Forbidden the Stars (26 page)

It was then that Marty, and some of the others, saw the flechette.

Marty’s shouts of “No!” were matched by some of the other boy’s, but no one thought to try to stop Klaus before he shot a half a dozen needle-like projectiles into Marty’s writhing, screaming body.

Somebody tried to jump Klaus, knocking Alex fully into the room, but Klaus, powered by his rage, threw the assailant off, and turned on the group.

“Anyone else tired? Want to sleep for a while? I hear they can revive you from toxic shock if they get to you in time, but you’ll be holding conversations with vegetables for the rest of your life.”

Everyone backed away.

Reaching out to grab Alex Manez by the collar, he pulled the ten-year old roughly to his feet.

“Two down, one to go. And you’re coming with me!”

He dragged Alex behind him as he made his way through the unresisting crowd.

Thoughts dwelling on the brutal act he had just committed, Klaus did not think about why Alex Manez, who should have been weeping with fright or struggling to get away, simply followed along without a word of complaint or resistance.

Instead, Alex had a contemplative smile on his face.

__________

Luna Station :

Chinese Sector :

Luna :

Justine paced
. Occasionally, she snarled as she contemplated the Chinese Sector’s stalling. Loud expletives shot out of her whenever she mentioned the Chinese Republic, and their adamant refusal of cooperation, even though they, too, had lost all contact with the Chinese Sector on Luna Station.

“Calm down, Justine,” Clive said to her, an attempt at placating the wild beast in his office.

“I can’t, Dammit! There has to be something we can do! Something!”

“I’m sorry.” The diplomat shrugged eloquently. “I’m afraid that our hands are quite tied at the moment. All that can be done, has.”

“We have all our soldiers watching their soldiers, their soldiers watching ours, and neither side actually looking in the right direction. What makes you think that’s going to do any good?”

“Do you have another suggestion?”

“Yeah! Let’s go in there, get Alex out, and worry about diplomatic relations later.”

Clive pressed his lips together disapprovingly. “That might end up worse for everyone,” he interposed. All he received in reply was a scowl and a colorful retort.

“I’m not just going to sit on my hands, here.”

He offered Justine a smile of reason. “Our countries on Earth are working on it as quickly as possible. China has long been under the gun at the United Earth Corporate for their centuries-old track record in poor humanitarian relations. Of course, they’re reluctant to treat with us. Sakami Chin was something of an olive branch; now, he’s gone missing. If, say, Dale Powers had been on assignment in China, and suddenly disappeared, wouldn’t your defenses be up as well?”

Justine’s scowl turned into a grimace. “Yeah, you’re right again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it.”

“That’s diplomacy. Give it time, Justine. We’ll get their cooperation. I’m certain China is just jockeying for a better seat for the interstellar age. Alex is a valuable asset right now, not just because he’s a kid, or a representative of ‘our’ side, but in the potential for space exploration. Everybody believes that boy is the key to interstellar travel. Right now, there isn’t anything else to pin our hopes on. That’s why the poor child is being fought over like a bone.”

“I know. It stinks.”

Clive Wexhall wisely made no rebuff to Justine’s opinion. He wasn’t in the business of opinions, anyway. Smoothing things over, calling for cool heads and objective thinking was his forte.

“Here, I’m calling down for a few sandwiches and drinks. Do you still drink iced tea with no ice, or would you like something with a bit more bite?”

Blinking, Justine was forced to think, however momentarily, about something other than the Chinese Sector and Alex. Clive smiled up at her, pleased to have distracted her turbulent thoughts.

“Uh, no, I’ll stick to the iced tea, thank you.”

“Certainly.” Clive flipped his commlink on, pressed the autodial to the cafeteria and put in the order. Before he could turn off the commlink, an urgent flag began blinking on his meshmail account.

Opening the mail, he read the first few lines, and exhaled.

“What is it?”

“You’ve got to read this for yourself.” He made room at his desk for her to read the correspondence over his shoulder.

*

To: All Luna Station Account Members

From: A Hostage!

