Jock showed them all the right paperwork and told the Martian authorities what they wanted to hear. He added that he could make a call to Commander Weisman to clear things up. The Martian authorities did not want to spar with the Federated Union and finally let them go after 2o minutes of questioning.
Desire was reading the Martian authorities’ minds the whole time. They were dirty. There was something in that crate that someone didn’t want it to get off this station.
Aesneia, Fedlin System
The Fedlin System teemed with major characters, some more unsavory than others. The big boss was Darryl Himmelt. Despite the ordinary name, his methods struck fear into the hearts of his competitors. He ran the system for the King and as such was in charge of all cargo. The main export was Glitter, a high society item worth millions an ounce. The King’s mines produced it in such small quantities and with such purity that the exports for it went for extraordinarily high prices for the wealthiest in the galaxy.
Glitter was the fountain of youth in physical form. Even the tiniest flakes of Glitter made eyes sparkle, skin look ethereally flawless, and age fade into a distant memory. It was the hot new drug, and everyone wanted a piece of it, including Darryl Himmelt.
The one thing the King never paid him in was Glitter. And he didn’t dare skim any from the cargo; that would mean certain death. But his situation was about to change. Sitting in his office, he looked up at the nefarious character in front of him.
“So you’ll do it then?” the stranger asked, pulling his coat aside to reveal a blaster. “You’ll hijack the ship and get the payload?”
“It doesn’t look like I have a choice,” Darryl said. “But for that much Glitter, who cares.”
Alien Reconnaissance Vessel Degisen, Whereabouts Unknown
The lead Alien was amused as he followed Major Jock Saunders’ and Agent Dom Wagner’s recent adventures. After they became household names across the galaxy following the Froree incursion, the lead Alien assigned a team to keep tabs on the newest tabloid sensations. They watched from afar as the duo was relegated to running cargo across many undesirable systems. No self-respecting Alien wished that duty for any of their children, or even on their most-hated enemy.
The lead Alien laughed telepathically to his team as pirate after pirate plotted Major Jock Saunders’ and Agent Dom Wagner’s demise. The Aliens secretly had stepped in to thwart some of those attacks, but only because they had fond memories of the attractive Centaurian that had been exiled to their care.
4
Dom was relieved when they finally got the hell off Mars. But the trip to Polarus would be a long one, a day there and back at least.
Even after all these years, Dom still never got over the darkness of deep space. There was light if you were heading toward the sun, and the stars twinkled brighter than on Earth, filling the sky with light. But it was dark, and that was about it.
And quiet. Aside from the low rumble of the fusion engines, and occasional chirps from the cockpit and JAXX muttering to himself as he played around in various databases, it was quiet.
He wondered where exactly they were. The only way to really know was by some vague coordinates on the console. But it wasn’t like having some signs or trees or roadside billboards like on Earth. Or at least not yet. He was sure that at some point someone would come along and populate the popular flight routes with billboards. Though he wondered what they would advertise.
“Stop and see the Martian outpost. Experience dust storms up close. Feel the grit in your eyes and on every inch of your body.” He chuckled to himself. That didn’t sound appealing, but the idea was still there.
Before long he drifted off to sleep for a few hours. Jock had this watch and was busy reading some manual of some sort. He was always learning, never far from his comm stat. “There’s so much out there that I don’t know, and I want to know more all the time,” he’d say during the long lulls of boredom on the flights.
There were only so many cards and conversations that could be had. “Soon we’ll all be repeating the same ones over and over,”Jock thought, “like an old married couple trying to keep the silence at bay. Talking for the sake of the noise rather than actual conversation.”
Desire opted to meditate in her quarters to pass the time. She finally learned to quiet her mind and reached a point where she could tune out Jock and Dom’s mindless chatter. It was a fine-tuning aspect of her gift, the one ability to block out those closest to you most of the time. Being around the same people and always being able to hear their thoughts would eventually drive the best insane. Meditating and focusing on tuning them out was the way around that, or so she found.
Suddenly JAXX alerted Jock. “Major Saunders, the sensors have picked up an unknown plasma field,” he said. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s not on the star charts and you’re about to enter it NOW.” The ship zoomed into the plasma and lurched its way to a stop, knocking Dom from his bunk.
“What the?!?” Dom yelled as he landed with a thud on the deck. He thought to recommend an overhaul the next time they got to the Constellation to outfit the bunks with improved safety harnesses.
Dom walked to the cockpit. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Plasma field,” Jock said. “Unknown on the star charts. Probably from too many pirates polluting this area. JAXXY, fire us back up and get us through.”
As the minutes went by, the plasma field played havoc on the TX’s systems. JAXX managed to reroute some connections from the rear to the front shields and set them up to power through and got the ship going again. They had another few hours before they reached Polarus, and if the star charts were accurate from here on out, it should be clear sailing to their destination.
Once the ship was back on course, Dom went to find Desire. He figured that would be the most fun way to pass the rest of the time on the trip.
He found her in her quarters deep in what looked meditation or a micronap. She had let her hair down from the hat she always wore and looked peaceful and gorgeous. The purple streak in her hair undulated playfully as he took in the sight of her. “Mind if I join you?” Dom asked.
