by Jake Bible
“Alright, how far to the next portal?” Roak asked, his eyes watching the scanners as his hands hovered over the weapons controls. “Tell me it is close.”
“It is close,” Hessa said. “And I mean that. I was not making a sarcastic statement as you so often do.”
“Good to know,” Roak said. He checked the navigation readings and smiled. “Fifteen minutes away. Good.”
A warning bleeped and he shook his head.
“It is a gas cloud,” Hessa said. “Off our starboard side. I am adjusting course to avoid any issues it may cause with the engine wash. The cloud makeup could be combustible and we do not need any ancillary explosions while navigating this system.”
“No, we don’t,” Roak said.
The warning bleep ended and the ship moved away from the gas cloud. Roak’s eyes moved from the scanners to the view shield and back.
“Hessa? What is that?” he asked, staring at a dark spot in the view shield that was not showing up on the scanners.
“That would be the remains of a Collari Syndicate base,” Hessa said. “I stumbled across its records by accident. They were well hidden within the database I have access to. If I had not been looking for any possible traps, I would have missed the records altogether.”
“Collari Syndicate?” Roak said. “What a mess. The fallout from that collapse nearly took down three other syndicates. I lost several hundred thousand chits when control of one syndicate went through five different hands before it all settled. No one knew who was supposed to pay me and I couldn’t even figure out a mark to go after. Had to write that one off.”
“But Roak always gets paid his chits,” Hessa said.
“That was sarcasm,” Roak said. “Don’t deny it.”
“I do not deny it,” Hessa said.
The ship skirted past the burned out wreck of what looked like a small moon, but could have been an old asteroid or even a full space station. It was nearly impossible to tell what the structure had been at one time, it was so mangled and destroyed. But its structural state wasn’t the troubling part. What got to Roak was that it still didn’t show up on scanners. Only visual confirmation proved that it even existed.
Another warning bleep then a full alarm.
“Okay, time to turn on the throttle,” Roak said and strapped himself in. “Hessa, get us to that wormhole portal.”
“This is quite remarkable, Roak,” Hessa said. “If I was not witnessing it, I would not believe it.”
“Listen, Hessa, I like the ‘I told you so’ routine as much as anyone, and I will get back to it later, but I want to be out of this system first before I point fingers and say the words,” Roak said. “Punch the throttle and get us to that damn portal!”
The ship accelerated and Roak took a deep breath. The view switched as Hessa showed Roak what she was talking about.
“Do you see it as well?” she asked. “I would appreciate second party confirmation.”
“To hell with your second party confirmation!” Roak shouted. “I see the damn thing! Go!”
A creature that had to be close to ten times the size of the Borgon Eight-Three-Eight was undulating through open space. While not heading directly for the ship, its trajectory would cross their path. Roak’s hands went to the weapons controls and he brought up plasma canons, setting the targeting computer to calculate all angles of attack if the creature deiced to take the ship head on.
“It is not acting hostile,” Hessa said.
The creature sent an impossibly long tentacle flying across space at the ship.
“My mistake,” Hessa said and took evasive action, banking the ship down and to port to avoid the tip of the tentacle which looked to be glowing bright pink. “I apologize, Roak. My curiosity has gotten the better of me.”
“Yeah, yeah, apologies later,” Roak snarled. “Wormhole portal now.”
The tentacle shot past the ship and Hessa spun about it to get them back onto their original path. The ship’s engines powered up to full and Roak barely noticed as he was pressed back into his seat. His entire attention was on the scanners, the view shield, and the weapons controls.
“If it comes again, then I’m firing,” Roak said as a second tentacle did come for them. “Firing now!”
Plasma lit up the dark space and the creature shrank back as the second tentacle was severed from its body. It floated there in space, wriggling and twitching on a grand scale. Roak shivered at the sight, but did not stop firing as he concentrated the plasma on the creature’s main body.
