Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel

by George Ellis

  She was proving to be an odd one, even by current crew standards. The first couple days, she mostly kept to herself. She retrieved food from the kitchen when nobody else was in there, and she still hadn’t used the workstation I’d set up for her in the cabin. Her work would be done on the Rox, assuming our plan got that far. Gary had tried to interact with her, but she was completely immune to his comedic stylings, which I actually liked about her.

  I was making coffee in the kitchen at one point when she walked in, eyes glued to her handheld. She sensed my presence and began to turn around, when I tried to engage, asking her how she was doing. “Fine.” And what she was so busy working on? “Nothing.” That was the extent of our conversation.

  So I guess you could say I was more than a little surprised when she knocked on the door of my quarters and wanted to talk about The Avengers.

  “As in…the movie?” I asked.

  She stood in the doorway and nodded. It was the most direct eye contact she’d made with me since coming aboard. I motioned for her to sit in the chair by the door. I finished re-wrapping the sling on my injured shoulder as she spoke.

  “There’s something I don’t understand about them,” she said. “Actually, just one of them.”

  I was behind my small desk, having been in the middle of reading an old-fashioned book about fishing. I’d never been fishing and likely never would, but the idea of it fascinated me. It was a completely different human experience, to be alone on a river at dawn, waist deep in water, trying to hook a fish. Being surrounded by life and sound, smells and colors.

  Space was nothing like that.

  I took a sip of coffee, and had absolutely no idea where the conversation was going.

  “Okay…” I prompted.

  “Well, I’m kind of a focused person. You probably noticed that about me. I’ve spent most of my life thinking about engineering, physics, thermodynamics. Things like that. So there wasn’t much time for diversion. I don’t pay attention to current events or entertainment, really, other than some gaming when I need to take my mind off complex navigational processes. I just don’t find what passes for entertainment to be very entertaining.”

  “I see. And I guess the Stang’s TV and film options were the first time you’ve seen anything like those?”

  “Correct. I’ve worked my way through a variety of movies over the past few days. For the most part, they’re more interesting than anything currently being streamed, but they’re also predictable, insofar as I can understand the dynamics of life and human relationships in the 20th and 21st centuries.”

  “It does take some getting used to,” I noted. “I imagine you were born out here?”

  She ignored the question and circled back to what she wanted to talk about. “You’re used to it though, having seen most of the ship’s catalog. Which brings me back to The Avengers.”

  I listened as she delved into her problem with the movie, but my thoughts strayed. She had said two things that piqued my interest: physics and complex navigational theories. If those were her areas of expertise, it may provide some insight into what was on the Rox that was drawing so much interest.

  “Captain Boyd? What do you think?”

  I snapped back to the conversation and realized I hadn’t really heard the last sentence or two. Romy gave an annoyed look and repeated her question for me.

  “I don’t understand whether Bruce Banner can or can’t control the Hulk. On the aircraft carrier, he mutates and loses control, but at the end of the movie, he says he’s always the Hulk. Do the comics or other movies in the canon explain this?”

  On the one hand, sure, that aspect of the movie had always bothered me. But on the other hand, seriously? This woman doesn’t talk to anyone on the ship for days, and when she finally does want to have a conversation, it’s about a green superhero from ancient movies?

  “I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I believe that’s what people used to call a plot hole,” I answered.

  “Plot hole. Meaning?”

  “Meaning, uh, it doesn’t really make sense in the story.”

  “Why would they have plot holes in their movies?”

  “I don’t think they were on purpose. They were mistakes,” I explained.

  “That’s frustrating,” she said, seemingly upset. Well, maybe annoyed was a better word. I still wasn’t sure if Romy was capable of anger.

  “I agree,” I said. “Now can I ask you something?”

  She was still mulling the Banner-Hulk conundrum, but she nodded.

  “You’ve kept to yourself since you stepped on board. Why was that plot hole so important that you had to ask me about it?”

  “I didn’t know it was a plot hole at the time.”

  “Of course. But still, why ask me about it?”

  She stood up and moved to the door. “That’s easy. I hate problems that can’t be solved. They give me insomnia,” she said. “Now that I know it was just a dumb mistake, I don’t need to discuss it any further.”

  “Well if you change your mind, ask Gary. He’ll have plenty of opinions on the matter.”

  “He complains too much,” she replied.

  “If you want to hear him really complain, tell him you think the Hulk could beat Superman in a fight.”

  “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because it’s fun to annoy him,” I said.

  “That sounds sadistic.”

  “Oh, it totally is,” I joked.

  She didn’t find it funny.

  “What I mean is, it’s just a dumb theoretical argument, but it would make Gary upset,” I tried to explain. “It can be fun to needle people once in a while.”

  Romy studied me for a moment.

  “I see. Like if I told you that I thought Batista could beat you in a fight,” she said, apparently attempting humor.

  “No, that’s just a fact.”

  “Oh.”

  She then walked out without saying another word.

  I sat there a few seconds, processing the weirdness of what just happened. Of all the topics I thought we’d discuss, the Hulk conundrum wasn’t at the top of my list. I also asked myself a question: what kind of unsolvable problem does a physics and navigation genius get so twisted about, that she has to solve? It could be the key to what was on the Rox.

