Privateer तारा लुटेरा -The Star Marauder
5,896 light years from Earth
Captain Rahul Khan looked at the quartermaster, who nodded at him solemnly before unlocking the ornate, wooden cabinet on the wall and pulling out a sheathed dirk that was attached to a belt.
“I don’t have time for this shit, Yuri. I have a ship to run.” Khan complained as Yuri wrapped the belt around his captain’s waist and cinched it, tugging on it to make sure it was properly tight.
“We sail by our own codes, Captain. You have been challenged, and you must accept or be spaced by the crew for cowardice.” The Quartermaster replied quietly as he slid the 14-inch-long highland dirk out of its scabbard and presented it to the captain for inspection.
“Cowardice,” Khan sneered, “after personally leading twelve boarding actions and seizing seven ships? After enriching them with my benevolence, this is how they choose to repay me. This is a crew of ungrateful cretins."
Yuri straightened up to look Khan in the eyes before answering him.
“It is unseemly, Captain, but you vowed to honor our ways when you first joined the crew. Now you must prove to all that you will uphold them, or the whole ship will mutiny against you.”
Khan snorted in disbelief as he finally took the blade, giving it a cursory glance before handing the dirk back to the quartermaster who would be his second and avenge him if he was killed.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with so we can get back to our mission. We will not get paid unless we seize and bring back one of those ships intact. What the hell are they called again, Ballikons?”
Yuri grunted at the captain’s butchering of the name before he answered Khan.
“Balrikans, Captain. That’s what the Republic agent called them. Ugly bastards too, wouldn’t you agree?”
Khan shuddered in disgust as he remembered looking at the scans provided by the agent at the filthy cantina on Mardan IV. He was bitten by a snake when he was a little boy growing up in New Delhi. He had almost died, and now he despised anything even remotely reptilian ever since.
“Yeah, they’re fucking gross, Yuri. I never thought I’d be trying to capture a ship full of genocidal dinosaurs. Why did you let me agree to this again?”
Yuri laughed, a rare occurrence for the dour quartermaster who ran the unruly crew with an iron fist. He answered gleefully, delighting in the captain’s abhorrence of reptiles and the ironic circumstances they now found themselves in.
"Well, Captain, ten million credits are quite the bounty, and the entire crew would have their records expunged. Also, don’t forget the Letter of Marque we will be receiving when the war comes to the quadrant. We are going to be disgustingly rich when this is all over.”
“Yes, it’s a nice payment.” Khan agreed. “We will finally be able to overhaul the Yoni, and then I am going to take a percentage of the crew shares and get this ship disinfected from bow to stern.
I am tired of questioning what half the stains on the floors and walls are. Thank God I haven’t let my morbid curiosity get the better of me and shine a blacklight scanner on them.”
Yuri chuckled again before placing both of his hands on Khan’s shoulders and looking him in the eyes.
“You got this, Captain. Just get it over with, and the rest of the crew will fall in line. We have been out here for six weeks, and they were bound to get restless, but Chin has been a constant problem ever since he came on board.”
Khan nodded silently, agreeing with the quartermaster’s statement. Chin had been an issue ever since he stepped foot on the ship, and now it was time to get rid of him and focus on their mission.
“I’m ready, Yuri. Thank you for being my second.” Khan stated, allowing his appreciation for his second in command to color his words.
Yuri bowed his head slightly before replying.
“It is my honor to serve you. You have been a good captain to us all and a good friend to me. My position is a lonely one, Captain, and I did not think I would find a friend like you so late in my life.”
Yuri turned away from Khan, embarrassed by what he had just said. Khan let him be, knowing it was hard for the tough old bird to display such emotions after a lifetime of being a hard taskmaster who ran pirate ships.
Yuri, still looking away from Khan, started speaking again, his voice heavy with emotion.
“I knew you were a good man when you challenged the captain after he refused to respond to the distress call from that Xenxin ship filled with kids. I am ashamed that I did not have the courage to do so. I knew he was an evil man after all when he turned to us after hearing their pleas and the crying kids and told us to ignore them.
