Privateers Commission 2 -ch 6-

Chapter 6

“That was a ridiculously slow response,” Delilah muttered with a shake of her head.

Ralph couldn’t disagree with her.

It’d taken the prison three days to request repairs for their door. The entire time up to that moment had been a lot of active defensive weapons guarding the breach.

In the end though, the request had gone out for repairs and supplies

Gone out, got intercepted by the Toll, and promptly doomed the repair crew to be captured by the Toll that was sent because of the request.

Now Delilah, Ralph, and Liseth were all inside a transport ship that’d been on the way to the prison. It’d been filled with repair crews, materials, and supplies as well.

There had even been a doctor on board, as several people had been injured in the explosion, though there’d been no casualties.

Xas had quickly printed out appropriate badges and encoded them. It wasn’t hard at all given that all the security badges of the repair crew had been taken.

“I’m not so sure it was slow, as it was likely sticking to doctrine,” Liseth mused. “Their entire modus operandi so far has to be outside of convention and to try be almost unpredictable. To be fair, the fact that three days feels weird to you, is likely their reasoning.

“You’ll remember they sent out a great number of scouts, ships, drones, and active scanning during those three days. More so than many task-forces would utilize, in fact. I would wager that the three days was excessive if only to confirm there was nothing going on.

“It only stopped when our dear captain ejected a lot of trash at high speed in a direction that’d go straight to the corridor. They immediately pinged it and tried to send a scout after it you’ll remember.”

“I… yes. You’re not wrong. I think maybe I’m just frustrated and not thinking clearly,” Delilah said, pressed a hand to her brow, and leaned back in the co-pilot’s seat.

They were currently en route to the prison aboard the repair shuttle. They’d be in range of sensors in roughly three minutes. After that it was anybody’s guess as to what would happen.

“And I’m nervous,” Delilah finished.

Liseth gave her the same small smile she often wore.

“Yes, that’s reasonable,” she allowed with an incline of her head. “I’m rather nervous as well. I haven’t held a pistol in at least a decade though I don’t think my aim has deteroriated. It’ll be interesting to see how I do.

“Though we’ll have to secure weapons first for that to matter. It was rather nice that your drones were able to scan the facility. Your idea worked so perfectly so far my captain that I’m rather concerned we’re about to be running into a trap.

“That or we’ll truly become the trojan horse I suppose. Either way, this is… far more than I ever expected to be doing as a ships doctor.”

Delilah snorted at that, then laughed.

“Ralph leads an interesting and charmed life. It could go either way. Trojan horse or absolute trap,” she muttered. “And I don’t know. My life has calmed down a lot since becoming a Ship’s Mistress. Being a tin-star was a lot more grueling, less pay, and more dangerous. This has been just… it’s a vacation for me.”

“You lived a rather interesting life, didn’t you, Del?” Liseth asked, the medical kit resting atop her thighs.

“You could say that,” Delilah drawled. “Really I—”

“Shuttle, transmit your authority, control of the ship, and identification,” came the voice of someone through the comm system. “You have ten seconds to comply.”

“She sounds forceful,” Liseth remarked, her smile reappearing as if it were always there.

Delilah snorted at that and tapped at the screen several times. There was a pause followed by a beep, where she tapped at the screen twice more.

Everything was given to the prison control now. The ship was under their direction.

A lot like local navy pilots at a port on a planet.

Just digitally.

“Transmitted. Echo-four,” Delilah said. It was the response that they’d been told to utilize once the transmission had gone through. All it’d taken for them to give up all the information they had was a masked Ralph holding them at gunpoint.

Then being told they’d be held at gunpoint even as the transport continued on without them.

If the information was good, they’d be released after it was all over.

If the information was bad, the consequences would be grave.

Or as Ralph had actually said, ‘of the grave’.

“Think they were honest?” Delilah asked even as they flew ever closer to the prison. Already well within range of their guns.

“I do, actually,” Liseth answered before Ralph could. “I don’t think they’re willing to lose their lives to protect the prison, or the prison guards. More likely, they’re the lowest bottom dollar bidder for the contract. Not even military, in fact.

