by Kal Spriggs
“Stop stalling, da?” Elena said. Simon slowly began to trace wires through the mess. She seemed to take that for a sign of effort. “Crowe was special. You think the bounty on your friend Rastar is high? The various bounties on Crowe tally far more. And for the item he stole… priceless, you said earlier. An apt description, especially when you consider who he stole it from.”
“The alien device?” Simon asked absently.
“Key,” Elena answered, “Which is all he told me. But that’s enough, I think, to know that the powerful man he stole it from wants it back.”
“There wasn’t anything about a bounty on Crowe,” Simon said. He traced another wire and he suddenly felt sick to his stomach. That’s just the kind of harebrained idea that Pixel would come up with, he thought. He rubbed some residue on his fingers and then sniffed at it.
“Da, I delete it before I copy chip to him,” Elena responded. “He suspected, anyway, but that is only to be expected. And before you get all weepy over him, he worked deal with Ghost, back aboard the Sao Martino. Planned to sell all of us out, tried to have me convince Eric to kill Ariadne before they stormed the bridge.”
Simon paused, multi-tool out, ready to crimp a wire. “Really?” He looked over his shoulder at her, “He wanted to kill Ariadne?” He didn’t feel so bad about killing the other man suddenly.
Elena gave him a shrug, “Truthfully, I went along with this too, she’s a threat, dangerous, violent. Her attitude is a sham, she’s as dangerous as the rest. But yes, Crowe wanted her dead and he sought to use Eric to do it.”
Simon turned back to the device. He thought he had it figured out. Though, to be honest, he wasn’t certain if he really wanted to do what he was about to do. Then again, the woman was a killer. “Clever of you to take Ghost’s suit, you must have stashed it down here before you killed Illario, probably hidden in one of the rooms you helped to search. You seem pretty certain about getting out there. You heard Pixel though, the Prowler is jammed into the hull, you can’t escape that way. Hell, you’re not even a pilot, are you?”
“Lets just say I kept some secrets to myself, da?” Elena smirked. “Besides, Pixel doesn’t know military tech. Most military light craft have explosive charges to sever their docking clamps in case of emergency. It’ll make landing a bit difficult, but it gives me an out… and I can always leave a little present. Pixel may not have mentioned the two pocket nukes in its bomb racks, but I saw them as well.”
“You’d destroy the ship?” Simon asked.
“Only if you force me. There’s little profit in it,” Elena said. “I can’t collect on any of the others if you’re all vaporized, after all.”
“Right, that would put a damper on your bank account,” Simon said dryly. His fingers found what he sought and he began to work. “We can’t have that.”
“Simon, I don’t want to have to kill anyone else, I didn’t intend to kill Illario, though I can’t say I regret it. Your companions… well, any that get in my way at this point become a threat and I’ll deal with them as such,” Elena said coldly.
“Like Bastien?” Simon asked. She didn’t answer. “You know, I think a bounty hunter can get away with killing a criminal like Illario on accident… but what about killing a well known xenoarcheologist? I mean, I understand why you had to do it. Clearly you and Crowe needed someone to find out what they could about the artifact. He knew too much about your involvement with Crowe, so he had to die.”
“You assume it wasn’t Crowe who killed him,” Elena hedged.
“No. We already knew they had dealings,” Simon said. He had almost completed the connections and he really hoped that he wasn’t wrong with his guess. “Hell, half the ship knew we were searching for that artifact, which I’m sure you have tucked away in your suit there. Crowe wouldn’t care what the doctor could tell us. You on the other hand, didn’t want the doctor mentioning your partnership. You murdered an innocent man… how will that go down back at Tannis?”
“In some circles, it would heighten my reputation,” She said.
“I imagine that’s true, in some circles. Especially if you’re the type who takes shady contracts. I’m thinking that your shiny little bounty-hunter badge wouldn’t protect you from murder charges, though,” Simon said. He turned away from the hatch and faced her. “How would that work out for you? I know cops don’t fare well in prison, bounty-hunters must have an even worse time.”
