The Lost Tech

by Vaughn Heppner

  “That’s it,” Dagobert said, aiming the lance at Ural.

  “Champion!” Riker shouted.

  “What is it, old man?” Dagobert asked, turning his head to look back to Riker.

  Golden Ural and the other two New Men acted, charging a distracted Dagobert. The long-armed Ural grabbed the end of the lance behind the steel blade. He jerked the orifice up at the ceiling.

  “Treachery!” Dagobert roared.

  The other two New Men rushed the Merovingian giant, attempting to tackle him. Dagobert brought an armored fist down on the nearest one’s head, dashing the New Man to the floor. The other made the giant stagger backward. Dagobert released the lance and brought up both armored hands, grabbing the New Man by the head and starting to squeeze. The New Man groaned and then screamed. Ural had the lance, holding it by the wrong end. He swung it anyway, hard against Dagobert’s helmeted head. The blow staggered the brute, but he didn’t release the screaming thrashing New Man. Instead, he squeezed with terrible force, and there was the splintering sound of skull and facial bones.

  “Monster,” Ural said, reversing the lance so he held it the right way. He lunged and stabbed. The steel blade punctured the body armor. Ural drove Dagobert back, and farther back. The monster-man released his head hold, and that New Man crumbled to the ground, a dying wretch.

  “No!” Dagobert shouted, grabbing the lance, glaring at Golden Ural. The Merovingian tore the lance from Ural, and he plucked the blade from his torso. It dripped with blood. He switched his grip to hold it the right way.

  “Forgive me, Dagobert,” Riker said, raising the revolver. He shot the Merovingian in the back, emptying his weapon.

  As the thunderous sounds died away, Dagobert worked his way around. The lance dropped from his hold, and he stared accusingly at Riker.

  “You lied to me, old man.”

  “We’re enemies, Dagobert. I had no choice.”

  “You crossed your heart. You lied.”

  “Enemies do that to each other.”

  “Is this about your stupid coin?”

  Before Riker could answer, Maddox swung a short stout iron bar he’d picked up. The bar connected with the side of Dagobert’s helmeted head, and it was the final straw. Dagobert’s eyelids fluttered, and he toppled sideways.

  “Why didn’t you shoot him before this?” Ural demanded. “Bel Torres is dying because of you.”

  Riker looked up at Golden Ural. “I made a promise. I broke it anyway.”

  “Never mind about that now,” Maddox told Ural. “We’re out of the cell. We’re free for the moment. We must make haste. Riker, what’s the next step?”

  “I don’t know,” the sergeant said, as he stared at Dagobert. He couldn’t believe it, but the monster man was moving, dragging himself across the floor.

  “What’s your backup plan, Uncle?” Maddox asked.

  Ural squinted at the captain. “We have to get off Tortuga and back to our ships.”

  “Yes, but how?” asked Maddox.

  Riker pointed at Dagobert. “I think we’d better do it his way. We don’t flee, but we attack, we keep attacking them to keep them off balance.”

  Maddox stared at his sergeant. “Yes, excellent advice. Let’s arm ourselves and find the controls of the holding-cell area.”

  “Four of us against a planet?” asked Ural.

  “No,” Maddox said. “We need to find the transfer technology, capture Meyers and get back to our vessels. We do an end run against her.”

  Ural became thoughtful even though he was grim-faced. “Attack, right. Let’s start.”

  -16-

  They left Dagobert on the floor and raced back into the interior of the holding-cell area, picking up lances from dead Merovingians.

  Maddox noticed Riker’s pale and guilty complexion. “Don’t feel bad. We had to kill him. Dagobert would have gotten all of us killed otherwise.”

  “I know that, sir. I don’t like it, though. He helped us, and we killed him for it. That seems wrong to me.”

  “You tricked him into helping us.”

  “He tricked himself. No, the Queen screwed him. He used to be a banker somewhere. They captured him and pumped him full of evil drugs, turning him into what he became.”

  “That’s all very interesting—are you well, Riker?”

  “No, sir, I’m not. I have a concussion. I’m ready to collapse.”

