The Token by Kevin Bird (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

moments they saw the smaller craft moving slowly towards the Collectors. They were OK. Clayton, however, looked like he was still in shock.
“What’s wrong, Clayton? The pirate ship looks only slightly damaged. We’ll be OK.”
Clayton turned to Jacob, “Yes, but I was told to make sure all systems were down before I left the ship. They shouldn’t have been able to put up any resistance at all. That was the plan.”
“If you tell Marshall you were delayed by me I’m sure he won’t hold it against you.” Jacob didn’t think it was as serious as this spy seemed to.
“I’m not worried about Marshall. It’s the pirates who don’t take kindly to mistakes.” He was pale and Jacob couldn’t think of anything to say for a moment. Then he thought about Drake. “If that’s the same group of pirates that came to our world I may have a way to help you. I saved their captain’s life and he owes me. I’ll talk to him.” Clayton looked somewhat relieved and thanked Jacob.
“Look!” Sean was pointing out the small window ahead of them that showed a section of the cargo ship. They looked where the small finger aimed and saw what his young, sharp eyes had caught.
“There they go.” Clayton had apparently forgotten his fear and was now smiling. “That’s the security team out of the way. I knew they’d be sent down to check on those hatches.” He explained his steps to Jacob who was duly impressed by all the preparation.
“It shouldn’t be more than a few minutes before they’ll have the whole ship cleared. With most things automated they don’t carry a large crew and those they’ve got are worthless fighters; that’s not what they’re trained for. The plan is to have the pirates who broke in fly the ship to their home world, wherever that is, while the pirate vessel takes us back to your world. Marshall has a ship on the way right now that’ll collect me from there.” He was much calmer now.
Less than five minutes of silent expectation passed before the young boy, again, was the first to see something change and spoke up, “Look. The lights are starting to come back on and the ship’s moving.”
The two men could now clearly see that Sean was right. All the exterior lights were back on line and they could also make out the telltale movement of the ship against the backdrop of white on black.
“Here comes the pirate ship to get us.” Clayton sounded pleased, but it was clear that he was also a little nervous of the reaction he might receive. “Wait a minute...What?”
As they looked out the window they saw the cargo vessel move a little faster and then, in a flash of light, it was gone. Immediately, they saw the pirate ship do a sharp turn away from the pod in the direction the other vessel had gone. In the blink of an eye it was gone too.
“What just happened?” Clayton sounded as if he were back in shock again.

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The other men on the bridge were laughing out loud as they pulled away from the little pod and shifted. As soon as their captain had given the order for both vessels to shift, the men knew he planned to leave the spy in his pod and that was only just and even humorous to them. Their ship had nearly been destroyed, and certainly damaged, by the spy’s carelessness. He deserved to be punished. What better way than letting him go crazy floating around in nothingness? Pirate justice didn’t have to be fair; it was what it was and they accepted it.
“Turn off that damn beeping noise!” Drake told his communications officer. The quiet, but insistent, sound of the homing device was annoying and he wanted it gone now even though, as soon as the ship shifted, the signal would have been lost anyway. With the noise gone, his small tinge of guilt went with it.
It would take them several days longer than they had expected to get to their home world now they only had one engine, but that was OK. They were safe now. No one, not even Marshall, knew where the planet was that the pirates called home. It had remained a secret for many years, had served them well, and would continue to do so. Located out of the way of any expansionist goals of the Suppliers or those they represented, their planet gave them the refuge they needed. With the cargo on board the vessel they had just taken, they would not have to leave their home for some time. Once the food and other equipment on board they needed were used up they could go out and sell or trade the massive amounts of weaponry in the holds.
Drake had already been in contact with Cale on board the Cargo 1 and everything was as it was supposed to have been, the holds were full. One added benefit for Cale and the nine men under his command was the freshly butchered blue they found already cooking. By the time the ship had been up and running again and they had shifted, the meat had been cooked and they took turns going to the galley for a feast. Drake and those aboard his ship could do nothing but imagine and salivate. Not too long and they too would taste fresh meat for a change. The Cargo 1 carried several hundred of the blues and greens from Jacob’s world, and the people on the pirate planet would be happy to eat them.

