Smuggler's Dilemma (21 page)

"It's worth a shot," Nick said.

With Mom and Dad comfortable on the bridge couch and Ada at the helm, Nick, Marny and I sat around the small office room next to my sleeping quarters. I pulled the communications device off the shelf and assembled it, placing an energy crystal into the device. On a previous journey, we'd learned that the Navy had been using the device to spy on our activities. It wasn't completely unwarranted, but I guess I just didn't like not having a say in it.

"Belcose, you there? Over," I said. He didn't answer right away, but that was to be expected. I waited thirty seconds and repeated the call. It took five tries, but finally he answered.

"Lieutenant Belcose here. Please identify yourself," his familiar voice responded.

"Liam Hoffen, Gregor. Can you validate that this signal can't be tracked?" I asked. "We're transmitting behind enemy lines."

"Affirmative. The quantum crystals have no signature. Please advise on your location," he said.

"Colony 40," I said. "We're trying to locate Nick's mom and brother. Do you have any information?"

"I can't share that information," Belcose answered.

"Don't be like that, Lieutenant," I said evenly. "We need to find them, these guys are animals."

"Wait one," he responded.

We waited uncomfortably for Belcose to respond.

"What do you think he's doing?" Ada asked.

Before I could answer we heard a woman's voice. "Captain Hoffen?"

"Yes, this is Liam Hoffen," I said.

"Commander Sterra here. It is good to hear your voice, Captain. We'd heard a report of a ship being destroyed." she asked.

"I can confirm that report. We were flushed out by a trio of cutters. We destroyed two of them."

"Captain," she started and then said a little more softly, "Liam, you're in grave danger. Enemy contact is not advised."

"We have a lot of friends and family on the station. Do you have any information?"

"Several hours ago the Red Houzi pirate clan raided the station, killing most of the inhabitants. So far, their mode of operation would suggest that anyone left behind, undiscovered, is murdered when they blow up the station. The only reason I'm telling you what I am is to convince you to move out of that area. I cannot stress enough how dangerous of a position you are in."

"What would you have us do? That's our family."

"We all do what we must, Captain. Sterra out."

PEAS IN A POD

I took a deep breath and looked around the table. "What's your take?"

"Sterra's holding something back," Marny said.

I was at a loss here. "There could be as many as a two thousand people on that station."

"Everyone who had a ship took off. You saved a lot of people with your warning, but there are probably a few hundred left on the station," Dad said from the door. I hadn't noticed that he'd been listening to our conversation.

I looked back at him to include him in the conversation. "I'd like to get closer and see how tight their security is. They can't be monitoring all of the bays. Maybe we could sneak into one."

"They'll be looking for us," Nick said.

"Let them look. Let's go find out what's happening down there." Everyone nodded. For once, we had home field advantage.

All sections report
, I requested. I was seated in the cockpit, ready to go.

"Weapons are green," Marny replied.

"Bridge is secure. All passengers and crew are strapped in," Nick replied.

"You ready for this, Ada?" I asked. She sat next to me in the cockpit.

"It's been an honor sailing with you, Liam."

It was hard to keep from approaching too fast. I had no idea if the pirates had co-opted the sensor net. It had been tuned to look for potential asteroid collisions with critical structures. I'd hoped, by sailing dark, that if the sensor net detected us, it would see us as an asteroid and by sailing in on a non-direct path we wouldn't raise collision alarms.

"Ship on starboard," Ada said quietly.

A cutter passed beneath us at a distance of forty kilometers.

"Think they're still looking for us?" I asked.

"Aye. That they are, Cap," Marny answered. "I doubt they're very happy about losing those ships."

"We're closing in on the edge of the sensor net," I said. As we'd gotten closer I'd picked out a path that I knew well and slowed the
Hotspur
down to the speed of a local ore sled. The AI was projecting an estimated sensor strength of the net on my HUD. I watched a thermometer-styled gauge as it grew from nothing, ticked up rapidly and then showed a full bar. I'd been holding my breath.

"Port side, Cap. Ten degrees declination," Marny broke the silence.

