By the Time I Get to Pellax

by Keith Dersley

  Captain Cutter looked at his watch, handed the bridge over to Billy Flax, and headed for the lift. He had arranged to have a look at the two demonstrators from Jycona. He took it as a personal affront, the way these boys had tried to ruin his cruise. 'We haven't put any pressure on either of the lads yet,' the officer in charge informed him. 'We're saving it for later.' Cutter sat at the other side of the table from the two villains. 'I can't understand what you thought you had to gain on a starliner like ours,' he said, in genuine pain and befuddlement. Here he was, coasting to retirement, and he didn't need this shit. It really and truly meant he was going to be forced to hand the case over to the security people on board, who usually had little enough to do, keen as mustard though they were. It was a dead cert Thorason Blake would be glad enough to pound it for every bit of juice it had in it. The two rebels sat looking at him. They were just dewy-eyed youths. Cutter shuffled in his chair, confused and irritated. He had been told that they possessed many martial skills and could use a finger or an elbow or a rolled up magazine as instruments of death. 'Why did you choose us?' he asked. They stared at him with half-smiles. Secure and confident, apparently. 'What I'm wondering,' said their guard, who was encouraged by an exasperated grin and a shrug from Cutter, 'is why they seem so bleeding, excuse me sir, self-satisfied, like.' 'I know, laddie.' Cutter's comm pin tolled and he brushed his thumb against it. 'Cutter.' 'Sir, we've got an invasion.' Oh, fuck everything! 'Bridge here, sir, I think we may have an invasion,' repeated Flax. 'I hear you. I'm on my way to the elevator now, Billy.' As he zoomed up to the bridge, Cutter tried to summon some of the old cold fire which he had run on in the old days. That was the stuff. Invasion? Could it be a false alarm? There had been that bloody glitch earlier, though. He felt a scratchy feather brushing down his spine. As he got to the bridge, Flax swung to face him. His complexion was as red as his hair. There were clattering noises and shouts from behind the far door. Two security men with drawn pistols stood by ready to blast the first ones to enter. 'What do we know, Number One?' 'They came through the shuttle bay, Captain. A dozen or ten of 'em, I hear.' 'Well, they must have had help from the inside,' said Cutter. Commander Flax looked down and bit his lip. Cutter, he was thinking, I always knew you were too complacent about security and now look where it's got us. There was more commotion, crashing and banging, and the door flew open. A man full of disagreeable vitality stood there. He was very young, medium height, and slight in build. He had a little, hooked nose and was wearing grey track bottoms. His black and violet jacket was slashed to show a cream-coloured lining. On his head was a naval commander's cap with plenty of gold braid. This bugger fancies his chances, thought Cutter. Something sank inside him. The two security men looked at their Captain. As the brigand was simply standing there, Cutter motioned for them to hold their fire. 'I'm Captain Spurgo and I'll be taking over,'said the youth. His men were pushing and growling behind him, but waiting for his say-so. At that moment Ted Cutter thought of something that could be the salvation of the Tortuga. He turned to Flax: 'The robots are deployed, I take it, Number One?' he muttered. Flax was disoriented for a second. 'The robots?' 'Yes, the siliconee policemen.' 'Of course!' thought the First Officer. He ran his fingertips around his console and accessed a couple of menus. He had forgotten about the silicone brigade. In a window on his screen a number of green lights were moving over a plan of the shuttle bay, pulsing vigorously. 'They're in combat mode, Sir,' he hissed. 'Deployed!' 'God bless the Navy!' said the Captain. These bots had been a recent introduction he had tried to fight! All of the passengers and crew members had had a microchip temporarily implanted next to the right thumbnail on joining the Tortuga. During an emergency such as the current one the robots were programmed to ignore any person carrying this chip and round up, subdue, injure, or kill anyone who did not have it. 'All right, Spurgo or whatever your name is,' said Cutter, 'You can get off my bridge, if you like. That's the best chance I can give you. Turn around and get back to your piss pot of a vessel or it's the brig for all of you.' The threat was slightly hollow as the only armed men of the Tortuga present were the two security lads with their pistols. They could easily be overwhelmed. Spurgo had a revolver and a cutlass, and his men were bristling with steel blades and all sorts of firearms. 'They'll not put us in the brig, sir,' said a muscle-bound individual to the pirate captain. This sturdy brigand had a bare torso and body armour covering his legs, one of which was prosthetic with an ugly hook for a foot. In the hurly-burly Commander Flax had left the speaker open at his console and it clicked into action:'Glad to report sir that the AI squad have repelled the latest invaders, though some half -dozen seem to have headed up towards the accommodation areas.' Spurgo scowled, pulled his pistol, and levelled it at Captain Cutter.

