“They always gut the computers and install their own stuff,” Cassie said. “That’s why we’ve had to play this whole search and destroy game with them. Until we can figure out a way to gain entry to their intel, we’re gonna have to just keep combing through the systems looking for leads.”
“Don’t you mean we’re gonna have to do that?” Paress asked, raising an eyebrow.
Cassie laughed. “Oh, sorry. Well, yes, the sad truth is that now you two lovely gentlemen get to take up the challenge of solving this most wondrous mystery.”
“Lucky us,” Casten said.
“Well, at least y’all have a decent warm bed t’sleep in on Latmus,” Johnny said with a slight edge. “Things’re pretty peaceful there now compared to when we first arrived. God knows what we’re in for in our new digs.”
Paress felt like a jerk. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to complain. Compared to what you guys are doing, we’ve got it pretty easy— and that’s thanks to you giving us a secure base to work from. I don’t mind putting in the time to fight the pirates. I juts hate having to do all the chasing around and guess work.”
“Well, I s’pose I can appreciate that,” Johnny said, the edge fading. “More time killin’ bad guys and less time tryin’ t’ find the bastards.”
“Exactly.” Paress was glad to have dodged that bullet.
After a few moments of silence, Captain Weber ventured, “Well, shall we continue the hunt?”
“Nah,” Johnny said. “Ten Monsters ’n a bunch o’ ships is enough for one day. I think that’s a decent way t’ leave. ‘Course, I woulda rather left after killin’ the guys in charge o’ this operation, but I can’t be choosy.” He looked at Paress and then Casten, “I’m leavin’ that up t’ you fellers.”
“We won’t disappoint you,” Paress said.
Two days later, Denxeiter loaded into the Wespe’s hold and put into Sleep, the Space Knights and their Companions said their goodbyes at the spaceport. Cassie had spent every waking moment making sure Paress and Casten were up to speed on the inhabitants of the frontier, their politics, alliances, wants and needs. She also brought in Oghul who proved to be just as valuable as Cassie had promised.
Spending so much time with the charming and beautiful Companion made Paress’ heart ache with attraction that went beyond the physical. In private discussion between himself and Casten, he’d learned his Companion had grown to feel the same way about Cassie. It was an attraction made all the more poignant, and even bitter, because they both knew that neither had the remotest chance with her. She was Johnny’s, both in purpose and in soul. It was obvious she’d do anything for her Space Knight and Paress had to admit that Johnny would likely do the same for her.
For his part, Johnny tried to spend his time sharing battle strategies with and describing some of the tactics the pirates occasionally used. Johnny had already been a Space Knight for twenty-four years by the time Paress graduated from the Academy and he’d seen and learned plenty of things in that time that he tried to pass on to Paress. But the fact remained that despite them both being Space Knights, the two men couldn’t have been more different, with even their Hyper Battle Machines having vastly different abilities. And so Johnny left most of the preparation work to Cassie as he rode his motorcycle to various remote locales on Latmus to say farewell.
When the day came for Johnny and Cassie to leave, Paress was more sad than he thought he’d be to see them go. Casten was also depressed and Cassie openly wept tears that Paress wanted to kiss away and then hold her close to keep her from crying any more. But I can’t do that. That’s Johnny’s responsibility.
In a small ceremony at the bottom of the Wespe’s ramp, attended by the Space Knights, Companions, Wespe crew and some townspeople (including a tearful Oghul), Johnny stepped forward. In a measured voice and obviously trying not to speak in his usual rough manner, he said, “I, Space Knight Captain Johnny Vogel, do hereby call upon Space Knight Lieutenant Paress Handrel to assume all responsibilities in the protection of the 40th Periphery, 101st Frontier. The Space Knight will guard against all enemies both within and without and will carry out the Emperor’s justice as he sees fit. Do you accept this call to action, Space Knight Handrel?”
Paress stepped forward and bowed before saying, “I, Space Knight Lieutenant Paress Handrel, do hereby accept this call to action.”
