The Expanding Universe

by Craig Martelle

  Still, she was here now, so he smiled and offered his hand.

  ‘Welcome my dear, I’m Minster Gerard Sorenson…’ he said, hoping she would then introduce herself.

  ‘Thank you for meeting with me Minster Sorenson, I’m merely a pilgrim visiting your world on a longer path,’ she said in a melodious voice while ignoring his hand.

  ‘Welcome,’ he said, withdrawing his hand, noting the synchronicity of the recent news of the missing scout ship and this woman’s description of herself. ‘How may I address you?’

  ‘You may call me Acacia,’ she said with a smile as Gerard felt the beginnings of a strange and sudden headache quickly building at the front of his mind as this strange woman smiled at him.

  The End… for now.

  More About Andrew Dobell

  A UK author, Andrew Dobell is best known for his Urban Fantasy series, the Magi Saga, and is nearly half way through its main story arc with book 4, Infinities’ Edge, having just been released. Book 1, Epic Calling, can be found on Amazon. Taking a one book break from the world of the Magi, Andrew is currently writing the first book in a Sci-Fi Cyberpunk series, updating a story he wrote in the final year of University. You can learn more about Andrew and his fiction at his website www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk where you can get some free Short Stories by signing up to his mailing list.

  Genre: Galactic Empire

  Smuggler for Hire by Bradford Bates

  Being an outlaw is never easy. But when the choice is between staying in the black, or being stuck on the ground the choice is easy. Ellison had what we needed to keep flying. So we took the job, and now were paying for it.

  Chapter 1

  Drake

  TINKS WAS A LOW CLASS, don’t-be-afraid-to-get-dirty kind of place. The kind of place you avoided unless you needed to meet with a not-so-reputable source, or maybe you were the not-so-law-abiding citizen yourself. The plus side of meeting at Tinks was they had all of the local law enforcement paid off. It was possible the planetary enforcement just didn’t want to get their boots dirty. Either way, the patrols in Tinks’ section of town didn’t even come for gunshots. I’d seen more than a few corpses removed from the bar after a friendly wager turned into something a little less affectionate.

  Personally, I couldn’t stand the damn place. It smelled like stale beer and dried vomit, but it was the only damn place Ellison worked out of. After all these years, I still didn’t know what fascinated him about the place. Was it the hint of danger, or maybe the slightly-past-their-prime working girls and boys? It sure wasn’t the prices of their drinks. The damn drinks cost three times as much as anywhere else on this rock.

  The neon sign out front was old, and part of it was flickering as the woman’s leg moved into a kick like those old chorus line girls. If the sign wasn’t on, you might have thought the building was condemned. Maybe that was the look they were going for. It was highly possible I missed the memo that said crumbling brick and waist-high piles of trash nestled against the base of the building was back in style.

  The door opened, and the bouncer gave me a quick onceover. I’d been to Tinks enough times that he just grunted as I walked past. Not that he would have tried to stop anyone from coming into the bar. Tinks was more of the kind of place the bouncer was around to toss the unconscious bodies back out the door than trying to prevent people from ending up unconscious in the first place.

  This wasn’t the kind of joint where they scanned you for weapons or made you leave them at the door. This was the kind of place if you came without a weapon, you wouldn’t be walking out with any of your belongings. There was a man sitting in Ellison’s booth, so I made my way up to the bar for a drink. It had taken us longer to get back to this planet than we thought, and I hoped he hadn’t gotten tired of waiting and farmed the job he promised us out to someone else.

  The bartender appeared from around the corner and made her way toward me. If her hips swayed any more, she would have lost her balance. The tight semitransparent corset top was cinched too tight, and her leather pants had seen better days. As she came to a stop in front of me, I noticed that her bottled blonde hair needed a touch-up and that if you removed her caked-on makeup, it probably would have added twenty years to her appearance. I forced myself to smile up to her expectant face.

  “I’m Cindy. What can I get for you?” she purred.

