by JN Chaney
“Don’t I always?” he asked.
I left the cockpit and went straight to the lounge. I found Abigail sitting on the side one of the padded bench seats, with the girl on the floor in front of her. It looked like she was doing something to her hair. “Hey, both of you,” I said, grabbing their attention. “It’s time to go.”
“We’ve arrived?” asked Abigail.
“Sigmond’s bringing us down. Make sure you’re ready when the doors open.”
Lex turned and looked at Abigail. “Are we really there?”
“It seems so,” said the nun.
“Finally!” exclaimed the girl. She sprang to her feet, bursting with sudden energy, a look of excitement in her eyes.
“Save that for when you’re off the ship, kid,” I said.
“We’ll be ready soon,” said Abigail.
“Good, and don’t forget to have my money ready,” I said.
“You’ll have your payment, Mr. Hughes,” said the woman. “I can promise you that.”
* * *
I was surprised when I saw the church’s landing bay. For being a religious organization out in the middle of nowhere, they certainly had some decent infrastructure. The design looked professionally built, but dated. Several decades old, I guessed, but maybe more. This sort of setup wasn’t uncommon for docking stations this far out. It was hard to find contractors outside of Union space. When you did, they generally overcharged for services.
“Please follow me,” said a grown man in a silly outfit. Some sort of priest, I imagined. His clothes were similar to Abigail’s, but less elegant. Jewels hung from around his neck like he wanted me to know he was something special.
“Where to?” I asked, glancing back at Abigail, who was dragging her suitcase and having a hard time of it.
“The council will want to speak with you,” said the man leading us.
“What about you?” I asked the nun, ignoring the escort.
“Lex and I have to go and meet with them first, separately,” she said, frustrated by her luggage. She stopped and finally picked the bag up and carried it with both arms.
I didn’t bother asking why the Council wanted to meet with us separately, because I already knew. In the event that I was dangerous or couldn’t be trusted, they couldn’t have me there, not until they fully debriefed the nun. “Whatever works,” I said, then looked at the robed individual in front of me. “What else can you tell me about this Council, buddy?”
“The Council oversees all church matters, including those involving outsiders. You will need to meet with them to discuss your payment as well as any other matters they wish to cover.”
“I don’t have time for an inquisition. Just give me my money and I’ll be on my way.”
“If you want your payment, you’ll need to see them,” he said.
Lex ran up beside Abigail. “Can I stay with Mr. Hughes?”
“I’m sorry, Lex, but we have to go on our own for now. Besides, I’m certain Captain Hughes would rather handle things himself.”
“You’re not wrong about that,” I said.
Lex frowned. “But Mr. Hughes is more fun than priests.”
I looked back at her. “You ain’t wrong about that one, kid. These weirdos wouldn’t know fun if it bit them in the ass.”
Abigail and Lex took a separate corridor as we entered the facility. I, however, continued to follow the man in the dress. He led me to a large hall with thick pillars, like something from an old painting. I didn’t spend much time in holy places, so the whole sight made me uncomfortable. Maybe it was my hedonistic tendencies, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I didn’t belong here.
“Right this way,” said the escort as he opened a massive set of wooden doors. “The Council will arrive within the hour. Please wait here until the appointed time.”
“You expect me to sit around for an hour?”
He gave me a look that said he was growing irritated with me, then shut the door, leaving me alone. My thumb brushed the butt of my pistol. I didn’t like being trapped.
The room itself was circular, not a single corner on the walls, and the furniture was sparse, with only a few seats and two tables along the back half. I sat behind one of them, already bored, throwing my feet up and leaning back.
In seconds, I felt the weight of sleep pulling me down. I didn’t fight it, and instead let myself drift. If I was going to sit in this room with nothing to do, I might as well catch up on some sleep.
* * *
I opened my eyes to the sound of a door opening. I sat up, suddenly alert, and darted my eyes around the room, searching for intruders.
Several individuals entered through a second door, each with elaborate brown and silver robes. I watched as they walked to the back and sat behind the largest table, all their eyes on me.
“Hey,” I said, looking back at them, my feet still on the nearby table.
“Thank you for coming,” said the centermost councilmember, a woman with gray hair. She looked to be in her late seventies, if I had to guess. “My name is Sister Loralin.”
I put my feet back on the floor, feeling pins and needles as the blood returned to my toes. “Nice to meet you,” I said, unenthusiastically. “The guy outside said you wanted to speak with me about my money.”
“That’s right,” she said, glancing at the other four people beside her. “We’d like to thank you for helping to deliver our cargo. We heard you ran into some trouble along the way.”
“By cargo, I assume you mean the kid, but yeah, we hit a snag with some ravagers. My ship took some heavy damage, so I hope I get paid what I’m due.”
“Sister Abigail informed us of your agreement. Rest assured you will be properly compensated.” Loralin raised her hand, showing me a small pad. “As you said, you encountered some trouble, so we will raise your payment. How does fifteen thousand credits sound?”
“Fair,” I said.
She tapped the screen. “The funds have now been transferred to your account, as promised. You have done us a great service and we appreciate it.”
