The Star Brotherhood

Chapter One

June 27th, 2288

“I’m going to kill Nuccol,” Yussosi hissed as he stared intently at the frothy glass of ale on the scarred wooden table in front of him. The words, uttered from between clenched teeth in not much more than a whisper, perfectly conveyed the seething fury the speaker was experiencing. “I’m not going to take his crap another day. Just because he’s shift supervisor doesn’t mean he can push me around constantly and that I’ll just take it.” Wearing the same grey coveralls seen on most workers on this part of Ogsnara, there was little to distinguish Yussosi from the other Uthlaran workers drowning their sorrows in the ale and strong spirits served up by filthy, rundown taverns in the warehouse district.

“Relax,” his Uthlaran companion said calmly after a surreptitious glance around the dimly-lit room that always stunk of stale ale and greasy fried food. “You’re not going to kill anybody. That’s the ale talking. And as shift supervisor, he has every right to ride us. Not only that, it’s his job.”

“He doesn’t ride you. “

“He’s afraid of me.”

“Well I’m going to make him afraid of me too. I swear he’ll regret the way he’s treated me. When I was recruited by the Brotherhood, I knew I wasn’t being hired because I had a great mind, but nobody told me I’d have to work for a jerk like Nuccol. He’s always on my back. He never lets up. No matter what I do, it’s not good enough. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the stuff we’re doing violates Galactic Alliance law. I keep expecting Space Command to drop on us and throw me into some dark cell on a prison colony just before they toss away the key that is, if they don’t just come here and wipe us out from space. I’ve heard how precise their weapons are from someone who was on Milor when the Spaccs bombed them back to the stone age. The media was constantly reporting hits on hospitals and schools around the planet, but the only things that really got hit were military targets like weapons depots or important government targets such as power-generating stations.”

“First, Space Command would never destroy this city from space. They don’t do things like that simply because someone breaks one of their sacred laws. Carver didn’t even destroy Uthlarigasset after the political leadership ordered an invasion of GA space. Besides, no Space Command ship is within two thousand light-years of this planet. Region Two problems have kept them so busy they haven’t even given a thought to Region Three yet. We probably have years before they get around to us. So take it easy on the ale, okay? That’s your fifth mug since we got here.”

“Take it easy? Take it easy? How can I take it easy? I can’t hardly sleep at night, and my stomach is so upset all the time that I can’t keep my food down. The only thing I can do well is drink. But that’s no way to live. I can’t go on like this. If I’d wanted constant stress I would have joined the military. I just want to live a nice, peaceful life and live to a ripe old age. I guess I need to quit the Brotherhood and do some respectable work like making book.”

“You don’t quit the Star Brotherhood, chum. You knew that when you joined. And if you let slip one word of what you just said to me, one of the senior brothers will make sure you don’t live long enough to wonder if you made a mistake by opening your mouth.”

“Makkod, when I joined the Brotherhood I had a nice, quiet life taking bets on sporting events. The recruiter told me I’d continue doing that, but as part of the Brotherhood, I’d make a lot more money for my efforts. Then they moved me here and stuck me under Nuccol.”

“Keep your voice down. Space Command may not be around here, but that doesn’t mean some local gang wouldn’t love to move in on our operation. We have it soft, and I don’t want to blow it.”

“You think this is soft? At the end of every shift my back aches so much I need to pop a handful of Kuloos or I’d never get to sleep at all.”

“It sure beats laying a thousand kilometers of track through a Crenery bog.”

“You did that?”

“Yep. For three years, until I killed my foreman and they fired me for it.”

“They only fired you for killing your foreman?”

“Well, I made it look like an accident. His head accidently got caught in the gears of the track alignment crane. Since it didn’t appear intentional, they recorded it as an industrial accident and fired me for carelessness in leaving the gear cover off after I completed the daily lubrication maintenance.”

“Smart.”

“Nah, it was damn stupid. I really needed that job, just like you need this one. My temper got the better of me, and I lost control for a few seconds. But I couldn’t stand that SOB a minute longer. He was lucky I didn’t do it years earlier. I understand what you’re going through, but try to stay calm and forget Nuccol after you leave work. Say, do you know who that Terran is over against the wall?”

Yussosi looked up and scanned the room until he spotted the person Makkod was referring to. The Terran was sitting in the most remote part of the tavern and was barely visible among the darkest of the room’s shadows. “Nope. Doesn’t look familiar. Looks mean though.”

“I’m the meanest SOB in this part of town. Maybe I should explain it to him so he knows it also.”

“Why do you always have to pick fights when you drink?”

“It’s what I do. It keeps the locals in line. Listen,” Makkod said as he stood up, “I’ve got to get some sleep. That last shift wiped me out. Ready to go?”

“No, you go ahead. I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”

Makkod grabbed his outerwear from the wooden chair on his right. After donning his head covering, he wrapped the heavy cloak around his shoulders. The weather had turned cold a few weeks earlier as winter began on this part of the planet. Now that the sun was down, the wind would be biting cold.

Makkod looked down at his friend once more before turning away. His duty was clear. He had to inform the Brotherhood that Yussosi was falling apart. On his way home he would stop at the section headquarters and inform the duty person. Enforcers would probably be waiting for Yussosi when he arrived home. He would be drunk and easy to dispose of. It was too bad. Makkod had always enjoyed having a few drinks with his friend after work. “Okay,” Makkod said, “but don’t talk to anyone if you value your life. If the person you talk to doesn’t kill you, the Brotherhood will. They have spies everywhere.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep quiet until I’m smashing Nuccol’s head in. Then I’ll roar.”

Makkod turned towards the door, then paused, turned again, and walked to the Terran’s table. Stopping in front of it, he waited for his presence to be acknowledged. Terrans weren’t especially numerous in Ogsnara, but neither were they uncommon.

After ten seconds of waiting, Makkod, angry over being ignored, said in a loud voice, “What are you doing here, Terran? This tavern is restricted to Uthlarans only.” The remark was untrue, but Makkod wanted a reason to pick a fight.

The stranger, until now staring into a three-quarters-filled mug of ale, looked up slowly, but not far enough for Makkod to see much of his face. The wide brim of his hat, coupled with Makkod’s angle of view from a standing position, hid all but his chin.

For his part, the stranger was only able to see Makkod’s body from his neck to where his lower torso disappeared below the table’s edge. But it was enough to see the lattice pistol Makkod wore in a holster strapped to his side. Few workers in the city carried such weapons. There were tons of knives or tools that could be used for stabbing among the rough and tough city dwellers, and even objects that could be used as blunt-force weapons, but there were few expensive weapons that fired projectiles or energy beams. This Uthlaran either had a job where he provided significant security, or he wanted people to know he wasn’t someone they should challenge if they valued their life. Perhaps it was both.

Trader Vyx was also someone not to be challenged by people who valued their life. If Makkod continued his belligerence, he would soon receive a painful lesson about picking fights with strangers. Vyx watched him carefully, and when Makkod placed his hand on the grip of the pistol, Vyx kicked the heavy wooden chair opposite him into Makkod with all the considerable power in his right leg.

The Uthlaran was caught completely by surprise and fell backward to the floor with a grunt. As he landed, Makkod tried to pull his lattice weapon from its holster.

Vyx never hesitated once battle was joined, and his glass of ale went flying as he flipped the heavy table onto the prostrate Uthlaran. Once unencumbered by the presence of a table blocking his movement, Vyx stood up and waited to see what Makkod would do, while using his peripheral vision to watch for any signs that other bar patrons intended to rush to the Uthlaran’s defense. No one did, not even the friend with whom Makkod had been sitting. Perhaps they felt that Makkod needed no help against the smaller Terran, or perhaps they just didn’t like him enough to risk their skin.

The Uthlaran’s weapon was lying on the floor half a meter from its owner as Vyx straightened up. Only the head of the Uthlaran was visible from beneath the table until Makkod pushed it off and twisted to locate his lattice pistol.

Vyx pulled back the right side of his heavy cloak and flipped it over his shoulder so it wouldn’t interfere with drawing his own, now exposed, pistol from its holster. “Try it and you lose a hand or worse,” Vyx said in a menacing voice as the Uthlaran reached for his pistol.

Makkod froze, only then realizing that Vyx was armed as well and appeared to be someone who would know how to use it. He looked again at his pistol while weighing the fact that Vyx’s laser pistol was still holstered. The tavern patrons watched the tense situation in frightened silence. Then, in the blink of an eye, Makkod made his move.

Vyx had already concluded that the Uthlaran on the floor would never capitulate and so fully anticipated the movement when it came. He had already decided on a course of action. He knew his laser could slice through soft tissue in an instant, but bone was a different matter. It could take several seconds to fully cut through an Uthlaran’s arm, so as he pulled his pistol, he didn’t even try to sever the arm reaching for the gun. Instead he simply swept the narrow beam through the upper chest area where the Uthlaran’s heart was located. It was possible to simply incapacitate the Uthlaran if he moved the laser quickly enough, but Vyx couldn’t be sure the cut would be deep enough for that. He needed to prevent the Uthlaran from shooting him with the lattice pistol. He went for the kill.

Makkod couldn’t believe the Terran had beaten him as the laser beam punctured his chest and destroyed his heart. His pistol had already been out on the floor. All he had to do was pick it up and fire, but he was dead before he managed to wrap his hand around the grip, and he never even touched the trigger. As his strength ebbed and everything grew black around him, he cursed his folly for bracing a stranger.

Vyx didn’t holster his pistol immediately, fearing that someone might now try to avenge Makkod’s death, so he stood there watching the tavern patrons as they avoided eye contact and resumed their peaceful drinking. When no one made a move to retaliate for Makkod’s death not even the Uthlaran that Makkod had been sitting with Vyx relaxed his arm and replaced the pistol in the holster. He waited another thirty seconds before pulling the table upright and righting the chair. To punctuate the finality of the situation, he gestured to the bartender that he’d need another ale to replace the one that had been spilled when he’d knocked the table over. He picked up Makkod’s lattice pistol and placed it on the table near his chair.

The bartender gave Vyx a wary look as he brought a fresh mug of ale and set it on the table in front of him. With the cook assisting, the bartender then carried Makkod’s body outside and unceremoniously dropped it into the gutter just beyond the curb. Never one to pass up the opportunity to collect for services rendered, the bartender went through his pockets, taking anything of interest or value, before returning inside and calling the disposal truck. He looked at the lattice pistol on the table twice, but didn’t have the nerve to ask Vyx for it. The cook got to keep Makkod’s boots, belt, and cloak. If the body disposal truck didn’t arrive quickly, all they’d find when they did arrive would be a naked corpse. As on the Gollasko Colony in Region One, on Scruscotto, and on many other planets, there was no real law. There was a central government, and they even issued currency, but both the government and the currency were a joke. And even if there had been law enforcement, a dozen witnesses had seen Makkod taunt a stranger who was minding his own business and trying to peacefully enjoy an ale as far away from everyone in the tavern as possible. Makkod simply provoked the wrong stranger and paid the supreme price often associated with supreme stupidity.

*

It was nearing dinnertime when Vyx returned to the spaceport where the Scorpion occupied one of the larger pads. If the cargo ship had been any bigger, the team would have had to leave the ship in orbit and take a shuttle down, but it’s ability to land on a planet had been one of the main selling points when Vyx acquired it at Stewart Space Command Base from then Commanding Officer Captain Jenetta Carver. And it was there, just before the team was assigned to work in Region Three, that the FTL drive was upgraded to the same model used on Space Command’s Scout-Destroyers. It was a shame they couldn’t sheath the craft in Dakinium not that Space Command would have allowed it but it would be wonderful if they could attain Light-9790 instead of just Light-487.

The other members of his team weren’t in the Scorpion when he entered, so he cleaned up, then began to work with the day’s recorded information.

Removing enough clothing to bare his upper torso, Vyx delicately removed the tiny recording wafer from a subcutaneous pouch in his chest located over the ribs beneath his left arm.

A chip attached to the optic nerve of his left eye allowed him to record everything he observed, and chips embedded in the audio canals of his ears added stereo audio tracks. As the information was picked up, it traveled through his lymphatic system to be delivered to a tiny wireless recording device. Limiting the transmission to biological functions meant that no transmission signal could ever be picked up by detection scanners. The device itself contained almost no metal, so it was never sensed by weapons or electronics scanners.

Vyx dressed again before heading to the ship’s bridge where he carefully slid the silicon wafer, only slightly thicker than an ordinary piece of writing paper, into a computer interface device and depressed the ‘play’ button. When he reached the images of the two Uthlarans from the tavern, he instructed the computer to identify the two men. It could take a considerable amount of time to accomplish the task, and they might not even be in the ship’s identification database, so Vyx walked to the lounge adjoining the galley.

The other four agents had now returned from their day’s activity of eavesdropping in taverns. All had cleaned up and were relaxing in the lounge while Byers prepared dinner.

Albert Byers, whose cover at one time had been as a short-order cook, had assumed responsibility for preparing all meals since joining the team. He didn’t think of it as a chore he loved to cook and even more, he loved to eat. Whenever anyone tried to assist him, he immediately shooed them out of his galley. As the senior officer and team leader, it was Vyx’s ship, but no one ever disagreed with Byers’ assertion that it was his galley. Cleanup was handled by the bots, so the only time anyone else ever entered was when they were seeking a snack.

On this evening, the main course would be chicken parmesan, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, and broccoli, with a green and yellow salad as the appetizer. Byers wasn’t much for fancy gourmet dishes but prepared stupendous home-style meals.

As Terrans had moved out among the stars, their favorite foods had followed them, courtesy of merchants eager to cash in by supplying the desired foodstuffs. On Uthlarigasset, where the indigenous population didn’t openly resent the presence of Terrans, chicken and beef were now almost as easy to acquire as Tarlovo, a large Uthlarigasset snake-lizard that resembled the Komodo Dragon of Earth. Considered a delicacy by Uthlarans, Tarlovo was raised by most meat farmers on the planet, but it was usually avoided by Terrans. The team had purposely overstocked the larder with Terran food before proceeding to Ogsnara on the planet Bleadalto, where it was significantly more difficult and expensive to find Terran food items.

As Vyx plopped down next to Brenda Cardiz, a fellow agent and the love of his life for some years now, he said to the group, “I overheard an interesting snippet of info today.” As all looked in his direction, he added, “I overheard two Uthlarans talking. One said that the Star Brotherhood has him violating GA Charter laws.”

“Which laws?” Brenda asked.

“He never said. His friend told him to shut up.”

“He has a smart friend,” Kathryn Earlich said.

“Not really. As that friend got up to leave, he spotted me sitting at the far side of the tavern and decided to see if he could cower me. Things escalated quickly and concluded with a shootout.”

“You don’t appear to be wounded,” Nelligen said, “so I imagine the friend is a little worse for wear.”

“That’s one way to describe it.”

“What’s another way?” Brenda asked.

“The last time I saw him,” Vyx said as he pulled the lattice pistol from his waistband at his back and dropped it onto the lounge table, “he was being carried out to await a free ride in a body disposal truck.”

“Well, I guess we won’t be getting any information from him,” Kathryn said.

“Dinner’s ready,” Byers called from the galley.

As the team reassembled at the dinner table, Byers served a large platter filled with chicken. The other food was already on the table and everyone began to help themselves. Once their hunger pangs began to slacken, the conversation resumed.

“I got a good look at the two Uthlarans, so the computer’s trying to ID them,” Vyx said. “Hopefully we can learn a little more about them and what GA law they might be breaking. It could be illegal drugs, smuggling, counterfeiting, slavery, sedition, or whatever.”

“Sedition is a bit of a stretch,” Kathryn said.

“Not so much as you’d think when you remember that the Star Brotherhood is involved. Greed knows no bounds. There’s a long history of politicians working with and for organized crime. The Brotherhood might be working with the planetary leaders of Uthlarigasset in their unannounced quest to force the GA out of Region Three.”

Following dinner, Vyx checked on his computer search and then headed to the quarters he shared with Brenda.

“So who are they?” Cardiz asked as she examined her face in the sink mirror.

“Dunno yet,” he said as he came up behind her and kissed her neck gently. He pulled his head back slightly but didn’t remove his arm from around her waist. “The computer is still looking for a match. It could take hours, or perhaps we’ll never find a match at all.”

“Weren’t the images clear enough?”

“They’re fine. But you can’t find a match if we don’t have them on file. With luck, they might have been aboard a freighter that was stopped for interdiction inspection and had their images downloaded with the rest of the crew when we verified passports and checked for wanted felons among the crew. But if the two Uthlarans have never worked in space, or at least never on a ship that was inspected, they won’t be in the system.”

“Or if our files are out of date.”

“Every time we go off-planet, I request an update from Space Command. The files are usually current before we reach our destination. On our last trip where we followed that freighter to the border with open space, we were off-planet long enough to verify we’d downloaded everything collected by SCI and made available to agents since we entered Region Three. If our guys are in the files, we’ll get their histories, or at least as much as the files contain.”

“We might be able to get a name from the Body Disposal Unit.”

“Yes, if the BDU even has a name. If nobody claims the body or identifies it, they’ll just cremate him and mark the file with their equivalent of ‘John Doe.’”

“But you said he was with a friend.”

“Yes, and I know the friend called him Makkod, but that’s a pretty common name on Uthlarigasset. We’ll just have to see.”

*

“Yussosi, where’s Makkod?” the foreman yelled up to where Yussosi was working on a storage platform high above the main floor.

“Don’t know for sure,” Yussosi yelled back. “He might be dead.”

“Dead? Since when?”

“Yesterday.”

“Get your butt down here.”

Yussosi walked to where a crane operator was lifting a load, then hitched a ride down after the load was placed.

“Tell me what happened,” Nuccol said when Yussosi reached him.

“Makkod picked a fight with a stranger. He was always doing that. The stranger was faster. He shot him. That’s all.”

“And you decided not to tell us.”

“I thought you’d know.”

“How would I know, you imbecile?”

“I don’t know. But you always tell me the Brotherhood knows everything. So I thought you’d know.”

“Who’s the stranger?”

“I don’t know. He’s a Terran.”

“A Terran? A Terran kills one of our brothers, and you don’t report it?”

“I thought you’d know.”

“Get back to work, imbecile.”

“Uh, can I have Makkod’s job now that there’s a vacancy?”

“No, his job requires someone with a brain. Now get back to work.”

*

“What have you learned?” Lippaula asked.

“Makkod died from a laser shot to the heart, boss,” Gillanno answered. “He was dead in seconds. Do you want his body?”

“No, let them burn it. I want the man who did it. I want to know why he shot one of our people.”

“The why isn’t difficult to answer. Makkod picked fights all the time with people he thought were weaker. He liked to smash them down so they’d remember who he was and fear him. This time, he picked a fight with someone who wasn’t afraid and who wasn’t weak. He’s a Terran, as Yussosi told us, but he’s different.”

“Different how.”

“His name is Trader Vyx. He’s said to be a smuggler. He and his crew of four are laying over while they try to find a cargo.”

“What does he smuggle?”

“According to people who’ve met him, anything that offers a good payday. He doesn’t seem particular.”

“Do we have him listed in our files?”

“No, but the Raiders had a file on him. They list him as a smuggler and gunrunner. I’ve uploaded the file to our database.”

“He’s worked for the Raiders?”

“He’s worked for people who have worked for them. His reputation is that he’s reliable and always delivers what he promises. But if you cross him or cheat him, you either turn up dead or are never seen again. He’s as dangerous as they come, and he’s someone you don’t pick a fight with if you want to continue living. Makkod made a mistake because Vyx is a Terran. He thought him to be naturally weak because Terrans are so much shorter than Uthlarans.”

“Could he be working for the Raiders now?”

“They didn’t say he is.”

“They wouldn’t. This could be a move on our operation here.”

“But Makkod started it.”

“You’re sure Makkod started it? Absolutely sure? The Terran didn’t taunt him into drawing first?”

“No question about that. There was a tavern full of witnesses. Trader Vyx was alone, sitting away from everyone else in the tavern. He was minding his own business, drinking an ale, when Makkod saw him and decided to teach him who was boss in that part of town. But it was Makkod who was taught a lesson.”

“This Trader Vyx sounds interesting. I want to meet him. Bring him to me.”

“How?”

“Use your imagination.”

“And if he doesn’t want to come?”

“Bring him anyway.”

“Any way?”

“Try not to kill him yet.”

*

Chapter Two

June 28th, 2288

Vyx scowled slightly and dropped the spoon into the bowl of stew in front of him where a thick layer of oil floated on the surface. It was still more than half full, but he had eaten as much as he could stand. He was still hungry but not for any more of the awful stew. Although simply listed on the menu board as a meat stew, it had been prepared using Tarlovo. He’d known before he’d ordered, but he’d been wanting to try Tarlovo at least once, so he told the bartender to bring him a bowl. Now he was sorry he had. The stew would probably be repeating on him until dinnertime. What he’d eaten had left a thick coating of fat on his tongue and a briny taste in his mouth.

There was a time when he would have eaten the slop being served in this tavern without giving it a second thought, but no longer. He’d been spoiled by Albert’s great cooking. He took a long pull on the mug of ale in an attempt to kill the salty taste, but it lingered, and the greasy odor of the stew floated heavily in the air all around him. Yes, Vyx had definitely become a more discriminating diner since he hadn’t been eating slop on a consistent basis.

Still commiserating with himself about the awful stew, he didn’t pay much attention to the arrival of the four Uthlarans, at least not until they stopped at the table where he was sitting and turned to face him. All thoughts of the stew evaporated in an instant as he quickly sized up each of the men. As with the previous confrontation in this tavern, he only raised his head enough to see their torsos. His hat brim deprived them of a good look at his face, while he was able to judge them from their attire, stance, and visible weapons.

He instantly knew which was the leader, which would be the toughest to beat in a brawl, which considered himself the fastest draw, and which would be most likely to back off and possibly even run away in a conflict.

Being able to see their faces and eyes would have been a distraction. A Terran couldn’t look an Uthlaran in the eyes because their eyes were mounted on thick stalks that extended out from the sides of their head. Typically about half a meter apart, the spread gave them tremendous depth perception, but also made them infinitely more susceptible to damage than the eyes of a Terran, which were partially protected by the skull. Featureless faces, lacking noses and ears, made identification of Uthlarans difficult. Olfactory sensors were located in the skin on either side of their mouth, and auditory sensors were located beneath a thin layer of skin at the top of their skull.

As with the previous confrontation, Vyx didn’t initiate conversation. He simply sat there watching for any movement that called for a violent or deadly response.

The leader of the group, obviously unused to being ignored, finally reached out and swept the stew bowl from the table. It went skittering until it ran out of surface, then flew through the air until it hit the legs of another table. The loud crashing noise drew the attention of everyone in the tavern.

“Lippaula wants to see you, Terran,” the leader said. “Now.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Gillanno.”

“Who’s Lippaula?”

“Are you serious?”

“I’ve never heard of him or you.”

“Lippaula is the senior officer of the Star Brotherhood on Bleadalto. When Lippaula sends for you, you don’t question the invitation. You simply go.”

“I’m having lunch. I was enjoying a delicious bowl of Tarlovo stew, which you just ruined. You owe me the price of the stew.”

“Delicious Tarlovo stew? In this place? You are new here, aren’t you? Now get up, Terran. You’re coming with us, alive or dead.”

Vyx knew he couldn’t knock all four of them down by kicking the single chair on their side of the table as he’d done with Makkod, and flipping the table over would simply cause them to jump backward while pulling their lattice pistols. But, then again, causing them to jump backwards would put them off balance and could buy him two extra seconds. One or more of them might even trip over his own feet. Vyx decided that flipping the table was his best chance.

Vyx’s next decision was when to act. He could either sit there until they made an attempt to drag him out, or he could be proactive. If he waited for them to act, they probably wouldn’t be grouped as they were now, so he stood up. As he reached his full height, he was still a good thirty centimeters shorter than the smallest of the quartet, but his shorter stature might make them overconfident. He casually flipped the right side of his cloak over his shoulder so he’d be able to draw his sidearm easily when the time came. The action and reason weren’t missed by the four Uthlarans. Vyx had now declared his refusal of their invitation, which he had viewed as simply a ploy that would make it easier for them to kill him while his guard was down or his back turned.

“Hold it, Trader,” Gillanno said, obviously nervous. He’d never been in this situation before. Whenever he’d showed up with three of his people and given someone an order, they’d followed it. He began to wonder if Vyx was as good as he believed himself to be, or if it was all bravado. And Lippaula had told him not to kill Vyx yet. “It doesn’t have to end like this. All you need do is go with us to see Lippaula.”

“I haven’t finished my lunch. And you didn’t ask me nicely.”

One of the Uthlarans grinned and chuckled, the one Vyx had marked as the most dangerous of the four with a weapon. Like Makkod, he was supremely confident in his ability to outdraw any opponent.

“Shut up, Hoffil,” Gillanno said.

“Come on, boss, why are we wasting time with this Terran? Let’s just finish this and go have lunch.”

“This Terran killed Makkod, you fool.”

“So what? I could have beaten Makkod.”

“Perhaps, but just barely. So all you know is that this Terran is probably as fast as you, and perhaps a lot faster.”

Hoffil stopped grinning as the meaning sunk in.

“Look, Trader,” Gillanno said, “Lippaula said to bring you, and we have to bring you, or else.”

“Then you have two problems.”

“Two?”

“One, Lippaula probably told you to bring me back alive, and that’s not going to happen. And two, not all of you will be going back to report your failure, if any of you make it.”

Hoffil scoffed and said, “Yeah, right. You’re going to kill all four of us.”

“If you’re only a little faster than Makkod and are the fastest among the four of you, I will. Makkod was one of the slowest draws I’ve ever seen.”

Hoffil’s smirk disappeared. He had finally worked it out that because of his bravado, Vyx was going to shoot him first if it came to a shootout, and a shootout was looking more certain with each passing second.

Gillanno probably understood that he would be the second to die. He knew that Hoffil was faster than himself, so the stranger would have little difficulty killing him if he beat Hoffil to the draw. “Look, Trader, can’t we do this peacefully?”

“Sure. You can turn around and peacefully leave, or you can stay and peacefully await the arrival of the body disposal truck. But I expect the bartender will insist that you wait outside, and you won’t be in any condition to protest.”

Things hadn’t gone as expected since the four Uthlarans had entered the tavern, and all four were now in fear for their lives. The Terran was too cool and relaxed. This had to mean that he was supremely confident in his ability to kill all four of them without suffering injury himself. Anybody that confident, and not a young fool, had to be fast very fast.

Gillanno had sort of backed himself and his men into a corner, but while they were still alive, the situation could be salvaged. “I believe we could kill you if we had to, Trader, and I believe you’d make that necessary, but I fear Lippaula’s wrath far more than anything you could do to us if we bring you there dead. I think it better that I report you wouldn’t come and allow Lippaula to decide if we should return and kill you.”

Vyx knew the little speech was simply a face-saving tactic and watched as Gillanno began backing away from the table. The others took their cue from him and backed away also, but it was possible it was a trick, so Vyx didn’t let down his guard until they were out of the tavern. Even then, he didn’t totally relax, thinking they might come back in shooting. After five minutes he walked to a window and looked out from behind the cover of a building support pillar. He couldn’t see any of the four on the street, so he returned to his chair, took a deep breath, released it, and sat down.

The bartender, waiting until Vyx relaxed, hurried over to pick up the stew bowl and wipe the floor. “I’m sorry about the spilled stew, sir. Would you like another bowl?”

“No. I’ve lost my appetite.”

“I understand.”

“How much do I owe you for the stew and ales?”

“Six credits, sir.”

Vyx paid and walked to the door, pausing once more to check the street before he stepped outside.

*

“He refused to come?” Lippaula asked, incredulous.

“He was prepared to fight if I tried to force him.”

“You should have brought some people with you.”

“I did. I had Hoffil, Turesst, and Csitte.”

“And Vyx was prepared to fight all four of you?”

“Yes. And he seemed supremely confident he would win.”

“This Trader Vyx becomes more interesting all the time. How many people would it take to convince him to come?”

“I think he would resist any attempt to force him to come.”

“Then don’t force him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Go there unarmed, alone, and extend the invitation.”

“Go without a weapon?”

“Do you think you’re faster?”

“Uh no.”

“Then a weapon would be useless. Invite him to have lunch with me tomorrow, here, at noon.”

“I’ll invite him if I can find him again.”

“We have eyes in every part of town. I’m sure someone will spot the how did you describe him? ‘most dangerous looking Terran’ you’ve ever encountered.”

*

“We may have to pull up stakes here,” Vyx said during the evening meal aboard the Scorpion. “The local head of the Brotherhood sent four of his people to pick me up at the tavern where I killed that Uthlaran. I guess Makkod was a more valued member of the Brotherhood than I thought.”

“You killed four more of their people?” Nelligen asked.

“Nah. I got them to back down by putting on my ‘meanest, craziest, and most dangerous SOB in the galaxy’ act.”

“I never get tired of seeing that one,” Brenda said with a grin. “You do it so well, yet it’s so diametrically opposite of the real you.”

Vyx assumed the look and said to her, “I only let you think that, little girl,” then screamed, “Ouch!” when she poked him in the ribs with her index finger.

“Just a big teddy bear,” Brenda said.

“But with huge teeth when I need to use them,” Vyx retorted, then grinned.

“So when are we leaving?” Kathryn asked, as she fed a table scrap to her new Earth-species puppy. She had sold the Lyoxma wimlot she’d purchased before their last mission. Although it looked like a cute, cuddly Earth puppy, it usually acted as aloof and temperamental as some purebred cats and jumped around like a monkey. Her new puppy was a Miniature Schnauzer with white and grey fur. It loved to cuddle and would happily spend the entire day in her arms. She was delighted with it. It cost a small fortune, but she had little else to do with her SC salary.

“I’m not sure. Has anybody discovered a reason to stay?”

“Kathryn and I overheard a couple of freight haulers talking about being careful in this part of the galaxy because there was so much ‘funny money’ being passed around,” Nelligen said.

“Bleadalto bucks, Uthlarigasset cifeds, or GA credits?”

