Gronko had his heavy weapon drawn but something told Charley that drawing her blaster was pointless. Her suspicions proved to be correct. The party wandered into a large, high-ceilinged chamber full of men in Silent Runner power armor. They had been arranged in a semi-circle and all of them had their plasma blasters trained on the pirates. Charley’s heart sank - she counted eighteen of them. And that was probably only half of the bandit garrison stationed here. A man stepped forward with sandy hair and an arrogant bearing. His power armor hissed and purred as he moved. Power armor was heavier and more cumbersome than light armor, but it could withstand most light to medium firearms. It could even withstand some heavy weapons and explosives.
“My name is Holger,” said the bandit leader. “I thank you for delivering yourselves to me on a silver platter.” Holger chuckled, an ominously light sound.
“You would have heard the Imperial transmission from Emperor Galactus,” Harry said urgently. “We’ve got to work together, Holger. Pirates and bandits alike.”
Charley knew Harry didn’t mean a word he said. And so did Holger’s bandits, judging from their derisive smirks.
“Save your breath, old man,” Holger said. “The Silent Runners may have new enemies, but you’re still one of the old. Just for the record, we’re gonna fuck you up before we kill you. We’ve lost too many of our comrades to let you off easily.”
The anger in his voice was unmistakable, and Charley could almost understand. Her crew had wrought havoc on their smuggling operations on Bonesse, leaving a trail of corpses and destruction in their wake. She had no love for the Silent Runners, but she could understand their motive for revenge. It was a dog-eat-dog galaxy, and they were only human after all.
She broke out into a sweat as she contemplated the kind of torture she would now be subjected to. Physical abuse was a given. Rape was definitely on the cards. It was the mental torture that worried her the most. She tried to shake her head free of such thoughts as Holger walked towards her.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” the bandit leader said to Charley, his lips close to her ear. “I know about you, sweetheart. I’ve heard you have plans to be some kind of pirate queen. And you still might. Without arms and legs.”
The other bandits laughed mercilessly. The Silent Runners were well known for removing the limbs from their enemies.
“Stop yer yappin’ and get down to business,” Gronko growled unexpectedly. “The girl doesn’t want to hear your pathetic whine.”
Holger looked at the renki with fire in his eyes. He nodded to his bandits.
A wooden block was placed before the pirates. Gronko was grabbed by two Silent Runners and made to place his forearm on the block.
Holger drew a strange, elongated object. With a flourish of his arm an energized blade extended from it. Charley had heard of those weapons but thought they were a myth. It was a vibro-blade. Harry’s eyes had widened too, and it took a lot to surprise a pirate of his experience.
“You’re wondering where I got this?” Holger asked, swishing the magenta blade theatrically. “Let’s just say I convinced a salukar general to show me his family heirloom.”
Charley couldn’t take her eyes from the blade - it was a beautiful, mesmerizing weapon.
“This, my friends, is for the Silent Runners,” Holger said simply. With that he swung the blade down almost casually. The weapon sliced through Gronko’s armor and neatly left his forearm on the block. The renki howled and examined his stump with intense anguish.
“Enough!” Charley screamed, tears in her eyes. “I’m the one you need.”
Holger looked at her with malicious eyes. “Oh, I have no doubt about that.”
“Not if I can help it,” said a strange voice behind all of them.
There was single figure standing in the docking tube. He’d approached so quietly no one had noticed him. The first thing Charley noticed was that he was completely naked. The next thing she noticed was the blue tinge to his skin. The last thing she noticed was that it was Vinnie Teks. She felt like vomiting as the man who had become so familiar to her stood there with a blank, alien expression. His skin was lined with cracks that seemed to glow with some kind of underlying energy. This new incarnation of Vinnie frightened her to the core. What on earth had happened to him?
“Vin,” Harry said in a croaky voice. “Where have you been, son?”
“Talking to a God,” Vinnie sneered. “I was never in any danger. I was simply chosen.”
