Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  “Oh sweet,” Tiff said excitedly. “Did Lizz send you to give me a hand down here?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. Lizz sent us to...um...help you.” Empty spaces stood out in the creepy snaggle-toothed grin that he flashed toward Tiff. He looked back into the passageway, then casually strolled into the room. Two other figures followed closely behind the first man.

  Eerie shadows danced across the far wall as the men crossed paths with the drop light that illuminated the room. The largest of the three men was tall, bald and wore a pair of gray miner’s coveralls. The other was short and looked as if he’d missed more than a few meals during the course of a short but very precarious lifetime. The first man continued forward toward Tiff as the other two began to pace in a wide circle around her.

  “Well, I tell you what. If you guys would like to start with that stack of containers in the back corner, I can set that space up for a few treadmills. But that’s if they actually pick up a few treadmills for me,” she said as she drifted off in momentary contemplation, tapping a painted fingernail to her lips.

  “Now there’s a thought that sounds mighty tempting,” Snaggle-tooth said. “Everyone loves a good cardio workout, now don’t they. What do you guys think? Think she could give us all a good cardio workout?”

  “Uh-hum,” the large bald man said with a devious leer.

  “I believe that you are right on the money with that thought, Brody. I think that she’ll do just fine,” the skeletal looking man said. He wiped away a dribble of drool on the back of his sleeve.

  “Oh no, that’s just it. We don’t have the cardio equipment yet. We have to clear out the space to put it. You’d think that Lizz would have…”

  “Heh,” the large bald man laughed. “Are you fucking kidding me? She doesn’t get it, Brody.”

  “Yeah,” Brody sighed. “I can see that, Jake. I’m not a fucking idiot. Don’t matter none though noways. She ain’t gotta be all there for what I need her to do.”

  “Hang on one-sec, y’all,” Tiff interrupted. “Lizz didn’t send you down here, did she?”

  Brody snarled as he reached for Tiff’s flight jacket and yanked her off balance, toward himself.

  “What the fuck bro? Let me go!” She struggled to pull away, but she was too far off balance and toppled forward.

  Brody grasped the collar of her jacket, picked her up off of the floor and slammed her against the wall. “You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do or else you might just happen to stop breathing there, doll face. Now we wouldn’t want something like that to happen, would we?” He adjusted his grip around her throat. Tiff gasped from the impact and struggled as he held her in place.

  The skeletal man chuckled, “You just hold her steady, Brody.” He sprinted over and began working at the buttons of her pants.

  Tiff squirmed and inched her neck this way and that in an attempt to breathe. She clawed at the vice-like hands clamped around her throat.

  “Hurry the fuck up and get those pants off of her, Jessie,” the large man demanded as he unzipped his coveralls. He wiped away beads of sweat from his bald head with the back of his hand.

  The warm embrace of darkness engulfed her. At the edges of her senses, she could hear the heavy breathing of the skeletal man named Jessie. The smell of an alcoholics sweat enveloped her from the one who held her in his vice-like grip. She kicked. The animalistic need to survive found the strength to fuel her fight for life. She kicked and felt the numb impression of her right foot impact upon something soft. The dry, dusty air of the underground base never tasted so sweet as it did in that first gulped gasp that rushed into her lungs as she fell to the ground.

  The unmistakable scent of alcoholic vomit filled the surrounding air as Brody doubled over, coughing and gagging.

  “Jessie, get hold of her,” Jake demanded. Jessie fought through her feeble slaps. He grabbed for her, but only grabbed shirt fabric, lifting her. She dropped back to the ground, ripping a large section of the shirt away. Jessie positioned his arms around her in a full nelson hold and dragged her to her feet, lifting her off of the ground.

  Jake ripped the pants off of her legs with a few violent jerks. He tossed the unneeded garment aside and grabbed at her flailing ankles.

  A hoarse crackle escaped her throat as she attempted to scream.

