The Transporter's Favor

by C. M. Simpson

  “Insults to our parentage will not reactivate your drives, Marie. Now put your mother on.”

  Rohan’s response was immediate, and held an all too familiar tone.

  “I’m sorry, shit-for-brains, mother can’t make it to the comms, right now. You’ll just have to kiss my ass.”

  “Oh. That’s not good.”

  “You’re telling me,” Abby said. “Those mercs are going to have him for breakfast.”

  “Mack will be upset if the Marie gets dented. Rohan doesn’t know what he’s playing with.”

  “No, he really doesn’t,” and something in Abby’s tone made me take a closer look at the shuttles.

  “Tell me they’re not.”

  “Wish I could, sweetie, but I think he upset them.”

  Upset wasn’t quite the word I’d have used, but Abs was right. The four drop-ships had gone weapons hot, and they hadn’t slowed down.

  “Stand your crew down, cub. This isn’t meant to be a kill mission.”

  Well, that was good to know.

  “Cub,” Abby said, as though that explained everything, and maybe it did. “Their leader’s a wolf.”

  “Wolf?”

  “Yeah, you know, wolf. Like the wolves of Lunar One, or the hunt clans four systems over.”

  “No, sorry. You are talking four-legged dog-things that hunt in packs, right?”

  “No, sweetie. I’m talking werewolves.”

  Well, fuck. Not more shapeshifters. Weren’t the arach enough for a single universe?

  “You ever read much myth and legend?”

  I thought back to my childhood, tried to remember the times before dad had left, and tried harder not to remember the times that came after. My answer came out harder than expected.

  “No.”

  “Sweetie, I’m not trying to pry.”

  “Sorry,” but I didn’t sound it. My nightmares hadn’t started with me stowing away on Lochyer’s Transport. Lockyer’s had just given them new shades of meaning. I shivered, pushing down the rising gorge of revulsion. “Talk to me, Abs.”

  “About the wolves?”

  “Anything, but yeah. Start with the wolves.”

  The shuttle comms broke across us.

  “Shady Marie, clear and open your docking bays for boarding.”

  “Later,” Abby said, as Rohan cussed out the Marie’s malfunctioning weapons systems.

  “Best do as they ask, Rohan.” At least Case was trying to be reasonable. “Mack will want us to stay alive. He can’t come get us, if we’re not.”

  Rohan was silent, but he must have agreed, because Case issued the stand-down order over the open comms.

  “Weapons teams, stand down.”

  It was followed by Rohan’s next order, taken straight from Mack’s playbook.

  “All crew to their pods. All crew to their pods. Emergency stasis procedures are in process. All crew to pods.”

  “Little rat learns fast,” I muttered, remembering that Rohan had been aboard the last two times the Shady Marie had been in trouble.

  “All crew to their pods. All crew to their pods. Emergency stasis procedures are in process. All crew to pods. You, too, Case. I’ll stand by to meet them. No-one else needs to suffer.”

  The shuttles stayed ominously silent, but they continued to approach—faster now the Marie’s weapons were off-line. Abby showed me the scan. Marie was dead in space, and her weapons were powering down. I stared at the scene unfolding in her scans, wondering what the fuck we were going to do next, and then I remembered something else.

  “I hope Cascade behaves himself.”

  “Who?”

  I’d forgotten Abby hadn’t known about the dog.

  “Rohan picked up the last of Ghoul’s puppies, and Tens let him keep it. Said the pup steadied Rohan down. If I know those two, Cascade will be wherever Rohan is. I hope nothing happens to him. Rohan will be heartbroken.”

  “No. Rohan is a very lucky young man. The dog will gain him more forgiveness than his youth, particularly if he has treated it well.”

  “Those two? Like brothers of a different skin.”

  “Then Rohan will survive the meeting.”

  “Will they separate them?”

  “They may not. It depends on how well they acquit themselves.”

  “Are we going to try and save them?”

  And I meant the whole ship, and not just Rohan and the dog, but Abby knew that.

