Clone Hunter

by Helix Parker

  The ship slowed over a landing pad and then gently glided down. I unbuckled and got up to see Ava already back at work. Or maybe she worked the entire time and ignored my request.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said.

  “I’ll be here.”

  Kali released the ramp and I stepped off. The atmosphere was breathable but thin and I couldn’t stay here long without needing supplemental oxygen. The inhabitants had gotten used to it though and many were top-notch athletes because of their high levels of oxygen uptake. That was the one natural resource May 3 seemed to export.

  Several men were on deck waiting for me. Not the same men I had dealt with in my previous drop here. These guys looked rough and not a single one smiled or reacted as I approached and said, “Somebody expectin’ me?”

  “You Larso?” asked one of them, a large bald man wearing an odd-looking war-suit.

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded to two other men near him who brought out a small case and set it down between us. They flipped it up. It was filled with Earth units: the most valuable commodity in the galaxy; they were considered inflation proof. I thought they were a fool’s bet and that weapons and ships were more valuable, but I never underestimated the gullibility of the public in believing anything their government told them. I would always trade them for hard goods whenever I had the chance.

  “Where’s the cargo?” he said.

  I clicked the comm on my wrist. “Kali, please unload the cargo.”

  The ship hummed as the cargo bay doors opened and the platform holding the goods was lowered to the deck. The two men that had brought out the credits went over and opened a few of the crates and then nodded to the man I had been speaking with.

  “Come with us,” he said. “We have someone that wants to meet you.”

  “All the same, boys, I gotta get goin’. I have another pick-up to make.”

  The man behind him lifted a plasma rifle and aimed it at my face. “We insist.”

  “Come to think of it, I am kinda thirsty. Lead the way.”

  Most of the men turned to the cargo but I followed the bald one and what seemed like his bodyguard or companion. We went off deck and past several tents. It was almost like a small city. But I knew the real action was underground. Even on this remote backwater of a planet, they were still paranoid.

  We walked through the red sand and I realized I was huffing and puffing, my legs straining to keep up. The men looked back at me and chuckled as they kept moving up a small hill. We came to a boulder and the bald one opened a door on the ground that revealed a set of stairs. They waited until I went down first before following.

  The stairs were long and wound all the way down into the darkness until the artificial neon lighting revealed the cavern underneath. It was a bar. Tables were placed all around the sand and a massive viewscreen was turned to some non-Republic sanctioned channel playing pornography. Music was blaring and patrons were drunk and stumbling around. Normally, I would say this was my kinda place but something about it seemed off.

  “Over to your right,” the bald one said.

  I went down a long corridor and came to an opening that led to an office of sorts. A man in a war-suit was sitting behind a desk, a partially nude woman lying on the ground in front of him. He was snorting colmb root and had the glazed-over look of an addict.

  “Sit down,” he said without looking up.

  The bald one actually pushed me down into my seat so that wasn’t a problem. The man offered me a hit of colmb and I declined.

  “So,” he said, wiping his nose and putting his boots up on the desk, “you’re the one that delivered the medicines we needed.”

  “Guess so.”

  “Well, they’ll be put to good use.”

  I could detect the sarcasm in his voice. “Will they?”

  “Sure will. We’re gonna sell ‘em for a hundred times what we paid for ’em. Hell, we might even release a little Norian Plague here and there to get folks nice and desperate, ain’t that right boys? See, when your kid’s sick, you’ll do anything to make ’em better. At least most folks will. They’ll even sell themselves just to get their hands on the medicine.”

  I closed my eyes, the stupidity of what I’d just done dawning on me. “You’re slavers.”

  “Flesh entrepreneurs is the preferred term.”

  “I’m sure it is.”

  “And the thing of it is, we’re protected. I bet you didn’t know that.”

  “Protected by who?”

  “The Republic. See, these little worlds out here, they ain’t part a the Republic and anything that ain’t part a the Republic is ’gainst the Republic. So they let us do what we want as long as we don’t rebel or try and form our own governments. Ain’t that just the damnedest thing?”

  “It sure is,” I said, glancing to the two men behind me. “Well, if that’s all, I think I’ll be going now.”

  “Here’s the problem with that, soldier, you ain’t gonna bring anything back to us I reckon. See we read about you and I just don’t think you’re one to deal with entrepreneurs like ourselves. So if you ain’t gonna work with us, then we ain’t got no use for you. But we might have use for your ship there.”

  I heard scuffling behind me. Two men came in holding Ava. She appeared calm though they were clearly being rough with her.

  “Found her on the ship.”

  The man at the desk looked to me. “Now who is this pretty young thing?” He stood up and walked over to her. “Hi there, darlin’. What’s your name?”

  She smiled but didn’t say anything.

  “Well, you are just full of surprises, aren’t you, Larso?”

  “Take the ship and let us go. You got what you wanted.”

  “See, now why would I do that? I can have this pretty thing here and you and your ship. Why would I just let you go?”

  “’Cause if you don’t, you won’t get a single bandage of that cargo.”

