Chapter 20

"Put Price on the main display screen," I ordered Jen.

The forward screen changed to a larger than life view of Price in a command chair of a starship. He angrily slammed his hand down on his armrest, clearly communicating his surprise at seeing me in command. He radiated malice and a hardness that carried no kindness or respect for others. Price was in a different uniform that looked rather comical with lots of ribbons and awards dangling on his chest. He was meticulously dressed, almost like a parade ground general, not a hair on his head was out of place.

I made every effort to keep a neutral and tolerant tone. "Ah, Price, you made good time in your escape aboard Captain Bank's Gig. We have been more than patient in waiting for your call. Get on with it, we have things to do."

My statement caused Commander Price some puzzlement. He had anticipated chaos and fear from our bridge.

"You are hereby directed and required to surrender by powering down your main reactor. You will open your hanger bay doors and receive my troops," Price said with a satisfied smile. "I happen to know your shields are down and your weapons are off-line due to technical problems."

I contemplated his words for a moment. Actually hearing what we had feared, come out of his mouth, lifted a bit of tension from my neck. The reason for all our troubles was no longer guesses and theories. I couldn't help but smirk at Price and look down at my console.

"Miley, please record in the log that Mr. Aaron Price is not only a party to murder, conspiracy and theft. He has bad taste in uniforms that make him look like a dandy. Oh, he is a self-proclaimed pirate too."

"So noted in the log," Miley responded.

Looking back up at Price, I could almost see steam coming out of his bright red ears.

"While you act like a child, your crew is under no illusions about the dangers they face. Your weapons are in a software maintenance cycle that can't be stopped without crashing your sub-systems. Your shield systems are sabotaged and your power systems are suspect," Price hissed, acidly.

While Price was all but spitting out his words, I saw Rice giving me uneasy looks that did not inspire me with his loyalty or his confidence in our ability to resist. I locked eyes with Price again, he looked frustrated that I wasn't paying attention. It was likely he had been savoring this very conversation in his mind for a long time, and it wasn't going smoothly nor as planned.

"You did sneak in a few challenges. Once we put Nora in the brig, she was very free with her answers to our questions," I said grudgingly. Adding another smirk, I continued, "Tell cousin Boorman, he won't be seeing her again."

There was a noise off screen from Price's bridge that could have been Boorman, but Price's voice became elevated, drowning everything else out. "The Entous will be mine, You will be mine ... your ship is without leadership and it is disabled. If I have to work at breaking the ship open, I will take that damage out on your women as compensation. Use your imagination on that."

My hackles rose at the idea that he would touch my lovers. I cut him off. "You may have anticipated our scant defense, but you will find this ship will be ours in the end."

I cut the connection with our tormentor. The forward display defaulted back to the view of Winterfall, its sky was dominated by white swirling clouds from the huge winter storm. Looking around the room, I could see the crew continued to grapple with Price's betrayal. The crosscurrents of emotions were on their faces.

Without thinking I said, "That went as well as it could have gone. Never fear a tyrant, he depends on fear to win his battles. Circumstances have dealt us an unfair hand, the one we will overcome."

Wood smiled brightly over her shoulder. "Well done."

I flashed a return smile. "Making your enemy emotional and distracting them is but one step forward to their defeat."

Rice just stared at me, not really processing anything. Gunner's Mate Morgan just nodded at me and turned back to his station's console. Jen hadn't turned around from her console, so I didn't get a read on her feelings. Abhati stared at me with a meek smile, she was dealing with her personal fears well enough. There was no doubt in my mind what would happen to pretty crew women if we didn't fight for them. A dreadful life of terror and abuse was probably worse than death for most of them. Having seen so many women working out in the gyms and practicing self-defense, it would surprise me if that portion of the crew didn't see things my way.

"You might as well beam that video conference file down to the surface, Jen. The officers down there need to be kept abreast of meaningful events up here."

"Yes, Sir." Jen's fingers went to work at her console.

Wood commented, "Price is in a STUG gunboat command chair. I recognize the bridge layout. If he is with the same group of raiders I know about, then we are likely facing three to five gunboats. They operate off a mothership, an interstellar tender that carries them and their complement of shuttles."

I stood up and went to the coffee dispenser to help myself to a bit of java. I noticed Wood didn't mention she was tracking leads on the raiders, just that she knew about them. After pouring myself a cup, I asked. "Does anyone else need a coffee?"

Rice's eyes bulged like he wanted to say something unhealthy but he didn't. His hands gripped the edges of his navigation console. The reddish tint of the general quarter's alarm-light played over his unhappy face in pulses.

Morgan surprised me and answered. "Half-a-cup for me, Captain."

I enjoyed a sip of my coffee and then poured Morgan a bit of the dark liquid too. It wasn't the freshest coffee, but it was enjoyable enough and it helped bolster my appearance of being in control. After delivering the coffee to the gunner's mate, I sat back down in my command chair. Private Nehring smiled at me from the wall by the Bridge's exit, his posture told me I'd won him over. He looked relaxed, his arms rested on top of the carbine that was clipped to his chest armor.

Without asking Abhati had shifted the main video screen to the passive sensor return of the three hostile shuttles approaching us. I appreciated her reminder, we didn't need to look at the planet during a time like this.

