Escape to the Fringe (Fringe Chronicles Book 1)

by Adam Drake

  “Honey!” Ash said, eyes wide. Ahead, he could see a giant waste-worm moving across the ground.

  “Got it!” Femke said, and the engines roared back to life. The ship's arc of descent leveled out but they were too close to the ground.

  Both Ash and Femke shouted in alarm as the transport hit the ground and scudded across the valley floor.

  They had an intimate view of the transport slamming into the waste-worm and rolling over it.

  The engines, coupled with the side thrusters, fought to lift the ship up, but it only served to accelerate their slide across the ground. Purple plants and waste-worms created a bizarre wake behind them.

  The level valley floor suddenly dipped and the transport shot at a downward direction picking up speed with every second.

  “Oh, no!” Ash said.

  They were slaloming toward a sudden drop off. The vast open plains of the waste opened up before them.

  “More thrust!” Femke said through gritted teeth, pulling at the flight-stick.

  Ash's fingers flew over his screen. Everything on it was a red flashing light or a severe damage indicator.

  They shot over the edge with incredible speed, the wastes far below. They were still flying forward, but couldn't gain anymore upward thrust.

  In seconds, they descended to the wide open plains.

  “We just lost cells eight through twelve!” Ash said.

  “Good to know!” Femke said still holding the flight-stick back for what little good it could do now. They were going to land whether they wanted to or not.

  The transport hit the ground, but at a shallow angle. Both Ash and Femke were thrown violently against their seat restraints as the ship rattled forward. All the lights went out and the power across the entire ship died. There was no controlling it now.

  With a final flourish the ship banked skidding along the ground and kicked up a huge orange fan of sand into the night sky. Then it stopped.

  Femke blinked awake as the emergency lights winked on. Ash was slumped forward in his chair.

  “Honey!” she said as she unbuckled herself and went to him.

  She gently tilted his head back, and he groaned. “Honey, are you okay?”

  Ash's eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at her with a dopey smile. “So pretty.”

  “You're okay,” she said with relief. “Thought you were out for the duration.”

  “Duration?” Ash peered around in confusion.

  Femke went to the console and tapped at the screens. What exterior cameras that were still functioning showed the horrific damage across the ship's entire hull and undercarriage. The orange dust they'd kicked up muddled the view, but it was clear the ship's cliff diving days were over.

  “Wow,” Femke said, impressed. “We got completely mauled. I can't believe we survived all of that.”

  Vast sections of hull plating were gone, revealing the ship's inner casing which was streaked with cannon blast points and severely warped out of shape.

  “Guess we don't need to worry about that missing strut now, do we?” Ash said as he tried to unbuckle the restraints.

  Femke went to him. “Take it easy. You got thrown around pretty good.”

  Ash looked at the main view screen. “Guess we didn't make our escape like we wanted to, huh?”

  Femke looked to see the two scouts arriving at the transport's final position. “We gave them a good chase, at least.”

  “What's the prize for that?”

  “Prison or a desert execution.”

  One of the scouts landed while the other remained in a low hover, its main cannons locked on the transport. Both kicked up more dust which got carried away by a low wind.

  Ash shook his head and blinked his eyes. “Okay, we need a game plan, honey.” He held up the scatter-pistol.

  Femke's heart melted a little looking at him. “Always ready for fight.” She kissed him on the forehead then went to the console. “But we won't be fighting anyone today.”

  “Wait, what?” Ash said, confused. “My brain must be really scrambled because it sounded like you wanted to back down from a fight.”

  Femke shook her head. “No, there will be no need for it.”

  From the landed scout emerged two men, who descended the hatch's ladder. They walked toward the transport a short distance then stopped. One of them was Klayd. He waited expectantly.

  “Why no fighting?” Ash said. “We didn't go through all that hell just to give up now.” He waited for an answer, then said, “Did we?”

  “Now, honey, when did you lose faith in me?”

  Ash shrugged. “I dunno. When you almost crashed us into the side of that cliff?”

  Femke chuckled. “There will be no fight because we say there won't.”

  “And they'll listen to you... why?” Ash was genuinely incredulous.

  “Because we have what they want which gives us a solid negotiating point. One that will get us out of here.”

  Ash thought for a moment. “This crappy transport?”

  “No,” Femke said with an evil grin. “Stacks.”

  “Should we grab him now and bring him out?” Ash said watching Klayd and the other man on the screen. Both appeared gray in the ship's night vision.

  Femke frowned in thought. “Let's wait a moment, first. Klayd isn't in a rush to blast through the hatch right this second. We need a plan.”

  On screen, Klayd lifted his wrist-comm to his mouth.

