Star Talon
Bradford Bates
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Acknowledgments
Also By B. R. Bates
Copyright 2016, Bradford Bates
All Rights Reserved
This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this work are used fictitiously or are entirely fictional.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or by obtaining written permission from the author. Any inquiries may be addressed via email to [email protected]
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This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife. Without your passion and support for my writing none of these books would be possible.
Chapter One
When the door to the space station’s warehouse actually opened, my first thought was today is going to be a good day. Gabe and I moved into the room pushing the small robotic loader in front of us. Today we were dressed like the rest of the warehouse staff, fancy coveralls with hats to match. The hardest part of the job had been hoping our faked security clearance would get us in the door. Now we just had to find the right crate and make it back to the ship.
Gabe turned the loader down one of the aisles and followed the tracking chip on his wrist. When we reached the crate, he slid the loader underneath it and entered the crate’s security code. The screen flashed red on the container. The message on the terminal read access denied. He entered the code again, and it didn’t work. We only had four attempts before the container was automatically locked down and the authorities were called to investigate.
“Ice, send the container’s code to my holo.” I watched as the numbers scrolled across the screen on my wrist. I plugged the adapter from my holo into the loader and fed the code through directly. The screen flashed red again. There was no way around it now. The code we had for the shipment was wrong. Either that or we had been set up. Other warehouse workers were starting to notice that we were having issues, and one of them started to walk towards us. Using anything but the right code now would mean we couldn’t complete the job. That wasn’t an option if we planned on gaining rank inside of the mercenary guild.
“Gabe, how much do you think that thing weighs?”
“I’m not sure, maybe two hundred pounds.”
“Think we can carry it all the way back to the ship?”
“No, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
“Good.” I pulled the loader out from underneath the crate. I motioned for Gabe to grab the other side. We lifted it off the platform and started waddling towards the door. As soon as we went through the door, the alarm sounded, and yellow lights started flashing on the walls. Gabe started to speed up and I matched his stride. Quaid was going to have to explain to me how our client didn’t have the proper codes for his own package. Getting the security clearance to access the warehouse should have been the hard part. That’s what happened when you had to take these fly by night type of jobs. Nothing went right, ever.
There was nothing we could do about it now. I had already made a bad situation worse by grabbing the crate. Now we just had to move. The crate bounced awkwardly against our legs as we continued to pick up the pace. My arm was already starting to burn with exhaustion when the first laser blast flew over our shoulders. They hadn’t even asked us to give up before firing. It probably just seemed easier to collect the crate from our corpses. Apparently these guys looked on theft with more than a little moral outrage.
Laser blasts scorched the walls around us. The sound of the blasts hitting the steel walls and tiled floor was all the incentive I needed to run faster. The look of determination on Gabe’s face forced me to dig down and find a little grit of my own. There was no way this kid was going to blame me for dropping my end of the cargo. I could make it to the ship; I had to.
“Damn it, Captain we need to go faster.” Gabe wheezed, his breath coming out in sharp gasps with each step.
As if I didn’t already know that. The edge of our ship had just come into sight through the hangar bay door. I managed to mumble out a small curse for motivation. Something about swearing seemed to take my mind off of the pain throbbing in my arm and back. All we had to do was make it.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” It came out as more of one long word between ragged gasps then a well-formed sentence. I sucked in a few greedy gulps of air. Just speaking that single sentence had cost me more than I would ever admit.
The problem wasn’t that we couldn’t outrun the guards, we were doing that now. The real issue was that we might not be able to do it for long enough to secure the cargo. We couldn’t afford to bungle this job, not when we were so close to getting a real payday for the first time months. This was supposed to be a milk run. Why was it that the easy jobs never decided to stay that way?
The heavy crate bounced between our legs throwing off our ability to make normal strides. Each of us had our other arm extended out to try and maintain our balance. It was enough to keep us moving forward. The only problem with that meant we couldn’t return fire to slow down the guards. It wouldn’t matter if we continued to outrun them, a blaster bolt in the back worked just as well as being tackled to the ground.
A few blaster bolts shot over our shoulders would have been enough to force them to slow down, and be a little more cautious. When we got away, these guys would be telling their grandkids about the dumbest robbers they had ever seen. But if it worked, it really didn’t matter.
The guards were gaining on us, and those laser blasts were getting closer and closer to the mark. One of the bolts slammed into my shoulder threatening to send me toppling to the ground. Not to mention the damn thing hurt. The kinetic plating in my duster did its job, dissipating the blast but I wouldn’t be able to take another shot like that.
I opened my commlink back to the ship. “We could use a little help out here.” I hoped they would understand what I was shouting between gasps.
