The First Nova I See Tonight

by Jason Kilgore

  Mindol immediately started heaving for air, his hands going to his throat. His eyes turned gray-blue as they filled with blood. "Mylord!" he gasped, his words bubbling out of his carp-like mouth without the translator. "Mercy! Pleashhavemercy…."

  Grimmag didn't offer any. "I will deliver your body to Tantalus III, Mindol, and leave it in the plaza where the bricks are still stained with the blood of your victims." Grimmag shifted back toward his audience. "Let it be a lesson to the rest of you. We make many hard decisions, and some level of violence is necessary to assert control, but when we become butchers, no payoff will turn the heads of those who attempt to police us."

  Dirken blinked in surprise at the irony of brutally killing your own man because he had brutally killed others. It wasn't the usual 'revenge killing.'

  Grimmag grumbled more words, but the Morlani did not translate. Instead, a Pleiadean slave with matted fur came up with a wide brass basin filled with various raw meats and placed it in front of the don.

  Grimmag vomited forth a clear liquid, which splashed into the bowl and immediately started steaming.

  The servant shrieked. She fell back, grasping her arm and rolling on the ground. Her forearm bubbled where the vomit had splashed against it, the flesh falling off the bone as she screamed in horror.

  And as she writhed in pain on the dais, Mindol the Undertaker flailed in torment of his own on the floor, arching his back and gulping for air, hands to his head and shaking, his gray, bifurcated tongue lolling out of his wide mouth.

  The slave was dragged off the dais and back down the hallway, screaming in agony, as Grimmag extended his mouth like a giant, fleshy straw and slurped at the bubbling, acidic broth in the basin. His four tentacles waved over the bowl and occasionally reached in to stir the corrosive slurry, unaffected by the acid.

  Dirken looked around at the drug lords. Most had turned away.

  Grimmag finished and wiped his mouth with his tentacles.

  Mindol gave a final spasm, all of his muscles tightening at once, his four legs going rigid, then he suddenly relaxed and fell still, blue-gray blood dribbling out of his nose, eyes, and mouth.

  Grimmag gestured at the two guards and they dragged Mindol away toward the back door, a trail of blood left in his wake. As they did so, a different slave came and removed the food basin.

  The don finally turned his attention to Dirken and Yiorgos.

  "You may lower your arms," the Morlani translated to them. Dirken was very thankful. His hands and arms had gone completely numb.

  "Thank you, your honor."

  "Please, stand." Grimmag waved a tentacle toward Dirken and Yiorgos. "I must apologize for my guards. You are not prisoners here."

  You have a strange way of treating guests, Dirken thought. He rubbed his hands, considering how best to respond. "I appreciate that. Why have you brought us here?"

  Grimmag didn't answer. "Let me also apologize for the scene you just witnessed. It is just business, and it has nothing to do with you. I do not normally subject my guests to such… barbarism."

  "Totally understandable, your honor. So are we free to go?" As soon as he said it, he knew how laughably stupid it sounded.

  "Eow, you are a very loyal associate," Grimmag continued, not bothering to answer Dirken's question. "My mission to have you retrieve the Heart was successful beyond expectation."

  Dirken gasped and turned to her. "You said you were there to deliver a message!"

  Eow winked at him. "How do you think the Bloodhawk knew to ambush the Excellentia?"

  Yiorgos said under his breath, "Played you like a deck of cards."

  "Shut up," Dirken sputtered back. But he knew Yiorgos was right.

  "Such cunning is evidence of leadership, Eow," Grimmag continued, the flames from the red torches gleaming in his ruby eye. "There is a new position just opened to lead our efforts on Tantalus III. You would be a good person to fill that role. As of today, you are a 'made man' and will have a small share of the take from that planet. We will deal with the formalities later."

  The drug lords muttered in surprise. No one applauded as they had with the Corthian.

  Eow's eyes widened in surprise. Then she seemed to catch herself and bowed. "I will serve as you need, my don, though I am a warrior, not a diplomat."

  "A warrior with a strategic mind and an ability to prey on weaker wills."

  Dirken winced.

