The Adventures of Whirlwind

Warfare in the Thirtieth Century

Episode 2

The Mercenary

Chapter 11 Reprisal

Aello lay wide awake in her cell. She knew she should rest, but the thought of what waited her on the morrow had her so anxious that she couldn’t sleep. The mere thought of what was going to happen to her had her heart rate accelerating. She went to the cell door. It was barred so that any guards could look in and see what was going on. It bothered her that she had no privacy for even the most intimate of functions. But it did give her a chance to see out. The cellblock was deserted as far as she could see, but there were likely people in other cells. She wanted to call out, but knew that there was a guard close by. She had been warned not to attempt to communicate with anyone outside the cell on pain of punishment.

The sound of Kamna stirring in her sleep caused her to turn back into the cell. The Indian girl occupied the bunk above hers. “At least one of us can sleep,” she thought. She watched Kamna twitching in her sleep. It was far from restful, but she probably was sleeping better than Senia and Lina. When they had first been brought to the cells, Lina had been there, screaming at the guards to enter her cell and fuck her. The sight and sound of what had been done to the mech pilot horrified Aello more than what had been done to Senia. The latter had merely been raped. Lina had been raped and deprived of her pride and independence. She had been reduced to nothing more that a sexual toy. Hard to believe as it was, there were worse things that could be done to women besides rape.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud clanging sound. Aello recognized it as an alarm. Her heart leaped in hope. Someone or something was attacking the pirate. Then her spirits sank again. “More likely the pirate had found another victim,” she thought.

A low vibration told her that the pirate was powering up. Whatever was happening, the ship was readying for action. Her thoughts got no farther than that. Suddenly she was flying across the cell. She barely had time to throw her hands up in front of her before she bounced off the cell wall. Screaming in surprise, Kamna landed on top of her. For a few seconds they both struggled in a tangle of arms and legs and then the artificial gravity went, allowing both women to float free.

They had been hit. And quite badly to knock out the AG system. It was the pirate who was under attack after all. Perhaps their ordeal would end.

Another shock ran through the ship. This time the lack of gravity cushioned them from the impact, but the shock was displayed in another way. Aello could feel the compression of the air as the shockwave passed through the ship. And then a wave of heat blew down the cellblock corridor.

Suddenly the wall was moving toward her. Aello barely had time to snap out her arm and catch hold of the bars of the cell before she was buffeted by the collapse of the cell wall. Metal shrieked as the ship shook like a wounded animal. The cell door flew into the corridor, carrying Aello with it. She released her hold on it just in time to avoid being crushed between the heavy door and the far wall of the cellblock, but pounded into it herself.

The impact with the steel wall knocked the breath from her, but the lack of gravity left her floating above the floor. Her diaphragm convulsing, she fought to draw a breath. The ship had obviously been hit badly. This much damage so deep inside the hull brought into question the ship’s ability to survive.

She finally caught her breath. Kicking off the wall she propelled herself back to the cell. Kamna lay in a heap on the floor, but Aello saw her arm move. She sailed over to her and tried to pull her free of the cell. She had to wedge her legs in the cell door to keep from simply pulling herself toward Kamna instead of pulling her out, but the lack of gravity also helped her. Kamna weighed nothing in this environment and she was able to pull her from beneath the wreckage of the bunk and out into the corridor.

Kamna’s gorgeous brown eyes fluttered open. There was a large bruise on her forehead. Apparently the metal frame of the bed had struck her when the ship was hit. She groaned and raised her hand to her head. “Take it easy,” said Aello, “you’re going to be alright.” Gently she caressed Kamna’s coffee-coloured skin.

Recognition showed in Kamna’s mahogany eyes. She nodded, showing that she understood. “Good,” thought Aello, “she’ll probably be alright in a few minutes.” Farther down the cellblock she could hear someone shouting. She knew that voice. “Thank God,” she muttered. And then to Kamna she said, “I’m going to leave you for a minute or so, but I’ll be back. Just rest until I return. I’m not going far.”

