A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) (4 page)

"Okay."

A few minutes later, the final mule arrived, filled with water and supplies.

"You're in the lead and Eliora will ride with you. Listen to her instructions and we'll be right behind you. Don't let us get too spread out and make sure you can see the rear tractor at all times. Understood?"

"Yes," Amon acknowledged.

"Let's get underway, then." Gian looked to Pele, his third in command and the only protector armed with one of the settlement's two remaining blaster rifles.

"Load 'em up," Pele said loudly enough for the entire group to hear. He accentuated his words by sticking his index finger up and waving it in a circle.

Barel started to crawl into the back of the mule, expecting that Eliora would force him into the rear seat via seniority.

"Stay put," she said. "I'll take the back."

Amon pulled forward onto the main trail leading up the mountain. It was still early and light hadn't made it onto the path yet. He checked his mirror and found he couldn't see past Eliora, who was standing vigilant in the center of the mule.

"I can't see behind me," Amon said.

"Just keep going, they're coming," she said. "Captain is motioning for us to speed up."

Amon accelerated. And so it went. Without Ozzie driving, the trip to the edge of the forest took more than an hour. Having driven the mountain path only once before, Amon was concerned he'd forget the route, but his concern was for naught.

"Hold up," Eliora said as they pulled even with the boulder where the large Ophie had jumped into their mule. Its desiccated body lay close to where it had fallen.

Eliora walked back to the Captain's mule and spoke to him a moment, gesturing to the fallen enemy.

"What was that all about?" Amon asked.

"I'm under review for the attack. Captain wanted to know where we'd been jumped," she said.

"You mean, where you saved our lives?"

"I didn't save Ozzie," she said.

"Nobody could have. Look Eliora, we must have these materials if we are to survive. Ozzie understood the risks. We all do. You have to stop beating yourself up."

Eliora didn't respond and Amon didn't want to push it any further, so he continued forward. They finally arrived at the bottom of the long sluff. The wagons had come as far as they could. He got out of the mule, walking back to the Captain, Eliora tight on his heels.

"The tractors should turn around here. The ore is just up this draw," Amon explained. "We'll take the mules up and get started."

"How far up?"

"Two hundred meters." Amon pointed up. "That orange you see is rust and where we're going."

"Got it. I'll send two with you and keep the bulk of the security force down here. Eliora, if you get in trouble, fall back to this position," Gian said. "I want a protector in every mule that's moving and one on the ground at all times. One mule will be sitting at all times at the dig site. You have the most familiarity with the site so I want you organizing at the top."

"Yes, sir."

Gian motioned to Pele with a short series of hand signals. Two protectors jumped from a wagon and clambered into the awaiting mules. A few minutes later, they were headed up the twisty route that led to the fissure.

"Barel, how are you with a reciprocating pick?" Amon asked the farmer.

"Never used one," Barel replied. Amon doubted this to be true, but wasn't about to argue.

"Then you are responsible for loading the carts. These mules are only good for three hundred kilograms, so don't overload them," Amon said.

"No… really?" Barel retorted.

If he was the only one using a pick, it was going to be a long day. At least Gian had broken the load into two trips. They'd taken two hours to arrive and it was past 0830 in the morning, which didn't feel too bad. The drive had made him sleepy, although, he knew the pick would wake him up.

A loud clattering filled the valley when Amon set the pick against the base of a four meter tall iron pillar. It stood tall, almost straight up, the weather having stripped away much of the surrounding loose rock to ground level. At a meter and a half across, the base unevenly narrowed at the top to a meter wide, orange and red rust stains running down the sides.

He worked for twenty minutes while Barel looked on. Eliora and the two protectors had separated and were scouting the nearby hillside when the pillar finally gave way, crashing and sliding down the hill for several meters.

"Move the mules over here," Amon directed, getting a quick drink.

"All of 'em?" Barel asked.

