by K A Carter
“I agree,” Scud said. “We found it now let’s leave it be.
“Well then wait here,” Jericho started. He stepped to the side of it close to its first step.
Anda took point walking down the steps and flicked her helmet light on. Jericho switched his on. Just before taking a step he turned and said. “If were not back in in ten minutes, regroup and come look for us. I mean it.” Jericho eyes were a solid dark brown glare of seriousness. “I don’t want to be left here.”
Scud nodded and took a seat at one of the large stones.
“You guys ain’t havin’ all the fun,” Morris said as he jetted past Jericho.
The steps lead to empty tiers that over looked baron darkness. No lights in the distance nothing to signify that someone was awaited them further ahead. The steps continued.
Morris hadn’t shown any signs of mourning. At least not by Jericho’s standards. It didn’t make sense. Not after losing a brother.
Jericho had attempted to say the words multiple times but could only conjure opening his mouth and closing it. It truth, he didn’t really know what to say. It didn’t help that Morris was the quiet one between his brothers. Four years with him serving as muscle for a clunky salvage ship didn’t prove to grow enough of a relationship between them.
“Morris,” Jericho started, “I wanted to say – “
“Don’t bother,” Morris said quickly. “I knew someday another one of us was goin’.” His tone was unfeeling as it typically was.
“Morris,” Jericho said again. “I know it hurts. I’ve been in your shoes.”
“Lose one brother, whole galaxy goes to shit, but you make do. Lose two? universe is telling you something.”
“Telling you what?”
The steps finally edged off after nearly a kilometer down. More open cavern spread wider and darker.
“I don’t know, haven’t figured that out yet. You know when we first got off Ganymede, it was a total mind twist. Seeing the planet fade out into the distance and then disappear. Puts shit into perspective. Everything is small. So, I gotta hold on to this. The Crew, and whatever it is we do.”
Jericho nodded as though Morris were in front of him and could see it, following it with. “I get it. It’s where I’m at too. You guys are all I have.”
“Yeah so, don’t worry Cap. Let’s just get everyone home. Let’s do it for Luke, ya know.”
Jericho couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Morris was hard to read and although he was speaking, a little part of him believed what he was hearing could not be true. But it wasn’t the time nor place to probe. First thing was first. Get home.
As the caverns leveled out, containers made a path to a what looked to be housing units stacked on top of one another. No signs of anyone. Jericho lead as the three followed him to an opening that spanned nearly forty kilometers out and wide.
“Looks like whoever was running this place is gone,” said Morris. He aimed down his sights toward the further reaches, most of the space encompassing abandoned marketplaces constructed using hollowed out units molded together.
“We can’t be sure of that. Morris take the right, Anda circle the left. Zen on me. We’ll meet up at the town edge. Jericho pushed forward, scattered materials and waste painted the paved walkway. He flung his right hand over his shoulder and aimed left holding his trusty blaster. The com static churn as he tested it, made certain that it was working.
The ghost town had remnant of what was once a fledgling subterranean colony. Jericho panned left and right. Store fronts had used units as storage and from the looks of it all of the inventory had been burned and destroyed yet there was no smoke. Whatever had happened had come and gone.
The poor quality of the surroundings was a precursor for a corporate push for colonization. It was always a sloppy transition. For anyone, the generous stipends could attract the poorest of civilians to sign up only to be disappointed when the odds turned against them. A solid archetype of the Kuiper Belt and further reaches of the solar system.
Whatever was done here. Whatever it was that happened to these people was unwarranted. On sides of the russet rock were cannon craters. None of them larger than that of a heavy burst.
“Are you guys seeing these holes?” Jericho asked over the com. The town continued on to his surprise and the damage worsened.
“Yup,” said Morris
“Yeah I see it,” said Anda soon after.
“Shit, got some bodies over here Cap.” Morris’ voice was calm given what he had just said.
Jericho and Zen joined up with the other two using the locators on their suits. He came up to Morris standing over a row of bodies some gripping heavy blasters. Behind them more faced flat on the ground. It was as though everyone had been running from something. The first thing that popped into his mind was that one of the odd beasts from the lower terrain managed to wander pass the defenses. There weren’t many of those he could see anyway.
“One of the monsters must’ve got in.” Anda said. She hovered over the closest lifeless bodies.
“Don’t think so,” Morris said. “These wounds aren’t bites.” He pointed to one of the poor colonists that had clearly been fighting, firing back with a low-grade plasma blaster. Her wounds were cauterized and black.
Jericho moved further and checked some of the other bodies and found an earthshaking truth. Something that told him their problems were long from done and that going home was in jeopardy.
It was a familiar looking staff, one with pointed edges and an encrusted gem that pulsed a blue vibrancy.
“Ixorians,” Jericho said, slightly gritting in the act.. “Anda call into the ship. Make sure everyone is alright.”
She pressed against the com controller on her wrist and switched channels to pick up the ship. “Icarus come in,” Anda said. “Icarus come in,”
There was no response but the low-level feedback. Anda adjusted the focal range and attempted to contact Scud and Zen. “Scud come in, can you read me?”
