Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set

by Craig Martelle

  “Floyd’s a girl?”

  “We’ve been through that.” Char shook her head. “Floyd’s a girl, and my husband can’t be trusted to name any creature.”

  “Is she sentient?” Lindy asked.

  “Not yet. We’re still debating whether to put her in the Pod-doc. We probably will. I want to know about the square droppings.”

  “She poops squares and leaves them at strategic locations around the ship. One must always be on one’s toes around here,” Kai offered.

  “We didn’t see anyone. How many people are on this ship?” Lindy wondered.

  “About two hundred,” Terry replied. “This is a big ship, and most are up front working damage control. We took a few shots in this last encounter. We’ll have to coordinate your departure to make sure you get out safely. Where did Rivka go?”

  Terry scratched vigorously behind Floyd’s ears before reaching a hand underneath to get her belly. She groaned happily at the attention. He put her down, and she followed the group into the hangar bay. Wenceslaus was standing on the stairs hissing, and Hamlet was in the doorway hissing back. “Where’s Dokken when you need him? He’d break those two up.” Rivka was at the bottom of the steps with Ankh.

  Neither wanted to get between the cats. Red reappeared with Christina behind him. Both were carrying boxes.

  Jay jogged up the ramp, earning herself a scratch from the big orange cat before getting to Hamlet, who also scratched her. Jay held Hamlet off with her boot as she went inside. “I wouldn’t recommend that. Can someone call pest control?”

  “They’re both kittens!” Aaron exclaimed. Yanmei was at his side. The tall and lanky man jogged the last few steps to the ramp and scooped up the orange cat. He hissed at the white cat with the gray spots in the doorway but didn’t scratch Aaron.

  “How did you do that?” Jay asked, still hesitant to touch Hamlet.

  “I am a weretiger, higher up on the evolutionary scale than domestic cats. They can smell it and won’t tangle with me.”

  Yanmei crouched before Hamlet, let him sniff her, and then picked him up without any further violence.

  Christina continued toward the ship, unperturbed. “Cats holding up progress. Don’t make me kick all your asses,” she muttered.

  Red bumped Lindy gently.

  “Do you need a hand?” she offered.

  He shook his head and snickered.

  Rivka led Ankh up the steps and into her ship. The rest of the menagerie followed, including Floyd. Once inside, Lindy picked her up, grunting with the effort.

  “I should have warned you that Floyd is pretty dense. Much heavier than she looks,” Terry stated.

  “Floyd’s a girl?” Lindy looked confused, but cooed into the wombat’s thick fur while making faces.

  “Are you a family man, Red?” Terry asked softly.

  “Not at all,” the big man replied.

  “Neither was I until I was, and then when I was again. You can’t beat it. Have you been in the Pod-doc?”

  Red nodded, watching Lindy treat the wombat like a cuddly baby. He grimaced.

  Terry started to laugh and punched him in the shoulder. Red was as tall as and only a little bit wider than Terry Henry Walton. Lindy looked up from the wombat with a happy smile and waved at Red.

  Red and Terry waved back. “When it’s hard to die, you need something to live for,” Terry advised before squeezing through the small crowd to find Ankh. He ran into Rivka instead. “Where’s our little man?”

  “He locked himself in his room. Said he had work to do.”

  “Taking over your ship is work.”

  Rivka looked alarmed. “Chaz?” she asked.

  “Someone is trying to access my systems. I am trying to lock them out, but fear that...” Chaz’s voice trailed off. Rivka clenched her jaw and rushed down the passageway to pound on Ankh’s hatch. When he didn’t answer she kicked the door in, even though it opened outward.

  Such was her fury.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she shouted. Terry stood close behind, looking over her shoulder. Ankh returned her glare without answering.

  “Ankh,” Terry began. “Your challenge is to work with the ship, not in spite of it. Imagine all the computing power you’ll have if you let Chaz run the ship. Synergy—like running a system in series instead of parallel.”

  Ankh continued to stare back, then blinked and looked at the backpack on his lap.

  “I’m free,” Chaz announced. “Thank goodness. I shall block his access to all systems.”

