Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1)

by Robert Scanlon

  I do not look back, but wait for the Chief to calm down. “Where is Jordi?” I call over my shoulder.

  Sloper laughs. “He escaped. He predicted you would try to come here before me. After I’d dangled some credits in front of him as an incentive for his opinion. The coward knew he’d either have to face me or you, so he chose to save his own skin.”

  I nod. Jordi sold us out to save himself. Probably the only time I’ll ever agree with Sloper.

  The Chief is breathing heavily. I advance toward him and out of the corner of my eye, I see his men edge in to protect him. We both ignore them. This close, I tower over the Rykkan and look down. “Darpesh is dead. You’ve had your revenge. But you nearly didn’t get the prize. My brother could have died—”

  “But he did not. I am perfect shooter.” The Chief does not grin this time. “I am entitled to extinguish debt owed to my men killed by this one,” he points to the headless Darpesh bleeding out on the ground next to my brother.

  “That may be true, but we have a deal, and Sloper is my debt, not yours. Unless you have a magic wand, he is also our pass out of here. Are we agreed? If not, we fight here and now, and you lose the Constellation.”

  “It’s real, then?” The voice is weak, but it’s one I’ve known for years. I whip around to see Mitch raising a smile at me.

  I’m happy to see him alive and talking, but cannot help myself. I mimic his voice. “Hi, Sis. Thanks so much for rescuing me from an almost impossible situation. I owe you one.”

  He manages to laugh, then coughs up more blood trying to talk. I wince and wait for him to speak. Eventually he does. “We’re not out yet. But can someone get me out of here? My companion has lost his head.”

  I motion to Sloper, then kick him when he doesn’t move. He reaches up to a doorpad, taps in a code, and the bars slide up. I walk in and plant a soft kiss on Mitch’s forehead. “Glad you’re still here.”

  He glances up. “We have a lot to talk about. Assuming we make it that far.”

  “Don’t worry,” I say, cutting the metran-fiber-ropes free with Darpesh’s laserdagger. “I did bring backup. Unfortunately Sloper beat them—and us—here, which wasn’t part of the plan.”

  Mitch staggers to his feet, then falls against me. Luckily the planet’s delicate clutch makes me almost as superhuman as the Rykkans, and I hold him easily. We step out of the cage with me supporting him, until we reach Sloper. I kick him again. “On your feet. You want to see the Constellation, you need to come with us.”

  The Rykkan Chief starts to protest, but I hold up my hand. “We have a deal. It wasn’t discussed who I would need to help me honor it. Now you need to get us off the planet.” I jerk my head at the blasted doorway. “Preferably as easily as you got us in here.”

  The Chief’s eyes pulse momentarily, then he turns, shouts orders to his men, and they lope off. I follow, almost carrying Mitch, not quite as fast as the group ahead. I figure they can do all the shooting. Sloper limps behind, prodded by a Rykkan bringing up the rear.

  The crowd noise has lessened and I no longer hear the Scorpion’s digitized voice. I assume the rally is over. Hopefully that means our exit will be under the cover of a moving crowd. Did the predicted violence occur? I have no way of knowing.

  We turn into the stairwell and make our way up. I thank the universe for the lessened pull of gravity, or Mitch and I would never make the relentless climb.

  We pass the level we entered from and continue to climb further. I call up to the Chief. “Where are we going?”

  “To the roof. You signal for pickup.”

  “Me? But won’t the Scorpion be unimpressed with a group of Rykkans trying to pick up a skyride?” I cannot understand the Chief’s plan, but he does not answer. I check my suitcomm is live, and tap a short signal to my own ship, which will then autorelay my coordinates to the salvage ship. If it is here.

  I almost bump into the Rykkan Chief, who has hold of Sloper and waits for me at the entry to the roof. “You tell me he is ticket out of here. I think a lot about this. Skyride will see Sloper and you and pick up, no trouble. Then you persuade driver to wait”—he points at my laser rifle—“and I come too.”

  I incline my head at the others. “Your men?”

