Carver's Anarchy

[Ganelon]

Sorry for the long pause. My writing got a bit derailed with the holidays, and that whole "real life" thing. Kids home on vacations, all that sort of thing. I've been warming back up to the story, though, and the writing of the next section is underway.

What I'll do today though, is I'll post a section I edited out. When I wrote it, I felt it added some dimension to the story's Ooniverse and introduced some new characters, but later decided it was slowing down what I wanted to be a fast move into an action oriented "chapter". It's not a lot, but it's a bit to chew on while I finish the next section.

Carver's Anarchy, edit from Part 8

The trip from dirtside had been quiet, the crew of the Lady of Fortune busy with routine tasks as the Griff Boa Proto thrummed it's way through space as low redline speed. Finally she slowed to a stop twenty kilometers from an apparently abandoned rock hermit. A badly damaged old style buoy and a dark docking bay made it look less than promising.

"Open a hail on frequency trumble-desti-fourteen, Miss Sabot. Scrambler code yellow three." Carver waited, contemplating the dark rock ahead of them.

"Frequency is open, Commander." Kari Sabot replied after a moment.

Carver pressed the comms button on his console. "Ahoy there, Scurvy Pete. Carver here. Light up the bay, mate, and we'll come in for a bit."

For a long moment, there was no answer. Then a ship pulled out of the landing bay, followed by another.

"Aw, don't be like this, Petey boy. If yer boys and girls open fire on us, they'll end up gettin' hurt. Nobody wants that." Carver switched off the microphone for a moment to look over to Kitty at the gunner console. "No firing until I give the order, but better set weapons to hot, girl."

Kitty nodded. "Aye aye."

Bright lines of light lanced out from the two ships as a third emerged from the landing bay to join them.

Carver held up a hand. "Hold. We're still outside their weapons range and they're within ours. It's just a warning shot." Then the hull of the Lady of Fortune rung as a minor hit found the shields. Carver shrugged. "Okay, so maybe they upgraded weapons a bit lately." He turned his microphone back on. "Avast there, Pete. If they so much as scratch the paint, it'll be a fight, and you know me well enough to know I'll take every last one of them down if it comes to it. We don't want trouble, mate. I call for parley."

A gravelly voice grated over the comms speakers. "If you don't want trouble, Carver, then shove off! You've got nothing we want here."

Carver chuckled. "Well, I rather doubt that, matey. I have a few tons of fancy liquors and a few other luxuries down in me hold. 'Course, I suppose I could take 'em elsewhere." He switched off the mic.

"Three ships still closing. Identified as Cobra MkIIIs." Kitty reported as soon as she saw him turn off the mic. "We have target lock on the point ship."

"Aye." Carver nodded. "Ready on guns, but wait for the command. They seem to have stopped firing on us."

The comms speaker hissed for a moment before the voice rasped. "Alright. You can come in for fuel and trade, but that's it! And you're back out in space as soon as transfers are done."

Carver sighed. "Wish it could be that easy, Pete old mate. But we need your conference room. As I recall, that's a hundred credits? Seein' as we'll need it for a day or two and I have some people I need to meet.. Well, let's call it five hundred?"

"I wouldn't have your lot on my rock for a thousand, Carver!" Scurvy Pete growled.

"Plus catering, of course." Carver replied offhandedly.

"Catering?" Pete bellowed. "You have the bloody unmitigated gall to come here and expect to be fed?"

"Oh, no, mate." Carver said in a soothing voice. "I know you're bound to be a mite strapped when it comes to fine beverages and delicacies out here to make any sort of a fancy do. I brought plenty of fine things, don't trouble yourself on that account." He paused for a moment and then continued. "And it goes without saying that some of the surplus will have to stay here. Not like fine fruits and such that have never seen the inside of a freezer, what was ripened in actual planetary sunshine on dirtside in real honest-to-Giles soil would keep till my next stop, eh?"

There was a long pause, and then the approaching ships veered off and the cross of the landing bay lights flickered into a fitful dim glow.

"Proceed." Pete growled. "But all I'll guarantee is a fuel stop. We'll have to see about the rest."

"They've closed communications, Commander." Kari said, leaning back in her seat and obviously relaxing a bit.

"I think that went rather well." Carver said, smiling to Sharp. He turned to the helmsman. "Grigor, take us in."

"Scurvy Pete?" Sharp asked. "I take it he's also into historical pirate lifestyling?"

Carver shrugged. "Not particularly. See, Pete actually had a bad bout of scurvy. The health computer on his ship malfunctioned and shorted him on ascorbic acid. He was doing long hauls at the time and was living mostly in his pressure suit, like many a spacer. He didn't notice the symptoms until he started losing teeth. He didn't ever fully recover, so he bought an asteroid and became a rock hermit."

Sharp let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and tried to relax as they followed the small ships into the yawning dark maw of the asteroid.

A few minutes later, they stepped from the landing bay airlock into the main hollows of the asteroid. Almost immediately, the pilot of one of the asteroid's patrol ships rushed on Fell Kitty, almost knocking her to the ground.

"Kitty girl!" The pilot squealed as she almost hugged the breath out of Kitty.

"Mary Tee?" Kitty exclaimed in surprise. "And they let a little squirt like you fly patrol these days?"

"Hey! I'm almost fifteen." Mary huffed. "But I haven't seen you in turns!" She hustled Kitty off towards the asteroid's crew quarters.

