The Aule Stratagem: Part Two - Aurora

By David Clegg

The sequel to The Aule Stratagem: Slave Ship.

Part Two: Aurora.

The Aurora, with Lieutenant Commander Michael Patterson as acting executive officer, has intercepted a pirate frigate, filled with hapless prisoners on their way to be sold into slavery in the Terran Empire. Stopping the ship is just the beginning. The captives must surely have crucial information about the plague of piracy in the sector.
Can Cara Tayley and the other prisoners be saved from the merciless slavers?
Can the crew of the Aurora finally get to the truth?
Can order be restored to the Aule sector and can the devious traitor be found before it's too late?
Lieutenant Commander Patterson must find out who is supporting the pirates, and why. The future of the Confederacy may depend on his success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CAAB Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Jul 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215867501

Book preview

The Aule Stratagem:

Aurora

A Novel

By David Clegg

The Aule Stratagem: Aurora

Published by CAAB Publishing Ltd (Reg no 12484492)

Serenity House, Foxbridge drive, Chichester, UK

www.caabpublishing.co.uk

All text copyright © David Clegg

Cover design copyright © CAAB Publishing

Additional photoshop elements from brusheezy.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

scanned, uploaded, reproduced, distributed, or

transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever

without written permission from the author, except in

the case of brief quotations embodied in critical

articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business,

events and incidents are the products of the author's

imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living

or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

First Published 2022

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data available

To my wife, Dee. For everything.

The Story So Far

While carrying cargo across the Aule Sector, the freighter Gypsy Moth was attacked and destroyed by the Corvus, Imperial corsairs led by the ruthless Captain Wayne Cotte. The crew of the Gypsy Moth abandoned ship, while their captain, William Jackson, remained aboard, intending to negotiate with the pirates when they boarded the freighter. They didn't bother to board and seize the ship, however, just blew it out of space and collected the escape pods for prisoners.

Lieutenant Commander Johnny Longers and Lieutenant Cara Tayley were taken aboard when their pod was collected. Waking up in the Corvus' cargo bay, converted to hold prisoners, Tayley listened as Cotte explained their situation. Do as they're told and don't make trouble, and they'll survive to be sold as slaves in the Terran Empire. Step out of line, and they'll be killed out of hand. The prisoners were worth money, but not enough to tolerate resistance.

Tayley and Longers met Alec Kinton, a fellow prisoner who'd been aboard the pirate frigate longer, and he warned them what would happen to Tayley and the other female prisoners when the day watch ended, and the pirates came to the cargo bay.

When the corsairs arrived to choose from the prisoners, Longers tried to stand up to them and protect Tayley, but the hulking Bosun Anov shot him down and dragged Tayley away.

Meanwhile, the light cruiser CSS Aurora, under Captain Elizabeth Lewis, and with newly-assigned tactical officer Lieutenant Commander Michael Patterson, was despatched from Bellona to the Aule Sector as part of the Confederate Navy's response to the growing piracy plaguing honest shipping in the region. The Aule Sector is criss-crossed by trade routes between the Confederacy and the League of Independent Systems and sees traffic in millions of megatons every year. Aurora departs Bellona with all the pomp and ceremony of the Navy's traditions, pausing on the way to iron out problems with the fire-control computers before arriving at Aule Station and reporting to the commodore.

Commodore Arlon Jeffries was charged with making the sector safe for civilian shipping and stemming the tide of destroyed and missing ships, lost to piracy every day. Unfortunately, none of the warships assigned to him were catching any pirates on their patrols. He had a task for Lewis and her ship: go on independent patrol, keeping their planned route out of the station's computer systems and see if they catch any pirates. If they do, it proves his theory that there's a leak on the station, a traitor selling out the Navy and passing secrets to the pirates, probably for money. If they can prove the leak exists, maybe they can find it.

Aurora departed on patrol and soon ran into pirates, destroying a gunboat after a tip-off from a merchant ship. The cruiser encountered another pirate ship, a converted courier with retro-fitted armament, and captured it. The ship and crew were handed over to the corrupt authorities in Queni VI before moving on with their patrol. Another tip-off, from a League-registered freighter this time, leads the Aurora to the Velorum system and an encounter with a pirate frigate. Apparently Imperial-built, the frigate is destroyed with all hands, leaving only wreckage behind.

