by R. E. Graham
Without saying another word, Jax and the Captain left the room and Jaymes behind.
What have I done? What have I done?
The two pirates made their way up the long staircase and headed for the front door. Along the way back to the Only Hope Mikhail realized that he had to focus himself on getting home. Nothing else mattered until he was sure his family was safe.
All the Onyx pirates outside of the building still remained watching the ship so that no one left. Jax guided Mikhail most of the way, but the Captain yanked his arm free once he saw his vessel.
"You can't tell them what happened back there Jax," Mikhail said as he forced himself to look confident. "You can't."
“I…I won’t Cap. As far as I am concerned, he was the one who killed Jaymes. I want that bastard to pay for what he did!” the overrider said as he tried to keep up.
“Oh, he will. I’ll be sure that he pays in full.”
The Captain rushed up the ramp with Jax nervously following behind. Rhonda was in the hangar bay but didn’t notice the rifleman returning. “Where’s Jaymes?” she asked as Mikhail flew passed her.
When Jax caught up he placed a hand on her shoulder. “He…isn’t coming.”
Rhonda looked out towards the building as Deimos exited the structure. His massive size made some of the other men look more like young boys.
“Is he dead?” she asked as she looked back at her fellow shipmate.
Jax nodded solemnly then headed into the ship.
Poli happened to be walking through the hangar and saw the Captain climbing the stairs for the next level of the ship. She saw Jax and Rhonda but was confused. “Where’s Jaymes at?”
The overrider wouldn’t look her direction which made her heart begin to beat faster.
“Where is he Jax?” she asked as she brought a hand up to her mouth.
Rhonda noticed Jax struggling so she spoke up. "He isn't coming back, Poli. I'm sorry."
“What do you mean? Where is he? Jaymes! No…nooo…” the young mechanic began to break down and cry.
As she sobbed for her lover being left behind, Rhonda walked over to the bay door panel and looked outside. Deimos was still there, staring. She felt the urge to draw her sidearm and shoot at the Onyx pirates, but she knew that would only get the rest of them killed. Poli's screams filled the hangar as the ramp finished raising up.
Outside, the Onyx pirates watched as the Only Hope revved its engines and lifted off into the sky.
Chapter 32
Cycle: 434 Month: 3 Rotation: 1
Outer Rim Colonial Alliance Space
Planet: Ko ‘Bac
Location: In the system
“Jaymes is dead?!” Joker blurted out his question with a look of shock on his face. He turned back to his controls as he guided their vessel back into space.
Nina hung her head. “Poor Poli, she’ll be devastated.”
“Why?” the Captain asked confused.
The woman looked at him with red eyes. “She um…just found out she was pregnant.”
Mikhail’s stomach dropped, and his heart began to ache. “I…I didn’t know they were together…”
What have I done?
“They had been keeping it quiet, but she told me they were going to make it more official since she found out about the baby. He didn’t know.”
“Balls…” Hern said as the weight of the situation hit him as well.
Mikhail looked straight ahead as his soul was crumbling from all that transpired back on the surface.
“What happened down there?” the ship’s gunner asked. “We didn’t hear any shootin’.”
“They uh…took us underground.” Mikhail’s mind replayed the moment he pulled the trigger. He watched again as Jaymes’ head whipped back as the bullet blasted him.
“We um…when we got down there. Yondo was upset about Otto dying…”
“Otto’s dead?” Hern interrupted.
Nina glared at him.
“It’s not like I miss him or nothin’, just surprised is all,” he said defending himself.
Mikhail continued as he kept his eyes focused straight ahead of him. Not on anything in particular, he just wanted to save himself from looking at anyone else.
“I guess an inquisitor was able to track our deal back to Otto.”
“Did he snitch?” Joker asked while he maintained his station.
“I…don’t know. I think so,” Mikhail said with pain in his voice.
Get it together. Mourn later. Be strong now…for Leesa.
