by J. N. Chaney
The engine room came next, right around the corner from the cargo bay. I still hadn’t seen anyone, which either meant Sigmond was right and there was only one intruder, or they were grouped together.
But why would they head for the cargo bay? Why not come for me in the cockpit?
I rounded the corner and reached the hall that led to the cargo bay. It curved ahead of me, so there would be plenty of opportunities for them to shoot first or try to catch me off guard if I moved too quickly. I’d have to take my time, despite the urgency of the situation. What the hell had I gotten myself into with all of this?
“Siggy,” I whispered. “Update me on their location.”
“Both parties are still in the cargo bay, sir. They are in front of the hidden compartment below the upper deck.”
“The hole?”
And then it hit me. I wasn’t the priority here. The data stick was. They were down there looking for it, which meant that Calista had lied and told them it was still down there. Smart girl, even if it wouldn’t last. As soon as they realized she was lying, they’d probably kill her.
But if they were here for the stick, didn’t that also mean the ruse we’d attempted had failed? The Union fleet was still surrounding the operative’s ship, along with our shuttle, so they had to believe it was more valuable than the Star.
“Open the door!” shouted a man’s voice from down the hall.
I slid closer to the cargo bay entrance, staying low with my weapon at the ready. The opening came out onto an overhead platform, stairs leading down the side closest to the nearest wall.
Before I could ask where exactly the man was standing, Sigmond’s voice popped into my ear. “The intruder is positioned in the rear, near the airlock lift. He has direct line-of-sight to your position, as well as Calista’s.”
That was bad news for us, but at least Sigmond was getting better at anticipating my questions.
There was a small monitor in the corridor, which might mean I could get a solid look at what was going on down there. “Pull up the camera feed for me, Siggy. Let’s get a look at who this guy is.”
The screen was already active when I reached it a few seconds later. “Zoom in and let’s see his face.”
The camera magnified the intruder. He wasn’t wearing a Union tactical outfit, but he did look like he had some body armor on.
“Is that Church?” I whispered.
The operative’s face had eluded me until now, but if this guy wasn’t Union, who else could it be? Either way, I had to get in there and deal with this problem before things got any worse.
My only option was to take him in a direct fight. I might be about to get the first shot off, but after that, it could go either way, and Calista would still be at risk.
I left the monitor behind and made my way back to the cargo bay door.
“I said get it open now,” said the man, his tone now steady and calm, despite the situation.
“Alright,” said Calista. She was quieter, probably from standing directly beneath the upper platform and out of sight. “It just takes a minute to open this compartment. Can you put down the gun for a second? It’s making me nervous.”
“I’ll put down the gun when I’m holding that drive and back on board my ship,” said the man.
I tapped the comm in my ear. “Siggy, open the hole for them. Say Calista has authorization but only she can access the box inside. You follow?”
“Yes, sir.”
“User Calista recognized. Access granted. Stand by.” Sigmond’s voice came over the speakers in the cargo bay. I used that as my chance to get closer to the entrance, back to the wall. Any second now.
“I thought you said it would take a minute,” said the man.
“My mistake,” Calista answered. “I, uh, I guess the system recognized me.”
The door began to open, echoing through the bay and into the corridor as it rose. Calista sounded like she hadn’t been expecting this, which was fair. I’d never given her direct access to the bowels of the ship. Maybe because of that, she’d know something was going on.
“Retrieve the stick,” ordered the man.
“Get ready, Siggy,” I whispered. “Tell her you can’t grant access without her being inside the room.”
“I am unable to disengage the locks on the vault without the user being closer to the mechanism. Calista, please step forward.”
“Um… okay,” said Calista.
“Calista is now inside the compartment, sir,” informed Sigmond, this time in my comm.
“Close the door in three seconds, Siggy,” I said before taking a long, slow breath. “Three. Two…” I leaned off the wall, twisted around the opening, and took aim across the bay. “One!”
I fired two quick shots as I dove over the stairs and behind the nearby overhead railing, still on the deck above Calista and the hidden compartment. At the same time, the door below me had started closing and was likely more than half shut.
Church darted toward Calista’s position, firing above his head in my direction. A couple of shots tore through the grate near my shoulder, hindered by the position of the lower wall. So long as he stayed beneath the grate, he’d have a hard time hitting me.
Which gave me the advantage.
“Sir, Calista is secured inside the compartment,” said Sigmond.
“Give it up, Church!” I barked. “I know that’s you down there.”
“Ah, Captain Hughes, isn’t it? If you know who I am, then you must know why I’ve come aboard your ship,” he responded. “Hand over the stolen drive and I’ll be on my way. It’s that simple.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, buddy, but I left that stick on the shuttle. It’s about to get picked back up by the Union, right along with your ship.”
“Is that what you think?” he asked. “You might want to check on that.”
“Sir, I’m detecting an explosion inside the asteroid ring. The source appears to be the ship we previously disabled. Multiple Union vessels have been destroyed.”
“Well?” asked Church.
“Nice play, but you just destroyed the shuttle, along with that data drive,” I told him.
