“And yet you ended up with a job where you run around with guns and fly off to distant planets,” the guard snorted. “Maybe you should give it a shot sometime.”
Kaiden somehow managed to keep his face neutral, but he had to admit to himself that he was impressed with Chiyo’s ability to lie so easily and thoroughly.
“I’ll keep these for now,” the man said as he found a small box and placed the contacts within. “But I’ll say it was smart of you to hand them over. It will spare you from having something unfortunate happen.” He spun and addressed the other guards. “All right, boys, let’s take them in so we can get to business.”
After another pat-down and going through a scanner, both Chiyo and Kaiden were cleared to enter the facility. He expected it to resemble a jail or barracks but it looked more like a reconfigured business center. For one thing, they passed a spacious lobby on the way to the elevators with a stature of a devil bird in the center. He grimaced involuntarily. It seemed that even in deep space, he couldn’t get rid of those things.
“I can see you guys live the spartan life out here,” Kaiden commented. One of the guards looked back and mumbled harshly but the others tried to tune him out. “Nice atmosphere and all, but I know you guys have to deal with the harsh stuff and probably only get lobster on Fridays and beds with only sheets that are only one thousand thread count. It’s gotta be the pits.”
“You should shut that smart mouth of yours,” the irate man warned. “We’ve had to deal with things you probably couldn’t begin to understand.”
“Oh, I’m sure the scientists get uppity from time to time, asking for you to hand them microscopes, lenses, or fetch samples and all that. Real man’s work.” He could see another guard bristle. If they intended to waste his time, he would have a little fun. “I also heard about the man-eating plants. You must have guns filled with poison or plasma garden sheers. You can’t go out and deal with such a menace without the best equipment, right?”
“I’ll have you know that we’ve lost good men to this damn jungle,” the third guard retorted.
“Well, you know, we will all be food for the plants one day. I guess your boys were more proactive. Tree huggers, probably.”
The man turned, snatched Kaiden by the front of his suit, and glared at him through his visor. He returned the menace with a disinterested stare. “You know what? I expected you to lose your shitty little attitude once you realized where you were.”
“Yes. The mood lighting and clean floor has really instilled the fear of God within me.” He pulled back and the guard’s grip tightened.
The man addressed his colleagues. “You boys take the girl to the interrogation room. I’ll look after this one.”
“How kind of you. Could you get my bags?”
The guard dragged him farther down the hallway before he kicked a door open and hauled him up the stairs. “Good idea,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Make sure to have Capers bring up the case with this guy’s goods. I wanna talk shop with him.”
With that, the door closed. The other men looked at one another and shrugged. One instructed Capers on his comms to take the confiscated items to what he called the treatment room. Chiyo simply sighed and shook her head.
The guard shoved Kaiden onto a metal slab and pushed a button on the side that cuffed his arms and legs to it. The ace observed the various devices and pointy things aimed toward him. “I take it this is the suite?”
“Of a kind.” The man’s tone seemed more jovial and even morbidly excited. He walked over to a console and pressed a button, and the devices over Kaiden came to life. With a grin, he pressed another and leaned forward. “Send the doctor in asap,” he ordered. His expression smug, he leaned back and folded his arms. “So, allow me to be a gracious host.”
“You’ve done great so far,” Kaiden mocked and managed to give an okay sign with his entrapped hands.
“This is our treatment room. It’s where we bring people when the normal stuff doesn’t really work,” he explained and gestured to various instruments. “When one of our guests needs a little extra pampering to make them more cooperative, they spend a little time in here. Usually, it takes a few days before we resort to this, but I decided that you needed this treatment right away.”
“I’m sure that was kind of you,” Kaiden responded and examined all the various painful-looking prongs and prods above him. “Maybe we could work something out. I have my own questions, after all.”
“So now you’re suddenly not such a smartass,” his captor scolded, placed his hands on the console, and tilted his head. “I didn’t bring you in here to shoot the shit. You will answer me.”
“If it’s how I get my hair so nice, I use a shampoo with selenium sulfide. It makes it shiny and flake-free.”
“I want to know why you and your little gal pal are here on our planet,” he demanded brusquely and slammed the console for emphasis.
“We already told everyone who would listen that we didn’t want to be here. Our ship crashed and we came to the outpost looking for parts,” Kaiden reiterated. “If you won’t pay attention, what’s the point with me bothering to tell you anything?”
The man cursed but cut it short when a door slid open behind him. He looked back while Kaiden craned his neck to look over his shoulder. A woman in a dark coat with a grey blouse and pants walked in. Her dark hair was wound in a bun and hazel eyes glimmered with EI lenses. She walked in followed by an autonomous trolley with a case on top of it.
“Hello, Wilson,” she greeted the guard. “I ran into Capers on the way here and he asked me to bring this to you since I was on the way.”
“Nice to see you, Doc. I have a patient here you need to look over.” The man walked past her, opened the crate, and rifled though it before he removed Debonair. “Hopefully, you don’t break him too bad. I wanna try out my new guns on some live target practice.”
She took a seat at the console at looked at Kaiden with a playful wave. “And how are you doing this afternoon?”
