The Deadliest of Intentions

by Marc Stevens

  “Do you have any targets?”

  “No, only bodies!”

  We heard a firefight going on to our front. The Sig or the outpost security were mixing it up with someone. Whoever was behind this had thought it out enough to have blocking forces box us in.

  “Nathan, I have two transports moving to our rear!” Tria yelled from behind me.

  I wanted to think it was innocent bystanders trying to flee the carnage. That thought was quashed when a couple of shots came from them and struck the wreck we were hiding behind. We both went prone and fired on the fleeing vehicles. We managed to hit the trailing transport enough times it slowed to a stop. We got up and took off running as fast as we could to close the distance. The door slid open, and several errant shots went over our heads as we hit the ground. We rolled away from each other and put fire into the car. Someone jumped from it and tried to run. Tria dropped him with a shot to the legs. I could no longer hear the firefight going on down the tunnel, and it became eerily silent. The silence was short-lived. I heard a booming voice that could only belong to Pasta calling our names. The sound of a large contingent of heavy combat boots running on the pavement filled the roadway around us. My IST was urgently beeping. I finally let the call go through and told Coonts the disagreement was over and we would be back to the Legacy shortly. It did not mollify him, but it did put an end to all of the IST comms traffic.

  Pasta had his troops encircle our position.

  “Do you or Tria require medical attention?” he asked.

  We had small cuts and a lot of bruises, but other than that we were fine. Our new clothes were another matter. They were shredded and burnt in several places and blackened from the smoke and dirt. We looked like we had just crawled from a culvert.

  “We are not injured, but I would like to know how the Coram mercenaries knew we were here?”

  “We should get you to the Legacy before the outpost security bots arrive. They will want to detain you for questioning. I will leave some of my troops here, and they will explain what happened to them while shopping in this district.”

  I could only imagine what wild story Pasta’s troopers would make up to cover our asses. I was gracious we wouldn’t have to explain it ourselves. A large transport came barreling down the thoroughfare and came to an abrupt halt in front of us. The back door slid up and revealed several more Sig soldiers who were armed to the teeth. They stepped to the sides so Tam Lin could move from behind them. She was waving urgently to us.

  “Nathan, Tria, get in! The outpost security is right behind us, so we need to get out of here now!”

  Pasta all but picked us up and threw us in. He piled in behind us, and the door rapidly closed. Tam Lin went forward and sat down on a bench. She strapped herself in and pointed to the bench across from her, indicating we should do the same.

  “I can’t say much for your outfits, but that is a damn pretty necklace you have there, Tria.”

  Even though we almost got murdered by mercenaries, Tria and I looked at the sad condition of our garments and both broke out in laughter. Tam Lin just shook her head.

  “You two are as crazy as they come. I should drop you both off at a thought reprocessing institute. What in the hell did you do to kick over that hornet’s nest back there?”

  I still had no idea. I carefully explained to her where we had gone and everything we had done. We were polite as far as I knew and could not explain the sudden attack. I did tell her it could have been an old score trying to be settled by a Coram warlord we once had an encounter with. The looks Tam Lin and Pasta were giving each other insinuated they thought otherwise.

  “If you know something I don’t, I would sure like to hear it.”

  “Nathan, there is a large number of Coram on the outpost. They have a guild a few decks below us, as do a number of other races. No one knew you were here except for my people and the two merchants that you visited. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who could be trusted with that information.”

  That narrowed the culprits down to just two. Of the two, only one gave me the creeps.

  “Cralmo!” Tria and I blurted at the same time.

  I looked at Tria’s necklace, and the pieces started coming together. “That no-good son-of-bitch took my credits and then decided to kill us and take the necklace back!”

  Tria told Tam Lin that another transport was at the ambush site and managed to escape. If I was a betting man, I would say Cralmo was aboard it waiting to take possession of the Starfire necklace.

  “Turn this thing around and take me to Cralmo’s!” I said.

  Tam Lin quickly nixed that idea. “No, Nathan, that entire area is locked down and will be for some time. Let the dust settle and give it a day or two. Then we will go have a little face time with that slug piece of shit. Pasta has some of his crew gathering evidence. When he knows something, he will tell me.”

  Man, was my blood ever boiling. That slug had a billion credits of mine in his pocket, and he tried to kill me and Tria. He just got a permanent place on my to-do list, right next to Eiger. To take my mind off of skinning the slug alive, I managed to talk Tam Lin into stopping back at Osa’s place. She personally got out and spoke at the door. When it opened, she hustled us inside. When Osa saw us and the condition of our outfits, I thought he was going to cry. He must have had it in his mind that Tam Lin wanted him to replace them for free. I produced the funds with another much larger tip for his silence, and he was all smiles after that. We had him box up them up, and Tam Lin impatiently hurried us back out the doors and into her transport. She made it a point to say she was not stopping again, even if it meant I would piss my pants.

