The Deadliest of Intentions

by Marc Stevens

  31

  The storage chamber once held the loading equipment that we destroyed in our assault of the loading dock. There were a few older gravity sleds that occupied the back wall. Their appearance alluded to the fact they were non-working junk that hadn’t moved in a long time. Klutch was standing between two of the them, motioning at us to join him.

  “Commander, if we can activate a good portal at this location, we should be to the rear of the pirate forces,” Klutch said. “I doubt if they have figured out how we got into the base. It will be a complete surprise when we show up inside the vault with them.”

  “I left a grenade against the door,” I said. “It should be just enough of a distraction to make them think we are trying to come through from that direction. When I detonate it, you try to get us a hole.”

  The Troop Master gave me a big, goofy smile and activated his war face. He checked his shotgun and gave me a thumbs up. Tria was standing next to me and changed out her mags for fresh ones. She made eye contact and blew me a kiss. I couldn’t help but smile. Her faceplate changed to its evil-looking caricature, and she turned to face the wall. I put my war face back on and detonated the grenade. Reaching out, I rapped the Troop Master on his shoulder with my armored fist. He ported us a good hole, and we jumped through. We found ourselves standing next to a large, empty storage crate. Out to our front were twenty-four Murlak pirates. They were behind makeshift barricades consisting of overturned gravity sleds. The backside of the vault door had several blackened places around its perimeter. The fools had welded the door shut in an attempt to keep us out. The dust cloud shook loose by my grenade was still floating out from the door. We had a captive audience; all eyes were forward in anticipation of us coming from that direction. My attention was drawn to a tall pirate wearing bright silver armor. He was standing to the rear of the defensive formation. He had six pirates forward of his position wearing Zaen battle armor. They had their launchers trained on the vault door.

  “Is that Eiger?” I asked my team.

  Tria commed me right back and said, “If it is, the arrogant piece of scat is wearing the ceremonial armor of Murlak royalty!”

  Klutch drew a bead on the pirate’s back. “What does that have to do with anything. Dead is dead!”

  Tria pushed the barrel of Klutch’s weapon aside. “I will show you what that means!”

  Before I could react, Tria boosted right at the pirate in shiny armor. Klutch and I had no choice but to follow. As we closed with the target, Tria flipped her shotgun around and caught it by the barrel. Klutch and I raised our beam weapons in case the hostiles wearing Zaen armor turned on us. When it seemed like Tria would collide with the pirate, she swung her shotgun like a baseball bat. It was a hell of a swing. The weapon made solid contact with the side of the pirate’s helmet, driving him from his feet. The limp body rebounded off the ground, and she grabbed him in a headlock. The Murlak’s helmet had a dent in the side and hairline cracks in the face plate. Tria pointed back the way we came and boosted for the portal. The lack of atmosphere left no sound to alert the pirates what was transpiring to their rear. Klutch looked like he was going to open fire into the backs of the pirates. I waved him off and pulled an antimatter charge from my storage pouch. He saw what was in my hand and boosted for the portal. I set the charge and gave it a fifteen-minute delay. As I approached the portal, I gave the charge a toss, sending it bouncing around in the empty storage crate. As I exited the portal, I almost ran into Tria and Klutch. They were stripping the Murlak’s armor of weapons.

  “Is it Eiger?”

  Tria looked up at me with a grim smile. “Yes,” she said triumphantly.

  “Is he still alive?”

  “For now.”

  I alerted them to the time on the charge. Klutch jerked the pirate off the ground by an arm, and Tria grabbed the other. We boosted out into the corridor. The entrance to the base was one hundred yards to our left. I wasn’t about to mess with the door.

  “Beam shot out!” I called out over our comms.

  Klutch and Tria stopped and reversed course back into the storage chamber. I hit the doors dead center with a beam shot, blowing them out into the dock. The burning plasma splattered in all directions. We had a clear path to the docking bay. I turned back to Tria and Klutch. Eiger must have recovered from having his gong rang because they were beating the hell out of him. Their armored fists were making some impressive dents in the flashy Murlak armor. The pirate went limp, and Tria had to stop the Troop Master before he killed him. Eiger’s armor had little in the way of protection. It was more for show than it was for combat. He was fortunate that Tria did not hit him with her weapon in the faceplate, or he would have decompressed. There was a good chance the showy armor was for his meeting with his corrupt business partners. I would pay a billion credits to see their faces when Eiger doesn’t arrive.

