Chapter 15: Vengeance

Colonel Harris ran down the ramp of the shuttle and onto the floor of the hanger.

The hanger was busy as ever, across the way, mechanics were stripping down one of the damaged fighters. The portside engine was hanging from a scaffold as they hurried to reassemble it after it the ship rammed the freighter and ripped the hull open. Repair crews were repairing the rupture in the hull while others were working around the hanger and doing emergency repairs. Two more of the shuttles were loading up with repair techs and Marines to go aboard the escort destroyer while a medical shuttle was being prepped as a CSI shuttle.

Colonel Harris ran across the armored deck, his armored boots clanged on the plates with a loud clang as he ran out of the room and down to the stern elevator. PFC. Terry Whitedove was right behind him, his rifle carried at port arms.

Coming to a stop at the elevator, Colonel Harris slapped his hand against the call button and the computer control icon, "Computer! Captain's location?"

The computers droll voice came on and answered the Colonel, "Captain Tallfeather is in his day cabin."

"Computer. What are the current location of Staff Sergeant Bobby Williams?"

"Staff Sergeant Bobby Williams' duty station is outside of the Captains day cabin for the next two hours. He will be off duty for eight hours after that," replied the computer."

"Computer, deactivate Staff Sergeant Bobby Williams rifle without him knowing it. This is a command authorization Baker one Romeo Delta command for attempted mutiny."

"Weapon deactivated. You have twenty minutes to notify the captain on the deactivation, and install a new replacement guard or Command Zeta will lock down the ship," replied the computer as the elevator arrived.

"Acknowledged, Computer, bridge deck, please," Colonel Harris, said as they stepped into the small room. Colonel Harris was so angry that his breathing was elevated and as he tried to get it under control he leaned against the wall. He looked at the Private and said, "Whitedove, stay out of it unless it looks like the son of a bitch is going to win. Got me?"

"Yes Sir, I will stay out of it unless he is going to take you out. Sir, watch out he is a strong son of a bitch. I have seen him bench over two hundred pounds with no problem."

"Thanks I didn't know that," Harris said as e stepped away from the wall.

The elevator shot up through the ship as Colonel Harris reached behind his back and pulled out the stun baton and activated the weapon to full power. As the elevator came to a dead stop, he placed the weapon back in its harness. With his breathing under control, he walked out of the elevator, and turned towards the captain's day cabin and spotted his target standing at ease in front of the Captains cabin.

Steven waited in his cabin for the rest of the fleet captains to come aboard. The wall screen showed the liner S.S. Inspiration, and the H.M.S. Portland closing with the fleet. The Portland hung less then three miles from the other ship. It was a dangerous position, but with all the shuttles flying evac between them, it was critical if they wanted to save lives from the attempted massacre by the mutineers. Walking back to the desk, he sat down. He brought up Captain Adams' report once more and started reading the horrifying details of the last three years on the huge ship.

"My God what have we become to allow something like this to happen to civilians? Over fifteen hundred dead or missing civilians and two hundred crewmembers, the rest raped and terrorized for over three years," he said as he shook his head.

Jaren walked out of the kitchen carrying a pair of coffee urns. He didn't mean to overhear what the captain was saying but he did as he had to walk by him.

"Sir, they should be jettisoned. A trial is too good for that scum," replied Jaren as he set the coffee urns down on the table next to the coffee cups and the plate of sandwiches he made for the captains.

"I know Jaren, but by law I must deliver them to civilian authority for trial, because they are not military," Steven said as he read the reports from the Glory.

"Sir, what they did is inexcusable. I just pray the Crown will see justice for their families. But what about the rest of those poor souls in Hibernize sleep? How will we get all of them out of there and home?" Jaren stopped talking as he remembered something from a former post and continued, "Sir! Wait I remember something you said, you said they murdered ninety Marines. You stated that they took out the marine escort and if memory serves me right that places them in article 68 sub

section thirteen. 'Any person under escort by military personal who causes harm or death to any serving military personal is subject to military law.'"

Steven sat up in surprise, and looked at his steward and replied, "My God, you're right Jaren how I could have forgotten that I don't know, but how the hell did you remember it."

"Sir, my last post was with a JAG commander who was always talking the laws for a case, I remembered it from the murder of a RAF pilot three years ago on Alderia."

"Thank you and to answer your question on the survivors, the Inspiration will do the honors of taking them home, she's at least repairable. All we need to do is replace the hypergenerator transformers from another liner. The two hundred ton units will take about a week to remove them out of the ship and installed in the new one. I will say thank God those liners have huge maintenance hatches that they can do that and not like a warship that has to have her guts cut out for major repairs."

