Chapter 6

After a pleasant dinner, Dad followed me to the Navy base where he dropped my brothers off. Once they were on their way, I had him dock aboard the Faraway. After the shuttles were secured, we headed into orbit, and then behind the planet’s moon. We still couldn’t see the cloaked and shielded Kra’afkikort until we passed through the cloaking. Since I had the view screens off, they couldn’t see anything.

“It feels like we just docked,” Dad commented when we settled in the fighter bay.

“Sort of, we landed in the fighter bay of my new ship, the Kra’afkikort,” I explained.

“Mom, Dad, Junie, I’d like to formally introduce you to my wife, Princess Erl’ae’e of the Banu-Sintäa people. This is the ship she was aboard when it found me.”

“The ship found you?” Mom sniggered as I opened the hatch of the shuttle.

“That is correct,” Kasi’yah’s avatar said. “My sensors spotted the ship well before it would have detected me. I changed course to move close enough to learn more about the inhabitants of the ship. Once I determined that Captain Reynolds was a good and honorable man, I took control of his ship long enough to learn even more about him, and then I contacted him.

“I offered to turn over this ship to him if he would accept the Princess as one of his women. He did, and now he has access to technology far more advanced than even his own inventions.”

Before I finally took my family home, we explained how the Kra’afkikort had ended up here in the first place.

I met the next morning with Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo number two. He and I quickly got down to business. He showed me a map pinpointing the locations of each pirate attack in the last three years. They appeared to be randomly scattered throughout the sector, but we both knew they occurred at points where two or more commonly used shipping routes intersected or passed near a good ambush site. Thanking the Chief Petty Officer for the information, I told him that the information would give my mind something to chew on when I wasn’t otherwise occupied. He laughed; commenting on how little time that probably was with five gorgeous women. I grinned and waggled my eyebrows lecherously as I was leaving.

The girls and I shuttled back to the Faraway and then took it to the Kra’afkikort where we schemed until dinner. When I proposed my idea, everyone thought it was feasible. We cloaked completely and then began dropping cloaked sensors near the intersections of several of the busier shipping routes. Our sensors were all located within half an hour of where we finally stopped. We even dropped off sensors where lesser routes intersected in the same area.

For five days, we waited, working on refitting the captured pirate ships, including adding the new armor, AI, lasers, engines, shields, cloaking, and scanning ability. We also added rail guns that the androids aboard the Kra’afkikort were building with parts made by the replicator. Part of our effort was also making even more Banu-Sintäa androids.

We trained some of the Kra’afkikort’s androids as boarding parties. The new armor they had was impervious to any hand-held weapons known to the Confederation, as well as all but the most powerful ship-based or ground-based weapons. Their handheld weapons could easily defeat the best armor currently available in the Confederation. We had tested the weapons on my old armor that I had aboard the Faraway. Let’s just say I won’t ever be able to wear that armor again, even if I could find enough remnants to piece it back together.

By the time we received the first signal from the sensors, each of the women had custom-fit hybrid body armor and shielding. The battle between the pirates and the ship they attacked was just winding down when we arrived. Three pirate ships had attacked a well-armed freighter. The freighter could probably have defeated a single pirate ship but didn’t stand a chance against three. They had just surrendered when Kasi’yah began her attack by taking control of all three pirate ship’s AIs so they could neither communicate, use their weapons, or maneuver.

Rather than hail the ships and warn them of our presence, I let them stew. I figured that each ship would think something was wrong with their ship and not with all three ships. I’m sure their consternation at having their AIs and ships unresponsive would keep them from noticing our boarding parties until it was too late to react. Two boarding parties had already ferried to each of the three ships and had settled in the docking bay that Kasi’yah had the ships’ AIs open for them.

As expected, once inside the ship, they came under fire from handheld weapons each time they met a person or group, handheld weapons fire that was completely ineffective. Within minutes, our troops were everywhere on the ships and had subdued the pirates by stunning them. The stunned pirates would be out for at least an hour, so they were left where they lay as half of the boarding party headed for the bridge. The other half headed to protect and free any prisoners our scans had found aboard the vessels.

