by Jaleta Clegg
I didn’t see I had much choice if I wanted to get paid and get rid of my cargo. Darl’s suggestion of cutting out and getting other work looked more appealing by the minute, even if it meant I had to pay fines for breaking my contract. But where would that leave me with Jerimon and the Sessimoniss?
I was halfway out the door when Leon emerged from the inner offices. Burt didn’t even twitch as we left. Leon held a sheaf of papers in one hand and patted his pocket with the other. He muttered to himself as we crossed the station.
Without Darl’s privileged status, we ended up in a public pod that stopped at every side passage all the way across the station. Leon twitched every time we passed a Patrol uniform. The station crawled with Patrol officers, more than I would have expected. I could almost smell a raid in the air. Darl’s rumors had to be true. Belliff was under investigation. There was no other reason for so many uniforms to be here.
We both heaved a sigh of relief when the pod finally stopped at the docking bay. Leon was eager to reach the ship, I was eager to get rid of him. He made me itch.
Leon walked into the bay doing a very careful imitation of a casual stroll. He wouldn’t have won any acting awards. He patted his pocket with one hand, the other had a death grip on his paperwork. I kept a pace behind him until he waved me in front with his wad of papers. I sauntered past, almost enjoying his twitching impatience, except my nerves were crawling, too.
He stayed right on my heels, stepping on my boots more than once. I walked faster to get ahead of him. He sped up to keep pace. We were practically running by the time we reached the airlock. I thumbed in the code and waited for the door to open. Leon breathed down the back of my neck, twitching nervously and darting glances every which way.
The door hissed open. Leon almost shoved me into it. He didn’t wait for me to push the button to begin the cycle to open the inner door. He mashed it down with his finger. He fidgeted while the airlock cycled. I bottled up my irritation. It could wait until after he paid me before letting it show. The inner door hissed open and I stepped through.
Jerimon slept in his bunk, rolled against the wall. If I hadn’t known he was there, he would have looked just like a pile of blankets. He’d wrapped them over his head. I stepped past him to the cargo bay, thumbing the lock. Leon shuffled his papers nervously.
The cargo bay was half full. One bin held thirty thin cartons, all sealed with original marks from Tebros. Another dozen larger cartons were stacked along the wall, anchored with webbing against shifting during flight. I waved at the boxes.
“The original seals are unbroken, delivered as contracted,” I said, turning back to Leon. “You sign for them and I hand them over. Oh…”
Leon pointed the business end of a shiny gun at me. He dropped the papers. They fluttered to the floor like ashes. He looked like a rabbit that suddenly grew vicious fangs and claws. I realized why he’d been patting his pocket. The end of the gun twitched with his nervous shaking.
“Belliff is being raided by the Patrol.” His voice cracked. “You’re going to take me out of here.”
“Where exactly am I supposed to take you?” I crossed my arms, angry at my own blindness. I should have read the signs. I should have suspected Leon.
“Freeport,” he said and twitched the gun to the side.
I sidled very slowly past him in the cramped cargo bay. I tried to stay as far from the gun as I could get. “We can’t go to Freeport,” I said, trying to sound as reasonable as possible. Freeport was the capital of the Federation Worlds, the largest collection of planets outside the Empire’s control. It was rumored to be the headquarters of the biggest group of pirates and smugglers in the galaxy. “I don’t know where it is.”
“You are going to take me there.” Leon’s thin arm stretched, the gun muzzle aimed at my belly. “Now, before the Patrol confiscates everything.” He giggled, high and shrill. “Do you have any idea what you’ve been smuggling for Belliff?”
My stomach sank. I should have looked closer at Belliff’s papers, but I needed the work too badly. Their story made sense. They wanted to courier certain items because of theft within the company’s shipping fleet. I saw through it now. Belliff was being searched, watched too closely by the Patrol. Using their own courier fleet made it easier for them to avoid detection. I wondered what I’d find if I opened the cartons. I wondered what the Patrol would believe if they boarded the ship and searched the hold. Forget the Sessimoniss, I was in hotter water with a much nastier group right now. I swore.
