a grenade on a ship! Especially a phosphorous one. The remains here were only the charred outlines of people. Their bodies incinerated completely, something that you would find in an ancient city. Not a spaceship in the modern age. Hot burning metal had struck containers of ammunition causing secondary explosions that had scarred the corridor in both directions. Only the absence of oxygen had stopped this disaster from getting much worse.

The doors to the bridge were closed and locked. The flashing lights above the door proclaimed it to be combat sealed. Impenetrable to most attack weapons. It could only be opened from the inside.

Staring at the door I had an idea. “Wilson, is it possible to hack the door using that gizmo of Yannos’? Tell me if I get it wrong. That tool he has can scan through a solid object and detect minute traces of whatever is on the other side. Plus, I bet it can scan for signal waves and other forms of communication. If it can scan, it should be able to sent too. Do I have the tools and equipment on me to change it from a receiver to a controller?”

“Yes, you do Athena. You will have to dismantle one of the backup communicators and laser pistol power supply. Once you have the parts, access the Special Operations scan unit. If you cross connect the acoustic sine wave generator with the..” Wilson has a tendency to drone on a bit.

I looked at Yannos and motioned to him. We touched helmets to make communication easier. “Lieutenant, we have explosives, we can blow the door. But, it will most likely kill everyone inside from the shock wave.” I shook my head.

“No, Sergeant Yannos. I have a better way. I can hack my way in. But, I will need that Special operations toy that you have in your pocket. I will have to rewire it and add a few parts. I can fix it for you later, it won’t be permanent.”

He was silent for a moment. “How do you know that my device can do what you need?” He was giving me the ‘eye’ now.

“I am an Engineer. Show me something, even for a minute and I can figure it out. There really is only a couple of ways that thing could work the way that it does.”

“This is the only one that we have left. All the others were either destroyed in the war or when they discharged us. As far as we can tell, it is unique. Can you promise me that you can repair it?”

I heard Wilson mutter in my ear “we can make you faster, stronger, ….” He was off in la la land again. Such a weirdo.

“Yes, Yannos I can repair it. I promise. If I break it, I will make you another one.” I held out my hand.

He almost hesitantly handed it to me.

“I am going to need one of the backup communicators and a laser pistol power-pack. Those, you will not get back.”

I brushed the equipment and debris off of one of the supply carts that sat in the corridor. Taking the power-pack apart I set its components off to one side. The communicator I dismantled to get at the broadcast circuit board. Gingerly, I took the special operations machine and removed its inspection plate. The circuitry was of an older design, but one I was still familiar with. Using parts I had removed I added to the ‘gizmo’. The added power-pack should boost the broadcast capability and allow me to hack the door controls. Muttering to myself, I had Wilson run a diagnostic to make sure that my connections were solid. Using riggers or duct tape. I secured the power pack to the new broadcaster circuit.

My reconfiguration burned another 30 minutes of our precious time. Time wise we were down to less than two hours before impact.

Using the device, I scanned the door. The machine beeped and I typed out the number sequence to override the door lock. With a grinding noise the armored door started to open. The entire airlock inside was covered in blood. The green door to the bridge looked like it was bleeding. The bodies of two crewmen in mismatched gear lay dead on the deck. I handed the device back to the sergeant to use to scan the bridge before I opened the inner door.

Yannos looked at the device in his hand for a moment like it was fairy gold. How in the hell had she done that? This ‘toy’ was the product of 10 years of research and several million credits. She had cracked it open and reconfigured it sight unseen. Stepping over the bodies on the deck, he typed using familiar buttons to scan the room behind the green door. The scanner showed five life signs and the air was not contaminated.

I punched in the control override numbers except for the last one taking a step back. Assaulting a room was for the real soldiers.

Sergeant Yannos entered the last number and raised his weapon. These may be pirates.

