Hostility (Jolo Vargas Space Opera Series Book 3)

by J. D. Oppenheim

  Contents

  Title

  Duval, Revisited

  Father

  Jamis

  Alacyte

  Run

  Hostility

  Jolo Vargas Space Opera

  Series Book 3

  Copyright © 2017 by J.D.Oppenheim

  All rights reserved.

  Scifiwriterjdo@gmail.com

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for downloading Hostility. The Jolo Vargas Space Opera Series should be read in order, so make sure to read Book 1, Velocity, first.

  —J.D.Oppenheim

  Duval, Revisited

  In the gas clouds of Marvis.

  Jolo sat in the captain’s chair eyeing the console. The Jessica had been hiding in the nebula for three days. Other than the usual traders popping up on screen then jumping out, never stopping for more than a few moments to recalibrate, he had seen only one Fed ship enter the southernmost sector two days prior. A big Fed Defender paused to scan the area, then jumped out again. Luckily, the Jessica was too far away to be found. But Jolo wasn’t taking any chances. After that, he shut the power down to the bare minimum, just essential life support. The Jessica went dark and quiet, just another rock in space, no heat signature could be detected from her fuel cells or thrusters. A Fed ship would have to be right on top of her to be seen.

  He imagined the Federation in a buzz trying to find him. But it was like finding one tiny light in a galaxy of stars. They really had no idea where he could go, but they did know his range. And that's what worried him. He knew he had to move sooner than later. But where?

  He slumped back into his chair and thought about the people down below that were starting to get restless. Fights had broken out in the last day or so. They were not used to being in a ship, trapped in a storage bay with nothing to do. Especially when the lights were nearly off and orders were to be quiet.

  Katy walked in with a plate of food. "Here eat this," she said. "What do you do all day up here?" She put the tray down next to him and he eyed the white gauze wrapped around her forehead—small brown hints of blood showing through.

  "How are you doing?" he said.

  "I was a little dizzy for a day or so, but now I'm much better.” She straightened up, then bowed. “Ready for duty sir." She smiled at him and he reached out for her hand.

  "Thank you for being here."

  "I'm glad to be here."

  Jolo looked down at the tray and started to laugh. Fed greens. He thought about Barthelme. Wondered if he was okay. He had risked himself for Jolo, just like Katy and the rest. And now Jolo had 84 people in the storage bay to take care of. He was starting to feel the weight of it. If he killed himself alone in a capsule then so be it. But if one of his decisions killed someone else, he didn’t know if he could take it.

  When Jolo wasn't sitting in the captain’s chair eyeing the console, worried that some large BG cruiser was going to pop in unexpectedly, he walked the corridors of the Jessica. He'd often stand in Jaylen's room, which was now half-empty, and wonder where she was. He sat in what used to be his quarters, pictures of the former captain’s young wife and their small boy on the wall. There just weren't enough answers.

  Jolo took a few bites of the fed green, thought about what Barthelme had said, about how he wasn't supposed to like this. "This stuff ain’t too bad, is it?" Katy just rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.

  "It'll keep you alive, but that's about it," she said.

  Just then the younger Greeley's voice came through the comm. "Captain, we got a situation down the storage bay. They're fighting again."

  Jolo sat the tray down. "Okay, both of y'all suit up and meet me at the entrance to the bay."

  "Can I bring the heat? I’ll set it to stun."

  "No guns." They had been through this previously.

  Jolo met the Greeley brothers at the entrance and they followed him in. There was a big commotion in the center of the large room. Berg was there between two other men who had been fighting. One man was on the ground with a bloody face. Berg saw Jolo coming and gave him a strained look. "We can’t keep them trapped in here much longer," he said.

  The man with the bloody face started to yell, trying to get the captain aligned with his side of things. It was a gambling dispute. There were packs of rations strewn across the floor along with a deck of shiny octagonal playing cards.

  Jolo looked around the room at the mothers, grandmothers, small children--all of them well fed, but dirty and tired and ready for something new.

  "I know that you are all miserable here in the storage hold," said Jolo. "But I promise you right now that we are going to leave very soon. We'll find a place where you can find work and avoid any more BG or Federation, uh, entanglements." One of the women stepped forward.

  "Thank you for saving us, Captain Vargas. We need one more favor though. Please bring us down to some planet that will have us. Where I don't have to fear for my child's life anymore."

  "Or if the bastard’s do come they'll be a gun nearby that we could shoot ‘em with," said an old man.

  "I understand your position. We’ll find a good place. But from here on out no more gambling and no more fighting," said Jolo.

  Jolo turned to the Greeley brothers. "Go get Hurley and Koba and meet me on the bridge.” And then he turned to Berg, "you coming?" Berg nodded.

  And soon they were all standing around the 3-D star map. Jessica was a tiny green dot in the center, and all the planets within several jumps were displayed around that point.

  Koba had not spoken to Jolo in three days, since Jolo shot him in the hand. The med bots had done their job and there would be no permanent damage, but Koba was still bent and there was no getting around it. "Maybe we should just go back to Qualus and shoot everything we see," said Koba. Jolo just ignored him.

