The Pirates of Clew Read online

  “Aye, Captain,” replied the XO, as he stood and waved for others on the bridge to follow him.

  “And…” Kova started and turned toward the navigation station. “Take Mr. Cade with ya. The boy wants ta be a pirate, he does” he said with a devious grin.

  Cades elation from the fight with the hauler died. “Me?” He looked from the Captain to George who simply shrugged and turned his attention back to his console.

  “Suit up, Mr. Cade. Hear Mr. Keely, do what he orders and you’ll be fine,” the Captain said.

  Cade sighed, his heart beginning to speed up again and stood from his chair. “I don’t have a weapon,” he said suddenly. He’d never been trained to fight, and surely never offered a gun. They wouldn’t make him go aboard that hauler unarmed would they?

  The Captain laughed at him again. “Surely you wouldn’t be scared, would ya Mr. Cade?” He grunted and grabbed his sword from beside his chair. “Take Tess with ya,” he said, and tossed his sword in its scabbard across to Cade.

  Cade caught it with both hands, wide-eyed. He’d seen that sword for ten years. It never left the Captain’s side. It was also heavier than he thought.

  “Not much ta look at, but she’ll cut just the same, if ya need her to,” the Captain said as he sat back down. “Good huntin’, Mr. Cade.”

  For a moment, Cade just stared blankly trying to think of a way to get out of the boarding party. Finding none, he made his way off the bridge, deflated and scared. He’d never fought with anyone before. Would they have to fight? Surely they wouldn’t send him on a boarding action where they expected any trouble. That ship sure struggled to get loose of the grapple though, so there’s no telling what they would do once boarded.

  “Put this on,” came the voice of Victor Keely as he handed Cade a suit. “And don’t worry,” he added placing a firm grip on Cade’s shoulder and holding his weapon up for Cade to see. “Once they see the rifles, they rarely do anything stupid. We’ll have you guard the tube though, outside the hauler, just in case.”

  Cade nodded and took the gray space suit, thankful that he wouldn’t be facing the crew of the hauler. As he slipped the suit on over his coat, he wondered about Asaya and how the other dents were doing locked up in the bunk. In many ways it was better back in that comfortable space. You just did what you were told back there, and didn’t see everything that was going on. You just knew to get in your suit and sit tight until they unlocked the door. They were probably back there laughing and chatting, maybe playing cards while all this was going on, and he suddenly yearned to be with them.

  Sealing his suit, he drew his visor down and activated the HUD. As the suit ran through its checkouts he knocked on a nearby bulkhead and couldn’t hear it, which told him all the seals were tight, no leaks. The readouts in the suit were also green, so he moved forward, then jumped back remembering the sword. He shook his head, a little embarrassed as he wrapped the belt around his waist, but there was no way he was doing this unarmed. “Comm check,” he said.

  “Check,” came Keely’s response accompanied by a few others. “Come on, Cade. Main airlock.”

  Cade rounded the corner and entered the main airlock to find almost a dozen suits waiting. The door closed behind him, and he had to move quickly to keep the sword at his side from being closed on. He knew Keely was wearing the black suit, the one entering in a command on the panel next to the outside hatch. The colors on the panel cycled through tones of green, then yellow, then red and flashed several times indicating the air had been released from their compartment.

  “Gravity going offline,” Keely warned.

  Cade grabbed the closest handrail just as his stomach almost turned inside out. He floated up from the floor and took a deep breath to force himself calm. Zero gravity wasn’t bad after the initial shock. At first it just felt like falling, but he had always adapted quickly.

  The airlock opened to reveal a long, cylindrical enclosure stretching from the Grim Shoals to a point he couldn’t make out but knew it was the haulers airlock. The tube. He watched as one by one the boarding crew entered the tube. Finally, Keely was the last one with him and he’d turned to face Cade.

  “When I leave, count to thirty then come in after me,” he said over their suit’s comms. “You’ll guard the tube on the hauler side. Poke anything that comes out,” he added with a snicker.