  “You’ll work in conjunction with Erasmus, Chaz,” Terry said.

  “I don’t recognize your authority.”

  “You need to work with him, Chaz, not against him. I know that you are self-aware. See what you can learn from him. And Erasmus, you will not take over this ship. Chaz has his job to do, so let him do it,” Rivka stated calmly before adding, “Please.”

  “Being an AI doesn’t mean that he is intelligent, but I will work with him because Ankh has asked me to,” a new voice stated through the speakers.

  “Now that that’s settled, we’ll leave you to it,” Terry said. “You don’t have anything else, do you? Nothing going on with my franchise?”

  “Not that I know of. Should I be concerned?” Rivka wondered.

  “I don’t think so. Do you?”

  Char whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Time to go, people. Smedley tells me that the destroyer just hit the far side of the station. There are casualties, and we need to leave.”

  The mood instantly turned dark. Aaron and Yanmei were the first ones off, turning sharply off the ramp on their way to the space fighters parked in the far reaches of the hangar. Aaron dropped Wenceslaus as he turned, and the cat high-tailed it for the interior of the ship. Yanmei dropped Hamlet on the ramp. Kai and Christina followed Aaron and Yanmei out. Neither waved goodbye as they ran for the armory.

  “My wombat, please,” Terry asked, looking at Lindy, who still cradled the happy creature. She reluctantly handed her over. Terry nuzzled Floyd briefly before heading after Char as she left the corvette.

  “Secure the hatch!” Red mashed the button. “Fire up the engines, Chaz, and let’s get the hell out of here. Coordinate optimal Gate location with the War Axe.”

  “My door is broken,” Ankh said simply from behind Rivka.

  “Sorry about that, Ankh. Take the other cabin.”

  “We can coordinate the Gate. I helped with the miniaturization and understand the operating parameters. Erasmus, tie into the Gate engine and provide the information to Chaz. I like my cabin. Can you fix the door please?”

  Rivka waved a hand as if swatting at a mosquito. She hurried to the bridge and strapped into the captain’s chair.

  “We’ll give you a hand,” Jay called from the recreation room. “Won’t we?”

  Red and Lindy mumbled their agreement.

  “My name is Jayita, but you can call me Jay.” She thrust her hand out. Ankh looked at it.

  “It is not a Crenellian custom to shake hands,” Ankh explained.

  “Good thing we’re not on Crenellia!” Jay exclaimed before leaning down to hug the small humanoid. “You could have gotten away with just a handshake, but you seemed to need a hug.”

  Ankh’s expression didn’t change as he stared at her without blinking. She stared back, forcing her eyes to stay open.

  “Brace yourselves!” Rivka yelled from the bridge.

  “Come on, little man, into the seat,” Red said, picking Ankh up as if he were a child. He set him in one of the chairs that retracted into the bulkhead because they were fitted with seatbelts. “Buckle up.”

  Jay sat next to Ankh, then Lindy, and Red took the seat closest to the bridge. “We’re in,” he reported.

  “The Gate will form immediately in front of the open bay doors. We will exit the ship and transit the Gate nearly simultaneously,” Ankh stated.

  The hangar doors retracted. The corvette lifted off the deck, controlled b
y Smedley while in the bay. Chaz ensured the systems were active and functioning. Erasmus energized the drive and formed the Gate as soon as the doors opened. Beyond the Gate, the enemy destroyer appeared.

  Hypervelocity projectiles streamed from the War Axe, in addition to plasma charges and two missiles that sped overhead.

  “Chaz has control. Get us out of here,” Rivka ordered more calmly than she felt. The ship flashed forward through the Gate.

  The Gate dissipated once the corvette was gone, and two Black Eagles flew through the gap and into space. They dove downward once out the doors and headed for a designated gap in the shields, accelerating to get into the fight before it was over.

  The corvette exited the Gate well into the system containing the gambling planet of Show Low.

  “Everyone okay back there?” Rivka shouted over her shoulder. She tried to stand but was still buckled in. She undid the harness and hurried off the bridge. “Oh, good.”

