by Ryk Brown
As he removed the nuts on the first control card access panel, his mind raced through all the possible scenarios. He was certain they were not back in Takaran space; no ship that he knew of had that much single-jump range. It was possible that the Mystic used only a single jump field generator per side to execute a jump, and that they had actually made two back to back jumps, but that still would put them a long way from the Pentaurus cluster.
One thing he was sure of was that the clouds of Syllium Orfee no longer obscured their location and, if they had jumped clear of them along their filed route, the Dusahn would arrive shortly.
“We have two crewmen,” Jortan announced over Siggy’s comm-unit. “We have them isolated from the others, in one of the galleys.”
“What are their names?” Siggy asked.
After a pause, Jortan answered. “Assistant Purser Dallon Archette, and sous chef Vance Shelty.”
“You realize what will happen if you harm anyone on this ship,” Captain Rainey warned.
“I already have, Captain,” Siggy replied. “And the answer is, nothing.” Siggy stepped up the captain again, looking him in the eye. “Are you going to unlock the jump drive?”
Captain Rainey did not respond.
Siggy keyed his comm-unit again. “Kill one of them.”
Captain Rainey tried to break free of the two men holding him in order to get to Siggy. “You bastard!”
“Oh, I’ve been called much worse, Captain.” Siggy keyed his comm-unit again. “Is it done?”
“Yes.”
Siggy looked at Captain Rainey, pleased with himself. “Shall I kill another?”
“How do I even know you killed anyone?” Captain Rainey challenged.
“You don’t believe me?” He keyed his comm-unit again, holding it up to the Captain. “Ask him yourself.”
Captain Rainey looked suspiciously at Siggy.
“Go on.”
“This is Captain Rainey,” the captain finally said into Siggy’s comm-unit.
A moment later, a nervous voice responded over the comm-unit. “This is Assistant Purser Archette. They killed the cook, Captain. They slit his thr…” There was a sudden gurgling sound over the comm-unit, followed by a gasping of air, like someone trying desperately to breathe.
Siggy looked surprised. “What’s going on there?” he asked over his comm-unit.
“I killed the other one as well,” Jortan replied.
“Why?” Siggy asked, slightly annoyed.
“I didn’t like the way he was looking at me.”
Siggy smiled. “Well, that will certainly teach him, won’t it?” He looked at his other two men holding onto the captain’s arms. “That’s what you call, taking the initiative.” He raised his comm-unit back up and keyed the mic. “Grab two more. This time, make them passengers. A man and a woman.” Siggy looked at the captain, noting his defiant gaze. “And bring them here.”
“Right away.”
Siggy smiled cruelly. “We will see how defiant you are, when you are forced to personally witness the execution of your passengers.”
Captain Rainey was fuming. “You will pay for this…”
Master Sergeant Anwar finished climbing the starboard access ladder, and stepped onto the Mystic’s engineering deck. He peeked out around the edge of the ladder cutout, checking up and down the corridor. Now that he was on a new level, he checked the tactical display on the inside of his helmet visor. Five icons- four red, and one blue. Two of the red icons were in the next corridor over, moving away from them, and the other two were on the port side, also moving forward. But the blue icon was moving aft, in between the corridors.
Sergeant Vela stepped onto the deck behind Anwar, checking his own visor. “What the fuck?”
“She must be in the overhead,” Anwar surmised. “There’s at least a meter and a half between overhead and the next deck, more when you get further aft by main engineering.”
“Packed full of shit,” Vela replied.
“These ships always have crawl spaces all over the damned place. And she’s small enough to get through most of them.”
“I guess there’s something to be said for all Ghatazhak not being the same size after all,” Sergeant Vela joked.
“I’ll be sure and tell her you said that,” Anwar replied with a grin.
“My ass you will.”
“Is she…” Corporal Rattan started to ask as he stepped off the ladder and onto the deck to join them.
“Yup,” Anwar replied, cutting him off. “Vela, starboard corridor. Rattan, port. If those fuckers double back, cut them down.”
“No more ghost?” Corporal Rattan asked.
“No more ghost.”
“Fuck yeah,” the corporal replied.
“Only if you have to,” the master sergeant added. “Once one of us lights them up, we lose the advantage of surprise.”
“Pretty much lost that when you took out the first guy, Deno,” Sergeant Vela commented.
“They still think she did him,” Anwar reminded him, as he started down the corridor.
“Where are you going?” Sergeant Vela asked.
“I’ll get Nash. You two take your positions and hold. As soon as I get her, we’ll fall back to here and get back down in the dog run.”
“And after that?”
“Beats the hell outta me,” Master Sergeant Anwar said as he headed down the corridor. “I’m making this shit up as I go.”
Nathan yanked the last of the control cards from the second offline backup jump field generator, tossing them into the empty toolbox on the deck next to him. After pulling the last card, he grabbed the toolbox and the nut driver and made his way over to the nearest active jump field generator, and got to work on its control card access panel.
