As it turns out, we don’t have to wait long. Since Danielli’s squad were initially employed by Sloper, I’m just about to ask for ideas about where he could have stashed my brother when the comms panel indicates a private incoming call.
From Jordi.
I tap the comm to allow the call to start, and to show only me to the caller. I allow the others to see Jordi on the holo and hear the conversation, but he won’t hear or see them.
“You got my message.”
After a delay, he inclines his head. “We’re just under a day away. I called as soon as we could get live relay.” He looks around furtively. “Sloper knows you’re on Rykkamon.”
I smile. “Then he would be wrong.” I feel my expression turn serious. “Where is Mitch?”
A brief emotion crosses Jordi’s face. Not long enough for me to pick it up. “I can’t tell you, Indy.”
I half rise out of my chair. The lo-grav straps hold me back. “What do you mean?”
Another figure enters the comm view. “Because if he did, I’d have to kill him.” Sloper grins at me and I slap the comms connection closed.
I thought the delay sounded fake.
Our visit to NewSwiss12 must have been leaked. They aren’t one day away at all. They’re on Rykkamon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“Zhang—how quickly can you get us back into Rykkamon?” My voice is urgent and Zhang picks up on it immediately by punching codes into the pilot’s helmpad.
“On our way, Ma’am. Fifteen minutes tops.”
I feel the sudden urge of acceleration as the fDrive cuts in and we’re all pressed into our chairs. I open the ship’s comms. “Captain speaking. All hands on deck for descent to Rykkamon. I’ll need a small guerrilla party ready on landing to engage in tactical operations. Volunteers only.”
I slap the helmchair’s arm. How could I not have foreseen this? Of course Sloper would expect me to try to double-cross him.
“What is our mission, Ma’am?” Danielli says. “Plexi, Herg and I are all volunteers.”
I level my gaze at Danielli. “I want Sloper. He knows where Mitch is. I won’t be his lackey anymore. Not now we know what’s at stake.”
“Your plan?” From Plexi. She often forgets to address me.
“I don’t have one.” I’m hoping Aktip can help me enter Rykkamon’s communication systems to locate Sloper’s vessel, but it seems a long shot. And another reason to place Aktip in danger. In any case, she might be in the middle of critical medical treatment.
Danielli breaks the silence. “Then don’t hunt him down. Make him come to you.”
“How?” I furrow my brow.
“Tell him you know where the Constellation’s drive unit is. Tell him when you help him liberate it from the Jovians, he’ll have more power in the Sector than he ever dreamed of.”
I let out a whistle. “That’s risky. What if it comes true?”
He shrugs. “Think about it. The only risk we all have is if you—or Mitch—give him access to the drive.”
“And I’d rather die than do that. Do you think Jordi has told him I have Captain status on the Constellation?”
Danielli shakes his head. “I’d say not. I think Sloper’s bluffing, hoping that you’ll be intimidated. If he knew that, he’d have Mitch here, ready to trade. No, I think he thinks he holds all the cards.”
“He holds my brother. And Errikson won’t wait around for an invitation.”
“Even more reason we let Sloper come to you. From what I know, he hates Errikson.”
I bite my lip. “Alright. Zhang, take us only as far as Rykkamon’s outer orbit. Let’s make sure we all know what we’re doing.”
Several minutes later we emerge into Rykkan airspace. And into pandemonium.
The comm flashes at the same time as we come under rapid fire.
“Two cruisers approaching port and starboard,” Zhang yells, “shields holding.”
Our vessel is unarmed. We have no ability to return fire. Only shields. I’m not expecting this, and am momentarily lost.
“Ma’am?” Zhang hesitates.
I snap to action. I look at Danielli and Plexi. “We don’t have any defense. I’m taking us planetside.” I turn back to Zhang. “Take us down to the surface.” I give him the coordinates where I want us to land, and he glances back, a confused expression on his face. “I know what I’m doing, Zhang.” I’ve given him my previous no-go zone landing area as our destination.
He blushes. “Yes, Captain. Taking evasive action now.”
