Star Wanderers: Tales of the Far Outworlds (Omnibus V-VIII)

by Joe Vasicek

  “Good job,” he said. “And indeed we will.”

  “Will what?”

  “Tell Salazar personally. I wonder what his reaction will be?”

  From the grin on his face, Lucca seemed a lot more eager to meet Salazar than she did.

  “Right. What now?” she asked.

  “Thirty minutes to docking,” he said, rising to his feet. “That is thirty minutes we have to suit up. Do you know how to use assault rifle?”

  She swallowed and watched as he pulled one out from an overhead compartment. Her heart beat a little harder.

  “Uh, no. I don’t.”

  “Then we have thirty minutes to learn.”

  * * * * *

  “This is it,” Lucca said as he eased the transport into its final docking approach. The sun-blasted, meteorite-pocked hull of the station wheel rotated not twenty meters above them through the forward window. He fired the thrusters and pulled back on the flight stick as the docking node rotated into position, his assault rifle on his lap. Behind him, Mariya stood with her back to the chair, the tension in her breath so evident that he could feel it mingling with his own.

  The node locked into place with a low scraping sound, and the whole transport shuddered. The floor seemed to wobble as the ship’s artificial gravity field adjust to the station’s rotation, then shut off. Lucca rose to his feet and cocked his weapon.

  “Ready?” he asked, looking Mariya in the eye.

  She took a deep breath and nodded.

  On impulse, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. She pressed herself against him, the contours of her body fitting perfectly with his.

  “Mariya,” he said. “I must be honest. This idea is crazy, and I do not know if we will survive. But if we do—”

  She pulled him down and pressed her lips against his, running her fingers through his hair. His heart leaped, and adrenaline surged like fire through his body. There was no holding back now—no holding back for anything. He closed his eyes and kissed her with all the passion of a man who knows it will be his last.

  We will make it, though, he told himself. Together, we will.

  The sound of people entering the airlock brought them back to the present. Mariya turned and leveled her gun, and Lucca did the same.

  “Now we have something to fight for, eh?” he said, grinning at her. She gave him a look that said she wanted nothing more than to kiss him again. At that moment, the airlock door hissed open.

  Lucca fired first, deliberately over the heads of the people on the other side. They were probably medical personnel, and not a direct threat. He didn’t want to kill anyone they didn’t have to—it was only necessary to make a distraction. Mariya dropped to her knees and fired as well, her shots going wide like his. Either way, the pirates got the message. With shouts and screams, they turned and ran.

  “Quick,” said Lucca. “Into station! Move!”

  They ran through the airlock doors and into the narrow corridor on the other side. The floors were old and grainy, the walls dank with spots of mildew. From the looks of it, the rimside docking corridor barely saw any traffic at all. The pirates fled behind a hatchway and swung it shut, cutting them off.

  “Where now?” asked Mariya. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair tossed back, but her face shone with resolve, not desperation.

  “This way,” said Lucca, motioning toward the other side. “We must keep moving—always moving. We cannot let them corner us!”

  He led her through the hatchway on the other side and shut it behind them. The corridor opened up to what looked like a large store room. The lights on the ceiling were caged, with large cylindrical containers piled haphazardly at random. A hatch on the other side led out, with a freight elevator to the right.

  This level is just network of storage rooms, Lucca thought to himself. We must get higher—get to main corridor.

  “Into elevator,” he said, running around the containers. Mariya followed, keeping her gun trained on their backs. When he palmed the access panel, nothing happened. He tried again, and a red warning sign flashed onto the screen in a language he didn’t understand.

  “Damn!” he said, slamming his fist against the wall.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I don’t know—I think they have locked down all elevators on this level.”

  “So there’s no way out? There’s nothing we can do?”

  Shouts sounded from the other side of the hatchway they’d just come through. The pirates were storming the transport—they’d come into this room next.

  “Get behind me,” he said. From his vest, he pulled out a grenade that he’d taken from the transport’s armory.

