The Trimedian

by Dangerous Walker

  "Yeah, yeah, mon, we do. Ignore Chase, he not so bright," Jimmy stepped in.

  "Alright," Ferguson said and sat back down, "but listen here, I'm only in on this 'cause Chubbs here says you can break us out, that you got people on the outside."

  "Not a problem," retorted Chase.

  "You seem confident. Too confident," Ferguson said and leaned forward.

  Chase also leaned forward. "I am. I am because I've got a good crew and a fast and heavily armed ship," he leaned back. "I've also got natural flair and ability," he grinned at Ferguson.

  Ferguson stood.

  "Rubbish, no armed ship can get through the Eye-Net."

  "Sit down," Chase commanded with authority and to Chubb's surprise Ferguson did. "I told you, my man, natural flair and ability."

  While this went on Jimmy studied Ferguson's crew, later they would be introduced as Bones Castille, a tall wiry man with a skinhead; Not John Roberts who looked a lot like John Roberts, but wasn't and Big Nick who was a dwarf, a very mean dwarf. Terd himself was a big man, a good looking bloke in that rough, rugged, scarred, women-would-for-the-dangerous-thrill-but-would-then-marry-an-accountant type way. He had thick, finely coiffured hair and like all of his gang he had no tattoos.

  When Jimmy came out of his thoughts Chase was explaining the rough outline of his plan, explaining what they would need to do.

  "What about you, Chubbs, you breaking out wit' us?" Jimmy asked.

  "Well, I don't know about that, I mean, I would love to see my wife and kid again, it's been a long old time, but, well they've probably moved on haven't they? And I have my library here, I don't know life on the outside anymore. Perhaps it's better for me to stay," Chubbs said whistfully.

  "What? Rubbish. It be a hell of a big Universe, you'll find somewhere to fit into," Jimmy countered.

  "Plenty of libraries," Chase added.

  "Let us see when the time comes," gave in Chubbs.

  A guard walked in and motioned at Chase to follow him. Everyone tensed thinking that this could be part of a reprise from Spalding, but it wasn't. It was visiting time.

  ***

  Julianna sat in a visitor's booth the other side of the reinforced glass. You'd think it would be more high tech than that, but well, if it ain't broke? or, you know, couldn't be broke?

  "How're you coping?" she asked genuinely concerned.

  "Fine fine, broke the meanest cons wrist this morning and we're gearing up for a riot," Chase whispered across. They didn't need phones it was all mic'ed up.

  "They might be listening," Julianna whispered viciously.

  "They're not, they can't. Against Universal law. If they're found to be doing it, the prisoner who complains can get released on Prison Violation," he thought for a moment. "Which is also something to avoid."

  "Enough of the jokes, the plan's changed a bit," she continued to whisper.

  "What? You can't change the plan from the outside. That's my job," protested Chase at a normal volume.

  "We had to, The Wild Rover has been impounded," she whispered urgently.

  "What? By whom?" Chase asked.

  "Freddy No Fingers," she whispered.

  "Oh, not him again," Chase complained to the ceiling.

  "It's OK, we've got help, it's just that for them to help, you need to break an extra person out."

  "Tell me," Chase said wearily.

  ***

  The riot and escape was set for two days hence, it was, as were all of Chase's plans, not very good. Anything could go wrong, I mean what if Julianna, Milk and the Doc can't break the Wild Rover out of the impound? Then Chase and Jimmy are involved in a full scale riot and will subsequently be locked up with a lot of people who don't like them. Has Chase thought about this? Yes, he gave it a fleeting glance on the way to thinking about his first Chokdee cocktail when he got out.

  The riot wasn't that hard to organise; as Chase had said there was a lot of bad blood in the prison, everyone had a beef with someone and emotions were already high when Chase and Jimmy had entered and broken Spalding's wrist. If some new fish could come in and throw the balance out, then anyone could.

  Terd put out the rumour that Chase was going to finish what he started with Spalding, whose people were already planning on wiping out Chase and Jimmy. Terd also called in some favours.

  You see they could start a fight, but what they needed was a full scale riot and that meant that some other people, once things kicked off, had to join in. So Terd called in some favours, making sure other people would join the fight. That too wasn't very hard as Terd pointed out that a riot was the perfect opportunity for them to settle scores and that when the dust settled they could find themselves on top of the heap.

