Chapter nine

    "Alfred, please start broadcasting on all frequencies."

     "Broadcast started."

     "This is Captain Callaghan of the pirate ship Vishnu. My crew and I have come here to give ourselves up, well sort of. We need a fleet of powerful ships that could help us cross the mine fields in sector 13 on our way to the compendium. Of course the one who helps me get to the Compendium will be entitled to get the prize that the compendium is offering."

      Twitch looked up from his workstation with a worried expression, "Captain, the broadcast has revealed our location and we have multiple weapons locked on to us."

     Sandy also looked up from her workstation, "Shall I take evasive maneuvers?"

     "No, keep going forward and uncloak. Steadily move forward and keep true to our current course."

     A few seconds later Twitch's panicky voice rang out through the bridge, "Captain, several of the weapons are powering up!"

     "Don't worry they won't shoot."

     "They are about to shoot!"

     Klaxons started to blare and bright lights started to flash then Sandy said,"Those are the proximity sensors, we have almost reached the blockade. If they are going to shoot us, now would be the perfect time."

     My crew started to panic but I just pursed my lips and gave a loud whistle which restored some order, "Calm the fuck down you bunch of pansies. If you would get your heads out of your asses for a few seconds then you would have noticed that nobody has shot at us yet."

     They finally noticed that we were going through the blockade and passing in between the ships but not a single one of them were firing at us. Everybody looked at the surreal scene of hundreds of ships pointing their guns point blank at our faces yet not firing then Alfred's soothing voice said, "Captain, the ship is being hailed by one Admiral Black from the federation starfleet and one Scarface from the Corporation's armada."

     "Let them both through. Display them on the main screen. Open three split screen communication if you will Alfred."

     Two men appeared on the screen. One was an older looking gentleman with with gray hair and a clean white uniform with medals clearly displayed on his chest. The other was a man with a black mask covering the top half of his face. His mouth was visible and it was stretched into a large jovial grin.

     "Brucy! Have you gone senile? You can't just waltz into a blockade like that! What if some nervous cadet with a twitchy trigger finger had shot you down!"

     "Who are you calling senile Scar? You are way older than me! So it was really true? You joined the Corporation?"

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     He shrugged and said, "The pay is good, the ships are great , and they even offered to make me section commander. Plus I have more wives than I know what to do with. Maybe you should consider joining up too Brucy."

     "Maybe some other day Scar."

     The silent man in white uniform finally decided to speak, "I hate to break up this touching reunion between two degenerate lowlifes but my time is precious. Callaghan, you will board a small shuttle and come to our flagship to surrender yourself to the federation immediately."

      "Admiral Black I presume? Well Admiral Black, I think you might have misheard what I said, I never said that I was going to hand myself over to the federation on a silver platter. You might have noticed that there are two major powers here."

      "It does not matter. We will go retrieve the schematics from the compendium and share it with the Corporation."

       Scarface didn't like that, "And we are just going to trust you? You want us to give you the key to unimaginable power and you want us to believe that you will just share it with us afterwards? Do I look like I was born yesterday?"

      Admiral Black started to frown, "How dare you question my integrity! You are just a mercenary, a rabid dog being held back by a collar made of money. What would you know of honor?"

      Scarface scoffed when he heard Black's comment, "Don't give me that honor crap. You want to pretend that you are somehow better than us but everybody knows that you are worse than any mercenary out there! Did you forget how you personally ordered the destruction of the planet calypso which was filled with innocent people just because some rebels were hiding there? Where was your honor then?"

     Sandy patted my shoulder and I pressed the button to mute my end of the conversation, "What is wrong Sandy?"

     "We are right next to the asteroid, what do we do now?"

     "Excellent. Twitch, on my signal I want you to shoot down all the dicks in the area before they can get their shields up and then I want you to knock down that mining rig. Professor, I want you to activate the new shields and I want you to concentrate them to the front of the ship. Alfred, I want you to concentrate the powers of our main shields to the back. Sandy, I want you to take the ship through that mining shaft and don't stop until you see the bottom. Does everybody understand what they should be doing?"

     For a moment they just started blankly.

     "I said does everyone understand what they should be doing?"

     They eventually recovered and simultaneously shouted out, "Aye aye, Captain!"

      "Good, then it's show time."