BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 10
 

“Affirmative Grandstorm,” Cerise said into the thin boom mike of her headset. “We have received lift off clearance. Thank you.”

  Elias sat in the pilot’s seat and craned his head to look at his wife when she burst out with a laugh at something only she could hear.

  “Jarvis, maybe if you’d given me that pay raise I wanted I wouldn’t be out here on the other end of the line. I will. Thank you.” She clicked off the transmitter and gave a nod to her husband. “We’re clear for launch.”

  Elias nodded and turned back around. “All hands, all hands, ready for lift in five…four…three…”

  “Engines are go. Thrusters are go,” Saul said from navigation, duplicating some of the readouts from the fox’s position.

  “Two…one.” Elias added vertical lift to the ship in gentle increments. The engines and maneuvering thrusters were far more powerful than anything that any standard Okami hull was equipped with, and if the fox wasn’t careful he’d give away one of the Guiding Angel’s most vital secret assets. That and he really wasn’t sure that the inertial dampeners would be able to compensate for the amount of thrust the vessel was capable of. “We have lift off. Saul, plot a course once we’ve hit the terminus of our exit vector for open space away from prying eyes.”

  “Affirmative,” the jaguar said and began plying the navigational computer with queries that were compared to listed ship routes. Even as he worked out a set of coordinates, he activated other systems. “Shields online. Artificial gravity is go.” After a few more seconds, the zone of space that Saul found that was clear of registered flights was sent to the pilot’s console and displayed on the forward viewport. “That looks to be the best. It’s about four astronomical units out. Once we are clear of Dennier, we can make it in thirteen minutes with the light drive.”

  “Excellent. Thanks, Saul.” Elias then switched to intercom. “We’ll be leaving the atmosphere in less than a minute. Give it two minutes and you can all unstrap and move about.”

  Apart from Elias, Saul and Cerise on the bridge, the weapons station was crewed by Odette Daniker. She watched the proceedings with a critical eye and could find no fault with her new Captain’s skill. She hadn’t really felt it when the ship had left the ground, a sign of a fairly good pilot. The real test would be a landing, but that would have to wait. All in all she found the fox to be fairly likeable, but it would still take time for her to really get a good feel for him. Though she had to admit that she liked the vixen that was her Captain’s mate. The female knew her business when it came to the sensors and communications array, and had already taught Odette several things that the bear hadn’t known about, such as being able to slave the communications system, or any other system for that matter, to personal DataComs so that one could be alerted to transmissions as they happened, or even sensor anomalies.

  It seemed that hardly any time had passed at all before the ship was at the coordinates that Saul had determined was far enough away from other traffic. Elias shut down the Liquid Crystal drive’s super-luminary actuators, dropping the ship back into normal space. “Sensors?” the fox asked.

  Cerise did a full sweep of almost a 3000 mile sphere around the ship. “No traffic and no anomalies on passive. Would you like an active sweep?”

  Elias thought about that for a moment. An active sweep with sensors would be like flashing a bright light in a very dark room and pinpoint their location. But they weren’t attempting to be stealthy, and an active sweep would give a more accurate reading of what was around them. “Yeah. Go ahead and run an active sweep. Most commercial  ships run with low level active sensors anyway,  so will we. But feel free to do a high gain sweep as well.”

  Cerise did as was requested of her and set the sensors for continuous low gain scanning, and ran a high gain active scan as well. “We’re still clear, Captain.”

  “Thank you, Cerise. All hands, we’re going to be running some pretty intense maneuvers that will include rather extreme acceleration and deceleration and other stomach churning twists. All departments monitor your sections and inform the bridge immediately of any problems. Engineering, are you ready?”

  A chuckle sounded over the intercom “I’ll lay a month’s pay that you don’t have any problems with her, Captain. And we are very ready!”

  The fox smiled. “I might take you up on that if we made the same pay. But as it is I think you’re right, Stram. All right, folks, here we go.”

  Without hesitation, Elias pushed the throttles past their gates, and was rewarded with a kick in the chest that pushed him well back into his seat. The acceleration was phenomenal, and the dampeners had a difficult time compensating. Then, even as the ship blasted through space, Elias banked hard before bringing the Guiding Angel around 180 degrees.  He gave his navigator a quick look and saw that the jaguar was wearing a very wide grin.

  Cutting power to the engines, Elias flipped the ship relative to its lateral axis so that they were flying backwards and inverted, they continued this way for several minutes before Elias rotated the ship and had them again facing in the direction of travel. A series of flips, spins, rolls and rotations followed before the fox dropped speed and looked at his First Officer.

  “That was fun,” Elias said with a grin to match that of Saul’s.

  The jaguar nodded. “Impressive. I wonder how she would handle a full power lift?”

  Elias’s grin only grew wider. He then activated the intercom. “I hope everyone still has their insides where they belong,” he began, then heard retching behind him. He turned to see Cerise with her muzzle in a bag. “Send me a status report when you are done inspecting your sections. Bridge out.” He then unstrapped and went to Cerise’s side. “Are you all right?” Elias asked, concern in his eyes.

  The vixen finished and sealed the bag. “I just wasn’t expecting that, is all.” She smiled wanly at the other fox. “I’m too used to atmospheric flight. You did things I’ve never thought of, but then there’s no air, so flight characteristics change.”

