by G J Ogden
Hudson grabbed a small trolley and began to wander along the aisles. However, given the size and maze-like layout of the store, it was still several minutes before he found one that contained climbing equipment. He browsed along the shelves, not really knowing what he was looking for, and found a pack of suction clamps. Hudson recalled how the walls of the strange, hexagonal corridors inside the alien wrecks had smooth, metallic surfaces. The suction clamps would be a good choice for attaching ropes to, he reckoned, and threw them into his trolley.
“Buy them if you want to die…”
Hudson spun around and saw Tory Bellona leaning against the opposite rack of shelves. Despite the fact she was likely here to kill him, he smiled, realizing that he was glad to see her.
“Thanks for the tip,” said Hudson, placing the suction clamps back on the shelf.
Tory walked up in front of Hudson and then reached up to a shelf behind his head, before pulling down a bag of climbing pitons. She was so close that Hudson could smell the fragrance of the shampoo she’d used on her hair. He caught a hint of coconut and vanilla, which only made Tory seem more exotic and exciting than he already thought she was.
Tory threw the bag into Hudson’s trolley and then stepped back. “Use these instead. They will penetrate through the walls and clamp on from behind. The suction cups always fall off, taking the hunters with them.”
Hudson smiled, “Forgive me for being a little suspicious of your motives,” he said, “since I’m guessing you’re here to kill me.”
“I can’t claim the bounty if you fall to your death first,” replied Tory. The response was so deadpan that Hudson couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
“How did you know I was here?”
Tory strolled a little further up the aisle, tossing a number of other items into Hudson’s trolley as she went. “We heard about your little altercation with the RGF in San Francisco,” she said, occasionally glancing back at Hudson. “For a man with a target on his back, you should be keeping more of a low profile.”
“I’m not going to spend my life hiding from scumbags like Cutler and Griff,” said Hudson. “I assume he’s not here with you at the moment? Cutler, I mean.”
“I know who you mean,” said Tory, “and no, he’s not in the store, but he will be inside the wreck, looking for you. And so will I.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” replied Hudson. The tone of the conversation had become hostile, like two boxers at a pre-match press conference. Despite this, Tory had continued to fill Hudson’s trolley with items from the shelves as they wandered along the aisle together.
Tory then stopped and looked Hudson over from top to toe, as if she were an army drill sergeant, inspecting him on parade. “You’re not armed,” she said, meeting his eyes again.
“Funds are a bit tight,” admitted Hudson. Then he pointed to the contents of the trolley and added, “I may not even have enough to pay for this little lot.”
Tory shook her head, then removed her armor-reinforced jacket. Underneath she wore a tight, black tank top. Hudson caught himself checking her out, before forcing himself to look away. Get a grip, Hudson, she’s trying to kill you, not seduce you… he told himself. Though it was becoming more difficult to know which was actually the case. In addition to the tank top she also wore a shoulder holster with a compact sidearm tucked inside. Compared to the huge single-action revolver on her belt, the weapon looked a bit puny. She removed the holster and handed it to Hudson.
“Here, take this,” said Tory. “Trust me, you’re going to need it.”
Hudson took the weapon, which was warm from Tory’s body heat, but then shook his head, “I can’t pay you for this.”
“Then make sure you stay alive long enough to give it back,” said Tory, pulling her jacket back on.
Hudson nodded and then removed his own leather jacket, handing it to Tory to hold while he put on the holster. At the same time, Liberty rounded the corner and started heading down the aisle towards them. She had taken Hudson’s advice and ditched the coveralls for a slim-fitting black jacket and pants combination. It certainly met Hudson’s requirement of being rugged and having plenty of pockets. As she got closer, she realized that Hudson wasn’t alone and approached more cautiously.
Tory squeezed the tough leather jacket between her fingers, her eyes narrowing. “Do you still have it?” she asked, as Liberty stopped a few paces away, drawing inquisitive glances from Tory. Then she added, vaguely, “The object…”
“I still have it,” said Hudson, while offering a reassuring smile to Liberty. He then extended a hand and waited for Tory to hand back the jacket. Tory hesitated, clearly fighting her more mercenary instincts to simply take what she wanted, before shoving the jacket into Hudson’s hand.