All six shuttles returned for more troops, these to secure the stunned pirates and to guard them until the Navy got here. That thought gave me pause. The pirates had attacked and carried on a running battle for twenty minutes without seeming to worry about the Navy suddenly appearing. That meant they either knew where the Navy ships were, or they knew that none were close enough to respond in time. Most likely, someone in the Navy was purposely sending Navy ships away from a chosen target area, or someone was ignoring distress calls.

The battle to assume control inside the pirate ships was over within ten minutes and all three ships were secured. We helped the original target, the freighter Yuwuda, by loaning them drones to patch her hull. The engines required enough work to necessitate a shipyard since they were the first thing that the pirates had targeted with their Class V lasers.

The biggest problem I found was the twelve girls the pirates had held hostage and used as sex slaves. We knew they were slaves, not crew, because Kasi’yah had reviewed the data gleaned from each ship’s AI. Fortunately, Kasi’yah was able to edit the memory of the AI aboard each pirate ship to show that the girls had been in healing pods on the various ships when we attacked.

I warned the pirates that I intended to buy every one of them after they were convicted, and if they said one word about the girls not being in healing pods, I would secure each of them and let the girls play with them until they were satisfied that justice had been served. If the pirates kept their mouths shut, they would simply be used as miners. Not surprisingly, they all remained silent about it.

When the Navy finally arrived, we were aboard the Faraway. They interviewed everyone aboard all five ships and reviewed the data from each ship’s AI. When they finished, all five ships accompanied the Navy ship to the main naval facility on Dahrcolani.

Given the unusual nature of our attack, the questioning was intense. Fortunately, my girls had all remained aboard the cloaked and shielded Kra’afkikort. That meant it was strictly my word, the data from the Faraway’s AI, and the data from the AIs on the three pirate ships, all of which matched exactly thanks to Kasi’yah.

The Navy still wanted to know how I was able to overpower three pirate ships simultaneously while sustaining no damage, and then board and capture all three ships with no casualties on either side. “I’m afraid I’m not ready to divulge that information at this time,” was my terse reply. I did finally agree to take either of the C’sahn’Bo brothers with me to see that I wasn’t doing anything illegal, provided they agreed not to divulge any of my secrets when they returned to the Navy.

The Navy agreed, and four hours later, Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo (from Dahrcolani) arrived.

“What the hell are you getting me into?” he growled menacingly like only a Chief Petty Officer can. “My brother says you’re on the up and up, but I can tell you’re hiding something,” he continued as he poked me in the chest every few words to emphasize his displeasure.

“You’re both right. By coming with me, you’ll see what I’m hiding and why I don’t want to let anyone know about it yet,” I answered.

“Why should I waste the time?” he growled.

“Because I can be a powerful ally,” I answered.

“And an embarrassing pain in the ass,” he replied without malice, letting me know that he remembered the little problem.

“And if I don’t?” he queried menacingly.

“Then I simply go back to doing the job that earns me the money I need to keep my ship moving,” I answered.

“Do I get to learn about the shortcut?” he asked.

“I can tell you about that now. I lied; there is no shortcut. My ship is simply that fast and I made up the story about the shortcut to hide that fact,” I told him.

He looks so funny when his eyes bulge out and get as big as saucers.

“How long?” he asked, no longer growling.

“You’ll know what’s going on in less than a day. To make sure I’m not doing anything illegal will probably require two or three months,” I answered.

It was well after midnight before the Chief Petty Officer had his new orders in hand and we had made it back to the Faraway. Ten minutes later, The Chief’s eyes were bugged out again.

“What the fuck is that?” he gasped as he stared at the Kra’afkikort on the forward viewing screen.

“That is my new ship, the Kra’afkikort. It was blown through to this dimension from another dimension when the sun in the system in that dimension exploded. It’s been here twelve years, mapping out unexplored space in the Centaurus Spiral of the Milky Way. Their technology is far more advanced than ours. That’s why I don’t want to tell anyone yet. In addition, she found three damaged ships belonging to the enemy they were fighting and collected them. One should just about have the repairs finished.

“I suggest we get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to come early, and I have a court date,” I reminded everyone. Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo was stunned when I told him he was free to stay aboard the Kra’afkikort and explore while I was in court. Due to the lateness of the hour, the girls actually let me go to sleep, but I heard in the morning that they had given the anatomically correct androids quite a workout.

The court proceedings took all day, yet they were still a vast improvement over centuries earlier. Before we finished, I was the owner of all three of the captured pirate ships and any cargo aboard them, sans the captives who were grateful for their rescue, especially since my ruse worked.