  “We cannot save them, yet. I am good, but not good enough to deal with four wolf drop-ships and the kind of back-up they can call. I would not be able to retrieve the Marie before we were overwhelmed.”

  I’d known that. I really had, but hearing it was still hard. My heart sank.

  “What do we do now?”

  “We wait for them to leave, and pray they don’t see us—and then we head planetside to find out what happened to Mack and Tens.”

  “You don’t think they were on board?”

  “Would Rohan have taken charge if they had been?”

  I shook my head. No. Rohan would have deferred to both. The fact he’d been calling the shots meant he’d been filling in for Tens, and Mack had put him in charge of what should have been a nice, safe orbit.

  Damn.

  I couldn’t think of anything to add to the plan, so I settled myself in the pilot’s seat, and watched. The Marie’s docking bays opened.

  “What is the delay?” the wolf leader demanded, and I watched as the shuttles prepared to fire.

  “I’ve enacted emergency stasis procedures. I will be the only crewman awake when you board the Shady Marie.”

  “Thank you, Marie. This will ensure your personnel remain unharmed. Any found out of their pods will be detained.”

  “Agreed,” and if Rohan was feeling any form of nerves, he didn’t show it.

  “Good boy,” Abby breathed. “Very good.”

  I wanted to ask what was good about any of it, but didn’t want to miss anything else coming over the comms.

  “You want to see what happens when they dock?”

  Dry-mouthed, I nodded.

  It was a good thing she’d linked in through the implant—or maybe it was because I was in her cabin and she could see me with her own security feed. Either way, she got it, and I was able to follow Rohan’s progress through the monitors as he locked down the Marie’s control center and made his way to the docking bay nearest the bridge, Cascade trotting by his side.

  He was almost there, when the Marie rocked as four shuttles touched down, and I saw when he contemplated leaving the bays open to vacuum.

  Don’t do it Rohan.

  He showed no sign of hearing me, but stopped outside the airlock entry, and sighed. Abby’s scans showed when the Marie’s bay doors closed, and I knew the boy had accessed the controls using his implant. That done, he rested his hand on Cascade’s ugly head.

  “Well, boy. This is it. Let’s go meet our guests.”

  The dog gave him a curious glance, and wagged his tail. It was not a happy wag, and the big brute looked more anxious than content. Apparently, Rohan picked it up, too.

  “I know, boy, but it’s the only way. I need you to play nice, okay? No biting.”

  Again, Cascade tilted his head, eyeing the youngster with what might have been puzzlement. Rohan patted his head, and the door opened before them.

  “I mean it, boy. I need you to not get hurt.”

  They stepped into the airlock, and the door slid shut behind them. Cascade whined, and leant against his master’s leg. The door to the hangar started to open, and Rohan dropped his hand to the dog’s shoulder.

  “It’ll be okay, boy.”

  The wolves were waiting when they stepped out, three meters back with blasters aimed directly at the lock. Rohan closed his hand on the scruff of Cascade’s neck, and took two steps to clear the entrance. He raised his other hand over his head, and looked to the obvious leader of the squad. I sta
red dumbfounded.

  I had never in my life seen a two-legged wolf, before, never in my wildest dreams or worst nightmares—and these guys were beasts to look at, built like every shock trooper I’d ever seen, but out-massing them, and towering over Rohan’s six-feet of growth by another three.

  Cascade growled, and Rohan’s grip on his scruff tightened.

  “Easy, boy.”

  The wolf leader signaled two of his men forward, and Cascade lunged. Rohan didn’t hesitate; he dropped down over the big dog, wrapping his arms around it and hanging on for all he was worth. The dog went down under him, but Rohan didn’t let go. He did his best to cover the creature with his body.

  “Stand down! Cascade, stand down! Stand down! Stand! Down! Please, stand down.”

  And the dog went still—which was when I noticed that the wolf warriors had stopped their advance.

  “Good boy. There’s my boy,” Rohan crooned stroking Cascade’s head and shoulders. “Easy. Good boy.”

