Black Sheep

by Rachel Aukes

  “We’re not free and clear yet,” she said.

  Birk looked over his shoulder and beyond the other team members. “They didn’t follow us in here, so things might finally be turning to our favor.”

  They turned a curve and found themselves standing before a group of disheveled men and women, all with homemade machetes and axes.

  “You were saying,” Throttle muttered before holding out her open hands and facing the crowd. “We mean you no problems. We’re just passing through.”

  A man in the front pointed his machete at Throttle. “Nobody trespasses through our gutters and lives to talk about it. I take it you came here to die, trespasser?”

  Noise behind her led her to look over her shoulder to see more people jump down from openings in the ceiling, blocking any kind of retreat.

  Throttle’s jaw hardened, and she lowered her hands to be closer to her holster. “No one has to die here today, pal. But I can promise you, if you try to take us down, we’ll take several of you with us.”

  “You reach for that gun, and I’ll cut your head off before you get off a shot,” the leader said.

  “Then don’t give me a reason to,” she said.

  They stared at each other for several long seconds.

  “What are you doing in my tunnels?” the leader asked.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if you already know the answer to that question,” Throttle said. “I’m guessing you have spies spread out across this colony. I’m guessing you know more about what’s going on than anyone else, maybe even more than West or East.”

  She couldn’t mistake the hint of pride in his unwashed features, so she continued, “And I’m guessing that’s why you didn’t kill us as soon as we ventured into your tunnels, because you know we can help each other.”

  His brows rose. “And just how do you think you can help us? You can’t even help yourselves.”

  “I have multiple ships, with one being a full-sized colony ship with plenty of extra room for more passengers.”

  “And you can’t get to either ship,” the leader said.

  A narrow smile formed. “I could with your help.”

  He pursed his lips. “I don’t think you understand how this game works. You’re supposed to sell me on how you can help me, not the other way around.”

  “Easy. You help me get to my ships, and anyone who’s interested gets a free lift to Hiraeth, where your people can build your own colony on a planet with fresh air and open space.”

  She watched the expressions on his people’s faces more so than his. She’d gambled—she had no idea if his people desired a colony of their own. Seeing their faces, she knew she’d guessed correctly.

  The leader was a harder read. “You think that by me helping you get to your ships, that you can just take them back and fly us all to Hiraeth?” He shook his head. “You’re an idiot if you think either East or West would let you off Jade-8 without a fight.”

  “They won’t have a choice,” Throttle said. “Not when they have to choose between letting us go and saving themselves.”

  The leader watched her for a long moment before lowering his machete and motioning them to follow. The four of them followed the larger group, and a dozen more had Throttle and her team penned in from behind. One of the men was taller than Birk, twice as wide, and carried an axe with a blade bigger than her head. She made no assumptions that her people were anything else except prisoners.

  They took turns and winded through tunnels. Throttle could see her breath in one tunnel where a steel and tar patch covered most of the wall, and she suspected air was still leaking through the breach.

  “Did you find out where the sleepers are being kept?” she asked quietly.

  Birk nodded. “They’re in one of East’s warehouses, located just a shade off Jade-8. Sounds like they’re packed into a big ole powered moving unit.”

  Throttle frowned as she considered his words. The sleepers could be moved in hours, or they could remain in the warehouse for months. If they were moved before Throttle could get to them, then she could lose them to the black.

  They continued walking. Throttle tried to remember the turns while she thought through the sleeper situation, but she soon became lost in the deep maze. Eventually they arrived at a large area, where it looked like several tunnels had been cut open and rewelded into what Throttle guessed to be their version of a community area. Tents and hammocks filled the space. Small children played with balls and makeshift toys. Several adults were filling containers with water from spigots attached to a line running just above the floor.

  They were led to a shack in the center. The leader brushed the fabric door aside and stepped in. Throttle followed, while her team was blocked by several guards. She made eye contact with Birk before a guard dropped the curtain over the doorway. The lights were dim in here, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A brightly colored hammock was strung between two posts near the far wall. The leader took a seat in a torn ship chair that had been built up to sit at a normal chair height. He leaned back, watching her. She took the second chair across from him, a table standing between them.

  He spoke first. “You shouldn’t have come into my tunnels. You’re going to be like catnip, drawing East’s people in, and they’ll make one of mine give you up.”

  “I’m not asking you to hide us, only to let us use your tunnels,” Throttle said.

  “It’s too late for that. They would’ve seen you enter my domain. Hell, half the city probably saw you.”

  “We were in a bit of a hurry,” she said drily; then her gaze narrowed. “Why hasn’t East or West cleared out the tunnels? Why do they let you live in here?”

  “Easy. They need us. Whenever they have a job that’s too messy or dangerous, I get a call. They know someone will always take a job if there’s enough credits involved.”

  “I didn’t think you cared about the credits.”

  “Everyone cares about the credits. We can get our hands on a lot of things, but one of the things we can’t get are medical supplies. Someone’s kid gets pneumonia, someone breaks a bone, you know how it goes. The odd job here and there helps people survive.”

  “You could do more than survive on Hiraeth.”

