by Simon E Bond
Stout did not let the android finish his sentence, he spat at the paused image in front of him, then dragged the second woman from the bed by her hair and threw her onto ground in a fit of anger.
“Get to it; those credits are mine!” screamed Stout as he moved his chair to the other side of the room.
The woman cowered and crouched in the corner, her head tucked in-between her knees, she was crying.
Stout positioned his chair to face her, looking at her as though she was a weak creature. Stout had no time for weak things.
“Bastard, let me go. You have me for only two hours, I want out of this. I can cut you a deal, charge you half credits,” said the woman, fear sounding from her voice.
Stout said nothing and just stared straight into open space.
“I am getting the fuck out of here, you freak,” shouted the prostitute at Stout's face.
Brushing past him, the woman reached for the door, she’d had enough.
“So, no rush before you go onto the next client? I have lots of blue, call it even and I won't even charge you,” said Stout pulling a small glass tube from an opening in his chair.
The woman started to sweat; she was addicted to the drug.
“Give me your arm before I change my mind,” said Stout grinning.
“Stout, listen, just, please…” said the woman. As she walked towards him, he grabbed her arm with a tight grip.
“You’re hurting me, just give me the hit quick,” she whined as he pulled her close.
“Always be careful what you wish for,” laughed Stout flicking the cap from the end of the tube.
Laughing at her, he let go of her arm and grabbed her neck tight with his mechanical arm, slowly squeezing the air from her lungs.
“Stupid bitch!” spat Stout as he thrust the needle with his other hand into her neck and the poison started to act quickly.
She dropped to her knees in front of him. He looked down at her head as he ran his fingers through her long black hair; everything was a toy to him and he would play with it any way he wanted.
The woman's eyes started to bulge and look bloodshot while her face started to turn blue; a feeble struggle ensued as she struggled to hold onto life, before she collapsed on the floor and rolled over onto her side.
The nanobots within the poison started to crawl underneath her skin, consuming each cell of her body. Looking up, she reached her hand out towards Stout but he just looked away in disgust.
Half of her body by now was a black mass of nanobots, covering her like a swarm of bees. After a few minutes no trace of her was left, the nanobots had dissolved into nothing and left the woman as a scattered pile of dust.
“Your friend is gone; I always ask for manners on board my ship. “That is all,” said Stout. He moved his wheelchair towards the other prostitute who sat cowering next to a window.
He stopped beside her and glanced at the view outside, his android would be at work on the surface following his orders. The other woman knew that the drug had taken care of her own body. It showed in how she could not move; she was awake but not quite, her mind however was distant from any kind of reality.
“Relax… that's it my girl, plenty more drugs if you need them.”
Charlie’s vehicle was still on the move back on the planet below.
Richard had been searching the surface for a few hours and knew there was Kromtic twenty minutes away according to the radar. Charlie sat down in the medical bay changing his top to a white vest.
“Did you get plenty of rest, sir?”
“Plenty,” replied Charlie as he paused for a brief second scratching his head. “Listen, I just wanted to say… well, thank you for saving my life out there.”
Richard returned the gesture with a smile. “I have a duty to follow Charlie. After all, this was part of the programme you installed when you purchased me to serve you.”
Charlie grinned and looked out at the barren landscape ahead of them.
After a few minutes, they had reached their destination. Charlie needed time for the both of them to reprogram the suit; it had to be right this time around.
“I say we park in that large crater on the left,” suggested Richard rising out of his seat.
“Sounds good to me, I’ll get suited up,” replied Charlie.
“Will be two minutes and the programme will be ready,” said Richard.
The rover stopped in the centre of the crater and the engine shuddered then fell silent. A dust storm had started yet again but nothing to cause any major issues.
“Is that a better fit? Do you feel comfortable?” asked Richard, pressing his hand on Richard's upper body.
“Stop stressing; that's one thing I should have put in your programming at the point of purchase,” replied Charlie.
After Charlie injected the body replenishment microchip into the back of the suit, Richard walked over to a console in the mess room. The screen came to life and Richard downloaded the programme he had designed. A blue holographic beam emitted from the screen, passed by Richard, and shone onto his master's back.
“Will this take long? We are behind as it is; I need to make up for lost credits,” said Charlie frustrated.
“Don't move, sir, I need to make sure there is no glitch in the signal,” replied Richard.
Charlie stood with his arms at his side and looked ahead. He felt it was taking too long, but his wellbeing was the main factor of Richard's role.
The programme had finished and, walking back around his master, Richard unplugged the small beacon attached to Charlie's back.
“All done then?” asked Charlie turning around.
“Yes, sorry that took longer but I can't risk any more chances,” replied Richard.
Charlie grabbed his helmet, but then stopped in his tracks to look at the console; his addiction had reared its ugly head yet again. Memories, painful memories of the gangs he fought so hard to escape from crowded his attention. But he couldn't help himself. He sat down and took control of the keyboard. Richard looked on and shook his head knowing what was about to happen.
