Star warrior complete a.., p.46
Star Warrior Complete: A Scifi Alien Romance Bundle, page 46
More muttering at that, but this time it was interested muttering. People were looking at me with something other than hostility. They didn’t seem like they were on the verge of being my best friend or anything, but I’d take what I could get.
I didn’t need to be their best friend. I needed to be their captain.
“Now I’m using that influence to put together a plan that will save all of you, but only if I make it through. If I don’t then we’re all going to die. Even the special protection you’ve enjoyed will be gone.”
“Why should we trust you?” someone shouted.
“You abandoned us!” another voice said from out there in the darkness.
“We should kill you for bringing us here!”
“Then kill me!” I shouted, my voice echoing off the dead ruins of what had passed for the height of Livisk technology once upon a time. “Continue doing your jobs here. Allow yourselves to be slaves to the Livisk. Live out your lives for as long as they last and don’t raise a finger to help me. You’ll be killing me as surely as you’re killing yourselves if you do that.”
That got their attention. They still didn’t look particularly happy, but at least they were looking at me. That was something. I really didn’t want to pull out my weapon and use it on my own people, but I would if I had to. If rescuing all of them meant taking out some of them.
Thankfully it didn’t come to that.
“What do you need from us?”
It was Kehn, speaking from somewhere behind me. A moment later I felt his hand on my shoulder. I looked up to him and smiled.
“I have a plan that will destroy the existing power structure on this planet, but to do it I need something that only you can provide,” I said.
Kehn blinked in surprise again. That seemed to be a thing with him this evening.
“How could we possibly help you? We’re slaves. We’re trapped down here. There’s nothing we can do to fight the power on this world.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “I need you to find something for me. Something that can only be found down here in the reclamation mines. Something that I desperately need.”
“What’s that?”
I held out the other device I brought with me this evening. A holoprojector. I flicked it on and the whole reason I risked coming down here and getting captured popped up in a glowing display.
“I’ve seen plenty of those before,” Kehn said. “What is it? Why are we looking for it?”
“It’s an ancient Livisk power unit,” I said. “According to the records it has a half life of 5,000 years, so they should still be nice and crunchy even now. As for what I’m using it for, I’m afraid that’s going to have to be a secret in case you’re compromised.”
“So we get this for you, the Livisk leadership suffers?” Kehn asked, a dangerous glint in his eye.
“Humiliations galore,” I said with a grin. The one thing we’d ever been able to bond over was ancient 20th century movies. The old 2D kind. It was nice to have that semi-secret language to fall back on now.
“Right then. It looks like it’s time for us to get to work down here.”
“Good,” I said, feeling a flood of relief that they were going along with this. I pulled something out of my pocket and handed it over to Kehn. He regarded it with suspicion.
“What’s this? A weapon of some sort?”
“No, a transmitter. I want you to activate it the moment you found what I’m looking for. Pull that off and I promise the next time I come down here it will be with more weapons than you could ever imagine.”
Kehn grinned. “I can imagine a lot of weapons.”
“A man after my own heart.”
I smiled as I watched the crew moving with more purpose than they had a moment ago. They had hope after my first visit with Kehn, but now they had something that every good member of the Fleet needed: purpose. I’d given them a mission and that had finally brought us all together as a cohesive command unit.
It was a damn shame that it took getting captured and taken off to a strange new world for us to come together, but at least it was something for them to hold onto.
7: New Enemies
Talia:
“This is going to be interesting,” I said as I climbed over something that looked like an ancient larger version of the hovercars I saw flying over the city these days. Off in the distance above and ahead of us I could see the landing platform with the fighter craft still resting there.
It didn’t look like the imperials were paying it any more attention than they usually did. I hoped that meant they hadn’t found a reason to inspect the fighter craft. Or to detain Telak and Ergohl.
That would’ve meant we were trapped here for good. As I looked up at the silhouettes of imperial guards standing on the landing platform I knew we could still end the day in serious trouble if those were the same ones.
“I’m surprised at you,” Pmosk said. “From everything I’ve heard I thought you would be more bloodthirsty than this.”
“Bloodthirsty is one thing,” I said. “It’s another thing entirely to have to worry about someone shooting you while you’re trying to make an escape. If we can get through here without any trouble then I’ll be a very happy girl.”
“Suit yourself,” he said.
The other Livisk with us merely grunted. He wasn’t much of a talker, but Pmosk had explained on the way up that it was because he’d lost the ability to speak in combat with humans while fighting in the battle of Proxima Centauri. It was a battle that they called the Great Defeat on this side of the battle lines. I smiled as I thought of that turkey shoot. That was the last time they’d gotten anywhere close to the human core system.
Except for the time Jorav managed to run a raid on the home system, of course. That hadn’t worked out so well for the humans involved. At least not for the ones trapped in that mine.
I had to admit I’d had a pretty good time since finding myself on this world even if it hadn’t always been a picnic. I’d have a much better time when I was back in Jorav’s arms, and I would kill any emperor who stood between us to get there.
