Exiles

by Richard Alonzo

  Chapter 1 Incursion

  Jasper sat in his spartan, minimalist cabin, stripped down as always to the bare essentials, eschewing the luxury normally offered by the senior officer’s quarters. Its purpose was two-fold. First and foremost it prevented him from looking or becoming soft with the privileges of rank and secondly reminded the crew, who served under him, he was in essence one of them. He smiled as watched the latest newscast. Angelica had done him proud, he would have to think of a way of rewarding her. At that moment the door buzzer sounded and the newscast was replaced by Angelica, adjusting her uniform, while she waited for him to let her in. He muted the sound on the newscast and opened the door, spinning his chair round to face her as she walked into his cabin, her feet echoing on the hard metallic floor.

  She smiled flashing her perfectly formed crystal white teeth at him, casting a sideways glance at his vidscreen as she spoke. “I take it you’ve seen the news? This time next week he’ll be in chains in front of a Talmari tribunal. I trust now you’ll have a little more faith in my plan.”

  Jasper smiled back, trying to read her with his cybernetic eye. Failing as always. The genetic engineers of the propaganda corps had excelled themselves when they created her and now he had her all to himself. “Securing the assemblies vote is one thing, but those spineless rats will never sacrifice the man who helped them create it.”

  She shook her head sending ripples of movement through her vivid blond hair. Originally cropped short, she’d allowed it to tumble down onto her shoulders since joining the crew of the Fury. Laughing, she replied in a slightly mocking tone, no other crew member dared use with him and live. “Why Jasper I’m hurt, even after all this time together, you continue to underestimate my talents and the assets I bring to the team.” she moved her body provocatively as she spoke. Emphasizing the cut and plunging neckline of the crisp royal blue uniform of the propaganda corps, which she still wore, but had adapted to play to her considerable assets more fully. “It's precisely because they're a bunch of spineless rats that they will extradite him, that, and all the work I’ve been doing behind the scenes.” she added with a mischievous glint in her deep blue eyes.

  Jasper stared back at her impassively. “Even if they do, do you seriously think that he’ll come quietly?”

  She dropped herself onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck pushing her face close against his. “But he doesn’t have to does he?”

  Jasper smiled. “Enlighten me then, this benefits me because?”

  She pressed her right forefinger against his lips. “They arrest him and extradite him, you intercept and destroy the ship. Ford steals a ship and runs, you hunt him down and destroy the ship. Either way he’s forced off that miserable little planet they call Anobar, with all that alien tech protecting him, and you get to blow him from this universe into the next.” she let her finger slide down his lips and over his chin. “I think you owe me a reward don’t you?” she added as he pressed her lips against his.

  Jasper pushed her off his lap and stood up. “Perhaps, when Ford is dead and finally out of my life once and for all, but right now we’re needed on the bridge.” he indicated the flashing light on the desk behind them.

  She pouted her lips in mock displeasure as she followed him out of his cabin toward the bridge. “I guess its Alice’s turn to play with the captain today?”

  The Fury had just dropped out of hyperspace, on the far side of the Dracon system, as they arrived on the bridge and took up their positions. Angelica who’d ruffled up her suit on the way there, made a point of adjusting it as Alice cast her an evil sidelong glance, much to Jaspers amusement.

  Wilkes rested the first two fingers of his right hand against his cheek, just below his ear, and cocked his head to one side. Hs sub-dermal implants glowed and pulsed with energy, giving his face an unnatural radiance. “Insertion complete, were undetected.”

  “Good.” rasped Jasper “It’s time to give these miserable rats a wake-up call. Deploy and begin charging the Armageddon Array. Power up main batteries, have fighters stand ready. Plot a course to keep us in the sensor shadow of other planetary bodies for as long as possible. Those bastards are in for one hell of a surprise.”

  Wilkes nodded and began issuing orders to the bridge crew.

