by Eric Vall
She had really pulled off the impossible these last few weeks. I felt incredibly grateful that we had met, which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t stashed money here on the station ten years ago. It also wouldn’t have been possible if I was never terminated. Luck seemed to be a double-edged notion.
Still ruminating on that thought, I made my way out of the cargo hold with the sleeping mechanic, careful not to trip and fall over anything. However, when I made it to the main hallway of the ship, Neka came bounding around the corner, her eyes bright and her mouth already open.
“CT!” she cried, before she noticed Akela asleep in my arms. When the cat-girl finally saw the mechanic, she skidded to a stop and slapped her hands over her mouth, but it was too late. The silver-haired woman stirred and blinked up at me sleepily. When she registered my face so close to hers, she snapped awake and looked around. Color rose in her cheeks when she saw Neka.
“I can walk on my own, thanks,” Akela muttered as she pushed away from my chest and wiggled down to stand on her own two feet. I had half a thought about how I missed her pressed against me, but I banished it as I turned to my assistant.
“What’s up, Neka?”
The cat-girl blinked in confusion but then remembered what she had been running to tell me. “Oh! Omni told me to come tell you that a Harlan Cayne is on a line in the bridge for you.”
I felt my eyebrow twitch. “And why couldn’t O tell me himself? How long has Harlan been waiting?”
There was a burst of static over the ship’s intercom and then the AI replied, “Because I’m busy, Colby. You try running a hundred drones at once while running diagnostic checks. And Cayne has been waiting less than five minutes. He made you wait over a week for a response. I think he’ll be fine.”
He wasn’t wrong. With a sigh, I turned to Akela and waved a finger in her face like she’d done to me. “Bed. Now,” I commanded. The mechanic narrowed her eyes at me, but I was already turning to Neka.
“Make sure she gets there,” I instructed my assistant. “And actually sleeps,” I emphasized.
Neka nodded seriously and gave me a salute before she walked over to Akela’s side. “Would you like some help?” she asked sweetly. The mechanic looked like she wanted to refuse, but a jaw-cracking yawn almost knocked her off her feet. Neka took it upon herself to wrap her slim arm around Akela’s waist and pull the silver-haired woman’s arm over her shoulder, which was comical seeing as the mechanic was half a head taller than the cat-girl. Akela didn’t protest, however, and just muttered her thanks.
As the two women set off at a shuffle down the hall, I couldn’t help but call out after them, “Why does Neka get all the thanks, and I just get glared and snapped at? I’m hurt, Loric! Truly.”
Without pausing or turning, Akela flipped me the bird over her shoulder right before the pair disappeared around the next corner. I grinned after them for a moment, before I turned in the direction of the bridge and went to take Harlan’s call.
While Omni and Akela had been busy with the repairs last week, I had spent my time reaching out to old connections. I had a handful of prospects that I thought would jump at the opportunity to mine Oevis dry once again, but in the end only two of the lesser Corporations agreed to my proposition: Warpstellar Mining and Light-year Construction. There had been one Corporation, Midnight Metals, that hadn’t answered my first three calls, so I left the operations manager, Harlan Cayne, a message. It seemed like he had needed time to mull over my proposal.
After I walked onto the bridge, I took a deep breath and plopped down in the captain’s chair. I fixed my hair in my reflection on the display in front of me, flashed myself a smile, and then typed in the command to bring Harlan up on the screen.
“Harlan,” I crowed as the man’s face appeared. “Long time no see. How are you?”
The operations manager of Midnight Metals was a hard man who had built his career mining in the bowels of asteroids and desert planets half a decade before I even stepped foot off Proto. His skin was dark and perpetually smudged with soot, and there were calluses on his cheekbones from the heat of smelting metals. His eyes were as gray as most of the metals he refined and twice as sharp.
“Tower,” he grunted as his piercing eyes assessed me. “Didn’t think I’d be hearing from you again. Heard you got the axe.”