  He harrumphed. “Starting a colony on Hiraeth may sound tempting, but my people would be in worse shape than we are here. At least here, we have access to food and have roofs over our heads. We have no idea what we’d face there.”

  “I agree, building a colony from scratch isn’t easy, and there are plenty of risks involved. But there’s one thing you can find at Hiraeth that you can’t here, and that’s a future.”

  “How do you know? Have you been there?”

  Throttle tapped her finger once on the table. “No, but I made a promise to the colonists I brought here that I’d bring them to a new home. I broke that promise to them once, and I refuse to abandon them again. If I can’t get them to Hiraeth, I’ll make sure they can live as free men and women on Jade-8, even if it means I have to take down both Jakob West and Anna East to see it done.”

  “You don’t have to worry about Jakob West too much. He’s the good guy compared to Anna East.”

  She gave him a sideways glance. “He may be better than her, but that doesn’t make him the good guy.”

  He watched for a length. “So tell me, how would you go about getting your ships and people off this colony and to Hiraeth? Not that I’m committing anything to your cause just yet. But Jade-8 is a nasty enough place that even the Galactic Peacekeepers know better than to step foot on this colony.”

  She leaned forward. “I’m working on a plan. Wouldn’t mind having a partner, someone who knows Jade-8 inside and out.”

  He scrutinized her for another moment and then held out his hand. “My people call me Mutt.”

  She shook his hand. “Mine call me Throttle.”

  Two hours later, Throttle and Mutt emerged from his home. The large man with the axe stepped aside to let her pass, and her te
am stood from where they’d been lounging on the nearby floor.

  Mutt nodded to Throttle’s left leg. “I can have someone look at those braces if you want.”

  She shook her head. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Whatever suits.” He then motioned to a teenage girl with red hair. “Cinder will guide you to the West side, where you’ll at least be safe from East’s forces. Notify me when the deal’s been made, and I’ll send you my engineer.” He pulled out a knife and handed it to Throttle. It was homemade and more of a short shiv than a blade. “Here. You might need this out there.”

  She looked at him. “Thanks. For everything.”

  The redheaded girl nodded for them to follow, and Throttle motioned to her team.

  As the girl led them from Mutt’s community, Birk moved closer to Throttle. “So I take it they’re not going to try to kill us anymore?”

  Throttle replied, “Today, they’re our allies. Tomorrow, they’ll just as likely change their minds.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Throttle felt like she’d walked ten miles by the time she reached the West side, and she supposed she probably had. The clicking in her left brace had worsened, and the hitch in her step had redoubled. The brace needed to be fixed before she ended up without the use of her legs—with her wheelchair back on the Javelin, that would be a very big problem.

  Cinder had kept them moving at a fast pace, though it was obvious the lithe teenager was walking at a slower clip than she was accustomed to. Throttle could tell by the way the girl would toss bored glances over her shoulder. Cinder opened a tunnel door just outside the elevator that led to their apartment. She’d held the door just long enough for the four outsiders to climb through, then the door was closed, and Throttle saw no more of Cinder.

  Throttle didn’t feel her tension ease until they were all in the elevator and climbing to their floor. She glanced at Birk. “When we get inside, think you can take a look at my braces?”

  He nodded. “I’m tired of hearing it click with every step.”

  Nolin tapped a finger to his lip. “We should’ve printed off the material to build a second pair of braces back when we still had the printer.”

  “We’ll get it back,” Throttle said with more confidence than she felt.

  Nolin’s brow creased. “I wonder if Rusty’s bots could be programmed to build a second pair. It seems like those bots can be programmed to do just about anything.”

  “As long as you don’t need it right away or even this month. Have you seen those things in action? They make caterpillars look like speed demons. No wonder it took Rusty three centuries to rebuild itself,” Birk said.

  She glanced down at her left brace and the fresh blood near her knee where the brace was cutting into her skin. The elevator opened. “I don’t need another. These braces work fine, just need adjusting,” she said and stepped into the hallway.

  Throttle was relieved to find the hallway empty and headed to their apartment. She reached into her pocket for her pass-card but found it empty. She frowned. “I’m guessing East took my pass-card.”

  “Mine too,” Nolin said.

  “Allow me,” Birk said before swiping his card over the reader.

  The door opened, and Throttle took a step, only to stop. Finn whipped out a blaster.

  Don Simon stood inside their apartment. The Jader held up a hand, though the guard on either side didn’t lower their guns.

  Throttle placed her hand on the barrel of Finn’s gun and pressed it lower. “It’s okay,” she said without taking her eyes off Don. “What are you doing here?”

  “You missed your nine o’clock meeting with Mr. West.”

  “I was otherwise engaged,” she said drily.

  “I am to escort you to his office,” Don said. His gaze floated over her team. “Only you.”

  “Am I under arrest?” she asked.

  He frowned. “No. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.” She looked to her team, ending on Birk. “Looks like I’ll have to get you to work on my leg braces later.”

  He gave a tight nod.

  She left the apartment alongside Don, and the pair of guards followed. As they walked, Don frowned, and she could tell the clicking from her left brace was annoying him.

