Privateer's Commission 2 -ch 4-

Chapter 4

Ralph quietly moved through the windows on his laptop computer while sitting in his room.

Right now he was ‘off shift’ and the work he would’ve been doing, was being handled by, surprisingly, Liseth. She’d learned navigational charts and direct course plotting very quickly in the week since they left Mirkil’s Flag ship.

Knowing she was a proverbial outlier in her genetics it now wasn’t as surprising as it would’ve been.

Looking through the notes Ralph had taken as of late he categorized them as ‘personal needs’, ‘ship needs’, ‘Captain’s needs’, and ‘contract needs’.

Xas and her desire to get her things back, or at least, was something that went under personal needs. Winnie and her therapy also went there, as did Marionette’s family, Delilah’s contract, and Liseth’s genetic markers.

All things that he wanted to be able to take care of at some point in the future but he wasn’t sure when it’d get handled. Each was important enough to be written down, though.

Ships needs were more in line with running down some new software upgrades from certain Confed planets, getting a new pilot, a home port with a garage dock that they could do more maintenance than what they could manage at a space station.

Captain’s needs were just random things that Ralph wanted to take care of for himself and that they were non-critical. Like experimenting with sensors in a sword.

It was the last header that’d caused him problems this evening though.

The contract needs.

Right now the Task Force he’d be joining was forming up. He’d already received several communications from the rear-admiral that’d be handling the Task Force along with orders, expectations, what the Flag would be, and various other things.

Even a ‘uniform of the day’ for each and every day in the calendar for the next nine months.

While his contract had most certainly given him free reign to more or less do what he wanted, that didn’t mean it wasn’t without future repercussions. There was always the possibility that this rear-admiral, that being Rear-Admiral Tolas, might rise up to a much greater position later in life.

Things like these missions were always a risk in a way as it could put you in crosshairs that didn’t even exist yet.

Thankfully the rear-admiral hadn’t expected anything from Ralph yet, other than confirmation responses that communications had been received. Which wasn’t outside of normal protocol given the Task Force was still ‘at dock’ and wasn’t formally ‘at space’ yet.

Once they were ‘at space’ communications would be hardened and laser line comms only at momst. Until then though, it seemed the rear-admiral would be sending a never ending sleu of notifications and posts.

The door to his compartment slid open and Marionette stood in the doorway. She was dressed in her ‘maintenance clothes’ and had a light sheen of sweat to her. She gave him a crooked smile even as she entered their shared room.

Because Marionette slept in his bed with or without him every night. She didn’t have a compartment of her own and simply lived in the captain’s quarters.

“Well don’t you look comfy,” she murmured as she entered the room and went across to the small private bathroom. A true luxury on the ship. “I am. Liseth is on nav duty and Xas is helping so… I… actually took my off duty rotation. You look lovely.”

Marionette paused at the entry to the bathroom and gave him a wide and full smile. Once more reminding him that she was just about the single most beautiful woman he’d ever encountered.

“Why thank you. I appreciate the reminder you think so,” Marionette purred at him, her eyes watching him. “Is this the part where I remind my dear captain that his Lady Siren is all his and his alone?

“I think it is, isn’t it. I do so love reminding him. He always looks a touch sheepish about it?”

“I mean, yeah, you’re kind of a wonder, Rio,” Ralph said, closed the laptop, and looked to her.

“Mm, well, thank you. It’s hard now adays. Liseth, Winnie, and Del are almost as fit and good looking as I am. I never should’ve invited them all,” Marionette confessed with a nervous look as she caught her lower lip between her teeth. Then she gave him a small shrug. “Oh well. It’s good for them. Though I’m glad I caught you here. I wanted to talk to you about where we’re going. I saw we’re almost there.”

Marionette entered the bathroom but didn’t shut the door. She began to strip out of her clothes in Ralph’s clear view.

