Broken Episode One

by Odette C. Bell

  Chapter 12

  Where the hell had she gotten to? He was starting to get worried now. Not for her safety, but for his. If word spread that he abandoned the daughter of Theodore Chester on a hostile planet, he’d be a goner.

  His hands were slicked with sweat, and the damn stuff was pooling between his shoulder blades, making his top stick to his skin. Even though night had set in, and that familiar icy cold you always found in deserts like this ate into his exposed skin, nothing dried the sweat.

  He was nervous. He’d given up a lot to get to where he was now, and he wasn’t going to lose it on a girl like her.

  A while ago he’d ditched his casual clothes for something more fitting: a vest, pants, a top, and heavy desert boots. Oh, and guns. Lots of guns. As a special commander, he had access to an unlimited supply of Coalition credits, meaning he could buy his way out of any problem, if it came to that. Okay, it didn’t work that way – the credits were there when he needed emergency supplies or transport – but sometimes it felt like he’d been given a blank check, as the old humans used to say. He had an unlimited credit chip in his pocket, and today it had come in real handy.

  He had a desert rifle strapped to his back, and two short-range rock razors on his hips. Both types of guns were optimized to work on planets like this. From the heat to the constant abrasive sand, they were designed to last for years, with proper care.

  He’d also invested in a scanner. A certain type of illegal scanner. Or at least illegal if you didn’t work for the Coalition Army. Strapped to his wrist was a gene tracker. Give it the right data, and it could track someone for thousands of kilometers. While it was a crime for an ordinary punter to procure one, they were used in the Academy and the Army, but even then you had to justify their use.

  Well, he was a special commander, and the word “special” was there for a reason. Not only would the Coalition not give a hoot that he bought one, they’d probably never question what he used it for. He had a lot of freedom, but it came with a lot of responsibility.

  “You better not have wandered far,” he muttered under his breath. He’d been repeating that same statement for about a half hour now. He still hadn’t found her, though, hence the sweaty fingers.

  Gripping his chin and letting his dirty fingers dig into his stubble, he shifted his jaw from side to side as he tried to eke out the tension.

  It didn’t work.

  Only getting off this hellhole would.

  He tried to manipulate the scanner as he walked. It was tricky – considering it was a sophisticated piece of equipment – but he managed it.

  It wasn’t too hard to find a few fragments of Mimi’s DNA – she’d grabbed his arm just before wandering off, and this scanner was sophisticated enough to detect whatever minute fractions of skin cells she’d left behind. It took all of half a minute to confirm the DNA had to be hers; it was human, and apart from him, she was the only human he’d come across.

  He started to follow, keeping the scanner held close to his chest so he could hide it with the bulk of his sleeve. It was an expensive piece of equipment, and he wouldn’t put it past some random alien to make a grab for it. Nor would he put it past the guy who sold it to him to try to nick it back.

  When Josh had crash-landed on a planet like this 7 years ago, he’d run the same scheme. He’d sold sophisticated tech to the dull-witted, then stolen it back, ensuring a steady stream of income without the bother of having to procure more stock.

  The memory made him smile, then he caught himself – he was a different man now. God dammit, he was a different man.

  Ideally, a DNA scanner could be used to track a laced target. You’d get close to your prey in a bar or transport station, sidle up to them, and bump into their arm or neck, transferring a sophisticated but undetectable chemical tracer onto their skin. The DNA scanner would use the tracer to keep a lock on the target for up to hundreds of kilometers, depending on the terrain.

  He hadn’t laced Mimi, so his only hope was to carefully retrace her steps using the weak DNA signature the scanner was picking up. Tracing whatever tiny fractions of skin or hair she’d left behind as she’d traveled through this city, the DNA scanner could ascertain her path, but only within a few meters.

  Josh hated slow work. He lived for action, not details, and work like this had to be damn precise. If he hurried ahead, the scanner could lose its link, and he’d have to search for it again. When you thought about it, it was trying to sift through the enormous mountain of DNA in this city – from live beings to dead hair cells – to zero in on one target.

  The more he walked, the further his brow compressed, as the irritation of having to track Mimi flickered into worry.

