Space Assassins: The Complete Series 1-5, page 67
The pirates raced into action, taking their stations in a frantic yet orderly chaos. They were rough and ready for action, though given the diminutive size of this particular target, there wasn’t likely to be all that much action. In fact, it was so small as to be barely worth their time.
But the captain had given them his orders, and they all knew far better than to ignore them. There was a reason Captain Darvin possessed the reputation he had, and they didn’t want to be just another story reinforcing his iron-fisted legend.
Poor Happizano didn’t have the slightest idea what was about to befall him. And even if he had, there was simply nothing he could do about it. The ship he had stolen wasn’t fast, it wasn’t particularly robust, and it certainly wasn’t heavily armed.
Captain Darvin’s ship swung around the smaller craft as quickly as they could, putting themselves squarely in the small pinpoint of the sun’s rays, blinding any potential observer to their presence. At more central worlds this was a relatively easy maneuver, but this far out, the sun was just a dot. A bright dot, but a dot all the same.
It was an impressive bit of flying by any standards, and those at the Drookonus were putting on an impressive show. It was just too bad their intended target had no idea of the display of talented flying being put on so close by.
Captain Darvin focused his intentions on the little craft now in front of them and unleashed his carefully crafted spell, knocking out their Drookonus from afar with a disabling blast of magic.
Immediately, the ship lost propulsion, drifting instead, maintaining its speed in the vacuum, but totally vulnerable. Seconds after Darvin’s ship dropped down on top of it, boarding spells, akin to elongated umbilicals, streamed from his craft to the smaller one below.
His boarding party immediately dropped down and began casting their breaching spells. Two of them, one at the front and one at the rear, allowing them to catch the defenders in a crossfire they could not escape.
“Put down your weapons, or we’ll chop off yer bloody––” the leader of the team cried out when his boots hit the deck. But those words fell short when he saw the enemy he was facing.
“A feckin’ kid?” he said in disbelief. “It’s just a feckin’ kid?”
“What? Lemme see,” the man behind him said, suddenly deprived of at least a little bloodshed.
Happizano was frozen in place, terrified and utterly unsure what to do. The flashback to his very recent abduction and the murder of his tutor and staff was fresh in his mind, and in the heat of the moment, he simply locked up, unsure what to do.
“Bag the kid. Take him back to the ship. Cap’n will want to have a look at ’im.”
A pair of rough hands did just that, scooping up the boy and carrying him effortlessly up through the magically opened breach and into their pirate ship.
“The rest of you,” the pirate cried out. “Take all you can grab. The ship is ours!”
With a joyful cheer the pirates set to work, stripping the vessel of every last thing of value, then left it adrift, an empty shell floating in the void. And poor Hap was a prisoner once more.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Uzabud had scrambled their ship up into the air as soon as they could, all while making their departure seem as natural as possible and not a sudden, frantic race for the sky.
Corann had to keep up appearances, after all, and the extra few minutes of delay wouldn’t make a big difference in their search.
The sky was big, and space was bigger, and the boy could only go so far with his limited abilities. First and foremost, they would survey the area immediately around Corann’s home, just in case Hap had only managed a short flight.
When that came up empty, they then expanded outward to the neighboring regions.
“I do not detect any trace of that ship,” Demelza said as she adjusted her spells to refine them for the specific Drookonus that powered it.
Normally, that was simply not possible. Every Drookonus was different, and you had to know one intimately to hope to trace it with a spell. But this was a ship Demelza had plenty of familiarity with. It was one of Uzabud’s favorites, and its constant presence had afforded her the opportunity to become quite familiar with its magical signature.
“I do not believe it is still on this planet,” she said, having expended all of the tracking spells in her arsenal. “The traces are far too weak. In fact, I would wager that young Happizano managed to escape the atmosphere somewhat rapidly, judging by what I can find.”
“So, up we go, without further delay,” Uzabud said, then streaked skyward toward the stars.
It was a relatively quick search around the planet. Now that Demelza had a better feel for the traces of the ship’s Drookonus, she was able to rule out entire sections of space where there were simply no hits for the unique power signature. The farther out they went, however, the longer it was taking.
The distance between the worlds and moons in the system was, frankly, massive. And the ship could have flown anywhere out in that wide-open nothingness. But Demelza had a trace. It wasn’t huge, but it was there, and gradually, as they made their way farther and farther out toward the edge of the system where it dropped off into the real black, it was getting stronger.
“He went this way,” Demelza said.
“You sure?” Laskar asked.
“Positive. And not far now.” She paused. “Something is not right. The power, I felt it growing, but suddenly it stopped.”
“Did he jump? Maybe he did know how to do it after all. Clever kid, that one,” Bud said.
“No, it is different. Not the same power shift as with a jump. That is always more of a surge. This feels like an abrupt cessation altogether.”
Bud and the two Wampeh shared a knowing look.
“He wouldn’t have blown himself up. No, there’s no way. That Drookonus was way too underpowered for anything like that. At least, not in his hands.”
“Then, what?” Henni asked.
