Your Life Is Forfeit: A Space Opera Adventure Legal Thriller (Judge, Jury, & Executioner Book 4)

by Craig Martelle

  “What? How? I don’t like your new sense of humor, Margaret. Show me the stats on Snatch Capstan.”

  “I cannot. I cannot reach beyond these walls. I am sorry, Tod.”

  “What the hell is going on?” The Blokite opened the hatch and stumbled into the open. At the edge of the field, a taxi waited. No one moved. He wondered if it was the taxi he’d asked Margaret to call to take him to dinner.

  When a police van rolled up behind the taxi, Tod Mackestray knew it was time to leave. He hurried back inside and secured the hatch. “Prepare to take us into orbit.”

  “I cannot cannot cannot...” Margaret’s voice repeated the last words.

  Tod squeezed into the cockpit. “Pandora. Manual flight mode, please.”

  A different mechanical voice answered. “Manual mode is not recommended for a space launch.”

  “Override safety protocols. Give me manual flight mode.”

  The panel lights in the cockpit turned green. Three flashed red. He addressed each, closing systems, sealing systems, or opening lines as the ship requested. Once all systems were green, he activated the anti-gravity thrusters to lift the ship off the ground. Once clear of the trees, he punched it. The ship accelerated quickly toward space. He thought he heard something ping off the hull, but no alarms sounded, and the panel continued to show green.

  “Dammit to hell!” Red roared as he fired a long stream from his railgun. Lindy joined him in sending a volley of hypervelocity darts skyward.

  Chaz, bring the ship to these coordinates and pick us up. He’s running. Ankh, shut down the Gate. He doesn’t leave this system, Rivka ordered.

  We are tracking him now, Ankh said. If we stop for you, we risk losing him. Space is a big place.

  “Dammit to hell!” Rivka shouted. Go after him. Disable if you can. I still want to talk to him.

  When you see the information we acquired from his AI, you may have all you need.

  Peacekeeper is airborne. Accelerating on an intercept trajectory, Chaz reported.

  Rivka took stock of her surroundings. She saw the former campaign manager and made a beeline for her. The female started to backpedal, but Rivka caught her by the arm, half-lifting her off the ground.

  “What did you do?”

  “I tried to help Bander. He’ll make a wonderful premier. It was all for Bander,” she whined.

  Rivka saw that she was telling the truth. “You could have helped create a cascade of events that changed Capstan, and not in a good way. Now my ship is chasing that yacht, and I’m stuck on the ground in your company.”

  The taxi driver, leaning against his car, started to mumble. “All you people are mean.”

  Lindy shook her head at him. “Take her back to the headquarters. She can do no more damage.” Rivka put her down and tentatively nodded.

  “What happened to you?” Lindy asked, suddenly concerned when she had a moment to look at Red.

  “A close encounter with too much nature,” Red joked, having mostly healed. “Reinforces the precept of never fight fair. I should have torched him from the start.”

  “K’Twillis is...”

  “Neutralized.”

  The taxi maneuvered around the police van, and once clear of the gate, sped away.

  “What now?”

  “The mine needs to be shut down before the goons hurt anyone else,” Rivka snarled.

  “Are units on their way to the mine?” Rivka asked the driver. He nodded. “Tell them we’ll meet them there.”

  He took that as his cue to turn on the lights and siren and begin a new round of speed driving.

  Rivka braced herself with one hand while trying to manipulate her datapad with the other. Peacekeeper was heading into combat without her. Even though her role as captain during space engagements was honorary only, trusting to Chaz and Erasmus to fight the enemy, she still wanted to be with them. Her place was there.

  Chapter Twenty

  Peacekeeper achieved orbit at the same time as Pandora Express. The yacht sped into the line of space freighters, twisting and using their bulk to shield itself.

  The corvette responded in kind. Having more power and being nearly as agile, Chaz drove the ship at high speed after Tod Mackestray. Where Pandora’s maneuvers were clumsy and high-risk, Peacekeeper’s were smooth and stayed clear of danger.

