“Agreed.” We marched down the companionway to the lower levels, Wren tagging my heels. It was a goldmine of goods: five heaping lodecarts full of crystal and a thousand cylindrical rods, fareon beam enhancers, stacked in upright racks a few inches apart. Even if we didn’t fence those tons of Beryllium crystal, the fareon beams were worth millions, and I’d be a fool if I was going to pawn it off on Paz’s warlord on Jasmel—
“I’m staying to guard our investment,” Dolgra grunted. “I’ll radio my ship to have them drop me off a couple of men. Send along this TK fellow of yours to do the tracking alterations.”
“Stand by.”
I flew Wren back on the Messenger to fetch TK so he could pilot Urgon to Phoros and work his magic on reprogramming the flight plan and the tracking chips.
The Urgon was one of those old freighters that needed to refuel so we charted out Elphi Alpha II, the next planet away. I worked with TK all day to get the Urgon’s flight path reprogrammed and disable the home beacons. Then TK and I flew back on Messenger to Starrunner, with a promise to rendezvous with Dolgra and his men on Phoros within a week. I’d quietly informed Dolgra not to get too adventurous, that I’d taken precautions against doublecrossing, and he could expect a big kaboom if he failed to show for the next meet with Urgon. I was a paranoid man. As with Raez who had ill-timed his getaway, he had not counted on my extreme paranoia. It had spelled his doom…
Chapter 16
We landed on the outskirts of the capital city Desia on Elphi Alpha II. I needed to get away from my crew. The twists and turns had rattled my nerves, not to mention the bloodshed. TK was gloomy as death with the absence of Billy, absorbed in his own private melancholy. Wren had gotten weird, distant, sullen, but mostly whiny as if pleased with nothing and becoming something of a live-in wife with her high demands between the sheets, cramping my bachelor’s style as if we were in some committed relationship after only a few screws. Which kind of astounded me, considering we were hardly soul mates, just a couple of waifs trucking along the harsh road of life, blasting people to death and stealing. My old adage rebounded back on me: Don’t mix coital experiences with the hired help.
So, I cooked up some lie to run to port on Desia to get supplies for our next heist. I’d lay over for a day or so, with some cock-and-bull story about needing to scout out the terrain, research what other side scams we could rustle up while on layover. Which wasn’t far from the truth.
“I want to tag along too,” insisted Wren. “Like you, I need to get off this crate.”
“Not today. Find your own entertainment, Wren. Remember we leave at oh-twelve hundred tomorrow.”
“Fine, sure.” She packed up some gear and left, taking the local air tube into town. TK opted to stay behind. Predictable. Good luck finding that phaso, pops.
I disabled the main drive by pulling out a special circuit, the orbigon, or something like that, something even TK couldn’t easily figure out. I didn’t trust the old man who’d been giving me evil looks ever since Billy had vanished. Either way, I didn’t have time to ponder his next move.
There were things to do. Water tanks, new purifier, frozen meal packs: microwaveable, several yummy flavors, including synthetic chicken, fish, stripped steak, liver, no salt. Loaded with nutrients, also synthetic. Of course, scurvy was a bit of a concern out in deep space. Like the old mariners of the ancient Earth, back when humans had first explored the new worlds and faced down the formidable sea beasts, they had suffered. Loved those old classics yarns, Moby Dick and Gulliver’s Travels.
We spiked our drinks with Vit C liquid drops and threw in supplements whenever we could get them: kiwi fruit, apples, genetically engineered and modified. I kind of wondered at the long term effects. Humans hadn’t died off as of yet, it seemed. Other things to worry about. Like when the next blood-toothed warlord was going to plug a bomb on our ass.
Okay, Rusco, off topic.
Lack of sunlight was a problem too. To solve that, I had a lamp room installed early on in Starrunner to sunbathe in and soak up rays. Throw on the oil, lay back with the old eye patch, the dark glasses. Hence, my bronzed look. A worthwhile investment. Also a hot tub installed, but rarely used, water being a scarce resource on such a small starship as Starrunner. If I really wanted to impress though, the tub came in handy…
I treated myself to an evening at the hotel Medusa in downtown Desia. Looking forward to something other than protein powder and microwaved patty dinners with TK and Wren’s doom and gloom scenarios about the state of the galaxy and their communal trials on Talyon, that garbage pit of a world they’d holed up on for so long. Looking forward to bright lights and space to move around in. Some upbeat human contact.
In the glass lounge I kicked back at the bar and sipped my dry gin. Quite a selection of highbrows here, some fine fillies too. In laced tops and tight skirts, black and white, modular hair styles. The men wore executive type suits. Clean cut, ran the syndicates, the food production and transpo systems of the new age—at least before the gangsters got to them, bombarded them with naphtha. Then there was the run of regular shysters and crime jojos, but fancy ones with classy, gold cufflinks and tailor-made suits. It was a high end place with multiple security webs and high-voltage fencing staked about, electro-grids and a hundred yols cover entrance. We’d
