by Zach Winderl
“As for you, Captain.” He returned his rail-pistol to its holster with a smooth flourish. “See to your hatches. They can pop a seal without regular maintenance.”
“Wait,” Johansen called out as he ran to catch up with Atom.
Atom flipped back his coat, but eased as Johansen held up his palms in peace.
“I know why she was here,” he said as he drew near. “The tumbler.”
“You knew what she was?”
Johansen nodded.
A ripple of blaster fire ripped from a byway and caught the fresh captain in the side, tearing through his jacket and the light armor beneath.
Kozue’s reaction time saved Atom from a similar fate as the pram’s shield snapped up to collect the stray blaster bolts. Atom grabbed Johansen and dragged him behind the shield before popping up with both pistols drawn to send a return volley down the alley.
Johansen clutched at Atom, pulling him down. The stench of death and charred flesh filled Atom’s nostrils as he leaned in close.
“Find the Shepherd,” Johansen croaked. Words slipped and slurred into nothing as Atom sought to understand. “The tumbler will know,” the merc panted as his eyes rolled back. “Find the Shepherd.”
More blaster bolts slammed into the shield as Johansen drifted away, his captaincy short lived.
Scrambling with crab-like efficiency, Atom plunged down the road, leaving Johansen’s body behind. Pulling the pram behind him shielded them from death as the blaster bolts continued to rain down. Kozue dropped the turbo-blaster and sent suppressing fire winging back towards their assailants, buying enough time for them to escape around a distant corner.
Daisy disengaged the couplers and drifted away from the station the moment he registered a positive seal on the docking hatch. Atom blew out a sigh of relief as he felt the reverberations of the couplers retracting into the hull, and the pulse of the engines flow through his feet.
Space meant freedom.
***
He lifted Margo from the pram and set her on the floor. As he turned away, Kozue kicked up the suspensors and sent the pram gliding across the almost empty hold to tuck under the fore-stairs. Margo skipped to the steps and began climbing, two feet to each metal stair. Atom watched her climb as he pulled his rail-pistol from its holster. When she clambered to the top and disappeared through the hatch, he looked over his gun, making sure Rolf had taken care of the valuable weapon.
He spun the eight-chambered cylinder on his arm again and listened to the soft clicking of the mechanism. Happy with the whispered music of death, he holstered the weapon and followed after Margo.
As he mounted the upper landing, Dairy chirped in his ear. “Atom, you’d better hop up to the bridge.” The pilot sounded concerned.
Atom kicked into a jog, only to skid to a halt as he popped into the mess. Sitting at the table with an enraptured Byron, Tilt flashed a radiant, bewitching smile. Atom caught her mid-laugh. Without a hitch, she turned her eyes to the captain and quirked a questioning eyebrow. Then, as she twirled her braid with playful innocence, Tilt turned back to Byron.
“Leave him be,” Atom snapped. “You’re old enough to be his mother.”
Byron turned his head to Atom in shock.
“Prove it, old man,” Tilt sighed and leaned back with a childish pout.
“Why are you here? Wait, I don’t have time for that right now. Something’s up, but when I figure out where we float, you and I will have some words. In the meantime, don’t toss any pans aboard this ship.” Fixing Tilt with a business-like glare, Atom turned away and bolted through the far hatch.
“Shi,” he called out as he ran. “Meet us on the bridge.”
Atom burst through the hatch to find Daisy hunched at the pilot’s console with both hands gripping the tiller. Sitting at the nav-console, Hither glanced over her shoulder as Atom skidded to a halt.
“What’s happening?” Atom scanned the Black, searching for a threat.
“A new ship just jumped the gate and dropped in system.” Hither’s fingers flew over her board, pulling up an image on one of the holo-screens. “She’s burning hot.”
“Do we have an ID?”
“IS Graff,” Hither sifted the data streaming across her screen. “Forty-gun frigate.”
“Toks Marshall,” Atom whispered. “Let’s hope she’s not on our trail.”
“Why else would she be here?”
“Maybe someone slipped a distress call out from the station,” said Daisy.
