Read Online Dreadnought (Starship Blackbeard Book 3) by Michael Wallace - Free Book Online
Authors: Michael Wallace
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dogs started fighting, snarling and barking, until someone at one of the other tables fired his gun over their heads, and they raced off, howling.
“I’m in,” Dunkley said. “For six thousand, you bet I am. Buddies again, Capp?”
Capp grunted. “Sure, I guess. Mates, buddies, whatever. That’s what Cap’n wants, that’s what I’ll do.”
“I’m in, too,” Paredes said. “I’m flat broke, and me and my crew were already planning to go sniffing around where that star leviathan was. Can’t be more dangerous than that. Besides, we saw a Hroom fleet in Hades Gulch on our way out. That’s more than enough trouble for one godforsaken star system.”
A Hroom fleet. That was strange. Hades Gulch was on the edge of the Omega Cluster, which had no known jump points into it. Where would the empire have been sending those ships?
“Well, then, that’s settled,” Isabel said. She waved to the bartender to get his attention. “Hurry up, we’re thirsty! You people eaten yet? The apple pie is pretty good if you need something other than liquid refreshment.”
“Apple pie!” Capp said. “I knew it! You hear that, Tolvern?”
“Does that mean we have a deal?” Drake asked.
“We got a deal, yeah,” Isabel said. “Assuming my sister will have you.”
Oh, she’ll have him, all right, Tolvern thought gloomily.
“Yes, I believe she will,” Drake said, his measured tone giving away nothing. If Tolvern hadn’t seen him in the shower with Catarina, she’d have suspected nothing.
The bartender set a drink in front of Isabel, and she picked it up and held it out as if in a mock toast. “Then you have yourself a fleet, Captain Drake.”
Chapter Six
There was trouble getting out of orbit. Paredes owed the yards seven hundred pounds that he was unable to cover, and the welders and crane operators took his crew captive and refused to let the schooner out of impound until someone coughed up the money. Drake reluctantly paid out from Paredes’s three thousand—an advance. Good chance that money would vanish, along with Paredes, the first time they went through a jump point.
Then, while half the motley fleet was still planetside, another ship, a pirate frigate by the unlikely name of Pussycat , showed up from the outer worlds of the system demanding a piece of the action. The captain of Pussycat , a man named Aguilar, warned that he’d alert Albion if he weren’t allowed to join the flotilla. Some on Blackbeard , Capp and Barker chief among them, advocated blowing Pussycat out of space to serve as a lesson to the rest. But Isabel Vargus said that Pussycat and her crew could be reliable, if properly paid.
Drake wanted that ship. Pussycat looked like a deformed warthog, her squat profile banged up from numerous fights and her engines undersized. But she bristled with weapons. That would give Drake a cruiser, two frigates, and a pair of schooners, and if Isabel located her sister and Orient Tiger , he’d have a third frigate. But he couldn’t make the numbers work to pay them all.
He was in the war room, drumming his fingers on the table, a message to Pussycat half composed, when Tolvern came in.
“Got another message from Aguilar,” she said. “He has someone in the yards, someone who tipped him off in the first place, and he knows Vargus is fueling Outlaw and will be in orbit soon. We’ll be ready to go as soon as Outlaw is up, and Aguilar doesn’t want to be left behind. He’s threatening to send a subspace to Albion if we don’t agree to his terms by the time Vargus takes off. That’s twenty minutes.”
When Drake didn’t answer, she pulled up a chair. “Captain, you have to decide. It’s either knock him out of the sky or hire him on. I know you want that ship, so . . . ”
“Aguilar wants eight thousand,” Drake said. “I don’t have it.”
“You don’t have half of what you promised. So bluff. Agree to his terms and figure it out later.”
“The problem is, I’ve
“I’m in,” Dunkley said. “For six thousand, you bet I am. Buddies again, Capp?”
Capp grunted. “Sure, I guess. Mates, buddies, whatever. That’s what Cap’n wants, that’s what I’ll do.”
“I’m in, too,” Paredes said. “I’m flat broke, and me and my crew were already planning to go sniffing around where that star leviathan was. Can’t be more dangerous than that. Besides, we saw a Hroom fleet in Hades Gulch on our way out. That’s more than enough trouble for one godforsaken star system.”
A Hroom fleet. That was strange. Hades Gulch was on the edge of the Omega Cluster, which had no known jump points into it. Where would the empire have been sending those ships?
“Well, then, that’s settled,” Isabel said. She waved to the bartender to get his attention. “Hurry up, we’re thirsty! You people eaten yet? The apple pie is pretty good if you need something other than liquid refreshment.”
“Apple pie!” Capp said. “I knew it! You hear that, Tolvern?”
“Does that mean we have a deal?” Drake asked.
“We got a deal, yeah,” Isabel said. “Assuming my sister will have you.”
Oh, she’ll have him, all right, Tolvern thought gloomily.
“Yes, I believe she will,” Drake said, his measured tone giving away nothing. If Tolvern hadn’t seen him in the shower with Catarina, she’d have suspected nothing.
The bartender set a drink in front of Isabel, and she picked it up and held it out as if in a mock toast. “Then you have yourself a fleet, Captain Drake.”
Chapter Six
There was trouble getting out of orbit. Paredes owed the yards seven hundred pounds that he was unable to cover, and the welders and crane operators took his crew captive and refused to let the schooner out of impound until someone coughed up the money. Drake reluctantly paid out from Paredes’s three thousand—an advance. Good chance that money would vanish, along with Paredes, the first time they went through a jump point.
Then, while half the motley fleet was still planetside, another ship, a pirate frigate by the unlikely name of Pussycat , showed up from the outer worlds of the system demanding a piece of the action. The captain of Pussycat , a man named Aguilar, warned that he’d alert Albion if he weren’t allowed to join the flotilla. Some on Blackbeard , Capp and Barker chief among them, advocated blowing Pussycat out of space to serve as a lesson to the rest. But Isabel Vargus said that Pussycat and her crew could be reliable, if properly paid.
Drake wanted that ship. Pussycat looked like a deformed warthog, her squat profile banged up from numerous fights and her engines undersized. But she bristled with weapons. That would give Drake a cruiser, two frigates, and a pair of schooners, and if Isabel located her sister and Orient Tiger , he’d have a third frigate. But he couldn’t make the numbers work to pay them all.
He was in the war room, drumming his fingers on the table, a message to Pussycat half composed, when Tolvern came in.
“Got another message from Aguilar,” she said. “He has someone in the yards, someone who tipped him off in the first place, and he knows Vargus is fueling Outlaw and will be in orbit soon. We’ll be ready to go as soon as Outlaw is up, and Aguilar doesn’t want to be left behind. He’s threatening to send a subspace to Albion if we don’t agree to his terms by the time Vargus takes off. That’s twenty minutes.”
When Drake didn’t answer, she pulled up a chair. “Captain, you have to decide. It’s either knock him out of the sky or hire him on. I know you want that ship, so . . . ”
“Aguilar wants eight thousand,” Drake said. “I don’t have it.”
“You don’t have half of what you promised. So bluff. Agree to his terms and figure it out later.”
“The problem is, I’ve
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