Chapter Eight
Leaning on the balcony, the writer took in the view. This had inspired him before, but not this time. A cup of cold coffee sat on the sill by his elbow. He’d wandered around most of the office looking for an idea and eventually made his way out here onto the balcony. It was five odd floors down to the pavilion below. There weren’t too many large open spaces on Balga, but the offices fronted onto one of them.
He casually wondered if there had once been a forest in this space. Most of the early stations had had large quantities of plants and biological material to act as natural oxygen supplies and CO2 scrubbers. And that was when the idea struck him. He figured people where miserable because they hardly ever saw anything green. It was all bland metals and alloys, unless they happened to live on a terra compatible planet. Turning to re-enter the office, he casually threw the cup of coffee off the balcony.
The waves crashed onto the shore. This was certainly one of the galaxies best-kept secrets. Here was a large atoll out in the middle of a vast ocean. It rose out of the deep seabed but had a long flat table fifty odd feet below the surface that stretched several kilometers out from the beaches. The result was that the ocean swell created these massive waves that would flow all the way to the distant shore.
Here, a brave soul could go way out to sea, where the surge began and ride a wave the size of a building for almost twenty minutes before it reached land. Stable, reliable and (relatively) safe, this was Captain Jeannette’s bread and butter.
“Oh man, check this out dude!” yelled Thursten as he ran out onto the beach. The flight down from orbit took about two hours, and the guests had been antsy and couldn’t wait to get down to do some serious surfing. Captain Jeannette had (repeatedly) explained that the trip had to be done at a safe velocity and would take a fair amount of time – but if they really wanted, it could be done in just five minutes. But that would fall into the category of “crash” instead of “landing”.
“Woah,” said Mevan as he looked out at the queue of vast waves stretching out to the horizon. “Oh man, this is gonna be so sweet!”
“Okay Karl,” said Jeannette to one of her crew. “Get the runabout ready.”
“No problem,” replied Karl.
There were six guests on this trip, mostly rich young spoilt types out looking for a good time. This little uncharted world was a godsend. About ten years earlier, she had been near bankruptcy and was about to have to sell her ship when a chance conversation had led her to find this world. It was mostly water, but it had a wide zone of algal growth or plants or something across almost the entire equator. It was this swath of primitive plant life that made the planet habitable, although the oxygen content was a little higher than was comfortable.
However, that same algal bloom that was so beneficial also gave a very ugly green / brown smear across the planet that made it unpleasing to look at from orbit. It was probably that small detail that made it unattractive to colonization or other major developers.
Since so few explorers had actually come down to do a proper survey, the bulk of the planet was uncharted. But what most people that came here did not realize was that there where several small landmasses scattered across the planet, mostly in the temperate zones. Most of these were fine for basic tourism, but where generally rather boring without many interesting features.
It was this one atoll, with its massive undersea shelf that made the whole planet worthwhile. From her younger days, Jeannette knew a surfers paradise when she saw it. She was pushing sixty now (or a hundred and eight, depending on how you counted) and this little enterprise was her retirement fund. She’d already placed markers on both poles to claim the planet as being hers, should anyone want to develop it or buy it off her later.
Behind her, her crew was split into two basic teams. One group were the hostesses and entertainers, there to keep the guests happy during the trip and to provide food and shelter once on the atoll. The other half where her ship’s crew and did all the real work on the surface, such as taking the brave “explorers” out to the waves.
“Excuse me Captain,” said Renea. “We have the dropship properly secured and set up, the facilities are all good to go and Karl says that the runabout will be ready in a few minutes for the first trip.”
“Excellent,” replied Jeanette. “See which of our guests want to go out first. And make sure that they have their locators with them.”
“Yes ma’am. One last thing – Denise wanted to know what you wanted for lunch.”
“Just the usual, thanks.”
“Yes ma’am.”
As Renea walked away, Jeanette could hear the runabout doing it’s preliminary warm-up run on its engines.
The Runabout was a fairly small atmospheric craft. It was primarily designed as a single person transport, but had been upgraded to carry two passengers and the driver, plus two surfboards. The reason that this particular craft was chosen over others was that it was powerful enough to fly above the waves and provide support for the guests but small enough to bring down in the shuttle and be set up and packed away by hand. It was also fairly common to see them available to rent as transports from resorts on various planets and as rescue craft in developed areas.