“They didn’t say. They were keeping their voices low because of rumors that talking about it will earn you a nap in a cooler at the Body Disposal Center.”

“So someone is counterfeiting, but we don’t know which currency,” Brenda said.

“It could be any of them, or all of them,” Kathryn said.

“If it’s Bleadalto bucks, we stay out of it,” Vyx said. “The currency is practically worthless because the planet’s central government is only an empty shell and would never prosecute forgers. If it’s cifeds, we should at least look into it or the Uthlarigasset Senate will be screaming that the Galactic Alliance isn’t doing its job, and they’d like nothing better than for the GA to ignore problems in this region to increase support for themselves from the worlds here. If it’s GA credits, than we can’t possibly ignore it. And if it is credits, then either the Brotherhood or the Senesim Syndicate are probably involved up to their ears or rather their eyeballs. This seems to tie in with what I overheard the other day.” Vyx sighed. “This could get messy. But first we have to find out what currency. Any suggestions?”

“We should probably just continue what we’ve been doing,” Byers said, “listening for gossip in taverns until something turns up. We don’t have a single snitch on this entire planet.”

“Yeah,” Nelligen said, “that’s about all we can do, unless you have an idea.”

“There is one thing I can do,” Vyx said. “I can go see Lippaula. I might get a clue as to what kind of currency is being counterfeited, and by who.”

“He’ll kill you,” Brenda said.

“This teddy bear isn’t so easy to kill.”

“Do you know where to find him?” Kathryn asked.

“No, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen the last of the group that invited me today.”

“Won’t they get suspicious if you now seem eager to go?” Byers asked.

“Probably,” he said with a grin, “so I won’t appear too eager.”

*

Less than an hour after Vyx arrived at the tavern, a Wolkerron entered and walked directly up to his table. The tall, thin, Hominidae-like creatures with long yellow faces and enormous, jet-black eyes were like Uthlarans in that they were remarkably similar in appearance. In order to positively ID a Wolkerron, one must check its toe prints.

In the tradition of his race, the Wolkerron bared a mouthful of sharp teeth. To the uninitiated, it might look menacing, but it was only its species’ equivalent of a grin. “Good morning, Trader,” it said.

“Do I know you?” Vyx asked.

“Not yet, but I’m hoping to change that. I’m a jobs broker.”

“And what kinds of jobs are you pedaling today?”

“I have a number of very fine listings. For example, if your references are satisfactory, the Raiders are always looking for support ships.”

“Sorry, not interested. Ker Blasperra tried to get me to sign on with the Raiders annuals ago. I told him what I’ve just told you.”

“Ker Blasperra? In Region One?”

“Yeah.”

“My word, it’s been ages since I’ve seen him or even spoken to anyone who had talked to him. How is he?”

“I haven’t seen him in annuals, but he seemed healthy and prosperous back then. That was when the Milori had first attacked the GA.”

“Ah, yes. He was on Kethewit back then.”

“Perhaps before I met him. He was on Scruscotto during the time I knew him.”

“Quite right, quite right. I’d forgotten he moved to Scruscotto when the GA expanded its territory and changed the Frontier Zone. Did you do much business with him?”

“We had several very satisfactory business dealings.”

“My cousin has always been a shrewd businessman and enjoys a good reputation for fair dealings.”

“Your cousin? As in familial? Or simply race?”

“We are family. Oh, gracious, I never introduced myself properly. I’m Ker Blaswetta. Ker Blasperra is my father’s cousin’s son. So in Terran terms I think you would call him a second cousin, or possibly a ‘cousin once removed.’ My, what a small galaxy this is becoming.”

“Uh yeah. Well, I’m pleased to meet you, Ker Blaswetta.”

“As am I to make your acquaintance, Trader Vyx. So I take it you don’t like to deal with the Raiders?”

“I don’t trust them ever since Shev Rivemwilth cheated me.”

“Rivemwilth? I remember my cousin telling me about him. He was killed by Space Command, wasn’t he?”

“No. Space Command merely found his corpse in a disabled ship loaded with illegal weapons. He hired me to move those weapons, then stole my freighter and left me stranded on a moon in Region One to await pickup by Tsgardi slavers. But he didn’t live long enough to gloat. No one cheats Trader Vyx and lives to talk about it. The ship was booby-trapped, and if a timer wasn’t reset every so often. Well, anyway, he got my ship, but I got my revenge.”

“I remember now. My cousin told me that Rivemwilth had tried to cheat a dangerous Terran, and the Terran exacted justice. It seems the reputation you’re gaining here as a most dangerous Terran would appear to be deserved.”

“Only to people who try to harm me or my associates, or who try to cheat me. I don’t give second chances.”

“Everyone in town is talking about your fight with Makkod. I can’t say I’m sorry he’s gone, and no one will mourn his passing. He was a sadistic bully who enjoyed beating people physically weaker than himself. He eventually learned what all bullies discover there’s always someone tougher or faster.”

“That’s always been true, but some people forget it at times.”

“You shouldn’t fear being cheated by me, Trader. The continued success of my business requires that I deal fairly at all times. As with my cousin, I only broker deals between reputable customers and respected smugglers and freight haulers. Full payment must be made to me before the deal commences so its guaranteed if service is satisfactory. Payment is made as soon as the customer announces they are satisfied, unless there are issues. If that happens, I arbitrate a settlement. I only make a commission from the investment of the funds until the deal is complete, or as a fee after a person is hired and the customer is satisfied with the job performance during the probationary period, so the fee quoted is the amount the smuggler receives.”

“I’ve never had any complaint with your cousin, nor he with me.”

“That’s wonderful to hear. So, what kind of job, deal, or trade are you looking for?”

“Almost anything that will turn a good profit. But I don’t transport volatile explosives, such as Melwen Power, or dangerous biohazardous materials. All cargo must be irradiated to destroy pests before I accept it, or I want to know the reason why.”

“All valid reasons for rejecting cargo. Too bad you aren’t looking for a job on the planet. The crime lords are always looking for a good enforcer. That’s especially true of late.”

“Why do you say ‘of late?’”

“Things have been heating up a little more each day. It started when the Senesim Syndicate challenged the Raiders over the distribution of a popular new drug called Kuloo. The Syndicate claims it’s a mild recreational narcotic that helps relieve stress and anxiety, and is therefore part of the product group to which they’ve been granted exclusive distribution rights under the agreement. The Raiders claim it belongs to the family of addicting drugs they’ve always distributed. As the drug has gained popularity, the rhetoric has intensified. Both sides see the potential of the drug and want to control it. There have been a few fights, and a number of beheaded bodies have been found, although no one can prove who was responsible. Some have even blamed the Brotherhood for trying to foster trouble between the other two crime organizations in an attempt to have them destroy each other, or at least become so weakened the Brotherhood could then take over their territories and control all illegal products on the planet.”

“Somebody is always looking to take over somebody else’s share of a pie, whether it’s a legit business or an illegal one. It’s capitalism at its finest and at its worst.”

“I don’t mind competition, but I abhor violence. It’s not in the nature of a Wolkerron, unless our back is firmly against the wall. But enough about matters over which we have no control. I might have something you’ll find interesting. It’s a new offer and one that suits your interests while also suiting your spacecraft.”

“What do you know about my spacecraft?”

“Trader, please. It’s my business to know such things. Your ship model is a Siqquet, built at the Xillesku Shipbuilding yard on Uthlarigasset. It was one of three hundred ninety-four produced in that model series and most are still in service. Top speed is Light-300. That was a considerable advantage over other ships that size when it was built, because most ships were only Light-262 back then. Your cargo area can accommodate either loose cargo or containers since both sides of the ship at the cargo bay level open fully. With containers, it can accommodate either a full container or a mix of sizes that will fit in that space. That is unless you’ve modified the cargo area?”

“No, you’re correct. The ship has always been ideal for smuggling. Until a few years ago, it could even outrun some of the older warships SC was using for interdiction in Region One.”

“Some of the civilian shipyards on Uthlarigasset have been upgrading the speed in that model. It was illegal back when the Uthlarigasset government owned this space. But now that it’s part of the GA, they’re actually encouraging freighters to upgrade their speed. I understand the new drives offer speeds as high as Light-450.”

“And I understand the upgrade fee is pretty high.”

“Yes, it hovers around a million credits, but you can earn that back in as little as a year less with dangerous or illegal cargo.”

“Space is dangerous enough without piling on more danger.”

“That’s quite true, but the cargo transport order I have isn’t dangerous unless you’re stopped by Space Command, and I’m sure you’ll do everything you can to prevent that.”

“You can check my record with your cousin. I’ve never lost a cargo yet.”

“That’s most gratifying.”

“Where is this cargo headed?”

“At Light-300, it will take you approximately three months to reach the rendezvous point.”

“Rendezvous point? You want me to meet another ship and transfer the cargo?”

“If the customer approves of you as the shipper, you’ll receive as much information as I can pass along. You will proceed to the coordinates of a first destination at the time you’re ready to leave orbit. You will remain there until you receive further instructions.”

“What’s the cargo?”

“I can’t say.”

“You don’t know?”

“I know. That’s how I can guarantee it meets your requirements. But I’m not allowed to tell the transporter what it is. It is not explosive, not biohazardous, and will be fully irradiated before being delivered to your ship. From what you’ve said today, I guarantee that if you knew, you would not hesitate to take the job.”

“I don’t like carrying cargo when I don’t know what it is I’m transporting or when I don’t know the destination before I accept the contract.”

“I haven’t lied to you, Trader. The cargo containers will be sealed and the seals must not be tampered with. The customer will know if anyone attempted to look inside.”

“Thanks, Ker, but I’ll pass. When I transport something I must know what it is so I know how hard to fight to protect it and how hard someone else will fight to acquire it.”

“Then we appear to have reached an impasse.”

“That’s true. It’s just as well. My crew would like a few more weeks on the planet to rest and relax before we head out again.”

“Perhaps another time and another deal, Trader.”

“Perhaps, Ker.”

Vyx drank in solitude for the next hour but was instantly alert when the tavern door opened and Gillanno entered the establishment. Reaching under his cloak, Vyx unhooked the tiny strap that held his pistol firmly in its holster. He was now ready for whatever came. He didn’t raise his head or indicate in any way that he was aware of the Uthlaran’s presence when Gillanno stopped in front of his table.

“You’re late,” Vyx said after about ten seconds of silence.

“You’ve changed offices. I had to put the word out on the street that I was looking for you and pay for the information that you were in here.”

“I got the distinct impression that the bartender at the other tavern would prefer I do my drinking elsewhere for a while. I seemed to be drawing too much attention from the wrong crowd.” Vyx raised his head slightly, but not enough for Gillanno to see his entire face. “Have you come to finish our business? I expected you to bring a small army.”

“I only came to invite you to have lunch with Lippaula at headquarters.”

“I thought we’d been through all that.”

“This is strictly an invitation to talk,” Gillanno said as he reached for the front flaps of his cloak and pulled them aside using both hands.

Vyx’s right hand was instantly on his weapon, and his foot was against the chair across from him, ready to kick it out from under the table and into the Uthlaran.

“See,” Gillanno said, “no weapons. I’m completely unarmed. This is a polite invitation, not a demand.”

Vyx relaxed slightly. “An invitation to a crime lord’s headquarters usually includes a pat-down and forfeiture of all weapons to bodyguards.”

“No pat-down. And you keep your weapons. This is a discussion only. We’ve checked out your background well enough to know you’re not an erratic wildcard or an assassin.”

“Why so much interest in me?”

“Lippaula wants to meet you. It’s always good business to know who’s operating in this part of the galaxy.”

“How many men do you have waiting outside?”

“None. I came alone other than the driver.”

Vyx didn’t respond for a full minute. He wanted Gillanno to believe he was contemplating the invitation, but in reality it couldn’t be more perfect. When he stood up quickly, Gillanno was startled and jumped back quickly while reaching behind him. This told Vyx that Gillanno wasn’t as completely unarmed as he’d said, but he didn’t let on that he had noticed the movement. Knowing something an opponent didn’t know you knew was always valuable.

“Let’s go,” Vyx said. “I’m starting to get hungry.”

An oh-gee stretch-limo was parked in front of the tavern. It wasn’t the kind of vehicle usually seen in this part of the city, and people lined the sidewalk to see which big-shot had deigned to rub elbows with the lowlifes. When a Terran exited the tavern and climbed into the backseat of the limo, there were a lot of surprised Uthlarans, but when they saw Gillanno, they closed their mouths and went about their business.

Although a city, Ogsnara was not a large metropolitan center, so the ride only lasted about five minutes. As the limo settled to its skids in front of an impressive office building, Vyx worked to hide his surprise. He’d expected something a bit more modest, such as a rundown warehouse at the edge of the spaceport.

As the door on the right side of the limo rolled down and under the vehicle to allow easy egress by the occupants, Gillanno stepped out. Vyx climbed out behind him and stood up as he regarded the building with seeming nonchalance. Gillanno seemed about to say something, then thought better of it when he saw the bored expression on Vyx’s face.

“This way, Trader,” Gillanno said as he began walking towards the building.

When they entered the lobby, four burly, armed Uthlarans left their posts and began to move towards Vyx. He stopped, stiffened, and flipped the right side of his cloak over his right shoulder. The strap that held the pistol in the holster was still off, so he simply dropped his arm. With his arm hovering near his pistol, he was as ready as he could be for whatever was coming.

Gillanno, seeing Vyx’s action, waved the bodyguards off, and they returned to their posts.

“This way, Trader,” Gillanno said as he led the way to the lifts.

The lift was fast and delivered the two men to the penthouse office suite on the sixteenth floor in just seconds. To Vyx, the deceleration and stop at the top was more violent than the sensation felt when going from maximum sub-light speed in the Scorpion to a full stop. Of course the spaceship had inertial compensators, and he wondered why they didn’t have them in the elevator.

The doors opened to reveal a very posh reception area. Two bodyguards stood on either side of a set of stylish double doors just off to the left side of a receptionist’s desk.

“Trader Vyx to see Lippaula,” Gillanno said to the woman behind the desk.

“Yes, you’re expected, Trader,” the Uthlaran female said after repeating the message into a com unit and receiving a reply. “You may go in.”

Trader Vyx looked at Gillanno, who stepped back out of the way to allow him to pass. Obviously Gillanno wasn’t invited, which made Vyx nervous. He’d have expected Lippaula to want a number of others present if Vyx was being allowed in with his weapons. Perhaps the room was already crowded with enforcers and Lippaula didn’t want Gillanno in the line of fire. The hair on the back of his neck began to stand up.

After his moment of hesitation, Vyx turned towards the office doors. As he did so, the two bodyguards moved closer together to block the entrance to the office. Knowing they intended to search him for weapons and confiscate all they found, Vyx stopped, again flipped the right side of his cloak over his shoulder, and prepared for a fight. Gillanno had said his weapons wouldn’t be confiscated, and he had no intention of surrendering them.

Gillanno, upon seeing the motion of the two bodyguards and Vyx’s response, waved the bodyguards off, but they refused to back away because they reported only to Lippaula. They placed their hands on the handles of their weapons and waited for Vyx to yield.

“I think we’re done here, Gillanno,” Vyx said, backing away. “It’s either time for me to leave or start killing. Summon the lift.”

The receptionist made a noise that sounded like, “Yeep!” and disappeared down behind the desk.

“Wait a minute, Trader,” Gillanno said. “There’s obviously been a breakdown in communication. Lippaula told me you could keep your weapons if you insisted.” Looking towards where the receptionist was cowering under the desk, he said, “Tell Lippaula that her bodyguards won’t allow Vyx to pass with his weapons. He refuses to surrender them and intends to leave.”

The receptionist came out from beneath the desk and repeated the message into the com device. A few seconds later the com device chirped and the receptionist read the message, then turned towards the two bodyguards. “Lippaula says Trader Vyx is to be allowed in with his weapons.”

Without comment, the two bodyguards dropped their arms to their sides and returned to their former positions on either side of the door, but their eyes never left Vyx.

Vyx relaxed and approached the doors, which opened automatically. The tritanium-reinforced doors resembled something that might be seen on a bank vault, but they slid into door pockets rather than opening on hinges. Even so, it would probably take a ton of explosives to open them forcibly.

Alone in the room, Vyx surveyed the massive office as the doors closed behind him. It was easy to see that no expense had been spared in decorating the room. A large table, rather than a desk, appeared to be the work center, while the rest of the room resembled a lounge like that found in a luxury hotel. Four sofas and at least a dozen chairs dotted the room in intimate clusters. What appeared to be expensive art hung from the walls, while sculptures were scattered about the room, some freestanding, some on small pedestals, and a few on the room’s tables. A fountain, rising up from the center of a pool that contained live fish, bubbled briskly in the center of the office space. It was an impressive office suite.

Vyx turned in response to the sound of a door opening in a side wall. As a Terran female entered the room, Vyx’s lower jaw dropped slightly. Dressed in a glittering blue silk gown that hugged her incredible curves to perfection, she seemed eerily familiar. Her long black mane hung over one shoulder and contrasted with a hundred thousand credits of sparkling jewelry that adorned her ears, neck, and wrists. Her face reminded him of a statue he’d once seen in a museum. The sculpturer had named his creation Aphrodite, and it was intended to represent his vision of the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

As the woman flashed a million-credit smile, Vyx said in a business-like manner, “I’m here to see Lippaula.”

“I’m Lippaula,” she said in a voice that ignited long dormant memories in the back of Vyx’s mind.

Vyx’s jaw dropped even further. Rarely at a loss for words, Vyx found himself unable to speak for a few moments. As he recovered, he said, “You’re Lippaula?”

“Surprised?”

“That word doesn’t come close to expressing what I feel right now, Paula. We all thought you were dead.”

*

Chapter Three

June 29th, 2288

“I’m sure you never expected to find me two thousand light-years from Earth, Victor?”

“I never expected to find you at all, Paula. But other than that, I expected Lippaula to be an Uthlaran. I also expected a male because the Uthlaran culture is male centric. A Terran female can usually find a job as a secretary or clerk, but little else.”

“I assure you I was just as surprised to learn that Victor Gregorian from Snowy Hills High School has become a smuggler and gunrunner going by the name of Trader Vyx. As I read through the Raider report on you this morning and saw your image, I did a double take. I knew it couldn’t possibly be you and assumed it had to be someone who resembled you, but the resemblance was so uncanny that I found myself unable to stop staring at your image. Even so, it’s only your face that reminded me of that skinny bookworm from my high school days.”

“You don’t exactly look like the high school cheerleader I remember. You were pretty in high school, but now you’re stunning.”

“Thank you. We’re both adults now, with adult bodies.”

“Your gown is beautiful. I expected less formal attire. Do you dress like this every day?”

“Of course not. Normally I wear a business outfit with slacks. I wore this especially for you. I wanted to impress you. This became a special day once I learned who Trader Vyx might really be. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first saw you just now and knew it really was you. My heart is beating so hard it seems it will burst.”

“I wish I had known who Lippaula really was. I would have cleaned up and worn something more appropriate.”

“You look fine. More than fine actually. The skinny bookworm has turned into a real man. Since seeing your image in the file, I’ve imagined what you must look like under that cloak.”

“Really? And what did you imagine you’d see?”

“I saw a muscular chest with washboard abs, sculptured arms, narrow waist and hips, and strong, powerful legs.”

Vyx opened the cloak and then pulled it off while Lippaula watched.

“I was right,” she said, smiling as Vyx tossed his cloak onto a nearby chair. “You can take off your laser pistol. You won’t need it here.”

“I always feel undressed without it. I only take it off when I go to bed.”

She chuckled. “Maybe later then. Let’s sit down and continue our reunion discussion.”

Lippaula selected a sofa on the smaller side that kept them in close proximity.

When they were comfortable, Vyx asked, “How did you wind up out here?”

“I went to a party with a few new friends and tried some new drug that was supposed to make you feel great. I woke up months later in a jail cell on a Raider base in space, feeling not so great.”

“How did you avoid getting sent to a pleasure resort as a slave?”

“I didn’t. I was there for over two years. Luckily, they screwed up when they were wiping the minds of the new girls. I was strapped down on the table and the technician was just about to reset me to zero when he was called away. Another technician came in to take over and asked me my name. I’d seen how the girl before me acted after having her mind wiped, so I imitated her behavior. He assumed I’d been processed already, released me, and called someone in to take me to my cell. If I’d been subjected to that procedure, my oldest memories of the past would be the two sordid years at that miserable resort. Instead, I remember my entire childhood and, most especially, my wonderful years in high school. Memories of that time with family and friends got me through those two years. I might have taken my own life otherwise, as many of the other girls did. But I was determined to get away, so I watched, learned, and bided my time until I got a chance to escape. My opportunity came in the form of an Uthlaran freighter. It was scheduled to leave orbit before the guest to whom I’d been assigned for the day was scheduled to leave the resort. I dropped some sleeping pills into his drink and he was slumbering soundly when I snuck out. The resort shouldn’t have begun looking for me for hours.

“I managed to sneak aboard the freighter’s shuttle and hide out in a storage locker. The freighter crew discovered me after we reached the ship, but I promised them sexual favors in return for safe passage to a world where I could be free. I was the only woman on board, so I provided all the off-duty entertainment. I doubt if I spent more than one day a month off my back over the next eight months. Thankfully, Terrans and Uthlarans aren’t biologically compatible, so there was no risk of pregnancy, and Uthlaran men are tall, with huge feet, but small in other ways, so all I had to do was moan a little and tell them how wonderful they were.”

“You’re lucky they didn’t use you for sex and then turn you in for the bounty on escaped slaves once you reached that world.”

“Yeah, but after eight months of having sex with every crewmember, we had bonded enough that they wouldn’t have done that.”

“Those years must have been horrific. I’m glad to see that you were able to overcome them and retain your sanity. So you got here by stowing away. How did you ever achieve such a high position of responsibility in the supposedly all-male Brotherhood? “

“The freighter was a Brotherhood ship that had just delivered supplies to the resort. The captain got me in the door here and the rest just happened. Contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of women in the Brotherhood. It did originally start out as an all-male organization, but it had to change as it expanded. They needed women they could trust for both the administrative jobs and the more menial chores, so they made us full-fledged members. Eventually, a few of us were able to climb the ladder.”

“And you’ve climbed it all the way to the top.”

“On this little planet, yes. But I’m still low in the overall scheme of things. The operation here is pretty small. We’re not the Raiders, but we continue to grow. Having the GA take over this region of space has really helped. The Uthlarigasset military maintained a tight grip on commerce in the nation; with them gone, crime groups are flourishing. So how about you? How did you wind up out here, and how did you become a smuggler?”

“Life doesn’t always turn out as we expect it will when we’re young.”

“That’s for sure, but what made straight-laced Victor Gregorian become a smuggler?”

“Opportunity, and the desire for a life better than I had. During my third year of college, my folks were killed in a tube train accident when an earthquake ripped the tunnel apart and the earth shifted. The train was too close to the shift location to stop, and over two hundred people died when it impacted a solid wall of earth and rock that faced the shifted tube. I never returned to college. Instead I got a job as a freight hauler. I learned the trade and ultimately won a small ship in a high-stakes card game. Then it was simply a matter of slowly improving my situation as any good, independent businessman would.”

“An independent businessman who smuggles illegal goods and runs guns.”

“Among other things. I also deal in honest wares at times. I take consignment loads and trade merchandise. It’s all a matter of what comes my way. Of course, smuggling always pays best.”

A light chime noise sounded at the same instant a small light illuminated over the door Lippaula had come through.

“That means lunch is ready,” she said.

“Great. What’s on the menu?”

“Gillanno told me he owes you a bowl of Tarlovo. I asked my chef to prepare that.”

Vyx scowled. “I guess I should have come after lunch.”

Lippaula giggled. “I thought you might feel that way, but you should know that ninety-five percent of the cooks on this planet either don’t have a clue about the proper preparation of Tarlovo or don’t want to take the time to do it right. No matter how they cook it boiled, baked, or fried or what sauces they use to hide or enhance the taste, it always tastes greasy and salty.”

“Yeah, that was my assessment of the bowl Gillanno spilled.”

“But my chef knows how to prepare it properly and takes the time to do it. The secret is all in the preparation of the meat for cooking. It must be soaked in the oils recovered from the Tarlovo’s sex glands for several hours, then parboiled and allowed to cool for an hour. Most cooks can’t be bothered with this preparation, so most people have grown up eating the poor results. They’ve never had it cooked properly, so they don’t know any better.”

Vyx wished he could order something else. Almost anything would do. But he was a guest here and the mission was too important to let personal culinary tastes interfere.

As Vyx and Lippaula stood up, she slipped her arm beneath his, so he raised his arm, crooked at the elbow, as if he was escorting her into a formal dinner.

The conversation was suspended as the food was brought in by an automated attendant and they were served. When the aroma wafting from the food reached Vyx, he couldn’t believe how delicious it smelled.

“You did say this was Tarlovo, didn’t you?”

Lippaula smiled. “Wait until you taste it. You’ll never believe it came from the same species used for the stew at that tavern.”

Vyx was still a bit skeptical in spite of the aroma, but he sliced into the thick Tarlovo steak as the attendant robot left the room. Cutting off a small piece, he lifted it to his mouth, paused to take a breath, then slipped it into his mouth and withdrew the fork. After a couple of seconds spent savoring the taste of the sauce, he began chewing.

Lippaula looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to announce the verdict. When Vyx smiled, she had it. “You like it,” she said.

“It’s great,” he said, after chewing and swallowing the piece. “Are you sure this is Tarlovo?”

“Positive. I have it often, but never from someone other than my own chef.”

“It’s wonderful, Paula. I wish my cook were here to sample it.”

“You have your own chef?”

“Well, yes and no. He’s part of my crew but he does all the cooking. He’s an excellent cook.”

“How large is your crew?”

“I have four crewmembers. We’ve been together for a long time, and we’re almost like a family.”

“Are you married?”

“No, I never married.”

“Why not?”

“It’s difficult to have both a family and a life in outer space. As hard as it is on military families, it’s ten times worse when you don’t have the support networks they enjoy. And the life of a smuggler and gunrunner is that much more dangerous.”

“I imagine you’re lonely.”

Vyx had no intention of mentioning his involvement with Brenda. He had to keep it secret from anyone who might try to use information about their relationship should he or Brenda ever be captured by an enemy. “It’s a lonely life.”

“You’re the first Terran I’ve invited to dine with me since I’ve been on this planet. Believe me, I know lonely.”

“How come you never returned to Earth once you got your freedom?”

“Technically, I’m still the property of Resorts Galactic. Here, surrounded by the Brotherhood, I can be safe and free. But if I’m discovered outside my safe zone, someone can earn a huge bounty for my return.”

“But surely that ended when the GA defeated the Uthlarigasset forces. Slavery is illegal now.”

“It’s only illegal in the mind of the GA. Until Space Command crushes every Resorts Galactic operation in this region and arrests or kills every slaver, slavery will continue to be a way of life for many. Slavery might disappear eventually, but it won’t end simply because Space Command orders it stopped.”

“Can’t you buy your freedom?”

“I tried once. They refuse to negotiate with escaped slaves. They said that if I returned, they might consider negotiating with a third party. I didn’t trust them to keep their word. Once I was back, they might refuse to negotiate, and then I’d be stuck there. And worse, they’d probably wipe my memory. I didn’t think it was worth the risk.”

“As the head of the Brotherhood on this planet, you surely must have access to a spaceship. Once you achieve FTL, no one can stop you. You could be back on Earth in a few years. Even though Resorts Galactic is still operating, this region of space is officially part of the GA. The Raiders stopped intercepting ships and taking prisoners as slaves long ago. Travel is a lot safer for everyone, including former slaves.”

“I’ve thought of it. Of course, the Brotherhood would try to stop me if they knew I wanted to leave, but I think I could get away. It’s just that I don’t know. Everyone back on Earth probably believes I’m long dead. Maybe it’s better to leave it like that.”

“Don’t you want to see your family again?”

“Some days I want to see them more than anything in the universe. And others I’m afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“I did a stupid, stupid thing and I’m sure my disappearance hurt many people

“

“The events that led up to your disappearance aren’t important now. They’re in the past. We all make mistakes. You were a kid when it happened, and everyone will know you didn’t leave intentionally. I know your family and friends would love to have you back.”

“Perhaps. I just don’t know.”

“I do. Believe me. You would make everyone happy.”

“How about you?”

“Me?”

“I mean, do you keep in touch with people back on Earth?”

“I should do a better job, but I try to send at least one message to every family member at least once a year. Naturally, I can’t tell them about what I do. They think I’m a miner and I move around a lot.”

“A miner?” Lippaula said with a chuckle. “Well, you do have the look. You’d probably be the most intelligent and well-read miner in the mine.”

“I tried it once,” Vyx said, also with a chuckle. “It was absolutely awful. But to survive, you sometimes do things that aren’t very pleasant.”

“Tell me about it. If you’re done eating, we can go back into my office.”

*

As Vyx cycled the airlock hatch and opened the inner door, he found four pistols aimed at him. Raising his hands, he smiled and said, “I come in peace.”

As the pistols were lowered, Brenda stepped forward and barked, “Dammit, Vyx, it’s midnight. Where have you been?”

“With Lippaula.”

“Until midnight? I’ve been worried sick. We all have. We thought something happened to you.”

“Sorry. Lippaula sent the same Uthlaran enforcer to pick me up this morning. This time he came alone and said he was unarmed. I couldn’t contact you.”

“This morning? This morning?”

“Well, just before noon. The invite was for lunch.”

“But all day til midnight?” Brenda said.

“We had a lot to discuss. Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“We had ribs for dinner,” Byers said as they walked towards the lounge. “Want me to heat some up?”

“No thanks. I had Tarlovo for lunch and Wernallo for dinner.”

“Ugh,” Kathryn said. “Tarlovo. Even my puppy won’t eat Tarlovo.”

“And Wernallo?” Byers said. “Even Nelligen won’t eat that.”

“It came as a surprise to me, but I loved both meals.” Reaching into a shirt pocket, he extracted a data wafer in a protective pouch. Holding it out to Byers he said, “Here, Lippaula’s chef recorded the recipes for me. The whole secret to Tarlovo is the preparation of the meat before you begin cooking.”