  We boosted out into the docking bay. Justice had the Legacy snuggled up to the dock access with the hangar bay open. We felt the pull of the tow beam and cut our gravity drives. He pulled us into the hangar, and I turned to look at Shurmosk for the last time. We had dealt the pirates a blow they may never recover from, but I knew it would not end their presence in the galaxy. The Scrun were proof of that. There would always be another waiting for the chance to take over the leadership position. I felt a small sense of accomplishment in that whoever would take over would have to come up with the funds to stay on top. I smiled when I saw a large plume of debris jet violently from the entrance of the base.

  “Justice, it is my understanding, we have an experimental weapon aboard that is still untested.”

  “Affirmative, Commander. Would you like to commence testing?”

  “Yes, Justice. Launch at your discretion.”

  “I will move the Legacy to the edge of the asteroid field and inform you when the weapon is ready to launch.”

  I followed Tria and the Troop Master as they dragged Eiger to the brig. The pirate’s head jerked upright, and he started yelling something about paying to release him unharmed. Tria drove a pile driver of a punch to his midsection. He gagged and puked into his face mask. They threw him into a cell. Justice closed the door and blacked it out. He was going to experience the treatment he has doled out for an unknown length of time. His chances of living much longer were tenuous at best. We knew he had information on the corrupt members of the Galactic Union. That and the intel on other pirate operations would be the extent of his lifeline. He would tell us what we wanted to know, or the Troop Master would use his fingers as toothpicks. We would be able to corroborate some of the information he would eventually give us with Illam Pove. Justice alerted me he was ready to launch the Oolaran torpedo.

  “Commander, I have instructed the weapon’s onboard AI to transition to Shurmosk and enter the docking bay. Once inside, it will power down and wait forty hours before it will self-destruct. If the Murlak should investigate the base before that time period expires. It will choose the optimal time to self-destruct, with the intent of doing the maximum amount of damage to hostile forces as possible.”

  The Legacy was unarmed when I discovered it in the Alaskan wilderness. The torpedo was the final weapon missing from its arsenal. I would now have the ship’s complete weapons systems at my disposal.

  “Okay Justice, launch the missile and jump us back to the Sigs new base.”

  “Affirmative, Commander. Launching torpedo now, and DEHD core transition in thirty seconds.”

  My reality flared a bright white and faded away. My return to normal space-time came with the usual report from Justice.

  “Commander, I am tracking two hundred and forty Sig military vessels in and around this system. I have a lock on our freighter, and it is holding above the Sig base of operations. Coonts is requesting to speak with you on a private IST channel.”

  “Thank you, Justice, put him through.”

  “Commander, was your mission successful?”

  “Yes, Tria captured Eiger alive. We are going
to take him back to Alpha Base for interrogation.”

  “That is a surprising turn of events,” Coonts said. “I would have thought the pirate would die before surrendering to us.”

  “Tria did not give him a chance to do either. Have you spoken with Sushi?”

  “Yes, and we are both in agreement that it would not be wise to store the contents of our freighter’s hold at a location known to the pirates.”

  “It is my intention to take it back to Alpha Base. I want you to politely explain to the Zaens that they will be staying with the Sig for now. I am sure they won’t like it, but I am not ready to reveal the location of Alpha Base to them. I trust them, but it is better for us all if they are not able to divulge what they don’t know.”

  “They will be very disappointed. They have been quite vocal about getting back to their usual trade route.”

  I really didn’t want the two Zaens to be unhappy with me. They had been an invaluable source of tech and the sole reason we now have one of the finest replicator operators in the galaxy. The answer to the problem would require a little finesse, but the Zaens would ultimately come away pleased with my orders.

  “Tell Broza and Hylet that we need to make sure the pirates never find the freighter,” I said. “They will want revenge on the crew, and I will not allow that. Tell them I bought a new freighter and it will take a short period of time to properly arm and outfit it.”

  “I was not aware we had another freighter,” Coonts said, confused.

  “I haven’t bought it yet, but they don’t need to know that. I want you to get them off the freighter as soon as possible and jump back to Alpha Base. We will unload the hold and sanitize it. We will then trade it back to Tam Lin for a newer model.”

  “What about the Sig crew?”

  “They will stay aboard. I am confident the Sig would rather die than betray our alliance. They can ferry the freighter back to 9765 when we are done with it.”

  “Roger that, Commander. I have another request before I brief the Zaens.”

  “Is there something I have not covered?”

  “Yes, I would like to offload the Operative as well,” Coonts said. “She has made the trip from Shurmosk quite unpleasant. I would appreciate if you could arrange for her to be somewhere else, preferably on her home worlds with her own kind.”

  I was wondering when Sael would wear out her welcome. It was going to be irritating, but I felt I owed Coonts some relief.

  “We will come alongside, and you can tell her to report to me.”

