Buccaneers (Privateer Tales Book 8)

  BUCCANEERS

  JAMIE McFARLANE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Cover Artwork: Sviatoslav Gerasymchuk

  Copyright © 2015 Jamie McFarlane

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-943792-01-6

  ISBN-10: 1943792011

  CONTENTS

  BUCCANEERS

  CONTENTS

  SUCKER PUNCH

  REUNITED

  TRADITIONS

  A LONG EXPECTED PARTY

  IRON GATES

  IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES… UNTIL SOMEONE GETS HURT

  A BITTER PILL

  FRIENDLY ADVICE

  TRANSLOCATION

  THICK AS THIEVES

  Léger NUAGE

  IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO CHICKEN

  SETTLING IN

  ULRAN AND MERLEY

  A LINE IN THE SAND

  HUBRIS

  SLOW RIDE

  SNAKE OIL

  SPACER'S DREAM

  ROGUE

  LIPSTICK ON A BULLDOG

  GUESTS

  PRIVATEER

  NANNANDRY

  MESS WITH A BULL

  MOTIVE

  TOUCHING BASE

  TRUST IS EARNED

  CHAMPION

  A DEAL IS A DEAL

  FOOL ME ONCE

  A SMOKING GUN

  BACK IN BUSINESS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CONTACT JAMIE

  SUCKER PUNCH

  I held my gloves high, trying to cover up, but Tabby drove into my body, her fists battering me. I struggled to slip her jabs, avoiding most, but those that made it through caused my head to swim. I pushed back and danced away. Her long hair was pulled into a ponytail and sweat dripped from her face. Provocatively, she dropped her arms and tipped her head to the side. She knew it was a cardinal sin for a boxer to drop their guard. I couldn't help but smile at her well-earned confidence.

  "That all you got?" she taunted, tipping her head back and forth, lips pursed.

  Over the last six months Tabby had grown stronger and faster. Her legs and right arm had been regrown in a medical tank after she'd been damn near killed in a naval battle. Right out of the tank, she'd been like a new fawn, unable to control her limbs and barely able to walk. That had changed and now Tabby was in complete control. We'd been told to expect it - that she would just keep getting stronger and faster for up to a year.

  My body ached, having taken the brunt of her brutal attacks time and time again over the last few months. While my own skill had grown considerably, I still struggled to keep up. But if she was going to give me an opening, I was happy to oblige.

  I hunched forward, protecting my face with gloves held high, and moved in. Tabby raised up onto her toes and backed away, swinging her hips mockingly, arms still down. She was drawing me in. I knew it and she knew I knew it. From my perspective, there was only one thing to be done. I would punish her. It was a moral imperative.

  My plan was two quick left jabs to be followed up with a right hook. Her left arm hadn't been regrown and it was her only weakness. She raised her gloves when I got closer but held them loosely. She was begging me to make my move, but something was off. I had a sense about these things and my instincts were telling me to get out of there. Of course, I wasn't about to obey, so I made my move: quick jab to the stomach, contact, quick jab to the stomach, contact. Tabby just took the hits.

  It was then that I saw my mistake. Tabby had been waiting for me to drop my left so she could use her fist of doom (her name for it, not mine). Quicker than I could respond, but unfortunately not faster than I could track, her right glove streaked toward the side of my face. I was wearing a protective helmet, but that didn't stop all the force. The impact felt like someone had detonated a grenade next to my head. I crumpled to the mat, barely maintaining consciousness.

  "Oh frak, Liam." Tabby slid to the ground and pulled my head onto her lap. "I'm so sorry." Her warrior persona was gone, replaced with the caring girlfriend.

  She stroked my hair and looked into my eyes with concern. I'd only been stunned, so I quickly snaked my arms around the back of her neck, pulling her down and into a kiss. We were both wearing head gear which wasn't conducive to necking, but we managed.

  "Cap. We're coming out of hard burn in ten minutes," Marny announced over my comm.

  "Roger that," I replied and looked at Tabby. "Shower?"

  "You need a med-patch?" she asked, still concerned.

  "I'd guess so. You'll going to need to do full-contact training with Marny from now on."

  "She still kicks my ass. But I'm closing on her," Tabby said.

  Tabby popped up off the mat and offered me a hand. I was still woozy, so I accepted the help. Walking through the hold, we passed our single piece of cargo – a stationary gun we'd abandoned several months back when pirates invaded Colony 40. It cost ten thousand credits in fuel to make the trip back to the asteroid, but the gun was easily worth half a million. We'd taken the chance that while we'd been gone, someone else hadn't come and claimed it.

  Once inside our quarters, I pulled off my suit liner, dropped it in the cleaner and climbed into the shower with Tabby. I marveled at how medical science had put her body back together so perfectly. I traced a line across her perfectly shaped rear with my finger, following a nearly invisible junction where synthetic skin joined her own.

  Tabby looked over her shoulder and smiled. "If you start on that, you'll miss atmospheric entry."

  "I was just thinking…" I said.

  Tabby turned to face me. The bridge head was close quarters and her move hadn't done much for my ability to form coherent sentences.

