Wanderer

Chapter 3-2

“Captain, all freighters are now stationary and have signalled their surrender,” Foster reported.

“Good,” Dash replied. “Do we know where their leader is yet?”

“Yes, Sir. The lead ship, the Neritalus. Do you want to speak to him now?”

“Yes.”

A few seconds later Dash found himself staring at an elderly man wearing an expression of resignation. As his eyes locked on Dash there was a flash of anger. The man was down, but not out.

“I am Leonardo Castella. I object most strongly to your actions which clearly brand you as a pirate. I demand that you let us continue our journey unimpeded.”

“You know that isn’t going to happen,” Dash replied in a relaxed tone. “Your ships, and your cargo, are now ours. Anyone who resists will be killed.”

“And what of those who don’t resist? What will happen to them?”

“They survive,” Dash replied. “They will have to adjust to a new life, but they will still be alive.”

“As prisoners you mean?” Castella was becoming angry now. “As slaves? We have children aboard! Many children! Will you e*****e them as well?”

“There are always children,” Dash replied coldly. “And yes, they will be taken too. You need to understand that you have no choice in this. My men are heavily armed and armoured and well trained in boarding actions. We will take your ships and your cargo. We will take everyone on your ships prisoner. You have no choice. Being taken prisoner is still better than being killed.”

“Is it? Is it really? Have you ever been a prisoner? I have. And I won’t let my people suffer that fate. Especially not the children.”

“You have no choice!” Dash snapped out. The old man’s words were starting to get to him, opening old wounds.

“There is always a choice,” Castella replied calmly. “For those brave enough there is always a choice. Goodbye Captain.”

Dash’s screen went dark as Castella cut the connection.

“Old fool,” Dash spat. “What does he think he can do? Run for it? Order the boarding party into action. Prioritise that ship.”

“Aye, Sir.”

Several larger ships in Dash’s fleet shot forward, closing in on the Neritalus. The large freighter showed no signs of moving.

“What are they up to?” Dash asked quietly. “Foster, how many life signs are on that ship?”

“Just over one hundred, Sir. Pretty much normal for a freighter that size. Of course there could be hundreds of troops in stealth suits.”

Dash grimaced at the reminder. If this was an Imperial sting operation then he could be about to lose two hundred of his best men. It seemed unlikely, though. If his men were killed he would respond in kind, ordering the freighter’s immediate destruction. The Imperials would lose a damn sight more men than he would. Still, something about this felt very wrong.

“Sir! Something is happening to the target’s engines!” The shout came from Hackett, the best sensor operator Dash had come across.

“Calm down,” snapped Dash. “What do you mean?”

“Power levels are increasing rapidly, but they’re fluctuating wildly. It looks as if the engines are unstable.”

Dash went cold inside. This was the choice the freighter’s captain had spoken of. Dash hit the broadcast button.

“All ships, abort the boarding action! Charge shields to maximum and get as far from the target as possible. I repeat, abort the attack, charge shields to maximum and get clear of the target.”

Almost immediately Dash saw ships obeying his orders. The discipline he insisted on paid off as every pilot heard and obeyed the orders, not stopping to question why. Even so, many were far closer than he liked. If the freighter’s engines were to blow now he could lose half the ships he’d sent in.

Then something else caught his attention. One ship was ignoring his orders.

“Starflame, this is Captain Dash. Vella, what the hell are you doing?”

“What the rest of your ships should be doing. We don’t run from civilians.”

“Don’t be an i***t! That freighter is overloading her engines. She could blow at any moment.”

“Bullshit. They’re just trying to scare us off, and doing a damn good job of it with most of you. Just sit back and watch how it should be done.”

“Starflame cut the transmission, Captain,” said the communications officer cautiously.

Dash just nodded. He was fuming inside, but that wasn’t the officer’s fault. He wasn’t surprised by Vella’s behaviour, in fact he’d been waiting for something similar to happen. While he had a lot of power within the fleet, it wasn’t absolute. Sometimes he had to make appointments he didn’t like for political reasons. Vella was one of those.

Dash would be quite happy to see Vella go up in flames, but not taking a ship, its crew and twenty of his best trained assault troops with it.

Wait… that was it. Of course! Dash quickly called up the information he needed, paused in surprise at the name which came back then opened a channel.

