Stars Beyond

by S. K. Dunstall

  A five-second pause, then, “I’ll bring it down.”

  Two minutes later Nika arrived with an anesthetic. “How long do you want him out for?”

  “At least an hour.”

  Nika administered the dose. “Will you be okay?” she asked when she was done.

  Josune nodded. “Just fix him.” She didn’t have to say who “him” was.

  “I will,” Nika promised. “Now I have the right equipment. Look after yourself. Come back alive. With Snow. And Gramps.” She patted Josune’s arm. “I’ll get back to Roystan,” which she knew was Josune’s main worry.

  “Thanks, Nika.”

  Josune and Carlos watched her go. “That sounds positive,” Josune said. “Tell Roystan—”

  Carlos backed away. “I’m not passing on secondhand love letters by word of mouth.”

  Josune grinned. “I was going to say, tell him to be ready. We might need to come aboard quickly. And Carlos, don’t lose my marker.” She patted her stomach.

  “I won’t.” Carlos paused awkwardly. The words came out in a rush. “You come back.” He raised a hand. “You have to come back, anyway. You’ve a half-dismantled engine down in engineering. I don’t want to have to put it together, since I didn’t pull it apart.”

  Josune opened her mouth to remind him to grease the smaller valve before he finished putting it back together, closed it again. “I’ll be back.”

  It was a promise.

  * * *

  • • •

  Josune called Norris when she was halfway to the Boost. “This is the Boost shuttle, requesting permission to approach.”

  “And you are?” Norris said.

  “Josune.” Snow must have still been with Norris.

  “She can speak for herself.”

  “I am Josune Arriola.” She sent through her ID.

  “And my crew member?”

  “Unconscious.”

  She could see Snow now, in Norris’s screen. Standing behind him, arms crossed, looking grimly satisfied, as if he’d expected nothing less from Josune.

  Norris raised an eyebrow.

  “You know why he’s unconscious,” Josune said.

  “And yet you still came?”

  “You still have Snow.”

  “Ah yes,” and Norris turned to smile in Snow’s direction. “So I do.”

  “Permission to dock shuttle,” Josune said.

  “Without my crew member, how do I know you are not—”

  “Oh come, Norris. I’m not that stupid. Not to mention, Another Road doesn’t have the crew to waste fighting a four-hundred-crew merc ship.”

  Nor, having gone to so much trouble to save Snow’s life, would she waste it by giving him an excuse to kill Snow at the first opportunity.

  “Then by all means, you have permission to dock. I think I’ll like working with you, Mez Arriola.”

  She certainly didn’t like working with him.

  * * *

  • • •

  Norris and four guards waited with Snow, his arms still crossed, although this time it looked more defensive than it had earlier. A woman waited with them. Pol Bager, former crew member of The Road turned mutineer. She was like a bad smell in life support, always turning up when you least expected it, and so much trouble to get rid of.

  She also had a habit of making stupid pacts with their enemies. Thank the stars she wanted Josune dead. Otherwise she might have argued the swap, told Norris that Josune was a permanent crew member, permanent before Nika was.

  Josune ID’d herself again into Norris’s personal scanner. She had to clench her fists to stop them shaking. So far things were working to plan. Would they continue to?

  “And because IDs can be faked,” Norris said, “would you two be good enough to confirm this woman’s identity?”

  “You are kidding me,” Josune said. “You want Pol to confirm who I am?”

  Snow hid a snigger. “Last time she didn’t recognize her. Offered to make a deal with her so they could both go off and find Josune.”

  Pol gave him a glare that said he was dead when she got him alone. “I don’t recall you being there.”

  “He wasn’t,” Josune said. “But we laughed about it later.” She had no compassion for Pol. She had looked different at the time, so the mistake was reasonable, but Pol had been ready to break Josune out of jail to help with her scheme and leave the rest of the crew behind, to be killed.

  “I am going to kill you.”

  Norris’s eyes narrowed.

  Snow’s snigger was louder. “I heard you tried to kill her a couple of times already. Didn’t succeed.”

  Pol turned to Norris, ignoring Snow. “She carries a sparker, and she’s not afraid to use it on a ship.”

  Norris had already nodded to one of the guards, who was stepping forward even as Pol spoke.

  “Full body check,” Norris said.

  “My pleasure.”

  “Make it fast. Make it thorough. I don’t care about your pleasure.”

  They took her blaster, her sparker, and the knife in her boot. They found the marker under her collar. They took the tools in her pocket.

  A tall, bulky man in a business suit burst out of the lift and into the shuttle area. “You promised me Nika Rik Terri.”

  “I didn’t promise you anything, Agent Laughton.”

  So this was the infamous Alistair Laughton. Josune studied him while Norris’s crew member finished his search. He was a big man, formidable.

  “You did, you know. We came to an agreement.”

  “So have the Justice Department sue me for breach of contract. Agent Laughton. You’ve heard the saying ‘One meeskarr in a cage is worth two in the wild’? Rik Terri may be valuable to you. She is not to me. I want only one thing from the Justice Department right now.”

