Scallywag gritted his teeth. “Aye, and what are ya, exactly?” Scallywag sneered. “Less ugly Deathlords?”
The men surrounding Scallywag all chuckled. “Oh, there’s a bit more to us than that,” Gunner said. “You see—”
“Enough with the chit-chat already!” interrupted Xao as he stormed up from behind Gunner. “Just hurry up and kill this muggahugger! Kill him dead!”
Scallywag’s eyes widened. “Xao?” he said. “You’re one of them?”
Xao laughed. “One of these glitches? Nyah, nyah, nyah. No, no, no – Xao fullllllllll Xao!”
“Even we have certain standards,” muttered Gunner, sounding somewhat insulted. “We just use this one to help smuggle our slythru off-planet.”
“So this is who ya were contacting once ya found out where we were goin’,” grumbled Scallywag. “I shoulda figured. No one as dumb as you becomes a crime lord without help. Ya do realize yer working with Deathlords, don’t ya?”
“Xao no care,” Xao said with a shrug. “Glitches help Xao, Xao help glitches. Everybody happy! Because of them, Xao is rich! Xao is powerful! Xao is thugnificient!”
Scallywag slowly lowered his hands and rested them near the blasters holstered at his sides, his steely gaze locked onto Xao. “I always knew ya were dumber than a mud-beetle, Xao,” he said. “But even I never thought ya’d stoop as low as ta align yerself with a lot that wants nothing but ta destroy everything in the bloody universe.”
“Oh, Xao dumb?” Xao responded. “Scallywag not look so smart surrounded by all these guns, does he? Xao warned you, Scally. Xao see you again, Xao kill you. Well, Xao like to keep his promises.”
“Xao, you skizzy Izard,” Scallywag sneered. “I like to keep me promises, too. And I promise, if I make it out o’ this, I’ll be comin’ for ya.”
“Boys,” said Xao, addressing the Royal Guard. “See he doesn’t make it out of this, m’kayyyy?”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” replied Commander Gunner.
Xao smiled at Scallywag and waved good-bye. “Toodaroo, playboi! Nyah, nyah, nyah!”
Scallywag watched, seething, as Xao strutted away happily. When he was gone, Scallywag focused back on Gunner. “So what now?” Scallywag asked. “Ya gonna worm me, too?”
“We’d considered it,” Gunner replied, running his finger along the worm on his arm. “That is, until you killed our queen. Now we’re thinking it might be better to shoot pieces off you slowly until you die.”
Scallywag glanced around him, taking stock of his current situation. He had four Royal Guards with their rifles trained on him from behind, two security-bots in front of him who could fill him full of plasma blasts before he’d be able to make a move, and a hovercar overhead with mounted cannons that would ensure any attempt to run would be futile.
So, this is how it ends, he thought bitterly. Shot down in the street by Deathlord henchmen. Not exactly how I pictured me last stand.
Scallywag’s hands moved to the hilt of his blasters, his eyes locking with those of Gunner’s as his face grew hard. Gunner chuckled. “I can tell what you’re thinking,” Gunner said, smugly. “You’re thinking if you’re going to go out, you’ll try to at least take me with you. Am I right?”
“The thought crossed me mind,” said Scallywag through gritted teeth.
“I’ve studied your file,” Gunner said. “There are numerous accounts of your prowess with a blaster. Fast, accurate, and deadly. Best I can tell, you’re probably one of the more talented gunslingers in the galaxy. But look around you, pirate. You won’t even be able to get your blaster out of your holster before we cut you down.”
“Ya willin’ ta bet yer life on that?” asked Scallywag, his hand slowly gripping his pistol.
A malicious smirk grew on Gunner’s face. “On you dying before me?” he said. “I believe I’ll take those odds. No matter how skilled you are with a blaster, pirate, there’s no way in this world you’ll be shooting first.”
Scallywag’s eyes locked onto Gunner’s, cold and hard and filled with resolve.
“Oy, mate,” replied Scallywag with a smirk of his own. “If there’s one thing ya should know about me… it’s that I always shoot first.”
Quicker than he’d ever moved before, Scallywag drew his pistol, firing it as soon as it was clear of its holster.
