Pursuit of the Guardian (Children of the Republic Book 2)

by Jason Hutt

  “It’s my fault that Eleanor’s been captured,” Max said, “I need to get her out of there. She’ll be smart enough to hide away for a while once I get her out. Once I’ve got her, I’ll find you. If you’ve changed your mind, well, I’d be happy to have you come with me.”

  “Oh, screw you,” Hannah said, “Eleanor made her choice to do what she did. You didn’t force her. She knew the possible consequences. You know who didn’t have a choice? Me! I was born into this. I wasn’t given a goddamn choice.”

  “That’s not my fault!” Max yelled back. “You can thank your mother for that. I didn’t even want…”

  The unspoken word hung in the air between them. Hannah closed her eyes, trying to gather herself.

  “I’m sorry,” Max said softly, “I shouldn’t-”

  “Just shut up,” Hannah said, “Just go. I don’t need you. Just leave me alone.”

  “I..I can’t give you the life your mother wanted for you, but maybe you can find it on your own. The ship is yours. Reggie will help you.”

  “Just go.”

  Max picked up his small bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Reggie knows how to find me when needed. I will be coming back at some point; I’m going to need the ship again.”

  “Don’t worry, Max. I won’t hurt your precious ship.”

  Max took one step into the umbilical that connected the two ships. He hung his head for a second but didn’t look back.

  “It would’ve been better,” Max said, “If we had just stayed apart. I’m sorry that it’s come to this.”

  Max stepped through the umbilical and the Guardian hatch closed behind him.

  Hannah stood in silence for a minute. She didn’t want to cry. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t know what to do or where to go. She didn’t want to admit she was scared. Within seconds, fresh tears overwhelmed her.

  ***

  Max sat in the pilot’s chair of the Starbright and watched as the Guardian disengaged from the larger ship, peeled away and disappeared into the black expanse of the cosmos. Minutes later, he saw a bright flash as the ship disappeared through a wormhole and was gone. He sat staring at that spot for several minutes, scratching at the gray scruff on his chin.

  He brought his attention back to the Starbright’s command displays. He swiped through page after page until he found the system scan. A ship had entered the system and was on an intercept course. Max stared at the little yellow dot as it moved steadily toward him. The transponder ID came back blank; this would be the Phantom.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Max said to himself.

  With a few hours to kill before the rendezvous, Max made his way to the ship’s theatre. Everything in the catalog of available movies was more than ten years old, but that suited Max just fine. He settled on Into the Abyss, a tale of a doomed crew lost at sea on an unexplored world. Fits the mood, Max thought. He sat down in one of the plush, overstuffed recliners and fell asleep ten minutes into the movie.

  Max awoke to the chime of his wrist computer. He blinked heavily, trying to clear away the lingering grogginess. He felt more tired now than when he first sat down. He got up from the chair with a grunt and made his way to the starboard docking portal. Max could hear the clunk of metal on metal as something attached to the Starbright’s hull.

  Max arched his eyebrows in surprise as the Starbright’s access hatch slid open without any input from Max. An overpowering bright light erupted from the hatch, forcing Max to shield his eyes. A series of loud pops pierced the silence followed by a random cacophony of sounds. Max covered his ears with little effect.

  The noise mercifully ended and Max put a hand up to shield his eyes. He squinted, trying to make out anything. Two silhouettes emerged from the blinding light. One man and one woman stepped forward, each with a multi-barreled weapon that seemed to be an extension of their arms. Both were well-muscled with white hair and disconcerting all-black eyes.

  They did a quick scan of the empty corridor. “Clear,” the woman yelled, “Only one pathetic life form detected.”

  A lone figure emerged from the center of the wall of light. He was tall and dark-skinned; his face was completely hairless and covered in scars. His eyes matched the same jet black shade of those of his companions. He wore a silver jacket over a black shirt that did nothing to hide the strength of his frame.

