Thieves' Guild Series (7 eBook Box Set): Military Science Fiction - Alien Invasion - Galactic War Novels

by C. G. Hatton

  He switched again and tried to infiltrate the station, this time easily homing in on Gallagher and a whirl of security data that was too much to comprehend. He concentrated, got the information he needed and pulled back abruptly to the Duck, probing gently at the ship itself and nudging towards its heart, querying the core systems. It was delicate going and just as he felt its curiosity, the connection froze.

  He realised with a jolt how precarious his position was and when he tried to back out, it stopped him. He felt it take hold and then he couldn’t move, couldn’t so much as blink. His internal temperature started to rise and breathing got hard.

  He pushed back. “What the hell are you?” he thought at it, mentally or through the implant, he wasn’t sure.

  “This is quite a risk you’re taking,” a soft voice whispered. “Why?”

  “I don’t like being told I can’t go somewhere,” he replied, feeling his blood pressure rise.

  “I could kill you.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “I think you do. Who are you?”

  “Why did you bring us here? Why here?”

  “Why not?”

  It increased the pressure and it felt like every blood vessel in his head was going to burst. LC tried to back out again. He pulled away gently then broke free suddenly, giving it no chance to react.

  He jerked back in his seat. “Holy crap,” he muttered.

  He was sweating and hot, shaking. Thom was hovering and Sean was staring, a curious expression on her face and a weird mix of regret and anxiety in the emotions she was throwing out. She was thinking it was a shame and LC looked her in the eye, biting his tongue not to ask what it was she thought was such a shame.

  “Did you find them?” Duncan said.

  LC shook his head. “Gallagher’s in a detention cell but I can’t see DiMarco anywhere. Station security is being run by a unit of mercenaries and they’re twitchy as hell about something.” He stood up, unsteady on his feet for a moment. “DiMarco was right,” he added. “There’s an AI. Is that how you fixed the trick with the gravity down there?”

  Duncan shook his head. “It wasn’t us. That was your tech guy.”

  “What tech guy?”

  “Tall guy, really pale. He said he’d fix it if I got down there to cover you.”

  “We don’t have a tech guy.” LC turned to Thom. “Do we?”

  “No,” the kid said. “But we thought we didn’t have an AI. Why has Gallagher been lying to us?”

  “He hasn’t,” said a voice at the door.

  They turned. LC squinted at the figure standing there, disturbed that he hadn’t felt anything. He thought he was getting pretty good at sensing the presence of people, even if he didn’t pick up any direct thoughts or emotions. He got nothing from the guy, who looked almost shy, hesitating to enter the bridge.

  “You’re the tech guy?” Thom said, walking over, confrontational. “Why didn’t Gallagher introduce us? We need to know if an AI is going to screw around with the engines when we’re working down there.”

  “Thom,” LC said, cautiously.

  The kid was full flow and didn’t stop. “Why didn’t Gallagher tell us he had someone on board working with an AI? We could have been hurt. It threw us into jump with no warning. Luka here,” he waved at LC, “was hurt.”

  “Thom,” LC interrupted and looked at the newcomer. “Gallagher doesn’t know you’re here, does he?”

  He still couldn’t sense anything from the guy; even tentatively reaching out with the Senson there was nothing. Beside him, Thom was getting more agitated.

  The guy shrugged nervously. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was still on board when Gallagher bought the ship. It’s a big ship and he didn’t look too hard.” He glanced at Thom. “I was just trying to help.”

  “How could Gallagher not know about an AI?” Thom said, still defiant.

  The guy seemed uncertain like he wasn’t sure how much to say. “He assumed the ship didn’t have one at the price he paid and, like I said, he didn’t look too hard at what he’d bought. I’m Elliott.” He stuck out his hand.

  LC reached forward reluctantly and shook it. The guy’s hand was cold, pale and cold. “Luka,” he said. “Thom and Hal. That’s Sean.”

  “I know,” Elliott said. He gestured towards the console. “May I?”

