Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic (17 page)

·· • ··

Within her own room, Zerki hastily stuffed her
belongings into her suitcase.  Exhausted, her movements were clumsy, and she knocked
over the briefcase Reynold had given her.  “Calm down,” she whispered to
herself, and she stood up straight, closing her eyes.  A loud knock came from
her door, and Zerki jumped.

“Captain, are you in there?”

Her phone buzzed, but she ignored it and retrieved
the atom wrench from her purse.  “Gavin, is that you?”

“I should hope so,” he quietly laughed, and Zerki
pulled the door open slightly.  “I’m heading down for some coffee…  Wait, are
you alright?”

Her chest heaved as she muttered, “I’m fine.  Did
you see anything strange on your way here?”

He tilted his head.  “I don’t think so.  What’s
going on?”

Anxiously, she urged him inside, and she closed
the door behind him.  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“You look scared.”

“I’m a little on edge.”  She drew a calming breath
and picked up the briefcase, setting it down on the bed.  “I haven’t slept all
night.”

He nodded.  “I’m going to go with ‘no’ on the
coffee, then,” and he winked lightheartedly.  “Maybe you should take a moment
to relax.  I can help you pack while you have a shower.”

Zerki set the atom wrench down on the TV table and
shook her head.  With an exasperated sigh, she sank onto the edge of the bed. 
“Actually, that’s not such a bad idea.”  She glanced to her phone and saw a
text message alert.  Picking it up, she stared fixedly at her guest and
insisted, “Don’t let anyone in here unless you’re 100% sure you recognize their
voice, OK?”

He eased down next to her and asked, “Captain,
what’s going on?  You’re acting really strange.”

Taking a moment to compose herself, she whispered,
“There’s an assassin after me.  I think he might already be here at the
VelAquant.”

He winced.  “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”  She got back to her feet and looked
at her phone as she walked toward the bathroom.  The text message read, “DO NOT
ANSWER THE DOOR. –RC.”  Her breath stilled, and she stopped.  Counting on the
position of her body to block his view, she plucked the atom wrench from the
table.  “Wait,” she muttered, and she quietly twisted the end of the rod until
the safety cap came off.  Her back to him, she asked, “Gavin, how did you find
my room?”

He snickered, and she heard the bed creak as he
pushed off to stand.  “It wasn’t hard.  You aren’t that far away.”

She swallowed to moisten her throat.  “I didn’t
tell anyone where I was staying.  Not even Val.”  Timidly, she glanced sidelong
at him and immediately spotted the soft white glow of his eyes.

“It would’ve been easier if it looked like you
slipped in the shower,” growled Phoranxth, and his forearm took on the shape of
a heavy blade.  “Less painful, too.”  He reached back to strike, but Zerki spun
around and plunged the exposed tip of the atom wrench into his chest.

She snarled, “Not for you!”

The atom wrench was invented decades ago to give
laymen a way to build their own nanobots.  Powered by a cold fusion core, it
was roughly the size of a large flashlight and weighed about the same.  Within
its quantum bubble chamber, the atom wrench sustained a minute spacetime
singularity, and with it offered the user control over the strong and weak
forces on a molecular scale.  Nanobot hobbyists scooped them up as soon as they
reached the market, and material synthesis labs found them to be invaluable. 
But they were risky to use, since they were prone to internal decay, and the
safety caps had a bad habit of falling off at inopportune moments, leaving the
singularity exposed.  Direct contact with the singularity led to disruption of
the contact site on an atomic level.  Invariably, this resulted in a gust of
hydrogen ions and a bloody stump.

Zerki twisted the wrench and switched it on. 
Phoranxth’s eyes widened silently as most of his trunk instantly vanished. 
White fluids cascaded from the gaping wound, as the byriani assassin reverted
to his true form and collapsed, lifeless, on the ground.  She switched off the
wrench and capped it.

·· • ··

Far below in the VelAquant’s sprawling food court,
Valerie walked alongside Taryn as they sought any place that sold doughnuts. 
“You’re in a good mood,” Taryn noted.  She regarded Valerie curiously.  “What’s
up?”

Valerie mitigated her cheerful smile with a deep
breath.  “Nothing, yet.”

