Part VI Ratislav O'Muirdagh, a Lieutenant in the Exo-Fleet, was doing something he had never done before. He had a rope run through his belt, and was sliding down the mag-lev shaft head first. The trick he had discovered was to slow his speed enough to keep from hitting the walls and still keep his left hand in front of him using his gun light for a flash light. The blood rush to his head was kind of painful, but nothing he couldn't survive. The thing he might not be able to survive was what ever was waiting for him and the bottom of this shaft. He figured he was good for two hundred and fifty feet of rope which would get him all the way to the bottom of the ship, if the mag-lev got that far. The deeper down he went the more he realized that he had no idea what to expect, would there be one pirate or more, how well armed are they, what had happened to Hobbes? He had just passed deck ten when he saw the top of the carriage. It looked like the top was open, but he couldn't see anything except the glow of the display lights. Stopping a foot above the carriage, he swung from side to side as quietly as he could. There was nothing he could see in the carriage. Waiting until his timing was right, Ratislav flipped he feet down and dropped into the carriage, gun held at the ready. He nearly fell into the hole where a panel had been ripped open in the floor of the carriage. Next to the open panel, lay a slowly awakening Hobbes, a little bruised but coming around. "O'Muirdagh, wonderful timing as always. You really must learn to be on time one of these days. There's only one pirate left, they came on in a pair, he going down to the crawlspace that runs the length of the ship. He has a bomb with him, it isn't much because I took out his spares, but it is enough to start a chain reaction in any of the fuel or ammo bays." "Aye, aye, sir. Shall I bust some heads, or go straight for the kill? Once I nail this guy, we have to get him and the other one out to the hangar bays. So long sir." "Kick some ass, your good at it." Hobbes actually smiled before he passed out again. Ratislav made sure he wasn't going to fall, and then dropped the rope through the hole in the floor of the carriage. Passing deck seventeen, the shot he had been waiting for came out of the darkness and bounced off of the wall next to him. "Hey down, there can I ask you a question?" Ratislav hollered down the shaft hoping the pirate didn't take a shot a him, because he had to put both hands on the rope to flip back to the heads up position. "What do you want you fleet puke? If you pull any stunt's I'll blow this whole damn ship out to Pluto, and back," the pirate's voice sounded stressed and rough. Ratislav would bet the pirate didn't smell a whole lot better than he sounded either. "I just thought I should mention that you partner on this little cruise is doing his impression of a side of beef is the ship's walk-in freezer." "That doesn't make any sense what are you talking about?" The pirate was confused, either this fleet puke was crazy or Miasnik might really be dead. "That blond guy, the one with the Russian name, he's dead. Died of a broken neck." Ratislav got to the bottom of the shaft and silently flipped over and put his feet on the deck. Looking down he could see a blood trail running down a tunnel, that went underneath deck nineteen. Following the blood trail he could hear the pirate stumbling along and something scraping against the deck. He thanked his lucky stars that when he had done his uniform he had chosen black and dark green for the colors, the pirate would never see him until it was too late.. "Hey, puke, you still there? Who killed Miasnik, did he slipped or did he have a accident like the pirates always do at the prisons they get sent to by Exo-Fleet." He was within arms reach when the pirate yelled again and Ratislav nearly dropped his gun. "Hey, puke, you listening to me," the pirate spun around looking for something, but he didn't see Ratislav against the wall. "If you don't answer, me I'll set this bomb of right now." "All right," said Ratislav, the pirate spun around only to find a gun pointing right at his face. "Hi there. To be fair, I should really mention, that I killed him myself." "Probably shot him from behind with that gun, huh." The pirate stared with icy eyes, Ratislav knew he was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. "Ironically enough, no. We got into a fist fight in the gun range, I snapped his neck with my bare hands in a fair fight. You however have two choices. You either surrender now and use whatever means you were going to escape, or you can die a slow painful death by being knocked unconscious and then tossed out an airlock sans space suit." "Boy, you fleet pukes really are dumber than you look. I never would have guessed it was possible for the fleet to find every low-brow, trailer-trash, junky on the planet and make them officers." The pirate laughed at his joke and started to turn away. "Wow, your really funny for a Neanderthal." The pirate turned back as Ratislav spun his pistol on his finger, dropped it into the holster on his hip, and punched him in the head. The punch caught the pirate right in the temple knocking him out cold. "I always though pirates were tougher you brain-dead, degenerate, geriatric case." Putting the bag with the bomb over his shoulder he hauled the pirate back to the mag-lev shaft. Hobbes and Ratislav stood over the body of the unconscious pirate and waited. The two officers stood at the bottom of the ships main mag-lev shaft, watching the pirate while Lieutenant Cookie Macchia and Lieutenant Commander Sarah O'Bannon kept people from using the carriage. Hobbes turned to Ratislav with a question. "So how did you keep people from the carriage while we pulled of this little stunt?" "I got Cookie and Commander O'Bannon from S-2(Intelligence) to guard the door back on deck three." "Commander O'Bannon, the head of intelligence, the one person on the ship that every mission outside the ship has to go through. The director of intelligence, possibly the third most powerful person on the ship, who now apparently answers to the beck and call of a lowly lieutenant." Ratislav smiled but kept his eyes on the pirate while he talked to Hobbes. "If you must know, sir, I met O'Bannon while I was teaching at OCS. She gave a lecture on adapting to the ship board environment, and I guess I made a good impression on her because she knew what happened before I left my home town. I showed her around the base, and I helped her out when she had some problems getting a ride back to the ship. She said she owed me one so I collected today, by asking her to keep people from using the mag-lev." "A Commander in the Exo-Fleet guarding a door, so a Lieutenant can go catch the bad guy. I love it. What's next you going to have some admiral chauffeur you around the solar system." Ratislav was just about to open