The added bonus of using an open frame vehicle was that it added a thrill of flying low over the tops of the waves in a seemingly dangerous manner whilst still being perfectly safe. It could even be partially submerged, which made it perfect for recovering surfers from the waves.
The landing site had been upgraded and made more comfortable several years earlier. The first few trips had been much more rustic, but there were certain little luxuries that people really wanted available, especially if they were handing over large quantities of credit. Running water was near the top of the list, along with power.
One of the first things that had been built was a large landing pad for the shuttle. In theory, it could land almost anywhere, but the entire weight being focused on the relatively small area of the landing struts would quickly turn the ground to un-traversable mush. The pad was made out of standard plascrete, easily poured and shaped and it would last for millennia, especially in this benign climate.
Now there were several buildings, which dotted the atoll including a small power station located a discrete distance from everything else. Construction was important, because it reinforced your claim. The markers could be removed or deactivated or stolen, but physical buildings where harder to get rid of. And the bigger they were, the stronger your claim would become. Because glowing craters on a newly discovered planet suggested that the planet was less “newly discovered” and more “recently stolen”.
“Okay, Alex and Thor are going on the first run, and when they come in Doleboy and Libbie will go out,” said Karl.
“Wahoo!” exclaimed Thor. His name wasn’t really ‘Thor’, but it sounded good and it was pretty close to his real name – Thursten. He and Alex jumped up onto the runabout next to Karl as Renea and Laurana secured their boards to the sides. Karl lifted up into the air and took off over the waves, heading out to where the waves started and giving the riders a spectacular view over the waves.
Turning, she saw two of the girls walking over to her, Margaret and Valerie. On this trip, there were six guests in total. Three boys and their girlfriends. She could almost have picked the cliché’s as they had come aboard when she first met them. But she was delighted to find that they weren’t the usual self-absorbed spoilt rich kids. They had some good ideas of what they wanted to do and how to get there, and this trip was just a fun diversion.
“Is there any danger out there?” said Margaret to Jeannette.
“Not really,” replied the Captain. “There are a few large predators under the water, but we’ve never seen one come in near the shore. They stay mainly out in the deep water where their food is. The biggest danger is if they ride the wave too far in to shore and get pounded on the beach. But we told them enough times and Karl can pull them out of the water before they reach shore.”
“So it’s not dangerous?” insisted Margaret, who was secretly afraid of the water and wouldn’t be surfing on this trip, preferring to work on her tan and enjoy the view.
“Not at all, but don’t tell the boys that,” said Jeanette with a smile. She knew just what they wanted. These young kids wanted the thrill of going somewhere new and dangerous, but didn’t want the real danger of going to an unexplored world on their own nor the sanitized pseudo danger of an adventure park. This place and the service she offered was perfect, not to mention rare. And she charged accordingly.
Satisfied, Margaret and Valerie walked away, quietly giggling to themselves. There hadn’t been any problems in all the trips that she had made to this planet, both with guests and without. And if something went wrong, she had Willard, a trained medic on retainer.
Watching the local primary rising high into the sky, the thought occurred to her that she’d never given anything a name around here. Not the primary, not the planet and not the atoll. Oh well, it was something to work on during the relaxed hours of the evening after dark.
“Okay, what do the sensors say?” asked Raktu.
“Getting results back now,” replied Svelte. “Okay, standard primary / planet set up, looks like six major planets. Scanning for target on passive only, no contact yet.”
This was always the trickiest part of an ambush. When arriving in a system, the energy signatures would be quite obvious to anyone who was actively looking for them, but an unsuspecting target would miss them. Once in stealth mode, a ship would be quite difficult to spot. But the first few seconds were the most important.
“Scans complete. Target pinged in a parking orbit around the third planet. No other contacts yet.”
“Looks good,” growled Lother. They were on the bridge of the Bloodbath. A mean looking ship, all black and spikes, it was built to inspire fear in anyone who saw her. These were not the sorts of people that one would want to meet in a dark alley. They were here in this system tracking their prey. And so far, it looked like the target had no idea they were being followed.
“Full stealth,” barked Raktu. “Take us in, nice and slow. I want to be on them before they lose sight of the stars behind us.”
Menacingly, the ship moved in towards the third planet.
The pre show band walked off the stage.
