Chapter 5

That evening, the girls made sure to show me how happy they were with their shopping spree. I was surprised that they even did their classwork, and at how seriously they were taking their studies. Xaviera hadn’t planned on attending college because her family couldn’t afford it, and Lourdes still had to finish secondary school, yet both were studying right along with the others. Calysta and Trintje both had a year of college under their belts already. I’d seen several of the girls helping each other when one of them didn’t understand something.

I spent my time writing down explanations for the calculations necessary to determine how powerful a wormhole generator needed to be for each ship. I didn’t mean to imply that engineers were stupid. Far from it. Engineers have designed some of the biggest technological advances mankind has seen. It’s just that today’s engineers didn’t understand my theory and all the quirks associated with it.

Once I was satisfied, I decided to go ahead and give the Navy the plans for the Class VII laser, too. The hybrid shielding that Kasi’yah had designed and that we were installing on each of our ships would easily stop an attack using dozens of Class VII lasers. In addition, the new Class X lasers that Kasi’yah helped to develop were at least thirty times more powerful than the Class VII lasers were.

Once I finished the instructions for the wormhole generators and instructions for the Class VII lasers, I included one of the Class VII lasers we had already built. If Captain Connell was cooperative, I would let him use the ship with a wormhole generator, hybrid shielding, and Class VII lasers.

With that off my mind, I remembered thinking that pirates were staying away from us because the false electronic scan signature that we were transmitting was traveling too fast for pirates to catch. “Kasi’yah, you said that you could create a scan signature for the Kra’afkikort that other ships would read as the Faraway. Is it possible to project that image, like maybe an hour in front of us?” I asked.

“At our current speed, I’m able to project the image fifty-three minutes ahead of ourselves.

“Can you do that and make it so the image appears to be moving at half the normal speed for a cargo ship?” I asked.

“Certainly, Captain, but we will catch up with the image rather quickly,” she warned.

“Go ahead and do it. I want to see if we can draw out any pirate ships. I think we’re traveling too fast for them to consider trying to capture us.”

“Should I run the image near cloaked ships that I see lying in wait?” she asked.

“How many can you see?” I asked.

“Right now, I see four ships within forty-six minutes of us. All four are just sitting there, doing nothing,” she replied.

“Are the ships having problems?” I asked.

“Aside from not moving, all four ships have power and appear functional. Each ship has between twenty-six and thirty-three crewmembers aboard.”

“Are any of them Navy ships?” I asked, realizing as soon as I said it that Navy ships would have a larger crew than that.

“Negative, Captain. None of them have a scan signature matching the Navy ships in the Jump To It’s database. In addition, all four ships have turned off their transponders.”

“Is there a place where you can start the image so it doesn’t seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere to those ships?” I asked.

“I can make it look as if the ship exited a short passage in the Backwater. There is a spot ahead of us where the ships wouldn’t be able to see it on their scans until it comes around a large chunk of debris,” she replied.

“Go ahead and do that. See if you can draw them close enough to us to take control of the AI like you did ours before their ships see that what they’re scanning is not really there. Load four of our shuttles with armed and armored androids and have them ready to launch so they can dock with and board the four pirate ships. If you are able to do it, seize the AIs of all four ships and prevent them from escaping or firing at us. If not, have the Faraway use its rail guns.”

The girls must have heard me talking because they were all on the bridge even before I got there.

“Pirates?” Calysta asked eagerly.

“Four ships,” I replied. “There, there, there, and there,” I said as I pointed to the signatures on Kasi’yah’s tactical map. The ships must have just seen the electronic signature that Kasi’yah had begun transmitting because they had just begun moving. And that was when I felt the sense of danger coming from them.

Kasi’yah had waited until we were just beyond the point she had mentioned before making the fake ship appear. That way, we were within minutes of them when all four of the suspected pirate ships rushed towards us, planning to cut off the ship they thought was coming towards them. We came to a halt and watched as they took positions.

Rather than communicate over the radio, they used communication drones to relay messages and orders. Once we had established that the four ships were definitely pirates, Kasi’yah seized all four AIs simultaneously, shutting down the primary power to each ship so the crews wouldn’t realize that she now controlled the AI. I hoped to extract more information about their operation, especially the location of their base, and didn’t want them to be able to wipe the AI.

Our four shuttles had launched seconds after we had seized control of the AIs and quickly docked with the ships. Inside the ships was a madhouse as the pirates rushed around trying to restore power. Only a handful of pirates aboard each ship even realized that we had boarded their ship before the androids had secured the bridge. The stun weapons our androids now carried dropped the pirates and it didn’t take long for the androids to reach every part of the ships and to secure the entire ship. All the pirates survived, for now. After their trial, who knows?

With so many locations available to mine rhodium, I had already decided to buy any future pirate ships that we captured. Many of the purchases by the girls right before we left Luboro reflected that decision. In fact, Xaviera and Lourdes seemed rather eager to help.

