Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  “Aahhh, if only I were the sort to fling myself after a commodious lady such as yourself ,” he replied, taking hold of the woman’s hand and kissing the knuckle. “But alas, I must remain here, which is quite unfortunate… for us both.”

  “Oooohhh, I love a man who uses big words!”

  “Especially when the last one he used basically called you fat,” a patron stated loudly before finishing his drink. “Goodnight everyone!” Kryltane sneered at the man as the large woman turned around in her seat.

  “This is where you run,” the bartended whispered, leaning over toward Kryltane. Looking at the man, Kryltane grabbed the bottle of whiskey just as he was grabbed and made to spin around in his chair.

  “Okay, maybe it’s not all fat!” Kryltane thought as he looked at a very angry woman. She grabbed his shirt and he splashed her face with whiskey. His aim could have not been better as he scored both eyes. The woman released him and grabbed her face.

  “And now I dub thee, the Spacecraft Commodious!” Kryltane shouted as he hammered the bottle down on the woman’s head. The bottle did not break and the woman fell to the floor. Laughter and screams erupted from the other patrons, a good number of whom had been placing bets on how everything would come out between the two. No one screamed louder than the man who had bet the young student would strike the large woman.

  Kryltane did notice that there were two who were not cheering or laughing as they stood up from their table; the young man could easily spot them. They glared at him, and they were two people who were equally, if not more rotund than the stunned woman at his feet, and all three seemed to resemble one another. One of them had to walk around the table where they were seated so their approach was not an even one.

  “Siblings?!” he exclaimed. “How are all three of you here and the kitchen is still open?” As more people started to laugh, the two siblings charged Kryltane.

  “Think fast,” he said, tossing the bottle to the closest brother. Looking up and catching the bottle, it was dropped when Kryltane landed a kick to the man’s crotch. Kryltane caught the bottle in time to smack against the hand arcing around for his face. This time the bottle did break, as did a few bones in the hand it had struck. The older brother slowly fell to his knees as the younger brother clutched at his wrist. Kryltane was grabbed from behind and lifted from his feet.

  “Can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” Jocasta said as she plopped a small stack of credits on the bar, looking at the bartender long enough to get a smiling nod from the man. She marched quickly out of the Stick & Rudder with Kryltane in hand.

  “Oh no, I’m good for a second,” Kryltane protested, keeping a good grip on the remains of the bottle. “After about seventy-two hundred of them, I can get a little distracted!” Jocasta released the young man just as he was about to go off in a tirade. “I mean, what the hell, woman?!”

  “Easy, easy, easy!” she pleaded as she tried to keep from laughing. Most unexpectedly, Jocasta was coming to like Kryltane. She had heard some of the exchange and liked both his cool head and amount of bite in this particular dog. “You’re right, I was gone way too–” Jocasta leaned forward into a hard-pressed kiss. Kryltane’s arms flew around her body and they turned so that her back was against the wall. Jocasta’s cane was dropped, but remained standing as it leaned against the wall. She moaned as she guided Kryltane’s hand inside her coat. The moment he had a hold of her projectile gun, she pushed his shoulder and he spun around, quickly supporting his gun hand and bending at the knees.

  “What do they teach at that damn school?!” she thought as she came away from the wall, grabbed her cane, drew her blaster, and put eyes on the rover she had barely noticed in time.

  “Satithe, give me telescopic with ears to match,” she whispered as she moved after the large man who was carrying a charged energy rifle as if he were about use stealth to engage multiple enemies. Jocasta matched his pace but surpassed his measure of silence.

  “Captain–” Satithe warned.

  “Look out!” Kryltane cried out as he tackled Jocasta to the ground. She could hear the soft hissing sound of shells just missing her head. Projectiles ricocheted off the wall and Jocasta quickly rolled away from Kryltane as she tried to get a bearing on who was shooting at her. As the shooting stopped, she found that she could see only smoke from where the shooter had been standing.

  “I didn’t even feel anything,” she whispered.

  “Ghost Walkers!” Kryltane winced as he looked at his chest. He was bleeding and the sight of his own blood scared him.

