Last Stand on Talos Seven

by Rodney Hartman

  “I calculate a one hundred percent probability you are correct, Wizard Scout. The question now is what are you going to do?”

  What indeed? Trinity wondered, keeping the thought in the private part of her mind that Jennifer couldn’t read so as not to upset her battle computer.

  “Humph,” said Jennifer. “I may not be there with you, but I can still monitor your heartrate and breathing. You do not have any idea what to do next, do you? Do not bother denying it. That is exactly why you are fortunate to have me as your battle computer. I calculate the best thing to do at this point is to remain where you are and monitor the Crosoians and the businessmen. Once they complete whatever transaction they are doing, you can follow the two bats. If you are lucky, they may take you to someone high enough in their hierarchy to give us the information we need.”

  “That’s one plan,” Trinity admitted. “Or...I could just go over there right now and beat the information out of them. Those bats are normal Crosoians. It’s not like they’re scouts or any such thing.”

  “I hope you are joking,” said Jennifer nixing the idea. “The Empire is not at war with the Crosoians. This mining asteroid is in the neutral zone between Trecorian, Intergalactic Empire, and Crosoian space. They have as much right to be here as you do. If you attack them for no reason, all you will do is draw the suspicion of the local law enforcement. Your cover will be blown. I highly advise that you stay where you are and try not to draw attention to yourself.”

  Trinity did her best not to smile. She had no doubt her battle computer was right. Sometimes she just liked pulling her partner’s chain.

  “Relax Jennifer. I didn’t say I was going to do it. I only said it was another option. I’ll be a good little girl. I’m going to sit here, finish my drink, and be quiet as a church mouse.”

  “I suppose we will see,” replied Jennifer. She did not sound convinced.

  Taking a hefty swig of brown liquid from the glass on her table, Trinity let the rotgut alcohol that passed for whiskey on the asteroid slide down her throat. The burning sensation passed quickly enough as her self-heal brought the tortured lining of her throat back to baseline. As the liquor hit her stomach, she sensed Power from her reserve surround what her body took for a poison and turn it into harmless water. From experience, Trinity knew it was nearly impossible for a wizard scout to get drunk. She’d tried often enough over the past two months.

  “Oh, you could get drunk if the liquor was potent enough, and you drank a lot of it really fast,” said Jennifer. “In our current situation though, I calculate it is a good thing the other patrons assume you are already intoxicated. The half bottle of whiskey you have consumed would have floored anyone else in the room.”

  As she poured another shot of whiskey from the bottle into her glass, Trinity eyed the two bats as they sat down at the table with the four businessmen. The chairs were too small for the Crosoians, forcing them to sit stiff-backed.

  “I doubt they’ll be here long,” Trinity told her battle computer. “It’s no secret Crosoians don’t like humans. I doubt the bats are enjoying themselves any more than those four fancy businessmen.”

  As she watched, Trinity noticed the bat with the computer pad place it on the table and scoot the device over to one of the businessmen. The baldheaded man ran his finger up the pad’s screen as if scanning a list. He ran his finger up several times.

  “Long list,” observed Jennifer.

  “So it would seem,” Trinity agreed. “I’m betting it’s a list of weapons. Now all we have to do is wait and follow the bats when they leave.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Jennifer. “If you remember to stay indiscreet, I calculate it should all work out fi—”

  “Can anyone help us?” came a desperate-sounding feminine voice from the direction of the bar’s entrance. The high-pitched voice was more than loud enough to override the buzz of conversation in the room. “Please. We need help.”

  The bar grew silent as everyone, Trinity included, turned to look at the doorway. Two human teenagers, a boy and a girl, both with flaming red hair, stood just inside the doorway. Trinity guessed they were about sixteen or seventeen years old. Both teens were dressed in oil-stained orange jumpsuits with an emblem of a bird’s talon sewn on their left chest pockets. The girl’s shoulder-length red hair was tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. The boy’s shorter but equally red hair was partially tucked under an old sailor’s cap.