“Dozer, it’s Dash. The freighter you’re heading for is forcing its engines into overload. I’ve ordered everyone clear but Captain Vella has ignored those orders. I need you to get the Starflame clear. Do whatever it takes.”

“Understood. We’re on it.”

The connection went dead. Dash sank back into his chair. Dozer and he went way back, back even before they’d had to turn to piracy. If anyone could get the Starflame clear in time it was Dozer.

Within thirty seconds the Starflame started to change course. Seconds later Dash received a terse message.

“Captain Vella executed for insubordination. First officer killed while attempting to interfere. Rest of crew compliant. Getting the hell out of here. Dozer out.”

Dash smiled at the message. Dozer had understood exactly what was required, and had done it with a minimum of casualties. The question now was whether they could get clear in time.

“Hackett, status report,” Dash snapped out.

“Massive disruption in the target’s engines, Captain. Someone knows what they’re doing. Most of our ships should be able to withstand the blast now, but the Starflame needs at least thirty seconds.”

Dash frowned. It should take the Starflame far longer than that to get clear. Then he checked the display and understood. Dozer had dropped all shields and was routing as much power as he could into the Starflame’s thrusters. Running at those levels for any period of time would damage the thrusters, possibly burn them out completely, but it was the right decision. The only decision.

Timing would be everything, though. Thirty seconds would see the Starflame in with a chance of surviving the blast, but only with full shields – and those would take precious seconds to charge up.

“Fifteen seconds to Starflame safe distance. Freighter’s engines are fluctuating badly. Ten seconds.”

Dash was sitting forwards, gripping the arms of his seat painfully hard. They would make it. They had to make it. Dozer was one of the few left from the early days, and one of Dash’s closest friends. If he’d known Dozer was on the Starflame he would have ordered him onto another ship. He would never have trusted his friend to the uncertainty of Vella’s care.

“Five seconds.”

They were going to make it! Five seconds, plus maybe four or five for the shields to reach full power.

“Four… three… two… thrusters are losing power. Shields coming online. Twenty percent. Forty.”

“Come on, come on…” Dash didn’t even realise he’d spoken out loud.

“Sixty… Freighter’s engines are well beyond redline… eighty percent… one hundred! Starflame’s shields are at full power.”

Dash let out the breath he’d been holding. Dozer and the other’s weren’t safe, but they had a much better chance now. And every second that passed increased…

“s**t!” Foster swore.

Dash echoed him. Where the freighter had been there was now only a fast expanding cloud of energy. Within moments it had washed over the Starflame and the other fleeing ships. Then it hit the Anguish and the displays went dark as sensors were automatically shielded against damage.

The next few seconds felt like long minutes to Dash, finally the display flickered back to life. It took several seconds more for the details to be fully updated. The freighter was gone, of course. No trace of it was left. Dash’s heart sank as he saw three of his retreating ships were also gone, including the Starflame.

“Captain, the blast was far stronger than a freighter of that class should have managed,” Hackett said quietly. “We’re lucky not to have lost more ships. Suggest we treat the remaining freighters with great caution.”

Dash shook off the ache in his heart. He’d lost far too many people down the years to let Dozer’s loss hurt him while the operation was still ongoing. There would be time for that later.

“Agreed. Foster, send in the fighters. Any hint of the other ships pulling the same trick and we destroy their engines. I’d rather take the ships intact, but I’m not losing anyone else to do it.”

“Aye, Sir. On it.”

Dash sat back, thinking about the freighter’s destruction. His intelligence had told him the fleet carried valuable cargo, but had made no mention of their engines being out of the ordinary. Was the size of the explosion somehow linked to the valuable cargo? And if so, what was waiting on the other freighters?

“Foster, update the plan. We’ll take the freighters one by one. I want to know what’s on them. Clear the first of cargo, then use that to house the prisoners from the other ships. I want no more than a skeleton crew on each ship we take. I don’t want to lose any more ships and men.”

“Aye, Sir.”

“Hackett, I want you to prepare monitoring for the ships we take. If the engines start doing anything unusual once we capture them I want to know about it immediately.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Hackett’s fingers flew over his keyboard. Dash knew that Hackett lived for challenges like this. With that worry taken care of Dash sat back in his chair, trying to think what other precautions he had to take. Not for the first time, it struck him that taking ships was the easy part. Hanging onto them after was far more difficult.