The Pilots and the Frontier
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: After all this time, you know what this means, right? Rating: K Time: About three years after my story the Pilots and the Passengers.
They took the data cube back to the Kzin home world where both Imperial and Patriarchal intelligence types examined it. In two days, they were called to see an Admiral (Growl), the head of Kzin intelligence.
"The data cube has some very interesting information in it. It seems the Pannonians have made contact with various anti-Imperial groups and are providing them with funds, advisers, equipment and weapons. This is quite serious. No one has realized they had people inside the Empire before."
"Can we track them down?" Rick asked.
"Better, Sir Richard. We know where their headquarters is."
"That makes it easier."
Admiral (Growl) shook his head.
"Not really. We're not getting all of the reinforcements we thought we'd get. The Zenetian Pirates are on a rampage in another part of the Empire and the Spican Marches are…A mess as always. But we do have an idea."
Castle knew that the idea involved him and the Pika-Don.
"I'll be happy to do anything I can do to help, sir."
The admiral smiled with an ever more impressive set of fangs than a Vorlag had.
"Their headquarters are in the Sky Cave. I believe you've been there?"
"We have, sir."
"Since we can't send a task force to reduce the place, and we haven't had a chance to clear this with the Empire, we thought that if a younger son of a Kzin clan were to decide to take the Sky Cave on his own, with his own forces and not an official Imperial or Patriarchal mission, then it would pass as just one violent being taking over from another. A number of the…enterprises based on the Sky Cave are supposedly legitimate and belong to races that are friendly to the Empire. They may be unhappy about the change of ownership, but can hardly complain to the Empire or the Patriarchy. Quite neat, I think."
"I imagine you have some younger son in mind for this, sir?"
"Indeed, I do."
It took three days for the Pika-Don to get to Duke Skinny's moon. They were intercepted by a picket ship, cleared and sent to land on the moon. A vehicle had been sent to the spaceport to take them to Duke Skinny's headquarters.
They were met with a guard of honor and after the ceremony, they were brought before a Kzin female.
"Good day, Sir Richard, Sir Moecious, Lady Kate, and Ladies Simone, Jane, Andine and Lindane. I regret that Duke Skinny was on the other side of the moon attending to some problems, but he is on his way back. I am his intended, Lady (Growl)." She smiled." You may address me by my human nickname, Lady Big Tits."
Rick thought the name was appropriate. Either one of her boobs was bigger than his head.
"I hope Duke Skinny will be back soon. We have orders for him from the Patriarch. I was told to deliver them to him personally."
Lady Big Tits checked her timepiece.
"He should be back on two and two-thirds hours. In the meantime, can I offer you our hospitality? I'm afraid the headquarters looks like a construction site because that's what it is. Oh, and you can tell me about how young Ensign Spotty is doing. I do hope we won't have to skin him alive for his transgressions."
Rick began babbling. "No, of course not. Spotty has done an excellent job. No punishment at all is needed. He's done a great job. Really…"
Lady Big Tits was laughing.
"I was teasing you, Sir Richard. In the old days such punishments were, sadly, all too common. But not now."
Less than two hours later, a small aerospace plane screamed over the headquarters, turned and landed. Skinny jumped out and ran inside his headquarters.
"Rick, Kate, Moecious…Everyone. I'm so happy to see you."
He pounded Moecius on the back, but gently shook hands with the humans.
"We must celebrate your return with a feast. A banquet. And I must tell you al about my new fief."
"Afraid not." Said Rick. "We have orders from the Patriarchy. We're going on a trip and we're going ASAP."
Rick handed the orders to Skinny and filled him in on what had happened since last they met.
"So, I 'm to head off with a band of adventurers to seek my fame and fortune, just like the Kzin of old? By the Gods! They'll be singing sagas about this for decades, no centuries, to come."
''How has the recruitment of your troops gone?" Moecious asked. "And how's your space navy?"
"Duke Skinny's Own Regiment of Guards numbers some fifteen hundred Kzin right now, all trained and veteran soldiers. And, my brother Spotty will be pleased to know that almost all share his distaste for the attempt to take the Kzin military back to the "good old days"."
"We won't need that many soldiers." Rick said. "Moecious has a pretty good idea of how many people Wha An has. He killed off the troops of the old Lord of the Sky Cave and brought in his own." Rick stopped. "Well, maybe Moecious should tell you himself."
"Wha An is a violent man and he's brought in violent people, largely humans but with some Merseians as well. They're individually well-armed but they have no heavy weapons. There are about five hundred of them all together. They're very good at intimidating unarmed people, but I don't know if they'd be any good against regular, well-armed and armored troops."
"What about the defenses of the Sky Cave? I only have a light cruiser and a destroyer."
"You also have a destroyer?" Spotty said. "How did you get one?"
