Spice Crimes

by Dale Ivan Smith

  “I ran supplies for Imperial forces, but I wasn’t commissioned,“ Khouri said.

  Alisa took a deep breath. "The war is over. This isn’t history, this is now. I want to get this ship running again. I would like you two to not make any trouble.”

  “I certainly won’t,” Khouri said. “I won’t try to escape.”

  Alisa gave Zavon a measuring look. “And you?”

  He shook his head. “Of course not.”

  She didn’t believe that for a moment.

  “I’m going to take you at your word,” Alisa told Khouri. Alisa turned to Zavon, producing another manacle. “However, I’m going to have to cuff your leg to the bunk railing,” she told him.

  His face fell. “I gave you my word that I should be good.”

  “Really? I’ve only known you a very short while and already I know that’s not true.” She snapped the cuff on his leg, and the other end to the railing.

  “You need any water?” she asked Khouri.

  “Not if I want to avoid having to go to the bathroom.”

  “Sorry.” Alisa actually felt a little sorry, but not sorry enough to let her out. Her comm buzzed.

  “Captain, your hour is almost up.” Silas Rutger sounded annoyed.

  “Wow, how time flies when you’re having fun.” Khouri and Zavon watched her from their bunks.

  “Five minutes, and then we knock a few extra holes in your ship, and in all of you.”

  “Do that, and you won’t get your precious spice lab.”

  “Oh, but we will. We’ll be inside before you know it.”

  She could practically see his gloating smile in the tone of his voice. She ended the connection.

  “What are you going to do?” Khouri asked.

  Alisa smiled. “I think we have something that will ruin Mister Smug-and-Satisfied’s day.”

  She closed the door on Khouri and Zavon’s puzzled looks, and locked it. She ran to the lower deck, comming Mica on the way down.

  “Still working on it,” Mica said, sounding even more annoyed than usual.

  “Fine, be that way.”

  “I will. I’ll comm you when I have an update.” Mica killed the connection.

  Alisa commed Beck. “Tommy, bring our pirate prisoner to the spice lab.”

  She found Leonidas and Temur regarding a new thicket of wires surrounding the cylinder, running to what looked like a transmitter box sitting on the counter. Grenades and what definitely looked like a DZ-4 bomb were patch-taped to the reactor. Temur held a wrist comm up as she entered.

  Leonidas smiled grimly at her. “We've rigged this to destroy the reactor, and the synth lab computer, with a simple code sequence.”

  Temur handed her the wrist comm. “This is the detonator.” He told her the code.

  “How much of a time delay do we have once the detonator is set?”

  He didn’t blink. “None. It’s designed simply to detonate like any other remotely-activated bomb.”

  Fair enough, she decided. It added weight to the threat.

  “Now we just need to convince Silas and his goon-pirate alliance,” she said.

  Beck entered with Screechy. Her hands bound behind her back.

  Alisa smiled. “Nice of you to join us.”

  Screechy's lips twisted in a snarl and her nostrils flared. "If I get out of this," I'm going to kill you." Her voice was a vicious rasp.

  "You'll have to get in line. Your Crimson Stars have allied with Protection Inc., to get this spice lab. They’re outside, waiting to blow their way inside.”

  “Then you’d better give it to them.”

  “And have them shoot us down, or take us prisoner?” Alisa asked.

  Screechy lifted her chin. “That’s your problem.”

  “Hah. In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re stuck inside with us.”

  Screechy’s face became a mask of hate. “You’re an idiot if you don’t give up.”

  “And I’m an idiot if I do." Alisa gestured at the explosives attached to the micro-power plant. "We set this off, and no more spice lab."

  “That's what you say.” Screechy wouldn’t budge.

  “Fine.” Alisa waved at Temur. “Sergeant Luk, would you please explain? Oh, this is Sergeant Luk, formerly of the Imperial Scouts. He knows his ordinance.”

  Screechy’s eyes widened.

  Temur fixed her with his unblinking stare. “We have set charges to destroy this lab. Thoroughly.”

  Screechy swallowed. “You’re all crazy, you know that?”

  Alisa leaned forward. "Here's the deal. I want you to impress upon the assemblage outside that they need to back off and let us leave.”

  “Your ship can't fly, can it?”

