The captain nodded, “Of course, as soon as we do, they’ll be firing volley after volley at us until we stand down,” he shook his head, “But that won’t change if they make us drop out first. Do it, Brickman.”

  The helmsman said, “Aye, sir. Transitioning to normal space, now.”

  The captain said, “Change course ninety mark thirty.”

  The helmsmen turned the ship, which would aim us right toward the three scouts that had been flanking us, at a slight declination angle to put us under them. Well, in relation to the ship anyway, there was no under in space.

  It wasn’t a bad plan. The pirate ships had no idea what we were doing right now. They wouldn’t want to exit subspace until they were on top of the coordinates we had exited at. If they’d dropped out when we had in their current positions, our apparent closeness would’ve turned into a distance of light hours at best, maybe light days.

  The captain was no doubt hoping when they did join us, we’d have gone far enough that the enemy will be right above us. The three scouts outgunned us by half again, but a point-blank surprise attack plus our shields which they likely didn’t have, just battle steel, and we’d only have two cruisers chasing us.

  The captain ordered, “Charge all banks and open the ports. If we’re lucky and they drop out inside laser range, I want you to target their drive systems and fire everything we’ve got. Two ships one bank, and the third ship, the one farthest from us, gets four missiles.”

  “Aye, sir,” the tactical officer reported.

  Not a bad plan, if they hit the right spot secondary explosions would destroy the ship, if not then at least the three scouts couldn’t stay in the chase.

  The captain said, “Helm, prepare to take us back into subspace.”

  The helmsman replied, “Aye, Captain.”

  The only flaw was the pirates were extremely experienced at doing this kind of thing. Would they read the captain’s intentions correctly and come out completely surrounding us? If they guessed really wrong, and they thought the captain would turn away from the scouts, then they’d come out way out of range. But that really wouldn’t hurt them, it’d just give them a second chance to do it right.

  The only way we won is if we guessed correctly and they came out right above us, or at least within range of the eighteen-inch laser banks.

  It all happened fast as the five pirate ships dropped into normal space. The two cruisers were out of weapons range by quite a bit as we’d hoped, and the three scouts were within laser range as we had hoped as well, just not quite as close as we’d hoped. It took just a split second for the scouts to show weapons were locked on in the status.

  “Fire!” the captain ordered.

  Eight lasers streaked across space, and the four missiles were fired. The lasers were almost immediate, and tore through the main engines of one of the scouts. The other one we didn’t have a great angle, and it hit the dorsal section along the bottom of the enemy ship.

  Ops officer reported, “The first one isn’t going anywhere, their main engines are slagged. It appears the second one has lost power for the moment. Ten seconds for the missile impacts. The light cruisers are back in subspace, captain. Six enemy missiles incoming, fifteen seconds.”

  The captain said, “Target the second ship again, and fire the second bank at the third.”

  Tactical reported, “Still charging, in three… firing.”

  The lasers didn’t hit the same spot, not exactly, and more of the second ship’s battle metal was breached, but there was no appreciable change to its status. It could be minutes before they restored power, or if hours they were out of the fight for good.

  The second bank missed the engines as well, and they dug into the battle metal baffles around them. A minor inconvenience that would make them less maneuverable.

  Ops said, “Two of our missiles were shot down by their lasers, two direct hits.”

  The third ship was done, the two missiles that hit taking out the engines and then some.

  “Three seconds captain.”

  The captain ordered, “Transition, now!”

  The helmsman punched the button… and nothing happened. The only reason for that would be if there was a subspace storm on the other side, a safety measure.

  Shit. The captain had been counting on that to dodge the six enemy missiles, but the cruisers must’ve stirred up a storm in subspace when they realized we weren’t going to just surrender.

  The lasers were still charging after their last attack, there was nothing we could do to stop them, and the ship shook violently as the six missiles hit in a barrage. Forcefully enough it hurt, and it made me glad I was strapped down in the chair.

  Ops reported, “The cruisers are back and a lot closer, but still at least two hours away and accelerating quickly.”

  “Damage report.”

  Ops said, “Our shields are gone, Captain, but they took most of the damage. We lost the dorsal bank and one missile launcher. Our hull integrity is slightly degraded but no breaches.”

  So one bank of lasers, and three missile launchers.

  The captain ordered, “Take down the enemy scout ships with a missile barrage and move us away from the cruisers, best speed. Save our lasers in case they get off another missile launch. Frasier, tell me exactly when we have an ETA on shield repair”

  Helm, Ops, and tactical echoed, “Aye, sir.”

  The enemy scouts would be in missile range for quite a while, more than long enough to finish them in their degraded state.

  Ops reported, “Two missiles fired at us, Captain. From the first ship. The second one has no power to launch missiles, and scans are telling me we took out the third ship’s launchers.”

  The captain ordered, “Take down the first ship first then. We should be able to stay ahead of a two-missile barrage with our one bank until they’re out.”

  That was true enough, the first ship had no main engines, so couldn’t even really maneuver.

  Tactical said, “Aye, sir.”

