by M. Garnet
The idea for Keenan was to get something else in his hand, to have an excuse to be walking in these upper halls. Sure enough, there was a window only a short way down the hall, and behind it was an open staircase. Not only that but there was also a working elevator past the window. There was no way that Keenan was going to get inside that elevator, but he might consider riding on top of it in the right conditions.
Stopping at the window and telling the soldier at the window he was supposed to take something down to the cafeteria to an officer, he waited. The man hunted for a few minutes and came back with two large envelopes.
Not thanking the soldier, since he was a Sub-leader of higher rank, Keenan turned, and while the man was in the window, he went down the stairs. Waiting a couple of minutes, he turned and went up the stairs. No one was at the window as he passed to continue to climb, taking two or three steps at a time. Still, he did not let his haste cause any noise.
The next level was not a surprise; it was precisely what he was looking for, Nor's office. Keenan stopped for only a moment to observe the sight and get the small control for the bomb out of his pocket. It was now time for action and facing his father's killer.
Standing up tall, Keenan walked up the steps and turned into the room. He had walked about ten or twelve steps before someone yelled for him to halt, and officers pulled out guns to point at him.
Holding up both hands, as if in surrender, but holding a small box with a red light, Keenan spoke. "I've come to warn your Chief of a bomb on this satellite."
"Let him speak." The man standing behind a table with several others gave the order. Keenan looked over to meet Nor for the first time and was disappointed. Nor did not have the visage of a monster and did not seem to be of a disturbing human to scare small children.
In fact, the man of average height, with mousy brown hair, and the pale blue eyes of his grandmother, was just average. Keenan decided that if the man had been walking in a crowd, you would not notice him. He had on a military uniform; the only difference from all the other soldiers was that it was a very dark brown.
Ignoring the pistols pointing at him, Keenan walked up to the table and placed the small box with the red light on the table. Some of the men stepped back, Nor on the other side, and a couple of others looked at it.
"Let me explain. That is a fuse and a body connection for a bomb. Find and try to defuse the bomb, and it will explode. Try to alter that small box, and the bomb will explode." There was dead silence in the room except for the shuffle of feet.
"My body connection is attached to the bomb. Kill me, and the bomb explodes, and if I do not walk about thirty feet in a different direction after ten minutes, the bomb will explode. Any questions?"
There were several people talking over each other, and he heard a couple leaving in a hurry. Turning, Keenan pointed at one man who was working his way towards the exit. "My ship is located just off the dock area. No one is to leave the satellite in any size unit, or they will be blasted away by missiles."
Again, there was movement and mumbling until Nor raised his hand. "Silence." His voice had the right effect, and there was silence in the room. "I'm not taking your word; where is the damn bomb."
Smiling, Keenan knew he was talking to the right person. Regardless of his harmless looks, it was the mind inside that made this man dangerous and evil. With no hesitation, Keenan told him where the bomb was located, and they all stood around the table and waited.
Hearing the elevator begin running behind him, Keenan knew that a couple of the officers had used it to go down to the bottom level. After a few minutes, the shifting of feet could be heard again. Even with a working elevator, it was a long way from the top to the bottom of the old satellite. At last, a man standing next to Nor listened to a comm attached to his ear, nodded.
Nor looked at the red light on the small box and then over at Keenan. "Tell them not to touch it yet."
Now Keenan had their full attention; even though guns were still pointed at him, all eyes were bobbing between him and Nor.
"What do you want?" Nor asked as he looked behind him and pulled up a chair to sit down.
"To ask you a question." Keenan stepped closer to the table. "You ordered the destruction of a tourist spaceship called the First Chaism. It killed everyone on board and some of the passengers with my family, especially my father. Why?"
Nor looked at one of the men beside him. "The First Chaism?" It seemed that Nor was asking the man about the incident.
"Sir, it was several years ago and ordered by the Leader."
"Get me an announcer and contact the Leader." Nor gave the order, and some of the soldiers began to move, to retrieve some items and set up some equipment, including a screen and keyboard on the table in front of the man in dark brown.