“This is my issue, not yours,” said Charlie as he began his hack attack.
“Charlie…” said Richard.
“What!!”
Lowering his head Richard fell silent, he knew better than to mess with Charlie's affairs.
Charlie paused then carried on searching for a connection to tap into. He had locked onto something but the security was tricky.
“This will take a while; maybe all evening,” thought Richard. He turned his chair around away from Charlie as a beeping noise sounded on the speaker to coincide with an object detected in the distance on the radar screen.
“Someone else?” thought Richard as he looked out. He stood up and noticed something in the distance behind the glass. He thought to himself, If there was someone else out there it could only mean one thing, another digger…
Stout retired to his master bedroom on board the ship, while the other prostitute stood beneath a hot shower. Face upward. Swallowing water. Wishing she could wash away the drugs inside her.
“Still going to plan,” thought Stout as he flicked through the stock charts on the screen. Kromtic was hitting an all-time high on the market.
Lying on his bed, his wheelchair beside him, Stout turned to face the bathroom door.
“Hurry up, you’re taking too much time in there,” he said.
The woman was crouched in the corner of the shower from drug withdrawal. As the drug was starting to slowly fade, the burning sensation was leaving her and being replaced by the cold water that flowed from the shower head as each stream of droplets soaked into her skin..
Back inside Stout’s room he appeared to be resting now in his bed, alone with his thoughts to keep him company.
All of a sudden, a flashing red light caught Stout's eye and he slowly rose from the bed like a snake hidden from sight. He knew it was a hacker and he had to act fast. To hi
s benefit, his on-board computer systems were far superior to what Charlie had.
“Fucking parasites!” shouted Stout.
His eyes turned red with anger as he scanned for any coordinates he could lock on to; he needed to get a fix on the signal fast.
“Charlie, we're running out of time. I can only programme your suit for so long,” said Richard, becoming more restless.
Charlie ignored Richard's concerns and carried on with his quest to gain access to the account, but there was one problem, he had chosen the wrong person.
An alert started to flash on his screen that read location detected; his cover was blown. He had to act fast and decided to shut down knowing it might be worthless as his connection was already revealed. In a blind panic, he pulled the connection cable out from the back of his server—there would be a zero success rate of getting away with it.
“Shit… Shit,” said Charlie, unsure if it had worked and thinking the game was over this time around.
“Right, let me get to the dig. I need to get as much as I can, then we leave the area. I don't think it’s safe,” said Charlie quickly trying to get his mind off the subject that had him spooked.
Charlie stepped out of the rover door. The dust still churning outside but Charlie fired up the drill and placed the tip of it into the ground, turning the power to maximum on the dial. Richard, unaware of what was going on in Charlie's mind, looked out from the comms window. He did not want a repeat of the emergency that occurred earlier.
“Come on, show me some credits,” said Charlie lowering his goggles over his eyes.
He held the drill firm as sparks and sharp pieces of rock started to fly and he turned at the usual angle to avoid anything hitting his face. After a minute, he had locked onto a supply of Kromtic buried deep under a large boulder. Charlie started the vacuum pump and the Kromtic began to flow at a steady pace through the tube. Charlie smiled with relief, he knew this was a good catch.
Stout took one look on his monitor, and ordered
“Send two security teams down to the surface,” said Stout.
He had located the signal on the planet and whoever was trying to hack into his account would be dealt with by his thugs.
Three scout vehicles sat stationary in the hanger as three tall well-built males made their way towards the craft from a nearby lift. Dressed in black armoured suits, they hurriedly ran towards the vehicles, each one climbing aboard. The hanger doors opened and an open view of deep space awaited them as one by one the vehicles thrusters came to life and they took off, leaving the hanger behind them.
“Locking onto the target area sir; should not take long,” said one of the pilots.
“Good; take care of whoever is responsible for this. There will only be a short window for us before they escape,” replied Stout with a sharp tone.
He noticed the prostitute standing in the bathroom doorway. She was wearing a white silky dressing gown; her hair was wet and tied back.
“Come here, you need to take care of me,” Stout replied smirking clicking his fingertips and gesturing the woman to come closer.
The woman walked the remaining effects of virtual bliss still circulated.
“Now it's our play time, go easy on me,” said Stout as he pulled back the bed covers.
He was naked from the waist down; his deformed legs twisted within the sheets, leaving badly deformed skin visible. The woman gently kissed his chest as she slowly disappeared underneath his shirt, Stout grinned with pleasure.
The scouts had hit the atmosphere of the planet but it would be a bumpy ride because the turbulence was pretty severe at their current attitude.
“Damn it, this is rough,” said one of the pilots in the Scout craft.
“Hang on in there, this isn’t half as bad as what Stout has in mind for whoever he’s after,” replied a voice from the second ship.
As the three craft descended further, the wings deployed underneath each to help control the turbulence while the thrusters made things a little easier against the wind shear.
“Target locked; we got it,” sounded a voice communicating from one of the ships.
