The Azophi Academy Complete Series Boxed Set: Unique Military Education

by TR Cameron

  He sniffed the air and caught the scent she referred to, a mix of spices and cooking meat. He surveyed the area and spotted food stands arrayed around the edges of the circle that offered cuisines from more planets than he’d visited during his career, to judge by the signs. His nose led him to a kebab stand, where chunks of meat separated by vegetables were being cooked over an open flame. “What’s in that?”

  The heavyset woman in dingy chef’s whites grinned at him. “Only the best. It’s a camel analogue from the Xantian system, and the vegetables are green peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini.” He glanced back at his crew, who all looked as hungry as he was. He turned to the cook. “We’ll take ten for starters.”

  She nodded. “Ship name?”

  “Occam’s Cleaver.”

  She barked a laugh. “Interesting name. Fancy, but meaningless to anyone other than you all, I suppose.”

  He shrugged. “Wasn’t my choice. Came with the pilot.”

  She grinned. “That’s what they all say after they make a bad decision. I’ll charge the meal back to your vessel.” She handed over a tray filled with disposable plates holding kebabs. “Some rice to go with it?”

  “With something that smells as amazing as this, I don’t want to waste my appetite on anything else.”

  She shook her head but seemed happy. “Off with you. You know where to find me when you’re ready for seconds.”

  They gathered at a table that had the appropriate number of chairs and dug in. As they ate, Jax said, “So, how’s this? C and K check out where we can sell our cargo, start getting an idea of prices. V and I will look around the station areas near here and see what luxuries are available. I’m leaning toward spending our sleeping hours on the ship, but maybe there’s a hotel or something that would give us a reason not to.” Like an access point we could use, for instance.

  Athena replied, “Unlikely. I haven’t detected any. It appears Ethan’s insistence that everyone carry an adapter is for naught.”

  Well, it doesn’t hurt to look. And while we’re looking, you can also try to narrow in on people who are carrying nanoparticles. We need to find someone in a position of authority who might know what’s going on, then have a serious conversation with them.

  She replied, “That would require sending out an active instruction to initiate a response from them. Do you want to risk it?”

  Yes, once. I don’t want to wait for tomorrow morning’s data. Out loud, he finished, “The rest of you go shopping. You know what’s essential to survival, what’s necessary for reasonable comfort, and what’s on our expanded wish list. See if you can find some of it. I’m guessing this place is our best option. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll try going up or down a level.”

  The meal ended when they’d consumed every single bit of food. Then they split up. Jax and Verrand headed for the large hallway that led to the adjoining areas outside the central column. As they walked, Athena updated him on her progress in navigating the installation’s computer system. “I’ve managed to access a real-time schematic, rather than the static one I had before. There’s little difference, but I can use it to overlay the data from the ping.” She did so, and he checked the display on his comm. It showed nanoparticles all over the place.

  Wow. Seriously? Do you think it’s possible there’s a government agent here who spread it to all these people?

  The AI replied, “No way to tell at all. I wouldn’t even hazard a guess.”

  He nodded. Okay, there’s a cluster there that’s denser than the rest. Let’s give that a try.

  They followed Athena’s directions, transmitted through their earpieces, and eventually found two very interesting things. The first was a dark, crowded, and loud bar. Jax grinned. “My kind of place.”

  Verrand wore a satisfied smile. “Mine too. Looks like we get drinks up there.” She pointed to a long bar that ran along one side of the room and led the way toward it. Tall and short tables filled the rest of the space, the former for standing, the latter for sitting.

  The other item of interest was the location of the nanoparticle cluster. Despite the fact that such a thing would’ve been highly unlikely in this particular bar, his brain had locked on the idea that he’d find some government bigwig surrounded by more government people. Maybe intelligence, maybe military, perhaps something else. But something official.

  The sight that greeted him definitely wasn’t official. Sharing space with the dots was a band of hardened-looking pirates who laughed and drank like they didn’t have a care in the world. The one at the head of their table was clearly their leader, as evidenced by tiny gold rings indicating his rank that embraced the long mustaches drooping to either side of his chin.

  For a moment, Jax had no idea what to say, and Verrand took the lead. “Okay, that’s unexpected. Guess we need to go have a conversation with some of our fellow pirates.” She handed him his drink and headed off in their direction.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The man caught sight of them when they were halfway across the room. His body didn’t betray his attention, but Jax saw his eyes flick to Verrand, dart away, then return to her. A faint smile creased the edges of the pirate’s lips. She strode forward and stopped right next to him, taking the initiative. “Hiya. Couldn’t help but notice that you’ve got an impressive looking crew here.”

  The man nodded. He had long dark hair to complement the mustaches, and wrinkles from age and experience lined his face. His skin was a medium tan, and it nicely offset the bright white button-down shirt he wore. “Aye, we’re a pretty solid bunch, I’d say.” He glanced down the length of the table and asked, “Wouldn’t you agree?”

  The crowd with him, presumably members of his crew, banged their mugs on the table and cheered. Their leader looked up at Verrand with a smile. “So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, what can I do for you?”

  She shrugged. “A little conversation maybe?”

