Death Drop (61 page)

They covered the distance between the Hellion and the beacon quickly and quietly and found themselves perched on the back side of a dune staring down at a ship they were all very familiar with by now. The
Ghost
was listing on its side, and one of its engine cowls was still burning. Otto removed the binoculars attached to his belt and studied the scene.

“Cockpit’s dark, doesn’t seem to be any movement. Let’s move in and see if we can’t get a better view.”

The team relocated to the back of the
Ghost
, but nothing changed with the new vantage point: it was still quiet. The only signs of life were the slow flicker of dying flames and thick curling smoke that rolled from the tail end of the ship and turned the pale blue sky a dingy gray. The cargo ramp was down and it listed to the side with the rest of the craft like the lolling tongue of a slain beast. Otto dialed up the zoom on his binoculars, but he couldn’t penetrate the shadows of the exposed bay beyond the ramp.

“Doesn’t appear to be anyone home,” Otto said as he passed the binoculars to the closest Nori. The ensign nodded his consent and handed the lenses back. “We’ll flank the tail end and come up on either side of the cargo ramp out of sight from the interior of the bay.”

The team executed their approach to the ship like they’d been working together for years and was soon on opposite sides of the extended plank. Otto peered around the corner at the Nori across the way and held up his hand with all five digits flexed out into the air. He counted down with his hand, and as soon as his forefinger was all that was left, he gripped the underside of his gun and jumped onto the incline. Otto was on one knee, sweeping the barrel of his automatic slowly across the compartment, and from the corner of his eye, he could see a Nori opposite him doing the same. The major motioned forward with one arm, and a Nori on each side stepped carefully around the cover positions and moved inside the bay.

The team swept the entire ship, clearing each room one by one. It was deserted. It was also picked clean. There were no weapons left in the armory and no supplies. Otto wore a puzzled look as he turned them all around and headed back to the cargo hold. He stood in the shadows and scratched his head as he looked around.

“What is it, Major?” Nori asked.

“Most of the ship’s been turned upside down,” he said. Otto pointed his gun toward the ceiling, and the light under his barrel showed four torched collars swaying on their cables. “But the bay’s not quite empty.” He brought his beam back down and shined it in front of them.

Nori was so focused on securing the location, he didn’t even notice until Otto pointed it out, but there they were—four cargo containers still locked down to the floor. “Something might’ve happened to their loading equipment,” Nori offered. “Or they were afraid someone else might show up before they got it all.”

“Or they didn’t want what was inside,” Otto said as he trained his light on the end of a container. Nori moved in closer to find a patch of the corrugated box had been cut away. He turned back to find the major grinning from ear to ear, and he gave Otto an unsure look.

“I completely forgot what was in these things until I spotted the holes and wondered what could be so worthless that scavengers would let it rot. Rilek set up the run and provided the cargo: scrap and spare parts from hacked-up derelicts on Flanagar. Useless junk unless you need it to patch a hole in your ship that’s the size of a small moon, and then it’s priceless!” Otto paused his happy lecture as the beam of his light caught something sticking out of one of the containers. He stepped around and moved closer, scrutinizing the long shaft of metal in front of him.

“It looks like a harpoon pushed through from the other side,” he said. “Now, what do you suppose that’s all about?” Nori didn’t seem to have any theories, and the only thing the ensign could think to do was shrug his shoulders as he headed for the back of the ship and open air.

Otto squeezed the com link strapped around his neck to activate it and reported the good news. There was still a chance that whoever had ransacked the ship would be back for the cargo, but Rilek agreed that if the pillagers had the technology to look into the containers, they probably had the equipment to take it if they found anything worth their while inside. As a precaution, Otto recorded the exact coordinates of the crash site and turned off the ship’s beacon.