“When working with suppliers for medical equipment, I always dealt with people like this. It was always a demonstration in frustration and consternation.”

Ralph thought on that, laughed, and then blew out a breath.

She was probably right.

“I’ll try to keep an ear out for anything weird while I’m in the admissions office,” Ralph affirmed. As a man he wasn’t allowed any deeper in the prison than admissions. He was here to help offload materials, provide on site experience, and be available if there was a need.

Unless there was a critical need though, he wouldn’t be allowed any further in.

Delilah and Liseth would be the ones to go into the prison itself. One for the material repairs with a suit, from inside the complex, the other to treat medical injuries.

“But of course, my captain,” Liseth said, her eyes sliding over to Ralph. Her ever present smile was of course there. “Though I don’t think there will be anything you’ll likely decipher that you wouldn’t immediately see anyways.”

In other words, the only code that might get called is to shoot me, which at that point, they’d shoot at me.

Unable to argue that, Ralph nodded his head instead.

“Hm. They didn’t clear us but the door is open,” pointed out Delilah while turning to look at Ralph. “Nor are they shooting at us. Did they give us some broken code to use or something? Like one of those ‘if under duress use code’ things?”

“I don’t think so, but in the same breath, I can’t be sure,” Ralph admitted.

All three fell silent as the terminal displays told them they were passing the destroyed door.

Then they were inside the complex, and it closed again. Despite the damage done to it, it was still easier to protect against the hole, than the whole door being open. Or so Ralph reasoned.

That or they were that stuck to protocol that not having it closed felt like madness to them.

“Do you think their adherence to the script is going to be a bit of a pain?” Ralph mused aloud as the ship began to slow. The control given with the transmission was complete, after all. “Like… making us do things in an exact way?”

“Honestly, yes,” Liseth confirmed. “Everything they’ve done so far seems quite rigid and according to a set of standards. I have no idea why, but it does seem that way. It’s certainly expected but… also not, if I’m being honest. It’s strange but also not.

“Long term isolation on a planteoid like this causes some strange issues with the prisoners and prison guards a like. Or at least, they do for the Blood of Vannah prisons like this. I haven’t treated any, but I’ve read many case studies.

“It’s likely why all the prisoners, and all the prison guards, are women. Less likely to have issues regarding men, if there are no men.”

Ralph blinked and thought hard about that.

Him walking in as a man, a moderately handsome man, wasn’t going to be helpful, he realized. It could just as likely become as volatile as walking in with a gun, depending on the prison guards.

“Huh. Think I can pull off a Rio impression for a bunch of horny prison guards?” Ralph asked with a wide grin. “Should I let them try to convince me into a private store room?”

“No,” hissed Delilah, turning her head to glare at him. “Don’t leave the admissions office for any reason, and if there’s only one person in the admissions office, try to find somewhere where there are other people.”

“Mm, jealous? Possessive? I can’t tell… both?” Ralph teased, looking at the beautiful and tall bounty hunter.

“Both. Shut up. Don’t go alone,” she growled at him. “Or I’ll tell Rio about the thing.”

Ralph closed his mouth without an argument and just stared ahead.

Liseth looked from Ralph, to Delilah, then back to Ralph. The smile she often wore never fading.

“Oh?” she asked quietly of the pregnant silence.

There was a loud thump, and a clank, followed by the audible hiss of an airlock against the airlock door.

Shit, they didn’t even tell us and—

Before Ralph could pull his helmet on, the airlock door slid open, exposing the cabin to the outside.

Which was thankfully just an airlock.

Though Ralph’s heartbeat was running a mile a minute right now and felt like it would explode out of his chest.

“Fuck me,” he whispered, blinked several times, and undid his seatbelt. Angry at the situation and what’d just happened. They hadn’t given them a single warning or a hint that they were about to break the seal on the shuttle.

“Bastards,” hissed Delilah while getting up as well.

For Liseth’s part, she looked equally angry, though also confused. As if something was confusing to her.