  "Well I don't think they would expect that," said Hurley, in his old-man’s scratchy voice, trying to smooth things over.

  Some said it was best just to run to the edge of space. But then you had problems like depleted fuel cells, running out of food, pirates, and a host of other issues. But the choice between dealing with pirates and the BG was easy. They all agreed that dealing with the pirates would be better. Hurley said a pirate was the most honest man you’d come across, because you knew exactly what they wanted. They’d come on you face to face and declare their intentions: fight us or pay us. Not so with the Fed or the BG. They’d call you friend until you didn’t suit their needs, then they’d take everything you had.

  Jolo stared at the map and once again was drawn to a star cluster on the edge of their range which held the small planet Duval. Would the Fed expect him to return there?

  After some discussion they agreed Duval was worth a try. The Fed didn't pay much attention to Duval, though there was a BG presence monitoring the alacyte production facility there. “We’re fine if we stick to the other side of the planet--the pirate side,” said Hurley.

  "I think there's a town there called Jax," said Katy. "It's pirate territory, but I think there's work. Our people would have a chance there."

  "Okay. It's settled," said Jolo. "We head for Duval. Come in on the pirate side, away from the BG alacyte production facility."

  ……

  Jolo set down in Jax and let the former BG workers off the ship. There was a thriving community there and even though the pirate element was strong, Berg seemed confident that he they could find work and assimilate. The BG were mainly concerned with protecting their alacyte production on the other side of the planet and the Federation had no real presence there other than the Valhalla II, which was mainly just reconnaissance. />
  Before they said their goodbyes, Jolo made sure each person had their pockets filled with Fed rations. And the people genuinely seemed hopeful.

  The Jessica lifted off and Katy looked at Jolo. "Where to, Captain."

  Jolo suddenly realized he hadn’t thought that far. He mainly wanted to make sure that the people from Qualus had a chance. And now they did. But what now? He knew that Duval felt right. But that's all he had: a feeling.

  Instead of pulling up the local map, Jolo stood in front of the large port screen and stared out into the orange landscape. It reminded him of the escape pod and how he barely made it out alive. It seemed like years ago but it was only a week since he crash landed on the Soldown Flats to the south. He remembered the mountain chain, the wide river, and the orange earth.

  "Katy, take me to the north end of the mountain chain," Jolo said.

  There was nothing logical about this decision. And he couldn't tell the crew that this was just a hunch. So he pretended like he knew what he was doing. It had worked so far.

  As they got closer the mountain chain got larger and more rugged. Jolo felt like this was the perfect place to hide, maybe to make repairs to the ship. The thruster had taken damage on the right side and needed to be fixed. The computer didn’t accept all of Jolo’s commands. The cells needed charging and Hurley had a list of other things that needed doing which required some downtime.

  They flew over the edge of the mountain chain and Jolo saw a small crack that led into a narrow ravine.

  "Katy, take us there."

  "Captain, I don't think we can squeeze in," she said.

  "Yeah we can. Point the nose at that dark spot."

  So Katy slowed down the ship and eased towards the black hole between the two mountains. As she got closer the crack grew larger, but still, it was a tight fit. Koba said nothing, but gripped the edge of his console. Soon, the Jessica's proximity warnings started to sound.

  Koba couldn't stand it any longer, he had to say something. "Captain, we only have about 8 meters on either side."

  The moment the ship moved past the hole, the crevice grew deeper and wider the further down they went, extending out several kilometers. Katy looked up at Jolo and he just smiled at her.

  "I've been here before," he said, and then added, “I think.”

  "Confidence inspiring, Captain,” she said. “So is this a solid memory, or just one of your feelings?" she said.

  "A little bit of both. Head that way and look for another dark spot about 500 meters off the bottom on the left."

  "Where we going, Captain?" said Koba. "This may be a pirate nest, we just don't know."

  Katy guided the ship downward and even though the walls of the crevice expanded outwards, it was still tight and she was starting to sweat. Sure enough, 1 km north and about 500 meters off the surface there was a hole on the side of the ravine. It was just a dark spot and no one would find it if they weren’t looking for it. Katy slowly guided the ship in that direction.

  Jolo got on the comm and called the Greeley brothers. “Y’all get suited up and ready.”

  “For what?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Guns?”

  “Yeah, but don’t start shooting unless I give the word. One of y’all get topside. You know how to work the boots?”

  “Affirmative, Captain,” came the younger Greeley’s reply. The magna-boots held crew members firmly to the side of the hull, and were usually used for emergency repairs in space, but were just as good in a pinch for putting another set of eyes on the top of the ship in a dark crack between two sheer cliffs half a kilometer below the surface of a dusty planet.

  “Stay low and use the safety line just in case. We’re gonna stick our nose in a hole and see what pops out.”

  Then he called down to Hurley. “We got enough juice for forward shields and a few bursts from the cannon?”

  “Yeah, barely, but if yer wantin’ to go toe to toe with a Cruiser I’d suggest we head back to Sol for a recharge. I’m sure they’d love to see us.”

  “Roger that. We just need enough for show.”

  “This don’t sound good, Captain,” said Katy.

