17
“This is the Marsuian requesting permission to undock,” Dar said into his headset as he stood at the control console. His stomach jumped and jittered, the excitement inside him almost uncontainable. Considering the vast overhaul the ship had, the control console remained virtually unchanged. The re-fitters even left all the original Satiren writing on it. The only new part was a small sub-panel with a few weapons controls—namely torpedoes. After six months in dock, Dar was itching to get going. He’d gotten with Eglig Modew and had a few jobs lined up. One happened to be hauling a shipment of massive specialty rockets to Sirrix.
“Roger, Marsuian, you are clear to undock.”
“Thank you. And thank you all for the kind treatment you’ve shown me.”
“Safe journeys, Marsuian.”
Dar fired the bow thrusters, edging the ship out of dock. He backed away nearly a mile before slowly turning. Looking ahead, he saw the stars, just waiting for him. “Well, Marcy, let’s see what you can do.” He nudged the throttle, bringing the ship to full impulse power. “Schmuff? Do you read?” Dar said.
“Ga, kaptaw, Eg’m reegy.”
“Let’s start out slow, just warp one for a little bit.”
“O-kay,” Schmuff replied. There were a few words of Ontarrin that he knew. Mostly it was his choice to speak his native language.
Dar made one last check of the navigation computer. His test should send them near Zumik 6 in the Tau sector, about two days away at warp one—if all went well. He was told to operate Marcy for three months, then return for evaluation. The total cost of the refit, with all the “experimental allowances” cost almost four million drig. He’d only have to repay Gorrin about seven hundred thousand for the loan. And with the way payloads were calculated, it wouldn’t take very long. Then he’d repay Gwog; something he had absolutely no problem with. He almost wished his long-time friend and mentor was here to see this.
“All right, Marcy, let’s open you up.” He rested his hand on the throttle, took a deep breath, and pushed it forward. “Warp one.” Dar watched as the stars became a blur. “How’s she doing, Schmuff?”
“Geed, Marcy wak egin geed.”
“Good? Shall I give her a little more?”
“Ga!”
“All right, warp two.” He upped the throttle. The stars ahead streaked by faster. “That’s it, now you’re moving.”
“Chasta! Chasta!” Schmuff called over the comm headset.
“Faster?”
“Ga!”
“Seriously?”
“Ga! Wak tregi.”
“Okay, warp three.” Dar let out a tense little sigh as he pushed the throttle again. He watched the warp speed indicator. “Warp three and holding.”
“Wak furg!”
“Oh, come on! Warp four?”
“Ga! Marcy kun frook set.”
“You’re confident Marcy can take it, huh?”
“Ga. Regfiktur sakt Marcy nwatss wak teg.”
Dar nudged the throttle more. “You say the re-fitter told you that Marcy goes to warp ten?”
“Ga. Kett’s nwat!”
He laughed. “Let’s go—funny.”
“Kaptaw!”
“All right, all right, we’ll go a bit faster.” Dar moved the throttle to warp five. “There, happy?”
“Ga, weree yippai.”
“I’m glad you’re very happy. Now let me get to work.” He realized he was going much faster and farther than expected, and needed to recalculate his course. Quickly, his fingers went to work plotting out his expected destination. “Oh, Appolion 6? I didn’t think I’d end up there.” He checked to see if there were any other planets along the way, but the space he’d be passing through was sparsely populated.
Letting the engine run for nearly eleven days at warp five, he watched his course plot out. When they were close, he dropped from warp, expecting to see the planet Appolion. Instead, he was face to face with eight Soothian pirate ships. “Aw, shit!”
“Katpaw?”
“We got pirates, Schmuff.”
“Shit,” came the reply.
Dar didn’t think twice. He raised the shields and brought all weapons online. Since the new weapons were expensive, Dar hoped to avoid using them. “This is Captain Dar Meltom of the Marsuian.”
“The Marsuian? What ship is that?”
“My ship. I was crew of the Cunik, now I have my own.”
“So, you know who I am?”
“Nokkis?”
“Yes,” he replied with a little laugh. “And what do you have for me today?”
“Nothing that concerns you.” Dar locked target on what he thought was the lead ship.
“But you are carrying cargo.”
“And its value is not worth you losing a few ships over.”
“Me losing ships? Hardly!”
Dar selected a torpedo. The weapons lab engineers sold him two very experimental ones to try. They were outfitted with a shield destabilizing feature that allowed them to fly right through and destroy their target. “I’m gonna give you one last chance to leave, then I’ll open fire.”