"Tal Carver." a gravelly nasal voice rasped. Sharp turned to see a small thin man with deep sunk eyes and an unhealthy looking complexion. He had a miner's rock cutting laser strapped to one arm and a wide belt loaded with extra energy packs for it. His dark dusty work jumpsuit and his face were smudged with rock dust.

"Scurvy Pete." Carver nodded, turning so the smaller man could see that his hand was near to the mono-molecular cutlass Carver was wearing on his hip. "How goes, mate?"

"Lay off with that 'scurvy' kak, Carver, or I'll put you off this rock without a helmet and you'll be pressing space closer than you'd like." Despite the harsh words, Pete smiled, showing where several teeth in front had been replaced by ones made of some dark alloy. "So what you got for me?"

"Every kind of fruit and produce I could find in the bazaar, some of every fine beverage, and an assortment of entertaining substances, since I didn't know what of 'em ye do these days." Carver thumbed his pad and the cargo bay of the Lady of Fortune slowly slid open. "Let's say, at twenty percent of your posted prices?"

Scurvy Pete unstrapped the laser from his forearm and set it aside. "Lets skip the ex, Carver. Nothing in life is free, or even actually cheap." He looked briefly in the cargo hold, nodded and turned, walking off towards one of the doors leading deeper into the asteroid. "Right. We'll get a drink and sit down to talk while it gets unloaded."

Carver, Sharp, Kari Sabot and Grigor followed Pete into the dark passageway.

It was 'standing room only' in Pete's small office. Pete took the only chair. Carver had brought a sample case of smokeables and the air was already a haze. Kari Sabot crouched low to the floor, sipping from one of the vials of exotic water she had apparently had hidden somewhere on her person while Scruvy Pete poured out small glasses for everyone else from an old dusty bottle of Bibean Lethal Brandy.

Pete scrolled down his pad, looking over the inventory of the Lady of Fortune's cargo hold. "Alright. You've got some good stuff, Carver. How much of it would you be willing to part with?"

Carver sipped and shuddered for a moment as the tiny bit of brandy worked it's magic on his nerves. "All of it, if we can come to an accord as to the conference room. At twenty percent of your posted offer prices."

"Okay, so what's the downside, Carver?" Pete squinted through the smoke at the Commodore as he topped up the glasses again. "Just start with the worst of it and save us all some time."

"I could put you and your home in danger." Carver said bluntly. "We need to have a meeting for a bit of a mission. If we fail, and it gets tracked back here, you'd have trouble, and if it succeeds you could get trouble. We'd take every precaution to avoid there being a trail that leads to here, but that's the plain truth o' the matter."

"So, what's the mission?" Pete asked. "Give me one good reason why I should take a risk like that, even if the pay was acceptable?"

Carver took another sip and shrugged. Then he took out his pad and thumbed it for a moment before handing it to Pete. "That's the objective. I'm thinkin' it should vanish."

Pete raised an eyebrow as he examined the pad. He nodded and handed it back. "Well, why didn't you say so? No charge for the conference room, and you're my guests here. Though I'll still hold you to your offer on that cargo price. And I am in on this mission, at least as a fallback base. Done?"

Carver nodded. "Done."

[ClymAngus]

Guns drawn one minute, best of buddies the next. Very cloak and dagger.

I like it, I think you should leave it in. The world of writing is much like the world of wall hangings; There are your charcoal sketches, avant guarde, cubism, surrealism, warhol and your rich tapestries to name but a few.

I think your particular brand of writing can weather an eddy without spoiling the flow.

[moscom]

I don't know whats coming next; but it keeps on getting better - and i like it - this bit is not in any way slowing what you have already laid out - i would leave it in. You know best of course - and if you think it should be left out, then i think it must; equally, if you decide to reinstate this part back into the story - then that surely would be for the best.

I wish i could craft a story like you have <DrewL> - my own effort is; umm - somewhat lacking at the moment - nice to have something to aim for.

[Bugbear]

Nice chapter. Keep 'em coming.

If you can forgive the detection of a typo: "I know you're bound to be a might strapped..." should be "I know you're bound to be a mite strapped..." ?

[Ganelon]

Right you are, Bugbear. Fixed.

[Ganelon]

Carver's Anarchy part 8 (revised)

"I still think a simple quirium device, using expendable ships to get the cascade into range would be the better solution." Commander Aedina, an avian from G4, tapped several spots on the battle map on the table display to indicate the locations she had in mind. "That's what we did in the Razor's Edge, and they haven't dared to put another one up since."

"Quirium leaves traces, mate." Carver replied. "What I'm thinking of here is to leave a bit of a mystery. Vanished without a trace, as it were. Ye have to remember, the Courts of Chaos here in G2 don't have near the strength of yer folks up at the Razor's Edge. Galcop is stronger here. That we can handle, but quirium traces would be like to get the Navy involved, and we'd rather avoid that just now."

Sharp glanced up briefly from the data table display he was sharing with three engineers from other ships. "I'd like to point out that quirium dampers are also possible. It'd be foolish of them to not have added that to their defenses, especially if they've already lost at least one battle to a quirium cascade."

"How's it lookin' Mr. Sharp?" Carver asked as he made his way through the crowded war-room to the data table where the plans and technical specs of the spherical object were being examined by the engineers.

