HOW LONG ARE WE GOING TO KEEP THIS UP? Penny asked.
JACK, YOU GOT YOUR MARINES WELL HIDDEN?
YES, KRIS, WE’RE OUT OF SIGHT.
LET’S KEEP WORKING IT, PENNY. I’D PREFER FOR THEM TO START THE SHOUTING FIRST.
NICE, KRIS, BUT DID THEY GET THE SCRIPT? FROM THE LOOKS OF THEM, I’M NOT SURE THEY COULD READ A SCRIPT IF THEY HAD ONE.
WAIT FOR IT, Kris said.
The pirates were gathering at the foot of the stairs, just out of sight of the gangway. A guy with a pistol was waving it around and whispering orders.
Some of the pirates actually looked like they were listening to him. Most wandered around like a bunch of college kids on Friday night looking for a party.
A final wave of the pistol was followed by a shout. Dozens of pirates raced or stumbled into view, waving their cutlasses.
Kris and Penny let out screams that didn’t have to be faked and galloped for the main outboard passageway. Kris was glad for Abby’s advice; the deck was slippery, and bare feet were the best way to go.
Nelly passed along the view from the quarterdeck camera, so Kris didn’t have to look over her shoulder. The pirates were not at all prepared for wet and slippery footing.
Two pirates slipped. As they went down, several more piled up on them. Waving cutlasses were suddenly hacking and slashing whoever got in their way.
The entire invasion of the Wasp might have ended there if the guy with the pistol hadn’t shouted, “Get those girls.”
Penny and Kris emphasized the order with fine girlish shrieks. The calico dress fit Penny fairly well. The one on Kris hardly got to her knees.
“Get the girls,” was taken up by the mob, and the pounding of booted feet told Kris even more than Nelly’s camera feed that she’d better run if she wanted to keep living.
The main outboard passageway ran in a circle around the waist of the Wasp. Kris was careful to keep in sight of the leaders of the chase but made sure to let them get no closer.
The quarterdeck was on the starboard side. Opposite on the port side was a stairwell Kris intended to lead them up.
As befitting the Wasp’s conversion to a warship, the angle of the stairs was now much closer to a steep Navy ladder. With any luck, she’d put that to good use.
Kris checked the camera take from the quarterdeck and passageway. The Marines had started taking down the pirates from the rear without disturbing those in the lead. One of the advantages of the circular passageway was that the leaders were indeed staying ignorant of what was going on behind them.
Kris was now ready to bring the leaders up to date.
“Up the ladder,” Kris shouted, both for Penny’s information . . . and the pursuing pirates.
Up the ladder Penny went, followed close by Kris. Once out of sight from below, Kris grabbed Penny’s elbow. “I’ve had enough of this running.”
“I was wondering when you would,” Penny said.
“Ready your mop,” Kris ordered, leveling hers like a pike of old, wet end out.
“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Penny asked, a bit unsure of the concept. Still, she followed Kris’s lead.
“Go for the lead guy on the right,” Kris ordered. “I’ll take the left.”
Two pirates, cutlasses waving, poked their heads over the lip of the ladder. They were not expecting opposition.
Kris’s wet mop hit her guy right in the face. “You really need to brush your teeth,” she said as she did just that with the swab.
“You, too,” Penny cried, and twisted her mop in the other guy’s face.
Off-balance . . . and outmaneuvered . . . the two of them fell back into the unprepared arms of their copillagers. One got skewered by a cutlass, the other rolled downhill into a ball with way too many arms and legs.
“I’ll kill you for that,” would have sounded much more threatening from the guy with the pistol if he hadn’t gulped halfway through the threat at the sight of Kris and Penny standing at the top of the stairs . . . both with their service automatics pointed right between his eyes.
A second later, the soft pop of sleepy darts put an end to further conversation as the half dozen boarders who had made it that far fell under the gentle arms of Marine sharpshooters.
Kris holstered her automatic, pulled her worn cotton dress down to at least cover her knees, and became the commander of Patrol Squadron 10 again.
“Captain, do we have control of this ship?” she asked Jack.
“All members of the boarding party are captured and accounted for, ma’am. Docs are taking care of several red-on-red casualties, and one big fellow whose heart isn’t taking too well to Colt-Pfizer’s best sleepy darts. People with bad hearts really should not play pirates.”
“Somehow I doubt he’ll learn from this experience. What’s the situation on the other ships?” Kris asked on net.
“The Bucket of Blood is once again ours,” Lieutenant Commander Campbell reported.
“The Dauntless has most of her boarding party down and sleeping,” Lieutenant Amber Kitano reported. “A half dozen managed to lock themselves in the wardroom. We are debating letting them stay in there until the food kills them.”
“Oh, the slings and arrows of a subordinate with a sense of humor,” Campbell complained.
“The Dauntless’s Marines are ready to move out on your orders, Your Highness.” Lieutenant Kitano cut to the chase. “Where away?”
35
Kris surveyed the wreckage before her, then had Nelly scroll through the take from critical observation points on the station. The watch standers at the command post and the reactor were still lost in their card game. Except for the spaces around the grog shops, the station was pretty much asleep.
“Greenfeld Marines, will you secure the prisoners now on our ships and stand in reserve?”
“Yes, ma’am,” came back with only a hint of disappointment.
“Wardhaven Marines. Each company will send two squads to secure the three ships presently docked at the station. Take along a team of Navy types to set up a port watch on the captured ships. Go for the ship nearest you. Wasp, you take down the freighter. It’s farthest away from all of us.”
That drew the expected, “Aye aye, ma’am.”
“Dauntless, your Marines will seize the reactor. Put together a team from your engineering department to take over the watch there.”
“Standing by,” Lieutenant Kitano replied.
“Wasp will follow me to the command post. Captain Montoya and I know space stations well.”
“Defending or attacking?” Commander Campbell asked.
“Both,” Jack supplied.
“Okay, Campbell, for that you get the grog shops. Them and the sleeping quarters. Secure them and see that we don’t have any trouble from that direction.”
“I think I can handle a few drunken sailors,” the temporary skipper of the Bucket of Blood assured Kris.
“One suggestion before we move out,” said Kris. “We can’t go parading around this station looking like a bunch of squared-away Marines. The neighbors will talk.”
Jack glanced around at his company and gave Kris a rather nonplussed look.
Kris went on. “I want everyone to strip as much of the outer clothing as you can off the sleeping pirates and put it on over your Marine battle rattle.” The armor had the ability to change its coloring to match most any background. The designers had never imagined a pirate station.
“Grab any civilian clothing. It doesn’t have to fit well, just enough to fool someone glancing at the monitors while contemplating whether or not to bet on an inside straight.”
“And you will get in some armor yourself, Your High-Handedness,” Abby insisted, pulling Kris into a side compartment, where she had full battle dress waiting for Penny, Kris, and herself.