Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance (20 page)

“
I need to phase-shift into Medical … he has only seconds to live.”

“
Hold on to him and phase-shift to the coordinates I’m providing.”

“
Give them to Dira too—we’ll need her.”

Almost forgetting to unclip their tethers, Jason took a firm hold of Rizzo’s arm and phase-shifted to Ricket’s new coordinates.

They phase-shifted to Medical on The Lilly. Both Jason and Rizzo landed on their sides in the middle of the room and hit the deck hard. Jason moved over to Rizzo and started to remove the latches that secured his helmet to the collar mechanism. Rizzo’s eyes came open and he struggled, seemingly unable to breathe. As he jerked and flailed, Jason couldn’t catch hold of the last latch. Eyes bulging, Rizzo stared back at Jason terrified. Then Dira was at his side.

“
Hold him still!” she barked.

She got her fingers under the final latch and it sprang free. She pulled his helmet up and away from his head and Rizzo sucked in a long breath of air. His eyes closed and his body went limp.

“
We need to get him out of this suit and into the MediPod,” she said.

Jason was already at work doing just that.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“
This thing was never meant to cloak something the size of a fucking luxury liner,” Bristol yelled down from the catwalk. “You should have two, or even three, toric-cloaking devices for this to be done right.”

Keeping his eyes on the device, Stalls didn’t bother to look up at his brother. “That wasn’t my question. Again, will it work?” he asked, while eight of his men continued trying to position the unwieldy device into its designated compartment on board Her Majesty.

Bristol shrugged. “It’s a crap shoot. Look who you have installing it. I wouldn’t want these morons moving a couch, let alone one of the most advanced technological devices ever made.”

Stalls temporarily lost his condescending smile and glanced up at Bristol. “Do not disrespect your fellow crewmembers; it’s not only rude, it’s a good way to get dead.”

Bristol realized that several of the sweat-drenched, out-of-breath pirates below were now looking up at him. Shit. He really needed to watch himself. He was already hated by most of the crew. He could very well end up with a knife in his throat.

“
How long before we can test it?” Stalls asked.

Bristol stood back and surveyed the progress. “Well, the hardest part, securing the micro-webbing around the outside of the hull, is done. The optical power converters have been installed and tested. An interface and control panel has been added to the bridge. So, it’s basically up to these geniuses of yours to finish up mounting the device.”

* * *

Bristol tried to look disinterested but had to admit that he too was excited to see if the thing would work. He watched his brother growing more and more impatient.

Captain Stalls had changed his clothes for the big event. Now, wearing a buttoned white shirt, with an elaborate ruffled collar and overly snug black trousers, Stalls strutted back and forth in front of the now-installed control device.

“
Surely we must be ready to try it out now?” Stalls erupted, first looking at the control panel and then to Bristol.

Bristol shrugged. “How will you know if it’s really working? Can you deploy a probe, get an off-ship perspective?”

“
Yes, of course we have a probe,” Stalls replied, but he glanced at Pike just the same. Pike nodded almost imperceptibly, and returned to what he was doing at his station.

“
Good … okay, we’ll send out a probe,” Stalls said.

“
Captain, we’ve got an approaching freighter ten light minutes out. Looks to have a full load. Shall we intersect?”

Stalls gestured for Pike to put it up on the display. “What a relic. No, I’ve been more than explicit. We’re en route to Earth. The sooner we can get underway, the better.”

“
We could disable her, grab her cargo on the way back,” Pike suggested.

“
Are you all seriously that obtuse?” Bristol chimed in. “Why not try out the device on a real subject?”

Stalls let that sink in for a moment and nodded appreciatively. “Yes, that’s an excellent idea, Bristol. Pike, have the rest of the fleet hang back. Set an intersecting course for the freighter.”

* * *

The freighter’s bridge was dingy and Brian felt claustrophobic. The bridge crew consisted of two guys in dirty T-shirts and Betty, who in any normal situation would have definitely caught his eye.

He wiped at something wet on his cheek and saw a trail of yellowish-green pus smeared on his sleeve. Terrific, he thought to himself, my eye … no, that’s gone—my eye socket is infected.

“
You need a medic,” Betty said, dropping a tray of food down in front of Brian.

“
What’s this?”

“
Same stuff we eat,” she replied.

“
What about him?” Brian asked, nodding toward the hopper.

“
What about him?” she retorted, looking at the scaly green alien with contempt. “He’s already eaten.”

“
Yeah, I guess he has.”

As foul a creature as the hopper might be, he was the only thing keeping the crew at bay. Brian had even been able to catch a few hours of sleep.

Betty crossed her arms and continued to look at the hopper. “We don’t want him on the bridge.”

“
Then you’ll have to get used to it. Where I go, he goes. Anyway, he’s not doing anything.” Brian looked over at the hopper, who had curled up into a ball, apparently asleep.

“
What do you call him? What’s his name?”

