by J. N. Chaney
I took the badge, an empty sidearm, and a sleeve of bullets from the ensign. These were good, but the first stroke of luck I had was finding the pad in his pocket. It was connected directly to the ship’s network, requiring a fingerprint to unlock the screen. I touched his print to the sensor and swiped. From there, I set the pad to remain unlocked at all times.
I headed for the door but paused when I realized Lex wasn’t beside me.
Turning, I found her standing over the dead lieutenant, looking down at him, her small shoulders hunched.
I stepped closer to her, uncertain of what to say. It was then that I noticed the collar remote in her hand and realized she was staring at the shock device still around the lieutenant’s neck.
“They were going to put it on me. I heard them,” she whispered. “It was for a dog, but they were going to give it to me.”
I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Yeah, they were, but we stopped them. Now we have to go out there and find the rest of them.”
“I didn’t do anything to them. Why can’t they just leave me alone?” she asked, balling her fists.
“Because you’re special, Lex, and they want what you have. But you know what? We’re not going to let them have it. Whatever happens, I’m gonna be right beside you. We’ll get home and you can see Abby and Octavia. Even Hitchens, if you want.” I paused, and she looked up at me with her bright, blue eyes. “I messed up, kid. I know that. They never should’ve been able to find you in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault, Mr. Hughes,” she said, smiling.
I held out my hand for the remote, and she handed it to me. It was cheaply made, and a good throw would likely have destroyed it, but I decided to stow it in my pocket for now, along with the collar. “Let’s take a look at the map and figure out where to head next,” I said.
The final four crew members were likely situated on the bridge. I noticed an armory along the way and included it in our route in hopes that one of the badges we’d confiscated would open it.
“Okay, Lex, your job is to stay in the rear. Let me lead the way. If something happens to me, or I get captured, you run. Got it?” I nodded to the medkit. “How are we looking with that?”
She opened the small box, studying its contents. “There’s not much left,” she said, coming up with a few unused bandages and a pressure syringe of some sort. “This is to make someone go to sleep, in case their pain is too bad.”
“Might come in handy,” I said. “Ready?”
Lex nodded, and I noticed some of her spunk seemed to be missing. Nothing I could do about it now, but it bothered me.
“Let me make sure it’s clear,” I told her, motioning for her to move away from the door. With a slow breath, I cracked it and eyed the hallway. It appeared to be empty, but I eased out just enough to be certain.
It was clear and quiet.
“Let’s move,” I told her.
7
The hallway was empty, but I kept my weapon at my side, ready in case one of those Sarkonian assholes took us by surprise. By now, they had to know that I was on the ship. With only four of them left, they could only cover so much ground, but I was surprised they hadn’t sent anyone else to check on Lex.
We moved down the hallway, keeping to one side, Lex close on my heels. We stopped at each junction so I could make sure the next one was clear. My injury slowed us down, but we still managed to reach the armory without running into anyone.
I retrieved the badges, swiping the first one over the reader. It beeped twice and blinked red, denying entry. None of the other badges had sufficient clearance, either. Damn. I wasn’t surprised, but I had been hopeful. Seconds after attempting the last one, a warning signal blared and the hallway was bathed in red light. The alarm sounded soon after, and I felt my heart began to race. “Shit,” I said, darting my eyes around the corridor. “Where the hell is Siggy when I need him?”
“Mr. Hughes, what’s this mean?” asked Lex, shouting to be heard over the noise of the alarm.
The Sarkonians would be here in seconds and we needed to get the hell out of this hallway. I thought for a second. “It means we’re in a pile of shit if we don’t move,” I told her, taking her hand. “Come on!”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Stick to the plan and head for the bridge,” I answered, pulling her down the hall. We’d have to do with what we had. A shame, considering I was quickly running out of rounds for my revolver. I had about twenty in my jacket, maybe fewer. On a good day, that would be enough, but today? Today I’d have to do it with alarms and bullet wounds.
Oh, and a ten-year-old beside me.
We were only halfway down the hall when the sound of shouts and pounding feet told me we were about to have company.
Lex tugged on my shirt. “Mr. Hughes,” she said in a whisper. “What now?”
The hallway was empty with nowhere to take cover, but I spotted a door and recalled from the map that it was a fitness room, so I pushed Lex toward it.
The door closed behind us and the lights popped on, revealing a small room with shitty looking lockers angled out from a corner. There was a threadbare curtain positioned between them and the wall, acting as a kind of changing room, giving only the most basic feeling of privacy. Other than that, there were a few pieces of old workout equipment and a few mismatched weights scattered near a bench. A running machine sat alone and dusty in one corner.
Not much, but maybe we could use something in here to our advantage.
Alarms were still sounding in the hall. I used them as cover to scatter the weights like little mines and pull Lex down behind the cover of the lockers.
By now, the footsteps had stopped at the armory and I could hear two muffled voices from outside the door.
“Cut that thing off! I can’t hear myself think!” yelled one of the men.
