Rogue Colony (Galaxy Mavericks Book 6)

by Michael La Ronn

  “Will!” Beauregard shouted.

  “Still looking, damn it!” Will said.

  The Internet was loading slowly. All the search engine results didn't seem to apply. Will clicked on the Galactic Guard intranet. A help bot appeared at the bottom. He clicked on it.

  “Patient transfer rights,” Will said.

  The bot returned a search list almost one thousand entries long. Will grimaced.

  “House Bill forty-five twenty-nine,” Florian said. “A patient shall have the right—”

  “Cut the crap,” Beauregard said. “We will be boarding shortly and we expect you to comply.”

  “No, you will not be boarding,” Florian said. “Because you do not have the legal right.”

  A computer screen next to Beauregard beeped.

  Incoming transmission…

  Beauregard accepted.

  Three document images appeared. The first was the House Bill, with several sentences highlighted.

  The second was a contract.

  The third was a permit.

  “What is this?” Beauregard asked.

  “Find attached the laws that nullify your medical transfer,” Florian said. “Additionally, Miss Lins signed a contract with the Macalestern Corporation indicating that our medical division is her primary care organization until further notice. Oh, and that permit will clearly show you that my research division is protected by law from law enforcement intervention unless there is a threat to life.”

  “Goddamn,” Sims said. “This guy is good.”

  “Miss Lins was on heavy medication,” Will said. “We argue that she didn't have the mental capacity to sign anything.”

  “And you are correct,” Florian said. “She didn't sign anything. Her mother did under power of attorney.”

  Beauregard, Will and Sims looked at each other, their jaws dropped.

  “We don't care,” Beauregard said. “You want to sue us, go ahead. But we’re not leaving until we have Miss Lins in our custody.”

  Florian didn't respond right away.

  “What's he doing?” Will asked.

  “I don't like it,” Beauregard said.

  Florian spoke again.

  “Excuse me, we’re having some…technical problems on our ship.”

  “Make ready for our boarding,” Beauregard said. “You have five minutes.”

  “I'm deadly serious!” Florian said. “My, my, this is terrible!”

  “We are disconnecting,” Beauregard said.

  “I wouldn't do that,” Florian said. “Because you've got some people to save.”

  “This is obstruction!” Beauregard said.

  “Thanks for playing, gentlemen,” Florian said. “I've got a job to do. Why don't you do yours?”

  Then, a bright light drew their eyes to the windshield as a small explosion ripped across the black and white ship.

  26

  From her bed, Michiko watched the news without watching it. There was a report about Refugio, the missing moon. Pundit after pundit spoke against a starry background, throwing out ideas and thoughts about what happened as footage of rescue ships patrolling through space played on the bottom of the screen.

  They were wrong.

  Completely wrong. So much that she couldn't listen anymore. So she muted the screen and just focused on the pretty backgrounds.

  The muscle relaxer was kicking in. A wave of stillness passed through her. She felt good. Really good. For someone whose body ached and had been in another world, she was surprisingly okay.

  Outside, the scenery changed as the ship transitioned out of the airlock and into space.

  They were moving.

  She hoped they'd arrive wherever they were going as soon as possible.

  She just wanted to go home. Rest for a little while.

  She knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep in this bed. Not in an unfamiliar place.

  She hated sleeping in hospitals. As a nursing student, she spent enough time in rooms just like this one, interrupting patients every hour on the hour to check their vitals and give them medicine. It was a wonder anyone slept at all in hospitals. There was no way she was going to sleep.

  She was tired enough, felt it in her bones. With the muscle relaxers kicking in, she didn't feel much at all. And that was okay. She kept imagining the future, took comfort in the fact that there was hope on the horizon. In a few days, she'd be back to her normal self.

  The door to her parents’ suite slid open. Reiko popped her head out. She wore a towel and steam rose from her shoulders.

  “Honey, your father and I are going to sit in the jacuzzi for a while.”

  “It's extra warm!” Arthur shouted. Through the small square window in the door, she saw her father in a swimsuit tiptoeing into the bathroom.

  Michiko laughed.

  “Do you need anything?” Reiko asked.

  “I'll be fine,” Michiko said. “Enjoy yourselves.”

  Reiko slid the door shut.

  Michiko rolled onto her side and watched space breeze by.

  She thought of Rudy, Ashley and Hassan.

  She didn't feel anything.

  She hoped it wasn't because she was hardening.

  She wished that her daydream had been true, that they were still alive.

  She had to do something to honor them.

  Maybe she would visit their parents.

  Would their parents be angry with her? Michiko would understand. She wouldn't blame them for it.

  Suddenly, the ship shook.

  Michiko grabbed the sides of the bed.

  Outside, the ship slowed down.

  Then—

  POOF!

  Followed by a sucking sound.

  Then nothing.

  Michiko sat up.

  The ship began to move again.

