Fatal Blade (Decker's War#3) (6 page)

“If it doesn’t involve killing, drinking or singing dirty songs, it doesn’t qualify as fun for a Shrehari.  Trust me on this.  I’ve taken down enough of them in my time.  These guys are looking for a little action.”

“We’re almost at the hyperlimit anyhow.”  She glanced at her readout.

“They’ll pursue.”  His console chimed urgently.  “I guess we’ll have to fight before we can run.  Ready to take maneuvering orders?”

She settled back in her seat.  “Ready.”

“I think we should strap in.  They knock out the artificial gravity, and we’re floating.”

“Done,” she replied a moment later.

“Unless they can defeat our emcon, they have no idea yet that we’ve spotted them and are ready to rumble, so stay on course until they unmask.  Let ‘em believe we’re fat, happy and stupid until it’s too late.  I’d like to try out my new toys and pay the buggers back for all the years I spent hunting guys like them in the back of beyond.”

“Try not to enjoy yourself too much,” she replied in a dry tone.

“No promises.”

Decker went through the checklist again, more to kill time than because of any fear that one of the systems might not perform properly.

When the Shrehari finally lit up to intercept
Chimera
, it almost came as a surprise.

“Game on, baby.”  A manic grin spread across Decker’s face.  “Change course thirty-five degrees to starboard and zee minus fifteen degrees.”

“Thirty-five degrees starboard, zee minus fifteen, aye,” Talyn replied, entering the corrections.  Thrusters fired almost immediately, sending the ship on an arc away from the oncoming Shrehari ship.

“A stern chase, Zack?”

“Yup.  We have the legs on them, for sure.  They’re bigger than we are and chock-a-block full of second rate Shrehari technology.  They do maintenance when something breaks and not before.  Also,” he chuckled, an evil sound that matched the light in his deep blue eyes, “we have as much ordnance facing aft as forward.  I guess the engineers who reworked this tub are fans of running away to fight another day.”

“Why not just escape?”  She asked, amused by his enthusiasm.

“And let them try a do-over on a ship that doesn’t have our hidden charms?  Not likely, commander.”

“Just don’t shoot first, Zack.  I mean it.  There could still be a chance the bastards are screwing with us.”

“I know the rules of engagement.  Just you wait.  They’ll start with a few warning shots; then if we don’t decelerate and let them board us, they’ll try some trick shooting on our hyperdrive nacelles.  After that, they’ll do the same to our sublight drive.”

“Is that what happened to
Demetria
?”

“Yeah.”  He shrugged irritably, annoyed that he could still feel the sting of Avril’s death after so long.

“Would your enthusiasm at taking on these Shrehari instead of running be a form of payback?”  Her tone was even, and her eyes remained glued to the tactical display.

“Why not?  Turning marauders into a cloud of atoms is payback for everything done by every scumbag cruising the star lanes.”  The sarcasm was heavier than usual, and she turned to glance at him.

“Just make sure you have the right motives for this, Zack.  An agent can’t afford to indulge in personal vengeance during a mission unless it’s been sanctioned.”

“Like I said, we’re going to do local shipping a solid by taking these guys out.  I seem to recall that we’re both part of the Fleet, and this ship is an armed Navy sloop, be it ever so small and well camouflaged.”

“Q-ship tactics now?”  She snorted.  “You read up on those?”

“No, though it can’t be too hard.  I’ll make up the rules as I go along.”

“For someone who has a saying for every occasion and can reach back into history on command, I’m surprised that you’re not quoting Admiral Dunmoore at me.  She wrote the book on modern Q-ship tactics during the last war.  Maybe you’d like to tell her about your innovations in person the next time we’re on Caledonia.  She still lectures at the Naval War College from time to time.”

“Really?  She’s got to be what?  A hundred and ten?”

“A spry hundred and ten, by all accounts.”

Zack’s console beeped at him.

“Ah.  They’re powering up weapons.  They might have had good emcon when they were lying doggo, but now that they’ve lit up, my sensors can make out every last fuel cell.”

“Remember, let them fire first.”

“And they’ve fired.”  Decker sounded strangely satisfied.

Two streaks of plasma grazed the port shield, briefly lighting it up like an aurora borealis.

“Those were warning shots.”  He touched his controls, chortling under his breath.  “And we’re unmasking.”

The rumbling sound of hull panels moving aside made a counter-point to the sharper noise of the aft launcher pumping out a brace of anti-ship missiles.

The main turrets, one on each beam, rose from hidden recesses and swiveled to point their twin barrels aft, joined simultaneously by small multi-barrel guns emerging from the top and keel of the ship, just forward of the sublight drive nozzles.

