Haywire (30 page)

Between them, the small rapid response shuttle’s engines flared in a glow of power, and it leapt into space with startling ferocity.

Alarm lights whirled around the bridge as the
Culper
took heavy fire. Its thick hull trembled, but it held. How long that would continue was impossible to know.

“
Direct hits to decks three and four,” the gunny said. “Two to midships and one to aft. Hull integrity is holding. Our fire… Five hits, Captain! Five hits! Three to the
Dieu Le Veut
, and two on their port escort. The
Dieu Le Veut
’s port aft engine has been destroyed, and they are venting atmosphere along the bridge deck!”

Townsend’s lips curled away from his teeth, glad that his hunter-seeker torpedoes had wrought such havoc so quickly. Every torpedo they fired cost Alliance taxpayers a small fortune, but he considered them a worthwhile investment. “Helm, steer us into their port side wake and drive us down their throat. Gunny, I want all forward batteries to reacquire firing solutions and send them another dose of hell.”

The gunny nodded and repeated the order into a handheld mic. Next to him, the radar operator raised her head and said, “Captain, the SWAT shuttle, it’s…”

“
It’s what?” Townsend replied, not in the mood for mystery.

“
It’s not moving toward the pirates. They opened their engines when the first shot was fired, and they haven’t stopped since. At their current rate of speed they’ll–”

Her sentence was cut off when the gunny shouted, “Sir, six rounds incoming, and they are rolling to send another broadside!”

Townsend’s mind swirled as he tried to grasp the full scope of the situation, but live fire headed his way focused his attention on their most pressing concern. “Helm, give us as oblique an angle of approach as possible. If we’re going to get hit, let’s try and make it a glancing one.”

The
Culper
’s engines surged as the intel ship shifted, and the crew felt it in the pits of their stomachs. Townsend loved the sensation. For a brief moment he was the captain of a ship straining to crest a rising wave, and in the distance in front of him was blood.

While the
Dieu Le Veut
rolled along its axis to allow its starboard cannons an opportunity to fire, Gimble dove the
Lady
under it and dropped chaff in its wake, hoping to throw off the small torpedoes that chased after it like hellhounds. For such small weapons they delivered a hell of a bite, and they were terribly tenacious. It was all he could do to keep them from getting blown apart.

“
The cowards are angling to strike at our backs,” Crowe said, the gleam in his eye more strained than usual.

Gimble’s throat bobbed as the last torpedo spiraled off after a loose bit of chaff. The
Dieu Le Veut
wasn’t as fortunate. Laroux’s ship was taking a hell of a pounding, and now not only was it down to one engine, but half its cannons were out. It didn’t bode well that they’d been struck so grave a wound so early in the battle.

“
We’ll have them yet!” Laroux said, his goatee twitching and a small stream of blood dripping from a wound on his forehead. Behind him, the bridge was hazy with smoke and emergency lighting. “Keep firing!”

Gimble admired the captain’s zeal, but there was a line between bravery and insanity, and he didn’t like which side it appeared Laroux was on. “The cap’n don’t look good,” he said.

“
The
Dieu Le Veut
’s is a tough old gal,” Crowe said. “This isn’t ov– They’re firing again!”

Gimble’s eyes stared so intently at his tactical display he was amazed it didn’t burst into flame. He wished it would, as it would save him from watching the sorry tale unfold. Six new torpedoes had been loosed upon them, and try as the captain might to shake them and confuse them with countermeasures, the damned things just kept coming. Even from the other side of the captain’s ship, the explosions were impressive. Gimble wished like hell he had the same level of firepower on his end. If that was the sort of punch he could expect from Alliance ships in the future, he thought perhaps he’d need to look for a new line of work.

“
Still have that route in your head?” he asked, sparing his friend a quick look.

Crowe tapped a spindly finger against his central screen and nodded. “Locked in and ready.”

Townsend hadn’t expected the pirates to go gently into their good night, but he’d never imagined they’d put up such a fight. His gunners had landed enough direct hits to drop a strike force, but the four pirate ships didn’t drop, didn’t die. Instead they tacked back and forth and wove around each other like drunken sailors, returning fire at every possible opportunity.

“
Captain, that last hit took out starboard tubes two and three,” Gunny said. “We’ve also lost the lateral maneuvering thrusters along deck four. Damage repair teams are on their way.”

“
Then let’s end this now,” the captain said. “Turn us to starboard and fire until our torpedo tubes glow. This is finished.”

Seconds later more blips filled their radar display, all of them driving toward the
Dieu Le Veut
and what remained of her escorts.

Alarms blared, lights flashed, and smoke rolled in waves above their heads. The Revenge disappeared from his radar screen, its death hidden by the bulk of Laroux’s ship. When sparks shot out from his targeting display, Gimble knew it was over.

Laroux’s face was like a ghost as it tried to fight through static on the comm window, but even that was enough to show he’d lost his mind. Dark smudges circled his wide eyes, and his face was streaked with blood. “Get me my Titan, you wo–”

Before he could finish his sentence, a series of explosions sent his ship into a flaming spiral in space. Bits of the vessel jettisoned in great gouts of flame, shoving the beast of a vessel back and forth like a whale thrashing in the ocean. It was a terrible sight, despite Gimble’s declining affection for his captain.

“
I believe that’s our signal to leave, Mr. Crowe,” Gimble said as he turned his control stick to starboard and angled them away from the flailing
Dieu Le Veut
.

Crowe gulped and nodded. “I believe you’re right. Best we be off now.”

