Star Streaker Boxed Set 1 (Star Streaker Series)

by T. M. Catron

  Also, Rance couldn’t shake the image of Kai lu crumpled on the ground. She didn’t know what he had done, but couldn’t help feeling he hadn’t deserved his fate. They would need to tell his sister. Rance didn’t relish that duty, but she couldn’t see how to get out of it.

  All the way there, Rance ran over in her mind what she would say.

  They were too late. The mercs killed without mercy. She couldn’t have done anything. I’m very sorry.

  Nothing seemed right.

  Before they arrived at the smugglers’ den, the armed guards appeared to block their way. Rance recognized the first one. “I have news for Kaau li—it’s important.”

  The man spoke into his comm unit in a language Rance didn’t know. Finally, he looked Rance up and down, checked them all for weapons, and allowed them to pass. She had thought he would accompany them to the door, but he extended no such courtesy.

  When the crew entered, only Kaau li and the Triterarian met them. The other smugglers weren’t there.

  A lump stuck in Rance’s throat, but she somehow managed to force it down while she told Kaau li what had happened to her brother on Coru. Kaau li’s olive-skinned face turned ashen as she received the news, but she didn’t show any other signs that her brother’s death affected her.

  “I’m very sorry,” Rance said.

  Kaau li looked at James and Abel. “Where is Solaris?”

  “The mercs captured him while we were trying to get away.” Rance tried to shake off her feelings of inadequacy, and failed. “I know you probably have other things on your mind, but I would like to get him back.”

  Kaau li fixed Rance with a look of revulsion. Rance stared back, unblinking.

  “What did the mercs look like?” the smuggler finally asked.

  “Black armor, no insignia. Class B starship named the Devil Raider, armed, a hyperdrive, and some nice weaponry on board. I know because it almost destroyed my ship.” Despite Kaau li’s loss, Rance had a hard time keeping the bitterness out of her voice. The Caducean Drive had almost cost her crew their lives, as well.

  Sensing Rance’s mood, Kaau li gestured to the Triterarian, sending him away. She went over to sit on a cushion next to a low table on the floor, and invited Rance, James, and Abel to follow. “I won’t pretend that my brother’s death doesn’t affect me. But our culture grieves in private. He knew what we were getting into. I’m only sorry he wasn’t allowed to die with a weapon in his hand.”

  Out of respect, Rance didn’t say anything, waiting for Kaau li to gather her thoughts. But Kaau li didn’t volunteer anything else. The moments stretched into minutes as the smuggler stared off into her memories, heedless of the visitors in the room.

  Finally, Rance had waited long enough. “What do you know about these mercs?”

  Kaau li smoothed her dress. “It doesn’t matter what I know.”

  “I say it does. They have one of my crew members.” Rance leaned forward. “Solaris told me a little about you. He says he tried to help you.”

  James and Abel looked from Kaau li to Rance, but they had the good sense not to ask questions.

  Kaau li met Rance’s eyes.

  “All I ask,” Rance continued, sensing the woman softening, “is that you tell me where to look for Solaris. If you want revenge for your brother, you can join us. One way or another, we will find them.”

  Kaau li’s expression hardened. “Solaris is likely dead, like Kai lu. And if you knew who these people were, you wouldn’t seek them out. I suggest you go into hiding and pray you never run across them again.”

  James shifted in his seat.

  Rance shook her head. “That answer isn’t going to fly with me. Tell me where to find them, and let us make the decision for ourselves. What did you get us into, Kaau li?”

  Kaau li scowled and stood. “You have your registration code, be on your way! Stay out of things you don’t understand.”

  Rance stood, too. “I don’t want to understand. I want to find my CO.”

  “You would risk your ship and crew again to save him? He can’t have been part of your ship for very long. Why are you so loyal?”

  “We don’t leave anyone behind,” Rance repeated. “If Solaris tried to help you, why won’t you return the favor?”

  Kaau li narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure it isn’t about the box? You looked inside it, didn’t you?”