“I’m no fool, Hughes. I know you’ve got it on this ship. You wouldn’t be stupid enough to walk away from that kind of money. Not unless you’re a coward.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what I am,” I said as I began crawling toward a set of crates in the rear corner of the upper deck. “You think I value credits over my own life? Those ain’t worth a damn to a dead man.”
“If you’re lying, I’ll kill you both and take the ship. It might not be worth the fortune I wanted, but it’ll cover enough to get me—”
I grabbed the smallest crate near me and threw it over the railing, then I fired my gun, keeping my head back. After six straight shots, I fell back again, slamming my ass into the metal floor.
A long pause followed as I waited for him to do something. Anything, to tell me he was dead, injured, or alive.
“What’s that asshole’s location?” I whispered.
“Church is still near the compartment entrance, sir,” informed Sigmond. “He is still breathing. No injuries.”
I cleared my throat, releasing an empty magazine and quickly replacing it. “Talk about my ship again, Church, and next time I won’t miss.”
“For a Renegade, you don’t seem to know when to cut a deal, Hughes,” said Church, breathing harder this time.
“Jace?” said a voice in my ear. It sounded like Calista. “Jace, can you hear me?”
“Excuse me, sir, but I’ve patched Calista through the comm from inside the compartment. You can speak to her if you’d like,” informed Sigmond.
“Nice one, Siggy,” I whispered. “Stay put in there, Calista. I’ll handle this.”
“You can’t expect me to stay trapped in here!” she shot back. Thankfully, the walls around the room were soundproof, just in case I ever had to transport anything with a voice through a border checkpoint.
&n
bsp; “Siggy, can you seal that room off from this one?” I whispered.
“Yes, sir. The compartment has its own ventilation,” said Sigmond.
Good, just like the other rooms. I hated myself for never checking on that before now, but better late than never. “Get ready to open the bay doors, Siggy. Wait for my command.”
I could use this, but first I’d have to draw Church out from the wall.
“Alright,” I said, loud enough for the operative to hear. “I’ll give you the stick if you promise to leave us in peace. How’s that for a deal? Fair for you?”
“And exactly how do you plan on making that exchange?” he asked. “What assurance do I have that you won’t shoot me?”
“I’ll toss my weapon over the rail then come to the stairs. You shoot me, though, and my girl won’t open that door. Understand?”
“Jace, what the hell are you doing?!” asked Calista.
I tapped my ear. “Whatever happens, don’t come out of that room. Now, keep quiet so I can focus.”
“But—”
The comm clicked off. “I’ve temporarily prevented comm activity, sir.”
“Good man,” I whispered. Then I shouted, “How about it, Church? We got a deal?”
“Fine,” he answered back. “But I’m not so foolish that I believe you only have one weapon. Toss me the gun and walk halfway down the stairs, hands where I can see them.”
“Fair enough.”
The pistol hit the floor with a hard clank after I’d thrown it, and I slowly made my way to the stairs. With my arms up, I finally caught sight of the man responsible for all of this: Warren Church.
He hadn’t bothered to pick up my gun, probably under the suspicion that I’d shoot him the second he went for it. Instead, he waited behind a large crate—recently used to transport a few hundred vials of medicine out of Union territory and into the Deadlands—and safely beneath the overhead railing. His eyes were fixed on me, moving along with his handgun’s barrel as I walked.
“The man, the myth,” I remarked. “Never thought I’d meet a Union special agent in person.”
“Former,” he said. “And you act like I’m the first, but you already met my partner.”
“That I did. Too bad about what happened.”
“Right. Too bad,” he said, but there was no sense of regret in the words. They felt hollow.
I stared, looking him over. “You don’t seem all that torn up about it. I guess a former operative wouldn’t be, though.”
He held the gun on me and stepped forward, out from behind the crate. “Open this door now and let’s see that data stick.”
“In a second,” I said, walking further down the stairs. I stopped when I reached the end, near the lockers. “Give her some space. She’s not like us. She can’t handle a gun in her face. And if she’s too nervous to input the right code, she’ll screw up and we’ll be locked out for twelve hours.”
It was all BS, but he didn’t know that. At least, that was the gamble here.
He smiled a crooked half-grin, lowering the gun slightly so that it was at his side, still pointing at me. “You’re not the only Renegade I’ve encountered out here, you know.”
I watched him walk across the bay until he was standing near the middle.
“Is that right?” I asked.
“We used a few as couriers.”
“And what happened to them?”
He smirked. “What do you think? The whole reason we hired you was because of how expendable you are. You’re off the grid, easy to remove. Simple.”
“But it wasn’t with me,” I said. “Simple, I mean.”
He nodded. “That’s right. Not with you. And it can stay that way if you open that door.”
“Well, when you say it like that, I guess I can’t refuse.” I placed my hand on the nearby locker then wrapped my hand around a strap. “Alright, Siggy. You heard the man. Open the door.”
“Opening cargo bay doors,” said Sigmond in my ear.
The ship shook as the seal broke along the nearby gate, causing the alarm to sound. The air in the cargo bay began to flood into the vacuum of space as the doors opened.
Church’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, then he lifted his handgun and fired.
