Queen of Denial

by Selina Rosen

  The prisoners were each pacing their own path through the cell, looking at the ceiling instead of each other.

  "So, the mighty King," Jaco laughed. "Brought to his knees for the love of a woman."

  "Jaco!" Zarco hissed. "I will not grace you by making a comment."

  "Oooh! Snappy come back," Drewcila mumbled.

  "Here, put these on." He threw in a pile of white robes.

  Drew had just grabbed one, and started to put it on when she saw Erik. "Erik! You fucking piece of shit!" She jerked her arms into the robe, which almost went to her knees. "You . . . you sold me out!"

  "How's it feel?" Zarco mumbled.

  Drew ignored him.

  "How far into this shit are you, Erik?" Drew demanded.

  "I've been in it since the very beginning." Erik looked at his feet."They brought you to me right after the operation on your brain. You understand, don't you, Drew? It's a big pay-off. Biggest of my life. The smuggling operation is bringing in a mint, but it's only a matter of time."

  "Fucking smuggling." Drew hissed. "Kidnapping is one thing, but smuggling. Van Gar was right about you. God damned, rat-loving, Velcro wearing, roach eating, human."

  "Why didn't you just kill us out-right?" Zarco asked.

  "You truly are a stupid man, Zarco. The codes to shut off and turn on the computers that run your country are locked in the minds of you and your two top aides, both of whom you conveniently brought off the planet with you. The women are just to help guarantee that you will behave yourself."

  "Did you really do that?" Drew asked in disbelief. "Did you really bring every man who knows the codes with you?"

  "Of course not! Many competent men at the capital know the access codes."

  "Not only are you stupid, but you're a shitty liar," Drew said in disbelief.

  "It will be days before they give up all hope on you. In a few hours, we will land on an obscure little moon where one of my men will extract your memories, and thus your code key numbers, and leave you like your lovely wife. Of course, since that part of your brain has already been removed, Miss Qwah, and since you have no information we need, I'm afraid you'll just have to be terminated. Perhaps slowly, while Zarco watches."

  Drew yawned, and stretched dramatically.

  "Now wait a minute, Jaco, we had a deal . . ." Erik started.

  Drew turned to Stasha. "How sweet. He just sold me out, but he didn't actually want me dead."

  "Surely you understand, Erik. I can't let anyone live who knows what we're doing. I can't take the risk. Not when we are so close to reaching our goal."

  "But you promised me you wouldn't hurt Drew. She's the best Salvager I've got," Erik pleaded.

  "I'm so touched," Drew drawled out.

  "Come on, man," Erik said. "Drew has no quarrel with you, give her a couple of iggys and she'll . . ."

  "I'm sorry, Erik." Jaco pulled a laser. "But like I said. I can't let anyone live."

  "No!" Drew tried to grab him through the bars, but it was a useless attempt. Erik hit the wall and fell down it, a small hole burned through his forehead. "Mother fucker!" she screamed.

  Jaco smiled.

  "I can't afford witnesses, but you can think about that for awhile."

  "You bastard, you're going to kill us all."

  "Down to every scum-sucking smuggler on this ship. When we land, they'll walk into what they think is a de-tox chamber, and they'll all be killed. Then we'll blow up their ship, and there will be no tracing us." He laughed and left the brig.

  "You catch that, Jack?" Drew asked when she was sure that Jaco was out of ear shot.

  "Loud and clear, Drew. Time for phase two?" A voice asked over the intercom.

  "Time for phase two," Drew said calmly.

  Jaco sat on the bridge and gazed out at space. He supposed he should feel guilty about the human. After all, without him, their plan couldn't have worked. But orders were orders. The ship rocked violently again. When the engines kicked back in this time, they really sounded sick. "What's wrong now?" Jaco asked impatiently.

  But no one seemed to hear. Everyone seemed to be running around in a panic.

  "I said, what's wrong?"

  "We've lost all of our power. Something has drained it. Our air is going; everything. We'll all be dead in an hour," the Captain screamed in a panic.

  Jaco saw something hanging in space in front of them.

  "What's that?"

  "It appears to be a ship. Wait, we're getting a signal now. It's a salvage ship, and it's been claimed."

  "Is it operational?"

  "Yes sir," the Captain smiled broadly."It looks like we've been saved."

  "Start docking procedure immediately."

  "Yes sir," the Captain said. "Cocky son of a bitch," he mumbled.

  "What's that?" Jaco demanded.

  "It's an old earth saying. It means good call."

  Jaco made a noise and walked out of the cabin. In the hall he got on his comlink.

  "Number One and Number Two, go and get the prisoners and go to the airlock. All other units, arm yourselves and go to the airlock. Kill anyone who gets in your way."

  Jaco then made his way towards the airlock.

  The cell was opened, and two uniformed Lockhedes ran in the cell. One grabbed Zarco, and the other grabbed Drew.