  “That they do.” He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder before turning to the navigation station. “Saul, lay in a course for the Faya system and Quet. There’s normally some interesting activity out in that area, and it’s not well patrolled. They want us to hunt, so let’s go to the best watering hole.”

  “Aye, Captain. Quet. Should take about nine days.” The jaguar bent to his console, then transferred the data to the forward viewport. “Well, eight days, four hours and so on.”

  “Sounds good. Saul, you have the con. I want to go inspect the ship and see how everyone fared.” Elias was pleased with the way the Guiding Angel handled. It was more nimble than some of the fast couriers and fighters he’d piloted during his career and her speed was thrilling.

  His first stop was the infirmary where the Doctor was finishing up the requested status check. None of his stores had shifted during the wild maneuvers, but he was a thorough individual. “How are things looking, Lem?” Elias asked, using the more familiar form of address that the tiger had requested.

  “Quite well. In fact I have just had my first patient,” the Doctor said with a quirked smile.

  “Who?”

  “Treena Kefflin. Apparently she doesn’t handle sudden maneuvering changes very well. I gave her an injection for nausea. It’s nothing serious. She will either adapt, or she won’t, but it’s nothing to worry too much about.”

  The fox nodded. “Cerise didn’t react to well either. She might be in to see you, but I doubt it. She was already recovering when I left the bridge.”

  “Then I wouldn’t worry too much about it. A speedy recovery is normally a good sign.” The tiger pulled a pressure injector from a drawer and removed the cap that covered the nozzle. “Now then, Captain, if you wouldn’t mind rolling up your sleeve.”

  “What’s this?” Elias asked, doing as he was requested.

  “Inoculation boosters. Plus some vitamin supplements that the crew could use. I figure that you’ll be setting a course to an area known for pirate activity, and that only leaves one viable star system. We’ll either be headed to Brandt or Quet, and while Brandt isn’t too bad, Quet is. It isn’t called the Dump for nothing.”

  “Not bad, Lem. A very good deduction.” There was a slight hiss from the injector and it was over. There wasn’t even a tingle at the injection site.

  “Not really. I’ve been with the SPF long enough to know that certain options are better than others. Now then, if you wouldn’t mind some company, I’ll go with you on your rounds and give the crew their jabbies.” He strapped on the small bag he always had with him that contained numerous small, but vital items that he found would be useful in an emergency.

  “Not at all. I’ll wait here while you go give the bridge crew theirs first.”

  It was only a few minutes before the fox and tiger were walking down the corridor to the first patient after the bridge crew. “I already gave Treena her booster. Next should be Melise.”

  “You might be in for a fight. I recall Mel being very skittish with shots.”

  “No one ever refuses me. You’ll see.”

  After pushing the call button, the hatch to Melise’s cabin slid open and she saw Elias and the Doctor standing outside. “All right. Make it fast. I need to go start breakfast,” the panda said as she extended her arm.

  Lemuel gave her the injection and turned to leave, but Elias stopped him. He then turned to his friend. “What the hell? Last time we were in port you threatened to put the doctor there in his own infirmary. You just let him jab you with whatever?” he asked hooking a thumb towards the tiger.

  “If you remember correctly, we’d just gotten off of a patrol run and had already had our inoculation boosters. What that hack wanted to give was prebiotics for social diseases. Which, if you recall where we were, was absolutely asinine. The fool failed to realize that the Kessler colony was a religious retreat with the adherents of that particular faith sworn to chastity.” She smiled without humor. “We’re going to be spending a lot of time out on the raggedy edge, and I’m not going to be the one to irritate the only doctor that we can trust for the Maker knows how many light years.”

  Lemuel gave Elias a smug look. “See? I told you so?”

  The fox shook his head and they continued their circuit.

  All of the various sections of the ship handled the short trial well, and Elias was pleased that they hadn’t really put that much of a draw on the engines.

  “I told you she’d hold,” Stram said. They were in the engine room and the badger was sitting with his feet up on the integral desk that was built into the bulkhead as the Doctor gave him a booster shot. “Those RP 12 power plants are about as solid and dependable as they come.”

  “No structural issues?” Elias asked, leaning against a tool box with his arms folded.

  “No, Sir. The casting layer has sensor fibers all through it so that if there is any kind of torque beyond tolerance levels, we’ll be alerted here and up on the bridge.”

  The fox scratched absently at his scarred left ear. “I’m satisfied, then. They really did build this ship to take some punishment, didn’t they?”

  Stram nodded. “Those Okami people know their business. Their combat ships have one of the highest survivability ratings than any other yard in the PA. And they follow the same principals with their civilian ships, that’s why they’re all over the place.”

  Satisfied with the condition of his crew and the status of the ship, Elias made his way back to the bridge. There would be more trials that he would schedule, but those would come in time. Right now he wanted to get on to the task at hand.

***

  Melise Rains was in the galley on the third deck and putting the final touches on several dishes that could be reheated as the duty shifts of the crew precluded everyone eating at the same time. It was old hat for the panda, and she had a varied enough knowledge of the diets of the denizens of the PA that she could easily prepare dishes that everyone could eat, though she wasn’t opposed to the idea of making special foods upon request.