The team was in good spirits after a job well done, and each of the Noris bounded from the cargo ramp, their spry leaps into the air as light as their shared mood. The green sand swallowed most of Otto’s feet as he plopped down after the last Nori, and he froze solid. The sense of satisfaction he had been feeling after commanding a successful mission under Admiral Rilek, and the silly shit-eating grin he was wearing because of it, withered and died, blowing away in a shrill wind of fear. Although he had never actually seen a Mewlatai in person, he knew exactly what they looked like—after all, they were legendary creatures—and, judging by the sifting of the sand, the tracks he was staring at said one had been standing at the tail end of the
Ghost
just minutes before they arrived.

Otto followed the marks with his eyes, and he noticed another set of prints. He bent down and examined the new shapes. Whoever had left them was walking backward.
“Scared out of his wits and retreating from the sword-carrying maniac is more like it,”
Otto thought as he stood up and followed the two sets of tracks. He walked carefully up the side of the ship with his gun at the ready, glancing down at the ground and then up again. The Noris had picked up on his change of tack and were now fanning out behind him. He could see that both sets of prints stopped just a few yards ahead, in front of two bright spots in the sand. There was something resting in a dark liquid, and as he stepped closer, Otto could see that the lights were reflections from two lenses. It was a pair of mechanic’s goggles, and they were sitting in a rather large pool of blood. His gut told him to get out, and this time he didn’t mind listening as he signaled the Noris to head back to the Hellion double-time.

It took them several trips to move all the containers, and despite Otto’s apprehension about the Mewlatai, Rilek decided that it was worth the risk. He ordered all ten Noris—apparently ten was the maximum number of Noris—to join the mission, and each was well armed. The crash site had to be secured each time they came back, and by the time they loaded the last container, the sun’s light had softened into hues of red and purple.

***

Night fell and without the sun, the desert wind bit with a stinging cold. Otto woke with a sudden jerk and looked around the unfamiliar setting. He was scared at first; visions of being sliced to ribbons by the rogue Mewlatai had terrorized his sleep. But then he realized the bed he was in was far too comfortable for him to be in any danger. He was in one of the luxurious staterooms aboard the
Lodestar.
He flopped his head back on the soft down pillow and yawned, thinking about the last thing he remembered before waking up in his lavish surroundings.

Kriegel was having trouble with the flight controls—a fact that made him even more abrasive toward Otto than he had been when they first met. The surly engineer reminded Otto on several occasions that it was
his
man that was responsible for the mess they were in. Kriegel volunteered to work through the night, and Otto had done the same, when Rilek ordered him to take a stateroom and get some rest. He protested at first, but the mere mention of sleep instantly wracked his body with an unbelievable lethargy that made it hard to think, let alone weld. Otto realized he hadn’t had any shut-eye in over four days. Rilek promised him that the containers would still be stacked in the sand come morning, and there would be plenty of work for him to do. He smiled as he remembered Rilek’s final words of goodnight, “Good job today, Major,” and the crisp salute he gave as Otto floated down the main deck to his room in a numbing haze of exhaustion.

He flipped the switch on the elaborate lamp next to his bed, and the soft glow revealed the plush accommodations Otto was beginning to expect from Rilek. “Man, this guy knows how to live,” he said as he admired the beautiful paintings and furniture throughout the room. He slipped on his uniform and walked out into the hall. Otto wasn’t sure what time it was exactly, but he was certain it was before dawn and he wanted to accomplish two things before the work day began: get something to eat and have his meal under the kind of twinkling, magnificent night sky that only a place completely devoid of people can provide.

There was nobody in the galley, but since there wasn’t a cook on board, Otto wasn’t surprised. This didn’t mean the space for feeding the crew wasn’t first class. Despite the lack of someone dedicated to the preparation of meals full-time aboard the ship, it was rumored that Rilek himself was an incomparable connoisseur of fine food and drink. Otto had heard that the admiral possessed an amazing repertoire of recipes from around the universe that he could whip up on a whim; and by the look of the galley, it must have been true. The room was equipped with burners, ovens, and grill-tops that could have served ten times the number of crew aboard. Several gleaming refrigerators stood like sentinels along the back wall along with a large, silver door that Otto assumed was the entrance of a walk-in freezer.

