Destroyer of Planets

by L. A. Johnson

  "Aye," he answered, "it's illegal to destroy planets as well."

  "He's got you there, Ari," Kirian said.

  Fleek walked onto the bridge.

  "I thought you had more important things to do," Ari said.

  "I do. Recruiting. For the band. Had to step up my timeline due to recent events."

  He glared at Ari.

  "Recruiting. For the band? You heartless bastard…"

  Fleek held a hand out to her, stopping her in mid-sentence. He crossed the room and got in her face. "Look, new girl. You deal with problems your way, and I'll deal with them mine. But since you're so logical, let's follow it through to its conclusion. You guys go to the planet. You try to save it, and you try to save Kirian. Let's say you succeed. And you get back.”

  Ari had no idea what was going on. She nodded anyway.

  "So, what does that octopus thing do next? She blows up my beautiful ship, right? I mean, what's to stop her? Everything she's ever done has been in secret. Everything. Including tonight's threat. This Overseer obviously values her privacy.

  "So, you succeed." He turned to Kirian again. "Fingers crossed. And you get back to the ship and this ship," he said, holding his hands out dramatically, "is now the most famous, the most rocking, the most live streamed ship in the galaxy. Then what do you think she does? Well, not blow it up is my guess. In conclusion, I'm doing my part. So let me work and stop interrupting me."

  Ari blinked at him, opened her mouth and shut it again. "That's your plan?"

  "Yes."

  "Your plan," she began again, sure she had misheard, "is to form a band, and broadcast your song."

  "Yes."

  "And become instantly famous?"

  "Right again."

  "So, the Overseer will be impressed or shy or who knows, maybe she's a music lover. At any rate, she'll decide not to destroy us."

  "I think it's kind of perfect, don't you?"

  "That may be the most conceited, unrealistic plan I've ever heard. There's not a snowball's chance in a black hole of all of that happening, no matter how good your song is."

  "Says you."

  "Exactly," said Ari, crossing her arms, "says me. Why can't you do something useful? Like hacking into the Overseer's computer or helping me with the files I need?"

  "Absolutely not."

  "Of course not," said Ari.

  Fleek grabbed Carpe and disappeared again.

  Ari watched them go. "Kirian, why in stars are you enjoying this?"

  Kirian seemed surprised by the question. "Up until recently, there was no Fleek. For years it was just me flying around the galaxy on a little ship drinking wine, watching television and ducking planetary explosions by myself. Like, I said, not the worst gig ever. Then Fleek talked me into saving him. He really is persuasive. Then I saved you. Now I live on a ship full of people, some of whom aren't jumping off just yet even in the face of danger." She smiled. "At least I'm going to go out with friends."

  Chapter 21

  Ari re-read the spectrograph.

  Alloy metal with an electromagnetic lock.

  What was she supposed to do about that?

  Kracken. He had to be of some use.

  "You, crazy conspiracy theorist." She got in his face, or ten inches underneath it anyway. He got the point. "You get a hold of your associates. Find out everything you can about these stupid handcuffs."

  Carpe came out of Fleek's room again and raised an eyebrow at Ari. "I'm telling you, you have crime boss written all over you."

  "Doubt it," Ari said, although she was starting to wonder herself. "Carpe, you guys used these too. If you could get any useful information at all, I'd appreciate it. Specifications, alloy proportions, weaknesses, strengths, anything."

  "Strengths?" Carpe asked. "Why would you be interested in the strength of something you're trying to break?"

  "Strengths and weaknesses," Ari answered, running a hand through her hair. "They're often related."

  Carpe looked surprised for a moment. Then he grabbed his cell phone and disappeared. Ari glared at Kracken until he did the same. Then it was just Ari and Kirian, who still sat at the console. Ari heaved herself into the chair next to her.

  Kirian smiled broadly. "Almost wish I could go back and change things."

  "You can only change the present and the future," Ari mused, barely audible.

  "You're just full of those, aren't you?"

