Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  “Because on a subsequent occasion where you believed you were trapped to a fate, your focal point was to make sure that you did not greet death alone!” The image of Sylgarr’s face flashed through her mind. His Chevalier had not looked too settled either as she stabbed the Imperial InvokeR over and over again. She blurted a slight laugh and steadied herself.

  Jocasta turned around and slapped Dungias hard across the face. “Stop being so right all the god-damned time!”

  “I’ll look into it, Captain.”

  “And nix the contractions,” she said, shaking her head. “They don’t work for you!” Jocasta turned back to the door for the Brig and took in a deep breath. “And Z?”

  “I will reverse the bank transactions,” Dungias said.

  “Leave him the bottom two only,” she ordered. She chuckled once and shook her head. “Improved.

  “All right, knuckleheads,” she said, entering the Brig. “Sati, shock ‘em for me.” Dungias had opened his mouth to speak, but just closed his eyes as Satithe delivered a low level electrical current through the holding cells. All three of them sounded off in pain and anger.

  “What the hell was that for?!” Bruveia screamed as her body started to relax from the shock.

  “Hmmm, a little fire in this one,” Jocasta smiled. “I like that.”

  “Go fuck yourself, lady!” Bruveia hissed back at Jocasta.

  “Whoa, check that. A lot of fire in this one. Z, you’re dismissed. You heard the woman. I have a very intimate moment coming my way.”

  “Captain, perhaps I should remain to–”

  “Do you, or do you not have an appointment?” Jocasta asked, cutting him off from his retort.

  “I do.”

  “Well, those people aren’t going to meet themselves,” she stated before thinking a bit. “Well, technically they do all the time, but you still need to get going, and take the resident brains with you!”

  “Captain, I–”

  “Five’s a crowd, First Mate.” Hearing the finality in her voice, Dungias nodded before walking away. Jocasta watched him walk and then smiled back at Bruveia. “Satithe, could I get some water to put these flames out?” Dungias could hear the woman scream as the hoses in the ceiling initiated the rinsing cycle.

  “Love or hate,” he thought as the doors closed behind him. “With her, it is always one of the two extremes.”

  “That should do for the moment,” Jocasta said as she moved to the next cell. Hennix tried to reach through the bars and grab Jocasta, but the energy pulse struck him before he could even get his wrist through. He fell to the floor moaning. “That’s two,” she muttered, walking to the third cell.

  “Good day, Captain,” Deolun said with a smile as he backed away from the door of his cell.

  “And a good day to you!” she returned with a smile. “Well met indeed. And you are?”

  “Deolun,” he replied. “Deolun Zell. Engineer and pilot.”

  “You certainly are the brains of the group, I’ll give you that,” Jocasta remarked before stepping back from all three cells. “Satithe, open all three cells, please. Oh, and I’m going to need those brace-coms that I know Z made for them.”

  “They are en route at this very moment, Captain.”

  “Thanks, doll.” As all three doors opened, Jocasta leaned against the far wall and yawned. She watched as each of her prisoners stepped out of their cages. She took inventory of their first actions and came to a very quick conclusion of how to best proceed with each of the three people. “Let’s shine a bit of light on the matter here, shall we? You’re all pissed, although Deolun is sharp enough to know that mouthing off or trying to jump me is about as asinine as it gets! To make a long story short, if I had a third and useless nipple, I’d care more about it than your feelings right now.

  “You are thieves,” Jocasta declared. “And believe it or not, that is about the only thing you have going in your favor at this moment, as I am a pirate! You are not here because you tried to steal. You are here because you tried to steal from me! Then a couple of you tried to have attitudes about being caught. Nothing wrong with that until said attitude is spotted and bitch-slapped. Humility is what we use when we cannot see our way through a bad stand! Gods, how did you people get all the way to Black Gate without knowing this?”

  “We were basically all born and raised here,” Deolun offered, in point of fact.

  “Will you shut up?!” Bruveia barked at him.

  “Well, we were!” Deolun argued.

