by Drew Wagar
“ Find it for me Jim. If it turns out to be false I have failed anyway. You can let fâché here kill me if she so desires. Give her a chance to save her family, give me the chance to save Galcop. This is Raxxla, Jim! I don’t want to have to use force, but if it’s the only way… ”
To Jim’s surprise, Rebecca stood up and walked around the table in the opposite direction from where her rifle was stored. She ended up standing next to Zerz. Zerz looked at her with suspicion.
“No need for that, Furvel.” She looked at Zerz, her voice cold and calm. She turned to stare coldly at Jim. “If he refuses to work this out, I’ll do the convincing for you.”
Jim stared into Rebecca’s brown eyes in shock, seeking any hint of deceit or deception. He saw none.
“What about the Dark Wheel?” Jim stammered. “Your mission?”
What about our plan? What about me?
“I don’t care about the Dark Wheel, or Galcop for that matter!” Rebecca returned angrily. “Listen. I came here because all I wanted was a chance to kill this bastard,” she waved vaguely at Zerz. “I never even thought there was a possibility that Raxxla was real… ”
“And now you know it is… ” Zerz interjected.
Rebecca continued her tirade at Jim. “If Raxxla exists and I can use it to save my family, then he’s irrelevant too!”
“Rebecca, there simply isn’t a chance that we can save your family!” Jim returned, trying to reason with her. “Time travel isn’t possible, end of story! Even if it were, chasing our own desires would be fraught with danger… ”
“DAMN YOU JIM!” Rebecca slammed both fists down on the table. “I WILL HAVE MY FAMILY BACK!”
The plates and cutlery rattled, the wine glasses vibrating. One fell over and rolled across the table in a small arc before colliding with a plate. It sounded surprisingly noisy in the silence following Rebecca’s outburst.
Jim stared at her in anguish.
“How dare you moralise at me!” Rebecca’s voice was quiet again, but it trembled with suppressed rage. “I’ve heard enough! You can find Raxxla, you will find it! If you don’t… if you dare deny me this chance! I swear… !” she paused for breath, before shouting her final words, “… I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF!”
Rebecca’s face was a mask of pure fury. Jim flinched back, ashen-faced. He’d never seen anyone so incensed. The sheer power of her emotional outburst was terrifying.
Clear enough for you Jim? She never cared for you! You’ve been deluding yourself all this time! Fool! She’s what she said she was: a trader, a fighter, a lone wolf! She’s out for herself and nothing else! You’re on your own here!
“How delightfully ironic,” Zerz said after a pause, watching both of them closely. “I was fully prepared to you threaten you with all sorts of unpleasant torture in order to convince you Jim, but it appears she has done quite a good job of that on my behalf.”
“Rebecca?” Jim whispered. He was shaking with shock.
Rebecca was breathing hard, her teeth clenched, her eyes blazing furiously. She wasn’t giving an inch.
Zerz regarded them coolly. “It would appear that you’re not a very good judge of character, Jim.”
“Apparently not,” Jim said, stricken. He looked at Rebecca again. Her expression was now scornful, almost dismissive.
Zerz leant forward, hands resting on the table. “Jim, listen to me. You may not agree with my methods, but my cause is sound. I only want to save Galcop from destruction!”
“Maybe Galcop should come to an end! Maybe it’s out of time!”
Zerz’ anger finally burst forth. “And have everything cast into disarray? War, poverty, famine, trial and tribulation? Economic chaos? A trillion lives disrupted? Is that what you want? Too long have we seen our ineffective bureaucracy avoid dealing with the issues head on. Too long have the Imperials and Federation laughed at us behind our backs! Too long have the Thargoids encroached further on our territory! Enough is enough! It’s time to stop this, time to strengthen our resolve!”
“It’s wrong! If it does exist, Raxxla isn’t meant to be found!” Jim argued back.
