by Ian Woodhead
“Looks like Carstairs and Edison are on their way back,” remarked Adams. “That was quick.”
“Yeah well, don't let those goons hear you say that, the last thing we need is for those two to be prancing about like Mars owed them a living.”
“Shut up, Falkirk,” snapped Billas . “Listen, I need you to locate our heroes and escort them to my private chamber. Do you think you can do that without fucking it up?”
“Sure,” replied Adams. He turned to his associate. “You see, I told you that our beloved Commander had an important job for us to accomplish. Those escaped prisoners won't be too difficult to locate. More than likely, they'll be either in one of the hanger bays, looking for a way to escape or in the canteen, stuffing their faces.” He gently patted the baton strapped to his thigh. “If any of those scum dare to give us any trouble, they'll be wishing the Marauders had eaten them.”
Once again, Billas wished there was another option. His men were like children compared to those prisoners. Not that it was their fault. Lack of real combat had changed his fighting force into a bunch of wet blankets with attitude. They were nothing more than glorified security whose main job involved escorting base personal to their ships whenever the powers that be decided it was time for the base to change ownership.
He realised that if he did allow them to confront the the prisoners, the clean up team would be scraping his men off the walls. “Hand me your null wand, Adams.”
It pleased him that the soldier passed him the non-lethal weapon without much complaint. “This situation requires a senior officer,” he explained. “You two fools are going to get the heroes of the hour killed.” Billas programmed the drone to follow him. “Go help Carstairs and Edison secure the base. Then return to the dropship.”
Their disappointment was clearly visible but they did as he ordered. Billas should have done this first without involving anybody else. The situation was complicated enough with his idiot soldiers doing something stupid and getting themselves killed.
He moved out, with the drone silently floating behind him. He passed the other two men and explained the situation. Edison nodded then returned to his task. Carstairs didn't move but Billas could see the man wasn't happy with decision. He and Adams did not get on.
Billas had more important things to think about than some dumb argument between the two men. He reached the elevator pod and punched the call button. “Drone. Where are they now?”
‘Heading towards the largest weapon locker on level fourteen,’ it replied.
So they were just two levels below him. Billas cursed his short-sighted stupidity. Of course they were going to re-arm. Had he honestly expected to to lay down on the floor and simply surrender without a fight? They knew the score. Even if they had saved the base, the prisoners must have all have understood their recent heroic actions wouldn't save them from being taken back to their cell. The prisoners have tasted freedom and were not going to allow him or anyone else from taking that away from them.
The elevator doors slid open. He rushed inside and allowed the done to float in before he closed the door. As the elevator began its descent, Billas began to wonder if he had just made the worse decision of his life.
No, the worst decision he ever made was to allow those two Marauder agents to gain access to the base and kidnap his daughter from right under his eyes. Why hadn't he picked up on the obvious signals? Billas should have known that something bad had happened over on that moon orbiting Jupiter when the previous governor failed to respond to his numerous communications.
He glanced at the drone beside him and not for the last time, thanked the stars that none of the human made devices were capable of mind reading. If their species ever took the decision to emulate the Danu and the Velicions in that aspect, Billas knew he might as well kiss his arse goodbye. If anyone ever found out what he'd done, the bastards would space him for sure. It didn't matter that, thanks to the pact he'd made with the previous governor, they'd been responsible for save the lives of countless thousands of soldiers. Who cared if their actions had prolonged the conflict? If he hadn't agreed then it's more than likely the Marauders would have overrun this base years ago, slaughtering every sentient being in the process. Despite his allies technological superiority, none of them possessed the numbers to be an effective fighting force.
Billas found himself smiling at that previous thought. Those damn escaped prisoners hadn't the numbers but the bastards sure had proven themselves against the enemy. All he had to do was to persuade the prisoners that he wasn't their enemy, that meant that Billas had to pretend to be nice. He much rather go up against a squad of marauder troops.
