The Space Mavericks

by Michael Kring

  The smell of the tree and its leaves was nice, and if it hadn’t been so damn hot, and if I hadn’t been so nervous, it could’ve been pleasant. At least, it was slightly cooler up the tree than on the forest floor.

  I walked along the branch, which was as wide as my waist, toward the edge of the clearing. I paused before I got too close and shoved some leaves slightly to the side so I could get a good look. I shook my head as I saw how deep the landing struts had dug into the dirt. Either they had serious problems with their landing comp, or else their pilots were real idiots and had brought the cruisers down manually. No one brings a ship down manually unless there is an absolute, critical need. The comp can do it so much better than any human being ever can. My contempt for the police rose another notch. Where did they get their pilots? Was Central getting that sloppy in granting licenses?

  The patrols near the perimeter of the clearing were numerous, but regular. I counted them for several minutes, making sure they performed their little routines like the good little soldiers they were trying to be. I nodded to myself. They were on split-second schedule, and that would make infiltrating the clearing much easier if I could count on the patrols being on time. It also meant they were more than likely so intent in counting their steps they weren’t really looking around that carefully. It was fine with me.

  I let the leaves fall back into place, walked back to the main trunk of the tree and shinnied down. It had taken little overman hour for the whole trip. I knew now I’d have to wait until nightfall, which was a bother. I had my night vision, and unless they brought out a number of spotlights, I would have an advantage over them. Even with the spotlights, they couldn’t have that many and illuminate the entire clearing.

  I never heard him.

  “Don’t move,” he said.

  I cursed under my breath, in all three languages that I know, and raised my hands. I didn’t move.

  “Don’t try any of that . . . stuff,” he warned, trying to find the proper word for describing my fight mode. “Or, I swear, I’ll shoot before you can move.”

  His voice sounded very shaky, and he was more than likely scared to death of me. I guessed he hadn’t really seen the affair at the police station, and, by now, the rumors had made me into some sort of invincible monster.

  “I’m not going to try anything,” I said, using my most friendly voice. “Just don’t do anything rash that I’d regret, okay?”

  “Fine,” he said. “But, just don’t move too fast.

  Now, walk to the clearing. Slow! Very slow.”

  I knew better than to try anything. He sounded like he was a little young, and perhaps this was his first flight from home planet. It that case, he would be nervous, scared, and more than likely unsure he’d ever make it back to Firelight. Why anyone would want to live on such hick planets is beyond me, but then, I’ve been around. The policeman holding the gun on me more than likely hadn’t. I just hoped he wasn’t a complete rookie. He could trip over his own feet and blow a hole in me that no one on any of the planets could ever repair. And I wasn’t ready for cyborg duty, yet.

  When I entered the clearing, the other patrol guards came running. The commotion I created was a little flattering, but I was getting tired of holding my hands over my head, and the damn sun was broiling the top of my skull as they made me stand in the open, completely encircled by police. I put my hands on my head and intertwined my fingers and relaxed a little. They were trying to figure out what they should do with me when an orderly came running up. He approached the officer of the watch and whispered something in his ear. I waited.

  The officer, and I didn’t know his rank, barked some orders, and I was led off to one of the cruisers. The policeman who’d captured me was a very young recruit, and I was fairly certain he was a rookie. Who else but a rookie would be wandering around in a jungle?

  I was taken to a grav shield elevator and up we went. Several minutes later, after they’d searched me and kept their comrades’ artifacts, and I was sitting in a chair, with metal straps holding my arms to the arms of the chair, and metal straps holding my legs. The chair was comfortable, so I just relaxed. At least the cell was air- conditioned.

  I must have dozed off, or something, because the next thing I knew the door was being slammed open and in stepped Heuser. I recognized him immediately, and I was shocked he would be on the mission. He came into the cell, followed by two bodyguards. He waved his hand at the guard who had opened the door and the other two quickly moved a chair near mine.

