He let go of Trish Elkin and grabbed Shaw’s throat so fast it was instantly frightening. Beth suddenly dangled in the air from his hand around her neck. She felt his thumb touching the tip of his index finger at the base of her neck.
“Stop. Please,” Hagan said, but he didn't get up from his knees. “I'm in charge here.”
“You must be the Ventura's limp-dicked chief engineer, Wes Hagan. I know all there is to know about your clueless stinking ass. Mostly, I know that you will answer any question to stop me from breaking this fish gut’s neck.”
Beth suddenly struggled in his squeezing hand.
“OK! Yes! Ask!” Hagan began to rise, but found a gun in his face.
“Where the fuck is Captain Alice Everett?”
***
“Where's Worthington?” Barcus asked Sarah Wood, as she inventoried and repacked the med kits for the Memphis.
“I think he is on the bridge with Cook and Beary. I hate these new HUD settings. You can never find people, and they have to activate comms to even receive,” Wood replied, without stopping her work.
“Thanks.”
Barcus started up the ramp but paused.
“Seriously, Sarah. Thanks, for everything.”
“I'm glad you're OK,” Sarah said, as he waved.
Barcus marveled at how well the ship had been restored, trying hard to stay in the moment, as he moved through to the bridge.
The door slid open to excited conversation. Worthington was in his command chair, closely examining a new control screen and interface. Rand looked at the same screen while speaking to him. Muir, Cook, and Beary were in a heated debate about the utility of something, and Valerie Hume was greeting Barcus brightly. It seemed like loud, unruly chaos in contrast to the bridge on the Iosin.
“Everyone is excited that we can configure Quantum Entanglement Synchronous Transmitters on the Memphis, the STU, and the Sedna,” Hume said.
“Hey, Hume. Thanks for finding me.” Barcus put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
“What's all this. You going soft on us, Barcus?” She laughed and pounded her fist on his sternum.
“Had to be said. I said it, now kiss my ass.” He smiled, as he roughly pushed her away. His mind had a completely different dialogue.
I'm sorry, Hume.
“Jimbo, the Iosin gave me an update. They are not coming directly back. Their mission is going smoothly, and they are on the way to New Tranquility.”
“Let me guess,” Worthington said. “There's a maintenance spider on the Sedna. All the damn things have QUEST comms built-in that talk to the Iosin. It's where the tech came from.”
“That and a million other things,” Barcus said, absently.
***
“I'm sorry.” Hagan lowered his head. “Captain Everett is dead.”
“You should be sorry, you rusty bucket of vomit!” the man yelled, still holding Shaw by the neck as if she were a rag doll.
His face was covered with emotions: anger, sadness, realization.
More quietly, he said, “Did you know she was in love with you?”
The cop set Shaw's feet back on the deck and let her go. The room was silent, until Jude awoke and suddenly struggled against her bindings.
“On your feet, shit bricks,” the man growled.
“My name is Jack Zimmerman. I'm the next asshole you were about to get killed.” He holstered his other weapon. He was the next name in Everett's cell. He was a Luna Peace Officer.
“The keys, please. I will free them, then we must get out of here,” Wex said, holding out her hand.
Jack pulled out the keys but didn't hand them over.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“My name is Wex,” she said, and snatched the keys. “What did you do to them?”
“Stun gloves.” He rubbed his square jaw. “I underestimated them. Little bitches almost killed me.” He rolled his jaw then. Kuss saw the bruise there.
Shaw helped Elkin to her feet. Hagan was the last up.
“You could have just told me your name. We had it. And yes, you were the next to visit on the list,” Hagan said.
“Stow that shit, for now. We got to get the fuck out of this shit hole,” Zimmerman said. “You kicked the hornets’ nest.”
“We are supposed to just trust you?” Hagan said.
Zimmerman drew his sidearms and handed one to Hagan and one to the recently freed Jude, who instantly executed a shoulder roll and came up kneeling with the gun trained on Jack’s head. He knelt to make it easier.
