Leave: Griffin's Story

To Lie for her birthday August 30, 2005. Happy birthday and many more, sissy.

I blew into my quarters, mind going in a million directions trying to think of all the things I needed to do in the three days before my Leave started. I was happy that I would be seeing my parents this Leave. It had been a while since we had all been able to arrange Leave together and I was looking forward to spending time with both of them. I stripped off my BDUs and was headed for the shower when my forward motion was halted by the sight of my comm message light blinking urgently.

I hit the switch to turn the message recall on and blinked in surprise to see my aunt and not my mother like I was expecting. Ariana Wildwing, pirate and great-aunt, stared out at me. Even knowing this was a recording I stepped back, in shock. Intellectually, I knew I had a pirate as an aunt but it was quite another thing to see her in the holographic flesh. Worry lines traced a visage that wasn’t much older than my mother’s and the look on her face was stern. The image was frozen since I hadn’t yet toggled the message play so I reached a hand forward and turned it on. “Griffin Carter, my name is Ariana Wildwing. I don’t know what your mother, Miranda, may have told you but I’m married to your mother’s uncle, Michael. I have been unable to contact your mother so hope this message will reach you through Service channels. I have some very sad news. In a raid on Hellion Prime three days ago, your uncle Michael was killed. I need you or your mother to meet me and my daughter at these coordinates to remove her from the pirates. She’s sixteen now and I want her away from this life. I’m incommunicado so will just assume you got this message and someone is able to meet me at the arranged time and place. Thank you.” The message screen blanked then coordinates and a time flashed on the screen before the message shut off.

My shower now the furthest thing from my mind, I quickly pulled on off-duty clothes and sat down in front of my comm. I knew my parents were out of touch because they were enjoying a much needed second honeymoon. I had a comm code for them that I was supposed to use when I was ready to join them. I just hoped that they were near the comm three days early. Taping in the code, I waited for the call to go through.

My dad’s features coalesced on the screen as he answered. “Griffin,” he said, surprised. “We weren’t expecting to hear from you for another few days.”

“I know, Dad. And I’m not calling to say I’m coming early. I have some bad news. Could you get Mom, please?”

“Its not your grandmother, is it?” Dad asked as he turned away from the screen and called, “Miranda!”

I could hear my mother’s voice from off-screen. “Who is it, Galen?” Then she was in front of me, a smile lighting her face up when she saw it was me. “Hey, Griffin. Are you coming to join us early?”

I hated to take that smile from her face. My mother’s early years hadn’t been easy and I knew that Uncle Michael was the one who rescued her. I was glad Dad would be beside her when I broke the news. “No, Mom, I’m not coming early. I don’t know when I’ll get to you. I just got a message from Ariana Wildwing.”

Mom frowned. “Ariana contacted you? Why?”

“Mom, there just isn’t an easy way to say this. Uncle Michael is dead. Ariana wants me to meet her and take their daughter away from the pirates.”

Dad had slipped an arm around her when she joined him on screen and now that same arm supported my mother as she collapsed. “Uncle Michael’s dead?” she gasped.

“Griffin, are you sure?” Dad asked.

I shook my head. “I haven’t had a chance to confirm it but I can’t see Ariana lying about this. I’ll go and meet her and bring the girl to you two. You can decide where to go from there.”

“Go. Be careful, but go meet her. We’ll catch a shuttle and make it to the closest space port. Send me the coordinates before you go.”

“I will, Dad. Take care of Mom, please. I’m sorry to break the news like this.”

“I know, Son. We’re signing off now.”

“I’ll make arrangements and get on my way.” I keyed in the coordinates and sent a data burst to my parents’ unit before signing off myself. Satisfied that my parents were on their way and I was trusted to go meet the pirate, I tapped in a message that I needed to speak to my commander before stripping my clothes off and heading for my postponed shower. I knew my commander had just started her shift of bridge duty so it would be awhile before she had a chance to get back to me. I had the time to get a shower and something to eat before I could expect a response.

I was eating in the mess when the ship wide intercom beeped and I heard, “Lieutenant Griffin Carter, report to the captain’s ready room.”

Surprised, I got to my feet and used my Link to acknowledge the command. I had expected to be called to my commander’s office not the captain’s ready room. After dumping my tray in the receptacle, I made my way up to the room off the bridge.

Both the captain and my commander were waiting for me when I entered the room. Commander Shelby looked up from a data pad as I saluted and returned my salute. “You’re requesting to start your Leave early, Lieutenant?” she asked me.

“Yes, Sir.” I relaxed into parade rest as she nodded at me. “I’ve had a family emergency come up suddenly.”

Shelby looked alarmed. “Are your parents hurt?” I remembered that she had served with my parents before becoming a commander.

“No, Sir, my parents are fine. Its my cousin, Sir, and my uncle actually.”

The captain was being silent during our exchange but now he joined the conversation, “Which uncle? I’m aware your father has quite a few siblings.”

“Great-uncle, actually, Sir. My mother’s uncle. He was killed suddenly and his wife would like my parents to take charge of their daughter. My mother is understandably upset by this news so I would like to go meet them myself. To save her from having to deal with it.”