  “It fell open, if you’ll believe that. But yes, we looked inside it. This isn’t about the box. I don’t know what kind of trouble you’ve got yourself into, nor do I care about your cargo. All I want is to get Solaris back.”

  Kaau li sighed deeply. “I had all my hopes riding on that device. My brother, too. Now it’s in the wrong hands, and he is gone.”

  Rance stared at Kaau li, determined to get an answer to her request for help.

  Kaau li reached into a pocket on her dress, and everyone tensed. She didn’t bring out a weapon, however, but a small handheld device. The smuggler tossed it to Rance, who caught it. “The box has a tracking device on it.”

  Rance gaped at Kaau li, then turned the device over in her hands.

  “You won’t be able to use it from here, but those mercs have been working out of the Cronus system.”

  A chill ran down Rance’s spine. The Cronus planetary system was one of the most lawless in the Empire.

  If Kaau li saw the crew’s discomfort, she ignored it. “Go there, turn on the tracking device, and it should lead you to the box. I don’t know if you will find Solaris in one piece, but it will give you a place to look. Or to exact revenge, however you see fit.”

  “What about your revenge?” James asked.

  Kaau li smiled sadly. “Mine will have to be slower. I have other people in my life to worry about. Kai lu would not have wanted me to give up on them.”

  Rance remembered the other woman had a son to protect. Of course, she wouldn’t abandon him. Rance’s respect for Kaau li grew a few notches. “Thank you. Will you tell us who we are looking for?”

  Kaau li shook her head. “You’ll know them when you find them. Good luck, for your sake.”

  Despite the crew’s impatience, they could not depart until they repaired the Star Streaker. Rance dumped the remainder of her savings into parts, and they worked day and night to get it fixed. When the money ran out, Abel smooth-talked some merchants into loaning her money in exchange for a free delivery when the ship was running. Two of them agreed. Rance spent the time working side-by-side with the crew, pouring her frustrations and guilt into her tasks. When the repairs didn’t progress as quickly as she wanted, the captain hired extra hands to repair the hull. In four days, the Streaker was spaceworthy again.

  “It has to be some kind of record,” James said, admiring the work in engineering. The engine casing had been repaired, lines replaced. The room smelled of oil and the fresh coat of paint they had used to cover up the scorch marks.

  “It better be,” Rance said. When they returned with Solaris, they would quickly need to find another job to replace those funds. With the trouble they encountered at every turn, Rance worried about finding a normal job again after this. She pushed aside that concern to concentrate on the more immediate one.

  In addition to repairs, Rance had purchased more guns, ammunition, and smoke grenades. She had never been to the Cronus system, but no child of the Empire grew up without hearing its name repeated in hushed tones. Situated near the Typhon Nebula, Cronus’ planets frequently made the Imperial News for murders, kidnappings, and riots. In addition to general lawlessness, the political climate there was charged to the point of exploding. Corruption abounded, and politicians often ended up assassinated before they could complete one term. The Nobility had all but abandoned the system. Only those who had private armies and a thumb on the pulse of the system’s underbelly survived in relative peace.

  Rance’s father had made several trips there over the years, but he had never taken his daughter, nor had he discussed the things he had seen.

 
Tally removed his apron to hang it on a hook near the door. “It’s not perfect, but she’ll get us where we need to go. I can do more fine-tuning in hyperspace.” Tally fixed Rance with a serious look. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

  “Solaris went over to that merc ship on my orders, Tally. How could we not try to find him?”

  Tally smiled, and the effect was a bit grotesque since it showed his fangs. “Your nobility has nothing to do with your birth, Captain.”

  Rance cleared her throat at the unexpected compliment, gave Tally a curt nod, and made her way to the cockpit. James followed, and everyone strapped in. While repairing the ship, Rance had given the crew a chance to back out. The mission was hers, she’d said, and she couldn’t ask them to volunteer for more than the usual danger.

  Every one of them had stared at her as if she were crazy. And everyone had insisted on participating.

