Broken Episode One (12 page)

“Human not want to know where other human is? No
worries. I’ll tell pirates instead.”

“Wait.” Josh put up his hand, his fingers so stiff
they could snap right off. “Where is she?”

He watched a slow smile spread across the Arkba’s
purple lips. “Desert.”

“Sorry?”

“Desert. Bought a sand slider and a story and left
20 minutes ago.”

“…
What? What do you mean she
bought a sand slider and a story?”

“Watched her as she sat at bar.” The Arkba gestured
behind Josh to a rundown building that was no doubt the local
watering hole. One of the many local watering holes. On a planet
like this, there was a bar for every house. Though there’d be sand
in your drink, you’d ignore it for the chance to imbibe your
worries away.

“What happened?”

“She listened as pirates talked about the Black
Mass.”

“Black Mass?”

The
Arkba’s third eye glittered, catching the light coming in from the
buildings and looking like a ruby lodged in its chin. “Myth. Story.
Legend. Lost ship from
First
Age.”

The
First Age was a
term certain alien races used for the first wave of space travel
throughout the Milky Way. Though there were a lot of quality
archaeological studies pertaining to the first spacefaring races,
the myths outweighed the facts by far.

The
stories told of technology beyond the modern age, of unlimited
sources of power
– of
mysteries and riches that would make a pirate or a down-on-his-luck
goon drop everything and wander into a desert on the slim chance of
striking the mother load.

Considering his history, Josh had heard his fair
share of First-Age tales. Would Mimi have been dumb enough to
believe in one, though?

“Human female listened to story, then asked pirates
where she could buy a sand slider.”

Josh
swallowed. He could just imagine what happened next
– the pirates would have taken one
look at her, realized she was a hilariously easy target, and
kidnapped her.

“Human female bargained hard, got sand slider at
good price, bought supplies, fixed stylish hair, and left into the
night,” the Arkba finished.

Josh choked. “Sorry?”

“Good hair. Arkba impressed.”

“What? No, you said she bargained for a slider and
went into the desert? Why didn’t the pirates …” he trailed off.

“Human
female hard bargainer
–
pirates respect that.”

Josh was dumbstruck. Then he shook his head. “We
must be talking about different people.”

“Only human female in city. Must be talking about
same person. Small, like Akbar, brown hair like wet rock, blue eyes
like plasma exhaust, fat cheeks like Kandor apples.”

Josh’s stomach sank. That was Mimi, alright.

“And Mohawk like pirate king.”

“…
Ahhh, what?”

“Mohawk also win pirates' respect. Now, human, you
want to buy sand slider to go after her?”

Josh didn’t respond.

“Or does human still not believe? Well, human, use
prohibited DNA scanner to search and confirm.” With a nod like a
loose spring, the Arkba stepped graciously out of Josh’s way and
gestured to the desert beyond.

Josh reluctantly pulled up his scanner and set it to
search for Mimi again.

….

It soon confirmed that, indeed, her signal continued
on into the desert.

A cold wind started to blow, that, or it just felt
like something chilled Josh to the bones.

“Arkba sell human sand slider at good price. Human
go after other human and … all will be good.”

Josh clenched his jaw.

This was bad. Everything about this was bad. He was
clearly being led into some kind of trap by the Arkba, but what
choice did he have? If Mimi had been foolish enough to head into
the desert in the middle of the freaking night, he had to follow
her. She had an hour max before she crashed her sand slider and
froze to death.

“Good price, human. Just want to help, human, so
Arkba give him bargain deal.”

Josh found himself nodding.

The Arkba smiled and led Josh forward.

Out in the desert the night wolves howled, and as
the wind picked up, those super fine particles of dust started to
scratch their way into the city. While the breeze and its cutting
edge was an irritation to the populace, it would be nothing
compared to the roaring winds of the desert. Unshielded, a person
could be cut to death in seconds. And even if the sand didn’t get
you, the pirates or creatures of the night would.

