In case you are interested in reading this from the beginning:
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The old saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. I felt every square inch of that old saw. Haul-o-caster was docked with the Bait and Tackle, and the supplies we received from the stash were all offloaded. Haul-o-caster's stuff, my stuff, all my spares and supplies were supposed to have been loaded.
But they weren't.
Those Destroyers that were supposed to be there to "Cover me" were starting to feel like they weren't covering my back so much as holding a gun to my head, keeping me from escaping. Not that they needed to be. Haul-o-caster was docked using the starboard cargo docking collars. Those are much bigger, and more secure than the nose docking collar. Being a cargo docking collar, it does not have a tear-away like the nose collar does. Tearing away from a dock with one of those would be likely to destroy half the ship.
So I was stuck. Since the Admiral had to be controlling at least some of this directly, complaining to him wouldn't get me anywhere. Dumb old Captain Kid, caught by her own trust in... In what? Miami Pete's friends? How did I really even know that the Admiral had ever met Miami Pete? For that matter, how do I know anything about my own crew? Is Cmdr. Barona a friend? Lt. Tine?
I pulled the small hand blaster out of Pete's desk and hid it in my pocket, glad that the pockets on these uniforms were big enough to handle it. This was the blaster that Pete usually took with him when he thought he might have the need of some discreet violence. I still remember Pete taking the time to teach me how to use it, how to fire it. I sat in my quarters with the door shut and locked waiting for some inspiration, or perhaps waiting for the end.
I couldn't help but thinking that I really messed this up this time.
"Captain, Admiral Thomas on a secure channel for you." Came Shelly's voice from the speaker in my quarters.
"Thanks Shelly, I'll take it in my quarters." I told her.
"Well Admiral, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic here, and I'm starting to wonder where my stuff is. I bring supplies, you give me my stuff back, that was the deal. I kept my side of the deal. Nobody is filling my holds with my stuff, which isn't filling me with confidence that you are keeping your side of the deal."
"I'm working on it." The Admiral replied, "Turns out, Captain Tarkin has connections that I was unprepared for. Your cargo is being loaded onto the Golden Screw. It's a freighter that caught up with Vanguard Fleet yesterday. It is run by a Morganite family that are distant relatives of mine, so I assure you that you can trust them. I'm sending you a flight plan to rendezvous with them after your escape."
"So, do I leave the crew with the Golden Screw, or do I leave them on the Bait and Tackle?"
"Take them with you if they want to stay on the Haul-o-caster. Any that want to risk staying with the Fleet, leave them on the Bait and Tackle." The Admiral said. "Tarkin's connections are with the Board of Discipline, but somehow Admiral Foster is involved too. You and your crew all have arrest warrants and bounties on your heads. They can stay and face trial if they want and I'll do my best to help them. The bastards have issued a warrant for me too, but my family has enough clout that there is no way it'll stick. I wish I could extend that protection to you and your crew, but other than Commander Barona who is covered because she is my niece, the family's name won't help them. Legal support is all we can offer."
The plan was a simple one, because simple works best. The Captain of the Bait and Tackle would take care of secretly loading Hauley's cargo onto the Golden Screw. He still credits the Haul-o-caster with saving his ship and his life, and is happy to be able to return the favor. The Golden Screw takes off heading back towards the jump point towards the former location of Otford Station, as if they were heading for Morgan space.
While all the commotion is going on, one of Bait and Tackle's crew releases the docking clamps to the Haul-o-caster, and as soon as we get the signal, we run like hell. The Bait and Tackle already had us fueled and our water tanks full. The crew was probably going to be down to ration bars soon, but that was fine with me. As soon as we met up with the Golden Screw, we would be resupplied.
I pulled the crew together and gave them the bad news.
"It won't be the first time I've been on the run." Said Lt. Tine. "It's not so bad once you get used to it."
Shelly sniffed, she had tears rolling down her face. How is it fair for someone so beautiful to get even more beautiful when she cries. "I'm... my mom, what will she think?"
"Aw Shells," Barns put an arm around her to comfort her, "We'll figure out how to get a letter to your mum explaining everything. She'll understand." It was almost a comical picture. The tiny, fine-boned, Barns struggling to comfort the tall, shapely, Shelly almost twice her size. "Besides, it'll be exciting! I'm in!"