Sharp shrugged. "It'll be a fight. But it's not impossible to break a Sentinel station. The only real trick is going to be disabling the communications fast enough. Allowing for operator delay, if all the signal emitters can be taken out in the first few seconds it's more than possible to take it out with conventional weapons."

"It doesn't matter if they do call for reinforcements." The dark robed and hooded figure known only as Quig rasped in a voice that sounded likely mechanical. "We can deal with anything they are likely to bring in during the encounter."

"Aye, Quig." Carver nodded. "I reckon that's so, but if possible, we'll be tryin' to avoid havin' the system's cops gettin' called in. They're just local boys doin' a job, and most of them have no more love o' these outsystem thugs than we have."

Quig nodded slowly. "I agree with the battle plan, then, Commodore. I and my Vortex await your orders. When shall we be underway?"

Carver held up a hand and raised his voice, addressing the assembled company. "Are we agreed as to the battleplan?" He looked around as the other commanders murmured their assent. "Are there any questions?"

After a brief moment of silence, Carver nodded. "Right then. Your ships have all been refueled and your missiles stocked at my treat. If there are no objections, we launch immediately."

"Excellent." Quig rasped. He pushed back his hood, revealing a face that was more metal than scarred flesh. Where his mouth and lower jaw would have been, there was only a voicebox unit. "Let's fly."

Once they were aboard the Lady of Fortune and underway, Sharp asked Carver, "What's with that Quig character? Another old friend from your early pirate days?"

"No, shipmate." Carver shook his head. "Quig is an old acquaintance from my corporate days. He was a security head. Sometimes that job requires some.. terminations. He disagreed with one assignment and somebody decided he was expendable. He survived, or enough of him did that he could be patched together well enough to fly."

Sharp nodded. "So he's out for vengeance?"

"Aye." Carver nodded. "That'd be the least of it, Mr. Sharp. He's well on his way to being an Elite ranked combateer now. He flew with us for a few years. I broke him out of the hospital and bought him a Cobra MKIII and a clean record so he could just go on bein' dead so far as anyone knows."

Sharp nodded. "Ah, an old crewmate, then."

Carver hesitated, and then shook his head slowly. "No, Mr. Sharp. He never was really crew in the sense ye mean it. He's a stone cold killer." Carver paused, looking at Sharp for a long moment. "This crew may be a hard lot, sir. We do what we have to. But we aren't out for a maximum kill count. Quig is a bloodthirsty one, and ye can lay to that. No witnesses, no survivors, and no quarter asked or given. I called him in because that's what we're needin' today. But what I'm wonderin' is where you fit in?"

Sharp sighed, studying his panels for a long moment before answering. "I am not a young man any more, Captain.."

At that moment, Fell Kitty moved to Carver's side to whisper "I just found out that Mary Tee is flyin' point in Pete's fighter wing. I cannae believe he's riskin' her fer this mission."

Carver shrugged. "Well, maybe she didn't give him a choice. I'd have preferred to have left you and your father somewhere safe, and I tried, as memory serves?"

Kitty snorted. "That's different."

Carver nodded. "Yer opinions have been duly logged and noted, gunner. Now back to yer post, if'n ye please. We all have jobs to do and this is no pleasure cruise."

She huffed and resumed her post as Carver nodded to Sharp. "Ye were sayin', Mr. Sharp?"

Sharp continued "I spent years considering myself a captive and praying for rescue for my daughter and myself, so we could return to a normal life in the civilized worlds. But in that time, my daughter grew up." He took a sip from his hydration tube. "But she grew up to be a pirate. I'm proud of her, mind you."

Carver nodded, checking his scanners and readouts and letting the older man talk.

"Then you offered to let us go back, and I had to think. I'd never really felt like a captive. I was well treated, and my position came with a degree of respect from the crew. I felt like a member of the community." Sharp considered his words and continued. "And you told me why you left the corporate worlds to come out here, so I had to consider what might be waiting for me back in the corporate worlds, back in 'civilization'."

Carver nodded, turning back to Sharp and listening.

"There is nothing for me there. Old men don't get given departments, that's for the young blood that will faithfully serve the company's interests for many turns. I'd maybe be a human interest story on the news services for a few days, then I'd be reinstated at my old job as a demonstration of how the company takes care of it's people.." He paused and sighed. "And then I'd be quietly forced to retire in a turn, maybe two turns at most." Sharp pointed at the main view screen. "Out here, with the bone reinforcement treatments and maybe a few neural enhancements, I can go on for a few decades yet."

"Well, there's also the rejuve clinics.." Carver started, but Sharp continued.

"Maybe. Right now it's good enough to just wake up and not feel my bones ache, to not feel tired most of the day, and to feel to feel like I'm really on the ball again." He tilted his head and lifted his hair. showing where an implant interface had recently been installed near the base of his skull.

"Ah! So you decided to go for some enhancements after all?" Carver grinned.

Sharp nodded. "I had just a basic interface installed down on Lasoce, and a standard engineering journal set put in so I can keep up with the youngsters. It's nice to feel current again. I can have a better interface and a more customised set of engineering background and apps put in sometime when Kitty makes a trip up to Bebege."

Carver nodded. "Bebege is where the best hacker boys and girls in all of this galaxy are, for my money." He paused for a moment, reaching up to touch his earpiece, listening to an incoming message. "I hate to interrupt, shipmate, but the advance scouts are in place, and it'll be showtime in just a few minutes." He raised his voice slightly. "Grigor. Reduce speed to sixty percent. Steady on course."

