And there it was. Alpha team had the hostages secured, and the pirates officially had no bargaining chips.
"Signal for a cease-fire. Hail them," Captain Carabello ordered. The crewmen obliged, but when the pirates answered the hail, the viewscreen was completely blank.
Weird, Carabello thought, but out loud he said: "The battle must have damaged their communications array." Then, speaking up: "Pirate vessel, can you hear me?"
A tense pause from the other end. Finally, a dazed voice speaks through static: "...yeah, yeah, we hear you."
"Good," Carabello replies. At least that went right. "Uh, good. We are hailing to negotiate your surrender. The human hostages have been released from your cargo hold."
"Oh," the dazed voice says back. "Have they?"
What? How could he not have noticed? "Um, yes, sir, they have."
"...when?"
Realization dawned on Carabello, along with a smirk. Robin's poison must have finally had an effect. The pirates were all drugged and feeling half-drunk. That would be why their torpedoes never hit directly. Okay, yeah, that's pretty hilarious.
"The
Prize accepts your surrender, pirate vessel."
"...huh? Did we... surrender?"
"Yes," Nick lied, "just a moment ago. Captain Du-Vos ordered it."
"...oh. Okay."
-----
With the pirate's "surrender" accepted by both parties, getting the hostages safely onboard the
Prize was an easy enough job. Within just a few hours, the hostages were back on their way to New Paris, and a dedicated ISA policing vessel had boarded the pirates.
Du-Vos and Winky were both found dead, along with the
Prize security officer named Rod. During the debriefing, Nick held a moment of silence for his lost officer. The rest of the pirate crew was being delivered handily into police custody. Easy work, since half of them had fallen asleep at their posts. Everything was well.
Well, almost everything. The pirate's torpedoes had damaged the Prize just enough to make repairs necessary. So instead of heading valiantly through the wormhole, the Prize headed valiantly back to a nearby ISA starbase for repairs. But that was just fine with Nick. After such a stressful mission, the crew deserved some rest.
And they would have it. The starbase, named Deep Solar 3, was a decent enough place. It was partly a military base, set up to keep on eye on the Kepler's Passage wormhole. On the side, though, it worked as a trading post between ISA and the humanoid natives of a planet in the same system. It had shops, restaurants, a medical bay, ferries to the planet, and (reportedly) even a bar.
Which was good, because the
Prize would be there for at least a few days. In the brief briefing, Nick gives every member of his crew permission to spend as much off time on Deep Solar 3 as they wish. And as the airlock opens and his crew steps out onto the starbase, Nick thinks:
Have fun while you can, everyone. We'll be at it again before you know.
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