“That sounds juicy,” she snickered.

“It’s getting there.”  Hesitantly, she offered, “I
really like Gavin.”

Taryn looked forward and quietly laughed through
her nose.  “I wasn’t expecting that.  He doesn’t seem like your type.”

“I have a type?”

Taryn shrugged and jammed her hands into her
hoodie’s pockets.  “Obviously, I don’t know you well enough to know what your
type is, but…  I don’t know.  He’s so naïve, and you’re… not.”

Valerie abruptly stopped.  “What’s that supposed
to mean?”

“Nothing,” Taryn sighed.  “Don’t read into it.”

Tapping the side of her head, Valerie said,
“That’s kind of my thing.”

At first, Taryn rolled her eyes, but she paused
and nodded thoughtfully.  “Sure.  It means you’ve been through a lot.  I can
see it in your eyes.  You’re hurt to your core, and you want to be loved, but
you keep a gun next to your heart, and that makes you dangerous.”  She released
a weighted breath.  “To him.  And he’s going to screw up.  That’s
his
thing.  He’s going to hurt you without even realizing it, and you’ll rip his
heart out.”

“You don’t know me at all!  Wait…”  Taryn’s images
flashed through Valerie’s mind.  “Oh, I get it.  Gavin was your first kiss.  In
fact, he was your first love.”

Blushing now, Taryn balled her fists and muttered,
“Please get out of my head.  Those are my memories, and I didn’t mean to share
them with you.”

“Hey, I’m sorry.  I can’t always control it.”

For a moment, Taryn merely regarded Valerie, her
jaw clenched.  “I believe you.”

“Do you still love him?”

Gazing pointedly at the ceiling, Taryn said,
“That’s a stupid question.”  Looking back to her companion, she added, “Of
course I do.  But it’s not like I can go back in time and magically make it
work.  Not that I’d want to, anyway.”  She resumed walking, and Valerie paced
her.  “We make great friends, but we were a horrible couple.”

“What was so bad about it?”

“He pissed me off all the time.  He could only see
who I might be, never who I was.  He couldn’t accept that I didn’t have the
same big dreams for myself that he did.”  She chuckled dryly.  “Anyway, yeah, I
still care for him.  That’s part of the reason I keep dating humans.”

“I see.”  She spotted a Donut Hopper and pointed
it out.

After getting in line, Taryn added with a sly
smile, “Besides, there’s this D’Arro guy.  Maybe you know him?”  She smiled
wistfully, then distantly.  “I can tell he’s into me, but he won’t dance.  I
can tell he wants to, but I can’t figure out why he won’t.”

Valerie wore a pained expression.  “He lost his
life mate two years ago.”

Taryn looked surprised.  “He never told me!”

“He won’t, either.  After she passed, he took the
Vow of Interment.”

“Well,
fuck
.”  She sighed, and wiped at her
eyes.  “It figures.  I finally meet another ospyrean I could truly love, and
he’s mourning for the rest of his life.”  Crossing her arms, she regarded
Valerie askance.  “How do you know so much about ospyrean customs, anyway?”

With a sheepish laugh, Valerie admitted, “Your
people think very loudly.  No offense.”

“Yeah, sure.  None taken, I guess.”  She
brightened, looked ahead, and she waved.

“Hey you two,” said Gavin, and he stepped close.

Valerie turned to regard him.  “I thought I heard
you, back there.”  She smiled, fought back a giddy feeling and pulled him
close.  She slipped her arm around his elbow.

Taryn said, “We were just talking about you.”

Soon, they emerged from the shop with drinks and
doughnuts, and they retired to Gavin’s room.  Takeo and Filan were already
dressed.  All together, they talked happily as they enjoyed their spoils.

In time, they joined the rest of the crew in the
lobby as they straggled in.

Zerki marched up to Gavin and studied him
intently.  Nodding decisively, she muttered, “Good,” and squeezed his shoulder
before walking away.

“What was that about?” Gavin asked, and he looked
to Valerie.

She shrugged.  “I really have no idea.”