  “Hold her…,” Jake had started, then went suddenly silent at the sound of a heavy thud then limply slumped to the floor. In his place stood a man with a dreadlock tangle of stark white hair. The man’s face looked strangely young. He wore a ragged, grease-stained flight suit and well-worn leather flight jacket. He dropped a metal pipe that clattered as it fell to the concrete floor.

  “Let her go!” The white-haired man growled through clenched teeth. He drew a pistol from his side and aimed it toward the man named Jessie.

  “Like that matters,” Jessie argued. “You got a gun. You’ll just off me as soon as I let her go.”

  “I promise. I won’t kill you,” the white-haired man said. He held his pistol up into the air and let it dangle by the trigger guard on his index finger. “See, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Bullshit! You’ll shoot me in the back!”

  “Listen, pal, I’m not about to shoot anyone in the back. That’s just not something that I’d do. And in reality, it’s only a matter of time before someone comes looking for either of us. Do you really want to wait for her husband to come looking and find you here holding her prisoner? He knows ways to keep a man alive in the face of agony.”

  “You may have a point there,” Jessie nervously huffed.

  “Yeah, I just might at that. And listen, just between me and you. I wouldn’t blame you if you went ahead and got the hell out of here. Letting these two take the fall for this doesn’t hurt anyone. It was their idea, anyway, wasn’t it?” The white-haired man nodded toward the two unconscious men on the ground. “Nobody's got to know no different, ya know?”

  “Yeah, and it would serve them both right, too,” Jessie agreed. “They are the ones that dragged me into this. It wasn’t my idea. This is exactly what they both deserve.” He let Tiff drop to the floor and sidestepped her disoriented form. He swiftly kicked the unconscious form of Jake as he passed the motionless mound of flesh and bounced past the white-haired man en route to the doorway. “Thank you, brother. I ain’t never gonna forget this,” Jessie said as he skipped out the door.

  In one blindingly swift motion, Jessie's leg erupted in a shower of red droplets as a .45 caliber round from the white-haired man’s pistol penetrated deep into the flesh of Jessie’s leg. He collapsed to the floor, crying out in excruciating pain.

  Dazed, Tiff mumbled in a low, half moaned tone. “Thank you,” she said under her breath.

  He holstered his pistol and quickly moved to Tiff’s side. He removed his flight jacket and draped it over her bare shoulders. “It’s alright Tiffany. They aren’t going to hurt you again. I promise you that.” He held out a hand to help her to her feet.

  “Thank you,” she quietly stuttered. She took his hand and stood, uneasily.

  Quickly the white-haired man tore the sleeves from his flight suit and bound the three men. He took the radio from Tiff’s belt. “Elizabeth. Someone needs to come down here to Tiffany's proposed gym area. She’s alright, but there was an attack. The three attackers have been neutralized and detained.”

  “Who is this,” Lizz responded over the radio.

  “Does that really matter?” He said into the radio.

  A wet squishy thud came from behind him. “Tiff! No!”

  Tiffiny broke down in tears as the bloody pipe clattered to the floor next to Brody’s lifeless form.

  “Shit,” he mumbled, then keyed the comm again. “Um...Lizz. Make that two would-be rapists and one body.”

  cHAPTER 44

  Sol system / Asteroid field

  Near flux point Alpha

  Bridge of the Glorious Mouse

  September 2nd, 2176 / Evening (Betty Time)

 
“D

  id the boss say anything against working side deals while we’re on this job?” Jeffrey, the young helmsman tapped away at the ship’s controls. “I'd bet I could get a few card games going or something like that once we're on station.”

  “Don't forget about the cases of whiskey down in the hold,” Terry added. “There's always a demand for good whiskey.”

  Captain Wills laughed. “Are you certain that there is anything left in the hold, Terry? How do you know that it wasn't ransacked during an impromptu midnight rendezvous with a pair of Javacrucian fugitives?” He winked at Terry with a wide, cheesy grin.

  Terry turned in his seat at the engineering station. “Wait? Are you talking about the two tweakers that we dropped off last week at Luna station Oberon? Seriously, Wills. You'd better not have wasted all of that good whiskey on a couple of tweaking hookers. I don't care if Barrington put you in charge on this mission or not; I'll toss your ass out of an airlock myself and blame it on a bad flux capacitor or some shit.”

