The Privateer

My heart raced in my anxiety. I prayed silently: Heavenly Father, help me to compose myself and bring me a feeling of peace despite this situation. Help us to discover the reasons of this capture, and help us to deal with it as you see fit. Help my family to awake quickly. Bring serenity to their hearts as well. In your name, Amen.
 Danny was the first one to stir and open his eyes. He seemed to go through the same feelings I did when I first arose. I could tell from his facial expressions. He examined the brig area before realizing his family was right beside him. Before I could comfort him with soothing words, he hurriedly tried to wake his sister and father.
"Honey," I whispered to him gently, "they're out cold. It won't be long before they wake up."
Danny had a look of worry on his face. Suddenly, Jim came into consciousness. Moments later, Liz came around. It was almost humorous watching them adjust to their surroundings and inspect the brig similarly to Danny and me. Then, the three of them erupted into harshly whispered voices. Everyone seemed to figure out what was going on at that point. Jim was slightly calmer than the kids and tried to settle them down. I said a couple relaxing words here and there but soon kept quiet, finding that my fears could be heard by the small tremor in my voice.
Just then, two vicious-looking, raccoon-faced guards entered the brig. I gasped almost automatically. They were Procyons.
One stated with insensitive authority, "The captain will be with you momentarily." They left, climbing the steps to the deck with their feet marching to the same steady beat.
"Oh, no," Jim mumbled. In all his recounts of his experience with the Procyons, Jim always told me that a particular captain touched one of his nerves, seeming to cause a combination of fear and anger inside him. I think at that moment he feared that this might be that certain captain.
It was. Captain Ulysses D. Hannington was almost like Jim's counterpart on the Procyon side. He was well-known and an exceptional fighter and leader much like Jim was. Of course, Jim was much better in the Terran Empire's eyes. It was a fact, though, that Jim was better than Hannington, winning many more battles against the Procyon captain than losing battles.
"Captain Hawkins," Hannington declared in his sophisticated but arrogant voice, "we meet again. And look! You've brought your dear family." His voice turned to feigned surprise.
Jim glared at him with ice-cold blue eyes from under his heavy eyebrows. Liz and Danny followed their father's example and looked fiercely at the enemy. I, too, stared angrily at the Procyon.
"What do you want with us, Captain Hannington?" Jim questioned angrily but still trying to be civil. It was taught at the Academy and in Jim's additional captain's training to treat the enemy politely off of the battlefield.
"Well, everything has already worked according to the plan, so I suppose it is all right to tell you honestly what is happening." All the while, Hannington wore a cunning smile.
"What if your scheme somehow backfires if you tell us," Jim said mockingly. "I would think someone as smart as you wouldn't let your secrets out just to show off to us."
"Oh, Captain, nothing can go wrong for me at this point. Even if something disastrous occurs, we have backup plans. Besides, Captain, you haven't even heard what has been taking place to benefit the Procyon Empire."
"So what's going on that you're dying to tell us about?"
Hannington began pacing the room as he spoke. "Hawkins, you know that I have come so close to being the victor in battles against you. I am so sure that if I just do something—fire the laser canons at some certain area of your ship or fleet, send just the right amount of men over for hand- to-hand combat, or something else—differently and correctly, I could beat you. And then you have this one little maneuver that you and your men carry out that makes it impossible for me to win. Somehow—and I do not know how—you prevent me from winning even when I use my special tactics."
"Well, my Dad happens to be smart!" Danny broke in to our chagrin. "And you are all a bunch of-"
"Danny!" Liz interrupted before he could say something he would regret and shoved him a little with her side (her movement was restricted with the ropes).
"Anyway," Hannington continued, "you know Samuel. Samuel Prentice. Miss Hawkins?" He looked at Liz. "It just so happens that that lovely little piece of jewelry on your wrist was my idea."
"What?" she whispered, knowing she would be sorry to find out what was going on.
"Come in, Samuel," Hannington called up the steps.
Sam came tentatively into the brig. He had a look of regret on his face.
"What?" Liz whispered again.
"I'm sorry, Liz." Sam sounded like he meant it.
"You see," Hannington began, "Samuel here has been a privateer for the Procyon Empire all his life. He has the Procyon authorities' permission to steal from and damage your ships, but this time, he had a special mission. You see, Hawkins, we know you spend hours on your battle plans. We know you write them down. You tell other Terran captains of some of you plans so they can use them—I know that some of them could have never have thought of these maneuvers on their own, and I am beginning to lose battles against those that I have beaten before. Well, that break in you experienced at your home was a band of some of our privateers sent to search your work area and other places in your home for your written plans. That way, we would know all your tactics. To search the Terran Empire Navy headquarters would be too risky at this point."
