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A Science Fiction Story

Written by Gary Raab

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"IS that what an outer space city looks like?" David White asked in disappointment, squinting through the thick, transparent porthole of the pirate ship, Innsbruck, at the vast, tenuous, three-dimensional network of glimmering cables and small, distant specks of light making up the secret hidden Pirate's Port as it stretched out vast distances in space before him.

"It's less than ye were expecting, then, I take it?" former Sergeant McKane, a huge, mountain of a man, said with a wide grin. He clapped the smaller David White on the shoulder affectionately. "But ye have to realize, me lad, not all cities are crowded slabs of concrete and steel, as ye were, mayhap, used to seeing back in the past on the earth, before those black-hearted fool politicians blew up the world and sent us all scrambling to save every bit of matter we could, wherever we might find it. Nay, in the modern times of here-and-now we have very little substance to work with, but we've a great deal of empty space, ye see, and so it'd be natural, now, wouldn't it, that we'd spread ourselves out a bit without encumbering ourselves with an excess of structures where they're not needed."

"I suppose you're right, Motormouth," David agreed with a sigh. "I guess it's just that after spending so many weeks cramped up here in Portsmouth's ship I thought it would be kind of nice to be able to get outside and wander around on some decent city streets. But I guess we're not going to be able to do anything like that here." He frowned at the fragile-looking network of constructs stretching out beyond the window.

"If it's stretching yer legs yer wanting, I'd say you can do plenty of that by just stepping outside the airlocks," McKane pointed out. "Like I said, lad, one thing we've plenty of these days is space."

"Yeah, well I just can't get used to the fact that I can flutter around in an absolute vacuum and not wind up sucked dry as a prune," David told him. "I mean, I know it's true that I can live in space, with this Replicated body they brought me back to life in, and I appreciate the fact that I can do it, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with the idea."

"Poor David," Zania Dogtooth Ten said gently, resting her hand on the young man's shoulder. David turned and gave the girl a smile filled with the pure adoration possible only with a man totally in love with a beautiful young woman. "I know it's hard to get used to the way things are now, David," she told him softly. "But you really should try to accept that things are -- well, as they are."

"There were bound to be some changes in our lifestyles during the six centuries or so you were dead, now, weren't there?"

"Yeah, I'd have expected things to be different, all right," David agreed. "I don't think that means I'd have to expect to find the earth itself blown to bits, though, and everybody fighting over the scattered fragments left behind."

McKane grunted. "I'd have thought that was downright probable, considering human nature and the way of things. And from what I remember of me ancient history classes, ye had some pretty terrible weapons of yer own, back then, didn't ye?"

David shrugged. "I suppose so," he said, "though the last really bad war ended before I was born. Anyway, even at our worst, we never used those bombs on each other, at least not the really bad ones. In fact, about the time I got killed in that avalanche it looked like we were going to be rid of our nuclear weapons forever."

McKane gave a bark of laughter. "Maybe ye were going through a bit of peace, right then," he said. "But I wouldn't think ye'd be naive enough to believe that mankind wouldn't find something to fight about sooner or later. Course as it turns out, by the time people were ready to go at each other's throats again, the bomb builders had come up with something a bit worse than whatever ye were trying to deal with back in the Twentieth Century." He peered out at the spider web city of the pirates, stretched away into vast distances from the hull of the pirate ship, Innsbruck. "We're just lucky that everybody agreed to abide with the Conventions before they figured out how to blow up the precious sun itself," he said.

David gave him a wide-eyed look of sheer terror but at that moment the door behind them slid down into the floor with a faint hiss and a remarkably handsome, tall young man dressed like a Hollywood version of a pirate stepped into the room, swinging a sword lightly over his shoulder.

"Well, and what are you thinking of our little hideaway in the Void, David White?" he asked, waving at the window with the tip of his sword. "Quite a surprise, I should think, to find something so magnificent out here in the middle of nowhere, am I right?"

"I sure wasn't expecting anything like this," David said with a careful combination of truth and flattery.

He turned to look through the window. "But I don't understand, Captain Portsmouth, if this is the headquarters for all of the space pirates, how come -- I mean, it just seems so flimsy, sitting out there spread all over everything like that, with only some cables to hold it together. What's to keep the Betans or the Confederation from coming along and blowing it to bits?"

The pirate captain grinned and shrugged, flipping his blade sideways to rest it safely on his shoulder. "No doubt plenty of our enemies would like to do just that," he said. "Though you have to realize, David White, just because you're seeing it spread out in front of your eyes like this, doesn't mean Pirate's Port can be found by just anybody. We have our shields, after all, and they work remarkably well, if I say so myself."

"Aye, and I'd have to be agreeing with that," McKane said with a hint of disapproval in his tone. "From all I've heard, ye pirates use a level of shielding technology that's banned entirely by the Conventions, and that's a fact."