  “So,” he said, “we meet again.”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile. I didn’t like him. There are few people in all my travels that I can say I didn’t like. He was one of them. I’ve not cared for quite a number, but to actually get under my skin enough to bring about some active emotion in me was something few people can do. Heuser was one of those people.

  “Where did you get Wind’s and Denton’s things?” Heuser asked.

  “I found them dead,” I replied. “Something had killed them in the jungle. I didn’t find out what it was. I buried them before the scavengers could eat them, but I couldn’t bury them deep.”

  He looked thoughtful for a moment, then I could see him dismiss the thought of the two dead policemen from his mind. “Do you realize what sort of trouble you got me into at the station on Firelight?” he asked. He sat back and grinned. It was the proverbial grin of the cat playing with the trapped mouse.

  “If you’d had any brains, it could’ve been avoided,” I snapped. “If you’ll recall, it was you who hit me in the head. If you had merely let me walk out of there, as I was about to do, this whole mess would have been avoided. Though, I wonder what sort of plans you had for Renate?”

  “Who?” he asked. Then the name registered. “Oh! The girl. Well, we weren’t going to harm her, you know. We are, after all, the police.”

  “So you seem,” I admitted. “But why did you hit me and shoot her? Do you realize how stupid that was?”

  His face flushed and the grin fell from his fleshy face. He scowled at me, and I could tell I had hit a very sensitive spot in his ego. Why the people who were after Renate had placed Heuser in charge of their little expedition, I couldn’t fathom, but I had the feeling he was a bulldog when it came to carrying out his orders. I also had the feeling that he was giving everyone else I could see orders.

  “I have my reasons,” he said.

  “Then what about that torpedo?” I asked.

  “It was merely a warning shot,” he said. “It didn’t even have a warhead. All we wanted was to put you out of action so you would have to land.”

  “Well, that part worked,” I said. “But it didn’t do you much good, did it? What happened to your cruisers, anyway?”

  He paused, glanced up at the two guards standing on either side of his chair, and made a decision. He looked at them and said, “Leave us. I don’t think he’ll be getting free of those bonds.”

  I smirked. The metal was merely steel. He didn’t know much about modified people.

  “Yes, sir,” they said, and off they went. The guard at the door locked the door, and walked back up the hall. We were, as they say, alone. I was a little surprised the two guards had called him “Sir.” A sergeant called “Sir”? Odd.

  He looked at me. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and gripped his hands. “Something smashed into both of us, and it ruptured the relay comp department on this cruiser and something equally as vital on the other cruiser. We had to land, and fast, or we would have been stranded.”

  “Wow,” I said. I suddenly had new respect for the pilots of the cruisers. If they could land the ships with a damaged relay comp, they were top of the line. Someone else must have fired the torpedo in Warp, without their knowledge. It more than likely had made the pilots furious. The relay comp monitors all the messages and makes sure they go to the correct part of the ship. A damaged relay comp usually means death.

 
“Firing the torpedo wasn’t even my idea,” he confided in me. He looked at his hands and then back at me. “The pilots were cursing all the time it was going toward you. Do you know why? They refuse to tell me.” “Firing a torpedo in Warp is incredibly dangerous, and usually fatal to all concerned,” I said. “I can’t really explain why or how, but, take my word for it. If we find ourselves in Warp again, don’t do it. Neither one of us will make it a second time.”

  “That doesn’t explain much,” he said.

  I smiled and shrugged. Or, at least, attempted to shrug as best I could in my position. “Warp can’t be explained.”

  “Enough,” he said suddenly. He pushed aside his friendly mask and frowned at me. “You ought to know you’re putting Firelight into a very awkward position.” “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I know you know,” he replied. “We were responsible for her, and it was just a fluke you found her.”

  “I know that,” I said. “That’s why I don’t understand your antagonism . . . wait a minute!” What he had said finally sank into my thick skull. “You mean you were supposed to keep her?”

