by Marc Stevens
I smiled at the Tibor. Here we were, out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, lightly armed and without our heavy combat armor, and Klutch wants to take a stroll on a ship that might be from the greatest enemy the galaxy has ever known. Somewhere underneath his recon armor, the crazy Tibor was hiding a set of bollocks the size of soccer balls.
“Commander, I have a hard lock on this location. I suggest we consider other options. The first being our current mission of securing combat armor that might increase your odds of surviving a conflict with the bio-machines if you were to encounter them.”
I was actually giving Klutch’s idea some thought until the smarter intelligence watered down my thoughts with a bucket of ice water. Then I got another idea all together. “Justice, did you bring the IST scrambler and signal generator?”
“Yes, Commander, it would have been of little use if left behind.”
“OK Justice, take us out of here and make a jump well away from this location. I don’t want any chance of the IST being able to divulge our location.”
Klutch frowned at me. “Commander, are you sure you want to tell the Operative about our discovery?”
“If this is indeed a Prule warship and we inadvertently activate a horde of bio-machines, I would just as soon share the blame for whatever might happen with another race. If I involve the Chaalt, they might come to the aid of my planet if the Galactic Union decides to dole out punishment.”
The Tibor gave me a knowing look and a shake of his head. Justice took an alternate course out of the rocky debris field and got to the edge of the nebula. He made a jump that took us off our original vector and two shorter jumps for shits and grins, I guess. He fired up the scrambler and then the signal generator.
“Senior Operative?”
After what seemed like a rather long pause, Sael Nalen answered. “Nathan Myers, I am surprised to hear from you. Has your primitive thinking got you into trouble already?”
I was mystified why all the races I come into contact with pick up on sarcasm faster than any other human trait. Tit for tat seemed to be in order.
“Mother, I was concerned your lack of moral character would lead to my new patriarch being a Throgg. I was very concerned for what my siblings might turn out to be.”
A raucous laughter filled my head. “Rancid beast, you mistake defecation for your birth. What could be so important that you would annoy me with your mindless chatter?”
“I might have a need for you and your team.”
Her tone turned serious. “I will call you back from a secure location.”
With that comment I heard a small tone and the call ended. I took note of the tone because it was different from previous calls. I would know the difference between secure and unsecure from this point forward. I am sure it was the purpose of the Operative’s comment. Justice resumed our journey toward outpost 9765. We still had another fifty-one hours before we reached our destination. Klutch and I went back to shuttle systems training. It was close to an hour before I heard the secure signal tone.
“Operative, is everything alright?”
“You can drop your theatrics Nathan, and no, all is not well. Are there others around you?”
“Sael, Klutch and I are aboard one of the shuttles you gifted to us and we are on a resupply mission.”
“Nathan, what I am about to tell you is restricted information, so it can go no farther.”
“Sael, we are secure, so please tell me what has happened.”
“Your plan to make me your sole envoy may have detonated into our faces. Several high-ranking officials on the military council have been dismissed. The events orchestrated by them concerning the handling of you and your followers cost them their rank and status. Their replacements called for a full investigation of the whole affair and until it is complete I have been relieved from duty.”
Holy crap, that was not what I expected to happen at all. Discussing sensitive information over a Chaalt device while an investigation was going on might not be the smartest idea either.
“Sael, are you confined to your home worlds?”
“No Nathan, why do you ask?”
“I have information I wish to talk to you about face to face. Are you familiar with outpost 9765?”
“Yes Nathan, it is a frontier outpost that operates outside of Galactic Union jurisdiction. It is also considered neutral ground for the lawful and lawless alike.”
“I will be there in fifty Earth hours. Can you meet with me?”
“It will take longer for me to reach that location. I will attempt to catch a ride on a military transport. There is a business on the outpost and it is quite popular — they serve food and drinks. It is called Haras. I will make contact with you there when I arrive.”
The signal beeped and she was gone. If the Chaalt military council thought they could substitute another envoy for Sael Nalen, they were fools. I would only trust Sael. As for the members of the council, only about as far as I could spit. I went back to the flight deck and found Klutch napping on one of the fold-down cots for the pilots. I folded down the other and joined him.
I woke feeling refreshed and hungry as a bear. That was until I caught sight of Klutch devouring a triple load of rations. I would have a snack later and called to Justice. “What is our current ETA?”
“Forty-one hours, twenty-two minutes Commander.”
“I want to see what you have stashed in the rest of the crates in the hold. Would you care to elaborate, or do I go back and start nosing around?”
“The only thing you might find any real interest in is the new weapon system I designed.”
“For a non-combat mission, we seem to be packing a lot of firepower. And yes, I very much want to see what the evil robot has been doing in his spare time.”
Klutch was just coming from the pilot’s lounge when he heard me talking about weapons. “Did I hear Justice say new weapons?”
“Yes Klutch, it seems Justice has brought everything except the kitchen sink.”
The Tibor stood frowning at me scratching his bullet head. “It is an Earth saying which means we have considerably more items with us than we actually need.”
