“Wait,” Mitsuki’s chippy said. “Am I called B because you think I’m a bitch?”
“I don’t think you’re a bitch, B. You’re very polite.”
“Oh good, madam. I don’t want to be one.”
“But you are my bitch, B. If you get my drift.”
“Oh my, madam. I had no idea.”
“My upgrade’s working wonders,” Silky cooed.
“Can we all focus, please,” Siv said.
“Call me Mr. C,” Mitsuki told Wang.
Wang cocked an eyebrow then shrugged. “If you prefer."
Mitsuki went back into the front room, shut the door, and then barricaded it. The thugs had broken the lock when they entered.
Suddenly, Wang collapsed to the floor trembling and breathing rapidly.
“He’s shellshocked, sir. His vitals confirm it. You should get him talking.”
“Mr. Wang, let’s talk about your wares,” Siv said. “Tell me what you have in stock.”
“I…I have some top-shelf ID cards…and chameleon veils,” Wang said, his voice shaky. “I make the ID’s…myself and I…obtained a large stock of quality masks…a few years back. Selling this stuff is all that’s kept me afloat…over the last few months.”
“You’d think that a crime lord would be harder to rattle,” Mitsuki said disapprovingly.
“Most people, including crime bosses and petty crooks, aren’t used to firefights, especially prolonged ones,” Silky said. “You two have unusually steady nerves. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have been able to do your jobs.”
“How’d you hit bottom?” Siv asked, to keep him talking.
Wang took a big breath and released it. “I’m a gambler, in every way imaginable. It’s how I rose to the top so quickly, and it’s how I crashed to the bottom even faster.”
“Good work, boss,” Silky said. “He’s starting to calm down. And we’ve now got insight into his personality.”
Siv lifted the massive desk, setting it back up. The wood on the top was almost entirely gone, burned away by plasma blasts, leaving the diamondine layer exposed.
“It doesn’t make me trust him more,” Mitsuki said. “He’ll take a risk on turning us over as soon as it’s safe enough for him to do so, maybe much earlier than that.”
“Point is, we can now plan around it,” Silky said.
“We should get moving,” Siv prompted.
Wang nodded, coming to his senses. He moved to the safe, opened it, and removed the packet of ID cards. When Siv didn’t react, he eyed them shrewdly.
“You already knew I had these. How?”
“Do you really want to get into that?”
“No.” Wang dumped the packet’s contents out on the desk then half smiled. “You hacked my security camera feed.”
“Yes,” Siv answered simply. “Mit… Mr. C., why don’t you sort through these. I’d like to examine the masks.”
Wang pulled out a box. “I need two of them.” He grabbed the two veils on the top. “The rest are yours…for the right price.”
Siv dug through the box, lifting out models and examining them. He sorted them into three piles with Silky’s help: the mediocre ones, the good ones, and the top-shelf veils. There weren’t any bad ones in the lot.
Wang nodded appreciatively. “You have a good eye for chameleon veils, sir. I might quibble with you placing the Eighty-Seven into that second pile instead of the first, though.”
“It’s personal,” Siv remarked. “The Eighty-Sevens don’t fit me right.”
Wang eyed him, nodding. “I can see that.”
“Sir, we have a crew of five wanted misfits. Plus another if we manage to rescuer Ambassador Vim. And all of these are good masks.”
“I’ll take the lot,” Siv said aloud as he pulled a mask from the first pile. “And I’ll be using this one right away.”
“Each top-notch veil I’ve got sells for five thousand credits,” Wang said. “The others for four and three.”
Siv coughed. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Sir, what a bargain! He should be selling those for twice that much. Maybe more. I think I know why he hit hard times.”
“Oh, I can see what you’re thinking,” Wang said, “that I’m selling these far too cheap. It’s warehouse pricing, you see. I make a killing selling them this cheap because I got the inventory for free. And truthfully, people here can’t afford to pay as much anyway.”
“Well, I certainly can’t pay you that much for them.”
“I didn’t expect that you could.”
“I can pay three thousand.”
Wang sighed. “I need those masks to set up my next venture. Take one veil from each pile, take however many ID cards you need, and pay me three thousand. We’ll call it even.”
“Six masks from the first pile, and five thousand credits,” Siv said.
“Siv, that’s half what we’ve got!” Mitsuki cautioned as she sorted through IDs. She didn’t let her emotion show physically, but her voice certainly conveyed her disapproval.
“Sir, is that wise?”
“I’m trying to stay on his good side,” Siv said, “to delay him from taking a gamble and trying to sell us out too soon.”
“I’ll take that deal,” Wang said. “But only because I’ve got my passage secured and paid for. And I guess you want in on that?”
Siv nodded.
“There’s a finder’s fee of five hundred credits.”
“You drive a hard bargain for a man we just saved,” Mitsuki said. “We could just take this stuff from you, you know.” He had pushed her too far.
Wang threw his hands up. “Okay, okay. I’ll key you in on that for free, and you can have the masks for forty-five hundred.”
“That’s better,” she said, pocketing eight ID cards. “What’s your way out of here?”