“Let’s concentrate on getting the hell out of here,” I muttered.
“What is this hell place? I’m not familiar with that word,” Pmosk said.
“It’s where the emperor is going to be soon enough if he keeps Jorav captive,” I growled.
“Doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to be at all,” Pmosk said.
“No it isn’t.”
We climbed over another piece of massive debris and onto another path that was more defined than the other paths in this area because there were more slaves traveling through this area. This was where they landed to go down into the reclamation mine, after all. My understanding was it was the last trip most slaves made.
When we stepped onto the landing platform I wanted to groan. The same guards we’d talked to earlier were still standing there laughing and carrying on, but all of that stopped when they realized we were coming back up. One of the guards elbowed his captain in the side and he looked over and grinned when he realized who we were.
The imperial walked over, that grin never leaving his face. He looked down and this time he did reach out and touch my cheek.
“Well then. What did you think of the horrors of the pit my dear?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t build a summer home there,” I replied.
His eyebrows lowered in what was probably a mix of anger and confusion, but it was difficult to tell what was going on in a Livisk brain when I wasn’t wired directly into it thanks to a weird alien psychic bond. Not that it mattered. I didn’t have to guess what he was feeling a moment later when my knee made contact with his groin and he fell over groaning in pain.
The other imperials seemed surprised, and that surprise was what sealed their fate. I pulled my weapon out and fired taking out two of them, meanwhile Pmosk and the other guard followed suit. A moment later there was only the captain of the guard rolling around on the ground holding his groin.
“What are you doing? Are you insane?” a voice shouted from the fighter. I looked up to see Ergohl staring down looking either scandalized or pissed off or probably a healthy mix of both. Either way he wasn’t too happy.
“They were expecting to use me for their pleasure and I wasn’t letting that happen,” I said.
“But he’ll tell the authorities who we were and what we were doing! There will be an investigation!” Ergohl said.
I looked down at the officer rolling on the ground. His eyes were open and he stared up in fear. I tried to fix him with my best and most disarming smile, though I’m not sure how well that worked because he only looked more afraid as I bared my teeth.
“You’re not going to talk, are you?” I asked.
The officer shook his head. I raised my weapon and fired a couple of times until he stopped moving, then dusted off my hands as I slipped the blaster back into its hiding spot in the back elastic of my pants.
“You’re damn right you won’t,” I said, then I spit for good measure. Served him right considering what they got up to here.
“Damn,” Pmosk said. “I guess you were as bloodthirsty as the stories all say you are.”
“That and then some baby,” I said. “Now let’s get going before someone comes to investigate all that noise we made.”
I hopped into the ship and powered up all the various fiddly bits that made it move. I could even read some of the controls at this point thanks to the Livisk reading lessons I’d been taking with Ergohl. Most of it was going off of memory and the lessons Jorav gave me in the simulator though. Any good pilot knew how to flip every switch in a cockpit without stopping to read what the switch actually did, and it was no different with the training I’d done in the simulators.
I smiled as I felt the antigravity engines spool up and then we were off floating above the Livisk city. There were the usual lines of hovercar traffic moving through the city looking like glowing spiderwebs threading their way through the many levels of the city. I knew now that the higher you went the fancier those hovercars got, though that was something I’d taken for granted when I was flitting about the city with Jorav and Ergohl.
So many problems with this city and this so-called empire. I still hoped I could try and solve them without destroying this place. It had grown on me despite trying its best to kill me. I wouldn’t hesitate to burn the whole thing to the ground if that’s what was necessary though.
“I’d give a month of my pay to know what you’re thinking about right now, because that’s a terrifying look,” Telak said.
“What could possibly be terrifying about that?” Ergohl asked. “She looks angry.”
“You’ve obviously never seen an angry human coming at you with weapons loaded. I’ve seen it often enough in my off world adventures that it’s not something I care to ever see again, and that’s the look she has in her eyes right now.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m only thinking about all our plans and what we still have to do to make it through this alive.”
“It might help if you told us more about what those plans are,” Telak said. “Difficult to help you out when we’re doing crazy things like going to a reclamation mine with no idea why.”
“Come on Telak,” I chided. “You of all people should be able to appreciate the value of need-to-know.”
“Oh I appreciate it all right,” he said. “Doesn’t make me like it any more coming from you as when it comes from the big guy who got himself captured.”
I was about to make a smart response to that when a light started blinking just out of the corner of my eye. I reacted without thinking, firing up the shields which was definitely illegal in the middle of the city but usually ignored if you were powerful enough. I threw the ship into a banking curve that registered through the transparent aluminum dome over our heads but didn’t register in my inner ear thanks to the internal gravity generators keeping down pointed towards the floor inside the craft no matter which way down was outside.
The maneuver was just in time too. A couple of blasts from an energy weapon sailed past us harmlessly. Well, harmlessly from our point of view. They probably weren’t harmless to whoever was in the building they slammed into.