"Aye aye, Cap'n. Steady as she goes." Grigor replied, nodding.

Everyone was busy with their duties for the next several minutes, but glanced from time to time at the growing sphere of the brand new Sentinel station as they drew nearer. The ships that had been traveling in a tight formation broke away one by one to speed off into space, leaving the Lady of Fortune with an escort of two Cobras as the blip of the station appeared on the outer rim of the scanners.

"No civilian ships or patrol ships in range of any of the fleet's scanners, Commander." Kari Sabot noted.

Carver nodded, checking his displays. "Have all ships loaded the firing schedule and reported in, Miss Sabot?"

"All ships confirmed and should be in place within the next two minutes, Commander." She replied, then added, "And one newcomer, a friendly."

Carver cursed under his breath. "Now who didn't understand my orders? I was very clear that.."

A female voice over the speaker interrupted him. "Ahoy the ship. Harkins reporting for escort duty."

Carver's scowl was replaced with a wry grin. "Why, Missus Harkins. I didn't know you was on escort duty today."

Kari Sabot interrupted, warning "One minute to target range."

Carver nodded, then thumbed the communications panel switch again. "We can talk at the station ma'am. Please join formation, and welcome aboard."

Carver looked over to Fell Kitty. "Gunner. Do you have your targets set?"

Fell Kitty nodded. "Set, weapons ready to go hot on your command."

Carver nodded. "Grigor. Switch controls to gunner. Steady as she goes, shipmates."

"Aye aye, Cap'n." Grigor nodded, reaching out to hit a switch. "Gunner has controls."

"Confirmed." Kitty muttered as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her eyes fixed on the targeting reticule at her station's display.

Kari Sabot started to count down the seconds from twenty. When she reached eight, Carver spoke. "Give the signal. Gunner, weapons hot and fire."

Within a heartbeat, the beam from the Lady's military laser seared through the darkness as other beams lanced in from many different directions, striking points on the surface of the Sentinal station.

Sharp sang out, "Communications and scanners on the target are down. Confirmed!"

Carver nodded, taking hold of the controls at his station. "Good job, gunner! Controls to me!" Without waiting for a reply, he punched the injectors and brought the throttle to full, speeding.

"Missile one locked on target!" Kitty shouted.

"Fire!" Carver barked, and the ship shuddered as the first missile surged toward the station's docking bay just as the nose of a Viper slid out into view. The Viper's purple lasers lashed out, splashing off the Lady of Fortune's front shields. Carver pulled up hard, rolling the ship to port as they peeled off.

Kari Sabot called out, "Hit confirmed. Hit by Commander Quig's ship the Alastor is also confirmed. First Viper destroyed."

Carver nodded as he brought the Lady of fortune around again. He hit the injectors in bursts to close the distance as he brought the Sentinel's docking bay into the targetting reticle. Plasma from the station's turrets loomed in the viewscreen as he barreled through the ones he couldn't avoid, waiting for his gunner to get a missile lock. As the shields dropped low, the deep "whump" of the plasma balls striking made the ship shudder and panel lights began to flicker as the plasma played hell with the instruments.

"Missile locked!" Kitty shouted over the rumble of the engines and the pummeling they were taking.

"Fire!" Carver replied, then added. "Gunner ready on turrets, we're going under her this time!"

Carver dived beneath the Sentinel station at the last moment, rolling clockwise, and cutting it so close that the main viewscreen washed out for an instant from the bright flash as the missile exploded in the station's docking bay. For several long seconds there was the hum and pound of the turrets as they broadsided the Sentinel station.

"Incoming fire astern, Cap'n." Grigor reported calmly.

Carver hit the injectors, taking them clear of the danger zone. "Signal squads one and two to begin maneuver Alpha, Miss Sabot."

"Aye, aye, Commander. Sent and confirmed."

As they came around to the docking side of the station again, the smaller ships of the fleet started swooping in at the backside of the station, drawing the fire before peeling off to dart out of range. Each ship fired a single missile on each approach, followed by several short lancing bursts of laser before peeling off in random directions to come back around and form up for the next pass.

Quig's hulking Vortex kept pounding the beleaguered Sentinel station's docking bay with missile after missile as he would move in close enough for the turrets on the front of his ship to fire on the docking bay, bathing it in a lurid red glow as the plasma silently struck and played over the surface of the metal. When he was dangerously close and the Sentinel's own plasma turrets had torn up his forward shield as much as he dared, he would pull up into a loop as the other larger ships took their missile shots. Then as the Vortex's shields recharged and his loop brought the station into his sights again, he would start the next pass, his blunt hulking ship looking almost graceful in it's dance as it relentlessly struck at the station again and again.


As Carver swung the Lady of Fortune around for her shot at the station's docking bay, they saw a Viper slide almost all the way out into space. The Viper's lasers lanced out at Quig's ship, but were abruptly cut short as the patrol ship was struck down as it passed through the Sentinel's line of fire, a victim of friendly fire from it's station's own turrets.

"Encrypted message on secured channel in from Mrs. Harkins, Commander." Kari announced suddenly. "Shall I port it to your panel screen?"

