Wanted

by Terry Compton

After breakfast, Cherry and Lemmy went to the Alcantaran ship. An hour later, they called in parts for Josh to look for. Activating the sensor in the entrance to the city, he looked for Nagini. None came in range of the passive devices. As he moved it inside the repair depot, he looked along the right side.

  Things near the entrance were much like they had been in the city. In the shops trash had been scattered and the items for sale appeared to be picked over. Some lay on the floor broken. Josh looked at five then flew the sensor up. Today, he could read the signs in the windows and on the walls.

  Backing out of the shops, he flew higher. He could see supple cables, pipes and giant flexible tubes attached to the wall. He knew he had found docking stations for visiting spaceships. When he flew in one of the tubes, he found a closed door at the end of it. These connected the spaceships to the complex to allow crews to enter the shops and living quarters.

  He flew closer to the cables. Examination showed him connections for oxygen, water, fuel and other necessities. Some of the pipes and cables must have taken those same items from the ship. Moving away, he continued to explore.

  A mile from the entrance he found large openings in the rock face. They led to passageways leading deeper into the complex. Josh flew the sensor up toward the ceiling. The openings continued almost to the top.

  Out of curiosity he flew the sensor to the opposite wall. The same openings marked this side. He knew he could fly his cycle from opening to opening. Was this how these people moved around in this place? Josh moved back to the other side and down about half the length of the block.

  Flying in an opening, he moved along the passageway. A cross-street came into view. He turned to the left and flew along the passageway. Along both sides he saw offices with names on the windows interspersed with shops.

  He saw offices for shipping agents with most seeming to specialize in one or two types of merchandise. They offered metals, raw ore, robots, medicines, tools and a host of other goods. The shops offered the same things. Josh saw clothing stores, parts for spaceships, weapons and shields for spaceships, beds, bedding and anything a spacer could need.

  Most of the shops and offices on this level looked like they hadn't been touched in the looting that had taken place on the lower level. Josh moved to the next cross-street and turned right. How far did this complex extend into the asteroid?

  After the fifth cross-street, Josh started seeing bars and entertainment places on the corners. He didn't fly down those streets, but knew they would have more of the same. He'd been on enough trading planets to know the routine.

  Ten more cross-streets brought him to a broad boulevard. To the right, he saw a large empty area. Turning on the radar, he checked it out. It was a shaft one hundred yards by one hundred yards going from the floor to the ceiling. This had to be the way that goods were moved from one level to another.

  Going back to the center of the boulevard, Josh moved the opposite direction. He found a few shops and offices on his left. To the right, very few walk doors appeared. Huge hangar type doors dotted the wall as far as the light reached. Moving closer, he inspected the signs. This area appeared to be warehouses. He muttered, "Too bad I don't have a map. One of these places could hold everything we need. It'll take months and months to search though."

  Increasing the sensor's speed, he flew down the boulevard. The shops and offices continued as well as the hangar doors. Josh guessed that some of the merchandise must be huge or these people had moved giant stacks of it. Halfway down the length of the repair depot, he came to another wide cross boulevard.

  Cherry called, "Josh, are you having any luck finding parts?"

  "I'm finding places that might have it, but I don't have any of your stuff in sight, yet."

  "If you could find three or four more Ezrawe or other workers, this job would go much quicker."

  "How about some robots?"

  "If they're the right type and can be programmed, they might work. Did you spot some of them?"

  "I did in the city. I'm sure there'll be some in the depot, too. Cherry, I have a problem. I've found fifteen levels. The level I'm on has sixteen streets with offices and shops. On the last street are some more of the same plus what looks like warehouses. I have no idea if any of these places have merchandise, but it'll take months if not years to search all of them. I don't want to be blundering around in a footwear store when we need gravity-differentiators. Any suggestions?"

  "Have the sensor fly as fast as it can, recording the names and advertising on the doors. Set it to cross-reference by location. Then you can do a sort and search."

  "Hmmm, that sounds like it might work. I could go in person to check out the store or warehouse. That should drastically cut down the time."

  Cherry said, "You wouldn't even have to wait to start searching for some of the specific needs we have."

  "I'll start with the robots. You can program them."

  "We'll need something besides the cycle and grav-sled to jockey things around. See what they used in there to move freight."

  "Aye, aye, captain. I'll get right on it."

  "Smart aleck. I'm going back to work."

  Josh watched as Cherry tore into the dashboard on the old ship. He flew the sensor to Lemmy to find her clearing debris and checking wires. Seeing that the two had plenty to keep them busy, he settled down to construct a search program.

  Three days later, Josh had the program built and tested. He started the sensor out on the second level near the entrance. Letting it fly the programmed course, he turned to observe the other two. They had most of the damaged material cleared away and were working to correct some of the problems.

