Voyages of the Solar Wind 1: A Fire in Heaven

by Michael Erickston

  "Not yet, sweetheart. We go in with guns drawn, but don't blast unless they double cross. Clearcut?" It would be bad business to shoot first if the deal was legit.

  "Diamond, baby. I don't like it, though." She was shaking her head.

  "Neither do I, but if they tracked us without our clients' knowledge, we'd be killing innocents." I reasoned.

  "True. Ok, baby. I'm still packing twin rails for this one, though." That's my girl. Always thinking ahead. She's way more than just a pretty face and a rockin' body!

  She got up and grabbed her spare holster and strapped another rail to her left thigh. She moved her crossdraw to her right thigh, and she was good to go.

  I contacted our client on Gurhin.

  "Representative Nelor here. How may I help you, Captain?"

  "We have your shipment, sir. Coming in to land at bay 23 at Gurhin City spaceport. We'll await your arrival once on the ground." I gave him the game plan.

  "Good copy, Captain. We'll be there in fifteen minutes." Nelor said.

  "We'll see you there, sir. Solar Wind, out." I cut the com. We were still a few minutes from touch down.

  "Dex, we need to stop this at the source. We need to find Nieman and kill him. Then Davys too." Rilar was reading my mind today.

  "My thoughts exactly. Once we offload the cargo, I'll ask Jeka to look into their whereabouts. Kitten, you're on a roll today!" I grinned at her.

  "It's all those years together. We can read each other's minds now." She winked back.

  "So do you know what I'm thinking right now, sweetheart?" I asked with a Poker face.

  "You're thinking of what we're going to do once Nieman and Davys are blazed. That would be taking me to a nice secluded beach and ravishing me like we both want." She said in a sultry voice.

  "Damn, you're good!" She'd gotten it almost to the T! I was actually going to take her in her bedroom at her parents' house!

  "Or maybe when we get home to my parents' house, you'll make love to me in my old bedroom where I grew up." I looked at her and my jaw dropped. She giggled.

  "I know how you think, Dex. Remember?" She chuckled.

  "Yeah, yeah. Ok, here we go." We touched down in landing bay 23 and watched out the view port for any activity.

  “Oh crap!” I exclaimed. “I forgot to tell Jeka about those 5 merc fighters!”

  “Just do it when we report to the FTA office after our deal.” Ri shrugged. I just looked at her and nodded.

  “Good plan. You think of everything.” I smirked and blew her another kiss.

  Right on time, the NanoMark rep showed up with five guards.

  We jogged back to the cargo hold, prepped the crates for extraction, and grabbed the hovercart.

  Once we got down the ramp, we were greeted by our client. "I am Representative Nelor. Here are your credits, Captain." He tossed me a chit. Seventy five hundred. Smooth as silk.

  "Thank you, sir. Pleasure doing business." I replied professionally.

  His five guards took custody of the cargo, so we headed for the local FTAA office in the spaceport. I remote locked the ship down before we left the bay. Another good mod to have when you don't want to go resecure it on your way out.

  We got there just as it opened for business. We walked up to the reception desk. "I'm Captain Dex Relway of Solar Wind, and this is First Officer Rilar. I need to get in touch with Administrator Jeka on Port Royal, and alert you here as well to an illegal mercenary contract on our lives." I handed the young Gurinkan my ID.

  "Very good, Captain. I'm Haliar. I'll forward your information to our representatives, and there's a com station over there where you can contact your rep at Port Royal." She smiled at me as she gave me the info.

  "Thanks, Haliar. We appreciate it." I retrieved my ID from her and we went to the com station.

  "Jeka here, Dex. What's up?" She asked.

  "Got a problem, Jeka. When we dropped out of the slipstream, five merc fighters were waiting for us. Hugs and Kisses got a bit of a workout. Anyhow, we need any info you can give us on that contract we took. It's legit, but we need to know if anyone else saw it or flagged it to watch for us specifically." I laid it all out for her.

  "Give me just a sec, Dex. Hold one." She put us on hold.

  "I really hope NanoMark isn't behind this, Dex. I love their guns." Ri hugged me close, and I held her to me. I kissed her lovingly. We heard a faint gasp behind us.

