by Josh Busch
***
"I think he's coming around."
Dickson came out of the swirling darkness into a world of pain. The incapacitation had worn off, mostly - he could feel everything except for the ends of his fingertips and toes. It was the sharp stabbing in his head that had most of his attention; it felt as though his forehead would split open down the middle any moment now.
Dickson reluctantly opened his eyes and looked into the concerned face of a pale yellow uniform. His name plate read Special Officer Eo Johnson.
"Are you alright, Mister Tixe?"
His mind swam in confusion for a moment. Who the hell was Mister Tixe? Had he been hit harder than he'd thought?
"Respond to that," a voice said in his ear - too loudly, making him groan.
"Easy now, easy. That pirate banged you up pretty bad." He helped Dickson to his feet. "Gotta hand it to you, Tixe, I've never seen anyone come out of incapacitation so quickly. You should count your lucky stars she wasn't aiming to kill."
"Do you know which way she went?" Dickson asked, though his exhausted mumbling was almost unintelligible.
"The pirate? She's long gone. Besides, mate, you're in no condition to be chasing down no pirates. You better just get yourself to the medical ward and patch yourself up."
Dickson had no intention of doing any such thing, but he still nodded gratefully and began to walk in that direction. The officer started to follow him, but apparently thought better of it and took off around the corner.
Once the cop was out of sight, Shila's voice was again in his ear. "How are you feeling, Mister Tixe?"
Dickson groaned and held a hand to his temple. "My head feels like Vena took a spatial drive to it. Could you please not talk so loud?"
Her voice was instantly softer. "Sorry," she near-whispered.
"What happened back there, Shila?"
"Well, Vena knocked you out and then made it to the Daaé. It only was a minute or two after that when the flight doors came back down - I guess they finally figured out there was no real depressurization issues. As for your crew, they were busy playing an intricate game of cat and mice with some Piracy Police before managing to sneak back into the Punjab Lasso."
"They didn't come back for me?"
"They tried, but once they snuck out of the cloak field, I used the station communicators to hold them back. It wasn’t necessary for them to risk their necks; I took the liberty of adding your identification record into the system, Mister Tixe. He never bothered to delve deeper than the simple system designation, which is good news for you, considering that very expensive trinket around your neck."
Dickson put the pain he felt in his head aside as best he could. Yes, he could definitely still feel the artifact against his chest - it was slightly warmer than his skin was. He was grateful that Officer Johnson hadn't noticed it, or he'd be up to his ears in trouble right now.
"Well, I suppose that's it, then. We got the artifact back, and Vena's gone forever."
"Not exactly," Shila tittered triumphantly into his ear.
Dickson, who had started walking towards where his ship was cloaked, stopped. "What do you mean?"
"Well, while she was busy setting you up to be arrested, I took the liberty of annexing a station maintenance bot and moving it onto the Daaé. She'll never find it – she’d literally have to tear her ship apart to do so - and once a day it will submit directional data to us. We'll be able to track her...slowly, anyways. It's better than nothing, though."
“You’re having way too much fun with your new access,” he remarked dryly. Despite this, however, Dickson was amazed. "But I’m glad of it. Shila, you saved my neck and salvaged what could have been the worst day of my life. Is there anything I can do for you to make up for it?"
She paused, but only for a second. "You can put me back into the Punjab. This tiny disk you've got me in makes me feel like a too-big genie in a too-small lamp."
Making certain that Officer Johnson hadn’t come back around to follow him, Dickson cut around a few parked ships and made his way back to the false outline of the Punjab Lasso. The ship it was pretending to be was an Arterian merchant vessel under the designation ASF Abraham. It was so stereotypically Arterian that no authorities ever bothered to check it – which was precisely what they were hoping for.
As soon as he came into sight of the ship, Gallagher stepped out of the false outline. He looked livid, though had the common sense not to immediately explode at his ex-commanding officer. “Where have you b-,” he began, but froze when he saw the charred remains of Dickson’s shirt. The man did a double-take before snatching his sidearm off of his belt. “Where the hell is she?! I’ll rip her to shreds. No one attacks our captain and-”
“Just get inside, Gallagher,” Dickson interrupted, suddenly feeling very tired. “She’s gone.”
Gallagher started to argue, but Dickson was already through the false holographic outline of the Arterian ship and was staring up at the Punjab Lasso. It wasn’t a huge ship, but it had enough weaponry on it to carve a hole through just about anything but the GI2 station itself. It was jet black, being able to conceal itself among the stars if it needed to make a quick escape. Only the forward view port was clearly visible, and that was only because Dickson knew where to look for it.
