Ghosts

by Barry Solway

  Jon, Gorgeous, and Mel ran to the edge of the roof just as Riley appeared on the roof of the next building over. He jumped the gap, landing in a squat. Quickly opening the small bag slung over his shoulder, he took out a hand laser. Mel reached her arm out and Riley cut her bracelet off. A moment later, Jon’s and Gorgeous’s bracelets were also lying on the ground.

  Pick up the pieces and take them to the edge of the roof on your left, Anna’s voice said in Mel’s head. Mel looked at the others to see if they had gotten the message as well. Jon and Riley’s confusion indicated they had.

  “Why?” Riley asked.

  You’ll see, Anna said.

  Riley shrugged and grabbed the pieces. Looking over the edge of the roof, he laughed. “Smart move, Anna. I like it.” Mel walked up to stand beside him. Below them, they could see a small alley and a service truck with an open bed, full of stacked boxes. Riley held the pieces of the bracelets over the edge and dropped them into the back of the truck.

  “Now, anyone trying to track us will think we’re heading in the opposite direction,” Riley said.

  “Awesome. How do we get down from here?” Jon said.

  “We can hop from roof to roof. Once we get a few buildings over, it’s easy to go down,” Riley said. He pointed to the next building over, across a ten-foot-wide alley.

  “Can everyone make that? I’m not sure I can,” Mel said.

  “Get a running start, you’ll be fine,” Jon said. That just made Mel want to punch him again, but Riley nodded in agreement.

  “You’ve got this, Mel. I’ll wait for you on the other side and grab you if you need it,” Riley said.

  Jon took a running start and cleared the alley with room to spare. Gorgeous went next, making the leap with only a modest run. Riley didn’t even bother running. He just squatted down at the edge, then leaped into the air, spinning 180 degrees to land on the other side, facing Mel. Riley took a step backwards and waved to Mel. “Go for it. I’ve got you on this side.”

  Mel walked back a bit more. Just as she started to run, Riley pointed behind her, his face an expression of alarm. Mel turned to see an Asadharan pushing the door open. She managed to notice both his expression, frozen into an O shape of surprise, and that he held a pistol in his right hand. Anna’s voice cut into her thoughts. Mel, I lost the camera feed on the top floor, but there may be someone heading your way. You need to get off the roof. The man brought the pistol up as Mel turned to run.

  The first shot ricocheted off the roof near Mel’s feet. Riley jumped back, landing on the roof next to her, portable laser in hand. Mel hesitated; Riley wouldn’t be on the other side to catch her.

  “Jump!” Riley yelled as he landed. He hit the roof and rolled, throwing the laser forward with a smooth motion as he came up. Mel stumbled, but gritted her teeth and put on an extra burst of speed. She launched herself at the edge with a yell, gripped with fear that she wouldn’t make it.

  She did make it, landing several feet past the other edge and skidding to the ground. She crouched, noticing Jon and Gorgeous hiding behind the low wall. Riley was still on the other side, fighting with the Asadharan.

  Riley had thrown the laser while it was powered on. Mel guessed the burn mark on the Asadharan’s left arm indicated the improvised weapon had made contact. That had apparently given Riley enough time to close the distance between him and the other man, because the alien no longer had his pistol.

  Mel noticed a confusing detail. The Asadharan wasn’t wearing a uniform.

  “Anna! Can you see us? We’re being attacked by someone. Any idea who he is?” Mel yelled, before remembering she didn’t have to talk out loud.

  I have visuals through the translators, Anna responded, another detail Mel had forgotten. He’s one of the agents I’ve been following all day. This doesn’t make sense, though. My last sighting of him was near the flooding area. There’s no way he could have gotten here in such a short time.

  “Well, he did. And he’s giving Riley a run for his money, too.” Mel stood up, no longer concerned about being shot. She motioned to Gorgeous, “He’s with the Order. Can you help Riley?”

