Part 4 - Part 05

After the Captain left Enai said, “I have to go now. I can’t stay here doing nothing… I’ll check on the receiver. If I see anything relevant I’ll come back and tell you. Otherwise I’ll be in the lab.”

“It’s way past lunch time. You two go and have lunch… Bring something back for me… but please hide it.”

The next thing I heard was a knock on the door. I didn’t want to answer it. I was afraid of being seen.

“Open the god damned door… It’s me!” the Captain ordered.

“Me who?” I asked in a woman’s voice, pretending I didn’t know who he was.

“No games, please…” he said.

I flung the door open and was mobbed by Amih and Ireva. They hugged me and kissed my cheeks.

“We thought you were dead,” cried Amih.

“I didn’t!” Ireva exclaimed. “I knew this was one of your tricks… that my father and you concocted.”

I then turned around for her to see my back.

“Oh my God… You aren’t joking! Oh my God, does it hurt? I can see your burned flesh… I can smell it too… Oh my God…” cried Ireva.

“Of course it hurts but I have to endure it… Until this matter is resolved.”

“I’m starting to develop a new respect for you… God I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t smile, laugh and tell jokes with an open hole like that in my back.”

“Speaking of which, my wound hasn’t been cleaned at all. Can you please clean it and bandage it for me… And bring me a new uniform?”

She gave me a look and said, “I’m not touching that! I’ll get you the uniform but I’m not touching your wound.”

“Hide the uniform. Put it in a bag. Make sure no one sees it.”

“Okay…” she said and left.

“I’ll clean your wound,” said Amih. “And if you want me to do the job properly you’ll have to take the uniform off.”

“What?” I asked. “The uniform is one piece. I’ll come out buck naked. I’m sure your husband will object.”

“Would you object?”

“Nah… It’s not like you haven’t seen one of those things… but don’t expect a big thing just because the guy is big. I’ve seen it and it’s not impressive…”

“Stop it… You’re embarrassing me.”

She then gave me a lab coat to cover myself and began to work on cleaning my wound.

“It’s superficial,” she said. “Even the skin isn’t burned. It’s just black.”

“Look at the uniform dear. It’s a battle uniform and it was melted. I saw him get shot by a plasma cannon...”

“I know that, you already told me that but I’m telling you what I see.”

“I’m a super soldier and have the ability to heal fast. I also took the fire water which helped accelerate the healing process. But if the wound has healed, why does it still burn like hell?”

“Because you are burning inside…, a side effect of the plasma burn. It will pass. Put some cold on it,” said the Captain.

After Amih washed off all the black, she went and got something cold, wrapped it in the same kind of gauze that she used to clean my back and placed it on my wound. It was soothing and relaxing. I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. I never did hear when Ireva came back. I only heard the words ‘disgusting’. When I opened my eyes I saw the awful look on her face.

“Since when has our daughter become such an aristocrat?” asked the Captain.

“Since she came back from Ostikon. You weren’t around to see her…” replied Amih.

“Sincerely dear, you have pirate roots so stop acting like you’re an aristocrat. You act like those Whites from Ostikon that Delche and Otsi described earlier,” said the Captain.

“Let him rest. Why don’t we go back to the reception area? We’ll see him later,” said Amih.

After they left I put my new uniform on. Soon after that Delche and Ori came back from lunch and brought me some food, which I wolfed down like a hungry dog.

“Let’s sit it out until dark and then we’ll load our supplies on the ship, fly off and go hunting,” I said.

Before dark the Captain, Ukasnek and Enai came back to see how we were doing.

After I explained our plan to them, I asked them to help us load our supplies and get our water. While Ori and the Captain brought the food, Ukasnek supplied us with water. Enai brought us some rakia in plastic jugs. Delche checked on our spare fuel and ammunition and I ran the ship’s diagnostics.

When we were done I said, “Don’t tell anyone where we’re going; not even Amih and Ireva.” I then pushed the hatch close button.

Hunting we shall go

I didn’t know about the others but I felt my heart pounding hard and fast. How many more people would die this time? Every time we went on a mission people died. Or would it be our turn to die this time?

I put on my transmitter, the one I use to communicate with the soldiers, to show them what space looks like; at least that’s what I told Ori when he asked my why I’d brought that silly thing with me. But truthfully, I enjoy talking to the soldiers. They always listen to me, no matter what I say and they never talk back.

As we lifted higher and higher into space my contact with the soldiers began to weaken and eventually cut out.

“Crap, I lost contact with the soldiers. This thing has crapped out. Is there any way we can boost the signal?”