  “Ready, James?” she asked as he strapped himself into his seat.

  “Ready, Cap.”

  “Last chance to stay behind.”

  “Nah,” he said. “You need a good pilot to get you out of there once you start trouble. And who else will take you to Cronus?”

  They ran through preflight checks, and Rance triple-checked everything in case they had missed something. The Streaker was ready to fly. James eased the ship into the air, steadily firing the thrusters until he could safely fly away from the spaceport. The blue atmosphere faded, and the stars became visible.

  Rance looked over to the seat that Solaris should have occupied.

  They were going to get him back.

  “Hyperspace coordinates to the Cronus system are already loaded,” Harper called from the control room.

  “When you’re ready, James,” Rance said, “make the jump.”

  James guided them away from Ares, clearing the other ships surrounding the planet. Then he pushed a button, and the stars disappeared in a wash of blue.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Cronus system was a four-day hyperspace trip from Ares. It wasn’t a powerful Core system, but it wasn’t exactly part of the Outer Colonies. Stuck between the two, Cronus had bred sixteen uprisings over the last five hundred years. The last one fifty years ago had almost dethroned a young Emperor Arthos and destroyed the Empire. As a result, the Unity presence in the system was strong.

  As was the presence of scumbags. Pirates, smugglers, and mercs controlled vast swaths of the system, despite the presence of Unity. Heavily subjugated, the citizens claimed to be oppressed. Whether they spoke of the Empire or the lawless, Rance didn’t know.

  The Star Streaker came out of hyperspace at the edge of the system. The apprehensive crew had tried to sleep, tried to plan, but fear of the unknown had plagued the entire journey.

  The Typhon Nebula took up their entire view. Green gases looked frozen in place like a permanent fog. Thousands of stars twinkled from within, lighting up space like fireflies. The planets of the Cronus system were situated between the Star Streaker and the nebula. A thin red haze covered the area, the result of gases escaping the nebula. It looked like a warning.

  If Rance hadn’t been so apprehensive about their mission, she could have watched the beautiful spectacle for hours.

  Eager to find Solaris without attracting attention to themselves, Rance forced her attention away from the nebula and turned on the tracking device. Harper had rigged it so it fed into the Star Streaker’s systems, providing a map in real time. The crew held their breaths as the tracker pinged the box with the Caducean Drive.

  A status bar popped up on her screen: Searching…

  “What if they removed the drive from the box?” Rance asked no one in particular. “And tossed the box out with the trash?”

  “Give it time, Captain,” James said. He cracked his knuckles while he watched the status from his screen. “Cronus is a big system. I’ll be surprised if the tracker works at all.”

  “Thanks for the optimism, James.”

  “No problem.”

  Rance leaned forward on her elbows, keeping her eyes on the screen. Harper, Tally, and Abel were gathered around screens downstairs, watching and waiting.

  They waited an hour. James fidgeted in his chair, pretending to check the Streaker for any problems. Rance sat back against her seat, then leaned forward again. Her long legs ached, but she couldn’t pull herself away. Not yet.

  “This could take several hours or days,” Harper said finally, “depending on the box’s location. The tracker is sweeping the area systematically.”

  Rance rubbed her scratchy eyes. She was about to suggest they sleep in shifts when James made a noise. Her eyes flew open to look at the screen. The search bar had stopped moving.

  Located.

  Rance touched the screen, and a two-dimensional map of the system came up. It zoomed in on a large, rocky planet. Rance touched the planet, calling up more information. The planet’s name was Cronus L-58c, and it had a population of twenty billion people.

  “Okay then,” she muttered. “On the upside, it will be easy to get lost there, right? No trouble from Unity?”

  James swiveled around in his seat, fixing her with a mocking stare. “Twenty billion lawless people,” he reminded.

  Rance shrugged. “They can’t all be lawless. They have industry here, medical services, ships.”

  “No tourist industry. No one wants to visit a place that might poison them at dinner.”

