Armageddon Theft: An Arek Lancer Novella

by Troy Osgood

  I’d laid down and surprisingly fell asleep.

  Until the alarm.

  Quiet, not the full on screaming claxon that signaled a massive failure. This one was calmer, just a beeping. I’d know that Kaylia would be getting it on the bridge, but I’d long since connected all the Nomad Wind’s system readouts to my wristcomm. The ones that I could anyways. That included the ship’s onboard alarms.

  Glancing at the thin readout, I couldn’t tell what the alarm was for.

  Wristcomms are great devices but can be limited. They were created to link to a ship’s control system or a space stations. You had all sorts of information available on the small device. Only about three inches long, it had a face barely over an inch wide that sat on the top of your arm with straps holding it in place. A couple of buttons that could scroll through the menus but only a very thin read out.

  Some of the more expensive models had full holographic projectors.

  Those were way out of my budget.

  I silenced the alarm, which would cancel it on the bridge too. A sign to Kaylia that I was awake and aware. Grabbing my shirt I left the bunk, taking my boots in hand. As my bunk was the closest to the bridge, I stepped out the sliding door, took a quick left and stepped into the bridge.

  From her co-pilot’s station Kaylia looked up at me, a little panicked.

  I don’t know what it is.

  Nodding I sat down at my station and looked the screen over.

  “Someone was playing with the airlock door,” I told her a minute later as I stood up. “Stay here.”

  I moved quickly, but quietly, down the stairs and into the galley. The readout said someone had tried to open the door but hadn’t activated the lock. It wouldn’t operate with the interior door open so there was no worry of someone making a breach. Part of me kind of wondered what would happen if someone opened the airlock. We were currently in wildspace again and that wasn’t necessarily like the void of space. No one really knew what it was like. No one had been tempted to open an airlock and spacewalk in wildspace.

  The galley was empty and clean. Everything had been put away. Any dishes used were cleaned up. The space was cleaner than I normally left it.

  No one was in the lounge either. And it was picked up as well. There had been games, books and toys scattered around earlier. But now it was empty.

  If it hadn’t been for the noises, slight as they were, coming from the open door to the hold, I would have thought Kaylia and I were alone on the ship.

  I walked to the door, glad that I had set all the doors down here to stay open, and looked into the space. With the sheets and crates, it was hard to see all the people. The ones closest to me were asleep, huddled together under blankets. Parents held kids closer, giving them most of the blankets. It wasn’t cold in the ship but there was just something about sleeping wrapped in a blanket that provided comfort.

  There were a couple of Storwo stirring, I could see a couple heads sitting up, but it seemed most were asleep. I knew that none of the five families in the bunks had gotten out, Kaylia would have known and mentioned it. So it had been someone down here.

  I walked back into the lounge and to the airlock door. It was colored to match the wall, no view window into the space. Only the outline of where it opened marked it as a door. That and the control panel next to it.

  Nothing looked tampered with. Someone, a kid maybe, had just played with the controls trying to open it. Curiosity most likely. Like the storage room doors, and engineering, it had been code locked.

  That was normal for the Wind, all the doors being code locked. A bit weird for a ship with only one crewer, now two, but I’d had enough unwanted visitors and been boarded by pirates over the years that I had gotten a little paranoid. All doors were locked and there were cameras everywhere.

  Almost everywhere.

  The lounge’s camera didn’t cover the airlock door as it was mounted above it.

  I could still look at the footage to try to see who had been playing with it.

  Was it worth it? There had been no harm done but I was curious.

  That it was done at night, when everyone else was asleep, was kind of suspicious.

  Yawning, I made my way back up to the bridge.

  *****

  Kaylia stood behind me, looking over my shoulder, as I scrolled through the security cam footage. The monitor was on the console to my right and looked newer than the other readouts and controls next to it. Which it was. Most of the controls of the Wind were original but the security console was new. With all the modifications that I’d made and had done, the Wind itself wasn’t close to original spec. I wonder what the Castellan designers would think? They’d probably have a fit. Shipbuilders were a bit touchy when it came to people messing with their designs.

  I found the timestamp I wanted and slowed the video.

  We watched a shadowed figure enter the lounge from the open door to the hold. They moved slowly, the head turning to indicate they were looking around as they walked. The way the shadows around the head moved, it looked like a being with long hair. A woman? The frame was a little more slight then the male Storwos. The figure disappeared from the camera’s view, getting close to the airlock door.

  The figure stepped back into view, just barely, before moving back to the door. Moving away to get a wider look or thinking of leaving and changing their mind?

  Whoever it was had made a decision, as a couple seconds later we saw a small flash. Only visible because of the darkness in the lounge.

  Another minute or so of thought and the figure stepped away from the door. As the figure started to move away I hoped they would turn their head just the right way. But they didn’t and I was worried that we wouldn’t get a look. But then they paused and turned towards the galley as if hearing something.

  Still not the best picture but the person was recognizable. We both knew who it was.

  Mostly because there were so few Storwo on board that we actually knew by name.

  The late night creeper was Dresla.

