Five-year-old Reynard’s stuffed dragon drops from his hand and bounds down the stairs into the gaping maw of the creature. He holds tightly to his bladder as the creature crawls up the steps.
Five-year-old Reynard clutches the plastic cap gun in the holster.
The Sandman surrounds Reynard’s adult body.
Reynard’s eyes blank—his mind occupied with the image—childhood terror. He clings to his only bit of security.
Eymaxin wades through the water toward the Sandman.
The five-year-old boy pulls the trigger. Pop. Pop. Pop. Sulfur steams from the red caps feeding through the plastic gun. The monster disappears. His stuffed toy rests safely at the bottom of the steps.
Eymaxin forces her magic into the sword, energizing the blade before engulfing it in sapphire flames. She swings the fiery sword through the Sandman’s robes. The mask shatters. Sulfur mist steams from the crumbling fragments. They strike the water, hissing and boiling away.
The trolls flee at the sight of a Sandman being destroyed.
Eymaxin stabs at the black robes floating in the water with the katana.
She finds no body.
IN THE SECOND before the dart expels a hundred thousand volts through Amye’s body, she spots the sigil of a tommy gun. She convulses on the ground in a dead fish flop for three more seconds before blackness overwhelms her.
Scott demands answers, halting his reach for his blaster.
“You’re not registered mercs, but you were in yesterday’s battle?” Tommygun questions.
Others in his Lance sport Osirian handguns as personal monikers on their vests.
“Watch your thoughts, Witch,” a merc warns.
JC raises her arms. She doesn’t need her arms to read thoughts. “Non-merc beefs must be settled by local authorities.”
“What this girl did in the bar and to our friend won’t be settled by any magistrate.”
Scott ponders on what Amye did. “We’re not a Lance. Vengeance honor code doesn’t apply. You’ll be a murderer.”
“She murdered one of our Lance in a hotel room.”
Hauser presses the cold durasteel barrel against Tommygun’s neck. “She rented the room he was found dead in. An Osirian female couldn’t do to his body what was done.”
Tommygun’s fellow mercs keep all weapons trained on Scott and JC and not the new arrival.
“You didn’t see her in the bar,” Tommygun remarks.
“Did you?” Hauser presses harder.
“This invisible force around her. It cracked open all their skulls.”
“But you never saw her touch any of them?” Capillaries break on Tommygun from the pressure Hauser exerts on the skin with the gun barrel.
“No,” Tommygun admits.
Keeping his aim on the neck, he pulls back the gun to relieve pressure.
“All you know is she paid for the hotel room they found your friend in?” Scott asks.
“She left the room, and no one else entered until the body was discovered.”
“Circumstantial at best, and since she’s not a merc, your vengeance statute requires a trail,” says Hauser.
“So you like to remind us,” Tommygun sneers.
“I’ll make you one offer to resolve this. The pretty one you have your gun on is chief engineer of the Silver Dragon. He can transfer ownership of all the crew’s Mecats from yesterday’s battle to you,” Hauser suggests.
“Hauser, you’ve no authority to offer such terms,” Scott snaps.
“They’re Mecats and you have no Jump ship.”
“If it clears the debt, transfer mine,” JC offers.
“My Lance mate’s worth more than a single Mecat. What’s your crewmate worth?”
“You a part of our crew, Hauser?” Scott asks.
“Reynard owes me a shuttle, not a Mecat. Transfer it.”
“Amye’s debt’s clear? No blood vengeance?” Scott confirms.
“Proper compensation’s part of the code,” Tommygun says.
“I want your word as a Lancer and Osirian,” Scott demands.
“None of the Loaded Gun Lance bear any malice against your crew of the Silver Dragon.”
“Six Mecats, lacking any armaments. All weapons spent driving off the Mokarran.”
“This woman must be important to you to commit six Mecats.” Tommygun accepts three key cards from each of the standing crewmembers.
Hauser holsters his weapon.
JC fishes through Amye’s jacket pockets for her key.
“We’ll need Joe and Doug’s keys,” Scott says.
“Have them report to the Dragon. Australia should be in orbit within the hour,” Hauser says.
“You’ve had contact?” JC tosses Tommygun the key.
“When I was at the spaceport. Other areas, communications have been sparse.”
Scott rolls Amye to her stomach in order to flip her onto his shoulder. He struggles to lift the lanky girl. “Let’s get to the spaceport and end this transaction.”
••••••
“IT’S GOOD TO be home.” JC admires the sable craft. My only home. The Eir Basilica cloister was never home. My parents sent me early in childhood out of fear. All females found to have the genetic properties of telepaths are shipped to the Eir Basilica to prevent accidental mind bursts. The cloister was constant daily schooling where even sleep thoughts had to be controlled.
A telepath with night terrors sends a burst of thought so strong that nightmarish images will slam into a sleeping brain like a tsunami. Uncontrolled plumes of horrid images destroy developing young minds. The telepathic gene prevents the brain from developing quickly. The slower the development, the stronger the mature mind.
The sisters instructing younger telepaths gave little nurture—never home. Home would never sell you when you turn seventeen. Since joining the Silver Dragon crew, Reynard has given her a home.
“Home to more repairs,” Scott muses.
“You can’t repair her.” Amye lifts her head. “Put me down.”
Scott kneels so she can slide from his shoulder.
Once her boots touch the ground Amye draws her blaster, aiming at Tommygun.
JC places herself between Amye and the merc. “They aren’t after you anymore.”
“I settled the debt,” Scott says.
“What debt? I didn’t kill anyone—today.”
“You’re short a Mecat,” Tommygun says.
“No Lance would take a single Mecat for a member’s life.” Amye knows she’s missed the conversation.
“Six.”
“You gave all of them! You’re smerth’n stupid.” she digs in her pocket for the key card.
“We don’t have transport for them off Summersun and it clears you. Preventing a trail. You’ll never prove a Sandman committed the murder,” Scott says.
“Sandmen?” Tommygun’s confused.
“Cracked skulls and missing brains. JC witnessed one stealing Reynard.”
“Why
