The Jolo Vargas Space Opera Series Box Set

by J. D. Oppenheim

  She was backed into the corner, crouched down, her eyes big and desperate. She didn’t yell out and for some reason Jolo didn’t think she was going to. She was scared.

  “Sorry,” Jolo said. “Don’t tell the old lady. I’m new. I’m just hungry is all and they don’t give us nothing but the black.”

  She relaxed a little and stood up straight. “You can have the food, just leave now.”

  “Okay,” said Jolo, heading for the door. “Hey, do you know where the new girl is?”

  “Skinny, brown hair?”

  “Yeah.”

  “All the way down on the right.”

  Jolo left the tray and ran down the hall. He made it to the last door on the right and it was open just like the other one. And there was Katy asleep on a bed. Her hair was clean and the sheets were white. She was wearing a blue jumpsuit from a Fed merchant outfit. It looked new and had a big G on the sleeve. Garlande. He’d taken from them when he was a pirate.

  And he stood there for a moment and just watched her sleep, her hair flowing over the pillow. And right then, she didn’t look like his pilot. She looked like a woman, and he loved her. And he would kill every man on Earth to protect her. He never should have let her come, but then again she wouldn’t have let him leave without her.

  These are the mad ramblings of a man staring down at the woman he loves, he thought. She’d wake up in a moment and then she would wield her power over him as she had always done.

  He sat down next to her and she woke up with a start, but then saw it was Jolo. They held each other for awhile and didn’t say anything.

  Then Jolo looked her over like Merthon used to do after they’d seen some action lifting boxes from unsuspecting freighter captains. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”

  “No. I’m fine.”

  “Did they…?” Jolo got tense and had a hard time getting the next few words out. “Did they touch you?”

  “No. Jolo.”

  “I swear I’ll kill every single one of those bastards if they touch you.” His breathing was faster and he was getting hot and he realized he was standing with his hand on the handle of the Colt.

  “Sit,” said Katy, patting her hand on the bed. “They aren’t going to touch me.”

  Jolo sat down. “I don’t think you understand the situation, Katy. They intend to, uh… you know. And I don’t want any other man near you.” He was standing again. He needed a target. One of those snaggle toothed, skinny bastards would be nice at first. Then Hazuki.

  “They don’t let the men up here and they impregnate the women without sexual contact. But that’s not why they aren’t going to touch me.”

  Jolo knelt down beside the bed. That last bit didn’t make sense. “What are you talking about?”

  Katy reached for Jolo’s hand and looked into his eyes. Now Jolo was a little more worried but wasn’t quite sure why. “Out with it,” he said.

  “I’m already pregnant.”

  Jolo jumped up and was two steps towards the door with the Colt out and ready. “Ahh, Katy. I’m so sorry. I’ll kill that bastard.” But Katy was smiling. The Colt came down slowly to a rest at his side, pointing down at the tile floor.

  “No, you dummy,” Katy said. “We are pregnant.”

  Jolo dropped the gun, picked it up again, holstered it, and took a step back towards the bed. This was too much. Now? In the middle of hell?

  “How?” he said. Katy smile faded and he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

  “How do you think,” her words a little stiff.

  And then good sense finally kicked in. He knelt down beside her. “I love you and I’ll do anything for you and, uh, the…”

  “…baby.”

  “Right. Baby.” He said the word but it scared him a little.

  He gave her a hug and they both settled down. He looked into her eyes. She was crying. “I love you,” he said. “I love the baby. And you’re gonna have to trust me if we’re gonna make it out of here.” He brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes, Jolo. But I don’t like where this is heading.”

  “I had a long talk with George and the rest about this and I convinced them I could break you out of here and bring you back in one piece. But now…” His voice trailed off and he stared at the floor. Blue tile.

  “Jolo. You get me out of here right now.” She used her power on him and in most situations it would work, but not this time.

  “Riley said you’d be safe here and I believe him. They’re giving you real food and a clean room. Out there they don’t care if you live or die. They’ll just throw you in a hole and let the worm eat you.”

