Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) Page 5

  “I know it, you know it, and the Rock of Ages knows it. He’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “He knows it and he’s still coming?” said Cole, frowning. “What am I missing here?”

  “My sources tell me that he’s decided if he can’t have the mineral wealth of the planet, no one can. He’s got some exceptionally dirty bombs—I don’t know how many—and he’s issued an ultimatum: if the mining company doesn’t send you away by the time he gets there, he’ll fire the bombs at the planet. You may stop one or two, but I gather he’s pretty confident you can’t stop them all. It’s what in a less sophisticated age they used to call a punishment party.”

  “Thanks for the information,” said Cole.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Cole. “This is going to require some thought.”

  “I’m sorry it’s turning out this way,” said the Duke. “I didn’t mean to give you such a problem, certainly not on our very first collaboration.”

  “It’s not your fault,” said Cole. “I suppose we could meet him in deep space and have it out there.”

  The Duke made a face, which Cole hadn’t thought possible given the amount of platinum that composed it. “If there are informers in the mining company and on the planet, the Rock has to know he’s got some in his organization. I’m sure he won’t make a direct approach.”

  “We’re only one ship. We can’t patrol everywhere.”

  “We could tell the company that we’re canceling out,” offered the Duke.

  Cole shook his head. “Word would get out tomorrow, and no one would ever hire us again.”

  “We could suggest that they evacuate Djamara.”

  “Same problem. They’re paying us to keep it open and free. If we can’t do it, who’ll do business with us in the future?”

  “It’s a conundrum,” agreed the Duke. “If there is anything I can do from this end . . .”

  “We’ll let you know,” said Cole, breaking the connection.

  He called an immediate meeting of his senior officers. His office was too small for them to sit comfortably, so he assembled them in the mess hall and made it off-limits to everyone else until the meeting broke up.

  Once they’d gathered there, he laid out the situation to them.

  “Now,” he said when he’d finished filling them in, “what are the odds that we can spot him entering the system?”

  “Djamara II is a third of a way around the sun,” said Christine. “If we stay here and he approaches from the far side of the sun, we’ll never spot him in time.”

  “Okay, then,” said Cole, “what if we take up an orbit around Djamara II?”

  Christine shook her head again. “We’d spot him, of course. But unless we managed to destroy him before he saw us—and he knows we’re here—he could still fire enough dirty bombs so that one of them would almost certainly get through.”

  “Does everyone concur with that?” asked Cole.

  Forrice, Val, and Sharon all nodded their agreement.

  “So we’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Cole. “If we station ourselves where we’re sure to spot him, he can still shoot a lot of bombs past us and make the planet uninhabitable before we can destroy him—and if we stay out here where we’re harder to spot, we can blow him apart if he approaches from this direction, but the odds are that he’ll take any of a dozen other routes, all of which will get him past us.”

  “Hobson’s choice,” muttered Val.

  “Hobson was an asshole,” said Cole harshly.

  “I don’t understand . . .” said Val.

  “It’s a big universe, filled to overflowing with choices. We don’t like the two most obvious ones. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any others.”

  “But if we can’t stop the Rock from delivering a dirty bomb . . .” began Forrice.

  “If we can’t stop him,” said Cole, “then we don’t even try.”

  “Cut and run?” said Forrice. “That’s not like you—and no one will ever contract for a hired gun who turned and ran.”

  “That’s a hired gun who turns and runs away,” said Cole. “Let’s see if we can think of something that’s worth running toward.”

  “You’ve lost me,” said Sharon. “If you have an idea, why not just spell it out?”

  “Because it’s not fully formed yet,” said Cole. “I’m working on it. The one thing I know is that we can’t stay in the Djamara system. Now, if we can’t stay here, the Rock has no reason to drop his bombs, right?”

  “That presupposes he knows that we’re leaving,” said Christine.

  “Then we’ll have to let him know, won’t we?” replied Cole.