Zhang is turning out to be a real asset. He spins the salvage ship in a way I never expected, then drops us like a stone out of the clutches of whoever is attacking us, and we approach the planet’s surface at a frightening pace. At such a speed I brace myself for impact, and I see the others doing the same.
But it’s not needed: Zhang waits until the last moment, then I see him tap a brief instruction into the fDrive interface. At first I don’t believe what I am seeing, then I come to my senses and try to reach across, but a sudden thrust of gravity pins me back in my chair.
We come to a violent halt, enough to whip my head back and I feel a stabbing pain in my neck.
Everything stops and we are all shell-shocked. “Clusters, Zhang. What were you thinking?” Plexi says, rubbing her shoulder where the harness had cut into her.
I move my neck around. It’s painful, and I have a headache, but I don’t think anything is broken.
Zhang looks sheepish. “Sorry, Ma’am. It was the only thing I could think to do.”
I look at him, and smile, rubbing my neck with one hand. “We’re alive, and we’re not being shot at. So far, so good.”
I tell Danielli to get crew and ship damage reports underway. Then I notice the comm flashing again. I tap the answer icon. The holo springs into life to reveal ... Aktip. Strapped into a Rykkan chair. Standing next to her, sporting medicasts on both his arms and a legbrace, is one Rykkan Chief. The background indicates they are also in the outlaw’s no go zone, in the Chief’s newly reconstructed cabin.
I’m still not very good at Rykkan expressions, but he does not look happy.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
I peer at the comm. Aktip is already looking better. Has the treatment already taken effect? I am weary from the constant changes to every game plan I try to follow, but I must once again take control. I cut to the chase.
“What do you want?”
The Chief bares his teeth in a red Rykkan grin. “You are in a hurry.”
I sigh. “Unless it escaped your attention, I landed somewhat hastily, in a ship that is not welcome on this planet. Even in a no go zone. We were attacked in Rykkamon’s outer orbit.” I furrow my brow. “How did you know we would land here?”
“Questions, questions. All to be answered. Your friend here already give me helpful answers.” He pats Aktip’s shoulder.
“It is alright, Madam Captain. I am prisoner, but I am not in pain,” Aktip says.
I don’t understand. I look over at Danielli. He gives me a hand signal to indicate that I should keep the Chief talking.
“Chief, you’ve always been a straight talker. Help me out here. Unless you tell me what you want, I have to find a way to get off this planet and avoid two very aggressive fighter ships.”
The Rykkan Chief waves his hand dismissively. “They will not pursue you. You are safe from Rykkan’s police. For now. While we talk.”
I am definitely missing something here. “How do you know they will not track us down?”
The Rykkan spits on the ground in front of him. “Your brain must be shaken from bad landing. Fighter ships are under my control. You understand now?”
Several connections close in my mind. “You wanted to force me here? To take revenge? You must know that it was not me who raided your camp. That was—”
“Sloper’s assassin. Yes, I know this. Your friend here told me truth.”
I slump down—easy in the hi-grav, though our ship is trying
to compensate. “Let’s start again. What do you want?” If the Chief isn’t holding Aktip as revenge for me supposedly destroying his camp, mowing down his people and stealing his loot, then what does he want?
The Rykkan speaks. “I think we talk in opposites. What—or should I say, who—is it that you look for?” Once again he grins.
I feel the blood run from my face. He knows about Mitch? I see Aktip’s eyes pulsing. I realize both she and the Chief are in range sufficient to sense my state. I calm myself down and concentrate on my love for my brother. It’s hard to stop the recent imagery of his capture, and I can’t help letting my pain influence my emotions.
The Chief nods and I see Aktip visibly relax. “Yes, your brother.”
“Sloper has him. So what’s new? I came to Rykkamon to bring Aktip home for medical help. But I also plan to find out where Sloper is holding Mitch. Someone here has that information, and as soon as you let Aktip go, we intend to discover where he is and leave.”
“Now you know what I have for you.” He is grinning widely now.
I freeze. “You know where Sloper took my brother?”
