The Boundary Zone

by A. B. Keuser

  Whoever he was… KaRapp, Maeltar, one of their goons... he was decidedly wrong if he thought that draining her weapon was all it took to make her defenseless. Then again, she really didn’t want to be forced into a fight here.

  Letting out a heavy breath, and swallowing the hard lump in her throat, she twisted the gun's intensity knob down. A weak shot would look like one from a power-bled gun.

  The next bolt of energy that left the gun hit the rock just behind the bounding target. Instead of sending rocks flying in a spew of vibrant glimmering, it sizzled across the rock face, leaving a greasy smudge.

  She dialed the gun all the way back up, and clicked on the safety, shaking it futilely as though it was malfunctioning.

  "Give up now and I won't hurt you, Mack."

  The sound of her name twisted her head up, to the slowly approaching man. His EVA suit was covered in shrouds of fabric floating about him like the buoyant hair of a shaggy mammal.

  "Who the hell are you?"

  "I'm your deliverance, dear heart. Someone wants to see you."

  Mack didn't let him take another step. The pulse from her gun hit him square in the chest, and he lurched backward, green-black blood seeping from him in heavy drops that floated around him in the gravity-less space.

  "Gotcha."

  She checked the gun again and moved quickly to Raza's side. The Lieutenant floated, unconscious in the outcropping where Kenzie had left her. Her suit was still intact. And as far as Kenzie could tell, no one had found her and taken the easy shot. Why they'd hit her with a stunner in the first place hadn't made much sense. But then... if the one she'd killed had been telling the truth, it seemed like someone wanted them.

  She switched her gun for the one lashed to Raza's leg. It wouldn't be as effective, since the lieutenant hadn't accepted the upgrade, but it would be better than hers. A normal weapon at full power was always a better option than an upgrade at one eighth. Or so she thought - so her brother had thought.

  But her brother was dead, and neither option had saved him.

  She pulled Raza's arm over her shoulder and looped her own around the lieutenant's waist. "You're my only friend out here, Raz. Don't go abandoning me."

  Her boots left small prints in the light gray dust as she trudged back to the transport. She stepped into a path covered in other tracks - headed in both directions - and let out a sigh. She hadn't gotten lost.

  Switching frequencies, she pressed a finger to her comm button, she tested out the range.

  "Flash?" She said, though she knew it was generally the signal when you could see someone.

  Still, the reply came back a song to her ears. "Boom."

  "Thank Goddess for that."

  "Where have you been Mack? You two were supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago."

  That time estimate couldn’t be right. Mack glared at a rock, pretending it was Cable. "Well, your royal highness. It just so happens there were unfriendlies who didn't want us getting back to you at all, so, if you'd like to file a complaint with them, there's three corpses about a half a click back that-a-way, that should be able to register a complaint with their superior... oh, wait, nope. I killed them, because they shot Raza and tried to take me prisoner. So, you can keep on bitching, or you can get someone headed toward me to help. Raza may be all but weightless right now, but that doesn't mean she's the easiest to maneuver with one hand."

  The helmet of a space suit bobbled out from behind one of the rocks. "Thank you. That was quick."

  "We're not there yet."

  As Cable's words fell over her, so did the blue bold of the stunner, and she braced, knowing that she….

  …wasn’t going to lose consciousness.

  She hung in the vacuum, her boots inches from the ground, and sorted through the fractured thoughts that assailed her.

  Her gun was bled dry, Raza was out for the count, and there was no chance Cable was going to get there in time.

  Stretching down, she kicked at the ground, shoving herself backward, but not fast enough.

  The man caught her, and she blocked his arm as he reached for her respirator tubes—a sloppy version of what Aaron had taught her. But when he punched her in the gut, it didn’t matter that she still had a healthy supply of oxygen.

  He pulled back a fist and knocked her visor hard enough the emergency shield shuttered. And with it, the stars blinked out.

  She couldn’t see to fight, and when he attacked again, she could only swing ineffectually.

