356Q turned. David felt that he saw a small smirk on the woman’s face, but he couldn’t be sure. “I am going to go to the station and find the crew of the ship we’ve been following,”
“This will place further delays to our mission.”
“My objectives are none of your concern,” she informed him plainly. “Your orders are to ensure the safe return of this ship to Alliance control and to follow my instructions. Currently, I intend to find the crew flying that ship. The crew had been apparently eliminated. We cannot accept that this is coincidental.”
Having spent so much time with her, the tone of her voice had started to ease from the stress that it had caused him. Now it was more her actions that scared him.
He turned and left her alone as he decided to return to the bridge and monitor her motives from there. It felt safer.
When he returned to the bridge, he heard two officers bantering. “She scares me,” one of the female crew was saying.
“Maybe so, but those tattoos are nice. I’d throw her a bone,” laughed one of the men.
“She’d break you,” David said dryly. As the crew realized that he was back on the deck, they all turned quickly back to their stations from the relaxed play they were all partaking in. “Status?”
“Internal heat sinks are still leaking coolant, but thermal stealth is still operational,” the woman rattled off. She was the engineering technician. “Visual cloaking is in full function and radiation deflection remains intact.”
“Have you been able to locate the source of the leaking?”
“We believe it was caused by the collision, but we still have no idea. We don’t have the support to adequately diagnose these issues. We are enough to keep it moving... that’s it,” the engineer complained. “It’s amazing that the systems are working as they are!”
David shook his head. “Do your best,” he said. “I am not expecting any miracles. Just continue to keep me informed as to the progress.” He then turned and left the bridge trying to figure out how he was going to deal with the situation he was in.
Oberon (Uranus 13 Colony)
Haden carried his delivery through the busy Uranus 13 markets. The markets were an enormous trading zone for food and perishable goods. The colony had great advances with agriculture in deep space, a feat that only one other colony was able to duplicate so far from the sun.
The goods were intended for a businessman who had been making illegal trades of materials that he had been stealing from his partner in order to eventually take over the business for himself.
In truth, Haden didn’t care. He didn’t like the client, but the pay had been more than promising before circumstances changed Haden’s priorities. Nothing was stopping him from taking the value of the materials for himself; although, being chased down for a missed delivery such as this was not worth the trouble.
His destination was beyond the marketplace, but just before reaching the first set farms.
Uranus 13 was a large colony. There were nearly 3 million colonists there and twice as many livestock. Farms surrounded the market which acted as the center of the colony. They spread for kilometers each direction and for multiple levels. Plants were grown on the lower levels. Fertilizer from the animals raised on the upper levels were pumped down and then applied to the soil in the lower levels. Workers on those farms were given small living quarters on the farms enabling the workers to be close to their jobs. Many of them were indentured, paying their debt for moving out into the outlands. Many were escaping massive debt or prison in Alliance space. It was often easier to become a slave than to suffer fates in Alliance territory. Others were looking for a way to survive and found it here.
Uranus 13 covered nearly 1/3 of Oberon. The original designation of the station was Uranus IV, but was renamed 13 after the misfortunes of the original settlements being unable to craft any level of sustainment. It had been founded nearly 100 years before as a research center for a mining company. The company was supported with several healthy grants supplied by the Alliance. It was a prosperous venture.
When the Alliance entered into war with independent colonists, it abandoned all of its outer world interests and thusly abandoned the company as well as many others. For a short period, the company survived without incident, if not suffering for the loss of funding. Soon after, however, a small series of accidents began to plague the operations. People began to die. Then others, for fear of their lives, began to abandon their posts. Those that were left behind began to go insane.
Eventually, the company went bankrupt and was dismantled, leaving those on Uranus IV completely without resources. This made the situations worse.
Other companies tried to come in and reinvigorate the mining trials, but each were more unsuccessful than the last. It became worse after each successive failure.
Eventually Uranus 13 was rumored to be the start of the cannibal colonies.
In truth, there was a small agricultural research company looking to get as far from the Alliance as possible that found the colony useful. The large, almost cavernous mining stations were perfect for constructing the elaborate systems needed to sustain plant life and livestock.
“What are you here for?” a security guard asked as Haden approached the offices in Sector 3. Sector 3 was the smaller of the farming areas, and where his target chose to keep himself.
“Meeting with Julius Ipman,” Haden said plainly.
The guard looked at his monitor, not making any effort to look at Haden. The scanner should have picked up Haden’s weapons, but one of the gadgets that Haden carried was built to interfere with such things. It showed him as clean, or it caused a fault in the system. Causing a fault was risky, as usually it would mean they would run further, more personal checks.
“Clean,” the guard said. “You shouldn’t give them much trouble then. You are aware they have placed a bounty on you?” he chuckled. Haden got his answer. He had hoped that he got there before it was placed. Unless the client felt generous, he was dead. Money didn’t matter. Once the bounty is placed, it would show weakness to remove it, unless death changed that.
Haden acted sheepish, “I got in an accident on the way here. Just hoping he’ll see past that.”
