In Earth's Service (Mapped Space Book 2) Read online

  “He could be an imposter.”

  “I saw the commission myself. It was genuine.”

  “His soldiers aren’t,” I said. “None of them are URA.”

  “Hmph! Figures,” Hadley said grimly. “What are you planning to do about it?”

  “Make him regret not killing me when he had the chance.”

  A crooked grin slowly appeared on Hadley’s face. “How can I help?”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  He took a moment to gather his thoughts, then said, “Three or four times a year, that old freighter sets down at Loport. Always meets a dark, cylindrical ship. Nasty looking brute, bristling with guns – exactly the kind of thing those surface batteries are supposed to destroy.”

  “The Cyclops. I’ve seen her.”

  “Sometimes the Merak Star is by herself, sometimes she comes with other ships. Big haulers. All new, all exactly the same.”

  “Armed?”

  He shook his head. “No weapons that I could see, but I’m no expert.”

  “Unarmed ships don’t enter high threat space,” I said doubtfully.

  “These do. You want to see?”

  “You have holos?”

  “This isn’t Hades City!” he said indignantly. “Two-dee only.” He touched a control sensor beside his chair, bringing a wall screen to life above the mantelpiece. “I told you I’ve been waiting for someone to show up. Took these just in case. Got a whole lot more if you’re interested.”

  An image of a vessel painted in Pan Core Shipping livery appeared. Pan Core was one of the giants of interstellar transport with links to the Consortium, the largest white collar criminal organization in Mapped Space. The ship looked like she was straight out of the builder’s yard, spotlessly clean with a flawless paint job and lacking any kind of defense, even shield emitters. No one in their right mind would send such a valuable prize in this close to the Acheron unless they knew they had nothing to fear from the Drakes.

  The ship reminded me of a Saracen class freighter, only longer and thicker in places where she’d undergone structural reinforcement – a strange modification for a noncombat ship. She had the same four cargo doors each side, although her four maneuvering engines arranged in a diamond formation were twice the size of those on a standard Saracen. The bigger engines would have made her tactically faster and more maneuverable at the cost of reduced cargo capacity and higher mass.

  “When they land,” Hadley continued, “the crew goes aboard the Merak Star while a new crew transfer over from the dark ship.”

  If the Merak Star was Consortium owned, then they weren’t just selling weapons to the Drakes, they were building ships for them as well. It was a marked change for the Brotherhood, who used ships captured in deep space or rescued from the scrap yard. They didn’t place orders, or they never used to.

  “I want copies,” I said.

  “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ve been trying to get these pictures out for two years, but Metzler’s got offworld comms sewn up so tight, we can’t even send a weather report without his say so.”

  “You must get traders in here.”

  “Some, but they’re either gone in a day or end up the same place you did.”

  “I see,” I said, wondering how many Metzler had killed to keep his operation a secret.

  “This was a good place, once. Never had a need for an offworld governor, not since old A.M. died, and he was one of us.”

  “A.M.? That’s the second time you’ve mentioned him.”

  Hadley looked surprised as he realized I’d never heard of his distinguished ancestor. “Andrew Mordechai Hadley, founder of Hardfall Colony! If not for him getting everyone out of the Dahlia when he did, they’d all of died right then and there. I won’t say this is our family’s colony, but no one has a bigger stake in it than we do.”

  “And being A.M.’s descendant, you have the respect of the colonists, which is why Metzler wants you in jail.”

  “It’s why he wants me dead! Only he can’t kill me outright or he’d have half the colony up in arms. Yes sir! Metzler’s got to find a way to get rid of me nice and legal like. Considering my wife is the daughter of Hardfall’s Chief Justice,” Hadley smiled, “that isn’t going to be easy.”