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The voice was harsh and angry, “What do you mean Cargo 1 is missing?”
“Sir, the other vessels and their escorts are still in shift, but a message came ahead of them stating it was no longer with them. They had been given their co-ordinates by Cargo 1, and as per orders, they transmitted them back for confirmation of accuracy, which they received. Everything went by the book, sir.” Even though this Lieutenant had nothing to do with the loss, he was still clearly nervous being the one to pass on such terrible news to the Supplier’s top field officer, General Grewer. The older man was known to have a short fuse when it came to sloppiness and stupid mistakes. You couldn’t make a bigger, sloppier mistake than losing a Collector cargo ship with its holds’ full!
“I beg to differ, Lieutenant; obviously it did not go by the book! Who gave the co-ordinates and who confirmed them?” The general was flushed with anger and he was pacing in front of the vid-screen.
“Sir, it was a Lieutenant Clayton. He has a spotless record and recently earned his promotion to Navigation Officer of Cargo 1. We can’t find any explanation as to why he would either falsify information or make such a huge mistake on a simple part of his job.” The Lieutenant would have felt sorry for this poor guy Clayton if he didn’t feel guilty just by the way Grewer was staring at him. The general had a way of making you feel you’d done something wrong even when you knew you hadn’t.
“OK, we’ll worry about Clayton when we find him. Where is Cargo 1 now?” He stopped pacing and took a drink out of a bottle without taking his eyes off the screen.
The Lieutenant gave an almost audible gulp of fear that almost matched the swallowing noise from the man on his screen. “We have no way of knowing, sir.” He shuddered as the General took the bottle from his lips and seemed to look him right in the eyes. “All we know is where all the ships shifted from and at what point along their trajectory they realized it wasn’t with them. Since Cargo 1 was the one disseminating and confirming co-ordinates the others weren’t tracking anyone’s course but their own. They have no idea where Cargo 1 may be as it could have come out of shift anywhere, literally. Now, all we can….” He ended abruptly when he automatically ducked seeing the general throw his bottle at the screen. The connection was terminated as immediately as was the conversation.

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Jacob wasn’t so confused, “I guess they didn’t like the way you’d prepared their arrival, and now they’ve got what they want they’re not interested in saving you. No one ever said pirates were nice guys or could be trusted.”
“How can you be so glib? Don’t you understand the position we’re in now?” Clayton’s face was pale, his eyes wide.
“Clayton, I understand and I’m not taking it lightly, but you must remember from my point of view I’m no worse here than I was back in that cell heading for execution.”
“What about the boy?”
“I would prefer to see him survive this, but he would have died soon anyway; you know what they do with the kids they press. I’m more sorry for you actually.”
Clayton was clearly surprised, “Why?”
“You had planned to be wealthy and free to enjoy it, but it looks like those plans are going to have to change. You also helped us out and for that we’re grateful.”
Sean must have understood the spot they were in but handled it very well. Jacob could feel the boy crying softly, but not uncontrollably or in a panic, and he knew he had to find a way for this boy to live.
Whenever he looked at the boy’s face all he could see was that of his daughter, Bettine. Not because of any physical likeness but because he could easily imagine that his daughter would also be putting on a brave face in this situation. Unfortunately, no clever ideas immediately leapt to his mind. Jacob thought about trying to adapt the homing device to a different frequency, but without knowing which one they’d be lucky to find anything useful.
“I can’t think of anything right now. How about you, Clayton?”
The man was still looking somewhat shocked and ignored Jacob’s question. “I can’t believe they just left us here. It was all my fault, I’m sorry.”
Jacob spoke consolingly, “Clayton, you don’t know it was your fault. Maybe they would have left us anyway once they had the cargo vessel.” The man seemed to accept that as a possibility and shook his head as if to clear the doubts from inside. Then he looked back at Jacob and nodded as if to say he was OK.
“OK, so what are our options?” Jacob felt better that the man was on track again.
Clayton reached into his bag and pulled out the radio.
Jacob was shocked, pleasantly so. “Clayton, why were you so worried about being left by the pirates?” He was suddenly nervous that his hopes had been raised for nothing. “It does work doesn’t it?”
“Yes, yes, it works just fine. I must admit I’d forgotten about it for a moment, but I think we still might have a problem.” He looked down at the boy and knowingly back up at Jacob.
The farmer understood the look. “Don’t worry about Sean, he’s tough. Aren’t you?” He ruffled the hair of the young boy who seemed to relax under the attention. “Whatever you have to say you can say it in front of him, too. It’s not like we could go to another room anyway!” He looked around the tiny compartment they were squeezed into and laughed. After a moment the other two joined him, whether through tension or real humor it didn’t seem to matter.
“OK. What I’m worried about is getting a ship out to us in time. With three of us on board