  He turned to me. “Now how’s that?”

  “I have frag detonations in several of those crates. I can set them off remotely and poof, there goes your profit.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Do you honestly think I’m that stupid to come to this planet unprepared? There’s no law here.”

  The man swore under his breath and walked back to the desk. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pistol and pressed it against my forehead.

  “I ought to kill you right now.”

  “Kali, if my heart stops please detonate the explosives in the cargo.”

  “Of course, sir,” came the reply through the comm on my wrist.

  He pressed harder into my flesh, and then lowered the pistol. “Let them go.”

  I stood. “It’s been a pleasure, but I must run. Take care now.”

  Turning, I grabbed Ava and headed down the corridor without looking back. We didn’t speak until we were on the stairs heading up to the surface.

  “That was clever of you to do that.”

  “No, it wasn’t. I’m stupid enough to come here without being prepared. There’s no explosives.”

  She grinned. “You’re cute when you’re scared.”

  “I wasn’t scared. Well … I was a little scared.”

  We got up to the surface and walked back to the flight deck. The units were still there and the cargo had been unloaded. Several men stood around and eyed us and I figured it was about time we headed out. We boarded the ship and I strapped myself in as Ava did the same next to me.

  “Thank you for picking that up, Kali.”

  “You’re welcome, Mr. Moore. May I make a suggestion? Perhaps it’s best we not return to May 3 any time in the near future.”

  “Suggestion noted.”

  The ship lifted and I pointed upward as I turned on the thrusters and we gained enough velocity to break the planet’s gravitation. We got out of the atmosphere before Ava said, “Where are we going?”

  “Well, you said you needed to go to King’s Grace. I don�
�t have another shipment to pick up for a few days so I thought I could use the break.”

  “You don’t have to come with me.”

  I glanced to her. “What can I say? I’m a sucker for a pretty girl in trouble.”

  CALISTA

  An MX 19 stealth cruiser, one of the finest I’d ever seen. It was slick black hemlight steel with a cockpit just large enough for two. It had four main thrusters and two auxiliaries with a ground and mounted cannon fore and aft. And the best feature of all: a cloaking system. It wouldn’t turn the ship transparent or bend light or anything of the sort, but to various detection systems the ship was a ghost.

  The suit I had been given was a thin black mesh, nearly impervious to sonic disruptor fire. The sonic blast would dissipate on the mesh, taking away most of the force before it ever touched my body. I loaded that and several weapons onto the MX and left Silorian space. The planet disappeared behind me and spun as I twisted the controls and tested the thrust and torque.

  “Take it easy up there,” Karma’s voice echoed in my helmet. She was seated in the number two position, her seat behind mine and turned backward so that she had eyes in all directions. It had been easier to procure a second person for this than I had thought. In fact, the colonel had encouraged it and Karma was probably the only one I trusted enough to be sitting behind me.

  “You’re not upset with me, are you?” I asked.

  “Would you care if I was?”

  “No.”

  “Didn’t think so. But no, I’m not upset with you. When training ended I wasn’t sure where they were gonna send me. Poor Sy got sent to Aspian’s moons. He’s gonna be fighting pirates out there and sleeping in a tent in the freezing cold. So no, I’m grateful you picked me as your pilot. Where we going anyway?”

  I clicked a button and a viewscreen turned on behind me at the back of the cockpit. Karma watched the video of the clone killing the two men and jumping onto a cargo ship.

  “We’re going after her?”

  “She’s a clone.”

  “Where’d she learn to fight like that?”

  “It’s classified, Karma.”

  “You know where she is at least?”

  “That video was taken on Helron 5 so I did a search for that cargo ship. It had picked up two hundred and fifteen crates of medical supplies. The only planets that would need those are on the rim so it just took me a quick search to find out where they went: May 3.”

  “May 3? Isn’t that like a smuggler outpost?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I guess this partnership isn’t going to be boring.”

  The ship tilted and spun and then I straightened up. Synchronizing with Karma, we punched in the coordinates and the FTL drive began charging for a hyperspace jump.

  “I hate this part,” she said. “The waiting. You ever dream in FTL?”

  “No, it doesn’t put me out.”

  “Seriously? Mechanic my ass.”

  I smirked. A light on the dash indicated the FTL drive was ready and I hit the thruster and then leaned back into the seat.

  The first thing you notice about FTL travel is that your vision gets blurry, like you’re drunk, and you feel dizzy and lightheaded. It’s euphoric and I’d heard of people getting addicted to the euphoria and going on jumps for the high. Space junkies. One guy in my academy became so addicted he wore out the FTL drive on his ship and ended up in pirate space two hundred light years from home. I heard they skinned him and then mounted the body on their hull while he was still alive.

  The actual jump was something else. The euphoria increased to a level where you didn’t think you could take anymore. And then, just on the cusp of thinking you would explode with pleasure, you would black out. When you woke up you would be in a different section of the galaxy. For those who could stay awake, the pleasure lasted much longer.

  “Oh man,” Karma said.