  *****

  My instincts told me that I could trust Dresla.

  They were rarely wrong.

  But they were wrong sometimes.

  Could she be the stowaway?

  Out of all the refugees, she was the most forward, the only one interacting with Kaylia and myself. I thought it was because she had been appointed, or appointed herself, the leader of the group and the liason.

  Normally, if you were keeping a low profile you’d do just that but maybe she thought by being more open and connecting that I’d think her less likely to be the stowaway?

  Back in my Special Operations days, I hated the complicated missions. I wanted things to be straightforward. There’s the enemy. Go shoot them. Nice and simple. But sadly too many of them involved politics and that always made things more complicated. I made a pretty decent intelligence operative when I needed to be but it was something I had thought I’d left behind. Too often though, things kept creeping up.

  I had hoped this trip wouldn’t be like that.

  There wasn’t enough information to really come to a decision, one way or the other.

  Did I really need to?

  Normally I would have said no. It was something that I could leave alone.

  And I would have left alone but she had been doing something to the airlock. If she had just laid back and enjoyed the trip, could have left it alone. But the airlock thing showed there was more going on beyond just hitching a ride off a dying planet.

  That could mean danger to me, Kaylia and my ship.

  No way could I leave it alone now.

  *****

  Ship’s morning and we had just hopped back into wildspace. Kaylia was asleep.

  Now anyways.

  It had been a struggle. She had wanted to be there when I talked with Dresla. She’d done her best to try to convince me but in the end I had ordered her to bed. For a teenager, or the Thesan equivalent of one, she listened to me pretty good.
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  The kid was smart. She knew when to listen and when she could push it.

  I found Dresla in the galley, helping make breakfast for the refugees. It was mostly the same women as before and like before they pretty much ignored me. Except for Dresla. Again, she looked up and smiled.

  “Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked her as I stood at the bottom of the stairs.

  She nodded and leaned towards another woman that was at the counter behind her, saying something in Storwoi. The other replied and moved over to replace Dresla. She walked towards me, wiping her hands on her pants. I motioned towards the stairs and she followed me up.

  “Need to show you something,” I said as she stepped onto the upper corridor.

  Very quickly I saw worry pass across her face. There and gone. She knew I was on to her but was still playing the part. Wonder what she was thinking?

  In the bridge I motioned her towards my station and pointed at the security feed screen. It was paused, showing the empty lounge.

  “Watch.”

  I hit a button and played the footage at normal speed. We watched the shadowy figure walk slowly through the lounge, disappear at the door, the flash, the figure reappear and turn to leave. I paused it at the image showing Dresla clearly.

  She stepped back, only a couple steps, not enough to put real distance between us. Standing straight, she calmly looked up at me. No panic, no worry. Just acceptance.

  I would have expected at least some panic from a stowaway. Maybe a quick explanation. Something. But instead she just looked at me, waiting on me to make the first move.

  Studying her I sorted through all the information I had on her, the few and brief conversations. One thing stuck out to me. A comment from the first time she was on the bridge. She had pegged me as military or law enforcement. I thought she was the same. But now?

  Now it was time to trust the instincts.

  “You’re a cop aren’t you?” I asked.

  It took a minute for her to respond, studying me the whole time. Finally she nodded.

  “What gave it away?”

  “Same reasons you had me pegged as a soldier,” I replied. “So want to explain that?” I pointed at the paused screen.

  She looked out the viewwindow at the cloudy white of wildspace, collecting her thoughts. I leaned against the bridge’s rear wall, arms crossed, and waited.

  “When the asteroid was first sighted, our scientists realized what it meant and informed the planet. There was rioting and looting as to be expected,” she began and sat down in the co-pilot's chair, still looking out the window. “That died down as the evacuation plans were made public. That happened rapidly, surprisingly.”

  “I’ve never understood the idea of looting during an apocalypse event,” I interjected. “You’re not going to be able to take it with you and what is the point of having it for a few days or weeks?”

  “Agreed. I had expected the looting to start with the announced evacuations, not before. Steal some items of value and sell them off planet. That did happen, but not to the extent we feared it might. Especially when it was announced that anyone that was caught would not be permitted off planet.”

  “That would put a stop to it.”

  “It did. For the small stuff. It allowed us to concentrate on the bigger stuff.” She laughed. “That was hard. For years our job was to worry about a thief stealing credits from some rich tiuk. And now, in the end days of our world, we could care less about that.”

  I’ve always found it interesting that Tradelan does such a poor job translating curses.

  “We started worrying about important cultural artifacts and documents.”

  That made sense. Destroyed planet relics go for big money on the black market. And those things would be important to the survivors. Some crooks would buy ‘em from desperate survivors on the cheap and sell them at huge markups to the other survivors that wanted their relics back. Shady business. But profitable.

  “Most were recovered before the moon cracked,” Dresla continued. “I was assigned to track down one of the last. We tracked it to Touryon as that city was lower down the list of evacuations. It was the most likely place the thief would find a way off Storw.”

  “What’s so important about whatever was taken?”