“Don’t be a coward!” Zerz snapped. “Who appointed the Dark Wheel to be the owners of Raxxla? Who said they had ownership of all that that entails? The technology, the advances, the knowledge… the power! No one but themselves! They are a self-serving organisation!”
“They’ve kept the peace for hundreds of years!”
“According to them! There have still been wars and loss of life! How do we know they are trustworthy and have our best interests at heart? We don’t! Their domination can and will be stopped! Why should they decide our future? We can be masters of our own destiny! It’s ours to take!”
Zerz paused, gathering his composure and lowered his voice.
“Do the right thing, Jim. Join me. Save this girl’s family. Save Galcop!” He clenched both of his fists together tightly and shook them. “Help me find Raxxla!”
Jim looked up at Zerz’ almost desperate face and Rebecca’s determined one.
No choice. If I refuse, one or both will kill me, there’s no doubt about that. Maybe Zerz is right too, I don’t know what the Dark Wheel’s real agenda is! Maybe there’s a way out of this if I play along…
“All right! All right!” Jim snapped. “I’ll do it! Damn the pair of you!”
Zerz straightened, sighing with satisfaction. “You’re doing the right thing, Jim. Believe me.”
Jim was unable to answer.
Rebecca looked at both of them. “Let’s get a move on then. I don’t want to hang around this godforsaken hole of a planet for any longer than I have to!”
She walked across to the exit.
“I agree with you on the need for alacrity, but you’ll wait for me if that’s quite all right,” Zerz said, warningly. He had moved to the back of the room and had picked up the rifle.
“Of course,” Rebecca said, in deference, and then looked at Jim with scorn. “You heard him, move it!”
Jim glared at her.
“Time is of the essence, after all,” Zerz said, gesturing with the rifle.
Jim looked between Rebecca, Zerz and the exit, gauging his chances.
This is not the time…
He walked to the exit, his head hung in defeat, resignation and betrayal.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Jim shook his head.
This could take months of investigation, astrometric inquiry and backtracking instrument readings. Zerz’ data was good, but it was voluminous, and not all of it was relevant. Jim had transferred the information from the Raxxla file into the computer and was trying to decode it.
Zerz’ ship was well equipped, better than any other shipboard astrometrics facilities he’d come across. Despite this, it was no match for the fully funded lab environment he’d enjoyed back home. It would have been easier if he could have used the astrometric computers at the Onrira torus station.
It would also be easier if I wasn’t burning with betrayal! Damn her!
Rebecca was adjacent to him, sat at one of the other consoles on the far side of the lab. She was leaning back on her chair, one foot propped against the console. She was studiously ignoring him. She’d not spoken to him since the dinner. She’d also been reading through the information Zerz had provided, examining it thoroughly. She seemed to be working with a singular purpose. She was scribbling notes, then crossing them out and trying again.
This is intolerable!
Jim threw down the stylus he’d been making notes with in sheer frustration. Rebecca looked across at him.
“Get back to work, Harmless!” she snapped.
“Just get lost,” her yelled at her, struggling for words, “you damn… ”
“Sticks and stones, Harmless,” she replied nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders. She ran a hand through her hair and flicked it out of her eyes, preening herself. “What’s your problem anyway?”
I’ve got to know…
“
It meant nothing to you did it,” he asked, looking directly at her, “when you said you wanted to come back and see me.” His voice caught on the words.
“Is that what this is about? Back on Onrira?” She laughed and sneered back at him. “God, you’re so pathetic! Trader’s instinct! All I wanted was a safe port in a storm. They’re worth a lot to the likes of me, you know. I might have needed a stopover someday. Don’t tell me you thought there was more behind it… ”
There was more behind it! There was!
Jim’s face was pale.
Rebecca laughed again. “You did, didn’t you!”
She got up and walked over to him, swinging her hips provocatively, her voice teasing. “You thought here was this poor, torn up little woman who needed defending from the big bad universe.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought…
Jim turned away, but was forced to look up into her scornful face by her proximity. He was painfully aware of how attractive she looked in her elegant green dress. She leant over towards him.