Still standing in front of the table and amazed at all the action, Keenan finally saw the holo head of the Leader of the Transformed come up and float above the table in front of Nor.
"Hello Nor, this is unusual." The head rotated as if looking around the room. "Oh, I see the Veldan has visited you."
"Yes, Grandmom. We have a serious situation here. I, uh, have some soldiers out on deployment for a special surprise. We are on an old satellite, and, well, this bastard has us under a threat of a bomb."
"Oh. Well, does he want a ransom?" The holo head turned to look at Keenan. "I am a dangerous person to try to hold for a ransom."
"I just want to know why Nor ordered the destruction of the tourist ship First Chaism in order to kill my family." Keenan knew his voice had venom in it as he spoke.
The woman's head rotated back to look at Nor. "What is he talking about. Explain it to me."
"You gave me the order."
The silence in the room was different without even anyone moving.
"Nor, you are an idiot at times. Explain to me what you are talking about and what it has to do with some high price tourist ship." The older woman was almost hissing.
Leaning forward and showing anger, Nor glared at the head of his Grandmother. "You ordered the death of Radmon Holt."
There was silence for a moment, and it looked like the woman was talking to someone else in her room. Perhaps they were checking the records on that one name. "Yes, I have it now. I ordered the death of a Radmon Holt because he would not repay a debt. It was to show others that you could not trick or play games with the Transformed. What does that have to do with the Veldan and his bomb?"
Nor fidgeted on his chair for a second, and then he looked around the room as if seeking some aid. "Well, Radmon Holt took a vacation and was on that tourist ship."
Now the silence could be cut with a dull knife, as the results of the situation hit both Keenan and the Leader at the same time. Nor had taken out a whole ship full of innocent travelers to kill one man, and it wasn't meant to be Keenan's family.
"You stupid boy. You stupid, stupid boy. So now this Veldan tells us that his family was among those on that ship that in your blunder you killed. Do you even know who the Veldan are? They are the most dangerous, most skilled, and armed killers in the universe. Even the OOW are afraid of them and beg to use one, just one, to help in wars. You possibly now have them after us. My hope is that he does blow all of you up. Perhaps that will satisfy his people."
Shaking his head, Keenan stepped back. "It is my intent not to kill all of your soldiers. Just the one who ordered the death of my family. That is why I am here."
"Well," the head of the older woman who was the leader looked around the room. "It is better for peace that we do it for you. Officers, take my grandson and toss him out the nearest airlock."
"No." Nor stood up with that word as a scream and looked at his officers. "I order you to stand down."
There was only a little hesitation, but when the first officer in the room moved, the rest followed. It did take several of them to hold onto the fighting and kicking Commander of the military. But there was no doubt whose orders they were going to follow, as the screaming could
be heard when the elevator doors closed. After all, in the competition on this military, if someone higher was eliminated, everyone had a chance to move up the chain.
Looking at the head floating over the equipment on the table, he did see the real leader and an evil person. She was as bad as the grandson, who had killed a whole ship for one person. She did still speak to him.
"What about the bomb?"
"Make arrangements to get some freighters in here and get your soldiers back to their bases. As soon as I know that it is clear, I will set the bomb off. I can't deactivate it, so this satellite is doomed. I will be watching."
She sighed. "I understand."
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Did that old bitch kill her grandson?" Thea asked as they pulled away from the debris of bits of metal from an old satellite.
"And did you have to blow up that satellite?" Bruno was popping off practice shots at different pieces of drifting pieces of metal that had blown up when a bomb went off next to a lot of fuel.
"You forgot to give me a fucking shut-off switch." Keenan smiled as he slid down further into the comfortable seat.
"I would have built-in a shut-off switch." It was Poly adding her small bit of comment. "Switches were invented back in the sixteen hundred Earth time on that planet. They were used for…."
"Enough." Bruno cut off the small bot that would rattle on with all the ancient information found on the Universal Thread and in old archives until you had just to cut it off.
"So, where do we go next, Boss." Thea had her pretty fingers over the glowing lights for the limited AI and navigator.
