by Greg Remy
“Kappa!” exclaimed Zoe. “Thank you!”
“Hey, what kind of captain would ya be without a ship?”
“Ah Kappa, thank you.”
“Don’t go counting your chickens just yet little lady.”
“True. Okay, let’s regroup at the Port Jidus. I’m sure the Captain here will be willing to accommodate a quick drop-off.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
Zoe was about to hang up but added, “Oh and Kappa?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Please don’t scratch my ship.”
“Roger that. Be careful out there.”
The call ended, and Zoe put her lightcard away. She scooted next to Darious.
“We need to talk about that self-destruct command.”
Darious nodded. “Yes, I was about to bring it up too.”
“When we were found out, an order came from the Magistrate to have the entire station reduced to nothing. I’ve been thinking about it; there is no way the Magistrate is under Pantheon’s thumb. The Magistrate is just too high of a ruling power. I mean, it’s the highest of galactic powers. Thus, I’ve come to the conclusion that it must be the other way around; someone, or multiple someones, in the Magistrate is calling the shots and apparently, we’ve hit a nerve, a really big nerve.” Zoe grinned. “And that makes me quite happy.”
“The Magistrate,” said Darious.
“Yup. I’m not saying that Pantheon isn’t guilty. There’s definitely a link between the two, but I’m willing to bet it’s someone in the Magistrate that’s pulling the strings.”
Darious thought it over and could see the logic in Zoe’s reasoning. As the conversation diffused away, they sat together for some time in silence. Zoe was soon leaning toward Darious, as if she were slowly falling into him. Oh, how he cared for her. Their fingers intertwined in his lap. He looked at her and warmth filled him. Darious had never felt like this. It was such happiness.
“Darious.”
Her beautiful eyes were just inches from his.
“Zoe,” he said back, completely dazzled by her.
She seemed to hold back for a moment.
“Thank you.”
Darious brought his lips to hers. A long, gentle kiss united them. Darious felt a bond beyond the physical, beyond the meta-physical, and beyond comprehension. Zoe.
Chapter 43
Blood from a Stone
Zoe shook Captain Robert’s hand as they exited from his docked craft at Port Jidus.
“Now, you two stay safe,” he stated. “I don’t want to be pullin’ no bodies from space.”
Zoe and Darious gave him many thanks and waved goodbye as he departed.
“I didn’t see Kappa’s ship on the way in, but I assume he’s here somewhere,” said Zoe.
“They were very nice,” said Darious, watching the flare from the junker’s rockets fade into the stars.
“They sure were.”
Zoe held out her hand. The pair entered into the main corridors of the port. It was a small station, but nevertheless it remained densely packed with all sorts of humans. Zoe didn’t spend time playing her usual little game, instead she focused on individuals that fit Kappa’s profile.
“If everything goes smoothly,” said Zoe, “We’ll have earned a feather in our caps.”
“Oh? Oh, I understand.”
“I got it!” she proclaimed, pausing momentarily amongst the angst crowds.
“What is it?” Darious asked.
“We gotta get you a book on idioms and formulaic language.” She continued walking with Darious trailing just behind her. “Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll have a book store here. I understand how 206 must have felt.”
As they made their way down the corridors, Zoe constantly pulled at Darious as he was incessantly shoved by the grating crowds. Their progress was slow and there wasn’t much she could do about it. Zoe directed Darious to a small café. Entering in, they took seats next to a window facing the corridor.
“I think we’ll have more luck this way,” she said. Zoe looked around for an attendant but didn’t spot any. “Hmmph.”
She put her elbows on the table and balanced her head in her hands. She looked out at the hodgepodge of people and then over at Darious, who was absorbed in his own search through the many faces beyond the glass.
“Ma’am, care for a drink?” asked a voice from just behind Zoe.
She spun around and there was Kappa, standing with a giant grin. He wore his familiar cloak and hat. Zoe could see he had recently been in conflict. She gave him a hug and then he shook Darious’ hand.
“How are ya lad?” Kappa asked.