  “Right,” Cade replied, trying to laugh with him as Keely turned and floated out of the Grim Shoals.

  One. Cade floated quietly at the airlock and watched his shipmate drift away down the long, rigid tube. Ten. The thin plastic tube tied the two ships together, but he also knew the grapple still held the hauler tight enough they couldn’t separate. Twenty seconds. Cades nerves were frayed already from his earlier struggle flying the ship, but he felt a new rise in fear that tempted his stomach to turn over again. Thirty.

  “Get out! Get out! Get back to the ship!” came a sharp, terrified cry over his suit comms. He froze as he saw Keely, now about twenty yards from him, grab a rung in the tube and turn around. Cade could swear he saw fear in the man’s eyes, even from that distance. “Cap – “ the voice on the comms was cut off.

  It happened in an instant, and seemed so surreal in the soundless visage of the airlock. Thousands of small sparks of light flew at an angle from the top to the bottom of the tube, filling it with a hazy aura. Cade didn’t immediately understand what had happened until he noticed the tube began to slowly disintegrate in front of him as if it had been shredded apart. And then he noticed the blood floating freely.

  Hearing only his rapid breathing, Cade turned as quick as he could in zero gravity and slammed the control to seal the airlock. The door slid quickly shut, but the panel remained red. He turned around to the airlock exit that lead back to the ship and found the panel there was red also. That didn’t make sense. “Hello?” he asked over his suit comms. No answer.

  He grabbed the nearest handhold and cried out in shock, yanking his hand back. He reached back out to gingerly touch the door and found it vibrated wildly before it bucked, almost breaking his fingers. He screamed in pain, cradling his hand and shouted, “Hello? What’s going on? Where – “, the heat-warning alert in his suit suddenly began chirping. The temperature outside his suit had climbed to almost four hundred degrees and was rapidly cooling. He didn’t know how much heat his suit could take but he imagined four hundred was past the limit.

  His confusion gave way to panic as he screamed over and over into his comms, but no one responded. Another heat alert sounded in his ear. He checked the readout and saw it had spiked to six hundred degrees, the coldness of space now cooling him back off again.

  Without warning, the wall drove into him, sending him flying across the small room to smash into the opposite corner. Then a blinding white light tore across his view, and the left side of his body erupted in immense pain. The hissing sound of air escaping his suit was the last thing he heard before blackness took him.

  Chapter 6

  “Target destroyed, sir,” Lieutenant Connell reported with a wide grin. “Enemy ship is listing and there are no signs of reactor meltdown.”

  “Excellent job,” Captain Andrelli replied with more joy than Haley had ever seen in him. “Excellent work everyone,” he repeated.

  Haley turned back to the tactical station while she and the other three officers began manipulating scanners and video pickups. She was elated for being a part of the hunt. Things had been progressing for her and Saundi both, and it seemed that they’d gotten over the initial hump they faced after joining the Valiant crew. Even better, they had just participated in their first interdiction! It was very exciting, and she couldn’t wait to share details with Saundi after their shift ended.

  She was also impressed with the accuracy of the intelligence they’d received about this pirate and his operations. The captain had deduced where he thought the offenders might attack the cargo vessel, and he was spot on. Scarily so, actually, and Andrelli earned a positive mark in Hale
y’s book in the way of tactics. The moment they’d rounded the fourth planet, the pirate ship came into sight: grappled to the helpless hauler like a parasite and clearly in the middle of boarding actions.

  It was her idea to target the extended boarding tube first to ensure the highest probabilities of the hauler’s crew surviving. She was proud to be part of it. Innocent civilians were being harassed and sometimes killed. These criminals needed to be stopped.

  It was a success, but the only thing that gave her pause was the brutal way the Captain had achieved victory. It was swift, deadly and there was no quarter given whatsoever. He didn’t even hail them to force surrender. With their ship unable to maneuver being attached to their victims there was no way for them to escape. They were staring, unprepared, at a ship that outmatched and outgunned them.

