Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance

by Ronald Wintrick

  “About you and Marc being Alartaw.” Bren said. “I’m remembering it all. Why everyone’s memories are screwed up this morning. You and Marc were Alartaw but the rest of us weren’t, we were never changed into Alartaw so we probably just got standard mind-wipes. Mine didn’t work. I remember everything. First I started seeing mathematical equations I knew I’d never seen before. Unbelievable ways to combine atoms to…”

  “In layman’s terms!” I interrupted his meaningless diatribe this time. I had no idea whatsoever what the hell he was talking about but his words were stirring strange chords within my memories. Strange hints at things I couldn’t dredge up and the effort of trying to do so beginning to give me a headache. By this point in this day I was sure it was only going to get worse.

  “You made a deal with the Kievor…” Bren began and an hour later and a pounding headache that six cups of hot-jolt still hadn’t fixed had us convinced- but not by his words alone. All of us were on the Bridge by then and listening to what he had to say, but it was the science he was talking about and showing us on a screen that caught my and everyone’s interest- not that any of us knew what the hell he was showing us other than that it was entirely new; “I can build the computer which will give us trans-metal. I can recreate every bit of the Alartaw technology I learned during our stay and it’s at exactly the same technological level as the Kievor. It may be the very pinnacle of scientific possibility! I just need the materials.” Bren said, after which I could think of little else, and I didn’t mean whatever the pinnacle of scientific possibility meant- I meant the computer which would turn Last Chance into a trans-metal anti-gravity powered ship. There was little else I could think of after hearing that.

  “That’s really helpful.” Tanya said scornfully. “What yard is going to take us in with thirty Katon Destroyers following us?”

  “Saying all of this is true,” I said to Bren and ignoring Tanya, “and we really were the Emperor and Empress of these Alartaw, why wouldn’t the Kievor just have killed us? Hell, they even paid us. Doesn’t make sense!”

  “Kievor honesty.” Manuel said. “They lived up to their end of the deal. I guess their word is the one thing the Kievor won’t tread upon.”

  “The deal is finished now though.” Melanie said. “That’s why the Katons are after us- the Kievor have informed on us.”

  “I know it wasn’t you.” I told Melanie with a mocking smile I just couldn’t stop from slipping onto my face. “I hadn’t rebuffed you yet.” I said. To that response I got the glinty look she had given me earlier, except no mind control behind it this time.

  “We’ll never be able to return to a Kievor Trade Station. None of us!” Janice said. “The deal’s concluded and I bet it burned their asses that they had to keep their word but it must be some kind of code they live by and won’t break. I honestly can’t believe they did it but I know if we put ourselves in their hooves again they’ll kill us for sure.”

  “We’ll never be able to return to a Kievor Trade Station and all those Kievor credits.” Is what I lamented.

  “I grabbed a few as a contingency.” Bren said, picking up a duffel-bag I hadn’t noticed sitting on the deck near his feet. He picked it up and opened it; it was full of Kievor credit vouchers, millions worth.

  “How in the hell did you get into my account?” I demanded.

  “It was part of the arrangement.” Bren said with a smile at my demand, everything now clear in his mind, especially the years he had spent studying Alartaw technology. “You left standing orders with the Kievor to give us full access to your account. I got them right after you and Tanya left and I’ve been carrying them since.”

  “If Marc and I were the Emperor and Empress of these Alartaw, this race which is just as technological as the Kievor, how did we end up back in Kievor hooves and where are these Alartaw?” Tanya asked, I think that question at the top of everyone’s mind at this point.