“I wish I could see the look on the Shrehari captain’s face right now.  Thought we were harmless, did he?  How about a taste of our plasma to wash down those birds?”

He felt rather than heard autoloaders feed pure copper discs to the guns, ready to be turned into plasma by a power spike from loaded capacitors.

“Give us zee plus twenty, Hera.”  He shouted excitedly, watching the Shrehari open fire on the oncoming missiles.  One vanished in a bright flash but the second exploded against the marauder’s shields, giving birth to a bluish-green flare as the energy of the warhead fought that of the force field surrounding the ship.

“Yee haw!  A hit on the first try.”

He stroked his controls again, and a stream of plasma erupted from
Chimera
, aimed straight at the enemy’s weakened shields.  The one-two punch proved enough to collapse them entirely, and the next salvo landed on the ship itself, eating through the tough metal armor.  Decker kept firing until he saw streams of rapidly freezing gasses escape from the blackened holes he’d ripped into the hull.

“Kick it, Hera.  We need to get out of here.”

She lit the sublight drives without argument, then glanced over her shoulder at Zack.

“Why?”

“That thing’s done for.  The buggers are going to self-destruct and hope they take us with them.”

“Experience talking?”

“Yup.  Shrehari don’t let themselves get taken prisoner.  It violates their honor code.”  He slumped back in his seat and wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow.  “Space battles are short but intense, aren’t they?”

“They get more intense when the enemy actually has a chance to fire back.”

“I’ll pass on that.  Surprise is my favorite principle of war and this little beauty is tailor-made for it.”  He patted his console like a proud papa.

A bright spark suddenly lit up the view screen.

“Hang on.  We might still be a little close.”

An energy wave washed over
Chimera
moments later, buffeting the small ship, then their little corner of the galaxy was quiet again, save for an expanding cloud of debris, destined to float through space until the heat death of the universe.

“One less to worry about.”  Decker rubbed his hands with glee.  “That was fun.”

“Remember to turn us back into a harmless trader again before you go sleep off your gunnery orgasm.  We can jump any time now.”

He touched his screen, triggering the faint noise of the turrets slipping into their recesses followed by the slightly louder sound of the hull plates settling back into place, hiding all evidence that
Chimera
was, in fact, a well camouflaged, pocket-sized man-of-war.

“Done.  Now I have to see to my missiles and make sure they’re ready the moment we need them.”

Talyn cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him.

“We have to manually load the launchers,” he explained, undoing his seat restraints.  “An autoloader would be too big for this tub.  We get a single shot from each before one of us has to go down into the hold and reload.  I’m kind of surprised they actually managed to fit those full-sized tubes into that tiny space, but as I like saying if it works...”

“I guess caressing those birds is as close to a wet dream come true as a Marine master gunner will ever have, eh?”  She chuckled at his beatific smile.

“You said it, sister.”

SEVEN

“Fighting usually gives me an appetite, but this is ridiculous for the amount I actually did.  No wonder you swabbies get fat in shipboard billets,” Decker commented around a mouthful of vat-grown beef.  “What now?”

“I have us programmed to emerge in interstellar space.  When we get there, and the coast is clear, I’ll reprogram the identification beacon.  While I do that, you get to go outside and shift some of the hull panels to change our silhouette.”

“And change the markings,” he added before shoving another forkful into his mouth.  “Great times will be had by all.”

“Then I’ve got to think of our next steps.  I was hoping someone on Kilia might help us trace the Garonne rebels’ suppliers, so we could work our way to whoever’s behind the funding, but that’s no longer an option.”

“We might find it just as challenging wherever we go. Considering they had goons breathing down the chandler’s neck, I’m not sure we’ll get lucky anywhere else along the Rim.”

“That leaves me wondering whether there’s still a leak at HQ or whether some people are just extra paranoid, and I don’t necessarily mean about the things we’re after.  The Jackals might be in the
Sécurité Spéciale
’s pockets, but that doesn’t mean they’re not running their own operations.  I can’t see government work, even if it’s for the SecGen’s pet spies, paying enough.”

“What kind of a universe is this anyways,” he replied, picking a strand of meat from his teeth, “when honest gangsters get in bed with the secret police?  At least the Shrehari have enough honor to blow themselves up.  I’ll take boneheads over mobsters any day.”

“You mean take on, don’t you?”

“That too.”  He burped contentedly.  “How long is this leg?”

“About ten hours.”

“That means I have time for a nice cold one.”

“I’ll join you.  It might help me figure out our next move.”

“Good plan.  It always helps with my moves.”  He leered at her, then he reached into the cold box and grabbed two bottles.

“I’ll bet, you incorrigible lecher.”

“Ever heard the one about the hooker and the Marine?”