  His path was taking him to the outskirts of town.

  When she’d first wandered off, he’d assumed she’d be dumb enough to walk up to the first rickety old transport hub she saw and try to buy a lift off this planet.

  All the transport hubs were in the center of town.

  The only thing on the outskirts of this trash heap of a city was sand. Sand and the kind of pirates desperate enough to try to make a living off the desert.

  Over the thousands of years of space travel the Milky Way had seen, there’d been untold accidents. For every successful space voyage – especially in the early days – there were ten or so disasters. Space, after all, was an exceedingly dangerous place. If the temperature didn’t kill you, the vacuum would.

  So planets like this were littered with junk. From transport carcasses to old cargo satellites, if you were brave enough to face the desert, it could be a rewarding place.

  Or it could kill you. The extra fine particles of sand on this planet were known to clog guns, stuff up scanners, and kill engines. They were also known to cut people to death if the winds picked up.

  “Where the hell are you?” Josh asked under his breath as his heart skipped a few beats. Turning around a corner, he faced the last few buildings right at the edge of the city. Beyond was nothing but sand. Though it was dark, he could see the dunes connected together like mountain ranges. Mountain ranges that could change in a night if the wind took to them.

  He sucked in a calming breath. It didn’t work. It made him tenser.

  Either the scanner was wrong, or Mimi had… what? Gone back into the desert? He liked to think she was stupid, but he had to admit this was insane even for her. She may not have finished her tenure at the Academy, but surely she’d managed to figure out that deserts like this one could kill you. They weren’t pleasant places for midnight strolls; they were death wrapped in sand, wind, and heat.

  “Looking for someone?”

  Josh jolted as surprise ripped through him. He’d been so transfixed on the scanner and Mimi’s possible whereabouts that he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings.

  Big mistake.

  A planet like this was full of desperate, brutal people just waiting for a chance to kill you if it could earn them a buck or two.

  Thankfully Josh wasn’t immediately shot down in a hail of bright white laser fire. Instead, a small figure pulled itself out of the shadows of a low building to his left. Josh didn’t jump for joy, thinking it was Mimi. While the size was right, the voice wasn’t. Unless she’d done nothing but drink space whiskey for the past four hours while trying her hand at slitting her own throat, it wasn’t her.

  Sure enough, as the figure resolved out of the darkness, he saw it was an Arkba – a short but lithe alien from the Arkba Crescent – a system a long way from here.

  Arkbas had a reputation for creating trouble. Not ordinary trouble, though. They didn’t go into bars and punch the first pirate they saw – they just… started things. They enjoyed mischief. They liked setting in motion unstoppable events, kicking back, and watching the show.

  “Looking for someone?” The alien licked its chin. It had a long black tongue with a red tip, which it constantly used to moisten the sense organ protruding from its chin. Unlike humans, Arkba’s had a third eye �
�� one lodged into their jaw. It was pretty disgusting, or at least it would be if Josh hadn’t seen worse.

  “I can’t say I am, no,” Josh answered. He was lying, but he wasn’t about to engage an Arkba in conversation. Either the guy would try to sell him a faulty cruiser stolen from a pirate king, or he’d find some other way of embroiling Josh in trouble.

  And Josh already had plenty of trouble as it was without adding to it.

  “Human is looking for someone, because someone was looking for human.”

  Though he tried to hide it, Josh stiffened.

  Mimi?

  The Arkba licked his third eye again. He had green scaly skin with deep purple hands and feet. Now, as he likely sensed Josh’s tension, he shuffled forward a few steps.

  The alien came into a shaft of light reflecting from a building to his right. He was naked – like all Arkbas – except for a top pulled over his torso.

  Mimi’s top, to be exact. Josh didn’t need his DNA scanner to blip excitedly – he recognized it on his own.

  His heart tumbled into his chest as if someone had shaken it loose from his rib cage.

  “Human interested. I see human interested.” The alien’s third eye shifted back and forth as it surveyed Josh. “Now, want to know other human’s whereabouts?”