All one hundred seventeen pirates were sentenced to slavery, and I pissed off the licensed local slaver by exercising my right to buy them. The Navy had a credit chip for me in the amount of ₢117,000, part of which I used to buy the slaves.

While the judge hadn’t yet ruled on ownership of the Yuwuda, I was reasonably sure he would award it to me. I was also sure that the captain knew it, as well. I knew how I’d feel about losing my ship, so I sought him out. He tried to be polite; after all, I had saved him yesterday. The pirates would have probably killed him. Still, knowing that I would end up owning his ship left him bitter.

I made him an offer. If I were awarded the ship, I would hire him to work for me. He would need to relocate his family to Ahnjuk, but I would pay all expenses associated with their relocation. I would also pay off his ship since he would still be liable for the deductible not covered by his insurance. I would repair and retrofit the ship to be faster, better armed, and with better cloaking and shielding. It would also have a wormhole generator.

His job would be to visit each of my mines and to transport the ingots for me. I guaranteed that he would make at least ₢10,000 a month. That was as much profit as the wealthiest captains made, and twice what he had been making, according to information Kasi’yah had gleaned from his ship’s AI. He was no dummy, and Captain Rhekkyr and I quickly reached an agreement.

I put the three pirate ships up for sale. Last night, and then today while I was in court, our androids had searched every square centimeter of the pirate ships for valuables. They had also downloaded all the information in the AIs before wiping them clean. Pirates always had a failsafe program that would wipe the AI’s memory if the ship were captured. Doing that kept the information from being used against them and kept the location of their hideout safe.

If there were other pirate ships still at the hidden base, they could rest easy knowing that they wouldn’t be found. Kasi’yah had overridden that failsafe when she seized control, allowing the information to be retrieved, and had even copied it to her own data banks in case the pirates physically damaged the ship’s AI. She had deleted that information from the pirates’ AIs before the Navy arrived. The base we found in the memory of each ship was where most of their stash of valuables was kept.

Realizing that other pirates might buy one or more of the three ships, I had two cloaked sensors hidden inside each ship. One would be able to see and hear anything said on the bridge. The other sensor was in the captain’s quarters. The sensors would also allow us to contact or locate the ship anytime we wanted, and Kasi’yah could operate through the sensor on the bridge to interface with the ship’s AI and seize control of the ship if necessary. I was sure pirates would scan the ship for any type of bugging devices if they bought it, but I knew the Banu-Sintäa sensors couldn’t be detected.

By the time the judge awarded me the Yuwuda the next day, Captain Rhekkyr had already informed his wife of my offer, and she had agreed. The Faraway cloaked and towed the ship out to the Kra’afkikort where repairs were started immediately. Captain Rhekkyr and his wife would have a few days before the ship was repaired and retrofitted, giving them time to pack and to wrap up their lives here.

Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo was beside himself with excitement when we got back. Even if we only gave the Navy the information about the armor that our boarding party had used it would make a huge difference. He went with me for the maiden voyage of the repaired and upgraded Gila’br’yya destroyer. Kasi’yah had programmed the new AI after downloading all the information from the old one. The repairs had been done in such a way as to make the destroyer look more like a very large freighter than a warship. The weapons were all hidden from view until they were activated.

The destroyer was even faster than the Kra’afkikort was. Not wanting to come up with a fitting name, I just named it the D1. Though the D1 easily fit inside the Kra’afkikort’s hangar, it was more dangerous. It received a large contingent of android troops to act as boarding parties, and to control pirates if any were captured. She also had two new Banu-Sintäa fighters and eight shuttles. And we continued building more Banu-Sintäa androids.

Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo motioned towards the completed destroyer, and then the two frigates that were still being repaired. “What are your plans for those?” he asked.

“If I give the Navy any of the technology, it will quickly find its way into the hands of pirates, just like the V lasers did. If, instead, I use the technology to stop the pirates myself, the pirates are no longer a problem, and the technology is still safe,” I explained.

“And you get the reward money,” he chuckled.

“There is that, although it’s not why I want to do it this way,” I replied. I also explained my epiphany during the attack on the pirates about the Navy vessels being so far away. He was quickly on the radio with his brother having a heated discussion, explaining my insight. It was only after he finished the discussion that he realized current Confederation technology would have required sending the message via an FTL torpedo.