“You should have sold it while you had the chance,” said Tory. “Or before someone like me takes it from you.” Then she glanced across to Liberty and the two women exchanged icy stares. “Who is this?”
The question was aimed at Hudson, but Liberty didn’t give him a chance to answer. “This is his partner, Liberty Devan,” she said, holding Tory’s eyes without blinking. “And who the hell are you?”
Tory smiled, “Someone you don’t want to mess with, Liberty Devan,” she said, with an incongruously affable tone. “Then she looked back at Hudson and pressed a hand to his side, where the pistol was now concealed. Her sudden touch made Hudson flinch, but it also gave him a thrill. He felt like a teenager again. “If you see me in the wreck, make sure you’re ready to use that,” Tory said, with feeling. “Because you can be sure that other hunters will shoot first, and not bother asking any questions later.” Then she glanced back at Liberty again, holding her eyes for a second longer than seemed natural, before turning on her heels, and walking away.
Hudson let out a low whistle. He didn’t know whether he was shit-scared or aroused, or both. “Well, that was fun,” he said, turning to Liberty, who unceremoniously dumped the gear she was carrying into the trolley.
“Care to tell me who that was, and why she was giving you a weapon?” Liberty looked distinctly pissed off.
“I’ll fill you in on the way to the checkpoint district,” said Hudson, realizing that he owed her an explanation. Then he remembered about the crystal, and ushered Liberty back along the aisle until they reached a changing room. He beckoned Liberty inside and then pulled the curtain back.
“What are you doing? I don’t want to try anything else on,” said Liberty, “and I sure as hell wouldn’t do it with you gawping at me.”
“Just quit your yammering for a second, will you?” snapped Hudson, reaching into the compartment in his jacket. Liberty looked about ready to pop him on the nose, but then she saw the crystal and her mouth fell open slightly.
“What is that?” she said, as Hudson handed the relic to her.
“No-one knows,” said Hudson. “It came from the alien wreck on Brahms Three.”
“How did you get it?” said Liberty, turning the crystal over in her hands, as delicately as if it were a priceless Ming Dynasty vase.
“That’s part of what I need to fill you in on,” replied Hudson. “An assessor on Earth suggested it could be some kind of transceiver. He reckoned it may have been missing a piece. If we can find something to match, this thing could be worth a fortune.”
“It already is,” said Liberty, offering the relic back to Hudson. “This could have paid for the VCX-110 and then some. Why haven’t you sold it already?”
Hudson took the crystal and concealed it back inside his jacket. “Because this is why we’re out here, Liberty. Think about it – we have the chance to discover something no-one has ever found before. The chance to become famous. Doesn’t that sound like living to you?”
Liberty cocked her head to the side and pouted, “It won’t do us any good if your girlfriend out there takes it from your cold, dead body.”
Hudson scowled, “If she’d wanted to, she could have taken it from me already.” Then he sighed, tryi
ng to figure out how best to explain their association, before realizing he had no idea how to categorize it himself. “Let’s just say that Tory Bellona and I have a… complicated relationship.”
“Does that relationship involve her trying to kill us both inside the alien wreck?” asked Liberty, folding her arms.
Hudson chewed the inside of his mouth for a moment and then smiled. “I told you this would be a challenge, didn’t I?...”
CHAPTER 9
Hudson handed his relic hunter ID card to the RGF officer stationed at the entrance gate to the checkpoint district. Thankfully, this was an officer he’d never seen before, but Hudson still waited nervously as the man scanned the card. It was possible Griff or Wash had put him on some sort of special watch list. After an agonizing few seconds the officer lazily handed back the ID and ushered Hudson through the Shaak radiation detector. Purple beams of light scanned Hudson’s entire body as he passed between the detector’s two pillars. Then the display flashed up, ‘Shaak Radiation: Negative’, and Hudson breathed a sigh of relief. The shielded internal compartment inside his jacket was still doing an effective job of concealing the crystal.