  - 21 -

  Along the spacious lounge area called the Dorms, Venner and the other passengers and staff who were billeted nearby heard no alarm bell or any other indication that the ship had been boarded. For the last day or two the former Top Hat had been sacking out, reading, wondering what he ought to try to do next in life. He was thinking of leaving the Tortuga while it was in docking orbit around the next planet on the route. In the meantime he and Lonnie would be performing some Hat gigs. He would stay in touch with Lonnie Pascoe after leaving the ship, he was sure of that. So there he was, reading ancient comic books on his Synapsis, marvelling at the art of the 'Slave Girl' comics of Earth so many years before. They never grew old, with their tales of fabled, spired cities, kidnapped beauties, and the Games where men and beasts battled. There was a clattering on his door. 'Come out, Mr Kleissenberg!' someone shouted. 'We've got you this time!' Kleissenberg? About to open the door, Venner stopped in his tracks. Why were they dragging this old scandal up? 'No Kleissenberg here!' he shouted through the door. The banging continued. 'Don't be shy, you are who you are, let's make the best of it.' In a quieter voice the man said, 'Bust the door in, we'll take him alive.' Venner looked around his quarters. If only he had a pistol! He picked up a baseball bat and tucked a steak knife in his waistband. Then he stood to the left of the door frame and got ready. There was a commotion outside, and a shriek followed by the sound of running feet. 'Venner!' He knew that voice, it was Hollis Pierpoint, whose cabin was a few doors along the corridor. He opened up. Pierpoint obviously had a comm implant because he was muttering as Venner opened the door. Pierpoint raised his eyes to Venner and nodded, gesturing towards a fellow lying at his feet. Pierpoint raised his .45 to show how he had clubbed him with the butt. This individual was dressed in the white tunic and black trousers of a ship's steward. 'There were four of them, the others took off down there. I've seen them serving up the grub, but they're getting paid for more than that, obviously. I overheard them talking about you, they said they had to get the right one this time.' The dark-haired girl called Latonia appeared. 'They knew who to grab. They knew the door number and everything,' she said to Pierpoint. Venner stood looking down and shaking his head, trying to make some sense of these events. 'Hey, Ven,' said Pierpoint, 'you must have met Latonia here, Latonia Fletcher?' 'We exchanged a few words,' said Venner, with a nod and a smile. Pierpoint turned away, attending to the messages unreeling in his ear. 'So you've taken over, Blake? And what? I see.' He turned to Venner. 'I've got Thorason Blake here.' 'Security Head?' 'Of the Tortuga, yes. Seems that the Captain, along with the whole bridge, is in the hands of Erloch Spurgo who has got plenty of lads and lasses with him.' 'I've heard about Spurgo,' said Latonia with a shudder. 'Why don't you both come on into my cabin a minute?' said Venner. 'We can make some sort of plan.' 'Wait,' said Pierpoint, listening to the voices in his head. He immediately tapped his ear lobe, turning off the feed. 'You got any weapons in there?' he said to Venner, walking in. He ignored the baseball bat and the hilt of the steak knife in Venner's belt. 'No.' Lonnie appeared at the door. 'Hear about the siege?' he said. 'I've been following it.' He touched his index finger to a civilian radio ear bud tuned to the ship's radio service. 'We'll have to break the siege, simple as