  “Not the point and not the time,” Hennix stressed, shushing them both before looking back at Jocasta with a slightly lowered head.

  “You two on the ends wouldn’t happen to share the same last name, would you?” Jocasta asked.

  “Yes, but we’re cousins!” Bruveia quickly clarified.

  “Raised together, no doubt,” Jocasta grinned. “Go ahead, Deolun, speak up.”

  “Well, Bruveia came to live with us when her parents were lost in transit,” he explained. The hazel-eyed woman started to move when Jocasta let her hand fall near her blaster.

  “I told him to speak,” she said calmly, staring at Bruveia. “And what Momma says, goes! Deolun?”

  “They were Ship Mechs,” he continued. “And not bad ones, either. Her father and my father were brothers in the family business.”

  “Were? My condolences,” Jocasta said plainly, tucking her right thumb into the front of her belt. Hennix looked up to see she was speaking genuinely.

  “Why spend your feelings on it?” Hennix inquired, straining his eyes at her.

  “They say it’s better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all,” Jocasta shared. “In one regard, I can say that’s true. These two knew their parents. I envy them that. What’s your story, Hennix? Other than being in love with Bruveia, that is.”

  “You sure like being in the know, don’t you?” he asked.

  “JoJo Starblazer,” Jocasta said, taking out a cigaro. “Get yourself a Tuitonn and you get to cheat on the rest just like I did with the three of you. You remember the floating little ball, right?”

  “How could we forget?” Hennix replied.

  “Well, he does more than blast your mind, he can read them too. That’s how I know what I know.” Jocasta took out her new lighter, flipped it open and cut off one end before closing it and lighting the other end. “So, it comes to this: you can either stay on and become hopefuls, that’s like a pre-crew status, or I can take you back to Black Gate, sans your equipment, and you make do the best you can.”

  “Sans our equipment?” Hennix asked. Jocasta nodded. “Does that include our weapons?”

  “And our ship?” Deolun added.

  “I’ll spare you the translation of Z-Speak and just say ‘it sure the hell does’!” The doors to the Brig opened up and one of the floating robots brought in the three brace-coms Jocasta had requested. She smiled, blew out her smoke, and took them from the machine. “Thank you very much,” she muttered before tossing one device to each person. “You say ‘yes’, and you put those on. You say ‘no’ and you can step back into the cell until sometime after dinner when I’ll be headed into Black Gate, and I can drop you off then.”

  Hennix looked at the two cousins before taking the brace-com and locking it around his left wrist.

  “And he leads by example,” Jocasta thought. “Me likes!”

  “Shouldn’t we talk about this?!” Bruveia asked. It was clear to see that she was still very aggravated, and Jocasta chuckled.

  “I get it now,” she said, pointing at Bruveia. “You’re not ready to be Second Chair Bitch, are you?!” Bruveia took one step forward but stopped as she looked up at the ceiling. “Satithe, deactivate all security measures in the Brig at once.”

  “Acknowledged, Captain.” Jocasta did not move her eyes from Bruveia as she took off her shoulder holster, her boot knife, and her weapons belt, placing her cane atop the pile. She puffed on her cigaro as her eyes squinted.

  “Anytime
you feel luc–” Bruveia charged, going for a tackle. Jocasta fell backward to the floor and lifted her foot, hurling Bruveia into the wall. She kicked up to her feet and leaned left to avoid Hennix’s very mean overhand right. Her finger thrust found his kidney and locked up his right side. It was simple enough to push him into Deolun who had waited too long to make his move… assuming he was going to make one. He stumbled back, but kept his feet, and quickly moved to grab Hennix.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” Hennix strained, trying to get out of the full-nelson Deolun had quickly applied. “She’s your cousin, man!”

  “And as long as you insist on seeing things that way, we’re always going to be scraping to get by!” Deolun whispered. “Do I have to remind you that we didn’t pay our tab last night?”

  “We were locked up, idiot!”

