by Candace Sams
“We’ll get to matters quickly, sir. First, we need to know more about the weaponry they’re using.”
“Of course, Captain. The Ussarians are utilizing illegally built neurological ordnance. Lucent’s constabulary, who were on duty the night of the raid, never had a chance. It’s possible they may have monitored our ground transmissions. They knew when our enforcers changed shifts, when they were at their weakest.”
“I see. And what of their leader, sir? Ussarians always move in packs with one of them acting as Alpha.”
“Yes. Their leader is a hardheaded clansmen named Goron, and he’s as dark-hearted as Ussarians come.” He clasped his hands in front of him. “All communication since the Ussarian raid took place is being strictly monitored. No one knows you’re here but me, and the constables who’ll greet you on the ground.”
“Sir…the sooner we rout these criminals, the sooner this will be over,” Datron stated in an effort to end the conversation and get down to business.
“Indeed, Captain…indeed. Lucent’s population will be moved to Dagor Prime System. Mining there will be more efficient without scanning every few tons of earth, wondering if or when we’ll ever dig up any of those damnable mind-controlling stones! Creator forgive us for ever having excavated those minerals, but we had no idea of their properties until the mining crews accidentally crushed them and breathed in the dust. Their presence has caused my people nothing but grief. Though I shouldn’t be heard saying such a thing…I personally can’t wait to see the destruction of both Lucent and Chiron,” he vowed. “Enough lives have been lost. Mining in this sector has never been a profitable venture.”
“Not to worry, sir, both planetary bodies will soon be history,” Datron confirmed.
“Thank you, Captain. I can assure you our friend will be duly informed of your great tact and courtesy. Fifteen Lucent constables are standing by to help in whatever way they we can. I’d like to send them back to their families with all due haste.” He paused. “May I say, I greatly appreciate you and your crew keeping this mission so clandestine. But then I knew you would, hence my request for the same operatives who’d handled the original problem two years ago.”
“I completely understand, sir,” Datron acknowledged, impatiently tapping one finger on the console. “There are a number of nearby planets whose populations are in political turmoil without introducing the fact that someone might have used mind control on their rulers.”
“Precisely!”
“Then with your permission we’ll be landing shortly.”
“You have it and gladly.” the ambassador agreed. “We happily await your arrival, Captain. Radnor Caul out.”
Datron turned off the vid screen before speaking freely. “Why am I not getting the warm fuzzies? I’ve felt like this was all wrong since the king gave us our orders.” He swiveled the captain’s chair around to face the crew seated behind him. “Comments?”
“Diplomacy aside, perhaps it’d be a good idea to break out the side arms,” Clitus suggested.
“Do it.” Datron agreed. “No wrist communicators since I don’t intend for us to be more than speaking distance from each other until this is over. We don’t need still one more way to have our communication hacked by a nearby Ussarian vessel. And not that you need reminding…remember there’s no surviving a direct blast from a neuro-weapon. Keep your wits about you.”
****
From the air duct above the crew, everything Charlie overheard from that vid-communique, as well as from Datron and his crew, put a keen edge on her fear.
That the king of Oceanus had ordered Datron and her three new friends into this situation was unfair. Kryllian Zatoe Doran should have picked some elite squadron of flyers to accompany the Hyperion, even if Ambassador Radnor Caul insisted no other people should find out about these strange Lucent Stones. Wondering how many men and women in history had lost their lives over just such ill planning, she kept her place inside the air duct until they landed. Once she heard the landing gear go down and felt the telltale bump indicating they’d safely made contact with the ground, she scurried as fast as her crawling position allowed, and got to the cargo bay—where the crew would simultaneously disembark.
She watched and waited.
Datron, Electra, Gilla, and Clitus were standing next to each other when the bay opened from the port side of the upright rocket ship. Only then did she drop down from her hiding spot, directly on top of a food crate. She remained invisible to the crew of the Hyperion as she clung to the top of her tall crate like a spider and flattened her body out. From her current position, she was above them but still able to see what was happening.
