Shockwave

by Lindsay Buroker

  He spotted the mangled remains of what appeared to have been robot sentries. Warped and charred, they’d been struck by DEW rifles, or maybe explosives.

  He must have made a startled noise because Kim glanced back.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I think Rache was here before.” Casmir waved at the debris.

  “Setting a trap?”

  “I don’t know.”

  With few other options, they continued toward the mining ships. In the shadows up ahead, undamaged robots moved about. They were unhooking equipment for draining the ships’ tanks. Did that mean they were almost done, and those ships would leave?

  Casmir fired his jet boots to pick up his pace. None of the robots reacted as they passed.

  A red light flashed behind them on the airlock panel where the mercenary ship was docked.

  “Go,” Casmir said, panic gripping his heart. “They’re coming.”

  He and Kim jetted past the last of the robots and to the closest mining ship.

  “At least the door is open,” Kim said.

  Yes, the hatch was open, an airlock tube in place, and drones zipped in and out of the ship. A porthole showed numerous hookups between the vessel and the refinery. Different gases being transferred inside? All Casmir knew was that it would take time to disconnect everything and launch the ship. Time they didn’t have.

  As he was about to push himself into the tube, a hand gripped him from behind. Zee. His mouth moved as he said something, but Casmir couldn’t hear it. The mining ship and transfer tube were as devoid of air as the refinery.

  Zee pushed him aside and maneuvered himself to go first, and Casmir got the gist.

  “Your noble bodyguard,” Kim said.

  “Everybody should have one.”

  “I doubt the military would agree.”

  As Casmir followed Zee through the airlock tube, he tapped into the network, grimacing at the lag, and called up a layout of the mining ship. He threw in a few searches to see if anything came up related to overriding automatic controls.

  “Casmir,” a voice said over his helmet comm—Viggo.

  “Yes?” Casmir magnetized his boots and set them down on the deck inside the ship’s hold. It was even more full of tanks than the refinery bay had been, and there was nowhere to go but straight down a long aisle toward a distant hatch.

  “My scanners show heat signatures in the refinery now. A team of ten men in combat armor is in the bay.”

  “Thank you,” Casmir whispered, even though there was no chance of his voice carrying anywhere. Unless the pirates had hacked into their comm system and were listening in. A depressing thought.

  He strode down the aisle as quickly as he could while keeping at least one boot attached to the deck. He activated a rear helmet cam, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to see the pirates when they charged up behind them.

  Interior hatches opened automatically as Casmir and Kim hurried into navigation at the front of the ship. Instead of a digital display, three large portholes showed Saga and part of the black bristly hull of the Fedallah.

  The pilot’s seat wasn’t nearly as fancy as the pods in the Dragon, having merely a seat back and a seat belt for protection. Casmir worried that meant the ship had a ridiculously slow drive and it would take twelve days to reach that moon instead of twelve hours.

  “They are not boarding the Stellar Dragon,” Viggo announced.

  “I would say that was good news.” Casmir tugged himself into the seat, securing the belt clasp to keep from floating away. “But I’m afraid that means they’ve figured out where we are.”

  “They have.” Kim stood in the hatchway, her rifle pointed rearward.

  Casmir reached for the controls, hoping he could very quickly figure out how to override the automated system and fly them away. He should have brought Lopez along. A pilot would have had a better chance at this.

  “They’re coming,” Kim barked.

  She started to close the hatch to navigation, but Zee rushed out past her. She closed it after he left.

  “That might buy us some time, but it looked like the whole group of ten back there, all in combat armor.” Kim looked at him. “Casmir, even if we get the ship going, they’re already on it.”

  “I know, I know.” He tapped buttons furiously, hoping vainly… There, that looked like the override.

  A message came up on a screen. Manual control activated.

  “Hah!” It was something. Now if he could—

  Light strobed outside the portholes, and Casmir jerked his head up in surprise before the back of his mind cried, No, don’t look!

  It was his last thought before he lost control of his body and awareness of his brain.

