by Mel Odom
The male clerk came over to Noojin, switching his attention to the street, then back to her. “What happened out there? Did someone get shot? Did the Terrans kill someone else?”
Ignoring the man and running to the counter area, Noojin spotted the red fire extinguisher tank clipped to one of the shelves. One of the rules the Quass enforced was having firefighting equipment on hand. Fire was the chief fear of Makaum people because it could rip through the whole sprawl once it got established.
Ducking under the counter, Noojin grabbed the fire extinguisher and freed it from the clips.
The clerk rushed at her. “What are you—?”
Noojin ducked his outstretched hands and ran for the door. With the arrival of the offworlders and the construction of so many plascrete buildings in the sprawl, everyone had learned quickly how careless the newcomers were with fire. Extinguishers had enjoyed a big market from the beginning.
Noojin brandished the fire extinguisher like a battering ram. “Out of the way! Out of the way!”
A tall, spindly Nygend stood his ground stubbornly. Leathery purple skin covered his too-thin body. A snarl twisted his lips and revealed hooked canine fangs. He held out a large, three-fingered hand that looked more like a swonal’s clawed foot and could have wrapped Noojin’s face with ease.
“Stop pushing, anof.” His voice came from a small, flat translator grafted under his chin, which meant he was probably a merchant who had to deal with different languages on a regular basis.
Noojin didn’t know what an anof was, but she didn’t like the alien’s physical attitude even though the translator made him sound pleasant. The computerized voice was bait, like the dangler on a lerildo at the edge of a creek.
Pulling the extinguisher back, Noojin drove the bottom into the alien’s face with all her strength, not willing to take chances. As the alien fell, she couldn’t believe what she was doing because of Jahup. He was going to hear about it when he, if he—
Let him be alive!
Other pedestrians who had heard the clunk of the extinguisher meeting flesh got out of Noojin’s way, parting like a river surface when a jasulild chose to breach for an attack on an ildyr that flew too close to the water.
Jahup wasn’t moving when Noojin reached him, and fire still covered him. Almost sobbing, her hands not obeying her quickly enough, she managed to ready the extinguisher and direct the chemical spray over him. She started at his head and came down to his feet. Instantly, the foam swelled and turned bright blue as the chemicals sought out the flames and quenched them.
When the extinguisher emptied, Noojin tossed it aside and threw herself on her knees beside Jahup’s head. She brushed at the foam and knocked it from his faceshield.
“Jahup!”
He lay so still she couldn’t bear it. Memories of all the mean things she’d said to him came back at her. She hadn’t talked to him for days. She’d ignored him when he’d tried to speak to her. How could she do that to him?
Her hands grew slick with the foam. She leaned close and tried to peer through the fire-blackened faceshield. For a moment, she thought she saw him lying there like he was sleeping, his eyes closed. Then she grew just as certain that he was dead.
“Jahup!”
She seized his helmet and tried to find the manual catches, but the foam made everything slippery and the surface burned her hands. She wanted to scream in frustration.
Hands closed around her shoulders and pulled her away. She fought against them, but they were too strong. Then she realized an armored soldier was holding her.
“Easy, Noojin. Take it easy. Same side, remember?” Corporal Vaughn cleared his faceshield so she could see him.
He was probably five years older than her and was from some place called Ireland back on Terra. His skin was a warm brown and he had an accent that was pleasing to the ear.
Noojin nodded. “Jahup was on fire. I put it out.”
Another soldier was kneeling beside Jahup and working on him. “His suit isn’t responding. It’s shut down.”
Vaughn released Noojin but didn’t take his hands back. “Stay here. Understood? Stay here and let us do our job.”
Trembling, sick to her stomach, not knowing if it was because Jahup might be dead or if it was because she’d killed a man so cold-bloodedly, Noojin nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself and somehow stayed back.
Vaughn placed a hand on Jahup’s scorched chest armor. “His oxygen is off. Suit shut it down to prevent possible combustion, mate.”
