Starcrasher (Shades Space Opera Book 1)

by Rock Forsberg

  ‘I did read the contract,’ Tredd said, and raised his head. ‘You must pay for my expenses, including taking the crew back to Gemma Central. The Rutger’s the cheapest option you’ve got.’ Although he always thought of ships as utilities, this one had grown on him. It was slow, weak and impractical, but already filled with memories of adventure with a bunch of people he could almost call friends. The Rutger held his motley crew together, and he still had a mission to complete.

  ‘I’m sorry, but the policies…’ the pencil-neck started without looking like he was sorry at all. He was cut off by the leader, who tapped him on the shoulder and whispered something. The pencil-neck looked at the leader with raised eyebrows. The leader nodded back, and for a moment they sat silent.

  ‘Appears it’s your lucky day,’ the pencil-neck said. ‘You may rent the wagon to ship off your mates. Given your difficult status with the Dawn Alliance, we’ll even swap the registration and transponder sequence, so you won’t get harassed.’

  Tredd thought he saw a little smile on Hugo’s face – after all, he was the one who had introduced the Rutger to Tredd. The sudden spell of goodwill seemed unwonted and made Tredd suspect their motives. Even so, he would gladly take what they offered, and perhaps some more. ‘That might not be enough though. The crew and I have got the stigma too.’

  There was a moment of silence. ‘I’m not sure,’ Hugo said, eyeing his superior.

  The leader raised his hand and said, ‘FIST will clear your status with the Dawn Alliance. In addition, we agree you should pay your crew with our credit.’

  Tredd smiled at the outcome, and thought he saw surprise behind the business faces of both Hugo and the pencil-neck. It was too easy, he thought. There has to be a catch. There always is.

  ‘Yes, we are doing you a favour,’ the leader said, like he had seen right through him. ‘You will work with us again.’

  We’ll see about that, Tredd thought, but instead said, ‘Thank you.’ He didn’t want them to change their minds.

  ‘Your access to our credit is still valid for eight hours,’ Hugo said. ‘You have been prudent with the expenses so far, and we expect the same now. You will be personally liable for any breach of policy.’

  ‘As usual,’ Tredd said.

  ‘As usual,’ Hugo said.

  THE LIGHTS WERE DOWN low in the Rutger’s galley. Eddie was at the end of the table, where Tredd usually sat. Like everyone else, he was waiting for Tredd to bring the news. Berossus, Evie and Aino were around the table, too. Berossus was eating a piece of something that might have had its origins as a living being. Evie was fiddling with her handheld terminal. Aino played with Peaches, who sat on her lap, reaching out with her paws like it was massaging the air.

  Eddie felt uneasy, but there was nothing else to do than wait.

  Berossus tapped a plate with a small bone in his hand. ‘I wonder if I can ever return to work at Gemma Central after that.’

  ‘You should be all right,’ Eddie said. ‘You’ve just been doing your job as a mechanic, and there’s nothing wrong with that.’ He tried to comfort Berossus, but for himself he was sure there was not going to be a pardon. He was with Tredd all the way.

  ‘Perhaps,’ Berossus said, but his expression told Eddie he didn’t believe it. ‘I don’t like the mind games they play. I get dizzy and feel like curling up in a dark room.’

  ‘Speaking of getting dizzy…’ Eddie held up a finger. ‘You don’t have any trouble being down in Spit City?’

  ‘No,’ Berossus grunted. ‘It’s not a planet.’

  Spit City was a small moon, with enhanced gravity, which in many respects made it very much like a planet. ‘I don’t get it. You’re fine in Spit City, but if you go down to, say, Baleor, it’s a problem?’

  Berossus looked up from his food and heaved a sigh. ‘Yes. It would be a problem… it’s a personal thing, and I don’t really want to talk about it.’ He laid the bone down on the plate and stared down at it.

  ‘Poor little big fellow,’ Evie said, resting her palm on Berossus’s shoulder. ‘You’ll be all right.’

  ‘What about you, Evie?’ Eddie asked. ‘Besides Tredd, you’re the only one who lives in this city. For you it must be great to be back.’

