Chapter Twenty-Two
The next morning, I got the perfect news: the convoy from YX-2 would arrive the same day—just as planned. I also wanted to confirm that the business arrangements had proceeded according to plans and tried to connect back to the home base in Runcor. After multiple attempts since I left the planet, I eventually got connected with Prudencia Terscher.
‘What’s going on?’ I said. ‘I can’t reach Mr Pereen.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘He’s busy right now as the separation process is still underway, and the company is under tight surveillance. But things are going as planned, and it looks like we will have the company split in time tomorrow, maybe already today.’
‘Any trouble from the police?’
‘No. As far as I know, they don’t even know you’re gone,’ she said. ‘So, don’t worry, the firm is in excellent hands, and once we are done, we can continue operations like before.’
I thanked her and closed the connection. The legal issues in Runcor were a nuisance, but valuable in that it served as the impetus to make the firm stronger if similar challenges were to pop up elsewhere.
I suited up, left my quarters, and took the lift to the docking bay.
Never had I seen the base so full: two frigates, and several smaller ships, fighters and bombers, filled every single port of the docking bay. These ships would be my armada against Marc; their awe-inspiring presence alone boosted my confidence about the mission.
Soon I would put an end to the source of my pain. I would avenge my brothers and make them proud of me in the afterlife. Once I had gotten rid of the last one remaining Puissance, I would rebuild our family empire in honour of my father. And I would make it up to Tiana; I didn’t yet know how, but I would find a way.
One of the BTL guys, Enermo Xagona, appeared in the doorway of the frigate closest to where I stood. His footsteps echoed in the hangar as he walked towards me.
He was a top captain on our team. ‘Good to see you, Enermo!’
He said nothing. Behind him appeared Lorens and Ayerich, holding rifles at the ready.
I tensed and took a step back. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Sir,’ Enermo said, wearing a frown, ‘we’re ordered to detain you.’
‘You get your orders from me,’ I said, trying to gauge the situation.
He looked pained as he just stood there. ‘Mr Pereen has taken over BTL. You’re not in control.’
I shook my head. ‘What did you just say?’
‘They have relieved you of your duties.’
Hearing this, I clenched my jaws, then said, ‘No, no, no… that can’t be right.’
Enermo pursed his lips. ‘Sir, it has been a pleasure working for you. Our orders from Mr Pereen are clear. You’re discharged from the Sweeps.’
He called it the Sweeps again. ‘What about Runore? After my brothers’ deaths, I own seventy-five percent of the firm, and it holds the BTL.’
‘The local court deemed Runore Inc unable to manage its financial obligations, and they declared it bankrupt, with the remaining mining assets handed over to the government.’
I took a deep breath and let it sink in. If this was true, Pereen and Terscher had tricked me. They had grabbed the money from Runore to the Sweeps and left me with a worthless piece of business.
Lorens and Ayerich stood with their weapons ready.
‘So, what happens now?’
‘We will escort you out of the Sweeps premises, and drop you off in Spit City, where you are free to go.’
I should have seen it coming, but my thirst for revenge had blinded me. I considered fighting them, I could have taken Enermo, but what then? Even if I’d gotten them all, there would have been more; the base teemed with Pereen’s men.
‘What’s happening?’ Naido had appeared behind me.
I explained my situation to him.
‘That’s a bummer, mate,’ he said. ‘I wish I could help you out.’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Enermo said. ‘We have to get you inside. Please follow us in peace and we don’t have to hurt you.’ Lorens gestured with the gun for me to enter their ship.
I walked across the ramp to the ship.
‘If he’s going,’ Naido said, ‘I’m going, too.’
I stopped. ‘You don’t have to; it’s not your fight.’
‘There is no Sweeps for me without you.’
I grimaced at him. ‘Thanks for the support, but you’re choosing the losing side.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens, I’m choosing the right side.’
‘OK,’ said Enermo. ‘Up the ramp then, both of you. Let’s get going.’
I tapped my foot on the hard floor as I sat with Naido in the brig of the Sweeps frigate about to head out to Spit City.
He said, ‘I remember when we started with the Sweeps; even then I could tell you were unlike the others. You never kneeled before destiny, but took action, even in the toughest of situations, like in the Runners’ base. Know that I’m grateful, and that for me, you are this organisation. There’s nothing else to it. If you’re not there, it’s just not the same. I’ll follow you to the end.’
‘I appreciate it,’ I said. ‘But there’s nothing I can give you. I’ve lost the firm.’
He nodded. For a moment, we both stared at a wall. I found it difficult to express how much I appreciated his support throughout the years—I should have given him more credit when I had the chance.
He cleared his throat. ‘I never thought you were one to give in. Who are they to say you’re out? It’s your company.’
‘It’s too difficult,’ I said. ‘I trusted Prudencia Terscher with the procedure. Also, I never really had ownership of the BTL side—it was all Mr Pereen—now they’ve full control, and I can’t even go to Runcor.’