  "The rest of you, come on," number one screamed. "We're all going for a little ride."

  They led them down to the airlock, where Jaco and the rest of the Lockhedes waited. They were pushed roughly to the front. The smugglers arrived just as they were opening the airlock doors and found themselves facing a line of heavily armed guards.

  "What the Hell?" Jack screamed.

  "You'll be staying here," Jaco pronounced.

  "Like hell you say. Our ship's lost all power. Soon there won't be any air," the Captain told him.

  "Who knows? Maybe you can fix it," Jaco said with a smile.

  "There's not a chance of that," Jack yelled.

  "There's more of a chance of that than you'll have if you choose to fight us."

  He pushed the prisoners out the now open airlock into the ramping tube.

  "Move it," he ordered.

  As they neared the derelict ship, the door opened as if by its own code. Jaco laughed.

  "The idiots! I figured they'd forget to stop the door open sequence." They rushed into the ship. When the last of the Lockhedes were on board, the doors closed.

  Jaco laughed again. "It's a little late now." He coughed."Too late for them." He coughed again.

  Drew smiled.

  "What have you done?"

  The other men started coughing.

  "What have you done!"

  Jaco grabbed for Drew, but she moved easily out of his way, and he fell to the floor.

  "People who deal in betrayal, shouldn't be too surprised when they get conned."

  Drew kicked the dying man in the ribs.

  Jaco looked up at Zarco with eyes that were growing dim.

  "I've still won, Zarco. I've won because this woman will never be your queen. I have made her into . . ."

  He spasmed and died as his men began to fall around him.

  "Yes, yes? Go on," Drew said, "into . . . into what? I hate it when people don't finish their sentences. Well come on, boys and girls. We're burnin' photons."

  Drew took off at a dead run for the bridge, and the others followed. She threw the dead pirate captain out of his chair, and turned the filtration system on high. Then she started powering the ship up. A voice came at them through the ship's comlink.

  "Hey, Qwah! I thought you said that ship didn't run."

  "Hey, what can I say? I lied." Drew laughed and flopped herself down in the Captain's chair.

  "Come on, Qwah, you owe us. If it wasn't for us, you'd all be dead."

  "And if it wasn't for me, you'd all be dead. I think that makes us about even."

  "Damn it, Qwah. A deal's a deal. You do us outtah our part, and . . ."

  "What, Jack?" Drew laugh
ed. "This is a pirate ship. Do I have to get vulgar, or do you understand how much instant fire power I command? Not to mention my sterling reputation for dog fights. No. I'd say that in a fire fight you have a more than ninety five percent chance of getting fried. But if you're feeling froggy, go ahead and jump. I feel like a good fight. Besides, my hyper-power just reached the ready mark."

  The ship took off with such speed that it sent everyone standing crashing to the floor.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, take-off will be a bit rough, so be sure and buckle up. Oops! I'm afraid that I did that all out of order."

  The ship stabilized, and Zarco and the others got up.

  "Why did you do that?" Facto demanded, pulling the robe back down to cover up his privates.

  "I said oops," she said. "Besides, you had it coming after the way you all treated me when you thought I was selling you out. I may be mercenary, I never claimed that I wasn't. But I'm a Salvager, and we have codes we live by, too."

  Zarco fell on his knees beside her, picked up her hand and kissed it. "Oh, my sweet love, can you ever forgive me?"

  "Oh, you're not going to start all that kissy-faced crap again, are you?"

  "Forgive me also, Majesty. And thank you for sparing my miserable life." Fitz said, bowing deeply.

  Stasha smiled. "I knew you could never really betray us."

  Drew smiled and looked expectantly at Facto, coughing a little.

  Facto shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry," he said flatly.

  "But . . . How? I don't understand." Zarco looked at Drew. "This ship appeared as soon as their ship was done for."

  Drew looked at him as if he were an idiot. "There was never anything wrong with their ship. The Lockhedes were in a big-ass hurry, so we needed to slow the ship down so that we wouldn't pass this ship."

  She looked at Facto and Stasha. "Aren't you glad I gassed the ship now? We all knew their plans. I knew they wouldn't allow the smugglers on board, and knowing about the gas, the smugglers wouldn't want on board."

  "Speaking of the gas, can I take this thing off?" Facto asked.

  Drew bent over a screen and punched some buttons. "The air seems to be clear now," she watched Facto remove the clear hose from his nose, and then pull the filtration bag off his back.

  "No, read that wrong."

  Facto tried to cram the apparatus back on, and Drew laughed loudly. "Just kidding." She took hers off, and threw it on the floor.

  "How did you know they would have filtration packs on board?" Fitz asked. "They aren't exactly standard equipment."

  "They are on smuggler ships. Besides, they came and got us off your ship after they had gassed us, didn't they?"

  She got on the ship's comlink and punched in a code.