It took a moment, “I read you, but you’re going in and out.”
“Scud,” she tried again.
Jericho looked back the way they came. A path back was visible shrouded in a clear dimness.
“Cap,” Morris’ voice said from behind him. Jericho turned and look at his crewmate and then outward dark to where he was staring. There he was, a small battalion marching in unison behind him. Zael stood ominously. It was as though he’d been waiting for them. Glaring from the shadows of the unlit darkness.
“Alfred Jericho,” Zael said in his crackly voice. His stick apparition of a body walked slowly toward them. “You misunderstand my nature when . There is no escape from me.”
Jericho gaged the distance between them and decided it had to be enough to make a run for the exit. The four of them backed away waiting on que to run or fight. “Back to the ship right now!”
The four of them darted back toward the opening that lead back up. blue bolts of light streamed past them.
Morris returned fire from the hip. He didn’t lose any speed in doing so and it compelled the others to do the same. The path up was cleared aside from the warehouse like obstructions that continued on the edges back towards the exit.
Jericho pushed his feet in front of him as fast as the suit would let him. Through the muffled stride he could only go so quickly without the possibility of falling in the process. Or so it felt from the heaviness that sprouted on top of his feet. The suit was surprisingly flexible and loosened his stiffness to the point that he felt his speed pick up and the ground beneath him feel less constricting.
The elevation of the path back became the hindrance. It made it hard to shoot back. Jericho let his trusty life partner ahead of him and slowed to fire more shots down. Morris never stopped and kept himself moving seamlessly.
“Keep moving, exits up ahead,” shouted Anda on the coms. The rate of fire from the Ixorian brutes was thick and inaccurate. The staffs that their soldiers used whizzed through the gain
ing brightness of the opening. Two shadows appeared. At full sprint, Jericho could see the ends of the blasters aimed at him and the slow rise of a red plasma shot firing toward him. It grazed past him downward, the familiar sound of the blaster rung emphatically.
“Cap’n” Scud said, he’d stood at the entrance firing down behind them. Zen posting herself closer to the edge to duck behind cover. “Shit just follows you everywhere don’t it?”
Chapter 34: Nario
The orbit around the Ganymede city of Canderon’s Hope was the only consultation the otherwise lifeless satellite could offer this side of it. Compared to the other two cities that inhabited the moon, the large lunar settlement mirrored a light show in a bubble. The atmospheric dome that transparently shadowed over the array of colors was as close as Nario could get to the casino grandeur that enveloped the Reid District back on Mars.
Nario gripped a small message playback node. He stored his most important voice recordings there. It was It was mainly compiled of messages from Corrinne he’d collected over the years. He played the last message he had received after his talk with Rhion and Corrinne. It was from his old friend. Rhion’s voice was still choppy. “The Cauldron sits on a corner in the casino district. Ask for a man named Rowland Antares. My contacts on Ganymede say he runs the mercenary group Eye of Zi. This is a long shot D.L. but he may have a way of hacking Corporate networks.e” His old friend had clearly caught a bug. He was prone to it, but being in the perpetual clean cycled atmosphere aboard federation ships, planetside life must’ve gotten to him physically. Lucky for Nario, he’d been in and out on multiple planets and the Venture, hocked full adaptive boosters.
The ship descended into Canderon’s Hope, named after Canderon Lange, the man who sacrificed himself to keep the early settler’s dome from being exposed. Due to a miscalculation in shielding in one of the botanical domes. It was his own doing, but the colonists that ended up staying felt the need to leave that out of the tale.
In some ways, this was a detour. A very necessary one. Nario hadn’t planned on trying to hack one of the most powerful companies in the solar system and even pushing outside of its space.
Rhion’s directions were adequate enough that Nario could find the building just by looking for the one that didn’t have flashy lights on every tier. Advertisements and arrows pointing to interesting gambling and game areas. Ganymede was a cesspool but so was the rest of the Jovian system. Europa was no different, and Enceladus ran similarly only with the added benefits of corporate research facilities.
Nario didn’t come alone. Lortain followed, both of them dressed appropriately in light armor like unsuspecting leaders of corporate hired agents. The idea was posed convincingly enough that the mercenary kingpin would help in espionage. For the right price he’d imagine.
“Should’a brought more men,” Lortain said. At least now he didn’t have to hide he was packing firepower. A military grade pistol sat in a thick metal cased holster on his left thigh.
“Don’t want to look like we’re, picking a fight,” Nario replied. He was carrying a small field pistol on his hip.
The outside was unsuspecting, a small crowd gathered around it and a line wrapped around a few buildings. It was a nightclub. It had to be. Nario had been to a few in his younger years. The bouncers held up meaty hands stopping guests who didn’t appear of the crowd. It wasn’t anything that he had to worry about. Rhion being the meticulous friend he was, had something that would get him in.
The two of them ignored the line. Something about blatant disregard for courtesy added to the persona Nario was trying to convey. As they approached the stocky bouncer, the fair-haired guard held up a hand. He was missing a half of an index finger.
