by J. K. Mabrey
"You'll have to tell us more about that when we finish this job," Zavik said.
"Yeah?" Brax asked, a slight hint of surprise crept in his voice.
"Yeah, when we can sit down and not be distracted by all that's going on. Rudy, what else do you have on the Ascachi?"
"The Ascachi are isolationists and secretive, but their technology is unsurpassed, according to my records." Rudy continued. "Their power core factory supplies almost a quarter of the Galaxy's needs. Physically the average height is five foot four inches by Earth measurements. Records indicate they are a technologically advanced race. They are a physically weak species compared to Chokmnd, Rovun, and even humans."
Brax and Charra both donned a smug look and nodded at each other.
"So we can just beat them up if they don't give us what we want," Charra said.
"They rely on their technological superiority to supplement this weakness," Rudy said.
"Not unless you want to get shot," Dani said.
"They are not a Council eligible race, mainly due to the fact that they remain isolated on their planet. They have no colonies and no desire to expand in the Galaxy. The Council feels that if they have no wish to expand in the Galaxy, they should have little say in Galactic affairs.
"The Ascachi supply many weapons and armor to the Council army, providing them some protection," Rudy said.
"Urloth is in the Inner Spiral," Zavik said pulling up the galactic map on the table. An image of the Milky Way Galaxy appeared. Earth sat in the lower half of the Galaxy, in what was known as the Outer Core Systems. The Inner Spiral was below this section and that was where Urloth sat. Garos was in the Outer Spiral, a section of the Galaxy that sat furthest from the Galactic Core. It sat at the top of the map. Using lightdrives it would take almost two weeks to get from Urloth to Garos.
"I'll get the Rinada in the air, we should be there in an hour," Dani said.
Dani went to the cockpit and Rudy followed behind, his metal feet clanking down the short hallway. He wanted to watch and document how she piloted the ship and navigated the portals.
Zavik pulled his blaster out and began disassembling it. He unscrewed the barrel and slid it out from the frame. The power pack holder released from the front and dropped out, exposing the power regulator seated above the trigger.
"Something wrong?" Charra asked.
"No, I just like to clean it out every once in a while. These models tend to oxidize around the cooling vents. If it overheats it can fry the power regulator. Not something you want to have happen in the middle of a fight."
"Why don't you just upgrade to a different model?" Charra asked.
"Nah, this is my weapon," Zavik said as he took a carving tool to the cooling fins protruding from the power regulator. "I've had this since I left the U.E.F. You can't just replace your blaster. I've had this longer than I've had the Rinada."
Charra took out the blaster he was carrying. It was new, he'd only had it for a few months. The last one he carried for two months before losing it on Zalif, and the one before that he destroyed after it jammed on him while running from a group of Red Moon enforcers on Phelis. That almost got him killed, and he returned the favor to the weapon. It was still perfectly good, it just needed to be cleaned, but that wasn’t much of a priority to Charra. They could have sold it if he hadn't ripped it in half. Charra didn't have a sentimental side, at least not for his weapons. Whatever was bigger and stronger, he liked and had no qualms about upgrading to a new and improved model on a whim.
Zavik started to put the pieces back together. Brax got up from the table and walked to the stairs in the middle of the room that led to the overhead turret.
"I'm going to run a systems check on the turret," he said.
"Didn't you just do that the other day?" Zavik asked.
"Better to be safe than sorry," Brax replied and climbed up.
He was right, of course. The Rinada's systems were pretty good at self-diagnosing issues before they became real problems, but you never wanted to be surprised by a loose cooling coil or an overused transformer. It would be like not having oil in your backup generator when an ice storm knocks out the power. Freezing to death would be the least of their worries if the weapons went out.
Zavik finished putting the pieces of his weapon back together just as he felt the ship begin to enter Urloth's atmosphere. The ship heaved and hawed on entry. Zavik stumbled as he tried to stand, and Charra grunted something that he didn't care to try and understand. He made his way to the cockpit as the ship's movements smoothed.
"Rough entry," he said. She had come in too fast. The pressure build-up disrupted the stabilizing systems and made for a bumpy ride. Not typically a mistake Dani makes.
