The ship’s artificial gravity was slow to compensate for the change as they lowered down into the planet’s atmosphere. She held onto the computer terminal as the ship shuddered and she felt her stomach churn before the ship adjusted. A slew of errors crowded the screen in front of her and she quickly dismissed all of the ones she was already familiar with, problems that Marcus refused to pay to fix. She focused on the new ones, rerouting power to avoid overloading the engine in tandem with Alan’s flying. She had to admit he was a skilled pilot.
“I don’t know how you keep us in the air, Jess. Most of this ship needs to be replaced.”
“Questioning your captain’s decisions? How unlike you,” Jess grinned.
“No,” Alan’s forehead was creased. “He’s your captain, too.”
“Not anymore. I gave in my notice. Next time we put in port, you’ll be rid of me.”
“Marcus agreed to it?” Alan frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe he’s finally going soft. I don’t care.”
Alan was still grumbling to himself when the ship touched down on the planet. The engine was still operational after they settled onto the sandy surface and Jess immediately got to her feet. She walked out onto the top of the stairs overlooking the cargo hold and watched as the four men readied their weapons. The ship’s door opened slowly, lowering down to form a gentle ramp out of the ship. The heat of the planet was immense and smacked into them like a wall of hot air.
She closed her left eye to the glare of the light and watched with her artificial one only. The men followed Marcus slowly out onto the sand and then fanned out in front of what appeared to be a ruined smuggler base. Jess had seen many of those over the years but never one so devastated. As she looked closer, she saw signs of rudimentary repairs to the arrays on what had once been the roof of the base. The ground around the collapsed buildings had been cleared.
“Hey,” the new man spoke before she could. “Someone’s been living here.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Marcus snapped.
She wanted to laugh but she kept quiet as the four men split into two groups. Marcus took the new man closer to the base while Eric and the other man broke off into the desert. She stood still until all four were out of sight and only then moved down the stairs. She could see the sand already creeping its way into the ship. She closed and sealed off both doors to the engine room, hoping to minimize the contamination that she knew she would be scrubbing away for the whole trip back.
Alan was talking over the ship’s radio when she walked back into the command room. She could hear Marcus’s responses as she sat and monitored the engine. She could already see new issues cropping up and the ventilation losing efficiency.
“Have you found anything yet?” Alan asked.
“Nothing so far,” Marcus’s voice was riddled with crackling as it came through the helm’s speakers. “The new guy won’t keep his mouth shut. Might want to toss him out when we get off this shitty planet. Did the others find anything yet?”
“They haven’t called in,” Alan answered. “We should just leave him behind, Captain. Close the doors and wave through the windows while we take off.”
“Right. That’d be good. We could see the look on his face.”
Jess let out an audible rumble in her throat and leaned over the main terminal.
“Sorry to interrupt your murder plan,” she said, “but I need to know if I can shut the engine off. We won’t be able to able to tell the difference between the ship and the planet soon.”
“Yeah, power it down. We’ll be here longer than I thought. From what I was told this dead guy could be miles from here. Just wanted to try here first in case we got lucky. Like we ever do. Message me if the others find anything.”
“Will do,” Alan responded and then cut the transmission.
“I won’t let you leave him,” Jess said simply.
“We were joking.”
“That’s getting harder and harder to tell lately.”
She shut down the engine and then leaned back in her chair. She opened her right hand so her metallic palm was facing upward and displayed a three dimensional image of the engine she had downloaded from the terminal. It hovered above her hand in a pale blue light. The image rotated slowly, showing her where sand had already started to build up. Then, suddenly, the sound of a single gunshot rocketed through the air and she clamped her hand closed, dispersing the image in an instant.
“What the fuck?” Alan instinctively grabbed for the shotgun under his terminal.
“No,” Jess spoke quickly. “I told you Burke might have survived but there’s no fighting if it’s him. Your shots won’t pierce through his armor.”
“Fuck that, I’m not a coward.”
“Yes you are! And it’s not cowardice, it’s reality. Don’t give him a reason to kill you.”
He dived out of the room and she watched him nearly fall down the stairs and onto the cargo bay floor. He danced in place for a moment and seemed to realize his mistake of giving up the high ground on the stairs. She heard something coming from outside. Alan must have heard it too and he sprinted into the back of the ship and out of her sight.
Jess put her back to the wall and away from the door. She both heard and felt the heavy footsteps of someone climbing onto the ship. The door was moving next, raising up and closing them inside. She would have done the same thing; it was a smart decision and she cursed that he was being careful as well as having the advantage of his armor.
She turned and faced the wall just as the light from the planet was sealed off completely. The artificial light of the ship seemed cold and inadequate in comparison. She ignored it and held her right fist to her left hand. She entered a command through the prosthetic arm and felt her eye shift in its socket, whirling to respond to her commands. She cycled through the different vision filters quickly until she stopped on the x-ray lens.
