by Jay Allan
Wings of Pegasus
Andromeda Chronicles II
Jay Allan
Copyright © 2019 Jay Allan Books
All Rights Reserved
Contents
Blood on the Stars Series
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Cast of Characters
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Appendix
The Crimson Worlds Series
Blood on the Stars Series
(Available on Kindle Unlimited)
Duel in the Dark (Blood on the Stars I)
Call to Arms (Blood on the Stars II)
Ruins of Empire (Blood on the Stars III)
Echoes of Glory (Blood on the Stars IV)
Cauldron of Fire (Blood on the Stars V)
Dauntless (Blood on the Stars VI)
The White Fleet (Blood on the Stars VII)
Black Dawn (Blood on the Stars VIII)
Invasion (Blood on the Stars IX)
Nightfall (Blood on the Stars X)
The Grand Alliance (Blood on the Stars XI)
The Colossus (Blood on the Stars XII)
The Others (Blood on the Stars XIII)
The Last Stand (Blood on the Stars XIV) – Coming Soon
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Cast of Characters
Andromeda “Andi” Lafarge – An orphan from “The Gut,” the worst slum on the industrial hellworld of Parsephon, turned Badlands adventurer. Andi is the captain of the free trader, Pegasus.
Gregor – A member of Pegasus’s crew. A native of a high-gravity world, a virtual giant towering well over two meters and massing more than one hundred fifty kilograms.
The Jackal – A member of Pegasus’s crew. An ex-thief, stealthy and light footed.
Anna Fasarus – A member of Pegasus’s crew. A good fighter, with an unknown and shadowy past.
Barret – A member of Pegasus’s crew. Ex-Confederation navy gunnery specialist.
Yarra Tork – A member of Pegasus’s crew, and the ship’s gifted engineer.
“Doc” Rand – A member of Pegasus’s crew. A former first aid technician, and now the ship’s de facto doctor.
Sylene Merrick – A former member of Pegasus’s crew, now retired. A gifted programmer and expert hacker, and Andi’s best friend.
Vig Merrick – A member of Pegasus’s crew. Brother of Sylene Merrick.
Lex Righter – A gifted engineer on Dannith. Becomes a member of Pegasus’s crew.
Durango – A shipyard manager and contact of Andi’s on the mysterious series of space stations known as Samis.
Carmichael – A Spacer’s District Gangster with Sector Nine connections.
Brewer (only one name known) – Sector Nine section chief on Dannith. Contact of Carmichael.
Aimee Boucher – Senior Sector Nine agent, commander of Badlands operations.
Drusus Olivetti – Sector Nine agent, Boucher’s deputy.
Antoinette Bissel, Nicolas Caron, Louis Moreau – Sector Nine agents.
And, Pegasus, Andi Lafarge’s ship, formerly known as Nightrunner, a Veritas-class light freighter converted into a Badlands free trader.
Chapter One
Spacer’s District
Port Royal City
Planet Dannith, Ventica III
Year 302 AC
“A quarter of a million, in untraceable platinum. That was the deal. So, where’s our money?” Andi Lafarge’s voice was hard, like reinforced steel. But she knew something was wrong. The deal had gone south…or it had been a setup all along. She wasn’t sure which…and she wasn’t sure it mattered.
She’d left the swag behind at least, hidden, so Carmichael’s goons couldn’t jump her small group and take it. The artifacts weren’t back on Pegasus either, in the event that the gangster’s people made a run at getting past the security protocols Sylene Merrick had left in place when she’d departed the free trader and its crew—and the entire Badlands frontier—for a well-deserved retirement. Sy Merrick had asked Andi if she’d wanted lethal or non-lethal responses to attempts at forced entry.
What a stupid question from someone as smart as Sylene…
If anybody was stupid enough to try to break into Andi’s ship, the least she could do was mop up their guts.
But now, she was in trouble, and she knew it. It wasn’t detectable in her expression, or in the hard words coming from her mouth, but her stomach left little doubt. She had Sylene’s younger brother, Vig, and Yarra Tork with her, good backup by any measure, but she had no idea how many of Carmichael’s leg breakers were packed in the back room waiting for some signal. One on one, her people could put the petty mobster’s sacks of meat into the ground without working up a sweat. But five to one or ten to one, that just wasn’t fair.
“I want to see the goods, Andi. I think that’s only reasonable, don’t you?” Carmichael clearly thought he was a good actor, but Andi saw right through his façade. Whatever doubt she’d had that she and her people had been set up was gone. Now, her thoughts went entirely to potential options for escape.
Escape, and just how she was going to stare deeply into Carmichael’s eyes as she gutted him. She might not get her revenge then and there, on the gangster’s turf, but she would get it.
