The Elarri Heist (Plundering the Stars Book 1)

by James David Victor

  “Well, that’s not good.”

  A beeping sounded from the console. “We’re receiving an audio transmission,” K said.

  “Let’s hear it then.”

  He flipped the switch, and a deep Elarri voice brimming with authority boomed at us. “This is Captain Tregan with Elarri Imperial Police. You are in possession of a stolen ship. Surrender immediately or face the consequences.”

  Then the message repeated.

  The Elarri were a no-nonsense people, so the “consequences” could range from long amounts of jailtime to torture to death and all the lovely things in between. They would have no qualms about blowing us out of the sky if we didn’t comply and pay the owners for the damage. They didn’t have time for petty trials and lawyering, which was unfortunate for us criminal types.

  Still, we had a chance before they lit us up.

  “Time to go!” I shouted. I vaulted out of my seat and climbed out of the cockpit, the others right on my heels. This was not part of the plan, not one bit. Saints, we couldn’t catch a break. But it was alright. K could get the ship clear of the authorities.

  I returned to my room and put on some nondescript trousers and a ratty shirt that I wasn’t fond of. The Elexaes were going to beat me and do saints knew what else so no need messing up my favorite attire. Besides, once I cut myself open, there was no way I’d be able to get those bloodstains out.

  Footsteps pounded down the hall and entered my room behind me. “Yan, what are we doing?” Amara asked, out of breath.

  “We’re escaping obviously.” I turned to face her once I pulled my shirt on.

  “And we just what, leave Pivek and K to the imperials?”

  I frowned. “Please, my dear. K can outdrive any cruiser, even in this hunk of junk. We are going to take the escape pod and jet down to the capital while he and Pivek get out of here.”

  “Yeah, well, the imperials are no doubt going to see our escape pod.”

  “By the time they search for it on the surface, we’ll be long gone.” I tried to move past her into the hallway, but she folded her arms and wouldn’t let me by. Apparently, my answer wasn’t satisfactory. I sighed and gripped her shoulders. “Look, obviously, this isn’t ideal, but we’ll be fine. The imperials will want to arrest us, not blow us out of the sky, so we have that on our side. You just have to trust me, okay?”

  She didn’t want to, she really didn’t. I could see it in her eyes—that ever-present doubt—but she gave in. “Fine. But if I get arrested today, I will kill you.”

  “If we get arrested, then I don’t think you’ll be the one to kill me.”

  “You better hope not.”

  To that, I just gave her a wide smile.

  She and the others gathered all the things they needed for the heist—uniforms, tools, and so on—and met me by the escape pod. Jinx and Rowan were already in their uniforms and ready to go to work. Amara looked concerned, but fair enough, we had an imperial cruiser bearing down on us.

  I slapped the door control button on the side of the escape pod dock. With a woosh, the door swung open. The others piled in, with me last. It was a tight squeeze but thankfully, Amara, Jinx, and I were all small so we could fit. A few people Rowan’s size would have had a much tougher go at it. Once we were inside, I looked over my conspirators.

  “You ready for the mayhem?”

  “I was born ready, mate,” Rowan replied with a grin.

  Jinx offered a muted grin and nodded. Amara huffed and said, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

  And with that, I closed the door and punched the large orange button by my seat. There was a pause, a click, and then we were jettisoned free from the Diego.

  We plummeted through space, dropping fast and hot. We inched around the viewing window and watched as the Diego grew smaller and smaller, the immense imperial cruiser staying the same size. That was disheartening. But then, right as we were about to lose sight of our ship, K put on the afterburners and took off. The cruiser’s blaster cannons opened fire, but the Diego was too small, and K’s piloting too skilled.

  Then he was too far away to see, and we sunk back into our seats with sighs.

  “Do you think they’ll be alright?” Jinx asked. A question we were all wondering. We all knew how good of a pilot K was, but anything could happen. We just had to have faith. If he was in the Sanara, I’d have no doubt that he’d leave that cruiser in the proverbial cosmic dust, but in that piece of junk? I wasn’t so sure.

