A Check for a Billion

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “Surgeon?”

  I nodded silently.

  “We need to take a walk.”

  “And if I don’t feel like taking a walk right this instant?”

  “That’s understandable,” Vardun shrugged, and my armor suit’s HUD blinked and went out completely, plunging me into the gloom of an unpowered metal coffin. The EM grenade had done its job.

  “Eunice, how are you?” I called my wife on my PDA. No grenade could disable this last-ditch means of communication between the players.

  “Nominal. Tell me that you have a plan B,” Eunice asked hopefully and I was forced to mumble a sad no. “That’s no good. Damn, I don’t think I feel well.”

  “Do you feel claustrophobic?” I grew worried.

  “No, just nauseous. These blockheads are carrying me like a log during a storm.”

  I winced and made a silent decision. It looks like it’s time to send Eunice to some resort. She doesn’t need to be hanging out with me in Galactogon. As soon as we locate that check, I’ll send her away. There are too many emotions here and too little constructive substance.

  The armor suit shook and I fell over backwards as someone outside yelled, “Clear!” We were being carried somewhere and I can’t say our kidnappers were careful about their work. The shaking did not last long and we ended up in some kind of cargo compartment. Judging by the sounds, Eunice was placed right next to me. I surmised that we were being flown somewhere by the sensation of light inertia, which I felt lying in my coffin. We called each other a couple of times to make sure everything was in order. Several times I had a bout of claustrophobia but I closed my eyes and meditated. I even got so carried away that I didn’t notice that we had stopped. They began to turn me over again and I got ready to come flying out of my suit at a moment’s notice. Luckily it wouldn’t be my first time. A short discharge ran through my suit and I got ready: Roll, jump to the side, produce a blaster from my inventory and a powercell for my body armor to provide some basic protection. Everything turned out so smoothly that you could think I’d been practicing it. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Eunice tumble out of her own armor. She exhaled with relief, but remained lying on the floor, not at all wondering who had kidnapped us.

  My tactical helmet, integrated with my bullet-proof vest, illuminated the Precian in the room. He seemed taken aback by my agility. I did not bother to ascertain whether he was friend or foe. One shot — and a loot crate fell to the floor. Whoever our kidnappers were, I did not expect anything good from them and therefore gave no quarter.

  After making sure that there was no one else in the room, I threw my armor suit into my inventory and ran over to my wife, not forgetting to cover the door with my blaster.

  “Eunice,” I called. “Get up.”

  “What the hell for?” My wife replied languidly. “I’m fine here.”

  “Understood,” I replied, turning the girl onto her back. Her foggy eyes and a scratch on her head suggested that she had a debuff. I changed the powercells in her body armor and its medunit immediately snapped to action, injecting her with restorative drugs. Her eyes cleared and, groaning, Eunice rose to her feet. The first thing my girl did was check her blaster and then put away her armor in her inventory. The expression on her face boded nothing good for whoever had had the imprudence to kidnap us.

  I took out my comm and called the orbship.

  “Brainiac, are you here?” There were no problems with the signal.

  “Almost!” the computer responded, determining our location. “Whoa! You are at the other end of the city. I’ll be right there.”

  “Greetings, Surgeon,” said a familiar voice.

  Our host preferred to communicate with me on the speakerphone system and he was right to do so. Were he to show up in person, I’d pop him before he got a word in.

  “Put away your weapons,” barked the speaker. “Neither you nor your female are in any danger. Exit the room, the doors are not locked. Just don’t let my people scare you. I assure you they are more afraid of you as it stands. If you leave them alone, they will sit quietly. Come on, I’m waiting for you.”

  A loud click let me know that this was the end of our conversation.

  “Who is that?” asked Eunice, watching me obediently put away my blaster.

  “Eh, an acquaintance. We did some work together.”

  The door led us to a narrow corridor, the walls of which bristled with flamethrowers, blasters and other weapons. I suppose this was done to pacify any difficult guests. Fortunately we had been warned and moved to the exit calmly. Several times I caught frightened eyes sparkling behind the flamethrowers. For some reason, the Precians chained to the floor hid in the shadows, holding their blasters with trembling hands and trying not to attract attention to themselves. It didn’t seem like a good idea to leave scared people with weapons in their hands, so I collected their blasters and handed them to Eunice. By the end of the corridor, my wife was almost collapsing from the load of weaponry, but I couldn’t help her. What if we have to fight now and I’d be too tired?

  “Dump it all here,” I gestured at the free space next to the door. The blasters and flamethrowers tumbled into a heap with a clamor and were followed by Eunice’s sigh of relief. I didn’t even look at this heap of scrap metal. If you can even manage to sell a D-class blaster, then only over the barrel of a higher-level blaster.

  The mastermind of this whole farce was waiting for us on the other side of the door.

  “I have only one question: What the hell?!” I was pretty pissed.

  “I owe you one,” Tryd replied hoarsely and hummed with satisfaction. “Or did you think I would forgive you for abducting me in your tin can? Sit down. We have something to discuss.”