“The other option is almost as bad,” Demelza said. “For a Drookonus to suddenly stop emitting any power, its vessel would have to be more than just stopped. It would have had to be removed entirely.”
“And? Maybe he just pulled the wrong thingamajiggy and took it out.”
“That is highly unlikely. A Drookonus requires specific spells to release it from its cradle. And that is a particular bit of magic I doubt young Jinnik has ever learned,” Hozark said.
Bud looped them around the area where the last traces of the ship’s power faded away. There was no sign of the ship, but the former pirate had an idea.
“Demelza. Give me your last four hits for their Drookonus, will ya?”
“What’s that gonna do?” Henni asked.
“Just a thought, but it’ll show us the rough trajectory when the Drookonus went out.”
“But the ship is gone.”
“Yes, but you heard Demelza. No surge. Get it? It might not have jumped. It might still be out there.”
It was a logical move, for following debris or wrecks. But there was no sign of either here. Just a missing boy aboard a missing ship.
“Here you are, Bud,” Demelza said, giving him the last four readings.
“Great. Now, I’ll just plot that in and account for drift,” the former pirate said. “Aaaand... Holy shit. Guys, there it is!”
“What happened to it?” Henni asked. “It’s all messed up.”
“Stripped, is more like it,” Laskar noted.
“Pillaged, we liked to say in my pirating days,” Bud corrected. “And that’s what happened here. Seen it a thousand times. But the ship isn’t structurally damaged. It’s still intact.”
“Hang on,” Henni said. “Pirates? Like, honest, for-real space pirates?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Shit. That’s bad.”
“Can be. Depends on who it is. Not all pirates are total assholes, you know. Look at me, for instance.”
“Terrible example,” she replied.
“Uzabud, do you think these might have been friends of yours?” Demelza asked.
“I can’t say for sure, but highly unlikely.”
“Why is that?”
“Because my ship is still here. I mean, yeah, they did a number on it, but it’s still sound. My people wouldn’t have left a perfectly good ship like this. Really, no self-respecting pirate would. Not unless they didn’t have a place they could sell it, that is.”
“What? Like, banned from the markets?” Henni asked.
“Essentially. And if that’s the case, they’re not just pirates. They’re Outlanders.”
“Is that some special kind of pirate?”
“Not exactly, though I suppose you could say that, in a weird sort of way,” he replied. “Outlanders are people who pissed off the wrong folks. The wrong powerful folks. That means they’re on pretty much everyone’s shit list. Almost no one will trade with them. It’s not worth the heat it brings.”
“Bud, this kid, he’s a visla’s son. Don’t you think they’ll try to ransom him? The family’s worth a lot of coin, you know,” Laskar said. “I know that’s what I’d do.”
“A paragon of class and culture, you are, Laskar,” Bud said. “But no, I doubt they’ll ransom him, so long as he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t tell them whose kid he is. More likely than not, they’ll just try to sell him at the next slave market.”
Hozark and the others shared a look.
“So long as he keeps his mouth shut,” Hozark said with a sigh.
“Oh, hell,” Bud said. “We need to find him. And fast.”
Chapter Fifty
There was an old saying within the ranks of the rough-and-tumble men and women who called themselves space pirates. “Once a pirate, always a pirate.”
It was a familial thing, and though they sometimes fought amongst themselves, to the death at times, a deference and respect was given to their former brethren regardless.
That saying, however, didn’t quite hold true for the few who left the fold to become bounty hunters, which occasionally meant hunting down their former brothers- and sisters-in-arms.
Those former pirates were most assuredly not still members of the club, so to speak. In fact, if their former allies happened upon them in a dark alleyway, they might very well find themselves on the receiving end of a club of an entirely different variety.
Uzabud, however, was not only still in good standing, he had left the profession with the well wishes of not only his shipmates, but also most of the other pirates he knew from his years of pillaging and mayhem.
It wasn’t just that he had always been a good shipmate and skilled pirate, it was also because he was going into a parallel career. One that could prove useful to his friends from time to time.
Uzabud had left to become a smuggler.
He fenced and trafficked all manner of items. Snuck both people and goods into places they would not have otherwise been able to go. And he did it all without backstabbing a single one of his friends in the process.
In fact, it seemed to all concerned that he had never really left, he had simply moved on to a new branch of the same field.
And now, with an Outlander pirate on the menu, it was those old friends he would need to turn to for help. The Ghalian spy network would most likely eventually find their culprits, but this was pirate life they were talking about, and that sort was always on the move and difficult to pin down. By the time you figured out where they were heading, they’d already arrived and left.
On top of that, they didn’t even know which pirates they were looking for. Bud had been out of that loop for some time now, and while he still occasionally dealt with his old friends, he was by no means nearly as dialed in as he once was. And that left them just one choice.
“You’re seriously gonna call in pirates?” Laskar asked for the third time as he plotted their jump course. “Like, actual pirates?”
“Again, yes. What is it with you, anyway? I thought you were up for any sort of adventure.”
“And I am. But pirates aren’t exactly known for being reliable. Or friendly, for that matter.”