Staff Sergeant Bobby Williams was standing at ease outside the captain's cabin. He was thinking how he was supposed to carry out his orders. He volunteered for guard duty, but had been posted here instead of the armory. He was also worried about what they may or may not find on that old tub out there. He was sure there wasn't much left because when they left her, they had pretty much gutted her. That captain thought she was hot stuff until he shoved it up her ass. With a silent thought, he remembers her screaming in pain. As he stood there remembering he heard the elevator doors open and out came Colonel Harris and some snot nose PFC. Coming to attention he waited for the Colonel to get closer, and said, "Sir?"

They walked down the long passageway towards the marine stationed outside the cabin door of the Captain. Colonel Harris watched as the traitor came to attention and addressed him, and he replied, "I have an emergency I must see the captain please tell him we are here."

Sergeant Williams lifted his com unit and started to activate it when Colonel Harris made his move. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the baton, whipped it out, and slammed it into the Marine's guts.

Williams screamed in pain and grabbed the Colonel's hand, trying to pull the baton away from his body, the other hand dropped to his waist and he pulled out his combat knife out of its sheath.

Colonel Harris lifted Williams up and slammed him into the door.

As they continued to fight, Williams tried to stab Colonel Harris and knee him in the groin. Missing with the knife, he connected with his knee into the side of the Colonels leg, which brought a gasp of pain from him.

PFC. Whitedove watched the Colonel try to take down Williams and was surprised to see him start bending the baton towards the Colonel's face. The energy from the baton made the Colonels hairs stand on end.

Harris watched the baton turn towards his face thinking that Williams was one strong son of a bitch. Tightening his grip on the baton and William's knife hand, he tried to force it back.

Acting quickly Whitedove tackled both of them to the deck, and his fist slammed into Williams' face.

Steven picked up his coffee cup and took a sip, as he activated his log and continued recording.

"Commander Madison says the engines aboard Swift's are in the best condition, but her hypergenerators themselves are trashed. She says it will take about five days to set up the number three hold on the Inspiration to hold the stasis passengers from the Swift. With the remaining one hundred survivors from the Inspirations and another hundred from the warships, she should have a minimum crew, which she can boost to hyperspeed and with the cruiser locking on with tractor beams. We should be able to raise her speed to almost fleet standards. Otherwise at standard hyper, she would be slow with only one engine and it would take four weeks to get to the Clavis system with us tractoring her it will take a week to get her there."

Suddenly a noise distracted him from his report, and he said, "What the hell was that?"

Steven stood up and went towards the door to see what the commotion was all about in the passageway. Opening the door, he saw his guard and Colonel Harris, fighting in the hall. Suddenly another guard slammed into both of them, and they all went down.

Looking down at the three men he shouted, "What the hell is going on here Colonel?"

The marine who tackled them both drew back his fist and slammed it into Williams' face, followed quickly by four more punches. On the fifth hit, Williams' jaw shattered, and he was knocked out.

Stepping up, Steven grabbed Colonel Harris' shoulder, and said, "I said what the hell is going on here, Colonel?"

Standing up, Colonel Harris looked at the Captain, and replied, "Sorry, Sir. We have a traitor here, and possibly a rapist and murderer."

Steven looked at Colonel Harris in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Private, cuff this scum, and take him to the brig," the Colonel said.

He turned back to the captain and pulled out a minicomputer from its pouch.

"You're not going to believe this crap," he said as he gestured to Steven's office. "With your permission, Sir, it will be easier if I can show you on your viewer.

Steven stepped back into his office, and Colonel Harris followed him. Going over to his desk, he sat down. "Go ahead John, show me what you have."

Colonel Harris walked over to the wall computer. Turning to the captain, he began to explain what he had found on the Angel.

"Computer seal room from electronic monitoring, chief of security command code Alpha niner Echo six."

Stevens' eyebrows shot up as the computer replied, "Room secure."

"Sir, this is a recording from the bridge of the H.M.S. Angel taken on June 31^st 2799. I have advanced it to the relevant time frame."

Turning to the computer, he pressed the minicomputer into the download slot and activated the screen.

The viewer came on and showed a brown haired woman about six feet tall stood with a pistol in her hand.

"Okay people, we have to take these bastard's down hard. They have been killing our friends for the last hour. I pray we can defeat them but I won't lie to you. We may not get out of here, but it was a privilege and a honor to have served with you. To our families we wish you to know we love you and we are sorry to leave you."

Suddenly, the door shuddered as something hit it.

She continued, saying, "We were betrayed by traitors in the crew. At least one is an officer the other is a marine. Chief Engineer Connors says he will blow the main hypergenerator if they get in there. We will not allow the pirates to get their hands on her. The Pirate fleet consists of two Valley Forge class battleships, five Crescent class heavy cruisers, two Solaria class light cruiser, nine Phantom class destroyers." Looking at the door, she continued with her report, "If anyone finds this ship or its log please know that roughly twenty thousand people are in Hibernize sleep on the liners and cargo ships. They will need to be rescued if possible. I have no idea who these people are but they are not Gormarian ships. I believe they are pirates. If so, I pray for the people on the ships.