  “Mom, what was that?” Michiko asked.

  Silence.

  “Mom?”

  She looked over at the door to her parents’ suite.

  Through the small square window, her parents’ room was gone, and there were only stars. The ship accelerated and zoomed into hyperspace.

  Her parents were gone.

  27

  “The ship just ejected a pod!” Will cried.

  Florian’s ship jumped into hyperspace.

  Floating, in the space where the ship had been, was a silver house pod with a lone window.

  Will activated his camera and zoomed in on the ship. Two people were inside.

  A man and a woman. In swimsuits, banging on the window.

  “They've got about an hour’s worth of oxygen,” Will said. “Probably no spacesuits in there.”

  Beauregard banged his fist on his instrument panel.

  “I'm going to make it a personal vendetta to lock him up,” Beauregard said.

  “What do we do?” Sims asked. “Save them or go after Florian?”

  Beauregard folded his arms and looked outside. The pod was spinning now.

  Beau was clearly rattled. Will had never seen him this way before. Beau was usually the calmest guy he ever knew, even in bad situations. Will put his hand on his shoulder.

  “I think we've only got one choice, Beau,” Will said.

  Beauregard nodded.

  “Sims, stand down and suit up. We've got to save that couple.”

  “What about Florian?” Sims asked.

  “We’ll apprehend him soon enough,” Beauregard said. “But for now, we've lost this fight.”

  In the distance, another spaceship appeared. It was a broad, disk-shaped warship. It looked too old to be in active service.

  “Stop them,” Beauregard said.

  Sims ran to his radio.

  “We’re going to have to ask you folks to shut your engines down,” Sims said into the radio. “We’re in the middle of a rescue mission and we need clear space.”

  The radio beeped.

  “So you don't want us to go after that son-of-bitch, huh?” a voice asked.

  Will and Beau looked at
each other.

  “You beat us to him,” the voice said. “We’ll handle it from here.”

  It was Grayson.

  Before Beau could tell him what was going on, the warship jumped into hyperspace and disappeared in a flash of purple light.

  28

  Michiko stumbled out of bed.

  “Mom! Dad!”

  She put her hands on the door. It was sealed.

  She couldn't see past the purple plasma swirling across the window.

  Her parents.

  There was no sign of them.

  They were gone.

  “No!” Michiko cried.

  She dashed for the red button on the wall and jammed it.

  “Help!” she shouted. “Please, help!”

  No answer.

  She ran for the door and tried to open it.

  It was locked from the outside.

  “What’s going on?” Michiko asked under her breath.

  She beat on the door.

  “Hey, let me out!” she said, banging as hard as she could. “There’s been an emergency!”

  She pushed the red button again.

  Still, there was no response.

  She grabbed a chair next to her bed and raised it over her head, ready to throw it at the door.

  And then the lights went out.

  She dropped the chair.

  The door swung open. There was no one outside.

  She crept toward the door; then she noticed a panel on the inside of the frame. The door was electrical. When the power went out, it unlocked.

  She stepped into the hallway. Her bare feet against the cold marble floor sent a chill through her body.

  She was wearing a hospital gown and underwear. She didn’t have any other clothes.

  The long hallway, normally brightly lit, was as dark as a tomb now. Not even the emergency lights were on, and the mahogany walls had an ominous, blood-red glow to them.

  “Hello?” she asked.

  The hallway was empty.

  “Hello?” she asked again.

  She started down the long, dark hallway, feeling the cold hard walls as she went.

  There had to be someone somewhere. There were so many people roaming around when she first entered the ship. Maybe they were trying to figure out how to restore power.

  If she kept going, she would run into someone eventually. Maybe she’d even find the bridge.

  The hallway led to a spiral staircase. She glanced upward; there was a blinking light at the top of the stairs and another at the bottom.

  Which way should she go?

  Before she could decide, a metal door at the top of the stairs opened and then clanged shut.

  A thick shadow hurried down the steps.

  A man. He grunted.

  Michiko opened her mouth. She started to call him.

  Until he came closer.

  And then she put her hands over her mouth and shrank into the shadows. Something about his air told her to shut up.

  It was Huxley.

  He hurried down the hallway toward Michiko’s room. He tested the door and then opened it.

  “Miss Lins?” he asked. “Miss Lins? Are you okay?”

  Michiko’s eyes narrowed.

  Huxley emerged from the room and his face hardened.

  There was a gun in his hand.

  “Miss Lins,” he said, his tone friendly and not at all matching his body language, “come out so I can protect you.”

  29

  Michiko retreated into the darkness as Huxley approached.

  “We had some technical difficulties,” Huxley said, talking into the darkness and looking around. “All’s going to be well, but I need you to come with me.”

  Michiko’s heart raced.

  She backed away and then ran.

  She didn’t care how friendly his tone was.

  He was going to kill her.

  She knew she shouldn’t have listened to her mother!