“Chosen to do what?” Charley asked in a faint voice.
“To walk the path,” came the simple reply, as if Charley should’ve known the answer. “I’m here to ensure you live your life, Charley Silverton.”
Charley blinked. What did all this mean? Why was Vinnie talking like that? It was like something had scooped him out of his body and replaced him somehow. And yet there was a certain intensity that he’d always had. If Vinnie was in there somewhere, he was changed forever.
“Boys, take him down,” Holger murmured, fear in his eyes. “Now!”
The next few seconds were a blur. Charley felt herself being dragged away by Harry. He was only trying to keep her clear from the line of fire, but she insisted on scrambling across to Gronko and hauling the big alien along with them. The renki nursed his grievous injury and was looked murderously at the assembled bandits. Enemies who had their hands full with a new, unexpected enemy. They poured all their ammo and plasma into Vinnie, who simply stood there with a strange, bemused expression. None of the bandits’ weaponry was damaging Vinnie at all. In retaliation the altered Vinnie held out an arm with the heel of his hand thrust forward. A beam of blinding gold light erupted from his hand and soared over the bandits’ heads. Charley watched in fascinated horror as the beam split the roof open and brutally melted the chrome. The corner of the chamber quickly became a gaping hole of dripping slag.
The whole bandit squadron stared at Vinnie, jaws dropping. His next attack was aimed squarely at them. Vinnie’s beam pierced their ranks, obliterating several bandits in one go. The hot rush of energy singed Charley’s eyebrows and knocked her to the ground. When she looked up there was no sign at all of the dead bandits, just the faint smell of ozone. The dead had been so completely atomized it was difficult to believe they had been standing there there at all.
“Form ranks!” yelled Holger. “Bring in the heavy mech -”
Holger disappeared in a golden beam of light. The entire wall behind him turned into white hot slag. The facility’s outer shield was the only life-preserving layer between the surviving humans and the vacuum of space. Charley pulled Gronko to his feet and helped him toward the docking tube. She locked eyes with Vinnie, who was now going to town on the facility. Soon it would be a twisted scrapyard of unrecognizable metal. Every last bandit had now been vaporized. Charley had never seen such devastating power and she doubted she ever would again.
“Are you coming with us?” Charley said hopefully. Even though Vinnie scared the living daylights out of her she desperately wanted to know that she hadn’t lost the old Vin, that he was still in there somewhere.
“I loved you, you know,” said Vinnie, his face softening. It sounded strange to hear those words coming from someone who had been altered so much. Charley bit back tears, not quite knowing what to say. All she felt was sadness and remorse.
“Please,” she croaked. “Come with us. You’re still a pirate.”
Vinnie’s grin split his alien face. “Not any more. Like I said, I have my own path. But I wanted you to live and my Master agreed.”
“I don’t understand,” stammered Charley. “Is there some kind of grand plan here that I’m not aware of? What happened with that thing in the lake?”
Vinnie’s eyes glittered with ancient knowledge. It both scared and intimidated her.
“We’ll talk about it one day,” he said. “I promise, Charley. Goodbye.”
Vinnie walked further into the facility like a man talking a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. Charl
ey knew he wasn’t going to leave anyone alive. She suddenly wanted to be as far away as possible from Vinnie Teks’s dark power.
“Let’s go,” she said firmly. Harry helped her with Gronko as they stumbled down the docking tube. Vanessa, white with shock, was waiting for them at the airlock. They entered and sealed the hatch behind them. Harry took the pilot’s chair and convinced the space station’s AI that they should be released immediately due to the emergency. The dock brake was released and the fire bird was soon soaring across the face of Bonesse. Charley hung around long enough to ensure that Harry could now navigate to the waypoint where their damaged ship was located. She helped Vanessa bring the stricken Gronko to the galley where they both administered cleaning salve and support bandages. The fire bird didn’t have a med bay as such but was replete with decent medical supplies. Charley’s treatment was bound to be like fire on the wound but Gronko bit back his pain admirably. He really was a stoic, strong individual. Charley finished her treatment with a strong sedative that would subdue the renki for hours. She watched with sadness as the beast laid his heavy gun on the dining table and consider the bandaged stump that was his right arm. His shooting arm. Within minutes the big alien had retired to his bedroom for a long, much-needed sleep.
