Badlands_Defenders of the Rim

by Randal Sloan

  "I just made sure of that," he said with a laugh.

  "Fine," Mad Dog said. "You could have at least warned me." He pointed toward the door. "After you, sir. Your ship awaits you in Shuttle Bay 3. I've arranged for a five minute window for us to get there undetected, so you'd better get a move on."

  As the Admiral started for the door, Mad Dog grabbed the girl and threw her over his shoulder. He could hardly wait to get started.

  #

  "Follow this exact course," Admiral Janson instructed Mad Dog as their small shuttle exited the ship. He was almost giddy with excitement. He was about to get his ship; in a few hours he would begin to teach the Empire a lesson and the first of several long-term plans would have begun. Before it was all done, he was going to be a very rich, very powerful man.

  Mad Dog himself was almost giddy too. As soon as he dumped the Admiral, he was going to be able to really start his fun. He'd already been having a little bit of that fun, banging her head on the door as he entered the shuttle and then dropping her on the floor like a sack of potatoes, with a little extra kick to get her out of his way. It all felt so good!

  He certainly didn't argue the course since he quickly realized it was the only way he was going anywhere in this crazy area of space. The whole thing had the advantage that even if they were discovered leaving, they would soon be lost to the sensors of the Relentless in this soup, not that they would be able to follow anyway.

  It appeared to him that the way in front of them was impassable, but obviously someone had given the Admiral directions for a passageway through. He recorded the course on the ship's computer; he did want to get out of here once he was done. This was not the place to get lost.

  After several moments of tedious course changes, another ship began to appear on the shuttle's tiny sensors. It was like nothing Mad Dog had ever seen before and he stared in disbelief as they approached. For one thing, there were no missile ports, but it sure looked like a warship.

  "What is that?" he finally asked the Admiral.

  "That is none of your business," he answered. "As soon as I get off this shuttle, you need to get your worthless hide and this shuttle away from here. I suggest you don't look back or it will be your last look."

  "Keep your Cessarain wig on," Mad Dog answered. "I was just curious, was all." Pointing to the still unconscious girl, he said. "I got other things to do, so don't you worry about me."

  He carefully piloted the shuttle into the ship's landing bay. It was certainly large enough, so that he had no difficulty bringing them in despite the ship not having an automated landing system. That reminded him of his plan on the return to the Relentless. His plans to fake his death in the shuttle craft had been fortuitous after what the Admiral had done with the Captain and XO. He was already trying to decide where he was going to go first.

  But right now he had other things to do. As the Admiral exited out of the shuttle, he could have sworn some kind of robot was waiting on the man. A rather evil looking robot that made him shudder involuntarily. Never mind; I don't think I want to know.

  Admiral Janson was debating whether or not to order them to destroy the shuttle as soon as he exited the landing ramp. Finally, he decided to leave it alone, shaking his head. What did one tiny shuttle matter to him? Once he destroyed the Relentless, they'd have nowhere to go anyway. Even if someone found the shuttle eventually, he'd be long gone.

  #

  Amy waited several minutes that turned into the better part of an hour, waiting for Jarra to return, but she didn't come back. Finally getting a little worried, she queried the ship's AI. "Contact Lieutenant Jarra Carsean," she instructed the AI.

  "Lieutenant Jarra Carsean is no longer on the ship," the AI answered quickly.

  "What?" Amy said in disbelief. Of course the AI just ignored her since that wasn't a valid request. Amy knew better; she was just so shocked. "Please clarify." AI's were so literal and would not volunteer information unless asked.

  "Lieutenant Jarra Carsean exited the ship at 1508.26 from Shuttle Bay 3. That shuttle has not returned."

  "Is the Admiral still on board?"

  "Negative. Admiral Janson exited the ship at 1508.26 from Shuttle Bay 3. That shuttle has not returned."

  "Just who was on that shuttle?"

  "Admiral Janson, Lieutenant Carsean, Marine Sergeant Gershaw."

  "Oh my God!" Amy said in sudden fear. The AI ignored that, of course. "Contact the XO and the Captain immediately, priority one signal."

