Fire Fight

by Chris Ward

  ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ Harlan asked.

  ‘No, I’m not, but we have to throw them off our tail, otherwise they’ll plot our course and have us engaged when we reach Abalon 3. And we’re too close to the planet to jump to stasis-ultraspace. The nearest hop coordinates are some way out.’

  ‘Well, I’ll take my seat. That way, after we crash, enough of me should be intact that I can be salvaged for parts.’

  Caladan had no time to prepare a witty reply. The IPs were coming in fast, moving into attack formation. A contact message came over the intercom.

  YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR BREACHING LANDING AND TAKE-OFF PROTOCOL. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST. GIVE YOURSELVES UP.

  Caladan switched off the intercom. He checked the ship’s batteries, but they were good. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the switch to activate full attack mode.

  ‘Okay, girl, you see those bad boys out there? Go get them.’

  A thundering whirl came from all around. Caladan hadn’t activated full attack mode since—actually, now he thought about it, he wasn’t sure he ever had. The Matilda’s weaponry still worked during flight mode, but now she was as she had been designed, a spinning, pulsating spider of intergalactic death.

  Three IPs were hit before they even knew they were under attack. The other two wheeled right and left, splitting the target, but the Matilda could fire in a full circle rotation, her proton cannons far too powerful for the IPs’ light magnetic fields.

  Through the bridge monitors, the last Interplanetary Peacekeeper was surrounded by a crackle of electricity, then dropped away behind them.

  ‘What happened?’ Harlan5 asked. ‘They weren’t destroyed.’

  Caladan shrugged. ‘I lowered the power to disablement only. If they have distress beacons, they’ll be picked up. If not, tough luck.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’d like to keep the bounty on my head low enough to be of little interest.’ He wagged his stump. ‘It’s not easy to run with just one arm. You’re constantly off balance and it makes your opposite hip ache real bad.’

  With that, he stood up and headed for the back of the bridge.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘To take a little recoup sleep now the fun part’s over. You’re in charge now. Get us to Abalon 3 and wake me up before we get attacked again. We’re heading for warlord territory, and it’s rare for a ship to pass straight through a sector like that without paying some kind of toll or getting in a scrap. Did those off-worlders fix the self-destruct mechanism? I really don’t fancy being captured.’

  ‘I ran out of payment.’

  Caladan shrugged. ‘Well, good job a pilot as good as me doesn’t have to worry about anything like that.’

  Harlan5, for a droid, just looked sheepish.

  With that, Caladan headed for the recuperation chambers, leaving Harlan5 standing in his wake. He felt smug about a job well done, but reticent about their next challenge.

  If he was going to rescue Lia soon, he needed his beauty sleep. As he climbed into the capsule, he glanced at the flashing light on the one adjacent, feeling a little aggrieved that their guest had taken his favorite one.

  If their journeys were to continue together for much longer, they would have to sort out who got to choose first.

  24

  LIA

  Lia opened her eyes to find herself in a large and ornate bed chamber. As she looked around, her first realisation was that she could actually see again after the guards had beaten her eyes closed, but then she discovered her arms secured behind her with metal bonds, and she began to struggle.

  ‘I wouldn’t waste your energy.’

  Lia turned, and found herself facing the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Ebony skin, with a face so flawless and oval it could have been made from a cast, eyes the dark green of a deep river, and a perfect swimmer’s figure hidden beneath a light silk nightgown, the woman made Lia—who was proud of her features and figure despite ruining them a little with poor eating and drink—feel woefully inadequate. As the woman stretched on the bed, Lia guessed she was a subspecies human; the woman’s curving legs stretched far beyond Lia’s own, making her far in excess of two metres tall.

  ‘You are secured,’ the woman said, her soothing voice making Lia feel drowsy. ‘As the Lord commanded, I have applied salve to your wounds day and night for the past week while strong drugs have kept you from struggling, and a tube has provided you with sustenance. You will soon be well enough again, but until then the Lord will leave you alone. He does not agree with flaws or imperfections of any kind, which is why I alone share his bed.’

