Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1)

by David Alastair Hayden

“The cog’s more a tool than an agent,” Mitsuki replied, “but yes.”

  “When was the last delivery?” Siv asked.

  “Groceries and supplies last night,” Karson responded. “Pizza an hour ago.”

  “Good,” Siv replied. “Chances are you won’t be spotted leaving, unless they have a dormant spy drone outside, waiting to be activated by motion detection.” He chewed his lip, then shrugged. “We should assume they do. Mitsuki, behind the mirror in the bathroom, you’ll find a neural disruptor and a pulse resonator that should scramble any nearby drones.”

  As Siv turned his head slightly, Karson spotted someone in the backseat behind Siv. It appeared to be a young human girl with a bald head. What the heck was going on?

  “Are we running from Tekk Reapers or the Shadowslip or both?” Karson asked.

  “The Reapers aren’t a threat at the moment,” Siv responded. “I just destroyed their starship and three skimmers full of them.”

  “You—you—what?!” Karson responded.

  “Siv, are you high?” Mitsuki asked.

  “No, and it’s true.”

  “Spank me rotten!” Mitsuki exclaimed. “There’s no way you did that. Just no way.”

  “Sorry, Silky took out the starship and the skimmers.”

  “Yeah, okay, I’ll buy that,” Mitsuki responded. “So why are we running from the Shadowslip?”

  “Well, they don’t know it yet, and probably won’t for a couple of days, but I’ve crossed them—and bad. Some other incredibly dangerous groups are going to be after me too. I’m on the run with a couple of…let’s say fugitives for now. I desperately need help. And there’s no one else I can trust.”

  “Siv,” Mitsuki said, “when you said other groups…”

  “The Star Cutters, World Bleeders, and agents from the Empire of a Thousand Worlds.”

  “Tits of the ’Nevolence!” Mitsuki cursed.

  Karson cringed at hearing such blasphemy. He shook his head. Two days. This was how much trouble Gendin could get into in two days?

  “I know it’s a hell of a lot to ask,” Siv said.

  Karson’s mind reeled. He’d just gotten some stability back into his life, however tenuous, by working for the guild. If he crossed them, he’d be a wanted man on several fronts. On the other hand, he owed Siv for saving him from the Tekk Reapers and getting him this far. Still, this was a lot to ask.

  “Sivvy,” Mitsuki said, “you know I like you a lot. And I’ve always been soft on you, giving you sweetheart extraction deals and advice. But I’m an independent contractor. I can turn a blind eye and say I’ve no idea what you’re up to, but I can’t go against the Shadowslip. There’s no incentive, and it would end my career.”

  “I know, but I’m afraid they’re going to come looking for you because of me, at first anyway. So bare minimum, I need to sneak you out of there. If you don’t want to help me, then once things settle down, you can return to your old life. You will know when it’s safe to do so.”

  There was a finality in Siv’s voice on that last statement that unsettled Karson. “What about me?”

  Siv frowned. “Maybe they’d take you back, too, especially if Mitsuki vouched for you and told them you’d had no part in helping me.”

  “Siv, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?” Mitsuki asked. “You’re scaring me.”

  “I’m asking because things are that bad,” Siv said softly. “And it’s important.”

  “Start explaining.”

  “There’s a young girl here who’s…special. I was hired to kidnap her, but instead I rescued her. She and her sister are being chased by every criminal element out there, even the Empire of a Thousand Worlds. And I know you wouldn’t betray them or me for any amount of money.”

  “Come on,” Mitsuki said, “are you really going to throw your career away over a little girl?”

  “Look, Mits, I’m not going back to the Shadowslip. And…and I’m out of Kompel. I’ll start withdrawal soon. But I’m going to get these girls to their father if it… Well, it is going to kill me.”

  Karson’s breath caught. Gendin was really going to give his life up for these girls he’d just met? Karson had never, never in his life been a bad person. But he wasn’t a good person. He was indulgent in his hobbies and work. He crossed some lines, and his ethics were more flexible than reasonable. To lay down his life for someone… Maybe in the heat of the moment, but he wasn’t sure he was capable of doing it with such forethought, knowing he risked death, and an unpleasant one at that.

