Alexander Outland: Space Pirate

by G. J. Koch

  We followed, but I kept a hold of Slinkie’s hand. I risked a look over my shoulder. “Hey, that was the bath house.”

  “Yeah, I picked that up. I don’t think that was the Business Bureau calling, Nap.”

  “Nitin or the Land League, then.”

  “Land League.” Tanner ran back to us. “Do you have any way of reaching the Governor?” He pulled us into a side street.

  “Why?”

  “Herion Military has the sewage plant blocked off due to the rupture. We have to get out of here, now.” He sounded close to panicked.

  “Tanner, deep breaths. Well, as deep as you can stand.” The smell of sewage was still full in the air. “What’s going on?”

  “The Land League’s after us. I think the ship is fine, because they don’t know we’re the ones who were in the reclamation suits. But—” Before he could finish, we all heard another explosion. This one was farther away, none of us were even rocked. But the blast was impressive. “Oh, my Dear Feathered Lord.” Tanner’s voice was a horrified whisper.

  I thought fast. “They just blew up the Crazy Bear, didn’t they?”

  He nodded. “There were so many people inside….” It was dark, but not pitch black, and I could see his face had drained of color.

  Slinkie let go of my hand and put her arms around Tanner. “It’ll be okay,” she said softly. He put his arms around her, too, and buried his face in her neck. She stroked his hair and patted his back. I didn’t get jealous—he was shaking and I knew he was close to losing it.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Kid, we have to move. I can reach the Governor while we go. Come on—if they kill us, then they win.”

  “Give us a second, Nap.” Slinkie made eye contact with me. Okay, correct that—the kid had lost it. But he didn’t need to know that I knew.

  “Okay, easier for me if we’re not moving. But, let’s get into the shadows.” I moved them back so they were in a doorway, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed.

  “I heard the explosions,” the Governor said by way of hello. “Did we lose anyone?”

  “No, but it was a close thing. We need you to come pick us up. Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to be obvious, because we don’t have time for you to be stealthy. Herion Military’s around the sewage plant, we’re a few blocks away from the bath house, the bath house that was just blown up.”

  “How’s the ship?”

  “Randolph and Audrey are there, hopefully it’s fine.”

  “On my way. Please be ready to move quickly, Alexander.”

  “I think we’ve given Randolph enough time.”

  “If we haven’t, we still need to get spaceborne.”

  “It’s what they want.” I tried to say it calmly, but it came out as a snarl.

  “Yes, I’m sure I’ve arrived at the same conclusion as you. However, we may have to do what they want. For now. We won’t do what they want for long, Alexander. I promise you.”

  “Why are you so sure?”

  He chuckled. “Because I know you. How is young Tanner doing?” “Ah….” I took a look. “A little better.”

  “From experience, telepaths have a very hard time with witnessing mass murder. You and Miss Slinkie will probably have to take care of him, longer than you might think.”

  “Yeah, I’m picking that up. Speaking of which, are you coming to pick us up, or are we just running for the spaceport and praying we don’t get blown up along the way?”

  He sighed. “Coming. I’ll be there soon. Please be ready.” He hung up.

  “The Governor’s on his way. We’ll need to move fast when he gets here.”

  “Nap, why would they blow up the Crazy Bear when we weren’t there yet?” Slinkie was rocking Tanner. I still didn’t get the feeling he was going for the cheap and easy feel. I got the feeling the kid was trying not to have hysterics.

  “They’re anal-retentive and really thorough? No idea, Slink.”

  Tanner straightened up. “They got the Business Bureau.” Tanner’s voice shook, but he sounded like he was sort of together. “Lionside’s still alive, because he’s out looking for me.” Tanner jerked. “In fact, he’s close. He and his team are coming to investigate the bath house explosion.”

  “Were we lucky and was Nitin killed in the Crazy Bear?”

  “No idea, but I’d bet not.” Tanner gulped. “We need to move.”

