by Reiter
Nulaki decided he was better off dealing with the troops on the ground. He jumped off the building and his goggles adjusted for the smoke. He landed on one of the troops and relieved the downed fighter of their heavy riffle. Two laser bursts cut into the person behind him, breaking the glass of the trooper’s face mask with the first shot and blasting the head with the second.
Nulaki set the weapon on full automatic and fired into the closest body; it took four shots to eat through the thicker body armour. He rolled and shot the next, and the next, and the next! In between the cries of anxiety and panic, he could hear Dugger’s rifle covering him. He could also hear the engines of the transport increase and decrease, as if the transport was in a spin of sorts. He looked up long enough to make sure the ship was not spinning in his direction. When he did, he saw the light of a flash-bang grenade, which meant that crazy young woman was still alive. More importantly, the blast came from inside the transport before it was followed by several laser blasts.
“This is Satithe. Communication has been re-established. Per Princess’ instructions, I am overriding control of the transport and signaling all armoured suits to lock.”
“I’ll be damned,” Nulaki muttered.
“Nulaki, I got you covered,” Ephaliun radioed. “I am twenty degrees to your port and across the street. If you can get to the roof, Princess will only have to make one stop!”
“On my way!” Nulaki said, dropping the rifle. There was no need to shoot someone who could not move, but that did not keep from Nulaki smiling devilishly as he pondered something wicked.
“You’re always supposed to take advantage of a good opportunity, right?
“The name’s Black Scarab!” he cried, hurling a black shuriken. It lodged in the faceplate of one of the imprisoned men. “Remember it!” Three flipping and twisting leaps later, he was on the roof of the four-story building as the transport approached. He could see Pristacia behind the controls in a very bloody cockpit. The ramp was still down, and Ephaliun ran to catch it while Nulaki jumped and landed inside the transport ahead of him. He grabbed Ephaliun, giving Pristacia the ‘all clear’. She throttled up the transport and turned for open sky. It was not the smoothest of maneuvers, but no one gave voice to any criticisms.
“You got a present back there, Scarab!” Pristacia yelled. “Seems one of the guildsmen wanted a front row seat to the affair.”
Nulaki whipped his head around and among the thirty or so men trapped in their body armour, there were two people in very fine civilian clothes, cowering in the far corner. They had been splashed with the blood of the third who was dead on the floor. From the looks of him, he had been the muscle for the guildsman, but he had gotten trapped under a falling trooper. Pristacia’s knife was still in his chest.
“Yeah, she’s been learning from Z all right!” Nulaki thought as he removed the knife and handed it to Ephaliun.
“Get that back to the lady, if you please,” Nulaki directed.
“You got it,” Ephaliun replied, taking hold of the weapon. “I’ll also ask if she wants help with flying this thing.”
“No. If she doesn’t ask, let her do it. She’s earned it.” Ephaliun nodded with absolutely no intention of listening to Nulaki, and headed for the cockpit. Personal feelings be damned, the crew of the Xara-Mansura were in a position of major potential profit. If Pristacia was being trained by Z, the last thing she should do is let her personal feelings get in the way of a major win. He was the better pilot, he would make the offer to assist.
“Mind if I lend a hand?” he asked, smiling at Pristacia.
“Not in the least,” Pristacia said, getting up out of the pilot’s chair. “Satithe, let’s wipe every set of eyes in the sector and every suit assigned to this transport.”
“Already in progress, Princess,” Satithe reported. “I even have coordinates of a storage facility that will take the transport as is. They’re offering unmarked platinum bars.”
“Is it a fair price, Satithe?” Pristacia inquired.
“It will be by the time you get there,” Satithe replied.
“You heard the lady, Dugger,” Pristacia said sitting down in the co-pilot’s chair and closing her eyes. She was surprised at what she had done and flat out amazed that she was still alive. She sat in the chair and waited for her hear to stop pounding. “Satithe, if you could have one of the house vehicles meet us there, we’d sure appreciate it.”
