A New Threat

by Aaron DeMott

  Rrrark flicked his tail back and forth as he answered, “The humans would like us to remain casual observers. I would probably do the same in their case, as it might cause a war neither of us wants if we get injured.

  “Hrrarr and I however, decided that we should take as active a role in bringing the criminals to justice as the humans will let us. Under the rule of the clans on Alkask, we, and especially Hrrarr, have the right to hunt the pirates for my abduction, the attack on the two of us, and not to mention the attack on the Mer-ahsh khaal.”

  Bast nodded. “What about the abduction of the SeQish ambassador? He’s not a Meskka, but we were present, and they did break into our hotel.”

  Rrrark growled at the memory. “On Alkask, it would be enough, but it is not our world. So that problem is the humans’. Still, if I find the ones responsible first—” Rrrark growled again and kneaded the carpet with his claws.

  “What else did you do today?”

  “I’m sorry.” Rrrark took a moment to lick down the fur on the base of his neck. “Not much else. I took Hrrarr on a tour of the ship. We found a group of the marines practicing unarmed combat, and Hrrarr asked to join them. He’s down there now playing with them.”

  “I hope he doesn’t hurt them too badly.”

  “I think they were more excited about practicing with him than he was.” Rrrark snorted. “If you can imagine. They’ll probably all show up for supper, bleeding and happy as kittens with a ball of string. Anyway, afterward I came here to enjoy the view.”

  Rrrark turned to the window again. But he didn’t seem to really look at the stars. Bast turned and looked out the window as well.

  “I love it here,” she said. She took a deliberate step closer to him.

  “Anywhere is beautiful with pleasant company.”

  Rrrark’s tail bumped into hers. Bast tried to casually rub her tail back into his. She felt her heart beat faster when he didn’t move away.

  Tomed set the fighter down in the Goddard’s shuttle bay. Nilre was already there waiting for them. He popped the canopy and took Fred from Mrs. Vincent so she could climb down.

  “Andrea, this is my very good friend Nilre. She’ll show you to your quarters and make sure you and Fred have everything you need.”

  Nilre took a step forward. “Don’t worry, Andrea. You’re among friends and safe now.”

  Andrea sniffled and burst into tears when Nilre hugged her. Tomed started to ask if he could help but stopped when he saw Nilre glare at him. He handed Fred into Nilre’s arms and tiptoed out of the shuttle bay.

  A few hours later Nilre called him to the briefing room to meet with the captain, Major Hood, and the Meskka. He took a chair next to Nilre and nodded to everyone.

  “Thank you all for coming at such a late hour,” Nilre greeted them.

  Tomed shot a quick glance at the clock on the wall to his right. He blinked in surprise. The ship’s time was one fifteen AM, he could’ve sworn it was only around nine PM or so. He’d never get used to moving through different time zones. Nilre had started to talk again. He fought back a yawn and focused on what she said.

  She informed everyone of what Mrs. Vincent had seen in her husband’s office. Then Nilre disclosed what she and Bast had found in the shipping lists.

  Captain Trenton drummed his fingers on the table. “The problem is that we don’t have concrete proof. Also there have been a few military-grade items stolen recently. If the pirates are on Paradise, we’d have a difficult time putting a stop to this. We also can’t forget they outnumber us and they hold the SeQish ambassador hostage. If they attempt to take over the Paradise Colony, the ambassador is in danger. Our top priority should be to locate him.”

  “I think I can have my operative get concrete evidence.” Tomed pulled out is belt-comp and made a note to contact Jake. “That and Mrs. Vincent’s testimony should be sufficient. As to the ambassador, I don’t have a lead yet.”

  The meeting then wrapped up quickly. Captain Trenton advised everyone that after they finished the interviews with the witnesses at Mining Colony Two, UGAL’s orders were for the Heim and Goddard to patrol among the colonies to intercept and prevent further acts of piracy.