Liberty followed immediately after, but as she reached Hudson’s side, she appeared to be in a daze, staring up at the towering outer hull of the alien wreck.
“And you thought it looked big on the approach to the spaceport…”, said Hudson, envious of how Liberty must have been feeling at that moment. He’d never forgotten the sheer exhilaration he’d experienced the very first time he had been this close to an alien wreck.
“I’ve read about these ships all my life,” said Liberty, as awestruck as if she were peering up at a rock star idol. “It blows my mind to think about where they came from and who built them. And also why they ended up broken and scattered across so many worlds.” Then she looked up at Hudson, eyes still burning with wonder, “Do you think about it too?”
“Of course,” Hudson replied, smiling. “It’s the single greatest mystery of all time.” Then he patted his jacket. “Maybe this little crystal could help unlock it.”
Liberty nodded and went back to staring up at the ship, “You were right not to sell it. It’s too important.”
Hudson looked at Liberty and recognized the hunger in her eyes. He could practically feel the electricity pulsing through her body. “How do you feel, Liberty?” he asked her, already knowing what her answer would be, because he instinctively knew he felt the same.
“Alive…” said Liberty, glancing up at Hudson and smiling. “I feel alive.”
“Then let’s go relic hunting,” declared Hudson, taking his pack off his back and setting it down. “But first, we need to know where the hell we’re going.”
“First we need to actually get inside,” Liberty corrected him.
“That’s the easy part,” said Hudson, while removing a folded sheet of epaper from his rucksack. He opened it to reveal a map of the hulk.
“Where did you get that?” asked Liberty, moving closer so she could study the intricate 3D model.
“Another donation from our friend Tory,” said Hudson. "I found It In the trolley after she left the Scavenger's Paradise."
“Your friend…” Liberty corrected him, acidly. “For someone who is supposedly out to kill you, she’s sure trying hard to keep you alive.”
“I’m not complaining, and neither should you,” replied Hudson. However, before Liberty could retort, he quickly turned back to the map. “It’s the most accurate schematic of the alien hulks that there is. It’s a composite of data gathered from dozens of scavenger expeditions, spanning decades.”
Liberty scanned her eyes across the map, which was a complex maze of interconnected corridors and anonymous-looking hexagonal spaces of widely varying sizes. “This isn’t like any ship layout I’ve ever seen,” she said rubbing her temples, “but then it is an order of magnitude larger than any ship us mere humans have built. Are you sure this helps us find the best place to hunt?”
“There’s no ‘X marks the spot’ if that’s what you’re asking,” said Hudson. There was a little more snark to his response than he’d intended, and he caught a dirty look in return. Then he quickly zoomed in on a section close to the center axis. “But I think here could be worth a look. From the descriptions of what was found there in the past, it sounds like it might be a control hub for the ship’s navigational system. Or maybe a communication hub.”
Liberty nodded, understanding Hudson’s train of thinking, “A solid place to go searching for a crystal.”
“Exactly…” said Hudson, folding up the map. He then pushed it into his jacket pocket and slung his rucksack back on. “There’s an entry point in the mid-axis just over there. It’s not far above ground level and there’s already a scaffold in place to help hunters get in.”
“Then let’s go,” said Liberty, with renewed zeal. However, she had barely taken a step forward, before Hudson saw Cutler Wendell and Tory Bellona heading their way.
“Hold up, Liberty,” he called out, “we have a rodent problem to deal with first.”
Liberty frowned back at him, before she too spotted the approaching pair.
“I want to thank you for making it so easy to find you again, Hudson Powell,” said Cutler in his sinister, monotone drawl. Tory hung back a little at his side, thumbs pressed into her belt. The hem of her jacket was tucked behind the grip of her single-action revolver. She looked at Hudson, but didn’t say anything. “Most people who dodged a bullet like you did would be smart enough to stay out of the line of fire. Now I’m really going to enjoy putting you down.”
