Star Raider

by Vaughn Heppner

  The sights bewildered Tanner almost as much as they had the first time he’d been here. That had been a year and a half ago. Between the major asteroids was a vast area lit by a hundred lights, maybe more. In the area floated ships of many sizes: Coalition tramp haulers beside ex-Remus strikers and old orbital tugs. There were several Nostradamus luxury yachts and a big starliner. There were even some military vessels including two frigates that had once belonged to the Vaster Corporation. There were many more vessels of the raider’s size or smaller. Most hideaway pirates used tiny craft to land on far larger prizes. Then, they boarded and took them over from the inside. Apparently, that was the historical pirate model going all the way back to the seas on Manhome.

  “Bounty hunter,” Ottokar said over the comm.

  “I’m right here,” Tanner responded. He hated the pirate using that name over the radio. But if he complained about it, Ottokar would surely do it even more.

  “Do you see the large cube to your…left?” the pirate asked.

  Tanner visually scanned the lit area. Greco pointed. The cube was to their right.

  “He must have meant his left,” Tanner said quietly.

  “I heard that, mate,” Ottokar said. “And you have that right. You’re a quick one, aren’t you?”

  “Quick enough, pirate,” Tanner said.

  Greco shook his head and closed his eyes.

  “You’re docking over there in the cube,” Ottokar said.

  “Are you already there?” Tanner asked.

  “If you fire at the cube, you’re a dead man.”

  Tanner smiled. The pirate had just answered his question. He was there all right and worried about a vengeance shot.

  For the next fifteen minutes, Tanner used the maneuver jets, bringing them closer to the cube. The cube’s outer surface was pitted. It must have been a mobile docking cube stolen from the faraway Orion Conglomerate. The asteroid field had given it a thorough abrasion.

  “Gun ports,” Greco said, pointing out the window.

  Tanner nodded, giving the guns a quick glance. He was too busy using the jets to study the guns any closer than that. The docking location Ottokar gave them was almost the same size as the raider.

  “Are you any good as a pilot, bounty hunter?” Ottokar laughed.

  “If I’m not, say goodbye to your prize.”

  It took several beats before Ottokar spoke again. “That little joke is going to cost you, bounty hunter.”

  “A man can only die once,” Tanner replied.

  Ottokar laughed in an ugly manner. “That’s where you’re wrong little man, dead blasted wrong.”

  Greco muted the comm. “Why do you keep antagonizing him? He’s angry enough with you already.”

  “I can’t help it,” Tanner said. “His kind brings out the ugly in me.”

  The comm light flashed. Greco unmuted it.

  “What are you trying to pull?” Ottokar said angrily over the tiny screen. “Who did you just signal?”

  “No one,” Tanner said. “My first mate needed to tell me something.”

  “Don’t lie to me, bounty hunter.”

  “Never,” Tanner said.

  Ottokar somehow found it within himself to give them the rest of the docking instructions. Ever so slowly, the raider eased into the tiny chamber. The hull clanged from time to time, but not too hard. Finally, a final bang and a lurch ended it. They had docked in the cube. They’d made it. Now, the fun began.

  ***

  Tanner led the way through the docking tube. He wore his Remus AirSpace Service dress uniform with jacket, brown with black trim. He wore boots, a gun holstered low on his hip and the monofilament blade tucked in a harness under his arm.

  Lord Acton followed, still wearing the top hat and tails with the lion-headed cane. He moved erectly like a born aristocrat. Behind him, Lacy lugged a suitcase of something heavy. She had a tight smile and wore closefitting garments with a small jacket. Lacy hadn’t spoken to Tanner, nor had she acknowledged him at all the entire trip.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Tanner asked Acton.

  “Eh?” the alien said.

  “Did you mind scrub her?” Tanner asked quietly.

  “Don’t be absurd,” Acton said.

  “I’m not. I can see it in her eyes.”

  “I suggest you concentrate on your primary role,” Acton said under his breath. “Leave the rest to me.”

  Tanner glanced back at Lacy once more. She gave him a cold glance in return, nothing more. Feeling uneasy about her, wondering what she had been doing in her quarters all this time, Tanner marched down the snaking tube.

