It turns on a dime, he said...

[travail]

Turns out my Spyder had picked up a tickle on one of her many strands, which she'd sussed out by going passive and listening. She laid out her reasoning and the tenuous chain of supposition and fact in the Spice Hall in Prime's 'Port, where I met her.

Her eyes were dark and hooded as she sat in the shadowy part of one of the dives there, and there was a third-full glass of some kind of smoky, viscous fluid which she held in both hands like it was warm. She also had a hookah-contraption on the table in front of her, which had some kind of liquid spice thing in its glass bowl, bubbling over a small heating element in the table.

She blew out a breath of fragrant steam she'd been holding. I waited. We watched each other without saying nothing, 'cause the moment seemed timeless- a dark corner in a place where you could escape kill or be killed for whatever time you could seize in one fist, before it trickled away between your fingers. It was a moment like a singularity, close, confined, everything we were or would ever be squashed into this impossibly small space in the galaxy. She was languid with her spice and vudka of choice, and I thought about getting a hit of something. I decided I'd rather chew on revenge, so I waited for the perfect timeless bubble to collapse back into the quantum ocean, the transient construct which can pop out of nothing and back again.

The moment collapsed into that potential, finally, and she leaned forward, and took another hit on her hookah. She spoke through the steam.

"Found something Cap'n", she said overly precise in her speech. "Bounty offered on a kill mission, originating on Cadar Prime. Contract was to find a Captain Schadenfreude, on the Lazy Eclipse, and introduce him to vacuum."

"And?"

"And, Schadewhatever is a complete scofflaw, hated by everyone. That guy is like a hero to the Independents, but the factions have wanted him dead for nearly a century, but he's too good, too smart to get nailed. Anyway, the bastard's tough, and has retired a bunch of would-be bounties over the years. It was the Cadar thing what got me looking... seems a few months ago he dusted a Cadar military ship which ran into him. Among the crew was a young MO named Havelocke, got himself slaughtered with the rest."

I made a rolling gesture with my index finger. Was this some spice story, or was she going to get anywhere near a freaking point?

She continued. "So, Havelocke is also the name of the Cadar guy offering the contract- not a surprise, right? But I started digging: he's big now in Cadar Prime military, an Admiral, and the MO what got dusted was a son. Only son, in fact. And the bounty is enormous, even with the risk- it's definitely personal. Anyway, I got hacking and found out that Havelocke senior used to captain a Terror-class ship called Anticipation. Now, the reason it's got that name is it's based on an old Terran writer, who said that there is no terror in the bang, just in the anticipation of it..."

I interrupted her rambling. "Deal, the. What is, for shite's sake?"

She grinned, with too many damn teeth, pleased with herself and for getting to me. "Havelocke the senior was the kid's only heir, and I hacked Havelocke the junior's file up, down, and sideways. Father inherited a small house, creds in the amount of 22 k, spice debts of four and half k..."

I wanted to slap the hell out of her, and was about to when she looked at me and said "... and a ship named Vark Mordi."

My slap froze, and me along with it. And then the ice shattered, and the volcanic magma of my rage shot through my body, and I felt my brain boil and the steam build up in my chest. And I breathed out the steam in a low, steady exhale, enjoying the warmth of my anger, newly kindled.

She wasn't pretty, hell, had a face only a neutron star could love, but I wanted her right then, right in our dark corner of the spice hall. She'd given me back a reason to leave the green, leave the sensation of Da's peace in the house, and to get back out into the big empty, and I loved her for it.

But I didn't do it. Some lines you just don't cross because you'll regret it more than the satisfaction that scratching the itch will give you. Instead, I gave her her 50 thou creds and a fierce grin, and left her to enjoy her spice and vudka while I went to round up the crew and see the Tiberia Dark out of drydock.

[contributor]

Great stuff Travail. You've got me waiting for the next installment.

