by Reiter
“Bull-Kot!” the first man said in disbelief as he locked the suit down on the gurney. The shoulder locks were not strapped down though, so Jocasta was not yet pressed.
“No, that’s serious Kot,” the other man insisted. “One woman, and no one got a clear read on her.”
“You think it was Vistarra?”
“Killer Queen?!” the other returned. “Brother, if it had been her, none of us would have made it out of there!”
“Maybe she didn’t have time.”
“Killer Queen makes the time!”
“Yeah, but she’s the only one I’ve ever heard of taking out a powered suit without being in matching armour or using heavy lasers.”
“True. Very true. Either way, we dodged an ugly one this time out.”
“Can you believe that?!” another man spoke as he removed his body armour. “… thirty-five of us and that bastard slipped through anyway!”
“He’s the Onyx Baron for a reason, kid,” another answered as he started placing weapons on a maintenance rack. “And you almost missed your ride, Troop.”
“Almost only counts in plasma grenades,” the operative replied with a strained voice. The other men chuckled. Jocasta closed her eyes and focused on what she could hear. Even with the charred and bloody face plate, she could feel the ceiling was no less than ten meters above her. But with the number of men and women laughing, she was able to get an idea of how far the walls were from her, and since she could only locate two, she concluded she was in the corner of a very large room.
“I am happy to hear that people are amused!” a man screamed as he walked into the group. It was clear he had both experience and authority. “Because we had a target… Master Handrotineer had a target and we screwed it to hell and back!”
“And now I have a name,” Jocasta thought. “I wonder if this guy is the FM, whatever that is!”
“Gunnery Sergeant!” a man called out, quickly walking over to one of the shooters that had been posted at the opposite end of the T-shaped intersection. “Can you tell me what the hell happened?!”
“He had help, Major,” the man quickly replied. “And I don’t mean his sister. She was neutralized by the Point Team.”
“You mean the team that did not make it back?!” the man yelled. “Do we have a visual on this so-called help? How many were there?”
“As far as I could tell, sir… there was just one. One woman.” Light and dragging footfalls approached Jocasta and she could feel someone taking hold of the gurney.
“Bernice, what did they do to you?!” a light, scratchy voice spoke to the suit and the gurney started to move.
“The first man I hear calling out the name Killer Queen will not know the second man to say it!” the Major yelled. Doors opened and the gurney was pushed out of the large room into a corridor.
“Okay, we’re away from the no-brain bugs now, Bernice,” the scratchy voice stated. “It’s just you and me. I know, I know… some bad person hurt you and left you for dead. Don’t worry, girl. I’m gonna clean out the stupid parts and fix you up, good as new!”
“I wonder if Z talks to his toys like this,” Jocasta thought. “Nah, this is bordering on pathetic and cute at the same time. That’s not my Z! He would be more like, ‘Very well, mechanoids and constructs… the time has come. You are about to be used. Please do not, I repeat, do not ever reveal your true feelings regarding your users to your users. They are only human, and I have come to know all too well what that phrase means’!” Jocasta had to struggle to keep from giggling.
“Anyone seeing a powered down suit with a dead pilot inside beginning to tremble might ask questions you don’t want me to answer,” the scratchy voice said and Jocasta gasped. “You’re a little light for one hundred and six point six kilos. That was Colfer’s mass. Even blown to bits, the mass should be relatively the same inside a suit. You’re lucky no-brain grunts don’t read the display on a hover-trolley.”
“But apparently you do,” Jocasta said softly. “JoJo Starblazer,” she said with a smile. “They call me Captain… when I’m aboard my ship.”
“Hansel Giruek,” the man replied, pushing the gurney onto a lift. “They call me Rat, unless there’s an emergency. Then they call me Tech, or Tech-Head.” Hitting a button, the lift started its descent. “You and your name sound like a girl.”
“Can’t get anything by you, Hans,” Jocasta replied. “Yep, all girl, through and through. I once sent in a requisition for some maleness, but it got put on back order. Once I received a transmission from Customer Service the season had passed.”
