Spice Crimes

by Dale Ivan Smith

  "Sorry, just making a joke. As usual." She paced back and forth. “I’m just nervous.”

  He nodded. "If I weren't carrying a mafia thug across my shoulders, I'd hug you right now."

  Temur watched the exchange without comment.

  "Do you want to wait until it's fully dark, or can you do it now?" She asked him.

  "Ten minutes from now is perfect. I'll wait until you've moved down the trail, because that will focus the scent on the camp."

  Except for the predators that might be behind them, Alisa thought, and pushed the idea from her mind. You couldn't worry about every eventuality.

  "Good luck," she said.

  He nodded.

  Leonidas clasped hands with him. "See you on the trail," he said.

  "Yes." Temur disappeared into the deepening dusk.

  "That's a brave man," she whispered.

  "He was an Imperial Scout," Leonidas said. "Bravery goes with the territory." There was a gravity to his tone that said "of course scouts were brave, end of story"

  "I think a brave man recognizes another brave man," she said.

  The hint of a smile appeared again. "I just do what's needed," he said. He was never one to make a fuss about his own courage.

  "I'm guessing he'd say the same," she said.

  Alisa pushed Screechy ahead of her, and led Young-Hee, Abelardus, and Leonidas back the way they had come, away from the encampment and away from the Nomad. Not for the last time she reminded herself how grateful she was that Jelena had been spared this. For once, her daughter could enjoy life without the threat of mafia goons, pirates, or giant snakes. Especially the giant snakes. True, Jelena had developed an affinity in her telepathic connection with animals of all kinds. If she had been here, perhaps she could have mentally asked the giant snakes and “lake dragons” to leave them alone and go chomp mafia-types instead.

  They reached the trail juncture and Alisa led Leonidas down the side path. On balance, though, she was more than happy that her daughter was safe with Stanislav.

  No more get-rich-quick jobs for her and crew. Boring is good, she told herself.

  The trail was narrow; she glanced back to see Leonidas pushing his way through the gaps like an ancient icebreaker working the arctic floes on old Earth centuries ago. He still made less noise then she did.

  The trail ended and they stopped.

  "Put that goon down so I can give you a proper hug," she told Leonidas. She gestured at Screechy with her destroyer. “Lie down,” she told the pirate woman.

  Screechy made a sound of disgust, but did as Alisa ordered. “Now’s no time for kissy face,” Screechy muttered.

  Alisa frowned. “Face down.”

  Screechy complained, but went prone on the wet ground all the same.

  Abelardus and Young-Hee both smiled wanly. “We’ll keep watch,” Abelardus said.

  Leonidas gave an amused little grunt and swung the unconscious thug off his shoulders and onto the trail behind him, then turned back to face Alisa.

  She stretched her arms around his muscled neck and lifted one leg to caress his hip as he pulled her into his powerful embrace. They kissed, and for a moment she forgot about everything except the taste of his warm mouth, managing to even ignore the jungle stench.

  Finally, she let go and came up for air. "Wow. I guess the day we've had made that even more electric than usual," she said.

  "It did. If we weren't marooned on a jungle moon, I'd be tearing your clothes off right now," he said.

  Despite the adrenaline running through her, Alisa felt a flutter in her chest and warmth down below. "Why do we have to be here?" She whispered. Then the flutter and the warmth vanished. "Because a couple of thieves stole my ship."

  Leonidas's expression hardened. "Yes."

  It was all well and good for Temur to vouch for his one-time charge Khouri, and say she had lofty dreams, but Alisa would decide what to do with the woman, as well as her companion, Zavon Masters.

  She and Leonidas exchanged a knowing look. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Abelardus and Young-Hee keeping watch.

  "Thanks," she told them. She turned back to Leonidas. "Okay, better pick up the goon so that when Temur returns we can be off."

  Leonidas hefted the still-unconscious mafia goon over his shoulders.

  Alisa took the lead.

  A sudden, loud chittering in the underbrush ahead of her made Alisa freeze.

  I don’t sense any intelligence, Abelardus said in her mind.

