Space Cowboy Survival Guide

by Long, Heather

  The fact that he was willing to hand himself over to them and endured their treatment while giving them everything they needed… It earned him the sliver of a chance. Maybe Shaw shouldn't be doing this.

  He returned to the cockpit and slid into his captain's chair while popping open the protein boost he'd stolen from Tika while he finished his protein bar. Whether he should or shouldn’t be doing anything was moot, Shaw needed to act.

  It was the right thing to do.

  “Zed, begin recording message. For her eyes only, Jo Rayder, Titan’s Deep Space Observation. Time capsule it, code and prepare for transmission. Then reserve it.”

  “Acknowledged, Captain. Parameters for time delay?”

  “Send it with the emergency beacon in the event of destruction.”

  “Parameters established. Begin recording.” At least Zed didn’t take note of his prospective demise as a personal insult.

  “Confession time, Jo. You may not like this but I seem to have found a spot of trouble…”

  * * *

  First stop, Purgatory. Shaw took advantage of the time spent in subspace to drill Tika with a short flight lesson. In the event they needed to move the ship while on Purgatory, he wanted her to be able to handle the controls. Fortunately, Zed could handle most of it, but in a pinch, it was better to have a person at the controls and not an AI. Human reactions, though not as fast as an AI, were based on emotion rather than logic.

  She wouldn’t leave him behind, even if Zed determined it the best course of action to save the vessel.

  They docked some distance from their previous berthing. During the descent, Shaw had Zed transmit different ID papers and registration—all procured under Byron's rather extensive holdings. It seemed the Wynn name earned them one advantage above all others—a prime docking location closer to their ultimate destination and no security detail to meet them.

  In the hold, Shaw double-checked his weapons. He wore his standard duster and hat, with his pistol strapped to his right thigh and a secondary gun on his left. He also tucked in a shotgun into the duster itself, one which easily fell into his hands with a simple tug. A knife in each boot assured him that, no matter what happened, he would be able to lay hands on some type of weapon.

  “You do know you stand out like a sore thumb dressed like that right?” Unlike Shaw, Kestral dressed more like the locals in dark pants, dark leather flight jacket, black shirt. If not for his skin tone, he would've looked as though someone had carved out a piece of the space and set it down on the planet.

  “You do realize I don't give a damn what you think, right?” The other man seemed to catch on to the humor, and they shared a faintly amused look. It really didn't matter to Shaw. This was who he was and how he dressed.

  “What about you, Mr. Wynn?” Casually, he turned his attention to their wealthy guest. His expensive silk shirt and dress trousers were as utterly out of place in the hold of the Gilly as Shaw's outfit was likely to be on Purgatory itself. The man’s blond, well-styled hair looked like as though he’d spun it from real gold. Though he was definitely their captive in this situation, he dressed and carried himself as though he were merely a wealthy visitor along for the ride. Not even the presence of the shock shackle on his wrist managed to deter his rather blasé mood.

  “As I have no weapons to carry, nor have you allowed me any armaments, I believe I am more than ready.”

  Since it had been his idea not to let Byron carry a weapon, Shaw wasn't feeling too guilty about the result. In the event they were captured, Byron wanted to play victim in order to get them out of trouble. It might seem a rather back asswards manner of doing things, yet the man’s wealth guaranteed him access to buying his way out of trouble. If he could bail himself out, he could get them out, too. So far, everything Byron had given them had checked out.

  “Just remember, Byron,” Shaw warned him. “Revenge is a bitch, but I'm worse.”

  “I'm almost flattered you felt the need to threaten me, Captain Sullivan. I assure you, I want this mess cleaned up as quickly and as neatly as possible. I have zero interest in any of this going on the record.” Despite the hint of imperiousness to his tone, there was a deeper conviction in his gaze. He truly did want to make all of this disappear.

  As soon as they docked, Shaw led the way down the ramp to the platform. Vega would stick close to the ship; he knew the layout of the land better than any of them on this planet. He also knew what threats to keep an eye on. In the event of danger or pursuit at the Gilly’s landing site, Vega would reboard and they would take off to meet at the pre-determined secondary site. He would also be their last line of defense. Byron led Kestral and Shaw directly to the medical district. At their surprised faces, Wynn had shrugged. The area had been planned as a medical research facility dedicated to the eradication of alien viruses discovered on planets like Purgatory and others.

  “While I don't agree with many precepts of the Order of the IV, their original goals remain good ones.”

  “Professor, you can try to convince yourself that you were doing the right thing for the right reasons, but it doesn't excuse human experimentation. Nothing will ever excuse it.” He might question a lot of Kestral's past and his choices, but Shaw wouldn't question his morality. The man held firm to his personal ethics.

  “You would know, wouldn't you,” Byron challenged. A distinctly hostile look passed between the two men.

  “Eyes on the prize, gentlemen. If you want to have pissing contest later to determine which of you has a larger cock, I'll gladly host it. In the meanwhile, focus on why we are here and not on whatever past bullshit is between the two of you.”