‘I’m not sure I’m talking with Daler Tait. He never gave up. He was the guy I admired, and in stressful situations, I asked myself, WWDD? What would Daler do? The answer was always a proactive move. Where is that guy now?’
I hadn’t realised I had such an influence on him, but he was right: I always took action, even my father had said so. ‘Thanks, mate, I truly appreciate it. It’s just so…’
He shrugged. ‘It’s a small crew on this asteroid, and you’ve got me and maybe some others on your side.’
I understood what he was getting at. If I was already at the bottom, I had nothing to lose.
‘So why not—’
I stood up. ‘Take over this rock and tell them?’
His smile widened. ‘That’s more like it. Great to have you back.’
I called out for Jude, and within the hour, she appeared behind the brig’s force field. Her face looked apologetic, but also annoyed.
‘Jude,’ I said, and stepped over to the force field. ‘You know me, and you know Naido. And I’m sure you can see what Pereen’s doing.’
She said nothing.
‘You said this was your rock; let’s make it so.’
She stepped closer. ‘What are you trying to say?’
‘Let’s rise against Pereen and his goons,’ I said, lowering my voice, ‘and reclaim this moon.’
‘I like the way you’re thinking,’ Jude said. ‘But you’re too late.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Pereen is here,’ she said. ‘His arrival was the reason it took me so long… he’s brought in heavy troops.’
‘But it’s your rock. You get to decide.’
‘I’m sorry, Daler, it just doesn’t work like that. I wish it did, but it doesn’t.’
I knew it. ‘Pereen’s got something over you.’
She looked away. A door opened in the distance. ‘He’s coming.’
Pereen appeared behind the force field, surrounded by five men in battle armour, pushing Jude to the side.
My muscles tensed. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Remove the force field,’ Pereen said, and one of his men tapped the controls on the side. The blue shimmer disappeared.
/> The guards readied themselves to protect their commander, but he never flinched as he stepped towards me. He said, ‘I’m sorry, Daler. It’s nothing personal, just business.’
‘Just business? What gives you the right to take over my firm?’
He wore a condescending look in his human eye, while the mechanical one shone with coldness. ‘I’m not taking over your firm. The government is. I’m just doing what’s best for my organisation.’
‘You two made it happen. We agreed for you to save my company, and instead you sacrificed it to save your own.’
He shook his head. ‘It didn’t work. There were too many issues. We saved what we could.’
I understood it now. They’d never had an interest in saving my firm. They were happy to see me off on a wild goose chase and keep their organisation. ‘You never cared about anything other than the Sweeps.’
‘I thought you understood that. The merger was useful ten years ago, but in the long run, the ATL operations became a liability and reduced the number of options we had. Now, with boosted capital and capabilities, the Sweeps are stronger than ever.’
‘You scheming piece of—’ I clenched my fingers to a fist and threw a punch aimed at his face.
But his palm caught my fist, and before I could react, he hit my arm from the side, spiking terrible pain through my elbow. I fell on my knees, panting, and cursed at him. Naido kneeled by my side and said, ‘You all right?’
The guards were all over us in an instant, but already I hurt too much even to stand up.
‘Your personal squabbles became a liability that almost toppled our organisation, and I see you’re still blind to it,’ Pereen said as he towered above me. ‘Just like with old Buck Sweep, I had to make my move before you’d ruined it for all of us. Now get out of my sight.’
As he left, and the force field turned on, I sat on the floor stumped and humiliated. I had lost my firm. I could never go back home without being persecuted. I thought about my mother and Tiana. My plans were like sand that trickled down between my fingers, even if I tried my best to hold on.
Everything had gone to hell.
Shock
I wake up to a shock through my brain. Or perhaps I was awake already, dreaming or thinking; it didn’t matter. In this cold, dark box, I feel nothing. This moment has nothing else for me but my sorrowful memories and my worries about what’s to come.
Unable to experience the present is the surest way to insanity. Dwelling in the past makes me depressed and thinking about the future makes me anxious. Going back to the past in my thoughts always feels like a marvellous idea. It is all I have, but as it goes on, from worse to worse, I keep forgetting the better parts.
I miss Tiana the most, but whenever I try to remember how it was during my glory years, I see only static, like there was nothing. I lost over ten years. The mind is tricky, and its ways are beyond me, but still, I have positive memories only from the beginning of my journey. Consciously, I understand I had ten years of love and success, but now it is as if they never existed.
In one thing I agree with Pereen: my thirst for revenge blinded me.
Part IV
Chapter Twenty-Three
They dropped me at the Spit City common spaceport, a bustling hub of people from all races and robots going here and there. The air smelled dank, and there was water on the floors.
I had nothing but the clothes I wore.
The first thing I needed to do was to go around to the other side of the city to the public vault and retrieve my secret stash of gems.
I took the elevator down to the magnarail station. While the better-off folks swooshed around higher levels of the city in their air-conditioned shuttles, the lower class used magnarail, a network of magnetism-propelled trains crisscrossing the surface of the moon, through and between its massive buildings like a net.