  “Jolo. You get me out of here.”

  “I will. But not now.”

  “What worm?”

  “Oh. You haven’t heard? There’s a giant worm that likes to eat… people. They call her the Queen. Hazuki feeds anyone he doesn’t like or is no use to him to her.”

  “George?”

  “He’s fine.”

  “Oh, thank God.” But Jolo couldn’t hide his sadness from her.

  “What? Who?”

  “Barth.”

  Katy started to cry.

  “Katy,” Jolo said. “You have to stay here or they’ll kill you. Play their game.”

  “They take the babies,” Katy said, still crying. I’ve seen young girls and they look well fed. I don’t know about the boys.”

  “The boys live like animals down in the mall. They’re all young. No one older than fourteen or fifteen.”

  “Hazuki takes them,” said Katy.

  “And the girls end up here.”

  “Repopulation?”

  “No. Hazuki is a synth. He can move like George, faster than me, and I’ve already put a few holes in him and he keeps coming back.”

  “BG.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Shit.” Katy pulled Jolo in close. “You gotta go get some guns and take this shitehole down.”

  “I can’t. Hazuki’s got them too well guarded. I couldn’t’ve gotten Koba and the rest out without George’s help. He saved us.”

  “There’s got to be more than one weapons stash. Think about it. Right before Earth fell there was terrible fighting. Go to a nearby city and search there.”

  “Great idea, but I don’t know where I’m going and the Argossy is probably being dismantled right now as we speak.”

  “Wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.” Katy came back a few minutes later and handed Jolo a small, rectangular booklet made of paper. It reminded him of Korley’s map, but this one was larger and had red and blue lines running all over it.

  “It’s a map of the old transportation system,” said Katy. “I believe we’re here in a city that was called Atlanta. See where I-seven-five and I-eight-five meet.”

  “Where’d you get this?”

  “There’s a room full of books down the hall.” Katy traced her finger on the map south along I-75. “Go south to this town here. Macon. It’s about 120 kilometers away. Look how all of the transpo routes feed right into it. There’s bound to be a weapons stash there.”

  “Yeah, but this weapons stash here was top secret, underground. We had a database of information to pull from. How am I gonna find another secret stash like that?”

  “You’re not. Just find enough guns to take out Hazuki.”

  “Good point. I’ll find the local police force building. There’ll be an armory. Maybe older guns like we need.”

  “How will you break in?”

  Jolo thought for a moment. “I’ll have Koba rig up the jet I used to get down here. If it’ll melt through alacyte it’ll get through any old Earth vault.”

  Katy was sitting straight up with her eyes narrow and her chin in her hand. “Yeah, but what about transpo. Even if you could steal a ship, can’t get the engines to wind up.”

  “I’ll figure that one out,” said Jolo. He watched her staring off to the side, her eyebrows furrowed, thinking. Jolo checked his internal cloc
k. He’d been gone 42 minutes and 14 seconds. It was time to go. He grabbed Katy’s hand. “You know I love you.”

  She nodded.

  “And I’m coming back for you. Stay here and learn as much as you can in the library. Don’t draw attention to yourself.”

  She started to cry again. “It sucks being left behind.”

  “You aren’t being left. And it’s better than a cage.”

  She stopped crying and looked him in the eye. “Get the guns.”

  Alexxus

  The Federation patrol ship Alexxus lay on her side, nose down, starboard engine melting the ice. Jolo couldn’t tell whether it was smoke or steam or a combination of both rising up from the port engine. The rear hatch was open, but Jolo saw no survivors. The single turret on the underside and the two top-mounted railguns were black and smoking, as if she’d just come from a fight. The patrol ships usually ran recon missions in teams of two and Jolo wondered where her partner was. The hull had AXX-012B on the side so there was a matching 012A somewhere out there.

  Once again, inside the mall, there’d been a gravity shift and everything had floated. The moment everyone came back down they ran straight up top. The plan was to beat Hazuki and his men to the punch and so far so good.

