The Smuggler's Ascension

by Christopher Ingersoll

  “Bonibus is a subject province to the Protectorate now,” Sabine said quietly. “Why has nothing been done to help these people?”

  Max gave her a long, speculative look before answering.

  “No offense to the deceased,” Max told her, which told Sabine the android was about to be rather blunt, “But the royal court has not shown much interest in the affairs of the lesser people for many years now. Bonibus is at the fringe of Protectorate space and far removed from the thoughts of people who are more interested in parties and vacations. I doubt if those of the court would bat more than an eyelash should the Clovani Empire reach out to take this moon once again, assuming any of them even know the moon is here at all.”

  Sabine wanted to be angry at the android, but she knew he was right. For all of her mother’s good intentions, Sabine knew that Queen Josephine had known little outside of what her council chose to tell her. Her mother had not been a very strong ruler. Sabine vowed to herself to be different as she looked at the dismal life Bonibus was now forced to live. Nobody should be forced to live as hopelessly as these people seemed to be doing.

  The spaceport turned out to be the only section of the city that Sabine saw that showed signs of being prosperous, if only moderately so. Laid out like the spokes of a giant wheel within the confines of a large abandoned mining pit, the spaceport’s buildings gleamed in comparison to the city, and the docking pits branched off from each spoke of the complex at regular intervals.

  “Do you have a way of finding Kristof here?” Sabine asked Max as she surveyed the spaceport, knowing trying to find a single man in there would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack as hundreds of people moved about. There were a couple ships attempting to land, while another ship lifted off and sped towards space above, adding a layer of noise to their surroundings that she found uncomfortable.

  “Not precisely,” Max answered. “As you saw when we met, he has a negative view of locator beacons. However, most of the independent pilots and merchants we deal with tend to favor the northern docking pits. Our best odds of finding Kristof will be there.”

  The spaceport was bustling with activity as they made their way through towards the northern pits. Sabine had not been among so many different species before, and she tried hard not to look like a gawking tourist. One particular vendor booth caught her eye as the brightly colored vendor appeared to be a walking, talking flower. Overhead, the loud roar of ships arriving and departing continued to fill the air, making conversation difficult at times.

  As they neared the northern section of the spaceport, Max suddenly seemed to become tense next to her. It was a neat trick for an android, though it was a subtle reaction that Sabine almost missed. Her own sense of danger suddenly came alive as a result of Max’s tension. Sabine stopped at a vendor’s stall to examine a small knife while she questioned the android in hushed tones.

  “What is it?” Sabine asked quietly, adrenaline beginning to flow.

  “We are being followed,” Max answered just as quietly, suddenly all business. The quiet sound of his wrist blasters powering up followed his declaration. “Try to act normal, I do not want them to know that we are aware of them.” Sabine suddenly felt a tightness between her shoulders as she imagined a myriad of unpleasant possibilities.

  “Who are they?” Sabine asked, trying to act normal as they resumed walking towards the northern landing pits. Thoughts began to run through her head, mainly wondering why anyone here would want to be following her. Perhaps they were pickpockets looking for an easy score.

  “Lobsters,” Max said cryptically, urging her forward at their normal pace. “We must find Kristof immediately and then try to lose our pursuers before returning to the Wraith. I told you this was not a good fucking idea.”

  Being told “I told you so” had always irritated Sabine greatly, but she couldn’t argue with the android this time. She scanned the crowd and nearby stalls, looking desperately for Kristof. The day had come off hot and sunny, the total opposite of the previous day, and it seemed that all of Bonibus was out in the streets. It took another fifteen minutes before Max spotted the smuggler exiting a docking pit.

  “What the hell are you doing here with her?” Kristof angrily asked the android.

  “It was her fucking idea,” Max replied bluntly. “I attempted to dissuade her, but she insisted and I thought you both would object to physical restraints.”

  Kristof turned his angry stare to Sabine and she felt her insides shrink from his ire.

