In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 22: Chance Of Success

"Do you think we should keep sailing closer?" Tyrone eyed the distance-from readout next to the enhanced image of the distant cluster of ships on the windshield Heads Up Display. They were a little more than five minutes from the point where he'd intended to start circling the cluster. Tyrone didn't really trust the pirate leader's promise not to attack them, but they'd have to be closer to act on any idea for delaying the corvette's departure.

"I think so, for now." Joseph appeared to be thinking along the same lines. "He never said we had to slow down. If we maintain course like he wanted, we'll be past the whole group of them pretty quickly."

"I suppose so. Have you found anything we can do to hurt them yet?"

"Not really." Joseph shook his head. "Not anything with a chance of working, anyway. Our weapons would certainly be able to wear through their shields, and their armor doesn't look that strong. The problem is the time it will take. They'll be shooting back, and with a lot more guns than our defenses can stand up to long-term."

"Well, that was more or less what we expected." Tyrone had never had a lot of hope that they could do what White Onyx Devastator had asked. He doubted whether Captain Meyer really did either. His request was just the plea of a man who wanted desperately to catch the people responsible for attacks against his company and coworkers. Garden Variety Animal just wasn't capable of that kind of assault; that was why they had called for the frigate.

"Yeah. Like you said earlier, if we had the firepower to take them on we would have done it from the start."

They continued their drift toward the corvette in silence for a few more minutes. Tyrone decided it made the most sense to keep heading toward the cluster of ships. The pirates claimed they wouldn't shoot if they maintained course, and the fighters could reach them quickly if they didn't. It was a tossup which option was more likely to get them shot anyway. They might as well be close enough to act.

"I wonder if we're coming at this from the wrong direction," Joseph said.

Tyrone looked behind to find Joseph had spun his chair to face forward again. "How do you mean?"

"Well, we've been trying to find a way to punch through their defenses and disable their FTL drive. That isn't the only thing we could do to keep them in the system. We might have other options we aren't looking at. Taking out the FTL drive would be great, but it doesn't seem like we're going to be able to do that."

"Oh." Tyrone tipped his head to one side and tried to scratch his chin before remembering he couldn't get to it through the helmet. "Hmm...what else is there we could exploit?" Tyrone mused. He looked back at the ships on the HUD.

"The fighters are almost certainly carried craft." Joseph pulled up a new window on the HUD showing the information they'd been able to determine about the small, boxy ships. "If we baited them away from the corvette, and especially if we could scatter them, they would have to waste time recovering them before jumping out of the system."

"I'm not so sure about that one. The pirate didn't seem to care that much about his subordinates. He might just decide to leave them here."

"Ships are a little more expensive to replace than pirate gunmen," Joseph pointed out. "If he knew he was working on a time limit, I'm sure you're right. He doesn't realize that right now, and once the Devastator is in the system I'm sure they'll have their own ways of keeping him here."

"Fair. I'd still like to think of something a little more certain, but if it comes down to it baiting away the fighters would hold them up for a while." Tyrone thought a moment longer. What else had they noticed that they might be able to turn to their advantage? "What about ways to delay them from connecting to the Comet?"