  Thom got out of the way to make room and they let the tech guy hook up with the ship and start to feed data onto the screens. A lot of the information was familiar and it had taken LC a hell of a lot more effort to get it. He watched with a detached curiosity.

  One of the screens showed a view of the ship’s main airlock with the five guys who’d come on board, sitting or pacing up and down, looking furious.

  Duncan leaned over to peer at the monitor. “What are the chances those guys contacted anyone?”

  “They didn’t,” Elliott said with quiet confidence. “And they’re shielded now. They’re not going anywhere until I let them loose.”

  LC stood back, watching them flick through the screens. He didn’t know what to make of Elliott and felt vulnerable without a gun to hand. It was disturbing that he couldn’t sense anything from the guy. Worse than that, it felt like there was a void sitting right there in front of him.

  He rubbed the spot at the centre of his chest where he’d been hit by the FTH. It was still sore and the back of his head was pounding. He was tired, unsettled by the encounter with the AI and he couldn’t help distrusting this tech guy who’d turned up from nowhere.

  He looked over at Sean who was still watching him. She was thinking about Hilyer again and trying to figure out how she could have been wrong – they were so alike. She was wondering where LC Anderton could be and was angry with herself for wasting so much time here. She’d decided she had the wrong guy. No wonder she was so pissed.

  LC choked back a laugh, turning it into a cough that turned into a real cough, sending sparks piercing through his head. Somehow he’d managed to fail an ID check on himself. If they could make it back to Sten’s World, she’d split and he’d be free. He could jump on a ride going anywhere, get back to Pen. It was tempting to try to persuade them to take the ship and go, just bust out of there right now.

  But for some reason, he felt obligated to Gallagher. The guy reminded him of Mendhel in that unassumingly easy way he was happy to accept LC’s abilities and more than willing to overlook his blatant disregard for protocol and procedures. LC knew fine well how much of a pain he’d been to Mendhel, and somehow Gallagher gave him that same sense of security. Like even if he screwed up, he’d still be welcome.

  He felt caught between lives.

  “Wait up,” Duncan said, tapping at a screen. “What the hell is that?”

  LC stepped forward to look at the information Elliott scrolled onto the monitor.

  “Orders to impound the ship,” the tech guy said.

  “They’re running a hefty security force for a mining colony and repair dock,” Duncan said. “Who is it registered to?”

  Elliott flashed up another screen. “Right now? United Metals. Wintran.”

  Duncan pointed at another set of orders. “They’ve issued arrest warrants for the whole crew. Who the hell do they think we are?”

  LC stared at the screen, a bad feeling gnawing at his stomach. “We need to get Gallagher out.”

  Elliott swung round. “We all need to get out unless you want to end up joining the volunteer labour force on the surface.”

  “They couldn’t get away with that,” Thom said.

  “This is the Between,” Elliott said. “They can do anything they want. Who are we going to complain to?”

  Chapter 9

  The flame of the candle was creating a perfect corona that contaminated the darkness in the chamber with a glowing sphere. The Man sat, an imposing figure, at its edge.

  “This freighter upon which our operative found himself,” he said, “tell me more. It intrigues me.”

  “Science are eager to get
their hands on it,” NG said, careful to understate the fact. Science were more than eager. It had become an obsession. He moved the king to safety. “As soon as we started to hear the rumours, they started coming up with theories. As far as we know, it has an AI that is nothing like anything we’ve encountered before. Legal are trying to find out where the ship came from but they can’t find anything, no registered history beyond its sudden appearance at Sten’s World, no papers of origin, no certificates of ownership before William Gallagher. It’s as if it didn’t exist.”

  The Man considered the board, leaning forward, one hand cupped around the bowl of his goblet. “This is the Between,” he said finally, moving a pawn. “Is it not teeming with undocumented ships and undesirable individuals?”

  “It is,” NG said, sitting back and feeling a trickle of sweat run down his back. His head was pounding. “But everything and everyone leaves a trail somewhere.”