"Yes. We'll be lucky if we can take it all," Amon said. "You're looking at twenty tonnes, give or take. Notice how it didn't fracture a bit when I toppled it? That thing is solid."

Amon could feel the day slipping away from him. He wished they had bigger equipment, so they could more efficiently harvest the material.

After another forty long minutes, he'd peeled enough slivers off so the first mule could get underway. He'd shaped his initial cuts to make future cuts more efficient and soon had both of the other mules loaded and moving. At his current rate, they'd have the large wagons loaded by 1500, the chances of a second trip quickly disappearing.

"Hold it."

Eliora caught his eye. She was holding up her hand and stalking up the side of the hill. It had been her third interruption of the day. Each time, she had only found a small mountain reptile flitting around. He could hardly blame her for her vigilance, however.

Amon was distracted by one of the returning mules and turned away. When he looked back, he saw Eliora drop to her knee, firing up into an Ophie that leapt from its hidden position on the side of the mountain.

Her crossbow bolts sunk into the beast's chest, but did nothing to stop his advance. A second Ophie jumped from cover, running toward the returning mule.

"Go!" Amon shouted, looking at the mule's driver.

Amon's directive spurred the frozen driver into action and inspired Barel to jump into the cart the mule pulled. The protector, Alona, who'd accompanied the returning mule fired ineffectively as the vehicle lurched and turned.

Eliora dropped her crossbow, pulling out her long iron hunting knife. She'd narrowly dodged the Ophie's uncontrolled charge down the mountain and now stood, facing the sage green reptile. Amon couldn't see any possible way for her to escape the inevitable. While she was considerably more nimble, the Ophie had sufficient speed to run her down. The only chance of survival was to engage the Ophie and attempt to disable it by striking one of its weak spots - under the chin, arms or groin. Unfortunately, Ophies were well aware of this strategy.

"Go! Get out of here," Eliora yelled at him.

It made sense. The Ophie would kill her, then it would kill him. Running was also something Amon was not prepared to do. He would not watch another of his friends die on the side of this mountain. Instead, he picked up a fist-sized chunk of hematite. Hefting it in his hands, he judged its weight to be two kilograms. For most people, it would have been too heavy to throw with any force, but Amon was not most people - he possessed considerable strength from shaping iron day in and day out.

His first throw sailed over the beast's head. He chastised himself as he grabbed two more pieces from the ground. He'd been too excited and hadn't controlled his adrenaline. He quickly reoriented and watched as Eliora once again dodged a swipe. In the same move, she dug her knife into its thick, scaly leg. A dark liquid oozed out of the cut but didn't seem to affect the Ophie's attack.

Amon advanced and threw the next chunk, clipping the beast on the side of the head. It howled in pain, momentarily dazed. Bringing a webbed hand up to the wound, it spun toward Amon.

Amon didn't waste any time and threw the next piece into the beast's chest. The hit was more solid, but the rock glanced off, falling to the ground. Insult to injury caused the reptilian enemy to forget about Eliora and charge Amon, club raised, screaming in rage.

Not having thought past throwing rocks, Amon found himself at a loss. He couldn't outrun the Ophie, but grappling didn't make sense either. It took everything he had not to run, but Amon planted his feet and stared down the charging beast. At the last moment, he jumped to the side, hoping to roll out of its way. He managed to avoid the club, but his legs became entangled with the charging Ophie's limbs. A loud crack and pain in his calf occurred as they tumbled to the ground.

Eliora had but a single chance and lunged toward the tangled bodies. A fourth known vulnerability of the Ophie was inaccessible during a frontal attack. With the Ophie on the ground, its Achilles tendon, which closely resembled a human's, had little natural protection. In a single fluid movement she drew her razor sharp knife across the back of the creature's legs.

The Ophie turned sharply, howling in pain, reaching for her in a single, uncharacteristically quick swipe. It caught Eliora's heel and pulled her from her feet. She scrabbled back, trying to escape the howling beast's long grasp, but to no avail.