  As Aaron used to say… she was fried.

  Seventeen

  Cable ran as fast as the asteroid's reduced gravity would let him. "Bounding" Aaron had called it, back before everything had gone to shit. He heard the others behind him, their breath grunting out as their boots touched down on the fine dust that covered the rocks and pushed off for their next impetus-driven leap. She'd seen someone, and everyone was accounted for.... Someone was fucking with them.

  He reached out and grabbed hold of a rocky spire to twist himself around the corner, running along the wall like ridge heedless of the suit’s exertion warnings. He needed to be faster.

  Raza floated, spinning in a slow circle. Cable spared her enough of a glance to see her life signs were nominal.

  She'd be fine. Kenzie on the other hand....

  No, he wouldn't think about that. Not after what he'd sacrificed with Aaron, not after what he'd sacrificed in keeping the real truth from her. He'd get her back.

  Using the close walls of the canyon like path, Cable kicked off the sides, climbing in the low gravity until he leapt high enough over the asteroid's rocky crags that he could see down into the valleys and rills. He caught a glimpse of movement. Two fleet regulation EVA suits. One carrying the other. They were too far away... No chance he’d catch them.

  Cable wrested his gun from his holster. Kenzie had amped up the range on it, so he wasn't worried about distance. He was only worried he'd miss.

  Dialing the intensity down, he passed below the kill-zone and took aim, adjusting for his descent. The shot hit the runner in the leg, fizzling out in blue veins. And they turned to look back at Cable. The pause was enough for cable to take aim again, this shot landed directly on his chest and again, fizzled. Shielding. Even though they were far enough away, Cable could tell the runner was laughing at him as he slowly sank back toward the path. And he knew who had abducted her.

  No one else could have shielded against Kenzie’s modifications. But it was impossible.

  It was the one theory he couldn’t voice without finding himself in the brig. And no one else would do what he would to find her.

  As Cable pushed back to his vantage point, he cursed. He’d lost sight in the precious few seconds it took him to get back in the air. When his eyes finally fell on them, it was the last thing he'd wanted to see. They disappeared into the hatch of a raider class ship. Its engines already spooled, it blasted off the rock and sped into the void before Cable's feet hit the asteroid's surface, sending up a puff of dust.

  Space tore in front of them, as the ship punched its own gore, and they were gone.

  The comm chatter in his ear finally registered.

  "Commander, we need to get back. Peezus is tracking the ship, we'll get her back. But not without help."

  There was a hollow spot where his brain should have been.

  But his legs still worked, and he followed the others back processing little other than the ship’s name.

  Blackshark.

  Dragging Raza to the ship, he shot a glance to Stacy and received a subtle shake of her head. The gore hadn’t had set coordinates. Tracking them down would be a nightmare if his theory wasn’t correct.

  The shuttle blasted off from the asteroid's pitted surface, and Cable stared out the viewport into the black. Not even a full mission in and he'd broken his promise.

  He drove his fist into the bulkhead and received a warning chirp from the Ship's computer.

  "I know." He told it, though it didn’t care, as long
as he stopped.

  By the time they got back to the ship, Raza was conscious, and raring to get back out after Kenzie. Cable admired her fire, and couldn't have agreed more with her. But Bureaucratic bullshit was bogging them down. He couldn't blast off on a rescue mission until he got the go-ahead from Buchanan.

  If the old woman didn’t hang Kenzie out to dry, the void would explode in a second big bang.

  With Raza headed to the infirmary to get a clean bill of health, and the others in the crew heading to the Armory to deal with their drained weapons, Cable went to Mersen.

  The captain glared at his desk screen, a cup of coffee clenched in his fists - as though he expected someone to try to knock it out of his hands.

  “We encountered resistance on the asteroid. The dead are in our morgue, waiting for identity confirmation.”

  “And the living?”

  “Only one as far as I know. He had a fleet regulation suit--”

  “One of ours?”

