Salvage
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I'd love to salvage Castle, but it's gone. Rating: K Time: The future, after my story Shipwreck
It was four days before Hastings came back to the ship.
"Are you done?" Rick asked.
"Yes. I got a little too enthusiastic. I could have kept him alive for a few more days, but I did too much, and he died. I cleaned myself up. Does my armor look okay?"
"Um, check your boots. Otherwise, you look fine." He waited a moment. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Do you feel better now?"
"Actually, not as good as I thought I'd feel, but, yes, I feel better."
"What are you going to do now?"
"What do you mean?"
"You said you became a mercenary to track Vaughn down and kill him. That's done. What are you going to do now?"
"Stay a mercenary, I guess." She giggled but there was a slight tone of hysteria to the giggle. "I really can't see myself going back to Shadowlands University and becoming Professor Doctor Hastings, teaching Philosophy 101 to incoming students." She shook her head. "Yes, I'll stay a mercenary. If you have anything for me in the future, I'd like to work with you and Kate again. I promise I won't disobey orders like I did with Vaughn. That's in the past."
"Okay, but we have to get through this mission first. Then we'll see."
They decided to stay where they were for a day or two to allow Hastings time to decompress. They also talked to the ex-slaves and showed them how to work some of the more complex machinery.
"The power from the ship should last for another century or more." Kate said. "The power to run a little farm like this is nothing compared to the power you need to cross between stars."
The ex-slaves loaded the ship with meat and vegetables that their former human overlords had had them raise, and Lucy went to their next stop.
"Oh, shit." Kate said. "We have three fusion sources headed straight for us at about 1500 KPH. They must be atmosphere flyers."
"Hostile?" Rick asked.
"Isn't everything on this planet?"
"Let's try to get above them. Once in orbit we can outrun them and try someplace else."
Kate stood Lucy in her nose and headed for space.
"Dammit. They're following us. They're not just atmosphere flyers, they must be aerospace fighter craft. They can go into space as well as we can. And being smaller, they can probably get closer to the Imperial orbital mines than we can."
"I'll turn and dive past them. If they fire, we can shoot back."
Kate flipped Lucy over and headed straight for the fighters. As they passed, the fighters fired on Lucy and Kate fired back. Neither was successful.
"They're fast and maneuverable." Kate yelled. "I need someone to take over the guns. I have to concentrate on flying Lucy.
In the atmosphere, the fighters were faster than Lucy and more maneuverable.
Rick and Espo got to the guns just as the enemy came in range.
"They're splitting up." Kate yelled. "One is above us and the other is below. That leaves the third to attack us from the side while both guns are engaged."
The fighters jinked and weaved, keeping either gunner from getting a kill shot at them. The third fighter came in slowly and deliberately and opened fire. The blaster fire didn't harm Lucy, but she was taking hits.
"He's aiming at our engines." Kate yelled. "A lucky shot could knock one of them out. You have to hit one of them."
The fighters attacked as before and as before, only two could be taken under fire while the third was able to attack relatively safely.
"Kate, open the port side cargo hatch. One fighter looks like it's coming in from that side. O'Connell, help me." Hastings yelled.
"What are you going to do?" Kate yelled.
"As he comes in, I'm going to fire the 3cm heavy blaster as well as my own two blasters and O'Connell will fire his. He's coming in slow and straight to get a good shot at us, but it gives us a good shot at him."
As the third fighter bored in, Kate opened the cargo hatch and Hastings and O'Connell opened fire. They hit the fighter but didn't seem to do any damage. However, the fighter pulled away quickly.
The three fighters circled well out of range. They appeared to be looking over the fighter that had been hit. Then they flew away.
"We didn't do that much damage to that one, if we did any damage at all." O'Connell said.
"No, but they've been on this planet for a while with probably limited supplies and no hope of getting anything more. The chance that they'd lose one of their fighters was probably too great a risk for them." Ann replied.
"I'm going to put us in low orbit and see if I can track them to their base. We'll stay away from them if we can." Kate said, once again heading Lucy for space.
She tracked the fighters to a section of jungle that had no other signs of neutrino emissions for over five hundred kilometers. A quick check of that neutrino source showed a badly damaged freighter, not the monitor they were hunting for.
"Good. The rest of the possibles are on the other side of the planet. We'll stay nice and far away from our friends with the fighters."
They observed the next place they intended to visit from low orbit.
"Okay, it's a town. In fact, on this planet that probably qualifies as a city. And it's lit up like Carnival on Acadia." Rick said, looking over Kate's shoulder.
"I'd say they're advertising for company, Babe."
"Maybe we should drop in."
They came in slowly, ready to run at the first sign of trouble.
"There are two ships in the middle of town." Kate said, tapping the sensor screen. One ship was lean and rakish and appeared to be well armed. The other was obviously a freighter and had no apparent weapons.