Pain shot through Amon's body as he tried to move his leg. The Ophie's screams and single-minded assault on Eliora galvanized him into action. He looked around frantically for a weapon and chose a single, iron-laden rock. It was said that an Ophie's head was as armored as its chest, but Amon was an iron shaper and knew little that could withstand the heavy blow of his hammers. Balanced on a single leg, he threw himself onto the Ophie's back and with all his might, smashed its skull with his improvised hammer. He heard a sickening crunch as the rock completed the grisly deed.

Planet Curie, Tipperary Star System

"Thank you, Jonathan. I'll take it from here," the teenager said, not looking up from the project in front of him.

"Certainly, Master Anino," Jonathan answered.

Philippe Anino set his tools down, jumped from his stool and flew directly at us. Initially, I thought he was flying with arc-jets, but there were no blue tell-tale traces common to arc-jet technology. His acceleration was faster than anything I was familiar with. He stopped neatly in front of us, hovering at eye level.

"I thought you'd all be bigger," he said and gave Marny an appraising look. "Well, all but Bertrand, that is. Is it okay if I use your last names? Of course it is, you buck formality."

I smiled. "Last names are fine. What do you like to be called and what in the known universe are you flying? They're like arc-jets on narcs."

"Call me Anino. And, I just
knew
you'd like 'em, Hoffen. You think if you had some you could catch me?"

"I could," Tabby said stepping into the boy's personal space.

"Oh, man, three dimensional scans don't do you justice, Masters. I mean… Crap, that didn't sound perverted in my head," he said.

"You're just a little ball of energy, aren't you," Ada chimed in, giving him her best patronizing scowl.

"You have no idea, Chen. The boots are my own little invention. Take a grav generator, power it with… well we can't talk about that. But imagine a suit full of micro-grav generators all tied into your AI. Same controls as arc-jets," he said.

"How do they work in the deep dark?" Nick asked.

"You're right of course, James. With nothing to push against, they aren't anywhere near as nice as arc-jets. Although, unlike arc-jets, they don't easily run out of fuel," he said.

"How long do they last?" I asked, enamored by his description.

"Can't say… corporate secrets and all. But for the sake of reference, you won't have kids alive when this suit stops operating." He listened for a moment. "
What!? I didn't say anything specific
."

"Pardon?" Ada asked.

"My AI is set to warn me - chastise really - when I'm giving away secrets. Would you mind if we just forgot about that reference?"

"So, what's on your mind, Mr. Anino?" It appeared that I was going to have to keep us on track.

"Just Anino. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. "But let's just say you meant to ask - why are you here and what do I want."

"I guess that's one way," I said. "I'm not a big fan of being rude."

"No, you're not. I'm afraid I'm the one who suffers from having no filter. A habit that comes from being an off-the-charts genius with almost zero humility and nearly infinite wealth. So Masters, you really think you could catch me? There's a suit right over there. I bet it'll fit."

He pointed at a bank of lockers on the wall behind us. There was a locker for each of us, labeled with our last names.

"Don't you want to talk about your job?" Nick asked.

"Life's short, James. Rule is: play first, business second. Although you need to sign confidentiality agreements before using the suits," he said.

My HUD chimed with an incoming priority message. As expected it was from Anino Enterprises, requesting my signature. I'd recently upgraded my AI's capability to read legalese and it found nothing objectionable in the language sent.

"We good, Nick?"

"Yup," he answered.

I opened the locker with my name and found a suit hanging in it. There was an extra helmet on the top shelf. It was an unexpected addition, since most suits didn't require one. I shrugged to myself and peeled off my vac-suit.

"I'd forgotten about your peg-leg, Hoffen," Anino said. "Does it cause you many problems?"

He really had no filter, but I reminded myself that he was a teen. "Ladders and sand are two things I still have trouble with. Otherwise, no big deal."

"You have any privacy panels around here?" Ada asked.

"What? Going commando?" Anino asked. This earned him a stern look from Marny. "My bad," he quickly amended.