"You say that as if it were a bad thing," Captain Portsmouth remarked with a smile. "Try to realize, Sergeant, if you intend to become a pirate yourself you'll have to overcome the superstitious belief that there is something inherently righteous in the Conventions, or something inherently evil in breaking them. They're really nothing more than an arbitrary agreement among nations at war, after all, and if they do help somewhat to keep both sides from becoming too barbaric in the use of their technology, they also allow many things a more civilized people would find appalling. There is no morality in war, and the sooner you outgrow your simple belief otherwise the sooner you'll find a home here among my pirates."

McKane grimaced and turned to peer out through the window without replying.

"Are you really telling me that your defenses are so good here that nobody can find you?" David asked skeptically. "It seems to me that that tangle out there is so big that your enemies would run into it just by accident every now and then."

"Ah, but there you'd be wrong, now, wouldn't you?" Portsmouth asked. "Yes, Pirate's Port covers some territory, perhaps as much as any major city in either the Republic or the Confederacy, but then you have to remember, David White, space is a very big place. There's more than enough room to hide cities ten times the size of Pirate's Port, especially when no one is really looking for them. We're well outside of the Ring, you know -- far beyond what was formerly the orbit of the earth. As long as our orbit remains out beyond the normal transportation lanes we stand relatively little chance of being discovered by accident. And, as I said," he added with a grin, "we have remarkably good defenses, when all's said and done."

"Even so, when everybody's at war with everybody else, and battleships are cruising all over space just looking for enemies to attack," David insisted stubbornly, "it seems to me that --"

"Ah, but yer missing the point, now, aren't ye, lad?" McKane said, turning to him with a somewhat faint grin. "Ye have to remember, part of the reason the pirates haven't been snuffed out entirely until now is that they serve a purpose. I don't know about the Confederacy, seeing as I never fought on their side in all of me lives, but I give ye me guarantee, the Betan army could have blown this place sky-high long ago, if they'd have set it in their minds to do so. No, David me lad, there's more than one reason why the pirates still exist, and if our dear captain here was honest with ye he'd admit what I'm saying is the truth."

Portsmouth gave a strangely embarrassed grin and shrugged. "Well, I suppose what our good sergeant here is saying has some truth behind it, at that," he admitted. "You see, David White, while our defenses here are excellent, it is also true that our enemies haven't made any significant effort to find us. I should suppose there are plenty of hot-headed generals here and there in the chain of command who would leap at the chance to do us harm, but their politicians realize that we serve a purpose, and so they let us go with no more than an occasional slap on the wrist, so to speak, when they want to look as if they are the masters of their own space."

"I don't understand, Captain Portsmouth," Zania said, looking at him with a puzzled frown. "What possible reason would either the Betan Republic or the Confederacy have in allowing criminals to engage in their illegal activities?"

The captain grinned at her. "Well, when it comes right down to it, we pirates are a cautious lot, as a whole," he told her. "We're very careful when choosing our targets, picking up an unconsidered trifle here and there on the edges, understand, but never getting ourselves into any situations that might cause our enemies to become too upset with us. Not that we aren't bold and brave buccaneers in our own way," he added, in an obvious attempt to defend the valor of his fellow pirates, "but it doesn't do to provoke the enemy any more than absolutely necessary."

"But even so," Zania insisted, "I'd think just because of the nuisance of the thing, if nothing else, the authorities would want to get rid of all of the pirates they were able to."

"And I'm not all that convinced that they could do it even if they tried, no matter what our good sergeant here says," Portsmouth replied. "But when it comes right down to it, dear lady, we pirates serve our purpose in the scheme of things, and the armies of each side are well aware of it. If nothing else, every now and then they need a bit of neutral territory for one reason or another, for secret conferences on prisoner exchanges and temporary cease-fires and the like, and when they need any such thing, why, it's us they turn to. Not that they dare tell their people what they're up to, understand," he added, "since they've spent so many billions of dollars in propaganda convincing everyone of what monsters we pirates are. But then who was ever so naive as to believe that any government tells the truth to its people?"

David White chewed on his lower lip for a moment. "You mean to say you pirates are free to do what you want only as long as the Betans and the Confederacy allow it?" he asked. "I wish you'd told me that before I signed up to join you, Portsmouth. I thought when I was taking your side you'd give me some protection."

"And who said we won't?" the captain said with a flash of anger. "After all, David White, when it comes right down to it, since our enemies are careful to preserve us as a necessary neutral territory in their disputes, I hardly think they're going to throw aside all those centuries of tradition just to track down one Replicate who's turned against them. It don't stand to reason, now, does it? Besides, who knows you're with us, except the crew of my ship and yourselves? Surely none of us are going to go telling them, now, are we?"

Zania and McKane gave the captain doubtful looks, but David, perhaps more from wishful thinking than any more valid reason, chose not to question Portsmouth's assurances.

He had already made his decision to joint the pirates, and there was no use in second-guessing himself at that stage. For good or evil, he had thrown his lot in with Captain Portsmouth and the Innsbruck, and he would have to sink or swim on their ability -- and willingness -- to protect him.

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By Gary Raab
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