“Return fire, Chaz. Take out that cannon.”
Two missiles popped out of their canisters on the top of the ship, fired their gravitic thrusters, and raced away from the ship. Their engines kicked in, and they accelerated downward. Even without a warhead, a ballistic projectile traveling at hypersonic speed would do a great deal of damage to a weapon as delicate as an ion cannon.
In moments, the firing had stopped. The corvette raced downward, pulling up at the last second and landing in the same spot they had been before. The door opened, and stairs descended while the ship was still settling. Rivka stormed off, followed closely by Red and Jay.
She rammed through the doors and was surprised to find the entry empty. “Chaz, contact the Pretarians and tell them I’m waiting for Maseer.”
“He is still in the hospital. It was barely a day ago that he was severely injured.”
“It’s been less than a day?” Rivka replied, turning to Jayita and Vered. She finally noticed how tired they looked. “When is the last time I slept?”
“It has been thirty-eight hours, Magistrate,” the EI replied, no concern in his voice.
“I’ll be damned.”
“Maseer has agreed to come,” Chaz added. “It will take him a while since he’ll be in a wheelchair.”
“I need all of the members of the delegation.”
“Stand by.”
“There is a direct elevator to the hospital. I can fly you there,” Chaz offered after communing with the Pretarians.
“Back to the ship,” Rivka ordered. “And tell them we’ll be there shortly. No one goes anywhere. And tell them to bring our stuff. I want my fucking jacket.”
Rivka kicked the door open as she led the way back to the ship. When they boarded, she found Red sweating heavily.
“You are on the sidelines for the rest of this mission.”
“I’ll be fine,” he tried to argue.
“I’m calling bullshit! The bullshit lever has been pulled. Show Jay how to work that thing, because you’re staying here.” Rivka waved at the weapon.
“But...”
Rivka closed with her bodyguard. “You know I’m right. In your condition, you’re a liability. We’ll get you fixed up with the Pod-doc when we get back, but for now, you need to stay here. I think the next planet we go to will approach absolute zero.”
“I’m good with cold.”
“Compared to here? I think I’ll take cold, too,” Jay agreed.
“Prepare for landing,” Chaz told them.
“Same rule as last time, Red. If we drop out of contact, start blowing shit up until we get back in touch. Chaz, do as Red tells you.”
“Roger.” Red wasn’t feeling great about being left behind. What made it worse was that he knew Rivka was right. He’d never been a liability before.
“I’m not sure I like that rule,” the EI replied.
“You don’t like something? How very AI of you. I don’t want you to start laying waste to the planet, but sometimes, people need to be put in their places. Arresting a Magistrate? No. Hell no, and fuck no. That was a dumbass move that they will pay for.”
The hatch opened and steps extended to the ground. Rivka and Jay followed them down. A single Pretarian waited at a lone entrance to the building. He used a key and went inside. Without a word, the three climbed aboard the elevator. It took them down farther than Rivka remembered going.
“Chaz?”
“Your signal is growing weak, Magistrate. Shall I start blowing shit up, as you put it?”
“Not yet. Wait for Red to give you the order.”
Jay raised one eyebrow.
“Blond looks good on you,” Rivka told her.
“And you, too. I do like mine longer, but this heat is making me reconsider. Next time, if you have any influence over the process, pick a tropical paradise instead of the surface of the sun.”
“We’ll wrap this up soon and go back to the house. I need a shower, as much from my own sweat as the hatred that leaves a bad smell on everything.”
The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. The Pretarian waited, allowing the humans to go out first. “Oh, no,” Rivka told him. “You go first. I don’t trust your people. Please don’t take it personally.”
When the Pretarian left the elevator, the corridor was empty. He walked to a door, opened it, and went inside. Rivka hurried after him. When she peeked inside, she found that they were at a back entrance to the hospital. She waved for Jay to follow. She saw who she was looking for.
