Trinity: Atom & Go

by Zach Winderl

  “I don’t know what we’re getting into,” he said as he hefted Margo into the pram. “Follow my lead and let’s feel out the situation.”

  “Do we have a goal?” Lilly asked. “Or a contact?”

  “An imp fleet dropped through the gate after us. It has to be Toks.” Atom cycled the hatch. “Our goal should be finding a way to keep our heads down. Avoiding contact is the primary objective. Once we’ve figured that, we can worry about finding the next step in the clues.”

  “But you know she’s going to be squeezing anywhere she thinks she can find us or that treasure.”

  Shi laid a hand on Atom’s arm. “Boss, what are we doin’ with Daisy? His gut ain’t healed up. I rekin we’re headed to scrap and he sure ain’t gonna handle that. You ain’t serious about callin’ him in?”

  “He’s on ship detail for the moment.” Atom turned to find concern written clear across each face of his crew. Only Lilly seemed oblivious to their need. “We need to figure our play. If I can get him to a safe-house, I will. Otherwise, he’ll stay home aboard the ship until the last moment.

  “For the time, we’re running light.” He looked to Shi and Hither. “Keep that in mind if something goes sideways.”

  The women nodded. Atom turned and slapped open the hatch.

  A cool, dusty scent hit them in the face, carrying the bittersweet, earthy smell fused with oil that Atom assumed leached from the stone. A pair of uniformed men trotted across the woven mesh of the landing pad.

  Hopping down from the side hatch, Atom and the crew watched the men approach.

  With a tired smile, Atom rocked the pram while the others fanned out just enough to have space without appearing to have threat read in their actions.

  “What’s the word, gentles?” Atom asked as the locals drew within earshot.

  “Word is you have a couple contras and want to avoid the ocs of the imps burning for orbit,” the taller of the two men said as he held out a hand, palm up. “Name’s Bextiple. I’m the fore on this dock level. I’ll take care of the unload and load of your ship.

  “You have a need for the ship, let me know.” He recited his litany as he handed Atom an info chip. “You can reach me, or one of my subs, at any time. Most things, legit or no, can be had for the right price. I’ll be the one to put you in contact with the right parties for the right goods. As you can see, Stillwater’s far enough outside the lanes that we run on our own system and that ain’t always the up-up.

  “Let’s start on the right hop,” he drawled, crossing his arms as he looked up at the ship with an appraising eye. “Right peachy burner you got here. Looks to be you keep her fair. What are you looking to swap out? And I’d appreciate you being upfront with any….” He hesitated, rocking his head back and forth while smirking. “Complications.

  “Ain’t nothing wrong with under the table deals, I just like to know how to broker your goods.”

  “I’m not carrying anything special.” Atom shrugged. “Replacement monitors. Differing sizes. Two-fifty crates. Stasis sealed.”

  “You did your research.” Bextiple grinned. “Monitors always fetch a fair price.”

  “What’s your cut?”

  “I take an honest five on all transactions I set. Nothing else. No sliding scale. It’s the standard rate and it keeps most of us trade officers honest. I won’t say no to a tip at the end, but everything in the midst stays aboveboard.”

  “You seem fair calm with the imps bearing down.”

  “I’m guessing it’s just a routine shakedown.” Bextiple played with the saggy skin of his neck. “We’ll keep you tucked. In the meantime, we’ll just go about our business and keep the unders out of their ocs.

  “You mind if I take a quick visual of your cargo? I want to get it processed and on the boards to see if we can line up a good trade.”

  “Not a problem,” Atom replied as he pulled Margo from the pram and set her on the floor. “By, why don’t you run Margo a touch while I handle this.”

  Bextiple followed Atom into the hold and scanned a couple random stasis-crates to verify their contents. The only pause to the cursory inspection came when Bex rounded the stack of crates and found the Hellkite parked beside the main cargo ramp.

  He lifted an eyebrow, but otherwise remained quiet.