"Seems to be," she retorted. He wasn't criticizing, at least he didn't think he was. He certainly didn't mean to.
“You ok?” he asked with a slight hesitation. He noticed she hadn’t looked at him since he sat down, even with the autopilot taking over most of the operations. He started to scan the planet to land, waiting for a reply.
“Fine,” she said. “I just want to finish this.”
“Urloth?” he asked.
“The whole thing. Garos, Rodderick. I want it all done.”
“I know how you feel,” he said.
She turned to him and finally noticed the tears forming in her eyes. She shook her head. “No, you don’t.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just tired of all this. I miss spending time with you. We never get that.”
Zavik sat there trying to find the right thing to say. She was right. It was never just them two. There was always Brax and recently Charra as well. It was tough to develop that relationship they had before the Red Moon Rebellion. He regretted not trying to advance their relationship before the Rebellion. Years wasted being afraid of driving her off.
“You’re right,” he said. “There’s always someone else with us. That’s probably how it’s going to be as long as we keep taking jobs like this. My hope is that we can start taking better jobs and possibly more infrequently. If we can get a bit of savings started and not live job to job. Then we can take a vacation.”
“A vacation?” she asked.
He smiled at her. “Yeah. Somewhere nice and safe, where we’re not trying to steal anything or get shot at.”
“Earth?” she asked.
“Maybe. Or wherever you want. Just you and me.”
“I would like that,” she said.
“I would too.”
“It just seems so far away,” she said. “I don’t feel like we’ll ever be in that position.”
“Once Garos is finished and Rodderick is settled, I promise we’ll go somewhere just the two of us.”
“You better not break that promise.”
“Not for anything. I love you, Dani. You’re the most important thing in my life. Not Garos, not this ship. There is nothing else without you.”
She smiled and wrapped her hands around his face. She kissed him and said, “I love you too. More than anything.”
Zavik checked the scanners. A power core factory appeared on the display. It was halfway to the other side of the planet. Dani entered the coordinates and set a course.
Zavik wanted to spend time with Dani. He wanted a vacation, probably needed a vacation. Still, in the back of his mind, he thought about those ships. What if they were something more than random pirate attacks? What if they were a move to take control of sectors of the Galaxy? What would he do then? They couldn’t just sit back and not help. Would Dani agree with that? He looked over and saw a faint smile on her face, the first natural smile he’d seen in a while. All he could do was hope it wasn’t what he feared it was. He knew there was no way he could stand by and let Red Moon try and take over. But him helping might strain their relationship too far.
All he could do was hope his feelings were wrong.
Chapter 12
Urloth was a bright green planet from space. It was covered in wild
vegetation and dotted with patches of blue liquid. It soon turned a sour yellow of a harsh desert as they moved closer to the surface. It was a desolate section of the planet with sparse settlements and little activity. As the ship continued around the planet it returned to a habitable color of green and real civilizations began to crop up. There were a great number of ships leaving the planet and just as many returning.
As they entered the atmosphere Dani said, "There were a lot of space stations. I've never seen that many surrounding a system other than Cedona."
"Were they military?" Zavik asked.
"They didn't look military, more like warehouses."
"Must be taking supplies from the surface to the space stations before shipping them out of the system. I'm sure that helps keep a lot of space traffic off the planet."
"They have quite the operation going on here," Dani said.
Zavik looked out the window and saw a streamline of shuttles pouring out of a factory. The shuttles were going straight back into space. Another line of shuttles was returning from space and coming into the other side of the factory. It reminded him of an old mechanical chainsaw blade. The teeth entered the factory and tore away just a little bit of the wood each time, before taking the goods to their destination. The ships were in perfect synch. Quite the well-oiled machine.
Dani began to lower the Rinada down. She brought it to rest on an open area of grass next to a large black building. Two stacks rose from the center of the building, thick gray smoke was billowing from the tops.
She powered the ship down and Zavik did a check on the atmosphere.
"This is their power core factory?" Zavik asked.
"That's what the information on their network says. We only need twelve crates and this location produces seventy a day."