  Treena Kefflin sat at the short serving bar that looked into the galley and sipped a cup of tea that Melise had made for her. The ocelot really didn’t handle extreme flight maneuvers very well and was still recovering from what the Doctor called ‘Spatial Reactive Distortion’. Apparently this was when the body’s ability to judge balance and the like conflicted with the artificial gravity and inertial compensators used during space flight. Melise had seen it before and knew that eventually the feline would get used to it.

  “You know, you really should get something in your stomach. That will help get rid of the rest of the nausea,” the panda suggested with a sympathetic look.

  Treena gave the other female a bleary eyed look. “Is it laced with poison? I’ll give you everything I own if you’ll poison me. Dead has to feel better than this.”

  Melise reached into a storage cabinet. “Sorry. No poison. But I promise that this will help.” She slid a small blue and gold item toward the feline.

  “What’s this? This will make me feel better? I still think poison would be better.” She picked up the item to get a better look. “Or drain cleaner. That would do me in, I’m sure”

  “Maybe,” the panda said with a chuckle, ‘but this will taste better.”

  The ocelot’s eyes widened significantly. “This is Eros chocolate! Where did you get this?”

  The panda smiled. “I like to keep a small stash in case of emergencies. A well-hidden stash, I might add.” The last was added with a look that promised extreme pain to anyone that got into the panda’s chocolates.

  Treena unwrapped the treat and looked at the dark brown square that had the universal symbols for male and female interlinked. “Is it really better than…um…you know?”

  Melise laughed. “Treena, nothing is better than that! But this is a fairly close second. Don’t chew it. Just put it on your tongue and let it melt slowly. I can guarantee that it’ll make your nausea go away.”

  Doing as she was instructed, Treena put the chocolate on her tongue, the rush of flavor immediately tantalizing her senses. Not only that, but the aroma filled her nostrils and the result was absolute bliss. Slowly the chocolate began to melt, and each time she swiped her tongue over the diminishing little block, Treena was rewarded with another wave of flavor. Then she recalled some of the ads for the chocolate, males and females of all species throughout the PA using the confection as a prelude to amorous activities and her eyes popped open. “This isn’t going to make me, ah, well, affectionate? Is it?”

  Melise laughed again. “That’s just really good advertising! I’ve never had that happen to me, then again I’ve never really needed help in that regard. But no. It’s just a really good ad campaign. They have to have good ads when you consider that you just had a 10 credit piece of candy! At that price, people will only buy it if it might help them have a potentially great date.”

  Treena found that the chocolate wasn’t even half melted and her nausea and discomfort were little more than an uncomfortable memory. The ocelot’s expression said it all.

  “I told you so,” the panda remarked, pulling a long tray from one of the three induction ovens the galley was equipped with.

  “That’s amazing! I really do feel better.” Then she looked at the other female as she continued her preparation of several dishes. “Are you sure it won’t have any other effects?”

  The panda gave the feline an exasperated look. “No, it won’t. Though if you do feel that way, why don’t you just drag our esteemed First Officer back to your cabin. It’s fairly clear that’s how you feel about him anyway, especially with some of the looks that you’ve been giving him.”

  Treena’s expression was one of scandalized embarrassment. “I do not look at him that way!”

  Melise leaned on her side of the counter with both hands, raised one eye brow, and looked down on the much shorter female. “I might be just a grunt, Treena, but that doesn’t make me either dense or blind. You were all but drooling when he walked past you. Not that I blame you. He does have a nice rump,” Melise said with a wicked smile.

  Treena continued to stare at the panda, then her look of incredulousness was replaced by a mischievous look and she giggled wickedly. “Yes he does!” Then her smile faltered. Melise noticed the sudden change in the other female.

  “What?”

  The ocelot shook her head. “I can’t think like that. Our job is too important for me to sleep with crew members.”

  “How many ship tours have you been on?” Melise asked, sensing that there was something else that was subduing the feline’s previous light mood.

  “This is my first extended run. Why?”

  Melise pulled off her oven mitts, grabbed a juice bottle and came around to the other side of the counter and took a seat. “This will mark my sixth year on ships. I can tell you honestly that people tend to pair up on these runs. It’s going to happen. Elias knows it as well, that’s why he gave his spoken permission before we lifted. You can’t cram a mixed crew together in this small a space without it happening. The situation is worse on single gender crews. That’s when tensions run high and there’s a lot of fighting regardless if it is an all-male crew, or all female. Besides, Elias has his wife onboard. He can’t do that and expect the rest of the crew to act like cloistered monks or nuns! Like he said, as long as it doesn’t fiddle with the operation of the ship, he’s okay with it.”

  Treena didn’t look convinced, though. She changed the subject. “You know the Captain from your previous posting, right? What’s he like? As an officer, I mean?”

  “He’s fair,” Melise said taking a swig from her bottle. “He’s not the kind that issues orders arbitrarily. He’s normally the first to roll up his sleeves and get dirt on his hands if the situation calls for it, and he’ll never ask someone to do something that he won’t do, or hasn’t already done, himself.” She looked at nothing in particular. “His marriage to Cerise caught me off guard, though.”

  The ocelot cocked her head. “Really? Why’s that?”

  “The last I saw him, before the Scimitar incident, he was content to play with me and one of the other females on board, but I never really thought of him as the kind for a serious relationship, much less getting hitched.”

  Treena choked on her tea and it was a few moments before she could speak. “You and the Captain? You shared a bunk?”