“Public conveyance en route, will rendezvous with you two blocks south of your drop coordinates.”
“Even better, Satithe,” Pristacia smiled. “Thanks.”
“You’re more than welcome. Princess, I can’t speak for the Captain… or for Z for that matter. But from my perspective… well done, Your Majesty!”
Ephaliun smiled as Pristacia laughed.
Nulaki smiled at the man before he looked at the floor and contemplated his approach. He made two starts before his face shone with the brightness of inspiration. “Two words, fat man,” Nulaki said, slowly drawing his long knife from one of his dimensional pockets. “For you, I have only two words. They are account and passcode.”
Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning, but all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.
George Seferis
(Rims Time: XII-4202.23)
Tried and tested, troubled and true; the walls, door and ceiling of their holding pen were made of stern stuff and beyond the measure of their combine efforts to escape. Hennix hurt his hand trying to remove the paneling, behind which he believed he could access the controls for the door. Much like the other panels, though, it did not budge and he came away frustrated and in pain. Deolun knew better than to ask if he was all right with the way he was cussing and holding his hand.
“Son of a bitch!” Hennix cussed, massaging his left hand and pace in the cramped space.
“Was that a confession?” Jocasta asked as the cell door opened. “Not that I’m a constable or a priest. It just sounded like you wanted to get something off your chest.” Jocasta looked at each man in turn. Both of them were older than she expected. Usually breaking into someone’s ship was the folly of the young and unwary.
“Satithe did mention they were wearing clothes that would have made them invisible to normal sensors,” she remembered. “Maybe there’s money in this sort of racket. Not the way I’d chose to cut my cred, though.
“Either of you want to say something that will keep me from killing you?” she asked.
“Where’s the floating ball?” Deolun asked, looking outside fearfully.
“Getting a new polish,” Jocasta said, sounding impatient as she approached. “I do not have time for lip-flapping, people! You got something to say or not?!”
“You must have forgotten that energy weapons don’t work once you cross that threshold,” Hennix said, his eyes glaring at Jocasta as her face lost all expression. She looked at the doorway that was behind her and swallowed hard. It was very close quarters, and the dark-haired man who was staring her looked like he had maintained a very fit body. The quiet light brown-haired one that sat on the bed did not look weak; he looked to be very fast! “Over under!” Hennix cried after he flipped his long black hair out of his face. He lunged forward half a step and then stepped back; the ball of Jocasta’s cane passing harmlessly in front of his face. Deolun’s shoulder met with Jocasta’s hip and she was thrust into the wall. She lifted her cane as Hennix’s round-kick swung through, scoring her jaw. Jocasta slowly slid down the wall, moaning.
“Let’s get out of here!” Deolun cried as he got up to his feet. Hennix looked down on the stunned woman and started toward her when Deolun grabbed his arm and pulled hard as he left the cell. “Come on!!!”
The two ran out of the cell and then out of the Brig before any alarms sounded.
“Shit!” Hennix cursed. “We just left a hostage, man!”
“Never mind that,” Deolun said as he loo
ked at his left forearm. He smiled when he saw the display of his arm-com. “The computers have power now. Check your bracers and anklets!”
While running, Hennix looked at his wrists and ankles. “Looks good to me,” he reported as Deolun tapped in a few commands. Hennix heard a tell-tale tone in his ears and smiled brightly. “You got your ears on, sweet thing?”
“Hennix?!” a soft, worried, and anxious voice replied. “Hen-babe, is that you?”
“It sure is! We ran into a major snag once we got inside, but we’re making a break for the exit right now. Are you close by?”
“You know I would never leave you!” Bruveia replied. “I’ve got you on my screens and I’m three minutes out.”
“Might take us a little longer to get there, sweets,” Hennix estimated. “… but we’re hauling it as best we can!”
“Partial power restored to the module,” Deolun advised. “Should be more than we need.”
