6 Days later, Enroute to Jupiter. 03:25 Bridge

“I wish we were still on leave,” Andern said.

“Dude, you’ve been complaining about that for two days,” Caleb was already tired of the complaints.

“Three more weeks my dude,” John said as he was working on some paperwork.

“Sir,” Lacey said as she was concentrating on trying to hear something in one of her earphones, “I’m detecting a very faint distress single.”

John stopped what he was doing and walked over to her station, “Have a location on it?”

“Sending to Caleb now.”

“Caleb, change course and all ahead flank. Lacey contact Mars Control and let them know that,” John walked back to his seat, “Andern, yellow alert, I want weapons ready.”

“Course changed, estimated time to intercept is fifteen minutes,” Caleb said.

“Lacey, what traffic was out there?”

“A private transport, Gulfstream AJ1700. Nothing else is supposed to be there.”

“Andern, what do our long-range scanners say.”

“There are two other ships there but their cross-section is minimal. I’m not surprised Mars Control doesn’t have them.”

“Red alert, Lacey let Mars Control know there is likely an attack on the private transport, we’re moving to assist.”

Andern wanted to make a joke here, but he knew that it was neither the time nor the place to do so. John was annoyed though. These cruises were supposed to be uneventful. Sol Sector didn’t have even a minor pirate presence in the grand scheme of things. But here they’ve already interacted with pirates once, and now there’s another attack.

The mood on the bridge was tense for the minutes as they were closing in on the action. John did his best to mollify the crew and make sure that they were capable of assisting and rectifying the scenario. They knew they could do that, but hearing this reassurance was helpful.

“Contact in fifty seconds, confirm weapon fire, sir,” Caleb said.

“Andern, time till we’re in good range? Any markings on the ship?”

“Sixty seconds out. Believed to be a pirate group that operates out of the Mercantilist Union systems.”

“We’re not giving them any warnings; we’re shooting to kill. When in range take out the pirates.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Caleb, don’t start deceleration move until after the forward lances have fired their second volley.”

“Understood.”

The Marcinko was burning hard toward the enemy contacts. The Gulfstream AJ1700 was a large private transport. It was an angular-looking vessel and had a few point defense systems for missile defense but lacked any true punch in ship-to-ship combat. This one, in particular, appeared to be up-armored. There was only so much it could do though, eventually, a dedicated opponent would overwhelm its defenses.

The two pirate ships in comparison were much smaller. They were bigger than the Navy’s stealth shuttles but not much bigger. There couldn’t be more than four or five people in either. They both had a front-facing armor plate that at the connecting point with the ship had spaced for the ion cannons and plasma lances.

“Spool up the railgun, the moment you have a target lock let a round fly at the closest target.”

“Calculating,” Andern said, “Firing!”

Inside the Marcinko, the electromagnets lining the ship's main gun that ran the length of the spine began humming. It was an oddly familiar sound, but that was interrupted by a loud thump. The first fifty-kilogram ferrous tungsten slug was sent toward the ship melee. Moments later another thump was heard when the second round was fired.

“First round impacted the lower-left portion of the armor plate,” Andern paused, “Second shot impacted dead center. That's a ship kill, sir.”

“Switch to the aft ion cannons and plasma lances. Caleb, slow us down.”

The main engine of the Marcinko shut down and then the maneuvering thrusters flipped her one around. Immediately after this finished the main engine fired up again and began rapidly decelerating. The downside of a maneuver such as this was that their main railgun couldn’t be used any longer.

“Sir, the transport’s core is fluctuating. Appears very unstable,” Andern said as he was scanning the friendly vessel.”

“Order them to abandon ship. Why don’t we have a target lock on the other pirate vessel?”

“Working on that now sir,” Andern was clicking buttons and trying desperately to get a lock on the enemy pirate ship, “No lock yet, will get it once she clears the transport.”

“Lacey, tell the transport to fire its dorsal thrusters,”

“Aye, sir.”

Moments later the transport began to roll over slightly. The pirate vessel hadn’t accounted for that possibility when it was desperately trying to hide from the Marcinko. The moment the crew had a firing pattern on the pirate vessel it fired.