She pushed off in the zero gravity, a single thrust of her legs sending her sailing the length of the cellblock. Not used to the absence of gravity, she sailed right past the cell where the shouting was coming from. Catching herself on the bars of another cell, she swung around and this time reached the target cell.

“Took you long enough to get here,” Carter said, his mouth curved in a grin. Behind him was Jeff.

“Damn rights, babe,” added redheaded the mech pilot, “now unlock the door.”

“I don’t know the code,” Aello said. She felt like a fool. She ought to have realized the cell was locked. As she pondered the situation another powerful vibration shook the cell block. From cell block entrance came a loud explosion and a ball of fire flashed into the corridor. From beyond the door Aello could see a bright orange glow indicating that the region outside the cell block was in flames. “The ship is being torn apart,” she thought. “I’ve got to open the cells.”

“Wait here,” she said stupidly, knowing full well that Carter and Jeff could do nothing else. Without waiting for Jeff’s sarcastic reply, she propelled herself toward the cellblock entrance. As she passed Kamna she saw that the Indian mech pilot seemed to have recovered and was moving slowly down the cellblock checking each cell. That reminded Aello that she had seen no sign of Senia or Lina.

Reaching the cellblock door she could feel the heat of the intense fire in the room beyond. Even more to the point, she could smell the poisonous fumes and smoke pouring into her section of the ship. If they didn’t get out of the cellblock quickly the smoke from the fire would kill them. Near the door she found what she had seen on the way in. She opened a small compartment. In it was a survival suit. It was not intended for extended time in deep space, but for an emergency such as the one she faced now. She pulled out the suit and saw to her relief that there were several more behind it.

Pulling out the first suit she struggled into it as quickly as she could. She called down the cellblock to Kamna. “Catch these and see if you can get them to Carter and Jeff.” She gave the bunch of suits a push and sent them floating toward the mech pilot. As she did, she knew that there was no way to get the helmets of the suits through the narrow bars of the cells. She would have to find a way to get the door open.

She took a deep breath. It was time to act. Locking on the helmet of her suit she moved toward the raging inferno outside the cellblock. She moved as fast as she dared. The suit was not designed to withstand intense heat, but she felt she had no choice. She would have to take the chance. Carefully she floated into the firestorm in the room beyond. She could feel the heat right through her suit. She only had seconds. Soon the fabric would begin to melt.

At first she saw only the tendrils of fire. In the absence of gravity fire did strange things. Flames did not go up; they formed spheres of whirling gas that flared about the room, creating a frightening chamber of death. Determinedly she pushed farther into the room. Then she was able to make out a few shapes. She fought back the urge to be sick. Bodies, melting in the heat floated about the room, but she forced herself to look at them. Finally she spotted what she wanted. She hoped that the heat hadn’t damaged it, because this would be her only chance. She could already see the fabric of her suit bubbling as it broke down. Quickly she pushed herself toward the object and snagged it. Then pushing off she propelled herself toward the cellblock. As she did so fire engulfed her and for a second she feared that she had gambled and lost. And then she was through the fire and moving into the corridor leading to the cellblock. She stopped at the door, and turning the emergency locking mechanism forced the door closed, sealing off the fiery room beyond.

Aello breathed a sigh of relief. She realized that she had not taken a breath the entire time she had been in the outer room. Breathing quickly she pushed herself toward Kamna, who was waving anxiously at her.

“It’s Lina and Senia,” the Indian girl said, “but I can’t get the cell door open.”

“Stand back,” Aello said. She set the beam of the laser pistol she had picked up from the floor of the outer room. Turning the dial on the side of the pistol she tuned it to shoot the thinnest beam possible. “I hope this thing still works,” she thought. She squeezed the trigger.

A pencil thin beam so small as to be almost invisible struck the bars of the cell. Aello could not suppress a smile of satisfaction as she cut through the lock mechanism. In a few seconds the lock floated free and Kamna wrenched the door open, bracing herself against the outside of the cell as she floated a few feet off the floor. Inside Aello could see the still forms of Senia and Lina. Suppressing her concern, she sailed down the cellblock and stopped in front of the cell containing Jeff and Carter. It took her only seconds to release them as well. Leaving them to struggle into the survival suits, she coasted back to Kamna.