___

The sound of the outer armored door opening is what woke the Marines up. With nothing constructive to do, they had stayed up way too late last night playing cards. When you are going on a raid to attack and kill pirates, who takes a deck of cards with you? Marines do.

That door was supposed to be impenetrable to outside forces! How in the hell was it opening? His men started to scramble around looking for firing positions. Kinno told the two volunteer navy crewmen to hide behind something solid and to stay put. The small windows set in the airtight door showed space-suited figures moving around. Had the enemy gotten reinforced by more pirates off those ships his men has seen?

If he and his men were going to die, at least they would die facing the enemy.

____

The airtight door opened with a whoosh. Yannos and two of his men entered the room with their guns at the ready. He heard a voice yelling at them. He turned up his exterior microphones so he could hear better.

“..I repeat, if you take one more step we will fire on you. Who are you?”

Yannos raised his arms and motioned to his men to lower their weapons. He broadcast his voice. “We are members of the Hong Kong planetary Militia. We were sent here on a rescue and repair mission.”

The tall man behind what was left of the navigation station lowered his weapons. Motioning to his men they lowered theirs too. “I am Lieutenant Kinno Mutai, detachment commander of the Empire’s marines. Did the Fleet send you to deal with the pirates?”

“To answer that question and others I have brought along a Navy officer. Lieutenant if you would?”

In my own defense, I heard the sergeant calling me but seeing all of the shattered equipment I was distracted. I was head down, inside of one of the consoles, when a special operations guy got my attention. Looking up, I found everyone staring at me. “Sorry about that.”

Seeing the Marines I walked over. “Hello, my name is Lieutenant Athena Lee, acting chief engineer of Legation Station. It’s nice to find some of you in one piece. Are there any more of you alive? I ask this because judging by the navigation controls we have a very serious problem in about, an hour and a half.”

The Marines continued to stare at me. “Hello, is anyone in there?” I waved my hands in front of me.

Snapping out of whatever that was, Kinno spoke up. “Sorry lieutenant. We had not expected to be rescued. With the destruction of all the controls up here we figured we were dead. We saw the ships outside and thought more pirates had boarded us.”

“It’s OK, Lieutenant Mutai. How exactly did this damage happen anyway?”

“When we attacked, they fought back, unbelievably, with rocket launchers and lasers pistols. We barely won. The pirates in the corridor, were firing though the open doorway. One of our volunteers, John over there, managed to get the door to closed. How did you open that door anyway? They are supposed to be impossible to open from the outside.”

“Trade secret I am afraid, Engineering magic. Something that you don’t know about. When the bridge controls were destroyed, this ship was still in jump. When the jump ended you were dumped out into our system. Without functional controls the ship started to go on its own, anywhere it wanted to. At the moment, it is headed straight at the 5th moon in our system. In just under one hour and twenty minutes it will hit the moon. If we are still on it we all will be killed. We are your ride out of here Marine! Now, is there any other survivors? Can you take us to them?”

___

Chapter 9

The largest problem with evacuating the Marines was the poisonous fumes and vapors inside the main corridor. There was a system to vent that sort of thing but the controls for it had been destroyed along with the bridge. CIC had duplicate controls in place, but could still be in pirate hands. We were running out of time. The hangar bay doors were still open and life support seemed to still function. I decided that the most expedient plan was to open an airlock door allowing the vacuum of space to fix all of our main problems. How to get the Marines past the poison gas?

Timing was everything. That and NOT getting sucked out the door! Rushing back to the airlock, I had Wilson override the safeties on the door. I used my space suits magnetic system to lock me to the bulkhead wall. Checking to see if my team did the same, I then pressed the door open button.

What a rush! This is what being trapped by a black hole must feel like. I could almost feel the ‘wind’ whistling past me as the ship’s atmosphere was sucked out into space. Everything not nailed down was starting to come through the door including bodies and debris. I reached out and hit the button to close the door. Nothing happened! “Wilson, what did you do? We have to close the damn door!”

