“Please show me to the detention area. I don’t want to litter your space around here with new items that your customers would have to dodge.”
“Of course.” Denigh nodded (useful gesture) as he stepped through the door and held it for the three aliens. “Please head in that direction.” He nodded to the left. “I will follow as soon as everyone is out.
A Skaine was complaining loudly ahead of Denigh, and when he came around the corner, he found that the female had stopped. The reverberations from Chrillen hitting the wall twice and his quick assurance that he would shut up echoed down the hall.
The rest of the walk to the jail area was pleasant. Many at the station had heard the rumors, and they’d stick their heads out of their businesses or come out to see the three aliens carrying the Skaines like sacks of food as the procession would past.
It was almost like a parade.
Denigh punched the button on his phone. “Comms?”
“Sir?”
“Please confirm the QBS Achronyx has provided final call?”
“Yes, Station Manager. I confirmed with Station Control the QBS Achronyx is outbound and they have the Skaine ship slaved—er, poor choice of words, Station Manager—they have the Skaine ship following them.”
“I don’t think they are worried about inanimate objects, Comms. So, the humans are gone, and the Skaines and the Skaine’s ship with them?”
“That is correct.”
“Thank you,” Denigh replied and lifted his finger, leaning back in his chair.
On his desk were three small columns of coins, two worth one-hundred and forty credits, and one, the middle stack, worth two-hundred credits.
He kept looking at the money sitting there, wondering what to do. For whatever reason, he felt it was special and needed to be saved. He reached for his tablet and punched the video button, routing a connection to a friend.
“Hello, Tro’lick speaking,” responded a female’s voice.
“Hit your video,” Denigh told her.
Tro’lick’s face came up, and she smiled. “Denigh! Haven’t seen you in a while. Did you hear about the fight in the bar?”
How had the fact that he was part of the story gotten dropped? “Yes, Tro’lick, I’ve heard. I had a good seat for it, as a matter of fact.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” Denigh punched a button to turn on a camera on the back. “Do you see these three piles of coins?”
Her face got closer to the camera. “Yes?”
“Did your story include the Skaines paying off someone?”
Her mandibles opened for a moment. “That was you?”
“The very same,” he replied. “I was wondering… I would like to encase these three piles of coins to commemorate them.”
“Why?” she asked, her mandibles askew in confusion.
“I just think these are going to be special in the future. They will be the coins that started the Skaines’ downfall. Certainly in the Eubos System, but maybe in this corner of the galaxy.”
His friend looked at the screen, not saying anything for a moment. “You think this money is that special?” He nodded to her. “Ok, then you stay put. Keep the video on those piles, and while you’re at it, have Security pull all the video from the bar to you walking down the hall and into your office.”
Now Denigh’s mandibles to proclaimed confusion. “Why?”
“Because,” she told him, “if they are that important, we will need to prove those are the coins. And if we can?” She smiled. “They might be worth a thousand times more than their value, Denigh!”
She laughed at the look of astonishment on her friend’s face.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
How bizarre, Shi-tan thought as he looked around the multi-story shopping and eating area. It was just off the exit from the Customs area of the huge space station, which had been formed out of an asteroid, and so far he was impressed.
He hadn’t been allowed to fly all the way around the exterior of the asteroid. He would have enjoyed a chance to see if there were soft points and a closer look at the large dish on one side of the station, but ships were prohibited from getting too close to that side
“Raaak’d,” a voice called from behind him. Shi-tan continued moving forward, then stepped to the side to get out of the way of someone trying to get around him. He had followed the damned son of the king for his bounty, and now he was here in this completely new alien station, having tracked him to this...place. He looked around.
These aliens looked like a multi-color variant of Torcellans.
Except, feisty.
Feisty Torcellans. Shi-tan liked that thought. Feisty was good. He looked around to find a bar, and he noticed a store selling the tablets the agent who checked him in had spoken about so he headed in that direction.
A few minutes later, he had a tablet and an understanding how to use the programmed translation capability. He changed the tablet to use a language he could readily read and raised it. Sure enough, the signs all over the place changed into a language he could understand. He swept it across the different levels, then he pointed it at the end of the cavern.
There was a huge sign for a bar.
Shi-tan smiled and pulled the tablet down.
All Guns Blazing was a name he understood. Certainly a bar after his own heart.
17
Charrlock Mining, Asteroid 9881, Eubos System
It had taken the Yollins in the small mining company operations group about thirty seconds to realize their internal communications had been subverted. The aliens’ system had turned off the link between the operations office and those who were a few hundred steps across the surface of the asteroid in the main mine.
The Yollin in charge of the mining operations might have sent one of his subordinates to see to the problem, but the very imposing alien spaceship was hovering right outside with its guns pointing at his office.
They were relatively safe where they were, but getting information to the mine itself—and the company owner, who had been in the mine checking on things for the last couple hours—was impossible.
“Attention, Charrlock Comms.” Br’ockchrellick’s communications worked again! He grabbed the microphone, switched the comm over to the correct frequency, and hit the button.