“She’s dead in the water,” Andern said.

“Caleb, flip us around. Andern when the main gun has a lock send her to hell.”

“Sir? Are you sure, sir?”

“Have they surrendered Lacey?”

“Negative sir, not receiving any communications from them.”

“Firing the main gun,” Andern said as he pressed the green button.

Another thump was heard, then the pirate vessel exploded when the round struck the drive core. The transport’s main engine shut off.

“Sir, the ship is experiencing energy fluctuations,” Andern said.

“Lacey, open communications.”

“GS AJ1700, Flight of Grace, abandon ship immediately. Your core is going to explode in minutes. The CNS Marcinko is here to assist.”

“Sir, message acknowledged. Two escape pods have been jettisoned. Three more are in the process.”

“Caleb, move to intercept the first two pods, tow them into place outside of the blast radius of their ship. Direct the other pods to move with the ship to a safe range. Andern, contact the chief, I want three people in power armor besides me when we open these up. Caleb, you have the bridge.”

John walked out of the bridge and ran the corridor to the door to the main hangar. He ran over to the locker room and began changing into his voidsheath. He then powered that up and walked over to the reliquary and began having the armor plates hooked onto him.

The chief and two other enlisted ran into the room and began getting their combat suits on. John walked over to the armory and grabbed a rifle and pistol and walked out of the room. He could hear the first escape pod docking with the main airlock.

A voice could be heard in the intercom, “Three life signs in that pod sir.”

“Rick, you go the door, rest of you take cover there and there.”

“Roger that, holding fire until you say so.”

“Rick, open the outer door.”

The outer door opened, the pressure between the pod and the airlock wasn’t perfectly matched but maintained equilibrium nearly instantly as they were close to one another. Three very shaken, scared, and wobbly women walked into the airlock.

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“Close the outer door, disengage the pod,” John ordered rick to do.

The door shut behind the three women, then it locked holding it in place released the pod. Thrusters on the pod fired to send the pod aware from the ship.

“Open the door,” John said.

The doors opened. The men raised their guns.

“Chief, take the ladies over there,” John pointed at the back left corner of the room, “Ladies take a seat, don’t move, and don’t talk.”

“Sir, two of the pods don’t have any life signs,” the voice over the hangar speakers said.

“Understood, dock the next with life signs,” John commanded.

The exact same process repeated over the next twenty minutes. Four more women, one of which was very mouthy came onto the ship. John’s patience with the woman was worn away quickly.

John pulled his sidearm and pointed it at the woman, “I’m not asking you to do anything, I’m telling you to shut up, sit down and wait. You will talk when I asked you to do so.”

John’s method of persuasion worked. The third pod was docked shortly thereafter. John told the Senior Chief to watch the women. The outer airlock door opened then the two women in the pod exited it. One appeared to be a servant or trusted confident of the other. The other woman was wearing an ornate crown and incredibly expensive-looking clothing.

John knew of this person and immediately got annoyed. The crew got wrapped up in some bigger bullshit that was going on.

“Rick, open the door,” John ordered.

The haughty-looking royal woman walked in and immediately began speaking, “This kind of uncouth welcome is entirely unacceptable and frankly beneath me.”

“What’s in the other two pods?”

“Why should I answer that question?”

“Anything of value?”

“Sir, the other pods have personal effects of her highness," one of the attendants said.

“Irreplaceable items?”

“No.”

“Victoria why are you answering his questions?”

“Go sit over with the others,” John turned and was about to speak with the bridge crew.

“I will not be spoken to like this.”

John raised his gun and pointed it at the royal, “Princess, I don’t care who you are. You have no say in how or what I do. You will abide by my orders and will follow the restrictions I put forth. I will not ask again.”

“You won’t shoot.”

John grinned and then aimed at a box above and to the left of her head and pulled the trigger, “A friendly warning for you, never play chicken with me, you will lose every single time. Sit down now.”

The princess and her attendant were shocked, but when they finally comprehended what happened they walked over to the rest of the group. John stowed the pistol on his side and walked over to a station on the wall. The Senior Chief walked over with him.

