Caitlyn Morcos

by M H Questus

  Bellegarde pulled at his lower lip with his left hand for a few moments. “Okay. Okay! Okay. We can do this. Just let me head back to the office and call in a few favours. I can probably assemble enough information to get us started with a good basis… we’ll have to work quickly, though.”

  “Excellent. Call us when you’re ready to bring the information over to the Courageous,” Morcos said, standing. “And hurry. St. Clair doesn’t expect you back at work until tomorrow. That may give us enough of a window to get what we need.”

  Bellegarde, looking slightly pale, nodded and wished them both a good day. He half-jogged out of the shop.

  Morcos and Di Mercurio watched him until he disappeared through HQ’s doors.

  “Well, that’s encouraging, isn’t it boss?” Di Mercurio stretched her arms overhead. “Sure, we may be committing treason, but at least we convinced Jules to help us!”

  Morcos nodded, her eyes narrowed, lost in thought.

  “What’s wrong, boss? You don’t look so happy.”

  Morcos shook her head, trying to dislodge the misgivings. “It’s silly. I just had this feeling that maybe that was a bit too easy. Well, nothing else we can do about it now. Let’s get back to the ship.”

  Chapter 23: Fans, and What Hits Them

  Morcos had just reached her quarters on the ship when her datapad blared to life. “Marshal, we’ve got a problem!”

  She sighed, dreams of a hot shower and a good night’s sleep fading instantly. “What’s up, Kobayashi?”

  “Your friend in the constabulary? The sergeant? She just rang me to say that somebody received orders to arrest you and Haley immediately. They’re on their way. Should be here in five minutes. She implied heavily that you may wish to be somewhere else when they get here.”

  Morcos cursed. “Send her my thanks for the warning. Gimme a minute.” She quickly dialed Bellegarde on her datapad. The nervous looking deputy appeared almost instantly.

  “Morcos!” he gasped. “St. Clair found out!”

  “How? How so damn fast!?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know! I guess I asked the wrong person for the right information. I’ve got it, by the way. It was right in front of my face when I looked.” Bellegarde glanced around nervously. “Look, I can’t stay here. If he’s coming after you, he might come after me! I’ll meet you at the following address and give you the evidence I’ve found. It may be enough to get him!”

  Bellegarde tapped in an address quickly which showed up on Morcos’s display moments later. “I’ll wait an hour, but then I’m making Scorpii a distant memory. Clear?”

  Morcos nodded. “Plenty of time, Jules. I’ll meet you there.” She cut the connection and ran down the corridors.

  She screeched around the hallway into the brig. Both Haley and Zousizhe looked up as she entered.

  “What’s up, Ms. Marshal?” Zousizhe asked with narrowed eyes. Haley said nothing but sat upright in her bunk.

  “Listen Stacy, I need a favour. You know these old Mustang MkIIIs?” she was breathing heavily, inhaling loudly through her nose between phrases.

  Zousizhe nodded. “Yeah. When they were decommissioned for the Service, a lot of them ended up in the hands of private transporters. Sturdy ships, and even without their original weapons loadout, durable as hell and with lots of nooks and crannies. Easy to hide stuff, hard to find.”

  “Perfect.” Morcos held up a finger to Zousizhe and dialed Kobayashi on the datapad. “Deputy.”

  “Yes Marshal?”

  “Contact the constabulary. Tell them you placed me under arrest and that I’m confined to the brig until they arrive.” Morcos cut off the communication before the confused-looking Kobayashi could reply.

  “Right. Haley, I’m going to need your help too.”

  “Open up in the name of the constabulary!” the sergeant boomed into the intercom connected to the starship airlock. He looked nervously at the squad of nine men behind him.

  Everyone was wearing full battle armour and wielding heavy laser rifles, but if the marshal had really gone rogue and decided to turn the externally mounted anti-infantry weaponry on the Courageous against them there wouldn’t be enough left of his squad to put in a thimble. He had volunteered for this arrest once the lieutenant made it clear that the other sergeant was too friendly with Morcos to risk sending, and he was now regretting his decision. This could make his career, but only if he survived it.

