Runaway: Assignment Darklanding

by Scott Moon

  Thad muted the conversation and walked back to his little office as White Skull stood on his cot, pretending to wipe his ass.

  Thad checked all the security hardware and software of the jail, then took a nap with his feet on the desk and his hat covering his eyes.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: White Skull Fury

  Stacy “White Skull” Rings started using the general comm system the moment he was sure Sheriff Fry had finished his nap and left the building.

  “Listen, Smash Face, all that talk about my name is a load of horse manure,” White Skull said. “Stacy is a fine name. My mother gave it to me. Love like my mother’s soft voice. It was my brother who made it a curse word. He wasn’t so good as everyone thought, you know?”

  He had been in a lot of prisons and knew one of the regulations was that they had to have a way for prisoners to communicate, especially if their jailers were not planning on monitoring them day and night. Isolation without cause was inhumane—smart sometimes, but inhumane.

  The Darklanding lawman talked tough but wouldn’t dare violate the law or SagCon policy. He was the worst type of bully, an over-privileged pretty boy who acted like he hadn’t seen real action. White Skull couldn’t believe the man had been in battle. Just another tactic-cool geek claiming glory that wasn’t his from the real soldiers.

  White Skull hated officers. The longer he sat and thought about it, the more he realized he hated everyone—starting with his brother, but including men and women who had been his best friends in the war. He wanted to see the world burn. The only woman who could calm the raging storm in his head for even a second was Amanda Preston, and she was still in love with his dead brother.

  In two days, he would have the bounty for the Vandersun and Amanda's willing or unwilling affection. He’d buy a ship and take her someplace they could be alone forever. Semi-rational plans and graphic fantasies played through his mind as he stared at the ceiling.

  Like the rest of this facility, the intercom system was the cheapest available. The walls, on the other hand, looked like they had been made to survive a nuclear war, which was probably why Thaddeus Fry thought it was okay to leave his prisoners here with nothing but time on their hands. White Skull hadn’t figured a way out, but he would.

  He laughed at the lawman's disappointment over the Darklanding Marines, which only existed on paper. Sooner or later, the sheriff would realize that the unit had been assigned but had never arrived. The man running the unit wasn't even on the planet or a Marine. A computer hacker who lived on an orbiting space station, the man collected several incomes from bureaucratic screwups by intercepting communications and collecting budget allotments.

  He pushed the general comm button several times as fast as he could.

  “I like my name just fine is what I said. Did you hear me, Smash Face?”

  “Yes. I hear. I do not care,” the Unglok said.

  White Skull leaned against the wall of his cell, disappointed. “I can’t believe you don’t want to hear the legend of White Skull. We’re going to die of boredom in here.”

  “Impossible. Unglok do not die of boredom.”

  White Skull shook his head and pushed off his cot. He started to pace in very tight circles. When that didn’t help his state of mind, he kicked the wall.

  “Maybe Monnik listens to White Skull story. If Skull escapes first.”

  White Skull stopped pacing. “Who the hell is Monnik? Just kidding. I assume that’s you. What does Monnik mean in your language, big and dumb?”

  “Monnik would no bring Skull. Monnik need human to pass humans in landing-dark-city,” the Unglok said.

  “This is going to be a beautiful partnership. I can’t wait for all the witty repertoire and fascinating tales of your childhood that I imagine you’re desperate to share with me,” White Skull said.

  “Use fewer words. Or learn Unglok,” Monnik said.

  “Monnik my brother, I’ll learn any language you want me to learn if you can get me out of this place. Which raises a valid question. How in the hell do you think you can get through these walls?” White Skull said, banging his knuckles on the blast-proof surface.

  “Monnik has no brothers. Monnik killed them.”

  White Skull didn’t have a response for that.

  “That is joke.”

  “Good one,” White Skull said. “What’s the plan, Stan?”

  “Who Stan? Me? How you call me stan? Know you what stan is here? Maybe White Skull wipe his stan and shut up!”

