Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1

by Lalonde, Randolph

  “You surprised me, besides, don’t you hunt slaves as a side business?”

  “No, we used to bounty hunt before the ‘bots went crazy and cut up their humans. You know, tracking murderers, big ticket thieves, no slaves though. That’s shit-heel work, thug bullshit.”

  “So, we’re all right here, and he’s your kin,” Spin said. “So, who’s this helmet whose pointing her weapon at you?”

  Lin glanced at her, then back to Spin, his eyes widening. “Fuck.”

  “Do you remember Marli Owen’s daughter, Terry?” a garbled female voice asked from the black helmet.

  “Oh, shit, he took a hit out on me for that?”

  “No, you idiot, I’m her, I’m Terry. You didn’t even leave a note. I’ve been tracking you for three weeks.”

  “Didn’t recognize you in the combat armour, how ya been?” Lin asked, trying to sound casual.

  Spin lowered her sidearm and dropped it into her thigh holster.

  “You gave me the grish. It’s in stage two.”

  Spin’s jaw dropped. “Oooooh,” Sun and Nigel said over their channel, she could practically hear the pair of them cringing. Of all the sexually transmitted diseases to catch, the grish was the worst. It remained dormant in its first stage, spreading to partners with little trace. Stage two resulted in painful internal and external sores that dripped pus. It took months to treat in that stage, and if you didn’t catch it in time, it would move on to phase three, the flesh eating phase.

  Lin’s nephew looked shocked, glancing from Lin to the helmeted woman over and over again.

  “Oh my God,” Sun said over the communicator. “I almost slept with him last year. Bullet dodged. But, hey, we could make a friend here.”

  “A friend who will have us cleaning chairs and toilet seats every time he visits,” Nigel said. “What did I just start hearing? I just got back into range.”

  “Never mind, we’ll catch you up later,” Sun said.

  “At least you’re not pregnant?” Lin told Terry with a shrug.

  The sound of a loose panel somewhere down the dark corridor made everyone flinch. The corridor intersection was flooded with bright light as the helmeted former lover fired. Spin understood what Sun was getting to, they could make an ally – if a sleazy one – out of Lin. Even though Spin thought he deserved what he had coming, at least a little, she leapt at the armoured woman, tackling her to the ground.

  To her surprise, the Terry batted her hard enough to knock the wind out of her and send her sliding more than a dozen metres down the hallway. As soon as she started to slow down, Spin rolled into a side corridor, a short range plasma bolt narrowly missing her.

  The nephew took the opportunity and opened fire on the helmeted woman, peppering her with blazing energy shots until she was a heap on the floor. “Everything okay, Spin?” Sun asked.

  “I got clear, and Terry the dark helmet girl is a hot pile. Don’t know about Lin, I’m going to check now,” Spin said as she rushed back to the hall intersection.

  “Good, I’m one hatch away, but have to cut through.”

  “I’ll be here.” Spin was already reaching into her jacket for her emergency patch kit.

  “Fuck, that was my good arm,” Lin groaned as he laid on his intact side. The stump of his right arm was a burnt mess, and there wasn’t enough of the arm left to reattach. “Thanks for slagging that bitch, Jon.”

  “You kinda had it coming,” Spin said as she knelt down with a tension patch. “This is going to hurt like crazy before the medication kicks in.” Lin screamed as she stretched it over his stump and it conformed to the end, wrapping the wound up to his shoulder and affixing itself tightly.

  Jon, who was carefully prying the helmet off Terry’s head, only spared his screaming uncle a short glance.

  “Okay, the meds are kicking in,” Lin said, panting. “You didn’t have anything that you could have given me first?”

  “Sure I did, but I thought you deserved some misery for passing the grish around, I mean, seriously, who doesn’t use protection these days? It’s not like there’s a clinic on every corner.”

  “I lost a fucking arm and you’re giving me shit about not sealing up before getting it up?” Lin asked.

  Jon laughed, it was a low, breathy sound. “This might fit you,” he said as he offered the helmet to Spin.

  Spin looked at it and at the woman on the deck. The only thing not reduced to a burnt pile of human remains was her face, which was twisted in an expression of fury and pain. “Thank you, Jon,” she said. “I think I’ll clean it before trying it on though.”

  “We’ll be going back to the ship,” Lin groaned. “Jon, pick up my quad blaster.”

  Jon did so, then pried Lin’s disembodied hand off the handle and offered it to him.

  “Don’t think there’s enough arm to put that back on, buddy,” Lin said.

  “Wait, you’re not going to wait for your scavenging ship? Maybe they could take care of you.”

  “No, I’ll fess up. We’re scouting for Kiren Arms. I was just taking a run through the ship here to see if there were any high end trinkets we could grab before we reported this gold mine. I thought we’d have a good payday coming, but it looks like I’ll be spending it all on a new arm.”

  “And some serious anti-fungal treatments,” Sun said as she emerged from a side passage. Like Spin, she was in a thick, form-fitted containment suit, only hers was dark red. Her white jacket was armoured, but not quite as well made as Spin’s, which was black and had a refractive coating on top that made it seem darkly multi-coloured.

  “What? Is the Cool Angel right behind?” Lin said.

  “No, we broke away from that crew a while ago,” Sun replied. “You’ve seen better days.”

  “You’re not here because of some unrequited thing, are you? Already had one former sex-type-thing track me down today.”

  “Absolutely not,” Sun said emphatically. “We just bumped into you by luck. We had no idea there was anyone else aboard.”

  “Speaking of which, there are pickers aboard, I’ve been avoiding them for hours, and my knees are getting a little wobbly. The meds are doing me a lot of good, so I should get back to the ship. Take whatever you can carry, it’ll be two days before we report this thing as abandoned and a salvage crew dig in.”

  “We’ll help you to your ship if you or your nephew tell us all about the places a few people who want to avoid the law may do business. We’re looking for a safe harbour to operate out of, and someone who will trade with people trying to avoid the law. Someone who won’t turn an escaped slave in.”

  “Sure thing,” Lin said. Jon picked his uncle up, a feat that seemed easy even though he was only slightly larger than him. “I’ll even set you up with our ident, so you can call us up later. You know, in case you need anything, or want to get together.”

  “Thanks,” Sun said. “But just business.”

  “Sure, just don’t share what happened here, I have a reputation.”

  “No problem, the more you share, the less we’ll share,” Spin said.

  “Deal.”

  * * *

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