The Trimedian

by Dangerous Walker

  In the midst of his unhappiness he, looking out of the window, was amazed at how big the Laikan fleet had grown in such a short time. What did the Trimedian matter? The real fact was that the UTN was peace loving, that their Navy was used only in chasing various space pirates and simulations. They were woefully ill equipped for a full scale war and the Laikans and their allies were. If they had moved quicker then they could have smashed the UTN before they even managed to find Darkstaar on Earth. If they had sent him, Trillo, to attack Darkstaar's ship leaving Earth then they would be a success already, but no, they had sent some two-bit general who had his ship blown up by a flying box. If they had sent him he would have destroyed Darkstaar and the emissaries to Earth and they would already be winning the WAR with Earth blissfully unaware.

  No the Trimedian didn't matter, but finding and killing Chase Darkstaar did. And like a dog with a bone to pick, he would find Darkstaar.

  ***

  Across the Universe another man was unhappy, deeply unhappy. This man also wanted Chase Darkstaar dead. This man was Freddy No Fingers.

  Darkstaar had crossed him and no man crosses Freddy No Fingers. No one! Darkstaar owed him and should have paid his dues; that was the code; that was what kept a whole Universe of villains from tearing themselves apart. It's what kept men like him wealthy.

  And if people found out that someone had crossed him and gotten away with it, what would happen? They would all take their chances, all start to skip out on payments, all start to think he was weak. Well he wasn't weak, he was strong, strong enough to find and kill that miserable little hitman.

  And like Trillo, he had his spies out looking for him, but unlike Trillo he had a spy who had found him and his little gang. And now Chase Darkstaar and all his little friends would die.

  ***

  "So, let's just go over the plan again," suggested Milk not wanting Chase to be playing it on the fly, or even get ideas of doing such a thing.

  "OK," said Chase as they sat in a lovely little tea shop drinking Earl Grey tea at a white linened table, "Jimmy and I go in, get my memory jogged find the stuff I hid and then you guys come in The Wild Rover and blast us out."

  "And that's it, is it?" asked Milk

  "What's wrong with that?" Chase asked back.

  "Well, if I may intrude, quite a lot" said Dr. Hendricks.

  "OK, Doc, shoot."

  "Well, firstly what if you don't remember?"

  "I have done so far."

  "Yes, indeed, so far," mused the good Doctor. "Secondly, how will we know when you have found it?"

  "Dat's a good point, mon," added Jimmy known as Jazz.

  "Yeah, OK, give us three days max. Visit me on the second day to see how it's going."

  "T'ree days? Dat be a long time in prison, brudder."

  "Sorry, didn't realise you were such a big girl."

  "Hey," protested Julianna.

  "Sorry."

  "You should be saying sorry to me," Jimmy pointed out.

  "What? To a big girl?"

  "Hey," protested Julianna again.

  "OK, OK, sorry to both of you. Look Jimmy you don't have to come, but I could do with your back up, bro," apologised and explained Chase.

  "And what do we do until then?" asked Julianna

  "Dunno, have some fun, buy some clothes and things. Bond," said Chase.

  "Sounds like we have gotten the good end of the plan," Dr. Hendricks said with a smile.

  "You be telling me," said Jimmy.

  "Girl," said Chase.

  ***

  Haptoes Road was one long leafy road and the prison sat right on the road. The walls were a good 12 metres high and a dull grey colour. Here there were no tress, nothing that could help you in an escape. The prison was surprisingly big for a planet with little to no serious crime. One of the reasons the prison had been built there was as a deterrent to anyone on the planet, or indeed within the solar system, from committing non-violent crimes such as fraud. It became an even bigger deterrent when the prison began opening (and then closing and locking) it's doors to prisoners from the rest of the galaxy and then Universe.

  As has been noted, Ovian was incredibly rich and could afford the best police as well as the insanely expensive eye-net. This didn't just stop crime, but stopped prison breaks; anyone who did was hunted down mercilessly by the police. The prison of New Tannock was seen as one of the toughest prisons and impenetrable and the people of New Tannock put up with it because of that and because of the huge fees they charged for others to imprison people there.

