Chapter 11. A ship for your troubles.

Thaum stopped his ship outside the enemy's range. He said, “We are going to wait here for the weapons to cool down. Did you collect the information about the Appolimus ore.”

Alice pried her aching hands off her armrests and replied, “Yes, I took everything I could find. Computer, bring up the Ore file. Also, it would have been far easier to get the information if I knew why you wanted it. The file is several terabytes because I even stuck scan data in there. So good luck finding what you want.”

A window popped up in front of him. He flicked it to the side and brought up the ship's logs. He said, “what little ships maintenance I can do here will be quick, so if you wanted to talk, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Alice pulled on her harness a few times. After the third, the mechanism realized that she wasn’t in a crash and let her loosen the belts. She sarcastically added, “aren’t you going to watch your shows.”

Thaum shrugged, “If I could watch those guys closely enough that they can’t do anything shifty while I do, sure.”

…

Alice finally started, “so what are your plans. If we are going on another laser cannon roller coaster, I would like to know in advance.”

Thaum closed the maintenance window after glancing through it for anything critical. Then replied, “get money, wealth, influence, and power. Then retire somewhere to pursue my interests.”

Alice said, “aren’t money and wealth the same. As well as influence and power.”

Thaum said, “No. Perhaps it doesn’t translate well. A wealthy person has enough money that they don’t need to think about it anymore. And a powerful person can actually get things done. Influence only helps convince others it's a bad idea to go against you.”

“hmm, then what about your interests. What are they.”

Thaum said, “Science and technology.”

Alice leaned forward before the halo holding her head suddenly stopped, “really, wha--” bang, “ow, what fields are you interested in. What do you know about them, like what rank has your studies reached.”

Thaum chuckled. He watched the enemy ships eject dozens of life pods as he said, “I know next to nothing about them. That is why they are interesting.” Thaum grabbed the controls, and Alice was shoved back into her seat before she could reply.

Thaum turned on communications, “I’m coming back now, anyone not in a life pod when I get there in.. say ten seconds have lost their right to life. If you are in a life pod, you better start making your way to the mining outpost before your supplies run out.” The ships on the monitor got larger, and a single life pod popped out of one of the remaining ships just before he got there.

Thaum had the computer autopilot dock to one of the ships. He closed his eyes and sent several detection magics throughout the ships. And received a single ping from the ship he was docked to. A woman was hiding inside a box in the captain's room.

Thaum smiled. The airlock on the other side had explosives set up. He waved his hands and transmuted the explosive compounds into salt. Many things might be different here, but alchemy was something he was familiar with and explosives don’t work very well when they are made of salt. He also found it funny when his enemies checked their explosives and figured out why they failed.

A moron sniffing and licking some powder from his finger before exclaiming, “salt!?” was always amusing.

Filled with such thoughts, Thaum stepped into the other ship. Nothing happened. He went through the ship and disabled the rest of the explosives before reaching the captain's room. The door opened. He stepped through, then shot the box with his laser pistol.

The box shook and moaned before the woman burst out. A wave of mana stole her consciousness. Thaum grabbed her head and read her memories…

This woman had infiltrated this pirate organization using her looks. She was going after the same weapons supplier he was. Thaum briefly considered letting her live before seeing a few too many memories. He put a laser through her skull then left.

After docking and entering the second ship he told Alice to go fetch the boss. Thaum went through the ship and disabled all the traps and explosives. Then got back onto his ship when she came back with life pod in tow.

Thaum flicked on a screen in the airlock. Alice appeared on it, and he said, “invite what's his face here.”

Alice replied, “you do realize allowing a dangerous pirate boss on board is retarded right. Why don’t I put you on one of the ships and you can meet in there? That way, I can at least threaten him with this ship's guns if he does anything stupid.”

Thaum laughed, “just do it.”

…

The airlock opened, and a large man stepped through with his hands raised. He was wearing a large draped cloth over his body like a poncho. But the armored gloves and heavy clank of his footsteps made gave away that he was wearing a combat suit. Perhaps he had fooled someone doing this, but not Thaum.

He had already seen inside before the pod even got close. He also saw the laser pistol taped to his back. The man saw Thaum unarmed and said, “no gun” His arm reached behind his head.

Thaum just smiled. The man returned one of his own once he had pulled his pistol off his back. Thaum continued smiling, “so tell me, whom is and where is your arms dealer."

