“Anywhere I talk to big chiefs.”
The commPanel goes quiet. A new voice takes over. “What is your intention, lightCruiser? You do not have clearance to dock.”
“I tell you. I talk to big chiefs. Top Jovian head man.”
I think the Chief is enjoying himself. I struggle against my cuffs, then give up.
“Permission denied. Please state your intention, or be forced to surrender control.”
The Chief cackles. “Maybe you try this force. You not succeed against my ship.”
There is a long gap in communication.
“What was your origin at launch, lightCruiser?”
“Takao.”
Another silence. The Chief taps the panel. “Anyone still home?”
The disembodied voice responds. “Ganymede is unable to grant clearance. You must leave the region within five minutes or be considered a viable enemy target.”
“Tell Jovian big chiefs I have present for them. They pay much money.” He grins a toothy red cavern.
The voice is starting to sound frustrated. “Please provide proof of your trading authority.”
The Chief punches up the holo, then reverses the view, so it mirrors our interior. He adjusts the cam sliders until the screen shows me—now back in full flaming red hair—Mitch, and Sloper. I scowl at the cam and the Chief just laughs. “I think you see authority now.”
Another voice breaks in, this one authoritative. “Advance to spaceport G4. You will be met and your merchandise inspected.”
The bulky Rykkan taps the commPanel closed, looks at each of us without saying a word, then swivels back to concentrate on taking us in.
Which does not take long.
My ship is boarded and I find myself face-to-face with a midlevel Jovian official. He looks me up and down, then moves to Mitch and Sloper, who he greets with a smile. “A pleasure to see you indisposed.” Sloper does not respond.
The official moves back to me. “India Jackson. Spacewhore. And her dim brother. Welcome back to Ganymede. Your colleague Errikson is waiting for you.”
I say nothing. I’ll only encourage him, so instead I look away.
We are told to stand and await our escort, and the official orders the Rykkan Chief to wait.
“Why I wait? You pay now. You have merchandise. Now I take big ship drive. Big Jovian already agree on hyper-relay.” The Chief breaks out in a line of Rykkan sweat on his brow protuberance.
The official leans in to the Rykkan, one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “Big Jovian change mind. So you wait. Unless you want to leave without the drive?”
The Chief doesn’t answer. He just lowers himself into the captain’s chair. My captain’s chair. He watches us as we are led away, maneuvering awkwardly with our tied wrists in the nearly zero-gee.
We enter a sleek-looking inter-satellite speedster. Sloper is taken elsewhere, but I barely register his expression as we are whisked away from the port.
“Where are we going?” I ask, casually, not really expecting an honest answer.
The official looks at me. “The yards. A little test. Make sure the merchandise is not fake.” He gives me a flat smile.
Mitch leans across to me and whispers. “Was this in your plan?”
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
We are taken to the same hangar Plexi rescued us from. Errikson is standing waiting for us when we emerge from the speedster. He sports a broad grin, and watches as we are cut free of our plasticuffs. “Excellent. Both possibilities in the one place. Now please accompany me for the last test. No suits needed this time. You’ll understand the Jovians never settle a trade until they verify the goods.”
I shrug. “You only need a palm scan for that. Why bring us here? The deal is done as soon as you get the scan.”
Errikson’s grin widens further. “The scanning device we will be using to test is not quite as portable as the ones you might be used to.” He spins in the low gravity and kicks off. I feel a prod in my back and turn to see one of Errikson’s men shoving me. I push his weapon away, showing my distaste on my face, and propel myself off to follow Errikson.
We float through several passageways until we break out into a smaller hangar. At the end of the empty space there is an area ringed by powerful spotlights, all trained on an apparently hastily rigged airlock.
The lock is open, revealing an expandable bridge which connects to another, closed lock. The far airlock is swathed with temporary sensors connected around its bulkhead, and men working on remote datapads.
A smaller door is inset into the far lock, and on the right hand side next to it, is a controlpanel.
Underneath the panel is a small stenciled sign.
It reads: “WARNING. DANGEROUS EQUIPMENT INSIDE. UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY IS HAZARDOUS.”
And underneath that, another, smaller text sign. “AUTHORIZED CONSTELLATION PERSONNEL ONLY”
The drive.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Errikson orders all his men to retreat. He motions Mitch and I to follow him to the drive’s entry door. He points to the controlpanel. “Your fingerscan test. Of sorts. As you can see, we have been unable to open access to the drive. As soon as you verify you have access, I will confirm with General Marius that the Rykkan will be given the drive.” He looks at me strangely. “Once we have finished with it.”
I sigh. “Let’s get it over with.” I step up to the controlpanel and slap my hand on the plate. A circle of red spots race around the perimeter of my hand, speeding up ... then they freeze and turn green. A message appears on the screen.
<
But the door remains closed. I look to Errikson for guidance. He scowls. “Try again.”
I do, with the same result.
“Let the boy try.”
Mitch steps up and completes the same task. The red spots race around his hand, freeze and turn to green ... and we see the same message.