  The wolf warriors looked back at their leader, and he nodded.

  I’d only ever seen arach move that fast. They had grabbed Rohan and the dog by their respective scruffs and dragged them apart in the time it took me to blink—and chaos erupted, boy and dog fighting to reach each other, until the wolf holding Cascade growled, and shook him.

  The dog gave a frightened yip, and went limp, the wolf wrapping his arms around his body. Rohan fought harder, trying to reach him.

  “Cascade! You bastards!”

  He drove an elbow into the monster holding him, and lashed out with a boot. It looked like the training he’d be doing with Tens was paying off. His boot caught the wolf in the knee with enough force to bend it the other way. There was a sickening crack, and the wolf dropped to his good knee, but he didn’t let Rohan go.

  I watched as Rohan twisted in its grip, and lashed out, again. This time, he caught the wolf in its other leg. He missed the knee, but it was a good hit, anyway, and he was still pulling away, tearing his shirt collar out of his captor’s grip, and running at the warrior holding his dog.

  Cascade turned his head, and whined, and Rohan slowed, noting the long arms wrapped around the animal, the blaster protruding from under Cascade’s body.

  “He’s okay?” and he stopped, as the wolf nuzzled the dog’s ear.

  “Good dog,” it said, its words thick with teeth and gutturals.

  Cascade whined, and licked its nose, before going limp, again.

  Rohan stared at the dog and the wolf holding it.

  “You won’t hurt him?”

  And the warrior lifted his lip in a silent snarl. Rohan lifted his hands and took a step back.

  “I meant no offense.”

  “Your dog will be fine,” it said. “I will care for him.”

  The relief on Rohan’s face was almost comical. When the wolf turned to carry Cascade into the airlock leading to the ship proper, the boy made to follow, and stopped at the rattle of the wolf squad raising its weapons.

  “But…” he said, glancing back at them, and looking suddenly much younger as he gestured helplessly after his pet.

  The wolf leader growled, and Rohan seemed to remember who he was supposed to be. I watched him age, as he straightened up and turned to face the wolf leader. The leader wasn’t impressed.

  “I thought you had surrendered.”

  Rohan glanced over his shoulder, but the door to the airlock had closed, and Cascade was lost to sight.

  “It is my duty to protect my crew—even when they act foolishly.”

  And now the wolf was amused.

  “The dog is your crew?”

  “Cascade is my friend.”

  He stopped, turning his head as he caught the movement of the injured wolf warrior getting to its feet. I watched him pale, his blue eyes widening as the warrior got to its feet and flexed the leg he’d kicked out from under it. His throat moved as he swallowed against his fear, and his hands curled. I watched his feet shift, and knew he was preparing for an attack. The wolf turned its head towards him, but its leader spoke, dragging Rohan’s attention back.

  “And what is the penalty for striking a superior?”

  I watched as Rohan registered his words, and then connected them to every time I’d ever slugged Mack when I’d come back from a mission, and I couldn’t really blame him for smiling.

  “Three rounds on the mats,” he said, “to settle the difference of opinion.”

  The wolf gave a bark of amusement, and then all amusement faded.

  “And do you surrender, cub?”

  Rohan’s smile also disappeared.

  “Who am I surrendering to?”

  “I am Hunt Master Erkan of the Star Shadows. We have been contracted to retrieve the Shady Marie and all its crew.”

  I watched as Rohan thought about it, and knew he’d come to the same conclusion Case had made when she’d told him to surrender. His shoulders sagged, and his breath huffed out of him in a sigh.

  “I surrender to Hunt Master Erkan of the Star Shadows,” he said, and managed not to do more than flinch, when the wolf he’d injured came and secured his hands.

  “I want satisfaction,” it growled, looking to Erkan.

  Rohan tensed but kept his eyes on the wolf leader.

  Erkan looked at the young man, and then back at his subordinate.

  “Three rounds on the mats,” he said, “just as soon as he unlocks the ship.”

  He looked back to Rohan.

  “Do you have a regen tank on board?”

