by Peter Rhodan
That evening Lena and Teron sat having a coffee at Parfetto’s nervously waiting to see if Gizel could indeed escape the Palace as she had boasted. Lena’s parents were indulgent enough to allow her out with Teron unchaperoned as long as they stayed in public spaces and she was back by midnight. Especially as she was with someone she was not afraid to introduce to her parents. Poor Teron became completely tongue-tied and useless in the presence of her father, something she had found worrying but her father had assured her he didn’t hold it against the poor fellow. Going out with the scary boss’ daughter was enough to intimidate anyone!
A blonde girl wearing a soccer jersey of the capital’s Intergalactic soccer team, the Kimeria Kavaliers, slouched into the shop and went to the counter and ordered a coffee. Lena eyed her casually at first then with more suspicion. The girl kept her face down without actually hiding it; rather it was as if she was just shy and mousey. The girl was wearing jeans and joggers under her overlarge football jersey. A suspicion entered Lena’s mind as she tried to casually watch the girl and was not surprised when, having received her order, the girl made her way over to them. Teron seemed oblivious so she kicked his shins. He jerked around then spied the blonde and frowned at her a second.
“Hey, Lena.”
Gizel said brightly as she slipped into a vacant seat.
“You did it?” Lena half asked, genuinely surprised that the Princess had actually turned up. Teron was struck dumb at having the Princess sitting at his table incognito. Lena got the impression he was trying to decide between grabbing her, reporting it to HQ, or trying to act like he was not there at all. Idly discussing her theoretical appearance was one thing. Actually having the Princess right here, in a public place without any security, was something entirely different!
“Of course. I have used that method before.” Gizel said smugly.
“Garrick?” Lena asked, her suspicions possibly confirmed.
“Maybe”.
“How often have you done this?” Lena queried.
Gizel smirked and took a sip of her coffee.
“Not telling,” she said, before turning to Teron. “You bring your runabout?”
“Um. Yes, your Hi…” Gizel reached over and put her hand on his mouth.
“Alexa, stupid!” she hissed. “Tonight I am Alexa.” She whispered, and then grinned wickedly.
Teron nodded. He still looked like he had no idea of how to react.
“Yes your, I mean Alexa,” he finished lamely.
“Good. I’ve got clothes for tomorrow in my backpack so I’m ready. What about you two?”
Lena shook her head. “I didn’t think you’d be able to do it, so I haven’t got anything with me.”
“Oh.” the Princess said, looking disappointed.
“No problem,” Teron said. “We’ll just go to South Fair and buy what you need Lena. The shops there are open twenty-four hours after all.”
Gizel clapped her hands. “Great. Let’s go!”
She jumped up but Lena demurred.
“Are you sure you really want to do this? I presume your parents and guards think you’re in your room having an early night, but you’ll be missed first thing in the morning.”
“I know. I left a note saying I would be back tomorrow morning in plain sight on my bed. They’ll just have to wear it. Serves them right!”
The Princess didn’t look the least bit concerned about the distress her disappearance would cause.
“You didn’t tell them where you were going?”
“No of course I didn’t silly. Now let’s get this show on the road!”
The Princess grinned, her eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.
A buzzing startled him as he sat on his lounge watching a trivid show he tried to catch each week. He looked at his comm unit and saw it was his security head. “Yes?” He answered, sitting up and mentally shaking himself alert.
“The princess has left the palace, my lord.” the man said.
“What? At this time of night. She had nothing scheduled”
“No my lord. I didn’t even realize at first I am afraid. She is currently at South Fair.”
“Really?” The man on the lounge queried. “Is there security with her?”
“I am unable to ascertain that my lord. I have a team en route now to check.”
“And the Palace. Anything going on over there?”
“No my lord. All is quiet.”
“Interesting. Do you still have contact with those men you used last year on that little matter?
“I have not contacted them recently my lord, but I imagine they will still be available.”
“Good. Alert them. There is something odd here. We may have a use for them. Keep me updated.”
“Yes my lord.”
Chapter 2
Starfire concert event, Kimeria
Due to the time difference, it was late afternoon the same day when they arrived at the concert venue. Starfire was everything Gizel hoped it would be. Lena found it uncomfortable mixing with the huge numbers of ordinary people in an uncontrolled situation like this and Teron even more so because of his security worries. Gizel on the other hand seemed to be as happy as Lena had ever seen her. They went on tridee rides, saw folk shows, theatre, and performers of all kinds and that evening attended one of the premier events, the nightly karpon concert.
Some of the most famous karpon bands in the galaxy were performing over the course of Starfire, mostly the older ones, but there were a couple of the new up-and-comers as well. About the only karpon bands that were not there were the ones currently in the top four or five spots on the charts.
Gizel, Lena, and Teron were enjoying themselves immensely when about midnight two men came up to Gizel, one placing his hand on her shoulder and the other producing a gun. Gizel thinking it was one of her companions spun round to find herself facing some unknown, rather forbidding-looking man with unkempt hair and casual clothes.
“Don’t do anything foolish, Princess,” he said, nodding towards his companion with the gun.