  Screechy must have overheard their conversations.

  “We’re having that remedied," Alisa said. “We'll be ready shortly. Do you want to try and persuade your friends and their new friends to back off until we do?"

  “I’ll go talk with them but I can’t guarantee they’ll listen.”

  Alisa frowned. “Then this spice lab will be gone for good." At least the disassembler would be destroyed with it. That was something worth dying for, though dying was the last thing Alisa wanted to do.

  Screechy froze. "You aren't bluffing, are you missy?"

  "No. Tell them not to play poker with me on that. Got it?" Hopefully Rutger would get the analogy. Otherwise...Alisa refused to think about the otherwise. "Tommy, would you take her out to the ramp airlock?"

  Beck guided the woman out of the lab.

  “You need to get into your armor,” Leonidas said.

  “Why?" Alisa asked him. "If we have to go through with the threat, we’re dead either way.”

  “Because I’d like you to.” He paused. “I’ll feel better.”

  “Since you put it that way, okay.” She turned back to Temur. "Thank you for doing this."

  An earnest look came into Temur's eyes. It was subtle, but Alisa was sure she didn't imagine it.

  “I can do no less.” He paused, his gaze steady on her. “You can trust Khouri,” he said, abruptly.

  The way he said it, the earnest tone, struck Alisa suddenly. Temur loved Khouri. Alisa probably should have seen it sooner. Could it mean that his judgement was impaired as a result? But the hells with it. Temur had proved his courage over and over again since they met him, twenty-four hours or so ago—what felt like so much longer. She trusted him.

  “Let her go," Alisa said. She was half-surprised at herself, but it felt right.

  Leonidas looked surprised. His brows furrowed.

  "I'm sure," she said, nodding in response to his unspoken question.

  "Thank you." Temur shifted uncomfortably. He seemed embarrassed.

  "Take her to NavCom. Ask her to be ready to be my copilot." In case something happened to Alisa, the crew would have someone else capable of piloting the Nomad.

  "What about Masters?" Leonidas asked.

  She grinned, not feeling at all charitable when it came to Zavon Masters.

  "He can spend his time locked up."

  Temur nodded, and headed out of the spice lab.

  "Be sure and truss him up good," Alisa called after him.

  Temur stopped at the doorway, and nodded, his eyes sparkling.

  Alisa and Leonidas followed him out into the hold and went to the room on the upper deck to where her armor case was stored. She opened it and Leonidas helped her into the armor.

  She had just gotten her suit on, the helmet beside her feet when her comm buzzed.

  “Time's up,” Rutger said over the comm. “This is your last chance.”

  Alisa rubbed her nose. How to put this so these goons would understand?

  When dealing with thugs, keep it simple, she decided. "If you come at the ship, we will blow your spice lab to atoms."

  There was silence for a long moment over the comm.

  "Really?" Rutger finally drawled, sounding dubious, with more than a hint of surprise in his voice.

  G
ood, Alisa thought, that was a start. "Yes, really. We have an extremely destructive device attached to the spice lab you want so badly. Surely you don't want to lose your prize?"

  “You're bluffing, and your time is up."

  "Fine, I'm sending out a captive, a member of the Crimson Star Pirates who can corroborate what I’m telling you. Listen to her before we have to blow up your cargo."

  Beck and Screechy were waiting beside the airlock when Alisa and Leonidas arrived. Alisa nodded at Beck and he cycled the airlock open. Outside, the sun had come up.

  "Here she comes, Rutger," Alisa said, and cut the link.

  "Okay, your time to impress the truth upon the group outside," Alisa said to Screechy. Screechy stepped into the airlock and it cycled closed behind her.

  Alisa and the others watched on the monitor Mica had mounted recently in the cargo hold. Outside, Protection Inc. goons dressed in black and red-leather-clad pirates stood in a semicircle fifty meters from the Nomad. A pair of mafia goons lugged what looked like a big destroyer cannon with a tripod mount forward, and several of the pirates held bulging satchels that must have explosives in them.

  Screechy stumbled out of the airlock, her arms up, yelling at them not to shoot.

  Alisa, Leonidas and Beck went to the ramp hatch and waited.