  Ashtin's nearly constant head bobbing and under the breath vocals suddenly ceased. She locked her console controls and turned in her seat, lowering the headphones that had left permanent impressions on the side of her head. “Did you just say something about tweakers? I swear to God y'all had better never bring any tweakers on this ship again. You can't trust those kinda people. Every bit of our shit will grow legs and walk away. I can't believe any of you let them on the ship in the first place and I don't care if they were paying customers or not. You just can't trust people like that. What if they blew an airlock while we were all asleep just to steal the ship or they poisoned the ration packs? Hu? Did any of you ever stop to think about that? See now, I didn’t think so. That right there is the problem. None of you even thought about the possibilities. Y’all just all willy nilly let them on the ship because they had the money to pay for passage. Maybe you should do a background check on people before letting them on board.” She quickly replaced her headphones and turned back to her console.

  “Alright then.” Captain Wills clapped his hands together and snapped his fingers. “I gotcha. Doesn't mean that I'm going to listen to any of it, but I hear you,” he replied to the back of Ashtin's head.

  “We're receiving a transmission from the Veronica,” Terry announced.

  “Put it through,” Wills ordered.

  “Glorious Mouse, this is the Veronica, come in please.”

  “Glorious Mouse here. Go ahead Veronica,” Wills replied.

  “Rachel is sending over the flight plan now. Since we aren't sure what our actual effective range is, make sure that you stay within one hundred meters of the Betty.”

  “Course transmitting now, Cap,” a female voice added over the comms.

  “I've got it,” Jeffrey said.

  “Captain Rackham,” Captain Wills continued. “What is it... that will happen should we deviate from the prescribed flight path? Is there some... sort of debris or some other hazard that does not show up on the charts? We have nothing showing on our sensors.”

  “Honestly, Captain Wills, we aren't completely sure ourselves,” Doug said. “We still have a lot of testing to carry out on this ship's systems. You'll have a better understanding very shortly. If you'd like a front-row seat with clear skies, please have your helmsman take up the point position when you lay in your course.”

  “Copy that, Captain Rackham. We'd be honored to take point... and continue on course. Glorious mouse... out,” Captain Wills proudly stated.

  “Course laid in, and we are now in the lead. But this is strange,” Jeffrey said. “The course takes us hard upspin and in approximately fifty thousand klicks it just ends. There's nothing at all out there on this course per the charts. No asteroid or comet or anything. Or, well, at least nothing that we know of.”

  “That doesn't matter in the end,” Captain Wills stated coolly. He stood from the captain's chair and propped his foot on the helm console, his crotch uncomfortably close to Jeffrey’s face. “You see Jeffrey... Master Barrington wanted us to keep a close eye on this bunch and find out any juicy intel that he could use to his own advantage. We'll quietly play their game until we have what we need and the opportunity to return presents itself. But in the meantime... we have a mission. Turn on... the recorder, Terry. I'm feeling... inspired.”

  “Uh-huh,” Terry grunted at Wills. “Go ahead and knock yourself out, buddy. The recorder is running.”

  Wills returned and stood behind the Captain’s chair. “Captain’s log,” he began. “We are... on a mission of chance and glory. Our benefactor... Master... Barrington has handpicked each of us for this mission. His trust... in us will not go unrewarded.”

  “More like we were the only suckers available on short notice,” Terry said sarcastically.

  Wills scowled at the back of Terry's head. He straightened his flight suit, crossed his arms and continued as he began to slowly pace about the bridge. “Success in this... could mean fame... fortune... even recognition for myself, and my... crew of loyal servants.”

  “Loyal servants?” Terry turned in his seat and glared at Wills. “Do you believe this arrogant jackass, Jeffrey? Why we ended up under his command on this run I'll never understand.” He turned back to his console and angrily tapped at the controls.