  Gorgeous nodded and leaped to the other roof, quickly closing the distance to the agent and Riley. Riley moved at a blistering speed, jumping and dodging around the alien, but none of his blows landed. The alien’s movements reminded Mel of the way Gorgeous moved, quick compact motions that left no openings. He was always in just the right spot at the right time, and hardly seemed to put any effort into it. If anything, he was even more uncanny than Gorgeous.

  His style became even more apparent when Gorgeous engaged. They teed off in a rapid series of blows and kicks, none of which found their target, until the man shifted sideways and landed a solid kick to Gorgeous’s ribs as she tried to back away. Riley took the opening to attack, but the agent spun and struck Riley in the face while he was still in the air. Gorgeous staggered back as Riley’s head snapped sideways and he spun to the ground.

  Riley sprang back to his feet, but he swayed slightly and didn’t rush back in. Gorgeous held a hand to her ribs but slowly side-stepped back into range. That gave Mel an idea. She quickly scanned the ground around the three combatants.

  “Riley! Grab the bag!” Mel yelled. She pointed to the bag that had held the laser, lying a few feet from Riley. He looked at her quizzically, but she ignored him. Getting a running start, she crossed back to join Riley and Gorgeous. She rolled and jumped back to her feet. Without breaking stride, she ran past the three combatants. Glancing over, she saw that Riley had the bag.

  “Remember that Gorgeous cheats!” she yelled.

  Riley looked at her blankly, but then it registered. As Gorgeous backed away from a series of kicks, Riley threw her the bag then dove forward to attack the agent. The agent parried Riley, pushing him to the side. As the agent spun back to face Gorgeous, she threw the bag in his face.

  He easily ducked it, but he came up just as Mel stood holding the pistol he had dropped. She fired one shot that hit the agent in the chest, slamming him backwards. Without hesitation, she ran back to the other roof, making the jump for a third time. Riley and Gorgeous joined her a moment later.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mel said. She looked back, and her heart tripped in her chest. She had expected the alien would be dead from that shot. But to Mel’s surprise, he slowly rolled over and rose to his hands and knees.

  “What the hell?” Jon swore behind her. “Shoot him again!”

  “No. Just run,” Mel said. Whoever he was, he wasn’t a normal Asadharan, and others could be on their way. More than anything, Mel wanted to be back on the ship and out of here. Pushing the others forward to the next roof, she followed Riley as he led them into a stairway off the roof. They took a short flight of stairs down, then came to a hallway. Riley turned left and ran to an elevator, pressing his finger against the panel repeatedly. Mel finally grabbed his hand and told him to calm down. Riley breathed heavily, and Mel could tell he was crashing. A side-effect of the genetic experimentation that Kathor had done. It had given Riley incredible strength and speed, but he burned out if he wasn’t careful.

  “Slow down, Riley,” Mel whispered. “We’re good here. No need to rush.”

  “You don’t know that,” Jon said, casting his eyes nervously towards the stairway to the roof. “That guy could be following us. Or there could be more.”

  “There are more,” Mel said. “And since the fact we’re here is mostly your fault, you don’t get an opinion on how to get you out.”

  Jon started to reply, but the elevator opened. They all boarded and Riley pressed the button to descend. Mel panicked for a second when the elevator stopped on the next floor, but it was just two small Latanua women. They were talking excitedly about the explosion and flooding in the shopping district and how it was going to ruin their dinner plans. They seemed a bit surprised to see Mel and the others there, but entered the elevator anyway and turned around to continue their conversation. Riley rolled his eye
s at Mel, and she had to suppress a smile at the bizarreness of the situation.

  Finally, they were out in the street. Aliens walked past them as if nothing were happening, as if Mel and her friends weren’t being chased by government agents and she hadn’t just shot someone in the chest.

  Mel projected a thought to Anna, but didn’t receive a response. “Is anyone getting anything from Anna? She’s not responding to me,” Mel asked the others.

  “No, I haven’t heard from her since the rooftop,” Riley said.

  “Let’s head to the tram station,” Mel said. A hollow feeling grew in her chest. They couldn’t do this without Anna.

  Gorgeous shook her head, whispering to herself. Mel made out part of it. “… what if they’re following…”

  “What?” Mel said. “Who’s following?”

