by Henry Vogel
Now the gray nothingness was starting to creep me out, too. It was time to change the subject.
“So, what did Jonas’ message say?”
“What?” Michelle brought her gaze around to face me and it seemed some tension went out of her. I decided it would be best to keep her attention away from the view port and her attention off of undiscovered and, I hoped, non-existent wormhole creatures.
“The reply from your father. What did it say?”
“Oh, right. Hang on.”
Michelle bent over her pad for a few seconds before handing it to me.
Dear Daughter, I am unsettled over this development. I would like to know more about this beau before you take such a long trip. Stay in touch and don’t forget to be successful.
“Most of that makes sense, I guess. But what’s that bit about being successful? Is that another code phrase?”
Michelle looked away. “It sort of is, but that’s Daddy-speak rather than codewords for work.”
“What does it mean?”
“Mom and Daddy have drilled certain ideas into me over the years. The path to success was one they harped on over and over.” Michelle paused for a few seconds. When she resumed speaking, it was obvious she was reciting something. “To be successful, finish school before you get married and get married before you have children.”
There was lots of data backing up that simple advice, so I nodded. “Yeah, my aunt and uncle have told me basically the same thing. So what?”
“I think Daddy figured out how I feel about you watching the way I reacted to you last night.”
“Okay. What’s that got to do with— Oh! Um, I see.”
“Yep, this is Daddy’s subtle way of telling me not to get pregnant. Remind me to kick him in the shin when we get back.”
“So, are there any other messages hidden inside his message?”
“Yes, there’s an actual code phrase in there, as well. The bit about staying in touch means he’s going to claim you’ve been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped? I guess it will explain what happened to us-”
“To you. No one will wonder about me.”
“I would have wondered about you.”
“And you’re very sweet, Matt, but no one else will. But ‘keep in touch’ actually means I have to find a way to send an untraceable ransom note.”
“Have you got a way to do that or will you need my help?”
“You know how to send untraceable messages?”
“Your father kind of forced me to learn.”
Michelle bit her lip, the sign that she was puzzling through something. “I guess I can see why Daddy might want you to know how to do that…”
She looked annoyed when I laughed. “I’m sorry to laugh, Michelle. But Jonas didn’t teach me how to do that. I had to figure it out for myself—along with all the other things I had to learn so I could get away from him and the other bodyguards every now and then. You have no idea how much fun it was to send untraceable messages to Jonas telling him I wasn’t in my room.”
“And I’m sure Daddy just loved getting those messages from you. You know, he never came out and said it, but I know your ingenuity impressed him. I bet you never thought you’d get to use that ingenuity to send your own ransom note.”
Michelle spent the rest of the wormhole jump composing a ransom note.
I spent the jump changing the ship’s registration beacon. Switching out the beacon isn’t difficult, but reprogramming one is a real bear of a job. I paid a smuggler to teach me how to do it, just in case I had to sneak off to rescue my parents. Exactly what I was doing now, in other words.
“What do you think we ought to call the ship?” I asked.
“I don’t know. What was its old name?”
“Dad and I never got around to naming it. It was always just the spaceship. We wouldn’t be on this trip if it wasn’t for you, so I think we should name if after you.”
“The Michelle? Even if no one knows I’m gone, that’s not obscure enough for my tastes.”
“Then how about the Blonde Bombshell?”
The look Michelle gave me spoke volumes.
“I guess that means the Blonde Beauty is out, too?”
“Yes, as is the Curvy Cutie, the Blue-Eyed Blonde, and any other name based on my body parts.”
“Well, what do you suggest we name the ship?”
Michelle pondered for a moment before a smile brightened her face.
“How about naming it after both of us while still keeping it kind of obscure?”
“Okay. What did you have in mind?”
“Let’s call it the M&M.”
An hour later, my spaceship finally had a name.
