Privateer's Commission 2 -ch 9-

Chapter 9

Ralph clicked his tongue and rubbed a hand against his face.

“Ralph,” Xas said quickly over his headset. “We’ve got a problem. I think the idea that someone already had a prison break plan in motion was right! A small assault craft just nosed up to the shuttle you arrived in! They pushed out out of the way and have docked!

“It’s unlisted, no transponder, and rally, the materials on the damn thing are a bit less than what we have on the Toll, but it’s up there. It’s about the size of the Siren! The feed from Del’s wired-probe is the only reason I saw it at all. Their ship is built well.”

Raising his eyebrows, Ralph had no idea what to say about that.

The only thing that made sense was that the Confed had figured out that a prison break; or that there really had been someone planning an escape and it got interrupted by Ralph’s attack.

“No way it’s Confed?” whispered Ralph.

“Not unless it’s a blackout non-reporter!” Xas answered. “Which, let’s be honest, they would’ve already been here if they were. This is… there’s no way. It’s not Confed or it would’ve already happened earlier. Right?”

It sounded like Xas was almost confident in her statement, but not completely so.

“There’s an issue?” Liseth asked, her head tilting partially to the side, her smile had vanished as she stared at him.

“Ship just docked. It’s a sensor-stealthed ship like the Siren or the Tol. No transponder at all,” Ralph answered. “Moved the shuttle out of the way. Xas thinks it’s the idea that a prison break was already in motion when we attacked and that it’s not the Confed come to rescure the prison.”

“Uhm, I don’t know how to say this, but I’m about to lose control over the security,” warned Xas. “Or at least, some of it. I’m fighting to keep it. Also, I’m positive this isn’t Confed. They’re using programs to hack the security, not log into it. They don’t have the passwords or access. I’ll do what I can but—”

Xas’ voice was cut off.

“They just hacked security and Xas lost some control,” reported Ralph as the headset went quiet. It meant that whoever was pushing into security, had done enough to get the signal killers up and running. There would be no signals going in or out of the prison for any reason as long as they were up and running. “Can’t hear her anymore. Signal killers are up.”

“Well, that’s rather disappointing,” Liseth murmured with genuine sounding annoyance. “I suppose we’ll have to assist them with their suicidal wishes. I have three different plans that I believe would work, though we’ll have to test them to see what the response is.

“The first plan is to just sit here and let them do what they want. When they leave, we can leave. Whatever they’re here for, they’ll take, and leave. The Confed would wish to remain and establish their control over the prison. A third party would conclude their mission and depart.”

“I like that plan,” Delilah confessed with a smirk.

Ralph couldn’t deny he liked it as well and it made a lot of sense.

“Second plan, we fight our way out, fight out way to their ship, take it, and add it to the collection,” Liseth suggested. “I think given that we lost communications, and that Winnie, Rio, and Xas are on board the Toll, while Ralph is in here… they’ll move in to corner that new ship.

“Corner it, perhaps pull it out of the airlock, and take it. Winnie is particularly aggressive right now as she rights her thinking. She’s rather frustrated.”

There was no denying that Ralph would very much like to capture the ship. It’d be a nice addition to his ‘fleet’ of ships at this point. Not to mention, if they did get a carrier ship as a home base, than this new addition would be just fine.

“Third, I release the combat androids, tell them there’s someone to fight, and we take a step back and let them have at,” Liseth said in a dry voice. “Though I’m unsure of what kind of restrictions we could give them, their compliance, or even their ability to commit to a plan. You didn’t say much about what Xas said.”

“Xas didn’t explain much, no. She sounded disgusted, nervous, and concerned all at the same time about it though. She did say they were prisoners as if they belonged there,” agreed Ralph. “I like all three plans if I’m being honest. They all have their good points.

“The only thing I’m stuck on, if I’m being truly honest… is I’d hate to let the prison guards get killed by whoever just came into the prison if I don’t have to. We can assume that there was a prisonbreak plan in place all we want, I’m the reason this prison break happened though, and those guards don’t deserve to die because of it.

“Rhea said she had them all bound up and hidden in the infirmary. Hurt or unhurt.”

“Yes, I inspected several of them who were injured,” Liseth agreed, her smile appearing slowly. “They were awake, aware, and spoke with me. They made no attempt to signal to me that they were prison guards, but it wasn’t hard to tell that they were indeed prison guards. Haircuts, body-types, faces, no tattoos, no large scars. How they carried themselves even then.

