by Troy Osgood
A side benefit, the Devret couldn’t carry that many passengers so that limited the number of Tiat we had to deal with.
I could see blaster flashes on the far side. Hear bolts hitting the walls and the ship. Sparks were erupting everywhere.
Cursing I crept out into the warehouse. What were the Thesans thinking?
Holding up behind a crate I took in the scene. The ship’s ramp was lowered and two Tiat were crouched on it firing at the far end of the warehouse. I could see two more behind crates. They had heavy blasters, the weapons loud in the confined space. The return bolts from the Thesans seemed weak in comparison.
Hunil came alongside, crouching behind another crate. I pointed at the two on the boarding ramp. He nodded and took aim. Lifting my blaster, I held it steady with two hands and stood up. I took careful aim and pulled the trigger.
My bolt sailed across the short distance and hit my target, the lower of the two Tiat. He fell and the other one above him had just a second to look down in surprise before he also fell dead.
We ran forward and I crossed in front of Hunil. He ran towards where the other Tiat were, firing from behind cover. I made for the boarding ramp. Smoke rose from the blaster wounds on the dead bodies. I kicked their weapons off the ramp, not taking any chances. I also fired at one of the remaining Tiat, but I was moving fast and missed.
There were only two left. Hunil and his team could handle them, I had more important business.
I paused at the top of the ramp. The hatch opened onto a hall moving left and right and a body was slumped against the wall. It had slid down showing a blaster scorch mark against the metal. A matching one was on the bodies chest, no longer smoking.
The Thesan assistant.
I was kind of upset that I didn’t get to kill him.
Turning right I headed towards the bridge. I had no idea where Kaylia could be but I could at least disable the ship. I’d been inside a couple Devret UT15s before so knew the general layout. The entrance corridor ran left towards engineering and right towards the crew compartments, lounge areas and bridge. The only other entrance was the loading hatch underneath for cargo. I had to hope that the Thesans could cover that. Anyone lowering it would be visible from their positions.
Moving slowly, cautiously, I crept up the corridor. The paneling was old, faded and scratched, even missing in some places. The hall curved, following the line of the hull. It ended just ahead, turning left to go into the compartments and right to the bridge. I strained to hear, anything, something. But it was silent, no idea where Kaylia could be.
Holding myself tight against the outer wall, I turned and tried to see down the intersecting hall that led to the compartments. I could see doors, all closed, but nothing else. I pivoted around the corner and faced the bridge. Set up much like the Wind’s, four stations on two levels, and it was empty.
Keeping one eye on the hall, I stepped over to the pilot’s station and looked it over. Controls on most ships were the same, some small variations, but pretty standard. Some were fancier, others basic, but all in relatively the same locations. Made changing ships easier. So I knew where the power cut off for the Devret was.
I hesitated before flipping the switch. Anyone still on board would know I was here if I did that. There were only two places that the entire power could be turned off, the bridge or engineering. No help for it.
The click was loud in the silence of the ship. The lights shut off, everything going black, and then the emergency lights came on. Strips of small lights along the top and bottom of the halls, just enough light to see and walk by. The ship was now effectively grounded. Power could be restored, but it would take awhile, fifteen or twenty minutes, before there was enough to take off.
I stepped back out to the hall, weapon raised, and looked down it’s length. The strip lights made it dark, increasing the shadows. Six doors, three to a side and the hall ending in a large room.
Clearing all six would take time that I didn’t have and leave me open to someone from other rooms or the lounge at the end. This was why we never did something like this without back-up in my 2E days. One cleared the room, the other covered.
It didn’t take me long to figure out my best move.
I played the odds.
Quickly I moved down the corridor, ignoring the doors, and stepped into the lounge. I moved to the side, so my back wasn’t to the corridor. Better safe than sorry.
The lounge wasn’t large, chairs and tables with a vidscreen against the far wall. Serviceable, nothing fancy. But in front of the vidscreen was a Tiat.