  The panda shrugged. “Often. He’s one of those types that won’t play around unless his partner is at least a friend, but, yeah. There was one other that he spent time with on our old ship as well, but it wasn’t ever anything serious. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and pleasant, but nothing lasting. And I really like Cerise. She’s a great person. They really are a great pairing.”

  The feline gave Melise a speculative look. “So, was he good?”

  The panda laughed. “The only drawback with Elias is he isn’t a bear.”

  ***

  Randal Mercks completed his entry in his personal terminal in what would have been the load master’s cubicle in the cargo hold of the Guiding Angel, but was nominally his station as the ship’s de facto security officer. He had decided to run another inventory of the stock of small arms of the ship, and checked each locker once a day. Now that the ship was in warp space, he had plenty of time between duty shifts on the bridge, which everyone shared in, as was only fair. It would ensure that each crew member wasn’t over-taxed and remained alert in case something happened.

  With a nod, he looked over the procedures that he’d come up with for crew safety when it came to shore leave or other excursions off of the ship earlier that shift and sent a copy to the Captain’s terminal. He then went to work on a training schedule for the rest of the crew.

  While he was comfortable with the crew’s level of competency with small arms, a few of the individuals were less than experienced in hand-to-hand combat. He and the panda, Melise he recalled, working on getting used to using first names and not just rank and possibly last names, was working with some of the less experienced crew members while he was teaching more advanced fighting techniques.

  The wolf looked at the time display on the computer and stretched, saved his schedule, and got up. It was time to begin the second class in advanced combat, and he wanted to make sure that the recreation deck was ready, which meant putting mats down and gathering the crate of training aids that he had brought with him as a matter of course and stored in his cabin.

  By the time Randal was done getting things ready, the first of his students exited the lift. He nodded at the Captain and, oddly enough, the ship’s Doctor. While the wolf wasn’t overly surprised that Elias was experienced at fighting, Lemuel Anders’ level of skill was something of a shock. For all his size, the tiger was very agile and extremely quick. The only other individual that they were waiting on for this session was the ocelot, Treena.

  “So, what are we going to be working on today, Randy?” Elias asked as he started stretching and warm-up exercises.

  “We’ll be continuing where we left off from the previous class,” the wolf said as he started pulling pads and practice weapons out of the crate. “Too many individuals fail to realize that in close quarters like a ship, a blade can sometimes be more effective than a firearm. That, and I figure that we’ll be visiting unsavory places that attract the wrong sort of hoodlums, and they normally prefer blades to ply their trade as they are cheap and easy to replace. A blade is also silent, doesn’t need to be reloaded and requires far less care than a pistol.”

  Lemuel nodded at this assessment. “It makes sense when you consider it’s one of the oldest tools and weapons that sentients ever developed. The overall design and use hasn’t really changed in millennia.”

  “Agreed,” Randal said. “It’s very effective, and people still react to them with more fear than they do with firearms for the most part.” He tossed a set of protective pads to Elias. “You’re up first, Captain.”

  Elias slid the pads on, adjusted the straps and accepted a flexible training blade that was shaped like a common military issue knife. The edge and point were spongy and had a colored chalk embedded in the material so that hits could be verified and noted for the purpose of the exercise.

  “Same rules as before?” Elias asked as he took his place on the mat.

  Randal nodded. “Same rules. Whenever you’re ready.”

  Elias held his blade up so that he could throw strikes out in parabolic arcs, leading with the edge of the blade as he’d been shown, his left arm was held loose so that he could counter a strike from the wolf. One of the things that the wolf had pointed out was that regardless of how good one was with a knife it was a good idea to enter a fight knowing one was going to get cut, but it was better to let your arm get cut than something more vital.

  The two circled each other for a moment, and Elias thought that the wolf was getting ready to strike when the alarm went off with a mind numbing buzzing shriek.

  “All hands to stations, all hands to stations. We have a distress contact bearing 15 degrees port, 34 degrees axial declination at 3675 miles and closing, Captain. We’re already out of light drive. Estimated time of contact is 3 minutes,” Saul’s voice said over the intercom.

  Elias was already at the communication pad mounted in the bulkhead. “Affirmative. On my way.”

  The fox was a blur of white fur and gray clothing as the lift paused at the second deck and he bolted for the bridge. He hadn’t needed to tell the others to go to their duty stations, and heard Lemuel heading to the infirmary while Randal continued on to the cargo deck, pausing the lift just long enough for a very wet, and naked Lena to dive in with a wadded up flight suit and boots in her hands.

  Even as he entered the bridge, Saul was getting out of the pilot’s seat and relocating to navigation, leaving Elias little choice but to take the pilot’s position. Cerise was at her station and calling out information, duplicating aspects via the micro circuitry imbedded in the forward viewports.

  “The signal is really weak, but confirmed as a distress call. We would have missed it if we weren’t running active sensors and communications scans,” Cerise said working the various controls of her console. “Bringing up relevant data from the gazetteer.”

  The PA gazetteer that resided within the core of the bridge’s VIP 25 computer was a listing of registered ships in the Alignment, and would give make, size, crew capacity, passenger capacity, and function of the vessel along with flight plan information if available. It was updated automatically whenever the Guiding Angel passed by any world with a starport or near an SPF station.