  Ops reported, “Twelve hours on shield restoration, sir. Several of the emitters were slagged and need replacement. At our current acceleration and the enemy’s, the pirate cruisers will be in firing range in just eight. Our fourth missile launcher should be back online before then, but the dorsal bank will need a drydock to fix. Sir, we’re being hailed.”

  “On screen.”

  The captain sat back and took on a relaxed posture, as the main screen showed the enemy’s light cruiser’s bridge.

  There was no longer any doubt who it was, I recognized Malice from the security footage on ship’s she’d stripped clean. She was quite attractive actually, the mid-level and upper-level demons tended to look human in appearance. She looked ageless, five foot nine, black lustrous hair and smoky dark brown eyes. She was curvaceous in form, ripely lush and sensuous like Grace, just more so. She was also wearing nothing but a leather vest that looked to be straining to hold her breasts in place, and skintight leather pants. She was hot, but I wouldn’t fuck her with my worst enemy’s cock.

  I wasn’t all that shocked to see a man dressed as a bishop, in black robes, and I recognized him easily as Bishop Price. He was six foot two, wiry, with brown hair and eyes.

  They both needed to die in my mind, and my hand itched to pull my sword, but given they were several A.U. away that’d be a useless and impotent gesture, so I slowly relaxed my hand.

  “Captain. You will cease firing, and stand down to be boarded upon our arrival, or you will greatly regret it.”

  The captain smiled, “You’ll never let us live, your reputation precedes you, Malice. If I must die, I’m going to do it fighting, not like cattle led to the slaughter.”

  Malice smirked, “Captain, you have such little imagination. There are many ways to die. The vampire bite is said to be quite pleasant, and they’re all rather attractive and get horny while feeding. So a pleasant task of feeding and fucking until you die…” she trailed off and her face became coldly merciless, “Or I can keep you alive and have you tortured indefinitely to enjoy your screams, while you slowly starve to death.

  “Your ship has been damaged in your foolish resistance, and we outgun you two to one. The storm in subspace is powerful, and it will last for days and take weeks to clear in normal space. I’d suggest you surrender to the inevitable now, you might even like it.”

  The captain shook his head, “Two to one odds is better than most enjoy while facing you in the past. You’re used to fighting unarmed vessels, and my crew is the elite of the Fellowship. I’m going to enjoy destroying your scouts, and we’ll be sure to see you soon, but you surely won’t enjoy it.”

  Malice’s face twisted coldly in hatred as the captain signaled with his hand, and the conversation was ended.

  Ops reported, “The first ship is scrap, the entire ship holed, there’s no power readings, and I’m not reading any pockets of atmosphere.”

  Even vampires had to breathe.

  The captain nodded, “Move on to another ship, we don’t have to break the ship apart further. We’ll need those missiles later. Just make sure there are no survivors, and that the ships will never move again under its own power. If we’re still in laser range fire away, the last two have no missile potential.”

  The tactical officer said, “Aye, sir. Firing banks. Should I do as much damage that way and save on missiles?”

  The captain considered that, then nodded, “Yes, if you can take them out with laser fire before we leave range, do it. If not go back to missiles.”

  Missile range extended to a couple of light seconds, effective laser range however was a lot closer.

  Fiona said, “Did anyone else notice Bishop Price seemed… not there.”

  I nodded, “His eyes were pretty glazed over and absently confused. I think it’s safe to say he’s Malice’s puppet, and the attacks in the media to destabilize the Fellowship by aiming at the top was all her idea. It makes me wonder why she bothered to rescue him, unless she needs him alive for some reason. If he managed to summon and bind her, but did it wrong and lost his soul, it’s possible if he dies that she gets sent back to hell. I can’t imagine why she’d have bothered extracting him otherwise.”

  Grace said, “Unless her plans include more videos to be made by the concerned and troubled young bishop.”

  There were several snorting laughs across the bridge at that.

  “Good point, that’s possible. She’s been around for years, and he didn’t learn what he was until six months ago. Still, his summoning and binding would’ve severed her first one, if he managed to find her name in the archives.”

  The second disabled ship went up in a huge explosion that left nothing behind but small pieces, a moment later the third scout was slammed by a whole bunch of them. Two more laser hits finished it off, though it didn’t explode it had no atmosphere, it’s hull was swiss cheese, and its engines and systems were completely trashed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The stern chase was a long one. The yacht’s engines as powerful as the light cruisers, but since they’d started their acceleration first they’d always be going faster and slowly narrowing the gap. Their engines would also be facing the other way, so it would be virtually impossible to take them out while ours would be an easy target from behind. I suspected the captain would flip ship right before the engagement, especially since our dorsal laser array was down.

  With an eight-hour chase before the engagement us and the primary bridge crew took a break to get some food and much needed shuteye since their attack had interrupted our normal sleep time.

  We were all back on the bridge thirty minutes before the confrontation.

  The captain asked, “Suggestions?’

  I said, “They’ll take down our weapons and then dock on the starboard and port airlocks. They’ll override their safeties to open both airlock doors, then blow ours so they can stream in from both sides. That has always been their approach, overwhelming vampire attack from two sides, while their scouts stood guard. Obviously that last one won’t be the case this time.”

  The captain frowned, “Are you suggesting we can’t win?”