  “We move, the Governor loses our position.” Our cell phones had Universal Position Monitoring in them. But UPM only worked when the phones were engaged. So the Governor knew where I’d been when I’d called him. If we moved, he’d have to call me to find me—and if Lionside and other Herion Military were nearby, we couldn’t afford to have a phone ring at an inopportune moment. And our luck ensured that if the Governor had to call, it would be at a bad time.

  We all heard the sounds of footsteps at the same time, and all three of us moved further back into the doorway, guns at the ready.

  CHAPTER 49

  I put Slinkie and Tanner behind me. I didn’t want her getting hurt and the kid was clearly not going to be up to much for a while. Besides, one of them might have an issue with shooting Lionside, and I knew I didn’t.

  “Men, fan out from here.” Lionside was close. “Give me regular reports.” I heard footsteps fade away. Then I heard footsteps coming towards us. “I know you’re here. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t shoot me.”

  My gun was pointing at him, but I didn’t say anything. Someone saying they knew you were around and them actually knowing you were and where you were hiding were not always mutually inclusive.

  Lionside looked around, then stepped nearer to us. “Outland, we don’t have a lot of time. Please put your gun down. I don’t plan on arresting you. Unless one of my men spots us talking, that is. So time is of the essence.”

  I could tell he could see us, he was only a few feet away. “You talk, maybe I’ll holster.”

  He sighed. “Fine. I know you’re not the ones responsible for all the chaos and destruction. I have a man missing, no idea if he’s alive or dead, or if he’s involved or not. But he’s not the real problem.”

  “The Land League and the pirate armada are the real problem.”

  “Yes. If it’s really a pirate armada. You’re the only ones who’ve seen it. That’s why they want you and your crew dead, I’m sure.”

  “Part of why. Let’s take your missing man out of the equation.” I made sure I was fully in front of Tanner. He was taller than me, but only by a couple of inches, so all Lionside was likely able to see was the top of the kid’s head. Hard to make a confirmed identification based on wet, tousled hair. “Who do you think’s behind this?”

  “The same man you think is behind it. Nitin.” He spat the name out. “My men found a room filled with poisoned gas, and this was in it.” He held up a necklace. Slinkie’s necklace, the one that had the bug-spotter in it. I hadn’t realized she’d lost it, and clearly neither had she. “Is she still alive?”

  “So far, all my crew’s still alive.”

  Lionside looked relieved. “So, is that Miss Slinkie behind you?”

  “Let’s assume I’m not feeling chummy enough to confirm. What’s in this for you? Why are you talking to us and not arresting us?”

  He glared at me. “I believe I mentioned my name comes from the ruling family of this planet, from centuries ago?”

  “Yeah. I’m not big on royalty, titles, or authority, for that matter.”

  “Yes, I know. However, I am. This is my planet, these are my people. I may only be a major, but the blood of this planet’s leaders runs in my veins. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some insurgent scum murder my people randomly simply because they want power and glory.”

  I was almost impressed. He meant it. He meant every word. I really hoped I wasn’t going to have to implement any Hostage plan—Lionside was pure hero, meaning he’d take the shot to save the innocents. Which meant we’d be running or captured, because I had a hard t
ime shooting most people in cold blood, heroes especially. Someone like Nitin was a different story, but he was as far away from hero as you could get.

  “They want to rule the galaxy. And they’re part of the pirate armada.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Control Herion Military, control the solar system. Control Herion Solar, control the entire Gamma Quadrant. Spread out, control all the Quadrants.”

  “That’s why they have to be stopped, here, now.”

  “Yeah, I’m picking that up.”

  Lionside was looking at me and the area around me closely. “Ah, Almondinger, you’re alive and with Outland. Should I ask why?”

  “Who are you talking to?” I hoped the kid would keep his mouth shut.

  “Captain Almondinger, who is standing behind you.”

  “Don’t know anybody by that name.”