  White Skull closed his eyes and shook his head despite his obvious isolation from his new partner. He was honestly looking forward to meeting the big Unglok, nervous, but excited. Danger was a thing. He always looked forward to it.

  “I apologize, Stan. Is that worse than Smash Face? I’ll call you whatever, just tell me how you’re going to get us out of this prison,” White Skull said.

  “I call you Stan. I like that. Stan, Stan the Stacy Man,” Monnik growled.

  “How about this? Once we break out, you never speak again. I’ll point at things and you can break them. Or tell you who to rough up and what loot to take,” White Skull said.

  “No break. No rough up. That is how Monnik put here. Escape us. Then go away,” Monnik said. “Why call Monnik the Smash Face?”

  “Your nose is flat and you look like you fight a lot.”

  “A lot true, White-Skull-Stacy-Stan,” Monnik said. “Prison is temporary structure. Unglok people move it here. When they see Monnik put here, they wait to move it someplace better. Or Monnik kill their families.”

  White Skull began laughing uncontrollably. When he could breathe, he leaned against the wall with his hands on both sides of the small intercom speaker that broadcast into the hallway and thus into all the other small cells. “I love you, man. We really should be on the same team.”

  "Not joke."

  White Skull caught his breath, not sure he how felt about that and unable to explain to the Unglok what he was laughing at. The situation was so absurd.

  “Monnik hate human. Must sleep now.”

  White Skull sat back on his bed with a huge smile. “So, stan is a really bad word in your language?”

  “Yes. Much bad.”

  “Teach me some more while we wait.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT: Unwilling Bodyguards

  Penny crossed her arms and stared at the girl.

  “You think I helped him escape! How would that benefit me?” Ruby said, then leaned forward to whisper harshly. “He knows my family better than you do! I do my research! I almost didn't come to Darklanding because of him. Stacy Rings is the last person on this planet I want to take me prisoner.”

  “And why is that? What did you do to Sledge? He was a perfectly obnoxious and perfectly competent special investigator the last time I saw him,” Penny said. “Now he can’t catch a spoiled little rich girl.”

  “He knows he can’t catch me by himself,” Ruby Miranda Vandersun said.

  Penny thought about it for a second. “Really? He actually said that?”

  Ruby shrugged and started to walk away. Darklanding was getting busy and before long, there would be another livestock transfer to make escape easier for the young girl. It hadn’t taken Penny long to see through most of her tricks. Unlike Sledge, she was fast and smart enough to catch the girl, but not strong enough to hold onto her for long.

  She understood her former partner was being smart to wait for reinforcements, if that was what he was really doing. The prospect seemed highly unlikely. The giant brute was arrogant beyond all comparison. Maybe her ex-husband was in the same category of bullheadedness,. She shuddered to think of the two of them working together. What a circus that would be. My gods, she thought. I have a type.

  Ruby took a step back, strategically placing herself closer to a walkway that would allow her to dart past the growing crowds of workers and animals while leaving Penny a step behind. The girl was an expert at escape and evasion. Her illegal genetic enhancements and years of training helpe
d, but her wits were always the trump card.

  “I assume you’re about to say something you think is clever and then try to outrun me,” Penny said. “But you have to understand that age and experience will beat youth and raw talent every time.”

  “My grandfather told me that once.”

  “Don’t try to bring him into this. You’ve already ruined Sledge with that talk.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes like an actual teenager. She rubbed the palms of her hands against the khaki safari pants she wore, which Penny had noticed was part of her preferred attire when not at the Mother Lode.

  “Don’t be a brat. And don’t pretend you’re not a murderer. You killed people who trusted you.”

  Ruby took an involuntary step forward, rage and indignation on her face. “They were going to sell me!”