"Decrypt and read it off aloud, Miss Sabot." Carver replied as he brought the Lady of Fortune into place for her turn at firing a missile into the chaos of the station's docking bay. "I rather have my hands full just now." He chuckled even as he threaded a path between oncoming plasma balls, working his way closer to the target. "Gunner! Missile?"

"Locked and ready." Kitty replied, all her attention on the gunnery displays.

"Fire." Carver barked.

The ship shuddered as they heard the missile depart with it's characteristic roaring hiss.

"Bird's away!" Kitty announced.

"Message from Harkins decrypted, Commander." Kari Sabot announced. "It reads: 'We are out of buttermilk. Please pick some up on your way home.' "

Sharp looked over to Carver, wondering as to the message and noted the Commander's face had drained of colour.

"Frakking ex, that's all we need is.." He stopped in mid-sentence as a panicked message broke the radio silence.

"I'm hit!" a young girl's voice shouted, sounds of laser fire striking a hull in the background.

Carver wrestled with the controls, trying to bring the big ship around as Fell Kitty spun her seat around to study the main screen.

"That's Mary Tee!" Kitty exclaimed as she started to unbuckle. "I knew I should be out there in my ship!"

"I'm on it." Mrs. Harkin's voice said calmly through the communications static caused by the plasma balls and ECM bursts.

"Gunner!" Carver barked. "Stand to your post!" He wrestled with the controls to try and avoid a stray plasma ball from the Sentinel station's turrets, but ended up steering directly into another one, the "whump" of the strike jarring everyone in their seats as their panel lights and displays flickered.

"But.." Kitty began, and then stopped short. She nodded grimly as she turned back to the gunnery panels. "Aye aye."

As the Lady of Fortune finally swung around, they saw that one of the Vipers had managed to make it out of the bay, damaged, but intact enough to be at least somewhat functional. It was running on full injectors, hot on the tail of a Cobra. The Cobra was jenking, flying erratically to try and evade fire, but the Viper's purple beams of death shot out again and again.

Carver was still trying to bring the ship around when suddenly from somewhere beneath the Lady of Fortune, a bright red beam sizzled out, scoring a precise long hit on the fast moving Viper. The Viper suddenly exploded in a ball of light and in the distance they could see the bits of glowing wreckage spinning off into the darkness.

Mrs. Harkin's voice came over the speakers, as calm and soft as it was when she tended bad. "And that's all she wrote."

Quig's grating voice came over the speakers a few seconds later, almost gloating in it's tone. "A beautiful longshot. Well sniped, Commander!"

"Thank you, Commander." Mrs. Harkins replied. "But don't bother asking me out for a date. I prefer to be the one who shoots first."

Quig laughed, an unpleasant metallic sound. "Acknowledged."

"That madman is just chatting away, in the middle of combat.." Carver muttered, taking the Lady into a steep dive to dodge a cluster of plasma balls from the Sentinel's turrets.

Mrs. Harkin's voice came over the speakers again. "Request permission to fellow her back to rendezvous point three. She seems on course, but she's leaking plasma and her flying seems off somehow." After a pause she added, "She isn't responding to hail and I'm worried. If she runs into any trouble, even one shot.."

Carver looked to Miss Sabot. "Communications.. Confirm permission granted."

Kari nodded as she sent the message. "Confirmed, Comman..." She broke off as a huge flash caused the main display screens to white out for a moment and a loud burst of static with a loud screech came over the speakers for a few seconds before it trailed off.

"Death scream of a station.." Grigor murmured in a soft dry voice, barely above a whisper.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds as the display faded back in. The Sentinel station was gone. Bits of debris glowed and spun through space as the station's last few plasma balls faded from view into the dark of space around the battlefield.

Carver started peeling away from where the station had been in a slow banked turn to avoid the debris. "Miss Sabot. Open a hail to the salvage crews."

"Open, Commander." Kari replied.

"The bubble popped. Sweep it up before it gets away from us." Carver said into his mic.

"Saw the bang, already enroute." A cheery male voice replied. "Sure you don't want some? Looks like plenty for all."

"Just sweep it clean." Carver replied. "Nothing left behind."

"No danger of that. Good price on alloys this week, if you know the places."

The salvage crew ships from all over the Lasoce system slid into view from the dark beyond what had been the battlefield, silently pursuing and scooping the spinning bits of wreckage.

"Hail the flagship." Came a young male voice over the speakers. "We're going to break off and join sis and your escort. She shoots good, but ten shots are better than one, if any crazies are hoping to pick off damaged stragglers."

"Confirm that, Miss Sabot and tell them we'll be forming up on their rear. Time to take the goats home." Carver threw a small lever on His panel. "Controls are yours, Grigor."

"Aye aye, Cap'n." Grigor nodded, adjusting speed and course to follow the part of the fleet that was escorting Maryram and her damaged ship home.

"Oh, and a message from Dad." The young male voice paused for a second... "Message reads: 'Party at our place. Bring a date and don't forget the condoms.' That is all."

Carver tried to repress a snort of laughter. "Confirm that, Miss Sabot."

"Aye aye, Commander." Miss Sabot replied.

"Hit the head if ye have need." Carver announced. "Normal rotations. I'm to the lounge. Kitty, Sharp, and Grigor? Meet me there at your ease. We'll be first group to the lounge, others on standard fifteen minute rotation." He unbuckled from his chair and stood. "We're back to business as usual."

Carver headed for the ladder down to the lounge as the others unbuckled.