He climbed into the ship’s access port and saw Hopo and Gaileen leaning furiously against the interior wall of the cabin. Dickson knew them well enough to realize they hated being given orders by Shila, even though she usually understood the situation better than any of them. Hopo immediately saw the remnants of Dickson’s clothing and came to the same conclusion that Gallagher had. Gaileen noticed it too, and was about to say something before the giant man pushed in front of her.
“Where ‘dat gahl’ be?” Hopo growled angrily. When he was mad, he was even less intelligible than usual. “I rip her limb from limb. She attack ya’, boss?! Ya’ let her do ‘dat? Why you not beat her like da’ bitch she be?”
“She got the jump on me,” Dickson mumbled. He didn’t want to talk about it, so he pulled the necklace out of his collar. “I did, however, get this back.”
Hopo hadn’t been around during the first run-in with the artifact, so his expression was blank. The other two, however, were awestruck.
“How in the world did you get that?” Gaileen gasped. She seemed to have sobered up a little, making Dickson wonder just how long he’d been unconscious. “Is it the real thing?”
Dickson removed the necklace and tossed it to her. “See for yourself.”
Gaileen caught it, and her eyes sparkled with delight when she felt the gems and spirals that danced around the silver chain. “It’s wonderful.”
Dickson shared the sentiment. They’d never quite figured out what was special about the silly little thing – besides, of course, the bizarre heat it radiated at all times. There were thousands of trinkets like this throughout the galaxy, but the Balec artifact was the one that Vena simply couldn’t live without. He hadn’t understood it then and he didn’t understand it now, but he didn’t feel like dwelling on it any longer.
“It’s yours now,” Dickson said, reaching into his pocket and retrieving the metal disk. He slid it into a small receiver jutting out of the wall nearby. Shila’s face appeared gratefully on the display screen next to it, but said nothing. Dickson continued, “You guys all earned it. We share our treasures – and Vena refused to. I don’t like the way things turned out today, but at least we can part with everything made right.”
Gallagher, who had taken the artifact and was studying it carefully, nearly dropped it in his rush to glare at the captain. “What do you mean, ‘made right’? She shot you! Nothing is right until we set her straight!”
“I don’t want you going to get vengeance for me. What’s done is done, and we need to put it all behind us.”
“Whatcha’ gonna do, boss?” Hopo asked. “Ya’ gonna retire, o’ ya’ gonna go find da
’ bitch?”
“Please stop calling her that,” Dickson admonished.
Shila’s holographic face rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? He loves her. He’s going after her, and not in order to beat her up.”
Gaileen sneered. “You think he loves someone who shot him in an open area and left him to the IPP?”
“Love is a stupid thing.”
“Everyone shut up!” Dickson shouted. “I just need to talk to her. I need to…I need to set things straight, and I don’t need to hurt her to do it. I…I miss her. I got the artifact back for our team because that was fair to you, but now I-”
“Captain,” Gallagher interrupted mildly, “I think I speak for all of us when I say this: If you’re going to put yourself in danger, than your crew is going to be there alongside you.”
Hopo and Gaileen nodded emphatically. Shila just smiled.
“Aren’t I supposed to be the captain around here?” Dickson asked, though his tone was teasing. He’d already agreed to their ‘demands’.
“Hey, we just want to make sure that you still have a chance to retire some day,” Gallagher commented.
“Ain’t much of a rest if you’re dead,” Gaileen added.
“Maybe we ain’t ready for da’ fun ta’ end jast’ yet,” Hopo chimed in.
Dickson shook his head. “Alright, then, one more adventure before the boots get hung up for real. If you’re all still my crew, then get to your stations. We’re going to be taking off and following the Daaé as soon as we’re out of visual range of the station. Be ready to drop the cloak right before we activate the multi-phase engines. You all know what to do – let’s go!”
His crew rushed off in various directions to get the old rig flying again. Dickson watched them go with gratitude and admiration, though he’d never allow such sentiments openly. It was bad for business for a captain of space pirates to get emotional with his ‘lackies’.
“You know,” Dickson said, returning his attention to Shila’s display, “you really need to disconnect yourself from the station before they follow you right into the Punjab.”
“Oh, I already did,” Shila replied cheerfully. “I already made myself about four hundred backup identities should I ever need access again.”
“Always thinking, aren’t you?” Dickson said, smiling.
Shila smiled back, but said nothing. Ten minutes later, GI2 was just a speck in the distance behind them. The Arterian camouflage melted away to reveal the terrifying Punjab Lasso moments before it screamed off into the great abyss of space. One navigation employee - a young, curious intern named Gij – saw the ship on his long-range sensors for just a second before it was gone. It was an unexplained mystery as to where it had come from and where it was going, and the IPP quietly buried the story before innocent civilians found out how close the terrifying Punjab Lasso space pirates had come to their beloved home.