“We will get revenge for Jaymes later. Right now…right now we need to return home and get everyone to safety.”
“How are we gonna do that Cap?” Hern asked as the ship rocked. “We can’t exactly move ‘em off world.”
Mikhail was resolute. “We’ll figure out something. We have to. If Otto squealed, then it is only a matter of time before they head for Destiny. We have to beat them there first.”
The Only Hope broke through Ko ‘Bac’s atmosphere and shot out of its orbit. They charged the HOP drive to take them home.
A small green triangular icon appeared on Nina’s screen. She pressed it and was surprised to see the Ground Chief’s face. “Sir, we have a video message sent from Patrix. Guess we had some interference from the surface, so we didn’t receive it until just now.”
“Put it on,” the Captain said as his body tensed.
Are we already too late?
The main screen went from black to showing the recorded video of the Ground Chief. Mikhail instantly noticed how upset he appeared, and that his eyes looked like they had witnessed something terrible.
“Captain, I have some terrible news.”
The entire bridge crew became silent as they listened very carefully to every single word.
“We were attacked by an inquisitor and a bunch of soldiers. They hit us fast and hard.”
"Son of a…" Hern started, but his voice trailed off as the words sunk into his mind.
How many are dead? What about my family?
“He told me to uh…give you a message. He said that there is nowhere you can run and that he will find you. That all of your profiles have been marked so that every time you are scanned, you will come up as fugitives.”
“What?!” Joker blurted out in shock.
“He took your family Cap. I’m so sorry…” Patrix said before he started to cry. “That bastard…he killed everyone else though. The…the whole town…they’re all gone!”
What? They’re alive? He took Leesa and Coral?! Where did he go? How will I get them back? Everyone else is dead?
Nina covered her mouth in shock as the pain rushed over her. Even Hernando, who was normally the rough type felt the gut punch of everyone in his town being taken away.
“He gave me this transmitter,” Patrix held up the device for the camera to see, “and said that when you press the button that he will come back for you. He said it was the only way your family had a chance to survive.”
Mikhail gripped the arms of his chair so tightly that his knuckles were white. His hands shook with rage as his mind wandered from the video.
Meanwhile, the Ground Chief was obviously experiencing a great deal of grief himself. He broke down and wept. Nina cried quietly at her station while Joker and Hern remained quiet but processing their thoughts internally. The Captain, on the other hand, turned from sadness to fury. He cut the video from the control panel on the side of his chair.
I'm going to make him pay. I'm going to rip his throat out! That Inquisitor will beg for my mercy…
“Captain. Captain.” The voice brought him back to reality.
He shook his head and saw that the pilot was trying to get his attention.
“What are we gonna do?” he asked somberly.
“Right…” he spent a moment trying to get his thoughts straight in his head. “We um…first need to tell everyone what we just learned.”
The Captain looked around his crew on the bridge and saw the hur
t in their eyes. He knew things were going to get worse once everyone else knew, but they needed to hear it from him.
What are we going to do? I have to get my family back, but how?
Then as if given to him from on high, Mikhail had an idea, and the pieces began to click into place. It was clear what he needed to do, now all he had to figure out was how to get everyone else on board with it.
He stood up from his seat and collected himself. “Tell everyone to meet in the hangar,” Mikhail said to Nina before he exited the bridge. “Send the message from Patrix down to the hangar so we can play it. Everyone else has to hear it for themselves. We all need to be on the same page right now.”
With everyone in the hangar, Mikhail could sense a strangeness that had shadowed his ship. Word had spread pretty quickly that Jaymes had died and he needed to address that first.
He looked around the hangar and saw that most of what remained of Largo were all right here, all in one place. Besides his crew, there were only a few survivors. Strangely that list included the cowardly father and son Tipso's.
“We have much to discuss, but I first feel we need to bring up Jaymes.”
