Crooked Stars

by Rock Forsberg

  ‘No.’

  She turned to me and sighed. Her eyes sagged. ‘I mean it. Please, don’t go chasing stars; we are people of sand.’

  I lay my hand over her shoulder and said, ‘I’ll be safe,’ but I didn’t think she believed me.

  Someone entered the room, making me glance back. In the open doorway stood a silhouetted figure of a woman.

  I stood up. The sudden brightness behind her blinded me, but I recognised her.

  I walked up to her. ‘Tiana,’ I said, and offered her my arms.

  She just stood there. Even though her head was real, her gaze was blank—as if her mind wasn’t there. Her body, while a perfect figure, was a mechanical creation. In a flat voice, she said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’

  Seeing her like this brought tears to my eyes. I had made her like this. I had made her suicidal. I was the reason for her flashbacks and dreams where she lost her child again and again. Our child. It was all on me.

  Memories flashed through my mind: her brown skin wet with droplets of water from the beach pool atop the Lighthouse Shopping Centre, her white wedding gown on the day we married, and the smile on her face when I touched her baby bump. They were all but temporary things wiped away from this world by my madness.

  Seeing my teary eyes, she pursed her lips with a face that looked like an empty façade of compassion. Then she turned to walk away, back onto the bright deck.

  As the door closed, I was left leaning on my knees, crying my eyes out on the floor.

  I had caused all this pain.

  Later, I sat around a small table down in the bunker with Pereen and Terscher. They were my team, all that remained, and I wasn’t able to let anyone else in. Maybe later, but now wasn’t the time. It was all too fresh. The wounds were still open. I couldn’t focus on the business, which, because of my brothers’ deaths, was already a mess both above and below the line.

  My sadness colluded with anger to create a poisonous torrent within me, and soon the only thing on my mind was Marc Puissance and the way to get to him. I wanted to rid him of everything he had and show the destruction of his world before I took his life.

  The expansion of Runore had halted already after the events on Zalda, and now several new operational troubles were emerging. Only after he died did I realise how well Usher had run things. I’d seen only the surface, and there was much more to his influence. Without him, I was incapable of acting as the above-the-line CEO. We had appointed a young management superstar, senior vice president of finance, Ashen Sunarze, to fill Usher’s role as a temporary solution, but he couldn’t replace my brother. Nobody could.

  The same thing went on in the below-the-line operations: losing Sander’s leadership and a squadron of ships had created a deep cut that was still bleeding. Despite Pereen’s best efforts, we were losing skilled operators to the competition.

  ‘Do we have any leads on Marc?’ I asked.

  Terscher looked at Pereen.

  ‘Nothing new,’ Pereen said. ‘We could trace the video stream to its origin, but there’s nothing there but sand, and there’s no way to connect it to any local data on movement. It’s like the man and his cyborgs were ghosts.’

  ‘Ghosts…’ I clenched my fists and stared at him. ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Neither do I. You control the BTL, so get going, do something. It’s what you’re supposed to do.’ I must have sounded like a kid past my bedtime.

  He frowned. ‘We’re doing our best.’

  ‘You need to do more!’ I said, and hit the table with my fist. Both stared in silence as I huffed. I took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. ‘Get that bounty hunter, Reina Wolfe. I want to talk to her. She’s the only one who can help.’

  ‘Of course,’ Pereen said.

  Terscher nodded along and said, ‘Yes, that is good… We should also talk about corporate governance—’

  I slammed both of my fists on the table. ‘Did you not understand what I just said? Until Puissance is out, there will be no other agenda!’

  Keeping her calm, she bowed slowly and said, ‘Understood. We shall return to the matter—’

  A knock on the door interrupted her. Clenching my jaws, I raised my brows, but neither Pereen nor Terscher seemed to know what was going on, so I called for the door to open. The new assistant entered.

  ‘Excuse me, sir. There’s someone to meet you.’

  I snorted. ‘If it’s not Reina Wolfe, ask them to come again.’