CHAPTER FIVE
Rockville Station
Ten days, four wormhole jumps, and four of what Michelle had taken to calling ‘parental pointings’ later, I could feel my nerves unraveling. This was supposed to be so simple—we would hop around our part of the galaxy, I’d point two or three times, and we’d narrow our search down to one or two star systems. Life had not cooperated.
It turns out that arms not only are not precision directional instruments, they’re downright horrible ones. Four pointings into our search and we still had twenty-three possible star systems to consider. Yeah, we had eliminated billions of other stars, but this was going a lot slower than I had expected.
“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Matt. We’re making progress, even if it’s not as fast as you’d like.” Michelle kneaded my shoulders as I maneuvered the M&M to dock with an out-of-the-way station in an out-of-the-way star system. “Your shoulders are as hard as the ore they mine in this system.”
The comm crackled. “Starship M&M, we have you in the station tractor beam. Stop all engines and let us bring you in.”
My hands flew over the control panel. “Roger that, Rockville Station. All engines stopped.”
“You’re currently fourth in line for refueling, M&M. Figure on a wait of four T hours. We’ll comm you when we’re ready for you.” An amused tone entered the voice crackling from the comm. “Why not stretch your legs a bit and see the sight.”
“Sight, singular?” I asked.
“You’re on the ass end of nowhere, boyo. We’re lucky we’ve got one sight. Every bar on the station has a view of it, but the best one is in a joint called Ore Sons.”
“Let me guess, Orson is your cousin.” Anyone who ever watched vids knew how this sort of thing worked.
“First, it’s Ore. Sons. As in sons of the ore. I’d say it’s a miner’s bar, but all of them are miner’s bars around here. Second, I don’t have a cousin named Orson.”
“Sorry, Rockville Control. I guess I watched too many vids growing up.” Maybe the guy was part owner of the joint. Still, it couldn’t hurt to stay on the good side of the local authorities. “Do they serve food at Ore Sons? Shipboard rations get old real fast.”
A laugh sounded from the comm. “Ain’t that the truth of it? They sling the best burgers in the system.”
With a soft clang, we completed docking with the station.
“You’ve convinced me, Control. I’ll tell ‘em you sent me.”
“Mighty kind of you, M&M. Please enjoy your stay on lovely Rockville Station.”
I flipped the comm off and leaned back. Michelle’s hands kept working on my shoulders. It felt really good, but I was too restless to truly enjoy it.
Standing, I wrapped an arm around Michelle’s waist. “How about I treat my best girl to a burger and fries?”
“Gee, Matt, you take me to all the best places.” In contrast to her sarcastic tone, Michelle’s eyes lit up. “You know, I’ve never been on a space station before. This is kind of exciting.”
I took Michelle’s hand and led her toward the hatch. “Have you ever been to a shopping mall?”
“Of course.” Her tone implied an accompanying eye roll.
“The only difference between a shopping mall and a space station is what’s outside of it.�
� After we buckled blasters to our hips, I cycled the airlock and we stepped out of the ship for the first time in a week and a half. “And space station air has a stronger recycled smell to it than spaceship air.”
Walking through the docks, I discovered another difference between shopping malls and backwater space stations. Shopping malls are teeming with pretty girls. Backwater space stations, not so much. Every male eye tracked Michelle, some of the men going so far as to stop working or walking and stare openly at her. Busy looking at everything, a big smile plastered on her face, Michelle didn’t notice the stares.
“I think we should go back to the ship, Michelle.” My gaze darted all around, looking for any possible threat from the men around us.
“Why? Because all the men are staring at me?”
“You noticed?”
“I’m a trained bodyguard, Matt. Of course I noticed.” Her sweeping gaze met mine for a second. “If I fooled you, then I fooled them, too.”
“So you see why we should go back to the ship?”
The memory of my run in with the gang on the maglev train was still fresh in my mind. Facing a repeat of that experience, this time with Michelle beside me, had no appeal to me.
