The main armory was in the center portion of the ship, so it was accessible from multiple angles. The walls were lined with handguns like hers along with high powered rifles and explosives. Rei grabbed another handgun and strapped it to her belt before hefting up one of the rifles and arranging the strap across her torso. From a table, she grabbed some concussion grenades and shoved them into pockets, and striding from the room.
“What’s the plan?” she asked Kuv as she walked into the transporter room.
He abruptly turned from his conversation and stood at attention. “We’ll split up once we get on board. Most will go with Yeke and me to secure our target, while a few will go with Aede to shut down any resistance.”
“Good,” Rei approved. “Where do you want me?”
“Wherever you like. Though if you want some sort of preference, you’re best when you float between the groups.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Hey, Boss, we’re getting some hails up here. Should we answer yet?” Foniac asked over the comm.
“Stick to the plan,” Yeke ordered. “They’ll ask a few more times before they give us a warning shot.”
“We’re ready for when it does happen,” Chia broke in. “Shields are at full and we have backups ready to deploy.”
“Are we all here now?” Rei asked Kuv and Yeke. Kuv nodded. “Let’s get this show on the road before it comes to that.”
Rei watched Kuv get the first group in position to go across, her arms gently folded in front of her.
“Think we’re set?” Yeke asked quietly in her ear.
Rei shrugged, her eyes locked on her vanishing crew. “As much as we’re going to be.” Speaking louder, she approached the transporter pad. “Come on!”
No matter how many times she had done it, another room instantly materializing in front of her eyes was fascinating. The others crowded around the only door, waiting just long enough for them to join before they spread out in silence. Rei waited a couple of minutes before cautiously setting out herself. The halls were easy enough to navigate, most ships that the Federation used for transporting their goods had the same stock, and in her opinion sterile, layout.
“Hold it right there!” a voice shouted from behind her. Rei paused as she heard the rustle of a weapon being brought into position. “Turn around with your hands up.”
Rei allowed her rifle to fall to her chest as she raised her hands. Slowly, she turned around, “Yes?”
Two soldiers had their guns trained on her. “How did you get on board?” the speaker asked.
Rei bit her cheek to keep from laughing at their wide-eyed expressions at how armed she was. “I walked.”
“I see we have a wise guy here,” the second soldier sneered. “You’ll learn to lose that fast enough.” He turned to his partner. “Let’s get her secured. Go disarm her.”
“Don’t do anything stupid now,” his partner warned as he approached.
Rei resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She allowed the man to relieve her of the rifle without protest. He was reaching for the gun strapped to her thigh when she unleashed a wave of Essence toward them and sent the pair into the wall where they crumpled, unconscious. Rei pointed to direct her Essence toward them. They rose in the air, their limbs hitting each other in a cartoonish fashion with no resistance. Rei floated them into a nearby room before letting them drop to the ground in a crumpled heap. She set the door to unlock only from the outside, then retrieved her rifle where the soldier had dropped it. The chamber had cracked open in the fall causing Essence to leak out.
I’m never going to hear the end of this. She let it go, then frowned at the door for a moment. Summoning a bit of Essence, she used the energy to melt the control panel.
As Rei turned down the next corridor, she glanced in the first room only to pull back flush against the wall. Inside appeared to be a secondary control room with five armed men watching what was happening on their screens. Carefully, she reached for the door controls. The door slid shut, though she could hear them protest inside. She gathered a ball of electricity in the palm of her hand, then released it into the panel. The smell of melting plastic filled the air. Giving the nearby security camera a wave, Rei rushed off.
“Where are we?” she asked over comms.
“I am about to get in and lock down the system,” Aede replied, breathless. “So be careful of what doors you try to go into.”
“First load is on its way and we’re getting the second ready,” Yeke said. “Kuv’s also found some other goodies that might be worth it to take with us.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Damn it,” Aede broke in with a sigh. “This is going to take me longer than I thought, their back up firewalls just triggered.”
“How long?” Rei asked.
“Depends on how much of a fight these defenses put up.”
Rei grimaced. “Fine—I’ll keep going manually and do what I can.” She closed down her comm. “And people wonder why I’m so overbearing.”
Spherical pulses of Essence energy flew greeted her around the next corner. She ducked into a doorway before easing over just enough to see who was responsible. Two more soldiers peeked out just enough to fire off a few shots before they vanished again.
They’re getting smarter, she thought as she readied her gun. Slowly, she inched around the corner and fired in a steady stream to cover her race to reach the next doorway. Several shots responded, many coming dangerously close to their target. She crouched as far back as she could to plan her next move. The soldiers continued, maintaining their pattern of alternating who was the one firing.
Rei returned fire so she could continue to advance. One of the soldier’s shots splattered across her shield at the level of her heart. Her brow furrowed as she adjusted her pattern of fire. If they were going to have no problem aiming to kill, neither would she.
“Drop your weapon!” one of them shouted as she reached the next doorway.
“Now you want to talk?” she yelled back. “After you fired on me first!”