  He grins. “They fight way out. They will not be noticed among Resistance. You make pickup of them with other ship. We all meet at battlecruiser. Is perfect plan, yes?”

  Mitch is tugging at my arm, and I see Sloper, though pale, is following the conversation intently. I ignore them both. “Yes. Maybe not perfect. But a plan.” I leave Mitch to support himself against the stairwell wall, and I stride out—skipfloat out—onto the roof. I pull Sloper behind me, putting up with his wounded scream. He’s lucky to be alive. I hail one of the many skyrides hovering over the stadium to transport the more wealthy Takaons, and one drops to us immediately. The doorpad slips back and I get in, motioning to Sloper and further back, to my brother, to follow suit. I lean forward to the pilot and shove a laserpistol barrel in his ear. “Say nothing about your passengers, or you’ll never say anything again. I’ll pay double credits for your trouble.” He nods and says nothing, staring forward.

  The Chief is the last to enter the passenger cabin, and I realize we could not have fitted more. Close up, both Mitch and Sloper look worse for wear. I need Sloper alive for now, but my brother will be my priority. I instruct the pilot to take us to the spaceport, no delay, and we whip off, bringing a groan from my brother and a wince from Sloper. I keep my pistol in the pilot’s view, pointing at him.

  The skyride takes only minutes, but is enough for me to see ugly crowds on the streets, held at bay by Takaon authorities. The predicted bloodbath hasn’t eventuated, but even from this height I sense the status quo is on a knife edge.

  Despite the brewing tension below us, the Chief’s timing and our plan work perfectly. We touch down next to the Slingshot, and I help Mitch out. He needs stims as soon as possible, then proper care, though I am unsure exactly where I will obtain this. We all enter my ship, and I proceed to the medroom, jab some stimpacks into Mitch and breathe a sigh of relief.

  I turn back to the door, only to be forced back in to the medroom by three large Rykkans, who rip my weaponry from me and push me against the bunk Mitch is lying on. They hold me down—there’s no way I can resist Rykkan power. I curse loudly.

  The Chief comes in to the small room, filling the confined space.

  “What are you doing?” I say. “We had a deal.”

  “Still same deal. Now with insurance. I keep your brother, you take me to battlecruiser. You give me battlecruiser, I give you brother back.” He exposes his red teeth in a grimace. “Maybe I give you Sloper, too.”

  He turns to leave, then stops, swiveling his head to look back at me. “No battlecruiser. No brother.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  I stay constrained at the hands of the Chief’s men for a while, then get up to move. They push me back. I manage to shake off a strong arm. “Let me go, you fools. How else are we going to get to the Constellation? My ship won’t fly itself.”

  They let me go and I storm out of the room, resisting the urge to look back at Mitch.

  I make my way up to the helmroom and shove the Rykkan sitting in the captain’s chair out of the way. I glare at the Rykkan Chief, who just grins at me. I turn to my helmpad, set the coordinates for our first hyperDrive hop, and we launch. The cruiser’s effortless drive power presses us momentarily back into our seats, though Takao’s gravity is an easier escape than Rykkamon. We are soon out of orbit and at the first hop launch point. I tap the pad to engage a preset hyperDrive sequence to where my calculations predict the Constellation will be.

  “We’ll be there in under twenty-three hours.”

  “And your friends?” The Chief grins again.

  “We’ll meet them there. But they follow my orders. Our deal stands. Now do you mind if I tend to my brother?” I hear a weak voice in the rear of the helmroom.

  “Since
you insisted on saving me from execution, perhaps you might see your way to giving me some help here?” It’s Sloper. I’d totally forgotten about him. He was my insurance policy for leaving Takao, and now I don’t really need him. Though a part of me argues that fact. I’m responsible for him being here, and I’m directly responsible for his injury. I will help the man I once set out to kill. After he gives up information. And after I’ve treated Mitch.

  “Sure thing, Sloper. You’ll get your turn.” I push up into the air, and float down the passageway to the medbay. I order the Rykkan guards out of the room, and when they don’t respond, I slap the commPanel. “Chief, tell your goons they can wait outside the medbay. Some privacy while I treat my brother would be appreciated.”

