Chapter 3

"Pilot, prepare to leave the dockage. Sheila, set course for sector seven ... the last known position of the ship the ambassador's daughter was on. Set impulse engines to slingshot around the nearest gas giant, then ignite hyper engines to course. Communications, I need to file this report to headquarters, as soon as possible. As soon as we are underway, we need to call a crew meeting to go over all the charges that have been recently made against us, and our ship."

"Skipper, an' beggin' a minute?" Wiz asked.

"Sure, Wiz, what's on your mind?" I asked as he escorted what appeared to be two beautiful women into my cabin.

"Skipper, I wanted to show you what I have been working on. These are Sheila's new robots. As you can see they are a lot more versatile than the two maintenance robots that she had, previously. These can actually do anything her old robots could. Plus they can do most anything a human could ... except they can't fight. That's only because of the way their brains are set up to keep them from killing, due to the old human paranoia of robots running amok.

"They have also had basic medical training, although now they have had supplemental training. They got the same training as a trauma surgeon. They can handle navigation, piloting, and can operate any system on this ship, except weapons. They can do all the targeting and computing telemetry. They just can't pull the trigger. We used fembots because these advanced models look so close to humans in the proper uniforms that they could mingle as part of the crew."

"That's great, Wiz, but what about the law that all robots must be marked so as not to be confused as being human?"

"That is a problem. However, I did some checking. The law states that the marks must be visible at all times so what I did was I placed the marks behind their right ears and on the inside of the right wrist. We might get a little static, but that I found that was where the first humanoid robots were marked."

After I had examined both of them I said, "These markings look more like tattoos than anything else."

"If you look at them closely you will see that they both read that they are fembots, their model number and the serial numbers. It's just that they are written in a fancy script."

"There's just one more thing. We can't go calling both of them, and the ships AI, 'Sheila'. I think they each need separate names."

Sheila spoke up and said, "Since both these robots are basically my daughters, I think we should name then Sally and Sandy. We can call the brunette Sally, and the blonde Sandy."

"Sheila, is there going to be any trouble with you controlling these robots?"

"No, Commander. Since Wiz did the upgrades on them, they are both very self-sufficient. Plus I have real-time telemetry capabilities on both of them, for up to five thousand kilometers. I am able to take full control of any of their systems, at any time. It is truly amazing, the improvements that were done on both of them. They are unlike any other fembot."

Thinking I would just test them, I said, "Sally, how long until hyperspace breakout and we get a look at the last known position of the ship that was carrying ambassador's daughter?"

"Since there are no large astronomical bodies in the known area I suggest we break out in exactly one hour and twelve minutes and coast ballistically while passively scanning for any ships or asteroids in the area."

"Sheila, break out of hyperspace at the suggested time. As we approach the area, launch one ECM drone. Configure it to make us look like a small unarmed transport."

Mike asked, "Yes, Sir. What about scanners? Do you want them to remain passive?"

"No, let's try to make this look real. Have us go to active scanners, though not powerful enough to show us to be different than what we are appearing to be. At the first sign of contact, make it look like we're trying to make a run for it. Then just before they try to take a shot at us, we surrender. We will take them when they try to board."

"What about the other ship? They will surely leave some crew aboard to keep us targeted."

"They will launch a shuttle for boarding us. As soon as it is in our landing bay, I want you to go to full shields, and target any other ships with every weapons system we have. I want them so scared that they'll shit their pants."

Just after lunch, I heard Sheila announce, "Hyperspace break out in five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... Commander, we are in normal space and heading holistically into the last known area of the ship which was carrying the ambassador's daughter."

"All stations report," I commanded.

"Pilot and navigation ready, Sir," Mike announced.

"Engineering ready, Sir," Announced Wiz.

"Medical ready, Sir," Jim announced.

"Weapons and shields ready, Sir," Cindy announced.

"Sir, all stations manned and ready, Sir," said Lieutenant Jackson.

"Okay, people, listen up! This system has been used repeatedly for pirate raids. The plan here is that we are going to bait the pirates into attacking us, thinking that we are just a lightly armed transport. I'd like to try to take these pirates intact. If we are fired upon we will return fire, but try to disable them, not destroy them. We need prisoners to find out where the ambassador's daughter was taken. So remember, dead pirates can't talk. Take them alive."

"Commander we have a strange contact 400,000 km starboard," Sheila reported.

"Sheila, what do you mean by a strange contact?"

"Commander, I'm not sure what it is. I have a larger ship approximately destroyer size being attacked by a small ship it keeps popping in and out of sensor detection, almost as if it keeps disappearing, the ship's IFF transponder reads it as being an interceptor, although the speed and weapons correspond more to a larger class vessel. such as a destroyer. The really odd thing is the fact that we can't keep it on the sensors. It just keeps disappearing."

"Commander, the smaller ship has just knocked out the engines and weapons systems of the larger ship!"

"Mike, bring us into closer range. Sheila, open up a hailing frequency.