Tal noted his ex-partner's voice and body language then sat. “I haven't got a clue why the Gal-Gov would want me dead.” Tal placed his hands in the open, away from his weapon, hoping to avoid a deadly confrontation. “All I've done is my job. My orders were to infiltrate Crowe's organization and retrieve some alien artifact he's threatening the galaxy with. Either retrieve it or destroy it. That's all.”
Sebastian relaxed. His hand returned to his lap, yet still only inches away from the button. “Okay, I know you, and I know when you're lying. And, you ain't lying, now.” He shifted his large body in the chair. “So, the big question is why the death warrant? And, how do I find out without tipping them off you're here?”
Tal rubbed his eyes then looked up at his friend. “Look, all I know is those museum thieves we busted had something to do with something the government wanted kept secret. That was all I managed to find out afterward, with the help of Commissioner Sinclair. That, and the fact that High Commissioner Clinton Gains is somehow mixed up in it. I don't know exactly how, but he's slimier than a sea slug—and I wouldn't be surprised if he's dirty, very dirty.”
“I wouldn't be surprised, either. That piece of shit has his greedy hands into every nasty racket you can name, including some illegal trade with Crowe's pirates,” Sebastian spat.
“You have proof of this, Seb?” Tal leaned forward, suddenly alert and all cop.
“Are you kidding? If I had any real proof, I'd use it, you dumb ass!” Sebastian sneered. “Nobody wants to see that slime ball go down as much as I do. I hate the bastard after what he did to my father, and you know it.”
“So, the death warrant is bogus. For some reason, somebody wants me dead. My money is on Gains, and I'm betting yours is, too,” Tal summarized as his mind worked on the problem.
“Yep, it is. And, my friend, that also means if it does have something to do with what you and I know, then I'll be next.” Sebastian's hand slammed down on the desk. “The fucking bastard! I knew I should've killed him when I had the chance.”
“You almost killed him? When? You never told me about this, and I thought we talked about everything.”
“It was right after my dad shot himself. I knew Gains had something to do with it, but, again, I couldn't prove it. I was a young cop. Hotheaded and full of determination to do the right thing. When I found my dad and that note ... I went berserk. Gains tried to pump me to find out how much my dad told me. That's when I knew he was mixed up in it somehow. That's when I wanted to kill him.” Sebastian's face was a mottled red, anger and pain flitted through his eyes. “But, I didn't, and I've been sorry ever since.”
“What are you going to do, Seb? Arrest me?” Tal asked, knowing the answer.
“No, I'm not. However, now that the alert is in our system, those hotshots out there will be after you, once they know who you are. So, my advice to you, buddy, is to get your ass out of here right away before they find out.” Sebastian wasn't smiling as he nodded toward the room full of suspicious faces turned toward the office. “Every last one of them is dirty, on the take, and worse. Get out, Tal. Get out now.”
“Yeah, you're right. But, before I go, I need updated info on Crowe's location. Check it for me, but be careful how you do it. I don't want them even suspecting you might be helping me. Okay?” Tal rose from the chair.
Sebastian stood with him and held out his hand. Tal took it, and the two gripped each other. “No problem, partner. I'll send it to your ship, so don't stick around here. It's been great to see you one last time.” Sebastian's hand dropped.
Tal nodded at him then turned and left without a backward glance. He made his way back to the entrance. The gauntlet of workers in the communications room all openly stared at him. He reined in the urge to run and walked sedately toward the outer door.
The redhead met him in the outer room. “How'd it go, mate? I heard you and the old man shouting from here.” The man chuckled. “You must've pissed him off real good.” He chuckled again and opened the outer metal door.
Tal stepped through. “Yeah, and he's not the only one.”
* * * *
Tal heard voices arguing as he neared the docking bay where the Europa still perched. When he came through the gate, he saw Cea standing in front of Malcolm, her finger jabbing into the droid's chest. “I am going, and that is final!” Her voice echoed throughout the docking bay.
“I cannot let you, Captain. Not unless you take me with you,” Malcolm replied in a modulated tone. “You know I cannot allow you to knowingly go where you might be harmed. It is part of my primary programming.” He held Cea's gaze dispassionately.
