Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales Read online

  “Commander … the plan,” Doc prompted. Jason stepped forward, accepting that he was technically the highest ranking member of the crew, and the responsibility that came with it.

  “Right,” Jason began. “You may have noticed that only seven of you have been released so far. That’s for a reason; four of you are essential to the operation, you other three were let out so we could use your pods. What we’re going to do, however, is get all of us out of here.” Over the next few minutes Jason laid out the details of their operation and what was expected from key players. Everyone watched him with rapt attention and nobody seemed to be hesitant. They all knew what was at stake.

  “So that’s it, in a nut shell. I need one of the pilots to stay behind here and the other two pilots and the hacker to get ready to leave with us,” he concluded his brief.

  “Hacker?!” The voice was indignant and unsurprisingly high-pitched considering the source: the small, four-armed alien. “That’s a rather crude term to describe what I do.”

  “I meant no offense, that’s what we call those in your profession on my world” Jason offered. “What is your name?”

  “You couldn’t possibly pronounce it correctly,” the offended little alien said loftily. “You can just call me Kage.”

  “Fine,” Jason said impatiently. “So if not a hacker, what do you call what it is you do?”

  “I’m a code slicer, the very best. I’m a Veran, we’re naturally suited for this type of work.”

  “Very well, then. As I was saying,” Jason continued, “one pilot here with the gunship, two pilots and the slicer with us, and the others will hang back here.” He caught something in the eye of the pilot that was staying behind that he didn’t like. Never one to ignore a gut feeling, he motioned Crusher to follow him away from the group.

  “Yes?” the fierce alien asked.

  “I’m not sure how much I trust the pilot that’s staying behind here, but he’s all we have, unfortunately.”

  “You think he may decide to just take this ship and leave once you’re out of sight?” Crusher asked.

  “That’s crossed my mind,” Jason admitted. “It may be nothing, it’s just a hunch, but I’d like you to stay here and keep an eye on him. Either we’re all leaving this rock together, or none of us are. No man left behind.”

  “Most commendable,” Crusher rumbled with a nod of approval. “As to your problem, a warrior never ignores hunches. Not one that wishes to live very long, anyway. I will keep an eye on our shifty pilot, Commander.”

  “Excellent. Go ahead and keep that plasma rifle, not that I think you’d need it.” Crusher smiled widely at that, or at least Jason hoped it was a smile. The giant let out a sharp, barking laugh and slapped Jason on the back, nearly sending him sprawling across the deck. He left Crusher and walked up to Doc, who was standing apart and fidgeting. “You going to be able to do this?”

  “I must. So yes, I’ll be ready to do my part,” Doc said without much conviction.

  “Okay, then. Let’s do it.” Jason turned to the rest of the crew, “Alright! We’re a go!” He walked over and opened the rear doors and strode down the ramp with Doc. The pair walked casually across the hangar floor towards a cordoned-off area that looked like it had all manner of moving equipment. A violet-skinned being with a crested tuft of what appeared to be feathers waved familiarly to Doc as they walked by, not giving them a second glance. Jason breathed a sigh of relief as his confidence in their ability to succeed went up half a notch. “Friend?”

  “Not particularly,” Doc glared at him. “But I have been here a handful of times as part of my indentured servitude to Bondrass.”

  “Not picking a fight, Doc. Just trying to keep up an appearance of casual indifference,” Jason said as they reached the corral holding the equipment. Doc walked up to a terminal, entered a numeric PIN, and then selected two lowboy-style anti-grav carts. They grabbed them and moved with purpose back to the ship and up the ramp. Twingo closed the inner doors as soon as they cleared the threshold.