Once they moved forward and she was certain she would not be seen or heard, she affixed the duct grate back exactly as it had been before, then hopped down to the deck and hid behind a corner of that same crate.
Once exposed to the environment, Chiron’s cool wind blew into the ship. Her friends still had their full attention on what lay just outside the cargo hold. She saw how they faced the horizon in expectation of meeting the ambassador.
The oxygen seemed a bit thin, but it was certainly breathable. It’d have to be since she’d seen no breathing apparatus placed aboard the vessel, and Datron nor the rest of his crew wore any such devices now.
Charlie saw movement in the distance though the light of twilight or dawn, she wasn’t sure which, glowed dim. Particles in the air made seeing from her position difficult. But she could see well enough.
She recognized the ambassador’s figure. His long blue robe denoted him as a holder of that office.
But then she saw something else.
As the ambassador determinedly marched forward, his face twisted into a sneering mask. The man immediately fell to the dirt and put his hands over his head, in a protective-like gesture.
From behind one of the many rises in the landscape, nine brawny, bare-chested Ussarians suddenly rushed forward. Tribal tattoos were scattered over their arms, heads, and pectorals. Their build was as beefy and menacing as males came.
No one in the sentient galaxy would mistake the race. Their raiding, ravaging, and looting was the scourge of every known outpost from here to the Milky Way’s end.
She scrambled backward, into the dark protective space between two other crates.
She heard Datron shout to Electra, Clitus, and Gilla to draw arms. The sound of blasters tore into the stillness. Then utter silence followed. The exchange could have only lasted a few seconds.
Her heart plummeted. But she didn’t have long to ponder her friends’ safety.
The next voice she heard was familiar. It was the same one she’d heard during the vid communiqué with Datron.
Ambassador Caul was giving orders. The meeting with him had obviously been a trap. The son-of-a-bitch had ducked and taken a shielding posture so as to avoid the imminent Ussarian weapon discharge he knew would follow.
She couldn’t see, but she heard and dared not move for fear of being discovered. Had the attack happened only ten seconds later, she’d have already announced her presence.
Her heart beat hard, and she silently prayed her four comrades were still alive. If not, then it would fall to her to stop the Ussarians…somehow.
Cowardly sons of bitches!
She strained to hear and took long, soft breaths to steady her nerves. Caul’s voice filtered to her position. But then a deeper, more menacing voice joined the ambassador’s.
****
“How uneventful,” Caul remarked as he strolled forward. “I’d have expected more from an elite crew such as this. But then if Keir Trask had been leading, our ruse probably wouldn’t have worked. The four of them are suitably stunned. You have your victory, Goron.”
“You have done your job well, Caul. In truth, this scheme of yours worked better than I expected.” Goron motioned to his minions and barked out a long string of orders. “Tie these enforcers up. Take any communication devices they might have on them and their side arms. And make sure the Valkyrian
is bound facing the others. I want him to see what is going to happen to his crew. None of them are to be touched until I give the order. You may take whatever booty you desire from their vessel as long as you leave the components intact. I claim the Hyperion as my own and she must be in flying order when we leave.”
Those with Goron cried out in greed as they began to tear apart crates to get to the contents within.
“Put this trungeon bomb in the desert,” Goron commanded as he pointed toward the weapon. “They would have used it to destroy Chiron. When we lift off to meet our admiral, we will detonate it alongside the enforcers’ bodies.” He waited for the acknowledging murmurs of his clansmen to die down as they dragged the unconscious crew of the Hyperion from the cargo deck and outside the ship. Then, he turned back to Caul. “As I promised, your reward for your part in this scheme will be great.”
Caul held out his hands, palms up. “I live to serve my Ussarian comrades. Of course, the fact that I’ll be wealthy beyond measure doesn’t hurt,” he finished with a grin.
