“She’s got a while,” Blue said, glancing over at the other table. “That android did a lot of damage. I’m amazed she survived.”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling suddenly cold. “Speaking of Laender, we need to drop his ass off at BNG and be done with him. If nothing else, we can at least honor Max by making sure her sister is taken care of. BNG owes us big for this.”
“You’ve still got a few minutes, Kat,” Blue said, showing me the panel. “Get fully healed first, yeah?”
I sighed and closed my eyes.
DEALING WITH WASEN
The trip back felt like a wake. Uneventful, awkward, quiet as space. I wasn’t surprised. All the other ships that had caught The Relic’s scent were downed.
“Closed channel into BNG, Blue,” I commanded, gently. “Get me Wasen on the comm.”
It took a couple of minutes, but soon enough I was staring at the face of BNG. All smiles.
“Hello, Ms. Keep,” he said in his drippy voice. “Am I to assume you have good news for me?”
I wasn’t in a happy mood. “We have The Relic on board, Wasen.”
“Excellent,” he said, beaming. Dick. “We’ll have a crew come out to meet you straightaway.”
“Why meet us?” I said, tilting my head and squinting. “We’re all part of the BNG family now, right? That was the deal, wasn’t it?”
“Of course, of course! We just don’t have everything in place yet for authorizations. I wouldn’t want your ship to be attacked by our automated systems.”
“They didn’t attack us when we took this fucking job, Wasen,” I said. My ire was on the rise and wanted to be damn sure he knew it.
“Ships incoming, Kat,” said Blue. “Three mid-sized. Armed to the teeth.”
I clenched my jaw, wincing slightly, and swung my gaze back to Wasen. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Honestly, Ms. Keep,” Wasen said with eyes that were so riddled with falseness that I could have puked, “we just want to make sure to do things by the book.”
“We’re thieves, asshole,” I said. “There is no godsdam book.”
I cut the comm and pulled up the three ships on the main screen. They wouldn’t shoot to kill. At least not while we had the head on board, but they would aim to disable. After they had the android in their hold, we were all dead.
I’d already failed my family once today. I sure as shit wasn’t going to do it again.
“Sam,” I said while pressing myself out of the chair and rolling toward the main stairs, “take the con and get us the fuck out of here. I don’t care where, just get us moving before they can take us down. Blue, you’re with me. Let’s move!”
We ran through the ship at my version of full speed, toward the cargo hold.
“Which barrel?” I asked with ragged breaths.
“There” Blue said, pointing.
I started to work on moving the supplies off the barrel. It took longer than I’d hoped, but soon enough we had the container open and I was yanking free the white box that contained The Relic.
The ship rocked, throwing both Blue and I to the ground. The box slipped out of my hands and slammed against the wall. Daddy-O popped out.
“Sam,” I said, slapping the comm, “what’s the status?”
“Just missed our main engines. I’m doing what I can.”
“Ah, hello there,” said the head. Then he looked around for a few seconds and smiled. “This is a new ship. Am I to assume that Laender is no longer with us?”
“He’s still in the barrel,” I said, giving storage container a swift kick.
“I see. Well, what can I help you with?”
“Why do they want you?”
“Why does who want me?”
“BNG…well, fuck, everyone apparently. What is it about you that is so goddamn important?”
The head pursed its lips and frowned. “I do not understand.”
“You’re the fucking Relic! So what does that mean? If we’re going to keep you out of these leeches’ hands you need to be square with me.”
“Ah, I see. You are mistaken, miss. I’m not The Relic,” he then floated over and looked into the barrel, “he is.”
“Shit,” Blue said as the ship rocked again. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No, miss, I’m not.”
I shook my head, still fighting off the effects of the fight I’d had with Laender. “Okay, so why do they want him, then?”
“I think you can look at the damage he’s done already and know the answer to that, miss.”
“Son of a bitch,” I said with a groan. “He’s a fucking weapon.”
“He’s a child, miss,” said the head.
“A deadly one.”
“Yes, that’s true, but a child nonetheless.”
“Can we salvage him?” I asked.
“What?” said Blue incredulously. “Have you lost your mind? You saw what he did before. Jesus, Kat, he killed Max, nearly killed Penn, and beat you to a pulp!”
“I know that, Blue,” I said. “But the fact is that without him, we’re all dead. He’s our only bargaining chip at this point.”
That shut her up. Either way you looked at it, Laender was the key to ending someone’s existence. I could only hope it wasn’t ours.
I turned back to the head again. “Can we salvage him or not?”
* * *
The answer was “not.”
I should have known, too. It wasn’t like we had millions…hell, even tens of androids floating around in the galaxy. Robots, sure, even some that had android-like features, but nothing that came close to the human-like replication that Laender sported. He was one of a kind. Hopefully.
“Wasen,” I said to the prick on my viewscreen, “it’s this simple: you either back off your dogs, or I destroy my entire ship.”