  Jolo gave her a nod and tried to look cool and collected, but he was worried, too. Something was pulling him here and he was going to find out. He was on alert, like he was heading right into a trap, but for some reason was okay with it.

  Katy put the nose of the Jessica 15 meters from the entrance to the hole. It was like a wide cavern that opened on the side of the shear cliff face. Inside the floors were smooth and Jolo thought he could make out a fuel cell recharger near some chains hanging on the wall. The space was plenty big enough to hide the Jessica, but whose secret cavern was this? he wondered. It smelled like pirate, and Jolo knew it, but for some reason he wasn't afraid.

  He got on the comm and called up to Greeley, "Are you topside?"

  "Yeah, Captain, nothing up here but the blue sky."

  "Captain," said Koba. "We got a bogey 30 meters south, directly under us."

  "What is it?" said Jolo.

  Koba stared at the screen, his eyebrows furrowed. "It's gone."

  Jolo told Katy to raise the shields, then told Greeley to check the bottom of the boat.

  Suddenly the shields went down and the power to charge the guns went offline. A few seconds later auxiliary power came on, but Hurley called from engineering. "Captain, we're dead in the water. We got juice to fly, but barely. I don't know how it happened. I thought we had more. We’re gonna have to set her down in a hurry."

  Greeley called in on the comm. "Captain, there's something funny hanging off the bottom of the--" and then his words were cut off.

  "Greeley, are you there? Greeley?" But there was no reply.

  Suddenly from either side of the cavern, trapdoors opened and two chains shot out and attached themselves to either side of the Jessica. The magnetized couplers hit the hull twice in the front and then two more from the back from the other side of the ravine. The sound inside the ship was deafening. It was like being inside a drum. Everyone instantly put their hands to their ears and the Jessica lurched forward towards the cavern entrance.

  An old man appeared from inside the hole in the cliff face holding a rifle. He reached to his left and pulled the comm off the wall. "Federation ain’t got no business here. I thought I had an arrangement with the Valhalla. So y'all better have a good story or I’ll bury your ship so deep no one's gonna find it and don't even think about trying to make a call back to Sol cause I'll catch every transmission sent. Now I got one your boys hanging upside down from the bottom and I got me a new Fed issue energy weapon, course they ain’t worth a shit anyway."

  At that, he raised his own rifle which Jolo could see was not an energy weapon. It looked old. Really old, like his gun. The man fired a shot straight at the port hole. Jolo ducked down, just like the green captain did when Jolo shot the port screen on the Jessica before.

  "Them energy shields don't work too well, now do they?" the old man said, smiling, clearly having fun.

  "I ain’t a Fed man anymore," said Jolo.

  "Is that so? Then you can retire the ship to me and I'll let you walk free."

  The chains holding the nose of the Jessica were taught and slowly pulling the Jessica in towards the mouth of the cave as the old man spoke. Soon the nose was nearly touching the edge of the cave.

  Jolo ran down to the armory and found the older Greeley putting on the other pair of magna boots. “He’s my brother. I’m going to get him.”

  But Jolo told him to stay put, then put the boots on himself and went topside. He took a quick look at the bottom and saw the younger Greeley hanging upside down unconscious, but still breathing, and still tied to the safety line. So Jolo made his way back up top and then down to the entrance of the cave to talk to the old man. Jolo held his hands up but the old man had his gun pointed straight at Jolo as he made his way onto the surface of the cavern. The man held an old steel tubed projectile weapon th
at shot out a pattern of small lead pellets. Like his gun, crude, but highly effective. Especially at short range.

  The floor was smooth metal and the inside was clearly designed to house a spaceship. Once on solid ground inside the cavern, Jolo stepped out of the magna boots and walked towards the old man.

  The old man got a good look at Jolo and his face softened. The rifle in his hands slowly came down like it was suddenly heavy. And then he just dropped it. He stepped towards Jolo and put his hands on Jolo's face. His eyes were red and watery and somehow he was older than he was a moment before. "Let me look at you, Boy," said the old man. "They said you was a synth come to destroy the peace. But all I see is Jolo. Those ungrateful bastards. They say they want to kill you because you're a synth. But that's a lie. They know you could fire up the rebellion again. Things ain't like they were."

  "Who are you?" said Jolo.

  "I'm your father, Boy. Welcome home."

  Father

  Duval, in the home of Marco Vargas.

  The hole in the wall turned out to be a large bay, complete with everything that Hurley needed to get the Jessica repaired. In the back of the cavernous hold was a tunnel which led to a large home with multiple levels and even an atrium near the top which could not be seen from above. Everything about the place was geared towards secrecy and seclusion. And so the crew stayed in Jolo's father’s house, which Koba called the Pirates Nest—a name Jolo's father did not seem to mind at all.

  And while the Greeley brothers discussed arms, historic and modern, with the old man that everyone called Marco, and Hurley and Koba busied themselves repairing the Jessica, and Katy sampled the strawberries growing in the atrium, Jolo spent most of his time in the library.

  For the first time in as long as he could remember, there was no immediate threat to his life. And even though the Federation and the BG were searching for him--here in this place, with the man called Marco, who claimed to be his father, a new feeling came over him. For the first time he felt safe.