“Is this supposed to scare me? If so, you failed. Now stop wasting my time and disable the bomb,” Elena said.
“Too late for that,” Simon said, then ducked to the side and crouched, with his hands over his ears, his eyes closed, and his mouth open to equalize pressure.
He had timed it just perfectly. The detonation of the device was a solid blow that punted him against the wall like an angry Ghornath. Simon shook his head against the dizziness and disorientation, and crawled towards where Elena lay. The ringing in his ears meant he couldn’t hear whatever she shouted as she flailed around on the deck. She tried to squint and aim through dazzled eyes, luckily she aimed in the wrong direction.
Simon managed to grab her gun hand as she flailed and pry the gun out of her fingers. She tried to punch at him, so he put that arm in a wrist lock and rolled her onto her stomach. He pulled her other arm up behind her and sat on her back. She thrashed under him, until he levered both arms up. She lay still then, though from the movement of her mouth she was either cursing him or trying to bribe him.
A few minutes later, Pixel managed to open the hatch. Simon stared at the array of weapons aimed in their direction. “Investigation’s complete,” he said. “You can take her away.”
* * *
Several hours later, Simon sat on the ruined couch in front of the gaping aquarium wall. He held a cloth with ice cubes to his forehead and hoped that the headache would ease. The damp air still carried the strong smell of fish and he could hear people’s feet squish in the sodden carpet of the lounge.
“Simon,” Mike said. His voice seemed at once both distant and far too loud for the throbbing in Simon’s head.
“Captain,” Simon said. He looked over to see Anubus and Eric flanked the short Captain. He rose to unsteadily to his feet, “Anubus, Eric.” Eric gave him a nod, Anubus just stared at him with dark, unfathomable eyes
“I figured we needed to discuss what to do with the prisoner… and that you might have some thoughts on that,” Mike said. “We’ve got Rastar with her for now.”
“Why not just lock her up?” Simon asked. He felt far too tired to have this discussion. What he really wanted was to sleep, but the headache had made that impossible. Run had also mentioned a concussion and that sleep would likely lead to “involuntary self termination.”
“Pixel can rig up one of the supply closets to keep her contained,” Mike said. “The issue is,” Mike glanced around to make sure that no one had come close enough to overhear, “she’s dangerous, especially after we hit civilized space.”
“She’s a murderer, probably a sociopath, too,” Simon said. “Of course she’s dangerous. That’s what prison is for.”
“She knows too much about us,” Mike said. “Particularly those bounties. There are military ships that would go rogue for the chance to cash in on those. Plus, there’s whatever bounty that was on Crowe and this.” Mike held up the small black and green alien artifact. “For that matter, she can spin the story her way and she’s got a bit of authority behind her words, especially against a bunch of fugitives.”
Simon realized that Eric and Anubus were here because they had, potentially, the most to lose, as well as the least moral compunction about murdering to keep their secrets. I guess I wasn’t far off in my estimates after all, he thought, at least Mike is just here thinking about his crew. Simon shrugged, “Well, at least we’re headed for the Nova Roma Empire.”
“Why does that matter?” Anubus snarled.
Simon looked between him and Eric, “For one thing, they don’t accept bounty-hunters. F
or another, they have self defense laws which allow people there to protect themselves. For a third, they’re enemies of most of the Colonial Republic, so your own wanted nature wouldn’t matter to them.” He met Eric’s eyes, “And last, they don’t extradite anyone. They also have various disagreements with the Centauri Confederation and the Tau Ceti Separatists. So you needn’t worry about their government taking an interest in your bounty. For that matter, Rastar’s insanely large bounty.”
“That doesn’t settle the issue,” Eric said. “If she talks as smoothly to them as she did to us…”
“Then it will be her story against the crew, the passengers, and even your squeeze, the Nova Roma Ambassador,” Simon said, tiredly. “But let me put it this way. If she dies, even ‘attempting escape’ then it looks like we had some kind of conspiracy going on to silence witnesses. Most customs officials will have all those same bounties in their logs. You murder her to keep that information quiet and you’ll buy yourself only a few days or hours of silence. You turn her over to the authorities for murder… well, then you might get some good will instead.”