“Just fine, sir. It is a pleasure to see you.”
“You as well. We don’t have much time.” Kappa flashed a small device from under his coat. Zoe immediately recognized it as a CF communicator. Kappa whispered, “I swiped it during the charade with the boys from the Regency Station. I’ve been using it to monitor their communications. There are several fleets headed to this sector. They are doing broad sweeps and you can sure as hell bet they’ve got enough ships to find us here. We need to move.”
Zoe nodded, and the trio set off into the corridors. It was much easier following behind Kappa, as his large stature cleaved through the crowds, leaving plenty of space for Zoe and Darious in his wake. They were soon upon a parking bay of Port Jidus. As the door closed behind them, the three stood alone in the sub-dock. Kappa pulled out the communicator and read over its screen.
“Alrighty folks, a bit of a snag here.”
“What is it?” asked Darious.
“This station is now under the monitoring sphere of the fleet. We need to get our ships out—without a green light from the port’s space traffic control and without making a scene.”
“No problem,” said Zoe, pulling out her lightcard.
Just then, the door opened behind them and a single traveler passed by. The individual began entering in the key codes to his own bay. They all looked over their shoulders at him. The man looked back and had a momentary look of surprise upon his face, then a disgusted look, and then focused back on the keypad, typing faster. The trio grouped in a tight circle around Zoe’s lightcard. She was typing on it, circumnavigating the port’s systems. Kappa bent in, getting a good look at the little device in her hands.
“That’s a hacker card!” he nearly shouted in surprise.
Zoe paused and looked at him. “A hacker card?”
He stood straight and his face became quite serious. “Where did you get it? I have only ever seen one and it was at a hyper-security CF facility.” He stared down at her.
The man working the door turned his head towards them.
Zoe jabbed Kappa in the ribs. “Keep your voice down.”
She put a finger to her lips to emphasize the need for quietness. After a nod from Kappa, she went back to concentrating on rerouting their bay controls, so the gates would open without indicating any changes to traffic control.
Kappa leaned in. “Zoe,” he whispered close to her face.
“Yes?” she whispered back.
“That’s a hacker card. Seriously, where did ya get it? It should be in a CF vault. I believe there are only a couple in existence; I wouldn’t have believed any at all if I hadn’t seen one with my own eyes. And now, here ya are with one of your own. Where did you get it?”
Zoe smacked her face with the palm of her hand.
She whispered, straining her voice, “I found it. In a dump-yard years ago.”
The traveler, evidently finished with his key codes, entered his dock and the three were alone once more.
“Zoe,” Kappa said. “A hacker card—any door, any place.”
Just then, two men with heavy beards and jumpsuits entered the sub-dock and made their way to their bay.
“How do you think I got the passcode to enter into this dock room in the first place?” Zoe whispered.
Kappa looked down at her at her, making a sarcastic ‘O’ shape wit
h his eyes.
“You mean you didn’t gain special access through permit designations?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Zoe…” he began.
“Shhh!”
The space lumberjacks entered their bay just as Zoe finished the control modifications.
“All done.”
“Good,” said Kappa. “Let’s mosey on outta’ here.”
He went over to their door and it wooshed open without any need for an access code. He waved a great arm for Zoe and Darious to follow him. Entering in, Zoe smiled upon seeing her parked vessel. Oh, she had missed it. Kappa’s Drak-9 was right next to it. The front of his craft was dented inward and mangled bits of metal stuck out from it.
“How did—,” started Darious.
“Don’t ask,” interrupted Zoe.
“Alrighty,” said Kappa as they walked toward their crafts, “The CF has been spreading out from the blast of the Regency Station. We need to be heading in the opposite direction. Aim for Sector Gamod. There is a planetary system there that’s good for laying low.”
Zoe gave him a sardonic look.
“I might have used it once or twice before,” he added. “It’ll take a few hours to get to at near max capacity of your ship. Don’t make any stops and keep an open mic. Once there, we can plan out our next steps.”