  The five of them walked along the pavement that ran beside the prison, they had already passed the formidable gates and had a peak in from the corners of their eyes.

  "Doesn't look so bad," Chase commented.

  "Which part of de 12 metre high walls don't look so bad?" asked Jimmy.

  "Could be 20 metres," Chase pointed out. "Anyway, you never been to prison before?"

  "Never deliberately."

  "Well that's the beauty isn't it? We're not going to serve time, we're going in on a mission. It'll be fun."

  "De only mon I know who can find prison fun," Jimmy said as he shook his head.

  They said their fare-thee-wells at another tea shop and Chase and Jimmy went off to hand themselves in.

  "It just gets weirder, doesn't it?" asked Julianna.

  "It certainly seems to," Dr. Hendricks agreed. "Now what do you propose we do?"

  "It's getting late, I think we should find a hotel and then some dinner," proposed Milk.

  "Sounds like a fine idea," agreed Julianna.

  "Well, let us be off on our little jaunt and hope Jimmy and Chase fair well on theirs," said the good Doctor.

  ***

  At the time that Julianna, Hendricks and Milk were checking into a modest hotel, Jimmy and Chase were getting a good old fashion police beating.

  "Escape from our prison will you?" asked Warden Howie Pickett in what would never be known as polite.

  "Sorry are you asking about the future or is that rhetorical?" asked Chase kneeling in the centre of a small cell.

  Pickett slapped him with a sap.

  "I'm sorry, don't beat me," Chase mocked servitude, "I just can't stand poor grammar in fighting talk."

  "I'm going to beat that cheekiness out of you boy," growled Pickett who was a fearsomely big man, even being a good ten years or so older than Chase.

  "When did good conversation die on Jesperr?" asked Chase and the next blow knocked him out.

  Warden Howie Pickett walked over and into another cell in the short corridor to find Jimmy kneeling on the floor with a penal officer watching over him.

  "You can wait outside," Pickett growled at the officer who looked ashen having heard the beating Chase had taken.

  Pickett stood in front of Jimmy who looked up at him and then sapped him.

  "You going to be a cheeky as your friend?"

  "Dunno, mon, ten being the cheekiest, how cheeky was he?" Jimmy asked innocently and got another blow.

  "On a scale of one to ten, ten being the hardest, how hard do you think I hit you then?"

  "I'm hoping for about nine."

  "Lower."

  Jimmy shrugged. "Eight"

  Pickett smiled. "Lower."

  "Mon, you gonna beat me or we gonna play kiddy games all night?"

  The sap slammed into him again.

  "It be de games den, right?"

  The next hit knocked him out cold.

  ***

  Milk, Julianna and Dr. Hendricks had just finished a nice meal in a cosy restaurant; they sat back in contentment sharing a bottle of Jonny Skyewalker.

  "You know, I don't know the last time I felt so content with my life," commented Dr. Hendricks lighting his pipe.

  "Kind of an odd thing to say considering the situation," replied Milk jingling the ice in his glass.

  "Not, I suppose, if you know my life," Hendricks mused.

  "Yeah, you said you were in the Navy, what happened there?
" asked Milk.

  "Pour me another drink, would you? It's a long tall story."

  Julianna topped up all their drinks as the Doc looked out into his mind.

 

  THE STORY OF DR. HENDRICKS

  "I was a young man when the Laikan War started, although no one really talks about it these days, it wasn't really that long ago, you know. Just a matter of decades. Anyway, most of my race didn't like the rules and regulations of the UTN, we were a young race, we really had no idea about living a civilized life, not too long before we had been Earthen dogs, companions of man rather than equals. I don't think many could really understand or perhaps cope with the stress. Anyway, I wasn't one of those, I saw an opportunity with the UTN, saw a chance of a better life and I signed up for the Navy. I lost everything by doing that, I was disowned by my family, by my friends, by my race.

  "I wasn't the only one to do so and when the Laikan War started we were the most hated, the most hunted, but we didn't care, we knew that we were fighting for peace; fighting to give everyone the chance to develop and maybe even expand the known Universe.