Desire opened her eyes and said, “Not at all. This mission isn’t quite as exciting as our last little adventure.”
“You’re telling me,” Dom said, fishing for a way to keep the conversation going. “One thing I miss most about being in space is the Earth’s weather. Luckily I had that solar lamp installed in the cargo bay. Want to go sit in front of it and extend your beach glow?”
“Sure, why not,” Desire said getting up. She had nothing else to do anyway.
They made their way to the cargo bay and sat down in front of the solar lamp. It felt warm to her, like she was on the beach again. Dom opened a bottle of wine that he had stashed there earlier in anticipation of that moment.
As the lamp warmed them and they sipped a nice Cabernet, he started talking about growing up in Chicago and living through some terrible winters. How he decided at a young age that he wanted to live somewhere warm.
Desire only knew little of the phenomenon of the changing seasons. “Centauri didn’t have much in that respect. To me was more like being on the beach year round, temperate weather without much in the way of cold.”
“Sounds like my kind of place,” Dom said.
The way Dom described Chicago in winter fascinated her. She couldn’t quite grasp the concept of “snow,” but it seemed magical. And to Dom, it was, at least in the early winter season. The first snow of the year, or even the first big snow after that, was picture perfect.
“In the olden days when I was growing up, we had to walk a mile in the driving, buried snow up to our waists, plunging and pillaging our way through giant drifts coated with ice, our fingers and toes falling numb in the process, just to get to school. And then we had to make the long journey back through even deeper snow and even colder winds. And we he had to do this uphill.”
Desire had no idea what he was talking about, but she knew he was l
ying. Telling a tall tale to a telepath wasn’t the brightest idea. He’d gotten so wrapped up in it, though, that she simply smiled and enjoyed the happy memories flashing in his eyes. “He does have gorgeous blue eyes,” she thought, suddenly lost deep inside them. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was falling under his spell.
Now she understood why he was so popular with the girls. His eyes danced and radiated charm and whimsy. It didn’t hurt that she was a little tipsy. She was taken with him at that moment. Until she was snapped out of it.
Suddenly she and Dom were floating in space as the gravity boost on the TX seemingly failed. Anything that wasn’t nailed down or strapped down, including them, was floating in space. For them it was fine. For the wine, it was a different story. Dom grabbed a towel and tried to play catch with the wine droplets before they got everywhere.
“You’re worrying about wine at a time like this?” Desire asked.
“What if it gets on my clothes? I just put on another fresh flight suit,” Dom said annoyed.
Dom and Desire slowly floated into the cockpit to check on Jock. He was strapped in so he didn’t notice anything going awry.
“Um, Jock,” Desire said, “we’re losing gravity in the cargo hold and salon. Any ideas?”
“JAXXY, I thought I told you to keep tabs on things. What’s going on?” Jock asked.
“My apologies, Jock,” JAXX replied. “I’m running more diagnostics now. It seems the gravity coupler is loose. You’ll have to head into the cargo hold under the deck and ratchet it back down.”
“How did that get loose?” Jock asked. “The only thing in there is the cargo for the next drop.”
“That seems to be the cause,” JAXX replied. “They’re getting out.”
“What’s getting out, JAXX?” Dom asked. “Commander Weisman said we were carrying a shipment of wine, and that we needed to be careful.”
“It appears to be live frogs and snakes rather than wine,” JAXX said. “The creatures were hibernating but somehow the hatch processor on the crate failed, and they came out of it a few minutes ago. My sensors indicate they are all over the cargo hold and making quite a mess of things.”
Jock hated snakes. Dom hated snakes. Desire thought they were cute.
“So that’s why Commander Weisman didn’t tell us the truth,” Dom said. “He knew we would refuse to take the mission.”
“How many of them are down there?” Jock asked. “Or do I even want to know?”
“423 according to the manifest in my data banks,” JAXX replied.
Jock nearly fainted. At least he was strapped into his chair.
“JAXX, is there a way to lower the temp in the cargo hold to freezing?” Desire asked. “Without killing them?”
JAXX queried his systems check and found out that he could turn down the temp in that section of the cargo hold and not affect the rest of the ship.
“DO IT NOW!” Dom commanded. He had no intention of going back there until they got the snakes and frogs under control.
JAXX adjusted the ship’s thermal unit condenser pattern to put that sector of the cargo hold in a semi-freeze state. He dropped the thermal temp slowly to lessen the chance of killing the cargo. In a slow-motion state, the snakes and frogs would fall asleep in their place, though they would be floating around until they got the gravity coupler back up and running.
“So, who wants to round up some snakes?” Dom asked. “I sure as hell am not going to do it.” He looked at Jock. Dom felt it was only fair considering he had dealt with the shit creatures on the Froree mission.
“Hey, I’m busy flying this thing,” Jock said. “I’m not going back there.”
“Fine, BOYS, I’ll do it,” said Desire. She rolled her eyes at these two strong, dangerous men who would rush into a hail of laser blasts without a second thought but who were so afraid of a few snakes and frogs. “It not like they’re hopping and creeping and crawling and slithering around. They’re back in hibernation.”