“That wasn’t the deal, Carmichael, and you know it. I sent you the vids as agreed upon, and all of Sy’s specs. That was a bonus. Now, the deal was for you to have the money here and to show it to me before we worked out the final exchange. So, where the hell is it?” Andi moved her hand slowly, very slowly under her jacket. Colfax’s was a saloon with a strict no weapons policy, which meant each of her own people only had one gun stashed on themselves.
Except her…she had two. Andi’s disrespect for rules had always been profound.
“I had to change the terms of the deal. A quarter of a million is a lot of cash, Andi. You can’t be too careful.”
“I could say the same about old tech electrical components. I’m willing to bet I could get more than the quarter million if I just m
ove them on the black market.” Andi’s eyes darted around. She could see the door behind the bar moving slightly.
“I think you’d better tell me where those artifacts are, Andi. There’s no need for this to get…unpleasant.”
Andi’s senses were on fire. She glanced to the side, toward the door. Four men, trying a little too hard to look like garden variety District lowlifes, had walked into the bar. They were making an effort to look like they were having a conversation, but Andi figured they could use some acting lessons. She knew they were there to block the door.
“You don’t want to go this way, Carmichael…” Her hand slipped a few centimeters farther under her coat. The pistol was a high-tech plastic model, one design to elude detection, at least by the kind of low-grade equipment in use at Colfax’s.
But it wasn’t an automatic. She’d only have one shot at a time. She just might take out the four guys at the door before they managed to fire back, but that was at best a 50/50 proposition. And if she went that way, she wouldn’t be shooting Carmichael…or at the other thugs she had no doubt would be pouring out of the back room.
It was mostly not shooting Carmichael that bothered her. She wanted to put a bullet in that bastard so badly, it made her headache.
“I’m going to give you one last chance, Andi. Where are the artifacts?”
Her fingers felt the smooth plastic of the pistol. Andi didn’t have a deathwish. Far from it. But giving in wasn’t something that came easily to her. She knew she’d blundered, that she’d walked into a trap, and she was ready to fight her way out, even if that meant a high likelihood of getting herself killed trying.
But she wasn’t ready to take her people with her. Vig was young, almost painfully earnest…and in the half a year since he’d been part of the crew, she’d come to appreciate him, even to trust him. And he was Sylene’s kid brother. The computer expert and former Nightrunner team member was the closest thing Andi had known to an actual friend since the Marine.
I can’t get Sy’s brother killed…
“Listen to me, Carmichael…if you want to renegotiate, we can talk.” The words came out of Andi’s mouth like bitter dregs. There was nothing she hated more than giving in, even partially.
Except watching her friends die.
“There’s no negotiation, Andi. You bring my people to the artifacts. Now. I’m a reasonable man. I’ll pay you what I think they’re worth.” A pause. “So, what’s it going to be?” As he finished, the back door opened up, and half a dozen men came walking out. They wore civilian suits, fairly high-end ones, and they could have passed for any number of things besides what Andi knew they were.
At least to any whose eyes were less sharp than hers. She could see the subtle bulges in their coats, and from the sizes, she guessed they all had auto pistols. That meant they could spray her people down with a few hundred shots in a couple seconds. Whatever chance she might have thought they had to get away was gone.
Still, she sat silently, staring back at Carmichael with iced venom in her eyes. You’re going to die, you piece of shit. Maybe not today, but I will stare down into your lifeless eyes.
“You’re out of time, Andi…” The impatience in the gangster’s tone was unmistakable. “Do I have to kill one of your people to show you I’m serious?” A few seconds of silence. “Krexor, shoot…”
“Okay…okay…I’ll take you to the artifacts.”
“Now, Andi.”
“Yes…now.” There was defeat in her tone, though perhaps half of it was performance for Carmichael’s benefit. She wanted him to believe she had surrendered, that she had taken his word that he would pay her once she took him to the goods. It infuriated her to think the bastard could believe she was that much of a fool, but it served her purpose. She needed time, and she needed to move things to a place where the advantage shifted back to her side.
She knew better, though, and she realized he’d never let her live, whether she gave up the imperial swag or not. He knew enough about her to understand how foolish that would be. Andi had a reputation for holding grudges, and acting on them with considerable…enthusiasm.
She’d done half of Carmichael’s job for him, too. The artifacts were stashed in an old warehouse, in a decrepit and half-abandoned neighborhood on the edge of the District. Carmichael’s thugs wouldn’t even have to worry about the sorry excuse for law enforcement in Port Royal City’s most notorious section of town. No one would be around, not at the current hour.
It will be days before they find us—or find Carmichael and his cronies—probably not until somebody notices the smell.