“Nope…,” said Delche. “I’m not going to sit here scanning for the little ship alone while you screw around with that thing.”

“What frequency are you transmitting at?” asked Ori.

“How should I know…?”

“Okay then, I’ll scan the entire spectrum and see if I can find it…”

Moments later Ori said, “Wow! Is that you? I detected a huge volume of data in the upper frequency spectrum. Turn off your transmitter.”

“Yup, that’s got to be you. The signal disappeared. Turn it on again. There it is. Let me receive it, boost it and retransmit it.”

“Thank you Ori. It works fine now but I still can’t hear the soldiers.”

“That’s because the signal coming back is weak. I can fix that. I’ll clean it up and enhance it through the ship’s receiver.”

“Thanks again Ori.”

“Enough of that thing… Turn it off and turn on the long range sensors. Let’s start scanning for the little ship,” said Delche.

“When you turn your transmitter back on the ship’s computer will automatically reconnect you with your soldiers,” added Ori.

After we leveled off beyond Nelez’s upper atmosphere, we began to orbit the planet. Unfortunately all we could detect on our sensors were the Galaxy Trader ships on the surface.

“What kind of ship signature should we be looking for?” asked Delche.

“I don’t know. Check the logs…”

“For which day?”

“I don’t know… Look for the last day the cannons were fired…”

“I’m not your science officer… You should know how to do that yourself…” mumbled Delche.

“I didn’t hear what you said, can you repeat it?” I replied, even though I’d heard him perfectly.

“Never mind, I found it. I also found some ship signatures…”

“It must be them…” I said.

“Yes… all of you, start scanning…” ordered Delche. We’ve been up here for hours and gone over the entire planet’s surface, at least twice and nothing!”

“Can we scan for the ship’s ion trail?” I asked.

“What? What the hell is that? What the hell are you talking about? Are you running out of ideas and now you’re making things up?” grumbled Delche.

“I must have heard it somewhere…” I said and asked. “What’s eating you? Why are you so grumpy?”

“It’s way past midnight… Way past my bedtime and I haven’t eaten anything since noon… Wouldn’t you be grumpy?”

“Yes I would. Okay, I’ll fly into that pocket of debris over there and we can stop and have a rest. Now turn on the long range sensor alarm and both of you go to sleep. We have food, you can eat if you’re that hungry. Okay Delche?”

“I’d better not; it won’t sit well when I sleep…”

About an hour later the alarm went off full blast.

“What now? Can’t a person get a moments rest?”

“According to the logs, we’ve been sleeping for over an hour…” said Ori.

“So what the hell tipped of the alarm, another meteorite?” I asked.

“Holy crap, it’s one of those ships we’ve been looking for; the big one,” cried Ori.

“Are you sure? There shouldn’t be any ships here at all. Has it spotted us?”

“Yes and it stopped. It’s sitting there beyond our range of fire.”

“Some surprise attack this is going to be, eh Captain (referring to me)? Who’s surprised now?” asked Delche sarcastically.

“No problem, we’ll blast him out of existence the moment he attacks.”

“As you can see, he’s not going to attack.”

“Then we’ll chase him, overtake him and shoot him out of existence, okay? What’s the big deal? They don’t have the speed or firepower we have. I’ve chased one before.”

Delche realized that bickering wasn’t helping the situation so he stopped pestering me.

“Ori, open a channel and ask him what he wants.”

“I don’t speak their language, whatever it might be…”

“Talk to him in Macedonian for all I care. We have to do our due diligence before I blast him.”

“This is the Ostikon warship Dragon Fire requesting communications with the Captain of the ship facing us.”

“No reply, Captain.”

Moments later Ori called him again and asked, “What do you want?!”

He gave us a one word reply in Ostikon. He called us ‘pigs’…” said Ori, surprised.

“My younger self would have blasted him by now but my older self smelled a trap. Well guys what do you want to do?”

“Blast him!” said Ori, and Delche agreed.

“Translate for me Ori: This is the Captain, if you don’t leave right now I’ll chase you down, overtake your ship and this time blow it up! Understood?”

“You’ve had a run in with these guys before I assume,” said Ori.

“Yes! Now tell them what I said!”

“I did and they called us pigs again.”

“That’s probably the only Ostikon word they know. Let’s get out of here and see what happens.”

The moment we pulled out of the space garbage they followed. They were yelling at us in a language Ori didn’t understand.

“They’re goading us to attack them. But why?” asked Delche.

“Let’s get out of here… show them what this ship can do… Full speed ahead…”

“Sorry Captain they’re right behind us and, from the looks of it, they’re aiming to overtake us,” said Ori.

