Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge: a space opera anthology

by Nick Webb

  >> Achronyx, pull the data on grid Delta 07 by Charlie 02 and show.<<

  I reviewed the image sent to my eye. “Fucking castle he has there,” I mumbled to myself.

  The bar was beginning to fill up, and most had heard the rumors about the fight earlier. I walked to the door and reviewed the outside drone cameras I had dropped just to make sure nothing unexpected was awaiting me. I pulled open the doors and stepped out into the late afternoon sun. It took me a couple of minutes to locate a runner who could take a message on a micro-crystal. I paid the little twerp two credits and waited another thirty minutes while tracking the runner over to Barney’s place.

  I pulled my hair into a small knot behind my head and put my hat back on. I sent Achronyx the order to get into place ten thousand meters up, above the clouds and to prepare four one pound pucks and two three pound pucks.

  Back when the Queen was dealing with Earth issues, the team had developed gravitic engines which drove kinetic weapons. The little guys are devastatingly powerful, and small. Barney’s stone walls wouldn’t help him much. Now, if he had some high-powered shields, I’d be in a tighter spot.

  Perhaps.

  Maybe. I’ve been known to pummel the ground near the shields to see if I can upset the foundations. It does tend to piss off anyone nearby. Fortunately for me, Barney didn’t have anyone near him. Most pricks concerned with their security liked a lot of open space around them. Killing fields.

  Time to issue the ultimatum.

  I sent commands to all but two of my drone cameras to look around his place as much as possible to give me the layout. I had the other two helping me. One looking behind me and the other in front of me. I’ve had enough situations where I got surprised and been hurt to worry about shit like that. You grow an arm back, you learn caution.

  I made it to within a couple of hundred meters when the area became deserted and it was all flat ground to the castle. The rock walls were two stories high. Planet Bectal had carnivorous creatures that didn’t give a shit whether it was rude to eat you or not. Personally, I planned on sleeping on Achronyx up in space unless I had to stay down here for some reason.

  Sleeping in space really reduces issues with being surprised while sleeping. I pulled my coat back to allow me access to both pistols.

  I made it ten steps before I spotted the two snipers taking position over the right and left sides of the front wall, in the shadows. I double checked the drones before continuing my walk.

  I did allow them an opportunity to not target me.

  They failed.

  I ramped my speed up to high-Vampiric using the Etheric connection and pulled my pistols. I shot at the walls in front of both snipers. The gravitic rail gun technology that Jean Dukes built into the latest versions used rail gun technology to push rods out but also used gravitic micro-Pucks to help control the kick these little bitches have. It allowed the pistols to push a much heavier round at higher velocity without making the recoil too much for even my enhanced body to handle. If the rock had been sandstone, both of those snipers would have been killed.

  Fortunately, it was a local equivalent of granite and the explosions and shrapnel probably made those two wet their pants.

  If they targeted me again, I’d shoot to kill.

  I continued watching. The drone above showed the left was bringing his rifle back on target, namely me. I waited until I could see his helmet and I snapped a shot through it. I could see him fall off the walkway to the courtyard below on the drone video.

  The one of the right refused to show itself.

  Making sure nothing else looked like it was going to surprise me, I continued towards the building.

  Barney was the local badass. Well, he was the representative of the local badass. Barney’s boss was in the city about a hundred galactic stans to the Northwest. About an hour’s flight in a jet aircraft.

  He was running gambling and a few other criminal efforts. I wasn’t here for those sins. A Ranger doesn’t walk in and start arresting everyone, we couldn’t possibly do it nor did we always care. No, a Ranger is here to deal with major issues. The nice part is that we choose what’s major.

  Like, with Barney. While I personally would think his mottled purple skin should be an issue, I’m not really allowed to choose to badger someone strictly based on looks. I’m human. Therefore I do understand how I might be pre-disposed to not liking how something looks. But I could be annoyed with other endeavors Barney might be involved in.

  Especially the rumor that Barney was working in the slave trade.

  Once a planet comes under the Queen Bitch’s jurisdiction, she will stop slavery. She’s been known to start at the top and work her way down until the point is made.

  Slavery will not be permitted. Period.Fucking.Dot.

  On one planet, it actually took six levels of leadership before those in power understood she would condemn everyone until there was nothing left but slaves alive and then they would be free, anyway.

  Here, rumor had it Barney was grabbing off-worlders who had come into town and weren’t with a group. Someone off a ship that failed to go back in time, or worse, was drugged to miss their ship.

  Usually, the females of species were the targets. The money is better for a female slave.

  That stuff pisses me off. As a female of my species, I’d rather not have that kind of attention thrown at me. So, I found myself a minute later looking up at an eleven-foot door. I sure hoped Barney was trying to compensate.

  I knocked on the door. It was made out of the local equivalent of ironwood. The only thing I accomplished was scraping my knuckles. Local carnivores had been known to figure out how to push open doors and occasionally break them down to go in for their food.

