by Reiter
“That won’t be necessary, Captain,” Deolun said with a smile. “While Shotgun was trying to get into NBA’s system, I was working on the beamed transmission itself. With a suggestion I got from Satithe, I was able to locate the source, and it isn’t the address the Governor gave you. I’m thinking that must be one of his transmission-burst points. But that’s not the end of the good news.”
“It isn’t?!”
“No, ma’am!” Deolun said excitedly. “There was another party monitoring the exchange and they’re mobile. It’s a ship, Captain, freighter class. It’s about seventy-five hours ahead of us and it’s currently headed for NayFall, the Emerald Barony.”
“Son of a bitch!” Jocasta whispered. “They’ve got a three-day head start on us. Sati, fill in the cracks.”
“Provided they maintain their current speed, it will be just over seven days before they reach NayFall,” Satithe reported. “Using long-range scans, I can estimate they are running at ten percent above nominal. The course NBA sent us would have the Xara-Mansura arriving at Azuria in ten days.” Jocasta pushed away from the wall, silently cursing her disadvantage.
“Captain, we’ve got a high-priority vid-trans coming in,” Silnee reported. “I think it’s an Imperial code-base, but its source is here in The Territories. It’s marked ‘for your eyes only’.” More curious than anything else, Jocasta found that her anger had been abated.
“Put it through, Tolip,” she directed. “An Imperial, high priority vid-trans?!”
“Not something you hear about every day,” Goldie remarked.
“No, because it sounds like the beginning of a bad bar joke,” Jocasta replied. Goldie chuckled as he turned toward the doors leading out of the room. “Make sure you stay out of the frame, Goldie.”
“As you wish, Captain,” he said quietly, stepping back to the wall directly off Jocasta’s left shoulder.
The emitters of the room powered up and fired lasers that soon formed into a three-dimensional picture of a lady. To call her a woman would be an insult to the face of the creature. Jocasta had seen many who posed to put themselves into a place of authority and significance. This woman had yet to say anything and Jocasta felt as if she should be bowing. The blonde hair on top of her head looked more like silken strands of gold that had been combed together in a wave of wonderful. Her green eyes bordered on opal and they were dazzling to look upon. Her light brown skin was perfect, and Jocasta could only detect make-up applied to her eyes and lips.
“Your ladyship,” Jocasta said softly. “You wanted to speak with me?”
“I most certainly did, Captain,” the lady replied, “regarding a matter of personal importance. I thank you for taking the time to receive this transmission.”
“Receiving a vid-trans from someone of your station is not something I can say I’m used to,” Jocasta explained. “More than anything, I’m curious as to why a Lady of Station wants to talk to me and use such an expensive means to do so.”
“You do me a great honor with your words, Captain,” the lady replied, giving a genuine head bow. “… but let me assure you, the station you grant me is only one of your perspective. And without leading you into further confusion, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Oedelorana, or Lady Sylgarr, if you have need of a more formal delineation.”
“Lady…”
“Yes, Captain, I am the wife of the late Gulfrim Sylgarr and mother of the late Falco and Coletta Sylgarr. All three have perished at your hand and steel.”
“Well, I think we would have to say that your daughter was kill–”
“Captain, please,” Oedelorana asked, as her eyes lowered to the floor. “Do you really think attention to the minor details would change the status of my family?”
“Good point,” Jocasta said, scratching the back of her head, slightly wincing at the misstep of her dialog. “I am sorry for your loss.”
“Are you?”
“Whoa, don’t get me wrong,” Jocasta quickly said, lifting both hands to push away the implication she had received. “I’m not sorry for sending Falco back to the recycling center. Personal connections aside, that asshole had it coming in more ways than one, and he couldn’t see around his En-Blade for Kot!
“What I regret is that a woman had to lose her husband and her children, period! Be it from my hand or anyone else’s,” Jocasta said in a softer and more understanding tone. “I didn’t set out to kill any of them, your ladyship. Your son couldn’t take the fact that I beat him to a bounty or that I could take him without being a Chevalierra. He wouldn’t let it go. Your husband and daughter chose to see things through his eyes and backed his play. Believe me when I say that it was either them or me… and I’m rather partial to me.”