“That’s compassionate of you, Lieutenant.” The captain nodded and held his hand out for the data pad the Shelby held. “I see no reason not to approve your request.” He signed the data pad and handed it off to me. “Your request is granted immediately. Your Leave will not be used, I’ve approved family grievance for the three extra days. Dismissed.”

“Thank you, Sir.” I saluted before spinning and exiting the room.

When I reached my quarters, I discovered that in addition to the family grievance leave, I had also been approved to liberate one of the shuttles. I wouldn’t take it though. Wildwing had made arrangements for us to meet on the edge of settled space and Service personal were not always welcomed there. I would take ship on a liner going in that direction if I could find one or lease a shuttle for the trip. I grabbed my duffle and began throwing clothes in, making sure not to grab anything that would mark me as Service. I couldn’t erase my Service tattoos but I would be careful to keep them covered where I was going.

I wasn’t a fighter pilot like my parents but I was able to pilot simple shuttles so I wasn’t worried about how I would make my way to the rendezvous site, I was more concerned with escaping the pirates and making my way back to settled space. I would worry about that when I came to it though, I was nothing if not resourceful. I had the computer check passenger liner routes while I was packing and made arrangements for passage on one that would pass by the next space station we were scheduled to dock at. I also bought tickets for my cousin and I for the return trip to the station where we would meet my parents. It would be a seven day trip for us to meet them but I figured I could use the time to introduce my cousin to some manners.

* * * * * *

Two days later, I strode through the space station on my way to the rental bay for shuttles. I had made arrangements to rent a shuttle for the time it would take me to meet with Wildwing and pick up her daughter. I wanted some time to look over the shuttle before I was supposed to take it out so planned to get to the bay the day before I needed it. I would look the shuttle over today, spend the night at a hotel, than fly out the next day to meet Wildwing. Once I picked Kayla up, we would go immediately to the passenger liner and spend the night aboard the ship. I didn’t foresee any problems with my plan.

Once I was sure I could fly the shuttle and that it was in good working condition, I made my way back to the hotel. I wasn’t interested in perusing any of the shops on station or catching a holofilm. I would eat dinner by myself in my room and go to bed. Wildwing had made arrangements to meet early in the morning and I wanted to be well rested. I had no idea what to expect from the meeting and I wanted to be prepared for anything.

* * * * * *

Early the next morning, I signed out the shuttle and made my way to the rendezvous point. The coordinates put me dead center in unoccupied space; the perfect place for a meeting with no witnesses. I was a little nervous about meeting a pirate but figured I wasn’t really doing anything wrong. I was meeting a family member to pick up another family member. There was nothing illegal about that.

I arrived at the coordinates and shut the shuttle’s engines down, allowing it to drift in space. There wasn’t another ship anywhere in site but I assumed Wildwing would be there soon. About five minutes after I arrived, a ship appeared out of hyperspace off my port side. I toggled the com and hailed the ship, “Captain Wildwing, Griffin Carter here. I’m ready to take possession of Kayla O’Neill.”

“This is the pirate ship, Kobayashi Maru. Prepare to dock your ship in our shuttle bay. A representative will be waiting for you.”

I acknowledged the command and fired the engines, allowing my ship to be caught by the Kobayashi Maru’s tractor beam and brought aboard. I clamped down on my misgivings about allowing myself on board and began to shut the shuttle down as it was settled gently in the ready cradle. Normally a shuttle would fly into the bay under its own power, but apparently the pirates didn’t trust my piloting skills.

When I disembarked from the ship, I was met by a rangy guy about my age. He wore black from head to toe, including a black bandana that covered his hair. A black diamond was tattooed below his left eye. He wore two pistols in shoulder holsters, situated so he could cross draw them and a knife strapped to one leg. All in all, he was an intimidating sight. “Captain Wildwing is waiting for you in her quarters,” he greeted me. “I’m supposed to escort you to her.”

“I was wondering how I would find her,” I replied.

“Follow me,” he said abruptly, “and don’t touch anything.”

I was a little annoyed by his presumption that I would touch anything and that whatever I touched would cause a problem, but I was on a strange ship so I decided my best bet was to keep my hands to myself. I fell in step with him and tried to think of a conversation starter. The best I could come up with was, “So why did you become a pirate?”

He looked askance at me. “That has to be the weirdest question you would have asked.”

I shrugged. “I couldn’t think of anything else to ask. Will you answer?”

He grinned. “Sure. Why not? I joined the pirates about five years ago. My parents were killed during a raid on the station we lived on. Two years after that, Captain Wildwing led an attack on that pirate group and wiped them out.”

I stared at him in shock. He treated the death of the pirates as a natural occurrence. There was no emotion behind his tale. I wondered what else he had seen that had taken away his feelings about human life or if it was just training given to him to not let any emotion out so enemies couldn’t use it against him. I was saved from having to think of a reply to his revelation by our arrival at a door. The pirate rapped on the door with his fist and a moment later, it was opened. He motioned for me to enter and followed me in after I had.