“The manual releases aren’t working.” The other soldier tugged on Jahup’s helmet to prove his point.
“Okay. I have an idea. Give me room, mate.”
The younger soldier stepped back. His faceshield was still dark and Noojin couldn’t see his face when she grabbed him by the arm.
“Is he all right?”
The soldier pushed at her hand to free himself. “Step back, miss.”
“It’s okay, Tyler. She’s one of us. Out of uniform this morning, is all.” Vaughn extricated a drill bit from his waist kit and attached it to one of his fingers. “This is one of her mates.”
Tyler stopped pushing and cleared his faceshield. He was older than Noojin, but he was still young. Heavy beard growth showed on his cheeks and he looked worn. “Sorry. Jahup’s med suite is dead. I can’t get any readings. I don’t know how he is.”
Noojin held herself together with effort, reminding herself of how many times Jahup had disappeared in the jungle when things had gone wrong on a hunt. She hadn’t known where he was or what condition he was in during those times either.
Except those times she hadn’t seen him lying somewhere so lifeless.
EIGHT
Styx Spaceport
South of Makaum Sprawl
1109 Hours Zulu Time
“I have the target, Echo Leader. Can you confirm?”
Kiwanuka stood in the shade of a large hangar and tracked Rakche Darrantia’s progress across the tarmac. The Voreusk mechanic piloted a battered open-bed crawler through the cargo handlers waiting to load suborbital transfer ships with goods taken from Makaum.
Kiwanuka left the hangar and strode across the tarmac. It wasn’t unusual to see Terran military working security there these past few weeks. “Echo Leader has the target, Echo Six. Let’s close it in.”
Guarding the spaceports was another reason they’d been spread so thin. Fort York had been placed there to create a presence and up the ante for the Phrenorians and (ta)Klar, either of whom would have drained Makaum in one way or another. Now Charlie Company was taking care of so many things that they were hard-pressed to take care of themselves.
With as much cargo as the planet was exporting, the populace would have been rich. With the way boom economics worked, though, prices in the shops and bars ate through those profits. When all the dust settled, there would be a few people made wealthy by the trade, usually the greedy ones on a planet who could wheedle their way into power among their friends and neighbors. Once the boom was over, those wealthy could choose to stay, but most of them left their birth planets and the poor were left with the remnants of what those worlds had been.
The behavior wasn’t anything new. Kiwanuka had seen it happen to emerging countries in Africa, and on some of the planets where she’d served. War with the Phrenorians could be profitable for a neutral planet in the right place.
Of course, that planet didn’t get to remain neutral for long once the Phrenorians claimed them. From boom to bust, from wealth to slavery, all of that happened as soon as treaty or force pulled the Terran military out of an area.
Kiwanuka didn’t want that to happen to Makaum. The people here were innocents. The planet was a good place to live. In Kiwanuka’s experience, it didn’t seem like a lot of those populated worlds still existed unspoiled. She knew that was something she shared with Sage. Both of them came from places filled with violence, and they both wanted to make a difference here.
Thinking about Sage made h
er feel guilty because he would have wanted to be here so she stopped and focused on Darrantia.
Kiwanuka took a roundabout path in Darrantia’s direction. The mechanic had piloted a small suborbital down from her ship, which had not turned up in the logbooks yet. Kiwanuka didn’t have access to all of them. That was where Corporal Veug, the electronics intelligence specialist assigned to her team, was going to come in.
“Echo Four,” Kiwanuka said, “tell me you have something.”
“I’m trying.” The frown was evident in Veug’s tone. “Whoever hardened the encryption on their comm software was really good.”
Darrantia stopped her crawler by a suborbital bearing a Cheelchan flag.
Kiwanuka’s hackles immediately rose because Cheelcha was a planet of outlaws. Their primary vice was smuggling. They hammered out cheap ships, staffed them with cutthroat crew, and went after every illegal cargo they could get their hands on.