  “Here, old man, let me help you.” Maddox draped one of Riker’s arms over his shoulders, helping to steady him. “You have to take care of yourself, Sergeant. I don’t have the time or the inclination to train a replacement.”

  “Of course not, sir,” Riker muttered. The aid helped, making it easier to breath.

  Golden Ural and the other New Man led the way. Each gripped a Merovingian lance. So far, the holding-cell area seemed to be devoid of people, as they’d all been killed. There wasn’t even an alarm ringing, or none they could hear, anyway.

  Ural halted suddenly, straightening, turning around. “This is a mistake. This place is—a trap,” he said, speaking softer the longer he talked. “We must flee: get to a shuttle and our ships as fast as possible.” Ural focused on Riker. “What was Dagobert’s plan?”

  “To take us to his room in a hostel,” Riker said.

  “And then?”

  Riker explained about Dagobert’s idea.

  Ural glanced up at the ceiling before looking down the corridor and shaking his head. “Meyers runs her service, but I don’t think she runs Tortuga, although she must have allies, maybe even some on the Brethren Council. We know she has snipers, and they shoot knockout darts. I heard you speak to the captain about injections. Is she creating supermen down here?”

  “If Dagobert counts as one, I think so,” Riker said.

  “I’m beginning to understand.” Ural glanced at Maddox. “Do you trust me?”

  “I’ll give you a poker answer,” Maddox said. “It depends.”

  “Do you trust me to get us off Tortuga?” Ural amended.

  Maddox cocked his head. “That far: yes.”

  “Show me the exit,” Ural told Riker. “I’ll do the rest.”

  ***

  Ural led the way down the side tunnel as he conferred softly with his companion. Maddox and Riker brought up the rear, the distance growing between the two groups.

  “I’m running out of gas, sir. I can feel myself losing strength. It’s getter harder to think.”

  “I’m surprised you did as well as you have,” Maddox said. “A concussion is serious business. If you can hang on another hour…”

  “Longer than that, I’d think,” Riker whispered.

  Maddox gave his sergeant a worried glance. They were in the deep tunnels, were escaped prisoners and out of communication with Victory. Lisa Meyers was down here, and she must have more of these Merovingians. What was worse, according to Ural, Meyers had lured him here. Just how large was her Tortuga outfit?

  “Sir,” Riker said, indicating ahead.

  The New Men walked faster, disappearing into a larger merging tunnel.

  “The lances will make us conspicuous,” Maddox said. “Are you well enough to still use the revolver?”

  “Do you want it, sir?”

  “No, no. Keep it for now. Can you walk any faster? I’d like to know what Ural is up to.”

  Riker groaned as he increased his shuffling pace.

  The two of them entered the larger tunnel just in time to see the two New Men stride past watching guards: men with machine pistols in front of a hatch. The New Men turned with speed, swinging their lances, knocking out the guards. The New Men gathered the machine pistols, opened the hatch and dragged the guards inside.

  “Now what?” Maddox asked.

  “If you want to help them, sir…I can wait here.”

  “You let me do the thinking,” Maddox said curtly. “Hm. Keep moving, Sergeant. Your lack of effort is starting to grate on me.”

  “Yes, sir,” Riker said, as weariness dragged his consciou
sness toward oblivion.

  Maddox itched to help his uncle, but Riker was clearly weakening. He didn’t want to leave the sergeant unguarded. Besides, Ural knew what he was doing.

  They reached the hatch, entering a corridor, hearing gunshots farther on. The two knocked-out guards snored within an alcove under hanging coats.

  “We’ll wait here,” Maddox said.

  Riker was grateful for the rest. His eyelids were getting heavier. It was harder keeping his eyes open.

  “Don’t go to sleep just yet,” Maddox warned.

  The sounds of gunfire had ceased. It seemed inconceivable that mere ruffians had defeated two New Men, especially as one of them was Golden Ural. That would mean the superiors had defeated whoever owned the place.

  Time stretched, making Maddox antsy. This is taking too long. Fortunately, he soon heard approaching footsteps. He roused Riker so the sergeant raised his head and smacked his lips as Ural propelled a large woman ahead of him.

