The legion indeed had not been sitting on its laurels and counting its victories. Already several other hideouts had been attacked and other, independent pirate vessels and their supporters had been hunted down and eliminated.

Non humanoid pirates had not been neglected either, the forces that the Legion had amassed and tasked with eliminating nonhumanoid and non-oxygen breather pirates had been equally successful. A major base had been destroyed near the galactic core in an area of space lethal to any unprotected humanoid; another hidden in a nebula; a third on its frozen outer world system. These and other targets including independent roving vessels were all destroyed in the second wave of attacks.

Now the Empire was gathering its task forces for one more major thrust at the pirates. This time it would concentrate on the final hid outs, not forgetting Watchers Rock. The legions gunships replenished and plans laid, the forces of the Empire of the Dark Lord, coiled, concentrated, and like a deadly snake, struck!

*********

Lista Thursta had followed Tyrone and the rest of the crew back to the spacecraft that was more home to them than any that most of them had ever known. Besides the bridge crew of six, there were three in the engine room, two other security officers and a group of seven soldiers for boarding and security. The engine crew also handled most of the shipboard duties such as maintenance and repair not done by automatic systems.

Approaching the spacecraft, Tyrone grunted with satisfaction as he viewed the overt presence of Extsu with three security men all keeping the main airlock secure with the two other locks under surveillance even though they were alarmed. Extsu greeted Tyrone and Lista with a nod and immediately shifted his eyes back to scanning the dock in all directions. Other than the three meeting with Venkriller, all the crew were now with the Master Moon.

A small craft of the corvette class, much smaller than even a light cruiser, Master Moon history followed the normal pattern of similar sized space craft. It had been sold off as obsolete to an authorized dealer by the empire after much service. How Thurgod had acquired the Master Moon, he had never explained.

About ten thousand tons in fully loaded weight, the craft was roughly shaped like a box twice a football field in length. The rear half of the spacecraft was devoted to engineering, fuel cells and the like. From engineering forward, there were four decks, the uppermost being the bridge and bridge crew quarters. Two weapon and communications nodes took up the rest of the front half of the top deck, along with an escape craft.

The second deck held the rest of the crew quarters, main hatch and assembly area, computer center and storage. This deck also had the armory and the plasma beam node. The third deck held the engineering control room, living quarters for the engineers, and the backup computer core. The last deck held the storage area including cargo space and a shuttle for boarding. There were escape craft on all decks along with secondary control centers and back up bus runs everywhere.

Although the weapons had been deactivated when sold, they had been reactivated at large expense by a previous owner, prior to sale to a pirate. They consisted of both mass and antimatter missiles and included the weapon most favored by the pirates, the plasma beam. With it, if they could get close enough to their prey, they could disable the craft and carry out an assault. The most vulnerable area of a space craft was the main engine drive emitters in the rear. Although protected in part by the emissions from the engine, this was the preferred attack position, especially by pirates as even a minor hit could disable the engines and render any ship easy to be boarded.

The bridge was located at the front of the ship, on the top-most deck. The living quarters for the bridge crew were in close proximity and it was to this area that the crew headed first. The exception was Tyrone, who went up to the bridge.

"Computer, Master Moon access requested"

"Identify"

"Tyrone, code 114, weapons"

"Identification provisionally accepted with voice recognition. Verify."

With the competence of long use, Tyrone entered his personal code.

"Identification completed. Limited access granted"

Tyrone grunted. Only limited computer access would be given until final assembly of essential equipment by the engineering section, who were now completing repairs. Quintas would be happy at the news that they were to leave as soon as possible.

"Comm link, Engineering Master Quintas, requesting status". Tyrone keyed the inter ship comm link.

"Quintas replying." A screen came to life showing the round happy face of the engineer. Tyrone gave a rare smile, the engineer always made him smile. An unusual mixture of two races, cross race propagation was generally impossible without expert medical help, the engineer almost never left the Moon and was happiest in deep space.