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Julienne of Bryant in the Quaxar System. A companion for hire.’ She smiled. ‘And the Lord pays better than any.’

  ‘The Lord…?’

  ‘He is commonly known as Raylan Climlee. Soon you will learn the proper address. It is best to adhere to his wishes. Sometimes he likes to use the barbs.’

  ‘What barbs?’

  ‘He is a liberated human subspecies, in case you didn’t know. Unlike many caused by interbreeding, his was biotechnologically engineered. He is the product of some ancient laboratory. His strain shares the ancient genetics of the Earth-mammal species known as felis catus.’

  ‘The common Earth-cat?’

  ‘A devastating, destructive animal. Estimated to have wiped out more than four million native species across ninety systems, more even than humankind. The Lord has, regrettably at times, retained much of his ancestors’ irascibility, as well as their unique mating attribute.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘The ability to cause the female great pain through the use of their barbed procreation member. Fortunately, the Lord’s are retractable, meaning he uses them by choice. It would be wise to pleasure him as he requests, as I have learned to do, otherwise the punishment will be great and severe.’

  Lia felt a sudden compulsion to wash out her mouth. ‘How do you stand it? Having that little … troll … mate with you?’

  Julienne smiled. ‘I offer a service for a fee. The client’s nature is not important. And’—she gave Lia a wink—‘his stature is such that it is easy to forget he is there when one reaches a height such as mine.’

  ‘I heard he measures only a hundred and twenty centimetres.’

  ‘One hundred and nineteen. Do not mention the galaxy’s most notorious theme park, Owaho-Land on Phebus 7. The nine-hundred-metre vertical drop rollercoaster is quite something, so I hear. He was refused access due to his height. He had the park’s entire staff killed, and the gates closed to the general public. Then he rode the coaster as many times as he wanted, before having the park fire-bombed.’

  ‘It sounds like he is a little touchy about his height.’

  ‘Few intelligent beings besides the Gorm are lower at the shoulder, and with their required mode of transport even that is misleading. He considers himself too low to the ground for his towering status and reputation.’

  ‘On his belly with the snakes is where he belongs,’ Lia said.

  A door opened. Lia snapped her mouth shut before she could say anything incriminating. Raylan walked in, flanked by two guards.

  ‘Julienne. Is she repaired?’

  ‘Lord, as repaired as a human can be, but I still feel she requires another few days to settle.’

  Raylan appeared unconvinced, but then nodded. ‘My dear Julienne, then you will be required to service me until then.’

  He had his guards secure Lia’s legs so she couldn’t get into any mischief, then he climbed up on the bed and coupled hard with Julienne while Lia lay beside them, stomach churning with disgust. When he was done, he climbed back down and returned to his guards, who had waited patiently without acknowledgement the whole time.

  Sweat dribbled down his wrinkled, pinched face, like a stream over rocky crags. Lia wasn’t sure it was possible to feel more disgust without vomiting up her entire stomach, but she clamped her mouth shut and held on,
wondering how she could kill herself before the ugly little warlord slathered all over her and filled her with his demonic seed.

  ‘It will be your turn soon, Lianetta,’ Raylan told her, wearing a sadistic grin. ‘Who knows? Maybe I can replace the child you claim I stole from you.’

  Rage bloomed. Lia struggled and fought against the bonds holding her until the steel braces cut into her ankles and wrists deep enough to draw blood. Raylan looked aghast at this new development as Lady Julienne tried to calm her.

  Eventually her strength gave out and she collapsed back onto the bed, breathing hard. Raylan sniggered, wished her goodnight, and left, but not before instructing Lady Julienne to dress her new wounds.

  ‘You just bought yourself a little time,’ Julienne said, unfastening Lia’s ankles. ‘If there is blood to draw, he likes to be the one to draw it.’

