Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (30 page)

Unlike Spacers, Tarim still had to have regular healing treatments each month to combat the effects of living and working in space for long periods.

Naero smiled at him. “You’re a good man, Tarim. And good crew. I’m proud to serve with, and have you guarding my back.”

Tarim nodded, and put on a tough-looking, flat brimmed black leather mining hat, decorated with a ring of Ejjai teeth.

“Proud to do it. Hey, have we heard where Kinmal and Shalaen are? With the war I’m worried about them both.”

“Y
our gal and her dad can handle themselves,” Naero said. “No, I’m sure their locations are kept top secret.”

Tarim looked down at his dusty old boots.
“Probably, I guess.” Tarim sighed. “I sure do miss her, Naero. I think about her all the time.”

Naero took his hand a moment.
“I know you do. That’s why you love her. C’mon. Let’s go meet up with our old friend of the family.”

Tarim tucked in a few more weapons into his concealed rigs.

Naero laughed. “Do you think you have enough? Too many weapons and you won’t be able to move.”

“Y
ou let me worry about that. If we’re getting anywhere near Baeven, I want a freight hauler of weapons, ammo, and grenades at the ready if possible.”

They went down in
The Flying Dagger
and walked from the old mining starport on foot into what else?

The nasty, illegal, seedy side of the entire place. Every form of vice and villainy that held out against civilization, usually in the no-man
’s lands that hid in the shadows around starports.

Easy to slip in. Easy to slip away.

The dive was called The Happy Boy. The welcoming holo was a soldier’s decaying skull, laughing uproariously, set upon a huge bottle of some vile grog. A vicious looking battle-blade shoved through its chortling head.

As patrons d
rew closer, they could even hear the animated skull laugh and bellow, “Welcome to The Happy Boy!”

Two mean looking drunks hung out in the entrance. They stunk like
Jilarian polecats.

One of them made the mistake of
accosting Naero.

“H
ey, little girl. There’s a cover charge here. Show me some credits, and your tits!”

The oaf
actually groped for her chest.

Naero grabbed his hand
in a flash.

She
pulverized every bone in it.

Like
grinding egg-sized rocks to dust back on Janosha.

She flung him
gasping in wide-eyed pain out into the nasty smelling gutters behind her without a glance.

Meanwhile, Tarim held
the oaf’s mate at bay with a short bore micro-grenade launcher rammed up into the man’s bleeding face.

“B
low your nose? At this range, one round will vaporize your head into blood mist, all over this vestibule. I strongly suggest that you go screw with someone else…dumbshit.”

The thug whimpered, forgot a
ll about his buddy, and ran for it.

Naero led the way in.

The place did not disappoint.

A
raging bar fight was already underway on the heavily shielded third floor up.

Patrons on the first and second floors
completely ignored it.

A scrawled sign on the bar read:

You wanna scrap? Third Floor Only.

Spacers and aliens and miners gambled quietly, talked, got stoned or hammered among themselves, in small groups at tables and in the shadowy corners and booths.

Naero went to one of the darkest corners, where three shadowy figures sat quietly.

When they got close enough, two of the seated figures faded away, revealing shining silver spheres that pulled back above the shoulders of their owner. Making room for them to sit down across from the large fellow.

Naero recognized a pair of Baeven’s miraculous emulators.

“G
ood to see you,” he said, matching the local miner drawl perfectly. Yet it was clearly him. She could tell by his scent, which he always tried to mask.

“G
ood to see you, “Naero said. In fact she was glad.

Baeven scared her many times, but she still liked him. In a way, she liked it that there was someone who could still scare her.

“Training, huh? I can smell it on you, captain. I remember mine very well. I’m sure Vane made it even tougher on you.”

“H
e did. Any word on Hashi?”

“I
n a hurry are you? Don’t say her name again. Not even here.”

Someone got up quickly from a table nearby and ran outside.

All three of them stared after the figure.

“Sorry,” Naero said. “That guy watching or following you?”

Baeven shrugged. “Maybe. I wasn’t sure yet. I suppose we’ll find out shortly. Hey T. You look well. I hear you’re quite the shootist now.”

“I
do all right.”

“I
’d like to shoot against you some time. See who’s best.”

Tarim smiled slightly.
“I’d like that.”