“Oh yes.” He can’t stop grinning. “Also know where Sloper docked lightCruiser.” His grin disappears abruptly. “So here is deal. Which you take or your friend dies.”
Danielli catches my attention. He motions to himself and Herg. Should they head back inside the ship and don gravSuits? I shake my head and focus back on the Chief.
“I want verification of your information before I agree to any deal,” I say. “Prove you know where my brother is and we can talk. But I have a deal for you: let me exchange places with Aktip. Take me hostage instead. Aktip is innocent.”
The Chief’s eyes bulge. “I accept offer. But we don’t wait. I show my truth to your friend here. She will say I have truthful information. Then you come here and I let her go.”
I don’t get it. This is too easy. “Fine. Verify your information. Now.”
The Chief turns to Aktip, looks her in the eye and steadies himself for a moment. Then he speaks in a rush of Rykkan. I watch Aktip nodding. He stops and waits. Aktip looks into the comm cam. “He is speaking the truth, Madam Captain. He told me where your brother is imprisoned.”
I stare at the male Rykkan. “Why do you tell me this?”
He bares his teeth. “So you do want deal. Good. You swap with this one”—he indicates Aktip—“then I take you to lightCruiser and we go to Takao—”
“Takao?”
He nods. “Your brother hidden there. Sloper has trade with this Scorpion, but Scorpion not know of brother situation.”
I realize what he has just said. “We go? What do you want on Takao?”
“I don’t want anything from Takao. I make you deal. I give you ship and help you find brother.” He smiles, revealing a wide expanse of red. “Then you give me battlecruiser.”
I hear Plexi’s sharp intake of breath, then everyone starts talking at once.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Despite the protestations of my crew, I put on my gravSuit and head down the salvage vessel’s ramp. I stomp across to the Chief’s cabin, where the door opens. Aktip confronts me. “Madam Captain, this is not good idea.”
“I know, Aktip. But what other choice do I have? I must rescue Mitch. Without him, all is worthless anyway. At least you are healing. Why was that so fast?”
Aktip regards me. “It is how things work on Rykkamon. I am weak, but I will self-repair.”
The Chief appears behind her. “We must leave. My people make way safe, but does not last forever.”
I step aside and watch Aktip limp off to the salvage ship’s ramp. I turn back to the Chief. “Where to now?” He motions me to another door—a larger one—in the side of the cabin. He taps a panel, and it slides up, to reveal a duopod. I climb in, with one brief look back at the ship, the ramp now closing. I wonder if it is the last time I’ll see my friends. I try to shake off my despair, but it sits heavy in my heart.
As soon as we are underway, I quiz the Chief. “How did you know of the battlecruiser?”
He laughs—a grating noise to a human. “The whole Sector speaks about cruiser rumors.” He swivels back to look at me behind him in the pod’s inline two-seater format. “But only I guess correctly.”
“How did you find my lightCruiser?”
“I have informers in dock. Your friend told me about Sloper and his assassin. As soon as two meets two, I know who to ask.” He shoots me an expression I do not understand. “It is good your friend was injured and came to Rykkamon. Otherwise I would kill you. Big price on your head, too.”
Is my bounty now “alive or dead?”
I remain silent for the rest of the journey to some remote shuttlepad. When we arrive at the pad, I see there are no buildings nearby, only a mountain range visible faintly in the light-purple atmosphere. “Where are we?” I ask.
“Better you do not know. Is outlaw landing pad.”
There’s a lot of things about Rykkamon I still do not know. The underground is more established than I’d ever imagined, and the corruption must be widespread for the Chief to orchestrate my passing through without question. Yet Aktip and her dinner guests were the epitome of integrity. Two distinct cultures. I make a note to ask Aktip. If I ever see her again.
A shuttle descends and the doors open. I suppose I will soon find out if the Chief really is taking me to my lightCruiser. The Chief utters some Rykkan into the comms and we disembark from our pod. He motions me to the shuttle, brandishing a laserpistol. I climb inside, feeling my suit power me up, and am immediately manhandled by some Rykkan thugs and pushed into a seat. I feel cuffs wrap around each wrist and to the seat. I offer no resistance. My plan is not to fight. Not here.