The elevator opened, showing him an empty corridor. There had to be another way, one which didn't end with those prisoners melting his head. “State lifeform inventory, drone.”
‘One Danu, one Velicion, four human.’
It's unlikely that they were going to surrender their hard fought freedom, that's for sure. That was obvious by their current activity. Why re-arm when you've already vanquished your enemy? “Simple,” he murmured. They haven't. Not yet. “Drone, how much time before the control and logistics deck is back under our command?”
“Three minutes.’
If he didn’t play this right, that amount was how much time he had to live. At any moment, those prisoners could come hurling out of that room, surging with adrenalin and equipped with enough ordinance to melt this planet. How would they act of the first alliance marine they saw was him? Like Billas even needed to answer that. “How long now, drone?”
‘Two minutes, thirty.’
Dare he wait a little longer? No. Billas had to do this right now. "This is Deck Commander Billas,” he shouted. “The marauders have been exterminated. It is safe for you to come out. I guarantee that no harm will come to you.”
Billas received his reply a moment later with a burst of sharp laughter originating from the room. “No harm will come to us,” he says. One of the prisoners armed with a molecular disrupter sauntered out of the room. He aimed the weapon straight at the commander's face. “You have bigger balls than I initially gave you credit, coming down here all by yourself with only a floating metal ball for company.” Villas thumbed down the safety. “I’m good at using weapons like this. It’s one of my many talents. Any last words?”
“Tell me what you want,” he replied. Billas shifted to the left. “I need to know what you all want.” The two bluelanders emerged, followed by the remaining human, the Danu pilot and the Velicion. The bluelander wanted by the new governor rested his hand on the criminal’s arm. With some reluctance, the prisoner lowered the weapon. This was most irritating. If only he could find some way to separate him from the others. With Ryan out of the way, he'd easily have the rest of these scum put out of their misery.
“You put us in cells!” shouted Ryan. “You left us for the enemy and now, just because we've done what your troops couldn't, suddenly, you're being pleasant? It doesn't matter what we ask for, you'll go back on your word and throw us back in those cells.”
There wasn't any fear of that happening, not until he'd figured out how Ryan had escaped. “No. That is not going to happen. I promise. Look. Most have you committed crimes generally punishable by death during time of war and yet none of you were executed. Despite your previous crimes and because you saved this outpost, I can grant you your freedom.”
“Perhaps we should allow this excitable human to shoot you?” said the Velicion. “I doubt anybody will mourn your loss. Just as I doubt anyone will miss us if we stole a ship. It's not like you can spare any. To go after us. After all. There is a war on.”
“Drone. Open base - wide communication.”
‘Done and thirty seconds.’
“This is Deck Commander Billas. Thanks to the bravery of these fine men. This outpost still remains in our ownership. Under the authority vested in me by the Circle Triumvirate, I hearby grant these men their freedom.” Billas ordered the drone to close communication
and did his best to convey a convincing disarming smile. Ryan was still too close to the others which was a shame but at least they weren’t pointing weapons at him. He dropped his filter down. “Drone, fill this level with suppression gas,” he whispered.
It took less than a second for the gas to effect the prisoners and another second for them all to fall to the floor. Billas grinned to himself while he walked around the bodies, and collected the weapons they had stolen. He might have granted these animals their freedom but that didn’t mean he couldn't have his fun with them. Billas stopped beside Ryan. “As for you, my little sleeping baby, you'll soon wish that I had killed you.”
Chapter Thirteen
A Third Chance
There was a saying that Villas picked up, back when his parents were on the run and hiding out in The Belt. Never give the judged a second chance. He never realised just how apt that saying applied to his existence until he reached the age when his parents finally handed him the family business. Smuggling contraband between alliance controlled bases and the Belt occupied rocks wasn't exactly the easiest or safest of vocational choices but it sure was a lot better than dying in some pointless skirmish against those marauder freaks.