"Well," Keenan took a sip from the whiskey bottle. "We have a great ship and coin in our pockets. We need to find a card game and some easy whores. It's time to find someplace without fucking crime lords and anyone who has a bastard that needs to be put down."
"Got it, boss. Heading to the inner portion of the civilized worlds. Lots of people with coin to burn, and lawmen to take care of their problems, so they don't need help from roughnecks like us to step up." Thea worked her magic on the dash, and they all sat back relaxing.
It was time to let the good ship Adamant move them to somewhere interesting. Just four lost souls who had formed an amazing crew. After all, what could probably go wrong?
Does anyone hear of a beautiful woman who might cause trouble and need help?
The End.
About the Author
M. Garnet, the award-winning author known by her friends and fans as Muriel Garnet Yantiss, can be found on Facebook. But her website is under her author's name at www.mgarnet.com. M. Garnet has written for many years and has many books on a cross-genre, but all seem to be Happy Ever After. She admits she has a special like for SciFi since reading Dune so many years ago.
Her own long and exciting life adds details to her stories that bring a complete and interesting process that gives the reader some education they might not have known before reading her books. The inside workings of foundries, diamond mining on Inuit territory in Canada, and best of all, we already found a way to talk instantly from point to point to break Einstein's theory on Faster than Light.
Ain't life grand? Drop Muriel a note; she loves to hear from people and answers everyone. [email protected]
Don't forget to add a review where you got this story as it helps others and the author.
Books by M. Garnet
THE VELDAN SERIES (SHAPESHIFTERS)
Help the Beast #1
Forgive the Beast #2
A Bounty on the Beast #3
Hunting in the Gull Wing Ship #4
Love the Beast #5
The Captain’s Beast #6
Stealing the Beast’s Heart #7
My Hidden Beast #8
Veldan Vengeance #9
THE STORM PLANET SERIES
1st Twins Slave
2nd An Assassin for the Slave
3rd Storm Slave
4th Storm Princess
5th The Rise of the Storm Warrior
SCIFI NOVELS
The Stellar Summons
The Dancer’s Summons
Brae Ter
The Spacebinder and The Thousand and One Nights
File a Proper Claim
Slave of the Blue Ghost
Submit Objective
Hunting in the Gull Wing Ship
Predators of the Pyramid
CRIMES AND MAGIC SERIES
Midnight Flavors
The Midnight Queen
The Black Cat Mystery
Killing with Love
THE FAR FUTURE SERIES
The Rift Avatar #1
The Rift Traveler #2
The Runaway Jewel
The Hidden Jewel
The Death Mask Moon
WITCH’S CURSE SERIES
Witch’s Smoke Aaron
Witch’s Moisture Breandon
Witch’s Heat Cian
Witch’s Cold Donal
Witch’s Curse Collection
LOVERS CURSE SERIES
Lovers Knot of Four
Untie the Lover’s Knot
MOORE, MOOR & MORE INVESTIGATORS SERIES
There be Ghosts Here
A Hole in the Ground
The Vampire Cult Investigation
How do you Capture a Vampire
STORIES in contemporary time (STAND ALONE NOVELS)
Drafted
Black Ghost Runner
Eyes of Danger
Falling to the Viking
Probing Shadows
The Midnight Queen
A Master Trade
Bloodline
Lost in Viking Slavery
1 No & 1000 Yeses
The Storm Tamer
The Younger Tea
Give me back my Tiger
Buried Secrets
The meaning of Xortdan
A Voice in the Darkness
HOLIDAY STORIES (STAND ALONE NOVELLAS)
Trading Parties
Celebrate a Holiday Eve
Decorate my Palm Tree
I got the wrong Cupid
The Future Nutcracker Prince
The Stormwrecked Christmas
THE ANCIENT DARK SERIES
The White Wolf’s Heart
Gypsy Magic for the White Lord
The Shadow Walker
STORIES BY H. BERYL SERIES
Drawn In
Letter Training
Emergence is the Process
Midnight Black and Blue
Shadow of Doubt
A Xmas for Xo
Emergence of Heat & Crime
The Wrong Collection