Mutineer (8 page)

Alexis hunched over her half of the console, adjusting the communications pickup so that it was closer to her and would show mostly her face. She didn’t want the Hanoverese to be able to see that she wasn’t, in fact, piloting the boat, nor catch a glimpse of Hearst beside her. She composed her face in what she hoped was an appropriately terrified expression and poised her finger over the transmit button and began speaking, turning the transmitter on and off randomly, as though she had no idea what she was doing and was randomly pressing things in the search for the right one.

“Hello? Hello? Hello? Are you there? Hello? Oh, which is the right button? Hello? Can you hear me? Please don’t shoot! Hello?”

“New London boat, this is
Leutnant
Egenhauser of
Hannover System Patrouille
. Shut down your drive — what? Who is that? What are you doing? Stop that!
Verdammt!
Leave it alone!
Idiot!
”

Alexis stopped her pressing of the transmit button, ensuring that it was off, and turned to Hearst. Hearst put the boat into a looping spiral that spun the system’s moon past the viewport every so often, forcing to Alexis to swallow heavily and look away before she became ill.

I wonder if it would help if this Egenhauser saw me be sick?

“New London boat, this is
Leutnant
Egenhauser of
Hannover System Patrouille
. You have stopped transmitting … press the transmit button. Once! Press it once and leave it!”

Alexis leaned close the pickup again. “Hello? Hello?” She pressed transmit and left it set. “Hello? Hello? Hello?”

“Yes, yes,” Egenhauser said. “Good, strike colors and zero your drive immediately!”

“Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?”

“Yes! I hear you! Stop speaking this instant!”

Well, that’s rude.
Alexis stopped speaking. She looked away from the pickup to the rest of the console and made sure to move her arms as though it was she who was piloting the boat.

“Take your hands off the controls immediately!”

Quite rude, him.
She reached out to Hearst and touched his arm. Hearst stopped his wild maneuvers, but not before slamming the throttle fully forward. That would draw out the chase and give Alexis a bit more time.

“Who are you?” Egenhauser demanded.

Alexis looked into the pickup and let her lower lip tremble a bit.

“Midshipman Alexis Carew, captain,” she said. “Please don’t shoot! The men have gone mad! Mad, I tell you! They’re terrified at being captured and I’ve had to lock myself in the cockpit! Please! Please don’t shoot, captain!”

“I am not
kapitän
! I am
leutnant
! Strike your colors, girl!” He shook his head and muttered something guttural that Alexis didn’t catch.

“Lootnut?” Alexis asked. “Is that at all like a lieutenant?”

Egenhauser’s face grew red and Alexis thought she might have gone too far, but he took a deep breath and composed himself. “
Leutnant
,” he said distinctly. “
Leutnant
Egenhauser. Yes, it is the same.” He took another deep breath. “Tell me what is your situation.”

Alexis caught her lower lip between her teeth. It was a bad habit she had and she knew it made her look even younger than she was, but it would serve her well now. “Sir,” she said, “the men went mad when
Hermione
transitioned, sir! Said the captain abandoned us to rot in a Hanoverese prison!” She bit the inside of her cheek hard, wincing and blinking until her eyes watered. “The purser had casks of rum stored aboard, sir, and the men got into it! They’re running wild back there, the pilot with them!” There was an especially loud
thump
from the cockpit hatchway that she was sure could be heard over the pickup. She swallowed hard. “The men are drunk, sir! Said they’d have a last bit of fun before they went to your prison, so I had to lock myself up here!” She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, quite proud of herself when she managed to get a single tear to run down her cheek. “Please, sir, I’ve only been aboard a few months! I don’t know what to do!”

She almost felt guilty as Egenhauser’s expression softened, but she forced that down. The lads were counting on her and this was their only chance, so far as she could see.
Oh, but there’ll be a special place in hell for me after this, I suspect.

“Calm yourself,” Egenhauser said, voice calm and reassuring. “We will save you, but first you must strike your colors.”

“I remember that!” Alexis said, careful of her wording. “I remember reading about that!” She scanned the console and reached for a control. “That’s this one, yes?”

Hearst fired the keel’s bow thruster and the top stern thruster simultaneously, flipping the boat end for end over and over again. As the main engines were still firing, the boat was also looping in a tight spiral.

“Stop!” Egenhauser yelled. “Take your hands away!”

Alexis did, as did Hearst, and the boat straightened its course once more.

Egenhauser rubbed his face. He clasped his hands in front of him. “You do not know your console,
fräulein
?”

