Chapter Twenty-Three - Pirates

The average space pirate belonged to a specific category of the insane.

They were not the average sort of mad. No, their sickness was one of the wallet as much as it was one of the mind. They were business people with a specific job: Take shit, sell it. The shit wasn't theirs, but that wasn't their problem. They didn't even need to pay taxes!

A spaceship, even an old junker like the Held Together, was worth a few million on the market. Cargo ships tended to leave one or two containers a little loose when flying through the belt, just in case. These could be jettisoned as a sort of tax to lure away pirates.

That was, if the pirates weren't after the money that could be made in the human trade. Hostages could be worth a fortune.

The three ships after them were pirate ships from beam to bow. These weren't your grandpa's pirate ships; old things cobbled together from modified freighters. These were built for trouble.

Where the average ship had armour designed to take a micrometeorite, these had foot-thick steel plates. They bristled with armaments like a gun salesman at a convention.

Wanna talk thrust? Ships like the Held Together had engines tacked on to their asses like a last-minute addition. These three were nothing but engine. They had gams like a runway model. Between the guns and the engines and the armour, there wasn't much room for anything else.

That was fine. They weren't meant to be lived in, they were meant to take lives.

Ivil was splitting her attention between the going-ons in the cockpit and the three approaching ships. The Held Together's computer might have been ancient, but it could calculate vectors well enough, and it was spot-on when it predicted their demise.

In just over three hours, the pirates would be on them like back-alley muggers.

"This isn't so bad," she said.

That had the crew and passengers shutting up and turning her way. Ivil found herself the centre of everyone's attention. And it was everyone, because there wasn't a single person on the Held Together who wasn't crammed into the cockpit.

"What do you mean?" Twenty-Six asked timidly.

Ivil found herself more comfortable now than she'd been over the past couple of days. There was violence coming her way, and being in the path of violence was her spot. "They're going to catch up to us soon, which means that they're doing slow-down burns already. If their plan was to kill us, then the first we'd learn about them, especially with this ship's lacking ability to see anything, would be when we got struck by a missile."

Ivil had seen it often enough, an unaware convoy getting struck from the black by a missile on a ballistic course. It was space warfare 101.

"So, we're only alive because they... what, wanna buzz by us?" Donny asked.

"No," Aurora said. "They're here for hostages."

Now everyone was looking at her, especially the captain. "I'm assuming you expect to be one of those?" she asked.

Aurora nodded slowly. "Yes. Truthfully, I expect that I'm the only politically worthwhile person here. No offence meant, of course. Perhaps Miss Ville as well, and the Tech Maid would be... valuable."

"Only because she has a few cores," Missy said.

"She has cores?!" Twenty-Six gasped. Her eyes, as round as saucers, turned to Sonic and locked on. "That's so cool! I've never met a core-user. What do yours do?"

"Two-Six," Missy said. "Not the time."

"Oh, right, impending death, sorry," Twenty-Six said with a wince.

Sonic shrugged. "It's fine. Curiosity doesn't hurt. Miss Sterlingworth, are you certain the pirates are after us because they're aware of your presence?"

"It could be random chance," Aurora said. "Captain, is this ship carrying anything valuable?"

"No," the captain said. "Freeze-dried goods, some hydroponics parts. A single crate of postage. Nothing that'll make pirates turn their attention our way. It's a pretty light run, all things considered. The Held Together's been targeted a few times. Usually when they ask us to drop our cargo we jettison whatever's cheapest, then burn hard."

"But no demands this time," Ivil said.

"Not a squeak," Hawke muttered. He was sitting by the comms, as if waiting for it to ring with a call from the pirates.

"In that case, what are our options?" Ivil asked.

"We try to run, we keep on course and let them reach us, or we fight back," the captain said.

"Flight, surrender or fight," Missy grumbled. "I don't like any of those options, but realistically, there's little we can do."

