“Such petulance. I see it’s a great benefit having a benevolent, wealthy benefactor like Ms. Vartan when you want your way.” I stood up to leave.
“What? What do you plan to do with it? Why is it so important to you?” she called after me.
“I have my reasons,” I said curtly. She shook her head, smirking. I lost patience.
“You seem to be interested in doing people favors, un-asked for, Livilla. No? Won’t tell me? Okay, I guess it’s time to go.” I got up again and turned. I could feel the frosty barrier of the privacy drape envelope me as I prepared to leave its enclosure and make for the exit.
“Fine! Whatever it’s worth to you. Come back here!” she demanded. The smirk was gone. Her eyes flashed dangerously. I slowly made my way back to the table and sat down again within the cone of silence, watching her carefully and wiping the tiny flecks of ice particles and frost from my clothes.
“His name is Giulio Borghese.” I cocked my head slightly. She raised a brow. “Ringing any bells or something?” Inwardly, all my nerves felt as if they’d been lit with a fire.
“Just one. And I thank you.” She didn’t answer. That name was more than I had hoped to hear and know. I almost wanted to jump up and kiss her, but. . .well, never mind that. I still wanted my tongue to remain in one piece.
“You’re welcome,” she finally said, giving me a suspicious look. I fought back the desire to grin like an idiot.
And now it was time for me to hold up my end of the deal and hope that I’d get out alive with something to show for it.
7
When I’d gotten back to the ship I waited in the dock overnight, silently watching the emptiness in between the stars in space, and thinking. I sent Diamond a second message about my future whereabouts and soon it would be time to call and talk to my wife.
Ferroelectric metal. That was something. Such a felicitous thing that just fell into my lap. I watched as ships came in and left from the docking bay and wondered if I was making the worst mistake of my life. It was a stupid thing to do. But my mind always came back to the coming alien fleet, a juggernaut bearing down on us. The loyalists here were doing their level best to bring their brethren into our system. And they were all working over time. No one was playing it safe or taking a break on their side. They were doing all that it took to survive and destroy us. So I didn’t feel that foolish about going on this accidental mission. Since this wondrous piece of golden fortune had dropped in my lap I was going to do something about it.
It wasn’t a mistake that I’d found out that Vartan wanted this special material to build a weapon no one else had. All of a sudden this material becomes available. A sign to me that ultimately I was doing the right thing, even if it seemed stupid at the outset.
Livilla, now a small dot of sleek black leather cat-suited darkness, made her way to a ship. Her black hair swung lazily from hip to hip as she moved, pulled back into a long ponytail. The ship opened and another woman dressed like her came out. One of her crew members. I wondered what was her real story. What did she want?
They eventually left the hangar with not a glance my way though I was sure that they knew I was here. I cast a pensive glance over the dim panel lights over the cockpit, finally reached up and pushed up a lever. The lights began to glow more intensely. I searched for the communication panel before me and finally found it.
I called Pam and watched as a hologram of her eventually came up on screen.
“Hey,” she said. She was braiding her hair, getting ready for bed. “You made it to your destination without dying on me. Good! My Forever Man,” she said. I smiled.
“Now your new and improved Bionic Man,” I said waving my bionic arm at her. It tingled I noticed and had been tingling for about a few hours but now that I mentioned it this came to the forefront of my mind.
“How is it, honey? I’m worried. You know you’re supposed to take your medications every day and I see them right here on the nightstand. Where are you anyway, Bob?” Pam chided.
“I’m on Cythera’s Star.” She stopped braiding and stared at me.
“You’re where?”
“Cythera’s Star. Don’t worry. I’m not here for any weird stuff. I came here to meet with someone who wants to hire me for a private job. To retrieve some secret materials that Vartan might be able to profit from.”
“Who?”
“A pirate named Livilla.”
“I see.”
“Do you? The woman is a criminal and has filed her teeth down to sharp points, has a forked tongue and tattoos on her face. Trust me, she ain’t my type.”
“I have a tattoo, Bob. Are you saying I’m not your type?” she deadpanned.
“Come on, Pam. A small spray of butterflies on the foot ain’t the same thing as the extreme sideshow look.” I could tell she was worried.
“I don’t know. When Magnum showed up I started feeling worried that something bad happened.”
“I know but I’ll be alright and so will you and the kids. Trust me. I always turn up like a stray cat. And no, nothing will ever happen between me and this woman.”
“I’m not actually worried about that anymore, Bob. I trust you on that front. It’s just that there seems to be something in the air lately. Things are ratcheting up. I’m worried that you’ll walk out that door and I’ll never see you again.”
“Don’t say that or you’ll make it true, Pam. I WILL come back. I will. We have to believe that what I’m doing is the right thing to do. Because it is. This is no time to doubt.” I said, but my own thoughts betrayed my words for a moment. Fighting enemies in the darkness can engulf any man engaged in such an endeavor. But my family had to believe in me. I needed them to, and I had to believe in myself to keep this up and not crack. I heard her sigh on the other end.
“I know,” she said finally.
“Is Magnum there right now?”
“He’s here. Why?”