“Doubtful.” Hither continued pulling information from her boards. “From what I gathered while you were aboard, the station habs have an understanding with the mercs. They turn a blind eye, go to ground while the mercs have the run of the place. The mercs don’t kill any habs and the cap pays for any damages, plus a bonus when they leave. The only corpses are spacers who aren’t in on the arrangement and the station scraps off the ships.”
“Lucky we made it out.” Atom turned away from the nav-console and squinted over Daisy’s shoulder, into the Black. “Daisy, we’re going to have to skip the jump gate. Get us out of here. Let’s hope it was a distress call.
“Hither, follow Daisy’s vector and get us some off-gate coords,” Atom sighed. “Waste of fuel this way, but I’m not tangling with a frigate.”
“Atom,” Kozue sounded puzzled. “I’ve gone over the information from that secondary attack. I don’t believe the assailants were mercenaries.”
Daisy swung the ship in a graceful arc and burned for the system rim.
Atom glanced back to the nav-console and grimaced. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve isolated images. They appear to be Imperials.”
“Advanced scouts? How did they slip in?”
“I have no relevant information on that,” Kozue answered.
Shi trotted through the door.
“Nice of you to join us,” Atom said and waved her to the com-station across the narrow bridge from Hither’s seat.
Shi dropped into the seat, waving off Atom’s snark. She powered up her consoles and squinted as information began flowing across her screens. “Cap, we’ve an inbound,” she said, her demeanor all business.
“A second ship?” Atom asked.
“Torpedo.”
“They think we’re rabbits?” Hither asked, plotting evasion courses and flipping the potential trajectories to Daisy’s floating display.
Pulling down the com-set from the ceiling, Atom called out. “Byron, get Tilt and Margo strapped and settled, we have incoming fire. Daisy should be able to keep us clear, but there may be some rattle in our bones.”
He slapped the com-unit back onto its mount and braced himself against the overhead piping. “Time to impact?”
“Two-sixteen,” Shi called out. “Cap, they’re sending a com.”
Atom hesitated. “Patch it through. Keep it audio only. I don’t want to give her a visual, she might peg me.”
A burst of static solidified into a hard female voice that filled the bridge. “This is Captain Marshall of the Imperial Navy. Identify yourself,” she demanded in a voice accustomed to obedience. “I have been dispatched to investigate reports of unauthorized mercenary activity in the region.”
“I’d slow for a chat, but you seem to have launched a torp before opening channels of communication,” Atom said with a light air of indifference that he knew would needle Marshall.
“That is a simple shot across your bow to inform you that we are executing our orders with all gravity,” Marshall snapped back. “Now identify yourself. If you continue to flee, we will be forced to assume your guilt.”
Atom muted the com with a wry grin as his veins filled with iced adrenaline. “What’s she really after?” he asked without tearing his eyes from Shi’s screen.
Shi shrugged.
“It’s never been protocol to shoot first unless war has been formalized, even with rogue mercs.” He turned back to Hither’s screen. “Koze, have they scoped us yet?”
“Negativ
e. Their array is focused on the station. The merc ship is powering up and preparing to decouple. Also, I took the liberty of using a chimera to mask our transponder as soon as I detected their energy signature dropping into the system. They are currently reading us as The Terror out of New Haven, captained by Aubrey Droll.
“Although, if they had a scout ship in system earlier, they could have pinged our true code.” Kozue seemed perplexed by the uncertainty.
Atom studied Hither’s flowing charts. “Aubrey Droll?”
“Thirty to impact,” Shi intoned.
“Daisy, can we punch any harder?” Atom asked.
“Ask By,” Daisy said, gritting his teeth. “I just fly this crate.
“Byron,” Atom called into the com. “You down in your hole?”
“Aye, cap,” the mech replied. “I rabbited as soon as I ‘eard ‘em skies got tight. Buttoned up the lasses first, sir.”
“Can you squeeze anything extra out of our core?”
“We’d risk burnin’ aux drives and maybe poppin’ our core.”
