by Reiter
“Okay, I gotta say, that’s the kind of talk that makes me want to delay making contact with Tehdi,” Nulaki admitted.
“Which I believe to be a mistake, though a minor one,” Dungias replied. “We have raw stones from a mine in the Gulmar System, and you have a trusted source by which those stones can be traded for liquid assets. Also, if you are required to engage in a ‘job’ while we are here, you would have the support of the crew behind you.
“That is, if I am not speaking beyond my place, Captain.”
“Every time that I think you are… it only means that I need to redefine your place, Z,” Jocasta stated as she caressed his shoulder. “But let’s get back to stealing the attention of this Rainbow Room.”
“If the Baronial Council functions in the same manner as most other governments found in the Rims,” Dungias stated. “… then power and influence can be gained when something vital to several members becomes a thing you either possess or manipulate. With only a cursory review of the sitting councilpersons, there are several points of interest I feel we can approach. Those are: extortion, shipping, security, and gladiatorial combat.”
Nulaki nodded in agreement, clearly thinking and putting a few things together. “For someone who says they’re not a pro, that’s some damn fine work. But there is a person not on your list who has tremendous pull with the Council. That man is Condell Perth, the Governor of Black Gate! You win his favor, he can probably get you in before the Council inside an hour!”
Jocasta put her hands on her hips and smiled. “And to think I came in here pissed off. You two put your heads together and be ready to make a report at dinner tomorrow night. I’ll make my final decision then. Also, Z, see what you can do to put together a going-away package for Adleon.” Jocasta looked off for a moment. She shook her head once and started toward the door.
“Runabout, Captain?”
“Got to, Z,” she replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll leave– Crapstacks, that reminds me,” Jocasta said as she opened a channel to all of her crew. “Now hear this, people, and hear it good! I don’t care how much he, she, or even it promises that they can make it feel better if you take off your brace-com. The only two places you can remove them without repercussions are this house and the Xara-Mansura! Any other place will not only get you on my crapstack list, but you will be tracked down… immediately… and we will come in blasting! Of course, for the really slick and wary, you now know that removing your brace-com is a bona fide way of screaming for help. In that particular situation, said maneuvers will not get you onto my list. So I advise all of you, once your brace-com is removed, you need to listen for the first loud sound and be on the floor in the very next blink. That is all!”
“Is there any chance this rule applies to you, Captain?” Dungias asked. Jocasta turned and stared at the Malgovi until he nodded. “I thought not. Have a good time, and clear your head.”
“That’s the plan,” she said as she turned down the hallway.
“I thought those were called walkabouts,” Nulaki pointed out.
“Not when you go about it the way that woman will,” Dungias replied. “She never takes too long, and seldom does walking appeal to her.”
“So she’s just going to do some damage!”
“If it comes to that,” Dungias said, still entering commands in the computer. “Yes.”
“And she’s going to do this while we’re trying to gain influence?!”
“To cut to the chase,” Dungias said, turning to look at the Black Scarab. The moment he had the thief’s eyes, he returned a very intent gaze. “Here is an idea, Nulaki: go and stop her!”
“You know what? Why don’t we take a look at the Governor and see what we can find,” Nulaki suggested. Dungias said no more. He nodded and brought up the file he had already compiled.
“Five freakin’ days!” Jocasta thought. “Whoever heard of such a thing? I have half a mind to go to the damn council chambers and frag each and every last one of them. Let’s see them put that to five days pending!” She walked from the house into the car port. With an estate of this size, she was not surprised to see a seven-stall garage. Without even thinking, she took down the control rod for the hover-cycle and started it up. Driving out of the garage, she looked down at the machine. “Okay, Murder had a point. This hunk-of-junk is so not Z-ified! Should get me from A to B though.” With no artificial sunlight, Jocasta activated the headlights so she could see. She throttled up and headed for the Lift. There was little chance she would find the level of distraction she sought in the suburbs. She needed either the city or the docks. Having seen the spaceport twice, she thought her aims would be better served in a visit to check out the city life.