“Then I hereby grant you stewardship of the 40th Periphery, 101st Frontier. May God bless you and may the Francescan Star Empire live forever.”
As the two Companions bowed, Johnny saluted and Paress returned his salute before they shook hands. “God Bless the Francescan Star Empire,” the assembled crowd said, and with that, the ceremony was over.
Johnny exhaled, and returned to his usual way of speaking. “Alrighty. Well, that’s about it and we gotta get goin’.” He nodded to Captain Weber and the Wespe crew, who, after giving good luck wishes to Paress and Casten filed on to the little carrier.
Cassie ran forward and hugged Casten, and then Paress. Her tears were wet against Paress’ cheek. “I don’t know why I’m crying,” she whispered. “I’ve only known you for a couple days.”
“Yeah, but I feel the same way,” Paress said softly. Johnny was talking with the townspeople and laughing with Oghul.
“I don’t think we’ll ever see each other again,” Cassie said.
“Nah, don’t say that,” Paress said. “We’ll be coming in and taking over after you guys’ve done all the hard work at your next assignment.” But even as he said that, something told him she was probably right.
“Alright. So maybe I’ll see you then,” she said. She kissed his cheek and whirled away before he could see her face or her red eyes sparkling with tears. She glided past Johnny and lightly touched his arm before waving goodbye to Oghul. And then she disappeared into the Wespe, never looking back.
Johnny looked after her as she went and turned back to Paress. His smile was one of understanding and warmth. “Y’all take care o’ yerselves, okay?”
“You got it,” Paress said. “See you around, Space Cowboy.”
Johnny grinned and after doffing his hat with a flourish, walked up the ramp into the Wespe, the last person to do so. The ramp lifted and sealed tight against the starship’s hull with a soft hiss.
As Paress and the rest of the small group of people walked a small ways back, the Wespe silently lifted into the air, steadily drifting higher and higher until her engines throttled up with a hum, and the starship disappeared into the sky.
The crowd began to slowly disperse, Oghul being the last to go. After some words about how much he’d miss Cassie and Johnny, he too drifted away, leaving only Paress and Casten.
“What’d she say to you?” Casten asked.
“That we’ll never see each other again,” Paress said.
“Damn, kinda fatalistic. Didn’t Leah Behlen say something similar to us?”
“Yeah. Guess I have that effect, huh?”
“Eh, who knows what the future holds, y’know?”
“Yeah…” Paress touched his cheek, the memory of Cassie’s wet tears on his flesh. “Hey, she was crying. Were those real tears? They sure felt real.”
“Good question,” Casten said. “I know I can produce tears technically, but they’re more of a cleaner for my eyes. They don’t really reflect my emotions.”
“Do you think they were just part of her Glamour?” Paress asked.
“Maybe.” Casten considered. “But with Dr. Lang, who knows? The man’s a genius in more ways than one. Considering the effect Cassie’s tears have had on us, it just goes to show what a masterpiece she really is.”
“A masterpiece,” Paress repeated. “She certainly is.”
Chapter Three
Francescan Star Calendar Year 518.11
Location: 25th Asteroid Zone, 101st Frontier, 40th Periphery Space
It was coming up on two months since Paress had arrived at the 101st Frontier. He was surprised at how quickly he and Casten had fallen
into the same routine every day since Johnny and Cassie left. Wake up at 5am, bathroom stuff, eat breakfast, he and Casten would board Allepexxis, jump to various systems looking for pirates, come home at 11pm, bed at midnight, repeat. Occasionally, they’d actually find some pirates, but the numbers would always be small— nowhere near what he’d faced on his first day with Johnny.
“Maybe they’re all laying low, thinking there’s two Space Knights out here now,” Casten offered to a frustrated Paress, as yet another day seemed to crawl by with no enemy contacts. They’d already checked two systems and were now making their way through a third filled with asteroids of all shapes and sizes.
The so-called asteroid zones were particularly annoying because with so much material flying around, visual range was cut short. To make matters worse, the asteroids were high on metal content and the largest ones had magnetic fields, so sensor readings were often contradictory and downright frustrating.
