Wings of Retribution (33 page)

“She knew that.  That’s why she didn’t do it.”

Dallas was silent a long time.

“I guess I woulda died if I’d stayed on
Beetle
,” she said finally.  “She saved my life, in a weird sorta way.”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

Dallas glanced at her watch.  “I’ve gotta get back to the controls.  Wanna come?”

“I dunno.  You pretty much got everything interesting outta me yesterday.”

“No I didn’t.  I still haven’t asked you about the shifters.  How do they, you know?”

Stuart rolled his eyes.  “That will take all night, right there, and I wanted to get some shuteye.”

“Please?  I’ll give your shift to Darley as a punishment.”

Stuart winced.  “No, I’ll keep my shift.  I don’t need as much sleep as humans, anyway.”

“Then let’s get moving,” she said, getting up as she looked down at her watch.  “Autopilot timer’s about to go.”

A half-second later, the convenient little red lights above the hallways started to flash and a pleasant female voice said, “Mainframe overloaded.  Manual systems engaged.”

Dallas squeaked and bolted for the cockpit.  Instead of following, Stuart found a nice, soft spot of floor and sat down.  When the ship started to rumble with centrifugal force, he laid back and considered how well the plush red and black carpet matched the enameled ebony walls.

When it was finally over, he got up and found Dallas at the controls, looking pale.

Calmly, Stuart unbuckled the watch from her arm and wrapped it around his wrist.

“Huh?” Dallas said, blinking at it.

“From now on,” Stuart said, “I’ve got the watch.”

“But…”

“Think of it this way,” Stuart said, sitting down beside her.  “You get more storytime.”

She beamed, her blue eyes going wide with a grin.  “That sounds so
coo
—”

“Screen,” Stuart said.

A week after getting electrocuted by the worm, and after
three whole days
passing without their ‘captain’ attempting to paste them across yet another space-rock, the airhead pulled the ship out of drive and shut off everything but com and life support.  Then, against all standard stealth procedures, she got on com and ordered everyone into the command room to take stock of the situation.

Tommy got the sinking feeling that they were all about to spend a very, very long time on a very, very nasty place.  He decided he was going to ask Rabbit to double his pay.

“See that black spot right there?” Dallas asked, once they were all standing behind her at the helm.  She pointed a manicured finger at to the computer’s 3-D render of the surrounding area.  “Erriat Planetary Guard,” she said.  “There’s another one over there, in that debris field.”

“How do you know?” Rabbit asked, scanning the field with his eyes.

“That’s where I’d be.” 

Thomas laughed, but quickly disguised it with a cough at Rabbit’s sharp look.

Oblivious, their ‘captain’s’ fingers flew over the controls and she brought up another image.  It was a close-up of Erriat’s surface.  Dust clouds swept over half the planet like huge orange storm-systems.  “That’s where they drop off prisoners.  There’s a holding facility there, plus one of the biggest mines on the planet.  Hundreds of miles deep.  Entry points here and here.” 

Tommy thought she sounded like an Academy student giving a report.  He peered at the magnified image of the orangish-brown planet, wincing at the huge megastorms swirling across the surface.  Landing in that was
not
going to be fun.  Flying in it would cause
him
issues, so he could only imagine what it was going to be like with the blue-eyed little space-rock sitting in the pilot’s seat.  Realizing this would be the perfect opportunity for him to prove his skills—when she inevitably panicked and he had to take over for her—Thomas had the smug feeling that she wasn’t going to be captain for very long.

Standing directly behind the girl, Rabbit’s ‘mechanic,’ who seemed to be no more than a drunken, dirty drifter to Tommy, was looking ill.  “Pray she didn’t get stuck at Orplex.”

“There’s only a forty percent chance she did.  They send three out of five to other mines around the planet.”

Darley gave their ‘captain’ a scathing look.  “Forty percent chance, eh?  Are you an expert now?”

“I read up on it,” Dallas said, shrugging.

Tommy rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to storm from the helm to go start drafting his will.

“All of this is irrelevant anyway,” Rabbit said.  “I have a contact on Erriat.  An old friend.  One of the ones who founded the planet.  He should know where they sent Athenais.”

Darley’s face twisted.  “His name Angus Greele?”

Rabbit nodded.

“I’ll be stayin’ on the ship,” the drifter growled, hatred in his stormy gray eyes.  “I ever lay eyes on that bastard, I’ll kill him.”

“He’s got too many bodyguards for that.”

“I don’t care.  I’d put a bullet between his eyes before they took me down.”

Rabbit sighed.  “Wouldn’t do you any good.  He’s like Athenais and me.”