  Tomed took a moment to contact Jake telepathically to fill him in on what he found and ask for any evidence he could gather about the pirates. Consequently, he was the last one out of the briefing room. He stepped out into the hallway and leaned against the wall to rest for a moment. It took a lot of energy to send to a non-telepath. It could be worse though—Jake probably had one supernova of a headache right now.

  Everyone else had disappeared down the hallway already. Tomed hurried to catch up to Nilre, wherever she might be. A quick mental ping could locate her quickly, but he’d rather surprise her—if he could. Nilre was very hard to surprise. He’d played this game with her since they were children, and he could still count the number of times he’d succeeded on one hand. Tomed turned to the galley. Nilre would probably consider a small cup of tea relaxing despite the caffeine in it. Or, knowing her, she’d be drinking one of those nasty herbal teas.

  Tomed closed his eyes and tried not to think of anything as he approached. He stopped outside the door and silently lifted his right leg and slowly lowered it onto the deck beyond the doorway.

  “Hello, Tomed.” Nilre greeted him without turning around.

  “Hey.” Tomed shrugged. She did almost always win. He pulled the chair next to her out from the table and dropped into it.

  “Anything on your mind?” Nilre asked as she set down the empty teacup.

  “Nothing that can’t wait if you’d rather go right to bed. I slept most of the way to Paradise so I’m not very tired right now. I thought I’d walk you to your quarters if you were still up.”

  She hid a smile behind her teacup a moment before she rose to get some hot water. She returned and dunked a teabag into her cup.

  “My schedule is open for tomorrow, so I can stay up late. Besides, only the people on night shift are up now, so we have time to talk without being interrupted. So... what’s bothering you?” she asked.

  “I wanted to know what you thought about that planet the Heim found.”

  “Which one? They found several planets that might be possible for colonization.”

  “Sorry. The one with no axial tilt.”

  Nilre set her teacup down and ran a finger along the side before she answered. “Probably the same thing you are. Are we ready though? Are they?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Tomed ran his hand through his hair. “We’ve talked about this for years now, and we’ve finally found a suitable planet. When I get the chance, I want to see what the other Psygens think.”

  “Hmm.” Nilre finished her tea and put the cup with the other dishes to be washed before she spoke again. “Earth’s governmental structure is firmly in place now. Our services haven’t really been needed in a while. As you say, we’ve mostly put off any discussion on the topic until we found a planet. The only problem I see is with Vincent and his attempt to take over Paradise.”

  “True, but you never know with humans. Vincent might find a way to blame us in this and it might swing public opinion enough to want us out of their hair.”

  “Or we might have to step in again and resolve the situation for them.”

  Tomed sighed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that. In my opinion we should see how they handle this. It might make for a good ‘test’ of how they’ll do in the future.”

  “As long as you just want an opinion and not a vote, then I’m in favor of starting our own colony… depending on what happens with the current situation.”

  “Thanks, Nil,” Tomed said with a grin. “Can I walk you back to your room?”

  Nilre stood and offered Tomed her hand. “You may walk me back to my door.”

  Tomed stood and smiled as he placed Nilre’s hand in the crook of the elbow he held out for her.

  Jake groaned and slumped over onto his bed. If he didn’t know better, h
e’d swear Tomed did it to him on purpose. It was bad enough when Tomed contacted him that way, and even worse when he was in the middle of trying to sleep off a hangover. Tomed was probably right... he really should quit drinking. But bad memories had a tendency to surface when he did that. Sure, counseling might be a more constructive way to deal with them, but he honestly didn’t want to remember.

  A few cups of coffee later, Jake’s head felt better. Now he had to figure out how to get what Tomed wanted—without blowing his cover. The pirate takeover of Paradise made sense with some of the more bizarre shipments he’d helped load and unload.

  Jake rose and wobbled toward the door. The Vincent home was only a few blocks from his hotel. The first thing to do would be to take a walk through the neighborhood and scope out what he was up against. The fresh air might help his headache too.