The thing inflated to an impossible size, blotting out the view of anything else in the system. Then it was gone. It winked out like a light being switched off. Roak began scrambling to check every reading he had at his disposal, but it was nowhere to be found.
“We have reached the portal,” Hessa said and she sounded as relieved as Roak felt. “Entering in three, two, one.”
The ship was once again enveloped in the familiar swirling mass of quantum energy and Roak sighed. He hesitated, but then slowly moved his hands away from the weapons controls. After a few minutes of watching trans-space outside the view shield, Roak relaxed a little more and undid his straps.
“You feel better now?” Roak asked. “You got to witness what the reports told you would be there. What I told you would be there.”
“It was a singular experience,” Hessa said. “Creatures like that should not exist, yet now I know they do. I will be certain to mark the Klatu System as a place to avoid. I would not enjoy encountering more than one of those beings at a time.”
“Yeah, one was enough,” Roak said. “Alright, one more system before we get to Jafla Base.”
“Yes, you are correct,” Hessa said. “Although the Sol System is not so much a danger as it is a tragedy. I am unsure how a species like the human race could destroy their entire original ecosystem as they did. To the point where it cannot even be salvaged by modern technology.”
“Yeah, Earth sucks,” Roak said and spat. “So we skirt by it and hit the wormhole portal ASAP. We ignore any ships in the area that try to hail us. They may send distress signals, but they are lying. Everyone in the Sol System lies.”
“Such a strange place,” Hessa said.
The ship came out of the wormhole portal that was stationed between Uranus and Neptune. Portals were new to the Sol System. It had been abandoned for centuries, but someone in the Galactic Fleet needed to justify a budget. So, that someone’s cousin got a big, fat contract to build wormhole portals to a system no one except the less than trustworthy would ever want to visit.
Roak immediately took the weapons controls in hand and began watching for smugglers, pirates, privateers, and salvage mercs. The Sol System was rotten with hijackers and bad luck, either of which could derail their job fast.
They passed Jupiter and Saturn, keeping well out of the way of the giants’ gravitational pulls. Saturn’s shattered rings sent pieces of shrapnel towards them that dwarfed their ship which kept Hessa busy ducking and dodging until they were at the asteroid belt then passing Mars. The craters on Mars made the red planet look like an open sore. Not that it was much better looking than the dull orb that had once been home to the human race.
Earth. A polluted rock of unbreathable gas for an atmosphere and sludge that ran thick through deep canyons where raging waters had once sent bright spray up into sunlit skies.
Roak spat twice more and sneered at the image as they hurried past. He wanted to go take another sonic shower once they were halfway between Earth and Venus. But the wormhole portal was dead ahead and he needed to be ready for what came next.
“As soon as we come out, I’ll head to the armory,” Roak said. “I’m going to gear up, grab the genetic code, and stand ready by the hatch. When we reach Jafla Base, I want you to ignore all warnings. You got that? Take me directly to Shava Stemn Shava’s onyx tower.”
“I am not sure I can do that, Roak,” Hessa said. “The tower is well protected and air traffic is not allowed anywhe
re near it. The hangar bays are the only way in or out of Jafla Base.”
“Get creative,” Roak said. “Because if we have to land, then that means I’ll be fighting the entire way from the ship to Shava Stemn Shava. I’d rather not.”
“I will do what I can,” Hessa said.
Roak didn’t like the lack of confidence in her voice.
33.
It had to be close to two dozen ships that greeted Roak as Hessa piloted them out of the closest wormhole portal to Jafla Base. For half a second there, Roak almost opened fire on the ships, but rational thought returned in the other half second and he powered down the plasma canons, making a show of it so the other ships saw them retract within the Borgon Eight-Three-Eight’s hull.
“Didn’t even have a chance to go stealth,” Roak said.
“It would not have mattered,” Hessa said. “Most of the ships have a scatter spread set on their scanners. They were prepared and would have detected the anomaly. Especially since the wormhole portal would have opened and nothing would have come out. Today was not the day for stealth, Roak.”