  “You shouldn’t be here, Your Majesty,” Kristof said in a lowered voice that only the three of them could hear, and giving the ‘Your Majesty’ a bit of a bite. “I just learned a while ago that the Clovani Empire has released a number of bounty hunters into several sectors to try and find you. You have a very large price on your head right now since we slipped past the blockade, and they don’t really care if you’re taken alive or not.”

  “We are currently being followed,” Max added helpfully. Kristof swore to himself before looking around casually. “Twenty meters to our rear, two Aquani mermen in green flight suits.”

  “Only the two?” Kristof asked quietly, reaching down to thumb his blaster’s power cell on.

  “So far,” Max answered. “But the longer we are out here in the open the greater the chance of being spotted by more will become. There may also be other bounty hunters of which we are not aware, too.”

  “Check the map of the spaceport and find us a quiet place to take care of those two lobsters,” Kristof ordered, clearly trying to control his anger and focus on the situation.

  Sabine watched as Max’s head tilted to one side as he accessed his memory of the spaceport. It was a curious act for an android, but her fear didn’t allow her to think on it for more than a moment. The news of the kill order on her life had quite unsettled her. To take her mind from the frightening thought, she asked Kristof about their followers while she casually powered on her own blaster in its holster.

  “I’ve never seen an Aquani before,” Sabine said softly. “What do they look like?”

  “Pretty much walking lobsters,” Kristof answered her, which explained Max’s earlier cryptic response as well as Kristof’s. “They wear special flight suits with water from their home world in them so that they can move around on other worlds. Only their heads are exposed. Their natural hard shells make them difficult to kill, so they frequently work as mercenaries and bounty hunters.”

  “They also smell terrible,” Max added helpfully, “Or so Kristof says. My olfactory receptors do not distinguish between ‘good’ or ‘bad’ smells. There is an alley 1.2 miles from here that will take us out of the spaceport and back towards the warehouse. Along the way, the alley twists and turns, and there is an alcove that will offer us concealment and an opportunity to deal with our friends.”

  “Let’s get moving then,” Kristof ordered as he grabbed Sabine’s arm and set off after Max.

  “I can walk just fine,” Sabine objected and pulled free of Kristof’s grip. His anger at her had hurt her deeply, but she was determined not to let it show. She was also angry with herself for being so stupid as to come to the spaceport in the first place. Max had warned her, after all.

  “When we get to that alcove, you stay low and out of sight,” Kristof ordered. His hard look when she was about to object again caused her response to die on her lips. “I know you can fight, but we aren’t here to play ‘Who’s the Biggest Badass’. If you die here then a lot of other people are going to die with you.” Sabine remained silent as he motioned for Max to lead the way.

  ~*~

  ~19~

  Kristof was furious. In hind sight he should have ordered Max to keep Sabine in the warehouse no matter what, but he hadn’t counted on her actually being foolish enough to follow him to the spaceport. Nor had he known about the kill order sent out with the bounty hunters or he wouldn’t have risked coming himself, either. With a flash of insight, he guessed that when Stephan had given up their p
ossible routes, he had most likely sent images of Kristof and the Wraith as well. Which meant that the Aquani could have just as easily spotted him as opposed to Sabine, and which also meant he’d acted rather unfairly to her moments ago.

  Luck had been with Kristof when he got to the spaceport and had learned that the Star Fox had recently docked at the spaceport. While he personally disliked Captain Frosh, the man was always well informed. Frosh dealt in information as much as he dealt in moving freight, which is most likely why he’d refused the Bonibus job that ultimately ended up in Anasha’s death. He’d known it was a death run, Kristof suspected. It angered him to think that Frosh hadn’t bothered to warn him, but he knew Frosh dealt information for a price, not freely.

  Frosh had lived up to his reputation and had been able to tell Kristof much about Purannis. Most importantly, he learned that the Durani ships were attempting to stop all ships in orbit to search them before they were allowed to continue on to the plane’s surface, much as he had suspected. The House of Duranis claimed to be searching for more Forcun assassins, but nobody believed their flimsy excuse. Frosh had also mentioned the bounty on Sabine’s life and how members of Purannis’s government had been furious when they learned of it.