Looking at it with apprehension, Byers said, “I’ve tried that awful meat. Nobody here is going to eat it.”

“If you cook it according to these directions, I think everyone will love it. Of course, at first everyone is going to be cautious because we’ve tried the awful stuff they serve in the taverns. But Lippaula said it’s awful because they either don’t know how to prepare it, or they’re too lazy to do it right. The Uthlaran palate seems to be less discriminating than the Terran palate.”

Byers accepted the wafer and said, “If I make this and no one will eat it, you’ll have to eat the entire thing.”

“Make sure to follow the directions exactly, and the meat will disappear faster than your chicken cutlets.”

“So tell us about Lippaula,” Brenda said as they sat down. “Why did it take him all day to tell you what he wanted?”

“Well, first of all, Lippaula isn’t a ‘he.’ Lippaula is a Terran female.”

“A Terran female is the head of the Star Brotherhood here?” Nelligen said with obvious disbelief.

“Yeah, it surprised me too. Even more than that, I knew her on Earth.”

“Define ‘knew,’” Brenda said. “Someone you might wave to if you saw them on the street or something more intimate?”

Vyx took a deep breath and released it slowly, knowing what was coming. “She was the love of my life in high school. There was even talk of what we might do after college.”

“As in together?” Brenda asked. “So you were lovers? Were you going to be married? How about now? Is that why you’re so late getting back?”

Vyx looked Brenda in the eyes and said softly, “We thought we were in love. Then one day she broke up with me for no apparent reason. A few days later, she disappeared literally. The police couldn’t find any trace of her and finally branded her a runaway. I couldn’t believe she had run away from home just a month before graduation, but I had no idea where she might have gone, and I thought I knew her about as well as anyone. I even suspected she might have committed suicide and that her body might eventually be found, but it never was. Today I learned that the reason for the breakup was because she saw me talking to a girl in the hallway at school. It was totally innocent. We were only talking about a new book we’d both just read, but Paula hated that other girl and misinterpreted the contact. She broke off our relationship without any explanation and refused to even talk with me.”

Vyx went on to explain what he had learned while he was with Lippaula. He related how his former girlfriend had been kidnapped, enslaved and sold into prostitution, escaped, and rose through the Brotherhood to become their senior person on Bleadalto.

“That’s it,” Vyx said. “We spent the day talking about her life since the last time we saw one another.”

“And your life?”

“I had to open up also. I told her the official cover story I’ve developed over the years, so if anyone here is pumped for information, you know how to respond.”

“You told her nothing outside of the official cover?” Brenda asked. “Even though you were once lovers?”

“Nothing inconsistent with the cover story. I may have filled in the blanks a little with inconsequential details. We did talk all day, after all. But nothing I said disagrees with the cover. For instance, I may have mentioned that I tried Daitwa once and didn’t like the gamey taste. It’s hardly something that someone who knows me could be faulted for not knowing.”

“So what’s the deal?” Byers asked. “Did she offer you a job?”

“No. At least not yet. I think I made it pretty clear that I had no interest in joining the Brotherhood.”

“And it took an entire day to tell her that?” Brenda asked.

*

Chapter Four

June 30th, 2288

Vyx had already explained how they spent the day, so he knew what was really behind the question. Even the most trusting of men and women couldn’t be expected to embrace having their current lover spend an entire day in private contact with a former lover. “We talked about high school, and I filled her in on what I knew about the lives of mutual friends and acquaintances in the years after she disappeared. Plus, I figured the more time we spent together, the more I’d learn about the activities of the Brotherhood.”

“And did you learn anything new?” Nelligen asked.

“I learned a great deal about the organization’s structure. I recorded everything , and I’ll whip up a report tomorrow so all of you understand the criminal network a little better.”

“So there’s nothing there to assist our slavery mission?” Kathryn asked.

“From everything Lippaula said, the Brotherhood isn’t involved in slavery. It would seem on the surface that the crime groups have peacefully divided up the criminal activity on this planet. The Raiders control gambling, prostitution, hard drugs, and probably slavery, the Senesim Syndicate controls mildly addictive recreational drugs, pharmaceutical drug counterfeiting, and alcohol, and the Brotherhood is heavily into currency counterfeiting. Plus, all three have legitimate freight operations that also serve to distribute their own products, but the Brotherhood is by far the most deeply involved in legitimate freight operations. Lippaula told me that with the fall of the Uthlarigasset government, ninety-eight percent of their former illegal activity isn’t illegal anymore, and the counterfeiting is just a small sideline. She said there were six large organizations involved in illegal smuggling when Uthlarigasset controlled this part of space simply because the import/export duties were so excessive. Now that Uthlarigasset is out of the picture and the taxation is over, those six groups have become legitimate operations. Of course they probably still handle the odd job where the import or export of certain goods are restricted by a planetary government, but it’s not something that concerns us.”

“And you believe her?” Brenda asked.

“For the most part, but not entirely. For instance, no one gets into counterfeiting in a small way. If you’re into it, you’re usually in up to your eyeballs. Most of the other could be true, but it’s also difficult to imagine criminal organizations entering into a lasting peace. Of course, we all know what will happen next. Eventually one of them will covet another’s business and attempt to move in, which will end the peace. We may already be seeing signs of it because a lot of armed Brotherhood people seem to be wandering the streets in pairs, as if patrolling.”

“So what do we do about it?” Nelligen asked.

“We could try to heat things up a bit.”

“But if they start fighting in the streets, a lot of innocent people could be hurt,” Brenda said.

“So we try to make sure the fighting is out of the population centers.”

“How do we do that?” Kathryn asked.

“I don’t know yet. But there has to be a way.”

“Is it likely that Lippaula will hire us for some service to the Brotherhood?” Byers asked.

“I don’t know. She said she wants to see me again in a week.”

“Why?” Brenda asked.

“I don’t know, and she didn’t elaborate. Perhaps she has to check with someone to see if she needs a smuggler, or perhaps she only wants to reminisce some more.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?” Kathryn asked.

“The same as we’ve been doing. We visit taverns and listen for loose talk about GA crimes being committed or planned.” Vyx yawned and stretched, then said, “Guys, it’s been a long day and I’m beat. I’m heading for bed. We can take this up again at breakfast, if there’s anything more to say. I’ll try to get that report done early so everyone can read it before we head out.”

Vyx was already sound asleep when Brenda entered their living quarters. She prepared herself for bed, then slipped into the king-sized bed they shared. She tried but couldn’t fall asleep and wound up staring at the sleeping form of Vyx, barely visible in the low illumination from a chronograph on the bulkhead opposite the bed. She would have loved to be a Gesta beetle on the wall wherever Vyx and Lippaula spent the day. Gesta beetles had chameleon capability that allowed them to blend almost seamlessly with the background. Until now, Brenda knew she was the only woman in Vyx’s life, but she couldn’t help wondering how involved he and Lippaula had gotten while renewing their acquaintance today. She had been attracted to Vyx from the start and over the years had grown to love him deeply, but she couldn’t help worrying that if his high school lover was trying to work her way back into his life, their personal relationship might be about to end.

*

As the team deployed to their selected taverns the following morning, Vyx chose a new location. The trouble he’d had at the first tavern had made the other customers wary and un-talkative, and seeing him leave with a Brotherhood enforcer probably meant that the second tavern would be a dry hole whenever he was there.

Vyx found a new location nearer the spaceport. It was busy even at such an early hour, but he found an empty table and began his day. Everything was quiet until three armed Uthlarans entered the tavern.

Vyx paid careful attention to the three newcomers with his peripheral vision. It was obvious they were looking for somebody in particular as they scanned the tavern’s occupants. Vyx nonchalantly moved his right hand off the table and unhooked the tiny strap that normally anchored his pistol firmly in the holster. As he slowly removed the pistol from the holster, he clicked the safety off. He was then ready for whatever came next. From the look of the three new tavern customers, he felt that that could be anything.

As the three Uthlarans approached the table where Vyx was sitting, one said to his companions, “Sit down boys. This is the man we’ve been searching for.”

Vyx stared at the apparent leader of the trio without speaking while he and the ‘muscle’ took seats at his table. Although all of the newcomers were armed, Vyx suspected that the ones on either side of him relied mainly on their physical strength rather than their skill with a pistol. The situation with the leader would be different. He didn’t have the physique of someone who used body strength to enforce his will, so it was at him that Vyx aimed the pistol he was holding under the table. When alone, Vyx always tried to sit with his back to a wall, but that worked to his detriment this time as he found himself bracketed by two thugs. He began planning the attack he would carry out after he took care of the leader.

“You’re Vyx, right?” the leader said.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Cillota.”

“You say that like I should recognize the name.”

“Everybody in this city knows my name.”

“Apparently not everyone.”

“Everyone who has been here more than a few days.”

“What do you want, Cillota?”

“You’re Vyx, right?”

“Yeah, I’m Vyx.”

“I received a report that you visited the Brotherhood headquarters before noon and didn’t leave until midnight.”

“So?”

“Have you joined the Brotherhood?”

“What business is that of yours?”

“We’ve decided to accept your application to join the Senesim Syndicate instead.”

“I never made any application. I’m not a joiner. I told that to the Brotherhood.”

“You don’t have to join. You’re already in.”

“So I don’t get a choice?”

“You have a choice. You’re either with us or against us.”

“I see. And why was I chosen for this honor?”

“We heard about you killing that fool Makkod. We have enough dangerous people running around loose on the streets. We don’t want another to worry about.”

“And if I refuse to remain a part of your organization?”

“I was joking. Just a little banter before we got down to the real business. We’re not really interested in having you become a member of the Syndicate.”

Cillota made a move that Vyx interpreted as reaching for a pistol, so he fired his own. The beam hit the leader in the belly and Vyx swept the beam upward slightly to do as much damage as possible.

Cillota went flying backward as a result of his body’s own autonomic reflexes as the laser tore through his body. His pistol was out of his holster and in his hand, but he no longer had the strength to aim and fire it. As Cillota’s chair crashed to the floor, the enforcer on Vyx’s right swung a fist backhanded towards Vyx’s head. The blow probably would have done significant damage, considering what it did to the wall when it landed, if Vyx’s head had remained where it was during the short discussion. But as Cillota hurtled backwards, Vyx pushed the table away and dove at the enforcer on his left. The cross-body block with an elbow smash to the face caught the enforcer by surprise, but he managed to wrap his arms around Vyx and hang on as the back legs of the chair broke under the combined weight of the two men. The overburdened furniture was unable to bear the load and splintered as it collapsed to the floor. Vyx knew he had to get free fast because the Uthlaran’s strength was incredible, and there was still another enforcer to deal with. Being held so close to his opponent offered little opportunity to land a blow, so Vyx pointed his pistol, still held in his right hand, at the man’s body and fired repeatedly into the side of his opponent’s chest until the grip relaxed.

As Vyx rolled free, the other enforcer flung the table out of the way and moved towards Vyx while attempting to draw his weapon. Vyx raised his pistol and fired at the area where an Uthlaran’s heart is located. The man’s face registered the shock of knowing he was looking at death without chance for reprieve. He dropped heavily to the floor and moved no more.

Fearing that other Syndicate people might have entered the tavern while he was busy, Vyx raised himself up on his left arm and scanned the room with his pistol ready to repel anyone who might want to join the battle. But all he saw was stunned and frightened faces. He took a deep breath and then stood up. Believing no one in the room was going to join in the attack, he replaced the pistol in his holster and picked up the three lattice pistols that had belonged to the Syndicate enforcers. After straightening his clothes, he held up a one hundred credit note so the bartender could see it. “For the broken chair and the mess,” he said, as he tossed the money onto the nearest table before heading for the door.

Vyx paused to scan the street before leaving the relative safety of the tavern doorway. Seeing no obvious signs of a threat, he stepped outside and headed for the Scorpion.

Vyx wasn’t surprised to find that the security device preventing unauthorized access to the ship was still set when he reached the Scorpion. It was early afternoon, so his fellow agents were undoubtedly still doing their best to collect information in various locations around the city.

After disabling the explosive device, he entered the code that would unlock the hatch and entered the ship. Reaching the lounge, he pulled two of the lattice pistols from his front waistband and dropped them on the table. He then removed the third pistol from his waistband at the small of his back and added it to the other two. Feeling substantially better without the three pistols digging into his body each time he moved, he dropped onto one of the sofas.

While always alert for danger when in a hostile place and prepared to respond with deadly force in an instant, he really didn’t understand the most recent attack. Until now he’d had no contact with the Senesim Syndicate and would have expected at least a reasonable attempt at discussion before they endeavored to assassinate him.

Vyx was still sitting on the sofa, reviewing everything that had occurred since they’d arrived on Bleadalto a week earlier, when Nelligen and Kathryn arrived back at the ship.

“It appears you’ve been adding to our collection of lattice weapons again,” Nelligen said when he saw the weapons on the table.

“I ran into a little trouble with some Syndicate people today.”

“The Syndicate?” Kathryn echoed. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been going over everything we’ve done here since we arrived. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Who were they?” Nelligen asked.

“Two were just muscle.”

“And the third?”

“He said he was the Syndicate boss for this sector of the city.”

“Oh boy,” Kathryn said.

“Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. I really don’t know. It could have all been a bluff.”

“Why a bluff?” Nelligen asked.

“Perhaps he thought I would relax my guard if I believed he was only there for a discussion. But when he reached for his pistol, I shot him.”

“Are you sure he was reaching for his pistol?” Kathryn asked.

“Uh pretty sure. If I was wrong I’ll be happy to apologize.”

“To whom,” Nelligen asked, “his widow?”

“When you’re in an intense situation, you have to announce your movements in advance if they’re innocent. He should have known that.”

“That still leaves the why question,” Kathryn said.

“If they really were Syndicate people, and I have no way to verify that right now, then they must believe me to be a threat.”

“And that will apply to us soon enough as well,” Nelligen said, “simply from association.”

“Possibly. We’ll have to be a lot more careful. Perhaps we should consolidate a bit more instead of you guys going out in two-man teams. Or else we could just leave Ogsnara completely and find another city where we can set up an operation.”

“But if we’re still on this planet,” Kathryn said, “and one of the crime groups wants to get us, they’ll just track us down.”

“If I knew for sure what and who was behind this, I’d know what to do. If I keep getting attacked in taverns, the owners are going to lock the doors when they see me coming.”

“If you keep getting attacked, someone might get lucky and punch your ticket,” Nelligen said.

“There’s that also,” Vyx said in agreement.

Brenda and Byers returned a short time later. They saw the pistols on the table and were briefed on the situation. The usual dinnertime joviality was absent as everyone thought about the problem and what the future days might bring.

Mindful of the current potential danger, the entire team remained aboard ship the following morning and discussed the second attack endlessly as they tried to make some sense of it. Vyx had activated the bionic recording equipment in his body prior to entering the tavern, so the entire event, as seen through his eyes, was available on a data wafer. He downloaded the recording to the ship’s computer system so everyone could view it on the monitors in the lounge.

“It’s exactly as you said,” Brenda said when the shooting had ended. “They obviously went there looking to kill you. You can tell by the way they walked, acted, and scanned the room as they entered the tavern, then walked directly to your table. And the one who identified himself as Cillota had to be reaching for his pistol. There didn’t appear to be any pockets down there.”

“But why attack Vyx?” Byers said. “We haven’t done anything to harm the Senesim Syndicate. In fact we haven’t yet done anything to interfere with any criminal activities on the planet.”

“The first attack was simply from a bully who liked to pick fights, so I wasn’t too concerned when that was over, although there’s always the possibility of a relative or employer vendetta. But this second attack really troubles me. They had an agenda when they entered the tavern. I was lucky they sent two muscle-bound fools who expected me to be an easy mark. They probably won’t make that mistake again. The next time it could be me lying on the floor.”

“Don’t even suggest that,” Brenda said.

“It’s a fact. So we have to decide if we stay here or go. And by go I mean leave the planet entirely and find a new place to ply our trade.”

“I vote we leave,” Brenda said. “Short of walking into the Syndicate headquarters and asking them why they attacked you, I see no way of learning what’s going on. We haven’t been here long enough to develop any dependable information sources.”

“Now that you mention that, there might be one the Wolkerron who introduced himself to me and tried to interest me in a job. Job brokers are usually better tuned in to the local power structure than they let on. You simply have to know how to talk to them.”

“You mean you simply have to offer them enough incentive in the form of GA credits,” Nelligen said.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Vyx said with a grin.

*

Chapter Five

July 1st, 2288

Sitting aboard a spaceship discussing possibilities was pointless once the possibilities ran out. Vyx, although senior officer of the intelligence team, usually solicited the opinions of the others before making a decision that would place everyone’s lives in jeopardy, but on this occasion he made the decision on his own. Just after lunch he left the ship with Albert Byers after ordering everyone else to remain aboard.

Byers was a bit overweight and not very good with a pistol, but he was a keen observer, and the extra pair of eyes would be invaluable if enforcers were waiting for Vyx to show himself in the city.

The two met no resistance as they exited the taxi and entered the tavern Vyx had decided upon. He hadn’t used it as a base previously, but he’d decided that he didn’t want to return to either of the other places where he’d already had deadly altercations.

The restaurant had a moderate-sized lunch-hour crowd, but no one paid much attention to the two Terrans. If everyone in the room had run from the building, it would have been clear evidence that the city had become too dangerous for the team to remain.

The tavern was typical for the part of the town where it was located. It had the usual odors of stale ale and greasy food, and the shabby furniture had seen its share of brawls over the years.

After determining that the chairs were safe enough for sitting and that the table wasn’t going to collapse under the weight of the ale, Vyx ordered two mugs of the dark brown brew. Over the next several hours Vyx and Byers sat in near silence as they waited for whatever was to come.

Just before the day shift was expected to begin arriving, Ker Blaswetta entered the tavern and walked directly to the table where Vyx and Byers sat.

“Good day, Trader. I was delighted, and perhaps a little surprised, to hear that you survived your encounter with Cillota and his goons. May I sit down and join you gentlemen?”

“Sure, Ker. This is my associate, Mr. Byers. He was just about to get himself another ale.”

Byers took the hint and stood up, then moved towards the bar. From there he could watch the entire room, allowing Vyx to better concentrate on his conversation with the Wolkerron.

“I’m glad you were able to best Cillota and his men,” Blaswetta said. “He was not someone I would have been equipped to deal with.”

“You won’t have a problem now.”

“No, not with Cillota, but there’s always another one willing and ready and to take the place of such people.”

“Why me, Ker? I haven’t had anything to do with the Syndicate.”

“I’m sure I don’t know, Trader. Perhaps you angered someone.”

“Come on, Ker. I know you know more than you’re saying. If you want me to do business with you, now and in the future, I need to know what you know about Cillota’s attempt to assassinate me. What else is coming my way?”

Blaswetta remained silent for several minutes. Vyx gave him all the time he needed and would only have acted if Blaswetta had gotten up to leave. He didn’t.

“I only know the rumors I’ve heard. There are three. The first is that Cillota took it upon himself without first clearing the act with his superior. The rumor mill says he was looking to enhance his image in the eyes of his superiors by eliminating a dangerous threat to the Syndicate. It’s known that you killed a Brotherhood enforcer and that you later spent considerable time in the Brotherhood headquarters, from which you emerged unharmed. Some believe the Brotherhood has retained you as an enforcer to fight for them if things continue the way they’ve been going lately. You’re considered an extremely dangerous individual, a fact that you proved yesterday when you killed three of the Syndicate people in a setup of their making.

“The second rumor is that Cillota was supposed to recruit you to the Syndicate but feared you might be too difficult to control, so he decided to kill you while making it look like you started it.

“The third rumor is that there’s a price on your head from a large Tsgardi family that has admitted they’re unable to get to you now that Admiral Carver has sequestered them on their own planet. Since they can’t get to you themselves, they’re willing to pay a bounty for others to do it. The rumor says you’ve killed over twenty of the family members who have come looking to settle the score.

“Perhaps Cillota was hoping to settle all three issues with this one action. That’s everything I’ve heard.”

Vyx smiled. “I’d almost forgotten about the Tsgardi threat, although I’ve heard they never give up. We’re over two thousand light-years from their home world and still they seek vengeance.”

“Then there is a bounty?”

“They have sworn to kill me, and they’ve always been on the losing end when they’ve tried, but I’ve never heard of them paying others to do the deed when the matter is a blood feud. So what’s your best guess? Was it only the Tsgardi threat?”

“Knowing a little about Cillota, I’d tend to believe rumors one or three. But if I were you, I’d make myself scarce for a while. And speaking of which I just happen to have a way.”

Vyx smiled. “I thought you might. Tell me about it.”

“I already have. It’s the contract we discussed recently.”

“The contract where I don’t get to learn what the cargo is?”

“I guarantee on my life that it won’t violate any of the rules you’ve established. The cargo doesn’t contain volatile explosives or dangerous biohazardous materials. And all cargo containers will be irradiated to destroy pests before the containers are sealed and brought to your ship.”

“What’s the destination?”

“As I’ve said before, you’ll be given that information when you’re ready to leave orbit. It should take your ship three months to reach the rendezvous point.”

“Why not just have the ship pick up the cargo here?”

“Security. This is the way the shipper wants it to be. No one except a few key people, and you, will know who is actually carrying the cargo to its destination. Besides, if the other ship could come here, the shipper wouldn’t need yours.”

“And if Space Command attempts interdiction?”

“I would strongly advise that you avoid any and all contact with Space Command. If you’re stopped and searched, you will lose your ship and your freedom. But then that’s the chance a smuggler is always taking when he accepts an illegal cargo, and why it pays so well.”

“Speaking of which?”

“Fifteen million.”

“Fifteen million what?” Vyx asked warily.

“Why Bleadalto bucks, of course. That’s the currency we use here.”

“No way. I want GA credits.”

“Uh. I might be able to convince the shipper to pay in Uthlarigasset cifeds. Say five million cifeds?”

“GA credits or nothing. Bucks aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and cifeds are really only useful on Uthlarigasset.”

“Any merchant on Bleadalto will be happy to accept cifeds.”

“GA credits or I’m not interested,” Vyx said firmly.

“Very well. Uh one million GA credits.”

“One million, five hundred thousand.”

“One million three.”

“One million four.”

“Done. One million, four hundred thousand.”

“When will the shipment be ready?” Vyx asked. “I’d like to get away from here and give things a chance to calm down.”

“It’s ready now. As I understand the situation, a ship was supposed to take the cargo weeks ago, but mechanical problems have sidelined that ship for two more months. The shipper is getting extremely nervous, fearing one of the crime groups here may try to hijack the cargo from the storage location. The shipper has approved you for the transit, if we could come to terms. It will be delivered to your ship tomorrow.”

“Who will be delivering it?”

“As the broker, I’ll be present to act as liaison between the parties and resolve any issues.”

“Okay. We’ll deliver the cargo and be back here in six months. Make sure the payment is ready.”

“The payment will, of course, be invested for a six-month term with my banker. After that, the money will be placed into a daily investment account that permits complete withdrawal with twenty-four hours’ notice. If you have successfully delivered the shipment and the seals are intact at the point of delivery, you will receive your payment within one business day after your return here.”

Vyx stood up as he said, “We’ll be waiting for you tomorrow. My ship will lift off as soon as the cargo is aboard.”

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Trader. Until tomorrow.”

Vyx nodded toward Byers, then walked to the tavern door where he scanned the street before stepping outside. Byers followed just behind him, also alert for any possible trouble. Ker Blaswetta held back, as if fearful to leave the tavern at the same time as Vyx.

Spotting a driverless oh-gee taxi coming down the street, Vyx hailed it. As it stopped in front of him and the rear doors slid down and under the vehicle to allow easy access, Vyx spotted movement inside. He used his left shoulder to knock Byers aside just as a burst of lattice fire erupted from the rear floor area of the cab. Vyx pulled his pistol as he fell and fired before he even hit the ground, but his fall had intentionally taken him and Byers towards the rear of the cab, and he didn’t have a clear shot at whoever was lying on the floor in the cab. He had fired only to make the assassin keep his head down.

Vyx immediately jumped to his feet and ran for the other side of the cab, keeping low to avoid being seen by the attacker. As he reached the rear compartment, he could see a pair of legs. He shifted his pistol into his left hand and fired into where he estimated the body of the attacker would be while only exposing his left hand.

When screams began emanating from the cab, Vyx knew he had scored at least one hit, so he fired again and again until the screaming stopped.

When no more sounds could be heard from the cab, Vyx took a quick look into the vehicle, then pulled back in case the assailant fired. His quick look had told him that no more fire would be coming from the cab, so he took a deep breath and stood up straight.

Byers saw him stand up and followed suit, but he didn’t walk to where the assassin could get a shot at him. Instead, he walked around the cab to where Vyx was standing.

“All over?” Byers asked.

“Unless someone else opens fire.” Pointing to the rear compartment, he added, “This fool won’t be trying again.”

“We’ve got to get off this planet, Vyx. It’s gotten way too hot here.”

“We’re leaving tomorrow. I just made a contract with the Wolkerron.”

“Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.”

Vyx took another deep breath and then moved to the rear compartment opening. After holstering his pistol, he seized the legs of the assassin and pulled the dead body from the cab. He was careful in case the body suddenly came back to life, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen when he saw the two laser holes through the assailant’s head.

As the body came clear of the cab, Vyx realized it was a female Uthlaran wearing male clothes.

“That’s a surprise,” Vyx said.

“What?” Byers said, trying to see around Vyx.

“It’s a female.”

“Females can shoot guns. Some of them shoot pretty damn good.”

“I know. It’s just highly unusual. Uthlaran society is very male centric. Women rarely work outside the house, except for prostitution.”

“Maybe she lost her meal ticket in one of your previous gunfights and wanted revenge.”

“Maybe. Grab her right arm. We’ll drag her over to the curb to await the body disposal truck.”

Now that the action was over, the locals had come out to see what was going on. As the body was dumped by the curb, many came over to see if they recognized her. Her identity didn’t seem important to Vyx, so he and Byers jumped into the cab and gave instructions to proceed to the spaceport where the Scorpion was parked.

“Is this a new charge or a continuation of the last fare?” the vehicle asked.

“A continuation. And I want a receipt.”

“Yes, sir.”

At the spaceport, the vehicle printed out a receipt that gave the former passenger’s name, address and point of departure. Vyx didn’t recognize the name, so he simply stuffed it into his pocket as he and Byers exited the cab. He took the lattice pistol he found laying on the floor and jammed it into his waistband.

After entering the ship, Vyx tossed the assassin’s pistol onto the lounge table.

“Again?” Brenda asked.

“Yeah, another one. Let’s sit down and I’ll bring everyone up to date. Albert knows a little, but I couldn’t say anything in the cab because most of them always have their recorders running.”

Vyx spent the next five minutes briefing the team on the details of the contract, the information Ker Blaswetta had passed on regarding the possible reasons for the attacks on him, and the details of the most recent attack.

*

“It’s done,” Blaswetta said into the phone. “Vyx agreed to take the cargo for one point four million GA Credits. I told him the cargo would be delivered to his ship tomorrow morning. He’s most anxious to get off this planet. The attacks by assassins have been increasing in frequency.”

Listening for a few seconds, he replied, “No, he’s fine so far. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast. It’s like he can see the trouble before it starts. But eventually, the attackers have to get lucky. Nobody’s luck lasts forever. If you want him alive to take the cargo, you’d better have it at his ship in the morning. Yes, I’ll be there to see him off, but I’m staying in my vehicle as long as I can. I don’t want to get caught in any crossfire.”

“So an Uthlaran female was hiding in the cab and shot at you as the doors opened?” Brenda said with incredulity in her voice. “And you killed her?”

“I didn’t know she was a female until we dragged her corpse out of the cab. But an assassin’s gender won’t stop me from killing someone who’s trying to kill me. All I see is a murderer who’s made a choice to kill for fun or profit.”

“After that group of Tsgardis were almost wiped out when they destroyed the first Scorpion,” Nelligen said, “I thought that would be the last of their attempts on you.”

“I admit I never expected their thirst for revenge to carry this far from their home territory, but now that Space Command has bottled them up in their home system, I guess they realized they’d have to farm out a contract if they ever expect to get my head.”

“There must be a way to stop this and nullify that contract,” Kathryn said.

“Short of bombing their home world into oblivion or cutting them off completely from all trade and outside contact, including a complete blackout on off-world communications, I don’t see how.”

“I sort of like that latter idea,” Byers said. “They’re nothing but animals anyway. The GA should just isolate them completely.”

“I’m sure the GA Senate won’t approve that for just this one incidence, but if the problem grows, it might be something they’ll consider.”

“But putting out a contract such as this means you couldn’t even be safe on Earth,” Brenda said.

“We’re SCI. Being safe wasn’t part of the package when we signed on.”

“Neither was playing target for every assassin hard up for cash,” Nelligen said. “This is the third assassination attempt in a week. There must be a way to stop it.”

“I’m open to suggestions. The first attack was by a fool who picked the wrong target, but that seems to have made me enough of a celebrity that my name got passed around and someone discovered the Tsgardi contract. Who knows how long that’s been hanging around without anyone knowing who Trader Vyx was.”

“The genie’s out of the bottle now,” Brenda said.

“We’ll be gone tomorrow, so we should have six months of peace and quiet.”

“Maybe,” Kathryn said,” but I don’t like not knowing what we’re carrying or where we’re going.”

“I don’t either, but I also don’t like having a bull’s-eye painted on my back. I need time to think about this.”

“In the meantime,” Nelligen said, “we’d better check the cargo bay doors and prepare the space.”

“Good idea. We haven’t opened the bay doors wide enough for a full cargo container in a couple of years.”

“I’m beat,” Byers wheezed, as he flopped onto a pile of cargo blankets in the cargo bay.

“Come on, Albert,” Vyx said. “We almost have it. We just need to clean and lubricate this last set of gears so the bay doors will open to their maximum size.”

“Just give me ten minutes to rest.”

“Move your fat behind and you’ll lose some of that lard you’re carrying around,” Nelligen said.

“Whatever.”