  "Hello Garbage Scow, do you read? This is Purple Cat."

  "Great Gods, is that you, Drew? When we went past what was left of the Royal ship I thought you'd gone to that big junk yard in the sky. What the hell are you doing on the Purple Cat?"

  "Now, that's a long story."

  Chapter 6

  The ship was running itself at this point, so Drew and the three men were moving the bodies into the airlock. Stasha couldn't make herself do it, and had in fact been crying for the better part of an hour. They were about to close the airlock door when suddenly Drew got a wild gleam in her eye.

  "Damn! I'm really losing it." She ran in and started going through pockets, occasionally finding some money or an expensive trinket. "Would you look at this," she screamed in excitement, "these pants are real leather. I'm telling you these pirates, they know how to dress. I think they're my size, too."

  To their horror, she stripped the pirate's pants off and held them up to her.

  "Cool!" She pulled them on. "Now, if I can just find a decent shirt."

  She started rummaging through the bodies again.

  Stasha dried her eyes and decided that she was being silly. She decided to go help the others with their efforts. As she rounded the corner she saw the three men. Behind them she could see the airlock full of bodies. Taralin stood in the middle of the pile. She grabbed the hand of one of the corpses, and held it up out of the pile.

  "Hey, sis. What do you think? Is this shirt me, or what?"

  Stasha fainted dead away; Zarco caught her.

  "Are you happy now?" Zarco asked harshly.

  "Is that a rhetorical question, or do you really want me to answer it?" She took the black and red striped shirt off the corpse and smelled the armpit. She made a face, then took off her robe and threw it on the floor. She put on the pirate's shirt, smiled, and looked back to where Zarco held Stasha, who was starting to come around.

  "Geez, all I wanted was an honest opinion."

  She waded out of the bodies, carrying three knives and a bag filled with loot. At the airlock, she closed the door and pushed the button to open the exterior airlock.

  "What are you doing?" Fitz asked in horror.

  "Well, why do you think we carried them here, Fitz? For ornamental purposes? I'm giving them burial in space. A moment of silence please, followed by a loud bellowing fart should be appropriate." She was silent, then farted loudly, and started back towards the bridge. "I'm hungry. Wonder if these bastards left anything worth eating." She turned and looked out the portal just in time to see the bodies sucked into space.

  "There, we're all cleaned up now. Would someone please close that exterior door?" She turned and walked towards the bridge again, but stopped when she realized no one was following her. They were all looking at her in shock.

  "Ah, come on people, they were dead anyway. Most spaceports will hold you at dock for days if you have a body on board. Then the whole crew and the ship have to go through de-tox; which costs the ship's Captain a fortune. So, if your mother dies out here, you bury her in space. That's just the way we do things."

  "Well, let me tell you how we do things," Zarco said hotly. "Our religion preaches reverence for the dead. Even if they are our enemies. There is a service and then the bodies are cremated and their ashes spread to the wind."

  Drew shrugged and started walking again. "So what's the big difference? Bodies torched and tossed to the wind, or bodies cast into space to implode. That's the problem with religion, there's always all this nit picking."

  Drew was sitting at the controls of the ship when the others returned. She pointed at the view screen where a green planet hung in space.

  "So, there you go, people. I've punched up co-ordinates, and in eight minutes we will start re-entry procedures. I suggest that you strap in." She got on the comlink.

  "Purple Cat to Garbage Scow, do you read?"

  "You might have told me you were dumping bodies, Drew," an angry voice spit back.

  Drew laughed. "Don't blow a gasket, Van. It will all burn off on re-entry. Come in closer. I'm not expecting hostiles, but considering my cargo, who knows?"

  "I read, and am changing grid in accordance."

  "Oh, baby, I love it when you talk that comlink lingo. Hey, Van . . ."

  "Yes?"

  "I miss you."

  "I miss you, too."

  "Over."

  "Over and out."

  "Why is that thing following us?" Jealousy dripped freely from Zarco's lips.

  "Because I have no reason to trust you people. For all I know, you need a good Salvager for your war efforts. Lots of governments have tried to buy me before. You might have heard of my memory loss and cooked up this whole thing. How do I even know you are who you say you are?"

  "But the Lockhedes!"

  "You might have fooled them, too."

  "What about your friend, Erik? You heard what he said!" Fitz said.

  "Hell, Erik was running smugglers. Which means he'd sell his sister into prostitution to turn a buck. No, I hate to tell you all this, but you still haven't convinced me that this whole thing isn't just some cock and bull story."

  "But the war is over. We have never had any need for Salvagers and we sure don't need any now that we're at peace," Zarc
o said.

  "Maybe you'd better tell the Lockhedes the war is over, because I'm not sure they know it. Besides, usually after the war is when you need a good Salvager most. The country is usually going through a post-war depression, and they could really use all the metal and parts that got left on the battle field."