“I must have clobbered you over the head harder than I thought,” said Hudson, slipping into his tough-guy relic hunter persona, “because that sounds like crazy talk…”
Cutler’s lips curled into what would have been a smile on the face of any normal person. However, on Cutler it took on a somehow much darker edge. “We’ll see…” he replied, with a snake-like hiss. “I’ll see you inside.” Then he turned to Liberty, offering a pretend doff of his non-existent cap, before walking off towards the wreck. Tory met Hudson’s eyes for a second longer and then followed on behind Cutler.
“Wow, that guy is a real piece of work,” said Liberty. “They make a great couple.”
“She’s not with him,” Hudson was quick to add. Then he silently cursed himself, realizing he’d jumped to Tory’s defense too quickly.
Liberty’s eyes rolled back, “Oh no, don’t tell me you’re sweet on psycho lady?”
“Come on, we’re wasting time,” said Hudson, rushing ahead of Liberty to avoid answering the question.
Liberty shook her head, and followed on, “Just remember what we came here for,” she shouted after him, “which, in case you've forgotten, is not Tory Bellona…”
CHAPTER 10
The checkpoint district was relatively quiet compared to the bustling scavenger town. Beyond perhaps a dozen hunter crews, most of the other people milling around were closely-monitored tourist parties or academic research groups. Hudson guessed there were perhaps at most another ten hunter crews already inside the wreck. As a result, given the scale of the vessel, Hudson figured they could largely avoid contact with potential rivals. That was, of course, apart from anyone that was specifically looking for them, such as Cutler Wendell.
Cutler had waited for Hudson and Liberty to enter the wreck first. He had casually waved them off, as if they were departing from a polite Friday night dinner party. But Hudson guessed that Cutler wouldn’t follow straight away. He’d want to let them get deeper inside the ship first, so that any potential acts of murder went unnoticed. The usual laws may not have applied inside the alien vessels, but the RGF still had some authority. And they were keen to levy charges for damages to any hunter that became trigger-happy while inside.
Hudson and Liberty passed through the fracture in the hull using the scaffold that was already in place, and moved into the ship’s interior. In front of them a corridor stretched out a
s far as Hudson could see, illuminated by a long strip of intense LED lights.
“Nice of them to add lights for us,” said Liberty, moving ahead of Hudson, and running her hand across the alien metal of the wall.
“Most of the outer sections will have some form of lighting, either added by the RGF or left over from other hunters,” said Hudson, looking at the map to get his bearings. “But the deeper we go, the darker and more dangerous it will get. So, stay on your toes… Especially because Cutler will be coming after us.”
“Cutler and Tory,” Liberty corrected him, but then cheerfully added, “But, you got it skipper.” Being inside the alien wreck had put Liberty in an almost euphoric mood.
Hudson folded the map and shoved it back into his pocket, before glancing anxiously behind. He half-expected Cutler to already be there, weapon in hand. “Let’s move; and move quickly. We need to put some distance between us and Cutler,” said Hudson, seeing a phantom of Cutler Wendell in every flickering shadow.
“Cutler and Tory…” Liberty corrected again, this time putting greater emphasis on ‘and’. “She may be soft on you, but that won’t stop her from using that archaic pistol on me, given half a chance.”
“Fine, Cutler and Tory,” Hudson replied, mimicking Liberty’s stressing of ‘and’, before pointing towards where the corridors split off ahead of them. “We need to drop four levels, but carry on in this direction, at least for now. That should lead us into a larger open space. Then we check the map again and go from there.”
Hudson and Liberty moved off along the corridor, taking advantage of ropes and ladders that were already in place. However, after falling foul of a greased rope in the wreck on Brahms Three, Hudson tested each one first in case of booby traps. After twenty minutes they reached the end of the fourth steeply-descending corridor, bringing them onto the target level Hudson was aiming for. They both then dropped down into a shallow, hexagonal space with the approximate area of an aircraft hangar. An array of metal beams jutted out from each surface, some of which disappeared through the floor or ceiling. Others appeared to crisscross towards a spherical object in the center, which was about the size of an observatory dome.
