Chimera Company Season 2 - Deep Cover

by Tim C. Taylor

  With those fighters scrambling, though, it looked as if Chimera Company’s war with Department 9 was anything but over.

  Bronze looked up from the navigator’s position – where Izza should rightfully be. “There are several pre-calculated courses for jumps initiated from the L5 point in Eiylah-Bremah’s interaction with its primary moon.”

  Fitz engaged the primary drives and soared for the black. He gave Bronze a searching look. Although the man didn’t have the pretty green face or the beautiful marbled eyes of the one he dearly wanted to be sitting beside him, he was nonetheless turning out to be an asset. “Very good. Pick one at random. L5, here we come.”

  “Militia fighters are ordering us to land,” said Zavage.

  “Tell them something suitably rude.”

  A holographic tactical display emerged automatically. “Belay that.” The screen showed the fighters had launched a fan of missiles. “And hold tight.”

  The engines roared as Fitz pushed the throttles to the stops.

  More screens appeared, feeding him data that made his eyes pop.

  The air was rolling freely past her bows, having been charged and deflected by a front shield projector.

  The speed was on a par with the atmospheric fighter craft trying to kill them. Which made this one glorious racing boat.

  “My goodness,” he muttered in awe. “I think I’m in love.”

  VETCH ARUNSEN

  Once, it had been a great temple.

  In its heyday, the air had been pungent with lit censers, its cloisters patrolled by bloated holy priests carried aloft at all times on the shoulders of acolytes, who would not allow the holy feet of the priests to be sullied by contact with the stone floors. Allied groups of these elevated great ones would patrol in formation like fighter craft, trapping opponents from rival religious schools and engaging them from all sides in unrestrained theological debate.

  That’s what Fitz had told them when he had landed on the deserted planet of Milsung-Amka in their stolen luxury space yacht, a ship Fitz had renamed the Ghost Shark.

  Vetch hadn’t paid much attention at the time. He’d had something far more pressing on his mind.

  Whatever its past glories, the temple was deserted now, just a single tower of cracked stone poking out from a mound of fine red desert sand.

  With Vetch accompanying him, Fitz had climbed down into the dark bowels of the temple complex, making use of ropes and tunnel borers where the stairwells and passageways were blocked by sand or broken masonry, and in one case by a huge mound of bones that reached the ceiling. Twists of sinew still attached to some of the bones. Eyeballs stared from skull sockets. This place gave Vetch the creeps.

  Fitz had insisted Vetch bring Lucerne with him, and after seeing this mound of death, he’d gripped his hammer tighter and sharpened his eyes.

  A short distance farther on, they’d encountered an ornate fireplace with a hearth mostly filled with sand.

  “Keep watch,” Fitz had ordered, “while I dig.”

  And so, Vetch patrolled the ancient corridor lit by a perimeter of glow globes and imagined what stories the stone walls could tell.

  “Won’t Nyluga-Ree just kill you and take the data?” Vetch asked after a few minutes of silence, more to hear the comforting sound of his own voice than in anticipation of a straight answer to a question they had asked many times, for this was the matter that had been uppermost on everyone’s mind as the Ghost Shark had landed. Everyone except – apparently – Fitz.

  They were here to make a data pickup, and then conduct an exchange with Nyluga-Ree, the crime boss Fitz had been running from ever since Vetch had met the man.

  “Oh, don’t you worry,” Fitz replied cheerfully, “all this talk of murder is overblown nonsense.”

  “Are you saying she doesn’t want you dead?”

  Fitz paused his digging. “The Outer Torellian Commerce Guild is like a big, happy family. We have occasional family disagreements, but we always come together. Trust me.”

  “Trust me.” Vetch laughed. “Do we have any choice?”

  Fitz stood and gave him a comradely slap on the shoulder. “Good man.” He held up his prize: a small metal box displaying the logo of a popular brand of fruit-flavored sweets. “When she gets her sweaty hands on this, Ree will love us. C’mon, let’s get topside. She’ll be waiting for us by now.”

  VETCH ARUNSEN

  “Payment, ma’am.”

  Fitz handed over the sweet tin to one out of Maycey and Kaycey, the two Kayrissan bodyguards who were indistinguishable as far as Vetch was concerned. Both cat-women had sleek fur striped in shades of bronze and verdigris, and were armed with power lances.

  The Kayrissan opened the tin and sniffed its contents.

  Fitz had told Vetch that it contained data on the ancient mystery ship they’d chased from Rho-Torkis. Who had uncovered the info, and how? He’d refused to answer. Maybe it was Kanha-Wei, or perhaps even Izza Zan Fey was still working with her estranged husband? It was difficult to be sure of anything with his new CO.

  The cat-woman handed the box over to her mistress who was glaring at Fitz from her floating basket.

