by Gary Weston
‘You may as well both hear this. We’ve had a signal. From Raven and Casey.’
Joy gasped. ‘They’re alive?’
‘We can only hope. It was a very brief message. Code red. Foregone.’
Tilly said, ‘Foregone? Drixolate runners?’
‘I’m thinking that’s a safe bet,’ said Boss.
Joy said, ‘Code red?’
‘Bad shit going down,’ said Boss. ‘We only got the call less than one hour ago. I wanted to tell you in person sooner, but my priority was to organise a well-armed rescue mission. We have no idea what we’ll find, so we need to be prepared.’
‘I’m going,’ said Joy, flatly.
Boss was equally adamant. ‘No, Joy. We don’t need a botanist on this mission. Sorry.’
‘I wasn’t asking. I’m going.’
‘Joy…’
Tilly said, ‘Let her go, Boss. She’ll go nuts waiting here for him. Drive you nuts, too.’
Boss sighed. ‘Women. And they say men don’t listen. Ok. Just promise me one thing.’
‘What?’
‘You stay out of it and let the professionals do their job. Understood?’
‘You have my word on it. Thanks, Boss.’
Boss raised an eyebrow and grunted ‘Hmm,’ at that promise. ‘Tilly. I haven’t seen you for a while.’
‘Not many have. Boss. I was coming to see you in the morning, but I suspect you’ll have your hands full.’
‘Very. What was it about?’
Tilly said, ‘Surgery. I’m going ahead with it.’
Boss took that in. ‘Good. About time. The DSI will support you every step of the way. We’ll talk when I have the time. Joy. Take off at seven. I’ll see you have a place. I have a heap to do. Gotta go.’
‘Thanks, Boss,’ said Joy.
Chapter 79
As Joy Dainty walked into the hanger Boss was using for the mission briefing, Boss sighed.
‘I was really hoping you’d change your mind about going.’
Joy dropped her belongings on the ground. ‘As you can see, I’m all packed and ready to go.’
‘Ok. As long as you take a back-seat.’
Joy said, ‘I know. Let the professionals handle it.’
Joy was pleased to see around fifty professionals. All in DSI green camouflage uniform, for all terrain action. Each carried a laser rifle, laser small arms and other assorted weapons. The look on their faces said this was about going after one of their own.
‘Listen up. Here’s the drill,’ shouted Boss, his voice echoing off the hanger walls and roof. ‘We have four ships. All with at least one laser cannon. Dedicated shooters and pilots. If there’s action in space, let them handle it. All of you come under the command of General Millet. That rank is DSI military, not regular armed forces. There are to be no prisoners. Don’t even waste space on the ships with their remains. There are enough creatures on that planet to clean up after you. The code red Agent Raven sent, means only one thing. He gathered the evidence to ensure that this is a drixolate running operation, pure and simple. I don’t have to remind any of you, the Interplanetary Council passed the laws stating anyone proved to be involved in any way with drixolate running, forfeits the right to any trial. Just eliminate them. The only ones you bring back are Agent Tagg Raven and pilot Captain Karma Casey. Next. No radio communication back to here. And keep ship to ship contact to an absolute minimum. Stands a chance they’ll be looking and listening out for you. Finally. Destroy anything to do with drixolate. Plants, equipment. This won’t shut down their organisation, but it will sure annoy the crap out of them. Questions?’ There were none. ‘Good luck, everyone. General Millet.’
‘Boss.’
‘Go kick some ass.’
Millet barked a few orders and they went to their allotted ships, small, fast fighters, with long-range capability.
‘General Millet. Before you go a word, please.’
‘Boss?’
‘Joy Dainty. Pair her up with an experienced female agent. Only arm Dainty if you have to do so. Look out for her, ok?’
‘As much as I can, Sir.’
Millet ran smartly after his team, up the airlock ramp which hissed closed behind him. Boss watched them take off, just the light blue of the plasma thrusters vanishing into deep space.
