Pirate (LGBT - Sci-Fi - Romantic)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two 

(Two years later) 

Lieutenant Liam Connell stared at his boss in horrified disbelief. "You want me to do what?" 

"I want you to go undercover and trap Mars for me, for the Patrol I mean," Major Rice repeated in as reasonable a voice as he could manage. 

"But sir, you know what he does to the men he captures!" Connell was protesting, a red blush staining his cheeks. "What if he wanted to ... to do that to me?" 

Major Rice surveyed the young officer in front of him, still satisfied he had made the right choice. With his youthful good looks, reddish blond hair and light blue eyes, Connell was just the man to appeal to the pirate leader and hopefully slip under his guard. If everything went to plan he'd have Mars behind bars in a couple of months. He smiled involuntarily at the rhyme. Haha, that was a good one, 'Mars behind bars', he'd have to remember that. 

Now all he had to do was persuade Connell. The young man was proving unexpectedly resistant to the idea. He had to admit he had hoped, from his looks and rather slight build that ... hmm, apparently not. He frowned impatiently, the man was an experienced undercover operative for god's sake. Surely he was used to doing things he would otherwise feel uncomfortable about as part of his cover. He eased back a fraction, he didn't want to scare him into a flat refusal which would be awkward for both of them. 

"I'm sure you can look after yourself, I don't care how you get on board, whether you're a hostage or not. In fact if you can manage to get taken on as part of the crew that would work just as well. The main point, is that you get yourself in a position to find the location of his hideout. Two years he's been hiding from us, every time we get near he disappears into that asteroid belt. I'm certain he has at least one base in there, possibly more, it would explain how he manages to disappear so completely." 

Plus the small fact that he had possession of a top of the line ex-patrol vessel with full stealth capability, Connell thought dryly, but he knew better than to say that aloud. It was a sore point with the Major. 

"He's gone too far this time," the Major continued, rubbing a hand through his short grey hair in a gesture of frustration. "That last stunt he pulled, holding up the assistant governor of Bast for ransom, taking his nephew as a hostage! He's making us all look like incompetent fools!" 

"The thing is sir," ventured Connell, "He doesn't kill people and he keeps his word, when he gives it, that is. I think the ordinary people regard him as some sort of cult figure, they certainly haven't gone out of their way to help us catch him." 

"He's got everyone terrified," argued the Major crossly. "His victims now simply pay him as fast as they can, no-one wants their young men taken away and raped!" He caught the flash of dread again on Connell's face and wished he'd kept his mouth shut, he didn't need to remind him of the risks he would be running if he undertook this mission. He had to admit, the Pirate's strategy had paid off. As Connell had said, he didn't kill his victims, instead he chose a male hostage, usually young, and carried him off to be his personal companion until the ransom was paid. It had proved extremely effective at cowing his victims into hasty submission. As he had never been known to hurt a woman, or allow his men to, female crew and guards were now finding themselves in high demand. 

"We have to protect our people," Rice stated firmly, changing tack slightly. "Mars has been operating in the Alnath system almost with impunity for the last two years. He's got to be stopped, and you're the one who's going to do it! And that's an order, Lieutenant Connell!" 

XXX 

'Captain' Nicholas Mars didn't admit it aloud but he was having second thoughts about that last venture. He had not been foolish enough to attack the heavily guarded Governor but had contented himself with his less well protected assistant. The actual job had been relatively easy, no-one had been seriously injured, and he had netted 50,000 credits which would go a long way towards keeping him and his men in the comfort to which they had become accustomed, for at least several more months, but it had certainly stirred things up. The Patrol had been flying extra missions, swooping around the skies like a series of rogue comets, and the reward for his capture had been increased to a staggering 100,000 credits. 

He thought back for a moment to the day his luck had turned, the day he had acquired the Ebano as it had been called then. He had renamed the ship Zeron and with the advantage of the thoughtfully installed cloaking device lost no time in becoming the scourge of the star system. As long as he could remember, he had wanted adventure. He had joined the patrol at age eighteen, full of eager anticipation and lasted exactly two weeks. He was not a team player he discovered, nothing drove him crazy faster than being expected to blindly follow orders, simply because a supposedly superior officer said he had to. Being the man who gave the orders was much more to his taste. Being a pirate was simply the best fun he had ever had. 

His thoughts returned to his current problem. He smiled. The nephew, Harry had been so cute, he wished he could have kept him longer but the ransom had been paid quickly and he had had no choice but to honour the agreement and send him home. As good as new. Almost. He couldn't help smirking at the memory. 

Hastily, he sobered up. Perhaps he should lie low for a while until things calmed down and memories faded. Perhaps he and the crew could even take a holiday somewhere, somewhere far away where they, and the renamed Zeron, were unlikely to be recognised.