"She's alright." Jake nodded to Dewey's shoulder. "We'll get you to the ship. Sarah's med bay can take care of that. Can you walk?"
Dewey glanced at his shoulder, then nodded. "If you help me up."
Jake glanced at the two thugs just through the doorway, making sure they were still out, which they were, then got Dewey to his feet. He let Dewey brace himself, offering his shoulder for Dewey's hand. "Come on. She's this way and the other of the jackasses is with her."
"What?" Dewey sounded alarmed.
"Relax," Jake said. "She's got a blaster, and I wouldn't be surprised if she shoots the guy before we get there. Not that I'd blame her."
Jake and Dewey made their way to Tiffin as quickly as they could, though Dewey was weaker than both he and Jake thought. Halfway to Tiffin, Jake had Dewey hoist his arm over Jake's shoulder, so he could carry more of Dewey's weight. "Why?"
"Why what?" Jake asked.
"Why'd they take you?"
Jake and Dewey stepped through the door to the room Tiffin and the third thug were in. This time, Jake noticed the light switch to the room and flipped it on as they stepped inside the room.
"He's gonna tell us." Jake nodded toward the man hunched over beside Tiffin.
"Yeah?" Dewey said.
"Yeah...if he wants to stay alive."
But I have a feeling I know who's behind them.
Jake shook his head. Just not how they knew I'd be here.
Dewey said nothing, but looked to the other side of the room at Tiffin.
"You still okay, Tif?" Jake called out to her as he helped Dewey hobble across the room to her.
"Dewey!" Tiffin kept the blaster pointing at the man on the ground, but looked at the two of them coming toward her. Jake noticed a slight spring in her feet, a little bounce, as she said Dewey's name.
Yeah, she's okay.
"Dewey, you're hurt!" Tiffin lowered the blaster she had trained on the man on the floor. She stared at Dewey's shoulder as he and Jake approached.
Jake glanced at her, checking to see she hadn't been hurt. As she reached for Dewey, Jake gently took the blaster from her hand and eyed the thug, making sure he didn't try anything.
Tiffin put her arms around Dewey. "Let me help you. That looks bad." She looked at Jake. "We need to get him help. This looks bad."
"I confess," Dewey said. "It hurts, but the wound has clotted. I'll survive."
Jake glanced at Dewey. "He'll make it. I've seen worse."
"Seriously?" Tiffin sounded frustrated with Jake's response.
"I've seen a lot of blaster wounds," Jake said. "Quite a few of them mine. It looks bad, but he'll make it. Sarah can patch him up."
"Well," Tiffin said. "Let's go."
"Soon." Jake stepped closer to the man on the floor, and knelt beside him. "Here's the deal, jackass. One of your buddies blasted a decent-sized hole in my friend's shoulder. Now, he'll live, but he's not used to getting shot like I am." Jake glanced back at Tiffin and Dewey. She still had her arms around him, but more in a position to help him stand now. "So, we're in a bit of a hurry to get out of here. Get him fixed up." Jake touched the side of his face, which was badly bruised from the beating the three thugs had given him earlier. "If I wasn't in a hurry, believe me, I'd spend a lot more quality time with you. After all, we have unfinished business. But," Jake glanced back again then looked the thug in the eyes. "We're short on time. So, I'm only going to ask you this once-"
"Or what?" the man said defiantly. "Screw you."
Jake shot the man's leg, blowing a chunk out of his calf. The man screamed.
"Jake?" Tiffin said, but he ignored her.
"Or I'll shoot you with this blaster," Jake said.
"You...you're crazy." The man sounded less defiant now, more scared.
"I'm in a hurry," Jake said. "Who sent you after me?"
"Nobody."
Jake raised the blaster, aiming it at the man's other leg.
"Okay! Okay, wait. I'll tell you."
"Go ahead."
"I don't have a name, but you're right. It was a contract. Anonymous. Keep you from leaving here. That's all we were told."
Jake looked around, then back at the man. "From leaving this place? Why?"
"No. Not here. The planet. We were told to make sure you didn't leave the planet. Dead or alive. That's all I know. I swear."
Jake raised the blaster again.
"Wait," the man pleaded. "I told you everything."
"Last chance, or you won't even hop out of here."
"No! Wait!"
