Galactic Frontiers: A Collection of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction Stories Read online

  “Correction,” the space pirate added. “I stole drugs from his supply lines eight times. Then destroyed those drugs.” He smirked with pride. “I was sending him a message to stop selling that poison, which he clearly received.”

  A few years back, the bleeding-heart-smuggler routine might have impressed Ella. But living on this side of the galaxy had hardened her considerably. “A space pirate with a heart of gold.” Ella rolled her eyes. “Jesus, what a cliché. Go join a space opera show already!”

  “No idea what a cliché is.” The Vorn’s brow furrowed so deeply, his eyes disappeared under their shadow. “But this heart’s got nothing but a black hole.” His smirk revealed dark grey growths resembling humanoid teeth, making Ella shudder.

  Jaelynn’s fury jarred Ella out of her daze. “Why Guanag wants you is none of our business.”

  Ronen gaped at Jaelynn, as if seeing her for the first time. This wasn’t an uncommon reaction when one realized what she was.

  “By the starry forests above.” His bark-covered face lit up. “A female Tarkathian hunter? Who gave this one permission to leave her prison world...sorry...homeworld?”

  Ella winced. The Tarkath homeworld was a sore subject for Jaelynn.

  The young Tarkathian snarled and moved aggressively toward the Vorn to correct his manners.

  Ella blocked her. “Easy, Jae.” She turned to their prisoner. “Keep your Tarkathian opinions to yourself. Unless you hate breathing.”

  Ronen shrugged, despite his arms being cuffed behind his back. “It’s not my fault her culture hates females.”

  Jalynn’s eyes burned as she paced behind Ella. “May I kill him? Please let me kill him,” she all but begged.

  “No,” the human refused. “We get half as much if he’s dead, remember?”

  Surprisingly, that didn’t bother Jaelynn much. “I could accept that.”

  “So Guanag, right?” Ronen said, drawing their attention. “You both just signed your own death warrants.”

  Ella frowned at his nonsensical statement. “Why would he kill us? We’re doing him a service.”

  “At first, you will be his new bright and shinies, exalted for bringing him the evil Ronen Omaegus,” the Vorn stated. “But then he will demand more and more from you. Put you on a pedestal so that his other associates take notice. And Guanag loves competition between his cronies.”

  Jaelynn eyed him with sheer loathing. “We don’t work for anyone.”

  “You wouldn’t think so,” Ronen replied coolly. “Until suddenly all your jobs come from him. Then he owns you. That is, if you don’t get killed by other bounty hunters who want your spot. Or by Guanag himself if one day you deliver something just below his mercurial standards and he’s having one of his moods.”

  Ella felt her insides crawl up into her throat. Suddenly, all the notoriety that could come with catching Ronen Omaegus soured her stomach like putrid fruit. He’s lying, she told herself once, twice, three times. Yet still… She whipped out her pulse pistol and squeezed off two orange bursts. Ronen jerked as if electrified, and then slumped over.

  “Know what?” She holstered her pistol as a stunned Jaelynn looked on. “I liked you more unconscious.”

  For the next day, Ella avoided contact with Ronen, leaving Jaelynn to watch him mostly. When having to watch him, she pumped him full of heavy stun blasts so he couldn’t speak. In that silence, she recalled his warnings about Guanag, and the pit of vipers awaiting her and Jaelynn on the brink of their biggest bounty. “Fuck you for ruining this, you puto gadhua.”

  They arrived at the asteroid belt sooner than expected. “Thanks to my superior piloting,” Ella reminded Jaelynn.

  Rimaw was a fortress, clusters of asteroids and rocky debris eddying around the core of an icy gas giant. As Ella took the Aurora closer, she spotted the gleam of obsidian black blaster cannons imbedded in several gargantuan asteroids to protect Guanag and his headquarters. Ella shuddered and weaved through the debris, flying just fast enough to not trigger those nasty-looking cannons.

  “We get in, get the payment, and get out,” Jaelynn relayed, her eyes never leaving the asteroids looming around their vessel. She looked worried, an expression Ella rarely saw on her. That ratcheted up the human’s fear even more. “The main asteroid is straight ahead.”

  “So is my doom,” Ronen Omaegus commented dourly. Unfortunately, they decided to keep him conscious when meeting Guanag. “Whatever Guanag’s paying you, my crew and I will double.” The desperation outweighed his usual smugness.

