Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📕

stealth technology. That didn’t make sense, though. The federation was the leakiest ship of all when it came to secrets, so if they’d been developing some super-high-tech stealth technology that could mask an entire warbird, the whole verse would know about it. And that’s assuming it was a fed creation. They weren’t exactly known for their technical prowess. Innovations like stealth almost always came from the private sector, and since the feds were cheap as hell, they never got the tech first.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with what I said,” Gary mused, in a meek voice.

“Well, I guess I should answer and get this over with,” I said, before telling Gary to accept the beam. I tried my best to put on a neutral expression. Slay popped up onto the monitor, her steely eyes boring into my soul. She let the silence do the talking for the first few moments.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I smiled.

“Well this is awkward,” I said. “You’re the very last person I was hoping to see today.”

“Mr. Boyd. For someone I’d never heard of two weeks ago, you do cause a lot of trouble. And now we’re adding the murder of 12 federation soldiers to your resume.”

A dozen! I turned my head toward Edgar in disbelief. He produced a smirk that said it made no difference to him.

“Unlike our last encounter, there will be no escape this time. We’re going to board your ship, remove you and your crew and then deliver justice,” Slay said.

“And if I refuse?”

“Justice will be even more swift.”

“I admit you have us in a corner. But the fact I’m still breathing means you want something from me or my crew. So I’m going to use that piece of information to make one request.”

Slay narrowed her eyes. I could tell she wanted to blast us to smithereens with every fiber of her being, but something was stopping her. It wasn’t enough to let us go, obviously, but it might be enough leverage to eke out a meager assurance before we turned ourselves in. There was also something deeper going on. I just wasn’t quite sure what it was. Her mention of the dead soldiers seemed somewhat perfunctory to me. Like she thought it was a crime, but she wasn’t too upset about it. She was definitely unlike any fed admiral I’d encountered before. A new breed of officer, perhaps.

She gestured for me to proceed.

“Nobody hurts the cat,” I said. “He comes with me until we sort out this justice.”

Slay seemed to pause, unsure if it was a joke or not. Edgar exhaled loudly in disbelief. Even Batista, who had come to form a bond with Pirate over the course of our mission, frowned.

When Pirate sauntered into the room, passing by me in the background, Slay realized I wasn’t joking. She nodded. “Done. The cat will not be harmed. Prepare to be boarded.”

Zeep. The monitor went black.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Edgar said. “The cat?!”

“We’re done. You heard her. There’s no escaping this. Most likely, we’ll be dead before the day is through, so yeah, I went to bat for my original and most valuable crewmember.”

Gary cleared his throat. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“I want you to erase all top-level data and wipe the hard drive,” I commanded. “They get nothing but your winning personality. Unless you want to reboot. I will leave that call to you.”

Gary paused, thinking about it. Or computing on it. You get the idea. Finally, he spoke up. “I’ll take my chances you guys make it back.”

I snorted at the prospect. I couldn’t even begin to envision a scenario in which I made it out of this jam alive, let alone in charge of my ship. I picked up Pirate and walked out of the cabin without saying another word.

Chapter 16

They put us in separate rooms. Smart. How I would have played it too. If I were a scumbag fed.

For all I knew, they were already questioning and/or executing Edgar and Batista. The federation was a bureaucratic machine with countless processes and procedures, save one area: meting out justice. That was swift and often at the sole discretion of the senior officer in charge of a vessel or region.

Nobody had come for me yet. Slay had been true to her word, letting me bring Pirate with me. The cat snoozed in his carrying case, either unaware of the situation or he just didn’t intimidate easily. I liked to think it was the latter. We’d already been waiting an hour, and it dawned on me that I might soon be sharing Pirate’s litter box with him.

I looked around the small room. It pained me to say it, but it was nice. Much like its captain, the Burnett didn’t fit the federation mold. The ship couldn’t have been more than a year old, and everywhere I looked, the tech was state of the art. Even the walls were painted a less depressing blue than the usual fed blue, which almost looked more like a puke-green. Even the chair I sat in was so ergonomically sound, I could have fallen asleep under less dramatic circumstances.

The door slid open with a hiss and Slay entered. Alone. That was odd. I wasn’t a danger, considering one of my arms was in a sling and both my hands were cuffed to the table, but when the door closed behind her, I couldn’t help but wonder why she hadn’t delegated this interrogation (or sentencing) to someone of lesser rank.

Was I really that important?

The obvious answer was no. I wasn’t. Something else was going on here.

Slay sat down across the table from me and looked at Pirate, who was snoring loudly. A flicker of a smile crossed Slay’s lips, then disappeared quickly.

“Your cat is either very brave or very dumb,” Slay said.

“I was thinking the same thing, actually,” I replied. “I’ve been flying with him for a while now and I still don’t know which it is.”

“Doesn’t make you