  "Look, Kirian. I don't care what you've done. You saved me. I'm more interested in your future than your past. That’s all. It’s the way I have to look at things."

  "Look at you. Out in space. Ordering ex-organized crime lackeys around…"

  "Just trying to help."

  "I'll admit it was just a hunch at first. I had no idea how smart you really were," Kirian continued. "It only took a few days for you to jolt the Overseer into a murderous rage. I love it. And it looks like you're not done yet."

  "Stars," Ari said, looking at the on-screen countdown timer. "We're almost there."

  Carpe appeared on his way to the galley. “One guy did get out of the handcuff.” He scooped up several bags of snacks and headed back to re-join Fleek.

  Ari barely heard him. She stood and crossed to him. “What was that? Did you say something about somebody getting free of the handcuff?”

  "Yeah. That he got free of the handcuff."

  "Specifically. Any details would be helpful."

  "We assume he got free anyway. We found the cuff, but not the guy."

  "Was the cuff broken?"

  "No."

  "Could he have wriggled his hand out?"

  "I love that word, wriggled," Carpe mused.

  Ari ignored him. The ship pitched suddenly. She leaned forward and grabbed hold of one of the console chairs. Ha. I'm finally getting the hang of this.

  Then the ship lurched forward and did another front flip. Ari lost her grip on the chair, but didn't fall very far due to the ship's momentum. She was getting tired of her stomach having out of body experiences.

  "I don't think he wriggled out,” Carpe continued. “The handcuffs have a magnetic seal. There was also no tissue and no blood."

  Stars. That was going to be her next question.

  "Hey," said Carpe, snapping his fingers, "we hired a specialist to come and inspect the handcuff, and he said the only thing he could think of was maybe it was a burst of high powered electromagnetic something." He made a gesture with his hand indicating the whole thing was over his head.

  "Electromagnetic waves?" Ari suggested.

  He nodded.

  Interesting.

  The ship lurched to a stop. Ari looked at the landscape through the console. There were forests and buildings and tall, angular bipeds walking around.

  Ari turned to see Kirian re-enter the control deck. She was dressed differently, in jeans, t-shirt, and a black jacket, presumably to have a place to keep her weapons. Her long dark hair was pulled into a ponytail. She looked ready for battle.

  Ari frantically researched everything she could find, both real and crackpot, about any type of metallic handcuff similar to the ones Kirian wore.

  Fleek came up behind her, making her start. "You really are serious about helping her?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, you won't find the information you're looking for there," he said, a new mug of coffee steaming in his hand.

  "Fine," she said. "Where can I find the information that I need?"

  "The dark net, of course. You won't find out how to remove an explicitly illegal handcuff the Neon Octopus Overlord is using for nefarious reasons on the regular net. Duh."

  The Dark Net. She should have considered that. As a bureaucrat, she was trained to use only verified sources of information.

  It never even occurred to her to use an unofficial source, much less for something so important. She was off-roading now. It was worth a try anyway, leave no stone unturned and all that.

  "So how do I get onto the dark net?"

  He smirked
. "Never been on it? I figured as much. That's what I'm here for."

  She let him set up her computer and ducked into the galley to get more coffee of her own.

  As soon as Ari returned, full steaming mug in her hand, Kracken was standing between her and the computer Fleek had finished customizing. She leaned around Kracken to thank Fleek.

  "Your computer milady." Fleek bowed.

  "Hey, thank you, Fleek. How's recruiting going?"

  "Great, thanks."

  Kracken was shifting his weight from foot to foot, visibly annoyed at being ignored.

  "I have to ask,” Ari said, “Why on earth do you think that one song is going to make you famous? I mean, I guess on some level all musicians want to be famous, but only a small subset really believe it's going to happen, and fewer still have it actually come true. The odds are, well, you're more likely to have a space fairy pop in and sprinkle dust on your head and make you famous than to hit it big in the music industry nowadays."

  “If you know any space fairies, tell them I’m game.” Fleek showed her that little boy smile trapped in the persona of the underground musician and disappeared.