  After a moment, he sighed. “There’s something wrong with your legs.”

  “Nothing I can’t fix.”

  He said nothing more while he brought her back to Jakob West’s office using the same hallways and elevators he’d taken her and her team through the day earlier.

  This time when she entered his office, Jakob remained at his desk. “My, my, my, you Trappists have done a bang-up job of attracting trouble.”

  She ignored his comment. “Thought it’d be easier to break into my ship?”

  One side of his lips curled into the slightest smile. “It has proven to be a bit more challenging than I’d expected. I hadn’t taken into account our different technologies.”

  She cut straight to the chase. “You can’t get on my ship without damaging it, and you want me to unlock it for you.”

  “I just want to have a chat with you. Two Jaders in a casual conversation, that’s all.” He steepled his fingers. “I admit, I underestimated your technology earlier. I’d assumed that Sol tech was superior, and it is in many ways, but it seems that Trappist tech is enough different that our systems don’t play well together.”

  She knew that the real reasons East couldn’t hack the systems was because Sylvian was one of the best software techs she’d ever known, and Rusty was the most impressive central computer she’d worked with. It was a bit of information she had no interest in sharing with him.

  He motioned to a chair. “Take a seat.”

  She paused. The chair was on the other side of the energy shield, or at least where the shield was the last time she’d been in this room. She glanced to the walls and ceilings.

  “I’ve turned the shield off, as a sign of trust,” he said and gestured to the chair again.

  She cautiously stepped forward.

  He glanced at her clicking leg brace. “I can have someone take a look at that if you’d like.”

  “No.” She took a seat.

  “I assume you have a disability of some sort. I’ve never seen leg braces like those before.”

  She watched him for a moment before answering, deciding whether the personal information could be used against her. “My back was broken when I was very young. My legs have never worked. These braces allow me to walk, though their features are somewhat limited since I have no sensation, no feedback.”

  “Fascinating. They’re truly more advanced than anything I’ve seen around here. I imagine we could learn a lot from each other.”

  “Stealing my ship got us off on the wrong foot for that, don’t you think?”

  “I admit I may have been slightly overzealous in claiming your ship. But you must understand, my sister has your other ship. Who knows what she’s learned already that she’ll use to give herself an advantage. I can’t risk her taking over all of Jade-8. As long as I control half the colony, she plays by the rules—for the most part, at least. But if she were to take over the colony, she would be a cruel, unforgiving leader.”

  Throttle shrugged. “I can see that.”

  “That’s why I must ask, what did she want with you?”

  “The same thing you want. An advantage against her sibling. Too bad neither of you know how to ask nicely.”

  “I’m trying to now.”

  Her brows rose. “Are you? When my ship is still being kept from me?” She leaned back. “If I were to share my knowledge and technology with you, what would I get in return?”

  “One million credits, plus you could fly your ship in my fleet.”

  “And my crew?”

  “One hundred thousand credits each, and they’ll also be offered contracts in Jade-8 West.”

  “But not contracts in your fleet.”

  “It depends on their skill set
s.”

  “I should clarify. They wouldn’t be offered contracts to fly with me, would they?”

  Jakob seemed to struggle to find his next words. “If they were to fly with you on your ship, there’d be a conflict of interest that could cause me trouble. After all, what would prevent you from flying off into the black and leaving me high and dry?”

  She smirked. “I understand. You’d have me stay on my ship because you need me to operate it. You’d put a new crew on board—a crew loyal to you—to learn from me and at the same time make sure I don’t do something like trying to take off with my own ship. Once they know how to operate my ship, I’d no longer be necessary and could be discarded. Does that sound about right?”

  He held out his hands. “It wouldn’t be like that.”

  “Hm. It sounds like it would be exactly like that.” Her gaze narrowed. “That’s why I have a different proposition for you.”

  “Oh, and what’s that?”

  “What if I take your sister out of the picture? Then you’d have both her fleet and yours, and all of Jade-8 under your leadership. You wouldn’t need me or my ships because there’d be no more East and West, just West.”

  He scowled. “Anna may have lost her way, but she’s still my sister. I would never condone her murder.”

  Throttle held up a finger. “I didn’t say I’d kill her. I’d deliver Anna East right here, to you. What you do with her after that is up to you. In return, I get my ships back—both the Javelin and the Gabriela—along with everything that was on the Gabriela when it was brought into the East docks.”

  “I told you the first time we met, I’m not interested in starting a war, and that sounds exactly like what you’re proposing.”

  Throttle shook her head. “Not at all. If I was caught while going after Anna, everyone would assume it’s out of vengeance for her arresting me and taking my ship, and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. There’d be no connection to you until she’s wrapped up and dropped off on your doorstep. By then, it’ll be too late. If her forces had to choose between fighting or carrying on their lives under a new leader, they’d choose you. I’ve seen that people don’t care whom they work for as long as their lives don’t change for the worse. Offer something to improve their lives, and they’ll love you for it. All of Jade-8 will unite under the West name, and you won’t even have to spill blood to make Jade-8 yours.”