  Lionside seemed to be thinking. I was surprised that he could. “You’ve done your best to block him from me, much more than Miss Slinkie, which means you’re more afraid I’ll recognize him than her. So, since I know you were taken by Nitin against my orders, and I also know at least part of your crew were kidnapped with intent to kill, someone had to have helped you get out of Military HQ. It wasn’t Nitin or any of his men, and I’m only missing one man. So, what planet is the young man who’s been calling himself Captain Percy Almondinger actually from?”

  “Aviatus.” Tanner stepped out from behind me. I was going to have to have a word with the kid about heroics and why they were bad. If he survived this incident. “I’m sorry, Major. I had to help them—they relate to my real mission.”

  Lionside didn’t seem upset. At all. I’d heard steroids made you meaner, not placid, but maybe Herion steroids were different. “I understand. What should I really call you?”

  “Almondinger’s still fine,” I said before Tanner could open his mouth again.

  Lionside chuckled. “Fine, Captain Outland, I’ll play the game.” He looked serious again. “Are you actually going to stop these people, or just run away?”

  “I’d love to say run away. It’s what I’d prefer to do. However, my impression is that we won’t have a chance to run. So, we’ll be taking them out. Or dying. Not sure which yet, but if you’re a betting man, put the money on dying.”

  He laughed. “Actually, I’m putting my money on you succeeding, Outland. Otherwise, I’d just kill you where you stand.”

  I heard the unmistakable sound of guns cocking.

  CHAPTER 50

  “So, now that your men are around us, what’s your real plan?”

  Lionside put his hands up slowly. “Not my men.”

  I resisted the urge to curse. Cursing on the public streets was a big no-no on Herion. I looked around. To see the Governor holding two large, nasty-looking laser shotguns. “I’ll take these miscreants off your hands.”

  I jerked my head. “Get the kid inside.”

  Slinkie grabbed Tanner and dragged him off to the tankfloater.

  “Outland, what help can I give you?” Lionside sounded serious.

  “Letting us take off safely would do for a start. Sending Herion Military cruisers with us would be better.”

  “I wish I could.” Lionside’s voice was bitter. “But Nitin’s convinced Herion Political that we shouldn’t get involved.”

  I was about to pursue this line of thought when the Governor barked. “Move it! Both of you, into the tank!” He backed up and wasn’t looking at us.

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, Lionside, but come on. You get in the back.” I took one of the big guns from the Governor. “I’ll drive.”

  “What a joy that will be. We need to hurry.”

  I saw what the Governor had spotted—a platoon of Herion Military heading our way. I put my money on them being Nitin’s men.

  Lionside shocked me to my core and got into the tank without argument, questions, or posturing. I almost hoped he’d try something sneaky so I could go back to hating him.

  The Governor ran for the passenger’s seat. I covered him, then tossed the guns back to Slinkie, jumped into the driver’s seat, and took off. “How much charge left?”

  “Enough. I kept it turned off most of the day.” The Governor fired out of the window as I floored it and the tank sped off.

  “Those could be my men,” Lionside said mildly while the Governor sent out a steady stream of laser fire.

  “They aren’t.” The Governor sounded like he was enjoying himself. “Unless your men work for Nitin.”

  “Shoot to kill, sir,” Lionside said cheerfully.

  “He’s growing on me, Alexander.”

  “Thanks for that. I’ll try not to let it shatter my self-esteem.” The positive of being in a tankfloater was that it was hard to get hurt when you were inside of one. The negative was that it was hard to go fast. We were moving at a decent pace for a low-stress situation, but not fast enough for hot pursuit. Even on foot Nitin’s goons probably had a good shot at catching us.

  “Head down this street.” Lionside pointed. “We have no military there at the moment.” I turned. He was right, we were reasonably alone.

  “I think we need to bring Major Lionside along.”

  “Governor, it’s official. You’ve gone senile.”

  “Alexander, they’ll kill him if we leave him on Herion.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “I might be able to help you, Outland.”

  “By trying to run my show?”

  “No. The captain is the ruler of his ship. I, perhaps more than many others, understand that.”

  “Who’ll take care of things down here?” It was feeble, even I had to admit that, but it was worth a shot.