  I turned, and Haliar was smiling and blushing at our public display. I'd forgotten that here, Human/Gurinkan relationships were pretty much unknown. Ri had told me that it was extremely rare to find a sek'natha outside of their own species. Us, and Bili and his wife were the only two inter-spieces relationships involving Gurinkans that either of us knew about.

  We smiled back. "Yes, Haliar. We are sek'natha." Rilar smiled at her.

  "I can see, Rilar. I approve." She winked at us.

  Rilar lowered her voice. "I should kill her now." She growled low in my ear.

  "Why, sweetheart? She approves of us." I whispered back.

  "No, my love. She approves of you. She's attracted to you." Rilar snarled.

  "Baby, I'm yours." I reminded her and kissed her sweet lips again. She started purring.

  "Dex! Ri! Are you there?" Jeka came back on the com.

  "We're here, Jeka. What's up?" I asked, concentration regained.

  "Got some really hinky shit here, Dex. That contract was flagged by SES shortly after it went up, and the search was for your names. The thing is, the search originated from Gurhin itself. We've tracked it to 5524 Hollow Star Way, Gurhin City." Jeka finished. My blood ran cold.

  "NO!" Rilar roared like I'd never heard before. "Jeka! Are you sure!?"

  "Yes, Ri. Are you ok?" Jeka sounded concerned.

  "We have to go now!" Rilar cut the com.

  She ran out of the FTAA station and I sprinted after her.

  "RILAR!" I shouted. I knew what it was, but we had to come at this smart.

  My shout cut through her rage. She stopped and turned to me as I stopped next to her. Her pupils were dilated and her claws were extended.

  "Ri, I know it's your parents' place. We have to come at this smart, though. We go in guns blazing and claws slashing, your parents and sister could get hurt." I reasoned with her, and she calmed down.

  "What if they're already dead, Dex? What then?" She was snarling still and her eyes were still halfway dilated.

  "Then we avenge them. But I doubt they're going to kill your family. They had to know we'd track them here. Your family is all that's keeping them alive right now. They think they have all the leverage, but they don't know us like they think they do." I was confident in my plan. I knew it would work.

  Ri calmed down quite a bit. "I trust you, Dex. Let's go rescue my family." She smiled and we hugged. I kissed her lovingly and stroked her cheek, not caring about the stares we were getting.

  "Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll do what we have to do once there. Let's go back to the ship and get the bikes." I said.

  She nodded, and we headed back to Bay 23 for our hoverbikes in our ship's cargo bay.

  Once we had them, we walked them out into the hangar itself and jumped aboard. We fired them up and zoomed out through the street entrance and towards Hollow Star Way. Luckily, the street signs were in English as well as Gurinkan, thanks to Confederate regulations.

  We stopped and shut the bikes down a block from her home. We were still packing our twin rails and we stayed low. We skirted the park by the house and stayed behind the high bushes until we got near the back of the house.

  My com beeped before we could see the house itself, and I pulled it out. I checked the ID on it and it was blocked. I answered.

  "Dex here. Who's this?"

  "Ahh, Captain! I'm so sorry to cut your vacation short, but I believe we have an urgent business transaction to discuss." Race Nieman said.

  "What do you want, Race? We delivered your cargo as promised. Artifacts for the ten K. Did you want to hire us again?" I h
eld my finger to my lips for Ri, who had once more extended her claws. We had to play this cool.

  "Captain! You have dealt a blow to my business, and I would like some compensation." Nieman was demanding money. We had him.

  "What do you mean, Race? We did what was asked. We got your buddy the artifacts, and we got paid. End of discussion." Always keep them off guard. If we don't admit to anything, they don't ha-

  "Captain PLEASE don't insult my intelligence! Before his untimely end, Mr. Davys informed me that you were aware of the spores contained in the shipment. He tried to tell me that he wasn't trying to stiff me by claiming the spores weren't there when you delivered it." Race said. He'd killed his own partner. Fun dude.

  "What do you want, Race?" I asked. No more bluffs.

  "I want five hundred thousand credits in one hour, or your partner's happy family won't be so happy anymore." I had to physically restrain Rilar.

  "Understood, Race. Give us an hour and we'll have your money." I said just before cutting the com.