Do you remember what he said? ‘There is no profit in this. Babies do not have money.’ I wanted to kill him right then and there, but I did not have the balls. It was you who stood up and did what we all secretly wanted. We might be pirates, but there are some things we do not countenance.
After you killed him, I knew then this old man would finally know the joy of serving under a worthy captain before his time came to an end. I still believe it now, and this is why I accepted being your second.”
Khan listened to what Yuri had to say, unsure of how to respond without further embarrassing the old man he loved with all his heart. Yuri spoke again before he could reply.
“Don’t die on me, Captain. Please. I am too old for this shit, and I do not want to bury my only friend in this world.”
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Yuri, still turned away from him, walked to the hatch and exited without saying another word. Khan watched him leave and then quickly wiped his eyes before reaching into his desk and pulling out a stim stick.
He injected himself in the neck with it, feeling the coolness spread. It would clear his eyes as well; it would not be helpful for the crew to think their captain was emotional from the fear of fighting and dying.
He gave the injection thirty seconds to work its magic before stepping in front of the mirror on the bulkhead. His eyes were now clear, and he wiped away the residual moisture still clinging to his eyelashes.
Yuri meant a lot to him, and seeing him open up like that touched him deeply. He turned towards the hatch that Yuri exited and walked towards it, steeling himself for the task he must now perform.
He stepped through the hatch and onto the large, circular bridge. Most of the ranking crew was there, lined up along the curving bulkheads. Yuri was in his position waiting for Khan, and he walked over to him as they shared a knowing glance with each other.
Chin was already waiting on the opposite side of the bridge, his lithe muscles rippling under his skin as he paced bare-chested in a small circle. His entire upper body was covered in tattoos, and he stared at Khan with hooded eyes, his curled lips filled with malice.
Chin had a reputation as a killer, and seeing the confidence he was displaying confirmed it in Khan’s mind. He would have to be careful and rely on his training to emerge victorious from this challenge.
Khan focused his combat breathing, a technique he had perfected after almost ten years serving in the Republic special forces. Chin stepped forward and held out his knife in front of his chest, arm fully extended and his vicious looking 12-inch curved blade pointed up.
That was the sign the crew was waiting for, and every eyeball on the bridge pivoted to the captain to see what he would do. The bridge was now deathly silent, and Khan stepped forward three paces and returned the gesture.
The Quartermaster called out strongly after the ritual was observed: “Challenge has been rendered and accepted. May the best man win.” He clapped his hands once, the sharp sound echoing off the bulkheads like a gunshot.
Chin immediately crouched down into a defensive stance, moving sideways as he followed the curvature of the crew arrayed around them and held his knife close to his body.
Khan assumed his fighting stance and stayed where he was, pivoting his body to follow the movements of Chin and keeping only his side pointed towards him to make a smaller target.
For almost a minute, Chin maneuvered gracefully along the circle in both directions, stalking Khan like a feline predator as he waited for the captain to make the first move.
Khan maintained his position, keeping his left side presented to Chin and continuing to focus on his combat breathing to control the fear and adrenaline surging through his body.
Chin suddenly charged at him, whipping his knife with a speed that greatly surprised Khan as he instinctively defended himself from the rapid stabs and slices.
He grunted heavily as Chin managed to slice him several times on his forearms before ducking under Khan’s counterattack and rolling past him, stabbing him in the side of his thigh all the way to the hilt before pulling the knife back out.
Khan cried out and spun around, blindly swinging the dirk at where Chin should have been; only he wasn’t. He had rolled back again and was now pacing again along the circle, sneering at Khan.
“You are too slow, Captain. Just throw your knife on the ground, and I will grant you a merciful death.” Chin called out arrogantly, making a cutting his own throat gesture as he said the words merciful death.
Khan ignored the blood running down his leg and both his forearms, hoping the clotting agents of the stim he took would work before he was severely weakened from blood loss.