  •

  Hal Duncan disappeared for twenty minutes and came back to the bridge holding an assault rifle and a kit bag. “Courtesy of our mercenary friends,” he said with a smile.

  Thom stood up. “What’s the plan?” he said nervously.

  “How badly is the ship damaged?”

  LC watched as Thom glanced at him then Elliott before he replied. “Some of the manoeuvring thrusters are out and one of the main propulsion vents took a direct hit. There’s nothing I can do about those without a dock facility. The starboard aft shield generator overloaded and needs parts we don’t carry. There are a few other systems down but redundancy and back up can take care of those. Hull integrity is still good. We can still fly, sort of, but our biggest problem is that one of the primary heat exchangers was hit and we’ve lost a lot of coolant. I’ve managed to bypass a few things that have kept us running but unless we can replace it, we aren’t going anywhere.”

  “Can we get any here?”

  “Sure, this is a repair dock facility, they’ve got tonnes of the stuff. I just need to get it on board, but the systems are all automated and they’re not just going to give us any, are they?”

  Elliott stepped in then. “That won’t be a problem.”

  Duncan nodded. “Garrett, you stay here with Elliott and work on the repairs. O’Brien and Cole come with me. We get our crew back and we leave.” He looked at LC. “You have an implant.”

  It wasn’t a question but LC nodded. How could he deny it after hooking up with the AI like that right in front of them?

  Duncan looked at Elliott. “Can you establish a secure link that will reach us out there?”

  Elliott smiled. “What grade is it?”

  Elliott was still a blank void standing in front of him and LC couldn’t read anything from the man. The Senson was an expensive piece of kit, way above anything a ship’s engineer should have. He didn’t know these people and he didn’t trust anyone.

  “Senson Four,” he said. It was a Six but they didn’t need to know that.

  “Impressive,” Elliott said. “That’ll do.” He nodded at Sean. “We’ll be able to reach you both everywhere except security – they have that shielded. Get me access through a terminal and I can help you with station systems so far but you’ll have to break into the security level manually.”

  Thom caught LC’s eye. “A Senson Four?” he whispered incredulously.

  LC shrugged. Duncan pulled a holstered pistol and a small pouch out of the bag.

  “Take these.” The big man was thinking through the plan to reach Gallagher like it was a military operation, curiosity and some apprehension about the new company he was keeping, as if he wasn’t sure about trusting someone else to watch his back but he didn’t think he had any choice. LC couldn’t help but overhear regret over Richardson, snatches of emotion that Duncan was trying to push aside, that he didn’t want to hear. He could pick up the thoughts clearly, the heightened emotions almost amplifying the effect. It was hard to ignore.

  He took the pouch and flipped it open. It held three micro concussion grenades. He didn’t need to take any extra kit and he’d never, ever needed to resort to flash bombs to get into anything but if they were there, and if it made Duncan feel better, why not? The gun was loaded with live rounds but he strapped the holster to his thigh and clipped the pouch to his belt.

  When he looked up, Sean was watching him again. She was wearing a jacket over an armoured vest and had a gun strapped to the thigh of each leg. She was thinking how much she had wanted him to be the one. With no hint of the reward, simply wanting to find him. She flashed on NG and that made his breath stick in his throat. How could she know NG? She’d run a DNA test while he was crashed out asleep after the jump, he realised, listening in to a torrent of thoughts as she stood there. And the DNA hadn’t matched the profile she’d been given – by NG.

  Memories clicked into place, Pen saying trust no one – not even the guild. It made him feel sick.

  “We go in fast,” Duncan was saying. “And avoid all contact if we can. Have you done anything like this before?”

  LC nodded. Not that it was anything he could explain. He was Thieves’ Guild. He could get into anywhere. He’d broken into Science within his first few weeks on board the Alsatia, thirteen years old, bored and curious, no one keeping too close an eye on him yet and everyone underestimating what he could do. And that had been before they gave him any training and equipment.