“Sir, I don’t know what your deal is with royals, but we don’t want to piss them off.”

“Senior Chief, we have run ass-backward into yet another galactic clusterfuck. I’m a fucking magnet for bullshit, and I am not going to tolerate lip from a prissy little princess.”

“I don’t disagree sir, but I would recommend treading carefully.”

“Bridge here,” Lacey said over coms, “The transport just blew up sir.”

“Lacey, tell Caleb to come about and head to the Ascendancy waypoint at flank speeds. Tell engineering to shut off our transponder, we’re going dark. Andern, target and blow up the escape pods, plasma lances only.”

“Distributing orders sir, anything else?”

“Yes, please ask Lieutenant Page to meet the Senior Chief and me in the Officers Conference Room in five minutes.”

John walked over nearer to the women, “Rick, you’re in charge here. You two, please go to the mess hall and bring them some grub. None of you are to leave this room. If they get fussy stun them.”

“You will do no such thing…” The princess stood from her chair and shouted.

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed but someone’s trying to fucking kill you. Were it not for this ship you'd be dead right now. I’m actually trying to keep you alive now. That means right now my word is akin to the word of God. For now, I need to coordinate with trusted assets because right now I’m not sure who’s behind all of this bullshit. So, sit down, shut up and eventually, I will get back to you and tell you how things are going to be.”

John shook his head in disgust as he turned and headed to the locker room. He got out of his armor as quickly as he could, then he walked down the ship’s main corridor and headed to the Officer’s Conference room at the far end of the ship. He entered the room and sat down; the Senior Chief sat down next to him.

“Lieutenant, I’m going to reach out to Naval Intelligence contacts I have and not going to bring in the Navy at large. She was supposed to have an escort from the first, yet they were never deployed with her, according to these flight plans,” John typed in a few things and displayed that information on the main display screen on the right side of the room.

“That’s troubling.”

“Their transport is destroyed, and the escape pods have been blown up. That should buy us at least eight, maybe nine hours, of a lead to both get out of dodge and escape the system.”

“We can’t leave Sol, we have clear orders.”

“Ma’am, I agree with the cadet, the situation we’re in is pear-shaped. She’s void worthy and the slipstream drive is fully functional.”

John continued to type and entered in a command that Page was not used to seeing, “All external communications are locked out unless I authorize them now, old Intelligence trick. Sorry, but I can’t have anyone knowing what we are up to.”

“Two things now cadet, how many more are you going to get us into?” Senior Chief Stroll started to laugh.

“Jesus Christ, I don’t understand any of this.”

“Uh sir, communications aren’t working,” Lacey said over the intercom.

“All external communications are shut off. We can receive, but not send.”

“Ok. I will let the departments know.”

John got up and left the conference room. He walked down the corridor to the stairs then walked up to them. He walked into the bridge.

“Caleb, you still have the bridge, plot a random four jump trip to the Proxima Centauri system taking roughly forty-two hours to get there. Also, I want engineering to write a program to immediately turn our transponder on when we jump into the system. And I also want our last jump to get dangerously close to the world of Manchester.”

“Uhm, ok. I will get working on that.”

“The moment we get to the Ascendancy waypoint I want us in slip-space asap.”

“Roger sir.”

“I’ll be in my room; I need to make a secure call to Intelligence.”

05:00 Captain’s Ready Room

John sat down at the workstation and switched the screen over to communications. He typed in a few things and sent a heavily encrypted message to Naval Intelligence on Titan. The screen switched and began blinking connecting. Then Deputy Director Matthias Baros appeared.

“Morning John, how can I help you?”

“Know any reasons why the escorts for the Proxima Centauri ship transporting one of their princesses did not show up?”

“Let me look,” Baros was working at his keyboard, “She was a bit overbearing and demanding and eventually told the First Fleet assets to leave them be because they couldn’t keep up with them.”

“For fucks sake, you cannot be shitting me.”

“So, they got attacked?”