“Scratch that last bit, Bru-doll,” Hennix corrected himself. “Haul ass!”
“I’m reading the key is still in place,” the woman reported. “… so it won’t be a problem.”
“You with me?” Hennix asked as he eyed the lower levels.
“Lead the way,” Deolun said softly as he turned off the display.
“Activate Jump Program,” Hennix commanded before hopping over the side of the rail. Boots of light formed around their feet as they descended, and flared brightly when they touched down three levels below where they had jumped. The boots faded and Deolun smiled as he put his hand to his ear.
“That put us back to seventeen percent,” he reported as he keyed in new commands.
“More than enough,” Hennix whispered as he started for the drop shaft. “As long as we don’t run into that damn brain ball again, we should make a clean run of it.”
“I’m opening the access doors… now!”
With no doors or floors to get in their way, the two made the drop all the way into the hangar. Deolun ran to the hangar doors while Hennix made his way to the scout ship. Running behind the spacecraft, he located their satchel, laughing that it was still where he had managed to throw it before their encounter with the silver sphere.
“What are we looking like there?” Hennix asked as he shouldered the bag.
“That ball must be the only security that really works on this tub,” Deolun measured. “The key is still in place and it still has enough power to make a seven-second safety field.”
“That’s cutting it close,” Hennix grinned. “But I’ll take it.” Putting his hand to his ear, Hennix looked up and around. “Bruveia, baby, we’re ready to hop. Please tell me you’re close!”
“I’ve got eyes on the hangar doors right now,” she advised. “Going for knock, knock in three… two… one…” The hangar doors shuddered and both men took in a deep breath, holding it. With a sudden jolt of electricity and a few sparks, an atmosphere integrity field formed, the hangar doors opened, and a small spacecraft entered the hangar. Pitch jets fired to turn the starboard side toward the two men who ran toward the ship. The side door of the ship split in the center with half of the door going up and the other half going down. Both men boarded and the doors quickly closed as the engines fired forward thrust and the craft sped away. The vacuum of space pulled at everything in the hangar, but the hangar doors closed before the scout ship could move too far.
“This is what happens when we change up our jobs,” Bruveia complained as she piloted the craft toward Black Gate.
“What are you talking about?” Hennix said, planting a kiss on the woman’s cheek. “That was pretty nice flying. Not as smooth as Deolun, but good enough to get us out of there.”
“That’s not what I meant, sweetie,” she said in a softer tone.
“Sorry, cousin,” Deolun said as he took the controls. “But there’s no way I was going to let you go in there on that leg. Besides, there were a few perks to having the brains of our little outfit going in on the run this time.”
“He’s got a point, Bru-doll,” Hennix agreed as he moved the woman’s blonde hair out of the way so he could caress her shoulders. “We were able to take scans of the equipment in that ship. Their regen is better than anything I’ve ever seen! It even tops the stuff the Empire is trying to develop and debug! This could be the score that gets us out from under, I’m telling you.”
“So they have all of this wonderful tech, and no security?! Come on!” Bruveia pressed.
“Easy on that call,” Deolun warned. “That ball-thing was no joke!”
“Tell me about it! Do you want to know the size of the headache I still have because of that damn thing?!” Hennix added. “One flash from it and I’m reliving my childhood; all of the bad parts, and then everything went black. We were out for hours!”
“That thing was not friendly,” Deolun said softly. “But apparently it takes a lot of power to run it.”
“I still have a bad feeling about this,” Bruveia said. “I say we ditch the normal return plan and land at Site B.”
“It’ll take us an hour to get home!” Deolun whined.
“Then we take the hour,” Hennix declared. “I trust her feelings more than your tired feet! Besides, if she says we need to walk with her ankle the way it is, I say we walk it.” Bruveia looked up at her man and smiled. “Site B it is,” he said before kissing her.
From the spaceport, to the tram, to the cred-conveyance, to the near mile they had to walk, the three were quiet as they made their way to their warehouse lot. Hennix picked up Bruveia again and she knew better than to complain as he carried her through the front door, heading directly for the stairs to the upper floor. She smiled at him and stroked his hair.
