Alliances

by S. Usher Evans

  "I mean, they're transporting guns. Is that enough?"

  "We don't know what they're doing with the guns, though." Lizbeth chewed on her lip. "For all we know, that security company could be bolstering its arsenal with shipments of stolen guns because they're a security company. That's…well, sadly, that's normal pirate business. Hijacking cargo isn't necessarily anything new, even if it is guns."

  "You know that's probably not what's going on," Lyssa said dryly. "Why would they have gathered all of the pirates, all of that secrecy? Why are they hiding the hijackings altogether? Why would those two diner people shoot at us?"

  "Where are those guns coming from?" Lizbeth added.

  "And how is that bald guy involved?"

  "Harman, yeah," Lizbeth chewed on her lip. "He works for General State."

  Lyssa stuffed another leaf into her sensor. "Doesn't it seem fishy to you that General State would be working with pirates? Or that those two guys would even have connections in Llendo's administration to set something like this up?"

  "Not really. Politics is shady business. And piracy's got a lot of money."

  "But that's what's confusing, right? The insurance companies aren't getting notified…"

  Lizbeth's head tilted up. "What's that now?"

  "When a transporter is hijacked, they notify their insurance company," Lyssa said, thinking aloud as she twirled a leaf in her hand. "The insurance company then puts out an announcement about the hijacking to the U-POL which is how it ends up on the pirate intraweb."

  "So?"

  "So if there's nothing showing up on the pirate intraweb, then the insurance companies aren't getting notified," Lyssa said, deep in thought as she scanned another leaf. "And if they aren't getting notified, then the businesses aren't getting reimbursed for their lost cargo."

  "And if they aren't getting reimbursed, then who's footing the bill?" Lizbeth finished for her. "If they're supposedly just paying the pirates to take their own cargo?"

  "And we know that some of the cargo is going to S-864, and being protected by that Harman guy. He works for a company called Secure Solutions."

  "Secure Solutions," Lizbeth mumbled, chewing on her lip. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

  "Maybe it was something in your reports?"

  Lizbeth thought for a moment and shook her head. "Can't remember. We don't all have hard drives for memories like you do."

  "I don't know if a security company could afford to pay a couple hundred million credits to pirates anyways," Lyssa said. "And besides, we only saw them at that one warehouse. Maybe they were just hired to guard it. Maybe he was just wearing the uniform to fit in."

  Lizbeth's face fell, the new lead suddenly evaporating under her.

  "I mean, maybe not," Lyssa said quickly, trying not to deflate Lizbeth's bubble. "I mean, we're obviously onto something or else they wouldn't have taken your laptop, right?"

  "That still terrifies me," Lizbeth said, and Lyssa saw her shiver a little bit. "I don't like that they know where I live now."

  "You seem able to take care of yourself," Lyssa replied. "Didn't you say you knocked out three guards to come…er…rescue me?"

  "I snuck up on them," Lizbeth admitted. "Knocked them out with the butt of the gun."

  "Well, that makes sense," Lyssa mumbled, louder than she meant to.

  Lizbeth placed her hands on her hips. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

  "Just saying that you don't…" Lyssa trailed off, wondering if a bit of good-natured ribbing would cheer Lizbeth up. "You don't even know how to throw a punch."

  "Of course I do!"

  "Really, because when you tried to hit me before, you were terrible at it."

  "All right, tough girl," Lizbeth said, squaring her shoulders. "Want another go at it?"

  Lyssa attached her mini-computer to her belt and folded her arms across her chest. "Go for it."

  With a heave, Lizbeth reached back and whirled forward, but Lyssa stepped out of the way, grabbing her arm and knocking her to the ground.

  "See?" Lyssa smiled from above her. "Terrible."

  "That's 'cause you knew I was coming," Lizbeth grumbled as she picked herself back up.

  "No, it's because no one ever taught you how to hit. Show me your fist."

  Lizbeth proffered her hand.

  "See, your thumb is inside your hand there," Lyssa said. "You'll break your thumb."

  Lizbeth moved her thumb to the outside.

  "Don't punch with the flats of your fingers either. Hit with the knuckles and you won't hurt yourself. Aim to punch with the first two knuckles, and keep your wrist straight."

  "Okay."

