Origins: The Complete Series

by J. N. Chaney

  But I also didn’t care.

  I just wanted to live free. That’s it. And I’d do whatever the hell it took to keep it that way.

  Calista and I placed the data drive inside the airlock, finally releasing it into the emerald light of the slip tunnel. My retirement probably went with it, and I was okay with that.

  At least for today.

  26

  “You’re an idiot,” Calista murmured, studying my shoulder.

  “An alive idiot,” I countered.

  “It went through, but you have a new bullet hole. Let me patch it up so it doesn’t get infected,” she offered, holding up my second hand medical kit. “You don’t want to die before you get paid.”

  We were sitting on the couch in the lounge after finally getting rid of the data stick. Now that we were in a different tunnel, I was finally starting to relax a bit. Taurus Station was only a few hours away, and I was more than ready to dock and find Ollie.

  “Lady, you ain’t kidding. But I’m not so sure I feel comfortable with you digging around in my meatsuit. Are you qualified to do that?” I asked, nodding toward the scissors and medical thread she held.

  “As it happens, I am,” she replied. “Which is lucky for you. Who still does stitches by hand?”

  She wasn’t wrong. There were much more advanced, painless methods of dealing with bullet holes and the like. The only reason anybody used these old medical kits was because they were either too cheap or too broke to afford better. After obtaining the Renegade Star and indebting myself to Fratley to the tune of 30,000 galactic credits, I hadn’t made any unnecessary purchases. Well, what I considered unnecessary, anyway.

  “Too expensive,” I said, then I had to pause while she poured disinfectant over the wound to keep myself from letting out an unmanly yelp. “It wasn’t high on my priority list when stocking the ship.”

  Calista snickered, like that amused her. “This whole trip you’ve been preaching to me about being prepared. Telling me that it’s dangerous and unpredictable.”

  “Yeah, so?” I said, starting to feel a bit self-conscious.

  “So, you don’t even have clotting powder in here. Being a Renegade is a hazardous occupation, Jace,” she said in a serious tone, lording it over me with a sly smile. “You should really invest in something better than this. Now hold still.”

  I grunted as she worked, cursing myself inwardly for being cheap. “Gods, woman,” I said after a few wayward pokes. “Ever heard of bedside manners?”

  “That was for stealing my box and my gun,” she said sweetly.

  Finally, she took a bandage out and wound it around my arm, then she secured it in place.

  “Thanks,” I said, inspecting her handiwork. It didn’t look half bad, all things considered. “You should get some rest. I expect you’ll be busy taking more jobs once we get back.”

  “More than you know. I’d say this little excursion with you gave me the experience I need to put on my Renegade resume.”

  “That it did,” I agreed, thinking she had more than earned my respect. “What are you going to do once we’re on station?”

  She smiled, a real one that reached her eyes. “Get my ship, of course. What about you?”

  I figured she meant working on earning enough to buy one and waved a hand. “You’ll get it in no time. As for me? Well, I plan on finding a cloak.”

  “For the ship? How? I thought those were restricted for government use only.”

  “They are, but I know a guy. Fratley Oxanos. He helped me get this ship, actually.” Her face paled at my words. “What, you know him?”

  Calista nodded. “My father knew him, once upon a time. Fratley used to be a good man. Now he’s definitely not the kind of person you want to owe money to.”

  Her reaction unsettled me, but I brushed the warning off. “Too late. Besides, I know that. So long as I pay him on time, everything is fine.”

  “I hope so,” she said, relaxing. “It would be a shame to just become friends only for you to be killed.”

  “Oh, so we’re friends now?”

  Calista smiled. “We saved each other’s lives out there in the void, Hughes. I think that qualifies.”

  “So, I guess this is it,” I said, tucking the box I carried under my uninjured arm.

  Calista and I stood on the Taurus promenade deck, ready to part ways. To both of our reliefs, the rest of the trip had gone smoothly. The Star had a few new battle scars to show for it, but everything was repairable. I didn’t relish having to replace the crates and fix the damage in the cargo bay, but I figured my life and Calista’s was worth it.

  “I guess it is,” she replied, shoving her hands in her pockets.

  I grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. “You did good, you know that? Even with the few hiccups, it all worked out.”

  “Hiccups you caused,” she reminded me. “But, you’re right. I handled it. What’s with the box? You got another delivery?”

  “You could say that,” I agreed, then handed it to her.

  Regarding me curiously, she took it and broke the delivery seal. Her sharp intake of breath told me that I had managed to truly surprise her.

  “You’re giving my father’s gun back? How much?”

  I had planned to tease her by naming some ridiculous price, but seeing the childlike eagerness on her face, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Nothing. You more than earned it.”

  “Let me at least give you something.” She rummaged in her pack and produced a shiny revolver. They weren’t very common but still popular enough.

  “You’ve been carting this around the whole time?” I asked, accepting the weapon.

  “Not the whole time. I know we’re not supposed to rip off the clients, bad for business and all that. But after Julian palmed my ass, I palmed this on the way out. I was about to go pawn it, but it’s yours.”

