Starbounders (14 page)

Skold and his captives had already left the galaxy behind.

Once Zachary's vision returned to normal, he realized they were flying on a stolen battle-axe. Skold took three more bounds after escaping from the Desultar Nebula, zigzagging across the known outerverse. Coupled with their head start, the circuitous path would make tracking them next to impossible.

Zachary sat back as the ship glided through a dim expanse of space, billions of miles away from the nearest sun. Skold was studying the Kepler cartograph holographically projected on the flight-deck window.

“Kaylee, I don't want to alarm you,” Ryic said, “but your face is covered in tiny black dots. Perhaps you've contracted some kind of space disease.”

Zachary glanced at Kaylee, whose face appeared the same as always. Then Ryic looked down at his own hands.

“Oh, no,” he exclaimed. “I have it, too!”

“Um, Ryic, I think your eyes haven't adjusted from the burst yet,” Zachary said.

Ryic took a deep breath, relieved.

Skold's eyes moved from the cartograph to a control panel.

“As they say on your planet, we need to fill her up,” he said. “Not enough juice to get me where I'm going. There's a void market not far from here.”

He pointed to a small starless portion of the outerverse.

“I don't see anything,” Zachary said.

“You're not supposed to,” Skold replied.

As the battle-axe continued on in the direction that Skold had pointed, the starless patch grew in size. Zachary quickly realized that they were in fact approaching a black object camouflaging itself entirely in darkness. It didn't seem to have a single reflective surface on it.

Skold steered the ship toward the starless patch and gestured to activate the lang-link, the outerverse equivalent of radio communication. He called out in a language Zachary had never heard before. It was a combination of whirring and beeps that sounded like his dad's antique dial-up modem.

There was silence on the other end. Then the black surface of the object cracked open, revealing an entire hangar filled with spacecraft of every conceivable shape, from slick and angular to curvy and organic. Zachary recognized only a few of them.

The battle-axe flew inside, and the hangar doors sealed shut once more. The ship pulled into an empty docking space.

“Welcome to the Fringg Galaxy Void Market,” echoed a robotic voice inside the cabin. “We are not liable for any of the products or services supplied here.”

Skold stored his photon cannon and pocketknife in one of the underbins in the flight deck. He turned to the others.

“No weapons allowed,” he said. “If you're carrying anything I don't know about, put it away now.” His stare fell on Kaylee.

She pulled a voltage slingshot out from her boot and tossed it on the ground.

“Where did you get that?” Zachary asked.

“I swiped it from one of the IPDL officers after the neutron burst,” she replied.

A ramp descended from the side of the ship, and Skold led the group down to the ground. They walked over to one of the hangar exits, where an outerverse being with no legs but a plethora of arms was seated in a wheeled robotic device.

“Please step on the moving platform for a routine security check,” it said.

Zachary and the others proceeded onto an automated walkway.

“I feel like a piece of carry-on luggage,” Zachary said as they passed through a darkened tunnel. He was glad to reach the other side, where the same outerverse creature wheeled over to them.

“You're free to conduct whatever business it is that you've come for,” said the alien. “No questions are asked here.”

“We just came to fuel up,” Ryic said.

“That's what everyone says,” the alien replied.

They passed through a tinted sliding door and found themselves on the ground floor of a place alive with activity. The center of the space station was eight stories tall with balconies ringing each floor. Every gambling game imaginable was on display, including a fight in a giant fenced-in ring where com-bots used their mechanical claws to try to rip each other to shreds. Eager spectators were betting on the outcome, throwing down clear cubes filled with black sand.

“Those cubes are serendibite,” Kaylee whispered to Zachary. “The standard outerverse currency. My father brought home a piece to show me once. Told me it was worth more than our house.”

“Well, that guy looks like he just bet over a thousand of them,” Zachary said. “Someone could get very lucky tonight.”

“Only if he loses,” Skold said. “Anybody walking out of here with that much cash won't make it to the first space fold.”

A crowd of aliens was gathered at a long counter using whirling corkscrews to crack open gigantic seashells and slurping the still-living creatures out from inside. A few who were arguing loudly and exchanging forceful shoves seemed to be drunk.

In another area, mechanical parts were being traded. Zachary spied a female figure with sandpaper skin sitting alone at a booth, examining an oddly shaped gear. Two security guards that resembled human-sized amoebas flanked her table on either side. Skold approached, and the guards immediately bulged forward, blocking his path.

“It's okay,” the rough-skinned female said. The guards parted, allowing Skold to walk up to the booth. “I didn't expect to see you again so soon,” she said.

“Oh, you heard about my arrest,” Skold said.

“Who do you think tipped off the IPDL?”

“I wouldn't gloat, Tatania,” Skold said. “That tracking mine you slipped onto my ship wasn't what got me caught.”

“Pity. I was hoping I was the one who did you in.”

“I need fuel,” Skold said.

“Friend or enemy, I'm always willing to trade,” Tatania replied.

“Trade?” Skold asked. “Wouldn't an IOU suffice?”

She let out a laugh.

“Your word is worth nothing to me.”

“I thought you might say that.”

Skold pulled a few parts from his jacket pocket and dropped them on the table. Zachary had seen him swipe them from the safe haven on Sirocco.

“That won't even pay for the fuel canister,” Tatania said.

“What if I throw in three indentured servants?” Skold gestured back to Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic.

“What?” Kaylee cried.

“Forced servitude is prohibited in the outerverse,” Ryic said.

“Most of what I do is,” Skold said.