“This is insane,” Mimi said for the hundredth
time.

“You are in no immediate danger,” Klutzo assured
her.

“Apart from falling off this rust bucket, or being
eaten by night wolves, or the shields failing and being cut to
death by the wind. Yeah, sure, this is entirely safe!”

“I have ascertained that this rust bucket will
continue to operate with minimal maintenance for the next two days.
We are shielded from the sand, the wind, and the wolves. You are
safe.”

Mimi didn’t reply, instead she held onto the rails
with white knuckles and sweaty palms.

A sand slider was a mad contraption.

As far
as she could ascertain, it was a flat oblong disk with a couple of
reconfigured cruiser engines strapped to the back and a layer of
inertia-free
– one of the
slipperiest compounds in the galaxy – whacked on the
bottom.

It was unruly, it was fast, and it made her want to
hurl.

It was shielded, thankfully. If you travelled this
fast in a desert without any kind of barrier between you and the
razor-sharp sand, you’d end up as dust yourself in all of about
five seconds.

There was barely any suspension, however, and she
felt every bump, rattle, and jolt right in her bones. It reminded
her of the transport’s crash landing. Except this time if she fell,
there’d be no Special Commander Cook to catch her.

Which was a good thing, right?

Even though she kept trying to convince herself
she’d done the right thing by leaving him behind, she had a
niggling suspicion she should have stuck with him. He, presumably,
wouldn’t have taken her into the desert on a sand slider. Then
again, he’d have taken every opportunity to put her down, and she
didn’t need that.

“I’m better off without him,” she concluded
suddenly.

“I assume you’re talking about Special Commander
Joshua Cook,” Klutzo said.

He sure was a lot sharper when he was in security
mode. Ordinary Klutzo wouldn’t have understood what she was talking
about, because ordinary Klutzo would have been too busy banging
into walls.

She pressed her lips together and felt her cheeks
warm for some reason.

“I am incapable of agreeing or disagreeing; Joshua
Cook is hard to predict. He is easily one of the strangest
Coalition officers this security unit has come across,” Klutzo
announced.

He always referred to himself as “this security
unit” when he was in protection mode.

“Strange? What do you mean strange? He’s mean, rude,
and cruel.”

“By strange I mean out of the ordinary. There is
only one other Coalition officer this unit has come across like
Special Commander Cook.”

“Who’s that?”

“Galactic Hero Captain Bob,” Klutzo announced.

Mimi snorted, then she shot Klutzo a worried glance.
“Ah, Klutzo, he’s a fictional character. He’s not real.”

“This unit understands that. However this unit can
still draw parallels between Galactic Hero Bob’s history and
mannerisms and that of Joshua Cook.”

“What?”

“They are both bad boys with checkered pasts who
have had to assume responsibilities.”

“... Did you just refer to Josh as a bad boy?”

“It is the correct vernacular. It also fits him,
wouldn’t you agree?”

Mimi
pressed the back of her hand into her mouth and laughed. It started
off a little like a giggle, but she quickly turned it into a snort.
“Um, no, I don’t agree. He’s not a bad boy
– he’s nasty and he’s an idiot.” Though Mimi usually
didn’t like referring to people as smart or dumb, she had no such
compunction when it came to Mr.. Cook.

“Perhaps you do not agree with his behaviors, but I
have no evidence to suggest he has compromised intelligence. On the
contrary, to receive a position like special commander, he must
have extreme competence when it comes to field missions and all the
intricacies they entail.”

“... Let’s just talk about something else,” Mimi
interrupted. “How long until we reach that outpost you were talking
about?”

Before Mimi agreed to come into the desert, Klutzo
had told her about an outpost, one he was certain would have
transport off the planet.

“7 hours and 35 minutes.”

“That long? I thought we’d made good time so far. I
mean, this thing feels like it’s traveling faster than the speed of
light.”

“It
isn’t. And
– due to the size
of this planet – it will take a long time to reach our destination
at our current speed.”