While the Aurora was on patrol, Chief Petty Officer Alan Teray was busy betraying the Navy to the sector's pirates. Working in the communications section, Teray is able to access all the shipping schedules and patrol routes, download them and hand them over to his contact.

Patterson received messages from his father, Representative Richard Patterson, and his brother, Major James Patterson, whenever the cruiser visited Aule Station.

Cara Tayley endured abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the pirates, as she's forced to work for them, performing menial tasks and moving cargo and stores around the ship in work gangs, along with worse things. She made a plan with Kinton and survivors of the Gypsy Moth – they'd steal enough parts to build a PDA, hack into the ship's computers and shut down the life support system. Once the pirates are dead, the prisoners can restore the atmosphere, leave the cargo bay and take control of the ship. While they looked for the parts they need, the prisoners kept their eyes and ears open for any information they can use to advance their escape plan, or hand over to the authorities when they got back to civilisation.

The Imperial liaison, Tribune Marcus Crassus, visited the pirate base in the Thani system and demanded more attacks, more destroyed Confederate ships and insisted that the pirates cut rest time between cruises. Captain Vance Locke, the leader of the sector's pirates, argued with him, but to no avail. The Imperials are paying a bounty for every destroyed ship, and they want as many destroyed as possible. The Imperial slave traders, operating on the station, are keen to get as many prisoners as the pirates can capture, but Tribune Crassus doesn't want the pirates stopping to take on cargo from Confederate ships. His order is to destroy them and move on.

Aurora encountered the Confederate destroyer CSS Reliant in an uninhabited system. Reliant is commanded by Captain David Hughes, an old friend of Captain Lewis from their academy days. The two ships exchanged logs and mail, and Hughes invited Lewis, executive officer Commander Stefan Calder, and Patterson to dine with him and his officers aboard the destroyer. They discussed the situation in the sector and Lewis confided in Hughes about the commodore's suspicions of a security leak. The Reliant officers agreed, confirming they'd seen no pirates on their patrol and had wondered if they were somehow aware of where the destroyer would be ahead of time.

The cruiser continued her patrol and intervened in a pirate attack on a Confederate-registered freighter, the Pequod. The pirate corvette Ning-Po was engaged in attacking the ship when the cruiser arrived, and seeing that they had no way out, surrendered to the Confederates. Captain Lewis convened a drum-head court martial to try the pirates, as the interception took place in uninhabited space and there were no local authorities to hand them over to. The officers of the Aurora act as the court martial panel, prosecution and defence. The captain of the Ning-Po, Denny Lexand, was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad, along with his entire crew.

The light cruiser continued her patrol. Meanwhile, on the Corvus, Tayley's situation became more urgent as Captain Cotte, at Anov's urging, executed a female prisoner by throwing her from an airlock. She'd been assigned to work in the ship's galley and used the opportunity to poison the crew's food. The pirates working for Captain Locke chafed under the Imperial directive to destroy ships without looting them, and planned to start slipping away. Locke would report their ships destroyed by the Aurora, already making a major dent in the pirate fleet in the sector, and the pirates would escape the region before being caught.

The Aurora responded to a distress call in the Campa system, from a mining outpost on the moon Chozo. Pirates had attacked the facility and were in the process of breaking into the administrator's control room when the cruiser received the call. Moving to respond, Aurora destroyed the pirate ship orbiting the moon and sent a landing party, led by Commander Calder, to retake the outpost. The pirates dug in and resisted heavily, inflecting severe casualties on the Confederates, including Commander Calder. The survivors were joined by Captain Denton and the powered-armour platoon, using their massive armour and firepower to break through the pirates' defences and put an end to the stand-off.

Meanwhile, Tayley was taken from the cargo bay on the Corvus for a work detail, sent to clean the cabins of senior members of the pirate crew. By a cruel twist of fate, she's the last to be assigned a cabin to clean, belonging to the brutal Bosun Anov. She was still there when he returned to his cabin. Waking after the Bosun was finished, Tayley overheard the pirates talking about their base.