  After a few hours with Quentin Tobias Hadley, I knew he was neither a crook or a traitor, giving the Union no reason to replace him. That made Metzler’s appointment a fix. Whatever was going on, the Drakes wanted the colony nearest the Acheron under their thumb, although pulling strings on Earth wasn’t a game the Brotherhood played. They’d leave that to the Consortium, who had the wealth and the contacts to subvert entire planets. Considering hardly anyone on Earth had even heard of Hardfall, bribing colonial officials to get Metzler appointed would have been child’s play.

  “Is there a way I can get a message to my ship?” I asked.

  “Not by communicator. Metzler has everything tapped. One of my boys could take a message over for you.”

  “Metzler’s men are watching my ship.”

  Hadley smiled. “That won’t be a problem.”

  While we waited for his men to return from the Silver Lining, Hadley and his daughter showed me their home movies of hunting trips and expeditions through the crumbling remains of a lost alien civilization.

  “It was a resources colony,” Hadley explained. “After the northern plains turned arid and the planet was mined out, they had no reason to stay. Even so, it took them a long time to abandon the planet.”

  “It’s hard to imagine anyone farming with the kind of animals that live here,” I said, recalling my experience of the previous night.

  “They almost exterminated the planet’s wildlife,” Emma said, “except for small breeding populations they kept alive in nature reserves. They got away with it because there were no proto-intelligent species on the planet.”

  “Hardfall’s officially classified as a dead end world,” Hadley added.

  The appearance of intelligent life was random and didn’t occur on every habitable planet, but where it did, it was protected by galactic law.

  “The Tau Cetins called them the Birali,” Emma said, “but that’s all they’ll tell us.”

  Maybe they’d been one of Meta’s Precursor Civilizations. It was hard to know with the Tau Cetins drip feeding us information based on rules they wouldn’t explain.

  Hadley used his prosthetic arm to activate the next recording. When he noticed my gaze, he flexed his black claw arm demonstratively. “Lost it to a sawtooth more than ten years ago. Gun jammed. Lucky it didn’t cut me in half.” He pointed to the dark brown head of a square jawed beast mounted in pride of place on a wall of hunting trophies. “Good thing for me it took time swallowing my arm. I cleared the breach one handed while it had me pinned!”

  “Why don’t you get a full cosmetic job?” I asked.

  “Then who’d know I’d looked death in the face and survived?” He grinned mischievously. “People respect that kind of thing around here. I’m Hardfall, pure and simple.”

  “‘We fall hard but always get up,’” Emma said, quoting a local saying. “Just ask them, they’ll tell you!” She glanced at her father’s prosthetic, shaking her head. “Sometimes I think he fed his arm to that sawtooth on purpose, just so he could wear that hideous thing to show how tough he is.”

  Hadley grinned. “Old A.M. lost a leg. He hobbled around on a metal stump for years before the colony got a new one sent out from Earth. It’s a family tradition.”

  “Not a tradition I’ll be following!” Emma declared, every bit as tough as him, but without the bravado.

  Hadley grinned and leaned towards me. “She says that, but she saved me that day. Tied off my arm and kept me alive until the evac arrived. Old Doc Tanner couldn’t have done better himself, and she was only a kid at the time.”

  She avoided his eyes, almost embarrassed by his praise.

  “So you live under a burning sun on a dying planet,” I said, “mined out by aliens, swarm
ing with creatures that’ll eat you on sight, with gravity too heavy for most humans and nothing but planetary extinction to look forward to?”

  Hadley chuckled. “That about sums it up.”

  “Ever thought of moving?”

  “This old rock’s seen better days, no doubt, but it’s home and it’ll be here long after we’ve turned to dust,” he said philosophically, then started the next recording.

  Hadley’s men returned late in the afternoon with Jase and Izin, having smuggled them in Hiport’s vehicle crane down to the Prairie Runner for the cross country drive back to Hadley’s Retreat.

  “How’d you get past Metzler’s men?” I asked when we met in the trophy room.

  “Izin took care of it,” Jase said absently, passing me the fresh ammo I’d requested as his eyes wandered over Hadley’s collection of snarling animal heads. “Are they real?”