“Easy hotshots, lines back there,” the guard said. His black tac-suit baring its own odd stripes that clearly stated rank and his name. Whatever the rank was comparable to the federation navy, the guy was young and working for an organization of thugs that had certainly managed to carve a stake in The Brink. An organization that didn’t feel the need to answer to the corporate collective.
“I need to speak to Rowland Antares.”
The man shrugged and grinned ironically. “Ha! Well why didn’t you just say so.” And paused. “Like I said back of the line.”
Nario looked at Lortain for a moment and back at the guard.
“Echo, the grace of the galaxy,” Nario said, unsure if he was saying it right. He had no clue about the context but hoped that he didn’t need that information in order to properly use the code phrase.
The guard said nothing. He looked at them both and waived another from behind him. “Scan them, run the whole gambit,”
The helmeted guard tapped at a small palm node the size of a small data tablet. It blinked and beeped until a bar turned green on the screen.
“They’re clean,” he said.
“Alright. You can keep your sidearms, but no funny shit. Can’t believe you would come all this way for trouble.”
“All this way?” Nario asked.
“Yeah, you’re the guys about the blue steam shipments. From Ceres right? Head in, far end of the club. Penthouse is at the top of the stairs.”
Blue steam, the man had said. A drug most likely. If that was one of the legs of the merc group, then their wealth was secured. For all he knew, there were plenty of belt groups between The Brink and the inner planets that were smuggling illegal psychedelics into inner planets.
With the formation of a new joint government so many years ago. Drugs were a thing of the past unless medically ordained. Sure, some people got away with doing certain things behind closed doors but with the eyes of investigative agencies like the ones on Mars and Earth, you were only getting so much past trade blocks.
The two of them entered, the club packed to its edges with the populous of the moon. Reckless twenty somethings danced half naked with their pupils engulfing their irises. Guards perched at corners that intersected the bars and the dance floor. Tiers above held the VIP percentage away from the musky lower-class patrons. It was two different worlds in one-night club.
Nario pushed through the crowds, all of them dancing to the electronic pulses that raced their hearts to energizing levels coherent with their most primal desires. It was down to what made their blood pump. The jarring instincts to grab any one person off the dance floor and push their lips into your own.
These were the people all rejected from society. All the people that once inhabited the inner planets side by side with those that sought to push into the reaches of what humankind could do.
It was no wonder that a divide had occurred. Somewhere in the last century the priorities became opposing. The Cooperative Planet Federation and the planets governed by it put in place laws that targeted certain masses accordingly. But that didn’t bother Nario. What did was the lack of savoir-faire. Although these people differed, they were humans alike and they had their peace here. It didn’t mean that once real threats revealed themselves that those same differences couldn’t be excised.
Nario felt a guilt for them. This was what they had, and nothing more. By day many of them would likely return to their rustic apartments and acquisitioned housing projects. Only to leave for work at a casino or petty street crime. The only peace of solace was opportunities working for people like whom he was soon to meet. Forerunners of operations that ran parallel to the CPF only on different rules.
Nario was eager to meet the man that rivaled both factions.
The short staircase lead up to a dual door atop of it that slid open to a penthouse floor. Women laid on a large bed on the far right. It came equipped with its own bar, lounge, and guard service of course.
Nario took a seat on the couch that faced away from the door. Two armed men at both walls aside them. Lortain jerked his head around and took note of everything. The ceiling hung high away from them, almost to the length of the building.
It was a grandiose little palace that had been built. All in the confines of the largest
bubble.
Nario didn’t know much about the Jovian system but he knew enough to discern shear power and money from gloating. This wasn’t gloating, he’d seen that. Even on federal planets. Earth, Mars, even further inward. Resources had been poured into making the inner planets habitable, marketable. Once Earth peaked at optimal capacity and then some, it seemed like the unit expenses were well worth the prolonging of the species. All of it was really that dire. Or so the history books would teach.
He could have guessed that the Brink had a different history that was told. One that would no doubt paint the federation as a ghastly authoritarian regime in which the corporations so courageously disobeyed.
Nario didn’t have a side to pick at this point. Not with what he knew was on the horizon. Something that would likely destroy them all alike.
“I don’t like this Cap,” Lortain said in a whisper.
Nario patted his shoulder silently.
A naked woman approached wearing an open white silk robe. She had come from the rooms in the back. She stopped at the bar and grabbed three glasses and poured a brown mixture into the three of them and placed them on a tray.
The bronze skinned woman walked confidently toward them, the robe swung gracefully in her stride. She stood unnervingly close to Nario placing the tray on the glass table in front of them.
Nario grabbed for the two of them and handed one to Lortain and took a sip, he figured Antares was watching, assessing how the meeting would go by analyzing the small actions Nario couldn’t help to convey. Body language.
“Thank you,” Nario said.
Lortain nodded taking a sip.
“Will Mr. Antares be joining us soon?” he continued.
The woman smiled with her teeth and slid a black hair tie that was hanging around her wrist and wrapped her hair into a long bun.
She slowly creaked her neck to the right, a cracking of air pockets in between the joints making a noticeable noise. Afterwards she took a deep breath and grabbed the last glass and sat down on the couch opposite of them. She took a big gulp of the brown liquid and crossed her legs.