Under an array of security cameras, people found their way, spreading across the platform. Almost everyone around me wore some sign of an outcast—ragged clothes, missing limbs, or a control collar—and those who didn’t, just hid it under the surface. For the people in fancy shuttles above, the people riding for free on magnarail were nothing. Still, down here—everyone in a quiet communion: Andron, Dresnean, Human, Baar, or Jindalar—the lowly existence was indiscriminate.
A train clanked onto the platform, and as the automatic doors opened, I entered with the flow of the crowd.
Inside, my nostrils filled with air rich in cheap Jindalar smokes and the smell of sweat and urine, as I watched the misty city rush by in the endless night and planned my next moves. My pain and sorrow seemed as if at a distance. Being alone in an undiscovered city, with all ties to my former life cut, felt suddenly very liberating. I had failed to realise that, instead of a source of joy, Runore had become a massive burden. While my life had been abundant with luxury and power, I had remained unfulfilled, limited by my desire to push harder and harder for more and more, but for what? That was the ultimate question.
I got off at the Lingerheim station within one of the oldest buildings in the city. Its vault, called the Crypt, stretched deep into the moon, and somewhere deep in its automated maze, were my gems.
The robot in the small reception scanned my bio-ID and asked me to wait while the pick-up procedure completed.
Spit City had genuinely changed since I was here last. FIST, the old enemy of the Sweeps, had become the de facto government of the city and ran almost everything from finance to law. Even the Crypt where I—an old Sweepster—stored my gems, was now run by FIST. It was mind-boggling.
It didn’t take long for me to get to my gems. I had three red ones, beautiful objects as such, and even more beautiful with the five million terabucks they each contained. I took one and left the rest. Even if FIST ran the Crypt, or perhaps because of it, it was the safest place for my money. And five million was quite enough to get me started.
I got myself a place on the lower levels of the city; a small pad without a real window (which was all right because if there had been a window, the view would have been another black building behind a thick dark fog, and the wall screen could provide changing bright views) on the ninth floor of a modest 232-storey residential tower.
One night I went to a small bar, the Gun, in the same building. In an annex of the lowest level shopping area, a dark corner overlooked by most, it was little more than a hole in the wall. The tired sign above the entrance didn’t exactly invite people in.
I leaned against the counter, wanting to order a drink, but the only bartender seemed preoccupied in a discussion with a group of men at the other end of the counter.
Already I missed Runcor. I needed my mother, to whom I had never said farewell, and I longed for my brothers who, because of me, had been taken away from this plane of existence, and I missed Tiana, to whom I was still married. Or at least that’s what I liked to tell myself. Sometimes I thought I saw her in the crowd or on an advertising screen, but when I blinked, she was gone.
The only thing I didn’t miss anymore, was ironically the exact thing that had taken those things I cherished the most away from me. Runore, the Sweeps, or the power I had when I ruled over the enterprise, none of that mattered anymore. But the thing that had driven me away was still there. Marc Puissance was somewhere, enjoying his life as I was trying to drown my sorrows on the bottom of the food chain.
I swore that one day I would get to him. But at the moment, it all seemed like a distant dream. I had no means of even leaving the city.
And I wanted that drink. The bartender remained at the other end, now leaning on his hips and grimacing. I listened in.
‘No,’ said one man, a stocky Andron with a goatee. ‘That’s exactly what will happen.’
‘You think this place makes a lot of money?’ said the bartender.
He was probably right. Besides the group of three men, the only other customers were a leathery Jindalar woman, an Andron construction man, and me.
‘Your choice,’ said the lean a
nd bald human fellow. ‘Pay up, or see this place burn down.’
‘Please,’ the bartender said. ‘I can’t afford it.’
The man leaned forward. ‘But then you can’t—’
He stopped mid-sentence as I moved closer. ‘What does a man have to do to get a drink around here?’
‘Look,’ said the man with the goatee. ‘We’re in the middle of something here.’
‘I have some actual business. What you’re doing looks a lot like extortion.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ said the bartender.
‘Give me a Kikuchian on the rocks,’ I said to the bartender, ignoring the thugs, ‘and tell me about your worries.’
The bartender stared at me with his mouth open for a moment, and his eyes widened like he’d realised something. Snapping out of it, he began fixing my drink.
The Andron man pushed his goatee close to my face. ‘If you value your life, you walk away now.’ The big Dresnean fellow behind him flashed a plasma gun.
With nothing to lose, I stared into the man’s eyes and said, ‘Who’s us?’
‘The Rust,’ he said. ‘This is our turf.’
‘FIST is in charge of the city, isn’t it?’
The three men laughed. The one with his face too close to mine said, ‘FIST is a joke; they won’t come and save you here. They don’t care about what happens on single digits.’
The bartender set a tumbler on the counter. I savoured the colour as the neon lights mixed with the golden liquid, and picked the glass up to my nose to inhale the deep woody aroma. I repeated, ‘They won’t come and save you here…’
The Andron man slapped the tumbler from my hand, splashing the drink as the glass shattered on the composite floor. ‘I told you to mind your own business!’
Crooked Stars Page 15
