“Bones.” I said suddenly, my attention riveted. His head snapped up.
“How'd you know?” He asked in shock.
“Just had a feeling.” Diamond nodded.
“Yeah. I dug around there enough and found a finger bone. A human finger bone. I just could not believe it. He was one of them! An alien!”
“He's of the race called the Glia. They are the race of Erautians who have wings. I also think that they are primarily carnivorous.” He seemed to blanch at this statement.
“So I was right about what he did to her then,” he said quietly.
“There's a growing trade on Mars of human body parts. Bones, especially. I learned that on my first trip there. Maybe we're processed as food as well by some of these beings.” Even through the holographic image I could see Diamond visibly shutter at the thought.
“At first I thought there was something sinister about him. At that point I knew! Sadly, I was young and stupid. I had a big mouth and I had it around my friends on base that I thought that ghoulish bastard was behind Private Saunder's death. For some reason I didn't think it would get back to him. I pointed out to the military police that I'd found the remains of a body hidden in a field beyond one of the barracks on Halloween night.”
“They found nothing there I'll bet.”
“Oh no. That was the strange part. They did indeed find the rest of the remains. Only about five or six bones, all human. Who it was for sure I never found out. It was never revealed. If anything, they are masters at hiding the truth when it doesn't make them look good. Like every other branch of government.”
“Or corporation. So no one came looking for this woman? What about her family?”
“At first they claimed she went AWOL. It wasn't a stretch because she had a tendency to have run -ins with some of the officers like I did. She had a bit of a rebellious nature. But that's what they told her family. Then, the story on base was that she'd died in an accident. Even though it got around to everyone on base that this had nothing to do with what happened. To this day I'm sure those were her remains but information about it came to a halt and people feared to ask questions or confront the investigators with facts. Her family never believed the official story and how could they? Her body was never presented to them for identification. After that went down, he had it in for me, big time. Things got real ugly for me and I went AWOL for a while. Not proud of that but I was afraid for my life and the real enemy was there among us. I knew most people wouldn't believe me. The ones that did were only privates like me. They had no authority or clout and wouldn't stick up for me. They were afraid too.”
“I can understand why you did what you did. Did you tell anyone what you saw that night?” He shook his head.
“Of course not! Who would have believed me? Me, telling people that one of the sergeants is an alien? Come on, man! I ran! Anyway, they found me hiding out at a girlfriend's house and put me in prison where they harassed me to no end. I wanted to die. I knew I'd let my family down. They were humiliated when they found out about what happened. On base they had me do things like clean the mess hall and the bathrooms and then they would say that I didn't clean them sufficiently up to standard and that I had to clean them all over again before six o'clock in the evening. Of course, I would never get it done again by that time and so that led to extra time spent in jail where every so often I was beaten to a pulp. Just for fun. I just wanted to die. I knew I was going down at that time. They did all kinds of things to harass me. Finally through a lawyer, I was allowed to be dishonorably discharged from the Air Force. I went off the grid after that, if such a thing can really happen on Earth. I joined Firewake for a few years and then I got into smuggling.” I felt a flood of empathy for the guy. His experience was far worse than my own troubles at work. I knew what it meant to be thought of as a pariah, when people were willing to listen to the lies told about you but no one wanted to hear your side of the story. When you only tried to reveal a dangerous and hidden truth and you received derision and punishment for your trouble. We were in this together.
“I have an idea what it's like. Trust me on that one,” I said.
“The odd thing is, The Boss seemed to know how to find us.”
“That is interesting. So we have them even in our armed forces then?”
“Yes. God knows what they're doing, how many of them there are, worming their way through the world.”
“I see it this way. We can't do anything about them yet there, but we can cut off their head out here. After all, their real power base lies on Europa and perhaps beyond. They can't hide in plain sight out here.” I paused trying to find a way to word what I was about to say. “They have a vast fleet Diamond, headed this way. It will be many decades before they reach here but if the technology they're trying to build gets built, the rest of them will get here and that will be the end of humanity.” His face was drawn. It was the first time I saw something close to fear in him.
“What do they plan to do?”
“Their world is dying. Eraut is the name of it. A world similar to our own. So they want Earth and most of them want us gone. Yet, we do have allies among them.”
“I hate them.”
“Well, hold up there. Don't indulge your hate for all of them. Genevieve works with a team of them and they are like her brothers. In fact, the majority of the aliens who landed on Mars are not looking to colonize Earth and destroy us. In fact, they want independence from those that are coming.”
“I don't understand.”
“The ones who want to take over Earth and colonize it are loyalists. The ones on Mars, same species mind you, are rebels who just want to carve out their own existence there. They often work with humans and cooperate with us to stop the loyalists. One of them, named Sworda, is my friend. Not all of them are the enemy. The rebels staunchly oppose the loyalists.”
“What do you mean? How do you know you can really trust them?”