  “Just contact him by subspace radio and say we changed our minds?” said Val. “He’ll never buy it.”

  “Okay,” said Cole. “He won’t believe you, and he won’t believe me, and he won’t even believe the Duke. Who will he believe?”

  They were silent for a long moment. Then Sharon grinned.

  “Oh, shit!” she said. “Of course! They’ll believe the mining company. We’re not going to die if they drop the bombs, but the company stands to lose a few hundred men, and all the planet’s mineral resources.”

  “But how will they know that the mining company isn’t lying?” persisted Christine.

  “That’s easy enough,” said Val. “They can say they’ve rethought their position, they made a mistake, and they’re willing to pay for it. They’re offering us fifteen percent for two years? What if they offer the Rock of Ages twenty-five percent forever?”

  “He’ll probably demand a third,” said Forrice.

  “And they’ll agree,” said Cole. “They’re scared to death, and they’ll agree to anything. Of course, he’ll still fly here to make sure we’re gone, and once he sees that we are, the planet is safe.”

  “Okay, that’s Step One,” said Forrice. “We’ve saved the planet. What next?”

  “We contact the Platinum Duke and have him tell us which is the weakest of the four ships that are patrolling the Rock’s little empire, we wait until we know the Rock is in the Djamara system, and we capture it.”

  “Capture it, not kill it?” said Val.

  “Right.”

  “It’s a lousy trade,” said Val.

  “It’s not a trade,” said Cole. “It’s Step Two.”

  “All right,” said Forrice, emitting a hoot of alien laughter. “Now it all makes sense! You’re one sly bastard!”

  “Stop showing off all the Terran words you’ve learned and tell me what the hell you’re talking about,” said Val irritably.

  “Step Three is we find out who’s the Rock’s biggest rival in this section of the Frontier,” said Forrice.

  “I see,” said Christine. “And for Step Four, we program the captured ship, which is still showing the Rock’s insignia, to strike at the rival’s home world.”

  “Can it get through their defenses on autopilot?” asked Sharon.

  Suddenly Val was smiling too. “It doesn’t matter. You think the rival’s going to forgive him because an attack didn’t succeed?”

  “Ah!” said Sharon. “So for Step Five, we sit back and let the two warlords fight it out, then mop up whoever’s left.”

  “We’re very short on time,” announced Cole. “I’m going to give you four half an hour to find something wrong with that, or to come up with a better plan.” He got to his feet. “In the meantime, I need to contact the Duke and find out which of the Rock’s ships is the weakest, and which of his rivals is the strongest.”

  When he returned, no one had come up with a viable alternative.

  “All right,” said Cole. “Now we come to the hardest part of the exercise.”

  “What’s that?” asked Forrice.

  “I’ve got to take the Kermit down to Djamara II and convince them we’re not hanging them out to dry.”

  7

  It took Cole six hours to convince the leader of the small mining colony tha
t he wasn’t deserting Djamara II, that indeed he was doing the only possible thing he could to save it. The leader contacted the Platinum Duke twice for assurances, then asked Cole to leave one of his officers on the planet as a gesture of good faith.

  “Not a chance,” he replied. “My ship is understaffed as it is.”

  “You are afraid the officer will die with us,” said the leader stubbornly.

  “You’re making this very difficult on both of us,” said Cole. “You’ve got a mole in your organization, and I’m not going to leave any of my people here until you acknowledge that and get rid of him. I was hired to destroy the Rock of Ages’ ships, and to make sure he never bothers or harasses Djamara again, and I fully intend to do so. If we do it my way, you’ll be embarrassed and humiliated for a few days, and have to make some financial promises that I guarantee you won’t be forced to keep. If we do it your way, I’ll still destroy his ship, and Djamara will never be harassed again—but it’ll never be harassed because nothing will or can live here. That’s your choice, and we’re running out of time.”

  And because that was his choice, he finally consented.

