“Because?”
“Because they know a hell of a lot about us, not least how to get me to do their job for them. So I need to know just as much about them.”
“You think this job’s going to go bad?”
Biddy stared at Geek. His Adam’s apple was trembling. Underneath it all he was still just a teenager a long way from home. “No, I don’t. But I need to be prepared just in case it does.”
Geek grunted in a not-entirely-convinced way, then turned back to his screens. Biddy slunk out of the room.
Chapter 8
Lu Tang had abandoned the starfreighter at the refueling station. He had learned not to stay onboard any ship for too long. It wouldn’t take much time before people started asking questions. Humans were obsessed with anyone who seemed a little bit different. And, let’s face it, being a God made you a hell of a lot different from everyone else.
His next craft was not exactly his first choice. A small trading ship that seemed likely to be owned by interstellar pirates. But a quick transaction conducted over the cloud and it was now owned by a new company called Olympus Supplies.
Mr. Tang, owner and sole employee of Olympus Supplies took stock of his crew. Half a dozen men who looked like they’d spent the last week in the bar rather than the Temple. Still, it was a tiny craft, less than fifty feet: he could almost have flown it alone.
“Which of you is the pilot?”
A skinny man who looked barely old enough to pass the flight tests stepped forward. “I’m Captain Eckhart. You’re the bloke who bought the ship?”
“You can call me Mr. Tang. I only need you for a short trip to the third sector of the Fuller quadrant. Shouldn’t take more than a few days even for this old thing. I’ve paid off your debt to the refueling station, after that it’s up to you to find another job.”
The man shrugged. Lu Tang knew that the crew wouldn’t argue. It was a better offer than any other they would get. Otherwise they would be stuck on this floating piece of space junk forever.
The ship didn’t have anything as fancy as private cabins but Lu Tang managed to find a section of the hold that was isolated from the rest of the crew. He set up what he thought of as his war room. An old phrase from a dead planet. A rusty storage container formed his desk, placed on top of which were his datapad, the peculiar box that he had received from the Goddess and a few other choice items, mainly purloined from the crew of the starfreighter.
Assets. With less than these he had conquered planets. Of course, that had been many centuries ago. But nothing really changed in this galaxy.
He looked around to check that none of the crew were spying on him. He had hinted to the men that he was carrying some sort of precious mineral that he would be trading in the Fuller system. Something illegal, but valuable. Better if the men thought he was involved in the slightly dodgy practice of piracy than the very dodgy area of escaping from prison and being a fugitive.
He pulled the metal box towards him and opened the lid. It screeched out a complaint and Lu Tang frowned. The Goddess could at least have oiled the hinges in the last decade or so. It should have opened to cherubs playing trumpets or brilliant flashes of heavenly fire. Instead it squeaked and a dim glow leaked out like the last rays of a dying star.
Lu Tang carefully eased the metal contraption out of the molded box. The pale-yellow light that came from within it pulsed gently, like a heartbeat. It truly was amazing. He could still remember the thrill when he had first seen it, the prickling sensation in his spine when he knew that the galaxy would never be the same again. He ran his fingers over the smooth metal. Seventy years later and it still seemed to be in perfect condition. Not that he could exactly give it a test run. He replaced it in the box and shut the lid. He would have to find some way of concealing it. The idiots he was currently flying with wouldn’t have any idea what it was, but still, better not to take the chance.
Had it all been worth it? The Augment closed his eyes, just for a moment. Something felt wrong. He should be pleased but instead he felt… empty. Were his hormones out of balance again? He checked, but they seemed fine, if a little on the depressive end of the scale. Well, these were worrying times.
He put his hand on the lid of the box, feeling the slight warmth that the device emitted. He remembered the meeting where he had argued against its destruction. So long ago now that he couldn’t remember any of the reasons that he wanted to keep the thing intact. He should hurl it out of the nearest airlock. And yet...
And yet there was always temptation. And no one faced greater temptation than the Gods.
“Mr. Tang?” A small, nervous voice came from the door to the hold.
“What is it?”
“We have a little problem in the control room.”
How long had it been since he’d piloted a spaceship? A while, that was for sure. Luckily the heap of space junk he had just bought and paid for was about fifty years old, so his experience matched the task. Captain Eckhart, it turned out, had been going through some serious narcotic withdrawal. When Lu Tang turned up and found him shaking at the console with his eyes rolled back in their sockets, he had felt it prudent to take over control.
“We’ve been trying to get rid of him for months,”