  “You know that!” he spat at me. He got to his feet and began pacing in front of me. He seemed as if he was trying to make up his mind. “If you let her go, we can make it worth your while. And your friend’s while, too.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. I was confused. What was going on? The more he talked, the more slippery the whole thing became. It was as if he was speaking a different language, and I knew all the words, but not the inflection.

  He glowered at me for a second, and then sat back down in his chair. He smiled at me, and I almost shuddered. It wasn’t a nice smile.

  “Forget it,” he answered. “Let’s just bury all our grievances and start on a new footing, shall we? What will it cost?”

  “More than your whole system can make in a year,” I said. Let him chew on that!

  “You want double or triple the yearly income? I can tell you that I can personally guarantee double,” he said softly. “I would have to get clearance for triple.”

  I swallowed. He wasn’t joking, I could see that. He was offering me double the amount of money his planet made in a year. Firelight may have been a jerkwater planet, but even planets like that make a lot of money. More than I would ever see in my lifetime. And he was . . . where could he get such money?

  “No,” I said flatly. “I was joking with you earlier. You won’t get any help from me.”

  “Fine,” he said with a sadistic smile. “I knew I could count on you. That just makes it easier for me. I’ll be able to tell them I offered you the money and you turned it down. And the Truthers won’t know a thing.”

  Truthers? I thought to myself. What were Truthers? Was he going undergo some sort of debriefing, and talk to someone who could tell if a person was lying? Only Central had those, though the Desdians had to train . . . only Central. The word rolled through my mind. Only Central had that kind of money. Only Central could employ a Truther. Only Central could use that sort of force to take two cruisers after one Cargo Hauler ship after a teenaged girl. Only Central could give a desk sergeant such power.

  Central wanted Renate. And it wanted her bad.

  But why? She was just a young girl, who had been kidnapped and dragged to a strange planet, nearly killed, and by the sheerest of coincidences, rescued by me. If Central wanted her, they could have locked her up on some prison world, and no one would ever have been the wiser. My head was beginning to hurt. Just what in the name of the Seven Hells was going on?

  I looked at Heuser. He was determined, all right. I also knew he would get the share of the money I had turned down. He would be richer than even I could dream of being, and I’ve got a vivid imagination. He smiled at me and got to his feet.

  “You think you’ve got all the answers, don’t you?” he sneered at me. “Ha! You don’t know the half of it! An ambassador’s daughter goes out and tries to have some unauthorized fun, and you spoil it for her!”

  I had to shift mental gears to understand what he was talking about. “I don’t think anyone would consider getting almost raped and murdered fun,” I replied.

  “That was an unforeseen incident in her plans, I’m

  sure,” he said.

  “What’s your game, Heuser?” I asked.

  “No game,” he answered. “It’s simply that the girl is dangerous. We’re negotiating a tricky deal with Steel, and she could louse up the contract. We’ve got Union approval on this, so you know what sort of pressure I’m getting.”

  I gave him a B plus for convincing performance, but F in sincerity. I didn’t believe him. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m not buying that.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “All you have to do is turn the girl over to us, and we’ll see to it that you and your friend get to join the Union.”

  I closed my mouth. I leaned back in the chair, and tried to be as comfortable as the restraints would allow me. First, he had offered me a bribe of twice his planet’s yearly income. Now, he was offering me a chance to join the Union, after having cursed and spat at them, and been in more than a few fist-fights with the goons of the Union employees. What was so important about Renate? Why was Central so involved, and what did the Union have to do with it? I knew I’d more than likely never really find out the deep meanings of the maneuvers Heuser was going through, but I also knew I didn’t for a moment believe anything he was telling me. He wasn’t a very good liar. Besides, he’d switched tactics, and that was stupid.

  “Do I really look that stupid?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Do you actually expect me to believe that line of bull you’ve been feeding me?” I asked.