Brian shrugged. “I don’t call him anything. If he has a name, I don’t know what it is, or care.”

She shook her head in the hopper’s direction, then looked down at Brian. “That eye of yours. You’ll be dead soon. What are we supposed to do with him then? We all saw what he did to the captain.”

“
To start, I’d be nice to him.”

“
Vessel’s approaching,” the T-shirted guy on the right said. “It’s coming up as a luxury liner.

T-shirted guy number two made a face. “I’m getting significant weapons signatures. If it’s a luxury liner, it’s packing some major firepower.”

“
At what point will someone actually pull it up on the screen?” Brian asked nobody in particular.

Betty moved to the nearest station and the front display flickered and came alive. Sure enough, it was Her Majesty. He couldn’t imagine a less welcome sight.

“
Do you have weapons capability on this freighter?”

“
Nothing substantial. Nothing that would make a dent in that liner. Why would we want to, anyway?” she asked.

“
Because those are pirates. The same ones that captured me—and your captain too, for that matter.”

“
They’re charging weapons.”

“
Can’t you take evasive moves, get us out of here?” Brian asked with urgency.

“
We’re a freighter, remember? What exactly did you have in mind?” Betty snapped back.

All eyes were on the display when Her Majesty disappeared.

“
Where the hell did it go?” Brian yelled.

Betty and both T-shirted guys checked their readings.

“
She’s gone,” Betty said, breathing a sigh of relief.

* * *

“
They’re not seeing us, Captain. As far as they know, we’ve left the sector,” Pike said.

Stalls smiled and looked over to Bristol. “Good work, little brother. You know, with this device, nothing can defeat us. Nothing.”

“
What should we do with the freighter, Captain?” Pike asked.

“
You say she’s got a full load?”

“
Looks to be some kind of grain,” Pike replied. “Probably took them months to accumulate that quantity,” was only muttered, an afterthought that would be disregarded.

“
I guess it would be a shame to waste it. Could bring us a healthy bounty.” Stalls watched the old freighter in silence for several moments. “Go ahead, take out her drives. Make sure her cargo holds remain undamaged.”

“
Yes, Captain.”

Three short plasma bursts targeted the aft section of the freighter; a large explosion followed. The freighter, almost as long as Her Majesty, was propelled in the opposite direction.

“
What the hell just happened?” Stalls barked.

“
We must have hit a propellant tank. The good news is she seems to be heading in our same direction, toward Earth. We can still grab her on our way back.”

“
Fine. No more distractions. By this time tomorrow, I want to visit a place called San Bernardino.”

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Ricket finished retrofitting all three Mau warships for remote piloting and was now back on The Lilly’s bridge. Heading back to Trumach, Jason felt they’d accomplished a good day’s work. Certainly the Mau were an odd bunch, and not easy to look at, but they were able fighters and the technology on their three destroyers was substantially more advanced than anything the Craing had brought to bear. Getting those other Mau vessels, close to five hundred of them, to join the Alliance could go a long way toward defeating the Craing fleet. A fleet that would be upon them in less than twelve hours.

Jason headed to his ready room; he was due to speak with his father. They would provide each other with updates on their current situations. By the time Jason got situated at his desk in front of his virtual display, the connection had already been made, and the admiral was waiting for him.

“
Sorry to keep you waiting, Dad. Did I get the time wrong?”

“
No, but we’re about to move out and only have a few minutes to talk. I need to bring you up to speed on our readiness and hear what’s going on there.”

“
On my end,” Jason said, “the Craing fleet was farther along than we had estimated, almost ready to enter Allied space. We’ve got them turned around now and heading right for us.”

“
And where’s that?” the admiral asked.

“
Trumach, the rhinos’ home world. Seven Craing ships are in the area, as well as three ships from a planet called Carz-Mau. They’ve aligned with the Craing and, unfortunately, have brought the fleet size closer to two thousand warships.”

“
I know the Mau; scary-looking bunch. What the hell are they doing with the Craing?” the admiral groused.

“
Apparently, they figured it was a foregone conclusion that the Craing could not be defeated. They preemptively joined their ranks to protect themselves from attack.”

“
That does complicate things. Fifteen hundred Craing ships were bad enough.”

“
Well, we’ve captured three of their vessels here in Trumach space.”

“
You did what?” the admiral asked, obviously irritated. “And what about the seven Craing ships?”

“
All destroyed.” Jason held up his hands as if surrendering. “I know, I wasn’t supposed to engage the Craing at this point, but there really wasn’t any alternative. The good news is the rest of their fleet is coming to investigate. That’ll give you more time to position yourselves in Allied sectors.”

“
What didn’t you understand about not engaging the Craing fleet?”

“
Unavoidable, you would have done the same,” Jason said.

The admiral stared back at Jason for a long moment. “Tell me about the rhinos.”

“
Two Craing light cruisers were in the process of offloading several thousand Red rhinos brought in from a sister planet. Traveler tells me they’ve been at war for as long as anyone can remember.”