[travail]

We were set to lift the next day. Crew was aboard- Casey, my First, was in such heavy discipline mode, I expected to see a leather strap in his hand to beat anyone not moving to his orders. Kinda like Da with me, I reckon. But he earned his pay, that's for sure- rounding up 220 crew scattered across a Star Port with a sizable Spice Hall, and getting 'em ready to fly, is roughly the same difficulty of wrestling a comet off course- with your bare hands. Says something about Casey, that we were ready to lift on time.

Meanwhile, my smuggler, Dexter Yee, had gotten us loaded up on water-fuel enough to practically float the Dark. My MO, a serious hard case who might have had a conscience once, but as long as he was loyal to my creds it worked for me, had topped up the torps and had the extra weaps stored in their special cabinet we put in last year for 'em. Lastly, my Spyder came on board, eyes even deeper hooded than I'd seen her in the Spice Hall, and I knew she'd probably sat there all night long with her vudka and spice. She met my eyes, but seemed empty, used up.

"Get some rack, you look hell-awful," I said.

She grinned at me, and said "Yeah, but I feel fiiiine, cap'n."

Considering we were heading into war, I thought the morale afforded by spice and Goodtimers well worth the cost. I slapped her on the shoulder and she stumbled against the wall with a "oof". I chuckled, and headed for the bridge.

Once there, I got on the ship-wide. I'd had this speech written for a long time, memorized, about vengeance, and meaning, and rage, quoting inspiring speeches going back to old, lost Terra. As I was about to address the crew, I chucked the whole thing and just spoke.

"We're gonna go get what's mine. Some son of a nebula took the Vark, and when he did, he opened us to vacuum and killed my old crew, those I couldn't save. He gave the ship to his thrice damned spoiled brat, who's already been exed out. The son was lucky. Now, we're for the father, to teach him what it is to screw with us.

No lie. He's an admiral in the Cadar navy, so he ain't the easiest target. But when you signed on, you did it for work, for the right of the spoils, and for the security of working for one of the biggest and baddest ships out there. I'm telling you there ain't no one so big he can't be pushed over. And if it takes leveling Cadar Prime to ash, we're going to teach him about what it means dealing with us.

You are the meanest and baddest crew I've ever had, that any captain could ask for. I'm so damned proud of each and every one of you, and we have a ship second to none at this point. Faction navies wish they were us, for hell's sake!

Now, we're lifting off, into fortune and legend. Stand tall. Hold fast. And kick effing ass. That is all."

[morten]

Brilliant

[travail]

With the big engines and sails in the Tiberia Dark, there were not many ships faster or more maneuverable out there. We ran into a few on the way to Cadar Prime, because ships in the core are thicker than flies on a dead terrox, but no one wanted to bother with us. 'Course, there was a Cadar military patrol ship that we wanted to bother with- it couldn't do nothing when we leapt to close the distance and boarded. I think they got off a torp at us, but it missed wide with the speed we had to get in their face.

When we'd subdued the few crewmen we didn't ace right out, I dealt with the captain. He resisted, of course, and went down with a frag round in the leg which absolutely shredded his thigh, making quite the mess. I had 2 of his crewmen clean off the decking with small brushes as Von Diehmann, my MO, growled like a rabid badger at them. I had to work really hard not to laugh at him when he winked at me over their industrious hands-and-knees posture.

With the hostilities done, I brought my Spyder on through so she could hack their military files for intel. She'd slept off the coupla weeks from Javat Prime, and couldn't feed her habit much on board, so she looked positively energetic as she danced through their system like a ballerina with a sledgehammer, eyes glimmering with the excitement she got off trashing a system and showing off her skills.

"Cap'n", she said, calling my attention back from ordering the disposition of the cargo of the ship.

"Take it all, and if we have room, take as many torpedos as you can", I said to Von Diehmann.

"Aye."

I turned back to my Spyder.

"Had to chop through some serious ICE to get anywhere; you know how paranoid Cadar Mil is, right Cap'n? Didn't have time to be graceful about it, so I rang alarms from here to Prime. Anyway, Admiral Colin Havelocke's bio, holdings, house, you name it is ours- I crossloaded it to your 'puter in your cabin. While I was at it, I grabbed about a dozen other Admirals' jackets also, to fuzz their search back", she explained.