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"If we surrender, what're the odds they'll blow us up once they've got the lady?" Donny asked.

Aurora shot him a look that might very well be able to kill, but the man didn't have any brains to broil, so he missed it entirely.

"We're not surrendering Miss Sterlingworth," Ivil said. At the moment, she ranked Aurora at the top of her list of potential romantic interests. Though if Twenty-Six continued to be so cute she might make up the difference. Missy was in a cold third, and Hawke was quickly falling behind.

In any case, as much as Ivil appreciated her current cover and the vague anonymity it provided, she was more than willing to discard it to ruin the day of some pirates.

She wasn't going to break her cover on purpose, not if she could avoid it, but if the time came to make a choice, there would suddenly be fewer pirates haunting the solar system.

"What will happen if they do reach us?" Twenty-Six asked. She sounded much smaller than usual. Ivil wanted to hug her.

"They'll either send demands over short-range coms, or shoot out the engines," the captain said. "Then it's either a boarding, in which case we might get gunned down, or they'll pin the ship to one of theirs and drag us back to their base."

"Do we know where that is?" Ivil asked.

"No," the captain said.

"Yes," Missy and Sonic said at the same time.

The cockpit filled with more awkward silence. Missy, who was sitting on one of the consols, folded a leg up and crossed her arms onto her knee. "Go on," she said.

Sonic nodded. "I studied what the Ordo had about the route between Ceres and Jupiter before boarding the Held Together," she began, her slightly-tinny voice echoing through the bridge. "That included known pirates, their area of influence, and the location of their bases of operation. At least, those that are known."

"You ID'd them too, huh?" Missy asked.

Sonic gestured to the next room over, where they'd looked at the distant, fuzzy image of the pirate ships. "The vessels are Dominator-class fast-attack frigates. A Ceres-pattern design, evolved from an Earth-Alliance design. They are, at most, thirty-six years old, though the model is still being produced to this day. It's a popular design."

"Speedy pirate ships, yeah," Donny said.

"If it's common, how did you guess where they're from?" Hawke asked.

"I'd like to know the same," the captain said.

The Tech Maid gestured in the vague direction of the ships. "All three of them are painted in blue and red. There is only one pirate group that operates within this area, uses those colours, and uses that kind of ship."

"The Convent Valkyries," Missy said.

"Ah... well, that's not so bad," Donny said. He bumped his elbow against Hawke. "All-ladies pirates. Kinda hot, no?"

"They castrate any man they capture," Missy continued.

Donny's smile fell, and so did his blood pressure, judging by how white he went.

"They're an elite force. Or as elite as pirates can be," Sonic said. "Usually they track down big targets for big pay. Large cargo haulers, even those with escorts. Some military vessels, some diplomatic. They've hunted bounty hunters and cruise ships. They only take a few targets down every year, but they're always big."

"The Held Together is not exactly a big target," Ivil said.

Aurora took a deep breath, then let it out. "It's me. It's definitely me."

"Why?" Twenty-Six asked innocently.

Aurora looked around, then shook her head. "The event I'm going to has... very important political ramifications. There are billions of dollars on the line. More than enough to attract someone who'd be willing to pay some pirates to stop me."

"They're trying to capture, not kill. At least as far as we can tell," Ivil said.

"The Convent Valkyries are known to double-cross clients, usually after their work was successfully accomplished," Sonic said. "I don't know whether that'll be a factor or not."

"So... what, we just get grabbed, then die?" Donny asked.

"We don't know," the captain said. "It'll depend a lot on how they decide to act. What we won't do is surrender so easily. The Held Together has some options. Their base is close?"

"It's not too distant from this part of the belt," Sonic confirmed.

"Then it's likely they'll drag us back. We might find an option along the way," the captain said.

She didn't sound so certain, and Ivil saw the way she eyed Aurora. She suspected that if the captain had to choose between her ship and crew and Miss Sterlingworth, then Aurora might soon find herself tossed to the pirates.

***