BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 17
 

“You have to be kidding me?” Merlin said as he looked at the interceptor in the Guiding Angel’s cargo bay before running a hand along the fuselage. “Pirate hunters?”

  Elias shrugged. “We have to keep it quiet for obvious reasons, but, yes. We’re all SPF, despite what I told Samantha and your assistant engineer, Max. We’re the first of several vessels that are specifically charged to actively seek and neutralize piratical activity in the Planetary Alignment.”

  “There’s more of you?” Merlin asked, a gleam coming to his eyes.

  “One other ship at the moment with others that are being outfitted even as we speak,” the fox said.

  “You know, I have always had respect for the Spatial Police Force, but that esteem has just gone up several degrees. What prompted this?” Merlin asked, obviously interested.

  “After the Siilv War, trade dropped drastically. If the economy of the PA is to remain intact, and the Alignment member worlds to continue supporting each other, we have to do something about the interference with interstellar commerce. Someone finally came up with the numbers that prove this is more economical than letting ships get taken by freebooters.” Elias leaned against the side of the Raptor class fighter. “What I need to do, though, is find the pirates. That’s where you come in.”

  “No wonder you were reluctant when I offered you some cargo jobs!” Merlin said with a laugh.

  Elias smiled. “Can you imagine me trying to deliver a cargo with this in my bay?” the fox asked as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder. He pushed away from the fighter and led the wolf to the lift and the bridge. “What I really need is information on pirate activity as soon as it happens. I get regular updates from SPF headquarters on Joplin, but a lot of the time those reports are old and stale. I need updates on the fly. The best way I can think of to get the information on the activity that I need is from individuals like yourself, Merlin.”

  The wolf nodded with a serious expression. “Bring up your charts and I can point out where the Blue Horizon and the other two ships in my company have seen the most trouble.”

  The two moved to the navigation station and Elias brought up a star chart of the worlds of the Planetary Alignment, burgeoning colony worlds, and some installations that the wolf shouldn’t have seen. In his enthusiasm, Elias forgot to filter the information and swore under his breath for his own oversight.

  “Don’t worry,” Merlin said and put a hand on the fox’s shoulder. “I can keep a secret. And I won’t use what I just saw for personal gain. To be honest, I have enough on my plate right now with just the basic worlds of the PA without having to worry about colony supply. If you want you can swear me to a secrecy contract.”

  Elias looked at the wolf with the beginnings of a smile. “No. I really don’t think that’s necessary.”

  The two bent over the display and Merlin Sinclair pointed out the areas that he or his other two ships had had encounters with pirates and raiders, and also informed Elias of rumors of some sectors that he’d heard were becoming more hazardous. Elias noted everything on his DataCom, including some of the sources of information that Merlin thought might be of help.

  “If these individuals are reluctant to talk to you, just tell them I sent you. I’ve met a lot of others after doing this for so many years, and I’ve found some of the information they pass on to be valuable.” Merlin rubbed the side of his face in thought, and turned back to the screen. “You really want to consider these two areas,” he said pointing at the Van Connor Nebula that lay between Centaurus and Sol, then an area around Tanthe. “The nebula has always been a favorite spot for pirates because of sensor interference. Activity around Tanthe has picked up because of a recent surge in dependable and more efficient electronics they’re producing. They’re not too expensive as individual components, but when you have ships moving tons at a time, it gets fairly costly to lose that cargo.

  “Then there is always the Sol Asteroid Belt. As a lot of belters have discovered it’s easy pickings to hit the independent prospectors and little operations, better paying and the risks are actually less than sinking mines into some of the larger rocks out there. I know the Terran Navy is trying to curb the activity, but their fleet is spread very, very thin. They just don’t have enough ships to cover that amount of space.”

  Elias nodded. “I’ve noticed that. The Faya system used to be bursting with pirates and the like, but it seems that they’re packing up and moving elsewhere. I didn’t know about the belt, though. The SPF hasn’t gotten much in the way of information about that area.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Merlin told the other. “The humans there often feel that they can handle most of their problems on their own, and are pretty stingy about news that might tarnish their reputation.”

  It looked as if Merlin wanted to say more, and the furrow that formed between the wolf’s brows indicated that there was more that he wanted to say, but was unsure how to go about it.

  “Merlin, anything you tell me will be held in the strictest confidence. I won’t divulge your name at all should anything you tell me result in a capture, or in the curtailing of raider activity,” Elias told the wolf.

  Merlin shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure that I should say this, because I’m not sure how much of what I am feeling is my own prejudice.” He sighed before continuing. “There’s a human that I’ve dealt with before. He was the one that I bought the arms for my first ship from, and it wasn’t exactly…legal. I know he has dealings with questionable suppliers, but I was desperate to protect my ship and crew.” He saw that the fox was nodding in understanding. “Now, I’ll readily admit that for the most part I trust very few humans, but that stems from past experiences. This fellow, though…call it intuition, or a gut feeling, but I don’t like him, and I certainly don’t trust him. He’s into more than just black market goods, I promise you that. But you’ll be hard-pressed to prove it. I actually have an employee on one of my other ships that’ll attest to carrying certain, hmmm, illicit goods for the man, back when he had his own vessel. As long as he is certain that he won’t be charged with anything.”

  “Who are we talking about, Merlin? I swear that no one will ever know that you gave me this name.”

  The wolf looked squarely in to the fox’s eyes and took a deep breath before answering.

  “Victor Faltane.”

— NEXT CHAPTER —

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