“You’ll have me believe that you’d just kill yourself and your crew?” He laughed in his dickish way. “Some sort of noble cause, I presume?”
“You’re already planning to kill us, asshole.” I thought of Penn laying on that table. I remember what she’d said when we were fighting against Musasho. “My pilot has a rule. Simple one, really. It’s hard to disagree with it, once you think about it.”
“And?”
“If you’re going to die, you may as well kill the closest asshole.”
He sniffed and nodded slowly. “Clever, but it leaves us in a stalemate.”
“Not really,” I said. “I’m not stupid. The last thing I want is to have my face on a wall somewhere. So I’m going to make this easy on everyone. You’re going to transfer 1M credits to my account. That will cover ship repairs and the hardships we’ve had to endure. I’ll set a buoy with The Relic inside of it and will send you the coordinates. It’ll be near this sector. I’ll then get the hell out of the area and seek out greener pastures.”
“How do I know you won’t just take the money and run?”
“I know how far your arms reach, Wasen. I may be reckless, but I’m not stupid.”
“My arms are indeed long,” he said. “And if you break your word I will put just as much emphasis on killing you and your crew as I did on getting The Relic. You can rest assured in that.”
“Understood,” I said, holding back a few choice words. “I’ll send the coordinates once everything is cleared and my ship is mended. No more than one week.”
“We can fix your ship right here.”
“And I can tell you to bite me.”
He gave his final grin and disconnected the call.
THE RIDGE
Three days later I had the ship fixed, prepped, and fully loaded. I had 627K left in credits and was ready to make the drop.
“You know what you have to do?” I said to the head.
“Pretend to be The Relic,” it replied.
“You’re sure they don’t know the real Relic is an android?”
“You didn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean much,” I said. “Well, if they do know, then me
and my crew, and your ‘son’ are all dead.”
“Let’s hope that they don’t know, then. I will do all I can to make them believe I am…” he nodded toward the remains of Laender, “…him.”
“Good,” I replied. “Meantime, I’m going to take all the data you’ve given us and figure out how to make him pretty again.”
“That, too, is a risk, miss.”
“Tell me about it,” I said with a sad laugh. “My head is still ringing from our little dance.”
* * *
We made the drop, setting Father up to send his own signal in 3 days. We’d need at least that much time to get as far away as possible because I knew Wasen wouldn’t keep his word. He wanted us dead. As long as we were alive, we’d hold BNG secrets in our hands.
The Ridge would give us that buffer, but it took time to get there.
Nobody went to the Ridge anymore because of the legends that covered the area. It’s where adventurers go to die. Countless explorations had gone to the Ridge over the last thousand years. Zero returned.
But that’s where Father said we needed to go if we were to get Laender back in working order, and we’d need him if we were ever going to be safe. BNG had to go down.
“It’s good to see you back in that chair, Penn,” I said. Father had convinced the Table to fix up her face, but her cheek would always look like porridge.
“I don’t get it, Kat,” she said. “That thing damn near killed us all.”
“I know,” I said. “And he may try to do it again. But we’re dead anyway you look it. At least with him, we’ve got a chance.”
“Assuming he agrees to be on our side.”
“Right now, I’m more worried about what lies beyond the Ridge.”
“We’ll find out in about 87 seconds.”
“Blue, Sam,” I said through the comm, “we’re about to cross over.”
“Aye aye,” Blue replied. “On our way up.”
Eighty seven seconds later we floated across the coordinates in space known as the Ridge. The crossing was smooth as Pendolian threads.
“I guess we’re all in now,” said Blue softly.
“Aren’t we always?” Sam replied.
It was all I could do to keep from smiling.
These were my girls.
While the Ridge put fear into the hearts of men throughout the universe, it had never faced anything like my crew.
“Push to full, Penn,” I said after letting the silence settle for moment. “We’ve got work to do.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John P. Logsdon
John was raised in the MD/VA/DC area. Growing up, John had a steady interest in writing stories, playing music, and tinkering with computers. He spent over 20 years working in the video games industry where he acted as designer and producer on many online games. He’s written science fiction, fantasy, humor, and even books on game development. While he enjoys writing lighthearted adventures and wacky comedies most, he can’t seem to turn down writing darker fiction. John lives with his wife and Chihuahua.
On the web: www.JohnPLogsdon.com
Benjamin S. Zackheim
Ben grew up in New Mexico, but soon found his way east. He spent 15 years in the video game industry, producing and designing games that have been played by millions. To a guy like Ben, there’s just nothing like sitting down and creating characters and worlds. He enjoys writing all sorts of fiction, from kids adventures and mystery to SciFi and fantasy for adults, but most of all he loves the creative edge that building stories offers.
On the web: www.BenZackheim.com
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by John P. Logsdon & Benjamin S. Zackheim
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Published by: Crimson Myth Press (www.CrimsonMyth.com)
Cover art: Jake Logsdon (www.JakeLogsdon.com)
The Relic (The Galactic Thieves Book 1) Page 9