“Yes, and I don’t want to hear it again.  Thanks,” she said accepting a bottle.  “Hanging around with you is giving me some atrocious habits.  I used to hate this stuff.”

“Honey, hang around with me long enough, and I’ll make you love just about anything.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”  She raised her bottle.  “Congratulations, Zack.  That was a half-decent Q-ship surprise you pulled on the Shrehari, for a Marine, I mean.”

“I’ll let Admiral Dunmoore know next time we’re on Caledonia.  Mud in your eye, swabbie.”  He took a healthy swig and sighed.  “The water of life, this stuff.”

***

“Fun, fun, fun,” Decker muttered under his breath, shuffling out the aft airlock.  Magnetic soles under his pressure suit boots made the spacewalk feel like a slog through a thick mire.

“What was that?”  The radio crackled in his ears.

“Nothing you need to worry about.  Just make sure you don’t accidentally go FTL while I’m outside.”

“If I go FTL while you’re outside, it won’t be by accident.”

“Nice to know you’ve got my back.”  He crept up the hull towards the superstructure where shifting a few panels would make a noticeable change to the ship’s silhouette.

“Why is it me who gets to do the hard work anyway?”  He asked, contemplating the first piece of the camouflage puzzle.

“Remember when this ship was still a floating brothel?  Remember the mirror on the deckhead in the main stateroom?”

“Yeah.”

“Remember seeing us side by side in bed, in our birthday suits?”

“Of course.  Good times.”

“Then I’m sure you didn’t fail to notice the size and musculature differences between us.  Big boys get to do big boy jobs.”

“Sexist.”

“I also outrank you.”

“Hierarchist.”

He attached a handling frame to the first panel and undogged the clamps holding it to the hull.

“That’s not actually a word,” she replied.

“It is now.”  He shifted the panel and re-attached it to the hull.  “One down.”

“Ah yes, the famous Decker dictionary.  In case you care, we’re no longer transmitting an ID beacon.”

“Lovely.”  He wrestled with the second panel.  “It’s a fine thing we’re doing this out here in space and not on anything with a gravity pull.”

“I’m sure you’d have been able to manage.”

“Maybe, but I’d have added a few new swear words to the Decker dictionary.”

“Don’t hold back now on my account.”

“When I feel the need to curse, you’ll be the first to know.  Two down.”

He shuffled backward and stared at the star-filled darkness above the curvature of the hull, feeling unaccountably drawn in by the abyss.

“Zack,” Hera’s voice snapped him out of his contemplation, “is everything alright?  You went strangely silent there for a moment.”

“Yeah.”  He shook his head.  “I'm all right, but I think the universe just reminded me how small and petty my life actually is.”

“EVA has that effect on a lot of people.”

He attached the handling frame to the third panel and continued working in silence until
Chimera
looked just different enough to fool most people, if not all algorithms.

“Done with the hull plates,” he announced, wishing he could wipe his brow.  And scratch his nose.  He suddenly had an urgent need to scratch his nose.

“Got the new marking overlays ready?”

“Sitting in the airlock,” she replied.

“Fun, fun, fun,” he muttered again, making his way back down the hull to the open hatch, where he found several large self-adhering carbon fiber sheets, rolled up and tucked into a bag.  He stowed the now folded handling frame in the airlock and clipped the bag to his utility belt before shuffling out onto the hull again, this time across a short pylon to the starboard hyperdrive nacelle.

He carefully unrolled the first of the sheets and aligned it to the marks on the side of the housing.  Taking a rod from the bag, he ran it over the edge, activating nanites that bonded the new nameplate and registration number over the old one.

After a long, slow walk back onto the hull, over it and out on the port hyperdrive nacelle, he had the markings in place.

“Done.  You want to send out a drone to check that it looks right?”

The itch on the tip of his nose was back with a vengeance.

“Sure.  Give me a second.”

Decker returned to the airlock where he found a small basketball-sized spacecraft waiting.  He picked it up and pushed it out into space, where its tiny thrusters kicked in under Talyn’s control from the bridge.  It vanished from his sight for a few minutes, then hovered just outside the airlock again, waiting for him to reach out and grab it.

“The markings look good, Zack.  Well done.”

“Let’s just get this airlock cycled so I can get out of the suit.”

“Nose itching?”  She asked, sounding deliberately mischievous.

“Like a son of a bitch.  And I desperately need a shower too.”

The outer hatch slammed shut, air hissed into the tiny compartment, and soon enough, the inner hatch swung open to Talyn’s ironic grin.

“Welcome aboard
Phoenix
, Ser Whate.  I’m Captain Pasek.  Have you ever sailed with us before?”

“More often than I care to remember,” he replied, lifting the suit’s helmet over his head and handing it to her.