“You ain’t kidding, Hessa,” Roak said. He watched the ships as they blocked his way. “Have we been hailed yet?”
“Not yet,” Hessa replied. “Shall I see if I can navigate us through?”
“Might as well try,” Roak said.
The ship adjusted course and the blockade adjusted with it. There was no way through to Jafla Base. They were stuck where they sat, so Roak had Hessa kill the engines while he kicked his boots up onto the console and waited for the comm call to come in.
It was an hour of sitting and waiting before Shava Stemn Shava made contact.
“Roak,” Shava Stemn Shava called.
“Shava,” Roak replied. “You didn’t have to send the welcoming party.”
“That is Shava Stemn Shava to you, Roak,” was the snarling response.
“Whatever. I have what you want. Unless you no longer want it and maybe I should give it to your competition.”
“No, no, I do want what you were sent to hunt,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “It is unfortunate that Mr. R had to die for you to retrieve it. I blame you for his death, Roak. That cannot be changed.”
“Blame all you want,” Roak said. “But it wasn’t on me. That was your competition.”
“Ah, except I have been in contact with the entity that my competition has hired and we have come to an arrangement,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “It appears you are a worthy hunt yourself, Roak. A trade has been organized and I have agreed to it. You will deliver Jonny Nebula to me and I will deliver you to a very singular woman that is quite eager to obtain you for what I can only guess are nefarious purposes.”
“Yeah, none of that is going to happen,” Roak said.
“I am sorry? But you always complete your job,” Shava Stemn Shava replied.
“I do,” Roak said. “And I always get paid my chits. Can’t rightly get my chits if you hand me over to someone else as soon as I give you Jonny Nebula, now can I?”
“Oh, I am sorry, Roak, but you misunderstood my statement,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “I do plan on paying you your chits. Every last one of them. I would hate for there to be bad blood between us. Roak completes his hunt, gets paid his chits, and is off to his next job. That is how the narrative goes and that is how the narrative will stay. It just so happens that your next job is not up to you. It is up to this…what is she, exactly? I mean, have you seen her? Do you know of whom I speak, Roak?”
“Yeah, I know of whom you speak,” Roak said. “She’s playing you, Shava Stemn Shava. It doesn’t matter what deal you have made with her, she isn’t going to live up to it.”
“Well, now, there’s no need to besmirch the competition, Roak,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “Do not be a sore loser about all of this.”
“Okay, listen up, pal,” Roak said. “As soon as I hand over Jonny Nebula, she will take it from you. She might kill you, she might not, but you won’t have the genetic code any longer. No tube for you.”
“We shall see,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “I did not reach the level of success that I have by allowing strange women to rob me blind.”
“Okay, fine, believe what you want,” Roak said. “We still have the issue of me getting to you. I’m sure you’ve paid off some of these ships, but there is no way you have paid off all of them. I see more than a couple rogue raiders out there. You got some of the larger syndicates too that I know aren’t here to do you any favors. The only reason my ship hasn’t been fired on is because they are waiting to see what the play is before they make their own. This is quite the Maglorian cluster fuck.”
“I will get you through the blockade, Roak,” Shava Stemn Shava said with confidence. “They are in my air space and no one intimidates me this close to Jafla Base.”
“Okay, good for you,” Roak said. “So what now? I have no reason to come willingly. I might as well turn the ship around and try to make it on my own back in one of those nasty systems I just came from.”
“No, no, I don’t think so, Roak,” Shava Stemn Shava. “That way is closed to you.”
“He is correct, Roak,” Hessa said on a private channel. “The wormhole portal has powered down. That is quite the accomplishment. Shava Stemn Shava will have to answer to the Galactic Fleet for that.”
“I’m sure he’s paid off enough people in the GF so that he never hears about it ever,” Roak said. “What are our options, Hessa?”
