Chapter 6: After the Battle

“Ship, do you have the enemy vessel secured?” asked Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Good. You can keep watch while we get some rest. We have done really well, but I’ve had enough excitement,” said Jem. Jem stood up and we all followed.

We all left the main bridge and returned to our cabins. It wasn’t long before I was asleep.

The next morning we all woke up. I felt refreshed. I did not recall dreaming anything last night, which was a clue how tired I had been.

Laine joined us in our cabin for breakfast. This time we had some Ori cuisine, kind of to welcome Koluna back. It was nice to try different food with my crewmates.

After breakfast we returned to the main bridge. Once we were seated, Jem called us to order.

“Now we are rested, Koluna please share what happened from when we left the administration hub until your return. Ship will record your testimony for the evidence package,” said Jem.

Koluna sat up straight. “Soon after you left me to review logs and video feeds, Tobis and some of his guards entered the meeting room. They had weapons drawn and insisted that I leave with them. They gave no explanation, and I did not protest. They removed my wrist communicator, and we left the station to board the vessel you found me on.

“I was directed to a cabin aboard the vessel and I was confined there for the duration of the journey here. I had access to a bathroom and a food dispenser. I knew that you would come after us and you did. I think it was a while after we had arrived in this system that I felt my arm twitching. I guessed it was the chip that Brian had installed. I knew you were close. I tapped my finger and thumb five times to send a response.

“I was not released from my cabin until after they had surrendered. I joined Tobis at the airlock and we returned to Ship.”

“Thank you Koluna. Ship, have you downloaded the logs from the enemy vessel?,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Good. Please add the pertinent information to the evidence package. And what about the derelict vessels? Is there anything we should retrieve from them?”

“Affirmative. I should like to harvest materials for construction of probes. The metal alloys can be used efficiently by my replicators,” replied Ship.

“You mean you will eat up sections of the pirate vessels to make more probes?” asked Laine.

“Confirmed. The materials are readily usable and do not require me to process ores from nearby asteroids. My reserves are depleted, and recent missions with Brian leads me to believe it is important to restock before proceeding,” replied Ship.

“What about their computer cores?” I asked.

“Status of computer cores of pirate vessels is unknown. All power is out and the cores are shielded from my scans,” replied Ship.

“Perhaps an examination of their cargo holds will give some clues as to which vessels they have raided recently,” I offered.

“Ship, move us closer to the derelict vessels. Make sure the nano-bots are deactivated. Send in some maintenance bots to salvage data from the computer cores and harvest materials for your replicators. If you have time, investigate their cargo holds for clues. Record any manifests or tracking numbers on shipping containers,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. The tactical display showed we were moving again. The yellow dot representing the captured enemy vessel followed us, under remote control by Ship.

We were now maintaining a short distance from the derelict vessels. Ship had bots and probes going out to the vessels to salvage whatever was needed.

“Koluna, I’d like you to dig through the downloaded logs with Ship. Some questions I have are who else is involved? Are there other pirate ships or bases in other systems we need to track down? What is Tobis’s role in all this? See what else you can come up with,” said Jem.

“Yes captain,” said Koluna. She moved over to a workstation to begin her task.

“Laine, Brian, you’re with me,” said Jem. We got up and left the main bridge. We followed Jem, and it was soon clear where we were headed. We each put on our away team suits and entered the shuttle bay. Seeing Laine in her new suit made me see her in a new light. She really was part of our crew, our little family.

I also noticed that Ship had refined the suits a little. There was a flashlight attached and there were some grab handles. Good job Ship!

“We will see which of the crew aboard that vessel will talk. I don’t trust anything Tobis would tell us. He is far too devious,” said Jem.

“Understood,” I said. By now I was doing my pre-flight checks. Soon we left the shuttle bay and traveled the short distance to the other vessel. I decided to call it the other vessel and not the enemy vessel since it was now under our control. I did not know if we would eventually keep it, so I did not think it deserved a name.

“Ship, I need your help in selecting some suitable crew to interview. Could you interface with the other vessel and via the internal communications ask each crew separately if they will talk with us. Tell them that cooperation or lack of it will be noted and may be used later,” said Jem.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

Jem turned to me and Laine, “I didn’t want to bring Koluna back with us after her experience as a captive. She seemed to handle it well, but I don’t want to push her too far.”

“Understood captain. But the logs are in Lagaid. Ship will have to translate for her,” I said.

“If Ship or Koluna need help, they can contact me and I can translate from wherever I am,” offered Laine.

“Thank you Laine. Ship did you get that?” asked Jem.

“Confirmed. When we need help with translations of key information, we will contact Laine,” said Ship.

We docked with the other vessel. I opened the airlock on our side and we entered. I had a stun gun ready.

The airlock closed on our side and then the other side opened. We stepped through into the other vessel. It was dimly lit and looked like the cleaning had been neglected for a long time.

“Ship, direct us to the first candidate,” said Jem. We followed Ship’s directions and arrived at a crew cabin. The door unlocked and opened. I looked inside and saw a guard we had met before aboard the Trading Post. He was already sitting at a small table. He was not making any hostile moves, so we entered.

“I thought you three were dead,” he said in Lagaid, “Tobis said he sent you to a remote part of the station just before he blew it up.”

Laine translated his words for us.

“We got out just in time. Unfortunately, two of your colleagues did not make it,” I said. Laine translated into Lagaid.

“That wasn’t good. He sent my friends to die. I did not know that was his plan until after it happened,” he said, with Laine translating.

“Baglogi policy for pirates is to neutralize them. We have destroyed every pirate vessel we encountered except this one. We still could. But I want to understand what was going on. I want to know everything you can tell me. Your testimony could save your life. I was thinking to drop you off with one of our allies. If you don’t want to talk, then I will find someone else in your crew who is interested in my offer,” said Jem. We waited while Laine translated.

He nodded his head to show he would talk. I got a text on my wrist communicator from Ship that said “Recording...”

For a long time our captive talked in Lagaid. Laine asked one or two questions, but mostly kept quiet as he poured out his story. I looked around at the spartan interior of his cabin. I thought about how grim the life of a pirate was. It was also short-lived mostly due to our efforts. I fought to resist a smile.

After a while the pirate stopped and looked to Laine. She turned to us, “I think we have everything he knows.”

“Tell him we will step outside and review his testimony,” said Jem. Laine translated. We got up and exited his cabin as the door closed.

Ship directed us to their bridge. Ship put up a transcript of what he said, translated from Lagaid into Ori, on their main display. Laine pointed out several corrections before we read it. Here is a summary of the highlights:

• Tobis is the leader of the pirates. He took over control of the station so that their prey would come to them.

• The pirates took over control of the station about six months ago. It was not a military outpost and did not take much to overpower and eliminate the occupants. After that, they ran the station like usual. Various space-faring races that used the trading post would supply personnel for running the station, it was not under the jurisdiction of any system.

• Over time, new personnel would arrive to serve for a period aboard the station. When they arrived, they would be assigned suitable tasks. If they became suspicious, they would be eliminated.

• As trading vessels visited the station, they would be assessed for their value. Good ones would be targeted for interception by pirates after they left.

• After one of their key bases was wiped out, they put a price on our heads. Fleets of vessels have been searching systems in this area of space for signs of us. Fortunately after we destroyed those first pirates, we left the area and so we were not found.

• Tobis never imagined we would show up back at the station. The plan was to never let us leave alive.

“I am so glad I did not get suspicious until you arrived, or I would be dead,” said Laine.