Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance (8 page)

Bren was
glued to the warp-scan imager, there was always someone on it now, though I had been sure the reaction from one or the other of the parties expected to be involved would have been nearly instantaneous. It had not been. “They don’t care about us.” I said. “You may as well turn that off.” What an amusing anecdote that I wouldn’t even be able to find the piece of hardware he had installed much less turn it off or remove it.

“I think not.” Bren said.

“I don’t think it’s even working.” I said contemptuously.

“
It’s working!” Bren yelled as the warp-proximity alarm began to ring. Tanya was there a moment later, a flash of blond hair and determined face as she landed in her gunner’s seat. Once again she was returned to her fresh-faced look while I knew I looked haggard and tired. I had looked in the mirror that morning and a fatigued and stressed-out Marc Deveroux had looked back out at me.

“That isn’t going to do you a damn bit of good if that’s a Trade Station behind us.” I snarled at Tanya as I harnessed myself in, sure as hell hoping it wasn’t a Kievor Trade Station behind us but in that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“It is.” Bren said. He sounded surprised, as if it hadn’t occurred to him that this was the most likely scenario to occur when we started broadcasting our location. I didn’t bother saying I told you so. There comes a time when such things simply could no longer matter. This was one of those times.

I looked back at Tanya expecting a smart-ass response but again I was wrong. “We may have done it this time.” She agreed without my having to say it. We were really past the point of recriminations at this point and little else that could be said.

“We may have.” I agreed, not dead yet but pretty sure that occurrence wouldn’t be long in arriving. “How long we got?”

“About four minutes.” Bren said.

“We need a real plan.” I said.

“There’s no such thing.” Tanya said, and just for the hell of it, because Bren thought it
might
work, though there was no other known weapon which could be safely fired within inner-space and warp- and because she knew we were already dead and it didn’t matter if it worked or not, if firing it would back-feed the system and blow Last Chance right out of warp- and because she would not be taken alive by the Kievor- opened up on the Trade Station behind us with her Alartaw cannon. The flashes did not disrupt our visual feed this time- some effect of inner-space dampening the visual energy- and were visible on the main-screen as they reflected from the many faceted walls of the warp-tunnel around us as they flashed away behind us. What we couldn’t see was the effect it was having if any on the Trade Station behind us.

“I knew the algorithm would work!” Bren shrieked like a girl as the Kievor Trade Station immediately dropped out of w
arp behind us and vanished from the warp-scan imager. The proximity warning flashing on my own screen vanished as well and I began unbuckling myself fully intent on my bottles of Old Home. We could fire on the Kievor in warp but they couldn’t fire back! Bren had done it again.

“Good Lord are they going to roast you over a slow fire for the inventiveness of your brain when they finally do get their hooves on you.” I told Bren with a happy grin as I rose and walked towards him. “Do you know what this technology would mean to the Kievor? Clearly they can’t fire in our warp or they would have. Clearly as well that’s why they didn’t destroy us when they had us in their tractor beam.” I said as I came to stand in front of him, my smile firmly in place. “You’re now more wanted than I am.”

“Marc has a point for once.” Tanya said as she rose as well. “They’ll never stop hunting us now. We’re almost as much a danger to them as the Alartaw themselves.”

“We could arm every race we meet.” Bren agreed. “Like the Kievor did to the Alartaw.”

“Won’t work.” Tanya said. “They recruited lizards and all lizards hate mammals- but they hate predatory mammals a lot more than the herbivore type.”

“What are you two talking about?” I said.

“Our time with the Kievor.” Bren said.

“Oh you remember that now.” I said to Tanya.

“Yep.” Tanya said with a look I couldn’t quite discern. I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying to do any thinking at this point. At this point I was headed for those bottles of Old Home and several weeks of rest and relaxation.

“You know where I’m headed and for your own personal safety,” I told them with my smile still in place, “I wouldn’t go dropping us precipitously out of warp
any
time soon.” I did not want to have to think about what the ramifications of Tanya remembering everything was going to mean for my sanity and definitely felt a headache coming-on. A headache which amber liquor would surely cure. At least until the morning.

“You’re problems will still be here when you sober up.” Bren cast after me just before the hatch closed. I felt a throb in my temple and increased my pace.

Chapter 18

The warp-proximity alarm began ringing through my alcohol-befuddled
sleep and before I knew what I was doing I was leaping out of bed and racing towards the Bridge clad in my boxers only. I landed in my pilot’s seat in the same state but holt-jolt or not my eyes were wide open as I strapped on my harness.

“Who is it?” I demanded as I looked back at Tanya but she was busy with a manicure and didn’t look up. Then she reached over a negligent hand and turned off the alarm.

“Just testing the alarm.” Tanya replied without looking up as she returned to perfecting her already perfect nails.

“You bitch.” I said as I unharnessed.

“I was right in the end.” Tanya said. “I
should
have emptied your bottles.”

“Are you in a
great hurry to get dead?” I asked as I walked over to her. “Fending the Kievor off in warp when they can’t fire on us is one thing, fighting them in real-space quite another. I think we tried that once.”

“You should wash your underwear once in a while.” Tanya said instead of responding
to my tirade. I didn’t bother looking down which would have been as good as saying I thought the potential for betraying evidence existed. I would never betray myself in such a manner no matter what my laundry schedule looked like.

“I wash my clothes.” I said, though it
was
possible I had been wearing the same for a few days. Drinking Old Home bourbon, watching old movies and eating recycled protein mush- in whatever delicious flavor you like- had been my sole occupation for a while now though I’d been expecting this sooner rather than later. “What do you want?”