  “Lucca, here!”

  He turned and saw a door to a narrow maintenance shaft. Mariya was pointing to a ladder, which seemed to lead in the same direction as the elevator—up.

  At that moment, the hatch swung open.

  Mariya ducked, and Lucca followed just in time to avoid getting his head clipped by gunfire. Without thinking, he tossed his grenade and made a dash for the maintenance shaft. Mariya covered him, firing wildly. A second before he reached the shaft, a bright yellow flash filled the room, followed by an ear-splitting explosion. He grabbed Mariya and pulled her in.

  The next thing he knew, they were climbing the ladder through a dark and narrow space. The noxious smell of burning engine coolant followed them, almost making him swoon. He could feel the heat of the flames in the storage room, urging him up before the whole deck below them exploded. Ahead, he saw a hatch.

  “Quickly!” he shouted. Mariya was coughing now, the smoke stinging both their eyes. He climbed through the hatchway to a small platform above and pulled her up after him. Not a moment too soon, he swung the hatch shut—the explosive rumble below their feet told him that the pirates had a lot more troubles now than two renegades on the loose.

  “Where now?” she asked. Red lights flashed through the maintenance shaft, punctuating the otherwise dim light of the LED strips along the ladder. The platform on which they stood was a junction, with narrow crawlspaces heading out in either direction.

  “This way,” said Lucca, choosing one at random. They ducked down and crawled through the tight space, loose wires and insulation brushing against them. Through the floor, another boom sounded, just as loud as the first.

  “Do you think they’ll find us here?” Mariya asked. Even though the going was slow, her voice was breathless.

  “No doubt,” said Lucca. “They will probably close off this segment of station to prevent fire from spreading.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “Go up.”

  As the noise began to fade behind them, Lucca noticed a hatchway to the right. His first impulse was to go through, but he paused for a moment to consider the risk. If the pirates suspected that they had fled through the maintenance shafts, they would no doubt close them off, starting with the nearest ones. But if most of the pirates were still at the hub, waiting to receive the Hope of Oriana, they wouldn’t have enough manpower to seal off the hub and stop the fires at the same time.

  Through the hatch, then.

  “Cover me,” he told Mariya. Before she could react, he turned the bolt to throw open the locks and threw his weight against the heavy metal door.

  It swung open with a loud creak, and he crawled out into a maintenance closet. The walls were covered with compartments, several of them overflowing with spare parts and disorganized tools. Huge masses of wires led to a large server node, with dozens of flashing red and green lights. As with the storage room on the deck below, the dim green ceiling lights were caged.

  The important thing, though, was that the room was empty.

  Lucca helped Mariya out and cocked his assault rifle. There was only one way out beside the crawlspace, and chances were good that someone was out there. He pressed his ear against it just in case, and when he heard nothing, he stood back and palmed it open.

  Just as he’d hoped, the door open
ed to the main deck of the station. The ceiling extended at least an extra floor above them, with a line of windows offering a view of space and the planet below. Even better, the corridor was empty—for the moment at least.

  “Let’s go,” said Lucca. He ushered Mariya out, then tossed a grenade into the closet for good measure.

  “What are you—”

  The explosion was a lot bigger than he’d expected. It sent them both sprawling to the floor, with alarms going off in every direction. Mariya dropped her rifle and covered her head.

  “Sorry about that,” said Lucca as he staggered to his feet. “They cannot ignore us now.”

  “Are you crazy? You’re going to blow this station to pieces before the others can even rescue us!”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of shouts behind them cut him short. “Quick,” he said, pulling her up. “Let’s go.”

  As the feet of their pursuers came into view through the smoke spilling out of the maintenance closet, he lifted his rifle and fired. A couple of men screamed and fell to the floor, while the others scattered in confusion. He took advantage of the opportunity to run.

  Mariya was already a good five meters ahead of him. He grunted and hurried to catch up with her, strapping the rifle behind his back. Instead, he pulled out his energy pistol—better to have a weapon he was familiar with.