Baeven turned back to Naero.
“I think I might have a lead on your friend’s trail. She’s traveling with some very unsavory characters. I don’t believe they’re treating her very well at all. And what’s more, these same individuals might very well be the ones who have your sibs too.”

“J
an?”

“D
amn it girl. No names.”

They waited. No one jumped up and ran out that time.

“Sorry. Where are they?”

“I
f my suspicions are correct, they’ll come after all of us as well. Very soon.”

“W
hy?”

“O
ur new acquaintances are on the prowl for new friends. Any one who has had the proper training.”

Naero cocked her head.
“They’re after Mystics?” she said softly.

Baeven nodded.

“What do they want with them?”

“T
hey’re after anyone who can tap into the right kind of energies.”

Mystics. The enemy
actively hunted anyone who could use or tap into Cosmic energy of any kind. But why?

“What do they want with energy users?”

“I don’t rightly know the reason yet. But the evidence seems pretty plain. For example, there have been several precise and very brutal raids on the mining worlds in several remote spots. Kinmal and the miners have tried to hush it up, but everywhere it’s happened, a whole lot of folk have been wiped out, heads taken, and bodies eaten right down clean to the bone.”

That meant Ejjai, most likely clone troops
like the ones they fought before. But Ejjai didn’t normally take heads. There wasn’t any meat on or in them but the brains, and usually Ejjai just cracked them open and gobbled them up.

So
what was taking the heads of their victims and why?

“H
ave you figured out anything yet?”

“N
ope. But our new friends are after something. And they want it awful bad.”

“S
o why are we in the middle of nowhere here on Celonia-4?” Tarim asked.

“I
’m pretty sure this is where they’re gonna visit next.”

“H
ow soon?” Naero asked.

“D
unno. Could be any second. Maybe a day or three. But I think they’ll show.”

Naero clenched both fists.

“Then I mean to be ready for them.”

For the first time, Baeven leaned forward out of the deepest shadows and smiled.

“I was hoping you’d say that. My friends and I will be around to lend a hand if you need us. Good to see you, captain. Oh, can you guys handle that team of Corps bounty hunters that just took up positions around this dive? There’s only ten of them, but they’re careless and very messy.”

Naero glanced at Tarim
, who was already checking his scans.

Tarim
stuck his lower lip out and shrugged.

“Sure thing
,” Naero said. “But they’ll be looking for you, not us. Nobody knows who we are or even that we’re here.”

Baeven smiled. “Certain of that are you?”

He leaned back and faded completely out of view.

Baeven vanished right in front of them.

Naero did a scan and punched some coded orders into her handcomp.

A greasy waiter ambled over.

“Ya can’t just park here, dammit. Food or drink. Ya gotta order something, or get the hell out.”

Tarim slapped a few miner credits on the filthy table.
“I guess we’d better get the hell out.”

Together they got up to leave.

Just as the ten bounty hunters blasted their way in through the walls of The Happy Boy.

All of them wearing brand new gear, armor, and heavy weapons.

New fancy Corps stuff.

The big stocky leader jabbed his finger at the empty table in the corner. “I want the piece of shit that was
just sitting there.”

Everyone looked over that way.

The same greasy waiter rushed up to the goons and pointed angrily up at the stairs.

“Ya wanna scrap? Third floor, morons.”

The snarling leader fumed and head-butted the waiter down.

And then prepared to blast him to slag.

Naero stepped in and quietly pushed the muzzle of the blaster cannon up over her head.

She flashed her eyes and smiled.

“If we we’re too late…you goons are even later. He’s gone. Now you’re wasting everyone’s time.”

The leader grunted, and looked slightly confused. “Just two of you? Against him?”

Naero snorted. “Ten of your kind are any better?” She waved her hand in front of her face. “He smelled you idiots coming. You fools are lucky you’re still alive. He doesn’t waste his time on garbage like you.”

“Who the hell–”

Naero ignored him and walked slowly to the entrance. Tarim covering her back.

“Hold it, bitch,” the leader said. “I don
’t know you. And you can’t just walk out of this. I gotta kill something tonight.” He trained his humming weapons on them again. All of his goons did the same. More weapons whined to full power.

Naero stopped. Then sighed.

“You really don’t want to do this, chums. Suck breath for another day, assholes.”

“BURN THIS PLACE DOWN TO THE SLAB!”

Tarim shot three of their heads off in the less than a second.