“Let him rest, Vyx. When he’s too tired to argue, he’s telling the truth.”

“Come on, Nels, help me get this gear cover off.”

An hour later the maintenance work was done, and the doors opened to their full measure when tested. They would now be able to load the cargo containers that were expected in the morning. The last task was to check all of the locking clamp motors. All tests were positive.

“Okay, guys,” Vyx said, “let’s get some rest. The cargo will be here in a few hours.”

“What time?” Byers asked, looking at his chronopatch.

“I’m not sure.”

“I ask because it’s after 0600 local time.”

Vyx pulled back his sleeve and checked his own chronopatch. “Damn, we’ll have to stay ready for the delivery. Blaswetta said the shipper was afraid of an attack by one of the crime organizations who might want to grab the cargo.”

“Add that to another possible attack on you, and it could be a busy morning,” Nelligen said.

“I don’t expect anyone to attack me here at the ship.”

“Why not? It might be their last chance to get you for a while.”

“True, but anyone coming here will know there’s a crew aboard.”

“So I guess it depends how desperate they are and how big the price on your head is.”

“I don’t really expect anyone to attack, but let’s stay alert.”

“That’s easy for you say,” Byers said, stifling a yawn. “I can barely keep my eyes open. We haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours.”

“Go grab whatever sleep you can. I’m going to take a shower and then hop in the sack until the cargo gets here. The women can alert us if anything happens outside.”

*

Chapter Six

July 2nd, 2288

Vyx only got an hour of sleep before Brenda notified him that tugs were dropping off cargo containers. He jumped out of bed and yanked his clothes on, then strapped his pistol belt around his waist. Before running out the door, he checked that the charge in the weapon was at full.

Owing to its large size, the Scorpion was parked in a part of the spaceport that saw little traffic, so it should be easy to see a ground assault coming. The delivery tugs, their oh-gee engines straining, were setting their cargo down gently. There was a person on the ground communicating with the tug jockeys to position them properly to assist in loading. Once a cargo container was down, the tug released the load and bounced back up into the sky.

When Vyx arrived outside, three of the four tugs were already gone and the fourth was about ready to detach from its load. Within a minute it was gone as well.

As Vyx stepped down from the ship, the doors of a private vehicle, parked well off to the side of the ship’s landing pad, opened. At first glance, the vehicle looked like an ordinary limousine, but a closer looked showed it to be constructed like an armored personnel carrier. Vyx was instantly alert and didn’t begin to relax until Ker Blaswetta emerged from the vehicle. When the doors closed, Vyx was able to relax fully.

“Good morning, Trader,” Blaswetta said as he approached.

“Hello, Ker. Nice car.”

“Thanks, Trader. I always feel perfectly safe once I’m inside. I had it specially built for me when my business began to take off.”

“A wise investment.”

“As promised, here are the four quarter-size containers.”

“Yes, I see that. We’ll begin the loading process immediately. But first let’s check the seals together. Do you have the codes?”

“Yes, I do,” Blaswetta said, producing a reading device from a side pocket of his cloak. The special device could guarantee that the seals had not been tampered with in any way.

After checking all access points on the containers, Blaswetta announced that everything was as it should be. Vyx had watched carefully and verified the information at each reading.

“And here is the encryption code we’ll use for our communications,” Blaswetta said. “As soon as you’re ready to leave orbit, contact me and I’ll give you the specifics of the delivery. My contact information is also on the wafer.”

“Okay, Ker,” Vyx said as he accepted the data wafer from the Wolkerron. “We’ll be in touch soon.”

Blaswetta nodded, bowed slightly, then turned and left.

“Are we ready to load?” Nelligen asked from the ship’s cargo bay as the doors opened fully to expose a good portion of the ship’s interior. The ship, with a beam of fifty meters, had been constructed around the cargo section, and with the doors open on each side of the ship, it almost seemed as if there was nothing else. The cargo bay was fifteen meters from deck to overhead, so quarter containers could fit in the upright position or on their sides. Larger containers had to be loaded on their sides.

“Let’s load it and head out,” Vyx said.

As the men began attaching oh-gee blocks to the first container, the women took up protected positions on either side of the ship. Both were armed with a pistol and rifle. If anyone tried to approach the ship, they would first be challenged and then fired upon if they didn’t stop. Both Brenda and Kathryn were expert marksmen.

After attaching the set of oh-gee blocks to the first container, Vyx operated the remote control to lift it to the right height so it could slide into the hold. All was going well until one of the eight blocks began to fail. As the container started to tip, the seven good blocks began to bleat a warning that they were out of level.

The situation was tense and got worse as an oh-gee vehicle with the doors open came racing towards the Scorpion. Vyx had to remain on the controls or risk having the first container come crashing down. They would probably lose the container, and the ship could be severely damaged.

As lattice rounds began bouncing off the ship and container, Brenda opened fire on the oh-gee vehicle. Kathryn joined her and they poured a continuing stream of laser pulses into the car. Nelligen and Byers pulled their pistols and joined the fight as Vyx continued working to regain control of the first container. Although the laser pistol fire wasn’t as powerful as the that of the laser rifles, it was still deadly.

Someone must have hit the driver because the vehicle suddenly flipped over, crashed to the ground on its roof, and rolled a dozen times. Brenda and Kathryn ran to the car and fired repeatedly into the vehicle until all movement inside stopped. Nelligen and Byers were both up in the cargo bay and couldn’t get down in time to make a difference, so they were forced to stand by and watch. When the women lowered their weapons, everyone knew this attack was over.

Vyx, meanwhile, was applying more power to the blocks on the side where the failing unit was located and managed to get it level enough to quiet the blocks. Nelligen, still standing inside the ship, reached out and immediately began to pull the floating container towards himself while Byers used a pole with a hook to pull on the other side. As the leading edge of the container entered the ship, the oh-gee blocks tried to raise it and the bleating began again. Nelligen grabbed ahold of a tie-down holder and jumped onto the container in an effort to counter the effect of the lead oh-gee blocks until Vyx could adjust the power and again level the container. It took all the skill of the three men to get the container positioned inside the hold. Vyx slowly reduced the power to lower it gently onto the deck in the hold as Nelligen and Byers guided it down.

Vyx looked towards the attack vehicle in time to see Brenda crawl out, then toss something back in. She and Kathryn began running, and then dropped after three seconds. A second later, an explosion rocked the upturned vehicle and a fire flared briefly before being extinguished by the automatic fire suppression system built into the frame. The women stood, picked up their gear, and returned to their posts at the Scorpion.

As the last of the containers was lowered to the deck and fully secured in place, Nelligen said to Vyx, “I’m glad you’re better with a gun than a freight loader’s control. I thought we were going to lose that first container.”

“Next time you can handle the controls,” Vyx said.

“No thanks. I don’t honestly think I could have done any better.”

“It’s nice to see Nelly tease someone else for a change,” Byers said as he sat down on the deck with his back against the last container. “I need a few more hours’ sleep.”

“You’ll be able to sleep for three months once we’re underway,” Vyx said. “Let’s get the bay doors closed and get off this miserable planet before someone else comes looking for my hide.”

“The ship is lifting off now,” the Uthlaran said from an office inside the spaceport’s control building. There was no planetary approach, departure, or orbit control, but each spaceport tried to coordinate operations to prevent collisions over populated areas.

“Roger, we’ll take it from here,” the com chief aboard the spaceship in orbit said. “Report the liftoff to HQ. Namossel out.”

Vyx, with Nelligen flying right seat, applied power to the oh-gee engines and the nose of the Scorpion lifted off the pad. “Wow, she’s heavy,” he commented.

“You ain’t kidding. The lift ratio of applied power to rate of ascent is almost off the scale. What the hell is in those containers?”

“I don’t know. That’s part of the deal. But I knew they were heavy as soon as I tried to load them. That’s probably why one of the oh-gee blocks failed with the first container. I guess it was stressed beyond its capacity. That can happen when you try to lift a heavy container a little too fast. I slowed down with the rest.”

“Maybe we should set it back down,” Byers said from one the jump seats on the bridge. Brenda and Kathryn were occupying seats there as well.

“No. We’re off the ground now and I don’t want to have to put the engines through that initial strain again. We’ll make it. As we climb, the strain will lessen.”

The Scorpion continued to climb steadily through the atmosphere on its established track. With each meter of height, the stress on the engines was reduced slightly.

When the spaceship reached the apex of the sensible atmosphere, Vyx engaged the sub-light engines and disengaged the oh-gee engines. Both he and Nelligen breathed a sigh of relief as the ship surged ahead and left the vicinity of the planet.

“For a while there,” Nelligen said, “down by the surface, I thought we might not even make it through the troposphere.”

“I was never worried about that. I was worried we might do some damage to the oh-gee engines. But the operating temperature never entered the danger range, so they should be okay. They shut down normally.”

“What now?” Kathryn asked.

“I guess it’s time to contact Blaswetta,” Vyx said as he slid the data wafer into the com unit in front of him. When the file list popped up, he selected the contact info and the system opened the com line.

“Greetings, Trader,” the image of Ker Blaswetta said.

“We’re ready to head out, Ker. What’re the destination coordinates?”

“It’s all on the data wafer in the file marked ‘goto.’ I’m sending the encryption code required to read that file.”

A second later the code popped up on the Scorpion’s screen. When Vyx called up the ‘goto’ file and entered the code, the information unscrambled immediately.

“Got it, Ker. See you in six months.”

“Safe trip, Trader,” Blaswetta said just before the screen went dark.

Vyx keyed the information into the navigation computer. “Okay, guys, here we go.”

As Vyx was about to activate the new course, Nelligen said, “Uh, Vyx, look at this.” He pointed to the DeTect monitor where an indicator light was blinking. “What is that?”

“It means the system is seeing a possible collision.”

“We’d better not key in the course then.”

Vyx pushed a few buttons and the monitor image changed. “There’s no chance of a collision. The other ship is behind us.”

“But it’s directly behind us,” Brenda said.

“Uh, yes, that’s true. I wonder why.”

“What?” Byers asked. “Is that significant?”

“It means that the other ship is on the same course as us,” Vyx said, “or close enough that it appears to be on the same course.”

“Why would someone be on the same course as us?” Kathryn asked.

“That’s the million-credit question,” Brenda said.

“Someone’s tailing us?” Byers asked.

“It appears that way,” Vyx said. “I’m not going to engage the engines on the course Blaswetta gave us. Instead, I’m going to enter an alternate course so they can’t learn our true destination. Once we’re in the clear, we’ll enter the correct course, and I’ll increase the speed to make up any lost time.”

After Vyx entered the alternate course and engaged the FTL drive, he sat back in his chair to watch and see what the ship behind them would do.

“The Scorpion has set their course, Captain,” the navigator aboard the Namossel said,” and advanced her speed to Light-300.”

“Send the course to the helm,” Ereppuet said. “Helm, match her course and speed.”

“Aye, Captain,” the helmsman said as he made the adjustments.

“Are we just going to follow along behind her, sir?” the tac officer queried.

“For now, tac. We’ll make our move soon enough. I want to make sure this is the final course to their destination.”

“There’s no question now,” Vyx said. “They’re following us.”

“What are we going to do?” Kathryn asked. “We can’t lead them to the transfer point.”

Standing up and stretching, he said, “Right now, I want something to eat. If they’re still on our tail after lunch, we’ll try to lose them. Who else is hungry?”

During lunch, the team speculated about the ship that was following the Scorpion. Unless the bounty on Vyx was astronomical, it didn’t seem reasonable that they would be after him. It was possible that it was someone seeking vengeance for one or more of the people he’d killed in Ogsnara because a thirst for revenge will often drive people to commit acts outside the bounds of reasonable behavior, but it seemed more likely that someone wanted to follow them to the rendezvous point.

They had just finished dessert when an alarm began to sound throughout the ship. Vyx jumped to his feet as Brenda yelled over the volume of the noise, “What is it?”

“It’s the Anti-Collision Alert. The ACS system has shut down the FTL drive.”

Vyx was in the lead, with Nelligen right behind him as the team raced to the flight bridge. As they plopped into their customary seats, Vyx shut off the alarm and studied the monitors.

“Something cut across our bow,” Vyx said. “We’re at a standstill.” It would take two minutes to reestablish the DATFA envelope, so he engaged the sub-light engines at full power. It always took the inertial compensators a fraction of a second to balance the effect, so there was a slight lurching sensation as the engines kicked in and the ship began to move.

“There’s a ship coming at us on the larboard side,” Nelligen said as he scanned the DeTect monitor. “They must be the ones who cut across our bow. There’s nothing else out here. The ship that was on our tail is gone.”

“Not hard to guess where it went,” Byers said.

“Albert, man the larboard weapons console,” Vyx said. “Brenda, activate the starboard console.”

“Aye, Captain,” Byers said as he depressed a button on a side panel that caused it to slide up and out of the way. The larboard weapons console slid forward as his chair turned ninety degrees to the left.

Brenda did the same on the starboard side. Each gunner would normally control half the weapons but could take control of all weapons if one of the consoles or gunners was incapacitated.

The Scorpion had four torpedo tubes in the bow, plus one on each side and two in the stern. Small ships almost never had rear torpedo capability, so the Scorpion’s rear tubes were disguised to fool attackers. Additionally, high-power lasers with horizontal rotating and vertical movement could extend from hidden keel and sail compartments. There were six on top of the ship and six on the keel. The placement of their gun mounts allowed them to hit almost any target within a two-hundred-seventy-degree vertical or horizontal rotation.

“Starboard weapons ready,” Brenda said as all indicators associated with her weapons turned green.

“Ditto on the larboard,” Byers said.

“Two torpedoes headed our way,” Nelligen said. “Okay, gunners, do your stuff.”

All twelve laser arrays began to track the torpedoes as the two gunners located the incoming missiles. Laser pulses began to spit at the two weapons as they grew closer and closer. One was destroyed while still fourteen kilometers distant, but the other made it to within a kilometer.

“Good shooting, but let’s not let them get any closer than that last one,” Nelligen said.

“Where’s the attacker?” Kathryn asked. She had nothing to do except observe as she gripped the armrests on her chair with white-knuckled concern.

“He’s staying out of effective laser range,” Nelligen said. “Right now he’s twenty-five thousand kilometers off our larboard side.”

“That unarmed freighter appears to be armed, sir,” the tac officer aboard the Namossel said to his captain. “She knocked down both torpedoes.”

“Damn,” Captain Ereppuet said. “I only fired two with minimal strength warheads because she was supposed to be harmless and I didn’t want to risk damaging her cargo. Well, if her cargo gets damaged, it can’t be helped. It’s time to get serious. We’ll give her a full spread this time. She can’t knock them all down. Are the other torpedoes armed with regular warheads?”

“Yes, sir. We only changed warheads for the two fired at her envelope generator.”

“Very well. Helm, take us at her stern. Tac, fire a spread of four torpedoes at her rear engines. That should incapacitate the ship. Hopefully, it won’t damage her cargo.”

“Our envelope is rebuilt and I’ve deactivated the ACS so they can’t use that trick again,” Vyx said. “It’s time to get out of here.”

Vyx engaged the FTL drive and shut down the sub-light engines. The small ship disappeared from sight in an instant.

“Damn,” Ereppuet said. “They got their envelope built. I was so upset with the destruction of our torpedoes that I stopped checking the chronometer. Helm, renew pursuit.”

“Yes, sir. Building envelope. The envelope should be ready in two minutes.”

“I know that,” the captain said with a definite edge in his voice. “Engage as soon as it’s ready.”

Two minutes later the envelope was built and the Namossel renewed pursuit of the Scorpion.

“Time until we overtake her, Tac?”

“Uh I’m unsure. She had two full minutes of travel while we rebuilt our envelope. At Light-300, she probably traveled ten-point-seven billion kilometers. DeTect range is limited to four billion kilometers, so we’ll have to get her on our DeTect monitors again before we can determine the time needed to close the gap.”

“Damn. Helm, maximum speed.”

“Aye, sir, We’re already at Light-457. That’s all we’ve got.”

“Well don’t let up.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“So we’ve lost them?” Kathryn asked.

“So far,” Vyx replied. “I don’t know what their top speed is, but I doubt it’s higher than ours. I changed course once we were out of their DeTect range, so if they pursue along that course, we’re in the clear.”

“Who were they?” Brenda asked.

“I don’t know yet. They cut across our bow, so maybe we got an image of their ship.” Vyx punched a few commands into the bridge computer and then looked up at the large forward monitor. “There she is.”

“It looks like a freighter,” Nelligen said. “I was expecting a rogue warship.”

As estimated information began scrolling up the screen, Vyx said, “The computer agrees with you. She’s about twice our length and four times our mass. She resembles a freighter model built on Uthlarigasset, but she’s definitely had some upgrades. Those freighters never had torpedo tubes, although they all had laser arrays.”

“Thank God for our upgrades,” Byers said. “I bet that ship’s officers had to pick their jaws up off the deck when we began firing our laser arrays.”

“But who were they?” Brenda asked again.

“There are no markings on the ship, so it’s anybody’s guess.”

“I don’t like guessing about that kind of stuff,” Nelligen said. “Somebody just tried to kill us. I take that personal, and I don’t want to be wrong when I start shooting.”

“It’s possible they were just trying to get our cargo,” Kathryn said.

“It makes me wonder if they know what it is. Okay, we’ve had lunch and we’ve left the bad guys behind. Let’s go down to the hold and see if we can figure out what it is we’re delivering.”

“Well, where are they?” Captain Ereppuet of the Namossel asked of the tac officer after the ship had been traveling along the original course for thirty minutes. “Shouldn’t we have overtaken them by now?”

“We should have, if they maintained their original course. It appears they changed direction after they were out of our DeTect range.”

“Damn. Thirty billion GA credits lost,” Ereppuet mumbled under his breath. “The boss is going to go ballistic. It might have been better if I’d lost the cargo by blowing that ship to hell.”

*

Chapter Seven

July 3rd, 2288

“That’s it,” Vyx said as he put his back against the shipping container they’d been working on and slid slowly to a sitting position on the deck. “We’ve tried everything I can think of with every piece of equipment we have on board for such work, and we have nothing to show for our efforts.”

“How can there not be any results?” Nelligen said rhetorically. “Are these containers made of Dakinium?”

“Nope,” Brenda said, “and their composition is about the only thing we do know. All four are made of tritanium. At least the outside surface is tritanium which is very unusual for shipping containers. And there must be an inner layer of lead to block the x-ray attempt.”

“And we can’t possibly break the seals and replace them in a way that won’t be noticed?” Byers said.

“Not a chance. And if we break the seals,” Vyx said, “we’ll never get another job in this region of space.”

“It might be worth it,” Kathryn said. “It must be something damn valuable for them to protect the secret like this.”

“It could be anything,” Brenda said. “It could be drugs, weapons, counterfeit money. It could even be people.”

“People?” Nelligen echoed.

“Sure. The container might be filled with stasis beds containing people. We might be smuggling some of the most wanted people in GA space to freedom.”

“But the irradiation scan

” Kathryn said.

“The containers might have been purposely built to block any penetration,” Brenda said. “The x-rays and gamma radiation never appeared to penetrate more than a few millimeters. We might even be smuggling dangerous animals in stasis. Perhaps the cargo isn’t against GA law, but rather only against the law of the planet it’s intended for.”

“I really hate not knowing what we’re transporting,” Vyx said. “I’m sorely tempted to break the seals and open the containers.”

“We can’t,” Brenda argued. “You said yourself just a few minutes ago that we’d never be trusted with a cargo in this part of space again. That would make us completely ineffective as an Intelligence team. SCI would split us up for sure.”

Vyx sighed. “I know, hon. I said I’m tempted, but I wouldn’t really do it. The last thing I want is for us to be split up.”

Brenda sat down next to him and leaned her head against his right shoulder as she slipped her left arm through his right. Vyx responded by intertwining his fingers with hers. It was a simple gesture, but it warmed her immensely. She was glad they were away from Ogsnara, glad they were away from his former lover. Perhaps in the six months before they returned she could restrengthen the bond between them so he wouldn’t be tempted to further renew his old friendship with Lippaula.

“So what do we do now?” Byers asked after they had cleaned up and returned to the lounge.

They had spent all morning and afternoon working in the hold, and everyone was hungry. “We have dinner,” Vyx said.

“I mean after that.”

“We deliver the cargo.”

“Without knowing what it is?” Kathryn asked.

“It appears that the only way to learn what the containers hold is to break the seals. We know we can’t do that. So we deliver the containers and hope we can learn what we’ve delivered at the destination. If we keep our eyes and ears open, we might pick up a hint or two that will help us theorize what’s in these containers.”

Vyx picked up one of the lattice rifles on the table and examined it before saying, “These last two assassins were better armed than the others.” Pointing to a canvas-like sack, he asked, “What’s in the bag?”

“I found a dozen grenades in the car,” Brenda said. “But I only kept eleven.”

“I saw that. Did you recognize either of them before they became totally unrecognizable?”

“No. I’d say they were just two more lowlifes looking to make an easy credit.”

“I guess bounty hunting can be a tough way to make an easy credit,” Nelligen said.

The ship continued on the course established when escaping the attacking ship while not divulging their true destination for a full month, then Vyx entered a heading that would take them to the rendezvous point. He calculated the distance from their current location and reduced their speed so they’d arrive when they should have if their top speed had been just Light-300. The fewer people who knew the real capabilities of the Scorpion, the better.

After entering the proper course coordinates, Vyx returned to the dining area in time to see Albert place a Tarlovo roast on the table. Everyone was looking at the roast with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. The smell was delicious but all had eaten Tarlovo meals on Bleadalto and been repulsed by the taste.

“It smells great, Albert,” Vyx said.

“I hope it tastes as good as it smells. I prepared it according to the instructions you gave me. I had a devil of a time finding a whole Tarlovo. Almost every shop Kathryn and I visited had already gutted and skinned the animals. I finally got someone to tell me where I could find a live animal.”

“Live?” Brenda echoed, her shock apparent.

“Well, yeah. I wanted it to be fresh. I didn’t have to kill it though. The butcher did that. When we got back to the ship, I gutted it and set the glands aside, then skinned it. After it was cleaned, I put everything in the food preserver. Then yesterday, I dragged it all out and began preparing it. If no one likes it, Vyx is going to have to eat the whole thing.”

“Gahhh!” Kathryn said.

“Then let me get started,” Vyx said, as he took one of the larger steaks and spooned some of the gravy onto it.

Everyone watched expectantly as Vyx cut a piece off the steak, held it to his nose and breathed deeply to enjoy the aroma, then smiled and popped the morsel into his mouth. As he began chewing, all eyes were watching for his reaction.

Suddenly, Vyx stopped chewing and a horrible expression crossed his face. His fork clattered on the dinnerware as he dropped it and grabbed at his throat with both hands. As a horrible strangling noise issued from his mouth, everyone at the table jumped up, knocking over drinks and spilling food from platters.

Then, just as suddenly, Vyx smiled, picked up his fork, and resumed eating. “Excellent, Albert, excellent.”

Everyone at the table just stared in shock, then realized it was a joke and began laughing. As they picked up glasses and straightened the food dishes, Brenda slapped Vyx lightly on the back of his head.

“You scared me half to death,” Brenda said.

“Sorry,” Vyx said with a smile, “I couldn’t resist. You were all looking at me like you expected me to spit it out, so I tried to give you what you anticipated.”

Everyone laughed again, then began filling their plates with food, including Tarlovo steaks.

No one said anything for several minutes as they chewed a piece of steak and then another, all copiously covered with gravy.

Kathryn was the first to speak. “I can’t believe this is Tarlovo, but I was there when Albert bought it. It’s delicious.”

“I don’t believe it,” Nelligen said. “You swapped it with something else. Is this Terran pork?”

“No, it’s Tarlovo,” Byers said, “and it’s magnificent. If you don’t believe it, I can show you the head. It’s still in the food preservation locker. You know, I can’t wait to try the recipe for Wernallo now. That’s something else I swore I’d never eat again.”

“If no one likes the Tarlovo,” Vyx said, “I’ll be happy to eat the whole animal, although it may take me a few days.”

No one responded because they were all too busy eating.

Several times in the ensuing months, the DeTect system announced contact with another ship, but it was always a distant contact and never represented any threat.

There were no other ships at the rendezvous point when the Scorpion arrived. Of course, given the vastness of space, it was difficult to pinpoint an exact location, but the DeTect system wasn’t seeing anyone within four billion kilometers. The date was correct, so Vyx transmitted an encrypted message on the frequency given to him, using the appropriate encryption code. The computer would resend the message every twelve hours until it was told to cancel the transmissions. Then it was simply a matter of waiting to hear something back.

With little to do, Vyx and Brenda engaged in their favorite pastime, relaxing in each other’s arms while reading their favorite literature. With Vyx it was classic works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while Brenda could never get her fill of poetry from the same eras. The Scorpion’s computer offered almost the full range of work from those periods, so the pair never lacked for something to read.

Two days later the Scorpion received an encrypted message that used the correct recognition codes. When it was decoded, it gave a triangulated position for a new rendezvous using current position coordinates of several suns. Vyx entered a new course and engaged FTL, then dropped the ship’s FTL envelope an hour later and used the sub-light engines to close with a freighter that appeared to be maxed out at ten kilometers in length.

Normal radio frequencies were so slow that they had to travel for years before anyone intercepted them, but they were perfect for ship-to-ship communications when the ships were in close proximity. Even if the parties chose to talk in the clear that is, ‘without encryption’ they’d be long gone before anyone intercepted the signals and came to investigate. IDS-band communications were used for long-distance communications because the signal traveled at 0.0513 light-years each minute.

“Respond on any RF frequency between three and thirty megahertz,” Vyx broadcast on all frequencies in the high frequency bandwidth range as the Scorpion came to a stop relative to the freighter.

“Open your cargo bay and prepare to unload your cargo,” came back.

“Not so fast. You’ll have to send someone over to verify that the seals haven’t been broken or tampered with before we unload the containers.”

“Unnecessary. We’ll perform that step while we’re loading the cargo.”

“No, you’ll send someone over with the authority to verify the seals are intact before I even open my bays. I’m not going to be responsible if one of your loaders gets clumsy and breaks a seal.”

“It’s unnecessary. We’ll know if the seals are intact as we begin to transfer the cargo.”

“Send someone over as I’ve requested or I leave now, with the cargo.”

Vyx waited for a response for two full minutes. When none came, he transmitted, “I’m powering up and leaving the area. Make sure none of your people get in the way.”

“Wait, dammit. We’re trying to get permission from the Captain. He went to the head just before you arrived.”

“Very well, I’ll give you five more minutes before I leave the area.”

Four minutes later, Vyx heard, “We’re sending over a team to verify that the seals are intact.”

“Confirmed,” Vyx said. “Use the forward larboard side airlock.”

When the shuttle from the freighter arrived and the airlock seal had been verified, Vyx opened the hatch. Standing next to him were Byers and Nelligen. All three were wearing side arms.

The first crewman in the access tube was also wearing a sidearm, as were the other four behind him.

Vyx put up his hand and said, “Hold it right there. One armed man can come aboard, or all of you can come aboard if you leave all weapons behind.”

“What kind of nonsense is this?” the Terran crewmember at the fore said.

“My ship my rules. Take it or leave it.”

“What if we decide to leave it?”

“Then I leave with the cargo.”

The freighter crewman scowled and removed his holster, then handed it to the man behind him, saying, “Leave your weapons in the shuttle, men.”

When there were no more weapons in sight, Vyx allowed the five crewmen to enter the Scorpion. Byers led the way to the cargo bay. At the first cross-corridor, the freighter crewmen were surprised to see Brenda and Kathryn on either side, both armed with laser pistols and lattice rifles, and holding their rifles at the ready.

Turning towards Vyx, the crewman in charge of the group said, “You don’t take any chances, do you?”

“Being careful keeps me and my crew alive,” Vyx said.

“And a nice crew it is,” the leader replied looking at the women. “Part of it, anyway.”

“The only thing that concerns you is straight ahead. Keep walking or turn around and leave my ship.”

The freighter crewmen spent twenty minutes checking and verifying that every seal on all four containers was intact and there was no sign of tampering. When they were done, the lead said, “Okay, you pass. I’m satisfied the seals are intact and no one has messed with the containers.”

Vyx held out a viewpad and said, “Put your right thumb on the face and repeat that statement.”

“We don’t sign for cargo until it’s loaded.”

“You’re not signing for the cargo. You’re simply stating that when the containers left my ship the seals were intact and there were no signs of tampering. After you’ve loaded the cargo, I’ll need a statement that you are in receipt of the cargo and everything was okay.”

The lead took the viewpad and repeated his earlier words while his thumb was in contact with the viewscreen.

“Satisfied?” the lead asked.

“Fully. We’ll escort you back to your shuttle and begin evacuation of the air in this bay so the outer doors can be opened. It will take about a GST hour.”

“An hour?”

“It’s a large bay. It’s actually more than half the interior space of the ship. We can’t open the doors until the pressure is equal inside and out.”

“Well, make it fast.”

“As fast as possible. I don’t want to be hanging around here any longer than necessary.”

An hour later, Nelligen and Byers were in the hold. The bay doors were wide open on the larboard side, and the two men were suited up in EVA suits and ready to release the first container when a small robotic tug arrived from the freighter. The small tugs were used for moving containers in space and were nothing like the large tugs required to bring containers up from a planet or deliver them down to a planetary surface.

As the free-floating container cleared the bay doors, the tug decided on the best way to attach itself and latched on. In minutes, the container was drifting towards the freighter, guided by the attached tug.

Vyx watched everything from the bridge. He had every one of the Scorpion’s cameras running and watched for anyone trying to approach the ship from any direction. It was unlikely that the freighter crew would try to ‘take’ the small freighter by force with an outside attack, but when dealing with people performing illegal activities, it never hurt to be careful.

Seventy minutes after the first container was picked up, the fourth was ready to be taken away, but when the robotic tug arrived, it brought the first container back. Vyx immediately reached for the communications headset.

“What’s the problem?” Vyx asked. “Are your refusing the cargo?”

“Not at all. We’ve transferred the cargo and are giving you back the empty container.”

