The launch from Anaconda went off without a hitch, but tensions were high on the bridge.
"Now what?" Aisha asked as they left the planet's orbit.
"I'm not sure, Aisha. If you were a pirate where would you go?" Gene said.
The Ctarl Ctarl shrugged. "The Galactic Leiline?"
"It's likely that the pirates are monitoring our movements from a distance and preparing an ambush." Suzuka offered.
"I doubt they'd let us slink back to Heiphong." Gene said "Besides, they know that we're one short."
"I hate to bring this up, Gene, but how are we going to find them?" Jim turned around and asked.
"It's probably going to be them who find us." he remembered what the thin, wispy pirate had told him back on Anaconda.
Almost as soon as he brought that up, Gillium spoke up.
"Pardon the interruption, but there's an incoming real-time transmission."
Khali's scalded face appeared on the monitor. "Hello Outlaw Star. I have a message from your navigator. 'Help me Gene, please! They're doing bad things to me! Save me !'" the piratess said in a melodramatic voice. "Come and get her." she challenged them. With that, the transmission ended.
Gene growled. "Gillium. Were you able to pinpoint where that was coming from?"
"The transmission was too short for me to get a precise fix, but I was able to isolate it's point of origin coming from Ennis-3 system." the computer brought up a chart showing the ship's relative position.
"What do we do now Gene? It'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack." Jim said.
"What was that you were saying about an ambush, Suzuka?"
***
Gillium was able to isolate the signal as coming from an asteroid filed at the very edge of the Ennis-3 system, but couldn't be more specific than that. They anticipated that the Necromancer would be using Tao magic to avoid detection, so they'd have to rely on random sectors being visually scanned by Gillium. Gene and Jim were doing their best to come up with a strategy.
"I'm picking up computer activity 800km to starboard." the computer announced after what seemed like an eternity.
As they closed in on the location, all of them could see the Necromancer. It looked as though the ship had been waiting patiently for them.
"All right then. Jim, we need to be firm but gentle." Gene said. That concept was something altogether new to him.
"Right. Assault anchors 7 and 8 are on continuous control."
"Fire!"
A pair of tethered assault anchors shot out from the underbelly of the Outlaw Star and immediately found their mark. However, each of them sensed something was amiss when the anchors passed through the Necromancer and slammed into a meteor behind it. The image of the ship flickered and faded, and all that remained was a drone platform used to launch the holographic image.
"Shit...." Gene said, realizing that this was the trap they had walked into. Not only that, they had just given away their strategy to their still-unseen enemy and were down to their last two assault anchors.
"A hologram? The real Necromancer can't be very far." Suzuka spoke up.
"I am not detecting any onboard computer activity, Gene. It is likely the ship that launched it is still nearby, but it's reasonable to believe that they are using a Tao field to evade detection." the computer said.
"Jim- cut anchors NOW!"
"Warning! Vessel closing in from 3 o'clock starboard!" Gillium warned
Gene maneuvered the ship so that it would bank as sharply as possible. As he was doing this, 2 missiles flew by, narrowly missing the Outlaw Star and exploded after impacting with a meteor a few hundred meters behind them. The grappler arms were now deployed and the real Necromancer was looming ominously above them.
"Jim! Launch the camera pods. Aisha, Suzuka....." Gene sighed, knowing that he could very well be asking them to kill Melfina "Stand by and prepare to fire all missiles". He wanted Melfina back more than anything, but it wouldn't be right if it meant everybody else would have to give up their lives in the process. That would be just too high of a price to pay.
***
"Nice and predictable" Khali chuckled as her eyes casually roamed over Melfina's naked body inside the control tube. "Honestly, I don't know what she sees in him."
"They're launching camera pods." Lan announced.
"I see we have their undivided attention. Looks like they want to dance."
"Let's see what the XGP can really do."
Khali paused a moment before speaking up. "Try not to destroy it." she said impatiently, almost as an afterthought.
***
"You wanna play you bastards? All right, then! We'll play!" Gene fired a burst from the ship's laser cannon. The Necromancer was able to deflect all of the shots with a metal shield fitted to its grappler arm. The pirate ship's other grappler arm tried closing in around the Outlaw star, but Gene saw this and held it at bay using a flail attached to the right grappler arm, knocking the pirate ship's arm out of the way. Jim fired the thrusters and tried positioning the ship so that they would be out of reach of the Necromancer's arms and maybe be able to get a few shots in past the pirate vessel's shields. Ordinarily, that would be one of Melfina's functions. It served to remind all of them how sorely missed she was so soon after her absence.
