Alistair calculated his remaining rations, added in his emergency rations, and figured he could track the ion trail for twelve days before he would have to make a port call in the Rigel system. He turned to his feline companion and said, “I’m sorry, Rojo. I know how much you like the sailorfish fillets from Titov, but you’ll just have to live on packaged rations for a few more days.”
Alistair turned his ship toward the Pleiades Star Cluster, turned his sensors on full scan, and followed the ion trail to wherever it led.
Irina Bugarov and her executive assistant, Terri Hawkins, traveled on the SS Galaxy Queen to Rigel Station for her first annual status report. Irina practiced her delivery during the week-long voyage from her home office on Shepard. She wished that the rings were opened to commercial vessels; it would cut days off her journey.
She practiced her briefing in three formats: formal long, formal short, and deskside. She did not know which he would prefer, but she would be ready, no matter what he wanted. She practiced her presentation on her assistant, who sat patiently time after time.
Irina felt good about what she had accomplished in a year. Her combine earned more in the last two quarters than all ten had earned the previous year. She had to spend some credits to improve production, which affected her first two quarters, but it had borne fruit by the third quarter and would for all of next year, too.
She also felt that hiring a security officer was a good investment. His efforts at improving security got one of her companies a high grade from the local Fleet Intel Security Officer. That rating got them a new multimillion credit contract to produce a classified component of the ring. The other companies, having seen the positive result of having good security, stepped up their security game.
Alistair Bennett coasted up to the edges of the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus sector. His sensors showed little through the cosmic dust and gas that blanketed this part of space. The minute ion trail he had been following for days was lost in the dust cloud. He dared not proceed further. His gravimetric sensors were off the scale. The gravitational forces and eddies in this packed star cluster could crush or trap his ship. Alistair looked for an out of the way location to sit and watch.
He turned the sensitivity up and down to see if anything could be resolved out of the charged dust cloud. He drew a blank. He composed a message to Fleet Intel to provide them with his log, his suspicions, and his request for a Scout Force ship with better sensors to explore this region. He had a specific ship in mind. He wondered if they would believe his theory of disappearing pirates.
Rojo jumped up on the console and nuzzled his hand. It was his way of politely reminding Alistair that he was starving. Alistair left his instruments and went through the feeding ritual. He was sorry he didn’t have any of Rojo’s favorite food left, but what he had would have to do. “Eat up, Rojo. We head to Rigel tomorrow. I’ll see what local fish they have on Rigel Prime. Maybe I can find you a treat.”
Rojo purred as he ate.
Thorson stood his sensor watch on the bridge of the pirate ship Undefeated and stared at the blank screen. It wasn’t technically blank; it displayed the nearby planets and celestial bodies all right, but was devoid of any ships that might become prey for the Undefeated. Thorson continued his watch, hoping some rich plunder would come their way.
Captain Mabry came out of her cabin and up to Thorson. “Have you found me any prizes yet?”
Thorson looked up from the screen and said, “No, Captain, I think we’ve scared them all away.”
“Thorson, I pay you for your piloting ability. Pilot us where there might be some choice cargo ships to plunder. We are going to need credits to live on when we finally return to Barataria. Come on. Get lucky.”
Captain Mabry had inherited the Undefeated from its previous captain, after she slit his throat while making love to him. It went along with her peculiar sense of humor. The Undefeated was a custom-built, fast, medium cargo ship that had been fitted with bigger engines, long-range weapons, and a tractor beam. It was a privateer ship of the Marauder Fleet. It bore no allegiance to any state and existed only on the fringes of galactic society. Some thought it romantic, but Thorson knew the punishment for piracy was spacing. He saw a sudden cold end to his future if he were caught and cast out into the vacuum. He had seen explosive decompression before and it was not something to be dismissed lightly.
He piloted the ship along the edges of the A-1571 asteroid field, in hopes of finding a hapless freighter or other likely victim. Tim, the sensor/weapon operator, scanned the surrounding space for any approaching ships. It was not unusual for the local military to randomly patrol the empty reaches of space, to forestall exactly what the Undefeated was waiting amongst the rocks to do.
They waited three days at the edge of the asteroid field, looking for likely targets. They saw large, slow ore carriers, well-escorted express freighters, and pre-fabricated asteroid mining facilities pulled by space tugs. None of those were of any interest.
The ore carriers carried bulk ores that were of no worth to the Undefeated. The escorted freighters probably carried high value cargo, but their escorts were too strong for the pirates’ weapons and shields. The mining stations were just too big to move if captured; besides, they were mostly just machinery and living quarters for asteroid miners and of no real marketable value.
They needed a big fast container freighter trying to make the run solo. Freighters sometimes did that, counting on their speed to carry them through the danger. It was only another day before he got an indication of likely prey entering sensor range.
Thorson called the captain to the bridge and they watched as a faint blip resolved into an Andelian Free State registered mid-sized long-range transport. It was one of the new Galaxy model executive transports, on which corporate executives and tri-vid stars liked to scoot about in space. It was designed more for show than for the realities of space travel. It featured large gaudy fins and winglets totally unsuited for space or atmospheric travel, but it was the latest style.
The Undefeated was less fashionable, but faster and unlike the transport, was armed. As they passed, the captain ordered a shot across her bow and sent a demand for surrender. The passenger transport quickly slowed to below FTL, yawed in space, faced away from the direction of movement, and fired thrusters to bring her to a halt. Undefeated closed on her and the Captain ordered the boarding squad to stand by.
The captain of the luxury transport offered his unconditional surrender. Captain Mabry ordered the Undefeated to dock with the ship and sent the boarding party over to secure it. Within minutes, the Ascetic boarding party was signaling all secure and five prisoners to bring aboard.
The sensor/weapons operator activated the tractor beam and the two ships moved together deep into the asteroid field. Thorson left the S/W operator to keep a watch, and then joined the captain as she inspected the captured ship.
He followed behind the captain with weapon drawn, as they entered the prize.
Captain Mabry sneered and said, “Well, Thorson, what do you think of her?”
He looked around and saw the opulence of the furnishings. The airlock was stainless steel. The passageways were lined with real wood, which was something pretty rare in space due to the prohibitive cost. He looked in one of the cabins and saw gold fixtures and real cloth bedding. There were some credits invested in this ship.