Rookie Privateer (23 page)

Set up collision warning on thirty seconds. Automated collision avoidance at five seconds
.

The navigation system would continue to decelerate at our predefined burn plan, but now I had the ability to maneuver around the more numerous objects we would encounter once we were within a hundred kilometers.

"That sure went better," I said to Nick.

I looked over to Nick, who was staring at the door of the bridge with concern. My stomach dropped. There was a bright red dot on his forehead. My eyes followed his to the door of the bridge
.

Xie stood framed in the doorway, casually holding a laser pistol aimed at Nick.

"
What are you doing?" Nick asked. I started to rise up out of my chair to face her.

"
Nothing personal, lover. Just need my ship back. Now sit down or I drill a hole in you like you did Gaben."

I caught a bit of sadness in her voice. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing, but it didn't matter. She had a laser aimed at Nick's head and was threatening to use it.

"Who is Gaben?" I knew who Gaben was but needed to buy time to come up with a plan. Gaben Fuse was the pirate I had killed with the mining laser when I punched it through the armory into the slug-thrower turret.

"
Don't play dumb, Liam. You never forget your first." Xie was now three meters behind us, well out of arm's reach.

"
What do you want?" I needed to buy time to figure things out.

"
Turn ship control over to me." Her voice was calm and had lost the girly edge I was used to hearing from her.

"
Won't work," Nick grunted.

"
What's that, lover?" Xie asked mockingly.

"
We can't turn control over. You pointed a weapon at the bridge crew. The ship AI is a combat AI and you are now locked out as an enemy combatant." Nick replied.

"
Well, I don't need two of you to fly it," she responded. There was no more mocking, just anger in her voice.

I needed to
attract Xie’s focus. Nick was good at a lot of things, but negotiation wasn't one of them. I wondered if he was bluffing. If so, it was fabulous, because even I believed him.

"
Look, you kill either of us, I guarantee this goes south." For me, this was no bluff.

"
Who said anything about killing?" Xie asked and calmly shot Nick in the shoulder.

I had never seen a hand laser fired and my mind reeled as I saw the flash. Nick fell forward toward the bulkhead. If he wasn't dead, he was unconscious. It was more than I could take. I jumped from my chair and charged Xie. I was considerably stronger, but my martial arts skills were no match for hers.

Xie easily caught my charge and threw me to the side. I attempted to roll, the only thing I’d come close to learning in the last few days. I managed to break my fall and come back up to my feet, stumbling a bit drunkenly, but upright.

She
looked at me impassively, waiting to see what I would do next. I didn't disappoint her, I wasn't thinking very well. She had shot Nick and I wanted to rip her head off. I don't believe I'd ever felt so much rage.

I charged again and attempted to change it up when I reached her, knowing she would leverage my force against me. Unfortunately, the result was much the same. She adapted easily and this time threw me to my back, causing the breath to expel from my body. She retained control over my arm and twisted it cruelly.

"If you would like to keep the use of this arm, I suggest you get up and attend to your friend," she said.

I struggled, but her hold was such that with a small amount of pressure she was able to cause me no end of pain.

"Please let me know when you are done." She was infuriating but she was also right, I needed to see to Nick.

"
Okay, I’m done. Let me fix Nick."

She released me and I opened a panel on the back of the bridge and reached for the medical kit.

"Careful sweetie. Nice and slow with that." Xie was pointing her gun at me, the laser dot steady on my chest.

Nick had fallen out of the chair and lay in a heap between the forward bulkhead and the starboard pilot's chair.

"Careful buddy. I gotta turn you over and take a look here." I spoke to Nick in a soothing voice, trying to calm him if he were conscious. He groaned unhappily as I rolled him onto his back. The entry wound looked like a nasty burn.

Access medical triage program
.

I lifted my face shield
to look at the heads-up display. The numbers weren't encouraging, but the only thing I could do was cover the wound with a disinfectant medical patch. It would clean his wound and soften the charred skin and tissue. Without help relatively soon, Nick would lose the use of his left arm.

"
You bitch," I said, mostly to myself.

"
Don't be a child, Liam. I had to establish a new pecking order. You are too pig-headed to believe that a laser pistol makes me the boss, so you needed a demonstration. Now pick him up, put him in the chair and sit down. We have places to go and people to meet. The next demonstration will be permanent."

I was angry but she had definitely made her point. I grabbed Nick, trying to be as gentle as possible, and helped him up into the chair. I had my arms around his torso to lift him. My head was next to his and I clearly heard him say
"Loose Nuts." He wasn't in good shape, but more awake than he was letting on.

"
Let me put him back on a bunk," I pleaded with her.

"
Can't risk him waking up unguarded. Need to keep an eye on you both. Don't worry. This will all be over in less than half an hour. Now back in your chair, Captain. Your new heading waits in your message queue. Please make the necessary course adjustments and don't get cute. I would hate to have to arrange for another demonstration. Oh, and your back roll is definitely improving."

Xie moved to
a chair at the rear of the bridge and sat down. She had indeed messaged me both a heading and speed. I was to pick up the pace to fifteen thousand kilometers per second and follow a line to the other side of Ceres, away from Baru Manush.

After thirty minutes of sail, Xie instructed me to reduce speed and
then gave me a new heading. We sailed another twenty minutes and entered a small cluster of asteroids.

My heart sank into my stomach when I saw another general astral cutter fly up alongside us. It was a mirror of the
Sterra's Gift
except that it still retained two missiles. The gunner fired several rounds past the armor glass - a shot across the bow. Visual bridge alarms flashed red, indicating we were taking fire.

