“It’s the reason why he’s still captain,” Dangard said. “He can figure out ways to venture past the heavily guarded star systems and into the more vulnerable rear areas where it’s easy pickings. If it wasn’t for those talents, I’m sure one of his own crew would have killed him by now.”
“Because he’s an arrogant, sadistic bastard,” Creull added. “The other raiders have no love for him.”
Strand pursed his lips. “How do we know he won’t betray us and take all the cash cards?”
“He’s done a lot of horrible things, but he’s never betrayed one of his own to the Union authorities,” Dangard said. “If he does, he’ll get ostracized from the pirate community. We’ll all go after him.”
“If he takes all the cash cards, he could live pretty well without having to be a raider again though,” Strand said. “That’s ample motivation right there.”
“I’ve spoken to Captain Gwynplaine about it already,” Dangard said. “We’ll be ready if he tries to make a move against us. Anyway, if he’s stupid enough to do anything, he’ll have nowhere to run to; either we’ll find him or the Union Star Force will.”
“What about the Concordance?” Viniimn asked.
“The Concordance doesn’t have much use for cash cards. They prefer to deal in slaves and their own currency system,” Dangard said. “In the end, Vega will do his part and get us to where we need to go—his butt is also on the line since he’ll be in the lead.”
“Going back to the shadow zones bordering the Angkor System,” Viniimn said. “Sappho said there are more than a dozen separate ones, is that true?”
“Actually, there are nineteen dark matter fields within range inside that system,” Sappho said, correcting him.
Strand had an incredulous look on his face. “Nineteen? Are they all covered by the outer defense grids?”
“No,” Sappho said. “Many of the dark matter fields in that system have actually not been fully catalogued, so even the Union isn’t sure where they would ultimately lead to.”
“I have a feeling that Captain Vega does,” Viniimn said. “He must have some very good shadow zone charts in his ship to be able to circumnavigate his way past the heavily guarded Union border systems.”
“I heard a rumor that Vega waylaid an exploration ship headed by Teechumil many years ago,” Dangard said.
Viniimn turned to look at the captain. “Teechumil of the 6th Percentile? The great pathfinder?”
Strand was confused. “Who?”
Viniimn nodded. “She was a leading explorer amongst my species. Teechumil discovered many new routes across previously unknown dark matter fields, until her unfortunate disappearance ten years ago.”
“The tale was that Captain Vega captured this explorer’s ship and killed her—along with the entire crew—before taking the navigation charts,” Sappho said. “That’s why he has such knowledge with regards to hidden routes in and out of Union space.”
Viniimn looked away. To hear about the grisly murder of a famous nytini was heartbreaking, but he wasn’t the type to seek revenge, especially since he wasn’t related to the victim. A part of him wished that Vega would do something to offend the Nepenthe in order to bring about a turn of karmic justice, but he kept it to himself.
“So Vega really doesn’t have any talent after all,” Strand said. “Just a vicious thug.”
“Assuming he gets us where we need to be, which is in a safe area away from the defense grid his cracker doesn’t control, we’ll only have to deal with the in-system defense ships,” Creull said. “I can see why he is so confident with this plan. Against the three of us, those four Union ships will be mincemeat.”
“Assuming everything goes to plan,” Strand said. “How far away is the spaceport from the museum?”
Sappho commanded the holographic display to zoom back into the planet’s surface. The museum was a huge pyramidal structure several klicks wide. A virtual red arrow pointed to a smaller set of buildings within the city-sized compound. “In order to accommodate the ever increasing influx of tourists, the planetary government built a new, smaller spaceport right beside the museum’s main structure, to facilitate faster processing of visitors coming down from orbit.”
“So my team won’t have to travel as much,” Strand said. “If Vega’s cracker really did hack into the security systems then we’ll just make a beeline for the cash. Do we know if they have any battle armor in storage over in the staff areas?”
“We don’t have any such information,” Sappho said. “But since this museum does house many expensive artifacts, it is rated a class-one attraction by the Union Tourism Board, and the possibility of having heavy weapons is favorable.”
Strand licked his lips. “If I can get my hands on a couple of Armatus battle suits then we’ll be good. How many security officers are present during a typical day?”
“According to the hacked database, there would be over five hundred officers present, most of them situated by the checkpoints,” Sappho said.
“We’re not going to have enough men to deal with all of them,” Strand said. “Getting control over those warbots will be critical if the ground team is to succeed.”
“The cash cards will be processed in their vault section,” Sappho said. “If I may suggest, perhaps it would be better to seal off that entire area from the rest of the museum so you’ll only have to neutralize the security there without the guards having access to reinforcements.”
“Good idea, Sappho,” Dangard said. “You’re starting to remind me of Zeno more and more each day.”
Strand scanned the map closely. “Is there a route from the vault section over to the spaceport in the museum compound?”
“Yes,” Sappho said. “A transit tunnel with a maglev train runs back and forth in order to facilitate cargo transfers.”
“That’s the way to get out. One team inside the vault and another to secure the spaceport,” Strand said.
“Sounds good,” Dangard said. “Let’s relay this plan over to the other two captains when we get to the rendezvous and get a consensus.”