“I let them know I was aware without telling them. Enough to deny I tlater if I needed to. Then they kept an eye out while I broke Xas into a terminal. There was a door to the side that was shut, I imagine that might be where the other guards were.”

Ralph stared at the rather lovely doctor who had a far sharper mind than he’d actually ever suspected.

“I think I got lucky when I kidnapped you,” he said after a long pause.

Liseth’s smile became a real one, her eyes crinkled, and she even displayed her teeth.

Then she shrugged at him.

“Mm, we both got lucky. I didn’t get caught up in a drive erruption that devoured the ship, and you got a Doc far more skilled than any ship’s captain could afford,” she offered. “For now, we have things to discuss. You may compliment me and flirt with me later. I enjoy it more than I thought I would.

“To reiterate, we have the three plans I proposed, and any plans you two might have.”

“I don’t have a better plan than what you put forward,” Delilah admitted with a small shrug of her shoulders. “I personally think… maybe we should enlist the androids to fight for us and get the hell out of here. They’d be a hell of a boarding force. War criminals or not.

“We could even take that ship at that point. Couldn’t we? How strong are these androids, anyways? I’ve heard of them, know about them, never fought or dealt with one.”

“Strong. Fast. Lethal,” Ralph admitted with a sigh. “I’ve fought them but it wasn’t something I’d like to repeat without preparation. It was a deal I had went bad. Android came out of nowhere. They dodged my shots and fought me to a standstill with a sword.

“I won because I used something they coudln’t juse dodge. Shotgun with a barrel so short it might as well have been a pistol. Just unloaded on it.”

“In other words, if we release them without controls, they could just murder us,” Delilah paraphrased.

“How delightful. As I mentioned, I’m not a doctor in cybernetics or programming. Nor AI for that matter,” Liseth demurred. “I can only go with whatever is on that console. Shall we at least inspect it? We can also test if the doors open for us at the same time.”

Ralph, Delilah, and Liseth all moved toward the door as the doctor was right.

If the doors weren’t opening for them, then they wouldn’t be able to do much of anything until Xas took the system over again.

It thankfully opened on it’s own and the hall back to the imprisoned androids was available.

The trio walked from into the hall and up to the console.

Liseth blew out a breath and stated to tap at the screen. Her eyes flicking from one window to another as she read over what was presented to her. Her rather long and delicate looking fingers were laid tot he screen and she began to tap at it with increasing speed.

She was currently moving through the security protocol and regulations of the console. It seemed to have a lot of warnings that came straight to the front.

Blue eyes moving back and forth across and to each thing that opened or closed. She cycled through menus faster and faster. To the point that Ralph couldn’t keep up anymore.

“Who built you like this?” Delilah asked abruptly.

Liseth’s hands paused over the controls and she turned her head fractionally, her bright eyes locking onto Delilah. Then she offered both Delilah and Ralph her trademark smile.

“My parents birthed me, as to what built me… a Blood member who wanted a strategist,” Liseth answered followed by a long and slow blink. “I’m afraid I never excelled at strategy or tactics. Medical work and things in that forte, I’m quite good at. It’s also why I wasn’t allowed to have children, before you ask, yes.

“Though, it would seem, I’m no longer beholden to the rules of Vannah. They didn’t want to buy me back after all and I’ve been sold to my dear captain. I’ve found that I’m quite gratified to be in my new role.

“By the way, Del, I need to look at your shoulder when we get back. You carry your weapon oddly and you keep avoiding me when I tell you it’s time for a physical.”

Liseth’s head turned back toward the console and her eyes followed after a few seconds. Her fingers once more began to dance and tap across the screen.

“Okay, Doc. Sorry,” Delilah muttered. “I fucked up my shoulder years ago and it’s never been right. Every doctor looks at it and just tells me it’s fucked.”

“It likely is,” Liseth agreed. “As your Doc, I still want to see it. Your health, is my responsibility. That and my captain wouldn’t like it very much if I wasn’t taking care of our crew.”

My captain.

She’s been growing more and more possessive over time.

I wonder if I should be worried.

“I get it,” Delilah mumbled. “I’ll… come by. Was a fist fight. They wrenched me around pretty good when it went to the ground. Something went pop and every doctor looks at it and says it looks fine.”

“Pop?” Liseth murmured even as her fingers continued to flick and move across the screen. “Labral tear probably. Not an issue. I’ll just check with enough contrast and some scanning equipment that your pee will turn blue. Nothing’s wrong when it happens.”