I pulled out my own device and checked my account. Sure enough, I now had an extra fifteen thousand credits. “Fantastic.”
“Now that we’ve concluded that exchange, I hope you’re willing to listen to another proposition.”
“Huh?” I looked up at her. “What kind of proposition? You have another job?”
“We do, indeed,” said a second councilman. He wore a large set of glasses and had graying red hair.
“What’s it pay?” I asked, cutting straight to it.
Sister Loralin looked at her associates. “Double the previous one.”
“Thirty thousand?” I asked. I hadn’t had a job that paid so well in months. “What did you have in mind?”
“We need a capable pilot with a defensive ship,” said the woman. “Someone to protect our vessel, should the journey prove hazardous.”
“Where the hell are you trying to go?” I asked.
She hesitated to answer.
“I can’t help if you don’t tell me.”
“Epsilon,” Loralin finally answered.
I recognized the name immediately. The Epsilon system was one of the most dangerous in the Deadlands. You had to travel through a whole mess of problems just to get there. “You realize that system is in ravager territory, right?”
“Which is why we’re asking you to help us,” she said.
I considered the proposition for a moment. “How many people are you involving here?”
“Excuse me?” asked Loralin.
“What’s the headcount on this trip? Are you sending a dozen people?”
“That is undecided,” said the man with the glasses.
“Give me a rough figure,” I said.
“Possibly a dozen, but the number could increase,” he answered.
“Think you could drop that to four or five?”
“For what purpose?” he asked.
“Just answer the question. Can
you do it or not?”
The man glanced at Loralin, who gave him a slight nod. “We could if the situation called for such a thing, I suppose.”
“Good, because that’s almost certainly the only way you’ll be able to make this nonsense work.”
“What do you mean?” asked Loralin.
“You’re not taking your own ship. We’ll be using mine and nothing else, and I don’t have room enough for all those people.”
The man with the glasses scoffed. “Why would we only use one ship?”
“You don’t have a cloak,” I said, matter-of-factly. “But I do. It’s the only way to move freely through ravager territory without being spotted. You take anything else in there and you’ll be asking for trouble.”
Loralin’s eyes widened. “Your vessel has the ability to cloak itself?”
“It does indeed,” I said.
The man gave me a curious expression. “Where did you acquire it? I thought only the Union had access to cloaks.”
He was right. The Union spent more money on defense than any other governing body in the galaxy. The only reason I managed to find a cloaking device was because I borrowed a small fortune from a thug.
“Doesn’t matter where I got it,” I told them. “What matters is I’ve got one and you need it. Drop your crew size and I’ll take them on my ship. I’ll get you to where you want to go.”
The councilors leaned in and whispered among themselves. After a brief exchange, Loralin cleared her throat and returned her eyes to mine. “Are you certain there is no other way?”
“Not unless you wanna get yourselves blown to pieces,” I said.
“In that case, we agree to your conditions,” she said. “We will begin preparations first thing tomorrow morning. We will also pay you thirty thousand credits—”
“A hundred thousand,” I said, interrupting her.
She paused, but didn’t flinch. “One hundred thousand?”
“I’m risking my life in the most dangerous section of the Deadlands and you only want to pay me thirty thousand? Don’t think I can’t sense when I’m being short-changed. You know you’ve got the money.” I motioned around the room. “Look at this place. Don’t act like you can’t afford it.”
“Very well,” she said, agreeing to the new terms without consulting her friends. “One hundred thousand credits.”
Her sudden agreement threw me. I’d expected a negotiation of some kind, but she hadn’t even tried to bring me down on the price.
I cursed myself for not asking for more. Oh well, I told myself. Doesn’t matter. With the money I made from this job, I’d be able to pay off the Fratley. That was the main takeaway here. That deadline was fast approaching and I couldn’t afford to be choosy. “Fine, it’s a deal,” I told the old woman and her friends. “One hundred thousand credits for safe passage to the Epsilon system. There and back.” I turned and started to leave. As soon as I touched the door handle, I felt it open from the other side. It was the same robed man from before. Before I continued, I turned back toward the Council one last time. “What’s the mission for, by the way?”
“It’s scientific in nature. We are interested in exploring a set of ruins,” explained Loralin.
“Ruins?” I asked. “What the hell for?”
“We believe they hold significant spiritual value. Nothing more or less.”
“Whatever you say, lady,” I muttered, turning back to the door.
With that, I was gone, headed back toward The Star.
* * *
I sat inside the lounge, staring through the window at the lands beyond the church’s estate. The docking platform where my ship stood overlooked a wide valley, stretching nearly into the horizon. Surrounding it was a forest, dotted by a few small ponds and cut by a clear, flowing river. I debated taking the detachable shuttle and flying down there for a few hours, maybe get some fresh air for once.
I couldn’t leave my ship unguarded, though. Not in a foreign place like this, surrounded by strangers with an unknown agenda.
I didn’t trust these priests, and I didn’t trust them. It wasn’t that I had anything against religious folks, but I knew practically nothing about them. It didn’t help that they lived in such isolation. The only people who did that usually had something to hide. Something big, too. Whatever their reason was, I wouldn’t feel at ease until I knew it.