"How are the repairs coming Quintas?" The weapons expert rumbled.

"Well hello Tyrone. You are back on board, and already tired of the delights of the Rock? Why I am shocked that you are so hard to please. If indeed hard is an understatement for one such as you! Why our esteemed second engineer was saying barely two periods ago that...."

"Sorry I must interrupt Quintas, there have been developments. When can you be ready to leave?"

"Leave! Already! Look the Master Moon has been through much and I have the essentials done but many systems remain to be checked! The life supports should be assessed and upgraded along with the control runs and the backups..."

Again Tyrone interrupted, "Save it Quintas, the cursed Empire may arrive at any moment and turn the Master Moon into so many pieces of scrap and quantum’s of energy. Necessary repairs only to get us away from here and safe. How soon can you be ready to leave?" Tyrone pressed the engineer.

"I protest. All systems must be ready. If this ship is not properly prepared then I have failed...'

"If the Empire reduces the ship and coincidentally us, to its constitute atoms, it won't matter how the ship is readied.” Tyrone wearily interrupted. “Quintas I would enjoy discussing this with you, as you know. But the playground has been just destroyed and it is imperative that we have the Master Moon ready for flight when the last of the crew return."

Tyrone hid his amusement at the startled look Quintas showed as he realized that the weapons master was serious. "Very well, I need point four standard periods to restore the Master Moon to supra light speed. Less if we all work together and I get some help."

"What do you need?"

"Loading of supplies for the meal dispenser and fuel cells. The mains are fully charged. There are some replacements parts needed for the main shields that have been ordered and should be ready now."

"Are these necessary for the ship to operate?"

"Well, yes and no. The parts that I have ordered replace existing parts and these were operational. However, there was damage when the empire blasted that closest ship, whoever it was. The antimatter shock wave impacted on our shields and strained the components which means they must be replaced. The gravity weapon also had an effect."

Tyrone considered for a moment. "If the parts arrive, how long will it take for you to install them?"

"The main, and the most vital, item is the primary shield generator. The original has been removed and, when the new item arrives, it should be installed in, as I said, including testing, point four. The components are all modular you see." Quintas smiled, his usual good humor restored. “The other parts are for the reactor and all these can be installed at the same time”.

"When should the parts arrive? How long ago did you order them?"

"Not long, about two point three standard periods." Quintas checked the ships chronograph. "With all the ships missing, I would have thought that they might have been a lot quicker but, then, the parts supplier may have other things on his mind. I'll go and get them myself." With an artless smile, Quintas signed off.

“Black blood!” Tyrone muttered then keyed the door watch at the air lock. “Extsu, Quintas is going to the parts supplier; I want Devano and four men to go with him. Hold Quintas when he gets there until they arrive."

"Acknowledged. We have a visitor, do you want me to send her up."

"Her? What’s going on? Who's there?" Tyrone stared at his comm.

"I was just going to call you. Ilisa wishes to travel with us." Extsu responded.

"No! Stand by, I will be there. And hold Quintas."

Tyrone keyed the comm unit again. "Devano, Tyrone."

"Devano here."

"Listen, Quintas is going to get some parts. I want you to take four men, the most reliable you have understand, and escort him to the supplier and get those parts or we will still be hear when the damn empire blows this rock into tiny pieces. He should be at the lock by now. Make sure he gets the parts and comes back safely."

"Armed?" Devano never wasted anything, money, women, violence or words.

"Yes, and besides your personal arms, take Lasher mark VII shoulder arms." Even Devano raised an eyebrow at this. The Lasher mark VII was the most powerful portable sidearm in their inventory. "Off."

Thrusting out of his chair Tyrone left the command center and headed to the lock. On the way, he passed Amard Petter heading for the bridge, followed by Lista Thursta. He wondered at the grin on Petter’s face, but dismissed it.