“Give it your best shot, captain.”
“Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He checked his targeting once more, and pushed the button. A bright flash of light came from under the ship, followed by a streak of light as the torpedo zoomed toward its target. “Come on, come on,” Dar said softly, hoping it would work. A moment later, the ship in the middle exploded. “Wooooooooo!” he cheered, jumping up and down.
His celebration was cut short as the Soothians unloaded with laser cannons and phasers. The Marsuian was rocked as her shields took the brunt of the attack. “Hang on, Marcy, we need to get out of this mess.” Firing the port thrusters, he veered to the right, trying to make an escape. The pirates quickly took up the chase.
“You can’t out run us, our ships are faster,” Nokkis said.
“Shit, I didn’t kill you?”
“No, I’m not as ignorant or arrogant as my father was.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed,” Dar joked as he quickly plotted out his course to Sirrix. It was eighty-eight thousand light years away, and he wondered just how far the pirates would go to get his cargo. He fired a few more salvos from his port laser cannons and prepared to jump to warp. One of the pirate ships fired a large cannon. Marcy took the hit on her port side. The blast was so strong it knocked Dar off his feet. He tumbled to the deck and hurriedly got up. “Ow! That hurt.” He checked the shields. “Schmuff, can you give me more power to the port shields?”
“Ga, kaptaw.”
The ship was rocked again. Dar saw who fired this time. “All right, enough being nice.” He locked target on the ship and fired his last torpedo. “Take that! Marcy doesn’t like getting into fights—she’ll finish it!” The torpedo shot through the blackness of space, penetrated the shields of the pirate ship, and blew it into a million pieces. The other ships continued their barrage. Dar realized that even with all the improvements, Marcy would not survive an attack by six more pirate ships. “Schmuff? I’m gonna get us out of here. We might be going pretty fast, so keep an eye on that engine, okay?”
“Ga, egin geed.”
“Here goes nothing.” Dar shoved the throttle forward. The ship jumped to warp. “One…two… three…four…five…” He watched the speed indicator in disbelief. “Six…seven…eight…nine…ten! Schmuff, are you reading warp ten?!”
“Ga, kaptaw, wak teg.”
He flipped on the rear view screen to see the pirates disappearing in his warp wake. “Yes! Yes! Ha, ha! We’ve out run the pirates!” Dar gave the control console a little pat. “Marcy, you’re the fastest freighter in the galaxy!” He left the engine to run at warp ten for a while. Truly, he wanted to get to Sirrix, off load his cargo, and get to Tridius to pick up a shipment of clothing bound for Lanteris. After that, he figured he’d have enough drig to pay back Gorrin Algok.
Dar stood in his astro-observation bubble on top of the ship and watched as the second Sirrixian rocket was offloaded onto the planet’s surface. Marcy didn’t have a bubble when he got her, but he made a point to get one installed so he could do his charting up there; and it gave him a great view. Yes, it was extra drig, but he felt he needed one. And it made him feel even closer to the stars.
Checking his charts on the table, he plotted the course to Tridius, and then on to Lanteris. Dar was happy his brush with the pirates had a favorable outcome. The Newrillians did a great job on Marcy, he mused, writing down the coordinates. At least now he stood a chance against the pirates. He stopped for a moment and remembered way back when he first joined as crew on the Cunik, and how Gwog insisted the courses be plotted by chart. Here he was, years later, still doing it the same way. He missed his friend and mentor, and all his other “fathers” on the Cunik. Dar especially missed Jartis, who taught him so much about engineering, and also about being an adult Satiren.
“Kaptaw!” Schmuff called from below.
“What?”
“Vinnitor.”
“What?” Dar didn’t know that word in Nouian.
“He says you have a visitor!” a deep voice called.
“Gwog?!” He hurried down the narrow ladder and onto the bridge. “Greetings my old friend!”
“Old? I’m not old.”
Dar offered his hand. “Well with a face like a worn out Catarin hide bag, you look old to me. I didn’t know you were here, I didn’t see the Cunik at dock.”
“She’s up on the space station. I came down in a shuttle because I heard you were here.” Gwog took Dar’s hand, and then gave him a friendly smack. “So, she’s all done, huh?”
“Yeah, wanna have a tour?”
“Do you need to ask?” He pointed at Schmuff. “A Nouian?”
“Yeah, he’s my engineer, and a pretty damn good cook.”
