don’t have anything to fight back with, though we do have Santieff and most of his crew as hostages. But we’ll be better off if we can figure out a way to board her and take control of her.”
Roacka hooked a thumb at Add and Ell. “Me and the girls are thinking we can take their boat up, try to bluff our way aboard, then storm the place.”
“Frankie,” Janice said. “Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, ain’t you learned nothing yet? You listen to old General Janice here. Roacka and the girls just need a diversion, and that’s where Sally and me come in. Give us about a hour to get those boys in a partying mood, and while we’re fucking their brains out, Roacka and the girls here can sneak on board and finish ’em off.”
Paul blushed.
“Hey ensign.” At the sound of the old NCO’s voice, the young Syndonese officer roused from sleep. “The shuttle’s approaching, and you gotta see this.”
He’d been dozing at the captain’s console. He knew he shouldn’t do that in front of the men, but then again there were only ten of them left on board, and absolutely nothing happening. “Channel three, ensign.”
He put channel three on one of his screens, saw an image of two young women there. Both were quite attractive, and showing a lot of cleavage and leg. One of them asked, “You the man in charge up there?”
Well, at the moment, he was the ranking officer. But as to being in charge, how much was the ship’s most junior officer ever in charge? “Yes, I’m the ranking officer.”
“Okay, captain. Yer admiral says he’s feeling real bad they’re having all the fun down there, and you boys ain’t getting to share none of it. So he sent me and Sally here, along with a case of some good booze, as a little present for you guys.”
“I’m sorry. It’s against regulations. I can’t allow you on board without a specific order from Admiral Santieff.”
“Lighten up, ensign,” the old NCO said.
“You too tense,” the second girl said, wiggling her breasts at him. “I can make you un-tense, real quick like.”
He said to the NCO, “But we should confirm this with the admiral.”
One of the girls said, “His admiralship is out cold, nursing one nasty hangover.”
The old NCO said, “Listen, ensign. You heard yourself how drunk he was last night, and he ain’t gonna appreciate you waking him up to get his permission for this.”
“But captain,” the first girl said. “It was yer admiral what sent us. I mean, what’s a couple of working girls like me and Sally gonna do, take over yer ship from big strong guys like you?”
Charlie looked over Stan Fourhands’s shoulder as he stared intently at the readout on the Syndonese screen. “I got access to basic systems, Frankie: life support, medical, drive control, power plant, gravity, navigation. But these military systems are tough. Take me maybe another tenday to hack ring one access to get to weapons, and I don’t know about ring zero.”
“Don’t even try,” Charlie told him. “Any mistakes and you could lock the whole system up permanently. The code traps get nastier the deeper you get, and I don’t want to take any chances. It’s simpler if Sague just flushes the entire operating system and installs a new one.”
Charlie leaned back and scanned the bridge of the Syndonese ship. He had a real warship, his first, and acquired rather cheaply.
Charlie didn’t dare let any of the Syndonese back on their ship; he had no way of knowing what kind of verbal codes they might be able to activate, or what they might trigger directly through their implants. And in any case, her brig wasn’t large enough to hold a hundred and fifty prisoners, and being a warship she didn’t really have a hold. But she was stocked with an amazing supply of steel manacles and chain. So in small groups they’d transferred the Syndonese to Goldisbest’s hold. Charlie had tried to not feel any satisfaction as they cuffed them in hand and leg irons and locked them to the chain. Charlie gave clear orders that the prisoners were to be fed properly and treated in as humane a fashion as possible.
Charlie had agonized over his choices. He didn’t have it in him to simply execute one hundred and fifty men, but then if he released them they’d be trained crew that Goutain could eventually use against him. One of the Syndonese refugees pointed out that it didn’t matter; Goutain