  Mitsuki stared at Siv dumfounded, tears welling in her eyes. “Oh, Siv… What are you thinking? I don’t understand. I just don’t understand why you’d do something like this.”

  Siv’s face showed no sign of fear. “I’m doing what I must.”

  Another voice in the skimmer car said something, but Karson couldn’t make out what they said. Siv shifted the camera view over to show the bald girl in the backseat.

  “This is who I’m helping.”

  Karson stared at her sculpted, elfish face then met her deep, black eyes. Something stirred within him. He had never encountered such beauty before. It wasn’t attraction he felt, but the awe that struck whenever he stared up into the vast, starlit sky, knowing there were trillions upon trillions of worlds and people out there while he was but a single little man with simple hopes and dreams.

  The girl, who couldn’t be more than fourteen, waved a hand. “Hi, I’m Oona.”

  “She’s a hyperphasic messiah,” Siv said.

  “Sweet Benevolence,” Karson whispered.

  “It’s true,” the girl said.

  He fell to his knees, overcome with emotion. He touched a hand to his heart, his forehead, and his lips. “Sweet Benevolence.”

  Karson had never been religious, though he’d studied religion. And he had never been selfless, though he liked the idea. Now suddenly and surprisingly, here he was in the presence of a hyperphasic messiah, and she needed his help. For the first time, he found himself utterly devoted to a cause.

  He did not doubt the girl, or Siv. Oona was exactly what she claimed. He knew it in his heart. And what else could he do but devote himself to her? He was a gizmet, talented in tech and raised with a devotion toward its recovery. There was nothing more sacred than restoring what they had all once had, that’s what his parents had taught him. And a hyperphasic messiah could bring it all back. She could return the Benevolence to the galaxy.

  “Whatever you need, Oona, I will do.” He bowed his head. “My life is yours.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Mitsuki Reel

  Mitsuki stared agape at Karson, kneeling and pledging his devotion to a supposedly magical teenage girl he had never met before. This abrupt stirring of emotion and religiosity was nothing short of perplexing. What Karson and Siv felt, she did not feel, not in the slightest. And she never would. Of that, she was certain.

  A messiah was supposed to be some sort of galactic savior, according to the Thousand World faithful and the various cults like the Tekk Reapers that ran around preaching a resurrection of the Benevolence. To her, that was nothing more than a stinking pile of mystic doo-doo used to manipulate the ignorant, the disenfranchised, and those too hopeful and too imaginative for their own good.

  Mitsuki didn’t believe in gods, spirits, or a divine source for the Benevolence. Her self-righteous father had devoted himself to such things, and he had raised her to believe all kinds of nonsense. He even moved them to Saxeti, the Empire of a Thousand Worlds home planet, to be closer to the ‘heart of the religion.’ She rejected that life and those beliefs the day she was finally old enough to run away from home.

  Who was this girl anyway? Was she supposed to have some kind of claim to Qaisella Qan's throne? A bright messiah to replace the dark one who currently ruled the Thousand Worlds? It wouldn't be hard. Qaisella Qan might call herself the Glorious Messiah, Empress of a Thousand Worlds, but there was a reason the Terran Federation had nicknamed her the Dark M
essiah.

  Mitsuki grew up in the Empire. She knew far too well the heavy hands of fascism and theocracy. She had watched as her mother was thrown into a death camp for disavowing the Glorious Messiah. She had watched her father do nothing about it. She had watched him turn his back on his wife and pin his young daughter to his chest to stop her from attacking the soldiers. She had heard him say that their glorious ruler knew best.

  Even if this girl were divine, why would she pop up on a backwater planet like Ekaran IV, and why now? Mitsuki didn’t buy it, not one bit. And she couldn’t believe level-headed Siv would fall for such a load of religious mumbo jumbo.