  Utilizing the cargo bay’s gantry crane, they loaded four stasis pods onto each cart. Whatever mechanism was keeping the carts off the deck whined as the weight of the pods was added. Jason looked around and took a deep, cleansing breath. “This is it,” he said. “Any last minute questions or concerns?” When nobody spoke up, he began pushing one of the carts towards the door as one of the pilots going with them pushed the other behind him. Doc was point man in front and Twingo, as well as the other two members of the team, walked between the two loaded carts. With a meaningful nod to Crusher, Jason departed the gunship. The hover carts’ whine deepened when they automatically kept level in relation to the hangar floor as they descended the ramp.

  Nobody gave them a second look as the crossed the vast hangar area, moving towards a large, well-lit archway that was teeming with heavily-armed security personnel. The one in charge nodded to Doc as they approached.

  “You know the drill, Doctor.”

  “Of … of … of course,” Doc stammered as he walked over to the scanner. Jason cringed on the inside. Hold it together, Doc. If the guard noticed the doctor’s discomfort he didn’t let on. All six of the crew moved through the scanner and, to Jason’s elation, didn’t set off any alarms with the hold-out weapons Twingo had designed. He took this as a good omen. Three other security guards worked handheld scanners over the stasis pods. After a couple of minutes, they waved the crew back over to reclaim the carts, apparently satisfied that nothing dangerous was entering the station.

  “All just formality, Doctor. You good making your way down to storage?”

  “I am indeed. Thank you,” Doc said, waving the crew forward. They hustled out of the security area and bore left into a dimly lit passageway. Jason looked to the right through another security archway—this one much more heavily fortified—and caught a glimpse of a raucous promenade that was lined with store fronts and bustling with quite a few different species of aliens before they were fully into the passageway.

  They picked up the pace to a brisk walk that took them deeper into the station. Jason’s neural implant gave him a warning that he was no longer in contact with the ship’s computer as the iron ore that comprised the asteroid blocked the signal. After a few hundred meters more they came to a set of formidable-looking blast doors that were flanked by two heavily-armed, and armored, guards, both in red uniforms. This pair looked like real professionals, not like the others at the entrance to the hangar. These guys were protecting something of real value and the bosses were taking few chances.

  The one on the right approached Doc silently and stood in front of him, looking at the crew and then at the stasis pods. Without a word, he looked back at Doc, seeming to be waiting on something. Jason’s adrenaline spiked as Doc froze up like a prey animal being stared down by a predator. He fought his fight-or-flight response as he watched the plan begin to fall apart. The guard on the left noticed Doc’s unusual behavior and began to walk over. The movement of the second guard seemed to snap Doc out of his paralysis and he began to fumble clumsily in his pockets, trying to reach his weapon. Both guards instantly reacted, the one who had originally approached Doc reaching out to grab him as the other began to bring his weapon to bear.

  With the element of surprise gone, Jason reacted immediately; with an effort born out of fear, he put all his strength into pushing the hover cart and its massive load forward. It slammed into the second guard, who yelled out in surprise as he was driven into the wall. As soon as Jason felt the guard crushed between the cart and the wall, he killed power to the unit and it fell to the floor with a heavy thud that echoed up the passageway. With one threat temporarily neutralized, Jason looked over and saw Doc wrestling with the other guard for control of the large weapon he carried, and losing badly. The much stronger alien spun, with Doc still trying to hold on, and flung him into the wall. Doc had no sooner collapsed in a heap than the guard turned back towards the group, took aim, and fired. The shot resulted in a muffled yel
p as someone behind Jason took a hit.

  Jason didn’t look to see who it was as he drew his own weapon and took aim at the first guard. With no hesitation he fired. The energy bolt lanced out and exploded against the chest plate of the guard’s armor. The hit staggered him but didn’t put him down, and after taking a step backward, he turned to engage Jason. After his first shot, Jason had immediately lowered into a crouch and raised his aim slightly. He only had one shot left. Whoever squeezed off first would win the fight. They fired simultaneously, the guard’s hurried shot hitting the pod closest to Jason, showering the side of his face with hot sparks and bits of slag. Jason’s shot, however, took the guard full in the face where he wore no armor. The result was dramatic as the headless body went rigid and collapsed to the floor.