“Well, I appreciate you coming along,” Paress said truthfully. “This crap would be even more boring without someone to talk to.”
“No problem,” Casten said. “We’re both into the same music for the most part so that always helps to pass the time too.”
“Yeah.” Paress adjusted their course. “Alright, I’m heading into the main field. Maybe we’ll find something, but I won’t hold my breath.”
As he maneuvered Allepexxis in, Paress marveled at the size of the asteroid field. There was a small dim sun at the center of the system surrounded by an area of asteroids 140 AU across. It would take forever for an entire fleet to map out the place, and doing it in a single Hyper Battle Machine was impossible.
Still, there were a few hints of exhaust and waste material left behind as starships and Space Monsters moved through, so Paress spent his time following what remnants he could. Occasionally, the clues led to a ship or two docked at an asteroid, mining it for supplies. Despite his best efforts to sneak up and capture a ship, there was always at least a few crew left on board that tried to fight him off. When the battle was lost and the ships defeated, the pirates’ bio computers were always dead and clear of information.
Paress had also found some Space monsters inside the asteroid zones, but they were usually smaller ones and only a few. He was always able to easily defeat them, but they never left anything behind to be useful.
“If only we could find where these guys are based…” Paress mused.
“It stands to reason that they would be in a place like this,” Casten said. “But who really knows? Some of these systems still haven’t been fully charted. Maybe they have a planet somewhere.”
“I’m starting to think they have a giant station that they move around all the time to keep from being found,” Paress said.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Casten said. “But then where do they raise their damn Space Monsters? That seems like that would take up a lot of room.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m not totally committed to the idea,” Paress said.
The hours ticked by as Paress would follow some winding path through the asteroids left by a starship’s reactor waste only to find the path gone thanks to some passing asteroids fouling the trail. After the fifth false end, Paress yelled a stream of obscenities.
Finishing his initial outburst, he yelled, “How the fuck did Johnny not go crazy doing this shit? Jesus, I’m at my wit’s end here with this!”
“Well, he kinda was a bit crazy…” Casten ventured.
“Nah, he was a different kind of crazy,” Paress said. “But this…this is gonna make me lose it.”
“Alright, I think it’s time we head back.”
“You got that right,” Paress said, slowly picking his way out. “I mean, we’re almost half a million miles in. But compared to how big this place is, that’s nothing.”
“I think this is why Johnny pretty much just waited in the clear connecting systems for the bad guys to come to him,” Casten said.
“Yeah, he was probably smart to do that,” Paress agreed as he put Allepexxis into a slow roll to avoid a planetoid-sized rock tumbling across his path. “I don’t know what made me think I’d be able to actually find where these assholes are based. Maybe the Empire should send an actual psychic out here sometime to see if they can pick up on some thoughts or something to track.”
“Maybe that’ll happen someday,” Casten said. “They’re kinda rare so the Empire uses them for really tough assignments.”
“Yeah, this place is a sideshow,” Paress agreed. “Which makes me wonder why we’re here. I get why they sent Johnny. Keep the more…killy kinda guys out in the sticks. But what did I do to deserve this?”
“It’s because Allepexxis can make jumps on his own without needing a carrier, remember?” Casten said.
“I know, I know,” Paress said. “It still just seems like they could’ve gotten somebody else to do this. When we were in the Grinlap Zone, we were in our sweet spot. Lots of ships to fight, mecha all over the place. Battlestations to destroy. That was actually even kinda fun. But this shit seems like some kind of punishment. We’re flying one of the legendary, incredibly awesome Seven, and what’re we using it for? Wild goose chases through asteroid fields. No wonder Dr. Behlen thought the whole thing about how people said ‘The Seven’ like it was a term for holy weapons or something was a joke.”
“I won’t argue,” Casten said. “But I still think something’s changed ever since we arrived. Johnny and Cassie never said anything about going days without seeing any pirates or having to venture into asteroid fields for slim pickings. They usually always had their hands full. But since we’ve arrived, the pirates have pretty much disappeared.”