The house lights went down and in that dark half-light, The Rockers made their way out onto the stage. That is, The Rockers plus One. Rabid was still up in the hotel room being tended to by the medics. In his place was Johnny Huser, general mechanic and PD Rod technician for the ship Celiker. The stamping of the crowd filled the air with a heavy pulse that reverberated throughout the auditorium.
“How you holding up?” asked Renegade.
“Little nervous, but doing good,” replied Johnny.
“I remember my first time – you’ll never forget this.”
A single beam of light came down from the ceiling and illuminated Ricky, center stage. The crowd went absolutely nuts. Screaming and chanting, chairs thrown in the air, the noise was enormous and drowned out everything else.
After a moment of Ricky just standing there, the audience caught wind that there was something out of the ordinary happening. The noise abated, though not totally.
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” started Ricky. This was a radical departure from the normal start of a show. On this tour, the show was being started with Rabid pulling a hard solo on his screamer, which was the intro to the title track of this tour’s album. A polite introduction by the normally rambunctious lead singer was so far from what the audience was expecting that the auditorium became quiet.
“It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that Rabid has been injured and is unable to play tonight.”
A deafening silence fell over the auditorium. You could almost sense the indrawn breath as the audience awaited the announcement of a cancelled show, and the frustrated screaming that would follow.
“However, we have managed to find a replacement to play in his stead.”
A murmur swept through the crowd. Some boos, some cheers and lots of indecipherable muttering. Some were happy to have the show go on, others were not so keen on an unknown screamer player. A screamer was not an easy instrument to play. When played well, they sounded good, but when played badly, the sound was awful. Worse than nails on a chalkboard being accompanied by bagpipes.
“I now introduce our replacement player, Johnny Huser!” exclaimed Ricky.
Right on his cue, the stage lights came on, focused on Johnny and bathing him in a rich blue and burgundy glow. Almost like a born expert, his fingers flew across Rabid’s screamer and out flowed the opening riff to ‘Broken Diamond’, the track that had been the start of every other show on this tour.
The audience’s response was immediate and overpowering. Over twelve thousand voices in a room built for ten screamed in unison in appreciation of the music that was thundering out over the speakers.
The rest of the band fired up, hitting their cues perfectly. The song was strong and loud with Ricky belting out the lyrics with a gusto not heard for a long time. Almost like a living organism, the band and the audience breathed and moved as one as the show fired up.
Hartz Mendoza was having a swell time. Lazily lounging on the bridge of the Heart of Stone, he gazed over the various different displays. Far below on the surface of the planet, his captain, Jeanette was entertaining the six guests and taking them on the surfing trip of a lifetime.
It might seem to be a bad thing to have been left on the ship while everyone else went down to the surface, but he and Karl would swap every third trip so that he could go down. They could both do each other’s jobs quite easily and the ship was a lot more relaxed and roomy with just him aboard.
Hartz was quite content when a new contact came up on his screen. At the same time an indicator lit up to let him know that there was an incoming transmission. It was odd for a ship to be out here, but it could be anyone. He opened a channel to the visitor.
“This is the Heart of Stone, who are you?” he asked.
“Well, you have a real purty voice there, young fella,” came a gruff voice over the channel. “It’d be a right royal shame to have to blow you outta the sky, now wouldn’t it just?”
Hartz was too shocked to respond. The voice continued. “So you know, we have multiple breachers locked and aimed right at you, so any attempt to make any transmissions to the surface will be met with a penalty. Do I make myself clear?”
It took a moment for Hartz to process what he was hearing. Not only was there a ship here in the same system, it was threatening him! The odds of another ship showing up on an off chance were too low for it to be coincidence. This ship was here specifically looking for them.
“I await your reply, if you don’t mind. My trigger finger gets kinda itchy when I’m ignored.”
“Uh, this is the … um … Heart of Stone. What … um … business do you have here?”
“I really don’t like to repeat myself,” said the voice, this time with an angry edge. “So I’ll say it another way. Acknowledge that you won’t make any transmissions or we’ll blow you to teeny little pieces. Is that clear?”
“Yeah, uh, acknowledged. No transmissions.”
“Atta boy! Now we’re playin’ by tha rules. You sit right there and don’t bat an eyelid.”
