by Troy Osgood
It had come from a building down a side street to our left. Hunio paused, looking down that way. I stopped next to him.
“Come on,” I said, motioning at him to continue. I needed him to guide me through the city.
I could tell that he was torn. He knew we needed to find the husband but he wanted to find out what was happening. Turned out that Hunio was not military, he was law enforcement.
This was not what we needed right now.
Not sure why I was out here hunting down the husband but I was. Any potential looting was not my concern.
Dammit.
I took off running down the street, heading for the noise. I could hear Hunio behind me, pushing to catch up. This street ran straight, nearly identical buildings and homes on either side. About a hundred feet down we found the source of the noise.
Glass, real glass and not polycarbonite like most windows, littered the ground. Small pieces, big pieces. All came from a shattered window, large, that looked into a nearly empty shop. Standing in the street, the heavier rain starting to come down, we could see shelves and display cases. Along with two Storwo.
They stared at us in shock, frozen in the act of pulling some clothing or something out of a recently locked case. Their eyes looked down at my holstered blaster and at the rifle Hunio carried. There was no way these two were older than sixteen. The clothes they wore were soaked and ripped, old and frayed. They had been pulling newer clothes out.
I looked down at Hunio and shook my head. He nodded.
“Go home,” I said to the two Storwo. They just looked at me blankly, not understanding.
Hunio repeated it in Storwoi.
They didn’t move so we did. We could hear them grabbing the clothes and running away.
*****
The building was like any of the others. Two stories, gray with elaborate carvings. An exterior staircase led to the second level, windows looked out onto the street. The neighboring buildings were so close there was no alley between them.
Nothing special, nothing to mark it as the one. But Hunio said it was. The door was closed, the glass windows intact. There was nothing suspicious about the building at all.
That was what made it suspicious.
It looked like no one had been there in days.
Your family is on one of the last ships, if not the last ship, off your dying planet and you’re not there? Yeah, no way was he missing the ship on purpose.
I was afraid of what we would find.
The storm was closer, the raindrops heavier, the wind stronger. Thunderclaps were closer together, the lighting flashes near constant. From here I could look down the street straight to the ocean and it was scary. Dark clouds, the lightning and the waves were high. The drops were thick, almost hurting as they hit.
We ran across the street and under the exterior stairs. They provided some cover, but the wind was blowing the rain sideways against us.
Hunio knocked, loudly to be heard over the storm.
Pausing he waited. Nothing. Knocked again.
He tried the door. Locked. He knocked again.
We didn’t have time for this.
I pushed Hunio out of the way and took a couple steps backwards. Raising a booted foot I slammed it against the door. The wood cracked around the handle and I kicked it again. The door flew open to reveal an empty house.
No lights and what I could see was a mess.
Hunio pushed past, weapon raised and I followed. My blaster was still in the holster. I didn’t think we were in any danger.
The room was dark, no lights and the windows closed and shaded. Furniture, smaller scale for the smaller Storwo, was scattered everywhere. Drawers were pulled open, various pieces of art and other objects thrown and tossed aside. Only the important stuff was taken and the room looked as if someone had tossed it looking for the important stuff. Every room would look like that.
Hunio was heading for the stairs against the far wall when we heard a thumping. Random, hard, like something hitting the ground. It was coming from a back room. Hunio moved slowly in that direction but I just walked past him.
He gave me a dirty look that I ignored.
We didn’t have time for this.
I opened the door onto what looked like a kitchen and dining room, Storwo style. Dark gray cabinets made out of that wood like material, a small table, everything a little smaller. Thankfully their ceilings weren’t that much lower.
Inside the room, on the floor, was exactly what I thought we’d find.
A male Storwo was tied up. Polyline bound his feet together at the ankles, more holding his wrists together behind his back. A piece of clothing was stuffed in his mouth. His eyes were huge as he saw me walk in, scared.
Madam Certy’s missing husband.
I held my hands out to the side, showing I meant no harm.
“It’s okay,” I told him, not sure if he understood Tradelan.
Moving aside I let Hunio in behind me and the bound man seemed to breath a sigh of relief.
This room wasn’t as messed up as the others. It was the eating space. No need to bring food and nothing else of major importance would have been in here. In the back corner of the building with no windows or doors, there wouldn’t be much chance of any sounds getting outside. You’d only hear someone if you were inside like we were.
A good place to hide someone.
Hunio pulled the cloth out of the man’s mouth and he started speaking in non-stop Storwoi. I didn’t catch a word of it but I could guess.
“He says he came back to get a picture that he had forgotten,” Hunio translated as he went to work on the man’s bindings. “Someone hit him from behind and he woke up here.”
Yep, just what I figured happened.
“Did he get a look at the person that hit him?”
Hunio asked him in Storwoi and the man replied. It went back and forth a couple times.
“No,” Hunio replied with a hint of disappointment.
Probably hoping for one last arrest.
A crack of lightning followed by thunder that shook the house signaled that it was time to go. At this point, it didn’t matter who had hit the man. We had to get him to his family and get off this planet before we were grounded by the storm.
