Star Talon (Fortune Hunters Book 1)

by Bradford Bates

  “Captain Drake, what a pleasant surprise. I thought after you completed my little task you might want nothing to do with me.” She moved a finger over her lips flicking gently at it with her tongue.

  Kitra was always working some kind of angle to keep you off of your game. She did it so seamlessly unless you knew what to look for you would miss it. By then it was too late, she had you wrapped around her finger, begging her for the chance to please her.

  With more than a little effort I was able to shove the impure thoughts I was having aside. “You should know Bruno was just some hired muscle. He was working for someone else.”

  “Did you get a name?” Kitra asked, a little more eagerly than I would have thought.

  For the first time since we came to the station, I had the upper hand. “I did, but it will cost you.”

  “Drake, haven’t I already paid you enough.” Her lips formed into that perfect pout again, making me want to just hand over the name.

  “Who said I was asking for more money?” It was my turn to smile. The look of shock on her face was priceless. So maybe I hadn’t been able to get rid of all the impure thoughts.

  “You better get to the point, before I decide to blast you out of the air when you leave.”

  “No reason to get testy, Kitra. I’d just like preferential treatment whenever we have to dock on your station. No waiting and none of that lower level crap.”

  “It will depend on the name.” She was already trying to take back control of the conversation. Her face was fixed in a pouty stare that she knew would drive me wild.

  “The name he gave us was Felix.” The anger in her eyes almost made me take a step back from my terminal. Her look of rage was that menacing.

  “I’ll need to verify that.” She spat out. Her mind was obviously already working on what she would have to do to fix the problem. “If your information pans out, your ship will receive top level clearance for the station.” Her face softened for a moment. “Thank you, Drake.”

  “What are friends for?” The view screen went blank.

  I’d had enough action for one day. It was time to grab a few hours of sleep. Hopefully, Quaid would reply to my message soon. As pissed as I was, I already wanted to get back to work.

  The beeping from my comm terminal woke me from a rather pleasant dream. It would be just my luck that Quaid would call when I was reliving one of my more memorable sexual exploits. That kind of workout was for a younger man, but God it had been fun. I ran a hand through my hair and hit the receive button.

  “Drake, did I wake you?”

  “I think that’s self-apparent.”

  “Whoa there, partner. Who dropped a porcupine in your boxers?”

  “You did when you sent us on a drug run.”

  He had the decency to look ashamed. “No chance the bonus you received makes us even?”

  I just stared at the monitor until he spoke again.

  “I’ll take that as a maybe.” He said flashing his slimy smile. “Good news is, as soon as you’re ready to saddle up, I’ve got a new job for you. I pulled this one down a level, so the pay is for your standard level four contract, but you have access to it now.”

  “Wait, you can pull contracts from a higher level?”

  “Not always, but in this case I did. If you complete this job, your crew becomes level four certified anyway. Think of it as a test of sorts.”

  “I think the last three years, has been enough of a test.” I let him stew on that for a moment. “But we’re ready for the job. Send me the specs and we will get it done.”

  “This one is pretty simple.”

  Yeah right, I thought. If it was that simple, it wouldn’t have been flagged level four in the first place.

  “Alphamerix Corp has lost contact with one of their science vessels out in the Vesper Quadrant.”

  “Jesus, what are they doing all the way out there? That’s on the edge of dead space.”

  “That’s part of the reason the pay is so good for this one.” He flashed that same slimy grin, probably already thinking about collecting his commission. “The job is pretty much twofold. Find the ship and its crew. If they are alive contact will be enough. If they are deceased, they would like the ship, and any data stored at their facility planetside delivered back to them.”

  “What were they working on?”

  “Not important.”

  He flashed his smile. That meant whatever it was it had to be illegal or close enough to it. There was no other reason to set up a research facility that far from known space.

  Quaid continued. “The job is for the ship or personnel and the data from the station. Everything else is irrelevant.”

  “Just send the specs.”

  “Done.”

  “Quaid, if you ever send me on another job that isn’t above board, I’m going to hunt you down.” When his flashy smile slipped away, and the screen went blank a sense of immense satisfaction washed over me. I think he finally got the message. I shot the data over to Ice, grabbed a shirt off the edge of my bunk and made my way to the dining room. We had a job to plan.

  Ice had the information up on the screen, and the crew was looking it over. Ice was already plotting us an FTL course. She looked up when her calculations were done. “It’s going to take us a month to get there, Captain.”

  God, I knew the Vesper Quadrant was out in the middle of nowhere but a month was one hell of a long flight. “Kyra, how are the cryopods looking?”

  “Good enough to get us there and back. If we have the credits I could do some small upgrades to our system.”

  “We have the money but how long will it take to do the upgrades?”

  “Probably just a couple of hours. We are going to be here for another day while I fix up the engine’s cooling system anyway. I can work on the pods once we are in the air.”

  “Make sure you get everything that you need. There isn’t anything out there so if something goes wrong with the ship or to our cryo units, we’re dead.”

  “I’m on it, Captain.” Kyra got up and left the room. “Gabe, go with her just in case there is trouble. We don’t know enough about what is happening on the station for her to be out there alone.” Maze shot me a questioning look. “What, if nothing else he can help her carry the equipment back.”

