Chapter 17

  I rounded the corner into the room and stepped to the left to clear the doorway before I paused. There were four rows of cages, each three cages tall, each looking to have four to six prisoners inside. We were looking at nearly 120 people. I triggered my Comm.D. “Kangaroo to home plate, all in,” I said again. All in was our code word for having the Paladin dock with the station because we had too much to move or do to use the shuttles.

  I called a squad leader meeting. “Captian, can your team retrieve our shuttle? We have wounded and civilians on board, and I would like to get them back to Homeplate as soon as possible. The rest of us will set up a base of operations here and sweep the station for any stragglers.” the captain nodded and took off with her team. Private Moore spoke up next, “ Sir; there is bound to be some valuable cargo in the other warehouse sections; it would be a shame to blow it all up when we demo the station.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me yet that we would demo the station when we evacuated the prisoners. Still, it made sense to leave it for the next group of lowlifes to take over. “ fine, take a squad and go through it for low volume high-value goods after each area has been cleared; check with Emily first to make sure not to take to much to interfere with flight operations.” Moore nodded and stepped aside to call Emily. I turned to Crewman James, “Take your squad and get the cages open and the people organized to be loaded onto Homeplate when it pulls in.” James grabbed his squad and got moving. I turned finally to Corporal Ozawhich. “ Corporal, you take two squads, set up a perimeter in this area, and keep it secure; the rest of you come with me, and we are going room by room with no prisoners left behind.”

  It took multiple hours, and the speed picked up after the League special operators had re-joined the group after moving both shuttles back to the Paladin. Finally, they searched the last location. We had to cut our way into the command center, so it took longer than we had hoped to take it. The command center still had three Pirates inside. Like a few of the others they had found throughout the day, these decided to surrender. I covered them as a crewman ran up and flex-cuffed them. We printed some off after the League guys had had to secure the first one we found.

  The League forces and I were the last ones in the command center and, thirty minutes later, the last on the station. An announcement warning about the coming demolition had been sent out from the central communication station when they took the control room, telling people to go to the prisoner holding area to be taken off. A Pirate and a person claiming to be a prisoner had surrendered to the security perimeter. The possible prisoners would be kept separate from the Pirates and known prisoners until they could be identified later. Now, one of the operators was at the engineering post. “Ok, the reactors are set to start cascade failure in about 2 hours. Let's get out of here.”

  The rapid jog back to Paladin went smoothly. We came around the final corner to the docking port and found Crewman James and five others defending the docking area. When we approached them, Crewman James stood up. “Sir, all crew members are accounted for. Everyone is on board except my team and yours.” I nodded to acknowledge the information.

  “good you go across. We will follow you in.” James's team crossed the docking arm, then I followed them. I moved to the side once I got back on Paladin. I counted as Captain Malcona and the League operators returned on board two, guiding the last two walking backward down the docking corridor until they passed through the outer airlock door on the Paladin. They paused as it closed, then filed out as the inner door shut. I opened my Comm.D “ Captain to bridge; all accounted for, let's go.” my answer came as the docking arms released a moment before the reply came through my Comm.D.

  I was going to head for the bridge when Captain Malcona stopped me. “Captain, can we talk?” I agreed and showed her to a conference room. I started the conversation, “We acquired many more people than we expected, both rescued people and prisoners. It's going to be a long trip back to Carnithal.” Captian Malcona nodded, “I wanted to talk to you about that. I arranged for a hospital ship to be waiting in Conifer 4, a system three gates away just on the League side of the border. They have been tipped off to expect refugees; they are likely to have a League escort that could take the Pirates. I would prefer that no one knows what ship we are operating on, but I don’t have a way to access your transponder.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I gave her a slightly guilty look. “What if hypothetically we could turn it off.” she looked at me with some suspicion. “ why would you be able to do that?” I shrugged. “ well, Paladin was originally a military vessel, and the Paledes Authorities decided we were trustworthy enough not to remove it so long as we only used it with permission.” she grumbled under her breath about the lack of government standards of Paledes, but I let it go. “Yeah, that should work. I’ll give you an official use document for the day once we cross into League space. You shouldn’t need it, but it will be legal if someone finds out later and wants to cause trouble. With your permission, my team will conduct all the interactions to reduce the number of people who know about your people.”

  We continued chatting for a few minutes, getting things settled, like guard rotations and meal times, and then we left. I headed for the bridge while she went to meet with her team. I walked onto the bridge, and the Crewman at the Comms station noticed me first. “Captian on deck.” “Thank you, Mr. Leon.” I acknowledged as I walked to the command chair, “Mr. Cameron, I have the bridge.” Max returned my salute, and I took the seat. “Nav, we have a new destination. Please lay in a route for Conifer 4. We will be leaving our guests there,” the Crewman or woman, in this case, at navigation.

  Ms. Hughes replied, “Yes, sir, the computer thinks we should be there in approximately 36 hours.” I checked the numbers not because I doubted her route but because I wanted to know what we would be going through. “Thank you, Ms. Hughes. Please feed the new course to helm as necessary”. The next hour and a half went by uneventfully until Tactical made an announcement. “Confirmed detonation of the reactor. The station is in three major sections moving rapidly away from the detonation site.” I acknowledged the report. I thanked the officer and then got back to work on my paperwork.

  * * *

  Thirty hours later, I was back in my seat, waiting for the final jump. “Tactical before we transition. Turn off our transponder.” I turned to look at Captain Malcona, who was sitting at the Comms station. “ Ma’am, are you ready?” She nodded. “Yes, Captain. My identifier has been added to the net, so they will know I am aboard, and we are friendly despite not transmitting I.D.” " Excellent helm. Take us through when you're ready.”

  Paladin emerged through the gate into the Conifer 4 system. The first one to speak was tactical: “Three contacts range approximately 100k 30 degrees port up 5.” The tactical plot on my chair was updated to show the three contacts. The I.D. codes hadn’t come through yet, but it was either a cruiser and two Corvettes or the hospital ship and two Corvettes. As I watched, the Corvettes vectored to interpose themselves between us and the presumed hospital ship.

  “Ma’am, perhaps now would be a good time to make your broadcast?” I asked Captain Malcona not to use her rank as a ship that only ever had one captain, and we didn’t yet have an agreed-upon honorific like Major for a promotion. Hence, we all just avoided using her rank in command situations. “Yes, Captain,” she replied, then started making a call. After a few minutes of back and forth, one of the escorts seemed to fall back into a guard position while the second one docked on the opposite side. “Captain, they have requested we dock with the hospital ship. The Corvette Summer Storm will offload a security detachment to assist the hospital ship with the influx of prisoners and refugees. It will take responsibility for them once they are on board.

  Two hours later, they had docked with the hospital ship. Everyone interacting directly with pirates kept wearing armored space suits to hide their identities. The crew who had worked with the refugees hadn’t and could possibly be identified later if someone tried. Still, I was hopeful that with Captain Malcona and the Intelegencia involved, no one would try to dig into it. The offloading took about forty-five minutes, and Captian Malcona and her team chose to stay on board the hospital ship to manage the situation.

  “ Decoupling complete, we are away,” the officer at the helm called. I waited until we had enough separation to maneuver safely. " Navigation plot a course back to neutral space; we will go through a few gates, then turn our transponder back on and return to League space.” The navigator turned to her station. “Yes, sir, what's our final destination?” I paused momentarily. “Take us home navigation. It's time for a break.”