He too was frantic, “Sorry Athena someone just overrode my commands. Let me try it again, it should work this time!”

I pressed the button and the airtight door slammed shut. “What the hell was that? Who overrode the controls?”

“The commands came from engineering. It seems there really is someone alive down there. I keep trying to access that part of the ship and someone keeps blocking ME. I love a challenge. Go save your squishies, I have someone to ‘play’ with now.”

I hurried back to the bridge finding it easier this time with less bodies to walk around. Lieutenant Mutai was already off the bridge and waiting for me. “I’m glad that worked Athena.”

“Someone overrode the controls, I almost could not close the door.”

“Captain Pigot had a computer tech trying to regain control when we last saw him. It may have been her.”

Time was of the essence. We practically raced down the mostly empty main corridor. Following along behind us, Sergeant Yannos and his team began opening the sealed rooms looking for survivors or pirates.

____

When the door opened, Seth barely registered that someone was here to save them. Clint had run out of ‘chaw tobaccy’ and had pulled out something a bit stronger. He called them ‘buds’, Seth now called them awesome. The colors that covered the walls were so pretty. Trying to shake the haze from his eyes he finally recognized that there were people standing there that had guns pointed at him. “Howdy! Come on in and set a spell!” The other five pirates all busted out into laughter at what he had just said.

Yannos and his team just stared at them. What do you do with obviously drugged out pirates? They were giggling and laughing at the shadows on the wall. Their eyes all had a sort of glazed look to them. While various recreational drugs were legal on his home planet, Yannos had never used them. He assigned second squad to the group and moved on looking for more survivors.

___

Computer tech Deedee Kovak at was not having fun at all. She was almost literally pounding on her keyboards cursing up a storm. A programming hole had opened up in the pirates defense earlier. She had been able to override some of the pirates control. Now someone was trying to hack her! She had been blocking the intrusion with anything and everything she could think of. There was no way this was the same hacker as before. She yelled for Chief Tad to come help her.

“What is the problem Dee?”

She explained what had happened and how this seemed to be a ‘new’ hacker.

“What opening did you take advantage of?” Chief Tad was interested now.

“The airlock system was activated and the door controls were being overridden. I jumped in and blocked the commands. I was working my way back into the bridge controls when this assault began against me.”

Thinking about what she said he replied. “Could you see which doors were being affected when you blocked it?”

“Yes, the hangar bay doors are currently locked in the open position. I froze the commands so the doors would not close again. This hacker overrode ME, then attacked.”

“Deedee, stop trying to keep them out. I think this is a rescue!”

“What! Are you crazy or something?” She realized what she had just said and to whom. “Sorry, Sir. I forgot myself. Shutting down my defense right now.” She typed in a command and her computer shut down.

Her computers stuttered a little then went dark.

___

“Athena, I stopped the intrusion from engineering.”

“Thank you Wilson. Now that you are in see if you can control the ship. I would like to keep it and not have it hit the moon.”

We reached the doors sealing off Engineering from the main corridor. The bodies of navy crew members and the scorched and blasted bulkheads laid testament to the battles that had been fought here. A few swipes of the keypad and the airlock door opened. A shot rang out and one of my teammates staggered backward, a servo motor on his suit had been hit. Guns came up from the rest of my team as they either hit the deck or searched for cover.

In a show of bravery Lieutenant Mutai stepped out into the middle of the corridor and began yelling. “Stop firing, put your guns down. These are friendlies!”

Recognizing the Marine officer, the defenders stopped. Orders of “hold your fire” echoed down the corridor.

An older Navy officer approached the doors. He shook Lieutenant Mutai’s hand and patted him on the back. The officer turned toward me and walked over. I could see the captain’s bars on his uniform. Unable to salute in a suit, I greeted him instead.

“Sir, Lieutenant Athena Lee. I have with me members of the Hong Kong planetary Militia special forces.”

The captain looked as though he had aged considerably through this ordeal.

