"Welcome to Starlight Express. How can I help you today?" The young woman asked.
"When is the next direct ship to Capital Station?"
The woman glanced down at her screen for a brief second.
"Tomorrow morning at ten thirty. You have just missed the last one for today. Would you like to book a seat on it?" She asked with a polite smile.
Adam slowly wiped his chin with his left hand, disguising the annoyed look on his face, before finally replying.
"Yes, two seats thanks."
The young woman began typing at her console for a second, before returning her attention back to Adam.
"That will be two hundred and thirty dollars." She announced.
Adam activated his cash card with his thumbprint, then passed it once over the sensor mounted on the back of the booking console.
"Thank you. It will just be a second."
Adam tucked the card back into his pocket, then grabbed the back of Eddy's tattered jacket and pulled him away from the counter, that he had just started leaning against. Eddy's annoyed expression met only indifference from Adam as he once again clamped his forceful grip around Eddy's forearm.
"Here are your passes, enjoy your trip." The woman said, almost as if she meant it.
"Thank you." Adam replied softly, taking the two thin transparent cards from her hand. After tucking them into his inside coat pocket with his cash card, he pushed Eddy along towards one of the main entrances to the rest of the station.
After a long walk through a crowded tunnel, lined both sides with venders trying to sell all sorts of trinkets, souvenirs, and junk. They emerged on a high walkway that looked out over a mass of small squashed together buildings and crowded narrow streets. It looked like an unending maze of roughly placed buildings, and it wouldn’t take more than a couple of seconds to get lost in it.
Eddy stepped up to the guardrail in front and looked out across the mess below.
"What is your plan now?" He asked sarcastically. "Wander around lost until tomorrow morning?"
Adam took one quick look at the maze then turned to face him.
"Just because you can’t tell your left hand from your right, doesn't mean everyone else is hopeless as well."
Using his grip on the prisoner’s arm, Adam steered him through the crowds. The first ring of the station was mostly inhabited by workers and visiting crews from passing ships, so there was no shortage of cheap accommodation close to the docks. After skipping the first two places that he found, simply because he didn't like the look of them. Adam then settled on a small block of overnight rooms, no more than one hundred meters from the entrance to the docking bay.
It wasn't the nicest looking place to stay; the rundown rooms were barely clean. But unlike the others, there was a clear view up and down the street for a good distance from the front door. Not that he was expecting any trouble, it was just a habit that he followed, not to be in a situation where he couldn't see what was coming.
Out of the few choices available he picked an end room on the second story of the three-story building. The front door slid open with a slow grind and needed a hard kick to retract all the way. The smell of stale air hit them both even before they entered the room.
"This ain’t much better than where I was staying on Earth; I thought you private security guys could afford better accommodation than this?" Eddy moaned as he followed Adam through the door.
"Could always cuff you to the rail out on the balcony for the night."
Eddy didn't reply, instead he walked over to the bed and sat down hard. After bouncing up and down a couple of times he replied.
"No, this will do I suppose, better than sleeping on that fucking shuttle."
Adam closed the door. After locking it with the key card, he placed it in his back pocket and looked around the small room for an answer to the next problem.
"Get off there." he mumbled as he grabbed Eddy by the handcuffs and pulled him along towards the opposite end of the room.
A short counter stuck out from the wall separating the kitchen area from the rest of the room. There was a small sink along the back wall with an old half-sized refrigerator next to it.
Adam gave the bottom of the fridge a gentle kick, and the front panel below the door sprung straight off and slid along the floor. After more protest and complaining Adam released the handcuff from Eddy's wrist and placed one end around his ankle then fastened the other to a hole in the frame of the fridge where the front cover used to be.
With his prisoner secure, or at least secure enough for the moment, he decided it would be a good time to get some food, he hadn't eaten anything all day and couldn't remember the last time he had a coffee. He made it halfway to the door when Eddy called out to him.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"To get some food, and don't think about trying anything while I'm gone. I will be within sight of the front door the whole time."
"Bit hard to sneak out with a fridge attached to my fucking foot!" After a short pause he added.
"Could you at least put the sports channel on? Haven't seen a game in months."
Adam sighed as he picked up the remote that was on the small bedside table and brought the wall screen to life, he flicked it straight to channel nine then dropped the remote on the bed and headed for the door.