“Too much trouble,” Tatania said. “I'll take your jacket. What is that made of, cinderbeast? You'd be amazed what rare alien rawhide fetches these days.”

Skold removed the coat and threw it onto the table. Zachary's eyes darted to the hole in Skold's carapace. It had partially closed back up. Clearly the fugitive's shell came equipped with a self-repair mechanism.

“I'll have the fuel delivered to your ship,” Tatania said. “Which one's yours?”

“Today I'm flying a battle-axe,” Skold replied. “Docked in spot eighty-three. But tomorrow it will be up for sale. You should come visit my shop sometime. It's on Cratonis.”

Tatania seemed amused. “This market is dangerous enough for me. Even I don't tread beyond the Indigo Divide.”

“If you're too nervous, you can send your two blobs for you,” Skold said, gesturing to her guards.

Skold stepped back and led the Starbounders away.

“You were going to sell us into slavery?” Kaylee asked.

“That was just a negotiating tactic,” Skold said. “I wasn't serious.”

“You fooled me,” Zachary said.

Skold hurried them past a neon tattoo parlor, where a trio of identical horn-backed aliens were having phosphorescent wings painted on their shoulder blades. He stopped in a quiet area beside a wall of sleeping pods.

“This is where we say good-bye,” Skold said. “Now, I'm not big on thank-yous. . . .”

“It's easy,” Kaylee said. “You just say the words. It's the least you could do after all we've done for you.”

“Whoa, I was talking about
you
thanking
me
,” Skold said. “Show a little gratitude. You'd all be dead right now if I hadn't gotten you this far.”

“Let's just call it even,” Zachary said, stepping in. “Happy to go our separate ways.”

“You should be able to find passage to anywhere in the outerverse from here,” Skold said.

“Well, there's only one place we plan on going,” Kaylee said. “Indigo 8.”

“I'd make that destination low on your list if I were you,” Skold said. “That dreadnought crash was no accident. Someone inside Indigo 8 sabotaged the ship. They wanted everybody on board dead.”

Zachary and his two friends looked at Skold like he was crazy.

“I don't believe you,” Zachary said.

“See for yourself,” Skold said.

He reached into a zippered compartment on his boot and handed Zachary the dreadnought's starbox.

“This was tampered with before we ever left Indigo 8. I think that armored transport cube I was being transferred in ended up on the ship on purpose, to make it look like we caused the crash.”

Despite how elaborate Skold's story was, something didn't add up in Zachary's head.

“Believe whatever you want,” Skold said, as if he could hear what Zachary was thinking.

And without another word, he turned and walked back into the market, disappearing among the crowd.

“Well, we need to find a long-range lang-link and get in touch with Director Madsen,” Kaylee said.

“What about what Skold just told us?” Zachary asked.

“Everything that comes out of his mouth has an ulterior motive,” Kaylee replied. “You really trust him? Two minutes ago he was ready to trade us for fuel.”

It was hard for Zachary and Ryic to argue with that. Zachary pocketed the starbox, and the three of them began their search for a way to contact Indigo 8. They neared a large table where ruffians and gamblers were gathered around a squat, fur-covered creature that had one of the whirling corkscrews the Starbounders-in-training had seen earlier in the creature's right hand. The eight fingers of his left were outstretched on the wood surface before him. A big pile of serendibite was in the center of the table. The creature began stabbing the corkscrew between the gaps in his fingers, increasing the speed until it was just a blur.

As the young Starbounders walked past, Ryic approached the creature and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Do you know where the nearest lang-link is?” Ryic asked.

The distracted alien looked up for just a second, but that's all the time it took for the corkscrew to sever one of his eight fingers. Green fluid oozed from the wound, and some of the onlookers gasped while others reached out to collect their winnings.

Ryic backed away sheepishly. “Sorry,” he said. “Carry on.”

Before the creature could throttle them, the three hurried ahead without looking back, pushing through the crowd. They passed by a row of booths where multitentacled creatures engaged in what looked like an arm-wrestling tournament, only all their tentacles were being used at the same time. Farther ahead, Zachary spotted a curtained-off booth marked with a picture of a vibrating radio wave above it.

“Over there,” he said.

They moved through the crowd and into the booth. A small video screen appeared, displaying a kind of galactic phone book. Among the options were routing numbers to every IPDL base in the outerverse. Zachary reached out and touched the icon for Indigo 8, activating a link to Earth. A single message written in thousands of different languages flashed on the screen. Zachary found the English translation, which read, “Record message now.”

Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee stared ahead at the screen.

“This message is for Henry Madsen. My name is Zachary Night.”

“I am Ryic 1,174,831, from the planet Klenarog.”

“And this is Kaylee Swanson.”

“Our dreadnought crashed on Sirocco, but we survived,” said Zachary. “We're contacting you from the Fringg Galaxy Void Market. Please respond as soon as you receive this.”

Kaylee gestured toward a send command, and another instruction appeared. The English translation read, “Message sent. Please await response.”

The three sat in the closed booth.

“How long will this take?” Zachary asked.

“Lang-link messages sent across the farthest distances of the known outerverse don't take more than ten minutes,” Ryic said. “There's an intricate series of probes and satellites that oscillate through folds in space.”

Right now Zachary didn't care how it worked. All that mattered was that a plea for help was being sent back home.

“I
thought you said ten minutes.” Zachary sighed.

“Well, this must be old machinery,” Ryic said. “Maybe it's still buffering.”

“Why don't we call somebody else?” Zachary suggested. “How about someone from your planet?”