“It’s been a rather exhausting half-hour,” he admitted. “So, do we talk about my feelings or will you give me a checkup?”
“I’m not that kind of doctor, dear,” she stated calmly and placed a finger on one of the screens. In response, one of the instruments slid closer to him and placed its forked prongs on the right side of his chest. It emitted a sharp sound, much like static, and immense pain followed as electricity surged through him.
“I know much about the body, but that’s what makes me so good at torture,” she explained as she raised her finger and stopped the device. “That part of your chest is mostly muscle. It’s quite painful, of course, but it won’t compromise your internal systems—at least, not without a few more amps.”
“Now that’s a good snippet of trivia.” Kaiden wheezed and tried to remain aware but the shock seemed to have clouded his head. He needed to hurry and steer the conversation to get what he was looking for. Otherwise, this would swing quickly in their favor. “I told you that we aren’t here to invade or steal anything. What do you want to know?”
“We originally thought you were mercs, but you flew WC marks,” the guard stated and twirled Debonair with his finger.
“Yeah, and you keep saying this is WC space, so why are you acting like such a bastard?”
“Juice him again,” the man ordered and the doctor slid her finger over the screen again.
“Oh, come on. No—humph—” A bar slid over Kaiden’s moth to muffle his cry as another shock was administered. When it was done, the mouthpiece was removed.
“The truth is that this place is WC territory only in theory. We received a rather nice chunk of creds and equipment from a local operation—a real mom and pop joint. They’re called the Dead Space Crew. Maybe you’ve heard of them?” The guard stopped twirling the gun and aimed it at Kaiden. “Because they are looking for you.”
“Word…gets around…I guess,” Kaiden said between staggered breaths. “The scientists are in on th
is to?”
“Ha! They certainly weren’t consulted about it at all, but what the hell are they gonna do?” Wilson chortled. “We control all the safety systems, and to send a message to even the closest off-world station has a four-minute upload time. We can catch it and stop it in half a minute. This place is basically our playground now.”
“At least until I report it to the WC. I’m sure they’ll respond well knowing that their own people betrayed them. The Tsuna might want a couple of words as well,” Kaiden reminded him.
The doctor looked at the guard, who simply placed his free hand on his waist. “That ain’t gonna happen. We’re doing this to get whatever info we can out of you and the bitch to hand over to the pirates. Anything else beyond that is up to us. Maybe we can get some good cash if we put you up for slavery.”
Kaiden leaned up as much as his cuffs would permit. “Funny you would call my partner a bitch, because that’s probably what she’s making your friends down below.” Kaiden gave a sly smile. “And what I’m about to make you too.”
The lights in the room flickered and both the doctor and the guard looked around for a moment in confusion before the lights turned off completely.
“What’s going on?” she asked and her tone betrayed real anxiety.
“I don’t know. Hit every button and kill him before he—why isn’t this gun working?”
Within the darkness, the scientist heard something heavy crash repeatedly into the console. She fell out of her chair and backed away along the floor. The lights came back on and Kaiden now held Debonair, his back to her, and the guard lay unconscious on the floor.
“Did he really think there wouldn’t be a lock on my own gun?” he muttered and placed his thumb on the backplate of the weapon until a green light appeared and the gun primed. The doctor tried to stand in order to sneak away, but he grabbed her arm quickly. “Let’s not be so hasty. I still have questions, Doc, and your buddy is…” Kaiden glanced at the guard on the ground. “He’s indisposed, so let’s chat for a while, but this time, you’ll be in the big char.”
“So I had my EI sneak into the systems through the console, which gave him control of the lights and the devices and all that. Ya’ll really need to get stronger security. He was able to get inside within ten seconds and I only have two talent points in remote hacking.” Kaiden finished his explanation as he put on the last of his armor, placed Debonair in its holster and his rifle on his back, and took his helmet in his hands.
He walked over to the console. The doctor was strapped to the table with the mouth bar active, and he leaned against it. “Now the console itself isn’t in the best shape considering your buddy’s head ran into it a few times, but it’s working well enough that Chief can still work all the little doodads above you.” Two of the prongs snipped at her for emphasis and she flinched visibly. “Now then, I have a few minutes before I have to leave and, like I said there’s a couple more things I want to know before I head out.” The mouth bar was removed as he pointed to the instruments, “So will we do this the nice way or not? Keep in mind that I don’t really know the specifics of the human body like you do so I’ll have to spin the wheel and see what happens.”
Chapter Five
“Hey, Chiyo, are you there?” Kaiden asked once he’d put his helmet on. He began to leave the room, the doctor still strapped and gagged on the table.
“You remembered to open a private line this time,” she responded. “I’m happy to see that you are learning as well.”
“Fits and bursts,” he conceded and tried to activate the pad to open the door but to no avail. He pointed to it so Chief could get it open. “So how long did it take you to take care of your guys?”
“Only a couple of minutes. They weren’t very forthcoming with any intel, so I borrowed an idea of Genos’ from his coop test. I locked their helmets and turned their oxygen supply off.”
