The eye hole was unnecessary as the hidden camera’s wide angle only showed the two visitors.
A young college grad opened the door. His face covered in stubble. Long dread locks hung over his forehead with the back of his head shaved nearly bald.
“Hey Jarl, yeah man, come in.”
‘Was that even a sentence,’ Jarl wondered.
Jarl removed his coat and draped it over his left arm
“Chopee, Torrent here?”
“Torrent will be here in just a nano. Coffee, suds’, sumpin’ to sift?”
“No thanks Chopee.”
No one in the Shadows used their real name. How this one chose Chopee was any ones’ guess but Jarl was under the impression it had to do with hair.
“Hmmm, well take a squat.”
Chopee left like he was in a hurry and Brent just raised an eyebrow.
Jarl chose a blue vinyl chair but Brent in his usual fashion remained standing by the door with his hands clasped in front of him. Several times they had been here and this occasion, Jarl hoped, would be different.
Torrent walked in, more like glided in. Her see through black dress was more than revealing. Her gold string panties showed every curve of her femininity as well as her gold brasserie. Her high heeled shoes were laced in matching gold. Torrent poured herself into an adjacent chair. She was smiling through the white makeup with cherry red lipstick. While she looked goth, she had a sensual appeal. Her satin black hair formed ringlets framing her angelic face.She would have made it difficult for Dracula to control his raging manhood.
Jarl often wondered if it was the real Torrent or if it was just a disguise. If it was a disguise, it was ultimately perfect. She could fit in with the swankiest of the elite or in the slummiest of dive bars.
“Jarl,” her voice soothed. “I find you here well tonight, and alive,” she added.
“Still kicking Torrent.”
“And your faithful companion as rigid as ever.” Torrent glanced at Brent. He seemed unaffected by her and stared at her with a straight but non threatening manner.
Jarl only glanced at Brent then back at Torrent. “So, how did the fix go?”
Her smile widened even though it seemed impossible.
“Everything is going according to plan. The next elections will not be so..... one sided.”
“That’s good news.”
“Very,” Torrent cooed. Adding to her word she laid her left hand over her lower abdomen, slowly closing her eyes, breathing in deeply and reopening her dreamy eyes. Her gaze fixed on Jarls face.
Jarl tried to watch her every move without staring. He felt perspiration and a heightened sense of sexual frustration overcome him.
Torrent’s silky voice seemed to wrap itself around him. “We sent shuttles so there’s no interception of information.”
She stretched her s sounds, like a snakes hiss.
“How long before the other teams are ready,” Jarl cleared his throat. “Or is that too much to ask?”
Torrent leaned back, keeping her eyes fixated on Jarl’s. She ran both slender hands up her legs, turned to her side and brought her legs up behind her with her hands resting between her thighs. She leaned her upper-body in toward Jarl.
“Oh my dear, we’re on the same side,” she hissed again. This time her breasts heaving slightly.
He realized how fortunate he was to have his coat draped over his lap.
“All groups will be ready three months’ before it’s time,”
Jarl found it difficult to concentrate on the subject at hand.
“Well, uhm, that will be plenty of..time...before,” Jarl swallowed, “so if anything goes wrong.”
Jarl took a deep breath, “Well, I guess it’s time to be leaving.”
“Are you sure dear?” Torrent mused, “The night’s sooo young, and you just got here?”
“I need to get home. My driver’s still in the limo; he’s probably wondering what’s going on,”Jarl said shakily.
“Why nothing, we’re just having a friendly talk.”
Torrent pulled the sheer material up exposing smooth silky thighs.
Jarl looked for any excuse he could think of. He wanted to say that he needed to feed his dog but that would sound too lame.
Torrent took her left hand to play with one of her ringlets, “All work and no play makes Jack a very, very, dull boy. And you’re not a dull boy are you?”
“You make it tempting, but I really must be going.” Jarl’s mind was in mortal combat with his desires. But his mind won the battle as his sexual appetite cursed his brain. He found himself standing.