8 Delirium
When the shakes started happening again, Karana cringed and held on to the support beam of her cabin. The Tiburon’s executive officer had the privilege of her own private quarters, and the rest of the crew knew well enough to leave her alone whenever the ship wasn’t in combat. To intervene during one of her episodes had proved lethal on more than one occasion.
It always started the same way—with a mild headache followed by a relentless crushing along the sides of her skull, as if some invisible, cruel god had placed massive stone boulders touching her temples and pressed them together to squeeze her brains out, one tiny bit at a time. The pulse-pounding agony would have made Karana cry if not for her cybernetic eyes being unable to shed tears.
Once the pain became unbearable and parts of her mind began shutting down, the ordeal would shift over to the distressing memories of past events. The flashbacks were mental images seared into her consciousness, and they would manifest with all the sensations intact, as if she were somehow going back through time and reliving each awful moment.
She could still taste the metallic bitterness of blood as her teammate’s head exploded beside her. They had been left to die by their superiors and fought a losing battle on some forgotten world as the enemy surrounded them and offered no mercy. Hearing the death screams of her team once again was more than she could handle.
The centrifugal gravity within her room drove Karana down to her knees as she began sobbing. Her voice became a shrill, wishful plea. “Why did you all have to die?”
She recalled pulling her wounded comrade’s body across barren sands, the howling wind echoing through the night sky, exacerbating the guilt over why she was somehow spared. A sudden flash of illumination behind her meant they had tracked her down. With bleeding arms, Karana kept on dragging her commanding officer along the dunes, even though she knew he was already dead.
The inte
nsity of the recollection drew the breath out of her lungs. Karana wanted to scream, but all she could do was whimper.
Her vision blurred. Now she was lying on what seemed to be an operating table, holding up her injured hands in a vain attempt to stop the procedure. “No,” she whispered through the soul-aching pain. “I don’t want it.”
Karana looked up and into the eyes of a doctor wearing a clear helmet, his face an iron mask of indifference. He had a vibro saw in his hands while two others beside him were holding her down on the slab. When the cutting instrument made a shrill squeal while slicing through the bone, she started to scream. They’re tearing me apart!
The scene shifted again. Now it had become a white, featureless room. A bald, cruel-looking man wearing a pale gown floated in front of her. His words were clear and concise as he pointed to a teenage girl lying on her back on the opposite side of the room.
“Kill her.”
Karana blinked endlessly, trying to wish it all away. This can’t be real.
The man once again pointed towards the girl in front of her. “I said, kill her.”
Karana tried to look away, but her eyes had a mind of their own and continued to unblinkingly focus on the sacrifice. The teen girl had lanky blond hair, tousled around the edges due to the gag over her mouth. The victim’s nimble hands and feet were also bound, making her helpless. All she could do was look up at Karana with tearful, pleading blue eyes.
The man’s face contorted in anger. He jammed a finger into the side of Karana’s head. “Kill her. Now!”
No matter how hard she tried to resist, Karana moved forward until she was standing over the target. The girl tried to scream, but her cries were muffled by the gag.
The man crossed his arms and waited. “Finish her. You can do it.”
Karana could remember placing her cybernetic hands around the victim’s throat. The terrified girl made one last stifled cry, but they both knew her time had come. Karana closed her eyes and squeezed, the jerking and swaying a clear indication of the target’s final, futile struggle.
When she opened her eyes, Karana looked down and saw the lifeless blue eyes staring back at her.
She could hear the man’s satisfied voice behind her. “Good, very good.”
Karana couldn’t take it anymore. She clenched her teeth and began to wail.
Captain Toto Vega grunted with annoyance while standing outside the executive officer’s quarters. He turned to look at the two nervous crewmembers beside him. “How long has she been like this?”
One of the men, a middle-aged spacer with a silver beard, gulped. “About twenty minutes, I think.”
“And you never bothered to tell me?”
The crewman shrugged. “You were on the bridge, Captain. You were busy issuing orders as soon as we got out of the jump and—”
He immediately stopped talking when the barrel of Vega’s gauss pistol was pointed at his forehead.
The captain of the Tiburon lowered his voice, yet the menace lurking behind it was obviously there. “My orders were clear. I am to be informed whenever the XO has one of her … issues.”
“Y-yes, Captain. I’m sorry, sir,” the crewman pleaded.
Cursing out loud in his native tongue, Vega holstered his pistol before dismissing them with a wave of his hand. “Both of you get out of here. I’ll handle this.”
The two crewmembers quickly shuffled out of the corridor, leaving him alone. Placing his ear against the door, Vega could only hear muffled gibbering, followed by an occasional scream.
I still need her, he thought while using the command override to open the door. Steeling himself while keeping his right hand by the holster, Vega stepped inside.
The cabin was a mess. Tattered pieces of synthetic cloth were on the floor. The reinforced paneling along the walls had been dented for the umpteenth time. Several closets had been smashed in, and parts of shelves and drawers lay trashed all around the room. Fragments of glass, metal, and plastic lay about, as if a miniature tornado had somehow manifested inside the small confined space and laid waste to everything around it.
