Twin Stars 1: Ascension (15 page)

The woman’s face took on a contemptuous look. “Getting cold feet, Zhang? If you mean he’s watching us, I know all about it from your man. Just stay there and stay ready, he’ll be coming soon.”

“Bella…” Ping An said, and Vaela could hear an edge of concern in her voice. “This doesn’t feel right, you really need to…”

“Enough!” The other woman said, cutting her off. “I don’t want to hear your whining. Stay where you are.”

Then the window snapped shut.

“Idiot!” The metal rail around the captain’s area rang as Ping An struck it in frustration, then she crossed her arms and stood there for a time with her head down, thinking. When she finally looked up, she had a look of determination on her face- “Leederman, get me Captain Andrews. It’s time we changed the plan.”

* * *

Captain Bella St. James was already en-route to her bridge when the link came.

“Bella,” Captain Michaels appeared in an AR window in front of her. “We’ve got a contact between us and the stragglers. I’m bringing my ship around.”

With a thought, Bella sent her ship to battle stations, and ordered it around to face the enemy. “Good,” she told Michaels as she began to climb a ladder down to the bridge located in the core of the ship. “Now he’s taken the bait, so let’s see what kind of show Ping An gives us.”

“Bella,” Michaels cautioned. “She might not be able to do it.”

“No loss,” Bella responded. “We’ll just try something else. That girl’s been trouble long enough, and it’s one less share of the supply base if she’s gone.”

“Always thinking ahead,” Michaels said with a lecherous grin. “I like that in a woman.”

“Later, lover.” She returned flirtatiously. “First, let’s get rid of this pest.”

* * *

Vaela Smith had never been so frightened in her twenty-one years.

“Boss! She’s opening fire on the
Stag Beetle
!”

The young woman pulled her legs up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them in the crash couch, watching wide-eyed as the crew quickly sprang into action. Ping An had chosen well, even Vaela could see that, and while tension filled the air of the bridge, there was also focus and professionalism. She had always thought that pirates were like she saw in the dramas- undisciplined and reckless, but had quickly learned that didn’t apply to reality.

Reckless at times, perhaps, but in space a lack of discipline got you or someone else killed quickly, and wasn’t tolerated even among the pirates.

“Andrews’ ship is tough and maneuverable, he’ll be okay.” Ping An told her bridge crew. “Tell me about the fleet.”

On the main tactical graphic hanging before the command station, Vaela could see the small
Belleflower
and the even smaller
Stag Beetle
sitting next to the huge Imperial cruiser. Far beyond, on the other side of the cruiser, the rest of the pirate fleet had turned and was approaching, slowly.

“They’ve come around, and are heading right for us- I just hope they get here in time.” Leederman said in worried tones. “We’ve already lost Gunrig groups four and seven.”

“We’re in optimal firing position,” Betsey chimed in. “Just give me a go on the plasma cannons and racks.”

To Vaela’s surprise, Ping An announced- “Do it. I want her attention on us.”

The ship began to vibrate from the weapons fire, and Vaela could see representations of the weapons on the main tactical display as they unloaded on the enemy cruiser.

Until now, the cruiser has seemingly ignored the
Belleflower
, focusing on the other ship and smaller Gunrigs as the main threat. By attacking, the
Belleflower
had shown her fangs, and the cruiser began to respond in kind after a few seconds.

“Incoming fire!” Leederman announced. “Point defences are active, but he’s only firing plasma cannons, no missiles.”

Then the ship began to shudder as the first plasma bursts hit the
Belleflower
’s shields and detonated, releasing their destructive energy against the smaller ship’s limited defenses.

“Well, we’ve got her attention,” Betsey called out. “Shields holding.”

“Keep on her, Betsey.”

Someone, maybe it was Leederman, let out a high pitched cry of alarm. Vaela looked up, worrying something terrible had happened.

On the tactical display, on the other side of the fleet from where they were, space had suddenly become filled with tiny yellow spots that were converging quickly on the remaining pirate ships from behind.

“My god!” Betsey exclaimed.

“There’s your missiles, Leederman.” Ping An said in a tone that clearly meant she’d expected this. “Stupid,” she muttered, and shook her head in disgust.

“But…how?” Vaela asked, “Where did they come from? Another ship?”

“No,” Ping An answered. “Just that cruiser. He was laying traps for us earlier. He left the missiles floating in space in our flight path, and then once we were in position he jumped in to distract us while he triggered them.”

Vaela watched, fascinated, as the three groups of yellow dots converged on the other pirate ships and seemed to merge with them. There were still five ships in the main pirate battlegroup, and she could only imagine how many lives were now being lost across the emptiness of space. She would have been one of them if she’d transferred off, a thought that made her shiver again. Although, their current situation wasn’t much better.

“I’ve got datastreams from the fleet,” Leederman announced. “Two ships are destroyed, the other three are badly damaged.” Then he added, as if saying it would make any difference- “We’re on our own, boss.”

“Captain?” Betsey spun around, looking up at her.

Vaela wondered if they were expecting their captain to run, maybe try to escape into hyperspace now that there was no fleet to protect. The opportunity must have looked pretty tempting, especially as the ship shook around them from hit after hit from the cruiser’s weapons.

“Don’t worry, Betsey.” Ping An reassured the helmsman. “We’re still doing fine. Leederman, have the Gunrigs on point defense switch to attacking his plasma cannons. We don’t need to worry about missiles- if he had any left he’d have used them on us by now. This is actually almost a fair fight, if he didn’t outgun us five to one.”

Vaela wasn’t sure if that last remark was meant to be gallows humour, but if it was she didn’t think it was very funny.

Then Betsey let out a whoop! “There goes a weapons pod!” She cried, and a general cheer went up across the bridge.