that,' said Pierpoint. 'You haven't heard the latest, then?' said Lonnie, looking over his shoulder, 'Some of them got through and past the robots and were seen making their way up here.' 'Here they are,' said Venner. Around the corner came a bunch of screaming invaders, a score of them or more, including four or five tough-looking women. They were all laughing and shouting out of bravado. Several had on gaudy leather outfits with plenty of straps and buckles. Discs and diamonds of steel armour were sewn on, more for show than protection. 'They're out for devilment!' said Pierpoint cheerfully. 'Well, that they won't be denied,' muttered Venner. The oncoming mob carried all sorts of blades and cudgels. Some had pistols of the latest type in their belts, as well as antiques charged with black powder and shot. 'I doubt if they'll shoot those things off,' said Pierpoint. 'Depressurisation will be just as fatal for them as for us.' One had a sickle which he waved in the air as if conducting a symphony, all the while showing the gaps in his teeth in a moronic grin. Soon they were all over the doorway of Venner's cabin, striking and stabbing. One shouted, 'It's him all right, don't hurt him, lads, we'll get more!' Venner smashed up a coffee table that was just inside his doorway and handed Lonnie a leg of it. Pierpoint had grabbed the baseball bat and was holding back a couple of villains wielding blades. 'It's you they're after, Ven,' said Lonnie. 'You think so?' said Venner, smashing his well-shaped hardwood chair leg into the forearm of an attacker. Drax had appeared from one side and was slashing at the pirates with a sword he had taken from a brigand. Beside him were a half-dozen passengers, some of whom were ex-military, with improvised weapons from the kitchen and gymnasium. The invaders were not getting it all their own way, and they began to retreat the way they had come. Several made daring attempts to grab Venner, because Spurgo had been offered a bounty for him, and they would get a share of it.

  - 22 -

  Cutter looked down the barrel of Spurgo's plasma pistol, thinking to himself that he had not had too bad a life. He realized he had been too light on those two Jyconan terrorists. They knew this attack was coming, that was why they were so damned complacent. Now they, along with the others on board that had been helping them, had sunk him. He'd been too reasonable a man in an unreasonable world. These thoughts swam through his brain as he contemplated Spurgo's barrel. In a second the plasma bullet would come swerving and whirling towards him. But the cocky young brigand stood hesitating as the door burst in. There stood four or five guys in steel-blue armour and helmets, and alongside them was Thorason Blake. Bursting in around this combat unit were a half-dozen four-foot robots. What a clever innovation they were, thought Cutter. The vicious little brutes could tell who was enemy and who was crew all right, and a number of gaudily dressed and tattoo-covered buggers went down before their laser blasts. The brigands followed their leader, backing away from the élite squad, whose numbers kept increasing, and the ferocious bots. The next thing Cutter knew he was sitting in his command chair once again and the smell of fresh coffee was in his nostrils. He shook hands with Blake and a couple of the officers from his team. 'We've gotta beat 'em back all the way,' said Blake. He showed Cutter an information pad which had dynamic displays of the Tortuga's decks. The brigands were shown as moving red dots and crew as green. The brigands had gone back to the shuttle deck through which they had entered the ship, probably by means of a flexible life-support tube operated from a bay on their own ship. 'There is one other group of them, in the Dorms,' said Blake, but they've been cornered now by Hollis Pierpoint and a few other passengers and crew. The main force, there, you see, in the shuttle bay, well, it might be an idea just to let them escape. I don't know what the casualty figures are, but it's been an expensive day.' 'Keep the bots at them, and take out as many as possible,' said Cutter. 'We don't want them getting the idea that pillaging a starliner comes cheap.' 'Spurgo has a smear of sense in that noggin of his,' said Blake. 'He's in it for the plunder, not to run amok, and he calculates to a hair. His bully boys are another matter, of course, once they get the smell of battle in their snouts.' An ensign waving a white flag came onto the command deck. He had been released by the pirates and was led straight to Cutter. 'What is it, Terry?' 'Spurgo says if you want you can chat with him man to man, under a flag of truce.' 'Might be an idea,' said Cutter. 'Arrange it.' 'Yes sir,' said Terry, swallowing hard as he started to plod back to the enemy camp. 