Miley had uploaded data on gunboats to my implant after Wood's comments, and I casually reviewed it. STUGs were so common in the Empire that the upload didn't give me anything but a refresher of what I already knew. Solon operated a few of the obsolete gunships as customs ships that randomly checked on ships approaching our planet. To an unarmed ship they had fearsome weaponry, but it was particularly short on range. A STUG was only 190 feet long with a crew of thirty to fifty, but it was able to carry another forty troopers for assault landings. The gunboat had been used as close support craft and as high-risk, orbital troop landers, among other functions. The ship was no match for a warship like the Entous, if we were armed and not disabled. The fact Price wasn't willing to put his ship in the open nor use it as a combat lander, encouraged me. It could be he was just a cautious man, using relatively cheap shuttles to capture his prize. He'd have pretty big bragging rights if he captured a warship only using shuttles.

Movement on the corridor's camera caught my eye, two crewmen in marine armor were approaching the checkpoint. Their tinted visors were up, but the camera was zoomed out too far to see who was coming to the Bridge.

"Captain," Jen called out. "Lieutenant Foth reports she has been in contact with the security duty officer. She confirmed your order to defend the ship and has disbursed the security teams around the ship." Jen tilted her head to the side listening to her headset. "The other officers in the shuttle agree with the decision to defend the ship."

"Enter it in the record," I answered, turning to the Bridge door.

The door whooshed open with Richard Rogers and Julie Gundlach entering in Marine armor.

"We are ready to defend the Bridge, Sir," Julie announced, her feet making a stomping sound as she stopped a few feet from me.

The marine armor was much more impressive than the Shark armor that was waiting for me in the armory. Shark armor was lighter weight and only covered my torso, head and arms. Richard's and Julie's armor covered them from head to toe in thick, angled metal that was formidable. I wasn't sure Price knew about it, since their private vaults were in their cabin. With the armored choke point outside the Bridge door, I was as confident as I could be that our command center would be secure from a quick assault on it. These two armored marines would be daunting to face.

"Just like the old days, Richard," Wood said, as she stood up from the ship's helm to get a better look at our two warriors.

Wood looked intimating with her golden breastplate armor and the brace of laser pistols on her hips. Wood's armor bore the imperial crest of her family, which all but announced to any pirate that she was a high value target. Knowing the older woman, I'd bet the armor was more than protection to her, it was a statement of what she stood for.

"Yes, my Lady," the elderly Yeoman answered, clearly referencing to her imperial heritage.

Wood waved his statement off with a flourish of her right hand. She didn't move far from her station, but she wasn't shy about showing her pleasure at seeing Richard in his armor. "Something tells me they have a history of scrapes together," I thought.

I turned to the main screen and looked at the rapidly diminishing time left before the boarders arrived. "Miley, give me a ship schematic with an overlay of the deployment of the security teams at my station."

Miley's voice drifted out of the bridge's speakers. "Yes, Captain."

Two outlines of the ship appeared on my screen, a cross-sectional view of the ship and a top-down view. Wood walked over to my station and so did both Yeoman in their armored suits. We all could hear the loud thuds as the heavy feet navigated the bridge stairs down to my level. Blue dots were spread out all around key areas of the ship. Outside of the Bridge were two security men. A ten man strong, security team was near Main Engineering in the aft portion of the Entous; on different levels, there were odd pairs of guards near important systems. Another ten-man team was near our main life support system in the middle of the ship; with the last ten-man team placed in the forward part of the ship, not that far from the Bridge.

"Having a dozen suits of armor on the planet is a real pisser," Richard said, standing close to the monitor. "It takes away our reaction team, which is normally in reserve."

"The deployment will change when the pirates find a way in," Julie added. Her armor had an irritating squeak somewhere. My armored lover leaned down on the railing surrounding my station and bent it. She looked in my eyes and shrugged a sorry. I sighed. Captain Bank was sure to notice the damage when he returned to his rightful place in the command chair.

"I don't like how the hanger deck has only a pair of suits," Wood added as she rested both hands on her pistols. "There should be at least another pair of guards with them."

I waved for Richard to step aside and he did, uncertain of my instructions. Now that I could see the communications console again, I said, "Jen, make an announcement. All department heads are to send non-essential personnel that have weapons training and current certifications to pick up weapons at the main armory and wait there for instructions. Also, make sure the armory knows they are coming."

"Got it," Jen snapped, spinning in her chair to record a message and send it out.

I tapped the direct link to Main Engineering that was on my chair's arm. "Engineering?"

Rayz joined the channel. "Captain."

I looked at the main screen, the red triangles denoting the closing shuttles were but a few minutes out. My friends remained crowded around me and the sounds of armored suits clanked against metal, as the group tried to be quiet.

"Tell me some good news, Rayz," I insisted.

He shouted a question at someone and waited for an answer. It felt like a long minute before my friend answered.

"Still working on the shields, but active sensors are showing green across the board."

"Abhati," I shouted.

"On it, switching to active sensors," Abhati called.

"Captain, all sections have reported back, they have confirmed personnel are moving to collect arms at the armory," Jen shouted out.

Her message annoyed me. "Of course, they are following orders. Just tell me important information, I'm already overloaded," I thought, not responding to Jen's outburst.

"That's all, Rayz," I grumbled and disconnected.

The main view screen flipped to active telemetry that a computer converts to images. Three shuttles were displayed in separate view boxes, above the larger portion of the screen. The majority of the vidscreen showed the track of three triangles approaching us from the moon. No other ships registered.