As they took their usual seats in the lounge a few moments later, Carver took a pouch of coffee from the warmer and settled back, taking a long deep breath. "Well, that's done. It'll be a party at Pete's for a bit, I reckon. We'll have to rotate what ships are on patrol while it's windin' on, or there won't be space for everyone.

Kitty puffed furiously on a vapour tube. "I'm worried about Mary Tee. It's like I've been tellin' ye, I should be out there in the fleet. I could have.."

Carver cut her off with a raised hand. "None better to watch after her than Missus Harkins, girl. I don't deny that you're a good fighter, but you need time on all the ship's stations so you can be more than just a fighter." He drew out his own vapour tube and took a hit off it before winking and continuing. "Ye'll be commander of a fleet of your own some day, and I'll lay to that."

Kitty shook her head, but didn't argue as she reached for a pouch of tea.

Grigor sipped from his pouch of water and asked, "What of the message from Harkins, Cap'n?"

Carver nodded. "Aye, that's why we're here together before the others come on break, so we have a moment to brief on that." He turned to Kitty and Sharp. "Buttermilk is our old codeword to warn of a traitor.

Sharp almost choked on a sip of coffee. "Here? But who? How?"

Carver shrugged. "No idea, shipmate. We won't know anything until I can talk with Missus Harkins." He reached forward and took a thin sweet piece of hard "spacer's tack" from the package on the lounge table. "That'd be why she joined up against orders. She had to get close enough to send the encrypted message at very low power so it wouldn't be detected by the other ships. We can deduce that it's not anyone aboard the Lady of Fortune from that."

Kitty put a depleted vapour tube in a pocket as she drew out another one. "If'n th' rat is bein' responsible for Mary Tee gettin' shot up, I swear I'll press his space... personal, like."

"Simmer." Carver warned. "Lets see how she is and find out what we have to go on before swearin' any blood feuds."

Grigor sipped his water thoughtfully. "Since Harkins could have sent by heavy encryption when we were at Scurvy Pete's, I'd guess that whatever happened must have happened after we'd launched. But then how could she have gotten here that fast?"

Carver chuckled. "Ah, Grigor old mate, ye're sharp as paint, that ye are. Missus Harkins and a few others were shadowin' us from just a ways outside o' scanner range. It was in case we mighta' needed some backup in a hurry, but she must have seen something that made her sure enough to break cover to come in and warn us."

Grigor nodded and shrugged. "She's a good 'un, I'll grant you that. Personal feelings aside."

Carver chuckled. "Still down on her for that little thing that happened back on Ramaza? After what's it been now, eight turns?"

Grigor scowled.

"What happened?" Sharp asked. Then he noted Grigor's expression and hastily added, "Well, it's none of my business, anyway. Never mind."

Grigor blushed, then shrugged. "Go ahead and tell them, Carver. But please keep it short."

Carver nodded, setting down his empty coffee pouch. "I'll keep it to one breath, shipmate. I swear."

Grigor nodded, picking up a piece of spacer's tack to nibble.

Carver took a deep breath. "Grigor had a plucky jade in his sights in the bar, but before he could swoop, Missus Harkins swooped her first. He came to find out Harkins was disappointed a bit because she'd figured on swooping both Grigor and that jade for a wild night but ended having to settle for just one." He gasped for breath.

Sharp blinked in surprise and Grigor's blush deepened.

Fell Kitty burst into giggles.

"What's so funny?" Grigor scowled.

"Daddy's tumbled with Missus Harkins a few times." Kitty explained, unable to elaborate before falling into an even worse giggle fit.

Grigor looked shocked. "Is there anyone in the whole galaxy that old harridan hasn't tumbled?"

At that moment, there was a knock and the lounge door slid back a few inches. Kari Sabot peeked in. "Begging your pardon, Commander, but it's our turn in the lounge. Unless you want a bit longer?"

"Not at all, Miss Sabot, not at all. You're right on time." Carver stood. "Time we were back to our duties, ye lubbers."

As the others left the room and Kari Sabot and two other crew members came into the lounge, Carver pulled Kari aside and whispered, "Any word on Maryram and her ship?"

Kari replied in a whisper, "Still not responding to hails, still flying a bit erratic. Harkins said Mary Tee's ship is leaking a bit of plasma, but thinks she'll make it home. The ship is not in good shape. We're hoping the ship's air is intact and not contaminated."

Carver nodded grimly and followed the others back up to the command deck.

The trip back to Pete's rock hermitage was uneventful, but took much longer than the trip out had, since the ships were running at slow speed to keep pace with the damaged Cobra. Running at less than twenty percent of full throttle seemed terribly slow to Sharp, but eventually the asteroid mine slowly grew in the viewscreen and finally they docked just moments after Mary Tee's ship limped into the bay.

"Grab yer tools, Mr. Sharp. They may need help with that leaky drive." Carver unbuckled and headed for the ladder down to the hatch. "Mr. Samol. Grab yer medkit and let's go. On the double."

When they got to Mary Tee's Cobra, there was already a small crowd of people near it's hatch.

Pete growled, "Bastage got a hit in that took out her hatch lock. I've sent one of the boys to fetch a laser cutter."