  “They’ll be fine,” Amara said. She’d known K before even I had, and had flown plenty of actual combat missions with him. She knew better than any of us how he did under pressure when lives were on the line. She sounded convinced, so that put us all at ease. It didn’t erase all the doubt, but it helped us focus on our trials to come.

  The escape pod shook violently as we entered Elarra’s upper atmosphere. We each strapped in so we weren’t thrown about, but even so, the approach was so violent that I wanted to vomit up the entire beautiful meal we’d just had. Even in large ships, breaking through atmospheres could be rough. In this little escape pod…it was awful. Rowan even banged his head so hard, despite the cushioned headrest, that blood trailed down his face. He didn’t lose consciousness though, so that was good.

  The top of the line escape pods had better thrusters and state-of-the-art seating and safety harnesses so that getting hurt was a near-impossibility outside of crashing into something like a cliff. Some even allowed the pod to be piloted. Not ours. So we just sat back, tried to hold down the remains of food from our stomachs, and prayed that we made it.

  Finally, we broke through the upper atmosphere and settled into the scorching skies above the capital. We gulped down deep breaths, glad to be through the worst of it.

  “Are you alright?” Amara asked Rowan, eying the blood that trailed down his neck with concern.

  He blinked as some of it dripped over his eyes. “I’ll be alright. I’m more worried about the bloodstains on my uniform. I feel like my bosses will have some questions.”

  “Just say you got mugged or something. Plenty of crime to justify that claim.”

  “Yeah, but would a simple mugger attack one of the Elexaes’ guards?”

  That was a good point. Only members of a rival family would have the courage to do something so stupid. Or they could be me.

  “Try to make it personal,” Jinx offered. “Say that your father is greatly against you working for the mob so you two got into it. Most of the guards in the manor are bullies and thugs, but they’re still people with similar issues. I’m sure they wouldn’t pry any further with that explanation.”

  Rowan nodded as a smile crept onto his face. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s good. I’ll go with that.”

  Jinx, always the schemer. And Rowan was supposed to be the expert conman.

  We sat in silence for the remaining few minutes as we descended into the city. As this was a more basic escape pod, we weren’t really able to control where it landed, so I was disheartened to see us land in one of the more abandoned districts that was slowly being swallowed by the wastes.

  It would be a long trip to Xarren’s estate, but on the other hand, an escape pod coming down in the middle of one of the busier districts would attract far too much attention. So in the end, this was fine.

  As we approached the ground, the pod’s emergency break thrusters kicked in and kept us from smashing into the dirt. Probably wouldn’t have been deadly, as we landed on a large dune that had half-swallowed a multi-floor building, but it wouldn’t have felt good either. No matter. The thrusters were old but sufficient, so we landed softly with only a last-minute jolt as we hit the ground.

  “Well, that was uneventful,” I said with a smile. I did not get any smiles back in turn.

  Once we came to a halt, I undid my harness while the others did the same. I opened the pod doors and scampered out. With a groan, I stretched my legs. That was not a fun trip I looked forward to doing again. If this heist went off with
out a hitch, I probably wouldn’t have to.

  The others climbed out after me. Amara thankfully brought a first aid kit and cleaned the cut on Rowan’s forehead. It wasn’t a bad one, not too deep, just really bloody, but she worked her magic. And by magic, I meant she put a big bandage over it.

  “I’d use some bio-gel on it, but I had to use the last of it on Yan to cover our little surgery scar,” she said.

  He shrugged. “No big deal.”

  With that out of the way, it was time for business. Time for the greatest heist of our lives. For a moment, we all stared at the sky and wondered how K and Pivek were doing. It was impossible to see beyond the atmosphere. We could make out a few tiny specks far above, the larger cruisers and frigates in orbit, but not even a hint of a flash from a cannon. No, whatever was happening above was beyond us now.

  I clapped my hands together. “Okay, does everyone know the plan, know their roles?”