  Penny grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. Ten years of jujitsu training with several intergalactic masters devolved into a dirty street fight. The girl had every bit as much training, probably with the same masters and more. Cornelius Vandersun was legendary for doting on his grandchildren, except for Ike, which he claimed wasn’t really his grandchild. Cornelius had probably taught the girl some of his own secret tricks.

  Penny mounted the girl, attempting to crush her as she looked for a submission hold. She didn't have much of an advantage of size, but it would seem like more to the girl under her.

  Undaunted by her inferior position, Ruby trapped one of Penny’s arms a strong young arm, then braced her other arm across Penny’s breastbone to receive Penny's weight.

  Penny grunted a curse. Normally being on top of the fight was an advantage and she was definitely on top. She thought she could maintain the position, but also understood that normal wasn’t going to be part of this fight.

  She saw Ruby's countermove coming, but was an instant too slow to escape the leg attack. A second later, the girl thrust her legs upward and locked them around Penny’s throat. Red spots danced in Penny’s vision as Ruby strangled her.

  “I…can’t…believe that big dummy…” Penny started to pass out, her grip loosening on Ruby’s arms, which she had almost converted into a counter-submission hold. “…didn’t take you in. Big…stupid…jerk.”

  Ruby eased off the pressure. “Why would he tell me he was going to take me to my grandfather?”

  Penny had a hard time processing the information, or staying conscious for that matter. She tried to think through the question.

  “I thought Sledge was okay. Getting my hopes up like that is just mean. No one is going to pass up the bounty to take me to my grandfather for free.”

  Penny sucked in air as hard as she could through her nose, but it wasn’t enough. Panic set in and she did it several more times, feeling pathetic and desperate. “You better tap out, girl. You’re starting to piss me off.”

  Ruby released a tiny amount of pressure, but also reversed their position so that she was now on top. The new weight on Penny’s neck didn’t feel reassuring. The tiny young woman suddenly felt like she weighed as much as Sledge in full battle gear. If she drove all of her weight down, it was over for Penny. The girl’s level of control was impressive.

  Ruby leaned close and spoke almost gently. “There are about five people in the galaxy who would take me someplace other than my grandfather’s custody or into the law’s justice. Stacy Rings is one of them. I don’t plan on getting caught by anyone, but I especially don’t want to be dissected and held in a scientific laboratory for the rest of my life.” Ruby stood up and let go of Penny. “White Skull is a broken man who only wants to see the galaxy explode.”

  The oxygen rushing into Penny’s lungs felt euphoric beyond all reason. She scrambled to her feet, fully aware that her movements looked like a drunkard floundering toward the sidewalk before a herd of pigs stampeded her. That was the only reason the spoiled brat had let her up. Before long, they were both up on the sidewalk without Penny quite knowing how they got there.

  Something wasn’t right. Penny leaned on her knees, bent over as though she had just vomited, and maybe she had, staring at the girl who suddenly looked worried. It took Penny several moments to realize that Sledge was on the other side, blocking her escape.

  “It’s about time you showed up,” Penny said.

  Sledge looked embarrassed. “She’s right. Word on the street is that White Skull has escaped. Thaddeus locked him up once, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen again. He’s good, for a common grunt, but no one has that kind of luck two times in a row.”

  “I’d rather take my chances with the sheriff than you two SagCon mercenaries,” Ruby said.

  Penny stood and checked her gear. “You have my backup blaster, kid. Hand it over.”

  Ruby tossed her the small blaster pistol as though the weapon didn't mean squat. The girl had seen an opportunity to take it and snatched it. She didn’t need it to kill people.

  “We have to make some decisions, Penny,” Sledge said. “If we let White Skull or anybody like him take a Vandersun, our lives won’t be worth a street full of pig dung.”

  Penny smelled the passing animals for the first time and silently cursed her ex-partner. She looked at the girl, who was probably getting ready to do a backflip onto the roof or something ridiculous like that. Penny was tired of chasing her.

  “How did we suddenly become your bodyguards?” Penny asked.