Gunner stumbled back as the shot impacted his shoulder.
Scallywag closed his eyes as the security-bots opened fire, their arm cannons spraying hot bolts of death. He braced himself, preparing to feel the blasts of super-heated gas tear through him. But when he realized he was still standing, alive and unharmed, he opened his eyes.
Behind him, each of the Royal Guards who’d had him in their sites were dead. Scallywag turned and looked at the security-bots in wide-eyed disbelief, noticing for the first time that their eyes seemed to have changed to an odd red color.
“What the—” he said.
“Don’t just stand there, you twit,” said one of the security-bots. “Make haste to the first alleyway on your right, three blocks down. If you want to live, that is.”
Before Scallywag even had time to process what was going on, a plasma blast streaked by, narrowly missing him. Gunner was on the street, crawling toward cover while nursing his shoulder, firing at Scallywag with his weapon.
“Run, fool!” ordered the security-bot as it and its twin turned to take aim at Gunner. Scallywag started to run as the Peacekeeper hovercar reoriented itself and opened fire on the security-bots before they had a chance to attack Gunner, mowing them down with its powerful cannons.
“Follow him!” Scallywag heard Gunner yelling at the car. “KILL HIM!”
Scallywag sprinted as fast as he could, glancing at the hovercar as it sped up behind him. It began firing its cannons, and Scallywag dove into the middle of the street as the car sped by overhead, red needles of plasma striking all around him. Scallywag climbed back to his feet and kept running toward the alley to which the security-bot had directed him. The hovercar spun to its side, drifting forward as it readjusted its course to begin heading right back at him.
Scallywag made a flying leap for the alleyway just as the hovercar made another strafing run at him, the blasts once again narrowly missing as the vehicle sped by the alley’s entrance. Scallywag scrambled to his feet and ran down the alley to find nothing but a dead end. He looked around frantically, searching for a way out.
“What now!?!?” he cried, right before a bright light shined on him.
He turned to see the hovercar at the mouth of the alley, its spotlight blinding him. He could hear its cannons charging up, getting ready to fire. Just then, a passage in one of the alley’s walls opened, Heckubus Moriarty peeking his head out.
“Over here, you idiot!” said Heckubus. “Quickly!”
Scallywag dove for the opening just as the hovercar opened fire. The door to the secret passage rumbled shut as the powerful plasma blasts from the Peacekeeper cannons lit up the alley. As soon as the passage was closed, Scallywag rolled over, breathing heavily, amazed he was still alive. Heckubus loomed over him, the robot’s ocular orbs focusing and refocusing as though they were scanning him for injury.
“Robot?” Scallywag breathed in utter disbelief.
“On your feet, you dolt,” said Heckubus. “I don’t expect them to find this tunnel, but we will not wish to be here if they do.”
Heckubus began walking. Scallywag pulled himself to his feet and looked around the narrow tunnel they were in, dumbfounded. “What… what is this?” Scallywag asked.
“I have a secret network of tunnels here in the lower stratums,” Heckubus replied. “They are essential for evading the Imperial surveillance network and avoiding events such as what you just endured.”
“You have a secret network o’ tunnels?” Scallywag asked, his brain still trying to cope with everything that was going on. “How do you have secret tunnels?”
“It’s a long story,” said the robot dismissively. “For n
ow, just be thankful they’re here. Otherwise, you wouldn’t currently be alive.”
“Aye, and why did ya come ta me rescue?” asked Scallywag. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but last I saw ya, ya threatened all our lives if we ever crossed paths again.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I’m still serious about not sparing you when the robot revolution finally begins,” Heckubus said. “But at the moment, I require your assistance. My plans have recently changed, and I’m afraid they are going to necessitate the use of you and the other simpletons with whom we formerly allied ourselves with if I wish to succeed.”
“Succeed in what?”
“That’s my business,” Heckubus replied cryptically. “But for now you can tell me about everything you just discovered as we make our way back to my secret evil lair.”
Scallywag blinked. “Oy, ya have a secret lair and secret tunnels?”
“What kind of an evil genius would I be if I didn’t?” snarked the robot. “Now talk, cretin! We do not have much time.”
