Step 3: The Trap
03 Apr 2018MMMMMalcolm
“You see anything yet?” I asked Kay for the umpteenth time. We’ve been flying around Guangul with a hundred tons of low temperature diamonds and we haven’t seen one pirate.“No, still nothing.”
“He’s got to be around here somewhere. Mr. Brewer said station security picked up his assistant and he eventually told them Delphy could be found near Guangul 1.”
“Maybe, despite Federal interrogation methods, Robert lied to station security just to get them off his back.”
S.H.E.A. (pronounced Shay) interrupted us before I could respond. “Incoming mission critical message.” It was the overseer. I accepted his holo-com request.
“Mr. Brewer, I was just about to contact you. I’m hoping you have more information on the whereabouts of this pirate. The coordinates Robert gave us appear to be unreliable.” The digital image of the investor flickered over my coms panel.
“I apologize commander but the information I have is not much better. It seems Robert notified the Guangul Brothers of your mission before he was apprehended. A pilot named Asher has been sent to intercept you. I’m afraid you’ll have to abort.” Kay turned to face me from the pilot’s chair.
“And pass on the opportunity to meet my sister’s boyfriend? I don’t think so.”
“Sorry overseer, we’ve come too far to turn back now. We’ll handle Asher.” I ended the transmission before he could state the obvious.
“You know they’ve set a trap for our trap.” Kay stated the obvious instead.
“Yeah, it explains why no one is interested in our low temperature diamonds. Let’s head back to the main star and rethink our strategy.”
Kay was turning the ship towards the nav beacon when S.H.E.A. started squawking again. “Interdiction detected.” The ship lurched and the bulkheads moaned. Kay’s arms tensed as she fought the ship’s controls. I looked at my station’s radar.
“There’s only one visible contact. Throttle down and submit,” I ordered. Supercruise ended with a loud bang but because we submitted ‘Breathless’ did not spin uncontrollably. In a matter of seconds Kay had us facing our attacker. She hailed the offending ship.
“Well hello Asher. We’ve been expecting you. Kristina told me to tell you she’s dumping you.”
The pilot did not respond over coms. Instead he opened fire with his huge burst laser. If our Anaconda had feelings she would have laughed as his weapon did little more than tickle our shields.
“When we get back,” Kay stated as she rose from her seat. “Remind me to explain to my sister the difference between an Adder and a Fer De Lance. You have the bridge. I’m heading to the hanger bay. We’re gonna have a hard time out maneuvering that ship.”
She was right. Even with our modified thrusters; I had trouble keeping the Anaconda’s weapons targeted. I was just spinning around like a dog chasing its tail until Kay launched the Taipan. Once his attention was divided between targets, we were able to make quick work of his ship. Our beam lasers broke his shields and the multi-cannons stripped his hull down to one percent.
“Surrender now and we will spare your life,” I offered. He did not accept my offer. After a pause, his burst laser started tickling our shields again. “Suit yourself.” I squeezed the trigger operating the multi-cannons. The three class three weapons ripped apart the medium sized vessel. As I passed the debris field, Kay contacted me.
“Malcolm, I’m reading an escape pod aft of your position. It’s about one hundred meters below you.”
“I see it. Once the cargo bay is secure, return to the ship.”
“Copy”
I fired off a limpet to retrieve the escape pod. No sooner had the cargo bay doors closed, when I heard the sound of another ship dropping out of supercruise. “Under attack,” S.H.E.A. announced. Sometimes she could be so helpful. This was not one of those times.
The coms howled with Kay’s voice. “Malcolm, there’s a Corvette on your six. Get out of there!”
“S.H.E.A. target the highest threat!”
“Target acquired.”
“My my, aren’t we popular today.” The pilot of the Corvette was none other than Delphy. “Kay why did we waste so much time searching when we could have just waited for them to find us?”
“Stop playing around Malcolm,” Kay snapped. “If you don’t get away from the business end of that Corvette…” She let the thought hang in space but she had a point. The Fer De Lance tickled; the Corvette hurt like a gut punch. Our shields were engineered but they could only do so much. I boosted toward my assailant. A plasma round reduced my shields to thirty five percent as we passed. I turned flight assist off and pulled on the control stick as hard as I could.
“C’mon you lazy elephant, turn!” I managed to get on the rear of the pirate lord. I turned flight assist back on and unleashed five beam lasers. “Target shields offline” Thank you S.H.E.A. I thought about renaming my AI to ‘Captain Obvious’.