“No way, buster. You promised me a burger and fries. Besides, none of these guys are going to do anything but look at me.”
I tried staring down some of the more obvious oglers in the crowd. To a man, they ignored me.
“How can you tell they won’t try something?”
“These guys all follow me with their eyes for a while, then they go back to their work. I’m just a distraction, a bit of fantasy to get them through their day. Real troublemakers would tail us, making rude comments in the hope you’d overreact and give them an excuse to start a fight.” Her hand brushed the blaster on her hip. “Besides, we are prepared for trouble.”
Men continued to stare, but Michelle’s read on them was right. No one tailed us or even spoke to us during the five minute walk to Ore Sons, but I still breathed a sigh of relief when we entered the bar.
Through a transparent wall, we had a fantastic view of the system’s gas giant. It glowed orange with golden clouds swirling across the surface. I’d been told Saturn, back in Sol system, was the most beautiful planet in the Federation. If so, the planet before us must run a close second.
I felt Michelle stiffen beside me and dragged my attention away from Rockville Station’s lone sight. Four young men rose from a table in a dark corner of the bar. I was immediately reminded of the gang on the maglev train.
“Hey, hey, hey, looky here, boys.” The man spoke in a light-hearted sing-song, but he had a predator’s eyes. “Someone brought us a pretty little present. Let’s take her home and unwrap her.”
Michelle sighed, real regret in her voice. “So much for the burger and fries.”
The leader of the little gang swaggered out of the corner of the bar, his three buddies snickering and trailing him. You can find guys like him in every dark and dingy little corner of the Federation—and in just as many bright and prosperous corners. I didn’t even have to speak with the guy to know he thought himself a supreme badass, a man who men feared and women wanted.
I hated him on sight.
The barkeep sighed. “I don’t want no trouble in here, Paco. Take it out into the corridor.”
“Ain’t gonna be no trouble, Tom. Leastwise, not if this boy knows what’s good for him.”
That exchanged answered another question. Paco had more than attitude; he wielded some actual power in the station. He was too young and too cocksure to have earned his power. That meant he got it by proxy, probably through his father.
“Aw, isn’t he cute, Matt?” Michelle’s pose looked casual, but her balance was evenly distributed and her right hand hung just below the handle of her blaster. “Do you want me to drop him and his little friends?”
That brought Paco and pals up short. It wasn’t what Michelle said, so much as how she had said it. Her voice held absolute conviction that she would have no trouble handling all four of them. Now it was my turn.
“No, not after we came all this way to speak to Paco.” I smiled at him. “At least, not yet.”
Paco’s face screwed up as he tried to figure out why the scene wasn’t going as expected.
“What do you mean, you came here to speak to me?”
“Not you exactly, Paco. But you’re on the list. I wasn’t going to start until after I’d eaten, but with you turning up right here and all…” I walked over Paco and thrust out my hand. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
Paco’s eyes darted between my outstretched hand, my smile, and Michelle, confusion written all over his face.
One of the three pals got tired of waiting for something to happen. “Hey, Paco, we gonna mess the guy up and take the girl or what?”
I shook my head in disappointment. “A true leader keeps his lackeys in line and under his control.”
“Who you callin’ a lackey, boy?”
Ignoring the blustering follower, I reached out and took Paco’s right hand in mine. “In civilized society, when a man offers you his hand, you shake it.”
To emphasize my words, I added my left hand to the grip and slowly shook Paco’s hand up and down. This was what I had been aiming for all along. As expected, Paco had no control over his emotions. Confident of his high standing within Rockville Station society, he had never felt the need to conceal his feelings from anyone.
Paco’s emotions were laid bare for me to read. With a few carefully chosen words, I could also manipulate them.
Paco’s lackey spoke up again. “Hey, Paco, you gonna let him talk like that ‘bout us?”
I felt confusion giving way to consideration in Paco’s mind. This was no time for me to let him start thinking about things.