I don’t know what I was expecting the quarters to look like but it certainly wasn’t the comfortable furnishings that wouldn’t look out of place in my parents’ apartment. I took a moment to study my aunt and cousin before speaking. My aunt sat up straight in one chair. She was clad in brown leather; boots, pants, and vest were all cut from the same cloth, with a linen shirt underneath. She was weaponless but a blaster lay on the table next to her. Her brown hair had been pulled back in a ponytail and she looked younger than I assumed from the holograph. My cousin appeared to be at that gangly adolescent age where feet and hands were too big and legs stretched out too long. She wore her dark hair short and spiked on top. The spikes had some kind of purple coloring on them. She wore a pair of black cargo pants and a purple silk tank top that matched her spikes. Combat boots completed the outfit. She sprawled in the chair to the left of her mother. “Hello, Captain,” I greeted my aunt.

“Welcome to the Kobayashi Maru,” she said in a throaty voice. “I am Captain Ariana Wildwing which you already knew. And this is my daughter, Kayla O’Neill. Have a seat.”

I nodded at my cousin as I took a seat in the chair Ariana had indicated. Kayla had a scowl on her face which detracted from the prettiness of her features. “Yeah, whatever,” Kayla grumbled. “I told you I don’t want to go.”

“And I told you there wasn’t going to be any more discussion. You are going with Griffin,” Ariana informed her.

“I don’t want to get into the middle of an argument,” I said. “If she doesn’t want to go, I understand.”

Ariana shook her head. “No, she’s going. With her father gone, I can’t protect her here.”

“You sent Daddy to his death! If he hadn’t gone in ahead of Ziza, he wouldn’t be dead.”

“We don’t know that, Kayla. There’s no way for us to know that, especially with Ziza still unconscious.” Ariana took her daughter’s hand. “I need to know you’re safe.”

“I still don’t like it.” Kayla appeared to be capitulating to her mother’s wishes.

“I didn’t ask you to like it, I just asked you to do it!”

“Don’t order me around like a child, Mother,” she snapped before turning to me. “I’ll meet you at the shuttle.”

If she could have, I think Kayla would have slammed the door behind her. Ariana sighed as the door slid closed behind her angry daughter. “I’m sorry. Kayla hasn’t taken her father’s death well. She and her father were especially close.”

“I’ll be careful of her feelings,” I told Ariana. “I can’t understand what she’s going through but I can try to empathize with her.”

“Just try to treat her like a normal person. If she wants to talk about her father, she will.”

I nodded. “Mom will be able to help with that. She’s always willing to talk about her favorite uncle.”

“That will do her good. Now you’d better go join her before she takes off with your shuttle on her own.”

I thanked her for meeting me, then quickly made my way back to the shuttle. Kayla was waiting for me in the shuttle but didn’t say anything to me. She was silent as I took off and headed for the passenger liner.

Kayla slammed into the suite, still obviously pissed from the last argument with her mother. She threw the duffle she had packed onto the floor before throwing herself into a chair. “Acting like a spoiled brat will not change your mother’s commands,” I commented to her. “May I suggest something?”

“Why should I care? You’re going to tell me anyway since you’re the older male.”

“Actually I won’t tell you my suggestion unless you want me to. I just want to get you safely to my parents. They’re the ones who are going to have to deal with you and your attitude on a daily basis.”

“Fine,” she spat. “What’s your suggestion?”

“You’ll hit your majority in what two years?”

She nodded. “A little less than. I turned sixteen three months ago.”

“Stay with my parents until you hit your majority. If you run away before then, the authorities will just send you back to them anyway. Once you hit eighteen, they can’t stop you. You can run away the day after your eighteenth birthday and right back to your mother. She can’t send you back if you’re old enough to make your own decisions.”

She considered my words for a few minutes. “You know, you actually have a good point. I’ll think about it.”

“Well while you’re thinking about it, go pick your bedroom. There’re two of them. I’ll take the one you don’t want.”

She bounced to her feet, a grin lighting up her face. “I get to pick? Totally cool!”

“You know you’re halfway pretty without the scowl,” I commented as she stuck her head into one room.

She looked at me, then called over her shoulder while she peeked into the other room, “You are truly weird.” She pointed to the first room. “I want that one. This one has a bigger bed so you can have it since you are like way taller than me.”

I laughed at her description of me, since I did stand head and shoulders above her she was correct in her assessment. I didn’t think one bed was bigger than the other though. I tossed my duffle in the room that had been designated mine, then sat down in the common room and pulled up the ship’s entertainment page. “Hey, Kayla, are you interested in checking out any of the entertainment tonight?”

She wandered back out of her room. “Is there anything going on? I mean we don’t actually leave until tomorrow. Is there anything happening tonight?”

I scrolled down the list and saw she was right. There really wasn’t anything that looked interesting. “Okay, you’re right. How about dinner at the under twenty-one nightclub then and you can enjoy the music? Its not live tonight but maybe they’ll play something you like.”

“As long as you dance one dance with me it’s a deal. You can’t be that much over twenty-one.”

“Twenty-seven actually, although I could pass for younger. I’m not much of a dancer but it’s a deal.”

“Coolness! Lemme go change and we can boogie.”

I shook my head at her enthusiasm so different from the angry teenager I had had a few minutes before. I had a feeling I was in for a wild ride tonight, trying to rein her in. “Don’t take too long, Kayla. I’m ready for dinner,” I called after her.