“So, why haven’t they fired on us? What are they waiting for?” asked Delche.

“Because they don’t have the range we have, I think. If they get too close they know we’ll fire at them. I can prove that.”

Suddenly I hit the reverse thrusters and quickly turned the ship around to face them. They instantly flew off in a tangent and when they were out of our cannon range they stopped.

“At least we know they don’t have the firepower to destroy us without destroying themselves. They must have enhanced their speed capability since our last encounter… But why? What are they planning to do… what kind of trap are they setting for us…? And who helped them enhance their speed?” I asked, thinking out loud.

“Holy shit! Two more of those ships are closing in. They’re right behind the pirate ship.”

“What’s going on? Are we going to have a party?” asked Delche sarcastically and somewhat curiously.

But before he finished talking we found ourselves surrounded inside a perfect triangle. They were all facing us and had their energy cannons fully charged.

“Interesting?” I said. “They can outrun us but not outgun us. We, on the other hand, can outgun them but we can’t outrun them. Their only hope of hitting us is if we make a mistake. Say, run towards one ship to get close enough to fire. But before we even get close enough, the other two will catch up and fire at us and possibly disable us with their combined firepower. Hmm, I think we have a bit of a problem. Diplomacy is in order… If we don’t move they won’t attack.”

“How do you know that? The three can take a run at us simultaneously and fire at us…” said Delche.

“If they do that they risk losing at least one ship. My guess is they think we’ll make a mistake and they’ll do something without any risk to themselves. Their ships are too valuable for them to risk on a stupid firefight like this one… They’re waiting for us to make a mistake, I’m sure of it. But we won’t make any mistakes if we just sit here, right?”

“Ori, open a channel and start groveling in Macedonian. Tell them we’re willing to surrender; ask them for terms. Just be mindful of what you say because your conversation with them is being recorded in our logs…”

“Delche, I have a job for you too.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Find a way to outrun them! Think hyperdrive…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you know how many calculations I have to do… and how long it will take? And besides we can only go in a straight line!”

“Delche, you haven’t even heard my plan and you’re complaining already?”

“Captain, oh Captain… They’re not responding… What do you suggest?” asked Ori.

“Keep trying. Let them think we’re desperate…”

“Here’s what I think we should do. We should do a short jump from here close to the ship facing us; close enough to fire at it. We should program the two outer cannons to auto fire the moment we come out of the jump. You just have to figure out the timing from here to there and program it into the navigation computer. If all goes well and the first ship is disabled, I’ll fly to the left and go after the second ship, the one on the left behind us. I’m sure when they see what happened to their pals on the first ship the two ships behind us will run in opposite directions. That way we can only go after one and the other one can escape… Now here is where you come in again. Set up a second jump for a predetermined distance and set the middle cannons to auto fire. When the second ship reaches that distance you activate the jump and the cannons will fire when we come out of it. Okay?”

“I can do that… and I think it will work. But what happens if the two ships decide to pursue us instead of running off?”

“Then we die… or… You prepare a third short jump and we’ll jump again and hope we don’t hit anything while we’re flying blind.”

While Ori kept pleading and enduring ridicule from all three ships in a language he didn’t understand, except for the word ‘pigs’, Delche went to work figuring out the jumps.

“Damn it, the computer won’t let me enter the commands without coordinates…”

“What the hell do we go now? Ori, any ideas?”

“Let me look it up in the manual… Here it is… For jumps without coordinates enter zero for the coordinates.”

“Thanks Ori, it worked. Okay Captain, I’m ready to do my part.”

I powered up all four of my plasma cannons and asked Ori to open a channel from my microphone.

“This is the Captain. Okay you f-ups, I’ve changed my mind… No more negotiations… Prepare to be blasted.”

Ori put their reply on speaker. They were all laughing at us. “First you grovel and cry like the baby that you are and now you play the tough guy by powering up your big cannons. Go ahead blast us… all three of us,” someone said in Macedonian, from the ship facing us. There was a lot of laughter in the background.

“I told you, they think they’ve got us over a barrel. Turn them off Ori!”

“Are we ready to do this?”

“Yes Captain…” said Delche, and Ori concurred.

“Hold on to your asses because when those cannons go off they’ll kick like a mule. Daf had them enhanced and they now kick harder than ever… Delche set us up for a jump.”

“Three, two, one, NOW!”

In the blink of an eye my ship exploded and the ship ahead vanished after a huge flash of light. A split second later I heard Ori screaming and holding his hip. And, as predicted, the two ships flew off in opposite directions. I powered up the engines, which I believe had stalled to avoid the flash ahead of us, and went in pursuit of the ship to our left.