“Damn you! You can't stop me!” she shrieked as she spun on her heel toward the gate.
Malcolm's hand shot out and grabbed her belt, stopping her just as effectively as the sight of a scowling Tal. Cea planted her feet and ordered, “Let go of me, Malcolm. He's here now.”
The android released her, but remained close. Penny sat perched on the entry ramp, chin resting on her hand and a smile on her face, as she observed the drama. She was obviously enjoying herself.
“What's this all about?” Tal demanded, glancing at each of them in turn, before resting his gaze on Cea.
“That bastard parts dealer didn't deliver,” Cea spat at him. “I was going to go find him and get what we paid for, but...” she tilted her head back toward Malcolm. “...he won't let me go without a bodyguard. I don't want the ship left unguarded. Maybe you can be useful for a change and go find our parts?” she finished, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Mal won't let the Queen Bitch of the Universe have her own way.” Penny chuckled.
“Shut up, Penny,” Tal barked. “Malcolm, keep them both here. I'll be back soon.” He turned and sprinted back toward the inner city, hearing cries of protest from both women erupt behind him.
* * * *
“Where the hell is Crank?” Tal growled at the small pinch-faced man huddling behind the counter at the repair shop.
The man whined and held both hands up in front of his face. His small close-set eyes gleamed with feral slyness, darting around the room, looking for an exit. “I told ya, Agent English. He ain't here. He told me to hold the fort, and he left in a hurry. That's all I know.”
“Ferret, you know me. And you know what I'll do if I don't get some cooperation here,” Tal snarled, leaning over the counter to invade the man's space. “I paid for hull skin, and I want it now. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, yeah, I do, but I can't help ya. Honest,” Ferret whined.
Tal reached over, grabbed Ferret by what was left of a dirty collar on a faded brown jumpsuit and pulled him across the counter's nicked and stained surface. He held the small squirming man inches from his face. “Get it now, or you won't live to pull another robbery,” Tal growled.
Ferret's eyes widened with fear. “Okay, I'll get it for ya,” Ferret sniveled. “Just, please, put me down without breakin’ somethin'?”
Tal thrust the reeking man away. “I'll give you a hand, just in case you decide you can't find any back there,” Tal snapped, following Ferret to a locked door behind the counter.
Chapter Eleven
Cea and Penny stood yards away from the short, smelly man who carried the bulky roll of hull skin to the side of the ship where Malcolm readied the hull for the patch. Tal trailed behind the man, watching him with the diligence of a warden guarding a particularly dangerous criminal. Both women held hands over their noses and sported looks of utter disgust on their faces.
“Who the hell is that rat-faced piece of crap?” Penny asked, not expecting an answer. “He smells and looks like he spent several years living in a garbage dump before moving uptown to the waste disposal plant.”
“I don't care who he is. Just as long as we get the parts we need, my ship fixed, and then get the hell out of here,” Cea said before turning back to inspect the communications lead on the front of the ship.
Minutes later, the screaming of an angry woman erupted some
where from the middle of the crowd milling along the walkway outside the docking gate. Cea spun from her task of screwing down the radio mount to stare at the commotion.
Penny poked her head out of the hatch and scrutinized the scuffle which had just erupted. “What the hell's going on now?” she asked, a pot of water in her hand.
Tal, Malcolm and Ferret appeared from around behind the ship. Tal pushed Ferret ahead of him as the small man attempted to back away from the riot. Malcolm stood behind, preventing Ferret from moving any further back.
“Looks like a riot,” Malcolm commented.
Two men burst through the crowd and ran toward the gate, knocking people down as they went. Both were huge men in police uniform, holding large weapons that they used to batter people out of their way. The first of them kicked the gate open, breaking the chain that held it closed.
“Shit! Get inside the ship! Now!” Tal bellowed, pushing Ferret out of the way and sprinting toward the base of the hatch ramp. “Cea! Now!” he added, grabbing her by the arm and pushing her up the ramp.
Malcolm moved quickly to the walkway, jumped up onto it from the side and pushed Cea and Penny back into the safety of the ship.