  Wills cleared his throat, then continued. “Disheartened mutiny... is always a risk with such an endeavor. With a high... priority mission such as this... tension will be high... nerves will become frayed. I can only hope... that it does not come down to execution of executive order Gamma Phi. Truly... that would be the act... of a desperate man. Captain out.”

  “Do you even know what all of that meant that you just puked out of your mouth?” Terry and Jeffery both turned in their seats, scowling at Captain Wills.

  “Captain,” Ashtin shouted. “There's something really strange happening. I think the Veronica is producing a variable layer high-frequency field.”

  “Maybe this is part of what they were talking about,” Terry said.

  “Possibly. Keep...a close eye on the instruments... and record all data,” Wills ordered. “Should we be worried about radiation...with this new field?”

  “It’s acting really weird, Captain. I’ve never seen a field like this before,” Ashtin shouted as she continued to head bob to the tune of her own drum.

  Terry leaned over and pulled one side of Ashtin's headphones away from her head. “You're shouting at us,” he shouted then let go of the headphone.

  “O, M, G, what? Rude much?” She glared at Terry as she cringed away from his invasive touch.

  “Is there radiation or such that we should be worried about,” Terry shouted.

  “What,” she screamed as she removed her headphones.

  “Is there radiation or such that we should be worried about,” Terry repeated.

  “Oh, um.” She looked taken aback. “Why didn't you say that in the first place?” Quickly she tapped out a series of commands on her console and reviewed the data. “No, not that I can tell. But there is a strange anomaly just ahead that we are going to impact within, three...”

  “Anomaly?”

  “Two.”

  “Impact?”

  “One.”

  In the space of a fractional second, the image on the main viewscreen suddenly shifted from a perfectly normal starfield to an asteroid field orbiting within the glow of a red giant.

  “What...just...happened,” Wills gasped.

  They all stared at the viewscreen with amazed wonderment when suddenly the eerily alien panorama vanished. Replaced by the patched and red-painted belly of an extremely large craft that filled the view as the collision klaxons screamed at the crew.

  “T

  hat wasn’t such a bad run,” Wes said. “We accomplished a lot this trip, Cap.” Wes turned in his seat at the Veronica's operations station. “We picked up ten new general contractors, a licensed doctor, a few of those Ph.D. science types plus three complete salvage crews and ships to top it all
off.

  “Don't forget about the foundry ship that we're towing,” Doug said.

  “That too. Ooo, I want to name her!” Rachel locked her controls and turned in her seat.

  “What? No!” Wes scowled at Rachel. “You named the last one. I’ve got dibs on this one.”

  “Nope, you aren't special enough to name a ship properly. It takes a special finesse to connect with the soul of a ship and see what her name is.” Rachel dreamily stared off at nothing in particular.

  “Doug,” Wes said softly. “You're going to let me name this one, aren't you?”

  “Sure Wes. Knock yourself out,” Doug said.

  “She's a Brynhildr class foundry ship, isn't she?”

  “Yes. A Brynhildr class, G2 model to be exact,” Doug said. “I don't think there was much difference on any of the G models other than the extenders.”

  Wes grinned. “We should call her the Ethel.”

  “Ethel? Why on Earth would you choose Ethel?” Rachel tilted her head and glowered at Wes from across the center console that divided their stations.

  “Because it was my grandmother's name,” Wes said. “She was this big, beautifully ugly woman that no one in their right mind would mess with.”

  Doug hummed his acceptance. “That sounds like the perfect name for her. Update her transponder to reflect the new name. What was the name of Maximus's ship?”

  “The Glorious Mouse,” Wes answered.

  “Alright. Open a channel and hail them.”

  “Copy that, Cap,” Wes said. “Channel open.”

  “Glorious mouse, this is the Veronica, come in please.”

  “Glorious mouse here. Go ahead Veronica,” Captain Wills replied.

  “Rachel is sending over the flight plan now. Since we aren't sure what our actual effective range is, make sure to stay within one hundred meters of the Betty.”

  “Course transmitting now Cap,” Rachel said.