The Indian girl had both the unconscious women out of the cell and had them floating side by side. Senia moaned as Aello approached, while Lina floated limp and unmoving. “I think Lina was over stimulated by the Aphro,” said Kamna. “Help me get her into the suit.”

Before they were finished Carter and Jeff joined them Aello wondered a bit as Carter and Jeff slipped Senia into the last survival suit, and then remembered that Carter had seen her naked when he had rescued her only a day ago. “Actually,” she thought, recalling the memory fondly, “he did more that just see me naked.”

Now that he had been released Carter took charge. “We’ve got to get out of here. This part of the ship is losing air.”

“But,” Aello informed him, “the room outside the cellblock is burning out of control. We can’t go that way.”

“Yes we can,” Carter replied. “Once the air pressure drops low enough there won’t be enough oxygen to sustain it. Then we can get the hell out of here.”

Aello nodded. She hadn’t thought of that, although she knew she should have. Carter was already coasting down the hall. The rest followed him. Aello knew he was right. Already the emergency lighting was beginning to dim. Eventually the power would be drained and the part of the ship they were in would be nothing but a lifeless shell. They had to get out while they were still alive.

Carter swung the door open. In the outer room the fires were dying down as he said they would. No doubt most of the oxygen in this part of the ship was already used up. They moved through the door, hauling the unconscious forms of Senia and Lina with them.

With the flames dying, the carnage was even more evident. Aello tried to ignore the charred fragments of what had once been men and concentrated on finding a way out. This part of the ship was almost completely dark, most of the emergency lighting having been destroyed. Carter seemed to know where he was going and Aello and Kamna followed him, towing Lina and Senia along with them. Jeff brought up the rear.

The damage in this part of the ship was incredible. In some places the metal of the decking, walls, and roof simply seemed to have evaporated. In others it was a twisted mass of unrecognizable junk. How Carter found his way in the dim light Aello did not know, but he led them on, seemingly with some goal in mind.

“Damn!” Carter’s exclamation was tinged with disappointment.

“What’s the problem?” Jeff asked.

“The ship has been blown apart. I thought I was leading us someplace, but we are just in a section of the hull that is a fragment of the original ship. The rest must have been blown all over the galaxy.”

“What are we going to do?” asked Kamna. Her voice was calm, but contained a hint of anxiety.

“We hope that there is still someplace to go,” Carter answered. “And the only way to find that out is to go outside.”

“Outdside?” Kaman sounded unconvinced. “But we don’t have a ship.”

“We used to. It might still be close by. Come on.”

Taking the lead again, Carter led them down another maze of wrecked corridors. By now there was no air left anywhere in the ship and they depended completely on their survival suits. Reaching a heavy door, Carter stopped. “This is an airlock. We go through here and then we’re out of the ship. Jeff, I want you to stay with Lina and Senia. I’m giving you the laser pistol. Look after them until they come around or we come back for you.” Jeff looked as if he might object, but then closed his mouth and nodded. He would rather have gone with Carter, but if anything went wrong he would be the backup. They moved into the airlock, and then opening the outer door they passed out into the blackness and cold of space.

The area around the ship contained hundreds of pieces of floating debris. It was a good thing that it did, as moving amongst the wreckage were several small shuttle craft. A few hundred feet away was what was left of the main section of the pirate ship. The shuttle craft were moving back and forth transferring cargo from the wreck to Carter’s smaller ship. Hidden among the debris the three mech pilots were able to move unnoticed.

The survival suits contained small radios, but this near to the pirates it was almost certain that the signals would be picked up. However, there was another way to communicate. Carter motioned the two women to him. Touching his faceplate to theirs he spoke, the sound of his voice conducted to them through the material of the helmet.