  ‘Nope,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I hate this dump. I wanna leave as soon as possible.’

  It made sense; Eddie recalled she had hitched a ride as a stowaway. She had to be running from something. Stowaways always did. ‘What are you running from?’

  She crossed her arms and gave him a cold stare. ‘It’s none of your business… but for the record, I’m not going to leave Aino until she is safe.’

  Eddie nodded in silence. He had just been making conversation, wanting to know something about her, but she seemed to be very tense whenever the topic of her past came up. Of everyone aboard she was the one he knew the least. He even got more out of Aino.

  ‘What about you?’ Aino asked as she stroked the cat’s back.

  Eddie swallowed. He had been intending to contact Cassandra as soon as they got back in range. He wanted to tell her he was all right, and to tell his boys that Daddy was going to be back. But he could not bring himself to do it. He knew that as long as they were wanted by the Dawn Alliance, there was no way for him to return. What’s done is done, he thought. Even if he had had his doubts, he knew he had done the right thing. He had saved the universe, at least for now.

  ‘It’s complicated,’ he said, and sighed. Even if he could create a completely new identity, it would be difficult to return to his family. The Dawn Alliance would find out. They always did, and he couldn’t face Cassandra with that news.

  Aino nodded in silence. Peaches jumped down to the floor and stretched her legs. Aino cleared her throat and looked up at Eddie. ‘Do you think they’ll take me?’

  Eddie struggled to respond. He hated waiting for the news, for which he had estimated a 92% chance of being bad. ‘I don’t know, but we will do whatever it takes to take you home.’

  Aino crumpled her lips. ‘If you take me home – what happens then?’

  That was a good question. She would have the exact same issue as he had. The long beams of the Dawn Alliance would scan her family and pick up the girl, regardless of her name in the system. Eddie didn’t want to depress her though, so, as always, he dodged the issue. ‘I hope you can return to normal life. Speaking of which, how do you feel with your, you know, powers?’

  Aino raised her palms to her temples and looked through Eddie with an empty stare. ‘I feel it grow stronger every day, but I know I can control it… for now. But when it grows, I don’t—’

  ‘You’ll also be stronger then,’ Evie said, ‘and you will learn to control it. You will grow to be a strong lady, and there is nothing you need to fear.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Aino whispered.

  Suddenly Peaches jumped onto the table with a meow, skidded past Eddie and landed back down on the floor. The cat had been startled by Tredd entering. He had a grave face as he stepped up to the table with heavy feet. Everyone went silent.

  ‘Are we offline?’ he asked.

  ‘Completely,’ Evie said confidently. ‘How did it go?’

  ‘I met with the FIST operatives,’ Tredd said, and pulled up a chair beside Eddie. ‘The outcome of our discussion was that the mission was a failure and I won’t be paid the bounty.’

  There was a moment of silence as everyone looked down, pondering.

  ‘I don’t understand. What does it mean, failure?’ Berossus asked.

  Tredd leaned forward against the table. ‘It means that we failed to find and deliver the device.’

  Again there was a moment when everyone was silent, looking around, and then Eddie got it. Failing to find the device could mean only one thing. A smile crept onto his face. ‘They don’t know about her.’

  Evie understood immediately, her smile brightening, and shouted, ‘Yes!’

  ‘That’s right,’ Tredd said nodding with a smile. ‘They’re completely cl
ueless about Aino.’

  Hearing this, Aino heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Will you take me home now?’

  ‘I promised you, didn’t I? They even let me have this old wagon.’ Tredd gestured around with open arms.

  ‘That’s great,’ Evie said. ‘I’m coming with you.’

  ‘So am I,’ Eddie said.

  Berossus grunted. ‘Not going home before she does.’

  It was a good moment, smiling faces around the table. Meanwhile, dark thoughts started creeping back to Eddie’s mind. Even if FIST didn’t take Aino, they were still wanted by the Dawn Alliance. He could see the others thinking about it as well.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Tredd said. ‘It was difficult to negotiate, but they have agreed to clear us with the Dawn Alliance.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Evie asked.