  "I am unable to comply. Both the Captain and XO are on Alpha Block."

  "Location?" Amy asked.

  "I am unable to comply. Both the Captain and XO are on Alpha Block."

  "Where is the last known location of the Captain and XO?" Amy asked, trying a different tact.

  "Last known location of the Captain and XO was the Admiral's Ready Room."

  "Contact Lieutenant Commander Jason Cauldwell, priority one signal."

  "Lieutenant," Jason answered almost immediately. He appeared to be in the officers mess. "What is it?"

  "Jarra is missing. She was called in to see the Admiral along with the Captain and the XO. She hasn't returned and neither have the Captain or the XO. The AI says she's no longer on the ship. And Jason, the AI says Mad Dog was on the shuttle with her. I don't like the sound of that at all."

  "I'm on my way. See if you can reach the Captain and XO."

  Amy shook her head. "I just did right before I called you. The AI says they're on Alpha Block, whatever that means."

  "Use the following override codes. Just don't tell Jarra I gave them to you."

  Amy didn't argue with that. She immediately sent them to the AI.

  "Contact the XO and the Captain immediately, priority one signal, override using codes provided."

  The Captain answered almost immediately. "Captain Arkwright here. Lieutenant, we've been trying to reach someone for the last thirty minutes. How is it that you are able to reach us?" He shook his head. "Never mind that, can you get us out of here?"

  Amy told the AI. "Unlock the door to the Admiral's Ready Room, attached override."

  "Action completed."

  "Captain, the door should open now. And, sir, tell the XO the Princess is missing. He'll explain it to you." Amy saw his eyes widen. She suspected he knew exactly what that meant. He was a rather astute man after all.

  It seemed like forever, but it was only a short time before a rather breathless Lieutenant Commander Cauldwell came bursting onto the bridge. Amy immediately canceled the sound envelope surrounding her station, but before either could speak, the Captain and XO came in behind him.

  The Captain spoke first. "Please tell us everything you know about the situation, Lieutenant."

  "Yes, sir. When Lieutenant Jarra didn't return from your meeting I got worried. According to the AI, the Admiral, Lieutenant Jarra, and Sergeant 'Mad Dog' Gershaw left by shuttle some forty-five minutes ago. 'Mad Dog' has quite a grudge against the Lieutenant and we suspect he intends her harm." She very carefully did not reference the Princess since she was speaking to the whole bridge.

  "I'm aware of their history. The man attacked her and then stunned us, so I have no doubt as to his intentions. What can you tell us about the situation?"

  "I immediately requested a scan for a shuttle." Amy pointed to the 3D VR view which displayed the area of the Badlands in front of them. "They went in there."

  The Captain stared at her. "But that's suicide. No one can navigate in there."

  "Excuse me, sir, but I know someone who can help, if I may use the com." Jason was extremely anxious about Jarra to the point he was willing to use his command codes if it became necessary.

  The Captain nodded. "The ship is at your disposal, Commander. The XO explained your relationship to the Lieutenant."

  "Com, send the following message, priority one:

  Katarina. Please respond immediately. The Eagle is missing from the nest.

  He sent the command codes that went with that message
, the command codes he'd hoped to never have to use. The com officer gulped when he saw those codes, but he wisely said nothing, sending the urgent message.

  "Direct the response to the console here," Jason told him, sitting down at the backup station beside Amy. He activated the sound barrier as Katarina responded. Only Amy, because she was beside him, and the Captain and the XO, with their overrides to the sound barrier, could hear the ensuing conversation.

  "Katarina here. Please verify that I heard your message correctly."

  "Yes, Lieutenant, this is Jason. The Princess has been kidnapped by the Admiral and Mad Dog. They're on a shuttle somewhere out in the Badlands. Please tell me you've figured out how to navigate in there."

  "Yes," she told him, in her fear omitting the obligatory sir. At the moment, Jason didn't care. He knew how her mind worked.