Hartz could now clearly see what was going on. On his displays he could see that a ship had approached on stealth and come right up behind him. It was fairly large, probably a hunter class battleship. Bigger than the Heart of Stone and probably carrying more missiles than crewmembers. He saw a drop ship separate from the invader and start heading down to the surface.
There had to be some way for him to warn Jeanette and the guests, but he couldn’t think of a way. Any transmission and they would blow him up. And if he were blown up, the people on the surface would not have any way to leave the system. Their shuttle could get them off the planet, but after that, it was a dozen light-years to the nearest habitation. Nervously, Hartz watched the displays and hoped against hope.
It was late in the evening and a large bonfire burned merrily on the beach. The local wood burned with a strange, sweetish smell – not unlike a mixture between bubblegum and chocolate. The weather was balmy and the evening sky was still slightly tinged a faint rose colour from the primaries’ light. The guests and two of her crew sat around the fire telling jokes and comfortably resting after the evening meal. Life was good.
A strange noise was heard softly on the breeze. Instantly, Jeanette and her crew were on alert, followed soon by the guests. The noise was definitely not natural and considering where they were, totally unexpected.
A large dropship came down over the site, hovering over the beach a hundred feet or so from them and then settling down. Ten or so large angry and mean-looking men jumped out the doors, weapons drawn and advanced on the camp.
Jeanette cursed her trusting nature. It had never even occurred to her that she might need to bring weapons to this paradise. It just wasn’t in her nature to think that way.
“Where is my dear Captain McCracker?” asked the man at the front as he reached the group.
“Here I am,” replied Jeanette. “And who might you be?”
The six guests knew that this was not part of the tour. They huddled together by the fire, doing their best to remain motionless and not attract attention, nervously watching the events unfold.
“I am Lother Saenger, Lord of war and killer of whom I chose to kill.” Lothar did a theatrical little flourish and bowed deeply. “I will be your gangster for the evening.”
“What do you want with me?” asked Jeanette.
“With you? Nothing,” replied Lother.
“Then why do you ask for me?”
Lother walked right up to Jeanette and stood over her. “I seek the one called Valerie Opatz.”
Several startled gasps could be heard from the guests. They looked at Valerie, who tried to hide behind Alex.
“And there we go,” said Lother, waving a hand in the general direction of the guests.
“You can’t have her,” said Jeanette as she moved to stand between Lother and the guests.
You can’t stop me,” said Lother. “Right now, my ship, the Bloodbath, is in orbit ready to blow your precious Heart into a shower of debris. I have more seasoned fighters here than you have crew and civilians. We have guns and you don’t. Face it lady, you’re outclassed and outmatched in every way. Hell, I could kill everyone and just take Miss Opatz. I could take her and blow up your ship leaving you stranded here. I could board your ship, throw whomever you left behind out the airlock and take your ship and the girl and leave you here to rot. Do you have any way of stopping me from doing any of that?”
Jeanette clenched her fists. Never before had she felt so utterly helpless. The girl was her charge, her responsibility and anything she tried would do absolutely nothing to help her, and most probably get everyone else killed.
“No,” whispered Jeanette. “I can’t stop you.”
Lother laughed heartily. “Good to see that you know how things work. Now, I’m going to take little miss sunshine here,” he pointed at Valerie, “and I’m not going to kill anyone or take your ship. Do you want to know why?”
“Why?” asked Jeanette.
“Two reasons. First, we’re not going to harm her because people pay more money for kidnap victims when they know the kidnapee hasn’t been harmed. Second, we need you alive and able to travel so you can take our ransom demand back to civilization. Sound like a good plan?”
Jeanette looked around. The guests were huddled in a tight group, scared out of their minds but trying to keep Valerie in the middle. Her crew was standing behind her, defiant but unarmed and therefore helpless. Very few people knew where they were and they wouldn’t be reported as missing for several weeks. It might be three months or more before anyone came looking for them, and they didn’t have enough food to last that long.
“Or I could, you know – just kill a few random people for the hell of it while you make up your mind,” said Lother as he aimed his weapon at Laurana.
“Fine,” said Jeanette, defeated. “Do what you want.”
“Ooh, sounds like an invitation, eh boys?” A smatter of laughter came from the other men. “But, we’re on a bit of a schedule. Fetch.” He pointed at Valerie and three of his men advanced on her and picked her up. Alex tried to pull her back but just earned a punch in the face, which knocked him to the ground. Lother tossed a data disc at Jeanette. “Here, give this to someone with a lot of cash that likes Miss Opatx. Okay boys, we’re leaving.”