The transit from the burbs was annoying. Had she been using a vehicle capable of flight, she could have used an access tube to get to the level she wanted. But the hover-bike needed something more solid than air under it, so taking a tube would have only resulted in a very ugly and untimely death. Still, there was an alternative to taking the Lift, and Jocasta was feeling like she needed the diversion.
Entering the roadway, she drove the bike out on to the spiraling causeway and laughed heartily when the bike’s computer suggested auto-drive. Jocasta activated her goggles as she accelerated. Soon she was weaving in and out of the lanes, passing slower traffic, occasionally hearing a buzzer in protest of her style of driving. She paid them little mind as the lights of the city drew closer. Just the anticipation of things to come made her smile brightly... but not for long.
“What are you doing, girl?” she thought, moving her hand to her brace-com. “You get the fuel lines to your thrusters all in a clog over bureaucracy?! Some things never change, do they, Scim? All the times you tried to tell me, ‘you can’t always go straight at a target… not always’, and that turned out to be the very reason why I had to leave, didn’t it? Your Spitfire is still charging headfirst at everything.
“Sati, can you handle auto-drive for me?”
“One moment, Captain,” Satithe replied. “Your destination?”
“Just keep her in the road and at this speed if not faster,” Jocasta replied.
“I have the bike, Captain.”
“Thanks, girl.
“What if I had come sideways at Sylgarr?” Jocasta considered. “Would I be targeted by a freaking family of serious power and influence in the Inner Rim if I had applied some guile instead of my wannabe titanium guts?! Even that fight with Daddy Sylgarr’s chief goon. That bastard was better than me with the blade, but I still went straight at him. If it weren’t for Z, I’d be trying to go straight up against the Council right now, or making plans to! Speaking of Z.
“Satithe, locate my First Mate for me please,” Jocasta requested as she looked at the towering buildings. Three of them looked as if they stretched up into the next level. “Let me guess, he’s at the computer, logged into the Black Gate library system.”
“That was done before you reached the bike, Captain,” Satithe advised. “Currently he is taking a ferry out to the Xara-Mansura.”
“Why didn’t he take the shuttle?” Jocasta asked.
“I cannot say for certain, Captain. Shall I open a channel?”
“No need,” Jocasta said softly. “The man deserves his own runabout more than anyone else. And knowing that man, his runabout will be spent improving … our… standing,” Jocasta smiled as she looked at her brace-com monitor. “Satithe, I’ve got it! I know everything’s closed, but show me the places where I might be able to do some research on the Pearl Barony. Yeah, that I can go straight at!”
“I have found three possible locations,” Satithe reported. “These addresses have been loaded to your brace-com. And Captain, only one of those places is closed for the evening.”
“Why do I get the feeling that’s my number one?” Jocasta muttered.
“Because you are very intuitive,” Satithe replied. “The other two are in the Baronial District and not far from one another.”
“Disen
gage auto-drive and show me the way!” Jocasta said, taking hold of the controls. As soon as she had the bike, she pressed it for more speed.
Stepping out of the park lot, Jocasta had to remind herself she was aboard a space station. Looking up at the tall buildings and the holographic projection of the night sky, it felt as if she were in a city on a planet. The windows of the structures were dimly lit which told Jocasta they were some sort of office buildings. It was apparent that when it turned dark in this particular area, the city transformed itself to another creature. The section of the city she was approaching, however, seemed to be caught in a different age, a different culture. She had seen the architecture before but could not specifically place it in her mind. It was of a very fine craftsmanship. More dressy than she would have liked personally, but at the same time the cut and color of the stones and framework seemed to be in harmony with the trees and vines she saw all about this side of the property.
“No sense in flying blind,” Jocasta thought, activating her goggles. She shifted them to look more like stylish mirror-shades as she crossed the street. “First thing, this stuff isn’t preform terrastone, it’s actual rock that’s been cut, laid down, and stacked up.” The heel of her boot made an almost foreign sound as she stepped up on the sidewalk. Both of the secondary points Satithe had pointed out were on a collegiate campus and Jocasta walked through the open gate.