  The assistant remained in the doorway, fidgeting around. ‘It’s, eh… the police. You should come and meet them.’

  ‘Police? What do they want?’

  The assistant shrugged.

  ‘All right,’ I said, and stood up. I zipped my jacket and gestured to Terscher and Pereen. ‘Come on, let’s meet them.’

  Up in the landing bay stood a shiny and clean Runcor police craft in navy blue, which matched my mood. Three officers talked with the deck crew as we emerged from the lift. On our arrival they stopped chatting and turned to approach us, meeting us halfway.

  ‘Mr Tait?’ asked the officer with grey temples, the most senior by the insignia on his jacket.

  ‘That’s me,’ I said.

  ‘We have orders to bring you in for a hearing.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It is about your company, its recent activities, and your connections. Criminal organisations are illegal under Runcor law. If your business has been involved with criminal activity, it may face severe penalties, and you might be personally liable. You must come with us.’

  Terscher stepped forward. ‘I’m his legal representative, Prudencia Terscher, attorney-at-law. May I please see the order?’

  The senior officer grunted. But it was my legal right, and they had to comply. The clean-cut, slender man beside him pulled up a terminal and handed it over to Terscher.

  She took the terminal and reviewed the material for a while, swiping text on the screen.

  While she read, I endured an awkward silence with the policemen. As the senior officer met my eyes, I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. A significant part of Runore was a criminal organisation. We had shielded the operations well from the law—for them the BTL was non-existent—but waiting under their watchful eyes I couldn’t help feeling nervous that something had leaked. Why else would they be here?

  Raising her head from the terminal, Terscher said, ‘My client will use clause 112b to withdraw from the hearing. Should you take him, you will commit malpractice and face prosecution and termination.’

  The police glanced at each other, the young one seemingly at a loss about what to do. The senior snorted, and said, ‘Fine, but this won’t end here.’

  Terscher handed over the terminal as the police turned to their ship.

  As they went up the elevator, I asked, ‘What was it?’

  She looked at me stone-faced, and said, ‘We have a problem. Someone’s tipped them off about our BTL operations. They want to question you—it means they’ll hook your brain to their system, so you can’t hide anything—and they’ll audit our books and search the premises. They might already have you bugged. I used a legal technicality to defer them for a few days, but I can’t hold them for long. The problem is, when they do it, your company may need to be liable for everything.’

  I gulped. ‘I thought it was all set up so this wouldn’t happen.’

  Pereen said, ‘We have set the structure and the processes so that there shouldn’t be any need for them to— Except…’

  ‘What? Think Marc is behind it?’

  ‘That would fit the bill,’ Terscher said. ‘He wants to destroy you.’

  I stomped around. I wanted to find that bastard so much and do the same as I had done to his cursed father. If only there weren’t the Puissances, how different my life would’ve been.

  ‘We’ll get that scum, one way or another,’ I said, and hit my fist to my palm. ‘Meanwhile, what do we do with this accusation?’
/>
  Terscher gritted her teeth and paced back and forth in front of us. She raised her brows as if she had an idea, but grimaced. ‘It’s difficult… We can’t hide. Perhaps— no, we don’t have time.’

  ‘What is it?’ I demanded. ‘I want to try.’

  ‘In theory, we could completely detangle BTL from the ATL. Though, in practice, it might be impossible.’

  ‘What’s needed?’

  ‘First, you have to…’ Terscher began.

  She explained to us the details about how the separation could work. It sounded complicated, but she seemed convinced there was a way to disentangle the business and avoid legal consequences for the company. The challenge was to make it fast but also watertight so that no connections remained. It would also require moving the BTL base, including Mr Pereen, permanently outside Runcor. I was in a travel ban, with the rest of the executive management, until the close of the investigation.

  We agreed that Prudencia Terscher would get the disentanglement process underway in Luzasand. Meanwhile, I organised a meeting with the bounty hunter.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Reina Wolfe said she knew about Marc’s whereabouts, but she didn’t want to talk over the network. As she was still on the planet, I invited her to the underground BTL base. She strode through the door with a determined gaze.