“There is
no safety in numbers, or in anything else.” –James Thurber

Zerki assembled her command
crew and led them to a passenger shuttle bound for low orbit, where they
settled into high-backed, plush seats.  In the company of Collins, Krane,
Valerie, Gavin and D’Arro, she leaned in close and said, “I believe the
Shadow
has been sabotaged.”  She was met with doubting and confused responses, but she
retrieved her phone and pressed on.  “This morning, a byriani assassin made an
attempt on my life, and I have reason to believe he was working with saboteurs
sent to collect the bounty on the
Shadow
.”  She displayed a photo of
Phoranxth’s corpse on her phone.

Valerie gasped.  “You did that?”

“It was self-defense.”

Collins regarded her with amused admiration.  “
How
did you do that?”

Growing impatient, Zerki said, “I used an atom
wrench.  Look, I’m fine.  I need you all to focus.”  She waited a moment before
continuing.  “I don’t know what’s been done to the
Shadow
, but the first
thing I need you to do when we get back is find out.  Enlist Cajun and his
salvagers.  They know the
Shadow
inside and out, cable for cable.”  A
deep thump rang through the vessel as it released docking clamps and began its
flight from the planet.

“Thanks for making Varuna your first choice in
vacation destinations,” said a recorded woman’s voice.  “We hope to see you
again soon!”  She repeated the message in several more languages. 

“What do we tell the rest of the crew?” asked
D’Arro.

“Try to keep a lid on it,” said Zerki, “and keep
them off the
Shadow
, except for Cajun’s team.  If they ask, tell them
we’re performing a basic security sweep to check for stowaways.  Actually,
D’Arro, I’m putting you on crowd control, if you think you’re up to it.”

He tested his shoulder, rotated it several times
and nodded.  “I should be fine, Captain.”

“Good.”  She sank into her chair and absently
toyed with her restraints, lost in thought for the remainder of the flight.  Through
the shuttle’s porthole, the station soon drifted into view.

Their shuttle docked alongside several others, and
Zerki’s crew disembarked, flooding the narrow halls of the spaceport.  Zerki
took Cajun aside and quietly explained the task at hand, while D’Arro stood
near the boarding tube that led to the
Sanguine Shadow
and called for
everyone’s attention.  He proceeded to explain that some members of the crew
would be sweeping the starship for stowaways.  When he had finished, he watched
his companions file through the airlock passageway.

As Taryn passed by, he hoarsely whispered, “Wait!”

She turned to him, tracing his considerable height
with her eyes.  “What’s up?”

“Just…”  He exhaled.  “Be careful.”

“I will.”  Taryn smiled, and she turned to catch
up to her friends.

The rest of the crew gathered in small groups, and
a din of lighthearted conversation warmed the air.  D’Arro gloomily looked on,
glancing back to the boarding tube at every loud or strange noise he heard
coming from inside the hauler.  He closed his eyes and imagined a black void.

“Is everything OK?”

D’Arro found Jenn Chelsea standing before him,
regarding him with a concerned stare.  “Jenn,” he noted, “you have hair!”

She raised her brow and gestured with open hands. 
“I know!  Amazing, right?” 

“I don’t think I ever saw it down before.”

“Or you never noticed,” she teased. 
She wore a green satin shirtdress and black pumps, and
her skin was freckled and fair.  What caught D’Arro’s eye was the wavy cascade
of copper hair that tumbled down past her shoulders.  “I haven’t really cut it
since I was in college.”  She pursed her lips toward one side of her face. 
“Unless you count trims.”

“I molt,” he stated.  “I don’t count anything that
involves scissors.”

Jenn laughed, her green eyes brightly smiling.  “I
suppose you wouldn’t.”  Her cheer faded only slightly as she glanced toward the
airlock.  “What’s got you so worried?”

His shoulders sagged.  “A few things.”  He leaned
heavily against the bulkhead at his back.

Crossing her arms, she leaned against the wall,
next to him.  “Anything you want to talk about?”

D’Arro nodded solemnly.

A moment passed in silence, and Jenn regarded him
expectantly.  “Well?”

“Oh, I can’t talk about it.”  He looked to her
sidelong and smiled distantly.  “How was your stay?”

“Good, but way too short.  It was nice to get
away.”  She nudged him with her elbow.  “No offense, boss.”

He laughed affectionately.  “Why, do I stress you
out?”