  “And you think Nealbrun’s going to care?” Deolun fired back. “We’re into him for six figures and now that we’re late, you can make that seven. This is the only play we’ve got! It’s like you said, this could be the score that gets us out from under!”

  “Yeah, but this is not the way I meant it.”

  Jocasta spun around landing a backhand punch to the side of Bruveia’s head, and the woman’s second charge was driven wide of Jocasta’s body. Feeling only a particular type of movement, Jocasta turned around slowly to see Deolun holding Hennix back.

  “Definitely the brains of the group,” Jocasta said softly, walking over to Bruveia. “You’ve got some sweet potential, baby doll. You’re just too heart-jacked to line it up right now.”

  Bruveia came away from the wall with a front kick and three hand attacks that screamed military hand-to-hand combat. Jocasta blocked each one with her right hand as her left hand slowly took her cigaro out of her mouth. She then grabbed Bruveia’s neck and squeezed, surprising the larger woman with a demonstration of strength she could not hope to match.

  “Shit!” Hennix said as he stopped struggling with Deolun. “The woman knows how to handle herself!”

  “And what both of you are forgetting is that we should be feeling aches and pains with the way we went down,” Deolun said, finally releasing Hennix. “She healed us up before she put us in the Brig.”

  “I can’t be a pirate captain without a pirate crew,” Jocasta said softly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d fight and die for my people, but they’re too busy being good and nut-crunching impressive to be the kind of bad I need. You three come pretty close to the example, but you don’t have their measure of heart. I figure if I marry the two, somewhere in the middle is where I’ll find heaven!” Releasing her hold, Bruveia fell to her knees gasping for air. Slowly turning, Jocasta smiled as Deolun ran to put his brace-com on. He then picked up the third and started to put it on his cousin.

  “Sorry, Mr. Brains-of-the-group, it has to be voluntary.”

  Deolun looked at the brace-com and thought, but only briefly. He shook his head and decided to speak. “Well, while she’s thinking it over… what if I told you we were…”

  “I saw the warehouse, man,” Jocasta reminded them. “Plush is not the word that came to mind. How deep are you in?”

  “Depends on who’s asking,” Deolun answered. “We’re late on a payment, so he’s gonna charge interest. But if you explain why we’re late… he may just keep it to six figures.”

  Jocasta surprised herself with how she did not draw and kill all three right then and there. “It never is easy, is it?”

  “No, Captain.”

  “As soon as everything is in order here, we’ll head to Black Gate and see what’s what.”

  Still choking and unable to speak, Bruveia held up her left arm and nodded at Deolun. The young man then looked up at Jocasta who nodded her consent.

  “Welcome aboard! Satithe, you know the drill.” Jocasta turned and walked out of the chamber as notifications were made to Dungias and Annsura. Satithe then began to explain the operations of the brace-coms and her functionality to the three newest hopefuls.

  Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

  Jane Austen

  (Rims Time: XII-4202.28)

  Siekor was forced to squint his eyes from the brightness of the artificial sunlight until Dungias touched the side of his goggles. Once the glare was removed, he lowered his hand from over his eyes.

  “Thanks,” he said softly.

  “You will note that neither Tank, nor Kryltane, nor–”

  “Uh, could we just call me Shotgun?” Kryltane requested with his mind still in the process of reflection.

  Twice the Captain had come to him to let him know a change of heart on his part would not be held against him in any fashion. It was with peculiar grace and timing she had managed to simultaneously convey how happy she was that he had decided to join the ranks. It might have been confusing for the collegiate a few days ago, but getting used to JoJo Starblazer was not a problem for Kryltane Duvia; his only issue was with himself. He had spent hours in the infirmary after getting out of the regenerator, just staring at himself in the mirror. He had been shot. In truth, not too uncommon an occurrence on Black Gate, he was therefore now more of the mainstream which was one of his goals when he had decided to go to college.