  “Yes. Stolen, I’d guess.” More likely sold by a different Flack looking to pad his pockets. “He ambushed Lieutenant Crioce and Captain Flack. Stunned the former… captured the other.” He swallowed the bile that came with that thought.

  Letting out a low breath, he looked the man in the eye and said, “I need your go-ahead to head after them and retrieve my lost crew member.”

  “I don’t have the authority to do that, and you know it.”

  “Maybe not, but Buchanan likes you.”

  “I still play by all the rules. Even if you’re given license to bend half of them.”

  Cable shrugged, he was only what they’d made him.

  “If it were anyone else on that raider, I'd be here just the same," he said, glaring at the ship’s captain. "And we both know, if it were anyone else on that raider, I wouldn't have to worry about Buchanan. She'd clear their rescue in a heartbeat... and we both know it."

  “You may not have to worry about her.”

  “Then you’ll give the okay?”

  "Gunk’s come out of retirement." Mersen said with a flat expression. “She’s returned to her position as admiral, the proverbial ink isn’t dry yet, but she’s undoubtedly your best bet.”

  "You're joking."

  "No. She is the admiral in residence aboard this ship and will be for the foreseeable future. Bypass Buchanan. She’ll come after you, but not before you can go after Mackenzie."

  Cable stood, ignoring formalities and left. He had no intention of wasting more time.

  Gunk stood in the office seeming as out of place as the tattoo of the purple rose on the top of her leathery hand. "Never thought I'd see the day... did you?"

  "No." Cable shook his head at the offer to sit. "I have a problem and I need your authorization."

  "I can't go around Buchanan's orders to conscript Mack, there are--"

  "It's not about that. Kenzie's gone, she was captured on our last mission and I need clearance to mount a rescue. My men are already working on tracking the ship that took her, but I need clearance to actually go after her. We both know Buchanan will block it if she has the chance."

  Her face a pale sheet, the newly re-dubbed admiral sat heavily in her chair, the sound of her pneumatic leg wheezing as it bent.

  “I’ll put it through the channels right away. Boudicca went off duty a half hour ago, so she won't see it till the morning. Hopefully you'll have Mack back by then."

  "And when I get back, we'll talk about you working your way around her conscription. Talk with Doctor Pakovic in the meantime."

  “Your mother and I are having coffee in four hours. I’ll make sure she doesn’t worry about either of you.” She paused, and looked back at him. “And Cable? Make sure you get her back in one piece.”

  Cable didn't voice the black ideas swirling about in his mind. He left, and met Raza and Stacy half way down the corridor.

  He shook his head at them. This was not a conversation for an open corridor.

  Peezus and—unfortunately—Bezzon were waiting in the men’s bunk when they filed in and sealed the door.

  "Everything in order Commander?"

  "Much as it can be. What do we have?"

  "Your runner went into the heart of bad-alley."

  "We're going to have to do this run quietly," Cable said. "Civies and a non-milit ship."

  Cable gave his crew a quick once over and nodded. "Get your gear sorted and meet back here as soon as you're ready. Act how you'd want everyone else to if it was your butt cooling in some bad-alley slave block."

  Cable didn’t honestly think they'd drop her off on a slave block for a quick sale. She was pretty enough that someone would buy her... but an asteroid field wasn't a place to go scouting for slaves... and knowing how to camouflage yourself wasn't the work of an amateur. Whoever had gone after Kenzie had a purpose for her, more nefarious than that of a pleasure slaver.... Unless.

  He shook away that thought. There was no way Aaron had survived. Even if he hadn't put a bullet between his best friend's eyes, the climate of that planet was too harsh. The primitive dwellings were centuries old, burnt out husks. Crumbled remnants of the old Ka regimes.

  And still Cable had to wonder.

  But if it was Aaron. Why would he steal his sister.

  "Everything alright Commander?" Raza was first back, dressed well enough to pass for a bad-alley tart.

  “Do you remember anything else before you were stunned?”

  “I’ve told you everything. If there’s some clue hidden in there, I don’t know what it is.”