“Sir, I need to speak with whomever you have in charge of engineering. This ship is in serious trouble in,” I checked my timer. “ about 40 minutes. If we don’t change its course before then it will slam into the moon and explode.”

The captain had a shocked look on his face. “What? Explode?”

“Yes, sir. Explode. Boom! I really, really need to talk to your engineer. Is he around?”

With a now dazed look the captain waved toward engineering. I took that as a dismissal and took off at a trot.

____

Chief Engineer Kościuszko was trying to get the engine console to update when a woman wearing a spacesuit entered his department. He stood and gaped at her. Not something he sees everyday.

“Chief Engineer Kościuszko? My name is Lieutenant Athena Lee are you able to control the ship’s navigational functions from here?”

“Excuse me, what?” He seemed to freeze a moment. “Control the ship? No. We can only control the power functions from here. You need either the bridge or CIC for that.

“Damn it! Chief, this ship is going to crash into the moon in about a half hour if we can’t stop it. The bridge is in ruins and the pirates ripped out all the controls in CIC.”

Chief Tad sat down heavily on his console. “Without those controls we are all dead!”

“We have two combat assault shuttles in the hangar bay so we can get the crew off. I wish we could save the ship though.”

I stood and studied the ship’s schematics on the wall. There was something I was forgetting. It was on the tip of my tongue. Something one of the Special Operations team had asked. Fubuki class. I swear I hear a ‘ding’ inside my head when everything clicked.

“Chief, I have an idea.”

“This is a Fubuki class destroyer. Your ship was designed to be worked on without a ship yard. All of your control runs including the navigational ones are in the central core engineering tube. On newer ships we couldn’t do this, but , with yours we should be able to rig up some very basic controls. We are running out of time if you want to save this ship.

“Hell yes I want to save my ship! Let’s get moving.” He raced to his office and yelled. “Kovak, get out here!”

A small woman in a techs uniform came out of the office holding a computer. “Did you call me Chief?

“Yes. As fast as you are able I need a control system to steer the ship with. Nothing too complicated just something to attach to the navigational and steering control conduits. If we don’t turn the ship it will explode when it hits the moon in less than 30 minutes.”

“Uh, what? Did you just say we are going to die?”

“Control system, Kovak, get moving! Now!”

She sprang into action and ran toward the tech room. Chief Tad was already opening the engineering tube and had a tool kit open.

I heard my name being called and looked toward the door. Sergeant Yannos was there calling for me.

“Athena we need to get off this ship! I’ve got the rest of the crew headed toward the hangar bays. I called the pilots they will get the the bays re-pressurized and start loading.”

“We think we can save the ship Yannos. YOU know that the Militia really needs another ship. I think we can save it. Go on without me. I have a spacesuit on I can always just jump for it.”

“If you think I am leaving you here you are completely out of your mind! Both your father and sister would have me turning over a small fire if I leave you here. That doesn’t even include what that Marine Lieutenant of yours would do to me! You stay, I stay.”

There was a loud crash to the right, both of us spun around reaching for weapons. Kovak stumbled out of the tech room, with the sounds of things hitting the deck behind her. “I’ve got something we can use!”

In her hands was as small drone controller. It duplicated what would be found on the larger units only this was hand held.

“The FLEA scientists had us test this thing last year. The drones they gave us were junk, but this thing worked good. It, uh, sort of got left behind when we boxed everything up to send back.”

“It got forgotten huh, you sound like a couple of techs that I know. If we survive, I will introduce you to them.”

I took the controller from her and walked over to the Chief. He had the conduits opened up and circuits ready.

“Chief we have something for you.” I handed him the controller. “I remember this thing! Kovak, forget something? We will talk about it later.” He popped the back off the controller and started pulling out connectors. He rewired the connectors and attached them to the circuits he had already exposed. Testing them quickly he winced a bit.