  The man looked at Max and smiled. He gestured with his fingers and the blinding light faded away. “Well, look what we have here. Ladies and gentleman, you are looking at a ghost. Though I must admit, with what I’ve heard on the newsfeeds, I expected you to be a demon capable of summoning your minions from the depths of hell with the snap of a finger. Oh…wait, I’m confusing you with me.”

  Max stood upright and tried to calm his racing heart.

  “Ironheart, I presume?” Max asked.

  “The one and only,” he said. As he spoke his eyes faded from all-black to a normal shade of blue. He bowed and said, “You must be Max Cabot, a man that I truly admire. A man who has slipped through the Republic’s clutches time and again. Though I must wonder, where is your magical ship?”

  “Far away from here,” Max said.

  Ironheart laughed. “Well, you’re smarter than I gave you credit for, Max. I guess there’s a reason you’ve survived and eluded capture for this long. Yet here you are, throwing yourself before me. With the price on your head, why shouldn’t I just turn you in for the bounty? My troops would surely enjoy fattening up on the spoils that you would return.”

  “Because I want to make a deal,” Max said, “And I’ll offer you far more than the Republic can ever give.”

  “I knew it!” Ironheart arched an eyebrow. “Please, do go ahead. I’m listening.”

  “The Republic took someone from me, a young woman. I need to get her back. I want a transport ship, an infiltration team, false identification chips, and when we have her, a one-way trip to the planet of my choosing.”

  “And you come to me for this?” Ironheart asked.

  “Ironheart and the Augments,” Max said, “The most feared band of pirates in all of explored space. I assume you have a good deal of resources at your disposal.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere,” Ironheart said with a smile, “But I am surprised you would deign to stoop to our level, oh ye of your uncompromising principles.”

  “Dead men don’t have principles.”

  “You might as well ask for the stars themselves, Max,” Ironheart said, “But I love a challenge. What king’s ransom are you offering in return? What could you possibly have that I would want? I mean, we both know the answer, but I just want to hear you say it.”

  “You give me what I want, the help I need, the resources I need, and I’ll give you my ship.”

  Ironheart’s half smile spread into an ear-to-ear grin. “Well, now you have my attention. It seems this trip was worth my time after all. Come, Max. Let’s discuss your proposal.” Ironheart gestured toward his ship with an exaggerated sweep of his hand.

  Max hesitated. He looked Ironheart in the eye, at his crazy ear-to-ear grin, and at the scars that crisscrossed the man’s face. This was a man responsible for the deaths of an untold number of men, women, and children; a man who was rightly in the Republic’s crosshairs.

  “Are you coming?” Ironheart asked.

  “You realize, if you kill me, torture me, or whatever, that you’ll never find my ship?”

  Ironheart laughed. “Thanks for the reminder, Max. I’ll tell my torture maids to stand down. They’ll be very disappointed, of course, but oh well.”

  “You don’t get my ship until I get Eleanor back.”

  “Yes, yes, we’ll have plenty of time to haggle through all of the details. Now, please, if you don’t mind, every second we’re here is a second that some poor, rich old fool isn’t being robbed. Let’s go…or should we just leave you here?”

  Max took a deep breath and stepped forward into the darkened hatchway.

  “Welco
me to the Phantom,” Ironheart said, raising his arms, “She haunts the dreams of many.”

  The woman with the giant gun grafted into her forearm led Max through the corridor with Ironheart and the male guard in tow. Ironheart said, “Render, take your team and tear apart the Starbright. Grab anything useful. She’s not worth bringing with us.”

  “Hey,” Max said, “I didn’t say you could do that.”

  “Consider it a down payment.”

  Max frowned. The corridor was so dimly lit that Max could barely see what was right in front of him, let alone see where Ironheart was leading him. They seemed to be taking a dizzying array of turns, left, then right, left again, another left, right, or was that left? Max lost track and realized he would not be able to find his way back to the Starbright without help. The air suddenly cooled and Max found he was in a giant, domed chamber.