Sharp dropped his toolbox and opened it. "I have a pick. Let me through." He pulled out a box with assorted leads and clips hanging from it and a line of indicator lights along one side. Everyone was silent as he examined the damaged and exposed circuitry and clipped leads to various spots. Then he pressed a button and the cooler vent on the pick purred to life, the indicator lights all lighting up red. After a moment, one went green, then another. "We'll have it in a few seconds, but we'll have to open the hatch manually. Power lines for the opening servos were severed."

He reached into his toolkit and pulled out a pair of heavy metal handles with pads on the ends. As he placed them against the metal of the hatch door, he thumbed a switch on each of them and they hummed into life as the magnetic pads took hold.

"Medico, Pete?" Carver asked as Sharp held the pick, thumbing switches as more indicator lights on it went green.

"I've sent one of the girls for the kit." Pete replied, not taking his eyes off the pick as it did it's work.

"Mine's here, if'n ye'd like?" Carver asked.

"Thank you. Yes. Please." Pete nodded, glancing to meet Carver's eyes.

"We're in." Sharp announced, as the last indicator light went green. He took hold of the handles. "Let's get some hands on this, hatches are heavy."

Several of the group grabbed the handles.

"Heave ho, me hearties!" Carver shouted as he pulled on the handle in reach.

"Carver.." Pete said as he joined in hauling on the handles, "can you cut that crap out, just once in a while?"

There was a hiss as the hatch began to give way, and then as the pressures inside the Cobra equalized with docking bay pressure, they were finally able to pull the heavy hatch open.

Samol with the medical kit and Pete were through the hatch first, racing towards the cockpit. Sharp was one of the next through with his tool kit, heading for the engine compartment. The rest were all close behind, hurrying to the cockpit.

When they arrived, they found Mary Tee strapped in her seat, lying very still and pale. The right sleeve of her jumpsuit was in tatters and blood-soaked. An exploded panel still smoked and sparked, and there was a haze all through the cockpit.

She stirred, moaning as Samol rushed to her side. "Don't try to move or speak. Just relax. We're here. You're home. Everything will be ok." He opened the case and took out a portable vitals analyser, then hooked a stat pad to the side of her neck and turned on the device as he checked her over for any other obvious injuries and then began examining the wounded arm.

Carver opened the fire suppression panel and pulled out the cabin hose, aiming it into the badly damaged panel he pulled the trigger. Fine web filaments shot out, covering the circuitry in an opalescent mass and stopping the smoke and sparks.

Mary Tee opened her yes, looking around. "Daddy?"

"Right here, honey." Pete stepped into view.

"When he hit me, it took out the panel and a piece of it went into my arm when it blew." Her eyes fluttered. "Couldn't use my stick arm. Had to fly.." She seemed to fade out for a moment and then snap back awake. "Had to fly left handed. I patched the cabin leak, though." She nodded towards a black and yellow quick-patch over the damaged panel.

Pete nodded, swallowing hard and trying to keep his voice even. "You did great. I'm very proud of you. Just relax, everything is fine. You're home."

Sharp came into the cockpit. "I've shut everything in the back down and stabilised the damage to the cap banks and reactor. No leakage. It'll take some work, but the ship looks repairable." He lowered his voice. "How is the pilot?"

Samol eased a jagged piece of metal from Mary Tee's arm and pressed a pad from the medikit to the wound to stop the sudden flow of blood that resulted, then studied the vital stat readouts. "The injuries don't look too bad, and her vital signs are stable. She was in a bit of shock, but I've given her something for that. She'll need to nap for a bit. Can we get her out of here and to a bed? Then I can stitch her up and double-check to make sure there are no other injuries."

"So she's going to be alright?" Pete asked anxiously.

Samol looked over at the ship's clock. "What time do you folks have supper here?"

Pete shrugged distractedly. "Probably about eight bells tonight, why?"

Samol nodded. "She should be up and about by then, sir. She should take it easy with that arm for a couple weeks. But she'll be asleep any minute now, it's the stuff I gave her for shock."

Pete looked down at Mary Tee as the girl's eyes fluttered closed. He looked back to Samol. "Thank you. The name is Pete."

"Samol." Samol nodded, as the stretcher was brought in and he supervised Mary Tee being unbuckled and moved to it.

As Mary Tee was carried out on the stretcher with Kitty, Samol, and Mrs. Harkins in close attendance, Sharp headed back into the engine compartment to see what repairs he could at least begin. The others headed out of the cockpit, leaving Carver and Pete alone.

"Sorry for the piratey nonsense at a time like this, Pete. I just don't think, sometimes." Carver shrugged.

Pete looked at Carver for a long moment, then grabbed Carver's hand, shaking it. "That'll be 'Scurvy Pete' to you, you old pirate. Now 'arrr' or whatever it is you say at times like this. Let's go and find us some damn rum."

[ClymAngus]

sweet, nice work. You use the same trick that Dickens did, ending each chapter with just a couple of loose ends. Too many just frustrate people. I look forward to finding out about this traitor, oh sorry; traitarrrrr!

[Ganelon]

Glad you're enjoying the little(?) yarn.

So far as the loose ends that keep happening every chapter or so, well.. Life's like that, isn't it? Nothing ever turns out quite as simply as you thought it would, and every puzzle solved leads to new puzzles.

