Galactic Blues - A Newton's Gate Serial: Born Under a Bad Sign

by C. J. Clemens

  Remy’s gun hand was up in a flash, firing straight at Joss’s head. The shot hit the target and Joss’s body lost all grip on her as he sank to the ground.

  Dreyla moved so quickly that Remy hardly had time to lower the gun. She collapsed against his chest and hugged her captain… her protector… her father. He enfolded her in a tight squeeze. All the fear transformed into a wave of euphoria at their both being alive. Nothing else mattered.

  “Drey… holy shit, Drey,” he murmured, his voice hoarse, sounding lost.

  Tosh bounded in, faster than Dreyla had ever seen the old man run. “Anyone need medical attention?”

  Remy released her from the embrace, and they all stood back to regard the man sprawled at their boots.

  Tosh bent closer to peer at the hole in Joss’s head. “Guess not.”

  “We need to reconnect the power coupling in the engine room,” Dreyla said, turning away so she wouldn’t have to see the dead man’s hateful face. “Abrams disconnected it.”

  “Better hurry and get it online,” Remy said, all grim authority restored to his tone. “We’ll have company arriving… soon.”

  Chapter 9

  LILLY

  Lilly pushed her reluctant charges down the short corridor to the check-in station, where Deputy Pierce sat behind a thick, plastic security barrier, playing a holographic game. He bolted forward in his seat as they approached.

  “Holy shit, Sheriff…” Pierce’s faded blue eyes scanned Yercer’s tall frame. “Do you know who that is?”

  “Prime scum de la scum, Pierce. You catch the whiff from outside?”

  “Sure did, boss.” He grinned and buzzed them through.

  “You’re in way over your head, Sheriff,” Yercer rumbled. “And your employees fooling around on the job. Tsk, tsk. What a shambles.”

  Lilly gave him an extra hard shove for that. Pierce strutted out of the booth to help her. His counterpart, Potter, also appeared and joined them in their convoy down to the cells. Neither deputy had seen much high-profile action in a while. She hoped they were still sharp. Both men were quickly approaching retirement age, and Yercer had a nasty habit of escaping even the most high-security establishments.

  The cells were small, barred rooms designed for security rather than comfort. Each had a fortified window and an interior printed in one smooth piece—no joints, vents, cracks, or anything that could be exploited by enterprising inmates. All signals in or out were blocked. The beds and toilet facilities were as sparse as functionality permitted. The only concession to prisoners’ souls was a view out each window. Currently, a billboard blocked most of said view, but criminal minds didn’t have well-developed souls, so who cared?

  Lilly’s deputies disconnected the linking chains between the four prisoners and shoved two of them into the first cell. Potter deftly removed their cuffs through the bars as per Naillik Security Regulations Section 6. He then clicked open the next cell, but Lilly tapped her subordinate’s arm.

  “On second thought, I’ll take Yercer with me. You look after this one.”

  “My pleasure.” Potter prodded Yercer’s sidekick into the cell.

  Pierce led Yercer into another room, sat him down, and connected his cuffs to a bar in the middle of the table, forcing him to hunch his back. Not a terribly comfortable position, which was the whole point.

  Lilly sat down opposite him and stared at the big man. Pierce closed the door, handed Lilly a tablet, and then assumed the position of propping up the wall. Normally at this point, she’d dismiss him, but somehow, she couldn’t make the words come out.

  Stony-faced, she scanned through several screens of info on Yercer’s last whereabouts and latest activities, none of which was new or surprising. She glanced up at him. “What are you doing in our town?”

  “Sightseeing.” He grinned a mirthless grin.

  “I’ll repeat the question. What are you doing in our town?”

  “Darlin’,” he said with a labored sigh, “this ain’t your town.”

  Lilly leaned in closer. “You all think I’m gonna just turn things over to you and your boss? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “What I’d like is irrelevant, my enticing, dark princess. Like I said, you don’t get it. Gono Darkbur has his fingers in everybody’s pies.” He eyed her up and down. “Soon, no doubt, in yours.”