  “The government is on the verge of civil war if the new Queen doesn’t return soon,” Frosh had told him. “It will probably happen anyway at this point. I’d avoid Purannis right now if I were you.”

  Of course Frosh had no clue Kristof had the young Queen with him on Bonibus, nor did Kristof volunteer the information as he paid the man for the information. Frosh wasn’t above collecting the bounty himself if the opportunity presented itself, Kristof knew, and Frosh’s expression hinted that he hadn’t said all that was in the kill order. Meaning that Frosh may suspect Kristof had the Queen, if the kill order had been detailed enough. His only hope now would be to get Sabine off world before anyone knew she was here, otherwise it would be a fight all the way to Purannis.

  Therefore, finding Sabine wandering the streets in plain sight with Max, had almost made him lose his temper right then and there. Only with great restraint had he kept his head and gone to collect the two wanderers. And now they were all being followed. He only hoped they had time to deal with the two Aquani behind them before anyone else realized who Sabine was, or the Aquani called in backup.

  The foot traffic in the alley had thinned considerably from that of the main thoroughfare, so Kristof picked up the pace to put some distance between them and the Aquani while they were temporarily out of sight.

  “How far to this alcove you mentioned?” Kristof asked.

  “Four hundred feet ahead,” Max responded, for once all business. “The Aquani have turned the corner behind us and have sped up their pursuit.”

  “How can you tell?” Sabine asked curiously, since Max hadn’t turned around to look.

  “He has a spy eye hidden in the back of his head,” Kristof answered for the android. “It makes it easier for him to watch my back, and his own.”

  “It has also been inconvenient when you two were making googly eyes at each other, but luckily I can turn it off,” Max felt compelled to chime in, causing Sabine to blush despite the tense situation, Kristof saw. He couldn’t help but smile himself, and vowed to apologize to her for his anger as soon as he could.

  Moments later, after a few quick turns of the alley, they reached the small alcove Max had told them about. It was stacked with old crates and strewn with garbage. Kristof found a spot behind a stack of crates and pushed Sabine into it, signally her to remain silent. Max had already taken up a position to ambush the two Aquani. Kristof stayed near Sabine to guard her, knowing the android was more than sufficient to handle two Aquani by himself.

  In less than a minute the two Aquani appeared at the mouth of the alcove. Max immediately grabbed the first, taking advantage of their momentary surprise, and twisted the lobster man’s head with a violent motion that snapped his neck with a loud crack. The second Aquani attempted to draw its blaster, but Max’s wrist blaster fired from point blank range into the lobster’s stomach three times, each shot muffled by the water filled suit. Seawater flooded the alcove floor as it spilled from the ruptured suit, and the Aquani sagged and fell to the ground with its claws clicking weakly, as its death throes passed quickly.

  Max dragged the two dead Aquani out of sight behind some crates as Kristof looked up and down the alley to see if anyone had heard the commotion and would come running. No one did. Kristof hadn’t expected anyone to, because the people of Bonibus really didn’t care what happened to anyone else, but it was better to be safe. Sabine crept out from her hiding place and Kristof went to her.

  “I’m sorry for being angry with you, you just frightened me by being out here,” Kristof told her as he pulled her into an embrace, before turning back to Max.

  “Now lead us back to the warehouse as fast as you can,” he told Max. “You have point, we’ll stay ten feet behind.”

  “You sure you don’t want to make out some more, first?” Kristof’s deadly stare was answer enough. “Got it,” Max responded with a shrug and headed off up the alley, Kristof leading Sabine by the hand as they followed. She did not fight him holding onto her this time, and he found he enjoyed having her small hand in his.

