by Mike Ploof
“That’s what she said,” Purshia blurted.
Targar glanced at her in confusion, but then his eyes lit up. “A quick one you have here.”
“Smart as a whip,” I agreed. “And eager to take the whip, I might add.”
“Oh, master, you wouldn’t,” she said alluringly.
“Come,” he said. “The sun will soon set, and the spirits will haunt the night. Let us put food in our bellies and talk some more. I may have a proposition for you that you cannot refuse.”
The first thing I noticed were the beefcakes guarding the place. They looked like gorillas from space, which I guess they were. I also noticed the big rifles they carried. There were about half a dozen on the ramparts, and two more by the main door.
Getting out of here after the deed was done was going to be work, but I assumed we could handle a couple of bodyguards easy enough.
We entered the castle, which was made of stone and looked remarkably like palaces I might find in Europe, only brand-spanking new. After crossing the main chamber, we ventured up a wide staircase that opened onto a lavish balcony. Targar escorted us into a luxurious sitting room, where two nude females awaited his instruction.
“Drinks for everyone,” he said. “Have a seat, Elvis—can I call you Elvis?”
I shot him in the neck with a mind-control dart. As soon as the link was made, pain shot through my head, and Targar screamed. The bodyguards rushed into the room, guns drawn, but Ella, Val, and Purshia were quicker on the draw and painted the walls green with their blood.
Stop fighting me! I mentally commanded him.
“Get out of my head!” he growled.
He was scared, more scared than he had ever been in his adult life, and despite how I felt about the sex-slave trafficking bastard, a part of me felt bad for him. I abruptly realized he was trying to mentally wipe his cybernetic implant, and I summoned all my will and commanded him to sleep. He fell to the floor in a heap, snoring away like a drunkard.
“Fuck, that sucked,” I said, rubbing my temples.
After connecting to his brain, I knew how to get the information Zex needed from the implant, which would save Zex time and energy. He should be mighty pleased about that.
I kneeled beside Targar and mentally willed his cybernetic implant to release the data recorder. One of his horn stumps opened, and a metallic device the size of an AA battery slid out. I grabbed it and put it in the communication device Zex had given me while keeping tabs on Targar.
“Harry here,” I said into the device, which was about half the size of a smartphone.
“Mission update?” Zex asked.
“I have the package. Loading it now.” I plugged the implant into the device and waited while it downloaded the information. It only took about ten seconds before flashing green.
Zex sounded pleased. “Well done, Mr. Warwick. Now that the information is secure, bring Targar to the HIJ.”
“We’re on our way.”
“And Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“Good job. You and your team have done the entire galaxy a service.”
“Thanks, Zex. Warwick out.”
The girls had killed six guards, but I knew there were more around the place.
“Time to get the hell out of here,” I said and slapped handcuffs on Targar. I released his mind once he was subdued, and he awoke with a start.
“What is this?” he demanded.
“You’re under arrest, slick.”
“By whose authority?”
“The HIJ.”
He laughed drunkenly. “You work for Zex.”
“How we doing, girls?” I called as they scanned the halls and balcony.
Val fired her laser gun and said, “We’re clear on the front lawn.”
“Let’s go.” I pulled Targar to his feet while Ella and Purshia watched the hallway.
“Metaldick will be arriving in exactly three minutes!” Purshia yelled.
“You’ve taken my memory chip,” said Targar with sudden horror. “You’ve doomed yourselves.”
I flung Targar off the second-story balcony into a pig puffy purple bush on the lawn. I leapt off, landed next to him, and yanked him out of the foliage. The girls landed on the grass and spread out, nanosuits glowing in the twilight.
I heard a distinctly mechanical sound and spun around, scanning the castle. A turret popped out at the top of the tower.
“Turret, six o’clock!” I yelled, and the girls blasted it to scrap metal.
Three more turrets appeared, but well-placed nanobombs efficiently took them out.
“Zex has what he wants. He will kill us all.” Targar groaned as I pulled him toward the gate. I heard sirens in the distance and knew someone had tipped off the local authorities.
“Why would he do that?”
“Because his name is on the list.”
I stopped and regarded him skeptically. “Bullshit.”
“This is a power play,” he said desperately. “Zex is deep in the slave trade. So is the HIJ. You have no idea what you’re doing!”
Fuck me, was he serious?
I heard a ship approaching and scanned the sky for enemies. When I saw Metaldick approaching from the south, I let out a sigh. The ship was on autopilot, and it landed in the middle of the courtyard, narrowly avoiding the trees. The ramp opened, and I shoved Targar forward.
“Was this ship provided by Zex?” he asked, eyeing it warily.
“Just keep moving.”
Targar suddenly tried to bolt, but I had a firm grip on him. He was as strong as a bull, and he kicked and thrashed, terrified of boarding.
I clocked him over the head and knocked him out, then tossed him over my shoulder and marched up the ramp. The girls filed in behind me, and Purshia raced to the bridge. We were on our way in no time.
I pitched Targar into one of the crewmen’s seats, and he groggily came to.
“Where am I?” When he realized he was on our ship, he shook his head and scowled. “You have doomed us all, you idiot!”