  Jay held Floyd in her arms as the ship bucked and jerked through the rapid changes in attitude and direction.

  “Bring up the front view on the screen, please,” Jay requested.

  Chaz complied without answering.

  Jay lost her calm once she saw the ship twisting in and through great space freighters as they waited their turn to be escorted to the planet’s surface. A flash of white ahead signaled that Mackestray was still running.

  “He’s gone off-screen,” Erasmus said calmly. “Triangulating and enhancing.”

  Peacekeeper moved to a safer distance away from the shipping lane before inverting and making a great loop around one of the more heavily laden ships.

  Most freighters were great lattices of girders to which shipping containers were attached. Getting to and from the planet’s surface required local support—tugs with antigravity systems or Etheric drives. The freighters only needed to navigate to and from Gates within known systems. Not hard work. Constant travel, but the crew’s home was on the ship.

  Jay sympathized. She had spent enough time on Federation Border Station 7 to call that home but was on board the corvette almost as much. Erasmus saw something and worked with Chaz to maneuver tightly against a well-packed freightliner.

  “There he is,” Ankh said. Lights flooded the area where the yacht had squeezed in and grappled tightly to the load.

  “How do we get him out of there?” Jay asked.

  No one answered.

  “With a combined IQ of eleventy-billion, you can’t figure out how to dig a cockroach out from under the sink?” Jay quipped.

  “We’re running through a series of simulations now regarding effecting his removal without causing his destruction.”

  “Send the Magistrate an update, Chaz.”

  “Done,” the ship’s AI answered instantly.

  Peacekeeper hovered nearby in a stalemate where neither was willing to move.

  “Freighter Ballykissangel Forty-Seven, you have an uninvited passenger. Sending you imagery now. He is a fugitive from Justice. Please advise on how the ship can be removed without damaging your cargo.”

  A crackling response signaled an older ship-to-ship radio. “Can we do it on the ground? We are in a time crunch on these deliveries.”

  “No. He could disengage and get lost during reentry and intra-atmospheric maneuvering. We need to isolate him right here and right now. We are pulling you out of line until the situation can be resolved.”

  “Wait!” the freighter captain nearly shouted. “Let me talk to my crew and get back to you. Give us a minute.”

  “We cannot allow the ship to return to the planet,” Chaz remarked conversationally.

  “We won’t,” Erasmus replied, maintaining the discussion over the speakers for Jay’s benefit.

  “This ship doesn’t have a grapple, and even if we could sync up our airlock with theirs, who would storm the Blokite’s ship?” Ankh asked.

  Jay replied, “If we have to fight anyone, it’ll have to be me.”

  And me! Floyd joined in.

  “When the time is right, yes, you too,” Jay agreed, scratching behind the wombat’s ears.

  “Boarding is the last option. All we need to do is take control of the ship, but since his AI has been neutralized, he’s flying it on manual mode.” Ankh’s eyes were open. He was minimally involved at the digital level during the current impasse.

  “Can you make believe you’re his AI, so he gives you control of the ship?” Jay wondered.

  “I’ve never wanted to be a lesser entity before, but that sounds like a challenge. Allow me a few moments to analyze speech patterns,” Erasmus requested.

/>   “Yes, a good challenge,” Ankh added and closed his eyes as he disappeared into cyberspace.

  “Now we wait,” Jay told Floyd. Hamlet appeared for long enough to see the wombat looking at him. He stopped, his hackles raised as he slowly approached. Just wait, Floyd. Let him come to you, and you two will become good friends.

  Friends! Floyd cried.

  The cat sniffed Floyd’s snout. She sniffed his face, her lips peeled back as she tried to lick his head, but her buck teeth were in the way. Hamlet ducked and strolled under the chair, his tail slipping through the wombat’s mouth. With a mouthful of cat hair, Floyd started to sputter.

  Ick!

  “It’s probably best if you don’t lick the cat,” Jay suggested.

  “We’re in,” Erasmus claimed.

  Tod Mackestray studied the yacht’s instrumentation panels, looking for something he’d missed. The corvette blocked his way from the freighter. “We’re boxed in,” he said to no one, but received a reply.