“Give me a two on main and auxiliary drives, then prep for a hard burn for the ring.”
“Are we outta the grav-well?” Byron asked, worry straining his voice.
“Ten seconds,” Hither informed them.
“I hope we’re close enough.” Atom grinned and unmuted Marshall. “Looks like we’ve already established our travel vector. I don’t have the time or money to throw away on the kind of burn it would take to slow us. It’s been a pleasure, Toks. Perhaps we can sit down and chat next time and swap old stories over a cup of chi.”
“Toks? Who is this? Identify—”
Atom slammed the com closed. “Hope I bought us enough time. By, go for burn.”
The ship lurched to the side as Daisy rolled the One Way Ticket, stressing the grav-plates and forcing everyone aboard to brace. Byron eked every scrap of power from the main and auxiliary drives. The torpedo detonated in the space just vacated by the fleeing vessel, peppering the underside of the ship as Hither brought the nav-core online and ripped the ship from the system.
***
Atom swept into the galley to find Lilly sprawled in the booth, her feet dangling off the bench and bouncing to an intricate, internal rhythm. Still dressed in Tilt’s prepubescent clothing, Lilly had grown to womanhood in the few minutes of their escape. Her light brown hair had returned and for the first time, Atom felt he could see Lilly in her true state.
Margo sat at Lilly’s head, playing with her hair.
“Why are you here?” He slid into the opposite side of the booth.
“I didn’t aim to be here.” Lilly sat up and tucked her legs up beneath her. “I had hoped to slip off the merc ship and back to my own, but when I tripped the all-call, they locked down the hatches. The crew could get on, but nobody was getting off.
“I’m lucky Byron and Shi were still prepping for the jump back to your ship.” She gave a tired smile and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Margo’s ear. “I caught them just in time. They were suited and ready for the walk. I managed to squeeze into a suit and tag along.
“I’m kind of lost now,” she said with a wan smile.
“What about your ship?”
“It’s locked down for the moment.” Lilly shrugged. “I have fail-safes to keep anyone stupid enough to poke around from getting in. I’ll have to head back at some point or send a retrieval code.”
“And your golem?”
She hesitated. “Ash is in stasis. He should be quiet until I pick up the ship.”
“You don’t think the imps will impound your ship?”
Lilly curled in on herself, with her arms resting on the table. “I hope they just overlook it. There’s nothing to draw attention to The Hellkite. She’s just an old system-skipper and her fees are paid up and linked to a deep account.”
“You’re probably right.” Atom rose and wandered to the counter to pour a mug of black perk. “I don’t know why the imps were there. I know the Genkohan terminated my contract on you, which squares us, but they said they’d be sending someone to retrieve their deposit.
“I don’t remember the Genko’s having that kind of pull with the imps.” Atom leaned back against the counter and cradled the steaming mug, scenting the dark fluid. “You know anything?”
“A couple minor connections. Nothing that would bring an imp frigate. Unless….”
“Unless?” Atom left the word hanging.
“Unless the imps got wind of what I’d stumbled on in the Genko archives.”
“And that would be?”
She hesitated, as if weighing Atom. “Do you remember the Ave Maria?”
Atom scowled in thought for a moment. “You mean that legendary treasure ship that disappeared when our great-grands were kids. I remember my da telling me bedtime stories when I wasn’t much older than Margo.
“As I recall, she was lost with all hands. Fell in a hole during the Afkin War. The stories always said she carried a fortune in crystals, relics, bio-weapons, or whatever else can be sold from the Afkin homeworld. It was all just a legend, no hard evidence to anything of the sort.” Atom scrunched his eyes closed, trying to recall the old stories.
“Wasn’t she the last ship out of Afkin before it was destroyed?” Atom opened his eyes and looked to Lilly.
The Baug nodded. “That’s the story. The Ave Maria fled the planet just before its destruction and was never seen again. She carried in her hold something more valuable than anything the stories mention.”
“The Ave Maria is pure legend, just a bedtime story,” Hither said as she stepped through the hatch and slipped into Atom’s vacant seat and looked to Lilly. “That’s what you’re after?”