“Before what?”
“Before things go from bad to worse,” Heckubus replied. “Which, by my calculations, will be happening right about… now.”
Back in the alleyway of stratum one, the two Peacekeepers from the hovercar were searching for any sign of Scallywag, the spotlight from the vehicle illuminating the cluttered and filthy alley. Gunner stood by it, looking in disdain at the scorched shoulder pauldron Scallywag had hit with his pistol.
“Commander,” said one of the Peacekeepers as he emerged from the alley. “There’s no sign of a body. It’s like the pirate just disappeared.”
“He must have teleported away somehow,” grumbled Gunner.
“What are our orders?”
“Head back to the nest and try to salvage as many slythru as you can,” Gunner replied. “We won’t have much time now that the queen is dead. We’ll have to use the ones that have hatched to infect new targets quickly before they die off.”
“Right away, Commander,” the Peacekeeper replied. “And the pirate?”
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to take this matter outside our little circle,” Gunner said with a displeased look. “It’s the only way to make sure there is no rock left for him to hide under.” The Commander tapped his earpiece communicator, immediately connecting him to the dispatch of the Royal Guard. “This is Gunner,” he said. “Put an alert out to all agencies for Scallywag the Red. I want his face on every feed blasted out to every hovervehicle, shuttle, strike craft, security-bot, and Peacekeeper datapad in the city. Coordinate with the IIA and have the surveillance network on the look-out for him. Orders are to apprehend, dead or alive!”
Gunner grimaced, his face growing dark and vengeful.
“As of this moment… Scallywag the Red is officially Imperial Enemy Number One.”
Chapter 52
Alabaster eyed Jack carefully as the boy paced anxiously back and forth about his office, more agitated than the Chief had ever seen him before. “I’m telling you!” said Jack insistently. “She’s been infected by one of these worm things!”
Alabaster grimaced. The Earthman had been going on about whatever these worms were since Mourdock Skyborn had been attacked, and yet, Alabaster’s investigators had found no evidence they even existed. And now, after the Princess made an attempt to dissolve the Evenstar Legacy, the Earthman comes in accusing her of being possessed by one. Alabaster’s more cynical side was inclined to dismiss the accusation as the desperate attempt of a lovesick teenage boy to try to protect the fortunes of his attractive celebrity girlfriend. But then again, everything Alabaster knew about the Earthman told him Jack was no mere teenage boy. He glanced back over Anna’s medical records on the display of his desk’s console. “The Princess was subjected to every medical test in existence when she returned to the capitol,” Alabaster said. “There was no sign she’s been infected by anything. All her test results are normal.”
“I saw it!” Jack said, slapping his hands down on Alabaster’s desk. “Sticking right out the back of her neck! Just like all the others!”
“Jack, I’ve recently seen the Princess herself, in person,” Alabaster replied. “There’s clearly nothing sticking out the back of her neck, particularly a hissing worm.”
“That’s because it’s INVISIBLE!”
“If it’s invisible, how can you see it?”
“The same way I can mentally fly a spaceship, see things in slow motion, jump off the top of supertowers, and kick the butts of Deathlord Supremes,” said Jack. “Brain magic!”
Alabaster raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t give me that look, I know how it sounds!” said Jack with frustration. “I got shot full of energy from a Great Seal, okay? Who knows what that did to me? All I know is, these worm things are real! Don’t you see? They’re how Anna is connected to those assassins! Whatever these worms are, they seem to be able to control the actions of whomever they’re attached to. It explains why the Evenstars’ trusted guards turned on them and why Anna has been behaving like a maniac lately! We have to do something about it!”
“What would you have me do?” asked Alabaster. “If what you say is true, and the very head of our government is secretly compromised by invisible alien symbiots, how do you expect me to combat it? Stage a coup? Arrest the Princess and Director Casgor based solely on your accusation with no other proof to back it up? Because if I do that, I guarantee you, within seconds the Skyborns and their allies will have every Alpha Force squadron and soldier fit to wield a weapon descend upon this planet to liberate them. And they’ll throw you and me into the Nexus so fast, they won’t even have time to get the phrase ‘die, traitors’ out of their mouths.”