The hospital was a wide-open area separated by equipment and a few curtains. The area for the Keome was clearly separate from the Pretarians. That was where Rivka was going. Yutta was standing outside the curtains.
Rivka shot across the hospital floor, never taking her eyes from the Keome. Pretarians tried to intercept her, but she wasn’t having it. She pushed them out of the way as she brazenly plowed ahead. Yutta backed into the area and disappeared behind a curtain, and Rivka started to run.
She signaled for Jay to go wide and block him from escaping. Rivka ripped the curtain aside as she crouched, ready to be attacked.
Yutta stood there holding all four hands out. Stop.
“You have no place here, human,” he told her. Miento was on a gurney with her eyes closed, but her chest moved slowly. An IV was hooked to one of her arms. The others, Suarpok and Ome, were in their beds, but looked at Rivka with alert eyes.
“You have no place anywhere, Yutta. I, Magistrate Rivka Anoa, have found you guilty of terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and the murder of Yus.”
Miento’s eyes fluttered open. “What?” she asked weakly.
“I’m sure I don’t know what she’s talking about. You know humans. They make stuff up, just like that treaty. A complete fabrication. A Federation lie.”
“You received your direction and the bomb from Klobis. We have his testimony on record. We have already adjudicated his case.”
Yutta turned to the others, who were no longer looking at Rivka.
“You killed Yus?” Miento mumbled. She tried to sit up, but the pain was too great. “You were willing to kill all of us, too?”
“Wait!” Yutta cried.
“Interesting,” Rivka mused. “That was Klobis’ last word.”
Yutta looked around rapidly. He’d boxed himself in. “Federation lies!” He pointed a long finger at Rivka. “She’s the enemy. The Federation is our enemy.”
“The Keome and the Pretarians have more in common than we let ourselves see,” Maseer said from a wheelchair behind Rivka.
Rivka stepped back where she could see Maseer and Yutta. “Sinraloo and Yutta were partners, as bizarre as that sounds. They worked together to show that they couldn’t work together. I can’t fathom their logic.”
Yutta jumped, trying to get over the wheelchair to run for freedom. Rivka let him go. Where could a Keome hide on Pretaria?
It didn’t matter, since he was blocked from leaving the hospital. Pretarian guards closed in from all sides and he went down under a barrage of stun weapons, the type that Rivka, Jay, and Red had been subjected to.
“How are you feeling, Maseer?” Rivka asked.
“Betrayed,” he shared. “I don’t know why Sinraloo would be involved.”
Rivka shrugged. “When we find him, we’ll ask.”
“He’s not here, but this is Pretaria. He won’t be able to hide for long.”
“Assuming he’s in hiding.” Rivka waved to the others from the Pretarian delegation. The three joined Maseer. “If you haven’t been told, the treaty has been transmitted and is in place. Did any of you have a chance to read it before Yutta and Sinraloo’s subterfuge?”
“The main guarantee in the treaty is that a percentage of your people will have the opportunity to work out in the galaxy. It is only a temporary solution until your two planets can establish viable exports. What you do have is people who can work in extreme heat. The main point of law is about the importation of labo
r. The Federation guarantees work visas across all its planets. You will be advised by an immigration delegation that I’ve already requested.”
“The treaty simply gives both people the right to self-determination; that their future is theirs to shape. What is wrong with that?” Maseer intoned. He held his chest after he spoke. Beneath his hospital gown were wounds beyond the physical.
A small commotion at the door drew Rivka’s attention.
“Sinraloo!” she yelled and started to run, dodging around Pretarians and equipment alike. Sinraloo casually stepped back through the door. Rivka screamed her fury.
“Follow the traitor!” Maseer called as loudly as he could manage.
A guard reached for Rivka, and she punched him in the face without slowing down.
“Not her, you idiot! It’s Sinraloo!”
Rivka burst into the corridor and saw Sinraloo running in the direction of the train platform. She accelerated, using all the power of her enhancements to propel her forward. She heard the guards behind her, but they couldn’t keep up. She danced left and right as she ran, the Pretarians less than congenial in getting out of her way.