Torrent glided from the seat and took his arm, “Perhaps next time dear when your more inclined. You’re always welcome to come for me.”
Her perfume was intoxicating. It was lightly sweet with just a hint of lilac.
“Mmhmm, well, uhm, thank you Torrent. Perhaps another time.”
She led him to the waiting bodyguard.
Brent opened the door and scanned the alley.
He stepped forward allowing Jarl to follow.
“As always, thanks again.” Jarl slipped his overcoat on, he forewent the buttons and knotted the belt.
“Goodnight gentlemen. Be safe.” And she closed the door behind them.
In the damp cold air Brent took just a moment to condemn his boss.
“Sir,” Brent said, “Forgive me, but you’re a fool.”
“Excuse me?” Jarl asked incredulously.
“I would have jumped on that even if it was tainted!” Brent grinned at Jarl.
“You son of a bitch!” Jarl laughed.
“I’m not the one with blue balls tonight,” Brent sneered.
Jarl thought about it for a second. Brent was right.
AL NAIR
Lady Luck dropped from hyper within close proximity to Kermiandon. The only inhabitable planet of the Al Nair system. It was earth-like but younger. Covered by roughly forty-seven percent water with various active volcanoes but plenty of tropical vegetation and teaming with various life forms. And while there were various carnivores that could pose a threat to humans, the over 470 million inhabitants were able to build adequate defenses against such animal attacks.
It was the lowest inhabited planet on the galactic plane just bordering the Reticulii space treaty boundary.
“Aaron, scan broadband for any civilian orbital maintenance shops, preferably one with internal docking. We look like a sore thumb stick’n out.”
Aaron nodded, “I am looking.”
Mitch turned to Rand, “Why again are we stopping?” he asked.
“i can’t believe none of you looked at our reserves,” Rand said in disbelief. “We’re out of w..a..t.. e..r.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“Don’t feel bad, nobody knew.”
“Once we’re full we’ll just silent run all the way to Coalition space, or maybe stop at an independent world.”
Mitchell focused back to his console.
“Got one!” Aaron chimed.
“What’d’ya have?”
“It’s old, perhaps a starting post. Looks like an internal bay for two small vessels, with structural maintenance and light astronautics.”
“Crew size?” asked Rand.
“Minimal crew sir.”
Rand blinked, Aaron had never called him sir before.
“Send a hail, let’s see if we can wake ‘em up.”
Aaron dialed in the station’s frequency and pressed a comm. relay button and waited.
After a couple minutes, “No response.”
“Alright, every five minutes resend. Mitchell set a course for that station and maintain rendezvous.”
Rand pressed his intercom switch, “Everyone, look lively, we found a resupply base and we’re moving in so everyone play their part.” Rand added, “And Perry, lay low.”
Perry, setting in the recreation room by himself, looked up at the intercom speaker, “Oookaay Mr. Rand.” Though he wasn’t heard.
Terri remained at the EMP turret control. From her position she could see a clear view of everything below Lady Luck and to the ship’s left, a beautiful view of Kermiandon. Mostly covered in lush green vegetation with large inland seas. No sea was connected via rivers or channels to any other sea. Mountainous regions between each were capped with ice and snow and strangely trailing small streams of smoke from semi-active volcanoes.
Lady Luck continued her silent drift and after the fourth call was sent to the small repair station the hails’ were finally answered.
“Outpost A 17, incoming vessel please state your nature.”
“Put me on Aaron.”
Aaron opened the two-way loud speaker.
“A 17, this is Commander Remke of BNS 7727. Requesting assistance.”
A static tinged but clearly audible voice came back, “BNS 7727, we’re happy to assist but wouldn’t the Security Force base on the other side be more suitable?”
“It would A 17, but currently all docking is full.”
Had Rand known that he was correct he wouldn’t have stopped at the Al Nair system.
