by Ryk Brown
“It’d be better if it was closer to town,” Marcus grumbled. “And why the hell is our ride two clicks away?”
“That’s the nearest cave to this LZ,” Jessica explained as she placed her scanner in her jacket pocket. “Sun will be up in a couple hours. We need to be well away from this canyon by then.”
“Lead the way,” Nathan insisted.
* * *
Nathan stood next to their vehicle, looking at the dilapidated mud-brick building.
“This the place?” Jessica asked, coming around the vehicle to stand next to him.
“Still just as ugly as before,” Marcus grumbled.
“It’s Haven, Marcus,” Nathan replied, “everything is ugly.”
“You sure about this, Cap’n?” Marcus asked, yet again.
Nathan didn’t reply.
“Terms of engagement?” Jessica wondered.
“Kill anyone you feel is a threat,” Nathan replied without hesitation.
“Now that is the right way to deal with Siggy,” Marcus agreed.
“Anyone except Siggy,” Nathan added as he started up the steps.
“I like those rules,” Jessica said, winking at Marcus.
Marcus just shook his head as he followed them inside.
The building was once a hotel and the lobby reflected that. However, it had been a while since it had seen any maintenance. The entire room was dusty, just like everywhere else on Haven. What little furniture there was appeared to be in disrepair.
Nathan strode confidently across the open floor toward the nefarious-looking man sitting behind the front counter, the sound of all three of their footfalls echoing through the lobby. The man behind the counter looked up briefly but offered no hint of a reaction. By the time they reached the counter, two armed thugs appeared in doorways to their right and left, both of them offering a menacing gaze as their only greeting.
The man behind the counter looked up again, leaning back in his chair, seemingly uninterested in Nathan’s presence. “What do you want?”
“I want to speak with Siggy,” Nathan replied.
“Sorry, can’t help you.” The man leaned to one side, peeking around Nathan to get a better look at Jessica. “Now, her I can help,” he added, a lascivious grin on his unshaven face.
“Tell Siggy, Connor Tuplo wants to talk business,” Nathan insisted.
The man behind the counter exchanged glances with the armed man on the right, smiling. “Why don’t you send her over here to me and we’ll talk,” he suggested.
Nathan looked sideways at Jessica, who immediately hopped up onto the counter, picked her feet up high, and spun around, stepping back down on the other side. She strutted over to the man, saddling up alongside him in a seductive manner. In a flash, her sidearm was in hand, its muzzle at the man’s temple, the whine of its power cell charging up, loud enough for everyone to hear.
The two armed men on either side reacted, pulling their own weapons to defend their cohort, but they were too slow.
“Bad idea,” Marcus warned, his weapon charged and aimed at the man on the right.
“Holster that thing or I burn you down right where you stand,” Nathan said, his own weapon aimed at the man on the left.
Jessica moved the muzzle of her weapon from the man’s temple to his groin. “Tell them to do it or you’ll have nothing left to play with when you’re alone.”
“Stand down!” the man barked, his voice slightly more high-pitched than one might expect.
The other two men hesitated.
“Three seconds,” Nathan warned. “Two……one……”
The man Nathan was aiming at was the first to give, slowly taking his finger off the trigger and lowering his weapon carefully back into its holster.
“Turn it off,” Nathan added. The man complied.
“This is bullshit,” the other armed man complained, his weapon still aimed at Marcus.
“For Christ’s sake, Donti!” the man who was about to lose his manhood begged. “Do as they say!”
“Siggy’s not going to like this,” the other man said as he, too, lowered his weapon.
“Oh, he’ll like it,” Nathan insisted. “Give him a call.”
The man slowly reached for the intercom.
“Actually,” Jessica said, causing the man to freeze again, “tell Siggy to come down here to talk to us.”
Nathan’s eyebrow rose.
“I like the layout,” she told him. “A bit more room to operate, if you know what I mean.”
“Siggy don’t come down,” the man to the left insisted.
“We’ll see,” Jessica replied.