“Don’t worry, Griff. I am so looking to party!” Her excited voice came floating back to me.

I rolled my eyes at the nickname and considered telling her I hated it but decided to save that information for later. She was being agreeable right now so I didn’t want to make her change her tune. I glanced down at myself and figured I looked respectable in jeans and a button down shirt. Since Kayla hadn’t said anything to me about changing, I decided to just let it be. I didn’t care what I looked like, I just wanted to keep her safe.

My jaw almost hit the floor when Kayla walked back out of her room a few minutes later. Gone were the black cargo pants, tank top, and combat boots, they had been replaced by a blood red skirt so short I hoped she didn’t bend over with a black camisole for a top and a pair of boots that rode all the way up her legs almost to the skirt. I wasn’t entirely sure how she walked in them since they also sported four inch heels. Briefly I considered going into my luggage and getting my pistol since I was sure I was going to need it before the night was out. “You can’t seriously expect to go out like that?” I asked.

She glared at me. “Don’t even think I’m changing my clothes, Griff. You said the club. I’m going like this. You could change you know, fit in a little better.”

“No way,” I replied. “One of us has to look respectable or they won’t let us into the club. And don’t call me Griff. I hate that.”

She snorted but shrugged. “Suit yourself. I bet there will be girls dressed in less than me. This is conservative club attire where I’m from.”

I groaned but decided that arguing with her would only postpone my dinner and probably give me a headache. I grabbed my Service knife and slid it into its sheath, slipping it onto my belt as we left the suite. At least I would be somewhat armed and with something that probably wouldn’t get a second look. “Just don’t go off with any strangers tonight, Kayla. I don’t feel like having to track you down.”

“Dance with me and you won’t have to worry about it, Griff.” She grinned when she saw me clench my teeth at the nickname. “Cool knife,” she changed the subject. “Think you can get me one like it?”

“Think you can use it without cutting off a finger?” I tossed back at her.

“Lend it to me and I’ll show you what I can do,” she sassed me.

“Not tonight, maybe later.”

I was surprised not to hear the nightclub before we got to it but realized that there was probably sound proofing all around it so that the other passengers were not bothered by it. We walked through a short hallway before entering the club floor and I could understand why the hallway was there when we entered the club. It was like walking into a solid wall of noise, the music was up so high. I thought my eardrums were going to burst from the noise. There was a bouncer at the door to the club and he looked us over before allowing us to pass. Apparently since I was with Kayla, I was allowed in even though I was over twenty-one. “No spiking the drinks,” he instructed me. I nodded to show I understood. I wasn’t interested in drinking anything alcoholic anyway tonight since I had Kayla to keep an eye on. Despite her seeming acceptance of my shadowing, I still wasn’t sure she would be compliant if I tried to keep her more in line that I already was. I needed to have my wits around me to keep up with her.

Kayla’s body was already moving to the beat of the music we could now hear coming from the club even though we hadn’t yet entered the club proper. I snagged her arm and pulled her closer so I could speak into her ear. “Dinner first,” I instructed in a loud voice. She nodded to show she understood and we made our way over to an empty table. Once we sat down, I engaged the sound bubble that surrounded the table to cut down on the music. It didn’t block it entirely but cut it down to a level so the people at the table could talk without having to scream at each other. Kayla called up the menu while I engaged the bubble and began to look it over.

I picked a veggie burger and fries for my meal and added a soda, figuring that would be filling and it was something I couldn’t get on board a Service ship. Kayla ordered shish kabobs and a virgin Piña Colada for her meal. While we waited for our food, I looked around the club, locating the exits and checking out the different levels of the club. The club itself was three levels with the upper two levels forming a balcony around the dance floor which was on the lowest level. We sat at a table on the middle level which gave us a great view of the dance floor and the same level across from us. I kept one eye on Kayla as she surveyed the nightclub and also checked out the club myself.

It looked innocuous enough, a pretty standard nightclub with flashing lights and loud pounding music. The only thing that really separated it from the other nightclubs I had frequented while on Leave was the age of the patrons. I was definitely the oldest person in the room, other than some of the bartenders, and Kayla was actually on the older side. It wasn’t very crowded but I wasn’t surprised by that, many of the children that would frequent the club were probably not aboard the liner yet. If we came back later in the week, I expected it to be much more crowded.

Kayla was bouncing in her seat but didn’t yet seem inclined to make for the dance floor. I suspected she was as hungry as I was, which was confirmed when she dug into her food as soon as it arrived. Despite being in the bubble we didn’t talk much during the meal, both of us too hungry to try to find a common subject to talk about. As soon as her food was polished off, Kayla got up to head for the dance floor. I caught her arm as she started to leave the bubble. “Remember what I said about going off with strangers.”

She shook my hand off. “I know. I know. You going to stay here?”

I nodded. “I’ll come get you when I’m ready to go.”