“Alright, Carmichael…you’ve got a deal. I’ll take you there now. I just want your word you’ll let us go once we show you.” A little more effort to convince him she had truly yielded. Stupid fool…
“Of course, Andi. I don’t want trouble. I just want what I sent you for.”
“So, I have your word?”
“You do.”
That and a pile of dogshit on the street will get me a dirty shoe…
“Alright, let’s go.” Her hand moved away from the pistol, toward the tiny device she had slipped under her belt. She felt her way to the small button and pressed it.
She might have made a mistake coming into the bar, trusting Carmichael as much as she had. But she was still Andromeda Lafarge…and that meant she had a backup plan.
Gregor was out in the street, with Jackal, Barret, and Anna. And every one of them was packing a lot heavier than she and her two current companions were.
She wished she was out there leading them, too, armed to the teeth. In her absence, Gregor tended to take the lead in potential combat situations. The giant was loyal, and one hell of a fighter, but he wasn’t the most subtle tactician she’d ever known. If there was going to be a fight, the best place for it would be at the warehouse, and not out in front of Carmichael’s bar, twenty meters from God only knew how many reinforcements he might have.
Gregor had always been ready for a fight, but since he’d lost his arm, he’d been particularly grouchy. And the prosthetic, the one Andi had gotten specially ordered for him, and paid for herself, had twice the strength his own massive appendage had possessed, and he seemed to particularly enjoy the fear the hideous metallic thing caused in his adversaries.
There was nothing she could do but hope for the best. Gregor was a veteran of many missions, if he was also somewhat of a mindless thug in his own right.
He knows what is at stake…
Andi stood next to the table, staring at Carmichael. “So, are we going to do this? Or do you just like listening to your own voice?”
* * *
The street was dark and filthy. Fewer than half the lights spread thinly down the dingy thoroughfare worked, and even with the portable lanterns four of Carmichael’s people carried, Andi had to watch carefully to avoid the large chunks of garbage and broken chunks of pavement in her way. She’d chosen the spot just because it was so old and rundown. Few people would want to come to such a worn and forgotten stretch of town, and the last thing she’d wanted was squatters and wanderers poking around her hidden stash of old tech.
But to her sensibilities, as rough and forgotten as the neighborhood appeared, it wasn’t so bad. She’d grown up in the Gut, and they didn’t make filthy and violent slums any more hideous than that one.
She’d looked and listened carefully, both for reassurance that Gregor and the others had followed…and also concern that the lumbering giant would give his position away. She didn’t want to trigger a battle, not yet. The street was narrow right there, but it was wide open. As outnumbered as her people were likely to be, they needed to fight someplace where they could grab some cover. Like the warehouse.
But getting there was dependent on Carmichael’s people remaining unaware they were being followed.
“Seriously, Andi…you couldn’t find a worse dump to hide this stuff?’ Carmichael looked down at his expensive shoes and frowned.
Andi didn�
�t look back, but inside she felt a taste of revulsion. She’d always thought the gangster was little more than a fop, and he was proving her correct.
“Carmichael, if you ever saw where I came from, you’d shit yourself.” There was utter disgust in her tone. She knew he was dangerous, but she suspected he’d turn out to be a gutless whiner begging for his life if she ever got him alone somewhere, one on one.
The gangster looked for a moment like he was going to respond, but then he just gestured forward and kept walking.
Andi continued past another four or five buildings, and then she stopped in front of an old structure with a half-crumbling façade. It was a storage facility, or at least it had been decades before. There were faded letters along the masonry just under the roof, but only three or four letters remained legible, not enough to make out the name of the business that had once operated there. All appearances suggested that had been forty years ago, or more.
She stopped in front of a large overhead door that looked like some kind of access point for freight haulers. It was battered and wobbly looking, but it still stood in place, and it barred entry.
“It’s in there.” Andi gestured toward the door, but she made no move to open it.
“How do you get in?” A pause. “Open the door, Andi…I’m through playing games.”
She remained still for a few more seconds. She hadn’t noticed the others following for quite a while, which was a testament to Gregor’s unexpected finesse. She might have thought they’d abandoned her, at least if she’d known them less well than she did. But she wanted to give them every chance to get there, just in case they’d fallen behind.
“Now, Andi.” Carmichael’s voice was hard. He waved his hand, and two of his people leveled their weapons at her.
“Okay, okay…this place is an old dump. It’s not like I’ve got AI access or anything.” She reached inside an indentation and grabbed a metal bar inside. As she had earlier, when she’d stashed the swag, images flashed through her mind of what might live in that small, filthy crevice. Dannith had a number of really nasty stinging insects and small reptiles. None of them were truly dangerous, at least away from the southern deserts, but rumor had it they hurt like fire when they struck.