  Finally, they reached a hatch. Tanner went to it, but it stayed closed.

  “I could gas you if I wanted and take the triton,” Ottokar said over a speaker.

  “Where’s the enjoyment in that?” Tanner asked.

  “It’s called ‘playing it safe.’ I know your reputation, bounty hunter. You’re a little too resourceful if one can believe all the stories.”

  Tanner laughed, holding up his hands. “Are you afraid of me?”

  “Put your gun on the deck,” Ottokar said.

  “Disarm myself in the hideaway?” Tanner asked. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then we gas you.”

  “Yeah, and then you only get some of the triton instead of all of it.”

  The speaker clicked off. Tanner figured the pirates were arguing among themselves. The hatch clicked. Tanner tried it again. It opened this time. They marched through a solid looking corridor. Soon, they reached another hatch. This one opened on the first try.

  Tanner walked into a large room with scruffy looking gunmen aiming hand cannons at him. They had earrings in their earlobes and nose, and expensive jewelry on their throats, fingers and a few in their lips.

  “May I introduce Lord Acton of Manhome,” Tanner said, indicating the alien Shand.

  Acton bowed at the waist, doffing his top hat to the crowd.

  The gunmen eyed him dubiously.

  “Who is she?” the biggest pirate said. He clattered forward, Ottokar Akko. He stood almost as tall as a Lithian with black sheaths of plasti-armor on his legs, torso, arms and neck. He didn’t hold a gun, although there was a big holster on his right wrist with a tube attached to it and the bottom of the gun butt in the holster.

  “She is my aide,” Acton said in his strange accent. “Are you the leader of these men?”

  “I am,” Ottokar said. “Are you in charge or is this bounty hunter the man?”

  “I have hired his services,” Acton said.

  Ottokar leaned forward as if he was having trouble understanding Acton. He grinned a moment later. “Oh, you have, have you? You’re a fancy pants from Earth, is that right?”

  “I am from Manhome,” Acton said.

  “What are you doing out here near the rim?” Ottokar asked.

  “I am an archaeologist.”

  “What’s that?” Ottokar asked.

  “He digs,” said one of the gunmen. “He searches for ancient artifacts for a museum or a rich patron.”

  “Is this true?” Ottokar said.

  “It is accurate enough,” Acton said.

  “You dig for people’s junk,” Ottokar said. “That sounds stupid. Are you stupid, Earthman?”

  “Since that is a rhetorical question, I shall refrain from answering it.”

  “What? Rhetorical what? You’re not making sense. Answer the damn question before I blow your head off.”

  “I am wise beyond your understanding,” Acton said.

  Silence descended upon the chamber. Several of the gunmen glanced at Ottokar.

  “Now you’ve done it, fancy pants,” the pirate lord said. “You went and pissed off Ottokar Akko. That’s going to be your last mistake ever. Let me show you why.”

  With a clatter of plasti-armor, Ottokar raised his right arm, moving his hand into a shooting position. The big gun whipped out of the holster and slammed against his fist. In the tight confines
of the chamber, the massive gun discharged twice, booming each time.

  Lacy flew off her feet, the rounds slamming her in the chest. The suitcase went flying, tumbling over the deck. She lay motionless.

  “Do you see what I mean?” Ottokar asked. Smoke trickled out of the pitted barrel.

  Acton looked back at Lacy and then regarded the pirate lord.

  The big gun shifted, aiming at Acton. “Do you want some of this?” Ottokar asked.

  “I do not,” Acton said.

  Ottokar smiled evilly. “Didn’t think you did, but I wanted to make sure.”

  Several of the gunmen chuckled.

  There was a sound of tiny servomotors. Tanner heard it along with everyone else. Like them, he tried to locate the source of the sound. That’s when he saw it. Lacy sat up as black fluid dribbled out of the gunshot wounds. She had a small compact pistol in her hand. The tip glowed red, and a smoking hole appeared in a gunman’s forehead. That pirate fell down dead.