“The timing should work out,” said Zoe, “by then Wormy will have nearly completed mapping everything. It should be instrumental in steering our next step.”
“Understood. Okay troops, safe journey and light speed.”
Kappa dipped his brimmed hat to Zoe and Darious and left toward his ship. Zoe motioned for Darious and they made their way to her vessel.
Onboard, Zoe took a deep breath in. The familiar smell was of home.
“Ahh,” she exhaled.
Zoe quickly made her way to the captain’s seat and began flipping switches all around her. Darious stood behind her with a firm grip on the back of her chair. Zoe instructed the computer to close the gangway and pre-ignite the thrusters. She placed the lightcard, or ‘hacker card,’ as Kappa called it, on her console and pressed the ‘Enter’ button on it. The double bay door began to slowly open, revealing the vacuum of space. The traffic systems showed an ‘all normal.’ If everything went well, the port’s traffic control would see none of the silent escape happening right under their noses.
“Now, to fulfill a promise,” she said.
Zoe picked up the lightcard and brought up the folder containing Wormy. She deleted it and initiated a full scrub of her device. In a few seconds, her lightcard signaled that the task was complete; all data pertaining to the worm had been erased, the resulting blank space was scrambled, and routine operating data had filled in those chunks. Zoe typed into her virtual console and set her ship to auto-depart. She then got up and motioned for Darious to follow her to the main chamber.
“Here, hold this,” she said, handing him the bulky, vintage computer which held that mescal worm.
Zoe fumbled though a drawer and pulled out two cylinders connected by a single wire. She held each on opposite sides of the computer. They shook momentarily in her hands and then a puff of smoke dissipated from the top of the computer.
“Fried it with electromagnets. Okay now dump it in there.”
She pointed with one of the electromagnets to a pull-out dumpster. Managing with one hand, Darious opened the small hinged lid and placed the sautéed computer in it. He closed the lid and wiped the dust from his hands. Zoe replaced the electromagnets in the drawer and smiled at Darious.
“I think a proper burial is in order for that old beast.” She winked and returned to the cockpit.
The two ships lifted up from the bay and slowly turned, both lining up their bows to outer-space. With the gates fully opened, the crafts glided out side-by-side.
“Throttle up,” said Kappa through the speakers. “Sector Gamod, planetary system 12-12.2.”
“Oh, it’s so popular it doesn’t even have a name,” teased Zoe.
She flipped a switch, dumping the trash hold into space, and engaged the rocket drives. Her craft propelled forward, vaporizing the old computer within the billion-degree burst into a million, million specks.
Just as the two ships shot out from the space station, there came an incomprehensible yell from Kappa.
“What is it?!” called Darious.
“Fu—the CF has flagged us! They’re intercepting! Fucking hell!”
Zoe immediately brought up long range scanners. She held her breath in trepidation. An entire fleet was descending upon them. Scanners indicated an enormous mass at its center.
“They have a brink-class dreadnought!” shouted Kappa. “A planet destroyer!”
Darious leapt to his post, aiding Zoe in the ignition of all thrusters for an over-clocked burst.
As all settings were primed, the entire CF fleet came to a screeching halt from superluminal speeds, surrounding them. Zoe cut her engines and saw Kappa had done the same. She knew there would be no and outrunning the fleet. CF ships, armed at every interstice, swarmed around them. Empty parts of space were filling in with CF ships halting from their floating-parsec leaps.
“Weapons arming!” yelled Darious.
They didn’t even bother hailing us, thought Zoe.
“Evasive maneuvers!” yelled Kappa. Zoe instinctively flipped switches above her, imparting alzthumal thrusters with all the power her ship had to offer.
“Weapons fired!” yelled Darious.
Zoe saw onscreen that two dozen small CF ships had fired missiles. A blue string of text appeared at her right-hand side; Kappa had sent her a program of flight actions.