"Samuel returned to me from his part-time job at a small inn on Neblaria (he is crafty enough to keep his privateer identity secret when working in the Terran Empire, and while he works there, he picks up valuable information) telling me that he had met the Hawkins children. So I sent him to lock that so-called bracelet on your daughter's wrist. We knew this tracking device would lead us to your daughter, so if we couldn't find you or your battle plans, we could always find her and keep her as a prisoner until we forced you to give the plans to us. She would be our back up plan. Fortunately, on the second break in, my privateers were able to capture all of you. It is not one of my most ingenious ideas, but it certainly worked."
Suddenly, I realized that the "jewels" on Liz's bracelet actually responded to radio waves from some kind of radar device and sent the waves back to the device so the bracelet wearer's position could be determined. I should have known! "I can understand why you'd take me as a prisoner, Hannington," Jim raised his voice furiously, "but why take my family?"
"Two reasons. If we captured you and your family was left behind, they could inform authorities and come after us—by the way, your friends and family that are still on your planet don't know you have been captured, and if they do find out and know where you are, they will not be able to catch up to us now—and if we only took you prisoner, Captain, we could try to make you tell us your plans, but you are stubborn. If we put your family in danger, you are much more likely to give in. We know your weaknesses. You are a family man."
I was filled with both fear for my family and anger at this ruthless enemy. Jim and Danny both glared irately at Hannington and Sam. Liz, one the other hand, had her face lowered. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had been betrayed by someone she had begun to care about. Sam just stood in the shadows behind Hannington looking downcast. He obviously cared for Liz at least enough to feel sorry that he deceived her.
"As a last resort, we will hold you all captives, and force the Terran authorities to give us the land we deserve or anything else we want. After all, I am sure they would not want to lose their best captain. But that would be too sudden of a move now." He walked out, and Sam began to follow. The young man stopped a moment, and came back to us.
"May I explain?" he asked desperately.
Liz spoke up fiercely but sadly, "There's nothing to explain, Sam. You're a traitor!"
"Sam," Jim said, trying to control his anger, "I have to say that I can't believe a Terran would betray his homeland like this. I have only heard of it a couple of times, but I expected more of you than this."
I said without thinking, "I suppose this confirms the fact that you can't trust everyone." I stared at the young man.
"Let me tell you why I'm doing this at least," he pleaded. We were silent. "My parents were privateers for the Terran Empire when I was a baby. The Procyon authorities found my parents to be so good at taking Procyon ships' riches that they made an offer to my parents that if they became privateers for the Procyons, they could keep a higher percentage of the wealth obtained from the Terran ships for themselves. My parents couldn't refuse the bigger profit for themselves and took them up on this offer. They started working for the enemy. When I was seven, my sister, Gwendolyn or Gwen (as she likes to be called), was born. We both grew up as privateers for the Procyons, helping our parents. When I was fifteen, my parents died in a clash against spacers on a Terran ship. My sister and I continued working for the Procyons. We had various aliases when we worked as privateers—only the Procyon authorities knew our real names—so we could work in the Terran Empire occasionally under our real names. That way the Procyon military could make sure they were talking about the right people when we went across the border. It was strange when everyday privateers in the Procyon Empire all called us different names. They usually didn't think much of it though."
"A few years ago, the Procyon authorities decided to use their privateers in their main schemes against the Terran Empire. They had a strong navy and the privateers taking wealth from the Terrans helped them some, but they wanted more. They found that battles themselves weren't helping all the time. I refused to take part in their plots. I didn't want to do anything complex for them. I believed that just taking the loot and occasionally damaging a ship was enough. The plans were for the actual military. They knew I was almost as good of a privateer as my parents, so they took Gwen captive in the main Procyon prison and told me they would torture or kill her if I refused to help in their multipart schemes. I gave in, and helped with several plots including this one. I must say that I've never felt worse about one of these plans than I do now. I'm sorry, and there's no excuse for it. I'm sorry, Liz."
We watched him in silence as he walked out of the brig. I thought I heard Liz sniffle a few times.
Danny interrupted the silence, "Hey, Dad, what do you do with your battle plans?"
Jim knew not to say too much on an enemy ship and whispered, "Let's just say that they aren't necessarily written down anywhere, and those Procyons aren't going to get their hands on them."
"How do other captains get the tactics?"
"Communication. I'll explain more later."
"But what if they torture us or something if we don't tell them the plans?"
"Well, before we think about that, there's got to be a way to escape."
There was another silence.
"You know," Danny said out of nowhere, "I think they left Morph back at the house."

To be continued...