He stepped to the row of refrigerators and pulled the big doors open one by one. He wasn’t going to cook anything—all the cookware was stowed, anyway—and he didn’t want to miss the stars. He rummaged through the refrigerators until he found something that appealed to his appetite and his schedule. His furry fingers followed orders from his keen sense of smell like soldiers eager to please a general and emerged from the confines of one of the tall, metal boxes with two containers. Otto’s mouth was watering as he set the packages down and hastily pried off their lids. He stooped down and took a huge breath, closing his eyes as his soft black nostrils flared wide to take in the tantalizing aroma.

Three breaded fillets of Moruvian red fish with a succulent crustacean meat stuffing were neatly rolled inside the first container, and a sweet, tangy Udo sauce was waiting in the second. He knew the feast would taste better warm, but he didn’t care—the stars were waiting, and even if it was cold, the food would be the best thing he’d had since leaving his home world and joining the Dissension long ago. Otto drizzled the sauce over the fillets, cleaned up any evidence of his early morning raid on the galley, and stole away into the dark passages of the ship.

Kriegel would still be in the conning tower, and Otto didn’t want to risk being seen exiting the ship through the docking bay. It wasn’t that he would get in trouble for being out of his bunk, he just didn’t want to stop and talk to anyone—he wanted to enjoy the time before sunup by himself. Fortunately, Otto knew one way to access the outside where there was unlikely to be anyone around, and he strolled quietly down the main deck to Stateroom A and slipped inside. The large hole, which he was to begin sealing shut in a few hours, hung above him like a window to all creation that glimmered with every star in the universe. Soft starglow washed over him, and he smiled as he thought of worlds untouched by the Durax and of his once peaceful home.

Otto climbed the scaffolding inside the room and out through the hole to the exterior bracing standing high above the desert below. He sat on the top level with his legs dangling over the edge, leaned back on one hand, and savored every delicious bite of stuffed red fish as he gazed at the stars. For the first time in a long while, Otto Von Holt was at peace, but he knew it couldn’t last, not in these troubled days. As he relaxed comfortably on his perch high above the desert, he heard the soft sound of the stateroom door being carefully latched shut. Otto knew he’d be easy to spot if he dared to look inside, so he carefully rested his back against the ship, moved as close to the edge as possible, and listened to the sound of angry whispers slicing through the darkness below.

“I was almost killed!” the voice hissed. Otto strained his ears, and it was hard to tell because of the hushed tone, but he was almost certain he had never heard the voice before. He listened harder, but instead of words, he heard the creak of the scaffolding.

“They’re coming this way!”
he screamed inside his head.

He moved as quickly and quietly as he could over to the empty container still rife with fish scent and sent it spinning over the side before nimbly lowering himself to the next level of the scaffold, just as the head of the mysterious figure surfaced into the night. Otto huddled in the shadows and slowed his breathing as the one-sided conversation continued above him.

“That wasn’t the agreement! Yes, it worked, but there’s still another stage—you
need
me. No, no, please—I’ll do anything—just please, don’t hurt them!” There was a pause in the conversation, and Otto could hear the faint sound of sniffing.

“You’re going to get killed because of goddam stuffed Moruvian red fish!”
his cynical little voice chided.
“Helluva last supper!”
his courageous side countered as he spied through the small slit between the planks at the shadowy outline above him. The scaffolding shook slightly as the figure paced back and forth, and Otto was suddenly struck with an idea.

He reached onto his belt and unfastened a small pouch with several coins inside, then slowly made his way to one end of the scaffolding, making sure to move only when the bracing bounced and swayed from the intruder’s sporadic steps. After what seemed like forever, Otto reached the far end and tied his money pouch to one of the joists, so the bag overlapped the vertical brace to the plank he was standing on. He held onto the pouch until his uninvited guest moved again and then he let go and slunk along the hull to the opposite end of his level and waited.

“It doesn’t appear so at the moment, but that”