  Screechy was gesturing wildly back at the Nomad. They could hear her shouting from the external camera's audio pick up. "Yeah, they've rigged it to blow. No, I don't know how it works." Shouting ensued.

  Beck looked back at Alisa. "We start firing now and we could take out a bunch."

  She shook her head no. "We don't know where the others are. We do that and we could have pirates and goons coming at us from the other side. On the other hand, at last count, neither the mafia nor the pirates here have a functioning ship, aside from short-ranged shuttles. The Nomad is maybe the only way for them, too, to get back to civilization."

  Which reminded her she should check with Alejandro. She called him up.

  "What's the status from NavCom?"

  Alejandro sounded nervous to the point of panic. "There's a group of pirates just below the nose of the ship. They are deploying what looks like a bomb."

  Crap. "Okay! Thanks." So much for the Nomad as prize idea. Alisa supposed that Rutger figured since he had a base of sorts here on Waro Moon, another mafia ship would eventually arrive. She turned to Beck and Leonidas.

  "Those idiots are calling our bluff and getting ready to blow a big hole through the front of the ship." She put her armored gauntlet on Leonidas's armored shoulder. “This is your lucky day, my hulking brute. We're going with attacking these idiots after all." She looked into Leonidas’s calm eyes, her heart suddenly pounding at thought of what she was about to ask him to do. "Can you remove the bomb?"

  He didn't hesitate. "Yes."

  She turned to Beck. "Can you take out the destroyer cannon?"

  Beck swallowed, but before he could answer another voice spoke up.

  "I can." Temur joined them.

  "You don't have any armor."

  He actually smiled. "I've never needed it before. Besides, Tommy can assist you on the ramp."

  "Very well." She already knew he was a brave man. All of them were, in their own ways. In her case, she just tried to not let fear master her. Action helped.

  The air in the hold was humid and hot, but Alisa's sealed combat armor kept her dry and cool. She would have to remember to thank Leonidas again for giving her the combat armor. Thanking him with something that involved lots of close physical contact.

  "Well?” Rutger said over the comm. "Have you decided to be reasonable?"

  Alisa narrowed her eyes. "Yes, Mr. Rutger, we have." She motioned to Temur to head to the airlock, while she, Leonidas, and Beck readied themselves for when the ramp lowered. Temur reached the airlock, cycled it.

  "Okay, we are lowering it now."

  "Wait for my command!" Rutger yelled, no longer sounding confident and in control.

  Oops, Alisa thought, as the Nomad’s big rear cargo hatch opened and the ramp lowered.

  Pirates and mafia scattered out of the way. The ramp hit the ground with a bang. Leonidas bounded down the ramp, Alisa and Beck behind him, firing at the enemy. She crouched near the bottom of the ramp, near Beck, both of them laying down fire. Leonidas sprinted around the corner of the Nomad. Energy fire erupted in the direction he had charged.

  Worry stabbed her. She pushed it away. She wouldn't do him any good panicking. She fired at a tall pirate with a grenade launcher standing near the ramp. He fell.

  Beck broke cover and charged down the ramp and onto the ground, scooping up the launcher as energy bolts bounced off his armor.

  "Damn it, Tommy!" she commed. "That was a stupid risk." But, she realized it would be hard for him to resist.

  Alisa moved down the ramp at a crouch, continuing to fire at the enemy. She hit a mafia man in the chest. He fell back, smoke rolling from where she'd struck him.

  A blazer bolt struck her leg armor. She twisted, bringing up her weapon and firing at the pirate who had shot her.

  Beck hefted the grenade launcher and fired at a clump of mafia near the tree-line thirty meters away. Explosions tore flesh and foliage alike. The men tumbled to the ground.

  A pirate woman, much more muscled than Screechy, ran at Alisa with a humming vibro-sword. Alisa aimed her blazer, but it didn't fire. The power pack must be discharged.

  She reached for a spare clipped to her combat armor, but before she could yank it off, the pirate had closed the distance. The woman swung the humming sword at Alisa. Alisa dodged the strike, then brought down her fist on the woman's arm in a hammer strike. The woman yelled, and dropped the vibro-sword. Alisa smacked her again, this time in the head. The pirate fell, and didn't move.

  A destroyer bolt struck Alisa's shoulder, and her suit sounded an internal alarm. The armor wasn't breached, but too many more hits like that and it would be.