Scratching his nose had never felt so good.

“Come on, big boy.  We need to give ourselves a make-over.  The folks on Kilia Station might not circulate our portraits to the rest of the sketchy frontier tribes, but why take a chance?”

“Can I not have long hair this time?  Feeling it on my ears bugs the crap out of me.”

“Sorry.  The ID experts have decreed that long hair does a better job of turning you into not-Decker than short hair.”

***

He took a healthy swig from his bottle and sighed contentedly.

“So, now that I’m partially refueled, would you care to tell me what our next stop is going to be?”

“Andoth.”

She pulled two warmed up trays from the autochef and placed them on the table.

“Andoth?”  Decker searched his memory for the vaguely familiar name.  “Isn’t that the place they tried to turn into a prison colony after the war?  Lasted maybe thirty years.  All settlements are at the bottom of deep chasms because the air pressure at the surface is too weak.  Lots of volcanic activity, etcetera, etcetera?”

“Got it in one.  It’s a fairly nasty environment, with a single industry and no homesteading.  Other than taxing the export of rare ores and gemstones, the central government doesn’t have much interest in the place.  A miners’ consortium runs it with a passel of mercenaries for law and order.”

“About as frontier as it gets and still be within Commonwealth borders, eh?”  Zack cocked a sardonic eyebrow.  “We should fit right in.”

“A damn sight more dangerous than Kilia though, which may actually help.”  She took a bite of her food and chewed slowly, eyes unfocused while she thought about their destination.

“The shipping brokers in a place like that are bound to be dabbling on the dark side, where organizations like rebel movements would look to hire.  That being said, we might be better off to leave the ship in orbit and shuttle down to the surface when we get there.”

“Scared of flying down one of their chasms?”

“I’m more worried that I won’t be able to lift
Phoenix
out of there if things go sideways again.”

“Ah.”  He nodded knowingly.  “It would be pretty hard to scam our way into open space from ten kilometers below the surface.”

“Give yourself another drink, Marine Boy.  You’re getting smart.”

“Must be the company I keep.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, once you’ve showered.”

“Promises, promises.”  He drained his bottle and reached into the cooler for its successor.  “I could really enjoy this lifestyle, you know.”

“Wait until we get to Andoth.”

“You going to let Ulrich know?”  Decker took a sip and smacked his lips with pleasure.

“Can’t.  No subspace array we can tap into within light-years.  I’d rather not send anything via a commercial relay.  Even if we encode it, someone could get the idea that we’re not cuddly space rogues.”

“Yup.  Got to keep our street cred intact.”  He burped loudly and smiled.  “Almost as good coming up as it was going down.”

“You’re a pig, you know that?”

Decker’s sole reply was to blow his partner a big wet kiss.

***

“Cripes, and here I thought Nabhka looked depressing.”  He shook his head in amazement.   “Why do people insist on living in places that defy common sense?”

“The usual reasons,” Talyn replied, gently nudging
Phoenix
into a stable orbit, “greed, desire to get away from authority, looking for adventure.”

“Looking for insanity, more likely.  I’m going to guess there’s no orbital control.  The sensors aren’t picking up anything bigger than unmanned satellites, and precious few of those.  No other ships in orbit either.”

“There’s not much for off-world visitors to see.”

“You’re still determined to leave the ship in orbit and shuttle down?”

“Sure.”  She touched the controls one last time.  “There.  The AI has its instructions. 
Phoenix
will be fine up here.”

“What if someone comes along, sees a nice oversized space yacht or undersized sloop, depending on how you look at it, and decides it would make a beautiful addition to their stable.”

“The AI will make sure no one can do that.”

“Seriously?”  Decker didn’t hide his disbelief.  “You’re supposed to be the professional paranoid, Hera.  A ship without a crew can be taken, given enough time.  The AI might be able to navigate hyperspace, keep a stable orbit and do almost anything related to moving the thing, but it can’t fight properly.  I can think of three dozen ways to take it in my sleep.”

“You can, but then you’ve trained for it and done it for real often enough.  The average pirate isn’t quite as skilled, and he sure doesn’t have a Marine’s patience.  I’d rather take my chances up here, where the AI can at least sail the ship out of harm’s way if needed than ten kilometers down a rift valley with only one way out.”

She stood, rotating her shoulders to loosen the muscles.

“Then I’ll make sure to add some refinements of my own to the security system.  Anyone tries to board without permission is going to end up missing a limb or two at the very least.”

“Knock yourself out, Zack.”  She smiled briefly.  “And make sure the emcon is perfect.  The ship can’t be boarded in the first place if it can’t be found.  I’ll do the pre-flight check on the shuttle.”