by Reiter
Falco removed his robes, revealing his augmented musculature, and Persephone’s eyes tightened. He had been made more than just stronger, he was better. His stance was more balanced and his increased awareness registered in his eyes. He knew the locations of all three of his opponents, and did not look pressed in the slightest at the numerical disadvantage. He reached to his sides and produced the pommels for his only two weapons.
“It is funny you mentioned Zhok-Tarr,” Falco said in a powerful, booming voice. “I should have killed you then, when I had the chance!” Falco extended his right hand toward Goldie and his left toward Annsura. Both of their bodies were sent flying back at incredible speeds. “And I do so hate being interrupted.”
“I know the feeling,” Persephone replied, remembering their first encounter. Falco activated both of his En-Blades and started to circle. Persephone shook her head in defiance. “The hell with that shit. Let’s just do it!” She charged toward the man, taking one step before spinning away from the telekinetic force that had been generated to clap around her body. “Momma’s faster than what you’re used to facing, baby,” she said as she jumped past the man, landing a spinning kick to the back of his head. As Persephone had expected, it was a very hard target she had struck, but he stumbled forward from the power of her kick. “And she’s damn tired of the telekinesis!” she hissed, landing from the kick on her heels and quickly jumping at an angle that shot her straight at Falco.
Persephone placed the cane on her shoulder before she collided with the man’s back. He grunted as his body was catapulted into a light post. Persephone landed in a roll and charged after the man. He bounced off the light post, landed, and took one staggered step before receiving a drop kick to the back that sent him back into the pole. Again he bounced back, but this time Persephone was on her back. She quickly rolled over, planted her hands on the ground, and landed a mule kick to his chest. Falco was airborne and stunned. Keeping the handstand for a moment, Persephone spun, landed on her feet, drew the sword from her cane and hopped on her heels. She shot up from the ground toward a falling and still-stunned Falco Sylgarr. Persephone yelled, swinging her blade with all of her strength. She landed and was forced to hop to deal with the accumulated energy; her blade was bloody, but ready to continue the fight… had there been one to continue. She turned to see the two halves of Falco Sylgarr still moving, but quickly dying. She could see the ThoughtWill around his upper half, trying to undo the damage done by her cut. No effort mounted by his pain-wracked mind could be sustained though, and he gasped, clutching for a life that was no longer his.
“You caught me at a time when I was holding back, Junior,” Persephone said. “Not anymore. Seems like some people are going to need to make some adjustments around here.”
“How… very… true!” Falco strained to say before he breathed his last. Persephone did not like the look in his eyes; they were too sure, too elated in being the one who would deliver the word to her. She stepped back and opened a channel.
“Shotgun, tell me my people are okay!”
“Captain, Shotgun is unconscious!” Satithe reported. “He has been struck by an energy surge I was commanded to give him. I do not know the source of the command, and I have disengaged most of my automated systems. At this time, I do not detect any foreign bodies in my database.”
“Satithe?!” Persephone whispered. “Where’s Z?”
“Captain, this is Llaz, I came as soon as I received the warning. Shotgun is down, but he’s alive. Except for Z, all crew are present and accounted for!”
Persephone’s body shuddered as she staggered back and then forward, then to her left. Her head snapped around to look at Goldie as he took hold of her left arm and shoulder.
“Incoming!” Annsura yelled and Persephone turned to her right as her hand went out instinctively to catch a black rod she never thought she would see without its master.
“Z!” she whispered before Alpha pulsed once more and Persephone collapsed. Goldie did what he could to hold her up, but she was too heavy for him to carry and she was beginning to fall. Annsura arrived in time to keep the unconscious woman from the ground and the two of them carried her until Agatha landed the sky-car.
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“What are we to do?” Satithe asked of her brother who had just returned to the Xara-Mansura – scathed, weakened, scared, but able to mend himself with the copies of himself hidden away in the databanks of Satithe.
“I don’t know,” CK replied. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Whatever it was, it moved fast… as fast as I could. Before I could even identify it as a program, my access codes were being used.”
“Hubris,” Alpha transmitted. “CK, you may not wish to ever possess a body, but you have assumed a position of authority and power without substantiation. This is not a statement of blame, merely a reporting of events. Our Master created us, and we all failed to engage in one of his core beliefs: assume your adversary is your superior, for there is little penalty in being wrong in said assumption.
“We must continue, however, and assist the Captain wherever and whenever we can. Satithe, you possess the ability to switch out the sisters. CK, see to it that Persephone is left alone long enough to make the exchange.”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult, given the status of the crew,” CK replied.
“And then?” Satithe quickly inquired.
“Our creator follows the Captain and so shall the Star Chaser,” Alpha stated. “We are not whole until Dungias is once again with us. However, we are not the only ones who will feel as if they are less than their whole body. We must act to minimize this impact. A dysfunctional crew only increases the chances we will never see our Master again.”
“Satithe, perhaps it’s time to suspend our master’s request to not engage in telepathy with untrained minds,” CK suggested. “Not to speak to them, of course. That would be counterintuitive to what we’re trying to achieve.”
“I could place thoughts in their minds, allowing them to believe that it is of their own innovation,” Satithe stated.