  When we got back to the Legacy, my crewmates were waiting. Trying to explain what we thought happened to Klutch left a bad odor in the hangar as well as our mouths. It took a lot of convincing to keep the Troop Master from paying the Kasulla an unpleasant visit. That honor would be left for Tria and me as far as I was concerned.

  Dinner that evening was amazing as usual. I would like to say it was a light hearted and memorable event, but the tension in the air over the ambush left everybody feeling on edge. As we got up to go back to the Legacy, Tam Lin pulled me aside.

  “Nathan, Pasta has some information. He alerted me he is on his way and would like to brief you personally.”

  I told Xul to take the scientists and engineers back to the Legacy and I would return shortly. Tria, Coonts, Klutch, and I stayed behind to wait for Pasta. I had Justice send a message to the Zaens. It had the jump coordinates to a location just outside of the devastated star system where the mining operation was hidden. It would take them longer to get there than it would the Legacy. By the time they arrived, we should have several blocks of Containium decontaminated and ready to transfer to the freighter.

  Pasta showed up about fifteen minutes later, and he did not look happy. I had a bad feeling it was going to be contagious.

  “Nathan Myers, my strike team picked up a wounded Coram mercenary from the ambush site before outpost security locked down the area. One of his legs was severed in the firefight, and he was unable to escape. We obtained information from him that points directly to Cralmo. Although Cralmo never identified himself, he told the Coram he was robbed of his most valuable asset. He showed them pictures of you and your transport, then promised a million credits if they could recover the asset before it left the outpost. The rest you already know.”

  We had the why and the how, but Pasta still looked very unhappy, and I knew there was more news that would leave me in the same condition.

  “I take you have something else to tell us that we are not going to like?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. I have surveillance teams watching most of the docking areas that belong to known mercenary groups. A Coram assault shuttle departed the outpost two hours ago in great haste. It did not request departure clearance and almost collided with an inbound freighter. After hearing about the departure of a Coram shuttle so soon after the mercenary attac
k, I decided to send in a covert team to detain Cralmo. His business and residence were both empty. All the merchandise was removed and the business office chemically incinerated. I have teams out searching but already know we are too late. Cralmo is gone.”

  I cast a stinky eye at Tam Lin but could tell she didn’t like it any better than I did.

  “Nathan, I am sorry he slipped through our fingers,” she said. “I didn’t think he would up and leave. He has been doing business on this outpost for a long time. I thought sure he would deny all knowledge of the incident and pay everyone else for their silence.”

  I was pretty bent out of shape. To make matters worse, Klutch was putting the hurt to the once clean-smelling atmosphere.

  “Take me to the Coram prisoner,” I said. “Maybe he can tell us how to get a track on the shuttle.”

  Pasta shook his head. “That is no longer possible.”

  I had a feeling he was going to say that. There was nothing I could do but move on to other matters.

  “We will be departing in the next few minutes,” I said. “Let me know if you find out where the slug is hiding.”

  Pasta solemnly nodded. As I turned to leave, Tam Lin surprised me.

  “Nathan, I changed my mind. I want to partner with you in the mining business. Sushi, Pasta, and I are assembling the necessary people to get the mine operational. When we are ready to start moving the engineering crews, I will alert you.”

  I stood staring at her for a moment wondering if she changed her mind because she felt she let me down. She must have been reading my mind.

  “No, I am only doing it for the credits!” she protested.

  That was bullshit. I knew for a fact she didn’t need the credits.

  “When we are ready to start operations, I will sit down with you, and we will iron out the fine print,” I said.

  “Deal!” she smiled.

  I should have been feeling good about taking my first steps at being a galactic business owner. My thirst for revenge on the Kasulla for trying to kill Tria and me rained piss all over the prospect. Some of the animosity came from the Oolaran beast inside of me, but the rest came from my human side. You don’t mess with my family and run, thinking you got away with it. There will be a reckoning. The guilty party will find out they are not the only ones with the deadliest of intentions.

  Justice jumped us to the demolished star system and started a security sweep. I was brooding in my command chair when Tria decided she had her fill of it. She had no problem putting the assassination attempt behind her. In her mind, they had failed, and the culprits that made the attempt got what was coming to them. It was one of my Earth man failings to hold a grudge against the facilitator. Making matters worse was the fact that Eiger got away with it as well. It was now almost a year since he fled into the void. I was hoping the intel gathered by Sael would finally bring the piece-of-shit pirate’s lucky streak to an end.

  “Nathan, you should think of a name for this system,” Tria said, trying to distract me. “Perhaps something that is not as bleak as your thoughts.”

  Coonts, Klutch, and Xul were monitoring their consoles and all turned to look at me when they heard Tria’s comment. The looks, for the most part, were neutral, but deep down inside, they were like Tria and wanted me to get over it. They were right, of course, and I was setting a poor example of leadership by sitting around and letting it eat at me. Then a thought came to me. I scratched my head and sat up in my chair. I already knew Coram mercenaries had a base of operations on outpost 655. It was a long shot, but it was worth taking a look when we finished our business at the mine. Tria saw the sudden change in my mood and smiled. For now, I would let her take the credit for derailing my morose disposition. I smiled back and started thinking of a name. It came surprisingly fast.

