The Shattered Stars: Breach of Contract

by Vance Huxley

  “No, they will believe we killed him anyway. This way maybe they’ll believe you.” She sniggered. “They can’t hold me anyway, and firing squad flechettes would bounce off.”

  “That’ll be my excuse for not keeping you away from the bridge, that and your strategic clothing.” Bobby frowned. “We’ll have to watch out for some sort of double-cross when everyone arrives, some attempt to stop your reinforcements coming aboard.”

  “We would have to watch for treachery anyway. Maybe we should explain how close this alliance is.” Fleur smirked, then sighed. “Now I will report and then I want to watch stars again. We have enough suit air for a few minutes each time.”

  Fleur’s report matched Bobby’s of course, though at the end she confirmed she’d placed herself under Bobby’s operational command because of his longer service and time in rank. They sat for a while star watching, then walked back hand in hand. Stars had that sort of effect.

  * * *

  Bobby held a meeting to tell everyone about the timing, and that there would be an investigation into the deaths of the officers. Everyone agreed that disposing of the bodies would only increase suspicion, and Pepee made the most of that. She wanted a simple death in action with a body and the wounds visible and full of foreign flechettes, something a sergeant-chef couldn’t stop. The rest of the bodies had been preserved by the bins, as Hood confirmed by looking inside, so the bodies at the other end of the ship were also put in bins and locked in.

  Fleur confirmed the size of the larger airlocks, and that she had access, and the small force mapped out a plan. Hood still had a feed from Ship showing nearby targets, and four and a half days out seemed to be nearby according to Ship. While waiting for Guns to arrive, Hood started to practice with varying types of Ship weaponry including some live-fire from the side away from Earth, blowing away small asteroids. Ship had warned Magpie her fighter would take another six hours to prepare for her body proportions, but she could start training on a shuttle or salvage vessel immediately. She would start by collecting capsules and every remaining bit of wreckage except Aggie and the mother rocket, and putting it all in an airlock the opposite side of the ship. Some of the wreckage had drifted away, but Ship told her finding the pieces and bodies and retrieving them would be good practice in the fighter.

  The remaining unmodified Troopers needed exercise and training to get sharp again as the Kwikheal encouraged their numerous small wounds to heal. The upgraded were incredibly strong and fit, but the increased strength and agility threw off some of their training. Bells accidentally crushed the mechanism on a carbin while putting in a clip so those were left for Troopers without leg upgrades. They all danced around saying just what they’d done.

  The last day or so had been a sort of holiday but now they had to get sharp again. Up to three hundred Troopers would be a handful if they got loose, even with Ship’s weapons to help subdue them. With all the captured weapons and ammo Bobby could even let the ones still using flechettes get in some live fire, shooting at shelving so Ship didn’t get the paint chipped. Bobby wasn’t sure even a rocket would do serious damage to the corridor walls under the blue coating, though the Ranger’s missile had blown a hole in a storage bin when it hit the barricade.

  Hand to hand meant splitting into upgrade and old-style, because only an upgraded Trooper could spar with another upgrade. Speed, strength and reflexes were all so much better, and watching Bells and Baiser spar full-out stopped any challenges from Siflis, Ecarlate and Pepee. Even when the two sparring Troopers misjudged and cut or hit each other too hard, the marks healed in minutes where normal human skin would have needed stitching. Bobby enjoyed sparring with someone different, with new moves. Ecarlate and even Pepee turned out to be really nasty infighters and stretched him.

  * * *

  During the next “day,” Magpie brought Bobby a pair of headphones and a headband with numerous pads on it. “I wear one of these bands to talk to the spaceship, the big one, when I’m outside in a little one.” Her face lit up. “That is unbelievable.” With an obvious effort Magpie dragged her attention back to her errand. “Ship knows what I’m thinking when I wear this even when I am connected to my own spacecraft. I asked if Ship could use one to talk to you, in your head, and no because your head won’t understand the input. But Ship can read your head, your thoughts with it and I heard you complain the prisoner is talking gibberish.”

  Bobby took the offered items. “But even if Ship reads his head, it will still be in his own language. I’ll bet Fleur talks to Ship in French.”