  Greeley and Jolo ran most of the way to roughly the same location the Argossy went down. They’d stashed Koba’s ice melter jet and Jolo was relieved when he saw the orange box still there, not too far from the crash site.

  While Greeley went for the box, Jolo checked with his internal computer for the official specs on the AXX model Fed patrol ship. Stock configuration called for the twin railguns, so the turret was an add on. Five man crew. Two marines, one extra battle suit. Jolo scrolled through the data and started to think they’d have to abort. And then on the last page of specs: The AXX is equipped with a rear hold bay for a single Archer Crossley V4 hover bike, 40 meter drop capacity in standard gravity, forward laser gun on some models.

  “You’re doin’ it agin, ain’t you?” said Greeley, out of breath from lugging the box to the crash site.

  “I’m checking the specs on that boat. What’s it to you?”

  “Yeah, but it just ain’t right, Jolo. You starin’ off into the distance still as death.”

  “After all the shite we been through, Greeley?”

  “Just a little too much like George.”

  “George and I are similar in some ways. He likes to think we are brothers.”

  Greeley pondered that for a moment. “Yeah, but we are brothers, right?”

  “You and me? That’s about the--” and then Jolo stopped. Sometimes it was hard to tell if Greeley was talking shit but his usually strong, deep voice had hit a high thin note there at the end. “Of course, man. We are brothers. You and me.”

  “So we gotta include George, too, huh?” Greeley said in his usual, steady tone.

  “Yeah.”

  “But not Koba.”

  Just then a woman tumbled out of the rear hatch. The back of her flight suit was smoking. Jolo and Greeley ran up and she tried to pull out her weapon, one of the smaller Fed energy blasters Greeley called stingers, because they didn’t do much but sting when you had on a battle suit.

  Jolo grabbed her hand and gave the blaster to Greeley, then rolled her on her back so the ice would put out the smoldering flight suit.

  “Comm is down. Too many bogies.” she said. “Alexxus A miss—” and she stopped there, her breathing coming in short gasps.

  Jolo jumped up into the rear hold, the entire ship angling down into the ice. He half slid, half fell forward right towards the cockpit. The comms officer and navigator were dead. The impact from the crash had crushed the cockpit but there was a burn hole from a high-powered energy weapon that had cut a ragged gash from the nose straight down through the sub-level where the engineer and the marine would have been.

  They were gone, maybe sucked out into space. Jolo sighed. He could have used five good people right about then, even if they were Fed-trained grunts whose sum total fighting experience had been to get burned up by the BG then sucked down to Earth. They must have been desperate to to risk jump point one.

  The engineering hold was tight and full of access panels that held the core propulsion, control and life support systems. Somewhere in here was a gift for Greeley. Jolo accessed his computer again for the Fed protocol sheet on the Alexxus. He searched for the engineering section and then scanned for any mention of the word “marine.”

  Jolo didn’t understand why the Fed would house a single marine on a tiny boat like this. It seemed a waste of resources. No one wanted this little boat, including the BG, but if they did, they would take it easily with only one marine on board as defense. Better use of the weight would have been upgraded engines, more power cells, shorter jump calcs. Anything. But that was pirate thinking.

  Finally, he found it.

  Federation Marine assault armor shall be housed in the forward bay, section 14, beneath the main nav processor.

  Jolo pulled up the schematic, then glanced at the far wall and quickly spotted a rectangular alacyte panel in the approximate position. He pushed it but it didn’t open. The whole ship was slanting down into the ice, but even so he could see that the seams where the large inner panels met on the walls of the ship were not straight. The little boat was slightly twisted from the force of impact, which meant the panel was pinched. He searched around hopelessly for some kind of tool but in the end just gave it a good kick. Amazingly the panel slowly extended out. And there, still in plastiseal, was a case with Fed markings: AX34 Battle Armor, Close Quarters, Green, All-size.

  The close quarters rigs were lighter and designed for fighting inside buildings and for onboard ship defense. The standard blues had heavier armor, but made movement and response time a tad slower, which didn’t help when fighting a Jaylen. Jolo pulled out the case, lugged it back up to the edge of the rear hatch and tossed it down next to Greeley.