He resumed his combat stance and banged on his chest with his knife hand twice in response to Chin’s words, and most of the crew roared with approval at their captain’s refusal to give up.
Chin smiled widely and spoke again as he resumed his crouching walk. “I didn’t think you had it in you, Captain. Maybe I’ll actually have a worthy fight today; it has been too long for me.”
Khan ignored Chin’s commentary as he maintained his stance and waited for Chin to come to him again. Though costly, his plan to have Chin reveal his fighting style worked, and now Khan knew exactly how to counter Chin’s knife fighting abilities.
Chin hopped lightly on the balls of his feet as he moved his head from side to side, cracking his neck before leaping at Khan again, his knife blurring as he pressed his attack.
Khan was ready this time, and he deflected most of the blows with either his dirk or his left hand. He purposefully allowed one of Chin’s stabs to connect, maneuvering his body so that the knife went into his upper right chest just below the collarbone.
He could see the surprise in Chin’s eyes at the unexpectedly successful strike, and Chin faltered for just a moment as he tried to regain his fighting flow.
The one-second hesitation was all Khan needed, and he moved his body slightly, crying out in pain as the knife shifted and hit the collarbone. The angle was bad for Chin, and he tried to adjust his position to pull the knife out, leaving his face undefended.
Khan’s dirk flashed, coming at a downward angle, and he felt the revolting squishing as he drove his dirk right into Chin’s left eye. The dirk easily pierced the sinus cavity, the blade breaking through the roof of his mouth and skewering his lower jaw as the blade penetrated entire through.
Chin screamed in agony before his primal yell turned into a sickening gurgling sound as he choked on the blood and mucus pouring out of his nose and flooding the back of his throat.
Khan yanked the knife out and stepped out of range as Chin started swinging his blade wildly, hacking blood all over the place as he breathed his own blood into his lungs and coughed uncontrollably.
Khan stayed out of range as Chin’s wild knife swings grew weaker before collapsing on his hands and knees as he coughed up more blood onto the floor. Seeing the fight was over, Khan activated the nano-molecular edges of the dirk; it was time to end this and get back on mission.
Khan came up behind Chin and grabbed his long black hair, yanking his head back before leaning down slightly and running the now activated nano-molecular edge across his throat.
The dirk easily cut through the flesh and cartilage, and Khan felt the warm blood of Chin’s carotid artery flowing over his hand as he continued to slice through the neck until he severed the spinal column and Chin’s head separated from his neck.
Chin’s body fell forward, the neck stump spurting blood as Khan held the head up and slowly turned so the assembled crew could see what happens when they challenge the captain.
He tossed the head onto the floor next to Chin’s body, the sickening sound of the head thumping on the floor making him wince internally as he glared at the other known troublemakers of the crew.
He crouched down to wipe his knife clean on Chin’s pants, forgetting to deactivate the nano-edge. The dirk sliced halfway through the hamstring, and Khan inwardly cursed himself for his stupidity as he deactivated it and cleaned the dirk on the other pant leg.
He straightened himself back up and looked at the crew again, seeing them salute him as they banged their right fists over their hearts.
He eyed them balefully as he slid the dirk back into its scabbard before washing the blood off his hands in the bucket of disinfectant Yuri had brought over to him.
Yuri was smiling widely, truly happy at the victory achieved by his friend and his captain, and Khan quickly smiled back at him. Turning his attention to the higher-ranked crew assembled on the bridge, he drew in a deep breath and addressed them loudly with his command voice.
“Is there anybody else who wants to challenge me?”
None answered his question, and he saw the fear and respect in their eyes as they eyed their captain, who had just brutally slaughtered a skilled assassin well known for his knife work.
“No one? Then get back to work. We have a ship to capture and a bounty to claim.”
The crew erupted into loud cheers at the mention of battle and money, and he turned around and headed to the exit hatch to get patched up by the medbot in sickbay.
He smiled to himself, listening to the crew chanting his name as he exited the bridge. They were now blood lusted, and they would be ready for battle. Time to go hunting for a ship to capture.