“Turn off one of the cannons Delche, before we destroy ourselves.”

“I can’t, there’s no time… Prepare to activate the hyperdrive on my mark. MARK!”

My ship exploded again and the ship ahead vanished after another huge flash of light. This time our engines didn’t cut out.

“Are we going after him? The third ship,” yelled Delche excitedly.

“No, he’s gone… You tend to Ori and I’ll check the ship for damage. We’ll watch him from here until he disappears from our scanners.”

“Ori has a big bruise on his hip but he’ll live. I don’t think he has any broken bones. I’ll give him some rakia to ease the pain and put him to sleep.”

“Pour me some too and let’s find a secluded place to hide so we can get some rest… We won’t be able to catch up by chasing him. We’ll find another way.”

“I’ll bet you they’re not laughing now?” said Delche.

“It looks like there’s a whole pile of debris over there. I’ll hide the ship in it. It should at least keep us out of sight.”

“Out of sight, yes, but not out of detection. The ship’s engines still need to run to keep us alive in this vacuum of space.”

After we landed I helped Delche move Ori into his bed. He was completely plastered and asleep.

“There’s something wrong with that chair,” I said. “The same thing happened to Vel when I fired two cannons simultaneously during a previous mission.”

“I know, I spent some time with those two girls and Vel couldn’t stop talking. Especially about you! She’s your biggest fan.”

“That’s funny because when we were together she hated me and made fun of me at every opportunity.”

“I guess people are funny that way. I’ll have one more drink and I’m going to bed.”

“I’ll finish mine and I think I’ll stay here and continue to run diagnostics. Is the sensor alarm on?”

“Yes…”

I was very tired and must have fallen asleep when I heard a quiet beeping sound. It was the diagnostics alarm.

“What now?” I asked and put my hand over my mouth when realized both Delche and Ori were asleep. I turned off the alarm. When I looked at my viewer I saw all kinds of diagnostic errors. And since I didn’t know what to do I activated the maintenance robot; risking waking Delche and Ori. The repairs needed to be done as soon as possible. In our situation one never knew what might happen at any time.

I watched the robot work, move from place to place, open panels, remove parts, put new parts and wondered how the hell it knew what to do? I guess it has been programmed to take care of most things. What would happen if we ran out of parts, would it tell me? I didn’t think so, it didn’t speak. Would it skip the current task and go on to the next or would it stop and sit there like an idiot?

The next thing I remember was hearing a beeping sound coming from Ori’s computer. I must have been sleeping a long time because the robot had already finished the repairs and docked itself. It was probably an incoming call or a message. After beeping for a while it stopped on its own.

I must have fallen asleep again. I suddenly jumped up when Delche said something. When he saw me jump he said, “Sorry I didn’t know you were still sleeping.”

“How long have we been sleeping?”

“Long… I don’t know.”

“Go and see if Ori is still alive and wake him up.”

“I’m awake and I’m alive… I’ll be there in a minute…” said Ori.

“We’ve been in this dust bowl for nine hours and we’re buried in dust… And I mean deep in dust,” said Delche.

“Speaking of Nine, can I contact the soldiers and see how they’re doing. And also test to see if this thing works from this distance… By the way, where are we?”

“You’re the boss… Go ahead, talk to your soldiers… Just remember there will be a long delay before you hear back from them…” said Ori.

“We are… far from Nelez, that’s for sure,” said Delche.

“The transmitter isn’t working.”

“I just told you to expect a long delay because we’re far from Nelez. Keep it on for a while,” replied Ori.

After they’d both sat down, I asked Ori how he was doing.

“I’m doing fine, I’m sorry if I overreacted earlier.”

“No problem, we’re all friends here.”

“What do you want me to do?” asked Delche.

“You check our long range sensor logs to see if anything of importance happened while we were sleeping. Ori, you check your computer, it was beeping earlier. And I’ll take us out of this dust bowl.”

“Excuse me Captain but I have a message here from Airam. It’s about the recording. She tells me that Ruzha will accept it and is ready to receive it.”

“Send it then! Also, ask Airam to contact us after it airs in Ostikon. I’m curious to find out how they react.”

“There’s nothing in the logs… What’s do we do next?” asked Delche.

“We have two options. Go back to Nelez or go after the ship.”

“We should go after the ship. You promised Captain Orihci you’d destroy all the pirate ships. What will you tell him if go back now, Captain?” asked Delche.