The sun fell below the horizon, sinking into the unknown like a falling rock in the sea. I watched as the blue sky turned black and filled with stars.
As the night went on, and all the people disappeared into their homes for the night, leaving me alone, I left the lounge and made my way back to my ship, climbing on top and resting my head against the hard metal hull.
I watched Arcadia’s twin moons rise high above me, lighting up the night, joining thousands of stars.
I extended my arm and finger, connecting the lights, forming new constellations. It was something I did when I traveled to new worlds, if the situation allowed for it.
I formed a ship with my finger, its shape not unlike The Renegade Star. I found a woman’s face, whom I named Julia, after my mother. She gave me pause as I stared into her eyes, and it brought me back to when I was young.
As I began to drift, my mind swirling with the fog of sleep, I spotted the outline of a man walking toward the distant night. I could almost hear Julia’s voice, shouting at him to stay. Where are you going? she seemed to ask. Why do you have to leave?
Seven
I dreamed I was in a field, standing with a plow, wearing loose-hanging clothes under a warm sun. The season had been plentiful, and the farm would do well this year. I had a wife with a pretty face and two children I loved very much. A strong boy and a beautiful girl. Both were in the field with me, helping their father, doing their chores.
We finished our tasks, tired from our work, and headed indoors to sit around the family table. I tore into a piece of bread and drank a glass of wine while my family laughed and teased each other. As the sun began to set, I thought this was a fine life and I was glad to have it. I wondered how I could ever want anything more.
And then I woke up, shivering in the cold wind of the early dawn. I looked at the hangar, momentarily confused about where I was and how I had come to be here. Why wasn’t I in my bunk? And what kind of building was this? Why did it look so archaic?
But the memories returned within moments, flooding back to me, replacing dreams with reality. I recalled being at Taurus Station and receiving the job from Ollie, meeting Abigail Pryar in the cargo bay of my ship, and discovering the frozen little girl in the box. I remembered getting into a scrape at one of the S.G. Points, and how one of them had gotten away. Finally, landing on this planet, and falling asleep on the top of my ship, under this foreign sky. It all returned to me in a heartbeat, but for that brief second, between being asleep and awake, I was somewhere else.
The haze of waking faded quickly, and before I knew it, I was myself again.
It was in that moment where people were their most vulnerable, the few seconds when they weren’t entirely certain of who they were or what was going on. I hated everything about it.
“Did you sleep well, sir?” asked Sigmond, talking into my ear.
I groaned, feeling the discomfort along my spine from sleeping on a piece of hard metal. “Put on some coffee for me, would you, Siggy?”
“I shall activate the process right away.”
I grabbed a change of clothes and a cup of liquid caffeine, then made my way to the front of the loading dock beneath my ship.
It didn’t take long for the platform area to fill with activity. Two ships sat not far from mine, and I watched as several engineers began making repairs.
Far as I could tell, The Star outclassed every craft on this rock in terms of firepower. The ships were Stellar-class, which meant they could certainly move. Out here in the Deadlands, you either put your money into weapons or raw speed. If you could afford both, all the better.
Me, personally, I’d stuck a small fortune into my ship, which had saved my ass more times than I could count. Every credit had been worth it.
The door to the inner hall opened and out walked Abigail and Lex. The little girl smiled as she saw me standing on the loading dock, sipping my coffee and scratching my stomach.
“Morning, Mr. Hughes,” said Lex, waving as she approached.
Both of them were dressed far more casually than before, especially Abigail. No church tunic on her this time. Instead, she wore a standard Union-style shirt and pants, the clothes of a working woman. I could finally see how fit she was, toned arms and a lean waist. No wonder she nearly put me on my ass the other day.
“Welcome back,” I told both of them. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
Abigail gave me a confused look. “Of course we are. Didn’t they tell you?”
“All I know is I’m taking some priests to Epsilon.”
“No priests, Captain. You’re escorting the two of us and three scientists.” She paused. “Well, two are archaeologists. The third is an engineer.”
“You look different,” I told her, changing the subject.
“The situation calls for something different.”
“What was the excuse before?”
“People ask fewer questions to members of the church,” she said. “But as you saw, those clothes make combat difficult. We have no idea what we’ll face in the Deadlands. I need to be prepared.”
“You’re not a normal nun, are you?” I asked, scanning her.
“Still a nun, though,” she said, walking passed me.
Lex ran up beside me, a wide grin on her face. “Mr. Hughes, can I go play with Sigmond?”
“Sure, kid,” I said. “Go kick his ass.”
She clapped her hands and ran up the platform and into the ship. “Sigmond, are you there?” I heard her say.
Right then, one of the nearby doors opened and two individuals walked into the hangar—a man and a woman. They made eye contact with me and proceeded forward, nodding in my direction. These must be the other passengers, I thought.
“Sir,” greeted a heavyset man with glasses and thinning blond hair. He looked nothing like the other priests. “My name is Dr. Thadius Hitchens. I’m the resident archaeologist. Pleased to meet you.”