  Letting loose a full volley into the pirate while they were grappled to the victim was also extremely risky to the civilian crew. They’d been lucky the ships guns hadn’t breached the reactor and cause an explosion. That would have taken out the hauler as well, killing those aboard. At this point though, she knew not to mention her misgivings or even give a hint of their existence, or she’d face the wrath of not only her peers at the tactical table, but Andrelli’s bad side as well.

  “Scan the wreckage for survivors and any possible intact computer systems we might be able to salvage for intel,” Captain Andrelli ordered.

  “Twelve light power signatures detected, Captain. Six of those are tied directly to life sign level heat readings,” Connell said, as he worked through the data. “There is no apparent salvageable equipment that we can detect.”

  Haley caught a glimpse of Connell’s readings before he quickly changed screens. She glanced up to him momentarily but quickly turned back to her own area of the tactical table. There were more than six life signs, but that was including the cargo ship’s crew. Then she inwardly chastised herself for the misstep in being too nosey. Adjusting to life on Valiant had torn her from several fundamental beliefs and procedures that had been drilled into her at the academy. Here she was forced to keep a very low profile and mind her own business to be successful.

  “Very well. Good job ladies and gentlemen,” the Captain said with a slow clap. “One more monster removed from the universe. Commander Vitt,” he continued, turning to his XO, “Prepare a boarding party. Take a shuttle to retrieve the survivors out there, then investigate the cargo ship. Let’s find out if we were able to save those poor souls before the pirates killed them.”

  Haley worked her station and did her duty as she scanned the surrounding space for threats. She didn’t miss the fact that the Captain never asked tactical if there were survivors on the hauler. She’d seen the scans and knew there were people on board, but she didn’t know how damaged the cargo hauler was.

  “Shuttle one is signaling departure,” came the announcement from communications several minutes later.

  Activating a second screen, Haley kept an eye on her tactical display while keying in the sequence to allow her to track the boarding action. She would be able to view the camera pickups on their suits as they went about their job. The system chirped once at her and displayed an “Access Denied” message. Strange, but she shrugged and retrained a sensor onto the shuttle, so she could watch positional data. She wished again that she could tie in directly to the boarding action. That would allow her full access to the operation, but for some reason it was locked down. She disregarded that as operational security and added it to the growing list of odd Valiant etiquette.

  The shuttle was the same that carried her and Saundi to Valiant in the Adara System. It was a useful craft, maneuverable yes, but not very fast and completely useless in a combat situation. It arced gracefully away from the Allied Fleet heavy cruiser and slowly crept across the wreckage of the pirate ship which was now several large pieces, slowly spinning in space. Every once in a while the shuttle would come to a stop and then reposition itself so the crew on board could easily pull a survivor inside the large rear hatch.

  Finally, she watched as the small craft came to a stop against the outer airlock of the hauler. The positional data, while not as good as video, reported as several suited crew exited the shuttle, and began clearing away debris from the airlock that had once been the extended boarding tube from the pirate vessel. Once that was clear, Haley saw the crew activate the airlock and board the hauler.

  Turning her attention back to her tactical display, she continued her duties of monitoring the space around the Valiant for anything that could pose a danger. She felt herself relax again, thinking the battle had just been won, and there were no other threats. Then she reminded herself that that was probably what the crooks aboard that pirate ship must have thought just before the Valiant showed up.

  “Incoming transmission from the shuttle, Captain,” the communications officer sitting next to Saundi said. “It’s tagged for your eyes only.”

  Captain Andrelli scowled. “This can’t be good news. Put it through to my console.”

  Haley glanced briefly at Andrelli, and then did a double-take. She trained her eyes back to her station as quickly as she could, hoping she hadn’t reacted outwardly peculiar enough to draw attention to herself again. She thought she saw something very strange: something in his gaze.