  "I remember I fought as a fighter pilot in The Battle of the Languina Galaxy, it was a terrible battle. The fighting in the Loliquay Solar System was some of the most bloody in the whole war. The galaxy's core planet of Chun was getting bombarded from space by the Laikan bombarders and we had to take them down.

  "We were the first unit to go in, ahead of our cruisers to cut down enough guns so that our battle formation, which was much smaller I might add, wouldn't be destroyed. It was a suicide mission and we knew it, but went in with gusto.

  "Space outside of Chun was filled with ships of the Laikan Alliance and we managed to slip under their radars being so small, but as soon as we jointly opened fire on one of the smaller cruisers, fighters were released and we were swarmed.

  "I flew over the cruiser to try and hit the bridge and two fighters came up behind me, I jinked left and right avoiding their lasers and another UTN fighter sped over my top and took out the two fighters in a deft manoeuvre; that was Tobe Jenkins I recall. Another three fighters came over the ship and shot at Tobe, but I was already turning and shot at one, the other being too close got hit by the explosion and span out of control into the cruiser.

  By now I knew it was too hard to get the bridge and swung over the ship with Tobe and as he took down fighters left and right I nailed the hanger with two torpedoes.

  "As the explosion ripped through the ship, we swung back and, lying close to the surface of the cruiser to avoid the cannons, Tobe launched his torpedoes into the cruiser. It was finished, you could see the internal explosions, but that was when I realized how little chance we had out there; it had taken two ships and all our torpedoes to take down that one ship and there were too many more; bigger ones at that. All we could do was try and clear Space of the enemy fighters.

  "We spent an hour of dog fighting before our own cruisers joined the battle and we had lost three quarters of our squadron. NO one cared as we were Laikans and Merricks. I was hit as I returned to my cruiser, but was close enough to the hanger that I used the last of my fading engine to speed up and then when the engine died I coasted in, just made it, tore up the bottom of my ship and worsened my injuries enough that I was sent to a hospital ship.

  "This is where I met my future wife, she had been a radar operator on a cruiser that got hit.

  "She wasn't badly hurt and she helped a lot in my own rehabilitation, which the overstretched nurses loved and left her to it. You can see how I fell in love with her.

  "The war only lasted another two or three years, but in that time we were married and she became pregnant. But me, I was young and there was a war on and I kept going to fight even though I could have taken compassionate leave.

  "I fought in one of the last major battles of the war, right at the end of the Universe where the Laikans now hold their galaxies. At the end of the battle which we resoundly lost, we retreated and it was back on the cruiser that I got the news that my pregnant wife had died in a mugging. Despite being heavily pregnant she was forced to go out to the shop late at night and had been dragged into an alleyway and knifed. She had bled to death slowly and why? Because I wasn't there to look after her, I was fighting a war I didn't need to be in.

  By the end we had built up our Navy, we had more money than the Laikan Alliance and we had new ships and fresh recruits, I could have left and looked after my wife, but I didn't, I was strong headed and wanted glory, wanted to be able to say that I was someone, hold my head up as one of the few Laikans in the UTN.

  "But what I got was loss and though I returned a hero I left the Navy, became a doctor and finally took up Archaeology and swore that I would never leave those I loved again.

  Which until you turned up at my office, wasn't anyone. In all those years I couldn't bring myself to love again, never got remarried even though there were women who would have. When you came to my office I was just wasting away, but now I have friends again; and maybe a shot at redemption."

  He finished talking and finished his whisky. Milk just stared at him and Julianna wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks.

  "Another drink, I think," he said and reached for the bottle, but Milk got there first.

  "It would be an honour," he said and poured the good Doctor a drink and then one for Julianna and himself. She raised her glass.

  "To friends," she toasted and they clinked and drank.

 

  BREAKING OUT

  Talking of friends, Chase and Jimmy were in prison and already facing hassle.

  "You're sitting at my table," said a big tattooed brute of a man.

  Chase and Jimmy, sitting opposite each other in the prison canteen looked up at the brute.

  "Well then pull up a chair," Chase said and smiled.

  "I don't think you understand," the brute said.

  "We're at your table, right?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  Chase looked at Jimmy.

  "Seems we do understand," he told his friend.

  "On de same page," Jimmy replied.