  “Bite down on your sleeve!” Jocasta commanded. “No arm, just fabric!” As soon as he had done what he had been told, Jocasta threw her cane up and across the street. The ball of the cane met with the window and all of the glass shattered. She quickly grabbed Kryltane, hopped and then jumped. She flew through the open window with projectiles hitting all around the wall and inside the room where she had landed. She quickly holstered her weapon and laid Kryltane down on the floor in-between crates. “Satithe, I need me some cover. Pull the shade!”

  “We could send word to the crew,” CK stated, “but they’re too far away to make a difference in this.”

  “Put it on the open channel,” Satithe commanded.

  “Spartans!” CK cheered.

  “It’s a longshot, but it’s the best we can do.”

  “I will upload to the Black Gate Grid.”

  “Master, are you receiving me?” Satithe called to Dungias. There was no response and the computer quickly initiated her locator function. Their master was on board the Xara-Mansura, in the arboretum, and his bio-signs were indicative a very deep meditative state.

  “The Master cannot hear you,” Alpha advised before closing the channel.

  “Alpha!” Satithe called, attempting to open another channel. The entire arboretum was no longer on her network. All the sensors there were offline. It was a matter Satithe would investigate another time. CK was on the station network and broadcasting. Satithe needed to answer her Jocasta.

  “As you wish, Captain,” the computer replied, sounding reluctant to carry out the order. An energy pulse was emitted from the cane and Satithe knew it would keep Jocasta from being seen by electronic devices for fifteen seconds, but it would also knock out communications for twenty.

  Jocasta opened her med kit and quickly applied a Gwarthine patch to Kryltane. He closed his eyes and started to breathe easier as the medicine quickly went to work. “That’s a quick fix,” she thought, but I don’t know what all that bullet did to him… and some idiot had to go and sever ties with the closest thing she has to a doctor!

  “Focus, girl. You stopped the bleeding and scrambled the ones that made him bleed. Just don’t take all day flushing the crapstacks! Yeah, cuz this one we go at, even if we have to dance around this spearhead first!

  “Sorry about this, Tane. But you stay put and I’ll be right back.”

  “Take this,” he choked to say as he held up the pistol. “We both know they’re not here for me.”

  “Baby, Momma’s got toys to spare,” she smiled, taking hold of the gun. “Photonic,” she said and the gun format changed. “Careful where you shoot that!

  “Let’s dance!” Jocasta thought as she stood up and bolted for the open window. Her cane twirled around her hand before she jumped, clicked her heels together, and caught the side of the window frame. She swung outside the window and a rifle shot blasted the window frame just above her head. Her feet slammed against the side of the building just as the head of her cane touched the same section of the wall. Dozens of tiny cracks formed making a nearly perfect circle around her feet and Jocasta was launched up at an angle. She flew across the street and on top of the Stick & Rudder.

  “What the hell was that?!” one of Nothan’s men asked as he reloaded his sniper’s rifle.

  “We’ve got movement on the far side of the building!” another man yelled. “She’s headed for the park!”

  “Park is right,” Joc
asta thought as she looked at how high she was. With the building standing as something sacred to her, Jocasta had made her way quickly across the roof where she jumped off the side. She could feel her boots absorbing her momentum as she landed on the extended arm of a streetlight. From there she had been thrown deeper into the park, landing in the top of one of the larger trees.

  Dropping straight down, she grunted as her arm was stretched and twisted after taking hold of a branch. Jocasta maintained her grip and only released it when she was sure she could stand the fall. She rolled when she hit the ground and rubbed her right arm a bit. She looked up and smiled at how she had taken a near four-story drop and was able to walk away from it. “The groundskeeper’s gonna be pissed after tonight,” she thought as she dropped to one knee and reached to her back.

  “You back with me, Sati?”

  “Affirmative, Captain! Shall I–”

  “Just hold your horses, girl! I got side-swiped, that’s all. No need to panic. You have a reading on these Ghost Walkers?”