  "Now, the other thing you're doing wrong is throwing all your weight into the punch on the first go-round. You never want to throw a heavy punch, try a one-two jab like this," Lyssa punched her right arm out, then her left. "Harder to defend in that case."

  Lizbeth slowly punched the air as Lyssa had.

  "Keep your arms level with your shoulders," Lyssa said, watching Lizbeth. "Keep your chin down…"

  "Anything else you'd like me to remember?" Lizbeth grumbled, awkwardly trying to throw punches into mid-air.

  "Don't aim for the head. Aim for the chest or the ribs. If you aim for the face you'll break something. Use your hips for power, not your upper body. Root your feet."

  "Anything else?" Lizbeth huffed.

  "Yeah, don't hit anyone until you've had more practice," Lyssa smirked, stepping away to test some more specimens and chuckling at Lizbeth's enraged growl of frustration.

  ***

  Lyssa worked and Lizbeth continued to practice punching random trees until the sun began to sink low in the sky and Lyssa made the call to trudge back to the ship. Lizbeth went to take a shower, and Lyssa set to building a campfire and rehydrating some of the food. As the night descended around them, they quietly ate the bowls of noodles and vegetables, enjoying the sound of the local avian species chirping in the distance.

  "I can see why you don't want to give up the whole scientist bit," Lizbeth sighed, looking up at the stars. "This is pretty amazing."

  Lyssa's eyes snapped over to Lizbeth but then she turned back to watch the fire. "Well, it's good money. Untraceable. Nice to have the separate income."

  "I see," Lizbeth said, sounding as if she didn't believe her. "It's been a while since I've been able to see stars on a planet. Can't ever get a glimpse on S-864, but I used to see them all the time on C-47478462."

  "Is that the planet you're from?" Lyssa asked, realizing she knew absolutely nothing about this woman she'd been working with.

  "Nah, I'm from S-864," Lizbeth said. "Well, I was born there anyways. Both my parents worked for the UBU. But they retired about ten years ago and bought some property on C-47478462. Spent a couple years there before I joined up with the Intelligence Agency."

  "C-planet," Lyssa said, thinking. "Residential?"

  "You got it. They bought about fifty square miles surrounding a giant lake. Dad always loved the water, but Mom said she wasn't going to live on an all-water planet and have to deal with taking boats to and from places. So they compromised and bought a lake."

  Lyssa knitted her brows together. "Your parents sound…normal."

  "My dad is a giant dork," Lizbeth laughed affectionately. "And I love my mom, but she's crazy."

  "Not as crazy as mine," Lyssa murmured, but Lizbeth didn't hear it.

  "Mom's always calling me to make sure I'm not dead," Lizbeth laughed. "She was worried about me going into field work, of course, but she's gotten over it mostly. The only thing she gets mad at me for now is that I don't get out to see them as often as I should."

  Lyssa said nothing, an ache in her chest.

  "So," Lizbeth said, completely unaware of Lyssa's pain. "Now that we've got a chance to talk…we should continue our conversation from the other day. Are you a virgin?"

  "That is a completely personal and inappropriate question," Lyssa snapped, jarring from the jump from Lizbeth's pare
nts to her sex life.

  "Come ooon," Lizbeth said with a grin. "You're such a locked-down person. I want to know if you've ever been in love."

  "I slept with someone, but I wasn't in love with him," Lyssa said. "I was sixteen, and he was a fellow student in the Academy. Everyone else was doing it, so I did it to get it over with."

  Lizbeth's eyebrows bolted upwards. "…To get it over with?"

  "I was tired of being a virgin so I fixed it," Lyssa said, as if it was just a normal everyday activity.

  "Wow, and I bet it was just the best thing you ever had, huh?" Lizbeth drawled.

  Lyssa shrugged. "It was whatever."

  "Yeah, okay…" Lizbeth laughed. "You know—and I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you—sex is actually a beautiful thing, and a lot of fun."

  "You are obviously speaking from experience," Lyssa said, with more edge than she meant to.

  "Yeah, I am," Lizbeth snapped back. "Because I'm a hot-blooded female and I like to have sex. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me." She paused to give Lyssa a look. "And don't you dare bring up that crap with Relleck."

  After a pause, Lyssa asked, "Would you have slept with him?"

  "Oh I dunno, maybe," Lizbeth said, taking Lyssa off guard with her indecision about the matter. "Not for information, anyways, maybe just…you know, for fun."