Mercifully, it went quiet, save for Lex’s and my breathing. I was bleeding sweat from the exertion, but I kept my arm steady, my weapon trained on the door.
There was a sliding sound, followed by more talk, but it was further muffled and too hard to discern. I guessed the two men were inside the armory, probably checking to see if we were inside.
“Nothing’s missing. They must not have gotten in,” said one of them.
“Or they just made it look that way. He’s a Renegade. They’re professional thieves,” argued the other.
So, that confirmed it. They knew I was here.
It probably wouldn’t take long before they began searching the nearby rooms or called the others to help find us.
I turned the only table on its side, giving us a little added cover. This was mostly for Lex’s benefit.
I had Lex get behind the desk and keep her head down, then proceeded to stand near the doorway with my weapon ready.
A few minutes later, the light in the fitness area flicked off. It was probably motion-controlled, and Lex and I had been standing completely still for several minutes.
I strained my ears, trying to make out what was happening in the corridor. The voices were receding, fading into the distance.
“Wait,” said a voice coming over the comm in my ear. It wasn’t Commander-Weir. Must be the fourth remaining soldier, I guessed. “I’ve got the holo recording. In there.”
“On it,” returned one of the others.
I cursed but raised my weapon again and the lights came back on.
“There!” snapped one of them men. “He’s in there!”
They were right outside now. I took a slow, steady breath, squatting down behind a desk while Lex remained at my feet.
I stared at the crack below the door, noticing movement.
The door slid open.
Here we go.
The first one came through and tripped over the weights, letting out a grunt as he struggled to stabilize himself. He lost his balance, falling backward into his friend.
I swung around and fired into his chest with three quick shots. The look on the second
one’s face suggested that at least one of the bullets had left the first and found its way into him. Before either of them could react, I aimed higher and fired again. The first one’s face caved where the shot found his head. His body went limp and the two men fell backward onto the corridor floor.
The second soldier groaned but didn’t bother pushing his friend off of him. Instead, he raised his weapon and fired into the room, wild and desperate, his shots hitting everything but a live target.
I dropped to the floor behind the doorway, under his field of fire, and shot through his crotch and into his gut. He didn’t scream, but stopped shooting all the same, and a moment later dropped the gun.
The comm in my ear clicked on again. “Stop shooting, you idiot. If he has the Eternal, we need it alive!” Commander-Weir’s voice. I’d already grown to hate it.
“They’re both down, sir,” snapped another voice, the fourth soldier.
I took the access badges from the two fallen soldiers and ran across the hall to the armory. The first one worked, opening the door.
Lex shuffled behind me. “It worked?” she asked.
“Come on, we have to hurry,” I told her, heading inside.
The armory wasn’t exactly full, but there were a few valuable items. Combat knives, guns, and a locked compartment with a handful of grenades.
I debated giving Lex something to protect herself, but the kid didn’t have any training. She was just as likely to hurt herself as she was anyone else. Killing the Sarkonian lieutenant had been unexpected and was unlikely to be repeated. Besides, I could already picture how that conversation would go with Abigail.
In the end, I filled a pack with what I could carry and left the rest.
“Okay, kid. Ready to finish this?” I asked, slinging the bag over my shoulder.
“Sure, Mr. Hughes,” said Lex, her little legs jogging to catch up. “Can we find some more food after?”
The bridge door was locked when we arrived, and none of the badges seemed to work. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Now that they knew we were on the ship, our movements were likely being watched. We’d have a hard time getting through here.
A panel next to door blinked on and Commander-Weir’s face filled the screen.
“Captain Hughes, I presume?” he said in the same nasally voice I’d heard over the comms.
I tipped my gun to my forehead, then back toward him in a mock salute.
“Pleasure,” I said. “Are you going to open the door, or do I get to use the grenades I stole from your armory?”
His lips pursed. “You can’t do that. There’s not enough charges on this ship to blow through that door. All I have to do is sit here and wait until we reach Union space.” He chuckled.
Shrugging, I pushed Lex behind me. “If you say so.”
I raised my gun and rammed the butt of my revolver into the panel. A spider’s web of cracks spilled across it as the commander’s face disappeared and the screen went black. I pried the broken face of the panel free and inspected the wires behind it.
“Are you really going to blow it up, Mr. Hughes?” asked Lex.
I shook my head. “Nah, we don’t need to.” I paused, finding the wires I was looking for, then pulled the dipole casings off. “Instead, I’m going to open the door with a little finesse.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “Abby says you don’t know what that is.” She paused. “What’s finesse mean anyway?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I told her, twisting two sets of wires together. “All you need to know is that Abby is wrong about everything and I’m always right. Got it?”
“Right!” she exclaimed.
“And with that—” I stepped back from the panel. As I did, the door’s light changed to green. “—we’re in.”
I took Lex by the hand and pulled her to the wall adjacent to the door. “What now?” she asked.
The manual override inside the console required that I turn a crank, so I reached inside, took hold of it, and began to turn. It would take a few minutes to get the door open, with each turn only giving an extra centimeter of space. I’d managed to get it halfway open when a bullet whizzed through and hit the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. A barrage soon followed, mostly hitting the nearly closed door.