  Apparently, crunchy on the outside with screaming nougat centers is what these nighttime killers like.

  However, this hard-ass door wasn’t helping me at the moment. I figure they knew I was here. I could see from my eyes in the sky no one had come out of the main house to cross the courtyard. The guy I had shot was lying on his back on the ground. The other guy was peeking over the parapet with his rifle. I would have thought with his partner dying, he might have gotten the memo.

  Well, unfortunately, I don’t give others many chances to get it right when it comes to my life. I un-holstered my right pistol and dialed the slug throwing power down to three. Watching the sniper from my little drone, I waited until he had pulled his rifle from his eye to lean over further. I ducked out from under the door overhang and shot him between the eyes. His rifle dropped, but his body stayed up on the wall, half on each side, hanging there like a pair of shoes over a power line.

  “Barney, I’m going to give you to the count of ten to be out here, opening your door for me. Or, it’s going to suck for you big time!” I screamed this in English, the Intergalactic equivalent of a forgotten language.

  “One...Two...Ten!” I yelled before I reached inside my coat for a small sticker. It was square with a red circle and a button on it. I peeled off the circle and placed it in the middle of the door.

  >>Achronyx, send down a one pound Puck set at level three to hit the target I’m activating now.<< I pushed the button and made sure that no one was looking to sneak up on me.

  I made it around the corner before the one-pound Puck slammed into the front gate. Damn! I felt the vibrations from over here.

  Someone was going to need a new entrance.

  I looked around the corner and sure enough, the front door area was still full of dust and splinters flying everywhere. I assumed everyone had their guns trained in that direction and reached into my duster for my hand spikes. Over the many decades I’ve been playing amongst the stars, I’ve requested all sorts of shit from the mad scientists from Team BMW and Jean Dukes. One or the other usually comes through for me.

  Well, except helping me grow taller. Damned Mother Nature screwed me over on that one. You know how hard it is to impress someone when you’re five foot four? Shit, John Grimes comes i
n at about six and a half, and people shut up.

  I need to work on my menace, that’s my problem.

  Whatever. I slapped the control that runs through my suit. It helps with both protection and weight. I looked up.

  >>Achronyx, reduce weight eighty-percent.<<

  I jumped up and slammed my hands into the stone before I shot past the top of the wall. I had to put one up, one down so my legs didn’t keep going. Sometimes I forget the basics.

  I pulled myself up and looked over to see everything as it should be. Which is to say deserted between the main building and the outer gate. One of the snipers on the ground, one hanging ass up over on the wall at the other corner.

  I noticed a window open and a big ass barrel getting stuck through, followed by a shield attached to the barrel. A thermal bloom protector.

  Damned de damn damn. This is a bit of a harsh welcome and completely uncalled for.

  >>Achronyx, target the window with the crew served laser sticking out. Make this a one-pound Puck as well, thirty-five percent power. See if you’re good enough to slam between the thermal bloom protector and the window.<<

  >>Tabitha, you know this will kill anyone in the room unless they are in personal armor, correct?<<

  I hate when E.I.’s lecture me on shit I knew before they were created.

  >>Yes. Half of my attacks are calculated to cause the results you always warn me about.<<

  >>That is because half of your efforts have spectacularly unique results.<<

  Smartass. Even when he’s proper, I know he’s laughing in his cybernetic mind.

  >>Just do it!<<

  >>Incoming.<< A moment later I got a ‘duck’ command, and I dropped beneath the top of the wall.

  I heard the first slam, then felt the concussive BOOM and smirked.

  Right up until the point when I forgot the concussive boom might affect me. My spikes lost their grip in the rock, and I was falling.

  >>ACHRONYX!<< That was how much I got out before my 18lbs hit the ground. I rolled with the landing and was up in a second, but it’s damned embarrassing, frankly.

  >>Yes?<<

  I swear to God that damned computer knew what was going to happen and just failed to warn me.

  >>Achronyx, how about the next time something like this comes up, make sure to actually warn me about the SHIT I might not be thinking about? Let’s see, oh, for example, like fucking falling from twenty feet in the air, you asshole!<<

  >>Tabitha, there is a substantial hole in the building. Three micro-drones have gone in, and there are no combatants in the top level at this time.<<

  >>Did.You.Hear.My.Command!<<

  >>Yes.<<

  >>Fine. Remember what I said. Now put my weight back to normal for this shithole.<<

  After pulling my pistols, I walked back to the front and went through the damaged front gate and then to the massive hole in the building. I saw what remained of the laser barrel laying off to one side, smoking. The rocks and debris from the hole were strewn all over the courtyard. More rocks and debris, including body parts, cluttered the room I poked my head in.

  Damn, that was a mess. The wooden walls had blood and unwanted meat by-products everywhere.

  I stepped through the hole in the wall, over a couple of large chunks of rocks and... other stuff. I wrinkled my nose. It isn’t like this stuff is new, and thank god I don’t throw up, but it isn’t ever pleasant.

