Chapter 630

...”Very well. Helm, bring us about,” the First said matter-of-factly. “We will go back and check out that canyon for other pirates, but we will be slow about it to give our repair teams time to get as much armament and shields online as they can.”

That is twice that I have fired before the pirates had time to react to my warning, but they were firing at us. Procedure says I should have waited, but the ones who made that rule must never have been shot at, or he/she certainly would not have survived to make that damn rule. Oh, well, they sent us out here to stop the pirating, and we destroyed two of their ships. Maybe we can take care of the rest of them if this Old Girl holds together and if I don’t screw up and get us all killed.

As if reading his mind, Communications spoke up, “Any ship, not broadcasting its Transponder Identification Code, violates Federation law in any sector of space known to the Federation and is considered to be a pirate.”

The First Officer grinned and nodded at his Communications Officer, thought for a moment, and said over the PA, “Attention all hands. I am initiating a standard two-hour combat rest cycle, starting now.” Turning to the Bridge crew, “that involves all of us as well. We still have to search the cavern in addition to the rest of this mountain range, and I want us to be as rested as possible under the circumstances. We have encountered a formidable enemy, and we need as much going for us as we can manage.”

The Captain caught the First Officer’s eye. “Go take a nap; I’ll stand in for you while you rest. You may need it before this is over.”

“But Captain, I do not understand...”

“That is an order. Go rest. I will wake you when it is time.”

“Yes, Captain,” the First Officer responded as he reluctantly turned on his heel to head for his quarters a short distance down the passageway.

The First Officer awoke with his Captain shaking his shoulder. “Your crew was exhausted. Other than a skeleton shift, I allowed everyone to sleep a full four hours. A fatigued crew will make mistakes. You might keep that in mind when you are their Captain.”

“Captain? I am not ready...”

“Command thinks you are, and so do I. I am just as bushed as you were, so I am going to take my nap now. The Bridge should be fully manned with the Primary crew by the time you get there. Might want to brush your teeth,” he said with a grin before walking out.

Crap. If my breath smells as bad as my mouth tastes, it should rip the paint off the bulkheads.

He stopped by the head to do his business, quickly brushed his teeth, grabbed two energy bars and hurried to the bridge to resume his duties. Screw the uniform; it does not smell too bad.

What the fuck is the Captain talking about? I am perfectly satisfied with my rank of First Officer to a very capable Captain, and I have not put in for promotion. Well, I will be satisfied if I can manage to get us back home in one piece, but the orders said there were three of the big ships that had practically taken over this Union of the Axis star cluster. Does the Old Girl have enough left in her to take down another of those ships – provided we can find it? We are down an array, and our shield cover is less than perfect. I think I will check out the area that last ship came from, then maybe give the crew a proper rest before we do any more searching for pirates. Perhaps that way, our repair crews will have time to get our shields back up and running properly.

“Helm, take us down there and do not be in a hurry,” he said while pointing to the big screen that showed the steep-walled canyon that the pirates had come out of.

“Into the canyon, dead slow,” Helm responded.

“Very well. Guns, we will probably find a cave or some type of secure facility below ground. Should we be attacked, I would suggest not using any missiles, lest the mountain fall on us.”

“No missiles, Sir,” the Weapons Officer Trainee responded.

Once they were at the relative “bottom” of the steep walls, it still took a while to find the opening the pirates had been using. The crew was tense as their vessel crept into the vast cavern that soon began to narrow about them.

They finally ended up in a huge cavern capable of mooring a half dozen frigates. A slow search with their instruments revealed another, much smaller passageway beginning roughly twenty meters from the cavern’s floor. With the mountain range’s microgravity, it took only a minor push from the drive of the First Officer’s suit to reach the ledge at the beginning of the passageway. As he landed just short of the airlock, one of the heavily-armored Marines stepped in his way.

“Sorry, Sir, but this is our job.”

The First thought about pulling rank, but then reason rose to the fore. “Be careful,” he responded as the Marine Officer grinned and turned to his team.

Time dragged on, and twice the First Officer was about to call to the Marine detachment, but refrained. He would hate to come across as a busybody who tried to mind someone else’s business. Nevertheless, he fretted until he heard the Marine’s voice on his communicator. “We are on the way out with prisoners.”

The prisoners turned out to be a Chef and his assistant. From appearances, a very much-relieved Chef and his assistant. The Marine Lieutenant said the two claimed they had been captured during a raid on the luxury yacht where they were employed – one as a Chef and the other as his assistant.

Even though they were wearing emergency suits, it was still obvious the prisoners had been beaten at some point. The Lieutenant motioned to the two. “The beating was not from us. I believe their story, and so does my Liedoc,” he said as he tapped the shoulder of his suit, forgetting that the Liedoc was attached to his fatigues beneath the combat armor he wore, and therefore, was not visible to the people he was talking to.

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Excellent job. I will see that they get to Sick Bay.”

