Chapter 1

Captain Joan Wade of the H.M.S. Devastator sat at her desk going over her day reports while the ship hurled through hyperspace, behind her the ten ships of the convoy follow in her wake. The little escort ship bounced and swayed in the currents of hyperspace. Taking a sip of her tea, she looked down at the evaluation reports and sighed, "You know James. I hate these damn reports."

Laughing Commander James Mendel looked up from his report, he was working on, and replied, "I know Joan, but they have to be done. At least you only command an escort destroyer, think of how you would be on a dreadnought, with five thousand people under you."

Joan groaned at that thought and responded, "I will stick with this, thank you very much."

James started laughing so hard that he knocked his datapad off his lap. Bending down to pick it up, he smacked his head on the table as the alarm sounded.

"Oww!" he said as he held his head. He looked over at Joan as she reached for the com unit.

Joan reached over and pressed her com button on her desk, and said, "Captain here. Give me a sit-rep."

"Ma'am, sensors have a ship ahead of us, identification scans show her as the Alderian freighter Dove, I've checked the records, and she was reported missing eight months ago, presumed destroyed by the Gormarian's."

Joan stood up and said, "I am on the way. Have you hailed her?"

"Yes, Ma'am. We have received no response from them."

"Ok, bring the crew to general quarters, and I am on the way. Shields up," she ordered as she walked towards the door, she said, "James, I don't like this, it's strange. Why now?"

She looked over her shoulder at Commander Mendel who was right behind her as they headed out for the bridge.

"I know Captain, but we will find out what is going on. If she's been captured, we will take her back from them. If she's gone independent, we can verify her owners still own her."

They walked down the ramp, and entered the small bridge. Walking over to her command chair Joan sat down as she looked over at Ensign Richard Whitecloud. He had his six foot four inch frame squeezed into his small communications station, she said, "Richard, put her on screen, let's see what we have here."

Richard turned slightly in his chair as he activated the screen. He then responded, "Yes, Ma'am, she's 1900 clicks ahead of us. No answer from any of the hails. I have scanned her hull and the scans show nothing out of the ordinary." Turning back to his sensor-communications board, he continued the scan.

Joan looked at the freighter and said as she rubbed her chin in frustration, "Contact the rest of the ships in the convoy, if it's a trap they are to separate and break off, and head for our destinations..." Sparks suddenly flew from one of the consoles and explosions started detonating along the shields.

"What the Hell?" came from the crew and the captain.

"Ma'am the Dove has open fired on us! She's been turned into a damned Q-ship."

Captain Raymond 'The Skull" Claymore watched the Alderian ships closing with his ship. "Mates, it looked like we have some new ships. Ready weapons, ready the scrammer, and let's drop these ships out of hyper."

Around the deck the men of the pirate ship Skulls Revenge jumped to their posts, arming the weapons. One of the first weapons armed was the stern lasers and the jettison launcher.

Charles Beeline looked at the rear scanner and saw the Alderian destroyer closing on them, checking the range he pressed a button, and fifteen hundred tones of scrap metal dropped from the modified storage bin. The metal spread out and started slamming into the shields of the Alderian ship.

Mitch 'One Eye' Velum adjusted the weapon scanner, and locked onto the destroyer and pressed the fire button. The heavy laser, originally meant for a battle cruiser, reached out and smashed into the Aldarian's weakened shield. An explosion detonated from the command tower right below the bridge, "That should have gotten her CIC and Computer core."

Skull watched the explosion detonate from the side of the destroyer, "Very good Beeline and One Eye. Toby, take us to half speed, let the destroyer go by us, take us towards the freighters."

Toby Hawke adjusted his course and turned towards a pair of freighters. He noticed the convoy starting to scatter, and he said, "Aye Captain, I have a nice pair of fat freighters lumbering along. They are scattering, if you want them, you better activate the scrammer now."

Skull watched the ships get closer and the destroyer still traveling ahead of them. Checking the range, he saw that the destroyer was out of range and reached down to pressed the button on his chair, "Scramming now."

The energy field went out to a five thousand mile circle and snagged the two freighters. Their computer cores crashed and all three ships dropped out of hyperspace and into normal space.

"Boarding crews to your shuttles. Get me those ships."

Captain Vickie Barlow of the S.S. Amsterdam watched as the explosion blossomed from the Devastator's bridge, "Helm, ninety degrees to port. Full speed ahead, positive thirty degrees. Get us up out of the combat zone!"