I nodded. "So, probably some enhanced security on top of their normal paranoia for everyone you nailed, but nothing psychotic. Nice work, now, trash their system and let's flit. They'll be able to reload the system in a coupla hours, get back in comms, and we're only a couple-three days at most from orbit."

Her fingers stopped flying over the board in front of her as she jerked her head at me in surprise. "You're not gonna just space the cap and crew, and turn this thing into vapor??"

I grinned at her. "These poor mopes? What'd they do other than a wrong-place-wrong-time maneuver?" My smile turned mean. "Nah, we've got bigger fish to fry... after they've been gutted. Now, dust their system and let's get going."

She did, and we did.

We left the mopes floating there and moved on... and you know? I was just fine with that, this time.

[travail]

The last leg to Cadar Prime went slicker than water off Jyeeta slime.

Casey and Dex wanted to reprovision at De Valtos Prime, but there was no way in hell I wanted the Dark to show up on any records anywhere near Cadar space. It was typical- my First wanted to make sure we didn't run low on water-fuel given the huge crew we were dragging with us these days, and my Smuggler wanted a chance to hit the De Valtos Exchange for deals. I nixed it.

I wanted us to fall on Cadar shipping with all the subtlety and warning of your average, friendly avalanche. The Tiberia Dark is a superbitch of a ship, and with the upgrades we piled in, she's overpowered, overcrewed, and overweaponed to boot. But I'm not an idiot- even in my wet dreams, I'm so not taking on the entire Cadarian Navy. And, since the main goals were finding and recovering the Vark, and putting the nails in the coffin of one Admiral Colin Havelocke, engaging said navy was not high on the list of things to do.

'Course, we were going to engage them, just not in a full frontal assault.

I planned things out with Von Diehmann, my big and bad MO, and Casey, who needed to know everything. We spent a lot of time closeted in my cabin while on approach, except when they traded off training drills with the crew so they, and I, could get some sleep. We pulled Spyder and Dex into enough of the meetings so they'd know their jobs when things heated up, but otherwise left them to basically run the ship and collect intel on our targets.

Our final approach kept us in red-space, swinging wide of Baza Prime and keeping us in the most dangerous corridors, where there'd be the fewest ships. We broke towards Laanbrekar Solar, a creepy crimson giant star which put, so appropriately, Syndicate Core (and her politicians) right into its own 'red light district'. Spyder used her skills, and a few thou creds spread around here and there, to switch the names of our ship with one in dry dock at the Core's Starport.

Presto! Without so much as even entering orbit, the Tiberia Dark was now officially off line and docked at Syndicate Core, while we took on the ident of a Thulun trader called the Radiant Queen, bound for Cadar Prime to deliver passengers to agents waiting at the Palace. We slung around Laanbrekar Solar to head for Prime.

About a day out, we broke approach to swing around P9 X245, the star which Cadar orbited, and got set to execute the plan. The planet and the Admiral wasn't going to know what hit them, we did this right...

[Cory Trese]

Awesome... +1 for sure.

[whitegauntlet]

Amazing...I can't wait for the next installment.

[travail]

We swung around P9 X245 in a smartly executed orbital insertion that had us lose almost none of our momentum, and allowed us to break around the star and reach orbit at Cadar Prime in mere minutes. Before we finished the slingshot maneuver, I met with my officers at the escape shuttle.

Unlike my Vark, where the shuttle had been shoe-horned in to completely inadequate space, the Tiberia Dark had plenty of room in its bay, and we convened there. Casey had so many things to juggle as this plan unfolded, but outside of a military set to his shoulders, he held it pretty much together. Von Diehmann was practically bouncing on his toes, festooned with guns and sheathed blades anchored to various points of his powered armor, but it was more eagerness than nerves. Dex and Spyder both looked excited, but while the Scout's was clearly a case of nerves, Spyder had an intensity around her eyes like she was hot to trot. I wondered if she were using, and then mentally shrugged- she'd been managing her own brain chemistry for a long time, and it mostly worked, so screw it.

