Learning the Hard Way 3

by H. P. Caledon

  “Tell me what you need, my boy, and I’ll get it. Where do you need it delivered?”

  “Reeds. Have to find out whether it should be North or South Port. But we need provisions for at least fifteen weeks, some clothes, and a good wad of creds in fiddle-form.”

  “Fiddle-form?” Keelan asked, amused by yet another weird word from Danny.

  “Yeah, you know, something you can fiddle with.” Danny wagged his brows but made the inter-system hand-sign for cash.

  “Send me a list, and I’ll get right on it. When do you need it?”

  Danny looked at Keelan.

  “Eight days at the latest, probably more like six. We’re star jumping after this call.”

  “Then I need that list, soon.”

  “Sending it now.” Danny worked away at his keyboard. “Have you heard something about badge flashers on Reeds by the way?”

  “No, but you’re not worth that much, are you?”

  “Me, no. My death certificate is already official, but you don’t think a sexy Chiromancer like me can skip the law all on his own, do you?”

  “Yeah, your sex appeal has oddly enough never been why I help you,” Tonog said, laughing.

  “No, that’s right, you’re more of a bristly fins and shivering gills than tight buttocks and broad shoulders kind of guy.”

  Silence followed before Danny howled laughter and fell over on the couch in fits. Keelan was sorry he hadn’t watched the screen to see what had caused it, but he didn’t want to let Tonog—however much Danny trusted him—see him.

  “Call me before your in-flight, and I’ll deliver everything myself.”

  “Will do, Tonog,” Danny said, still chuckling as ended the call.

  “So we get everything delivered?” Keelan asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. Then all we have to do is get this mess secured and find our pilot, because I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed within ten feet of the pilot seat in this ship.”

  * * * *

  Mike sat in the common room looking through his boxes and bags, which he still hadn’t sorted out after the move. Some things were hidden pretty well, and he’d spent the last three days trying to find the wristbands he sat with now.

  Misery and Keelan sat across from him.

  “Have you ever been to Reeds, Keelan?” Mike asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Danny, have you?”

  “Yepper,” Danny answered from his workstation two tables over.

  “Come on over here, because you’re gonna be our communication,” Mike said. Danny joined them, and Misery was about to move in to make room for the three of them. But Mike moved in to make room next to himself. Blank surfaces—which were plentiful on that ship—aided him in gauging their reactions. Danny glanced at Keelan.

  Danny finally sat next to Mike, but he still sat as far away from him as possible. He’d kept a noticeable distance since the blanket incident. It somehow pained Mike, because it wasn’t even because Mike had said something stupid like right after they’d sprung Danny. After fourteen days with the Techno Raiders, he and Danny seemed to silently have reached the agreement to let it go, and calm and ease had grown between them since.

  At least until Mike panicked under a blanket. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around why he’d panicked in those surroundings, but being attacked in the dark of his cell had flooded back to him as unseen hands had groped him through the blanket.

  “You know these.” Mike held the earpiece and armband up.

  “Yeah, but we’re getting it all delivered by Tonog on the docks,” Keelan reminded him.

  “We won’t even have to leave the ship,” Danny pitched in.

  “Before Lewis got his big promotion and the command of his very own Spec Edit ship, he earned his living through hard work and ass-grinding. He started his career as a planet worm. He busted his ass off and earned the respect and rank he holds today—a rank almost unheard of at his age.”

  “How old is he?” Misery asked.

  “Thirty-one in Earth years.”

  “And this is relevant, because?” Danny asked.

  “He has a saying. One he managed to knock into my head so thoroughly that it’s now second nature to me. Almost instinctual. The saying goes like this. There’s only one thing better than the perfect plan, and that’s an even better backup plan.”

  Keelan rubbed his face. “I knew there was a reason why I was never really able to hate that man.”

  “Never, really?” Misery asked. “He’s authority, right?”

