Spice Crimes

by Dale Ivan Smith

  The Nomad shuddered. "We took a hit," Alisa said to Leonidas. A moment later, they heard the sound of the Nomad's e-cannons firing a salvo. Then a second salvo. The firing ceased and the ship leveled off.

  "The enemy shuttle is destroyed, Captain," Khouri said over the comm link.

  "Thanks, Khouri," Alisa said over the link. "Well done." Evidently Khouri was a fine combat pilot, too.

  Khouri’s voice was crisp and calm. "You are welcome, Captain."

  Alisa pulled off her helmet, and drank in a lungful of sticky, humid air. The ship hadn't been fully powered up long enough for the environmental systems to go to work, but sticky and humid air tasted just fine.

  She looked at Temur. "You were right about Khouri. Thanks."

  He bowed his head.

  It was time to get out of her combat armor, head up to NavCom and relieve Khouri. After giving Leonidas a passionate kiss, of course.

  Leonidas had taken his helmet off as well. Alisa changed her mind and decided not to wait until they were out of their combat armor to embrace him. She reached up and circled her arms around his massive, armored shoulders. He bent down and they kissed. She tingled all over. After a long moment, she reluctantly pulled away.

  "I really should go to the bridge," she said. Leonidas didn't answer, but his intense, longing look spoke for him. After this was over, they were going to have a night together in a fine hotel suite somewhere.

  She started to take her combat armor off, when her comm buzzed again.

  "We have almost reached orbit, Captain Marchenko. However, a large ship has taken station in orbit above us, and is now comming us."

  "Crap," Alisa said. She glanced at Leonidas, and then replied to Khouri. "We'll be right there." They sprinted up the stairs, and pounded down the corridor.

  In a hurry? Abelardus asked in her mind as she ran past sickbay. Too much of one to stop and visit your old friend?

  For once, it was actually good to hear his mocking tone.

  "Feeling better?" she asked as she continued to NavCom, Leonidas right behind her.

  Yes, and ready to help.

  "Good," Alisa said. She and Leonidas reached NavCom. A destroyer-sized vessel bristling with weapons filled the view screen.

  "You weren't kidding when you said large," she told Khouri.

  14

  Khouri turned, saw Alisa and Leonidas standing at the hatch, and started to get up. Alisa motioned her to stay seated. They were within range of the arsenal the big ship carried, no matter who was piloting the Nomad.

  "They have us trapped," she said. She leaned over Khouri and answered the comm from the other ship.

  "This is Captain Marchenko of the Star Nomad," she said. "How may we help you?"

  "We know who you are, Captain," an arrogant-sounding voice said. "That's beside the point. What we want is your cargo."

  "I'd like to know who I'm talking with before I begin negotiations."

  The man laughed, without humor. "There will be no negotiations. Your cargo belongs to the Dazzle Club, and you will dock with our ship, or else we will disable your vessel and use our ship's grab beams to bring you in. It's your choice. You have two minutes to decide." He ended the comm.

  Alisa rubbed her eyes. The Dazzle Club; it figured they would show up, just as she thought this little adventure was done with.

  She opened the comm. "Fire and you won't get your precious synth lab."

  "We can damage you, take your ship, kill you, and then get the lab.” He sounded like he was ticking off items on a shopping list. “We see it's in your cargo hold. We will target your NavCom. Have you decided to go that way, then, Captain? You now have one hundred seconds to decide."

  The man sounded supremely confident in his ship's targeting ability.

  Time to let him know that this wasn't going to go quite the way he thought. Alisa leaned forward. "As it so happens we have the synth lab wired to explode."

  "Really, Captain, that is a weak attempt at gaining leverage."

  His name is Vespasian, Abelardus said in Alisa's mind. He's the leader of the Dazzle Club mafia. And knows your prisoner, Zavon. In fact, Vespasian is thinking about him at this very moment.

  "He is?" All right, fine, she thought. Thanks.

  Happy to help pull your wonderful backside out of the fire. She'd give him that comment, for once. She was just happy to have something to work with.

  "Okay," she told Vespasian. "Zavon told me we could work with you. We'll play along."

  His voice turned smug. "Excellent. I'm glad you see reason."

  She bet he did. She was sure, despite what he had said a moment earlier, that he didn't want the synth lab damaged in any way. He must know it was extremely valuable. The fact that she mentioned Zavon let him know she knew what had gone on. Let him think she'd taken care of the rogue.

  "Here's the thing, Vespasian. We are not going to dock with you. We will bring the synth lab to you, via EVA."