I hadn't had to think about degrees in quite a while, but Marny's AI saved me the work by communicating what she was looking at. It was one of the frigates. If they'd seen us, they were doing a really good job of not tipping their hand. We sailed along quietly and I had no doubt that all six of us were tracking the frigate as we passed by.

Finally, we'd reached the asteroid I'd been looking for. Using nothing but arc-jets, I slowed us down and swung the ship around, sliding into a tunnel through the asteroid that I knew stretched two hundred meters to the other side.

"Frak!" I exclaimed. I had to hit the throttle to abruptly bleed off our remaining forward momentum. The tunnel that I'd planned on using to cloak our ship was occupied. A powder blue runabout sat in the tunnel.

"Nick, you seeing this?" I asked.

"Cap, Nick's gone. He jumped on the lift," Marny said.

"Marny, go! Dad, take the gunnery station. Ada, you have the helm. If you have to leave us to protect the ship, do it," I said.

I jumped from my seat and sprinted to the lift, using my arc-jets as I fell through the hole - Marny had already lowered the lift. I landed hard next to her but didn't think twice about it. Once through the door to the cargo bay, Marny grabbed the two blaster rifles that she'd strategically positioned. Nick had already cycled through the lock. I wished he'd given us even a second to catch up with him. I jammed my hand on the security panel to refill the lock with atmo.

"That's his mom's runabout," I explained.

"Aye. I figured it had to be something like that," Marny said as we cycled through the lock and into the tunnel. There was virtually no light and we'd been lucky that, in the enclosed space, the passive sensors of the
Hotspur
had picked up on the small structure of the vehicle.

We arc-jetted past the nose of the
Hotspur
. My AI had perfect recollection of this tunnel's interior. We'd spent quite a bit of time in it several months ago, scraping the broken remains of my ore-sled from one of the walls. I recalled the chase where Tabby had clipped the back of my sled, sending me careening into the wall. So much had changed since then.

A dim light glowed from within the runabout. Someone had cycled the atmo and I could make out figures standing next to the vehicle. My heart leapt as I caught a familiar shock of red hair. We'd found Jack, Nick's brother.

Initially, I thought that they were just embracing so that their helmets would make contact. As I got closer I could see that Nick's shoulders had sagged and that he was patting Jack's back.

"Let's secure the area, Marny."

I wasn't really that worried about the area as much as I wanted to give the two brothers a few moments of privacy. Marny didn't question it and swept wide of the craft. Once on the backside I dared to look into the rear of the vehicle, only to see the deceased body of Nick and Jack's mother, Wendy.

I caught Marny's attention and pointed my fingers at my eyes then into the back of the runabout. Even through her face plate I watched her jaw muscles contract. We walked back around to the other side. Nick and Jack had separated.

Add Jack James to line of sight comm channel
.

Stress was evident in Jack's drawn face. I wrapped my arms around him, "I'm sorry, Jack." His return embrace was stronger than I'd expected.

After a few moments I felt it was necessary to move out. "It's not safe here," I said. "What can we take back to the ship?"

"Jack and I will bring Mom," Nick said.

After Jack and Nick extracted Wendy's body from the vehicle, I searched for anything that Jack might have left behind. We wouldn't have enough room to bring the vehicle with us, but if I was careful, the
Hotspur
would be able to scootch over the top. With our AI's record of their position, it shouldn't be overly difficult.

Back on the ship, Nick pulled out a large black sack. It was the reality of spaceflight that traveling with a body bag was important. Wendy had been a second mother to me while growing up. I'd spent almost as much time around her as I had my own mother. My throat constricted and I wanted to scream in frustration.

Marny and I helped Nick and Jack situate Wendy in the bag and strapped it into an open space on the hull wall. It was so final and cold. The woman that I'd grown up with was now dead and I was having difficulty thinking past this moment.

"Mom, would you come down? We found Jack."

"What about Wendy?" she asked.

"She didn't make it, Mom."

Her breath caught and she said, "I'll be right there."