"Let's hope they can find some surplus lying around."
Despite its looks, the atmosphere report came back positive for their habitation so they wouldn't need to put on any suits. Zavik went into the living area. Charra's door was open and he was getting ready. Zavik thought about peeking in to see how he was doing but thought better of it. Brax climbed down from the turret and wiped his hands on an old cloth hanging next to the stove.
"Turret checks out," he said in Zavik's direction.
"Good, thanks," Zavik responded dryly.
Charra stumbled out of his room. He had two blaster rifles slung over each shoulder, a pistol hung down by his right leg and a belt of grenades across his chest. "I'm ready," he said as he popped a fresh power pack into a third rifle he was carrying.
"We're not going to war with these people," Zavik said.
"But I thought we were going to take the goods if they didn't give'em to us?" he asked.
"No! We're not stealing the power cores, at least not from the Ascachi."
Charra shook his head and growled, "I never get to have fun." He threw his rifles into his room and tossed the belt of grenades. Zavik almost threw up when he did that, his stomach leaping up to his throat. They just clanked around for a moment before they fell silent. He kept the pistol at his side.
"How many weapons do you have back there?" Brax asked.
"Enough," Charra said, closing the door.
Zavik never really asked about Charra's weapon cache, but he always seemed to have the right tool for the job. A grenade launcher when you need it, or a shoulder-fired rocket launcher with heat-seeking capabilities when that was appropriate. Charra always thought the rocket launcher was appropriate when really it rarely was. When he joined the crew he brought four crates of luggage with him. Zavik didn't think they were all full of clothes when he dragged them on, but now he sometimes wondered if all four were filled with weapons. He wore the same five shirts and three pairs of pants all the time, hardly even one crate full. Taking a mental inventory of what Charra had used before, Zavik was pretty certain that all four were packed with weapons. It made him only slightly nervous at the thought. Zavik had a respectable little armory below deck as well, but his weapons cache wasn’t as easily accessible as Charra’s. He reminded himself that Alberit was wrong in thinking it was strange to leave Charra with his ship. He trusted Charra and Brax, trusted them with his life. He had to, or else they couldn't be there.
He shook his head clear and said, "All right, we can all go, but leave your weapons behind. I don't want them thinking we're going to rob them."
Charra started to growl to himself again as he pulled up his side pistol. He looked at it and softly put it on the table. Maybe he did like that pistol more than others. Brax pulled out the only weapon he was carrying and followed Charra's lead.
"Where's Rudy?" Zavik asked. "We might need him to translate what we need."
"Ah, here, sir," Rudy said as he emerged from the back of the ship.
"What were you doing back there?" Zavik asked.
"I took the liberty of running a diagnostic on your ship's systems. The engines were running at eighty-seven percent efficiency so I reflashed some code and got them back up to ninety-six percent. Still a little under optimal efficiency, but this ship is quite old, so that is to be expected."
"Thanks, Rudy," Dani said and flashed a smile at Zavik.
"I also noticed that the overhead turret wasn't properly venting at the desired temperature. That could cause it to prematurely overheat during heavy use and reduce the output of each shot. I just finished correcting that issue."
"Oh, really," Zavik said, "and here I thought the system was running fine." He looked at Brax, his eyebrows raised in a mock outrage.
"They looked fine to me," Brax said to Rudy.
"I'm afraid you're just not capable of finding such errors in the programming," Rudy said. "It really is a job for a more technical mind."
"One like you?" Brax asked.
"Yes," Rudy said. "A robot is programmed to do such tasks flawlessly."
"Well, I guess it is a good thing we have a flawless robot on board," Zavik said. "Who knows what would have happened if we got in a fight and the turret overheated. I think I'm starting to like you, Rudy."
"Oh, thank you, sir,” Rudy said, rocking back and forth on his feet. “It is in my programmed nature to want to be helpful and accepted."
"Well," Zavik said, "I'd say it's working...a little."
"So you just took the liberty of messing with my section, huh?" Brax asked.
"Yes," Rudy said as matter-of-fact as a robot could.
"How about next time, you just don't."