Lilly eyed Hither with unconcealed suspicion.
“It’s ok.” Atom watched Margo climb to her feet and amble around the loop of the booth to drop into Hither’s lap. “My crew works most of my side jobs with me. We aim to fly legit as much as possible, but sometimes we have to work outside the establishment.”
Lilly gave a slow nod of understanding. “I’ve never played well with others.” She slipped from the booth and joined Atom at the counter where she dispensed her own mug of chilled blue chi. “My story summed up, I was hired by the imps to infiltrate the Genkohan on grounds of unauthorized corp merging. You know the stance.”
“Too much power in one han is bad for the stability of the empire,” Hither recited.
“Exactly.” Lilly sipped her steaming mug. “My cover was getting a mark to fall in love with me. I executed my assignment to perfection. I was so convincing, I fell in love myself.”
“You mean the Tribes aren’t immune to human emotion?” Atom asked in mock shock.
Lilly rolled her eyes. “We’re still human.”
“Fair enough.” Hither shot Atom a look. “Keep going. I want to see how your falling in love links to the Ave Maria and the Afkin War.”
“Well, I fell in love and married Jackall Meiyo Genko. He is, was, a distant cousin to the han’s leading family, but he was smart and held a good position in the han. I married him and worked my way into the family.
“It took two years to find the evidence I had been sent to collect on the han, but in the process I stumbled on something else.” She paused to take another sip, despite the looks from Hither and Atom. “I found information about the Ave Maria indicating that the ship hadn’t fallen into a black hole. Instead, if the han records are true, the ship crashed on an uninhabited planet somewhere on the galactic fringe.
“And the Ave Maria might not have been alone. Records are shaky, but it seems like the ship might have been part of a convoy or flotilla.”
“Why would the Genkos have any of this?” Atom asked.
“The captain of the Ave Maria was a Genko.”
Atom stepped away from the counter, frowning in thought. He dropped his eyes to the floor, brow furrowed. “How did the information get out and why hasn’t the han gone after the treasure?”
He
looked at Lilly.
She shrugged back. “From what I could tell the captain managed to fire out a relay drone that confirmed the survival of the ship, nothing more.” Setting down her mug, Lilly drifted from the counter towards the rear hatch. “It contained a crew list and a message saying ‘all hands lost’ as a memorial. However, someone in the Genko’s uncovered a single piece of information buried in the code of that limited message.”
Pressing herself into the corner beside the hatch, she cocked her head, a snake scenting prey. Then, with a viper’s speed she darted a hand through the door and like an expert noodler, dragged Byron into the room.
“Hands off, you cullion,” he howled as she frog-hopped him by the collar.
“Easy.” Atom held up a hand to halt her progress. “The lad’s just a touch nosey. No need to rough him up.”
“Sorry, habit.” Lilly released the mech.
“Whadja do wiff Tilt?” he demanded, shirking his shoulders to settle his rumpled shirt.
Lilly looked to Atom.
“Well.” He scratched at the back of his neck. “She hasn’t gone far.”
“I was playing at Tilt,” Lilly said. “Using her likeness to get us aboard that merc ship. My real name is Lilly.”
Byron drooped, then glared at her. “You’re the wendy we’ve been after?”
“Yes,” she said with a smile as she chucked Byron’s chin. “That conversation you had with Tilt, it was really me. You’ve got a future. Don’t worry.”
She pushed him toward the booth with a gentle hand.
“Why haven’t the Genko’s gone after this wreck?” Atom led the way back to the table and brought the conversation back on track. “That war sailed so long ago, I’m not even sure what it was fought over. I don’t remember anything more than a brief mention in school. Kozue, do you have any more information?”
“Sadly, no,” the AI replied. “All I can gather is that it was a rebellion by the Afkin homeworld against the Empire. Strange, it’s almost as if sections of the network have been scrubbed. I can find lists of Imperial ships and soldiers who served, but no real information about the battles themselves, other than the expunging of Afkin from the Empire. I’ll keep digging. Perhaps I can find something deeper in the nets.”