"Okay, here we go. Last minute review before we break to our jobs. First, Von Diehmann and I will take 4 crew of the MO's choice in the shuttle, while Dex, Casey, and the Spyder stay on board the Dark. On final approach, we will launch while you maintain full speed for Prime. Soon as we're out, we'll hit forward thrusters and brake abruptly while you power in."

They nodded. I glanced at Von Diehmann, who said "I've got Morales, Singh, Kincaid, and Yates gearing up now, Captain."

I turned back to the others.

"The rest of you will use the speed you have to target everything, and I mean everything, in orbit- satellites, ships, I don't care. Since we're scrapping everything, use guns where possible, and save the torps. Cadar standard doctrine is 2 ships patrolling in or near orbit, but they're probably light- Raider class, or equivalent. Dust them! No boarding actions, 'cause speed is critical if you want to take them out and take high, dominant position before Cadar Mil can start launches up the grav well. Got it?"

"Yes, Captain, all clear" Casey said.

"And you?" Spyder looked amused when she asked it.

I grinned. "While you sync into the blockade, once the shuttle's decelerating, we basically fall out of orbit- they'll miss us in the scramble to deal with you. We hit the ground running, deploy out the Port, and find Havelocke and ice him. That's where you guys come in again- I don't know how long you'll have to maintain the blockade, but it'll have to be enough."

I looked them all over, and projected the confidence I felt.

"We are going to do this, and in the process, give the entire Cadar Military structure a huge wedgie."

I got the tension-breaking laugh I was hoping for. That was then the bridge called- 5 minutes to shuttle drop. There wasn't much left to say, but the looks between us in the shuttle bay said more than words ever could.

"Faith!" I yelled.

"Fury!" Von Diehmann and Casey yelled, together.

"Redemptionnnnnn!" came from us all, in one glorious shout which felt like it ought to have shaken the hull.

We broke apart and moved to stations...

[rabidbite]

Wow A+ man. This stuff is pretty good.

rabid

[travail]

Von Diehmann and I, plus our heavily armed escort, dropped out in the shuttle while the Tiberia Dark swooped into orbit with the precision and rage of a pissed off raptor. We checked coordinates, and hit reverse thrusters to brake heavily, taking us into our planned descent. Meanwhile, we watched apprehensively as the Dark sent torps at the geosynch satellites to take them out, and moved to establish a high orbital position.

I breathed a sigh of relief as they did so, taking out several weapons platforms in the process. We lost visual on them before they engaged whatever Cadar ships were patrolling in or near the planet, but instruments showed them to be in solid position. We saw one of the military ships take fire from the Dark, and then we were being buffeted by the atmosphere as we entered.

It was a rapid drop and the noise of our passage reverberated through the walls. We inside were silent, thinking about our friends above, about our job yet to do, or about who knows what. Von Diehmann was such a damned cool cucumber, he could have been thinking about the Goodtimer he was with at his last port for all I knew.

We zipped in, right on target, heading towards the Starport for a standard docking. I wanted to get in and under cover before we attracted any real attention, and even in the midst of the crazy happening in orbit overhead, the Dock called us doing its due diligence.

"Escape Shuttle- this is Stardock Control: we've got an emergency, there's an orbital attack happening! Please identify yourselves."

I looked at the others, and keyed the contact to reply.

"Stardock, this is Crewman Ames with 5 mates from Radiant Queen! We were attacked by some cruiser which swung out of the sun before we saw it, and they hit our ship! The Queen lost hull integrity in the hits, and we were the only ones to make it to this shuttle, and we need a landing site. Who the hell was it who hit us? WTF is going on in your space, you bastards!?"

Von Diehmann smirked at me, and elbowed Kincaid in the shoulder so hard the young crewmen fell off his seat. The others laughed too, releasing some of the tension of the episode.

"Crewman Ames, things are... well, a bit confused down here. There is an unknown cruiser firing on multiple assets- we've confirmed that the Radiant Queen was on approach here from Syndicate Core, but we cannot find it now. Based on your report, we surmise it was destroyed as several of our assets have..."