“I don’t want your empties.”

“The deal is that you return the emptied containers when you return to the planet.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal. My deal is to deliver four quarter-sized containers. Nothing was ever said about carting containers back.”

“That’s the way we operate. If you want to get paid, you’ll bring the empties back. It’s up to you.”

“Alright, I’ll bring the empties back, but tell your bosses there’ll be an additional charge of fifty thousand credits.”

“You tell them. We don’t get involved. And we don’t acknowledge receipt of the cargo until the empties are stored inside your ship. If you space them later, it’s on your head. But I’d suggest you not do that. The people in charge would be very upset, and they’re not the sort you want angry with you.”

Vyx scowled and cut the com link.

Once all four of the empty containers were in the cargo bay and locked down, the great doors were closed and the atmosphere replaced from the enormous storage bottles. The captain of the freighter transmitted an electronic ‘receipt of cargo’ form and the Scorpion’s business there was done.

Using the deuterium thrusters, the ship backed slowly away from the freighter. Once they were at a safe operating distance, the small freighter was turned, and sub-light engines were engaged while the envelope was built. Two minutes later, the sub-light engines were shut down and the FTL drive was engaged at Light-300. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the delivery was over. Vyx waited until they were out of DeTect range of the freighter and the monitor was clear of any other traffic, then applied full power to the FTL drive. He was anxious to be as far from the freighter as possible, and Light-487 would accomplish that. He’d had bad feelings about the whole deal since they’d arrived at the rendezvous area.

“Let’s go check out those empty containers,” Vyx said to the others. “Arm yourselves.”

“Why?” Byers asked.

“In case we’ve brought aboard a Trojan horse or two.”

“You don’t think they intend to take over the Scorpion, do you?”

“I’ve been suspicious ever since five armed freight haulers tried to get aboard earlier today. Freight workers never wear weapons unless their ship has come under attack. Let’s remember that we’re dealing with criminals and smugglers, not ordinary law-abiding citizens.”

“Yeah,” Nelligen said. “That was kind of strange that they all wore side arms just to come over and check the seals.”

“What do we do if they did smuggle someone aboard?” Kathryn asked.

“We treat them like what they are pirates trying to commandeer this ship,” Vyx said. “If they want a fight, we’ll give it to them. We’ll check the containers one at a time. Stay alert. The containers might look empty at first glance, but there may be false walls where people can hide.”

“We could just depressurize the hold and leave it that way until we reach Bleadalto,” Byers offered.

“If there are people aboard, they would have needed EVA suits just to guarantee survival from the freighter to the Scorpion. We have to check the containers thoroughly. Everyone ready?”

*

Chapter Eight

Oct. 8th, 2288

“No one in this one,” Byers said as the three men entered the first container cautiously while the women covered their six from outside.”

“Use the distance-measuring equipment to make sure there aren’t any disguised hiding places,” Vyx said, “and then the monitoring equipment to check for things like heartbeats or tracking devices.”

When the measurements were complete, Nelligen reported that the inside was eighty-two centimeters smaller than the outside dimensions. “Of course, that could be attributed to the materials and reinforcement design used in construction of the container.”

“It could also mean hidden areas for people or smuggled materials,” Byers said.

“Possible, but a real stretch,” Vyx said, “given the structural support requirements for the weight they were carrying. Okay, let’s check the other three containers for obvious stowaways before we check out the walls of the containers.

A check of the other containers revealed no stowaways waiting to leap out and begin a forcible takeover of the ship after the crew had relaxed their security, so they began an exhaustive examination of the container construction.

“We have an outer skin of tritanium,” Brenda said, “bonded to a point-five centimeter lining of lead, followed by a low power electronic grid that will scramble any electronic scans that get through the outer materials. Then we have a two-centimeter-thick layer of stainless steel with normal reinforcing construction and an interior two-centimeter layer of stainless. Overall, it’s well constructed and well protected from snooping.”

“Any signs of recent work?” Vyx asked.

“Recent work?” Brenda echoed.

“Yeah. Such as by the freighter people. Did they put anything into the walls that we’ll be smuggling back to Bleadalto?”

“No evidence that I saw. Did you notice anything Kathryn?”

“Nope. I didn’t see anything that suggests recent tampering with the interior or exterior walls.”

“Okay. Thanks everyone. That puts my mind at ease.”

“So what were we carrying? Why did they transfer it to other containers?” Byers asked.

“I don’t know. They were pretty secretive. Let’s go review the vid records and see if we can spot anything.”

An hour later the team had cleaned up and were meeting in the lounge to watch the images recorded from the Scorpion’s exterior-mounted cameras.

Most of the cameras only recorded images of empty space, so they weren’t reviewed. The images that showed how the containers were handled once the small robotic tug delivered them to the freighter were enlarged to maximum magnification and played at slower-than-normal speed.

“Look at that,” Byers said after the first of the recently delivered containers was opened. “It’s a container within a container.”

The freighter crewmembers had opened one end of the container and were pulling another smaller container out. After the smaller container was out, the larger container was closed and pushed out of the way. Then the side doors of a full twenty-meter-high container already part of the freighter’s load was opened.

“There’s the reason,” Vyx said. “The full-size container has a false bottom. It’s really only a three-quarters container in a full-size shell.”

“Why?” Kathryn asked.

“Look, they’re sliding the small container into the bottom of the full-size container,” Nelligen said.

“Clever,” Vyx said. “They put the small container we delivered under a three-quarters load of ore. If Space Command stops the ship, the densitometer reading for that container will undoubtedly appear normal for a full-size container of ore.”

“Very clever,” Brenda said. “Inspectors rarely climb down into a container full of ore. If none of the readings are suspicious, they just pass the container and go on to the next.”

“Okay, mystery solved,” Vyx said. “I’ll send a message to SCI at Quesann and identify the freighter and the containers. It’ll be up to them to have a Space Command ship engaged in interdiction activities stop the ship and find a justifiable reason for a full search of one of the involved containers that doesn’t point back to us as a possible informer. Once they find one illegal cargo, they can impound the ship, drag it back to Quesann, and check every container under a magnifying glass. Chances are there are other illegal cargoes aboard.”

Over the following week, the team began falling into their usual daily routines. It was on the sixth day after departing the area near the freighter that the ship was suddenly rocked and alarms began sounding all over the ship. Everyone headed for the bridge at double time.

“The ACS again?” Nelligen asked as he plopped into the right seat and began scanning space with the DeTect system.

“Not this time,” Vyx said, “I felt an explosion and the alarm is indicating that the FTL drive is down.”

“An attack?” Byers asked as he opened the larboard weapons-control panel.

“If it was an attack,” Vyx said, “we should have received a DeTect alert.”

Brenda, who had already opened the starboard side panel, said, “I don’t see anyone out there.”

“Neither do I,” Nelligen said. “The DeTect screen is clear. Nobody within four billion kilometers.”

“Then who attacked us?” Kathryn shouted over the sound of the alarms.

Vyx flicked a switch and the bridge was suddenly as quiet as a tomb. “All I know is there was an explosion and the FTL drive is down. We’re not moving at all.”

“Let’s activate the sub-light engines,” Byers said. “We can’t just sit out here in the open if there’s another attack.”

“No. We can’t move until we know what happened.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t know why the FTL is down. The safest course is to spend a few minutes investigating since the DeTect shows there’s no one in the neighborhood. Kathryn, you’re at the vid panel. Display an image of the FTL drive from the camera mounted just behind the drive unit repository.”

“Coming up,” Kathryn said. A second later an image from that camera appeared on the forward bridge monitor.

“Where’s the FTL drive unit?” Nelligen asked.

“It’s not there,” Vyx replied. “The post is there, but most of the drive unit is gone.”

“How can it not be there if we weren’t attacked?” Byers said.

“Good question, Albert,” Vyx said. “Let’s find out. The last time that camera was activated was six days ago when we were at the rendezvous location. Kathryn, play back that last vid file. Start from the end and run it backwards.”

“Coming up. Okay, here it is.”

A image of the FTL drive, still intact, appeared on the monitor.”

“What’s that thing sitting on top of the drive unit?” Nelligen asked.

“I don’t know,” Vyx said, “but it doesn’t belong there.”

As they watched, the object flew off the drive unit.

“Where’d it go?” Byers asked.

“The question is where’d it come from?” Nelligen said. “We’re playing the file backwards.”

“Kathryn, play the file forward from this point,” Vyx said. “Six frames per second instead of thirty.”

As the file began playing, they saw the object zoom in and land on the FTL drive unit mere seconds before the ship began building it’s envelope to go to FTL. That’s where the file ended.

The Scorpion’s FTL drive, as on warships, resided in a repository in the sail when not in use. When needed, the repository cover was retracted and the drive was extended out.

“So it came from the freighter?” Brenda asked.

“It appears that way. There wasn’t anyone else around.”

“But how did that thing approach the ship without setting off alarms?” Byers asked.

“It must have flown alongside a robotic tug bringing the empty containers,” Nelligen said. “The system was set to ignore their approach.”

“Or perhaps it was even attached to the robotic tug temporarily,” Kathryn said.

“Kathryn, activate the rest of the cameras, one by one,” Vyx said. “Let’s see if we can spot any more of those things on the ship.”

Over the next hour, they used the exterior cameras to scan the hull. It wasn’t as definitive a search as actually being outside, but it was close. They identified two more drones. There was one on each sub-light engine nacelle.”

“That’s why we can’t activate the sub-light engines, Albert,” Vyx said. “Those devices might be set to detonate as soon as we do.”

“So what do we do now?” Byers asked. “We can’t just sit here like a target.”

“No, we can’t,” Vyx agreed. Looking at Nelligen, he said, “Up for a little bomb disposal work?”

“It’s not something I’d go out of my way to find, but I don’t see where we have a choice.”

“I’ll take the larboard unit. You take the starboard side. One of us will perform a step, and then the other will follow. If the one following hears a loud noise, he’ll know not to duplicate that particular move.”

Nelligen chuckled. “The only thing left to decide then is who leads and who follows.”

“We can switch after every step, or when one of us of feels more confident to take the lead. The important thing is to maintain constant contact. We don’t have any time to kill, er waste so let’s go suit up.”

Twenty minutes later, wearing EVA suits with a tool kit strapped to their right thigh, both men entered an airlock on the side of the ship where they would work at defusing an explosive charge. As the airlocks cycled, they stepped outside.

“Communications check,” Vyx said.

“Confirmed,” Nelligen said.

“Okay, let’s move to our nacelle.”

Ten minutes later, Nelligen said, “Vyx, have you reached your drone?”

“Yeah, I just got here. I’m looking it over.”

“Ditto. The thing looks more like a two-meter spaceship than a torpedo.”

“I agree. Perhaps that makes it easier for an operator to fly it to the target. Any suggestions for dismantling it?”

“There appears to be a substance oozing out at the base.”

“I see that,” Vyx said.

“Must be an adhesive of some sort.”

“Yeah. It flies to its destination by remote control, then attaches itself to the target with that adhesive.”

As Nelligen tried to push a screwdriver tip gently into the substance, he said, “It feels rock hard. I guess it’s a quick-drying vacuum cement.”

“That’s going to make things more difficult.”

“Yeah, there might be a detonation trigger in the cement. We’ll have to defuse it instead of simply removing it.”

“I’ll make the first move,” Vyx said. “I don’t see any part that can be disassembled except the nose cone. The back end seems to be milled from one solid piece.”

“I agree.”

“I’m going to see if I can unscrew the nose cone in a clockwise direction.” A second later, he said, “It’s turning.”

“Good first step.”

“Okay, it’s off. There are six wires attached from the nose cone to an assembly module in the missile.”

“Let me catch up to you,” Nelligen said. “Unscrewing the nose cone.” Ten seconds later, he said, “Okay, I have my nose cone off. I see the wires. I think they’re used for vid composition. They’re the eyes to fly this thing. Give me a minute to look at the wiring.” After a minute, Nelligen said, “This doesn’t appear to be very complicated. The guidance assembly is probably much more complicated than the explosive component. Do you see the green wire with the white circular stripes every couple of centimeters? It’s the only wire with those circular stripes.”

“Yeah, I see it,” Vyx said.

“I think if we cut that, the explosive charge can’t detonate.”

“You think?”

“Well, yeah. It seems logical, unless the bomb maker did something unusual. Like I said, the bomb component doesn’t look that sophisticated.”

“Is that your best assessment?”

“That’s all I have.”

“Okay, Nels. I’ll cut the green wire with the white cross stripes.”

“No, I’ll do it. It’s my idea.”

“It’s my job. If it’s wrong, you’ll still have to find a way to defuse your bomb. The ship can still maneuver with just one of the side-mounted engines. Just make sure that if this doesn’t work you make a better guess the next time.”

“Roger, Vyx. Good luck.”

Vyx stretched out the arm holding the wire cutter. He put the blades around the wire and began to close them, then stopped.

Nelligen waited impatiently to hear from Vyx. In the vacuum of space, he wouldn’t hear the sound of an explosion if he had guessed wrong about the wiring. Because of his location, he also wouldn’t be able to see the flash if the bomb detonated. The only way he would know something was wrong was if Vyx reported the problem, or if the HUD reported that contact with Vyx’s suit communication had been lost. He continued to stare at the HUD for what seemed like minutes, but was in actuality only about twenty seconds as Vyx prepared himself to cut the wire.

Vyx finally took a deep breath, released it, then cut the wire. Nothing happened, but that was good. He didn’t want anything to happen. He smiled and breathed deeply again. “Okay, Nels. I’m still here. I’m going to use my laser pistol to see if I can slice though the base where the adhesive is located.”

“I’ll listen for the boom.”

“Seriously?”

“No. I think you’ve disarmed it. Even if there is a tamper switch in the base, the charge shouldn’t detonate. Besides, I wouldn’t hear the boom anyway.”

“Remind me never to disarm explosives with you again. Okay. Cutting.” Fifteen seconds later, Vyx said, “It’s detached. I’m going to fling it away from the ship and destroy it.”

Vyx pushed the device away from him and it floated away. When it reached a point approximately a hundred meters away, he fired his laser pistol. He didn’t hit the explosive material with the first shot but got it with the second. The explosion was considerably more than he was expecting. While there was no concussive force in space, the intensity of the light, even though it only lasted for a second, was a good indicator of the explosive force.

“You okay, Vyx?” Nelligen asked.

“Better than okay. Finish up over there so we can search the hull to make sure there aren’t any more of these things.”

Half a minute later, Vyx heard Nelligen curse.

“What is it, Nels?” Vyx asked, concern evident in his voice.

“I can’t hit the damn thing. I’ve missed six times.”

Vyx chuckled. “Keep trying. It’s good target practice. Now that you’ve removed your bomb, I’m going to start searching the larboard side of the ship to make sure there are no more of those things anywhere on the hull.”

An hour later, Vyx and Nelligen were removing their EVA suits with the help of the other team members. It was good to be back inside the ship and out of the bulky suits. No additional explosive devices had been discovered.

“Okay, time to get away from here before whoever placed those things on our hull or their friends arrive.”

“Without an FTL drive unit,” Byers said, “it’ll take us a million light-years to get to Bleadalto.”

“We have a spare FTL drive unit in the maintenance parts hold, but replacing it could be a long process, and this isn’t the place to do it. Whoever put those things on the Scorpion will know approximately how far we could have traveled at Light-300 before we lost FTL. If they rightly assume we’d head directly back to Bleadalto, they’ll know roughly where we should have lost our FTL envelope. They’re probably out searching for us now, and the only reason they aren’t here already is that we were traveling far faster than Light-300. I had upped the speed to Light-487 once we were beyond DeTect range of the freighter. Still, we don’t want to be anywhere close to a direct course back to Bleadalto for any longer than necessary. The people who did this might assume the explosive didn’t detonate when it was supposed to, and they’ll be searching the entire route back to Bleadalto.”

“So where do we go?” Brenda asked.

“Anywhere off this route is preferable to here. Let’s get moving, and then we can pick a destination where we can work in reasonable safety.”

Fifteen minutes later, the Scorpion was moving on a ninety-degree course away from its previous track while the team studied the star charts for that part of Region Three.

“Here’s a possibility,” Kathryn said as she put the image up on the bridge’s front monitor so everyone could see it. “It’s a small system that’s just over a light-year away from here. It’s called the Kwamlass System. There’re no habitable planets and no record of mining operations or settlements.”

“Well, it’s a possibility,” Vyx said. “Perhaps one of the moons would offer us a place to work in safety while we replace the drive unit, but it’s a bit far without FTL. Let’s see, at an average speed of Sub-Light-100, it would take us about one thousand, one hundred days to get there. I was sort of hoping we might find something just a bit closer. Anyone see anything else?”

“I see nothing else within four light-years except empty space,” Brenda said.

“Ditto,” Byers said.

“Since it’ll take us forever to reach a safe harbor where we can work, we’ll have to perform the work in open space. I believe our only real alternative right now is to get as far away from our previous course as possible in a reasonable amount of time, then stop and mount the replacement FTL drive.” Vyx punched coordinates into the nav computer that would turn the ship forty-five degrees from its present course, then touched the button that would engage the Scorpion’s sub-light engines. They felt a minute lurch as the ship headed away on the new course.

“Okay,” Vyx said as he sat back in his chair. “Nothing more to do up here until we’re either far enough away to perform the work or the attackers find us. Let’s go to the lounge.”

When everyone had settled comfortably in the lounge, Vyx said, “Since we first set foot on Bleadalto, we’ve been in one scrap after another. The first one was simply a case of a bully biting off more than he could chew, but the others have been intentional assaults. I thought that when we got away from the planet, we could relax a bit, but then we were attacked by someone who must have followed us. When those five guys from the freighter tried to come aboard with weapons, I got very bad vibes. They were expecting us, so we surprised no one. And we were merely the delivery vessel, so it would have been foolish for them to expect we posed any kind of threat. Then someone managed to plant explosive devices on our hull, wrecked our FTL drive, and very nearly destroyed our maneuvering engines. We need to determine if all, or any, of these events are related. And if they are, we need to identify the architect of this attack.”

“They can’t all be connected,” Brenda said.

“Why not?”

“If the intention was to get our ship, what was the reason for the attack just after we left Bleadalto? They could have taken us easier after we arrived at the freighter.”

“True. Except, perhaps the goal was to have the cargo disappear before it ever arrived at the freighter. Then the shipper could claim we made off with it. He would have been able to get the transport fee back from Blaswetta, and all those witnesses aboard the freighter could honestly report we never arrived.”

“But then the crew aboard that attacking single-hull freighter would have known the truth,” Nelligen said.

“True,” Vyx said. Walking to the holographic projector, he activated it and told it to produce a fifteen-centimeter by twenty-five-centimeter sign that appeared as a sheet of paper for each of the titles he was going to name. He then identified each of the incidents they had endured, the name of each person involved, when known, and the name of each major crime group. When he was finished, there were over twenty ‘signs’ floating near one wall in the lounge. “Did I forget anything or anyone?” Vyx asked the team.

“I can’t think of anything,” Brenda said.

“Ditto,” Nelligen said.

Byers and Kathryn just shook their heads.

“Okay,” Vyx said as he organized the signs by ‘dragging’ each to a location along one wall and grouping them by incident or name. Lippaula, Makkod, Gillanno, Hoffil, Turesst, and Csitte were put with the Brotherhood sign. Cillota was put with the Syndicate sign, as was a sign that merely said ‘Syndicate enforcers killed in tavern fight.’ The assassins from the taxi in the city and the attack at the spaceport weren’t associated with any group at this time, and Blaswetta was considered an independent operator. “Somewhere in this pile is a common thread that links at least most of them together. We’re just not seeing it.”

Each of the team members then began tossing out ideas, but all were discarded after discussion. When the ideas dried up, Vyx continued to stare at the floating images as if still expecting an epiphany, but nothing came. The other team members did likewise, with the same result.

“I guess we’re still missing that one vital piece of information that will tie everything together,” Vyx commented finally. Turning to look at the others, he said, “I’m starving. What’s for dinner, Albert?”

*

Chapter Nine

Oct. 23rd, 2288

Vyx, as the primary pilot of the Scorpion, always performed the landings and takeoffs. Nelligen was his backup and always in the right seat for all planetary flight operations. However, all the team members were trained pilots and could handle the ship in space, even if their flight training days at the Academy were in the distant past.

During the first two weeks following the ship’s deviation from the course to Bleadalto, someone was always awake and available to take immediate control from the automatic pilot should the DeTect alarms sound. The individual on watch didn’t have to sit on the bridge but must be close enough to reach the bridge within seconds. The lounge was the ideal place. A four billion kilometer DeTect system buffer gave enough time to assess the situation and respond when the alarms sounded.

After those first two weeks, everyone breathed a little easier. Being almost a hundred twenty-one trillion kilometers from their original course put the odds of being found by whoever had planted the explosives quite small, and the odds increased each day as they added another eight-point-six-four trillion kilometers to their distance. At FTL, that distance was almost insignificant, but it became more and more doubtful that they would be discovered. Still, to be safe, Vyx decided they should continue adding distance for another six weeks before halting to make repairs.

Hardly a day passed when Vyx didn’t spend time in the lounge staring at the holographic signs he had created. He hated mysteries, especially when it concerned his survival, and this was as large a mystery as he had ever encountered. He’d been an agent long enough to know that some criminal plans were simple and relied solely on force, while others evinced a complexity worthy of Niccolň Machiavelli. The indications were that this was a simple plan, but if that were the case, he should have been able to solve it and identify the main person or group behind the attacks.

*

As their eight weeks of sub-light travel neared its end, Vyx and Nelligen dug the FTL drive unit out of the maintenance equipment storage hold and unpacked it. After opening the packing case, they checked the unit over visually, and then began to complete final assembly requirements so it would be ready to go when the ship was halted for installation.

It took three days to prepare the drive unit for mounting. They still didn’t know the condition of the mounting mast but were hoping it hadn’t been bent or twisted by the explosion.

All test functions that could be performed before the unit was actually mounted indicated that the drive unit was in perfect condition.

Immediately after breakfast on the day intended for the work of mounting the drive, the ship was halted and the two men suited up for their EVA activity. The atmosphere and gravity in the maintenance bay was evacuated and the hatch opened so the large drive unit could be floated out of the ship. Using their suit jets, they maneuvered the large piece of equipment up to the sail area and temporarily anchored it near the FTL drive repository. Byers and Brenda were in the pilot and copilot chairs on the bridge, and one of them opened the repository cover when it was requested. As the cover rolled back, Vyx and Nelligen checked the condition of the repository to make sure that extending the unit wouldn’t cause any new problems. Specifically, they were checking for tangled cables and wreckage that might do more damage when the mast was extended.

After removing some broken pieces of the old unit, Vyx gave the instruction to extend the mast slowly. As both men watched closely, the shaft inched it’s way upward. They called for a halt twice to clean some more wreckage from around the base of the mast. It probably wouldn’t have caused a problem, but having the FTL drive working properly was so important that they didn’t want to take any chances. Finally, what little that remained of the old unit halted at the proper height. An inspection showed that the shaft was in excellent condition and both men breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, the explosive charge that destroyed the FTL drive unit was of very low power and only destroyed the top of the drive unit to make it inoperable. The attackers probably just wanted to prevent the ship from building an envelope, leaving them to replace the unit easily after their takeover. The charges on the maneuvering engines had been much more powerful, probably because those engines were more rugged than the FTL generator.

The two men began removing what was left of the old unit, but the task was onerous owing to bent and twisted bolts that had to be cut off. They took their time with the power saws and torches because they couldn’t afford any mistakes, and they were at the task for almost six hours before the post was ready to accept the new unit.

After preparing the mast support platform and positioning the unit carefully, they began bolting it to the shaft. All bolts were started at least three turns before the men returned to the first ones and began tightening them, and the bolts were only tightened down to within the final several turns before any were locked down with the proper torque.

As the last bolt was tightened, the two men breathed a sigh of relief. There was only one more connection to be made and then they would begin testing the unit.

“Vyx,” Byers yelled suddenly, “we have a contact on the DeTect unit.”

“How far?”

“Maximum distance, but coming on fast.”

“What course?”

“Directly at us.”

“Damn,” Vyx muttered and began working furiously with Nelligen on the final connection. “Close the maintenance bay hatch, Albert, and get the ship out of here.”

“How will you get back in?”

“There isn’t time for us to get back in. There, the final connection in made. Build the envelope.”

“Roger, building the envelope.”

“It won’t complete while the repository hatch is open,” Vyx said, “Close the hatch cover and get out of here at maximum speed as soon as the envelope is built.”

“No!” Brenda screamed. “We’re not leaving you out there!”

When no answer came, Brenda yelled, “Vyx?”

When still no response came, Byers said, “Nels?”

No one responded to repeated calls. The approaching ship was just twelve seconds away when the FTL envelope was built. Byers engaged the drive and the Scorpion disappeared in a heartbeat. The other ship had to change direction to follow and that took seconds off their pursuit. As the Scorpion left the area at Light-487, the other ship fell away quickly. Within minutes, the DeTect screen was clear. Byers changed direction slightly. The pursuing ship would more than likely continue on the other course and put trillions of kilometers between them before giving up. If they were the ones responsible for the explosives placed on the Scorpion, they would now have to accept that their quarry had probably eluded them forever.

“We have to go back and get them,” Brenda said anxiously.

“How much air do they have left?” Kathryn asked.

“I estimate that they can survive for another six hours.”

“We’ll return to that area before then,” Byers said. “I’ll fly the ship in a big circle and we’ll pick them up when we’re reasonably sure that other ship is gone.”

“Why didn’t they respond when we called to them?” Kathryn asked.

“They probably didn’t want to make it more difficult for us to leave them behind,” Brenda said.

Five hours later, the Scorpion was back where it started, at least as close as the bridge crew could determine. They had spent those hours perched nervously on the bridge, watching the DeTect screen for any indication that the other ship was within four billion kilometers, but the monitor had remained clear since they first engaged the FTL drive.

Byers didn’t drop the envelope, in case the other ship showed up again, but they kept calling for either Vyx or Nelligen to respond to their hails.

When no one answered, Brenda asked, “Could that ship have picked them up?”

“Why would they?” Byers asked.

“To pump them for information about where we might have gone. Or perhaps to have something we’d come after.”

“So what do we

” Byers stopped and turned back towards the flight console as an alarm rattle echoed off the walls of the bridge. “The envelope has been cancelled.”

“What? How? The ACS is deactivated.”

“The FTL drive is offline.”

“Hey, guys. Anybody there?”

Brenda pushed the talk button on the com unit. “Vyx? Is that you, honey?”

“None other.”

Brenda felt tears well up in her eyes. “We thought we lost you. Where are you?”

“In the FTL generator repository.”

“Is Nels there also?”

“Yeah, and his right foot is jabbed into my shoulder. Open the cover so we can get out of here.”

As Byers reached for the control, the DeTect alarm sounded. “Damn, Vyx. We have company again.”

“That ship again?”

“It must be. It’s headed directly for us.”

“Damn. I’m reconnecting the FTL generator again. Get us out of here, Albert.”

“How much oxygen do you have left?”

“I have forty-two minutes,” Vyx said. “How about you, Nels?”

“I show thirty-eight on my HUD.”

As the envelope began to form, communication with Vyx was lost again. Byers applied full power to the drive unit when the ship was fully encased and it disappeared in an instant. The other ship turned to follow, but it couldn’t keep up and soon disappeared from the DeTect monitor.

“We’ve lost them again,” Byers said.

“How do they keep finding us?” Kathryn asked.

“They must have planted a tracking device on the ship when they planted the explosives.”

“Then why didn’t they find us sooner when we were traveling sub-light?” Brenda asked.

“We’d detect an IDS-band transmission, so it must be transmitting on an RF band. RF transmissions are so slow that whoever is chasing us would have to be fairly close or we’d be long gone before they arrived. It was probably only intended to pinpoint our exact location once they were in the vicinity because they thought they’d know pretty much where to find us after the FTL drive unit was destroyed. They couldn’t know about our true FTL speed capability.”

“They know now,” Kathryn said.

“It couldn’t be helped,” Byers said. “We had to evade them.”

“Vyx and Nels will be getting low on oxygen,” Brenda said.

“I’ll change course in a few minutes so anyone who might be following us will lose track of us. Then I’ll stop in twenty minutes so they can come inside. I estimate that will give us a safety margin of around twelve minutes.”

“It’s not much,” Kathryn said.

“We want to put as much distance between us and whoever is following us as possible so they don’t arrive while we’re bringing the guys in. Why don’t you and Brenda suit up in case you have to go out and help them?”

“Good idea,” Brenda said. “Come on, Kath.”

As Byers cancelled the envelope and the ship was immediately stopped in space, Brenda and Kathryn stepped out of the airlock. They used their suit jets to maneuver up to the FTL repository, arriving in time to help Vyx and Nelligen untangle themselves and emerge from the cramped space. Both men were stiff and sore after so many hours of being squeezed into the limited space surrounding the drive unit mast, but the quick action had possibly saved their lives.

“I’m not going to be ready for love-making for a couple of days,” Vyx quipped as he and Brenda entered the airlock.

“Who are you kidding?” she quipped back, “You’re always ready for love-making.”

“Well, at least give me ten minutes to get the kinks out.”

“That sounds more like the Vyx I know and love. How about a long soak in the spa?”

“Sounds like heaven. At least it will be if you’re there.”

“Won’t Nels be jealous?”

“Let him find his own girl.”

When the ship was resealed, Byers built an envelope and headed the vessel towards Bleadalto at Light-487.

Brenda learned just how sore Vyx was as she helped him out of his EVA suit. By then Kathryn had arrived with Nelligen, and begun helping him strip off his bulky suit.

Hours later, sore muscles had responded to the warm swirling waters in the ship’s large spa tub where Vyx and Nels were half dozing.

“Feeling better?” Brenda asked Vyx as she entered the spa area.

Vyx came alert and said, “Not as good as I’d feel if you got in here with me.”

“What happened to the man who said he wasn’t going to be ready for love-making for a couple of days?” she asked with a smile.

