“Well,” Aaron said with a sigh, “he’s not bad as criminals go. He doesn’t deal in prostitution, assassinations, and the like. He wants us for his smuggling operation and he’ll pay us well.”
“Sounds like you’ve already decided,” Russell said, after a moment’s silence.
Aaron sighed. “He’s cutting us off from the gambling, which is our only source of income. I don’t see any other way to proceed. Anybody have any better ideas?” They answered his question with silence. He nodded, “Me neither. We report tomorrow at 0700.”
Chapter 9
They arrived bright and early at the hangar where Aaron had been told to report. An Adelaron ST17 sat just inside the hangar door. The ST17 was a small transport and not built for long voyages. The ship itself was capable of interstellar flight, but like the shuttle in which they had escaped from the research moon, it wasn’t the most comfortable of ships. He was greeted by Xim, who seemed to be moving better today. He wasn’t alone, four people stood patiently behind him.
“Welcome,” Xim said quietly. “Before you an begin your new careers, you have to undergo some tests.”
“What types of tests?” Aaron asked.
Xim ignored him and quickly split Aaron’s group up and assigned an escort for each one.
Aaron briefly considered not allowing his group to be split up and then decided against it. If they had been watching them for weeks, then they could have captured them at any time, and besides, they knew enough about his group to get them in some serious trouble.
After all the escorts had been assigned, Aaron wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that he was left with Xim. He had a feeling this was going to be a long day.
Xim eyed him for a moment. “Care to tell me how you beat me yesterday?” he asked.
“No,” Aaron answered. “How’s your balls?”
Xim didn’t bother to answer but instead turned and walked away. After a moment’s hesitation Aaron followed.
Xim led Aaron towards the far side of the hangar and then down a circular stairwell. The level below ground had been subdivided and looked fairly modern. Xim left Aaron in a large room that was loaded down with medical gear. Three doctors greeted him and began examining him.
The day passed slowly for Aaron as he underwent test after test. They began with medical tests and Aaron experienced a momentary surge of anxiety. He didn’t know if anything unusual would show up on his, or his friends’ tests. He kept telling himself that surely nothing would show up and if it did, then the smugglers’ doctors undoubtedly wouldn’t know what it meant. He kept an eye on the doctors, but they never reacted like anything was out of the ordinary, and the only thing they said to him was that he was in excellent physical shape. The morning passed slowly, but all indications were that he had passed the medical exams.
Xim reappeared shortly before noon and Aaron was hoping that they would go to a mess hall, but Xim set a tray down in front of him.
Aaron hesitated, considering how best to address the man. They had gotten off to a bad start yesterday and he didn’t want to make things worse. He reached out and broke off a piece of a roll. “I assume my friends are undergoing the same sorts of procedures?”
Smiling, Xim nodded. “Don’t worry, you’re friends are fine.” He paused and studied Aaron for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Locke’s a loyal man, loyal to his people anyway, as long as you’re loyal to him.”
Aaron didn’t say anything, instead he just kept eating his lunch.
“I assume that you were the leader of this little group.”
It wasn’t so much a question as a statement and Aaron saw no reason to deny it. “Yes. So?”
Xim shrugged. “You are going to need to adjust to taking orders instead of giving them, at least for a while; that’s all.”
Sighing, Aaron took another bite of his lunch. What Xim was saying had already occurred to him and he didn’t much like the idea either. It felt like he was no longer in charge of his life. He wasn’t walking a path of his own choosing, but rather, he was being swept along like a man in a river. He was pleased by one thing; Xim’s attitude towards him was better than he had hoped for. “What’s Locke’s plans for us?” Aaron asked.
Xim shrugged again. “Don’t know. He doesn’t make a habit of sharing his plans with me, but if I had to guess, I’d say four of you would be assigned as crewmen on the ships.”
“Four?” Aaron repeated quickly, interrupting the other man.
“Yes, I understand that this Jessica is a doctor and we don’t usually send doctors on the ships.”
Aaron relaxed. It made sense and he should have considered it. Sighing, he took another bite of the reasonably passable lunch.
The afternoon went as slowly as the morning had, but now the tests were different. Intelligence, physical stamina, and various skills were tested and measured. Aaron had planned to do well, but he didn’t want to do too well. After a while, he just gave up and aced their tests.
After a couple of hours, Xim reappeared and led Aaron back to the ground floor. Aaron was immensely pleased to see Susan, Russell, and Adam already waiting in the hangar.
“Who’s the best pilot?” Xim asked quietly, his words intended only for Aaron’s ears.
“Adam,” Aaron answered without hesitation.
Xim didn’t hesitate, but instead he pointed at Russell. “You—you’re flying us.” He pointed to the Adelaron ST17. “Hurry up! Get onboard!”
Despite looking a little surprised, Russell led the way onto the ship and he quickly disappeared into the cockpit. Xim was second on the ship and he paused, looking back at the other three. “Grab a seat and buckle in. Flight time will be less than an hour.” He didn’t wait around to see if his orders were followed but disappeared into the cockpit after Russell; he was careful to close the hatch that separated the cockpit from the main part of the ship.