  While Terd was organizing a riot and Jimmy and Chase were hiding in the library with Chubbs; Milk, Dr. Hendricks and a band of Jesperrians went to the Space port to scout out the impoundment of The Wild Rover. It didn't look good. No Fingers had pulled a lot of strings, or at least his purse strings and not only were there a lot of cops, but also a number of Freddy's men including Cantor. Thankfully the ship wasn't really impounded; it was still in the space port, just surrounded. I guess Freddy didn't think three people would try to get the ship back against a hoard of police. Actually, I don't guess, I know. I'm clever like that.

  While they surveyed the situation Julianna had snuck up top to make a phone call. A weird phone call. Don't ask me how she got the number, I haven't thought about that yet.

  ***

  People on Earth have long gone on about the idea of a phone with cameras so that you can see the people you are talking to. This has, since its first conception, been a mightily stupid idea. What if you're bored by your mother-in-law's call? Do you want her to see that? What if you've run to the phone from the shower? Or the girl you fancy rings and gets you out of bed? It's not always a good idea for people to see you on the phone, but you can't turn the camera off or the caller will wonder why. Your wife calls while away on business and you have the camera off? She'll assume you're having an affair. There're loads of other examples I could give, but you'd just stop reading. Or you'll start thinking of your own and stop concentrating on the plot, you'll never know who Julianna called and why it was bad that she was on a video phone. So let's get on with it.

  "Who are you?" said the man on the other end of the phone.

  "That's not important," Julianna said.

  "Really? I would think it is, I mean how can I have a conversation with you if I don't know who you are? I'd have to keep referring to you as 'you'. I mean how do I know if it's even worth talking if I don't know who you are?" the man asked.

  "OK, OK, shabbus, my name is Julianna," Julianna said.

  A lightbulb went off over the man's head.

  He turned off camera and said, "Can someone fix that lightbulb?"

  And then he realized something more important.

  "I do know who you are! There was a WANTED message, you're the ones who attacked The Starbeam," he accused.

  "The Starbeam?"

  "The Durden mothership," he explained.

  "Really? It's called 'The Starbeam'?"

  "Yeah? So?"

  "Well, you know," she fumbled.

  "No. No, I don't know. What?"

  "Well, it's a bit camp isn't it? I mean for Durden Raiders," she bit back a giggle.

  "Not at all," he protested.

  "And what's your ship called?" she hiccupped with the effort of not laughing.

  "The, er, the?" he said and mumbled something.

  "I'm sorry I didn't catch that."

  "The Greased Lightening," he blurted.

  That was too much and she broke into gales of laughter.

  "I'm going to put the phone down," he moped angrily. Can I merge mope and angrily into one word? No. No I can't.

  "OK, OK, I'm sorry," she panted and pulled in a long breath.

  "You're wanted for murder, why am I even talking to you?" he asked testily.

  "Because you have a l
ot of Durden Raiders locked up in the New Tannock prison on Jesperr," she stated.

  The Durden Raider spoke off camera and then waited. After thirty seconds he looked back at the camera.

  "We do. So?"

  "Well we're breaking people out of there tomorrow and they will be bringing Terd Ferguson and others with them and they want to be picked up."

  "Now hold up, little missy. You're wanted for murder, for attacking a Durden ship. You think we're going to fall for this shabbus?"

  Julianna wished it hadn't been a video phone (told you, didn't I?) and took a deep breath, Chase had told her about Ferguson and she knew that without the assurance of his escape, he wasn't in.

  "They took me captive, my friends came and broke me out, that's fair isn't it? I mean you'd do the same wouldn't you?"

  "Well," the man thought, "yes that seems fair. But look, don't you think that if we could break those guys out we would have already? There're a lot of Raiders in that prison and because of that security is tight. Not just at the prison, but with space defence."

  "True, but we have a heavily armed ship on the planet already. We're going to blast our way in and then, if you bring a nondescript ship, they will be too busy trying to chase us and ignore an unarmed ship like yours. Sound worth it?"