He gave the judged a second chance alright, or, more accurately, that damn lizard took that option away from poor Villas. The fact that it was Ryan who pushed the gunarm down did try to make itself heard but Villas was having none of that. The Velicion put him into this dire situation and that was final. The target of his hate lay next to Villas. The Danu and the other two humans were in the same room. Knowing that his companions were likely to share his fate was another fact which Villas brushed away. This predicament centred on him, he didn't give a damn about what happened to the others.
What were they going to do to him? Villas tried to move his head to the side. The control collar that the bastards had nano-glued to him prevented him from turning his head fully. The fact that they'd installed control collars on them all told Villas exactly what their fate would be. They intended them to do the walk.
“I don't want to die,” he whispered. Why did he have to listen to that fucking lizard? Villas turned his head the other way as far as it would go, just so he could Glower at the cold-blooded, motherless bastard who sentenced them all to being thrown out onto the Martian surface. Their last few seconds of life would be spent in excruciating agony as their bodies were subjected to the thin toxic atmosphere as well as the severe cold.
One of the other prisoners let out a quiet moan. Villas raised his head off the cold metal table as much as the damn control collar would allow. There he was, that Barnaby, the freakish Arco human who, not too long ago, threatened to beat him to death with his own severed arm. He lay back down, not wishing to speak to anybody, certainly not him. Listening to that bastard continuously insult him and blame Villas for being in this situation was not how he wished to spend his last few hours.
He had already started crying out. Villas attempted to tune out the annoying whine, a task made more difficult when the bluelander, the one who arrived with Ryan, began to stir. Villas continued to keep his mouth firmly shut, despite wanting to tell them to shut up. Villas closed his eyes and tried to think back to some part of his life when the universe wasn't trying to kill him.
The closest time that Villas could find, a portion of his existence when he wasn't feeling oppressed was back during his late teenage years, a couple of years after his parents gave up all hope of training him to be a good smuggler and before the Triumvirate finally caught up with them and threw his mother and father out of an alliance cruiser airlock.
Villas had his own ship, a close circle of beltborn friends and the solar system as their playground. Looking back, even during those fun times, the bastards were still trying to kill him. The only difference being they, the marauders, didn't exactly know him by name, they just wanted to stop all the human pirates from stealing their supplies.
That brought a smile to his face. The marauders called him and his fellow band of deranged fools pirates. The name sure had a better ring to it than being the son in some anonymous smuggling family.
The marauders controlled the outer planets and their associated moons while the Triumvirate stayed close to Mars, using the belt as a natural barrier. Most of the valuable ore had already been mined out from the belt, back before the humans appeared on the scene. What meagre ore still remaining were jealously guarded by either Triumvirate marines or Beltborn miners. That didn’t mean there weren't fortunes to make elsewhere. The Earth was a no go area. The Triumvirate made sure nobody strayed too close to the planet. Venus was also out of bounds too as the humans had their mining operation platforms floating through the upper atmosphere.
Calvin and his crew didn’t much care about tackling with the Triumvirate. He left all that nonsense to his parents and all the other losers who lived like parasites. After all, why fight over scraps when the real riches were there for the taking? All you needed were guts, a fast ship and a lot of luck. Friends willing to watch your back helped as well.
Their crew ended up with quite a name for themselves before the party finally came to a crushing end. Villas screwed up his eyes, not wanting to think about his downfall and the humiliating crawl back to his parents. On no, much better to reminisce over those few golden years.
There were three in his main group plus a couple of other Beltborn who kinda pretended to be pirates. It shocked him that thinking back thirty years, Villas couldn’t even remember the names of the two fair-weather friends. Ironic considering they were the only ones in the group who didn't shit on him from a great height or maybe they did? The events after what happened to him did get a little hazy.