  “Ah! Constable. My apologies.” Kobayashi’s nervous voice came out over the intercom. “The doors are giving us a problem. You know how it is with these older warships. They tend to get stuck closed and then never want to open.”

  “Don’t blame this on the doors, Kobayashi!” snapped the female deputy, Di Mercurio, through the intercom. “You gummed it up when you were trying to reroute the air circulators to bypass the filters!”

  “Oh sure, blame it on me!” Kobayashi snapped back.

  The sergeant rolled his eyes.

  “I’m just going to go ahead and blame it on both of you!” the sergeant snapped. “I don’t care WHO opens the door, as long as you open it!”

  “But she’s always like this, Sergeant!” Kobayashi grunted. “Always blaming others! It’s not my fault you forgot to change the filters!”

  “Oh? Then who’s fault… oh forget it. Sergeant, I’ll get the doors open for you.” Di Mercurio sounded frustrated.

  “Sure she will. Just you watch how she opens the doors. This’ll be good.” Kobayashi sounded both strained and annoyed.

  “Stop stalling, deputies.” The sergeant’s mustache bristled. “Open this door, or we’re going to cut it open!”

  “Men. No patience,” Di Mercurio muttered through the intercom. “Okay, I’m getting the switch… Kobayashi! What the hell did you do to the intercoolers?!”

  “What!?” Kobayashi’s voice continued to sound strained.

  “The intercoolers! What did you do? I can’t cycle them open!”

  “What does that have to do with the airlocks?!” Kobayashi snapped back. “The intercoolers are offline because we’re docked!”

  “That… that makes sense, actually…” Di Mercurio sighed. “Okay, so that won’t work. Sorry Sergeant. Gimme a minute to figure this out.”

  “Ha!” Kobayashi said triumphantly. “So much for your plan! I can get the doors open!”

  “Will it take longer than me just cutting them open?” the sergeant asked, annoyed.

  “How long would it take you to cut the door open?” Kobayashi asked hesitantly. The sound of metallic banging could be heard through the speaker.

  “Thirty centimeter thick armour plating?” The sergeant did some mental math. “About… eight minutes.”

  “Sorry sergeant,” said Di Mercurio with a sigh. “These old MkIIIs have a full ten centimeters more than that.

  “Ah. Well then… maybe fifteen minutes. Maybe a little less, maybe a bit more.”

  “Oh! Could you do that?” Kobayashi’s voice took on a hopeful edge. “That would make life a lot easier, actually. I’m down here in engineering banging on random controls with a wrench, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.” More metallic banging sounds came from the intercom.

  “He’s probably not joking. I’ve seen Kobayashi try to work his way around a machine more complicated than a corkscrew, and it’s not pretty,” Di Mercurio added.

  “Do I understand that you are authorizing us to use lasers on your airlock door, deputy?” the sergeant asked formally.

  “I hereby give formal—” Kobayashi sounded relieved.

  “No!” Di Mercurio interrupted angrily. “Who’s going to pay for that damage? I don’t want this on my head afterwards, having headquarters chasing me down for a few thousand credits because I let the airlock get blasted open during my watch!”

  “Is that really relevant when you have a fugitive on board, deputy?” asked the sergeant slyly. “You could be held for obstruction of justice.”

  “Obstruction!? Heck, Sarge, I’m trying t
o get you into the ship faster! Oh, fine, cut the damn door open.”

  The sergeant turned to nod to the constable next to him, who braced the heavy laser rifle against his shoulder as he aimed at the latching point on the door.

  “Oh! Wait!” Di Mercurio’s voice rang out of the speaker.

  The sergeant and his constable started at the sudden call from the intercom.

  “Yes!?” snapped the sergeant a moment later.

  “Found it! Is it open?”

  There was a loud electronic chime, followed by the airlock door doing nothing.

  “No, deputy. It is still closed.”

  “Huh. I was sure that was going to work. What about now?”

  “No. Still closed.”

  “Ah! I see it! One second… okay! Is it open!”