She cursed. She and Sage had already had one encounter with a Cheelchan crew when they’d pursued Ellen Hodgkins offplanet. In addition to being smugglers, the Cheelchans had a strong sense of community. They talked to each other. A lot. Word about Hodgkins’s apprehension had had plenty of time to spread.
Four Cheelchan crewmen stood outside their open cargo bay like they had nothing better to do. Wearing dark maroon jumpers, they looked like most of the other support crews at the space dock, busy but not too busy. Kiwanuka knew they would be better armed than most other crews.
Darrantia walked over to the group and entered the conversation.
“Echo Four,” Kiwanuka said, “can you get me aud on that conversation?”
“Roger that, but they may know as soon as I light them up.”
“Affirmative. In about four more steps, this isn’t going to be a surprise anymore anyway. Light them up.”
Almost instantly, a laser eavesdropper from Veug’s position touched Darrantia and her crowd. All sound waves in the area transmitted back along the laser beam.
“. . . got it in the back,” Darrantia was saying, jerking a thumb over her shoulder toward her crawler, “but the price has gone up.”
One of the Cheelchans folded his arms and spat in disgust. He shook his head. “We offered what we offered. If you’re not going to take it, we’ll look somewhere else till we can find the price we want.”
Darrantia shrugged. “Sure. It’s no pinfeathers off my hump, but you guys are going to lose credits while you’re sitting here.”
The Cheelchans looked at each other. Finally, the one doing the talking cursed. “Fine, thief. We’ll pay your price.”
Darrantia smiled with that narrow mouth Voreuskans had. “No need to get a bad attitude. It’s not my fault you can’t make friends.”
One of the other Cheelchans pulled a device from his jumper pocket and nudged his superior with a shoulder.
“Okay, Echo Leader,” Veug said, “we’re blown.”
“That’s fine. Let’s close it up.” Kiwanuka strode straight at the group and slipped the sling on her assault rifle around so she could grab it quickly. “Remember, I want the target alive, and I don’t want this turned into a bloodbath.”
There was already enough bad press coming from the dustup Jahup and his partner were in only minutes ago. Kiwanuka had stayed in the loop only tangentially.
Slowly, probably practiced from years of harassment on dozens of planets, Darrantia turned around to face Kiwanuka and looked casual. She put her hands in her pockets. “Good morning. Is there something I can do for you?”
Kiwanuka looked up at the alien and felt like she was being eyed by a predatory avian. “Staff Sergeant Kiwanuka of the Terran Army. We’re going to search your cargo.”
“I’m not subject to Terran authority.”
“No, but this spaceport is.”
“This spaceport is neutral territory.”
“Not anymore. We’ve been tasked with keeping the peace.”
“I’m peaceful. I haven’t been anything but peaceful.” Evidently Darrantia had a sense of humor that matched her confidence.
Kiwanuka produced a set of wrist restraints and dangled them from her left hand. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
Darrantia acted like she couldn’t believe it. “You’re arresting me? For what?”
“Receivership of stolen goods for starters. We’ll work out the list as we go. Now turn around or the corporal here will shock you into insensibility.”
Veug pressed the activation stud on his shokton and blue electricity crackled along the baton.
Kiwanuka didn’t like the fact that she couldn’t read the alien’s face, but the Voreuskan’s body language had definitely tensed.
“However you want to do this,” Kiwanuka said, “you’re coming with me.”
“All right.” Removing her hands from her pockets, Darrantia pitched a small sphere toward Kiwanuka’s feet.
Before Kiwanuka had time to react, could only begin to curse herself for being so careless as to be so close to the Voreuskan without taking physical control of her, the sphere exploded.
Red Light District
Makaum Sprawl
1112 Hours Zulu Time
The drill at the end of Vaughn’s gloved finger shoved against Jahup’s faceshield whined in a high-pitched shriek as it bit into the material. Smoke wound up from the contact and, for a moment, Noojin feared that the fire would reignite.
Seconds later, Vaughn pulled his hand away. For a space, nothing happened. Then a lingering wisp of smoke curled in through the hole in the faceshield.