  “Nothing definitive,” Satithe reported. “But to create the type of field-signatures I am reading through your goggles… it would take a tremendous amount of power to maintain.”

  “Which means I’m either dealing with a very potent battery or their toys are just about out of juice,” Jocasta concluded.

  “I concur, and I’ve also uploaded the signature to your heads-up display.”

  “No kidding!” Jocasta said as she jumped up and then off the side of the tree. Three projectiles ripped through the bark, almost decimating the entire tree. Four more shots tried to clip Jocasta out of the air as she jumped three more times and landed in another tree.

  “Flank team, pull back,” a voice commanded; Jocasta immediately placed it.

  “Nothan!” she whispered.

  “The rest of you stay with me. She can’t have too many more jumps like that left in her.”

  “Nothan!” she called out. “This is what we call being really, really rude, baby.” Jocasta lowered her voice again. “Sati, scan for friendlies and fools.”

  “Too bad for you, pirate,” Nothan shouted back. “Your face is all over the Imperial database, darlin’. Five million credits, dead or alive, and Imperial passage perks to boot!”

  “Damn!” she whispered. “I have half a mind to turn myself in!”

  “The perimeter is clear for the next five seconds,” Satithe replied.

  “Detonate,” she commanded. The explosion was powerful and Jocasta was knocked out of the tree. She landed on her feet, however, and drew her blade from her cane. She charged into the blast area, slashing the chest of the first man she came to. He was screaming when she spun away from him and sank her blade deep into the chest of another armoured man. Taking hold of his massive weapon, Jocasta broke the man’s arm to aim it and began firing. Her body shook with the recoil, but it did little to spoil her aim. A warning light on her goggles made her drop to her knee and the man’s shoulder and head exploded. Jocasta pulled her blade free and charged the source of the shot. She hopped to her left before jumping right, avoiding three shots before swinging for the man shooting at her. Her blade passed harmlessly through him and her back bend avoided his next round. She slashed for his legs, but found only air, and her spinning kept her ahead of the next gunshot. Both combatants could hear the warning alarm coming from the man’s power pack and Jocasta smiled coldly, jumping over the man. As she landed, Jocasta could at last feel the man’s presence. He screamed in desperation as she turned. Her kick kept the gun wide of her, and he fired into the stomach of one of his own. Her blade, however, did not miss and she opened up his throat.

  “Captain, use your collection net!” Satithe radioed and Jocasta spun around the slowly dying man. She placed him between herself and the quickly closing gunmen. The dying man’s armour could only take two shots before the rounds started blasting away parts of his body, but it was more than enough time for Jocasta to get her range, toss two flash-bang grenades, and hop on her heels. She jumped up and landed in the midst of three of the Ghost Walkers. Her collection field swept across all three and their torsos were severed from their bodies.

  “How many left, Sati?”

  “Twelve, Captain,” she reported. “Two Ghost Walkers, nine heavy gunners, and Nothan.”

  “Dammit!” Jocasta cursed, reading her power level approach seventy percent.

  “Heads up!” a voice echoed over the park as a pulse of blue light arched over Jocasta and landed in-between the last two Ghost Walkers. The pulse exploded in a blue shimmering light and the area was abruptly changed. A light post, the upper two-thirds of the tree, and the upper half of the statue one of the heavy gunners had been using for cover were all of a sudden no more.

  “Heads off,” the same voice called out as a dark, hooded figure appeared behind the bulk of Nothan’s men. The face-shaded man moved in a fashion that might have fooled some into thinking this his motion was slow. He held a gleaming short sword in either hand and slashed through the necks of two people before anyone could turn around. Two more died in confusion and fright. One died when two heavy gunners tried to shoot the lean figure and missed. Their hesitation made throwing the blades simpler. Jocasta heard a crossbow fire and two bolts screamed across the park, lodging in the head of one man and the back of another. The figure held out his hand and a peculiar crossbow flew to it. Placing the crossbow on his back, he recalled his swords in the same fashion. He deflected both shots that Nothan fired; the second shattered the gun Nothan was using. A quick fanfare saw the blades disappear behind the man’s back and he removed his hood.