  “Ship reads what you mean, not in a language. How do you think the ship talked to Fleur at the start? It didn’t know French, or Anglic.” Magpie tapped the headphones. “Then Ship can talk into these in Anglic, and you will understand.”

  “So if I wear a headband as well, and he wears headphones?” Bobby smiled as Magpie nodded. “Good thinking. Can I have another set please?”

  “Will you put those on first, so Ship can check if it works? I’m no good for checking because there’s a com in my head, built in. Better than com, it has vid and sound effects.” She laughed. “I don’t know which is better, the training vids for the fighter or being out there in the salvage tug.”

  Bobby smiled; her enthusiasm was infectious. “No fighter yet?”

  “The fighter is ready, but I’m not.” A savage note in her voice matched her curled lip. “Don’t worry, I’ll be ready before the others arrive. If one of the other blocs starts trouble, this time I’ll finish it.”

  “Good.” Bobby looked at the gadgets and hesitated, then put the band on his head and fitted the earphones.

  “Can you hear me, Beebi?” Magpie’s voice only came in the earphones, so they cut out other sounds.

  “Yes. Can Ship hear me?”

  “Please talk some more. Explain ranks, and who is coming because Ship seems very interested. Ship is waiting for the captain.” Magpie sounded unsure about what that meant, but that happened now and then with all those who could hear Ship.

  Though Ship had to mean it wanted a senior officer. Right up to then Bobby had never realised he harboured some secret longing to fly this ship, to be her captain and take her across the stars to explore or into battle. He quickly shelved that and talked through the ranks of everyone here, then those in the approaching rockets, and then his best guess about the UKs up to the Duchess and Royalty. “Is that enough?”

  “Yes, Ship says it can adapt the frequencies now, so the second one will work better.” Magpie paused. “Seventeen minutes thirty-seven seconds and counting.”

  Bobby took the headphones and band off. “That’s precise.”

  “Ship is precise. We usually cut out the seconds when passing messages. Out there, Ship splits seconds into tenths for me, because things happen faster.” Magpie glanced towards the bridge. “Maybe we’ll get in there when the captain arrives.”

  “Maybe you can look in from outside if you fly round the front? Where do I pick this thing up?”

  “A servitor will bring it, a little robot.” Magpie turned to go. “I need more practice grabbing nuts and bolts out of space. I went around the front but it’s all ice and no sign of a window anywhere. Aggie is still firmly attached to the ice because I checked, but the capsule looks very small after all this. SEPA did a lot of damage to the big rocket, maybe trying to get the air, food and water.” She laughed. “The mothership keeps threatening to fire at me, but Ship won’t allow it to get a targeting lock.”

  Bobby went to get a drink of water while he waited, because his throat still felt sore if he talked a lot. A partition now cut off half the washroom, while Ship altered the sinks and water supply behind it into toilets for humans. Once he could check the new facilities worked, Bobby wanted the other washroom sorted so he could designate one for women and one for men. When the little metal messenger arrived with his second headband and earphones, Bobby contacted Hood so he could ask Fleur to come and help with the interview. Maybe with the headband he could
talk directly to Fleur’s new coms?

  * * *

  Gocho Samurai sat because he couldn’t stand. His legs were among the spares found near the engine rooms but he wasn’t getting them back in case they held a surprise. He looked at the headband that Bobby put on and shook his head at the one Fleur offered. She pulled a knife, one of the captures, and bent it with her bare hands then handed to him. He tried to straighten it and looked startled. Then she offered the headband again.

  This time the Gocho put it on, and the earphones, watching as Fleur straightened the knife again to drive the message home. Bobby left him to talk or listen for a while because Fleur claimed that Ship would be refining frequencies, though she confessed she’d no idea what that meant. Her education had been similar to a UKs Pleb’s, basic except if they showed an aptitude and were trained up for a particular job. Ship, she confessed, spent at least half the time trying to explain what it had just told her.