Master Sergeant Anwar swung the hatch to pump room four open and stepped inside. As he entered, the lights snapped on, illuminating the myriad of pumps along either side of the compartment.
He closed the hatch, then checked the tactical display on the inside of his helmet visor. The blue icon representing Lieutenant Nash was growing closer, and was just outside the compartment. The icon’s progress stopped for a moment, then continued its approach.
He looked up. Above him were dozens of pipes, most of them at least a half meter in diameter. Somewhere above them, the lieutenant was crawling her way across the compartment.
The icon stopped again, this time not more than five meters away. He looked up again, and spotted the lieutenant peeking out from behind a row of three pipes. “Lieutenant,” he greeted her casually.
“Master Sergeant,” Jessica replied. She swung off the pipes, and dropped the four meters to the deck, landing a few meters in front of Master Sergeant Anwar.
“Out for a stroll?” Deno asked.
“Just a little diversionary tactic. You?”
“Thought you might be lost.”
“Nope. I’m good. You alone?”
“Negative,” the master sergeant replied as he handed his sidearm to Jessica. “Vela and Rattan are with me. Morano and Rossi are just forward of the main garden deck.”
“Planning on smelling the flowers, are they?” she commented as she checked the weapon.
“Bandits are holding the crew and some of the passengers there. We were thinking about freeing them once we found you and Captain Scott. I take it you were running a diversion for him?”
“Affirmed. He’s disabling the jump drives. Any idea where we’re at?”
“Not a clue,” he replied, pulling a spare comm-set out of his left utility pouch.
“How many are we talking about?” Jessica asked, taking the comm-set from him.
“About thirty, with twenty more possibly on their way.”
“Type and
arms?”
“Probably ex-military, a mixture of arms. Scatter guns, burners, boomers… Some body armor as well. Crappy comms, though,” he added holding up the comm-unit he took off the man he had killed earlier.
“You picking pockets again, Deno?” Jessica said as she donned her comm-set.
“He didn’t need it any longer,” the master sergeant replied with a smile.
“Test-test,” she called over her comm-set.
Master Sergeant Anwar flashed her a thumbs up sign.
“I guess you found her,” Sergeant Vela commented over comms.
“Affirmative,” Anwar replied. “Back to the ladder, boys.”
“We need to get Nathan first,” Jessica said.
“Where is he?”
“Port side engineering crawl spaces. Section two-fourteen, level D. Just before the main propulsion firewalls.”
“No can do, sir,” Master Sergeant Anwar told her. “Not directly. We’ll have to go down to the dog run, forward, and then back up. Otherwise we’ll run right into them. They’re conducting a full-on search for you now. The dog run is our only way to move fore and aft quickly, since they can’t get into it.”
“How’d you get into it?” Jessica wondered.
“Rossi.”
Jessica laughed. “I should’ve guessed.”
The hatch to the Mystic’s bridge opened, and a young man and woman stepped inside, followed by an armed guard. Both of them looked at the others in the compartment, their faces full of fear.
“Go back and pick out two more, and wait for my signal,” Siggy told the armed escort.
“You got it,” the man replied, turning and exiting, closing the hatch behind him.
“Welcome!” Siggy greeted, turning to the nervous young couple. “Are you two…together?”
Neither of them answered…they were too nervous to speak.
“Come on, speak up,” Siggy instructed, putting his arm around the young woman’s shoulders. “Is this your fella?”
“Leave her alone,” the young man warned.
“I guess that answers my question, doesn’t it?” Siggy laughed. He stepped back a moment, checking the couple out. “Newlyweds, perhaps?”
Again, neither of them answered.
Siggy looked at Captain Rainey. “A good choice, really. Neither one looks like nobility, so I probably couldn’t get much for their ransom. A shame that you’re making me kill them. I could’ve at least sold the young lady to one of those fat, rich bastards on Terrindor. Likely would’ve gotten a good price, by the looks of her.”
“Company security will hunt you all down, and they will kill you, and everyone you care about,” Captain Rainey seethed.
“Doubtful, considering that the Dusahn control the entire cluster,” Siggy laughed. “Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot. You’ve been in the cloud for the last couple weeks. You probably don’t know.”
“What are you talking about?” Captain Rainey asked.
“Who do you think is offering the reward for jump ships?” Siggy said.
“Then he wasn’t lying?” Captain Rainey mused to himself.
“Who wasn’t lying?” Siggy wondered, overhearing the captain’s mutterings.
“Your cohorts,” Captain Rainey replied quickly, speaking up. “The man and woman who came aboard before you. From the Seiiki.”
“The Seiiki?” Siggy suddenly changed his expression. “That little bastard Tuplo was here? What did he say to you?”
“He tried to warn me about these… Dusahn,” Captain Rainey said. “But he said his name was Nathan Scott.”