  In the middle of the room sat a giant, ornately carved throne. Ironheart stepped forward and sat down with practiced grace. His muscular frame was bathed in the light from a spotlight mounted in the apex of the chamber. The light triggered a color change in his eyes and they shifted to a sparkling white. He leaned back and crossed his leg over his knee.

  He stared at Max, who shifted from side-to-side, hiding his hands behind his back. The shakes had come back in full force. Max started as Ironheart’s voice boomed, “All hands to the battle room.”

  Six doors sprung open at equal points around the circular chamber. Members of Ironheart’s troupe started to slowly trickle into the darkened edges of the room. Within moments, the trickle became a flood.

  Max couldn’t count how many people he saw. He was well into the thirties when he decided to quit.

  “This man,” Ironheart bellowed, “Has come looking for our help.”

  Max tried to stand tall, but weariness pulled at his shoulders.

  Ironheart said, “This old, disheveled man wants to break into a Republic facility, likely a Republic prison, to rescue a young woman. Max has asked me to assign some of you to go with him to their likely demise.”

  “No, hold on a minute,” Max said, “That’s not…”

  “Max, what you fail to understand is that I do not order my soldiers into battle. These men and women choose to follow me. It is not my choice to give you what you want; it is theirs. If you want some of these fine people to help you, well, you’re going to have to convince them to do it.”

  Ironheart raised his hands and the lights of the room started to come up. Max scanned the faces of the men and woman of the room. They looked at Max, some scowling, some smiling, some picking their nose or teeth as he stood there looking over them. Max looked from the woman with the silver robotic fist, to the man with the silver robotic ears, to the woman with the silver robotic eye, and the hair on his back stood on end.

  “Do my charges frighten you, Max?” Ironheart asked, leaning forward.

  Max nodded. “More than a little.”

  The crowd laughed.

  “I would guess, Max, that they are not very different from you. What do you have to say for yourself? Why should these upstanding men and women help you?”

  “I’ve never been one to rally the troops,” Max said. He folded his arms across his chest and stepped to the edge of the circle of light that enshrouded Ironheart and himself.

  “Who is it that you seek?” Ironheart yelled.

  Max stepped back at the man’s ferocity. “Eleanor Sh-Shaw,” Max said.

  “Why should we help you?”

  “Because she does not deserve her fate. She does not deserve to be locked up,” Max said with more conviction.

  “And do we deserve to die in rescuing her?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Max said.

  “Look around the room, Max. Look at these faces. Do you presume that the men and women under my command have earned their scars? That they deserve to be mutilated and exiled by the Republic that rules all of us?”

  “I…I don’t know,” Max said. A murmur erupted from the ring of observers.

  “We must all suffer the inequity of life, Max. Why is this girl deserving of our sacrifice so that she may have a better lot in life?”

  “I’m willing to pay,” Max said, “I’m offering more than anyone else in the Republic can give.”

  “You offer a toy, Max. We have survived thus far without your pretty little ship. So tell me why should we fight for you?”

  Max started to speak and hesitated. He didn’t know what to say. His left hand was shaking violently. He rubbed at his palm, trying to settle his jittery muscles. He exhaled slowly, his shoulders slumped, and he closed his eyes. Finally, he spoke, “Because I have nowhere else to go. Because the Republic has beaten me at every turn. Because I am desperate for help and I don’t know where else I can find it.”

  Ironheart smiled at him, though this smile was far from cheerful. Max’s spine tingled as he watched the man stand.

  “Welcome to the pit of despair, Max. You are among brothers and sisters.”

  ***

  Maria tentatively cracked open her eyes and squinted at the brightness of the room. She blinked, trying to clear what felt like a pound of sand from her eyes, trying to get everything to come into focus. The room around her was a sterile white and while at first it seemed to be illuminated by its own star, she now realized it was dimly lit. She tried to adjust in the bed so she could better see where she was when a shock of pain jolted her midsection.