  Maybe he didn’t, or, perhaps, he couldn’t, given his fatigue. Alisa aimed her destroyer pistol. The chittering continued. The vines started to part as something big moved toward her. She fired as the vines parted.

  A huge spider-like creature, dark like a shadow, charged her. She fired her destroyer. The thing reared up. She depressed the firing button on the destroyer again. The destroyer buzzed weakly. The power pack had discharged.

  Leonidas hurtled past her, slashing at the thing with his combat knife. Brilliant red ichor sprayed from its abdomen where he sliced, and the monstrous thing scurried backwards into the undergrowth.

  He’s gone! Abelardus said in Alisa’s mind.

  She whirled around. The mafia thug had disappeared.

  We were distracted by your battle with the spider-thing.

  “You weren’t the only one.

  Leonidas scowled. "Slipped off while we were otherwise occupied," he said.

  "It's only been five minutes, since we started down the trail," Leonidas said. "That means Temur hasn't disabled the lights and sonic generator yet"

  "Damn it!" Alisa snarled under her breath. "We'd better get after the goon, then." She glanced at the Starseers. "Watch Screechy," she ordered. They nodded.

  She slipped past Leonidas, her heart pounding. "He can't be far," she muttered. She drew her blazer. That might alert the Mafia encampment, but she wasn't cutting their now-suddenly-former captive any slack.

  "Slow down," Leonidas said behind her. She realized she was stumbling through the brush, and slowed down. How had he gotten away?

  A moment later a scream pierced the dusk: a fear-filled cry of pain and desperation.

  There was a clacking sound ahead of her and she and Leonidas stopped and stared.

  The mafia goon was being dragged up one of the trees by what looked like a giant beetle with huge incisor-like claws. The goon kept screaming.

  Alisa froze. She couldn't shoot the man.

  Leonidas fired past her and struck him in the back of the head. The goon slumped, dead. The giant beetle hauled the corpse further up the tree and disappeared into the darkness. "You shouldn’t have run off," Alisa whispered.

  Yelling erupted from the direction of the camp, followed by destroyer fire. There was an explosion, and the light filtering through the vegetation suddenly winked out. The amplified humming noise was gone, too.

  "Looks like Temur moved up his timetable," she whispered to Leonidas, who nodded.

  “The goon’s screams probably alerted the guards," he replied. The gunfire intensified.

  Alisa winced. It sounded like a full-on firefight, or worse, target practice.

  “We shouldn’t wait,” Leonidas said after they had listened for a long moment.

  “How soon will the giant snakes go for the camp? And how many of them are there?” This was all crazy; Mica would have a field day calling Alisa insane, and she’d be right.

  “No way to know, for certain.”

  “I wish we had our combat armor.” It was on the ship. At least, that’s where they had stowed their armor cases.

  “Me, too.”

  She patted his arm, forced herself to give him what she hoped was a jaunty grin.

  “We’ll get our armor back soon.”

  But soon turned out to be taking a lot longer than she had thought. They returned to where Abelardus, Young-Hee, and Screechy waited.

  "Come on," Alisa told them. "We're going to move."

  "Now?" Screechy complained. "But it's
night."

  "Glad you noticed." She nodded at Leonidas.

  Leonidas led the way, stopping a hundred meters in, and peering intently ahead.

  “It’s a giant snake, isn’t it?” Alisa whispered the question while looking around one of his massive shoulders.

  “I believe so. Something large.”

  Screechy’s eyes went wide. “Why don’t we head to the camp? Better than being eaten by a giant snake!”

  “Hey, you want me to feed you to the giant snake?” Alisa asked her.

  Screechy shook her head.

  “Good.” Alisa turned back to face the direction they were headed. “Come on, snaky, go get the mafia goons,” she said quietly.

  Now she could just make out the huge, coiled form of the giant snake thing, a hundred meters or so ahead of them. She checked the tracker. Of course—the ship was another four hundred meters past that.

  More gunfire from the direction of the encampment, followed by faint screams.