I must admit that it's been a while since I thought I knew how this story will turn out in the end. It's more a matter of coming up with events and seeing how they turn out in the course of the writing. Once upon a time, this was going to be a one post short story, but it seems Carver had other ideas. LOL

On what may be a minor point of interest to readers, like many events in the story, the battle against the Sentinel station had it's origin in actual gameplay. I had installed the Anarachies.OXP and was tooling along when I saw this thing in *my* system, Lasoce. I had no idea what it was. (Note to other players, probably a good idea to read through the info on OXPs before installing them, rather than finding out what's in them the hard way.) I had saved recently and already had fugitive status at the time, so I went ahead and took a shot at it. Vipers came pouring out and a rather long and memorable fight ensued, and eventually I won! Or Carver won, however one wishes to think of it.

Afterwards I did a search for info about Sentinel stations and found things like:

Oh, and don't even think about attacking a Sentinel Station. If you are in range of its plasma turrets, this will have been your last thought.

Good thing I hadn't read that before I attacked it! LOL

After all that, I gave some thought to how Carver would react to something like that appearing in "his" system of Lasoce, and decided he'd be crazy enough to mount an attack on it. Many questions came up, like how he might find out about it in the first place and how might go about dealing with it. Ideas occurred like that some people of the Anarchy systems might sort of support or encourage each other to at least a limited degree, and view themselves as some kind of odd "freedom fighters" in what they see as a struggle against the oppression of Galcop against their homes and their way of life. Of course, that way of life is "outlaw" and so some conflict is pretty much unavoidable, and one thing just keeps leading to another.

[Commander McLane]

Great to have a new installment. Even greater that it features a Sentinel Station.

But as you mentioned them, I have to ask: what about the station's plasma turrets? During the attack the Lady of Fortune and other ships get close enough to the station for their own turrets to fire. So what about the station's turrets? They'd have to fire as well, and and would supposedly take out at least some of the small ships. IIRC, if you fly straight up to the docking bay, you can be hit from at least four turrets at once.

[Ganelon]

A very good point, and I'll have to rewrite a bit for clarity.

But the station's plasma turrets from what I've seen only target one ship at a time. The purpose of having the smaller ships attack in continuous brief runs from the "rear" (non-docking bay side) of the station would be to draw the fire to help keep it off the bigger ships with more missiles that are pounding the docking bay to keep the defense Vipers from successfully launching. The bigger ships like Quig's Vortex and Carver's Lady of Fortune would still take some pounding when they came in close, though. Too easy a target for slow moving plasma balls, unlike the small ships that are coming just into range long enough to draw fire and get in a couple shots and then wheeling away. Plasma is pretty easy to dodge if your ship is manoeuvrable enough and you can put a bit of distance between you and the turrets. When Quig repeatedly pulls in close enough to bring his plasma turrets into play though, he'd almost certainly be taking some damage from the station's turrets, I agree.

The strategy in the battle is hypothetical, since while one can hack the Hired Guns OXP to put together a "fleet" of modest size, they can't be controlled and it would take a lot of control to be able to have multiple fleet manoeuvres. I doubt that sort of capability will ever be developed for Oolite, since it would pretty much turn it into a new game.

In short, I *think* it would work, but have no way to test it to be sure. My actual fights with Sentinel stations have been more "brute force" attacks with an "escort" of a dozen Cobra MKIIIs and the Lady of Fortune (Griff Boa proto). Spending all the missiles on the docking bay to take out as many Vipers as possible before they can get all the way out is effective, though. And necessary. My real gameplay casualties were high, and I took a lot of damage. Often it was "press space commander". But I noted that when the Sentinel was barraging my escorts with plasma, I could do a close pass to bring my own turrets to bear on it with relatively few hits on my ship. Carver's strategy is my best guess on how to attack a Sentinel while trying to keep ally casualties to a minimum and take the Sentinel out very fast.

If you hack an OXP to give that much of a player advantage, you really have to go for big targets to make for good fights. Sentinels and Rogue stations are good, pirate occupied rock hermits are too easy. It can be nifty once in a while, but I don't keep it as a standard part of my game. It loses too much of the feel of Oolite to be much fun other than for the occasional "epic battle" against something like a Sentinel.

But yes, I should do a revision/edit to give a better idea of the utter firestorm of plasma a Sentinel station puts out when under attack. Carver's ship taking some fire was mentioned, but I see I didn't describe the effects at all, and it could add to the battle scene tension. It was in my head, but got lost somewhere on the way through the keyboard. LOL

[Ganelon]

Part/chapter 8 has now been revised as per Commander McLane's worthy suggestions. I think it's a definite improvement.

Nothing has been cut out, just some bits added and a few typos and awkward bits I spotted and corrected.

If anyone is ever really curious as to how the original version was different, I have it saved.

Thanks go out again to Commander McLane.

[Commander McLane]

Nice touch with the Viper taken out by the station's turret.

[Ganelon]

I have seen that happen a few times. Usually the Viper cuts across the turret's line of fire. Obviously, plasma balls don't correct their course as you move, and the Vipers don't actually seem to try to dodge them if they're "friendly fire". I think once I managed to actually lead a Viper that was after me through a barrage of plasma balls that took it out.

Things happen in fights that are so unexpected and brief.. makes me wish there was a button for "save the last 10 seconds" and a replay utility so one could get screenshots from them later. I could run a window recorder, but one never knows when anything good will actually happen and on my machine it can hurt the framerate noticeably in some moments when there's a lot of stuff going on at once.

[moscom]

Been waiting eagerly for the next installment; certainly wasn't disappointed.