Mike gave him a nod, “True enough.” Eric looked conflicted, but he gave a nod as well. Anubus just seemed angry and sullen. Then again, Simon thought, Anubus is always angry and sullen, unless he’s killing someone. “Right, well, we’ll let you rest.”
Simon eased back down to the couch. A moment later, Pixel came over, “So, good work on the bomb, by the way. I’m surprised you managed to turn it into a concussion grenade so easily. How’d you recognize the magnesium phosphate?”
“I recognized the smell. Using it as an accelerator for the other stuff is dangerous, you know.” Simon didn’t look up. “Why did you have a bomb on the outer airlock door?”
“So that if anyone tried to open it…”
“I realize that,” Simon said, his voice tired. “But if some well intentioned fellow left the inner door open, as say, a means to prevent the outer door from opening and someone outside triggered that, you could have vented the entire ship.”
Pixel said, “Well, there are pressure doors that would have sealed it all off.”
“Which would have, quite literally, sucked for anyone on the wrong side of the pressure door,” Simon said. “Which would have included anyone sent down there to check.” Pixel didn’t answer. “Oh, by the way, the Prowler has some kind of emergency detach points on the docking clamps, so it’s not as secure as you thought.”
“Oh, I know,” Pixel said. “I wasn’t going to tell Anubus that, though.”
“Probably a good idea,” Simon said. He frowned again. “What about the two nukes on it?”
“Oh, I pulled some components, those are safely disarmed. You can’t leave them together too long anyway. They’re fission warheads, and some components deteriorate on long term exposure to radiation,” Pixel said. “Mike has the key parts on lock-down.”
Simon wasn’t certain he trusted even Mike with those, but he felt better knowing that the engineer didn’t have direct access. Simon sat in silence for a bit longer, until Pixel spoke again. “So, I was wondering…”
“Yes?” Simon asked.
“Why didn’t you take Elena’s offer?” Pixel asked. “I mean, she said that box was worth over a hundred million. Even split two ways, that’s a considerable chunk of change. All you would have had to do was… let her go.”
Simon frowned, “I would say that it’s the principle of the thing, that she’s a murderer and she deserves punishment for it. I would say that I couldn’t trust her to keep her word. I would even say that I signed that charter and I’m part of this crew now.” He paused, “But honestly, I couldn’t hear a damned thing until long after you guys dragged her off.” He frowned, “I like to think I wouldn’t have taken the offer for those other reasons, but who knows?” A part of him thought of another reason, the woman that he’d started to dream about… even if she, too, might be a murderer.
“Huh,” Pixel said. “Okay, I’ve got one last question for you… and since you’re the man that shot Crowe, I’d figure you would have the best opinion.” Pixel took a deep breath. “So I was thinking about that nanotechnology. And I wondered… what if Crowe had more than one dose?”
“What?” Simon asked.
“Well, if the nanotechnology had some kind of controls that he could interface with… well, then he could really get creative with it. He could have dosed his decoy with one injection, to change his appearance and make him think he was Crowe… but then he could have injected someone else with it so that they thought they were Crowe. From what Run said, it would only last a short time, maybe a few days, but that would be long enough to act as a second decoy.”
“Or to fake his death… again.” Simon said. He shook his head, “That’s a very disturbing idea.”
“Yeah,” Pixel said. He glanced at the shattered aquarium. “Well, I just wanted to make sure that our lead investigator was on it.”
He left before Simon could think up a proper response.
Crossed Stars
The Renegades (Short Story)
Ariadne walked down the corridor and then paused at the hatch for the ladder well that led up towards the second deck and the lounge. She frowned at the red indicator lights for a long moment. Why, she thought, is this ladder locked down?
