Rookie Privateer (6 page)

I looked back to the ship and saw with satisfaction that Nick had begun welding long strips along the door frame. He continued to add structure to his welds and I doubted the door would ever be useable again.

A bright light burst from the top of the gun turret as my laser broke through. Molten metal froze in puddles on the chamber of the now completely useless gun. Satisfied with his work on the door, Nick jumped down and welded the station clamps to the attack ship, turned brick.

"
Nice job!"

"
No celebrating at half-time," Tabby admonished, but her grin said it all. She was loving this as much as I was.

We looked up the length of the tether. The elevator was docked next to the control tower
, but with the station gravity out, we wouldn’t need the elevator to get up there. Disabling the perimeter defense guns was our last and most important objective.

"
Grab the plasma cutter, Nick. Let's do this thing," I said.

Tabby and I both carried pressurized canisters that were about a meter tall
and Nick had his welding rig that doubled as a plasma cutter. We glided up the tether toward the security control office. Down below, I saw the warm reds and oranges of the slagged metal.

The elevator was docked at the only door to the security control center.
We would have to go through the elevator to get to the control room. Nick switched his portable welder to cutting mode and broke through the locked outside door. It didn’t take much time, but it meant we had lost whatever element of surprise we might have otherwise had.

The door to the control room led to an airlock we could see through. The problem was, those inside could also see us. There were three people inside who were completely suited up. Two of the inhabitants were pointing long guns at the door. From the corner of my eye I caught the tell-tale signs of atmosphere being vented from the control room.

"They are venting," I informed Tabby and Nick, who both understood the implications. Once the atmosphere was vented, the pirates would be able to simultaneously open both doors of the airlock. There was no place to hide.

"
Nick, get out." This was about to get real sketchy. I placed my pressurized canister directly in front of me, blocking the pirate’s view.

Nick started to argue, but Tabby simply grabbed him and shoved him out the door.

"I got it," Nick shot back excitedly. "Get your canisters in the airlock when it opens. Trust me!"

There wasn't time to argue and the Loose Nuts pod-ball team thrived on running the play that was called. I had always told myself that I trusted Nick and Tabby with my life. Today I would prove it. The door opened and Tabby and I stuffed the meter tall canisters we carried into the lock. We pulled back just as slugs started hitting the elevator’s walls and floor. My left leg exploded with pain just above my foot. It was like no pain I had ever felt and I had to fight to stay conscious.

Through the glass of the airlock, I saw a bright beam of light strike the back canister. Almost immediately, Tabby and I were violently thrown back into the windows by the force of an explosion. I felt Tabby's vice-like grip on my arm dragging me through the outside door. I was unable to focus, the pain in my leg was overwhelming, and I welcomed the blackness that invaded my diminishing vision. This must be what dying felt like.

Well, I clearly hadn't died
. I woke up to faint nondescript music. My mind wandered, recalling that I had once heard this referred to as elevator music, which made no sense at all considering elevators were for moving materials, and lifts were for moving people.

I gagged when I tried to swallow. There was something in my throat and I desperately needed something to drink.

"Relax son. You are safe and you have a breathing tube. We'll get someone to take it out." It was my dad's voice.

I felt a squeeze from my right side. I was pretty foggy but I could tell that it wasn't Dad's hand since it was smaller than mine. It must be Mom.

The next time I woke up, tubes were being pulled out of my throat and through my nose. Unlike before, I was able to force my eyes open. I felt a squeeze from a warm hand on my right side. I rolled my head expecting to see Mom and instead saw Tabby. Her eyes were red and puffy and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Tabby doesn't cry. Period. Sure, maybe when she was three or four years old, but I guarantee never since then. I cried more than Tabby, not that I would ever admit it to her.

My mouth was so dry that I couldn't squeak out a question. I felt sore everywhere and had a giant throbbing pain just below my left knee. I reached toward it with my free hand but a stronger hand held my shoulder back. I had absolutely no capability to resist so I swiveled to look over at Big Pete Hoffen. He had a strained
I don't want to break him
look on his face. I don't know if Tabby's tears or my dad's face freaked me out more, but if I hadn't been so drugged up I would have probably figured things out right then. As it was, I just faded back into the pillow.

I felt gentle stroking on my right hand and opened my eyes. I was considerably less foggy than the last time. The throbbing in my leg was a significantly sharper and localized to just above my foot.

"My leg is killing me," I said, turning to Tabby. She squeezed my hand tightly and fresh tears all but squirted from her eyes.

"
Liam …" she started and then stopped, looking across the room.