Laughing, the men returned to the drop ship and climbed back aboard. A moment later, the drop ship launched into the air and headed up towards the clouds. Jeanette decided to wait about half an hour for the kidnappers to leave before trying to contact Hartz on her ship. During this gap, they stowed all their gear in the shuttle and had everyone aboard, ready to leave.
“Oh boy, am I glad to hear from you!” exclaimed Hartz over the comm. “Anyone hurt?”
“No, but they took Valerie with them. Where’s the nearest inhabited system, preferably one that’s friendly?”
“Checking now. Got it, Maantus system. Has a load of inhabitants as well.”
“We’re on our way up to you. Plot a course there and we’ll leave as soon as we dock.”
The shuttle streaked into the sky, leaving behind a dark, deserted beach and a forlorn bonfire that burned quietly and warmed nobody.
“What do you want to do?” asked Paxton.
I don’t know, what do you want to do?” asked Doris.
“I just want to do what you want to do.”
“I don’t want to do anything. What do you want to do?’
They were casually walking hand in hand down one of the many corridors running through Balga. Most everyone else was busy rushing towards something, or rushing away from something. There were very few people on a station that didn’t have something to do. Paxton and Doris were amongst those few people.
When they had left the Celiker, they were sick of spending all their time washing up and prepping meals. It was pretty good money, but there wasn’t much fun in it. Leaving had seemed like a good idea. Now they were freely roaming around the station, exploring the quiet little nooks and crannies that few other people ever bothered with.
Initially it had been great. Not a care in the world, nobody to answer to and free to do as they pleased. The other, older members of the populace alternated between ignoring them and giving them lots of attention depending on where they were and the time of the day. Mostly, they kept to themselves.
Now, having burned through a large percentage of their savings, they were starting to realize that a drifting lifestyle aboard a space station wasn’t going to be a financially viable option for long. They had spent the last few days wandering around trying to see if they could get a job somewhere. But the fact was, most jobs aboard a space station needed a lot of very specialized skills. There were almost no jobs available for unskilled, basically homeless youths. There were a few niche jobs in the service and entertainment areas (some paying more than others) but all of those were taken by other unskilled youths who had been on the station longer.
“Feel like going and looking for work down on the locks again?” asked Doris.
“Nah, we tried all them places already,” replied Paxton. “Maybe we should widen our search to other types of jobs.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to stay on Balga,” sighed Doris. “If we don’t have a good income, everything is too artificial and expensive for us. We need to get down to a planet where things are easier and less specialized.”
Paxton didn’t reply. Meeting Doris had been a dream come true, but truth be told, he didn’t really feel like working. But then again, who did? The more he thought about it, the more he thought that Doris was right. He missed having a horizon and being able to see further than a few dozen meters. He missed the air that hadn’t been breathed a million times before. Most of all, he missed the ability to just run.
Not that he couldn’t run, just that there wasn’t the space to do it in. And someone running on a station would attract attention. People were always in a hurry, but nobody ever ran. Only criminals ran. Proper people ran and jogged and lifted heavy things in a gymnasium, but he couldn’t afford the rates.
“I do believe you’re right. But between us we don’t have the money for one ticket to anywhere decent, let alone both of us.”
“We don’t have to pay if they’re paying us,” she replied.
“Who in their right mind would pay us to ride on their ship?’
“Oh come on, you’re not that dense!”
“Yeah, I know. I was hoping that my cooking days were over.”
“Well, at least if we’re together then it won’t be so bad,” she said as she nuzzled his neck. “I’m sure that we’ll think of something to pass the time.”
“Yeah – wash dishes. Owe!” Doris had jabbed him in the side with her elbow. It wasn’t a serious blow, just a friendly prod.
“We’ll go look for a ship. Doesn’t matter where it’s going, so long as it’s headed towards a planet. Where it lands, we’ll settle there.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Paxton as they changed direction and headed towards where the ship’s crews generally hung out. “There are plenty of ships coming and going all the time. One of them is bound to take both of us, together.”
“Yeah. And once we get down to a planet, we’ll be able to get decent jobs, find a place to live and raise a family.”
“Family?” said Paxton, with a startled expression on his face.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 17