  Now, for all she knew, her mother was dead.

  She dropped to the floor and started crawling.

  A rush of air drew her head to the wall.

  A vent. A giant vent.

  She put her fingers around the grate and pulled as softly as she could.

  The vent came off.

  She crawled in and replaced it just a few seconds before Huxley passed.

  “Miss Lins,” he said, his finger on the trigger of his handcoil, “you’re not in any danger at all.”

  Michiko crawled on her knees into total blackness, not knowing where it would take her.

  She crawled for what seemed like forever until her hand slipped out from underneath her.

  A hole.

  She tried to shift herself back but she wasn't fast enough.

  And then she was falling, falling, falling into the darkness.

  30

  CLANG!

  Michiko landed on sheet metal and hit her head. Stars spun in front of her eyes.

  She groaned.

  She was disoriented enough from the medicine she'd taken. She didn't need to add any more confusion to her life.

  She rubbed her forehead. It was tender and she was going to have a nasty bruise.

  And then she realized, randomly, that maybe that's why they gave her the muscle relaxers.

  Not to help her.

  But to disorient her.

  She knew she shouldn't have taken that pill from Huxley. He wasn't even a nurse!

  She rested with her back to the wall, panting.

  She looked up but could see only darkness.

  She must have fallen at least ten to fifteen feet.

  Her knees ached. The sheet metal in the duct wasn't exactly carpet. And it was warm, and getting warmer by the second. The cool air was vanishing.

  Luckily there was still gravity. A ship like this probably had its gravity ring on a generator. Very, very expensive.

  She gathered herself and mustered the strength to keep moving.

  In the distance, she saw a faint glimmer of light.

  She picked up her speed and charged for it.

  She had to do something. Where was she going to go? How was she going to escape?

  Her head swam as she crawled. Back when she was in college, the speaker at her graduation, a female entrepreneur who made her money by finding a solution to book discoverability, said something about situations like this.

  “When you don't know where you're going, when you don't know what to do, when you're surrounded by darkness, just focus on taking the next step. Sometimes you'll fall. Sometimes you'll run into a wall. But eventually the darkness will fade and everything you did will make sense…”

  Her words were so true now.

  Michiko kept moving, careful to be quiet. She pushed through the pain of her knees against the metal, and the warm air against her face.

  She came to a large vent opening.

  She looked through the grate.

  She was on the second floor of what looked like a laboratory. There was a large silver ball bearing tube against the wall, and several desks and computers. A giant television screen on the wall was dark.

  Her eyes went to the ball bearing.

  It was as tall as a man and as wide as car. It look like it had been occupied. But a door on the side of the ball was open.

  It had the same locking mechanism on the doorframe as her door. Electric.

  She paused, looked around.

  There was no one in the lab.

  She pushed the grate and pulled it into the duct. Climbing over it, she backed out of the duct and hung with her fingertips. Then, silently, she dropped onto a desk just below.

  She jumped down onto the carpet and hid under the desk, looking around for any sign of trouble.

  The lab was quiet. Eerily quiet.

  She crouched and started for the door.

  Then she felt a chill.

  She turned around and hugged herself.

  There was nothing.

  She shook her head and
then went to the door.

  It was a steel door. Not electric.

  “Weird,” she said, unlatching the door.

  Then she felt another chill again.

  Shaking it off, she slipped out of the room and into another dark hallway, taking one step at a time.

  She rounded a corner and stopped cold.

  In the darkness, a floating black cloud with a giant red eye hovered in front of her. It was darker than the darkness around it, a mass of swirling blackness.

  She screamed as it zoomed toward her, its black mouth open wide.

  31

  Michiko put her hands over her face as the cloud approached.

  WHOOSH!

  The alien passed straight through her.

  Michiko put her hands down in surprise.

  The cloud circled back, and its single eye had a look of surprise on it as well.

  It came for her again but she didn't wince.

  And again, it passed through her.

  The cloud growled and then made a motorboating sound that reminded Michiko of an engine failing to start.

  Then the cloud expanded to twice its size. Two giant fists appeared.

  Michiko jumped out of the way, but the fists passed through the ground.

  The alien shrank back into its original size, floating away, afraid.

  “What are you?” Michiko asked.

  The eye twitched.

  “Why do you want to eat me?” she asked.

  She reached for it. It opened its mouth and locked its cloudy jaws around her head.

  A flash of sparks appeared across Michiko’s field of vision and she stumbled back. She was zooming through a swirling column of white light. Screams, cries and explosions surrounded her. The light exploded and she was back in the world of negative light, standing on a cliff, overlooking the crumbling planet, and the giant sucking mouths in the sky…

  And then the vision flashed away and she was against the wall, panting, with the cloud swirling at her feet.

  “No!” she cried. “You're responsible for killing them!”

  She kicked the cloud but her feet went through it. She then tried to stomp on its eye, but the cloud moved aside.