“I thought that you and Lauton had a little thing going.” Rivka smiled.
“My boss forever keeps me in space, so there’s no nurturing to see if the little thing can grow.” She assumed her power stance, feet shoulder-width apart and fists on her hips.
“Well, there is that. Your boss is kind and generous and responsible for finding and punishing criminals in an entire galaxy. Consequently, we should have more potlucks.”
“What?” the dentist asked. “What’s a potluck?”
“Everyone brings a dish, and we all sit around and eat,” Rivka replied.
“But you have a food processor and someone who can make it do stuff I never thought possible.” He nodded toward the bridge.
“A potluck isn’t about the food. It’s about the company.”
“Then why bring food?” he wondered.
“Because it’s about the food,” Jay replied.
“Not about the food,” Rivka countered.
“Gate drive is active. Our goal is to appear in front of the target ship, which should be unarmed. I will request they heave to and prepare to be boarded, and I’ll target the engines with minimal power plasma bursts should they not immediately comply,” Chaz reported.
“And when it turns out they are armed and shielded?”
“Railgun capacitors are charged, and our shields are up.”
“Do not destroy them, Chaz. I need to know what she knows. There’s more than just her.”
“I shall do my best. Erasmus is handling the targeting, so we should be able to disable the vessel without issue.”
“I’m going to change first. Full combat gear. If they force us to take their ship, I want it to happen quickly.”
“Take your seats, people,” Rivka ordered, twirling her finger in the air. “Chaz. Gate us out, and let’s go collect our runner.”
A few moments later, the ship’s AI reported that the Gate had formed and Peacekeeper was headed through. Shortly after that, the ship bucked and rocked before returning fire.
Rivka remained belted into her seat in the rec room. Red glanced at her. “Guess she wasn’t unarmed.”
“You’re a master of understatement,” Rivka called back.
The ship stopped juking and firing a short while later. Erasmus’ voice came over the speakers. “The target ship has been disabled, but it is leaking atmosphere. You’ll need to hurry to salvage what remains of the five life forms.”
Red was first on his feet, followed by Lindy and Rivka. Jay bolted after Floyd, who fled after the first shot. The dentist remained in his seat.
Rivka tossed him the weight bar. “In case anyone gets past us, you’ll need to protect the ship. Don’t let anyone on board who’s not us.”
Red ran for the main hatch. The light turned green to confirm that they had a seal with the other ship and Red hit the button. He hoisted his railgun, ready to run into the breach. Lindy stayed close to Rivka.
“Don’t fire unless you have no choice,” Red cautioned. “We can’t be punching holes in our ride.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Erasmus, are they conscious or injured?” Rivka asked.
“I suspect three are unconscious, and all five are injured.”
Red nodded and held up two fingers to represent the two possible active enemies. When the hatch popped open, he ducked his head in and quickly pulled back. “Clear,” he announced, and ran into the tunnel. Rivka stayed behind him, using his body as a shield, just like he wanted. Lindy was right behind her.
They didn’t see Tyler take up his position where he could peek around the corner of the hatch to watch for someone trying to infiltrate the Magistrate’s ship. The bar rested on his shoulder, both hands gripped tightly around the end in case he needed to swing it. His heart pounded in his chest as the three disappeared into the small ship.
Red turned left at the opening and immediately took laser fire. Rivka pulled up short at the smell of burnt flesh. Red dove and rolled behind a cabinet, pulled out a stun grenade, waved it in the air, and then tossed it. Rivka and Lindy covered their ears and ducked away. Red did the same. Before the concussive blast finished reverberating through the long-distance shuttle’s hull, Red was up and running.
In three steps, he found himself looming over two moaning crewmen with blood trickling from their ears and noses. He ripped the weapons out of their hands and looked for the other three , who turned out to be up front and out cold.
“Clear!” Red yelled over his shoulder, and Lindy and Rivka hurried in. The bodyguards zip-tied the conscious crewmen and searched the unconscious people for weapons. The injuries weren’t life-threatening.