Commander Calder's death was a hard blow to the crew of the Aurora, none taking it harder than Captain Lewis. Commander Patterson stepped up to fill the executive officer's role, leaving the tactical department to his assistant, Lieutenant Lenes. He found a moving message waiting for him, delivered by the computer on his being granted access to the XO's security codes, from Commander Calder. The Commander's funeral was held with full military honours, and the cruiser continued her mission. Patterson and Denton approached the captain with a plan. Interrogation of the pirates captured on Chozo revealed they were working with another, larger ship, and had planned to meet up with it after raiding the outpost. Both ships were nearly full of prisoners, and the pirates would then return to their base to sell the captives into slavery in the Empire. The marine interrogators had obtained the location of the meeting, and recognition codes to be used when rendezvousing with the larger ship. Patterson proposed that the Aurora go to the rendezvous in place of the destroyed pirate ship, use the codes to get into weapons range, and demand the pirates' surrender. Captain Lewis agrees to the plan.

Arriving at the system designated for the meeting, the Aurora encountered the Corvus, waiting for the other pirate ship, and used the recognition codes to fool them long enough to get into weapons range. Captain Cotte finally realised what was going on and tried to run, but the prisoners, having assembled a crude PDA, hacked into the ship's computers and shut down the engines. Cotte fired at the Aurora, but the cruiser shot down the Imperial-built missile. Tayley and the other prisoners were horrified when the Confederate ship fired back, the missile bearing down on them relentlessly.

Chapter One

Cara Tayley watched the missile leap across the PDA's tiny screen. The Corvus' sensors tracked it, the computer data-feed dispassionately reporting its mass, acceleration and heading, in glowing text, beside the spot of light bearing down on the pirate ship. No! She thought again, as the missile hurled itself towards them. She flicked her eyes from the screen to Montero's face. We have to do something, she said. The engineer nodded wordlessly; his gaze fixed on the PDA screen. Tayley clenched her hands into fists, thoughts racing, as she studied the man's face. Yes! She thought. Signal the cruiser, she said decisively, use the running lights. Montero tore his gaze from the screen, looking up at Tayley. On the PDA screen, the missile leapt across the distance separating the two ships. Merchant service code, Tayley said. SOS. Cease fire.

Montero nodded again, eyes fixed on Cara's face.

Do it, man! Tayley shouted. There's no time!

The engineer's eyes widened. He looked down at the PDA, and suddenly his fingers flew over the controls. He keyed commands into the device's tiny keypad, eyes darting to and fro. He looked back up at Tayley. It's done, he said. Signal on repeat.

Cara nodded, eyes fixed on the PDA screen. As she watched, the missile continued on course, hurtling towards the frigate. The light dot drew nearer and nearer to the centre of the screen, marking the Corvus' position. With the engines shut down, the ship was moving at a steady velocity, no longer accelerating away from the Confederate cruiser. The cruiser, meanwhile, continued to accelerate towards the frigate, fusion engines driving it inexorably onwards.

Suddenly, the point of light representing the missile pulsed once and vanished. Montero looked up from the PDA screen, meeting Cara's eyes. They aborted the missile, he said, voice barely above a whisper. Kinton, standing beside Cara in silence, staggered a step towards the bulkhead and collapsed against the duralloy wall. Montero dropped his eyes back to the screen. The display updated after a moment. The cruiser is signalling, the engineer said. It's CMS code. 'Acknowledged. Stand by'. After a moment, two new contacts appeared on the display, moving away from the cruiser and towards the frigate.

Tayley's eyes were fixed on the PDA screen, watching the new light dots as the Corvus' computer worked to identify them. After a moment, glowing text appeared on the screen, besides the two contacts. Assault shuttles, she thought as she read the text. Packed with marines. They're boarding us, she said after a heartbeat's pause. It's over.

***

Abort missile! Patterson shouted.

Lieutenant Lenes' hand flashed across the tactical console, coming down on the abort control.

The anti-ship missile, hurtling through space towards the pirate frigate, exploded suddenly, its light dot and information code pulsed once, then winked out on the sensor display. Captain Lewis speared Patterson with her gaze. Report, XO, she ordered sharply.