Peripherally, I saw a figure stand up and my mom's soft cool hand grabbed my left hand. I turned to her, Big Pete sat on the edge of the his chair. Mom's nose was bright red and her eyes were also puffy.

"You guys are freaking me out," I said, but right then I had a moment of perfect clarity. Big Pete wouldn't be here if it wasn't something big.

"
Liam ..." Mom started and then paused, her eyes searching my face for how to break it to me.

I put a hand up to stop her and turned to Big Pete.
"How bad is it?" I was going to be strong for my family, they were suffering. It would be easier for Dad to deliver bad news and he wouldn't mince words.

"
Liam, you lost your left foot just above the ankle. The damage was too much and there was no saving the foot. If not for Tabitha and Nick, you would have bled out in vacuum." His voice was strained.

I pulled up to almost sitting in the bed. I flashed back to the moment just before the explosion where I felt a slug tear into my leg. I turned to Tabby, concern lined her face.
"Are you okay, Tabs?"

"
I am so sorry, Liam."

"
Tell me. Are you hurt?" I pushed. Tabby would lose her chance at the Naval Academy if she was hurt and couldn't leave on the M-Cor freighter.

"
I'm fine," she said.

"
Hardly." Nick joined in, unable to let her tough it out.

"
The Academy?" I looked at Nick. He nodded positively.

I lay back, loss and relief spinning through my mind. The assault was my plan and if I had ruined Tabby's future, it would have crushed me. But what would my future be like without full use of my leg?

I was on some heavy pain killers, so leaning back, I dozed off again. When I came to the next time. Tabby was dozing in the chair next to me and Nick was sleeping on another chair. Mom saw me come awake and gave my hand a squeeze.

"
Pete had to get back to the claim. The pirates took all of the platinum and most of the copper. M-Cor will be here in a week." It was another crushing blow. I had never seen my dad as happy as he had been when we hit that pocket of minerals. M-Cor wouldn't be back for months and we needed that big haul.

Big Pete would work himself around the clock until M-Cor showed up, to attempt to recover his loss. It was a testament to how critically I was injured that he had been here when I woke up last time.

"How much time do we have?" I asked.

"
Five days," she replied.

"
You should go Mom. He needs you."

We argued about it but she knew I was right. Our family was on the financial edge already. I was stable but couldn't help. She finally agreed and I fell asleep again. When next I awoke, Nick and Tabby were chatting quietly next to my bed.

"Hey, it's sleeping beauty." Tabby's face was no longer splotchy red.

A nurse came in to work on my leg.

"I want to see it." I pulled myself upright. Sure enough, just above where my foot used to be was a molded white cup with tubes and wires running into it. The throbbing had reduced considerably. With modern medicine, I was surprised that they were still drugging me. The nano-bots do a pretty good job of healing things quickly.

The nurse addressed me.
"The doctor will be in this afternoon to talk to you. We have been overwhelmed since the attack."

"
When can I get up?" I asked.

"
Soon. We have been pumping you with sleepy drugs and those will stop today. This afternoon the doctor will fit your permanent cuff. You have some helpers here, so I expect you to be up on crutches this afternoon before the doc stops in. I wish I could stay and help more, but we are slammed. Tell your AI if you need anything." He didn't wait for my response, spun on his heel, pushed open a seam in the fabric wall and was gone.

I looked at Tabby and Nick with a bewildered look and we all started laughing.

"Fill me in on what I missed. I'm guessing our gambit worked."

Nick gave it the first shot.
"After Tabby tossed me out of the door, I realized that I could open the bottles with the cutter by just hitting them through the control room wall. Once I hit it, the foam exploded into the room and trapped the three of them. You'll never believe it, but one of them was a deputy. It took an entire day to cut them out of the foam, but they all lived through it. Tabby pulled you out of the gondola and your foot was already gone and you were spewing blood like a fountain. It was disgusting, but she didn't waste a second and plastered it with suit sealer and then tied it off with a tourniquet."

"
What about the refinery?" I asked.

"
Well, once you were stable, we pinged Big Pete. Without their attack ship and the perimeter defenses, the pirates had to take off in the freighter quick. Most of them were able to get away, though Big Pete actually brought one down with his bare hands. They only got away with half of what they could have. They had loaded all of the platinum, gold, rhodium and were working on the copper when they decided to leave. They had to leave all of the iron and nickel behind."

"
How bad was your yard shot up?" I was worried about the damage we had seen.

"
Not completely sure, but Jack did a survey. We definitely had some losses, but we'll recover."