Adam returned just as a new game was about to start, both players were in their soundproof booths in the centre of the large stage. The camera was slowly panning across the large stadium showing the massive crowd up on the main screen, behind the players. He paused for a moment to watch as the screen changed over to the commentator’s view and the two casters began discussing tactics that they expected to see in the match.
Quickly the emptiness of his stomach forced him on to the kitchen. He dropped the two packets he was carrying on the counter and started searching in the cupboards for a mug. There was a choice of four scratched and dented metal cups. He took what looked to be the two cleanest and rinsed them by hand under hot water from the tap. Then filled them to near full with cold water and placed them down on the counter. The first of the two packets that he bought was dark brown in colour and showed a full steaming cup of coffee on the front. Then underneath the large brand name read: milk, one sugar. He ripped the packet open and shook out two small round capsules, then dropped one into each cup.
The moment contact was made with the water they began to emit tiny bubbles as they heated up. They sank straight to the bottom of the cups where they started spinning, slowly at first, but gradually picking up speed as they dissolved until a faint vortex formed in the centre of the creamy white steaming coffee.
The second packet was a pack of twelve energy bars. Like all food, it was completely artificial. But these ones were particularly bland, and normally only used as rations on long trips or as emergency supplies. For Adam though, they were the main course in almost every meal.
He placed two bars and one of the cups on the floor next to Eddy who ripped off the thin plastic wrapping and immediately scoffed down one of the bars without taking his eyes off the screen.
"You don't entertain guests very often do you?" Eddy joked as he tried to swallow the dry tasteless food.
Adam ignored him and took the rest of the bars and his coffee to the bed that sat directly across from the wall screen.
The rest of the afternoon he lay on the bed half watching the series of matches, half falling asleep. If it wasn't for the constant interruptions from Eddy complaining about the uncomfortable floor, which he fixed by throwing him one of the thin blankets of the bed. Or the occasional demand to be temporarily released so that he could go to the bathroom. Then he would have given in to his exhaustion and fallen asleep hours ago.
At early evening he made himself a fresh coffee and stepped out onto the balcony in front of the room. The completely enclosed station had signalled the beginning of the night by dimming the main lights that covered the ceiling of the ring. Adam lit a cigarette and leaned forward
on the balcony railing and watched the crowds of people below.
The smell of cooking food filled the air and the countless small restaurants and cafe's that seemed to make up almost every second building were a hive of action. He wasn't looking for anything particular but he watched the people below, looking for anything that looked out of place or someone acting strange.
By the time the mattered tangle of burning synthetic fibres in his cigarette began to burn the side of his fingers, he was convinced that there was nothing out of the ordinary happening below, so he returned to the room. The thought of getting a full night’s sleep had been at the back of his mind for almost a week now. There wasn’t a single word from Eddy when he turned off the wall screen and darkened the room despite the early time, and within moments they were both asleep.
Adam woke with a jolt as the room filled with light. As he forced his blurry eyes to focus, four dark figures came into view. Each wore identical black coats open at the front with some sort of moulded body armour underneath that covered from the top of their heads to their feet. Their faces were covered by black masks that looked like a face from a distance, but up close you could tell it was just a featureless cover.
In the fraction of a second it took him to start to move he was hit by one of the four figures with a stun gun. His body convulsed violently for a second, almost bouncing him off the bed completely. He tried to move again, more slowly this time, the same thing happened.
"Keep moving, this thing won’t run out of charge before your brain is fried." A female voice from directly in front of him sounded.
Taking the threat seriously he decided to remain motionless, at least until he knew exactly what was happening.
"What . . ." he managed to get out before the pain flooded his body once again.
"That includes talking," the same female voice added.
Slowly his ears stopped ringing and his vision focused once again. Glancing down at the end of the bed, he could make out the figure that had complete control over him. She was holding out in his direction a small silver device, no larger than a pen, the black glass of the eyes in her mask just stared back at him.
He could hear struggling sounds and muffled screams from the kitchen area, but couldn't see much more than blurry shapes out the very edge of his vision. Adrenalin began to surge through his body, desperately his mind raced to find a solution to the situation. Every thought that entered his mind was met with the same conclusion; the second that he moved, he would be shocked. Until the figure standing over him moved or became distracted, even for a second, he was helpless and had to remain frozen in place. His initial instinct was to go for his gun. It was tucked just under his coat that lay on the left side of the bed. It was at arm’s reach, yet still too far away.