  He waved a hand at an unoccupied chair at a nearby table. “Pull up a seat. Afraid there’s no room for your friend, though.” He smirked at Jax as he said it.

  Jax nodded at the other man. “No worries. I’m happy to stand. Makes me feel powerful.”

  The pirate laughed. “If you need such trappings to feel powerful, then you aren’t actually powerful.”

  Jax grinned. “Ah, but it’s not always easy to see power. Sometimes one must display it ostentatiously.” He stared at the rings in the man’s facial hair as he said it.

  “True enough. You can call me Rachi.” Verrand sat and gave the man their false names. She continued, “So, this is my ship’s first time here. What can you tell us about this spot?”

  He shrugged. “Pretty standard station, although non-humans run it.”

  Jax asked, “Is it a Coalition place? One of our crew thought maybe it was the Coalition place, but it seems too far out near the border to be that.”

  The man nodded and stroked his mustaches. “I’ve heard that question a time or two as well. While I’ve never been deep enough into Coalition territory to verify it, I can’t imagine this is their main headquarters. I’ve seen several alien races here though, too many to decisively say whether it’s one of them behind the place’s creation and operation, or more than one.” He shrugged. “It kind of doesn’t matter. Cash spends, supplies are available, and hardly anyone finds the need to escalate fights beyond fists.” He looked pointedly at the guns on Jackson’s hips.

  “That’s good to hear. I was surprised when the weapons were allowed.”

  One of the man’s crew members, a woman with short blonde hair, laughed. “That’s because you haven’t seen the inside of their cells. Let me tell you, firing a weapon in this place is a bad, bad idea.”

  Verrand looked doubtful. “Really?”

  The pirate captain, for that was surely what he was based on the deference the others showed, nodded. “Minimum six months, and not a comfortable six months either. That’s for a first offense that harms no one.”

  Ja
x whistled. “That is steep. Think I’ll keep these babies right where they are.” He patted his pistols.

  “Good choice.” The other man returned his attention to Verrand. “So, what’s your ship?”

  “The Occam’s Cleaver. We’re independent at the moment, but not sure we want to stay that way.”

  “You the captain?”

  She shook her head. “No, but he’s not so great with words. Tends to think with his muscles, so I try to do most of the talking. I’m the ship’s second.”

  The man looked up at Jax. “I presume she’s referring to you?”

  He nodded. “What I lack in brilliance, I make up for in sheer personality.”

  The pirate laughed and raised his glass in a toast. “I’ll drink to that.” He did, and his crew matched him.

  Verrand said, “I know this is a little bold, but if we were considering joining up with an organization, would you have a recommendation?”

  He shrugged. “Our clan’s pretty solid and has been for some time. We don’t take on newcomers without a probation period, of course. Standard rules, percentage goes up the chain. When you find good people to join, you receive a part of their tithes as a finder’s fee.”

  She nodded. “Makes sense. Maybe we could get together to talk about it at a later time? When we’re not in quite such a busy place?”

  He laughed again. “You’ll learn soon there’s no privacy on this station. Someone’s always watching or listening. But sure, we can talk sometime.”

  She pressed, “Aboard your ship perhaps?”

  He shook his head. “Darlin’, we don’t know each other that well yet.” He put heavy innuendo in the tone, and his crew burst into laughter.

  Verrand smiled. “Fair enough. Maybe we can find neutral ground at one of the hotels around here or whatever. Okay if I look for you tomorrow?”

  “Sure. But don’t start looking until late. We’ll be celebrating here for a while.” His subordinates whooped and cheered again.

  She nodded. “Sounds good.” She rose and headed toward a different corner of the room. Jax followed while waving goodbye to the pirate, who lifted his chin in acknowledgment.

  When he caught up with her, he leaned close so they wouldn’t be overheard and activated his comm so the rest of the crew could listen in. “Not bad for first contact with a potential partner.” He stressed the last word so everyone would understand that he was speaking of a target. “I’m not sure he’ll be into talking to us further though, despite your smooth chatter.”

  Verrand shook her head. “They’re sure to be pretty secretive about their business. Probably we need another three or four casual encounters before we would get down to something serious.”

  Cia quipped, “Is he handsome? You could take one for the team, then.”

  She laughed. “Attractive enough, maybe, if he spent some significant time in the shower. But let’s consider that a very last resort, shall we?”

  Chuckles came back over the comm. Athena added, “Station records don’t have any data on him or his crew. I’ve discovered many of the ships are in a similar situation and presume they have likely paid to remain anonymous.”

  Kimmel asked, “Rather than doing it themselves?”

  She replied, “If I can’t pull that off, I doubt they can.”

  Jax snorted. Now who’s a narcissist?

  The AI countered, speaking only in his head, “It’s not narcissism to acknowledge I should be able to defeat whatever systems are available here. Since I cannot manage that task, it stands to reason that such a thing is impossible and thus must’ve been accomplished by another means. It’s logic, Jax. You might want to look it up sometime.”

  Uh-huh. Sure. He changed the subject and addressed the team. “So, I think we’re going to have to do a little extra work to get close to these people since they so rudely rejected our overture. Let’s finish up what we’re doing, maybe grab another couple kebabs, and head back to the Cleaver for the night. We’ll figure out our plans from there.”