“Good thing bad thing Lieutenant Lee. The controller will work, but only for a moment or two. The ships conduits are too powerful for this little thing to keep up. It should work to turn us. But we will have to kill the power to the ship as soon as the controls die. This will take both of us Lieutenant!”

“Chief, it’s your ship you know how it handles. I will take the controller, you take the power. Do any of the life pods work?”

“They should.”

“Yannos go toss Kovak in a pod. Kovak launch if this does not work, OK?”

The two of them left the room.

“Wilson are you paying attention in there? I need for you to tell me when I have turned the ship enough to miss the moon and anything else.”

“Of course Athena. Please don’t die you are my only real friend.”

“Buddy I intend for us to have a great many adventures together. Now pay attention!”

“Chief are you in position?” I heard a faint yes.

I studied the controls for a moment. When I turned on the controller it began to hum. I carefully began a turn to starboard to take us out of line with the moon. I could hear Wilson talking to me. “A little more Athena. About 20% more. OK, you got it tell the Chief to cut power.”

“Chief CUT THE POWER!”

I could hear the engines cut off and begin winding down. The ship was now coasting. The controller in my hand was starting to smoke, I gave it a yank and disconnected it from the conduit. At least I would not be responsible for blowing up a moon.

Chapter 10

An exhaustive search by Yannos and his team only turned up only one more hidden pirate. The former ‘ensign’ Carson’s body was found hanging in one of the communication conduits. He had gotten tangled up and had suffocated. Found with him were supplies and a well used space suit. He had apparently intended to steal from the Bad Pennies and skip out after they received payment. Our computer tech hacked his system and found that his real name was ‘Zerokool’ a hacker wanted by several planetary governments and a few crime organizations for double crossing them.

The James Cook jumped back into the system too late to have helped. The ship had been on a long range border patrol and training mission for all the new Militia Navy recruits. Captain Gorshin was apologetic that he had not been here to help. He did send out all of his training tugs and shuttle pilots to tractor the Paney to a parking orbit near the station.

The survivors of the Paney were very happy to be rescued, but felt betrayed when informed that the station was in the hands of rebels. For many of them, it was if one clan of pirates rescued them from another. All of the survivors had chosen to be interned except for Commander Garcia. The feisty Latin cook still intended to take revenge upon those who would lay hands on his people. He signed on to work in the cafeteria’s on board the station. Everyone else said their goodbye’s to the ship and joined the other Navy internees on the planet. The Paney was left sitting in orbit for now. I had estimated the internal repairs to the bridge and CIC would take several months to do. Just manufacturing the parts would take a few weeks. We used the new recruits to clean up the interior of the ship. Plans were made to use the Paney as another training vessel for now.

___

Major Minerva Lee spent a joyous afternoon having an extensive conversation with her soon to be Ex, husband Cole Whittier. As the financial aide to former Governor Norton he had knowledge and bank account information on many of his schemes. Cole had already ‘ratted’ out his boss’s secret bank accounts along with bargains he had made with some of the local crime syndicates. Cole had never mentioned any deals with known pirates though. Not even a little bit. That secret he had kept.

“Hello Cole. Enjoying yourself? We need to have a little chat.” Minerva cut a dashing figure she was dressed to kill in leather pants a silk ‘buccaneer’ shirt and a short leather jacket. This was her Pastafarian Festival clothing. Leather was nice because blood just wipes off it. No stains.

“You crazy bitch! I refuse to tell you anything. I demand to see my lawyer! I have rights. You can’t keep me here! Damn you!” Cole was stripped naked and hanging by his ankles upside down over a pool of water built into the floor.

Shaking her head she looked at her husband. “Poor Cole. The Governor’s whipping boy. Still trying to get his just rewards. Why would we just let you go? And rights? This planet has abandoned the Empire. You sir, are back in the New and Improved Pan Pacific League. We like the idea of Justice on our Planet. Criminals have to obey the rule of law. Just like everyone else. Now, we need to have a little chat about pirate clans, the sector Governor’s, and the Empire Senators. How exactly do all of those fit together?”