  Of course, with all these groups after the girl…there had to be something to it. She probably had a flashy, unusual talent that marked her as unique, and therefor messiah-label worthy. The underworld would want the girl so they could sell her off to some wealthy, misguided soul like Karson. And the Thousand Worlders…they would want to vanish any competitors to their own glorious empress.

  Mitsuki’s eyes drifted to Siv. She’d always liked him. He was only two years younger than her, and they’d risen through the thieving ranks together. While they weren’t best friends or anything-professional criminals couldn’t afford such a luxury-they had spent many hours discussing strategies and whatnot over drinks at many dive bars.

  The idea of Siv dying, and in such a terrible fashion, was heartbreaking. But to ask this of her… To ask her to give up her life, too… And for a girl claiming she was a god?

  It was absolutely absurd.

  Tears streamed down Bishop’s face. He was so overwhelmed he was actually trembling. And Siv…he had this determined look in his eyes. She’d never seen anything like it in him before.

  “Siv…” Mitsuki whispered “…I don’t know what…”

  Overcome with emotion herself, but of a different kind, Mitsuki ran to the bathroom. She splashed water in her face and took several deep breaths. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

  She cared deeply for Siv. And the gizmet…she found herself growing fond of him. But what they were doing… It was like they were suddenly new people. Why? Why had they become so irrational? She shook her head. It didn’t make any sense.

  Mitsuki looked into the mirror and saw what she expected, the Mitsuki she’d been since the day she’d run away from Saxeti. The strong, exotic, seemingly confident girl with wings. A girl with a unique gift for extracting others from difficult situations.

  It was what she did, and she was damned good at it, too. She never would’ve made it to Ekaran IV otherwise. She was the best extraction agent in the business, and that wasn’t bragging. It was fact. She’d never been caught, and she’d never failed an extraction. Crashing into the lake carrying both Siv and Karson was the closest she’d ever come to failure. That they survived at all, given the difficulty of the extraction, was impressive. Extractions almost never involved saving more than one agent, much less catching two of them a second before they splatted onto the street, while the police were in pursuit.

  When it came to extraction she owned this city. She owned this whole planet. Every criminal guild in every city on Ekaran IV had attempted to hire her away. Even guilds in nearby star systems had sought her services. But Bei was the first city on the first planet she had safely reached after she’d escaped, and so she had a soft spot for it.

  But maybe it was time to move on…time for challenge.

  Extracting Siv and Karson was the first truly difficult extraction she’d tackled in the last three years. Getting these girls off planet, though…with one of them wanted by every criminal organization, plus the Empire, plus Tekk Reapers…while Tekk Reapers were already looking for her and Karson. Now that would be nearly impossible. And that made it tempting. If she failed… Well, she’d find a way to get herself out of whatever mess she ended up in. She always did, she always would.

  Besides, she owed this to Siv, surely. And Bishop, that poor, cute little gizmet. He’d be lucky if he could find his way out of this neighborhood without getting mugged. Without her, he was screwed.

  She stared at herself in the mirror. This time she saw her brave, beautiful mother in her own face. Who are you, Mitsuki? Why have you chosen this path? Sure, it’s nice being the best and everyone knowing it. That’s not why she’d fought so hard to escape the Imperial stronghold, though. True, criminals got themselves into exciting situations. But, other than Siv, she didn’t actually care about the criminals. They just gave her an excuse to help people escape. They fed her need.

  You know why you take the risk, why you have to prove again and again that you can get out of anything, she admitted to herself. From the time Mother was dragged away to the time you escaped, you dreamed and wished that someone would extract you from the hell of Saxeti.

  “You can go through life thinking you know who you are, and then in an instant, you find yourself someone else, and the person you had been… Well, there wasn’t much to her anyway.”

  Her mother had told her that…only a week before she had publicly denounced the Dark Messiah to a crowd of hundreds, preaching tolerance and a return to faith in humanity and scientific reasoning.

  This girl…Oona… What she was or claimed to be didn’t matter. The important thing was that she didn’t deserve to be kidnapped and auctioned off by criminals. She especially didn’t deserve to be captured by Tekk Reapers or agents from the Empire, to suffer whatever tortures they concocted in the name of their religions. She deserved to be with those who loved her, to have the chance to become whomever she wanted to be, to do what she wanted. She deserved freedom.

