— 5 —
Emerald watches the vessel's approach. "Either it wants help or it wants a good look. Nobody is dumb enough to hit a fleet unless it is a kamikaze ship. Does anybody know if the Marianas are hiring needle-head crazies?"
"No, ma'am," the Intelligence officer replies, "but there's been some bad junk pushed in the last few months. It's a percentage guess."
"Better safe than sorry. Captain, have a communications channel opened."
The radioman sets up a hailing channel and says, "Sir, it's open."
Emerald patches in on her console and announces in clipped tones, "This is Lt. Commander Emerald Sheller aboard the USJ Inverness. Identify yourself or receive fire."
The response is a burst of laser cannon fire.
"That jackass is firing on us!" the captain bellows, stunned with disbelief.
"That's it. They're dead," Emerald snaps. "Course change for Discovered Check, the five escorts in Check's sector. Pull back the tugs; move in the cruiser Brooksville. Blast the shit out of it."
The seven vessels go through the slow process of deceleration, course adjustment, and blastoff. They overtake the pirate and unload their firepower at the ship. The pirate has turned to escape and has therefore effectively disarmed itself, as its forward guns are the only powerful weapons it carries. The pirate is soon space debris, but precious time has been lost. It is already 0200.
Mark off 2 hours on your time chart.
Turn to Section 8.