  "Docking would be simpler."

  "And let you board us? Not a chance." The problem was, they needed to get close, otherwise the mafia and pirate vessels might target the Nomad just out of sheer spite. "We can approach and make the transfer within a hundred meters."

  "A waste of time if you are lying about the bomb,” Vespasian said.

  Alisa knew she wasn't, but of course, he didn't know, not for certain. “You want to risk losing your precious synth lab?”

  "Very well. Let's get this over with. I hope for your all sakes you aren’t lying about that bomb." His voice took on an edge that hinted at a horrible end for all of them.

  Alisa took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to show weakness to this nasty piece of work. "Good. We'll move the lab via EVA, to your cargo hold. So, leave the door open, okay? Then we'll leave and the cargo is all yours."

  "If you really have wired the lab to explode, don't think about blowing it up," he said, voice low. "We'll blow you out of the sky."

  He cut the channel.

  "Of course, you will," Alisa said. "But you'll have to catch us first.” She looked at Khouri. "You'll have to pilot the Nomad. I need to be with Leonidas and Beck. It will take all three of us in suits to move that thing. You'll need to cut the gravity down there, too."

  Khouri nodded. "But how are you going to move the cargo box? Your combat armor doesn't look like it's EVA-capable." She looked Alisa up and down. "Or am I missing something?"

  "No, but did you notice the EVA harnesses in a rack in the cargo hold?"

  Khouri's eyes narrowed. "The ones wrapped in patch tape with a sign saying "forfeited property?"

  Alisa nodded. "A previous client tried not to pay us the full amount, so we kept some of his cargo as compensation." She smiled at the memory. "Leonidas was especially persuasive that day." She forced herself to stay focused. "I need you to fly to one hundred meters of the Dazzle Club vessel. Hopefully any grab beams that they might have are oriented forward, but just in case, this puts the Nomad close enough that we can give our harnesses a burst to scramble back to the ship in no time. Then, you'll have fly evasive like you've never flown evasive before."

  "I'll do my best," Khouri said.

  "I know you will. Thank you." Alisa headed to the cargo hold.

  Getting the synth lab out proved easy. Leonidas sealed the lab, then Khouri cut the ship's gravity. Wearing the EVA harnesses, Alisa, Leonidas and Beck maneuvered the synth lab to the rear hatch.

  The hold had been depressurized after sealing the chicken coop and aquaponics tank. Alisa opened the rear hatch and lowered the ramp.

  The big Dazzle Club warship floated barely two hundred meters away, the lit square of the vessel's open docking bay shining like a welcome sign that actually promised a nasty surprise.

  A cluster of suited goons stood in the open docking bay, waiting to receive the synth lab.

  "They will attack our ship as soon as we deliver the lab," Leonidas pointed out over their comm link.

  "Maybe," Alisa said. "Vespasian wants the lab pret
ty badly."

  "But once he has it, what's to stop him from blowing us to bits?" Beck asked.

  "Because he'll need to recover it first, and I'm going to remind him that we can blow it up at any time."

  "But if he strikes first, he wins," Leonidas said.

  "Greed trumps everything," she said. She and Beck each had a lower corner of the rear of the cargo box, while Leonidas was at the top of the rear. The EVA harnesses could accelerate quickly when needed. If everything went according to plan, Alisa and the two men would be jetting back fast to the open hold of the Nomad. It was going to be tricky.

  Vespasian plans on attacking as soon as his men have recovered the synth lab, Abelardus said in her mind.

  "Damn it," Alisa muttered. She commed Vespasian. "Don't think of attacking us. I'll blow the lab if you do. Period."

  "Perish the thought," Vespasian replied, and chuckled. Even without Abelardus’s mental warning, it was obvious from Vespasian’s tone he would shoot them as soon as he had the chance..

  Alisa, Leonidas and Beck picked up speed, as planned. Faster and faster.

  "Now!" she commed. They released the cargo box and it sped toward the Dazzle Club vessel. The three of them banked, their harness thrusters swiveling and increasing thrust as they did. Alisa watched her armor's rear camera feed in her helmet display. The cargo box flew into the hold.

  Khouri's voice was frantic in her helmet comm. "They are charging their weapons!"

  "Fine," she answered. Vespasian wasn't going to get the synth lab, and the Nomad and crew were going to make it out of this alive. Period.

  “Their weapons are hot!” Khouri shouted over the comm link.

  Alisa cursed under her breath. She punched in the detonation code.