“I’m going to try and get to the ship. The cargo hold is open and we should be able to make it if we use the cloud of debris to work our way in. Just in case though, I’m going first. Aello, you follow five minutes after me and Kamna, five minutes after Aello.”

The two women signaled their assent and Carter moved off. The survival suits had only limited mobility, not being powered with the more powerful propulsion units of suits used for combat or working in space. However, their small engines also had almost no energy signature, making Carter’s movement that much more stealthy. By the time Aello started to following him he was almost to the cargo bay.

There were only three shuttle craft and getting into the cargo bay was a matter of timing their arrival and departure. Carter waited until the shuttle left before jetting into the cargo hold. Fortunately, it was empty due to the fact that it was open to the vacuum of space. He maneuvered behind some boxes and waited. Aello joined him a few minutes later. As she approached he reflected how important the young woman had become to him. Not only was she the best mech pilot he had ever seen, she was intelligent and resourceful. She had shown real initiative in figuring out how to release him from his cell. And, he remembered fondly, she was wonderful to make love to. She was inexperienced, but her face and body were incredible and she had responded ardently after some initial hesitation. Her reserve was natural considering she had been raped. He bit his lip. Next time he would build on the bond he had established in their first round of lovemaking.

He returned his mind to the task at hand as Aello joined him. Impatiently they both waited for Kamna to arrive. They did not have a single weapon between them, but Carter knew where to get more. Even armed they would be heavily outnumbered. However, they had one thing going for them. No one suspected they were still alive. It was only a fluke that the section of the ship they had been in had managed to retain its integrity long enough for them to escape. Now it was nothing but an airless hulk completely devoid of life, except for Jeff and the two unconscious mech pilots floating in the airlock.

The most dangerous part of the operation was getting into the ship proper. The airlock would be monitored, but here Carter had an advantage. It was his ship after all and he intended to take advantage of that fact. He led the two women over to the side of the hold farthest from the airlock. Here there was a hidden smuggler’s hatch. It had been there when Carter had acquired the ship, but he had made it his business to learn every inch of the vessel. It was a way into the ship that would not be monitored.

Carter moved aside the partition that hid the hatch and keyed in the entry code. A panel slid aside and he moved into the darkness within, motioning for the two women to follow him. They were in a tiny room, much smaller than the regular airlock. They were forced to lie side by side in the cramped space while Carter checked the room on the other side. The entry door had slid shut behind them plunging them into total darkness, but a small instrument panel glowed in the blackness. After checking the instruments, Carter punched a few more buttons and another panel slid open allowing a dim light into their cramped cubicle.

Carter slid out into the room beyond, the two women following. They were in the lower engine room, relieved to feel the pull of the AG system once more. Carter led them to what looked like a tool locker. Opening it he took out three fusion rifles. “Emergency equipment,” he said giving the two women a wink.

Aello smiled back as did Kamna. Aello found herself wondering if Carter would invite her to his bed again. The look that Kamna had just given him told her that he could have any woman he wanted and Senia had already made it plain he had already had her. “Steady,” she thought. “This is no time to get jealous. Let’s get the ship back and then worry about who beds who.”

She hefted her fusion rifle. It was a formidable weapon at almost any range. Usually it was not used aboard a ship due to its tendency to punch holes through any target and then melt down parts of the ship before its energy was spent. However, under the circumstances it might just turn the fight for the ship in their favour. Nothing the pirates had would be able to stand before it. Apparently Carter had decided that it was worth the risk to his ship to make sure that he won the battle. Considering what the pirates had done to Senia and Lina, Aello had to agree with him.

“This way,” Carter urged, setting off through the engine room. He led them to a steel ladder that was bolted to the wall. “This will take us to the crew compartments,” he explained. “It is hidden in the wall of the ship so I doubt anyone will know when we have arrived.”

“Why are there so many secret ways through the ship?” Aello asked. It almost seems too convenient.

“Before I bought her she was owned by a smuggler. I expect he stashed quite a bit of contraband in between the walls and decks. I decided to leave things as they were. Never can tell when a secret passage might come in handy.”

