Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (12 page)

"Well," Web replied evenly,
"I suppose that depended on what you thought they'd find.  If all they're
going to get out of the safe is money, then if they broke in there's no need to
come get you.  If they've failed or something in the safe made them mad,
they'll be back to show us how unhappy they are.  Same with that data you asked
me to hide."

"Is it secure?" Two-Swords
asked, looking more guilty than ever in Web's eyes.

"We need to talk about that,"
Web answered smoothly.  "Your encryption is pretty good.  Too good, in
fact, to use a portable data pad like everyone here has to access it.  I
stashed it in some of the more obscure data storage directories on the ship,
but to get at it either to copy, read, or delete it, we'll need a hardwired
terminal."

Captain Two-Swords deflated, the wind
completely out of his sails.  "How do you know about all this?" he
asked cautiously.

Web sensed the man wouldn't be thrilled
if he thought he was come sort of military or police, so he went the other
direction.  "I used to work for a Fixer before I started working on
freighters.  You know the job?"

Two-Swords nodded in understanding. 
"The person you call when you need something done.  Can I ask what you
did?"

"You can ask, but I can't tell.  I'm
still on good terms with the man, and I'd hate for that to change.   So, why
don't we say I might be of some use to you with whatever problem it is that you
have."

Two-Swords was about to speak when the
hatch swooshed open and the Trin who seemed to be the leader of the boarding
party stomped in.  He pointed at the captain and yelled.

"You!" He then grabbed the
sturdy and weathered slug-thrower on his hip and drew it, putting Two-Swords in
his sights.  "Everything has been going so well, I decided to catch up on
old business.  It's time to get us into that safe.  Think carefully about your
answer."  The Trin also looked suspiciously at Web, and the barrel of the
handgun began to drift over to the Confed officer.  "I'm starting to think
shooting your cargo man here would be a good motivator."

Web stood up to get the pirate's
attention.  "We were talking about how to defeat the locks on the
safe," Web said slowly, hands held straight down at his sides.  "He
thinks I can help get through the locks, but he didn't want to involve me and
make me a target for your attention.  But if it helps get this over with, I'll
do whatever you need."

The Trin almost grinned, then caught
himself.  "Smart idea, human.  Both of you, get moving.  We're headed to
the captain's cabin."

CHAPTER
SEVEN

The walk through the corridors took only
a few minutes, which didn't give Web much time to consider his options.  There
was only the Trin and one other pirate with them, so Web was fairly happy with
the odds if it came to a close quarters fight.  Captain Two-Swords kept trying
to steal glances at Web as they walked side by side, but Web didn't want to
draw any extra attention so he didn't make eye contact.

Finally, they arrived at the captain's
cabin.  The hatch was already open; the locks had been bashed, pried off, and
the locking pins had been torched away, the door then forced into the sliding
pocket in the bulkhead and welded into place. 
These folks were not ones for subtlety
and apparently weren't very patient, either,
Web decided.

The Trin motioned them inside with his
gun, and Web and the captain obliged.  The place had already been ransacked,
clothes and various other items thrown all over the place as drawers, shelves,
and every nook and cranny was investigated.  They'd finally found the safe
under a floor panel by the captain's desk, though attempts to guess the
combination or torch it open had been unsuccessful.

"Must have something pretty nice in
there for the company to use an alloy like that," the Trin stated
ominously.

Web quickly studied the safe's face and
decided it was probably made of a layered armor similar to that used on Confed
ships.  They wouldn't be able to cut through the door.  In fact, it would be
easier to just chop out the bulkhead and decking around it and take the whole
thing back to a place where they could spend the next few days grinding away at
it.

"So open it," the pirate
commanded, "or I kill you both."  He held his gun at waist level and
pointed it at Two-Swords.

The captain turned to Web.  "You'll
need to get root access to the security protocols on my terminal," he said
softly, then pointed to his desk.  Web walked over, but stayed standing,
leaning over the desk instead of sitting in the chair.  There was no way he was
going to put himself at the disadvantage of being seated while a man had a gun
to his head.

Web gestured to open the interface, then
started.  The user interface was graphical, but eventually he got into the
admin levels, and from there he spent the next minute gesturing, typing
commands onto the keypad, and even creating an admin voice access for himself
as the pirates watched on with interest.

"Man with skills like yours could
make a nice living doing other things than running freight," the Trin said
without inflection.