  "We're not even in the same book," said the brute and they both looked back up at him.

  "You're very well spoken for a prison inmate," Chase told him and he stood there looking confused.

  "Thank you," he replied slowly. "Just because I look like this, doesn't mean I'm dumb. I run the library here you know."

  "We didn't know that, did we, Jim?"

  "No. Didn't know dat," Jimmy agreed to Chase and then looked back up. "Why not join us, mon, I could do wit' more highbrow conversation."

  "But, I told you, this is my table," said the brute.

  "Well can we join you then?" asked Chase.

  The brute thought for a moment.

  "OK," he said and sat down.

  "I'm Chase Darkstaar and this is my friend, Jimmy Jazz," Chase introduced and hands were shook all round.

  "I'm Chubbs MacFarlane, and you know what, no one has ever stood up to me."

  "Well, you're a big scary man," noted Chase.

  "True, but it's not so much that," Chubbs said sadly, "the fact is that I am an outcast here, no one challenges me because they generally just ignore me."

  "Because you be a big, scary mon?" asked Jimmy.

  "Because I have brains and they cannot understand that, normally they would just beat me up for it, but they know I would crush their empty skulls. So they just ignore me."

  "That is sad," said Chase, "but Jimmy and I have no problems with brains, in fact we could probably do with some."

  "You want to be friends?" asked Chubbs.

  "You bet," said Chase and Chubbs beamed at him.

  ***

  Chase, Jimmy and Chubbs sat in a library that was unsurprisingly empty.

  "Listen Chubbs, we do need your help," said Chase.

  "OK, what can I do for you?"

  "Well, I was here briefly five years ago and I hid something I need to find," Chase expla
ined.

  "I don't remember you," said a puzzled Chubbs.

  "It was very brief, just a day I think."

  "How did you escape?"

  "No idea," Chase shrugged, "But that's not what's important, what is important is that Jimmy and I retrieve what I hid and escape."

  "How are you going to escape?" asked Chubbs who was both intrigued and confused. Contrigued or maybe infused. No, he wasn't infused, that means something entirely different. Contrigued it is then.

  "We have friends on de outside," Jimmy told him.

  "OK, so where did you hide this, what is it again?"

  "Dunno," Chase said a little apologetically.

  "He los' his memory," Jimmy thought it best to explain.

  "OK, so where did you hide whatever it is that you hid?"

  "Cell 42. That I do remember."

  Chubbs looked down at the floor and let out a long slow breath.

  "What up, mon?" asked Jimmy.

  Chubbs looked up at Jimmy and then at Chase.

  "That is Sonny Spalding's cell. The meanest crook in here."

  "Well I'm sure he can listen to reason," said Chase hopefully.

  "Oh yes," said Chubbs dryly, "reason is his middle name."

  "OK, well it can't hurt to ask, right?" said Chase.

  "With Sonny? Yes, yes it can," Chubbs told them.

  "If Milk was here," said Jimmy, "he'd say 'great' right about now."

  ***

  They went to lockdown and Chubbs quickly got them on library duty with him, he had, he told them, a fair bit of pull having been there so long.

  Nothing much ever happened in the library so they had most of the time to themselves. Whenever anyone did come in for a book Chubbs treated them like kings, was all over the place to find the right book for them. Chase found it elating and saddening at the same time. The life of a con wasn't much of a life at all.

  They didn't have much of a plan so they decided to go out and see Sonny Spalding at the next exercise break. Chubbs kept telling them it was pointless and probably dangerous, but Chase wanted to scope out the man and his crew and hoped to form a plan once he had met Spalding. Hoped.

  They went to bed for the night and Chase ran different plans and scenarios though his mind before he decided running made him tired and went to sleep instead.

  ***

  The next day was a gloriously bright and breezy day and Julianna woke early and lay in bed thinking about Chase and Jimmy in prison. Chase had definitely changed; the old Chase would never put himself in a dangerous situation like this for someone else. She was glad that he had changed, glad for him that perhaps he could lead a happier life after all this was over. If it was ever over. Milk had spoken of war, intergalactic WAR, now that was a scary thing. But then again they were on this mission in order to stop that WAR. They really had to succeed.