'We'll be unarmed,' said Cutter. 'Let's have two guards each standing by.' Terry nodded and saluted. Over a comm link, Cutter arranged to receive Spurgo in his Ready Room. He changed his shirt and brushed down his jacket. The desk was clear, there was a jug of wine and glasses. He took his seat. Behind him stood two guards with holstered weapons. The door opened and in walked Spurgo, followed by his two guards. Cutter had no intention of shaking hands, nor did the brigand seem to expect it. 'Seat?' 'Thank you.' The youth sank into the black leather swivel chair. 'Drink?' 'What's that, Veloran red? Yes, I will, thank you.' The brigand took his cap from under his arm and placed it on the desk while Cutter poured. The Captain took his seat and swallowed some wine. 'All right, Mr Spurgo, what do you have to say?' 'My proposal is, a truce to be observed from now on, until I get all my men off the ship. There have been some valiant exchanges, we're about equal, I should say. You proved too tough a nut to crack, sir. So let us agree to part with no more loss of blood. I would ask you though to allow the two Jyconan boys you have in the brig to be brought to the shuttle deck so we can get them away.' 'You're still interested in those two incompetents, are you?' Spurgo grinned and passed his fingers through the biscuity-coloured quiff over his forehead. 'Well, I wouldn't want to let you into all my plans, but those boys were a grave disappointment to us all.' 'How is that?' 'They were supposed to just lie low and get ready to do their bit and help us when we attacked, but they jumped the gun. They knew Lupo Venner was working as an entertainer on board, and they tried to get him for themselves before we got involved. Of course they went after the wrong entertainer.' 'So why did they want Venner?' Spurgo grinned. 'I have no idea. They also wanted to take possession of the Tortuga when we had, uh, got what we wanted off her. They had agreed to meet my price for that. They wanted it to help publicise the Jyconan Liberation movement.' 'Bastards!' said Cutter. Spurgo shrugged and picked up his cap. 'I'm afraid,' said Cutter, 'that we cannot part with our two Jyconan friends. They have charges against them and will be going back to Federation Law Enforcement as soon as I get a message out to a blue cruiser.' 'Very well, sir,' said Spurgo. 'You have your code of duty, and I'm sure you'll see they get what they richly deserve. In return for a placid evacuation of your shuttle bay, however, may I request that we exchange prisoners and wounded, and that anyone from the Tortuga's crew wanting to join us gets the opportunity to do so?' 'Yes,' said Cutter. 'Any turncoats in the crew can bail out, we don't want 'em. I suppose that if they've got the face, some of them will keep quiet and stay here as the bastards they are.' 'Not with any connivance of mine, Captain, I can assure you of that. My interest in your ship is at an end.' Spurgo put his cap on and adjusted it with both hands. 'Do you agree, Captain?' 'I agree.' 'Thank you.' He turned on his heel and walked out. Five minutes later, Cutter was down in the shuttle bay. He joined Flax and Hollis Pierpoint amidst more than a score of security men. The thirty-odd villains, plus some shifty-looking or brazenly defiant characters from amongst the crew, stood waiting for the boarding tube to reattach. Some of the stewards had been there since the start of the engagement; they had let the brigands in. The tube from the pirates' ship fastened itself over the bay door with a thump, then the door was opened. Spurgo stood aside. The wounded went through first, then the others, then only Spurgo stood there with his henchman, a modest looking guy with an honest face, Cutter caught the name Kalat. Just as the door was about to close after the last man, Spurgo reappeared and waved his arm to get Cutter's attention. 'Captain, I said I wasn't interested in Venner but I lied! You try to find him!' Throwing his parrot-like head back, the brigand let out a burst of insane laughter before the door slammed to. 'What did he say?' shou
ted Cutter. Billy Flax leapt forward and clawed at the impregnable bay door.