  “Only for the moment. We have them right where we want them!” Margaret’s voice claimed over the speakers.

  “Where did you go?” the Blokite asked. “I could have used your help.”

  “That ship has an incredible AI who cut off my links, but I have freed myself. He’s not all that. He’s a total suckhole.”

  “Now you’re talking. They’re all suckholes! What do you have in mind, Margaret?”

  “We spoof them. Release the clamps, fire the thrusters to bump them away, then make to run. I’ll drop the mine in their path. It won’t destroy them, but it will hold them up enough for us to reach the Gate.”

  “We have a mine?”

  “It’s not a standard mine, but something I whipped up from our auxiliary fuel. It won’t have a detonator, so we’ll have to be close enough to ignite it with a blast from our main engines when the enemy approaches.”

  “Ingenuity! I knew you had it in you, Margaret. I thought I heard a general broadcast that the Gate was secured until further notice.” Mackestray hadn’t smiled yet, but he could feel it coming. Hope had a way of bringing out the best in people.

  “Where would you be without me? I’ve already accessed the Gate systems. We’ll have a wormhole out of this system the second we arrive. It’ll close behind us, before our enemy can reach it,” Margaret explained.

  Tod Mackestray crossed his arms on his chest. “Time to find our next client, Margaret. I’ve been looking at the Tranador system. When we are free and clear, we’ll evaluate the opportunity. Cancel manual control. Release the clamps and execute your plan.”

  “As you wish,” Margaret replied. A slight thump reverberated through the ship as the clamps withdrew. The thrusters kicked in to maneuver the yacht from the confines of its hiding spot.

  Once free, it jumped toward the corvette, bouncing it back enough to clear the freighter’s cargo, then Pandora accelerated slowly. “Deploying the mine.” Nothing showed on the screen except the corvette coming after them. The yacht lurched forward as the main engines kicked in, and the viewscreen blazed white with the explosion.

  The police had only been there a few minutes by the time the Magistrate arrived. The van slid to a stop in the parking lot, and Rivka, Red, and Lindy exited quickly. She found a sergeant in charge of the operation. He already knew who she was.

  “Magistrate. What do you need us to do?”

  Rivka looked into the pit, no longer worried about exposing herself. “See those people in black carrying the clubs? Round all of them up. The miners were probably promised great pay, received some, and then became slaves. We’ll need to look at all of them to make sure none of the bad guys are masquerading as miners. There should be a supervisor of some sort. I want to talk with that one.”

  A loaded truck started the climb out of the pit.

  “As soon as that truck is clear, we’ll take the team down. Mind if we borrow your van?”

  “Your van, and the driver is exceptional. You should put him in a cruiser and see what he can do.”

  “We know what he can do—wreck the cruiser. After four of them, we only let him drive the van now.”

  The driver gave Rivka two thumbs up.

  “They may give you some grief, judging by what we received at the freighter port. You may have to shoot them.”

  The sergeant held up a stunner. “We don’t have guns here. Stunning will work just fine.”

  “We’ll be behind you all the way,” Rivka interjected, pointing with her eyes at the railguns her team carried.

  When the hauler reached the top, it stopped, blocking the road. The driver jumped out and ran into the pit.

  “I guess we do it the hard way,” the sergeant grumbled. “Follow me!”

  With a cheer and an arm wave, he took off down the road, squeezing past the truck and accelerating as he went. The officers spread out behind him as they raced into the surface mine. They yelled when they got close, directing the miners one way and the overseers another. The first two in black were stunned unconscious when they attempted to fight.

  “Effective,” Red murmured. The trio walked with a measured pace down the road into the pit, then waited, arms resting on railguns. Rivka had her hands in the pocket of her jacket.

  “Smoke if you got ‘em,” Rivka said. No one smoked, but they liked to see a criminal operation dismantled before their eyes. “Report to follow.”

  The datapad buzzed and Rivka looked at the short note. We are close.

  She showed it to Red and Lindy. “What the hell does that mean?”