  “According to the information in my databanks,” said Jennifer, “the talon emblem is associated with the inhabitants of an agricultural planet in the Talos system on the far side of the neutral zone. They used to be a moderately wealthy planet until about ten years ago when a splinter-group of the Balorian pirates brought them to near extinction. My advice is to ignore those two and concentrate on the bats.”

  “Please,” the girl pleaded. “We need help. We were told we could find mercenaries here. We were told only the bravest adventurers come to this place.” Several of the bar’s occupants laughed. The girl’s face turned pink, but she continued speaking. “The Balorian pirates are threatening our planet. Our people are simple farmers. We need help. We’ll pay.”

  A gruff-looking man wearing black pants and a similar-colored shirt stood up two tables over from Trinity. She noticed a plasma pistol strapped to the man’s hip. Three similarly dressed men and an older, scar-faced woman at the same table remained seated. Trinity noticed the woman rest her right hand on the butt of her plasma pistol and undo the holster strap.

  “Pay?” said the standing man. “You can’t even afford a clean set of clothes, girl.” The man glanced at the others at his table and winked. With a laugh, he looked back at the red-headed girl. “If you want, we can go into one of the back rooms, and I’ll show you how you can make a few extra credits. Otherwise, turn around and leave. Most of us here are probably pirates of one kind or another. Why would anyone here want to help two redheaded pactars like you?”

  The barroom broke out in laughter. Both the boy and girl’s faces turned beet red. The boy took a step forward. “We have a hundred thousand credits. We need a company of mercenaries to—”

  “A company,” laughed the scar-faced woman from her seat at the table. “A hundred thousand credits wouldn’t be enough to hire a broken-down wino armed with a slingshot to go with you.” When the others at her table laughed, she gestured toward the standing man. “Now get out of here before I have Bill throw you out.”

  The redheaded girl elbowed her way past her companion. “My people are in trouble, and we need help. I have faith at least one person here has enough kindness and decency to aid us in our time of need.” She scanned the room. “Please—”

  The scrapping sound of a chair being pushed back drew the girl’s attention to the table with the Crosoians and the four businessmen. One of the bats stood and rested her paw on the grip of her phase pistol.

  The redheaded girl’s eyes grew large.

  “Leave now, human,” hissed the bat with the words coming out of a small translator hooked to her waist-belt. The bat pointed a claw at the door. “Go now. I have not had my lunch today, but I prefer them juicier than a scrawny runt like you.”

  The second Crosoian rose from her seat and hissed. Laughter came out of the translator on her belt. “I am not as picky as my sister. A youngling like you would make a good snack. Now go before I forget what a peace-loving race we bats are.”

  A few of the other bar patrons in the room laughed, but most did not.

  The redheaded girl refused to back down. She walked across the room until she stood two paces from the Crosoians. Looking up, the redheaded girl said, “I’m not scared of you. If you don’t wish to help us, that’s fine. Just leave us alone. I’m confident someone in this place will—”

  What the girl thought someone would do, Trinity didn’t find out. With lightning reflexes, the bat reached out and grabbed the redheaded girl by the throat, lifting her off the floor.

  The girl’s leg
s kicked out as she grabbed the bat’s arm with both hands in an attempt to take off some of the pressure. Her face began to turn as red as her hair.

  Trinity grabbed the bottle on her table and half rose from her chair.

  “Do not do anything foolish,” warned Jennifer. “I calculate an eighty-two percent probability the Crosoian is only trying to scare the girl. The bat’s species rarely eats meat. The Crosoians are here for their meeting. They do not want to draw attention from the local peace officers any more than you do. I calculate the Crosoian will rough the girl up a little and then send her on her way. So stand down Wizard Scout. She has nothing to do with your mission.”

  Knowing her battle computer was right, Trinity started to settle back into her seat. Before she could finish sitting down, the redheaded girl brought a booted foot up and slammed the heel into the Crosoian’s nose. Green blood spurted out as the bat dropped the girl. As soon as the redhead’s feet touched the floor, she spun and drove the edge of her right foot hard into the bat’s left kneecap.

  The Crosoian hissed a scream and fell to the floor. The bat grabbed at the phase pistol on her belt as she went.

  “We don’t need any trou—”, began the baldheaded businessman at the table.

