Star Realms: Rescue Run

by Jon Del Arroz

  The guard looked down at the terminal, then up at Dario once more, frowning. “I have too much invested in this company to take a hit… but we’d usually receive at least some sort of confirmation of a transfer.”

  “Scan his ident, Sarge,” one of the other guard said. “If he’s the CFO’s son like you say, and he checks out, why would he lie?”

  Why indeed? Dario surpressed a smile and held out his wrist.

  Sarge walked over to Dario, producing a scanner from his belt. It beeped when coming into contact with Dario’s handtab. A display of Dario’s picture, name and information appeared within moments. “Well,” Sarge said, “You check out. Sorry to doubt you, sir. Been too many strange cases with identities revolving around our suspects here.”

  Dario nodded in understanding. “May I take them? I don’t want to keep the board waiting.”

  “They’re a flighty bunch, sir,” Sarge said. “Perhaps one or two of us should come as escort?”

  “Of course, Dario said. “Though, the meeting is supposed to be held at the spaceport. The board doesn’t want these two seen in the upper levels, for the same PR reasons—and safety concerns. Can you escort us planetside through the skylift security lines?”

  “Not a problem.” Sarge brandished his plasma pistol once more, waving it between Joan and Trian. “All right, you two. Don’t try to pull anything or I swear I’ll disintegrate you before you can blink.”

  Joan ducked her head low. She looked as contrite as could be, but Dario knew her well enough to know she was scheming. He hoped this whole charade impressed her.

  A short walk later and the odd grouping of Dario, security guards and his “prisoners” descended the skylift down to the spaceport level three in near silence. The lift itself was crowded with nearly a thousand other people from corporate, and Dario didn’t want to attract any undue attention to himself.

  Once the skylift opened and people filed out, Dario led them to a place several blocks away. Red iron glowed off of the reflective lighting above, programmed for daylight operations. People travelled to and from the spaceport via hovercar and various level escalators. It was busy enough that no one paid much attention to the security officers or where their weapons were pointed.

  The one thing Dario hadn’t quite figured out in his plan was how he’d get rid of the security guards. He had needed them to escort Joan, her friend, and him through the skylift checkpoint, but beyond that, they would get suspicious when they saw that there was no meeting with the board.

  For now, Dario led them down the streets. He couldn’t just attack the security guards, or they would have him arrested for conspiring with spies. The real question was, if he set up a situation where Joan and her friend could escape or overpower the guards themselves, would they time it right and have the ability to actually take the guards? Dario would have to make it believable that he was helpless in such a situation as well. But perhaps Dario could find an alternative.

  “I have a call coming through. I need some privacy,” Dario said, motioning for the security guards to stop before veering off to where he was hopefully out of earshot. He connected to the nets through his oculars. “Scan empty buildings. Access level, corporate management.”

  His enhanced vision marked various buildings as they passed, showing a vacant one a block away. Dario walked back over to the group and motioned to lead them again. When he arrived, he scanned his ident against the door terminal, which allowed him access as a quality control inspector.

  As expected, he entered a large, dark space with concrete floors and nearly blacked out windows. The dimmest of light trickled in through small cracks. His footsteps echoed.

  The security guards followed him inside. “You’re meeting in here?” asked one of the two guards.

  “Yeah. Random location for security purposes. Looks like the board members haven’t arrived yet,” Dario said, turning around. Now what? That was the question. He caught Joan’s eye, daring to look at her for the first time since they descended the lift, his heart racing even at that small connection. If anything, he had to keep her safe. “I’m not sure how long they’ll be. What’s your shift schedule look like?”

  The security guard shrugged. “Off in three hours, but I’m supposed to be doing a patrol of the promenade.”

  “You could get back to that. If you loan me your weapon, I can handle them until the board arrives. I’m sure they’ve got their own security detail,” Dario said. It sounded stupid when it came out of his mouth. Why would security risk leaving him alone? Even at his words? He had to try anyway.

  “I don’t think that’s wise, sir,” the security officer said. “The prisoners have already given us a lot of trouble trying to run. They’re dangerous.”

  As Dario suspected, the guard wouldn’t leave so easily. Prudent on the guard’s part. If something happened to Dario, the guards here would be held liable, no matter what Dario’s orders were. So much for that idea. That left him without another plan.

  Joan, still cuffed with hands behind her back, looked as if she were about to do something stupid. Again.

  “No!” Dario shouted, which served to distract the two guards with him. They tensed, turning.

  Joan didn’t listen. She pummeled directly into one of them, knocking him to the concrete floor. The guard’s plasma pistol slid out of his hand across the smooth surface. Joan’s friend took her lead, dropping to roll toward the second security guard’s legs. That guard fired his plasma pistol, hitting the ceiling grid. The ceiling sparked and a light fixture shattered, glass spraying everywhere.

  Dario scrambled to get the plasma pistol on the floor. He’d fired weapons a few times before, but as a corporate executive, that hadn’t been part of his training. There was a stun setting on it, but how could he find it easily in the dark? He turned on his night-vision scanner to see if there were any clear markings on the pistol, backing away from the guards.