  Lia lay still while Julienne cleaned and dressed the cuts on her ankles, then replaced the bonds, before releasing the ones on her hands. Julienne seemed to fasten and unfasten the steel cuffs without any kind of a key, yet no matter how hard she stared, Lia could see no sign of a mechanism being worked. It was as though Julienne worked through magic.

  ‘Don’t try anything now,’ Lady Julienne said, as she took Lia’s wrist bonds in her hands. ‘I’m stronger than you know, and a dozen guards wait outside the door.’

  Lia shook her head as she rubbed sore hands together. She frowned at something odd in her palm, just beneath the small incision made to free the palm grenades, a little lump.

  Had she forgotten one?

  Drunk at the time of purchase, she didn’t remember if she had bought four or five. She remembered using four and thought that was all she had, but the tiny lump rested against her tendons, making a nuisance of itself, suggested otherwise.

  It looked like there were benefits to being a lush after all.

  Raylan came daily to service himself with Julienne. During his absences, Julienne would potter innocently around the bed chamber and its adjacent rooms, humming to herself, moving objects back and forth, occasionally disappearing into a shower chamber for a wash, but it didn’t take Lia long to understand the mysterious woman’s nature.

  She communicated and she cleaned, but she neither ate nor defecated nor slept.

  Neither did Harlan5.

  Lia knew little of the Quaxar System beyond that several of its planets were considered to maintain artificial habitats, and that it produced great numbers of starships from manufacturing plants the size of small moons. Caladan, who had travelled far greater distances across the known galaxy than she, had possibly been there. For a system known for its manufacturing, it made sense that Lady Julienne might prove to be a droid.

  ‘How long have you been indentured to him?’ she asked one evening, when Julienne was relaxing on the bed beside her.

  ‘Thirty Earth-years, maybe more. I forget.’

  ‘And have you seen many other women come and go?’

  ‘Only those he punishes. A couple every Earth-year. They don’t last long, but I enjoy a little company for a while.’

  ‘Have any escaped?’

  Lady Julienne smiled. ‘None. Even if they should, they would never get past the guards.’

  ‘Can you do me a favor?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  ‘These bonds are too tight. They make my shoulders ache. Can you please pull my wrist over your shoulder to stretch it out a little?’

  ‘Sure. Like this?’

  Lady Julienne lay with her back against Lia’s chest and lifted Lia’s right arm over her shoulder. Then she leaned forward, pulling Lia against her back.

  ‘That’s great. Can you do the other arm?’

  ‘Sure.’

  They reversed positions. This time, as Lady Julienne pulled Lia’s arm over her shoulder, Lia released the tiny palm grenade from between her fingertips, dropping it down the front of Lady Julienne’s nightdress, then ducked down behind the taller woman’s body.

  For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, a deafening boom filled the room, and Lady Julienne’s body slammed back against Lia, causing Lia’s bonds to savagely cut into her wrists. A crackle of electricity came from the woman’s body as it shuddered against Lia, and with the initial explosion over, she wrapped her legs around Lady Julienne’s waist to stop her body jerking off the bed, out of her reach.

  As Lady Julienne finally lay still, Lia twisted her around, revealing a collapsed body cavity of metal and organic-substitute material, hollowed out by the small grenade. As Lia had prayed, the strong central structure had shielded her from the blast, which had been forced outward, leaving Lady Julienne a ruined mess.

  Already, a commotion was coming from outside the door. Lia grabbed Lady Julienne’s still-warm hand and pressed it against her nearest bond, hoping she was correct and that a magnetic system set into the woman’s hands activated it.

  The bond clicked open. Lia hastily pressed the hand to the others, then rolled off the bed as the door burst open and guards rushed in.

  Unarmed, she was at the mercy of skilled fighters, but in their confusion, her years of military training began to kick in, and she realized quickly that these were low-quality hired hands, cannon fodder but little else.