Sinraloo disappeared into a side room. She rammed through the door and was greeted by a length of pipe that caught her in the chest. She felt something break as her feet came out from under her. She flipped head over heels and landed on her face. Someone jumped on her back and slammed her face into the floor.
“The universe will forget you ever existed,” Sinraloo snarled from behind her.
Rivka pushed up and twisted. A bolt of pain shot through her chest, but the weight fell from her back. She launched herself forward and rolled. More searing pain. She popped upright and balanced on the balls of her feet as she tried to figure out a way to fight her enemy.
Sinraloo picked up the pipe, which was the length of a baseball bat. He wound up to swing and Rivka backed up, her eyes darting at the stuff around her. Improvised weapons. There was nothing sharp. There was nothing easy to throw. Rounded desks without chairs. It looked like a storeroom without much stuff in it.
“I need your pipe so I can beat you with it,” she told him.
“I think I’ll hang on to it a little while longer,” he replied. “Listen! Do you hear that?”
Rivka continued to adjust until she had a desk between her and Sinraloo.
“It’s the sound of the guards running by. They aren’t selected for their intelligence, but they serve a purpose—just not for you.”
“I’ll have my coat back, too. You can keep the datapad. You can’t access it, so fuck you.”
“Is that the best you have, Magistrate?” He sneered, then feinted one way, swung, dodged and swung again. Rivka leaned forward, and he lunged. She slapped the pipe down and powered through a right cross that exploded Sinraloo’s nose. As he started to fall, she grabbed the pipe and leapt to the side.
She gripped it in two hands and swung overhead, bringing it down like an axe on the back of his head. Sinraloo collapsed on the desk, his skull crushed.
“You’re not coming back from that one.” Rivka spoke one word with each breath. “You have been judged and found wanting.”
She tossed the pipe on his back, but it rolled off and clattered to the floor. She walked slowly to the door, stopped, and turned.
“Justice is served,” she whispered before entering the corridor and walking back to the hospital, nodding and greeting the Pretarians as if they were old friends.
They didn’t respond in kind. Someday you’ll thank me, but today is not that day.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I can’t thank you enough, Maseer, for your support of the process,” Rivka said, offering her hand before quickly pulling it back. “Sorry, shaking hands is a human thing to do.”
“Human physiology may not be best suited for our planet, but your psychology is just what we need. I thank you, Magistrate.”
“I am not going to miss the heat, but I am going to miss you, my friend,” Rivka told him with a smile.
Jay nodded her agreement.
“At your request, Yutta is being transferred to Keome custody. We would be more than happy to deal with him if you need us to.”
“No. You don’t need new reasons for tension between your planets. You still have a long way to go.”
Maseer watched the humans from his wheelchair. “I’ve asked the guards to search Sinraloo’s office. We shall see what they find.”
“Will they do it?”
“As you’ve seen, news travels fast on Pretaria. Sinraloo’s complicity in the attack and his willingness to work with the Keome to discredit the arbitration is going to have the opposite effect from what he intended—it adds credibility to what we’ve done. I am sorry that Yus had to die and miss seeing the fruits of our efforts.”
“Talking about missing...” Rivka started slowly. She held out her hand and Jay put a datapad into it. “I added a couple things before I transmitted the treaty. The first bit here,” she pointed to the screen as she held it where Maseer could see it, “is about equal medical care. It is amazing that Miento is still alive, but thank goodness. Pretarian doctors needed to treat her sooner. And then this last part. It came from a movie I like and think is hilarious. They aren’t wrong.”
“Be excellent to each other?” Maseer asked.
“It’s what we barristers call ‘precatory language.’ It’s nonbinding, but it is there nonetheless. There’s no remedy if one is not excellent to another, but it is my desire. As you have been excellent to me, I hope that I have been excellent to you.”