I ordered another soda after she had left. All of our purchases would be charged to the suite while we were on board and we would settle up at the end of the trip. Kayla had quickly joined a group of teens about her age once she made it to the dance floor and they were all gyrating together as a group. She would glance back at me every so often as she danced as if to assure herself that I hadn’t moved. I waved at her sometimes when she would glance at me and she would give a little half-smile before turning back to her new friends. I wasn’t really concerned that she would get into trouble but wanted to keep a close eye on her anyway. The liner was locked down while in port and you were only allowed to board if you had a ticket and were on the passenger manifest. Kayla and I had both had to present identification with our tickets to get on board and we had to submit to a DNA scan to verify our identities. We were as safe as we could get on a ship like this.

I was just beginning to think I would get out of dancing with Kayla when the music slowed and people began to pair off. I noticed that a couple of pairs were boy/boy and girl/girl while the rest were mixed sex before Kayla was in front of me and pulling me out of my seat. She dragged me out onto the dance floor and turned to face me. When I didn’t do anything, she giggled and took a hold of my hands. “It’s easy,” she told me. “Just put your arms around my waist and sway to the music.” I did as she instructed and soon found myself relaxing. Kayla grinned at me as the tension leeched out of my body. “See I told you it was easy.”

When the song was over, I convinced her it was time to go back to our suite.

* * * * * *

The next few days passed swiftly as we enjoyed entertainments offered by the liner. As Kayla said, “We paid for the tickets, we might as well enjoy ourselves.” We tried to get together for at least one meal a day and I used that time to tell Kayla about my family, partly in the hope that she would confide in me about her father. She never did.

* * * * * *

I was reading in the living room on our third day out when Kayla burst into the suite. “Someone’s attacking the ship!” she exclaimed.

I tossed my data pad aside and looked up at her. “Are you sure?”

“We dropped out of hyperspace about five minutes ago and there’s nothing near here.”

I nodded then hurried into my room. Once there, I ripped open my duffle, grabbing out the pistols I had stored there and spare power packs. I shoved one at Kayla. “Do you know how to use it?” I asked her.

She nodded, checking the charge and thumbing off the safety. “Its pretty standard. I’ll follow you.”

“I’m heading for the bridge to see what we can do there. It has to be pirates. Are you going to be okay with shooting them?”

She shrugged. “I’ll defend myself. I doubt these are my mother’s people. She wouldn’t attack the ship I’m on.”

“Stay close to me and take out anyone who tries to stop us. We want the people to get back in their rooms and stay out of the way.”

She nodded again. “I’m on your back. Just move quickly.”

Both of us were dressed comfortably in jeans and shirts so I wasn’t worried about moving quickly. I tossed her a holster that would hold the power packs and watched as she shrugged it on. She didn’t put her pistol up and together we went to the door, opening it and peeking out into the hallway. It was clear at the moment and we began to make our way down the hall, moving at a fast clip.

As we encountered passengers, we encouraged them to go back into their rooms and lock the doors. It might not stop the pirates but it would slow them down a little and maybe the security forces would have time to get to them.

We were two levels from the bridge when we met with our first resistance. I was surprised we had gotten that far without meeting up with the pirates but it made sense that they would try to take the bridge first.

The group we encountered was made up of four pirates and they had pinned two female passengers to the wall and were trying to rip their clothes. Kayla and I both fired, hitting two of the pirates. The others turned to face us and the two women were able to creep away. They rushed us too quickly to get another shot off and pinned us against the way. As I grappled with my man, I was able to draw my knife and stab him. Afraid to shoot for fear I would hit Kayla, I shoved the dead body of the pirate aside. “It’s okay. The man is here to save the day,” I told her as I stabbed the man who had shoved her against the wall.

Kayla fired her pistol over my shoulder. I turned as it hit the guy attempting to sneak up behind me. “It’s the twenty-eighth century. The woman can save the day,” she said, grinning.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her along with me. “Never mind that now. We have to get to the bridge.”

We managed somehow to make it to the bridge with only two more firefights and no more hand to hand battles. I was impressed with Kayla’s accuracy as she took out as many of the pirates as I did.

The captain was surprised to see us burst onto the bridge, pistols ready. I was glad to see that none of the pirates had made it this far yet. When I saw that the bridge was still being controlled by the liner crew, I lowered my pistol and snapped off a salute. “Lieutenant Griffin Carter, sir. I’m second in command of the security forces on the SNS ship, Bellerophon. My cousin, Kayla O’Neill. May we be of service?”

“ID, please,” the captain requested. Two members of the crew held pistols on us as I unclipped my Link and tossed it to the captain. The captain put the Link into a reader and scanned the public contents. He handed the Link back to me when he was finished. “Lower your weapons,” he commanded. “He checks out. Your cousin is a pirate?”

“She’s under my protection,” I replied, “and she isn’t involved with this group. She’s willing to help capture or take them out.”

“I lost my head of security in the first wave,” the captain explained. “He was the only one of my security men who had military experience. If you have any ideas on how to take these pirates out, I would welcome suggestions.”

“What type of defenses do you have?” I asked as I made my way across the bridge to the captain. Kayla remained by the door, her pistol held loosely in her hand.

“Not many. Our normal run is far enough in-system that we weren’t expecting pirates,” the captain replied.

Kayla skirted the few security men on the bridge, who were still eyeing her with suspicion, and made her way over to us. “If you can get me onto their ship, I can probably override their controls and get rid of it,” she said.

“And how are we getting you back off the ship?” I asked.