"I'm staying with the Haul-o-caster if it's all the same to you Captain." Cmdr. Barona said, "I know my family would go out of their way to protect me. Hell, they would probably enjoy poking the BoD in the eye, belligerency tends to run in my family, but for that to happen I would have to return to Morganite space and never leave the family estates. It would be so boring. Besides, there is no way I'm leaving you guys in a lurch. I love you guys."
"I got nowhere to go." Lt. Cmdr. Dorn added in turn. "I was just an orphan street rat, surviving as best as I could before I joined the fleet. I never fit in very well. The Admiral noticed that I was struggling and offered me this job. For the first time in my life, I feel like I really belong somewhere. I'm staying!"
Then the Chief took his turn. "I'll answer for PO Smart and myself." He looked over at the Petty Officer, "If that's Ok."
PO Smart nodded.
"The Petty Officer and I are staying." Chief Williamson continued. "Neither one of us was comfortable with all the rules and regulations in the Fleet. An engineer shouldn't have to file an engineering plan and have it signed off on by both Fleet Engineering and the Captain before doing simple maintenance. We were both turned down when we requested Outside work because competent engineers are in such high demand in the Fleet. When Admiral Thomas gave us this opportunity, we jumped at it, and neither one of us regrets it. Oh, and Captain, using sleeping bags and bungee cords to get through a rough jump like that, that was genius!"
I looked around at my crew. I hadn't expected any of them to stay. Sure, they were all facing problems at home, but staying with me was like turning their backs on their own people. There was no guarantee that they would ever be able to go home. The bounties are also a big unknown. Morganites aren't known for putting bounties on people.
"I have never heard of Morganites putting bounties on people. I have heard of a Morganite expat who could never go back to Morgan space because of a warrant, but even he didn't have a bounty that I know of." I asked.
"It is not unknown," Lt. Tine replied. "but it is usually only extends to the borders of Morgan space. To the Morganite people, once someone is outside Morganite space, they no longer matter. An arrest warrant would surely stay active indefinitely in case any of us tried to return, but they normally wouldn't bother sending Morganite bounty hunters outside Morgan space, and it would be illegal to contract with non-Morganite bounty hunters. Even a few ships of my former sect managed to escape Morgan space without being pursued, and the hatred for the Scientists is still prevalent in the church, Fleet, and the secular government."
"I didn't know some of you escaped." Shelly said excitedly.
"Now that you know, do you plan on contacting your family so they can resurrect the Grand Sport?" Lt. Tine asked calmly.
Shelly seemed shaken. "The Grand Sport ended before I was born."
"I was there." Lt. Tine said. It sounded like mere statement of fact, yet the effect it had on Shelly was terrible.
"Why do you think I'm here? I'm not escaping Morganism, I'm escaping my family." Shelly was practically in tears. "You know they still sit around talking about the old days, rehashing old battles, arguing over scores? Even me. My favorite book growing up was a Grand Sport ship specification picture book. When the truth came out, I didn't believe it, so I found a way to get a copy of the evidence. Even then I thought the evidence was doctored, until a cousin of mine pointed out that we had a copy in our family databanks. The evidence was in our family databanks the whole time. You know what I found? The official evidence was edited after all. The part that was cut out was my family celebrating. My family, some of them I grew up with and saw on our family ship every day, were there. They took part in the slaughter of the survivors."
The whole ship went silent. Everyone was shocked by the revelation.
"There were other survivors?" Lt. Tine asked quietly, even gently.
"A few." Shelly buried her face in her hands. "Someone aboard the Mad Courser discovered a way of locating the life pods. The survivors were shared out to the five ships that were there. As far as I know, they were all killed."
"There were five ships?" Lt. Tine asked. "I always believed there were only three."
"There were five. I don't remember the names of the other ships. The Mad Courser was my family's ship. Two ships were edited out of the official evidence." Shelly answered "I tried to send copies of what I found to the authorities, but nobody would listen. When my family found out, they deleted the files and confined me to my quarters on the Mad Courser. It took months, but I was finally able to sneak off the ship while she was docked at a spaceport. Having no other place to go, I joined the Fleet and passed the Comm Officer test. I met Admiral Thomas in an elevator and he asked me why I joined the Fleet. I guess he liked my answer because I was asked to join the crew of the Haul-o-caster. You have to believe me Lt. Tine, I had nothing to do with what happened to your people. I wasn't even born yet. I am so ashamed of what my people did."