  “Looks solid,” Bextiple said as he returned to the hangar floor. “I just tossed your goods on the local boards. I would guess you’ll have an offer within the hour, or at least a potential based on local trade.

  “Here you go.” He pulled out his pad and flipped through a couple screens before shooting something off into the ether. “You can find the link to your board posting through the tag I just gave you. Anyone posts a bid on your goods will show up there and you can work out the deal. I’ll reach out to a few of my contacts and let them know what you’re offering.

  “I’ll work at earning that five.”

  “Sounds grounded.” Atom walked over to his crew and scooped Margo into his arms. “In the meantime, is there a place we could stack up, get some eats, and perhaps find some local intel on what we should haul out of this system?”

  “You can find most trade info on the boards, unless you are looking to carry something a touch more contraband.” Bex scrolled through his pad and flicked a few more times. “There are a couple port-side inns tied into the top portions of this stack of the port. They tend to be a touch pricier than some of the places further in town, but they’re close.

  “If I had to choose one of them, I’d go with the Cozy Cavern. It’s only two levels above where we stand now and their cook throws a tasty dish.”

  “Many thanks.” Atom reached into his pocket and pulled a metal chit. He locked in an amount and flipped it to Bextiple. “Hundred for you to keep me in the loop on what the imps are after. If possible, I’d like to steer clear and keep my crew safe.”

  “Absolutely,” Bex grinned. “You aren’t alone in that concern, so there are back page updates on what we have to look out for.”

  “Good man,” Atom said and he waved for the others to join him. “We’re headed up to that inn and hopefully we can use the downtime to rest up. It’s my hope we’ll decompress from the time in the Black. I’m sure we could all stand for a rockbound meal and pint or two.”

  Despite the inbound imperial fleet, the crew managed to look excited at the prospect of fresh-cooked food and the freedom from the confines of a ship.

  ***

  The walk to the inn covered several floors carved into the living rock of the hollowed ridge. The One way Ticket sat docked one level below the lowest living areas, but a healthy buffer of stone helped to somewhat shield life from the reverberations of lifting and landing ships.

  The crew managed an exhausted light-heartedness as they wandered up the circular ramp that wound through the rock like a meandering miner’s tunnel.

  Only Daisy’s absence seemed to dampen the moods of the others, but knowing how close to death the gut wound had taken him, they allowed him the respite. Beyond thoughts, however, they kept their chatter light and eyes observant.

  They passed an open market with every commodity a spacer could need: hawkers lauding the variety with their drinking establishments; front offices for mech shops offering ship repair and part replacement; and an intermixed smattering of sleeping establishments. For a frontier planet, Stillwater presented a clean, relaxed waystation for weary spacers.

  “We should be there soon,” Atom said, consulting his data-pad.

  The soft glow of a recessed, track-light conveyed the illusion of surface light to surround the crew as they wove through the light foot-traffic of the warren. Just as they rounded a corner and Atom pointed out their destination, the lights dimmed, flickered out and then surged back to life with a squint-worthy flare.

  A moment later, a low rumble shook several streams of dust from the ceiling.

  “What was that?” Hither asked as the party came to a halt among the frozen flow of startled pedestrians.

&nbs
p; “Power fluctuation,” Atom said with concern.

  “Should we be worried?”

  Atom shrugged and turned to a man, a grease smeared mech, who had come to a halt beside the party and asked, “Is that normal?”

  “Not in these parts,” the man said with a shake of his head as he stared up at the overhead rock. “Our grid is top end. I’ve never seen a flicker like that. You might find something like this in some of the outliers.” He pulled his pad and started scrolling through screens. “Or maybe in a mass duster, but it’s the wrong season and there haven’t been any alerts.”

  “Anomaly?” Atom exchanged a darting glance with his crew. “Could it be the imps?”

  The man swore under his breath. “Looks so,” he replied. “According to the local feeds, they just dropped a K-bomb close enough to our plant to shake down the power.”

  “Reckin this ain’t as friendly as our migo would like to believe,” Shi drawled.