“Kill me or trust me. But we have no time for bullshit,” Jack said.
Hagan turned toward the lift and the bridge.
***
“Hagan will pick up one more in New Tranquility. And then, we can meet on Freedom Station,” Barcus said, causing Jimbo to look up. “FS is an open port. If we use one of the public docking spires, we can dock for free for twenty-four hours, anonymously.”
“Mall parking. Could be crowded,” Jimbo said.
“It won't be,” Barcus said, with certainty. “Walk with me. Let’s talk, while I prep the STU.”
They walked into the hangar and were greeted by three Warmarks, lined up and waiting for the ramp to lower on the STU.
“Expecting trouble?” Worthington asked.
“Not with these along,” Barcus said.
“To even have these in your possession without a black badge is a world of trouble,” Jim said, casually.
“You're the one flying around with a cargo hold full of nukes,” Barcus answered.
“You didn't ask me out here to help you watch Warmarks load themselves or to tell me to be careful.” Jimbo faced him. “Straight up, man. As always.”
“You, Rand, and Hume have to come with me in the STU to Freedom Station,” Barcus said.
“I do feel like soup.”
Jimbo smiled.
Barcus thought, I'm sorry Jimbo, but you'll never get that soup...
***
“Give me that!” Shaw yelled, as she grabbed the gun from the crouching Jude.
She walked right up to Zimmerman where he knelt.
“Give me a reason why I should not send you to hell.”
“Because I am ruggedly handsome, a sexual savage in bed, and I make an excellent breakfast.”
Zimmerman smiled, which was frightening. His enormous teeth were perfect. He didn't realize there was blood on the left side of them.
Elkin laughed and then immediately regretted it. Shaw dropped the gun on the deck between them, rubbed her neck with one hand, and slapped his face as hard as she could with the other. He didn't even try to avoid it. It was like hitting a marble statue. Her hand regretted it, as she and Kuss helped Elkin to the lift.
Zimmerman stood, as he sensed the ship lifting off on grav-plates.
He turned and faced Wex then, all humor gone.
“You're the one Everett talked about. You are the fucking reason she's dead. She was my friend, my mentor.”
“It's a war. Many more will die,” Wex said.
Zimmerman scowled and took a half step closer. His move was mirrored by Jude and Cine, on either side of Wex.
“Keep your filthy pet hyenas the fuck away from me.”
Zimmerman turned his back on them, intentionally. It was a grave warrior insult and he knew it. He walked to the lift and went to the bridge.
“This is he whom you spoke,” Cine said, in her accent.
“Yes. Give him time,” Wex mused.
***
The lift door opened on the main salon of the Sedna, and Officer Zimmerman stepped out and stood there, staring.
“Fucking eh. You pukes know how to steal 'em,” Jack said, laughing.
“What is your problem?” Hagan said. “Why would Captain Everett bring a primate like you in on this?”
They were already moving quickly, three hundred meters above the surface.
“We were friends, asswipe. We met as cadets in a practical astrophysics class in school. I wen
t into security; she became a pilot. I'll tell you why she brought me in; she trusted me.”
The implication in his harsh words was that Everett trusted him more than Hagan. Zimmerman looked up from the status board to the windows.
“Where the fuck are you going? We need to go to New Tranquility dumb-ass, not Shackleton's Base.
“That station is hosed. We are headed to NT. Trust me, asshole,” Hagan said, trying to sound as manly as possible.
“Hagan. She was my friend. She really was. She told me a lot about you. I'm not surprised you lived. She would have made sure of it,” Jack said, with all the bravado gone from his voice. “Jesus, I have never gotten off on the wrong fucking foot as badly, in my life, as I did with you people.”
“How did you find us?”