“This one,” Rivka said, pointing to a woman in the cockpit. Lindy sat her up and rolled the unconscious form onto her shoulder before standing up.
“What do we do with these others?” Red asked.
“I should probably talk to all of them, but let’s put that one on the Peacekeeper. Make sure she’s bound before you do anything. If she’s a slave trader, she’ll come out of it spitting vinegar, and we just can’t have that, now can we?” Rivka studied the woman for a moment before slapping a bandage on an ugly cut that dripped blood down her arm.
I haven’t seen into her mind yet, but I’ve already judged her guilty. Leaving the luxury cruiser and heading into space may have been a terrible coincidence, but it was not a crime, Rivka counseled herself. Innocent until proven guilty.
Lindy ambled toward the airlock and Red looked at the four remaining in his charge. Rivka took one of the unconscious for first aid, and Red took the other. They quickly bandaged and patched them up, but they needed better care than the Magistrate and her crew could provide. She made a face, and Red shook his head.
“I guess we’re loading them all up and heading back to the house?” Red suggested.
“Back to our house,” Rivka clarified.
They carried the injured one at a time into Peacekeeper before throwing the last two over their shoulders and lugging them through the airlock.
“Ankh! Secure that ship, drop an encrypted beacon on it, and disconnect us. Next stop, Border Station 7.”
“You don’t have to yell,” Ankh said over the speakers. The hatch to the bridge remained closed.
Doctor Toofakre was fully engaged with the medical kit, suturing the cut on Candi’s arm. She also wore a mask through which supplemental oxygen flowed. At the same time, he was giving instructions to Jay on what to do with her patient. He stopped what he was doing to examine the third injured crewmember, then ordered Red and Rivka to hold the lower leg while he yanked it into position, allowing the tibia to realign itself.
“Put a splint on that,” he directed. Rivka didn’t hesitate. She had looked at the medical kit before but hadn’t registered how robust it was. The case held enough bits, pieces, pads, pills, and tools to perform minor surgery or patch up a crew that was on the wrong end of a space battle.
While Rivka put the splint in place, Red pulled a hidden weapon from a leg sheath. He checked the other four and found similar blades. Two of the crew had small stun guns. One had a single-shot slug thrower.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Rivka noted. “Goes from being a strange coincidence regarding the timing of their departure to a band of armed criminals running from the law.”
“Any of this stuff criminal?” Lindy asked.
“Not really; misdemeanors depending on licensing and planetary law. The crime is that they didn’t stop when ordered by competent authority—well, and fired on us—but that’s a slushy part of the law. Can I show probable cause regarding the need for search and seizure? Their privacy is sacrosanct unless they surrendered it through the commission of a crime or the appearance of the commission of a crime.”
“Do you always talk like that?” Tyler wondered.
“It’s what I’m good at,” Rivka replied. “Like you’re good with the medical stuff. I thought you were a dentist?”
“Dentists get trained in all kinds of stuff. We’re the galactic jack
s of all trades.”
“Because no one has bad teeth anymore?” Red suggested with a hearty laugh.
“It’s exactly like that, except completely different,” Tyler shot back, smiling at the big man. Red was keeping a firm grip on the unconscious patients in case they woke up.
Peacekeeper shifted as Chaz adjusted the heading toward clear space in order to establish a Gate. The long-range shuttle continued to stream a small amount of debris.
“Gate formed. Next stop, Federation Border Station 7. Station Security will meet us in the hangar,” Chaz reported.
“Do we risk waking them up before then?” Rivka asked, looking at the dentist.
“I wouldn’t. When someone is unconscious, it’s because the body is healing itself. It shuts down non-essential systems, to put it in spaceship vernacular. After a certain amount of time, we can revisit that, but they’ve only been out for fifteen minutes. Their bodies have undergone extreme trauma.”
“They shouldn’t have run from us. That’s a great way to die tired.” Red looked proud of himself.