  “An authoritarian with hidden tendencies for insubordination,” Mike added. “We were once caught ignoring an order, but we were all in full agreement with Lewis that the plan of the people behind desks was not the one to be followed on the surface. We all backed up his version, which was a lie from first to the last word, but they couldn’t really say anything, since we were one of the two squads who succeeded in the mission. The other squad was led by Lewis’ best friend, Harrison. Seventeen squads in all. Two got wiped out in an ambush, and none of the others returned without casualties. Such a mess. That’s about the time the men agreed that Lewis and Harrison were telepathically linked or something.”

  “Where was that?” Misery asked.

  “Kanakoon. The plains.”

  “The War of the Plains twelve years ago?” Danny asked.

  Mike nodded.

  “You were young!” Danny exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I was twenty Earth years.”

  “And now?”

  “Thirty-six cryo-years.”

  “You’re older than me, then,” Keelan said.

  “Ha, cryo-years and Earth years. I was born five Earth years before you, but I’ve been in cryo for four years longer than you have. Lewis is, as far as I remember, born in twenty-five seventy-five, so he’s ten or eleven years older than you in Earth years, but he’s been in cryo a lot longer than you.”

  “I’m confused,” Misery said.

  “Me too,” Keelan added.

  “Yeah, because you also have to take into consideration where you grew up.”

  “Really?” Danny asked.

  Mike nodded, fumbling with a wristband.

  “I read about that.” Keelan tapped a finger on his chin. “Think it was in my bogus military file. It said something about a formula to calculate body-age. I thought that was just cryo-years.”

  “There are five factors to be considered, and some of these are results from other formulas,” Mike explained. “Age in Earth years, age in cryo-years, suns you grew up under, numbers of moves also counting how long you were awake during long jumps, and if there’s evo blood present in the body.”

  “So how old is Lewis in Earth years?” Misery asked.

  “Thirty-one Earth years. Forty-four cryo. His body-age was calculated to twenty-seven when he took command of Spec Edit five. Mine hasn’t been calculated after Delta, but I think at least ten years was added in those months.”

  “Why is evo blood relevant?” Misery asked.

  “Depends on the race, because not all bodies are like the average human.”

  “And us?”

  Keelan got Danny’s full attention, and he smiled awkwardly as he leaned toward his daughter and shushed her theatrically.

  “No formula on you guys,” Mike said.

  “So it’s Harrison and his soldiers that Lewis is unofficially leading around in circles on Kanakoon?” Keelan asked.

  “And now Motáll,” Mike said, nodding.

  “What kind of evo—”

  “What’s your backup plan, Mike?” Keelan asked and sat forward, ignoring Danny’s question. Mike glanced his way, and Danny looked like he got the point of Keelan’s quick change of subject.

  Mike leaned toward Danny and shushed him the way Keelan just had Misery and smiled.

  Danny grinned. “Yeah, yeah, memo received and logged.”

  “If we’re forced to leave the ship for any reason, then Danny, you need to be our control cent
er. You have to guide us if anything happens, because if we’re seen, we have to split up. Keelan, you hide as you do so very well and follow Misery while I... am fucked, as you so eloquently put it. I’ve contemplated Danny’s remark from the other day and will not be shaving.”

  “Oh yeah,” Misery said, looking closer at him. “That’s what’s off. You do look a bit less polished than usual.”

  Mike just smiled and once again noticed how much it itched. And now he was conscious of it again, just as he’d managed to forget it.

  “Keelan. It’s your turn to teach me, because even though I’m well-trained in pursuing convicts on the skip, then it’s pretty obvious you have tips and tricks that I, and thus all the other lawmen, don’t know about.”

  “So you’re finally gonna act like what you are... a max on a wild dash!” Keelan said.

  “Yeah,” Mike mumbled and pulled a few more things from his box. He pushed them to lie in front of Misery. “You have to learn a lot more new thingies and new tactical maneuvers. We’re gonna try some of them on the ship now that we have the room, and Danny, if you’d be so kind as to look for badges. Also on the inbound ships.”