  ‘Ms Wolfe,’ I said, and we sat down. ‘How do you like Runcor?’

  She pulled a zipper down. ‘It’s hot.’

  It was apparent she had the experience and had seen a lot, but she revealed very little about where she came from, or what her background was. She was edging close to our core, and I wanted to know the people close to me.

  ‘You’re not based on Runcor, are you?’

  She winced. ‘No. Why?’

  ‘You’re here on business?’

  ‘Yep,’ she said.

  I tried, ‘You never told me how you became a bounty hunter…’

  ‘No.’ A short and blunt response, according to my expectations.

  ‘You say hardly anything about yourself.’

  She squinted. ‘You have seen my credentials.’

  ‘It’s difficult to trust someone you don’t know…’

  ‘In my line of business, information is valuable, and trust is everything,’ she said. ‘That means I won’t talk about my other clients with you, nor will I talk about you with them.’

  That was a fair point, and so far, she hadn’t given me a reason not to trust her. We had business to conduct, but I remained vigilant.

  ‘So, let’s talk business, then,’ I said, ‘what’s the latest on Marc Puissance?’

  ‘I have a reason to believe he has gone away to Planet Un in the Yedda system.’

  To Yedda? I thought. To my knowledge, it was far from Hirwe, close to the centre of Dawn Alliance-controlled space, and Un was a peaceful green planet, rich in natural resources. ‘What’s he doing there?’

  She shrugged. ‘I just know he’s there.’

  ‘You must know something…’

  ‘Well, there is a silent thread moving in the Ghostnet, talking about a new superweapon.’

  ‘Superweapon?’

  She nodded. ‘I was following another lead, and now the person you are looking for seems to connect to it somehow. All the leads point to Un in Yedda.’

  ‘Sounds unlikely. There is no weapons industry on the planet. It’s a sleepy island of natural mud, hippies, and retirees.’

  ‘I know,’ she said. ‘But the lead was solid.’

  I trusted her. I didn’t know why, but something in her conviction resonated, and I wanted to get Marc so bad. I knew it was difficult, and so far, she had brought in the best ideas.

  ‘You know what I want,’ I said, and leaned forward.

  She nodded and gazed deep into my eyes.

  I explained to her my situation at Runcor. Jude had told me they had ships and crew ready to go on my command.

  ‘He’s a stone in my boot, the cause of my constant pain. If the man is in Yedda, we’ll get him there. Join me?’

  She leaned back. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’

  I raised my brows in surprise. ‘You take me to him, I’ll offer you… say, two million?’

  She brushed her hair back. ‘No, sorry.’

  ‘Five million?’ Five million terabucks was a lot of money, but if that’s what it would take to remove my stone, I’d pay it any day.

  ‘It’s not about the money. I’m not seeking another gig; I can’t take one now.’

  ‘You said information is valuable; why offer his whereabouts for free?’

  ‘I’m sorry for what happened the last time. Puissance is an evil man and I would like to see him get what he deserves, but it’s not my fight.’

  ‘You’re not responsible for what happened last time.’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  After she left, I studied what I could about the planet Un in the Yedda system. I found nothing that would point to weapons capability; their most notable export was Un-mud, which the Baar used as a beauty product. Perhaps that made it the perfect hideout for someone like Marc to clone cyborgs. I made a plan: I would get to the Sweeps base on Karu-124, get a strike force of at least a dozen ships, and pinch to Yedda to show him he had messed with the wrong family.

  I took one of the small BTL spaceships, one that could take me off the planet on the sly. The act of departing made me a fugitive in Runcor, and in a brief period might have made my life difficult everywhere under Dawn Alliance law. But I couldn’t just stand still with my feet in the sand and hope my troubles went away. We had a way to save the company, but only until Marc figured out something else. I left Pereen and Terscher to deal with the symptom, while I went after the cause.

  I left with a heavy heart. Last time I left Runcor, I had sat in the cockpit beside Sander, when everything was fun and games. I was such a naïve boy for letting him drop me like that, but I forgave him, and wished he was here again doing the same thing. I longed for him to be there to drop me off again.

