Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance

by Ronald Wintrick

“Did you know that you can just order anybeing to transfer their account to your account?” Serrath asked.

  “No we didn’t know that.” Another of them said as I gave Serrath a look- but could glean no clue as to what she was thinking. Probably just being her normal malicious self. She gave me a hard inscrutable look in return.

  “Great idea though.” The first which had spoken said. “With proper financing we could arm ourselves and really take the war to them.”

  “Transfer five thousand credits into these being’s accounts in equal portions.” I said pointing to the group though of course the Kievor would need no such visible clues.

  “Transfer complete.” A Kievor voice said from the air. “Will there be anything else?”

  “Is there anything free?” I asked. There was no response. I turned back to the group of females; “Carry on.” I said. They were gone in a flash- to buy weapons of mass destruction if I wasn’t off the mark. Any enemy of my enemy was my friend and who could tell when such a great ally might come in handy again. They had come in triply handy this day- they had saved our bacons is what they had done and the five thousand was nothing compared to the value of my own life. At least I thought so.

  “We may want to escort Leethea back to the ship.” Serrath said as the females vanished into the crowd which had gathered to watch the brief incident. Life and death struggles were often brief on Kievor Trade Stations and the crowds would gather quickly knowing it would quickly be over. Beings didn’t flap whatever served as their lips without being ready to fight for their lives and those who survived and made up the regular community of the Trade Stations could be counted on to fight with both cunning and deadly ability. Such contests were almost always brief.

  “I’m not going back into any goddamned ship!” Leethea said hearing Serrath. “I’m gonna get laid.” She vanished into the crowd even more quickly than had the group of females. Serrath was looking at me when I turned to look at her. I could only shrug my shoulders.

  “I feel sorry for the poor reptile she takes this out on.” Serrath said. I didn’t ask her what she meant because now I fully got the picture.

  Chapter 41

  “I glanced over and saw you come out of one of your stupid rolls right in the middle of those two and knew I wasn’t going to be able to get there in time to save you.” Serrath said as we began strolling along again as if nothing untoward had occurred. The crowd had vanished as quickly as the action.

  “I was under the impression that little scrawny one was giving you too much trouble for you to have been able to come to anybeing’s rescue.” I said and exuded triumph.

  “That scrawny one jumped me when I turned to come to your aid- and he was a quick little bastard at that.” Serrath said with her own pheromone release of triumph. “Hadn’t been for your harem coming to your rescue your illustrious career would have come to a crashing halt. Along with your life, it need not be said.” She said anyway.

  “As I recall,” I said with even greater triumph, “it was your therapeutic remedy which got us all into this nameless war in the first place- a nameless war with an unknown enemy. Apparently they know who we are but we don’t know a thing about them. That makes us sitting ducks and I’m no duck.”

  “You ducked fast enough when that big boy threw down on you.” Serrath said. “How’s your back?”

  “That was when I saw the Fsyth,” I admitted, “and that big boy did just about take my head off.” My back would be fine I had already decided.

  “You quite positive your back’s going to be fine?” Serrath asked as she stepped behind me to look at my wound. I just kept walking.

  “Of course it’ll be fine.” I said, but that was when I felt the first hint of nausea. I can be a bullheaded idiot at times but not at times when my life was in jeopardy. “Maybe not.” I said as I came to a halt.

  “Your back looks bad.” Serrath said. “I think you need a stay in the doc.”

  We were halfway back to the ship and I was hanging off Serrath’s shoulder when Serrath spotted them. She threw me to the hard deck and vanished into the crowd, but I wasn’t about to let her fight the whole battle herself just because I could barely stand. I tried to get to my feet but my head was swimming by that point and all I could attain was my knees. I was carrying a small ankle laser in my boot- my blaster would take the whole crowd with it and Serrath as well- managed to fumble that out as the concussion and flash of a repeating-blaster (the kind Serrath carried) ahead in the crowd brought instant mayhem as everybeing tried to flee the scene and the repeating blaster all at once. If Serrath hadn’t thrown me to the side of the corridor up against the wall I would surely have been instantly trampled to death. As the crowd which had blocked my view vanished I got the little laser steadied and held at arm’s length to give what aid I could.

  My help wouldn’t be needed. Serrath had leveled the whole corridor ahead. She had certainly gotten the assassins but had taken hundreds of other beings along with them. Never underestimate Serrath’s cold and calculating resolve, I reminded myself for the thousandth time as my vision tunneled and I slipped from consciousness.

  ……….

  “What in the hell was that thing?” I asked as the doc ejected me into the cold light of consciousness. The question was for Serrath who I could blurrily see beside the doc as my eyes readjusted to the light.

  “Very poisonous.” Serrath said. “It was touch and go by the time I got you in the doc.”

  “I don’t believe we’ve made many friends in our short time here.” I remarked as I sat up. “Leethea make it back?” I asked as I thought about her.

  “Not yet.” Serrath said. I could see there was something more. I stared at her. “She’s no longer on the Station. She’s been taken.”

  “How long was I out?” I asked as I leapt to my feet. Two days or two months I wondered frantically.