  “What now?” she asked, her eyes wide with excitement and desperation. Though she was breathless, she kept running as if her life depended on it. Perhaps it did.

  A movement over their heads caught Lucca’s attention. It was an elevator car heading down one of the spokes just ahead of them—he could see it clearly through the overhead window. No doubt it was full of soldiers. He glanced over his shoulder to see if they could turn back that way, but the shouts and heavy footsteps behind them told him they were cut off.

  “Hurry!” he said, running as fast as he could. “Past the elevator!”

  “What?”

  “The elevator!”

  The car slowed and passed below the window, into the receiving area at the next concourse. Moments later, they burst inside. If they couldn’t get through before the pirates cut them off—

  Just as they passed beneath the atrium, the elevator door opened, revealing a squad of at least a dozen black-clad soldiers. At the head of them was Salazar, a cigarette clenched between his teeth. Their eyes met just as Lucca ran past, and a look of astonished recognition crossed his face.

  “Get to cover!” shouted Lucca. He turned and fired into the elevator with his pistol, incapacitating one of the pirates at the front. The others shouted and raised their weapons just as he shoved Mariya around the nearest corner.

  Gunfire filled the space around them and splattered like a fiery meteor storm on the opposite side of the corridor. There was no way out—it led to a control room, not an exit from the concourse. Lucca pressed his back against the wall and struggled to catch his breath. He reached a hand into his vest for a grenade—the last one.

  “It is Salazar,” he told Mariya.

  “Salazar?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hold on.”

  She stepped away from the wall and emptied her clip in the direction of the enemy fire. The rifle bounced and recoiled in her hands like an animal struggling to get free, but she held tightly onto it, the stock jammed firmly against her slender shoulder.

  I love you.

  When her magazine was empty, she took cover behind the wall and reloaded a new ammo clip, just as he’d showed her. He took out the last grenade and pulled the pin.

  “Get ready for run,” he said, then tossed the grenade round the corner.

  The explosion was even louder than all the previous ones. They both ducked and covered their ears. The shock from the blast reverberated through the walls and floor, the air filled with smoke and the smell of burning. For a few moments, it was impossible to hear anything, but the gunfire against the opposite wall had stopped.

  “Now!” Lucca shouted. They ran into the smoke just as the emergency sprinklers activated overhead. A yellowish foam fell all around them, getting on their clothes and hair. Mariya slipped on the floor, but he caught her and pulled her away from the chaos.

  It didn’t take long for the pirates to recover, but the first few shots went wild. They managed to pass out of the concourse and into a recessed doorway before the firefight resumed. Escaping down the long open hallway was now impossible, though.

  “We are cut off,” said Lucca. He reached around the corner with his pistol and fired off a couple of shots for good measure.

  “Hang on,” said Mariya. She palmed the access panel, and when that didn’t work, she leveled her rifle at the locking mechanism and fired. The door shuddered and opened a crack, and by prying it apart they were able to get in.

  The pirates behind them were shouting—no doubt they were hot in pursuit. Lucca covered Mariya as she slipped inside, then followed as quickly as he could.

  “What’s this?” she asked, peering around the room. Bunks stacked three high lined the windowless walls all the way to the bulkheads. Where the walls curved up on either side, a door led to other facilities, probably bathrooms.

  “Barracks,” said Lucca. He ushered Mariya down the room just as the pirates reached the half-open door.

  Gunfire soon filled the narrow space, the staccato dakka-dakka of the pirate’s assault rifles mingling with the high-pitched wail of the energy pistol. He managed to pull a foot locker out onto the floor to give them some cover, but in the increasingly narrow space, they were running out of options.

  “Lucca!” shouted Mariya. She motioned for him to get behind her and let loose with another clip just as he scrambled past. They were almost at the bathrooms, now—a foul stench hit his nose, and the grimy floor tiles looked as if they hadn’t been washed in years, but at least the doorway was narrow enough to give them some cover.

