by Ryan Krauter
The first is The Fixer, a spin-off novel about the mysterious Garrett Drayven. It’s a story about how a normal guy went from university student to someone that deals with the most prestigious and dangerous criminals on the planet. Is a Fixer good, evil, neither? This novel answers those questions.
The second is the first of my ongoing young adult series called Out of Nowhere. Matt Falken was a normal, everyday high school Freshman whose main goal in life was to stay under the radar and finish school without suffering any lasting emotional trauma. All that changed one day after he was almost kidnapped at a mall; Matt discovered that his parents had neglected to mention that they had moved to town from somewhere far away- like another planet.Destined for obscurity, Matt unexpectedly learns that, while he is human like everyone else he knows, his parents grew up on another planet populated by humans from Earth that were taken there long ago. Having fled to Earth to avoid Matt getting caught up in the long war their people were fighting, the past reaches out to them as Matt’s parents learn that their son is desperately needed to help fight their people’s ages-old enemy. Matt, like his parents, possesses a rare and special genetic gift that allows him to be a necessary part of the computer network defending their planet. Matt decides to investigate the offer, if for no other reason than to learn about his people. He is accompanied by his best friend, a neighbor girl named Jessie, as he travels ‘home’ only to find out that not only is he a natural at running the Network, but without him the humans will most likely be destroyed.
Out of Nowhere is Young Adult science fiction. If you like dragons, wizards, or vampires, you have plenty of options these days, but if you like the occasional blaster, alien, or starship, your choices are fewer in number. I aim to help fill this niche a bit with this title.
Chapter One
Five Years Ago
Garrett Drayven stood over the body of his boss and, in the same way he always did, took careful stock of the situation. He had learned the hard way these last couple of years to be ready for anything, and to never be surprised.
As his blaster hung in his hand, he heard it tick a few times as the metals inside cooled at different rates. He had just used it to shoot his former boss and cousin, Joren Vars, and two of his bodyguards. From inside the study aboard his cousin’s private starship, lavishly furnished in exotic, polished dark woods, he knew nobody would have heard the noise. There was nobody else aboard the ship; besides, his cousin had ended enough people in this very room that it had been designed to keep all the noise inside anyway.
He cautiously walked over and toed the bodyguards, then knelt by each one to check for a pulse at the neck, holding his blaster to each man’s temple as he did so. They were dead because they’d made too many assumptions about Garrett, and he wouldn’t lose much sleep over it. Oh, he mourned the need to take a life, but these men weren’t exactly model citizens who would miss clocking in for their shift tomorrow to cure a deadly disease or build an orphanage, either.
Finally, he approached his cousin, Joren. The man was only a handful of years older than Garrett- late twenties- and in good shape. It was he who had introduced Garrett to the life of a Fixer, of being the person people counted on to get things done, both legal and otherwise. It had been an enlightening and fulfilling experience at first. Then, things had taken a turn for the worse. Garrett tried to force the last few weeks out of his head and remember the good times the cousins had been through together as he checked the man for a pulse.
He stepped over to his cousin’s desk and efficiently rifled through the drawers and secret compartment that Joren thought nobody else knew about. Garrett grabbed a few data chips, a folio containing some hardcopy documents, and the all-important client list. Garrett already had access to everything Joren knew and used for the business; what he needed was the secure contact information of the people Joren was dealing with, for he’d kept some of that secret even from Garrett. Garrett would have to decide which clients to take with him and whom to cut loose. They all knew him well enough to not get too uptight about the change in management as long as the service was the same. Garrett also didn’t worry much about Joren’s handful of employees who, while loyal, were not incredibly abstract thinkers and wouldn’t waste time trying to avenge their boss.
Finally, it was time to bid farewell to this place. He had taken measures to mask his identity, plus the practical matter was that the local police would probably not ask too many questions about why one of the biggest underworld Fixers on the planet was dead.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way; nobody had to die, Garrett thought. He would have been happy to keep working for his cousin, to be loyal, to do a good job, and take what he was given. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Chapter 2
Ten Years Ago
Garrett cursed at the text on the monitor in front of him and dropped the datapad on his desk in resignation. Apparently, he wasn’t meant to complete this end-of-term project for his Interstellar Relations class. Besides, it’s not as though he planned on traveling the galaxy right away upon graduation. He’d be perfectly happy just getting any decent job while he sampled the real world and figured out what he was really going to do with his life.
He lived alone in a small apartment near the school’s campus, and worked a part time job as a computer technician at a local company. He never went ‘home’ during breaks; there was no home to return to. His parents had only had one child, and they were probably best described as people that perhaps didn’t desperately want kids in the first place. As soon as he went to university, they’d both semi-retired, sold most of their belongings, and bought a place aboard one of those fancy condo starships that cruised endlessly from planet to planet, hauling retirees across the galaxy in search of good times, recreational games that weren’t too strenuous, and bland food that wouldn’t give them gas later.