“Ori, when you’re done sending the recording contact the Nelez tower. Send a message to Captain Orihci, give him a brief update and ask him what to do next. Do we return to Nelez or continue to pursue the pirates. Okay?”

“Okay Captain.”

“All this respect… from the both of you… calling me ‘Captain’ this and ‘Captain’ that. Where is it all coming from? Or are you being sarcastic?” I asked and laughed.

“I’m too tired for jokes… Please just get us out of this dust bowl so I can see light again. I feel like I’m dead and buried.”

“Yes Sir,” I said and gently pushed the joystick forward.

“It’s still dark out there, how deep are we buried?”

“It’s our shield. It’s loaded with dust. I’ll close the visor. Hopefully it will push the dust off.”

“We have a visor?” asked Delche, laughing out loud.

“Vel again… Am I the butt of all her jokes?”

“You sure are! This is one of her best. She tells it so well,” said Delche.

“Excuse me guys, I got a reply from the soldiers…” I said. “This thing actually works… this far out in deep space. How about that? I think I’ll send them a nice image of the sun rising on Nelez.”

After I fiddled with the visor, closing and opening it several times, we could finally see some stars in the distance. It was dark everywhere.

“The dust has covered everything. It’s everywhere. How do we get rid of it?” I asked.

“Leave it. It’s an improvement on the colour of your ship. Grey looks better than shit green, doesn’t it?” Delche asked.

“Don’t you speak like that about my ship…,” I said jokingly.

“Spray some water on the shield and it will wash off the dust. As for the rest of the ship, the moment we hit a pocket of air it will fly off.”

“We have a shield washer?” asked Delche jokingly.

“Don’t you start with me again… If you know how to do it then do it,” I said.

“Captain, Captain Orihci has gotten back to us,” yelled Ori.

“Did you get an answer from him?”

“Yes. Captain Orihchi said to go after the third ship. We can’t allow the pirates to threaten our ships and people and get away with it.”

“Well gentlemen, we have our answer. Is that okay with you?”

“As if we have any choice,” said Delche.

“We always have a choice but do we make the right one? And that’s what gets us into trouble. As for me, my entire life I’ve been pulled into someone else’s problems and doing someone else’s bidding. Just as we pulled out into space earlier, I wondered how many more people were going to die today, during this mission. Every time I go on a mission people die. So my friends, we do have choices but don’t get to make them ourselves. Someone else makes them for us…”

Not a word from either one.

“Delche, please plot a course to the ship’s last known location…”

“And then follow its ion trail?”

“Are you making fun of me now?

“Take it easy man… I’m trying to lighten the mood. People do die!”

“And you’re telling me it’s not my fault? That we decided to fight and not flee? We could have run you know…”

“Yes we could have! But that’s not us. Macedonians never run from a fight. You told me that! They fight and win…”

“How many people died at my hands because of that… And what did they ever do to me?”

“Shot you in the back! Now push that button and let’s get going.”

“I’m hungry, do you guys want something to eat?” asked Ori.

We both said yes.

Perhaps it wasn’t appropriate for me, at this time, to say what I’d said but I wanted them to know how I felt. I had the feeling that we weren’t coming back alive from this mission. I know how Captain Orihci felt but he should have taken the diplomatic route, not violence to deal with these pirates. I know he wants peace deep in his heart. But for some reason he seems to have a grudge against these particular pirates. Unfortunately for us these pirates are a determined bunch and will retaliate, especially now since we’ve encroached on their territory and shot down two of their ships. They’re probably asking themselves “why is this lunatic, a total stranger with no connection to us, attacking us?” I would be asking myself the same question. Why did I attack them out in space after they left Nelez the first time? I had destroyed several of their little ships… for no reason at all! I could have just left without firing a shot. I got shot in the back because of that… I may even have created an alliance between these pirates and my enemies on Ostikon because of that. If these pirates hadn’t been my enemies before, they would be now. After I’d destroyed two of their precious

ships I was sure they’d retaliate… This time big time, I could feel it in my bones.

“This is endless desolate space, there’s nothing living or moving here for as far as our sensors can reach. We’re wasting our time looking here, Captain,” said Delche.

“Perhaps… But where would you hide if you saw your friends slaughtered in a way you’ve never seen before?” I asked.

“That and the shame they have to live with, the shame of losing, the shame of sacrificing their people and their ships. And for what? There is no profit in what they did. Not to mention their dignity as pirates. They will be looked down upon by their peers for the tragedy they brought upon them,” said Delche.

“You seem to know a lot about these pirates Delche,” I said.