  I put my left pistol back in its holster and walked down a hallway. The drones ahead swept right around a corner.

  Then I had no feedback, they stopped working.

  Dammit. I yanked my pistol back out and dialed up the power. I kept the right pistol about as powerful as a .45 back on Earth. I aimed the left one at the end of the hallway then moved it a little right. Jacking up the gravitic offset, I let loose a barrage of shots, each one inching right. The wood and other building materials used in this building wasn’t going to stop these rounds. I fired about thirty. I did all of this shooting in the space of five seconds. You have to love Jean Duke’s rail-guns.

  I kept the left pistol, holstered my right and reached in the duster to pull out two one-inch round eye-drones and tossed them into the air. They quickly went down and to the right to see what was in the hallway. Ouch, three dead, one wounded in the leg and stomach, still aiming a gun at me and then a large door at the end of the hall behind them.

  I pulled my right gun and sent the command to impose a dot on the picture as I aimed. When I had my dot on his head, I switched the power up to seventy percent and kicked in the gravitic support. I fired once, and the round slammed into his mouth and out the back of his head.

  None left alive.

  I sent the drones through the other way to make sure nothing was waiting for me when I turned the corner. I was good. I walked down and did a quick peek before turning. Damn, what a mess.

  >>Tabitha, there is a vehicular heat signature that is rapidly leaving to the Southwest from your location.<<

  “That fucker left!” I screamed and started running past those on the ground who had given up their lives for that shithead. I gave the commands for the drones to check the door. Nothing on it, and I opened it an inch and a half to let them go in.

  It was this building’s version of a garage. There were a handful of hover-bikes, and a space where a small two person jet-car would have been.

  >>Achronyx, I’m going to open the small micro-bots. I want you to command them to check out this place, now. I don’t have anyone alive to question so far.<<

  And I didn’t. Have anyone to question. It seemed the place either didn’t need them, or they were gone. It took another hour before the little micro-bots found a hidden door in a wall. I jerked around until a quarter hour later I found the mechanism to open it. Although tempted to blow it, I could have killed anyone inside. The door would have blasted into two cages that were ten feet back.

  I pulled out my badge and let it hang on my duster, to make sure those inside who knew it would know help arrived.

  I opened the door and the smell of unwashed bodies and horrible sanitation hit my nose. My eyes started watering.

  >>Achronyx, call Billet and see if he will allow me to hire his people to help clean these ladies up. I count five different species, including one human. I need three rooms for them, and food, water and robes brought here. I’ll get Frank to let me know if we have a mercenary company trustworthy enough to help out here. Then, call Hirotoshi and let him know I want Ryu and half the Tontos to get off their lazy asses and find a fast packet ride over here.<<

  I looked around the room and considered my next steps.

  >>Let Hirotoshi know I’ve found a playground and a base of operations. The previous owner can kiss my ass, he isn’t getting it back.<<

  >>Understood. Billet is willing to support you, but wants assurances that B-ehrunethinee is dead.<<

  >>Send him pictures of the front gate, the front room from outside and inside, the hallway with the dead and now this one with the slaves. Next, tell him not to make me enforce laws about offering support. If he wants to argue? Tell him I’ll do the same to his home when I come knocking, I’m not in the mood. He can pee down his leg telling Barney I forced him to deal with me and what a bitch I am.<<

  I confirmed no one but the slaves and I were alive in the building and holstered my weapons and started walking into the room with the kidnapped, those that could see me staring at me and my badge.

  I looked around and said to no one in particular, “Not like the slaving bastard is going to live long enough to bitch about me, anyway.”

  It looked like I would have plenty to do on my vacation.

  Q&A with Michael Anderle

  What is your favorite word?

  Believe – It is opportunistic, hopeful, energizing.

  What is your least favorite word?

  Loser – it is a label, it judges a person’s actions and abilities all in one.

  What turns you on?

  Creativity –
My personality thrives on creating ideas. They don’t have to be workable, we will get to those later.

  What turns you off?

  Details – The molasses of life.

  What sound or noise do you love?

  The sound of raindrops on a tin roof while the cool winds of winter encourage me to stay in bed.

  What sound or noise do you hate?

  Pain – Whether from voice or the crash of cars... nothing good is happening.

  What is your favorite curse word?

  Fuck – Noun, verb, adjective... such a Renaissance type of word.

  What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

  Special Effects creator.

  What profession would you not like to do?

  Accountant – Details!

  If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

  Hey, I was that guy on the side of the street you helped out. Well done, well done indeed.

  Have you written your whole life?

  No, I did a little in high school. However, I was poorly scored during a literary class and it rather killed my desire to let anyone see anything again. So, I kept that desire under the rug for another thirty years.

  Why did you do a series that merges Sci-Fi and Paranormal?

  I’m a lifelong reader, and for the last ten years, I’ve really enjoyed the vampire/military sci-fi/space opera genres. I figured if I was going to write something, I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too. I just didn’t realize how hard it would be to market the stories!