“Go through,” the guard waved dismissively as he laughed.
Just as Haden passed by, he then spun around and grabbed the guard with the paralyzer. The guard went completely limp and fell forward. Haden could see the glistening of the man’s eyes. He was sure that they would reveal confusion and fear if there was any part of the man that could function.
The smell of feces and urine began to float in the air as those parts of the body fell under the man’s loss of control.
After nearly a minute, the man became unconscious. Upon Haden releasing the man, he began breathing again but remained slumped over. Haden pulled out a small biometric scanner and checked the man to ensure he was alive.
It was an easy way of knocking a person out with no effort, no struggle.
As he was satisfied with the guard, and after looking around to ensure that he wasn’t seen, he entered the offices.
“You’re brave or stupid, Rachid,” a small, scrawny scarecrow of a man said. Jarrod Ipman was old and the years were not kind on him. He had beady, yellow eyes and shaggy silver hair tied back into a pony tail. His voice sounded like a herniated mule and quickly irritated most people.
Surrounding Jarrod were three armed guards. Haden had them all fully assessed by the time he had entered the room. Each had their own strengths and variations in speed. None of the three stood very still, pacing slowly around the room as though they were waiting for things to go down. Had each stood perfectly still, Haden would have only been able to guess their abilities strictly on size alone.
Haden used the guards’ gait, the way they swung their arms, how they had their shoulders positioned as indicators. Irrespective of their true abilities, Haden’s slightly smaller stature and the fact that he was there in the first place spelled �
�easy target’ to Jarrod’s guards.
“I have a proposition to make,” Haden said placing the bag of money in front of him.
Jarrod cackled. Haden winced slightly not expecting the veraciousness of the laugh. “What kind of proposition?” he said, drawing out the last syllable awkwardly.
“You remove the bounty on my head and take the delivery. We’ll be even, and I will leave here without incident.” Haden offered. He was trying to appeal to them, to give them a chance. Images of Adrianna flashed into his mind.
Another loud cackle ejected from the frail looking Jarrod again. Haden knew that the man was actually rather intelligent for the shape before him didn’t appear overly powerful in any other regard. “You entertain me, young man. I might let you live,” he explained as one of the guards moved and grabbed the back Haden dropped. “And while I certainly appreciate that you eventually decided to complete the task,” he continued as another of the three guards moved to behind Haden. Haden didn’t watch the man. He knew where the thug was. Jarrod kept talking. “I cannot have anything get out about my letting someone live when they obviously could not fulfill the agreed upon parts of the contract. Timing is important, young man.”
Haden felt a hand grip right above his elbow and what felt like the barrel of a pistol against his back.
“Take him out of here and treat him to a comfortable stay,” Jarrod instructed to the men who all began to converge on Haden.
“You forgot to frisk me,” Haden said as he activated his paralyzer.
The man behind him went limp while Haden took aim and fired a dart through the skull of a shocked looking guard who immediately dropped with the bag in hand. He nearly got a second shot on the target but was knocked over by the other.
The man lying on the floor began to shake off the paralysis as Haden swung himself up also landing an elbow into the throat of the one who knocked him down. Immediately the man stumbled back and choked.
Jarrod cowered back in his chair, shocked at the sudden show of skill and determination from Haden. He saw the bag of his valuables, and he immediately tried going for it.
Haden grabbed the choking man by the forehead and swung his legs out from under him, slamming the man’s head onto the floor. He felt the skull pop and crack as the man went limp and began to convulse.
As Jarrod was nearly out the door, Haden aimed then fired two darts into Jarrod’s legs sending him to the ground screaming.
The last guard had completely regained his footing and now fired multiple shots at Haden. His aim was poor. Haden drew out the small sword from the sheath on his back and then quickly swung himself around leaving a deep slice through the guard’s stomach. The man’s face flushed with the shock as his entrails spilled out mixed with feces and blood. He squealed in pain and fear as he too fell to the ground.
Haden wiped the sword off on the convulsing guard’s pants. He then slowly walked over to Jarrod who had now started crawling out of the office as he wept bitterly.
Haden knelt down beside the crying man. “You’ll have to tell me how men like you come into power such as this.”
Spinning around, Jarrod now flailed his arms and squirmed trying to get himself away. He cried and wailed as he did.
“Pitiful,” Haden said as he fired one last dart through Jarrod’s throat and the old man choked and gurgled slowly passing away, his eyes raging with the fear consuming his last moments. “It’s a shame that you never learned compassion,” Haden whispered to the choking Jarrod. “You could’ve saved yourself.”
Uranus 13 Orbit
Alliance ARDME Operations Vehicle
Adrianna scanned the navigation system again. “Uranus 13 is within a suitable proximity,” the ship’s computer announced. It was a commanding female voice that also held a twinge of softness to it.
She looked at colony on the moon there. Something was telling her to divert her course. It wouldn’t be a planned stop.
“How long to Rhea?” she asked the computer.