  “Here it is,” the vixen said as she flashed a readout and wireframe mockup on the viewport. “SS Mintaka. PA registry 74842 out of Promontory on Hestra. It’s a Hestran made vessel out of the Calagor ship yards. It’s an inexpensive passenger ship, almost steerage class. Flight plan through the SPF has it listed as missing on a run from Hestra and Fyn to Brandt, then Earth. 18 crew, 37 passengers. She’s been overdue for almost two weeks.” Cerise continued to look at the sensor information that was scrolling across her screen. “It looks like there’s some power, but not a lot. There’s also something causing a little distortion on the scans. Looks like it might be signal dispersal from debris.”

  “Got it,” Elias said tersely. “Odette, power up the weapons, I have the pulse cannon.” He then triggered the intercom and relayed what Cerise had informed him to the rest of the ship before toggling communications to Randal’s section.

  “Randy,” the fox said using the familiar form of his name as the wolf had requested, “prepare to launch the Raptor. I want Lena on overwatch.”

  “Copy that, Captain,” the wolf replied. “Launching Raptor in forty five seconds.”

  The powerful atmospheric pumps in the cargo hold cleared the air in the chamber in less than a minute. From his position in the sealed armored cubicle, Randal Mercks cycled the cargo hatch open. Beyond the light from the overhead illumination panels was the cold black of space scattered with stars that glittered coldly like jewels on dark velvet. He watched as the rabbit in the cockpit of the interceptor gave him the universal ‘thumbs-up’ gesture, her features hidden behind the reflective faceplate of her flight suit’s helmet, and returned the gesture even as he toggled the headset he wore that was tuned to her channel.

  “Okay, Lena. Unlocking in 3…2…1. You’re free to launch. Be safe out there,” he told her.

  As soon as the magnetic clamps were disengaged, the rabbit nudged the attitude thrusters to carry her and her fighter out of the cargo bay before activating the small craft’s main engines. “Affirmative, Randy. Keep the home fires burning.”

  On the bridge, Elias and Saul saw the fighter slide out from beneath them before the main drives flared to life a safe distance away from the Guiding Angel, as bright as two blue stars. They could hear Cerise talking to the rabbit who began a long arcing sweep where she could assist her crew if need be, or prevent any potential hostiles from causing her shipmates harm.

  “Guiding Angel, this is Cherub. I have visual on you and the target. Beginning a fly-by approach. Will update a visual when I get to the other side of the Mintaka,” Lena said over the comm. She rolled the fighter almost ninety degrees so she could see the Hestran made vessel a little more easily while still keeping an eye on her own sensors and threat board that would notify her of potential danger.

  The speed of the interceptor was much greater than that of the freighter turned pirate hunter, and she passed the target vessel like a rifle shot, onboard sensors and cameras getting more details than she could with her own eyes.

  “Guiding Angel, this is Cherub. No visitors at the back door. Looks like there’s a lot of particulate debris around the hull. Um, hold one. Coming about.” Lena throttled back and activated a braking thrust as she flipped the fighter end for end with a twist, secretly relishing the feeling of being in control of the agile little ship and deriving great satisfaction from the way conflicting forces pulled and pushed at her body. It was like being on the best roller coaster in the universe. One with no track that was at her command.

  She swept past the crippled derelict again, a little closer than before at a slower velocity.

  “You should be getting images now. It looks like the ship took some damage to the starboard engine pod. Probably some breeches in the hull as well. That would explain the debris cloud, though a lot of it looks like it was jettisoned. There’s lights from some of the forward viewports, but they’re really faint. If there are survivors, it looks like they’ll be in those forward areas.”

  “Copy, Cherub,” came the voice of the black fox over the radio. “Maintain overwatch. Captain says we’re going to proceed with a dock and search for survivors. Guiding Angel out.”

  Lena programmed the fighter to make large orbits around the vessels as she watched the Okami freighter move in so that it could dock with the other vessel and cast a silent prayer that there was someone that could be saved.

  On the bridge, Elias slid out of the pilot’s seat. “Saul, take the con. Get us in position for docking with the tunnel. Odette, remain at weaps. I want you ready in case we have unwelcome visitors.” The fox then toggled the intercom. “Boarding party to cargo bay. Full suit up and weapons. Infirmary prepare for casualties.” He the removed his headset and turned to leave the bridge.

  Before he passed, he stopped next to Cerise and gave her a quick kiss. “Slug an encrypted transmission to the nearest SPF base and inform them of what we found and to dispatch a rescue ship. There might be more here than we can handle. And if not, they can perform a more thorough inspection and investigation than we can.”

  Cerise nodded, but said softly, “Be careful, Darling.”

  Elias gave her a reassuring smile. “I will, Love.”

  Then he was gone.

  In the cargo area, now sealed and pressurized, Randal Mercks was distributing small arms to the other members of the boarding party. Melise and Sonja were already in their armored pressure suits, though their faceplates were raised. Elias began to don his even as the others were securing weapons, then checking each other over to make sure that all of the fittings were properly mated and sealed. The wolf inspected Elias’ job of suiting up, then handed his Captain a stubby barreled Binfurr PD-19 sub machinegun. The weapon fired a 10 millimeter caseless round and was built in a bull-pup configured design so the magazine loaded into a well in the stock. It made the firearm far more maneuverable in confined spaces like ship corridors, and while the round had effective stopping power, it was designed not to penetrate even the thinnest of ship hulls. It had a number of additions incorporated such as a high-output LED flashlight, laser and low-light capable reflex scope that worked like a laser pointer, but kept the targeting dot within the confines of the scope itself.