  Grimmag continued addressing her. "As I understand, your ship was disabled and kept by Captain Neenan." He gave what Dirken interpreted as a shrug, with a hunch and roll of the fatty body behind his head. "It is of no concern. We have many ships to give you. But the craft you acquired from the pirate is of excellent quality and fast. Do you wish for it instead?"

  "Yes, my don," she answered.

  "Hey!" Dirken protested. "That ship is mine. I stole it fair and square!"

  Grimmag emitted a thick, gurgling wheeze and jiggled, which apparently was the Eridani way of laughing. The audience laughed and tittered along. Eow just looked sidelong at Dirken and winked.

  "As for the two of you," Grimmag said, turning his attention back to Dirken and Yiorgos. "Eow promised no harm would come to you and that you would be free to go." He curled and uncurled his tentacles. "I always honor our agreements."

  "Thank you, your honor. I knew that you would be…."

  "But the Heart remains with me. You and your partner will need to be our guests for a Earth week or so while we conclude our business with it."

  "That wasn't part of our deal!"

  Eow flashed a smug smile. "I never said when you could leave. And I never said you could keep the Heart."

  "Double-crosser! And to think I… I let you…."

  Dimitri chuckled. "What's the matter, fool? Wasn't the sex good for you? Did she give you the 'stud' speech, too?"

  "Fuck you."

  Dimitri just laughed, then he blew a kiss to Eow.

  She smiled back at the Martian, but for a fleeting moment her eyes met Dirken's. There was feeling there, perhaps a tinge of regret, but he was in no mood to sympathize.

  Grimmag stretched a tentacle to touch the sphere and roll it over to him. It clanked along the dais surface until it sat in front of him, then he rolled it back and forth, studying it. "But do not worry," he continued through his interpreter. "I know the Heart is of great value to you. From businessman to businessman…" He gestured back and forth with a different tentacle. "…I understand that we do what we do for profit. I am prepared to pay you for your troubles. Two-hundred thousand United World chits should suffice."

  Dirken put on a smile and spread his arms. "I appreciate the courtesy. That's a fraction of what we were going to earn, your honor. You and I both know it is worth so much more." He thought back to Markus Juarez, Governor of the Americas, offering seven hundred thousand.

  Yiorgos cleared his throat and shot Dirken a look that said, Are you crazy? Take the money!

  The Morlani interpreter took a step away from the don.

  Grimmag emitted a wet grunt, then continued speaking in his gurgling language. "Of course it is!" the Morlani translated. "I can appreciate your greed and moxie. But let us face facts, Dirken Nova. All you did was carry it from one ship to another — and have it confiscated — then retrieved it again with the assistance of Eow. It is hard to consider this as 'earning.' But I am an understanding capitalist. I will increase to two-hundred and fifty thousand." He and the interpreter paused a moment, then Grimmag added, "I suggest you accept my offer. The alternative is not so agreeable."

  Dirken glanced down at the trail of blood from the murdered Mindol the Undertaker. "Of course, your honor! I understand. And you are most generous."

  He noticed Yiorgos visibly relax. They wouldn't be executed — at least for the moment.

  Grimmag emitted a slightly different tone of farts and grunts that Dirken thought sounded somehow upbeat as he rolled the Heart back into the duffel bag. "I am glad we could come to an agreement," the interpreter translated
. "Perhaps the future will bring… collaborative efforts." Grimmag shifted slightly toward Eow. "Please escort our guests to their quarters. Make sure they are comforta…."

  The room shook violently as a thick boom issued through the ice. This was more than one of the tiny quakes that occasionally vibrated through the comet. An exclamation of surprise rippled through the drug lords and they immediately started checking devices to see what was happening.

  The room shook again, twice more, as distant explosions rang out. Bits of ice rained from the ceiling. Everyone looked nervously toward one another, but no one dared to flee without Grimmag's leave.

  The Morlani checked a device as well, then leaned over and whispered into one of Grimmag's ear pads.

  Dirken and Yiorgos looked toward each other. Their fear was confirmed when the human drug lord, Mukherjee, looked up from his wrist communicator and shouted, "We're under attack! It's the Bloodhawk!"

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  EYES!

  The drug lords exclaimed in their various languages and nervously started moving toward the entry.

  Grimmag emitted a rumbling chuckle. "My lords, do not fret," he said through the Morlani interpreter. "They cannot breach the comet or make it past our cannons."