  “And bring the wrath of an infamous crime lord down on us?” Ella scoffed. “No fucking thanks, Ronen.”

  The Vorn shrugged, regaining his nonchalance as he sat in the cargo hold. “Your mistake.”

  Jaelynn bristled. “Your little crew won’t find you. We checked you for trackers and pulled out all five of them.”

  Omaegus laughed long and hard. “It’s not them who should worry you.”

  Ella didn’t like the gleam in his eyes, or his ominous tone.

  In fact, Ella hated this whole situation, which once felt like the bounty of a lifetime. Suddenly all she wanted to do was turn the Aurora around and jump into hyperspace. Maybe even head back to the safety of Union Space, see her family again and make amends with her cousin Ana-Lucia.

  “No,” she whispered, heart in her throat. Those were childish wants. And this was a big-time bounty. Ella needed to grow up and rise to this occasion, no matter the peril involved. She studied the main viewscreen taking up most of the space before her. “Almost there,” she stated.

  One of the larger asteroids floated ahead, hoary grey and wrinkled like some giant rocky raisin. As they drew closer, Ella spotted the tiny gleam of viewports and weapon arrays, plus the occasional mini-domes blunting the asteroid’s edges.

  After an ID scan of their vessel, the Aurora entered the hangar bay without incident.

  “We’ll have our transmaterialization locked on us in case things go to tattshi,” Ella told her Tarkathian partner.

  Jaelynn stared back in mild surprise. “My recommendations, exactly.”

  Great minds think alike. Ella smiled back. “Let’s do this.”

  For brief moments, their ship’s interior vanished in a shimmer of golden light. Suddenly, the rocky innards of the asteroid appeared: dank, dim, and full of notched pockmarks.

  Waiting for them were a trio of Tarkathian males, large and burly with black tusks jutting from either cheek. Each carried long and bulky pulse rifles, AmmoCore from Ella’s guess, the tips of each muzzle glowing bright orange. The Tarkathian trio wore the same disgust at the sight of Jaelynn. The teen looked visibly ready to gut her fellow hunters, right there and now. She stepped toward them with towering aggression that belied her petiteness.

  Ella stepped in Jaelynn’s path before anyone died, hauling Ronen forward. “We’re here to meet your boss, remember?”

  The Tarkathians took one last glare at Jaelynn before turning and moving forward. As they walked through wrinkled and winding tunnels, Ronen leaned closer than comfortable.

  “Should have made Guanag come to you. Back there was one of the few transmat spots in Guanag’s asteroid paradise not blocked. Good luck getting out of here—OOPH.”

  A hard knee to the gut from Ella doubled the Vorn over.

  That drew the Tarkathians’ attention. “Problem?” By how tensed their tree-trunk-sized arms were, these born-and-bred hunters clearly hoped for a problem.

  Jaelynn scowled but held her tongue, thankfully.

  “None,” Ella assured, jerking her bald prisoner forward by the arm.

  After several macroms of walking, they finally reached a massive and better-lit cavity deeper within the asteroid. In there, they finally met Guanag.

  The Mulkeavian was surrounded by at least seven cronies of various species, all male, half with at least a foot and over a hundred pounds on Ella. All were packing some firearm or spear-like weapon. Guanag sat amid his backup on a silvery disk hovering several fee
t off the ground, the flabby folds of his crumply brown body almost spilling off. Like every other Mulkeavian, the crime lord had no lower bipedal appendages, only beefy, orangutan-long arms. And his eyes, like black beads, were alight with malicious glee at the sight of Ronen Omaegus in shackles.

  Ella shoved Ronen forward, where the Tarkathian guards who flanked her and Jaelynn advanced to drag him toward Guanag.

  “At long last,” the Mulkeavian crowed, his voice sounding like crushed gravel as he continued bragging. “Ronen Omaegus, captured and humbled before me. Kneel, Vorn.”

  Ronen didn’t move. His face looked more stony than bark-like.

  Guanag’s good humor drained. “I said KNEEL!” A Tarkathian at Ronen’s side swung a meaty fist, burying it in Ronen’s stomach. The Vorn keeled over and collapsed to his knees.

  Ella instinctively looked away. She knew nothing of this Ronen besides smug insolence and tales of his reputation. But this felt...wrong.