“Aww, we’re just misunderstood.”
“We?”
“You know the saying.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t actually been a pirate in, like, forever.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re still my people.”
Hozark watched the exchange with mild amusement. He’d worked with Bud long enough to have seen him call in his pirate friends once or twice, and despite their ruffian ways, the men and women had actually proven to be not only quite friendly, but also very, very skilled at what they did.
Of course, if they weren’t, they wouldn’t last long in that sort of trade.
“We seem to be receiving a skree message,” Demelza said. “But it is from a woman named Lalaynia claiming your children miss their father. Is there something we need to know, Uzabud?”
The pirate laughed as he picked up the skree. “Honey, I’ve missed you all so very much. It’s going to be great holding you in my arms again.”
“Soon, my dear,” a woman’s voice replied over the magical comms device. “The kids are looking forward to playing with you.”
“And I with them. Are you close by, my love?”
“Very.”
“Wonderful. I will see you soon,” Bud said, then closed their skree spell.
“You’ve got a working skree too?” Laskar asked. “What the hell, Bud?”
“Not a normal skree, my friend. It’s a hardened one used by a certain sort of people.”
“A certain sort of people?”
“Well, my sort. Pirates and the like get bombarded with skree-disrupting magic pretty regularly, so we had to have a way to communicate even when attacked like that. It’s kind of a trade secret, so don’t go spreading it around. But yeah, I’ve still got my old one for emergencies like this.”
“That is all well and good, Uzabud, but who is this Lalaynia, and did she say you have children?” Demelza asked.
“You’ll meet them all real soon,” he replied with a mischievous grin.
* * *
The much larger ship that had rendezvoused with Bud’s mothership made his fairly comfortable space home look somewhat cramped by comparison. His ship was still too big to settle into the pirate ship’s landing bay, though, so an umbilical spell bound the two together.
“Okay! Okay! Let go!” Bud said, catching his breath when the strapping, tall woman finally dropped him from her embrace.
“What is it, Bud? You said you couldn’t wait to be in my arms again,” she said, the swarthy band of men and women at her side sharing in her mirth.
“You didn’t have to take that all so seriously, Laynia. And damn, have you actually gotten stronger?”
The pirate captain flexed her arm, showing off her well-defined muscles. She wasn’t massive. Not like a body builder or gladiator. But she had a lot of years of hard work and harder fighting under her belt, and it had chiseled her into top physical condition.
“Wow. She’s big,” Henni said.
Bud laughed at the small woman’s awed look. “Guys, this is Captain Lalaynia Demarzik. The roughest, toughest, and finest pirate this side of the shoulder of the Oryahn Cascade.”
“You’re too kind,” she said with a grin. “But not wrong. A pleasure to meet you all. Any friends of Bud’s are welcome aboard my ship.”
“Thanks for coming so fast, Laynia. We’re in kind of a jam, here.”
“Hey, if there’s promise of some good pillage, you know we’re game. And besides, someone got a promotion and couldn’t wait to tell you about it.”
A wiry teenager strode to the front of the crew of pirates, a pair of raider’s bandoliers strapped across his slowly developing chest. What the kid lacked in age, he more than made up for in confidence, and judging by his new kit, his skills were finally catching up to his attitude.
“Saramin? Holy shit! You’re a boarding party leader now?” Bud said, pulling him in for a fierce hug. “Damn, kid, you were just a scrub last time I saw you! Well done!”
“Thanks, Bud. It’s been a wild time since the last time you were on a raid with us, and a few openings needed to be filled, so here I am.”
“Who’d we lose?”
“Terrik. Brayintz. And Gallfor took a few pretty big hits and is healing up on Dorall.”
“More like carousing with whores and drinking away his days while the rest of us are busy working,” one of the pirates said with a hearty laugh.
“Well, that’s a given. But he’s spending a lot of time with the healers, that’s for sure.”
“I’m sorry to hear about Terrik and Brayintz. Good men, those.”
“Yeah. But hey, it’s the life, right?”
“Right. Fight or die, as your kind-hearted captain always says.”
“So what’s this about a raid?” Saramin asked.
“Hold your Malooki, kid. That’s a conversation for me and the captain.”
She chuckled. “Thanks, Bud. I appreciate the consideration, but my question is pretty much the same. What’s this raid all about, anyway?”
Bud’s smile faded.
“You won’t like it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do,” Bud replied. “Our target is a pirate ship.”
Murmurs of disbelief passed throughout the crew.
“You know we don’t do that, Bud,” Lalaynia said, her men quickly falling silent.
“Yeah, I know. But this is different. They took a boy under our protection. And there’s a lot at stake if we don’t get him back.”
“You’re transporting a boy? What are you into, Bud?”
“Never mind all of that. Just know that it wasn’t one of our friends who did this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because they left a perfectly good shuttlecraft behind when they took him. Stripped it, of course, but left the ship. You know what that means.”
The captain’s eyes went a bit harder. “Outlanders. A bunch of godsdamned Outlanders.”