Errikson curses.
I smile at him. “Voice control perhaps?”
He jerks his head at the panel, and I run through the procedure again. This time, after the message appears, I speak. “Captain Jackson of the Constellation requesting access.”
Errikson’s head twists around to stare at me, then he slowly breaks out into a smile. He looks back at the entry, which remains closed.
But a new message appears on the screen.
<
I look from Mitch to Errikson. “Well?”
A new voice calls from behind us. A deep, authoritative male voice. “The boy tries now.” I turn to see a thickset, swarthy man, his face set without humor.
“Yes, General,” Errikson responds quickly and gestures to Mitch. My brother comes forward and places his hand on the panel again. When the green light appears, the door slides away to reveal a dark entry, to what appears to be an endless, unlit cavern.
Errikson can’t wipe the smile off his face.
A shout arises from within the hangar behind us. Someone is calling the General. “General Marius!” The man pushes over to us and comes to a clumsy halt, saluting the Jovian General at the same time as gaining a handhold.
“Speak.”
“Sir, you are requested in the command center. The Scorpion has assembled his fleet on the far side of Jupiter.”
I shoot a glance at Mitch. He looks worried. This is not an agreed part of our plan—and worse, it could mean all bets are off in respect to leaving with the drive. Or our lives.
The General glares at us both. “Explain.”
I square him off. This is not the time for my normal flippant response. I decide to go with the truth.
“General Marius, I know nothing of this. My deal with the Scorpion was to come here and retrieve the drive. The Rykkan Chief’s presumed taking of us as hostage was a ruse, no more. But I know as much as you do about this.” My mind is racing for options, but I find none.
Marius regards me for a moment, then turns to the aide. “Tell G
eneral Karalis to mobilize our defense and launch response fighters. I will attend the command center shortly.” The man salutes and launches off, already tapping into his datapad and talking.
The General looks back at Errikson. “We have little time. I suggest you use it wisely. Bring me the information you promised.” He gestures to the open doorway.
Errikson pushes me and Mitch forward. I step into the darkness—and lighting flickers on. Mitch follows, and I hear him gasp.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
The interior of the drive is vast. And not at all what I expected. Instead of hundreds of meters of tubing, wiring and electronic interfaces, I am confronted by a colossal, impervious black box-like unit. It almost fills the cavernous space. There is no obvious control point or access.
Errikson can hardly contain himself. “What do you see?”
“Why would I tell you?” I throw back at him, “when you can come in and see for yourself.”
“I think you will tell me everything you know about this drive, and your status.” He grins.
I turn around and look past Mitch at Errikson. “What are you playing at? The Scorpion is about to attack, General Marius is impatient to get what we have agreed to give him—there’s nothing more to know.”
Errikson leers at me. “Except what I know about your father.”
Now Mitch turns around, and I can see the tension in his body from behind. “Tell me now, or this guy”—he indicates the Jovian General, who is observing us with an increasing dark expression—“might get impatient with our very slow progress.”
General Marius raises his hand. “Enough. Errikson, deliver what I have requested. Report back to me in twenty minutes.” He spins around, pushes off the bulkhead and floats over to the hangar exit.
Errikson’s gleeful face drops. He kicks off and enters the drive’s doorway, glaring at me all the way.
Until a battery of lasers hidden in the drive’s open airlock seals slice him to ribbons. I hear a brief shout of pain, then his mangled body continues—slowly—to the deck. I look away from the spreading cloud of blood droplets.
I can hear a commotion from the other end of the hangar. The General had obviously heard Errikson’s dying cry and is heading back to us at full speed. He expertly arrests his flight on the temporary airlock bridge. He looks at us, then down at Errikson’s smoking remains, then back at us.
I turn up my palms. “I—we—had nothing to do with it.”
“That is the second time you claim this.” The Jovian’s voice cuts through us. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because of this.” Mitch steps through the doorway, and I let out a scream. But he emerges untouched. No laser attack. He beckons behind him for me to do the same. I follow through, my entire body screaming in tense protest, but nothing happens.
Mitch looks at the General. “Did you see us disable anything? Watch again.” He retreats through the doorway, studiously avoiding the ugly mess on one side, and I follow him. Nothing happens.
The General flicks his hand and three soldiers appear at his side. He points to one of them. “Join them.” The soldier looks terrified, but braces himself and launches through the opening.
He is sliced into pieces. So fast, he has no time to make a sound. His jerking body parts continue their arc, spurting fluids and gradually becoming separate chunks of flesh and bone drifting in space. I push my stomach down and try to look away, but the General is ordering us to return. This time I am grateful to leave the two ugly deaths behind me.
Marius has nothing other than an air of curiosity. A thinking general. He looks between us and appears to come to a decision. “Take them away. A holding cell. We will return to this later.”
I try to argue. “How? Errikson is dead. No one else can manipulate the data like he could.”
The General’s face is impassive. “Errikson is no longer of importance to me. Alive or dead. I have what I need.” Then he dismisses us and leaves.