  - 23 -

  Things soon returned to normal on the Dorms. Broken furniture was taken away and replaced, blood stains were dealt with, and people were soon lying around on the lounge chairs or sitting at the tables discussing the hurricane that had just passed through their lives. The two or three deaths and dozen or so injuries incurred were deplorable, but the passengers were very much conscious that they had lived through an exciting event they could dine off for years. Venner was drinking with his friends that evening. The captain arrived and stared at Venner, before shaking his hand. 'The bugger was playing a little game,' he said. 'I was afraid he'd got you.' With that, he saluted and left. 'We've still got to be vigilant up here,' said Venner, 'because you don't know which stewards you can trust.' 'Not just stewards either,' said Drax, unobtrusively squinting here and there. Hollis Pierpoint went to get fresh drinks. Venner, Lonnie, Latonia, Helen, Drax, and Rosalind were gathered around the table where they sometimes took their morning coffee together. 'I didn't know that Drax was a technician, here for a job as well as a cruise, until the other day,' said Rosalind. 'Even though we're staying in the same flat, he only just told me. It's true you don't know people.' 'Really?' said Pierpoint, who had just got back with a loaded tray. 'You're a techie, Drax?' 'Yeah, just in the entertainment world. I'm more or less in the same trade as Lupo and Lonnie here, I guess.' 'What, do you sing as well?' 'No, just what you might call that little bit of creative work required in Holodream Suites.' 'Full-stink holograms?' said Venner. 'That's the latest growth industry, man. These suites are getting bigger and better all the time. They have one in practically every mall these days.' 'What are you then, Drax,' said Pierpoint, 'cutting edge?' 'Ha ha ha! No, I would say more like maintenance. The things need a lot of it.' 'There's some wonderful stuff when you go through those doors,' said Lonnie. 'Yeah, you gotta be careful though because if you're the type, obsessive like,' said Pierpoint, 'you can hooked on 'em and never want to come out.' 'Down in those shady vales you fight a war/ and never feel a wound,' said Lonnie, quoting a song by Tyro of Tursa. 'Well no, that's just it,' said Drax. 'People are demanding more and more reality with their holograms. And some WILL take a wound to deepen the reality experience.' 'Yeah, within reason they will,' said Lonnie. 'Are you a Holosuite fan?' Rosalind asked Helen. 'No, it's not my sort of thing,' said the humble maiden from Pelops. 'I've never been in one.' 'Not even when you had a free voucher delivered?' said Rosalind. 'No, I wouldn't dare to redeem one of those. I've always been too intimidated.' 'You really must give it a whirl, Helen,' said Venner. 'Whatever you're into, there's something for you. You can have a virtual visit to wherever you like, in whatever time period you prefer. Go to Mars or Mobius II, or Achelar. I don't know when you went home last, but you can take a pootle around your own home planet if you feel like it.' 'Can they really mug up Pelops in there, then?' Venner looked at Drax enquiringly. 'Of course,' said Drax. 'They've surveyed numerous worlds. Pelops, Pluron, Spandura, Mobius II, Earth of course. Earth is the most popular. But you name it.' Lonnie during all this time had been watching Latonia, who sat opposite him. She had her eye on Venner, without being obvious about it. 'I could take you both to the Holosuite now and show you a few screens of different locales,' said Drax, putting a hand on Venner's shoulder, and one on Helen's. 'You can get right beside a Go-Through screen and just look. Stand there in the foyer, like, and get a view of it.' 'That sounds good,' said Helen, glancing over at Latonia, who raised her eyebrows and nodded encouragingly. So when the group began to split up Venner and Helen turned to Drax. 'I'll go back to the flat,' said Rosalind. 'OK, sweetie,' said Drax. 'She always calls our cabin the flat,' he told them as she walked away. They got the elevator to deck fourteen which was given over to the Holodream Suite. Drax ran his fingertips over a keypad then placed his palm on an authentication panel. The glass door slid back noiselessly. There was a hallway with columns. Down various archways you could enter the studios. Several were in use, as was shown by an amber light over the doorway. 