He did remember the name of the others, the two men and one woman who, they promised each other, would watch each other's backs for all time. Villas particularity remembered Dayna, his first and only true love. Tall, taller than him by almost a foot, the girl woman possessed a body typical of most Beltborn kids. Not all Beltborn families had AG units fitted into their living modules and the ones that did didn't always work as they should being either scavenged or stolen or passed from hand to claw for generations. Even the ancient Velicion units weren't hardy enough to survive the passing of time and meddling from human fingers.
The Beltborn Freerooms, the areas set aside for schooling, debate between the rival families and for general recreation, were always fitted out with the best facilitates, but not every family were all too keen on sending their kids to some place thousands of miles from their module. Why send the brat all that way when it was just as easy and cheaper to teach them at home?
Three hundred years of this ideology had produced the beginnings of a new sub-species of human. Back then, Villas, Dayna, as well as the other two, Russlain, and Marbik all believed that within another two generations, it would be impossible for human alliance and Beltborn to have kids together.
He remembered Dayna taking his hand, kissing him softly while murmuring into his ear that wasn't going to happen. Not if she had anything to do with it. He also remembered the murderous looks that both Russlain and Marbik gave him.
Petty jealously aside, the two other Beltborn men had no problem with Villas. Why should they? He'd proven himself to be a skilled pilot as well as a great thief. On occasion, usually when they'd just liberated a bunch of supplies from some forgotten marauder outpost, they even called him an honorary Beltborn.
Russlain wasn't that much taller than Villas, but he was Beltborn through and through. It had been Russlain who originally introduced him to the siblings, Dayna and Marbik. At the time, Russlain had said that the group needed his skills, that coming from a smuggler family, he might have a better chance of helping them procure much-needed parts for one of their wrecked Danu moon-hoppers. In truth, and thanks to age and experience, Villas now realised the bastards only needed him because he had money. It wasn't a lot of money but it was far more than they were getting.
His young mind didn't see any of that, thank
s to the wandering hands belonging to that young and utterly gorgeous Beltborn girl. Marbik's wild ideas about converting their two scavenged moon-hoppers and converting them into ultra-fast, stealth ships capable of making the journey to the moons of Jupiter didn't do much harm in converting him to their cause. The reason for the possibly suicidal trip into marauder territory wasn't lost on Villas. He knew exactly what these three mental Beltborn kids wanted to do. It terrified and excited him at the same time. Villas had no problem with signing up.
The others had come around. That Danu pilot was conversing in low tones with the other bluelander while Barnaby prayed to his non-existent God. The bastard Velicion hadn't moved. Either, the gas they used on them had a more potent effect on their lizard physiology or he was faking it. Villas wouldn't put that past the Velicion, they were all a bunch of dirty sneaks. As long as none of them bothered him, that's all he cared about.
Villas did his best to ignore their voices and focussed on getting back to his happy moments before those Triumvirate soldiers returned to make them all breathe the Martian atmosphere. Villas had to pressed his fingernails into his palms to stop himself from crying out. He didn't want the others to know he was awake, he certainly didn't want them to know how scared he was. Were any of the fools even aware of the fate which awaited them? The Bluelander wouldn't have a clue, not unless the Danu told him, the only purpose the Triumvirate used these control collars for. He'd know alright. After all, his species created the hateful things.
It took him just over a month to help convert the wrecked machine into something that could make the journey to Jupiter's outer satellites without actually falling apart. It wasn't exactly the super sleek super machine that Marbik dreamed of making but the ship did work and that was the main thing.
Villas employed the techniques he worked out while rebuilding the first ship to make the next one even better. In two months, they had the means to make their dreams come true. By this point, Villas and Dayna were an item and, when he wasn't maintaining the two vehicles, Villas spent his time with her, either eating, talking or making love. Villas wanted to do the last item all the time. His teenage hormone fuelled body couldn't get enough of her. Dayna wasn't as eager. Villas suspected that had more to do with what the others thought of her shacking up with a youth coming from the Alliance more than anything else.
