Chapter:
I made my way back to the bridge, silently rehearsing the parts of the upcoming conversation which I believed would be the most crucial. Time seemed to be flying by, as I found myself standing outside the bridge far too quickly for my own liking. Gathering my composure, I activated the panel and strode onto the bridge. Once seated in the Admiral's Throne, I motioned to the communications technician to open the channel.
“Hello. Is this the crazy Captain of that big bastard of a Heavy Cruiser? The one that just came roaring by and sideswiped several of those pirate cutters that were giving us such a problem,” asked a hatchet faced woman who looked to be somewhere into her second century. She was dressed in an updated Confederation uniform similar to the one I was wearing, but it sporting an oddly updated appearance. “I hope that old Confederation encryption key you’re using means you’re one of the good guys and not another blasted pirate in disguise.”
“This is Admiral Jason Montagne Vekna, Confederation Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet,” I replied, “and yes, we’re one of the good guys,” I said with a lopsided grin.
“Admiral Who?” She gave him a strange look, her eyes lingering on my ill fitting and nearly a century out of date old Confederation Admiral’s uniform. She gave herself a half a shake. “That’s not what’s important right now. On behalf of myself and the Settlement Convoy under my protection I’d like to officially thank you for the timely assistance with those pirate scum.” She paused for a moment before continuing, obviously weighing her words carefully.
“Although something my command crew and I don’t understand is why you chose to ram instead of fire your heavy weaponry when you passed through the center of their main formation. A heavy cruiser is tough, as you just clearly illustrated, but also very well armed. Frankly we’re baffled,” said the Corvette Captain. I couldn't tell for certain if she was admonishing me, genuinely curious, or some strange mixture of the two.
I could feel myself starting to turn red, and took a deep breath to steady myself. Dealing with a trained military officer, whose opinion was important (unlike pirates, who I could bluff and talk to without fear of anything worse happening later on) was nerve wracking. What’s the worst the pirates could do? Try to destroy the ship and kill or capture all those helpless settlers? They were already doing that. The Captain of the Corvette, on the other hand, could cause me a big headache in the here and now, plus a great deal of trouble back home if we got off on the wrong foot.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” I said with a wave to downplay the whole situation. I was just about to change the subject when the Corvette Captain beat me to the punch.
“We have a little bit of time before my Corvette matches airlocks with our sister ship and we move to recover her. Incidentally, killing any pirates we encounter, Admiral,” the Captain said, sitting back in her chair. “My crew is dying to know how Confederation forces came to the rescue. We’d given up hope for a rescue.”
I smiled to hide my suddenly gritted teeth. “I admit that from a given perspective, ramming them might look like something out of a holo-drama,” I said, careful not to mention that I actually got the idea from a low budget Caprian holo-series I had been avidly following prior to being drafted into the patrol fleet, “but it really starts makes sense when you realize we entered this system essentially unarmed.”
The hatchet faced Captain blinked. “Interesting,” she said, “go on. This has to be good. Also, I assume the other cruiser in system, the one that hasn’t moved, is with you?”
“Yes, a captured pirate ship,” I replied shortly, thankful for the momentary change of topic. I relaxed a little and was able to compose myself before continuing further. “Regarding our lack of weaponry, the answer is really quite simple,” I paused and leaned back in my chair, “I take it you’ve heard about the Empire’s withdrawal from the Spine?” The corvette captain sucked in a breath but after half a second gave an almost jerky nod. “Well so long as you know about that, then everything that follows becomes more understandable,” I said with a nod of my own. “I still can’t believe the Empire would abrogate the union treaty like this,” I shook my head slowly, trying to convey a profound sense of disappointment. “But I’m wandering off topic.”
I turned to the side and motioned to one of the communication technicians, “Please send our credentials over to the Corvette at the end of our conversation,” I said pointedly before turning back to face the captain on the screen. “As I was saying, when the Lucky Clover was designated to become the Flagship of our newly formed Patrol Fleet, the Imperials decided to upgrade her. This occurred prior to the start of our mission, of course, and Imperial Command also place a number of officers onboard to assist us in our new duties. When the Imperial officers received recall orders from the Triumverate, those same officers signaled for a command ship and proceeded to strip out all of the Imperial equipment they’d just installed, including our new weapons systems,” I paused and gave a cold half smile. “Thanks to our Chief Engineer we still have most of the old weapon systems with us. We just hadn’t had time to reinstall them before we received your distress call. Time being of the essence, I decided not to wait until we were effectively rearmed, but instead to come immediately to the assistance of a distressed settlement convoy.”
The Corvette Captain’s eyes widened. “I don’t know of many captains, or admirals for that matter,” she said with a brief gesture in his direction, “who would have made the decision to take an unarmed ship, even a heavy cruiser, to answer a distress call. Although let me be the first to assure you that my crew and the settlers we’ve been escorting aren’t going to complain. Not one bit,” she said giving him a nod full of thanks, “Once again and on behalf of my ship and everyone in our convoy, I’d like to thank you for your efforts on our behalf.”
I nodded in a fashion I hoped was not too curt and signed off as soon as possible. We monitored the escort corvette as mated its airlock to the airlock of the pirate cutter. On the main view screen it looked like the cutter was now squeezed in between the two corvettes, each almost twice the size of the little pirate vessel.
Also around the same time, the two undamaged pirate cutters formed warp fields within seconds of each other and point transferred out of the system.
Their less powerful star drives and smaller warp fields ensured they wouldn’t go far. However, rapid recycle times meant that they could jump much more often than an older, heavier ship like the Clover. So even if a large ship like the Clover was ready to jump and knew exactly where to go, the larger vessel with its slower but longer ranged engines would lose them after the 2nd transfer point. If the larger ship couldn’t destroy the smaller ship first, of course.
“Let's change the status from red alert to yellow and let the rest of the ship know that except for a few loose ends the pirate threat in this system has been taken care of,” I said, turning to speak with the communication tech responsible for the internal com system. “The hard work isn’t over. We still have some crewmen and a lot of settlers to rescue, but as far as the battle is concerned we can chalk this one up in the win column.” I was suddenly taken aback at the implications of what I had just said. I (or rather, the ship I was commanding) had won a battle with real life pirates!
The blast doors behind me cycled open.
I stood up from the throne and prepared myself for what was to come. It was time to face the music. Hopefully no one (especially myself) would get hurt.
The Deposed King
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