Help! I am being held against my will in the Chinese Sector of Luna Station, along with about two dozen others from different Country Corporations. We are being forced to commit larceny, forgery, theft, and various other international crimes through the EarthMesh by Chow Yin, an expatriate who has taken over the Chinese Sector and falsified political attachment to the People’s Republic of China.

Please, help!

*

Underneath, there were links to various documents that, when opened, showed the extent of Chow Yin’s criminal activities. One document also showed that Chow Yin had forged the identity of the Chinese Consulate, the actual personage not existing anywhere except in computer records.

“Holy Damn!” Clive swore in exhilaration, a wide grin spreading over his face. “We’ve got it!”

“What? That doesn’t do us any good, except as evidence for a trial later on…or does it?”

Clive, barely able to suppress himself, said, “Do us any good! Of course it does! It proves that there is no official Chinese Government representative present on Luna Station.”

“So?”

“Part of the Luna Station Charter specifically states that, in order to maintain claim to the individual sectors of the station—since it is a combinative station, accessible to all—that there must be, at all times, a valid representative of each respective government. If there is no Chinese Consulate, and has not been for the past few years, that means that the Chinese no longer have a legitimate claim on that sector until they actually place someone on the property.

“In the meanwhile, we have a legal ground for going in; backed up by reasonable suspicion of international felonies.”

A brief instant passed as Justine absorbed all this. Then, she blinked once. “What are you waiting for? Call in the army!”

The Captain of the
Orca 1
did not linger while Clive Wexhall made the call to the military adjutant on the station. She turned on her heel, and ran out of the room, full bore, heading for the Chinese Sector.

She was determined to be on hand when Alex was rescued, and protect him from further predicament.

*

By the time the army arrived in the Chinese Consulate, and invaded the Sector (backed up by warrants as well as weapons) they discovered from some of the “hostages” that two of the boys in Chow Yin’s adolescent harem of outlaws were missing. One of them, Justine knew by their description, was Alex.

One boy said, “I think they were heading for the airlocks.”

Leaving the army to clean up the mess of the Chinese Sector, Justine ran in the indicated direction at a run.

She was damned if she was going to let Alex get away now, when he was so close.

__________

Lunar Surface :

Luna :

The surface of the moon
had a calming effect on Alex. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what brought on his reaction, but the gentle rumbling of the electric motor in the ATV, combined with the rocking motions as the vehicle headed overland called to mind a certain serenity that Alex found ultimately appealing.

Beside him, driving the vehicle, was a lunatic; only seventeen years old, but a maniac nevertheless. Alex should have been trying to escape this young psychopath’s influence, railed against his captivity, fought against the inevitable conclusion of this misadventure, that Klaus wanted him dead. Instead, Alex found himself willingly accompanying the older boy.

There was something beyond his mind’s grasp, urging him forward, urging him on.

The moon seemed almost like home, to Alex. It was barren, desolate, and uninhabitable by anyone unless safely wrapped in the cocoon of technology. And yet, Alex was at peace with it. The vastness of space, horrible to most, was a black blanket of comfort to him. And the moon was the signatory of that unimaginable expanse.

The Earth represented suppression, claustrophobia, everything inherently opposite that of outer space. Alex never wished to return there. Even though they had spent most of their life on Canada Station Three, Alex’s parents still called it home sweet home. Alex’s only memories were visiting Earth irregularly on yearly vacations, holidays and such. It was as much an alien planet to him as was Jupiter.

…And it would be nothing more than a prison if Alex ever returned there.

Suddenly, Alex realized why the moon inspired such tranquility in him, beyond the murderous intents of his companion.

The voices in his head no longer made demands of him, no longer stalked his thoughts. Instead, the melody of their words was that of a comforting lullaby.

Soon,
they promised,
you will be made aware of all that is. We have no need of haunting you into action; you are already firmly set on your course of destiny.

Be calm. Soon, you will return to where you belong.

Alex turned his head slowly towards Klaus, and smiled benignly.