  Before the man could finish speaking, the second Crosoian drew her phase pistol and pointed it dead center at the girl’s chest. The redheaded boy started to run forward, but the scar-faced woman who’d spoken earlier stuck out a leg and tripped him. The teenager went sprawling on the stone floor.

  Trinity’s hand was already around the bottle of whiskey on her table. She flung it through the air, using telekinesis to help guide it to her target. The cheaply made bottle shattered against the second Crosoian’s wrist. The phase pistol went flying out of the bat’s hand. At the same time Trinity threw the bottle, she leaped over the intervening tables and landed near the Crosoian who’d been knocked to the floor by the girl. Kicking out with her right foot, Trinity sent the pistol flying out of the downed Crosoian’s hand before the bat was able to bring it to bear. The phase weapon crashed into a stack of whiskey bottles on the bar. Rotgut whiskey and broken glass sprayed across the customers sitting at the nearby tables. Half-drunk patrons began diving for cover or making for the bar’s exit.

  “I thought you told me that you were going to be quiet as a church mouse,” said Jennifer in their shared space.

  “I guess I must’ve forgotten to mention how loud church mice are where I’m from,” Trinity said.

  That was all the time Trinity had to think before the bat that was still standing unfolded a wing and spun ninety degrees in an attempt to skewer her with the half-meter-long point at the wing’s joint. Trinity ducked. The deadly wing point caught on the bun at the back of her head, severing the elastic band holding her long black hair in place. Although the wing point caused Trinity’s hair to fly across her face, temporarily blinding her, the deadly point missed flesh.

  Using her passive scan to pick out a target, Trinity pivoted on her heel and kicked out with her leg. The knife edge of her foot slammed into the standing bat’s nose, creating a satisfying crunch as the Crosoian flew across the table. Droplets of green blood sprayed across all four of the businessmen’s pristine white shirts, leaving dark stains behind. Two of the businessmen were knocked to the floor amidst a tangle of bat wings and legs.

  The Crosoian the girl had kicked rolled on the floor and grabbed the pistol Trinity had knocked out of the hand of the bat’s companion. Before the bat could point the pistol at Trinity, another bottle came flying through the air and struck the bat’s weapon. The phase pistol spun out of the Crosoian’s grasp and landed behind the overturned table. Trinity sensed more than saw the teen boy grabbing for another bottle from his position on the floor.

  “He throws pretty good,” commented Jennifer. “Watch out he does not throw one at your head.”

  “That’s about enough,” shouted the scar-faced woman who’d spoken earlier. She pulled a plasma pistol from her waist and pointed it directly at the redheaded boy’s chest. “One more move from any of you, and I’ll make Covarian cheese out of this boy.”

  The men at the woman’s table stood and drew plasma weapons of their own.

  The big man in black the woman had called Bill pointed his pistol at Trinity. “You heard the lady, sweetheart. Stand down, or believe me, you won’t live to regret it.”

  The scar-faced woman looked away from the redheaded boy long enough to glance at the baldheaded businessman. He was still sitting in his chair next to the overturned table. Drops of Crosoian blood dripped down his wide-eyed face.

  “What do you want us to do, boss?” asked the scar-faced woman. “Do you want us to shoot them?”

  The baldheaded man’s eyes widened even more. “Shoot them? Of course not. I’m a businessman. I don’t need any trouble with the law. I want you to—”

  A bottle crashed into the head of the scar-faced woman as the redheaded boy jumped off the floor and made straight for Bill. The woman dropped her pistol and screamed as blood ran down her face and onto her chest. One of the other men fired his pistol at the redheaded boy. The plasma energy tore a finger-sized hole in the boy’s left arm knocking him to the side.

  At the same moment the boy began his attack, Bill fired his weapon at Trinity. She dodged to the left barely avoiding the round of energy. Unfortunately for the baldheaded businessman, he was nowhere near as fast. The plasma energy from the pistol struck him on the left side of his chest. The baldheaded man was flung back against the wall. The businessman’s limp body bounced off the blood-splattered slab of rock and fell unmoving to the stone floor.