“Ah, yeah. It’s the first responder we had to a pilot,” Ralph confirmed, watching Marionette without shame or guilt. She was a truly beautiful woman and there was no way he wouldn’t watch her undress. Even if he was actively bedding her every single night, he’d still watch her. “Delilah put out feelers to a number of people and I also had a post up. The ones that responded to me were… not great.

“So we’re moving on Del’s people. See if they’re more willing to join us. Their skills and resumes are certainly better. The first is here at the prison.”

“Kind of not surprising I suppose that Del would know a prison guard with skills,” Marionette remarked, stripped down to nothing but her skin. She turned her head to find Ralph watching her as if she were a sunrise. She grinned ear to ear at the attention, then picked up a washcloth and startred to wipe herself down. Apparently she didn’t want to take a shower at the moment. “I mean, bounty hunter, prison guard, I could see the connection.”

Ralph chuckled at that. He’d thought the same thing right up until he actually looked at who the person was they were going to pick up.

Or at least, try to pick up.

“Well, the way the connection worked out is actually even more obvious when you hear it. The person we’re going to pick up isn’t a prison guard. It’s a prisoner,” Ralph confessed. Then laughed as soon as he saw the surprise on Marionette’s lovely features. “Yeah, an actual prisoner. Delilah wasn’t the one who busted them, but they’d apparently crossed paths more than a few times in the past. Bounty-hunters often end up dealing with a lot of people on the other side of the law and tend to make contacts like that.

“That’s where were heading. To see if we can’t buy a prisoner right out of a maximum security prison planetoid. It’s a barren ball of rock with nothing but the prison.”

“We’re… going to a prison… to… break out a crew mate?” Marionette asked in a giddy voice. Her eyes widened, her lips were pressed into a tight line, and her hands were held together in front of her bare body. She wasn’t shielding herself, just deeply excited. “We’re going to commit to a pirate raid on a prison and a break out.”

It’d been said with extreme enthusiasm as if it were what every actress dreamed of.

“I… do… do I get to go on the prison break!?” Marionette just about squealed, bouncing in place somewhat. Causing her rather eye catching features to sway to and fro.

“There’s no prison break,” Ralph stated firmly. “No-prison-break. We’re going in to see if we can just buy their release. Buy it. That’s all. If we can’t do that we’ll just go see the next pilot candidate.”

“But we could do a prison break,” Marionette said, watching him. “Couldn’t we? I mean, that’s-that’s something a Privateer could do, would do, isn’t it?”

“I mean, yes? Yes, there’s certainly been Privateer’s who would commit a prison break. I’m-I’m certain that there’s even some who were of my bloodline who did it, yes,” Ralph allowed, cautious now.

Marionette’s far fetched ideas of what Privateer’s should be doing often had a way of coming true.

From a sassy AI assistant to having a sword duel atop a ship between two sword masters. Her strange and whimsical ideals often had a way of really happening.

“How are we trying to buy the prisoner? If we go in with the Toll, Siren, or Armory, then they’ll know exactly who we are,” Marionette asked, her head tilting to the side, her hands still pressed together in front of her, now brought in close to her shoulder. “I know my captain. My Ralph. You’d never do that. Not without a plan just in case you did need to have a prison break. In case the prisoner just happened to… escape.”

Ralph chewed at the inside of his cheek, then blew out a breath with a laugh.

“Delilah brought her ship along. Xas is remote controlling it,” Ralph confessed. “Her ship has a large number of transponders it can switch between. Some never seen anywhere. Highly… deeply… horrifyingly illegal. To the point that if I did that, even as a Privateer, I’d get thrown into the deepest ugliest Confederal prison.”

“Confederal,” whispered Marionette, digesting that single word.

A Confed Federal prison, Confederal, was not something anyone wanted to go to.

Ever.

They weren’t listed anywhere on any star chart, and if someone accidentally approached it, they would probably end up being blown up. Or so the rumors went.