Charley slumped the navigation chair with a loud sigh.
“Crash site ETA is fifteen minutes,” Harry reported.
Charley smiled and laid a hand on the old pirate’s shoulder. She felt hands at her own back - it was Vanessa, massaging the tension from her shoulder blades.
“That feels nice,” Charley said, closing her eyes. “I command you to never stop.”
Vanessa chuckled, settling into her work. She was gifted in the healing arts that was for sure. After a few minutes she insisted that Vanessa sit down and relax. The firebird broke orbit and soon they were within sight of the jungle that concealed the Surprise. After everything that’d happened, Charley was desperate to get back to her ship. Repair something important to her rather than break it forever. Harry took the firebird close to the canopy as the dawn cast pink light over the emerald vegetation.
20
An alarm pinged when the firebird was directly over the crash site. This was the tricky part. Luckily they had a vessel that could hover. The firebird lowered itself carefully through the trees and settled itself amongst the soft undergrowth. From the scanners Charley could see the Surprise exactly where they’d left it. The forest was alive with the usual morning chatter of animals - there were no enemies to be seen. Charley suspected the local Silent Runner ranks had been severely decimated by Vinnie’s attack on the space station. Glad to be home, Charley clambered from the firebird and made her way back to Surprise. The top hatch was covered with a few enterprising creepers but had suffered no further damage. They all climbed through to the cockpit to confirm that everything was OK.
Charley took one look her friends and commanded both of them to get some sleep. Vanessa retreated to her room with a strange look at Charley and Harry. Thinking nothing of it, Charley led Harry to her bedroom and unzipped her suit. Harry’s eyes regarded her hungrily but the reality was that both of them were too exhausted to do anything but sleep like the dead.
Charley woke to the sound of monkeys chittering on the roof of the Surprise. It was time to get to work. She tried to shove the bizarre memory of the previous night from her mind as she worked with Harry and Vanessa to transfer the ship parts they needed from the fire bird. Harry claimed to be an ordinary mechanic but he seemed to know the basic systems and function of vessels like the Surprise. It was clearly important for a pirate to make running repairs to her ship and Charley resolved to look over Harry’s shoulder as often as she could. It took most of the day just to restore smooth power distribution to the vessel but Charley was glad to simply spend some positive time with her crew mates instead of running for her life. The pirates managed to get a few hours sleep that night, but it was more to stop them from falling over than anything else. By noon on the second day Harry had patched most vital systems and the Surprise was ready for launch. It wasn’t ready for battle action of any kind, but it would get them to a repair facility if they were lucky.
Gronko finally woke from a long, chemically induced slumber. The big alien didn’t want to talk about his arm but was a little brighter than he was before. Perhaps even a little less scary. Charley insisted that he refrain from trying to help them prepare for launch. The big renki strapped himself in behind Charley as Harry keyed a launch sequence. Vanessa sat behind the old pirate, her huge brown eyes alive with expectation.
The Surprise lifted through the trees with a sickly whine instead of a forceful roar.
“The propulsion manifold has been bypassed,” explained Harry. “We need to get to a proper garage and fast.”
A thought occurred to Charley. “Fuck! We forgot FIGJAM!”
If she wasn’t so tired she might’ve laughed. The poor PalBot was probably still waiting back at the airfield tarmac. Harry nodded as the Surprise rose above the treeline and headed north. There was no question about retrieving the small droid - FIGJAM had proven himself invaluable and was part of the team, even if he didn’t feel like one.
The trip to the airfield was mercifully brief. The Surprise packed a lot more acceleration than the firebirds.