“Yeah,” Siggy grumbled over the intercom.
“Uh, there’s some people here to see you, Siggy,” the man told him.
“What people?”
“Two guys and a girl. One of them says his name is Connor Tuplo.”
There was a moment of silence. “Long, brown, scraggly hair and beard?” Siggy finally asked.
“Brown hair, but short and no beard.”
“Tell him to fuck off…” Siggy insisted.
“I don’t think he’s going…”
“If he doesn’t leave, kill them all.”
“Uh, I can’t do that, Siggy.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Cuz one of them has a gun to my privates.”
Siggy chortled. “Ask him what he failed to deliver last time.”
The man who feared for his manhood looked with pleading eyes at Nathan.
“Fifty mini-ZPEDs,” Nathan replied.
“Fifty mini-ZPEDs,” the man behind the counter reported over the intercom.
Again, there was a moment of silence. “Let me guess, there’s an old, scruffy-looking, fat guy with them, right?”
“I ain’t fat,” Marcus grumbled.
“Yeah.”
“You got a lot of nerve coming here, Tuplo!” Siggy yelled over the intercom.
Nathan did not react.
“Send them up,” Siggy instructed.
Jessica shook her head, pushing the muzzle of her weapon more firmly against the man’s groin.
“Uh, they want to meet you down here,” the man said in a squeaky voice.
“Jesus H Sebastian God!” Siggy exclaimed. “This better be good, Tuplo!” The intercom went dead.
“He’s going to come down with more men,” Jessica insisted, withdrawing her weapon from the man’s groin. The man started to relax, and Jessica smacked him with the butt of her weapon, knocking him out.
“DON’T!” Nathan barked as the other two men flinched, feigning toward their weapons again. “Drop your gun belts around your ankles!” he ordered. “Do it now!”
Jessica moved over toward the side door, coming up behind the man on the left. She bent over and grabbed his gun belt, yanking on it and toppling the man over.
Nathan quickly kicked the man in the face, knocking him out, as well.
“Step out of the belt,” Marcus told the man on the right.
“You realize you’re a dead man,” the man told Marcus.
“Two choices,” Marcus told him, “leave now or die now.”
The man sneered at Marcus and then headed toward the front door.
“I got the elevators,” Marcus announced, moving to his right.
Nathan moved to the left side of the grand staircase while Jessica went to the right. They could already hear footfalls as several men came quickly down the stairs.
Jessica listened to the footfalls for a moment, then held up four fingers at Nathan.
Nathan nodded, readying his weapon.
Seconds later, the first two men appeared. Jessica was the first to fire, taking the nearest man out with a single shot to the man’s head, burning a hole right through it. Nathan followed suit, putting two in the left-most guard’s chest, sending him toppling over.
Jessica fired two more times, dropping the other two guards on either side of Siggy, who froze in the middle of the stairs.
Nathan stepped out into the open, his weapon back in its holster. “Good to see you, Siggy.”
Siggy looked at his fallen men. “I see you’ve been spending time at the gun range, Tuplo.” He looked at Nathan. “Good choice, losing the hair and the beard. Makes you look almost respectable.” Siggy sauntered the rest of the way down the stairs, doing his best not to look alarmed. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Fifty mini-ZPEDs,” Nathan replied. “And Tuplo was my alias. The name is Scott. Nathan Scott.”
* * *
Aiden and his crew stood at the dock, staring at the Orochi before them. “This is the weirdest looking spaceship I’ve ever seen.”
“Are you sure it even is a spaceship?” Ashwini wondered.
“It is floating on the water,” Ledge agreed.
“It’s a water world,” Aiden reminded them. “Where the hell did you expect them to park it?”
“Think you can fly it?” Ali asked.
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Aiden replied, feigning confidence.
“It’s a breeze,” a voice from behind said.
They all turned around, spotting Josh and Loki approaching.
“Damn thing is mostly automated,” Josh continued. “Push a couple buttons and away you go.”
“Hi, Loki Sheehan,” Loki said, extending his hand to Aiden.
