Trampship Wars 2 Read online

  The Gronk thought for a few seconds looking up at the overhead as his brows scrunched down with his mind working overtime. Finally looking up with a smile. “Yes. Food pray has been very exciting making stupid demands and fighting well on table making good dinner.”

  The Doctor smiled knowing that the Gronks had a hard time differentiating time beyond a day or two. “Sorry Captain but if you had asked me sooner I could have saved some of your crewmen.”

  “And why didn’t you find them on your own Doctor since they were in your cells. As soon as you found out you had extra slaves, you should have found out they were my crewmen.”

  “Not my job to count slaves every day Captain. I count those that come aboard and those I send up for feed and that is it. You want to count slaves every day you do it.”

  The Captain dropped the scanner to the deck and pulled his pistol pointing it at the Doctor as he opened his mouth baring his fangs and roared. Shaking the whole compartment. Making the slaves in the cells cringe trying to hide.

  The Doctor stared the Captain down not sure if she was going to live much longer or not but sure she was not going to give in to the likes of a damn Lioncat.

  The Captain suddenly turned the pistol on the Gronk Sargent and fired, blowing a hole in his head. The Gronks looked down at their s e rg e ant Sargent in shock until the Captain roared again . The Gronks now leaderless and then started running for the elevator as the Captain followed. His roars pearcing piercing all across the deck.

  The Captain’s back was barely past the dead Gronk before its weapons were gone and hidden. The almost new scanner became one of the Pumacat Doctor’s prize possessions.

  The Doctor smiled knowing that the Gronk would furnish a week’s meat for the crew since she was rationing them now with the ship two months out of port. The Gronks and others that neede d live fo od would just have to accept the half way fresh meat she sent up deck. At least for a week which was as long as she could push it before the y started dying without some fresh live food . Not that she cared if they lived or not but keeping the pirate crew alive was what kept her and the food slaves she had hidden around the ship alive.

  And that was the conundrum . She had to send some human food slaves up deck to keep the rest alive. The smile dropped from her face as she took a deep breath. At least she had another week before she had to pick again. Hopefully more crewmen would come down to rape her so she could send them back up to appease their fellow pirates but she knew she could not count on that. Especially now the Captain would be looking here first if any more of his crew came up missing. That is if he noticed.

  Taking another deep breath as she looked down at the dead Gronk. She had work to do. Turning she started letting slaves out of their cells to help move and cut up the ton of Gronk meat.

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  Blackbeard looked around through his binoculars at the smoke billowing up from a dozen buildings scattered around his port. The riots had taken their toll. But then that was fine with the corrupt politicians as the more damage done, the more the local populace would pay for protection and the more the corrupt politician ir pockets would swell with payoffs from the gangs that ran the blocks like kingdoms. Laser fire caught his attention as two block kings fought for control of a block between them. The one backed by a politician had one hell of a lot better weapons than the one that had to get his weapons from the black market. After all , that was what gun control was all about , keeping the guns out of the hands of the general population to defend themselves . Blackbeard watched a family caught in the cross fire, get mowed down to join the innocent bodies lying in the street. The family had evedentually evidentially not paid the right king for protection. Or maybe just not enough.

  The real reason for the riots had never been police brutality against innocent cat civilians , which was really none existent but it sounded good in the news. It was all about keeping criminals out of jail so they could control the blo cks to pay ever larger bribe money and forced votes for corrupt politicians.

  Blackbeard chuckled. He fit right in with his laundering business for pirated cargo.

  Slamming the binoculars down onto his desk. “And that fucking boy had almost ruined it for him. While the local city councilmen, mayor and police c hief were easy to bribe . W ith enough of the parliament including the prime minister corrupted to make things easy for him even though they were a little harder to deal with . T he damn Queen was too damn rich to care about bribes while the military was all holier than though about defending the State . Not caring about individual rights against truth testing a nd was damn good at weeding out anyone that turned corrupt.