“Blue. Right. Yeah,” answered Delilah.

“Alright. I’ve got an idea of what’s going on here but I’m not completely sure,” Liseth stated, her hands paused above the console. “They’re androids that are war criminals because they interpreted orders in way that was incorrect and ended up killing a lot more people than they were supposed to. Repeatedly.

“They’ve been holed up here for reprogramming of their AI and I think… they were forgotten about. Based on what I’ve seen here, they’ve been locked up for a good twenty or thirty years.

“Two are functioning. The other sixteen are non-functioning and no longer responsive. Their AI have ceased to provide responses to the reprogramming.”

Two out of eighteen.

They were more or less left to starve to death, I guess.

“They are… not sane. If I turn them loose, I have no idea how they’ll response,” Liseth warned.

There was a loud bang followed by rattling clangs from nearby. As well as distant shouts. The unmistakable noises of gunfire made Ralph’s heartbeat start to thump along faster.

“It would seem it doesn’t matter,” Liseth stated flatly and looked to Ralph. “My captain? Orders?”

“Release’em, we’ll double back out and hide in a cell. Give it some time, then move out,” Ralph ordered. “Be quick, Doc.”

“Of course,” Liseth whispered, her fingers tapped at the controls, and then turned toward him and jogged forward. “Time to go dears.”

Ralph turned and fled back the way they came and went into the cell with Janey in it.

Delilah and Liseth joined him and the three hunkered down against the wall with the corpses.

Sighing, Ralph looked at Janey.

She’d been a young woman indeed. Looking no older than twenty or twenty-one.

Black hair, long black eyelashes, and pale skin. He knew from her picture that she had dark brown eyes. Much like Rhea, she also had a distinct look to her that marked her out as someone who had clearly had mixed Confed lineage. Lineage that might have even blurred the line with the Blood at some point.

As he stared at her, listening to the sounds of gunfire, the booms of things exploding, and screams, Ralph felt somewhat lost. This’d all been to get a pilot and he didn’t have one.

Then Janey breathed out.

“Fuck,” whispered the corpse a second before both of her eyes flicked open and she turned to look at him. “I could feel your damn eyes on me. Why the fuck did you have to come in here you creepy fucker?”

Blinking several times Ralph just stared at the pretty dead woman.

Then Janey blinked and looked at Delilah.

“Del?” Janey asked in some surprise.

“Hey Janey,” Delilah replied sounding just as shocked as Ralph felt.

“Ah,” said Liseth. “I probably should’ve checked to see if you were dead. But it was so much blood that I just… assumed.”

“Yeah, that’s the point,” grumbled Janey. “So… the hell are you here for and why are you hiding in my damn cell?”

With a laugh, Ralph couldn’t quite believe this day.

“Well,” he began.

***

“—want me to fly your ship while we’re basically acting like pirates,” Janey deadpanned, staring at him.

In the course of the explanation, she’d told him that the blood she was covered in was from the dead people around them. The hooded prisoners, which as far as she knew was some type of cult, had killed the people in the cell.

She’d used their deaths to hide herself.

“Yes,” Ralph confirmed. “You’ll get a share in any loot or prizes we take. And of course you know Delilah.”

Janey grunted at that, her lower lip pushing into her upper lip. It was an odd look but she seemed to be thinking on everything.

“You’re his ship’s mistress, right?” Janey asked, looking at Delilah.

To which Delilah grinned.

“I sure am. Lady Armory,” she answered. “We’ll have a new ship in the fleet soon and we have another Ship’s Mistress position open. You could take it and clear your jail time. Cargo and possessions can’t have jail time, obviously. Not sure how long you can stay on the run once our contract runs out. Privateer’s ship gets a lot of breaks in regulations.”

Janey wrinkled her nose at the suggestion.

“I’ll fucking think on it,” she growled out. “But I’ll take the damn pilots job. Better than being here.”

The gunfire that they’d been listening to had fallen away roughly twenty minutes ago.

“Time to go then,” Ralph said and stood up. He went over to one of the dead prisoners that Xas had murdered, pull the bag off her head, then pulled it down on his own head. He adjusted it, sighed, and looked to the others. “Bag up, I guess. Better disguises then nothing. We’ll at least get a chance to move past prisoners on this side of the barrier. If we’re lucky.”

Liseth clicked her tongue after following him out of hte cell. She went over to a dead prisoner, pulled the bag off the woman’s head, and pulled it down over her own.