Their guns suddenly went silent. She looked out just in time to see one of them crawling across the floor. Rei waited but silence reigned over their battleground. She slowly approached where the soldier had vanished, gun ready to fire. At her approach, the soldier’s gun flew upward, aimed at her chest. Rei’s expression softened as she noticed how badly his hands shook.
“Think about what you’re doing. Your friend is dead and I could have made you join him, but didn’t.”
“What do you want?”
“To finish this without any more bloodshed. Why don’t you take your friend and tuck yourselves in one of these rooms?”
“Why don’t you kill me, too?”
Either he’s greener than I thought or he’s an idiot. “I didn’t come here to kill anyone. He was an accident that wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t shoot first and ask questions later.” The lights in the hallway dimmed and the engines powered down. The expression on his face told her that he had reached the correct conclusion about what had caused it.
“Make your choice. Or I will shoot you and then jettison both of you into deep space.” He looked down at the cooling body, swallowed, and nodded. “The room behind you is good enough. Get moving.” She reached over and activated the door with her weapon still locked on the soldier.
He lifted the body under its arms and started to drag him toward the open door. Sweat ran down his brow as he struggled with the weight of his comrade. Once they were fully inside, Rei motioned for him to hand over their weapons and communicators. He did so reluctantly. Before Rei could do anything else the door slid shut between them.
“I have them locked out now,” Aede said in her ear. “There might be a few still out and about, but they can’t call in reinforcements.”
“Well, we should be able to make a clean getaway,” Kuv said. “We’ve tagged the last bit of stuff, and our men are on their way back to the departure point.”
�
��Good, get yourselves back there too,” Rei ordered as she holstered her gun and dashed away from the door.
“You got it,” Yeke said.
Rei didn’t worry so much about caution as she retraced her path through the halls, eager to get back to her ship as soon as possible. Near the control room she had locked down, she heard footsteps racing toward her. Aede and her group appeared at her side. Wordlessly, the pair of women fell into step together until they burst into the room they arrived in. As the last of their group cleared the doorway, the room vanished and she found herself staring at the familiar walls of the Kathya’s teleporter room. She did a quick survey to make sure they were all back. Kuv nodded his approval and she tapped her earpiece.
“Foniac, get us out of here.”
The Kathya shook under a barrage of weapon’s fire.
“With pleasure, Boss,” Foniac replied.
“You didn’t lock out their weapons?” Yeke asked Aede.
“I thought I did, but they must have restored them already.” Aede looked at one of the computer screens. “At least the engines are still offline.”
The ship quivered a few more times. Kuv wandered over to the computer. “She’s right, they can fire at us all they want, but they cannot follow.”
No one spoke in the room as they listened for the impacts against their shields to stop.
“We’re clear,” Foniac announced over the ship-wide system. “You are now free to go about your business.”
“She has way too much fun with this,” Yeke muttered.
“What all did we end up getting?” Rei asked.
“Everything we wanted plus some food, and quite a few boxes with no label,” Yeke replied.
“Do we know what’s in there?” Aede swung away from the computer.
“Medicines and other supplies were in the one we opened. We’ll know more when we get a better chance to look at the others,” Kuv replied. “They had the standard number of guards on it, so let’s hope it was worth it.”
“What were our casualties?” Rei asked.
“A few were banged up a bit, but otherwise it was all on their side,” Yeke said.
“Good.” Rei walked to the door, taking out the extra cartridges and gun except for her personal one. She passed these to one of the men by the door to take back to the armory.
“Um, Rei, aren’t you missing something?” Yeke asked.
“Hm?” Rei tried to make her tone as innocent as possible.
“You were armed to the teeth when we went over and now, you’re missing at least one rifle.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“It was... an unfortunate casualty.” Rei offered a sheepish grin.
“Captain, those rifles...” Kuv sounded horrified.
“And you say I’m the reason we can’t have nice things,” Yeke added.
“At least I can replace the toys I lose,” Rei retorted. “Just make sure I get an updated inventory later today so we can see what we can get rid of on the next planet we’re on.”
“What planet is that?” one of Kuv’s security force asked.
“Bruatin,” she replied, her tone miraculously even despite the twisting her stomach did at the thought. “We’re going to Bruatin.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Bruatin was a highly industrious planet that, while Federation controlled, had managed lesser interference in local affairs than most. Large cities sprawled across the surface, their buildings rising high in the smoke-filled sky until they disappeared among the clouds. Rei stood behind Foniac as she watched their approach, her fingers twitched at her sides as she waited. There was a noticeable amount of nerves on the bridge today with most of the senior crewmembers present. Foniac offered concise responses to Yeke’s questions about how things were going. Kuv, meanwhile, wandered from station to station, examining each in turn.
“Report to dock seventeen-B,” a voice came across the general channels. “Once docking procedures are completed you will be free to leave the vessel. Doing so before this is complete will lead to arrest and possible seizure of the vessel.”
Rei frowned and glanced over at Chia just behind her. “Are you sure we’re welcome here?”
“Yes,” Chia replied. “They’re just cautious. There’s a lot of sensitive information here.”