Why are women so much more desirable when they don’t want you?
“Listen to me, Harmless,” she said in a low sneer. “You were an opportunity to be used, nothing more. I played you like a holo-book.”
She smiled cruelly, turning her head to once side and raising an eyebrow. Jim swallowed.
Rebecca continued, leaning back and raising her voice. “I have a dozen men across the galaxy who would welcome me in whenever I need the diversion! I’m not sweet and innocent and I don’t need saving by the likes of you. I can look after myself!”
Tell me something I don’t know. I’ve got that message loud and clear…
Jim turned away, sniping spitefully. “Yeah, I guess you can, it’s what you’re best at after all.”
“I’m a trader, Harmless. I make no apology for what I need to do to survive! Buy low and sell to the highest bidder. You lost out to Furvel, he’s holding the credits now.”
I should have listened to myself! I was right! ‘No allegiance without profit!’ This is the real Rebecca; the tough, hot headed, hard nosed trader girl! What else did I expect?
“Now get back to work,” she snapped. “I’ve made more progress than you already. I’ve categorised the gravitational anomalies by strength and vector already. Look, here are the systems.”
She flicked her hand at his console, her action initiating a transfer of information to it. A series of documents with highlighted indicators appeared.
Jim took a deep breath and turned back to look at the console.
“The answer is in there, lovesick boy. You’ve just got to find it,” she said, her voice amused. “Now, get me Raxxla or you can kiss your ass goodbye!”
“Get off my back and I will!” he snapped.
She made an exaggerated show of being offended, and sauntered back to the other side of the room.
Jim looked back at the text. It was a mass of unfamiliar names. He really ought to have committed the systems in Chart Eight to memory.
“This could take weeks,” he muttered.
She glared at him. “The answer is in there, Harmless! Look at the list of all the planetary systems and hurry it up! I need to see Zerz!” Her stare seemed oddly intense as she got up and left the astrogation lab. The door snapped closed behind her.
Zerz regarded Rebecca carefully as she emerged from the astrogation lab.
No breeding or sophistication that one; a mere trader, scratching a living off of the detritus of civilisation. Yet somehow she has acquired the flying skills of an ace, an ability that few can claim, even with extensive bio-modification and training…
It had taken him some time to reconstruct the events that had involved this curious young woman in the Q-Bomb affair. She had been a deck hand on the Boa that had witnessed the flight of the SuperCobra, ejecting from the ship prior to its destruction in a lone escape pod. It was that pod that he’d been about to destroy when Jim had intervened and scooped it with the SuperCobra. From then it became less clear, but it appeared that the girl was responsible for destroying the incoming Viper squadron and eluding him by a foolhardy witchspace mis-jump.
She had returned to fight over Lave’s moon, whereupon their pitched battle had been fought, neither of them victorious. Zerz had been impressed by her combat skill. Concerned enough to research her in great detail. He felt there had to be a reason for her abilities, some explanation.
He’d discovered nothing particularly unusual about her, no indication of where such a talent could have come from. His disbelief in being nearly defeated by her in battle was second only to the disdain he felt for her lack of social standing. Being bested by an Elite combateer would have been hard to stomach, but being beaten by a mere girl with no real rating from a backwater planet was more than he could reasonably stand.
A series of hacked vid files had given him further clues about her. She frequented particular types of bars in the Coriolis stations and went out of her way to antagonise the miscreant boy racers. One vid file showed her in a close embrace with Jim, just prior to her launching her ship. Zerz had assumed they had enough of a relationship for it to be a useful tool for him to use if the situation required it.
Zerz quickly became aware that she was also inquiring after him. It had become apparent that her trading runs followed his movements. She was actively trying to locate him, presumably with a view to taking her revenge for the death of her family. Zerz had provided enough clues for her to follow, but never to quite catch him. He’d led her on a merry chase for almost two years, courtesy of the Falchion’s extended witchspace jump range. Once Zerz realised he needed Jim to help decode the Raxxla file, she became a useful commodity. His plan had unfolded accordingly.
