Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (62 page)

It
took Brian a moment to recover from that
finger
in the light
socket
look.
"
Really
?
No kidding?"

“
No
kidding...”

Brian
jumped forward and thrust out his hand and Jack shook it. "Well
shit! Congratulations, buddy, that's
awesome!
"
He stopped for a moment. “Wait, you don't
have
to,
do you...?”

“
No,”
chuckled Jack.

“
Then
it's
awesome!
”
Brian sat down in the chair next to Jack. "But I thought after
your last fiasco, you'd sworn off it for good."

Steele
shook his head slowly. "So did I. But I guess things change, I
changed... or my feelings about it..."

"What
changes?" The two men turned as Maria and Derrik entered the
room.

"People
do," said Brian jumping from his seat. "Jack's getting
married!"

It
happened so fast, Jack couldn't stop him. The little voice in his
head was screaming in slow motion
Nnnnooooo...
A
little
late
he told it.
He
wanted to tell Maria alone, explain things...

But
Maria beamed. "Married?
You
?
That's
wonderful
!"

Jack's
little voice only had one word,
Huh?
That
was not the response he was expecting from her at all.

"Who's
gettin' married?” asked Mike as he entered the room behind
the
others.

"Jacko
is," volunteered Derrik.

"To
the Ice Princess? No kiddin?
Wow!"
Mike looked stunned.

"Hey,
hey,
hey
!"
countered Jack, rising from his seat in mock anger.
"Watch
how you talk about the woman I intend to marry... I might shoot you
at the dinner table." There was a short round of laughter as
Paul entered, followed by Walrick and LaNareef.

"What's
going on?"

Mike
spun around. "Hey, Pappy! Jack and Alité are getting
married!"

Ok
,
thought Jack, I've totally lost control of this, it's getting way
out of hand... Perhaps this wasn't the best venue for this... or
maybe
I should've added,
please don't say anything in front of the Velorians!

Paul
expressed surprise, Walrick expressed indifference and
LaNareef
expressed horror and rage.
"How
dare you!
"
he screamed, lunging forward.

Jack
dropped the charging Velorian to his knees with a stiff-arm to
the
chest. "Get a grip," growled Jack sarcastically.

"She
is..." LaNareef gasped, trying to get his breath back. "She
is
Royalty!
A Princess!"

“
I
am fully aware of that... You do realize,
she
has some say in this, right?”

LaNareef
was clutching the ache in his chest and breathing hard. "She
will lose her crown if she marries outside the Royal Circle. I can
not allow you to do this..."

"
You
cannot allow?" Jack chortled defiantly, his hands on his hips.
"Just who
the
hell do you think you are? The
marriage
police
?
I can't believe you have the balls to stand on the bridge of
my
ship and insult me... I think you'd better do a reality check, pal,
because you're not at home anymore." The others stood about in
silence as Jack continued. "Alité will
always
be a Princess. The difference is,
here
,
she has the freedom and safety to do what she wants. So find solace
in her happiness because
she
is
happy
.
And if that proves difficult, just remember who saved your sorry
butt from the pirates." Jack pointed his finger at the kneeling
pilot. "Because if you give me a hard time about this, or cause
Alité grief,
any
grief
,
you'll find yourself on the wrong side of an airlock. Is that
clear?"

Walrick
stepped forward and clamped his hand over LaNareef's mouth
from
behind. "He understands completely," said Walrick. "And
if he doesn't," he squeezed his hand tighter, "I'll
explain
it to him again."

Jack
stared at the two as if he was trying to make up his mind
about
something. "Fine. Then it's forgotten." He turned away.
"We have some ship's business to discuss, take a seat." He
turned back.

"You
mean she's
really
a Princess?" asked Mike, grabbing a seat.

Jack
smiled and pulled up his chair. "Yeah, pretty amazing, eh?"

"Does
that make you a Prince?" whispered Brian.

"I
don't think so," chuckled Jack. He glanced at LaNareef who
stared
silently
at the surface of the table, sullen and gray-cast. They're losing
the war, thought Jack, and all this idiot can think of is, who's
supposed to marry whom... like they did such a great job of
protecting her in the first place. Maybe space wasn't so different
from Earth after all, you can't fix stupid. Steele realized for the
first time, he hadn't thought of that emerald and sapphire planet as
home. Merely a place. He guessed Voorlak would have something
insightful to say about that.