  "Fun?"

  "Yeah, he's got a nice body."

  "He's a dick."

  "I didn't say I wanted to marry him." Lizbeth rolled her eyes. "You don't date someone like that. Hit it and quit it as fast as you can. Now Sage, on the other hand—I could marry that guy. Marry him and bang him like a screen door in a thunderstorm."

  "Wow, this is…really uncomfortable," Lyssa said, turning to the dark forest around them. The thought of Sage having sex with anyone was enough to make her ill.

  Lizbeth laughed heartily. "You are too uptight, Lyss."

  "I don't understand how you can be so free with talking about that kind of stuff when everyone doesn't respect you? You said yourself that everyone's talking about sleeping with you to make you go away."

  "And those people can get sucked," Lizbeth replied with a firm tone. "Who I choose to sleep with has no bearing on who I am as a government investigator, or even as a human being."

  "But you're perpetuating their perceptions of you."

  "Until I show up at their front door with a bunch of U-POL officers and arrest them," Lizbeth smiled. "I mean, look at you. You act like a man, and you're still treated like crap. So why not just do what you want to do and screw everyone else?" She paused and added, "Not literally, of course."

  Lyssa was quiet for a moment and then asked, curiously, "Have you ever actually slept with someone you were investigating?"

  Lizbeth opened and closed her mouth, a sly smile. "Okay, seriously you are the only person I have ever told this to, and don't you ever tell my mother but….yes."

  "What?" Lyssa sat up in surprise.

  "Calm down, it wasn't…totally about the case," Lizbeth said with a devilish grin. "He was this hotshot executive of this jewelry company I was investigating—one of my very first ones, to be honest…and, well…" she trailed off. "He was gorgeous, I was young and naive, and it was damned near the best sex of my life. But it was completely stupid because he ended up screwing me over in the end."

  "So that's the only one?"

  "I flirt a lot, and I let them think they're going to get it. And then usually they just start spilling their guts to me." She tossed a small rock over to Lyssa. "You should try being nice once in a while with these bounties you capture. It would completely throw them off."

  "I'll be nice when they start respecting me," Lyssa mumbled, her thoughts drifting to her own bounty, most likely still with Pymus' credits keeping her aloft in the rankings. She hadn't checked it in a while, but she wasn't holding her breath that it had changed. Especially since she hadn't captured anyone in a few weeks.

  And yet, she actually didn't mind it too much. This investigation stuff was actually kind of exciting and fun, and she didn't hate Lizbeth as much as she did at first.

  "Oh boy, all this chit-chat. We need a drink," Lizbeth sighed. "You got anything alcoholic on that ship of yours?"

  "You know," Lyssa said, standing up to the protestations of her tired legs. "Hang on one second."

  She trotted onto her ship, grabbing onto the ladder and hoisting herself up to the top level. She made a beeline for the front of the ship, bending down to remove the panel under her dashboard. There was her father's journal, right where she had left it the year before when they returned from Leveman's Vortex. Behind it was a small wooden chest, and, tucked between some wires, a bottle. She reached in and carefully unwound it from the cables before closing the panel.

  "Well, well, well!" Lizbeth grinned as Lyssa came back to the campfire. "What do we have here?"

  "Bottle of top shelf whiskey," Lyssa said, taking a seat next to her. The alcohol burned as it went down and she almost gagged.

  "Let me show you how it's done," Lizbeth said, taking the bottle and swallowing at least a shot.

  "Damn, Lizbeth!"

  "My dad taught me how to shoot my whiskey," Lizbeth winked, taking a seat and handing Lyssa back the bottle.

  Lyssa took another sip and tried not to retch. "He sounds like a guy I'd like to meet."

  "You know, I'll take you to meet my parents sometime. My dad would love you."

  "Oh yeah?" Lyssa asked, swallowing another drink. "Why's that?"

  "He always gets mad at me 'cause all I do when we go out on the boat is drink. You'd probably be useful to him. You'd be able to skin a fish, probably."

  "Not in a few years," Lyssa laughed. "Not since my planetary survival course."

  "That sounds like a riot," Lizbeth said, taking the bottle and taking another swig.