  Kryltane gazed into the mirror, but it was not a reflection of his face that he saw, it was the eyes of one man: the shooter that had taken aim on his newfound friend. She was a friend who had rescued him from what had promised to be yet another righteous beat-down, this time at the hands of Kran and his programmable cronies. It was that action, the denial of self-preservation, that took most of his thoughts.

  “For the life of me, I don’t know why I did it,” he thought. “I don’t have a heroic bone in my body, and if I did, I’m sure it was broken during one of the beatings!

  “The Captain sees my reticence and thinks I’m having second thoughts. She couldn’t be more wrong! She thinks I’m maybe coming to my senses and wanting to opt out. Truth is, these people are living a life I’ve only found in my dreams and a couple of novels. My hesitation comes from me knowing that I’m not any of those characters.

  “Top all of that off with Z!” Kryltane considered. “I asked him, point blank, why would they give me anything. ‘You will find that the Captain gives in the measure she receives. She is under the impression you have given her your all.’ Yeah, like that helped!”

  Now he was wearing new clothes, just like everyone else; he wore a brace-com, just like all the others. His weapons belt, however, did not have a gun. It held just a knife, a flashlight, and a slender, rectangular device that the First Mate had promised Kryltane he would appreciate. He had also noticed that his goggles seemed to be larger and heavier than any of the others he had seen.

  “I don’t know why she called me that, but since it’s my crew name, I’d appreciate it if you used that instead of my real name… which I never really liked and–” Kryltane jumped when Silnee’s hand covered his mouth.

  “Garrulous is what she should have called you,” Silnee commented. “The man was trying to make a point, wind-bag!”

  “I prefer loquacious,” Mel added as he piloted his hoverchair off the conveyance.

  “You didn’t even know that word before Z described Nulaki,” Silnee said, leading both men away from Dungias and Siekor. The Traveler pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and allowed his shoulders to sag.

  “Speaking of said point, Siekor,” Dungias continued. “… of every crewmember caught in this light, you were the only one using his hand as a visor. Yet, at last account, I was told that everyone had read their equipment manuals.”

  “Ouch,” Marlene muttered as she walked past with Agatha directly behind her. Both of them were wearing their goggles at the proper setting to keep the glare out of their eyes. “He hit him with the Manuals Speech.”

  “Shut it, Mayhem,” Agatha said, pushing Marlene to walk away faster.

  Dungias gave a passing glance to the two women an
d set his gold eyes back on Siekor. “The only reason I bring this up is because we are expecting to receive new crew in the coming hours, and I was going to ask you to be one of the training officers.”

  “Me?!”

  “Is there a reason why I should be looking elsewhere?” Dungias asked as he started walking to the campus entrance. “… other than your proclivity towards dishonesty about required reading, that is.”

  “No,” Siekor said, still surprised. “No sir. You don’t need to look anywhere else! I’ll finish up the manuals the moment we get back to the ship.”

  “How quaint,” Dungias commented. “Satithe.” Siekor staggered when half of his vision became the manual for the operation of the goggles.

  “Whoa!” Siekor said as he adjusted to the view. “Satithe, can you get rid of the page and just let me have the script?” The view in the goggles quickly adjusted and Siekor was soon walking normally. “Totally too cool!”

  “I am so glad you approve,” Dungias remarked.

  “Approve? Gods, Z, I think you created a reader!” Silnee proclaimed.

  “I shall make every effort to contain myself.”

  “Not that I mind a good stretch of the legs ashore and all, but why did you bring me and Mayhem?” Agatha inquired.

  “The Captain feels that I might be sending the wrong message to some of the crew,” Dungias explained. “My actions and reactions could be interpreted as ‘playing favorites’. She does not realize that I resent all of you equally… that was a joke.” Mel was the first to laugh, but Marlene’s cackling could soon be heard too. Kryltane chuckled as Silnee shook her head. Dungias looked at each one of them in turn and then back at Agatha who was not amused in the least. “It would seem I have much to do in the way of perfecting my delivery.” The woman snorted as she shook her head.

  “Try not break anything, Z,” she said, slapping Marlene’s shoulder.