“Yup and their ship blew up, but I had them abandon ship prior to that. Sending you the ships that attacked her. Appears to be a pirate faction familiar with Mercantilist Union systems,” John leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with his hands, “We took out the ships and picked up the three escape pods, with her being in one of them.”

“Wow, honestly wasn’t expecting that.”

“Fucking magnet for bullshit Baros. We’re running hard and silent. Going to be random jumping to Proxima Centauri.”

“I’ll take this information; we’ll be in contact with you personally. Good work.”

“Sending you the cords to the battle, spread some misinformation if you could.”

“Consider it done.”

05:15 Main Hangar

John entered the room and could hear Rick yelling at the princess.

“Rick, take a break, tell the chef you earned a couple of beers, he’s aware.”

“Sir, thank you, sir,” Rick saluted and walked away but muttered, “Spoiled bitch.”

“My name is John Leif, I’m the Acting Captain of this vessel and formerly an agent of Naval Intelligence. I’m in the third year of the Naval Academy with an obvious focus on command. We are currently heading to a waypoint outside of Jupiter’s gravity well that will allow us to jump to slip space. We will be arriving in Proxima Centauri around the capital world of Manchester within the next forty-six to forty-eight hours.”

The princess stood up and was about to say something when John looked at her, raised a finger to shush her, and gave her a stern look.

“You are guests of the Navy; however, you will not be allowed access to the weapons rooms, enlisted or officer berths for men and women, the bridge, or main engineering. We will get some cots in here and you can use the bathroom facilities in the locker room in the other corner.”

The princess immediately spoke up, “Why are we not picking up the other escape pods?”

“They are destroyed,” John said calmly.

“Why did you destroy them? They had important items in them.”

“To maintain the illusion that you are dead. You said there was nothing that couldn’t be replaced.”

“And what are we supposed to do about clothing here?”

John turned around and pointed at one of the remaining petty officers. They walked away and began digging into a large storage container. They came back with several Navy Working Uniforms.

“I am most certainly not going to wear clothing like that.”

“Princess, if it’s not abundantly clear, I don’t care what your opinion on anything is. You put yourself into this situation by telling your escorts to fuck off. A little gratitude for saving your stupid ass would be warranted.”

“With respect Captain, I’m Katherine Evans, prime attendance to the crown princess. We turned the escorts away because they couldn’t fly at our prescribed speed.”

“Katherine, did it possibly occur to any of you idiots to slow your fucking ship down?” John had a look of disgust on his face.

The women looked confused and began to look at one another. They then looked at Katherine who shrugged her shoulders.

“Why would we slow down for anyone?” the princess said haughtily.

John sighed and felt like he was talking with a brick wall, “You realize that you ran away from your escorts. You had a pair of frigates escorting you. The two ships that attacked us were about three times the size of one of our fighters. The frigates could run into them and not know they did that. What is your name princess?”

“I am Crown Princess Valerie Elizabeth Windsor of the house Windsor.”

“Get changed, cleaned up if you have to. Mess is down the hall and on your right. The storage room immediately to the left is the rec room. Four of you are allowed in for ninety-minute increments. You are not allowed to squat in the room.”

“Captain, have we truly done anything to warrant this disgust you appear to be radiating off of you?” Katherine asked.

“Yes. You bloody ran away from your escorts. In all my time as an agent, I have never come across a situation where anyone ran away from their escorts. It boggles the mind how stupid that was. That you don’t understand or comprehend how stupid that action has made this incident even worse.”

“But the Crown Princess’ time is finite and pressing. We needed to get to the position to jump out of the system as quickly as possible.”

“And yet look how successful you were at doing that.”

“Are we truly staying in this hangar?” Katherine asked.

“We’ll have your makeshift rooms made within the hour. We have some spare cots in the berth that we are disassembling as we speak. They will reassemble them. I’ll have a couple of guards posted here at all times.”

John was done with the stupidity and entitlement he was being surrounded with. He literally couldn’t handle any more of it. The bridge was a couple of minute walk away. John wanted the rest of the shift to go smoothly, he couldn’t handle receiving another curveball sent his direction.