With swift keystrokes, Zoe commanded her ship to have its belly facing the underside of Kappa’s ship and engaged his evasive protocols. Her ship synced with the motions of his and together their crafts began a spiraling ascent. Zoe quickly understood their doubled twirling mass might confuse the projectiles to the point where they could burst accelerate at the last moment and dodge them. She swiped to the end of Kappa’s program and indeed that’s what he had planned. The missiles accelerated, reaching for them like the fingers of a specter. Zoe kept a close eye on the proximity alerts; she knew Kappa was doing the same.
“Now!” he yelled through the speaker and the two vessels broke apart with a rush of speed, sending the missiles arcing wildly in a confused manner. Their two ships looped around many CF vessels, attempting to cause as much disarray as possible. The missiles relocked on, but had lost their propinquity and were now traveling clumsily between the thick veil of CF vessels.
A red alert flashed on Zoe’s screen. One of the missiles had impacted a CF ship.
“More lock-ons!” called Darious. “Plasma systems powering up!”
Zoe looked out at the swarming fleet; there had to be over one hundred ships. Meanwhile, the giant menacing CF vessel floated idly amidst the commotion. Zoe completed a series of quick bursts, looping around ships as more alerts rang across her screen from the growing number of projectiles headed in her direction. Just then, Kappa curved right toward her, narrowly missing her bow.
“Kappa!” Zoe yelled.
His ship fell back, and Zoe saw him fire upon the missiles right behind her, reducing them to ash. One missile made it through and both ships narrowly managed to avoid it. The projectile quickly swerved back around and headed straight for Zoe’s craft. Zoe thought quickly. She didn’t want to fire upon the CF, for she couldn’t be an aggressor or else certainly she could be charged with capitol crime. Instead, Zoe swung her ship rearward, allowing Kappa to pass her. He immediately fired upon the missile, obliterating it.
Suddenly, plasma blasts ignited from the CF ships. Zoe flipped her craft around and pivoted back and forth as fast as she could. Kappa flew parallel to her whilst completing similar maneuvers. Green and blue gunfire sizzled past them. One hit its mark, burning through one of her aft thrusters. Zoe could see Kappa’s ship had been hit several times and smoke was trai
ling from both its wings.
She quickly sealed off the damaged thruster and throttled her ship to full power, evading another volley of plasma fire.
“Agghh!!” Kappa yelled.
Zoe looked out and saw his ship had sustained a direct hit and smoke was now pouring from it. An indicator prompt on her screen signaled another plasma torrent was about to rain upon them. She slid her ship around a large CF vessel, managing to avoid the bulk of the attack, but Kappa was less fortunate. Though his ship was hidden from view, Zoe saw onscreen his engines had gone offline and metal debris became present around him.
Then all gunfire ceased from the CF. Zoe quickly flew her ship to Kappa’s craft and visually surveyed the damage. It looked bad, really bad.
“Why have they stopped?” asked Darious.
Zoe had no idea.
“Kappa. Kappa, are you okay?”
A heavy voice breathed through the speakers. “My life systems are crashing. Engines offline. Armaments offline.”
Zoe saw a small explosion rip through the top of his hull. Loud crackling resonated through the speakers.
“Just lost navigations,” said Kappa exasperated. “Oh Shit!”
Ahead of them, the CF fleet opened up, exposing a clear path from the dreadnought to the two battered crafts. A large alert popped up on Zoe’s screen. The massive vessel was charging its primary cannon. Zoe sat frozen. The weapon’s energy levels were off the chart. It would erase them from space, and then some.
“Zoe, you gotta get out of here!” yelled Kappa through the crackling speakers. “I will hold them off the best I can!”
“No!” Zoe shouted back. “We can think of something!”
“We’re locked-on!” yelled Darious.
Just then Zoe’s ship announced with a giant red warning that the enormous cannon had indeed locked onto them.
“Oh my...” Zoe whispered in disbelief.
“Verve, nerve, and adventure,” spoke the calm voice of Kappa.
Zoe saw he had managed to restart his main thruster and was charging it up with all the power left in his craft. Then, with explosive force, he shot toward the mammoth ship.
“Kappa!” Zoe shouted.