  19

  “Captain?” Viggo asked.

  “Yeah?” Bonita knew she was floating in the middle of the corridor beside navigation, but she couldn’t summon the energy to move. She had stopped throwing up, but she still felt like one of the mystery clumps clogging up the innards of one of Viggo’s vacuums.

  “Neither the refinery nor the mercenary ship has cameras that I can access, but I was monitoring heat signatures on the station and the mining ship that Casmir and Kim attempted to commandeer.”

  “Ah?”

  Was that what they had been doing?

  “It appears that they were captured and taken into the mercenary vessel,” Viggo said.

  “The Fedallah.”

  Bonita had never had a run-in with the infamous mercenary ship, but she knew its reputation well, and she knew to avoid it. Captain Rache might be known for hating the Kingdom and terrorizing its ships, but he’d partaken in plenty of deadly missions in other systems too. Anything, the rumors said, that would help his people hone their skills. Their skills at killing.

  Unexpected tears pricked at her eyes. She would never have brought Casmir here if she’d known Rache was the one who’d placed that bounty. Nobody deserved that man’s wrath. She couldn’t even imagine what the kid had done to earn it. She feared he’d simply been born on the wrong planet and chosen the wrong profession. Maybe one of his crushers had been used on Rache’s ship and killed someone he cared about. Assuming the hardened mercenary cared about anyone.

  “If you plan to contact them in regard to the bounty,” Viggo said, “you may wish to do so soon.”

  Bonita snorted. “You think that bastard is going to pay me? I should have known better, should never have contemplated working for an unproven client. The money was too good, too tempting. It would have solved too many problems.” A tear floated away, and she wiped her eyes. “Even if Rache was going to pay, I can’t, Viggo. I can’t make this trade. Casmir doesn’t deserve this, no matter what he invented.”

  “What do you propose?” Viggo didn’t object. Even though that much money would buy him all the robot vacuums and ship upgrades he could ever want, he didn’t object.

  Because he also thought she’d done the wrong thing?

  With the help of a handhold, Bonita pushed herself into a semblance of an upright position. “Where’s Qin? Still in the lav?”

  “She crawled to her bunk a little while ago.”

  “Where’s the merc ship? Still docked next to us?”

  “Yes.”

  “Qin?” Bonita said over the ship’s comm. “How would you like to plan a rescue?”

  “Captain?” came the weak and uncertain response. But it also seemed to hold hope.

  “We’re next door to Tenebris Rache, and he’s got Casmir and Kim. I’ve… realized I’ve made a mistake.” Why was it so hard to admit that? “I want to help them escape.”

  “I’m coming up.”

  “Captain,” Viggo said, “should I point out how outmatched we would be in either a battle between ships or a battle between crews?”

  “No.”

  “Should I point out that you’re in a weakened state?”

  “Definitely no.”

  Bonita pulled herself into navigation. She didn’t plan to get into a fig
ht with the mercenaries—that would be pure suicide. But if she could provide a distraction, maybe Casmir and Kim could figure out a way to escape on their own. They’d proven their resourcefulness a number of times already—if Casmir actually wanted to hurt anyone, he could be extremely dangerous. That crusher. She shuddered. “Wait, where is his crusher? Did the mercs destroy it?”

  “Unknown, Captain. It left with them, but it has no heat signature, so my scanners can’t find it.”

  Bonita tugged herself into her pod, and it wrapped comfortingly around her, cushioning her and keeping her secure.

  “Still coming, Captain,” came Qin’s weak call. “Almost there…”

  Bonita grimaced in sympathy, knowing just how much effort it was to move right now. There was no way they could fight even one mercenary. Whatever distraction they planned, it would have to be something clever, something that used brainpower rather than brawn.

  “You said they made it to that mining ship, Viggo?” Bonita pointed to the scanner display since the cameras couldn’t show them anything on the other side of the hulking mercenary ship.

  “Yes.”