  “They can’t be in orbit yet,” Hither piped in.

  “No,” Atom replied. “That had to be a distant message that they weren’t coming for a routine checkup. Toks is on the warpath.

  “Regardless.” He waved a thanks to the native and turned on towards their destination. “We have enough time to get a meal, get hunkered, and slip out for some intel before Toks even pulls into orbit.”

  “What do you think we have to look forward to?” Lilly asked.

  “From what we’ve seen, she’s not afraid to come down hard.” Atom led the way to the entrance to the inn and paused at the door. “My estimate is that she’ll lock this rock down as best she can. She only has five ships and four of them are light. That probably means no more than a couple regiments of drop marines between them. They’ll be heavy assault, trained to put down uprisings hard and heavy. They aren’t typically trained for prolonged occupation.”

  “Could we just lie low and wait this out?”

  Atom pressed the pram through the hatch into the low murmur of the inn’s front lobby. A half-dozen low couches circled a simple fountain that burbled a calming song. Several groups of people sat or stood in nervous clumps about the room, but none of them bothered to register the entrance of Atom and the crew.

  Having measured the room’s occupants for danger, Atom lifted Margo from the pram before tousling her hair and turning her loose to wander over to the fountain.

  “If only it could be that simple,” Atom sighed. “Toks knows this system is our destination from Coffey’s files, but that’s all she knows.”

  “Then she won’t be leaving anytime soon?” Lilly frowned.

  Atom watched Margo wander around the edge of the fountain, trailing a hand on the ceramic tiles. The girl pranced without a care in the world, her eyes focused on the trickles of water dancing from a plain stone basin into the waiting pool below.

  “Yeah,” Atom mumbled. “We’ll have to figure that one out. She’s logged our ship. That means if we lift, she’ll be able to ping us as long as she has line of sight.”

  “And that shouldn’t be too hard, seeing as she has five ships at her disposal,” Hither said.

  “I don’t reckin we’re aimin’ to figure this right now.” Shi tapped a quick tattoo on her guns beneath her poncho. “What say you line us up some rooms, and we’ll snatch a table in the cantina and save you a seat? I’ll order y’all a hot bevie and some munchers.”

  Atom fixed her with a steely glare.

  “Ah, Cap.” She thrust out her chin and flashed her cocky, lopsided grin. “Y’all ain’t serious about workin’ the angles right this instant. We all know this is going to take some rollin’ the pans to work out. Fact a the matter, we’ll probably need Daisy’s pan to work things fully.

  “Plus, I do reckin Go could use some vits.” Shi glanced around at the others. “An’ no offense, but I could use some meself that ain’t cooked by the lot a you.”

  “Fair,” Atom grunted. “Grab me a red chi. I need something calming.”

  “Righto, Cap.” Shi tapped a knuckle to her forehead. “And when you line a room for me, make sure it has a bath. I’d love a soak before we head out to die.”

  “We planning on dying on this one?” Atom asked.

  “Hopefully not, but either way, I could use a soak.” She grinned and followed her nose towards the inn’s dining room. The others fell into step with her.

  As they drew near the entry to the dining room, Shi stopped and chirped a low whistle that caught Margo’s attention. The girl saw the crew and took a step in their direction before glancing to where Atom stood by the front door to the inn.

  Atom nodded.

  With a grin, Margo scampered off to join the crew, leaving Atom to push the empty pram through the common room in search of the proprietor.

  ***

  Toks followed no ordinary protocol.

  Atom jerked awake in his room to the chirping alarm piping through the com-set mounted on the wall beside the luxurious double-bed. With one hand, Atom slapped the noise to silence and with the other, he eased his finger off the trigger of the pistol tucked beneath his pillow.

  Beside him, Margo slept on.

  “Koze, what’s happening?” Atom sat up, moving slow enough to leave Margo in her dreams.

  “Searching the network,” Kozue replied.

  Atom shucked into his clothes and strapped on his gunbelt.