  “Fingers can be so easily broken,” Lilly replied with the utmost of calm. “Happens all the time in detention facilities, doesn’t it?”

  “Sure does, boss,” Pierce helpfully answered from his corner.

  “You’re all pathetic,” Yercer said. “Humans, dworgs, aflins, it don’t matter the species… it don’t matter the town. Sooner or later, you all fall in. It’s survival of the fittest, and darlin’, those of us from Bane are pretty damn fit.”

  “If I didn’t know better, Yercer, I’d think you were trying to impress me.”

  “Guess it wouldn’t take much, huh? I remember your late husband.”

  Lilly’s senses clouded in a haze of hatred for the man, the thing, sitting before her. “You’re telling me that you and Gono already have footholds in Yerdua and Elocin?” Yes, it was on the nose. No, she didn’t want to be in the same room with Yercer for any longer than necessary.

  “We’re everywhere. So, you see, little Miss Peace Officer, there’s not gonna be much peace here… from now on.” Yercer’s grin grew wider.

  She pushed the button on the remote, sending a current into his body. He convulsed pitifully. But the yells she heard were not from him. They were coming from outside the room.

  Lilly swung around to Pierce in confusion, but he looked just as blank as her. She turned back to Yercer, who was taking a moment to compose himself.

  “Why the hell did you do that?” he asked, a bit of drool still stuck to the corner of his mouth.

  “It’s a sign of affection.”

  The door opened. Potter staggered into the room, a grimace plastered on his face.

  Lilly sprang up from her chair. “What’s wrong?”

  “Forgot to switch off the restraints.” Three sets of cuffs slipped from the deputy’s hands onto the floor. “That hurt like hell.”

  Yercer started to laugh.

  She hit the button again. The shock to his system sent him sprawling atop the table. This time, drool dripped from his mouth and worked its way to the floor.

  Potter smiled when he saw that.

  Lilly slammed one of the counterfeit nano-biotic packets down on the table, close to Yercer’s thick nose. “The drugs are fake, but that’s a real delivery packet. Now, who did you get the pretty wrappers from?”

  There was a defiant silence. Even with his head still on the table, she could see the hateful smile begin to stretch across Yercer’s broad face.

  Her index finger hovered over the button, and she raised her eyebrows at him.

  “Alright, alright,” he said. “You wanna know the truth so bad, do you? Hell, I’ll tell you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Yercer…” she said, her finger on the button now.

  His eyes flashed to the remote in her hand. “Ducett… We got them from Ducett.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “Your brother,” Yercer supplied with such relish she wanted to zap him again and again until he passed out.

  ***

  A few minutes later, with Yercer back in his cell, Lilly sat in her office, staring dully out the window.

  Nate Ducett, her irresponsible younger brother, had arrived in Naillik shortly after she and Tim had moved here. And ever since, he’d been pulling one dumbass scheme after another. He was a con man, a criminal, but still her brother.

  There was a sharp rap on the door.

  “Yeah?”

  The door opened, and Brand poked her head in, her blond mane swishing with excitement. “Sheriff, we had to arrest Ned Blakely.”

  Before Lilly could ask why, Brand added, “He stabbed Owen Carcell with a shucker knife.”

&nb
sp; “Huh. Just another afternoon at the Double L then,” she said listlessly.

  Ned shucked sand-oysters for the patrons at the Double L. Since the planet Vox was almost seventy-five percent arid, there weren’t too many native species… at least not the kind you’d want to eat. Sand-oysters were the one and only that Lilly enjoyed. And the knife was meant for opening their shells, not gutting patrons.

  “I put Ned in the back cell. He was pretty pissed off about something,” Brand said.

  “Guess he’d have to be… to stab someone.”

  Great, what else could possibly go wrong? The planet’s major crime syndicate was apparently trying to set up shop in her town. Her own stupid brother had dirty dealings with the bastards… and now someone who Lilly had always considered level-headed had tried to shuck someone else.