“Aiden Walsh. You guys have flown this thing?”
“We’ve spent the last week putting the first four ships through trials.”
“Did you get any training on them beforehand?” Charnelle wondered.
“Just the manuals,” Josh replied. “Like I said, they’re easy to fly. They’re basically just cargo ships with guns.”
“And missiles,” Loki added. “Jump missiles.”
Josh smiled. “Gonna surprise the hell out of the Dusahn.”
“How many does it take to operate one?” Kenji wondered.
“Single pilot, a systems officer, and two weapons officers,” Josh explained. “One for missiles, and one for guns.”
“Technically, the Orochi were designed to be operated by a crew of ten, but that was when they were carrying Gunyoki fighters.”
“These things carried Gunyoki?” Aiden asked in disbelief. “Doesn’t seem big enough.”
“The original Gunyoki were much smaller,” Loki replied.
Josh could tell that Loki was about to unleash the entire history of both the Gunyoki and the Orochi on the unsuspecting group, and decided to step in to save them. “A full crew under their current configuration would be six, which would include an engineer and a sensor and communications officer. Since we’re shorthanded, they’ve scratched the engineer and rolled the duties of the sensor-comms officer into the systems officer.”
“No engineer?” Ashwini objected. “That’s insane.”
“Actually, since these ships will fly short missions, the responsibilities of a dedicated engineer will be taken over by ground crews, here on Rakuen,” Loki explained, “at least until full crews can be trained.”
“In the meantime, you guys are it.”
“You said there were four of these,” Aiden pointed out. “That’s sixteen people. I only see eleven here.”
“Nine,” Josh corrected. “Loki and I only did the shakedown flights. Once we train you guys on how to operate them, we go back to flying the Aurora.”
“Commander Kainan’s crew and the crew of Combat One will be flying lead,” Loki explained. “The other four have been pulled from the Aurora’s crew.”
“Any other questions before we get started?” Josh asked the group.
“Just one,” Aiden said. “How long do we have to learn how to operate these…spaceboats?”
“Three days,” Josh replied, smiling.
Aiden looked suspicious. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because on the third day, you’ll use them to attack Takara.”
Aiden’s face went through several contortions as he contemplated the news. “Great,” he finally replied.
* * *
“Yeah, I figured that out a couple weeks back, I did,” Siggy said as he continued down the stairs. “You didn’t need to kill them, you know.”
Nathan looked at Siggy, one eyebrow raised.
“Okay, maybe you did,” Siggy admitted. “You’re a bit daft, you know, coming to Haven and all. It’s crazy enough to come to see me, a man who’d just a soon shoot you in the back, but this world is crawling with Dusahn these days.”
“There wasn’t any ship in orbit when we arrived,” Nathan pointed out.
“Lovely to see you again, Marcus,” Siggy said, spotting Marcus coming out from the elevator alcove.
“Wish I could say the same.”
“And who might this be?” Siggy wondered, checking out Jessica.
“My tactical officer, Jessica Nash.”
Siggy looked surprised. “The one who popped crazy Caius? That was a right good shot, that was.” Siggy looked at Nathan again. “She must be a badass, that one.”
“You have no idea,” Nathan replied.
“Now then, you said something about paying me for those fifty ZPEDs you lost?”
“I said nothing of the sort,” Nathan corrected.
“Then, why are you here?” Siggy wondered.
“I would like to replace them.”
“You’re going to give me fifty ZPEDs?” Siggy said. “I rather like the sound of that. I’d prefer credits, but I suppose I can sell them easily enough. Just have to do so outside the sphere of Dusahn influence, you know.”
“Do whatever you like with them,” Nathan told him. “But, you have to earn them first.”
“Always a catch, isn’t there,” Siggy stated. “What is it you need from ol’ Siggy?”
“A Dusahn cargo shuttle and some uniforms,” Nathan replied.
Siggy laughed. “Is that all?”