“Atsildylweer College,” she whispered. “Satithe, what’s the info on Atsildylweer?”
“One of the most highly noted Olassic Scholars, it is said he was the architect of The Territories.”
“A space elf, eh? That accounts for the architecture,” Jocasta stated. “But I thought The Territories was just another pocket dimension.”
“A pocket dimension unlike any other, Captain,” Satithe quickly returned, sounding more than impressed by what Jocasta knew of the region. “The space of The Territories is just the culmination of matter; it is within the baronies where one will find the wonder! Each barony, delineated by their color, serves as a doorway into another realm! It is the range of colors that gives this place its name. When you pass light through a prism, it refracts into separate colors.”
“The Prism Baronies,” Jocasta said softly as she looked around, seeing collegiate life all around her; all forms of it. “I guess that goes a lot farther than calling it the Rainbow Baronies.”
“Given that the baronies have taken a gem name of their color, and not all colors are of the primary variation, perhaps that was best,” Satithe remarked. “Your number two point of interest is three hundred meters dead ahead.”
“Wait a sec, Sati,” Jocasta said as she was distracted by a familiar sound. She leaned forward and bolted into a fast sprint. “I got a twitch!”
“Oh dear!”
Jocasta ran up on a familiar scene that was about to come to an unfamiliar end. Seven young men were chasing an eighth who looked to be fleet of foot, but poor of vision. Jocasta had never been to the campus, but the architecture looked as if the young man had turned…
“Into a dead end,” she thought, coming to the mouth of the wide alley. “Yeah, it’s wide and it’s deep, but this is a loading dock entry point, kid. You got nothing but big buildings down here… and it doesn’t appear they are doing any business at this hour.”
“That’s it,” one of the chasers panted as he came to a stop. “No more running room. I’m tired of this running crap anyway. Now I’m gonna pound the shit out of you!”
“Get him, Kran!” one of the young men shouted, triggering the others to do the same.
“Bran?” Jocasta blurted out. “Did he just call you Bran?” she asked as she approached. It was clear to see that each of the young men giving chase were either athletes or fitness enthusiasts, though the one they chased was not without some muscular development. He simply did not have the bulk of even the smallest antagonist, and the purple streak on the right side of his head certainly gave him a unique appearance. “Would that be oat, wheat, or rye?”
“My name’s Kran,” the fair-haired young man snapped. “And this is none of your business!”
“Yeah, but I’m an asshole, which means I have license to insert my stink anywhere I want to.” The slender young man chuckled at her retort. He stopped laughing and smiling when all seven turned and faced Jocasta. She could see genuine fear registering in his brown eyes.
“Run!” the young man screamed. “You need to get out of here now!”
“Link up,” the leader said softly as his hands formed into fists. Jocasta chuckled, pointing the head of her cane at the young man.
“You know something, kid, you look like you’re about to do… something… really… crapstacks!” Jocasta watched as the lead boy’s eyes started to glow. The same glow appeared in the eyes of all the others. “What the hell do they teach at this college?!”
“We’re linked,” all eight said in unison as they began to move in unison; each took the same stride with the same foot, and they lowered their stances to poses of unarmed combat. They all smiled coldly at Jocasta as she took a step back and lowered her cane to the ground.
“I told you, run!” the slender, dark-haired young man screamed again, looking genuinely concerned for Jocasta’s well-being.
“You are so going to tell me what you did to piss this thing off,” Jocasta said as the two at her flanks attacked. They were fast, strong, and fairly adept at what they were doing. Jocasta could see the holes in their technique, but their numbers made it extremely difficult for her to go on the offensive.
“Don’t to it, girl,” Jocasta thought. “We were just talking about this. Don’t go straight at it!” The woman maintained her defensive perspective and remained on the move. All eight made running passes at her and she blocked, ducked, or rolled out of the way. She was almost out of the alley when they stopped and went back to their stance.