"Um, my cousin Loony decided to join me."
"Loony?" Rick asked, not liking the sound of that.
"He's very unorthodox. Let's just leave it at that." Skinny sounded a bit embarrassed.
Behind Skinny's back, Spotty made a circular motion around his ear. Rick liked that even less.
"They have anti-ship missiles covering all approaches to the Sky Cave. Those are backed up by blaster cannons. But, we can get in through a little used and not very well known space dock with the Pika-Don. Her stealth systems will keep their sensors from picking you up. How many Kzin can you get in the ship?"
The answer, as Rick found out four days later, was forty-two well armored Kzin soldiers, jammed together in every space on the ship. They had offloaded from the Blood Rock, Skinny's cruiser, just out of sensor range from the Sky Cave.
Much to Kate's displeasure, she had been left behind to make room for as many troops as possible. The crew was Rick, as pilot, Spotty as gunnery officer, and much to Andine's displeasure, Lindane, handled the stealth systems. She told her mother that since she had designed the systems, she was the logical one to operate them. Moecious, armed and armored like the Kzin, was to be their guide.
"We're coming up on the Sky Cave." Rick said. "No sign we've been spotted. Are you sure there's a space dock here? I see nothing but rock."
"When you're within a kilometer, turn ever so slightly to port. You'll see a fissure in the rock. You can go straight in and land."
They landed at a space dock that had been roughly carved out of the bare rock. Rick could see what might have been words or numbers painted on the walls, but they were long faded into obscurity.
Everyone debarked and headed for the one airlock, their armor could function as a space suit for a while. Moecious worked the controls, and after hitting it once or twice to loosen it, it opened. Half the troops, led by Skinny crammed themselves into the airlock and cycled through. Then the other half, including Moecious, went through.
Rick stayed with the ship. They had jury rugged the controls so that he could manage both weapons and communications from the pilot's station.
The air on the other side was stale, and the pressure was a bit low, but it was breathable. Moecious led them through the tunnels until at last they could see light up ahead.
"That's a well-used space dock for smugglers just ahead." Moecious said over the radio. "This could be our first problem. Let me check it out."
He went ahead more silently than anyone had thought the large, armored Vorlag could.
What Moecious found was not what he expected. The last time he had been in this space dock, it had been a busy hive of activity. Now just one lone ship sat in the dock and just one person was there, sitting on a battered chair. However, he recognized the man sitting there.
"Good day, Kevin Ryan. How are you today?"
The human stood up and began to move away, but stopped.
"Moecious? Is that you?"
"Yes, it is, my friend. What happened here? There used to be dozens of ships operating from here."
Ryan spat.
"Wha An. He's too damned greedy. He charges so much in taxes that none of the captains could make any money. They'd leave and never come back. Wha An was furious."
"One captain is still here." Moecious pointed to the remaining ship.
"Only because Captain Marti Gaines is being held by Wha An until she pays what she owes. And how can she do that if she can't smuggle cargoes?"
"I have a few friends who hope to change that, Kevin Ryan. I hope you won't feel obligated to say anything."
"Not a chance. But you should know, there's a guard post at the next corridor crossing to keep people out of the dock."
"Thank you, my friend. Once this is over, drop by the Jolly Spacer. Drinks will be on the house. Um, the Jolly Spacer is still there, isn't it?"
"Yes, but much come down from when you ran it."
There were four guards at the intersection of the corridors and they were paying little attention to the sensors that should have shown them the attacking force. The soldiers went on internal oxygen and two Kzin opened cannisters of gas. The four guards died without raising any alarm.
The assault force headed down one corridor. Their next objective was the control room for the Sky Cave's defenses. This time someone was paying attention to the sensors and the armored doors slammed shut. A two Kzin team operating a heavy blaster went to work on the doors while the rest of the troops fought off uncoordinated attempts by Wha An's people to counter attack.
The doors turned red hot and then white hot, but slowly started to deform under the impact of the blaster's fire. One internal hinge weakened and the right-hand door began to sag open.
"Start throwing hand grenades in." Yelled Skinny.
The did, but the heat was so intense that the grenades exploded without making it inside.
"Concentrate the blaster fire on the other side of the other door."
The damaged door started to very slowly cool down. When it was merely red hot, Spotty rammed his armored hands into the wall on the side of the door. It wasn't armored and he was able to crawl up the wall punching holes in it with his hands and feet. Taking careful aim, he began throwing grenades in. The first three blew up prematurely, but the next grenades exploded inside the control room. Spotty was about to call for more grenades when the left-hand door collapsed completely.
Heedless of the white hot door, a dozen Kzin, screaming their battle cries, poured into the control room. Wha An's people were armed, but unarmored. They died quickly.
TBC