Locker room layout
, he directed.

"You'll need to step back, Chen," he said.

She moved over toward the group and an opaque glass wall slid up from the floor.

"Thank you," she said with a mouth full of sweetness.

I'd finished pulling on the new suit. "Helmet?"

"Yeah, more fun that way," Anino answered.

I pulled the helmet on and looked around. From the outside, it had been medium blue like the rest of the suit. From the inside, I couldn't even tell I was wearing it except for a few faint shadows that were the contours of the helmet.

"Nice," I said.

"You'll say that again, I promise," he said.

A few minutes later Tabby and Ada exited the impromptu locker room holding helmets under their arms. Their suits were the same medium blue and they had bright yellow lines tracing their body contours.

"Helmets on, ladies. James, Bertrand, last chance. You don't know what you're about to miss out on," he said.

"Maybe next time," Nick said.

"Fair enough. Okay, the name of the game is foot-tag. Once you're tagged, you're it. If you touch someone's foot, they're it. And Hoffen, you're it," he said floating, away from me.

I took a cheap shot at Tabby, which she totally anticipated, blasting up from the ground at a remarkable rate. If I wasn't getting the cheap shot, then I was going for gold. I shot up in Anino's direction. The suit cut through the air so easily that I felt like I was in space.

I caught a glimpse of him flying behind a large cluster of video displays.

Track Anino's vector on HUD.

"Foot-tag rules preclude use of automated tracking,"
my AI informed me.

That was fine by me. I could catch him no matter how we went about it. I zipped around the front of the video panels fully expecting to intercept him, only to find that he'd used the sight-blocking displays to change direction and was now accelerating straight up toward the domed ceiling, twenty meters above.

"Careful, Anino. You're going too fast," I said.

"Don't chicken out now! You'll miss the big splash," he said.

The kid was certifiably nuts, but I wasn't about to be outdone by crazy, so I pushed the suit hard, closing the distance between us. I marveled at how quickly the suit responded to my directives and hoped I wasn't about to wind up as ceiling paste. As we closed on the ceiling, my HUD displayed a circular outline a meter in diameter, directly ahead. The AI was detecting a port or hatch. I pushed harder, stretched, and finally slapped Anino's foot with my outstretched arm. At the same moment, the hatch popped open, revealing an energy barrier.

I followed Anino through and almost came to a complete stop. Instead of popping into space, we'd entered into a viscous, nearly pitch-black material, dropping from thirty meters per second to five instantaneously. My spine should have been crushed by the rapid deceleration, but other than being disoriented, I felt fine.

"What the frak?" Tabby's excited voice called over the comm, no doubt she'd followed us through.

I swung my head around trying to gain my equilibrium and saw a faint blue glow in the distance. It was then that things became clear to me. "We're underwater?"

"Took you long enough," Anino chirped. "And, TAG, you're it, Masters."

My HUD outlined Tabby's wriggling form in bright orange. Anino's pronouncement snapped her from her struggles and she straightened with one arm reaching for me.

"Oh no you don't," I said. I wasn't about to be tagged again and stretched toward the blue above us.

Water rushed past and I discovered that arm position made a difference in controlling direction. I'd spent a lifetime training my AI with a series of subtle gestures to work with arc-jets. In water however, every maneuver was encumbered, causing me to fight the medium. My best path was straight up, so I tucked my arms to my sides and pointed my toes. The blue glow above widened and in a few seconds I broke the surface of Curie's Radium Sea.

"Where are you?" Ada's worried voice came through the comm.

"Look for a blue splotch and head toward it," I said.

"But there's a huge monster here," she said. "I don't want to move."

"How big?" Anino asked.

"Ten meters, glowy fins, big mouth," she said.

End game
, Anino commanded immediately. "Don't move, Chen. It doesn't see that well, but feels things moving in the water."

"What is it, Anino?" I asked.