  Rance looked at the brilliant green nebula. It was possibly the most beautiful natural formation she had ever seen. She wondered if anyone ever flew in there, never to return. “We’re going to find out.”

  James plotted a course for Cronus L-58c and then engaged the hyperdrive. The trip lasted five minutes, and the Streaker emerged from the blue haze in front of a large red planet. Three warships orbited the planet, and thousands of other ships darted around them, in and out of the planet’s airspace.

  Light from neighboring stars was faint, and the daytime hemisphere of L-58c remained in a perpetual twilight.

  “No wonder they’re cranky,” James remarked. “They don’t have any sunlight.”

  “They must spend their days under sun lamps,” Rance said.

  “And grow all their food under those lamps as well.”

  Rance fiddled with her braid. “If they have enough food to support all those people, does the Empire do anything to make it affordable?”

  “Do you want to take up the flag of social injustice?”

  “I was simply wondering what the Empire did for these people.”

  Tally called over the comm. “James, your smart mouth gets more offensive every day.”

  “What did I say?”

  “Hush,” Rance said. “Someone is hailing us.”

  The large warship—a Unity Renegade—had requested communication with the Star Streaker. Since Harper had installed the new registration codes from Kaau li, their ship was now called Mumbus Tai. Rance opened the video call.

  A woman’s angular face appeared, her dark hair drawn into a tight bun. She wore a uniform, but it wasn’t Unity. “State your purpose for coming here, Mumbus Tai,” she said in a bored voice.

  “We’re a private courier looking for work. Will you direct us to an office where we can register as one?”

  “Your ship is unarmed,” the woman said, ignoring Rance’s question.

  Rance almost felt the eagerness in the woman’s words. An unarmed ship was a treat for pirates and opportunists. For once, Rance was happy to see the Unity ships nearby. At least they could curtail any attacks.

  “We are a private courier,” Rance repeated. “No need for armaments.”

  The woman smiled, and her expression seemed to crack. “You must submit to an inspection upon arrival and upon departure, Mumbus Tai. It’s SOP for the entire system.”

  Rance nodded. She had expected as much, and anticipated that they were already scanning the Streaker from that Renegade. “Where do we go for the inspection?”

  “Land
at platform one five six. From there, an inspection unit will greet you. Land, put down your bay doors, and wait for them on your ramp. Do not arm yourselves, do not wear armor, and do not leave anyone inside. Once the inspection is complete, you will be allowed to lock up your vessel.”

  “There’s no armor allowed on the planet?”

  “Correct. Is that a problem, Mumbus Tai?”

  “Not at all. Any other rules we need to know?”

  “The inspection team will go over them with you. If you decide to break any laws while you’re here, we reserve the right to impound your ship until you pay heavy fines. If you kill anyone or are found to be part of any subversive behavior or group, you’ll find yourselves in prison before you can say hyperspace.”

  “Copy that.” Rance muted the comm and looked at James. “Subversive behavior?”

  “You know,” James said, smiling, “in case you wanted to blow your nose. Sounds like they have this place locked down tight. You might be right about them not all being lawless.”

  “You can’t believe everything you see on the news.”

  James got landing info and directed the Streaker toward platform one five six. As they entered L-58c’s hazy atmosphere, the gloom descended on the ship and on the crew.

  Platform one five six was more of a runway than a platform. The sprawling spaceport teemed with ships on the ground, in the air, and atop nearby buildings. While they waited for permission to land, Rance ordered the crew to hide their extra guns and ammunition inside one of the scanner-proof compartments under the stairs. The narrow compartments didn’t hold much, but they were perfect for transporting valuables or keeping things unseen during pesky inspections.

  They waited an hour before landing. Rance climbed stiffly from her seat, checking one last time that the tracker still registered L-58c. It did, and had even changed to show her the location of the box on the planet.

  The box, and hopefully Solaris, were a thousand kilometers away. Rance wondered which was riskier: flying the ship there, or leaving it on the landing pad.