“Why is your tail twitching more than normal?” Kuv asked.
“What are you talking about?” the engineer demanded.
“You’ve very few tells about your state of mind and this is one of them.”
“Well, like I said, I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms. I was never a fugitive like some.” She gave Rei a pointed look. “But I can think of several who would love to chuck me into the nearest singularity.”
“We’re docked,” Foniac said. “They’re scanning life signs and system information.”
Rei swallowed. “Let’s hope they find us as boring as we try to be.”
Minutes ticked by but no one seemed to be able to move from their positions. “Procedures are complete,” the voice announced and Rei could feel the tension leave on a breath of fresh air. “You are free to exit. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Tell everyone if they want to sightsee, get it in while they can. Who knows how long this’ll take,” Rei told the room before turning to Chia. “When do they expect us?”
The engineer looked up at the display giving them local times. “We have about half an hour until we’re due. I didn’t want to leave too much time between arrival and the meeting.”
“I’ll go grab my things then and meet you below.” Rei quickly raced toward her office She heard the door open just as she finished entering the combination to get into the safe. “You sure you’re fine being the ones to get rid of our latest load?”
“We can handle it,” Yeke replied. “Kuv’s got connections here thanks to the need for independent security forces and he has a few backups just in case the first one falls through. Remember it’s a good sign that they haven’t tried to talk us down on our price and want to take most of it.”
“I know. I know.” Rei exhaled deeply to calm herself down. “We are keeping some of those blade rifles for us, right?”
“Of course, do you think I want to risk Chia’s wrath if I take away a new toy to tinker with before she gets her hands on at least one?” Kuv asked as he entered the room.
“How many did you keep?” Rei asked.
“I figured a case would be sufficient.”
Rei withdrew the papers from the safe and stuffed them in a leather satchel. She hoisted the strap over a shoulder before shutting the safe and hiding it away once more. “Anything else?” she asked. The pair of them shook their heads. “Then let’s go and get this done.”
~*~
They entered the cargo bay to find work at a standstill, men and women alike circled the crates, eyeing them wearily. Rei glanced at Yeke and he shrugged but stepped up the pace toward the focal point of the disturbance. As they rounded the last stack of cargo Rei’s eyes widened at Chia standing atop one of the crates, fury blazing in her eyes as she glared scathingly at something just out of their sight.
“I told the Captain I needed these,” she said. “Why are you taking them off the ship?”
“I was told to...” a woman stammered. “All of these were marked for offload.”
“Well, I unmarked them!”
“Chia,” Yeke greeted as they drew even with her perch. “You’re looking a little flustered.”
In an instant, he was airborne in a cloud of orange-colored energy. “I understand developing ways to keep our operation in fighting form might be below the understanding of some, but don’t mock those who do.” Chia’s eyes slid over to Rei. “Now, Captain—might we keep this box at the very least? Or am I resigned to have to steal whatever I want for myself?”
“Chia.” Rei sighed. “No one was taking the one you’re on. Everyone knew that I said that you could keep a crate to experiment with. Now put Yeke down.” She felt, not for the fi
rst time, that she was a parent managing children and barely keeping them from disaster. Slowly, Chia lowered the man back to the ground.
“Thank you, Captain,” the woman Chia had been yelling at mouthed to her before hastily making an exit with another crate from the pile.
Yeke straightened his clothes and turned to Chia. “Enough.” Rei’s voice was soft but stern. “You both can cool off while you’re planetside.”
“Fine,” he relented. “Good luck with your appointment.”
Rei watched him walk away with Kuv and adjusted the pack on her shoulder. “You finished?” she asked Chia as she leapt off the crate. Chia nodded and took lead out of the ship and away from the dock. Bruatin’s port city was full of towering factories that spewed smoke into the sky. Rei tried to take in everything around them, but Chia’s breakneck speed soon forced her attention on trying to keep up and not lose the engineer in the tide.
“You look overwhelmed,” Chia commented once she guided them down a quiet street.
“This planet seems different compared to others that I’ve been to.”
“You won’t find another like it either. To my knowledge, this is among the last of the planets like this—most vie for some sort of sophistication, or that’s what they call it, so they fully embrace trading for everything. But people come here from planets that don’t have many opportunities to find good paying jobs. The result is a constant developing industry that creates enough for the scientific community to thrive and be able to focus their efforts on pure discovery.”
They rounded a corner and Rei found herself staring up at a giant wall. Chia drew them to a stop just out of sight of the only way through, a large gate. Stationed outside were guards clad in Federation uniforms, as well as ones who bore the universal symbol for science.
“What are they doing here?” Chia muttered.
“You didn’t mention this place was guarded like this,” Rei hissed.
“There’s only a special guard, contractors I suppose you would call them, that help keep the peace. Most of the time they just end up helping out when an accident happens. I’m guessing these Federation fools are here looking for someone we both know.” Chia’s ears twitched. “How’d you pass their tests when they boarded on Vantani?”
Forgotten Relics Page 6