  * * *

  Sledge was an excellent judge of character. His sense of timing was almost poetic, he thought. Maybe he had watched the fight between his former partner and the girl for too long before moving in—maybe not. Caution was a virtue when dealing with these two, and he’d already rushed to failure more than once.

  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

  “We have to take her to her grandfather,” Sledge said.

  Penny shook her head angrily. “That’s not the law. We may work for SagCon, but murder is murder and she has to stand trial.”

  “Did you hear what she just said? They tried to sell her. That makes them no different than White Skull or the other opportunists that want to rip out her DNA and study it,” Sledge said. "She had to defend herself."

  Penny spoke through her teeth and glared at Sledge. “Come on, partner. Work with me on this. She’s playing on your hero gene. Stop being a macho tough guy and start following procedure. What kind of SagCon SI are you?”

  Sledge watched Penny, but also caught Ruby moving a step to one side with his peripheral vision. “Hey, kid. Stop right there. Don’t be stupid.”

  “Trusting you two would be stupid,” Ruby said.

  Sledge held both hands toward the woman and the girl, palms forward in a plea for peace. “We all agree that White Skull is bad. Let’s focus on solving that problem first. We can worry about everything else later.”

  “No,” Ruby said.

  “No?” Sledge and Penny asked at the same time.

  “I don’t trust either of you.”

  “Who do you trust? What if I had Dixie vouch for us, mediate a temporary alliance?” Sledge offered.

  Ruby snorted. “Not her. I trust the sheriff. He’s the only one on this planet who can handle White Skull and isn’t a SagCon mercenary.”

  Sledge watched several emotions flash through Penny’s eyes like a roulette wheel. She seemed to land on anger.

  He hooked his thumbs through the belt on his tactical jumpsuit. “All right. Let’s find the sheriff.”

  CHAPTER NINE: Spirit Quest - Part Two

  Mast Jotham lowered his feet toward the next landing and realized it was the bottom of the shaft. No Unglok had ever come this deep. What was the point of a vision quest if there was a physical end to it? His heart beat too quickly and he did not feel in control of himself. He squinted against the thickening haze in the shaft. It seemed as though the vibrations of his movement was stirring up dust from below him.

  How can I go on without food?

  Hunger caused his people to hallucinate. This was known. The
metal surface he was about to step on looked real, covered with silky darkness the distinctive shape of a ship. But what if it wasn’t real? What if it wasn’t there at all? How far would he fall before hitting the core of the planet?

  “Please be muchly, solidly real,” he mumbled.

  What am I looking at? How could this be? The shaft was both sacred and ancient.

  He leaned his head back and looked up, expecting to see the tiny speck of light far above.

  Nothing.

  It was as though he were on the bottom of the ocean, not as cold perhaps and he could breathe, but definitely an unpleasant place to be alone. He squatted down to rest his legs. Dust floated around him like a lazy cloud. He had been in the dark long enough to see as well as could be expected. He was hungry, but did not think he was hallucinating. Not yet. But what if he was?

  Mast did not know what to do. No vision quest came with instructions. It was simply understood that one went down and one came up. Surely someone would have spoken of a site such as this.

  He knew he must be the first to see this place. There were no footprints on the surface of the oval-shaped thing that could only be a ship of some sort. None of the last several ledges had showed evidence of pilgrims. If there had ever been an Unglok here, it had been a very long time ago.

  He walked the perimeter of the ovoid, spontaneously superstitious that cutting across the middle would be bad luck. Even though he moved slowly, it became difficult to see and breathe. His rational mind warned that he could not survive this environment.

  A19 was the worst kind of poison. It didn’t just kill Ungloks, it tortured them. A single breath could kill instantly or could take months. He argued with himself and sought to prove that this dust was not thousands of years of accumulated A19.

  He laughed softly. If it was that valuable, the humans would be down here trying to collect it. That made him think of Sheriff Fry and his duties. Weakness filled his lungs and he thought he knew the taste of the deadly mineral.