  It came off sounding like a loaded question. Maybe she still worked with a few of the clientele who came to Tinks for something other than the drinks. “Just something from the tap.” Her smile turned down slightly at the corners of her mouth, but her eyes still held enough sparkle that I knew she hadn’t given up on the prospect of making a few extra credits just yet.

  She grabbed a mug that might have been clean but the glass was so cloudy, there was no way to be sure. Cindy turned away from me and leaned into the bar. Her tight leather pants pulled snuggly against her ass, leaving nothing to the imagination. She turned, looking over her shoulder to see if she had my attention yet. Cindy must have seen something she liked, because her tongue darted out to moisten her lips, and then she winked at me before speaking.

  “Are you sure I can’t get you more than a drink? I mean, a guy like you deserves a little something sweet. Don’t you think?”

  “Just the beer will be fine. I’m here on business.” I inclined my head toward Ellison’s booth.

  She slammed my beer down on the counter, and some of it slopped over the edge and onto the already sticky bar top. “Well, you could have said something before wasting so much of my time.” Cindy turned abruptly and walked back down the bar. She trailed her hand over the arms of a few of the regulars before walking around the bar and out into the crowd.

  The holo display flickered in front of me, asking me to confirm the price of thirty credits. I placed my thumb on the bar, accepting the charge. With the prices they were charging for drinks, you would think they could at least clean the damn glasses. I looked down at the golden liquid in the cloudy mug and shrugged. It simply wasn’t worth it. I pushed the beer away just as the man in Ellison’s booth stood up to leave. I scanned the room, making sure someone else wasn’t making a move toward his booth, before moving away from the bar.

  A few sets of eyes followed me as I moved. I wondered if they worked for Ellison or if they were trying to decide if I was worth the trouble of robbing. Most of them failed to meet my eyes, but not all of them. I made sure to flip my coat back as I turned toward the side of the bar, effectively exposing to the room the blaster pistol strapped to my thigh. The action wouldn’t dissuade anybody set on making trouble, but anyone whose heart wasn’t in it would think twice before they made a move.

  Slipping into the booth, I gave the man sitting across from me a curt nod. “Ellison.”

  He looked me over, keeping his face stern. “I was expecting you two days ago, Captain Drake.”

  “Well, we had a little run-in with the peacekeepers on Gravius Nine.” Ellison frowned. “Nothing we couldn’t handle, mind you, but it added a little bit of time to our last delivery.”

  “I know. I heard about it via the Net. Seems like an unknown smuggling ship broke through a blockade and evaded capture. Frankly, those kind of skills and the will to get the job done at any cost is why I didn’t hand this contract off to someone else.”

  “So tell me what I’m getting into?”

  “Sorry, Drake. I simply don’t have the time to give you a rundown. If you want the job, take this disk, and I’ll have the down payment transferred to your account.”

  He inclined his head toward a burly man with a huge bushy beard waiting at the bar. The bastard kept shooting daggers in our direction, but Ellison didn’t pay any attention to him, other than indicating his presence to me. He held out a small silver datadisk and waited to see if I’d take it. I snatched it out of his hand and slid out of the booth.

  “See you in seven days, Captain.”

  Seven days. We couldn’t plan a job that fast, not if it was going to b
e clean. Then again, I couldn’t tell him no now. Something like that would probably bring our working relationship to an abrupt end. That wouldn’t work for me. Right now we needed the credits, and Ellison had them. That was enough for me to set aside a good portion of my morals to complete whatever shitty job Ellison had lined up for us. One of these days, we’d find ourselves back on top, but until then, it was shady deals in backwater shitholes like this. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” I held out my hand for him to shake.

  Ellison just looked at it and then motioned for me to leave. “I look forward to your return.”

