Duty and Obligation Read online

  “Three,” she responded instantly. She walked to the group of merchant sailors. She pointed at a short man. “The freighter Canfield found by Rogue a year ago.” She pointed to another man. “The freighter New Spain found by Bandit sixteen months ago.”

  Both men were grabbed by guards and pushed out in front of the group. They nervously looked at each other and then at their captors. The woman with the recognition pad now walked to the group of officers around Yardley. She stopped in front of the second officer. “This guy was the third officer in Valleyview found by Predator eleven months ago.” A guard assumed a position behind the officer.

  Ringo nodded at the two crewmen alone before their crewmates. “Kill them,” she said calmly. Two guards immediately shot the men in their chests and they fell to the deck. The stunned crewmembers behind the fallen men shrank back and several tried to move from the front of the group back into the people behind them. The sound of the shots echoed slightly in the big bay. When the sound faded, total silence took over. Ringo now turned to the second officer. The man was sweating profusely and looking around wildly for salvation. His eyes lit on Yardley. “You said this would never happen!”

  Yardley snarled at him. “Shut up!” She turned to Ringo. “You can’t do this!”

  The second officer ignored Yardley’s command and turned to Ringo to plead his case. “They said we would never be inspected! No big deal! Do it all the time! Another easy run!”

  He looked as if he would babble on incessantly but Ringo jumped in. “How many voyages have you made in this ship?”

  “This is the fourth!” The man spoke hurriedly. He saw the possibility of trading information for his life. He calmed down slightly. “I’ll tell you about all of them.”

  “No need,” replied Ringo calmly as she brought up her weapon and shot him three times at close range. The man was blown backward and landed two meters behind the other officers. A wisp of smoke rose from the body and the smell of burnt flesh assaulted nearby noses. The sudden violence caused the remaining officers to step back from Ringo while searching for a place to hide. Only the plodding of guns in their backs by their guards kept them in the immediate area. Yardley stared at her, mouth agape. She had never seen violent death up close or administered so calmly and coldly.

  Ringo turned to the facial recognition woman. “Get all that?” The woman nodded. Unnoticed by everyone, she had been recording the proceedings on her tablet. Ringo nodded back and then turned to Yardley. “His fourth trip? Wow, you must do this all the time. That’s not going to look good in the official report.” Despite having just killed an unarmed man, the pirate captain was completely at ease. Yardley said nothing in response but stared at her.

  Ringo moved toward the group of merchant sailors. The crewmembers looked at Ringo strolling over to them. Her recent handiwork was fresh in their minds so they shifted around as they tried to take shelter behind each other. After the shifting stopped, they backed up until they were against the bulkhead behind them. Ringo ignored the two bodies on the deck as she stopped just short of the huddled crew. The guards around the officers moved them to that group’s perimeter so everyone could hear the speech.

  Ringo patterned her style after Killian O’Hare, so much so her nickname within Pirate Flotilla One was “the little sister.” One way the two differed was in public speaking. O’Hare liked it and Ringo didn’t. Thus, Ringo was short and to the point.

  “We have your faces on file now. If any of our ships catch you on another slaver, you’re dead.”

  Ringo turned and walked toward her shuttle. She was followed by the leaders of the hit team and boarding party. Once there she stopped outside the shuttle’s hatch and talked to her two men. She was leaving all her people to man the freighter and take it to the new Royal Navy base at Agra 2. “Get the ship underway ASAP. Take care of the slaves. Use the crew as you see fit but not too much. Kill anyone who gets out of hand.” The two men nodded and moved off to carry out the orders.

  Ringo reflected on the happy coincidence that her crew had been augmented by several Marbellan sailors learning various shipboard skills. This allowed her to leave people in this freighter. Her people would stake claim to the cargo when the ship reached Agra 2. Ringo smiled grimly to herself. This whole episode worked out well for her and her ship. That was a rare occurrence indeed.