No one came into the shuttle.

“Hello?” Ralph called and walked over to the door. Peering out of the door and into the airlock, he saw it was already connected. Already connected and open, in fact. Straight into the prison complex.

Ralph could see that there were a number of desks in front of him in the room the airdock let out into. There was paperwork here and there, cabinets, chairs, it looked a lot like an office.

“Hello? Is this… admissions?” Ralph tried, moving forward. He exited the shuttle, entered the airlock, then exited it as well without a response.

“Yes! Yes it is. Hello, there, I’m so sorry about that,” called a rather feminine voice with a laugh. It sounded distinctly out of place for a prison guard, but that was only basd on Ralph’s expectations. Rather than reality it seemed. “We’ve really been struggling to get things in order since that attack! A lot of the administrative staff took the hit straight on since the shrapnel came in through the walls!

“No one died, which is pretty great, but there’s easily twenty or twenty five people that could use a hand. There’s six that are… they’re pretty hurt. We did what we could but… it was limited.”

By the time Ralph found the speaker, she’d finished talking. She was near a desk set off to one side. It was the only one with an actual computer monitor at it as well as a keyboard and mouse.

Now that he was looking around the area, he could tell a great deal of the furniture had small holes in them, shattered wood, broken legs.

One even had a rather large blood stain on it.

Well… shit.

I’m not sure what I expected, but this makes sense. We used shape charges after all.

They probably threw around a great deal of debris. It’s not surprise at all that it came this way.

The woman seated at the desk gives them a wave of a hand.

For all the world she looks like a twenty-some-odd year old straight out of college. As if she’d only graduated a few days ago from whatever academy trained up prison guards.

Short cropped black hair, a warm smile, bright brown eyes, and a bit more skin and flesh to her than one would expect for a prison guard. She wasn’t overly heavy, just not as thin as Ralph had often encountered with prisons.

A sunny disposition, set into a pretty face, with an exuded pressence that somehow made Ralph feel like it belonged to a kids tv-show.

“We’re here to repair the door,” Ralph explained, not really sure what to say. “Should I start unloading the materials?”

“Yes! That’d be quite lovely. Right now it’s just me here in admissions. Two others are currently helping me out up here but they had to step away to prepare the area for you,” said the woman. “I’m Rhea by the way!

“Oh, you can just put all the material right there please. We’ll need to scan it of course before it leaves the admissions area. That’ll need to wait till my companions return.”

Ralph nodded his head slowly.

The woman was incredibly upbeat, but off.

Off and wrong.

It wasn’t just the fact that she was heavier than what you would expect for a prison guards job in the middle of nowhere space without reinforcements. It was actually how she comported herself and how she was handling Ralph.

She was saying the right thing here and there, but she also wasn’t.

Truth be told, she seemed almost more fascinated by his presence, then concerned about the security risks he presented. Nor had she even thought to check him for weapons or anything else, in fact.

This is just weird.

Really weird.

It fits, but also doesn’t fit, what the fuck is going on?

Is it because we attacked but didn’t do anything? Did it throw everything out the window as far as regulations go?

Because there was no follow up, they don’t have any idea of what’s going on?

I originally planned to use their belief in their perfect defenses against them. That if we attacked, then left, that they’d believe their perfect defenses held.

That their beliefs were reinforced and they’d be able to believe in their defenses. Fall into a lull, and we’d get our chance to push in, grab our pilot, and get out.

And… we’re here… we’re inside… and we have likely a good opportunity to get our pilot, but something is wrong. I can’t put my finger on it.

Delilah entered into the admissions office, followed by Liseth. The two women looked around, then looked at Rhea. Ralph did notice that Liseth’s smile was a bit more stiff than the normal bedside smile he’d seen on her.

“Ah, yes, hello. The injured are through there,” Rhea said and gestured to a doorway behind her and to the right. “Please follow the signs toward the ‘infirmary’ and you’ll be able to find the injured without any difficulty! I do apologize that I don’t have an escort ready for you, but we’re… we’re really having issues after that attack on us!