"I'm not so sure about your
industry's retirement plan," Web said cautiously.  This man was the sort
you had to earn the respect of if you wanted to avoid being a victim.  He
needed to show he was confident enough to stand up for himself but not
hot-headed enough to seek conflict.  But the pirates understood strength the
confidence, so that's what he'd do.

"Who wants to get old?" the
pirate countered with a grin that spelled trouble.

The computer beeped twice, and asked for
Web's admin passphrase.  "Walk the plank," Web replied with a grin of
his own, and the computer's screen changed again, now showing green icons for
every ship system and file library onboard.

"On second thought," mused the
pirate, "maybe we'll just make you an apprentice and take you with
us."

Web ignored him as best he could. 
"Captain, I have access.  Now what?"

"Go to the security directories and
find the file for secure onboard storage.  This compartment is designated
F-23A.  I've never done it myself because I don't possess your computer skills,
but I know once you're in you can find and disable the yard overrides on the
safe.  Once that's done, my code will work regardless of whether we're docked
or not."

Web surfed around and found the
directory; the safe's lockout was right where Two-Swords had said it would be. 
Web then turned to the captain.

"It's all yours," he said,
looking in the man's face for some sort of sign.  Was he supposed to go through
with it?  The man had given him no guidance, but since he'd obligingly told him
how to get into the system, he assumed the man wanted Web to open the safe for
starters.

"Once it's open," Two-Swords
said slowly while looking right at Web, "it won't matter what happens to
us.  Things will change."

"So dramatic," the Trin said as
he waited for Two-Swords to walk over to the console and input the
combination.  The door clicked and popped open a crack, and the pirate grabbed
the captain and pulled him away from the spot on the deck, letting the man fall
to the ground.  The Trin got down on one knee and pulled the door open, peering
inside.

Contrary to what the pirate thought, Web
realized the captain wasn't being dramatic.  As best as he could figure, the
captain was telling Web that once the pirate saw what was in the safe, all bets
were off.  There was no need to worry about playing the game; they'd have to
take matters into their own hands. 

Web took the opportunity to strike.  The
pirate watching him made it too easy, and he knew he'd catch hell from Halley
for taking advantage of such easy prey, but as they said: in a fight, the only
rule is that there are no rules.

The man was standing just a step behind
Web, peering over his shoulder to see the screen.  Web took the opportunity to
ram his left elbow back into the man's throat as hard as he could, and he
immediately knew it was a successful attack.  The human's physiology was the
same as Web's, so he knew exactly what was happening.  The man's carotid sinus
was shocked by the blow, and in addition to interrupting blood flow the
confused baroreceptors told the brain to have the heart drastically reduce
blood flow and pressure.  Combine that with the collapsed windpipe and the man
was on the floor without a fight.

Without missing a beat, Web spun as the
pirate fell to the floor.  The Trin pirate just a few steps away was in the
process of standing up and trying to bring his weapon to bear, and Web pivoted
his hips slightly and delivered a roundhouse kick with his right foot.  The toe
of his boot tagged the man on his jaw, and he managed to spin in place as he
fell to the deck.  Web was on him in an instant, but the fight was over.  He'd
only be out for a minute, so Web had to work fast to secure the room.

"Get something to tie and gag these
two," he commanded the captain.  Two-Swords pointed somewhat nervously to
the first pirate that Web had dealt with, who had stopped thrashing around. 
Web knew what that most likely meant.  "Okay, then, we'll just tie and gag
this guy here.  Hurry."      

Two-Swords hurried as best he could, but
Web could see the man was on the edge of shock.  It was a sad commentary about
the life he was living that Web had built up a tolerance for what he'd just had
to do, but he'd worry about his eternal soul once he was no longer in danger of
death himself.

As he tucked the fallen man's scarred
blaster into his back waistband, Web quickly checked the first pirate and
confirmed he was dead while the captain worked on securing the Trin.  He didn't
want to wait for the captain to try and spin what he might see in the safe, so
he just went ahead and looked.  Inside were a few data pads and even some
low-tech bound notepads.  Web gathered them up and gave them a quick
once-over.  It seemed that every data pad had a corresponding notebook.  It
also seemed, Web noted with increasing displeasure, that the data pads matched
the port-of-call on the ship's itinerary and showed what was supposed to be
transferred in the way of cargo, while the matching notebooks indicated
other
items and data that was to be passed on or received.

Web stood up holding the materials in his
hands to see Two-Swords nervously holding the Trin pirate's handgun.  It wasn't
pointed at him, but it wasn't hanging loosely at the captain's side, either.

"It appears we have a
situation," Web said in a low voice.