  Blackbeard turned to hi s screen to make sure he had won the bid on the Gunboat he knew had to be the fighter but the timer had not run out yet. Gr owling as best he could , wishing he could roar like the L ion/human Cats that ran the gangs around the port Blackbeard though about joining the slaughter to ha ve some fun but realized it was impractical. If he was seen killing any of the ca ts around the port in a hun t, (even though hundreds were being killed by the cat gangs already ), he would lose every thing.

  No. Blackbeard though t about taking a vacation back up to his little moon base orbiting the gas giant that he had taken over before the war had started . Just the thought of going on a hunt down in the old mining tun nels that honeycombed the little moon to kill a few escaped slaves hiding in them. How a few slaves always managed to escape from the slave labor crews mining what little fuel ore was left in the old rock was beyond him but he did truly enjoy hunting them down. They were usually even desperate enough to fight back if he was not careful. But then he was starting to get a few too many slaves mining down the tunnels anyway . He already had a decade supply of fuel stored up. Maybe it was time to take a real vacation and take 30 or 40 thousand slaves to market to one of the slave worlds that still e xisted in toward the Empires core worlds. He enjoyed getting around the pi tiful blockades that kept the price of slaves to those worlds high. Thirty thousand slaves averaging 5,00 0 credits each was a good tidy sum for a little vacation.

  Taking a de ep breath. No. he had too much to do down here on the planet right then. After he took care of Mr. Collins , he would take a short hunting trip t o the moon and bag himself a couple hundred escaped slaves.

  Sighing Blackbeard picked up his binocular s and looked out at the hundreds of bodies scatter ed around the streets of the cat slums, (though humans made up half the population). Bodies that would never get reported in the news simply because the politicians could not use their deaths to influence the masses into doing what the politicians wan ted. Fact was , if the news got out about all the innocent bodies just the opposite would happen which was why the politically controlled news organizations refused to cover them. Blacklisting any newsman that tried telling the truth . That was what you got when every accredited new s man was a card carrying Liberal Comunist Democrat party member . The party that e spoused being for the people cared shit about its people when it came to interfering with their elite power. Blackbeard smiled at that thought as he was good at using that power since it was easy to buy his way into the Party and all its fringe benefits and powers. He did not even mind repeating all the crap about , “F or the people,” since the stupid masses eat it up like candy and ice-cream. Even though he did not give a shit about them.

  Again Blac kbeard wondered if he could get away with going hunting for the afternoon. A little money spread around to the right people and the news would be about him protecting his property from the riots even if it got out . W ith no worries about a nasty photo of him killing anyone getting into the papers or on the net.

  Smiling from ear to ear , Blackbeard sent a few credits out to the right people and then dropped down his private elevator to collect a few weapons. He did love sniping and he had a lot of old junk ships around the perimeter to snipe from.

  The death toll jumped by a hundred bodies that afternoon (men, women , old people and kids) , but no one that cared
ever heard about it.

  The top story that evening was about a police officer that roughed up a murder suspect that was supposedly caught in the act by the policeman. But the expensive lawyer that suddenly showed up to defend the innocent Lioncat, assured the newsman that the video was a complete fabri cation and his client not only did not murder anyone but did not assault the cop . The whole incident was again police profiling and bigotry against innocent catdom. The officer and the police department was immediately sued for millions of credits for wrongful prosecution of his client. The lawsuit would cost the city millions even if the lawyer lost while the lawyer only had to pay a filing fee . W ith a good chance of getting very high hourly wage s (claiming thousands of hours with no proof) from the court even if he lost . In effect the la ws written by lawyers , made sure the lawyer made money no matter what happened.