"Very well." Lt. Tine said. "Let it be known that I do not hold Shelly in any way responsible for the actions of her family, and I consider her a friend. Shelly, if you feel you still require forgiveness from me. I freely offer it."
Lt. Tines word seemed to have a dramatic effect upon Shelly.
"Well, huh." She said, "I was brought up to believe that your people were unfeeling monsters. It seems that I can still be surprised by how wrong my family is."
"Well, that's taken care of." Cmdr. Barona said, "Sorry to intrude on such a moment, but I think that either our signal to start the big escape is happening, or we're in serious trouble."
I looked at the screens and indeed Cmdr. Barona was right. There were explosions on the destroyers that had been covering us.
BOOM!
"That would be the docking clamps to the Bait and Tackle." Cmdr. Barona said. "I didn't realize they were going to blow them though. Battle Stations!"
"They probably wanted to give Bait and Tackle a way of denying that they were directly involved with letting us go." Lt. Cmdr. Dorn answered as he set us to condition one.
I used all the commotion as an excuse to break out my favorite fake Pirate talk.
"Avast ye planet lubbers, toss the bow line, cut the stern line! Shove us into the depths of dark briny space!"
"What?" Yelled Barns from the helm.
"Get us out of here Barns!" Cmdr. Barona helpfully translated.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
"We are taking fire from the Lightning Captain." Lt. Cmdr. Dorn announced.
"If we were the traitors and scallywags the liars made us out to be, we would return fire." I said, Pirate talk forgotten. "But we are not. It's up to you Barns, punch it. Get us out of here."
"Yes Captain!" Barns said as she pushed the throttle up past eighty percent.
We shot off like a scalded puppy, barely missing a couple ships as we passed. At first, I thought Barns was being careless, then I noticed how hard she was concentrating, and how much trouble the Lightning was having following us. She was trying to scrape the Lightning off of our tail, and it was working.
Finally, as we flipped around the Baskins I saw the retro-engines on the Lightning fire up. Barns had used Hauley's tighter turning radius to trick the Lightning's helmsperson into boxing themselves in. The Lightning barely missed ramming right into another ship. As it was, they would need maneuver time to get turned and had lost all of their momentum. Moments later, we broke out of the fleet formation into open space. We were free.
"Is anyone else chasing us?" Barns asked excitedly.
"I see no further pursuit." Lt. Tine said.
"Agreed Captain, I don't see anyone else chasing us." Lt. Cmdr. Dorn agreed.
Barns dropped us down to the sweet spot that she had discovered. She had us pointing towards the unstable jump point.
"Where are we headed Barns?" I asked, wondering if she had a plan. We hadn't discussed a plan for after the escape other than to meet up with the Golden Screw where Otford Station used to be. I didn't know of a quick way to get there from the unstable jump point. Did Barns know something I didn't?
"Your Pirate talk got me thinking Captain. How would a Pirate escape? By going somewhere his pursuers couldn't or wouldn't go. That's what Evil Pirate Jack would always do in the vids. He would head for a quazar or something." Barns explained.
"Barns! You know those are all just vid movies right? They are written and filmed by people who have never been to space. You can't fly through a quazar in real life!" Shelly said.
"I know that," I could hear from her voice that she was rolling her eyes, "BUT a vast majority of the Morganites in the fleet will also have seen those vids. So they won't question that we're heading for what might as well be the real-life equivalent. The best way to lie is to tell people what they already know. They are going to believe that's where we are heading. They know there is no chance of catching us. They know how much damage the Lightning took on that transit, and how little damage Haul-o-caster took. Would you be dumb enough to follow us?"
"Barns, how are we going to get our supplies if we transit there? The Golden Screw won't wait around forever." I asked.
"Simple, we don't. We wait till the range is far enough and we change course and head for the transit to Otford Station." I was impressed. Barns came up with a pretty decent plan. Not foolproof or anything, but better than I could think of at the moment.
"Very well Barns, make it so."
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