The thirty million ton freighter turned and started climbing to get away from the Q-ship, following Captain Wade's orders to the letter. The ship started picking up speed and exited the battlefield. Being one of the fastest ships in the convoy she started pulling away from the Devonshire, her sister ship. That was when all hell broke loose when the computer crashed and the ship dropped from hyperspace. Throughout the ship, crewmembers flew across the rooms they were in and smashed into consoles, people and bulkheads. The last thing Vickie remembered was flying over the helmswoman and hitting the wall.

Skull watched the two freighters drop out of hyperspace, and bellowed to his crew, "Shut down the hyper drive, and prepare for boarding. Capture the crew. Bring the women aboard for our pleasure."

The ship shuddered as the hyper drive went off line and the ship turned and headed for the stricken ships. Shuttles dropped from the hanger bay, and shot across to the two freighters. Within an hour, both ships were back underway following the Skulls Revenge to their new destination. Aboard the Q-ship the rapes of the women started, with Skull taking the young woman who commanded the former Alderian freighter Amsterdam, as his own.

Aboard the Devastator, Chief Petty Officer Shawn O'Doul climbed to his feet, and shook his head. His eyes settled on the damage control board, as the rest of his team waited for their orders. The first thing he saw, was a warning about the CIC. It had no atmosphere, nor was there any in the captain's quarters, the main sensors processing room, or the communications room.

"Listen up people we have no air in the following rooms, CIC, sensors, communications and captain's cabin, that means we have a hole in the hull. Get suited up and get out there. Find the hole and patch it. I will start contacting the other compartments and get a status report."

The crew jumped to their duties, and started scrambling out the door. While Shawn activated the internal communications and started getting the reports that the captain would need, if she was still alive on the bridge.

"This is damage control to engine room. What's your status?"

"This is the engine room, Lieutenant Saul Goldstein speaking, everyone is okay down here, a little shook up is all, all systems are up and running. Generator rooms one and two are online as well as hydroponics and environmental."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. DC out."

Contacting boat bay one, he started his requests again as he marked the indicated rooms blue, for active.

Joan shook her head, and stumbled to her feet, looking around the damaged bridge, she said, "What the hell hit us?"

She saw the crew getting up and returning to their stations, Commander Mendel was the last to get up, because Ensign Ai Sung had landed on top of him.

As Commander Mendel sat up, he noticed Ai Sung was unconscious, and laid her on the floor and checked her over. Noticing the small blood trail on the side of her head he checked and found she has a large knot there. Pulling his jacket off he covered her to keep her warm and stood up and moved back to his console and checked the scanners.

He said, "Ma'am, it was a heavy laser. Sensors estimate it to be battle-cruiser sized, or larger. It hit just below us and took out the CIC, your quarters, sensors, and communications. I have no data on the convoy or anyway to contact them until we do repairs. Outside cameras show, we have a six-foot hole in the armored tower. Also, Ensign Sung needs to be seen by one of the doctors, she may have a concussion."

"Damn it! Thank you James, get a damage repair crew on it. I want those rooms tight, soonest!" turning to Ensign Whitecloud, she ordered, "Get those communications back up, and..."

"This is Chief Petty officer O'Doul in damage control is anyone alive on the bridge? Please respond."

Joan pressed the com switch on her chair. "Chief, this is the Captain, we have some damaged consoles and one wounded that needs to see the doctor. What's the situation on the ship?"

"Ma'am, I am dispatching a repair crew to your location along with a medical team," he replied, as he took a breath, Shawn continued his report; "One of the pinnaces has been knocked off her cradle and damaged. We have damage to your quarters, sensors, communications, and CIC, additional damage to several berths, and one of the galleys. The ship's store is destroyed along with damage to laser one. There is a chunk of steel embedded into the gun turret. We will have to remove that and check the electronics to see if they still work. What the hell did they do? Drop a foundry on us?"

Julia listened to the chief detailed report. "I'm not sure on what they hit us with, but it took the shields down to minimum power, and then the heavy laser cannon hit us. Chief, I need those sensors and communications back up, I have to find out about the rest of the convoy."

"Aye, Ma'am. I have a repair crew working on the hole in the side of the ship. Estimated time of patch, is a little over ten minutes. I am also checking the back of the tower to see if the laser went out of the back side of the tower. However, since the towers emergency escape pods are reading green, I do not think it did."