  The wolf himself carried a Binfurr 12 gage semiautomatic shotgun, also equipped with a reflex scope. That was also a preferred weapon for shipboard operations. The smoothbore had a folding stock and dual tube magazines that gave the weapon a ten round capacity. More than enough for anything they might encounter on the other ship, though Elias was praying that they didn’t need them.

  Randal stepped in front of the others. “All right, when dock is made I’ll go first. Melise, you’re second. Captain, you’ll be following third, and Sonja you have the tail position. I don’t want us to split up, but at the same time I want two or three meter separation. If one of us runs into someone that is less than friendly it will enable the others to provide support and cover fire, but it will also cut down on the chances of more than one individual getting hurt because of a grenade or worse.

  “We sweep and clear as we go, but be careful about what you open as Lena said she saw what looks like hull breeches. We don’t want to vent whatever atmosphere there might be in case there are survivors. Any questions?”

  No one had any and Elias looked at the noncommissioned officer that had led more than one dicey ship boarding operation in his career. “Let’s go.”

  With a nod, Randal led the way to the docking tunnel and using controls that were slightly oversized to accommodate hands that were encased in armored gauntlets, extended the tunnel until it touched the hull of the Mintaka. Once contact was made, the ring that made up the far terminus magnetized itself to the hull plating to provide an anchor and then a collapsible seal would deploy. Within moments there was nominal air pressure in the tunnel and Randal opened the outer airlock hatch after he and the others sealed their helmets and began to drift across the tunnel to the other ships’ airlock. Pulling a small package from a thigh pocket, the wolf plugged leads into two receptacles in the airlock’s security pad. He punched a few commands and the thick metal panels of the hatch slid apart into the sides of the hull.

  Before the panels had even an inch wide crack in them, the wolf had his shotgun up and ready. Nothing on the other side waited for them, and Randal proceeded forward at a cautious pace. On the other side of the airlock was a bulkhead. Randal looked quickly fore and then aft, seeing no immediate threat, entered the ship proper.

  “Emergency lights are running, but it doesn’t look like much else is,” Elias said, his right hand gripping the handle of the sub machinegun tightly, his finger lying alongside to trigger guard so he wouldn’t accidently discharge the weapon. “Melise, take a reading on the internal atmosphere.”

  The panda entered the ship and moved a few feet to the aft, taking up a covering position as Sonja entered last, facing forward so that two members of the party each faced one direction. She did as requested and passed on the information. “It’s a little thin and cold, but breathable. Ambient temp is around thirty one degrees Fahrenheit. Artificial gravity is point two five standard.”

  “The lack of heat wouldn’t bother a fur too much, but it might wear on a human after a while,” Sonja commented.

  “Which would make more sense for survivors to confine themselves to a smaller area, and the bow of this class ship has the thickest insulation and best protection.” Elias nodded to himself. “Let’s head that way and see if there is anyone that we can help.”

They made the first cabin and Randal stopped. “This hatch has been forced.” He pointed at the edges of the door and the scorch marks and carbonization of the paint and steel beneath. “Looks like therma-gel. Not the most sophisticated method, but it’s effective.”

  The wolf entered with his shotgun leading the way and gave the cabin a quick sweep. He turned on the lamps attached to his helmet and the light affixed to the fore of his weapon.

  “This was a berthing for a family. Looks like parents and three children.” Randal held up a picture that had the image of two felines, a yellow and orange striped male and gray and white female with three kittens that was lying on top of a pile of debris. “I hate to say it, Captain, but I’m getting a really bad feeling about this.”

  “So am I,” the fox said. “Let’s hurry up and get forward.”

  The group increased their speed, giving the cabins only a passing inspection until they reached a sealed hatch that barred further progress. The others covered the wolf as he tried the hatch.

  “It’s locked tight on their side,” Randal said after trying the actuator button, then the mechanical override and manual opening system. “I’m not too keen on scaring these people any more than I have to.”

  “Do you have an induction speaker?” Elias asked. The wolf nodded and pulled a small, flat black box out of another cargo pocket. “Let’s announce ourselves, then.”

  Randal placed the small device against the solid metal of the hatch and plugged a small lead that came from one end into a jack on the side of his helmet. He hit a switch that turned the device’s power on.

  “Attention, attention. This is the crew from the SS Guiding Angel, PA registry 77187. Is there anyone that needs assistance. We mean no harm and are here to offer rescue.”

  Several minutes passed with the wolf issuing the call twice more. The device had powerful magnets to secure it that turned the steel of the hatch into an impromptu speaker tympani. There was a clanging from the other side. “Please acknowledge vocally. We’ll be able to hear you,” Randal said as the clanging became more frantic.

  “We…we welded the door shut when they attacked. We can’t get it open! You have to help us! We haven’t had any food for six days and our water is running out. Please get us out of here!” a voice from the other side said. There was no way to tell if the speaker was male or female, but the desperation in the voice was clear.

  “We have a crew coming to open the hatch. Please remain calm and everything will be fine. We’ll have you out of there in just a little bit,” Randal said.