  An alarm jerked his head to the view screens. Naca's sensor had picked up movement near the city entrance. As he watched, Josh saw a small group of the ten to twenty foot Nagini slowly move out of the city. He reached for the comm button to call Cherry, but hesitated when the snakes stopped. They floated about thirty feet off the ground.

  Josh zoomed in on them and saw that their eyes were focused on the old ship. The mass of aliens moved around each other but didn't come any closer. As the bodies moved, the eyes never wavered from their stare. It gave Josh the willies.

  Suddenly, more appeared. They moved toward the opening on the other side of the land bridge. Josh quickly checked the detector to see the big ones were moving back toward their position. He called Cherry.

  Cherry said, "What are they doing?"

  "The big ones are right outside the land bridge. All the smaller ones are swimming out to them. Now they're swarming all over them. The big ones are just floating."

  "Keep an eye on them. I'm going back to the room with the shield controls. I still don't have a good connection to them with the computer."

  Josh watched the readings and images from Naca's sensors. The radiation and energy readings skyrocketed. He reached for the comm, but Cherry beat him to it. "What are they doing now?"

  "Still the same. The radiation and energy readings are going crazy though. That mass of smaller ones is rubbing all over the bigger ones. It looks like a feeding frenzy in a fish hatchery."

  "Send me a picture in here. I wonder what they're up to."

  Josh sent the images to the sensor inside the ship. After about a half hour, the smaller ones started to move back into the city. When the last one left, the larger ones swam out of view. The remote detector followed them until they disappeared into the asteroid field.

  Cherry asked, "Do you have the readings on the larger ones? How much energy are they putting off now compared to what they did before?"

  "I don't have any readings on before. I'll save these readings though."

  "Looks like the crisis is over so I can go back to work. Are you finding anything with your search?"

  "I had just started the sensor before we were interrupted. I'll get back at it."

  Both bounty hunters returned to their tas
ks. An hour later, Josh found the warehouse holding robots. His hand reached for the comm but pulled back. Walking back to the rear of Naca, he worked back into his spacesuit. Pushing the grav-cycle out, he went back for the sled. He checked the shield generator and other gear before pulling everything out to hook to the cycle.

  As he started to climb on the cycle, he remembered the translator. Grunting, he stepped away and returned to his quarters to get it. After he attached it, it took thirty minutes to get to the door of the warehouse.

  Josh carefully checked as far as he could. Nothing came into sight, but he kept the cycle as close as he could get it. Pushing on the door, he almost fell in when it swung open. His little hand light barely lit the doorway, so he set up the power unit and a light. This lit a much bigger area.

  In the light, he saw several rows of robots. To his right, a row of bins sat along the same wall as the door. He pulled himself along reading the labels on the bins. In the bins sat cleaning bots, pet walkers, sewer crawlers and others whose function he had no idea. Near the end of the bins he found wire repair bots.

  Stacking the six bots in his arm, he made his way back to the sled. After piling them on it, he returned to look for more robots. The bins didn't yield any more useful items, so he started down the rows. He found ag-workers, miners, street cleaners and household workers. None of these looked like they could help repair the spaceship so he moved to another row.

  This row held several different models that looked like they might work. Josh worked one of the smaller models over to the sled and tied it on. His legs were aching by this time so he decided to return to Naca. Loading up the rest of the gear, he turned the cycle around. Stopping, he set the shield generator to cover everything.

  Coming to a wide cross-street, he turned to fly toward the repair depot. As he flew out into the large bay, movement caught his eye. Dozens of smaller Nagini swarmed around the shield. Josh's hand tightened on the accelerator. The snakes didn't attack but just crawled around on the outside of the shield. Their eyes kept staring at him. Josh shivered.

  Keeping a steady pace toward the entrance, he tried to keep watch on his entourage. Soon the monsters stopped and swam away into the darkness. Josh breathed a sigh of relief. He kept a finger on the brake just to give some light to the rear.

  When he pulled into Naca's shield, he started to tremble. Stopping outside, he set the cycle and sled down to the ground. Leaving them there, he grabbed the small bots and took them inside.

  After crawling out of the spacesuit, Josh took the bots to the workshop and tried to get them charged. Two had instructions printed on the body. The rest looked similar so he hoped Lemmy and Cherry would be able to use them. His pelvis and legs started to bother him, so he set the bots down and went to his quarters.

  Two hours later, excited voices woke him from his sleep. Cherry and Lemmy came tramping into his quarters. Cherry said, "I see you had some success today. What else did you find?"

  Josh grinned at his exuberance, "I found some more robots that looked like we could program them to help with the repairs. I couldn't fit them on the sled though. Sorry I didn't get the robot charged. My legs gave out on me."