  The worst thing? The day was only half over.

  Chapter 10

  REMY

  Remy hovered over Dreyla, who he’d just promoted to chief engineer of the Jay. Basically, that meant she had the job of keeping the twenty-year-old ship working, and right now, she knelt in the engine room, attempting to undo what the mutineers had done to the ship’s power.

  “Protein bar?” Remy asked her, as he took a bite out of one.

  She looked up, at first annoyed, but he could tell she was hungry. He held up two bars: one yellow, one orange.

  Dreyla scrunched her nose. “Which is less old?”

  “Uh.” Remy inspected the labels and handed her the yellow bar. “Banana flavor.”

  “Whatever that is.”

  Remy took another bite, chewed, and grimaced. “Our next loot better be food, like real food, the kind you get at Restaurant Atmogrille. Oh, them steaks with caramelized toro roots and a side order of mushed zarpa beans.”

  Dreyla smiled as she chomped gamely. “That would indeed be nice.”

  “R.L. Johnson, stay powered down, and prepare to be boarded,” the comms system blared out.

  “What the hell?” Remy groaned. “Can’t a man have his dinner?”

  He pulled Dreyla to her feet and dragged her into the corridor, headed toward the bridge.

  “We need to get this ship running,” she said, tugging back toward the engine room.

  “Might need you to help me with this,” he replied.

  They stepped onto the bridge, and he took his seat near the bow.

  Dreyla raced to her nav station. “Looks like a command blade and two pirate ships off our stern.” She frowned at her console. “Five minutes out.”

  “Tell me you’re kidding.” Remy pulled up the visuals on his screen.

  Dreyla wasn’t kidding. The command blade hovered there menacingly, a ship four times the size of normal blades, and nearly as many times deadlier. He knew who was sitting in that ship. But what about the sidekicks? What assholes had chosen to side with Larker Max in this bullshit scheme to get rid of some perceived competition?

  “Drey, what’s the identity of the other two ships?”

  “Already scanning,” she murmured, eyes glued to the screen.

  “I know that look,” he said slowly. “I’m not gonna like the answer, am I?”

  “No, Cap.”

  “Well, hit me with it anyways.”

  “It’s the Kapriano and the Mearle.”

  “Damn.” He slumped back in his seat.

  The Kapriano was no surprise. Captain Langston hated his guts on account of him sleeping with Langston’s wife, Trinni, way back when. In hindsight, that little liaison hadn’t been the most stellar of ideas, but man, those legs.

  Langston’s taste in ships wasn’t as good as his taste in women, that was for sure. The lumbering Kapriano looked like a set of tin cans hobbled together, with copious weaponry strapped on to make it seem menacing.

  The Mearle, though. What a punch to the gut. He and Captain Pike—Jason the Red—had been friends. Or so he’d thought. Hadn’t they pulled off half a dozen jobs together over the last decade and lived to laugh about it? That’s what he got for trusting another pirate.

  Jason’s ship, the Mearle, resembled a cruiser from the front, all sleek lines and innocence, but a battleship from behind, with its badass array of missile heads and multidirectional heavy-duty blasters. Two-faced, just like its owner.

  “R.L. Johnson, under UNSF Code 4113, you are hereby charged with piracy. You are ordered to stay where you are and prepare to be boarded,” the voice ground out.

  “Do you ever shut up?” Remy hit the comms button, but for audio only. “Sorry, currrrrrgh… we’re having… currrrrrgh… problems… give us…. Currrrrrgh… ouple minutes…. Currrrgh… clear up.”

  Dreyla rolled her eyes at him, which made him smile even though they were in another tight spot.

  “R.L. Johnson, under UNSF Code 4113, you are hereby charged with piracy. You are ordered to stay where you are and prepare to be boarded,” the voice ground out again.

  “Like I’m going to come quietly,” he quipped.