Captain, the pirate ship is signalling, Lieutenant Commander Patterson answered. Running lights only. It's CMS code.

Lewis flicked her eyes to the communications station. Confirmation, Mr Deveraux? she asked.

The dark-haired lieutenant worked his controls for a moment before turning to face the command chair. Confirmed, ma'am, he said. It's Merchant Service emergency code. Running lights only. SOS. Cease fire. Repeated over and over.

Some of the prisoners on that ship must be CMS personnel, Patterson continued. They've somehow gained at least partial control of the ship. He glanced from the tactical station to communications and back to the command chair. It's the only explanation for the engines shutting down and the signal.

Lewis nodded. Alright, XO, she said after a moment's pause. She flicked her eyes back to Deveraux. Signal the pirate ship, running lights only, CMS code, she said. Acknowledged. Stand by.

Aye, aye, Captain, Deveraux said, turning back to his station. His hands moved over the controls. Sent, he said.

Very well, the captain answered. Now, signal the pirates, voice transmission. Order them to stand down and prepare to be boarded. Any attempt to escape or resist will be met with deadly force.

Aye, aye, Captain, the lieutenant said again. He spoke into his headset. Sent, he said again.

Very well, Lewis answered again before turning to face Patterson's station. XO, get a boarding party ready, she ordered. Full marine detachment, powered armour. Secure the pirate ship. Any resistance, shoot to kill, she said grimly.

Aye, aye, Captain, Patterson answered. He worked his controls. He watched his screens for a few minutes, until status updates appeared. Boarding party ready, ma'am, he said, turning back to face the captain. Shuttles launching in five minutes.

Captain Elizabeth Lewis nodded. Very well, XO, she acknowledged. Lewis watched the sensor repeater display on her chair arm, seconds stretching into minutes. She clenched her hands around the chair arms. Eventually the display updated with two new contacts, tiny light dots moving away from the centre of the image, heading for the pirate frigate.

Shuttles away, Captain, Patterson reported from the XO's station.

Signal from the pirates, ma'am, Deveraux called out a moment later. They're standing down.

***

Commander Juan Soner watched the missile leap across the sensor display, a tiny dot of light, moving rapidly across the screen towards the Confederate cruiser. The floating text beside the dot gave its rate of acceleration, mass and general information about the missile from the tactical database. The Imperial Navy had supplied a full complement of anti-ship missiles when they handed over the frigate to the pirates. They hadn't been niggardly, providing their latest missile type. The weapon hurtled through space, jet of fusion fire blazing behind it, rushing towards its target with the single-mindedness of a machine. As Soner watched, the sensor display updated, showing two new contacts racing away from the cruiser. Point-defence missiles, he thought as the display updated again, text appearing beside the tiny light dots, identifying them as point-defence missiles fired by the cruiser. The first mate clenched his jaw as the contacts rushed towards each other, converged and vanished. He could imagine the scene in space, the two smaller missiles hurling themselves into the path of the larger, nuclear-armed weapon and exploding, shrapnel blasting into the anti-ship missile's casing, ripping it apart.

While Soner was watching the missiles annihilate each other on the sensor display, another screen flashed a warning. He glanced at it, attention fixed on the missiles, but then looked over, eyes widening. The engines are shutting down! He thought.

Sir! the helmsman called out a split-second later. Engines are shutting down! We're no longer accelerating!

What? Captain Cotte demanded, looking up from his own repeater displays. How?

Unknown, sir! the helmsman answered, hands moving over his console. I have no control! I can't restart the drives!

Soner's hands flew over his controls. He queried the computers, text spilling across his screens. Captain, he said, turning in his seat to face the command chair. It's a computer intrusion. Someone has accessed the main core and shut down the engines.

Where's it coming from? Cotte demanded, eyes searching his own displays.

Looks like the cargo bay, Soner answered after a moment. Someone's accessed a data port, God knows how, and hacked through the security protocols.

Cotte swore. His thumb came down on the comm system button on his chair arm. Bosun Anov, he said into his voice pickup. Get down to the cargo bay and put a stop to the computer intrusion. Use any means necessary.

Understood, Cap'n, Anov's