My research had shown that ten to twenty slaves were enough to begin a rhodium mine. As the mine got bigger, more slaves were added to increase production. The oldest of the biggest mines currently operating had up to three hundred slaves. Large companies owned most of those mines.

I would need to create a dome over the area around the mine to hold an atmosphere and then install a larger shield above the dome to protect them from meteorites, or from violent weather if on a planet.

Cloaking was also a common feature of the domes, to shade the miners and to help maintain tolerable temperatures inside the dome. The larger mines had a second dome nearby where other slaves raised crops, so ships didn’t have to bring a year’s supply of food and other things for up to three hundred people with them.

I laughed, realizing that I could just build more androids to work in the mines, but decided to use the pirates instead. It would give the pirates something to do, and they were cheap. Then I changed my mind, deciding that I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with them.

All one hundred seventeen pirates were shackled and blindfolded. Once the four captured pirate ships were docked in the Kra’afkikort’s fighter bay, we unloaded the pirates and held them, under guard, in a cargo hold near the fighter bay.

Then we started searching the four ships, as well as the information in the AIs. All four ships had operated out of a nearby base hidden in the Backwater.

There are thousands of passageways into the Backwater. Most closed off within a kilometer or two, and only a rare few that were large enough for a ship to transit for more than a kilometer. Even passages that short would require constant maintenance to keep them open. It was possible that the passage used by the pirates had been manmade.

If you pour a pound of salt in the middle of a covered pool of water, you will eventually be able to detect the salt in water samples taken from anywhere in the pool. Matter spreads out naturally from areas that are more concentrated to areas where it is less concentrated. The matter in the Backwater is no exception. If an empty space occurs, matter naturally drifts into it. In addition, the Backwater is still expanding at the rate of 1.7 to 2.1 kilometers each year all along its edges. That means passageways would have to be cleared no less than weekly or they would become too constricted for a ship to enter and traverse.

Leaving the Kra’afkikort to guard the entrance of the passageway so no pirate ships could come in behind us and surprise us, we used the Faraway and made our way through the dark passageway. The matter around us was so concentrated that no light reached us. After two kilometers, the passageway curved to the right. Another kilometer along the passageway brought us to a nearly flat section of what appeared to have once been part of the surface of a very small moon or a very large asteroid.

From the slight curvature of the surface, the object would originally have had a diameter of about eight hundred kilometers. Now, it was merely an elliptical chunk about three kilometers long and two kilometers wide. There was a shield covering what appeared to be nothing more than a large building constructed from tree trunks, much like pictures I’d seen of rustic ancient Earth resort lodges, and pioneer cabins even before that. The shield maintained an atmosphere inside an area about a thousand meters in diameter.

There was enough room inside the dome for the building in the center and for a few ships to land around the building after passing through the shield. Two more ships were still there. One was a huge cargo ship. Kasi’yah seized control of both ships and found them empty.

From the AIs of the two ships, we learned that the larger of the two was a registered, seemingly legitimate cargo ship that made six trips a year to one of the smaller companies that bought ingots. It also made trips to other companies and sold cargo taken from captured ships. Both ships were near the far edges of the dome, just close enough that the pirates could enter the ships while still inside the dome.

The smaller of the two ships, barely bigger than a shuttle, was reinforced with very heavy armor and was probably used to keep the passageway open, nudging large chunks of matter back out of the way, or pushing them completely out of the passageway, sending them off towards the nearest system, one that was uninhabited except for mines and a few factories built on moons, asteroids, and uninhabitable planets.

The AI noted only twenty-eight people inside the building. Six were women chained up inside a locked room. Four women were in what appeared to be a dining room. Evidently, we would be interrupting the pirates’ meal. Another five women were working in the kitchen.

After thinking about the situation for a minute, I decided to see if we could rescue all the women except the four in the main dining hall. Those four seemed to be sitting and eating with the rest of the men. First, we had to determine the correct password to allow us through the shield, and without setting off any alarms. Turns out, the password was among the data Kasi’yah had already extracted from the pirate ships’ AIs. Moving the Faraway near the room where the women were chained up, we extended our shield to include the room. It also included part of what seemed to be a bunkroom, but the bunkroom was empty.

The androids made quick work of cutting a hole through the wall. The six women in the room were watching, terrified until Calysta stuck her head through the opening.

“Shhhhh,” she hissed quietly, stepping aside to let androids enter the room. The women were quickly unshackled and led aboard.

“Are the four women in the dining room and the five women in the kitchen captives or pirates?” she asked quietly. I wasn’t sure why she was being quiet since our shielding kept any noise from reaching the dining room. It also prevented anyone from opening the door to the room more than a few centimeters.

“The ones in the kitchen are captives,” one of the girls replied. “The four bitches in the dining room are with the pirates.”

I left eight androids in the room, and they removed the hinges so the door would open for them. I also had a shuttle move so its shield included most of the kitchen, choosing a spot where there was nothing located on the inside of the wall for them to cut through the wall.

“Shhhhh, hurry,” the former captive who had answered our questions whispered to her stunned fellow captives working in the kitchen. I left eight more androids in the kitchen.

