Chapter Two
Less than an hour later, their ship glided toward the hull of the illegally anchored vessel. The officers, sans Ter, had gathered in the briefing room, waiting in absolute silence to see if the other ship would open fire. At least that would make for a quick and relatively painless death—assuming one was caught in the initial explosion and did not escape to the close confinement of a lifepod, wondering whether a dwindling air supply or the gravity of the black hole would be the cause of one’s death.
Regi vowed to avoid saving himself. Kowri had no answers about what lay beyond death, but he would rather walk into the afterlife hours before his fated end than spend his last hours trapped and afraid. Their ship glided closer until a scrape and thud suggested they were inside the bubble formed by the GFD.
“Successful docking,” Ter announced over the radio.
Cota’s ears drooped in relief, but Regi was not yet ready to give an offering of thanks. They had latched onto a ship using an illegal drive to hide near a black hole. He could image the sort of crew who might find that logical, and the same thump that had signaled success to the Coalition crew would have warned the pirates. Regi assumed they were pirates, anyway. Other alternatives would be even more disastrous, and Regi hoped that some god had led them to this solution to save their lives. Guiding them toward a Befin warship would not have that effect.
“Chief Regi, get your team in place.”
“Yes, Captain.” Regi restrained himself from touching his temples in a silent request for help from the gods. Given that the gods often gifted supplicants bad luck, he could not afford such a request, even assuming they would notice him. Kowri gods did not look outside the Empire.
“And take Wayi,” Cota added.
Regi froze, blinking at the captain in mild horror. Wayi was a child. Cota’s ears pricked forward, and Regi made a gesture of assent. “Wayi, I trust you remember your training.” Regi glanced toward Cota to see if the captain was aggravated by a subtle reminder that the woman had no practical experience, but Cota focused on the technical data on the screen.
“Of course,” Wayi said, but her voice had a tremor that did not reassure Regi. On the other hand, if they ran into locks or unsanctioned experiments, Wayi was the person second-best equipped to handle them. And taking Ter on a boarding party was unthinkable, even if he would be in no more danger than he would be in his secured engine room.
If the boarding party failed, everyone on the ship would die. That was the burden Regi carried. He strode out of the room projecting as much confidence as he could. He would not worry the crew with dangers they could not control. Outside, Vk waited. She fell in beside Regi, ignoring the displeased muttering from Wayi about being relegated to the rear.
“Standard boarding?” Vk asked. They had boarded a number of vessels, although generally they found abandoned derelicts when they breached. This would be different.
“Have a secondary team ready.” The order suggested that Regi and the primary team could fail, leaving the secondary team to climb over their bodies in the narrow corridors of a ship, but Vk only nodded and Wayi made no complaints. It was possible she was too young to understand his orders. With that last piece in place, Regi and the others moved to the docking ports.
Regi took the lead, followed by Vk and Thet’thec with Wayi in the rear. Wayi was more-highly rated with a weapon, but he would rather trust Vk at his back, and she couldn’t hit a herd of sleeping pebafri with a pulse weapon. But, she wouldn’t panic. Regi wasn’t sure Wayi had that much common sense.
“Boarding party clear,” Ter said over the comm. “Get me control of those computers.” The threat was unsaid, but Regi still remembered Ter suggestions about organs and orifices. He never thought he would miss the staid, silent Ter, but stress sharpened him into a slightly terrifying being.
“Moving now,” Regi answered, and then he set off the charges. The lock exploded inward, and the boarding tube filled with the acrid stench of explosives, scorched lubricant, and hot metal. The door was already ajar from the force of the blast, and Regi pushed it open with his boot. He waited a second for a counter-assault. If the ship were fully crewed, they would be able to hold off any invasion. Silence reigned. It made Regi worry that the pirates were luring them into the ship only to attack at a place of their choosing.
“Guard the rear,” he ordered. Vk nodded and gave Thet’thec a nudge to get him into position. That left Wayi in the center where her inexperience would do the least harm. Regi touched his free hand to his temple and then moved into the pirate ship.
All the identifying markers—Coalition numbers, colors, or cultural decorations—had been scrubbed from the exterior so the ship only had bright splotches showing where once they had been. She was a huge ship, six or seven times larger than their Coalition patroller, but that size would make her memorable. They couldn’t dock her without someone noticing, and then they risked losing their prize.
She was dead because of the law rather than mechanical failure, but the result was the same. The good news was that a grave ship parked just outside the event horizon of a black hole didn’t need a significant crew. Pirates had probably parked her until they could strip any useful parts or they used her for storage of contraband until they could arrange a black-market buyer. These were aggressive pirates to operate in the area when the Kowri Empire had so little regard for outsiders’ lives, but Kowri didn’t leave the Empire, so perhaps they trusted the black hole to act as their primary defense. Regi moved through a dim corridor toward the center of the ship.
Behind him, Wayi was whispering questions, and Vk hushed her. Gods save them from overly enthusiastic novices.
When a door opened, Regi threw himself to one side a scant second before heat seared the air. The pop of the weapon discharge followed a heartbeat later. Regi fired blind around the corner.
Behind him, he heard scuffling, and he hoped that was his crew taking cover. He focused on the enemy. “Coalition Enforcers. Surrender the ship and your codes,” he yelled. More silence answered him.
Gods rot it. They needed to get in the control room before Ter decided to come over and attack the pirates with creative profanity. Regi eased forward, using the curve of the ship as cover. He made it two feet. Three. Five.
Someone burst out of the door, firing blind in Regi’s direction as he raced for the ship’s interior. Regi fired while throwing himself to the decking. The pirate collapsed with a high-pitched wail that cut off after a scant second. Regi pushed himself up on an elbow and watched for signs of movement. When there were none, he advanced, his weapon ready. When he saw the pirate, he winced with frustration. Regi’s shot had hit the pirate in the upper back and come out through his throat. Not even the gods could save him.
Wayi moved to his side. “That was a lucky shot.”
He gave her an incredulous look and waited for some sarcastic rejoinder. When none appeared, he said, “No, it was not. At least not the sort of luck one would wish for.”
“You killed him,” Wayi said. She had an injured tone, as though offended that he didn’t see the universe as she did.
“Exactly! I killed him. So who will give us the ship codes now?”
Wayi scrunched her features. “Oh.”
