Chapter 3

She did, and soon we were registered as the 'My Love"... homeport, Lakly station. We took the ship out of dock, one hour later.

We jumped the ship out into 'the badlands' of the sector, and checked the systems out one by one. We test fired the level eight lasers on a convenient asteroid (that could, by a stretch, be considered a navigational hazard). The third burst of high-energy protons rendered the asteroid into dust particles. Our heat buildup from the firing was hardly noticeable. Level eight lasers were well known in their ability to fire continuously for over a cycle before heat build up degraded the fire rate.

I was checking in with the station's watch officer on the last known location of the pirates, while Bonnie filed her temporary independent operations transfer request with the base Admiral. It was granted on the spot. I received the confirmation of employment transfer from the Admiral ten cycles later. It contained a personal note that I had better take good care of his granddaughter!

You would have thought he was giving me her hand in marriage or something by the curt wording of the message. Then the thought hit me like a ton of plastisteel. Marriage! Would I want to make her mine, permanently? I finally decided that the idea had lots of merit. I would have to wait and see if she would even consider such a thing. After all, I was never one to handle rejection well.

We had been practicing with the new ship for hours when the ship's AI reported a damaged ship ahead of us. I ordered us to close, and Bonnie turned all business-like when I gave my first order. She sat at the navigation control unit and had us along side the damaged ship in a very short time.

Sensors showed the ship had been in a battle recently. Part of its cargo was still on board. There were no life signs, and the escape pod was missing.

I filed a salvage request, and was granted it with a very short delay. We turned on the 'giraffe beam' and begin to tow the ship back to port.

We didn't get very far. It was a classic ambush set up. I was not surprised when they came at us from both sides. What surprised me was that there were eight raiders, not three or four. I took the manual controls and Bonnie watched with more than a little fear.

Dropping the tractor beam I flipped the ship to port and faced the four coming from that way. I goosed the throttle to close on the group of four. This also kept the starboard group out of range a little longer. I ordered Bonnie to take the rear lasers and to wait 'til she had a lock to fire.

The four raiders at my bow were closing quickly; I locked the missile system on the first one and thumbed the laser fire button. It took five bursts of fire to break though his shield. The sixth and seventh burst vaporized the ship.

No escape pod was ejected. Then again, until one is launched you have no way to know if a ship is equipped with one. It was not uncommon for pirates to not have them as standard equipment. Pods had a huge price tag, and that made them very optional equipment out in the badlands.

I toggled the missile system to select next target and maintained continuous laser fire. I raked shots across two of the three raiders in my sights. One raider that was struck, lost his engine and controls at the same time. As he spun away I turn my attention to the third raider. There was the audible sound of missile lock in the targeting system. I fingered the lasers again and hit him eight times in a row. The raider's ship buckled under the onslaught and his bridge exploded.

If he had a life pod, he didn't get a chance to use it.

I shifted fire to the forth raider just as the lasers built up enough heat to slow the fire rate down by ten percent. This didn't help the raider in the least. It looked like he was in a Mk IV, and his ship was cut in two a moment later.

Bonnie yelled, "They're coming in range!"

I saw a laser flash by my port side. Then there was a missile warning. One of the raiders was not pleased about losing half his command so quickly. I rolled out of the current attack vector and toggled an ECM decoy. Heat build up now had the ship operating at eighty percent.

The incoming torpedo erupted into the ECM burst. I brought the ship around and got my first lock tone. I fired one missile and watched the raider turn to flee. Good, let him try that. Mk VII Torps would chase him for days. There were still three raiders heading at me when I toggled the laser again. Twelve bursts later, one ship exploded into fine mist.

Two raiders continued to close. My Laser System was down to sixty percent. I raked both ships and caused some damage. One spun off out of control, and the last one turned tail to run. I locked a torpedo on him and fired.

The first torpedo found its mark. A fireball could be seen in the distance, as the ship blew apart. I locked on to the disabled ship, which was spinning out of control. I loosed a three-burst laser barrage. It was no longer crippled. It was dead.

I rolled the ship back towards the first group. Scanners showed that the other damaged ship had recovered control. A Laser burst lit up the view screen as his level three laser connected with my shields. I fired a single level eight burst into his side and his ship exploded.

The aft view screen, showed the last raider as the torpedo connected with him.

The battle was over that fast. They rarely take more than two or three cycles, anyway. If they do, your ship is dead from heat overload, and you follow, shortly thereafter. I filed an intercept report, along with the gun camera footage from the action.

It was ten cycles later when I received confirmation of the kills and a 'bounty paid report' since it was 25,000 credits per kill. I just made 200,000 GC that quickly, all neatly deposited in my account. Well, actually I would have to give the first officer some of that. Then again, what if she was open to a more permanent arrangement? I gulped, realizing she would be entitled to half of it if she wanted. Well everything one did had a price tag. I decided I would just have to be absolutely sure before I ever asked her.

Bonnie was glad to be alive. She confessed that she had never heard of anyone ever taking out eight raiders in a single engagement before. I think her opinion of me went up a few notches.

I know my little head had raised a few notches as I looked at her with growing desire. Combat always made me horny, and it always seemed to be proportional to the risk involved. I was very, very horny at the moment.