  Unlike her svelte bodyguards, who moved with the grace of a ninja ballet dancer, Nyluga-Ree looked like a fat, sweaty baby in a loincloth. A shocking pink baby.

  Vetch had never seen a Glaenwi before, but Fitz had explained that the species came from a frigid world. It meant Nyluga-Ree’s people generated enormous internal body heat.

  Oh, and to never, ever call Nyluga-Ree a flamingo.

  Or to stare at the array of brooding pouches that coated her belly, especially at any that were in use.

  But most important of all, Fitz had warned them, to remember that Nyluga-Ree was not a direct physical threat. The cat sisters were the deadliest assassins in the sector, and so Fitz’s Chimera Company escort of Vetch, Lily and Darant focused on them.

  Nyluga-Ree looked at Fitz the way Vetch liked to look at a glass of cold beer next to a plate of hot meat pie. “Down payment,” she said in a voice like a pressure leak. “This is a first installment only. I require more.”

  “Of course,” said Fitz. “But… well, I seem to have many masters and mistresses at present. There’s one in particular – a rather peculiar old man – that I don’t like to keep waiting. Maybe I should make him happy next.”

  “Lord Khallini is a force to be reckoned with,” Ree conceded, “but he doesn’t own you. I do.”

  “Own? I think that’s putting it a little strongly.”

  “Never forget, I hold the key to your heart, human.”

  Fitz frowned, apparently confused “Do you mean that old green girl I used to hang around with? Hah! I think not.”

  “Zan Fey loves you still,” Ree hissed. “And whatever you tell yourself about her, I know she will always be a lever to control you.”

  “Hey, I thought we were friends now?”

  Nyluga-Ree shook her body, spraying Fitz in sweat. What that meant in a Glaenwi, Vetch didn’t know, but he took his cue from the Kayrissan cat-women. They appeared as calmly aloof as ever.

  Vetch wanted to know what it would feel like to stroke that beautiful fur.

  Laughing from deep within her belly, Ree held out a glossy pink hand whose fingers were adorned with chunky rings.

  Fitz bowed before kissing the proffered hand.

  “Our rift is healed,” said Ree. “Temporarily. You may conduct your business with Lord Khallini before returning to me for further instructions.”

  The cool desert air shimmered. Suddenly, ten armed Zhoogenes drew back their cloaks and stepped out of nowhere, blasters at the low ready. They surrounded Fitz and his escort.

  Stealth cloaks.

  Vetch lifted his hammer.

  Darant and Lily set their blasters free, the charge packs humming with threat.

  “I remind you that I can reach you anywhere, should I choose,” said Ree.

  “Don’t underestimate Chimera Company either,” announced S
ybutu. He shimmered into existence atop a dune fifty feet away to one flank, aiming a tripod-mounted SFG gun at Ree. Zavage knelt beside him, ready to serve the plentiful ammo drums. Their appearance surprised the hell out of Vetch, because when the two jacks had activated the stealth box they had found waiting for them when they landed, they had been in a completely different position.

  Different tech to the Zhoogenes in the stealth cloaks but similar outcome.

  “We have many surprises,” added Lantosh, who stayed hidden in her stealth box with Bronze, but her voice appeared to whisper through the air from every direction at once.

  “I shall take your inventiveness under advisement,” said Ree, who appeared delighted by this display, unlike the Kayrissans, whose fur stood on end. “You humans continue to amuse me. Such an exciting species to outwit. It is what keeps you alive. Don’t ever make the mistake of becoming predictable, Fitzwilliam.”

  VETCH ARUNSEN

  “Hold 1 is secure, Captain. Proceeding to Hold 2.”

  “Copy that,” Fitz responded over the intercom.

  Fitz had sent everyone scouring the Ghost Shark for any signs of Nyluga-Ree shenanigans. Vetch suspected that the exercise was at least as much about deflecting away questions about why they were dealing with the crime boss and how. But for now, at least, he was still treating Fitz as his commanding officer.

  As he was walking out the hold, Vetch stopped and sniffed the air.

  He’d been a scrawler as a kid, spray painting tags and wry commentary on public buildings. He would recognize the odor of quick dry paint anywhere. Even here.

  Following his nose, he walked over to one particular bulkhead panel.

  It looked the same as all the others. Dirty bare metal. Unlike the fancier parts of the Ghost Shark, the hold obviously hadn’t warranted the valet treatment.

  Then his eyes took in what they were really seeing.

  The panel had been painted to look like the others, something about it was different.

  He heard a faint noise behind him and turned to see one of Ree’s cat-women swinging the head of her power lance at his head.

  Vetch ducked, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. The lance struck a glancing blow on the top of his head, which was bad enough, but it set off lightning bolts buzzing around the inside of his skull.