She floated back to the cargo bay and got to work. A power tool floated conveniently nearby. She unscrewed each corner of the floor panel and pulled it aside. She didn’t open it slowly enough, and several dozen thick masses of reptiles floated up in her face.
Desire screamed! They were getting in her hair, and she was now officially wigged out. They were cute and all when they were on the ground. Once they got in her hair, they were public enemy number 1.
She grabbed the wine-stained towel and snared a few floating nearby. She slid the cover back over most of the cargo hold except for a small crack. She pulled the towel down and stuffed the creatures back in the crate. The seal to the hatch processor had come undone, so she had to stuff them back in and get the seal pressurized again.
Then she moved on to the gravity coupler. She floated over to grab a wrench on the other side of the hold and ratcheted the it back down tight.
“JAXX, can you verify that the connect…” she started to ask when she fell to the floor with a thud. “I guess that answers my question. I hope that doesn’t leave a mark.”
She walked back to the cockpit rubbing her elbow but pleased with her performance. Even she surprised herself at her adeptness to do a man’s job.
“Ok, boys. I saved you from the scary snakes,” Desire teased them. “Dom, you’re cleaning up the rest of the mess.”
“Are they all safely away?” Dom asked.
“Except for the half dozen or so I put in your cabin,” she lied. That got Dom’s attention in a hurry.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Dom said, taking a deadly serious tone.
“Of course not,” she said. “I’d never do such a thing to a SPOOKY guy like you, but it was a fun thought.”
5
Dom was sure Desire hadn’t put any slimy creatures in his cabin but made a mental reminder to check his bed before getting into it later. “If there are any snakes in there, Commander Weisman will hear my scream all the way on the other side of the galaxy,” Dom said with shudder.
“Speaking of which,” he added, “we should ring up our old friend Commander Weisman and let him know the snakes are out of the bag.” Dom couldn’t resist the joke.
“JAXXY, patch us through to Commander Weisman,” Jock said.
“Yes, sir,” JAXX replied. “We should let him know that the cargo might have been compromised.”
Commander Weisman appeared on the comm stat screen. “You just interrupted my dinner,” he said. “This better be good.”
“What a coincidence,” Dom replied. “We’re having us some frog legs for dinner.”
“Commander, you should know that your 423 reptiles escaped and wreaked havoc on the cargo hold and gravity coupler,” Jock said cutting to the chase. “Also we encountered an unknown plasma field earlier that stopped us in our tracks. We’re monitoring the TX’s systems to ensure there was no damage.”
Commander Weisman sighed, more concerned about his cargo than anything else. “What steps have you taken to contain the cargo and ensure those little suckers are safe?”
“Actually, sir,” Desire chimed in. “Since the boys are afraid of snakes and frogs, I contained them myself after JAXXY lowered the temps enough to put them back into a state of hibernation. We hope they’re ok.”
Dom jumped in. “You could’ve told us what we were transporting, Commander. What’s so special about these things?”
“That’s classified,” he said. In reality they were a special gift for an old friend, a brilliant scientist conducting experiments on Polarus. But he certainly couldn't tell his crew that they were running a personal errand under the guise of official business.
Just then a blast struck the ship, causing it to careen wildly to the right. Dom fell into Desire against the back wall of the cockpit. Jock bounced in his seat.
“What’s going on?” Commander Weisman yelled into the comm stat.
“JAXXY, get a read,” Jock yelled. “What’s happening?”
“Major Saunders, we appear to be under atta
ck from a pirate ship,” JAXX replied. Commander Weisman listened along in the background. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Just then the communication cut off from the solar storm.
“Great, word travels fast,” Dom said. “They must have heard that we took out their little buddies in the Dais system. I guess it’s back to the laser cannon for me. Desire, get strapped in. It’s going to get bumpy.”
Another blast hit the TX and it rocked left from the impact on the port side. Jock fought to get things back under control. Dom busied himself in the back with the laser cannon and Desire sat up front working the comm channels. She signed off from Commander Weisman’s feed and scanned the charts to see what other planets they could warp jump to quickly.
As he swiveled to get the cannon in place, Dom thought the snakes and frogs must have been more than what Commander Weisman let on.
Desire looked for a host planet to jump to, hoping the pirates wouldn’t follow too closely.
“Why are they out here, Jock?” she asked, continuing her scan. ‘We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Beats the hell out of me,” Jock replied. “From the looks of this sector, not much comes out here. I’m having deja vu, though. Maybe they heard we blew up some of their friends yesterday and are looking for payback.”
Desire didn’t like the sound of that. She closed her eyes and tried to get a read on the pirates, but it came up blank as they were too far out of range.
Dom swiveled in the control chair as the laser beacon flickered on and off, waiting for a recharge. He couldn’t take out the pirates as easily as the day before until it was fully charged. They needed to find a jump spot pretty damn quick and get the hell out of there.
“Desire, any luck on where we can jump?” Dom yelled.
Escape of the Glitter Princess Page 3