Before either of the men realized the Princess was not in fact alone, Teron had already grabbed the armed man by the gun hand and dragged him to the ground.
He yelled. “Run!”
The Princess, remembering her karate training took her assailant by surprise, grabbing the wrist of the arm on her shoulder and stepping outside and beyond with her left foot while kicking the man in the groin with her right. The man groaned and released her and Gizel ran, pushing her way through the crowd. Before the man had a chance to recover from the assault to his manhood and pursue Gizel, Lena kicked him in the knee and then punched him in the jaw for good measure.
Meanwhile, Teron was still struggling with the man on the ground. The surrounding people made room for the fighters but made no effort to get involved themselves. Suddenly there was a flash followed by a hissing sound and Teron involuntarily released his grip on the man he was grappling with and lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. Lena went to kick the man who had discharged the firearm but the fellow easily dodged her attempt. A few seconds later she was blindsided by a third assailant and took a glancing blow to the side of her head from a gun butt and collapsed on the ground next to her boyfriend. The attacker she and Gizel had hit was sitting on the ground shaking his head. The man who had knocked Lena out helped the gunman to his feet and they both turned to the one still on the ground who appeared to be the leader.
“No, I’ll follow.” he said, “You two go. Go find her.”
The gunman pulled a device like a comm unit out of his pocket, and after looking at the screen he pointed in a particular direction and the two men started pushing their way through the crowd heading in the same direction. The man left behind managed to pull himself upright just in time to solicit the help of a fourth assailant who had forced his way through the milling crowd, and these two set off after the previous pair. The people in the area started filling the vacated space, still largely ignoring the two figures lying o
n the ground. An older couple had their comms out and were calling for help from the medical people though.
Karvon Alistair sat on the side of the shuttle ramp listening to the music coming from the concert, idling swinging his legs. His crew were out in the crowd having a good time while he minded the ‘shop’. He had drawn the guard shift duty tonight when they had drawn lots and he didn’t pull rank to get out of the job, that sort of petty abuse not being in his commander’s manual.
Suddenly he noticed a figure flittering between the parked shuttles and flyers. The vehicles parked on this side of the Starfire area were mainly orbital or suborbital vehicles ranging from small two-person flyers to big shuttles like his own, and on to the space buses used for hauling down the thousands of interstellar tourists that came to the event.
He watched the figure without any great interest until he noticed two larger figures stalking the first. He began paying much closer attention as they got nearer to the first figure while trying to decide what he would do. As the target got closer, he decided the small lead figure was a lithe female, not from anything obvious in the darkness but more from the way the figure moved. Suddenly there was the cackle of a shock gun and the small figure made a sound, spun around the end of an expensive-looking orbital runabout, and collapsed on the ground, bouncing off the front of the vehicle’s landing wheel hub in the process.
I'm going to regret this, Karvon thought to himself as he freed up the blast gun he wore inside his vest, which was contrary to Kimerian regulations, and headed over. The gun was illegal on this planet but his career meant that he had plenty of experience avoiding customs inspectors. The two bulkier figures came around the side of the runabout and found the prone girl. One leaned down to check the girl’s pulse.
“Still alive,” he said.
The other raised his gun.
“I can fix that.”
Karvon, who was now carefully creeping forward in the shadows noted the man carried a pulsar, which was a tight beam, low energy weapon much favored by criminals due to the low energy signal the weapon emitted.
The first man stood up.
“Seems a shame. The boss did say dead or alive,” he muttered.
“Do you want to carry her all the way back?” the first one asked.
Karvon decided from this comment that the two gunmen were criminal scum who deserved what they were about to get. The other shook his head, but before the first could fire his weapon Karvon fired his blast gun, careful to keep the weapon pointed high. The weapon discharged a jet of plasma that exploded when it hit something. The weapon aperture could be dialed up or down to change the radius of the jet and Karvon had it set to about a meter. At that radius, it would not blow a hole through masonry, but when the edge of the charge made contact with the two gunmen at roughly the middle of their heads, it took off most of everything each man had above his shoulders.
The two almost headless bodies stood for a moment before falling to the ground. The left-hand body fell backward while the right-hand one toppled forwards onto the girl. Fluids began pumping out of the not cauterized neck of the fellow lying over the target and onto the girl’s clothes.
Karvon moved forward and pulled the body off the girl, and bending down, quickly went through the man’s pockets, hoping like hell that he hadn’t killed some legitimate law enforcement agency personnel. The man had nothing in his pockets, no ID, no wallet, nothing. The other was the same except he had some device like a comm unit which Karvon left. It was unlikely they were cops or some other form of legitimate security with no ID. His first guess had been correct, he decided.
He returned to the girl, picked her up, and carried the limp form back to the ramp leading into his shuttle. Entering the cargo bay, he laid her down on one of the temporary sleeping beds they had brought with them to avoid the exorbitant hotel fees the local businesses that were providing accommodation charged during Starfire and looked his find over. The girl was maybe late teens, slim, but filled out and with a very firm body implying she kept herself fit. Her face was a rather attractive heart shape and she had long dark blonde hair or light brown hair.
