The container was further opened, revealing the preferred defensive weapon of the outer colonies.
Bax frowned as she swung her hand in an attempt to liberate the goo. “These two crates have the other items you requested. I threw in an extra shock stick as a bonus. Something to keep you motivated for doing business with me. What is this?”
Bax stared at the glob in the center of her palm before attempting to wipe it off on a nearby wall. “Slug. Help the man load his goods. Mr. Dodger, I believe payment is due.”
Tawn slapped her Fox-40 onto her hip-clip and stepped out from behind the blast wall. Picking up the first crate of residual items, she began to muscle it through the docking tube to the Gulward.
Cletus Dodger transferred the credits to a grinning Baxter Rumford.
As Tawn reached the hold of the trader’s ship, a loud voice could be heard coming through the docking tube. “Somebody better get their robotic menace off my leg before it gets disintegrated!”
Cletus scurried into the tube to rescue his pet.
An alert came on the Fargo’s comm system. Approaching vessel. Approaching vessel.
Bax raced toward the Fargo’s cockpit as she yelled. “Dump the crate and get your ass moving, Slug! Mr. Dodger, I’ll meet you here same time tomorrow to deliver the rest!”
Cletus yelled back as he hurried toward his own controls. “Agreed! Nice doing business with you!”
Tawn hustled back through the tube, slapping the button that closed the airlock. The robotic dog Farker chased his new friend onto the Fargo.
As the docking tube collapsed into the Fargo’s hull, a voice came over the general comm. “This is the New Earth Destroyer Hemlock. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”
Tawn sat in the copilot’s chair, flipping her display to the defensive console. “Shields are online… crap! We have weapons fire!”
Powerful plasma beams shot past as the Fargo’s engines pushed her toward her one-sixteenth light-speed maximum. Bax piloted the small ship into a nearby asteroid field, their safe-lane for an escape should something go wrong. The jump engine worked to come online.
Tawn said, “Thirty seconds to jump!”
Bax maneuvered the Fargo behind a large asteroid as they continued to speed away.
Tawn zoomed in on the Gulward as it remained in place. “Fool isn’t moving!”
Bax asked her first mate, “What’s a NE destroyer doing out here again? This whole system is supposed to be off limits.”
Tawn replied, “Probably up to no good just like we are. We aren’t exactly being legal here. I’m sure they take violations of the truce seriously. Can’t say I want the outer colonies armed either.”
Tawn glanced down to her left. “What the… that stupid dog followed me over!”
Two more plasma beams slipped past the fleeing craft as a third was targeted at the Gulward. A violent explosion saw the end of Cletus Dodger.
Tawn said, “They mean business… hit that button!”
“One sec.” Bax replied. “We jump now and we pull half those rocks out of their orbit. I’d rather not move around in junked up space if it’s all the same to you, Miss Leg-Humpee.”
“Nice.” Tawn sighed. “Thanks for bringing that up just before we die.”
Bax laughed as her hand hovered over the jump button. “First… we aren’t gonna die. And second… I’m gonna bring that up every chance I get. That’s like the most action you’ve had since you started with me, isn’t it? Hahaha!”
“Why did I know this was going to be a bad day?” Tawn shook her head.
The button was pressed and the Fargo slipped through a wormhole to empty space, two hours’ travel from Domicile.
“Relax.” Bax said. “We just made a big haul.”
“How you figure?”
Bax held up her bracelet and grinned. “The credit transfer cleared, and Mr. Dodger is no longer in need of his merchandise. You will be the recipient of double your expected pay when we sell this cargo. I told you this gig was gonna pay you for last month. Bada-bing, bada-boom.”
Tawn returned an uneasy look. “He must have next of kin or something the cargo would go to.”
Bax laughed. “Right. Next of kin. It’s illegal. This is the real world, Freely. We’re keeping it. And it looks like you just picked up a new pet.”
Tawn scowled as she looked down at the mechanical menace which was now wagging its tail. “We still have to find another buyer.”
Bax grinned. “Already taken care of. I have a buyer waiting in Chicago Port. And he has 5 percent more credits than poor old Cletus back there.”
Bax stared at her still sticky palm. “What is this?”