  I felt waves of sensation through my body. It was pleasurable, though I rarely let myself relax enough to enjoy it. I wouldn’t allow myself to adore it enough to become a junkie.

  The pressure increased and I felt lightheaded, a tingling over my entire body. I heard Karma moaning into the comm. I ignored it and focused on keeping my mind sharp. The force of the ship increased and I was pressed back into the seat. Karma was orgasming, and was so loud I turned the comm off.

  Then I felt pain. Still pleasurable in a way, perhaps even more so, but the pain radiated in my bones, and then, in a sudden jolt that jarred my body, we jumped.

  The ship extended like a noodle and the stars twisted into a tunnel that we shot through like electrons off an atom. The universe became an atomic soup that we were swimming through and I kept my mind focused on a single thought. Sometimes it was a number or a word or a chant. Today I pictured the clone. I saw her killing those men and it brought me gratification to see them die. I saw the outlines of her body and the strands of hair that came down over her eyes as she broke the man’s neck with a pop.

  I suddenly jerked forward and then slammed back into my seat. The jump had ended and in front of us was a giant red planet with moons circling it like sycophants.

  I turned the comm back on.

  “MX 19, this is ground control. Please state your business.”

  “Republic override, Calista Story, one three seven three six.”

  “Recognized. Please continue to landing zone three.”

  2

  The ship dipped and dived like a fish in translucent water. It was so smooth I didn’t even notice the shift in gravity as we entered the planet’s gravitational well and the atmosphere. Normally heating up a ship’s hull, it didn’t even touch us.

  We sped through the red sky toward the landing zone which was lit with blue lights. We straightened and I lowered the vessel until the landing gear clicked and rocked the ship to a stop. I shut off the engines and opened the cockpit and we climbed down. Karma had her helmet on and I shook my head, letting her know it wasn’t necessary. She slipped it off and threw it in the cockpit as I locked the vessel and a thick hemlight steel exo-hull lifted from the back and covered the ship.

  We walked off the flight deck and two men were there. One was bald and fat and he looked me up and down and licked his lips like an animal, though that just could’ve been the intensely burning weather.

  “Allo, darlin’. Where have you been?” he said.

  “A ship landed here a SGD ago.” I pulled up their photos on my wrist-vid and showed him the faces of the two fugitives. “Do you recognize them?”

  “Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.” He reached over and put his hand on my hip. “Question is, how you gonna persuade me to remember?”

  “If you don’t tell me right now I’m going to cut you in half.”

  “Oh!” he said, turning to his companion, “we got us a live one here. Why don’t you—”

  The plasma blade sizzled as it flicked on and slipped out of its sheath. It sliced through the man at the genitals, cutting through gristle and fat and bone and sinew as if he were made of sand, the blade exiting at the top of his skull. His top half toppled over but his legs took a step. It looked so ridiculous I couldn’t help but grin.

  I moved to his companion. “Tell me now.” I put the blade between his legs and moved it up to his genitals.

  “Larso, his name’s Larso.”

  “Who is he?”

  “Just a smuggler. Nothing special. He brings supplies here. I don’t know who that woman is. She was with him. They came and dropped off some supplies and took payment. That’s all I know.”

  “Where were they headed?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I moved the blade up a tick, searing the flesh of his genitals. He shrieked.

  “I don’t know! I swear I told you everything I know. Please stop!”

  The blade moved down. “Do you have a star gazer here that could at least tell me the general direction they went?”

  “Yeah, we got one of them. Silex has it. I’ll take you to h
im.”

  I clicked off the blade and put it back in the sheath. The man swallowed and said something under his breath before he started walking and led us through the desert near some tents. Refugees. They were huddled together, several of them to a tent, trying to eat the scraps they had found or keep cool by taking turns fanning each other.

  We passed the tents and went up a hill. Underneath a boulder was a door leading down to an underground cavern. I followed the man and turned to Karma.

  “Stay up here,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Make sure they don’t cut off our escape or do anything to the ship.”

  I continued down the stairs behind the man and could hear music. We came out into a bar. Naked girls were dancing on tabletops and their nude silhouettes were visible through transparent screens behind the bar and over a large dance floor. The music was a deep, primal bass. The rhythm was hypnotic. Almost too hypnotic, and I wondered if some sort of gas hallucinogen was being released through the vents to make the patrons more supple.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs and the man turned to see if I was still there. He turned and led us into a corridor that led to what appeared to be a large office. He stopped and turned and said, “Why don’t you wait at the bar.”

  “Why?”

  “I need to ask permission if I can bring you back.”

  “You mean prepare blasters to fire when I walk in.”

  “No, no, no. Not at all. It’ll go better if I ask first and then bring you in. I promise.”

  I looked back to the bar. “Hurry up.”

  Walking out to the dance floor, I slipped past some dancers. One woman slithered her body against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pinched the lateral cuta thoracic nerve of the third meridian near her ribcage. She toppled over in pain. I walked to the bar and sat down.

  “What d’ya need?” the bartender asked.

  “Simian brandy.”