It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!
And I haz pirates!
In honour of the day, I give you this excerpt from chapter one of the book which will NOT be called Torin and the Pirates. Warning: excerpt contains profanity speled funy.
"Net's away, Captain!"
Leaning back in his command chair, Mackenzie Cho scraped a thumb nail over his stubble, the soft shup shup shup adding to the background noise, and listened to Hurrire counting down the distance until contact.
"Twenty kilometers. Fifteen kilometers."
"Firebreather's Susumi engines have come on line, Captain!" Dysun di'Berinango half turned from her monitor, eyes darkened to a burnt orange, hair flipping around her head in a tangerine aurora.
The three di'Taykan on the crew had been responsible for some minor piracy on their own before joining up but, that said, they were still little more than kids out looking for thrills. Cho was not particularly fond of children. He waved Dysun back around.
"They've must've seen the net," she added.
"Five kilometers, Captain."
It was possible that the Civilian Salvage Operator at the controls of the Firebreather had been feeding data into their Susumi equations since leaving the debris field, cargo pen bulging with salvage. It was possible the Susumi engines coming on line had nothing to do with the approaching net. And if the Susumi drive didn't kick in before the net covered the final three kilometers, it wouldn't matter.
"Two, one… we have contact! Anchor lines have caught the pen, net is spreading."
"Power up the buoys."
"Aye, aye Captain!"
"Susumi engines are powering down."
Of course they were. Only a suicidal fool would fold into Susumi space when their equations had just been fukked beyond correction. Galaxy class battle cruisers with a full compliment of Susumi engineers had slammed out of Susumi space into unforgiving solid objects because of a missed decimal so a seat-of-the-pants pilot and a cheap computer had no chance when the random pulsing from the buoys made grabbing the necessary data for an accurate equation the next thing to impossible.
Some might say actually impossible.
Cho didn't believe in the impossible. There was always a way. Case in point; in spite of a dishonorable discharge from the Confederation Navy designed to force him into jobs well below his skill level and ambition, he'd still gotten his Captain's ticket. Even if he'd had to take it by force.
"Captain, the Firebreather is coming around."
"Interesting." Straightening, he stared up at the large screen he'd had installed to give the illusion of an external view in spite of the bridge being buried deep in the bowels of the ship for safety. Most CSO cut their losses at this point, dumping their pens, engaging their default equations, and leaving the victor the spoils. But against all odds, the Firebreather was indeed coming around. "I wonder if they've forgotten what happens to ships that challenge us?" he said thoughtfully.
Hurrire snorted. "No one's challenged for a while, have they?"
An excellent point, Cho admitted. Memory being what it was, it was long past time to remind people that resistance was useless.
"Captain." Dysun's hair had flattened against her head. "I'm picking up a strange energy signal."
"Define strange?"
"Like a…"
The bridge shuddered as the Heart of Stone took a hit.
"Like a weapon?" Cho asked quietly.
"Yes, sir."
Confederation law put all weapons in the hands of the military. CSOs were supposed to run crying for help while the Navy -- buzzing around with their collective heads up their collective asses because the war had turned out to be a big fukking joke -- did sweet fuk all about the big, bad pirates. Seemed like this fool hadn't got the memo.
"Hurrire."
"Captain?"
"Don't damage the pen."
The Krai grinned. On a species able not only eat but digest pretty much any organic matter in known space, the baring of teeth gained an added significance. He danced the fingers of both hands and the long, prehensile toes of one foot across his board.
An instant later, the bow of the Firebreather exploded, creating a miniature starburst of debris.
In honour of the day, I give you this excerpt from chapter one of the book which will NOT be called Torin and the Pirates. Warning: excerpt contains profanity speled funy.
"Net's away, Captain!"
Leaning back in his command chair, Mackenzie Cho scraped a thumb nail over his stubble, the soft shup shup shup adding to the background noise, and listened to Hurrire counting down the distance until contact.
"Twenty kilometers. Fifteen kilometers."
"Firebreather's Susumi engines have come on line, Captain!" Dysun di'Berinango half turned from her monitor, eyes darkened to a burnt orange, hair flipping around her head in a tangerine aurora.
The three di'Taykan on the crew had been responsible for some minor piracy on their own before joining up but, that said, they were still little more than kids out looking for thrills. Cho was not particularly fond of children. He waved Dysun back around.
"They've must've seen the net," she added.
"Five kilometers, Captain."
It was possible that the Civilian Salvage Operator at the controls of the Firebreather had been feeding data into their Susumi equations since leaving the debris field, cargo pen bulging with salvage. It was possible the Susumi engines coming on line had nothing to do with the approaching net. And if the Susumi drive didn't kick in before the net covered the final three kilometers, it wouldn't matter.
"Two, one… we have contact! Anchor lines have caught the pen, net is spreading."
"Power up the buoys."
"Aye, aye Captain!"
"Susumi engines are powering down."
Of course they were. Only a suicidal fool would fold into Susumi space when their equations had just been fukked beyond correction. Galaxy class battle cruisers with a full compliment of Susumi engineers had slammed out of Susumi space into unforgiving solid objects because of a missed decimal so a seat-of-the-pants pilot and a cheap computer had no chance when the random pulsing from the buoys made grabbing the necessary data for an accurate equation the next thing to impossible.
Some might say actually impossible.
Cho didn't believe in the impossible. There was always a way. Case in point; in spite of a dishonorable discharge from the Confederation Navy designed to force him into jobs well below his skill level and ambition, he'd still gotten his Captain's ticket. Even if he'd had to take it by force.
"Captain, the Firebreather is coming around."
"Interesting." Straightening, he stared up at the large screen he'd had installed to give the illusion of an external view in spite of the bridge being buried deep in the bowels of the ship for safety. Most CSO cut their losses at this point, dumping their pens, engaging their default equations, and leaving the victor the spoils. But against all odds, the Firebreather was indeed coming around. "I wonder if they've forgotten what happens to ships that challenge us?" he said thoughtfully.
Hurrire snorted. "No one's challenged for a while, have they?"
An excellent point, Cho admitted. Memory being what it was, it was long past time to remind people that resistance was useless.
"Captain." Dysun's hair had flattened against her head. "I'm picking up a strange energy signal."
"Define strange?"
"Like a…"
The bridge shuddered as the Heart of Stone took a hit.
"Like a weapon?" Cho asked quietly.
"Yes, sir."
Confederation law put all weapons in the hands of the military. CSOs were supposed to run crying for help while the Navy -- buzzing around with their collective heads up their collective asses because the war had turned out to be a big fukking joke -- did sweet fuk all about the big, bad pirates. Seemed like this fool hadn't got the memo.
"Hurrire."
"Captain?"
"Don't damage the pen."
The Krai grinned. On a species able not only eat but digest pretty much any organic matter in known space, the baring of teeth gained an added significance. He danced the fingers of both hands and the long, prehensile toes of one foot across his board.
An instant later, the bow of the Firebreather exploded, creating a miniature starburst of debris.