War Of Honor

Which was just fine with Erica Ferrero, who liked pirates even less than most Manticoran officers.

'No response, Ma'am,' Lieutenant McKee reported unnecessarily, and Ferrero nodded.

'Understood, Mecia,' she said, and turned her attention towards the tactical section of the command deck. 'I don't see any reason to muck around with this idiot, Shawn.'

Lieutenant Commander Shawn Harris, Jessica Epps' tactical officer looked up from his own plot, and she smiled at him thinly.

'We'll give him a single warning shot,' she said flatly. 'Just like the rules of engagement require. After all, I suppose it's remotely possible that his com is down and no one in his entire crew knows how to fix it. But if he decides not to stop even after that hint, I want a full missile broadside right up the kilt of his wedge. No demonstration nukes, either; we'll go with laser heads.'

'Yes, Ma'am,' Harris acknowledged without surprise. At a hundred and ninety-one centimeters, the brown haired, mustachioed tac officer towered over his petite captain, but Erica Ferrero's record was ample proof that nasty things could come in small packages. She had a short way with pirates, did Captain Ferrero, and it had quickly become apparent to Harris that she regarded trials as an inefficient technique for dealing with them. She made it a point not to automatically assume guilt, and she was always scrupulous about giving any suspected pirate the chance to surrender—at least once. But if they declined the invitation to allow her to board and examine them in accordance with interstellar law, that was more than sufficient indication of a guilty conscience to satisfy her. In which case, she was perfectly prepared to pursue the options available to her under that same established interstellar law and give them a demonstration of peace through superior firepower.

Which, upon mature reflection, was perfectly all right with Lieutenant Commander Harris. It only took cleaning up the aftermath of one or two pirate attacks to make any naval officer . . . impatient with the entire breed.

He turned back to his own panel and began setting up his attack profile. It didn't look like it was going to be very difficult. The ship they were pursuing massed no more than fifty thousand tons, little more than twelve percent of an Edward Saganami —class cruiser like Jessica Epps, and no hyper-capable warship could mount very much offense or defense on that limited a displacement. Of course, she wouldn't have needed a lot of armament to deal with the completely unarmed and defenseless merchies upon which she preyed, and he felt a grim satisfaction at the way the tables had been turned in this instance.

He'd just locked his launch sequence into the loading queue for his broadside launchers when his earbug buzzed. He listened for a moment, eyebrows rising in surprise, and then turned towards his captain.

'CIC's just picked up another impeller signature, Ma'am,' he reported.

'What?' Ferrero turned her chair to face him. 'Where?'

'Approximately seventy million klicks at one-zero-seven by zero-two-niner,' he replied. 'She's headed straight for our bogey, too, Ma'am,' he added, and the captain frowned.

'Why the hell didn't we see her sooner?' she asked. It was probably a rhetorical question, but it carried a lot of irritation, and Harris understood perfectly.

'I don't know for certain, Ma'am,' he told her, 'but from the accel she appears to be pulling, she's got to be military. Either that, or another pirate, and CIC estimates her tonnage is around three-fifty k-tons.'

'What is her accel?' Ferrero asked, eyes narrowing. Assuming that displacement figure was even remotely accurate, the heavy cruiser-sized newcomer was much too large for a typical pirate. It might be a privateer licensed by one of the Confederacy's innumerable 'revolutionary governments,' but that seemed unlikely.

'CIC makes it right on five hundred and ten gravities from a base velocity of right on six-point-five thousand KPS,' Harris replied. The captain's surprise showed, and he nodded. 'Like I say, Skipper—she's got to be military, and she's running her wedge with just about zero safety margin on her compensator. Our closing velocity is approximately seventy thousand KPS on her current heading, and the only reason we wouldn't have seen a wedge pulling that kind of power and coming almost straight towards us a lot sooner than this is because she was hiding it under stealth.'

'Any com traffic from her, Mecia?' Ferrero demanded.