Aello smiled as did Kamna. It was good to feel that they had a chance again. Carter exuded confidence and both women picked it up. Carter had started climbing as he finished speaking. He had held a finger to his lips to indicate that from here on they should not talk. As quietly as possible all three moved up the ladder. They climbed silently for about thirty seconds, and then Carter stepped off the ladder into a small dark room. The two women followed. Carter spoke in a low voice. “The crew quarters is on the other side of this partition. As you can hear, it seems to be occupied.”

Aello and Kamna could indeed hear. The noise from the other side was deafening. It sounded as if there was a wild party going on. Aello could well imagine given the personalities of the pirates that they were probably drunk or drugged or both. “OK,” said Carter. “We go in shooting.” He pushed a lever and the wall swung open.

Aello was momentarily blinded as she entered the brightly lit crew quarters and then as her eyes adjusted, she was horrified at what she saw. A young woman, with hair the colour of flame, was spread wide on a table in the centre of the room. Three men were raping her while a horde of others hooted and hollered at the helpless victim. The woman was not moving. She was either too exhausted to resist any further or had fainted. Aello did not care why she was so still; a red haze of rage blurred her vision. Carter had said go in shooting and that is exactly what she did.

The work the fusion beams did was terrible. The pirates were so occupied with their redheaded victim that they did not even notice Carter and the two women until the beams had burned half a dozen of them. The hideous screams of the dying men alerted the other crew members, but they were far too late to escape a similar fate. Within seconds the room was filled with charred corpses.

Aello felt sickened. She had never seen so many dead men so close up and the stench of their burned flesh clogged her nostrils. But there was no time for sentimentality. Carter was already moving from the room toward the command centre of the ship, Kamna following. Aello swallowed, took a deep breath and hurried after.

They killed as they went, their fusion beams burning everything before them. Only when they reached the control room did they meet any resistance. There, the pirate captain had rallied what remained of his crew. There were scarely a dozen men left by this time, but that still meant that they outnumbered the three mech pilots by four to one. And they were in an area of the ship where the use of the fusion beams might cause serious damage to the functioning of the ship. Carter watched their backs, ordering Aello and Kamna to make sure that no one escaped the control room.

Aello leveled her fusion beam at the door to the control room. Beside her Kamna also stood guard. If anyone attempted to escape they would have to run a gauntlet of fire. It appeared her that there was a stalemate. There were not enough of them to rush the command centre and the pirates had no way to escape, but still controlled the ship’s instrumentation.

At that moment a voice echoed over the ship’s intercom. “This is Sardar Drhan.” The voice paused as if to let that information sink in. Aello had heard of Drhan. He was a pirate well known for his vicious and unrestrained cruelty. It explained a lot about how she and the other women had been treated when captured. If she had known who he was she would probably have expected it. She wondered what he wanted.

“We have a bit of a standoff,” Drhan continued. “You have me confined to the control room, but I control the ship. I propose a deal. I will pilot the ship to the nearest inhabited planet and let you off. Refuse and I will open all of the airlocks and depressurize the ship. Oh, I am sure that you have survival suits, but the air supply won’t last forever. And you will have one hell of time getting food and water. The suits are only designed to last a few days. Eventually you will run out, and then you will die. And it won’t be a pretty death.”

Aello knew that Drhan was right. But she also knew that she and her companions were capable of making life just as miserable for the pirate captain. As long as Drhan and his men were bottled up in the control room they could not prevent them from disabling the ship beyond repair. Carter probably even knew ways of blowing it up. Drhan had staked out a bargaining position; that was all. He wanted a deal that would allow him to get off the ship alive.

Kamna had figured out the situation as well as Aello. “Idle threats Drhan. You’re trapped in there and you don’t have survival suits. How about if we disable the AG and the life support. You’d be dead in minutes.”

“From the accent you must be the Indian bitch,” replied Drhan. “I should have fucked you first. By the way, how’s the other bitches? The blonde and the black still alive? And that black-haired cunt. She still around? I would sure have liked to ream her pussy.”