“Michelle, I find it difficult to think with the lackey’s yammering. If you would?”
The lackey danced forward, raising a fist. “If she would, what, boy?”
A blaster report echoed through the bar, followed by a thump as the lackey fell to the floor.
Terror surged in Paco’s mind, driving away all attempts at rational thought. I had been aiming for fear and confusion, not terror.
“Don’t worry, Paco, he’ll be fine.” I turned my head in Michelle’s direction. “You did have the blaster set to stun, didn’t you?”
“Of course.” Michelle turned a serious look on Paco. “Do you have any idea how much paperwork is involved if I kill someone in the line of duty?”
Wide-eyed, Paco could only shake his head.
Michelle flashed a sweet smile. “There are so many forms, I sometimes wish I was the auditor instead of the arresting officer.”
I could have kissed Michelle right then. I’d been looking for the right words to spark emotions in Paco and she had gone right to them.
“A-auditor?”
Paco’s confusion was swept away, leaving only fear. Fear for his position on the station and, much less powerful, fear for his father.
“Oh, didn’t I mention my position, Paco? I am sorry for the oversight.”
“Um, I, uh, gotta go, now.”
“Of course. You probably want to take your friend to a doctor, just as a precaution. You never know who’s going to have an allergic reaction to stun bolts.”
“Right. Yeah. That.” Paco motioned to his two remaining lackeys, who picked up the one on the floor.
“Remember, my visit is a surprise. Don’t say a word to your father.” I checked my chrono. “I want to eat and get settled into our rooms before going to your father’s office. Why don’t you meet me there in, say, five hours?”
“You got it, sir.” Paco and his friends walked wide around Michelle and disappeared into the main corridor.
Michelle and I watched them go, then took seats at the bar.
“We don’t get no auditors out here,” the barkeep said. “You know Paco’s gonna run right to his daddy.”
“Yep. I’m counting on it.” I s
aw no reason to drop the part. You never knew who was listening. “We’ll each have a cheeseburger and fries.”
The man yelled the order over his shoulder and got an answering yell from the kitchen.
“You ain’t worried ‘bout them hiding all their books and stuff while you sit here eating?”
I pulled out my pad and started flipping through menus. “Who said I was just eating?”
When the barkeep left to help another customer, Michelle leaned in close.
“You aren’t actually planning to try to do an audit, are you?”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea what to look for.” I turned to her and kissed the end of her nose. “That whole auditor and arresting officer bit was brilliant, by the way.”
“Thank you. It seemed to fit the whole Man of Mystery spiel you were spinning.” She leaned closer to see what I was doing on my pad. Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Why are you using one of my father’s message drops?”
“GenCo holds most of the ore contracts with Rockville Station. I looked it up before we jumped into the system.”
“So?”
“I thought it might be a good idea to have a real auditor pay this place a visit.”
Michelle buried her head in my shoulder and laughed.
A moment later, the barkeep dropped two plates in front of us. The guy in Rockville Control was right. The burger was delicious.
We spent the next several hours poking around the station. Rockville Control pinged me when they started refueling the ship. We were heading back to the M&M when the ambush came.
CHAPTER SIX
Ambush
Hand in hand, Michelle and I wandered back toward the docking bay. Other than our encounter with Paco and his pals, we’d had a good time on Rockville Station. There wasn’t anything of any real interest on the station, but that was the point. We cuddled while looking at the spectacular view of the system’s gas giant. We strolled down the main corridor, ducking into the odd shop just to see what was what. We bought a few trinkets from station crafters.
It was nothing special and that’s what made it special. We were just a couple out on a do-nothing date. No one gave us a second glance. Well, no one gave me a second glance. Michelle got a lot of second glances, but after our walk into the station through the docks, I decided it wouldn’t bother me if it didn’t bother Michelle. The day was so different than any other day I’d ever spent that I was disappointed when station control notified me that refueling was complete.