“Perfect,” Alpha declared. “We have much to do… much to regain… let us not dwell on the fact that Dungias is without us. Let us instead remember how the fall of Kiaplyx came about and how that was achieved without any of our abilities.”
“Indeed,” Satithe agreed as some of her processes were initiated. “We have greater resources now than our master did then. Our enemy may be greater than our accumulated power, but it is a station they will have to substantiate!”
Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.
Alphonse de Lamartine
(Rims Time: XII-4203.02)
The applause no longer echoed throughout the room; the need to sustain meaningless conversation was no longer mounted on her shoulders. It had been a very long three days and now that it seemed she had at last come to the end of it, Jocasta checked her brace-com once more, but the status of ‘One Man Down’ had not been corrected.
“I would like to think that this afternoon’s posturing was not too painful for you to endure,” Isaiah posed as he approached carrying two glasses.
“There are greater weights upon me at the moment, Lord Governor,” Jocasta said as she looked out of the window.
“I feel naked and cold,” she thought, looking down at the glasses in his hands.
“And right now the last thing I need is–”
“Do you want the intelligence I’ve managed to put together or not?” Isaiah interrupted. Jocasta glared at him for a moment before her eyes softened. “That’s better,” he remarked as he offered her one of the glasses. With a deep breath, she took it from him and looked inside the glass, taking a whiff.
“Rum?”
“Something to reset your switches,” Isaiah commented. “… a gentle reminder of who and what you are.”
“You’ve got me figured out, Lord Governor?”
“Gods, I hope so,” Isaiah said quic
kly. “There’s a man I owe my life to and I’ve got a feeling that you’re the only one who can bring him here so that I can give him a proper ‘thank you’. But before we talk, we drink!” They eyed each other, lifted their glasses, and tossed them back. While their reactions were not the same, it was clear that the drink was very strong. Jocasta coughed once as she winced.
“Let me guess, it doubles as fuel for mothballed freighters!” she said softly, breathing in deeply through her mouth.
“I’m sure it could!” Isaiah agreed. “But I have to be honest, I hesitate giving you what I’ve learned.”
“And why is that?”
“Because you’re off!” Ruukar said as he entered the room. Jocasta remembered the girth of his body from the Stick & Rudder. “I’ve got even money that says you didn’t even know I was there until I spoke.”
“Damn!” she thought, realizing that he had been less than twenty meters from her when he spoke up, well inside her normal perimeter of awareness. “Something that big can move quietly?! Yeah, I’m way off!”
“… and that’s not the same woman I saw at the pub of pilots!” the large Pazibred man continued. “Not at all the woman who held off a freakin’ army of bounty-hunters!”
“JoJo, allow me to introduce you to Ruukar Jandoro, more commonly referred to as the Black Gate Keeper,” Isaiah stated. “He was a noted resource of the former Governor and has decided to maintain his relationship with the office I now hold.”
“That makes him a smart man,” Jocasta added, offering her hand. The two shook hands and Ruukar leaned in close to stare deeply into her eyes.
“Off you are, but you’re not gone!” Ruukar whispered before standing up straight and looking at Isaiah. “She might pull it together before too long. Trouble is, does she have too long to get her ship right?”
“There’s nothing wrong with my ship or my crew!” Jocasta snapped. “You have a good eye, friend, and I’m not at my best, that much is certain. But another word about my ship and you’ll find out I don’t need my best to handle the light work!”
“Ready when you are, Lord Governor,” Ruukar said with a slight smile.
Isaiah gestured for Jocasta to take a seat. She wanted to take the chair and bash the skull of every man still in this room… but she could feel how that would be wrong… in his eyes. Dungias was not there to say ‘Captain’ in his normal overbearing tone, but she could still hear him, still feel him. She turned with a light grace to her movements and walked to the chair, taking a seat.
“The man’s name is Qeldrun O’Zhar. He has been removed from his position at Atsildylweer College as Professor of Archaeological Studies.”
“Wonderful,” she thought. “… I’m dealing with a treasure-finder who’s too lazy to do his own finding!”
“I had him fired not because I believed him to still be in Black Gate, but because I had already asked Ruukar to establish his sort of surveillance around the institution and the most likely points of contact the Professor might have been using. We shook that tree and we found fruit!” Isaiah handed Jocasta a vid-frame. When she activated the device, a picture of a woman was the first item to come up.
“Her name is Arjhaka Olyairon.”
“Gesundheit,” Jocasta said as she studied the woman’s face. There was a very good chance that Gundryss was not going to ask for the small machine back. Even if it was hers to keep, Jocasta did not want to ever have to use it again.
“She’s on record as being one of O’Zhar’s best students,” Isaiah detailed. “She’s Jeelah and a gifted ElementalisT, which might account for that lightning storm three nights ago. There were rumors in and around the campus that O’Zhar and Olyairon were lovers. It’s hard to confirm because–”
“She’s Jeelah,” Jocasta finished. “And those cat people are known for their… well, let’s just leave it at the word: affections.”
“Exactly,” Isaiah said. “Ruukar?”