  Vardun was in the room with Tryd. Leaning against the wall, he seemed relaxed, but his hand resting on his manipulator and attentive gaze suggested that he was ready to interfere in our conversation at any moment.

  “Sit down,” Tryd said again and pointed me at the second chair.

  “You’re a vindictive one, Tryd. You could have just called,” I said, settling down comfortably. “Or did you forget to ask for my number before you ran away?”

  “I did forget,” Tryd snorted and first pointed his finger at Eunice and then at the place by the far wall where he wanted her to go. “I need you.”

  “Two percent, and I am all attention.”

  “Volta is no more. The Zatrathi found our planet.”

  “So it’s like that?” I asked surprised. “They figured out how to bow to the red sun?”

  “They simply blew up both suns. The planet was vaporized along with everything on it. Volta’s planetary spirit was destroyed in the process.” Tryd said, an expression of melancholy passing across his face.

  “Isn’t it nice to have a binding to a safe planet, right?” I asked sarcastically. The gist of this conversation was already clear to me. All I had to do was sell myself for the highest price possible.

  “Enough!” Tryd growled, distorting his disfigured muzzle even further. “I didn’t risk my neck to listen to sarcasm from some snot-nosed scallywag! I need you!”

  “Why me? A pirate who’s only at his first rank…a scallywag.”

  “There are no others,” Tryd seethed angrily. “Out of Hilvar’s current pups, you’re the only one who’s even mildly competent. The rest are either idiots or cowardly jackals!”

  “It won’t be easy to sneak onto Zarvalus,” I said. “I imagine that…”

  “I didn’t say anything about Zarvalus, small fry,” Tryd cut me off. “Zarvalus encountered the same fate as Volta. Filta has been reunited with our pups. May she rest in peace. I need you for something else.”

  Tryd trailed off, giving me the opportunity to assess the scale of the Zatrathi conquests. They were destroying one planet after another! This was both impressive and terrifying. It’s difficult to fight an enemy you don’t understand.

  “Then explain to me why you need me. You just called me small f
ry again, so…”

  “Hilvar said you have a mission on the planet Shurtan. I will go with you.”

  “You could go with anyone. The coordinates of the planet are no secret. But you said the rest are idiots or cowards. What’s the catch then?”

  “The catch? Small fry or not, you’re perceptive. Shurtan has been taken over by the Zatrathi. They garrisoned a flying fortress in the system and are using the planet’s orbit for their repair docks. It’s a lucky thing they haven’t found our base yet.”

  “How would you know?”

  “Our people made it out alive. Or do you think the pirates would voluntarily abandon such a base? It’s been captured by synthoids, Anorxian renegades. Anyway, I need to get to it. As do you, by the way.”

  “So you want me to sneak past a Zatrathi flying fortress, make my way to the base, clear it of robot renegades and unfurl a red carpet for you?” I did not bother hiding my sarcasm. “You know, I’m even curious what you can offer me as payment for such job? I mean, it all sounds like suicide.”

  “This.” A small object appeared in Tryd’s paws. It looked like a thick stranded cable and I bit off whatever caustic gibe I was about to spit at him when I recognized what it was. A long and tedious pause followed. In the silence I considered my chances of snatching the item from the Delvian’s paws and busting out of here with Eunice unharmed. Vardun assessed my intentions accurately and pulled out his manipulator, ready to use it at any moment.

  “What do you say? Is such a reward worth suicide?”

  “You sure do know how to motivate people, Tryd. When do you want to set out?” I asked. Like it or not, this was a prize I needed. And I had already promised the video to Hilvar anyway.

  “The earlier, the better. I have nothing to do here on Belket.”

  “Welcome back to my small but friendly crew, Boatswain Tryd,” I said, swallowing. Eunice coughed meaningfully behind me but I didn’t have time to explain things to her. Just seeing the object in the Delvian’s paw gave me hope. It was none other than the Lora — the long-lost coupler unit of the infamous Vengeance set: a weapon capable of destroying even the Zatrathi Queen.

  Perhaps even a weapon capable of ending this war…

  Chapter Six

  Fighting Breed’s home system — Galvar — was like a shopping mall a few days before Christmas. Everyone was in a rush, constantly arguing about who cut whom in line to land, demanding the best dock available, cursing the large cruisers obstructing the way and the fighters that got underfoot. In other words, ideal conditions for sneaking into hostile territory undetected.

  The Cruiser Inevitable hovered in the midst of this chaos, occupying her place according to her status: In the lowest orbit, as close as possible to the central planet. The Precian customs officers did not even bother to inspect her, limiting themselves to an external hull scan and quickly gave us the green light as a show of respect for Liberium.

  “We’re in position,” said Aalor with all the calm of a mummy.