  “Yepper.”

  * * * *

  Misery ran the halls as silently as possible. She was conscious about her breathing—which even in halls that big could reveal her—how her feet hit the floor, and where the shadows fell. In that case, the light was diffuse, so it didn’t matter much, but Mike had pointed out that a drill had to be as authentic as possible or she wouldn’t learn from it.

  Danny gave her directions and instructions through the earpiece, which kept popping out because it was Keelan’s. Mike had made an impression of her ear canal, but until it was ready, she had to make do with Keelan’s and tape. It was still so loose that not all of Danny’s messages made it through to her, and vice versa since it needed constant contact for the sound to travel.

  They’d run training similar sessions three times a day—mainly because they no longer had as much equipment as they used to in their training arena—but Misery loved the new challenges and variations.

  “Left, then left—target ten meters ahead.”

  Misery followed Danny’s directions and remembered yesterday’s training where she hadn’t reached her target. Far from it, actually, since Keelan had come running out of nowhere, yelling and screaming, caught her, tickled her, and finally tossed her over his shoulder while he declared her caught and that he wanted his coffee now. She had laughed the whole way while he carried her to the canteen.

  Misery slowed to round the corner and ran into Mike, who tackled her, sat on the ground, and held her tightly against his chest—her back to him.

  “Always know what’s around a corner,” he said as she struggled in his arms.

  “Argh!”

  “Need more fight than that to get free.” Mike tightened his grip. Misery looked around as best she could but remembered Mike’s outfit had straps from shoulder to shoulder. Her arms were locked, and he held her against his body low enough that she couldn’t headbutt his nose. But she was close to the wall, so she kicked off it and thus slid further up in his grip. Without putting too much force behind, she slammed her head back.

  Mike yelped in surprise and released her with one arm. But it was enough for her to half-turn and bite his arm—again, without putting enough force behind it to hurt him. True to the exercise he let go, and she yanked a strap from his shoulder, turned completely in his arms, and hit around him to catch a kidney. Mike twisted to avoid the blow, and she used his diverted attention to wrap the strap around his neck.

  Mike ended up on his back with Misery straddling him as he scratched at his neck to get to the strap. But he stopped all fighting when he saw her sit with her newest knife, grinning at him.

  She eased her grip on the strap enough for him to be able to breathe freely—not that she’d tightened it enough to cut off his air supply. He coughed in surprise.

  “Looks like I get to run along now,” she said, smiling.

  “Yeah, if you hadn’t forgotten that mercs always have backup ten meters behind,” Keelan said, and something heavy landed on her shoulder. She glanced at the thing, seeing the muzzle of a huge gun.

  “Rats,” she mumbled and crawled off Mike.

  Keelan helped him up.

  “Hadn’t thought about the straps,” Mike said, rubbing his neck. “Nice control of your head butt there. Had that been real, I’d have broken my nose. Still sore as hell, though.” Mike massaged the bridge of his nose, his eyes a bit more blank than normal.

  “And one more detail. Shut off all earpieces.” Keelan stood in front of her and waited until she’d managed to pull the tape, plus a bunch of hair, off and gotten the earpiece out.

  “What?” she asked, glaring at the tape and lost hair.

  “If you bite one of those bastards and he bleeds... if you have the shapeshifter ability, then you’d be out for the count. Never bite! Especially since we don’t know if you can shift or not.”

  “There went a perfectly good set of weapons,” she mumbled and snapped her teeth at him. But she was surprised she hadn’t thought about that, since Keelan had already told her about how he got DNA to borrow a form.

  “Let your nails grow,” Keelan said. “It can be a bit impractical in certain situations, and it hurts like a motherfucker when they’re torn in a fight, but trust me, they work. Look.” Keelan held out both his hands, and his thumbs and index fingernails were longer than the rest. “I let them grow when I know danger is around me. While here on the ship, I’ve kept them short.”