“What’s he talking about?” Purshia asked distractedly.
“He’s trying to save his ass, that’s all.”
“That is true, but you don’t understand. Zex has no use for you anymore. He’s got the information.”
“So do I,” I said and waved the memory chip in front of him.
He laughed drunkenly. “Then you are a dead man. Zex wants that list so he can destroy the evidence. I’m surprised he told you to take me alive.”
“He didn’t,” I said, glancing at Ella.
“Purshia,” she said, “scan the ship for explosives.”
“I’m on it,” she replied.
We rocketed through the clouds and into space with a bunch of space cops on our ass. Purshia turned from her station with a look of dread. “I found something.”
“Fuck! Where is it?” I asked.
“In the cargo bay.” She brought up a schematic of the ship; a red dot pulsed in the cargo bay. “It’s powering up.”
“Watch him!” I said and raced down the hall. Ella was hot on my heels.
We located the bomb under some crates. It was cylindrical, with no cracks or crevices that suggested we could open it. The only feature was a glowing digital timer, and it was ticking down from twelve seconds.
“We’ve gotta get this things out of here!” said Ella.
“Tether yourself and open the door!” I yelled and fired my grappling hook at the nearest wall. Then I lifted the bomb.
Nine… eight… seven….
Ella cursed as she tried to override the system.
Five… four… three….
“Got it!” she said, she forced the doors open without decompressing the room.
The bomb and everything else not tied down was sucked into space, and I braced for impact.
The explosion rocked the ship and momentarily filled the cargo bay with flames. Luckily, our nanosuits kept us safe from the brunt of the blast, but we were knocked around
pretty good. When the smoke cleared, stars were spinning in the open door.
“Harry? Ella?” Purshia screamed into my helmet.
“We’re okay,” I reported.
“Thank the stars,” Val said.
“Harry, we suffered massive damage. All controls are gone, and we’re being sucked into the planet’s gravity well. We’re going to burn up on reentry!”
“You and Val get out now!” I said.
“What about Targar?” Val asked. “He doesn’t have a suit like ours.”
“Purshia, do we have time to get him in a spacesuit?” I asked, glancing at the suits tethered to the wall.
“Negative, we’re coming in too fast.”
“Then leave him. We have no other choice.”
“Affirmative,” said Purshia.
“Dislodge your grappling hook,” I said to Ella.
She did so and flew out the cargo bay door. I disengaged mine and joined her. It was disorienting as hell emerging from the ship as it was being sucked toward the planet.
Something blew off the top of our wrecked ship, and a moment later, Purshia and Val appeared. They joined us, floating above the world, and we watched Metaldick burn as it entered the atmosphere.
“What now?” said Ella.
“We need to return to the planet, find a ship, and get back to Atlasaria,” I said.
Purshia told us at what angle we had to reenter the atmosphere so we didn’t suffer the same fate as our ship. We kept careful watch on the display on our visors and made it through in one piece, but we were surprised when small fighter ships with flashing lights shot out of the clouds and came right at us.
“We’ve got company,” I warned the girls.
The lead ship fired at me as I streaked away from them, hoping to get the group to follow me. I didn’t want to kill whoever the hell was flying those things, but if there was no other way out, they were toast.
The squadron broke formation; two followed me, and the other four went after the girls. They were fast as hell, way faster than my jetpack, but I could make quicker maneuvers, so that’s just what I did.
I veered right and reversed direction, letting the ship on my ass pass me, at which point I unloaded on the thing. The rounds were absorbed by an energy shield, however, and the second ship dove for me and fired. Streaking, red hot rounds flew by. One hit me in the back, sending me off course, but the nanosuit prevented my death. I still felt the pain of the impact, and it hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Increase nanohealing, strength, agility, and speed!”
I felt the rush of artificial endorphins blast through me. Time seemed to slow, and I could think faster. The ships curved around to make another pass, and I shot toward the one farthest away. The closer ship tried to intercept, but I avoided its gunfire, dove to avoid a missile, then pulled up hard. I summoned my laser sword and cut a long swath along the hull as I flew by.
The thing exploded behind me. I fired two nanobombs at the other ship, which was tracking me from above. The missiles screamed out of my nanoguns. I didn’t bother watching their progress, though. Ella had a ship on her tail, and she was coming right at me.
I summoned my nanoshield on my right hand, keeping the laser in my left, and sped toward her.
I swear she winked at me as we passed each other at about a hundred miles an hour. When I reached the ship that was trailing her, I sheared its left wing off with my laser sword.
Purshia and Val joined us, and we flew down to the city, speeding along the streets between the skyscrapers and staying about a hundred feet above the ground. When no more ships pursued us, I gestured for them to land and steered toward a dark alley.
After I touched ground, I disengaged my helmet. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, thank you for asking, Harry,” said Purshia.
“Our spaceship blew up, we had to fly into the atmosphere, and then the authorities tried to kill us.” Val shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we be fine?”
“What’s the plan?” said Ella.
“We need to find a place to regroup, then we can focus on getting another ship.”
“We can’t get a ship or room without money,” said Purshia.
