“Aye, Admiral.”
Kat watched the display update, wondering how many, if any, of the pirates and smugglers would heed her call. She’d be in some trouble, back home, for unilaterally offering to guarantee the lives of anyone who surrendered, although she had a nasty feeling that most of the people who knew useful pieces of information would be implanted or conditioned never to reveal it. Her techs were already preparing to see if they could beat the implants, this time. It would be hard on the pirates, but she found it hard to care.
We can put pirates out of business by dropping them on a penal colony, she thought, as the squadron converged on its target. They won’t threaten anyone ever again.
“Some of the ships are powering down their drives,” Lieutenant Graves reported. “The remainder are still breaking for space.”
“Repeat the signal, then order the destroyers to open fire,” Kat ordered. Ideally, she wanted to take the pirate ships intact. Pirates had a habit of press-ganging captives into working for them, and if they could be rescued . . . “If possible, they are to cripple the pirate ships.”
“Picking up targeting sensors,” Lieutenant Graves added. “Their defenses are going online.”
“Probably trying to buy time,” Kat said. She doubted the enemy base could stand off anything larger than a destroyer, if that. “Order the destroyers to take out any active weapons or sensor platforms.”
She watched, grimly, as her destroyers began to exchange fire with the pirate ships. The pirates were outmatched but fought back with a mixture of desperation and brutality. Kat wondered, not for the first time, how the pirates could even keep themselves supplied . . . although she knew, from bitter experience, that colonists along the edge of explored space were often careful not to ask too many questions about where their supplies had actually come from. They simply needed the supplies too much to risk angering their suppliers.
And most of their tech is ancient, she thought as a starship old enough to be her great-grandmother vanished from the display. They’re tough enough against civilians, but not against the military.
“The pirate base is opening fire,” Lieutenant Graves said. “They’re throwing everything at us.”
Kat nodded curtly. William’s report had, if anything, understated the case. The missiles the pirates were deploying were so badly out of date that she doubted even one of them would get through her point defense. They hadn’t been bad designs, a couple of decades ago, but now they were useless.
And that’s something to raise with the Admiralty, she thought as the enemy missiles crawled towards her ships. Our advantage in missile ranges and speeds may not last very long.
She watched, coldly, as the missiles entered her point defense envelope and were rapidly scythed out of space. No interstellar power could allow itself to be at a disadvantage in missile range and speeds, not now. The Commonwealth-Theocracy War had been the first major interstellar conflict in history, certainly the first fought with modern technology, but some basic cynicism in her insisted that it would not be the last. Every interstellar power had sent observers to the front line, taking notes to prepare their navies for the future. The Commonwealth could not allow its lead to slip away . . .
Which will mean spending more money on R&D, she reminded herself, remembering her disagreement with her brother. And there will be no enthusiasm for that back home.
“The last of the missiles has been picked off,” Lieutenant Graves said. “There wasn’t a single wasted shot. They didn’t even get through the outer defense envelope.”
“Repeat the signal to the pirate base, then deploy the marines,” Kat ordered. “And then order the destroyers, squadrons two and three, to sweep space around the base. If anyone is lying doggo out there, I want to know about it.”
Lieutenant Graves blinked. “Admiral?”
Kat felt an odd flicker of disquiet. William would have understood. And he would have carried out his orders without questioning them. She understood the importance of understanding why as well as what, but being questioned was still annoying.
We allowed too many standards to slip, she thought crossly. She’d been in command. The fault was hers. But she’d been too depressed to care. And now we have to practically start from scratch.
“Do it,” she ordered. No point in making excuses. “We don’t want to give anyone a chance to sneak away.” She relented, slightly, as Lieutenant Graves passed on the orders. “The smarter ones will know they don’t have time to power up their vortex generators and flee before we either force them to stop or kill them. So they’ll run silent instead, hoping to get far away enough to escape altogether. It won’t be pleasant, particularly when the life support starts to die, but it should be enough to keep them alive and free.”
“Um . . . yes, Admiral,” Lieutenant Graves said. His console bleeped. “Admiral, the base is offering to surrender, but they want to discuss terms.”
“I bet they do,” Kat said. She smiled, thinly. “Inform them that they are to shut down all weapons and defenses, then open the airlocks and await the marines. Any resistance will be met with deadly force, but we won’t execute anyone who surrenders peacefully. There will be no other terms.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Lieutenant Graves said.
Kat felt her smile widen. They were in occupied territory now, a place the Commonwealth ruled by right of conquest. There would be no messy questions over jurisdiction, not here. The Commonwealth had taken the Theocracy’s place and no one had even tried to challenge it, save for the Theocratic die-hards. There would be no cozy arrangements with system governors or independent asteroids to save their lives, no suggestion that the Commonwealth didn’t have the right to pass judgment on the captured pirates.
“The remaining ships are powering down their drives,” Lieutenant Graves said. “And the asteroid is surrendering.”
Kat nodded, although she didn’t relax. Questions