The reply was to have the pistol aimed at his head, and the trigger pulled. The gun fizzled, smoke puffed out the end. The pirate leader only had enough time to widen his eyes before Thaum rushed him.

Thaum threw an enhanced kick into the man's gut. The armor cracked, and the man gasped as he flew into the opposite wall. A soft robotic voice came from the man's armor, "critical damage, calling for medic. Injecting stimulants. Estimated time of recovery... no response detected. Requesting soldier's assistance... no response detected. Suit com systems may be damaged. Jack into another as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, the Pirate leader was vomiting grey all over the floor. Thaum frowned, "I won't ask again."

The pirate managed a gargled, "fuck you." between spasms. Thaum covered his nose. Any interest in having the bandit "do it the hard way," like he did with most bandit leaders, was lost, along with his desire for the armor if he had to deal with this smell for any longer.

He avoided the now spray vomit which was now mostly coming out red, and grabbed the pirate leader's head. The man's eyes rolled back, his vocal cords pulled tight enough to snap as he screamed in agony.

Thaum got what he came for. He left the man twitching on the ground as he went back to the cockpit. "computer, undock the life pod and leave the airlock open." [capitan that would cau--] Thaum said, "do it."

A moment later, the ship shuddered as he entered the cockpit and found another pistol pointed at him. Alice was there, pistol trained on the door. Hands shaking. Thaum said, "you have to pull the trigger for it to shoot, you know."

Alice jumped, "ah, no, sorry. I wasn't sure who was going to come through that door." She lowered the gun, and her shoulders slumped.

Thaum took the controls and docked with the abandoned pirate ship. "you are going to take the remaining ships to the station we just left and sell them. I'll be a day or two behind you."

Alice said, "what."

Thaum said, "I've already disarmed the traps, so it's safe. I don't care what you do with the money, just make sure they know you are part of my crew. Also, tell anyone who asks that I am hunting a straggler or something."

Alice asked a few questions before Thaum ran out of patience and kicked her off the ship. This would be a sort of test for her. He was curious how much she would get done before he came back.

Alice would have to figure out whatever control schemes those old ships had. Disable any ship lockout systems if there were any activated before it was abandoned. And most importantly, willingly move into danger to get something done.

The reward of the ship's sale would help her, but he wasn't sure it would beat out the stories of how trapped pirate ships were. Either way, he would figure out how useful she would be and could assign tasks better once he knew.

Thaum flew to the pirate base. He looked inside the rock-covered blast doors and scanned for traps. He found a few auto guns in the dockyard's walls. With just some tiny movements of the wrist and fingers, he blasted them away. He unintentionally grinned. Thaum was really starting to like the tech.

He sent out sensory magic. Then remotely transmuted the mechanisms like he had with the pirate leader's weapon. Then had his computer pull up the information he had Alice compile.

Terrabytes of data showed up causing him to sigh. This would take a day or two at least.

Meanwhile, Alice was tiptoeing through the pirate ship. She knew it wouldn't make a difference, but she couldn't discount a pressure plate or tripwire being set up before the ship was abandoned. Although the longer she went about it, the more absurd the idea seemed.

The decks were covered in dust, probably trekked in from manually digging out that asteroid base. Thaum only gave them enough time to get off the ship, not set up complicated traps and cover them in the same amount of grime everything was covered in.

She thought, 'maybe they set up the traps beforehand.' But this line of thinking just wasn't useful. She had only made it halfway through the ship in an hour. Her hands were soaked in sweat. Several times she ducked into a corner to wipe her hands and laser pistol to get a better grip.

Which she now did again. However, as she was moving to a corner, a door suddenly hissed open. She screeched, wheeled around, and lost grip of the pistol. It flew and clunked against a wall as she stood frozen, Infront of her an automatic door. Which then closed again.

The following hours had her finding the bridge and very slightly losing her mind.

She had to start the ship. Autonavigation was every spaceworthy ship down to escape pods. As long as it had a thruster, you could have a computer pilot you to a destination with it. The problem was getting access to the system.

Alice had been studying everything about crewing a ship she could get her hands on. If it wasn't classified, she had read it. So it didn't take her long to find the lockout system that came default on these former drilling ships. She simply found and read the manual.

Which is where she found the real problem. This was a pirate ship, and nothing was standard. She found the lockout module with various wires cut and other wires connected in weird and wonderful ways.