  “They’ll be firing any second,” Khouri said.

  Alisa tried to zigzag. She saw Leonidas attempting to do the same thing, while Beck cork-screwed wildly. It wouldn’t be enough, she thought. Her helmet’s rear camera showed the ship’s weapons tracking them.

  There was a golden flash in the hold of the Dazzle Club ship. An instant later, the mafia ship began to glow redly, the hull collapsing in on itself.

  "We'd better get back to the ship, now!” She said to Leonidas and Beck over the comm.

  "You don't need to tell me twice!" Beck said, jetting past Alisa.

  Leonidas paced her back to the cargo bay. Behind them the Dazzle Club ship had become a cloud of plasma that glowed redly for a long moment, faded away to nothing.

  Alisa took a deep breath. She felt like she'd suddenly gone from a nightmare to normality. The airlock pressurized behind them. She pulled her helmet off, and gave Leonidas a passionate kiss.

  Beck looked vaguely embarrassed when she and Leonidas came up for air. She just winked at him and he blushed.

  "Sorry, Tommy, just glad to be alive. Shall I give you one, too?"

  Beck turned a deeper shade of red. "That's all right," he stammered.

  "You are cruel," Leonidas whispered in her ear.

  She laughed. "Just having a moment with you both."

  It felt good to be alive and heading back to the life she'd fought so hard to have.

  Khouri stood when Alisa came into NavCom.

  "Stop that," Alisa said. “I’m not a military captain." She grinned. “Thanks for the help.”

  "Shall I head back to the brig?" Khouri asked.

  "What? No! You go ahead and set a course for Sherran Moon," Alisa said. Temur watched her from his seat. "She's earned leniency as far as I'm concerned," Alisa said.

  Khouri laid in the course, not saying anything.

  Alisa returned to the cargo hold, where the rest of her crew waited.

  "I can't believe you want to let that woman off the hook, after everything she put us through,” Mica said.

  "She's repented," Alisa said.

  Mica shook her head. "No, you stopped her theft."

  “Zavon's, really."

  "Whatever. Their theft. They stole this ship and its cargo."

  "Zavon manipulated her," Alisa said. "And our original client turned out to be a front corporation for a mafia."

  "Don't remind me. Another mafia gang to have to worry about. Along with the pirates."

  Alisa shrugged. "I don't know about that. The main thing is that that synth lab is gone, and Dazzle Club's leader with it. I think Protection Inc. will probably decide we aren't worth the trouble." After all, Protection Inc. had lost a ship, and its supervisor, Silas Rutger.

  Leonidas squeezed Alisa's shoulder. "What about Zavon Masters?"

  Alisa rolled her eyes. "He's the last person I want to think about." She sighed. "We ought to space him. He got us all into this mess." She unclenched her fist. "But we can let the authorities on Sherran Moon deal with him."

  "Which ones? Not the port ones. Corrupt, remember?" Mica pointed out. She'd complained about them when they'd first arrived on Sherran Moon.

  Alisa thought for a moment.

  "I tell you what," she said, smiling. "We'll let Khouri decide what should happen to Zavon Masters. Sounds like justice to me." She laughed.

  The others joined in. Alisa reached and put an arm around Leonidas's shoulder. His hand rested on the small of her back. She leaned into him. They had recovered the Star Nomad, and the rest of the crew, and they had defeated not one, but three groups of bad guys, and destroyed an extremely dangerous device.

  It was time for a real vacation.

  THE END

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading Spice Crimes! I hope you enjoyed the novel.

  I want to thank Lindsay again for letting me play in her universe, and with her characters. It was fun, but harder than it might look. I'm even more impressed now with her storytelling abilities after having a go in the Fallen Empire universe! Being able to juggle a large cast of characters is no small feat, and she makes it look effortless.

  If you are interested in my other fiction, please stop by my website:

  www.daleivansmith.com

  You can subscribe to my newsletter there, and check out the books in my own series, The Empowered, and receive a prequel story as a free gift.

  Happy reading, always!

  Dale

  About the Author

  A life-long resident of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Dale Ivan Smith has his mother to thank for his love of science fiction and fantasy. When he was five, he glimpsed the cover of a paperback sci-fi novel she was reading and was immediately interested. (It had a giant radioactive spider on the cover.) When he was fifteen, she loaned him her collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom novels and he devoured them in short order.

  He got into trouble in grade school for sneaking off to the library during class, so naturally he wound up working as a librarian for the Multnomah County Library system in Portland, Oregon.