Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Anna sat in the secondary seat on Fig’s shuttle. She knew it had been difficult for him to allow her to stay at his side when they might face flying into a trap. It’s why she kept telling him how much she appreciated that he hadn’t broken his word.
Fig looked much more worried than she felt. She turned her head, seeing the huge shuttle flying next to them. Blade kept pace with them in the much larger vessel. They weren’t out there alone to face whatever waited. She felt confident they’d be okay. There was no other option. She’d finally found happiness. Nothing was going to take that away from her.
The comms dinged. Fig immediately answered.
“We should be seeing something on our long-range sensors soon,” Blade stated. “Should we risk attempting to raise Free?”
Fig seemed to consider it. “No. The only reason I feel confident speaking with you is because we’re transmitting extremely weak signals that no one else will be able to pick up. I don’t want to give away our location or the fact that two of us are approaching the destination.”
“Agreed. They’ll pick us up on their sensors soon as well, but with us traveling so closely together, they should have mistaken us for one vessel instead of two. They won’t realize the truth until we’re in visual range.”
“That was a good plan.”
Blade chuckled. “I have my moments. Being forced to work with pirates taught me some tricks.”
Fig glanced at Anna before he winked. “Was your Hailey upset that you left her at home?”
“A little,” Blade admitted. “Her parents were on my side, though. They are very protective of her. Both promised to keep her busy so she doesn’t worry too much.”
Anna shot him a smile, knowing he was teasing her by asking that question. He’d gotten a little grief from Big when he’d realized Anna was tagging along. Fig had taken it good-natured, though, explaining he would never tell his wife what to do.
The past few days traveling had seemed to make him feel better about bringing her along. They’d made love more often at first, depending on Blade to keep an eye out for danger. Fig had even felt safe enough to give him remote control of the autopilot while they’d spent time in the cabin. The bed was more comfortable than the pilot’s seat for frisky times.
“I have something.” Blade’s voice deepened. “Shit. Are you seeing this?”
Fig leaned forward, his hands flying over the controls. Anna wasn’t sure what he was reading on the console, but whatever it was, his jaw clenched, and his body got ramrod stiff.
“What is it?” She couldn’t contain her curiosity for more than a few seconds.
“Long-range sensors are picking up three shuttles. Not one or two.”
“What does that mean?” Anna leaned forward in her seat, trying to glimpse what was holding Fig’s full attention.
He glanced at her and pointed to the red dots showing on the console in front of him. “This is nearest to my retreat. I believe it’s the shuttle we encountered.” He moved his hand over to two other red dots. “These seem to be heading toward the first one.”
“A fourth just showed, but I believe that one must be Free,” Blade cut in. “It’s coming from the direction of the Balarian system.”
“So it must be a trap.” Fig ground out a muttered curse.
“No. I think it’s two pirate teams going after the shuttle we planned to meet with.” Blade cleared his throat. “Those two advancing shuttles aren’t flying closely together, but they are coming from the direction of a known hub.”
“What’s a hub?” Anna had never heard of that term before. Everything out in outer space was different from Earth.
“That’s what pirates call a base they control.” Blade hesitated. “You said that other shuttle repeatedly attempted to contact you, correct?”
“Yes. Every six hours, at least while we were hidden inside my retreat. Why?” Fig scowled. “What does that matter?”
“Pirates have communication buoys they drop through space to pick up distress signals or other communications. It’s possible they might have realized a ship was out here and mistaken the repeated calls to you for a damaged vessel seeking help. That would make it an easy target for them to attack and raid from.”
“That was a week ago. Wouldn’t they have come after it before now?”
“No, Fig. Some of those monitoring buoys conserve power by only sending signals every ten days or so. It’s possible the pirate hub was only recently made aware of communication activity in this sector.”
“That’s not good.”
Anna silently agreed with Fig.
“It could be much worse. Two pirate teams are better than five or six. No more of them are showing up on my sensors. I doubt they wanted to waste the manpower to go after one or two vessels that they may believe are still here.” Blade paused. “You responded to the hails at some point, correct?”
“Yes,” Fig admitted. “We kept it short and coded.”
“It won’t matter. One of those buoys would have registered both shuttles if you transmitted anything to each other unless you were as close as we are now and sending extremely weak signals. It looks like we will have a battle to fight unless they decide three on two aren’t good odds.”
“Three? There’s four ships, including us, who aren’t pirates.”