Janey and Delilah did the same thing.

Walking up to the door that led back into the android cells Ralph was surprised to find it’d closed behind them. On approach it opened up wide.

Peeking down the hall, he saw all the androids in their cells, except for two.

Two of them had left and weren’t in their cells.

Lifting his pistol up and keeping it ready, Ralph moved down the hall.

The door at the end opened at his approach and he turned. Retracing his steps back toward the front of the prison.

As he did so, doors opened for him and shut behind Janey who was bringing up the rear.

There were no new signs of combat or problems as they moved along, which was surprising. Ralph half expected to find dead and dying along the way.

Maybe the androids didn’t go this way? But where could they have gone.

The next doorway opened and Ralph found the ‘barrier’ that divided the two sides of the prison.

There was a large clash of people battling against one another.

It looked like a bunch of prisoners with bags on their heads, a small group of people in dark-grey uniforms, and one of the androids. Who was screaming incoherently while attacking either side as it ran around erratically.

The second android wasn’t far away, a smoldering and wrecked mess. Twitching and shuddering on the ground.

Not waiting around for even a second, Ralph took the opportunity for what it was. He sprinted along the side wall, hopped over the barrier, and went straight toward the opposite door. Liseth, Delilah, and Janey were right behind him.

Once more as he got near the door it opened and the group of four scurried through it.

Ahead of him was a ruin.

All the doors had been blown up in some way or melted, unbelievably.

As if the invaders had been highly destructive and angry. It made Ralph wonder if Xas had access to the doors at the start and had crushed a few people.

Moving through the melted and blown up holes, and finding the doors refused to open any more, Ralph kept moving.

Much closer to the point that they’d entered the prison at he found a number of chopped up people in dark uniforms. Missing arms, legs, bisected torsos, and generally being smashed up. Xas had utilized the doors effectively.

Ralph bent low next to one of the corpses and ripped the helmet of their head.

Their face was nothing out of the ordinary.

Male, youngish, in their mid twenties, crew-cut hair.

He hesitated briefly, then decided on the ugly thought he had.

In a smooth motion, he  pulled the sack off his head. He didn’t need it it seemed. The simple use of it as hopeful camoflauge had either worked or not been needed at all.

It now had a point though.

Unsheathing his sword, Ralph chopped the head off the man. Grasping it by the hair, he stuffed it into the sack. Then he hacked off the right hand and dumped that in the sack as well.

DNA, blood samples, retina, or fingerprints, might help them figure out what the hell was going on here. Just not at this exact moment.

“Fucking gnarly,” Janey murmured from behind him. She’d pulled her own bag off her head and pointed down at a corpse. “Get this one for me? I don’t have a sword. Maybe I should buy one with my first paycheck. Swords are frickin’ cool.”

Hesitating, Ralph shrugged, then decapitated the dead woman Janey had pointed out. He took her hand off as well and threw that into the bag, too.

Then they were off and moving again.

Re-entering the admissions office Ralph looked around.

There were signs of combat, fighting, and what was unmistakably gunfire.

Yet no corpses.

Whatever happened here had been intense, but left no sign of anything.

WIthout another thought to it, Ralph turned and entered the docked ship and found it was most certainly not Confed. It was something that’d been built for a purpose and didn’t live to any of the regulations the Confed held so dear.

Small spaces, tight corridors, a low overhead, and unmistakably some type of large scout ship.

“I guess I’m piloting this? I’ll figure it the fuck out,” Janey groused and pushed past Ralph. She flung herself into what was likely the pilot’s seat. “Buckle up, or don’t, I don’t care. You said our ship is just out there? Great. I don’t have to get us far.”

There was a massive jolt as the ship lurched oddly, the sound of engines roaring briefly.

“Shit, should close the door first I guess,” Janey blurted out and then slapped at the panel in a weird way. Her hand sliding across multiple controls, buttons, switches, and indentations.

Something she hit caused the airlock door to shut and seal itself.

It had looked almost entirely random.

Janey pulled the ship away even as she spun it end over end. Ralph could see out the limited view space oft he glass-steel which was how he knew what was happening.

Because the horizon flipped on itself.

Then they were off. Flying away from the prison.

Somehow, someway, they’d managed a prison break and gotten the crew-member they’d wanted.

I’m sure Rio will love all this.

“This thing is called the Shadow,” snorted out Janey in a laugh. “Calling your ship the Shadow. That’s so cringe.”

Rio will love it… and squeal for days.