The innards contained in the ship’s walls obstructed some of her view but she could see Burke through the mess of it all. She could see pieces of his skeleton through thinner parts of the armor. Parts of it showed fractures. He was missing one of the arms of the aegis and he kept that exposed limb behind him as he walked forward. His other hand was blocking his face. Jess looked directly down and saw Alan through the floor. He whipped around the wall and sent several blasts of the shotgun at Burke. He stopped and braced himself against the shots, staying firmly on his feet.
Alan turned back behind cover and Jess watched Burke rush forward. He led with his naked arm now, firing the handgun she hadn’t seen before. He timed the shots with each step until he was on the other side of the wall that Alan was hiding behind. She watched Burke pull out the remaining bullets from the gun and fire it purposefully without any ammunition. The inert clicking of the hammer striking nothing filled the air.
“You idiot, it’s a trick,” she whispered hopelessly down at the floor.
Alan spun around the doorway once more only to be punctured by a blade protruding out of Burke’s armor. It pierced through his head and cleanly into his skull. Jess saw the cracks snake out along the skull from where the blade went through and couldn’t help but cringe. The blade popped free when Burke moved his arm away and Alan fell dead onto the floor. She was sure he died instantly.
The computer terminal emitted a series of beeps behind Jess and she turned to the screen. Someone was accessing the system and she remembered reading about the AI component included in the Phalanx aegis. She strained her mind to recall anything else she could about the armor. It looked damaged when she looked down at it but it still withstood Alan’s assault. She tried to remember if the visor of the armor had the same functionality as her bionic eye. She couldn’t remember for certain and pushed the thought aside. If he could see her as she could him, then she was done for. She would have to risk it either way.
The screen changed to show that the ship’s roster was being accessed. Five crew members, of which only Marcus was named. She turned awa
y from it and looked back down at the floor. Burke had moved into the engine room that took up the rest of the lower level. Jess moved quietly out of the room and onto the railing overlooking the cargo bay. She kept him in her view as she grappled the railing and heaved herself over it. She climbed down it slowly, moving her hands to deliberately lower herself until she was gripping the bottom part of the floor. Her feet dangled less than a meter from the lower level and that was when she let go.
She landed nimbly on her feet and looked through the single wall that separated Burke from her. He had done a quick circuit of the engine and had turned back to walk in her direction. She felt her legs tense as he looked her way; she was ready to run if he could see her just as well as she could him. When he made no movement or reaction to her, she made two quick strides and pressed herself against the wall, sliding along it as he moved closer.
Alan’s body was slumped outside of the right hand entrance. Burke was moving back toward it. Jess shifted herself toward the left entrance. Alan’s blood had pooled and was running over the floor toward her. She moved her feet away from the trickling blood and urged Burke to move faster. She couldn’t risk moving into the room too soon but the blood was threatening to touch her feet, causing her leave a trail when she finally did move.
Burke neared the door as Jess balanced on her left foot, keeping her right one suspended above the blood below her. He took a single step through the door way and she twisted on her left foot, putting only her right foot through the door and turning on it, not risking more noise than a single step. She held her breath as she stared at him through the wall. She could feel the blood rushing through her ears; her face felt hotter than when the planet’s air had smothered her. Burke made no reaction that he noticed her. He walked to the stairs to explore the upper floor and she exhaled slowly in time with the rush of relief.
She kept her neck craned and faced upwards to watch him as she stepped back into the cargo bay. The ship had many secret places to hide storage from unexpected searches. She had crawled around the ship so many times to rig pieces together that she knew the hidden places more than Marcus did. She saw that Burke was in the middle of the shared crew quarters. He looked like he had picked something up and was inspecting it. She took the opportunity to move.
She toggled off the x-ray lens and crept silently across the room and under the framework stairs. There was a hidden door near the lower steps. Part of the wall would seal off a small, second storage compartment barely large enough for one crate. The door sealed itself, air-tight, when the ship was in space and the outer compartment could be jettisoned mid-flight. It was intended for the most incriminating cargo, with the option to eject its contents before the ship could be boarded and searched. She pulled open the door, winced at the creak it made, and slipped quickly inside.
Jess pulled the door closed and huddled herself against it. She felt out of breath and filled her lungs quickly, ignoring the stench of grease and grime that had permeated the compartment. She could feel Burke’s heavy footsteps soon come back down the stairs and the vibrations of the ship’s doors lowering back down. She didn’t understand why he hadn’t restarted the engine and flown away. She shuffled her way through the compartment—she had to stay crouched, the ceiling was too low to stand—and stopped at the opening on the ship’s outer hull. It was covered with a removable grate but she only leaned against it, staring through the horizontal slits.
Burke walked away from the ship and stopped between it and the ruined base. He had a rifle now and Jess recognized it as one of Eric’s. Burke lowered himself onto his stomach and waited. She wanted to climb back into the ship but stopped herself. She had powered down the engines. She cursed and wanted to throttle herself. If she started the engine, Burke would hear it and would be back on the ship before the doors could close. If she closed the doors first, he would have ample time to force his way in before the engine had cycled enough to lift off the ship.
She rested against the grate and watched Burke. She heard someone talking in the ship above her and knew instantly that Eric was trying to contact someone over the radio. She knew he was careful enough to know that no answer was a warning. She stayed pressed against the grate and hoped for Burke to get impatient.