  Gorgeous looked up in alarm, apparently not aware she had spoken out loud. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

  Shaking her head in annoyance, Mel led them down the street, trying hard to keep to a normal walking pace. Once they arrived at the tram station, they had to wait for one that went to the docks. The waiting put Mel on edge. She was used to the tension and waiting in the gauntlets, but this was different. It felt like competing in a gauntlet, but the people around them didn’t know it.

  “We don’t know if the trams are clear,” Gorgeous said. “Agents could be waiting. Or the police. That’s how I was arrested earlier. I didn’t even know they were looking for me.”

  “It’s not your fault, not any more than the rest of us. We all got careless,” Mel said. “Until Anna contacts us, we don’t have a choice. The best thing I can think to do is get back to the ship as quickly as possible.”

  “This sucks,” Jon said. “I thought getting away from Kathor meant we were supposed to be free.”

  Mel wanted to yell at Jon, but she bit her tongue. “Yeah. I thought that too,” she finally said.

  As they boarded the next tram, Mel kept glancing around to see if they were being followed, but it was hard to tell. She finally turned to Riley.

  “Riley, what race was the guy you and Beats took down earlier?”

  “Uh, I don’t remember the name,” he said. “Like Wicked, with the star mouths that take up their whole face.”

  “Dayalu,” Gorgeous said.

  “Was he tough? Like that last guy?” Mel asked.

  “Not that I noticed. But I got him from behind, and he didn’t really have time to react. Anna said to hit him on the upper side of the neck and it worked like a charm. Must be a pressure point there or something.”

  “Do you think that guy had body armor?”

  “He must have,” Jon cut in.

  Gorgeous nodded in agreement. “I didn’t get any strikes in to tell. But he was highly skilled. Better than me. I wonder if he has access to the same drugs that Kathor did? If anyone would, it would be the Order.”

  “We should have expected that… I didn’t take it seriously enough. And it makes sense they’d have armor and other tech as well. I’ll try Anna again.”

  Anna, can you hear me? Mel forcefully projected the thought, as if that would help get through to Anna.

  In the middle… of something… Anna responded. Her speech patterns were slow and drawn out, a sign she was putting processing power into whatever else she was doing.

  Well, knock it off, Mel snapped. We need to know if the docks are clear.

  I’ll try… make sure… you’re clear.

  You’ll try? What the hell are you doing that’s more important than us getting back to the ship? Mel said. There was a long pause before Anna responded, her voice even slower. Mel’s anger immediately faded. Even through the slow speech it was unmistakable. Anna sounded scared.

  Someone’s…. hacking… into me.

  Chapter 9

  “Anna? Anna!” Mel yelled out loud. Shaking her head, she turned to the others. “She’s not responding to me. Did you guys hear that last part? Are you getting anything from her?”

  Riley and Jon shook their heads. “Anna can take care of herself. We shouldn’t wait,” Riley said. Mel nodded in agreement, but the fear in her belly wouldn’t go away.

  The docks weren’t as busy as the shopping district station, so it was easier to track the people around them. Mel stopped everyone before they headed for the ship and told them to scan the area and make sure no one was following. After a few minutes of waiting, she was satisfied.

  “Anyone hear anything from Anna?” she asked.

  “No. I’m really getting scared about that. If something has happened to her, none of us can fly the ship,” Riley said.

  “I can,” Jon said.

  They were walking at a fast pace back to the ship, but Jon’s statement brought Mel up short. “What? Since when can you fly a spaceship?”

  Jon stumbled, almost running into her. “Jesus, Mel, watch where you’re going. Did you think I was up in the cockpit just staring into space? I had Anna show me some basic operations of the ship.”

  Mel blinked, then turned on her heel and sped to the ship. “Actually, yes. I thought you were just staring into space. But I’m glad you can fly it. We may need that.”

  “Yeah, you’re welcome,” Jon said.

  As they got near the ship, Mel saw Beats waiting at the door. He was trying to keep himself inside of the ship and out of sight, but given his size, it wasn’t working very well. Beats waved urgently to them and Mel finally gave up the pretense and sprinted for ward. Not surprisingly, Riley easily passed her.