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  That evening Mark sat down at the dining table with his parents. His whole body felt different but he could not put a finger on why. His head no longer hurt which was amazing to him after spending hours that afternoon wishing he could simply die to get it over with. That is when Mickey left him along for a few seconds. But now except for the rest of his body, he felt fine except for being exhausted and starving. Though his body didn’t really hurt, his skin felt tender like a mild sunburn with every muscle he never knew he had a little sore. The fact that he was drinking everything in sight including some crap Mickey insisted he drink to provide something for the Nannites still in his system to work with as well as him having to use the head every half hour was a little disconcerting but Mickey had assured him that that was normal and would slow down by bed time and stop by the next morning.

  Everyone around him kept giving him strange looks as he went through the serving line with his parents and as they sat down. Their conversations staying light , avoiding the gorilla in their thoughts.

  Then Jolleen walked up and gave Mark a big hug being carful of his head as she kissed him on the cheek. “I was so worried about you Mark.” Jolleen She had been at the Garden sickbay clinic when Mark finished his treatments but did not get a chance to talk to him with the Captain and everyone else showing up. Then she had to leave with he r r still worried parents when the dinner bell rang through the ship. At least she knew Mark was alive.

  Jolleen gave Mark another hug. “Especially after the Doctor had told me just how badly you were hurt.” Turning to his parents. “Did she tell you Mark only had a 30% chance of surviving the treatments and none without them?”

  Mark’s mother’s eyes grew big as she frowned. “A, no, Dr. Wells did not. We did not get a chance to talk to Doctor Yoshi before the treatments.” Taking a breath. “Now I wish we had. Dr. Wells did not even hint it was that serious. Her eyes got narrow. “I am going to have a little talk with Dr. Yoshi first thing in the morning.” Mark k new by the tone of her voice, which was not going to be a talk he ever wanted to be the focus of.

  Tom came up to the table and slapped Mark on the back. “Hey, I saw…”

  Jolleen wacked him across the head. “You moron he just got out of the Sickbay.”

  Turning to give her a dirty look then smiling. “Ya that was what the news just said when they showed him shooting the guy.” You lucky son…” Tom reached for Marks head to ruffle his hair.

  Jolleen hit him hard pushing him away from Mark before his hand touched. “Damn it you big lunkhead. Mark almost died from a concussion. Keep your hands off of him stupid.”

  “Hey, I heard. I wasn’t going to hurt him. Just saying hi is all.” Turning to Mark. “I heard the guy tried to kill you with a pipe but the news just showed the guy sitting there on his knees empty handed then falling forward after you shot him . Then the News gal called you a bunch of names saying you butchered him. That doesn’t make sense Mark. I know you wouldn’t kill someone in cold blood but she only uses names like that for bad guys .”

  The news came on the giant screen on the bulkhead not far from the table. (screens were spaced all around the overhead across the mess deck.) “Our top story tonight is the murder of Mr. Perry Schlesinger by an out of control ship’s officer. This ship’s officer continues to walk free leaving a mass of bodies behind him. Captain Cook refuses to charge Commander Collins for these terrible crimes ignoring the facts. This time Commander Collins followed and hunted down Mr. Schlesinger across Tramp Town before cornering him and deliberately gunning him down in the front of witnesses.” The screen shifted to a video of Mark laying on the deck with his torch pointing at Perry as the big man dropped to his knees and said. “It is only a fucking torch.” Then falling face down onto the deck. The screen switched to a big man saying. “Perry was just standing there when the Officer shot and killed him for no reason at all.” Another screen switch to a woman. “I watched the officer murder Perry the pore guy. How can we let this happen on our ship?”

  “Mark, those people were not even there. They did not arrive until after Perry was dead.” Mickey said disgustedly making Mark wonder at the hate in her voice which was not supposed to be possible with computers.

  The screen went back to the news caster. “Cancel men Greedly is going to enter a bill in the council tomorrow to force Captain Cook to arrest and execute this murderer before the ship lifts off this planet. He asks that all law abiding citizens of the ship send demands to both their councilman and the Captain that justice be carried out and this murderer that is possible responsible for hundreds of deaths aboard the ship over the last week be put to death.”