  The bed was metal-framed, the kind only found in Earth-history museums, but Raylan enjoyed the relentless creaking that had driven her near crazy. As the nearest guards approached, uncertain as to what had happened, Lia gripped a rail near the middle and swung herself feet-first at the nearest pair of legs. Like a skilled acrobat, she wrapped her legs around them, twisting to bend the knees and dropping the guard to the ground. As his blaster spilled loose, Lia scooped it up, flicked the safety off, and cut three of the other six down before they even knew what was happening.

  The rest of the fight was short. In less than a minute, seven guards lay dead in a circle around her.

  ‘Sorry,’ Lia muttered to the smouldering remains of Lady Julienne, as she headed for the door. ‘I enjoyed the conversation, and I wish we could part in different circumstances, but I have a monster to go and slay.’

  To her surprise, Lady Julienne’s partly destroyed head turned toward her, an auxiliary battery continuing to power her major systems.

  ‘It’s quite all right,’ said a distorted voice. ‘I will ask someone to inform the Lord that you appear to be fully recovered.’

  Lia smiled. She pulled a blaster belt off a guard and slipped it around her waist.

  ‘I’ll tell him myself.’

  25

  RAYLAN

  ‘We are monitoring all networks of communication coming out of Avar,’ said Raylan’s new chief advisor, a man whose name Raylan could no longer remember, as he shifted nervously from foot to foot, aware that had it not been for the sudden loss of those above him, he would still be a dozen places down the pecking order. ‘There is no evidence that the virus has yet been discovered.’

  Raylan scowled. ‘We will send a team back down to the surface, capture an infected Abaloni and forcefully transfer the virus to Boxar and the other major population centres. It is only a matter of time.’

  ‘Lord, quarantine regulations have tightened. No off-worlders at all are now allowed to enter or leave Avar.’

  ‘We’ll find a way.’

  ‘Lord, it’s impossible.’

  ‘Are you disagreeing with me? No one disagrees with me.’

  ‘Lord—’

  Raylan pulled a blaster from his belt and blew off the man’s head. The new head advisor had been grating anyway. Something about the man’s nose, or his voice. Raylan wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t losing much expertise, so it didn’t matter.

  Death always made him excited. Perhaps the captive was healed by now, ready for her punishment to begin. Or if not, he could take his anger out on Lady Julienne. She was used to it, after all.

  He headed for his bed chambers, flanked on either side by guards. Halfway there, a droid rumbled out of a corridor and signaled him for attention.

&nb
sp; ‘What?’

  ‘Lord Climlee, there has been an intrusion into the base’s communication systems. An unauthorised signal has been sent.’

  ‘What signal?’

  ‘It consists of a single word: “Matilda”.’

  Raylan frowned. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘It could be a code of some kind, but it has been sent out across the system.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Someone broke into a communications office on Level Three.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘We are trying to discover that. The individual appears adept at avoiding security systems.’

  ‘Fill the corridors with guards. Search everywhere.’

  ‘As you wish, Lord.’

  A sinking feeling filled Raylan’s diminutive chest. He hastened his step, the guards jogging along beside him.

  The door to his bed chamber was closed, but he knew something was amiss because no guards were at their posts. The door had been blasted shut from the outside, and it took a few precious moments for his guards to break through. As the door jerked and shook open, his eyes were met by a scene that sent both chills and a sense of horror racing to his stomach.

  All his guards lay dead from blaster fire. Their bodies had been shifted around into an unusual shape that at first he didn’t recognise.

  ‘Lift me,’ he instructed a guard, and the man lifted Raylan up high enough to view the shape from above.

  ‘It was a word from the old tongue, still used as the common trading language in most systems, and a word that sent shivers of anger surging through him.

  SHORT

  He refused to let his men see his rage, so he clenched his fists and approached the bed, where the remains of Lady Julienne watched him. Her stomach was a mangled mess of wires and synthetic tissue, while her face wore a smile that suggested she had enjoyed her final moments.

  ‘Have it thrown away,’ he said. ‘I will order another. And remove these bodies. Toss them into the incinerator.’