  ‘Our ship was damaged. We were in battle and took a massive hit- as usual you were leading the attack when where we should have been was in the vanguard. That’s where the Commander is supposed to Command from!” Bren gave me a scowl at this but these were things I didn’t remember and only smiled at him in return. He could make up anything at this point and I was just supposed to believe it! Bren went on; “I was knocked unconscious. I remember that much. There was a blinding white explosion and then nothing more, but the wreckage of our ship must have been pulled aboard a Kievor Trade Station and the Kievor kept their word. What a surprise it must have been to find us aboard the flagship but I seriously doubt they realized you were the Emperor of the Alartaw. No matter how honest they are I could not imagine them keeping their word if they had figured that out. Then they returned all of us to our original lives as they had promised they would.”

  “How was the war going?” Tanya asked. I smiled at her as well, knowing her underlying thought. She wouldn’t be the Empress of an Empire that no longer existed.

  “The war had been an uphill battle ever since the destruction of the Alartaw worlds, but somehow Brune kept pulling us through,” Bren answered, “though I’ll never understand how.”

  Chapter 5

  Bren needed the raw materials to build his super-computer and I needed Bren to have them. Though I still couldn’t remember any of the details of this misadventure and probably never would, Bren did remember and that was all that mattered. It could only be some strange Cosmic burp that he was recalling these memories at all- and actually defeating a Kievor mind-wipe in the process- but the how or whys simply didn’t matter. Apparently his studies of Alartaw technology had been burned indelibly into his brain and the way Bren’s brain worked those mathematical equations just had to get out. They had simply refused to be contained and burst the bubble of his mind-wipe. Incredible when you considered the Kievor’s technology, but I believed Bren could do as he said. So I needed to lose thirty Destroyers and get Bren to a place where we could procure the raw materials we needed. The three fifty-kiloton nuclear missiles would quickly and efficiently eliminate three of the Katon ships but that would still leave twenty-eight. Nor could I think of any place where we might be welcome/not reported- leaving enemies at every turn does have its drawbacks and so now I’ll admit I was in a bit of a quandary.

  “The Katons seem to have rebuilt their Navy.” Tanya said smugly as she came on the Bridge to find me searching through star-maps on the main screen. I was pretty much unwelcome everywhere I could think to go- it’s not my fault I generally get the upper-hand which also generally leaves me in the bad graces of the other parties involved, but I was sure I could find a friend or two when I really needed one. So find a friend and lose thirty Destroyers. Didn’t sound too terribly difficult, or so I thought at the time.

  “I see you’re including Federation Space in your search.” Tanya said after only a moment. Humanity had been busy while we were gone and what couldn’t be done with force apparently had been done through diplomacy. The human race had come together into one democratic Federation.

  “You are observant.” I said as I searched.

  “The Katons will be sure to have issued an APB for a certain ship christened Last Chance and an individual named Marc Deveroux- dead or alive would be my guess.” Tanya said self-contentedly as she tapped a finger on her screen. “Have you forgotten why the Katons are chasing us? Here’s the whole story I pulled from the Ultra-net if you’d like to catch up on your exploits.” A small smile now curled the corner of her lip as she watched me absorb it- for the second time, because somehow it had slipped all of our minds. Thorough as she always was she’d needed to remember why we were being chased. Odd it hadn’t seemed important to me- the ruthless and powerful were always chasing me and they usually had good reason so I hadn’t bothered myself with the why of it. Now I remembered the mine and ore-freighter and certain of the events which followed, but that was where things got fuzzy for me. I supposed that now that it was out in the open I would continue to recollect more until I r
emembered everything, but all that really mattered was that I was alive and as long as I was alive I wanted to keep it that way and there was really little else of concern. Since I was always getting in trouble getting myself out of trouble was what I had become best at.

  “What are you so content about?” I demanded as I scrubbed the parameters for the search. The box to enter coordinates lay stubbornly open, my fingers refusing to type them in. Couldn’t go into Federation Space at all I pondered because no false identity beacon would fool an AI’s recognition software when we were probably at the very top of the Most Wanted list. I wondered how I could have let something as significant as that slip my mind. Of course the Katon government would have reported Last Chance as an armed pirate and the Federation Cruisers would shoot first and ask questions later- it was always simpler that way and saved them paperwork- not to mention the thirty Katon Destroyers behind us and how many more taking up the pursuit. My fingers and brain stuck for a moment I just stared at my screen. I could always attack Tanya; “You’re in the same boat I am.”