A burst of static filled my ear before the soft tone of my number two’s voice came through the link. “Whose wife did you sleep with this time, Captain?”
“Damn it Maze! Just get out here and lay down some cover fire.”
Another burst of static and I could have sworn I heard her tell the pilot, “Had to be someone important if they’re shooting at them.”
A guy makes one mistake, a few too many times and they never let you forget about it. I mean, it wasn’t my fault if the job required me to participate in a few extracurricular activities. Just because I ended up in bed with a few women over the years, it wasn’t that bad, right? I mean we all had needs and as the captain of my own ship, I couldn’t sleep with anyone on my crew. That meant you sometimes took the opportunities when they came, even if you were on the job.
I sent up a prayer as Maze ran off the loading ramp with her favorite rifle in hand. You wouldn’t ever catch me in a church o
n Sunday, but sometimes those words still found their way to my lips. It was a habit that had been ingrained in me since I was a kid. For some reason when I was under stress the words still found their way unbidden to my mouth.
“Just don’t kill anyone,” I shouted into the commlink. I would have said more, but it took every ounce of strength I had left just to keep my feet moving.
Her rifle roared to life, the red streaks of fire shooting over our heads. If anyone else had been shooting, I would have thrown myself to the floor to avoid getting my head blown off, but not with Maze. She was a real pro, and her rifle never missed her target. The shots behind us fell silent for a moment as the men scrambled for cover. The sounds of their shouts to stop were cut off as the hanger’s blast doors closed behind us. That little blessing would have come from my pilot and resident hacker, Ice. Overriding the door’s controls was a nice touch, and it saved our asses just as much as Maze’s rifle.
With the door closed we could finally slow down. I looked to my right and was happy to see that Gabe was just as winded as I was. It made me feel a little bit better knowing I could still keep up with a man ten years younger than myself. Alright, maybe it made me feel more than a little better about myself. I never said that I was perfect. Hell, I never even thought it.
Gabe sucked in a few deep breaths and gave me a big shit-eating grin as if this was the best day of his life. Maze followed behind us as we walked up the ramp and into the ship. It felt good to be home. We set the box down, and I wobbled over to the back of the ship to close the ramp. This job, better have been worth it. Every day it got harder find good honest work, out in the midrim. So we took the jobs that our handler sent our way, honest or not. I looked back at the crate. It didn’t look like much, but as long as it was the right one, we were in store for a decent payday.
Maze put a boot on top of our new cargo as if she had somehow single-handedly brought it back to the ship. “So what happened this time, Captain? Did her husband come home early?”
“That was one time, Maze. I mean Jesus, that was over five years ago. When are you going to let it go?”
“Not until I can stop seeing you falling out of that second-floor window with nothing but your boots on. Honestly Captain, something like that never gets old.”
“This time, it wasn’t the captain’s fault Maze.” She shot him a withering glare. Gabe backed up a step holding his hands out in front of him. “Honest.”
“Stop staring holes in the man, Maze. The unlock code for the cargo Quaid sent us didn’t work. So we had to improvise.”
“And by improvising, you mean that you grabbed the package and started running as fast as you could.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Maze only shrugged her shoulders and walked back towards the bridge. I changed comm channels and issued my orders to Ice. “Get us off of this rock.”
“I was just waiting for the go ahead, Captain. We will be out of atmo and back to the stars in five minutes.”
The engines rumbled to life. I could feel them thrum through the hull of the ship. This old girl wasn’t much to look at, but she was fast, and in good repair. My mechanic had to be one of the best in the verse. I had no idea why she chose to stay on our ship, but I loved her for it. The floor shifted as Ice lifted us into the air. Five minutes until we were back home in the vastness of space.
I turned back towards Gabe. “Get that crate secured.”
“Yes, sir.” He started to remove one of the hidden panels along the wall. It wouldn’t do us much good to have secured the cargo only to lose it to a random New Earth Alliance patrol. Those N.E.A. boys sometimes got a little excitable when they found contraband aboard your ship. I’d be damned if they thought for a second that they could take her away from me.
The ship swayed beneath my feet before artificial dampeners kicked in to stabilize us. All I wanted to do was get back to my bunk and take a shower. It would be twelve hours before we reached space station Zimmora. Maybe I would even be able to get a little sleep on the way. After that run with the cargo, I was going to need it. My back muscles twinged at the thought of standing any longer than I had to.
Every step back to my bunk filled me with a sense of serenity. The stars were the freedom to choose your own path, to create your own destiny. It hadn’t been so long ago I was stuck moving from world to world to help my parents run terraforming projects. When I was old enough, I took the only option that I had and joined the military. As soon as I had enough money for my own ship I left. Nothing stood between me and the stars now. All we needed was a destination. We might not have much out here in the black, but we had enough to be free.