  * * *

  “I’m unclear on how this is any of your business,” Edgar said, chewing another candy bar. He sat in the chair in his quarters, staring at the monitor. He was watching Predator, a film I’d seen a few times before. It was the scene when Dutch covered himself in mud to avoid detection.

  “You know why they made the alien so ugly?” Edgar asked.

  “Because he’s the bad guy.”

  “Sure, that’s part of that. But there are plenty of good-looking bad guys in movies and TV, from what I’ve seen so far. But the aliens are always ugly, as Dutch here said. It’s because we’re meant to fear what’s different. What’s grotesque.”

  “I don’t think you’re grotesque,” I said, catching his drift.

  “Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. I watched that Goonies movie, so I can’t help but think you were taking a veiled shot at me with the Sloth character.”

  I had to hand it to the guy – he was perceptive. I pretended to watch the movie with him for a few minutes as I gathered my thoughts.

  There are basically two ways to captain a ship: hands on or hands off. I wasn’t a fan of surprises, so I chose the hands on option. That meant knowing what to expect from each of the crew members. After my conversation with Jiang, I worried about what Edgar could be capable of with his various enhancements.

  “I need to assess any potential threats,” I said.

  “Threats?” He turned to look at me. “How many times do I have to save your life before you realize how insulting that is? Are you going to ask Batista these questions? She seems more problematic than me.”

  “Really? How so?”

  “She’s a liar, for starters,” he s
aid. “I’ve been nothing but honest with you since we met. For example, you annoy me. So I’m telling you that now. Honesty!”

  I glared at him and waited. He sighed.

  “You’re really not gonna leave until we talk about this?”

  “I’m not,” I replied.

  “Look, I get you need to do your captain thing. Some people might even find it cute. I’m not one of those people. But fine, I’ll tell you a few things about myself, and then you’ll walk out that door. If you don’t like that, I’ll remove you from the room by force. Are we clear?”

  I didn’t like being threatened by him, but I was already pushing the boundaries here by demanding he explain to me why he was different. He was right to feel singled out.

  He paused the movie and bored his eyes into my soul.

  “I was born normal. I’m still normal. I just have titanium braces on some of my bones to strengthen them, along with anti-corrosion implants in 50% of the muscle tissue in my body so they don’t break down as easily as your muscles do. Everything else is all natural. My dad was 7 feet tall and I’ve always been roughly twice as smart as the average human. We done here?”

  I nodded and stood up.

  “Well I think this was a productive talk,” I said. “In the interest of fairness, I should let you know I have .5% more bone density than most people. It’s a genetic trait.”

  “So you have a thick head? I already knew that,” he joked, the whisper of a wry smile on his lips.

  Just before I left his room, I stopped and turned back, realizing something.

  “Titanium on your bones, huh? You should watch X-Men,” I told him. “You might like the Wolverine character.”

  Chapter 18

  One of the problems with being a double-agent is that two different sides may decide to kill you. First it was Demond. Then Slay and the federation. And that’s not even counting the Rox. We had danger coming at us from all sides.

  Before leaving the Burnett, I’d lobbied Slay to have the bounty on the Stang rescinded, but she said it would raise too many eyebrows inside the federation – and outside. In other words, people might start to wonder about me. One of the things she was banking on is that the Rox wouldn’t think twice about having me assist their crippled ship if I had an outstanding warrant. But if I was a wrecker with a squeaky clean record, they might keep looking for help elsewhere. Only after we successfully completed the job for her would I get the failsafe off my ship and bounty off my head. Since we were never going to deliver her the device, but instead give it to Desmond, that was just one more complication I could worry about later.

  Speaking of Desmond, we quickly made the decision to inform him of the situation with Slay. I didn’t really have a choice, as I knew Edgar was going to tell him anyway. I agreed with him anyway – I was already on the outs with the federation, so angering another captain wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t want to double-cross Desmond and the Tracers, especially with his man Edgar on the ship. Romy seemed like a free agent more than a fed loyalist, and my hope was to turn her before we made our move on the Rox.

  We waited until Romy was asleep and then Batista, Edgar and I contacted Desmond to break the news. We used an encrypted beam Edgar developed just for the occasion to ensure the feds didn’t intercept the transmission.

  “I can’t say I’m surprised someone else is after the device,” Desmond said. “Though I wouldn’t have guessed the feds would even know about it, let alone the Rox’s plan for Jasper. They must have someone on the inside.”

  “That seems to be going around,” I said, glancing at Batista.

  “Indeed,” Desmond replied. Then he paused and seemed to have an idea.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Once again, the feds are being feds,” he said. “They’ve confirmed that the device is on board the Rox. And they’ve confirmed our intel is good – that the ship will be at Jasper. If there were any doubts, those are gone now.”

  “They also did one more thing,” I said. “They guaranteed the Rox would need our assistance. Slay doesn’t strike me as the bluffing type. When she said the ship would be disabled, she meant it.”

  “And I strike you as the bluffing type?” Desmond asked.

  I had walked right into that one. Edgar grinned. Even Batista cracked a smile.