Chapter 80
They headed north away from the plains. Casey had seen the expanse of ugly looking trees and hills. She was trying hard to recall what creatures lived on this rock. Nothing had evolved into anything much. Probably too busy eating each other. Their suits would protect them from most crawling, biting things. It started to rain, which was a good thing, she decided.
‘A pity your girlfriend isn’t here. She might have some idea about what to eat.’
Raven spotted something familiar. ‘Troglonite beetles.’
This mound was nothing like those encountered on Nyzon Five, less than one third of the size. The shiny blue beetles ignored the two large creatures, taking apart something small and furry. At the base of a tree was a small mound of wriggling blue, the beetles killing a similar animal. It was in its death throes, as the toxic beetles bit into it. It stopped twitching, the workers taking over from the soldiers, and a line of them carried bits into the mound for their queens. In less than a minute, the dead animal was no more.
‘Efficient little devils,’ said Casey.
Raven reached up into a gnarled old tree and broke off two straight lengths. Using his knife, he fashioned a point on both making two spears and handed one to Casey. ‘Might help us catch dinner.’
‘To eat raw. Yum. I can hardly wait.’
Raven said, ‘Wait till you’re really hungry. I’ll remind you you said that. I’m thinking up there for the night. A good view all around us. Shelter in those rocks.’
It took another half hour and they were there. What they found wasn’t a cave, but it was close. A huge flat slab of rock had at some time broken off the top and landed at an angle to form a sloping roof. There was enough room for both of them, and they were out of the rain. Before taking shelter beneath it, Raven scrambled on top of it, and far in the distance he could see the greenhouses. They were far enough away to relax, slightly. Satisfied, he joined Casey who was jabbing into cracks to make sure anything snakelike wasn’t lurking there. Then she took off her boots and leaned back against the rocks.
‘At least eleven days to reach us. Allowing one full day to get ready.’
Raven sat by her side. ‘Karma. We can do this. In the morning, we go further away, sort out something to hide in. Gather food and find water.’
They chatted away and watched the rain until darkness fell, then watching the stars, they drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 81
Vickie Armstrong was short and a stocky barrel shape. She was also a captain in the DSI military. She had already killed nine bad guys, two with her bare hands. Not bad for a twenty two year old. She was also the divisions arm wrestling champion. Joy Dainty liked her.
‘I heard about you,’ said Armstrong. ‘You found that bomb on Nyzon Five.’
‘Not quite. Mervin Hanson found the bomb. I just stopped it going off.’
‘Hmm. Still. You’re not quite a Frizzle.’
Joy said, ‘A what?’
‘A Frizzle. All DSI military recruits spend six months doing basic training. General Tom Frizzle runs that. Until a recruit is passed by him, they’re all Frizzles.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment, then. I’m a botanist.’
Armstrong ran stubby fingers over her shaved scalp. ‘Just what I need.’
‘Yeah, right.’
‘I’m serious. I keep trying to grow…got some fancy name. Blue thing. Smells nice. Eats mice.’
‘Verminous Destructus.’
Armstrong was impressed. ‘That’s the one. Mine keep dying on me. Any tips?’
‘How many mice do you feed it?’
‘One a month. Live ones, of course.’
Joy said, ‘There’s your problem.
Too rich a diet. Not too much water, regular plant nutrients and halve the mouse ration. That should do it.’
‘That makes sense. Hard to look after plants in this job. This Agent Raven. One of your boyfriends?’
Joy said, ‘One of? He’s it.’
‘Oh, right. Serious, then?’
Joy said, ‘He’ll find out just how serious when I’ve slapped him a few times. The jerk just leaves me a note and goes shooting off into space. Not happy about that.’
‘If that were one of mine, he’d be walking funny for a week.’
‘Ouch. How many men you got?’
Armstrong laughed. ‘Nearly all of them, Joy. Jeez. Just the one? We’d better go get this one back for you.’
‘Thanks. I’d appreciate that.’
Chapter 82
Raven and Casey headed off down into the valley, further away from the drixolate runners. A stream ran through it and the water was good. They found a cluster of fruit trees with something not unlike plums. They tasted, well, like plums. They sat and ate a hand-full each.
‘This could be turned into quite a neat planet, with a little effort,’ said Raven.