  I barked out a laugh and shook my head. “We’ll make a real Renegade out of you yet. So, where are you headed?”

  Calista grinned and pointed up. “Got to go pick up my ship. I just wanted to say bye.”

  “Pick it up? You got the money? I didn’t realize you were buying it here.”

  “Yeah, station security has my father’s ship in impound. I just need to pay the fees, then it’s all mine.”

  “Then I’d say there’s nothing left in your way. Look, if you want, I’m happy to talk to Ollie and make sure he knows how well you handled this job. I’ll back you up, since we’re friends and all. Now that you have a ship earlier than he expected, he’ll probably be happy to take you on.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass. I kind of want to do this on my own. You made a great partner this time around, but like you said, us Renegades usually go solo. I know that, and I don’t want to take a handout. Not right now, at least.” Calista hesitated, then continued on. “I talked a good game while we were out there, but to be honest, you were right. I saw what it really takes to survive in the void, and I plan on doing just that. In fact, watch out, because I plan on surpassing you.”

  I nodded once, understanding. “Then I look forward to the competition. I’ve got goals of my own, even though I’ve only been at this a year. Just picture where we could both be further down the line.”

  “Can’t wait. Take care of yourself, Hughes.” She reached for my hand and gave it a firm shake before walking off into the crowd without a backward glance.

  It was an ending of sorts, but it was also a beginning. I had work to do, and I didn’t plan on dying anytime soon.

  Epilogue

  “Kept me waiting, didn’t you?” Ollie Trinidad stood behind his counter with his trademark grin, sleazy and charming at the same time.

  “It took longer than I expected,” I asked. “What do you want from me?”

  “You to take more jobs, for starters, but I guess that part can wait,” he said with a small chuckle. His shop was empty, but it was after close of business. I’d needed a hard sleep after coming back from seeing Calista off. Ollie h
ad been kind enough to wait for me. “There were a few things I wanted to talk to you about, but as soon as we’re done, I need you to lie low for a few weeks. You mind?”

  “Make it a few days and you’ll have yourself a deal,” I said.

  “Fair enough. Now, listen up. Word’s already come in about your little stunt with the Union and that Church fellow.”

  I ran a finger along a crack in the glass on the countertop. “That so?”

  “Your name was left out of the report, according to my man on the inside. Had to call in a favor for that, you know. A big one. Same story with the Sarkonians.” Ollie snickered, then he reached down below the counter and began sorting through a small box. “That poor Church bastard’s taking all the blame for your misdeeds.”

  “What?” I eased back from the counter, my eyes widening at what I’d just heard. How did a single RBO agent have this kind of pull? Especially Ollie, a scrawny little guy with a rip-off store in the middle of Taurus Station? “You did… what?”

  “It was easy enough to sell. Those two operatives were involved from the start. You were just the delivery boy. I had your face erased from both their systems, but only because you were one of dozens of suspects. If they knew for sure it was you, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”

  “Do all agents have this kind of access?” I asked.

  “The good ones do, but like I said, there’s a limit. How do you think we operate for so long without getting found by either side? Sure, you’ve got aliases, and yeah, maybe you’re slick enough to avoid being seen, but eventually you’ll get caught and someone will catch on. Without a good agent helping you, it’s hard to say how long you’d last.”

  “I’ve been at this for a year,” I said, counting the months in my head. “Well, just shy of it.”

  “And you made it all the way here to me,” he replied, smacking my shoulder.

  “After the last few agents I’ve had, I wasn’t sure it would be worth the hassle,” I admitted. “But you did alright, Ollie. Thanks for everything.”

  He waved a hand at me and laughed. “We’re partners, Jace. That’s how this works. I get you jobs and you do them, and we look out for each other when we can.”

  I laughed. “Easy way to see it, I guess.”

  “Easy’s how I like it. Screwing people over is too much work. We might be criminals, but that doesn’t mean we’ve got to be mean about it.”

  I laughed.

  Ollie was the strangest agent I’d ever met, but so what? He’d done right by me, maybe more than any other agent I’d ever met. I really did regret swapping the data stick since it could have been bad for him. Going forward, as long as he stayed a good agent, I’d do right by him too.

  It was good, after all this time, to have someone I could trust. Someone who knew what they were doing and could take me to where I needed to be.

  “Alright, then,” said Ollie, pulling the box out from behind the desk and plopping it down on the glass. He withdrew three pads and slid them toward me, screen up. “I’ve got three jobs for you, if you’re ready to get back out there. One’s in three days. Another’s two days after that. And the third is in a week.”

  “Any issues with them? Kids? Killing? Payment?”

  He held up both his hands. “Hey, I heard you last time. No kids on these. No murder either, actually. Just a couple of thefts and some smuggling. Could be dangerous, especially the first one there. Might want to bring your gun.”

  “That's all you have?” I asked.

  “I can get some others together if you want. It would help if I had more parameters, maybe some other conditions to look for besides what you said about kids.”

  Each pad had a screen of information, detailing the client, the job, and the location. Everything I’d need to get the work done. “No, this’ll do just fine, Ollie.”

  I pushed one pad under the next until I had all three stacked together in one hand.