We stepped outside into a wall of rain. Thick drops blown sideways from the wind. Worse than before. These were hitting with force and in a steady sheet. I couldn’t see more than a couple feet in front of me.
Hunio helped support Mister Certy and we started pushing our way back to the ship. Luckily the wind was behind us, helping drive us, but we were soaked instantly.
*****
My back felt battered and bruised. I kept the two smaller Storwo in front of me, trying to protect them. The wind driven rain, thick and heavy drops, felt like being hit by rocks. There was no one else out and about, the sane people riding out the storm under shelter.
The Wind should have been in space by now.
I stumbled as a strong gust came in from the side, rain splashing us. It dripped from my hair, into my eyes, down my face. There wasn’t a single part of me that wasn’t wet.
The rain was a wall in front of us, clouds moving in to make it all dark. No lights were on in the city, adding to the darkness. I hoped that Hunio was able to tell where we were going. The sound of thunder and cracks of lightning were getting louder, getting closer.
My mind went back years. The rain and wind, darkness and strength of the storm, reminded me of a mission during my Earth Expeditionary Forces Special Operations days. I couldn’t even remember the planet or the details, they blurred together after a while, but the details of that storm stuck with me. Rain dripping off my rifle, off my helmet, struggling to see the objective. So much like it was now.
I shook my head, sending wet strands of hair flying, as I brought myself back to the present.
Hunio turned us down a street and ahead I saw a light in the dark. Small, but getting closer as we struggled with the wind and rain hitting u
s in the side. Buildings started to block the storm and we could see the light turning into the open loading ramp of the Nomad’s Wind.
Four shadowed figures stood on the ramp, two further down and two at the top. Three were about the same height and one was taller with a tail. Details got clearer. Kaylia and Inhito lower on the ramp. Madam Clerty and the one called Dresla at the top. Dresla had her arm around Clerty, pointing towards us.
One of the two Storwo in front of me ran forward, racing as fast as they could. The husband dashed past Kaylia and into the arms of his wife. Hunio and I walked up the ramp, a steady stream of water falling from us to join the river that ran down the ramp.
You’re a mess.
Kaylia smiled at me, stepping back as I flicked water from my arm at her.
The three of us walked to the top of the ramp, watching the Clertys move deeper into the hold. The wife was crying, not caring that her husband’s arm around her was soaking wet. They huddled close together, stepping over others who pulled their things out of the way to not get wet from the stream coming from Mister Clerty.
“Thank you,” Inhito said.
I nodded scanning the interior of the cargo hold, looking at all the faces I could see. I wondered which one was the stowaway, the one that had knocked out Clerty and stolen his ID. I wanted to find the bastard and throw his ass out.
But we didn’t have time.
“Prep the engines,” I told Kaylia. “Get us ready to go.”
She nodded, running through the hold, lightly moving around the people. She was almost dancing. Show off.
I heard receding footsteps, turned and saw Inhito and Hunio walking away.
“Aren’t you coming,” I asked.
Hunio continued but Inhito stopped.
“We must prepare for the next ship,” he told me looking over his shoulder.
I wanted to say something, anything, but wasn’t sure what to say. We both knew the chances of there being another ship were slim to none.
He continued walking down the ramp. I stepped up to the edge, watching him join Hunio at the bottom. The wind and rain had picked up again, their forms nothing but dark shapes as they ran to the nearest building. I watched for a bit before hitting the button and closing the hatch.
I walked through the cargo hold, moving around the refugees. Nowhere near as nimble as Kaylia had been. I left puddles of water behind me.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Wind shook as it broke through the atmosphere. The storm was stronger here, winds pushing the ship around. My ship had wings, great gray ones coming off the wedged shaped blue metal body, with the engines mounted on those wings. It was what allowed the ship to go on planet. No wings, like some ships had and especially the larger ones, and they couldn’t enter atmo. The wings also created nice big areas for the storm to hit.
Wind, rain and lightning.
The bridge door was open. I’d left it open so I could hear the activity throughout the ship. There wasn’t much, everyone was trying to hold onto something. I could hear people grunting and mumbling as the ship was buffeted every which way.
Next to me, strapped into her chair, Kaylia had a death grip on the console.
I had a death grip on the controls.
A spaceship’s inertial dampeners helped with dissipating the g-forces of space travel, but it did nothing for the turbulence in a planet’s atmosphere. Just a little bit more and we’d break through the storm.
“This is fun,” I said and glanced at Kaylia. She rolled her eyes.
I laughed.
The ship could take it. The storm was nothing really, not to the Wind. It just made for a bumpy ride. As long as we didn’t take a direct hit of lightning.
Rain splattered against the view window, sheets of it, making it impossible to look out. We could hear the drops breaking as they struck. Everything was gray, rivers of water running down the window blocking all sight.
The sound stopped, the sheets falling away and we could see the black and white dots of the stars ahead of us. We’d broken through the storm. The ship settled and I released my grip.
“Smooth sailing,” I said. “Can you do a quick run through the ship and make sure the passengers are okay,” I asked Kaylia.