  ‘They will remove the wanted status we got when we left the battleship, so we won’t get harassed on identification. The same goes with the Rut. Apparently FIST wields some political clout. However, Aino’s case will be more difficult – FIST does not know about her.’

  For Eddie this was great news. If his status was cleared, he could get back home to his family. He would connect with Cassandra as soon as it was confirmed. His debtors he would handle later, there was no hurry now that they were back in the Dawn Alliance-controlled space, and with his pay cheque soon in the bank, he could rebalance the accounts. Thinking of sunny, and soon debt-free, days in Bella brought a smile to his face.

  ‘Do you know,’ Evie said hesitantly, ‘if they clear us, would they also wipe everything else from our records?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Tredd asked, leaning towards her.

  ‘Just thinking,’ she said, looking at the ceiling. ‘What do we do with Aino then?’

  Eddie could sense the Jindalar was hiding something. Perhaps she’s so eager to get away because her record wasn’t clean to start with.

  ‘We have to move fast. It’s only a matter of time before the news of our escape with Aino will leak from the DAN to FIST. I’m going to take Aino to meet with Gus,’ Tredd said. ‘He knows how to fix these sorts of things.’

  Eddie raised an eyebrow. ‘How? Who is Gus?’

  Tredd stood up. ‘He’s a business partner and a friend – an old hacker.’

  ‘Sounds great. I’m with you,’ Eddie said. The cat jumped on his lap with a meow. ‘You too, Peaches?’

  Peaches purred.

  Tredd tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Eddie, would you mind coming up to the cockpit with me?’

  Eddie swallowed, hoping it was about something other than his blackouts. He followed Tredd silently as they left the galley, climbed up to the cockpit, and sat down on their seats.

  Tredd turned to face Eddie and broke the silence. ‘When we were running from the Excalibur, what happened with you?’

  ‘It’s nothing,’ Eddie said dismissively and leaned back in the chair, looking at the range of instrument panels and controls in front of him. ‘I was quite dehydrated that day.’

  Tredd touched his elbow, making Eddie look back at him. ‘And when Berossus carried you back from the casino, were you dehydrated then too?’

  Eddie sighed. ‘I don’t know what it is… I get these blackouts from time to time, but I always come back in minutes.’ There was no need to talk about what happened during those blackouts. It was too weird to explain.

  Tredd touched the stubble on his chin. ‘You saw Dr Killock about it, didn’t you?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘She did something with her machine,’ Eddie said, and held his right hand fingers down like a spider, ‘but it didn’t help, and we never had a chance to discuss the results.’

  ‘Pal, I can’t have you blacking out at random. My advice for you is to see a proper doctor and take care of it. Understood?’

  Eddie nodded, even though he knew doctors couldn’t help him. He had seen a dozen already. No one was able to explain his blackouts.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EVIE FOLLOWED Tredd and Eddie as they entered a Shuttler shop. Between them, the men carried a round steel capsule one and half metres long and less than half a metre in diameter.

  Berossus had stayed on the ship, saying he needed to calibrate the generator – something Evie knew would be done in a minute. Perhaps he just needed some time alone. Or not completely alone, as he had Peaches to keep him company.

  The green Shuttler-shop logo was a common sight in Spit City – she had herself rented from them a few times. This confused her – hadn’t Tredd said they would get to keep the Rutger?

  There were no spaceships around, just rows and rows of boring white shuttles incapable of escaping the moon’s artificially increased gravity. Still holding his end of the capsule, Tredd had a quick exchange with a perky receptionist who wore the Shuttler-shop uniform, a green crime against fashion.

  ‘Come on,’ Tredd said, and beckoned for Evie to follow him and Eddie. They carried the capsule past rows of white shuttles, and through a door to a dark grey corridor. They stopped at a nondescript door and set the capsule down. Tredd knocked.

  Perhaps there’s something more to this place than the plain boredom, Evie thought. Her suspicion was confirmed as the door opened. She followed capsule-carrying Tredd and Eddie into a large room filled with computer equipment, some of which she could immediately recognise. A hacker’s den!

  Among the equipment she spotted a row of multi-core machines, an overdrive data manipulator box, some stacks of what might have been optimisation engines, and a heavy-duty RX visualiser. In the far corner sat a sturdy old man with a white beard, bathing in the light of the screen in front of him.