“T-N and I did decide to part ways,” I said dismissively. “But you know I can’t be kept down for long. How are things over at Midnight?”
The hulking man shrugged. “Same old, same old. The big bastards are still trying to undercut us every step of the way, but we make enough to get by.”
The ‘big bastards’ he referred to were the mega Corporations like Terra-Nebula. With their greater number of signed contracts, and therefore resources and revenue, the mega Corps typically tended to outbid their smaller counterparts like Midnight Metals. However, I knew for a fact from my time at T-N that Harlan’s company was making more than enough to get by. If they kept expanding at the rate they’ve been going, they’ll probably be joining the big bastards sooner rather than later.
“That’s good to hear,” I replied, but then decided we needed to get down to business. Time was ticking by, and with each passing second Warpstellar Mining and Light-year Construction were that much closer to reaching Theron to sign their contracts.
“So,” I continued. “Listen, Harlan. I assume you got my message.”
Harlan sat back in his chair and scratched at his rough stubbled chin. “I did,” he said. “I thought you and T-N had ‘parted ways’ though. So why are you still brokering a deal for the shitheads?”
Working in the mines hadn’t taught Harlan much diplomacy.
“It’s a long and complicated story that I won’t bore you with just yet. I know how valuable your time is, Harlan,” I replied. I was laying it on a little thick but a little flattery never hurt.
“The long and the short of it,” I went on, “is that I needed some funds for a pet project of mine, and Theron Prime needed a little paint job. We came to an agreement.”
“And what’s that agreement got to do with me?” Harlan questioned as he raised a singed eyebrow. I always wondered if the man just ignored safety measures completely.
“Well, there’s no point in getting a new paint job if there’s no one around to admire it,” I said. “So I thought I’d make some calls and see if I couldn’t get a few old friends to come out and admire the new and improved Theron Prime.”
Harlan just stared at me blankly in response. He was silent for so long I thought maybe the connection had dropped.
“Hello?” I prompted.
“I can hear ya,” he grunted. “I’m just waiting for you to actually get to the whole point of this conversation because I know you ain’t calling me out to a backwater post to admire some goddamn new paint.”
I smiled to hide a wince. Harlan never was one to bother with the finesse of brokering. He just wanted the bottom line in as few words as possible.
“So perceptive, as always,” I chuckled awkwardly. “You’re right. The real reason is that I have a contract available I’d think you’d be interested in.”
Harlan scowled at me. “Tower, we both know the only planet in the Palioxis System is Oevis, and that rock’s been drained dry for over a century. What are you playing at?”
“Drained dry of Odrine,” I corrected him. “Heh. Say that five times fast.”
The miner looked vastly unimpressed, so I continued.
“You’re right. T-N did harvest all the Odrine off Oevis. But we both know,” I echoed him, “that T-N is a conglomerate of arrogant idiots, and I’ve recently discovered that they ignored huge reserves of a separate metallic ore in favor of a quicker profit.”
I paused for dramatic effect, looked Harlan square in the eye, and said just one word: “Dynatine.”
Unlike Rosek two weeks ago, Harlan knew exactly what I was talking about. I saw the glint of recognition, and eagerness, in his eyes.
&nb
sp; “Dynatine, you say.” He rubbed at his chin again. “How much we talking?”
“Twice as much as the amount of Odrine T-N found,” I revealed. “They just couldn’t be bothered with the work.”
Harlan snorted. “Sounds ‘bout right. Well, you got my interest, Tower. Now what’s the catch?”
“What if I told you there wasn’t a catch?”
“Then I’d call you a liar,” the miner returned easily. “Come on, CT, we’ve both been in this game too long to bother with all the smoke and mirrors. Just give it to me straight.”
I spread my hands out in front of me so he could see them. “I am, Harlan, I swear. Look, the Dynatine is there on Oevis, just waiting to be mined and refined. The planet and Theron are still technically owned by T-N, but they don’t give a shit about either, which is how I’ve managed to get your license to work fee down to half of what T-N would normally charge. All you gotta do is pay that small fee and get to work. Of course, when your men need some shore leave, Theron would be happy to accommodate and provide them with an assortment of entertainment.”
