One Mission: Pirates of the Badlands Book 3 by Benjamin Sean

Author:Benjamin, Sean [Benjamin, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2015-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

After a routine flight, Celestria was four hours from the rendezvous point and closing. The sensor operator sat up and adjusted his scope. He had not been imagining it. There was definitely a contact in front of them. “Contact closing on us.”

Maddox and Corbett walked over to sensors as the comm operator spoke. “Receiving a message in pirate code. Decoding now.”

The two officers looked at the sensor returns. One ship closing on them at a slow pace.

“That’s a good size ship,” remarked Corbett. “Probably an outrider, so the pirate formation is not surprised.”

Maddox nodded in agreement but remained silent. He was committed now. The closing ship would have seen him and his IFF code on their own sensors and, if he turned and ran, they might conclude this was some sort of trap set up by him and the Goths and the pirates would be very unhappy with him. The last thing he wanted was to be the cause of Killian O’Hare’s unhappiness. Not conducive to a long life.

The comm watch stander spoke. “Their message is to send authentication codes.”

The code package O’Hare had given them had contained a list of such codes. Maddox walked over to the comm station while pulling out the list from his jacket pocket. He had used one set when sending his report on his episode on Necessity, and now he went to the next set on the list. He leaned over the operator and typed them out himself. These codes meant no other ship could get close to the pirates by impersonating Celestria because they would not have the codes. Of course, the codes could be given to others, but that would mean those other people better get the pirates while using the ruse because it would take O’Hare and her people about two seconds to figure out they had been double-crossed. Thirty seconds later, they would be after Celestria.

Apparently, the code transfer was acceptable as the closing ship told Celestria to maintain course and speed. As the freighter closed on the large ship, it stopped in space and waited. The spot where the ship took up her position was three hours from the rendezvous coordinates.

“Probably going to escort us in,” Maddox suggested.

They closed on the stationary ship at a good pace. Soon they had visual contact as a point of light appeared in front of them and grew steadily in size as the distance shrank. Radio comm was now possible with little time delay.

The sentinel ship spoke. “Celestria, close on me and cut your engines to assume a stationary position nearby.”

Maddox nodded to his helmsman to follow the orders. Several minutes later, the large merchantman was drifting close to the large sentinel ship. The sentry was a merchant ship similar to Celestria with the name Lucky Murphy stenciled in heavy black letters on her hull. The two ships floated near each other in silence for a few moments. The freighter’s bridge crew looked at each other, at a loss as to what to do next.

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