“Is this where I get to say thank you for carrying me for as long as you did?”
“I have to admit, it was pretty touching,” Jocasta said as she walked out at the top of the stairs, Tuitonn floating over her right shoulder. “She’s shapely, but I get the feeling there’s more muscle than fat under those clothes.”
“Where the hell did she come from?!” Deolun cried.
“You know, that’s something I would truly like to know,” Jocasta replied before grabbing the railing on both sides of the stairway and sliding down the stairs. Bruveia planted her good foot against the wall and pushed, back-flipping over the railing. She landed on her good foot and limped on her bad one. Hennix, however, spent so much time admiring his girlfriend’s agility that he forgot he had an opponent inbound. Jocasta’s boots reminded him of her presence and catapulted him to the floor. He landed hard on his back and was slow to move. “Okay, that looked like it hurt.”
Jocasta hopped to her left and a wild left hook just missed her. She could hear the crackle of energy around the man’s hand as she thrust the ball end of her cane over her left shoulder, jabbing the approaching woman in the face. Ducking the Deolun’s kick, Jocasta swept the stunned woman’s feet and she landed hard on her right side, grabbing for her right ankle as she wailed in pain. Jocasta gave ground once more, avoiding another punch. Now she could actually see the energy form around his hands and she frowned at the application of technology.
“You’ve got the heart, brain-boy, but not the skills,” Jocasta said, stepping back again. “Observe,” she instructed, lunging forward. Deolun moved to block an attack she had not fully committed to and left himself open to a hook that Jocasta drove into his ribs. Deolun staggered from the blow and Jocasta rushed past him, landing a front kick to Hennix’s face as he was trying to get up. The man was unconscious as he fell back to the floor and Jocasta ducked low as Deolun’s hands came over her head and back. He continued a few more steps forward as he had run in order to reach the elusive woman. Jocasta smiled as she pivoted and swung her cane. It was blocked by Bruveia. Jocasta stepped forward with a jab that was blocked and another cane swing that was caught.
“Skilled,” Jocasta smiled before ducking. Deolun missed Jocasta yet again, but his light-enveloped hand managed to strike his cousin at
the hip. Her entire body flashed with energy as it shuddered before being sent across the floor. She slid to a stop, quite unconscious and with a broken hip, just over fifteen meters away.
“Bruveia!” Deolun called out before the ball of Jocasta’s cane was swung into the back of his head. He was out before he hit the floor, and Jocasta looked around the warehouse.
“Can you help the girl?” she asked.
“I believe I can mend her bone and joint,” Tuitonn replied as he floated toward her body.
“Good,” Jocasta said as she walked over to the one called Hennix. She grabbed his feet and pulled him across the warehouse floor. “And especially good on the invisibility thing. I still can’t believe they didn’t see me right there with them.”
“Oh, their eyes saw you,” Tuitonn clarified. “I just altered the information the optic nerve reported to the brain. And if anyone deserves an accolade, it is you, Captain. That was an absolutely diabolical plan!”
“Sometimes when you want the good stuff without the ‘good stuff hassle’, you steal from thieves,” Jocasta said. “And this was a lot easier than beating or telepathically wrenching the location of their base out of them.
“I think Z is going to love getting his hands on some of this stuff,” she thought.
“As far as the latter mode is concerned, this was also more economical,” Tuitonn added. “What will you do with them?”
“Now that we have their entire team, we shanghai ‘em! Look around and see if you can spot some rope.”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
(Rims Time: XII-4202.24)
Siekor smiled as he looked over the rooftops of the buildings. The weather was programmed for sunny, cool, and breezy, making where he was a wonderful perch to look down into the goings on of this level of Black Gate. He put his hand to his goggles, though they did not need adjusting. He tugged at the sleeves of his jacket and then adjusted his weapons belt.