  “Which is?”

  “The whereabouts of the weapons factory that made that fire-breather you carried.”

  “You won’t get that now.”

  “I believe I will, Agent, once a little judicious pressure is applied. Every man has his limit, even you.” He snapped his fingers at the guards. “Take them both down to the cells.”

  They hadn’t found the marker inside her boot. That was something to be grateful for. Personally, Josune would have made her prisoner strip and then destroyed all their clothes. But then, she was paranoid.

  Norris looked at another guard. “Take Snowshoe back to the hospital.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Snowshoe?”

  Snow looked at him.

  “You know what will happen if you try to visit your friend. Or if Gramps does.”

  Snow nodded, expressionless.

  “I’m glad we all understand each other.” Norris turned. “Come, Pol. You and I have things to discuss.”

  Pol’s glance over her shoulder at Josune had daggers in it. One day soon Pol would come to kill her. She was sure of it. Let it happen. While Josune was weaponless, Pol was her best chance of arming herself.

  24

  JOSUNE ARRIOLA

  The prison cell was one of ten in a row along one wall. Bars made up the other three sides. The door had an electronic lock that required two sets of ID to open. A suction privy was built into one corner, with a showerhead above it. The shower controls were red. Locked, Josune noted, and presumed that it would only work at certain times.

  The bars were poly-treated carbon. Stronger than steel, but not hard. Josune had only ever seen them on the vids before. They were used, as far as she knew, for high-security prisoners who were likely to harm themselves. This ship would have a lot of that, if it was as bad as Snow said it was. Most of the people in these cells would have been captured by a cattle ship, their contracts sold to the merc ship.

  The cell was three meters by three meters. Ge
nerous, compared to some, but when you were sharing one with an almost giant, it felt cramped.

  “I would have preferred you were smaller,” she told Alistair Laughton.

  “Me too, right now.”

  “And you can’t pace. You’re too big.”

  “Sorry.” He sat down with his back to the wall.

  That suited Josune. She liked to be close to the bars, where there might be an opportunity to arm herself. A guard standing too close, or Pol, making good on her threat to come and kill her. Josune would be ready.

  “What deal did you make with Norris?”

  “None of your business.”

  “Why did you want Nika, then?”

  “None of your business either.”

  Josune sighed. “Nika is my friend and my crewmate. If you won’t tell me why you want her, why would she even think to help you?”

  Laughton closed his eyes and didn’t answer.

  Josune studied the lock more closely. A Verter Prime. What was it with all these Verters suddenly popping up out of nowhere? No, be reasonable about it. Verters were good locks and all the best people used them. And the worst.

  If she blasted it, the lock would fuse, and a secondary magnetic lock would come into play. The only way she would get this door open—short of someone opening it for her—was to cut the power to it, which was how the lock worked. One of these bars must have an electrical conduit behind it. Going up into the ceiling? She tested each bar. Sometimes you could tell from the warmth of the bar.

  This time she couldn’t.

  Two guards stopped outside the cell. “Agent Laughton. Captain Norris wants to chat with you.” They emphasized the “chat” and laughed at the same time.

  “I don’t want to chat with him.”

  “That’s too bad.” These two guards had a swagger that was completely at odds with other guards Josune had seen on the ship. They were also well built. Both were close to Laughton’s height, and they had extra stripes on their epaulettes. “He certainly wants to chat with you.”

  Josune watched them go, cocky, sure, and in control. Laughton didn’t look cowed. Did he realize how bad a predicament he was in? She thought not.

  She sat down with her back to the bars. Norris would try to talk to her—about the Hassim, presumably, since Pol was here. She could wait.

  They brought another prisoner in and put her into the cell next to Josune. The woman screamed and struggled. Josune moved so her back was against the other set of bars.

  The guards watched the new prisoner scream.

  “Don’t worry, Effie,” one of them said. “You’ll be first down on the next mission. I’ll personally see to it.”

  They left, laughing.

  When Effie started battering herself against the bars, Josune stood up and stepped over. “Effie.” She timed her grab and got Effie after she’d hit the bars—going, not coming—so she was easier to grab.

  Effie started sobbing. “I wish I was dead.” She clutched at the bars. “I should have let them kill me rather than sign that stupid contract.”

  Josune held her arms while she cried herself out.

  “I hate it here.”

  They couldn’t save everyone they met, and taking on someone like Norris and his trained thugs—the guards had held their weapons with ease—and an armored merc ship was crazy, but if Josune killed Norris and a couple of his people while rescuing Snow, she’d consider it time well spent.

  “There’s no way out.” Effie’s voice died away to a whisper. “They even caught Snow. Norris will come after you. It might take years, but he’ll come.”

  “Effie.” Josune gripped her arms hard. “Snow will escape again. I promise you that.”

  “He won’t. You can’t escape.”

  “Snow can. Snow will. You all can. Norris is just another bully with powerful tools.”

  “That’s an interesting way of hearing myself described,” Captain Norris said from the other side of the bars.

