Inadvertent Adventures by Loren K. Jones Read Free Book Online

trick you again. Destroy them and their ship. And don't bother with the cargo. It won't be worth the crates it's shipped in."
    The message ended and everyone turned their eyes to their captain. "A freighter? A miserable little tramp freighter? We mistook a tramp freighter for a heavy cruiser? Nav, plot a course to LaFontain. Weapons Officer, I want maximum power to the weapons as soon as that ship appears. This time it's personal, and I'm going to enjoy it."
    The men and women of the raider hurried to do their captain's bidding. They felt just as humiliated as he did by the Jolly Jane's trick and were out for revenge. Six hours later the black ship blinked into hyper.
    * * *
    Captain Denise wrangled a deal to haul a cargo to New Britannia. It was small and low value, as usual, but it would pay their fuel and a small profit, which beat sitting at NHSP-1 paying for air.
    Captain Denise waited until they were in hyper before distributing the profits from their last job. "The three days we spent cooling our heels waiting for a cargo didn't hurt us much. We still managed two hundred and thirty-eight thousand credits, so we each receive twenty-three thousand eight hundred credits. I made the transfers before we departed."
    Silver cleared his throat. "Ma'am, I meant to ask before, but why does the ship get half?"
    "The ship gets half so we don't have to pay for repairs," Will answered for her. "Ship's account pays for repairs and spare parts. She's a sweet old gal, but she does break down occasionally. This way she gets a refit every year or two so we don't get stranded someplace."
    Silver nodded his understanding and retired to his quarters. He had a lot to think about. Not including his winnings at the 'Flaming 'O' Lounge ', he had more in the bank than he'd ever had before. More importantly, he knew Ann still loved him. That much was obvious. He started laughing softly to himself. Pahna Mah was about to learn a hard lesson about how vengeful Ann could be.
    New Britannia was one of the oldest worlds in the Confederacy. It had been settled directly from Earth, only the third such colony established after the development of the hyperspace drive. As such, it was also one of the most developed of the colony worlds and was home base of operations for many of the big multi-system conglomerates.
    The Jolly Jane was directed to Space Port Wales, Dock Sixty-Three. The shipment of routine documents for the Amberson Cartel was delivered and quickly replaced by a larger shipment of non-standard machine parts for their asteroid mining operation in the LaFontain System. Captain Denise smiled as she received the shipment and signed for it, but let her smile fade as soon as the lock was secure.
    "Crap. Another null-profit run to the back of nowhere," she snarled as she turned to face her crew.
    "Not null-profit, Captain. Nothing to brag about, maybe, but we cleared twelve thousand credits on the paperwork, and we'll clear more this time." Olaf smiled at her and finally received a grudging nod.
    "Maybe so, Olaf. I had just hoped for better."
    The little ship dove through the nebulous region known as hyperspace for twenty-six days ship time and emerged near the star LaFontain. They had been in system bound for three hours before they were hailed.
    "Space vessel Jolly Jane , surrender at once. Cut thrust and maintain your vector," an unidentified voice said through the radio.
    "Identify. By what right do you intercept this vessel?" Captain Denise immediately replied, all the while gesturing for Silver to find them a vector out of there.
    "Who we are is of no importance. It is who you are, and who you claim to be, that is. Did you really think you could get away with pretending to be a CSS Navy vessel?" the voice asked.
    "I have a visual on them, Captain," Olaf said, transferring his screen to the captain's. "Black ship, no markings. It matches the signature of the raider in Germanicus."
    "We need to get the hell out of here," Silver said as he looked