Cole was a pale skinned man to begin with, but now he had gone even paler. He began to violently shake his head no. “I can’t tell you any of that, they will kill me for it. My entire family will die if I tell you anything about that!”

“Ah ha, so there is something going on. Thank you Cole for confirming that for us! We could not quite, connect all the dots. But you will do that for us, won’t you Cole?” She smiled. This was fun.

“You crazy-assed-bitch! Don’t you care? They will kill me and my whole family for telling you anything.” He was starting to sob.

“You mean that pit of vipers that you call a family, right. Your own brother tried to have his way with me last year at the holiday party remember? I broke the bastards arm for that. Fell off his ‘horse’ my ass. Your Father? That man put half a planet out of work, just so he could buy a new yacht. Please.” She looked at him in disgust. “Why would I, try and save any of them?” She smiled her most evil smile for his benefit.

“No, Cole, I think you shall tell us what you know. So, how about it?”

“Forget it! I won’t tell you anything! You can’t make me.”

“Do you see the pool of water? Of course you do. You are hanging right above it. One thing that came to us from the 20th century is a little technique called waterboarding. We decided to mix that with another old earth custom called drown proofing. Why don’t you give it a try for us?”

The frame holding Cole dropped him straight down into the water head first. His scream was muffled as he swallowed a large mouthful of water. His own weight held him down in the water for about 60 seconds. Min raised him up. Water streamed from his upper body and out of his mouth, throat, and lungs. He gasped for air.

“How was that Cole? Still don’t want to talk?” He shook his head no. Unable to form words, he was thrashing wildly trying to break free of the constraints. “Oh well. Let’s try that again shall we.” Down into the pool he went again.

Three rounds later Cole was ready to talk. Norton, the former Sector Governor, was part of a cabal of wealthy individuals that believed the Empire had gotten too soft. All they wanted was money and power. By allowing big business to run the planets and controlling the populace through strength of arms, they thought they could have it all. The pirate clans were payed off to cause trouble making the colonies rely more and more on the Empire military to ‘fix’ things. Many high ranking Navy officers were on board with the plan. The governor had wanted the Paney because he did not have any local assets. Captain Pigot was not one of ‘his’ so Norton had made plans to change that. The Bad Pennies were supposed to deliver the ship intact without any of the original crew on board. Space is a deep dark place after all.

After the Cabal seized control of the Empire, they were going to betray then destroy the pirate clans.

Minerva reported this conversation and all of the other reports they had gathered to the new planetary council. Some of our own local businessmen were in this Cabal up to their necks. They would need to be dealt with. When the Empire came to force a reckoning about the Governors arrest and our rebellion against the government, who would be in charge? The Navy or the Cabal? Deep questions to think about over the next few weeks. Minerva put all of that out of her mind. It was festival season on the planet. Now was the time to party!

The Festival of Ramen was the planet’s biggest festival of the year. Pastafarians from across the Galaxy came to Hong Kong to celebrate and worship. The Grand Temple of Spaghetti had scheduled a huge concert followed by the olive oil and pasta races. Last year, Minerva had come in second in the olive oil race. I was going to meet up with Min and my girlfriend Dar just before the concert. I had scored some backstage passes and front row seats from some friends I made last year. Buck, the leader of the bad, had finally made it to the big time. That name change that I had suggested really payed off for them. The Hong Kong Cavaliers sounded so much better than just the Cavaliers.

Author’s Note and comments

I hope that you enjoyed Insurrection as much as did. Look for Book 6 Next month.

Be sure to check out my Blog for The Wilson Wednesday Short stories posted Free every Wednesday.

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I started writing in February of this year (2016).