“I felt that right now, as things are heating up, it was best to have a strong bodyguard around, even on vacation.”
“He does make us feel much safer. In fact, he’s kind of intimidating to look at. The kids find him fascinating. I’m glad you sent for him, especially after that whole craziness at the convention center.”
“Look, honey, I’ve got to go. I’ll be back. I will be back. Stray cat, remember?”
After we hung up I explored the ship. I found the refresher and used it, bathed myself and got some sleep, what little of it that I could get. I didn’t dream this time, my dreams coming on some nights and other nights, not, or rather, I didn’t remember them. But when they did come it was the same dream or a similar one; of fire and ships and screaming. I no longer allowed these dreams to frighten or disturb me because I understood what they were. Prophetic warnings. Frightening though they were they were enlightening. From them I had a goal forming now with Vartan and U-net, a plan coming. If this little caper worked out it would be a massive step forward for that plan.
. . .
The old mech, whom I thought of as E-TOC, as that was the acronym stenciled on its arm, turned out to be a decent navigator and I needed one as I was not a good pilot. I was okay in a pinch with lots of help, human or electronic, but no hotshot.
I watched closely as the ship entered the abandoned satellite’s space, nearing its artificial atmosphere built by an older, simplified weather system machine by the Huang Wu corporation. One delightful little factoid about them was that they made sure to stamp “Huang Wu” on everything they built so that it stood front and center, even when it was least appropriate or illegal to do so. They could only get away with this in space, not on Earth, yet. How did I know this? The words “HUANG WU” appeared as a drifting cloud trail on the asteroid satellite every few seconds at the atmospheric surface. I counted. I saw the company name appear three times as we approached and passed through.
Charming.
We entered the atmosphere, the ship shaking as we descended.
Huh. They could have
spent a little more money in making the landings through the artificial weather system easier by building a better system, even if it was meant to be simple and cheap, but nope, they made sure to put that money into advertising so anyone passing by knew that they were players in the space industry by broadcasting their company name instead. These companies and their priorities. Go figure.
The winds of Cupid’s Bow where high and overly harsh, thanks to that cheap weather system programming, and cloud masses stormed over the satellite like buffalo. Not necessary at all on a body so small. A better and more expensive program, in other words, a true climate bio-dome program and not a simple weather system, took into consideration the complexities and subtleties in a true weather system, Earthside or non-Earthside. Beyond the cloud masses was a greenish-gray sky. Streaks of lightning shooting down. A huge, silent ball of lightening lit up the sky suddenly. Following was the sound of distant thunder.
I watched the geo-location map carefully as the landing point below was centered near a red arrow of light. Rolls of white and blue streaks of lightning momentarily made the horizon seem as if we’d drifted into a black hole and came out of it into another universe. I started to get worried that we’d be struck down by the lightning if we didn’t descend faster. A few streaks struck the ship, making it shudder slightly, but the sturdy ship held together.
Checking the geo-location screen for any terrain issues for landing, I saw that right below us would be mostly flat land and few craters. Some miles out the ship scanners detected another ship. It seemed disabled and devoid of life signs.
I gave instructions to the mech to descend as we’d reached the area right above Tabuya Point, where we were instructed to wait. With the turbulence not letting up, we descended. The ship nearly turned on its side for all the turbulence as we dove down into the cloud masses below us. Blessedly, it was a short journey and we touched down onto a small plateau. Surveying the land around us, I could see large, wide craters beneath us and smaller craters farther out. Tabuya’s Point seemed a very small base, built long ago. There were several crumbling foundations of long dismantled or destroyed larger buildings and a few small, round buildings surrounding these, one of them presumably was a hangar on the landing platform. There was also another ship. A large shuttle. I felt an icy ball form in the pit of my stomach. The plan was now racing to fruition.
As we landed I could see several people milling around the ships. Upon noting our arrival one went and opened the doors of the ship and disappeared up the rampway. As our ship touched down I went to the back and found the box of money. It was in gold bars, as some preferred having their money in tangibles when not Earthside; not in credits. In fact, quite a few mercenaries, pirates, and smugglers still preferred hard currency or tangible objects like precious metals, jewels, chemical substances or even weapons. Don’t ask me how I know this.
E-TOC settled the ship down in front of the first shuttle and I told the mech to leave the ship running. E-TOC didn’t speak as it didn’t have its own voice box but took and followed commands well enough and quickly.
Dutifully and silently it did so as I got up, feeling my nerves tingle painfully in my gut as I put on one of the light armored suits I found in the back. It was what was known as “powered expandable armor”. Extremely expensive. It was small but was made with the option of expanding slightly to fit a larger person for a limited period of time before it shrank back to its original size. It would help in a short gun battle and a close fight but not much under heavy fire. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I also armed myself with a concealed lasergun and got ready to make the exchange. I instructed E-TOC to keep the ship’s lasers trained and ready, to watch the scene from the ship’s camera screen and to fire at a moment’s notice if I’m attacked. Then I got up and grabbed the box of gold bars, set it upon a flatbed hover-carrier and pushed it steadily, walking down the rampway carefully watching the men waiting for me outside. I detected a thin column of smoke some miles off in the distance.