“You have. It has been quite some time since I had Turbid Pie.” Maseer stopped. He hadn’t just eaten a meal, he had shared it with a new friend—a friend who was now gone. “Damn. I understood Yus. I will miss him, and the conversations we would have had.”
“I’ll be here for a while,” Miento croaked. Jay poured water into a glass on a side table. Miento drank the whole thing, cradling the glass in two hands while holding herself upright with the other two.
“Extra arms must be convenient,” Maseer observed.
“It’s all the fashion where I come from,” Miento replied.
Jay and Rivka waited in the small room at the top of the elevator. The corvette was parked outside within spitting distance. A Pretarian guard stood with them, his expression neutral as he looked out the window. “What are we waiting for?” Rivka pressed.
“Maseer said to wait.”
“If Yutta appears, I’ll stuff him in the airlock and jettison his body when we reach space.”
Jay looked sideways at the Magistrate.
“I’m kidding, but I’m ready to go. I think it’s gotten hotter.”
Jay tipped her chin toward the door.
“Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”
Jay bolted before Rivka could change her mind. The corvette’s hatch opened, and Jay took the steps two at a time as she climbed inside. The hatch closed behind her.
“She’s already enjoying the cool of the ship,” Rivka said to no one in particular. The elevator door hissed open, and two guards walked out carrying the team’s missing clothes and equipment. Despite the heat, the first thing Rivka reached for was her jacket. She put it on and traced the outline of the Federation’s Magistrate emblem, a star holding the scales of Justice.
She held out her arms for everything else, and they piled it on. “Damn, Red! How much junk do you carry?”
“A lot. It takes a lot to protect a Magistrate. The galaxy’s criminals may hate you, but they all want to be you,” a voice told her from the datapad cradled in her arm.
“Talking about junk! Yours was all over my shoulder, and I need about ten more showers to get the stench off me.”
The guard held the door, his neck beads clacking, and Rivka jogged for the climate-controlled wonderland of her corvette. The hatch opened, the stairs dropped, and she vaulted inside.
“Chaz! Take us home.”
“I can’t be last. Does it matter that I adju
dicated two cases?” Rivka pleaded.
Grainger crossed his arms and shook his head.
“From the top of the mountain to the deepest valley she falls. But I got the law right, didn’t I?”
“Sure, but any goofy fucker can get that part right. It’s how you massage it into place without beating people over the head with it that will make you great.”
“Then why do I train so hard to beat people over the head?”
“Because we’re not perfect. We’re Magistrates. Let me buy you a beer so we can tell lies in the peace and comfort of our drunken stupor.”
“Are the others here?”
“Only Bustamove. He arrived about two minutes before you did, but that still makes you last.”
“I think you suck,” she told him. Red tried not to snicker and failed.
“Pod-doc for you, Lightweight, and Zombie, you come with me.”
“I used to be ‘Lightweight,’ so treat my name well,” Rivka called over her shoulder. Red followed them. Grainger stopped and turned to face Rivka’s bodyguard.
“No, the Pod-doc is waiting for you. I’ll watch over her—you have my word. You need to be ready since she could be called up any moment now. First order of business is to be ready to deploy. We can’t have the Magistrate carrying you through a case again.”
Red looked crushed until Grainger hammered him on the shoulder. The big man staggered, anger flashing across his face. “We get the nanocytes because they help us do our jobs better. They are just a tool that you need in your toolbox.”
“I’ll take that explanation. I’ll be down as quickly as I can. I owe the Magistrate a beer.”
They both watched Red walk away.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” Grainger asked.
“The best; committed and loyal. Why was he available?”
“He doesn’t like working for scumbags. He left his last two employers high and dry because they were doing horrible things. They bought his protection, but they paid for his silence, too. He couldn’t do it. The big man has a sense of honor. But those former employers put a hit on him. There’s a permanent price on his head. He either works for us or disappears, possibly into the corona of a sun.”
Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set Page 18