The tease…

                                               Chapter One

“Chavez scout detected.”  Perditions AI announced.

“Shut down the mining laser activate cloak.” I said.  “Have they seen us?

Why can’t a girl just mine in peace? Perdition could probably handle a lone Chavez pirate, but if he had friends… It was better to just stay cloaked.  I was Sha’ha’dem, one of the explorers of the Jenasi race, our ships weren’t made for battle.  They were designed for exploration, mining, and hiding when the need arose.

“The ship is coming this direction.”. Perdition advised.  “It appears he may have seen us before we cloaked.”

“Are you detecting any other ships?”

“No Calista, he appears to be alone.”

“Manual controls please.  Switch to combat cloak.”

“Pretending to be Shinwa again?”  Perdition asked.

The Shinwa, the Defenders of the Jenquai.  Not the most powerful in human space.  They were outgunned by the Terrans and Progen, but stealth tactics made them hard to hit.

“Not up to the challenge Perdition?”  I asked.

“They are, as you say, ugly ships. Combat cloak active, you have the controls.”

I stayed cloaked as the Chavez ship approached.  As he passed, I took a position trailing him. I was tempted to just let him go.  The cloak would drop as soon as I opened fire, but it was a Chavez, and any opportunity to reduce their numbers by even one was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up.

“Re-engage cloak!”  I yelled after getting off a few shots and turning Perdition counter to the turn of the Chavez ship.

“He’s got a lock.”  Perdition announced.

“Reverse shielding!”  I yelled, opening fire.  “Let’s take him out!”

It wasn’t a long fight, Perdition only slightly outgunned the Chavez scout, and her shielding was better.  The scout’s shields came down first, and shortly after that the fire from Perdition had the ship disabled.  If the situation were reversed, and Perdition was disabled the Chavez pilot wouldn’t have stopped until Perdition was destroyed, and I was dead.  Chavez have no honor.  As it was, I had not yet killed a pilot with his ship and even though he might just deserve that fate, I wasn’t ready to make that decision.  He might, however, have cargo.

“Perdition,” I said, “scan the ship and see if he has anything we might want.”

“There are some weapons, a spare reactor, and assorted electronics in his cargo hold.”  Perdition replied.

I used the mining laser to cut into the ship’s cargo hold and used the tractor beam to transfer everything into Perdition’s cargo hold.

“Damage Perdition?

“Minor hull damage and a few damaged circuits.  Nothing that cannot be easily repaired.”

“Let’s go sell some of this and get you fixed up then.”

Incoming transmission from Admiral Doff,” Perdition announced.

“Put him through,” I said, wondering if this was the news I had been waiting for. 

“Hello "Doff,” I said as soon as his image came on the screen.

“I never will get you to call me Admiral, will I?” he replied.

“As soon as I can get you to call me Grand Master, I’ll be more than happy to call you Admiral.” Neither of us was serious, having climbed through our respective ranks together. He was a Terran Enforcer, and we had achieved our top ranks almost simultaneously, but that was long before the formation of the Alliance.

“Eat any good rocks lately?” he said with a smirk on his face.

“Yes, sir, Admiral, some mighty tasty ones in fact.” I replied. “I should have enough ore for the engineers to get started on that new weapon you wanted.”

“Very nice,” he replied, obviously pleased. “Would you like to deliver them to the new base?”