  Just a job, she reminded herself. At her side, Jaelynn was a statue, those hard eyes giving away nothing.

  As Ronen sputtered to regain his breath, Guanag floated lower to his adversary’s gaze. “All you and your crew had to do was transport my cargo through the perilous routes as commissioned,” Guanag rumbled. His button-like eyes disappeared as his brow furrowed. “But you had to steal not just the initial cargo, but the subsequent ones, costing me a fortune.” Guanag pasted Ronen across the face with a hard slap. The Vorn was rocked sideways, but recovered his kneeling posture.

  That drew harsh laughter from Guanag’s lackeys. The Mulkeavian floated back up to stare down on his foe imperiously. “Now I will make a long, excruciating example of you before you die, Ronen Omaegus. Then I will find every member of your unsavory crew and kill them before your very eyes. Then...you will die—”

  “Excuse me,” Ella cut in, drawing glares. ”Hate to interrupt your villainous monologuing. But me and my partner delivered Omaegus, alive. Where’s our currency?” Ella tilted her chin defiantly with a bravado she certainly wasn’t feeling. But she had learned early in this bounty-hunting game to always get paid as soon as the job was done.

  Guanag whipped the pile of rumpled flesh that was his head around at Ella and Jaelynn as if he’d just recalled their presence. “Correct. Let’s pay you.” Guanag floated forward as Jaelynn thrust out a datapad to accept payment. Due to some missteps when they first partnered up, the Tarkathian teen handled financial transactions. The memory still stung for Ella.

  Guanag typed a passcode into the datapad with the fat digits of his four-fingered hand. After a few macroms, Jaelynn gave her datapad a quick onceover before looking to Ella with an approving nod.

  Ella glanced at their vault accounts. A fluttery jolt ran up her chest. “Dios mío.” Never had she seen so many zeroes behind her account balance before. The elation was brief. The surroundings and their benefactor dragged her triumph down into an unsettled queasiness.

  Guanag floated up and studied the duo, as if confused that they actually accomplished this feat. Ella fought back an eye roll. This was not the first time she and Jaelynn had been subjected to such scrutiny.

  “How did you evade his crew?” Guanag asked.

  “They were nowhere in sight,” Jaelynn answered.

  The Mulkeavian’s surprise quickly became suspicion.

  Ella’s heart rate spiked. “We caught him in a brothel,” she added quickly. The Vorn was no longer the swaggering corsair his picture had suggested. He looked so sad and ridiculous with that long shrubby beard and the borderline bag they had clothed him in. Ella actually pitied him. “Guess he couldn’t resist the urge for a quickie despite the bounty on his head.”

  At that moment, Guanag’s suspicion faded and his crinkles relaxed. He smiled with broad satisfaction. “Luck was on your side this day,” he said. “But luck can only be employed if talent and foresight are involved.” The Mulkeavian turned on his floating disk.

  Ella finally allowed herself to breathe again. She exchanged a glance with Jaelynn, who also looked tauter in posture than usual. The Tarkathian teen subtly nodded at the exit to clearly state we got our bounty. Let’s leave.

  Ella completely agreed. She turned to follow the Tarkathian teen and depart as quickly as her feet allowed.

  “I will be using your services again,” Guanag called from behind them. “And very clever of you finding a way to disable Ronen’s left hand.”

  Ella and Jaelynn froze, gaping at each other. “His left hand?” the teenager mouthed.

  They heard a scuffle, the smack of metal on flesh, followed by two jarring pulse rifle discharges. Guanag’s horrific scream flooded the asteroid cavity.

  The bounty hunters whirled around and Ella’s jaw dropped.

  Ronen Omaegus was on his feet and unshackled. His expression was stone-cold as he cocked a pulse rifle with both hands. Ella almost asked how he got free until her eyes landed on the consequences of his freedom.

  The beefy Tarkathian whose pulse rifle Ronen had stolen was on both knees cradling the horn jutting from his right cheek.

  Guanag’s disk floated without him on it. Ella’s gaze dropped and spotted the Mulkeavian sprawled on the floor, the smoldering blackish goo that was his head splattered across the floor.

  Guanag’s cronies were too stunned to move. Jaelynn’s eyes widened.

  Ella’s stomach roiled, her eyes glued to what remained of Guanag’s head. “Dulce madre,” she gasped.

  Ronen took advantage with extreme prejudice, his pulse rifle barking.

