Chapter XVII: Moondive

Rick punched his course into the computer, and as the Cunningham activated its tractor beam, the shuttle veered for the rocky surface of the moon at full speed. The shuttle jerked as the tractor beam touched then released the shuttle as the Cunningham's vector caused the Stellar Patrol ship to lose the sensor lock.

The harsh cratered surface of the torn moon grew in the viewscreen at an enormous rate. Blackcoat was yelling something, but Rick paid no attention, concentrating on his course. He put the ship into a curving dive, watching the scanners closely. It was gonna be a tight fit.

The rough lunar surface blurred as the ship raced closer to the moon. Rick waited until the last second, then threw the ship into a narrow gorge in the moon and commenced rapid deceleration. Both Rick and Blackcoat were shoved into their restraining straps as the engines reversed direction. The scanners went dark as the minerals in moon’s composition effectively jammed the sensors.

The shuttle groaned as it slowed, and the two fell back into their seats. "There, we lost them for the moment."

Blackcoat looked over a Rick. "You have got to be kidding. They’ll be back in a minute and scan every square centimeter of this rock."

Rich shrugged. "Yeah, they will, but we should be gone by then. Now, where is your ship?"

Blackcoat scowled at him for a sec, then called up the system charts. "There." A claw extending out of his black-furred finger indicated a point out in the system’s asteroid belt. "Now how do you expect us to get out there without the SP cruiser smearing us all over space?"

Rick smiled. "I gotta plan. Those SP’s that your guys killed, one of them had an envelope with my stuff in it. Do you have it?"

"Just a sec." Blackcoat got up and went through the door separating the small cockpit with the main cargo bay of the shuttle. He was back in a few minutes, the large envelope in hand, the top ripped open. "For a fake, you have a lot of SP gadgets."

Rick nodded. "Hey, I have good contacts." He took the envelope and glanced inside, noticing that his blaster was not inside. Not that he was expecting to find it. But the item tat he was looking for was there. He pulled out the wrist communicator that connected him to his ship. He stared at it for a second, trying to figure out how he was gonna make his hastily thought out plan to work.

Blackcoat watched him suspiciously. "Okay Raygunn, what are you trying to do?"

"Create a diversion." Rick flipped the comm unit over, and looked at the back. There was a small panel that slid open, and behind that, a thin coiled wire with a standard MX-11 connector. "Love those boys in R&D," said Rick quietly to himself. He pulled out the connector, and plugged it into the console comm unit of the shuttle.

Blackcoat laid his large furry hand on his sidearm. "And just how do you intend on doing that?"

Rick looked up at the Erscan. "I have remote access privs on that ship I flew out here in. I can get it to take off, annoy the SP cruiser, and get the SP cruiser to follow it. They might even think that we are a distraction to let my ship leave port without being stopped. At least, I hope it will. It’s a long shot, but the best we can do for now."

Blackcoat continued to scowl at him. Finally, he came to a decision. "Okay, Terran. This had better work. If not, I assure you, that before the SP’s get us, I’ll get you."

Rick nodded, and turned his attention to his wrist com. By plugging it into the input jacks of the shuttle’s comm system, he hoped that it would reach Salkar and Aia. The moon’s makeup shielded a lot of energy, but he was going to attempt to send a command. "Silver to Voyager. Do you copy?"

Inside the Star Ghost, all was dark and silent. Even the air refreshers were silent. A single light flickered to life on the pilot’s console. "Voyager copy. Identification confirmed. Input?"

"Yes," exclaimed Rick to Blackcoat. "I got through." "Voyager, immediate liftoff. Run evasive pattern gamma-tango to warp point. Plot waypoint to kf3. Over."

"Understood." Aia would have smiled to herself, if she was capable of it. She activated all ship systems, and lifted off, keeping the atmospheric shields down until the Impounded tag pasted to her main hatch burned off. She plotted a course that would take the Star Ghost in sensor range of the Cunningham, then to deep space.

"Any time now," muttered Rick, as he watched the motions of the Cunningham. He nudged the shuttle to get a clear field view until the SP cruiser was intermittently visible through the partial static caused by the moon’s composition. Blackcoat watched the scanners, staring silently at the display.

Within a few minutes, the Cunningham made a sharp deviation in it’s search pattern, and accelerated rapidly from view. "There. That’s done it." Rick turned to Blackcoat. "Okay, now where is the ship we’re due to meet?"