The Tibor cocked an eyebrow at me and still wondered what I was talking about. “Come on Klutch, let’s go look for ourselves at what Justice has determined to be useful items for our excursion.”
We made our way to the hold and went through the crates till we came across a good-sized container with no visible markings. Justice must have wanted it to be a surprise because he made no comment when we pulled the crate aside. I opened the lid and it was indeed a surprise. It was a three-barreled mini-gun and it looked bad ass as hell. I pulled it from the crate and it was very lightweight. The three rotating barrels were about twelve inches long and the same caliber as Bill’s pistol. It had a pistol grip and a side handle. The feed tube was connected to a twelve-by-twenty-four-inch flat ammo backpack.
Klutch was smitten by the weapon and looked like he was actually trying to find something in the hold he could shoot. “Commander, we should test the weapons to ensure they function properly.”
I had to agree with him. I remembered movies I had watched when I was young. The hero would whip out a similar weapon and pretty much mow down half the world along with the bad guys. We definitely needed to make a short stop and test them for reliability. Who was I to question a Troop Master?
“Justice, I think we can stop long enough to test the weapons.”
“Affirmative, Commander.”
We came out of hyperspace and Justice oriented us so we could make a quick jump to a star system he selected with seven planets. It had a yellow star similar to Earth’s but smaller. There were no records indicating a system name or number, so Klutch tagged it as Delta One. Justice was going to jump us in close to the planet that was in the habitable zone when he startled us with a warning.
“Commander, I have detected a transition on the far side of the star and will delay our jump to avoid detection. I
have engaged stealth and negation systems and will attempt to keep the planetary bodies between us and the target.”
We were close enough to a massive gas giant that Justice took us around its orbit and used it to slingshot us to the backside of the next planet. The planets were close enough together we would be near the planet within an hour. Justice informed us that the target vessel was last detected moving in the same direction.
“Commander, I am picking up encrypted communications that are known to me. The translation is the Scrun dialect.”
Slavers! Nothing got my blood boiling faster than those pieces of sewage. With a shot of adrenaline, I could feel my inner beast stir. This was not a good situation. Without the Legacy and my crew, we lacked the firepower to go kick their asses and free any slaves they might have. I bit down on my anger as we closed with the planet.
“Commander, the comms indicate there is a Scrun base hidden on the planet. The approaching vessel’s emanations closely match those of a Scrun mothership. They are preparing to launch shuttles and have requested access to the base. I will make a stealth insertion into the atmosphere and covertly follow the shuttles to the bases location.”
We placed the new weapons back in their crate and went back to the cockpit. It was going to be a very bitter pill to swallow if we could not do something about the Slavers. The first thing we noticed about the planet was the thick, cloudy noxious atmosphere. There was a lot of volcanic activity, and the eruptions were spewing gases poisonous enough there would be no breathing it if we made any trips to the surface. The light from the yellow star penetrated the dense atmosphere, but the world was cast in a permanent shadow.
We came to a hover just below a huge rocky outcropping with an active volcano erupting about a mile behind us. Justice outlined the swiftly approaching targets with red boxes so we could follow their progress. The four shuttles suddenly pulled up sharply and came to a hover. One at a time they descended out of sight. It would be foolhardy to try and get closer.
“Commander, I have a lock on the coordinates of the base and suggest we revisit the location at a later date when we are better prepared to investigate.”
The Oolaran in me wanted to march in there and kick their asses. I was confident Klutch would be right at my side if that is what I chose to do. We would definitely be back in the future to find out what the Slavers were hiding. It was eating at me I could do nothing at the moment. To make up for the inconvenience of coming back, I pondered turning the place into a smoking pit of molten lava.
18
Justice covertly got us out of the system and back on course to outpost 9765. I was brooding about leaving the Slaver base intact and Klutch picked up on my melancholy mood.
He slapped me on the back, almost sending me head first into a bulkhead. “It was the right call, Commander. There was a very good chance they have slaves imprisoned at the base. If we freed them, we would not be able to transport more than thirty-five or forty. Many would die trying to escape and the rest would be recaptured if the Scrun returned. We should let the Senior Operative know what we have found. I am sure she could arrange for safe transport of any slaves we might find.”
I knew it was the right call, but that did not change the fact we may have left defenseless civilians at the mercy of the Scrun. It brought my blood to a slow, rolling boil. The beast was darkening my thoughts further with his murderous intentions. When we returned, I would let the Oolaran have his way.
“Commander, we are ready to transition back to normal space time and will arrive at the outpost in twenty-two minutes”
Justice’s alert cleared the morose thoughts from my head and made me start thinking of the business at hand. “Justice, try piggybacking the codes the Zaen’s gave us over the outpost’s comm systems. If they answer, see if they will come aboard for a meeting to discuss business.”
“Roger that, Commander. I will also query the outpost directory for their location.”
Klutch called out to Justice. “I have heard there is a Tibor Guild located somewhere on the outpost. I would like to know its whereabouts.”
“Affirmative, Troop Master.”
I looked at the Tibor. “Tibor Guild?”
“Yes Commander, Tibor Guilds are on many outposts. It is a private fellowship for Tibor seeking out others of our own kind. It is where mercenaries find work or friends or entertainment.”