"
I am sorry for dragging you guys into that. If I had lost either of you I would never have been able to forgive myself."

"
Sack up Hoffen," Tabby said, clearly not wanting to go down any more emotional conversational paths.

"
Roger that. Last we'll speak of it."

"
So I've been doing some research and I have a crazy idea." Nick started.

Tabby and I turned to him, wondering what he could be on about.

Nick continued, "I did a serial search on that attack ship. You know, to see if it was stolen. There is no record of the ship one way or another. It's never been registered."

Nick looked at us meaningfully, but Tabby and I returned blank stares.

"Well, if it was stolen then it would go back to the original owner. If it belonged to a police force or the Navy, then it would go back to them. A ship that has no registered owner could be considered salvage. If the inhabitants don't claim it, we can make a rightful salvage claim under the Mars Privateer Act, which says that a ship forfeited during an illegal act of aggression could be salvaged by the defending force."

"
Wouldn't that be the colony?" Tabby asked skeptically.

"
Well, maybe. But I have been talking with Mr. Ordena, the lawyer we use for the shop and he thinks we have real shot at this. He will take it on for 30% contingency if you guys agree. What do you think?"

"
Why not?" I looked at Tabby.

"
Sure, I'm in," she said.

That afternoon the doctor stopped by and talked to me briefly about my injury. It wasn't an unusual injury on a mining colony and while a basic prosthetic foot was a bit expensive they weren't hard to come by. The cap already on the stump was nearly finished knitting my flesh back together, but I wouldn't be able to fit a prosthetic for at least a week. The rapid healing brought on by the cuff would allow me to be released in a couple of days. All I needed to do was learn to walk with crutches. Just like the nurse, he was gone in less than ten minutes.

I spent the next couple of days working with a physical therapist AI. I had thought it would be a person, but it turned out that people were in high demand. I arranged to stay with Nick on the station so I could make daily visits with the hospital staff. It was frustrating, spending hours at the hospital waiting for a five minute visit only to be told that things were progressing well.

On the day that M-Cor was scheduled to arrive, I got into my ore sled and headed out to O-92 where Big Pete and Mom were working to get everything loaded. Working around the clock for the last five days, they had loaded five containers. The yield was almost entirely iron with just a bit of nickel and copper. Nothing close to the big payload we'd lost to the pirates. With the ingots at the refinery already and this load of iron, Big Pete would be able to keep the operation going, pay for repairs
, and retire some of his debt. Any chance of getting ahead had disappeared with that pirate freighter.

"
It means a lot you coming out here, Liam." Now I knew Big Pete was tired. It was his second sentimental comment in as many weeks.

"
I came out so I could run loads back to P-1. M-Cor is twelve hours out," I informed them.

"
Liam, I need to be able to trust your answer. Shoot me straight on this. Can you make a run or would it be touch and go?" Big Pete wanted a look into my soul. He wasn't interested in me playing games of bravery, he wanted straight talk.

"
Fact is, flying an ore sled is about the only thing I can do and I gotta do something. Let me do this." I knew I had to lay it out plain, nothing extra.

"
Silver hasn't slept for over thirty hours," he replied. He didn't often use Mom's first name. It was all he was going to say on the matter, but he would accept my help.

We attached the containers to my sled and I filled them in on my recovery. Mom had a lot of questions
, but wasn't tracking my answers very well. She repeated several of them to the point that I was certain of her exhaustion. I arranged to have Jack meet me at P-1 to help unload the containers.

I saw with satisfaction that as I took off for the refinery they had loaded into the other sled and were headed back to our habitat. It felt great to know that they trusted me with this responsibility.

Jack and I finished off-loading the containers an hour before M-Cor's arrival. The refinery would turn our raw ore into ingots over the next twelve hours, which was in plenty of time to be sold to M-Cor. Pride welled up in my chest thinking about how my parents had risen to this challenge. I checked in with the habitat to assure myself that they were safe and snoozing at home. It was also a relief to have not been thinking about my leg and doing something else for a bit.

Nick chirped my comm.
"Heya, Liam, want to come over and check out the Control Center? It’s crazy."

I met him next to the attack ship we had taken out. My mind flashed back to the stress of that evening and my leg throbbed sympathetically. I noticed with satisfaction
that the ship's entry door had to be cut off and Nick's welds were still very evident. Nick told me that sheriff deputies cut the door off to extract the pirates who were trapped. They had given up pretty easily, having lived in their ship suits in vacuum for better than a day before anyone got to them.

My eyes followed the tether up. A new platform was lashed to the gondola and control room. Workers were working on the security control center at the top of the tether.