Blackcoat turned to stare at Rick. "I'll pilot the ship to the rendezvous point."

Rick shrugged and leaned back. "Okay. Your call."

"Just keep an eye on the scanners and make sure that SP ship is outa our hair," snarled the pirate.

"Okay, okay." Rick watched the scanners as Blackcoat pulled the shuttle slowly out of the crevice. He saw two, almost simultaneous spikes as the Star Ghost, followed by the Cunningham, entered hyperspace. "All clear now."

Blackcoat just grunted as he fired up the engines, and the small shuttle leaped from the smaller Salkarian moon. Rick glanced at the tactical screen which displayed the Salkarian system, and tried to guess Blackcoat's destination. It soon became apparent that the larger Salkarian moon was his destination.

"So, I didn't recall seeing those other monkeys that you have with you last time I was a guest on your ship. Where did you pick them up?"

"Shaddap, Raygunn. I don't want another word outa ya until we're aboard and meet the boss."

"Boss? I thought you were the leader of these..."

"I SAID, SHADDAP!" roared Blackcoat, as he swung a backhand that Rick easily dodged.

"Okay, okay." Rick stared at Blackcoat as he piloted the ship towards the distant moon. Interesting. Who could possibly be powerful enough to have Blackcoat as a flunky? There was no one else on the Garasian ship, and there wasn't time to stop off at another planet to pick up anyone. Well, maybe they were in another section of the ship. I didn't exactly have a guided tour last time I was there, thought Rick to himself. Not sure if I really want one.

Rick sat quietly in the chair, dividing his time between watching the viewscreen and the instruments. He noticed that the comm unit was receiving a signal, but that Blackcoat had turned off the comm system. Rick reached over and unplugged his wristcomm from the panel and rolled up the contacts back in to the unit. He was about to attach the unit to his wrist when Blackcoat held out his paw, silently requesting the return of the equipment. Rick sighed, and passed the unit over. Blackcoat tucked the comm unit into one of his vest pockets.

The next few minutes past silently, even the tones from the various shuttle instruments sounded muted as the shuttle approached the larger moon. As the moon eclipsed the planet, Blackcoat changed course to keep the moon between themselves and the planet, shutdown the engines, and then they coasted in the darkness of the moon's shadow.

Rick shifted in his chair, and was given another dark look by the Erscan pirate. Rick sighed again, and stared out at the myriad of stars that filled the viewscreen. As he watched, a shadow began to eclipse the stars above them, as if a dark shape was passing above the shuttle. There was a grunt from Blackcoat. "'Bout time they got here."

Rick tried to make out the silhouette of the ship that was approaching them, but the lack of any direct light made identification impossible. Blackcoat killed the rest of the shuttle systems, and the ship became quiet. A few moments later, there were a several sharp, metallic clangs, and the shuttle shook as it was grappled, and towed into the hanger deck of the mother ship.

Blackcoat unbuckled his flight straps. "Okay, Raygunn. Let's go."

Rick unbuckled his straps as well, and followed the pirate to the main cabin of the shuttle where the other three humanoid pirate crew waited. Blackcoat turned and addressed them all. "Okay, you guys know the drill. The deck is set for their atmosphere, so don't pop your lids until we're in the OX sector. Understand? You all remember where your cabins are…"

Rick and the others nodded their understanding, and Blackcoat stared at him. "And you will have your old quarters back as well, at least until the Chief changes it."

Oh, great, thought Rick. There was a final jolt as the shuttle was secured within the hanger bay.

"Seal up," commanded Blackcoat. Once he saw that everyone was secured in their suits, he punched the hatch switch, and then the shuttle interior was flooded with the familiar creamy orange hue. Rick followed the crew out into the hanger bay, Blackcoat taking up the rear. Waiting in the alien ship’s hanger bay was a six-legged Garasian, wielding a rifle. As Rick exited the shuttle, the Garasian motioned for Rick to come with him.

"Well, terran, this time you will not escape me so easily."

"Hi Visky. How’s the jaw?"

Rick got a poke in the ribs. "Quiet, human. Proceed towards the hatch."

The hexagonal hatch indicated was a different one from where the other pirates were filing through. Rick cast a quick glance over at them, and saw Blackcoat sneering at him. Rick sighed, and allowed Visky to escort him to the retaining area. At least he didn’t have to deal with constantly changing gravity fields this time.