“E-TOC, scan that, would you? Please report back what you find there.” E-TOC beeped an affirmative.
Their faces were curiously blank. One of them, dressed in black, walked forward to meet me. He was pushing a large gray box of four hundred pounds of this special substance that I was hoping was worth all this. One of the men behind him had eyes that darted all around like fleas. I didn’t like that at all and I was on alert for any funny business. The first one gave me a dark look.
“Where’s Livilla?” I felt my throat tighten but I kept my cool and managed to speak without my voice wavering.
“She couldn’t make it. So she sent me.”
“What do you mean she couldn’t make it?” he growled. I shrugged.
“I didn’t ask her any questions. She needed the job done and couldn’t do it so I’m doing it.”
“Why?” the first man asked, giving me a suspicious look.
“I owed her a favor.” A bitter taste rose in the back of my throat at those words.
“Who are you?” another one of the men asked, this time the tone was more hostile and demanding.
“I’m her replacement,” I said calmly.
“What’s your name?” he growled. He wasn’t getting my name if I didn’t get his.
“What’s yours?” I retorted back. He glanced back at the other two. One of them gave what looked like the barest shrug. He looked back at me with what I thought was a murderous glare.
Maybe they thought Livilla stiffed them so I decided to let them see the gold, thinking this might expel some of the tension. I took a deep breath and carefully opened the box.
“I’m going to open the box so you can inspect the goods.” One of the men handed the first man a hand scanner. He moved forward and examined the bars carefully and scanned several of the bars, moving the top ones carefully and placing them to the side to examine the ones near the bottom. Then he glanced at me again after he was finished. I stood deathly still, waiting for a mutual exchange or laser fire to erupt. He didn’t answer at first. But then he smiled. It didn’t make me feel any more relaxed but at least he didn’t pull his laser gun.
“I’m Pierce. Sorry to cause you trouble. Weren’t expecting you, was all. We were expecting Livilla. She didn’t tell us there was going to be a change in plans. Looks like everything is in order.”
“So, what of the metal you have there?” I asked, wanting to get on with the exchange. One of the men opened the large box and it took some time for him to do that. One of them kept glancing at the big guns of my ship trained in their general direction and I noticed him examining my ill-fitting but protective armored suit. His face broke out in a slight, bemused expression. The suit was made for a woman and it had been detailed and made with special specifications. Such as a detailed, raised pattern artwork of what suspiciously looked like female genitalia and breast plates with nipples that protruded out. Thankfully I kept the chest part hidden under my jacket.
I heard a crackling in my ear. The mech had some information and was communicating through the ship’s computer. I remained quiet as E-TOC spoke in my ear using a voice generator.
“I have scanned the area and ten kilometers away there is a wrecked ship that looks as if it had recently crashed in a crater, six miles from our current location. The ship is still burning. No life signs.” My suspicions were confirmed. The armor must have made them change their minds and proceed more cautiously with me. I wanted to get out of here. Livilla had pissed off these guys or someone they worked for and now I was associated with her. Just my luck.
I hoped the mech inside was competent enough to defend me if things got ugly. I wondered if I should have sent the mech to do this instead while I stayed on the ship but that might have made things worse.
I scanned the metal bars in the gray box. According to my hand scanner, the box was full of lanthanum nickelate film on top of lanthanum aluminate. We made the exchange, nothing eventful there. I had no idea what the stuff was supposed to look like and hoped
I wasn’t being duped.
I quickly slid my armored hood back on, watching them carefully as they counted the gold bars. As they finished the first one looked at me.
“Looks like it’s all that was agreed upon. We’re done here,” he said, grinning again.
“Tell Livilla I miss seeing her pretty little face.” It sounded like a threat.
“I’ll let her know,” I said. He smirked, turned and motioned to the others and they went back to their ship. I quickly went back to my own ship. I turned suddenly, expecting a laser shot to the back. The armor would have made it difficult but not impossible to kill me. But they were making their way up the rampway. Inside, I stationed the heavy box and hover-carrier into a small storage room, fastened it to the wall and locked it down. Then I peeled off my armor and instructed the old mech to raise the shields and start the lift off protocol. E-TOC was doing just that as I climbed back into my seat to fasten my harness when there was a loud blast that nearly jolted me from my seat.
“Bastards!”
“Our shields are holding steady,” E-TOC said through the voice generator. That was a hard blast, meant to kill. We needed to get going now!
“How much power to the shields?”
“Adequate. Seventy-five percent.”
“Damn!” I knew this was a setup! I was just waiting for it to happen. Now we’d come to it.
The ship was now climbing. Another blast came, shaking the ship so badly it nearly upended onto one side.
“Shields down to thirty percent,” said the mech. One more hit would send us into a tailspin and would deprive us of our shields completely. After that, all they would have to do is fire again and we’d be done for.
“How far until we reach space?”
“Only ten minutes but that will not give us enough time to avoid another hit. They are nearly right on our tail.”
Onscreen they were closing the distance between us fast!
Mission: A Venus Affair Page 7