  “That does it,” said Jennifer. “Someone has been killed. I calculate there is going to be hell to pay with the local law enforcement. Not to mention that I seriously doubt you will receive your safety bonus at the mining company now. I highly recommend you grab the bat’s computer pad and hightail it out of here while you have the chance. You have to complete your mission.”

  One of the scar-faced woman’s companions began firing in the direction of the redheaded girl. The first two rounds passed to the left side of the girl. Trinity sensed the man shift his aim slightly to the right.

  “To hell with the mission,” Trinity thought as she reached out with her mind and wrapped a line of Power around the man’s hand. Twisting the weapon out of the man’s grasp with telekinesis, she flung it across the room. The pistol bounced off an overturned table and fell to the floor. At the same time, Trinity body-slammed the redheaded girl out of the line of fire as the other men standing near the bloody, scar-faced woman began firing. Plasma rounds passed within a finger’s span of both Trinity and the teenage girl, but neither of them was hit.

  Coming up out of her roll, Trinity drew energy from her Power reserve and formed a defensive shield to her front. She charged forward, angling the shield enough to cause the flurry of plasma energy coming from the men to ricochet into the air. Reaching out with telekinesis, she forced one man’s hand down and to the left until the barrel of his pistol pointed at the leg of the man standing next to him. She pulled the trigger of the pistol with telekinesis. Blood spurted out of the second man’s knee joint as he collapsed to the floor. A split-second later, Trinity was amongst the men. They didn’t stand a chance. With two kicks and a balled fist, three of the men lay unconscious on the stone floor.

  The man called Bill drew a wicked-looking knife from his belt and lunged toward Trinity. Before his blade got close, the redheaded girl ran up and tackled him to the floor, knocking the knife out of his hand in the process. The girl pulled a blade of her own from somewhere and stabbed the big man in the thigh. When the man grabbed for her knife, the redhead’s elbow slammed into his chin, slamming the back of his head into the hard granite of the floor. The big man’s body went limp.

  “You are forgetting about the Crosoians,” came Jennifer’s voice in Trinity’s mind. “You need to grab that computer pad and get out of here before security forces arrive.”<
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  Spinning around, Trinity spied one of the bats regaining her feet near the businessmen’s table. The bat grabbed the computer pad and touched the screen with the tip of one claw.

  “Traitors,” hissed the bat at the remaining businessmen. “I knew we could not trust humans, but you will never take us prisoners. We will die with honor.”

  Energy surged within the computer pad. The bat hissed a laugh as she turned and focused her ears on Trinity. “I know what you are, Wizard Scout. You will die too.”

  “No!” screeched one of the remaining businessmen. “We had a deal.”

  “I highly recommend you get out of here now,” said Jennifer. “I calculate the computer pad will overload in four seconds.”

  Trinity eyed the exit. She was confident she could make her escape in time. She glanced around the room. The redheaded girl was kneeling beside the boy trying to stop the flow of blood from his arm.

  They’ll never make it to the door, Trinity thought.

  Without thinking it through, Trinity dove on top of the two teens. Drawing Power from her reserve, she formed a defensive shield around the two teenagers and herself. A heartbeat later the computer pad’s rising energy peaked.

  Boom!

  A wave of heat and plasma energy tore through the room vaporizing the bodies of the businessmen and the Crosoians. The scar-faced woman and her henchmen went flying into the air before slamming into the stone wall near the exit. Broken pieces of furniture and bottles filled the air in a swirling mass of destruction. When the heat and plasma energy finally dissipated, only Trinity and the two teens remained alive. Lowering her defensive shield to conserve energy, Trinity stood and looked down at the teenagers. They both looked back at her wide-eyed.

  “Shake it off,” Trinity said. “We’ve got to get out of here before security arrives.”

  “Too late for that,” said Jennifer in Trinity’s shared space.

  Picking up a mass of life forms with her passive scan, Trinity turned to face the entrance. What remained of the blackened door barely hung from a single hinge. Two men in power-armor stepped through the entrance carrying high-energy plasma rifles. Insignias of the Trecorian Alliances’s security forces were visible on the left shoulders of their power-armor. Other armored personnel carrying an assortment of weapons stood behind the first two.