My good friend Michael Anderle kept pushing me to put words on paper. So I did. The Forgotten Engineer was my first try at writing fiction. I have written some non-fiction for both the Witches Voice and for the Magical Almanac. But that was not fiction. I will be the first to admit, that my early writing had a few misspellings and typo’s. An English major I am not. In fact, that was one subject that I did not excel in during college. I have a BFA in Telecommunications along with a Culinary degree. I’m an old Radio guy that likes to cook. I now am working with an editor and several Beta readers. I’m always looking for a few more, so feel free to send me a message of Facebook or on my Blog. Same with being a Redshirt. I put a call out for pirate names and my fellow authors responded. Many of the now dead pirates in my books got their inspiration from those responses. The Pirate Reuben is one such character. He is based upon my beta’s son. The characters Di and Dj who have popped up in this book as well as one of the short stories are based upon real people.

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Look for many more Athena Lee books in the future. I have opened up this universe and it won’t close now, it is too big for that. There is a stand-alone book based around Sam from book 3 coming soon. Books 7,8, and 9 will deal with happenings in the Earth solar system. I have fans who are begging me for a Minerva Lee book. Yannos and his team may make an appearance also. Space Marines? We will have to see about that. Don’t forget about Wilson. That rascal has a new crazy adventure every Wednesday on my Blog. He may one day get his own book. His origin story is working its way around my brain. Drop me a line on FaceBook or at my Email address tspaulauthor@gmail.com See you soon!

But wait there is more!

Reviews. I get my fair share. The early ones were not very nice, we don’t talk about those. Some of the newer ones make me smile.

4.0 out of 5 starsGreat fun!

ByJim Rabyon April 12, 2016

Yea sure there are typos and dropped/wrong words but given that all of the "books" in this series are some of the authors early works, who cares? Keep it up. Beats the living **** out of the over priced "established" authors schlock the big publishing houses are pushing.

4.0 out of 5 starsGreat read. Nice to see a serries about engineers.

ByJames A. Rasmussenon April 18, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Great read. Could have been a little more editing to get out some typos. If not for typos, I would give this a 5 star rating.

5.0 out of 5 starsWOW - I will enjoy this seres.

ByRobert Lowreyon April 10, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

This is a great series and I can wait for the next book. I just wish the book was longer. It is diffidently a good buy.

5.0 out of 5 starsI like the series

ByJoshua J McDonnellon April 9, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

I like the series. It reminds me a lot of Ell Donsaii series. The MC is smart funny and likable. And DAMN that AI is damn funny.

*** I like the Ell Donsaii series myself

4.0 out of 5 starsShort but fun

ByGeezetteon April 6, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

This is more like a serial episode, equivalent to the length of a chapter in a novel. But that's not really an issue when read as a Kindle Unlimited entry. Since that's pretty much all I read from Amazon, I'm just happy to have found it (thanks to the author's post on Michael Anderle's discussions group.

Thought this was a fun read and enjoyed the pop culture references. Naming bad ass weapons system armaments after mayhem rowdy cartoon characters is just so special.

4.0 out of 5 starsShort

ByAmazon Customeron March 25, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

I read this useing kindel unlimited. I enjoyed the story but would like to have had more of the main characters work to survive and less jumping back and fourth to her rescue. Dont let that stop you from reading it. It is quick read and fun.

5.0 out of 5 starsMore, more, more

By Terry Keeling on March 31, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

The characters were believable. The story line great, nice to see "engineer" as main character. It's a shame that people are the same as now days, greed rules! Thank you

That’s it for now. Keep reading.

Copyrights

This book is a work of fiction, All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

Copyright (c) 2016 T S Paul

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Digital art for the cover is Markus Vogt

Check out his website: http://www.markusvogt.eu/

Or on Deviant art http://markusvogt.deviantart.com/gallery/

Cover designed by Michael T. Anderle

Editing by Diane Velasquez. Dorene Johnson, David Brim

Special thanks to Michael and to my wife Heather who keeps me grounded and to Merlin the Cat, we are his minions.