  They all nodded. Good. No need to go over things again. We’d beaten the details into our brains over and over again over the last few days—every angle, every contingency, every bit of info that could affect each and every one of us. They knew the plan. Now it was up to them to execute. And just maybe we’d walk away from this with a lot of money and all-new lives to live amongst the stars.

  “Let’s get to it then.”

  Rowan and I shook hands. “Good luck,” he told me. “Try not to bleed out in that cell. That would be awfully embarrassing.”

  “Not as embarrassing as you getting bullied to death by your new Elarri coworkers.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, not looking forward to that.”

  “You’ll be fine.”

  With a nod, he let go of my hand, and I moved on to Jinx, who enveloped me in a big hug. “Be careful,” she whispered in my ear, her lips grazing my lobe and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.

  “You too.” I pulled back but held her in place and offered her a smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid.”

  She rolled her eyes so very Amara-like. “You always say that, and yet…always with the stupid.”

  I kept on grinning as I backed away from her. “You two take care of each other, if you can,” I told her and Rowan. They nodded, then hiked down the dune. Jinx gave me a long glance back before she followed our large Goonish friend.

  So that just left me and Amara. She had the least to do unless we absolutely needed her, which hopefully wouldn’t be the case. She had a lot of time to kill. So did I, in fact. I wasn’t going to turn myself in until this evening when I knew Rowan and Jinx had their shifts.

  I wrapped an arm around her. I felt her gaze burrow into me. “So, what do you wanna do to kill time? I’m sure there’s a hotel nearby that we could…”

  She scoffed. “You really have a death wish, don’t you?”

  “Almost always.”

  Amara shook her head. “Let’s go find a casino. The cards are calling me and maybe I can have some last-minute luck before we all get arrested.”

  I nodded. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, let’s do it!”

  15

  Amara didn’t have any luck with the cards, so hopefully all the luck was being saved for the heist. Saints knew we needed all the help we could get on this one.

  As the sun slowly inched toward the western horizon, it was time to get to it. Amara and I parted ways. We hugged and wished each other the best. She wasn’t the best at showing her emotions and neither was I when it came to serious stuff, so we left it at that. Besides, no need to make things seem final. We had this. We just needed to execute.

  I watched Amara for a moment more as she disappeared into the evening crowds. We were in the entertainment district so as the day came to an end, the casinos and bars and brothels would swell with people looking to drown in the fun. This was my kind of scene. I loved the crowds, loved the multitude of people, and wondered about their stories and what they had going on. And I loved how one could just disappear among the masses.

  That sort of anonymity was a thief’s dream. Of course, it didn’t always work out so perfectly.

  I made my way to a familiar street, one lined with brothels and bars. My two favorite places. I leaned against the cold sandstone wall behind me, crossed my arms, and stared up at the large regal edifice of the Silk Lily, the Elexae-owned brothel—formerly under the proprietorship of the late Barron Valrude—where this entire heist began. It was there that I stole the data for Xarren’s mansion that kickstarted this whole thing.

  The Elarri bouncer that I’d flirted with to gain entrance wasn’t out tonight, which was a shame as she’d been a beauty. But it was all good. I was going to be recognized soon enough anyway.

  The Silk Lily was not my destination this evening, though. No, that pleasure went to the Fever Pit, one of the Elexaes’ many gambling halls. It was a perfect target for a robbery and thus a perfect target to stage my arrest. I couldn’t just turn myself into the Elexaes or have them catch me pretending to break into the manor itself—both were too suspicious—but getting caught trying to steal the winnings from one of their casinos? That was perfect.

  It was right down the street from the brothel, so once I took a deep breath and readied myself, I strode on over. Unlike the Silk Lily, the Fever Pit catered to clientele of all financial backgrounds, so commoners like me were welcome to come in and throw away our money. The mob didn’t discriminate when it came to getting paid.

  The inside was a vast open space, a low-ceilinged room with lots of low lighting on the walls and only bright spotlights to illuminate the tables, so that they were the only things potential suckers saw, like moths being guided to the flame. It was smart of course, a good strategy to relieve the naïve of their mostly-hard-earned digits.