  But the comet shook a third time, this time quaking worse than before. Alarms rang through the corridor outside.

  A fissure shot across the left wall and ceiling with an ear-splitting crack. Chunks of ice fell from it, shattering on the floor and rolling away. A one-meter-wide lump landed on the head of a Rigellian drug lord, collapsing her fleshy, pear-shaped head and throwing her to the floor, dead or unconscious.

  The Morlani's eyes grew wide as it looked at its tablet, then he whispered again into Grimmag's ear pad.

  Grimmag belched a statement to him. "My lords, you are excused," the interpreter said. The drug lords left immediately, falling over each other in their rush out the doorway.

  The don extended a tentacle and touched a contact on the floor of the dais. The ceiling over the dais opened with a mechanical iris, the metal sheaths sliding across each other as it widened. The dais shook as an internal mechanism activated and jolted it upward half a meter.

  The Saffron Guard ran toward the dais as it started to rise from the floor toward the opening — with the Heart still in front of Grimmag in its duffel bag.

  "The Heart!" Dirken said, shooting a look to Yiorgos.

  "My arm!" the cyborg responded.

  Both of them launched themselves toward the dais.

  Dimitri and the other guards were slower to react, distracted by the chaos around them. The Reptiloc fired a shot at Yiorgos, which missed his leg by millimeters. Dimitri just yelled "Hey!" Dirken didn't look back to see if he was going to fire. Dirken realized he was directly between the Martian and Grimmag and a miss might hit the mafia don.

  Eow reacted by somersaulting onto the dais, trying to head off Dirken. She flexed her hands and extended her claws.

  The Morlani interpreter yelped in surprise and fell backward, rolling off the dais and hitting the floor with a thud.

  The Saffron Guard, too, had climbed on and raised their weapons toward Dirken and Yiorgos.

  Dirken reached to his back pocket and pulled out the little stun grenade. Yelled "Eyes!" Ripped off the activation pin. Squeezed his eyes shut. Threw the device at the guards' feet.

  Immediately there was a loud BANG and a white-hot explosion of light so powerful that Dirken saw spots behind his eyelids. He hoped Yiorgos remembered his earlier warning and shut his eyes in time. The air became saturated with the overwhelming acrid scent from the phosphorous combustion.

  Dirken's ears rang, but he still heard Grimmag utter a deep, spluttering howl, his tentacles waving madly.

  The Saffron Guard all shook their heads and yelled in pain. The cybernetic sensors built into their helmets and linked directly into their optic nerves were saturated and blinded by the stun grenade.

  Dirken grabbed the duffel and hefted the Heart. Yiorgos tossed him his blaster, holstered his own, then attached his arm.

  Eow had also been blinded and deafened. She twirled, eyes watering, and no doubt deafened, yet stalked forward toward Yiorgos with her eyes wide and watering and her ears rotating back and forth.

  Grimmag uttered a loud slurping grumble and swatted Dirken with two of his tentacles, knocking Dirken on his ass. The Heart slipped out of the duffel bag and rolled off toward the edge of the dais, which was now lifted halfway to the ceiling. Dirken scrambled after it on all fours.

  A tentacle wrapped around his right ankle and dragged him back, suction cups clamping down on his skin.

  Grimmag spoke, his words dripping and rolling. Dirken didn't need an interpreter to understand there was anger there.

  He tried to shake off the tentacle, but it didn't budge, so he aimed his blaster and fired. The bolt grazed the tentacle, but Grimmag released his grip. Dirken lunged forward and grabbed the sphere, stuffing it back in the duffel.

  Glancing behind him, Dirken saw Yiorgos had also been grabbed by a tentacle. Yiorgos swept down with his saber and cut the tentacle neatly in two. Grimmag yowled in pain, then heaved a stream of acidic vomit at the cyborg. Yiorgos fell back, just in time to avoid the stream, but landed at the feet of Eow.

  Then Ananak struck, kicking Yiorgos cleanly in the face. The cyborg fell backward off the dais and smacked to the floor with a metallic clang, two meters down.

  With less than a meter before the dais reached the ceiling, Dirken clutched the duffel and threw himself through the gap and off the dais. Rolled across the floor. Bowled over the Reptiloc guard. Eow neatly jumped through as well, landing with a graceful pose.