The only anomaly in the data was that her mother was not listed, there wasn’t even a deleted file reference, and he had access to far more than standard Galcop data silos. That was peculiar indeed. It worried him. There was a thread unaccounted for.
The girl clearly had an eye for opportunity, and would switch her allegiance to the highest bidder at any time. He’d eavesdropped on their conversations whilst in the astrogation lab. She was wily, and she’d played on Jim’s naïvety effectively. It appeared she was accustomed to being underestimated and used it as a weapon. Even he had been guilty of that error. She was obviously not to be trusted.
Zerz regarded her with a wary eye.
“What are you looking at?” she snapped at him.
“Nothing in particular,” he replied, wondering if she would register the irony.
Apparently not…
“How is Jim doing?” he continued conversationally.
“He’s working on it. He should have some results soon.”
Zerz nodded, regarding her with a superior look. “I’m intrigued. You’ve been pursuing me for over two years. I murdered your family without consideration, not even for a worthy cause as it transpired, yet you’re happy to leave that aside now?”
Rebecca met his eye, and shrugged. “You have the advantage. I can tell you believe in this Raxxla stuff. If it is what you say it is, I can get my family back. I don’t need to care about you any more. Like you said, pursuing you around the galaxy is a waste of time for both of us. If Raxxla isn’t true, or you’re lying, or you try to double cross me, then I’m after your hide again. It’s simple. I read people pretty well. You have to when you’re a trader.”
Perhaps she really is a simpleton. She really considers herself worthy enough to approach Raxxla? To abuse its power so selfishly, just to avert the deaths of her wastrel family? Jim might be a fool, but at least he understands Raxxla’s significance. Still, she serves a purpose…
“And Jim?” Zerz probed, looking for a hint of hesitation or reflection.
She didn’t react at all. “A means to an end. He gets what he deserves for being so gullible, stupid fool. You got me wrong Furvel. I don’t care about him.”
“Is that so,” he regarded her skeptically.
“He fel
l for my vulnerable girl routine like all men of his type do. They’re all suckers for a pretty, tearful face. Call me sadistic, but I actually enjoy breaking their hearts in the end!” She flashed a cruel grin at him. “A bolt hole like Onrira is a handy thing for a trader who lives on the edge of a Viper’s bite. I guess I’ll need another one now! It doesn’t matter. I’ve got a dozen men across the galaxy who think I’m their girl. He was no different.”
She’s single-minded in pursuit of her grubby priorities. I can admire that at least.
Zerz nodded in appreciation. “I congratulate you on your thoroughness.”
“You’d better go and make sure he’s doing the job, I don’t understand all that technical garbage he spouts.”
“I will,” Zerz agreed.
“What do you want me to do?”
“What can you do?” Zerz said, with a raised eyebrow.
“I can prep your ship better than any dockhand between Diso and Anle. When was the last time you had your witch drive serviced?”
“It will soon be overdue. I have been rather occupied.”
“I bet your witchdrive targeting alignment is well overdue for a check. You’ve probably got a twenty percent efficiency loss by now.”
“A witchdrive alignment will take hours. You’re just trying to delay me… ”
“I can do it in five minutes,” she replied. “Take it or leave it.”
Zerz considered this. He’d planned to do it himself and she was absolutely right. She clearly knew her ships.
It’s a menial task, suited to her stature. If supervised it will save me significant time…
He nodded. “The witchdrive does indeed need a significant alignment check, but any sign of… ”
Rebecca glared at him. “Listen! We aren’t ever going to be close buddies, but we don’t have to like each other in order to work together for a common goal. Do you really think I’d be that dumb and throw away my opportunity to get my family back?”
She really is utterly committed to one thing; herself! So selfish! It changes nothing. She is a means to an end. I will make use of the skills she has.
