Kris gagged. ''Who did this?'' she demanded.
One squad of Marines was on full alert. The other moved around the compartment, cutting prisoners free. A man in what might once have been a merchant service officer's uniform floated toward Kris. He was bent over, trying gingerly to massage his left foot. That was where he'd been tied down, and it looked black and ugly.
''I'm Dan Orizowski. I was second officer of the Jumping Jill, a freighter out of Geneva.''
''You senior here?'' Jack asked.
The begrimed man looked around. ''I am off the Jill.''
''Your senior officers?'' Kris asked.
''Killed for resisting.''
''Is this all one crew?''
''No.'' A grizzled old fellow now joined them. ''I'm Onally MarTom, chief wiper on the Outside Straight. Don't know where we were registered. Our captain surrendered when they asked, but they killed him and all the officers without even blinking.''
''Who?'' Kris asked, her voice low. She recognized her tone as deadly. Jack's lips were a thin line. He'd give her no guff.
''I don't know their names, ma'am,'' the old chief wiper said, ''but I'll never forget their faces.''
''Captain, what say we get this man some faces to look at.''
''My thinking exactly,'' Jack said, and turned to Gunny. ''I want the whole company over here. Reduce the admin watch to minimum on the Wasp. Full battle rattle and demolition loads.''
Kris coordinated with Captain Drago. ''I'm stripping my Marines for a rat hunt. Can your sailors keep an eye on the ship to make sure no rats make it off or across to you?''
''I'm getting video of what you're seeing, and even with life support on full boost, we're getting some of what you're smelling. I'll have armed sailors looking out for anyone that you miss.''
''Could your crew take care of these people?''
''Cookie is preparing oatmeal and got the largest pot of coffee perking. Those that aren't shooters are ready to help distressed mariners. Even some of the boffins are standing in line to help.''
''You do the humanity thing. We'll do the other stuff.''
''Kick their butts good.''
Kris brought Jack up to date. He nodded. ''Give me five minutes to get everyone in place. Let them have more time to stew in their own juices. I don't want to face desperate men with anything less than overwhelming odds. I don't care how many of them die. All of them are not worth one of my Marines.''
Kris gave him a thumbs-up.
Sailors and boffins arrived to carefully tow out the former prisoners. The Marines aft, told there might be solid work for them forward, quickly cuffed and led up the engineering staff, still protesting their innocence to anyone listening.
No one was.
The LACs were launched again. The Compton had life pods. Their present position was a good four-year drift in a pod to an only marginally inhabitable planet. Anyone who tried to escape that way faced a long, slow death. As tempting as it might have been to let them try, the LACs had orders to corral in the life pods and head any pirate in them toward a date with a judge and a noose.
At Jack's orders, the Marines popped the hatch and started their way up the forward spine of the Compton.
5
The four-hundred-foot climb up the first forward spine compartment would have been arduous at one gee. In free fall, Kris went hand over hand. Ahead of her, Marines were already fanning out to secure the next compartment, the second of five.
So far no weapons fire. No booby traps. Possibly these pirates had never expected to have to defend their own ship.
The first resistance was in the forward-most compartment. The hatch leading out of it was dogged down and locked from the other side.
''Shall we blow it?'' Gunny asked. With a glance, Jack passed the question to Kris.
She mulled it for a moment. Just coming into the space with the Marine rear guard was Chief Beni. Apparently, rage at the pirates' behavior toward their merchant prisoners had overcome his usual desire to be wherever action was not.
She waved him to her. He looked around to see if there might be anyone else but him that she wanted. She shook her head and waved him forward. He came.
''I want to talk to those thugs on the other side of this bulkhead. Jack me into their net,'' Kris said.
His eyes lit up at the prospect of doing good without any unnecessary risks. A minute later he had spotted a cable conduit, had its cover off, and was rummaging around its innards.
''You're in, Your Highness,'' he chimed through a grin a moment later.
Kris considered for half a second what she wanted to say and chose a simple ''This is Lieutenant Kris Longknife. We have come for you, ladies and gentlemen. You can survive the next few hours or not. It doesn't matter to me and my Marines.''
Around Kris, a few Marines pumped air. ''Ooo-Rah.''
Beni must have put Kris on a hot mike on the other side, or the damage Kris had done made all mikes hot. Her remarks raised a mumble of comments, most of which were obscene and biologically improbable. One was repeated several times. ''Why don't you just go away and leave us alone?''
''I've considered leaving you alone,'' Kris said.
That got a lot of happy noise from the other side.
''But I'd hate to leave this big hulk drifting as a hazard to navigation.'' There was also the matter of prize money for the Wasp's crew, but that didn't sound like something that would move a pirate to repentance.
''I could just blast the bow off the ship, leave it here, and tow the rest of this hulk to a port.''
There was a long silence. Around Kris, Marines followed that option to its obvious conclusion … and grinned.
It took those on the other side a bit longer to think it through. ''Where would that leave us?'' finally came from someone.
''You would be left all alone.''
''Until someone picked us up or we died.''
''Considering how far out you are,'' Kris said, thoughtfully, ''I suspect you'd be long dead before anyone happened by.''
''You're just going to hang us anyway.''
That was what Kris wanted to do, but that wasn't the law in human space. ''Few planets have capital punishment,'' Kris pointed out, generating frowns from her Marines.
''You going to take us to one that don't?''
''I will take you to the nearest planet with a recognized court system. Cuzco, I expect.''
''Do they have capital punishment?''
''I honestly don't know.'' NELLY, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW.
YES, KRIS.
The negotiations went on like that for the next hour. In the end, they all surrendered, and no shots were fired.
''You didn't want any of your Marines hurt,'' Kris pointed out to Jack.
He nodded, then shook his head. ''Would have been nice to send a few of them to meet their maker.''
''We killed the worst of them. The bridge crew was fifteen strong when the fight started.'' Only parts of three bodies had been recovered from the wreckage.
Every ship's officer excepting the engineer had taken the brunt of a twenty-four-inch laser … and come up the worse for it.
Which left a certain young Navy lieutenant with what the brass euphemistically called a few ''leadership challenges.''
She had forty-seven former prisoners that were in pretty bad shape. They needed medical care, and they needed it quickly.