  The captain’s marked aloofness was caused by a set of circumstances that were rather unpleasant for him. In order to sneak my ship into the system undetected by the Precians or the Breed, Warlock had to be hidden in the cruiser’s hold, and the two ships’ power circuits had to be linked together. Only by fully integrating the orbship could she become a natural part of the cruiser and avoid detection by the prying scanners. Tryd put me on this idea, explaining that this was an old pirate trick, which had served him more than once before. As soon as he heard the plan, however, Aalor categorically refused to take part in it, which led to an awkward and unpleasant conversation between him and Vargen. I didn’t hear any of it, since the players spoke over an internal comm channel, but after the dust settled, the face of Inevitable’s captain was an impassive mask. Warlock received all the necessary permissions to dock and integrate, while I acquired what seemed like a powerful foe. Aalor would never forgive me this public humiliation, although really I had been no more than a trigger for the conflict between Vargen and his subordinate.

  “Suppose I’m about to deploy the assault teams,” Graykill asked Aalor. “Am I to understand that I shouldn’t count on your marines?”

  “My people will take Vehement,” Aalor replied condescendingly. “On their own.”

  “How nice.” Graykill scratched his head thoughtfully. “In that case we’ll take General Gracie and General Liddell. Shall we clear the ships entirely?”

  “No, no. You only have to capture the bridge deck.” I took out a remote terminal and placed it on the table. “My orbship computer will overwrite the cruisers’ mainframes in a minute or two. The main objective is to gain access to the central ship mainframe and hold it for a few minutes while Brainiac does his job.”

  “Oh! Even better then! Several minutes won’t be a problem at all. When are the Breed cruisers scheduled to leave hi-sec space? When will they be outside of the system?”

  “You’re asking the wrong guy,” Aalor replied. “This is Surgeon’s show. My job is to smuggle the orbship into the system. Nothing more.”

  “Why does it matter when the cruisers leave the system?” I tensed a little as everyone craned to stare at me. “What’s wrong with just flying up to them while they’re parked and capturing them while they sit there?”

  “Err…” said Graykill meaningfully and scratched his head again. “Are you serious? You’ve brought us all here and you have no idea what you’re getting into?”

  This sounded ominous. If there was any problem with capturing the ships while they sat in dock, Vargen should have warned me. Or did he not have to? He seemed a little too eager to help once I’d explained my campaign to him. He even forced me to cover all the expenses for the preparations and the aftermath.

  “What are you talking about? Am I missing something?”

  “Why you’re missing everything!” Graykill snapped. “Aalor, bring up the system map.”

  A hologram of the Galvar system appeared between us. It bristled with points and lines, indicating ships and their trajectories. Graykill frowned and asked Aalor to highlight the important objects.

  “All right. Listen up because I’m only going to tell you once and only because I owe you. And I hate being in debt. Here is our current position, at this green dot. These red dots there, are Fighting Breed’s cruisers sitting in their docks. This empty space all around them is the guild’s official territory. Non-guild ships cannot enter it. The Grand Arbiter will pulverize anything that’s not ID’d as friendly. To be honest, I have no idea what you expected. We can’t enter the guild’s hi-sec space. We cannot get on the ships. And even if by some miracle we succeed in capturing one, it will cease to belong to the Breed and the Arbiter will disable it with its EM battery. Their marines will recover it in five minutes. Hence my earlier question: ‘When should we expect them to leave secure space?’ Although, no, that’s no longer a question. Now I have another one: Surgeon, are you a moron or what?”

  T.K.O. — and such a thorough one that I couldn’t even argue. This wasn’t enough for Aalor, however; wishing to get a kick in while I was down, he threw in his two cents:

  “I am required to be in the system for twelve hours. After that, I’ll be on my way. Now be so kind as to remove yourself and your belongings from my ship.”

  “He’s right. You didn’t hire us for the rest of our lives,” Graykill warned.

  Confusion. That would be my best characterization of the feeling that washed over me. Stan began crawling the forums but found nothing sensible about base security. At my request, he made a thread on the official forum, but the moderators immediately deleted it. They even slapped me with a warning: Such issues were not subject to public discussion and here are some helpful links to official stores where such information could be purchased.

  An incoming call to my PDA was so unexpected that I even flinched.

  “I see you’re already in position?” Vargen decided to personally test my readiness — or to mock me. “How’s it going?�
�

  “Why didn’t you tell me about their defenses?” I asked him straight on.

  “And why would I do that?” Liberium’s head asked with genuine bewilderment. “You are a friend of our guild, not an officer. I did everything that I promised. Aalor is with you and ready to help you seize the ship. Nothing more.”

  A pause ensued. I was panicking a bit inside but still managed to ask in a completely normal voice:

  “What is this all about? Isn’t it a bit petty for the head of such a large guild?”

  “No, Surgeon. It’s not petty at all. Consider this an expression of my appreciation for our earlier collaboration. I like you. I like you because I like arrogance in general…” Vargen paused and added: “I did you a favor and you got off with a mere bloody nose. Remember your level. Forever. And if you decide to play outside of your league again, maybe you’ll remember this lesson and think twice. Got it?”