“That force we fought the day we arrived…” Paress said. “That couldn’t have been all they had left, right? Johnny said he’d never seen so many Space Monsters at once. Was that their last gasp and we just never realized it. We arrived just in time to break their back and these guys we’ve been spotting here and there since have just been the leftover scraps?”
“I wish I knew. But honestly, I’m starting to wonder if that isn’t the case.”
“I guess we’ll just hang out in the open areas like Johnny did and see what happens,” Paress said. “It’s just that with no conclusive proof, how do we know what’s going on? Maybe they’re still at full strength and waiting us out. Or, maybe they’ve been hurt bad. But if we wait around to see what happens, it could give them the chance to regroup. Ugh, I don’t know.”
They were almost out of the asteroid field when Paress saw a space distortion in the extreme distance. “Hey, somebody’s jumping in,” he said. He hurriedly reversed Allepexxis back behind a large asteroid and peered around just enough to see what was arriving. He hoped the distance combined with all the asteroids would keep the newcomer from seeing the lurking Hyper Battle Machine, but to be safe, he also powered down the engine as much as possible.
“Good idea,” Casten said. “Out here near the edge of the asteroids, our power output would shine like a sun to the right sensors.”
Paress found he was holding his breath as the distortion gave way and a fleet jumped into the system. There were around twenty starships of various shape and size and a few large Space Monsters.
“Well it’s about damn time,” Casten said. “This is more like it!”
Paress was just about to power up the engine and go in guns blazing when something made him stop.
“What’re you doing?” Casten demanded. “They’re right there. Let’s kill ‘em before they spot us.”
“No…” Paress said. “Look at them. They’re not going anywhere. They’re securing the area. See?”
As he spoke, the ships methodically fanned out from the arrival jump point. They carefully moved in amongst the asteroids slowly, making sure there was nobody else around. Allepexxis’s visual sensors had been zoomed in to be able to watch all this and Paress checked the range to see just how far away the pirates were. Almost 1,500 miles away. In space, su
ch a distance was practically on top of something, so Paress prayed he was far enough away for the pirates not to detect.
After almost an hour, the pirates must have felt the area was secure because they stopped moving around and held their positions, essentially creating a massive empty sphere hundreds of miles across inside of where they waited. Moments later, the entirety of the empty sphere of space began to distort and shimmer.
“Ah, now here we go, at long last,” Paress said. He held his breath as he tightened his grip on the control sticks.
A fleet of nearly a hundred ships accompanied by almost as many Space Monsters jumped in. Paress’ gasp of surprise caught in his throat when moments later the biggest Space Monster he’d ever seen jumped in.
“Oh my God,” was all he could say.
His sensors told him the thing was twelve miles across. It was roughly shaped like the Space Monsters he’d faced with Johnny, except flatter in overall shape. Countless long tentacles and tendrils dangled from underneath its body and gently swayed, giving the effect of a colossal jellyfish adrift in the ocean.
On top of its body, in place of a single pagoda, was an entire city of pagoda-shaped buildings and other shapes. It truly was a city because Paress could see transit tubes where trains raced back and forth inside and hundreds of tiny ships flitted all around.
Some of the ships that had first arrived, brought asteroids within range of the dangling tentacles using their tractor beams. The tentacles grasped the asteroids, passing them up inside the tangled mass, no doubt to the huge beak within to feed on the minerals contained in the rocks.
“Well, it looks like you were almost right about them having a base station,” Casten said.
“Yeah…” Paress studied the super Space Monster carefully then saw something. “Hey, I think I know where the other Space Monsters come from.” He highlighted a circular ridge on the outer edge of the bottom of the creature for Casten to see. There, hundreds of pumpkin shapes in varying states of formation could be seen. But it was the group of ships busy attaching a pagoda to one of the “pumpkins” that was so plump it was about to break free that made Paress say, “See, they’re prepping another one just before it breaks free from the mother.”
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