  Rustling in the undergrowth off to their right. Alisa’s heart leapt into her throat and she pivoted, raising her destroyer. Screechy had heard it too, and backed away from the sound. Leonidas half turned, knife in one hand, stun gun in the other, while Abelardus and Young-Hee huddled together.

  A moment later Temur stumbled out of the underbrush, bleeding, and fell at their feet.

  Alisa knelt and examined him. He had been shot in two places, and stabbed in another. She bound his wounds as best she could, with supplies from his backpack.

  “Had to charge into the open when the screaming started,” he said, his voice weak.

  “I know. Sorry about that,” Alisa said.

  “The predators attacked the camp.”

  Not all, she thought.

  “Has it moved?” she whispered to Leonidas.

  He shook his head.

  Like it or not, her little band would be here until daylight.

  12

  Khouri coughed. She floated in a thick, viscous liquid, a breathing tube in her mouth. She blinked, opened her eyes. She was in a fluid tank. She could see what looked like sickbay outside.

  She shifted in the tank, raised an arm. Her shoulder ached dully, but without the intense, throbbing pain she'd felt after being wounded.

  She took a deep breath. That broth Yumi had given her, it must have been drugged. She had fallen asleep so quickly.

  They'd been tricked. Now she wondered about the crew in a way she hadn't before. Were they indeed a hardened bunch, like Zavon had originally said, and all this an act?

  Or were they, like her, simply trying to gain control of the situation?

  Regardless, she was going to have to make her own move.

  She opened the fluid tank hatch and pulled herself up and out. Fluid dripped on the floor as she walked over to a cabinet, opened it. Her clothes were inside. She dressed quickly. Her shoulder ached but she could move her arm without pain. She pulled on her boots, then looked around for a weapon before realizing there wouldn't be any weapons in sickbay.

  She went to the hatch, opened it. Outside was a corridor. She was on the upper level of the Nomad right where she thought she'd be. The door to NavCom was closed. Perhaps someone was in there. It likely wasn't Mica. The engineer was probably down below trying to restart the reactor and the drive.

  As she stood there in the corridor, Khouri recognized that Beck, Mica and even Yumi weren’t enemies. They had just been doing their jobs, like she’d been doing her’s.

  They just happened to have been hauling the wrong cargo. She and they had both been duped.

  She passed the crew quarters.

  The last door on this level was locked. She produced her wire and went to work. There was an audible snick and the door opened.

  Inside was a small storage room. It looked like a makeshift armory. There were three weapons on a wall-rack: one was a stun gun, the others were blazer pistols. There were also a pair of survival knives in scabbards.

  There were also three cases against the wall. Her eyes widened. Armor cases. One was open and empty. The other two had electronic locks. Khouri wasn’t the armor-wearing type, but she recognized the tech.

  She guessed the open case belonged to Beck. He had the build and attitude of a former soldier. Alliance, she guessed.

  She took a blazer pistol, one that was holstered on a belt, and strapped it around her waist. The stun gun she held. She sneaked back out into the corridor and walked softly to the stairs leading down, stopping there.

  Voices came from below. Beck, Mica, Yumi, and another, a sarcastic voice. That annoying doctor, Alejandro. Chickens clucked and ducks quacked.

  “Call me crazy, but I‘m glad the chickens and ducks are still with us,” she heard Beck say.

  She cocked an eyebrow at this.

  "Me, too," Mica said. "It wouldn’t be the Nomad without them here."

  "Thank you," Yumi said, her voice warm.

  "I wish those creatures weren’t here," the doctor said. "The Star Nomad would far less cluttered and dirty."

  “I keep the chickens clean, Doctor,” Yumi replied.

  “You like fresh eggs, though Doc, don’t you?” Beck said. “And the fish from the aquaponics tank.”

  “I need to get back to finishing the flush on the reactor and the drive,” Mica said. “There are hours to go.”

  “Can you speed it up?” Beck asked.

  “This isn’t you in bed, Beck.”

  “Funny, Mica, very funny. I take as much time as needed.”

  Laughter. “That’s not what I heard.”

  “Can we please stay focused on the matter at hand,” Alejandro said. His voice was thick with scorn.