“I’ve booked space on a pilgrimage ship,” Wang said. “A Hydrogenist cult is leaving here and heading for the Titus system. Before they start their research there, they’ll visit Titus II to refresh their supplies and spread the good word. It’s just luck that they were done here and ready to leave in time for me, and now you as well, to beat a hasty retreat. They will have space for more passengers.” He held up a plastic voucher. “I just have to show them this.”
Siv reacted with a groan almost as loud as Silky’s, but without the cursing to accompany it.
“That’s a strange lot to hook up with.”
“Just tell them you’re interested in the faith and want to learn more,” Wang said. “Then kick over a few hundred credits. They won’t ask much at that point, even if they think you’re lying. They’ll jump at any chance to convert you, however remote. And they’re desperate to keep their pilgrimage going, so they’ll take what money they can get and not question its source. You do need a voucher, though, or be in the company of someone who has one. There’s a process to joining them, even for a short trip.”
Silky sighed. “Hydrogenists, they’re just the worst.”
“Really?” Mitsuki said. “They’re harmless.”
“I’d rather the harmful who make sense.”
“It sounds perfect,” Siv said to Wang.
“Their ship leaves in two hours.”
It only took Mr. Wang fifteen minutes to pack up the last of his belongings. He'd gone from a prosperous crime lord to a man who could fit all his most valuable possessions into a duffle bag. Silky commented several times that they could just rob the man.
“It’s not like he’s a good guy, sir. He has been involved in worse stuff than the two of you. We could get our forty-five hundred back, take the other six thousand he has hidden in various pockets and sewn into the lining of his pack, and the rest of the masks. We’d make out big time.”
“We’re honest people,” Siv replied. “As much as we can be. We do this right. We earn good karma.”
“Well, I’m not people, sir. Chippies don’t have karma. Put me in charge. Let me make the decision, and then you can live free of guilt
.”
“Not happening, Silkster. End of discussion.”
“Have it your way, sir. Just know that my way’s better.”
Wang had changed into clothes that made him look like a vagabond, though he’d kept his mesh armor on beneath.
Siv donned the chameleon veil he’d selected and used a new profile Silky had downloaded from the net, having customized it to be unique. They then matched the ID card data to a fake profile Silky had been working on to go with the new face.
Mitsuki used one of the veils to alter her face further. There was no getting around that she was a wakyran, though. There wasn’t anything they could do about that except to use the refraction cloak if it looked like they were about to be scrutinized.
As Silky pulled the van around, Siv’s Spy-fly drones returned to their launch bays on his belt.
They climbed into the van, Siv taking the driver’s seat and Wang the passenger side. Mitsuki hopped into the back.
“This is a lot better than calling a cab, I’ll admit,” Wang said. “But aren’t you worried they’ll trace the van?”
“We scrubbed its transponder and registration while you were getting your stuff together,” Siv said. “It’s clean enough to get us where we need to go. They won’t be able to trace it for several hours, and by that time we’ll be gone.”
Assuming they maintained a moderate speed that wouldn’t draw attention, they should reach the Teloso starport in half an hour.
Siv hadn’t expected any problems along the way, but they didn’t even get two blocks before a flashing red circle with an X inside it popped up in his HUD.
Siv had never even seen that warning symbol before. Silky apparently had, because he freaked out.
“No, no, no, no!”
A series of symbols and scrolls of data swept through Siv’s HUD so fast he couldn’t decipher it all. “Silkster, calm down and tell me what’s happening!”
“An Infiltrator class starship just dropped out of orbit, sir! A freaking Infiltrator V7! And it’s speeding straight toward us at Mach 5.”
An Infiltrator V7? Siv had no idea what that was. He started to ask, but then another warning flashed. This one he recognized.
“It’s got a target lock on us, sir.”
“Jam it!” Siv urged.
The target lock remained.
“I’m doing everything I can, sir. But I can’t break the target lock.” Silky’s voice grew oddly soft and despondent. “It’s happening again. I can’t believe it’s happening again.”
“What’s happening again?” Siv asked.
“Missile launched, sir. A Tober Pinpoint. High velocity, low yield, extremely accurate. Time to impact, fourteen seconds.”
37
Karson Bishop
A thunderous boom rocked the ship. Karson snatched up the starkat and retreated to the corner. He knocked the top crate off the stack and cowered in the gap between.
The starkat buried its head into the crook of his arm as metal tore, alarms blared, and a series of small explosions popped off. Tremors vibrated through the floor, and high-pitched grating and scraping noises surrounded them.
The artificial gravity vanished suddenly. Karson, the starkat, the crates, and all the containers on the shelves floated freely within the vault.
He cradled the starkat to make sure it wouldn’t bump into anything and get hurt. It glanced at the body of the woman and the blood rising from the floor in a spread of droplets and then tucked its head back into Karson’s arm.
Kicking off a wall, he got his feet onto the floor and activated the maglock on his boots.
“What’s happening, Barty?”
“The ship’s breaking apart, sir.”
Karson’s breath caught. His heart hammered. “The fusion reactor?”