  The rest of the guns began to boom. They fired at Lacy as the pirates roared or shouted in terror. Her torso, neck, head and arms jerked each time a heavy slug slammed into her. During the fusillade, she beamed two more pirates in the forehead. Finally, flesh and servomotors blew off her head. Lacy toppled backward onto the deck. From there, she arched up. The rounds continued to pummel her as pirates shouted incoherently.

  Finally, Tanner reacted. The horror of what he’d seen had stilled him. Lacy was a cyborg. She had to be. Another synapse in his mind fired, and Tanner realized Ottokar Akko was going to kill him as a matter of self-defense.

  Tanner drew and fired, trying to finish what Lacy had started. None of the pirates had bothered with him because their terror had caused them to fixate on her. Tanner shot the big gun in Ottokar’s grip. By that time, the centurion was among the surviving pirates, as they had clumped together in horror.

  Tanner drew the monofilament blade, as he didn’t have time to reload his gun. Most of the remaining pirates had emptied their hand cannons against a thing that wouldn’t die.

  With a shout, Ottokar leaped at him. Tanner twisted to meet the attack, lunging, piercing the plasti-armor. The body slammed against him just the same, knocking Tanner backward. He lost hold of the monofilament knife as he fell and slid across the deck on his back.

  When Tanner stopped sliding, he saw Acton unfold from where he’d hidden in a corner. The alien or cyborg, whatever he was, had retreated during the firing. Acton had made himself a tiny target to an unnatural degree. Now, Acton moved surely, reaching the blood-coughing pirate lord.

  A quick strike with the cane knocked the techno-knife out of Ottokar’s hand.

  “What are you?” the pirate shouted. “What did you bring onto the hideaway?”

  Acton knelt beside the bleeding Ottokar, touching a check with a glistening hand.

  The pirate twitched, moaned and began blinking wildly. Acton spoke low tones into the pirate’s right ear. Soon, the bleeding pirate spoke back in a quiet tone.

  “Excellent,” Acton said. He took out the slate, tapping it. Then, he spoke into the slate. Lastly, he put the slate in front of Ottokar. The pirate lord spoke solemnly, giving what sounded like code words.

  At the end, Acton aimed the slate at himself. “I affirm the agreement,” the alien said. He shut off the slate, put it away and picked up his cane.

  “Now what?” Ottokar asked in a wheezing voice.

  Acton stood, twisted the lion head of the cane and withdrew the narrow-bladed sword. “Your use is at end, I’m afraid.”

  “No!” Ottokar wheezed. “I kept my agreement. I helped you.”

  “You destroyed my key,” Acton said.

  “Please.”

  Acton stabbed with the tip of the sword, and the pirate shivered once, a wretched gesture. Afterward, Ottokar Akko died. The alien picked up his top hat from the deck, inspected it and put it back on his head. Then he turned.

  Tanner stood there with his reloaded gun aimed at Acton.

  “We must leave at once,” Acton told him.

  Tanner used both hands to hold the gun and made sure to put plenty of distance between them. “What are you, Acton?”

  “We do not have any leeway for this. My voice activation codes are extremely time sensitive. We must leave.”

  Tanner shook his head. “You’re a cyborg.”

  Acton stood motionless before saying, “I perceive your dilemma. Lacy was a cyborg, certainly that is factual. I am not, though.”

  “So you say. I think there’s only one way to find out quickly.”

  “You need me in order to reach Planet Zero,” Acton said.

  “And release all the cyborgs there to attack mankind—no thanks.”

  “Did you not hear me say that she was the key?”

  “Yeah. What about it?”

  “How does one unlock a cyborg vault?” Acton said. “The simplest way is with a cyborg, of course.”

  “Why would she help you destroy her kind?”

  “You do not understand cyborgs well, do you?”

  “Just answer the question, Acton.”

  “I reprogrammed her. I’ve done so several times. After all, I am a Shand.”

  “Why didn’t you tell any of us she was a cyborg?”

  “Your present reaction shows me the wisdom of my plan. Do you wish to die at the hideaway?”