*********

Arriving at the bridge, Amard went to the pilot’s station in the center, and began activating it. Coming to the same end as Tyrone, he noted that he could only activate certain aspects of Jennas or his boards. Giving a careless shrug, he sat back in his chair, swiveling it to scan the rest of the bridge in his laid back, casual manner.

“So Lista,” He called in his easy charming way, “Anything good you heard?”

Lista glanced at the young second pilot, “Nothing, I have no idea what the rest are doing,” Sitting back in her usual seductive manner, she continued. “We will find out I guess.”

Lista gave Amard another more assessing glance, like the rest of the crew she wondered how he had come to be a pirate. All they knew was that the barely adult, good looking young man turned up with Thurgod one day. Lista gave an inner smile at the memory of the storm that Jenna had raised when he was introduced as second pilot. It was on a small planet, not much larger than a moon, and Thurgod was doing some reconnaissance when, big surprise, he got into a fight. Amard had taken his side and Thurgod had been persuaded to bring him back to the ship.

*********

“What do you think you are doing?” Jenna had practically yelled. “I need someone who I can trust in there.”

“He is a trainee pilot. You can complete his training.” Not wanting to lose the best pilot that he had ever had, Thurgod was being as reasonable as he could be, although the flush on his face showed the effort that he was making to control his anger. “Continue his training. Look if he is no good, you can take care of things.”

Jenna just folded her arms giving her straight look at Thurgod at that. Thurgod sighed, “Ok I will take care of it but try him out first. You have been wanting to test the shuttle, take him for a flight.”

“So you had this thought out.” The test fight suggestion was just a little too smoothly given.

With an unaccustomed smile Thurgod replied. “Well I am the leader.”

Jenna eyed Thurgod thinking, Yes he is right. As much as Jenna hated to admit it, they needed a second pilot and Amard fitted the bill as much as anyone could. They had already run genetic and other scans and were certain that he wasn’t a plant by the police or Legion.

Turning to the new arrival Jenna eyed Amard without favor. Absurdly young and a charmer she thought. “Let’s go.” She waved at him. He grinned and threw an arm across her shoulders. Bad move.

Smoothly, with the expertness of long years of practice and training Jenna threw him to the floor. Her sword came out in the same move and rested across the stunned throat of Amard Petter.

“Never touch me.” Jenna hissed into the startled eyes. Lista and Thurgod laughed. Fastos smiled and Tyrone gave his bass rumble while Jenna rose and stalked out, returning her sword to its scabbard as she left.

Tyrone’s rumble morphed into a deep laugh. With one hand he plucked the young man off the floor. “Better get going, kid.” He advised.

“Yes, Jenna does not like to be kept waiting.” Followed the trilling laughter of Lista.

Shaken, Amard composed himself as best as he could. Having already a year’s training, he found his way to the shuttle craft bay with no trouble. There he found Jenna waiting, tapping her foot impatiently.

Regarding each other for a fraction, Amard with ambivalence, Jenna impassively, then waving her hand at the shuttle, Jenna spoke, “You do know how to open the hatch don’t you?”

Amard had the distinct feeling that Jenna was not going to be at all like his last instructor. Stepping to the door, he went to disengage the lock. Stopping, he turned to Jenna. “Is there a particular code I have to enter?”

Jenna did not smile, “Good. You know when to ask.” Stepping to the door, she entered a code.

“All the doors are biometric encoded.” The door slid open. “If you pass, I will have you entered into the data base. Now go up front and start explaining the controls to me.”

A full period passed before an unruffled Jenna and a somewhat bedraggled Amard returned to the bridge of the Master Moon. Thurgod noticed a bruise on one of the young man’s cheeks. Must have given some backchat to Jenna, he thought. Women of Christos, no one had ever met a man from Christos, were not known for accepting rudeness lightly, at least when not amongst their own kind.

“He’ll do.” Was all Jenna said. The rest laughed.

In time, Amard grew to respect Jenna and her methods. Although he never got to like them.