Repairs to the two frigates were put on hold until repairs and upgrades to the Yuwuda were complete. The Faraway was also being upgraded to have hybrid armor and systems, as well as a Banu-Sintäa AI. The AI for the Yuwuda was also upgraded to the same level. She was ordered, however, not to reveal her advanced capabilities to Captain Rhekkyr or anyone else. If her capabilities were needed to protect the ship, she could do whatever was necessary and then explain that she had simply followed preprogrammed orders.

Five days later, the upgraded Yuwuda was on the way to Ahnjuk with Captain Rhekkyr and his family aboard. They had five shuttles, each with an eight-man android entry team aboard, just in case. The Captain was stunned when I outlined the ship’s new abilities, at least the ones I was willing to tell him about. He also had twelve mining pods and the pirate slaves aboard. I left instructions on where to set up the pods and who to sell the pirate miners to. The two most abusive pirates had already been played with by the girls I’d rescued and were no longer capable of playing.

Two of the pods would help to mine rhodium deposits that weren’t rich enough to use just a mining pod. Androids would be left at each mine instead of slaves. Captain Rhekkyr was stunned that I was rich enough to use androids, even though it was cheaper in the long run because I didn’t have to feed them.

Two more pods were for mining platinum and one for gold, my favorite, although not necessarily the most profitable. The remaining pods were set up to mine minerals for us to use repairing and upgrading ships and making new androids, drones, equipment, and armor.

With the Yuwuda on her way, we set out after pirates. The data from the pirate ships’ AIs had showed locations for three different home bases. Somehow, the pirates were locating one another and collaborating. The first base was about three kilometers inside the Backwater. When I grumbled about not being able to get the Kra’afkikort through, Kasi’yah suggested using drones to clear a path. The drones could produce a shield-like tunnel for us to use, temporarily moving any debris out of the way.

Further questioning showed that we really could create a shortcut through the Backwater by using 3175 drones. It would cut two days off the transit time between the two sectors. Kasi’yah laughed when I suggested setting it up, then have a drone at each end to collect an electronically transmitted toll from ships wanting to use our shortcut.

Chief Petty Officer C’sahn’Bo liked the idea, suggesting that we charge each ship a toll that would be slightly less expensive than the fuel required for the extra days of travel. He added that the ships would also save money due to the faster transit time. A ship traveling back and forth between the two sectors could theoretically make at least half again as many trips a year by using the shortcut as compared to now and could make a lot more profit by making the extra trips. Convinced, I ordered production of the necessary drones expedited.

Using drones to enlarge the narrow, contorted passageway into the Backwater to reach the first pirate base, I left the D1 cloaked, watching the entrance to the passage while we approached the hideout. Five pirate ships were parked near a large log building that looked eerily similar to the first one we attacked. Our scan showed the sleeping quarters to be in four large barracks-like rooms along the south side. The lodge was built inside a dome on the remnant of a large asteroid with a relatively flat surface.

Inside were eighty-six male pirates, along with six women who moved about freely and seemed to be with the pirates. A separate room off to one side held nine women who were chained up. The kitchen was to the east, and a large dining hall was between the kitchen and the common room where the pirates were congregated.

One of our cloaked and shielded shuttles landed next to the room with the captives. Once the shuttle’s shield extended inside the room to protect the captives and to hide what we were doing, we cut a hole in the outside wall and rescued the girls. The rescued girls confirmed that any women left inside were with the pirates.

Since nobody was in the sleeping quarters, we entered the same way in the sleeping quarters and then stationed troops inside the sleeping quarters and the room where the captives had been held. After the door that had imprisoned the captives was silently removed, more troops prepared to enter from the front. Periodically, one of the pirate women would go into the kitchen to get a drink or food for some of the men.

We blew open the front door, more to focus the pirates’ attention there than to make an entry. While the pirates scrambled, their attention still fixated on the front door, our troops surged in from the sleeping areas and the room where the girls had been chained, flanking them. Sweeping the room with automatic weapon fire that stunned the pirates instead of killing them, the firefight was over in mere seconds. Only one pirate managed to get off a shot, and it was more of a muscle contraction when he was hit. His shot went into the floor, barely missing his own foot.