  Since neither knew when the Gocho would start to understand words, the pair talked about growing up, comparing a Britz mining complex to a French agricultural one. Fleur had lived in a farming complex but that didn’t mean they ate better, just that they saw all that lovely fresh food being packed and shipped away. The shite in the company shops sounded like the same shite sold in the Britmine complex.

  “Coloured and flavoured rice. No shrimps and real greens like Grandfather remembered.” They both turned to the SEPA Trooper as he spoke, and he stopped, wide-eyed. “How?”

  “Through this.” Bobby tapped the band. “Translator.” He wouldn’t be mentioning Ship but though the man might be shocked, he wasn’t stupid.

  He looked at Fleur. “What about you? You have no translator.”

  “I get the translation through Beebi’s coms.” Fleur tapped her earbud and the speaker wand curving out. She still wore it to contact Ecarlate and Pepee.

  The man assessed the reply, then suddenly turned back to Bobby. “You are Beebi Basted, I remember you.” He concentrated when Bobby nodded, trying to remember as he looked at Fleur. “Not gonso, not a three stripe like Beebi. Not like Pepee de Glace.” He looked relieved to finally remember names. Remembering anyone impressed Bobby. He’d not bothered with names as long as he knew which bloc a uniform belonged to because he’d expected to be fighting them, not talking.

  “I am Fleur Mortelle, Deadly Blossom. I am the Putes three-stripe now but Pepee de Glace still lives. All the Basteds and all but one of Les Putes survived, though both officers died. Who are you?”

  He laughed, though it came out a little bit hysterical. “All survived? Noname seemed so sure he would kill you all with the solid flechettes. I am called Samurai, because of my swords.” He looked around anxiously. “Did you find them? My Grandfather gave them to me. They are not old, they have no history, but they belong to my family.”

  “Are you hurt, injured? Maybe a bang on the head?” Bobby shrugged. “I’d have thought you’d want legs or a carbin more than a sword.”

  “I have a headache, but I can fight without legs and this close Grandfather’s blades would be enough.” He sighed. “But I will never get the chance to show you. Why am I alive?” He looked at Bobby’s head. “I never heard of a translator like this. You have my accent, my regional accent. You both have.”

  “Really new and top secret. No doubt your spooks will steal it, or SEPA will buy them.” Bobby thought a minute. The man seemed really thrown by the sudden translation but he had a good point about survival. Bobby didn’t know why the man had been tied up, so maybe Samurai should be dead. “Why were you tied up?”

  “Four of my squad are Australians, the fifth one rejected the interface when his legs were cut off.” He grimaced. “Nobody told me that I would lose my legs! Just that I should feel honoured that I am chosen replace him. I am the best Trooper in 103rd Hokkutan Consolidated.” His chest swelled a little. “Hokkutan is a subsidiary of BBTV Australia who are the contractors, they supplied the Roo Riders. They took away a rank, demoted me to fill the space.” He stopped. “You speak perfect Japanese now, not Bahasa.”

  “If you were with the Australians, why don’t you speak Anglic?” Bobby felt certain they spoke Anglic of some sort there, and wanted to get away from how well the translator worked.

  “SEPA countries speak their own language but we all speak Bahasa. I was speaking Bahasa. Then I spoke Japanese but you still understand and reply in the same language.”

  “They’re all in there, in the translator. Now why are you tied up?”

  “Because I am not part of the plan.” The bitterness bleeding into that would have been hard to fake. “BBTVA are making a bid for a controlling interest in SEPA, based on whatever is found here.” He sighed. “They kept me alive to take the blame for the officers. I would be blamed for killing the SEPA officer, then the Ranger’s officer, and then the Shiva’s officer.”

  “Why go to all that trouble?”

  For the first time their prisoner smiled. “Because I survived and that would stop questions. When the rocket hit the capsule with a missile, our officer was already dead. The Roos wanted to control access to the air, water and food, but the rocket, the mothership, held very little. Taking control of the coms to Earth didn’t work either, they missed something or all the capsules contact Earth directly. The survivors thought I spun away into space because the explosion threw me away from the rocket, but I didn’t try to get back. I changed direction enough to crash into the ice.” He waved his hand around himself. “Into this. I crawled inside and joined the other two.”

