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To Bell the Belle - Chapter 5
Time: Day 3Location: Sassy Sue - Abernathy Rendezvous point
"I'm still having trouble coming to grips with you as part of a military organization, Beka."
"I didn't exactly volunteer, George" said Beka. "It was more like I was drafted." Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of her companions, she explained how the Maru had been ambushed by pirates and been left crippled and adrift in space, how she and her crew had been rescued by the Andromeda and how she and the others had agreed to sign on with Dylan until the Maru had been repaired.
Beka was sitting the the common room of the Sassy Sue with the captains of the Sassy Sue, the Puffer and the Kuraudo, a Takahashi family owned Maru class vessel, attempting to hammer out some sort of strategy for finding the Belle and what to do if and when they did find her. The Abernathy family rendezvous location had turned out to be a Takahashi family supply point, a small asteroid in the systems equivalent of the Kuiper belt. Its location made it valuable since it was already at slippoint distance from its primary making travel times between the supply point and slipstream point a matter of minutes rather than hours.
Harper was with the engineers on the other ships ensuring engineering and weapons systems were operating at maximum efficiency, while Trance was working with her counterparts in environmental systems and medical ensuring that each ship in the Guild flotilla was properly equipped with medical supplies. No one believed that they would be able to go head to head with the Belle without taking casualties. For most warships, and the larger merchant vessels that found themselves in combat, unless a ship took a hit to the engineering spaces that released the ship's store of antimatter, there would generally be some survivors even if the ship had been reduced to a helpless wreck. For smaller ships, such as the ones operated by the Salvagers, survivors were more questionable as the crew was concentrated in the engineering and command deck spaces and a pair of lucky missile strikes could kill the crew while leaving the ship relatively intact. Still if there was one thing Trance had learned from Dylan, it was that in combat the only thing certain was uncertainty, and she was going to ensure that if there was a chance for an injured crew member to survive he or she would get the chance.
While her parents were working, Aurora was busy being spoiled by her 'aunts and uncles' . The Abernathy and Takahashi children and the pregnant crew women, had been taken to, as George Abernathy put it, 'somewhere safe' before the Maru had arrived. And since there wasn't time to take Aurora to safety she was going to have to stay with her parents on the Maru. As a result Aurora was getting the paternal attentions of nearly every adult in the extended family and becoming thoroughly spoiled.
With their crewmen readying their vessels for combat, it fell on the ships' captains to plan the upcoming battle. While all of them had at one time or another dealt with the occasional pirate none of them, with the exception of Beka, had any experience with military operations or multi ship combat and the others were looking to her for advice.
"But the Maru's been repaired," said the captain of the Kuraudo. "Why are you still with him?"
"Because Dylan's New Commonwealth may be the best chance we small guys have to make a living." said Beka. "The FTA is in bed with the Core Worlds and together they have a virtual lock on the construction of slipstream capable craft and who can trade where in human controlled space. If Dylan can pry them apart we might be able to fly something bigger than a Maru class ship that doesn't pre-date the fall, and be able to trade where the markets are rather than where the FTA allows us to trade."
"I'm still not sure I approve of you bringing in outsiders, Beka," complained the captain of the Puffer. "Especially the Andromeda. We Salvagers fight our own battles."
"I'm not wild about it either, Lucas" admitted Beka. "But do you really think this is just about piracy? The FTA has had their eye on Winnipeg for years. The attack on Bathsheba was just the excuse they needed. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they were behind the attack. All the other Bellamy family ships have been accounted for at the time of the attack. So where did those other two ships come from and who outfitted them? You said that the FTA hired K-MAC to occupy the drift. I did a run for them once. They're worse than Nietzscheans when it comes to ensuring that all the 'i's' are dotted and 't's' are crossed. Even if the FTA decided to hire them immediately after hearing about the attack they would still be haggling over the fine print. They had to have worked out the deal beforehand. It's going to be dicey enough taking on those ships with what we have. If they have reinforcements I'm going to want some too."
"We may have to do without them," said George. "The Willow is checking out a rumor about the Belle's location and should be returning within a day. When Carla heard that Patrick had broken from his father and was planning to mount a defense of Winnipeg, she took the Puffer back to the drift. She's going to try to convince Patrick to tell her what he knows about any bolt holes his father may have established. As soon as she gets back we're heading out. If your Andromeda isn't with us then we'll just have to do without her support."
"You're right, admitted Beka. We don't have the luxury of waiting hoping that Dylan well join us. We're out of time." She paused for a moment an sadly amused look came over her face. "I suppose I should be grateful Nikolay isn't with us," she said. "After all the arguments we had about him wanting the Guild to create it's own anti piracy force and me arguing against it, here I am part of a guild anti piracy force. He'll hold this over my head for years."
"And the first pirate we're going after is one of our own," said the Kuraudo's captain.
"Yeah," said Beka. "Go figure."
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