  “Two days.” Serrath said. “They took her off-ship yesterday morning. I didn’t see the point in pursuing them until you were awake.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked as I threw clothes on. I was sure I didn’t want to know the answer but I asked anyway.

  “I know where she’s being taken and we’ll never win her free of the Privateer they took her in. It was the size of a Battleship and my guess is all the beds were filled.”

  “Where is she being taken?” I asked.

  “The mines of Cravotia.”

  “Is it as bad as it sounds?” I asked as I threw my boots on.

  “Worse from what I’ve been able to gather.”

  “I guess you know who will just have to find a new girlfriend.” I said.

  “Don’t bullshit around.” Serrath disagreed. “We’re going after her so don’t pretend there’s any other recourse.”

  There really was no other recourse, but I had already known that. I would never leave Leethea in the clutches of such as those. Her life would be brutal and short- literally worked to death in the mines because free and easily replaceable slave laborers were cheaper than expensive sophisticated equipment. It was not a new story and it was a story likely to end badly despite my instant resolve to see her freed. Serrath was right about that. I would never leave one of our own behind, at least not willingly.

  Chapter 42

  “We’ll be departing immediately.” I told the air. “We’ll depart under our own guidance.”

  “Departure modus recommendation accepted.” The air said and that was all- the Kievor showing their teeth in a small way yet allowing it. Most ships were auto-undocked by the Kievor themselves though I had no doubt they were as sure as I that I could undock without colliding with their ship. I would have to be unconscious to crash this ship and I was anything but that at this moment.

  The Fsyth ship and its anti-gravity propulsion was a marvel almost as unique and reactive as would have been one of my own Alartaw Battleships with my link. My orders were conveyed instantly to this ship via pheromone release and the ship responded as if I was in the Captain’s chair wit
h my hands on the yoke, though this ship had no such antiquated system even as a backup. Warmonger responded to me via the same pheromone release which I used to communicate with it and a graphic image of the ship in the dock filled my perception. There was really no way to explain the expansive fully three-dimensional image that filled my mind, but suffice it to say I became one with the ship and all of its sensory input. A perfect real-time three-dimensional comprehension of Warmonger and the space it occupied. Nothing would sneak up on this ship.

  I landed in the Captain’s chair only a moment later and strapped myself in though what if anything I was expecting I couldn’t say. Anything could happen. I heard the clasps click as Serrath strapped herself in as well. Clearly she was of the same mind- anything could happen and we had no idea who might be lurking beyond the Protected Zone expecting us to depart in pursuit. I already had Warmonger lifted and sliding towards the shimmering translucent field which was the Kievor airlock and moments later we were in the vacuum of space.

  My wish was my command as Warmonger leapt almost instantly into warp, less than twenty meters from the Trade Station itself. Beside the Alartaw, Kievor or the Fsyth themselves, I was quite sure there was no other ship which could touch us. “I say we fly right in and storm the planet.” I opined.

  “You want to attack an entire planet’s AI controlled defensive system?” Serrath asked me incredulously. “I think you’re letting your Fsyth hormones get to your head. They’d cut us out of space the very moment we entered their space. Not your best plan.”

  “Then I’m sure by now you’ve got the whole thing worked out.” I said turning on Serrath. She just gave me a look in return.

  “Are there any public spaceports on this Cravotia?” I asked instead as I ordered the ship to plot us a course.

  “There are cities on Cravotia, if that’s what you’re asking.” Serrath said. “That’s the only way in I can imagine. Unless you want to go back to the Station and let them catch us and go in that way.”

  “I’ll pass on that.” I said. “We’d never make it to the mines.”

  “A hundred years on the rack wouldn’t be out of the question.” Serrath agreed with me for once.

  “I wonder if a quick ship and body change might help our chances.” I said. “If they’re expecting us, if they’ve realized they’ve captured one of us, this is going to be a short mission.”

  “There’s no time.” Serrath said. “She was probably picked up in a routine netting operation and I seriously doubt once she was captured she would willingly admit she was one of us. That in fact it was her direct acts which began this nameless war with the slave merchants of Cravotia in the first place.”

  “At least we know who they are now.” I said. It was more than we had known previously though the cost for acquiring that information was going to turn out to be far too expensive. I was sure of it. Things were about to get ugly.

  ……….

  “It’s a paradise.” Serrath said as we viewed the planet from orbit.

  “So much for your planetary defenses.” I said as I continued to bring Warmonger in unchallenged. The way ships were flying everywhere all at once it was clear there was no Ground Control directing the space traffic coming in and out of this their biggest spaceport. No beings were auto-piloting their ships into this spaceport. I’ve seen less chaotic asteroid-fields. The traffic was heavy.

  “They have sophisticated planetary defenses.” Serrath said giving me a look. “It’s the one thing the owner of this place has spent credits on. What the slaves are bringing out of the mines here is making the holder of Cravotia very rich.” I didn’t fail to notice that she used the word holder. Whoever held the place owned it. Much similar to the way humans did it just without all the fancy words.