'Choose one that's not lit up and we'll start,' Drax said to Helen. She ran her hand through her fair hair and across the back of her neck. 'Let's try this one,' she said. 'All right.' Drax touched some buttons on a column and they walked past it and along the corridor where there was a room with black walls covered with diagrammatic white lines making up squares that seemed to throb as if waiting for a client's input. 'Let's see,' said Drax, 'we just want a window experience first of all, don't we?' He hummed to himself and smoothly typed something on a keyboard. 'Place? Era?' 'Uh, as we're just looking, let's choose, say: the continent of Africa on Earth, in the 1800s,' said Venner. 'Ah yes, shall we say South Africa? The Zulu country is a stirring sight.' 'Fine.' Drax's fingers rattled the keys. The room was flooded with light from the far wall. It looked like a massive 3-D movie screen, pulsating with life. 'You should even get some of the scents,' said Drax, looking down and making a few connoisseur-like passes on the keyboard. There was a line on the floor beyond which all the intense colours danced. This side of the line they were still in diagram land. 'Move closer,' said Drax. 'See it. Smell it. Darkest Africa is through there and it's yours to walk into if you wish. You can play any part you like, even yourself.' Venner and Helen stood a foot from the line on the floor beyond which they could apparently see for several miles into the distance. There were blue mountains and purple woods in the haze. A trumpeting elephant was heard, and a monkey jabbered hysterically. 'You sure you don't want to go in there, maybe just put a toe in, the both of you? Uncle Drax will be here to lead you back.' He got nearer to them and placed his hand on a shoulder of each. 'As a matter of fact I think I'll leave it for now. I'll come back later and get some more of it, it's great all right,' said Venner. 'Don't be so feeble. I think you could do with something NOW!' said Drax, pushing them both over the line into the sultriness of the veldt. 'You swine,' said a woman's voice, and before he could stop her, Latonia Fletcher had leapt by him, following Venner and Helen. Drax went to the controls and began to type furiously, overriding safety codes and accessing the the tracking records. If he scrambled these it was unlikely anyone would ever find the three newcomers. Abruptly he felt himself swung round. Lonnie Pascoe had a hold of his shirt. 'What are you playing at?' said the little man. 'They'd like an experience like no other, and I'm adding a few touches. It's my thing,' he added snottily. 'You got something to say?' 'They didn't go in there, you pushed them.' 'It's a joke,' said Drax, changing tack and grinning. 'I'll bring them out in a minute, you'll see.' 'OK, but leave that keyboard for now. We'll find out what the Captain has got to say about it,' said Lonnie, still holding Drax by his shirt front. 'Great, great,' said Drax, as if ready to go to the bridge. As they started walking side by side he jumped on the smaller man and got him in a head lock. Drax was a trained man and taller and heavier than Pascoe, but the little fellow had been through a tough school on earth, learning to survive and play dirty in the grim schoolroom of the streets. He grabbed at Drax's crotch and squeezed viciously. The Pellacian flung the minstrel away, at the same time delivering a stomp which caught Lonnie in the small of the back. Lonnie was already moving away however, and he dodged most of the impact. He spun round, grabbed Drax's ankle and twisted. The two fell into a struggling, cursing heap. Once on top, Drax furiously hammer-punched the smaller man a half-dozen time to the head and abdomen. Holosuite staff struggled to separate the fighters. 'He's had a bad experience in one of the cyber studios,' said Drax. 'He thinks I'm after him.' The Holosuite workers had seen Drax conferring with their superiors and making adjustments to the equipment and were inclined to believe him. The other man had been knocked unconscious. 'Get security onto him,' said Drax, 'and he'll also need a medic. I'll bring a consultant down from the infirmary.' They let him go. 'Turn right, it's the quickest way!' shouted one, as he started to trot. But Drax turned left, towards the transporter deck.