“Only recently.”  She stared absently down the
hall, toward her fellow crewmates.  “It’s not your fault.  Things took a bad
turn when we picked up that new Navigator.  I hate to say it, but I think
Collins is right.  Gavin’s an albatross.”

“Albatross, huh?  How much of that four thousand
you got left?”

“All of it, plus most of the…  Oh.”  Jenn blushed,
and she nodded.  “Touché.”

D’Arro stared fixedly ahead.  He muttered, “I hope
everything’s going OK in there.”

·· • ··

Within the depths of the slumbering, darkened
starship, Cajun and Fogg—in the form of a swirling column of lights and steel
plates—rechecked the radiation nullification unit.  Located near the primary
fuel intake junction in the engine room, it constantly regenerated an isotopic
field that kept the crew safe from the harmful effects of the hauler’s cold
fusion propulsion system.  Without it, Zerki and her crew would be exposed to
lethal levels of radiation within seconds.  In consideration of this, the
starship’s designers programmed the unit with a failsafe mechanism that would
jettison the fusion cores in the event of field integrity loss.

Cajun said through his comm, “They wired the
nullification unit to the jump rig.  It’ll start decaying as soon as Gavin puts
on his visor.  And they took out the safety override, so once it gets going,
there’s no way to launch the cores.  We’ll be cooked alive in seconds.”

Zerki came back, “How long until lives are in
danger?”

“Fogg estimates it’ll take about two hours, give
or take three minutes.”

She sighed audibly on the other end.  “Can you fix
it?”

“No way.  Not even with Fogg’s help.”

Static hung on the air across the comms.  At last,
Zerki said, “Good find, guys.  Everyone, finish your sweeps.  When I’m done
with mine, I’ll head to the briefing room.  I want you all to join me there to
discuss our options.”

Her companions acknowledged her request and
returned to their search of the
Sanguine Shadow
.  In time, the command
crew and Cajun’s team of salvagers met within the unlit briefing room.  Zerki
switched on several flashlights and set them about the table.  She blew into
her hands and rubbed them together.

“It’s cold in here,” Gavin muttered.

“Without life support running, the heat slowly
leaks,” Cajun quietly explained.  He returned his focus to the captain.

Zerki asked, “Did anyone find anything else
suspicious?”  Her companions assured her they had not, and she breathed a sigh
of relief.  “That’s some good luck, then.  Any ideas?”

“We could ask Varuna’s Corps of Engineers for
help,” a haggard man on Cajun’s team suggested.  “It’ll take time, and it might
be pricey, but it’ll get done right.”

“Can’t wait that long.  Too many people know we’re
here, and as soon as housekeeping finds that body, this station’s going to be
crawling with UNIPOL.  We’ll be sitting ducks.”

Collins leaned back in his chair, away from the
cones of light.  “Got an idea, but you won’t like it.”

“I might surprise you,” Zerki replied.

“You often do.”  He smiled roguishly.  “Need a
place that’s off the grid and has the know-how to get the
Shadow
fixed
an hour after we land, right?”  With a stern nod, Zerki urged him to continue. 
“That sounds like Nerthus, to me.”

Krane rankled.  “With Father Stone and his
cultists?  That is
not
happening!”

“Now, hold on,” Zerki interjected.  “The idea’s
got some merit.”

“What’s Nerthus?” asked Valerie.

“It’ll make you crazy,” said Krane, and he
regarded her fiercely.  “It’s a planet full of insane people that got that way
from eating each other.  Then along comes Ben Stone the nano-surgeon, and he
delivers them all from their damnation by infusing them with nanobots.  Now
they all worship him like he’s some kind of god.”

Zerki said, “That’s only partly true.”

“No, it’s completely true,” contended Krane. 
“Val, look it up.”

“It’s not going to come up on any certified
searches,” said Collins.  “Nerthus was disavowed.  Union would sweep it under
the rug, if they had the means.  Counting on time to do the slow work for
them.”

“I’m telling you, they’ll turn on us,” said
Krane.  “And they’ll turn us into one of them!  Captain, I can’t believe you’re
actually considering this.”