“You’ll have to figure that out,” she replied. “I just know how to override everything.” She grinned. “Their ship’ll be floating free in space and I’ll lock their controls too, so they can’t follow us.”

The captain looked impressed. “You can do all that?”

“If you get me on the ship, yes. I’ve done it before. I’m a bit of a computer nut.”

The captain nodded. “If she can do that, we might actually get out of this with minimal casualties.”

“Captain,” on of the junior officers called, “the pirates are approaching the bridge.” Her voice had the edge of panic to it that I often heard in first year ensigns.

“I think the best thing is for me to take Kayla to the ship. We can at least disable it,” I said.

The captain agreed. “We’ll try to hold them off from here and keep them occupied.”

“Is there another way out of here?” I asked.

The captain pointed. “That door leads to a hallway that eventually leads to the docking bay. The pirates have taken over our boarding airlock and attached the ship there.” He tossed me a datapad. “Here’s a map of the ship.”

I checked the pad, saw it had the same program as we used on the Bellerophon, and grinned at the captain. “We’ll see if we can get rid of your pirates.”

Kayla took point as we left the bridge before I could tell her I was in charge. As I watched her creep down the hall, pistol at the ready, I saw that she might actually know what she was doing. I consulted the map periodically as we moved along, keeping track of where people were. I was hoping to avoid as many pirates as possible as we made our way to their ship. I didn’t want to force Kayla to take out too many of the pirates. I feared that having her shoot too many of the people she might know would be detrimental to her sanity. She hadn’t told me that she recognized any of them but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Kayla,” I hissed as I caught a glimpse of the datapad. Silently, she spun on her heel and looked at me but didn’t speak. “Into the hatch. Someone’s coming.”

Kayla and I squeezed into the near-by closet and closed the door after us. Unfortunately the sensors couldn’t show us who if the people coming were a friend or an enemy so we had to hide whenever someone showed up on the pad. The pad glowed in the dark, allowing me to track the passage of the people headed towards us. When they were far enough away that they wouldn’t see us coming out of the closet, I tapped Kayla on the arm and used the little light from the pad to show her where the handle of the door was. She opened it and we almost tumbled back into the hallway.

We righted ourselves and hurried down the hallway, trying to make up some of the time we had lost hiding in the closet. We picked up our pace after a few feet, almost jogging down the hall. We needed to get to the docking bay and then to the portal that connected the ship to the spaceport.

We rounded a corner without looking in our hurry and ran right into a group of pirates. I grabbed Kayla’s shirt with one hand and hauled her back, firing my pistol with my other hand. The hallway erupted with blaster fire.

Kayla was muttering and cursing under her breath as we hugged the wall and avoided the bolts shooting past us. “Did you see how many?” she asked when she had a hold of herself.

“Five or six. I think we’re going to have to backtrack. We don’t have a good position here.”

Kayla fired blindly around the corner and we heard a sharp yelp of pain over the whine of the blasters. “Consult that fancy map of yours and get us out of here. I’ll keep them occupied.”

I swapped power packs on my blaster and took hers, giving her the fully charged blaster at the same time. Then I took one of her power packs and changed the pack on her blaster. Feeling slightly more in control now that we had fully powered blasters, I left Kayla to her distraction and consulted the map.

I found an access hatch about four feet back that should allow us to bypass this group. I left Kayla sporadically firing around the corner and backed up to the hatch. Within minutes, I had it open and slipped back to Kayla who was still laying down cover fire. I began firing when she stopped and put my mouth close to her ear, “Head for the open hatch behind us.”

She nodded, fired off a last burst then headed for the opening. I waited until she had disappeared into it before running for it myself. I took an extra minute to set the grate back into place and hoped that no one had seen us diving into it.

Kayla had produced a flashlight from somewhere and was shinning it down the chamber. “Which way?” she asked as the light illuminated three choices.

“Straight ahead. Just keep that light down so no one sees it.”

“Sure, Griff.” She grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes at her but didn’t comment on the nickname. “Just move.”

We reentered the main corridors two levels down from the first hatch. The hallway we were in was spookily quiet, with no signs of any inhabitants. I consulted the map again and got us headed in the right direction. We weren’t far from our goal now but there were more people between us and the portal than we had encountered before. I hoped all of them weren’t pirates but had a bad feeling they were. I kept a closer eye on the map so that we hopefully weren’t surprised again like we had been.

Kayla had taken point again when we got out of the tunnel. Now she paused as we came to a cross hallway. “Which way?” she asked.

“Right. Then at the next corridor go left. We’re almost there.”

“How much resistance are we looking at?”

“Not sure. We’re going to run into a lot of it, I’m positive.”

“Well, we might as well keep going. How far is it to the next turn?”

“About eighteen feet.”

She nodded. “Let’s move.”

I checked the map and saw there was no one between us and the next turn but we would run into someone once we turned again. “Just be cautious,” I warned her.

She saluted me with her pistol and took off down the hallway at a run. I sighed and ran to catch up with her. If we were going to find pirates around the corner, I wanted us together and able to fight back, not spread out. She barreled around the corner and skidded to a stop. “It’s not pirates this time,” she called over her shoulder.