  “Public reports are piecemeal, but it appears that Toks has landed a sizeable assault force to strategic points around the capital city and issued orders to local citizenry to lock-down. There are unofficial reports of scattered resistance and several sectors seem to be in open rebellion against this imperial attack.”

  “My guess is, they know she’s exceeding her authority and aren’t going to let her push them around.” Atom kept his voice low.

  “She is in violation of several mandates of imperial writ with her unprovoked incursion into sovereign han territory. The empire doesn’t exist without the hans and the hans would destroy themselves without the empire. This won’t end well for Toks.”

  “I imagine she’s gambling on this and hoping to disappear to her own private planet during the firestorm she’s likely to kick up.”

  “How does this affect your plans?’

  “I’ll have to talk to the others, but this might just give us the cover we need to keep our movements hidden from Toks. Ultimately, we need to figure out what this shepherd is we’re looking for. That means we need information.”

  “Do you have a direction for that, or will you rely on Bextiple?”

  “That’s a good question, I’ll reach out to Bex, but I’ll see what we can scrounge up locally. What time is it?” Atom yawned as he wandered into the small washroom to splash water on his face.

  “It’s almost dawn,” Kozue replied.

  “If Daisy isn’t awake, keep an eye on him for me. I don’t want any imps sneaking onto the ship again. When you can, let him know what the situation is looking like. We’re going to ground, and will likely skip around to stay ahead of whatever Toks has in store. This city is big enough to get lost in.”

  “It’s good you didn’t set down in the outer settlements,” Kozue laughed.

  “I’m glad one of us can keep a sense of humor.” Atom slipped out the door and locked the room behind him. “I’m going to see what passes for bitter on this planet.”

  “I’ll alert you as soon as Margo begins to stir.”

  “Fiver needs her sleep.” Atom shook his head as he wandered down the deserted hallway towards the commons and the dining room beyond. “She’s growing too fast.”

  “That she is, love,” Kozue said with a wistful air.

  For a moment, Atom let his mind dwell on his daughter, on their adventures, on their close calls, on the flight he called their life. Almost a third of her life had been spent on the One Way Ticket with her mother nothing more than a memory locked in a voice that spoke into his daughter’s ear.

  The thoughts weighed on Atom.

  He longed for
life to return to the past, to the peaceful times on Greenholm. He remembered the peaceful afternoons on his estates. He dredged up the scattered afternoons when he could sneak away from the court and spend time with his family. Despite the violence of his life, Atom managed to keep his family safe and sheltered.

  Until the violence followed him home.

  “Would I have been better off keeping you with me instead of tucking you and the family away on Greenholm?” Atom asked as he passed the fountain in the common area.

  “No,” Kozue replied without hesitation. “Statistically speaking, I would have compromised your ability to perform your duties as the Emperor’s Fist. I could have helped you, but there would have been times you would have been forced to choose between love and duty.

  “You know that,” Kozue spoke with a smile in her voice. “And we know what path you would have chosen.”

  As he drew near the doorway to the cantina, Atom paused. Something tickled at the back of his mind, an instinct. He did not question what tiny detail had slipped past his eye or trickled into the background of his ear.

  “Wake the others,” he growled as he spun, dropped to a knee, and yanked his rail-pistol in one blurred motion.

  Without waiting, Atom punched a line of holes through the stone walls flanking the front entrance, four uniformly spaced holes to each side of the door. Then he darted through the door into the dining room and vaulted over the bar. A terrified server crouched in the corner. Atom waved a calming hand at the young man, flashing a sad smile as he did so.

  “Hither is on Go,” Atom reloaded as he spoke, his fingers flying with practiced automation.

  He pulled his second pistol and rose from behind the bar just as several armored troopers ducked through the front entrance. They moved with the practiced elegance of a long-standing assault squad.

  Atom anticipated their cautious approach.

  Ducking around the end of the bar, he darted across the dining room, firing as he shifted his position. His shots failed to take any of the assaulting troopers down, but the effect of the fire forced them to duck back into cover and drew more of the squad in from the tunnel outside the inn.