Galaxy Run: Umel
Page 6
Once the mover comes to a halt, the man waves Nixon down. He jumps out of the cab and comes around the front of the mover as Roland steps out of the bay door. The man from the night before steps behind Roland and positions himself next to a man who could be his twin. They are two towers and they do a good job of blocking any kind of light that comes from the door behind them.
“How’d it go?” Roland asks.
Nixon points back to the mover. “It’s empty,” he says.
Roland looks. “It is.”
“So, are we …”
Roland starts shaking his head before Nixon can finish. “No, we’re not.”
“There something wrong?”
Roland shakes no. “Not with me.” He pauses.
“But I hear that you…”
Damn, Uzek.
“I hear that you may have been in some trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know who you are, Mr. Nixon. Got a call. Asked around.”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his datapad. He taps the screen. Nixon sees the light pop bright on Roland’s face. Roland turns the screen to face Nixon.
“Seems that you’re pretty valuable to some people.”
On the screen is his face. It’s a grab from some kind of security cam from a day that Nixon doesn’t remember. Under his picture are a bunch of words that he doesn’t bother reading. He’s looking for the figures, trying to find his number. Roland clears the screen and pockets the reader before Nixon can see anything.
“Seems that you really made someone mad. I don’t care what you did. I’m not one to judge someone for their actions. I gave up that privilege a long time ago.”
Roland backs up a step, closer to the two hulks behind him.
“I am a business man, though. And I’ve got someone worth fifty-thousand credits standing in front of me … well, you understand.”
Roland looks back to one of his two men and nods. The man, the newer of the two, takes a few steps toward Nixon when …
Thunk
The air crackles. A blaster shot hits the man in the forehead and splits him open from the eyes up. He drops to the ground.
Roland turns to the man from the night before. He takes a step forward and the air pops again. A moment later a blaster shot hits him in the chest, burning a fist-sized hole through his middle. He falls dead.
Nixon looks behind him, but doesn’t see anyone.
Roland looks at both men then steps quickly back into the warehouse. He looks at Nixon, his face lit up with bright light now.
“Well, it looks like you have some kind of guardian angel. Count your blessings. I’d love fifty-thousand credits, but I’d like to see tomorrow more. Go. But don’t stop looking back. I’ll be there at some point.”
Nixon hesitates for a moment, all of this imposible to process.
11
Roland disappears back into the crowd of creatures still working in his warehouse. Two blasts from a big blaster and two dead colleagues have done nothing to dissuade them from their tasks.
Nixon still can't move.
He half expects Roland to come back with a blaster in his hand and put a shot right through his middle. But he doesn't.
Nixon can't get past the confusion. He turns around slowly. He looks to the buildings around him. Most behind him are shut down, closed up for the night. Those that aren't are at the wrong angle.
He looks up and beyond the warehouses immediately behind him. There are a few buildings with second and third stories. He scans those windows and sees nothing.
He turns back around and sees the two bodies—big bodies—laying in crumpled piles. Large, wide pools of blood underneath them. He can smell it, the tang hitting the back of his throat. One more time, he looks into the warehouse doors. He doesn’t see Roland. He doesn’t see the Uzeks.
The walk back to his ship is in the dark. The winds are beginning to pick up again, and he can hear the rumblings of a storm building off the shore. He pulls his arms inside of his cloak to get them out of the chill and picks up his pace.
By the time his ship is visible in the far distance it’s spitting rain. He starts to jog then hears someone shout.
“Would you hurry up already?”
He looks up and sees someone standing at his ship, but in the dark he can’t make out who it is.
The voice shouts again: “I thought you’d have a little more pep in you after what just happened.”
It’s a woman. Nixon squints. Laana.
He looks back behind him. In silhouette against what little light is coming from the docks is the unfinished spire shooting up from the middle of the main district. He smiles. He’d forgotten.
“Did you find something fun to watch tonight?” he says once he’s close enough that he doesn’t have to shout.
They shake hands.
“I did. Thought it was some creep easing a mover through the streets, casing my city. Then …” She stops making up some story.
“I’d heard that Roland had found someone to move his rods for him. Heard how much the job paid. Figured it might have been you. You’re desperate enough.”