Mikhail saw Poli and her tear-filled eyes. While he knew his heart should have felt more pain, right now all he could really think about was his own family.
"After we left the ship, Jax, Jaymes and I followed Deimos downstairs to an underground bunker of some sort. There Lord Horsh was waiting for us."
Hern cracked his knuckles as he listened. No doubt wishing he had been there so that Jaymes would still have been alive.
“Things turned bad once Yondo told us that the inquisitor looking for us happened to find Otto on Noire.”
Everyone not saddened sat or stood up a little straighter. They all began understanding things had gotten much, much worse for them. Some like Riko started to think of their families left on Destiny and what it would mean if the inquisitor was able to locate their home.
Mikhail looked over at Jax who was doing his best not to make eye contact with the Captain. He needed to know that his crewman wasn’t going to feel compelled to tell the truth of what occurred so that his plan to rescue his family could be pulled off. The overrider sensed the Captain’s longing gaze and looked up at him. He nodded that he was going to back him up.
“Before we knew it Yondo drew a gun and shot Jaymes on the spot.”
Poli began to grieve again and bitterly cried. Rhonda pulled her close, and the young woman tucked her head in the other woman's shoulder as she wept.
“Why did he let us escape then?” Riko asked. “Why not turn us over to the inquisitor himself?”
Mikhail was kind of surprised by the question. He wasn’t ready to openly admit that Yondo had told him that if they survived that he owned his crew. “He doesn’t want us to attract the inquisitor to him.”
“Then why kill Jaymes? What did it serve to drag us all the way out here?” Joker asked as he crossed his arms. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“I believe it was payback for Otto being killed.”
“Serves that bastard right,” Jax said from the edge of the group.
Everyone glanced at him, and he became nervous. "He uh…I know of some of the things he's done. I won't shed a tear that he is gone."
Now comes the hard part.
“There is more,” the Captain said as all eyes came back on him. “Nina, please play it.”
She didn’t really want to but knew that everyone had to hear the news as well. The rest of the crew listened to the message while Mikhail analyzed everyone’s reactions.
The clip ended, and Mikhail gave his crew a few moments to process what they just heard. Hern still looked pissed and ready to fight, while Jax and Rhonda looked greatly upset. Poli was overwhelmed by the news. Strangely, Riko looked the absolute worst as the color drained from his complexion. He stumbled backward and fell to the hangar floor.
“No, no…this can’t be true. I…I can’t believe it. I won’t believe it!”
I can’t lose Riko right now…
"I know that we are all hurting right now. We have lost so very much, and we need time to grieve." He made eye contact with anyone who was looking up. "Right now, we need to channel our grief and focus it on getting back at the Inquisitor. Get revenge for what they took from us."
Riko's eyes teared up, and venom was on the tip of his tongue. "But you didn't lose everything."
Many of the crew looked at the mech pilot surprised by his tone.
“You…you still have a family. Mine was slaughtered like animals. Gunned down by some damned lawman and his thugs!”
Mikhail launched himself across the group to everyone's surprise and grabbed Riko by the throat. He hoisted him up into the air, and the pilot began to gasp.
“Captain!” Nina cried out while Jax and Hern stood up ready to intervene but remained in place.
“You think that because my family lives and yours doesn’t that I don’t grieve for your loss?” the Captain asked his crewman while he fought for oxygen. “I have bled for our town and worked hard to keep all of us safe.” He dropped Riko and spun around slowly and glared at his crew. “All of you need to listen very clearly. We have all lost loved ones because of what Lenny did to that Senator. He is the reason that trouble came looking for us.”
Jax and Rhonda nodded hesitatingly as they put the pieces of the recent events together.
Mikhail allowed his emotions to wash over him and to empower his speech. “He and his father decided to bail on us when we needed them most. I will see to it that they pay for their decisions, but right now our issue is with this lawman.”
“But how can we hope to stop an inquisitor?” Riko asked in between his coughing. His throat burned as he breathed. “We don’t have a fleet!”