She unbuckled herself from the harness and left the bridge.
“Excuse me,” I heard a voice say and looked over my shoulder.
Dresla stood in the doorway, turned around and watched Kaylia make her way through the ship. She turned and looked out the view window, mouth dropping open.
“Never been to space,” I asked.
“No,” she replied and stepped onto the bridge.
Didn’t ask permission of the ship’s captain, which would be me, but if she had never seen space from this angle then she’d never been on a ship before and considering the circumstances, I could cut her some slack.
I angled the ship, turning the window so it was looking out at the larger ships beyond. They were pretty distant but visible, not much detail but I saw Dresla take another step. She was in awe, amazed.
“Never get tired of the view,” I said.
And it was true. I never did.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve seen stars from the ground of course but this,” she paused and waved her hand vaguely at the window.
I adjusted the Wind, turning away from the ships in orbit and into deeper space. We broke atmo away from the rogue asteroid but could see the moon and some other asteroids further off.
“Got about an hour before we can hop,” I said keying in the navorders.
“May I,” she asked pointing at the co-pilot’s chair.
I nodded. Kaylia wouldn’t mind.
Dresla sat down, having to kind of jump to get into the chair. She looked like a full grown adult, and a good looking one at that, but was the size of a child. I’d never realized how much of the Wind was sized for average human adults.
“I know the basics of space travel,” she started rotating the chair so she could examine all the instruments and controls. She just looked, not touched. “But I have never been out in the stars before.”
“What do you know?”
“A ship moves from space into the…,” she paused looking for the right word.
“Wildspace,” I supplied. “And it’s called hopping.”
She nodded and started over.
“A ship hops into wildspace and then comes out in another system.”
“That’s about all there is to it,” I said and leaned back in my chair. I put my feet up on the corner of my console, hands behind my head. The ship was basically on autopilot until the hop point. “It really doesn’t get more complicated. I mean the theory behind it all is complicated. The math is extremely hard to follow. I tried looking at the calculations once but it gave me a headache.”
Dresla laughed. Like all of Storwoi, it had a melody to it.
“But don’t need to understand the math to know it works,” I finished.
We watched the stars through the view window. Noises carried up from other parts, people talking. I glanced down at the internal systems readout. I wasn’t concerned with the weight of all the people. The Nomad’s Wind was a freight hauler, it was made to transport weight. But it wasn’t made to handle this many bodies. The air handlers, refreshers and other systems were only built for a maximum of six. There was a lot more than that now.
They’d overload long before we got to Hoin.
I leaned forward and adjusted some of the settings, dialing back the climate control and the water settings. We’d be stinky and uncomfortable by the time we got to Hoin but it was better than anything breaking from overuse. Ships were fine tuned instruments. Problems in one area inevitably led to problems everywhere else.
Wouldn’t take long for these many people to use up the oxygen reserves if life support went out.
“How long have you had the ship,” Dresla asked, looking over to study me.
“Five years,” I replied. I knew I was considered ruggedly h
andsome. Six foot, solid build, two hundred pounds, black hair and beard. But I was starting to wonder what her interest was. “Before that I was a soldier.”
“I knew it,” she exclaimed with a smile. “I thought it was that. Solider or law enforcement.”
“That obvious?”
“If you know what to look for,” she replied. And she was right. Us vets did have a swagger that if you knew what to look for it was there. A way we walked and carried ourselves.
“Your Tradelan is nearly flawless,” I told her with a chuckle. “Better than mine. Where did you learn?”
“I was a coordinator at the Storw landing port,” she explained and looked out the window, quickly turning away from me. Hiding something maybe? Not the full truth, that was for sure.
There was a tap on the door frame and we both turned to see a frazzled looking Kaylia. Her hands moved rapidly, too fast for me to follow. I was getting pretty good at her sign language, but times like this when she moved them this quickly, I got lost.
“Slow down kiddo,” I said and she did.
Help. I can’t understand them.
“Looks like there’s a language barrier issue,” I translated for Dresla. “Can you help?”
She stood up and headed towards Kaylia who was smiling, glad for the help.
“Take your tablet so you can communicate with her,” I told the kid. It would have been interesting seeing Dresla try to translate for Kaylia when she didn’t know the sign language.
I watched them walk down the hall, stopping at the door on the right. Kaylia went in as it opened. That was my cabin, Kaylia’s normal one was across the hall but we’d given it to a family so she was crashing in mine. She came out with her tablet in hand and led Dresla towards the stairs down to the lower half of the ship: the galley, lounge and hold.
Dresla had said it was obvious that I had been a soldier or law enforcement.
I wondered if she realized how obvious she made it as well.
Which was she? Soldier or law? I was leaning towards law.
*****
The black background punctured by white dots of stars turned to the cloudy white of wildspace as the stars stretched into lines. The Wind hopped into that weird space between systems. Dark matter, wildspace. No one really knew what it was. No transmissions penetrated it, so a ship was flying blind. There were stories of some ghost ships being lost in this void and some beings freaked out while here but I found the fogginess of wildspace to be calming.