"There's some kind of a landing field to the west of the town. I count two spaceships there and a half a dozen beat up atmospheric flyers. None appear to be armed." She continued.
"Okay, we'll set down and hope for the best."
They set Lucy down and waited. They didn't have to wait long. A groundcar pulled up and a man and three women got out. Rick, Hastings and O'Connell left Lucy in their walkers, leaving Kate to pilot Lucy, and Espo and LT to man the guns. The four strangers walked towards them.
"Greetings." Said the man. "Welcome to Beau's Palace of Pleasure. I'm the proprietor, Beau Randolph, at your service. This is my lovely wife, Queen Maeve."
Queen Maeve was tall, slender and dressed in a tight green down that did nothing to hide her spectacular figure. The dress especially highlighted her cleavage. She smiled, showing very white teeth against a very pale skin. Her hair was the deepest black and reached down to her waist. Her eyes were a green that exactly matched her dress.
"She's a queen?" Rick asked.
"I'm the widow of the late King Sidney, King of Pussy Willow, just on the borders of the Saffavid Empire."
Beau spoke.
"The Royal Guard Regiment of Pussy Willow decided their commander would make a better king than King Sidney. Sidney had to flee. He hired my ship as he wasn't sure his own would outrun any pursuit. As it happened, the Royal Guard and the new king were happy to see the last of him and didn't pursue him."
"He wasn't killed in the rebellion, then?"
"No." Maeve said. "We got here, and he was killed in an accident. He fell on a knife. Eleven times." Maeve smiled. "Don't feel too badly for Sidney." She turned her back to her husband and pushed her hair over her shoulder. "If you could, Dearest?"
Beau unzipped the back of her dress. Queen Maeve showed Rick and his companions her back. They could see a network of scars on her back.
"Be beat you?" Rick asked.
"He whipped me. Actually, I was rather lucky. As the Queen, I was needed to be presentable for various court occasions. My ladies in waiting fared worse, the members of his harem fared even worse and the maids in the palace fared worst of all. I've allowed the more severely injured ladies to use the autodoc before me, but soon my scars will be but a memory. But a memory that will stay with me for my entire life."
"Why did you ever come to a planet like this?" Rick asked, curiously.
"King Sidney hoped to recruit mercenaries and take Pussy Willow back. We arrived at just the wrong time. The Saffavid Imperial task force was just leaving, and the minelayers hadn't yet arrived. We landed but quickly found we couldn't leave again. Luckily for us, King Sidney's ship was filled with all manner of things to brighten his days. We have both a brewery and a distillery, with master brewers and distillers, of course. We have enough staff to run a half a dozen good restaurants and bars. And all manner of entertainment."
Beau looked them over.
"One thing, though. I don't allow anyone into my Pleasure Palace who is armed. If you wish to enter, you'll have to get out of your walkers and leave any and all weapons behind."
He gestured to the two women behind him and Queen Maeve. They were tall, slender but well-muscled redheads, dressed in white bikinis, but with blaster pistols riding on each of their hips.
"These are the new members of the Royal Guard. They're quite well trained and they're backed up by my ship and other heavy weapons I have covering you at this minute. Oh, and by the way, the ladies play a mean game of beach volleyball."
"Okay, we'll get out of the walkers and leave our weapons behind. But I plan to leave some people in my ship."
"But of course." Beau said, smiling. "If you would, what brought you to this planet?"
"Governor-General Singh of Dorvan asked us to retrieve something of his that was in an Imperial Saffavid monitor that crashed here several months ago. We're on a salvage mission."
"Wait! Several months ago? How did you get past the minefields?" Beau asked, suddenly very interested.
"We have a code that lets us get past the mines."
"Do you know where this crashed ship is?"
"No, we have to check every neutrino emission and crashed ship on the planet, one by one. It's going to take us a while."
Beau smiled.
"Perhaps I can help? Maeve and I are quite happy here, but sooner or later our machinery will wear out and we'll be reduced to savagery. If we could get off planet, we could purchase what we need and come back."
"How would that help us?" Rick asked.
"People come to my place from far, far away. And many of them have been wandering on the planet for years, decades, even. I'll offer a reward for information about where your monitor is. Say, a week at my finest hotel with all the food, drink and women, or men, that the informant desires."
"And you trust us to find the monitor and then come back to you and give you the code?"
"I could ask for a hostage, but that would not be a friendly act. If you do leave me and break your word, I'm no worse off than I am now. So, agreed?"
"Agreed." Rick said.
The three headed back into Lucy to get out of their walkers and get rid of their personal weapons.
"Rick, be careful out there, and please don't play any beach volleyball."
Rick laughed.
"You know the only person I play games with is you, Kate."
"Just make sure it stays that way."
"Don't worry, Kate." Hastings said. "I'll keep an eye on him."
TBC