“Who is it?” I asked as I joined her around the corner. Two women huddled together on the floor. Their clothes were ripped and torn and the younger of the two was bleeding from a cut on her arm. When they both tensed up and tightened their grip on each other, I backed off. “Kayla, approach them slowly.”

Kayla knelt down next to them and reached out for the bleeding arm. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “He’s a good guy. Can I see your arm?” The woman held her arm out, but looked at me with suspicion. Kayla ripped the bottom off her shirt and quickly bound up the woman’s arm. “I promise he’s not going to hurt you. What happened?”

The older woman answered Kayla as she watched my cousin’s bandaging techniques, “These men came out of no where. They sliced my daughter’s arm up and threatened to come back and rape us.”

“There’s an access hatch if you take your first left once you go around this corner. You can hide out in there,” I offered.

The woman nodded. “Are you sure we’ll be safe there?”

“I can’t be positive that you’ll be safe but it’ll give you a better chance,” I told them. “You should get going.” I pointed at the map. “There’s a group headed our way and the way they’re moving, I can almost guarantee they’re pirates.”

The two women struggled to their feet and took off in the direction I showed them. I hoped we would be able to at least slow down the group headed towards us and allow the women to hide. Kayla and I hunkered down behind a stack of boxes that were a little farther down the hall from where the women had been huddled. The boxes would give us some protection from the coming pirates. We rested our pistols on top of the boxes but were careful to keep everything other than our heads below the boxes. The smaller a target we presented, the safer we would be.

A few minutes after we had gotten ourselves set, the pirates appeared in the hallway from another corridor. “Wait until they get close enough that you aren’t going to miss,” I cautioned Kayla.

She nodded but didn’t answer, tightening her grip on her pistol. I glanced at her, worried that she wouldn’t be able to fire when the time came, but just as I was about to voice my concerns, she opened fire on the on-coming pirates. I quickly followed her lead, although I would have waited a few minutes longer. I realized Kayla was probably jumping the gun because she was nervous. There hadn’t been time to think when we had gotten into the firefight earlier. Now though we had plenty of time to think though and to react. Three people had gone down in our first volley and the rest scrambled to find cover while we kept firing. Another guy went down, nicked in the leg and his buddies pulled him to safety in a doorway. I had counted eight men and women in the group and three were out of the picture. One of the ones left was the man that had been hit in the leg. That left four able bodied men and women who were beginning to return our fire.

The boxes absorbed the first few shots but then began to heat up under the pressure of the return fire. I knew the barrier wouldn’t hold up much longer under the continued onslaught. “We have to take them out,” I told Kayla as quietly as I could under the cover of the firefight. “Our cover isn’t going to hold much longer.”

“I know the group they’re from and I might be able to convince them to let us by.”

“Kayla, we’ve been shooting at them for the last ten minutes. We’re trying to get by them to take out their ship. Somehow I don’t think they are just going to let us go quietly past them.”

She looked at me. “I never even considered that.” Then she looked up at the ceiling. “Think they’d notice me coming in from above?”

“I have no idea. How are you planning to get up on the ceiling?”

She reached into one of the pouches that lined her waist and pulled out four small suction cups. The back side had loops across them. She slipped one of the suction cups on each leg and pulled them up to her knees. Then she slid the others on to her hands. She tucked her pistol into her waistband and smiled at me. “I’ll play spider. It won’t be the first time. I’ll be right back.” With another grin, she stuck her cups onto the wall and began to climb up the side of it.

Deciding the best thing I could do was keep the focus of the men on me and the disintegrating boxes, I began firing at uneven intervals to make them think two people were still firing. I carefully didn’t watch her progress so I wouldn’t draw attention to her. I was worried that she would be out in the open while she traversed the ceiling and I hoped she wouldn’t be hit by a stray bolt.

Much quicker than I expected, she was dropping down behind where the pirates were holed up and taking them out. She easily took out two of them before they realized they were being attacked from the rear. I got one of the women when she stood up to turn and take Kayla out. The last man spun and before I could fire again, got off a shot that winged Kayla on the left arm. Her hand spasmed and her pistol fell from her grip. Quickly, before he could fire off another shot, I fired and hit him square in the back. He toppled forward, landing at Kayla’s feet.

I leaped over the boxes and ran down the hallway to her. I was worried that one of the less injured pirates would try to take Kayla out before I could get to her. The pirates seemed to have given up though. Only one of them was still moving, the man I had gotten in the leg in the first volley. He had thrown his gun away and had put his hands in the air, clearly giving up. I gathered up the other guns and pitched them down the hallway before turning my attention to Kayla. “How bad is it?” I asked.

“I’ll live. It just grazed me. Lemme have some of your shirt and you can bind it up.”

I nodded and used my knife to rip off the bottom of my shirt. I quickly wrapped it around her arm and tied it tightly to stop the bleeding. “Just be careful with it.”

She rotated her arm a few times and seemed pleased with her range of movement. She picked her pistol back up and transferred it to her right hand. “Good thing I can fire this thing with both hands. Check that fancy map of yours and let’s get moving again.”