Alexis shook her head. “I’ve not been aboard long at all. I know some signals, sir … I know
Heave-to
, and I know
Hermione’s
number by heart, I do.” She smiled in what she hoped was an appropriately vapid bit of pride.

“
Scheisse
.” Egenhauser hung his head. “Do you know where the throttle is,
fräulein
?”

Alexis bit her lip again and scanned the console.

“No,” Egenhauser said. “No, touch nothing. Please — touch nothing. Leave all set as it is and we will match course and speed with you.” He sighed. “Just say,
fräulein,
as you are in—” He shook his head as though he couldn’t believe it. “— command of the boat, do you surrender?”

Alexis kept her face as bland and innocent as possible. She widened her eyes and said carefully, “I appear to have no other choice, Lieutenant Egenhauser.”

Alexis continued to talk to Egenhauser as his ship closed with her boat. Occasionally, the cockpit hatch would rattle and thump, and Alexis would jump in her seat, staring fearfully behind her.

“Please, do hurry, lieutenant,” she whispered. “I fear what the men will do, should they gain entry.”

“Calm yourself,
fräulein
,” Egenhauser said. “We will match speed with you in minutes and be aboard.” He curled his lips in distaste. “Your New London crews lack discipline.”

Alexis nodded, eyes wide.
My New London lads are about to beat your backside bloody,
leutnant.
And all for you’re a gullible fool.

She watched the plot as the Hanoverese ship matched the boat’s speed and acceleration. It settled in on the boat’s starboard side and began easing closer. Alexis edged a hand out of view of the pickup and flashed the passenger compartment lights twice. The ship was close enough now that it couldn’t see the far side of the boat, and the crew would be opening the port lock and streaming out onto the boat’s hull. Four remained inside the passenger compartment, flechette guns trained on the starboard lock, where the Hanoverese would enter.

The flechette guns would be no more than annoyance against a Navy crew, though. They were made for unsuited targets or the thinner vacsuits of merchant crews, not the heavier vacsuits navies used. They’d still penetrate, but the suits would seal around the thin flechettes and they hadn’t enough force to do more than prick the man inside. They’d be enough to surprise and annoy the Hanoverese, though, until the crew could close enough to use their heavy cutlasses, as the stun rods they’d expected to use against a merchant crew were equally useless now.

She could only hope that the Hanoverese weren’t better armed.

Alexis watched the ship drift closer, its boarding tube extended and just about to latch onto the boat’s starboard lock.

“Lieutenant Eganhauser!” she said quickly when his gaze drifted from her to what his ship was doing. She hung her head. “Will being a prisoner be terribly difficult, sir?”

“Badra is a fine planet,
fräulein,
” he said. He smiled for the first time and licked his fat lips. “Perhaps I shall call upon you, when I am in port.”

Why, you lecherous cad!

The boat jostled slightly as the ship’s boarding tube made fast. Hanoverese would be crowded into the tube, ready to blow the boat’s lock and enter to subdue her crew. Her lads, though, were even now flinging themselves over the top and keel of the boat. The boat shuddered as the lock’s hatch was blown and Eganhauser stumbled, looking away from the pickup in shock. Alexis smiled thinly. The jar to his ship was air streaming out of his boarding tube, through her boat and out the still open port lock. She heard shouts coming over the transmission and Eganhauser’s face paled. He’d clearly not been expecting her boat to be in vacuum.

Alexis grabbed her vacsuit helmet from its place beside her seat and sealed it over her head. She flipped the faceplate closed and spun to the cockpit’s hatch as she heard Eganhauser shout.

“
Mein Gott, du kleine miststück!
” He turned away from the pickup. “
Abfeuern! Abfeuern!
”

Alexis got to the hatchway just behind Hearst, who flung it open. They braced themselves against the brief rush of air from the cockpit into the vacuum of the passenger compartment.

Please let him have sent more men to the boarding tubes than stayed on the guns — and that he wants to take the boat undamaged, so ordered his men not to have firearms at the ready.

Eganhauser must have, for only a single shot from his guns was fired. It shot through the boat’s hull, easily vaporizing a quarter-meter circle of the hull nearest the Hanoverese ship before doing the same on the boat’s port side. Had the men been inside, the results would have been devastating. As it was, the shot passed through the empty passenger compartment without striking a single man.