“Customer Service,” Hansel chuckled as the lift came to a stop. “You need to be quiet now,” he said softly as the doors opened. “Going down,” he stated as three soldiers walked on to the lift. One of them approached the control box and deleted Hansel’s floor request.
“Not anymore, Rat,” he said. “We’re going up.” The slender man said nothing as the lift was taken up one deck. They pushed the button for every floor above that one as they departed from the lift. Hansel said nothing as he went up deck by deck. When he reached the top of the facility he once again punched the floor for his workroom.
“Where have you been?!” a soft, almost silky female voice asked as Hansel pushed the suit inside the work area. Jocasta was relieved to hear the thick doors close behind her benefactor. There might be need for her to get out of the suit and handle this woman. “I’ve been waiting to pick up a body. Pilot Colfer?”
“I already put him in the incinerator,” Hansel replied. “I didn’t know you wanted him. He was pretty much dead, you know.”
“There was nothing ‘pretty much’ about it,” the medical technician said as she took hold of her empty gurney. “Someone put a damn plasma grenade on the side of his helmet and made it stick! Good riddance if you ask me, and thanks for doing my job and yours.” Footsteps said the woman was headed toward the door out. “Wait,” the young woman said as she stopped walking.
“Oh hell!” Jocasta thought, taking hold of her cane.
“You used the main lift again, didn’t you?” she asked. “Hansel, how many times do I have to tell you, you need to stay away from those guys… as much as possible. They’re not human… I don’t even think they’re an official breed. They’re what’s left when the worst of humans are done making copies. The FM grabs them up, pumps them full of juice, and makes them his ever-loving army.
“You’re something else,” the young woman said softly, and Jocasta could hear more than simple concern in her voice. “You have to look out for yourself.”
“You know,” Jocasta said, opening the suit and crawling out. “… I tell him that all the time… but he doesn’t listen to me either.” Jocasta set her eyes on a very skinny but tall young man, dark haired and soft brown-eyed. A young orange and red-headed woman scurried behind him, giving a short and nearly choked scream from the surprise of seeing a bloody figure climb out of the power suit. “Oh, that,” Jocasta said, wiping the blood. “Don’t worry, it’s not mine. It’s a donation from Colfer, bless his gentle soul! JoJo Starblazer.”
“They call her Captain on her ship,” Hansel added.
“Too quick for me, Hans,” Jocasta smiled, wiping the blood off of her face.
“Your ship?” the girl said, more surprised than when she saw a body coming out of a supposedly empty power suit.
“Pirate ship,” Jocasta added.
“And this is Xaedra,” Hansel said, stepping from in front of the girl.
“Say, you’re a Med-Tech, right?” Jocasta asked, very much liking the coincidence.
“Uh, I’m an assistant,” the girl said, looking at the floor. “More like a nurse. The only thing I run is the Morgue.”
“Which is why she’s not grimacing at this nastiness on my face,” Jocasta concluded.
The woman reached to her side and handed Jocasta a clean rag. “Did you need something from the infirmary? I can get it for you!”
“And that was almost too easy,�
�� Jocasta pondered, wiping her face with the cloth. She looked at the young girl and her head tilted to the side.
“Who gave you that name?” Jocasta asked. The light that sparked in the girl’s eyes reminded the pirate of a fearful look she had seen before. She took a step back from the girl and held up her hands in surrender. “Freuderé,” she said softly, looking down.
“You know the tongue?” Xaedra asked, clutching to Hansel’s arm, and Jocasta shook her head ‘no’.
“Not as well as my First Mate, but he taught me that word because you’re not the first of your kind I’ve come across. The last one was the gleam in an Upyri’s eye. While taking her away from him, we took out that eye!”
“What’s an Upyri?” the young man asked.
“A very ugly thing, Hansel,” Xaedra said, approaching Jocasta. “I will come to the stone with you, Captain.”