  “Hey! The command center feels ignored and overlooked!” Danny shouted.

  Mike went to the crossing hallway to look toward the so-called command center.

  Seconds later, Danny rounded the corner. “But I did get that Mike had his ass whipped.”

  “Ha, ha,” Mike said drily and put his arm around Misery’s shoulder. “You did good.”

  Misery smiled proudly as Mike squeezed her shoulder. Keelan looked satisfied with her progress, too.

  “We land in two days,” Mike said and plopped onto a couch in the common room. Keelan did the same and threw a leg up on the table.

  “Move in,” Misery said and poked Mike’s leg. “I need to look at those.”

  Mike scooted in, and Misery drew the layout plans of the two spaceports on Reeds closer to study.

  “Am I the only one who has trouble getting these layouts to make sense with reality?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve never been on Reeds, and here I am trying to memorize a city from above, and it’s no help when I don’t know what the streets look like.”

  “Agreed, but it’s better than nothing,” Keelan mumbled.

  “We actually had holographic maps of most spaceport cities, but they stayed on the Hunter,” Mike said.

  “Why don’t you mention stuff like that! I’ll just get them.” Danny rummaged through his stuff. A call came through, and he answered it. “Hey, Tonog.”

  “Bad news. A bunch of praise-eager idiots from the freight committee stormed a warehouse because of suspicions of contraband. Of course, the warehouse had half of your order in it.”

  “Oh, you gotta be kidding me!” Danny looked up.

  Mike and Keelan were already on their feet.

  “Which part of the order?” Mike asked.

  “Clothes, vending items, and cryo meat.”

  “Had to be the most important items,” Mike groused and tossed a pillow into the wall.

  “Both my retail transporters are in that warehouse, both stocked with goods, but they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “For how long?” Danny asked.

  “A couple of weeks.”

  Misery looked at the layouts on the table. “Isn’t it this quadrant right here?” she asked and pointed.

  Mike looked and nodded. “Danny, would you find that holo map?”

  Danny unfolded a plate and put it on the table. Seconds later, the holographic map of t
hat quadrant floated above the table.

  “Do you have the access codes for the warehouse?” Danny asked.

  “You want to break in and steal it?”

  “Yeah, because I’ve logged an inbound ship with five mercs on it.”

  “List,” Keelan demanded, holding out his hand. Danny handed it to him, and Keelan passed it onto Mike.

  “I know this name, I just can’t place it,” Mike said, handing the pad back to Keelan, who again handed it to Danny.

  “I’ll find their profiles.”

  “If you steal my transporters, the whole thing will be closed down for a very long time. The content is registered, but I’ve fiddled with the invoices so it can’t be traced to one collective order. Wouldn’t look good in a case about contraband if something disappears.”

  “And?” Misery asked.

  “And? And it’s my transport center! I can’t run a cash bank for the Chiromancers without a place to run it through. If the center is compromised, all my assets and accounts will be frozen, and then I can’t give Danny anything.”

  “That’s worse,” Keelan mumbled, staring at the holo map.

  “I do have a competition for Danny to hack the stock house of. Corner of Middle Street and one forty-four, North Port. If they have the same items, break in there. That would also draw attention away from me.”

  “Sure, why not. There’s room for a few more codes on my arm. Why not add theft, breaking and entering, and manipulating government interests,” Keelan muttered.

  “Actually, there’s more than enough room on your huge arms,” Mike noted.

  Danny snickered. “And manipulating government interest has already happened. But Tonog, Middle Street and one forty-four is in the opposite end of town from you. We’d hoped you could help us out of the spaceport unseen because we can’t be checked.”

  “Do you have a plan? At least then I have something to work with.”

  “We have a plan, and I’ll call you back before tonight.” Danny cut the call to start working.

  “Let’s hear it,” Mike said.

  “Easy, easy, rushing it only makes for bad sex. Let me just take care of the foreplay here, and you’ll get an orgasmic climax.”