  She wore long courtesan-like finery of silk and lace, and a silk scarf tied around her throat. She had long dark hair, stern features and enormous breasts. The two New Men now had holstered guns belted at their sides, with a few odd gadgets attached, no doubt taken from the guards.

  “It is my pleasure to introduce you to Grace Hyperion,” Ural said. “She’s an illustrious member of the Brethren Council and was just about to leave to meet with Meyers.”

  Maddox nodded.

  “Grace has felt compelled to warn me concerning our activities,” Ural added. “I have, however, convinced her to no longer share her concerns with me. Seeing the error of her ways, she has agreed to help us leave Tortuga via the fastest route possible by giving me the whereabouts of her secret passage to the spaceport.”

  “Do you trust her?” Maddox asked.

  “Perfectly,” Ural said. “Grace appears to love life, finding herself loath to leave it during her height of glory.”

  “Mock me at your peril, New Man,” she said in a thick voice.

  “Not completely subdued,” Maddox noted.

  “I’ll remember you, too,” she told the captain.

  “And you trust her?” Maddox asked again.

  “To act as her nature dictates,” Ural said. “Fortunately, I am well-versed in detecting falsities and the girding of one’s loins to act against her superiors. Are you listening, Grace?”

  She didn’t speak, but her dark eyes swirled with malice.

  “Then, off we go,” Ural said. “Grace, you and I will go arm-in-arm. Smartly now, and remember how your chief lieutenant died cursing your name.”

  For the first time, Maddox detected a hint of worry in the Brethren Council Member. Grace Hyperion looked tough and hard-minded. What had Ural done to her chief lieutenant?

  “No. Not that way,” Ural told Maddox. “Remember I told you that Grace has a secret passage? We’ll use that.”

  “Ready?” Maddox asked Riker.

  “Yes,” the sergeant said, his eye opening and his whites a ghastly red color.

  “Just a little more, Sergeant,” Maddox said, “and then you’ll be in sickbay and can sleep all you want.”

  -17-

  Dagobert Dan wasn’t dead yet. He crawled ever so slowly across the floor. Riker had shot him from behind. Riker had lied. Riker had crossed his heart and hoped to die if he lied. Now…now…he was dying…

  “No,” Dagobert whispered. “Get you, Riker. Strangle your wrinkled old throat. Kill you New Men, too. You’ll see. I’m not dead yet, not by a long shot.”

  His back hurt like hell. He had a hole in his chest. He had defeated so many of the Merovingians, so many who had laughed at him before. That had been fun, really run. Letting his rage and his reflexes take over—

  Dagobert’s head bumped up against something. He shoved with his head, but the thing wouldn’t give.

  “Move,” he whispered. He pushed his head forward again, but he bumped up against something solid.

  Straining, the pain in his back like fire, Dagobert arched his head up so his chin rested on the floor. A pair of boots stood in his way, girly boots with frills and such. Dagobert frowned. He’d seen boot like that before. It had been—

  “Pick him up,” a feminine voice said.

  Two Merovingian warriors in medieval-style armor grasped Dagobert’s arms and hauled him up to his feet.

  Dagobert towered over them, and he groaned as his chest and back flamed anew in agony.

  “Look at me,” the woman said.

  Dagobert opened his glazed eyes and a shape blurred before him.

  “Concentrate,” she said.

  Dagobert did. His vision slowly focused and he sucked in his breath. “Queen,” he whispered.

  The statuesque beauty before him nodded. She was tall and elegant with long dark hair done up in a towering wrap above her head. She was so slender as to almost be gaunt. Her eyes were liquid beauty with a piercing gaze. She wore tight-fitting garments with boots and held a riding crop in her right hand. The fingers were long and slender, the nails painted black.

  She flicked the quirt so the braided leather lash struck Dagobert’s bloody, dented armor. “What happened here, Warrior?”

  He turned his head and spit blood out of his mouth, spit again to make sure. He faced the Queen, saying, “I happened.”

  The Queen raised her plucked eyebrows.

  Fear and a wave of weakness caused Dagobert to bow his head. The weakness faded, and his resolve hardened. He could be dying, so he might as well tell the truth. “I want to be the champion. I wanted you to know. But some think I’m stupid. So, I had to show you. Riker agreed with me.”