Leaning over the table on straightened arms, Zerki
breathed evenly.  “I don’t see that we have much choice.  We know Stone will do
the work, likely for free, and better than that, we know he can get it done in
time.”  She straightened and decided, “Let’s power up the
Shadow
and get
everyone back here for a quick briefing.”  She looked to Collins.  “Get the
lockbox, if you please.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” he replied.

·· • ··

In short order, the entire complement of the
Sanguine
Shadow
crowded the briefing room and its doorway.  The starship was
well-lit and warm again.  Zerki put the finishing touches on her holographic
presentation and called for everyone to quiet down.  “Welcome back,” she
began.  “I hope everyone enjoyed their time on Varuna.  I know I did.”

She tapped the table’s controls, and images of
rusted, mechanical desolation sprang to life above it.  “This is Nerthus,
located in Chiron System,” she explained.  “It’s a long dead hive world that
lost more than ninety percent of its population to the most tragic supply
disruption in galactic history.”  She displayed images of men and women with
quicksilver eyes, patchwork flesh and metal skin.  “This is what the
inhabitants look like, today.”

Much of her crew exchanged concerned murmurs.

“Every hive world in the galaxy is completely
dependent on outside resupply.  When Nerthus experienced a series of supply
disruptions, largely due to ellogon piracy, things went straight to hell. 
Widespread looting, rioting…  And ultimately, the survivors turned to
cannibalism.  With the populace devastated, and the Union unable to break the
chokehold the ellogon privateers had on the system at the time, it wasn’t
looking good for the small number of survivors stranded there.”

Tapping the console, she called up an image of a
handsome, lantern-jawed man with stylish black hair and thin-rim glasses.  He
stood with a slanted smile and crossed arms, wearing a long white lab coat, a
white shirt and black slacks.  “This gentleman is Dr. Benjamin Stone, one of
the most brilliant nano-surgeons the galaxy has ever known, and at one time, a
tireless humanitarian.”  She called up a lengthy list of his personal
achievements.  “He slipped past the ellogon blockade and disappeared into the
hive world.”

The display returned to a city-level view of
Nerthus.  “No one saw or heard from him for over a year, but when he did
emerge, he brought a miracle with him.  He had found a way to infuse the
survivors with symbiotic nanobots that allowed them to, literally, eat
anything.   With a planet full of steel and coal, there was no longer a
shortage of food.  But it came at a cost, as you can see.”  She recalled the
images of Nerthus’s inhabitants.  “Even though the nanobots serve as a kind of
putty, the body still decays.  Most of these people are hundreds of years old,
now.  They call Dr. Stone ‘Father,’ and their fierce loyalty is cultish.  They
would… yes, Collins?”

“Apologies, Captain,” Collins quietly interjected,
and he stood up to lean in close.  He whispered, “We should hurry this up. 
Just got word from the surface there’s a ruckus at the VelAquant.  I expect
housekeeping’s paid your room a visit by now.”

“Thanks,” Zerki replied.  “Sorry to cut this
short, but we’re out of time.”  She cleared her throat.  “Our hauler’s been
sabotaged with a time bomb.  A two-hour countdown will start as soon as we
initiate a jump.  We can’t fix it, but Stone and his people can.  However, if
he can’t fix it in time, we’ll get stranded on Nerthus.”  She pressed her
fingertips against her chin.  “I have high confidence he’ll be able to get it
done.  Still, I’m sure most of you would rather be stranded here on Varuna.” 
There were some chuckles as she shut off the display.  “The choice is yours. 
Roll the dice and keep flying with me to Nerthus, or take your bow right here. 
I won’t hold it against anyone who leaves, but we won’t be coming back for
you.”  She nodded toward Collins and the lockbox set before him.  “Everyone who
parts ways will be paid out their due severance.”  Her expression was resolute
as she said, “I need a show of hands from everyone who’s leaving.”

A moment passed, and a hand went up.  Reluctantly,
others followed.  The count held steady at twenty.

“It’s been great flying with you all,” said Zerki
as she looked into the faces of men and women she had grown close to, some over
the course of years.  A mix of sorrow and anger welled up within her.  “See
Collins for your payout, get your things and get off my ship.  Everyone else,
to your stations.  We’re jumping as soon as Collins gives the all-clear.”

Without another word, she stormed from the
briefing room, headed for the bridge.