  Ringo pointed at Captain Yardley. “You’re with me.”

  “I’m not leaving my ship!”

  Ringo eyed her coldly. “It’s not your ship anymore.”

  Yardley sneered. “I suppose she is yours now?”

  Ringo shook her head. “The fate of your ship will be decided at Agra 2. I will claim only the cargo.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!”

  Ringo shook her head slightly and then spoke low and slow. “Again, you don’t seem to grasp this pirate thing, do you?”

  “When the Aeonian Conglomerate hears of this, there will be hell to pay.”

  Ringo smiled. “When it becomes clear this incident is the capturing and unmasking of a slave ship, I don’t think the ol’ AC is going to rush here to defend you. In fact, I predict their position will be that, totally unbeknownst to them, the ship’s captain was trying to pick up extra cash running slaves. They will be suitably shocked and distance themselves from you. You’re on your own; you just don’t know it yet.” She gestured at the guard behind Yardley. The guard gave Yardley a rough push in her back and Yardley moved to the shuttle. She got in and took a seat. As the shuttle departed Tristan, she concluded that Ringo may very well be correct. Even if she were on her own, Yardley had no backup plan so would continue to hope her company would come through for her. Right now, she could do nothing else.

  Surprisingly, the shuttle did not head for Renegade but aimed at Cobalt. Yardley watched through the porthole next to her seat as they neared the destroyer. “Why is there a coat of arms on the hull?”

  Ringo was sitting across from her. She replied without looking out the porthole. “That coat of arms belongs to the Sinclairs, the royal family of the Aurora Empire. Queen Alexis served in Cobalt as a young officer, and she picked the ship to be the Queen’s Own Destroyer, so the ship gets the family coat of arms put on her.” Ringo gave Yardley a frosty smile. “My understanding is the Queen receives regular reports on how all the Queen’s Own designated ships are doing. I guess your name and the name of your ship will be in the next report.”

  The shuttle set up for an approach to the hangar bay of the Royal Navy destroyer. She made an uneventful landing, and Yardley was transferred to Royal Navy custody. Cobalt would take Yardley to Agra 2 along with Tristan. Renegade would return to her patrol.

  Chapter 2

  Ding, Ding. “Mackenzie arriving.”

  Captain Skyler Mallory, Royal Navy, descended the shuttle steps to the hangar bay deck as the familiar ceremony took place. The bell and the words over the ship’s loudspeakers faded away as a simple ritual several hundred years old was completed—the announcement of the ship’s commanding officer coming aboard. A smile came to Mallory’s lips. Finally, she had her ship back. It had been a year, a long year. She had been unsure she would get her back at all. Once the heavily damaged ship had gotten to the repair yards, the entire crew was transferred to hundreds of shipboard billets throughout the fleet. The heavy cruiser was one of dozens of damaged ships needing repairs at the start of the war. The longer Mackenzie stayed in the yards, the less likely Skyler would return as captain. She could have easily been transferred from her post as chief of staff to Admiral Barrett to another billet in the Royal Navy. Once in that new billet, she would be stuck there for a period of time. At least a year, maybe longer. Maybe it would be a ship command or maybe not. She preferred not to wait to see. She was captain of Mackenzie and wanted that ship back. Now she had her. The smile lingered.

  Three civilian shipyard officials followed Mallory out of the shuttle. They would take her on a tour of the heavy cruiser and show the repairs made. She knew they would boast
a bit about their work. She knew she would act impressed although she really wasn’t. She also knew they wouldn’t talk about any upgrades for the ship because there had been no upgrades. The Empire was losing the war. Although they had survived the worst, they hadn’t turned the tide yet. Ships were given minimum repairs and thrown back into the fray. The latest technology and hardware were being put in the new ships being built from the keel up, not into ships in the yards for battle repairs. The simple fact was warship numbers mattered so the more ships in the fight, the better. The condition of the warships was of secondary importance. Of course, the people making those decisions would not be in those ships when missile volleys were exchanged with the enemy.

