by Scott Reeves
Two other men stood nearby. Human men, not mechanical. They were both fairly young, not too much older than the girl. One of them was handsome; one of them was ugly. Each was dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt, not the traditional garb of space pirates.
“Amateurs,” Bucky muttered under his breath, too low for the mic to pick up and broadcast outside the suit.
Each of the men gripped a ray pistol, one aimed at Bucky, and one aimed at the girl.
“That’s right, Bucky boy, it’s Suzy Howell,” called out a familiar voice.
Bucky turned to see none other than Jerome Spratz come slouching into the sanctuary from the nave through which Bucky and the mechanical man had just passed.
“I told you I was going to get myself a girl, didn’t I?” Spratz said.
Bucky had never met the old man in person. They had only conversed over the aetheric radio, and sometimes, over the aetheric video phone. Thus he had only previously seen Spratz in black and white. Full color did him no justice. His aging, sagging skin was covered with ugly brown liver spots, some of them black and, Bucky suspected, possibly cancerous. And his hair, what little of it he had left, was scraggly and the color of muddy snow.
“Mr. Spratz. You told me you were going back to Earth to get a girl,” Bucky replied.
“Yeah, well, obviously I lied, didn’t I?” Spratz said. “Trying to throw you off my scent. Add that to the list of crimes you’re compiling against me.”
“And I assumed you were going to get a girl your own age,” Bucky continued.
“Hah!” barked out Spratz. “What would I want with an old hag, a female version of my ugly old self? Nah, I like ‘em young, Bucky boy.”
“And you’ve taken up a new vocation as well,” Bucky noted.
“Not really so new,” Spratz replied. “Had you fooled, din’t I, Bucky boy? I’ve been preparing for my role as a space pirate for years. That’s why I stayed out here, observing, biding my time. Observing other space pirates, and you especially, Bucky boy. When Spratz does something, he makes sure he’s fully prepared for success. And me, I’m Spratz! Why else do you think I would live so near to your base over there on Maxwell 623-B?”
Bucky allowed the surprise to show on his face.
“That’s right,” Spratz said. “I’ve known all along where your asteroid lair is. It’s not a secret to me. I’ve been observing you, learning your ways so I would know how to avoid you and your kind when I finally started up my pirating business. That little call I made to you earlier this morning was supposed to distract you from your tubes while my boys here holed the girl’s ship.”
“You should know,” Bucky said, “that pirating can be a lucrative career. But you’re starting pretty late, sir. And you should also know that we in the Space Patrol have a standard operating procedure: no mercy for the wicked. And there’s nothing more wicked than a pirate. Even an old one. It’s an automatic death sentence, so despite the aforementioned lucrativeness, I wouldn’t recommend it as a career choice.”
“Are you threatening me, Bucky boy?” asked Jerome Spratz.
“No,” said Bucky. “I’m just giving you the facts.”
“Sounds to me like you’re threatening,” said Spratz. “And you’re in no position to threaten me, sonny. I’ve got you at gun point, and you’re going to die here. Can’t let you go spreading word of my little palace here. Pains me to say it, because you’ve been a good neighbor.”
“As have you, Mr. Spratz,” replied Bucky. “And it is I who will be sorry to see you shuffle off this mortal coil.”
Just then, Judy came padding across the dusty floor. She leapt up into Bucky’s arms. As the three human men looked on, curious and amused, and the mechanical man looked on in a state of indeterminate emotion, Bucky gently sealed her inside her harness.
When Bucky had finished, Spratz laughed in disbelief. “You brought that stupid cat here? I guess you’ll both die together.”
He motioned to the two men holding the pistols. “Let him have it, boys. Make sure you don’t get the girl in the crossfire.”
The men raised their pistols. But just then, there was a rumble beneath their feet, a tremor that shook the asteroid. They swayed on wobbly legs, on the verge of panic.
“What was that?” Spratz asked in a worried tone.
“Well, my cat just returned from locking this asteroid’s aether pump station into a self-destructive feedback loop,” Bucky explained.
“Yeah, right,” Spratz laughed skeptically. “Your stupid cat went all the way to the core, threw the proper levers and pressed the proper buttons to initiate a feedback loop, and returned here, all in the short time since you arrived.”
“Judy’s a smart cat,” Bucky told him.
Then, taking advantage of the confusion of the two gunmen, Bucky, in one swift movement, wrapped his arms around Suzy, drew her close, and hit a few buttons on his gauntlet. His jetpack flared to life, sending him hurtling upward toward the geodesic dome. At the same time, a protective covering exploded outward from a tiny compartment of his suit, encasing Suzy and providing her protection from the vacuum they were about to enter. Nanoseconds later, both she and Bucky burst through the glass panes of the geodesic dome, even as the floor far below them erupted in a fiery inferno. Flames spewed upward, licking at Bucky’s boots; chunks of rock rose upward, threatening to overtake him.