  Mitsuki took a deep breath, then marched slowly back into the living room, hardly feeling like herself. She stopped and faced the screen. Siv had waited on her. Smug bastard, he knew…he knew she’d come around.

  She put a hand down and rubbed Bishop’s head between his upward-curling horns. He perked up a little at her touch.

  “You’re going to need a damn good extraction agent, Gendin.”

  “The best,” he replied with a tired smile.

  “This is going to cost you a lot.”

  “I’m afraid I won’t be around to pay you.”

  “You can pay in advance then. Just have Silky forward me your bank account numbers. And you know what else I’ll need in return, if you’ve got time for it before you croak…”

  Siv laughed. “You got it.” His smile faded. “Mits, I can’t thank you enough.”

  “I reserve the right to bail on you if it all turns to buzzard shit.”

  “Naturally.”

  “I’m not doing this because you claim the girl’s special. I’m doing it because no girl should be kidnapped by evil men.”

  “I understand, Mits.”

  She sighed. That was that. She was committed.

  “So what do you need us to do?” she asked.

  “Go to the bedroom and move the cabinet. Behind it you’ll find a secret door that leads into the two-level apartment next door. I own that one as well, but under a different identity. Go there and take the exit onto the street at precisely 19:30. We’ll pick you up.”

  “You got it,” Mitsuki said. “Be careful, Gendin.”

  “You, too,” he replied. “Oh, Silky wants me to remind you to use the pulse device to fry any nearby drones before you exit the building.”

  Mitsuki narrowed her eyes. “Silkster, I’m not an idiot.”

  “I won’t repeat his response.”

  Siv’s face and the comm window disappeared.

  For a moment, Mitsuki stared at her faint reflection in the computer screen. Who am I?

  A smile lit up her face. I am Mitsuki Reel, the best damned extraction agent in the business. And I’m about to prove it.

  Again.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Siv Gendin

  The skimmer car, under Silky’s guidance, zoomed into Wasa and slowed down to match the speed of the surrounding traffic. They were quickly swallowed up by a forest of dainty, elabora
te towers decked in arrays of neon signs and flickering lights. Where Bei was sophisticated and subdued, Wasa was a glimmering jewel…if a bit gaudy for Siv tastes.

  “I don’t like including more criminals in our escape,” Kyralla said, “especially the one with wings.”

  “Mitsuki is good people…deep down,” Siv replied. “And you need her help. Yes, she’s a flake. Yes, she’s a bit…eccentric. But she really is the best. I promise.”

  “I can handle this all on my own, you know. I was trained for this.”

  “So you’ve said, many times already.”

  “More people means more complications. More chances that someone will betray us.”

  Siv sighed. “Kyralla, I’m the best procurement specialist in this city, and Mitsuki has had to rescue me several times in the last seven years. Things go wrong. Everyone needs help sometimes. There’s no shame in that.”

  “Maybe so,” she replied sulkily, “but I don’t trust her.”

  “Well, I do.” He paused, not sure if saying the thought that had just popped into his head would convince her or just piss her off. “And you should listen to me because I’m a guardian, too.”

  “You’re not a full guardian,” she said, “and you don’t even know what the term means.”

  “It means I’m supposed to…guard someone?” he replied sheepishly.

  She stared daggers at him.

  “Being a guardian,” Oona said, “involves taking an oath and experiencing an awakening.”

  “Like you’re supposed to?” he asked, surprised.

  “I went through the first awakening when my hair fall out, though some have named that the calling. The second awakening is the big one, the one I may not survive. But for a guardian it’s not as dangerous,” Oona said, “or as complicated. And no one is born a guardian. You have to be chosen and accept it. And, of course, you must survive your awakening.”

  “I volunteered,” Kyralla said.

  “Then how come I’m a guardian?” he asked. “No one chose me, and I didn’t undergo an awakening—not that I know of anyway.”