  “Oh yeah,” I replied. “The big one in the middle bit Mr. Hadley’s arm clean off.”

  Hadley held up his prosthetic arm proudly. “Swallowed it whole. Didn’t even thank me.”

  Izin removed his pressure suit helmet, revealing his streamlined features and the vocalizer over his mouth, much to Hadley’s surprise. “The arrival of Mr. Hadley’s men provided a useful distraction, Captain.”

  “Are Metzler’s men dead?” I asked.

  “Merely unconscious,” Izin replied.

  “And locked in a VRS container at the spaceport,” Jase added.

  “The auto timer should release them before they suffocate,” Izin said, “unless my air consumption calculations were incorrect.”

  I glanced at Hadley. “We’ll give you the container number. You can let them out in a day or two.”

  “If I remember,” Hadley said indifferently.

  Emma entered with two of Hadley’s men. Jase locked eyes on her immediately, flashing her a smile as she approached.

  “And I thought they called this place Hardfall because of the gravity, not the girls!” He took a step toward her. “Jase Logan,” he said, taking her hand. “Starship pilot, soldier of fortune, lover extraordinaire of beautiful women.”

  She smiled, flattered by the attention. “Emma,” she said, introducing herself.

  “Pleased to meet you … Emma.” Jase glanced at me. “No wonder you stayed out all night, Skipper!”

  “Emma’s Mr. Hadley’s daughter,” I said with a warning look.

  “And I’m a very protective father,” Hadley added, snapping his prosthetic claws meaningfully.

  “I’m still very pleased to meet you, Miss Hadley,” Jase said with an admiring look.

  “Been in space a long time?” she asked, intrigued by his attention.

  “You have no idea.” He sighed, reluctantly releasing her hand.

  She turned to her father. “They just changed the guards down at Loport Station. Next change won’t be until morning.”

  “We’re going somewhere?” Jase asked, clearly preferring to stay and try his luck with Miss Hadley.

  “We’re paying the Merak Star an unexpected visit.” I turned to Hadley. “Have you got somewhere to put the station guards?”

  “We’ll lock them in the vehicle park storeroom. No one goes down there but our people.”

  “Good,” I said, sliding a gelslug mag into my gun. “They won’t be alone.”

  Four guards wearing URA uniforms lounged inside the Loport cable station paying scant attention to the street outside. Hadley and his people stayed hidden to avoid future reprisals while we made our way along the cliff wall out of sight of the entrance.

  “Are you sure about this, Izin?” I asked. “They might shoot you on sight.”

  “Ardenans are unused to tamphs,” Izin replied. “They won’t shoot if I’m unarmed.”

  When we reached the terminal, he handed me his shredder pistol, removed his helmet revealing his face, then stepped into the station’s entrance.

  “I still think we should have tossed one of your fancy stun grenades in there,” Jase whispered.

  I’d suggested it, but Izin had argued one grenade wouldn’t take them all out, giving the survivor a chance to summon more guards than we could handle.

  When Izin had their attention, he walked unhurriedly into the station while Jase and I waited outside, guns drawn.

  “Hey, isn’t that one of them fish men from Earth?” one guard asked in surprise as Izin approached.

  Another laughed. “It don’t look so tough!”

  “Hold it right there, fish head,” one of the guards said, casually aiming his weapon at Izin.

  “I seem to be lost,” Izin said, continuing past the guards to where the cables ran out toward Loport, drawing them after him.

  “I told you to stop!” the leader yelled.

  Izin turned to face them, “I’m looking for the ocean.”

  One of the guards laughed. “It wants to go swimming!”

  “That’s five thousand kilometers from here!”

  Ocean was Izin’s signal. We stepped into the entry, Jase with a fragger in each hand, but under strict instructions not to shoot unless I missed. Fraggers were rapid fire gunfighter weapons designed for killing only. They couldn’t take the nonlethal gelslugs my P-50 was loaded with. The low kinetic energy round popped an elastic polymer moments after leaving the barrel, turning it into a short range haymaker ideal for taking down targets you didn’t want to splatter across the room.

