A/N: I've given Dean time to catch up with the transport ship. Now we'll see him in escort action.
The Pompatus Box (Chapter 7: Pirate Ship Ahoy!) by frostygossamer
Baby falls in with the convoy two hours out of Houston. There are three other muscle-ships also acting as outriders. Dean notes the heavy-duty protection.
"Must be DAMN nervous about this pirate threat. Or this courier guy is one important dude."
He isn't anticipating any trouble he can't handle. Small transports like this one, carrying a few wealthy passengers out to the three moons, are sometimes harassed by unregistered fliers intent on extorting a little protection money from the shipping line. No ship has actually been boarded since the earliest days. Modern vessels have security measures implemented to prevent exactly that kind of thing. The convoy system has practically ended any real danger.
Dean is in his cockpit. Around him visualizers show the endless vista of space beyond his capsule, unimaginably old and velvet-black. He can easily pick out the lights of the transport on his port bow and the flares of another two rocketships, above and below him. An older speedster is farther to his port, beyond the bigger ship, covering the opposite flank of the convoy.
He hails the transport. A 3-D hologram of the Convoy Commander appears above his console. The handsome older woman is Captain Ellen Harvelle, Jo's mother. An officer of the Terran space fleet, Ellen is officially unaware of the less legal side of Jo and Dean's collaboration. But she's no fool.
"Captain Harvelle," Dean greets her.
"Captain Dean. Glad to see you've joined us."
Dean has been part of Ellen's convoy escort on several occasions before. Dean has nothing but respect for the Convoy Commander. The fact that Captain Harvelle is also a fine-looking older woman doesn't do any harm to Dean's opinion of her. Like her daughter, Ellen is far from hard on the eye.
"Delighted to be here, Ellen."
Ellen gets straight down to business. "There are four of you escorting on this trip..."
She patches in all four outriders in a group holographic call.
"Captains, uh, Henriksen..."
Henriksen salutes. A decorated space-flier, he's the official military escort. Dean prefers to keep under this man's radar. He has to allow he's justified to be proud of what he does, even if he seems to use way too much starch in his underwear.
"Walker..."
Gordon Walker flashes a broad, cheeky grin. This guy is a freelancer like Dean though, in Dean's opinion, he tends to be a little too reckless and a grandstander. He's not a guy to rely on when your life is on the line.
"Dean..."
The others murmur approvingly. Dean isn't universally popular, but he's not exactly universally unpopular either. That is how he likes it.
"And Turner..."
Dean is glad to hear Turner is in the line-up. If there ever was a man to have at your back that would have been Rufus Turner, in his day. Now in his sixties, Turner's reflexes are a little less sharp than they once were. Still, he can be counted on to always back up a friend.
"Hey, Rufus," Dean greets him.
"Hey, Dean. Nice to see ya, kid."
Dean has to snicker. Not that he wouldn't be happy to have this guy as a father figure, but Turner is, if anything, more of a hermit than Dean. Not really parent material.
Ellen breaks up the reunion. "OK. So this is the game plan-"
The words are scarcely out of her mouth before sirens start sounding aboard the transport ship. She is interrupted by Henriksen.
"Bogey at 3 o'clock!"
Dean's eyes snap to his visualizer. An unidentified blip has shown up and is closing on the convoy fast, beam weapons primed. Dean and Walker peal off immediately and engage the intruder. Henriksen moves into defensive mode on the transport. Turner hangs easy, ready to run interference if things go bad.
The interloper is a ship of non-standard design. With its profusion of power modifications, it screams smuggler. A ship with thrusters of that heft is intended for one thing only, outrunning the law.
"It's a Selenite pirate!" Walker shouts into his intercommunicator.
"Pirate maybe. Selenite I doubt," Dean comes back. "Albino monkeys wouldn't be flying any turbocharged hotrod like that baby."
Walker sneers. "Albino freakin' monkeys? You been reading too much sci-fi, man."
The bogey is starting an evasive maneuver. Walker puts his foot on the gas and chases his smoke, while Dean tries to come about and head off his escape. Glancing across, Dean sees Walker's mistake before he does and yells over his intercommunicator.
"Gordon, you're too close! Gonna get your ass fried."
Walker slams on his thrusters, as the party-crasher tacks hard and leaves him tasting the afterburn. He curses loudly.
"Damn and crap! Shields up, dudes!"
Sadly, Walker's manually operated shields are less than cutting-edge. Dean has to chuckle dryly. He would never stint on HIS Baby's bolt-on extras, like solar window tints and goddamn safety shields.
Dean fires a warning shot across the bow of the enemy vessel, close enough to singe the space pirate's beard. The ship swings around to the other side of the transport and Henriksen follows him, weapons blazing, tracers tearing the ether.
Turner joins Dean as Walker pulls back, his ship momentarily limping, wounded.
"You OK, guys?" a concerned Turner wants to know.
"Fine," answers Dean. "Walker, stay with the transport. Rufus, pincer, you copy?"
"Copy," they both respond.
The pirate executes a beautiful arc in space, easily evading Henriksen, and finds a blind spot under the transport. Dean notes that the bogey seems to hang for a second before rolling and accelerating away. Suddenly the stranger seems all about fleeing. He and Turner have no trouble chasing him off. The blip on their visualizers finally disappears toward Emo.
"No surprise there," thinks Dean. "Freakin' Emoan thrill seeker, like I guessed."
Walker cheers. "Chalk one up for the team."
Dean isn't so sure. He has the nagging feeling that bogey was maybe toying with them.
Turner confirms his opinion. "Made it look easy."
Dean agrees. "What I thought."
TBC
A/N: Rufus is an astute guy. There could be something fishy going down here. More soon.