With Kaylia.
*****
“Let her go.”
The strip lights gave some detail but not much.
Tall, light blue skin and dark colored hair. Not in a standard Tiat uniform, which made sense considering. She was average height for the species, putting her taller than me. Hard face, could be attractive but this one was cold and hard. The commander of this team. To be given this assignment she had to be good. I knew what it took to be a special operations soldier and what it took to get these kinds of assignments.
Tiat were matriarchal. Ruled by the Empress, the officers were always female.
This one had one arm around Kaylia’s neck, the other holding a blaster to her head. I pointed mine at the Tiat’s head, visible over the shorter Kaylia. For me, an easy shot, but the Tiat could still get off a shot and kill Kaylia. I forced myself to wait.
For her part Kaylia was remaining calm. She stood still, straight, with no tears. There was relief in her eyes as she looked at me. Confidence and hope.
“This is none of your concern Terran,” the Tiat said. Her voice had the steely calm, lack of emotion that was common to the race.
“Let. Her. Go.”
“I should have killed her,” The Tiat said. I’d never known one to be talkative, but then I’d never encountered one in this position. She knew her time was up. “The mission was to bring her back alive for study.” I almost pulled the trigger at the way the Tiat said that. No emotion, as if Kaylia was just an object. “But better dead than free.”
Keep her talking I thought as I looked for a way out of this stalemate. I could shoot her, but she’d pull her trigger and shoot Kaylia. She knew it. I knew it. She had nothing to lose, she was dead no matter what.
“Why didn’t you,” I asked. Holding my weapon steady I tried to line up a shot, but the Tiat was moving just enough. Side to side, just a step, bringing Kaylia with her, forcing me to keep adjusting.
“I wanted to see how this played out,” the Tiat replied, still with that matter-of-fact tone, as if nothing mattered anymore, which was true. “But mostly I wanted to see who was causing us all this trouble. She should have been kept on that asteroid. That team failed. Mine was sent here after you took her from us.”
That was a bit of a shock. That meant they had stayed relatively close to Turesa. It was only a couple days ago that I had rescued Kaylia from the asteroid.
“I was surprised to be told that a Terran was involved,” the Tiat continued and I wondered if she was stalling for time. Additional back-up?
Then it dawned on me. She was stalling. But not for her back-up. She was waiting for more Thesans. She intended to die and take Kaylia and as many with her as she could.
Dammit.
That changed everything.
I released my two handed grip on the blaster, holding it with my right hand and pointing it away from the Tiat. In the near darkness I couldn’t see her eyes but figured she was wondering what I was doing. She knew I had to try something. It was my move.
“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I said, keeping my tone casual. With my left hand, I started moving my fingers. I moved them slowly, carefully. I know I didn’t make the gestures right but hoped it was enough. “Wasn’t my intention to get involved. I just don’t like bullies.”
The Tiat laughed, a cold chuckle.
“The Thesans will pay for what they did to my people,”
she said and for the first time there was emotion in her. “This brat will pay the same as did her family.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
I had expected Kaylia to react, I had told her to with my clumsy sign language, but not react like she did. I had thought she’d do the same to the Tiat as she had the Garand. This was different and it came from somewhere deep inside the girl. Some deep and primal instinct.
The fingers grew to claws, a red rage came to her eyes and she growled. It was a mean growl, full of pure hatred. The claws of one hand stabbed down into the Tiat’s chest, cutting deep wounds as they dug. The other hand went up to the Tiat’s face. The angle wasn’t right, the arm swing awkward, which was the only thing that saved the woman’s life.
She screamed as the claws cut lines down her face. Three deep gashes, down the left side of her face, through her eye. The arms slackened around Kaylia, who slipped out of the grasp. The Tiat tried to bring her weapon down, her arm had instinctively shot up pulling it away from Kaylia’s head. Even in her rage she tried to take aim but my shot took her in the shoulder. She dropped the weapon and fell against the wall.