By that time, Naero kicked the other seven of them high up against the heavy blast walls of the bar.

Each one of them slid down over a sizzling red katana blade that appeared stuck in the wall.

The crackling sword
blades fizzed, slicing the killers and their exploding fancy powered armor suits neatly into two halves.

Then the red swords vanished.
As quickly as they appeared.

Naero and Tarim
rapidly made their way back out into the city.

They went t
o have a word with the Mining Consortium officials and military in charge of the planet.

36

With it being early evening
by that time, the planetary government offices would be closed.

“W
e’d better talk to the Mining Military,” Tarim suggested. “Each planet and colony has its own standing army now. With the threat of war, there will always be someone in command and on duty.”

N
aero remembered fighting beside the miners. They were tough, resourceful warriors, canny and fearless. Ready to sacrifice themselves for each other at any turn. And they could rig almost anything.

The two of them walked by a medical center and within seconds, a door swung open and a woman in a white medical coat came running after them.
An attractive Besh woman, but with a squashed nose.

“T
arim. Nari. I mean Naero!”

They turned around
, a little surprised to hear their names.

Naero instantly recognized her medtek friend
Arana from the miners. Who looked equally flabbergasted and amazed to see them.

“T
his is a happy surprise. What the heck are you two doing here?”

Naero hugged her and smiled.
“Our fleet’s here on a trade run. anything you need?”

Arana
blinked and her mouth dropped open. “God yes! I can’t believe this. We’re doing alright, but there’s always a lot of stuff we need.”

Naero looked at
Arana’s name embroidered on her lab coat.

“D
r. Arana Wenten. Congratulations.”

Arana
beamed. “Finished my licensing, finally, once things settle down. I run the clinic here. It’s not a full hospital yet, but I’m trying to convince the local officials that we need more than the army hospital on the nearby military base.”

“T
hat’s really great, Arana. Everything good around here?”

“W
ell, as good as can be expected, with the war and all. Everyone keeps hoping it won’t reach us here, but we all know that it will. Sooner or later. Hey, where are you two going?”

“U
h, we we’re just on our way back to our ships after meeting someone.”

Arana
grabbed both of their hands. “I won’t take no for an answer. You two are going to have supper with my husband and I and our two kids. You can do your trading business in the morning. That way, you I can make a long list of the stuff I need at the clinic.”

“
Arana, you never said you had kids. And a husband?”

Arana
laughed. “I didn’t. Not until I married Jericho. He’s a commissioned captain in the Colonial Army now. He used to be one of Kinmal’s top commandos. His wife died, during one of the battles a few years back. I met him and his kids when they got hurt. We hit it off later on…” She tossed her head nervously. “And, one thing led to another.”

“I
’m so happy for you.” Naero glance at Tarim.

Army captain.

Tarim grinned. “We’d be honored to break bread with you and your family.”

Arana
looked worried suddenly. “Oh, crap. I just realized I don’t have much at home. We gotta go shopping before the stores close. We gotta hurry!”

One of the local stores was a mid-sized commercial food market. A pre-fab Stellar Mart
in fact. Arana grabbed one of the ancient, rusty metal carts with the rickety wheels as they ducked in and pushed it down the aisles, tossing stuff in as she went.

Naero halted, gasped, and staggered forward.

Jett.

They had an entire frickin
’ cooler of the stuff. And ice damned cold too.

“N
aero?” Tarim asked.

She kept staring.
“Get a cart Tarim. Get a damn cart!”

They left the Stellar Mart as it closed. Naero insisted on calling one of the old-style wheeled cabs to trundle by and drive them back to
Arana’s house in the working district.

And then deliver the cart-
load of Jett to
The Dagger
.

Minus a few four packs of course.

She drank three borbles by herself, just on the way to Arana’s.

So. Good.

Naero thanked the powers that be for the black citrus night oranges and their heavenly sweet and sour taste that made the perfect flavoring for Jett, her favorite lix. She could do commercials for them.

“Y
ou’re…a junkie,” Tarim noted.

“A
happy Jett junkie, to be exact. And don’t you forget it.” All three of them laughed.

At
Arana’s house they met her family.

Captain Jericho Wenten
was a tall, handsome man with dark black skin and the bearing of a warrior. Naero spotted the type right off. His chiseled face bore a few burn scars but he seemed very gregarious with his wife and kids, enjoying them openly.