  Joan wrestled with the security guard who slammed her face onto the floor. She struggled without the use of her hands.

  The other tried to get to his feet, though Joan’s friend laid out a sweep of his leg, knocking him back down. The guard still held onto that gun.

  Dario flicked his eyes upward to initiate a search. “How do I switch a plasma pistol to stun?”

  Before it could respond, one of the guards wrestling responded, grunting, “It’s already on stun!”

  With that information, Dario aimed toward the other guard, who still held a plasma pistol, though tangled with Joan’s friend who’d managed to roll atop him. He fired, hoping the first guard’s words held truth.

  Both of them fell limp to the ground, the other plasma pistol falling out of the security guard’s arms.

  Dario turned his attention to Joan and the remaining guard. Joan caught his eye and delivered a kick to the guard’s stomach, using the force to roll herself away. Once she was clear, Dario took aim. The security guard, unworried about Dario, twisted, leaving his back exposed.

  Dario fired. The guard shook and collapsed to the ground.

  Joan wiggled and got back up to her feet. “Put that thing down before you hurt someone, Mr. I-don’t-know-how-to-stun.”

  Despite himself, Dario laughed, needing some humor to dissolve the tense moments of before. His hands shook from the nervousness of having to fire on someone. A rush of adrenaline filled his head. Did soldiers feel this way every time they had to use their weapons? The appeal of that career path became clear.

  He paced over toward Joan, staring at the limp bodies on the ground. All of them seemed to be breathing, albeit shallowly.

  “Hopefully that didn’t make too much noise or draw too much attention. Board meeting, huh?” Joan asked, shaking her head before stepping over the body of the security guard she’d been entangled with. She motioned with her head toward him. “He’s got a key in his left breast pocket. Don’t suppose you could grab that for me?”

  Dario nodded and set the plasma pistol down, flipping the body over a
nd reaching into the security guard’s vest. The key was easy to find, a thin metallic object. He produced it and moved behind Joan to free her from the cuffs.

  Joan pulled each arm forward, stretching and rubbing her wrists before turning to face Dario again. “You did good work. I’m a bit surprised you put yourself on the line so much for me.” She smiled. “Thanks.”

  Dario could feel his face getting hotter. “Of course. It’s the least I can do.”

  “It’s a lot,” Joan said, moving over to where her friend lay incapacitated on the floor. She prodded at his side with her toe. “Looks like they’re out cold. Don’t suppose you have a stimtab or anything like that? Maybe can wake Trian before the others come to.”

  “No, I didn’t plan on shooting anyone.” Dario wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t plan on much, to be honest. I knew you were heading to the spaceport and got your comm frequency from your new ident when you last called. My oculars alerted me to a security feed that said you’d been captured. I came as fast as I could.”

  “Good that you did, or I’m not so certain we’d be alive, let alone here.” Joan crouched and patted her friend on the face. “Trian, come on. Wake up.”

  Dario stood for a moment, not certain where to go from here. There was going to be the launch of that Megahauler in several hours. What could they do about it? It wasn’t as if the three of them could walk in and stop a launch of a ship with thousands of the poor from the underlevels.

  Trian stirred. Joan continued to pat his face, brightening at his movement. The man instinctively flinched away from her swatting hands, grumbling and turning over to one side. “I feel like someone’s smashed a datapad on the back of my skull,” he murmured.

  “You need to get up anyway. No more time. We’re down on level three and have to get into the spaceport,” Joan said, pushing herself to stand upright once more. “Then we need to figure out what to do from there. Maybe now that we’re planetside we should try to contact the Council of Ministers?”

  “If I were the corporation, and I knew there were spies about, I’d have my entire system monitor for potential transmissions just like that. It’d never get out, and it’d give away your position,” Dario said.

  Trian sat up, hands still behind his back. “Don’t suppose someone could give me my hands back?”

  “Oh, right,” Dario said, crouching behind the man. He had the key he had just used on Joan, not having found others on the downed security guard. He tried the lock. The key opened the clasps on Trian’s wrists with a click.

  Trian brought his hands in front of him, then rubbed his head. “We have to move from here anyway. If I woke up this quickly, they won’t be far behind me,” he said, motioning to the security guards. “I agree with your friend, Joan. We shouldn’t attempt a transmission at this time. Perhaps if we can get to Zhang, she could find a course of action for us that would be more sensible.”

  Joan frowned in thought. “We were just in a detention center. I don’t think trying to break into another one would be a good idea right now. What do you think, G.O.D.?”

  Dario couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath. That AI name could get her into a good amount of trouble if taken out of context. More amusing was that both Trian and he accepted it without hesitation. Joan had a unique sense of humor. That was certain. She had a lot of other unique qualities as well. He tried his best to look elsewhere, so he wouldn’t stare. He did glimpse her from the corner of his eye, all the same.

  “Hmm,” Joan said.

  “What’s the verdict?” Trian asked.

  Joan tilted her head, as if uncomfortable. “I can’t get him to stop singing in my ear. But from the songs he’s singing, I think he’s trying to tell us that we should head to the Megahauler and stow away.”

  “That’s crazy,” Dario said. “I know the corporate plan for this. They’ll take off and you’ll be stuck, shot out of the sky with the underlevelers!”