  He looked past her, the others hadn’t finished, he didn’t know how much time he had, but he needed at least one of them to know.

  "Can I trust you with my life, Raza?"

  "You do every day." She said with a quick quirk of her lips.

  He spoke as lowly as he could. "I didn't kill Aaron."

  Her brow knit for a moment before smoothing out, her mouth twisting. "Honestly, I never believed you had. You came back to the shuttle shook up... but nowhere near as you should have been. And you're not soulless. Everyone who's served under you can vouch for that. So, you left him on that world. It's not likely he lasted long. But if I was faced with the option of making you kill me, and dying on some back world planet from exposure... I wouldn't make you pull the trigger."

  "Aaron was not so kind as you." Cable stared at the hatch, watching for any of the others to arrive. "He taunted me. I couldn't understand it... I thought I knew him, and then he did… what he did. Orders are orders. I should have made it a clean death."

  "Don't think about it. He's gone, he's paid for his sins, and we're here, alive and not facing conspiracy, because you were strong enough to walk away."

  She lay a hand on his forearm and smiled. As he opened his mouth to refute her, the long whistle and obnoxious cat-calls began.

  "Day-um, Raz. If I'd known you could slut it up like that I'd have found time to spend with you on leave."

  Stacy winked at her, and didn’t spare her another glance as she stowed the bags and climbed up into the ship.

  Bezzon was close behind her, with a shit-eating grin on his face. “If you two get together, let me know. I’d love to watch.”

  Raza threw a loose bolt and hit him on the head. It left a tiny chunk of skin cut across his forehead, right over his eye.

  “You bitch,” Bezzon lurched forward, but Cable stopped him.

  “Behave. You want to start a fight on Bad Alley, be my guest, it’s expected. Just clean up your own mess. Dying isn’t a part of the mission plan.” He didn’t look at Bezzon. As far as he was concerned the lieutenant could pick any number of ways to die.

  They piled into the old scow they'd appropriated for missions just like this. To the untrained eye, she might look like easy pickings for pirates or scrappers. To the informed, she was not a barge to be trifled with, illegal aftermarket upgrades weren't exactly visible, but the signs were there, and a scan would tell you the things you can't see could hurt you.

 
; With everyone on board and Stacy at the helm, they eased smoothly out of the Dendratic and as soon as they got the go-ahead from flight con, they headed for open space at maximum thrust. The ship was old, and having state of the art jumping tech wouldn't make sense. It was better to waste time scurrying to jump points and pretend they spent all their money on weapon upgrades, than to risk the tech being discovered and likewise their true natures.

  With Raza keeping a close eye on Bezzon, Cable forced himself to relax, if only marginally, as they made the short haul out to the nearest beacon. Mersen had offered to get them closer, but the farther they went on their own, the better.

  Right now, they needed to get to Bad Alley without drawing too much suspicion to them. And the lack of haste rankled Cable. The more time they spend in straight space, the more likely it was they'd lose Kenzie. And that was not something he could afford.

  With a glance back at his crew, he noted the shared somber expression - Bezzon excluded.

  They drifted away from the ship, knocking thrusters when needed, and waited. Mersen’s people gave the go ahead and he confirmed their ship was in the green.

  It was too small to make a gore jump on its own, but it could piggy back, and when the Dendratic jumped the gore, they’d slide right in after them.

  "Jump in five. Four. Three. Two. One."

  As straight space shattered around them and the void collapsed in on them, Cable didn't know who he'd be on the other side.

  Eighteen

  She hadn’t seen anything of the ship before she’d been dumped into a dark compartment. She’d barely had the chance to determine which of the ship’s multi directional exigency hatch was “up” between the time her captor tore her broken mask off and the drives kicked in. She dropped to the floor, and the wind knocked from her chest. And her daze had lasted the entirety of her brief trip to her cell.

  Her captor hadn’t even made her walk, he very kindly dragged her by one leg and rolled her inside.