  “Turns out my jewels really aren’t missing. At least not this set,” Tanya said with a bigger smile, “and you’re the one who has to figure out how to get us out of this, so why shouldn’t I be content.”

  “Maybe because I can’t think of a way out just now.” I said.

  “Something will come to you. They can’t get us in warp, dear.” Tanya said, but we were both looking at one another after she said it. After she said dear.

  “I don’t care if Bren said we were married in this fantasy tale of his, there’ll be none of that on this ship.” I said. “I have my policies and they’re staying.” Despite Tanya’s stunning beauty I would rather bed a monstrous black widow, I thought, because then at least I would know when it was coming and wouldn’t have to suffer through the waiting for it.

  “Who said anything about wanting you!” Tanya said with real indignation because she had certainly not meant it that way and clearly won the point. I kept my mouth shut for the moment while she smiled another of her contented smiles, because she was absolutely right. Where in the hell were we supposed to go when we were wanted in human space while on the other hand returning to a Kievor Trade Station carried the very real likelihood of instantaneous vaporization! Suddenly the Universe seemed a very enclosed place.

  “I wonder how long they’ll follow us?” I asked instead of continuing our argument, but Tanya seemed to have other ideas about that.

  “That’s your plan!” Tanya said with a scowl and menacing look. “Wait for them to stop following us? They’ll follow us forever you idiot. You shake their asses and you shake them now! I’m the Empress of the Alartaw and I want my Throne back!” Tanya glared at me a moment longer then turned and stormed from the Bridge.

  I could only stare.

  Chapter 6

  I wasn’t sure how Tanya expected me to restore her to her Thrown… and the jewelry which was always behind her every motivation, much less figure out how to shake our pursuit. I didn’t usually have a problem shaking a tail. The disproportionate size of Last Chance’s huge fusion engine in ratio to her overall mass and the military-grade specs of her engineering meaning I was able to put her through maneuvers which most other ships couldn’t follow or would tear them apart if they attempted it. Drop out of warp on a full lateral burn and then jump right back into warp and Last Chance was leaving a trail most ships couldn’t follow without looping back around in real-space to reorient on the warp point. Confuse the trail enough and I usually lost them but I had never had so many hounds behind me. It didn’t matter what trick I tried, what strategy I employed, they had enough ships to scent down every false-trail I created and they were always there behind us, just waiting for us to drop out so they could pounce.

  “I’m unhappy.” Tanya said as she studied the warp-scan screen. She made a little moue with her mouth as she said it.

  “I can’t understand how anyone can see anything in that image.” I said. I seemed to be the only one who couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing when I looked into the blurry warp-scan imager. “All I see is a bunch of swirling colors. I don’t think they’re even back there.” I added, and though it was true that I had never been able to see much in the warp-scan imager this was really about veering off from the thing I could see coming, though it went to an extent far beyond what I was expecting.

  “That's because you're not the type with a high creativity level.” Bren said, interjecting himself into the conversation to criticize me, everyone doing the same at every possible opportunity since our departure and no one remembering that it was Bren who had begun this misadventure in the first place- at least this small leg of it. I may have been the Captain and owner of this ship but I’d be laughed out of it if I tried ordering them to stop picking on me. At the moment I couldn't find a friendly face anywhere I might turn, and there weren’t all that many places to turn.

  “There are only ten directly behind us now.” Tanya said. “I think those are good odds.”

  “Good odds for what?” I said, of course seeing her madness immediately.

  “What did you say?” Bren demanded, slow to catch on to some things even though so quick at others.

  “Ten to one is good odds.” Tanya said clearly and with a calm look between us. It was just the three of us on the Bridge.