  Josh tried to think quickly. The Arkba had Mimi’s top. It was clear it had come in contact with her. Did it know who she was? Had it run a simple identity scan to confirm she was the only child of Theodore Chester? Was it about to bargain for her release?

  Though Josh’s heart kept pounding in his ears, he realized it was unlikely the Arkba had kidnapped her. While they loved to start trouble, they were never that direct.

  “Human not want to know where other human is? No worries. I’ll tell pirates instead.”

  “Wait.” Josh put up his hand, his fingers so stiff they could snap right off. “Where is she?”

  He watched a slow smile spread across the Arkba’s purple lips. “Desert.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Desert. Bought a sand slider and a story and left 20 minutes ago.”

  “… What? What do you mean she bought a sand slider and a story?”

  “Watched her as she sat at bar.” The Arkba gestured behind Josh to a rundown building that was no doubt the local watering hole. One of the many local watering holes. On a planet like this, there was a bar for every house. Though there’d be sand in your drink, you’d ignore it for the chance to imbibe your worries away.

  “What happened?”

  “She listened as pirates talked about the Black Mass.”

  “Black Mass?”

  The Arkba’s third eye glittered, catching the light coming in from the buildings and looking like a ruby lodged in its chin. “Myth. Story. Legend. Lost ship from First Age.”

  The First Age was a term certain alien races used for the first wave of space travel throughout the Milky Way. Though there were a lot of quality archaeological studies pertaining to the first spacefaring races, the myths outweighed the facts by far.

  The stories told of technology beyond the modern age, of unlimited sources of power – of mysteries and riches that would make a pirate or a down-on-his-luck goon drop everything and wander into a desert on the slim chance of striking the mother load.

  Considering his history, Josh had heard his fair share of First-Age tales. Would Mimi have been dumb enough to believe in one, though?

  “Human female listened to story, then asked pirates where she could buy a sand slider.”

  Josh swallowed. He could just imagine what happened next – the pirates would have taken one look at her, realized she was a hilariously easy target and kidnapped her.

  “Human female bargained hard, got sand slider at good price, bought supplies, fixed stylish hair, and left into the night,” the Arkba finished.

  Josh choked. “Sorry?”

  “Good hair. Arkba impressed.”

  “What? No, you said she bargained for a slider and went into the desert? Why didn’t the pirates…” he trailed off.

  “Human female hard bargainer – pirates respect that.”

  Josh was dumbstruck. Then he shook his head. “We must be talking about different people.”

  “Only human female in city. Must be talking about same person. Small, like Akbar, brown hair like wet rock, blue eyes like plasma exhaust, fat cheeks like Kandor apples.”

  Josh’s stomach sank. That was Mimi, alright.

  “And Mohawk like pirate king.”

  “… Ahhh, what?”

  “Mohawk also win pirates’ respect. Now, human, you want to buy sand slider to go after her?”

  Josh didn’t respond.

  “Or does human still not believe? Well, human, use prohibited DNA scanner to search and confirm.” With a nod like a loose spring, the Arkba stepped graciously out of Josh’s way and gestured to the desert beyond.

  Josh reluctantly pulled up his scanner and set it to search for Mimi again.

  ….

  It soon confirmed that, indeed, her signal continued on into the desert.

  A cold wind started to blow, that, or it just felt like something chilled Josh to the bones.

  “Arkba sell human sand slider at good price. Human go after other human and… all will be good.”

  Josh clenched his jaw.

  This was bad. Everything about this was bad. He was clearly being led into some kind of trap by the Arkba, but what choice did he have? If Mimi had been foolish enough to head into the desert in the middle of the freaking night, he had to follow her. She had an hour max before she crashed her sand slider and froze to death.

  “Good price, human. Just want to help, human, so Arkba give him bargain deal.”

  Josh found himself nodding.

  The Arkba smiled and led Josh forward.

  Out in the desert, the night wolves howled, and as the wind picked up, those super fine particles of dust started to scratch their way into the city. While the breeze and its cutting edge was an irritation to the populace, it would be nothing compared to the roaring winds of the desert. Unshielded, a person could be cut to death in seconds. And even if the sand didn’t get you, the pirates or creatures of the night would.