  “I’ll be damned!” Jocasta said as she stood up from her point of cover. “And here I thought the knife-lighter trick was the best you had.”

  “No you didn’t,” the Vohlbred man smiled. “And I’ve got my people looking after your friend. He’ll be in a regen in the next five minutes.”

  “Looks like you’ve improved your timing.”

  “It’s early yet,” he said, gesturing toward Nothan and stepping back. Jocasta chuckled as she looked down and turned to face Nothan.

  “I don’t know what’s going to be more satisfying, plugging you or showing my knight in dark armour the ultimate damsel gratitude. Kot-damned side-swiping bounty-hunters! Coming in all heavy-handed. Shooting up the town… and an innocent… but you don’t give a shit about them, do you? Too busy counting your five million, I bet.

  “First move’s yours, Nothan,” she said, rubbing her right hand. “If it’s your mouth, I shoot. If it’s your hand, I shoot. You’re going to die slow and ugly, Armed.” Jocasta knew that calling him the title given to the least of the gun-wearing community would be the only nudge he would require before he lost what was left of his reason. Had he not moved at all, she would have eventually walked away, but she knew he was not in the mindset to fathom that approach. He went for his fastest gun, but it was shot before his hand could reach it.

  “Oh hell no!” she heard her handsome hero whisper as she twirled her blaster and returned it to the holster.

  “Gee, Nothan, I don’t think your gun was armoured,” Jocasta said coldly. “But you’ve got two more… showing.”

  Nothan’s body shook almost uncontrollably as smoke came from his hip. He saw the flash of the blaster fire and he felt his gun receive the shot. But his eyes had failed to see her draw her weapon. He breathed deep and slow, trying to steady himself. He stretched his neck and stared at his target.

  “That’s it,” Jocasta coaxed him. “Get your courage up. A man should have his courage up when he meets the end!”

  Nothan flicked his left arm forward. Jocasta’s shot his middle-finger’s knuckle on his left hand before the small sleeve-holstered pistol could reach his grasp and it tumbled to the ground as Nothan stumbled, clutching the wrist of his wounded hand. He fell to his knees and Jocasta shot through his right hand and left wrist with the next shot, and she holstered her weapon before taking a deep breath and sighing.

&nbs
p; “You might not want to see this,” she warned the handsome stranger.

  “I don’t want to miss a thing,” he quickly replied.

  “Suit yourself,” she said as she approached Nothan. She stood over him, looking down on him for a moment. “His name is Kryltane and he’s a student at the local university. You almost made it a fatal act that he showed me around to the Stick & Rudder tonight, Nothan. You’re definitely not the goods.” Jocasta reached to her belt and produced a grenade. A stiff jab to Nothan’s face stunned him and she caught his shirt to keep him from falling over. “This would be an easy trick for a man who had a working hand, but both of yours are on the fritz. Like I said, slow and ugly. But then again, not really slow!

  “Ten second countdown, imploding gravity pulse, minimum yield,” she said to the grenade and it beeped after the given command. She stuffed the grenade down Nothan’s underwear. “Initiate countdown.” Turning and walking at her normal speed, Jocasta looked up at the man who was now toting an empty launcher. He offered her his free arm and she smiled as she took hold of it.

  “Tynaum Krensteele,” he said softly.

  “Call me JoJo,” she said. They could hear Nothan scream just before the burst of light and slight popping sound of the grenade.

  “Gravity pulse grenade!” the man nodded, obviously impressed. “Definitely a new one. So, where can I walk you, JoJo?”

  “You said my guy is okay?” she asked. Looking at his brace-com for a moment, Tynaum smiled and nodded to the affirmative. “Then take me to your place. I have an ultimate gratitude to deliver.”

  “Rate yourself that high, do you?” Tynaum asked.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll rate me higher.”

  “All chuckles aside, I wasn’t going to hold you to that,” he said softly. “We say all kinds of things to get into the he–” Jocasta put her right hand to his shoulder and gently touched her lips to his.