Casey wiped her fingers on the grass. ‘Blame the Interplanetary Council. This and many other planets have been haggled over for decades.’ She started to take her suit off.
‘Casey?’
‘Don’t get too excited. I need a bath. You as well. Come on.’
They got naked and sat in the shallow stream, washing themselves and the regulation undies. It was hard not to check each other out, but that’s as far as they got. Hanging the undies on a bush to dry, they checked the stream for anything remotely edible. Raven, spear in hand, discovered an odd looking fish that lived in holes in the bank of the stream, just under the surface of the water. It looked fat and tempting. With the spear, he tried to catch one, but it suddenly took off up the bank and wriggled away to safety in the long grass. He tried another one, waited until it was on dry land and speared it.
Between them, they found enough combustible material to start a fire with, deciding they were far enough away from the runners for them not to see the smoke. The fish was a little tough, but edible. By the time they were full, their undies were dry enough to put back on.
‘Almost human again,’ said Casey, pulling her suit back on.
Raven did the same. They had seen the cliff-face across the stream, less than a mile away. All they needed was a cave. Preferably unoccupied. The cliff-face was riddled with caves and one fitted the wish-list. Gathering up fuel for a fire, they lit that at the mouth of the cave and sat beside it.
‘I must say, you’ve behaved yourself well, under the circumstances, Tagg.’
‘Seeing you naked, you mean?’
Casey dropped another log on the fire. ‘A girl could start to think she’d lost her looks.’
‘Take it from me, Karma. You have not lost your looks.’
‘You love Joy a lot.’
Raven said, ‘We’re trying for a baby. I keep thinking. I’m all the way out here, she could be pregnant.’
‘I’d like kids one day. Not just yet. Too busy.’
‘Always something to do. Time to turn in, I guess. I’ll put the fire out.’
That done, it quickly went dark. They had survived another day.
Chapter 83
It was close to noon of the fourth day. They were still alive. They took comfort in that. They knew they had to survive for at least another seven days. They were just starting to think they had a fighting chance. Then the lone ship arrived. Big, ugly, an unpleasant shade of green. At least three laser cannon.
‘The runner’s ship,’ declared Casey.
Raven spat. ‘Damn. I was hoping they’d be a few more days. This changes things.’
Casey grabbed his arm. ‘This changes nothing, Tagg. We stay low, wait for rescue.’
‘And these scum get away in the meantime? I don’t think so.’
‘Tagg. We’ll catch them another time.’
Raven shook her off. ‘And in the meantime they still spread their vile drugs all over the place. Ever see a teenage girl die from drixolate?’
‘Tagg. I heard it can be…’
Raven shook his head. ‘I said see a girl die. I have. More than one. In my arms. One by one, their organs pack up. The heart last. Everything else packs up, the heart keeps pumping, prolonging the suffering. No cure, Karma. We can’t let them get away. Karma. I’ll do this alone if I have too.’
‘I’ve a better idea. We steal their ship.’
Raven said, ‘You, Captain Karma Casey, are a genius. We don’t kill them. We just take their ship so they can’t escape.’
‘Hello? I’m a woman. I think straight. You man. Primitive being. Ugh! Man must go kill things. Why did men stop evolving when we women did not?’
Raven said, ‘Ouch! My feelings have all been trampled on. Karma. Tell me you can fly that ship?’
She followed the ship as it hovered above the plain, landing jets blasting clouds of dust high in the air. It settled within one mile of the greenhouse.
‘It’s a ship? How hard can it be?’
Crossing the stream to the shelter of the big flat rock, they climbed on top of it, lay on their bellies and watched the ship.
‘I’d kill for field-glasses,’ growled Raven. ‘All my stuff ruined in the crash.’
Casey said, ‘The pilot and co-pilot would stay on doing a post-flight shut-down procedure. Even bad guy pilots would do the basics.’
‘Nobody else is getting off,’ said Raven. ‘Makes sense. They need to get as many people and processed drugs onto the ship as possible, so they came in an empty ship. They all think we are dead, so no need for more people with weapons. This smacks of a quick turnaround.’