  As the tour moved through the ship, Mallory made it a priority to meet and speak with many of the new crewmembers who had just transferred to Mackenzie. She noticed how young they were—inexperienced officers leading fresh-faced sailors. Manning levels were cut also. The cruiser was manned at 80 percent of her crew numbers when she was in the Badlands. Mallory knew this was not unusual. The majority of other warships had the same problems. Low manning, raw people, and slapped together ships were the norm now. Only the new ships were getting a slightly better deal in crew manning and even that was nothing to brag about.

  Three hours later, Sky finished the tour. She signed several computer screens completing the transfer of the ship back to the Royal Navy. She then congratulated the shipyard people on their work and walked them to the hangar deck for their departure. After seeing them off, she retired to her day cabin. There was a department head meeting in forty minutes, but she now had some time to herself. Her day cabin was sterile and cold without her personal items there, but that would change soon enough. She sat behind her desk and put her feet up on its flat surface. She leaned back in the chair and laced her hands behind her head. She smiled as she looked around the compartment. It was good to be home.

  Chapter 3

  Captains Hawkins, Delacruz, and Terrant sat in the captain’s day cabin aboard Vindictive. They had just returned from a meeting with the governing council on Agra 5, and now, the pirate destroyer was proceeding to Agra 2.

  “Good meeting,” Hawkins began. “They seem motivated to make this all work.”

  Both Terrant and Delacruz nodded. Shane smiled at Hawkins. “Maybe, for once, we are getting some breaks our way. I think they are sincere. They donated land outside of their largest town and are selling us building materials at cut-rate costs. We should have a neighborhood built in no time.” He leaned closer to Rafe. “The warning system is up and running. Got one camera on three of their closest moons and a receiving station in the middle our compound. The data dump will be established by late tomorrow.”

  Hawkins nodded. Old habits were still being followed here. The cameras will monitor incoming space traffic and give early warning to the receiving station within the pirate settlement. That station was manned continuously. The data dump is a recorder hidden a kilometer from the settlement and hardwired into the receiving station so it will not show up on any sensor or electronic sweeps. If the settlement is wiped out, the data dump will, hopefully, escape destruction, and the recorded information will be there for review. The data dump at Ulatar provided key information on the Orion attack against the pirate settlement there a little more than a year ago.

  “Are you going to present the Agra 5 proposal to the other squadrons?” asked Terrant.

  “I will send it to each captain, and they can solicit their people and come to their own decisions,” Raferty replied in a neutral tone of voice.

  “You have reservations?” Terrant noted the non-enthusiasm.

  Hawkins shrugged. “No reservations about the Agra 5 people. I think they are sincere. I guess my reservations can be summed up in one phrase—all our eggs will be in one basket. That is okay if you guard that basket well, but the settlement location info will leak out damn quick. I think the Goths will leave the settlement alone but various corporations, mercenaries, and the Bries might not be so inclined. I think I’m for the relocation here since there is already over a thousand of our people down there. We just need to be really sure of our security arrangements.”

  Shane spoke up. “That reminds me. We heard from the dearly departed. They are on the far side of the Perdition System now. We got a message from them this morning.”

  After Kiraloch, several hundred refugees wanted to return home to Marbella. The pirates made a Marbellan light cruiser and destroyer safe for the trip and gave them supplies. The two ships departed with no fanfare.

  “I hope they find a good reception at home,” Terrant said. She shook her head. “I doubt it though.”

  The other two nodded in agreement. All three of them had talked to the departing Marbellans. They pointed out that they would not be welcomed back at home. In fact, they would be interrogated about their recent activities and, maybe, jailed for a while. Of course, the Commonwealth will call it a quarantine or something along those lines, but it would be a jail. Some of the refugees changed their minds but four hundred did not. Rafe was fine with it. This wasn’t the first time he had seen hopes and prayers override evidence and common sense. They believed what they believed. He hoped they were right, but he knew they weren’t. Fine, they depart, and we all move on. A day later that was exactly what happened. The goodbyes were quick and the two ships headed for Rialta.