“Everett had me in a place where I could watch and listen for bulletins and alerts on people and events. There are three in my cell. Well, all the cells, actually. Johan was in my cell. Right when my AI gets hits on the Ventura crew, Johan is murdered in a terror attack.” Jack grumbled, “I traced you back to this ship and, using my security override, I accessed the ship to find naked men, all of whom were wanted criminals. That's when the pain twins almost ended me.”
“Jude and Cine? Serves you right.”
“Dammit, I almost had to kill them. Tough little bitches.”
Jack started removing body armor, dropping it on one of the sofas.
“Who is Tawana Hudson? Can you, at least, help with that?” Hagan gruffed.
“Look, Hagan. You may have noticed that all this shit is going as pear-shaped as a half bag of rotting guts. Hudson was another friend of Everett. A trusted friend. And we are on our fucking way to ruin her life, if they have not killed her already.”
Jack tried to stay calm by force of will.
“She is one of the data managers in the core complex at New Tran. As an admin, she has access to all the data housed there. She is another information collector, just like me, just like Johan. At least she's not married. Johan had a wife and three kids.”
CHAPTER THIRTY: New Tranquility
“I knew nothing about the underground cells that Everett was a part of. To be honest, at that point, I was being completely selfish and thinking only of my own family. I did not set out to save millions of people. Only the three I loved.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.
<<<>>>
“It was a silent coup. When the chancellor was elected, we didn't know the depth of corruption and manipulation that was involved. It was all politics, and I stayed out of it,” Jack explained to Hagan, Shaw, and Kuss, who were sitting in the command seats. “Then, Alice called me one day and asked me to lunch.” Wex and The Bitch Twins—as Jack called them—were looking out the window, watching the surface go by. Jack knew they were listening closely.
“Ships started going missing. Global media refused to cover any of it, and any questioning of leadership usually led to reassignment and hardship. It was a new kind of liberal fascism, but I did not care about any of that. I lost faith in the political system and completely ignored it when I went into the security service.” Jack continued. “I trusted Everett and did as she asked. Keeping the peace is my job. In my mind, she was just another informant, in the beginning, anyway.”
“Why were we sent to Baytirus, if they already knew it was settled?” Shaw asked.
“They used petty bureaucrats to load the Ventura up with potential political adversaries, former military, and others. Plus, they wanted the expansion stopped. They hated the colonies. They couldn’t control them, no matter what they tried.”
“Why even try to control them?” Shaw said. “They just wanted to be left alone.”
“The chancellor and his supporters are paranoid narcissists that think the colonies are building up for a war to take over, or destroy, Earth,” Zimmerman said.
“That's crazy. Colonists don't even think about Earth,” Hagan added.
“Did you hear about the Albion colony?” Jack asked, angry again.
“Albion? Have relatives on Albion. What of Albion?” Kuss said.
“There’s a media blackout, but rumor has it there was a massive meteor impact. The entire colony was destroyed. Almost two million people. And now it's a dead planet in a nuclear winter.”
“This not be true? Would have heard.” Kuss was in obvious denial.
“Some don't think it was an accident,” Jack said. “Even this ship, flying at near-light speed, could have done it. The senate is quietly debating the suspension of the private ownership of ships with near-light speed capability.”
“Combine that with the AI problems in recent years...”
Hagan left it hang out there.
“New Tranquility, coming up in six minutes,” Hagan announced. “Where will we be setting down?”
“Approach from the west. You will see a huge tarmac marked ‘29’. Set her down there but maintain radio silence. I will get a lock-truck to come out and pick me up. I will get Hudson personally, so you amateurs don't piss in her biscuits. Then, to Freedom Station, where we can get a message to Admiral Krieger.”
Hagan noticed at that declaration, for some reason, Jude and Cine looked at each and then to Wex.
***
“It is time to go, Jim,” Barcus said. He ascended the ladder into Stu's bridge.
“Rand, Hume, report to the STU. Bring your gear,” Worthington said, over the priority comms. “Is everyone clear on the plan?”