  He barks a command over the comm, and the three bulky Rykkans leave. The door slides closed behind them.

  Mitch props himself up on his elbows. “What the hell, Indy? You’re just going to hand the Constellation over on a silver platter to this guy?”

  “Oh ye of no faith.” I smile at Mitch. “Let me work you over first. We can talk while I get you fixed up.”

  I pull the medscanner from the panel next to the bunk and push Mitch gently back down on the bed. I set the scanner to start, and the curved alloy sensor hovers down to Mitch’s feet and begins a slow scan up his body.

  “How did you find it?” he says.

  “Sloper hired me.”

  “What the—?”

  I wave his questions away. “Not important. Not now. But it has no drive. It’s just a hulk running on emergency power, with a giant hole of nothingness where its drive should be.”

  Mitch’s eyes light up. “So that’s what Errikson was crowing about.”

  I take my eyes away from the scanner’s screen output and look at Mitch. “You knew he had the drive?”

  He grunts as the scanner makes its way over his abdomen. “Makes two of us, by the sound of it.”

  “What happened on Ganymede?”

  “I tracked down where Papa’s laserSword came from on Mars, and it led me to Ganymede. I found information that some people weren’t happy about sharing and had to leave in a hurry. That’s when I ran into a trap set by your friend and mine.”

  “What information?” I have to wait while the scanner makes its way over Mitch’s face, then begins the downward scan.

  “You first. Why did you agree to take these guys to the Constellation? In the wrong hands ...” he trails off and looks at me. Confusion flickers across his face.

  “It’s protected. It has a self-defense system that destroys any ship that approaches or tries to board. Whoever is behind the evacuation did a thorough job. There’s no sign of so much as a fight on board.”

  He narrows his eyes. “You’ve been on board? I thought you said it has a defense system.”

  The scanner is almost finished, and I wait for it to come to a stop at Mitch’s feet. I look at the data on the screen, and tap a button to bring it up on the holo for Mitch to see. “You have some serious abdominal injuries. Blood loss. Nothing broken though. We can fix the blood loss, but the injuries need rest and repair. You’ll have to take it easy for a while.”

  He tries to sit up, but even the zero-gee makes him groan and he lies back down, relying on the bunk’s autostabilizing straps to gently hold him in place. “Yeah, I have my vacation all planned, so no worries there. But you didn’t answer my question. How did you get on board? How does the defense system work—did you hack in?”

  I smile. “No need. It can be overridden by the ship’s Captain.”

  He chokes briefly. “You found the Constellation’s Captain?”

  I feel my smile broaden. “I am the Constellation’s Captain. But don’t tell the Chief.”

  For once, Mitch is lost for words and just stares at me.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  I finish jabbing a stimpack into Sloper. I’ve already placed a medpatch over his leg wound, but when I looked at the injury before covering it over, I saw the first signs of sepsis. If he doesn’t die, he will almost certainly lose the leg. The stims start to take effect. Sloper opens his eyes and looks at me, his face still tight from pain.

  “You set out to kill me. Then you save me from summary execution. Next you attempt to shoot off my leg. And now you supply medical assistance. Why?” He grimaces as I cover up the medpatch with skintape.

  I sit opposite the man who became my enemy after he killed my father. “Things have changed.” I shrug. “I figure you’ll tell me exactly what happened. How you led Papa to his death.”

  “After which you’ll kill me anyway?”

  “I’ve had enough of death.” I feel the cruiser shimmy slightly as we go through a hyperjump transition. Sloper looks at me strangely.

  “Then why did you agree to take this one”—he indicates the Chief, over in a helmchair and listening in to our conversation—“to the Constellation? Putting the galaxy’s best weapon in the hands of a brutal gang of pirates hardly seems like a smart idea”— he pauses, and the look on his face intensifies—“if you’ve had enough of death.”

  “My brother just escaped his death thanks to me, and no thanks to you. I’m not going to rescue him just to send him straight to his death at the hand of a gang. But I didn’t ask for your opinion, or your advice. What I want is to know the truth.”