I interrupted. "I don't give a hairy Bollish's left nostril of a damn about your assets!! Cap's prolly dead and the Queen's gone, we're on fumes, and we need docking protocols and a berth! Help us, please!"

The voice returned after several moments. "Proceed to Starport, docking bay 4, berth 5 will handle you. Please report to the Stardock Admin upon debarking. Sending full instructions, but please stay off the air- we've got a situation we're dealing with. Oh, uh, do you need medical?"

"Negative on medical, but thanks for asking. We're on descent. What a total clusterf..." I cut off the intercom and sat back in my chair. I looked at Von Diehmann, and the crewmen.

"Okay", I said, quietly, all feigned stress and agitation gone. "We land, dock, and then need intel to see how the Dark's set up topside, see if they pulled off their part. Then I'll deal with the Admin and we exit. Once we're out, you need to get us ground transport to get us out to some enclave about 20 miles from the port- the location's programmed into your portables. I'll meet you, and we're off to try to find Havelocke. Talk to no one you don't need to."

I leaned close to von Diehmann, and handed him a cred stick. It was nice, generic, and had false personal information, since no one really cared much about that so long as the credits were real. "Get us something fast but not too flashy." He nodded.

Then we were landing, which was all automated. We checked weapons, stowing the most lethal military spec stuff in bags. I hoped the Dark was setting up shop upstairs without too much trouble- the worst part of this was not being on board the ship for that action, and not being able to affect what was happening. Still, I could only be in one place at a time, and Havelocke wasn't something I could delegate away. They'd have to be okay.

Damn. I didn't know if there was anyone listening, but I sent a silent prayer upwards: "Let them be safe and kicking ass."

[travail]

On Board the Tibera Dark- First Officer Jake Casey's Log...

When the cap'n dropped out in the shuttle, we let him and the MO clear our wake, and fired all engines, aiming for the top of the pyramid. That point was occupied by a geosynch Cadar Mil defense satellite, and on approach I had scan going for max distance and let the details fuzz a bit. Anything that wasn't us or the cap'n was going get fragged, scragged, and shagged anyway.

Dex and the Spyder found the two fleet ships, and they were split; one in close orbit, the other at a patrol point an AU or so out from the star. Cap was right; they weren't anything we couldn't mess with, it was just a question of how quick. I had crew at all guns, and a pair in the missile bay. Kaibara and McMurdy were our best torp crew, hands down, on any drill ever invented and in between when things heated up. I had them launch a full spread with follow on torps at the far ship, which was a Frigate- with more speed, they'd make the distance fast, but they didn't have that many missiles. Stock, anyway.

Meanwhile the close-orbiting ship was a Cadarian Defender, which was admittedly a bit tougher than most Raider-class. It seemed like typical Cadar Syndic paranoia to keep one in orbit, really. On spec, it had a ton of torps, but the beauty of the cap'n's maneuver around the star put us right up in its face while it had to force its way out of the grav-well, negating that advantage.

I made the call to send a few torps at the military satellite too, figuring the stationary target would be a sitting Heela breeder while we engaged the Defender. Kaibara and McMurdy were bang on there too, and the satellite became just that much slag, all of it going to tumble down the well and cause more havoc. Just as we closed from side on the Defender, we exchanged fire with guns. The advantage of having 9 times the enemy guns proved as devastating as it sounds, and we punched right through the armor and introduced its insides to vacuum while we lost a ventral armor plate.

By now, the missile update on the Frigate was ready, and both we and they took evasive as mutual missiles closed. The Frigate raced towards us. Then a cheer went up from Dex, who was on scan- several of our torps hit, and showed sail and engine damage on the enemy. Their approach slowed, meaning their evasive was worse off. A quick scan showed a couple of ships just making ready to lift from the Port below, but we had at least a few minutes. We zipped out towards the Frigate in a steady push which made the deck hum with the Narvidian reactors powering them- it was like a leap forward and then we were drilling them with our guns.

We double-timed it back,and caught the first responder ships to reach orbit, and did for them, too.