  She sent their location. "We're currently located about 10 parsecs into the Badlands," she told him. "We're headed back your direction."

  Galen came onto the channel, as did the rest of the team. They all looked worried. "We're limited to the delta band right now," he said. "We're running on fifty percent power, so that's going to slow us down. Can you give us anything at all as to where she might be?"

  Amy had been working on her plot while they were talking. For the moment she ignored the comment about the delta band; that sent her brain off in all kinds of directions. But she didn't have time to deal with that. "I'm sending you a rough estimate based on their course from the last visible scan. I'm sorry but it's the best I can do."

  "We'll find her," Gabo told her. He wished he believed it was true.

  #

  Jarra awoke in sudden alarm. Someone had been coming up behind her and she was trying to stop them...

  "Ah, sleeping beauty awakes," a gruff voice said, causing her to look up. It was that idiot Marine she'd fought with, Mad Dog. He was looking unusually mad today. Looking around, she realized she was alone with him on a shuttle. Suddenly she was terrified; it was like waking up from a nightmare and finding it was real.

  He smiled at her, "You and me are going to have a little talk and then I'm going to have some fun. But first —" he pointed a device he had in his hand at her.

  Suddenly she couldn't move. Her terror was now off the charts; it was a horrible feeling not being able to move even without being in the clutches of a madman. She struggled internally to move something, even her little finger, but nothing seemed to help.

  He laughed at her expression. "I found this little concoction on the dark stream. Just before you awoke, I gave you a little shot of these special nanites. They let me control all your movements."

  He demonstrated, pressing a couple of buttons on the little remote. Jarra's arms flopped up and back down, totally out of her control. He punched another button and her legs kicked, almost like a reflex kick. Jarra was getting more and more worried; not being able to control her own movements was quite terrifying.

  "Quite handy," he said, laying the device down on the table behind him. "What's really great about them," he said as he turned back toward her, suddenly raising his foot to give her a kick in the side, causing a tremendous pain that brought tears to her eyes, "is that you can still feel everything I'm doing to you."

  He turned back around, laying out a number of tools on the table. He smiled an evil smile. "Give me just a minute. Let me get these arranged in their proper order." He started rearranging them. "Don't go anywhere," he said with a laugh.

  Jarra was desperately trying to regain control of her body. She knew she didn't have much time, but surely there was a way.

  "Jynks!" she practically screamed inside her head. "You've got to help me. I've got a bunch of nanites inside me and I can't control my movements."

  "Ah, interesting architecture. I wonder who made them."

  "Stop wasting time, Jynks. Can you control them or not?"

  "Sorry, give me a minute. I'm trying to crack the access code..."

  "Hurry," Jarra pleaded. She didn't like the looks of some of those instruments. Her fear was getting out of control, something she was not used to experiencing. She tried to control her breathing, that helped a little, but she was still terrified. Never before in her life had she felt so helpless. She'd always pressed through any adversity she'd faced before, but now she couldn't even move!

  "Got it. Well, part of it. You can now control your legs, he left them semi-active. It'll take me a few minutes more on the rest."

  "That's too long," Jarra told him. An idea came into her head. It was a desperate shot, but it might work.

  "Please," Jarra said out loud, deliberately making her voice sound like a croak. It didn't take much effort as dry as her throat was. "I've got money. I'll pay you whatever you want, if you'll just let me go."

  Mad Dog turned back toward her. "Now do you? I tell you what; you give me enough, I'll make it quick."

  Jarra watched as he leaned in closer. She only had one shot at this. Just a little closer. "Please," she said, dropping her voice to a near whisper. "My dad has a lot of money."

  That did it. He leaned forward just an incremental amount, straining to hear her voice. It was enough.

  Jarra whipped her legs up, wrapping them around his neck. He jerked in surprise but she tightened her grip. "Not that you'll see a dime of it," she told him as she snapped his neck.