  Off to her left, destroyer cannon fire opened up on black-clad mafia goons. Temur hadn't disabled it, he must have captured it. The mafia scattered.

  A moment later a large canister hurled overhead, landing in a group of black-clad mafia that had been setting up another destroyer cannon. Alisa looked away just before the bright flash. Leonidas. He'd thrown the DZ-4 bomb.

  Her helmet comm sounded. It was Mica.

  "We are ready to fly, Captain," Mica said.

  "You earned a bonus," Alisa said. "You came through big time."

  "Never doubt me," Mica quipped. "You know I always come through."

  "Hah. Thanks!" She closed the link, and called NavCom.

  "Khouri here."

  "It's Alisa. You get to be pilot. Power has been restored and the drive is functioning again."

  "But you, Temur, Leonidas and Beck are still outside, and the ramp is down."

  "I know. We're getting back inside now. We'll get it closed, but you need to lift off now. Can you do that?”

  "Yes." The drive whined to life.

  "Leonidas, Temur, Beck, haul ass," Alisa commed. "We're leaving now."

  "You don't have to tell me twice," Beck replied. He dropped the grenade launcher and bounded toward the ramp.

  "Affirmative," Temur said. He emerged from behind the starboard side of the Nomad and leapt for the ramp.

  Alisa backed up the ramp. But where was Leonidas? An instant later the familiar red armor raced around the port side of the ship. His armor was smoking in places but looked intact.

  "Hey, what's this, Marchenko!" Rutger yelled over the comm. "We'll bring you down with our armed shuttle."

  "You can try," she said. The four of them ran up the ramp. They reached the top and turned to look back down.

  Twenty-odd mafia and pirates rose up from the grass and sprinted after them. The ramp started to lift. The ship shuddered, the engines powering on. Alisa willed it to lift faster.

  Beck and Leonidas began firing at the charging men. She fired as well, striking a tall pirate wearin
g a folded hat in the leg. He stumbled and fell flat on his face.

  Leonidas shot a mafia goon in the head, then a second. Beck downed a pirate. The others surged forward and leapt onto the ramp as the ship finally lifted off.

  The Nomad rose into the air. Destroyer bolts flashed past Alisa and she threw herself on the deck. The ship canted upward and a pirate tumbled off the ramp. Leonidas scooted back on his armored butt, firing at the men who had reached the ramp and jumped on to it. The ground below tilted and the ship rose faster.

  A mafia goon fell screaming from the ramp. Beck struggled to reach the cargo hold. Pirates and goons were prone, crawling forward on the ramp.

  Close the ramp!" Leonidas yelled back at Alisa. She staggered to her feet. The ship lurched suddenly. She lost her balance and hit the ship’s deck, butt first.

  Another pirate fell screaming, but she glimpsed two mafia men fighting their way up the ramp at a crouch, wearing what looked like magnetic boots. Beck and Leonidas were both inside now. The ground looked very far away.

  Alisa managed to reach the control panel a second time and hit the close button.

  The ramp shuddered to life, began tilting up, sending mafia and pirates tumbling at them. A wild fight broke out inside the cargo hold.

  Beck staggered back, hit by one goon while Leonidas physically lifted the other up and hurled him in the gap between the hull and the closing ramp. Beck shot the first goon, and then the ramp slammed shut.

  Alisa let herself exhale. They had made it.

  The Nomad banked hard, and the servos in Alisa's combat armor whined as she fought to keep her balance. Beck and Leonidas were doing the same. Temur was balancing just fine. Show off, Alisa thought. The ship banked again, this time in the opposite direction, and her combat armor's servos whined louder.

  Khouri commed her. "Captain Marchenko, my apologies for the abrupt maneuvering. An armed shuttle is pursuing us."

  "Do what you have to do," Alisa replied. She pulled off her helmet. The chickens were clucking madly in their coop.

  "That idiot Rutger is trying to stop us from leaving," she told Leonidas.

  "He's a fool for sure," Leonidas said.

  "He thinks his armed shuttle can take us." If she had been in NavCom, she knew he couldn't. Khouri at the controls might be a different matter. The woman was a fine pilot, but combat was different than racing or hauling freight.