Chapter 5: Pirate System

About six days after we left the trading post Ship alerted us. “Attention coming out of hyperspace.”

The hyperspace engines cut out, and we appeared on the far side of the system. I could not fault Ship’s navigation skills. Ship engaged the cloaking and turned us about facing into the system.

Normally when a vessel travels to a system, it stops a little short to arrive just on the edge of the system in the direction from where they came. This is exactly what the foe vessels did previously when they arrived in the Baglogi system. We knew where they would arrive and we were prepared for them.

In this system we arrived on the far side of the system. It was a good thing we did. On the side towards the direction of the trading post was a fleet of several mean looking pirate vessels. They looked like they were ready to ambush whoever arrived there.

“Ship, passive scans of the system only. Give a ping for Koluna once to determine her location. Take us in,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Ship, can you tell if any of the planets in the system inhabited?” I asked.

“Negative. No signs of inhabited planets in this system. They are unsuitable for sustaining life in their current form. Any terraforming or other technology would be detectable,” replied Ship.

“Can you zoom in the display on the pirate vessels?” asked Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. Although we were still some distance off they filled our display. We were glued to the tactical display as we studied the vessels.

“Wow! They can’t tell we are behind them??” Said Laine. Her eyes were wide and she had a worried look about her.

“No. We are hidden from their view. Some of those vessels look familiar,” said Jem.

“Attention, I have located Koluna aboard the same vessel we followed here. After I pinged her chip, she has activated it herself. This confirms she is alive and conscious,” said Ship. I gave an audible sigh of relief. Lane looked at me briefly before turning back to the view on the tactical display.

“Ship, can you pick up their communications?” asked Jem.

“Confirmed. I have audio, putting it on the speaker for your listening,” said Ship. We heard more of the language I remembered hearing on the station from the guards.

“Laine can you translate?” asked Jem. We listened for a moment.

“They are discussing what they will do to the occupants of this vessel when they catch us. It seems you have a price on your heads,” said Laine. Jem smiled.

“We have a price on OUR heads. You are one of us now,” corrected Jem.

“Ship, please deploy nano-bots for all vessels except the one with Koluna in,” I said. I looked at Jem and she nodded. “For that one, please deploy data port probes. Keep us at a safe distance and be ready in case something goes wrong.”

“Confirmed,” said Ship.

We watched the tactical display as cloaked probes approached the pirate fleet. It would take a while for them to cross the system and reach their respective targets.

“Ship, could you please highlight the vessel with Koluna aboard,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. One of the red dots changed to yellow.

“Is there enough of a safe distance from the other vessels to deploy nano-bots?” I asked.

“Confirmed. I am monitoring carefully,” replied Ship. We were still closing on the pirate vessels. So far they showed no sign they detected us. They were pointed in the other direction, expecting us to arrive and fall into their trap. We continued to monitor their communications.

“The voice from the vessel with Koluna aboard, it sounds like Tobis,” said Laine.

“It makes sense. The others all took orders from him. He probably ordered the death of communications officer Marwin. He had someone alter the logs, and he also ordered the guards to eliminate us,” I said.

“He is directing the other ships too, so he must be high in their command hierarchy,” added Laine.

“Laine, what is this language they are using? And what race is Tobis?” asked Jem.

“The answer to both is Lagaid. Tobis and several other staff aboard the station were from the Lagaid system. I’m originally from the Quard system, and Lagaid is not too far from us,” replied Laine.

“I have an idea. Ship, is your probe still attached to the enemy vessel? Do you understand Lagaid?” I asked. Jem and Laine both looked at me.

“Confirmed. The probe is still attached. I have a rudimentary understanding of the language,” replied Ship.

“Good, and can you remotely control the probe without giving away our position? Oh, and can you re-configure the probe to transmit on the pirate communications frequencies?”

“Confirmed. In stealth mode I would send extremely short bursts on minimal power. I can relay via the other cloaked probes randomly, so it would be hard to distinguish from background radiation. The probe can be configured to transmit on the pirate communications frequencies.”

“Finally, you are recording their communications. Can you identify names and designations of either vessels or individuals on those vessels?” I asked.

“Actually, I can help you with that,” said Laine, “they have mentioned several captains by name.”

“Awesome. I think we are ready for some fun. Laine I want you to imagine you are Tobis and say a terrible insult to one of the other captains,” I said.

Laine said a phrase in Lagaid that only she and Ship could understand.

“Ship I assume you got that. Please re-modulate the audio to match the voice print of Tobis and play it back.”

“Confirmed,” said Ship. A moment later we heard the same phrase in Lagaid, only in the deeper tone that resembled Tobis.

“Oh wow! That sounded just like Tobis,” exclaimed Laine.

“I think I know what you are up to now,” said Jem with a smile.

“Step two. Ship, in your own time. Re-configure your probe on the enemy vessel. When there is a pause in their communication, have it broadcast that phrase on the pirate communications frequencies. It will appear to the other vessels it came from Tobis,” I said.

“Confirmed,” said Ship. Soon after we heard the same phrase as if it came from Tobis himself. I did not understand the responses, but communication increased in volume and the tone suggested someone was upset.

Laine laughed. “We really confused them. Tobis denies he said anything. They insisted they clearly heard him.”

“This is working better than I hoped. Laine, would you like to record more insults?” I said.

“Sure! That was fun,” said Laine. She then recorded more phrases in Lagaid. I was glad I did not understand the language. It sounded awful.

Ship did his magic and after a few moments we heard Tobis’s voice insulting another captain again.

“Perfect. Ship, don’t overdo it. Vary the duration between insults. We don’t want them to find the probe,” I said.

“Tobis will know something is up though,” said Jem.

“But his authority over the other vessels has been impaired. They can’t see any other vessels, and the signal is definitely coming from Tobis’s vessel. This is merely a distraction,” I said.

I could see on the tactical display that the nano-bots probe was close to the fleet of pirate vessels. For a while now the pirates were arguing on their communications frequencies, but they had not moved from their location.

“Attention, nano-bots deployment commencing now,” said Ship. The probe sprayed out a faint cloud of tiny nano-bots towards the unsuspecting vessels. They were too small for the sensors on the pirate vessels, no larger than space dust and widely dispersed so it was impossible to avoid them.

“Brian, what are these nano-bots?” asked Laine.

“Imagine something so small, you cannot see it. They do not show up on sensors either. If you look on the tactical display, they are drifting slowly towards the pirate vessels,” I said.

“But how can something that small harm a large vessel?” asked Laine.

“Once the tiny nano-bots land on the hulls of the vessels they will consume tiny amounts of the hull to create more nano-bots. The new nano-bots will then consume more hull to replicate themselves. The growth rate is exponential,” I said.

“So they destroy the vessels before the pirates even know what is going on!” exclaimed Laine.

“Yes, that is about how it works. There will be hull breaches and explosive decompression for all vessels that are afflicted,” I said.

“Wow! That is wicked,” said Laine with excitement.

“I agree,” said Jem, her face reflecting a note of seriousness. “That is why we do not use them if we can avoid it. It is a death sentence for anyone aboard those vessels.”

“Ship, what is the progress of the data port probe?” I asked.

“It will arrive at the enemy vessel in a few moments. It will then locate the data port and begin adaptive injection protocols,” replied Ship.

“Thank you Ship. Laine, I have a message for you to record. I’d like you to say the equivalent of ‘You fools! I have killed you all’,” I said.