“Kaptaw, Eg glunt wurg tek dok.” Schmuff hurried off.
“What’d he say?” Gwog asked.
“Says he’s got work to do.”
“You speak Nouian now?”
“Eh, kinda. Still learning.”
Gwog shook his head. “You always did have a way with learning languages.”
Dar opened his cabin door. “The Newrillians really fixed her up nice…See, much better.”
He went in and had a look around. “Nice, in fact nicer than mine…How much did it all cost?”
“Just under four million…I’ll have enough to pay Gorrin after my next run.”
“Good.”
“And then it may take me a little while to get you paid off.”
Gwog waved his hand. “I’m not so much worried about that, little one. It was a loan between friends, and I know you’ll pay me back.” He looked up at the window above Dar’s bed. “Nice view.”
“It’s a close race as to which part of the ship is my favorite: the astro-observation bubble, or here.”
“A great view of the stars all right.”
“Wanna see the new warp engine?”
“Of course.”
Dar led him back to the engine room. “You know, I’ll pay you back the very day I have it all.” He opened the door. Schmuff was up on the particle accelerator doing some work.
“A Nouian engineer? I still find that strange,” Gwog said, a bit confused. Nouians were not exactly renowned for their technical capabilities.
“Yeah, Schmuff’s different all right.”
He let out a hearty laugh. “Where’d you pick him up?”
“The slave auction on Uyoninis. Got him back to the ship, and the little bastard bit me. I was out cold for three days—I think.”
“Lucky you didn’t die. Why do you still have him? I figure with what he did, you’d have shot him.”
“He said he was scared that I’d beat him. Actually, he’s pretty darn good—fixed my Ceriddium tank when it blew, and got us to Newrillis a lot faster.” Dar pointed. “And he can make a bovidis shoulder almost as good as my mother.”
“Any more crew?” Gwog walked along looking at the new engine.
“Nope, just us.”
“How fast is she?”
“Did warp ten running from the pirates.”
Gwog chuckled. “Warp ten? Impressive. Ah, didn’t take the pirates long to find you.”
“Uh, I accidentally found them. I was testing the warp engine and dropped out right near Appolion, and there they were.”
“And?”
“I got to use the new torpedoes the Newrillians are developing…Worked great, blew up two ships, but unfortunately neither had Nokkis aboard.”
“I thought I had him in my sights a few months back. But alas, he slipped from me too.”
“Can’t we do anything to stop them?” Dar asked.
“Stop them, no, but buy them off, yes.”
“Buy them off?”
He put his hand on Dar’s shoulder. “I’m old and tired of fighting; so I made a contract with Nokkis to pay him a certain percentage for safe passage.”
“You did what?!”
“Little one, I’d strongly suggest you do the same. He’s become far more powerful than his father, and I see the amount of ships in his armada growing steadily.”
“Pay the pirates? Gwog, have you lost your mind?”
“No, right now, it makes for smart business. That same engagement a few months ago, I tangled with Nokkis, and about lost the Cunik. I can’t afford that. And this last time, the only thing that saved me was his offer for terms of payment. Nokkis is smart, he realizes he can make far more by taking payments than simply taking the ships or destroying them.”
Dar leaned against the main housing for the warp engine. “I’m not gonna give in that easy. Marcy’s fast and well-armed now.”
“I’m sure she is, but she can only take so much punishment, and Nokkis is getting stronger every day.”
“For now, I’ll take my chances.”
Gwog waved his hand. “How about showing me the rest?”
“It would be my pleasure!” Dar led the way. He took Gwog to the shuttle bay and showed him the new shuttle. “How’s Jartis?”
“Doing well, I think he misses you the most.”
He laughed. “I’m sure all my fathers miss me.”
“We do,” Gwog said softly. “Watching you grow up made us very proud. And now you’re on your own, making a name for yourself.”
“I have you and the Cunik to thank for that. Had I been on a lesser ship with a captain half as good as you, I’d be just another freighter captain struggling to make a few drig.”
“You are free to use my name until yours becomes one of merit. Treat your customers right and they will make your name for you.”
Dar smiled. “Is that rule number five of being a freighter captain?”
“Yes, it is.”
“You know, you never told me how many rules there are.”
Gwog chuckled. “I’ll let you know when I stop coming up with rules!” They laughed. “Well, little one, I see you are set for a life in space on your own. You have a great ship, an interesting crew, and the stars to sing you to sleep. Now go prove yourself.”
Dar stood proudly. “Aye, sir!”