“Well, I guess in the same way you know which smugglers you can work with and those you can't really trust.”
“There are very few I would ever trust.”
“Let me put it this way. Their opinions and ideas are just as complex and varied as our own. These people escaped a near totalitarian government, Diamond. Many of them call themselves separatists. They separated themselves from the government, which is called The Realm of Nine Princes.
“The Realm of Nine Princes? That sounds. . .archaic.”
“I know. But that's what we're all going to have to deal with. They will too. It's far more complex than I had imagined when I first learned about their plight.” I said. Diamond leaned over in his chair and cupped his hands under his chin.
“Hmm,” he said. “I don't know Bob.”
“The Boss is taking care of things on Earthside when it comes to the alien spies, the enemy aliens. He's well aware that things aren't right, that we have alien spies among us. Our team will eventually root them out. What we two are doing out here is cutting off their main vortice of power. What happens on Europa will determine our future Diamond. I really believe that. And I believe that The Boss will help fight that front on Earth.” I nodded. I thought I heard a series of strange sounding hailing chimes coming from the control panel in the cockpit.
“Who is that?” I asked Will.
“It's not us being hailed,” said Will.
“Oh, that's. . zzzzxygh. . .zzssshh. . . my ship,” said Diamond. I saw his hologram image get up from the lounge chair and go toward his cockpit.
“What's. . .zzzxxxxssshhtt. . . happening?” I asked him. Communications were becoming sketchy, interrupted by a lot of odd sounding snow and static.
“Ah! We're out near one of the largest smuggling bases. I sent out a secret code to call the base because we were in need of supplies, and also if there was room to dock. After all, we've got a large train coming in.”
“What? You. . .but Diamond, you didn't clear this with me!”
“Don't worry! You worry too much
Bob!” He said. I was sure he had a lopsided grin plastered on his face. “I've been out here before. Used to station my ship here quite often. Should be nothing to worry about. Besides, I don't think it's right to deliver a ship that won't operate. If what you say is true we need all of these bad boys working.”
“I was hoping we could find an engine coil replacement on Syzygy.”
“Why wait that long, though? They've got 'em here for cheap.”
“What is this place?
“It's called Gunner's Run. One of the more, ahem, respectable, smuggler's bases out here.”
“Respectable?!?”
“Stop worrying! The place also has decent security. Don't have to worry about your stuff being stolen, usually.”
“This place is safe for our ships?” I asked, doubtful.
“Sure it is! The only real problem you have to deal with out here are privateers. And so far they've kept themselves well hidden from those folks.” He paused. “To be honest, I wouldn't mind stopping to get some extra fuel for your ship and mine, along with the coil and some foodstuffs.”
“Are you crazy?”
“A little. Look, I've got a few friends out here, Bob. Who knows? We might hear some information we could use too. Lot's of stuff passes through here besides stolen and illegal goods. And they have real food out here. Aren't you tired of meal pellets and lukewarm water? I know I am.”
“Well, yeah-”
“Good! You can always count on one of the establishments on Gunner's Run to provide decent lodging, a good meal and good brew too.” Will smiled at me, looking as excited as a kid going on vacation. I don't know what you're smiling at, buddy. You're staying put right here! I scowled in suspicion at the whole thing but secretly, I had to admit that a hot, delicious meal sounded like a fantastic idea. And my own relentless curiosity about things I had no business doing and about places I had no business going to finally persuaded me to agree to a visit.
3
Will, Diamond and I performed the arduous feat of landing our train on one of the larger landing pads at the station. Myriads of worker mechs came milling around us in a flurry of furious activity to help guide and dock the train of ships.
I expected to find a rundown, poorly maintained base, a ghetto in space. My expectations were way off base, no pun intended. The entire station was busy, much like any normal space station. I'd wondered in the past who these folks were even doing business with (or preying on) out here but I learned that there were more outposts and colonies out here than most westerners were aware of, since we tended to be highly focused on our own little corners of space closer in toward the sun. Many of these other earthly colonies and outposts originated from Eastern Europe, South East Asia, Latin America and African nations south of Earth's equator.
Smugglers, traffickers, traders and travelers of all sorts were docking, loading, or unloading their ships, coming in or lifting off. I took a good look around through the first giant viewport we encountered into the station. My first time out to Mars was a blur and I never saw nor suspected this place even existed. Nor did anyone hail or harass me in my little ship. Gunner's Run was far larger than I'd expected. It looked twice as big as Remus. It was so large that its sections were separated into districts. It was a round structure with docking pads and corridors sticking out of its central complex like acupuncture needles coming out of someone's head. It looked small from far away until you got up close.
We adjusted the gravitation levels in our gravity boots as we prepared to leave the ships and left Will on board safely ensconced and locked in the Phoenix.