  Sloper sneers at me. “Supposing I refuse?”

  I lean over and savagely twist his leg under the skintape—and Sloper screams. “Don’t think that having had enough of death makes me in any way incapable of causing pain. Or of refusing to administer ongoing treatment. Now talk.”

  He screws his face up and breathes heavily for a few moments, letting the last breath out slowly before looking me in the eye. I see he is trying to bring his pain under control and I let go.

  I wave my hand for him to continue. He shoots a glance at the Chief, then back at me, as if unsure if the Chief should overhear. But I want the Chief to overhear, so I motion for Sloper to continue.

  “Jackson hired me to protect him.”

  “From?” I see this will be like pulling teeth.

  “From everyone. As far as I understand, he had stumbled across some discovery everyone and their spacedog wanted. Still wants. No way he’d tell me what that was. But he was scared if someone knew what he knew, his life would be in danger.”

  “Then he was right.”

  Sloper shrugs. “There is that. But it was more than just his own life. He was afraid of something falling into the wrong hands.” He smiles at me. Not a nice smile. “Same as you. Maybe you want to hire me too—”

  He screams again when I twist his leg. I wait for him to breathe through it. “When you did such a good job the last time? You’d be the last on my list. Now continue with the facts. Papa had you protecting him. Then who found him, and what happened?”

  Sloper pauses, as if he is considering what to say next. “Both the Jovians and the Scorpion got wind of a discovery. I guess the Jovians got to him first—”

  “He lies.” The Rykkan Chief’s head swivels back to me. I give him a nod of thanks, though I’ve already come to the same conclusion.

  Sloper’s face shows panic. He thinks I’m going to hurt him again. He’s correct, but not right now. I carry on my questioning. “So you sold out to the Scorpion, and you set up my father for capture. But when he was exposed, instead of the Scorpion capturing him, the Jovians did.”

  He curls his lip. “If you know all the answers, why do you need to ask the questions?”

  I reach over to put my hand on his leg again, but he holds up a hand. “Alright, alright. Yes. The Scorpion paid me. It’s how life works. Everyone has their price.” He regards me with a baleful eye. “Even you are old enough to have discovered that.”

  “Where did the Jovians take him? How did he die?”

  “That’s the thing. They didn’t. They never reached him. He blew his own ship up.”

  This time I squeeze his leg hard. “You bastard. He paid you to prot
ect him, but he still knew you would sell him out.” I let go and sit back, watching the man writhe in agony. The man who deliberately set my father up to die. “The Scorpion was pissed, wasn’t he?”

  Sloper nods. “The Scorpion thought a friend or family member might offer clues. But I’d heard of you. I knew you were trying to track me down.”

  “Is that why you hired me to salvage the Constellation? Did the Scorpion force you to do that?”

  He snorts. “Credit me with some intelligence, Madam Captain.” He forces the last two words out like an insult. “No, I wanted to find the Constellation to free me from my debt to the Scorpion. In return for helping him take over the Sector and demolish the Jovians, he’d forgive my debt, and give me a remote planet to rule.”

  I look at the Rykkan Chief and raise my eyebrows.

  “He speaks true. But he holds back.”

  I turn back to Sloper. “And?”

  He coughs and a speck of blood flies out of his mouth onto his chin. He wipes it away. “Errikson told the Jovians he suspected you or your brother were granted access to the Constellation’s drive unit. I don’t know how he knew, or if it’s true, but I knew he’d pursue you. If I had both you and your brother, and the Constellation, then I’d have all the cards.”

  “Maybe you did. But you played the wrong hand.” I push up from my position and float over to the captain’s chair. I tap the helmpad and see we still have another fifteen hours before we emerge from our last hyperspace jump. Time enough for a plan. I fake a yawn. “All this scintillating conversation has made me sleepy. I’m taking a couple of hours’ rest in my cabin.”

  I hope Aktip’s training has worked, and that sleep is all the Chief thinks I’m doing.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR