Crankie Williams Goes Pirate: Crankie Williams Goes Pirate, #2

By Franz Ludick

The Chief of Police on Earth had finally managed to capture Cankie on trumped-up charges and had him shipped off in a fleet supply freighter, with instructions that he never sets foot on any planet again! Crankie had a hard time in the beginning but managed to overcome the problems he was faced with.

When the freighter was attacked and taken over by pirates, Crankie was freed and he met up with the pirate captain, Martin West, who was to become one of his best friends. The pirate ship headed back to the pirate base, Tortuga, where Crankie settled himself after it became known who he really was. He became very popular at the base, especially with a certain lady.

Crankie, having become one of the leaders amongst the pirates organised a few raids and finally convinced Martin they should carry out a raid in the Heshny Galaxy. The first raid went off successfully and they managed to hi-jack several ships which they could add to their pirate fleet. 

Crankie made contact with his old buddy in the Milky Way Galaxy, Alexei, and finally, the two met up again. Together they made plans for Crankie to meet up with his friends from Earth and a grand secret meeting took place, bringing Crankie up to speed on all his business interests and restructuring some of the facets of his organisation. He also managed to bring his super fast and beautiful space ship the Solar Plexus to Tortuga and used it to further his interests there.

The Japanese President of Tortuga, Makatura, asked Crankie to arrange assistance for his home planet 'Nga which was under attack by a rogue nation, the Ribaldese, from a neighbouring planet that was determined to destroy "Nga. Crankie planned the whole operation and with the willing participation of the hundreds of pirates with all their fighting ships, they attacked the rogue planet and virtually destroyed it! The pirates, as payment for their participation, pillaged the planet and came away with rich booty.

The Police Chief of Earth and the GASS (Galactic Secret Service) determined that Crankie was responsible for the massacre on Ribald. He was named the 'Butcher of Ribald' and a hefty price was placed on his head.

While the Chinese were making preparations Crankie and Martin West carried out various daring raids and this ended up in catastrophe, with Martin being killed, blasted to space dust by a heavy cruiser. Crankie took this loss very hard and blamed himself for what happened. His lady friend Eleza tried everything to comfort him and even called in Alexei's help.

Crankie tried to hold himself together and arranged several raids. He even made contact with Marood Hubool of the mysterious mystical planet Xanatanka who gave him guidance and support, but it was all to no avail. He planned a daring raid and things suddenly went horribly wrong when his ex-wife Emily betrayed him to the GASS. The whole operation was a complete disaster! Crankie was distraught and fell apart, turning to strong drink and even Eleza and Alexei's help and support couldn't console him for all the deaths he was responsible for.

Taking a space capsule Crankie headed off straight to a fleet cruiser and handed himself over, to the amazement of the captain of the cruiser who had dealings with Crankie in the past.

Crankie was sentenced to life imprisonment at the high-security penitentiary Hellkatrazz on the planet Walmer from which no prisoner had ever escaped, and the Police Chief of Earth, when he was told about it, went totally off his head, having to be put in a straight jacket while running around madly in circles and repeatedly screaming Crankie's name!

The Dark Force which was ever vigilant also took note of the situation and realised that a powerful new enemy was being groomed which would eventually be a real danger to it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Franz Ludick
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223460107

Book preview

To The Hunter the Spoils

Franz Ludick

Copyright 2018 Franz Ludick

Other Crankie Williams Books

Book 1 - Crankie Williams Goes Ballistic

Book 3 - Crankie Williams Does Penance

Book 4 - Crankie Williams Goes to War

Also

Oh Hell, Joe!

The Sentinel Awakens

Disclaimer

THE NAMES OF CHARACTERS portrayed in this story are purely fictional and in no way related to any real person, dead or alive. Neither do they relate to any real place or institution. Any similarity of names to any person, place or institution is purely coincidental and in no way intentional.

ISBN 978 0 620 61433 7

CONTENTS

Actions and Reactions     6

Serving Time      7

Martin West      16

Tortuga      26

Narrow Escape     36

Raid on Heshny – Phase One    45

Raid on Heshny – Phase Two    55

Alexei       64

Restructuring      72

Solar Plexus      80

President Makatura     88

Galactic Enemy     96

Lara       105

Manchuria      116

Eleza       124

Disaster      131

Pleasure Lords      141

Xanatanka      147

Failed Mission      152

Lost Cause      158

End of the Beginning     163

Epilogue      166

Bibliography      168

Orientation List     170

Crankie’s Businesses     171

About the Author     172

ACTIONS AND REACTIONS

Crankie Williams was born as Clarence Allain but as a baby, his mother called him Crankie because, well, he was a cranky baby, so the name stuck.

On his way home from school, Crankie met with Commander Illian who was instructed by the emperor to guide and tutor him through his young life, until he understood he had a higher purpose in life.

During his junior as well as senior school days he got up to all sorts of tricks and became a real thorn in the junior and senior school principal’s flesh, so much so that the high school Principal, after Crankie decided to become an entrepreneur and began, with his brother’s help, to go into space and sign contracts with both the Arabs of the planet Murka and the Chinese of the planet Manchuria, eventually met with the Chief of Police to inform him of his suspicions that Crankie was involved in criminal activities.

With the help of his brother and his brother’s friends, Crankie meets up with Alexei who was to become one of his best friends, and the two of them plan raids in Heshny. They hijacked some Heshnian freight ships! When they, unbeknown to them, hijacked a brand new super ship belonging to the Andromedans, there was big trouble in the Milky Way galaxy. When they realize what they had done Crankie ordered the new ship to be hidden until they decided what to do with it. The Andromedans blamed the Milky Way pirates for stealing their ship and this put a huge strain on relations between the two galaxies. Crankie, through a clever scheme, managed to recover the new ship and take it back to the Andromedans, thereby earning the title of Universal Hero!

Crankie decided to start a new venture for the business empire he was developing. He restructured his management team and made plans to construct motels and roadhouses all over the Milky Way galaxy. These motels were called Star Havens and eventually after they were built and commissioned, they catered not only to weary travellers in pleasure cruisers but also afforded rest and recuperation for the fleet officers and men. The problem came when the pirates also began using the facilities and it was passively agreed by all that Star Havens would also be ‘Safe Havens’. No pirates would attack any passenger or freight ships they were with at the havens and the fleet would not attack or hunt any pirates until they had a chance to get safely away.

Through the influence of the emperor, Crankie meets up with Chiefs Running Water and Running Bear of the Lacota Sioux tribe and it was decided to move all those people who decided they wanted to go, to the mysterious planet called New Maka.

Crankie got involved in some shady underworld activities and although it was hugely financially successful for a long time, he eventually gets caught red-handed, much to the joy of the Police Chief, and is locked up. The Police Chief decided to have Crankie shipped out in a fleet supply ship with strict orders that for the rest of his life he was never to set foot on any planet again.

SERVING TIME

If ever there was a man born to be ambitious, it had to be Crankie Williams. Although his father named him Clarence Alain, his mother, through desperation at his crankiness throughout childhood called him Crankie, and that name would stick for the rest of his life. Luckily the name allocated to him by his mother didn’t rub off on him in his formative years. It could never be said that Crankie Williams was at any time in his life a cranky sort of guy.

Being ambitious is of course a good thing if practiced in the normal sense of the word, but to Crankie it became an obsession. He was born with the need to do whatever came into his mind, right or wrong. To him, there was no right nor wrong. This should not be confused with not being aware of what’s right and what’s wrong, he was quite aware of the rights and wrongs of things. Only thing was, once he got stuck into one of his projects, the right or the wrong of it was of little consequence to him. Unfortunately, this disregard for common sense was to cost him dearly in the future, but during his long and eventful life, it did help him to see the grand scale of things in the galaxy, and the Universe as a whole for that matter, in a more understanding sort of way. I guess one could say with certainty that Crankie was one of the few people who learned from his mistakes, even though it took him a long time and cost him plenty.

Unfortunately, as with most people who treat the importance of the rights and wrongs of their actions with disrespect, he eventually came to a sticky end. Getting caught red-handed in the process of committing what was considered a crime, the chief of police who had been after his blood for a long time was at the end of his tether and after secretly bringing Crankie’s father Digby Williams, the Honourable Minister of Trade for Earth, into the holding cell to be made aware of his son’s many transgressions, as well as the latest and most despicable act he was apprehended for, gave Crankie the option of being thrown into a high-security prison on the planet Walmer for life with hard labour, or being shipped off the planet in a government-owned freighter supplying fleet bases throughout the galaxy. He was to work as a labourer without pay and with absolutely no privileges, never to set foot on any inhabited planet again for as long as he lived. Crankie decided to opt for the freighter as he had naturally heard of the forbidding penal institution called Hellkatraz on the planet Walmer.