Leon grinned a very twisted grin. “Freeport.” He twitched the gun to the cockpit.
“I’m going.” I put my hands up in defeat. I backed across the cabin.
Jerimon stirred, peering over the edge of the bunk as Leon and I sidled into the cockpit. He blinked, eyes widening at the sight of the glistening gun.
I caught his eye, shaking my head slightly. There had to be some way to play this to my advantage. I slid into the pilot’s seat and eased the headset on.
“What do you need that for?” Leon grabbed the headset with his free hand.
“Do you want to tip them off? I have to call the tower. They have to release us from the station before we can go anywhere.”
“Don’t say anything about me.” He waved his gun under my nose, giving me a good look at it.
I bit back a laugh. Leon’s gun looked lethal but it was a stunner, an underpowered one at that. Stunners were such weak weapons that very few planets bothered to even regulate them. Leon could shoot me in the head at point blank range and the worst it would do was put me to sleep for a few minutes and give me a headache.
“Well, call them,” he demanded.
A cup clattered onto the floor behind us. Leon twitched, the cold barrel of the stunner prodded my cheek. I flinched. Let Leon think I was scared, let the Patrol and Station Control think I was scared. This just might work to get me off the hook with the Patrol if I played it right.
“Who’s back there?” Leon took a step to the door of the cockpit. “Get us out of here.” He waved the gun nervously.
I flipped on the com, keeping half an eye on Leon as he tried to peer into the cabin without moving me out of his gun sights. My left hand crept slowly over the controls to the engine starters.
“Viya Station, this is Twinkle,” I said into the mike.
“Go ahead, Twinkle,” the same male voice I’d talked to earlier replied.
“Requesting immediate clearance for undocking.”
Leon craned his neck farther around the door, trying to peer into the cramped cabin while still keeping the gun on me. I could have knocked him down and taken it away any time, except that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to spend the next six months in Patrol custody answering questions and possibly facing life in prison for smuggling. They weren’t going to believe I knew nothing. Nobody was that stupid.
“Sorry, Twinkle. Viya is currently under lockdown. You will open your hatches and allow the Patrol to board your vessel.”
“You don’t understand,” I said, lowering my voice and doing my best to sound scared. A muffled thump came from the cabin, followed by an ear-shattering scream. Jerimon had decided to play hero. I hoped the scream carried over the mike. “There’s a maniac in here with a gun who is going to shoot me if I don’t fly him out.”
Muffled talking carried over the headset. It sounded urgent. I grinned. Leon and Jerimon smashed into the table, then crashed onto the floor.
“Twinkle, what is your status?” a new voice, a very mature, concerned voice, asked. This was too perfect.
“There is a maniac with a gun who is demanding I fly him out,” I said, trying to get just the right note of panic in my voice. “You have to let me undock!”
Jerimon and Leon stumbled into the cockpit, landing across the control panels and slamming my seat against the wall. My left hand hit the starters for the engines. They came to throbbing life. The men wrestled over the gun, slamming into controls. Alarms shrieked through the cabin.
“Twinkle, what is happening now?” Whoever owned the concerned voice sounded a lot more worried. “We are showing your engines running. Shut them down immediately.”
“He won’t let me. He’s going to take out the docks if you don’t let us go!”
Leon’s gun went off. The shot ricocheted through the cockpit. Jerimon jerked Leon backwards. Leon shouted incoherently and flailed at Jerimon with his free hand. More alarms beeped and shrieked. I turned up the gain on the mike to register as much noise as possible. I goosed the engines slightly just to add to the confusion.
“Shut the engines down, now!” the very worried voice ordered.
“He’s going to shoot me! He’s going to kill me!”
Jerimon and Leon tumbled into the cockpit, landing in the copilot’s seat, Jerimon on the bottom. Blood dripped from his nose, one eye swelled shut. Leon foamed at the mouth. The two of them yelled so loudly I couldn’t hear what the worried voice said. The engine warning lights edged over into yellow.