“It does not matter to you that my men killed your Lucent constables?”
“Why should it, Goron? What are they to me? I’ll return as planned and will relay the sad deaths of my companions as well as the crew of the Hyperion,” he sarcastically answered. “They’ll all have died in a battle with your men. When I leak information that such things as mind controlling substances existed on Lucent and Chiron, and Oceanus enforcement officers failed in their secret mission to contain them, Oceanus leadership will come under severe scrutiny. King Kryllian Zatoe Doran will be blamed for the powers set loose on an unsuspecting galaxy. I’ll regale everyone with the story of how I barely escaped with my life.”
“And if you are suspected?”
Caul shrugged. “If I am, there’ll be no proof of any foul play on my part. You Ussarians will have what you want, I’ll still be free to act as the governor of Dagor Prime System where newly discovered, very rare blue-green diamonds are being mined,” he joyfully communicated. “As promised, you’ll get your share of and a chance to take over whatever planets you choose by using the Lucent Stones. As Chiron and Lucent will both have been destroyed, you’ll be the sole owner of the only ones left in existence. I get rich, you get revenge—we all get what we want.”
Goron glanced at the bodies being dragged into the Chiron dust. “This was too easy. My brother faced more opposition when he first took the stones to Earth posing as a contestant in that ridiculous pageant. Truly, Keir Trask would have been a more worthy adversary. I wanted him along with his Earth Force Protectorate mate. They were the ones who killed my younger brother, Burl. And they tortured the remainder of the Ussarian warriors all the way back to their confining cells on Lucent.”
“All too true,” Caul stated. “I saw it all. The poor Ussarians brought back under Trask’s hand were barely alive by the time they arrived. When I spoke with them and conveyed how your brother was murdered, they were more than willing to face permanent incarceration, and told me everything about the entire mission on Earth. Including who the undercover law enforcement operatives were. I realized justice, in its own way, must be served.”
“And so it will. I vow it!” Goron growled, then turned and walked away.
****
Lying bastard!
From her hiding spot, Charlie felt her eyes widen in shock.
Whatever had actually taken place on Earth, she knew for a fact Keir Trask had not tortured anyone. Oceanuns were renowned for their humanitarian efforts, including the treatment of those who were incarcerated.
As she crept away from the Ussarian thieves now plundering goods from the Hyperion, she pieced together everything she knew about Datron, Gilla, Clitus, Electra, Keir, and Sagan. She wasn’t as familiar with the last two as the first four. But reputation conveyed they were not the kind of police officers who tortured anyone, assuming any Ussarians had ever been incarcerated by them to begin with. Yet, if her deduction was correct, some things made sense.
Even as she pondered the matter, she quietly and carefully climbed to the top of a crate by hiding between it and the wall—or the bulkhead—as it was known.
The foraging Ussarians were still occupied by the storage bins closest to the bay entrance.
She carefully crawled from the top of one very tall container to the next. She thanked God for the requirements leading to so many supplies being stowed, and the loftiness of each storage unit. They’d been upwardly designed to save deck space.
As soon as she could do so without being seen, she pulled herself up and onto a wide, overhead support beam in one darkened corner. These were just a little higher than the crate tops she’d traversed, but still within reach of her grasping hands.
As she’d moved, she was still at a height unperceived by the Ussarian thieves.
The Ussarians continued their search for loot, working their way toward the inner section of the hold. They seemed uninterested in food, but more inclined to shout out when equipment or medical supplies were located.
More than a bit frightened of discovery, her mind seized on a way to survive.
Once again, being small had its advantages.
Even the tallest of the Ussarians never dreamt of looking up. They believed the occupants of the Hyperion were well and truly caught. The vermin simply weren’t searching for another crew member so it was as easy to escape detection from them as it had been from Datron.