After the docking tube connected to the landing pad we waited until oxygen levels settled to normal before leaving our ships. As we made our way up a moving walkway inside the clear, plexi-plast docking tube I watched other ships mounting up or settling upon landing pads above and below us. Some were old, classic solar sail ships, others with vast mounted mirrors to collect sunlight for fuel and heat, besides the usual plasma fuel based ships like ours.
“All kinds.” I muttered. Some looked like fantastic things straight out of dreams or stories.
“Those kinds of ships usually remain in areas very close to the sun,” said Diamond. “Most of the time they're usually around the stations or hideouts near Venus and Mercury.”
“Seems like you'd save an incredible amount in energy costs flying those ships.” I said. Diamond grunted.
“You could save a lot of money. The problem is that when you need to travel for extended periods of time away from the inner planets, the power source becomes too weak. You can lose energy and fuel and be in danger of getting stranded. I'd thought of buying one of those sail ships when I started building my own team but it wasn't worth the long term costs or the danger in the end. Those ships don't have much in the way of speed or power. And with the situations my team and I were dealing with, I needed speed. And power.” I didn't press further on that.
Inside the complex fat plexi-glass doors lifted up as our walkway ended and a series of long, wide corridors inside opened up to us. I felt the gravitational adjustment in my boots lower back to near normal levels. We were greeted by an elaborate fountain, a copy of the Trevi Fountain. That was the signal that we were inside the completely sealed part of the complex and we took our helmets off. It looked like a much older built station with an amalgam of different parts of complexes patched together. There was a large flashing red neon sign stationed on the wall behind and above the fountain that said: District A. There was a riot of activity going on in here and it was filled with vendors selling all kinds of stuff. Stationed at one thousand foot intervals were huge port screens being fed the weather and climate reports of various planets, solar, star, comet and solar activity reports. I was betting the truly dark and dirty stuff was hidden away in secret alcoves somewhere around here or on some other district.
It had a thrumming, chaotic energy that I found thrilling and scary. What I didn't see were aliens, or if there were, they were well disguised. Gunner's Run was still the province of humans, it seemed. But they have to know what's going on out here. We passed by a vendor stall where strong currents of different kinds of tobacco and other substances wafted out, I saw a fueling station where right outside the viewport I saw a long line of ships waiting to be fueled and there were traveler's huts, motels, bars and other businesses we passed by on our way through the wide boulevarde.
“The important hideouts are in the inner ring. Called District X. You won't find them on the outer ring,” said Diamond quietly. Kind of what I thought. I saw ships bearing the names of powerful privateer companies and other wealthy denizens who docked their ships in private hangars. Very expensive. I'm sure that affords them certain advantages.
I followed him down until we came to a large pair of polished wooden and copper doors around the corner to the right. Diamond pushed them open and we found ourselves inside a clubby, convivial- looking establishment. A courtesy mech built like a glamour model greeted us.
“Hello gentleman. It's happy hour. Please seat yourself,” she said pleasantly.
It was huge and it had three bars and at least seventy tables. Everything was leather seats, burnished brass lamps and highly polished wooden tables. I could feel my boots sink down into the plush, deep red carpet.
“Smells good already! You can get anything here if you ask the right person.” Diamond Dog grinned wolfishly. I rolled my eyes.
“Well, now that you've dragged me here, what I want is a big steak and some potatoes. And beer,” I said. “a vanilla porter, if they have it.”
“No problem. Sounds good to me too.” Everyone here I noticed was armed and strapped out with weapons. All sorts of weapons that were banned back home. I wasn't in much position to talk, seeing that I kept and still used my atomic rifle. I'd brought my laser dragon and Diamond had two small lasguns strapped on either side of his space suit.
“Want anything else?”
“Nope. Steak and taters and beer will do it.” I sai
d again, resolutely and sat down at a table while Diamond used his ear piece to make a call and then he loped off toward the main bar to order. It gave me a chance to look around. I saw all kinds of people, most busy talking and laughing, commiserating with each other. No one seemed to be paying much attention to me. At first. I saw a group of female smugglers, I assumed, walk in and start toward the bar to the left. Covered in tribal tattoos and wearing tight-fitting black space suits that flattered every inch of their forms, they carried not only large blasters on their left hips but sported slender katana swords in sheaths at their right hips as well. They looked a whole lot tougher than me. The leader, with a long, sleek, black ponytail that came down her back and her entire face covered in glowing tattoos, looked directly at me, her hard black eyes raking over me and then she turned and lead the other women with her to the bar at the opposite end. A few guys, who looked more like hulking gorillas, walked past my booth and gave me a hostile rundown as well and I was wondering if there was going to be a problem when finally, after about a half hour Diamond came back toward our booth. The women glanced over at him too and eventually went back to their drinks. Diamond didn't seem fazed at all by them. I remembered that Diamond said he'd made some dangerous enemies among some of these folks a while back. And now I was seen with him. I really don't want to have a bad feeling about this. Diamond sat down with a huge tray of food.
Mission: Attack on Europa Page 2