I shook my head and gave him a knowing look. It must be nice to know you can seek out others of your own race. It kind of sucked for me not to have that option. One day in the future, it would no longer be the case. We transitioned and Justice put the outpost up on our view screens. It was a huge square cube, complete with flashing colored lights and spacecraft of every description moving like bees around it. My memories went back to some of the less than fortunate encounters I have had at similar facilities. I remembered how not to act while visiting such places. I brought a credit voucher with a minimal amount of currency on it to pay fees and other charges. I would not make the mistake of flashing large quantities of credits for all to see. I would keep my large denominations hidden until the proper time.
Justice gave me a sitrep. “Commander, I have sent the codes and have received no acknowledgement. I have, however, located a Zaen place of business on level six. Troop Master, the Tibor guild is located on level two. I will use the Tibor dialect to get landing clearances and a private landing bay. The fees for a secure hangar with an atmosphere of our choice will cost one hundred thousand credits”
“By secure, you mean it is guarded?”
“The general information briefings claim the landing bay is only accessible by personnel with access codes we randomly select. The landing complex is protected by automated weapon turrets. Illegal boarding is discouraged by the use of deadly force.”
By the look of the big toothy smile on Klutch’s face, I was beginning to get the gist of the entertainment he might be seeking. Since I had no idea how long it would take for the Operative to arrive, I told Klutch to go check out the Guild while I waited to hear from the Zaens. I sat for more than an hour wishing Tria was here and how much I missed her company. I decided to make an IST transmission to see if all was well back on Alpha. The Zaens intervened.
“Commander, I have an incoming secure transmission. Our access code has verified it is the Zaens.”
“Thanks Justice, put them on the view screen please.”
I had my Chaalt armor suit close the helmet around my head and blacked it out. The familiar scaly looking face of Broza the Zaen merchant came on screen. He looked panicked. His round black eyes were wide and his scaly skin was roiling. He was whispering. Justice increased the volume of the transmission so he could easily be heard.
“Mr. Myers, I am shocked that you still somehow survive. It is very dangerous for us to speak. Members of Eiger’s clan are here and they once again force me to pay them protection. We have heard rumors that someone had the courage to attack Eiger. It is also said, those that tried were dismembered and their remains are roasting over Eiger’s ancestral fires. We know you would be the only one to do such a thing, and yet here you are. How is this possible?”
The mere mention of Eiger’s name had my rage flare to star-like proportions. I yelled out at the Zaen, “IS EIGER ON THIS OUTPOST?”
The Zaen cringed at my bristling anger. He shrunk back from his transmitter with his scaly skin roiling, and he was uncontrollably shaking. “NO MR. MYERS, I DID NOT MEAN TO INCITE YOU. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. HE IS NOT HERE, ONLY HIS SIBLINGS!”
It took everything I had to calm my emotions. If I scared the Zaens away, I would lose access to their armor. That was not an acceptable outcome. I took several deep breaths and forced the beast aside.
“I apologize to you, Broza. I was very close to trapping Eiger and he escaped before I could end his worthless life. I did not mean to frighten you. If you can help me, I will see to it that Eiger’s siblings hold no power over you. I came to do business with you. I have a proposition that
will make you wealthy enough you will never have to do your business on an outpost like this ever again.”
Now I had the Zaen’s attention. He pushed his face so close to his transmitter it filled my screen. He quickly looked behind himself then turned back and whispered. “What must we do to help you?”
“Can you move about freely without the Murlak following you?”
“Since they have discovered my companion and me, they have questioned us relentlessly about our survival from the destruction at Eiger’s outpost. There are four of them and one usually follows us most of the time.”
“Do you think you could convince all of them to come to my ship?”
“We can convince them of nothing. We never converse with them and only speak when they question us.”
I needed to come up with something that would get the Murlak aboard the shuttle. My mind was working overtime, and an inkling of an idea started forming in my head. It rapidly solidified into a workable plan.
“Go back to your place of business and wait for my emissary to contact you. It will be the Tibor you met at our first meeting place.”
The Zaen grimaced at the memory. “Mr. Myers, any discussions we have at that location will be heard by the Murlak.”
“It will be okay Broza, I want them to hear. Just nod and agree to anything the Tibor has to say. I will take care of the rest.”
The Zaen nodded to me and the screen went blank. Now all I had to do was wait for Klutch’s return. Meanwhile, I had a few preparations to make. I went back to the cargo hold and grabbed a roll of 699. I placed it on the deck against one side of the hold and unrolled it until it was against the opposite hull. I had Justice fold four jump seats out of the deck. After thinking a second or two, I had him fold one back down. One out of three was generally accepted as slightly better odds than one out of four. With my preparations completed, I sat in one of the jump seats sipping a cold cup of water.
Klutch finally showed up. I could smell him long before I actually laid eyes on the Tibor. I was shocked at his appearance. His smart cloth uniform was ripped in several places and he had blood dripping from his nose and mouth. His knuckles looked like ground meat and he was walking with a noticeable limp.