In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 21: A Hopeless Errand

"I came to the Teton Sector for a challenge. You have a reputation for being tenacious foes, and many told me I'd bitten off more than I could chew. So far I see no evidence. The only difference I see is that you don't just surrender. You'd rather fight and die pointlessly, only to achieve the same outcome. I have a reputation too. A few extra dead gunmen doesn't matter all that much to me. That's what they're here for."

It seemed the man had only called them to gloat. Tyrone didn't cut him off, and Joseph knew why. The longer he talked, the more likely he'd say something useful. So far he was only rubbing his strength in their faces, but even that could provide valuable information.

"I suppose that's true," Tyrone said. "You'd know better than we would."

"As in many other things." The pirate leader lifted his chin. "After all, you thought relaying their distress signal would scare me off, didn't you?"

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Wrong, weren't you?" The pirate smiled triumphantly. "As I said, I have a reputation too. Once I get my teeth into a prize I don't let it go. Not that I'm thrilled about it, I prefer to take my time. You can take some satisfaction in knowing you inconvenienced me. But I know very well that there isn't a warship close enough to get here before I'm finished."

"I'm glad to know you aren't happy we're here," Tyrone replied sourly. Joseph grinned inside his helmet. He could tell when Tyrone was faking it. The pirate leader didn't know the Devastator was coming.

This time the pirate grinned. "Oh, on the contrary. I'm rather glad you're here, despite the nuisance. With your distress beacon active I'm sure a warship is on the way from somewhere, so I can't take the time to capture your ship too. However, it will be a nice change of pace to have an audience in the area. Usually I have to settle for bragging about the haul later."

"I have your current course information here." The pirate turned to look at something out of the frame. "You'll pass within ten miles of us in...oh, about thirty minutes. That should be right around the time we're forcing an airlock seal. I guarantee we won't shoot at you so long as you don't change that course. Other than to decelerate, obviously. If you do change course I can't promise my gunners won't take a few potshots at you for the fun of it. They're bored."

The connection went dead, and Tyrone turned his chair to face Joseph. "That was interesting. I don't think I've ever been invited to observe a criminal act before."

"There are exhibitionists in every field, I suppose. It's not very good for his operational security. At bare minimum, he's giving the Teton Sector military and paramilitary forces a close-up look at his ships and methods. It's not like we're going to keep what we observe to ourselves here."

"Nope. Nice of him to promise not to shoot at us, in any event. Do you think we ought to take him up on that offer?"

"I'm torn. They probably won't be able to hit us much if we do what you said earlier, start orbiting them at fifty thousand miles. If we come in that close we'll be a much easier target. On the other hand, if we do it we'll be right there to capitalize on any opportunity to help the Comet."

"Well, we've got about fifteen minutes to think about it before we make a decision."

Joseph checked the timer for the Devastator's arrival. It was down to two hours, fourteen minutes. At least time had been passing. The last few times he'd checked, the clock had only moved by a minute or two. The pirates didn't have as much time as they thought, but they still had easily enough time to board.

They had barely settled back to working when Joseph heard the alert for an incoming call sound behind him again. Tyrone answered within a few seconds, and he turned his chair to check who was contacting them this time; it was White Onyx Devastator. The video replaced a large, black, star-strewn patch of nothing on the starboard side of the windshield.