They entered an airlock, which cycled the air to OX standards and once the light changed from orange to white, Rick checked his suit indicators and then popped his helmet.

As they entered the prison corridor that Rick remembered well from his last visit, Visky poked Rick again with the business end of the rifle. "Strip, Human. All of it. You not have any chance of getting away this time."

The glare in Visky's eyes made it clear that he wasn't going to give Rick any opportunity to repeat his escape attempt. Rick sighed. "Hey, but I'm on your side this time. Talk to Blackcoat. I'm supposed to be protecting him. How can I do that if I'm stripped naked in a locked cell."

"Not my problem. Captain wants you to stay put this time. Blackcoat got into big trouble over last escape. Captain don't want repeat. Now strip."

Rick slowly started removing his suit, and as each article of clothing was removed, Visky pulled it away from Rick, preventing him from slipping anything out of them. Finally, Rick was down to his briefs.

"All of it, human."

"Even my briefs? You can't think that I would have anything in my briefs that would allow me to escape your cells, do you? Are they that insecure?"

"Not my decision, spineless human. Just following orders. Off with them."

Rick quickly removed them, feeling a little self-conscious, and tossed his briefs over onto the pile of clothes that Visky had made. Visky then ran a scanner over Rick to make sure that nothing remained that wasn't original equipment, then motioned Rick to a cell. The door opened as he approached, and once he was in, the door shut, leaving Rick alone, naked, in the bare cell. Rick sighed again, and sat on the cold hard bed.

However, depressed as he was, he couldn't help but think about poor Jamie, her tender, helpless body possible exposed to space by another relentless pirate attack, or worse, captured by pirates again. Only the Gods would know what they would put her through. And there was nothing he could do about it. And what about his mother? Hearing reports that he had gone pirate, responsible for the deaths of fellow Star Rangers? And Wilma? His best friend, now probably thinking that he was a murdering coward. What could all of them be thinking about him right now? He felt the emotions starting to well up inside him, feeling that there was nothing left to do. Here he was, naked and helpless in the middle of the pack of murdering scum, and he was no doubt next on the entertainment schedule. They obviously didn't want him dead, at least right away. Probably several forms of torture awaited him, to amuse the evil scum as they watched him die.

Well, okay. So he was going to die. He could accept that. And he would die with honor. The rest of the galaxy might think him as an evil person, but he knew that he wasn't, and he would die like a Space Ranger. With honor. There was nothing that the pirates could do to him to break him. Having developed the resolve, he squared his shoulders, and sat upright, prepared to meet his doom square in the eyes.

And as he heard movement outside his door, his resolve almost fled. The urge to drop and scream was strong, but he resisted, determined to meet his fate like a man.

The door opened, and Visky was there, and tossed in a bundle. "Get dressed, ugly human. The captain will see to you now."

Rick cautiously examined the bundle, and discovered that it consisted of a pair of briefs, socks, and a white coverall.

"Hurry up. The Captain want to see you now."

"Hey Visky, if Blackcoat isn't the captain, who is?" asked Rick as he quickly donned the clothes, and zipped up the coverall.

"You'll find out soon enough. Stop your useless talking, and get a move on."

"Okay. Let's go then." Rick walked out of the cell, and retraced the same path to the ship's bridge as last time. Visky kept enough distance between himself and Rick to prevent Rick from trying any last minute escape attempts.

They entered the bridge, and this time Rick noticed that Blackcoat was manning the helm position of the garasian ship, and several other garasians manned the rest of the ship's positions. The captain's chair was facing away as they entered.

"Captain, the prisoner has returned," said Visky in his characteristically husky voice.

"Ah, Good. It would have been a shame if he had managed to escape you a second time, Visky. Very unfortunate." The voice was familiar to Rick, a soft, melodious feminine voice.

The chair turned to face Rick, and he was stunned to see Jamie, dressed up in a snug fitting black uniform that accented her attributes, her red hair flowing loose around her shoulders, wearing the rank of captain on her arms and collar. "Welcome aboard again, Lieutenant Rick Raygunn of the Stellar Patrol. I am Captain Jasmine Howard, otherwise known as Red Howard, the Pirate."

Rick's blood ran cold. Jamie, sweet, innocent, Jamie was actually Red Howard, known for her ruthlessness and murderousness across the Terran sphere.

To Be Continued...