  “So the crusher might be there and damaged. I wonder if it would be worth retrieving. I also wonder if there’s anything we could use on the refinery to cause a problem for Rache’s ship.”

  Qin made it into navigation and grabbed the back of the co-pilot’s pod to sit down, but she froze. “We’re going to fight Tenebris Rache?”

  Bonita had never heard fear in her young assistant’s voice. She heard it now.

  “We’re going to distract him so Casmir and Kim can escape,” Bonita said. “I’m still working out the how. Either we or Casmir and Kim will have to disable his ship to give us long enough to fly out of here. And—shit. We still need fuel. All right, we’re going to have to take a field trip into that refinery anyway, so we might as well look for the crusher. And hope the mercs are too busy with Casmir to have men roaming around over there. If we can’t disable their ship, they’ll come after us and blow us out of the stars. Even if we can disable them, we’ll have to plot a course very carefully that keeps the refinery between them and us for as long as possible, or they’ll still be able to blow us out of the stars. Did you see all the weapons that thing has?”

  Qin looked toward the ship looming at the edge of their display, but her haunted eyes didn’t seem to see much. It was as if they were locked on some past event.

  “You haven’t met him before, have you?” Bonita asked.

  “I saw him once, when I was twelve and being trained by my then-new pirate owners. We were at a gathering on one of the neutral moons in System Cerberus with some of the related pirate families. There was a nice lake and trees and little cabins and trails and ducks and qoypods. I’d never lived anywhere except a spaceship or space station, and I remember thinking how delightful it was. And then he strode up with some of his men. He wasn’t invited; none of them were. He argued with one of the pirate heads. I was too far away to hear what they were talking about, but later, it came out that one of the pirate families was on retainer for King Jager. They were infiltrating us, in a way, but we didn’t know that then. All Rache said was that he didn’t like Jager’s sycophants. They ended up drawing weapons, the pirate a pistol, him a long dagger.

  “He should have lost, but he was fast. Enhanced. Cyborg, I think. But maybe he’s not human at all. Some say he isn’t. He wears that mask, so who knows? Rache sliced the leader’s head off. Others tried to jump him, but his men lunged in, and they were as ruthless as he was. What had been essentially a family picnic turned into a blood bath. Those who were smart stayed out of it. My captain pulled me back. A lot of people weren’t that smart. They should have had him and his men outnumbered, but they didn’t come out on top. All of the mercenaries walked away. Fifty, sixty pirates didn’t. I remember him looking around at the end, seeing if anyone else would come forward to challenge him, to try to stop him. His oily black mask looked right at me. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, it scared me so much that I had nightmares for months afterward. I… never wanted to see the man again.”

  Bonita was empathetic, but now she worried her only advantage would go into shock if she actually came face to face with Rache.

  “I’ll go to the refinery alone then,” Bonita said. “See if I can figure something out while I’m collecting fuel.”

  “No.” Qin drew a shaky breath. “I’ll do it. I can handle—”

  The comm beeped. It was the Fedallah.

  Bonita stared at the panel. Should she answer it when she planned mayhem? Yes, she had better answer it, because she planned mayhem.

  “Captain Lopez,” she answered, striving for nonchalance.

  “Captain,” a rich cultured voice said, “we generally expect prisoners to be handed over to us in flex-cuffs, not armed and dangerous with killer robot bodyguards.”

  “I’m reasonably sure there was only one robot.”

  Who was she talking to? Rache? Or some lackey? If it was Rache, he ought to sound far eviler, perhaps with a scratchy rasp from when someone had tried to garrote him once. She had no idea if that had ever happened, but that mask had to hide something.

  “It was an inordinately difficult one to deal with.”

  “Those prisoners were inordinately difficult to deal with.” Maybe she shouldn’t warn him of that, but it sounded like he’d figured it out by now. “You should have offered four hundred thousand for Dabrowski and Sato.”

  “I didn’t ask for Sato. And—” his voice took on an icy edge, “—we are not renegotiating at this juncture.”