Tal turned to see the men running toward them. “Fire up the engines!” he yelled. He pulled his laser gun out of the holster strapped to his thigh and began shooting at the men.
Both men hit the pavement and returned fire.
Laser shots scattered around Tal, some hitting the ramp, but doing little damage. Tal moved away from the ship, firing at the men as he moved to protect it from further damage. He dove behind a stack of metal boxes and continued to pin the two down with short bursts of laser fire.
The engines began to whine and the two retro jets on the tail began to glow. Tal rose from behind the boxes and ran for the ramp.
“I'm out of power!” one of the assailants bellowed, followed by his partner's reply, “I am too! Quick, hit him with the Crowd-pleaser!”
Tal was halfway up the ramp when something hit his back with enough force to knock him down. He crawled toward the open hatch.
The two men ran toward the ship, bellowing at each other. “He's down. Grab him!”
Malcolm's strong hands lifted Tal and yanked him inside the ship as the ramp retreated. The hatch door slammed shut on the two men just as they jumped up in an attempt to enter.
Cea shouted, “Now, Mother! Emergency takeoff!”
The ship shot into the sky, the retro jets burning both assassins into smoking heaps of grey ash.
Chapter Twelve
“Who the hell were those guys, and why were they trying to shoot us?” Penny asked, inspecting the dart protruding from Tal's back. He was out cold on the floor of the passageway leading to the command cabin.
“Were? They still are!” Cea shouted. She jerked the ship to the right then the left. Bolts of laser fire shot past the newly repaired hull.
“Two small fighters, closing fast,” Malcolm reported from the navigation console. “Should we return fire?” He glanced over at Cea.
“Hell yes! Blast ’em out of the sky!” a trembling voice from the space between the weapons console and the wall screeched. “Those are cop drone ships, and they will blast our asses!”
“Those can't be cops. We didn't do anything for cops to be shooting at us!” Cea replied. Then a thought struck and her face registered confusion. “Who the hell said that?” she asked, unable to turn around and look.
Ferret poked his greasy head up over the weapons’ chair until his eyes were level with the seat. “It's ... it's me ... Ferret Fingers. I just ... Captain ... please don't shoot me. I ducked in here when all the shooting started.”
“Ah, shit. Just what we need,” Penny groaned, pulling the dart out of Tal's back and rolling him over to lift his lids and check his eyes. “He's out cold,” she murmured.
“Captain?” Malcolm asked.
“Return fire!” Cea commanded.
Malcolm used the navigation console to override the weapons and began firing at the two fighters. The pursuers took evasive action, but still kept coming.
“We can't outrun them. And we can't stop them, Captain; they're too fast,” Malcolm said, watching the small ships avoid every shot he made. “May I suggest sex?”
“What?!” Ferret screeched, his irritating shriek taking on a raspy quality. “Sex? Now? What...”
“Shut up, Malcolm. You, too, Ratman! We don't have time for this crap!” Cea bellowed as she put the ship into a steep dive then immediately banked left into a roll. The ship's course now directed toward a small moon.
“You guys have sex on this ship? Really? I mean ... you know ... man-woman-type sex, with for real, naked screwing?” Ferret babbled on despite the ship's danger.
When the Europa crossed over the outland security border which encircled the planet, the pursuing ships suddenly broke off and retreated back through the atmosphere toward base.
Cea followed them on her screen. “Why did they do that?”
Ferret eased his skinny body up until his eyes could see out the screen. “They really gone?” he asked. Perspiration dripped into his beady eyes.
When nobody answered him, he rose and plopped down in the weapons’ chair. He swiped a shaky hand across his face then on the front of the soiled shirt he wore. “Ain't that lucky then?” he asked as his glance shifted from one crew member to the next, searching for reactions to his presence.
“Were they chasing you?” Penny rasped, fingering the knife strapped to her thigh. “Why would they fire on us, otherwise?”
Ferret held up both hands, palms out. “Hey lady, I ain't got no beef with the cops, and they don't have none with me.” He pointed down at Tal's sleeping form. “They were after him.”