  By the time Cole took the Kermit back to the Teddy R, David Copperfield had been in touch with the Platinum Duke and learned that the least formidable of the Rock’s ships was the one orbiting the agricultural colony world of Sandburg, which was not sandy and did not have a burg, or even a small town, on it, but was named for some forgotten poet from the days when Man was still Earthbound.

  It took the Teddy R four hours, traversing the Myerling Wormhole, to get to the outskirts of the Zamecka system, of which Sandburg was the fourth and only habitable planet.

  “Have you located the ship yet?” asked Cole from his office.

  “Yes, sir,” said Christine.

  “What kind of weaponry does she carry?”

  “Mr. Sokolov is at the sensors, sir,” she replied. “He should know in just another minute or two.”

  There was a brief silence.

  “Sir?” said Sokolov’s image. “It’s even better than we’d hoped. One front-mounted laser cannon, two side-mounted laser cannons, no torpedo bays, and as far as I can tell its defensive shields can’t stand up to our pulse cannons.”

  “It’s in orbit, above the stratosphere,” said Cole. “How long will it take to reach light speeds with no friction to slow it down?”

  “Let me see,” said Christine, as a row of specs appeared on her holo screen. “It’s a late model class-HH, sir. It should take from forty to fifty seconds.”

  “So we have time to disable it if we have to?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “All right. Who’s in Gunnery right now?”

  “Jacillios, sir.”

  He shook his head. “Get Bull Pampas down there. I want someone I trust.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And if Four Eyes isn’t otherwise occupied, have him go to Gunnery too.”

  He waited until everyone was where he wanted them to be.

  “All right,” he said. “Now raise our defenses and approach to within firing range.”

  The Teddy R advanced upon the Rock’s ship.

  “They’re hailing us, sir,” said Christine.

  “Warning us off, I’ll bet,” said Val with a contemptuous laugh.

  “That’s exactly what they’re doing,” confirmed Christine.

  “Don’t respond, keep on course, don’t speed up, don’t slow down,” said Cole. “Let’s see how close they’ll let us get.”

  There were two more warnings, spaced a minute apart. Then, at just under ninety thousand miles, the Rock’s ship fired its laser cannon.

  “Missed us, sir,” announced Christine.

  “Missed or deflected?”

  “Missed.”

  “Okay,” said Cole. “That was a warning shot across our bow. Keep going.”

  At seventy thousand miles the Rock’s ship fired again.

  “Deflected, sir,” said Christine.

  “Thank you,” said Cole. “Bull, fire the pulse cannon. Make it a clear miss, but a close one.”

  “Done, sir,” reported Bull Pampas a moment later.

  “Christine, can you get me a ship-to-ship video transmission?”

  “Yes, sir,” she replied. “I’m sending it out on more than two million frequencies. They should be able to pick it up on . . . ah! There it is.”

  “Greetings and felicitations,” said Cole, looking into the lens of his transmitter. “I am Wilson Cole, Captain of the Theodore Roosevelt. I hope you agree from our mutual demonstrations of firepower that your ship is no match for ours. Nonetheless, we have no desire to destroy you.” He paused long enough for what he had said to sink in. “It should be clear to you that you have no adequate defense against our pulse cannon, and equally clear that your laser weapons cannot damage my ship. I have no intention of firing our weapons again unless you fire upon us first, or attempt to escape.” Another pause. “There is no humiliation or dishonor in surrendering to a greater power, and that is precisely what we want you to do. If you surrender, no member of your crew will be harmed. You will be allowed to keep all your belongings, including your hand weapons, and you will be set down on the nearest neutral world. Your ship will remain in my custody. There is only one alternative. I don’t wish to consider it, and I’m sure you do not either. I will give you five minutes to come to a decision. To repeat: I will fire on you only if you fire first or attempt to escape.”

  He broke the transmission.

  “Did you mean it, sir?” asked Pampas.

  “Absolutely, Bull,” said Cole. “If they make a run for it, hit ’em full-force. Same thing if they fire on us. Let’s hope they’re not that stupid.”