Several men crowd around us, and though my body has become numb, I feel my wrists plasticuffed, then we are manhandled through the spaceyard’s labyrinth passageways until we are shoved into a bare, windowless cell.
The door slides closed.
Mitch eyes me. “That went well.”
But all I can think about is with Errikson dead, I’ll never know what he threatened to tell me about Papa.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
In the depths of the spaceyard it’s hard to know how the Scorpion’s attack is faring. Explosions can’t be heard from space. But I know what the Scorpion’s ultimate target is. And I have to stop her taking it.
I look over at Mitch, who is sitting, staring at the dull alloy deck. “Worried?” I say.
He casts a grim look my way. “We’re screwed. Doesn’t matter who wins. Whether the Jovians get the drive or the Scorpion, doesn’t much matter. Neither of them have the Sector’s interest at heart.”
“Have you forgotten the small matter of the Circle of Seven’s fleet?”
He shrugs. “Why does that make any difference? Whoever controls the Constellation or its drive’s secrets, controls us. Jovians, the Scorpion, Oberon—we’re screwed by all of them.”
I think for a moment. “Why didn’t General Marius send us into the drive again?”
“I guess he was more concerned with an impending attack.”
“But Errikson insisted that the data was key for them. It’s as if it doesn’t matter anymore.” I try to get comfortable, but zero-gee tends to make your body do strange things when you try to lie down. I give up and float a little, steadying myself to keep looking at Mitch.
He screws his face up. “Dunno what they’d get from that black thing, but I suppose once they saw only we had access, they knew they could take their time.”
I straighten my body out with a jolt as a thought comes to me. I accidentally kick against the bulkhead and have to wait until I touch the other side to stop myself. “Genius! That’s it.”
Mitch looks interested, his eyes bright. “You’ve worked out a way to get us out of here, make the Jovians and the Scorpion best friends and defeat the Blood Empire?”
“Cynic. But no, it’s worse than that. What do the Jovians rely on to maintain their stranglehold over the Sector?”
“Easy. Energy supply. Elementary economics. What’s your point? ... Wait. You think the drive has information about energy that is important to them?”
I shake my head. “No. If it was important to them, we’d be in there now, extracting information.”
Mitch screws his face up. “I don’t get it.”
“Then let me spell it out for you. Remember you told me you heard that the Jovians were developing something to make 3He redundant? The Jovians only wanted the data so they could stop anyone else from getting their hands on it. That’s why they fed Errikson the line about making sure he got the drive and access to it—”
“And?”
“Let me finish. Whatever it is in that drive, they know that if that information was widely available, it would wipe out their hold over energy prices and trade. They’d have no power ... literally. The Jovians aren’t interested in developing anything new. They want to do the opposite. They want to destroy it.”
“Now you’re just guessing.”
“Maybe. But if it was that important to Marius, why are we still sitting in this cell?”
A dawning realization sweeps over Mitch’s face. “Because we might be the only two people in the Galaxy who can unlock what is in the Constellation’s drive.”
I nod. “And the best way to prevent anyone else knowing or gaining access is—”
“To throw away the key.”
“Precisely. This is a death row cell.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
I am about to speak when the entire structure around us shudders. I hear muted thumps. Explosions in space have no sound, but I’m not in space.
Mitch stares at me. “The Scorpion.”
“We gotta get out of her
e.”
He nods. “Or die trying.”
“Probably that,” I say, and kick myself down to the only door. There are no controls, no small crevices, no handy panel I could unscrew—even if I had a multitool—not even a commPanel to yell for help.
Not that anyone would come.
I pat my suit pants, as if I’ve somehow managed to pack a handy pocket lasercutter.
I bang on the door, but all that does is push me away and up to the overhead bulkhead. I push back off, noting that the overhead is the same smooth, seamless alloy as the rest of the cell.
Mitch is now inspecting the door. He puts his head next to the edge where the door would open first. “Hey! Let us out! We can help fight! We know about the Scorpion’s weapons!” He looks back at me, frustration written all over his face. “Any ideas?”
I think as calmly as possible—not so easy when the thumps are coming more frequently, and louder too. I can smell the distinctive odor of fried electrics. I look at Mitch, then kick over to him. I hug my brother.
“No ideas. I think this is it. I love you, Mitch. I hope we meet Papa soon.”
He says nothing, and hugs me back. Tight.
The smell of destroyed circuitry is strong now, yet the explosive sounds are still distant. The analytical part of me tries to separate out the facts: we are not under direct attack at the cell, yet something is frying the electronics very close to us. I look at the door—then push my brother away. “Mitch! The door!”
We both look at the cell’s entrance. A portion of the door and bulkhead is starting to glow. I push back to the rear of the cell and brace myself. I hope my death is not painful—maybe quick, like Errikson. I hug myself tight and switch my attention to Mitch. I’d like my final moment to be a vision of my brother, not the flash of a laser.
I am fortunate my gaze was averted from the door, as a sun-bright flash turns everything white, and for a moment, I am snowblind.
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 20