  As usual, Justice was listening and brought us alongside the freighter’s boarding hatch. He opened the hangar door in anticipation of Sael debarking. If she started in on me, I would grant Coonts his wish and send her packing sooner than later. It took her only a few minutes to show up at the freighter hatch and jump across. Tria and I stood waiting to see if she would ruin what had turned out to be a good day. Sael surprised both of us by not carrying on in her usual irritating manner. The look on her face betrayed her true feelings, but she kept them in check.

  “May I inquire as to how your mission turned out?” she asked me.

  “Tria captured Eiger alive, and he is currently in the brig.”

  Sael looked shocked at this revelation. She was temporarily lost for words, which was a good thing. It gave me a chance to move on to other things, namely getting out of my armor and into a hot shower.

  “Can I see for myself?”

  “Sure, Sael, knock yourself out. Tria and I are going to the ready room to stow our armor.”

  Sael gave me a questioning look. My Earth phrase had her stymied as to its true meaning. I decided to clarify my statement before she could take up any more of my time.

  “Yes, Sael, you can see him.”

  Since the brig was on the way to the ready room, we walked with her, and I was glad she did so silently. Justice cleared our side of the cell wall so we could see in but Eiger could not see out.

  Sael stared in at the pirate and then turned to us with a strange look on her face.

  “Why is he wearing the ceremonial armor of the Murlak royal clan?”

  I didn’t have an answer, and how the hell would I know anyway. It was a statement Tria had made as well, but I really didn’t care what the pirate prick adorned himself with. It was an interesting subject, but not enough to change the ruminations going on in my mind. I pulled Tria toward the hatch. Things were going my way, and I was going to make the best of it while it lasted.

  “Sael, why don’t you ask him yourself? Because I don’t care!”

  With that, Tria and I went to the ready room. We stepped out of our armor, and when we got down to removing our suit liners, Tria’s help removing mine made the trip to my quarters a quick one. The stars in my little piece of the galaxy were all aligned. I didn’t have a care in the world until Justice commed me.

  “Commander, I realize I am interrupting you at a most inopportune time, but Sael Nalen has an urgent need to speak with you.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Sael had a knack for bothering me at the worst possible times, and this was no exception. I was going to have a real hard time controlling the frustration in my voice.

  “Put her through, Justice!”

  “Nathan! I have found out why Eiger wears the armor of the Murlak royal clan!” Sael said excitedly.

  I gritted my teeth in anger. Sael needed to know in no uncertain terms that I really didn’t give a shit and she could brief me later. Tria put a halt to my rant and answered for me.

  “Please continue, Senior Operative.”

  “I have questioned Eiger at length about the armor. He was more than willing to answer my questions.”

  I didn’t know where this was going, but I had regained my composure enough and wanted to know what kind of crap Eiger was spoon-feeding her.

  “Okay, Sael, tell me what he had to say.”

  “I know you will find this hard to believe, but Eiger claims he was giving up his position as the leader of the pirates. He has made an agreement with the royal clan’s patriarch. He was going to turn over his share of the wealth you captured as a penalty for his past transgressions. He would then take a life mate from within the royal clan, and his past was to be erased. He claims that he was going to give his business partners their share of the wealth and was going to cut all ties with them,” Sael said. “Nathan, if he became part of the royal clan, it would make little difference to the Murlak people what Eiger’s past once was. The only things that will matter to them is what he does going forward.”

  “Sael, I don’t care what he has to say. He is never going to make it to his royal appointment. He will answer for the countless murders and crimes he has committed.”

  “Nathan, the royal clan is the wealthiest in all the Murlak home worlds. The bloodlines date back thousands of years,” Sael said. “Even though they no longer rule, they have the ears of the most powerful government and military officials. What they want, they get, and their opinion is generally the government’s official view on all matters. By capturing Eiger, you have made yourselves the enemy of the whole Murlak race.”

  “I have yet to meet a Murlak who wasn’t a pirate, so I don’t care what they think. They can be pissed off, but they will never know what happened to Eiger.”

  “Nathan, that would have been the case if you had not chosen to let the remaining crew on the freighter go free. Now there are survivors who will testify it was the demon warrior who attacked them and most assuredly killed a soon-to-be member of the royal clan. I have no doubt they will claim the wealth you took belonged to them as well. You will now be seen as the hostile aggressor, and the Murlak will hunt you till the end of time if that is what it takes.”

  As a rule, I tried to keep myself in an upbeat mood when it came to adversity. It was difficult at times, but I always gave it a try regardless. Since I was only one of the two Earthlings I knew of, who were out in the galaxy trying to change things for the better, it was a necessity. Having someone point
out that another couple of hundred billion or so aliens were lining up to get a piece of me, pretty much ruined my optimistic outlook. One thing I knew for sure, the Murlak royal clan would learn the hard way: killing me is easier said than done.

  The End