  Not as much as I did. When we returned, we got paid, and getting paid kept the Talon in the air. Our luck had changed for the worst after a job we did for Alphamerix. They had wanted to put us on retainer. I declined their offer, and they blackballed us with the mercenary guild. I wasn’t above being the hired help, but I did things on my own terms, not at the whim of some corporate giant. That was until all of our offers for work dried up overnight. That left us working for men like Ellison. He operated so far outside of the law, that now we were forced to step twice as fast to avoid it. Being a galactic outlaw wasn’t exactly glamorous, but at least we were free.

  * * *

  As soon as I entered the bridge, Ice turned toward me. “How’d it go?”

  I tossed her the disk Ellison had given me. “I don’t know yet. You tell me.”

  Maze moved into the room and brushed gently against me before moving to stand by Ice. We had a pretty good thing together now, but neither of us had completely committed. It might have just been the fact that we had known each other so long, we were afraid of what would happen if things ever went bad between us. It was one of those things that once you said you were in a relationship, you couldn’t take it back. Then if it all turned to shit, you were stuck. I wanted Maze to always be on my crew, and to feel at home on the Talon. That couldn’t happen if I fucked things up between us. To be honest, I think everyone knew it would be my fault if things ended up that way. She hadn’t pushed me for a firm commitment yet, but she wouldn’t be willing to wait forever.

  Ice slipped the disk into her system and pulled up the data for the job, sending the information to several monitors that lined the bridge. Maze let out a low whistle as she set eyes on our target. That whistle never meant anything good. I followed her gaze toward a monitor on the far side of the room, and my heart dropped out of my chest. What in the hell was Ellison thinking?

  “Is that what I think it is?” Please tell me it isn’t, I whispered under my breath.

  Ice spun in her chair and moved some files around on the monitor. “If you’re asking if that is a classified N.E.A. research base, then yes, it’s exactly what you think it is.”

  “And the job?”

  “Nothing too fancy,” Maze said with a smile. “Just break into a classified facility and remove one particular item.”

  “And the security?”

  Ice’s fingers flew across her keyboard. “State of the art.” She must have noticed my frown, because she continued talking. “Ellison included some security codes for docking and the override for the secondary airlock.”

  “Expected resistance?”

  “Ellison lists it as minimal. Apparently, that is why the time frame is so important. They are shifting most of the security people out in the next few days, and replacements won’t cycle back through immediately.”

  “How long will it take us to get there via FTL?”

  “We are looking at three days, Captain.”

  “Plot a course.”

  “Already done, just waiting on your mark.”

  “Get us into atmo and on the way.”

  The ship lurched slightly as the engines engaged, and we started to head off-planet. Something on one of the monitors caught my eye. “Ice, what’s that?” I said, pointing.

  “That is how we get into the base. The codes will only let us dock without setting off the alarm. We need to get someone inside to open the door.”

  “Maze, feel like crawling through some air ducts?”

  “Not especially, Captain.”

  “Come on, it will be just like old times.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  She said it with such a smile. I turned to look at Ice.

  “Not going to happen.”

  Ice had spoken before I could even ask. That only left one person left who could fit in the tiny space. I left the bridge, and as I walked out into the ship, I shouted, “Kyra, I’ve got a job for you.”

  Chapter 2

  Kyra

  Just because I was eager to get out of the engine room, and small, didn’t mean I liked getting picked for such a shitty job. Sure, most of the time I just played it safe back on the ship, so getting to do some actual spy stuff was kind of cool. I mean, all the stars in my spy vids ended up crawling through the ductwork at some point. Granted, in the vids, the ducts were always shiny and clean. It turned out in real life that wasn’t the case.

  I came to the conclusion after crawling around in the dust and finding more than a few bug carapaces that this wasn’t the job for a human. It was a job for one of those little spider robots, or maybe a cat. Unfortunately, we didn’t have either of those things, so here I was, earning my keep. Next time the captain asked me if I wanted to help with a job, I’d just keep my big fat mouth shut.

  My comm buzzed, and Captain Drake’s soothing and slightly rugged voice whispered into my ear. “How you doing in there, Kyra?”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. The bastard was actually out there smiling while I was trapped in here, shuffling down this long tube like some kind of grotesque worm. “I’d feel a lot better if I was back in the engine room of the Talon, sir.” Hopefully, the sir would let him know how I was feeling. We were a pretty informal crew, and I only called him sir when he pissed me off.