  Their shocked silence offered further verification to his belief. Byron had made no pretense about what he knew about the various members of the crew, including Capt. Sullivan. While he intimated he knew what Shaw's mission was, he never actually confirmed it. Either the man was a master manipulator with a keen sense of being able to weasel his way into and out of any situation, or he simply didn't know for certain what Shaw's mission was. It mattered very little either way. Byron also indicated he knew a lot about Kestral's past, something Kestral didn't want the others to know. As long as it didn't involve harming anyone on the crew, Shaw didn't care. A person's past was their past and no one else's.

  At the first security checkpoint, Byron simply showed his ID card and they were waved through without even a cursory weapon scan.

  “The perk of being who I am,” Byron admitted, though for the first time he didn't sound especially proud of that fact. At the secondary checkpoint, they received a similar welcome, with the guards all looking the other way as Shaw, Kestral, and Byron entered their med facility armed to the teeth.

  Kestral fidgeted next to him as they stepped into a lift. “You get the feeling that this is too easy?”

  Shaw's hand rested on the butt of his pistol, every muscle in his body caught in a state between being relaxed and ready for battle. “Every damn day.”

  “The lift accesses all the research floors,” Byron explained, though he'd gone over this on the ship earlier. It sounded more like he needed to talk to soothe his own nerves. Despite the tech-centric nature of facility, the lift didn't seem to have any kind secure cam.

  Unless…

  “All security features are internal,” Byron said. “Anything that accesses an external database or storage can be hacked. That's why we don't keep security cameras up. They have to be networks any network can be penetrated. What we do here, we don't want anyone to know about.”

  No harm, no foul. In other words, if they had no recording of a crime, then no one could prosecute them for one. Shaw didn't doubt for an instant that they didn't want anyone stealing their research or their plans, but they also didn't want to be caught on tape.

  “If there are no records of your involvement,” he said keeping his tone easy as they continue to ascend to the research floor. “Is there a particular reason why you think that you have to be here to destroy this so that
you don't get connected to it?”

  The door slid open to a long white sterile hallway. The brightness of it was damn near blinding. “I don't care if there are records or not, Captain. I know what happened here. I don't want it to happen anymore.”

  Good enough for him. Sliding the pistol out of his left thigh holster, he passed it over to Byron. “Make sure you turn the safety off before you start firing.”

  The three exited together moving almost like a coordinated unit. Shaw ranged ahead with Kestral, coming up along his right side with Byron on his left. Technically, he should've let Byron lead, but Shaw was done playing it safe.

  At the first door they came to, Byron indicated it with a wave of his hand, “Medicinal chamber. This is where they keep all the drugs and samples in cold storage.”

  “Any chance Nina's uncorrupted DNA and blood records would be in there?” Kestral asked.

  Byron shook his head. “One of the earliest decisions of the program, when we determine immediately if we saw some success, all records had to be destroyed. That way we ran no risk of accidentally reigniting the memories—if it even proved possible.”

  “Then everything goes.” Kestral’s expression went grim..

  Shaw nodded. “Everything goes.” The three split, with Kestral diverting to deal with the sample while Shaw and Byron continued onward. If there were any present prisoners on this level, Shaw wanted them out before they brought the building down. He hadn’t mentioned the last part to Byron, but if the man's loyalties were in question, the success of this particular operation should actually answer it for them.

  The first the first sign of resistance they ran into proved to be one of the security agents actually doing his job. He spotted the weapon in Byron's hand and pulled his own. Shaw shocked him with a quick blast while Byron remained pre-occupied with patient records on a wall-mounted screen.

  The professor needed to learn how to pay attention to his surroundings.

  A second pair of guards came running around the corner and Shaw took care of them. “Mr. Wynn, are you done with the sightseeing?”

  Byron pivoted, his surprised gaze going from the first downed guard to the second pair. “They've made changes. Their patients listed on the incoming chart weren’t here previously.”

  “Anybody you know?”

  Byron started to shake his head then grimaced. “The way they've listed the incoming… They changed the code. There's no way to determine who they are. It's the number of them that I'm concerned about.”

  “We’ll take notes, then blow it. We have work to do.”

  When Byron made no show of moving, Shaw targeted the view screen, then blew it out. When it smoked and sparked, Byron scowled but followed when Shaw continued along the hallway. They reached the first set of patient rooms and Shaw had to blast his way into those as Byron's ID did not grant him access.

  “Looks like you're not quite on the ball with your Order friends.” An explosion rocked the side of the building then internal alarms began to sound. Kestral didn’t waste his time. The first patient they found however was in no state to be walking out of the building. In fact, based on Byron's expression after he looked at their vitals, they weren’t going to be in much shape for living much longer anyway.

  “Permanent vegetative state.” Furious, Byron stalked out of the room with Shaw close attendance. Room by room, they began to clear—those patients who were capable of getting on their feet were ushered to help the others who weren’t mobile. When they discovered nurses and technicians working at a station at the floor’s nerve center, Shaw tugged a handkerchief over the lower half of his face and pointed a weapon at them.

  “Pay attention, folks. This is a heist. We’re removing all the patients from the building. You can help or you can go out in a body bag.”