“Although I don’t agree with the conclusion, I do agree with the premise. They shouldn’t have run.” Rivka rubbed her chin as she thought through her options. “Segregate them when they come to. It won’t take long to determine what they were up to.”
“I don’t like her.” Lindy loomed over Candi Matz and glared.
One of the shuttle’s crew groaned. Rivka hurried to him and took his arm to help him sit up. He was one who had been stunned.
“Why did you shoot at us?” she asked.
His mind was a swirl of mixed emotions and raging colors as he fought his way back to consciousness. Failure. Fear. Pain.
“What is your connection to the slave trade?” Rivka pressed.
His mind started to clear. An image of a sedated Seequa Holmes jumped into his mind. They had used that very shuttle to transport her. One of the injured was there against her will. They had unbound her when the fight with Peacekeeper started.
Rivka pointed. “Free that one. She’s a victim.” Jay and Red hurried to help the woman and move her to one of the recliners before covering her with a blanket to make her more comfortable. The Magistrate frowned. “Ankh,” she said in a low voice, “where was the shuttle headed? It wasn’t on a course for Corran, was it?”
“It was not,” Erasmus answered for Ankh. “From the shuttle’s profile and flight logs, it was headed for Fenek Eudoxius.”
“Never heard of it.” Rivka moved to Candi’s side. “Doc, I need you to bring her out of it.”
“I can’t, not with the equipment you have here.” He held his hands up in surrender. The look on his face was all Rivka needed to know that he was telling the truth. She tucked her hands into her pockets. “Get all of them to medical and let the healing begin. I want to know more about this one when she comes to.”
Rivka stood by the side of the recliner.
“What happened to you?” Rivka whispered as she held the young woman’s hand, her face still contorted by the pain of her injuries. “Can’t you give her something?”
“Administer pain reliever while someone is unconscious? No. I won’t do it.”
“Not asking you to,” Rivka replied, waving the dentist off. “I just wondered.”
“Is every mission like this, with people getting hurt?” he asked.
“Every damn one, Doc! But it’s usually us doing the bleeding, right after all the running.” Red pounded the dentist on the back so hard, Tyler staggered and almost coughed out his tongue.
“Probably too often,” the Magistrate admitted.
“We could use a sawbones.” Red pointed with his chin toward Tyler.
Rivka pinched the bridge of her nose at the discomfort of being in the middle. She had no intention of bringing another person on board to be a member of the crew.
Floyd waddled into the area after having disappeared with the commotion and the emotion of combat. She sniffed Candi Matz, wrinkling her nose before moving to the next person. The groaner winced and tried to back away, but the zip ties held him tightly to a chair.
With a gentle bump, Peacekeeper landed in the hangar bay of their home port.
“Security is waiting outside the hatch along with Magistrate Grainger,” Chaz reported.
“On it.” Lindy hurried around the corner and down the short corridor. After she opened the hatch and extended the stairs, Grainger was first up. “Magistrate.”
“Lindy. These barbarians aren’t leading you astray, are they?”
The bodyguard shook her head, unsure of how she was supposed to answer.
“I didn’t get an invitation to your wedding. I was very put out,” Grainger quipped.
“We didn’t get married.”
“Good! Make sure I get an invite when you do. Red promised me that I’d get to walk him down the aisle.”
Lindy’s mouth fell open and she stared. Grainger stared back.
“The stuff that comes out of your mouth!” Rivka broke the stalemate. “No one is walking anyone down any aisle unless they are, but that’s their choice, not yours. We’ll be in All Guns Blazing sampling the reception meal.”
“Do I get a say in this?” Lindy asked.
As one, the two Magistrates turned to her and said, “No.”
“We have four unconscious, and one who just came to. He was in on the Seequa Holmes kidnapping and the seizure of that one in the recliner.” Rivka pointed. “I think we have four traffickers and one victim, but we’ll need to patch them up more than the triage approach to keep them alive. The doc did a bang-up job on our perps and the victim. I hate to admit it, but we could use a medical professional more often than not.”