“I guess he got his priorities straightened out among other things,” Vyx said with a lecherous look.

“Down tiger, there will be plenty of time for that tonight.”

“Don’t let my presence stop you,” Nelligen said. “I promise I won’t look much.”

Brenda grinned. “I think you’ve both had enough thrills and excitement for one day.”

“Well, since I can’t convince you to join me in here, I might as well join you out there.”

“We have something that needs to be done before playtime. Albert believes there has to be some kind of location beacon on our hull because that other ship keeps finding us.”

“Yes, that occurred to us as well,” Vyx said.

“It has to be an RF transmitter or they would have located us sooner each time we stopped,” Nelligen said.

“Albert said that also.”

“I guess some of what I’ve been trying to teach him has finally rubbed off. Now if I could just get him to spice up the bland food he makes.”

“I like the bland food,” Vyx said. “You can always add your pepper and flamethrower spices after it’s cooked.”

“Yes, even I don’t like the food as spicy as you do,” Brenda agreed.

“Everybody’s against me,” Nelligen lamented and made a pretense of wiping away a tear with the knuckle of the forefinger on his right hand.

“Nothing personal,” Vyx said with a grin.

“Okay, it’s time to go to work,” Nelligen said, smiling. “Could you hand me a towel, Brenda?”

After handing each man a towel, Brenda turned and hurried towards the exit.

Nelligen stood up and stared after her before he began drying his naked body. “Hope it wasn’t anything I said.”

“I doubt it,” Vyx said and grinned as he stood up also.

An hour later Vyx and Nelligen were once again entering the airlock. Their rebreather units had been fully recharged, but they hoped they didn’t need a full charge this time.

Using the equipment sensors Nelligen provided, they found the transmitter quickly, then performed another pass over the entire ship to ensure there wasn’t another, or anything else foreign that should be removed.

Once the two men were back inside the ship, Byers built a new envelope and the ship surged forward on a slightly different course.

After deactivating the device, Nelligen tossed it on his work bench and commented, “Well, that won’t be helping anyone find us again. You know, that transmitter wasn’t flown onto the Scorpion. It had to have been placed on it.”

“Nobody could have placed it while we were near the freighter.”

“Right. So that means it was placed on the ship while we were parked at the spaceport at Ogsnara. The frequency is so far off the usual bands that no one would even notice the broadcast signal unless they were looking for it.”

“Since the person didn’t have to enter the ship, there was no need to know how to disable the safeguards.”

“We have a new mystery,” Nelligen said, “Who bugged the ship?”

“It had to be whoever planted the explosives. They were the only ones who had anything to be gained from planting a non-IDS transmitter.”

“That makes sense.” As Nelligen raised a hammer to destroy the transmitter, Vyx held up his hand to stop him.

“Seems like a waste of a good transmitter,” Vyx said.

“What?”

“I’ve got an idea. Come with me. Bring the transmitter and your tool belt.”

Three hours later, Byers stopped the ship and dissolved the envelope long enough to fire a torpedo without a warhead. Inside an empty nosecone was the location transmitter, now reactivated.

“Let them chase that for a while,” Vyx said.

Although the torpedo would run out of fuel quickly, it would go ballistic and keep traveling until it hit something. Since it didn’t have a warhead, it wouldn’t self-destruct. The power cell in the transmitter could possibly last for years.

“At least life can get back to normal,” Kathryn said as they sat down to dinner.

“Or what’s normal for us,” Brenda said.

“I wish we had some more of that Tarlovo roast,” Vyx said. “I feel like we should have something special.”

“We do,” Byers said as he placed a large platter of food on the table. “It’s not Tarlovo roast, but it’s something special.”

“What is it?” Nelligen asked.

“It’s seafood surprise,” Byers said enigmatically.

“What kind of seafood?” Vyx asked.

“That’s the surprise,” Byers said.

Kathryn giggled. “That’s the surprise? Come on, what is it?”

“The truth is I’m not sure. It looked a little like king crab. The merchant at the market called it reaquilo formoos and told me how his mother always fixed it.”

“Was anyone else buying it?” Brenda asked.

“Not that I saw while I was there.”

“That should have told you something,” Nelligen said.

“Everyone was buying Tarlovo. What does that tell you? We know how they cook it and that it’s awful everywhere you can buy it because they don’t cook it right.”

“It doesn’t smell very good,” Brenda said. “The Tarlovo roast smelled wonderful.”

“Let’s try it before we decide if it’s good or bad,” Vyx said as he scooped a portion onto his plate.

Everyone watched anxiously as Vyx tried it. A big smile lit up his face. Suddenly, everyone was scooping a portion onto their plate.

Nelligen was the second to push a spoonful into his mouth. After two chews he spit it back onto his plate.

By then everyone except Byers had taken a mouthful, and it seemed like a contest to see who would be second to spit it out.

“Aaaahhhh,” Kathryn said, as she dripped the chewed food onto her plate. “That’s awful.”

Vyx spit his out onto his plate and laughed as Byers’ face erupted into a huge grin.

“Yes, it’s terrible,” Vyx said, “but I didn’t want to be the only one to suffer.”

“You wouldn’t have been,” Byers said. “I tried it as I dished it up, which is why I didn’t take a bite now.”

“Maybe it’s like the Tarlovo,” Brenda said. “You just have to know how to cook it properly.”

“If that’s the case, the guy at the market obviously didn’t know the secret,” Byers said.

“At least we have Terran vegetables,” Kathryn said as she scooped up a large portion of broccoli and cauliflower into a soup bowl.

“It not quite as bad as that,” Byers said as he got up and took the platter of reaquilo formoos into the galley where he dropped the food into the recycle disposal. Returning with another platter and a stack of clean plates, he set them on the table. “I decided to make spare ribs after I smelled the seafood cooking. If the seafood had been good, we could have reheated the ribs for lunch tomorrow.”

“Now that’s more like it,” Nelligen said as he took a clean plate from a pile and pulled some ribs onto it. He was just about to bite down when alarms began sounding. “What now?” he said, angry that he wasn’t going to be able to eat while they were hot.

“That’s the ACS alarm,” Vyx said as he jumped up. “Our envelope is down. Get to the bridge.”

All five agents forgot about their food as they raced to find out what emergency awaited them this time.

*

Chapter Ten

Dec. 30th, 2288

“What do you see?” Vyx said loudly as he jumped into the left pilot seat.

Nelligen was already staring at the DeTect screen as he dropped into the right seat. Byers was opening the larboard weapons console while Brenda was opening the starboard console. Kathryn was already manning the communications console and listening for anything directed at the Scorpion.

“Something’s blocking our path,” Nelligen said. “It’s about a billion kilometers off our bow.”

“Is it a ship?” Vyx asked.

“It would appear to be from the shape, but I’m not getting an energy signature.”

“None at all?”

“Nada.”

“Anybody else got anything?” Vyx asked.

“No ships on the larboard screens,” Byers said.

“Nothing to starboard,” Brenda reported.

“No response to my attempt at communications contact,” Kathryn chimed in.

“So what are we talking about a derelict vessel?”

“Could be,” Nelligen said. “We’re so far distant from the normal space lanes that we might be the first ship in a hundred years to find it directly in their path. If our course had been a kilometer off in any direction, the ACS wouldn’t have halted us and we wouldn’t have stopped to investigate a piece of space detritus when the DeTect alarm sounded and we saw no energy signature.”

“Okay, as long as we’re stopped, let’s ease up to it and see what it is. I’m cancelling the ACS for this contact and rebuilding the envelope. I won’t cancel it when we get there, just so we’re ready in case that object suddenly comes alive.”

The Scorpion moved ahead slowly, just a million kilometers a second as the crew studied the object for any signs of life. After seventeen minutes, Vyx halted the ship just twenty-five thousand kilometers from what was now clearly a single-hulled freighter. If the unknown ship was manned, laser arrays would be largely ineffective at this range.

“Anyone spot any sign of life?” Vyx asked.

“Nothing,” Nelligen said.

One by one the others concurred.

“Okay, I’ll move us in closer.”

Five minutes later, they were close enough to get high-resolution images of the unidentified ship.

“Look at those holes,” Vyx said. “Do they remind anyone of anything?”

“The hull reminds me of the images we saw of the ships attacked by the Denubbewa,” Nelligen said.

“Yes,” Brenda agreed. “The Yenisei and Salado had holes like that over their entire hull.”

“What are you saying,” Byers asked, “that the Denubbewa are here in Region Three? Those other attacks occurred almost two thousand light-years from here.”

“No one is saying yet that the Denubbewa are here, or were here, but look at that hull. Or someone could be trying to make it look like they’re here.”

“For what reason?” Kathryn asked.

“Perhaps to increase the Space Command presence in this area,” Vyx said. “Region Three is as large as Region Two, yet we only have one-twentieth the number of ships assigned here.” Vyx paused to take a deep breath. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. It was assumed that the Denubbewa crossed into GA space near the Ruwalchu border. But perhaps the Denubbewa passed through this area to reach Region Two. We should go take a look at that ship and see if we can determine how and when it got that way.”

“We’re not engineers or scientists,” Byers said.

“No, but we all have abilities and talents that allow us to make certain judgments. Nels is a great electronics specialist and mechanic, so he and I will go over first and take some samples from the hull and basic readings of the interior. If it’s safe, we’ll enter and head to the bridge to see if we can learn anything about the ship and when the attack occurred. We need you guys to remain here and keep a watchful eye out for company. There may be sensors inside the ship that will send a signal to someone about trespassers. We’ll take a transponder beacon and place it on the hull so Space Command can find this ship when someone is in the area.”

An hour later, Vyx and Nelligen were walking the hull of the derelict ship, taking samples of the tritanium skin around several holes and checking radiation levels inside the ship at that point.

“This definitely looks like a Denubbewa attack,” Vyx said over the open com line. “The metal around the holes flakes apart like the Dakinium of the Yenisei and the Salado following the attacks in Region Two.”

“Any idea of when it happened?” Byers asked.

“Not yet. We’re going inside now. Out.”

“Scorpion out.”

During their examination of the hull, Vyx and Nelligen had discovered an open airlock, so they headed that way. The ship was depressurized and the inner door of the airlock was already open. The gravity deck plating was still active, so there must have been at least a small amount of power left in the ship’s main cells.

The radiation levels inside the ship were off the scale, but the EVA suits protected the two men. They’d shower off in the Scorpion’s airlock before the inner door was opened.

“Where to?” Nelligen asked as they stepped into a corridor. “The bridge?”

“That would be the best place to start.”

As they made their way towards the bridge, they encountered a number of dead bodies. All were Uthlaran, and all were desiccated from exposure to open space. At one point, Vyx and Nelligen had to clear a pile of bodies from one doorway before they could pass through.

“Pretty gruesome, eh?” Vyx said.

“I can imagine what it was like on the Yenisei and Salado. I’m sure they thought the Dakinium hull would protect them so they didn’t immediately head for emergency air supplies.”

“It probably wouldn’t have helped if they were exposed to the same levels of radiation we’re seeing here.”

Once on the bridge, they had to pull bodies off the consoles before they could see about collecting data.

“This ship is named the Aloriedeks,” Nelligen said as he was finally able to begin checking systems on the bridge. “The last outgoing message recorded by the com system was fourteen years ago.”

“Fourteen years?” Vyx repeated. “The Denubbewa were in this part of space fourteen years ago? That’s going to shake up the brass at Space Command. We’ll have to contact them as soon as we get back to the ship.”

“Did we hear that correctly?” Brenda’s voice said in Vyx’s com connection. “Did you say fourteen years?”

“Yep. Nels, why don’t you set up a download link with the Scorpion and copy all the ship’s logs to our system. While you’re doing that, I’m going to look around a bit.”

“Roger. Shout if you need me.”

Other than more dead bodies, Vyx saw little of importance until he began entering the holds. There were no containers, but piles of normally durable shipping cartons had been ripped apart and the contents scattered everywhere. It seemed that the pieces of the cartons exceeded the scattered contents.

“Nels, can you access the shipping manifests and send that to my suit?”

“Sure. Okay, I’ve got it. Sending it now.”

“Got it,” Vyx said as the information began scrolling up on his Heads Up Display. “Thanks. Out.”

“Nelligen out.”

As Vyx picked up pieces of the shipping cartons that contained identification information, he tried to find any remnants of cargo listed on the associated manifests. After ten to fifteen minutes of searching he had assembled a basic list of items that seemed to have been scavenged completely. It was difficult to tell because so much of the deck was covered with carton contents. He didn’t know if the Denubbewa had been the scavengers, or if the ship had been visited by other freighters in the apparent fourteen years since the Aloriedeks was attacked and destroyed.

“Vyx, where are you?” he heard over his com.

“In Cargo Hold Four, Nels” he replied.

“I’m all done up here. I got everything I could from the ship’s systems. I’m coming down.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here for you. Out.”

“Out.”

Vyx continued to dig through the piles of carton contents while he waited.

Ten minutes later, Nelligen entered the cargo hold. “Wow, what a mess,” he said. “Did you do all this?”

Vyx couldn’t see his face, but he knew he was kidding. “Yeah, I did all this. Actually, I’d love to know who really made it.”

“It certainly wasn’t scavengers.”

“How can you tell?”

“There’s too much valuable stuff left here. Half this stuff could be sold in a heartbeat.”

“Maybe they were interrupted in the middle of making a mess and had to get away quick.”

“Could be,” Nelligen said. “If the Denubbewa returned, I’d certainly want to be somewhere else.”

“Let’s check out the rest of the ship so we can file our report and then be on our way. This mess is someone else’s problem.”

The rest of their search yielded no new information until they reached the sick bay.

“The bay is still pressurized,” Vyx said when he tried to slide the doors open manually. Everywhere else, the doors had slid open easily.

“It appears the hull integrity didn’t affect this area,” Nelligen said as the sick bay lights suddenly illuminated in response to Vyx’s effort to open the doors. “And the bay must be on a power cell circuit that’s still holding a charge.”

“Okay, let’s do it the proper way,” Vyx said, as he tapped the button that was usually used to open the doors.

An automated message began to play in Vewcalu, the official language used in the former Uthlaro Dominion before it became Region Three. It was still the primary language because such things take decades or even centuries to change, and the Galactic Alliance didn’t force such changes on people. The suit translators converted the message into Amer, although it wasn’t necessary as both men understood basic Vewcalu.

“The corridor is not pressurized or sanitary,” the computer voice simulation said. “Use the airlock entrance at the other end of the corridor.”

Vyx probably could have forced the door open but decided it would be easier to simply use the other entrance, so he and Nelligen headed that way.

As they stepped into the airlock and the doors closed behind them, the pressure began to build, and they were subjected to a cleansing shower from two dozen nozzles in the walls that washed away radioactivity and contaminants.

“Seems the bay is still fully functional,” Nelligen said.

“Yeah. I could have done without the bath though. We’ll have to do that again when we get back to the Scorpion. Now we’ll pick up every micron of dirt we stir up as we leave.”

As Vyx finished his comment, air jets turned on and dried off their space suits.

“Better?” Nelligen asked with a smile.

Vyx just grunted.

The airlock entrance to the sick bay opened into an area that contained ten stasis beds. As they walked between the two rows, their attention was drawn to one of the beds.

“That bed contains a body,” Vyx said.

“Yeah,” Nelligen agreed. “I wonder if it’s still active. Give me a minute.”

Nelligen bent and played with the bed’s controls, then stood up again. “No go. The bed’s power cell is dead and it’s not plugged into the bay’s power system. He, or she,” he said, referring to the occupant, “is long gone.”

“There’s another one right next to it.”

“Yeah, let me check it out.”

As Nelligen touched the control panel, it lit up and began showing readings.

“This one’s alive. I’m not a doctor so I’m not exactly sure of what the readings are reporting, but everything is in the green range. The process was begun about twelve months ago.”

“How are the bed’s power cells?”

Nelligen bent and touched a few controls, then stood up. “They’re topped off. This bed is connected to the bay’s power systems.”

“Okay, let’s take him back to the ship. We’d better check the other beds first to make sure there aren’t more.”

None of the other beds were occupied, so the two men unplugged the stasis bed and prepared to transport it. The airlock was adequate to accommodate the stasis bed, but not the two men, so Vyx went through first. After the airlock had cycled again, Nelligen pushed the bed into the airlock. With the help of his suit’s jets, he was able to get up on top in spite of the one g gravity. Vyx operated the controls and then pulled the bed and Nelligen from the airlock.

“This would have been easier in zero gravity,” Nels said as he climbed down with Vyx’s help.

“Everything’s easier in zero gravity, except pouring a glass of ale.”

Nelligen chuckled and said, “And using the rest room afterwards.”

“The way should be okay from here. Let’s get back to the ship. Thinking about that ale has made me thirsty.”

“The radiation cleansing shower did that for me. It also gave me the urge to use the restroom.”

The two agents maneuvered the stasis bed through the labyrinth of corridors and finally reached the air lock. It was a relief to get out of the ship for several reasons, but the most important was the lack of gravity. With the stasis bed weighing nothing, it was an easy chore to guide it to the Scorpion using their suit jets.

There was no difficulty when they reached the ship because they used the large maintenance section airlock. The sensors detected the radioactivity they had been subjected to and performed full cleansing operations.

“My second shower today,” Nelligen said, “and it’s not even Saturday. Uh, this isn’t Saturday, is it?”

“No idea. I left all my Saturdays back on Earth.”

Once the process was complete and pressure was restored, the inner door opened and they removed their EVA suits. Both took a deep breath.

“Ah,” Vyx said, “it’s so nice to be home.”

“Yeah, that other ship was a bit depressing with all the dead bodies everywhere.”

“I’m anxious to see what you downloaded from the ship’s computer systems. Let’s park this guy in the maintenance area, plug in the bed so there’s no power problem with the stasis, and go take a look. With luck, their logs will show an image of the ship that attacked them.”

They had hardly taken more than a few steps before the rest of the team came streaming into the maintenance bay, if you can call three agents a stream.

“Welcome back,” Brenda said.

“Thanks. This is the Terran we found. Another one had already died when his stasis bed ran out of power.”

“Yeah,” Byers said, “we heard you over the com.”

“How could anyone not plug in their stasis bed to keep it charged?” Kathryn asked.

“They may have been short on time,” Vyx said, “and the bed probably had an adequate charge when he got in, so he didn’t notice.”

“Let’s wake this one,” Brenda said, “and learn his story.”

“We’d better not, Brenda,” Nelligen said. “None of us are qualified medical people. What if there’s a problem?”

“Over the com we heard you say he had only been under for a year. That’s less than most freight haulers sleep, so there shouldn’t be a problem. And if there is, we’ll just restart the stasis cycle again until we have a medic handy.”

Nelligen looked at Vyx. “It might be the only way to get some information about that hulk and the scavengers.”

“Do it,” Vyx said.

Nelligen nodded and bent over the controls. In a few seconds he had started the awaken procedure. “It’ll be a while before the bed opens. And then we should move him to a stateroom.”

“We’ll need a guard on his door around the clock,” Vyx said. “We don’t know who this character is, or how dangerous he might be.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have a brig,” Kathryn said.

“We have a maintenance locker we could use if I clean it out,” Nelligen said to Vyx. “I could rig a bed with some oh-gee cloth like they do on tugs for long hauls.”

“That sounds like a good idea. He’ll be too weak to put up much of a fight for a couple of days, but after that I’ll feel better if he’s securely locked up. Let’s go take a look at the data we collected from the derelict.”

“What about our visitor?” Kathryn asked.

“This guy’s not going anywhere under his own power today,” Vyx said.

“Look at that,” Byers said, as they viewed the recovered files on the large monitor in the lounge. They were watching the ships that attacked the freighter as the first salvos were fired. “If those ships aren’t Denubbewa, then the vids we got from Quesann showing the attacks on our ships in Region Two fit more than one species.”

“There can’t be more than one species with ships that so closely match the description SCI sent out,” Vyx said. “It’s a pretty unique armament arrangement and an effective one. Other than Space Command, I can’t imagine anyone standing against it. The freighter here never had a chance.”

“What about us?” Kathryn asked.

“We wouldn’t last a minute if we tried to fight. Our only chance of survival is to run away. If the data from SCI about the enemy ship speed is accurate, we might have a chance of escaping if we can get our envelope built before their missiles reach us.”

“So what do we do now?” Brenda asked.

“I’ll prepare a report so SCI is aware of the Denubbewa threat in this region. With luck, there’s an SC warship near enough for us to turn over our rescued Terran. We can’t let him become aware that we’re SCI, so we’ll have to be careful while he’s aboard. “

“He should be awake by now,” Nelligen said. “We should get down there so he doesn’t try to climb out of the stasis bed by himself.”

“Right,” Vyx said. “Everybody stay alert for any subterfuge. We have no idea what this person will tell us or attempt to do. I’ll join you as soon as I send the report.”

The cover of the stasis bed had already rolled back before the team entered the maintenance bay. As they surrounded the bed, they were surprised to find an attractive female. Kathryn had prepared a mildly salty drink of cool water and nutrients according to the recovery specs in the ship’s sickbay computer. She placed her left hand under the woman’s head and lifted gently to ease her intake. As the straw touched the woman’s lips, she began sucking the liquid down at a furious rate.

“Easy,” Kathryn said. “You can have all you want, but don’t drink too fast. Just let it slide down your throat gently.”

The woman drank half the liquid before pausing to take a deep breath. “Thanks, I felt parched. Uh, where am I?”

“You’re aboard the freighter Scorpion,” Byers said. “We found you in a derelict freighter.”

“Ah yes, the freighter. We were looking to see if there was anything worth salvaging when our captain notified us that the DeTect system had picked up a ship headed this way. There wasn’t time to return to our ship before the other got here, so the captain told us to take cover and they’d return. We waited as long as we could, but they didn’t come back, and we were almost out of oxygen. We hurried down to the sick bay and hopped into the stasis beds. That’s all I remember. Uh, have you awakened Russel?”

“I’m sorry,” Nelligen said, “but the power cells in the other bed failed. The person inside was long gone. There was nothing I could do.”

“Poor Russel,” she said sadly. “He always did have the worst luck. Is it okay to sit up?”

“If you feel well enough.”

“I do. I actually feel pretty good, although I’m still thirsty.”

“Have some more of this recovery liquid,” Kathryn said as she extended the cup.

After finishing the liquid, the woman struggled to sit up. With Kathryn’s help she managed to get upright and get her first good look at the crew that had rescued her just as Vyx arrived. As she looked at him, she said, “Oh my God. Victor? Victor Gregorian? Is that really you?”

*

Chapter Eleven

Dec. 30th, 2288

Vyx was shaken by her recognition and stood there with his mouth partially open as he stared at her and tried to place her. He didn’t immediately deny the greeting because her naming him had been so swift and positive, but he didn’t confirm it either.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?” she asked.

“I think you have me confused with someone else.”

“There can’t possibly be two such outrageously handsome men who look like you and have a tiny mole on their right ear. I could never forget your face. I had a mild crush on you once.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Ursula Rolando.”

“Sorry, I don’t recognize your name. I think you’re mistaken about our having met. Perhaps it’s just déjŕ vu.”

Ursula giggled. “No, I’m sure it’s not déjŕ vu. But I have to apologize because I gave you a name you wouldn’t know. When I knew you, my name was Bethany Childress.”

“I don’t recognize that name either.”

“How about Cadet Childress?”

“Cadet Childress?”

“I was fourth class back when you were a ‘firstie.’ You assigned punishment duty once when I arrived late for a training session without a good excuse for my tardiness.”

As Vyx stared at her, an image of Cadet Childress formed in his mind, and he realized this could be that same woman from so many years ago. “What are you doing out here, Childress?”

“So you remember me?”

“There’s nothing to remember. I was never at any Academy. I was home schooled.”

“I’m talking about the Northern Hemisphere Space Academy.”

“NHSA? You think I went to NHSA?”

“I know it. I had a schoolgirl crush on the brilliant and dashing Victor Gregorian until he simply disappeared one day.”

“My name is Trader Vyx.”

“Victor Vyx almost the same.”

“My real name is Bernard Vyx. I never liked the Bernard. I use Trader now.”

“Oh. Okay. My mistake then.”

“We’re in a part of space that sees little traffic. What are you doing out here?”

“Just passing through. The security officer aboard our freighter, the Marcoussa, spotted the hulk and the captain decided to stop and check it out. You do what you have to do to make a credit these days.”

“Yeah, we know all too well.” Vyx took a deep breath and added, “We’ll have to get a cabin ready for you, so why don’t you recuperate in here until then. Kathryn will stay with you. Are you hungry?”

“Famished,” Childress aka Rolando said.

“Okay, we’ll see you at dinner in a few hours.”

“What do you think?” Vyx asked as the four agents settled into the lounge.

“She has to be SCI,” Byers said.

“No,” Brenda said. “If she were SCI, she would have known better than to say anything about recognizing Vyx, and then also claim to have known him from the Academy. That’s against everything we’re taught.”

“Could she be a plant?” Nelligen asked.

“You mean someone put here to get us to reveal we’re SCI?” Vyx asked. “No, there was no way of knowing we’d find her, that we’d spot the ship, or that we’d stop to investigate if we did spot an old hulk. We were all over this part of space trying to avoid whoever it was that was attacking us until we could fix our FTL drive. The chances of our coming across that derelict was one in a billion.”

“I still say she’s SCI,” Byers said. “She was just awakened from a year-long sleep and wasn’t in top form. Just think about how confused you feel in the minutes after you’ve awakened from a long, deep sleep. She slipped up is all.”

“What are the chances that could happen to us twice?” Nelligen asked.

“Twice?”

“Yeah. Have you forgotten? Brenda and Kathryn were assigned to the team after we discovered them as prisoners in Shev Rivemwilth’s new hideout.”

“Oh, yeah. I had forgotten. Well that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again.”

“I have to send an update to the message I just sent to SCI,” Vyx said, “and give them this new information. Only they can answer our questions about Rolando’s status as SCI. Unless and until we learn that she is, we treat her as an outsider and a possible threat.”

A few hours later, all five members of the team were relaxing in the lounge.

“We moved Rolando into Cabin Six,” Brenda said. “She was exhausted from just the walk to the living quarters, so she went to bed after eating three bowls of soup. It’ll probably be several days before she’s fully back on her feet.”

“I mounted a camera in the quarters corridor and tied it into the interior vid system,” Nelligen said. “The system will alert us when she emerges from her cabin and record any travels.”

“I guess that’s about all we can do for now,” Vyx said. “It’ll probably be six weeks before we hear back from Intelligence on Quesann.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” Nelligen asked.

“We head for Bleadalto. We placed a beacon in the derelict so Space Command will be able to find it when they have someone in this area, and I sent a copy of all the logs we downloaded and the logs from our helmet cams. I can’t imagine there’s anything left for us to do here.”

“What about Russel’s body?” Byers asked.

“It’ll still be there when Space Command shows up, and we have business on Bleadalto.”

“And Rolando?” Kathryn asked.

“If she’s not SCI, we leave her on Bleadalto. She can make her own way from there.”

“Just dump her on Bleadalto? ” Brenda asked. “Is that any way to treat your Academy sweetheart?”

Vyx looked at her with an amused smile. He knew she was kidding. “Of course. It’s what I do with all my women when I tire of them.”

“We already knew about Lippaula. Just how many other sweethearts have you dumped on Bleadalto?”

“Dozens,” he said whimsically. “Perhaps hundreds. Didn’t you know? The planet is overflowing with them.”

“Just don’t get any ideas about dumping me there.”

“Don’t worry. I have other plans for you.”

“Such as?”

“I’ll show you tonight.”

“Promises, promises, promises,” she said with a smile.

Over the next few days, Rolando fully recovered from her year of stasis sleep. The team of agents were friendly towards her but careful not to discuss anything related to SCI. As far as Rolando was concerned, they were just an independent freighter crew who made a living through legit shipping jobs, with a little smuggling on occasion.

Rolando told them she had been an engineering assistant on her last freighter, so she joined Nelligen on his daily maintenance rounds. He was impressed by her intelligence and knowledge but kept a close eye on all her work to ensure there were no efforts at sabotage.

The Scorpion was almost halfway to Bleadalto when the bridge computer summoned Vyx to the bridge to receive an incoming message. After listening to the Space Command orders twice, he returned to the lounge. Only Nelligen and Byers were there at present. The constant droll repartee they enjoyed so much as they played cards had driven the women from the room.

“What’s up?” Byers asked.

“New orders from HQ on Quesann. We’re to change course so we can rendezvous with the Stuttgart, SC Destroyer GSC-DD2012. The meeting place is two months from here. I laid in the course and we’re headed there.”

“Why do we need to rendezvous with them?” Nelligen asked.

“They didn’t say. I guess we’ll find out when we get to the RP.”

“It must have something to do with Rolando,” Byers said.

“That’s the most likely answer. Perhaps she’s wanted for criminal activity.”

“You guys just can’t accept that she’s SCI,” Byers said.

“We’ll accept it, if and when Space Command says it’s so,” Nelligen said. “Until then, she’s just a spacer we rescued.”

“Owing to the attack on our FTL and sub-light engines, I was nervous about this part of space before we came across the derelict,” Vyx said, “but since then I think I’m becoming a bit paranoid. Nels, can the DeTect system be tied to the system that builds the DAFTA envelope so the process is started as soon as an approaching ship is detected?”

Nelligen thought for a few seconds before responding. “I think so. It’ll take a little jury rigging, but we should have all the necessary electronics on board. Why?”

“When we reach the rendezvous point we’ll have to shut down and wait if the warship isn’t there. If whatever destroyed the freighter we found is still around, I want our envelope up as soon as possible. If it happens in the middle of the night, an automated build function could already have the envelope half constructed by the time we reach the bridge.”

“You don’t really think they’re still around, do you?” Byers asked. “That was fourteen years ago. They must have been on their way to Region Two.”

“We don’t know that,” Vyx said. “We also don’t know what happened to Rolando’s ship. Were they destroyed by the same ship that destroyed the freighter?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Byers said. “Perhaps the freighter captain had discovered that Rolando was SCI and used that ‘approaching ship ruse’ as a way to get rid of her and Russel.”