  “Cap, you don’t do anything quietly,” Dreyla said. “Anything.”

  It took him a second to realize what she was talking about. “How was I supposed to know that little redhead from customs was such a…” he started.

  “Howler?” Dreyla offered, smiling.

  Remy shrugged. “So, sue me,” he said, winking at her.

  “I think they intend to do more than that,” she pointed out.

  He’d been in tighter spots. Had more guns on him. Been backed into a corner. He wasn’t worried… OK, maybe just a little bit.

  Galactic Blues

  We hope you’ve enjoyed the first episode of the Galactic Blues serial. To be notified of new releases, please subscribe to the Newton’s Gate list.

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  NGU Releases

  It’s easy to find other Newton’s Gate work. Every release inside the Newton’s Gate Universe will be listed under the C.J. Clemens name. Many of the releases will have other authors listed as well.

  Here are some of the current NGU releases:

  Deliver or Die: A Newton’s Gate Series (The Delivery Mage Book 1)

  By Jamie Davis & C.J. Clemens

  A dangerous tech warlord. A devious damsel. Is this smuggler mage getting paid or played?

  Baltimore, 2055. Ex-special ops agent Kurt Carter refuses to resort to killing any longer. Though this mage isn’t above skirting the law with a little magic to smuggle goods through the interstellar portals and back to Earth, he never expected to use the Newton’s gates on a ransom mission for the ex-wife he can’t seem to forget…

  With the help of a trigger-happy sidekick, Kurt has no choice but to break into a government building and steal a mysterious sarcophagus. After his ex throws an unexpected wrinkle into his plan, the smuggler mage must improvise to keep an impatient warlord at bay. Can Kurt save the girl and protect his business all without getting more blood on his hands?

  Deliver or Die is the first book in The Delivery Mage series of urban fantasy novels with a touch of interstellar travel. If you like magical antiheroes, action-packed space fantasies, and unique world-building, then you’ll love Jamie Davis’s rule-bending tale.

  ________________________

  The Realm: A Newton’s Gate Series

  By A.Q. Owen & C.J. Clemens

  HELL. HATH. NO. FURY.

  Orion’s little girl, dead now this last year, haunts his every hour, waking or not. His ex-wife, deep in the grip of her own grief and a drug problem, has abandoned Orion, deserting him and what scraps remained of their life.

  So, Orion drinks. And drinks. And rages. And burns through his fortune. And prays for death. Until he stumbles across his old high-school nemesis, Steve, one night in
a dive bar.

  This supposed chance encounter turns out to be anything but. Since the advent of magic and alchemy, now strangely widespread after a recent high-profile scientific accident, Orion’s old rival has been conjuring a “plan” for his distraught adversary. A plan Steve swears comes direct from the Almighty himself.

  At first, his plan sounds crazy. Hell, Orion thinks, it is crazy: use a divine sword, a hiding spell, and the protection of God to invade hell and slay the devil, using good magic to restore order to the world. And to get the one thing he wants more than anything: revenge.

  Not surprisingly, Lucifer has his own plans—and turns out to be the toughest mark this hunter has ever tracked. Not to mention Satan’s legions of bloodthirsty, rapacious demons, who’ve been aching to kill a human for millennia, and his dark agents on Earth, eager to kill their own kind to curry favor with their master.

  ______________________

  Zombie Chaos Book 1: Bloodbath in the Big Easy: A Newton’s Gate series (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale)

  WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE. GRAPHIC GORE. GRAPHIC SNARK.

  What would you do if you received a three-week warning of the coming zombie apocalypse? How would you prepare? What if the warning was wrong—and the undead rose a full week before you were ready?

  Joe Daniels may be luckier than most, but heʼs still in a jam. After weeks of prepping, he gets caught in a zombie storm. To accomplish his plans and stay alive, he has to rescue his wife, Clare, and travel 1,300 miles through Americaʼs zombie-infested countryside to the safety of northern Michigan.