“She’s good,” they weighed.
“Yeah, she really is!” the young man whispered.
“Okay, boys,” Jocasta said as she stood up straight. “That was damn impressive, but now you’ve gone and made Momma mad. You turn and walk and we’ll call it even-steven. You assholes come at me again, and you will bleed! Not a threat; it’s a foretelling.”
“You use a weapon on an unarmed person on this campus and there will be no end to your woes,” one of her opponents warned her.
“Had a feeling they’d say something like that,” Jocasta thought. “I feel several pairs of eyes looking intently at what’s happening, but they’re not moving to do a damn thing.
“Funny you should mention that,” Jocasta said, drawing her blaster and pointing at Kran. “Because I’ve got an empty dance card and I’m just getting to the party.” Jocasta’s arm did not move as she walked Kran down. “Now you tell me all about the woes I’ve got coming my way after I permanently change your height!
“Oh yeah, incarceration until my tits sag… malnutrition awaits! And then there’s always the prison population who I’m sure are all well-adjusted folk. That’s what I got coming to me. Tell me, Bran-flakes, how that puts your skull back together! Now I’m not a sharp shooter, so there’s little chance I’ll hit your brains, but even you’re not so thick as to call this ante. Are you?
“And while you’ve got your glowing eyes,” Jocasta continued as she tapped the side of her goggles, rendering them clear. “… mine don’t glow, but maybe you should have a look just the same!” The mysterious glow in Kran’s eyes quickly faded as he backed away, holding up his hands in a sign of surrender. “I’m beginning to like this school,” Jocasta remarked. “So far the student body does not have one complete idiot!”
“Another time, Tane,” Kran warned as he looked back at the slender fellow student. He then looked back at Jocasta. “… when your mo–” Jocasta shoved her gun under his chin before head-butting the young man in the face. He fell to the ground, grabbing his nose. One of the remaining six took a step forward and found Jocasta’s gun aimed at his head even though
she was not looking at him.
“It’s one thing if I say Momma,” Jocasta said softly. “That never, ever means you have license to shadow my moves. Now, get your sorry ass up and gone. Please try to have the last word, because I’m in the mood to guarantee it will be!” Kran got up and walked out of the alley with his cohorts. Jocasta relaxed her shoulders, twirled her gun forward twice and backward once as it flipped into the holster. Kryltane’s eyes never moved from her hand as she put away her gun.
“Whoa! That was awesome!” he said, looking at Jocasta as she slowly turned to face the young man.
“That kind of shit happen around here often?” she asked.
“Sure, if you can get people willing to mind-lock with you,” Kryltane replied. “It’s rare to get one like Kran, though. Usually it’s only one or two… sometimes three. But six is ridiculous!”
“Tell me about it,” Jocasta agreed. “For my self-edification– good lord, that was a Z word! Sorry. Just so I can say, what was all that about?”
“Oh, they just wanted some of my research… on the Crystal Barony,” he explained.
“Close,” Jocasta thought. “At least it’s a–
“I’m sorry, did you say the Crystal Barony?!”
“Yes.”
“Crystal is not a color,” Jocasta pointed out, much to the young man’s amusement.
“I think that’s what everyone says,” he noted. “But it’s still the most powerful of all the baronies.”
“It is?” Jocasta asked.
“Hands down,” Kryltane affirmed.
“But the Pearl Barony has the Star-Wings,” Jocasta offered, taking something of a gambit.
“True,” the young man agreed. “And don’t forget the dragons of Cloud Keep.”
“Dragons?” Jocasta thought. “Did he just say ‘dragons’?”
The young man nodded in reflection. “Believe me, they need them too. Their militia has to be the smallest in The Territories. It helps if one of your back-ups has pilots that can take out ten to twelve of everyone else’s best and still make it home. And then of course to have yet another back-up that doesn’t even need pilots!”