She eventually found herself directly under an air vent. From her position on an overhead support beam, she used the vent to make her escape—back into the ductwork of the Hyperion. She accomplished her retreat long before the Ussarians ever got to the last crate top and beam on which she’d hidden. Their greedy minds were still fixated on what booty they might find at deck level.
She knew then that some higher power was on her side, and that she was meant to be exactly where she was. Her instincts in stowing away had been correct.
She caught her breath and briefly closed her eyes, willing her pounding pulse to slow. Sweat poured from her face and body, but she was safe for the moment.
She had nowhere else to run except further into the ductwork, so she made use of the respite to gather her wits.
As she figured it, her friends―along with Keir Trask and Sagan Carter―somehow found out Goron’s brother had smuggled the Lucent Stones to Earth, pretending to be a contestant in the Mr. Interstellar Feller pageant. The Ussarians, as she’d recalled during that entire event, had been exceedingly aggressive with everyone. But never more than they were with Keir and Datron. The enmity between the Ussarians and the contestants from Oceanus had been obsessively fierce. As she’d watched it play out on the contest stage, the rivalry between Trask and Burl of Ussar went beyond winning some male competition. There’d been rumors Burl had actually gone insane from some absurd desire to beat Trask in every segment of the contest. She’d also heard several of the Ussarian warriors accompanying Burl had been accidentally killed in a hovercraft accident.
She’d bet money there’d been some sort of attack made against the undercover operatives on Trask’s side. The Ussarian warriors in the hovercraft crash had died as a result.
Her synopsis was nothing more than a guess, but Trask and his group on the law enforcement side had probably been trying to capture the smugglers and perhaps their buyer. Hence the extreme hostility between the Ussarians and Keir’s associates. Furthermore, if Burl smuggled the Lucent Stones to Earth that meant the buyer had been waiting there, ready to take possession of the stolen booty.
Whatever eventually happened, the Ussarians wound up on the losing side. Burl, however, hadn’t been murdered. From the accounts she’d heard and read about, the brute had been depressed and highly humiliated over Trask’s wins during the contest. The man had jumped from a hotel balcony where all the contestants had been housed. He’d died instantly.
Her gut and heart told her the Oceanuns and Electra weren’t murderers. It was well known that Ussarians routinely
made excuses for everything that went wrong in their lives. Every perceived slight gave them a reason to go after someone on what they referred to as a blood hunt. This was such an event.
Someone had lied to Goron.
Caul had somehow managed to get two crates of Lucent Stones to Goron. The ambassador had probably tricked the guards who’d originally protected the mines. Now Goron would use the stones as mind controlling agents against any number of bureaucrats and rulers of other planets.
She had no idea how the stones’ powers actually worked but there was no doubt they did control others or all this scheming was for nothing.
Charlie kept trying to calm her nerves. The sounds of Ussarians tearing the cargo hold apart didn’t help, but she needed to concentrate on the bright light in this endless muddle.
Her four comrades were only stunned. In typical Ussarian fashion, Goron wanted to take revenge for his brother’s death himself. The Hyperion’s crew was spared until they awoke and could experience whatever torture the Ussarians had in mind.
As long as they were alive, there was a chance this mission could be salvaged and their safety assured.
She was that one chance. But what could she do against Ussarian warriors and a greedy diplomat with delusions of grandeur?
A story the Holy Sisters who’d raised her came to mind. It was a parable from the Bible. She was sure its sudden recall wasn’t any accident.
She gritted her teeth and made a promise.
David did it with a stone. Well, I’ve got two damned crates of stones to somehow use against these Goliaths. Destroying them would be better still. All I have to do is get off the Hyperion without being seen.
Chapter Fourteen
Datron shook his head and tried to clear his vision. His arms ached and something cut into his wrists. Stickiness on his fingers was likely caused by blood oozing from open restraint wounds. He still had feeling in his digits but not much.
He slowed his breathing to compensate for the thinner air and stared at the red dust of the planet’s surface. His memory slid into reverse as he recalled what had happened to him and his crew.