  Last time, my father had just died, and I was after Willem Puissance. Now it was to avenge my brothers by killing his son, Marc Puissance. One way or another, I would put an end to all of this.

  Again, I also left Tiana. Because of what I had done, the beautiful and bright girl with a future had become a sad robot. The mind inside a machine could have been a blessing, but perhaps losing one’s entire body was unbearable. I could only imagine how she must have felt. And seeing my face would only make it worse.

  I tried to connect with Mr Pereen in Runcor, but he was unreachable. He must have been inundated with work to organise the separation of ATL and BTL, Prudencia Terscher even more so.

  As I entered the Karu-124 base on the asteroid belt around Hirwe, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. It was the place I had come to on my first space trip, full of excitement and hunger. Now the excitement was gone, but the hunger remained.

  Upon stepping down from the ship, a familiar face greeted me: Jude. She was just like before, ageless. The last time I met her, she had seemed older than I was, but now she looked younger. I walked up to her and opened my arms in a hug, but she stepped back.

  ‘It’s been a long time,’ she said. ‘You could have visited in ten years, no?’

  She got me. I might have considered my experiences on the asteroid as nostalgic, but for her, it was real life, not just a glorified picture of the past, and she was right: I had never since visited the rock, and now she was in charge of the whole base.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.

  ‘That’s my boy,’ she said, and gave me a big hug.

  Her liveliness made my depression lift for a moment. I asked, ‘How is it here?’

  ‘Call me a weirdo,’ she said with a quirky smile, ‘but I wouldn’t have it any other way. This dusky rock is my sanctuary.’

  I chuckled. It was an unexpected moment of warmth from someone I had once taken for a cold drill instructor.

  We took seats in the side of the dockin
g bay. I found the place had transformed since I had last visited. The darkness remained, but the surfaces gleamed new and pristine. They had kept the cavern’s charm.

  ‘I got your request for ships, but we only have Ripper, Spike, and Edge here at present,’ she said. ‘We’ve a convoy of two frigates and several escorts, bombers and fighters finishing up on YX-2, and they should be here tomorrow or the day after.’

  I told her about Marc and my plans. ‘Tomorrow is the absolute latest; if we wait too long, he’ll be gone.’

  She shrugged. ‘It is what it is; unless you want to take that modified Eagle alone on a suicide mission, you must wait until they get back.’

  ‘If they don’t get back tomorrow, maybe I will.’

  She grinned, but I meant it. The window of opportunity was open, but it wouldn’t stay like that for long.

  A small fighter arrived and docked beside mine. The hatch opened, and the pilot stepped out. Naido.

  ‘Hey, boss!’ he said, as he stepped over to us. ‘I hear you needed some help.’

  ‘Good to see you, mate; where have you been?’

  ‘Fixing some luxury craft; on Eura, of all places!’

  Jude stood up. ‘I’ll let you guys catch up.’

  Hearing of Naido’s business on Eura brought a welcome relief to my gloomy mood, and telling him of my plans boosted my confidence in them.

  Soon, Jude came back with a bottle of what seemed to be vintage Kikuchian, and three glasses. ‘The warriors of the past had a tradition to enjoy a drink to please the gods and calm the mind,’ she said, and poured our small glasses full. ‘You guys are going on a mission tomorrow, a big one, so…’

  ‘They did the same with the last rites of men sentenced to death,’ I said. ‘But I don’t mind; here’s to the Sweeps!’

  We raised the glasses and downed them with one gulp. The alcohol burned in my throat for a moment, but gave way to a perfect Kikuchian aroma and a feeling of relaxation.

  I let myself enjoy the moment with Naido and Jude; they had been there since the beginning of my journey with the Sweeps, and I could trust them. Their company boosted my confidence about the future. The ships would come soon, and we would strike down on Marc in the Yedda system. Many unknowns stood in my way, but I had a feeling that we could pull it off. With Naido by my side, we would dominate.