“Ah, classic.” Kaiden looked at the panel where a red light blinked. “Have you already done your thing, Chiyo? Chief can’t get into the door.”
“I’ve accessed simple systems and tried to get into defensive systems, so I may have temporarily deactivated some switches in their base. I’ll get them working in a moment,” she explained. “Once I’m done, I need to grab my gear. I have a map of the building and I’ll send it to you with a rendezvous location and a pathway.”
“You have all the goodies.” Kaiden flipped a hand to tell Chief to return to the HUD. “What do you think you can do to this place? Do they have a group of bots you can take over?”
“Sadly, nothing so extravagant,” she stated, “They don’t have much in the way of interior defenses except for the staff. I’ll make sure that they don’t send the place into lockdown but there aren’t many turrets or any bots around to use to our advantage.”
“On the plus side, that means less to worry about, I suppose,” he reasoned and drew his rifle as Chiyo’s map appeared in his visor. “Why is your path so roundabout? It tells me to take the back door. If I go through the front door I can cut across the hall and up the stairs.”
“Yes, but if you do that—” Kaiden hit the pad as Chiyo tried to explain herself.
The door opened and he was greeted by four guards who aimed rifles at him. “ It’s all right, I got the picture.” He pushed on the pad again and slammed the door shut. After a moment’s thought, he shot it to lock it in place as he turned to go out the other way. Blasts struck the door from the outside as he left.
Chiyo sighed as she overheard Kaiden’s blunder. She continued to work on the systems while her EI looked for any information in the database that could prove useful.
“Kaitō, when you’re done, would you please contact Genos and give him our location?”
“Certainly, madame, this is almost complete. Do you think he will be able to meet up with you on foot?”
“It’s doubtful, but he can start to make his way here for us to pick him up.”
“Pick him up?”
She nodded. “They have a hanger with two ships capable of space travel. We can take both or sabotage one and take the other. Then we can get off this planet and start the real mission.”
“Ah, I have good news on that front,” Kaitō stated. “I am still searching through the last batch of files, but I did find communication between these guards and the Dead Space Crew, a pirate clan in this system and the ones you are pursuing. I was able to find details on their station and its location.”
“Well done, Kaitō,” Chiyo complimented as she deactivated the lockdown sequence and froze it while she disarmed the outside aerial turrets. “That will be a big boon for us.”
“I am glad to be of service, madame, and will finish in thirty seconds.” With that, he disappeared as Chiyo pressed a key to unlock a safe behind her. She walked over and withdrew the case within, unlocked it, and retrieved her armor. She put it on and looked at a large vent in the room with a resigned sigh. Ever since she started working with Kaiden, she had climbed through more of these than she would ever like.
“You guys can stop now, really!” Kaiden shouted at a group of guards as they fired down the hallway at him. “This is why I think negotiation is bull.”
“You haven’t exactly made a strong case,” Chief chided.
“That’s not my strong suit either. And no, I’m not gonna put points in it.” Kaiden felt in his grenade holder and removed one of the explosives. “Oh, a thermal. Good thing we don’t have to worry about collateral damage.” He activated it and held the switch down to let it cook for a moment before he rolled it along the floor under the guards’ laser fire.
“Look out! Explo—” The man didn’t manage to finish his warning before the thermal went off, ended the guards’ assault, and allowed Kaiden to continue. He ran past another defender, who attempted to raise his rifle, and he stepped on the wounded man’s helmet and shoved him down as he increased his pace.
“According to Chiyo’s map, you’ll meet up in a room right next to this building’s
hanger,” Chief informed him. “It looks like we have a ride.”
“Speaking of that, I wonder how Genos is doing. Do you think we should get in touch?” He slid to the corner of the wall and peered cautiously around to see two guards sprinting in his direction.
“He’s too far to link him into the private channel, but it looks like Chiyo already hailed him.”
“She’s on the ball on this mission.” Kaiden knelt and leaned out into the hall to fire two blasts from his rifle. One struck a guard in his chest and created a smoldering crater in his armor as he fell to his knees. The other landed at the feet of the next guard and knocked him back into the window. The glass shattered and he fell to the jungle floor below. The other man’s body toppled into the opposite wall. “This is a damn good gun.”
“That’s the one Wolfson got you, right?”
“Yeah, it’s called a HIII-BXG. Yeah, it doesn’t really roll off the tongue. I think I’ll simply call it ‘Sire.’”
“That certainly has a respectable sound to it,” Chief agreed.
“I’ll call it that since the ones who are shot by it can’t.” He chuckled. “Where to next?”
Chief widened the map on his visor. “It looks like she’s updated it with guard placements. Unless you wanna hold her up, you’ll want to head to the stairs on the right down the hall.”
“I’m tempted to get some extra points but I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity at the station,” Kaiden reasoned, albeit a little regretfully. “Let’s get going.”
“Kaiden, are you there?” Chiyo asked, her voice slightly blurred over the comms.
“I’m here—almost to the map’s waypoint,” he responded.
“Do you mind if I change it?” she asked.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. His visor blinked red on his left and he spun and fired instinctively. The blast eliminated a guard who came around the corner.
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