The Chief takes a seat close to the cabin. His goons sit around me. Not a word is spoken until the Chief gives the okay to lift off.
As the hi-grav relinquishes its control, I sit back a little and gauge the Rykkan crew. Rykkans are hard to recognize with only one glance, but I’m pretty sure I’ve not seen any of these guys before. They obviously know me though, as I occasionally catch one or two of the eight or so discussing something, then making slicing motions, after which one of them inevitably swivels his head back at me and grins. Not in a friendly way.
In less than an hour we are docked at an unfamiliar spaceport. Presumably another blackmarket-controlled outpost. When we step through the airlock, I see it is dirty and run-down. Definitely not Rykkan tourism class. After I remove my gravSuit, my hands are cuffed together. We leave the shuttle, and take a travelbelt across the port’s large space to an airlock opposite. To one side is a large plexiglass viewing screen. I adjust the angle of my walk ever so slightly so I can see the side of the ship docked at the port. Enough comes into view that I am able to recognize the Slingshot. I actually manage a smile. So far, the Rykkan Chief has shown he really does speak the truth.
“Now you have trust, yes?” Once again, a Rykkan almost reads my mind. I’m starting to think that with enough training, a human could communicate directly to a Rykkan without a word transpiring between them. Obviously not the other way around, though, as I’ve never been close to understanding what any of them are thinking.
I stare at him. “Trust is always earned and easily burned.” The words that leave my mouth are the same ones I’ve heard uttered more than twenty times over by Papa, but it’s true. I hold up my cuffed hands. “So now that you see I trust you, will you trust me?”
He laughs and gestures to one of his thugs, who raises his brow protuberance. The Chief growls at him. The thug flinches, and removes the cuffs. I shake my wrists out and give the Chief what I hope is an engaging and transparent smile. Aktip’s training had better work. I’d done well at learning to transmit false signals, but repressing my state under stress was a different matter. I do my best to relax, but the tension in my jaw suggests otherwise.
The airlock to my ship opens, and we all file in. I take a quick look around on the wa
y to the helm. Everything still looks as shiny and new as the day I relieved Santo—Errikson’s SIM—of the tricked-out ship. I take my place in the captain’s chair. My Rykkan accomplice seats himself in the chair next to me. He swivels to look me in the eye. “We both take big risk, no? I give you your ship, now we find your brother. So far my promise for deal is carried out. Now is your turn. Any funny human tricks, and my men will remove your legs.” I notice two of his men stationed either side of me, chairs turned and laserwhips primed.
I hold my gaze on the Rykkan and try not to hold my breath. Aktip told me that breathing is the key to what I am about to do: trick a live lie-detector. Sort of. “You help me rescue my brother and I will give you the Constellation.”
He lets out what a human might think is a giggle, but I do know enough about Rykkan negotiation that this is an accidental admission. The Chief cannot contain his excitement. “And we kill Sloper and the Darpesh-thing.”
I suck in a huge lungful of air. I hadn’t planned on a full-scale battle. But what is it to me? Sloper has already ruined enough of my life, and I’d always planned to kill him. Perhaps it just wouldn't be at my own hand.
I nod, then I lean forward and hold my finger over the helmpad. “Do I have your permission to set course for Takao?”
He nods and grins. “We are team now. The Scorpion must watch out, I think.”
From what I know about the Scorpion, it’s we who need to watch out.
I tap the pad and we slide away from the lock. Takao here we come.
CHAPTER FORTY
The Chief assured me he’d paid off enough people that Sloper would never know my lightCruiser was no longer where he left it last. We both agree to send the salvage vessel on ahead with a deliberately high number of hyperDrive hops. Sloper will think we are running and set pursuit. He will realize we have discovered Mitch’s location.
Meanwhile, I will run the Slingshot at maximum capacity to arrive at Takao before them all.
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 13