I pulled Jack in for another hug. I wanted to ask what had happened and how he'd been able to escape, but I knew it was too early for him. When we'd put Wendy into the bag, scorch marks had been evident on her abdomen. The suit had clearly staunched the blood, but a suit could only do so much. I was proud that Jack remembered the tunnel in the asteroid. It was an excellent hiding place and had allowed us to find him. Whatever happened, I worried that the trauma would worsen his nearly speechless existence.

"Jack. You did good. No matter what happened, you did what Wendy would have wanted. You survived and that was what she wanted. From now on, you're part of the crew." I didn't want to let go of him. "I need to go take care of the ship and get us out of here, okay?"

I pulled back and looked at Jack. His face was grimy and tearstained, but he nodded, he understood.

Mom had entered the hold while I'd been talking. "Let's get you cleaned up," she said softly. Jack nodded again and followed her out.

I turned to Nick and my heart broke. His Dad had died years ago and Wendy and Jack were his entire family. I knew him well enough to know that he'd be feeling guilty about not being around when things had gone bad. He allowed me to hug him. I also knew there wasn't much I could say to him at the moment, he'd need to process it.

"Marny, take care of my buddy, will you? We'll hole up here for a while, we have some time."

I left the two of them alone in the hold. Nick would need time to say goodbye to his mom. I found my dad in the mess just staring at the table, a cup of coffee in front of him.

"Dad, how comfortable are you with turrets?" I asked.

"I'm rusty, but they'd be familiar enough."

"I'll take that. If we have to fight our way out of here, we sure could use a steady hand."

"I'll do my best," he said. I could tell he was relieved to have something to do. As a rule, we Hoffens weren't much for sharing emotions and this was the equivalent of a lifeline.

He followed me and I checked him into the forward bridge station. I watched as he registered with the guns and I suspected he'd be more than competent at the job. I slid into my pilot's chair next to Ada.

"What happened?" she asked on a cockpit only channel.

As I filled Ada in on what we'd discovered, her jaw went slack and her eyes filled with tears.

"Mom's taking care of Jack. Marny and Nick are having some quiet time," I finished.

"It's too much. They take too much," Ada said and I knew she was talking about her own mother.

I was beyond grief at this point. Too many good people had died for greed or simple political gain or whatever it was these pirates were after. I wanted to make them pay dearly. I also knew that I needed to keep my head clear. We'd be in danger if I started getting reckless out of a desire for revenge.

"We have to focus on getting out of here alive," I said.

Ada nodded her agreement.

"I think you have enough room to clear the runabout. Can you take us to the end of the tunnel, but stay back ten meters?"

"Can do, Captain," Ada said. Somewhere along the line I'd become Captain to her, no longer just Liam.

She expertly lifted us over the runabout and we slid down to the end of the tunnel. I'd chosen this asteroid because I knew we could hide inside while getting a clean view of P-Zero, the colony's main station. It had been a tight squeeze for the
Hotspur
, but it felt like a safe spot.

With the enhanced vision of the ship's passive sensors, we finally saw the two large destroyers orbiting P-Zero. I counted three of the frigates and four of the cutters as well. That left a single frigate and up to four cutters that could be running around looking for us.

We would observe the main station and come up with a plan based on what we found. For me, everything changed once we'd located Jack and Wendy. I felt a pang of guilt. No doubt there were people on the station suffering, but we had no chance against the force we were looking at.

"Pull back ten meters, arc-jets only," I said. I probably didn't need to say the latter, but in that situation, being too clear was forgivable. "Let's hold here for now and record the activity. I'd like to figure out what they're up to."

A huge freighter was docked next to the refinery. The refined ore, was the majority of the colony's wealth. It made sense that most of the pirate's efforts would be devoted to its removal. Over a period of a couple of hours we were able to account for all but two cutters.

"They'll open fire on the station once they're done at the refinery. A good number of people escaped because of your warning. Wendy thought that she and Jack had a good spot to hide. The pirates must have found them," Dad said. He was kneeling on the steps between Ada and me, looking through the cockpit glass.