At the far end of the compartment, near the starboard lock, a tangle of men in Hanoverese vacsuits were sorting themselves out from where they’d been sucked out of the boarding tube by the sudden decompression when they’d blown the lock. The four spacers Alexis had had stay inside the boat were tucked behind seats, flechette guns raised and peppering the men with the small darts.

Alexis triggered her suit radio and rushed past them, drawing her cutlass.

“At them, lads!” she yelled.

Hearst and the men drew their own blades and followed her. She reached the far end of the compartment and slashed her blade at the back of a Hanoverese just regaining his feet. She winced as the blade bit deep, blood and air jetting from the rent in his suit. She swallowed hard as her gorge rose and swung again. Beside her, Hearst blocked a blade swinging for her head and she shouldered forward, knocking the man she’d struck to the deck and swinging at the next.

The Hanoverese still in the boarding tube had turned and were rushing back to their own ship to rejoin the bulk of their crew. The rest of Alexis’ crew would have gone over the top and keel of the boat to leap the gap and board the Hanoverese ship however they could. They’d be swinging themselves in through open gunports, blowing a lock or two, and even firing their flechettes into the boarding tube itself.

Alexis rushed through the tube onto the ship and into the backs of the Hanoverese, screaming what encouragement she could to her men. The Hanoverese were oblivious to her, concentrating on the bulk of the
Hermiones
who’d made it aboard through locks and gunports.

The
Hermiones
outnumbered them, but the Hanoverese knew their ship and were fighting for it. Her own crew’s ship had abandoned them and Alexis wondered if they’d have the heart to take the fight to the end.

Virtually ignored at their rear, Alexis hopped up and down, trying to see over their heads to gauge the state of the action. Hearst and the others joined her and she grabbed Hearst’s arm. “Up!” she yelled. He gave her an odd look. “Lift me, damn your eyes, I need to see!”

Nodding, Hearst grasped her waist and lifted her up so that she could see above the heads of the Hanoverese in front of her. The Hanoverese ship’s deck was crowded with men, but she could see from their helmets’ colors that the bulk of her crew were aboard.

“
Hermione!
” she yelled, giving the traditional battle cry of one’s ship’s name. “They’re surrounded, lads!” She waved her cutlass above her head. “Don’t let up!”

A cutlass waved from within the mass of New London helmets across the deck and she heard Nabb’s voice. “Bugger
Hermione!
The cry’s ‘Carew’, lads! And at ‘em hard!”

Alexis’ suit speakers crackled with two dozen voices screaming, “
Carew!
” and the mass of New London vacsuits surged into the Hanoverese. She pounded on Hearst’s helmet to be let down and leapt forward as well. Her arm numbed as the rear of the Hanoverese turned and one blocked her first blow. She felt the impact and the vibration of the steel all the way to her shoulder, but she shoved her way forward, slashing again, feeling the bite of her blade against a vacsuit and the flesh beneath, then a rush of air and a burning in her side as someone stabbed past her guard. Her suit sealed itself, but she felt a rush of warm blood soaking her skin.

She heard her breath coming in harsh, quick gasps that echoed in her helmet. Her voice grew hoarse and her throat hurt from yelling encouragement. Her arm felt like a leaden weight from swinging the heavy cutlass, and the cut on her side stung. She could feel it opening and tearing with every movement.

Another lunge, a parry, the impact of steel on steel as she ground forward. Hearst dropped back with a startled cry, taking the blade from an enemy’s hand where it lodged between his arm and side. Alexis swung viciously at the man’s head, cracking his helmet visor and seeing the puff of air released, then swinging at the next. She realized at the last moment that the man had his arms raised, hands empty of a weapon, and she twisted her own hand barely in time, slapping him heavily with the side of the blade instead of the edge. She looked around and saw that other Hanoverese, too, had their hands raised or were kneeling on the deck. Her helmet speakers crackled with Lieutenant Egenhauser’s voice.

“
Wir kapitulieren!
Quarter! We ask quarter!”

Alexis shuddered, stepping back from the fight. “We’ve won, lads! Quarter! Give quarter!”

Around her, men stepped back from each other, lowering their blades. The deck was strewn with bodies, some moving, some still. She knew that deaths would be rare — the vacsuits would seal over and reair themselves, constricting around tears to put pressure on wounds. The still men would be unconscious from a few moments vacuum or trying to remain still and out of the fight. She shook her head as sweat streamed into her eyes, stinging them.

“Make a lane!” she yelled, transmitting over all channels so that the Hanoverese would hear her, as well. They might not understand the words, but they’d know the meaning. “Make a lane and let me through, damn your eyes!”