  Ari sighed, sat, and turned her attention to the dark net.

  "It's all a waste of time," Kracken said, close enough to whisper in her ear, "you need to file a Complaint against the Overseer before it's too late. And here we are wasting time on metal handcuffs and musicians and…" He waved an arm, having run out of steam and lost his point.

  "This again?" Ari asked. "Hey, no problem, we can drop you off on the nearest planet, and all of your conspiracy crackpot people can pick you up."

  "You know that's not what I mean."

  "It's what I mean. If you don't have any useful information for me, then at least get out of my way," Ari shot back.

  He knelt beside her. She wished he would just go away, but she tried to concentrate despite him. She knew from experience that if she let him know he was bothering her, it would only make matters worse.

  "Hey," he said, "what you're not doing here is thinking big picture. Anything can happen in the next few minutes."

  Ari smiled. She took a long sip from her mug. "Yeah, that's what I'm counting on."

  Kracken huffed and walked away. Finally. She resumed her research.

  About that guy who got out of his handcuff…" a voice behind her made her start again. It wasn't Kracken though, this time, it was Carpe.

  She wheeled viciously, a move that would have probably gotten her killed if he was in his past life. He raised an eyebrow at her.

  "What?"

  "Research not going as well as you had hoped?"

  Ari hated to admit it, but he was right. Having never been on the Dark Net she expected it to be a useful and plentiful treasure trove of underground information. As it was, it was simply filled with porn, violence, and surprisingly, fractals.

  "No, it isn’t. I expected a lot more information. Frankly, there was more, if dubious information, on the regular web at disreputable sites."

  "That sounds right." He heaved himself into a nearby chair.

  Ari went to take a sip from her mug, but was it dry again. Stars. "Oh, what were you saying?" She was at a standstill anyway.

  "Yeah, about the guy who possibly got out of the handcuff," he began again, rubbing his green chin with his hand. "We found the cuff, but not the man. I remembered some details. We did a system-wide search for the guy." He leaned into her. "Very serious. Called in our chips and got the regular cops to help out. If one guy gets away, well, then that's all any of them can think about. Then you've got problems. You see where I’m going with this?"

  Ari thought about it. "You're saying if I find a way to free Kirian, it will cause problems, real problems, for the Overseer."

  "Two birds with one stone."

  "And why do you care, exactly?"

  "Ah, good question. Knew it would come up eventually. Whose team am I on?"

  "Well?"

  "I'm on team Mayhem. The Overseer deserves what she gets, if you ask me. She's worse than we were when I was in organized crime. We were bottom feeders, to be sure, but there's room for bottom feeders in the ecosystem. We were naturally occurring, you see. Now her? She's something else. Not sure what, exactly, but it’s bad business."

  Ari thought about it. Kirian was a powerful prisoner. Kracken was a crackpot. Fleek was an oddball. But this guy had a grounded feel about him. As odd as it was, his was the closest thing to her reality. In some way, his old life must have made some sort of sense. But why abandon it to join Fleek? So far, she just couldn't see it.

  Fleek returned, as if on cue, with a set of headphones. The kind she hated, that wrapped around one's head and gave an immersive experience. She liked ear buds so she could have access to outside stimuli. He placed them on her head. She shook her head and tried to object, but he wouldn't have it.

  "I have a ton of things to do," she said. It was true. It was also true that she had hit a dead end and wasn't getting anywhere anyway, she just didn't want to admit it.

  "Relax," Fleek said. "It's just one song. What's the worst that could happen?"

  He asked it with a particularly mischievous glint in his eye and pressed play.

  Ari turned angrily toward the console which was currently showing the planet Regulus, and away from the eyes of both Fleek and Kracken. The music thumped to life in her ears, and the immersion took over.

  "Kirian, how long before we know when everything on Regulus is going to start?” Ari asked.

  "If the past is any indication," Kirian answered, "we're going to know much sooner than later. Hey, Ari? It's not going to be pretty. You should stay on the ship."

  "Aye," said Kracken. "You should."