“I am unsure,” Hessa replied. “I have been studying the various ships and unfortunately I cannot deduce which ones are in Shava Stemn Shava’s employ and which ones are here to take the Jonny Nebula genetic code from us. It is easy to see the rogue raiders as their ships are less than well maintained, but as for the others, your guess is as good as mine.”
“So we let Shava Stemn Shava guide us in and go from there,” Roak said. He punched the control console then winced. “Damn. All I want is a job that doesn’t go sideways. I used to pick them right and people would leave me alone because they didn’t want anything to do with the hunts I was on. I lived free, Hessa. Now look at things. All shot to shit.”
“This does not help, but I believe you became too good at your job, Roak,” Hessa said. “We should reevaluate your business plan when this is all over.”
Roak had to laugh at that. “Yeah, sure, Hessa, we’ll do that.”
“Roak? Are you still there?” Shava Stemn Shava called.
“I’m still here,” Roak replied. “And pissed off. But nothing to do about that. How do you propose getting me through this shit show?”
“Behold,” Shava Stemn Shava said.
Almost half the ships turned on the other half and began firing. The space in front of Roak’s ship became a brutal battlefield of ship-on-ship chaos.
“What the hell?” Roak shouted. “This isn’t helping!”
“Oh, but it is, Roak,” Shava Stemn Shava said. “If you will reverse course and reenter the wormhole portal, then we can let this shit show begin.”
“The portal is active once more,” Hessa said.
“I guess do what he says,” Roak replied. “Hey, Shava Stemn Shava?”
“Yes, Roak?”
“I’m gonna kill you for this,” Roak stated.
“I knew you would feel that way,” Shava Stemn Shava said with all the condescension in the galaxy dripping from his tongue. “And I admire you for voicing it, but alas, it is not to be. The game is fixed against you and there is no way for you to win.”
“We’ll see about that,” Roak said. “I’m going to complete this job, get paid, let you hand me over to the woman that you should never have gotten into business with, more than likely kill her, then come back and kill you. That is how this is going to go. You’ll want to get that onyx tower of yours in order because it’ll be crashing down on your head by this time tomorrow.”
“I am not sure we can put an exact time on it,” Hessa said.
Roak ignored her. “You listening, S
hava?”
“That is Shava Stemn Shava!” the man snapped.
“Not for long, pal,” Roak said and killed the comm.
The ship spun about as the battle raged on. Hessa took them back into the wormhole portal, but instead of the swirling energy of trans-space, they found themselves instantly arriving above Shava Stemn Shava’s private hangar bay on Jafla Base.
“I am taking us in,” Hessa said. “The improvement that we had Bhangul do is not operational yet. I will work as hard as possible to dial in calibrations.”
“Do that,” Roak said as he got up and quickly left the bridge.
He burst from the lift and sprinted down the corridor to the armory. Roak made sure his KL09s were fully charged, he had extra magazines for them, then grabbed an H16 Plasma Carbine Multi-Weapon that the GF Marines used, slung that over his shoulder, strapped two Keplar knives to each of his thighs, secured several plasma concussion grenades to his belt and to clips on his light armor across his chest, then stood staring at the weapons racks.
“Any more than that and you will be weighed down to the point of being incapacitated,” Hessa said. “We have landed, Roak.”
“Great,” Roak said and left the armory.
The ride down to the cargo hold felt like an eternity. Roak left the lift and strode across the hold as the rear ramp lowered to show dozens of armed guards waiting for him. Roak expected them and was about to start tossing plasma concussion grenades out into the hangar when he caught sight of the woman in black at the very back of the group.
She stood there, her arms across her chest, her featureless face pointed directly at him, and shook her head. That was all she had to do and the go for broke, fight until you die strategy that Roak had come up with on the eternal lift ride from the armory to the cargo hold dried up right there. He relaxed his hands, the hands moving to the grenades, and raised them above his head as he dropped to his knees. There was no way to tell for sure, but Roak knew the woman in black was smiling behind her mask.