  "Sweetheart, stop! Now! Listen to me. We know he's in there, but we don't know how many goons he has on our family! We need to scout it out." She listened and calmed herself. "Good. Now, let's stay low like in survival training and see what we can see. Clearcut?"

  "Diamond, Dex. I'm going to rip his heart out with my claws when we find him, though." She was snarling again.

  "I'll have no problem with that, sek'natha." I replied. I nodded to her. "You've got Point, Ri. This is your home, and you know it better than I do."

  "Good copy, Captain. Follow me." She smiled grimly and led the way.

  We stayed low and crawled up to the closest window. "Living room," she whispered.

  I peeked up and saw two goons, but no hostages.

  "Two goons, no family, baby. Next window?" I asked. I was peeking because her ponytail would draw more attention than my head for peeking purposes. Neither of them had been looking our way, though.

  She nodded and led the way to the next window. "Mother and father's bedroom."

  I peeked and saw two more goons with the three hostages. No Race, though.

  "Two goons, three family, babe. We need to find Race first, though," I said.

  She snarled slightly but nodded. We stayed down as we scooted to the next window. "My room," she stated.

  I peeked quickly and saw him sitting on her bed. "Race." I reported. "You stay here. I'll head back to your family. When you hear the breaking glass, attack." I set the plan for her.

  "I love you, Dex. Keep my family safe." She kissed me.

  "They're my family too now, sweetheart. I love you too." I smiled and she smiled back.

  I crept back to where her family was and clocked them again. Two goons and the living room right next door. All three hostages in view of the open doorway to the living area. This would be tricky. Her father is a retired General in the Confederate Army, so I hoped he had the good sense to not just duck when the shooting started, but to knock his family down as well.

  I skinned both Rails and stood quickly. I shot simultaneously and both goons fell as the windows shattered. I jumped through the window and heard another window shatter. General Keldor had knocked his wife and younger daughter down as I rolled into the room and peeked out the door to the living room. One was leveling his rifle at me so I shot him through the neck, decapitating him. My next shot took his buddy through the arm at the elbow as he was drawing his sidearm, severing it.

  That's the great thing about Rails. Hit any body part, and the pellets expand to two hundred percent their starting size instantly upon impact. That causes massive internal damage and severance of limbs.

  The goon screamed so I corrected my aim and blew his chest out through his back. I turned to the general. "Sir, we know Race is in Ri's room. Any other goons besides those four?"

  "Negative, son. That was all of them." He nodded. I nodded back and sprinted towards Ri's room.

  Race was on the ground wih Rilar's hand around his throat. She had her left hand pistol at his forehead. She looked up and I nodded to her. She smiled back.

  I squatted dowm by his head. "Race, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle here. If I were you, I'd choose my next words very carefully."

  "You're both DEAD! Do you hear me?" Race still had that drug lord mentality. His loss.

  "Wrong words, Race." I looked at Ri and nodded once. She holstered her pistol, and Race breathed a sigh of relief. I stood and turned before I heard the squelch and his scream start and stop abruptly.

  I walked back in to the hostages and knelt behind them. I drew my dagger and sliced their zipcuffs.

  Once they were all freed, Shilar threw her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you Dex!"

  "You're welcome, Shilar. Umm, could you let me go? I kind of have to give my statement to the cops as soon as they get here." I laughed. Shi's a good kid, and nearly as hot as her older sister.

  "Shi! Let my sek'natha go!" Rilar was bloody all over her front from ripping Race's heart out.

  Shilar's eyes went wide. I'm not sure if it's because her sister was covered in the blood of her captors' boss, or if it was because she'd called me her sek'natha.

  Rilar turned to me. "Dex, the Peacekeepers and Paramedics are on the way."

  "Good deal, Ri. Let's make sure everyone's ok." I was serious when I said I had no problem with Ri ripping Race's heart out. I can't stand drug dealers or pushers or whatever. They make a living off of others' suffering, and don't care who they hurt or kill.

  The cops got there fast, as did the paramedics. They cleared the scene of bodies and took all of our statements. Unlike Port Royal, we helped the cops to the best of our abilities, and they thanked us before leaving.