Aaron was aching to hear what was going on, but chose to follow the orders and grabbed a seat next to Susan and Adam.
“Everything okay?” Susan asked before Aaron could.
“I think so. Just a whole bunch of tests. You?”
“The same,” she answered and Adam agreed from beside her.
“Any idea where we’re going?” Adam asked, after a moment’s pause.
Aaron shook his head. “No, It’s another type of test. He asked who was the best pilot and when I said you were, he picked Russell to fly us.” Aaron wasn’t worried about Russell’s flying abilities, the man was rated for numerous crafts, and he shouldn’t have any problem with this old tub.
After several moments of silence, the hum of the engines warming up became audible. The hatch sealed itself and they were off. It was difficult to tell much about the ship’s course from where they were seated, but given the hour of flight time that Xim had warned them about, they couldn’t be going far. It didn’t seem like a direct flight, but rather that Xim was having Russell put the ship through some maneuvers.
True to Xim’s estimation, they were back on the ground less than an hour later. Xim emerged from the cockpit and motioned towards the main hatch of the ship. “Come on.”
“Where are we?” Aaron asked.
“We’re on the southern continent,” Xim answered. “Less populated and we don’t have to be as discrete around here.”
Confused, Aaron led the others from the ship and they emerged into another hangar. A small group of men waited on them; they had the look of men who knew how to handle themselves. Aaron regarded them warily. “What’s going on?”
“More tests. Hand to hand combat as well as various types of weaponry,” Xim said. He noticed the wariness on their faces and continued, “We couldn’t be using weapons back at the main spaceport, that’s why we came way out here. We can see what you guys can do without inviting official intervention.”
Chapter 10
It was cold in the early morning darkness but Kyle didn’t mind. He was wearing a rather heavy sweater and it kept him warm. He was a thirty three
-year old black man who wore old-fashioned glasses. Most people these days either had their vision fixed through surgery or wore the glasses to look distinguished. Kyle wore the glasses because he had tried the surgery once and it had actually made his vision worse, and he didn’t much worry about appearances. That isn’t to say that he wasn’t handsome, he had more than his fair share of success with the fairer sex; he just wasn’t worried about looking distinguished. He was in decent shape but only because he worked at it. He was a computer programmer and he tended to spend long hours sitting in front of a terminal. Only the strictest willpower kept him constantly exercising.
Kyle stumbled in the near pitch-black darkness. He regained his balance and cursed softly. “Can’t we have a little light?” he asked quietly.
“No,” came the reply. It too was soft and nearly inaudible.
Kyle was trudging along behind a man he knew as Jeremiah. It probably wasn’t the man’s real name but that didn’t matter. They had been doing business for nearly a decade and Jeremiah hadn’t steered him wrong yet.
Jeremiah was an engineer and worked for an important state-run research facility on the planet of Karbarsh. It was a heavily industrialized world located in the Miram Union. It was a good thing for Jeremiah that no one suspected him of selling their research on the open-market. Kyle and Jeremiah had made this very same trip many times over the last ten years.
The factories on Karbarsh pumped out their products non-stop, but with several hours still to go to sunrise, the research facilities were closed. In fact, this whole section of the city was dark. The main roads were lit, but the back alleys were all dark and easily traveled.
They emerged from an alley, and stopped on the edge of the shadows, looking out over the deserted thoroughfare. They hadn’t so much as seen a single security guard patrolling any of the buildings and that was a little bit unusual. The hairs on the back of Kyle’s neck were standing on end.
“Isn’t it rather deserted?” Kyle asked quietly. In the darkness of the shadows, he could just make out his guide’s face.
After a moment’s hesitation, Jeremiah pulled his eyes from the road. “Yeah, I’ve never seen it like this before.”
“Do you think something’s wrong?”
“Don’t think so. Probably just being paranoid.”
Kyle didn’t respond but he suddenly found himself wishing this was already done and he was back on his ship.
It took them another twenty minutes to reach the building where Jeremiah worked and then they were inside quickly. Jeremiah had full access and there had never been any kind of a delay.
They soon reached a small lab and Jeremiah entered a code on the keypad. The door popped open and he started inside.
“Can’t they check to see whose code was used?” Kyle asked.
Jeremiah paused and grinned back over his shoulder. “I used the code of one of my co-workers, so if anyone gets suspicious, then they won’t be looking at me.”
They entered the lab and closed the door behind them. Tables lined the walls and two more were placed down the center of the room. Those tables along the walls were piled high with equipment but the tables in the middle of the room were not. A single terminal sat on the table closest to them and a large computer rack sat next to the table.
“That’s it,” Jeremiah said, pointing at the rack.
“All right, what is it supposed to be?”
“It’s the next thing in computers,” Jeremiah answered with just a touch of pride in his voice.
Kyle tilted his head in confusion. “Computers?” he repeated.
“Yeah,” Jeremiah said quickly. He spoke quickly and no longer worried about how loud he might be. “It’s even faster than those Sunburst systems that came out of Doofash.”