  Even as the wolf was trying to calm the person on the other side of the sealed hatch, Elias was on the comm with instructions for his engineering team to get across and to their position with cutting tools, and for Treena and Lemuel to also follow with medical supplies and as many blankets as possible. He made sure they knew to wear cold weather gear.

  It took almost half an hour for Stram and Rutger to cut through the hatch. While they were engaged in that endeavor, Elias had Melise and Sonja swept the rest of the ship for potential threats with Randal leading. Treena and the Doctor arrived a few minutes after the badger and his assistant, decked out in cold weather clothing so that they could withstand the frigid temperatures of the ship, and waited with blankets ready and medical supplies in case there were any injuries requiring immediate treatment.

  The door finally came free and Elias saw some of the sorriest looking individuals he’d ever encountered in his life. The first through was a male cat, the orange striped feline from the picture that Randal had found. His fur was matted and the tom looked gaunt. His clothing was torn and filthy and there was dried blood on the tatters of the left sleeve. A crusted over cut that looked infected could be seen under the shreds of fabric.

  He was a little wild eyed, and the lights from Elias’s suit and work lamps that Stram and Rutger had set up made him sneeze with their intensity. He flinched back when he saw Elias in his armored space suit, his right arm going up instinctively to fend off an attack. “Y-you’re not going to hurt us, are you?” he asked fearfully.

  “Not at all. Some of us are actually former members of the Spatial Police Force,” Treena said in a calm voice as she moved forward with a med pack. “We’re here to help you. It’s all right. We want to get you to our ship.”

  It was too much for the feline male and he began to sob and sagged. If not for the speed of Lemuel and Stram, the tom would have fallen into the still glowing edge where the hatch had been cut away. “Treena, get an IV started, please. He’s suffering extreme dehydration and malnutrition.” The tiger was pulling a pressure syringe from his med pack and looked at the label to verify its contents before twisting the dosage dial on it and giving the supine form an injection of antibiotics and painkillers that hissed softly.

  It took a short amount of time for the crew of the Guiding Angel to get the survivors, seven in all, to the freighter and in the open cabin and one of the holding cells where they were brought food and water and the Doctor could treat them without the infirmary being so crowded that they would hamper their own treatment.

  The rest of the Mintaka was clear, with no sign of the other ship’s 18 crew or 31 passengers. One of the survivors was a female ferret that had been left by the pirates and it was she that had sealed the bulkhead hatch to protect the remaining passengers. At the moment she was sedated and in the infirmary under watch. Her condition had been the worst of any of the other individuals that had been rescued, including a fractured arm that hadn’t been set along with severe blunt trauma injuries and bruising accompanied by minor lacerations.

  Elias sat on the darkened bridge, the ship underway again under orders from Colonel Brees on Joplin. The heavy cruiser Solari Magnificat was en route to the derelict to conduct a detailed investigation. The Guiding Angel was in warp space and would meet with another SPF vessel, the Mother’s Arms, a former Terran pocket battleship that had been converted into a hospital ship, on the outer edge of the Faya system as the hunters continued on to Quet and Brandt.

  The fox had volunteered to take the bridge watch alone so that the others could either take care of the rescued individuals and see to their immediate needs or catch some much needed rest. It was with some surprise that Elias heard the bridge hatch open. Turning in the pilot’s seat, he saw the form of the Doctor standing in the doorway, backlit by the bright corridor illumination. Lemuel entered and made his way to the navigator’s console. Handing a cup of coffee to his Captain, the big cat took the navigator’s chair.

  “Thought you could use that,” Lemuel said before taking a sip from his own mug.

  “Oh, yeah. Thanks,” Elias said lifting his mug slightly to emphasize his appreciation. He felt better after taking a sip and turned so that he could regard the tiger. “Don’t normally see you up here, Lem. What’s up? Problems with our guests?”

  Lemuel rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. “No. I’ve treated their physical ailments for the moment. The psychological aspect will have to be handled by someone better suited for that than me. Most of them have been fed and cleaned up, using whatever clean clothing the rest of the crew could spare. It seems that most of them, my guest in the infirmary included, gave up their rations for Mistress Priam and her kittens, which wasn’t a lot to begin with.” He sighed and seemed to sink in on himself, a weariness that was both physical and spiritual sapping the usually robust tiger of his normal vitality. “She’s the reason that I came to see you, the girl in medical I mean.”

  “Is she causing trouble? We’ll be free of her once we meet up with Mother’s Arms,” Elias told his ship mate.

  “I really don’t know how to talk to you about this. There are some things that I have to be careful about because of patient confidentiality, but at the same time there are things that you need to made aware of regarding her…hmmm, dispensation.”

  Elias’s eyes went a little hard though his face was devoid of emotion. “Lem, I admire your dedication to your profession, but she’s a pirate, or was at least on a vessel that is a known marauder and will have to stand trial, even if we never catch her cohorts.”

  “That’s one of the things that I need you talk to you about. She can’t go on trial. She isn’t eighteen, she’s only sixteen. According to the laws of the Planetary Alignment she’s not an adult yet. That and consideration needs to be made for her actions regarding the lives that she protected on the Mintaka.” The Doctor took a sip from his coffee and looked very pointedly at the fox. “She wasn’t really a member of the crew. Elias, she was the onboard entertainment.”