  Jasper looked around the bridge of the Fury with satisfaction. The last four years had been good, good for all of them. Following their escape from the battle of the three fleets they’d unleashed a reign of terror on an unsuspecting galaxy. Living the Malstrom liturgy of ‘no mercy or compassion for the weak, only the spoils of victory for the strong, as it was meant to be’ to the max. Even as the Malstrom Corporation stumbled and faltered, plunging large swathes of human space into chaos. The Brethren, who Jasper dismissed as a bunch of religious crazies, had called it the beginning of the fall of humankind. To him it was simply an opportunity and a highly profitable one at that. Someone would always be needed, someone willing to do all the unpleasant jobs that always needed to be done, and he was that someone for a price. He and his crew had built up a formidable reputation as mercenaries, pirates, and raiders, and grown rich on the misery of others, amid the chaos and confusion. In short life had never been better for Jasper and his crew.

  When they’d taken the Fury from Malstrom, they’d adopted and modified the uniform of their elite forces and black ops combat units, from which the crew were drawn. Everyone on the ship apart from Jackson and Angelica wore it. Officers wore a dark crimson plain two piece uniform aboard ship, with only gold pips on the right shoulder and gold braid on the left cuff to indicate rank. Combat roles dictated they wore the jet black special ops heavy armour and black helmets with gold tinted visors. However both uniforms had seen the Malstrom corporate crest, they wore over their hearts, replaced with the traditional skull and crossbones as displayed by ancient earth pirates. The legend ‘No Mercy’ above and a single word ‘Fury’ below it.

  He allowed himself a sly self-contented smile as he eased himself back into the captain’s chair, on its raised dais in the centre of the bridge, and observed them going about their allotted tasks.

  Wilkes, barking orders as the filaments in his subdermal communications implant glowed and radiated energy. Lighting up his face like a cheap decoration, of the kind found in thousands of bazaars across the galaxy.

  Alice, her short black hair slicked back, highlighting the firm angular lines of her face. Her pupils like two perfectly formed crystals of jet, set in lapis, as she focused on the sensor arrays. Digesting and rapidly processing vast amounts of data and, his cybernetic eye told him, quietly fuming about the way he and Angelica had appeared together on the bridge.

  Jackson, balding and portly, with pale blue watery eyes, had made one of his rare forays from the lab to the bridge. The strange looking black goggles, he always wore in the ships laboratory, had been pushed up onto his forehead. He took up his customary station in the seat slightly behind and below Jasper, to his right on the command dais, wearing as always an ill fitting white lab coat. He’d learnt the hard way never to under estimate Jackson’s underwhelming physical appearance and was more than happy to turn a blind eye to whatever went on in the lab. So long as he kept the Fury’s Artificial Intelligence under control and evolving the ships systems in ways that benefited him. He allowed his forefinger to slowly slide up the scar that ran down the right side of his face and around the cybernetic implant that substituted for his right eye. One that Jackson had upgraded with alien tech to give him god like all seeing powers.

  But what the Lord giveth, the Lord can also taketh away. So Jasper and Jackson were locked in a strange symbiotic relationship, each dependant on what the other could offer to advance their own cause. So long as he fed Jackson’s desire for alien tech and research opportunities, unfettered by ethical constrains, he would keep Jaspers implants and the ship at optimal capacity. Often they danced round each other like black widow spiders in their deadly mating ritual, but as yet neither one had sought to land a ki
ller blow.

  Thankfully his relationship with Angelica, the ships propagandist, who took up the third and final chair on the command Dias, slightly behind and below him to his left, was a little more straightforward. Genetically engineered to feign any emotion at will and be totally ruthless in the advancement of any given cause, she’d worked tirelessly to discredit Ford. Putting a positive spin on their undertakings wherever and whenever the opportunity arose.

  He’d had endless hours of fun, not to mention imitate moments, with both Angelica and Alice as he played them off against one another for his own amusement.

  He was just about to fire up his cybernetic enhancements and scan the rest of the ship and its crew, when he was interrupted by Alice.

  “Looks like they’ve finally spotted us, were being scanned.”