  “They’ve just sent a transmission to the Djamara system, sir,” announced Domak. “I’ve blocked it.”

  “Good. Now let’s give them a little while to consider their position.”

  They were contacted three minutes later. The image of a portly, gray-haired man appeared in front of every transmitter on the Teddy R.

  “I am Forian Bellisarius, Captain of the Carnivore,” said the man. “I have no choice but to accept your terms.”

  “A wise decision, Captain,” said Cole. “How many crew do you carry?”

  “Twenty-four.”

  “Can they all fit about your shuttlecraft?”

  Bellisarius nodded. “Twelve and twelve.”

  “Do your shuttlecraft possess sufficient fuel to reach the Manitoba system, four light-years from here?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right,” said Cole. “Two of my shuttles will make their way to you in the next few minutes. As soon as they reach the Carnivore, you are free to go.”

  “And we can take our sidearms with us?”

  “You have my word, Captain.”

  Cole ended the connection. “Bull, choose a boarding party of six and take the Edith over to the Carnivore. Val, do the same with the Junior. Lieutenant Domak, go with one party or the other.”

  The two shuttlecraft left the Teddy R within five minutes, and reached the Carnivore in another five. They boarded the ship and stood at attention while Captain Bellisarius shepherded his crew into their own shuttlecraft and departed.

  “They’re gone,” reported Val.

  “Let’s make sure,” said Cole. “I want you and Bull to split the ship up any way you want, and to search it for anyone they might have left behind, and for any presents they may have left us.”

  “Presents, sir?” said Pampas.

  “Like a bomb,” explained Cole. “Lieutenant Domak, while they’re making sure the ship is secure, I want you to see if you can rig their navigational and weapons computers so that we can operate them from the Teddy R.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Domak, saluting.

  Val and Pampas reported ten minutes later that the ship was secure, and there were no unpleasant surprises in the offing. Domak, operating in concert with Christine and Briggs, had switched control of the
Carnivore to the Teddy R’s bridge within half an hour.

  “Well done,” said Cole. “I want you all to return to the ship now.” A moment later he was in contact with David Copperfield. “Well?” he said. “Did you get what we needed from the Duke?”

  “Yes, Steerforth,” said the alien. “The Rock’s most powerful rival is the Blue Devil, whose home world—well, headquarters world, anyway—is Meritonia III.”

  “The Blue Devil!” snorted Cole. “Where the hell do they get these names?”

  “I wouldn’t be too quick to belittle that particular name, my dear Steerforth,” said Copperfield. “He controls seven worlds with an iron hand. Or claw. Or whatever. I have no idea if he belongs to your race or some other.”

  “Makes no difference,” said Cole. “All we needed was the name of that world.” He cut the connection, then contacted the bridge. “Christine, is Meritonia III in our navigational log, or are we going to have to hunt up its official name?”

  “Let me check,” she said, scanning her data. “Here it is, sir—Meritonia III.”

  “How far are we from it?”

  “Approximately thirty-two light-years, sir.”

  “Fine. Send the Carnivore there by the most circuitous route, which is to say, don’t let it pass within two light-years of any other star system. Or better still, check with Pilot, who seems to know more about wormholes than the computer does, and see if there’s one near here that can take it to Meritonia in a hurry.”

  “I’ll ask him, sir.” There was a full minute of silence, and then Christine’s image appeared again. “He says the Blaindor Hole could get it there in less than five hours, sir—if I can find a way to enter it.”

  “Do your best, Christine,” said Cole. “And let me know when it’s on its way.”

  He cut the connection and suddenly found himself looking at Sharon’s face. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was the Security Chief in the flesh and not her holographic image.

  “I brought you some beer,” she announced, entering his office. “Then I decided you’d think it was rude to drink alone, so I brought some for me, too.”

  “Thanks,” said Cole. “I could use some.”

  “You really think this is going to work?” she asked.