*

Klaus nearly veered into a small crater when he glanced to the side and saw his captive grinning back at him like some kind of retarded baboon.

“What the hell are you smiling at, kid?” Klaus hissed after he regained control of the ATV and put the vehicle back on course.

They were going way too slowly. Klaus didn’t want to take any chances. If the damned yahoo Americans hadn’t used his message as a political loophole to invade the Chinese Sector and take down Yin’s empire, then Chow Yin was going to be on the warpath for Klaus. When Yin wanted revenge, he didn’t waste time about it. There would be a dozen ATVs after him and Alex, each carrying men with real guns that fired bullets, not poison-dipped flechettes.

And even if the Americans had gone through with their task the way Klaus hoped, they would soon learn about him, and that he had kidnapped Alex. Their prize would be too great to ignore for long. Any way he looked at it, Klaus was going to be a very wanted person.

Because of Alex.

He looked the kid square in the face for a moment. Alex hadn’t replied to his question, nor had he ceased his smiling, although he had turned his attention to the Lunarscape ahead.

“Quit that grinning, you fool. What do you have to be so happy about. You know that I’m going to kill you, don’t you?”

Alex slowly rotated his head. “No, you’re not.”

Klaus’s nerves caused him to jerk the steering bar of the ATV a bit, not enough to put them in jeopardy, though. Damn the kid. How had he known that Klaus had changed his mind about offing the little kid?

Over the past fifteen minutes, Klaus had also been taken with the tranquility of the lunar surface, and had done some thinking.

Revenge was good and all, but if he continued his spree of violence and mayhem, there was only one possible end to the whole affair: his own death. People would not put up with that sort of behavior for long, and would quickly organize to stop Klaus’ rampage.

Alex was a valuable commodity, despite his ethnic origins. Perhaps even the most valuable commodity in the solar system.

And at the moment, Klaus had complete control of him. Yin had schemed to use Alex to gain personal wealth, and that would have been due solely by Klaus’s efforts. What would Klaus have gotten for his troubles? Nothing.

But now, Klaus could use Alex to his own gain. No partners, no bosses, no fathers, nobody but him.

He had no aspirations of mining the depth of Alex’s reported abilities. He didn’t have the time or the inclination. Instead, he would settle for a modest ransom. The Americans or the Canadians would surely pay up. Klaus was not greedy; a few million dollars would keep him happy for the rest of his life.

Klaus knew exactly who he could turn to, to help him: The very same smuggler who had pirated Alex from the
Orca 1,
his uncle, Trent Gruber. Captain Gruber would
have
to help Klaus. He was willing to offer his uncle a healthy percentage. If that didn’t work, and the smuggler was unwilling to participate, Klaus had enough blackmail material on him to send him to United Earth Corporate prison for the rest of his natural life, relative or not.

Gruber, brother to Klaus’s long-deceased mother, had a small base on Luna, a few hundred kilometers away from Luna Station. That was where Klaus was heading.

But how had Alex known that Klaus’s intentions had changed?

“What do you mean, I’m not going to kill you?”

“I won’t let you,” Alex replied simply. “I have far too great a purpose to allow that to happen. I need you to help me, though.”

“Help you? What for?”

“That is my business. I can tell you no longer want to murder me. You have something else in mind. Extortion, ransom, something like that. I’ve read enough space opera to guess that you’ve got a plan for squirreling me away. All I want is for you to bring me to your hiding place, and keep me there for a while. Help me, and I guarantee you will be rich.”

“And what if I don’t happen to want to go along with your stupid little plan, pipsqueak?”

The answer came in a form that was a thousand times more effective than any verbal threat. The ATV’s electric motor ceased to fire, and the vehicle slowly came to a standstill. “What the—?”

Klaus’s breathing apparatus slowly stopped pumping air into his helmet. Klaus was soon inhaling the same air he was exhaling, and the oxygen content was dropping as fast at the carbon monoxide level was rising. He would quickly poison himself if he didn’t get any air.