“In case a tooth gets knocked loose?” Grainger countered, looking pointedly at the dentist, who was covered in the blood of the injured. Tyler emotionlessly studied the Magistrate.
“He knows a lot more than that.”
“Denied. Resubmit in thirty days for final denial.” He gave the dentist a thumbs-up. "This isn't a business you want to be in, Doc."
Rivka shrugged. “I had to ask. I guess we’re stuck with using band-aids and whiskey from the med kit.”
The Magistrates stopped at the entrance to the rec room. There were blood stains in too many places, two perps zip-tied to chairs, an unconscious woman on a recliner, and two out cold on the deck. Rivka pointed to one of them. “Candi Matz. She’s Callius Markmal’s chief of operations. I think she’s running a slave ring, but I haven’t had the chance to talk to her.”
“Is that the reality star guy?” Grainger scowled. “What a nut-lick.”
Lindy escorted four security officers and four medical technicians into the ship, and Rivka and Grainger stepped aside. It was suddenly so crowded that one couldn’t turn around. Jay excused herself, grabbed Floyd, and disappeared into her cabin.
“This one is a victim. Take care of her, and set her up in medical. We need to talk to her. These two are detained for questioning, so patch them up and maintain twenty-four/seven security until we say otherwise. Those two go straight into holding cells.” Rivka pointed appropriately as she spoke, and the security and medical staff took over.
“Good job, Doc,” Grainger told the dentist.
“You can call me ‘Tyler,’” he offered.
“You wanna go back out with these guys?” Grainger abruptly asked.
“Permanently?” Tyler Toofakre wasn’t taken with the idea.
“No, I’ve already denied that, but I mean on this case? See it through to the end.”
“Do all cases have an end?”
“I’m willing to bet good money that this one will get resolved. Mostly.” Grainger gestured as if making his closing arguments to a jury. “We won’t catch all the traders, but if we can interdict some of the major suppliers and make it too dangerous for the rest, Corran may give up the last vestiges of the business and join the Federation. Dry up the market, and the galaxy’s scum can move onto something else; maybe even swe
ar off crime entirely.” Grainger made to go.
“We can always hope,” Rivka agreed.
“I’ll have to think about it,” Tyler replied, a frown darkening his features as he stared at the floor, lost in thought.
Rivka put her hand gently on his shoulder. “Buck up, Doc. It only gets easier from here.”
“Really?” he asked, brightening.
Red started to laugh. The dentist scowled.
“We always hope it gets easier. Sometimes the dominos fall by themselves. Other times, we need to give them a gentle nudge.” Rivka looked at Grainger, who kept his opinion to himself.
He hesitated before nodding slowly one time. “I’ll be with the people in sickbay. You take the conscious ones. Keep your datapad close in case the broken perps wake up.” He headed off the ship, reiterating his orders to the security guards on where to take those in custody.
“Suspects,” Rivka clarified, although Grainger was long out of hearing range. She shrugged, checked that Red and Lindy were following, and joined the group heading for the holding cells.
Chapter Nine
Rivka crossed her arms and glared at the suspect across the cold steel of the metal table. He tried to project calm, but a bead of sweat on his forehead and a vein throbbing in his neck gave him away. Rivka could have grabbed him to find the truth, but that would have been limited. If she convinced him to come clean, then she could focus what she asked to determine if it was the truth or not.
“Why did you kidnap that woman?” She set the stage for all that would follow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His defenses were up, but they were weak.
Rivka leaned forward and slapped the table when she dropped her hands. He jumped. “Do you want me to rip it from your mind? That would be a tad uncomfortable. You can just tell me, and then we can move forward like adults.”
He tried to fold his arms, but his handcuffs stopped him. He looked annoyed at the unsavory bracelets.
“I tried the easy way, but I don’t have time for any ridiculous thrust and parry.” She stood while he snickered at the reference. She walked around behind him, and he shifted to keep her in front of him. “Fine,” she declared as she stomped her foot onto his hands and drove them into his groin. She grabbed his chin. “I asked why you kidnapped that woman.”
Slave Trade Page 8