A laugh leapt from Siggy’s throat. “Nathan Scott? Na-Tan? The guy has been dead, what, ten years or something? Oh, I have to give it to Connor. That’s a pretty original approach, that is.” He turned to one of his men. “Can you believe Tuplo?” Siggy suddenly pulled his weapon, turned, and pressed the weapon’s muzzle against the young woman’s right cheek, forcing her to tip her head to her left, a tiny scream of terror escaping her lips.
“What is your name?” Siggy asked the young man next to her.
“Terig,” he replied fearfully. “Terig Espan. Please don’t hurt her. We haven’t done anything to you.”
“Perhaps you should ask the good captain over there. The man who took an oath to keep you all safe.”
Terig looked at Captain Rainey, his eyes pleading for help. “Captain…”
“Unlock the jump drive, now!” Siggy ordered.
“I can’t,” Captain Rainey replied, shaking his head.
“Please…” Terig begged.
“Unlock it, or I swear I will burn a hole right through her head!”
“I CAN’T!” Captain Rainey repeated.
“Captain, Please!”
“I SWEAR! I’LL FUCKING WASTE HER!”
“PLEASE!” Terig screamed in desperation, as his wife sobbed. “I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU ASK!”
“This is my last warning, Captain!” Siggy announced. “On the count of three, the lady dies!”
“PLEASE!” Terig pleaded with Captain Rainey.
“One!”
“CAPTAIN!” Terig repeated.
“TWO!”
“I’m sorry,” Captain Rainey told Terig.
“Oh, God,” Terig said, realizing his wife was about to be executed before his eyes.
“THREE!” Siggy yelled, his arm tensing up as he prepared to fire.
“STOP!” Captain Rainey yelled at the top of his lungs.
“UNLOCK IT!”
“I WILL! JUST DON’T HURT THEM!”
“GIVE ME THE CODES!” Siggy shouted.
“Not until you promise me you won’t hurt anyone else!” Captain Rainey insisted.
“Give me the codes, and no one else has to die!”
“Alright! Seven seven two, five alpha echo, eight two two, tango one eight.” Captain Rainey hung his head low, ashamed that he had given in. But he could not let his passengers be harmed.
“Did you get that?” Siggy asked his helmsman.
“Entering the code now,” he replied.
Jessica dropped the last meter down the ladder into the dog run, following Sergeant Vela and Corporal Rattan. After landing, she stepped aside, then turned to the hatch controls. As soon as Master Sergeant Anwar dropped to the deck, she activated the overhead hatch, and secured it, cutting off anyone who didn’t have the access codes or a security badge.
“You know the bad guys probably have the crew’s security cards, right?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Jessica replied as she turned to head forward. “Better safe than sorry.”
“Another Terran witticism,” Anwar noted.
“We’ll come up behind the garden deck galleys, just aft of the storage lockers,” Jessica said as she started down the long corridor. “That should keep us aft of the search parties. Since the passengers don’t have access to secured areas, the search parties won’t be concentrating on them.”
“Unless the search parties are looking for you,” Master Sergeant Anwar said.
“Why would they be looking for me?” Jessica wondered. “As far as they know, I’m just some chick in a uniform, running away from scary guys with guns.”
“They may think you killed one of their men,” Master Sergeant Anwar said, “in rather expert fashion, I might add.”
“What happened to ghost ops?” Jessica asked as they continued jogging down the corridor.
“He left me little choice. Besides, we needed the intel.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.”
“Siggy! I’m picking up the Antilla!” Hamon reported.
“Finally!” Siggy said, relieved. “Tell them to dock on the starboard side and unload the extra men. And send som
eone to the starboard docking port to let them in!”
“I’m on it.”
“I’ve got control of the jump drive,” the helmsman reported.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Siggy remarked with delight. “I can see the credits piling up now. I’m not sure which is better; turning the ship over to the Dusahn for the reward, or selling it to someone outside the sector.”
“Wait…” the helmsman said, double checking his displays. “Something’s wrong…”
“What is it?” Siggy asked.
“The jump drive is down.”
“What do you mean, down? He just used it!” Siggy spun around and put his gun to Captain Rainey’s face. “What did you do?” he screamed. “Some bogus code that disabled the system?”
“No, no!” Captain Rainey assured him. “We don’t even have such a code!”
“Siggy, no!” the helmsman corrected. “He didn’t do it. The primaries on the starboard side are shorted out. Somebody pulled the control cards, while it was running!”
“What?” Siggy lowered his gun, turning back to look over the helmsman’s shoulder at the display. “What about the backups? These ships always have backups.”
“They are down as well. Their control cards are also missing!”
“What about the port jump drives?”
“They are still online, but…”
“Can you use them to jump the ship?”
“Yes, but it will take some time, and our jump range will be greatly reduced.”
“Do it!” Siggy raised his comm-unit and keyed his mic. “Someone get to the port engineering crawl spaces and protect the port jump drive!”
“Right away!” his comm-unit squawked.
Siggy turned to Captain Rainey, pointing his gun at his face again. “You said Tuplo was onboard. What did you do with him?”