“I’m hoping that’s a good thing,” Jocasta stated.
“I won’t betray you, but I will ask a boon of you for my help.”
“Really?!” Jocasta smiled, folding her arms. “What makes you think I’m in the market?”
“You don’t need to be. You can work a trek all your own way, I’m sure. But if I can save you an ugly stride or three, would you be willing to return the favor?”
“You had my interest when you used the word ‘trek’,” Jocasta answered. “Terms!”
“I get you what you need from the infirmary, and I get you to the hangar, maybe even on board a ship. Flying it will be up to you.”
“We just met, so I won’t be insulted by that last part,” Jocasta stated. “And in return?”
“You get us out of here and see us to a scrambler along with a willing Med-Tech,” Xaedra said.
“What if she doesn’t have a scrambler?” Hansel asked.
“She’s a living, female, pirate captain, Hansel!” Xaedra snapped. “She probably has one on her.”
“I need an antidote for the stuff these guys have in the tranq-darts,” Jocasta stated as she produced the clutch purse. She loaded the second charge, opened the gathering field and allowed the three bodies to roll out on to the floor. Young Hansel Giruek did not need to be told to do anything. He rushed to assist Jocasta in getting the bodies up on work tables. He then ran over to Xaedra, took her by the arm, and ushered her to the door.
“Wait!” the Faebred woman protested. “She hasn’t given us an answer yet!”
“We’re not holding these people hostage!” Hansel snapped. “You are! I know you’re trying to look out for me… for both of us… and I appreciate it, but I won’t do it like this. She got here under her own power, and she can probably get out the same way.
“But if it’s all the same to you, Captain,” Hansel said as he turned to face Jocasta. “… if there’s room on your ship, would you mind a couple of extra bodies on board? I’d be willing to work off our fares.”
Jocasta shook her head in disbelief and approached the skinny technician. “I think I know why she looks after you, Hans. A good gardener looks after a rare flower. Trust me when I say we don’t leave until we find a ship that’ll haul all of us out of here… provided that’s necessary. I came here by way of teleporter. Can’t we get back the same way?”
“That pad only works one way,” Hansel quickly answered. “I don’t even know where the sending pad is. Only the high-ranking officers are sent out conscious.”
“Wow, talk about information security!” Jocasta replied. “Okay, it’s the hangar then. You, Angel of Death Xaedra, get going!” With the flash of a hopeful smile, the young girl was out of the room with the doors closing behind her.
“Lock it down, Orcy,” Hansel commanded and Jocasta heard a very heavy bolt slide into place. “Bring Xaedra in the back way when she gets back to this deck, and set the door tone response to be getting something to eat.”
“Orcy is your right hand in here?”
“Yeah, but he’s not all that special.”
“I’m sure he can be,” Jocasta assured. “I say we download him and take him with us.”
“I don’t have a portable data storage device,” Hansel stated. Jocasta walked over to the main computer console and copied the Orcy program on to her brace-com. She smiled when her storage amount climbed to a staggering twenty-six percent.
“I’ll never hear the end of this one,” Jocasta muttered.
Quordion opened his eyes slowly and looked up to see Jocasta smiling at a young female he did not recognize.
“Told you he’d need the least,” Xaedra stated.
“So you did,” Jocasta replied. “How are you feeling, milord?”
“A little fuzzy, but other than that, I’m fine.”
Jocasta turned to face Hansel who had already picked up a large shoulder bag. “Isn’t that going to raise suspicion?”
“No, this is what I normally carry my tools in,” the young man explained. “Xaedra is going to help push, and the rest of you will go in the pump housing.”
“Pump housing?” Quordion repeated.
“I am not sure you wish to know the details, my brother,” Thandace said softly, stroking the still-sickly Teo. The simiate had been the first to receive the antidote but, as Xaedra had said, with as much toxin as he had received, it was a miracle he was alive. “Our lady pirate friend managed to liberate us from the Haggenshire, only to bring us to an entirely different platform.”