“It’s the same with all pirates… There is a saying: ‘Never get into a fight that you can’t win’…”

“Well, they thought they could win… I’m sure of it… and they were arrogant about it too. But you never know what kind of hand fate will deal you.”

“In this case, given what you and Delche said, this would be a good place for them to hide,” said Ori.

“The only way these pirates will get their dignity back and accept their losses is if they capture our ship or destroy it with us in it. And if they fail that, and don’t want to face their shame, they’ll destroy themselves,” said Delche.

“So, they’re like a wounded animal and we are it’s hunters in pursuit… Keep your eyes open at all times and prepare for an ambush,” I warned.

“You’re probably both right. It sounds to me like there are only two acceptable options for these pirates; glory or death. And if they can’t have glory they’ll choose death,” said Ori.

“It’s the pirate way…” said Delche.

Then, as we quietly scanned every inch of space, the sensor alarm went off. Expecting an ambush I instinctively dove down and avoided the plasma blast aimed at us. The ship was hiding in a pile of space debris directly in front of us.

“What the hell was that?” I yelled.

“It’s the ship we’re hunting. But how did you know he was hiding here and to duck at the right time?”

“Ori knows. We pulled a similar stunt on the Galaxy Trader destroyer a long time ago… You know the one… for which I became famous. We hid in space debris and turned everything off that might us give away. Then we pounced on the destroyer. Just like these guys did to us. But unlike the destroyer’s Captain who tried to use a conventional means of defense, this Captain ran… and avoided the blast.”

“They’re getting away Captain, what should we do?” yelled Ori in a panicked voice.

“They’re not going anywhere. They’re only setting up for their next ambush. It seems that the mouse is now chasing the cat.”

“You don’t seem to be too concerned Captain, but their next hit could be our last…” yelled Ori.

“Look, all they can do is shoot at us. If you paid attention you would know they only have one medium strength plasma cannon and no torpedoes. Their ship seems to be designed for speed. Their weapon’s system is limited at best. It’s designed for defensive purposes. Their cannon isn’t capable of penetrating our hull. The best they can do is disable our engines momentarily, which gives them enough time to escape. But it seems to me they don’t want to escape…”

“So, why are they attacking us then?” asked Ori.

“I don’t know. Perhaps they’ve underestimated the capability of our ship. They probably have no idea how thick our hull is. But by now they should know what kind of firepower we carry,” I replied.

“Strange… This all seems strange to me…” said Ori.

“Perhaps we’re looking at this all wrong. What if they’re doing this to keep us here while they wait for reinforcements?” Delche suggested.

“You mean more of the same ships?” I asked.

“No! That would be insane,” replied Delche. “By now they should know that we can destroy them and I’m sure they don’t want to lose any more of their ships. Earlier you mentioned you suspected that there might be a connection between these pirates and the Whites in Ostikon. I’ve heard rumours that the Whites in Ostikon were building a ‘secret weapon’, a warship like this one but far superior which can outrun and outgun us. What if they’re waiting for something like that to arrive?”

“Are you kidding me man? If they had such a ship don’t you think they would have used it by now? They would have attacked us directly in Nelez… instead of going through the pirates?”

“No, I’m serious! They can destroy us here and blame it on the pirates. Who would know?”

“Why would the pirates accept such a responsibility? Why risk a war with the Galaxy Traders? You know that Captain Orihci will get his ship flying sooner or later. And what do you think he’ll do when he finds out the pirates destroyed our ship and killed us? No, there has to be another explanation as to why they’re goading us…”

“Perhaps…! Perhaps I’m wrong… I hope I am… we’ll see,” said Delche and resumed looking for the ship.

A day later Ori received a message from Airam informing us that the recording we sent to Ruzha had been received and aired on

channel 45. There was a lot of cheering from the outlanders but no big reaction from the government. A government spokesperson said that the government knew about the recording before it was aired and the soldiers were cheering Ostikon as a friendly gesture of solidarity. I advised Ori to forward the message to Captain Orihci and tell him to air it in the Galaxy Trader planets or do as he saw fit.

We continued to play the cat and mouse game with the pirate ship for four days. During that time we had about a dozen close calls. Each time they came into range they fired their cannon at us. We were hit only once. I managed to dodge their cannon almost every time. They could see their cannon had no effect on us… yet they persisted. I never fired at them once. It would have been futile because we couldn’t get a lock. They came and went like a flash.