  “Those are Destroyers.” Bren said standing up abruptly also obviously realizing where Tanya would be going with this and trying to glare at me to get me to object. It didn’t work for two reasons; one was that Bren couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper sack much less pose me a threat and the other was that the stare was unnecessary.

  “Not a chance.” I told Tanya as I rose and headed out of the Bridge, but what I hadn’t taken into account when I changed the security protocols was that I left out anything about running the ship while it was already operational- leaving that out simply wasn’t possible. I saw a flash from the periphery of my vision as I walked towards the Bridge hatchway and by the time I turned my head Tanya was in the pilot’s seat and strapping herself in. “Son-of-a-bitch!” I swore as I jumped for a seat and grabbed for a harness.

  “You bitch!” Bren swore as he sat back down, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it if I was stymied- but what was I supposed to do? Drag her bodily from the pilot’s seat? It wouldn’t work and for some strange odd reason I had the impression that Bren and I had been the only ones out of the loop on these plans though I was sure Tanya and the rest would be counting on me to pilot us out of this once they had engineered us into it.

  “For any who are interested we are about to depart warp.” Tanya announced calmly over com. “We have been running for three hundred and sixty-four days and I refuse to run for an entire year.”

  “We’re all set back here.” Janice came back over com. “Did you tell Marc beforehand?”

  “He knows now.” Manuel laughed out over com.

  “Does he know about the asteroid-field yet?” Melanie asked sweetly.

  “He knows now.” Manuel laughed out again, everyone laughing out loud over com at me, but I didn’t get the joke- they were all apparently willing to put their lives at stake on the weak presumption that I would somehow be able to get us all out of this.

  “Yes what asteroid-field, dear?” I asked, but the dear wasn’t an endearment.

  “It’s a big one.” Tanya said as she dropped us out of warp. I hated warp transition more than I hated any of these people- at the moment at least- and that was saying a lot.

  “You might want to get over here Marc.” Tanya said as she unclipped her harness and stood up, all the while holding the control yoke at full throttle. Under what felt like about six gees I got up and staggered to my pilot’s seat while Tanya stood there as if unaffected, and as I got myself into my seat and harnessed the proximity alarms began ringing of incoming warp signatures.

  “I think we have company.” Tanya said innocently as I took the yoke and she made her way to
her station. Our three missiles and single fixed photon cannon weren’t going to be much match against those Destroyers and their numerous independently tracking photon cannons- each ship would have several- but as promised Tanya had dumped us right on the outskirts of a massive meteor field and soon I was maneuvering us into it.

  “In this plan of yours,” Bren said to Tanya, “did you take into account that we’re going to be trapped inside the meteor field?”

  “Of course.” Tanya said.

  “What was your plan for getting us out of it?” Bren now inquired of Tanya, as if that were the big punch line- I already knew what was coming and was surprised Bren missed it.

  “I don’t have a plan. It’s up to Marc to get us out.” Tanya said as her fingers twitched over the controls for the nuclear missiles. “He's the Captain.”

  “Don’t you dare!” I swore at her as Bren slowly made sense of Tanya’s madness.

  “They’ll just surround the meteor field and blast it until they get to us!” Bren nearly exploded. “We’re completely trapped.”

  “Better ask Marc what he has planned.” Tanya told Bren with a sweet smile. “It's not really my realm of expertise.”

  Chapter 7

  Tanya’s meteor-field had the mass of several heavy stars according to scan and would eventually coalesce into a new star-system in a million years or so- if the Katons didn’t vaporize all of it first. It was spread out over several parsecs in a roughly spherical pattern and Tanya had dropped us out right on its fringe. From our vantage on the very edge of the cloud it was as if the meteor-field and dust-cloud around it were growing and engulfing the remainder of the Universe. It entirely dwarfed us and there didn’t seem to be any end to it- the dust-cloud on one side and the rest of the Universe on the other. A growing Cosmic monster already of immense proportion.