“They didn’t need a ruse,” Nelligen said. “All they had to do was leave Rolando and Russel behind at the derelict ship. Who could know the sick bay still had energy in its emergency power cells?”

“Perhaps the Marcoussa was a victim of the same group that almost got us,” Vyx said.

Two weeks into the voyage to meet the Space Command ship, the DeTect system alerted the crew to an unexpected anomaly. The crew raced to the bridge and discovered that the ACS hadn’t canceled the FTL envelope, meaning that the anomaly wasn’t directly in their path. Vyx put an image of the DeTect log up on the large monitor at the front of the bridge. It indicated that they had passed within eighteen hundred kilometers of a large object with a power signature.

“It’s stationary,” Vyx said.

“With a power signature like that, it’s sizable,” Nelligen said as he looked up at the DeTect log.

Vyx cut power to the FTL drive so it stopped producing new envelopes but didn’t cancel the existing envelope, effectively stopping the ship in space. “Let’s go back and see what we passed.”

“Is that wise? ” Brenda asked.

“I won’t drop our envelope, so we should be okay. We’ll just perform a flyby at twenty-five thousand kilometers and see why someone is stopped out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“What if it’s the Denubbewa?” Kathryn asked.

“The what?” Rolando said.

“The Denubbewa,” Kathryn replied. “The enemy that’s been trying to take over Galactic Alliance space.”

“Since when?”

“For about three years now.”

“I’ve never heard of them.”

“You’ve been sleeping for the past year,” Brenda said, “and before that the news was classified and limited to military circles.”

“We think they’re the ones who attacked that freighter you were checking out,” Byers said.

“Can’t be. That happened eons ago. Didn’t you see the hull?”

“Of course we did,” Nelligen said.“That’s their trademark. They fire thousands, or tens of thousands, of tiny missiles that sort of melt holes in the hull, then detonate a tiny nuclear charge at the opening. The crew dies either from radiation or lack of atmo. From the bridge logs, we determined that the attack occurred fourteen years ago.”

“Fourteen years? That’s eleven years before you say they began attacking the GA.”

“We don’t know how long they’ve been here or what direction they came from. We only know that Space Command first encountered them in the farthest part of Region Two.”

“No matter who it is, we should have a speed advantage over them,” Vyx said. “The Denubbewa ships are reputed to be slower than the Scorpion.”

“This is a great little ship you have here,” Rolando said. “How did you get an FTL drive that’s even faster than some Space Command vessels?”

“Most of the Space Command vessels out this way are capable of Light-9790. Our max is about Light-487.”

“There can’t be another freighter in the region that can touch that speed. How did you get it?”

“I found someone who got their hands on a couple of the new drives Space Command uses and made a deal.”

“The crime syndicates on Bleadalto would pay a billion GA credits for this ship.”

“They don’t know about its speed capability. They think it’s just Light-300. I suggest you forget you ever heard what our real speed is.”

“Of course.”

Vyx regretted saying anything about the Scorpion’s speed as he turned the ship and laid in a course back to the passed object. They were so used to speaking freely while on the ship that he had made a misstep with their cover story as he concentrated on flying the ship.

“Ten seconds to the one-billion-kilometer point,” Nelligen said.

“Start all forward and starboard cameras.”

“I’ve activated all cameras, including the larboard and stern units,” Kathryn said.

“Ten seconds to target,” Nelligen said a few seconds later. “Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one

“

On the count of one, Vyx reduced the speed at which the drive unit generated new envelopes and the ship momentarily paused without dissolving the envelope. Vyx muttered, “Damn,” and furiously stabbed at the speed control console to resume the generation of new envelopes.

“It’s them,” Nelligen said, although everyone on the bridge had seen the image on the large monitor at the front of the bridge that showed the mother ship in sharp detail.

“They should be long gone from here,” Brenda said.

“Are you saying that was a Denubbewa ship?” Rolando asked. “It looked like it was covered in soap bubbles.”

“Those are missile launching pads,” Byers said. “They cover the outside of their ships with them. The bubbles are actually domes that recede as they prepare to fire their weapons.”

“Uh-oh,” Nelligen said as he stared at the DeTect monitor. “There are three ships departing the mother ship. Their course will take them directly at our stern.”

“We’re already at Light-487,” Vyx said. “I guess now we get to see if the rumors about the Denubbewa’s maximum ship speed are accurate. If not, we could be in a whole bunch of trouble.”

“You believe they’ll attack us if they can?” Rolando asked. “Without even communicating with us first?”

“Space Command ships have tried to communicate with them. The Denubbewa response has always been an overwhelming volley of missiles.”

After several minutes of silence on the bridge, Vyx asked Nelligen, “How are we doing with our pursuers?”

“We’re slowly increasing the distance between us, but they’re not giving up.”

“They will once they understand it’s hopeless.”

“And if they don’t?” Rolando asked.

“Once they drop off the DeTect monitor we can change course without them knowing. Eventually, we’ll lose them completely.”

“Uh, Vyx,” Nelligen said, “we’ve got a new problem. Check the DeTect monitor.”

Vyx put the image up on the large viewing screen at the front of the bridge. Three new ships had appeared on the monitor about three billion kilometers ahead at their two o’clock position. “Damn, who is that?”

“Impossible to tell at this distance, but I’d be willing to lay money on them being Denubbewa. They appear to be on a course that will intersect ours.”

“Yeah, they’re trying to cut us off. Well, it won’t do them much good. I’ve already deactivated the ACS so they can’t interrupt our FTL envelope by cutting across our bow.”

“No, but they can hit us, can’t they?” Kathryn asked.

“Not while I’m piloting this ship. We don’t have much of a speed advantage, but it’s enough.”

Several minutes passed before Byers said, “You haven’t changed course.”

“No,” Vyx answered.

“I don’t understand.”

“If we alter course, the ships behind us get a better angle on us and make up some of the lost space. We’ll hold this course as long as we can. The Denubbewa can’t hit us with missiles while we’re FTL.”

“Maybe they can,” Nelligen said.

“What are you getting at.”

“Look at the DeTect monitor again.”

“Damn, what now?”

“They’re still a long way off, but my guess is that those flickering dots mean they’re firing missiles into our projected path.”

“Why would they do that?” Rolando asked.

“Ever ride through a rainstorm on Earth when you were small?” Brenda asked.

“Of course.”

“Did your vehicle ever get through without getting wet?”

“No, of course not.”

“The Denubbewa appear to be peppering our path with missiles,” Nelligen said. “In effect they’re creating a sort of minefield. The missiles they use stick to a ship’s hull on impact and release an acid that begins to eat through the hull material.”

“So we can’t afford to fly through that hail of missiles,” Brenda said.

There was dead silence on the bridge as the ship closed with the makeshift minefield. All eyes were glued to the front monitor, and most hands had a death grip on the armrests of their chair. Vyx’s hands were occupied on the piloting controls.

Waiting until he believed the Denubbewa ships ahead wouldn’t have time to adjust their fire, Vyx pulled back just far enough on the console joystick so that the Scorpion would rise up and over the minefield. The ascent, relative to their previous course, was no more extreme than necessary. It allowed a slight loss of their lead over the Denubbewa following behind, but they should be able to make up the time if no more Denubbewa popped up.

The Scorpion cleared the impromptu minefield easily and suffered no damage as it passed the Denubbewa ships approaching on the starboard quarter. The three new ships merged with the three already pursuing and all six followed along in the Scorpion’s wake. Since the Denubbewa missiles didn’t have an electronic brain that could be scrambled from passing through a temporal envelope, the three ships on the starboard quarter had never dropped their envelopes. They were at full speed when they joined the pursuit.

Owing to only a slight difference in speed capability, the Denubbewa were able to pursue the Scorpion for several hours. Once the last of the Denubbewa ships disappeared from the DeTect screen, Vyx began altering the course in slight increments and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“What now?” Nelligen asked.

“Now? You and I watch for other enemy ships while Albert prepares a celebration feast.”

“What are we celebrating?” Kathryn asked.

“How about surviving another close call?” Brenda said.

“That always works for me,” Byers said with a smile.

“You people make this sound like it’s a common occurrence,” Rolando said.

“Not common,” Vyx said. “But perhaps a bit too frequent lately.”

*

Chapter Twelve

Mar. 2nd, 2289

A month and a half later, the Scorpion arrived at the RP. The Space Command Destroyer Stuttgart hadn’t arrived yet so they stood down. Vyx set the com system to emit a single homing pulse every five minutes on a frequency specified in the message from Space Command. The DeTect system would alert them if any ship approached.

“The ship feels different,” Rolando said as the team relaxed in the lounge. “Have we stopped?”

In keeping with Vyx’s established policy of not sharing mission information with an outsider, Rolando hadn’t been informed about the rendezvous. As far as she knew, they were on their way to Bleadalto.

“Yes,” Vyx said. “When I reported finding the Aloriedeks, as is required of all captains coming across derelict hulks, they ordered us to an RP to talk.”

“Talk about what? Usually you just send them the info and that’s it.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough. I also mentioned we had a survivor from another ship aboard. Perhaps they want to interview you.”

Rolando didn’t appear nervous or agitated, so Vyx assumed she didn’t require any extra supervision. Brenda and Kathryn had done a good job of watching her during downtime, and Nelligen watched her while they performed their daily maintenance duties aboard ship. When Vyx had operated alone, scheduled maintenance had suffered simply because he didn’t have time to do everything on his then much smaller ship. Since being joined by the other team members, the new ship was always in top condition.

The Stuttgart arrived two days later. It halted twenty-five thousand kilometers away until contact with the Scorpion had been established and Captain McCoy was assured that it was prudent to come closer. No Space Command ship was allowed to approach a non-SC ship until its captain was confident there was little chance of attack. Although the Scorpion was technically part of SCI, it was officially a civilian ship. The one-time captain of the SC Destroyer Lisbon had learned that lesson the hard way by approaching a freighter requesting assistance without verifying the true situation. The freighter, manned by Tsgardi mercenaries and supported by Milori warships, had fired upon the Lisbon in a surprise attack intended to abduct Admiral Thaddeus Vroman. Following the rescue of Admiral Vroman, Captain Halmar Lindahl, and the surviving crew, Lindahl had been reduced in rank and barred forever from command of a spaceship.

“The Stuttgart is sending over a shuttle for Rolando and myself,” Vyx said after receiving instructions from the warship. “We’ll be back as soon as possible. Anyone need anything from the commissary?”

“Kathryn and I could use a few things,” Brenda said. “I’ll make a list.”

“I could use a few things from their mess supplies,” Byers said.” I’ll make you a list as well.”

“Nels?” Vyx said.

“I’m fine. No, wait. We’re getting low on ale. This voyage has lasted a lot longer than we planned. Thirty cases ought to hold us ‘til we reach Bleadalto. No, wait. Ask for fifty cases, and then settle for thirty cases when they say ‘no way.’”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Vyx said with a grin.

Vyx and Rolando were greeted by Commander Troy Harder and an ensign when they disembarked from the shuttle inside the Stuttgart. “Welcome aboard Captain Vyx and Ms. Rolando. Captain, if you’ll accompany me, I’ll take you to Captain McCoy. Ms. Rolando, Ensign Sagurdo will escort you to an interview room where your statement regarding events aboard the Aloriedeks will be taken.”

As they left the shuttle bay, a Marine fell in behind each of the two parties. The escorts led their charges in different directions after leaving the bay so Vyx was alone with Commander Harder and the Marine for the eight-minute trip to the bridge.

Vyx realized there were two Space Command captains in the office on the larboard side of the bridge when the doors opened. One was standing, while the other was seated behind the desk. Only the seated officer wore a pip on her collar. A gold pip signified that an officer had been officially in command of a GSC Destroyer or larger warship, while a red pip indicated a current command. The pip on the captain’s collar was red. The other officer wore insignia that indicated he was a member of JAG.

The officer with the pip rose to her feet and extended her hand as Vyx entered her office. As he took it, she said, “Welcome aboard, Trader. I’m Captain McCoy. Thank you for rendezvousing with us.” Looking towards Commander Harder, she said, “That’s all for now, Troy.”

“Aye, Captain,” Harder said before turning and leaving the office. The Marine had stationed himself outside the door and would remain there for as long as Vyx was in the office, unless ordered to leave.

After the doors closed, McCoy gestured towards the other officer and said, “Trader, this is Captain Reuter of SCI. It was he who requested your presence here today. He’s apprised me of your Space Command rank and current mission, but my XO remains unaware that you are a Lt. Commander in SCI and will continue to treat you as a civilian freighter captain.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Vyx said. “In my line of work, it’s always safest to have as few individuals as possible know my real identity.” Turning towards Captain Reuter, he said, “Good morning, Captain. I’ve heard of you, but I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

“No, we haven’t,” Reuter said as he extended his hand, “but your name and fine work are certainly familiar to me.” Looking towards Captain McCoy, he said, “Shall we sit down, Captain?”

“Yes, of course,” McCoy said. Gesturing towards the chairs that faced her desk, she said, “Please be seated.”

The destroyer’s office was a decent size, but nothing like the enormous offices found on battleships. There was no informal meeting area, only the desk and two chairs, plus a large overstuffed chair where the captain could relax in comfort, but no sofa. As Vyx and Reuter sat down, Captain McCoy moved around to take her chair behind the desk.

“Trader,” Reuter said, “although your assignment was to investigate the slavery issue out here, you changed your focus when you learned of a large-scale counterfeiting operation on Bleadalto. We had already assigned agents to that duty, but we approved of your team’s re-tasking because you accidently developed a major lead and because we hadn’t heard from the other agents in some time. We’ve disseminated the ship identification information you provided to all Space Command ships in the region. Everyone is on the lookout for the freighter. The first one to spot her will perform an interdiction operation and just happen to identify a problem with one of the false-bottomed containers that requires a closer look, which will lead to a discovery of the secret area at the bottom.

“I know you announced your intention to return to Bleadalto and root out the source of the counterfeiting, but we have a more important investigation avenue for you to pursue before that. You reported coming across the derelict hull of a freighter named Aloriedeks and sent images of the ship. We agree that the damage to the hull is consistent with damage caused by a Denubbewa attack. We’ve been studying the records we acquired following the surrender of the Uthlarigasset government and determined that this part of space has had an unusually high incidence of ship disappearances. What we’d like to learn is when the Denubbewa first arrived here and when they left.”

Vyx reached into a pocket and removed a small pouch containing a data wafer. Tossing it onto Captain McCoy’s desk, Vyx said, “Captain, would you play the file on that wafer?”

McCoy took the wafer from the pouch and placed it on her keyboard’s data spindle, then activated the large wall monitor. Reuter and Vyx swung their chairs around to see the screen.

The high resolution image showed an approach to a Denubbewa mother ship in slow motion. As the mother ship was passed, the image changed to show three warships emerging from a large orifice.

“Captain McCoy, please pause the playback,” Reuter said. “Where did you get this footage, Vyx? I haven’t seen it before.”

“The Denubbewa never left this part of space, sir. This footage was shot by my ship six weeks ago.”

“Six weeks? While you were on your way to this rendezvous?”

“Yes, sir. My DeTect system reported that we had passed a large object exhibiting a considerable power signature, so I turned around to see what it was. I suspected it might be the Marcoussa. It wasn’t.”

Reuter took a deep breath and released it. “Why did you wait until now to report this?”

“I didn’t understand the reason for this rendezvous. It’s highly unusual and wasn’t explained. If the face-to-face meeting was owed to the enemy breaking the normal SCI encryption codes, I wanted to ensure they didn’t know their presence had been reported to Space Command. I didn’t realize you would be on board, sir, but I believed Captain McCoy would have a way to securely pass the information to Quesann.”

Reuter stood and walked to the monitor, studied the image closely for a full minute, then returned to his seat. “Captain, continue the playback, please.”

The three officers watched the rest of the sequence in silence.

“That was a close call, Trader,” McCoy said.

“If not for the slight edge we have in speed, I wouldn’t be here now.”

“I have to report this to Quesann immediately,” Reuter said. “We had no idea there was a mother ship operating in this region. After Admiral Carver defeated the five mother ships in Region Two, she ordered her forces to seek out and destroy all the warships they could locate, but we have no idea if the number that eluded us at the battle numbered in the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands.

“When the Admiral returned to Quesann, she ordered a plan put into motion that would see the entire fleet of Scout-Destroyers upgraded with the new weapons systems, but production limitations in the fabrication and shipment of the necessary armament components from Region One has delayed that effort. The previously equipped ships have been out searching for the Denubbewa warships that escaped the battle zone, but so far, we’ve only found and destroyed one warship.”

“Just one?” Vyx said incredulously. “In all this time?”

“We believe they’re lying doggo, waiting for new mother ships to arrive. Our fleet of Dakinium-sheathed ships is simply inadequate to cover the region as effectively as we must. It would take a fleet fifty times as large as the Second Fleet to find spaceships that aren’t on the move and don’t want to be found. We can’t even ask the Territorial Guard to assist because their ships have neither the speed advantage of the SDs nor weapons that can destroy a Denubbewa warship if they were to locate one. Of course they will report any sightings or rumors of sightings.”

“The Scorpion isn’t Dakinium-sheathed either,” Vyx said. “We’d love to assist in the effort, but we barely escaped with our skins in the encounter you just viewed.”

“Yes, we realize that. Your new assignment would have provided us with information showing that the Denubbewa ships were making their way into Region Three, if that was the case. We never expected you to actually confront any enemy ships. We envisioned you talking to freight haulers and listening to conversations to determine if they knew anything. It seems you’ve already provided more information than we ever expected to acquire this early in the investigation. I wish I could dispute your data, but that’s impossible. The Denubbewa are definitely here.”

“And have been here for at least fourteen years. So the Scorpion returns to Bleadalto and we carry on the counterfeiting investigation?”

“Yes.”

“And what of Rolando? Do we drop her off on Bleadalto?”

“For the time being I’m assigning her to your team. She’ll work with you to discover who’s counterfeiting GA Credits.”

“So she is SCI?”

“Yes. You didn’t know?”

“No. We never revealed our true identities and she never revealed hers.”

“That’s as it should be. When you reported that you found her aboard that derelict, we thought you might recognize one another since you were both at NHSA during the same time.”

“Only for one year, and we didn’t socialize.”

“So you did recognize her?”

“Not at first. She recognized me and I remembered her only after she called me by my real name.”

“She slipped up?”

“It was immediately after coming out of stasis. In fact, she was still in the bed. It takes a short time to get your bearings after you awaken. She saw a familiar face right away and called me by my real name. I denied the identification and she dropped it. We didn’t speak of it again.”

Reuter just nodded without saying anything for a several seconds. He seemed to be deep in thought before breaking the silence. “It’s strange that with so many ship disappearances, only one derelict has been discovered.”

“Perhaps they recycle the ships they capture.”

“You mean rebuild them for their own use?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of melting them down to salvage the raw materials and then build new ships in the style that has been so effective.”

“Where do you think their shipyard might be located?”

“My guess would be that it’s located inside the mother ship. At Stewart SCB, there’s a docking area where damaged ships can be repaired. These mother ships must enclose far more usable space than Stewart, so why not keep everything inside? Then, when they move, their operations move with them.”

Reuter nodded slowly. “It makes sense, but why leave one damaged ship untouched?”

“Perhaps as bait? The Marcoussa stopped to investigate, as did we. A sensor buoy positioned in the area would tell them if someone was checking out the ship.”

“But they didn’t attack you there.”

“They might have had their attention focused elsewhere at the time. They sure seemed ready to greet us when we came across the mother ship. Or perhaps they’re simply not infallible and lost track of the Aloriedeks. I kinda like that idea best because this enemy’s military might is formidable. I doubt if there’s anyone in this part of space other than Space Command that can stand up to them, or even evade them.”

“We haven’t intercepted any distress calls recently that originated in this part of space.”

“They might attack so fast that they’re able to jam the bands before a signal for help is sent. We know they never issue any warnings before attacking and never respond to hails. Other than Space Command ships, the Scorpion is probably the only ship in this part of space that has the speed capability to escape the Denubbewa.”

“Yes, if you didn’t have the new FTL drive, we might not even know they’re operating here. I wish we could surface the Scorpion with Dakinium. Having that speed available would add a tremendous dimension to your effectiveness.”

“It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult to accomplish. The ship isn’t that large.”

“No, it’s definitely possible. It’s just that every ounce we currently produce is already promised for either new military shipbuilding or some other defense equipment purpose. And now, with the need to outfit all SDs as bombers, all Dakinium production at the Region One foundry at Jupiter for the next ten years has already been committed.”

“With the Denubbewa now operating in this region, it seems even more important that a small amount be freed up for other purposes.”

“There are new foundry and shipbuilding operations being created in Region Two near Quesann. That naturally includes Dakinium manufacturing. Perhaps, as production ramps up at the new foundry, SCI can convince the Admiralty Board to allow us a share of that production. I’m sure Admiral Kanes has requested it. You’re dismissed, Commander.”

“Aye, sir,” Vyx said, “I have a couple of requests, though. We had to use our spare FTL drive after the first was destroyed. I covered that in my report. If the Stuttgart has a spare drive unit for a Scout-Destroyer aboard, we could really use it now that our back-up is gone.”

“Do you have a spare SD drive unit aboard, Captain McCoy?” Reuter asked.

“I’ll have my chief engineer check. If we do, it’s yours, Commander.”

“Thank you, ma’am. And if you could spare some provisions, we’d appreciate it. This voyage has turned out to be considerably longer than we planned.”

“Of course, Commander. Do you have a list?”

Reaching into a pocket, Vyx pulled out a small vid unit. “Right here, ma’am.”

McCoy touched her space Command ring and said, “Commander Harder.” A second later she said, “Commander, Captain Vyx will be returning to his vessel now, but before he leaves he needs some supplies. See that he gets everything he requires. McCoy out.” To Vyx, McCoy said, “Harder is on the bridge. Just give him your list. I’ll take care of the drive unit request.”

“Thank you, Captain. Good day.”

As the doors closed behind Vyx, McCoy said, “He seems very capable but he didn’t salute before leaving. He acts more like a civilian freighter captain than a Lt. Commander in Space Command.”

“He has to maintain his cover persona at all times so he doesn’t slip up when it counts. Mistakes can be fatal.”

“Ah, yes, I understand.”

When Vyx entered the small shuttle for the return trip to the Scorpion, he saw that Ursula Rolando was already seated there. She looked up with a smile and said, “Hello, boss.”

“You’ve been briefed, I see.”

“Yep. I’m proud to serve on your team, sir. I knew the dedicated ‘firstie’ I knew at the Academy would never leave Space Command to become a freight hauler. And I knew you were Victor Gregorian.”

“First rule forget that name. I’m Trader Vyx.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Second rule take it easy with the ‘sirs.’ We’re just a civilian freighter team. I’m in command, but we keep it very informal.”

“Gotcha, boss. Anything else?”

“Yeah,” he said with a grin, “one last thing. Welcome to the team.”

The rest of the team was waiting by the airlock as the shuttle linked up and established a pressurized connection. Their faces mirrored surprise when Rolando followed Vyx into the ship. All had expected that she would remain aboard the Stuttgart and be ferried to some destination where she could find employment aboard another freighter.

“Allow me to introduce Ursula Rolando, the newest member of our team.”

“I knew it,” Byers said with a wide smile. “I knew she was SCI.”

“You were right, Albert. Ursula is SCI and was on that freighter working an investigation into counterfeiting.”

“And Russel?” Nelligen asked.

“He wasn’t SCI, if that’s what you mean,” Ursula said. “He was just my work partner aboard the freighter. We were the only two Terrans aboard ship, so we always got paired up for work assignments. He wasn’t very bright and had the worst luck of anyone I’ve ever met.”

“The Stuttgart is sending over a quarter-container with food and supplies,” Vyx said, “so let’s open the maintenance bay airlock to begin accepting the shipment. Since our cargo bay is already filled, we don’t have room to bring the container inside. We’ll have to empty it outside the ship and drag it inside piecemeal, then stow it. After that we’ll be free to head for Bleadalto. So Nels and Albert, let’s get into our EVA gear.”

“What’s our new assignment?” Brenda asked.

“I’ll brief everyone after the work is done and we’re underway.”

By the time the team was suited up and ready to handle the cargo, the quarter-container had been delivered to the Scorpion. Knowing that the delivered items would be subjected to the cold of space, the goods had been protected in insulated containers. It took several hours for Vyx, Albert, and Nels to fill the airlock, then empty the airlock and prepare it for another load while Kathryn, Brenda, and Ursula unpacked the insulated containers so they could be returned to the Stuttgart. The gravity in the maintenance bay had been reduced to one-sixth to make the unloading chores substantially easier.

“I can’t believe they actually gave you fifty cases of ale,” Nelligen said as the team settled into the lounge after the ship was underway.

“They didn’t even argue,” Vyx said. “I just gave them the list and they filled it. The only item they couldn’t provide was the fresh parsley Albert wanted. They said they were out.”

“I’ve still got the dried stuff for cooking.”

“Okay,” Brenda said, “we’ve unloaded the cargo container and left it for the Stuttgart to retrieve, we’ve stowed all the supplies in the storage lockers, and we’re underway for Bleadalto. Are you going to tell us why we had to meet this Space Command destroyer here?”

“There was an SCI captain aboard the Stuttgart. It was he who briefed me. I’m not sure why he wanted a face-to-face. Perhaps there was something about a new assignment that became moot after I showed them the image file of our encounter with the Denubbewa. The new assignment, by the way, was to learn if anyone was reporting sightings of the Denubbewa. It seems there’s been a lot of unexplained ship disappearances in this part of space. Providing proof of where at least some of those ships might have gone answered the questions about the Denubbewa. Perhaps some of the other ships fell victim to friends of the freighter after delivering their cargo, as almost happened to us. I’d still like to know if that was orchestrated by the freighter captain or by someone aboard the freighter who was working a separate deal.”

“My money is on the broker,” Kathryn said. “I never have trusted Wolkerrons. They spend all their time wheeling and dealing with the worst scum in the galaxy.”

“Thank you,” Vyx said.

“Oh, you know I didn’t mean you. I mean the people who deal with Wolkerrons because they want to, not because it’s their job.”

“I know what you meant. I was just kidding.”

“My money is on Lippaula,” Brenda said.

“The head of the Star Brotherhood?” Ursula asked.

“Yeah, and Vyx’s high school sweetheart.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story,” Brenda said to Ursula. “I’ll tell you later.”

“As long as we’re betting,” Nelligen said, “my money is on the shipper of the counterfeit currency. He probably hoped to get his money back from the Wolkerron when we didn’t return. He’d tell Ker Blaswetta that we never delivered the cargo, and Blaswetta would have no way to refute the charge.”

“My money is on the Senesim Syndicate,” Byers said. “They’re trying to take over the planet and control all illegal operations.”

“Nobody thinks the Raiders might be involved?” Vyx said. “That was a favorite scam of theirs in Region One. They’ve hijacked more ships than all the other pirates combined.”

“So how are we going to find out who’s behind it?” Brenda asked.

“We’re going back to the planet and stir the pot a bit. When it boils over, we might find out who was behind all this.”

“What about the bounty hunters who want to collect on your hide?”

Vyx sighed slightly before answering, then said, “I’ll just have to show them that the ante to play in this game is a lot higher than they expected.”

*

Chapter Thirteen

March 3rd, 2289

With Ursula identified as an SCI agent, the mood aboard the Scorpion became much more relaxed. The others could talk openly without worrying they might inadvertently disclose some piece of information that would point to their secret career, and Ursula could share details of her investigation into the counterfeiting problem.

As always happens on a long voyage, things settled into a dull routine. The ship maintenance functions were always handled first thing after breakfast, followed by normal activities, such as cleaning and laundry. Of course, bots did most of the latter work and even assisted in maintenance activities, so the duty was light unless something unexpected cropped up. Ursula turned out to be a real help with the maintenance duties. She said she preferred that sort of work to cleaning, and Nelligen was happy for her help and even more for companionship during boring maintenance activities.

As the days passed, Brenda began to get mildly perturbed over Ursula’s contact with Vyx. While most would probably be interpreted as totally innocent, and Vyx probably never even noticed, Brenda sensed an underlying current of sexual interest on Ursula’s part. Brenda hadn’t forgotten Ursula’s previously announced crush on Vyx while they were at the Academy. Even if Vyx wasn’t showing any response to her attentions, Brenda was sure Ursula would like to get much closer. While it was true that Brenda’s relationship with Vyx had not been declared, they were sharing a cabin, and a bed, and she felt that Ursula should respect the unspoken alliance.

The rendezvous point with the Staatsburg had been four months from Bleadalto, so the trip to the planet was a long one. Discussions about the crime organizations on the planet and who might be behind the attacks on the Scorpion and the agents were common as evening meal conversations, but without new information it was impossible to draw any conclusions. With three major crime groups operating on the planet and a plethora of small criminal groups vying to become the fourth major group, it was anyone’s guess if the attacks had been generated by one group or multiple groups.

Four months later, the Scorpion approached Bleadalto with Vyx at the controls and all hands on the bridge watching for trouble, but nothing of concern occurred as the Scorpion established a stable orbit in preparation for descent to the surface.

“Captain,” the tac officer aboard the Namossel said into his mike as he tapped a button on his com unit, “That freighter is back.”

Captain Wurroples, seated at the desk in his office, pressed the Security Station button on his com unit and said, “What freighter?”

“The one we attacked last year after she left orbit but got away. Should I target her now?”

“Target her? Are you crazy? We’re in planetary orbit! Do you want to start a war up here?”

“I have a clear shot right now, before she goes down to the surface. I thought you might want to erase the embarrassment from our record.”

“No, you fool, do not target her. And the embarrassment wasn’t on the ship; it was on Captain Ereppuet. That’s why he’s no longer captain.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Uh, are you sure it’s the same ship?”

“Almost certain. It’s a Siqquet model, built at the Xillesku Shipbuilding yard. I’m familiar with the original ship design, and this one has that same strange appendage on each side of the stern as the one we chased. It’s not standard for that model, and I remember trying to figure out what it was.”

“And did you?”

