Galaxy's End: Book One by LeRoy Clary (popular ebook readers txt) 📗

Captain Stone

The mention of pirates brought Captain Stone abruptly alert. Her anger turned cold. She turned to the door and shouted, “What the hell are you talking about? Pirates only exist in fiction.”

Bert replied calmly, “No need to shout, I can hear you quite well. Pirates are buccaneers, swashbucklers, and adventurers that prey on honest shipping. I believe we have an outbreak of piracy or something similar. Not government or military.”

“I know what pirates are. I’m about ready to throw all those clothes you hide under out the nearest airlock before the pirates board us,” Captain Stone continued as her eyes scanned over the others in the room. She was searching their faces for support.

Bert mumbled, “In which case, a nearby pirate ship on a parallel course will probably recover them because they might believe you are trying to hide something by ejecting it. They might attempt boarding this ship if they are after you.”

As she turned to face the connecting door and the unseen Bert, she said, “Pirates cannot stop a ship while it’s traveling under warp or in wormholes.”

Fang said easily as if taunting her, or perhaps explaining a fact she should understand, “They can threaten to destroy this ship with a small proximity missile unless we stop before entering a wormhole. That would work, I’d imagine.”

“Then they get nothing,” Stone snapped. “Even pirates won’t waste an expensive missile just because a small ship like this won’t stop.”

Fang said softly as if hating himself for the idea, “Unless that crab in the Comm room instructs the ship to break warp.”

“The Champers? Why would it do that?”

Fang paused, then rushed ahead with words tumbling over each other, “While I cannot be certain, I suspect it is about to lay eggs. It didn’t strike me when we were with it and we were sending the subspace message, but the Champers’ thorax was fully extended. Males about to birth with eggs tend to be emotional and want to protect their offspring with a secure home.”

“I concur,” Bert called. “The ship’s records of subspace transmissions show the Champers has made several inquiries for passage to its home world. The cost is far more than the employee of a small ship like this can afford so it was attempting to locate a ship with an open berth going in that direction.”

“Pirates?” Stone said again as she kicked an imaginary object near her toe. “It sounds ridiculous because they do not exist. Everybody knows that. How do they fit in with Roma and Escobar? Tell me that. The two places couldn’t be more different.”

Bert called down from his bed, “I may have a partial answer. We do not have a holo-display at hand to demonstrate but take my word. The physical relationships of Roma, Escobar, Tanager, and a small mining world called Prim, form what could be a protective shell around the entrance to this sector’s primary wormhole. A small defensive force could hold the entrance and prevent travel through it unless the travel fee was paid, or ships inspected. They could halt all traffic exiting before the ships can enter warp. A total blockade, for an unknown reason.”

Stone snorted in derision. “Extortion. They can’t do that.”

“Again, who will stop them?” Fang asked in his throaty voice.

Bert said, “There is no coordinated interplanetary police, no local armies, and until a force is agreed upon by the affected local worlds to oppose the pirates. I see no reason they cannot succeed. Considering the races occupying those worlds, and their lack of cooperation with each other, that unity may never happen. This is a peaceful portion of the sphere with most races benign or solitary.”

“Since they will not work together, and separately none has a space force large enough to intervene, it is a perfect location to set up a blockade.”

Captain Stone looked ready to explode with anger and frustration. “No trader will pay extortion rates to enter the wormhole, so the idea of the pirates stopping all ships is worthless, if true.”

Fang said in a softer voice, “What about those ships exiting the wormhole? They cannot just reverse course and go back through. They are as much as captured at the nexus.”

Stone tossed her arms up into the air in exasperation. “What do I have to do with it? Why are the pirates concerned with me?”

“Who says it is about you?” Fang hissed.

“Me. That’s who,” Stone retorted. “They’re only after my ship and the one I’m a passenger on, as far as we know. What else am I to think?”

Fang rolled a pair of eyes, looking completely underwhelmed. “True, as far as you know. What if they intercept a thousand other ships? Is it still because of you? We don’t have all the facts.”

Silence was the only response.

Bill finally said, “That’s a good response to a captain.” He faced Stone. “Can I suggest Bert look into your background for a possible answer?”

She strode two steps to face him from inches away. Their noses almost touched. She said, “To what purpose?”

Bill refused to back off, even if he had room in the tiny cabin to do so. “If you are important to them, there must be a reason that we might be able to exploit. If not, we’re wasting our time.”

Bill’s vocabulary rarely exceeded one-syllable words and never complex when simple would suffice. His statement had made an impact on all of them. He was correct to wonder why the pirates were interested in her. If they were.

Those who knew Bert didn’t doubt his conclusion that there were pirates. No matter the modern name: outcasts, a criminal syndicate, or buccaneers, the result was the same.  A small group had formed and taken control of four planets, well, three, and one habitat. That action blockaded entry and exit to the wormhole and