“I believe I understand, Captain.”
“I do not!” a young voice barked as the screen-view widened. A slender young man was just entering the chamber where Oedelorana had chosen to make her transmission. An unconscious guard fell into the room behind him with smoke coming from his body. Jocasta looked him over, committing the image to her memory. Unlike the other Sylgarr children that looked more like their father, the boy was the spitting image of his mother with green eyes and gloriously blonde hair. Unlike his mother, however, he had none of her angelic composure. It was as if the taste of his anger came through the projection.
“Scan for Energies, Sati,” Jocasta whispered.
“Is that her?!” the young man shouted as his eyes flared wide. “Is that the bitch that killed my father?!”
“Loranos!” Oedelorana called to her son as she rose from her chair.
“MannA and EnerJa manipulations, Captain,” Satithe reported.
“Just my luck,” Jocasta whispered before she cleared her throat. “Lady Sylgarr!” she shouted. “This is going to come off as way out of line, but your approach to parenting has landed you two in the morgue. Let’s see if I can help you preserve what you’ve got left. Allow the boy to come forward.”
“You dare to call me a boy?!” Loranos hissed as he stepped around his mother whose head dropped to her chest as she closed her eyes. Jocasta could also see the form of a young female trying to hide out of sight at the door of the room.
“Apparently, boy, you’re not up to speed with my accolades as they apply to the name of Sylgarr,” Jocasta said sternly. “Calling you anything ranks pretty lame compared to lowering the count of gift-recipients at Christmas time.”
“I am going to destroy you!” the boy shouted.
“And while you’re at the top of your rage, recognize that Gulfrim and Falco made that same vow!” Jocasta said, exceeding his volume. “That very same freaking vow!
“So if you want to kill me, boy,” she hissed, “you better study up on how I move, because I can be a real tricky bitch! Watch the reels, Junior, and make sure you pay absolutely zero freakin’ attention to the fact that your brother blindsided both me and my First Mate. Yeah, I know, that’s page one of the Chevalier manual.
“And then watch that after his Gallant saved his life at our first meeting, Falco ripped open the chest of said Gallant. He wasn’t too keen on being told he had crossed the old honor line.
“Now, once you’ve digested that, check out the challenge your Daddy-Do arranged with his personal TC!” Jocasta continued. “Oh, he was a good egg, and he was tattooing my ass, using my blood for the ink! But when I got a cut in, watch and see how he used his talents to heal up. And yes, that was in the middle of a challenge.” Loranos wanted to call the woman a liar, but he was not given opportunity to speak.
“No wait, there’s more,” Jocasta shouted. “With your father and sister dead, Falco arranged for the celebration of the new Governor of Black Gate to be a deathtrap for me and mine, with the Governor and his guests serving as hostages. That’s when the half-rebuilt TC used his chops to get new TCs involved. They’re all still at Black Gate as far as I know, Filling out body-bag tags, licking their wounds and checking their collective pride.
“So study, yo
u little miserable excuse for a liege,” Jocasta hissed. “Study and study hard, because where I’m concerned, there’s more truth to the term Final Exam than you might be expecting. Now if you don’t mind, and even if you do, you sniveling little Kot, I was talking to the Lady… and for once, I was actually enjoying the experience of dealing with an Imp!”
Loranos looked away from the screen to his mother whose eyes were still closed. He stared at her as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Tell me, Mother,” he said softly. “Tell me she lies. Tell me that my brother, the Chevalier, did not do these things. Please, Mother… please!” The movements of Lady Sylgarr were slow but incredibly precise. She moved her hand to her belt and from a small purse attached to the jeweled girdle, she produced a data crystal, holding it out for her son to take. He looked at it and his body trembled. He looked back at Jocasta and was surprised to see regret in her eyes.
“And the reason for your sorrowful visage, woman?” he asked.
