Admiral's Revenge (A Spineward Sectors Novel:) by Luke Sky Wachter

Author:Luke Sky Wachter [Wachter, Luke Sky]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 37: Thanks for the tribute!

“Do you want us to give the signal now, Captain?” the Comm. Officer asked with a thread of urgency running through his voice.

“Not yet, Comm.,” Captain McCruise replied, her eyes locked on the main screen, “we’ll let them get nice and complacent before we make our move.”

“Sir,” interjected her Tactical Officer, “they have to be halfway through their recharge cycle by now.”

“And well past the need for active sensor sweeps,” the hatchet-faced Synthia McCruise agreed.

“Protocol says to continue active sweeps whenever the ship is outside of dock,” the Tactical Officer said doubtfully.

“These are pirates, remember? The wolves of the stars,” she smiled tightly, “what do they have to fear three hours into an empty system?”

“That’s a big gamble, Sir,” the Tactical Officer finally said.

“Life’s a gamble, girl,” McCruise responded with a smile.

“For the record—” the Tactical Officer started.

“An objection is noted in the record,” McCruise said dismissively, her eyes still locked on the main screen, “we continue as planned.”

“Yes, Sir,” the Tactical Officer said unhappily.

“Oh, lighten up Malaria; we’ll have more than enough time with this convoy, even if we decided to wait for another hour,” McCruise said, leaning forward in her chair.

The Tactical Officer muttered something under her voice.

“What was that?” the Captain asked, her voice hardening.

A stir in the Sensor section diverted the attention of everyone on the bridge from the rising drama between the Captain and her Tactical Officer.

“What is it, Mister Koff?” the Captain demanded.

The Sensor Lieutenant turned to the Captain, his eyes shining. “You were right, Sir. They’ve just stopped actively pinging,” he said with controlled excitement.

“Lazy, pirate broads,” the Confederation Captain said with satisfaction. “I knew the girls over there couldn’t be bothered to stick to military protocol for any longer than they felt they had to.”

Lieutenant Koff’s brow wrinkled.

“Yes, Lieutenant?” the Captain asked impatiently.

“Um, studies show that absent outside factors, the average pirate is male, Sir,” he said hesitantly, “by a wide margin, I might add.”

“It illuminates one of the bigger flaws in the other gender,” McCruise said with an agreeable smile, “for as a rule, most women are smart enough to avoid a descent into general piracy and brigandage.”

Officer Koff blinked rapidly, looking confused.

“Don’t worry, Koff,” smirked the Captain, taking pity on the beleaguered Sensor Officer, “it’s like when newscasters talk about the woman-in-the-street perspective on planetary political issues. I’m simply trying to put myself in the shoes of the other side. Never having desired to be a man, and lacking hard intel on the opposing captains, I tend to assign an arbitrary gender to my opponents.”

“Of course, Captain,” Koff agreed, beating a hasty metaphorical retreat.

“Was there a purpose to that little charade?” McCruise’s First Officer asked in a low voice as she leaned over to speak in the Captain’s ear.

“Any further pings, Sensors?” the Captain asked in a raised voice, seemingly ignoring her First Officer.

“No, Captain,” Officer Koff replied, nearly jumping as he straightened from the console he was peering over one of his operator’s shoulders to see.

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