  “Prove to me you’re not a cyborg,” Tanner said stubbornly.

  Acton stared at him, and it seemed as if his eyeballs might launch twin lasers. Finally, the lord looked away.

  “You are a wretched creature,” Acton said. “I will remember this.”

  “If you’re still alive,” Tanner said.

  “Take your knife. Cut the edge of my hand. You will find it is flesh and blood, not composed partly of cyborg circuitry.”

  Tanner pondered that as he took in the dead within the gory chamber.

  “Decide, human, before our time runs out.”

  “Grab the knife, Acton. You’re going to slice your own hand. I’m going to stay back here in case you try something clever.”

  Once again, Acton watched him motionlessly. It reminded Tanner of a hunting bug as it waited for prey. At last, Acton retrieved the monofilament blade.

  “Are you ready?” Acton asked.

  “Just a minute.” Tanner went to Lacy. He knelt as he kept the gun aimed at Acton. Then, he lifted one of her hands. She had circuits within her hands all right. “Okay. Cut.”

  Acton raised his left hand. His lips drew back in a silent snarl. Then, he cut the fleshy part of his left hand.

  Tanner eyed it. He didn’t see any circuitry. As he watched, green blood turned into red, dripping onto the floor.

  It felt as if someone hit him in the stomach. There was no doubt about it. Acton was an alien, but it seemed he was not a cyborg. Tanner lowered his gun.

  Acton threw the monofilament knife. Tanner shouted wildly, raising the gun. Before he got it all the way up, the knife stuck into the deck centimeters from his feet.

  Tanner looked up at the alien.

  “I could have killed you just now,” Acton said, “but I didn’t. Are you ready to leave?”

  “Okay,” Tanner said.

  “Then help me carry Lacy. We’re taking her back to the raider with us.”

  -31-

  Tanner balked at the command.

  “Surely you realize I must fix her if I can,” Acton said.

  “She’s dead!”

  “Cyborgs don’t die the same way humans do.”

  “She partly made of living tissue,” Tanner said. He hated this conversation. “That part must be dead by now.”

  “Correct.”

  “Correct? Don’t you understand what that means? She’ll be retarded if you revive her now.”

  “Are you a cyborg expert?” Acton asked sharply.

  “Of course not,” Tanner shouted.

  “Then do not seek to lecture me about things you know nothing about. We have more than one
reason to hurry.”

  “Oh! So I’m right about the dead tissues.”

  “There is some merit in your thinking,” Acton admitted. “But if we remain here to argue, all of that will be moot.”

  Tanner took one last look around at the bloody, gory chamber with all its dead pirates. He hadn’t expected it to go like this. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  He wondered about a double cross from Acton as they hurried back to the raider. The Shand kept his bargain, though.

  The next several hours proved exhausting. After depositing Lacy’s remains in her quarters, and doing something in there for ten minutes, Acton joined Tanner in the control room.

  Tanner tapped the comm controls as Acton spoke first to one pirate lord and then another. Finally, Tanner backed the Dark Star out of the cube. There were arguments with various pirates. Over the comm, Acton showed them the slate with Ottokar Akko’s statement. Grudgingly, Ottokar’s people let them go, sending a large amount of supplies to the ship.

  “They’re going to be furious soon,” Tanner said. “They’re going to check the chamber despite Ottokar’s so-called command to leave him in privacy.”

  “You are correct,” Acton said.

  “What will we do then?”

  “It shouldn’t matter at that point. Ottokar is a small fish in an ocean of criminals. He was cunning in a lowbrow manner, but he was essentially a stupid man. We are about to deal with truly dangerous individuals. We can longer rely upon animal luck, but must act intelligently.”

  Tanner glanced at the insufferable alien. “You mean like Shands?”

  “That is correct.”

  The Dark Star was halfway through the vast lit area when Ottokar’s people found their chief in the chamber.

  As it had eleven times already in the past few hours, the comm light blinked. Tanner tapped the screen. An angry, tattooed pirate glared out of the screen.

  “You shall deal with this one,” Acton said quietly.

  “What’s up?” Tanner asked the pirate.