“Understood BNS, we’ll be ready to bring you on in 10 minutes. What can we help you with?”
“We only need to circulate water. We’ve sustained heavy damage from pirates but that can wait until we get base clearance.” Rand felt that the lie would be quite convincing once the A 17 crew had a look at the ‘Lady’.
“We can do that RSF, give us a signal once you’re in range.”
“Affirmative A 17. BNS 7727 out.”
Rand ran his thumb across his forehead. “Once again into the lion’s mouth.”
“Aaron, I’m taking Terri with me. You two set up here and keep your ears open. Let’s make this as quick as possible.”
“I’m with you sir,” Aaron said.
“Amen to that,” Mitchell agreed.
Rand quickly exited the bridge en route to the EMP Cannon turret control.
In less than two minutes Rand entered the turret control and caught Terri spinning the turret control seat in circles getting a 360 degree view from the bottom of the ship in the overhead targeting monitor.
“Having fun?”
“Oh, uhm yeah. It’s beautiful .”
“Yeah it is. Hey, since you’re probably familiar with resupply methods I just want you to depart with me. We gotta make this quick. There’s an RSF base on the far side of this planet.”
Terri nodded, “Ok Rand.”
“I left both kids on the bridge. Hopefully we wont have any surprises this time.”
Terri climbed out of the seat, “What are we waiting for?” she smiled.
Both straightened their uniforms and ducked through the rear hatch into the tracking bay.
“Rand,” the intercom crackled, “we have confirmation, entering bay.”
Rand pressed the return button, “Lets do this, remember, keep your senses open.” He released the button and turned to face Terri. “Watch ‘em close; you never know.”
“I’m of the mindset, every ones’ out to screw us, and not in a good way.”
“Good deal, ‘cause they are.”
Lady Luck bumped lightly inside the bay. Rand and Terri waited for the pressure light over the tracker bay door to light green when the pressure equalized within five percent.
In the cockpit, Serena and Perry both joined Mitchell and Aaron.
“So how’s it going fellas?” Serena asked.
“So far so good,” Mitch said.
“What are they doing?”
“Well, in theory, Rand and Terri are going to hook up the waste water lines and simultaneously pump out the waste and pump in fresh water.”
“How long will it take, the hair on my neck is standing up?” Serena said her eyes darting from left to right out of the bridge window.
Aaron shrugged.
Mitchell just answered, “I have no idea.”
In the rear, Rand had lowered the bay door and he and Terri had made introductions to a short, robust figure with stubby hands and fingers. His long hair was unkempt and stuck outward in all directions like a mad scientist. His gray cover-all’s covered in grease and rust stains.
“Welcome, welcome...looks like you two have seen some action.” he inquired.
“That we have sir, We ran into some heavy pirate resistance in Sirius on our way here, but nobody and I mean Nobody,” Rand emphasized, “is going to stop the Security Force!”
The old man giggled, “I hear ya, In my earlier days I ran into the lot of them myself.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, we’d like to hurry up this intrusion and get under way.”
“Sure, sure, no problem at all.” The short man gestured for Rand and Terri to follow.
“Now here’s the output lines and over there on the far side are your potable water lines. Help yourselves’ if ya don’t mind. I’m short staffed as you can imagine, just me and my nephew are the only two here. No one wants to work on an old shell like this any more. Can’t find good help, ya know.”
Rand was hoping the old man would hush his charade.
Terri glanced at Rand as the old man continued and rolled her eyes, yet Rand paid no mind to him as he pulled the waste lines out from the hidden coil in the wall.
Terri stretched them to the ‘Lady’, twisted the handles and opened the valve.
They crossed the hangar floor and duplicated the same procedure with the fresh water lines.
The old man continued talking and following them. Rand occasionally interceding with, ‘I know what you mean’, and ‘I hear ya’, as if to show interest.
“Well, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to step inside and turn on our pumps. Don’t worry about using yours; I need to check our pumps anyway just to make sure they’re alright,” Rand explained.