  As they piled in, Riley peppered Beats with questions, but Beats ignored him. Pulling everyone inside, he slammed the door shut.

  “Ready, Anna!” Beats yelled.

  “Is she okay?” Mel and Riley asked at the same time. Beats nodded, pointing to the chairs. Mel could feel the ship vibrating.

  “You should sit,” Beats said. “We need to leave.”

  Mel ignored the cabin chairs, pushing her way to the cockpit. Jon, Riley, and Gorgeous all followed her, leaving Beats to shrug his massive shoulders in exasperation. Throwing herself into one of the pilot chairs, she resisted banging on the console to get Anna’s attention. “Anna? Anna, are you okay?”

  The hologram popped up above the console. “Yes, I’m fine. More or less. Sorry I went dark. I was afraid they would use your translators to track you. I figured you could make it back by yourselves.”

  “Yeah, we were fine,” Mel said. Which was true, even if it hadn’t felt that way. “What happened?”

  “Save that for later. The Order has a ship on its way from planet-side and the station is on high alert. They’ve instituted a station-wide lockdown. No ships in or out.”

  “Then how are we getting out?” Jon asked.

  “That’s what I’m working on,” Anna said with obvious exasperation. “Sorry, but I don’t have the two percent processing capacity I would need to actually have a conversation with you.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mel said. “Take care of whatever you need to. Let us know if we can help in any way.” Mel felt foolish for even saying that. It was clear they were completely dependent on Anna now, and Mel didn’t like it. “Anna, could you give us a play-by-play of what’s going on? It would help.”

  “Sure. Try to hold questions. So… I’m trying to hack directly into the station docking command and override the protocols. They can’t actually stop us from leaving. We were docked on the outside of an airlock, and once we disengage from that, we’re floating in space. The last thing the space station wants to do is try and hold onto a self-propelled vessel. The odds of causing a collision or damaging the station are far too great. So, it’s just a permission issue where we would normally get a flight path to avoid other ships. I can override the protocols on our side, but if they are on lockdown, we may inadvertently damage the station. Beats was clear he didn’t think that was appropriate.”

  “That would hurt more than just the fish!” Beats yelled from the cabin. Mel smiled in relief. It was good
to have Beats and Anna working as a team.

  “An Order cruiser named the Harmony is forty-five minutes out,” Anna continued. “I’m changing our ID codes again, but it won’t really help. They know they can’t stop us, they just wanted to flush us out. The fact that we are the only ship trying to take off targets us as who they’re looking for.”

  “I didn’t even think of that,” Mel said. “Should we have waited?”

  “No. The Harmony would have been in orbit around the station and we would have no way out. Eventually, they would have tracked us down.”

  “Where are we going after this?” Riley said.

  “I thought I said no questions!” Anna said. “Just kidding, things are going smoothly at the moment. Our only choice is the hypergate. It’s close enough we can make it, even with the damaged engines. We’ll make a few hops, like we did last time. I think we’ll need to get rid of the ship, though. Hole up somewhere until we can figure out our next step.”

  “Okay,” she continued. “I’ve overridden the lockdown protocols and we’re free of the station. I’m putting in a course to the hypergate. It will take fifteen minutes to get there. We should beat the Confederacy ship by at least twenty minutes. Nothing to do now but wait.”

  “Ugh. I hate waiting,” Mel said. She rubbed her eyes. Riley and Gorgeous finally walked back to the main cabin to sit with Beats, leaving her and Jon alone in the cockpit.

  Mel turned to Jon. “Can you show me what you learned about flying the ship?”

  Jon stared out the window for a moment, then glanced back. “Look, I… I’m sorry about what happened back there. I just wanted to move around and feel some of the freedom we were supposed to have. I didn’t mean… I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but it actually worked out. Because you were arrested, we found out the Order agents were working with the local police. We may never have realized that until it was too late. Silver linings and all.”

  “Yeah. Cool. So anyway, about flying…” Jon said. He pointed to the control panel in front of Mel and started to walk her through the startup sequence.