  He ran in, closely followed by Mariya. As he rounded the corner into the shower room, the smell of cigarettes hit him like a bulkhead.

  It was Salazar. He stood in center of the room, blocking the only way out. Lucca lifted his energy pistol to fire, but nothing happened—the charge was out. Salazar grinned, a cigarette clenched between his yellow teeth.

  “We meet again, Lieutenant,” he said, leveling his own pistol at Lucca’s face. “Or should I say, Star Wanderer?”

  “Lucca!”

  Before Salazar could shoot, Mariya fired at the shower-head just above them. Steaming hot water gushed out from the break, splashing Salazar’s face. He swore and fired, the shot going wild, and Lucca used the opening to lunge forward and tackle him to the grimy tile floor.

  Lucca fought like a cornered ridgeback, holding nothing back. He screamed and let loose with a right hook, blood smearing from Salazar’s nose across his cheek. The pirate corporal tried to shove him off, but he shifted his weight and took hold of Salazar’s collar as if to choke him. Salazar responded by grabbing the sides of his face and moving to gouge his eyes with his thumbs, forcing Lucca to let go in order to push him off. Blood and grime mingled with the scalding hot water, turning his world into a pain-filled blur.

  Salazar threw him off and half-rolled, half-crawled across the slippery floor toward his gun. Lucca staggered to his feet and kicked it to the other side of the shower room. Instead of chasing after it, though, Salazar reached into his boot and pulled out a double-edged knife.

  “Lucca!”

  At that moment, the bulkheads shuddered, sending Lucca and Mariya both to their knees. Salazar lunged, but Lucca grabbed his knife arm and pushed it away. The pirate’s wild eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty, merciless rage. Even with his face battered and bloodied from Lucca’s fists, he fought with terrifying strength, wrestling his arm free.

  An awful sluggishness took command over Lucca’s limbs. It was as if he were struggling in a pool full of hydraulic fluid, thick and unyielding. He took a deep breath, but his lungs refused to fill.

  �
�I have you now, Star Wanderer,” said Salazar, the veins popping on his forehead. He lifted the knife over his head, poised to strike.

  Before he could bring it down, though, his arm began to tremble uncontrollably. The pressure grew, evidently for both of them. Salazar gasped for breath and plunged the knife downward, but the strike was sloppy and missed its mark. Lucca grunted and knocked the knife free, sending it clattering across the floor. Salazar struggled to get up again, then fell flat on his face.

  “Wh-what’s happening?” asked Mariya. She crawled over to Lucca on her hands and knees before falling on the floor as well.

  “I—I do not know,” said Lucca. The pressure was becoming unbearable, like a weight on his chest that made it almost impossible to breathe. He reached out and took Mariya’s hand. Blackness shrouded the edge of his vision, and the smoke and blood and blaring of the alarms all seemed so distant now. He looked into her frightened eyes just as the blackness overwhelmed him.

  Chapter 23

  Mariya woke up feeling groggy and dazed. Her sleep had done nothing to rest her, if ‘sleep’ was the proper word for it. All she remembered was the growing pressure all around her as Lucca had squeezed her hand. His eyes had rolled back, and he’d lost his grasp. Moments later, she’d passed out as well.

  She looked around and recognized the shower room on the pirate station. The shower head no longer gushed water, but the pools on the floor were still warm. She heard voices and realized that there were people all around her. The realization made her start, but they didn’t seem like pirates. Hands helped her to sit up, and someone wiped a refreshingly cool rag across her face.

  “She’s awake! Anyone recognize her?”

  “She looks like that Deltan girl.”

  “Her name is Mariya,” came Lucca’s voice, clearer and louder than all the others. He knelt beside her and ran his fingers through her hair. “How are you feeling?”

  She looked up at him and smiled. His cheeks were a little grimy from the firefight, and his jumpsuit was stained with specks of blood, but none of that mattered so long as he was alive and well.