Oh sure, sure. But if you need ‘em just give me a holler.”
“We’ll certainly do that. Thank you, sir.”
The short man waddled to a short flight of stairs that accessed a side walkway. He pulled himself along and disappeared through one of the side corridors.
“ I thought he’d never shut up,” Terri said.
“No fecal!, lets get this over with.”
Both Rand and Terri ran inside, first to the fresh water storage. Rand switched on the pump then turned the valve to full open. They could both hear the water splashing into the empty tanks.
“That’s more like it,” Rand smiled.
“Come on, off to the sewers, hahaa.”
They wasted no time in crossing the ship from the fresh water to the waste water.
In the bridge, the remaining crew was listening to general news while Aaron monitored the closed communications.
The announcement was from the Kermiandon Broadcasting Bureau..
“.....the Governor after marrying Leona Ahnn Lidius was heard saying, ‘If I had known she was Bi-lingual I would have reconsidered marrying her’. (background laughter). And now on the political front, President Teller, making a formal request to the Coalition for a temporary ceasefire as to accelerate the re-population consensus in the Leonid system came under fire yesterday as the Phoenix Movement indicated that Coalition forces had not withdrawn their military forces entirely from the region. ‘As combatants continue or resign from the area,’ said Jarl Hanson, ‘no real Republic citizen counts will be accurate.’
President Teller replied, saying, ‘As usual, the Phoenix members are still crying, foul play.’
And this also in, Seven convicts have believed to have miraculously stolen a Republican Security Force Cutter. The Banshee Cutter with designation BNS 7727 was last reported between Sol and Centauri. If anyone knows the location of the small vessel, please inform the nearest Security Force base or installation. Currently an award of 1,000,000 credits are awarded for information leading to the arrest of these individuals and a larger award has been established for it’s capture or proven dispatch. Keep in mind these individuals are considered armed and highly dangerous.
Back to you Ken,....”
Ken began his weather report when the crew on the bridge of Lady Luck stared at each other in dumbfounded silence.
“Uh oh,” Mitchell said.
Serena darted out of the bridge to tell Rand and Terri.
Serena ran down the ramp and looked in all directions. No Rand, No Terri.
She ran back inside to the fresh water storage. The pump was running, but again no sign of either. Serena ran for the hatch and the others met her and each went in a different direction. Serena made it to the waste water collectors and found both quietly watching the pump humming along.
“Rand!” Serena said breathless, “Over the news..(panting)...”An award...for our capture....(heavy breathing)...One million credits!”
Rand and Terri exchanged startled looks.
Rand, Terri and Serena ran into Aaron.
“Well?” asked Rand.
“They sent a signal!”
Rand’s face went red.
“Terri, disconnect the lines NOW!”
“Aaron back on the bridge, you and Mitch fire this thing up!”
Randall Welsch ran out the door in a flat out run. He jumped up the stairs two at a time. Rand was unfamiliar with the small station but assumed the control center was center and top as was customary of most stations. He reached the center and looked up the three flights of stairs. Bright colored light entered the stairwell from one of the open doors on top. Again, he headed up the stairs two at a time and drew his Republic made pistol.
Meanwhile, Terri had removed the clamps and threw the lines off to the side. She didn’t pretend to even attempt at rolling them back up. She took a glimpse at ‘Lady Luck; from bow to stern and murmured to herself, “Here we go again”.
Aaron and Mitchell both strapped themselves in. The generators were cranked up to 80% and the main drives were brought to a light hum.
Terri stopped on the tracker door/ramp. She was fidgeting, ‘Come on Rand.’ She continued thinking to herself, mouthing the words. He didn’t return quick enough. She pulled her own pistol and headed after him.
Rand’s guess was correct. He rushed in the command door. The nephew immediately turned and raised his hands giving away their actions. The old man just rolled his eyes and slowly raised his hands.
SUNDAY SCHOOL (TRAMPS Book 2) Page 2