“We’re going to commit a Confed Federal crime, buy a prisoner out of a prison, or… help them break out,” Marionette squeaked out, it sounded as if she were about to fall into a fit of squealing giggles. “So-so-so… so we’ll have a fake transmission? A drone? Droid? Something artificial? A laser comm so it can’t be listened in on?”

“That’s exactly right,” Ralph confirmed. “Xas will be making up a fake persona to match the transponder and run the conversation for us. Since she’s an AI it’s not hard for her to make that happen.”

“Tell me we’re getting the Mirkil people to pay for it?” Marionette asked, as if that was the ‘finale’ to the whole thing. That everything would be finished with that statement. “That we might commit a prison break out, and the Mirkil Space Navy or whatever will pay for it?”

Unable to help himself, Ralph grinned.

Marionette knew him far too well.

“I may have written it all off in advance as hiring expendiatures,” Ralph confessed. “Hiring expenditures and rearming.”

Marionette squealed, clapped her hands together rapidly, then moved toward him.

“Oh my captain,” she said in a pleading and hungry sounding tone as she closed in on him. “It’s time for me to board you and take a sword from you. For your Lady.”

Delightful.

My beautiful Rio.

“For my Lady,”Ralph agreed with no hesitation and a great deal of excitement.

***

Ralph sat down at the pilot console as Winnie slithered into the gunner’s seat that was setup between the the co-pilot and pilot positions. She looked well enough as far as Ralph could see.

He hadn’t seen much of her since their meeting with the Admiral.

From what he’d been able to get out of Xas and Marionette, Winnie had been talking with her therapist every single day. Two hours at a time and putting in a lot of work with them.

Only to immediately take Maroinette for ‘maintenance’ or anyone else that was nearby. He hadn’t seen much at all of his weapons officer but when he did see her, she’d looked good.

He realized he should tell her.

Should tell her a number of things.

“I’m proud of you, Winnie. Proud of you and you look great, you smell amazing, and your hair is fantastic,” Ralph murmured as he slowly began pulling up the screens he’d need to watch Xas as she communicated with the prison. “I’ve been thinking about trying to talk Rio into letting me actually take you to bed as my Lady Toll. The Winnie sitting in the gunners officer’s position is an amazing woman that I’m genuinely interested in.”

The last was a lie.

To a degree.

At least somewhat.

Ralph had been thinking about Winnie a lot as of late and how amazing she really did look, but not actually asking Marionette about it. He wouldn’t jeopardize what he had with Marionette, but he didn’t see an issue with feeding Winnie’s fragile ego in this moment.

“I… ah… yeah?” she asked, staring at him hard now. Her eyes locked to him. “Really?”

“Yes. Really, Winnie,” Ralph conceded. “If I’d met you before Rio, as you are today, I don’t have a doubt in my mind you’d be the Lady Siren.”

“Thanks, Ralph,” Winnie mumbled and then reached past him to tap a single button on his screen and it flickered to the correct display. “I’m uh… yeah, thanks. Just thanks. I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. I’ve been working hard on-on my sobriety.

“Been working hard on it, trying to understand it, and keep my head clear. Keep myself moving in the right direction. That’s all.”

“I’m really glad to hear that. Really glad. Good work,” Ralph affirmed, leaning back in his seat.

The soft click and pop of boot heels caused Ralph to go quiet. Someone was coming their way.

“Oh! You’ve got it up already?” Marionette asked giddily. “Winnie, help me, hon?”

Marionette appeared, kissed Winnie’s cheek, then sat down in the co-pilot seat and started touching at the controls. Her fingres flicked, tapped, and pressed several things in rapid order.

Only for the screen to turn on as if it were that simple.

“You’ve got it, Rio, you goose,” Winnie said, reaching over to lightly push at Marionette’s shoulder. “Now we just need to—”

Winnie’s voice trailed off as the screen flickered and a woman’s face appeared on the screen. She seemed to be sat in front of a control panel looking into a camera in front of her. As if she’d just gotten her video communications up and running.