Naero felt a twinge of pain at the loss of her own father. Seeing Jericho so filled with joy and playful around his family. Scooping the little kids up. Covering them with kisses. Making fart noises on their bellies as they exploded with laughter.

The two little kids were incredibly cute. The little boy Thai was three years old, and his tiny sister Naomi was just a year and half.

But both of them
sported several scars as well.

Naero wondered if all the miners
simply bore such scars, in one way or another. A token of all they had been through as a people.

Jericho grilled some kind of poultry with rainbow barbecue sauce and long blue-green tubers that were kind of a cro
ss between a sweet potato and a turnip.

Arana
made miner fajitas and flatbread with several kinds of veggies and sauces of the local variety. Naero didn’t like hot peppers or veg of any kind, so she had to ask what-was-what, or try a little first.

But there were these stringy little pink
, deep-fried onion shreds that were so light and so sweet. She couldn’t get enough of them, with the yellow salsa and the sour cream Arana served them with.

Then they had some fruity ices, kind of like
sherbet, with tangy mixed-berry flavors.

It
really was quite the feast, and Naero had insisted on paying for everything. Even after they all stuffed themselves, there would be plenty of leftovers.

Arana
put the kids to bed. They could hear her down the hall singing them to sleep, with a voice pretty and yet haunting.

Naero finished off her second quad of Jett while Jericho and Tarim sipped spark
ling hard cider made from the local fruit trees.

They
all talked briefly about the war and the remote planet’s defenses.

Clearly, n
othing that would stop a determined foe.

“Y
ou two aren’t saying something,” Jericho said straight out. “Should my people and I be worried? Is some kind of trouble coming to us?”

Naero glance once at Tarim.

“You’re smart,” Naero said. “That’s good. We’re with Spacer Intel, on an important mission. The enemy’s after something and they might be coming here.”

“W
e know something’s up. I’ve read all the reports on the attacks on the other systems and colonies.” He suddenly looked at them very seriously.

His battle face snapped up.

“When. When are they coming?”

“W
e don’t know,” Naero said. “But if they do arrive, it’s going to be bad.”

Tarim added.
“Can you think of anything, any reason why the enemy would attack here?”

Jericho shook his head.

“Not a damn thing.”

Naero looked at Captain Jericho
suddenly. “Has Nevano Kinmal been here recently? By chance is he here now, even in secret?”

“T
he president? He hasn’t been here in months, not since he toured everywhere. With the war he’s holed up in the safest place we have. On Torrin-5. The entire place is like a fortress. They’d have a hard time taking him down.”

Tarim looked at them both and his face went pale.

“What about his daughter…Shalaen?”

“S
he’s out among the colonies all the time, with the explorers, searching for ruins of her mother’s people, the Yattai or some such. In fact, she was onworld just yesterday. But she departed again this morning for the next system over. Kendall-2.”

Tarim looked like he was about to lose it.

“Tarim?” Naero asked.

“T
hat has to be it. We have to warn her.”

“C
aptain, how many people know Shalaen was here?”

“J
ust the security people and the high officials. It wasn’t an official visit. Just a quick stop off. Her movements are kept secret as well, just like her father’s.”

“W
arn them on Kendall-2. Now,” Tarim demanded. “Baeven said the enemy might be after anyone who can channel Cosmic energy. Shalaen isn’t a Mystic, but she is part Yattai. That’s who they’re after and why.”

“C
aptain, you’d better alert your people. I’d bet if you checked the systems that were hit, most of them had a visit from Shalaen recently. The enemy is stalking her.”

Jericho went to his console and spread the alarm.

Seconds later, planetary warning sirens sounded in return.

Jericho shut down the volume so as not to wake the kids
right away.

He turned to Naero and Tarim.

“The invasion just started. Incoming enemy troops. Backed by several enemy fleets up there in the black.”

“T
arim, alert
The Dagger
. Have them call in the cavalry, and get our ground forces down here pronto. Get a message to the miners on Kendall-2 also.”

“I
’ve tried,” Jericho said from his com array. “Our sat systems are down. We’re being jammed. But one message got through. Kendall-2 is already under heavy assault.”

Arana
came running down the hall.

“W
hat’s going on?”

Jericho hugged and kissed her quickly.

“We’re under attack, baby. Get the kids. I gotta get all of you to safety and then report to my unit.”