“2 days, 11 hours, 56 minutes, and 43 seconds at current vector.”
“Change course to orbit Uranus 13,” Adrianna found herself saying.
“Uranus 13 is not in your navigation plan. Diverting will delay transport to your intended destination. Do you instruct the vessel to comply?”
“Yes.”
Adrianna was travelling in a long range, single personnel vessel. It was about the size of two long range fighters combined only to accommodate the increased cabin size. Most of these ships were in service to accommodate operatives as other uses tended to fall outside of economic reasonability.
Such ships were expensive. Those who could afford them typically chose to travel on larger cruise transporters. Accommodations were equivalent in size, if not larger, and the added luxuries of service made it more appealing.
They made sense for operatives however.
She watched the moon drift to the center of her view, straight ahead of the ship as the course was corrected to go to the colony. It made sense to her, though she couldn’t figure out why.
With about 10 minutes until she reached docking, she saw the communications light up with an incoming request. She pushed a switch to acknowledge and accept the transmission. “Unidentified vessel, please state your business,” it immediately demanded.
“Refuel and food.”
Without any hesitation, the response came through as “please be advised, we do charge a docking fee due upon your arrival. Are you prepared for payment?” Not bothering to ensure whether or not she had any money, Adrianna affirmed. “We’ll accept your docking,” the voice on the communication replied.
Independents, Adrianna thought snidely. She thought it absurd that there should be any charge for docking at a station. Any docks for ships in Alliance space were controlled by the Alliance and thusly were free to secure a ship to.
Upon arriving, she opened the airlock and transferred over to the station’s gravity. There was a small woman with a uniform that had the symbol for the station emblazoned on it.
“Docking fee, my dear,” the small woman stated plainly sounding thoroughly bored. Pulling out her credits, Adrianna handed them to the woman.
“Thank you. If you stay longer than this fee, we will lock off access to your ship until you pay any remaining charges. If you know you are staying longer, just pay ahead at the station registrar and you’ll avoid the fuss.”
“Do I need to register the ship?” Adrianna asked wondering why it wasn’t asked of her.
With one eye raised, the woman replied “we all prefer privacy here, my dear. Why in this solar system would we want to be registered anywhere?” And with that, she walked off.
“Ah, so payment is for anonymity,” Adrianna whispered to herself as she watched the small woman disappear into the crowd. It made sense now. The Alliance forced all ships to register. She wondered how they got past the registration in Alliance space. It likely involved bribery she thought, but then soon decided that she had better things to do. She shook her head at her own naïveté. She needed to focus herself.
Remembering back on Rhea, she just went about her business not trying to look so much like she blended in. “When you don’t know how to blend in, trying makes you stand out. If you are there for a purpose, act for that purpose. Don’t try to pretend. Blending in is the quickest way to get noticed. If you just be yourself and move towards your purpose, most people would end up leaving you alone and ignoring you. After all, they don’t really want to be noticed either.” Haden’s instructions echoed through her mind. She was looking for a ship and a man. There was no malice behind it, unless the Alliance had its way.
As she was walking through the range of people moving to and fro with cargo, she noticed a tall man staring at her. She decided it best to steer away from any encounter while still acknowledging that she knows he was looking at her.
She glared at him for a second and then went about continuing to look at all of the ships docked there. Olaph nodded to her polit
ely as he was carrying the last bit of food and weapons onto the Regalia before departure.
Since arriving at Uranus 13, they had been busy bartering for contracts and selling various supplies left on the ship.
“Can you hurry up with that?” Trike demanded of Olaph as Adrianna passed by. He didn’t see the girl who had killed part of his crew days ago.
“Sorry, just admiring a pretty girl.”
Trike snorted. “Stop wasting time. She probably costs too much for you anyway,” he jested. Olaph rolled his eyes before looking back to see Haden.
Haden stepped out of the ship and scanned the crowd. He didn’t notice Adrianna either. “I am still picking up trace signals from that ship. I was finally able to modify the sensors so that they are able to catch and track the signals better. They weren’t on any normal frequency. I think I know where they’re supposed to be going and I think it best if we just wait out here for a short while.”
As he spoke, a young woman with tattoos on her face entered the crowd.
He completely missed recognizing 356Q. She had not been fully tattooed when he had last seen her 7 years ago. All that he saw now was another face in the crowd that wanted to be left alone. In either case, he wasn’t looking for anyone. The lack of interest clouded his normal ability to catch such details.
Steadily, she looked around until she spotted Adrianna clearly at the other end of the docks, recognizing her from the original mission details. She decided it best to not make contact; it would risk her becoming exposed. Instead, she walked forward scanning each face as she tried to place where the ship they had been following was.
Just as she looked over towards the Regalia, the hatch doors had closed with the crew inside. Haden didn’t trust the cliental of the station and locked the ship’s access off as they waited.
“Any sign of them?” David’s voice broke through in 356Q’s earpiece.
“I will inform you as to progress when there is sufficient information to report,” she replied blandly.
Awakening of a Predator (Gravity Book 2) Page 6