"Sir? Are you saying you want me to delete that section of my programming? It is there to better anticipate your needs."
Brax let out an audible sigh. "No, no, it's fine. Keep up the good work." Brax patted him on the shoulder. A dull clanking sound resonated inside the ship.
The boarding ramp lowered and they poured out. A door at the bottom of the factory opened and a green light flooded the ground in front of it. Two aliens emerged dressed in black robes. A hood covered their heads. They stood at the opening and waited. A thick plume of exhaust saturated the air around the factory, the smell of burned chemicals and ozone crept up their noses.
"I guess we should go," Zavik said.
"Oh joy," Brax said as he coughed.
Zavik felt a tickle deep in his throat but suppressed the urge to cough.
"Maybe it's nicer inside," Dani said.
"I thought you did an atmosphere check," Charra said. "This is even bad to me."
That was saying something. The Rovun homeworld, Tunertha, had the largest concentration of particulate matter and ozone of any other habitable system. The planet was littered with volcanoes that erupted at a very frequent rate. They spewed hot ash and dust and sulfur across the planet. The sky was constantly hazy and thick on Tunertha. Humans, and most other races, could only be on Tunertha for a few hours without respiratory aids or else blisters would start to form in their throats and lungs. If you tried staying longer respiratory infections would form and one could even die from respiratory failure.
The Rovun had
evolved to withstand such harsh conditions in the atmosphere. They weren't immune to the effects of the pollution, but only really bad days, like soon after an eruption, seemed to have adverse effects. On other systems, they thrived. Their lungs were attuned to struggling to extract oxygen from pollution heavy air, but on almost all other systems, the pollution was nowhere near as bad. The Rovun could breathe deep healthy air. It helped their endurance and strength. Zavik sometimes wondered if they were really that much stronger than other races, or if it was just a byproduct of their lung development. You pump him full of extra oxygen and he was sure he could run a marathon without much problem. That wasn't a theory he was willing to test. Most of the other industrial systems were cleaner than Urloth. They were required to have control technologies to reduce pollution and cleaner power sources had started to reduce the dependencies on Perizian gas. A byproduct of not being a Council race or even having an official ambassador to the Council.
Perizian gas was the main source of energy used throughout the Galaxy. While it appeared naturally on many systems, the most economical mining was in the Inner Core. Perizian gas was highly renewable, and as such, it had been a stable energy source for thousands of years. It was used to power entire systems and was used in the reactors of space stations. A liquid version of the gas was used in some starships, including the Rinada, for fuel. It was a precious commodity that the Council kept a close watch on. Many of the Inner Core planets weren't controlled by any race, they were owned by corporations that took on the risk of mining the fuel and turning it around for what was usually a nice profit. Some of the corporations had clear ties to criminal organizations, but no matter how hard the Council tried to prove those ties and sever them, they could never make any charges of corruption stick. Not that they were too eager to pursue any real allegations. The system worked and the Council wasn't too eager to disrupt the supply lines as long as the gas kept flowing to the citizens. Civil unrest was one thing the Council never enjoyed, and a spike in prices or a lack of supply would certainly bring about that. Nothing makes a citizen more upset at their leaders as when the power goes out and they can't enjoy their accustomed warmth or air conditioning, or the prices get so high they must make the tough choice between fueling their ships or buying food for their kids. That was usually painful for two reasons. High fuel costs would also drive up the price of shipped goods, hitting the citizen’s pocketbooks twice. Eschelon was at one time the largest distributor of Perizian gas in the Galaxy, but a conflict between the Savin CEO and Iriquios Councilor over taxation brought the company to the brink of collapse. Most of the Councilors were fine with Eschelon going under, they felt they were too closely tied to the Chokmnd Emperor as it was. The CEO was ousted and their market share shrank from thirty-eight percent down to twenty-four, still the third highest in the Galaxy. Prices spiked for a few months before the other companies filled the supply void. With the major fuel companies now on a more even kilter, the Councilors tabled their talks of increased taxes for the time being. It helped that they were able to secure reduced prices for their homeworlds and pet projects. Nothing new for the corruption of the Galactic Council.