She stepped forward, making for the ship’s quarterdeck and Egenhauser. The mass of men parted before her, fighting done. She found Egenhauser on the ship’s quarterdeck. The compartment’s lock had been forced and the quarterdeck was in vacuum. Alexis brought four men with her and slapped a repair seal over the breach in the hatch, leaving orders with Nabb to seal and air the rest of the ship after securing the Hanoverese crew aboard their boat. Eganhauser stood stiffly while the quarterdeck was reaired. When the pressure settled, he took his helmet off and flung it to the deck. Alexis took hers off and regarded him calmly.

“You …” Eganhauser began.

“Watch yerself, you,” Matheny growled from beside her, raising his cutlass.

“Easy, Matheny,” Alexis said. “Lieutenant Egenhauser is understandably distraught.”

Eganhauser glared at her. “A dishonorable ruse,” he said.

“You saw what you wished to see, lieutenant.” Alexis crossed to the navigation plot and checked that the ship was unlocked and that she understood how to switch its controls to English instead of German. By asking for quarter, Eganhauser had surrendered and should turn the ship over to them, but if he felt she’d acted dishonorably he might have laid some sort of trap. Eganhauser looked away, jaw stiff. Alexi sighed. “Well, you’ll be shut of me soon enough, lieutenant.”

“You do not take us prisoner?”

“No,” Alexis said. “I had quite enough of prisoners on a long voyage last time, thank you.”

Nabb came through the quarterdeck lock.

“The ship’s aired and sealed, sir, and the lot of ‘em’re in the boat.”

“Thank you, Nabb.” Alexis wanted to ask about the men, how many injured and how many dead, but they had to move fast. She wanted the Hanoverese off her new ship and to be underway as soon as possible. There was a chance, if they transitioned soon enough, that they might spot
Hermione
in
darkspace
and be able to catch her. “Be sure all the food and water is brought aboard this ship, please.” Nabb nodded and left again. Alexis turned to Eganhauser. “If you’ll go aboard the boat now, lieutenant? A patch or two and you should be able to reair her and make it to the planet’s surface with little trouble.”

“You are —”

“I am what I am, lieutenant. If being that gets my lads home safe, then I’ll suffer your scorn.” She nodded at his helmet. “You’ll need that.”

Eganhauser scooped up his helmet without another word. Alexis escorted him off the quarterdeck to the boarding tube. She met Nabb there leading a party of men back with boxes of supplies.

“The boat’s console is locked, lieutenant,” she said at the airlock. “I’ll send you the codes before we transition.” Eganhauser nodded, his lip curling. Alexis jerked her head at the lock, wanting to be shut of the man and his reproach. When the lock was closed and the boarding tube had begun to retract, she whispered to Nabb, “What was the butcher’s bill?”

“Four of the Hanoverese dead,” he said, “but not a one of ours.”

“None?”

He grinned. “Took ‘em with their skivvies down, you did, sir. That lieutenant told ‘em to expect a bunch o’ drunken sots, not fighting men. Oh, there’s a lad or two of ours hurt. Hearst has a hunk o’ skin carved off his ribs and there’s four with blood in their eyes from cracked helmets. That’s the worst, though, and they’ll all heal.”

Alexis grasped the bulkhead to steady herself. She’d been dreading the cost of the fight and to hear she’d lost not a single man came as a shock.

“Should have yer own looked at, sir,” Nabb said, nodding to the sealed cut in her own suit.

Alexis probed it gently and found that it didn’t hurt. “I think the suit’s taken care of it, now I’ve stopped running about.” She frowned, considering what would have to be done next. “Find Matheny and put him on the helm,” she said. “Bend a course for L1, that should still be closest. We’ll follow
Hermione
out … hopefully she’ll still be in sight.”

“Aye, sir.” Nabb looked doubtful, but he went off in search of Matheny.

Alexis scanned the cutter’s deck. There was so much yet to be done. First get into
darkspace
and on their way back toward New London space. If
Hermione
was still in sight, then they’d have to hurry to catch up. Hopefully the ship would see their signals and wait for them — a nice little cutter as a prize might make Neals more willing than the ship’s boat alone had. If the ship wasn’t in sight, then they’d have to make their own way home, which meant plotting a course. Alexis shuddered. At least she’d have a solid starting position, but the thought of their lives and freedom hinging on her ability to navigate chilled her to the bone.