“So you watched for me to return because.,.”
Thunder rattles and the rain starts in earnest. Nixon quickly opens the ship. The ramp descends and they both climb inside.
“I also saw a bunch of Uzeks arrive today. Came in on a pair of ships. Twenty of them. Maybe more.”
They sit, Nixon in the captain’s seat. Laana across from him as the navigator.
She continues. “Word quickly started getting around that they were here for a bounty, a reward.
“And you put two and two together …”
“Best guess. I knew enough of your story.”
Nixon reaches on the dash and grab’s Shaine’s case. He mindlessly turns it over and over in his hands.
“I don’t know what to say. Thanks. I wouldn’t be here …”
She interrupts. “Oh, I don’t know that I’d go that far. You seem like a scrappy guy. You’ve survived this far.”
“No. This time I’m pretty sure. I was well out-numbered.”
Neither of them says anything. They just listen to the rain outside. The ramp is still down, and the wind howls past the opening to the ship.
“What now?” Nixon asks. “Obviously, I can’t stay here.”
“No. And this ship…”
“What about it?”
“Will it fly?”
“Not yet. But it shouldn’t take much more work to get her back in the air and out of the atmosphere.”
“Then you better get gone.”
Nixon sighs. It’s not like this is unexpected. He knew this was just the first stop on a trip he suspected would have many. But he hadn’t planned on leaving like this, forced to go instead of choosing to.
“Thank you, again,” he says to Laana as she stands. “You don’t have to go just yet.”
He looks down the ramp and into the still-raining night.
She just smiles at him and pulls the hood of her cloak over her head. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a little water, and this is Umel. If I wasn’t prepared to get wet …”
He gives her a nod. “Take care of yourself,” she says. “Stay alive.”
“I will,” he says. “I promise.”
She smiles then turns and walks down the ramp, Nixon watches her step off the ship and into the night, and his mind immediately goes to all the ways he might not be able to keep that promise.
Uzek bounties with bands of the big green uglies already out searching for him. Guys like Roland are all over the galaxy wanting their own shot at fifty-thousand credits. And there’s another shoe to drop with whoever it was that had chased him off Exte. He’s sure of that.
He slides down into the captain’s seat and begins to think.
First, get off Umel.
END
Continue Trevor Nixon’s Galaxy-Hopping Adventure in Episode 3
GALAXY RUN:
&nb
sp; Ibilia
How do you outrun an entire galaxy? That’s what Trevor Nixon is trying to figure out, because the line of credit-hungry bounty hunters and small-time criminals cueing up behind him is starting to get long—all of them desperate for the windfall that comes with bringing him in.
Nixon knows that with pictures of his face and images of his ship pasted all over every galactic message board, it’s only going to get worse. Capture is inevitable if he can’t somehow get hidden.
There’s not much he can do about his face, but he can do something about this ship.
But it turns out that getting rid of a ship is a lot harder than you’d expect.
GET IT NOW
Also from Sam Renner
LOST:
Zulu Universe: Book 1
For most, Transfer Station Zulu is a point on a map, a single stop in a long journey to somewhere else. For Jim Lebbe, Zulu is a snare from which he can't shake free. He’s head of security on this quiet space station at the edge of the galaxy, but all he wants is to get back home and repair the broken relationships that landed him here. But home is 25,000 light years away and he has a contract that says he won’t be going anywhere soon.
For Caroline Grey, Transfer Station Zulu is missed opportunity. A top-of-the-class graduate at the academy should be doing more than commanding a galactic truck stop. But if she’s going to be stuck here, Zulu is going to be the best run station in the galaxy—even if she has to fight Lebbe to make it that way.
For the pilot of the rogue ship that’s just pinged Zulu, the transfer station is a last hope. If no one answers her call for help she drifts out of the galaxy and into the unknown. If no one answers, her risk-it-all plan will have failed before it can even start.
Enjoy the space-opera adventure of The Expanse but think it can sometimes feel too...expansive? Then you'll love the edge-of-the-galaxy thrills you'll find with Lebbe, Grey, and the rest of the Zulu Universe.
START READING NOW
Want to know when Sam’s next stories are ready?
Sign up for his newsletter.
He promises, no spam. Just news about books.