“Nanobot mind control,” Val said, like Purshia was slow in the head.
“Oh yeah, right.”
“You… you!” said a grizzled voice from the darkness.
Val made her suit glow brighter, and we all turned to regard the homeless being, who also looked drunk as hell. He looked like a walrus wearing a dirty red vest, brown pants, and wooden flip-flops.
“Go back to sleep, old man,” said Purshia.
“I seen you four! I seen you on the hub, fucking and fighting and pissing off them greys!” He laughed, and his big eyes danced with shimmering tears. “Long live Team Warwick!”
“Thanks, bro. We can use all the help we can get,” I said.
He gestured me closer. “Lemme get a snap.”
“A what?”
“He wants to take a picture,” said Purshia.
“Oh, sure, why not?”
“Don’t. The rulers of this planet watch everything,” said Purshia. “As soon as you take that picture, bells and whistles will go off in some underground surveillance bunker.”
“Damn, talk about Big Brother,” I lamented. “Maybe next time, bro.”
The walrus took a picture anyway, and Val cursed under her breath and moved to swing at him.
“Leave him alone,” said Ella. “We need to get going.”
I led them to the end of the alley and peered around the corner. To the right was a string of tall, rundown apartment buildings, and to the left was more of the same. I assumed they were affordable housing units, because the same kind of riffraff and shady characters you would see on Earth were walking around or yelling to each other from balconies stained with whatever the hell they threw over the side on a daily basis. Hovercars went by, weird music pumping. Pimps and whores strolled the streets, locals made secret deals in dark corners, and neon lured men in with promises of lust, sin, and a hell of a good time.
“You know, I’ve never realized how much like Earth all these places are,” I said, turning left down the street with the girls behind me. Ella caught up and walked on my right, while Purshia took her usual place on my left. Val walked behind me, looking like a way hotter version of Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, if she were wearing a spacesuit.
“The greys have made us all the same in many ways,” said Val. “They prey on our weaknesses, lust, passion, and deepest desires. Using the Binarrians’ power, they dazzled us with technology, making each species think we thought it all up ourselves.”
“How do you know so much about this stuff?”
“I am a leader of my tribe, and I know the tales of the two-faced demons.”
“I assume that’s what you call the greys on your world?” I said.
She eyed a hooded slug-looking creature as it passed.
“I got sleep, stratosphere, coaka. What you need?” he said conspiratorially.
We passed him quietly, giving him a wide berth.
“Yes,” said Val. “We call them the two-faced demons because they promise great things for no price, but there is always a price."
“There. They have vacancies,” said Ella.
I glanced at the ten-story hotel, which may have once shone brightly but was now rusted and listing slightly to one side.
“Fuck that place.” I regarded her like she was nuts. “Probably has space cockroaches.”
“Cock?” said Purshia, her ears pert.
“The expensive places can afford to buy the government’s surveillance equipment. Places like this fake it.”
“If you say so.”
We crossed the street, and Ella went inside first. It looked pretty much like any motel lobby, with stained walls, a video screen that flickered infuriatingly, and a short, stubble-faced, green toad of a host.
“You sure you got the right place/” he asked before an
y of us could say a word.
Ella hit him with a mind-control dart, he handed her a keycard and fell asleep. She retrieved the dart, and winked at me.
The elevator was out of service, so we took the stairs to the tenth floor, which was a lot easier with nanobot enhancements. The room turned out to be just as shitty as the rest of the place, but to their credit, there were clean sheets on the bed. There was one couch, a dining area with an empty fridge, a broken food replicator 500, and a bathroom I wouldn’t be caught dead taking a shit in.
I did however have to piss. I went in and unzipped.
“At least the holoscreen works,” Purshia called from the bedroom.
“Harry!” Ella yelled. “You’ve got to see this!”
I finished and joined them in the bedroom. On the wall was a three-dimensional head of a furry female who looked way to cute to be a news reporter.
“The suspects are known to many as Team Warwick, the underdogs who so famously thwarted the greys in the Death Arena. To the authorities, the human Harry Warwick and his deadly harlots are considered public enemy number one.”
“Dude, we’re more famous than I thought,” I said, and Ella slapped my chest to shut me up.
“Warwick and his band are wanted for several counts of murder, including that of philanthropist and beloved business tycoon, Targar Leng. They are also wanted for the murder of gambling house tycoon Malagag and hundreds of his staff, and guests of the ill-fated cruiser that was destroyed less than a week ago.”
“This is nuts.” I rubbed my temples and paced. “We’ve got to set the record straight.”
“Shh!” they hissed at me.
“We’re going live now to the Downway District, where authorities think they have cornered the fugitives,” said the news anchor.
The image changed to a tall brown male with huge lips and tiny eyes. Behind him was the shithole where we were staying.
“Well fuck me Friday,” I said, went to the dirty window, and looked out. There were lights in the sky, lights on the ground, and a bunch of SWAT teams moving in.
“We’re surrounded!” I reengaged my nanosuit, which I had dismissed to piss.
“Harry Warwick,” said Zex on the holoscreen.
“You look surprised to see us alive,” I said and approached the screen. His eyes followed me.