'None, Ma'am,' the lieutenant replied.

'Well, see if you can raise her,' the captain directed. 'At that much tonnage, she's almost got to be a warship, not another pirate coming to our idiots' assistance. Still, I don't want any misunderstandings here. Be polite and extend my compliments, but this is our bird, not anyone else's.'

'Aye, aye, Ma'am,' McKee agreed, and began speaking into her hush mike. 'Unknown vessel bearing zero- three-seven, zero-two-niner, this is Her Majesty's Ship Jessica Epps, Captain Erica Ferrero, commanding, in pursuit of suspected pirate bearing zero-zero-six, zero-one-five from our position. Captain Ferrero extends her compliments and requests that you identify yourself and advise us of your intentions. Jessica Epps, clear.'

Given the distance, it took three minutes and fifty-three seconds for McKee's hail to cross the vacuum between Jessica Epps and the unknown warship. Their closing velocity reduced the range by almost sixteen and a half million kilometers during that time, which meant that it required only a shade over two minutes and a half for the other captain's reply to arrive.

McKee twitched visibly in her chair when it did. Then she turned to her captain.

'I think you'd better listen to the direct feed, Ma'am,' she said.

Ferrero started to ask her why, but then she shrugged and nodded, and a harsh, strongly accented Andermani voice sounded from the bridge speaker.

'Jessica Epps, this is His Imperial Majesty's Ship Hellbarde,Kapitan der Sterne Gortz, commanding.' The male voice's tone carried a powerful dose of something. Ferrero couldn't precisely identify what that 'something' was, but she didn't much care for it. 'We are in a superior position to intercept the vessel you are pursuing. We will deal with it. Break off. Hellbarde, clear.'

Ferrero understood McKee's reaction to that brusque message perfectly. Captains of warships of sovereign star nations didn't necessarily have to waste fulsome military punctilio on one another, but there were certain standards of courtesy. This message was little more than a curt dismissal, an instruction to get out of Hellbarde's way which did not even respond to Ferrero by name. Addressed to a warship of a navy which had so recently ratified its claim as the most powerful one within several hundred light-years, it amounted to a studied insult. Moreover, under established interstellar naval protocols, the fact that Jessica Epps was already clearly in pursuit and overhauling before Hellbarde entered the chase gave her priority in claiming the prize. As Ferrero had just observed, this was her bird, not Hellbarde's.

'Put me on-mike, Mecia,' she said flatly.

'Aye, aye, Ma'am.' McKee tapped a command into her panel, then nodded to her commander. 'Live mike, Ma'am.'

'Hellbarde, this is Captain Ferrero.' The CO forced her tone to remain pleasant but allowed an edge of crispness to intrude. 'We appreciate the offer of assistance, but we have the situation in hand. Be advised that we will be firing our initial warning shot in approximately—' she checked the sidebar on her tactical plot '—eighteen standard minutes. Captain Ferrero, clear.'

She waved one hand, gesturing for McKee to go ahead and transmit, then leaned back in her chair, wondering what in the hell this Kapitan der Sterne Gortz thought she was playing at. It wasn't as if a ship the size of the pirate they were chasing was going to be worth an enormous amount of prize money. No navy would buy something as small and lightly armed as a typical pirate vessel into service, so the only real possibility for prize money would be the thousand dollars of 'head money' the Star Kingdom paid for each pirate captured—or killed resisting capture—in the course of a warship's cruise. Given the small size of the current candidate, that probably wouldn't amount to much more than forty or fifty thousand to be divided amongst Jessica Epps' entire crew. Neither Ferrero nor her personnel were out here expecting to get wealthy capturing pirates, but there was still a principle involved. Not to mention the fact that routine relations between interstellar navies required a certain minimum level of courtesy to be maintained. After all—'Missile launch!' Harris snapped suddenly. 'Confirmed multiple missile launches!'

Ferrero jerked upright in her chair, spinning towards Tactical in astonishment. Harris took another fraction