  “A wealth not spent on the local residents.” I said as Warmonger descended further towards the busy spaceport below and the sprawling city around it became more visible. Much of the city was without electricity I noted with Warmonger’s sensors and knowing those areas would be dangerous beyond all belief- no matter the temperature of your blood. A danger we had never truly experienced before. A danger we would never have been able to experience as mammals because the only thing a mammal would find here was a quick ride into a stewpot. This was an entirely reptile world and not a place a mammal would want to spend eternity- even a mammal wrapped in a lizard’s skin.

  “I guess you’ve got some inclination as to what we’re getting ourselves into here.” Serrath pointed out.

  “Unfortunately I was blessed with a lot of good common sense.” I agreed as with only a partial part of my concentration easily maneuvered the largish Warmonger down through the random and often erratic movements of the undirected space traffic. Here and there were streams of ships amongst the mayhem and I settled Warmonger into one such and our pace quickened.

  “Yet here we are anyway.” Serrath said.

  “Where would we be if I was always listening to that nagging little voice?” I asked.

  “I’ve always wondered the same,” Serrath said, “if it’s the fact that you always ignore your good common sense that has kept us alive all this time.”

  “Hopefully that’s the recipe.” I said. “Because this goes against every bit of good common sense I possess. That little voice is screaming at me something terrible.” I admitted.

  “I’m having such similar thoughts myself.” Serrath agreed. “Yet here we are.”

  We were coming in for our final landing now and I was hunting for a spot. There was no order of course so I just picked a spot amongst some rabble ships and settled Warmonger in. Warmonger would take care of herself while we were gone but that wasn’t the question. The question was whether we’d be able to take care of ourselves. It was a question I didn’t want to have to face at the present moment.

  Yet here we were.

  Chapter 43

  “Let’s try not to draw attention to ourselves, for once.” I said as we walked away from Warmonger.

  “What you telling me for.”

  “No shopping trips, in other words.” I explained more fully, as if that was necessary.

  “I can abstain from shopping for a while if you can abstain from your murderous rampages.” Serrath replied easily. Tell Serrath she was pretty and she might stumble over her response but attack her and the response came swiftly and surely. The result was generally abrupt and final.

  “A herbivore wouldn’t survive long here.” I opined as I carefully noted the groups of lurking reptile ruffians- clearly waiting to see who and what we were about. They were plainly about their business in broad daylight, though the blue tinted light of the system’s star was a bit unaccustomed. The Fsyth were obviously known here or I seriously doubt we would have made it out of the spaceport grounds. It became immediately clear to both of us that under normal circumstances two lone beings would have drawn an immediate robbery attempt. There were groups of ruffians lounging everywhere amongst the haphazardly parked ships- playing games of chance and bones while waiting for victims- but that all came to a halt and all eyes were turned in our direction the moment we appeared on the fusion-fused tarmac. I hoped, for their sakes, that none decided to lounge too near Warmonger while awaiting our return. The reaction would be painful and final.

  This place was going to prove to be far more dangerous than I had imagined and I think that says it all. We weren’t ten steps beyond Warmonger when Serrath pulled both her blasters, but it wasn’t in response to a direct threat. It was a warning and it was understood. It was just about that moment that I noticed that my own blasters were in my hands as well, though I didn’t recall drawing them. This was a place of death for those who weren’t prepared and for many who were. These ruffians made their living fleecing the sheep and no sheep would ever make it back out of this place. We walked right through the groups of ruffians and somehow- mainly bluff and bluster, to be sure- made it out of the spaceport with our lizard skins intact. Only the fact that in order to detain us they would h
ave had to kill us- and use weapons of mass destruction to do it- and the fact that there wouldn’t have been much left after to salvage the only reason it didn’t go down. It would have been a pointless waste of time when clearly there would have been no profits to be gleaned. It had simply been a business decision and nothing personal. If we hadn’t walked through them with our blasters in hand they would have fallen on us en-mass and no reptile would have been able to fight his way clear of that.

  “A quick ride to a dinner table.” Serrath replied, responding to my earlier statement now that we were out of immediate danger, though as I began to absorb the teeming crowds in the open-air bazaar where we were entering and which completely encircled the city-proper I had to wonder if we had only escaped the butcher’s knife to be served up alive and kicking. The reptile races weren’t unknown for having a taste for living flesh.

  “I’ve heard that rich reptiles often have hundreds of living snacks kept in docs.” I commented easily.

  “Not a pleasurable way to spend eternity.” Serrath replied as she put her blasters away. Though she seemed calm and unconcerned she was as alert as I had ever seen her.

  “I wonder if they gag them or if the screaming is part of the culinary delight?” I asked.

  “They like the screaming.” Serrath said. “The Fsyth are also well known for their taste for living flesh- a Fsyth would never turn down the offer of such an exquisite culinary delight.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” I said as I tried to figure out where we were supposed to begin. The mines were in the very center of the city and we wouldn’t be able to just walk up to the entrance to that. The mines were the most heavily defended place on this planet and that on a planet already far more dangerous than any I had visited.

  Chapter 44

  “This may be one of those times where a little violent misadventure or two could gain us some notice and possibly a key to their very door itself.” I commented as we approached a cart vendor to have the first of what I was sure would be many drinks this day. If Serrath agreed with my plan, that is.