Cea nodded at Malcolm to take over then spun her chair around to glare at Ferret. “Why the hell would they fire on one of their own? Or, didn't you know he's a cop?”
Ferret squirmed back into the seat and hunched his shoulders. “Yeah, I knew. That's why I let him force me into grabbin’ those parts for ya. But, the cops are after him now, not me. I heard it on the street, before he nabbed me.” He pointed at Tal. “Why? I don't know.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Me? I'm clean!”
Penny wrinkled her nose at the odor wafting off Ferret's clothes. “Clean? Ugh. You're about as clean as a sewer, Rodent.”
“My name is Ferret! Ferret Fingers! Not Ratman or Rodent, or anything else. Got that?” Ferret barked.
Malcolm stooped to inspect Tal. Then, he retrieved and sniffed at the dart Penny had pulled out. “This is a tranquilizer dart,” he said, turning it over in his palm with a finger.
“What?” Cea asked with a puzzled frown. “Why would cops be using those? It was obvious they wanted to kill us, not put us to sleep.”
Ferret cackled. “It's a happy dose he got your worship.” He snickered and slapped a dirty hand on his knee. “It's a special kind of dart. He'll be hard pressed and up to go soon!” His snickering turned into full-blown belly laughs.
“What the hell is he talking about, Malcolm?” Penny asked, staring at Ferret's obviously uncontrolled glee.
Malcolm stood and slid the dart into his overall pocket. “It would seem Mister Fingers thinks a humane law enforcement drug to quell riots is funny. I fail to see how myself.” He stared at Ferret, who was holding his sides, tears clearing clean tracks down his cheeks.
Tal groaned, and his eyes fluttered open. It took a moment for his gaze to clear and sharpen as he hazily glanced around the room until it settled on Penny. “What hit me?”
Penny reached down, grabbed his forearm and helped him to sit up. “Seems the cops shooting at us used some kind of knock-out dart on you. Nobody can figure out why, though.” She glared at Ferret's muffled laughs. “And he...” She pointed at Ferret's limp form in the chair. “...says it's some kind of special dart. Do you know what it is?”
Tal rubbed his eyes with one hand and braced his body on the floor with the other. “No. Never hea
rd of cops using darts of any kind,” he mumbled.
“Oh, you'll like this one, governor!” Ferret blurted before collapsing into laughter again.
“Oh, shut the hell up, you...” Tal snapped then froze. His eyes widened as his body went rigid. A look of dawning horror colored his face as he glanced down at his body. “What the hell?” A growing bulge in his pants rose until it stretched the fabric.
“Ah, Tal, this isn't the time, sweetie,” Penny snickered while she admired the size of his erection.
Cea blushed and turned back to stare out the viewing screen. Ferret cackled again. And, Malcolm leaned forward to get a closer look. “Are you working to attain light speed again, Agent English?”
Malcolm nodded at the male part of the alien object. It rapidly changed into an erect penis, but the female part remained hard and angular. “If so, the Captain must participate, too.”
Penny glared at Malcolm then reached out and grabbed Tal's arm to help him rise. She gasped and leapt backward when his body convulsed, thrusting his hips and the massive erection up into the air. His head reared back and his face suffused with ecstasy. Within moments, he shuddered, and the thick erection clearly seen through the tight fabric, throbbed violently until a large wet spot appeared on the fabric.
Tal groaned and collapsed on the floor. A deep crimson blush crept up his neck. His eyes shone with lingering passion. “What the hell happened to me?” he whispered through dry lips.
“You got a boner, ya jerk! Doncha know when yer prick is perked up by now?” Ferret snickered. “Ah, hell, mate. I guess it's only fair to tell ya. That dart they stuck into ya is a happy drug. They made it to stop vicious riots at the station. It works too!” Ferret laughed. “How can a guy stay mad or violent with a hard-on and an overwhelmin’ urge to poke everything?”
Tal lurched as another wave of lust hit him. His pants began to bulge again. “Holy shit!” he shouted, trying to push his growing erection back down.
Cea giggled, but continued to stare at the stars whizzing by. Malcolm stared harder. Ferret collapsed onto the floor once more in the throes of hysterical laughter.
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