  “Someone else.” Lionside sighed. “I’d love to tell you I could get things under control here. But I know better. Nitin’s got too much power, and I have too little.”

  I was amazed he’d admitted that. “You’re really from Herion? All the way through?”

  “All the way through. We weren’t always under martial law, you know.” He sounded sad. Great. Another one. I wasn’t going to like Lionside, either. It was going to be easier to keep hating him, though, than it had been to hate Tanner. I knew Lionside still had the big lust going for Slinkie.

  We had a barricade ahead of us. “Lionside, why did you send us this way?”

  He sighed. “It was our best escape option.”

  “Right. It’s our best get captured option, you mean.”

  “Well, we’re in a ’floater, Outland. Surely you can fly it.”

  We were a lot closer to the barricade. No worries, Lionside was right. I’d just go airborne for a ways and then go back to low profile. I hit the airborne button. Nothing happened. “Ah, Governor? I thought you said you’d kept the charge up.”

  “I did. I sat there in the heat of the day, broiling with no cooling on, waiting for you to finish playing around.” He was back to peevish. Wonderful.

  “Tanner! Kid, pull it together. Why aren’t we going up in the air like I want to?” We were now very close to the barricade.

  “Hit the button.”

  “I did.”

  “No, I mean really hit it.”

  I slammed my fist on the airborne button. The tankfloater coughed and rose up from the ground. We just cleared the barricade, meaning we were, perhaps, five feet off the ground. “Why isn’t it going up any higher, Tanner?”

  “We’re overloaded.”

  “How can that be? It’s a tankfloater! It’s supposed to hold more people and weapons than we have.”

  Lionside cleared his throat. “If Tanner, as you’re calling him, took this from where I presume he did, it’s one of our, shall we say, less effective engine models.”

  “What, in plain language, does that mean?” We were over a huge hole. I’d somehow driven us not to the spaceport but to the center of Herion’s urban renewal project. The hole looked deep as well as wide.

  “It means we need to land very soon or blow up.�
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  CHAPTER 51

  “I’m wide open to suggestions.” I didn’t see anywhere to land that wouldn’t result in our blowing up anyway.

  “Just go down,” Lionside said, voice all calm authority. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Really? Because I’m so not fine with dying.” I didn’t see any options, and the tankfloater was starting to shudder in that way a vehicle will when it wants to let you know it’s not happy and is about to share that unhappiness with its occupants.

  “This work is being done on the sewer lines.” Lionside said that as if it were no big deal.

  “Close the windows!” Tanner, Slinkie and I shouted in unison.

  “No need to give in to hysterics,” Lionside said.

  “We finally don’t stink,” Slinkie snarled. “Close the windows, batten the hatches, do whatever we have to in order to stay that way.”

  “What Slinkie said. Only more so. Governor, while I’m keeping us from crash-landing, see if you can find something that gives us some sort of extra protection against seepage.”

  “There.” Lionside pointed to some buttons. The Governor pushed them all. A couple he had to hit. One Lionside had to reach through from the back and slam. The last button was engaged as the wheels hit the ground. Or what was passing for ground down here.

  There’s a way vehicles drive when they’re on a substance that’s less than firm. The tankfloater was driving this way, only to a huge degree. It’s hard for a big, lumbering tank to drive “squishy,” but it was doing a stellar job of it.

  “Lionside, where are we?”

  “Inside the main sewage pipe. It had some corrosion that was causing problems. We went through the hole in the pipe.”

  “That was some hole.”

  “It was some corrosion.”

  “I’ll take your word on it. Where are we heading?”

  “Main sewage shaft leads to the reclamation plant.”

  “Wonderful. How do we not go there?”

  “We should hit a fork in the tunnel. When we do, take the left side. It leads to the spaceport.”

  Whatever Lionside and the Governor had engaged was working. I didn’t smell anything horrible, and we were still dry inside. This was good, because we weren’t dry outside. I had to put on the wipers. What they were wiping was best left unsaid. Forever.