“Someone’s coming towards the kitchen,” the AI warned just after the androids were in place. They let the man enter and quickly stunned him, pulling him all the way into the kitchen before he could react. That left only seventeen pirates to deal with. On my command, the androids from both the cell and the kitchen rushed into the dining room, spraying the room with stun rounds. Only two shots were fired in return, and both were ineffective against the androids.

Once the stunned pirates were shackled, we loaded them aboard the Faraway and returned to the Kra’afkikort. Other androids searched the building or powered up the two pirate ships and followed us. We had twenty healing pods to heal any pirates that required convincing to answer our questions.

Once they were awake, I addressed the pirates. The girls who had just been rescued watched excitedly. “We have downloaded the data from all six of your ships, so we know about the bank accounts each of you has where you deposit the money you make selling goods you take from ships you capture. Each of you WILL give us access to your account. The choice is up to you as to how much pain you are willing to endure trying to keep the information from me,” I explained with a sadistic grin.

“Start with him,” I told the androids, pointing to the captain of the seemingly legitimate cargo ship the pirates had used to sell their stolen goods.

Even as he professed his innocence, two androids grabbed him and stood him up while two more made quick work of stripping off his clothes. Other androids brought a few of my girls’ recent purchases into the room. While the captain was being trussed up tightly with a rope, the first toy was set up and adjusted. It looked kind of like a solid metal broom handle embedded in a wide, sturdy base. Near the top of the broom handle was a disc of sorts and the metal broom handle went through a hole in the center of the disc.

The androids tossed one end of a rope over a sturdy beam and pulled it, lifting the captain off his feet. He screamed and started struggling when he realized what was going to happen. Calysta gave him a good shot of lube up the ass and then lubed the top of the post. Then the androids lowered him, guiding the post into place until he was sitting on the disc that controlled the depth of penetration at about ten centimeters for now.

While the captain’s ordeal began, I spoke quietly with the eleven girls, making them promise me that they wouldn’t cause any excessive physical damage to the men just yet. Two of the men the girls had warned me about were earmarked for a violent and painful death after I bought their slavery contracts, and I’d allow the girls to perform the honors. While the captain fidgeted nervously atop the pole, I asked him to list his personal and business accounts. When he refused, the disk dropped down, adding another centimeter to the depth of his impalement.

When I nodded, two of the androids brought over all four of the female pirates. Everyone watched as I gave them an injection. Two minutes later, after the good captain was dropped another centimeter, I asked the four women. All of them told me everything I asked, even corroborating the other girls’ accusations of the two men who were most abusive and violent with the girls.

“As you can see, I can easily drug you and make you tell me everything I want to know. We’re going to do it this way, however. These girls want to exact a little revenge. Mind you, I intend to purchase your slave contracts, so nobody will be rescuing you. I’ll ship you off to a mine so far away that nobody will ever think to look for you there. None of the money you have now will do you any good.

“Your dicks, however, will prove useful because I intend to send these four women along to provide you with relief, as long as your dick is still attached,” I chuckled.

The first of the rescued girls chose one of what looked like twenty-centimeter needles and skewered the good captain’s cock with it before asking him about the accounts. After his shrill shriek, he broke down and told us what we wanted to know.

While his interrogation was underway, three more of the posts were set up and more of the pirates were securely roped. The eleven rescued captives and my four slaves eagerly helped to interrogate the pirates, even when the pirates told them what they wanted to know before the torture started. The two pirates who were the most sadistic turned out to be the two biggest wimps in the whole group.

Erl’ae’e kept track of the account numbers and passwords and emptied each account as soon as we were in range and the necessary connection was available.

With the interrogations complete, the pirates were each put into a Banu-Sintäa healing pod. Theirs worked much faster than our current technology and the pirates would show no signs of having been tortured by the time we reached Dahrcolani. After taking videos of them, the captives went into standard healing pods so their scars, burns, and brands would still be partially visible, both as evidence of what the pirates had done to them, and to show that the healing pods could not possibly have healed the injuries the pirates would claim we had inflicted upon them.

I had the androids exhume and transport the sixty-three bodies our scans found buried outside in the rocky soil. All but twelve were male bodies. I guessed that some were the captains of captured ships and others were pirates who had died while capturing some of the ships. Either way, the Navy could identify them with DNA from the remains. With everyone and everything back aboard the Kra’afkikort, I had Kasi’yah start the timer on the explosives we had left behind. When they went off, the chunk of land the cabin was on would become more rubble and should seal off the end of the passageway so nobody else could use it.

Several hours later, we were approaching Baärdhäayo. The naval base wasn’t near the capital city of Teckaly. In fact, it was almost on the opposite side of the planet. “Baärdhäayo Base, this is the ship Faraway requesting docking instructions. We are bringing six captured pirate ships, eleven rescued hostages, and one hundred thirty-four captured pirates. I’m Captain Jim Reynolds and have a letter of introduction to Captain Connell,” I commed the base.

“Roger Faraway, please stand by for instructions,” the radio operator replied.