  Suddenly, more shots began to impact the walls around them; the pinned guard had freed his left arm and was now firing wildly into the passageway, unable to see where he was aiming. Ducking down, Jason waved to Twingo, “Weapon!” The engineer tossed Jason his own hold-out gun without hesitation. Catching it in stride, Jason hurried around the other side of the cart, opposite the guard’s gun arm, and ended the engagement with a single shot.

  After the short exchange of fire, everyone stood around, utterly stunned. Jason had to get them moving again. “You!” he said, pointing to Kage, “Get to work. Twingo, get Doc up and moving. Pilot, help me get these pods opened up.” When nobody moved, Jason raised his voice, “NOW! The clock is ticking, people.” This got them all moving as they went about their assigned tasks. He walked over and saw that one of their pilots hadn’t made it, a smoking, charred hole in his uniform, center mass, where the guard had squeezed off a single shot. Jason didn’t dwell on the loss of the individual past what it meant for the success of the mission; they were now short one pilot of the two required. They had been beyond lucky with the personnel that had been in the hold of the DL7 when they hatched this plan. He wasn’t sure where this left them.

  He moved over to the surviving pilot and began helping him unload Bondrass’ thugs, laying them out on the deck. They were all still knocked out, luckily, although one had apparently lost control of his bladder while in the stasis pod. After they were all unpacked, Jason turned to his helper. “Okay, now move up this passageway about twenty meters and keep lookout. Haul ass back here and warn me if anyone comes down.” The pilot nodded and shuffled up to the first turn of the dimly lit corridor. Jason went to pick up the first guard’s weapon and then went back to the unconscious security personnel. He took a deep breath; this was the part he had been least looking forward to. He was a soldier, and he accepted that he may be called upon to kill in battle, but this was more of an execution. Methodically be began shooting energy bolts into the aliens, trying to place the shots in randomized locations. Ignoring the smell, he turned back to the others to see what progress was being made.

  “Where are we at, Kage?” Jason asked the odd, four-armed being who was at the vault door control panel.

  “Almost there. The computer accepted the guard’s key card. Now I’m just trying to bypass the confirmation code.” Jason noticed that the two smaller arms of the alien were pressed against the edges of the panel and what looked like streams of liquid metal were snaking out of his palms and breaking into tendrils that went through the gaps of the device. While fascinated, Jason was far too busy, and stressed, to ask about what he was doing. He walked over to where Twingo was helping Doc to his feet. He still looked shaky as he looked around at the carnage of the short, yet fierce firefight.

  “It’s not what you expected, is it?” Jason asked him gently.

  “I’m sorry, Jason. I really thought I would be able to do it. I just…” He paused when Jason raised his hand.

  “It’s fine, Doc. We’re still in the game right now, but we’ve gotta move quickly. Every second we’re out here exposed, our chances of getting caught increase exponentially.” As if on cue, Kage let out a triumphant little whoop as the blast doors groaned slowly open. Jason, Twingo, and Doc raced over to him, Twingo grabbed the second guard’s weapon as he got to the door. Jason whistled softly to get the pilot’s attention and waved for him to come back to them. Once they had assembled, they set off into the chamber and cycled into the aft cargo airlock.

  “This storage facility is actually a large, slip-capable cargo ship. It’s backed up to this passageway and can exit through a secret tunnel. If The Vault is ever compromised, they’ll simply close the doors and fly out of here with all the bosses’ precious cargo intact,” Doc said as they entered an enormous room lined with stasis pods and storage containers as far as the eye could see. “Decades of control over the underworld in this section of the galaxy has made them complacent. They pay for an around-the-clock flight crew but skimp on security. Lucky thing for us.” They jogged a little over what Jason would have guessed to be a quarter mile before coming to a set of lift doors that were clearly marked as leading to the bridge. Jason and Twingo piled in and Jason held a hand up to stop the others.