"I'm not that patient. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"A general! We didn't get a name, but the man who contacted us mentioned a general."
Jake lowered the barrel of the blaster and shook his head. He was hoping his suspicion had been wrong. "That settles it. If that's how he wants to play it." Jake raised his blaster again.
"No wait. I told you what I know. We didn't get a name, but the man mentioned a general."
"That is his name," Jake said, then he punched the man in the head with the butt of the blaster, knocking him out.
Jake turned to Dewey and Tiffin. "Don't want him coming after us." He stood up and stepped beside Dewey. "Come on. Let's get you to the ship. Take care of your wound. We got a delivery to make."
"But," Tiffin sounded confused. "But the Gefreety escaped. We can't deliver it if we wanted to."
"We're going to the cargo destination," Jake said. "Meet the buyer."
"She's right," Dewey said. "The creature escaped in the scuffle back at the cantina."
Jake holstered the blaster. "The three of us know that, but the buyer doesn't...and neither does the General. For some reason, he doesn't want us to finish this job. So, that's exactly what I aim to do. Finish it. Once and for all."
Jake glanced across the room to make sure the other two men weren't coming, then turned to Dewey and Tiffin. "Let's go. I'll drop you two at another planet on the way, if you want. We'll figure that out when we get back to Sarah."
Tiffin and Dewey both looked taken aback at what Jake said. They stayed quiet, and, after Jake retrieved his own blaster, the three of them left the building and headed straight for the shuttle to get back to Sarah, where they'd take care of Dewey's shoulder.
Chapter 20
After using the manual override code to unlock the shuttle and extend the ramp door, Jake stepped back around to Tiffin and Dewey. "I'll have to put together a new comm device from scraps of a couple of the old ones," Jake said.
"Sorry, Jake," Tiffin said. "Those men took it. I should've remembered to look for it before we left, but..." She glanced at Dewey, who had a hand on her shoulder to brace himself.
"Yeah," Jake said. "Don't worry about it." He walked around to Dewey's other side. "Let's get you up there. I'll give you a shot to ease the pain until we get you to Sarah's med bay."
"Thanks." Dewey clearly was having a hard time dealing with the blast wound. Jake noticed him wincing as they helped him walk up the ramp, but he gave Dewey credit for not complaining about it as much as he would have expected from a guy unaccustomed to such things.
A few moments later, they were inside the shuttle and Dewey took a seat.
"Tiffin," Jake said, nodding to a small cabinet beside the bench where Dewey sat. "Open that. Get me one of the vials with the green label, and a syringe."
Tiffin did as Jake asked, holding the vial and syringe out for him to take.
"No," Jake said. "You might as well get used to doing this. Probably won't be the last time."
Tiffin glanced at the long needle of the syringe, then at Dewey. "You sure?"
Dewey just stared at the needle.
"Yeah. Just stick it in there and pull some out." He told her how to get the air out of the syringe and where to jab it into Dewey, and she did as he told her. Dewey closed his eyes and scrunched his face, anticipating the needle piercing his skin.
Jake laughed. "Really? You managed all this way with a hole blown in your sho
ulder, and you have a problem with the needle?"
Dewey slightly opened his eyes to look at the needle just as Tiffin was about to push it into his blue skin. "Oh, no." He closed his eyes again and kept them closed until it was over.
"Good job," Jake said when she had done it. "Sarah, you there?"
Sarah didn't answer. Jake stepped over to a comm panel on the wall and pressed a button. A moment later, a brief crackle sounded through the comm speaker. "Jake?" Sarah said. "Is that you? Oh, thank goodness. I've been trying to reach one of you."
Jake waved toward the camera mounted on the ceiling, knowing Sarah would pull up visuals right away.
"You're all here. What a relief," Sarah said.
"Hi, Sarah." Tiffin waved to the camera.
"What happened? Are you all, okay?"
Jake stepped aside so Sarah could get a view of Dewey. "Mostly."
"Oh, that looks bad," Sarah said. "You need to get him up here to me right away."
"That's the plan," Jake said. "The faster we get out of this place, the better, as far as I'm concerned."
"So, you'll be able to take care of him?" Tiffin sounded a little emotional.
"Yes," Sarah said. "He'll be fine. Just get up here. All of you."