  “El Dorado comes to mind. It was a name given to a mythical lost city filled with treasures. There are some back on my planet who still hunt for it, hoping to become rich and famous.”

  I got nods all around, and Justice recorded the title. He then gave me a sitrep.

  “Commander, the cargo bays on Eagle One and Two are now ready for decontamination operations. It will take three trips from each shuttle to remove all the encapsulated Containium. I have reconfigured Eagle Two’s hangar in the Legacy’s cargo hold so we can store the containers until they are transferred to our freighter. Once the transfer operations are complete, we can take Eagle Two back aboard.”

  “Coonts, Klutch, you will be on Eagle One, and Tria and I will take Eagle Two. We are going into the mine and removing all of the encapsulated Containium. One of you will run the tow beam while the other washes the blocks down with the decontamination boom. When you have as many blocks as you can carry, bring them out so Justice can put them in the Legacy’s hold. I want you armored up for the additional radiation protection. If you don’t have any questions, let’s get on with it.”

  I got two thumbs up from Coonts and Klutch, and they headed for the lift tubes with Tria and I behind them. Tria took me by the arm and leaned in to me.

  “I know you have other things on your mind,” she said. “You can tell me now if you like, or I can wait until you decide to share it with us all.”

  Tria’s perception was right on the money. It was getting progressively harder trying to conceal anything from her. I glanced at her. She may have said she would wait to hear what was on my mind, but the look she was giving me said otherwise.

  “Outpost 655.”

  She stopped and turned me around. “The Coram black market outpost? You are not going to let the attack go, are you?”

  I wanted to tell her it was a stupid question but didn’t feel like getting my ass kicked. I had my fill of that lately. I knew a different tack was in order.

  “Sael gave me all the intel she had on Eiger. Are you going to let that go?”

  She frowned and pulled me along toward the hangar. Her silence said I made my point. We launched shortly afterward and followed Klutch into the tunnel entrance of the mine. Everything was the same as we left it. We took up positions on each side of the Containium blocks and went to work. We were able to take three blocks at a time out of the mine. We rendezvoused with the Legacy and dumped them into space. Justice pulled them aboard the Legacy with the tow beam and locked them down in the hold. It was on our second trip out that things started going south.

  “Commander, Broza is on station at the rendezvous coordinates,” Justice alerted me. “He is reporting that five unknown vessels have made an inner-system jump into close proximity of his location. He is being hailed to cut his drives and drop his shields. My subsystem is monitoring the Sig training crew. They are making evasive maneuvers and have fired warning shots trying to dissuade the combatants from attempting to board them. They are broadcasting their peaceful intentions but are receiving no reply other than to cut their drives and shields.”

  “Justice, have Xul armor up and tell him to pick a pilot for Eagle Two. He is to continue removing the Containium from the mine with Coonts and Klutch. Is the matrix charged?”

  “Yes, Commander, the DEHD core is optimized for immediate operations. Xul has acknowledged your order and has chosen Jaran as his pilot. They will be standing by in the hangar awaiting your return.”

  Tria made a maximum velocity return to the Legacy. We retro braked hard to slow down enough for Justice to not so gently catch us with the tow beam. He pulled us aboard, and we exited the shuttle. I saluted my Grawl teammates as they ran up the cargo ramp of the shuttle. They closed the hatch, and Justice gave them a push into the void. I caught a little flak from Coonts and Klutch on our IST comms. They wanted to be where the action was, and hauling freight was not it. I reminded them that what they were hauling was worth hundreds of billions of credits. In a not-so-roundabout way, they both said they didn’t give a scat. I finally ordered them to get the job done and quit bitching about it.

  “Justice, jump us to the freighter. Do you have another report from Broza?”

 
; “Yes, Commander, they are under fire. The Sig crew has taken command. They are making evasive maneuvers and returning fire. The hostiles were not expecting the freighter to have heavy weapons hidden on its hull, and they have disabled one of the attacking ships.”

  The DEHD core jump put an end to the report. When we returned to normal space-time, Justice cloaked the Legacy and put a sensor view in my helmet. I saw a single stationary blinking yellow box well off in the distance. Justice put us reasonably close to the engagement based on data from his subsystem aboard our freighter. The four hostiles were red triangles on the view screen, and they were closing with the blue one representing our freighter. The freighter was taking a lot of fire, but the Sig were pros. They were limiting the damage they were taking by spreading the concentrations of hostile fire over large portions of the freighter’s shields. The largest ship in the enemy formation made a snap jump that put it well ahead of the freighter, and it rapidly turned to attack from another vector. Whoever they were, they weren’t completely incompetent. They had divided the defensive weapons fire from the freighter and limited some of the evasive maneuvers available to the Sig pilot.