  Guanag’s cronies dove for cover as sizzling pulse blasts lanced across the asteroid cavity. The repeated rifle fire jarred Ella from her daze as she took in the carnage.

  Ronen was a machine, mowing down two more of Guanag’s lackeys with deadly efficiency. The other brought their own pulse rifles to bear once they found cover.

  Two of Guanag’s droids charged Ella. She drew her pulse pistol cat-quick, peppering one with blistering photon blasts.

  Jaelynn handled the second one, firing off her tiny cobalt blue pulse pistol. The weapon didn’t look like much, until the Tarkathian fired. The bright green burst burned through the droid’s metal carapace and erupted, ripping the mechanoid to metal scraps and sparks.

  “We need to go,” Jaelynn commanded urgently, dragging Ella away by the arm. In the background, Ronen slammed the butt of his pulse rifle twice into one Cressonish’s sideways mouth. His opponent dropped like a sack of meat, unconscious.

  Then the human locked eyes with the Tarkathian whom Ronen had disarmed. He glowered and roared, “You set Guanag up!”

  The implication knocked the wind out of Ella. “No, we didn’t—”

  The Tarkathian popped up and charged at frightening speed. “Prepare to die—AHHH!” The Tarkathian juddered and jerked as rapid-fire bolts of pulse pistol fire riddled his burly form.

  Ella stood with pulse pistol drawn, eyes saucer-wide, heart racing at light-speed. She had only used heavy stun.

  A mistake. The Tarkathian fell to one knee. He shook his massive, horned head. Those hate-filled eyes landed on Ella as he rose and hurtled forward again.

  Ella’s legs turned to lead.

  And the Tarkathian stampeded forward like a rhino from Old Earth. Ella knew another stun shot wouldn’t be enough to stop him. And she couldn’t switch settings to kill in time.

  Instants before impact, Ella knew this Tarkathian would tackle her down and then rip the human limb from limb, literally. The realization curdled her blood.

  “I will rip your spine out,” he roared, “and hang it like a trophy—”

  A spear flashed past Ella’s left flank, impaling the charging Tarkathian’s left eye and exploding out the back of his skull.

  His mouth fell open as dark blood poured out in sheets. Only then did Ella finally squeeze the trigger again.

  Jaelynn yanked her retractable spear from her fellow Tarkathian’s eyes, and he sank to the floor in a beefy pile of lifeless limbs. The teenager didn�
��t bother with a second look. “Silly human. We leave now.” She grabbed Ella’s arm and pulled her away with more force.

  “Not without me.” Ella turned to see Ronen marching toward them, pulse rifle resting comfortably across his shoulders.

  The human could not believe this space pirate’s gall. “Why the hell would we take you anywhere?”

  Jaelynn whipped her retractable spear and jabbed at the Vorn space pirate.

  He made no move to backpedal as the point came dangerously close to his throat. “Jump to hyperspace without me, your ship explodes.”

  Ella snorted. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

  Ronen’s bark-covered face twisted in the Vorn expression for amusement, similar to humans. “Not a joke.” He gestured upward. “That case you carried me in is a bomb genetically tied to my proximity.”

  Jaelynn’s eyes bulged. Ella gulped. She wanted to believe this was a lie. But some deep niggle in the back of her skull told her otherwise…

  “That barkeep bitch set us up,” the human growled. No wonder she was so eager to help take Ronen down. So much for “Earther unity.”

  Ronen’s face darkened at the mention of the barkeep. “The human one? Set me up too. Regardless, you can either leave without me and get blown to bits in the black. Or we waste time arguing, and get killed by the rest of the late Guanag’s henchmen, who are on their way.”

  Ella and Jaelynn stared at each other. Over their four-month partnership, if one didn’t have the answers, the other did. For the first time, both human and Tarkathian were stymied. Distant voices grew closer. There wasn’t much time before more Guanag’s cronies arrived.

  “Or we leave together,” Ronen suggested, his lipless mouth pulled into a triumphant smile as he twirled his pulse rifle expertly. The space pirate should look ridiculous in that bag he wore if he weren’t owning it with such swagger.

  “Leave the pulse rifle,” Ella demanded. The space pirate dropped the weapon as requested.

  Without another word, the trio turned and ran for the rendezvous spot. Within macroms, they reached the platform they had transmatted from.