  I shrugged, “Not exactly, just that we should look at things realistically and plan accordingly. We’ll be out gunned by twice as much in missiles, and with the loss of our dorsal laser bank we’ll be outgunned by four times. We also won’t have the advantage of our shields. I’m suggesting we can’t win this in straight out battle.”

  I paused for a second, then said, “I’d focus on taking one of the ships if not down at least offline so they lose acceleration and fall behind. Then we can focus on repelling their boarding teams from one airlock. I assume we’ve reported our coordinates here in the void, and that a rescue fleet is on the way? As long as we beat their boarding party, then secure their undamaged ship, we can take out the damaged light cruiser and then either fly their ship home or wait for rescue.”

  The captain pondered that, “It’s a good backup plan, but you’ll excuse me if I attempt to win before that.”

  I laughed, “Of course, captain. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  The captain said leadingly, “Vampires are strong, and fast.”

  I nodded, “I’d suggest Fiona use her magic to block off, separate, and funnel them into bottle necks. Between my whip, Grace’s telekinesis, and the crew shooting lasers for head shots, we should stand a good chance. Especially if we only have to take on one of the crews.”

  The captain looked at Fiona, and she nodded.

  “I can do that, it’ll make a mess of the ship, but I can modify bulkheads and completely block corridors to slow them down. I can even build spike wall traps, so Grace can toss them on the spikes,” Grace giggled, and Fiona just kept talking, “You saw what my mom did to those shuttles, I’m not that good yet but moving the metal around in the walls will be a lot easier in comparison. I recently repaired a hull rupture using that approach. Rearranging the corridors will be just as easy.”

  The captain nodded, “We’re likely to have minutes to hours to get it done, if they manage to pull our teeth and based on when that might happen. How long will it take?”

  She shrugged, “Depends on what you want me to do. To block off a few corridors and create thinner spots in the corridors, and a few spike walls, just a few minutes. If that.”

  The captain grunted, “I’d suggest you let me fight the ship while you plan that out. Get with Brice, he’ll be leading any efforts to repel boarders and will have an idea where to best place things. I’ll aim all my missile fire at a single ship, and we’ll do our best to get both when the first one goes down. Worst case, you’ll have a while to plan and prepare.”

  The three of us exchanged a look, then Fiona nodded in agreement, “Will do.”

  We got up and left the bridge to track down Brice and his fire teams. The ship knew where he was, so it was simple to get a walking path to him in augmented reality. It looked like he was in the ship’s main armory.

  “I don’t suppose there’s enough silver on the ship to turn the floor in front of the airlock into a death trap.”

  Fiona hummed a few notes, then shook her head, “No, there’s more silver in your rope dart than in the rest of the ship. Except maybe critical components I can’t take it from.”

  Huh, I had no idea she could do that.

  Well, it’d been nice if I could’ve turned the whole corridor into a cleansing flame death trap for them, but we’d manage without it. Life would be a lot easier if I could project the fire without silver to carry my magic, but I had to work with what I had.

  “We should totally go into mining.”

  She giggled, “We may have to, after that last video.”

  I shook my head, “I don’t think things are that dire yet. When the shock of it wears down a bit, our side will point out all she did was defend herself and her husband the prelate, without collateral damage. That she simply took out six traitors and attempted first degree murderers bent on sedition.”

  She looked like she might reply, but we reached our destination before she did.

  Brice was a short and wide shouldered man, maybe five foot six, and he looked up annoyed as the three of us entered the armory where his team seemed to be gearing up.

  He said shortly, “We’re a bit busy right now, what can we help you with, your grace.”

  The first six words implied he didn’t want to help us with anything, and it was no doubt a suggestion for us to not ask him for anything and just leave.

  Fiona said, “The captain sent us to discuss defending against boarders. I can block off corridors and even thin them in places for tighter bottlenecks, as well as create traps. You’ll also want Damien and Grace to help with those vampires that make it through your men’s fire to close range.”

  He frowned, a distasteful look on his face, and I started to wonder if the whole crew wasn’t quite as supportive as the captain and the rest of the bridge crew had been. The man was looking at Fiona like she might sprout horns and shit fire any moment.

  “We’re here to help at the captain’s suggestion, Brice. It seems prudent to coordinate and not waste time. Unless you’d like to speak to Bishop Price first, he’s on Malice’s bridge right now and her puppet.”

  Brice scowled, my less than subtle reprimand putting him on the defensive, but I was done coddling assholes in the temple guard, who should all be willing to sacrifice their lives before harm met the ruling family or other higher church members.

  “Give me a minute to think this through. Could you completely block a corridor?” he asked Fiona.

  She nodded, “Yes.”

  He chewed his lip, “Harriman, break out the C-4, we’re going to build some kill boxes. If nothing else, it’ll weed out a few and slow down the ones behind them and teach them to be cautious. We’ll need to make a plan for it, for all the airlocks, that will also work with our current deployment strategies,” he looked back at us, “We’re all trained and tend to fall back on that training when the fur flies. We don’t want to step on our own toes accidentally by introducing too many new ideas in battle. What exactly is it Grace and Damien can do for us?”