Everyone chimed in with an acknowledgment.
“Cook, when you get to Sri Lanka, hire a private hangar, close to the catapult for the Memphis, or the Winton, I mean. Lay low. And we will catch up. I will never get used to that new name.” Jimbo said, “We are headed to Freedom Station to hook up with Hagan. Establish contact. Determine next steps.”
“We will be taking the scenic route around the belt and won't arrive until December 21st, late,” Cook said. “Make sure your ducks are in a row by then. We will keep in touch via QUEST comms, daily.”
“Be careful, boy. I just got her fixed. Don't scratch the fenders.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Cook signed off.
Worthington watched Rand and Hume descend the ramp on the Memphis and cross the deck to the STU. Jimbo was up the ladder to the bridge, with practiced ease. The dome was on, and it showed the entire hangar around them. Barcus was in the pilot’s seat, and Po was in his lap. His face was buried in her neck.
“What's wrong?” Jim asked.
“Nothing.” Po smiled. “He just likes sniffing my neck. Stu, how's it look, my friend?”
She climbed out of his lap, into the co-pilot’s seat. Barcus sat up straight and rolled his neck to a chorus of pops and cracks.
“All systems are standing by. We can depart as soon as the ramp is up,” AI~Stu said, with cheerful confidence.
***
Cook gave a heavy sigh from the pilot’s seat, as he ran the final flight checklist. The list was doubly important with a skeleton crew.
“What was that sigh for? Thinking about childhood dead pets?” Beary said to him from the navigator’s station, as she ran her own preflight checks.
“I just feel like they are going to leave us out of the action. Because when this gets real, they will need the Memphis, and all this data, as evidence.”
“Quit your bellyaching. There hasn't been enough action on this trip for you?” Muir said.
“I don't mind the sidelines,” Brian Perry said from the communications station. “I have spent way too much time on the verge of pissing myself on this trip.”
Sarah Wood entered the bridge and, instead of sitting at the security station, she took the captain’s seat, and said, “Well, I am the most useless one on this bridge, so I might as well sit here.”
No one mentioned it was bad luck to sit in the captain’s seat, unless commanded to.
; ***
The Grace, the new ident for the Sedna, landed on the New Tran security apron, and Zimmerman radioed for an airlock truck. The blast doors were closed over the windows on the ship to help keep out prying eyes.
Jack waited, in airlock two, for the vehicle to roll up and attach. When the seal was greenlit, he opened the door on his side and waited. One minute, then two.
“Hey, asswipes. I'm in a hurry here,” Jack said.
He opted to forgo his body armor in an effort to draw less attention to himself. He heard the door begin to cycle. This kind of hatch split in the middle, half went up and half down.
As it did, six trank darts bristled into his stomach.
“What the f—”
He fell to his knees. A dozen men, in full tactical gear, entered past Jack, and opened the inner airlock, flooding into the cargo bay.
The cargo bay was dark.
“Fan out. If you find anyone, take them alive, if you can,” one of them said.
None of them noticed the airlock closing behind them, cutting them off from Zimmerman.
A voice came over the PA system.
“You guys really suck at this.”
The grav-plating in the floor suddenly jumped to 2G, and the lights came up. They all fell, pinned to the floor by gravity twelve times greater than what they were used to. One tried to struggle to his feet. The rest struggled to breathe and to stay conscious.
Jude slowly walked out of the shadows, easily bent and retrieved one of the dart guns, and shot the man that was on his hands and knees. She then shot the rest, in quick succession.
The lift opened, and Kuss was there.
“How you know they were tranquilizer darts?” She opened the airlock where Jack rested on the floor.
“They are tranquilizers?” Jude looked at the gun and shrugged. The room returned to 1G.
Kuss pulled the darts out of Zimmerman's belly and chest and examined one. “These not standard law enforcement tranks.”
Blood of the Scarecrow: Book 3: Solstice 31 Saga Page 20