  The Vincent home was located in a suburban area, close to the capitol, but away from the inner city. All of the houses in the area were built in a loose imitation of Victorian style and had large front yards. Most of the houses had picket fences. Very few areas on Earth still looked like this. All in all, it wasn’t a bad place to live. That is, as long as a xenophobic nut-job wasn’t in charge.

  Security didn’t seem very tight in the area. There weren’t any obvious cameras or sensor poles, but considering the rest of the design, the security devices were probably all hidden to preserve the aesthetics. Jake walked around the block and returned to the bar to think through the problem over breakfast.

  He had just finished his second helping of eggs when his belt-comp beeped. He looked around and slowly reached down to retrieve it. Several familiar-looking scoundrels also reached for their belts. That left little doubt as to the sender, and if they’d all been messaged at the same time… well, that meant either an unscheduled raid, or bad news.

  Jake snuck a glance at the screen. It was bad, all right. Apparently there were problems somewhere and today’s paycheck would be late. There were two problems with paying pirates late. First, if a bureaucrat could screw up a pay scale, they might not care about paying the pirates at all. Secondly, pirates weren’t very understanding or patient. The police probably wouldn’t be able to count the number of robberies tonight.

  That gave Jake an idea. He watched the other patrons around the bar to see how they reacted to the news. A few of the pirates were yelling and cursing, but most of them had a sly look. Jake felt sorry for the average citizens of the colony. They’d wake up a lot poorer tomorrow. Jake ordered another beer and leaned back in his chair to wait for nightfall.

  Not the first person to leave the bar, but not the last either, he returned to his hotel room and tossed the few things he’d brought with him into his pack. Some people preferred the view from one of the top floors, but not Jake. He always got a room on the ground floor with a large window.

  He climbed out the window and quickly made his way to the Vincent residence.

  Jonathan shouldn’t be here. The last Jake had heard he was off-planet. Tomed had told him that Andrea and the kid were on the Goddard, so the house should be empty. It never hurt to check though. All the lights were out, and he hadn’t seen any movement.

  It took Jake a little longer than three minutes to disable the state-of-the-art security system. He slipped inside the back door and made his way toward the study. That’s where anything valuable should be—as well as any pirate-related documents.

  Jake stepped into the study and stopped short. The map of the explored part of the galaxy hanging on the far wall grabbed his attention.

  “Crikey, Someone’s been busy,” he muttered

  The map definitely confirmed what Tomed had heard from Andrea. He pulled it down, rolled it up, and tucked it into his pack.

  A quick search of the rest of Jonathan Vincent’s study turned up several other important-looking documents and a drawer full of data chips. Jake pocketed them before proceeding to the master bedroom. That’s where any jewelry would be. After all, he had to make this look like a regular robbery. Besides, it didn’t look like Mrs. Vincent would get her jewelry back any other way.

  Jake paused in the kitchen on the way out the door. He really didn’t have time for a snack, but he was hungry... A quick rummage through the fridge netted him a sandwich and a week’s worth of frozen dinners. The food might seem frivolous, but his next stop was the spaceport to hightail it out of here to deliver the intel to Tomed. And the galley on his ship was empty.

  For a night like this, he didn’t expect the spaceport to be deserted. Jake grinned when he didn’t run into a single soul. The security forces must not have been informed about the pirates’ lack of pay. Jake had just started to relax as he walked around a shipping container—then he bumped into an armed guard.

  “Uh, excuse me...” he stammered.

  The guard leveled his rifle at Jake’s chest. “Who are you and what ship are you on?”

  “Jake Fisher, on the Smelly Fish. My ID’s in my pocket.”

  Jake made no move to get his ID. When someone pointed a gun at you, it was usually best not to make sudden movements.

  “Well?” The guard waved his gun at Jake. “Where’s your ID?”

  “I already told you—” Jake pointed downward with one finger. “In my front jacket pocket.”

  At a nod from the guard, Jake slowly reached down and pulled out his ID card.