“Taking him straight on would be risky Cap,” Rhonda said as she rubbed the back of her head. “Doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying though.”
“No, we need to think clearly and hit him in a way he won’t be expecting. I have a plan, but it will take all of us being in agreement to pull it off.” Mikhail looked around the group again to try and read their thoughts.
I need them all to buy into this for this to work.
After a tense moment, Joker spoke up. “I’m with you Cap.” Then followed by Jax, Hern, and Rhonda.
Riko used a nearby work station to pull himself up off of the cold, grimy floor. Mikhail turned back to him, his body language asking if the mech pilot was in. Finally, he nodded. "I'm with you ‘til the end Captain."
Poli and Nina remained silent, but Mikhail felt like they were on board with whatever he decided.
“My idea is pretty simple. Yondo told me that he was heading for Dusk.”
“Isn’t that where the Five Skulls headquarters is?” Rhonda asked as she leaned up against a beam beside her.
Mikhail nodded. “It is. I would guess that he is going there to meet up with the other lords. My idea is that we go to them and convince at least one of them to join with us to attack the inquisitor.”
No one instantly agreed with the scheme. Most of the crew seemed a bit hesitant if anything.
“Um sir, why would they care?” the pilot asked as he sat back in his seat.
“This inquisitor is dangerous, and he has already shown that he will strike right at Onyx without worry. We need to sell the idea to the lords that he might come for them next after he is done with us.”
Jax was still confused on some of the details. “But we don’t even know where he is. Why would they agree to work with us without knowing where to strike?”
“We don’t know where he is right now, but we know where he’ll be,” Mikhail said with a sparkle in his eye.
Suddenly Rhonda saw how the plan could work. “He left the device behind with the Chief.”
The Captain was now trying to fully show his confidence and excitement with the plan. “Exactly! We know how to make the inquisitor come runnin’, now we just need some big guns to be
waitin’ for him.”
“Any of the lords though is going to want something big from this,” Nina pointed out. “What can we offer them?”
Mikhail thought for a second then knew how to word it. “We offer them our own service.”
Jax looked very concerned. “What does that mean exactly?”
“It means what it sounds like. We agree to pledge loyalty to whichever one of the lords is willing to help us,” the Captain said as he tried to persuade his people. “Look, no matter how we look at this we are in a bad spot. If our records have been marked, then we can’t go anywhere outside of some inner world trading posts. Any place that scans people puts us in direct danger of being caught.”
He looked around the hangar at each of his crew and shook his head. “My heart is broken for Largo and all of those that we have lost. But we can avenge them…just not on our own.”
Most of the crew of pirates looked at one another. Jax stood up still not looking like he totally bought into the plan. “But what about me? If we go to Dusk, I will surely be recognized. It was a miracle none of the other men with Yondo knew who I was.”
Mikhail walked over to the overrider and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I give you my word that I will do everything I can to protect you.”
“Just like you did Jaymes?” Poli said bitterly.
Several of the crew were shocked to hear her speak in such a way. Everyone aboard the Only Hope had come to find the young female mechanic to be very polite and kind, but the pain of the loss of her lover cut deep.
Jax saw the anguish in his Captain’s eyes at the mention of the late rifleman. He looked over to the grieving woman. “The Captain did all that he could back there for Jaymes. That bastard Yondo is to blame for his death.”
“But we want to ask him and the other lords for help?” Joker inquired. He rubbed his hand through his hair as if he was frustrated with the options they were facing.
Once your profile became marked by the government, you no longer could buy or sell goods, you couldn't even update your IDs. Any time you were scanned at a port or checkpoint, you would be arrested on the spot. It instantly made you run for your life because you could not openly operate within the Corre Republic. Some citizens had retreated to other nations, but this was becoming increasingly more difficult as many other governments were cracking down on escaping criminals seeking asylum.