Blaring horns competed with Gimble’s hammering heart as he increased the throttle and steered them away from what remained of the Crimson Kings. Part of him felt bad about running, but he’d never been one to let a little thing like loyalty stand in the way of self preservation. He hadn’t been happy with this misadventure from the start. He should have known by the way Laroux’s eyes glittered at the sight of the Titan that it would come to a bad end. His greed had been too much. The only real bit of regret he felt now concerned the Titan herself. He was still struck by how much she reminded him of his Marie, in ways both good and bad, and he wondered what would happen to her now. He didn’t know why she’d returned, but he hoped she got where she was going. Standing next to her, seeing a myth made flesh and knowing he’d helped save her from drifting endlessly through the cold depths of space, he’d felt almost like a decent human being again. It was too bad he’d probably never feel that way again.

“
If we play our cards right,” Crowe said as he uploaded their escape vector, “you could be the next captain of the Crimson Kings.”

Gimble grunted as he considered the idea. “Perhaps, but we have to get back to Puerto de la Sombra and stake our claim for that to happen.”

Crowe’s head bobbed up and down like a broken toy. “Aye, true, but with most of your strongest competition being blasted to bits behind us, I don’t think we have much to worry about. And I know just what your first order of business should be.”

“
Throw ol’ Smitty out an airlock just to watch him burst?” Gimble offered, liking the sound of it.

“
A sensible idea,” Crowe replied. “I’d love to–”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought when the
Dieu Le Veut
suddenly exploded and shot shrapnel flying in all directions, the shattered pieces of metal, plastic, and flesh sent out like spores from a blossoming flower. The shockwave first hit the
New Moon
and tore the already wounded vessel apart, then it slammed directly into the rear of the escaping
Lady Godiva
, damaging her engines and tossing her into the asteroid field.

The bridge went dark for a moment, then emergency lighting filled the ship with ghastly red light. Half of the screens in the cockpit stayed dark.

“
Damage report?” Gimble asked, afraid to know.

Crowe looked at what information he had, then said, “Both our engines are out, our primary power plant is down, and we’re now weaponless.”

“
That sounds like a terminal diagnosis.” Gimble sighed and closed his eyes. “And we were so close to getting away with our hides intact.”

Crowe chuckled. “As bad as it sounds, our wounds aren’t grave. And though it don’t look it, there is a bright side.”

Gimble opened his eyes a small bit and glared at his crewmate. “And that would be?”

“
If we think we’re dead, then so does everyone else. Between the debris of our unfortunately fellow pirates and the asteroid field we’re drifting into, so far as anyone else will be able to tell, we’re nothing but flotsam now. We should be able to perform our repairs in relative peace.”

Considering the danger they’d been in and how close the grim reaper had come to finally claiming their souls, Gimble was thankful for whatever small favors came their way. When he unlocked his restraints and floated toward the rear of his ship to start their repairs, he allowed himself a tiny smile. Try as the universe might, his story wasn’t finished yet, and he aimed to keep it that way.

“
Sensors aren’t picking up any power readings, Sir,” the
Culper
’s radar operator said. “We destroyed all of them.”

Townsend was thrilled at the sight of the expanding debris cloud that marked the end of the pirates, but because his thrusters were damaged, his real target was slipping further and further beyond his grasp. He knew he needed to get his thrusters repaired if he hoped to find it again. While that happened, though, he had another duty to carry out.

“
I want damage control teams to assess our situation, and I want a full report in my hands in one hour. Meanwhile, I’ll be in my office. Comms, open a channel to General Harper. I have some bad news to deliver.”

“
Yeah, for now I think we’re clear,” the shuttle pilot told Alex, who was leaned into the cockpit but careful to keep his bloody hands from touching anything. “The last thing our sensors saw were those pirate ships blowing up and the spooks just kind of spinning in place. There’s no way they can catch up now.”

Alex appreciated the pilot’s confidence, but he felt none of it himself. “They might not, but their radio certainly can. Stay on your guard.”

The pilot and co-pilot nodded and turned back to their controls. Alex’s job, though, was much more complicated, and even though he hated to do it, he had no choice. His feet were heavy as he walked over to Roe.

“
How is she?” he asked. “Is she able to talk?”

Roe looked down at Alicia and then scanned over the computer tablet with her vitals in her hand. “She’s as good as I can make her. I packed her wound with medifoam to stop the bleeding and accelerate the healing process, and I put skin patches on to fight off infection. Aside from administering painkillers there really isn’t anything more we can do here. She needs to get to a hospital, quickly.”

“
I know,” Alex said, his lips numb as he looked down at his girlfriend. Her skin was as pale as milk, but her breathing looked normal and her eyes were open.

“
If you need to question her,” Roe said, “be gentle. I don’t want her straining anything. Understood?”

Nodding, Alex patted the medic’s arm and settled into a seat next to Alicia’s feet. Shawn was seated near her head, his gauntleted hand brushing her hair back and stroking her arm and shoulder. Artemis was sitting on the ground further down, her head up and her eyes closed, like she was meditating. Hutchins was on the other side of the shuttle having a word with his team. At the moment the shuttle was calm. That was the perfect time for Alex to get some answers.

“
I messed up, Alex,” Alicia said as he settled in his seat. “Things have gone from bad to worse. I tried to do the right thing, but…”

“
What’s going on?” he asked, scooting his chair forward and bringing one of her hands up to his chest. “What happened to you and Shawn?”

After taking a deep breath, Alicia told him everything. She started with the arrival of the pirates on her doorstep, and by the time she got to Hygeia, every ear on the shuttle was turned her way. Alex was surprised how quickly it all flowed out of her. She seemed relieved at the end of it.

“
I can’t believe you didn’t come to me,” he said when she went quiet.

Alicia closed her eyes and sighed. “It wasn’t about you, Alex. It was about my son. It was about trusting Artemis. At the time… at the time it made sense. All I could think of was bureaucratic red tape, forms, investigations, and interrogations. And I couldn’t risk… I couldn’t risk my son. He’d already suffered too much.”