The instructions the police Chief gave the captain of the freighter, was that Crankie should never ever set foot outside the ship. In fact, the freighter would be his prison for the rest of his natural life. He would be a working ‘member’ of the crew, without pay and not even have his name entered in the crew’s list. The police Chief felt confident that Crankie was safely out of circulation for the rest of his life and that he had finally gotten his revenge on him, which was a lifelong prison with labour. He felt quite satisfied knowing that Crankie, being the entrepreneur that he was, would suffer greatly by being so restricted.

Crankie was secretly brought into the ship as it was docked at Earth space-port in the wee hours of the morning. He was immediately thrown into the brig and the hatch was securely locked. Things had happened so fast and so unexpectedly he was still in a state of disbelief and shock! He sat on the hard bunk and tried to piece the sequence of events together.

It didn’t take him long to conclude that he had been fairly nabbed and that he had only himself to blame. He accepted that the Chief of police was only doing his job and so, making up his mind to make the best of a bad situation, he relaxed and let his mind wander, thinking about the love of his life Emily, who would be getting anxious by now, waiting for him to come home. He thought about his brother Leonard and his sister Maureen, his trusted friends, and all the projects he was involved in with them and wondered how things would progress now that he was out of the picture.

He cleared his mind and telepathically called up the Sioux Chief Running Water on the planet New Maka. He had established a mental connection with the chief and the two of them could telepathically converse quite easily. He informed the Chief of the misfortune that had befallen him recently. The Chief told him Chief Running Bear had gone back to Earth with the Colossus, to report the conditions on New Maka to those of the tribe who had not yet made up their minds whether to emigrate or not. Crankie told him not to be concerned about the transport of the rest of the Sioux tribe on Earth, those who wanted to emigrate. His ship was at their disposal while they needed it to transport them, their possessions, and the animals they wanted to take with them, although, as there would only be a few, they would be transported in a much smaller ship.

He asked Chief Running Water to mentally contact Chief Running Bear and ask him to explain his situation to Captain William Cranfield. Captain Cranfield was to inform Crankie’s brother that he was now in full charge of all his businesses.

The Chief said he would get onto it straight away and Crankie sat back with his back against the wall, his knees up and his feet on the bed, feeling more relaxed.  He felt assured that his brother would take care of all his affairs. He had total trust and confidence in Leonard, knowing that together with Maureen and all his friends, things would prosper in his absence. His businesses were in good hands.

He remained in his cell the rest of that day and night. No one brought him food although he had a washbasin with cold water, and toilet facilities. In the early hours of the morning, he woke up and felt the trembling of the deck and knew the freighter was getting underway and heading out into deep space. He wondered when he would see Earth again, making a promise to himself that he would one day escape, come hell or high water!

Early the next morning the cell door opened and a crewman told him he was being summoned to the captain’s office. As he stepped out of his cell a second crewman of huge proportions took hold of his arm in a steel grip, effortlessly propelling him forward.

‘The brig must be in the belly of the ship’ he thought, as they marched smartly down corridors, up escalators, and along more corridors before the crewman holding onto his arm eventually brought him to a halt in front of a door with a clear sign reading ‘Captain’. ‘Well, can’t go wrong there,’ he thought, as the crewman softly tapped on the door.

Enter! A booming voice vibrated through his head. His guard opened the door and they stepped through. The office was everything he expected a fleet freighter captain’s office to be. Small, cramped, and crowded with computer gadgets and hardware. The man sitting behind the steel desk was on the fat side, completely bald with a full red beard. His hands resting on the desk top were huge and Crankie couldn’t help noticing his fingers, which were like large sausages. The captain waved the guard out, and after the door had closed he looked piercingly at him.

Williams, I have here in front of me a full report on your miserable life up to now. the captain said in his naturally booming voice, indicating a fair-sized file lying open on his desk. It is difficult for me to believe that someone of your young age can get up to all the evil as stated in this report. However, I’m not interested in hearing your side of the story. I am also not your judge or jury. I am however the captain of this ship and I have been expressly instructed to make sure that you are treated as the low criminal you are. His penetrating brown eyes bored into Crankie’s.