  Elias blinked twice, the flintiness in his eyes vanishing and a look of disgust turning the corners of his mouth down. “I think you’d better tell me everything, Lem. If it will help you, I’ll make that an order.”

  The last sentence seemed to take a great weight off of the tiger’s shoulders. “While I was treating her arm fracture, I gave her some fairly potent painkillers. Normally I wouldn’t use something that strong for someone so young, but she really needed it. What I used also has the side effect of loosening certain inhibitions and makes most individuals rather talkative and incapable of lying.

  “From what she told me, she was sold to the crew of the ship she was on about 4 years ago. At first she simply did the drudge work that the rest of her crew didn’t want to do, and let me tell you that a lot of it was fairly vile. About a year ago, someone on the ship noticed that she wasn’t really a child anymore, and they started to employ her for…other tasks.”

  “You’re not serious?” Elias asked, the look of disgust being punctuated with nausea at the thought of that kind of abuse.

  “Very serious,” The tiger said with a sad shake of his head. “I’ve already dosed her with a series of antibiotics for a number of social diseases. She has been thoroughly abused. There are signs of physical abuse and mistreatment, though those words are rather inadequate to describe what she’s been through. I think the worst of it all is that she’ll never be able to have kits of her own. Sometime within the past few months she had an abortion. Whatever butcher did the procedure has wrecked any chance of her ever carrying a child to term, if she can even conceive at all. I don’t think her former associates were too worried about that.

  “She doesn’t know if she has any family. All she knows is that she was passed from one owner to another on Quet before being sold to her former Captain.” Lemuel pulled a small data stick from one of the pockets on his medical smock. “By the way, this has the name of the ship that attacked the Mintaka and the names of the captain, ship’s engineer and a couple of others. It’s an old Sakura built ship. A 40 year old Swift class courier and light freighter. It didn’t have any weapons, but would lure other ships in by transmitting false distress maydays and taking them when they docked to render assistance. The damage to the Mintaka was done with mining charges so the pirates could get to the aft cargo deck.

  “Jenna says that their normal home ports are Stonefall on Quet and Trent’s Down on Brandt.”

  “Jenna?” Elias asked.

  “The girl’s name is Jenna. She doesn’t know what her last name is, and probably never will.” Lemuel stood up and rolled his shoulders, trying vainly to reduce some of the knots he felt in his neck and back. “It’s all on the data stick. Now then, if you’ll pardon me, I have had a long day and want to do one more round on our guests before I retire.”

  Elias nodded. “Go get some rest, Lem. You’ve earned it. I’ll review this and let you know where I stand tomorrow,” he said, tapping the data stick. “You have my word that I’ll try to be as impartial as possible. And if you want, we can all have a sit down with her.”

  “Thank you, Captain. All I want for her is a fair chance.”

  “She’ll have as fair a chance as I can give her. I promise you that,” Elias said, wrapping his fingers around the data stick. “As for truly fair? I don’t think that the universe really knows what fair is. But that’s why we’re out here. To change the odds, right?”

  The tiger left the bridge, feeling better and standing a little straighter as Elias turned back to his console. Long years of experience had enabled him to glance across the myriad of readouts and indicators to get a general sense of what his ship’s condition and status were. Satisfied, the fox slipped the data stick into a port on his console that would bring up its contents without accessing the actual computer linked to helm and bridge controls. The lessons learned a couple of years back with the Cold Fire virus was the reason for that particular safety redundancy. The computer virus had had the potential of destroying the entire PA infrastructure. The fox then sat back with the coffee that Lemuel had brought him and reviewed the information that came up.

  The ferret had been on a ship called The Lucky Star. It was indeed an older class Sakura. It wouldn’t be hard to find the vessel as it was painted in orange and gold, though the paint was faded, scorched and with large patches of rust. No, it shouldn’t be too hard to find at all. That its captain tended to stay in the Faya system attested to why the ship had never been interdicted before. The presence of the Spatial Police Force was fairly thin in this sector, and then with the SPF using ships that were easy to identify and, thus, easy to avoid it was no wonder that the Lucky Star was still on the prowl.

  The Captain of The Lucky Star was a hyena by the name of Anya Garand. According to what the girl had told Lemuel, she was a citizen of Brandt, and would carry any cargo anyone was willing to pay for, no matter what it was, up to and including abduction victims for the slave trade. That was the reason for the deception that had been used to bait the Mintaka. Easy pickings for the pirates and rich plunder in the form of bodies and whatever material goods that were onboard the vessel.

  It was enough for Elias. He brought up the information on their present course and verified that they were on course for Quet, the only near-by world that the abductees from the Mintaka could be sold quickly without any questions. Slavery was allowed by law on the wretched planet, and Elias wasn’t the only one that wished fervently that the SPF could intervene. But the Planetary Alignment Charter forbade that. There was a reason that most sentients in the PA called the horrid little world The Dump.

  It would be two more days before they rendezvoused with the Mother’s Arms, and five more until they would be landing on the planet and could then intervene. While slavery might be legal, kidnapping and abduction were not, and that was all that the fox needed. He slugged an encrypted burst transmission to Colonel Brees’ office informing him of his intentions and if the lion could reroute a ship to assist them.

The only thing that Elias could do then was what he found the hardest. He had to wait.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.