“I’d never guess it was Xas making all this up in real time. That looks like a real person,” Winnie said with some trepidation. “I mean, she even has a slight smear on the edge of the camera, makign it look like she touched it.”

“Her hair has a number of flyaways, too. It’s like she has one of those little fans on her,” Marionette added. “It’s amazing. It looks real. I don’t even know what to say.”

“I do. It’s AI like her that gets a lot of lonely pilots out in the dark space to send money,” Ralph offered up with a somewhat sarcastic smirk. He’d almost been caught by a few AI and their uncanny ability to offer up life like conversations, video, and audio.

Delilah leaned over Ralph’s shoulder, appearing behind him without a word. Both of her hands pressed to his shoulders as she did so.

The touching barrier had been broken during their last mission together and it’d never recovered since then. Even the post-dinner movie watching had continued, with Winnie or Marionette joining the two of them.

Liseth had even joined when it was a movie that suited her interest.

To the point that Ralph had rearranged some of the furniture in the ‘media room’ for them to have more seating for everyone.

As well as a camera for Xas and a monitor for her to participate with.

“Yeah,” began Delilah, followed by a strangled sigh. “I could see that. AI catfishing for cash from the lonely hearts out there. Given how many times I had to work corridor stations and how often they had just an endless supply of people moving long hauls… yeah. I take it that’s really common?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an AI out there running all the other AI like a virtual brothel scam-center kind of thing,” Ralph confirmed with a chuckle.

“I’ll have you know I’ve never catfished anyone other than Ralph,” Xas said, the attractive blonde on the screen peering at the camera as she said it. “And I only did that because I needed to know if he was trying to sell my secrets or information to other people. I didn’t get much out of him, other than he didn’t seem to have standard taste in women.

“That’s why my sex-bot has to have bright red-hair and mass weapons of destruction to compete with you girls. And yes, I said mass weapons of destruction. Not weapons of mass destruction, though I suppose they’d be that, too, haha.”

Xas made a show of grabbing at her impressive bust in the video and stuck her tongue out.

Surprisingly, Delilah, Marionette, and Winnie all laughed at that.

Then Liseth joined in. She’d appeared at some point and was hovering behind Winnie.

Ralph blinked as he looked at all four women. He couldn’t quite deny that they were all clearly ‘above average’ when it came to their sizes in the chest department.

Ah, I get it. I clearly do have a preference.

They’re laughing because it’s obvious to them, is that it?

Well, whatever.

“Yeah, yeah, Xas, I don’t have a standard taste in women. I like them beautiful and busty and I’ve clearly filled my ship with that type,” Ralph grumbled, and then looked around. He pointed at a camera nearby. “I already said we’d work on your stupid crap you glorified chatbot. You can shut up about the sex-bot.”

Xas laughed on the screen, throwing her head back as she did so and looked like she might fall out of her chair. Only to devolve into giggles as she looked back to the ‘camera’ that was in front of her false avatar.

“Haha, sure, sure. That’s it, Ralph,” chided Xas. “And I’m a great chatbot, thank you very much. You never complain when I keep you company in the bathroom. Mmm? Mmm? No?”

“Shut-up,” Ralph said with a grin, feeling like his face was stretching out a bit with the way he forced it. The last thing he wanted was the others wondering why he was chatting up Xas in the bathroom.

Which wasn’t even his fault, that was Xas not being able to keep to herself in the small hours in the morning when he woke up randomly. AI didn’t sleep after all.

“Haha, nooooo. I don’t want to. I’m… ah, it’s time,” Xas said, the video of her laughing, grinning, and staring into the camera flickering wildly for a moment. It looked like she had three hands with eight fingers per hand for a single second as the video morphed rapidly.

She sat in front of the camera again as she had at the very start. Looking very much the part of a captain of a small ship who didn’t want to be identified but was making concessions to get a prisoner released.

“This is Captain Vera,” Xas said into the camera. “I wanted to discuss the purchase of a prisoner?”