I have further been instructed that you are to be locked up in solitary confinement for at least six months with minimum rations and no privileges whatsoever! You are to be treated as the vilest kind of criminal, which no doubt you are. However, as captain of this ship I have decided that I will not feed a mouth that does not work and deserve his keep. You will therefore be kept in solitary confinement for ten days after which you will be assigned to the care of the Bosun who will do with you as he pleases and I warn you, the Bosun is not a man to be fooled with. He stared at Crankie a while longer to make sure his words had gone home, then looking down he straightened up the file and picked it up, dropping it dismissively into the bottom drawer. Guard! he roared.

The door flew open and the two crewmen who had brought him rushed in. The captain glanced at them, Take this sorry excuse for a human being to his cell and lock him up in solitary confinement for a full ten days. Then report to the Bosun. He has his orders. He dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

The burly guard again firmly took hold of Crankie’s arm, twisting it up behind his back, and frog-marched him out of the office. Once outside in the corridor he relaxed his grip but still holding the arm firmly they retraced their steps back to the brig.

The cell hatch hissed shut and he sat down on the bunk. It was the only piece of furniture in the cell. He got to thinking about everything the captain had said and decided the captain wasn’t such a bad sort, he was only following orders. He was suddenly optimistic about the future, feeling quite sure he could arrange a better deal for himself. All he needed to know was what sort of man the Bosun would turn out to be.

It was a long ten days for Crankie, stuck in a cell with only his thoughts to keep him company. Once a day the guard who had taken him to see the captain brought him his food, never saying a word to him and Crankie didn’t make any attempt at conversation either. Fortunately, the food was good, although never quite enough to fill his stomach properly. He was sure the rest of the crew got the same food, although of course much more of it.

From the first day, he got into doing physical work-outs in his cell. He did sprints on the spot, push-ups, sit-ups, and everything he could think of. His favourite pastime was doing calisthenics, where he could compete against his own body resistance. He regularly communicated with Chief Running Water, received counselling, and was instructed on how to take hold of his life and further his mental enlightenment. He was quite sure Chief Running Water was appointed by the emperor to take over from Commander Illian as his spiritual instructor, and as he was aware from an early age, this schooling was to guide him toward his eventual destiny.

On the morning of the eleventh day, the cell hatch was opened and the same two crewmen beckoned him out. This time the powerful guard did not hold onto his arm, he merely said. Follow me. He walked in front of Crankie with the other guard bringing up the rear.

Again they went along corridors and up elevators until they came to the galley where the guard in front knocked on the hatch. Without waiting for an invitation he stepped through, Crankie and the rear guard following. They led him through the galley to the back, into what appeared to be a huge storage room. They approached a workbench where a man was busy repairing or servicing some part of a machine.

The bosun turned out to be a real ‘no-nonsense’ man and from his accent, of obvious Scottish descent. Not a large man as he had imagined, but short and wiry with a mean look in his eye. He had served for many years in one of the galactic senate’s heavy cruisers and was a real stickler for discipline. After being injured when the cruiser was involved in a skirmish with several pirates he was appointed to the relative ‘soft’ post as bosun on this freighter. He constantly let all and sundry know how inefficient and scruffy they were in comparison to the well-drilled and neatly turned out naval personnel of the fleet.

The Bosun let them wait behind him for a few moments before he turned, looking Crankie up and down appraising the young man. Williams, you will call me Bosun or sir, nothing else. He wiped his hands on a clean cloth, threw it back on the workbench, and dismissed the two guards.

Follow me. He said as he set off across the large room. He showed him three storerooms and then took him into the galley. Those rooms and the galley will be where you’ll spend the rest of your stay with us, however long that may be, understand? He turned to face Crankie, looking him square in the eyes. This area is locked after the galley staff retires each day. You will be locked in this area and you will sleep in that second storeroom we have just exited. Your duties will be to scrub these floors so clean you can see your own face in it. The bulkheads, the counters, everything has to be spotless, every day. Understand? Now listen to me carefully. He came closer to Crankie, pushing his face right up to him.

These are your living, eating, and sleeping quarters from now on. This area is your whole world from now on. If you’re found outside this area, you will immediately be locked up in solitary confinement for ten days. If it happens again you will have solitary confinement for twenty days, and so on! Do you understand me? He stared into Crankie’s eyes for a while then turned and walked to the store-room that would also be his living quarters, beckoning for Crankie to follow him. You will be supplied with toiletries and shaving gear. I don’t want to see you unshaved even for one day! The captain is the only one on board this ship who’s allowed to grow a beard. Understand?