Somehow I had lost control of this situation the minute Kayla said she could take out the pirate ship. I was nominally in charge but Kayla was definitely running the operation. I looked down at the map that I had somehow hung onto through-out the firefight and saw that we would have a clear shot to the portal but we would run into trouble once we got there. There appeared to be four people guarding the portal but I didn’t have any way to tell if there was anyone else on board the pirate ship.

I stopped her before we got too far down the hall. “What are we going to do with the pirates?” I asked.

She glanced back to where a couple of the pirates were now coming around. “Leave ‘em. They wouldn’t render aid to us. We’ve got to get to that ship.”

I grabbed her uninjured arm. This uncaring attitude worried me. I hoped she wasn’t going to do something stupid. “Promise me that you aren’t going to take off in that ship and go looking for your mother.”

She shook her head. “I’m not that brain zapped. Mom’s people would shoot a rival ship on sight. I wouldn’t even have time to identify myself before I got vaped. I’m going to need you to find a shuttle and pick me up after I dismantle their ship.”

“You don’t want me to go on board with you?”

“No. I’m going to have to EVA to get away from them. I’ll need you to get me.”

While we talked, we were still making out way down the hall. Now I pulled her up short. “The portal is just around the corner. I don’t know why no one came to investigate our firefight but there are four guards.”

“They didn’t go looking because their captain probably ordered them under promise of torture if they disobeyed. Death wouldn’t scare them but torture…” she shuddered.

I looked at her in shock. “Your mother doesn’t torture…” I trailed off.

Kayla shrugged. “Well not her own people. I doubt she’d torture a well-heeled prisoner either. Not all pirates are as kind as my mother.”

“Kayla, we need to have a serious talk about what you think is normal.”

She patted my arm. “Sure, Griff, but let’s get rid of the evil pirates first.” I shook my head at her and watched as she ripped her shirt to show off her cleavage and tucked her pistol into her pants at the back. “Try to lose the security guard I’m so tough look,” she advised as she reached up and rumpled my hair. “Think you can follow my lead?”

After what we had just gone through, I trusted her not to get us killed immediately. “Yeah. What should I do?”

“Tuck your pistol away. Then slouch a little. Try to look inviting but keep your knife close at hand. When I give the signal, gut who’s ever closest to you.”

I nodded, taking a deep breath and using the exhale to settle myself. I watched as Kayla began her sultry walk down the hallway. I had never understood how girls did it but she seemed to slink down the hall, her hips twitching and rolling invitingly. The men guarding the portal seemed to forget what they were supposed to be doing as she slinked towards them. I realized that one of the guards was female and I concentrated on her. She seemed as enamored with me as the men were with Kayla.

When we were close enough, Kayla pulled her knife with her left hand and her pistol with her right. Her first swipe took the closest guard in the throat while a shot took out a second guard. I gutted the woman with my knife, then snapped off a shot just as Kayla fired a second time. Both our shots hit the last guard at the same time.

Kayla bent over and cleaned her knife on the guard’s clothes. “Get to the shuttle bay and find one that can pick me up once I got EVA.” She paused and looked back at me. “You can fly a shuttle, right?”

“Yes I can fly a shuttle.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“Just checking. Catch’cha on the flip side.”

“Kayla?” I called after her.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

She threw me a salute and disappeared into the ship. I stood there for a minute, looking after her, then recalled I still had a job to do. I took off for the shuttle bay. I checked the map on the run and was glad to see that there wasn’t anyone between me and the shuttle bay. The bay itself was also empty.

I had three shuttles to choose from when I reached the bay. The first shuttle I entered was obviously in the middle of repairs. A toolbox lay on its side with tools spilled all around it. The innards of the control panel were also strewn across the floor. I quickly ducked back out of the shuttle and tried the next one. This one was in working condition but there was no access hatch for Kayla to enter the shuttle from space. The third shuttle was in good repair and had the access hatch I needed. I breathed a sigh of relief when it powered up on the first try. I was glad to see that the controls were pretty straight forward. I keyed in the commands to open the shuttle bay doors and piloted the ship through the opening.

I swung the shuttle around and kept close to the liner as I crept up on the pirate ship. I let the ship drift as it got closer to the pirate vessel and watched for signs that Kayla’s plan was succeeding.

I was beginning to think that she had been captured and I would have to think up a rescue when the engines fired, pushing the pirate ship away from the liner. A few minutes later, a space suited figure tumbled out the open airlock. I angled the shuttle so I was below her and popped the access hatch. A few moments later, Kayla joined me in the front. “Couldn’t find a suit at first,” she told me as she dropped into the co-pilot’s seat. “Nice catch.”

I nodded. “I was beginning to think I was going to have to come find you.”

She fluffed spikes crushed flat by the helmet. “Never happen. How ‘bout we got finish our trip in style. I’m thinking compensation for our help.”

“I’m thinking you rattled your brain on that ship,” I tossed back at her. We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

By the time we made it back on board the liner, the remaining pirates had realized their ship was gone and they surrendered. Kayla was right that we did get compensation for our help. The captain contacted his superiors and they agreed to pay for our entire trip. We weren’t upgraded but we were allowed access to any part of the ship we wanted. I was still happy to turn Kayla over to my parents four days later. I had a feeling my next tour of duty would feel like Leave after our adventures.