  A signal beeped on the cockpit's communications screen.

  “He wants to talk,” Ash said. “That's better than blowing us up.”

  “He wants to negotiate,” Femke said. She reached to open the comms, but paused. There was no telling what this guy would try, so she needed to be extremely careful with what she said. As long as she held the upper hand, she'd control the conversation. And their fate.

  She tapped the comms open. “Why, Captain Klayd. What a wonderful surprise to run into you way out here in the wastes. Care to offer us a tow?”

  Klayd snorted over the channel. “You know who I am, but who the hell are you?” His voice was deep, gravely and dripping with annoyance.

  “That's not important right now,” Femke said, using a stern tone. Ash always caved to whatever she wanted when she used it. “What's important is what you're going to do for us right now.”

  Klayd did not respond right away. On the screen his head tilted in confusion. “That's not what I asked. Who are you? What crew do you run with?”

  “Our organization doesn't answer to your kind or anyone else on this crappy little moon. So the only question you should be asking is to yourself.”

  “And that would be?” Klayd said.

  “Do I want to survive this?”

  Ash looked at Femke with confusion.

  She silenced the comm, then said to him, “We're really in a tight spot and he knows it. But I need to play it like he's the one in trouble. Make him think he's tangling with someone a lot bigger and scarier than him and his goons.”

  “Bluster,” Ash said. He tried to not sound too doubtful.

  “Yeah, bluster,” Femke said. She opened the comms and said, “Well, Captain. Do you want to survive this?”

  Klayd shook his head. “You're full of it. You're sitting in a dead ship out in the damned desert. There's no angle to play here. Either open up, or we'll just come in, anyway.”

  “My bosses won't be pleased if you tried something stupid like that.”

  “What bosses?” Klayd scoffed.

  Femke counted to three then said with emphasis, “You know.”

  The man beside Klayd spoke to him, but the wrist comm muted it.

  “You've got him thinking,” Ash said.

  Trying to keep the momentum going Femke said into the comms, “We go where we want. We take what we want. And anyone who messes with that paradigm gets slagged.” She hoped she sounded menacing enough.

  After conferring with the other man Klayd said, “Okay, then. What do you want?”

/>   Femke couldn't read into Klayd's voice. Was he fearful or just playing along?

  “Yeah, what do we want?” Ash said.

  To Klayd, she said, “First, we need transport to Threx. Our people will arrange for us to get off planet from there. Once we're at the port, we'll hand over what you want. But before any of that happens, I'll need you and your ships to move well out of radar range. You'll be contacted from Threx.”

  She muted the comms and smiled Ash. “I like being bossy!”

  “You don't have to tell me that,” Ash said. “Do you think this guy is going to buy all that stuff you're shoveling him?”

  Femke shrugged. “It's like cards, honey. I may have a hand of black holes, but I need to make him think I have a flush of novas.”

  Klayd had turned to the other man and conferred animately. Then Klayd spoke into the comms, his voice edging on genuine bewilderment. “You want to make the hand over at the port? In Threx?”

  “Did I stutter?” Femke said. “That's what I said.”

  Klayd shook his head. “How do you propose to do that? We can do it right here.”

  “We'll worry about the hand over and you just worry about getting us transport. Call in a drone shuttle to this location. Then you and your flunkies will fall back.”

  Annoyed, Klayd said, “How do we even know everything is okay in there?”

  “You can take me word for it,” Femke said. Ash chuckled beside her.

  “No, we want to know you're dealing in good faith,” Klayd said. “You talk big, but you need to show us things are on the up and up or no deal.”

  Femke silenced the comms. “He wants to see Stacks. Can you go get him? I'll keep breathing on Klayd, make him sweat more.”

  As Ash stood to leave Femke said, “And be careful.”

  “Always,” Ash said and ran down the hall.

  He keyed open the utility closet's door to reveal Stacks jammed up in a corner. His head was at an alarming angle and blood trickled from his mouth. Being unsecured, the chase and subsequent crash didn't go so well for him.

  “Oh, no!” Ash said as he leaned over him. “This is not good.”

  Stacks opened his eyes and looked at Ash.

  “Sorry, guy,” Ash said with genuine regret. “Things got bumpy and there wasn't any time to-.”

  Suddenly, Stacks kicked a leg out and struck Ash on his wounded side.

  Gasping in pain Ash fell back, caught by surprise and slammed into the wall.

  In an instant, Stacks was up on his feet and moving.

  Alarmed, Ash reached to unholster his pistol, but Stacks ran out the door and down the hall in a flash.

  Ash stumbled into the hall after him. He raised his pistol at Stacks's back. “Stop or I'll...”

  But Stacks slapped the airlock's inner hatch open and raced inside.