It must have sounded like total pandemonium to Viya Station because within moments the ship jerked as the emergency releases kicked us free of the station. I shoved the throttles to full, twisting the nose of the ship away from Viya. Leon landed on my lap, shoving the steering too far to the left. I elbowed him off, then corrected course.
Alarms rang in the cockpit. Jerimon shoved Leon backwards and followed, landing on top with a loud grunt.
“Twinkle, follow a course of nine three seven,” the worried voice said slowly. “Can you do that?”
“He did something to the controls.” I jiggled the steering in what I hoped looked like uncontrolled shifting. An ore tanker lurched into view. I swerved around it. Jerimon and Leon rolled into the wall. More alarms went off, none of them serious. I watched carefully to make sure I didn’t push anything into the red.
“We’re sending ships to intercept you,” the worried voice said.
I shoved the throttles forward, trying to pick up speed. It was time to leave. I suddenly realized we had no course set. We couldn’t jump to hyperspace without one, the ship’s safety circuits wouldn’t let me. I bit my tongue to keep from swearing. I twisted the ship around in a tight loop.
“Twinkle, acknowledge,” the worried voice urged. “Heading nine-three-seven. Repeat, nine-three-seven.”
I shifted away from that heading. I didn’t want Patrol interception, not until I knew what trouble was currently sitting in my cargo bay.
Jerimon slammed Leon’s hand against the floor. The gun went off. I ducked as the bolt raced over my head. It reflected off the viewscreen, bounced off the bulkhead twice, zipped past Jerimon’s ear, and caught Leon straight between the eyes. Leon went limp. Jerimon yanked the gun from his hand and stared disbelievingly at it.
“What is this? You knew all about this peashooter, didn’t you?” He tossed the stunner onto the bunk.
“Twinkle, respond!” the worried voice demanded in my ear.
“Dace,” Jerimon said as he loomed over my chair, “what game are you playing?”
“Respond, if you can!”
I jerked the ship onto a new course, flinging Jerimon into the copilot’s chair and sending Leon’s limp body smacking into the wall. I pulled off the headset, punching the cutoff for the com. “Fly, unless you want to end up in prison.”
Jerimon’s hands moved over the controls.
“I’ll explain later. Right now we have to get out of here.”
“What are you doing?” he asked, half his attention on the shrieking alarms, the other half on me.
I opened the panel for the nav comp, then stared at the input keys. I had no real idea what to do. The only course we had was the one that had brought us here.
“You don’t know anything about navigating, do you?” I punched a button on the controls. The computer beeped.
“No. You’re going to get us killed. They’re moving in the big ships now.”
“Know any coordinates off hand?” I punched the button that disgorged the disk with the course for Viya on it.
“Not a one. How about we just surrender nicely?” He sent the ship into a spiraling dive. Leon rolled limply to Jerimon’s side of the cockpit.
The ship lurched sideways as a warning shot exploded.
“They are shooting at us!” Jerimon wrenched the ship onto a new heading. “That isn’t Patrol,” he added after a moment.
We streaked past a strange looking ship. I glanced at the viewscreen and went cold. The ship was Sessimoniss. We raced out of its range, swerving again to avoid a line of ore tankers. A long lance of white light shot from the Sessimoniss ship to the line of Patrol cruisers chasing us. The Patrol fired back.
I clutched the disk in my hand, my heart pounding as I stared at the waiting computer. The ship lurched again as Jerimon darted past the chaotic line of pursuers. The indicator for the shields faded into red. Flashes of light danced around us as the Patrol and the Sessimoniss fired at each other. I twisted the disk in my hand as I searched for inspiration to save us.
“I think I’ve got it!” I shoved the disk into the slot and hit the reverse button on the keypad. The nav computer chuckled and hummed to itself. Numbers scrolled across the screen. The ship lurched again. The light on the nav computer flickered green.
“Now!”
Jerimon goosed the engines. We felt the briefest tug of resistance as we shot into hyperspace. I heaved a sigh and sat back, waiting for the warning lights to change from red and yellow to green.