  "Loads of fun. Especially since Tauron told me he was going to come get me," Lyssa grumbled, the whiskey starting to relax her shoulders and her attitude. "Three months alone on a planet, and I brought no supplies, no extra clothes, no food, nothing, because I thought I was going to be there for a day tops. But no, Tauron decided it would be funny to not come get me."

  "Why?"

  "Oh, he said it was 'character building,'" Lyssa scoffed. "He was always doing crap like that. Making me work to find him on D-882. That's why I became so good at bounty hunting; I had a lot of practice looking for his smug ass."

  Lizbeth watched her curiously, as if she wanted to talk about something else. Instead she said, "So, you call yourself a pirate, but all you do is bounty hunt?"

  "Bounty hunting is piracy," Lyssa replied. "It's a punishable offense under the Piracy Act."

  "But I mean, can't you be hanged for it?"

  The memory of watching Tauron on the Academy monitor came rushing back to Lyssa in her tipsy state. She did her best to shove it back down.

  "Maybe now. Since, you know, I kidnapped Jukin's brother and all."

  "But...you didn't kidnap him," Lizbeth said slowly. "It was your little brother, I thought?"

  "Details, details."

  "So why risk it? I mean, what could possibly move you to want a life where you've got the constant threat of being executed over your head?"

  "I mean, I'm in the web," Lyssa said with a shrug. "So there's really no threat. Dissident's not going to kick me out any time soon."

  At least, he'd better not.

  "But still," Lizbeth pressed. "Why do it?"

  Lyssa took another long drink and looked down at the bottle, now almost half-empty and laughed to herself. "You know, I bought this bottle of whiskey when I was thirteen to replace the one I stole from Tauron."

  "Why did you steal a bottle of whiskey when you were thirteen?"

  "Because Tauron had pissed me off. He was hunting a pirate that I had found, and he refused to take me with him," Lyssa said, realizing now that perhaps taking a thirteen-year-old to capture a pirate may not have been the best idea. She took another long sip
. "So I broke into his liquor cabinet and drank half of his best whiskey. Then spent the rest of the night with my head in a toilet."

  "And if you don't slow down, the same shall happen tonight," Lizbeth said, taking the bottle from her.

  "Tauron wasn't even mad," Lyssa said, staring into the fire wistfully. "Said that my hangover was punishment enough, but I wanted to replace the bottle. So I bought this one as an apology, but he wouldn't take it. Told me to hang onto it and we would drink it when I…when I captured my first bounty."

  The ache returned in her chest and she wished she could stop talking about this, but the alcohol was speaking for her.

  "My first bounty was worth one hundred credits," she whispered, her eyes focused on the mesmerizing fire. "It took me six months to convince Dissident to let me go after anyone. And it took another year and a half before he let me go after anyone worth mentioning, and that was simply to fetch his chocolates for him.

  "And even now, my bounty isn't even real. My boss at the Academy put up the money for it, hoping that someone would capture me and he could blackmail me into telling him…stuff," she said, not drunk enough to divulge that secret. "So…even though I'm one of the most wanted pirates in the universe, I'm still no better than when I was in the low six hundreds."

  "So why do it?" Lizbeth repeated quietly.

  Lyssa closed her eyes, unable to keep the truth from coming out.

  "He was the first person to ever give a crap about me. And when I'm out there, when I'm hunting bounties….I feel like he's still with me."

  "What about your parents?"

  "My parents?" Lyssa laughed hollowly, taking the bottle back and downing another swig. "My father left because I'd screwed up one of his experiments, and my mother told me she wished I'd never been born."

  "I'm sure that's not true."

  "I heard her say it herself, in front of the entire family," Lyssa said. "Last year."

  "Why would she even…I mean…" Lizbeth shook her head. "I don't even know how anyone could say that about their own child…"

  "Look, I can count on one hand the number of times I saw my father call her when we were gone, and we were gone for months at a time," Lyssa said. "I don't even know how she got pregnant twenty-four times. I never saw him kiss her. I never saw him even...acknowledge her. His entire world was his research, and nobody was allowed to distract him from it. She couldn't divorce him; that would be scandalous. She couldn't change him even if she tried. So she's stuck in this loveless marriage where her husband pays more attention to his daughter,"—she burped a little, the whiskey burning her throat—"than to her. Not that he ever really gave a shit about me either. Did Jukin a favor by not making him his assistant."