“I guess I’m just into platforms right now,” Jocasta said as she walked over to the hollowed out coolant pump. If the housing was big enough to fit three people, and just barely those three and Teo, she did not want to see the rest of the machine. “Let’s hope it’s just a phase. And do you know a bugger named Handrotineer?”
“He’s an Enacranite,” Thandace replied and Jocasta stopped for a moment.
“Your brother is pissing off Enacranites?!” Jocasta asked.
“He’s not an Arch Mage or anything like that,” Thandace advised. “He and Quordion went to the same college of MajiKs.”
“Well, junior britches may not be the man, but it sure as hell looks like he’s got a hold of the man’s wallet,” Jocasta said as she climbed up into the gigantic machine part. “Okay, now is the not the time to be shy, people. If you want, I can be the meat of the sandwich.”
“Strange as that sounds, that would make it easier for me,” Quordion said as he rubbed his temples. Thandace looked at her brother, but only for a moment. He helped her up into the pump housing and Quordion quickly climbed in the opposite of Jocasta.
“Don’t let your hands wander unless you really mean it,” Jocasta joked and Hansel closed the casing, making a flash-welded seal. Jocasta gave Thandace directions on how to hit commands on her brace-com. She made a sound dampening field and Jocasta shouted out to Hansel to test it. When the slender technician made no reply, though they could hear him perfectly, Jocasta smiled at the Baron and his sister.
“So, how was your nap?”
“So, you put us in a dimensional pocket,” Quordion said as the procession made its way down what was considered to be the home-stretch. “… and we won’t even go into how you do that with a machine… and your only solution to us being attacked is to infiltrate the base of the attackers?!”
“Who said anything about only?” Jocasta returned. “You could say this was a litmus test.”
“And what have you found?” Thandace asked.
“That you’re going to be Baroness long before either of you want it to happen,” Jocasta replied. “Somebody quietly parks a damn army on a so-called secured facility and has part of the wait-staff replaced by operatives… that screams inside job! Yeah, I wanted to see if this was the kind of trouble you get by being a bad ass or a dumb ass.”
“And?” Quordion pressed.
“It’s a combination of the two, but without a doubt a heaping helping of dumb ass is in the mix!”
“Watch your tongue!” Thandace warned but Jocasta did not flinch as she looked at the woman.
“Get mad
at me all you want, Thandie, it won’t change a damn thing! I find out the ass behind all of this is a college rival of your brother’s – he knows all about the maggot, and he hasn’t dealt with the matter – yeah, dumb ass!”
“Are you suggesting I go and rip the life right out of him?” Quordion asked.
“You can rip the life left out of him for all I care,” Jocasta quickly replied as their trolley came to a stop. “I’ve had my share of sick dicks coming back on me. You’ve got one hell of a house under your thumb, Baron. You see an infestation and you spray at it, assuming you got ‘em all. So nothing shows on the surface, but under the floors the queen of the nest is pissed and organizing her troops. Next time you see them, your house has already started to sink!
“And it sounds like we’re at the spot,” Jocasta said as she winked at Thandace. “Was it too short of an experience?” Thandace made no response, but she failed in hiding her smile.
The housing opened and Jocasta refused to look up at what the pump could fit into. Hansel rushed them past the work area toward the launch deck. A gleaming white ship was on the Ready Deck, and Xaedra already had it opened with the gangplank extended. Quordion ushered Jocasta to run ahead of everyone and found he only had to make the gesture once. How she ran so quickly without making a sound was a mystery to him. Everyone else glided across the shadow-struck ground.
“Anybody know what we’re in?” Jocasta asked as she took the pilot’s chair. Straps locked around her as scanning lasers were emitted from the console. “… other than a seriously secured vehicle.” Jocasta hit one button on her brace-com and the scanning lasers deactivated along with most of the power in the cockpit. “Hans, you got my job?”
“Right here, Captain,” Hansel said as he brought up a small generator. Jocasta was under the console for a little over a minute before lights returned to the helm.