I didn’t bother offering Delphy any deals. I just blew his ship to pieces. “The ship is prepped for retrieval; come back to me baby so we can get out of here.”
“On my way.”
It took a minute before SHEA informed me, “Fighter docking sequence initiated.” Cool, that’s what I wanted to hear. The six muffled bangs of ships dropping out of supercruise, like gunshots muffled by a silencer, and S.H.E.A.’s next statement were things I didn’t want to hear. “Under attack”
“Kay, are you on board?!”
“Yes, the fighter is secured. What’s going on up there?”
“Six more ships just crashed our party. S.H.E.A. says there is a Cutter, a Fer De Lance, an Asp Explorer, a Vulture, a Cobra, and a Viper.”
“Please tell me you’re not planning to take on six ships alone.”
“Shields offline,” S.H.E.A. reported. Sometimes she could be so helpful.
“If I was, I’m not now. Hang on to something, I’m gonna try to jump outta here!”
“Frameshift inhibited by factor of twenty seven”
“Crap!” The hull was already down to sixty five percent and dropping fast. I rushed fumbled to navigate a high wake jump back to LHS 3549. By the time I locked in the destination, the hull had dropped another twenty percent.
“Frameshift drive charging” All I could do was watch, hope, and pray.
“Four” Hull was down to twenty percent. This was going to be close.
“Three” Fifteen
“Two” Ten
“One” Five I shut my eyes.
“Engage”
I didn't hear angels singing; I wasn't in heaven. I didn't feel fires burning; I wasn't in hell. Good, I wasn't dead; yet. I counted off five seconds before raising my hand to my head. I felt my gloved hand on my face. That was a good sign; it meant my remlok hadn’t activated. I wasn’t gasping for air, so it hadn’t malfunctioned either. I opened my eyes. Outside the canopy, that somehow the pirates managed to miss, the ship was sparking and burning all over. It reminded me of an ancient sparkler used during July fourth celebrations hundreds of years ago. I hammered the ships internal communications.
“Kay, are you alright!”
“Yeah, but they tried their best to make sure I wasn’t. I’m literally standing in a bullet outline of my body in this hangar bay.”
I let out a huge breath and slumped in my seat. “See I told you those curves do more than make you look good.” She didn’t reply; probably because she was sitting next to her outline shaking like a nervous Chihuahua. I mean, what else could she be doing? It’s what I was doing.
We limped back to Carey Station. Kay went searching for a hotel room for us. We were going to need it. Repairs to the ship would not be quick; nor would they be cheap. I reported in to Overseer Brewer.
“I owe you an apology Mr. Brewer.”
“Please Commander, call me Kris. You’ve earned it after today.”
“Well Kris, it seems I lied to you.”
“Oh, how so?”
“The Guangul Brothers are a bigger problem than I anticipated. Once we destroyed Asher and Delphy's ship, six more pirates descended on us. We barely made it back in one piece. On the bright side, we did manage to capture one of the pirates. See if he will tell you who ambushed us.” I turned to leave his office.
I walked into our hotel room. The first thing I noticed was the view of the stars outside the station. The second thing I noticed was Kay's naked form in the bedroom's doorway. She threw herself into my arms, wrapped her arms around my neck, and kissed me deeply. She smelled of honey and coconut. I became aware I hadn't had a shower yet.
She pulled away from me; one to breathe and two to start removing my flight suit. She pulled the zipper down my back and then pulled me into the bedroom. As I entered I heard the shower running and saw steam wafting into the room. She pushed me onto the bed and climbed on top of me until her belly button hovered above my nose. Whatever I smelled before, all I could smell now were cherries. She inched closer to my lips, stopping just before making contact and then quickly slid down, running her body along my nose until my head touched her chin. She climbed off me and removed my boots and my suit. Once my attire matched hers, she led me into the shower.
Confident I no longer offended, I reached to caress a breast. She slapped my hand away and raised my arms so I made a human 'T'. She gently washed me from head to toe all the while kissing and teasing me every chance she got. It was maddening; I hated she wouldn't let me touch her and my arms ached. At last she pulled me under the water. After climbing into my arms, she wrapped her legs around my waist and her arms around my head. While she smothered me in her neck and chest, I turned off the water.
Breathless she whispered into my ear, "Isn't it great to be alive?" I carried her out of the bathroom and laid her on the bed. House keeping would not be pleased in the morning.