  The airlock door slid open with a hiss. The sergeant and his squad all let out a long breath they had been holding.

  “Yes! It’s…”

  The door slid shut again with a heavy metallic clang.

  “No, it’s closed again. It was open for a moment, though! Do whatever you just did again!”

  “Got it!”

  The door cycled open and shut again quickly.

  “Damnations, deputy!” The sergeant groaned. “You had it open!”

  “That wasn’t her, sir, that must’ve been me!” Kobayashi’s voice sound triumphant. I think it’s this button right here. It’s labelled… uh… ‘flow calibration’?”

  “What!? No, that’s not it… that’ll cut power to the entire ship for 3 hours. Definitely not that.” Di Mercurio raised her voice again. “What about now!? Is it open now?”

  “No, it is not.” The sergeant sighed, his head starting to pound.

  “Huh. I was sure…” Di Mercurio started again.

  “Sorry! Sorry… okay, I just need to rewire this. Okay, can you give me a second? It won’t take but a moment. I’ve got it this time!”

  “What are you re-wiring, Kobayashi?” Di Mercurio snapped.

  “I’m going to bypass the power coupling to the starboard airlock. Should allow the doors to just slide open.”

  “That actually might work.” Di Mercurio sounded defeated.

  “Ha!”

  “Fine! Hurry up.” The sergeant checked his datapad quickly and tapped his foot.

  Five minutes later the sergeant jabbed the intercom again. “Are you done yet, deputy!?”

  “Almost! Almost! Sorry, I think… yes, this should do it!” Kobayashi’s voice was distant but triumphant.

  The airlock door hissed open, and then stopped.

  “Is it open now?”

  “Technically, yes.” The sergeant sighed. “But only a few centimeters. I didn’t even know you could do that.”

  “Oh, when it comes to screwing up, Kobayashi is a master,” said Di Mercurio, her voice thick with sarcasm.

  “Weird. That shouldn’t be possible. That must mean I cross-wired the transducer. Okay, I can fix that. Gimme one second, Sergeant. I’ll get this open in a jiffy.”

  Another five minutes ground past with the sergeant impatiently pacing by the airlock door. “Deputy!? I’m really running out of patience here.”

  “Ah! Got it!” There was a sound of sparks and crackles of electricity through the intercom.

  The airlock door shut with a heavy clang.

  “No, it’s closed again. Forget this, deputy. We’ll just cut it open!”

  “That’s probably for the best,” Kobayashi agreed.

  The constable raised his rifle again, bracing it against his shoulder and sighting down the barrel.

  “Wait! Waitwaitwait!” Di Mercurio’s voice rang out again.

  With a sigh, the constable lowered his rifle and shrugged at the sergeant. The sergeant rolled his eyes.

  “Yes, deputy?”

  “I forgot! The airlocks have an emergency manual release control! Just give me a couple minutes to get to the airlock.”

  “You have one minute!”

  “Come on, Sergeant! It’s a big ship!”

  “ONE. MINUTE.”

  “No need to get snippy.”

  A minute and a half later, the intercom snapped back to life. “Okay, I’m here… one second…”

  There was a sound of a metal plate hitting and ringing loudly against the hull. “I’ve got the handle… urrr… one… second…”

  There was a loud scraping sound, followed by another clang. “Got it! Okay, door’s… hey, where are you guys?”

  The sergeant groaned out loud. “STARBOARD airlock!”

  “Oh! Sorry. I knew that! Okay, gimme another minute.”

  “Damnit, Di Mercurio, how could you forget that!?” Kobayashi said, laughing into the intercom.

  “Shut up! It’s not my fault!” Di Mercurio snapped back. “Kobayashi, YOU go let them in on the starboard side!”

  “No! No. We’ll come to you. Don’t move!” He jerked his head at the assembled constables, and the group of them all marched around to the other side of the ship.

  The airlock, of course, was closed.

  “DEPUTY! WHY IS THIS DOOR CLOSED!?”

  “What? Oh! Sorry, silly me. I haven’t yet opened the external door. I’ll get that.”