  “You have to be able to laugh at times like these, Doc,” Beck said.

  Khouri crept down the stairs, holding her stun gun in the direction of the voices. She stopped a few steps before reaching the lower deck, crouching down behind the safety railing. Beck had his back to her. He wore white combat armor. The helmet lay by his armored feet. Mica held a multi-tool and wore goggles. The doctor stood off to one side, facing in her direction but his gaze was on his two companions.

  She didn’t want to fight, but she also didn’t want to be locked up again either.

  An explosion outside the ship interrupted her dilemma. The four below all turned in the direction of the explosion.

  “The airlock hatch," Mica said. “Damn it, those pirates must be back.” She glared at the doctor. “Would have been better if you’d stayed in NavCom rather than coming down here to jabber at us.”

  “Sergeant Beck should have been on duty,” Alejandro retorted.

  Khouri crept down the stairs. No smoke rolled into the cargo hold from the airlock on the far side of the cargo hold, but that explosion might have done some damage to the exterior. And it probably wouldn’t be the last.

  The four crew all had their backs to the stairs.

  There was another explosion, but oddly this one sounded more distant.

  “Now probably isn’t a good time to debate your lack of security,” Khouri said from the foot of the stairs.

  Beck turned around.

  “I don’t want to shoot anybody,” she said. Her stun gun was aimed at Beck’s unarmored head. “Especially not with explosions and such going on outside.”

  “Really you are going to pull a gun on us now?” Mica looked like she wanted to use the multi-tool on Khouri.

  "Please, lower your gun," Yumi said. "We aren't enemies now."

  “You knocked me out!”

  “I did what I thought was necessary at the time,” Yumi said. The woman must have put something in the water she gave Khouri to drink.

  Beck spoke up. “Let’s call the truce I thought we’d called yesterday during the first pirate attack, and we can discuss this later.”

  Khouri took a deep breath, her stun gun still pointed at Beck. There were enemies outside. She'd been in the wrong when she stole the ship, too, even if she thought she had been doing right. She lowered
the stun gun. “I’ll go with that.”

  Alejandro’s lips twisted in a sneer. But Mica nodded. “Me, too.”

  “But where is Zavon?” Khouri asked.

  Mica jerked her head in the direction of engineering. Khouri took a few steps in the direction of the open hatch, and glimpsed Zavon, tied up to the far wall, gagged. He looked at her imploringly.

  “Okay, so he’s deserved that a dozen times over, but we could use him now. How about freeing him?” she asked the crew.

  Mica sighed, gestured at Beck. “Fine. Tommy, cut the man free.” Beck walked over to Zavon, drew his survival knife and cut Zavon’s bonds. Zavon staggered away from the wall and tore the gag from his mouth.

  “Glad you appreciated the situation,” he called out to Khouri.

  “Only because we need every body at the moment.”

  Beck followed Zavon into the cargo hold, putting on his helmet.

  Mica went to a panel on the wall and fiddled with something. An overhead monitor came on. “Finally got it to work!” she said. The camera showed a darkened clearing and the outline of a tree line. "Let's switch to night vision."

  The image brightened. There were at least dozen individuals lying prone outside, a few motionless bodies lying beside them in the grass. Metal shards lay strewn at the bottom of the camera’s field of view. Khouri realized that must have been the result of the first explosion on the hull. The explosion didn’t seem to do more than just ablate the outer metal of the ramp.

  The crouching figures fired in the direction of the tree line. There was no return fire.

  "Who were they shooting at?" Khouri asked.

  Mica toggled the monitor, zooming in on the tree line, but whoever had been firing at the pirates wasn't visible.

  "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Khouri said.

  "You got that right," Beck said. He grinned. "Now's my chance to use my special concoction." He went over to a one-meter tall cylinder sitting beside the spice lab, hefted it. "The perfect use for a grenade and this empty cargo cylinder.”

  Mica scowled. "Don't be an idiot, Tommy. That has to your craziest idea yet."

  "You need to stay safe," Yumi said.

  Beck shrugged. "Oh, it isn't me that's in danger from this."