  He watched Duncan’s face, overhearing the emotion rather than specific thoughts. Richardson had been a close friend, same unit. LC picked up flashes of a war zone that made him think of his own childhood. It was too personal and he didn’t know how to shut it out. He checked the magazine on his pistol again just to do something.

  “Put this on,” Duncan said, holding out a vest.

  LC shook his head. They were too cumbersome. He was wearing layers with enough light armour to deflect shrapnel and a vest would just slow him down. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Put it on,” Sean said, resigned like she’d accepted that she had no choice and no way of leaving without helping them.

  He conceded and took off his jacket, shrugging into the vest and pulling the straps tight. Thom helped him back into his jacket. He had to bite back a flash of irritation; he wasn’t used to such a team effort.

  Elliott flashed up a schematic once they were ready. “These are the terminals you need to access,” he said.

  LC glanced at the screen and nodded.

  “Any will do,” Elliott said. “Get me into one of those and I can hook into the station.”

  Sean stood with her hands on her hips. “What’s the plan to get in?”

  Elliott smiled, a sly creasing of his thin mouth. It was unnerving not to be able to read any emotion from the man.

  “You’re all geared up ready for a fight,” Elliott said, shyly. “Let’s give them one.”

  He brought up a view of the station’s main concourse, bleak holding cages imprisoning an assortment of deadbeats. He panned the view around, zooming in on the faces leaning against the bars. There was a mix of despair and outright belligerence, jeers as the guards patrolled.

  “They’re waiting to be shipped down to the mines,” Elliott said. “There’s already two shuttles full of them about to depart. Convicts, killers, deserters. Looks like UM are upping production.”

  Sean looked uneasy.

  Duncan narrowed his eyes, guessing what Elliott was going to suggest.

  “If you walk out onto that station now, security is just going to pick you up no matter how well armed you are,” the tech guy said. “Give me ten minutes and I can cause enough chaos out there that you’ll be able to walk right through it and they won’t have time to give you a second glance.”

  LC nodded and looked from Duncan to Sean.

  “Gallagher’s a good man,” Duncan said.

  “Yes, he is.”

  “So let’s go get him. Elliott, do it.”

  It was like running a tab and if it hadn’t been for the big guy at his side and the bounty hunter
just behind them, LC could have almost thought the last few weeks hadn’t happened. They’d watched as Elliott coordinated a mass breakout, disrupting the station systems he could reach and setting the station security on an instant back footing. Duncan had been impressed. “Get me access to the core system,” Elliott had said to LC, “and it’ll be even more impressive.”

  They’d watched the prisoners make the most of their newly-found freedom and the mercenaries, taken by surprise, withdraw to stage a defence. The docks were chaotic at first then the fighting shifted, moving into the station as the prisoners ran riot. After that it was easy to time an exit from the ship and make a run for it.

  Hal Duncan moved quietly for his size and had a calm alertness that reminded LC of the extraction agents of the guild, a confidence in their own ability that bordered on arrogance, setting them aside from the grunts of the Alsatia’s Security teams.

  LC reached the exit gates first and ducked beneath the barriers. He paused and scanned the area ahead, waiting to make sure it was empty, nowhere near as cocky as he had been getting about knowing where people were since he’d run into Elliott. There were too many shadows to be sure but he couldn’t sense anyone nearby, except Duncan and Sean following up behind.

  He waited for them then they moved on carefully. Twice they heard voices, relying on Thom and Elliott to guide them around in a diversion to avoid a confrontation, and eventually they reached the central hub of the orbital. Poule was a typical rundown, stretched to its limit, hole of a station that was operated barely within safety parameters by a corporation that was more interested in profits than its people or the suckers they were trafficking. LC found a maintenance hatch, whispered softly to them to keep watch, and bust open the lock.

  The central shaft should have been condemned and Sean looked in dismay at the dilapidated ladders that ran around its walls. LC hooked an arm around a rung and leaned out, looking up.

  “The lift looks like it’s stuck up there,” he said quietly. “We should be okay to climb. You good?”