Pay Me, Bug!

Chapter 41

WHEREIN Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

Commodore Hu Mavis stood on the bridge of the Centurion and watched the battle with interest.

The Alo Minh's response had been savage and unexpected--not that Mavis had expected her to go quietly, but he hadn't been prepared for the potency of her guns. How the presence of an ion cannon had escaped the Radiant Throne's inspections was beyond him, but somehow the crew of the Alo Minh had managed to conceal it. It was a fairly powerful one, considering the size of that ship, and while it wasn't enough to penetrate Centurion's screens it had nearly incapacitated the scout ship after the first shot. Mavis ordered the ship to pull back, and the Alo Minh had left it alone after that--it wasn't interested in the kill, it just wanted the ship out of the fight.

It made a beeline for the frigate next--a more evenly matched fight, in Mavis' eyes. Normally, he would assume the frigate would have the advantage, since it was designed with combat in mind, but he was no longer confident of this where the Alo Minh was concerned. And it seemed that the crew was very competent and combat ready.

A very dangerous brand of pirate indeed.

Mavis stared at the skull and crossbones staring back at him from the terminal at his station. They'd long since ceased transmitting that damnable signal, but he'd kept it on his terminal to remind him who he was dealing with.

He doubted they were actually pirates. Privateers perhaps… they were almost certainly working with the Alliance, considering what they'd gone to incredible lengths to steal. Mavis frowned in anger. He'd thought Captain Tax a reasonable and civilized man. This was, in hindsight, precisely what Jobin Tax had wanted. He wondered again who Tax actually was, and again the same name floated to the top of his mind. He dismissed the name angrily, refusing to believe that Vindh was capable of such a well-orchestrated heist.

When he saw the ship in combat, though, his doubts were themselves plagued by doubts. The pilot of the Alo Minh was exceptional, making it do things that would be difficult even in smaller vessels. The frigate was attempting to engage it as a larger ship--plotting an attack course, locking in guns, firing as it passed. The Alo Minh was behaving like a gunboat, or even a fighter craft. It was "dogfighting," always altering course at the last minute or attempting to move in a way that would give it a shot somewhere the frigate's screens were not.

Mavis kept in constant communication with the frigate, trying to advise her captain during the course of the fight, but the captain was clearly having difficulty adjusting to this style of fighting.

"Captain," Mavis said, trying to remain patient. "You must try to adopt the methods the Alo Minh is using against you, or you will lose this fight."

"Acknowledged, Commodore," the captain replied, "but this ship isn't built to do that. I've never even tried that before--we might just break into a--hold on a moment."

The Alo Minh was advancing on another strafing run. The Captain barked orders to intercept, and then shouted more orders as the Alo Minh abruptly changed course so that it was beneath the frigate, firing at her belly. Damage was minimal--it was an attack from one of the smaller guns--but it made Mavis wince regardless.

"Captain, you must change your tactics to accommodate theirs," Mavis insisted.

"With all due respect, Commodore, it's not that easy," the captain replied. "We weren't trained to do that. We don't know how much stress we can put on our ship before she cracks."

Mavis was forced to admit the captain had a point. Most ship captains didn't try to fly their ships as if they were fighter pilots…Tax did.

"No," Mavis said softly, "not Tax. You know very well who this is."