  “We’re going up first to clear the bridge. I’ll send the lift back down when it’s safe. We can’t risk losing any more of you this close to the objective,” he said as the doors slid shut. When the lift started to move, Jason turned to Twingo, “You up for this?”

  “I won’t freeze up on you like Doc, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “It is,” Jason said simply as the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Twingo was apparently familiar with this ship design as well and led point with Jason covering their flanks and rear. The first target they encountered was a violet-skinned alien getting a drink from the galley. Jason raised his weapon and dropped him without hesitation. Twingo indicated with his hand that the bridge was just forward of their position. Jason held up three fingers and then began a silent countdown; once he lowered his last finger, both broke into a run and rushed onto the bridge.

  The two aliens on the bridge were the same species as Bondrass, and looked utterly shocked by their sudden appearance. Twingo shot the captain, who had been lounging in the command chair, as Jason took out the second crewman a split second later when he turned from a computer terminal along the back wall.

  “Clear,” Jason said out of habit. “Go back and get the others.” As the engineer rushed back off the bridge, Jason scanned all the instruments to ensure they hadn’t tripped an alarm with the weapon fire. From what he could tell, and what his implants were telling him, they were still operating under the radar. He honestly couldn’t believe how lucky they’d been so far.

  It was a couple of minutes later when he heard the rest of his team running onto the bridge. Kage went directly to the command console and began inputting commands at blinding speed with all four of his nimble hands. The pilot also wasted no time sitting at the helm and beginning his pre-flight sequences. “We’re in luck,” he said. “They were prepped for a fast launch. We’re only a couple seconds from being flight capable.”

  “Same here,” Kage said. “By the time you get off the ship, I’ll be able to release the docking clamps from here. When you’re ready, just pull the guard’s key card from the slot and the blast doors will close. I can read that from here and will take that as a signal to launch.”

  “Are you two going to be able to handle this ship?” Jason asked, concerned about their plan with the loss of one of their pilots.

  “No problem,” Kage said confidently. “I can handle the other half of flight ops, but it might be helpful if Twingo stayed behind to monitor the main systems.”

  “Very good. Twingo, you’re staying here. Doc, you’re with me. Good luck, everyone. I’ll see you guys at the rally point as soon as we can get there. We’ll give you as much of a distraction as we can,” Jason said brusquely before turning and walking off the bridge with Doc in tow. It took another five minutes to transit back to the entry of the storage ship and, mercifully, things were just as they had left them. Jason and Doc wasted no time getting the hover carts stowed in the ship, not b
othering to secure the now-empty stasis pods. They then went about the gruesome job of arranging the bodies of the guards and Bondrass’ men into what Jason hoped look like the aftermath of a savage firefight. He placed his own expended hold-out weapon in the hand of one of the security thugs he recognized from the flight to The Vault from Pinnacle Station and put Twingo’s near the hand of another. He then returned the headless guard’s weapon to its rightful owner before looking over at Doc. “Seem believable?”

  “Seems like it,” Doc said, looking around.

  “Get ready to run then,” Jason said as he reached up and yanked the key card out of the slot. The doors immediately began to close, much quicker than they had opened. Jason tossed the card through the opening before the doors closed completely and began to jog up the corridor towards the security archway. The pair hadn’t made it very far when red strobes started flashing and an alarm started blaring. They felt a heavy jolt through the floor and felt the air pressure change slightly; the cargo ship had just blasted away from The Vault. Jason looked over to Doc in alarm and broke into a full sprint.

  They broke out of the corridor and ran directly into pure chaos. The alarms had triggered a stampede out of the packed promenade as aliens tried to trample each other through the main security entrance to get to the secured hangar bay. They weren’t aware of what the alarms were for, but they also didn’t want to wait around to find out. Security personnel at the main entrance opened fire on the crowd but were quickly overwhelmed. The hangar entrance was also overrun as they tried to stem the tide, something Jason intended to take full advantage of. He and Doc ran full bore into the throng of aliens trying to escape and surged through the archway and into the open bay.