  Unsurprisingly, they all wanted to help. The nurses began clearing the rooms with them moving even more rapidly. With their assistance, they could also remove those patients who weren't capable of getting up and moving themselves.

  “I didn't think we were going to kill anyone who didn't deserve it,” Byron questioned him.

  “I didn't kill anyone,” Shaw reminded him as they entered one of the server storage rooms. Byron reached out to begin accessing one of the panels, but Shaw tugged him back then fired a steady stream of energy into the device, setting fire to the main system. The fire suppression units were already off line. One way to make sure all the data was destroyed was to actually destroy the data. At Byron's glare of recrimination, Shaw simply stared at him and said, “I haven't killed anyone yet.”

  Apparently, the message had been received. They emerged into chaos when they left the data storage room as evacuation orders began to chime in over the loudspeakers. Kestral had definitely been busy. More security was on hand and soon Shaw was in the middle of a firefight with too many innocents around. He dragged Byron with them into a stairwell.

  “Start running.”

  He sent the wealthier man down the steps while he ran up one flight. Sure enough the security guards filing into the stairwell targeted down the stairs rather than up leaving Shaw a clear field to eliminate their assailants. When the last one fell, he jogged down the steps after Byron.

  “I really don't appreciate being made part of the target practice.”

  “Next time, I'll run down the stairs and let you shoot everybody, how's that?”

  “I'm not that good of a shot.”

  “Exactly, so you got to be bait. Get moving.”

  By the time, they’d reached the ground floor. The evacuation was running full on and local planetary security had shown up. What few members of the Order of the IV had been present were also fleeing. Byron pointed one of them out, standing at the edge of the crowd and monitoring the situation with an infuriated look on his face.

  Over his shoulder, Shaw glanced at the bounty hunter then motioned to the man monitoring the situation. Kestral nodded.

  “Back to the ship, professor.” Shaw gave Byron a nudge.

  “But we’re not done…”

  Shaw didn't give him time to finish the thought before giving him a shove to get him moving out of the square. Three minutes later, the building’s destruction began to echo through the city canyons. Dust and debris rose as the building collapsed in on itself, then a harsh rush of sound as the steel girders, glass, and stone twisted as the shape charges condensed it into a compressed ball. By that point, the last of the patients and staff had evacuated, leaving it empty. One of the best improvements of the twenty-fourth century included a new kind of detonator—they collapsed structures, condensed the debris and left behind controlled rubble causing far less damage to surrounding structures and nearby pedestrians.

  “We still need someone to get us into—” before Byron could finish the thought, they encountered Kestral on their way to the dock. He hauled a large storage crate on a wagon, whistling the whole time.

  “Package secure?”

  “Package secure, Captain.”

  Shaw initiated the comm on his datalink. “Package secure. Start cycling the engines up. We’re leaving.”

  Part one of their mission had been completed. Eliminate their medical facility and free their current experiments. Next stop, the Port of York.

  * * *

  Despite the success on Purgatory, their ebullient mood remained tempered by the knowledge of the challenge awaiting them at the Port of York. Shaw had studied the schematics of the domed cities he mapped during his previous visit. Five external domes all accessible from landing platforms and one central dome not accessible to anyone who was not a resident of the Port of York.

  Kestral proved the most useful in this situation. He understood the layout and also had access to the centralized dome. Upon their arrival, it was only Kestral and Shaw who left the ship. He wanted everyone else on board and ready to go. Unlike Purgatory, criminals, smugglers, and more bounty hunters populated the Port of York. They left Byron secured in his quarters—better to keep him out of
trouble.

  As Kestral explained en route, the only people who truly had access to the centralized dome were those who had business within it. If you weren't a resident, you had to have done a job for the governing body at the Port of York.

  “How do you get a job for their governing body?” Shaw asked as they made their way through the crowded streets.

  “They hire you.” While enlightening, it didn’t offer much in the way of details. Still, Kestral didn't look anywhere near the slave pens as they passed by them. While slavery continued to be outlawed in most of the civilized universe, apparently anything went on the Port of York. The dealers on the streets had paperwork claiming legal debt, along with the signatures of the individuals signing themselves over to service for a term to pay off their existing debt. Those contracts were then sold to potential buyers who used the slave labor for months or years or even decades—on the surface it was all on the up and up.

  Kestral gave him a look before holding up the wrist restraints. “You ready for this?”

  “You don't think they're going to notice that I'm still armed?”

  “Of course they will. They’ll also know that I don't care. Your weapons don't scare me.” He delivered the line with such perfect calm that Shaw believed him.

  “Learn something new about you every day.”

  “Impressed yet?” Kestral actually grinned and snapped the restraints on first one wrist then the next. He raised his shackled wrists, and added in a low voice, “Authorize, Shaw.” They buzzed lightly as though accepting the new directive.

  “I'm getting there,” Shaw told him. Then they turned at once as the security cam blinked to life, and the gates opened. One of the techs exited, with a device in hand which he used to scan them both before accepting Kestral's identity card. After he ran it, he glanced over at Shaw.