■ ■ ■

The
briefing went as planned and a strategy for constant fighter
patrols
was hammered out. The patrols would run until repairs to the
Freedom's power plants could be effected, which was not likely to be
until they reached the space station at Blackmount. There they would
use the station's indoor facilities to install any parts they might
acquire along the way.

Halfway
through the meeting Trigoss rang in on the intercom. "Sorry
to
bother you Captain... remember that generator we built before we
left?"

"Yeah,
what about it?" answered Jack.

"Well
it just quit, for good. The armatures just melted down. We're back
to one large and two
small."

Jack
closed his eyes and pinched the bridge if his nose. "Dammit."
Everyone else in
the
room sat in silence.

"The
good news," continued the Engineer, "is that I managed to
pull
an
undamaged large off the freighter before we had to run..."

"That's
great!" interrupted Jack. “Y'know, you could've
led-off
with that tidbit of
information…”

"But,
I can't install it without shutting most of the systems off
for
at least several hours."

Jack
sighed, “Yeah, well that figures.
Ok, how about this Chief, pull the old one now. Mount the new one in
it's place and get it ready to hook it up? We'll shut down and you
can do the installation hookup in the salvage yard..."

“
We
can
prep the new one, but we can't touch the old one since she's wired
in... We're liable to damage computer systems without shutting them
down first.”

Jack
groaned, “But we can do this in the salvage yard, right...?”

"Before
we go to Blackmount Station..? Yeah, sure we can. But we'll be awful
vulnerable out there..."

There
was a lot of space between them and UFW Blackmount in the Feerocobi
System, four or five systems to Jack's recollection. And from where
they were, that was the closest location. He was pretty sure doing
repairs at a protected facility, with proper equipment, was
ultimately the way to go but that was a long time to be running
underpowered, under-shielded and under-gunned while your ship was
undermanned. He hoped the salvage yard would be a quiet out of the
way place where they could find some parts and make a few critically
needed repairs. If they could find salvage that they could use for
more extensive repairs at Blackmount, that would be a bonus.
"Well,"
Jack paused, "I don't expect there to be too much traffic out
there, but we'll pack the pilots a lunch, put out every bird we can,
charge the ship's gun pods, then, go dark and play possum."

“
Play
possum..?”

“
Never
mind, I'll explain that later.”

"Ok.
In the meantime, we need to cut down on some of the systems so we
don't
overtax these gennys."

"If
it's necessary..."

"It
is," confirmed Trigoss. The comm beeped as the conversation
ended.

Jack
set his elbows on the table and his face in his hands. "Holy
crap, what
next..?"
He mumbled. It was a rhetorical question.

The
comm-link chimed again. "Captain, we have two ships at full
sensor
range."

"How
big are they, Mr Ragnaar?" The pilots rose from the table in
unison.

"Not
very big, sir, but fast." Until the Freedom could acquire more
parts
for its aging and damaged sensor array, clear identification of
ships was impossible beyond one third of its normal range.

Jack
looked up at the pilots, stalling them with a wave of his
hand.
"Any guess Lieutenant?"

"They're
using a standard UFW patrol sweep, and they're too small to
be
destroyers... The pirates rarely use anything smaller than that. I'd
say UFW interceptor ships. Crew of about thirty."

"Thank
you, Lieutenant, maintain course." Jack ended the connection
and
turned to the pilots. "Paul, Mike, you two are the welcoming
committee. Take Lancias and get going." They turned and left.
"Derrik, Bri, you sit on standby. Lancias. Mister LaNareef, are
you ready to fly?" He nodded. "Ok," continued Jack,
"You and Walrick are ship's cover. You'll launch last in
Warthogs." They also turned and left.

"Hey!
What about me?!" complained Maria.

Jack
stood, shaking his head. "How soon we forget." He tapped
his
head.
"You are grounded until the Doc clears you for flight. I want
to keep your brains in your head where they belong. You're no good
to me if your gray matter comes running out of your ears."

"Aw
c'mon..."

"Ok,
you want to be useful? Tell you what. Go down to the flight bay
and
have one of the techs hook that Zulu up to a simulator. Find out
everything you can about it. How it handles, range, arms, you name
it."

Maria
screwed her face into one of distaste but decided it was
better
than sitting around. "Well... Ok."

"But
if anyone catches you near a live ship," added Jack, "
zoom
!"
He
swept
his hand. "Back to the infirmary where the Doc can keep an eye
on you. And that's
after
I put you over my knee and take away your wings."