Several hours of starring at diagrams and following wires later, She went up to the cockpit console. Pressed the equivalent of a power button and cried in frustration. The lockout module wasn't even plugged in. It was bypassed

Because, of course it was. This was a pirate ship. Whatever credentials the original miners used were long revoked by now. If you were in the seat, you could fly it.

She spent the rest of the day transferring between the 3 working ships. Setting up a group waypoint back to the station.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Two days later.

Thaum finished reading everything about Appolimus that Alice had gathered for him. What it is, what it's used for. How it's found, everything. He designed a spell around that knowledge. Cast it and left the pirate asteroid base.

A day later, Thaum was back at the mining station. He had the computer finish docking procedures. He noted that the station's weapons were aimed in his direction but powered off. An amusing thought.

His foot only glanced the station deck before Alice flew into the docking area. A bespeckled man with a data slate trying to keep up while trying, and failing to continue a conversation.

She stopped in Thaum's path. Arms crossed, "didn't you say it was safe."

Thaum shrugged, "safe is a relative term. Safe for me is vastly different to safe for everyone else. I take it the new shutdown position of the station's guns is your doing."

"of course," Alice threw her arms up, "those pirate ships are in every database of shoot me now. So you can guess what happened when I showed up in them. Worse yet, the fucking pirate ship's communications systems are a hodgepodge of stitched-together shit."

Thaum grabbed one of her arms and pulled her into step beside him. Then continued towards the cafeteria, causing the unknown man to scramble out of his way.

Alice continued her rant, "For a whole 10 minutes. I was listening to increasingly threatening messages to disarm my ships. All the while trying to send a message before they blew me up."

Thaum stepped into the cafeteria and ordered food, "and how did you manage that."

Alice smiled, "after all the standard procedures failed. I looked at some of the ship's battle recordings that I watched over the trip.

The start of each recording had the leader say, "tell the bastards." Which was the command word to send messages."

The guy with glasses was now seated with them. Thaum asked, "and this is."

Alice said, "the guy I'm selling the pirate ships to. Assuming the other mining convoy that I've been in contact with doesn't give a better offer when they arrive."

Thaum asked, "is the price they are offering good."

"good, but not great. The ships are practically new, pirate modifications notwithstanding. So it shouldn't take long to get a better offer."

Thaum said, "just take the good offer. We have things to do. Also, track down the woman with the prosthetic I spoke to before."

Alice said, "she's Ellora. This guy works for her"

Thaum finally acknowledged the man, "set it up." Then went back to his ship."

An hour later, the computer connected a call, "So you killed the pirate bastards that attacked us and sped along the sale of their ships to us. I'll have to thank you, however, if this is a social call, then I will have to politely decline."

Thaum said, "it's flattering that your mind goes in that direction immediately when you think of me, but no. It's just business. come to the ship."

...

The call ended, and several minutes later, she arrived in the ship's airlock. Surprised to find two chairs facing each other inside. Thaum was sitting in one.

He glanced at her and gestured to the seat. She was in a jumpsuit covered in oil. This told him a few things. 1. She didn't dress up for the meeting, and Either her ship was far more damaged than he thought. Or she enjoyed mechanical work.

The moment her butt fell into the seat, she said, "so. What business does a... bounty hunter? have with me. I'm not wanted anywhere."

Thaum chucked, "nice guess, but now. I'm just a businessman." She raised a brow and gestured around her to the ship. He continued, "a businessman who knows the value of big guns."

"And a fast ship," Ellora added.

Thaums lips lifted, "indeed. Now to the point. I have coordinates for a valuable resource. It happens to be trapped in rock. You have the ship's equipment and manpower to extract it."

She leans forward. The carefully maintained Pokerface gone. Thaum could identify hope behind the stern visage. "if you are selling the pirate ships, then you will easily have the capital to hire my fleet."

Thaum stood up, "there will also be a 10% honesty fee, 4 of which will be paid to you personally. For anything else, set it up with Alice. We leave 24 hours from now. Computer set a timer."

As he got to the door, she said, "honesty fee... what exactly do you want us to mine?"

Thaum said, "You are going to take the trip on my ship if that's any indication of value. I don't care what you tell your people about why you will be on my ship, but they should only think this is a routine operation. Oh, and no, this is not illegal or dangerous before you ask."

He walked out as the door closed, the lock notification sound going off behind him. Thaum turned off communications before they came in and went to bed.