  “Then joined the Rangers and Shivas and tried to kill us.” Bobby scowled. “So let’s get back to why you were tied up, if you managed to re-join your buddies.”

  “They were not my friends. I heard them speaking on the coms when they thought I had died. They were going to kill me anyway if I didn’t agree to their plan. When they reached this spaceship I joined up, pretended I didn’t hear their coms, because I thought that would be better than being alone for someone else to kill. My Sergeant, Bold Jack, needed me by then because he’d lost men. He agreed a contract with the Shiva’s officer. That’s why the Rangers didn’t kill the Shivas officer, so that any contracts would stand.”

  “They told me sergeants could make contracts. Go on.”

  Samurai sighed, a long, sad sound. “I told the officer about the sabotage to the rocket and what I heard over the suit radios when the Roos thought I am dead. He challenged Bold Jack but the Rangers backed Bold Jack. My own sergeant hit me on the head, then took my swords and tied me up to be interrogated later. When I woke up they didn’t ask questions, Noname told me I’d be blamed for the officers.” Samurai shook his head. “They expected to make a contract with you, one that could be broken because your officer would be dead. They were surprised and very angry about what he did. Then they had to attack because the food was running out.”

  “Yeah, Mickey went out like a Trooper.” Bobby didn’t think this man had lied, or not much, but he’d check later with Fleur. “What will happen to their contract now?”

  “Your officer died with great honour, more than I would expect from an officer. I do not know what happens to the contract because dead men cannot keep it.” A savage grin split the SEPA Trooper’s face. “I am the only survivor so I could negotiate a contract between you and SEPA, not BBTVA? Being tied and sentenced to death is a breach of contract, my contract, so I can do that. A contract to give SEPA a small stake here? Then their reinforcements will ally with you. The others told me about reinforcements. They were told before they left as part of the plan to take over all the assets, whatever they were.” The Trooper shrugged. “The new Troopers will not all belong to BBTVA, just be contracted. SEPA will overturn the contract for a share in the ship, even a one man share?”

  Bobby laughed. The man definitely never gave up, and he seemed to have a real dislike of this BBTVA. “We’ll think about it.”

  “My swords?”

  “I’ll ask and see where they are though
I’m not likely to hand them over.”

  Samurai leant forward, intent. “You could send them to my father?”

  Bobby couldn’t work out why the bledrin swords were important, but sending them home wasn’t much to ask. Not for a man who’d come all the way out here, been pooched twice and then captured, and still kept trying. “If I can. We’ll talk over options and contact our reinforcements.”

  Samurai laughed. “All the blocs will get the message, or know you sent one. Even without the words they will know you survived.”

  Bobby chuckled. “Without a message from their own people, they’ll know we won. I guess whatever agreements they had will be dead in the water. That should be enough revenge against BBTVA to keep you going.”

  Samurai shook his head. “I want more. It is a matter of honour.”

  Bobby stared but the man seemed serious. He stood and beckoned Fleur, and the door opened. “We’ll see. I’ll get Hood to move you to somewhere with a soft seat.” That would also let Ship get started on a toilet in here. Fleur followed Bobby, closing the door behind them. He turned to her. “Did he lie?”

  Fleur did the listening thing for a while, so Ship must have a lot to say. Though the translation didn’t take long. “Ship doesn’t know.”

  Bobby stared at her, perplexed. “I thought Ship read his mind to translate?”

  “Samurai seemed to be saying what he thought without hesitation so he probably wasn’t thinking something different. I asked and Ship doesn’t read minds, just the intent behind speech. I don’t understand but I’m used to that.” Fleur smiled. “Not understanding reassures me I am Fleur, and not a computer in Fleur’s body.”

  Bobby recognised another plea for reassurance. “The person looking out of your eyes seems to be Fleur.” He held her for a moment because that always helped with any reassurance, and anyway he liked doing it. “What is the deal with the swords?”

  “He really seems worried about the swords, more than dying and that puzzles Ship as well.” They had been walking as they talked but now Fleur swerved into a room. “What are we going to do about him?”