His friends told him he should be in some sort of public relations or reporting job, since they all claimed he was such a ‘people person’. He wasn’t so sure of that title, though. He did well enough in social situations, but he secretly wondered how relaxing it must be for those crazy hermits who mined asteroids all by themselves, alone on their ships for months at a time.
Oh well, that wasn’t going to be a problem unless he found a compelling reason to argue for a Talaran system of economic-controlled government, which his professor would be arguing against.
Perhaps he was going about this the wrong way. Maybe he actually needed to sample the local economy to fully appreciate the wonders of the Confederation’s system of government and trade. Yes, research was needed.
He retrieved his comm unit from the desktop and tapped the icon for his favorite contacts. First up was Cinder, a girl he’d met his first year at the University and the first person he thought would be willing to help. Were it not for the fact that she was engaged to another friend of his, he’d have asked her out on a date long ago. In any case, that ship had sailed, and he’d be happy with her company in whatever form it would take.
Her attractive face filled the screen when she picked up his call.
“Cinder,” he began cheerfully, “want to go out drinking with me?”
They met at a local college bar called The Beacon. It was owned and operated by a retired freighter pilot, and he’d managed to obtain an old airfield landing signal beacon which spun slowly from its mount on the ceiling. Garrett and Cinder found a table on the second level balcony- their favorite location- and ordered a pair of Brandy Burners. Their drinks arrived on fire; they snuffed the flames and took their first sips.
“So,” she began with a wistful smile, “schoolwork isn’t going well tonight?”
“It’s going great, actually,” Garrett replied, taking another sip. “I’m conducting research on the driving forces behind the Confederation economy and how it relates to our government’s policies.”
“Your what hurts?”
“I’m drinking, and plan to consume generous amounts before the night is over
. Tomorrow, I’ll panic and try to write a few pages while hung over.”
“Ah,” Cinder replied, “it makes more sense when you put it that way.”
“So what’s up with you lately?” Garrett asked in return. He’d noticed something was a bit off with her tonight; she didn’t seem as cheery as usual. He also knew from the grapevine that Cinder and his friend (her fiancée) Arlan, were having a fight, but this seemed somehow bigger.
She looked at him, suddenly quiet. Her eyes darted away, scanned the dimly lit upper lounge area, and then settled back on him, though now her eyes were moist with tears.
“I think Arlan’s seeing someone else,” she blurted suddenly. She seemed surprised herself, because she put her hand to her mouth and looked around in shock to see if anyone else had heard.
Garrett didn’t know what exactly to say. Should he try to stick up for Arlan, support her, downplay it, keep his mouth shut? He decided on the simplest course of action, and reached across the table to put his hand lightly on hers.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“It’s a lot of things,” she said softly, keeping her eyes on the tabletop. “Things he’s done, times when I can’t reach him, low key lies I’ve noticed.” She finally made eye contact again, and he could tell she was hurt. “It’s hard to explain, but I just know something’s going on.”
“I hate to ask the obvious,” he said cautiously, “but have you talked to him about it? I mean, he’s sort of slow, I should know because he’s my friend too, but I’d hope he would make the time to talk to you about it if you asked him.”
“Yeah, I asked him,” she replied, taking a long pull of her drink. “He said it was nothing. Had an explanation for everything.”
Garrett studied her face, the tension, the worry and self doubt. Cinder was a good friend, and seeing her like this bothered him deeply. He’d known Arlan longer than her, but frankly liked her more. Calling him a friend might be overstating things as well; he was more like a mildly abrasive acquaintance. Garrett stayed cordial with the man for the same reason he kept social ties with many people: they didn’t need to know what he really thought of them. You never knew when it might come in handy to say you knew someone, so he tried to not sever relationships unless the offender was a truly awful person. The truth was, Garrett knew and got along with tons of people from all different ways and means, and that was just fine by him.
If Arlan was doing something dishonorable to Cinder, Garrett wanted to know about it. He decided right then that he would find out if there was any truth to her fears. She deserved that much and this was something he knew he could do.
The next morning, Garrett awoke fresh and ready to get started. The problem was he didn’t know what to do. He’d seen enough holo movies and read enough spy novels to know what a suave secret agent would do, but he was a university student with limited funds and resources. Well, he figured, the first thing he needed to do was learn Arlan’s schedule.
Garrett was a computer nerd of sorts, and knew more than most, though it stopped short of being a lifestyle. He could, for example, hack through the university’s database to download Arlan’s class schedule, address and contact information, but couldn’t alter it or do anything really fun like change his course load to all cooking classes.
Armed with Arlan’s schedule, he spent the day following him around, taking video from a distance using an old long lens holocam. Nothing interesting happened, but Garrett stepped up his surveillance and followed Arlan off campus as well that night. His friend went to dinner with Cinder, who in turn had no idea Garrett was watching. They ate, spent some time at a bar, and he escorted her back to her apartment.
When Arlan left Cinder’s apartment, however, he didn’t go home. He went to the other side of town, taking a combination of walking paths and public transportation. Garrett didn’t actually know if Arlan owned a hovercar, but it would be smart of him to leave it behind if he was trying to stay low-key lest somebody recognize it. Garrett realized he was having fun sneaking around, and had to remind himself that this was a friend’s real life he was meddling with. Not for the first time since he’d started watching Arlan, he wondered if he really wanted to know what was actually going on.