“Because it’s a bitter pill to swallow when what you believed to be true turns out to be a façade,” Jocasta replied. “If it’s any consolation, your mother is the real deal. And there’s a good chance your father and your sister were just as real, they just backed the wrong player. It’s an Old Earth saying, kiddo, but it’s never run short of the truth: diplomacy starts at home!”
Loranos looked once again at the crystal and walked out of the room without touching it. Jocasta could tell he walked around a figure that was still standing there. Suddenly, the data crystal was pulled from the Lady Sylgarr’s hand and quickly floated out of the room. The unconscious body was pulled out into the corridor and the door to the room was closed quickly but quietly.
Oedelorana brushed both hands down the front of her gown as she took in a deep breath. She tugged at the ends of the long sleeves and smoothed the wrinkles on her arms. One hand touched against the side of her tiara and she turned to face the camera for the vid-trans.
“I have a very good friend of mine who’s much more eloquent at times like these than I will ever be,” Jocasta commented. “I don’t have the tongue for it, and he’s a freaking poet. But if he were here, I think he’d say something along the lines of… before any position of authority and influence, we must first be men and women. You are a woman who is now a widow, and you’ve had two of your offerings of love and life stripped from you. Damn the tiara. Tend to your soul! Besides, it looks as if you’ve got two very good reasons to stay in the game.”
Oedelorana quickly looked at the screen, at the woman with whom she was communicating, and her eyes sharpened to gaze at the young woman more closely. “They misread you, didn’t they?” she said softly. “All three of them, for very different reasons, mind you, but the result was the same. They misread you!”
“At the risk of adding insult to injury,” Jocasta started with taking a deep breath. “… it’s hard to read when you’re not using your eyes. They saw what they wanted to see, not what was right in front of them.”
“Precisely,” Oedelorana replied. “Which brings me to the reason why I wanted to speak with you, Captain.”
Jocasta approached the console and put her hands on the button that would close the channel. “No promises, my lady,” she said softly. “The only thing you can take to the grave is the fact that I’m not hunting down the Sylgarr family. As far as I’m concerned, my only problem was with Falco. I wasn’t in the room when little man Falco told Daddy what had happened. But trust me when I say… I wouldn’t have put anything past that man. He had a good view of himself, and it was slightly larger than the Rims. A man with that kind of faulty vision runs into something sooner or later.
“Bottom line, I didn’t start anything with the Sylgarr name, and that remains my position. But I will finish everything they bring my way!” Jocasta closed the channel as she let her own head fall. She stood there for a moment before she looked up at Goldie. “How badly did I hammer that one?”
“I’m confused,” Goldie replied. “Your tone suggests that your view of your performance is not favorable. I was under the impression that a hammer was being used when someone said, ‘you nailed it’. Even your approximation of what Z would say was very good.”
“You think?”
“I think.”
Jocasta pounded the wall and turned for the showers. “I’m going after my Z. Damn this nut-crunching Jockey. Satithe, prep Daedalus! Let’s give this perpetual energy engine of Z’s a serious workout.”
“Captain, you’ve got another transmission,” Silnee reported.
“Tell her ladyship I could not be reached,” Jocasta quickly responded.
“I don’t think it’s Lady Sylgarr,” Silnee stated, and Jocasta knew the young woman had been listening in on the conversation. “It’s coming in on a locked channel, Captain. One of yours!”
“Satithe, clear the auxiliary stations and pipe this directly to my brace-com,” Jocasta commanded as she stepped into the shower room. Goldie smiled and decided to clean up in his room.
“Tynaum,” Jocasta said softly as his face appeared on the small screen.
“Jocasta,” he replied in a tone that made her melt. “Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you.”
“I was beginning to think I was just another–”
“It is more than vital that you not finish that sentence,” Tynaum quickly said. “Things didn’t end up where we wanted, but for a lifetime, it was perfection.”
“You make it hard for a girl to find a follow-up,” Jocasta stated.