  Effie froze.

  Josune turned. Norris gestured to the guards who were with him. One of them opened the cell door. They pushed Laughton back inside. He had trouble standing.

  “Did you get what you wanted out of him?” Based on the time they’d spent with him, she guessed not. “Some days are more difficult than others, Captain Norris.”

  Effie backed to the far side of her cell, tried to go still farther.

  Norris gave a tight smile. “I did plan on chatting with you, Mez Arriola. Maybe I’ll leave you to contemplate Agent Laughton here, before I do. You might realize the value of talking honestly and truthfully.”

  “I might,” she agreed.

  “Provided we all learn something from today.” Norris looked over to Effie cowering against the wall. “Including you, Effie. Nobody escapes from the Boost and lives to boast about it.”

  He turned and marched out.

  Josune waited until she was sure he was gone before she turned to Laughton. “Anything I can do for you?”

  He shook his head.

  “You’re a fool. No one withstands torture forever. You’ll tell him what he wants to know eventually.”

  Laughton winced as he sat down. It hurt to watch. “I do want to tell him. You can’t believe how much.” There was a hidden message in that. One she didn’t understand. “But I can’t. He’ll kill me as soon as he knows it.”

  “He’ll kill you anyway, eventually.”

  “I know that.” Laughton finally made it all the way down. He rested his head in his hands. “I’ve unfinished business. I can’t afford to die yet.”

  Maybe he and Josune had more in common than she realized.

  * * *

  • • •

  Norris didn’t feed them. When Josune saw the dance the two guards made Effie do for her dinner, she was glad he hadn’t. If either of those guards got in her way when she was escaping, she’d happily annihilate them.

  There was one night guard. She could call him to her and try to take his weapon, but Norris would expect that. Besides, arming herself was only half of what she needed to do. She had to get out of the cell, and if no one let her out, she had to stop the power.

  She needed tools.

  She had nothing. They’d stripped her of everything.

  “Laughton. What’s in your pockets?”

  “Huh?”

  He was only half-conscious.

  “I need to check your pockets. I’ll be as careful as I can.”

  He moaned once, cut it off quickly. In the night-light of the cells, she could see the perspiration on his face. His pockets were empty.

  “Anything?”

  “No.”

  Laughton grunted.

  Josune leaned back to the bars and dozed. There was nothing she could do but wait for an opportunity and conserve energy.

  Sometime during the night Laughton toppled down from where he’d been sitting, back against the wall, to lie flat on the floor. The cell floor vibrated with the crash.

  She dozed on and off all night.

  Pol finally made an appearance at 06:00. She kept away from the bars. “Just so you know. I am going to kill you.”

  “Why don’t you try, Pol?”

  Pol stepped back.

  Josune would have laughed if she hadn’t needed her to come closer. “You’ll have to come nearer if you want to be sure to hit me. That far away I can dodge.”

  Pol turned on her heel and walked out.

  Scratch that for a way to get a weapon. She’d have to rely on attacking guards on her way to, or from, her visit to Norris. Whenever that would be.

  25

  ALISTAIR LAUGHTON

  They dragged Alistair away again later that morning for another session with Norris’s persuaders. Alistair had no doubts about how this would go. They would kill him in the
end. You didn’t beat information out of a Justice Department agent and leave him alive.

  How long could he hold out?

  How long would Norris bother with this charade? Alistair was sure the only reason he was doing it was to be contrary because Alistair was holding out on him. But a new weapon, no matter how good, wasn’t enough to keep his attention for long. He’d cut his losses soon, kill Alistair, and go on his own way.

  Nika Rik Terri was out of his reach.

  So, half the plan, then. This ship was twice the size of the Santiago warship. It should win. Norris wouldn’t go straight down and find out about the Ort immediately. If Alistair could somehow get word to Paola to send the ship she had organized, then he could get the settlers off Zell—including the Ort. If he was condemning the people on Zell to a dictator worse than Santiago, then so be it. It was the best he could do, and his best was better than the certain death that would come.

  Decision made, he straightened and walked unaided into the small room that served as Norris’s interrogation room.

  Norris looked him over. “Maybe we weren’t persuasive enough yesterday.”

  Don’t come across as too eager. That would arouse suspicions. Time it. If he could. He ached all over, and right now just wanted it done. “I’m not playing your games.”

  “That’s what they all say, Agent Laughton, but they come around in the end. You’re—”

  He stopped as a message signal sounded. “This had better be important.”

  The woman at the other end didn’t look cowed. Probably his second, or a third. “Executive Wickmore is on the channel.”

  Norris took the link without any further comment.

  “You’re holding out on me,” Executive Wickmore said. “You have Arriola, but you haven’t told me.”

  “So your tame little spy told you she’s on board.” A tic pulsed on Norris’s right cheek.

  “We have an agreement, Captain. I gave you Arriola in return for half of the profits.”

  The tic stopped. Norris’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s not lie to each other about what we want, Executive. I wanted Snowshoe.”