Hissing and growling, Kaylia jumped on the Tiat. Holding the woman down with one hand, a strength born of rage, the other was raised up to kill.
I leaped across the room and grabbed Kaylia by the wrist, stopping the blow. She looked back at me, hissing, her eyes red. I wanted to step back, the girl I knew wasn’t visible in those eyes, but I couldn’t. She fought in my grasp and I had to avoid a swing of the other arm with those claws dripping purple blood.
“Kaylia,” I said calmly, letting her hear my voice. “It’s me. It’s okay.”
Her normal color returned to her eyes, the red fading. The claws retracted, blood dripping from the ends and Kaylia collapsed against me. She fell into my hug, face deep in my shoulder, and cried.
The Tiat didn’t move, didn’t appear to be conscious. I couldn’t tell if she was alive and really I didn’t care. I heard footsteps and the Thesans ran into the room. I didn’t care.
I just held Kaylia tight.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It went quickly after that.
They came for the Tiat. The commander was still alive. Barely. They had questions for her. Mostly about how many traitors there were, how they had gotten to the assistant, how they had gotten to the planet. That kind of stuff. It didn’t concern me.
They came for Kaylia. She refused to let me go and I refused to let them take her from me.
We sat on a couch next to each other, she was curled up tight against me and had finally stopped shaking. Kaylia kept looking at her hands, holding them in front of her. They were clean, no traces of blood. But she remembered the blood dripping from her fingers, both times.
I remembered this last time.
It was my fault.
I felt horrible that I had made her go through that. But there had been no other way.
The Thesans had found a detonator on the Tiat, connected to the ship’s engines. It would have caused an overload and ignited the reactor. The ship would have gone up and who knows how far the explosion would have gone.
Yoterra’s assistant had screwed things up. He’d panicked and went to the Tiat instead of them getting another shot at kidnapping Kaylia. Knowing pursuit was on the way, and chances of escape were slim, the commander had decided on suicide. She just wanted to take as many Thesans with her as she could, so she had waited.
I didn’t know what the Thesans were doing with the Tiat commander and I really did not care. She could burn. Torture her. Whatever. Besides the Thesan traitors, she was apparently high ranking enough to be valuable. The Tiat were tough but eventually she’d break. I’d be long gone when that happened.
But what was going to happen to Kaylia?
We were left in a lounge in the main building at the hangar. Thesans medics had looked Kaylia over, no injuries, and left us alone. I sat on the couch, the kid next to me and I looked out the window. I had a view over the landing field and could see the Nomad’s Wind at the far end. Just sitting there waiting for me to board and go somewhere. Anywhere.
No destination. Just me and the stars.
I looked down at Kaylia, staring off at nothing, and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face. She was a good kid. Didn’t deserve this.
Hearing footsteps I looked up to see Yoterra approaching. She had a tablet in hand and sat down in a chair across from us. She looked tired.
“We think he was working alone,” she said leaning forward, resting her arms on her knees and head in her hands. She gave a loud sigh and sat up straighter. “I hold myself responsible.”
She was but didn’t need to hear it from me. I didn’t say anything.
“But we don’t know,” she continued. “Where there is one traitor, there could be others.” She looked down at Kaylia and smiled, a small and sad smile. “And add in the faction that the guard belonged to, the ones that want to forcible erase our..,” she paused, thinking about how to phrase it and just shrugged. “We didn’t always do the right thing but erasing it is not right either.”
The silence stretched before I spoke.
“How will you protect Kaylia,” I asked, feeling the kid shift. Some of her own people wanted her dead. And for what? Something her parents had done, Yoterra and others had done? The kid was innocent and she was paying for the mistakes of others.
Yoterra stood up and walked over to the window. She stared out over the field, watching the ships and people moving around. Kaylia sat up and watched the older woman. Yoterra turned around, looking sad and tired and defeated.
She walked over, stopping in front of us. Reaching down she ran her fingers through Kaylia’s hair. Yoterra took the seat opposite us again and studied me intently.