"We don't need to," the captain
said almost pleadingly, "Just give me a minute to explain."

Halley made her approach to the First
Officer much the same way Web had done so with the captain.  The young Drisk
FO, Lirik Daemon, carried a demeanor much different than the rest of the crew. 
She seemed too calm, despite her emphatic instructions to Halley earlier to
just leave everything alone so events could run their course.  If Halley
believed her years of experience and training, she'd say that Ms. Daemon had
good reason to not fear the pirates.  She took an opportunity to catch the
First Officer alone in a corner as she was checking on her personal data pad.

"Engineer Carib," FO Daemon
began to say abrasively, using Halley's chosen alias.  "What are you doing
hovering around here?  Shouldn't you be with your department?"

"Engineering's all under
control," Halley said smoothly.  The FO studied her for a second, but
Halley continued before she could be interrupted.  "We were thinking of
trying to jettison some cargo pods and make a run for it."  She wanted to
see what the FO did.

"You can't do that!" was
Daemon's excited reaction.  She managed to keep her voice to a stage whisper,
but she was suddenly very agitated.

"Well," Halley continued,
"something's rotten here.  They've taken the captain, and they're swapping
cargo pods, not just taking them."  Halley knew she was taking a leap,
since she didn't know for sure what the cargo pod situation was, but she needed
to play this hunch.  "I think they're going to do something very bad to
us, and most of the folks in the back half of the ship are ready to take our
chances fighting rather than be blown up, kidnapped and tortured, or whatever
else they have planned."

She stared at Daemon, stone cold glare
daring the other woman to react in some way. 

"That would be stupid, for
one," Daemon countered, "and illegal since I gave you orders to stand
put."

"But the captain didn't give any
such order, and as far as I know he's still in command."

Lirik Daemon studied Halley's impassive
look.  "Just leave it be," she cautioned darkly.

"No."

Daemon's right fist was balled up like
she was ready for a fight, and Halley suddenly welcomed the possibility.  This
woman was holding out something on the crew; something that could very well be
a life or death matter.  She was resigned to having to beat it out of the
woman, not caring if it made a scene.

"This doesn't affect you," the
FO finally said, budging a bit by her admission that there was something going
on.

"It sure as hell affects me,"
countered Halley.  "It affects every last person on this ship.  Does the
captain know what you're doing?"

"He doesn't know anything about
whatever it is that I am not doing."

"You should be a politician,"
said Halley as she squinted.  "Alright; I'm going back to my people and
I'm going to tell them I didn't get anything out of you.  Are you going to help
us escape or not?"

Daemon was overcome by a new wave of
agitation.  "You can't do anything, you fool!  Just stand there and let
things be!"

"Cough it up, now," demanded
Halley.  "You never know; I might think your plan is just wonderful and
offer to help in any way I can."

Still, Daemon said nothing, so Halley
turned and walked away.  The FO grabbed Halley by the upper arm.  "Stop. 
I'll tell you," she said softly.

Halley turned and they headed back to the
corner and a semblance of privacy.  Halley just crossed her arms and waited.

"The pirates are going to replace
some of the missing cargo pods with duplicates.  Not all of them are in on it;
just a handful.  The pirate group gets their loot, and another group gets to
put some things aboard with nobody the wiser."

Halley nodded as she processed the
information. It made sense, actually.  Have the pirate captain or First Officer
in on the plan.  Take the valuable cargo pods, replace them or some others with
pods carrying your own payload.  That's why all the external video feeds and
the computerized inventory were disabled and locked out.  But what was worth
crippling the system for?

"What are you smuggling down to
Callidor?" Halley asked, making the connection.

"I'm just a cog in the machine
here," said Daemon, and Halley's warning bells went off again.  If the
woman was trying to distance herself from the situation, it probably wasn't
charitable donations to local orphanages.

Halley's withering glare finally got
Daemon talking again.  "They're all for the resistance," she said in
defeat. 

Halley was actually relieved.  Sure,
whatever organization she was part of was potentially risking the freighter's
crew even though they weren't part of the plan, but it could have been worse. 
This might still be manageable.

"Ok," said Halley, "that's
not so bad, actually.  What are you delivering?  Weapons, food?"

This time, Daemon looked at the deck
plates as she talked.  "Some of the pods the pirates are leaving alone, yes. 
The ones they're replacing are filled with explosives.  Once we're in orbit,
they'll be transferred to the surface to their intended destinations via the
company's orbit-to-surface operation.  And once they land..."