Rookie Privateer by Jamie McFarlane Read Free Book Online Page B

it made our external maneuvers considerably more dangerous for Nick and Tabby.
    "Crap." Realization of the problem hit Tabby.
    " One step at a time," I said, as much to Tabby as to myself.
    We linked hands and I used my arc-jets on very low power to nudge us around the debris in Millie's. In horror, I realized some of the debris was body parts. Minutes ago, they belonged to people who were hanging out, just like the three of us. Panic coursed through my body and I started to rethink heading top-side.
    "Hold it together, Hoffen." Tabby must have sensed my hesitation.
    " They're dead, Tabs," I replied quietly.
    " And if we don't do something, your dad could be next," she said.
    " Point Masters," I thought wryly, but she was dead right.
    I nudged my jets again and we wriggled through the blasted out windows of the bar. It was almost a hundred meters straight down to the floor of the Mercantile. If the gravity generator kicked in, we would have precious little time to find safety.
    Looking up to the ruined dome, I could see safety foam had nearly sealed the entire opening, but had failed at a couple of locations. Undeployed canisters were evident in the opening. I wasn't surprised, considering the opening was almost two hundred meters in diameter and the foam was a difficult system to test. A maintenance crew would need to patch up the gaps before atmosphere could be restored.
    I nudged us in the direction of an opening closest to James' Rental. We pulled up next to the ore sled I had parked there the day before. From the yard, we had a clear view of the security control tower.
    The control center was a small tower that floated a kilometer above the station and was located less than a hundred meters from the edge of the rental yard. The center was tethered with a cable a few meters wide at the base, tapering off slowly to about a meter when it connected to the control room. An open elevator ferried inhabitants up and down the tether. Security staff had a direct view of most of the nearby station assets and most importantly, the P-1 refinery.
    The control center was only large enough to hold three or four people and was often only manned by one person on a four hour shift. The staff’s responsibilities were to watch the monitors, respond to emergencies and control the perimeter defense guns. An AI backed up the security staff and did a better job of watching for problems than the humans did. Firing of the perimeter defense guns, however, was something the AI wasn’t allowed to do without direct commands from authorized personnel. Now, those guns were firing at my dad and others down at the refinery and it meant someone in the control center was deliberately helping the pirates.
    " Tabby, grab my spare AGBs from the sled. Nick, do you have any on the platform?" I had to come up with a plan, but needed more information. "Go dark and don't use your jets. I'm going to get eyes on the tether base."
    I approached the side of Nick's yard, pulled myself up to the top of a three-stack of containers, and peered over in the direction of the control tower’s base.
    My heart sunk as I made out the long shape of a fast attack craft. It was thirty meters long and rectangular in shape and I could make out a slug-throwing turret mounted on top and at least one missile rack. It wasn't much to look at, but I had watched vids showing how devastating one of these medium range ships could be. The only ships I'd ever seen like this were naval escorts. This particular ship showed carbon scoring, dents and hastily repaired tears in the steel hull. The ship screamed pirate to anyone who saw it.
    I sat for a moment and surveyed the area to see if there was any movement on the outside of the ship. I knew a ship of this size could have up to a crew of eight. Only two were required to fly it, but there was easily space for at least six and if you weren't excited about comfort, then you could bring on more. For short distances, a ship this size could hold a