  The Saffron Guard had finally overcome the stun grenade. Two of them fired their rifles through the gap. One bolt hit the top Dirken's shoulder, knocking him to the ground with a yelp of pain. Somehow he still managed to hold onto the Heart.

  Grimmag belched again in his grumbling language, his remaining tentacles pointing down through the gap at Dirken and the Heart. The Heart was now out of his reach. He pressed frantically at the contact on the dais, but the dais continued upward.

  The comet shook again as another massive impact echoed through it. One of the Saffron Guard lost his balance and fell, his head slipping through the gap between the dais and the ceiling. Too late to pull back, he was caught against the ceiling as the dais raised inexorably upward. He screamed, his voice keening upward, then sudden silence as, with a screech of plastisteel armor and wet rip of tissue, the dais decapitated him. The helmeted head banged to the floor and rolled to Yiorgos's feet with splatters of purple blood flung in a circle from the neck. Purple blood gushed from the hole in the ceiling until the iris closed with a metallic scrape.

  Dirken and Yiorgos backed up to one another and appraised their situation. All of the Saffron Guard had gone with their master. Eow opened her eyes and approached them. Off to the side, Dimitri and three other guards blocked the exit out the doorway that they had entered through. Dirken saw the Morlani interpreter and a couple of Grimmag's slaves were running down the hall behind the dais and through the reinforced door and decided that was the easiest escape. The Gogonoian flapped and waddled right behind them, uttering shrieks that echoed from the tunnel beyond the door. Yet the albino human singer remained behind the dais, lyrophone in hand, eyes intently watching Dirken.

  The red door closed behind the Gogonoian.

  Dirken fired at the guards. The shot hit a Pleiadean guard square in the chest, felling him immediately. He fired again, but the comet shook again and the shot went wild as Dirken struggled to keep his footing.

  Dimitri and the Reptiloc fired their pulse rifles in response, narrowly missing Dirken's head. Yiorgos responded by leaping forward and slicing the Reptiloc's rifle in half. The weapon exploded with blue and red flame, throwing both of them back. The Reptiloc hit the floor with a whack and a groan, tried to rise, but then passed out.

  Eow slapped Dimitri's arm. "Do not sho
ot toward the Heart, you idiot!" She pointed toward Yiorgos. "Shoot at him!"

  Dirken took advantage of the momentary disruption and grabbed Yiorgos, pulling him as he ran under the raised dais and toward the back door. The cyborg fired off several bolts from his mini-blaster, but Dirken didn't turn to see if he'd hit. The dais was coming back down.

  "This way!" the albino musician shouted, waving them toward the red door, then turned and led the way, glancing back to make sure they followed. "I know a back passage to the hangar." She spoke with a Terran dialect Dirken couldn't quite place. One of those far northern regions?

  Dirken turned and fired a shot, narrowly missing Eow as she rushed through the tunnel entrance with Dimitri.

  "Why should we trust you?" Yiorgos said to the albino. "You're a servant of Grimmag!"

  "Because I am foremost a servant of a greater power."

  "What power?"

  But before she could answer, they came to the closed red door. The albino typed a code into an interface, but it was too late. Eow and Dimitri caught up to them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ALBINO

  "Leave the Heart and we'll let you go," Eow growled. Her amethyst eyes burned into Dirken's with murderous intent as she stalked forward, brandishing her long claws.

  "You know I won't," Dirken replied. He leveled his blaster at her, but she didn't seem to care. He knew he should pull the trigger, but something stopped him.

  Dimitri fired at Yiorgos at the same moment Yiorgos fired his mini-blaster, each hitting the other in a flash of light. But before Dirken could check on his partner, Eow leaped at him.

  He fired his blaster but missed her as he ducked, her claws sweeping only millimeters from his face.

  He turned and kicked her in the gut. She flew back against the tunnel wall with a grunt, her back hitting the control panel. Lights flashed on the interface. The doors stopped opening. Too narrow to slip through.

  She recovered in an instant and leaped forward, deftly turning in midair and kicking the blaster out of Dirken's hand. The weapon flew through the narrow opening of the reinforced doors and skidded across the floor on the other side, out of reach.