“Can you do it?” Nathan wondered, “Because if you can’t…”
“Oh, I can do it,” Siggy insisted. “The question is, will I?”
“I’m betting for fifty ZPEDs, you will,” Marcus grumbled.
Siggy paid Marcus no mind. “What is it you plan to do with it?” he asked Nathan. “And where did you get fifty ZPEDs?” Siggy looked Nathan in the eyes. “Did you go back to the Asa-Cafon and get them, after all?” he asked. “Because if you did, those ZPEDs are already mine, and I’d be happy to pay you for them.”
“I don’t have fifty ZPEDs,” Nathan admitted. “Not yet.”
Siggy studied Nathan. “You’re planning on stealing them, aren’t you? Now I know you’re daft! Do you know how heavily guarded that facility is?”
“You did it,” Marcus pointed out, “so it can’t be that damned hard.”
“I didn’t steal them,” Siggy corrected, “at least not from the plant. The noble who owned the plant arranged the whole thing so he could make a few credits before the Dusahn took control of the plant. I was stealing them from him.”
“Jesus, Siggy,” Nathan said. “You didn’t give a rat’s ass about those people, did you? It was all about the ZPEDs the entire time!”
“Of course it was!” Siggy admitted. “A what’s ass?”
“I say we burn him and find someone else,” Jessica suggested.
“We can’t trust anyone else,” Nathan insisted.
“We can’t trust him!” Marcus exclaimed. “That’s what I’ve been sayin’ for the last two days!”
“We can trust him because we know all he cares about is the profit,” Nathan insisted. “He doesn’t give a shit about right and wrong or about freedom and liberty. He’ll find a way to make a credit whether the Dusahn are here or not.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Siggy said. “And I should feel insulted, but I don’t. After all, you are right. But the fact is, the Dusahn are not good for business. Leastways, not my type of business. It was hard enough smuggling shit between worlds after they took over the cluster. Now that they’ve spread out across the entire sector, it�
�s damned near impossible! Hell, I have to survive on local business, alone! I haven’t run any contraband on or off world in nearly a month!”
“Then you’ll do it,” Nathan said.
Siggy thought for a moment. “It would be nice to stick it in the Dusahn and twist it around a bit, wouldn’t it?” He looked at Nathan. “You’re going to need some right fine soldier types.”
“Will a hundred Ghatazhak do?” Nathan wondered.
Siggy looked impressed. “I expect they would but a Dusahn cargo shuttle has a crew of four, sometimes six. Bring more than that and they’ll figure something foul is about. And you’re going to need a diversion…a big one.”
“We planned on it,” Nathan assured him.
“And you can only have it for twelve hours,” Siggy added. “That’s how long they’re usually down for. Any longer and they’ll know something is up, and report it missing. Then they’ll shoot you down the moment you show up anywhere.”
“We’ll only need it for eight.”
“How soon?” Siggy wondered.
“Tomorrow?”
“A bit short notice, but alright.”
“What’s to keep him from turning us over to the Dusahn for the reward?” Jessica wondered.
“There’s a reward?” Siggy wondered.
“It’s not even half what you’ll make selling those ZPEDs outside the PC,” Nathan insisted. “And I’ll even loan you a ship to haul them.”
Siggy smiled as he shook Nathan’s hand. “A pleasure doing business with ya, Cap’n Scott.”
Nathan handed him a data chip. “You’ll find us in the Rogen system.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Location and course are on the chip,” Nathan told him. “Deliver it in forty-seven Haven hours.”
“And if I don’t?” Siggy wondered.
“Then you’ll be dealing with the Dusahn for a lot longer than you’d like,” Nathan said, turning to exit.
Marcus followed Nathan, then Jessica.
Jessica stopped when she passed Siggy. “If you cross us, I’ll be popping one in your head, as well.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, love,” Siggy replied.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Still don’t know why you needed me on that trip,” Marcus grumbled as he stepped down from Reaper Six onto the Aurora’s deck.
“No one knows Haven, or people like Siggy, like you do, Marcus,” Nathan insisted.