“No, it’s a very strange arrangement. It almost looks like an engine nacelle, but that doesn’t make sense. There’s no practical purpose for an engine at that location.”

“Could it be some sort of sensor array?”

“It could be. It could be a lot of things I suppose, but the location next to the stern sub-light engines is strange.”

“Whatever. Uh, inform Lieutenant Commander Ereppuet about the ship’s arrival. He might be interested.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Wurroples out.”

“Tlazzurgo out.”

Wurroples leaned back in his chair after the connection was terminated. He grinned to himself as he thought about the expression on Ereppuet’s face when he learned that the Scorpion had returned to the planet. Losing the cargo she was carrying had essentially ended his career. He was lucky it hadn’t ended his life. Instead, he had been demoted to second in command under his former second. And he had been making Wurroples life miserable ever since. He should have been sent to another ship in the freighter fleet, but perhaps the boss felt that this would be more of a punishment. But the punishment had been as bad on Wurroples because Ereppuet continued to question every order given by his former subordinate, usually saying something like, “That’s not the way I’d do it.” Those remarks had been at the core of more than one heated debate.

Wurroples had picked up some information about the captain of that other vessel while he was on the planetary surface recently. He was said to be the meanest, toughest, and deadliest Terran ever to set foot on Bleadalto. It was said he had killed over three dozen people in street and tavern fights in just the one week before his ship left orbit the previous year.

Wurroples smiled to himself as he thought about what might happen if Ereppuet decided to seek revenge on Vyx. Vyx might very well remove that painful thorn from his side.

“What?” Ereppuet screamed at the com unit when informed of the Scorpion’s return. “Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be,” Tlazzurgo said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the exterior configuration matches exactly, but I can’t know who commands the ship.”

“The captain was named Vyx.”

“That information isn’t required to land on the planet, so it wasn’t submitted when the request for a landing pad at the Ogsnara spaceport was made.”

“Tell the shuttle bay I’m going down to the surface and I’ll need a small shuttle.”

“Tell them yourself. I’m the tac officer, not the com chief. Tlazzurgo out.”

Ereppuet scowled at the com unit as the communication ended. He was still trying to give orders as if he were the captain of the ship and was always frustrated when he met resistance.

As the Scorpion settled onto its landing struts on the assigned pad at the Ogsnara Spaceport, Vyx began a shutdown of the ship’s systems. The descent and landing hadn’t been out of the ordinary, but Vyx’s senses were always at maximum alert when landing. Relief coursed through his body now that they were safely down.

When the last of the console lights and bridge monitors winked off, Vyx sighed and let his body sink into the chair. He always liked to take a few minutes to relax after a takeoff or landing, so no one spoke to him until he started to get out of the chair.

“Let’s go to the lounge and discuss what we’re going to do today,” Vyx said as everyone cleared the bridge.

Everyone had selected their beverage of choice, either coffee or tea, and taken their seats before Vyx said, “We have to be alert from the moment we leave the airlock. I don’t have to remind any of you that the last time we were here we had assassins trying to kill us every day until we blasted off this rock. I know Ursula has heard about the two who attacked us as we were loading our cargo. Let’s be on extra alert as we move out.”

“Where are we heading?” Brenda asked.

“First, we have to remove the four containers from the hold. Second, we need to make contact with Ker Blaswetta and arrange for the cargo-hauling payment. Then we’ll see if we can pick up any information about who has been behind the attacks on the Scorpion. Lastly, our assignment is to learn everything we can about the counterfeiting operations here, so if we don’t have assassins popping up from behind every taxi and transport, we’ll spread out and try to pick up whatever loose talk we can. In the past the teams have been Albert and myself as Team One, and Nels, Brenda, and Kathryn as Team Two. Until we get our money from Ker Blaswetta, we’ll stay together, loosely. If everything stays somewhat quiet, we’ll split into the two teams with Ursula joining Albert and myself.”

Brenda was dying to ask why Ursula was being assigned to Team One, but she held her tongue. She knew Vyx hadn’t made the assignment out of any special interest in Ursula. Perhaps it was simply because he wanted to evaluate her abilities, but Brenda just couldn’t shake the resentment that Ursula would be spending the day with Vyx.

Before leaving the ship, the team used the external camera to surveil the area. There was a maintenance crew working on a nearby ship, but there were no weapons in sight, and the crew was performing real maintenance, not just sham operations. After watching them carefully for a few minutes, Vyx gave the word to open the hold.

While Byers and Nelligen watched from the opening hold, the women disembarked with their weapons and took up positions where they would be ready for whatever trouble might come.

Unloading the empty containers was a snap compared to loading the full containers. As each oh-gee block cleared the edge of the ship, the container tried to drop slightly, but Vyx was prepared and adjusted the controls as needed. He set the containers off to the side of the ship where tugs would be able to retrieve them with minimal chance of damage to the Scorpion.

When the ship was again fully closed, Vyx set the charges designed to kill anyone who tried to enter the ship in their absence and called for two driverless taxis.

The agents headed into town as soon as the transportation arrived. There had been no sign of trouble so far. The short trip was uneventful, but the team never let down their guard. Their last experiences on the planet ensured they would remain wary. Since they had just arrived, it might simply be that word of their presence hadn’t yet circulated.

When the taxis arrived at their destination, the team had them stop half a block apart. As they stepped out, no gunfire came their way, but the day was still early. They spread out and entered the tavern separately, taking up solitary positions at the bar or tables. Only Vyx and Byers sat together.

Ker Blaswetta arrived three hours later. Vyx hadn’t contacted him because he knew Blaswetta would be alerted to the arrival of the Scorpion before the ship had even settled fully onto its skids. The tall, thin hominoid pulled out a chair at Vyx’s table and settled into it before he spoke.

“Welcome, Trader. You’ve been gone a very long time. Did you find another job while you were away?”

“Our absence was owed to attacks on my ship. One required a great deal of time to repair. I thought you might already know about them.”

“Me? How would I know?”

“The first occurred just after we left the planet. It appeared that someone knew what our cargo was and wanted to get their hands on it.”

“A great many people knew you had received a very heavy cargo. There were all the tug jockeys who delivered the cargo to your ship, for example. And who knows how many people who work for the shipper knew who was taking the shipment. I did receive word that you delivered the cargo with all seals intact and was instructed to pay you when you returned. The shipper was pleased.”

“Then there was the attack on my ship after we left the freighter. Someone managed to plant explosive charges on my FTL drive unit and on my sub-light engines while I was unloading. It had to come from someone aboard the freighter.”

“That’s most distressing. I assure you that I have no knowledge of such an attack. I am an honest deal broker. My reputation would be ruined and my business lost if I ever got involved in anything like that.”

“You’d also be a lot richer if the freighter haulers never returned to collect their payment.”

“An insignificant amount compared to the loss of my business. I assure you that I knew nothing about the attacks and would never be complicit in any scheme to attack a freighter.” Blaswetta was silent for a few seconds, then withdrew an envelope from inside his garment and held it out towards Vyx. “Here’s the payment we agreed upon, payable at any bank on the planet. As you can see, the check is payable in GA credits, as you required.”

Vyx opened the envelope part way and glanced at the bank draft there, then pushed the envelope into a pocket inside his cloak. “Ker, I want to know who was behind the bounty attacks. I know you’ve had enough time to get to the bottom of that matter.”

“Trader, I honestly don’t know. All I know is that the day after you left, word was circulated that there never was a bounty. It was all a ruse. But I’ve never been able to figure out who actually started it.”

“You must have some idea.”

“It appears that the rumor might have been initiated by the Star Brotherhood, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. It’s only that I’ve been told in confidence by most of the people I’ve spoken with about the bounty that they first learned of it through a Brotherhood person.”

“And who passed the word that there was no bounty?”

“That was definitely the Brotherhood. And they went way out of their way to make sure everyone in the city knew there was no bounty and never had been.”

“Interesting.”

“Yes, perhaps they have plans for you.”

“I’ve told them I’m independent and won’t join them.”

“They can be very persuasive when they want to be.”

“I can be very stubborn.”

“I wish you luck. Are you available for another job? I have several that might be of interest. I now consider you to be one of my most trustworthy contacts. I’ve heard from my cousin in Region One and he gives you the most glowing recommendation I’ve ever heard. He says you always deliver what you promise and have ways of delivering items that others would almost certainly lose to interdiction or customs.”

“I’m not looking for anything right away. I’ll let you know when I am. How’s Ker Blasperra?”

“He’s well, thank you. He’s still on Scruscotto and tells me that he’s been most prosperous.”

“That’s good. Our business relationship was always excellent. I hope you and I can have such a relationship.”

“As do I, Trader. Well, I must be going. I have much to do today. Be well, Trader.”

When Blaswetta had gone, Vyx signaled to Byers, who was standing at the bar enjoying an ale. Byers came over and sat down in the chair Blaswetta had occupied.

“The Ker says the Brotherhood has spread the word that the bounty on my head never existed.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I’m thinking they started the rumor in the first place.”

“You think it was done to get us to take the freight contract?”

“I don’t know, but that seems to be the most likely reason. If they were the shipper and needed to move a hundred tons of counterfeit money quickly because their stockpile had grown too large to protect, creating a sense of urgency in an available freighter crew to leave the planet could accomplish their goal.”

“So what now? Do we divide up into teams and start working the city?”

“Not just yet. I think a talk with Lippaula is in order first. Depending on what she has to say, we’ll determine our next move.”

“Do we all go?”

“No, you and the others wait here. I’ll go alone.”

“Is that smart?”

“If she had nothing to do with our problems, I’m in no danger at least no more than usual. And if she was behind all our problems, it would appear she’s backed off now.”

“Okay. We’ll wait here until we hear from you.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Vyx scanned the street carefully before stepping outside. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he decided it might be safe. When a driverless cab empty of passengers came gliding down the street, he stepped off the curb and hailed it by raising his left arm. It pulled over and the rear doors rolled down under the vehicle so passengers could step in. After registering his thumb print on the cab’s meter and giving the destination address, the oh-gee cab resealed and proceeded quietly down the street. Vyx leaned back into the comfortable seat to think about the pending confrontation.

When the cab reached the office building where the planetary headquarters of the Brotherhood was located, Vyx again pressed his thumb to the cab’s meter to approve the charge and stepped out. A glance around showed everything to be as quiet as at the tavern. He was beginning to believe that the bounty announcement of a reward on his head really had been rescinded.

As he entered the lobby of the building, two burly guards moved to block his path. Vyx flipped the right side of his cloak over his shoulder and stopped, with his hand poised above his pistol. “I’m Trader Vyx and I’m here to see Lippaula. Are you going to move out of the way, or do I need to step over your dead bodies?”

One of the guards looked towards a third who was seated behind a guard station desk. The seated guard made a quick call and then motioned to the two blocking Vyx’s path. They all looked decidedly relieved as they stepped back out of the way so Vyx could proceed unimpeded.

When the elevator arrived at the penthouse floor, Vyx stepped out and saw the same receptionist and guards he had seen on his last visit. As he moved towards the door to Lippaula’s office, the two guards stepped in front of it. “I’m not going to have a problem with you boys, am I?” Vyx said as he again flipped his cloak over his shoulder and assumed his gunfighter stance.

“Uh, Trader,” the receptionist squeaked nervously, “Lippaula is in conference. I’ve alerted her to your presence, and she says she’ll be available shortly. Once the conference is over, you’ll be allowed to enter with your weapons.”

Vyx couldn’t complain because he had arrived without warning. He nodded and relaxed his stance, then moved to a side wall to wait.

After about fifteen minutes, four Brotherhood thugs, one of them Gillanno, exited Lippaula’s office. Gillanno nodded to Vyx as he passed, but the others just stared.

When the four men had moved into the elevator and the doors had closed, Vyx straightened up and headed for Lippaula’s office. Neither of the bodyguards moved from their positions on the sides of the doorway, but they gave him a look that seemed to indicate they were glad they didn’t have to stop him.

“Victor,” Lippaula said as the doors closed behind Vyx, “welcome back. And on your very first day back you’ve come to see me. How wonderful.” Lippaula was wearing a business suit with slacks this time and only a couple of pieces of decorative jewelry, but she still exuded a vibrant sexiness. She was standing in the center of her office near the fountain with a drink in her hand. “Can I offer you something?”

“No, I just wanted to thank you for spreading the word that there was never any bounty on my head.”

“Did I?”

“And I wanted to ask why you spread that rumor in the first place.”

“Did I?”

“You were the only one in this region, other than my shipmates, who knew the Tsgardi wanted my head. I told you of it during our first meeting.”

“Victor, I’m shocked by your accusation. Why would I do such a thing?”

“You had a growing pile of counterfeit currency and no one you trusted to take it off-planet. I wasn’t in a big hurry to leave until every idiot with a gun saw riches being dangled in his or her face.”

“You think I’m a counterfeiter?”

“Everyone on this planet knows the Brotherhood is one of the largest counterfeiters in this part of space. And you head the Brotherhood on this planet.”

Lippaula turned, walked to one of the small sofas, and sat down. She crossed her legs and gave Vyx a sultry stare before saying, “Okay, you’re right. We needed to move that shipment fast. The freighter rendezvous had been established, and the ship we intended to use developed mechanical problems which couldn’t be repaired quickly. You told Blaswetta you were relaxing for a few weeks before looking for another cargo.”

“Why weren’t you open with me instead of risking my life in a series of assassination attempts by bounty seekers?”

“I never actually thought you were in danger. Trader Vyx is reputed to be the fastest gun on Bleadalto, and one who never misses. I thought that would keep everyone but a few ignorant fools from trying to collect that bounty.”

“Someone could have gotten lucky.”

“Let’s forget it,” she said calmly. “It’s over now. You’re safe, everyone knows there’s no bounty, the cargo was delivered to the rendezvous in time to be picked up by the freighter, and you’ve collected a nice payment. All’s well that ends well.”

“There’s still the little matter of the three attempts to hijack my ship.”

“What attempts?”

“The first occurred shortly after we left Bleadalto behind us. Someone cut across our bow to cancel our envelope, then tried to incapacitate us with torpedoes. They underplayed their hand instead of doing us in right away, and we were able to escape.”

“A warship?”

“No, a heavily armed freighter.”

“The Syndicate,” she said in an angry tone. “It has to be. They’re the ones I feared were plotting to grab the cargo before I could get it off-planet.”

“They came close to getting it but were just a little slow in their execution. Then there were the other attempts.”

“I’m listening.”

“A party from the freighter came aboard to verify the seals on the cargo.”

“That’s standard procedure. It’s easier to verify them in the hold than out in space.”

“Except this party was far larger than needed, and every one of them was armed.”

“Unusual, but we were dealing with an illegal cargo, so the freight handlers aren’t saints. What did you do?”

“I forced them to leave all their weapons aboard their shuttle before they could enter my ship.”

“Smart. Did they give you any trouble?”

“No, all my people were well armed.”

“And the third attempt?”

“Someone managed to plant explosive charges on my FTL drive unit and my sub-light engines during the cargo transfer. The FTL charge was either timed or radio-signal controlled. The sub-light engine charges were designed to explode if I tried to use the engines. After the FTL drive unit was destroyed, we scanned the hull for more explosives and found the two unexploded charges. We removed them and went to maximum Sub-Light on a radically different course, holding that until we were confident we had evaded anyone who might be searching for us. Then we began making our repairs. We should have gotten back here months ago.”

“Yes, I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

“So you’re saying you had nothing to do with the third attack either?”

“What could I have to gain from attacking your ship?”

“Another freighter.”

“Victor darling, please. I have no need for your small ship.”

“No? It was important enough to almost get me killed here on the planet.”

“I thought we were past that. Come sit down next to me.”

“The first time I came here, I was blinded by my memories of our times together in high school. I knew you had been through hell, but all I saw was the first girl I ever truly loved. Because of that, I was oblivious to the rest of it.”

“The rest of it?”

“That you’re no longer Paula Gilling. You’re Lippaula now, the head of the Star Brotherhood. And the head of the Brotherhood has to be one of the most ruthless people on the planet, or that person would never have risen to command an arm of a major crime syndicate.”

“Oh, Victor, you’ve always been so melodramatic. I think you’ve memorized too many Shakespearean plays. I’m still the same girl I’ve just lost my naiveté. It happens to most of us when we become adults.”

“It’s not just the naiveté. You’ve lost your moral compass.”

“That’s amusing, coming from the ‘most dangerous Terran’ on the planet.”

In a blinding move, Vyx pulled his pistol and aimed it directly at Lippaula’s face. Her eyes opened wide and she stiffened visibly. No one had pointed a weapon in her direction in many years, and she knew that look on his face. He was perfectly serious.

“Victor, don’t do anything stupid,” she said, searching for a way to defuse the situation. “You’d never get out of this building alive.”

“You think not. Of course, it wouldn’t really matter to you, but that pathetic lot you have protecting you is no match for the most dangerous Terran on the planet.”

*

Chapter Fourteen

July 8th, 2289

Over the next thirty seconds complete silence pervaded the room, and sweat beaded on Lippaula’s brow.

Then Vyx lowered the weapon and holstered it. “If you ever intentionally put my life at risk again,” he said, “I’ll come for you. And next time you won’t be breathing when I leave.”

Vyx turned and started walking for the door, but stopped when Lippaula said, “Victor, wait.” When he turned, she said, “I’m sorry. I see that I handled the situation all wrong. I’ve been dealing with fools, idiots, and lowlife animals for so long that I’d forgotten how to deal with intelligent people.”

Vyx grinned. “Nice try, Paula.”

Lippaula smiled, then said, “You can’t blame a girl for trying. And I knew you wouldn’t shoot, that’s why I didn’t summon help. All I had to do was touch the face of my ring.”

“You didn’t summon help because you would have been the first one shot. And if you’d known I wouldn’t shoot, you wouldn’t have been so nervous. Goodbye, Lippaula.”

She knew that his use of her Brotherhood name signified a change in their relationship. But he hadn’t killed her, and that meant there was still hope to resurrect at least a part of what they’d once had. At one time she had considered him a hopeless wimp with an incredible brain. It had been the brain that attracted her. Now he was more man than any she had ever met, and he still had the incredible brain. She wanted him more than ever now, but it had to be on her terms. And what Lippaula wanted, Lippaula got.

Lieutenant Commander Ereppuet had reached the small shuttle aboard the Namossel before remembering he’d left his Kiressa in his quarters. He had first intended to use a lattice pistol, but then decided the small, slightly curved ceremonial sword would be so much more appropriate. The family heirloom had been used to dispatch ancestral enemies for centuries. Vyx was responsible for Ereppuet losing his command, and it was doubtful he’d ever get command again. Vyx had to die from a Kiressa thrust to erase this disgrace on his family name.

Ereppuet backtracked to his stateroom, then picked up the Kiressa and removed it from the sheath. Kneeling briefly at the small alter in his sitting room, he offered up a prayer to the god Otuppalon and asked him to bless his weapon and his mission.

Replacing the Kiressa in its scabbard, he returned to the shuttle bay. He had earlier put out a call to several informants on the planet and received a location for Vyx. According to the informant, Vyx had entered a tavern and was drinking alone at a table. Ereppuet smiled. An inebriated opponent would be an easy kill.

Ereppuet’s shuttle touched down at the spaceport at Ogsnara twenty minutes later, and he immediately called for a driverless cab to take him to the tavern where Vyx was drinking.

When Vyx arrived back at the tavern where the team was waiting, he found them still spread out around the room. Perhaps it was the presence of so many unknown individuals and fear that their presence might presage some dangerous event, but the number of regulars seemed quite low. Vyx called his people together at a table as far removed from other patrons as possible.

“Did you see Lippaula?” Byers asked.

Vyx nodded.

“Did she confirm that she spread the word that there never was any bounty?” Brenda asked.

“Yes, and also that she was the one who started the rumor in the first place. It was as we speculated. The shipment was hers and she believed we needed a reason to get off the planet fast.”

“She set us up?” Kathryn asked. “And risked all our lives?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill her?” Nelligen asked.

“I came close. I had my pistol out and aimed at her head. But I backed down.”

“You probably wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t,” Byers said.

“That’s not why I didn’t kill her.”

“Then why not?” Brenda asked.

“I guess because of what she went through what made her the way she is. But I told her that if she ever does anything like that again, she wouldn’t survive another encounter with me.”

“Think she got the message?” Nelligen asked.

“Yeah, I think I got through.”

“Was she behind the other attacks?”

“She claimed not to be. She said the first was probably the Syndicate.”

“Do you believe her?” Ursula asked.

“Yeah, I sort of believe her about the first attack. There was something about the way she denied it. I don’t believe her about the other, though. I still think she wanted our ship, but I have no proof, and it actually could have been a third party. We’ll keep our ears open for any similar attacks on other ships and perhaps we’ll learn who’s behind it. If it wasn’t Lippaula, my second guess would be the Raiders.”

“So what now?” Byers asked.

“Well, we just added a huge amount to our working funds. What say we take a couple of days off and relax. Who’s up for a Tarlovo dinner?”

“Tarlovo?” Ursula said. “Ugh. Tarlovo is the worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“But you haven’t had it the way I prepare it,” Byers said. “You’ll think you died and went to heaven.”

“I doubt it.”

“Trust me,” Vyx said. “You’ll love it.”

“I’d also like to get some Wernallo.”

“Oh, double yuck,” Ursula said.

“Don’t make faces until you’ve tried it,” Byers said. “We got the recipe for Wernallo from the same chef who gave Vyx the recipe for preparing Tarlovo. I’m going to assume it will be delicious.”

“It’s decided then,” Vyx said. “We’ll get some Tarlovo, Wernallo, and some fresh vegetables and head back to the ship for a couple of days of rest and relaxation. How’s the ale situation, Nels?”

“We still have about twenty cases, and I’ve been keeping three cases iced up at all times.”

“Great. Let’s head out.”

With Vyx in the lead, the group rose to leave the tavern. As Vyx stepped through the door, he saw a senior freighter officer standing on the sidewalk, facing the street. Vyx stepped past him to hail a cab.

Ereppuet had seen Vyx inside the tavern and waited outside for him to emerge, with his back to the entrance. As Vyx stepped past him, Ereppuet reached into his tunic and grabbed the hilt of the Kiressa. He lifted the sword free of his tunic and the sheath and was bringing it down when he heard someone scream, “Vyx, behind you!” Ereppuet had planned to plant the sword in a spot on Vyx’s back where the curved blade would pierce his heart.

Despite Vyx’s relaxed posture, his reflexes were lightening fast. He believed the danger could only be from the freighter officer he had just passed. As he heard the scream, he twisted and fell, reaching for his pistol as he went down.

Ereppuet couldn’t believe the speed with which Vyx reacted to the simple warning, and his apparent understanding of the danger about to befall him. As the blade sliced downward, the tip entered Vyx’s cloak, and ripped open a huge hole, but drew little blood.

As Vyx landed on his back, his pistol was in his hand and coming up to aim at his attacker’s midsection. He had felt the blade pierce his body but didn’t know the severity of the wound. It didn’t matter; there was no doubt that the officer had intended to kill him. As his pistol reached the point where an Uthlaran’s heart is located, Vyx pulled the trigger. The beam shot out with the speed of light and ended the life of his attacker.

Ereppuet stumbled backward in shock, his heart destroyed. He was fast losing consciousness, but he knew he had failed. It had never occurred to him that he might not be successful. If it had, he probably would have poisoned the blade, but he would never have a chance to do that now. It’s doubtful he even felt the five laser shots that entered his body from behind as he stumbled backwards.

As Ereppuet collapsed into death, Vyx got to his feet. Looking down at the former captain, he asked, “Anybody recognize him?” The members of his team all shook their heads to indicate they had never seen him before while Brenda examined Vyx’s wound.

“Probably someone who lost all his pay gambling at the casinos and was looking to get a new stake with a little bounty money,” Nelligen said.

“He barely scratched you,” Brenda said. “The blood has coagulated already. I’ll put something on it when we get back to the ship.

“Thanks for your warning,” Vyx said as he reached down and picked up the small sword where it had fallen, then reached into the officer’s cloak and withdrew the sheath. Sliding the blade into the protective scabbard, Vyx used his foot to roll the body into the gutter where the body disposal truck could claim it. Before that happened, the local scavengers would probably strip the body completely.

“I’ll always have your back, hon,” Brenda said. “Say didn’t Lippaula just tell you she sent out word that there’s no bounty and never was?”

As he stepped over the body to hail an approaching cab, Vyx shrugged and said nonchalantly, “I guess this guy never got the memo.”

finis

*** The exciting adventures of the SCI will continue ***

*

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Appendix

This chart is offered to assist readers who may be unfamiliar with military rank and the reporting structure. Newly commissioned officers begin at either ensign or second lieutenant rank.

Space Command Officer Hierarchy:

Admiral of the Fleet (5 Star)

Admiral (4 Star)

Vice-Admiral (3 Star)

Rear Admiral  Upper (2 Star)

Rear Admiral  Lower (1 Star)

Captain

Commander

Lt. Commander

Lieutenant

Lieutenant(jg) “Junior Grade”

Ensign

Space Marine Officer Hierarchy:

General (4 Star)

Lt. General (3 Star)

Major General (2 Star)

Brigadier General (1 Star)

Colonel

Lt. Colonel

Major

Captain

First Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

The commanding officer on a ship is always referred to as Captain, regardless of his or her official military rank. Even an Ensign could be a Captain of the Ship, although that would only occur as the result of an unusual situation or emergency where no senior officers survive.

On Space Command ships and bases, time is measured according to a twenty-four clock, normally referred to as military time. For example, 8:42 PM would be referred to as 2042 hours. Chronometers are set to always agree with the date and time at Space Command Supreme Headquarters on Earth. This is known as GST, or Galactic System Time.

*

Admiralty Board:

Moore, Richard E - Admiral of the Fleet

Platt, Evelyn S. - Admiral - Director of Fleet Operations

Bradlee, Roger T. - Admiral - Director of Intelligence (SCI)

Ressler, Shana E. - Admiral - Director of Budget & Accounting

Hillaire, Arnold H. - Admiral - Director of Academies

Burke, Raymond A. - Vice-Admiral - Director of GSC Base Management

Ahmed, Raihana L. - Vice-Admiral - Dir. of Quartermaster Supply

Woo, Lon C. - Vice-Admiral - Dir. of Scientific & Expeditionary Forces

Plimley, Loretta J. - Rear-Admiral, (U) - Dir. of Weapons R&D

Yuthkotl , Lesbolh - Rear Admiral (U) Admiral, Director of Nordakian Forces Integration Section

Ship Speed Terminology:

Plus-1 - 1 kps

Sub-Light-1 - 1,000 kps

Light-1 - 299,792.458 kps or (c) (speed of light in a vacuum)

Light-150 or 150 c - 150 times the speed of light

Hyper-Space Factors:

IDS Communications Band - .0513 light years each minute (8.09 billion kps)

DeTect Range - 4 billion kilometers

Sample Distances:

Earth to Mars (Mean) - 78 million kilometers

Nearest star to our Sun - 4 light-years (Proxima Centauri)

Milky Way Galaxy diameter - 100,000 light-years

Thickness of M’Way at Sun - 2,000 light-years

Stars in Milky Way - 200 billion (est.)

Nearest galaxy (Andromeda) - 2 million light-years from M’Way

A light-year - 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers (in vacuum)

A light-second - 299,792.458 km (in vacuum)

Grid Unit - 1,000 Light Yrs˛ (1,000,000 Sq. LY)

Deca-Sector - 100 Light Years˛ (10,000 Sq. LY)

Sector - 10 Light Years˛ (100 Sq. LY)

Section - 94,607,304,725 km˛

Sub-section - 946,073,047 km˛

Mission Descriptions for Strategic Command Bases:

Strat Com 1  Base - Location establishes it as a critical component of Space Command Operations - Serves as homeport to multiple warships that also serve in base’s defense. All sections of Space Command maintain an active office at the base. Base Commander establishes all patrol routes and is authorized to override SHQ orders to ships within the sector(s) designated part of the base’s operating territory.

Recommended rank of Commanding Officer: Rear Admiral (U)

Strat Com 2  Base - Location establishes it as a crucial component of Space Command Operations - Serves as homeport to multiple warships that also serve in base’s defense. All sections of Space Command maintain an active office at the base. Patrol routes established by SHQ.

Recommended rank of Commanding Officer: Rear Admiral (L)

Strat Com 3  Base - Location establishes it as an important component of Space Command Operations - Serves as homeport to multiple warships that also serve in base’s defense. Patrol routes established by SHQ.

Recommended rank of Commanding Officer: Captain

Strat Com 4  Station - Location establishes it as an important terminal for Space Command personnel engaged in travel to/from postings, and for re-supply of vessels and outposts.

Recommended rank of Commanding Officer: Commander

Strat Com 5  Outpost - Location makes it important for observation purposes and collection of information.

Recommended rank of Commanding Officer: Lt. Commander

*

This map shows Galactic Alliance space after maps were redrawn following the end of hostilities with the Milori, and the war with the Tsgardi, Hudeerac, Uthlaro, and Gondusans. Unclaimed territories between the three regions were claimed in order to have one contiguous area. Regions Two and Three are so vast that exercising control and maintaining law and order has been largely impossible to this date.

*

The only purpose of this two-dimensional representation is to provide the reader with a basic feel for the spatial distances involved, and the reader must remember that GA territory extends through the entire depth of the Milky Way galaxy when the galaxy is viewed on edge.

*

.jpg and .pdf versions of the maps created for this series are available for downloading at:

http://www.deprima.com/ancillary/agu.html

should the names be unreadable in your printed or electronic media, or if you simply wish to gain a better overall perspective.

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Product Decription

Some readers have requested that the product description be included with the copy. I’ve added it here:

Space Opera meets Horse Opera in this fast-paced adventure story featuring the Space Command Intelligence undercover team headed by Trader Vyx. The team, introduced in Book 4 of the A Galaxy Unknown series, and with roles in two subsequent books, is now featured in their own book as this AGU:SCI series kicks off.

This story is a mix of low-tech and high-tech as shootouts in saloons and city streets vie with spaceship chases and space battles to dominate the pages of this book.

*