  "No, it doesn't. There's no way a heavily armed ship could even get into this galaxy."

  "Our ship has undetectable weapons," she repeated what Chase had told her. "Now does it sound worth it?"

  "For Terd Ferguson? Yes, it sounds worth it. Mad cap, but worth it. I'll be honest, Bob wasn't that popular in the first place. Give me the details."

  "I'll call you back in a few hours with them, for now start heading this way," she said and hung up.

  And went to visit Chase.

  ***

  The day of the riot came and all was set. Well I say set, it was a stupid plan, but as Milk will note that the next time we go back to them, I won't steal his thunder.

  Sonny Spalding got out of hospital and thankfully for Chase and Jimmy none of his crew had dared make a move on them until Spalding was back amongst general population. It was well known that Spalding wanted to kill them personally.

  But now he was out and he was looking for blood and that suited Chase's plan. The thing with riots was that they are best left to drain themselves away, there's no point risking the lives of guards when there was no way of stopping it anyway. That was what Chase needed, that was why Terd Ferguson had called in favours. The riot had to quickly escalate to a point where the guards would pull back. That this would happen wasn't a definite, the whole plan rested on a lot of ifs and maybes, but there I go stealing Milk's thunder. Let's let him get it off his chest.

  ***

  "You know this is a stupid plan, right?" Milk asked as they prepared to leave for the space port.

  "Aren't they all?" asked Julianna wearily.

  "Yes, but think about it; this plan can only work if Chase and Jimmy can start a riot; if we can get the ship out of impoundment; if we don't get caught by the police; if the Durden Raiders show up; if Chase can break out the leader. That's a whole lot of ifs," he said while attaching various weapons to his body.

  "Well, I thought that was how we do things," mused Hendricks, "it makes it all kind of exciting, don't you think?"

  "If for the last few years my only excitement was digging up old things, then yes, maybe," insulted Milk.

  "Hey, that's not fair," protested Julianna and Milk felt bad.

  "I'm sorry, Doc, that wasn't fair," he apologised.

  "No, I should be sorry. You spent years on the razor's edge working with Chase and then you found peace on Earth and now you are risking your life once again."

  "It's getting to me," admitted Milk. "I did have a quiet life and I had come to enjoy it. At first I didn't, I wanted to be in space. But then I grew to like Earth and now I'm back having adventures in space and I haven't had time to think about it. To feel about it."

  Julianna walked over and hugged him as Dr. Hendricks put a hand on his shoulder. She broke away.

  "It could be worse, Milk, we have each other."

  "That's true. It's just that, that, well, since that bar in Ictopia, before we met the Doc, I've been thinking about my daughter. I thought I would never see her again and sort of pushed the thought away on Earth, but now we're in space, I keep thinking whether I'll get to see her again," he shook his head and looked at his feet. He gave a big Milk sigh.

  "We'll put it on our list of things to do," Julianna said tenderly. "You'll see her again,"

  "I hope so, I really do."

  ***

  "Thiz iz a zuizide mizzion az vell you know. Ve go to fight, though ve are not fighterz. Ve go to rezcue our friendz ship zo that they can rezcue our great leader," Frank orated in front of the band of Jesperrians that would go to the space port. "Ve are not fighterz, ve do not have the zkillz without our leader, but ve vill fight, ve vill lay down our livez to give otherz the chanze of freedom."

  As one the fighters punched the air and let out howls and whoops of agreement. They were ready to fight, they were ready for action, they were ready to go down in their history. They were ready to die.

  The band, led by Frank, met Julianna, Milk and Hendricks in the canal.

  "How are your men?" asked Julianna.

  "They are ready," replied a Frank who looked sick with fear.

  They headed to their fate.

  ***

  It was recreation time in the prison and there was a pall of anticipation over the inmates in the yard. Everyone knew that Spalding would get his revenge and everyone expected it to be now. He looked mean and angry and everyone waited for him to move to the library and exact vengeance. But then something no one expected happened. Chase, Jimmy and Chubbs entered the yard. Considering Spalding and a number of his crew were out there, this was the stupidest thing they could have done, but then most of them didn't know Chase wanted a riot.

  And then something happened that was even more unexpected, the trio walked over to Spalding and his crew.