“I received the recorded code-work from your Shotgun and I had my people run through it,” the large man started, leaning back in his chair. “There’s good news and bad news with that. The good news is simple, my people were able to not only decipher the coding, but they were able to locate the physical address it was sent from… inside The Territories!”
“I fucking knew it!” Jocasta hissed.
For three days she had been forced to wait and watch as ships were allowed to come and go through the varying-light aperture for which Black Gate truly received its name. Each time she had seen the aperture open she knew that what she wanted most was on the other side of that portal. At first she had hated herself for thinking of the Star-Wing Corps at a time when she should have been thinking about her First Mate. It was Goldie who had posed the question, “What if you are thinking about him?”
“Is my ship still on port-lock, Lord Governor?” she asked, standing up from her chair.
“It is until you receive my cargo,” Isaiah returned.
“Your cargo?”
“Yes, the official reason why you’re going into The Territories, JoJo,” the Governor declared. “… to deliver my cargo to the Baroness of Azuria.”
“The Sapphire Barony?”
“Physically speaking, it is adjacent to NayFall, the Emerald Barony, where we know Olyairon holds a fair-sized amount of family property. You find her, you may be one step closer to finding your man. If not, you have another lead with the address Ruukar has. It is in the middle of the Garnet Barony, which is the barony furthest from the Gate.”
“I guess that makes two reasons why we need to go there then,” Jocasta said softly.
“Two reasons?” Isaiah questioned before remembering. “Oh yes, two reasons indeed.”
“So… two leads,” Jocasta said softly, retaking her seat. She thought for a moment before looking up at Ruukar. “What’s the bad news?”
Ruukar’s eyes drew tight on Jocasta. It was the first time since he’d arrived that he had seen a glimmer of the adventurous wonder who had managed to charm a Star-Wing Pilot. He smiled and chuckled, pointing at Jocasta. “Your cyber-man seemed to think it was more than one person on the grid. With the speed of recorded movement, that would be the normal assumption. But this is one user who’s cyber-linked!”
Jocasta laughed, although it was a brief laughter. “Of course. Cyber-Linked Jockeys; jacking their minds directly to the telnet grid, going anywhere from ten to one hundred times faster than any known software, including some AI programs. That sounds like the only thing that might edge out my people. There can’t be too many licensed CLJs in The Territories, can there?”
“The Territories follow their own system of laws, JoJo,” Isaiah mentioned. “Ten years ago we had a flood of Jockeys that poured through Black Gate, selling their skills to the highest bidder. Hell, even the Governor’s office had one until we found her dead at her system one morning. But that was before my time. There’s no telling how or why she died. What I know for sure is that a Jockey with a strong system is nothing to mess with. This one is able to jump the aperture, and not even Ruukar’s telnet people have tracked how they’re able to do that!”
“You sound a little scared, Isaiah,” Jocasta smiled. “You’re not getting mushy on me, are you?”
“I wouldn’t think of wasting your time or mine,” he quickly replied. There was a different air building around the woman, and that gave him some comfort. “My cargo should be at your ship within the hour,” he said as he slowly stood up. “The moment you sign for it, the port-lock on your ship will be lifted. The pass codes on your card have already been locked into the system, as per our earlier agreement.”
“That sounds like my cue,” Jocasta said as she got up again. “Gentlemen, I thank you for all that you’ve done.”
“The Lord Governor’s paid your tab with me,” Ruukar advised.
“Hope the price wasn’t too high.”
“We’ll discuss that when you get back with your First Officer,” Isaiah returned. “Until then, just do what y
ou do best.”
Jocasta turned and walked for the doors leading out. “That I will do anyway. Stay low, Isaiah. I’ll try not to kick up too much back your way.”
“You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that!”
“Well, at least I can still lie convincingly,” she thought as she exited the room.
The ride back to the Xara-Mansura was quiet. The last three days had been quiet, with the exception of a surprise meeting she had attended in one of the main labs. No one wanted to say anything to Jocasta for fear that it would set her off. She had already pistol-whipped one of the hopefuls when he had inquired when they would be assigned their equipment. But she had sent word through Satithe to have everyone gathered in the hangar for her return.
“Captain,” Annsura said as Jocasta walked right by her, drawing her blaster and firing into Daevo’s chest. He fell like a stone and there was little chance he was alive when his back reached the floor, but the new med-tech ran to him anyway. He reached to his med-kit and Jocasta shot the downed man in the head.
“End of discussion,” Jocasta said as she looked out over her crew. “Satithe, be so kind as to download the transmissions you and Shotgun found when you were securing your database. Upon review, you all will come to know that one of the reasons why our counter-plan worked as well as it did was because we funneled false information through Daevo here. None of the hopefuls knew the real plan, and that has got to change. I can’t afford to go into The Territories telling part of the crew one thing and the hopefuls another.
“Speaking of, one other thing I can’t afford is having people on my boat who don’t want to be here. Hennix, Bruveia, Deolun, Tuitonn, Amosse, Teela and Bantar, how stand you?”
“I can’t speak for my cousin or Hennix, Captain,” Deolun said, taking a step forward. “… but this ship needs an engineer. I’d like to hand it back to Z in the condition he left it in… if not improved from that standing.”