“When I left the War Applications Division I destroyed all records of the procedure that made the Wilders,” she said, locking eyes with me. “I wanted them to live the rest of their lives in peace. After what they had done for their people, they deserved it.” She looked down at Kaylia and smiled, a sad smile. “As much as I will try to stop it, it will come out that she is alive. People like my assistant will want to destroy her and others in the Thesan government will want to use her to recreate the experiments.”
She reached out a hand and took Kaylia’s smaller in hers, smiling at the girl.
“I can no longer keep her safe.”
With a sigh Yoterra turned to me.
“Will you?”
I had begun to expect that question was coming and I already knew how I would respond.
There was only one answer.
ARMAGEDDON THEFT
Originally Published:
September 3, 2018; eBook on Amazon
CHAPTER ONE
It was a great dream.
Me, a beautiful redhead, a sunset on the resort planet of Tortugan.
And it was spoiled by a pounding on my bunk door.
Loud and obnoxious.
I pushed back the sheet and sat up in bed.
“What?” I growled. “I’m up,” I added a little nicer.
There’s only one person that would be pounding on my door and it wasn’t right of me to snap at her. She’d only do it if it was important.
First good nights sleep I’d had in awhile though.
The last couple months had been a whirlwind and I was being overly paranoid which added to the stress level. At lots of reasons for that. I’d managed to probably piss off the Tiat, the galaxy’s largest empire and biggest bullies. I’d also probably managed to piss off a faction of the Thesans, the Terrans closest allies. There were probably still some bounty hunters out there looking for me as I doubt the Tiat removed it.
All because of the person pounding on my door right now.
The metal door slid into the wall and she ran into the room. Not a big room, two doors along one wall, a bed and chair on the other, couch against the far wall. Didn’t take her long to get from the door to the bed. I wasn’t e
ven fully out before she was grabbing my arm.
“Slow down kiddo,” I said letting her pull me up.
Thankfully I didn’t sleep naked.
The kid that was excitedly pulling at me was a young teenage Thesan. I’d literally run into Kaylia on a mining asteroid where she had escaped the people that had kidnapped her. The Tiat. Long story short, Kaylia was the last surviving member of a Thesan military special unit called the Wilders. More accurately her parents had been. Poor kid was just the unlucky recipient of the Wilders altered DNA.
Wilders, during the Third Galactic War, had killed some pretty high ranking Tiat. It was the kind of thing the Tiat didn’t forget or forgive. They spent years hunting down the Wilders until only Kaylia was left. They’d taken her to experiment on her. That’s when I had found her and saved her.
Tried to return her home to Turesa, a Thesan colony world, only to find out that some of her own people wanted her dead or gone.
Safest place for her ended up being with me.
How scary is that?
Arek Lancer, former Earth Expeditionary Forces Special Operations soldier, current vagabond independent freight hauler and guardian to a thirteen year old Thesan girl.
Life is weird sometimes.
Kaylia kept pulling at me, urging me out of the room. I grabbed at my t-shirt over the chair as I stumbled past. It’s hard to walk when a teenager is dragging you by the arm. There was something frantic and urgent to her pulling.
“Kid,” I said trying to calm her down. “What is it.”
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. The kid was mute. She didn’t bother trying to sign anything to me, instead pointing to the ship’s bridge a short distance away. The bunk hall, three to a side, is on the top level of my ship, with the door to the bridge at one end and the entrance to engineering at the other. My bunk is the closest to the bridge so as soon as I stepped into the corridor I could hear what had Kaylia so excited.
I had been sleeping and she had been on duty, which meant she wasn’t ready for bed yet and sat in the bridge’s co-pilot’s station watching the stars out the view window. We’d just hopped into this system on the way to delivering the latest cargo, one we needed as credits were getting low, and I’d been in bed for only an hour or so. Should have only been in the system for fifteen minutes before the navcom automatically hopped us back into wildspace.