  Bonita stared at the comm panel. There was no video, so she couldn’t attempt to read body language, but did that imply he actually meant to pay her? She’d assumed he wouldn’t. Where would a mercenary get that kind of money? Admittedly, he was an infamous mercenary and probably got paid well to blow up Kingdom assets.

  “I am, however, interested in a cargo I’ve learned you carry,” the man added.

  A chill went through her fevered body. Thanks to her preoccupation with her sickness, she’d forgotten about the bioweapon.

  “I don’t have anything else that’s for sale. Shall I transmit my bank account information to your finance officer for the transfer of funds for Dabrowski?”

  “Do so. I will transfer two hundred thousand, as agreed, for… Dabrowski.” Why the pause? That was odd. Almost making it sound like that wasn’t the kid’s real name? “And also the fifty thousand that a Mr. Baum agreed to pay you for that case. I understand that deal fell through and that it’s available.”

  Shakes that had nothing to do with her fever racked her body. The man knew about the bioweapon, no doubt. And she was positive now that she was dealing with Rache personally, not some lackey.

  There was no way she could give him the bioweapon. He’d take it to Odin and use it for exactly what it was designed for.

  Bonita closed her eyes and gripped the edge of the console hard enough to hurt. “I’m afraid I can’t sell you that. When I learned what was inside, I jettisoned it into the nearest gas giant. The extreme temperatures there will have destroyed it.”

  “You’re a poor liar for such an experienced bounty hunter.”

  Asshole.

  “What can I say? I’ve been sick. Make sure to search Sato for petri dishes full of viruses, or she’ll do in your crew too.”

  “Interesting.”

  Bonita rubbed her sweaty forehead. She needed time to think. She was probably making things worse for Kim and Casmir, not better. How could she end this conversation?

  “I’m transmitting my account information now,” she said as cheerfully as she could and closed the channel.

  Qin hadn’t said a word or even reacted during the conversation—her face had an eerie frozen stillness. But she looked over in surprise when the channel closed.

  “You can’t hang up on him,” she squeaked.

  “You recognized his voice? That was Rache, right?”

  �
��Yeah. Are you… going to send your banking information?”

  Bonita exhaled slowly. Was she?

  If she accepted payment and then tried to rescue Casmir, she would truly piss off the mercenary. But she would piss him off, regardless, if she attempted a rescue. Except she wasn’t going to rescue anyone, right? She was only going to arrange a distraction and hope Casmir could get himself out of there on his own.

  Not caring if it was cheeky, Bonita leaned forward and transmitted her banking details. She would see if the merc actually sent the money before worrying about moral implications and consequences.

  “Wait a second.” Bonita thumped her hand on the console. “You said Rache is a cyborg, right? Enhanced muscles and the like?”

  “Probably bones too, either reinforced or replaced to support the stress of what enhanced muscles can do.” Qin’s brow creased.

  “But he’d likely still have a human immune system. Human organs. Skin. Brain. Things susceptible to…” She looked over her shoulder significantly.

  “You want to send over those vials in such a way that they’ll blow open on the mercenary ship?” Qin stared at her.

  “I wonder if there’s a reward for killing Rache. I’ve never had the audacity to look, but King Jager must have something out there. The problem is that we couldn’t unleash it while Casmir and Kim were on board.”

  “And how would we escape if we broke open the vials on their ship?” Qin asked.

  “I’ve got some Tac-75 in the armory. We could set a timed charge, give them long enough to—”

  An alert scrolled down Bonita’s contact, letting her know that money had been transferred into her account. Two hundred and fifty thousand Kingdom crowns.

  “Damn. I didn’t think he’d actually pay.”

  Since Rache was bullying her into giving him the case, Bonita felt a little better about trying to screw him, but she still wondered if she was going to survive the day. Maybe she would go out in a fiery blaze. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about financing her retirement.

  “How much did he pay?”

  “Two-fifty.”

  Qin looked gravely at her. “Then he’s going to send men over for the case.”