  There was the agonizing sound of tortured metal screaming both through the intercom and through the airlock itself.

  “Ah! There. Got it.”

  The airlock creaked open a fraction of a hair.

  “It should be good to go, sergeant. Feel free to push it open.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute, Di Mercurio. Try not to break anything any further until I arrive!” Kobayashi’s voice was laboured, like he was laughing or running or possibly both.

  “Shows you! I’ve already got the door open. The constables just have to push it the rest of the way.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it!”

  The sergeant nodded to two constables. They stepped and reached out. Their augmented battle armour, robotic muscles whirling, began to push against the heavy door.

  After a long moment, the door pushed back an inch.

  “Sir,” one of the constables said, panting as he strained against the airlock, “It’s… fighting back…”

  “That tears it! Okay, step away you two.” The sergeant raised his own laser rifle and aimed at the door as the two constables scrambled out of the way.

  He pulled the trigger, the beam slicing into the thick armour with an audible hssssss.

  Half a second later, the airlock flew open, the beam slicing through open air. Di Mercurio smiled nervously from within the airlock, hugging the wall far from where the beam was sizzling through open space. She was red-faced, both hands on the manual override.

  “Got it! Sorry about that. Come on in!”

  The sergeant, keeping his rifle at the ready, moved into the ship. He watched the open inner airlock door warily.

  Kobayashi stepped into the airlock, nodding at the constables. The two of them were both covered in streaks and splotches of oil and grease. Kobayashi spoke up, his face flush and shifting nervously from foot to foot. “Sorry that took so long. These old ships, you know.”

  “Yeah, so we heard. Okay, where is she?” The sergeant slung his rifle over his shoulder.

  “In the brig, sir. Right this way.” Kobayashi waved for the constables to follow, and he and Di Mercurio led the way into the ship’s brig.

  “Took you long enough!” Zousizhe snapped as the group entered. She cast a cold glare at both Di Mercurio and Kobayashi.

  “Shut up, woman,” Di Mercurio said through clenched teeth.

  Zousizhe threw her hair back haughtily.

  “Morcos has gone into hiding. She figured that you’d give up looking for her before too long. I heard her discuss the whole thing with those two.” Stacy jerked her head towards Kobayashi.

  The sergeant turned a glaring eye towards the deputy, who was glaring in return at Zousizhe.

  “The plan was to get you so frustrated getting in that you’d give up quic
kly when you couldn’t find her. She figured you’d come back tomorrow and by then she’d be in the wind.”

  “Did she really?” the sergeant said, clasping Kobayashi on the shoulder. “And where exactly did she say she would hide?”

  Kobayashi shrugged. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sergeant.” He glared again at Zousizhe. “She must be mistaken. Can’t trust these smugglers, you know.”

  “No matter. We’ll search the whole ship.”

  Zousizhe scoffed. “Constable, that will take you days.”

  The sergeant paused. “These are used pretty frequently by smugglers. Lots of hiding places. I’ll call in support. That will speed things up.”

  “And then do nothing while we wait for them to arrive?” Zousizhe scoffed.

  “What are you suggesting as an alternative, madam?”

  “I can help!” She smiled evilly. “Who better than a smuggler to show you where she’s hiding? First she locks me up in here, then she expects me to keep quiet about her plan? Not likely.” She tilted her head towards the constables. “You guys let me out of here, and I’ll show you the most likely places there are on a ship like this to hide. I’m not sure exactly which one she’s in, but I’ll find it, and then you can have your arrest and be done with it.”

  “You can’t seriously be considering letting a felon loose—” Di Mercurio started.

  “I’ve had just about enough out of you!” The sergeant snapped, and then turned to look at the smuggler with a wary eye. “What’s in it for you?”

  “Freedom, my good constable. Freedom. After we’re done you let me go on my merry way, maybe with a few credits slipped over to you for whatever trumped up excuse that maniac marshal had for throwing me in here at all, and we’ll call it square? I get my freedom, you’re get your woman, and have a few extra bucks in your pocket.”

  The sergeant narrowed his eyes further. “Are you trying to bribe me, madam?”