  She let him fall, waiting to see if he got back up. As she lay there, eventually the understanding that he wasn't coming back reached her brain. She let out the breath she'd been holding; at last she began to feel safe, although her body was physically shaking from those few moments of pure terror. As she lay there waiting for Jynks to revive the rest of her body, still feeling the horror she'd just gone through and knowing she'd just killed that man by her own actions, she finally let the tears flow.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  More Trouble

  Gabo was working his sensors, desperately searching for the shuttle that had Jarra and that madman aboard. Even with an approximate area to search, it was nearly impossible to find a small ship the size of a shuttle in this soup they called the Badlands. Afraid he was going to blow out the emitters, nevertheless, he pushed the active sensors well beyond their specs.

  Just as he was about to give up in despair, he saw something. A tiny little blip, further away than he had been expecting and it was so fleeting, he almost lost it. Finally, he had it stabilized; the contact was so bad that the sensor AI would not identify it as a ship but only as a semi-metallic object. That had to be it. Excited, he sent it to Galen.

  "Galen, change course to take us to the following location."

  "That's barely at the edge of our estimated travel zone."

  "Nevertheless, I'm almost certain that's them."

  Sasha had been listening to their conversation. "Gabo," she said softly. "Good work. I know you're as worried as the rest of us, but I need you to hand the sensors off to Sara. I need you working on the reactor control system. We may well need them at one hundred percent at any moment."

  Seeing his obviously strained look, she went on. "You did the hard part. You found her. Now, let us handle it. We're going to get her out of there."

  Gabo stared at her for a moment, but finally nodded. "I understand," he told her. "I don't like it, but I know you're right. It's still going to take several minutes yet to finish that work." He switched out of the sensor suite, moving back into the reactor control system. Better not screw this up, Gabo, he told himself. Blowing the ship up would not be a good thing. It wouldn't help her, either.

  Gradually, the Katarina drew close to the little shuttle. Running at fifty percent just didn't get them there very fast. It had taken the sensor AI some time before it got enough detail to admit the blip was indeed a shuttle, but it had finally done so. The shuttle seemed to be ignoring them. Worried what the madman might do if they tried to call, Sasha held off calling on a ship-to-ship connection.

  That meant several more agonizing moments before they were within range of
a call to Jarra's implants. The whole team waited, almost as a group holding their breath as Sara worked the coms. Finally, they made a connection.

  "Jarra, can you hear me," Sara sent.

  After a couple of very tense moments that seemed like forever, "Sara, is that you?" came back, causing them all to finally breathe. But the sound of that voice, their normally confident leader who let nothing faze her, came with a near sob, tearing at all their heartstrings. Were they too late?

  "Jarra, are you alright?" Sara sent back, her own voice cracking.

  Again, the response was slow coming back. "I think so. I had to kill him, it was the only way."

  "We're almost there. We'll get you out shortly."

  "He did something to me. Some kind of nanites; they still have me partially paralyzed. Jynks has been working on them, but he's having some trouble."

  "This is Master Sergeant Gibbons," the Marine sergeant broke into the connection. "I'm coming over in just a moment. Me and a couple of the boys. We'll take care of you."

  "Thank you, Robert."

  The last was said with such gratitude that it almost made the Master Sergeant cry. Master Sergeants don't cry!

  #

  Katarina finally reached the shuttle and extended her shields to cover the tiny ship. Wearing their Marine armor, since that was what they used for space suits, Master Sergeant Gibbons and two others from the squad made their way across the gap between the ships to cycle themselves through the airlock.

  The first aboard, the Master Sergeant rushed through the ship, frantically looking for her and reaching the tiny galley in the shuttle in seconds, the most likely spot to find her. There he stopped to stare at the scene before him.

  A rather disheveled and distraught Jarra lay at his feet. Just in front of her lay a very dead Marine sergeant, his neck obviously broken. On the table before him sat a number of instruments obviously meant for torture. Master Sergeant Gibbons breathed a sigh of relief as he saw no obvious signs that those instruments had been used.

  Kneeling beside his Princess, the Master Sergeant helped her into a sitting position, gently brushing her hair out of her face. "Princess," he asked, once more fighting those tears that Master Sergeants don't have, "Are you alright?"