  The rest of the trip back to the warehouse went by without incident, but Kristof was eager to get off of Bonibus. His instincts, which had grown very reliable over the years since first coming to this moon, told him the longer they waited the less likely they’d make a clean escape. His stomach began to knot with a sense of foreboding that he didn’t like at all.

  “Start the preflight,” Kristof told the android. “It’s time to go.”

  Max headed off wordlessly into the Wraith.

  “What is it?” Sabine asked worriedly. “I thought we would be safe now that we we’re back here. Max said nobody followed us, and you told me no one knows this warehouse is yours.”

  “Let’s just say I don’t trust my contacts here,” Kristof said quickly, feeling just a bit impatient with her again. “I didn’t tell anyone here about you, but those dead Aquani will be found eventually if they have friends out looking for them, and people might start putting two and two together; especially with that kill order circulating out there. And now we’ve been seen together, so if they do start putting things together, they know where to find me. I plan to be long gone from here if they do come looking. Go ahead and get onboard, I need to close up a few things out here and then we are out of this hole.”

  Sabine went silently, for which Kristof was glad. He didn’t like being harsh with her, it made him feel like the worst scum inside, but he would do it if it meant saving her life. He pushed thoughts of her from his mind as he began checking that all hatches and ports were secured outside the ship. That feeling that time was running out was growing in the pit of his stomach and he wanted to be gone at once.

  ~*~

  ~20~

  Sabine lingered just inside the cargo hold while Kristof and Max rushed to get the ship ready to leave. She would be of little use in helping Max with the preflight checklist, but mainly she just wanted to be close to hand in case Kristof yelled for a hand with anything. The fact that he had been angry with her for going into the city had twisted in her stomach like a cold fist. His quick apology a short while later helped, but she still felt very guilty for putting them all in danger. For all of her training, she realized she was still naïve about many things.

  As Sabine sat at the top of the loading ramp listening to the ship come alive around her, she watched as Kristof’s head shot up suddenly, apparently attracted to a sound she hadn’t heard. When she saw him then run quickly towards the warehouse’s main doors in front of the ship, her blood ran cold with a rush of adrenalin. She reached down and snapped open the strap holding her blaster secured, ready to pull the weapon free in a second’s notice.

  Kristof peered out through one of the grimy windows of the warehouse briefly before immediately sp
rinting back towards the ship. Seconds later the warehouse doors erupted as a hail of laser bolts began to shred through its metal panels. Kristof dived to the floor, narrowly avoiding a flurry of shots that passed by his head and shoulders.

  “Max!” Sabine yelled at the top of her lungs as she pulled her blaster and began firing back towards the doors even though she could see no target. She was sure the android must have seen what happened. She heard no response from the android, but moments later she watched as a pair of laser turrets dropped from the Wraith’s belly and began firing laser blasts back through the now crippled doors.

  Sabine took the opportunity of cover fire to rush to Kristof and half drag him to his feet even as she kept firing. Behind her she heard a peculiar whine which Kristof apparently recognized, because he immediately pulled her to the ground. Seconds later two plasma torpedoes fired from the Wraith’s underbelly in quick succession, and the hanger doors behind her exploded in a huge fireball.

  Deafened by the explosion, Sabine staggered to her feet and helped Kristof back up. She aimed her blaster and fired through the smoldering ruin of the hanger doors as their attackers recovered and started firing again. She and Kristof ran for the Wraith’s ramp and stormed inside, hitting the switch to close the ramp as they passed.

  They were half way up the ladder to the cockpit when they felt the ship lurch into the air. As they rushed into the cockpit Sabine saw the hulks of two armored vehicles awash in flames outside the warehouse, victims of the second torpedo launch, as a dozen Aquani fired at the ship with blaster rifles. The rifles had no effect as the Wraith picked up speed and blasted over their heads.

  “Stay low!” Kristof ordered as he jumped into the pilot’s seat and strapped in. Sabine noticed his arm was bleeding and smoking from a blaster bolt that had grazed him in the firefight, but there was nothing she could do about it now that the ship was in motion.