Vaughn stood. “He’s breathing. That’s a good sign.”
A moment later, a cargo crawler with flashing lights and a blaring horn rounded the end of the street and tried to get through the crowd. Most of the pedestrians got out of the way, but several Makaum men remained in the street and blocked the way.
“Move.” Vaughn’s PA-assisted order reverberated between the buildings. “Let the emergency vehicle through.”
One of the men stepped to the front of the group. His expensively tailored Makaum clothing made him stand out from the others. He wore royal green and emerald silks. He was tall and fair-haired, something that wasn’t often seen on Makaum, and wore a short beard that made him look only slightly older than he was. He was handsome, but there was a cruel arrogance to him.
Seeing him better now, Noojin recognized him as Throzath, the eldest son of Tholak. Tholak was a member of the Quass and had always been jealous of Quass Leghef’s popularity among the people.
Throzath glared at the Terran military soldiers and ignored the way the medical crawler bleated at him. “I choose not to move. This is our home, offworlder.” He pointed to Oeldo’s body lying only a short distance away. “You come here and shoot our people down in the streets and expect us to kiss your boots.”
The men and women around him hurled curses at the Terran military.
“We’re not going to take it anymore,” Throzath said. “We’re going to arm ourselves and defend ourselves the way we’ve been doing since we first landed on Makaum.”
Around him, his band of followers cheered and incited the surrounding crowd to join in. Many of them did, and it wasn’t just the Makaum among them. Offworlder shopkeepers and workers joined in as well. All of them had something to gain if the Terran military presence was pulled back to just the fort and the soldiers could no longer monitor them as closely.
Throzath spread his hands and smiled. “If you want to get your soldier out of here, ask us to allow it. Or maybe you want to shoot more of us this morning.”
Vaughn hesitated, and Noojin guessed he was in contact with the fort seeking direction.
Thinking about Jahup lying there, maybe cooked to the bone inside the heated armor, Noojin scrambled over to where Tanest’s Roley lay. She wasn’t moving either, but Tyler had checked her and seemed satisfied she was all right.
Noojin picked up the Roley and pressed the code into the keypad that released the weap
on’s operation. Her unarmored hands were small on the rifle, but she checked the load manually, saw that it was full, and strode out into the middle of the street from behind the two Terran military soldiers.
Several nearby pedestrians saw her and pushed back into the crowd to get clear of the situation.
Grimly, Noojin fired a short burst into the air. The rapid-fire detonations quieted all conversation. Silence rolled in like a tide. Looking straight into Throzath’s eyes, Noojin leveled the rifle at him.
“Get out of the way, Throzath. Otherwise I’m going to shoot you where you stand. After that, I’m going to shoot anyone following you who’s still standing there.” Noojin couldn’t believe the calm that had settled over her, and she knew she meant every word she said.
Tyler took a step toward her, but Vaughn held the young man back with a hand.
Throzath smiled, looked at the crowd, and sought support. After he saw they were still there, he turned back to Noojin. “Do you really expect me—”
Noojin squeezed the trigger.
Blam!
The bullet cored through Throzath’s left leg and struck one of the men behind him. The man went down, howling in surprise and pain. The bullet had flattened somewhat when it had struck Throzath and had spread its residual velocity across the second man.
Noojin had seen the same effect in the jungle when they were taking meat from a flock or a herd. Lining up shots had been necessary when gunpowder and bullets had been hard to come by.
White-faced and incredulous, Throzath looked down at the hole in his pants and the blood that stained the spidersilk in a growing pattern. He tried to take a step and his leg gave way beneath him.
Noojin aimed the rifle at one of the men beside Throzath. “Have your friends pick those two up and get them out of the street or I’ll shoot you next.”
The man turned to his friends and spoke rapidly. A half dozen of them lifted Throzath and the other wounded man and carried them away. The street cleared quickly after that.
Tyler reached for Noojin. “Maybe you should let me have that weapon.”