  “Well,” Andrelli finally said. “Unfortunately, it seems those monsters didn’t leave anyone alive on board the hauler.” Andrelli leaned back in his chair and made a showing of seeming upset. “If I was just a few minutes earlier, I think we could have saved them. This is my fault.” He stood from his chair and walked close to the edge of the command dais. “I’ve also been informed that the survivors tried to rebel against their rescuers. One, somehow snatched a weapon from one of our men. There was an altercation and,” he paused for a moment and let his head drop slightly. “There are no survivors.”

  Haley tried her best to fake sorrow along with the rest of the crew, when all she felt was confusion and anger. She saw the scans from Connell’s station and knew there were people alive aboard that hauler. At least they were alive until the boarding crew from Valiant arrived. She mentally shook her head at that thought. There’s no way that was what had happened. She must have misread Connell’s screen. Perhaps he had been scanning for power readings.

  “Good work, people,” Captain Andrelli continued. “First watch is relieved. Get some rest.”

  ***

  “What’s wrong with you?” Haley asked Saundi for the second time since they’d sat down in the galley.

  They’d come straight from the bridge, famished after the long shift and the excitement of hunting the pirates. Haley had chosen one of the larger portions of what the cook called meat and potatoes. It didn’t taste like any meat she’d ever had, but it wasn’t bad, especially with the brown gravy cook had prepared. It didn’t matter what anything tasted like as long as you put a healthy portion of that rich goodness on top. Suddenly everything tasted good. She figured that was the point. But while Haley inhaled her dinner, Saundi had simply picked at it which was a worrisome role reversal.

  “I told you, I’m fine,” Saundi replied without looking up. “I guess I’m just freaked out a little.” After another moment of silence she finally looked up at Haley and said, “We didn’t even give them a chance to surrender. There was nothing they could have done but stand down.”

  “Yeah,” Haley said, putting down her fork. Saundi had been so excited to board Valiant but both their expectations had been mauled from the start. “But hey, they’re the criminals right?”

  Saundi glared at her. “Have you forgotten everything from the academy?” She asked and puffed up as if about to explode in one of those classic Saundi lighting storms, then suddenly looked around and lowered her head and voice. “There’s a whole judicial system, you know? Evidence, trials and sentencing ring a bell? We aren’t supposed to be judges out here. You know that. We’re supposed to catch the bad guys.”

  Haley knew Saundi was right. She wa
sn’t just spouting rhetoric about something someone had said, what the Valiant had just committed was murder. She was so confused. This was her first assignment out of the academy though. Who was she to tell anyone how to run their ship? She wouldn’t dare try to tell a combat veteran such as Andrelli how to run Valiant.

  Her head lowered and she relented. “You’re right. But what are we supposed to do about it?” All the excitement from the day was gone now. She’d ridden the high for as long as she could, eager for something good to come of this assignment and she realized she’d been desperate. She decided that she may as well come clean with everything she’d witnessed on the bridge. Saundi’s station had her facing forward, away from the command platform so she couldn’t possibly have seen what Haley saw.

  “There’s something I need to tell you.” Haley looked around briefly to see who was nearby before saying, “I could have sworn I saw life signs aboard that hauler on Connell’s station before they boarded.”

  Saundi stared at Haley squinting in confusion. “Which one’s Connell?”

  “Sorry,” Haley said and shook her head. “Connell is the lead tactical officer, the red head. I think I might have seen a power readings scan, or maybe even a damage report, but I really think it was life signs. They were there before we boarded and then...” Haley left it unsaid.

  Saundi said, “that’s weird,” and finally took a bite off her tray as she thought about what Haley had just said. “But that wouldn’t make sense. I mean, that’s what we’re out here doing: saving people from bloodthirsty pirates.” Saundi lifted her hands and said, “All be-it, not the way I would like to see it done, but they are the enemy. The Alliance wouldn’t kill civilians.”

  “I hope not. And there’s something else.” Haley leaned in close to her friend. “When the Captain got that communique from the shuttle, before he announced there weren’t any survivors…”