  Rohan swallowed hard, and nodded.

  “Yes,” and he started to smirk, “but it hasn’t been calibrated for wolves.”

  The wolves thought that was as funny as hell. Rohan’s challenger curled his lip, took hold of his collar, and steered the boy towards the airlock leading into the ship.

  “Remind you of anyone?” Abby asked, and I rolled my eyes, wondering just how much of Rohan’s attitude could really be laid at my door, because he was doing exactly what I did when I knew I was going to lose and didn’t want to back down.

  I’d like to say I’d never have been so stupid as to taunt my opponent like that, but I remembered… I pushed that thought aside, and turned my attention back to the viewscreen. Abby hadn’t pulled a spider trick on me for ages, and I didn’t want to give her an excuse to start now.

  5—Arrest and Incapacitation

  Watching the Shady Marie fly away was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Even knowing that Abby watched it with me, even knowing we could trace its path, it was hard just to sit still and let it go.

  “This really sucks, Abs.”

  “I am not happy, either, but look.”

  She highlighted the single drop-ship that left the Shady Marie’s hull, and returned to the world below.

  “We’ll follow them back. I cannot detect either Mack or Tens on the Marie.” She paused. “I cannot detect them on the planet, either.”

  It was the most uncertain that I’d ever heard her, so I laid a comforting hand on her console.

  “It’s okay, Abs. If they went downside, they’ll have left a trace—even if it’s just evidence of where they’ve been.”

  “They were on schedule,” Abby said, after a few seconds.

  “What?”

  “They would have found us at the time predicted, if something had not gone awry here.”

  “Oh.”

  “I have pulled the communications logs from the nearest satellite, as well as the files logging entry and exit of ships to and from this system. The Shady Marie was on schedule to meet us as I planned.”

  As she’d planned? But I knew that. She’d told me that, had planned my snatch and isolation so I could catch up on the background data without Mack and Tens breathing down my neck—that, and so she could run her own, brief, form of desensitization.

  All for my benefit, of course.

  I sighed. I couldn’t argue with that. I swivel
ed in the pilot seat, caught sight of the familiar burl of arachnid legs and slid all the way out, reaching for my blaster… and then I stopped.

  “Askavor?”

  The spider angled his head and thorax towards me, before vanishing into nothing.

  “Abby!”

  A sense of loss shot through me.

  “Congratulations. You passed.”

  I missed Askavor.

  “Fuck off.”

  And the lights in the cockpit went out. I waited, but the lights stayed out.

  “Abby?”

  Light flared outside the cockpit, a searchlight with the power of several suns that made my eyes water.

  “Abby…”

  “Unidentified craft, we are taking you in tow.”

  I recognized those tones—not the voice, exactly, but the words licked by the edge of a growl.

  “I didn’t know Lichcomb’s was a wolf world,” I said, but Abby did not answer, and the cockpit stayed as silent as a grave.

  “Pilot. Holster your weapon and prepare for boarding.”

  I tilted the blaster so its muzzle was pointing to the cockpit’s ceiling, and then turned. The light hurt my eyes, so I closed them, but kept my head up so they could see my face—and then I shifted my grip on the blaster, and very carefully holstered it, turning side-on so they could see me strap it down.

  “Very good, Pilot. Now, raise your hands and stay exactly where you are until the boarding party arrives.”

  Boarding party?

  Abby shuddered, and a soft thump rang through her hull.

  “Don’t you hurt my ship,” I muttered.

  “Your ship will not be harmed. We are taking you into custody.”

  “What have we done wrong?”

  As soon as I said it, I knew I’d made a mistake.

  “We? Please have all crew come to the cockpit.”

  Oh, crap.

  “There is no crew, just my ship and me. We. The two of us. You’re taking her under tow, I can only assume she’s going into custody, too.”

  The silence grew long, and I waited, uncertainty nibbling at my insides. Given Septu had been kidnapped—and given the value of HMT ships on the black market—I didn’t want them working out exactly what Abby was.