The Wasp backed up, using only its maneuvering engines. By all rights, it couldn't charge its pulse lasers off that dribble of plasma. But on Kris's board, the four laser capacitors were rapidly moving from green to yellow, headed for full red. Thanks to new science and a recent refit, the Wasp stripped electricity directly from the plasma flux in the reactor.
The times they were a changing. And this pirate was about to find out.
Then Kris got her own surprise. The Compton Maru sprouted a shielding umbrella from its own bow. This one had a leaping tiger on it. Its jaws agape, its claws dripping blood.
''Aggressive type, aren't they,'' Sulwan observed.
''Let's see if they can walk the walk,'' Kris said, mashing her commlink. ''Ahoy, Compton Maru. This is the USS Wasp, and I am Lieutenant Longknife, Wardhaven Navy. You just fired upon me. Dump your core and prepare to be boarded.''
''You can go to hell,'' shot back in reply, but in the background there was a startled cry of ''Not a Longknife.'' Followed by ''Shut up.''
The two ships circled each other. Captain Drago kept the Wasp pivoting on its long axis, nose always to the Compton. The pirate, for her part, did her best to open the range while keeping her engines covered.
The range was point-blank. Hand grenades in a broom closet.
But the Wasp stood between the jump point and the pirate, giving the latter only lousy choices. She could turn and run for the jump point across the system, giving Kris an easy up-the-kilt shot at her reactors. Or charge the Wasp, hoping to slip past her into the jump point. Or fight it out.
''The hostile's lasers are fully charged,'' Chief Beni said.
''Any idea how strong they are?'' Captain Drago asked.
''I'd guess five-inchers. And weak for that,'' the chief said.
''Your Highness, what are your orders?''
Kris thought about that for all of a second. ''He's not getting away from us, Captain. If he wants to dance, we dance, but he can't run.''
''Yes, ma'am. Weapons are online. They are yours, ma'am.''
The exact nature of the Wasp's registry might be subject to debate. What Captain Drago and Kris had quickly agreed upon was her weapons policy. Laying aim and closing the firing circuits would be done by a serving Wardhaven officer. One must respect international law … even if it was with a wink and a smile.
Lieutenant Kris Longknife, Wardhaven Navy, aimed Battery 1 for the tiger's mouth. It was about the right distance out from the bow's center to have the bridge behind it. Of course, if they were rotating their ship behind the shield, like Captain Drago was rotating the Wasp, burn through on the shield might hit anything—or nothing.
''Pirate ship Compton, this is your one and only warning. Dump your reactor, or I will fire on you,'' Kris said, voice cold with death.
Silence answered her.
''Prepare to change jinks pattern,'' Kris announced. ''All hands, prepare for radical evasion.''
On the bridge, people cinched in already tight seat belts. ''For what they are about to receive, may we be truly grateful,'' some wag muttered.
''Pirate ship Compton, I will fire on you at the count of three,'' Kris said into her commlink.
Obscenities were her only reply.
''One,'' Kris said. NELLY GET READY TO IMPLEMENT RADICAL EVASION ON MY MARK.
READY, KRIS.
''Two.'' MARK!
The Wasp shifted from a soft right climb to a hard left drop that left Kris's stomach somewhere a dozen kilometers away in the cold vacuum of space.
Where it was being fried by three laser beams from the hostile.
''Fire One,'' Kris said as she closed the firing circuit for the first of Wasp's pulse lasers.
The mouth of the tiger glowed, then fumed, and finally gaped as the Wasp's laser burned through the shield. To the void behind it. Yep, the ship was rotating.
And now it also started to jinks.
NELLY, EVALUATE THE EVASION PATTERN.
IT IS A BASIC ONE. I AM ALREADY FORECASTING IT.
Kris aimed her second laser for opposite the ragged hole in the shield that was already healing itself, blocking out the view of what lay behind it, ship or void.
At the last second, Kris played a hunch, changing her aim to the right paw of the tiger and firing.
The paint boiled off in a nanosecond, leaving the shield to burn and buckle. Thinner now from the loss of metal to Kris's hit and the effort to patch it, burn-through came quicker.
And raked the ship hull behind it before Laser 2 winked out.
''Compton, you are hit, and your shields are failing. Dump your reactor, and we will board and offer assistance,'' Kris said.
''Never,'' was the one-word reply.
And six lasers reached out for the Wasp from the wounded pirate. They were not so strong as Kris's ship's twenty-four-inch pulse lasers, but at this range, a hit by anything could slice the Wasp in half.
The ship jinked away from four of them. The fifth one spent itself on the shield, boiling off a few kilos of Smart Metal™.
The sixth one raked Wasp aft of amidships but missed engineering. At least the lights did not dim, nor did the reload light on Battery 1 slow its rapid climb from yellow toward red.
''Damage Control,'' Captain Drago demanded.
''Containers open to space. We're working on them.''
Captain Drago turned to Kris. ''Can you get this over with? I like my ship the way it is, not holier than thou,'' he said dryly.
''Firing Three,'' Kris said. She had Nelly widen the focus of the twenty-four-inch laser, raking a major portion of the shield. Damaged, it was now too thin to do much more than hide the bow of the pirate, providing a fan to cover the bare rear of the bridge.
As 3 winked out, all pretense at a shield vanished. The pirate spun on its long axis in full view. But not giving up.
Its capacitors began to recharge. A thin wisp coalesced to cover the bow. The tiger was back, a raised paw, the middle finger elevated in the universally recognized insolent salute.
''Some folks just don't know when to quit,'' Kris said.
''Leave us alone,'' boomed from the commlink. ''You get out of here, or a lot of people are going to die.''
''You're going to die,'' Kris pointed out.
''We got the crew of two ships on board. You shoot at us again, and we'll see just how much vacuum they can breathe.''
''Oops,'' Kris and Captain Drago said at the same time.
''Kris,'' Nelly said, ''unless they've changed their rotation, I know where the bridge is.''
''Target it.'' A red pipper began to circle the flimsy shield. Not, to Kris's surprise, focusing on the raised digit but somewhere around its toes.
The longer Kris waited, the more the chance that they might change their rotation. Kris mashed Battery 4's firing circuit.
The laser slashed through the spinning cover. Sections spun off into space. There, revealed for all, was the bridge.
But only for a fraction of a second as the twenty-four-inch laser opened it to space, slagging human flesh, instruments, and gear.
''Surrender now or my next laser will hack your reactors' containment fields to bits,'' Kris ordered to anyone who might still be listening.
''What about their prisoners?'' Sulwan asked.
''We have only their word that they have them,'' Kris said, keeping hard eyes on their target.