  Her rushed toward me and slammed me on the side of the head with one of his thick, large hands. My lips crushed against my teeth and I could taste blood. The bonds on my wrist chaffed as my head snapped back and my body lurched to the side. I had barely enough time to realize he was swinging at me again. I tried to roll with the punch, but stars exploded and the pain spiked into my skull like a wet, warm hammer blow to the side of my face. I felt something wet trickle down my upper lip, and I knew my nose was bleeding.

  “Shut up!” he yelled at me. He stood over me, his hands clenched into huge fists. His face was contorted into a mask of rage. “I did my best to be nice, now you just shut up! I’ve had it with you! We’ll take her back, dead or alive! It doesn’t matter now!”

  I activated my fight mode. He jumped back from me as the feeling of vertigo passed quickly. I strained with all my hyper strength, and the bonds snapped from my wrists. I glanced down for a second, noticing the skin was raw where the metal had dug into my flesh. I didn’t care. I had to get out of here. Heuser was going nuts on me, and I don’t like the idea of facing people who aren’t in semi-control of their senses, especially when they want to kill me. I reached down and pulled the bonds on my legs. I glanced up, and Heuser was beating on the door, screaming for the jailer to let him out. Lot of good it did him. I just leapt and tapped him on the back of his neck. He collapsed to the floor, and I hoped there would be a nasty bruise on his neck for the next few weeks. I decided he wasn’t really capable of handling the responsibility or the pressure of his job.

  My boots were ruined, since my claws had ripped through them, but I didn’t care. I had a spare pair on the ship. I put my shoulder against the door and shoved with all my strength. The lock squealed as the metal bent, then it broke. I flung the door aside.

  The jailer was coming down the corridor as I stepped into the hall. He took one look at me and began to pull his pistol. I jumped the distance between us, and crushed his hand around the butt of the weapon. He fainted because of the pain. I reached down and gripped it as best as I could. It was a barker pistol.

  I hoped I wouldn’t be meeting any trigger happy policemen as I made my way to the outside. I didn’t know where the safety was, and I knew it was still on, since I had
tried it against the wall of the jail corridor. I walked slowly down the hall to the grav shield elevator. It was still there, and I promptly stepped in and pressed the appropriate button: ground. I braced myself against the back of the little cubicle, and when the doors opened, I jumped out of there as far as I could. I hit the dirt and rolled, got to my feet, and scrambled into the protection of the jungle. There were a couple of awful whooshing sounds as the guards fired at me, but other than my bloody nose, I was untouched.

  I stopped about fifty yards in the jungle and listened. They were coming after me, and I didn’t have time to think of what to do. I flung the pistol from me, since in my fight mode it was basically useless to me. All around me was jungle. It would be fairly easy for them to track me in that mess, since my feet would make impressions on the mucky floor, and the bent vegetation would be another tell-tale clue. Even the police would be able to spot those. I would have to take the trees, find a stream, or run very fast. I decided to run very fast. I chose the direction that looked as if it had the thickest vegetation, and set out.

  I knew that in my fight mode, my body was burning up calories like mad, since my metabolism was tripled. I would tire very quickly, unless I ate like a pig, and the food I ate would have to be very high in protein. My stomach could only hold so much fuel. That worried me.

  I shoved through the leaves, and slipped through the muck of the jungle floor. The birds were back, squawking away, testifying to all who could hear that I was among them. The heat was intolerable, but I didn’t let that stop me, since old-fashioned fear and the instinct for survival kept me going. Sweat was staining my jumpsuit. I wiped the sweat from my forehead from time to time just to keep it from stinging into my eyes. I was gasping for breath, and I felt a little weak. In the fight mode, that’s the first danger signal that your body is beginning to starve for food. I’d used it too often since my last meal. I would have to stop and rest for a bit, but if I did stop, I’d go into a coma that would last anywhere from an hour to days. I knew I couldn’t risk that.