  The guard glanced at it for a moment and then handed it back. “Okay, you’re free to go, be sure to—” he was interrupted by a beep from the comm unit on his helmet. “Wait a moment.”

  Jake muttered a curse under his breath. He waited until the guard was focused on whoever was on the other end of the comm unit, then punched him in the face and ran for the ship.

  Three uneventful days later, Tomed rolled over and groaned as the comm unit in his room beeped for the fourth time. Tomed pushed his head up off from the pillow and glared at it. It beeped again. The thing sounded defiantly happy. He slowly sat up, rubbed his eyes, and glanced at the clock. He blinked and rubbed his eyes again while he contemplated throwing something at the infernal thing.

  “Why does everything have to happen at three in the morning?” he asked it.

  The comm unit beeped in reply. He threw a pillow at it and yawned as he swung his legs out of bed.

  Tomed stabbed the button with this thumb. “Tomed here. Who died?”

  “Bridge here, sir. You have an urgent message on an encrypted channel.”

  Tomed muttered under his breath.

  “What was that, sir?”

  “Put it through.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The comm beeped again, and Jake’s voice boomed out of the speaker. “Tomed! Did I wake you?”

  “You know darned well you did, Jake. What do want?”

  Jake chuckled. “I got that information you wanted. So can you possibly arrange to pick me up?”

  “Where are you?”

  “Well, that’s the problem. I’m on the cargo ship we stole from the pirates back at the Stars’ View Resort. I’ve also got a bunch of pirate fighters on my tail.”

  “Great.” Tomed quickly pulled on a pair of pants and shrugged into a jacket. “I take it the pirates know you stole from them then.”

  “Yup. Don’t worry about my cover though. In addition to what you wanted, I stole everything I could lay my hands on, including a bunch of cash.”

  Tomed let that comment slide. “Where are you and is the von Braun one of the ships chasing you?”

  “I already sent you my coordinates and made sure the von Braun was as far away as possible.”

  “All right, we’ll come get you. You better have some good stuff for me.”

  Tomed flicked the comm off before Jake could reply and headed to the bridge.

  There was a minimal crew on night watch when Tomed arrived on the bridge. With one exception, Tomed didn’t know any of them.

  “I’m surprised to see you here, Captain.”

  “Good morning, Psygen Tomed. We
have to take immediate action after most of the messages that come in for you, so, here I am.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “Not a problem. It comes with the job. What can we do for you today?”

  “My undercover operative was able to get the information we need, but not without drawing some unwanted attention. He’s coming in hot and needs us to pick him up.”

  “Does the helm have the coordinates?”

  “Yes.”

  The captain turned to the helm officer. “Set a course for intercept and engage at maximum speed.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  He turned back to Tomed. “I assume we do the usual—disable and bring in as many of them as we can?”

  “Yup.” Tomed grinned. “As long as my operative is one of them. We might learn something new from one of the strays too. Oh, and I’ll volunteer to man a fighter.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “Oh, I know, but I’m up now anyway. I enjoy it, and it’s one less pilot you have to wake.”

  Chapter 15

  The Goddard dropped out of hyperspace with an almost imperceptible bump. Tomed clicked home the last restraint on the seat in his modified fighter. He quickly ran through the startup checklist and used the NTO to fling the ship out of the shuttle bay fast enough to set off a handful of alarms.

  “Gail.”

  The holographic form of the AI flickered into existence above the fighter’s control panel. “Yes, Tomed?”

  “First, turn off the alarm unless the ship itself is in danger. Second, is my music collection loaded locally?”

  Gail froze for a moment before she responded. “System alarms have been set to minimum, but safety regulations will not allow them to be set that low. Your music preferences, however, have been loaded locally.”

  Tomed rolled his eyes. The safety regulations were just short of ridiculous for a Psygen. It was irritating to have an alarm go off halfway through a mere eight-G turn. He’d just have to put up with it.