  “Present,” Jolo yelled as the box hit the ice.

  “What the hell’s tha—” said Greeley. “Ah Captain. Thank you! Holy shite balls! Ooh, come to papa,” he said. Jolo watched as Greeley attached the suit to his body. This was one of the newer models, each part adjusted to his size and shape, unlike the old ones which were form fitted to each soldier.

  “Always wondered how the greenies would hold up in battle,” Greeley said. He got both leg and foot armor in place, gingerly placing the big thigh piece on his wounded leg. He walked around with a hint of a limp. “Very nice,” he said. He got the chest and lumbar pieces on and waited for the suit to set in place. “Wonder how well it’ll take a hit.”

  “Fine with an energy weapon, but it’s the kinetic stuff I worry about. How’s the pilot?”

  “Breathin’. But she needs help.”

  “Ok. Hazuki’s boys are coming. We’ll take them out, but leave one. They’ll want the woman and they’ve got food and medicine. She’ll be better off there than with Riley and the wild boys.”

  Just then there was a loud BANG and Greeley hit the ground. He jumped up cussing. “HOLY SHITE BALLS! THAT HURTS!” There was a shiny round mark in the chestplate where a large caliber bullet had hit. Jolo took cover inside the ship while Greeley continued to cuss, his face red and spit flying out of his mouth. Jolo popped his head up and saw men approaching.

  Greeley, in a rage, ran out to meet them, hop stepping to ease the strain on his bad leg. And this is why Greeley would never be a leader, Jolo thought. But as a soldier he was the best he’d ever been around, minus the moments of sheer idiocy. Greeley had the helmet on but his arms were bare. The man with the kinetic rifle had reloaded and fired again and Greeley tumbled to the ground again and Jolo jumped down onto the ice next to the pilot to do what he could. But by then Greeley was back up and running at them. The ragged men fired a flurry of wild shots, but Greeley was in range soon enough and took the man with the big rifle out, then the man next to him. The other two ran off in different directions.

 
Greeley came back still breathing hard, his chest rising and falling quickly, the muscles on his bare arms bulging. There were now two round marks on his chestplate, but Greeley was still standing.

  “That hurts somethin’ fierce, Cap’n,” he said, wincing as he put on the arm pieces.”

  “You break protocol and you get killed,” said Jolo, coldly.

  “I got the job done,” growled Greeley.

  “I need you, Greeley. The crew needs you. Katy needs you. Don’t throw away your life in anger.”

  Greeley started attaching the arm pieces, ripping off the plastiseal and throwing it onto the ground. He pulled the last piece out and then he kicked the metal box the suit came it, sending it sliding over the ice into the ship.

  Jolo changed the subject. “How come Hazuki sent out four untrained goons to take the ship?”

  “That untrained monkey got me twice.”

  “Yeah, but they come at us from the wrong angle, all bunched up like idiots. It’s like they knew the ship would be poorly defended. I suppose they weren’t expecting us.”

  They stood there for a moment, Greeley’s breathing returning to normal.

  “What we gonna do with the pilot?” said Greeley.

  “Well, you just scared off her rescuers. So why don’t you drop her off in the mall near Paco’s. They’ll take her to the hotel and patch her up and pretty soon she’ll be sleeping on a bed with clean sheets and eating hot food brought to her on a tray. She can come with us when we go get Katy.”

  “Dang. I’d trade in Betsy and the suit for one tray of hot, freighter grub.”

  “Me too. Get her there as fast as you can. Don’t get too close. And don’t get cocky in the suit and engage them. You can’t take all of them even with the suit. Put that thing in low-power mode and keep Koba and the rest safe until I get back.”

  “What you gonna do?”

  “There’s a little somethin’ down in the lower hold waitin’ for me. Then I’m gonna head due South and hopefully find the main transportation route to another city.”

  Greeley helped Jolo gently pick up the pilot. “Be careful.”

  “I will. Thanks.” He watched Greeley head back and then ran down to the lower hold.