Hours passed before he stood up. Jess straightened up and watched him. A sound like a thunderbolt boomed from somewhere she couldn’t see and a burst of hot sparks erupted from Burke’s shoulder. Eric had hit him, Jess knew, but she wasn’t sure if it would be enough to pierce the armor. She saw Burke crawl over the sand and hide behind a chunk of the broken building. A few more minutes passed before two more shots fired, closer this time and she closed her eyes, knowing that it was Burke that had fired this time.
“Don’t move!” she heard him shout and snapped open her eyes.
“Moron! He’s got us!” Eric yelled, closer than she thought he would be. She still couldn’t see him from her limited perspective through the grate.
She heard someone running and then another gunshot. Something splattered on the floor of the ship above her. She turned her head from the sound, as if the blood could reach her through the floor.
“Your name?” Burke called out.
“Edward,” Eric answered.
Real creative, Jess thought.
“Is that your real name?” Burke asked.
“No.”
Jess watched Burke restrain Eric and then vanish back into the ruined base, returning with crates and boxes that he loaded onto the ship. She timed how long it took him to make each trip and decided it wasn’t enough time to grab Eric, start the engine, and lock Burke out. She waited instead, certain that Burke would bring Eric as a prisoner and she would surrender herself then. Burke hadn’t killed Eric because he had given up. The man was capable of mercy and reason. She waited.
The cargo bay was filled above her. She watched Burke move the bodies of the crew outside onto the sand. When he was finished, he stood in front of Eric. He was holding Eric’s long barrel rifle as he spoke to him.
“I need to know who sent you here, and where I can find him,” Burke said.
When there was no answer, he continued:
“I’ve been on this planet for three years, two months, and sixteen days. I never want to see another grain of sand for the rest of my life. Every minute I stand here is another minute I spend in my own personal hell.” He pressed the end of the rifle into Eric’s head. “I’m going to give you one more chance to answer my question before I get on your ship and you never see me again. The only thing you can change is whether or not I leave with one less bullet in this fine weapon of yours.”
Jess felt a pang of sympathy for the man but quickly cast it aside. She knew Eric. He had been good to her when the others hadn’t. She urged him to talk, as if her thoughts could somehow help.
“I don’t know,” Eric finally said. “He was some hotshot, retired merc. Marcus acted like he was some sort of celebrity, and he only ever spoke to the boss.” He turned and looked at the bodies Burke had piled together. “Who I see is in your pretty heap of assholes over there. Good job.” He inhaled and then hissed out a deep breath. “Look, whoever hired us is the reason I’m fucked here. If I knew who he was I’d tell you. If that’s not good enough, then just fucking shoot me.”
“Come on,” Jess whispered quietly to herself. “You don’t have to kill him. Come on, come on.”
Burke lowered the rifle and stared down at Eric for a few moments. Finally, he tossed the rifle toward the ship and then leaned down. He cut through the line he tied around Eric’s legs but left his arms restrained.
“Go down there stairs there,” Burke explained. “Follow the blood to the right. There’s a few blades you can use. You might cut yourself. You might have to do it for hours. Trust me that it’s still a damn side better than the welcome that I got on this shit hole. There’s food and water. You’ll have to hunt at night. You’ll learn.”
“So you’re really going to fucking leave me?”
&
nbsp; “Yes.”
“Shit,” Jess whispered. She decided she could come back. She’d sneak back through the compartment and into the cargo bay when the ship was starting to take off. Burke wouldn’t kill her if she didn’t give him a reason. She could come back for Eric.
She watched Eric’s face contort in anger and then relax, slumping down with his shoulders as he turned and dragged his feet toward the base. She watched Burke turn around and pick up the sniper rifle he had thrown aside. She watched him turn to Eric with the weapon in his hands.
“Oh no,” Jess breathed. “No, no. Don’t don’t don’t.”
She watched as Burke stared at Eric’s back. She saw the conflict playing out on his face before he raised the rifle’s scope to his eye. Jess kept her eyes wide and watched the bullet punch into Eric’s head and exit out the other side. He fell to the sand only a few meters from the rest of the corpses.
She felt numb. The sound of the ship’s doors closing didn’t register at first. Instinct kicked in for her after that. She crawled up the compartment and pressed against the door. The door would seal her out for good once they neared the planet’s upper atmosphere, effectively killing her. She pushed against the door and it didn’t budge. She turned on her back and slammed her feet into it, seeing it give a little before snapping back in place. Burke had unknowingly stacked one his crates against it, she reasoned.
“Shit, shit. Fuck.”
She felt the familiar jitter in her stomach of the ship beginning to ascend. She pushed herself back toward the grate, leading with her feet. She kicked wildly at it as she saw the sandy surface move, as if it was beginning to fall away from her. She braced with both of her arms and kicked with both feet, knocking the grate out and sending herself tumbling out of the ship. She fell a few meters before hitting the hot sand.
The Bounty Hunter: Reckoning Page 2