Charley was worried the Silent Runners may have sent reinforcements to the airfield, but the facility was as deserted as they had left it. FIGJAM was found rolling on his own at the northern end of the runway. Charley retrieved him warily, wondering what mood he might greet them with.
“I’m sorry, FJ,” Charley said. “In the heat of battle a woman can forget the important things.”
“I’m not fuckin’ surprised you retards left me here to die,” FIGJAM announced. “I mean, I don’t contribute. All I did was let you in to the most heavily guarded airfield on Bonesse. Nothing at all when you think about it.”
“All right, all right, don’t lay it on,” Charley said with a laugh. “I’m just glad you’re back.”
“What makes you think I want to be back?” FIGJAM asked while Charley slotted him into her utility belt. “If you didn’t have such majestic hooters I might just keep rollin’ down that tarmac.”
“Business as usual, then,” said Charley with a smile. It was good to be distracted by her worried thoughts. Harry had them up and away in no time. The Surprise finally broke orbit and gained separation from the serene green planet. The midnight blue velvet of space enveloped them. Charley looked across at Harry as he set the craft to automatic pilot.
“I’ve done some research on MinCorp,” Harry said. “There’s an office in the next system, on Deep Blue.”
“Suits me,” Charley said tiredly. “We should go see the Guildmasters too.”
“Of course, lass,” Harry said. “We should definitely upgrade our rankings.”
“And for the love of all the gods, dead and alive, book us a penthouse suite at the fanciest hotel. Even if it’s only for a few days.”
Harry caught Charley’s look and grinned.
Once the Surprise had achieved enough separation from Bonesse, Harry keyed in a warp sequence and settled in for a long sleep with Charley. Their scanners reported normal traffic in all the trade lanes - there was no sign of bandit activity. Whatever Vinnie had done to the Silent Runners’ space station, it had quietened the bandits so much that Charley wondered if they had abandoned the entire sector. If she had more ships and personnel the Bonesse system would be ripe for the taking. So it was with mixed emotions that she prepared to leave the system. At least she still had the Surprise, and there was always the delicious prospect of selling their mining haul to MinCorp. And the bonus? She had Harry Teks. Despite his advancing age, the pirate was one hell of a man and one hell of a lover. She couldn’t wait for some recreational time on Deep Blue.
Just as Charley was about to self-administer the drugs that would see her through the trip to Deep Blue, there was a knock at her bedroom door. It was Gronko, cr
adling his damaged arm like it was an infant.
“You asked me why I was at the casino on Mina IV to kill Fallon,” he said shortly. “It’s because I’m a dreamer. A romantic.”
Charley looked at Harry, who was lying next to her. What the hell was the renki saying?
“My people live on Astar VI, as you know. There’s a skin fungus there that’s slowly killing everyone. Man, woman and child. There’s no stopping it. We don’t make a big deal about it. We don’t want any help. But I was sent to try to weaken the bandit trade routes. We knew there were planets on the Beluga Run that could potentially be settled.”
Once Charley had digested what the renki was saying, she immediately thought of Bonesse. So, it seemed, had Gronko.
“I’ve got my eyes on that green planet,” he confided. “It’s sparsely populated and the climate suits us Renki. I’ve already delivered a full report to my people. I wish to travel with you until a colonization ship is sent. I just thought you should know.”
Charley blinked. “Thanks, Gronko. You’re welcome to stay as a pirate.”
The big alien snorted. “As you wish.” And with that Gronko withdrew.
“What do you make of that?” Charley asked Harry sleepily.
“Ask me another time,” Harry said with his eyes shut.
Deep Blue was an ocean planet like Mina IV, but where that planet was tropical and contained island chains, Deep Blue was stormy and cold. The only habitation, also called Deep Blue, was a trading center near the north pole. It had been set up as a trade depot for the ghost krill, which was farmed in large numbers from the surrounding ocean. The trade was so lucrative that the facility, built by the Deep Blue Company, was both modern and luxurious.
The Pirate Captain (The Space Pirate Chronicles Book 2) Page 12