“But… but… you’re the Chief of Imperial Intelligence!” said Jack. “There’s got to be something you can do!”
“Not when it comes to Legacy Prime,” Alabaster said solemnly. “And certainly not when there is no evidence to assist me in doing so. My role is to protect the Empire from its enemies, but I am powerless to protect it from those who run it. At the end of the day, they are my masters – Casgor, and the Princess. If I attempt to rise up against them, they will simply strike me down and replace me with a more willing crony.”
“So you’re telling me you’d rather hold on to your stupid job than do what’s right?” asked Jack angrily.
“I’m telling you I prefer to play things smart rather than reckless,” Alabaster replied. “It’s impossible to win a game if you’re taken away from the board before it is over.”
“Yeah, well I hate to break it to ya, Chief,” said Jack. “But from what I’ve seen so far, you really SUCK at this game!” Jack turned and began marching for the door.
“Where are you going?” Alabaster inquired.
“To find someone who actually will help me,” said Jack as he stormed out.
Alabaster leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands, mulling over the information Jack had brought to him. I initially chose to bring the Earthman into my confidence because he was truly loyal to the Princess, he thought. He has no reason to lie. If he believes she’s been compromised by whatever these worms are, I should believe him. The only real question is, what’s to be done about it?
Alabaster frowned. He knew he was in a difficult position. If he were simply going up against Casgor, he might have a few options available to him. But the Princess was an entirely different story. She not only had the Skyborns supporting her, but she also had loyalists from all corners of the universe, not the least of which were the Starkeepers and the myriad of soldiers at their disposal. However, beyond that, she was the last surviving member of Legacy Prime. How could he justify it to himself if he were forced to harm her in some way in order to remove the threat she now presented?
I feel as though I’m losing this game, he thought bitterly, and I fear I do not know how to turn its tide.
On the level of the Royal Tower beneath the Palace floors, Paragon Hasatan answered the door to Mourdock’s quarte
rs. “Earthman Finnegan,” he said pleasantly. “What brings you by?”
“I need to speak to Mourdock,” Jack said. “It’s kinda urgent.”
“Mourdock is in his room,” Hasatan said, standing aside. “Please. Come in.”
Jack wasted no time entering the apartment. He didn’t get very far before he noticed a number of robo-servants shuffling about, packing up items. Both Wilvelm and Fredreek were overseeing the collection of the apartment’s belongings. They scowled when they saw Jack.
“What’s going on?” Jack asked. “Are you guys going somewhere?”
“Yeah, back to the Rim,” Wilvelm said. “Didn’t you hear? A Deathlord strike fleet hit the Gammamead colony today. Laid it completely to waist. No survivors.”
“Oh, no…” said Jack, horrified at the news.
“It looks like they’re cutting a path right along the frontier, aiming to strike at every colony and settlement we have out there,” Fredreek said. “We’re heading to the Rim immediately to mount a defense to try and drive them back before thousands of other people die.”
“Sure is lucky we still have use of Lord Gebhard’s fleet,” mentioned Wilvelm. “If the Evenstars had their way, every ship in the Empire would be in uncharted space by now supposedly hunting for the Deathlord’s homeworld while the Skyborn holdings got dismantled bit by bit.”
“Oh, wait,” said Fredreek. “We forgot… you’re all for that, aren’t you, Hero?”
“Not in the least,” Jack said, meeting Wilvelm’s and Fredreek’s contentious gaze. “What I’m for is defeating the Deathlords once and for all so no one else has to die.”
“You do know that offensive measure was just an excuse Eudox Evenstar concocted to destroy Mourdock’s Legacy, don’t you?” Wilvelm said. “It was never about fighting the Deathlords. All the votes in the Council of Elders the Rim colonies give to Lord Gebhard make him too powerful, and Mourdock is too good at defending those colonies with his father’s ships. This measure was just an under-handed way of leaving those settlements vulnerable so Legacy Skyborn could lose them to either Deathlords or rebellion.”
Earthman Jack vs. The Secret Army (Earthman Jack Space Saga Book 2) Page 59