  "About what?"

  "Academy starts in a few weeks," I said.

  "I see," she said, her voice growing sultry. "Is there something you want to say about that?"

  "No." It wasn't true. There were a million things I wanted to say about it. Mostly that I didn't want her to go back. She'd left me for the Naval Academy once and I'd almost lost her. I strongly believed, however, that she needed to chase her dreams. I couldn't take that from her.

  "Don't shut down on me, Liam."

  "I don't want to say anything. It has to be your decision," I said.

  "I need to hear it." She looked me in the face, not letting me avoid this any longer. "Tell me what you're thinking."

  I ran my hand down her arm, finally resting it on her wrist. The steam from the shower billowed around us. We stood completely naked in front of each other and I knew she was right. This was the moment of truth we'd been avoiding for months.

  "I don't want you to go. I want to build my life with you out here in the stars. I don't want to share you with the Navy or anyone else." I'd been bottling up these feelings and it felt good to finally let them out.

  Tabby's response was immediate. "Marry me."

  The words took me off guard. I looked back at her to make sure she was serious. Her return stare was unwavering.

  "Anytime. Anywhere," I said.

 
; "Is that a yes?" she asked.

  "Yes. Of course it's yes. Heck, yeah!" I said. It seemed too good to be true but I pulled her into a hug and kissed her as the water from the shower cascaded over us.

  We finally separated.

  Tabby gave me a mischievous grin. "We'll have time to celebrate later, but I think Marny would appreciate your help in the cockpit."

  I sighed. I'd liked to have stayed in the shower with her, but she was right. Marny and Nick would be uncomfortable landing Hotspur on Mars. We toweled off.

  "Wait. What's all this have to do with the Academy?" I asked, pulling on a fresh suit liner.

  "I'm not going back, Liam," she said.

  "You have to. It's your dream."

  "No. It was my dream. Life has a way of changing people, Liam. I want to be with you. You were the one who came for me when I was lost in space. You stayed with me when I had no chance to walk again. I want to rebuild my life with you. I just had to know you still felt the same way."

  We finished dressing in silence. My head was throbbing again. We'd taken longer than I'd planned, so we needed to get up to the cockpit.

  "Cap. She really laid you out good. For what it's worth, I thought your combo was a good idea," Marny said as we passed through the bridge. She'd been watching our match.

  Tabby couldn't resist the brag. "He telegraphed his intentions light-seconds ahead."

  "You're fast, Tabby. You might give the old-girl a run for her money," Marny replied. She'd taken to calling our ex-special forces friend, Tali, the 'old-girl.' I didn't think it was even remotely possible that the nickname would stick, since we were all afraid of what retaliation would look like. Any comparison to Tali, however, was the highest praise I could imagine from Marny.

  I jumped into the pilot's chair next to Nick in the elevated cockpit. "Anything to report?" I started our shift change protocol.

  "All systems are reporting green. We've entered congested space above Puskar Stellar and are currently sailing under auto-pilot," he replied.

  "I relieve you," I said.

  "I stand relieved," he finished.

  "You need a med-patch?" Tabby whispered in my ear. She'd climbed up onto the back of my chair from behind and was invading my personal space in the best possible way.

  "Do they make one I can dunk my head in?"

  Tabby applied a five square centimeter medical patch to the side of my neck allowing for the fastest possible transfer of anti-inflammatories to my blood stream. I imagined the little nano-bots rushing around my brain, repairing the damage she'd wrought.

  "You give any thought to Big Pete's idea?" Nick asked.

  My dad, who even I called Big Pete, had forwarded both Nick and me an advertisement from the Belirand Corporation. Belirand had been contracted by a coalition of countries known as NaGEK (North American, Germany, England and Unified Korea) to manage mining claims in the Descartes asteroid belt.

  "Yeah. I'm not even remotely interested in being an asteroid miner again," I said.

  Nick didn't let me get away with that. "Did you even listen to his message?"

  "You gotta understand, Dad's too much the wild dreamer for me. I don't mind hard work. I just want it to pay off. Mining never pays off."

  "No, I get that," he said. "But I've been checking the system. Grünholz has a cloud city that's giving away commercial warehouse bays - twelve thousand cubic meters. They even come with an apartment."

  "How can they do that? What's the hitch?"

  "Léger Nuage was built by the French government. They overbuilt, so now they're trying to incentivize traders. But you're right. There's a catch. We'd have to make inter-system deliveries at least once a year. If we miss a year, they could seize everything in the warehouse and bill us for storage. Until the return leg of the TransLoc gate is finished, they're about as far from civilization as you can get."

  He was starting to get my attention. I'd grown up on a mining colony and Mars was more populated than I cared for.

  "So, what? We haul ore for Mom and Dad and make trade runs when we're not doing that?"

  "Think bigger. That return gate will be up and running in a few years. Instead of being the end of the run, we'd be the last stop before jumping back to Sol. Manufacturing, building, everything is about to go crazy in Tipperary and we have a chance to get in at the beginning. With our ships, hab-domes and defensive system, we could set up our own mining colony."