He was about to try and wake her up when he heard voices somewhere nearby.
“Shuttle. Lights off,” he said softly and the shuttle’s computer obliged.
He crouched down as he exited the ship and quietly dropped over the opposite side of the ramp to where the two bodies lay. Two more burly men were standing over the bodies, both armed with pulsars. One also had a small hand-held unit he was holding up and looking into.
Karvon heard the one looking at the device say “That way,” while pointing directly in Karvon’s direction.
The two thugs began cautiously moving towards Karvon’s shuttle. Karvon retreated along the far side of his shuttle towards the front and then swung around the other side carefully, just as the two armed men reached the ramp. Karvon used his left hand to dial the blaster down to its narrowest setting, as he didn’t want any collateral damage to his ship.
The two men hesitated for a moment, crouching below the level of the ramp near the hull before one stuck his head up for a glance inside then stood up.
“All clear”
He said softly, and the other man stood up and they moved towards a lower part of the ramp so they could hop on board easily. So intent were the two men on possible threats from the inside of the ship that they failed to notice Karvon coming up behind them. He fired carefully twice, the narrow blast pulse entering the rear of each man's skull then exploding, blowing their brains out literally, all over the ramp leading inside of his ship.
Karvon strolled up and searched these two as well and came up just as empty-handed as the first pair. Clearly, they were hired muscle, he tried to convince himself further, attempting to justify his high-handed actions in having casually blown the four gunmen away. The comm-like unit was still on and he held it up. It was targeting some source inside his ship, giving both the direction and the distance. The obvious conclusion was that the girl was bugged and these devices allowed the men to find her. Whoever it was that she had pissed off was obviously determined to get hold of her.
Karvon returned to the still unconscious teenager and began stripping off all her jewelry. Two rings, two earrings, a bracelet, and a neck pendant were removed and thrown onto the ground away from the ramp. Nope, he saw the tracking device was still centered on her. He moved down the ramp a little glancing at the device as he did so, but the result left him with little choice but to strip her of the clothes she was wearing. He did so, carefully and a few minutes later all of her clothes were thrown off the ramp and onto the grass outside. This time when he brought up the device it pointed outside to where the clothing lay. Interesting, he thought to himself.
Returning inside he glanced briefly at the now naked female, admiring her limber body although he could tell she was probably only in her late teens, before he headed directly to the cabin. He needed to move the shuttle someplace else before more men came looking for his acquisition. He raised the ramp and rather than using the big main engines he turned on the wheel hub maneuvering motors and slowly eased the shuttle forward then left, then right onto the narrow roadway that ran around the inside of the parking bays.
There were numerous people already making their way back to their vehicles and he received loads of abuse because he was running slowly along without any lights on. After nearly running over some drunk or druggy passed out on the roadway he found a spot in the next parking bay and settled the shuttle into it. He pulled out his comm unit and sent out a recall to his crew, including the fact they were in a different spot, before returning to the bay.
Looking at the bare girl as he moved to open ramp he decided to head to the lockers first where he hoped to find some spare clothes the others had brought down to the surface with them so he could protect the girl’s sexual dignity before the rest of the crew arrived. He went through the locker belonging to Corinne first, which of course had several outfits, far more
than you would need for a couple of days at a concert! He found a matching top and pants combination that he put on the girl with some difficulty. The clothes were too big for the girl, but they would have to do. He was sure Corinne would be able to sort out something more suitable upon her return, after she’d whacked him a couple of times for going through her things of course!
He reopened the shuttle ramp and waited for his crew to return while keeping a watch over the area he had moved from. There was now a steady trickle of vehicles taking off and heading for points elsewhere. Most of the vehicles were here for the duration of the event like they had intended theirs to be, but there were also a lot of people who had only come for the day and were now returning home or to their comfortable hotels in Hironishi, the nearby capital of the southern continent on Kimeria. His eyes narrowed as he made out two sets of vehicle lights that were coming in his direction rather than heading away. Being so intent on them he was surprised by a sudden thud as Lothar arrived on the shuttle ramp.
“What’s up boss?” he asked casually, having noted his commander’s focused look. In all the years Karvon had known him he never lost the last of his Iskander accent.
“Had a run-in with some bad-guy grunts. I think we’ve got incoming. Get a recon drone up will you, please. Put it over the next parking bay back. The one we were originally parked in.”
“I noticed you’d moved. Just lined up on my comm and headed zis way. What a disorganized mess zis place is.” Lothar commented as he disappeared onto the flight deck. Lothar’s Anglic was very good except for the th sound, which he always pronounced as zee. This was a legacy of his upbringing on Derttmann, a colony that spoke a slightly modified German dialect. At least it had, before being absorbed by Iskander some centuries before when the standard Anglic language had been imposed. The zee pronunciation was about the only hangover remaining from their independent days when a bunch of renegades had settled the place and deliberately adopted what they imagined was a German culture. Shortly after Lothar had left the hold a couple of clunking sounds from the ceiling announced the launch of a recon drone.