  Lemmy said, "I think you did great. After I eat, I'll charge it up and see about the programming."

  The three talked about the progress Lemmy and Cherry had made on the ship as they headed to the galley. Josh asked, "Did you look in the workshop?"

  Cherry said, "No, why?"

  "I found some wire repair bots. I did get them charged."

  Lemmy and Cherry started out the door to check them out until Josh said, "You walk out that door and you won't find a crumb of food when you get back."

  They reluctantly came back to sit down to eat. Cherry and Josh watched as Lemmy went through her usual routine of pulling food into the sleeve of her spacesuit and then eating it with her head out of sight. She carried on an animated conversation with Demmy as she ate.

  Josh said, "I had a little scare in there."

  Cherry looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Oh?"

  "On the way back, I had an escort of several dozen smaller Nagini. They didn't do anything but swarm around the shield, but it about made me pass out."

  The noises from Lemmy's suit ceased and the top of her head appeared in the helmet. Her eyes were much larger than normal. She asked, "How fast did you get out of there?"

  "Not very. I took my time because I was afraid rapid movement might trigger an attack. They swam along for a bit then disappeared."

  She said, "Better you than me. I don't like those things."

  Josh chuckled, "I don't either, but someone has to get the things you guys need. As long as they just look, I guess I can handle it."

  Cherry said, "Be careful, I don't want to have to come rescue again."

  "AGAIN? Just what did you do before? I don't remember seeing you in the city."

  Cherry chuckled, "I stood at the door waiting for you, just like you wanted me to."

  They began a bantering match as they continued to eat. Lemmy's wide eyes showed above the body of her spacesuit. Those eyes went back and forth between the others as she continued to shove food in her mouth and smack her lips. When the bickering got too loud, she would slide a little farther into the spacesuit but never completely out of sight.

  When they finished eating, Lemmy stood and announced, "I'm going to go fuel the robot and see if I can get it programmed."

  Cherry said, "I'll look at the ones in the workshop."

  Josh watched them go then went to the cockpit to check the sensors and detectors. The detector near the planet showed a spaceship. The translator enabled him to understand the exchange between planet and ship.

  Laughing at the informal protocol, he mused how dangerous that would be in his world. Pirates and other reprobates would have come in to loot and strip the planet of any wealth. Josh did note that the comm signals weren't very strong. They wouldn't carry far.

  Listening to the exchange triggered a thought. He looked at the frequency he had the detector set on. The emergency broadcast didn't even come close. Grabbing the comm he called Lemmy, "Lemmy, what frequency do you use for emergencies here?"

  She told him and Josh saw why they hadn't had any response. This emergency frequency wasn't in the same bandwidth. If others out there had the same problem with translation, they would have no idea what he had broadcast.

  Josh told the computer to shut off the emergency broadcasts from the remote detector. He left the detector in place to warn of incoming ships. With one last check, he moved to the workshop.

  Cherry grinned as he came in, "These are going to save us a ton of time. You'll have to find some wire right away to keep them busy though."

  "Glad I could be of help. I just found out why we haven't been getting any response from the emergency broadcast."

  "Oh, why's that?"

  "Wrong frequency and no one could understand us."

  "That makes sense. How'd you find out about the emergency frequency?"

  "I asked Lemmy. I'm headed to bed. My pelvis is starting to feel like it's broken again. I'll find wire tomorrow. I also need to find a way to move more material."

  "Make sure the power unit is fully charged and use it to refuel items. We're sitting pretty good for fuel now and if we can get another snake to bite us, we won't have any problems in the foreseeable future."

  "That might take some doing. Those today didn't even try. I'll see you in the morning."

  The next morning over breakfast Lemmy chattered excitedly about the robot and kept asking when Josh would have some more. Josh told her he would work on it today. After Cherry and Lemmy took the new robots to start working, Josh suited up to see how he could get more robots.

  Moving slowly to protect his pelvis and legs as much as possible, Josh refueled the power unit, cycle and sled. As he threw his leg over the cycle, Naca's alarm went off. Josh moved back inside t
o check it out.

  The detector had a ship outlined. The strange ship was approaching the asteroids. As it did, it picked up speed. One of the bigger Nagini lifted off its rock. When it swam into view of the ship, Josh heard a transmission to the planet.

  "Holy cow! There's a monster coming after us. I thought you said you had comm transmissions from there."

  "We did. It stopped yesterday. That's why we wanted you to check it out."

  "It's checked. Don't come anywhere close to this place. We're going to hyperspace to get away. We'll collect our fee when we land."

  "What fee…"

  The ship winked out of normal space. The Nagini drifted back to its rock and settled down. Josh watched a few more minutes, then returned to the cycle. He had a list of places to check out for the parts and wire they needed.

  Chapter 13