Jake flipped a large switch on the wall and the ramp started retracting from the ground. When it finished the door to the shuttle closed. "Tiffin, help Dewey get strapped in for the ride."
"Of course." She took hold of the belt hanging off the side of the bench and secured Dewey.
The comm speaker crackled again. "Oh, Jake, your delivery."
Jake exhaled audibly. "We didn't get it."
"No," Sarah said. "That's what I need to tell you."
"What?"
"Someone brought it here."
"Huh?" Jake turned to look at the camera on the ceiling. "Brought it here?"
"He said he was from the cantina. Knew it belonged to you. I guess you mentioned me or something. They made contact on the port broadcast channel."
"So, you just let somebody aboard without me? Without knowing who they were?"
"No," Sarah said. "Of course not. I had him put the cargo in an auxiliary compartments through one of the external panels."
"Oh, yeah. Good thinking." Jake glanced to Tiffin and Dewey, then looked at the camera again. "And you're sure it's our cargo?"
"I guess you'll have to check and see. Whatever it is, it's been banging around in the auxiliary compartment since they put it in there. I think it wants out...and it's angry. It sounds dangerous."
"Yeah. Sounds like the right cargo," Jake said. "Leave it in there until we get up to you. I'll need to find something to hold it, if we're going to take it out of the shuttle."
"You got it, Jake. Would you like me to pilot you up here?"
Jake nodded slowly. "Yeah. We've all had a rough day. That'd be great."
"Tiffin, Dewey, you can rest and get something to eat when you get here. Dewey, I'll need you to report to the med bay first. Tiffin, maybe a hot bath."
"Sounds great," Tiffin said. "Thanks, Sarah. Maybe some cheese for Squeakers?"
"Of course. I'll see what I have."
"Thanks." Tiffin gently patted her pocket. She could feel that Squeakers was napping.
"You're welcome," Sarah said. "Jake, I'll prepare a bath for you too."
"Not necessary."
"Jake," Sarah said. "If I know you, and I do, it's very necessary."
Jake raised his arm slightly and sniffed himself. "Might be right. We had a run in with some thugs." He nodded toward Dewey. "They got the worst of it, unfortunately." Jake considered for a moment whether to tell Sarah more. "They were after me—knew I was going to be here."
"I told you we should have picked a different cargo run." Sarah spoke with a slight scolding tone, but Jake could hear her deep concern underneath. "Why don't we cut our losses on this one. If you're right, there could be more trouble at the destination."
"She's right," Tiffin said.
Jake shook his head. "No. Reputation. I can't abandon a delivery."
"Jake," Tiffin pleaded, "you knew who that man was talking about. This can't be just a normal delivery."
"What man?" Sarah asked. "What did he say? Who?"
"Nobody." Jake glared at Tiffin.
She narrowed her eyes at him for a second, then looked at the camera on the ceiling. "The General. The man said someone named the General hired him to hurt Jake."
"And the rest of us," Dewey said.
"Jake, no," Sarah said. "How many years have we spent trying to avoid him."
"Exactly." Jake walked over to the bench opposite Dewey and Tiffin and sat down. "Now, fly us up there, so we can get Dewey here some help with his shoulder."
Chapter 21
After the time they'd spent together, Tiffin was all too well aware that Dewey was likely staring at her rear as she lay sprawled out on the floor on her stomach with him next to her, but she had something more pressing on her mind.
Things didn't go as planned during the transfer of the Gefreety Death-bringer from the shuttle's auxiliary storage compartment to the makeshift cage she and Jake came up with, using junk from the secondary cargo bay—Jake's shooting gallery. The creature bit Jake's finger and leapt from the auxiliary compartment past the cage. Jake had jerked the cage back a little accidentally as he reacted to being bitten. But that wasn't the worst part of it, as far as Tiffin was concerned.
In the scramble to grab the Gefreety before it ran out of the shuttle bay, Squeakers jumped from Tiffin's vest pocket and ran. The Gefreety gave chase, and for several seconds, all around the shuttle, it was Squeakers in front, the Gefreety close behind, and Tiffin a tight third place. After the first lap around the shuttle, Tiffin saw Jake stop running and pull his blaster, she figured he was waiting for a good shot at the Gefreety—though she feared he might be considering shooting Squeakers too.