  “So what do you want from me, Cap.” Maze asked.

  “I need you make sure we have enough munitions to survive if we run into anything. I want extra charges for the lasers and bullets for the guns. Whatever kind of body armor we can put together.”

  “You think something is going to happen?”

  “I think corporations like Alphamerix have their own security teams that could handle something like this. That means they lost people out there already, and what they were working on is something they don’t want the N.E.A. to find out about. That means whatever we are stepping into, won’t be easy.”

  “I’ll hit the markets and pull together what I can.”

  I nodded to her as she got up to get her work done. I looked over at Ice. “How are you holding up?”

  She gave me a smile, but I could see the sadness behind it. “I’m doing ok, Captain. Sometimes I just wish we didn’t have to do some of the things we do.”

  I stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into my eyes. “We do what we have to do to survive. No point thinking past that.”

  She put her hand on mine. “Thank you, Captain.”

  “You got it, kid. You have the ship’s location and life support readings?”

  “I sure do Captain, everything looks fine with the ship, at least from the scans Quaid provided us. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and they just destroyed their comm system somehow.”

  “Probably wishful thinking, but that would be a nice change of pace.”

  “Agreed.”

  “When Kyra gets back, tell her we only need the pods set for three weeks and a few days. I’d like to be awake and ready for whatever we drop into.”

  You
got it, Captain.”

  Something didn’t feel quite right about this job. Quaid had already proved to be an unreliable handler. So we could be walking into anything. The pay was high enough that the guild probably knew it was a shit storm already. Maybe once we reached level four, we could secure a new handler. Quaid had served his purpose. He could exploit someone else. After the mess at the station, it might be time for a change. Maybe we should even dump the guild and go freelance. There was more risk, but we would be free to pick the jobs we wanted to do. Worst case scenario, we could stop working jobs in the rim and pick a side. As much as I hated it, the Earth Republic was always hiring freelance crews. That would put us at odds with the N.E.A., but you couldn’t have everything.

  I left Ice to finish working on the logistics like food. She already had the jump locked in and ready to go. There was probably enough time for me to get in a workout and then I was going back to sleep. Seemed kind of silly to sleep now when in less than a day we would be under for at least three weeks. Cryosleep always left me feeling a little drained unless I went in feeling good. That meant getting the rest now while the crew was busy preparing for our trip.

  Chapter Five

  The familiar wave of dizziness washed over me when the cryopod opened. God, I hated using these things, but I’d be damned if I was going to give up three weeks of my life just to fly somewhere. This time, I managed not to throw up, at least that was something.

  Ice had already gotten into her suit and was heading to the bridge before I even removed the wires from my chest. Maze and Gabe were slowly working their way free, and Kyra left the room to check on her precious engine. Another wave of nausea rolled through my body. I managed to fight it off, hoping it would be the last one.

  After quickly dressing, I moved through the ship to the bridge. “Ice, tell me how we are doing.”

  “Well sir, we are still two days out from where the ship’s signal had been reporting.”

  “Had been?”

  “It seems the ship is no longer in orbit. I had the computer tracking it while we were asleep, so I just need a minute to figure out where it went.”

  Her fingers moved across the keyboard like lightening. It was easy to see why she had found work as a hacker. She could beat you on sheer typing speed alone. Her fingers stopped moving. “So what do you have for me?”

  “Believe it or not sir, the ship went planetside.”

  “Quaid had hinted that there might be a research facility down on the planet, but they haven’t terraformed anything this far out. So it would have been costly to build. I assumed it wouldn’t have been big enough for a ship like that.”

  “I’m scanning the planet they landed on now. It doesn’t have a name in the star chart, but all the scans are coming up nominal. The planet could easily support human life.”

  “Well, I‘ll be damned.”

  Maze walked into the room. “Not again, Captain.”

  “Not like that. It looks like Ice here found a new planet.”

  “Let me guess. We have to go there to retrieve the lost scientist.” She said with a scowl.

  “Sounds like a bad scary movie, right Captain?” Ice said with a grin.

  “Yeah, the kind of movie that doesn’t have a happy ending. We have something they don’t though.”

  “What’s that?” Ice asked.

  “Maze.” I slapped her on the shoulder. “Now let’s go check out this new ordinance you secured for us.” She followed me out of the room, and we moved down into the cargo hold. I tapped a code into the wall panel, and it slid open revealing our weapons room. It was fuller than I had ever seen it. Maze had done good work.

  There was no reason we would need this gear yet, but I felt better knowing that we had it. I picked up one ballistic pistol and one laser pistol. I stuffed a tactical vest full of clips and chargers. Instead of going for the rifle that called out to me, I grabbed the tactical shotgun. It held twenty-five compressed rounds and held one more clip along its barrel. It would be the perfect thing for close quarters combat.

  Maze followed my lead. She had four pistols, and a vest. She tossed a pair of cargo pants to me. I felt the small plates inside and smiled. It wouldn’t stop a rifle round, but a few shots from a pistol wouldn’t be a problem. She grabbed a pair of the same pants and then stepped out closing the door behind her.