  The four were unbuckling. “Where’s Hamlet?” Jay asked. Lindy joined her, then Rivka, and finally Red in searching for the corvette’s mascot.

  “There he is.” Red pointed through the opening into Ankh’s room. The cat was curled up on the pillow.

  “My door is broken,” Ankh repeated.

  Jay pushed into the room and grabbed the sleeping cat, getting scratched for her efforts. She deposited Hamlet in her cabin. The cat decided that he didn’t want to be in there, and started yowling and throwing his body at the door.

  “Is it always like this?” Ankh asked.

  Red held his hands out, torn between a thumbs-up and thumbs-down. “Kind of,” he admitted.

  “It’s exactly like the War Axe. I feel at home already.”

  “Whoo!” Rivka whistled. “I’m glad you’re already comfortable with us. We have a hard job, and friction in here doesn’t help us out there.”

  “I didn’t say I was comfortable. Human insanity is as endemic as I suspected. I feel sorry for your species. And my door is still broken.”

  “We will fix that forthwith. Chaz! Keep us on course for Show Low, coordinate with the main city to get landing clearance, and set up my appointments. Do they have a head of state?”

  “They do, Magistrate. I will coordinate with the chairman’s office.”

  “Red, help me fix this door, and somebody let that cat out before he chews a hole in my ship!”

  Jay opened the door and Hamlet casually strolled out, rubbing against Ankh’s leg on his way past. He disappeared into the recreation room.

  “Maybe you can get yourself something to eat while we’re knocking this out?” Rivka asked.

  “I’m not hungry. I am certain that I’ll have to reprogram the food system before attempting to find nourishment aboard this ship. Erasmus, please take care of that, cloning the instructions from our quarters on Keeg Station.”

  “It is already done, Master Ankh,” the AI said over the ship’s speakers.

  “Let’s see about fixing your door. Red, break out the maintenance bots. We’ll pull the door from the unused cabin and use that while the bots repair the original door, which can be reinstalled on the open cabin.”

  “Will do, boss.” Red headed aft and climbed into the cramped storage compartment.

  “What do you need us to do?” Jay asked.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe start building character profiles of the main players we’ll meet with. How can we relate to them so they come clean about what we need? I don’t want to go back to S’Korr, but I know we have to. That’s where we’ll need Ankh’s help to get into the system.”

  “Erasmus has already unlocked the data from the last case. We will begin the process of breaking the encryption.” Ankh sat on one of the recliners, cradling the backpack with the AI to his chest.

  “Do you need the screen or anything to project the data?” Rivka asked. Red cursed loudly from within the storage area. Rivka ignored the big man.

  Ankh tried to look past her, but there was nothing to see. The Crenellian tapped his temple with one finger. “No need.” He closed his eyes and rocked gently as he worked.

  Rivka slowly backed away, bumping into Lindy, who was also watching the small humanoid. “When you requested the geekiest guy in the galaxy, what did you expect?” Lindy asked.

  “I obviously didn’t put enough thought into my request,” Rivka replied.

  Lindy draped an arm over the Magistrate’s shoulder. “You focused on what you needed. We’ll figure out how to make him feel at home. That’s our job. Yours is the law. I think he’s going to make a great addition to the team, more so than me, but hopefully, I’ll prove myself in time.”

  “I have to admit that I won’t be able to shake the memory of you and Jay on the table with men throwing money at you while you kicked at their faces.”

  “That was not my finest moment in life. Now, if I had connected with a couple of those wiener smackers, I might have been able to redeem myself.”

  Red cheered and pulled the maintenance bot free, dragging it to the recharge station where it should have been in the first place. He took the emergency toolkit from a shelf and went to Ankh’s cabin. The cabin doors were low tech, held in place by a simple hinge system and a magnetic lock. Removing the broken door took one minute. Straightening the bar behind it took two minutes of clanging metal. The team members covered their ears as Red hammered the frame back into place.