“We’re working multiple extended shifts to cover all of our prison duties as well as our administrative duties. It’s really too much!”

Ralph was dumbstruck at the idea that they were going to let people wander the prison without an actual escort. This made no sense to Ralph at any level.

“How many injured, exactly?” Liseth asked, adjusting the rather large medical kit hanging off her shoulder at her hip.

“Twenty or so. Six or so grievously wounded as well,” Rhea offered up with a warm smile.

Liseth nodded her head slowly, hesitated, then began walking to the door that Rhea had suggested. As if she’d been expecting something.

Ralph realized what it was even as Liseth walked away, leaving him with a somewhat awestruck feeling.

They didn’t scan Liseth’s medical kit for contraband, weapons, or even the fact that she was likely bringing in restricted medications. Painkillers and other things that would be high-value objects to inmates.

Nothing was cataloged, nothing was checked, nothing was even glanced at.

Liseth glided out of the admissions office though she paused at the door to look back at Ralph. She raised an eeybrow at him and waited there. Holding his gaze.

She was clearly just as aware as he was that something was extremely wrong here if they weren’t doing what they were expected to do. That realistically speaking, this was so far outside of an expectation that it might as well be an expectation for a children’s show, rather than a prison.

Ralph couldn’t do or say much as Rhea had been keeping him engaged in conversation even as Liseth had moved across the room.

“— ended up being out here all by myself. Though you’re certainly a good looking man so I don’t mind and—” babbled Rhea.

All Ralph could manage was a fractional nod as his eyes met Liseth, hoping she’d infer that he knew that there was something hideously wrong here, and looked back to Rhea.

“—not quite sure what to do with myself!” Rhea said with a laugh and a shake of her hand at him.

“Well, for now, I’ll start bringing in the materials. Could you show my assistant here where she’ll be working,” Ralph asked and gestured to Delilah. “She’ll be doing most of the work since I’m not allowed to leave the admissions office after all.

“I’ll start… moving things in. Would that be alright, Rhea? By the way, I really like your hairstyle. It’s rather short but quite feminine at the same time.”

“Oh? Do you think so?” asked Rhea and then stood up from behind the desk.

In that moment, Ralph realized Rhea wasn’t overweight, she was muscular and her uniform was a bit too large for her. When Rhea stood up Ralph realized she was easily six foot two, somewhat broad, and a fair figure.

Though if the uniform was loose on her, it meant she’d lost weight, or it was just a bad fit.

Which was yet again, strange.

“I do,” Ralph said, smiling at Rhea, a strange and odd though popped into his mind. It was the only answer he could come up with considering everything that was going on. He wanted to push and decided to be aggressive. “Though… you look really fit. Incredibly so. It’s a shame you’re wearing that coat. I bet your arms are corded like steel. Your back, too.”

Rhea laughed at that, her feminine charm somehow growing with it and she once again waved a hand at him. As if his compliment wasn’t incredibly forward, which it had been.

“I mean, I don’t mind?” Rhea remarked, grabbed the sleeves of her coat and pulled them up to her elbows. Showing off her forearms right then and there.

Her fingernails were ragged and chipped and not very well maintained.

There were also some odd looking rough spots on her wrists that caught Ralph’s attention.

She flexed her forearms, twisting her wrists one way, then the other.

The muscles rippled and Ralph realized that in this moment she was quite literally someone who worked out obsessively to get such definition. It wasn’t a stacking of msucle, but extreme tone and definition.

Lean calories, wrist chaffing marks that are almost scarring, musculature that’d be gained through relentless excercise, a personality that doesn’t match what’d be expected of a prison guard.

And most damning of all…

Ralph’s eyes flicked to the corner of the woman’s elbow. Peeking out from the cuff she’d rolled all the way up was the barest hint of a black triangle. Something that made no sense on any level, yet could only be one thing.

A tattoo.

Prison guards aren’t allowed tattoos of any sort.

They’re required to have every single one removed to make sure there’s no gang affiliations.

Holy shit the prison’s been taken over by the prisoners.

But… when?

How?