Bucky and his two passengers shot away from the tiny star that had ignited below him, traveling at great speed. Inside her protective shell, Suzy trembled against him, and in a gesture of comfort, he stroked what he assumed, since he couldn’t see her, was her shoulder.
“Everything’s okay, Ms. Howell,” he told her. He looked backward and down at the exploding cathedral asteroid. “Sayonara, Jerome Spratz, and you two nameless henchmen.” He watched with regret as his own ramjet, parked where he had left it a short distance from the asteroid, was engulfed in the expanding ball of flame and liquefied rock. There had, of course, been no time to save his trusty vehicle.
Then he looked outward into the blackness and the field of tumbling asteroids, homing in on his lair and adjusting his course appropriately.
“No mercy for the wicked,” he chuckled under his breath.
And he rocketed onward. Homeward.
*****
Later, Bucky was once again ensconced within his control room, at the center of the sea of vacuum tubes, his hawkish gaze fastened as usual upon his bank of cathode ray tubes. The camera taken out by Spratz’s attack on the Starry Splendor had been repaired by the Space Patrol Corps of Engineers. The debris left over after the collision with the asteroid had been collected and removed to Space Patrol headquarters, along with Bucky’s report.
That same Corps of Engineers was now constructing a new asteroid lair for Bucky, as his present one had been compromised. There was no telling whether Mr. Spratz had disclosed Bucky’s location to anyone else, but it was likely. There was a move in his future, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. 623-B was his home; he didn’t feel like breaking in another.
Suzy Howell entered the control room, her slim figure wrapped in a damp towel, running a brush through her wet blond hair. She had just stepped out of the shower.
“The shuttle will be here in a few days to pick you up and return you to Earth,” he told her.
She looked at him seductively, batting her long lashes. “I could stay for awhile, if you’d like some company, Mr. Jupiter,” she suggested coyly.
Bucky tapped at his lip thoughtfully.
Just then, the aetheric radio beeped for his attention. He picked up the headset. “Bucky Jupiter, Space Patrol, here,” he said.
“Hey, Bucky boy,” came the unmistakable voice of Jerome Spratz.
“Mr. Spratz?” Bucky said, shocked. “How did you survive the explosion?”
“Aetheric telepresence,” Spratz told him, and farted loudly. “I was never really there. You’re better than I estimated you to be, Bucky boy. A worthy opponent. But I can’t forgive yo
u for the destruction of that beautiful cathedral. And my sister will be really wound up when she learns that you killed her boys. So I just wanted to let you know, Bucky: I’ll be coming for you one day. You won’t know where, you won’t know when. But I’ll be coming for ya. There’s a new boss in town, Jupiter, and that’s me. You’ll never find my new base, so don’t bother looking. You’re playing my game now. I’m the Space Lord, the one and only, and you’re on my list of people to crush. You said the Space Patrol has a motto, ‘No mercy for the wicked.’ Well, now me and mine have a motto too: no mercy for the Space Patrol.”
Spratz continued to rant and rave, and began to sound downright insane. More so than usual.
As Mr. Spratz raved, Bucky turned to his bank of tubes. He turned a knob on one, bringing Spratz’s old asteroid home into view. Then he touched a button on his control console. The aether bomb that had been embedded in Spratz’s asteroid when the Space Patrol COE had made it habitable exploded in a bloom of white light.
At the same time, Mr. Spratz’s impassioned ranting abruptly cut off, replaced by static.
“Mr. Spratz, I’m sorry to say it, but you were utterly incompetent as a pirate,” Bucky said into the mouthpiece.
He then hung the headset back on its hook, and stared thoughtfully at nothing for a long moment.
Finally he stood and turned to Suzy. “You know, Ms. Howell, I might just take you up on that offer,” he said, pulling her close.
And as Judy, nestled in her spot among the vacuum tubes, looked on with an inscrutable feline gaze, their lips locked in a passionate kiss.
For more books by Scott Reeves, visit
http://www.amazon.com/author/scottreeves
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YouTube channel:
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Twitter: @scottareeves
FREE Star Trek short stories by Scott Reeves on Wattpad:
Star Trek Voyager: Phantoms of the Mind
Star Trek TOS: Warp Speed
Star Trek TNG: Final Requiem
Star Trek Voyager: Home
Star Trek TNG: The Haunting of Orgala 512
Star Trek TNG: Leap of Faith
Star Trek Voyager: Intrepid Voyagers