  On top of that, sweet hunra-infused air was pumped into the room to make everyone just a little bit more agreeable and clumsy, enough to make even some of the smartest people put down money on odds they had no hope of overcoming. It was a good thing I wasn’t here for leisure otherwise they would have suckered me out of…well, not a lot. I obviously wouldn’t bring a lot of digits on a heist.

  The casino was already near filled to the brim with patrons, dregs from all manner of places across the known systems. Once again perfect for me. I slipped between the crowds, staying to the shadowed bits away from the lit-up tables. Music blared—synthetic beats that lulled the crowds and fed on the feelings of the hunra. Truly, Xarren Elexae knew what he was doing. I had to respect it. He was a thief just like me, only his skill came from different means.

  It took longer than I wanted to get to the edges of the room through so many bodies jostled together, but I did make it. Most Elarri buildings had a similar style. A foyer upon entering the structure, followed by the main room beyond it. Circling the entire main room was one hallway, and usually rooms and wings would offshoot from it. It was a pretty standard design, at least for the bigger structures of the empire, and it held true here.

  Now, I happened to know exactly which back/side room held the casino vault, as I’d once cased this place for a possible past heist, but I’d decided that hitting Xarren at his house was more worthwhile. Getting to the vault wouldn’t be too hard. Just cause a distraction large enough for the guards to be drawn away and hack in. Of course, that wasn’t going to be my play this time around.

  I found a lavatory on the western wing and entered. Inside there was an old vent shaft. These old Elarri buildings used rudimentary air-conditioning systems that were beyond obsolete, but no one wanted to bother paying for replacements. That worked fine for me. I climbed up and used a cutting tool from my pack to get the vent grate open. Yes, it would be confiscated later, but that hardly mattered.

  The vent was small and cramped as all vents were, but blessedly cold. It took a lot of effort to shimmy my way through the labyrinthian ducts, but I’d memorized the layout months ago in preparation for stealing the casino winnings. I just had to brush up on the plans a few nights ago.

 
; It took the better part of an hour for me to wriggle my way to the casino vault room. I was panting by the time I came to a stop, coated in sweat and dust. With some effort, I managed to retrieve my cutting tool from my pocket—which I probably should have just carried in my mouth—and hacked the vent grate free. I pulled it to me before it could fall to the floor. I peered out. Below me was the vault and stacks and stacks of digits. All perfectly orderly. There were other things too. Ornate furniture and clothes and jewelry and whatever desperate gamblers would bring for collateral. It was impressive and so enticing to my little thieving brain, but I had much bigger game to hunt.

  Now one might think that I was already in. So easy, so simple, so why not rob it? Well, there were motion alarms all along the floor, so as soon as I stepped down, they would know I was there. And that was the plan.

  Of course, if I did want to rob this place, Pivek could’ve whipped something up for me.

  I shimmied myself around so I could lower myself down feet-first. It was not easy, as turning around in the cramped confines of the vents made it near-impossible, but I managed it after a lot of awkward and painful stretching.

  This was it. I would drop onto the ground, alarms would blare, I’d get captured and beaten, and the heist would be on. Or things would go horribly wrong and I would die.

  So, no pressure.

  I took a deep breath and sent up a prayer to all the saints I could think of, and then dropped down.

  My boots hit the floor, and a deafening siren began to scream from the walls. I didn’t have to fake my surprise, because I genuinely didn’t realize how loud it would be. Just then, the doors behind me slid open. I whirled around. Two large Elarri thugs covered in their raised white tattoos and wearing thick armor came in. They raised blasters.

  And they shot.

  Not part of the plan.

  I only just managed to duck and dodge out of the way of their initial shots. I threw my hands up into the air.

  “Wait!” I screamed. I didn’t think they heard me over the siren, but they both hesitated, eyes narrowed. The one to my left, who was on the hefty side, brought his wrist to his mouth and spoke into a communicator.