"It's been fitted. You can start now." A male voice from the kitchen area announced.
Adam tried desperately to see what the attacker was referring to, but it was too far out of his vision.
"Now, I'm going to ask you some questions. That device attached to your head will tell me if you’re lying. If you lie, you get a shock like your friend over there. If you tell the truth, we all go our separate ways and everyone is happy. Do you understand?" A new male voice asked in a deep demanding tone.
"Yes.Yes." Eddy replied.
"That’s good. Now where is the rest of your crew hiding? Where is Captain Hindermann?" The deep-voiced man asked.
Guess he's the leader of the assault team, Adam thought to himself.
"I don't know. We all split up after what happened. We all went separate ways." Eddy answered, his voice a higher pitch than normal.
There was a short silence before one of the other men sounded.
"Lie."
Immediately the low hissing of another stun gun sounded, followed by the sounds of someone thrashing around on the floor.
"Where is the crew hiding?" The leader asked again.
There was a short pause before Eddy answered.
"We all split up, they could be anywhere."
"Hit him again." The leader calmly said.
Again the sound of sparks filled the small room. A low deep growl came from Eddy, unable to even work his body to scream.
"Did any of the crew mention meeting up somewhere, or hiding out somewhere? Did you overhear anything?"
There was a short pause of silence before the leader spoke.
"Again." He commanded to one of the other figures standing over Eddy.
"No. No. Wait . . . Calypso . . . one of them mentioned the casino. That’s all I know. That’s all I know." Eddy replied trying to catch his breath.
There was no sound from the man monitoring the lie detector.
"Do you know anything else about the location of your former crew?"
"No, nothing." Eddy replied.
"He's telling the truth." The other man announced.
"Well Samuel Edwards, you appear to have outlived your usefulness."
There was a muffled scream that made the hair on Adams neck stand on end, quickly followed by the sickening sound you only hear when someone’s neck is broken, then the dull thud of his lifeless body hitting the floor.
"Now cop, let’s see what you know." The leader said as he stepped closer to Adam. With both hands on his shirt, he yanked Adam to his feet.
"I know a lot, but it’s going to take more than you and your bondage club rejects to get it." Adam replied with a cocky grin.
His comment was met immediately by a swift backhand from the assault team leader; the exact response Adam wanted although it was a lot harder than he was expecting. It felt like he'd been hit on the head by a steel bar. With an over exaggerated stumble backwards he fell back onto the bed, then tumbled to the floor on the other side knocking his coat and gun to the floor with him. After what seemed like an eternity of fumbling around, he finally felt the coarse rubber grip of the handgun.
"Get him up." The leader shouted to one of his men.
Adam just managed to get his arm up high enough as the man came bounding over the bed towards him. The single shot was deafening in the tiny room. The leaping man seemed to stop in mid-air then collapsed face first onto the bed.
Within a second Adam was up on his feet, weapon pointed directly at the leader, who hadn't moved at all since the shot was fired. With a low groan, the wounded man began trying to pick himself up. The other three just ignored him, focusing all their attention on Adam.
"Drop the shockers." Adam shouted, briefly pointing the gun at the two either side of the leader holding the stun guns.
The only one to move was the leader. He lifted one arm up and bashed his fist against his chest.
"BULLETPROOF, MOTHERFUCKER."
Adam quickly gestured down at the body with his gun, before pointing it back at the three still standing. The man had given up on his attempts to get up, a large patch of dark red blood slowly spread out across the bed.
"Armour piercing, mother fucker." Adam replied.
Reaching down with his free arm, he scooped up his coat then bashed the door control button behind him, without taking his eyes off the three motionless figures.
"There ain't a place in the system you can hide from us." The female attacker shouted, as Adam began taking steps backwards through the open door.
"Then you might want to bring something other than bug zappers next time." Adam replied, as he raised the gun in the air like he was waving good bye.
A long blue spark shot through the open doorway and arced along the metal handrail of the balcony, just as Adam leaped over the edge. He quickly regained his footing after landing with a roll and headed for the closest dark alleyway.
End of Part 1
NOTES
For more information on the story or the release dates, take a look at the website.
http://serialsciencefiction.blogspot.com.au/
If you liked the first part, remember to leave a comment on the blog or a review on Amazon.
Table of Contents
&
nbsp; CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
NOTES
Broken Hero: Part 1 (Broken Hero Series) Page 4