  Rafe changed the subject. “Lew, how is the shipyard work coming along?”

  Captain Terrant pulled a tablet out of her pants pocket and scanned through it as she gave a verbal update to her two companions. All was not well. Most of the repairs and upgrades were behind schedule due to “a time delay in parts delivery.” Rafe shook his head as she finished reading the reports. “Not great but we can hardly complain to anybody.” He looked across the table at Terrant. “The smaller shipyards always overpromise and underdeliver. A fact of life for us.”

  Terrant nodded. After her shipyard experience in the rehab of Cottonmouth a few months prior, she had thought as much and was glad to hear Hawkins confirm her suspicions. The promised rehab date for the four Snake destroyers was being pushed back by all four shipyards doing the work. If it wasn’t for the fact these shipyards were dispersed throughout the Badlands and the Burgh Systems, Terrant would have thought they were in league with each other in attempting to cheat the pirates. “At least the price didn’t go up,” Terrant said as she looked for something positive.

  Shane gave her a resigned smile. “It will. They are just waiting to get deeper in the job so it will be harder for us to say no.” He thought for a moment and added. “We can accept a little of that, but if it gets out of hand, we will have words with the shipyard people. We could also turn one of them over to the Goths by having Flint Colfax in Corsair leak the information to Eve Maldova.”

  Maldova was an informant for the Goths, and Flot 1 would pass information to her if they wanted the Goths to act on it. Terrant nodded, quietly pleased Shane had casually shared the suggestion with her. That information on Maldova was known only to the Flot 1 squadron leaders, a few trusted officers, and the officers of Corsair. Although Terrant was one of them now, it had been a long road to this point, and she was glad nobody held a grudge. After becoming the Delta squadron commander, she had received numerous briefings on the workings of Pirate Flotilla One. She was amazed and pleased at how quickly the entire team had adapted to her presence and made her feel welcomed. Since the four destroyers entered the yards for refit, crews had been selected and scattered throughout the flotilla for training with the pirate crews. Each of the remaining pirate ships had Marbellan crewmembers learning their trade. The proposed captains, XOs, and OpsOs for the four new destroyers were assigned to each of the squadron leaders.

  She decided to broach a different topic. “This is down the road a bit but I’d like your opinions. I think we need to rename the four ships in the yards and Cottonmouth.”

  She paused to allow for reactions. Shane looked at her and nodded.
“I would never have brought it up because crews get attached to their ships and are superstitious about name changes, but I think it’s a great idea. It will go over better with the rest of Flot 1 too. You getting any static from your crews on that?”

  “Most are for the name change. The ships right now represent defeat and lack of purpose. After the rehab and assignment of new crews, the name changes seem a logical step in the starting over process. With the crews scattered around for training and more pressing issues, I think it will be a while before we get to that, but I wanted your input.” She paused and added. “The exception to that timeline is Cottonmouth. I told the crew we need to get on board completely with Flot 1, and they understand.” She smiled. “Simple fact is they like being pirates, and they like their future. There are some names being kicked around now. I’ll let you two know the winner.”

  Rafe added, “Remember you have to name your shiny new freighter too.”

  Llewellyn smiled. “Glad to get her. I have to wonder why another squadron didn’t get her, and we would get their hand-me-down freighter.”

  Rafe shook his head. “I don’t work that way. If we give the ship to another squadron, and you get the leftover, then there are two ships that need to be broken in. Not good. Besides, your squadron and Shane’s squadron will be spending the most time in the Cinnamon System with your house on Agra 5, and so you will do most of the support for the Zeke base and your house. You need a big, fast freighter for that and Tristan fits the bill. The work being done on her is the fitting of missile racks and overhead magazines. You know about the secondary mission. I guarantee your freighter will get to do that.”