“Hey Boss, we got a problem out here,” he started.
“No,” an alien voice came back. The aliens were speaking Yollin, but they certainly weren’t Yollin. “What you have is an annoyed Ranger who is tired by your lack of communication. So are you going to talk with us, or shall I just start blasting?”
Brock, short for Br’ockchrellick, looked down at his communication systems. Everything was set correctly, but he wasn’t speaking with the mine. He slowly clicked the button to talk. “This is Charrlock Comms, Second Lead Brock speaking. Who is this?”
“This would be Empress’s Ranger Tabitha speaking. We have some horse-trading to do with your mine manager, so would you be so kind as to—”
The halt in communication surprised Brock, and he was looking to see what had changed when the voice of the alien came back online. “Never mind, I see that we have a group coming out of the mine right now.”
Chan’on, the mine and the company’s owner, was pissed. He had lost contact with the main office, and those guys had not sent anyone to check on those in the mine. This was against safety regulations.
Safety regulations he had written himself.
He was walking back to the operations center to tear a strip off Brock‘s back. “He’s getting too complacent,” he grumbled to himself.
“Sir?” one of his two assistants asked.
“Nothing,” he called back over their intercom, then made sure he was on mute this time.
“Brock, come in, you poor excuse for a...for a…” Chan’on stopped at the mine’s opening when he saw the craft hovering right above the asteroid. The ship moved with the slight gyrations of the asteroid.
For a ship that size to get
this close to the asteroid was beyond insane.
Someone really good was piloting that ship. His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed activities at the stern. Two turrets that looked like they were big enough for him to crawl into turned around and pointed right at him and his two assistants.
Tabitha watched the three Yollins stop at the mine entrance. They had on suits that were more rigid than shipsuits, but didn’t give the same level of protection the armor Kiel used offered. Still, she didn’t want to get into a fight and be punched by one if she could skip that part.
“Achronyx, patch me into the helmets of those new Yollins behind us.”
Company owner Chan’on wasn’t too surprised when his comm crackled to life, but he was surprised to hear the alien’s speech pattern. It was Yollin, but...different.
“Attention, individuals coming out of the mine,” the voice said. “I am Ranger Tabitha of the Etheric Empire. I have been sent to stop the use of slaves here in the Eubos System.”
“Fat chance of that,” Chan’on grumped into his helmet. “Those damn Skaines—”
“Are sitting in a ship above me right now, and there are more I’m sure I’ll speak with soon,” she interrupted him.
Alarmed, Chan’on looked at his display on the inside of his suit’s helmet, realizing his microphone was on. He sent the command to turn off his mic, but it remained open.
He clicked his mandibles twice in agitation, then Chan’on took two more steps out of the mine and looked up. Sure enough, way up above the larger ship was one of the smaller Skaine slavers. “Hey!” Chan’on looked at the ship nearest him. “I run a tight company here. We don’t have any slaves.”
“I am aware of that,” she said. “I’m here to ask you if you need workers, because these Skaines are going to die if you don’t.”
Chan’on thought about it a moment, then started walking toward the entrance to his operations offices. “I suppose the least I can do is talk,” he agreed, then glanced up at the alien ship hanging above him as he walked underneath it. It was large enough he felt he could reach up and touch it, but not so large it seemed bulky.
It was, he conceded, a very svelte ship.
“Your ship or my offices?” he asked, not even bothering to see if his mic was on. His communications were obviously in their control.
“Your offices are suitable, Company Manager Chan’on. Ranger Tabitha out.”
The frantic voice of his second-in-command came over his comm immediately when the alien dropped off. “Chan’on! Chan’on! We have company! Oh…” Brock stopped yelling when his boss walked out of the shadows cast by the ship.
“I’ll be there in a moment. Set up the meeting room for visitors,” Chan’on told his second.
Anything else he needed to say, he would say after he got this damned suit off.
The QBS Achronyx slowly pulled away from Asteroid 9881.
From inside the mining company’s operations and communications room, Chan’on and Brock watched the human ship turn gracefully. The Skaine ship turned to follow, and both ships left.
“That,” Chan’on stated as the ships rapidly disappeared on the video monitor, “was the strangest experience I’ve had in my life.” He stopped looking at the screen.
Brock turned to his boss after glancing at the monitor one last time. “You think these Skaines will work well for us?”
“They have seven years, then they can go free. If they don’t comply, their own technology will punish them.” Chan’on shrugged. “They made the choice to accept her punishment for slavery.”
Brock chuckled. “Boss, I’m not sure ejection without a suit into space is a choice.”
Chan’on shrugged. “That head guy, Chrillen, straight up told her no. Said some things I didn’t even realize you could translate into Yollin, and looked straight into the video camera and bragged how she was too nice to kill them.”