Aello ignored the vile taunts of the pirate chief. It was obvious that he was playing for time. And then it came to her. The pirates operating the shuttles! She had forgotten about them, as had Kamna and Carter. She turned the way she and Kamna had come. At that moment a shout from Carter alerted her. She and Kamna turned just in time. Had she not turned when she did the laser bolt that blazed down the corridor would have cut Kamna in two. She just had time to kick out with her right leg, sending the Indian girl flying across the corridor, before seeking shelter herself. Almost immediately the place where she had been was seared with laser blasts.

The three of them sheltered behind twin abutments on either side of the door, but their position was precarious at best. There was so much fire coming down the corridor that none of them dared so much as poke a fingernail from their hiding places. They were trapped. Aello glanced back toward the control room door. In a few seconds it would probably open. They would be caught in a murderous crossfire from which the only escape would be death.

Drhan signaled to the nine men who were crowded into the control room with him. He had the mech pilots trapped. Now it was just a matter of finishing them off. Moving to the massive control room door, he activated the opening mechanism. The door swung slowly open. He readied his weapon. In a few seconds his enemies would be dead.

Riona opened her eyes. She was lying on the floor of the crew quarters. Her body was racked with pain. The slightest movement caused exquisite agony. “Mother of God,” she thought, “those bastards really worked me over.” She drew in a deep breath. There was a strange smell in the air. The smell of burned flesh. In spite of the agony she raised her head and instantly stiffened. Only two feet away lay what was left of what had once been a man. The entire top of his head had been sheered off by the most intense heat. “Fusion beam,” she thought. “Ugly weapon.”

She forced herself to sit up. “God I hurt,” she muttered. She grimaced. She was sitting in the middle of what looked like a charnel house. The bodies of a dozen or more men were scattered about the room, most of them horribly burned. She recognized several of them. They were the thugs that only a short time before had brutally raped her.

With a groan she rose to her feet. She was bleeding from her vagina and her legs felt so wobbly she had to hold onto the table. “I’m a bloody mess,” she thought. “I need to get to a med centre.”

She picked up one of the fallen weapons, a pulse laser. Someone had caused considerable carnage and it was best to be armed. She wondered who it was. Certainly it was no one from Star Command. None of its troopers would have used such terrible weapons inside a ship. Perhaps there had been a disagreement amongst the pirates. Or perhaps the crew of the smaller ship had fought back. She wondered why they had not done so sooner.

A noise outside the door of the crew quarters caused her to freeze. A quick glance around showed her that there was no place to hide and she was too weak and exhausted to dash across to the other door. Quickly she dropped to the floor, hiding the gun beneath her.

The door opened. Feigning death, Riona lay among the burned corpses of the dead pirates. “What the fuck!” The exclamation came from one of the men who had entered the room. “Those fucking mech pilots have butchered most of the crew.” A crescendo of curses accompanied these observations. There were several men in the room and it was clear that they were pirates.

“Let’s go boys. We’ve got a score to settle with those bitches.” The sound of moving feet indicated that the pirates were leaving the room, heading in the direction of the ship’s control room. One of them kicked Riona in passing. “Fucking bastards even killed the redhead. I was looking forward to fucking her.” Holding her breath, she remained still, lying in the bloody mess that had once been a man’s insides. She had not chosen the spot intentionally, but it seemed to have deceived the pirates into thinking she was dead.

The sound of footsteps heading out of the room died down. A few seconds later the sounds of laser bursts sounded from the direction the pirates had gone. Riona scrambled to her feet. Cradling her pulse laser she staggered awkwardly in the direction of the shooting. She was having considerable trouble walking, but the threat of imminent danger dulled her pain as a surge of adrenaline swept through her.

Aello hugged the wall. Trapped with Kamna and Carter, and unable to move more than a few millimetres without danger of being burned by a laser bolt, she called on her training to keep from panicking. She turned her head in the direction of the door of the control room. If that door opened she and Kamna would be doomed. They would be completely exposed to any fire from within without any chance of fighting back.