Fig met Anna’s gaze. “We’re currently registering on sensors as one shuttle instead of two. There’s no way anyone on the shuttle we spoke to before is working with pirates. No one but Blade can hear us, but it’s too risky now that they are so close to say any names. Don’t.”
She nodded.
“You are correct, Anna. It’s four on two because three of us are certainly working together, and that shuttle we came to meet with can’t risk being captured,” Blade softly explained. “For obvious reasons. Let’s go silent and pick up our speed. I see that Free has done that. He must have come to the same conclusion: the two unexpected shuttles belong to pirates.”
Fig cut comms. “There’s no way that Marisol could trust any pirate, no matter how many credits she offered to bribe them with to leave her alone. They would capture her, keep her a prisoner at one of their hubs, and attempt to keep blackmailing her grandfather for as long as he lived. By then, they’d have tried to break her spirit until they could strip her of her wealth and ownership of Clone World.”
“That’s terrible.”
“You’re forgetting what I told you about Rico Florigo. Marisol knows how heartless her grandfather can be. He’d allow her to die before he let pirates siphon money from him. She’ll fight them right alongside us to keep from being captured. Four shuttles against two pirate ones.”
“Are we sure they are pirates?”
“Blade knows them well and the locations of their hubs. I can tell you that the direction they are coming from isn’t a used travel path. I chose this area because the only traffic coming near this system is transports to and from Clone World. Pirates aren’t interested in our plasma, medical supplies geared for our kind, or the merchandise sold to tourists. Not unless they really need items with the Clone World’s logo printed on them.”
“What about food?”
“Those transports are heavily guarded. Pirates aren’t stupid enough to attack them.”
“I see.” Anna was learning.
The console dinged with an incoming transmission. Fig’s features harshened. “What is she doing?”
“Who? Marisol?”
He nodded at Anna. “That’s coming from her shuttle.”
There was a softer ding. Fig answered it, speaking directly to Blade. “I don’t think she’s aware those are pirates.”
“That was my thought as well. How do you want to handle this? She’s not moving away from them. The pirates will reach her before we get there. Is it possible that she believes they are with us?”
“Yes,” Fig decided. “I’m alerting her.”
“Be careful of your words,” Blade warned.
“Obviously.” Fig answered the transmission from Marisol’s shuttle, speaking first. “Alpha, Roger form, line six. The two incomings are slightly spaced apart. Do you understand?”
There was a long pause. “Are you sure?” The woman sounded scared.
“Affirmative. Red, nine, seven, zero, bar, ten.” Fig paused. “Seven, seven, seven on the other inbound.”
“Understood,” Marisol said in a shaky voice. “Are you saying nine, six, zero?”
“Nine, six, zero,” Fig repeated back. “Confirmed.”
The communications ended. Anna got up from her seat, walking to stand beside Fig. “What was the alpha stuff about?”
“A.R form, line six is losses due to thief. That’s the only way I could warn her without directly saying those are pirates. The other code is for the defense budget. I’m hoping she understands that she’ll need to fight until we get there. The three sevens are what we use to await input from one of us. I’m hoping she figures out that I want her to know that’s another one of us coming to her.”
“And the nine, six, zero?”
“It’s what is used when that date is urgently needed. I confirmed that we’re going to reach her as quickly as possible.”
“Why can’t you just tell her it’s pirates and to attack them?”
“It might draw more pirates to this location if they believe those two teams are about to be attacked. With the codes we used, it will just confuse them. I’m also worried the law authorities might also be able to pick up information when those buoys transmit. Saying pirate activity is happening will bring them here. That is the last thing we need.”
“You don’t think anyone else could break the codes you’re using?”
“They are all from Clone World’s finance department. Marisol ran it. Very few humans who work there bother to learn even a portion of them, and they sure don’t allow clones off-world.”
She stared at the viewscreen. “How long until we reach that other shuttle?”
“A few hours. It’s going to be okay. I’d get us out of here if I didn’t believe we could take two pirate ships. Your life is my priority.”
Anna leaned in and wrapped her around his broad shoulders, giving him a hug. “I’m not worried, handsome. Four against two are great odds.”
“I don’t even think we’re going to have to fight.” He pointed. “Free has increased his speed. He’ll get there before we do, and he’s very motivated to save her.”
“That’s love.”
Fig turned his face, their gazes locking. “Yes, it is. A male will do anything for his female. I’m so grateful we found each other.”
“Me too. I love you, handsome.”
“I love you. We’ll spend days in bed like you wanted as soon as we get back home.”
“Yes, we will.” Anna smiled, certain that they would be doing that very soon.