  The big breasted news caster’s face turned from demanding rage to a nice sweet smile. “Now to other news of the day. The ships number 4 main propulsion engine passed it s acceptance tests today after its upgrade overhaul. The power test was responsible for giving everyone the shakes several times today. The Chief says that the other two engines will finish their upgrades before liftoff in a few days as scheduled. The Cargo department is busy trying to fill the extra tonnage the new upgrades will allow the ship to lift with.”

  “And for those that got a look in our pit today, you would have noticed 9 fighter bombers sitting along the pit wall. Captain Cook has managed to purchase them from the English retirement yards at a considerable discount. They will be going into out empty boat locks just as soon as they are cleaned out and the fighter bombers maintenance equipment is installed.” The Picture on the wall showed Captain Cook, the English Captain and Mark checking out the Torpedo bombers. Then the screen shifted to showing Mark’s airshow with the Captain’s fighter. “Our top pilot was required to prove to the English that our pilots are good enough to fly the warbirds before the English Captain officially turned them over to the Queen.” The video shifted to showing Mark climbing out of the fighter with Captain Cook beside him slapping him on the back, all smiles.

  “On a more sereouse serious note. Number 3 lock will be opening at 20 hundred hours for those with appointments to view the tragedy that happened 21 years ago. Only relatives are being allowed in this evening with general viewing to start tomarrow tomorrow night with relatives given priority for the next week.” Her face turned pissed to Mark’s surprise as the screen changed to show Mark in the passageway with the Ship’s Patrol forcing the civilian crew back into the elevator whether they wanted to go or not . “This reporter was refused access earlier today by Mr. Collins just as I reached the hatch and at this time as I have no relatives in the lock , I was not able to get a v iewing appointment for this evening . ” The screen changed to show an overall view of the lock from a security cameral at one end without enough detail to see individual s clearly. “ The next two nights seem to be booked solid as well. Though I have attained a close up video of the lock’s fresco images , we have decided that the scenes are to too graphic for general transmission. You can access the video on our web sight if you are 18 or older.”

  Taking a breath as the screen behind her changed to show Greedly driving an aircar in the hold just off the Tramp Town decking. His face more than
pissed. “An aircar driven by Mr. Putts Greedly was impounded and Mr. Greedly arrested. ” The screen changed to show a hundred bodies lined up along the park outside their cabins. Men in suits walking around the bodies taking picture scan s and c hecking each closely . “ Mr. Greedly , who recently lost his wife during the recent poison gas attack that Mr. Collins was linked to and may have been responsible for.”

  The screen changed to show Mr. Greedly and his son Chet crying over the gurney as the medics took his daughter out of the fortress that had been turned into a gas chamber. Mark was on a separate gurney a few feet away as it passed the Greedly’s. “ Mr. Greedly w H as been arrested as his rented aircar parked next to the Quarter deck was flying back toward the rental agency . Mr. Putts Greedly’s brother, Councilman Greedly is demanding that the Chief Master at Arms release his brother and drop the unfounded charges and stop this vindictive witch hunt against his brother. The Cargo Union representative is saying that if Putts Greedly is not immediately released with all charges dropped, they will strike and damage thousands of credits of cargo every hour that Mr. Greedly is unfairly detained. Councilman Greedly is asking for all good law abiding citizens to contact their Councilman and the Captain and support the hard working peaceful Cargo Union’s demands.” The stern demanding look and tone changed as a smile came to her again. “On the medical side..”

  “You’re not responsible for all those deaths Mark. Why is she saying that?” Jolleen grabbed Mark’s arm scarred.

  “He isn’t Jolleen.” Mark’s father spoke up. “I saw the original recording s and she is only playing a clip that benefits her point of view leaving out clips that what tell s the true whole story showing both Mr. Greedly and Chet setting the gas canisters and then locking two boys in the tank before the canisters discharged . Leaving out the part that contradicts her lie.”