  “Which one do you want, then?” he asked. “Whichever one it is, I can get the down payment by tomorrow and have your ship refueled in time to leave.”

  “Down payment?” I smiled, then slid the pads inside my jacket pocket and took a step back. “I think I’ll take all three.”

  Continue reading for book 2, THE DEAL.

  1

  “You’ve got two choices,” I said, pressing my arm against the throat of a man named Marcus Richter. I was in an alley nestled between a bar and a tailor on a space station, and no one who mattered could see us. “Either give me what I want or I promise you’ll spend the rest of the afternoon bleeding out in a gutter while you wait for an ambulance.”

  Marcus wheezed out a word, but I couldn’t understand him. He was small and squirrely, like the kind of fella you’d find stalking a girl he didn’t know and never had the guts to talk to. Someone without a backbone or an allegiance, who’d swear loyalty for a few credits and then turn on you for a few more.

  Exactly the kind of guy I needed right now.

  “What’s that?” I asked, easing my arm slightly off his neck. “You say something?”

  “…easy, man… I can… I can tell you where he’s at if you… if you just take it easy…” Heavy breaths between words, bloodshot eyes, flushed face. Marcus wasn’t having a good day.

  “Where is he, then? I don’t have all day, Marky.” I leaned closer to him. He stared up at me, having to bend his head back to make eye contact.

  “Okay!” he blurted out. “Decker spends all his free time with his girls. He—”

  “I know about that already,” I snapped. “Which girl is he with?”

  I’d traveled three slip tunnels to reach Daldi, a planet in the middle of nowhere with nothing useful on it. The people in this system were mostly criminals. Smugglers, sure, but bandits and slave traders, too. And while Daldi Station had laws and even a sheriff to enforce them, they were the sort you could bend if you had the money. When you came this far out from the borders, individual wealth thrived.

  “Oh, um, okay, well…”

  My pistol pressed into Marcus’s belly. “Speak up. I didn’t get that.”

  “Meadow,” he said, then shook his head. “No, wait. I mean, Bunny. Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “You sure about that? Bunny?” I asked, jerking the gun into his rib. “If I end up on the other side of the station and find out you’ve lied to me, I’ll be right back here, and this time I won’t play easy with you. Understand my meaning, Marcus?”

  He nodded quickly, like the bobblehead on my dashboard. “Y-yeah! I swear! It’s Wednesday, right? That’s the day he always sees her. She’s his favorite. Goes there every week. He’s got a thing for natural blondes, and she’s the best for the price.”

  “The price? I thought you said she was his girlfriend.”

  “Ah, well, what’s the difference? He buys her jewelry and she takes care of him. That’s the arrangement. Lives rent-free, too. He’s her job, you know? Ahaha.”

  I pulled the gun back and then kneed him in the gut, letting the pain speak for me.

  He doubled over, holding his stomach and gasping for air. “W-why?!”

  “Because you talk too much, Marcus.” I kicked him in the side and he wheezed, hard and desperate. “And I don’t like the way you do it.”

  I turned and left him there to squirm. After about three steps, I could hear him shuffling backward against the nearest wall, taking heavy breaths. Pausing, I turned back to look at him a final time.

  We locked eyes, and I could see the fear in him, exactly the right amount. He wouldn’t talk, not now. Not until I was long gone from this station.

  I continued out of the alley and back into the street. The bar nearby was bustling with activity, but I walked past the entrance and made my way toward the nearest transport station. “Sigmond,” I said, tapping the comm in my ear that connected me directly to the AI on my ship, the Renegade Star. “I hope you caught all of that.”

  “As you requested, sir,” he replied in his usual cheery tone. �
�There are several references to a Bunny on this station, but no homes registered under that name. I had to break into the security office’s logs to cross reference it with other known aliases before discovering a match. The codes we acquired from Mr. Trinidad were quite useful. I suggest thanking him upon your return to Taurus Station.”

  “Skip to the point, Siggy,” I said, rounding another corner, still gripping my pistol inside my coat. “Do you have an address for me?”

  “I have an address for you.”

  I smiled. “Good man.”

  An old rock ballad from before I was born played out of the overhead speaker system in a rundown little coffee shop. The drums crashed with static and the guitar sang incoherently as the singer screamed a string of words I couldn’t understand. Meanwhile, the patrons of Morey’s Brew rabbled about local problems and news that only they cared about, but that was the way it went out here in the lesser colonies. No one gave a shit about the Union or the Sarkonians… or about anything else outside of this system. All that mattered to them was getting up in the morning and putting food on the table.

  And whether or not they ever found that Jones boy, who went missing some two weeks back. The sheriff said they saw some rags in the lower decks. Might’ve been killed, but could’ve just as easily ran off with Sara Jennings, his little crush. Gods only knew.

  Crowds filtered along the wide walkways, but it was distinctly emptier than most of the space stations I’d spent time on. I scratched the back of my head, glancing again through the front window. A row of tall apartment buildings stretched across the far side of the promenade. Each building had a single exit facing onto the throughway, with a thin alley between them leading to the rear paths and maintenance access.