  "Sorry about the wrist, Sonny, just business," Chase apologised.

  "I'm going to kill you," breathed Sonny.

  "No, no you're not," said Chase.

  "You think you're hot shabbus? You're not, you're just another dead convict," Spalding growled.

  Chase looked at his watch.

  "How many people have you raped, tortured and killed? I mean before you were put away."

  "Too many to count, you won't even be a statistic," Spalding grinned.

  Chase looked again at his watch.

  "No, I won't," said Chase and stabbed Spalding in the stomach with a shank Terd had procured.

  Blood shot out and Sonny's crew started forward only to be surrounded by Ferguson's crew.

  At the same time that Chase shanked Spalding, someone from Tido Challer's crew threw a Molotov cocktail into the corridor on cell block nine where the cells that Spalding ran were.

  People burst out into the corridor only to be met by more of Challer's crew and prison made weapons were drawn.

  At the same time Toady Reolty's Merrick crew, having been told by Terd, took the chance at revenge on a mixed crew of Albertines and Cantorvials led by Inctor.

  Alarms sounded and the riot was on.

  ***

  Milk, Julianna, Dr. Hendricks and the Jesperrians had reached the space port and had spread out using the underground canals.

  The plan was loose and simple; the Jesperrians would act as a distraction starting a fight with the police while Milk, Julianna and Hendricks would get The Wild Rover. After that the Jesperrians would disappear back down the canals and wait while The Wild Rover flew to the prison and rescued all the various people they now had to rescue.

  Frank was with two other Jesperrians across the hanger. He didn't really know what to do, the police were his enemies, but he had never shot anyone in cold blood and didn't really want to start now. Of course the police would shoot the
m on sight, so these people weren't really innocent. They had imprisoned his leader, driven them below the city and then regularly came down to try and kill them. 'Valkswagon' thought Frank and shot at one of the policemen guarding The Wild Rover.

  Panic is a word, a word to be used in the next sentence. There was panic as from all around the hanger unseen Jesperrians started firing at police officers. The hanger had good drainage and this meant the Jesperrians could pop up and disappear again rapidly and the police didn't know quite where to shoot. Unfortunately neither did the untrained Jesperrians and laser blasts went wild all over the hanger.

  ***

  Spalding and his crew had thought they were done for, but strangely Chase, Jimmy, Chubbs and Ferguson's men left them and returned inside. Immediately one of Spalding's men came and informed him that the corridor was under attack. Things were not looking good for him, he was bleeding for a start and needed to fix that before fixing Chase Darkstaar.

  It wasn't such a strange move if you knew that Chase needed to get into Spalding's cell and if you knew he had another ace up his sleeve. You see the guards and the warden were now getting antsy, they just weren't sure whether to go in or stay out; the rioting had suddenly come out of nowhere. It seemed to have started on Cell Block Number Nine, but there were outbreaks of gang violence everywhere. What Chase didn't want is for them to decide to come in, but with the chance of freedom he had around one hundred Durden Raiders on his side. It was now that they formed up and as told, took on everyone. No one saw it coming, but suddenly if you were near a Durden Raider you were getting the shabbus kicked out of you. In a matter of mere moments the riot had gone into overdrive and three sections of the prison were on fire.

  Having been stabbed, Sonny Spalding, Snake McManamon, Shakes Malone and Causeway Johnson were in the hospital and a sizable group of Raiders headed to it. This was relayed to the rest of Spalding's followers and the epic battle of the hospital was about to begin.

  Chase, Jimmy and Chubbs had fought their way to Cell Block Number Nine where Spalding's cell was. Chubbs threw a man over the railings; Jimmy took out a Merrick who tried to kill them by cutting off his nose. Chase got into a fight with two knife wielding Cantorvials and managed to get them to stab each other by simply stepping aside. Jimmy made an impressive leap to catch a Molotov cocktail coming their way and threw it into the nearest cell which contained a rapist (so he didn't feel too bad about it). Chubbs actually broke an Albertine's sternum with one punch and Chase used a handy piece of rope that lay around to lasso a Byfrok who was about to stab Jimmy as Jimmy tussled with a shank wielding Tarancort.