  “What's going on?” Femke's voice came over the ship's open channel.

  “Nothing I can't handle, honey!” Ash said as he ran up to the hatch which swished closed and hit the keypad. It didn't open. “Shoot!” he said and looked up at the airlock screen above him.

  Stacks had already opened the outer hatch and was climbing down the emergency ladder.

  “No! No! No!” Ash said trying to work the keypad. Stacks had used some kind of emergency lock out code. Ash would need time to hack it again.

  Femke looked on in surprise as Stacks suddenly appeared on one of the outer screens, running down the length of the transport. “What the heck?”

  Ash ran into the cockpit looking sullen. “I wasn't careful.”

  Mortified, Femke looked to the screen. Knowing he was safe now, Stacks jogged toward Klayd, looking triumphant.

  “This is not good,” Femke said. “We just lost our only leverage.”

  As Stacks approached, Klayd nudged the man beside him. The man quickly raised his rifle and fired.

  The shot struck Stacks who didn't have time to react. Instantly, his entire body glowed brightly then vanished. A bubbling puddle of goo formed on the ground where he had been.

  “They slagged him,” Femke said, incredulous.

  “Huh,” Ash said, surprised. “Guess they didn't want Stacks after all.”

  Femke stared at the screen in confusion. “If they didn't want Stacks then what do they want?”

  “Should we ask?”

  Klayd spoke over the comms. “What was that about?”

  “Yeah,” Ash said. “What was that about?”

  “We can't show confusion or weakness now,” Femke said. Into the comms, she said, “A gift.”

  Klayd shrugged. “I figured you killed him already while you were stealing my stuff.”

  “He has stuff in here?” Ash said looking about as if whatever it was might reveal itself. “I didn't see anything when I did a sweep earlier.”

  Femke's brow furrowed. “What about Gish? Could it be what he's talking about?”

  “Is Gish stuff?” Ash said.

  “That doesn't make sense,” Femke tapped her finger against the console in thought. “We need to buy some time and look around. Knowing what it is might save our butts.”

  Ash raised an eyebrow at his wife. “How are you going to buy us time? They're looking pretty eager to get inside here.”

  Into the comms, Femke said, “I need to confer with my higher-ups before I can sign off on any handover. If they give it a green light, then we're good.”

  Klayd said, “No, you don't.”

  “What?” Femke said.

  “No, you don't have to confer with anyone. If any conferring needed to be done you would've done so already.” Klayd scratched his chin in thought. “Besides, we're jamming any outgoing frequencies so try and confer all you like.”

  Ash glanced at a side screen. “Yup, he's jamming us. But that doesn't matter because we have no one to send a message too, anyway.”

  Femke held up a hand, trying to concentrate. To Klayd, she said, “Captain Klayd do you see any approaching ships on your radar?”

  Klayd glanced at a hand scanner. “Nope. Nothing.”

  “That's right,” Femke said, ratcheting up the sternness in her voice. “No one is coming to your aid. But my people know exactly where we're at.”

  Klayd scoffed. “Yeah? Then where are they?”

  “Waiting to see what happens. Be certain, Captain, if you do anything stupid right now they will turn you to hot slag.”

  Klayd appeared frustrated. “I still think you're full of it.”

  “If I don't check in, you and all your people are done. There will be no deal, no handover, nothing. And you know the worst part of this for you is?”

  “Getting slagged?” Klayd said with sarcasm.

  “You lose out on a future business partner. We may be ruthless, but not stupid enough to eliminate a potential ally on this crappy little moon.”

  This gave Klayd pause. He said, “What do you mean?”

  “Yeah, honey,” Ash said with wide-eyed expectation. “What do you mean?”

  Femke said to Klayd, “We've heard of you and are not impressed. Still, there could be something worth salvaging between us which might lead to bigger opportunities later.”

  Klayd was quiet.

  Femke said, “But none of that matters if I can't confer with those who can make those decisions.”

  The captain did not respond, his image unmoving on the screen. Both Femke and Ash watched him expectantly.

  Then Klayd said, “Okay, fine. I'll clear the comms. You got five minutes.”

  “Not five minutes,” Femke said, almost shouting in anger. “This will take longer than that.”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Think about it.”

  Klayd did.

  To Ash, Femke said, “Now he'll think I need to make a longer range call which would infer he's dealing with someone really big.”

  “How so?” Ash said. He didn't care about the reason, he was just happy to be married to this woman.

  “A long distance call. As in off planet. Interstellar.
”

  When Ash still looked confused, she said, “Which will make him think he's dealing with a really big organization. Not some local hustlers, but someone who has a reach which spans over star systems.”