Kyle’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. Doofash was a core world, one of the giant’s of technology, and they made the most powerful computers in existence. The Miram Union might be a power in this part of space, but only because this was the backwaters. There simply was no way that the Miram Union had come up with a computer innovation that beat those from Doofash. “Did you steal it?” he asked, voicing the only explanation that made any sense.
“No,” Jeremiah replied, looking a little offended. “We developed it right here, and I’ve seen the stats, this thing nearly doubles the performance of the Sunburst.”
Without answering, Kyle walked around and looked into the computer rack. The rack was full of computer systems with cables running every which way. The Sunburst was nearly three times as big as this rack, which only strengthened his doubt of Jeremiah’s claims. Kyle motioned to the terminal. “Show me.”
Grinning, Jeremiah pulled up a chair and turned the small monitor on.
Nothing happened.
Jeremiah glanced at Kyle and then quickly began tracing the cables. It took him only a moment to discover the problem; the monitor cable ran down into the floor, not into the computer rack. He just sat there, looking puzzled.
“Did you help design this?” Kyle asked, starting to get worried.
“No, you know I work with shielding.” Jeremiah answered, still looking confused.
“So, you’ve never seen this thing work?”
“But I have. I watched the techs run the benchmarks. I saw the output,” Jeremiah said. “They even had the territorial governor here to observe.”
“You saw the output on the monitor? The same monitor that’s not connected to the racks?” Kyle asked and Jeremiah nodded. Not sure what was happening, Kyle made a quick decision. “Turn it back off and let’s go.”
Jeremiah hastened to obey and then they stepped out of the small lab. They hadn’t even taken two steps when lights flared up around them. The lights showed clearly that the office space outside the lab area was no longer vacant—it was now full of heavily armed men.
With a sickening feeling in his stomach, Kyle slowly raised his hands.
Chapter 11
Aaron led Russell and Jessica along the spaceport road. Locke’s hangar was out near the edge of the port and there wasn’t a lot of traffic around. A lot of the hangars did have guards though, and those guards watched the trio as they passed. Both Russell and Aaron carried a small duffel bag.
They were quiet as they walked, no one was much interested in playful banter. It had been ten days since they had joined up with Locke’s outfit and there was some discontent in his group. After the first day of tests, they had been split up and given various rather unimportant tasks.
Jessica was the happiest with her job. She was a doctor and she was getting to do what she liked. Locke had a small infirmary under his main hangar but it didn’t see a lot of patients. When someone did come to see her, it usually was for something minor. There were a fair number of people needing inoculations, being treated for minor illnesses, or even the occasional fistfight, but usually it was nothing life-threatening. In addition to treating the members of Locke’s group, she had been allowed to keep her free clinic open. Locke was providing some money to treat the poor, although he did insist on putting the word out that he was doing it. It seems he liked the good publicity.
Adam was spending most of his time ferrying ships between the six different locations that Locke owned on Beta Leporis. In addition, Locke had him transporting ships to several refit facilities that he owned in the neighboring systems. Adam was enjoying all the flight time. He was a pilot and he loved flying, so he was a perfect fit for his current job. His shift had begun several hours ago and he was already off flying somewhere.
Susan was working out of the hangar on the southern continent. It turned out that Locke had a rather sophisticated communications room located below the hangar. His computer people had hacked into several of the Beta Leporis’ police systems and he had a small group that spent their time decoding the official messages. It was a rather slick operation. Undoubtedly Locke paid the police to leave him alone, but if they ever changed their minds, he wanted as much of a warning as possible. Susan was not enjoying
her new job as much as Adam was, and she still wasn’t sold on the idea of working for the crime boss. There was a bit of friction between her and Aaron and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. She wasn’t against breaking the law, but she simply couldn’t see any end in sight. She had come to work earlier, so that she could catch a ride to the other hangar.
Aaron and Russell had both been working as crewmen on several of Locke’s short range transports. These transports ferried their cargos between Beta Leporis and the nearby systems. The longest trip so far, for either man, had been three days. Neither Russell nor Aaron knew if they carried any contraband in addition to their legal cargos. Locke’s men didn’t volunteer the information and they didn’t ask. The work wasn’t difficult and the other crewmen were okay, but both were less than pleased. They did not like being split up from the rest of their group, but at least it was providing them with a steady source of income.
Their assignments were changing slightly today. Russell and Aaron were going out on a longer haul, transporting a cargo over to the Umberica system. Even though the ship they were going in was supposed to be fairly fast, the round trip time should take nearly two weeks.
One of Locke’s guards scanned them through a side door and they stopped just inside the hangar.
“Be careful,” Jessica said, giving them a forced smile. Her eyes flicked to Aaron and then lingered on Russell. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Why are you staring at me when you say that?” Russell asked, playfully. He was smiling at her with a lopsided grin.
Jessica punched him softly on the upper arm. “Because I know you,” she said. After a moment’s hesitation, she turned and disappeared into the spiral staircase.
Aaron frowned. Something wasn’t quite right with Jessica and Russell’s interactions.
“You ready?” Russell asked.
Aaron nodded. “Let’s go.”
Long Shot Page 9