“Hey assholes!” I called out when the shooting stopped. “You wanna stop this now and save me the hassle? I’d rather not kill the rest of you if I don’t have to.”
When no more shots rang out, I pulled a smoke charge out of the cache we’d gotten from the armory. It hit the ground inside the door and rolled. There were a few muffled shouts as the two men realized what I’d done.
“Stay here,” I ordered Lex, leaving her in the hall and opting to duck into the room, staying low.
The gas made visibility an issue, but I knew the same would be true for the commander and his friend. Inside, two figures were trying to wave away the smoke, coughing and spitting as it filled the air.
Unlike Lex, I didn’t have the luxury of a mask, but I’d make do. Just had to hold my breath and ignore the growing burn inside my eyes.
This had to be quick.
I squeezed the trigger and fired a shot at the first one, but I missed. The bullet hit the far end of the room and the two man jerked away from me. My next attempt put a bullet into the back of the first one I reached. The man fell forward and landed on his forearms, still breathing and coughing.
The smoke began to clear, the ships fans sucking it away, and the image of another man came into view—this one wearing the uniform of a ranking Sarkonian officer. There were stars on his shoulders, six in total. It was Weir, and he raised his gun to meet mine.
Snot and tears bled from his face, but he kept his arm steady all the same. “You should have stayed home, Renegade.”
“You should have left Earth without the girl,” I countered. “Now you’re going to die.”
“Think so?” he asked. “I’ve got you in my sights. You shoot, I shoot.”
“I’ve taken out ten of your crew,” I said. “What makes you think I can’t handle another?”
“Luck can only take you so far,” he told me. “You’re alone and I have you.”
“I’m not alone,” I said.
That made him pause for a moment, and he sneered. “I saw your partner. The cameras show he’s dead.”
“I wasn’t talking about Felix,” I said.
Lex poked her head out from the corner, the gas mask hiding her face, and she aimed a gun at him.
“If you want to live, drop your weapon,” I said calmly.
He glared at Lex with watery eyes. “Fuck the both of you.”
“Not sure you should talk that way in front of the kid, but I’m pretty sure I’ve done worse,” I commented, twisting my gun in front of him. “It’s two on one, boss, and Lex here has a mask on, unlike the two of us. The second you blink, she’ll fire. What’s it gonna be?”
He wavered for a few seconds, the strain in his eyes growing more severe. Spit dripped from his mouth as the sting of the gas lingered, and I knew his lungs were on fire the same as mine.
Finally, he lowered his weapon and began to cough.
I reached over and took the sidearm, grabbing his wrist and flinging it behind his waist. “Good man,” I said. “Now, keep following orders and you just might make it through the rest of this alive.”
8
After stripping Weir of his clothes and badge, then locking him in the smallest cell I could find, I dosed him with one of the injections from the medkit. The way Lex told it, these were sleeping meds and would keep him down for at least eight hours. Maybe longer, depending on his tolerance. Once Weir was asleep on the floor of his cell, Lex and I returned to the bridge and accessed the controls.
With only half an hour remaining before the next S.G. Point, we waited and went over the ship’s logs. Most of it had been cleared, probably in an effort to save whatever intelligence this vessel was carrying. Weir must have done this when he saw us breach
the bridge doors. For all his bolster and arrogance, he knew when to follow procedure. Still, I was certain Sigmond could have a field day with this system if I could get it back home. He’d told me once that you could never delete data. Not entirely.
Before I knew it, we were out of the tunnel, free and finally clear, floating in empty space. In only a few short seconds, a communication came through, taking me by surprise. It had a Sarkonian identifier.
“Darkstar, come in. This is Lieutenant Cordelia West of the RFE Bright Promise. We’ve received vital information regarding your prisoners. Please respond.”
It was a higher ranking female officer. Her picture depicted an older woman with gray hair pulled back into a severe bun. Strange, since she sounded much younger.
There was something familiar about her voice, too, but I couldn’t quite place it. Then again, I was dead on my feet, and it could have been my own mother for all I knew.
Not that I remembered what she sounded like.
I was about to dismiss the transmission when Lex bounded over, an excited look on her face. She clasped my arm tightly and tugged on my shirt.
“Mr. Hughes, that’s Abby!”
“What?” I said, staring at her.
“It’s Abby!” Lex repeated bouncing on her toes.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because when she reads to me, she changes her voice for different people in the books. It’s her old lady voice!”
Another transmission was coming in and I listened more carefully this time.
“I repeat, Darkstar, we have obtained pertinent information regarding your prisoners. Please respond.” Damn if the kid wasn’t right. I could hear it now.
Still, I had to be certain this was real. One mistake and we’d have an entire fleet on our heels.
“Hey, Lex, what’s the name of one of her old lady characters?” I asked quickly.
“Miss Amalia Andromeda. She’s the grandmother of a superhero,” she told me.
I responded to the transmission, not bothering to disguise my voice. “Amalia Andromeda, what is your information?”