The First Officer detailed two of his crew to escort the two injured men to the ship’s medical facility where they would have their injuries seen to. The Marine Lieutenant insisted on escorting the Captain, First Officer, Science Officer and Helm through the airlock that was sealed into the rock of the tunnel. Once through the lock, the Lieutenant commented, “The air is good,” as he casually retracted his face shield, and the others followed suit. On down the seemingly natural tunnel a hundred meters or so, it suddenly opened into a large amphitheater-like area with a ceiling a good twenty meters or more in height.

There were seats and tables designed for use in a spaceship, as well as lounges and even beds, scattered haphazardly about the room, all designed to be used in varying gravity fields, intermixed with several large boulders that had probably dropped from the ceiling as the area had been formed. From the looks of it, the expensive-looking furniture was confiscated from some of the luxury vessels of the ultra-rich the pirates had robbed. Tucked in the corner of the big room was an atmosphere plant that had probably been confiscated from one of the ships the pirates had robbed.

“They robbed all those vessels and were living in a dump like this?” the Science Officer said, amazed.

“Which tells me that the ones on that ship were probably not the minds behind the operation,” the First allowed.

“Yeah, probably fat cats living in luxury and hobnobbing with the politicians,” the Captain responded. “If they are not the politicians themselves.”

The First Officer grimaced. “It would be nice to know who the pirates are actually working for, and ... where they got their ships.”

They spent several minutes checking out the area, expecting to find credits and jewels in addition to a raft of expensive and highly illegal drugs, but there were no credit chips and only cheap street drugs that could be easily obtained throughout most star systems. However, in the galley, they found stacks upon stacks of cases of expensive, preserved food that might be found where the ultra-rich dined.

“No wonder we won against a more powerful ship,” the First said. “Ten to one, this wasn’t a well-trained and professional crew. Professionals do not use this junk,” he said while motioning to the piles of drugs scattered about, “even when they are off-duty. And you can bet that the real bosses never set foot on that ship – not with a crew of this obviously low caliber operating it.”

Turning to his Captain, “Sir, I think you were right with what you said about the mission. If we had followed orders, we would probably have been given false information or else they would have used other means to thwart our mission. I strongly suspect that the high-level people who asked for us have some bad boys mixed in with them. We would probably have been given the run-around and false leads to chase for a while. We would never have found anything of consequence. Instead,” he said with a chuckle, “we were dubious of our update and stopped off for some target practice. And... stumbled onto the pirates when they did not expect us. I will never believe that someone in high authority in the Alliance did not know about this asteroid belt. It is not that far from the home system of the Alliance.”

“Sir,” the Science Officer said as he returned after checking the perimeter of the big room.

“Yes, Science?”

The Science Officer tapped his instrument. “This is it. There are no hidden rooms or tunnels adjacent to this room and the one used for food preparation.”

“Which means that the pirates’ loot was on their ship when we destroyed it, or it is elsewhere.”

“My thoughts exactly, Sir.”

“I guess we will never know unless we manage to capture that other ship.”

“If either of the ships got off a message torp, we may never find the third ship and the big boss or bosses,” the Captain injected.

“But they were almost far enough away from the asteroid belt to go to warp safely, and they appeared to be struggling to accomplish that when our lasers and missiles struck. They may not have gotten a message torp off, especially if they thought they were going to make it,” the First Officer finished.

“Let’s get back to the ship, out of these suits and into some decent gravity. I am tired of trying to walk in the microgravity here. Maybe we need a council of war while I figure out what to do next,” the First said as he winked at his Captain, who just shrugged.

As soon as they were aboard, he checked with the AI concerning the food storage area that had been hit.

“When the compartment was holed, we lost approximately half our food reserves,” the AI told him. “I suggest that you should consider food rationing if our trip is expected to last as first projected,” the AI said.

The First Officer had a detail sent to retrieve the pirates’ food stores. “If we run short, we will eat what the ultra-rich are accustomed to,” he told the Bridge crew with a grin.

With their stores replenished with stacks of stasis boxes loaded with exotic food, the First ordered Helm to take his time easing out of the cavern. When they were back in space, he ordered them well away from the asteroid. With a standby crew at the helm, the First Officer met with the primary Bridge Crew in the Captain’s Ready Room. When he gave the order, he had locked eyes with the Captain who just shrugged minimally.

I do not want to be Captain, and certainly not on another vessel which will undoubtedly be the case if I am promoted. I suppose the Captain could retire if he wanted to, but he has this in his blood – no way is he going to retire as young as he is. Oh, well, get your mind on figuring out what to do next and forget about that for now.

“Our original orders were to proceed to the Ticichi system where we were to meet with the head of the Union of the Alliance. Our people have interviewed the cook and his helper. Both have said that the pirates talked freely in front of them, knowing that the two men would never be released and would probably wind up being executed when they were no longer needed. The Liedoc verified the information, and they are telling the truth as they know it. My theory is the pirates are working with, or answer to, a person or persons high in the Alliance who were not mentioned. The vote went against their wishes, and we were called in to deal with the pirates, but ... under the strict oversight of the Alliance delegation assigned to the task. My take on this is that we will be told what to do and how to do it. Then after spending a few months out here chasing ghosts, we will be sent back to Federation Headquarters with our tails between our legs.”