“What was that about and who in blazes is the lunatic with the stunner?” Jerimon demanded as he shut down the sublight engines.
“A Belliff executive without enough rank to escape the Patrol net,” I said absently. Three lights refused to change. I tapped a few controls. They stayed yellow.
“Why were we running away from the Patrol? Why didn’t you just take his gun away in the first place?”
“Belliff was using us to smuggle cargo. Do you think the Patrol is going to believe us if we say we knew nothing about it?”
“They definitely won’t now! They were shooting at us!”
“They are much more likely to believe us now than before.” I fiddled with the controls. The lights stayed yellow. “We lost the left rear stabilizers.”
“Humor me for a minute. Why are they going to believe us now?”
“Because we were hijacked by a lunatic with a gun.”
Jerimon looked like he’d just swallowed something prickly that tasted vile.
“We’ve got Leon to turn in when we get to Tebros.” I readjusted the thruster settings. The lights stayed yellow.
“If we get to Tebros.”
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“About what? I believe you are a raving lunatic with a death wish, yes.”
“Who’s the lunatic being hunted by giant lizards? The Venturer was in the repair dock at Viya. The story I heard was the Sessimoniss used it for target practice. Long after you left. They’ve marked me as well as you. We’re going to get that Eggstone you stole and give it back. Then we’ll worry about the Patrol.”
“Dace, I’m sorry. I never meant to get you involved.”
“Well, you did. Do you want to tie up our guest while I check on the stabilizers? Then we’ll find out what’s in those crates. And try to figure out our next move.”
“What if they’re waiting for us at Tebros?”
Jerimon made no move to leave his seat. I climbed out of mine and stepped around Leon’s limp body.
“There isn’t much we can do about that. Is there? Except maybe collaborate on a story.”
Jerimon ran his hand through his hair and swore.
Chapter Four
We found a cargo net and wrapped Leon in it. Jerimon dragged him into the cabin, rolling him under the table. Leon shivered, mumbling incoherently as the stunner wore off.
“Now what?” Jerimon asked, watching Leon’s feet sticking out from under the table.
“Let’s go op
en a few crates.”
“If we leave them sealed, it makes our story more believable.”
“What if there isn’t anything but papers and chips like the manifest says? Then how do we explain things to the Patrol?”
“We still have Leon.”
“Uhhh.” Leon drooled under the table.
“We show them the stunner he used on us and Patrol goons will laugh themselves silly as they march us off to prison. You knew about the smuggling all along, didn’t you? How much is Belliff paying you?”
“Barely more than I’m paying you. I knew nothing about the smuggling.”
“Then you’re either stupid or naive or both.”
“What about you? You’re the one with an entire species chasing you. I’m just going to get us arrested. You’re going to get us killed!”
“You’re doing a good enough job of that without my help!”
We stood nose to nose in the narrow aisle.
Leon squirmed. “Can you be quiet? I’ve got a splitting headache.” He stretched across the cabin floor, his head under the table, his legs folded next to the locker under the bunk.
“That’s your own stupid fault.” I used my foot to shove him back under the table. He moaned loudly.
“Why didn’t we just stay on Viya?” Jerimon ignored Leon. “So the Patrol locks us up for a while and asks us questions. Eventually we go free.”
“Unless the Sessimoniss kill us first.” I glared at Jerimon. “You have an awful lot of faith in the good will of the Patrol.”
“And you’re too suspicious of them. What are you hiding?”
“Where are we going? Freeport?” Leon sounded desperate to end our quarrel.
“Tebros,” I answered.
Leon huddled farther under the table. “Bad, bad,” he muttered.
“What’s so bad about Tebros?” I kicked him, but not very hard. It was like kicking a sock puppet; pitiful but not quite sympathetic.
Leon shook his head, muttering under his breath.
“We’ll get it out of him later.” Jerimon pushed me toward the tiny cargo bay, stepping over Leon’s twitching legs.