He saw a metal camp bed and presumed that was for him, it didn’t look very comfortable.

When I do inspections, which I do regularly, and I find you’ve shirked your duties you’ll wish you’d never been born. Understand! Now get to it. Chen, the cook will show you what he needs doing, so listen to him. He turned and walked out, back to the workbench and picking up where he’d left off, dismissing Crankie as if he had no further interest in him.

Crankie walked over to the galley where the cook was in the process of preparing lunch. Anyway, he presumed he was the cook because of his white cook’s cap. He introduced himself and the cook, looking intently at him, smiled, From what I hear, we’re going to be together in this place for a long time so let’s get the rules right first off. One, keep the place clean! Two, keep out from under my feet or I will stomp on you. He looked around and shouted, Sammy! Show this convict where to find everything he needs.

Sammy dropped what he was doing and came over, smiling at Crankie and beckoned him to follow.

As they crossed the galley to one of the store-rooms he said. My name is Sammy Lee and I am the assistant to the cook. The cook’s name is Ronnie Chen and if you got the impression he is fat, think again. He used to be a champion Sumo wrestler in the fleet so if he tells you he will stomp you, believe it. Sammy showed Crankie where his equipment was stashed and told him to clean the three store rooms first. Your daily schedule would be to clean the store-rooms before lunch, then after lunch clean up the galley.  After dinner is finished and over with you clean the galley again, leaving it spotless for the next morning. You got all that? Crankie nodded and cast a glance around the already spotless room.

If the cook or I need you to assist us, we will tell you. Remember, keep in the cook’s good books and he will treat you well, he is a good man. But cross him and you’ll know all about it! He left Crankie to get on with it and went back to what he was doing in the galley.

Crankie started by re-organizing the storeroom, taking stuff off the racks, cleaning, and restacking them. This little exercise took him until after lunch had been served to the crew. Sammy Lee called him to fetch his lunch and he sat in the storeroom by himself, enjoying his first full meal in eleven days. He was sure his stomach had shrunk because he had to struggle to finish his meal.

As he walked through the galley to deposit his utensils in the washer a man he had not seen before, sitting at a table drinking coffee piped up, And is this the dirty scoundrel we now have to share our ship and our food with?

Crankie ignored him and placed his utensils on the washer rack. Turning, he strode over to the man until he stood over him. What did you call me? he asked nonchalantly.

It was as though he was living through a slow-action movie. Expecting the man to give him some verbal backchat he was completely unprepared for the cyclone that hit him! With blinding speed, the man was up and in one smooth movement brought his fist from ground level to where Crankie’s chin was waiting for it. The two met and he was down, lights out.

He came to with a booted foot prodding his ribs. Looking up he saw it was the Bosun. He stumbled to his feet as the Bosun took in the bruise on his chin. So, The Bosun said with glee in his voice, your first day at work and I have to catch you sleeping on the job! I warned you to keep your nose clean. He looked over at Chen, the cook, Reduced rations for this man for two days Chen, we don’t feed shirkers on this ship. With that, he strolled out of the Galley.

The man that had planted him wasn’t in the galley anymore and he started cleaning and swabbing the floor. His head felt like it wanted to explode and he was a bit unsteady on his feet, but he determinedly went ahead and did his chores.

That night, after leaving the galley spotless, he retired to his storeroom cum living quarters. He couldn’t sit on his camp bed so he sat on a crate, just letting his tired mind rest and wander wherever it wanted to. He drank a glass of water, got undressed and lay down on his bed, instructing the lights to switch off.

In the darkness, Crankie made contact with Chief Running Water and had a stimulating conversation with him. Knowing he had someone outside the ship that he could contact inspired him and lifted his spirit somewhat. Chief Running Water spent quite a time talking telepathically to him in his peculiar parabelistic way, making him understand that the hardships he was experiencing and still had to live through were an excellent way to build his mental and spiritual strength. At last, he dozed off, feeling relaxed and in control of his emotions.

The next day he was up early, washed, shaved, and dressed. He started with his chores and not long after heard the electronic locks of the galley unclick, and the hatch hissed open.