“I’m sure you’ll manage,” Tynaum forced himself to smile, but it did not keep Jocasta from seeing the sting in his eyes as he spoke. “Suffice to say that now that I have my ship back, I–”
“You have your ship back?” Jocasta gasped. “What the hell happened?”
“For starters, I didn’t have you covering my back,” Tynaum said softly. “No, it was a pretty elaborate trap my white-clad friends had set up just outside the Baronial Spatial Zone. Our ship hit some sort of energy field and the next thing you knew, we were free-floating in space. The same pulse that took out our instrumentation didn’t go easy on the nervous system. For the ones that weren’t killed by it, we all woke up in binders on a Slaver Ship.”
“What?!”
“And that is when I ran into a friend of yours,” Tynaum continued.
“You what?!”
“Hey, JoJo,” Nulaki called out as his head lowered into the frame. “Funny thing happened not too long after we parted ways.”
“You lost our hard-earned merchandise?” Jocasta guessed.
“Funny you should go there,” Nulaki said as he hopped down to the floor. “No, it was at the exchange that I got hit and I mean hit hard. The Sultan used hired help and they double-crossed everybody! One second I’m looking to settle a score, the next second I’m dealing with a score… of ugly bodies.”
“How many did you make regret the moment?” Jocasta asked as she smiled.
“Sixteen before they used a Gwarthine gas bomb,” Nulaki replied.
“Oh shit, they healed up and–”
“I didn’t!” Nulaki stated. “I tried to exit from a very bad scene, but half of them had jetpacks. I took out two more before they started landing clean shots.”
“Sounds like you still have issues with fight or flight,” Jocasta joked.
“Yeah, this is where I need to leave,” Nulaki muttered as he walked out of the frame. Tynaum stepped to the center of the screen, watching the Fazbred man take his leave.
“I’m not sure, but I think he just lost a bet with himself,” Tynaum remarked. “Anyway, he was instrumental in getting me and my people out and back to our ship. It seems you hang around the best.”
“Seems that way from where I’m looking,” Jocasta returned. A green light flashed on Jocasta’s brace-com.
“You should now have everything we have on this NBA guy you were inquiring about,” Tynaum said. “Despite what the hack-name implies, he is only a Black Assassin in his drea
ms. But his nom de voyage put him on our radar a while back and we kept an open file on him.”
“And you were able to get Intel on my CLJ?!”
“First of all, we have Jockeys of our own,” Tynaum said with an air of accomplishment. “… but more importantly, when you want to spy on someone, you’ve got to go through their weakest point.”
“You got him a woman,” Jocasta declared.
“Close, we put the daggers to his hardware supplier for a time.” Jocasta chuckled as Tynaum looked at the read-out. “His name is Talthwynn, no middle name, Vidé. Twenty-five years of age; five foot, nine inches tall, approximately one hundred seventy pounds. Brown hair, but he’s had one of those follicle manipulation jobs done, so it’s green now… matching green eyes by way of further manipulations... born Middle Rim Terran, but he is a citizen of the Garnet Barony where he maintains several residences and a thriving hacking operation. Currently he has three other Jockeys on his payroll, but our surveillance puts his numbers closer to seven with a high suspicion that three of them are not necessarily willing parties. There’s more in the file, but that’s the juicy stuff.”
“You’re just a font of information,” Jocasta said, shaking her head.
“It would be incredibly hard to maintain the second part of our group’s name flying around in the dark,” Tynaum explained.
“I can go along with that. I owe you one, Ty,” she said smiling.
“Not from where I’m standing, Jo. That account was just paid in full. Kick ass and take care!”
“And in that order!” Jocasta replied. “You do the same and more.”
“Ahh, a quest,” Tynaum said bowing. “So be it.” He stood up to see that the channel had been closed and he smiled. “Yeah, I hate goodbyes, too,” he said softly. “And I know you’re still there, Scarab.”
“Sorry, I just had to make sure that you knew her.”
“You? Protective?!”
“Of my own ass, yes,” Nulaki clarified. “I crossed her once, and that was three times too many. You two are on the level… and maybe a bit more… so it’s all good, and I don’t have to kill you.”