The bullet missed and hit the locker beside me, but he was quick enough to follow it with a second. This time, the shot struck me in the arm. I felt my whole body jerk as the force of it hit me, but I pushed myself up and held on for my life.
As the bay doors opened, we both lost our footing and began to fall. I held the strap with my good arm, wrapping it around more of my wrist. I took one last breath before the oxygen fully escaped into the void, hoping it would be enough.
Church fell through the air until he reached the doors. Somehow, he managed to grab the lower half and hold himself there, giving up his gun in the process.
But it didn’t last. The crates that had been standing in the back of the bay were on their way to meet him. The largest one struck the lower door, knocking the operative loose. He disappeared into the space behind us as the ship continued, thrusters still at full blast.
“Raise the gate!” I shouted, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.
Thankfully, Sigmond got the message and quickly began to close the gate. It would still take several seconds to pressurize and fill the bay with atmosphere.
As gravity returned and my feet touched the floor again, I chose to lie down instead of stand. I couldn’t breathe, no matter how hard I gasped. There wasn’t any air yet.
“Oxygen levels are rising,” said Sigmond, using the overhead speakers this time. “Ten seconds.”
I felt queasy and sick. Gods help me, I wanted to throw up, too.
But as the seconds passed, I managed to grasp a breath and hold it, then exhale. With my eyes filled with tears, my lips chapped, and my stomach in knots, I finally managed to speak. “Siggy… open a… open a tunnel…” I swallowed. “Get us… out of here.”
I felt two hands on my shoulder, snapping me out of the place between reality and sleep. Calista stared down at me, concern all over her face, but that changed as I began to move. “Oh thank gods,” she said, looking at the hole in my arm. “Are you okay? Well, clearly you’re not. There’s so much blood.”
“Yeah, not the best day I’ve had,” I said, trying to sit up.
She reached behind my good shoulder and helped me. “We need to get a med kit and sew that wound shut. Where do you keep yours?”
“There’s no time for that yet. We need to take care of that shuttle,” I said, slowly standing. As I did, I felt my legs shaking, but I was almost there. Just a bit more to do before we were in the clear.
“What about it?” she asked.
“We need to get rid of it. If the Union realizes that shuttle is connected to Church’s ship, we’ll be caught.”
She helped me over to the stairs, and I began to climb. “You want to destroy it? How?”
“The only way you can when you’re in a slip tunnel. Release it and watch it burn,” I said. “The walls of these tunnels are a firestorm. They destroy everything that touches them, whether it’s a person or an object. Speaking of which.” I stopped when I reached the top of the stairs. “Siggy, what happened to Church when we opened that tunnel?”
Calista narrowed her brow, curiously.
“The body was pulled in, along with us,” said Sigmond.
“There we are,” I said, smiling a little as I left the cargo bay and headed back toward the upper floor. “That should help us.”
“Help us?” asked Calista. “What are you talking about?”
“The Union thinks Church is responsible for the data drive going missing, which is true, but they have no idea we were involved. Without his body, they might continue to suspect him, and when the report comes in and shows his shuttle was missing before his ship exploded, they might think he took off with the drive.”
“You’re sure about that?”
I stopped in
front of the shuttle door, next to the engine room. “Not remotely, but at least now there’s a chance they’ll be more focused on him than us.”
“I guess that’s something,” she said.
“Yeah, it is, which is why we’ve gotta blow this thing up, too,” I said, nodding at the shuttle.
It was a shame, considering the cloak on board. I’d wanted one of my own for so long, and here it was within my grasp. Maybe if we’d had a few days inside the tunnel, I could have salvaged it. Unfortunately, we only had about fifteen minutes. Probably less now.
“Siggy, can you detach this thing?” I asked.
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“Do it.” I started walking toward the cockpit. As I passed the lounge, I felt the floor shake, a sign that the shuttle had been launched.
In only a few moments, it would stray into the tunnel walls where it would be destroyed on a subatomic level. Every molecule, every atom. Wiped out completely thanks to a constant cycle of atomic fission and fusion. No one understood why this occurred inside slipspace, but it made for an easy dumping ground when you had to get rid of something.
My shoulder burned with pain and heat, throbbing as I reached beneath the dashboard and retrieved the data stick—the tiny, stupid device that had caused me so much trouble. I would be glad to be rid of it at last, even if it meant giving up a mountain of credits as well as my leverage.
That was fine.
I couldn’t risk this thing getting into the wrong hands, whether it was the Union, the Sarkonians, or anyone in between. The second it did, it could spell disaster for everyone in the Deadlands.
Maybe I was a fool to think destroying it would do anything. Maybe the Union had a backup somewhere with all of this data on it, and I was just fooling myself.
Whatever.
If all I did today was slow down the inevitable, then at least it was something. At least people like me could be free for a little longer, and I could keep my ship in the void, even if it was only for another few years.
My mother used to say that nothing good in this universe ever really lasts, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find it in the first place. From my experience, I’d found her to be right about that. I was just some little shit from a backwater planet, with no business being here or doing any of this. I didn’t belong in the middle of a war. I didn’t have the right.