  Instinctively, he flung his arms out as he fought to stay conscious, only to have them grabbed and pinned behind him.

  He tried to fight free, but his head was still buzzing with static from the power lance, and his muscles were refusing to obey orders.

  “We had planned on seizing one of the human females,” whispered the cat-woman from just behind his left ear.

  “But then you volunteered yourself for the role,” said her sister into his right.

  Two of them! Vetch didn’t think he was getting out of this.

  They pushed him through the bulkhead. Vetch was too confused to be sure what was happening, but it seemed the assassins had attached an airlock to the Ghost Shark’s hull and cut through into the hold without raising an alarm.

  Together, they cycled through the airlock and into a tiny bubble-craft on the far side. It detached and sped away into space.

  Leaving her sister to pilot the craft, the other Kayrissan regarded Vetch through green, slitted eyes. “Our mistress is far too indulgent with her favorite human,” she said, “but even Nyluga-Ree realizes Fitzwilliam is headstrong. As her hostage, you will help bring him to heel.”

  “And if you don’t,” said the pilot. “She’ll have you stuffed and mounted in her trophy room. One hundred credits says the bearded human will be a taxidermy display before the year is out.”

  The other sister purred as she gave Vetch another inspection. “Unacceptable. I counter-wager he will still be alive and have all his limbs one hundred standard days from now.”

  “One hundred and twenty days, and two hundred credits.”

  “Agreed.”

  The Kayrissan caressed Vetch’s cheek with the back of her hand. Her touch was so smooth, it made puppies and freshly changed babies feel like wire wool and sandpaper. “Don’t give me cause to dislike you, human. You must stay alive for a few months. After that, you are free to die.”

  OSU SYBUTU

  “Captain, the cyber-attack has been cleansed,” reported Enthree at her station in the cramped info-suite.

  “It was intended to delay and conceal rather than destroy,” added Zavage, but it was the Muryani that Fitz was frowning at. She clearly bothered the hell out of him, and Sybutu felt the same way.

  Enthree noted the attention, which was interesting in itself. Normally she appeared oblivious to human body language. “What is it about me that worries you, Captain?”

  “Partly your sudden acquisition of advanced cyber skills,” Fitz replied. “But mostly who the hell is funding you on such a scale that you could issue that bribe back on Eiylah-Bremah?”

  “We’re all due some answers,” said Sybutu, looking pointedly at the captain, “but our priority is to get Vetch back.”

  Lily raised an eyebrow. “That’s the first time you’ve called him Vetch.”

  “I still think he’s a fat oaf,” Sybutu explained, “but he’s a vital member of Chimera Company. And we’ve left too many people behind as it is.”

  “Yes, of course,” Fitz said. “We must rescue the princess.”

  Sybutu shook his head in disbelief. “Did you just call our hairy Viking a princess?”

  Fitz grinned back. “If retrieving him means the inconvenience of going head to head against Nyluga-Ree, when we should really be attending to Kanha-Wei and Lord Khallini, then a callsign of Princess seems a fair price for him to pay.”

  “Their jump tunnel is still open,” said Zavage. “The Ghost Shark is lightning fast. I think we could still follow them into hyperspace.”

  “Not so directly,” said Fitz, reaching for a cigar in his jacket pocket but appearing surprised when he pulled out a miniature bronze jar instead. “Ree would simply kill Vetch. No, we need an indirect approach.” He grinned at his team around him while he stashed away the jar and pulled out a cigar from another pocket. “You know, my friends, I feel that as an interstellar civilization, we don’t spend enough time with those unfortunate individuals at the fringes of society. I’m thinking particularly about elderly freakish wizards. It’s time we paid a visit to Lord Khallini.”

  Get More Chimera Company

  Thank you for reading Season 2 of Chimera Company. Season 3 will be out in 2020. We’ll be seeing more of Nyluga Ree, and Chimera Company will get closer to the center of power in the Federation. Meanwhile, the Andromedans are far from done.

  If you want to keep up with the news on the latest season, you can check out the Chimera Company page on humanlegion.com, where you can also download prequels and join the Legion to get the latest skinny on my stories and learn about the Chimera Company Insiders.

  There are three prequels so far, featuring the Militia, Legion, and Special Missions. You can download some for free from the Chimera Company page.

  If you haven’t already read it, try Season 1: Rho-Torkis, which is already available in eBook and paperback editions.

  I love writing Chimera Company, and I want to write many more of their adventures. For that to be a reality, the series needs to sell well, and so far it hasn’t. Spreading the word and leaving positive reviews are all things that can help it succeed. Even if it never pays the bills, I’m enjoying writing Chimera Company so much that I’ll keep going through season 3 in any case.

  Thanks for reading.

  Tim Taylor – November 2019

 

 

 
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