"Likely a Sephelodon, but I can't be sure. Chen, your suit should protect you - not completely sure of the bite pressure, though. It might be close. They also have electroreceptors along their sides that are super sensitive to movement in the water."

Tactical display of all friendlies and Sephelodon
, I instructed my AI as I flipped over in mid-air and dove into the water.

"Nick, Marny, suit up. We've got a problem," I said.

Marny's voice was clipped. "Aye, Cap, already on it."

"Ada, I'm coming in hot. Tabs, take the tail. Diagram shows electroreceptors along its side," I said.

"It's circling," Ada said. "I need to move…"

"Don't do it, Chen," Anino said.

For the second time in only a few minutes my eyes had to adjust to a radical change in illumination. Fortunately, the light change in the dive downward was less abrupt than when we'd exited Anino's underwater lair into the inky depths of the sea.

My HUD displayed the Sephelodon and it was indeed circling Ada. Anino was closer, but I hoped he'd stay back. I was far from an expert at swimming with a grav-suit, but I also knew that I could trust Tabby and Ada to work with me as a team. The last thing I needed was to have to worry about Anino.

"Liaaaaam," Ada's voice grew louder as her nerve was tested by the direct approach of the Sephelodon.

"Ada, take a close pass on me and give me a completely negative delta-v. On my mark," I said. In spacer pilot speak, I'd told her to sail past me and keep going.

"Roger that," she said. I could hear the tension in her voice.

"Go!"

Ada shot directly up and at me. As I'd both predicted and feared, the big shark-looking thing flicked its large tail, accelerating at an incredible rate.

Highlight electroreceptors on Sephelo
.

My HUD superimposed a delicate series of thin geometric swirls clustered around its mouth and gills. The lines narrowed and stretched along the creature's center line, fading out a meter before the start of the tail.

As Ada whooshed past, and just before impact, I curled into a ball and slammed into the top of the monster's great head. At the last moment, it anticipated my approach and opened its great maw. Fortunately, my speed had been sufficient that I skipped off the top of its jaw, narrowly missing becoming its next meal.

The impact should have been crushing as I'd been moving at fifteen meters per second. The suit, however, absorbed most of the energy and I rolled off and straightened out.

The Sephelodon, only stunned, forgot about Ada. I barely had time to move out of its way as it recovered and charged with mouth wide open. Its agility in the water was both fantastic and terrifying, but there wasn't time for panic. I shot away with all the speed I could muster. Ada was free, but I'd jumped into hot water to make that happen.

Light amplification
.

The HUD within the grav-suit displayed a rich overlay onto the dark landscape in front of me. Indistinct shapes snapped into sharp focus and hidden details were revealed. The HUD also displayed the Sephelo's trajectory and delta-v. I was losing ground and contact was imminent. Worse, I wasn't close to cover.

"On me, Cap." Marny's alto voice cut through my search for a solution. A throbbing light glowed at the bottom of my vision, letting me know that her location was behind and below me.

"No good. I lose speed on turns. It doesn't," I said.

"I'm going to try to give you a distraction, be ready," Tabby said.

My HUD had been showing an outline version of me and the Sephelo. It was the same strategic display I used in ship to ship combat. Listening to the conversation, my AI expanded to include Tabby and Marny. Tabby was indeed on an intercept course with the Sephelo's tail.

"How are you getting that speed?" I asked.

"Stay focused, Cap," Marny said. Someday I'd learn and she wouldn't have to remind me. Today was not that day.

Tabby's body struck the beast two-thirds aft on its starboard side. The impact didn't push it far off course, but the beast instinctively turned toward the contact. Tabby neatly, albeit in slow motion, tumbled around its tail, straightened out and shot away.

I used her distraction to peel away from my original trajectory and curve back towards Marny. My concern was that now the Sephelo would shift its pursuit to Tabby. Relief, however, wasn't exactly the feeling I experienced when I recognized it was once again closing on me. Tabby had given me room to move and it was up to me to make something of it.