“You mean hookers and casinos,” Harlan laughed, the sound rumbling out of his throat like an engine turning over.
I grinned and shrugged. “Whatever they like. So, what do you say?”
Harlan considered me for a moment through narrowed eyes. He scratched at his throat. “Who else did you wrangle into this deal?” he questioned. “Who’s my competition?”
“Warpsteller and Light-year,” I informed him.
“Ha!” Harlan clapped at his knee. “Those puny assholes are half the size of Midnight. They won’t even be able to pull in half my haul.”
“True,” I conceded. “But they did answer my call nearly two weeks ago. They’ll be here within a few days, and since Theron’s docks are all operational once again, it looks like they’ll be getting a head start.”
The mirth faded to intense determination on Harlan’s face. “We’ll see about that,” he muttered. He looked me square in the eye and gave me a sharp nod.
“Have my contract ready, Tower,” he said. “I’ll see you in a few days.”
And before I could even respond, the miner cut the transmission.
“Nice talking to you too, Harlan,” I grumbled. “Oh, and of course you’re welcome for bringing this incredibly lucrative deal to your attention. It was my pleasure.”
I sat back in my chair with a sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. After a moment, however, a grin split my face. I’d done it. I’d gotten the Corporations onboard, and Akela and Omni were nearly finished with the repairs. We were actually going to pull this harebrained scheme off.
“Do you always talk to yourself, corpseman?”
I stifled a yelp and spun around in the captain’s chair.
Isaias stood slouched in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulder propped against the doorjamb.
I opened my mouth to snap at him for scaring me, or Omni for not alerting me to the boy’s presence on the ship, but then I caught sight of Isaias’s face and the words died in my mouth.
His left eye was nearly swollen shut, the skin mottled various shades of black and blue. A barely healed-over scab split his bottom lip in two and the right side of his jaw looked red and tender to the touch. When I met his remaining eye, I noticed the capillaries had burst in the sclera, the red lines in stark contrast to the bright blue color of his iris.
“What the hell happened to you?” I exclaimed as I stood from my chair.
I hadn’t seen the boy since we’d left his father’s casino two weeks ago. I thought Rosek had just welcomed him back into the fold and Isaias was too busy celebrating his own return to heightened status to bother making an appearance.
That didn’t seem to be the case.
Isaias shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. “What, this?” he asked as he gestured to his bruised face. “This ain’t nothin’. Just Pops workin’ out his disappointments is all. Nothing to do with you, corpseman.”
I frowned at the boy. “I could,” I started but then trailed off. What could I do? I was a broker, not a cop. Rosek might have deigned to make a deal with me, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to take my criticism on how he should raise his son. As an orphan on Proto, I had always envied anyone that still had their parents. I always assumed their lives, intrinsically, were made better because of this fact. I have since learned that isn’t always the case.
Isaias smirked at me but then winced when the movement pulled at his split lip. “Thanks for the pity, corpseman, but you can shove it. I ain’t here for you to coddle me and put bandaids on my boo boos.”
“Then what are you here for?” I asked. “And can you quit it with the ‘corpseman’ crap? Just call me CT.”
I thought the boy rolled his eyes, but I couldn’t really tell with the swelling in the way. “Whatever, man. Look, I’m just here to tell you two things, alright? One, Pops knows the repairs are nearly complete, and he wants to talk to you again up in the casino.”
Huh. It seemed like Rosek had been keeping closer tabs on us than I had thought.
“And what’s the second thing?” I questioned.
Isaias straightened up from his slouch and, all at once, any joking or smirking faded from his face. He walked forward until we were only a few meters apart and then he looked me dead in the eye.
“Don’t go,” he said firmly, seriously, like he was imparting wisdom on life and death. “Don’t meet with him.”