Dewey, evidently not thinking of the consequences, opened the shuttle bay door to the rest of the ship. Squeakers went through it first, then the Gefreety. Tiffin yelled for Dewey to help her, as she ran past him trying to catch up with the her beloved mouse and its hunter.
Tiffin, Dewey, and Jake had been trying to catch the two creatures ever since, for the past hour.
Sarah did what she could to contain the creatures by closing off several passages and rooms, but the main corridors of the ship, along with several unenclosed alcoves provided more than enough room for the two escapees to hide.
Jake quickly became obviously annoyed that a game of hide and seek was taking place all over his ship. The Gefreety, being several times larger than Squeakers, wreaked havoc on the ship's wiring and other sensitive parts every time it forced its way into the narrow passages and cavities of the ship in pursuit of Squeakers.
Tiffin knew the Gefreety would eat Squeakers if it got the chance, and Squeakers seemed to know it too. He'd been hiding well since his escape, and he was clearly afraid. Each previous time Tiffin discovered where her mouse had been hiding, it got startled by even her approach and ran again, only to hide once more.
But now Squeakers had settled in a small gap between one of the ship's compressor units and the floor. The mouse sat inside the wall three feet in front of Tiffin. With her chest on the floor and her head cocked to the side, she could just see his curled tail twitching.
"Come on, Squeakers. Come to mama. I won't let that mean ol' thing get you."
"You want me to do anything?" Dewey asked.
Without looking away from Squeakers, Tiffin waved her hand back at Dewey, gesturing for him to be quiet.
"That's it," Tiffin said as Squeakers began moving toward her. "I'm here. Come on." She tried to reach into the gap toward Squeakers, but the space was too narrow for more than her hand and wrist.
"Tiffin!"
"Quiet, Dewey." Tiffin sounded frustrated with him, and she was. She knew Squeakers might be scared back into hiding if he kept talking.
"Tiffin," Dewey said. "It's the-"
"Oh! Why?" Tiffin yanked her hand out from under the compressor in the wall and looked up at Dewey. "I almost had him!"
Dewey wasn't looking at Tiffin. She followed his gaze to see what had his attention. To their right, ten feet down the corridor, standing perfectly still in the middle of it, the Gefreety Death-bringer stared back at them.
"What do we do?" Dewey whispered.
Tiffin glanced behind Dewey and around herself, checking to see if Squeakers was in sight, then she looked at the Gefreety again. "Don't move." Slowly, she reached for the blaster on her side. Jake had allowed her to have one again, just while they were trying to catch the Gefreety. "Worst-case scenario," he had said.
"Maybe it'll go the other way." Dewey still kept his voice low.
Tiffin pulled her blaster from its holster and flipped the switch on the side of the weapon to clear it to fire. Bringing it forward slowly, she turned the barrel toward the creature, which continued to stare them down.
"I think it'll leave," Dewey said. "Jake would hate to lose his cargo. Maybe we should- Oh, of course. Sarah?" Dewey spoke a little louder, directing his words toward the camera above him.
No response.
A high-pitched squeak rang out behind Tiffin.
She turned and saw Squeakers running down the hall. "Squeakers!"
Tiffin heard a small growl and whipped her head the other direction to see the Gefreety already racing to catch Squeakers. "No!"
"Oh, no. Not the mouse," Dewey said, but he jumped out of the way as the Gefreety ran past the two of them.
Tiffin sprang to her feet and aimed her blaster at the Gefreety.
"Wait!" Dewey reached toward her, but she ignored him and fired.
The shot narrowly missed the Gefreety and deflected into the wall. Sparks flew, and a bright flash emitted from the wall where the blast had punched a hole through the metal, damaging whatever some wiring and circuit boards. Tiffin gave no thought to what was inside the wall she'd blasted. She only cared about stopping the Gefreety before it caught her beloved Squeakers. Blaster in front of her, she ran down the corridor after the creature.
She watched Squeakers turn the corner ahead and as the Gefreety approached the same turn, she took another shot. She heard a sharp noise from the creature before it cleared the corner. The blast blew another hole in the corridor's wall, this time low, just behind a puff of smoke which she guessed came from the blast hitting the back of the creature, at least its hair, she thought.
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