  I looked at Keldor and he smiled at me. His short white hair was still cut in military fashion, and he'd been retired for three years already, since the end of the war.

  "Dex, I wanted to thank you again." He shook my hand.

  "No need, sir. We kind of brought this on you ourselves. We didn't think he'd come after you, though. I apologize to you and your family," I said, coming to the position of Attention and expecting the worst.

  "At ease, Dex. You and Rilar saved our lives, so that makes it even. Clearcut?" He smiled, and I relaxed.

  "Diamond, sir." I replied.

  "Now, did I hear my daughter right earlier, Dex?" This time he did have an air of thirty-five years of military command under his belt. I sucked it up and drove on.

  "Yes, sir. Your daughter and I are lovemates, sir." I was once again at the position of Attention. Back and legs straight. Feet facing out at a forty-five degree angle. Hands curled into loose fists and thumbs aligned along the seems of my pants.

  The old General grinned. "About damn time you wised up, densenut!" He laughed.

  "Holy Lords!" I walked to the wall and banged my head against it several times.

  "Ri, hon. What the fuck is his major malfunction?" Keldor addressed her.

  "Everybody but him knew before he did, dad. Nobody clued him in. We've been together now for only six days." She shrugged.

  I finally stopped beating sense into myself and turned around. "What she said, sir." I shrugged too. "Everybody knew but me. Yes, I'm dense. I have Extreme Density Disorder or something."

  He laughed at that. Shilar and Bidar were looking at me funny, though. Oh hell.

  "Ma'am, I want to just say-" I started.

  "Dex, shut up." Bidar interrupted me. "I like you, Dex. I know you're not a love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy. But I swear to the Gods, if you hurt my daughter in any way, I will personally hunt you down and cut off your fun parts. Clearcut?"

  "Diamond, ma'am. Pure diamond." I acknowledged.

  "Good. Shilar, go give your new brother a hug while Rilar cleans herself off." She looked pointedly at Ri, who ran to the bathroom.

  Shilar hugged me, followed by Bidar. Keldor settled for a handshake.

  Shilar was smiling at me. "You really
didn't know?"

  "Not until I stroked her cheek after patching her up the other day." I shrugged. "She explained it to me, and... yeah. In human culture, it's just a gesture of affection or compassion. It doesn't mean the same thing as in Gurinkan culture." I explained.

  "Ahh, that makes sense. But that you feel the same for her..." Keldor left it hanging for me.

  "Sir, I've felt the same for her since we first met, but thought she wouldn't be interested. I was happy just to be her best friend, but now I'm overjoyed to have her in my life as my sek'natha." I smiled.

  He nodded. "You're a lucky man, son."

  "Thanks, dad." I nodded back. "I feel like the luckiest man alive."

  He laughed, as did Bidar and Shilar.

  We sat and talked for a while on the sofa until Rilar called me from her room. "Dex! I need your help, baby."

  "Be right there, sweetheart." I shouted back. "Excuse me, folks. I need to go help my wife." I smiled and excused myself as I ran to her room.

  I was glad the whole house was self-cleaning. It was now spotless after the crime scene cops were done with the place and authorized cleaning to go ahead.

  I ran in and she wasn't there. Then the door slammed behind me and I turned to see her in the tiniest bikini I'd ever seen! I'm talking 'three-band-aids-and-dental-floss' skimpy!

  "Oh my Lords, sweetheart!" I believe my eyes were bugging out of my skull at the sight of her.

  "You like, sek'natha?" She winked and smiled her most seductive smile.

  "That, my dear, would be an understatement! Rilar, you look stunningly gorgeous!" I was hardening quickly at the sight of her.

  "Mmmmmm thank you, baby." She purred as she strutted towards me one gorgeous hip at a time.

  "Fuckin' hell, Kitten!" I grinned as she came into my arms and kissed me. She was purring loudly enough that I believe her parents could hear her.

  "Ummm, sorry. Ri, Dex, there's a com for you." Shilar was blushing at the sight of us kissing and her sister in a barely there bikini.

  I checked my com. "Why not call me on mine?" I asked.

  "I left mine out there, love. We'd better go see who it is." We went out like that, and her mom was gaping at Ri's choice of attire.