  "Nobody asked you," Ari said. "So, Fleek and Carpe are staying here, right?"

  "Right."

  "And what about you?" Ari turned to Kracken. "Staying or going?"

  "Not sure yet," he answered.

  "Figures."

  Kirian handed her a small pen-sized object.

  "What is it?"

  "It's a Stingr. It’s a sword that works with light and heat. Very effective, very lethal. I have several, and I use them against the TPHWs because the waves of creatures that it creates can't feel fear. On regular beings, though," she said, bringing out a shorter, curved metal sword, "nothing intimidates like sharp steel."

  “Aye,” Carpe said. "That’s true enough."

  Ari got an idea. The TPHWs. The waves of creatures. The energy needed. Electromagnetic energy. Maybe she could make it all work. She sat down at the computer.

  The whole ship rattled, and there was a loud noise on Regulus.

  Fleek came out from his room without a word and adjusted the view on the console manually. Together they searched for the source of the explosion. What they were looking for wasn't hard to spot.

  A plume of smoke snaked to the sky from the center of what looked like a crowded downtown. The wave of surprise and panic in the population was just beginning.

  "That's my cue," said Kirian. "Hey, this time, ironically, I get to try to save a planet."

  Ari stopped looking at the console and frantically went back to work. "Be careful, Kirian. I'll catch up. I just got some new ideas. I’ll be right behind you. And good luck."

  Kirian tapped coordinates into the system, judging the approximate location of the explosion for the portal. Then she walked out into the unknown.

  The only thing Ari could do for her was focus. Research. What she did best. I got this.

  First, she completed chemical, elemental, and electromagnetic scans of the city under attack. When they were done, she broke into a broad smile. The scans had given her an idea. Oh, I'm on to you Overseer.

  She needed another spectrograph. As she crossed the room to retrieve it, Kracken stood directly in front of her. She shot him an annoyed look. Instead of backing up in surprise and apology, he held his ground, staring down at her.

  "Oh, there you are. Found you," Ari said, trying to
go around him. "I think I found something. I might even have a plan, but we're going to have to act fast, there's not much time to gather what we need. Are you coming with me? You don't have a mini torch, do you? That would come in really handy right about now…"

  "Can't let you do that," Kracken said.

  "I know you don't want me to leave and help Kirian, but that's too bad. Besides, this has the potential to hurt the Neon Octopus…" Ari had a lot more in her arsenal ready to argue with him, but that’s when she saw the gun in his hand.

  It was pointed at her head. Not again. "What are you doing?" Ari raised her hands. "I said I found a way to help."

  He blinked at her, but didn't say anything.

  Ari ran through the entirety of the past few days in her mind like a movie, slowing down when it got to the parts with Kracken. She thought the whole thing through and then shook her head.

  "You didn't show up until after I filed the Intergalactic Inquiry." He let her continue. "You've been shadowing Kirian, but you're not part of the conspiracy group, are you?" She hit her forehead with her hand, then held it in the air again. "No, you've been too quiet for that. Real conspiracy theorists believe in their cause. They won't shut up. That means you're working for the Overseer." She glanced at his wrists. "No handcuff."

  She looked up at him in surprise. "You're doing it on purpose?"

  "You're coming with me, now, love," he said, motioning with the gun.

  Ari didn't move. She wasn't done.

  "Wait. You tried to kidnap me on Reptar. You couldn't blow your cover, and it paid off big time. You know about me. You know about all of us."

  Ari started to hyperventilate. Her gaze went to the screen showing the planet where another commotion had begun. Kirian had two light Stingrs out against an oncoming horde.

  "And Kirian? What about her?"

  "Trust me, love. Kirian doesn't have a chance. She's dead already. But you don't have to be. Just come with me."

  Ari heard a scream from Kirian on the console behind her and turned again to see what was happening.

  Something hard hit her in the back of the head. Her knees went wobbly.

  Kracken.

  She had seen characters get hit in the head with a gun a million times on television, but had never experienced it in real life. She wasn't a fan.