Then, on the fourth day, it happened. Delche was right. We were attacked by a warship a little larger that ours. It was round, long and shiny. It looked like a bullet made of gold. From what Ori told us, its hull was made of a newly invented gold alloy that was about ten times stronger than our ship’s hull. We didn’t see the ship when it fired at us. As usual, the moment I heard the sensor alarm in my ship I ran to avoid the blast. I flew in a different direction each time to maximize our chances of avoiding being blasted. We didn’t see the gold ship but we saw the devastation it caused. It had twice the cannon range as our ship and probably triple the power. It had six cannons, four in the front and two in the back, firing backwards. It also had two torpedo tubes, one in the front and one in the back. We had no chance in hell of outrunning or outgunning this ship. It could destroy us if we ran in front of it or followed it from behind. We couldn’t get close to it without being destroyed. Even if we did there was no way our cannons could penetrate its hull; even if we fired all four cannons simultaneously.

We were all visibly shaken when we saw it and realized what it could do. The only weakness I saw in it was its pilot who seemed inexperienced and overanxious. He wanted to destroy us without giving us a chance to surrender.

“Well boys, it looks like our goose is cooked,” I said as we watched him turn around and come at us again.

Then, even before he had a chance to straighten his ship, I flew under him and went in the opposite direction.

“Snap out of it guys, I need your assistance pronto! Delche be ready for a short hyperdrive jump on my mark. Ori open a channel and keep it open. Make sure everything is recorded… in case we survive.”

“I can’t calculate a jump that fast…” yelled Delche.

“Use the last jump you calculated.”

“Done!”

“Ready… MARK!”

“How far did we jump?”

“Not far. He’s catching up. He’s flying at an unimaginably fast speed.”

“Does he have hyperdrive?”

“Even if he did he wouldn’t be able to use it. Where would he go? He can’t predict which way we’ll go.”

“Thanks for that Delche. You gave me an idea. Keep the hyperdrive active at all times. Now try and figure out the range of his cannons and remind me every time he gets close.”

“Here he comes…” yelled Ori in a panicked tone of voice.

I flew our ship slightly to the left of his line of travel and did another jump.

“Captain, if he doesn’t kill us you will. These maneuvers you’re performing are very dangerous,” yelled Delche.

“Ori, speak to the man and ask him who he is and what he wants.”

After several tries Ori said, “No reply, Captain.”

“He’s coming up fast again… JUMP NOW!” yelled Delche.

“He fired at us but missed. It looks to me like he is inexperienced and flies like a raging bull. It must be frustrating for him. He has ten times the advantage over us and hasn’t hit us once…” said Delche sounding a little calmer.

“Boys, I have an idea…” I said.

“It’s about time!” yelled Delche.

“If we don’t have the firepower to destroy him, I know someone who does.”

“Delche, keep your eyes open and make sure to tell me when to jump. Ori, you keep talking to him and get him frustrated and mad. We’re going to hopscotch our way all the way to Nelez. When we get close… close enough so I can speak to the soldiers without a time delay, I’ll prepare them to fire simultaneously, just like the last time. See if we can blast him out of the sky, Okay?”

“Here he comes! JUMP!”

This time I swerved to the right. He fired his cannons multiple times, rapid fire straight and to the left.

“Captain, he’s responding. He sounds very angry but I don’t understand what he’s saying. I don’t know the language.”

“Just keep talking to him. If we survive we’ll translate what he said. Every time he misses goad him some more,” I said to Ori. I turned to Delche, who was looking at me speaking and said, “Delche, stay on the ball, our lives depend on you!”

“What do you think I’m doing…,” he said and yelled. “JUMP NOW!”

“He’s firing like a madman in all directions. What’s he trying to do? Now he’s yelling at the top of his voice,” cried Ori.

“How close are we to Nelez and how long will it takes us to get there?” I asked Delche.

“About half an hour.”

“That’s too long.”

“What if I create another jump, a longer one,” suggested Delche.

“Do you trust me with the jumps now? Make it longer but not too long to lose him.”

“Okay Captain.”

After we executed the first longer jump I figured I had enough time to contact the soldiers and get them outside and ready to fire. As soon as I made contact I instructed Ori to call the Nelez communications tower and ask them to turn off the automatic transmitter and not to interfere with the soldiers. I also asked Ori to leave a brief encrypted message for Captain Orihci letting him know what we were about to do.