Darley scowled.  “So what’s he need the bodyguards for?”

Rabbit smiled.  “Because if he didn’t have them, he’d have people like you putting bullets between his eyes twenty-four-seven.  That gets somewhat distracting.”

Unnerved to think that there were
more
of the unnaturally long-lived criminals lurking in the Quads, Tommy cleared his throat.  “So they’re friends.  Is there a possibility that he realized Athenais was put on his planet and he rescued her?  Maybe she already got word out and all this is unnecessary.”

“No.”

The way the monied little creep said it, Tommy couldn’t tell which part of the question he was answering.  Frowning at Rabbit, he said, “No possibility of her discovery or him rescuing her?”

Rabbit laughed.  “Oh, I’m sure there’s a possibility he knows she’s here.”

Thomas cocked his head at that.  “I thought all the ones who shared Athenais’s…problem…were friends.”

Rabbit looked amused.  “If Angus knew she was on the planet, he’d take to delivering her punishment himself.”

“So you’re just going to
tell
him she’s there?”

Rabbit grinned.  “What better way to find her?”

Thomas narrowed his eyes at his employer, not liking the man’s shifty, secretive, manipulative attitude.  Reminded him of a
suzait
.  He glanced at the worm across the room to make sure it was keeping its distance.

“All right!” Rabbit said, rubbing his hands together.  “Dallas, you ready to do this?”

“I’m still not coming,” the mechanic interjected.

“Fine,” Rabbit agreed.  “You can stay on the ship with Dallas.”

“But I want to go!” Dallas objected.  “I’ve breathed enough recycled air to make a horse puke.”

“Erriat’s air will make you sicker.  Besides, we need you to stay at the controls in case we need an emergency evacuation.  You’re the only one who could get us out fast enough.”

Like a petulant three-year-old, Dallas muttered something under her breath and sank back down in her chair.  Space-rocks were bad enough, but they were trusting their safety to
this
?  It was all Thomas could do not to rip the controls out of her grip and shove her off of his seat.  Obviously, she’d taken a step in the right direction when she’d selected her last career…

“Wait,” Thomas began, realizing what Rabbit had said.  He turned to his employer with a frown.  “‘Emergency Evacuation?’  I don’t like the sound of that.”

The criminal shrugged wiry shoulders very cleverly disguised by several layers of silk.  “Angus is my friend, but he finds out why we’re here, he’s gonna be furious.  He’s pretty much got the Planetary Guard at his fingertips, so hopefully we’ll be gone before he has a chance to think of a reason to keep us here.”

More and more, Tommy was wishing he’d never signed up for this trip.  “What about the alien?  Will he be coming with us?”

“Absolutely.  We may need him.”

Thomas stiffened at the surge of disgust that slammed through him at the thought.  “Then I’ll be staying here with Darley and Dallas.  I’m not going anywhere with that parasite.”

Rabbit gave a tired sigh.  “Is anyone
not
gonna give me trouble?” 

The parasite said, “I don’t really have any objections to anything you’ve said.”

“Prolly because he wants to take Angus and rule Erriat,” Tommy snapped.

The parasite made a disgusted sound.

“That would definitely make things easier,” Rabbit agreed.  “If you get the opportunity, you should probably take it.”

The entire crew stared at him.  Thomas felt like he’d been punched.

“I thought he was your
friend
,” Tommy sputtered.

“Oh, he is,” Rabbit assured him.  “But Angus is gonna make things hard for us.  It’s just the way he is.  If Stuart took over for a few hours, this whole operation will go much smoother.”

Tommy felt the tiny hairs on his back shift.  He wasn’t sure who was more disgusting—the parasite, or the criminal.  “You’d
willingly
hand over another human to this…thing?”

“Did it once before,” Rabbit said.  “Before Stuart took him, the man was a constant menace in the Forgotten District.  Did us all a favor.  I wish I had more
suzait
friends.  Would solve a lot of problems.”

“
Friends
?” Tommy sputtered.  “You can’t
possibly
share a bond with that thing.  It’s inhuman.”

“Hey, uh, guys,” Dallas interrupted.  “Planetary Guard’s moving.  I think they found us.  Want me to evade them?”

“No,” Rabbit said, moving to the com gear.  “Open up a channel with them.  I want to say hello.”

As Dallas had predicted, a second ship skimmed out of the debris field to join the other and they approached
Retribution
with guns ready. 

Lucky guess,
Tommy thought, disgruntled.

A moment later, the flashing red TARGET LOCK warning made everyone in the room flinch.

Identify yourself.  This is
John Wayne
of the Erriat Home Guard.  We have you locked into our weapons grid.  You have thirty seconds to comply.