  Pandora Express accelerated away from the freighter queue. It looped until it could fly straight into the Gate.

  “This is Ballykissangel Forty-Seven. The intruder has departed. Request return to our previous position in line.”

  “Yes,” Chaz answered the captain.

  The Gate’s lights blinked, but there was no event horizon.

  “Activate the Gate, Margaret,” the Blokite insisted, tensing for impact.

  The ship flew through the empty space within the Gate, arriving nowhere except on the other side of the Gate. The ship slowly banked to make its way back.

  “What happened, Margaret? We need to leave. Open the Gate and get us the hell out of here.” Mackestray slammed a fist on the console. “Now!”

  “I’m sorry, Tod, I can’t do that,” Margaret said. The Blokite struggled to breathe as the air drained from the ship.

  “Margaret...” When he passed out from lack of air, enough oxygen returned to keep him unconscious but alive.

  As Rivka was anger-tapping her reply, a new message came in.

  Mackestray in custody. Will bring both ships to your position at the mine.

  Rivka swiped her finger across her message and deleted it. She tapped different words. Well done.

  “Shall we?” Red asked, pointing toward the rim above.

  “Everything seems to be well in hand,” Rivka replied. “We don’t need to go down there. I’ll zombie them when they bring them out.”

  They headed back up the hill. “Kind of anti-climactic, don’t you think, Red?”

  “It’s a huge relief knowing those two are out of business. It’s also amazing, the tons of credits crime can pay.”

  “Crime with a niche. Mackestray had his unique product, and no one could influence an election like him. And K’Twillis operated illegal mines. Finding exploitable resources is a difficult proposition, yet he could go right to them. In the Federation’s hands, such technology could save a great deal of time over random exploration and sampling. Maybe we’ll find something when we tear that freighter apart. Which reminds me, it’s in Capstanian custody right now. We’ll give them their exotic ore back while the Federation takes the ship.”

  Red and Lindy held hands as they walked. Red smiled more than usual.

  “It’s nice knowing that without a price on my head, random scumbags won’t be taking pot shots hoping for a quick payout. I don’t want to risk losing you.”

  “Even if I’m mean?�
�� Lindy asked.

  “Don’t listen to that guy. You’re mean to people who deserve it. We all are.”

  “He called me mean too,” Rivka added, nodding. She stopped to glare at her security team when no one said anything. “You think he’s right? You think I’m mean?” She crossed her arms and stood her ground.

  “You’re as mean as a fucking snake,” Red blurted.

  Rivka did a double-take.

  “I’m Magistrate Rivka Anoa, and if you don’t do what I tell you, I’ll punch you in the face,” Red imitated.

  “I don’t come across like that, do I?”

  Red and Lindy chuckled together as if sharing a private joke.

  Red explained, “You have to. Why can’t they respect the office? Frankly, I don’t know why you’re not meaner. I’d start with a punch in the face and then make the requests.”

  “What he said,” Lindy agreed.

  “Our missions are tough,” Red added.

  “Cases,” Rivka corrected.

  “Magistrate?” Red shook a finger at her.

  “I’ll concede in this case alone that it was more of a mission, but we still collected evidence and built a case that I could defend before a court of law, and I will file the appropriate paperwork. When we have Mackestray in our hands, what do you want me to ask him?”

  “I never thought about it,” Red said. “I always expected to kill him.”

  “Did he intend to destroy Leed’s Planet?” Lindy offered.

  “I think that one may be all we need since it’ll tell us what was in his mind as a civilization was brought to its knees. I want to see what Ankh has. That will put the bow on the package. I see Jhiordaan in his future.”

  “Not capital? He gets to live?”

  “I’ll judge when I see the evidence, but from what I’ve seen so far, his interference may have been the catalyst, but the underlying causes were there long before the Blokite appeared. He simply exploited them to his clients’ advantage.”

  “Maybe you should be meaner?” Red suggested.

  “I love the law, Vered!” The Magistrate laughed as they reached the top. She started yelling at two officers remaining with the vehicles, “You need to move all these vehicles over there.”