I raised my brows in surprise. That was unexpected. “Why do you say that?”
Isaias huffed angrily and dragged his fingers through his hair. I heard him hiss at the movement and saw the bruise that stretched over his ribs like an oil spill when his shirt rode up. I also noticed that two fingers on his left hand were splinted and, by the discoloration, most likely broken.
“I don’t know any details,” he admitted as he winced in pain. “Pops ain’t exactly telling me his secrets right now. But I know he’s plannin’ somethin’. Somethin’ bad. He doesn’t want to give you that money, though, I know that for a fact.”
“I knew that from the get-go,” I told Isaias. “From the moment I met Rosek, I knew the greedy bastard wouldn’t want to part with a single credit unnecessarily, which is why I’ve already taken half my share without him knowing.”
Isaias looked confused for a moment, but then realization sparked in his visible blue eye. “The repair money,” he deduced. “You overestimated it on purpose because you knew Pops wouldn’t bother to check your math once he was salivatin’ over the offer.”
I grinned at the boy and tapped the side of my nose. “I knew he wouldn’t give me any money upfront, but I wasn’t about to do all that work just to get screwed. So, I did a little preemptive math. Or my AI did, at least.”
“Then you should just leave,” Isaias said firmly. “Just finish the repairs, take the money, and run.”
My grin slipped into a frown and I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I have to wait for the other Corporations to show up in order to facilitate the transaction, and they’re all still a few days out. Besides, I still have to make sure Rosek comes through on the mining fee stipulation I gave him.”
Isaias looked upset, almost … distraught. There was something akin to fear in his lone blue eye, and unease settled in my gut.
“You don’t know my father,” the boy muttered as he dropped his eyes to the ground. “You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
As he said that, my eyes were drawn to the bruised and broken skin that covered his body. The boy might have been a little shit head sometimes, but I couldn’t blame him now, not when I saw what he’s had to endure probably his whole life.
Taking more than a few punches on Proto had turned me into a right asshole, but, with time, and a second chance, I was able to grow out of it. Maybe Isaias just needed that second chance.
Anger swelled in me then, anger and righteous fury. Rosek really was a piece of shit, and I couldn’t wait to
rub his nose in his own inferiority.
Without thinking, I reached out and gently laid my hand on Isaias’s thin and bony shoulder. The boy flinched, probably expecting another blow, but looked up to meet my eye.
When he met my gaze, I let some of that old CT slip out, the me that had scoured the alleys of Proto, itching for a fight, waiting to draw blood.
My smile felt familiarly sharp and serrated as I said to the boy, “No, Isaias. Rosek has no idea what I am capable of. And he should be very, very worried.”
I lifted my arm off his shoulder and gestured to the doorway. I considered asking Akela and Neka to join us, but the mechanic needed her sleep and I didn’t want to put my assistant in any potentially dangerous situation.
“Hey, O,” I called out. “Isaias and I are going up to see Rosek. Lock up the ship behind us, yeah?”
There was a moment’s delay before Omni replied, “Got it, Colby. But might I suggest a small pit-stop at the armory?”
It turned out the AI wasn’t too busy to eavesdrop on my conversations. I let it go this time.
“Read my mind, O,” I laughed darkly at the AI. I turned to Isaias and gave him that same sharp-edged smile.
“Come on,” I told him. “Let’s go pay dear old dad a visit.”
Chapter 7
“Just the man I wanted to see,” Rosek crowed as I walked into his office, trailed cautiously by Isaias, who I’d convinced to accompany me.
Rosek sat smugly behind his desk, his hands interlaced over his rotund belly. He looked like the epitome of the cat that had gotten the cream, from his oil-slick smile to the greedy glint in his beady little eyes. I had to force myself to smile at him in return.
“Well, here I am,” I said with a mockingly flourished bow. As I straightened up, I saw Rosek’s eyes dart past me to his son and a smirk flickered at the corner of his mouth, most likely at Isaias’s bloody and broken state. Bastard.