That seemed to be happening to the architecture around me a lot these days. It said something about how terrible the conditions were in this city that people accepted that level of damage as a cost of living here. And it’s not like there were any authorities to investigate since “the authorities” were all less powerful than the people they were investigating and tended to keep their heads down if they wanted to survive.
On the bright side it meant we weren’t going to be bothered by the local equivalent of the cops while I tried to escape from whatever dumbass was firing on us.
“What was that?” Ergohl said as I banked around again. I checked my display and saw three craft coming up on us hot like they meant business.
“Looks like we have some company,” I said. “I guess the imperials figured out what we were trying to do and finally decided to do something about it. I knew that whole thing felt way too easy.”
“Wonderful,” Ergohl said.
“Telak, if he talks again could you please gag him or something?”
“Now there’s no need for…”
I held up a finger and for a wonder Ergohl actually shut up. That was a rarity. I gritted my teeth as I dove and avoided another couple of bolts of energy that went sailing through the air around us.
“I’m trying to save our lives here,” I said.
“But Telak…”
“Isn’t nearly as good a pilot as I am. He’s a ground pounder. Now will you shut up and let me work?”
“She’s right,” Telak said. “And technically Ergohl just spoke again, does that mean…”
This time I held up the finger to stop Telak from finishing that thought. “Could both of you shut up please? If you keep this up I’m going to have Pmosk back there gag both of you.”
Pmosk, blessedly, didn’t say anything. I guess he was low enough on the totem pole that he knew when to shut up while the higher ups were arguing. I had no doubt he’d follow orders if I asked him to gag both windbags, though. Maybe they realized that too, because they shut up and stayed that way.
I frowned at the displays as I dove through a line of traffic. The ships separated expertly and went around the line of traffic rather than slamming into it and taking out a couple of them in the process.
Something was wrong here. They weren’t acting like the imperials I’d gone up against in the past. They were actually flying half decently and they weren’t trying to fire missiles at me or anything.
I swung the ship back around to get a good look at them. Even the weapons they were firing at us weren’t the sort that were a real danger to a fighter like this. Almost as though…
“What are you doing? Turning back towards the people trying to kill us?” Ergohl said.
“Let the woman fly,” Telak replied, his voice calm and cool. It was obvious which of the two was used to combat, though I couldn’t blame Ergohl. He had my back even if he’d never been in mortal danger before.
Turns out he wasn’t really in mortal danger now. The three ships screaming towards us at high speed were nothing more than variants of the same high end modified hovercar Ergohl owned. The one I’d used to escape from Dovar’s place with the imperials in hot pursuit.
I grinned. I didn’t know who this was coming after me, but they’d just brought a pleasure yacht to a starfighter dogfight and it wasn’t going to end pretty for them.
“Who is that?” Ergohl said.
“Looks like modified pleasure yachts,” Telak replied.
“Rich enough to afford modified pleasure yacht hover cars and powerful enough that they’re attacking us without worrying about getting hauled in for their trouble. Also well informed enough that they managed to track our craft even when we were doing our best to sneak around,” I said.
“A noble family of some sort then,” Ergohl said.
“What noble family would want to kill us?” Telak said. “We’re going after the emperor, not the nobles.”
“Yeah, but you’re forgetting that I sort of just killed one of the most powerful nobles in the city next to the emperor. I’m betting there are a lot of powerful people out there who’d like a piece of me because of that,” I said.
As though on cue there was a crackling from the speakers and a voice came on. A voice that sounded eerily familiar. Almost as though Dovar was reaching out to speak to me from beyond the grave. Not that I gave that idea serious consideration for even a moment.
“We have you targeted. If you do not take your ship down now and submit to capture we will destroy you,” the voice said.
I grinned and kept flying right at them. They weren’t firing yet for some reason. Maybe they really were going to try and capture us? If so that was cute. Very cute. Stupid and probably deadly for them, but cute. The nobles were playing war and they were about to find out how messy war could get.
“Identify yourself,” I said. “Why have you fired on us without provocation?”
“Without provocation?” the voice shouted into the speakers. “You killed my father! Prepare to die!”
The communication cut off but I had the information I needed now. Yakkity yak had stayed on long enough to allow me to trace which ship he was flying around in. The one on the right, which was a surprise. I figured a noble playing at war would’ve been smack dab in the middle leading the charge as their armed pleasure yachts screamed through the dark air towards me while massive buildings and lines of hover car traffic twinkled all around us.
“That narrows it down,” Ergohl said. “Dovar’s son. He was off world, but I imagine he came back as soon as he heard the news of his father’s passing.”
“Odd. I figured the way you nobles operated he would’ve been thanking me for getting his old man out of the way,” I said.
“Some nobles are more fond of their parents than others,” Ergohl said. “Now could you please turn this ship around so we’re not facing down three armed craft? They’re going to start shooting at us again soon.”