  “You’re almost in. Once you open the doors for us, you can head back to the Talon and relax.”

  As if that ever happened. Each job we did seemed to be one mad dash followed by gunfire and a quick jump into FTL. That meant there was always something to prepare or repair to keep us safely in the black and two or three steps in front of the Alliance. The captain knew how much work keeping the Talon in the air single-handedly was, but damned if he wasn’t always the optimist when it came to the potential of us getting shot at again.

  “Whatever you say, sir.” As if what he said mattered; just saying something didn’t make it so. Chances were before this day was out I’d be scrambling to get us into FTL before the Alliance could track us.

  He chuckled, and then the comm line went silent. I tried to take my mind off the endless sea of metal tubing in front of me with thoughts of Sarah Starchild, but even her golden locks and rocking bod couldn’t make this any better. Instead, I just focused on the grunt work. Moving my elbows and wiggling my rear kept me inching forward. I always thought the air ducts would be bigger for some reason, but that would have made things too easy. The good news was my core was getting one hell of a workout. Maybe I’d dig into my stash of chocolate when I got back into the engine room.

  Time ticked by slower than I would have liked, but eventually I made it to the grate that would set me free. I took a deep breath of the fresh air being sucked up into the duct, and sighed with relief. Peering through the vents showed that the room was empty, but it was better to be safe. I slid a portable camera through the slits and took a peek around the room. There was a guard in the corner behind me, staring into a vending machine. Now that I was focused on him, I could hear him cursing under his breath.

  If this was going to work, I’d have to take him out before I got to work on the access panel. There was no way to turn around, so when I dropped the vent, I’d have to hang upside down to get off my shot. This was my turn to be Sarah Starchild in Galactic Oppression. Just like everything else in the vids, I doubted it would be nearly as easy.

  Slowly I worked the latches for the vent until I could swing it down. Shu
ffling forward, I let my top half slip through the vent, holding myself in place with my legs. The stunner found its way into my hand, and I lined up my shot. The guard turned around, and his eyes widened at the sight of me. He fumbled for the gun in his holster. I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.

  I opened my eyes again just in time to see the bolt slam into the guard's chest. The electric current made his muscles rigid, and he fell against the vending machine. As he slid down the machine, I heard an item drop out and land in the bay at the bottom. At least when he woke up, he wouldn’t have to worry about losing the money on his snack.

  Hanging halfway out of an air duct didn’t leave me with a graceful way to finish getting out. The only thing I could do was relax my legs and tumble free. As my legs cleared the vent, I tried to tuck them in and flip to my feet. It kind of worked. Instead of landing on my head, I landed flat on my back. The air rushed out of my lungs, and I coughed as the dust from my clothes coated the air all around me.

  Lying there, I started to laugh. If someone else would have walked in right now, it would be hard for them to tell who was worse off—the guard by the vending machine who wasn’t moving or me covered in dirt, coughing between bouts of laughter. Some movie star I was going to be. I couldn’t even ninja flip out of an air duct the right way.

  Struggling back to my feet, I heard a moan from the corner. I fired off another quick blast from the stunner, hoping that he wouldn’t need a third to stay down. A stunner wouldn’t kill you right away, but enough shocks to the system and he wouldn’t be getting up again. The guard wasn’t moaning anymore, so I moved past him and toward the access panel. I slipped a card attached to my data pad into the reader and started to run our hack.

  The light on the panel stayed red. They must have changed the codes because of the personnel swap. I could try and use a brute force hack, but it could take hours. The chances of me remaining undiscovered for that long were poor at best. What was I going to do now? I sure as shit wasn’t climbing back to the ship through that maze of air ducts again. If I didn’t get the main doors open for my team, I’d have a tough time explaining to security just what in the hell I was doing here.