She was lying sideways in the center of the room, arms and legs curled up in fetal position. Her jumpsuit had been ripped away, revealing two sets of blackened cybernetic limbs attached to a frail, pale-skinned torso.
Vega moved gingerly around the room as if he was walking in a field of landmines. When he got closer to her, he knelt down and placed a hand on the side of her cheek. Bits of broken glass had scratched her face, and he carefully wiped them away.
Karana opened her eyes, the metallic gray cybernetic pupils looking up at him. “No more, please.”
Vega smiled faintly as he cradled her head on his lap. “We’re almost done. Just one more job.”
Her left hand reached out in a flash, grabbing his right elbow with enough force to make him wince with pain. “I-I don’t think I can keep going,” she whispered.
Vega’s eyes narrowed. “Let go of me.”
She did as he asked. “I-I’m sorry.”
Reaching into the lower pocket of his long coat, he pulled out a small, stubby plastic container. “Look what I got for you.”
Karana’s eyes opened wide as he dangled the packet in front of her. Neurizim. Her body shook as she fought the sudden, instinctual urge to grab it from his hand.
“Control, Karana,” Vega said. “You must stay in control. Remember the chant?”
“I … I am … the commander … of myself,” she said. “I … am the controller … of my fate.”
“Good, very good,” Vega said. He placed the container in her hand before backing away and getting up.
Karana got on her metal knees and slowly peeled off the wrapping over the container, revealing a self-injector unit. She continued to focus purely on the drug as she held it in front of her face. “I am the controller of my own fate.”
Placing the tip of the injector on the skin covering her right jugular vein, Karana pressed down on the end of the device, sending a dose of neurizim into her bloodstream. Within seconds, the lingering hallucinations had gone away, and she could think clearly once more. The constant, unbearable pain at the back of her head seemed tolerable now.
Vega walked over to the side of the bed and sat down on it. “We’ve jumped into the Ordos System. The other two ships should be here at any moment.”
Karana looked down towards the floor. A part of her felt shameful at what she had done, yet a sense of frustration had also begun to show. “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d allowed me to keep a stash of the drug.”
Vega chuckled. “Oh no. Cybers like you would use up a ton of the stuff in a single day if I gave you a supply ahead of time. It’s better this way.”
Getting up, Karana spread her black metallic arms out in embarrassment. “How is this any better?”
Vega shrugged nonchalantly. “All this is just furniture. With what we’re gonna be getting, I’ll buy you ten times more stuff.”
“You’ve got to give me at least two doses,” Karana said. “I need to take it with me when I go down to Angkor.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Karana quickly made her way over to him. Kneeling down, she looked up at Vega with desperate eyes. “Please, you’ve got to give me at least one. If I lose control then we’re screwed.”
Vega winked at her. “Don’t you think I know that?”
She felt like smashing his face in, but her loyalty won out. The captain had saved her life once before, and she felt indebted to him. “So you’ll just take the risk?”
“There will be neurizim, but I can’t let you bring some over when you arrive on Angkor,” Vega said. “The customs bureau will certainly detect it and will question you. We can’t have that.”
“But they’ll know I’m a cyber as I get through the immigration checkpoint at the spaceport anyway,” Karana said. “It won’t change anything.”
“The cracker can get you through the spaceport checkpoints,” Vega said. “Bu
t I heard they use old-fashioned sniffer dogs to detect contraband, including neurizim.”
“So how will you get it to me?”
“One of your teammates will be carrying a dose after a local contact on the planet hands it over,” Vega said. “I won’t tell you which one though.”
Karana clenched her jaw. “I can make them talk.”
“If you do then I’ll find out,” Vega said. “And you know what the consequences will be.”
Karana looked away. He had installed a kill switch on her. All he needed to do was activate a device and it would disable her neuro-control systems. In a matter of minutes, the power to her heart would cut off and stop it from beating, and then she would die.
Vega rubbed her delicate-looking chin with his index finger. “Come now, my dear. You know I always do things for a good reason. Just complete this one last job for me, and I’ll have you injected with a ton of neurizim.”
She became teary eyed once more. “You’re not lying to me, are you?”
“I would never do that,” Vega said. “We’ve been together for so long, been through so much. Everything we’ve done has led up to this. Now all we gotta do is finish it.”
“I do these things for you,” Karana said. “Because I owe you.”
“And that debt will be paid once we pull this job off,” Vega said. “Remember what we have to do. Just stick to the plan, and all will be well.”
She looked down. “If the others find out about this, we’ll be hunted.”
“No, we won’t,” Vega said. “We’ll soon be Concordance nobility. Once that happens, we’ll be untouchable.”
She bit her lip. “Betrayal … is an awful thing.”
“Don’t think of it that way,” Vega said. “In fact, it’s better if you don’t think about that part at all. Works for me.”
9 The Heist
The registration officer at the Angkor Museum of Historical Artifacts checked off the positive readouts on her console before looking up at the blond-haired young boy standing behind the counter. “Sorry for the delay, your ticket and security check have now been approved. You may join the rest of your class in the main foyer, just down the hall.”
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