Casey said, ‘If that’s the case, the pilots may not even get off the ship.’
‘We have two scenarios. The pilots get off, we go steal the ship.’
‘Or?’
‘We get on the ship and kill them.’
‘See?’
Raven shrugged. ‘What?’
‘Back to the old, me man. Gotta go kill something, routine.’
‘Oh,’ said Raven. ‘You have an alternative, Oh, evolved one?’
‘I’m working on it. Give me a break.’
Chapter 84
One thing General Millet didn’t believe in was idle officers. Keep fit exercises, always a safe bet. Captain Armstrong put most of the men to shame, cheered on by Joy Dainty. Not satisfied with that, Armstrong held a one arm wrestling contest. She despatched most with relative ease, both male and female.
With her hands on her hips and her ample bosom pushed out, Armstrong said, ‘General Millet. Care to take me on?’
Millet, who stood nearly two feet taller and fifty pounds of packed muscle heavier, mimicked her stance. ‘Last time we did that, I couldn’t move my shoulder for a week.’
‘Go on, Sir,’ came a chorus of cries.
‘Best of three?’ said Armstrong. ‘Hey. I’m just a wee girl. Not scared of me, are you, Sir?’
‘Best of three. Let’s do it, Shorty.’
Shorty was Millet’s good-natured pet name for his captain. Joy watched in amazement as the wildly mismatched pair sat at the table facing each other. The others were making substantial bets on the outcome. A neutral adjudicated.
‘Grip.’
Millet’s huge mitt wrapped around Armstrong’s pudgy hand. Armstrong began her signature psyching out stare.
The lieutenant said, ‘Battle will commence on my count of three. Winner will be the one whose opponent’s back of hand is held down flat. On my mark. Three, two, one.’
The roar of the fifteen DSI officers hurt Joy’s eardrums, the two opponents immovable, like granite statues. Millet tried to match Armstrong’s cool stare. Neither budged for five tension filled minutes. Then, Armstrong’s arm was slowly levered over, and the back of her hand was forced down onto the table. First battle to Millet.
‘You been wo
rking out, General?’ said Armstrong with a cheeky grin.
Millet was the fittest man in the DSI military. Nobody would dispute that. ‘I was just being gentle with you, Shorty.’
‘I always said what a gentleman you are, whatever everyone else says about you,’ said Armstrong. ‘Ready to go again?’
‘Let’s go, Shorty.’
The roar started over again, but this time, much to Joy’s surprise, Armstrong got the better of the huge man in under three minutes. One all. More frantic betting ensued. Round three. The battle began. Three minutes. Four. Seven. This was an epic contest. Joy swore that Armstrong never blinked once during that time. Then. Like a giant pine tree, General Millet’s arm was forced back. He wasn’t about to give in easily. It took another two minutes to topple the man’s arm, but Shorty had him beat.
Armstrong blew her superior officer a kiss. ‘Next time, we do a beer drinking contest.’
‘You got no chance, Shorty.’
‘In your dreams.’
Moral had been lifted, the mood lightened. Joy saw the crafty wink Millet gave his captain. These two were top professionals.
Chapter 85
‘The hatch. It’s opening.’
Casey said, ‘I just hope they keep it open. We’d be seen for sure if we had to open it. Here they come. Two. Pilot, co-pilot. Leave it open, damn it.’
They watched the two pilots leave the ship. Their hearts sank as the hatch swung back up shut. They could open it again; that wasn’t the problem. Opening the massive hatch so close to the cave quarters, would have them cornered and shot in short order.
Raven said, ‘Ok. On the plus. They’re not in any hurry to load up. They know that if we had called home while we were in the ship, they still have a few days to get clear. I’m betting they have a whole mess of drixolate to take on board.’
‘We’re too outnumbered. No other way for it. We have to let them go, Tagg.’
Raven wasn’t about to do that, but getting themselves killed for nothing made no sense, either. ‘Can we disable the ship from the outside?’
‘Not really. Designers tend not to put vulnerable parts on the outside of spaceships. It wouldn’t be necessary.’