his mouth when the pirate started waking up, and rolled over. He pulled out his pistol and looked down at the pirate while Hobbes moved to one side to keep him from running away. The pirate rubbed his face and grimaced when he saw the two officers standing over him. "Oh, great, now I got two of you for company. What is it am I too much for one of you?" "You were right, O'Muirdagh, this guy is a pain in the ass." Hobbes was not in a particularly good mood, since the pirate had put his head into the wall of the carriage. "We have decided that in the interests of military justice that you will be shot for assaulting a fleet officer and attempting to destroy fleet property. Do you have any questions?" "Yeah, where does the justice part come in? Aren't I supposed to get a trial or something with a jury? You guys aren't just allowed to become the law, I know that much." "That's where your wrong. The man next me is First Lieutenant O'Muirdagh, he is what we call a bit of a loner. He has several kills already and very little in the way of what most people would call a conscience. I think he's a nice guy, but most people can't get past the fact he has killed more people than they have seen corpses." The pirate paused to think about this, things did not look good for him. "Do I have a choice about this? You know maybe something a little less gruesome." "Look, we're not really that stupid. We know that you came aboard the ship to wreck to the point that your fellows could board, kill everybody, and take what they wished. That's not a real nice idea where I come from. Since you don't really seem like your up to being tossed out an airlock without making trouble, it's been nice meeting you." Hobbes sighed, he had really hoped to end this better, but he had to end this quickly and quietly and without fuss. "O'Muirdagh, this conversation has been concluded." Hobbes turned and limped over to the ladder that would take him to deck nineteen. "Oh, come on man. You don't want to do this. Come one I'll go, quick, quiet, like I was never here man." The pirate was a tough man but he had planned to die in bed of old age, never like this. Ratislav frowned and looked around. "This sucks, I'll have you know I joined the fleet to get away from things like this. Life has some funny twists, I try to live like a samurai. But you broke the rules, you tried to take out your enemy at the knees, that is not the way of the warrior. Life sucks, so you get to die badly. Anybody you want to send something to?" "Yeah," said the pirate, reaching into his coverall, "could you give this to my dad. I never did let him know where I went. Thanks, man. I guess all I can say is I wish we had hit another ship." The pirate knelt down and bowed his head. "Nothing more need be said." Ratislav breathed deep, pulled his gun out of the holster and raised it to the pirates head. "Walk long, stranger." Hobbes was just about to open the door to deck nineteen when he heard the echo of a gun blast come up from below him. He lowered his head and offered a final prayer for a lost warrior. Calling the elevator, he found Cookie and O'Bannon waiting inside. Together with O'Muirdagh's rope, the three of them got Ratislav and the corpse up into the car. Putting him into a bag that Cookie had waiting, the got the other body from the freezer and went to the hangar. Hobbes and Ratislav each got into their frames and took a bag. When no one else was around, the two left the hangar bay and flew just behind the ship. Once in position, they tossed the bags into the wake of the engines, this close to the blast the two bags disintegrated in seconds. Back inside, they found that Cookie had gone back to the kitchen to work in the next meal, but O'Bannon was still waiting. O'Bannon walked up to O'Muirdagh and Hobbes while they were getting out of their frames. "Good work you two. I'll put in the paperwork, for you two to get some intelligence awards. That's means you get the awards and in goes into your records but no one will ever find out unless they can get the permission of the admiral in charge of S-2. Probably the Life Saving Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and maybe the Combat Readiness because not many people would be ready or able to deal with this kind of thing." O'Bannon walked back to her officer, leaving the two pilots, standing just a little stunned with no idea what to do. Hobbes looked around, while Ratislav just watched the floor, finally Hobbes turned to his XO, and spoke. "I think this definitely calls for a drink. Any problems with that, Lieutenant?" Ratislav looked up with quite a bit of surprise and Hobbes saw the beginning of a smile forming on his face. "I haven't got a problem with that, sir." The two of them walked over to 19 Aft which was the bar set across the ship from the hangar bays. They walked in and took two seats at the bar, Hobbes had his usual iced cappuccino and Ratislav started with a beer and worked his way to heavier liquor. The two were still drinking when none other than Second Lieutenant Kristin O'Connor walked into the bar, stopping at the door to look around, then coming right for them. She stopped at the required two feet from the bar and held out a pair of envelopes. "Commander, these just came for you and Lieutenant O'Muirdagh. Somebody just dropped them off but wouldn't say what they were." She dropped the letters on the table and watched carefully. She saw Ratislav stare into his beer, until Hobbes slid the envelope with his name on it, and Ratislav picked it up. She watched him open it up and peek inside before laying it back on the table. "She came through fast didn't she. Their all there, sir." What Kristin didn't know was that in the completed paperwork that O'Bannon had talked about for the medals. It seemed stupid to Ratislav for getting three medals for doing some really dumb shit and he really didn't feel like talking about getting medals with Kristin. "They really move fast in intelligence, don't they. All right then you are dismissed, Lieutenant O'Connor." Kristin just stood there waiting. "Did you forget something, Lieutenant." "No, sir. I just wondering how long the two of you have been here and why Lt. O'Muirdagh looks so plastered, sir." "Well then, O'Connor, you see, O'Muirdagh and I have had a rather trying day, and we are celebrating the end to that day. These two envelopes are our prizes for doing several thing I know I never want to do again. If you feel like it, you can stick around and watch O'Muirdagh drink anybody in the bar under the table." Kristin dropped into the seat next to Ratislav, and ordered a beer. "What did you guys do today?" Ratislav looked at his beer and then his eyes slid across the shot glasses and then the whiskey and scotch glass. He sighed and thought about just how much fleet seemed to suck when you were in it. "Just another day in the fleet." End Part VI And that is the entire story.