  After a good night’s sleep, the crew gathered in the galley. Jax began, “So, we have a bunch of pirates who are connected to Arlox somehow, based on their exposure to the nanoparticles. We need to find out more about them.”

  Kimmel suggested, “If we figure out what ship he’s on, we can try to hack into it.”

  Jax replied, “Okay, that’s one thing for the to-do list. What else have you people got?”

  Cia shrugged. “Once we know which ship is his, we could try to bug it if hacking doesn’t succeed. I have some devices that would work.”

  Marshall countered, “Even through jump?”

  The pilot lifted a hand and rocked it back and forth. “Maybe. Okay, probably not. They put out a unique signal, but without having an idea where to look, stumbling upon it would be pretty difficult.”

  Sirenno interjected, “Could Athena modify whatever we used with the nanoparticles to work with the device? Send something over the networks instead of blasting a signal out through space?”

  Athena replied over the comm, “Unfortunately, no. Not without access to more resources than we have here.”

  Verrand offered, “We could probably find what you need.”

  “It’s not a question of the actual physical materials, but of the precision fabrication required to create the modifications. As far as I know, that’s only available at the Academy.”

  Cia asked, “Maybe a tool shop here on the station?”

  Jax shook his head. “There’s no explainable reason we would need to find one, and we have to assume they’d be watching. I sure would be in their place. So, that’s out.”

  Athena reported, “The morning’s ping came through. I’ve identified the location of their ship. Fortunately, most of them are on board, right here.” The display on the wall shifted to show a schematic of the space station. The pirates were docked several levels above the Cleaver and a little closer to the structure’s central portion.

  Jax replied, “Good. That’s a step in the correct direction. Okay, how about we do this? We have some old-school surveillance devices packed away. Tiny audio transmitters and receivers, that sort of thing. Let’s dig through them, make sure everybody has some, then try to plant them on members of his crew. Maria and I will need to opt out of that project, so we don’t get recognized and blow the game.”

  Athena warned, “The likelihood that such transmissions would be detected is impossible to calculate since we know nothing about the alien technology at the heart of this solution.”

  “Dammit,” Jax growled.

  Kimmel sounded thoughtful. “What if we were able to dial back the transmissions? Make it so they only travel a very short distance? It would require us to get a listener in position nearby, but then that person could share the feed over the comm so we could all hear it. Is it safe to assume our comms are secure?”

  Athena replied, “Almost certainly. They are heavily encoded and use an unusual frequency.”

  Jax inquired, “Athena, Ethan, can you alter the devices?”

  The AI confirmed, “Yes, almost certainly.”

  He nodded decisively. “Okay, that’s the plan then. Let’s get at least one listening device for everyone, then get out there and wait for them to move. When they do, we get as many bugs as we can on them, then each of us follows one of them around. After you all bug him, I’ll track the captain.”

  Cia protested, “Didn’t you just say that was dangerous?”

  Jax gave a wide grin. “This is what I do. As long as I don’t need to get within arm’s length, he’ll never see me.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jax wandered the shops and stands of the bazaar, idly examining the items being peddled while his attention focused on the reports coming in through his earpiece. The team had planted listening devices on several crew members, and Cia was nearing the captain. He regretted for the first time during the trip that Juno hadn’t come along because her deft hands would’ve had the best chance at planting a bug on
the pirate leader without detection. The plan was for the pilot to bump into him and attach it to his clothing—an oldie, but a goodie. Marshall was nearby, ready to intervene if something went wrong. Still, Jax wished it could be him there, either delivering the bug or backing up his friend. Can’t have everything, I guess.

  Athena replied, “This is true. I’m sure it will all work out fine.”

  He laughed inwardly. That’s very optimistic. Kind of rare for you.

  “I have a good feeling about it.”

  Her faith was rewarded a moment later as Cia reported, “It’s on him. No issues.”

  Jax nodded and walked toward Cia’s location, following Athena’s directions. He picked up the pirate captain as the man entered a long hallway and dawdled at the entrance to allow his target to gain a solid lead. Rachi was headed toward one of the hotels, which seemed strange given that he and most of his crew had bunked aboard ship, and spoke of potentially interesting goings-on.

  He ensured a substantial batch of people remained between him and his target. Despite what he’d said to the others about his stalking prowess, the scar would make him more noticeable. The bandana that covered his blonde hair and a casual shirt and denim pants rendered him very different-looking than he’d been at their previous meeting, and he was confident he could remain undetected. His pistols and the belt that held them were back on the ship, and while he felt naked without the weapons, they were too identifiable to wear on an operation requiring any measure of subtlety.

  The man went into a hotel called Smugglers Respite. Jax walked past the entrance and stopped three businesses down while pretending to look at the bar’s menu. Athena, any surveillance access inside?

  “No. Everything is wired into the main system, which I cannot get into. Believe me; it’s as frustrating to me as it is to you.”

  Marshall sauntered down the hallway toward him. Jax covered his mouth with his hand and muttered, “Let’s leapfrog. You go in, find out where he’s going, then I’ll follow them.”