  “We will have to get Gabe down here, and let’s make sure Kyra and Ice at least have a weapon.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “I’m going to send Quaid a message with an update on the ship. Unless the sensors pick something else up we are at least two days out, so get some rest. I have a feeling when we hit planetside none of us will be sleeping for a while.” She nodded and headed out of the cargo bay. I headed back to my bunk to make the call.

  I just left a message for Quaid all he needed was an update, and I really didn’t want to talk with him. I checked my gear one more time, and then stripped it all off. Maybe a quick workout would get rid of my cryo hangover and then I could get some rest. We had at least two days left before we needed to be too worried.

  With one day left before we hit planetside, we sat down for a group meal. We didn’t do them as often as we should. Normally only to celebrate a big payday or the start of a mission. I wanted everyone on alert after we crossed the twelve-hour mark. Maze, Gabe, and I were already wearing our tactical gear.

  Kyra broke out some real food she had stashed away somewhere. It was an amazing feast. The last thing I expected to have was fresh fruit and vegetables a month out from our last call to port. Everyone was in a great mood; I swear Maze even smiled once. I was just about to break out one of my famous stories when the alarm bell sounded.

  “Talk to me, Ice,” I shouted over the alarm.

  She pulled over her workstation and started tapping buttons faster than anyone I had ever seen. The alarm stopped sounding, and I watched as the edges of her lips pulled down into a frown. “Captain, we have a big problem.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “That our problem is a ship twice our size heading straight for us.”

  “And it’s not the science vessel?”

  “Correct Captain, not a science vessel. It’s also not broadcasting a designation.”

  “How in the hell did they get this close without us knowing?”

  “Sensors are saying they are using some kind of cloaking device. If we hadn’t put in those upgrades, we wouldn’t have known until they docked with us.”

  “Ice, get to the bridge do what you can, and for the love of God take a gun with you.” She frowned but didn’t argue. She grabbed my shotgun that had been resting against the table and ran out of the room. “Kyra, same deal. Get down to the engine room. Make sure no one can gain access to them.” Maze tossed her a shotgun, and she ran out of the door looking slightly frazzled.

  “Maze, Gabe, you’re with me. I want you guys positioned above the cargo bay with rifles. I’ll do my best to slow them down so you can pick them off.”

  They both nodded and took off for the cargo bay. I rushed out of the room on their heels. If we were lucky, there would enough time to set up a few barriers. “Ice, how much time do we have?” I shouted into my commlink.

  “Maybe five minutes, Captain.”

  It would have to be enough.

  Chapter Six

  We managed to drag a few empty crates in front of the airlock and used a few more to block off the sides of the cargo bay. They would have to come straight at us, or not at all. I pitied the man that tried to run ahead with Maze’s rifle pointed down at them. Gabe would hopefully be able to pick off a few, and I had another shotgun in hand to make them think twice about boarding us too fast. There was going to be a lot of death here today. Hopefully, none of them would be ours.

  The other ship hasn’t tried to contact us since we picked it up on scanners, that meant they weren’t coming aboard with presents. The only advantage we had is they didn’t know we had the cap
ability to pick up their cloaked vessel. They would come in thinking we were disorganized and scrambling to figure out what happened. They were going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

  The ship rocked gently as our vessels connected. I had to give it to them, whoever their pilot was, he was good. If we had been asleep or hadn’t caught the ship’s signal, we might not have even noticed the small jostle that it caused. It wouldn’t be long now; they would be coming in quickly hoping to catch us off guard. I took a breath and waited.

  Nothing happened. The door didn’t open, and no one came rushing in. “Ice, talk to me.”

  “I’m a little busy right now. Whoever is hacking us is good, almost too good. They are trying to shut down our life support.”

  Well, that was something I hadn’t thought of. It made a sick kind of sense. If you could attach to a vessel and hack their life support, all you had to do was wait. The air would bleed out of the ship, and they would fall down and die. You wouldn’t have to risk any of your crew. It was dirty, but a sound plan. “Ice, tell me you can stop them.”

  “I’ve been able to hold them off so far; I’m reinforcing our security protocols now. They shouldn’t be able to get around this.”

  The airlock door hissed open, it was time. The first man came in ducking around the crates in his way. I moved from behind my cover and blasted him in the chest. As he hit the deck on his back, I sent another round from the shotgun into his legs. He screamed out, and someone pulled him back behind our makeshift barrier.

  The next man thought it would be easier to try the other side of the cargo bay. He made it four steps before his head exploded. I looked up at Maze, and I swear she winked at me. It was risky to use high powered ballistic ammo in here. If she missed, it could do significant damage to the ship. I took her wink to mean she didn’t plan on missing.

  The next two men came at the same time. Maze got hers with one shot. Gabe’s laser fired hitting the man in the leg. He dropped his gun and fell to the floor screaming. I popped back out from behind cover and shot him in the chest. That was four down, how many more men were they willing to risk trying to take our ship. Their vessel was bigger than ours. If I had to guess, I would say it could easily carry at least thirty men, maybe more if they weren’t too shy.