Opening the hatch to my bunk revealed the ladder leading down into my quarters. As I slid down the ladder, my commlink buzzed. “Status report.”
“Captain, we have a problem. It looks as if the planetary defense system has locked onto our signal. I can hold them off for a bit, but they’ll be able to track us if we don’t dump the sparty.”
Damn, that was going to cost us. I would have to take it out of my end of the profits. Good thing I wasn’t out here to get rich, I just wanted to be able to fly. “You have the go ahead, Ice. Just make sure we get clear.”
“You got it, Captain.”
A small shudder rolled across the ship as the hull doors opened dropping the sparticus out into the sky. I could almost see it in my head as it fell back towards the planet before breaking apart. Then twelve little beacons would shoot out into the atmosphere in different directions. Each beacon was putting out the exact same signal as our ship. Hopefully, by the time they figured out which one was actually our real FTL signature would have vanished, giving us a clean getaway.
It was a costly piece of equipment especially when you compared it to the payday for this job. We would barely come out ahead after replacing the sparty. Sure there would be enough to refuel and for the crew to make a little money. After that, we might have just enough to replenish a few of our more expensive food stores.
Thank God, Quaid had assured us that we only had a few more jobs to complete before we earned our next rank inside of the mercenary guild. The next level of jobs paid better with about the same amount of risk. We were already gently two-stepping around the law for the most part, but at least now we would have something in the bank to show for it. The ship rocked once and then we smoothed out as we hit open space.
“We’re clear Captain, initiating the FTL coordinates for Zimmora. ETA eleven hours and forty-three minutes.”
“Good job Ice. Wake me up when we are about three hours out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Finally, I could climb in the shower and relax for a moment. I dumped my clothes in the recycler. They’d be clean and pressed by the time I got out of the shower. I turned the handle, and nothing happened. You have to be kidding me. I opened a commlink to my engineer. “Kyra, you better have a damn good explanation as to why I can’t take a shower right now.”
“Don’t worry everything is snazzy, Captain. I just had to divert the water through the main cooling system while we burned through atmo.”
“Why in the hell did you have to do that?”
“We still need to get the vapor condenser fixed, and I need some new tubing.”
“I thought you said we had another six months on that.”
“We do if you don’t mind not being able to shower when we enter or leave a planet. Don’t fret too much, Captain. I’ve rerouted the water now, and everything should be back to normal.”
“Ask Maze to open up the ship’s account for you. When we get to Zimmora, see if you can scrape together the parts that you need. If anything else needs immediate attention try and take care of it.”
“I’ll do my best sir, but to be frank we need more then I’m asking for, and we just don’t have the funds to do it right.”
“After this job is done, I’ll ask Quaid to make sure our next one has a better payout. Then we can get all of the repairs done at once, and maybe ev
en look into a few of those upgrades you’ve been asking for. Stick to the essentials for now.”
“Yes, sir.”
This time, when I tried the shower it worked. I let the water run for a moment to make sure it was clean and the temperature was right. The warm water rinsed the drying sweat from my skin. Sometimes I felt like this was the only place I could relax. All of the problems we faced slowly washed away.
All in all, it had been a good day. We were in the air, and would be getting paid shortly. Hopefully, our next job would offer the opportunity to be a little more profitable. Quaid hadn’t let me down yet, but he was just a tad too slimy to put any real faith in. We just needed one job to go our way, and we would be back on track.
Chapter Two
The comm beeped, stirring me not so gently out of one of my favorite dreams. The Zappata twins in sector nine, God what a night that had been. One minute you’re alone at the bar having a drink and the next thing you know it’s a week later, your bank account is empty and you wake up on a planet you don’t recognize.
“Captain, we are two hours out from Zimmora Station. This wake-up call has been provided by Star Talon shuttle services. When you want to fly in style, fly Star Talon.”
How could she be chipper enough to make jokes? I was still dog tired, and could have stayed in bed for the rest of the day. Sometimes I wondered just how Ice did it. She seemed to never need sleep and was basically an endless fountain of optimism. Who knows, maybe one day I would be able to recalibrate and see the world more like she did. I doubted it, but stranger things have happened.
“Ice, see if you can get Lulu on the net for me. I need to let her know we are coming, and how long we will be staying.”
“Captain, make sure you don’t call her Lulu on the call. She hates that. She owns half that damn station now, and she goes by Kitra.”
“She’ll always be Lulu to me.” I shrugged, some things never change. “But I’ll play nice. The last thing we need is more trouble before Quaid gets back to us.”
Star Talon (Fortune Hunters Book 1) Page 1