  “Sergeant Riker?” she asked.

  “Do you know him?”

  “Do you dare question me?”

  “No… I’m sorry, Queen.”

  “Did you kill the guards?”

  “Most of them.”

  “Who killed the others?”

  “Riker.”

  “And you let the New Men go free?”

  “No,” Dagobert said, looking up. “I captured them. I showed you that I’m the best.”

  “You idiot,” said one of the Merovingians holding his arms and thereby propping him up.

  Dagobert scowled, glancing at…Tobias the Champion. “If I’m an idiot, why didn’t you defeat Maddox in the trap tunnel?”

  “You fool!” Tobias shouted.

  “Silence,” the Queen said.

  “I beg your pardon, Great Lady,” Tobias said, sounding frightened.

  She waved the quirt so the lash flicked. “Did the New Men turn on you?” she asked Dagobert.

  “Turn, Queen?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Did they jump you?”

  “Yes! That’s what they did. And Riker broke his promise. He shot me from behind.”

  “Where did he acquire a gun?”

  “Huh?”

  “Who gave Riker the gun?”

  “I did,” Dagobert said. “Riker promised to help me, and he did for a while. Then, he backstabbed me, the liar.”

  “You idiot,” Tobias whispered.

  “You’re the idiot!” Dagobert shouted, bloody spittle flying from his mouth. “I could take you. I could crush your head like I did to the New Man.”

  “Wait,” the Queen said. “You crushed his head?”

  “With my bare hands,” Dagobert said. “I’m strong, very strong.”

  “Not anymore,” she said.

  “No. Riker killed me. I’m dying.”

  She stared at him with those piercing eyes. “Do you wish revenge?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Do you want to hurt Riker for what he did to you?”

  “Yes. I want that very much.”

  The Queen glanced at Tobias and then Dagobert. “You’ve surprised me. I didn’t think you could fight like this. I imagine if you had any brains, you would have defeated Captain Maddox for me.”

  “I would do that,” Dagobert said.

  “If you ha
d brains, you might be truly dangerous. This is interesting.”

  “What about the New Men and Maddox?” Tobias asked.

  The Queen raised her eyebrows. “Are you questioning me, Tobias?”

  “I beg your forgiveness, Royal One,” Tobias said.

  She nodded as the quirt flicked out, the braided leather lightly lashing Dagobert’s bloody armor. She began to circle him, soon standing before him again.

  “The New Men are free. Maddox is free,” she said. “I doubt we’ll take them by surprise again. We’ll make the attempt, naturally. It’s possible they understand the stakes. I have a few surprises left. But they might surprise me.”

  She raised the quirt so the lash touched her chin. “We must pack and leave. If the Brethren can recapture them, so much the better. But it is vain to cry over spilled milk. The deed is done. The drug shipment is nearly ready. Tobias, construct a transport gate. If the Brethren fail me, we’ll need to get a jump on the New Men. Maddox and his team have thwarted us before. I tire of it. I suspect now they will…”

  She eyed Dagobert. “If you had brains to match your powerful frame… Bind his wounds,” she told the other Merovingian. “Dagobert Dan may prove his worth yet.”

  Tobias opened his mouth, hesitated and refrained from speech.

  “At least you’re learning,” the Queen told Tobias. “I wonder if this shot-up hunk of warrior can do the same. We shall see. Yes, I could use a real champion.”

  “My Queen, I am the champion,” Tobias said.

  “A champion that Maddox defeated,” she said.

  “That will never happen again.”

  “We shall see,” the Queen said. “Dagobert, you have one more test. Can you survive this?”

  “Do you mean the gunshots, Queen?”

  “That’s right.”

  Dagobert felt feverish but nodded. “I’m strong. If you ask, I will survive.”

  “I just asked.”

  “Yes! I am Dagobert Dan. I am the strongest. I crushed the head of a New Man. Riker won’t survive his treachery. Next time, I will crush his head.”

  “If you live long enough,” the Queen said.

  “I will. I promise.”

  She studied him, snorting softly afterward. Then her features hardened. “This damned Maddox. What makes him so lucky, I wonder?”