By this time, things looked secure. We'd used up maybe half our torps but had taken no substantial damage; we'd need a little paint and maybe an armor plate or two, but the lightning-like approach around the star had done the trick, giving us high position while destroying 3 significant targets, and then options on the rest. We now controlled the geosynch site above the Port, and could put a heavy duty blockade in place.

We'd have to keep on our toes, so I rotated out the torp and gun crews while we had a breather.

Spyder confirmed that the cap'n landed okay at the port, so he was on his way. We just had to keep the entire Cadar Military organization on high alert while he went and splashed an Admiral.

[rsgong]

Excellent story. Bravo. 

[travail]

Captain's Log- Cadar Prime...

We hit the ground running.

After we'd parked the shuttle in the 'Dock, I went to Admin while Von Diehmann and the others went to arrange a transport with the blank credstick I'd given him. The admin was blustery fat guy who'd spent too much time pushing electrons around, and not enough time on anything physical. I gave a half-assed salute, trying to make my 'crewman-ness' stand out. "Ames, I said, from the Radiant Queen what probably got blown away upstairs by whoever's hitting you."

"I'm Admin Lightner, crewman. What can you tell us about the situation up top?" he said.

"Not effing much, Admin", I said. "The Queen was just a slow freighter coming from Aro Prime with a load of plants. Whole ship stank of green and water, know what I mean?" I rambled. "We got hit outta nowhere, there was an 'abandon ship', and me and my buddies were in our cabin and got to the shuttle ahead of everyone else... then the ship kinda broke apart, and we vented to vacuum, so we got the hell outta there and dropped here." Lightner nodded, lips pursed. "I don't even know what hit us, and there's insurance and I gotta call Aro Prime to let them know about the ship, and damn, the Cap..."

The Admin looked at me like I was a puzzle he didn't like. His comm was squawking with reports, and he kept twitching like he wanted to pick up. Distracted, he nodded and said: "Okay. You and your crewmen can hit the Port, just give me your comm connection so we can get you if we need. Spice Hall's to the right when you get out."

I decided to push my luck. "Uh, Sir? What the shit's happening up there? Who killed us? Did you bring the bugger down or what?"

He sighed. "It's a heavy cruiser called the Tiberia Dark which appears to have destroyed your ship, plus several satellites and weapon systems in geosynch. They also took out two Cadarian naval vessels on patrol in the system, and have bombarded the launch systems. They've also hit our first ship trying to get out, splashing it with all hands, and they've taken up high position."

I tried to look aghast, but it was challenging because of the relief I felt. I took another stupid chance. "Uh, Admin Sir?"

He raised an eyebrow, and said: "Yeah? What?"

"Well, just that that Cap'n must have balls of effing plutonium to give you a wedgie like that!"

He snapped. "It's not your problem, just get the hell out of my office, Crewman."

"Yessir!" And I did, suppressing a grin.


I met the guys outside the dock, and we slung our ordinance and moved into the 'Port proper. We were just another group of spacers on a planet under attack, and not just any planet, but the gods-damned Cadarian homeworld. Fortunately, creds talked as loudly here as anywhere else, and a coupla bribes later we were out of the Port and into the streets of the city around it.

I checked our position and that of our target on my comm, and Von Diehmann and Kincaid had the transport waiting. "All arranged under the name of Lilbit O. B'vious", he said, grinning. I snorted laughter, and smacked him on the shoulder. The rest of the assault team grinned. Gods above and below, but good crew was crucial. We got in, oriented to flight controls (which were simple), and programmed in coordinates. We took off, and our weapons came out; everyone checked their load-outs except me, 'cause I was flying- von Diehmann did mine. Next stop, Admiral Havelocke's. Hope he had a fan, I thought, because the shit's about to hit it...

[travail]

(sorry to all readers who've been enjoying the saga... no recent updates to the story, but there's a good reason: I've been devoting all my free writing time to pushing through an ST novel! I have reached the end, and revision of the first draft, and have a bunch of second stage readers going at it critically right now. 90 k + words, so it's really a full length story- more to come as I edit it!)

Travail