"
Hail the ship and put it on an open channel," Xie demanded.

"
Heave to and prepare to be boarded," a gravelly voice demanded.

"
Stand down, Boyarov," Xie replied.

"
Who is this?" the voice asked.

"
Commander Mie-su."

"
Give me a minute," Boyarov said. The ships glided along silently for a few moments. The view out of the armored glass was beautiful, but mostly lost on me. The glass framed the cutter against the backdrop of Ceres which occupied 25% of my view. I had to put it out of my mind. The next minutes would likely determine Nick and my life's story.

"
Verified. What's the play, boss?" Boyarov's voice replied.

"
The boys here locked us out using a military protocol. If you attempt to board, it will automatically blow the airlock and shut down all of the systems. We will follow you back and set down. We can fix it back at base. If Liam here gets cute, blow the engines and try not to kill me."

"
Prinyal."

"
Okay, Liam, form up on my buddy Alexander there. I suggest you don't get cute, since I am the only thing between him and a promotion," Xie informed me.

Follow cutter at five hundred meters
. I instructed the ship.

"
What's the end game here, Xie? I set this ship down and what happens to Nick and me?"

"
We are always looking for recruits," she chuckled. "You're green but you seem to be resourceful."

She could be serious and it would certainly be better than being dead, but if I didn't get Nick some help, he would lose his arm. This was a bunch of crap and rage rose again.

"I found your toy." I stood up slowly from my chair.

"
Easy there big boy. I don't want to blow this ship but I will if I have to. What is it that you think you found?" Xie calmly put the red dot back onto my chest.

Gotcha. We had played enough cards for me to know that one of her tells was that she got real calm when she was focused on something. I raised my hands passively.

"What's Ordena's role in this?" I wouldn't have another opportunity to discover this.

"
He doesn't ask too many questions."

I must have pursed my lips at this because Xie defended Ordena.
"Oh don't be too hard on him. He's a survivor. You never know who's going to be in charge out here, so it's best to not make too many waves." Xie rationalized. "I think the question is, are you a survivor Liam? You know we aren't any different than Mars Protectorate. They allow you to steal our stuff. What do you think a Letter of Marque is? License to steal from enemy combatants."

"
Who are you?" I was genuinely interested.

"
Red Houzi. We are a corporation, Liam. I own the local franchise, and I'm always looking for good employees. So what is this toy you referred to?"

"
I need to get help for Nick," I pushed.

"
We have a combat med tank. You play ball with me and I will get him his turn in the tank." I believed her and it concerned me how much sense it made. "About that toy?"

"
You probably don't know it but I have always enjoyed playing ball. How about you lower your gun a little? I will pull it out real slow. I'm not packing."

Xie lowered the pistol and I could see the dot on the floor in front of me. It was probably as good as it would get. I lowered my hands and
drew back the seal of the small pocket at my waist holding the marble. I pulled the marble out between my forefinger and thumb.

"
I think this is what you have been looking for."

Xie's eyes narrowed on the small object in my hands. This was the moment.

I underhand-tossed the marble to her, but aimed just within reach of her gun hand, causing her momentary confusion whether to catch it or let it drop. I was counting on the value of the object as being greater to her than her concern for keeping me under control.

I yelled
"LOOSE NUTS!" Nick had given me the clue and I hoped I understood what he meant.

A lot of things happened all at once. The gravity of the bridge dropped to 5% of normal and the lights dimmed. I fired the arc-jets on both my hands and boots and Nick lurched across the chair and pushed the flight stick hard to port. I had made it halfway to Xie when the rolling ship caused me to slam up into the ceiling. Random laser fire lanced through the bridge. It was information I didn't need and blocked out.

It was a crazy gamble on Nick's part. I heard him slam into the starboard side armor-glass, but more importantly, Xie flew into the bulkhead behind her with the gun still blazing. What she didn't realize was that I was in my element. This was no different than a pod-ball game. I recovered quickly, rolled off the ceiling and fired my arc-jets in unison. Xie might be an expert at Aikido, but I was certain she was no sort of pod-ball expert. I rolled over on a direct line and saw her lining up for a shot.

"
Not gonna happen." I fired my palm jet hard as my arm passed her head, slamming the back of my hand into her face. To her credit, she raised her face shield in time, absorbing the majority of the impact. We were in virtually zero gravity though, so her body was no longer tethered to the floor. The rule that every action has an equal and opposite reaction pretty much ended up with her head dragging her body backward into the wall.

I was used to collisions on the pod-ball court and turned with my other hand and brought it across her wrist with an arc-jet burst. Booyah! The laser pistol came free and flew away harmlessly, clattering into the ceiling.

Xie wasn't without zero gravity skills, however. She recovered quickly and launched back at me. I had the advantage of my arc-jets but she had grappling skills that I couldn't fathom and I was in close. She grabbed my arm and used her legs to hold onto me, then pulled me into a choke hold.

I felt the pain before I could understand what had happened. My left arm felt like it was on fire and I realized that the laser pistol had been fired and I'd been shot. Xie's reaction was considerably more profound. She let go completely and sagged away from me. I pushed her away with both arms to better understand what had occurred.

"Sorry, Liam," Nick said.

I looked back at him, now holding the pistol. Understanding dawned on me.

"You shot me!"

"
Bigger problems," he said.

The ship we had been following had rotated in place and was heading back
toward us. We were too close for them to not be right on us. I fired my arc-jets back to the pilot’s chair.