  ‘Gus, mate, what’s happening?’ Tredd asked as he and Eddie lowered the capsule to the floor.

  ‘Could be worse,’ Gus said, turning around. He wore classic button suspenders around his chunky frame, and his white beard looked like the hair missing from his shiny top. ‘How about you, buddy?’

  ‘Good, good—’

  ‘No, you’re not. You’re in trouble. I know it.’ Gus stood up and started taking cumbersome steps towards them, swinging his upper body from side to side as he walked. He looked down at the capsule. ‘I see you brought friends.’

  Eddie stepped forward, and said, ‘Eddie Parkes.’

  ‘Evie Yeoh.’ She waved, and met Gus’s evaluating eyes.

  Gus grunted, and turned back to Tredd. ‘Are they in trouble too?’

  ‘Well…’ Tredd said. ‘I was hoping you could scan someone for bots and cut a few data cords.’

  ‘I knew it. Who is the patient?’

  ‘She’s here.’ Tredd pressed a button on the capsule and its top swung open. Aino squinted and rubbed her pink eyes, and then, with Eddie’s help, stepped out.

  ‘This little beauty…’ Gus peered at the girl, then Tredd. ‘What have you done?’

  ‘It’s a long story. You will keep this to yourself, all right?’ Tredd said, and laid his hand on Gus’s shoulder.

  Gus nodded in agreement.

  Tredd then told Gus about their trip to Five Ways, landing on the uncharted planet, being captured by the navy and the release from FIST. ‘She has telekinesis, but no ID. I want to understand what’s going on.’

  Gus looked at Aino, and then stepped up close to Tredd and whispered something.

  Tredd chuckled. ‘Yes, she’s a human… but I want to know what she’s got.’

  ‘All right, that’ll be easy,’ Gus said, and stepped back. ‘What about those umbilical data cords you want cut?’

  Tredd explained how Aino lacked a proper ID in the Dawn Network, however, various ships she had boarded, including the Rut, had bled information under her default ID. The Dawn Alliance officials would have access to this data, and Tredd wanted it gone.

  Gus grunted. ‘You want her hidden? Just by landing in Spit City you’ve transmitted her location to every snoop in the Dawn Alliance.’

  Not so, Evie thought. ‘I’ve r
emoved her feed from the Rutger.’

  ‘Good work,’ Gus said, turning to her with a tough expression. ‘But you do realise they know your ship’s docked in Spit City?’

  Evie swallowed. He was right… The navy would likely be scanning through consolidated docking data feeds from every port in the galaxy. She had missed this fact and put Aino and everyone else in jeopardy. She felt herself blush.

  Gus glanced at the door. ‘No marine squads here yet though…’

  Tredd chuckled. ‘FIST swapped the Rut’s transponder sequence. The navy will be busy following another Rutger that’s been hauling artisan bread for the outpost colonies for the past ten years. Before they get back on our tail, Aino should be gone from the system.’

  ‘They can do that?’ Evie asked. She felt relieved and awkward at the same time.

  Tredd nodded.

  ‘Those sneaky bastards,’ Gus said, shaking his head. ‘They get away with anything.’

  ‘Trust me, they’re on our side,’ Tredd said. ‘They’ve cleared our statuses too.’

  Gus mumbled something unprintable about FIST to his beard and stepped about, swaying from side to side as he went.

  Evie was still recoiling from being saved by Tredd. What an embarrassment, she thought. ‘At least they don’t know about Aino—’

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that either,’ Gus said.

  ‘She’s right. They don’t,’ Tredd said. ‘It’s a long story. They’re not even looking for a person, but a device.’

  Gus grunted. ‘All right, but the navy is? So, now every time a networked camera or microphone recognises her, the Dawn Alliance gets a ping just by polling her default ID.’

  ‘I knew you’d understand,’ Tredd said with a one-sided smile. ‘We can’t carry her around in a capsule forever.’

  Evie thought about the task at hand. Hacking one ship to ignore a person was already difficult, but the whole network? Impossible. ‘You can’t possibly hack them all…’