Realization struck her as she heard the slosh of water on the other side of the hatch. “Right,” she muttered, “Rainbow, how could I forget?” The shootout in the lounge had flooded the chamber. Most of the water had gone out the door and down the open hatch across from it, where Eric and Rastar had just come from. The wall of water had washed Mike, Eric, Rastar, and Rainbow, the Arcavian Fighting Eel, down the ladder. Fortunately, the lower hatch door was closed and the water hadn’t spread over the next floor down. Most of second deck was still damp and since they had nowhere else to put the eel, Rainbow stayed in that ladder well.
Ariadne shook her head. She really didn’t know how she could have forgotten. Still, at least she had remembered to have Pixel lock down the hatch, just in case. Ariadne turned away from the hatch and walked down the corridor, head down, as she mentally cataloged all her duties as the ship’s executive officer.
Mike meant well, when he took her aside and gave her the list, she knew. Even so, the fact that he had needed to meant that she had failed… and that Mike, as Captain, thought she had failed. That last part hurt, especially in conjunction with the fact that they had yet to figure out the myriad arrangements, deals, and agreements which Crowe seemed to have created. In some cases, such as the war journalist Valeria Zita, he had apparently promised full crew interviews in Mike’s name. In others, such as the Nova Roma Ambassador, he had traded information, goods, and favors. All of this had gone on under her nose, a fact which, if Crowe were around, she was certain he would have found hilarious.
Worse, in some ways, was how embarrassed she felt in front of some of the other crew. How could they trust her after such a series of complete failures?
She literally ran into someone just outside the ship’s lift. She stumbled back a bit but his arm caught her before she could fall. Ariadne met the calm brown eyes of Simon and she felt a flush rise on her cheeks. Great, she thought, not only do I look incompetent but I also look like I’m too overwhelmed to even walk around by myself.
She could feel his emotions, too, because he stood so close and his emotions were so strong: irritation, anger, and frustration. She didn’t need to be a mind-reader to realize that she must be the target of those emotions. He’d had them ever since the business with Crowe and Elena. She realized that he still held onto her, even after she had regained her balance. “Uh, hi Simon,” Ariadne said, even as she cursed the awkward tone in her voice.
He seemed to notice that he still held her arm and he let go suddenly, “Hello, Ariadne.” This was the closest they’d been in the past week. She had wondered if he’d been avoiding her and now she knew.
“Going up to the bridge?” Ariadne asked. She resis
ted the urge to violate his privacy and read his thoughts, to see exactly what he thought of her. In part, because it would have been wrong, but also because she wasn’t sure she could take that.
“Yes,” he nodded. He seemed unable to say anything else, though he finally opened his mouth as the lift doors opened. Whatever he was about to say, he changed his mind and waved her forward. Ariadne restrained a sigh as she stepped into the lift and pushed the button for the bridge. He followed her and a moment later the lift doors slid closed behind him. They stood in awkward silence for a long moment. She could smell his scent, a combination of gun oil and gunpowder from his archaic pistol. Finally, however, Simon gave a snort of laughter. Ariadne couldn’t help but frown. He finds me funny, does he?
He caught the look on her face, “I’m not laughing at you, Ariadne. Just the situation.” He turned and met her gaze with his chocolate brown eyes. She deliberately tightened down her psychic abilities, she didn’t want to feel those emotions directed at her. For that matter she didn’t want to feel her own emotions at the moment. He took a deep breath, “Look, there’s something I need to say…”
The lift doors opened and Rastar and Eric stepped in, “Hey guys!” Rastar said. He had large wooden crate under each of his four arms, “How goes?”
“Fine,” Ariadne said sharply. She was partially thankful for the interruption. In all likelihood, given Simon’s apparent feelings about her, it was best that she have some time to compose herself fully before he spoke. Assuming, of course, that he refrained from speaking in front of the others.
Really, she shouldn’t be so affected by his opinion of her, she knew. The problem was, she had begun to see him differently, right up until he went into attack mode back on the bridge.