A dozen or so missiles flew from the Necromancer towards the Outlaw Star.
"Warning! Multiple missiles incoming." Gillium warned.
"Launching anti-missiles!" Jim said, with more than a hint of urgency.
Four small rockets flew from the Outlaw Star and exploded in front of the cluster of missiles fired from the pirate ship. Most of the missiles detonated, while the remainder of them flew off course, spinning out of control and into a large asteroid where they harmlessly exploded.
Gene wanted to swap weapons on the grappler arms, but realized that doing so would leave them vulnerable to another attack from the Necromancer. The Necromancer had the advantage in size and raw power while the XGP had the advantage of speed, even in close quarters. It looked like the two ships had reached a stalemate.
**
"My! This has been fun." Khali said to nobody in particular. "I have to say that I wasn't expecting such a spirited fight from them."
"Any recommendations on how we finish this?" Lan asked.
"Hmmm......I don't know." Khali said, walking over to Melfina's tube. "Do you have any ideas , Melfina?" she pressed her ear against the tube "Really?" the Tao-mistress gasped. "You think that will work...........? They won't be expecting it?"
The bio-android remained silent, floating in her tube with her eyes closed. The small wire leading from her neck was still downloading encrypted data from the bio-android's memory bank, and since her personality functions were still suspended, there was no way she could interact with Khali even if she wanted to. Lan found the Tao-mistress' preoccupation with Melfina bordering on the disturbing.
"That's brilliant, Melfina!" Khali gleefully squealed as she kissed the side of the tank. She turned around and said to Lan. "She says it's time we start using the XGP's tactics against it."
**
After the sustained and unexpected pause in the battle, nobody on board the Outlaw Star counted on what happened next as the Necromancer fired it's own assault anchors. They slammed into the Outlaw Star's hull and the whole ship trembled slightly.
"What the hell was that?" Aisha asked
"Whatever it was, it can't be good." Jim said.
"Warning!" Gillium announced, almost as if to answer Aisha's query. "I'm being penetrated by a virus. I'll have to shut down now."
"Oh no!" Jim said worriedly. "This is bad, you guys! The pirate ship has already taken over control of weapons, communications and life-support. What about the grappler arms, Gene?"
"Nothing doing." Gene sighed as he removed the eyepiece.
The monitor flickered to life and the pirate Lan spoke up. "And that's just the beginning, Gene Starwind!"
"You again?"
"You're that bastard who took Melfina!" Jim yelled out angrily.
"I wouldn't resort to name-calling if I was in your position, boy!" Lan snarled.
"Gene Starwind?" an eager, feminine voice spoke up from the other end. Khali appeared next to Lan on the monitor. "I have to say, I'm a little bit disappointed. The man most certainly doesn't match his reputation. Why the bio-android thinks so highly of you, I'll never understand."
"What have you done with Melfina?" Gene asked.
"The maiden? She's just fine." Khali grinned as they positioned the monitor so they could see Mel floating unconscious and naked in the tube. "I think we'll be holding onto her for a little while. You like it? You know, even though two people can fit inside there. It's very..........cozy."
"She's proven most useful, I have to say." Lan spoke up again. "You're where you are right now because of the information Melfina's given us."
"Melfina wouldn't give you anything and you know it!" Aisha snapped. The pirates had the upper hand and could kill them any time, but they wanted each of them to die convinced that Melfina had betrayed them. They wanted them to die believing their lies.
"SHUT UP YOU STUPID ANIMAL!!! You fucking bitch, I told you it wasn't over between us. Nobody treats my brother like that and gets away with it! Now you get to watch all of your little friends die!" the Tao-mistress furiously spat at Aisha through the monitor, very much losing her composure.
"A coward's victory..." Suzuka said through clenched teeth.
"Believe me, Suzuka, Aisha- nothing would make me happier than killing you two with my bare hands, but I'll have to settle for this instead. I'm sure even a C'tarl C'tarl can't breathe in space."
Lan looked at Khali. "If you'd like, I can blow off the hatches. That would flush out the vermin from the XGP. Or....we could cut off the oxygen. That would take a little longer, though."
"Cut off the oxygen- please. I don't want to see any of them die quickly. It really is a shame we can only kill them once."