“The shell missed the engines, sir. It struck the upper half of this vessel, halfway between your position and the cargo bay. The fusion core is still leaking, but the containment field is holding. There’s no risk of an explosion.”
“Octavian?”
“I cannot pinpoint him, sir. All the minor explosions, electrical flares, and sonic disturbances are wreaking havoc on my sensors. And the ship’s computers are now inoperable.”
There came a clunking, thumping sound.
And then silence.
“Sir, we are drifting free amidst the wreckage.”
Something thumped the wall.
“What that some of the debris?”
“It was, sir.”
“Octavian?”
“I’m scanning, sir. There’s a lot of interference.”
Karson averted his eyes from the floating body and focused on one of the larger stasis units drifting nearby. The starkat would be much safer in one of the containers. The air would run out of here soon. It was lucky the room was hermetically sealed, avoiding a decompression disaster.
He grabbed the unit. “How long could the starkat breathe within this?”
“I’d say half an hour, sir. Maybe less.”
“And if its air started running low, I could freeze it?”
“The starkat would no doubt be preserved well, sir. And it should survive that process. Most creatures do. The container, however, is not rated to store a living specimen for longer than a year.”
“As long as it lasts at least…” he checked the oxygen level of his spacesuit “…four hours. Six counting the backup canister. Otherwise, the poor thing will be floating around on its own.”
Karson let go of Peachy so that he could grab the container. As the starkat began to float away from him, it whipped out its tail and wrapped it three times around his wrist. Peachy then used his tail to pull himself back into Karson’s body.
The starkat mewed at him pitifully. Its large eyes and angular face showed a mixture of fear and grief. And he couldn't blame it. Starkats were highly intelligent, and they supposedly had empathic abilities. It no doubt had a good understanding of what was going on and the danger it was facing.
Karson opened the container and smiled at Peachy. “I need to put you in here.”
It mewed questioningly.
“It’s to keep you safe.”
Peachy frowned and tucked his head into Karson’s arm.
“I promise you’ll be safe inside. I won’t even seal the container until I have to.” He tried to move his arm to make it look. “And it’s clear, see. You’ll be able to observe everything going on around you.”
The starkat trembled.
“I won’t freeze you unless I have to. Come on now. Work with me. I promised I would save you, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
Slowly, Peachy unwound his tail. Then he allowed Karson to place him inside the container.
“Thank you, Peachy.”
He closed the lid but didn’t activate the seal.
“Have you gotten any signals from the Outworld Ranger?”
“None, sir. Their comms array must be damaged. However, I just managed to link to the sensor array that was attached to this ship. It’s still drawing power from an independent source. Thanks to it, I am getting some readings on the Outworld Ranger’s position and status.”
“That’s fantastic. What about this ship’s comms?”
“Only the sensors were still powered, sir.”
“Oh well. So how are our friends faring?”
“Sir, the Outworld Ranger’s shields are down, the ion drive is offline, along with one set of maneuvering thrusters, and the ship has sustained light but substantial damage.”
Shit. They were done for. “And the pirate ship?”
“Also without shields and propulsion, sir. And its aft weapon system was destroyed. It’s rotating to face the Outworld Ranger so that it can use its forward-arc weapons.”
“Can they destroy it before it does?”
“It looks close, sir. So I’m not sure.”
“What about Octavian?”
“I just located him, sir. His signal is active. He’s drifting safely amongst the wreckag
e.”
“That’s good news. The crewmen he was trying to save?”
“No life signs in the area, sir.”
With one hand, Karson opened one of the plastic crates. Inside, he found two hazmat suits and two neural disruptors. He looked to the other crate with droplets of blood bouncing off it. He released the maglock and kicked off the floor then off the wall, propelling himself across the vault, blood splattering off his helmet. He took Peachy along with him.
He reached the second crate and opened it, finding an antigrav belt unit, a toolkit, and an air compressor. Given his situation, all of these things could be useful.
“Sir, the Outworld Ranger just opened fired on the pirate ship, before it could return— Brace yourself, sir!”
Not again.
Karson strapped the antigrav belt around his waist and set it to max gravity. He then set the suit to max gravity as well. His feet hit the floor, and he again activated the maglock.
He hunkered down as far as he could while hugging Peachy’s container to his chest.
“What happened?”
“The pirate ship’s fusion reactor exploded, sir. Shockwave here in 4…3…2…1.”
38
Kyralla Vim
The blast wave struck the Outworld Ranger. The shields failed, and the hull absorbed the impact. A boom echoed throughout the ship as it tumbled uncontrollably away from the planet, speeding them toward the enemy ships.
The inertial dampeners failed to adequately compensate, and Kyralla blacked out. She woke, feeling as if she were hungover. The view screen was dark, and the room was dimly lit by red lights.
“Did we…did we lose power?”
“No, madam. We turned off the view screen, figuring you’d prefer not to see the ship spinning out of control. That can be disorienting for humans.”
“Feeling it is bad enough. What about the lights…”
“They haven’t changed since we rerouted power to the shields, madam.”
“Right. Of course.” Kyralla grabbed her head and winced. “Sorry, it’s hard to focus.”
“I understand, madam.”
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