“It’s been over a month since Bren activated the beacon.” Tanya said. “I thought I might bring this to your attention.”

“Thanks. I’m aware.” I said. “You know I don’t spend
every
waking moment drunk.”

“We’re all concerned about the state of the Alartaw,” Tanya said, “that they’re not responding to our beacon.”

“So we plotted a course to a known Alartaw world three weeks ago.” Bren said as he walked in right on cue making me wonder how many hours a day they spent rehearsing these things and plotting against me. A good many was my guess and
why
I spent my free days getting drunk. Bren went on; “You were seeding worlds with hidden Alartaw bases, so the rest of us have pooled our memories and have been able to deduce the locations of many of these star systems. The closest we could determine is now less than a week away. We thought you might need at least that much time to sober up.”

“
Everyone
remembers everything now?” I asked. I still couldn’t remember a thing of it but didn’t wait for a response as I turned for the hatch. The response came of its own accord in the form of the warp-proximity alarm
again
- but this time I ignored it as I continued on my way.

“I’m not
doing this one.” Tanya said stopping me dead in my tracks. The tone of her voice was enough. Tanya didn’t screw around when it was serious and she was already over the warp-scan imager as I turned around so I knew this one wasn’t a
test
of the system.

“Who’s knocking this time?” I asked as I took the fresh cup of hot-jolt out of Bren’s hand and headed for my pilot’s seat.

“I kinda wanted that.” Bren said. “That’s why I made it.”

“I kinda
need
it.” I replied as I harnessed and gulped holt-jolt. “Who’s knocking Tanya?” I asked for the second time.

“It’s a long way back but it doesn’t appear to be the Kievor.” She said.

“Who does it appear to be?” I asked.

“Doesn’t appear to be Alartaw either.” Tanya said. I didn’t ask again but when I turned to look back at her she had a strange happy look on her face I’d seen before. She finally answered as Bren got impatient and leaned over
her shoulder to see for himself. “You are not going to believe it.” She said.

“They are persistent.” Bren said to Tanya.

“You’re kidding me.” I said.

“Nope.” Tanya replied. “They’re a long way back
and an even longer way from home but as far as I can tell there’s at least twenty of ‘em. They are persistent if nothing else.”

“How in the hell do they keep catching up to us?” I asked.

“You really want me to explain that?” Bren asked as he looked up from the imager.

“Nope.” I said
as I unharnessed again and turned to Tanya. “You won’t need me for anything else. You can blow them right out of warp and our troubles are over.” I was headed for the hatch but I paused to watch the expression on Tanya’s face as she opened up the cannon on the Katons behind us. It was always a revelation to witness her emotions at such times but her face fell into a little moue and she looked up at me.

“Nope.” She said. “They’re too far
back. The cannon won’t reach them. We’ll have to fight this out in person.” I gave her another measuring look and seeing
it
clearly in her eyes- the resolve to put the Katons off our trail forever- there was very little that objecting would do to change what was coming.

“You might want to give me a couple days to recuperate before you do anything rash.”
I said, it clearly being pointless to argue with her.

“You have seven days.” She said and thus reprieved from immediately having to cast my life on the line
yet once more didn’t bother asking her plans.  It didn’t really matter- it would involve life and death and that was all that really mattered. Thus was my life dictated; weeks of enjoyable intoxicated relaxation interspersed with brief periods of murder, mayhem and near-death experiences, meanwhile being told what to do by my crew.

Chapter 19

The Katons couldn’t move any faster in warp than we could and were in exactly the same place behind us six days later- lucky for them- when I appeared on the Bridge again at the revised appointed hour. Everyone was in readiness and at their stations and guns. Bren had even finished building the next cannon- which I had been sure would precipitate a dispute between the back gunners as to who would get it, but I only got half of it right. The dispute came when Tanya tried to force Bren to install it while we were in warp. If I hadn’t interceded on Bren’s behalf I think she would actually have shoved him in the lock and cycled him out- all based on Bren’s own big mouth when he had postulated aloud in her presence that his calculations showed it
could
be done. That he was positive a person could space-walk in inner-space. With great strength, no matter what your strength, came great failings. We all have them but I was glad I wasn’t on Bren’s side of the graph.

“The chaperone is back.” I told Bren and Tanya as I entered. Neither said a word and I could feel the tension between them like a thick fog. I stopped and looked back and forth between them before I spoke; “What the hell’s going on now?” They wouldn’t still be this mad at one another over the airlock issue- or at least Tanya wouldn’t have been, so this had to be something new.

“Bren turned off the cannon.” Tanya said with a sweet smile. It was a sweet smile but I could see she was seething inside.

“Turned off the cannon!” I said. “Cannons can’t be turned off.”

“I turned this one off until you’re ready to take Command of your ship again.” Bren told me. I could see the near call at the airlock had been rough on him but I still didn’t like the implications of this. “Without me, no cannon.” This he told Tanya and why I could see her boiling inside. Bren wasn’t going to turn it back on until I was back to protect him.

“You said it was theoretically possible.” Tanya said with an innocent smile.

“Turn it back on.” I told Bren but giving Tanya a stern look, which she completely ignored. I turned back to Bren as he typed the command to reactivate the cannon; “Are you sure you can’t space-walk in warp?”

“The math checks out. We
should
be able to space-walk in warp.” Bren said as he finished. “Would you like to test the theory?”

“I’m not much of a crash-dummy.” I said as I seated myself and sipped my hot-jolt. It was about my eighth cup or so this morning and so I was about as alert as any human being could hope. “Let’s do these Katons, if you must, and then I’m going back on rest and relaxation.”