Brock shivered. ‘Do not ever mistake compassion for inability to implement Justice, Skaine.’ the Ranger had told Chrillen. Damn, it was like she had shut off all emotions. The next thing those watching knew, she had grabbed the Skaine and told a video bot to follow them. Dragging him as he screamed, she took him into the airlock. By then the Skaine had started pleading, because he finally understood there was no bluff in her. The Yollin watched the video as she tossed the Skaine out the airlock, her suit providing a helmet that no one realized had been folded into her collar.
“It was a good message,” Chan’on admitted as he stepped out of Comms. “I’ve got to make sure our two new recruits are situated with their equipment.”
“What was the message?” Brock asked, thinking back to the video of her flinging the body into space.
“When she says the punishment for slavery is death,” Chan’on called as he turned the corner to walk down the hall, “she means it.”
QBS Meredith Reynolds
The bounty hunter Shi-tan downed his fourth glass of Coke. He had tried three different drinks these humans called “beer,” but the alcohol was playing with his perception. He couldn’t allow that.
If a fight occurred, he wanted to be able to remember it. Although, looking around at those in the bar, it seemed a sedate group.
Shi-tan smiled when the next glass of the brew was dropped off at his table. The alien was male, but Shi-tan didn’t care. He was strong and graceful, and therefore, enjoyable to watch as he took care of his group of tables.
There was something…not right here. Shi-tan could feel the emotions of those around him leaking danger, and he could feel the desire from most here in the bar area to fight.
But no fight was happening.
He had asked a few people about the alien he was trying to find, but had received no information.
He turned the tablet back on and paged around using the interface, then hit one button and jerked his hand back.
The tablet had created a 3D effect.
Slowly, he moved his hand into the picture, and found he could manipulate the different screens easily. He put the tablet on the table and left it there, then stood up from his barstool and moved to his right, looking at the tablet.
He couldn’t see anything. Shi-tan moved to the other side of the table.
Nothing again. Finally the bounty hunter walked all the way around the table, and it wasn’t until he was back in front of the tablet that the screen could be seen again. Well, that wasn’t totally true—there were about ten degrees on either side when he leaned over.
Nice technology, and it wasn’t super-expensive. Shi-tan wasn’t sure what the catch was, but he was sure there was one. After going through the different levels of applications, he found one that searched for people.
He raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” he grumped, and plugged in Aerolyn’s name. One hit came up, with a note that the photo was being withheld.
He clicked the detail, and found out that the person (or alien) in question was on a thirty-day visa for possible political asylum.
Shi-tan started laughing, and his grin was infectious. When he looked up two of the humans had lifted their glasses in his direction, so he grabbed his Coke and returned their salute.
He upended his glass, and finished the contents in one long drink. His eyes got big when his stomach tried to expel the gas in the drink, and he finally belched loudly. There was one female to his right who did something with her hand under her nose, but to his left, three of the darker Torcellan-looking aliens started clapping their hands and smiling at him.
He lifted his now-empty glass in their direction and they returned the favor, everyone smiling.
He wasn’t expecting to be able to get Aerolyn back from these humans, but the bounty had a conditional clause. He would receive half the bounty, in exchange for providing the location of where the little runt had run off to.
With this new alien group’s own technology, he could prove to the king where his little bastard had run to and receive half the award. Which, considering it was only a two-Gate jump back t
o his home planet, would mean a seventy-percent gain on this trip.
“Are you done, sir?” the human interrupted. Shi-tan turned to his waiter and asked in halting Yollin, “Do you have a barrel of this Coke I can take with me?”
“Yes. Do you want it here, or shall we deliver it to your ship, sir?”
Shi-tan thought about it. “What is the charge?”
“No charge if you buy a barrel, sir. We just need two hours to deliver.”
Shi-tan grimaced. “How about a charge to make the delivery quicker?”
“That is ten percent of the barrel charge,” the waiter replied.
“Yes, let us do that.” Shi-tan grabbed his tablet. He was going to use the alien’s own technology against them. “I need to close out my tab.”
“Then we can run this against your ship, sir.” The waiter pulled up a smaller tablet and hit two buttons. “There. Please confirm the bill. I appreciate you joining us here at All Guns Blazing.”
Shi-tan looked at his tablet and confirmed the charge, then headed out and walked through the bazaar area again. It was, he had to admit, very impressive.
Too bad it would probably be destroyed when Aerolyn’s dad came over here to retrieve his son. He hadn’t started a bar fight this time, but he had to admit.
Starting an intergalactic war sounded damned impressive.
18
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Special Operations Room
E’Kolorn looked around the large operations room in shock.
While the experience of having an alien and another Yollin search his mind was horrifying, it was something he could compartmentalize as being “alien.”
The moment he had stepped into the transportation room had been disturbing.
The Empress walking with him through the Etheric had been exhilarating.
The sophistication and sheer abilities of this group to make war, however, were frightening.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set Three: Books 15-21, Never Submit, Never Surrender, Forever Defend, Might Makes Right, Ahead Full, Capture Death, Life Goes On (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 38