The pilot looked down onto his radar screen; the blip being displayed was Charlie's Rover. All of the ships started to slow down in line with each other, each wing expanding upwards as they neared the surface. Reversed thrust was activated making it easier to hover over the target below.
“Charlie, can you read me?” asked Richard.
Charlie was still pumping the Kromtic through his drill. Taking a breather, he paused for a brief moment and adjusted his helmet.
“I hear you, Richard; everything okay back there?” replied Charlie.
“No… I’m not sure what it is. It could be other rovers but I have detected three incomings on the comm system; we have to move from this area,” he replied.
Charlie switched off the drill, the dust kicking up around him as he threw the equipment onto the floor. It could be other rovers homing in on the area. He had encountered it before but only with the odd distant craft, nothing that would be of any concern. Charlie had a hunch this was nothing to do with any digging, but rather being caught out earlier with his hacking.
“I’m on my way back, let's get out of here. I’m detaching the feed, we can leave that here,” said Charlie holding his ear piece on the side of his helmet to cover the noise as the engines from his rover started to fire up.
“We do have spares, Charlie,” replied Richard as he left the rover's control room.
The side door of the vehicle opened to one side and he stepped onto the ramp. His fragile figure struggled once again to reach Charlie, but he did fair better than last time as the elements outside were not as extreme.
“Charlie!” shouted Richard straining his robotic voice over the blustery wind around him.
“Stay there, just get the rover ready!” replied Charlie.
Richard turned around but as he started to walk back up the ramp he heard the sound of thrusters growing closer from above in the sky. Looking up, he saw the three ships lined up together, and descending fast from just over two hundred meters away.
“We have to get out of here!” shouted Richard in Charlie's direction.
Charlie took his goggles off and starting to shake the dust from them before he heard the sound above. Spotlights shone from beneath the three ships as they hit the surface in a straight line. He dropped the goggles and started to make a run for the rover. Inside, Richard flicked the controls and the rest of the engines started to power up. As he hit the button on the door to let Charlie in, a gust of wind crept in, knocked him sideways and he landed in a heap on the floor near the ramp.
“Richard!” shouted Charlie as hard as he could, but the howling wind outside was deafening.
Slowly trying to crawl down the ramp on his hands and knees, Richard turned around and looked up; the three ships had already landed in the distance. Charlie kept shouting as his android friend lay on the floor. Richard slowly edged forward to him at a snail’s pace.
“Come on, grab hold of me and let's get back on board,” said Charlie as he finally reached his friend.
He lifted Richard up and cradled him in his arms like a child, the fall had seized the androids legs up and he would need maintenance but they both knew there was no time for that now.
“I’ll get us out of here; just get comfortable and rest,” said Charlie.
Strapped tight in the co-pilots chair, Richard did not move as Charlie sat next to him and took over the console. The exit door was now sealed shut and he set the throttle to maximum on the rover’s thrusters. The game was up and they could no longer outrun what had caught up with them on the surface—they needed to leave quickly…
“Sir, they’re trying to escape. Can you advise the next plan of action?” asked a pilot from inside one of the landing scouts.
“Stop them you fucking idiot. I want one of them alive; the one who tried to steal from me,” replie
d Stout, his anger emitting through the intercom into the pilot’s ear.
Stout had no time for idle conversation; he quickly cut the connection once again. The pilot ordered the other two ships to lock onto Charlie's craft as it was getting away and gaining altitude fast.
Suddenly a blinding flash emitted from one of the wings; a missile had locked on to Charlie's rover and was approaching fast.
“Shit, hold onto something Richard” said Charlie after he had spotted the incoming threat on his radar screen.
Richard closed his eyes to be ready to bear some of the brunt of what would soon hit them; his hands grasped the chair firmly by his sides.
“Come on…, come on…, deflect, work dammit!” shouted Charlie frantically trying to activate the anti-missile system.
But it was too late; another blinding flash hit the side of the rover, followed by a loud bang.
Flames covered the outside of the rover as twisted metal started to defragment and fall to the surface below while they went into free fall and out of control.
Looking up at Charlie, Richard asked, “Sir, how bad is the damage?”
Charlie was losing control. Sensors flashed widely across the controls and alert noises started to sound all around from the inside of the rover.
The pilot from one of Stout's scout ships watched as a long black streak of smoke and flames came from the belly of the helpless rover.
“Nice shot! Now get your gear so we can go outside and grab our catch,” said the lead pilot.
"TEN SECONDS TO IMPACT" replied a voice from the intercom.
"You holding on okay?" shouted Charlie looking at Richard.
The android said nothing; his hands continued to grasp tightly to the chair. He closed his eyes knowing the rover was badly damaged from the missile.
Flames started to penetrate the cockpit; the main controls were damaged and blue sparks started to emit as the console became unstable. The damage..was far more severe: pieces of metal started to flying off the right wing as the entire structure weakened. They would likely explode before they hit the ground below.