We continued with the jumps until we came close to Nelez. On the way there I outlined my plan and asked Delche and Ori to trust me and not interfere in what I was doing because I needed to concentrate. Just before we reached the range of fire from the soldiers on the surface I turned off one of the ship’s engines and allowed the ship to fly erratically. When the soldiers had us in their sight I cut the second engine and allowed the ship to spin out of control making it look like we had engine trouble. Our assailant was coming at us fast and appeared in our sights. The moment I saw him I relayed that information to the soldiers and asked them to target the shining object behind us. I could see everything from Nine’s eyes. The soldiers had their loaded rifles aiming first at our ship and then at the shining ship. Then, when our assailant was close enough to fire on, I ordered the soldiers to fire. I yelled “FIRE” and then jumped our ship out of the way into space.

There was a powerful flash and a horrendous explosion. There was nothing left of our assailant except for his last screaming words, which were recorded in our communications logs.

I dismissed the soldiers and sent them back to their barracks.

“It’s time to go home boys,” I said. “I’m hungry as a dog, sleepy and could use a drink or two…”

“No one is going to believe what we went through… No one!” said Ori.

“But it will be one hell of a story to tell…” said Delche as we entered Nelez’s atmosphere.

A bitter welcome

We looked around everywhere as we descended towards the facility, but didn’t see a single person; not even the usual welcoming committee in front of the main door.

“Where is everyone?” asked Ori.

“It’s midmorning and this place should be buzzing with activity,” I said as I put the ship down in the usual place.

“There’s someone at the door,” said Delche. “It looks like Enai. He’s running this way.”

“I’ll open the hatch.”

All three of us were off our seats and standing up when he walked in.

“What’s going on Enai? Where is everyone?” I asked.

“Where do I start?” he replied, breathing heavily and stood there looking at us.

“Start somewhere! Don’t keep us in suspense… Has something terrible happened?” asked Delche.

“Well, nothing that terrible… but Captain Orihci and Ukasnek have been arrested…”

“Why? Who arrested them?”

“These men who came in a ship demanding to know why we fired at their planet…”

“What? You’d better start from the beginning Enai and tell us everything you know.”

“Well, two nights ago a ship arrived here late in the evening and landed back there in the valley. There was hardly anyone from the

facility outside so they grabbed the first person they found and asked him to take them to our leader. The man escorted two of them, both armed, into the dining area where Captain Orihci, Ukasnek and I had just finished eating supper and were having a drink of rakia. Without saying a word they nabbed us and took us outside to their ship. There were many of them standing around outside their ship. About a dozen were armed with hand weapons. One of them, a tall man, stepped forward and spoke to us. He first asked if we were in charge of this building. The Captain told him that we were. Then he wanted to know why we had been firing at his planet. He spoke in the Galaxy Trader language but we didn’t understand half the words he was saying, which made it difficult to understand what exactly he was asking. We told him we didn’t fire at his planet or any other planet for that matter. In fact we didn’t know which planet he was from. He then pointed to the big planet. You know the one you had the soldiers aim at when the flash happened. When we realized that he was talking about that planet, we stopped talking and they arrested us. They demanded to know where the weapon is so I kind of panicked and told him you have it… and that you are currently on a mission and would be back soon. I didn’t tell him when because I didn’t know exactly.”

“So, where are they now?” I asked.

“They’re all in their ship sleeping. They sleep during the day because I think their daytime is our nighttime.”

“What about the Captain and Ukasnek?”

“They’re inside the ship also.”

“Is there anything else that we should know about?” I asked.

“Well, they released me because I promised them I would deliver you to them. And if I don’t, the moment you arrive, they’ll kill the Captain and Ukasnek.”

“Don’t worry Enai. This is another problem we need to solve. You did the right thing.”

“Thank you, and I am sorry.”

“A couple more questions… Did any one of them go inside the facility… and did they see the soldiers?”

“Besides the two who came to get us, no. And they haven’t seen the super soldiers.”

“One million of them marched outside this morning and fired their weapons and you tell me no one from the ship saw them? Not even their guards?”

“No, no one that I know of. No guards were posted. All the visors on their ship’s windows were closed… I assume they were all sleeping. The people from the facility, including myself, kept an eye on their ship from the windows on the upper floors and nothing in that ship moved.”

“Is the ship armed?”

“Yes, I saw one plasma cannon on the visible side. It looked like an add-on. A commercial ship retrofitted with weapons.”

“Why is there no one outside?”

“The people are afraid to go out…”

“Are the soldiers being fed and looked after?”

“To some extent but we’re running out of food. No food is being delivered from the valley. And we have stopped the DNA testing.”

“Enai, get back inside and tell the people to resume their work. Tell them we are here and will take care of the immediate problem.”

After Enai left, I sat down, took a long, deep breath and said, “It looks like there is no rest for us today…”

“And here I thought we would get a hero’s welcome…” said Delche.

“So, what now Captain?” asked Ori.