“What is what?” Tawn asked.
Bax held up her hand. “I touched Cletus’ coat and came back with this.”
Tawn laughed. “Aren’t you the one who said to never touch the clients?”
Bax smirked. “Probably. And here’s hard evidence as to why.”
Tawn powered down the defensive shields. “Who’s this prearranged buyer?”
Bax frowned in disgust as she wiped her palm with an alcohol towelette. “His name’s Harris Gruberg. I call him Goober. He’s one of you… a stump… a Biomarine. He served in the DD as a lifer like you. Got discharged about the same time you did.
“Flies a bucket of bolts that I wouldn’t fly planetside, much less out here. Cletus is… was… a better potential client. Sad he had to go like that. This guy is making deep runs to the newest colonies on Grendig and Farmingdale. Probably uses all his profits just to pay for fuel. You see, that’s why I only take the near runs. Much better margins and I don’t deal directly with colonists.”
Tawn looked out the viewport at the approaching Chicago Port Station. “A DD lifer and a stump. I like him already.”
Bax scowled. “Don’t show him that face, he’ll be humping your leg.”
Tawn shook her head as she made a nasty face at Farker, whose mechanical jowls turned up at each corner offering an unnatural smile. “Humped by a robotic dog. That must make you all giddy inside.”
Bax grinned, “It does. And I’ll be bringing it up every chance I get so long as I still have oxygen in my lungs.”
~~~~~
Once again, this Human is asking for your help! If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on the site where it was purchased. And by all means, please tell your friends! Any help with spreading the word is highly appreciated! I have a free science fiction eBook short story, titled “THE SQUAD”, waiting for anyone who joins my email list. Also, find out when the next exciting release is available by joining the email list at [email protected]. Visit the author’s website at www.arsenex.com for the rest of the series and other works!
Thank you for reading my work! I hope you have a great day!
Stephen
Books by Stephen Arseneault
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SODIUM-AMP-OMEGA trilogy series
SODIUM - A six-book series that takes Man from his first encounter with aliens all the way to a fight for our all-out survival. Do we have what it takes to rule the galaxy?
AMP - Cast a thousand years into the future beyond SODIUM. This eight-book series chronicles the struggles of Don Grange, a simple package deliveryman, who is thrust into an unimaginable role in the fight against our enemies. Can we win peace and freedom after a thousand years of war?
OMEGA - An eight book series cast a thousand years into the future beyond AMP. The Alliance is crumbling. When corruption and politics threaten to throw the allied galaxies into chaos, Knog Beutcher gets caught in the middle. Follow along as our hero is thrust into roles that he never expected nor sought. Espionage, intrigue, political assassinations, rebellions and full-on revolutions, they are all coming to Knog Beutcher’s world!
HADRON Series
HADRON is an eight book modern day Human survival story. After scientists using the Large Hadron Collider discover dark matter, the world is plunged into chaos. Massive waves of electrom
agnetic interference take out all grid power and forms of communication the world over. Cities go dark, food and clean-water supplies are quickly used up. Marauders rule the highways. One group of citizens takes a stand. Can they make a difference? And the devastating EM waves, where are they coming from? A benevolent species will arrive in their spaceships to rescue the Human race. Only, are they really so benevolent? Is our little corner of the Milky Way a hostile place? With HADRON we’re about to find out.
ARMS Series
ARMS is an eight book series set in the future. Earth was nearing an apocalyptic event. Two competing colony ships were built, taking five million inhabitants each through a wormhole to a pair of newly discovered planets. The planets were settled and soon after the burgeoning colonies looked to the surrounding star systems for ownership and expansion, an expansion that led to a centuries long war between them. A truce was declared after the aggressor side began to lose ground. The competing worlds are two years into that truce.
Tawnish Freely and Harris Gruberg are genetically engineered Biomarines. They we made and trained for fighting in the Great War. With the war halted and their service commitments ended, they find themselves struggling to live among a population that fears them. Work is found with the delivery of illegal arms to the outer colonies. Things go awry when they discover their illicit and yet lucrative dealings may just be the catalyst that brings back the Great War. They are determined to prevent that outcome from happening.
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HADRON Emergent Page 29