  “I agree with your assessment that the situation is dire, but I don’t see much of an alternative. We have to find Zhang. She will be able to lead us out of this mess once we have her,” Trian said. The room fell silent. “I’m certain of that.”

  One of the security guards moaned. “We have to get out of here,” Dario said, jogging toward the door they came in. He certainly didn’t want to be seen conspiring with his supposed prisoners when the guard awoke.

  Joan followed, though Trian moved back to where Dario had dropped the plasma pistol a moment before. With methodical precision, he retrieved the weapon, pointing to each of the security guards and re-stunned them. He removed their handcuffs from their belts and cuffed their hand behind their backs as well. Those two would be in a lot of pain when they finally did wake.

  “Are you going to lead us to the ship they’re sending her off on then?” Joan asked.

  Dario considered, pausing as he waited for Trian to catch up to them. He had his reservations, but Joan had already consulted her AI, and he couldn’t come up with a better plan. When those security guards did wake up they’d have problems, and he’d have questions to answer. But that was neither here nor there.

  What he wanted was to keep Joan safe, but there seemed to be no good opportunity to do that. He side-glanced at her, noting her shoulder-length hair bounce with each step. He could watch her like this forever, but if she had her way with this, would he even be likely to see her again?

  That didn’t matter. If he was falling for her, if he cared about her, he had to consider her priorities. And he did. She had a good cause, but why did it have to be something that would imminently take her away from him? It wasn’t fair.

  “Dario?” Joan asked, concern in her voice.

  “Huh?” Dario said. He continued to walk along the street. The spaceport would be about a fifteen minute walk from the vacant building.

  “Are you going to help us? More, I mean,” Joan said.

  He wanted to tell her no, that he thought the best idea would be for her to come back to the Central Office. If his father would listen, he could get Joan asylum of some sort with the company. But that wouldn’t happen. More likely she’d end up dead and he’d be without a job, or worse.

  He could hide her and her friend out down here on the lower levels for some time. No one would come looking for them after a few days, but if the company shipped off these people in droves toward the Hyrades Cluster, she may end up in the same situation. With what little he knew of Joan, she didn’t seem the time to sit and watch.

  “Yeah, we’re heading to the spaceport now. Hopefully my credentials can get us through security again,” Dario said.

  Joan smiled, turning her head to glance back at Trian. “I told you he’d be a help,” she said. “He’s a good one.”

  “It’s unfortunate there aren’t more people like him within this company.” Trian gave a thumbs up toward Dario, accompanied by a small smile.

  They walked for several blocks until they reached the terminal, close to where they’d come down on the lift. Thousands of people moved in different directions. Hovercars dropped off passengers and picked up others. Large doors opened toward different terminals of spaceliners, corporate private hangars and finally the massive interplanetary shipping yard.

  That’s the direction where they headed. Hundreds of transports waited to take passengers to orbiting, docked ships, far too large to descend into the atmosphere planet, even a light-gravity environment like Mars. Bots and workers alike loaded their cargo, with dozens of corporate personnel readying their planet-to-ship routes.

  Dario walked toward the Regency BioTech desk, scanning his ident as Joan and Trian lingered behind him. A woman checked his clearance and tilted his head at him, a curious look on her face. “Mr. Anazao. Quality control? Are you here for an inspection?” she asked.

  That evoked a smile. She couldn’t have provided a better cover for him. “Yes. Yes, I am. This is my team.”

  Chapter 30

  Inspections

  Spaceport—Third Level, M
ars

  Local Date February 14th, 2464

  Joan followed Dario down the back warehouses of Regency BioTech’s shipping and receiving yards. They passed at least a dozen transports on the way. Her feet stung from all the walking—and running—she’d done during the day. Then again, a little ache beat the alternative of being locked in a cell, waiting to be executed.

  Dario’s idea had been brilliant. Using his job as a quality control manager to get them access to anywhere within Regency BioTech’s yards almost reminded her of one of G.O.D.’s plans. It made their real job a lot simpler, but they still had to find Commodore Zhang. A needle in a haystack.

  If this were the first of a trial run to get rid of the corporation’s unwanted peasants, perhaps the search wouldn’t be that difficult. Regency BioTech’s security would need at least several hours in preparation to get people launched onto a ship by their scheduled departure.

  Dario at least acted like he knew his way around the spaceport, leading with few words and a step that held much more confidence than before he had managed to bluff his way past security. No one stopped them on their way. Who would want to risk pestering one of the higher ups?

  They moved out into the open, several lifts moving about in different directions with large cargo crates, heading for their respective transports. Further down the runway, Joan saw where they needed to go.

  Ten transports jammed together in a line, side by side, large enough to hold thousands of people each. The Megahauler would be packed when those people boarded, but what did people’s comfort matter to the corporation?

  Off to either side stood the thousands of people required to fill those transports, herded like cattle by hundreds of security officers in riot gear with their weapons drawn. For the most part, the people were going peaceably, filing down to smaller lines to flood into the transports. No one checked them for weapons or contraband. It wouldn’t matter if those were stowed aboard anyway. This would be their death sentence.