“... Ah, I wish I’d never crash-landed here. No,
scratch that, I wish I’d never met Josh Cook. This is all his
fault.”

“How?”

“Trust me, it is.” With that, Mimi turned around to
concentrate on holding the rails.

With
nothing to distract her, her thoughts ran wild. Initially they all
centered on a certain
Mr..
Cook and how cruel he was. Eventually, however, she started to
ponder what she’d overheard in the bar. Before she’d bought her
sand slider for a pretty good price, she’d listened to some story
about a Black Mass out in the desert.

On principle, Mimi didn’t believe in stories, but
she sure as heck believed in their power over people. That was one
of the very first lessons her father had taught her: if you want to
run a successful business, you need to control people’s narratives.
More than perceptions, it’s the way people speak about your
products that dictates the fate of a company.

Though Mimi wasn’t running a business here, the
principle stood: to those pirates and other assembled brigands, the
Black Mass was clearly an object of power, even if it was probably
fictional. It would inform their beliefs and behaviors, and she
could leverage that to her advantage, if she was smart enough.

She also
might find a story, if she was lucky. If the Black Mass was real,
she very much doubted it was a relic from the
First Age. It could still be interesting,
though. It could be a crashed research vessel, or a Barbarian
probe, or some experimental weapon gone wrong the Coalition tried
to hide in the sand.

In other words, it might be something she could
report on. If she could leave this planet with a quality news
piece, maybe she could secure the job with GNS after all.

Planning and fantasizing, Mimi passed the next
several hours in relative peace.

The peace wouldn’t last.

The night on this planet was long, dark, and cold.
The winds were worse in the wee hours of the morning. So bad, in
fact, at times they changed the whole desert, blowing at the dunes
and shifting them about like pieces on a chessboard. Though Klutzo
was doing his best, there were certain factors even he couldn’t
account for.

Mimi was about to walk into a legend. One that would
change her life forever.

He had a love-hate relationship with sand sliders.
On the one hand, they went appreciably fast, on the other, you
could crash them way too easily.

He had to keep his wits about him as he navigated
through the dark. While the sand slider had its own rudimentary
navigation controls, they were mostly shot. That’s what happened
when you bought a vehicle from an Arkba.

“They
better give me a commendation for this,” he muttered as he choked
on a lungful of the desert. Though his sand slider was technically
shielded, it still let in the occasional puff of sand. He was
covered in the stuff. It shifted against his legs as he sat in his
tiny command seat
– the only
seat on the vessel – and it crunched under his boots every time he
moved. It also covered his hands, collecting under his nails and
scratching at his skin.

He hated sand. Trying to survive on a desert planet
for a few years had completely ruined the stuff for him. He never
went to the beach, and he avoided resorts like the plague.

Now, because of her, he had to endure mounds of the
stuff.

When he finally ran into her, he was going to ...
check that she was safe and then give her what for.

Brushing the sweat from his brow, Josh stared out
into the desert as the sand slider shot forward. The suspension was
pretty bad, and he always kept one hand on the rails in case the
slider hit a dune.

The DNA scanner was practically useless out here.
Though he tried to stop every few minutes to readjust the sensors
and get a lock, it was never going to work. Instead, he relied on a
combination of dumb luck and dull wit. That is, he followed the
tracks in the sand. Whilst they could lead to Mimi, they could
equally lead to a pack of very angry and very hungry sand
wolves.

As the night drew on, his flippant attitude
disappeared. It waned in time with every second and every minute.
Because as every second and minute passed, Mimi was likely flying
further from his reach. For a man who had lived most of his life as
a vagabond and a pirate, he knew exactly, in perfect visual detail,
what was in store for her. That’s why he leant further over the
rails, clutched them as tight as he could in his white knuckled
hands, and didn’t stop.

He joked that if he found her he’d kill her. First,
he’d take the opportunity to revel in the fact she was fine, then
he would kill her.