  “Easy now,” the nurse said as he entered the room, lowering the lights. “You’re going to have a lot of soreness in your abdomen.”

  “You can say that again,” she said as he slipped a second pillow under her head to help her sit up. “Where am I?”

  “Saint Bridget’s General Hospital.”

  “No,” she said, “What planet am I on? I don’t recognize this place.”

  “You’re on Demeter, Madam Senator. You were checked in a week ago with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. It tore you up pretty good.”

  “A week?” she said, alarmed.

  “Yes,” the nurse responded, checking her vitals on his wrist computer, “It was touch and go for a little bit, but thankfully the Governor got you in here quickly. You’ve had extensive nannite therapy to rebuild your kidney, intestines, and ovary on the right side. We’ve kept you under while the treatments were working.”

  “Wait, you said a gunshot? You mean, with a bullet?”

  “Yes,” the nurse said with a nod. “It caused quite a bit of damage.”

  Maria asked, “How much longer must I be here?”

  The nurse smiled at her. “You can leave whenever you’re ready. We can give you some pain medication to help until the soreness goes away. You should be back to normal within a week. When you think you’re ready for it, you’ve got a message from a Senator Hunter Graham.”

  Maria touched her wrist, but her computer wasn’t there. She stared at the spot wear it was supposed to be, looking at her own skin as if it was an alien from another galaxy. She brushed the IV in her arm in the spot where that little device usually was and winced. A wave of dizziness washed over her as she tried to sit up a little more and a fresh bolt of pain jolted through her midsection.

  “I’d hate to know what a lot sore feels like,” she said. “How do I get the message?”

  “I’ll have it relayed in here in just a moment. You’ll get your computer back when you discharge.”

  “Thank you,” Maria said, “For everything. Can I get a glass of water? And can you also raise Governor Murphy? I’d like to thank him.”

  “Absolutely. He wanted us to let him know when you were up and around. We’ll let him know right now.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Now, let me get you that water and I’ll have the message from Senator Graham routed in here. Controls for the monitor are on your left.”

  The nurse left and Maria settled back into the bed. The fire in her side subsided as she relaxed. She tried to remember what had happened. She supposed s
he should be thankful that whoever shot her hadn’t used a disintegrator or something worse. The monitor in the room activated as a small servant robot entered with a glass of water. It placed the water on the table next to her bed and left.

  “Message,” Maria commanded.

  The monitor didn’t respond.

  “Play message,” Maria said.

  The message didn’t play. Maria balled up her fists. “What the hell do I have to do to get you to play.” Maria tried to sit up and winced. She slammed her head back on the pillow.

  “Sorry, Senator,” the nurse said over the intercom, “Monitor voice controls were disabled. You tend to talk in your sleep. It should work now.”

  “Play message,” Maria repeated and Hunter’s face filled the display.

  His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the camera. “Maria,” he said, “I hope you’re doing okay. I can’t believe this has happened. I’m glad to hear that you’ve stabilized and are now on your way to a full recovery. Take your time; don’t rush back. I can imagine this must be quite a shock.

  “I’m sure Sector Security will get to the bottom of this and find out what happened. I’ve heard that a special investigative unit is on its way so we can get all of this sorted out. They’ve been granted full authority in this investigation. We can’t let the local rabble rousers stir up trouble like this.

  “Like I said, take your time and don’t push yourself. You’d be amazed at the response here. Why, you were so vocal in your support of the FPA revisions that half a dozen other committee members jumped at the chance to get the bill out of committee and onto the floor for a final vote in your honor. I can’t thank you enough for everything you said before you left. Even Senator Effren stepped up to offer his support.

  “Now, I’m going to be off the plantation for a few weeks. See you when I get back,” Hunter said with a wink as the recording ended.

  Maria bolted upright and the pain once again seared through her midsection. She tried to pick up her legs and move them off the side of the bed but fire ran through her side. She jabbed at the call button for the nurse.

  “Yes, what can I get you?”