  Tabby had left her arms slung over my shoulders for the conversation, listening amicably.

  "What do you think about all that?" I looked back at her.

  "Sounds exciting. Dad always said that vertical integration was the way to make credits. Middlemen get fat off everyone else without having to work for it and the only thing to do was get rid of them," Tabby said.

  "Wasn't your grandpa one of those middlemen?"

  "Dad hated it. He felt like we were taking advantage of good people. He wouldn't let me get involved in the family business," she said.

  "I didn't know that about him. That's kind of cool. So, Nick, are you and Marny in? It sounds like you have a business plan in mind."

  Nick gave me that look I knew meant I was missing something. "You won't last running short-haul work like we've done for the last six months. You're bored to death and I do think Big Pete is onto something. I also think this is one of those 'once in a lifetime opportunities' that we'd kick ourselves for missing."

  "You've got a plan, don't you?" I asked.

  "Of course, but what about you and Tabby? It's a long way to Tipperary, after all, and long distance relationships don't always work out."

  Tabby hopped on that and answered, "Don't make this about me. I've already let them know I'm not going back to the academy."

  "Are you ready to claim your share of Loose Nuts?" Nick asked.

  Tabby and I both looked at Nick in confusion.

  "You're a third owner of Sterra's Gift. I've been putting aside an owner's share for you since the beginning. As a result, you currently own eight percent of Loose Nuts Corporation."

  "I told you I wanted you and Liam to have that," she said.

  "You might want to get buckled in, Tabs, because we're about to enter atmo," I said.

  Tabby swatted the side of my head lightly and retreated to the bridge couch. "We're not done with that conversation," she said.

  We'd been gone for almost twenty days. I'd worked the schedule so Hotspur would arrive back on Mars at the same time Mom and Ada returned from one of their shorter trips.

  Our lives had settled down in the last six months and this was the fifth trip I'd taken where we hadn't been fired upon, had someone attempted to board us, or had our destination been overrun by pirates. Nick was right, I was bored.

  Financially, Loose Nuts was doing well. We'd sold off all the pirate loot from the outpost and were running a positive cash flow on deliveries. With a surplus of credits, we'd decided not to sell the two dozen missiles we'd liberated from the last of the Red Houzi.

  Inform Tali Liszt that we're on approach, I requested as we got closer to the home she had built fifty kilometers from the outskirts of one of Mars largest cities, Puskar Stellar. Tali didn't like surprises or unannounced visitors and had the ability to make our landing on her property quite difficult. We had permission to be here, since we were still renting her field for our family compound. We had, however, promised to leave a couple of months ago and I felt we were wearing out our welcome.

  Jack, Nick's younger brother, met us as we exited the ship. He was holding a pod-ball under his arm and, upon seeing this, Tabby leapt into action, sprinting up the grassy hill in the opposite direction. Jack waited for her to get far enough away before zipping the ball, perfectly calculating where she'd be when the ball arrived. She turned, caught it and threw it back to me. It'd been a long time since I'd played pod-ball. Jack, Tabby and I had been an extremely effective team back in high school. I returned the ball to Jack with an under-handed toss.

  "Hey, is Big Pete home?"
I asked.

  Jack wasn't much for talking, but was plenty bright. He smiled and nodded his head, letting me know that Dad was in one of the habitation domes. Jack took off at a run, loping across the side of the hill, throwing the ball back to Tabby.

  "Everything go all right?" Dad asked when I entered the dome. He handed me a cup of coffee.

  "It's a lot easier when people aren't shooting at you," I said.

  "Who's shooting at you?" Mom entered from an attached dome.

  "The only fireworks were between Tabby and your boy," Marny said as she and Nick joined us.

  I hugged Mom and scowled at Marny. "What happened to loyalty?"

  With pleasantries out of the way, Big Pete couldn't hold it in any longer - he'd clearly been waiting for our return. "Did you all talk about my idea?" he asked.

  I looked at Nick, who gave me the nod, and then back to Dad. "I think we're in," I said.

  REUNITED

  I called a meeting of the entire company and invited Tali, our special-forces friend, and Celina, a pirate-turned-friend who was living with Tali, to join us. We left Celina's sister Jenny and Jack at home to look after themselves, figuring they'd hate the long conversation we were in for.

  We had a favorite pizza place back in the University Hills district of Puskar Stellar called Meglianos. Nick rented a room and we all gathered at 1800 the next evening. After we'd eaten and no small amount of alcohol had been consumed, I rapped a fork against the side of my beer bottle. It didn't have quite the same sound Commander Sterra produced when doing the same with a crystal goblet, but it had the desired effect of quieting the table.

  Around the table were Jake Berandor, Tabby, Nick, Marny, Ada, Mom, Dad, Tali, and Celina. They all turned their attention to me.

  "You're probably wondering why we asked you to dinner tonight," I started.

  Jake broke in, holding up his beer bottle, "I'm going to need another beer if we're getting serious." Everyone laughed as the mood around the table was light.

  Nick glanced at him. "You might want a clear head for this, Jake."