Rookie Privateer by Jamie McFarlane Read Free Book Online

Tabby and Nick had their suits sealed. I couldn't immediately locate them since the lights were flashing red in sequence with the klaxons. The sound of the klaxons had diminished almost completely due to the very low atmospheric pressure we were currently experiencing.
    Mute background. Channel Loose Nuts One . Even though we were no longer competing in the pod-ball league at school, we had left the channel configured for the three of us.
    " Tabby, Nick, check in. Are you sealed?" I asked. I located Nick and saw a reassuring green glow around his wrists. All of our suits were of the same general make and for the first few minutes of pressurization they glowed green at the extremities - wrist, ankle and neck - to indicate a safe seal had been established.
    Nick, who was always quick on the draw replied, "Good, Liam. Tabby?"
    " Frak. Yeah, good. I jammed my leg into the frakking table. I think it might be busted." Tabby's voice carried pain. I was finally able to locate her under the table where we had been sitting. All of the tables in Old Millie's were bolted to the floor and made of steel. Nobody picked a fight with a table on a mining colony and won.
    Nick got to her first, but she had already rolled over to a seated position.
    "Do you really think it's busted?" Nick was inspecting her leg.
    Glancing around the room, I could see a few more suited people helping others. A quick look out to the dome and I realized a foam barrier had attempted to deploy , but failed. The Mercantile was completely open to space. The severity of the problem started to sink in, but something in my peripheral vision was wrong and I hadn't yet processed it.
    Locate casualties . A red glow showed on the side of my helmet directing me to turn my head to the left. As I panned left, an outline formed around a shape behind the bar. I processed the image and turned away in horror as I saw part of Millie's broken body pinned to the back wall by a large object. Panicked, I looked around further and identified several other partial bodies that had been ripped apart. I fought to push back the gorge from my stomach. In a suit, it would be hard to live with the smell. The suit would take care of the vomit, but for whatever reason, it was unable to remove the smell. As a kid, I had once thrown up in my suit and had to endure a very long ride back to our habitat.
    I heard Tabby gasp and Nick, who was still looking at her leg said, "Sorry, does that hurt?"
    " No, Nick. Millie got hit," Tabby filled in and started to stand up.
    A terrible thought went through my mind, "Back in a sec." Hoffen Channel One Emergency . A small chirp was followed by some ragged breathing.
    " Dad. Mom. Millie's just took a kinetic hit." I was concerned by the ragged breathing but figured they would want to know about this right away.
    Mom replied immediately. "Liam, are you safe?" Without waiting for me to say anything more she pushed on. "Hole up and stay out of sight. The colony is under attack."
    " What? What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
    Big Pete jumped on, "Pirates, Liam. They are hitting the refinery. Do as your Mom says. Stay out of sight and stay off the comms. Perimeter defense is compromised and they have a group of us pinned down on P-1." Channel One close .
    A lump rose in my throat as everything got real in a hurry. It was one thing to have Millie dead from a rogue asteroid. It was another thing entirely to have it be on purpose. My Dad had used the phrase 'pinned down.' He had been a Marine at one point in his life and had even seen combat. He hadn't sounded scared. He sounded deadly serious. Big Pete had never backed down from anything and now I was terrified he was going to get himself killed.
    I slid over to Tabby and pushed my faceplate up next to hers. I pulled Nick in so that we were all uncomfortably close, "Nick, can you get us comm without it going through Central?"
    His reply sounded a million miles away, "Sure. Easy"
    Line of Sight. Secure. Loose Nuts Channel