Arlan finally came to another bar, not a college hangout but catering to roughly the same demographic once they’d entered the workforce. It was a nice place; at least that’s what Garrett thought by looking at the outside. Now he encountered a problem. He couldn’t go into that bar- it was too small and Arlan was bound to see him. He checked his comm unit and saw that it was after midnight; they couldn’t spend too much time in there, since Arlan had early classes tomorrow. The best he could hope for was to catch a glimpse of Arlan as he left. Garrett found a convenient sidewalk bench a block down and made himself comfortable, pretending to be concentrating on the screen of his datapad but in reality staring right over the top. If Arlan headed towards him, Garrett would need to move right away since he wasn’t disguised and it would most likely be fairly awkward explaining to the man why Garrett was following him.
His mind wandered for a while as he experienced some doubt about what he was doing. It was the waiting around that could get to a person, he realized. If you were taking action, there wasn’t time to ponder all the things that were going wrong, had gone wrong, or most likely would soon go wrong. With these daydreams floating around, he almost missed Arlan as he left the bar at 1:30 am, beautiful woman on his arm.
Garrett quickly picked up the zoom lens holocam and held it just over the top of his datapad, hoping nobody would notice the overt gesture. Luckily for him, this time of the night most people were either too tired or drunk to care. He finally hit pay dirt when Arlan and the woman turned to each other and kissed convincingly before parting ways.
Garrett watched Arlan head for the public transportation center and decided to wait until the next tram. He looked at the images on his holocam, at the pretty face of the young woman with Arlan. Was she in on this with him, or was she as much in the dark as Cinder?
The next day was a fog for Garrett. He attended the classes he was physically required to be at, logged in for those that were done via the data net, and didn’t really pay attention to any of it. He also avoided Cinder, since he didn’t want to have to give her half details. On the off chance there was a reasonable explanation to Arlan’s actions, Garrett didn’t want to get Cinder any more upset if it wasn’t necessary.
He’d already decided on his next course of action. Arlan had a late class tonight and would be tied up all evening. Earlier in the day, Garrett had combed the data net and found what he was looking for; a Trojan app he had sent to Arlan that would supposedly allow his comm unit to access real-time drink prices at various campus bars. The app was real, but the virus part had been added in by devious people who Garrett secretly admired. The app was a bit of social engineering in that it could only work if it was not just opened, but successfully installed. This meant that to get it to work on somebody, the attacker and victim pretty much had to know each other so that the program wouldn’t immediately get deleted. Worst case scenario was that Arlan somehow discovered the app, upon which Garrett would miraculously discover that his own comm unit was infected as well and hopefully not look guilty. The non-virus infested version was becoming popular around town, so Garrett knew Arlan would at least try it out.
The great part about the virus version of the app was that it secretly repeated its position, calls, and any text to Garrett’s datapad through anonymous servers. He had now cloned Arlan’s comm device, and just had to sit back and watch. The problem was he couldn’t get that young woman out of his mind. Some part of him had to know if she was in on it, and against his better judgment, he decided that tonight he could find out.
Garrett had spent the afternoon studying her picture and mannerisms on his holocam. He needed to know for sure that is was her when she made her appearance- if she made one. He was hoping she frequented that bar often on her own independent of
her time with Arlan.
He got to the bar after the supper hour and had a drink, chatting up the bartender and leaving a nice tip. He then wandered about for a while, getting in on some of the various games that the bar had to offer, winning a few and losing a few, taking his turns buying as well as receiving drinks. He made a few new friends and was careful to not tell people too much about himself, though when he did, he essentially told the truth- just not all of it.
By ten thirty, his hopes were low and his credit account was screaming for mercy, and he considered packing it in. He decided to swing by the bar for one last stand when he saw her walk in.
She had dark hair with a hint of a wave in it which fell to just above her shoulders. Her features were sharp and her hazel eyes glimmered with life as she took the place in. Garrett noticed that she wasn’t with anyone. He didn’t know if that was good, bad, or meant nothing at all. She appeared comfortable enough in the bar that he was guessing she lived nearby and was probably a regular.
She took a seat at the bar near the end where there were empty spots around her and ordered a drink. Apparently she wasn’t here to socialize, at least not just yet. Garrett surreptitiously checked his data pad and confirmed that Arlan was still on campus. Well, at least she wasn’t here to meet him. He’d have to move quickly in case she was expecting company.
He casually took a seat near her, leaving one open spot between them. With a sigh, he settled onto his barstool and got comfortable. He glanced around and their eyes met for an instant. He gave a quick smile and polite nod to her and then turned to the bartender, who by now knew what Garrett was going to ask for. He simply pointed at Garrett, who gave him a thumbs up, and moments later a Brandy Burner appeared. Garrett stared at the flames for a while before putting his hand on top of the glass to snuff it out.