  “It’s called the Daelot,” she explained, pulling her legs up and sitting cross-legged in the chair. ‘It’s...,” she started and paused, shrugging. “It’s hard to explain. Do you have anything on Terra that is considered vitally important but to an outsider would seem strange?”

  I nodded. There was a lot of things that I could think of.

  Really didn’t matter what this Daelot thing was. Not to me. Just mattered that it was on the Wind.

  “I assume that you suspect the person that stole Clerty’s ID is the thief?”

  It was her turn to nod.

  “I’ve been searching for the Daelot since we left Storw. I thought that maybe the thief had hid it in the airlock, one of the few places that might be accessible and others would not go.”

  Made sense.

  “The pad was alarmed?” she asked.

  “Yeah, most of the doors are. Tied into cameras,” I explained. “The Wind has had unwanted passengers too many times so I wanted to control access as much as possible.”

  Dresla looked up at me with an odd look. Surprised? Confused? Wondering what I meant about unwanted passengers.

  I shrugged. It would take too long to explain.

  Turning the pilot’s chair, I sat down and leaned back. I tapped my fingers on the console randomly, thinking. Dresla sat quietly and watched me. I could hear noises coming up from the galley below. Sounds of people talking, chatting, trying to forget they were refugees from a dying planet.

  I glanced at the door and the sounds.

  “The Wind is a small ship. All is good now but that probably won’t last. It’s a long trip and tight quarters. I want you to find your Daetot,” I said struggling with the word.

  “Daelot,” Dresla supplied, smiling.

  “Thank you. I want you to find it but not at the expense of making life difficult on the ship.” I sighed, answering my own internal question. Finding the stowaway wasn’t worth disrupting the lives of the Storwo even more. “Does that make sense?”

  “I won’t stop looking,” she said, a hint of steel to her voice. “But I understand and agree.”

  She stood up and headed for the door, pausing to look back at me.

  “I will try to not set off anymore alarms,” she said with a chuckle walking out the door. I heard her step back in and turned. “His name is not Clerty. Storwo do not have two names.”

  Dresla stepped back out into the hall and I heard her small footsteps descend the spiral stairs.

  Learn something new everyday.

  *****

  The next day went smoothly. I was able to sleep. No alarms.

  Things were proceeding smoothly.

  Dresla had gotten to me and now I watched all the Storwo on the Wind, looking for suspicious behavior. Honestly, I really didn’t have a problem with someone stealing credits or something to set themselves up when relocating from a dying planet. I really wasn’t sure how I felt about stealing artifacts. That felt different. Wrong.

  Weird. I know.

  “Captain.”

  I paused as I was about to go up the stairs to the upper level. The galley was somewhat empty of people. They had just finished up the afternoon meal and there were five Storwo cleaning up the many dishes and putting food away. The stores were looking a little thin and I was starting to worry there wouldn’t be enough to make it all the way to Hoin.

  A Storwo woman was approaching. She was a little shorter than average with bright purple hair and eyes that matched. Short hair cut and kind of plain. I thought I recognized her. Maybe one of the ones that had spoken to me the first day? Aside from Dresla, Clerty and her husband and that Administrator guy that spent most of the time sulking in a corner of the hold, I didn’t know any of
the others on board.

  As she got closer, I realized that it was her. The one that had come up and personally thanked me.

  “Yes, what can I do for you?”

  “I was wondering if you could give us access to the view screen in the lounge?” she asked pointing behind her into the other room. Through the door I could see some kids scattered around and playing or reading. The lounge had turned into the daycare. “It would be nice to show some videos for the children.”

  “Of course,” I replied stepping back to the floor. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “We’re still in wildspace so you’ll only have access to what is stored in the system.”

  “Why is that,” she asked.

  “Can’t receive transmissions well in Wildspace. We’ll be in the Yersk System in a couple hours and can get some new vids then. But we’ll only be in Yersk for maybe thirty minutes, if that. Then it’ll be about another eight hours until we’re in the Tuint System and the next available time to download. You’ll need to program the Feed to grab things for the kids at those points. We’ll be in Tuint for longer as we’ll need to stop at the station and refuel.”

  “That will be fine,” she said. “Thank you Captain. I am Torsi,” she said extending her hand.

  “Arek is fine, Captain just sounds weird with only a crew of two,” I told her shaking her much smaller hand.

  Torsi followed me back into the lounge. I had to step around the kids and their toys as I walked to the viewscreen on the far wall. Mounted into the wall next to it was the control panel and I hit a couple buttons, unlocking the passcode.

  “Do you need some instructions?”

  “We should be able to figure it out,” Torsi replied as the kids started to gather around. “We do not want to take you from your duties.”

  “There’s not much for me to do,” I replied stepping out of the way. Which was true, but the amount of kids and how close they were was starting to get a bit overwhelming.

  I was not a kid person. Aside from Kaylia, I wanted nothing to do with them. Had a couple nieces and a nephew back on the Mars Colony, my sister’s kids, but I had seen them only a couple of times. Talked to them sometimes via vid but it was mostly passing messages back and forth. They were growing quick, I knew that. Played some sports.