“Good, get us into that blind spot and keep us there.” Ping An told her, “We need to give Andrews more time.”

“Huh?” Asked the morphic. “More time for what?”

Ping An just smiled.

Vaela could now see why Ping An had such a devout following among her people, she wasn’t just a leader- she was a showman. She liked to keep others guessing, because that way when she showed her hand it not only made the results look more impressive, but it made her look greater as well. She didn’t just want her crew’s loyalty; she wanted them to have stories to tell to others, to help spread her fame.

She was building her own legend, one tale at a time.

Then the young woman was thrust up into her restraints as the ship suddenly jerked downwards, her legs and arms being flung free by the sudden jerk.

“Hull breaches!” She heard Leederman shout. “We’ve lost the port flight deck and missile rack number three. Crews responding.”

Ping An, who the recovering Vaela realized should have been thrown across the bridge by the hit, was in fact still standing where she’d been on the command area in front of Vaela. She just had one hand on the railing now, and was gripping it tightly- so tightly Vaela thought she could see the metal had been crimped by her grip. She wasn’t sure, though, as the dim bridge light could be playing tricks on her eyes.

“Hey!” Betsey suddenly exclaimed. “What the hell is Andrews doing? Is he trying to board that cruiser?”

That brought all eyes to the tactical display, where the smaller
Stag Beetle
had indeed disappeared among the bulk of the imperial warship, leaving only a notation box showing its location.

“Leederman, tell me when that ship attaches.” Ping An said, “Betsey, keep us alive until it does.”

“But…But…” Betsey stammered. “Is he crazy? He’ll get slaughtered!”

Ping An started to say something, but her voice was drowned out by another loud roar as an explosion tore through the
Belleflower
. The ship’s frame was carrying the sound vibrations, and unlike the other ones, this was anything but muted and distant. Sirens flared to life, and Vaela was almost sure she could hear screaming from somewhere nearby in the ship, but it may have been her imagination.

“We’ve got hull breaches! Systems going down!” Leederman yelled. “Internal communications is down!”

“Let the crews deal with it,” Ping An ordered. “Do we still have sensors?”

Leederman nodded, doing his best to stay calm under his captain’s gaze.

“And?”

There was a delay, and then Leederman said- “They’re attached.”

“Alright then- that’s what I’ve been waiting for.” Vaela watched as Ping An stepped away from the railing and stood again in the middle of the command area, despite the danger. “Open a channel to the captain of that cruiser, and tell him we’ve just attached a suicide ship to his hull. I’m demanding their immediate surrender.”

The crew all turned to look at her, dumbfounded.

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“Uhh…” Said Leederman, still in shock. “Yeah…Okay!” Then he went to work.

Ping An turned as he did it, looking down at Vaela. “You okay?”

“Ahh…” Vaela said, still trying to get herself together. “F-fine. But…” Vaela said, looking at her in wonder. “Will it work? Will they really surrender?”

“Well, we’ll soon find out.”

It was Betsey who brought it to their attention before Vaela had noticed it. “They’ve stopped firing!” The helmsman declared and Vaela realized it was true; the distant pounding sensation of the plasma impacts was gone.

There was a long pause, as everyone stared at their monitors- waiting, hoping. Then, as Vaela watched the giant cylinder that had dominated their lives for the last day suddenly disappeared from the tactical display altogether.

“They’re gone,” she murmured to herself in disbelief. Then all around her the crew began to cheer.

“I figured they would. Imperial ships don’t surrender as a matter of policy.” Ping An told her, watching her crew celebrate being alive.

“But,” Vaela asked, not wanting to have false hope. “Won’t they just come back?”

“No,” Ping An assured her. “You can take off those crash straps. They’ll head for the nearest spacedock in another system where they can try and remove the
Stag Beetle
from their hull.” She smiled at her friend. “They’re gone for good.”

Then she refocused on her crew, bringing them back under control with a few choice words. “Leederman, send out recovery teams to get Captain Andrews’ lifepods, they should have ejected before the cruiser jumped. Betsey, plot us a course for the Evergreen Supply Depot and get us moving once the life pods are aboard.”

This got the affirmative from both the bridge officers, and then Leederman called for her attention. “Boss, I’ve got the Squadron Leader wanting a link.”

“Oh really?” Ping An said with a smirk. “I’ll take it in private…” The she paused and grinned. “No, on second thought- open it here on the bridge.”

“Zhang? What happened?” Bella asked as her face appeared in a display window just in front of the command section. She wasn’t on her bridge, and it looked to Vaela like she was in a smaller room or a hallway.

“Hello, Squadron Leader.” Ping An said cordially. “You okay?”

Bella cursed. “I am. No thanks to you. My ship has been damaged, I need you to bring yours here. I’m taking command.”

That got a few snickers from the bridge crew, but Ping An silenced them with a look. “Really? I’m sorry to hear that Bella, but I’m afraid I’m a little busy right now. I’ve got an appointment with the local supply depot. Catch up with us when you’re done your repairs.”

“What?” The other captain’s eyes suddenly opened in surprise, as though she’d never considered such a thing was possible. “But…You…you…” She stammered, her arrogance changing to a pleading tone. “You need us! You can’t take that base by yourselves! You need our ships…our men!”

Ping An just sighed and shook her head. “Wrong on both counts, Squadron Leader.” Then she added, “See you at the base”, and cut the link.

Vaela couldn’t help but share Ping An’s grin. “You enjoyed that,” she said.

“Me?” Ping An touched her breast with mock innocence. “Not at all.”

“But…” Asked Vaela, thinking about a moment. “What if she’s right? How will we take the base with just one ship? It’s not like they’ll just open up for us.”

Ping An just laughed. “Ahh Vaela, you hit it right on the head.” She told the surprised girl. “That’s exactly what they’ll do.”