Suddenly screams sounded from the direction the laser bolts were coming from. The fire diminished, but at the same time the door to the control room started to open. Aello assessed the situation in an instant. Jeff! He must have decided to come after them after all and had come up behind the pirates that had them pinned down. Without waiting to see whether Carter and Kamna would follow, she darted from behind the abutment, shooting as she moved. Now it was the pirates who were caught in a crossfire, and they had no place to hide.

There had been seven of them; two were already down. The remaining five fired wildly, panic-stricken at the trap that had been sprung on them. Aello pulled the trigger on her fusion rifle. The fearsome jet of fire that coursed down the corridor enveloped the remaining five. Aello immediately stopped firing, fearing to burn Jeff who was shooting from farther down the corridor. In any case there was little time to waste as the control room door swung open. Aello turned and sent a jet of flame into the open doorway. There were some gratifying screams from the other side and then the door was slammed closed.

The three of them ran to join Jeff, but to their astonishment Jeff was not there. The redheaded girl that Aello had seen being raped leaned wearily against the wall, her laser pistol held loosely in one limp hand. She seemed barely conscious. It must have taken nearly all of her remaining strength to follow the men who had sprung the trap on them. Now the adrenaline rush that had enabled her to pursue the pirates was gone and she was near collapse. Aello and Kamna caught her before she fell. The redhead’s pistol fell from nerveless fingers and she fainted.

Drhan cursed. Two more men down. “Fucking fusion beams,” he swore. “Are they out of their minds using those weapons on board a ship?” He had to get out of the control room. There was only one was entrance. As long as those sons-of-bitches of mech pilots kept them penned up there was nothing he could do. Nothing except threaten to kill them all. He could get the ship up to speed and crash it into something. There was plenty of debris about. It would be easy to tear open the ship’s hull by deliberately crashing it. He would have to try his bluff again.

Flicking on the ship’s intercom he sent another message through the ship. “Alright, listen up. We’re trapped in here. But we control the ship. We need to work out a deal. I have no intention of letting you take me prisoner and I expect you feel the same way. This is what I propose. Forget what I said about opening the airlocks. I don’t want you burning your way in here with those Goddamned fusion rifles. I’ll pilot the ship to the nearest inhabited world and then take my crew off in the shuttle. You get your ship back. Refuse and I hit the throttle right now. And by the way I am pointed right at the wreckage of my old ship. I expect none of us will live through that.”

Carter and the two women looked at one another. They knew that Drhan could hear anything they said. But the look they exchanged said it all. They would have to give in, if for no other reason that Jeff and their other two female companions were still on what was left of the pirate ship.

Carter answered. “All right Drhan, you’ve got a deal. But first I want something off your ship. And I get to choose the planet. I have no intention of you taking us someplace friendly to you.”

“Agreed,” answered Drhan, but I damned if I know what you want off the piece of junk that I used to own. How about Alda Rahan? That should be neutral enough.”

Carter nodded and then answered. “It’ll do, but first let me send one of my crew to your ship.” The planet suggested by Drhan was one that had a somewhat shady history. Alda Rahan was off the beaten track, and was used extensively by those who frequently went beyond the law. It was considered neutral ground by those who made use of the many illegal services that it offered. Carter was well acquainted with the planet as was Drhan. Carter hated making a deal with the ruthless pirate, especially after what he had done to Lina and Senia, but at least the bastard would be off the ship. Vengeance could wait until later.

It did not take long to retrieve the other members of the crew. Carter sent Kamna back while he kept watch on the control room. Drhan and his thugs were not going anywhere until they reached Alda Rahan. Aello attended to the redhead they had rescued from Drhan’s men, carrying her to the med centre. Carter would join her as soon as Kamna returned with the rest of his team.

In the control room, Drhan smiled. He had the deal he wanted. It would take a few hours to reach Alda Rahan. It would give him the time he needed to carry out his plan.

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