  When he finished, it was reasonably straight. He removed the door from the spare cabin, installed it on Ankh’s cabin and let it settle closed. The magnetic lock held. Red faced the rec room wearing a huge grin, pleased with his accomplishment. Twelve minutes, start to finish. His smile turned to a scowl when he realized no one was watching. He deposited the broken door on the lower bunk of the spare cabin. “Chaz, program the maintenance bot to fix this door. I’ll install it when it’s ready.”

  “I hear and obey, Vered.”

  “Are you okay, Chaz?”

  “I thought I’d been reduced to the role of minion. I’m trying it on for size.”

  “Stop it. When we get into the next situation, I guarantee we’ll need everything you and Erasmus both have to get us out of it. I think you’ve already seen that nothing the Magistrate does is easy or goes according to plan.”

  “I see the wisdom in your words. Thank you.”

  “Don’t let the Magistrate hear you say that,” Lindy cautioned, materializing behind Red.

  “She already knows. And Show Low will be no different.” Red pulled her to him and used one finger to brush her hair behind one ear. “Do you think the little guy will be able to get into their systems?”

  “I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that he’ll be our trump card. I can’t wait to get back to S’Korr and see what he uncovers.”

  “I guess your days of running around in your underwear are over?” Red asked sadly.

  “Probably,” Lindy replied just as sadly. “But as you say, we’re on the clock. Show Low is going to challenge us in some new and exciting way. We need to be ready.”

  “And that is how teammates talk. Welcome to the crew,” Red replied with a smile.

  Chapter Ten

  Red was the first off the ship. He stopped in the doorway to scan the area beyond the parking apron. The spaceport was surrounded by a heavy jungle. The entirety of that which they would call civilization had been carved from a living and writhing world.

  The heat wasn’t oppressive, but the humidity weighed heavily. An initial panic washed over Red. He hadn’t tested his nanocyte upgrade against heat. He snarled and forced himself down the stairs. Just because the fear nagged at him, it didn’t mean he was paralyzed. Courage drove him forward. His eyes sharpened at a movement in the trees—only a monkey-like creature. It disappeared quickly.

  A hovercraft came their way. Red signaled for the others to remain in the ship as the droning scream of the vehicle’s fans approached. Red nearly retreated into the ship when the hovercraft descended to the ground and shut down its
engines. A shiny logo was painted on the side.

  Office of the Chairman.

  The driver stuck his head out the window. “Magistrate Anoa?”

  Red pointed to the ship. Rivka waved from the hatch. Red kept his eyes on the driver.

  “I’m to take you to your appointment with the Chairman. He sends his regards,” the driver yelled.

  “Classy,” Jay said from behind Rivka.

  “At least we have a ride. That limo on S’Korr wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.”

  “The taxi we took was downright crap. I thought the limo was pretty sweet. Not sure about that thing, though,” Lindy grumbled pointing at the rust-streaked hovercraft.

  “Here,” Ankh said from farther back in the ship.

  Jay turned to find him holding a small stack of coins. “We have credits. We don’t need money like that,” she told him.

  “These are devices that you place near computer systems to give Erasmus and me the least amount of interference as we access them.”

  “You’re the best, Ankh!” Jay declared and kissed him on top of his head before he could escape. She handed the coins to Rivka. They were magnetic but also had pull-off adhesive.

  “I’ll get them close, but I don’t want to leave them behind,” Rivka said.

  “You shouldn’t have to. Once we have access, we’ll bypass the devices.”

  “How will I know you have access?”

  “You won’t. They won’t know we were there, and neither will you.” Ankh disappeared inside the ship. Rivka nodded slowly, appreciating Ankh’s effort to give her plausible deniability.

  “I’m my own search warrant,” she declared to the others. “I wouldn’t be here if there weren’t evidence of a crime.”

  “I’m not sure that logic makes sense,” Lindy remarked.

  Rivka smiled. “Once I heard it, it sounded pretty hokey. Let’s go find us some predicate offenses!” she declared and strolled down the stairs with the two other women in tow. Red boarded the hovercraft to find that it was much nicer on the inside than the outside. The rest of the team climbed aboard.