  “I just meant –”

  “I know what you meant, Denver, and I agree,” Desmond assured me. “While I have absolute faith in Edgar’s ability to disable the Rox, that now becomes our backup plan. For all intents and purposes, you are to follow Slay’s lead on this one. Once you secure the device, the Bear will take the Burnett out and all’s well that ends well.”

  I cleared my throat. “There’s just one thing.”

  “The failsafe, I know,” Desmond said.

  “Oh, there’s that. I guess there are two things.” Everybody looked at me, unsure of what I was getting at. It seemed obvious. “Doesn’t anyone else think the Burnett’s ability to just show up unannounced wherever and whenever it wants is a problem?”

  Batista and Edgar looked at Desmond on the monitor. He thought for a few moments before responding, his eyes searching for the right words. Finally, he nodded.

  “Nothing in life is easy,” he said. “But I also don’t plan to be fooled twice. They won’t be surprising us anymore. Not with the proximity beacon we attached to their ship before detonating the unmanned drone. If the Burnett comes within 50,000 miles of us, we’ll know. And this time I’m going to have reinforcements.”

  Before we cut the transmission, we agreed on beam silence until we reached Jasper, or if the situation changed. Edgar would send any pertinent info to the Golden Bear as needed. Desmond was in good spirits, buoyed by the confirmation that the Rox had the sought-after cargo on board.

  When he disappeared from the screen, I turned to Batista.

  “When did my brother contact you last?”

  She pretended to be surprised by the random question, but I saw through it. She sighed.

  “Yesterday.”

  “And he knows about how much of this?”

  Batista eyed Edgar, wary of passing along too much information. I waved her concerns away.

  “I think we’re past the point of keeping secrets on this,” I said. “At least I hope we are. My goal is to get out of this alive, then get as far away from the center of the verse as possible. The only way we do that is by laying all our cards on the table.”

  I thought it was a pretty good little speech, but neither Batista nor Edgar said a word in response. I was about to try again when Batista cleared her throat and looked at Edgar, who shook his head as if to say “don’t tell him.”

  Batista crossed her arms. “The reason the Burnett keeps sneaking up on us isn’t because it has stealth capabilities.”

  Edgar growled his annoyance, but Batista proceeded anyway.

  “It’s because they have a warp drive.”

  It took a moment for that to sink in. I looked at Edgar, who reluctantly nodded.

  “Like…an actual warp drive? We talking Star Trek level?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what Star Trek is,” Batista replied.

  Edgar nodded. He’d clearly been making progress in the sci-fi category of the Stang’s entertainment catalog. “Star Trek level.”

  “Then that’s what is on the Rox too,” I said, mostly to myself as the other two people in the room already knew the answer.

  “Yep,” said the fourth person in the room. It was Romy. She leaned in and frowned. “The Burnett has a partially-working warp drive installed. It was a prototype. They can go three times the speed of the Stang. Fast enough to sneak up on anybody in the verse, no matter how careful their radar is. The Rox, on the other hand, has the finished product. They stole it from our lab on Mars, where we developed it for the feds. That drive? That one is a verse-changer. We’re talking 100 million miles per hour.”

  “You’re telling me the most dangerous ship in the verse has warp capabilities?”<
br />
  “No,” she said. “They haven’t installed it yet. The man they need to do that got religion after he realized how terrible his invention would prove to be if it fell into the wrong hands. Which inventions always do. Most hands are wrong. He’s on Jasper. The Rox isn’t going to Jasper to destroy it, they’re going there to threaten to destroy it if the man, Albert Marcum, doesn’t activate the drive. And the only way to install and activate the drive is to –”

  “Disable the ship,” I said, astounded.

  “Only they don’t know that yet. Or at least that’s what Slay is betting on.”

  We all looked at each other. All the cards were on the table…almost.

  “Why are you telling us this?” I asked Romy.

  “Because I don’t want to go back to the Burnett. And I don’t want the Rox to have warp capabilities. From what I’ve heard about that ship, I would never outlive the guilt if people like that were alone in their ability to use the device I helped create.”

  * * *

  Warp speed was supposed to be the stuff of science fiction. In the classic show Star Trek, one warp was roughly equivalent to the speed of light. Or about 186,000 miles per second. According to Romy, the speed achievable by the new drive was 30,000 miles per second. Not nearly the speed of TV and movies, but fast enough to travel across the verse and beyond in mere hours, as opposed to lifetimes.

  It made contact with non-humans not only possible, but inevitable. And until the technology was widespread, it would give ships with warp capabilities an insane advantage over traditional vessels in matters of war and commerce.

  Plus, it was really freaking cool.

  Dangerous, sure. But cool. Ever since I was a kid, I’d dreamed about being able to escape to far-off planets and galaxies. As big as the verse was, it was also pretty small at the same time. A warp drive would change that forever.

  There were always rumors of warp projects in labs across the verse. These scientists over here were close. That genius at the university has an idea. One problem always stopped them dead in their tracks, however: navigating around objects in space at warp speed. Satellites. Meteors. Planets. Crashing into (and through) a planet at 3,000 miles per second tends to be pretty fatal.