  Holding my P-50 two handed, I put gelslugs into the heads of two guards before they knew what was happening. The third guard dodged sideways, avoiding my shot and bringing his penetrator around to fire. He got it halfway up before Izin darted forward, snatched the weapon from his hand and kicked out his legs. A moment after he hit the floor, Izin slammed the weapon’s stock into the guard’s head putting him to sleep. I switched to the fourth guard who was running for the comm panel. I aimed low, put one into his back knocking him down followed by a second into his head ensuring he didn’t get up. All four would wake up in Hadley’s storeroom with concussion, but they’d still be breathing. Good for them, good for me, as I had no desire to leave a trail of corpses behind. I was here for information, not a bloodbath.

  I motioned at the entrance, then a solar powered delivery van emerged from a side street and drove up to the terminal. When it stopped, Hadley and his people climbed out. They loaded the guards and their weapons into the vehicle, then drove off leaving Hadley and Emma behind.

  “Give us time to get down there and take the ship,” I said to Hadley.

  “We’ll head out past the Dahlia tonight, swing around and come up from the south. We’ll be there in the Runner about two in the morning.”

  If everything went according to plan, we’d control the Merak Star by then, but they weren’t the only eyes down on the low mesa. “What about Loport Battery’s sensors?”

  “We’ll stay beyond the horizon as we circle out, then come up in the mesa’s blind spot. They won’t even know we’re there. We just got to be gone by dawn so Citadel don’t see us, otherwise they’re likely to open up on us with their big guns.”

  “I understand.”

  A spherical cable car was gliding up from the south. It was half the size of the Skylink gondolas with only a single door each side and transparent walls. While it offered no cover, it would be dark when we got to Loport. With Merak Star’s bridge crew relying on Metzler’s men to keep the landing ground secure, I hoped they wouldn’t be paying too much attention to the gondolas.

  Izin moved up to the boarding platform while Jase struck up a last minute conversation with Emma Hadley. From the look she gave him, his charms weren’t lost on her.

  “Jase, we’re going,” I said, heading toward the platform as the cable car slid to a stop and its automatic door opened.

  Jase talked fast and she smiled, touching his arm lightly, then he raced up to the platform, jumping aboard just before the door closed.

  “I thought we were going without you,” I said as the gondola glided out over t
he low cliffs for the long ride south.

  “Hey Skipper, you know I never miss a party!” He said, looking back toward Emma Hadley standing hands on hips watching us go.

  “You know she’s genetically engineered?” I said. “Tougher, stronger and probably smarter than you.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed philosophically, “but at least she’s human. The last female you introduced me to was an alien robot!”

  The cable support tower on Lone Peak, between Hadley’s Retreat and Loport mesa, was equipped with a small maintenance platform and a narrow ladder down to the ground. During the long climb toward the tower, Loport was increasingly obscured by the pillar of rock, only coming into view once we rose above the summit. The Merak Star was now clearly visible, perched on top of the low mesa with hatches sealed. The only signs of life were the two man foot patrol pacing the cliff tops and the rotating dome of the surface battery standing alone on the low plateau’s eastern promontory.

  “We’ll lure the guards into the cable station,” I said as our gondola approached the maintenance platform, “then take the Merak Star after dark.”

  “Is attacking a ship on the ground considered piracy?” Jase wondered.

  “Depends if we keep it.”

  “Technically, Captain,” Izin said, “attacking a noncombatant ship, whether on the ground or in space, is a crime punishable by death.”

  “Then we better not get caught,” I said as the cable car reached the maintenance platform and came to an unexpected halt. A moment later, a small metallic disk crashed through the window and shot into the center of the gondola. The device hovered at eye height, blasting a piercing, rapidly increasing tone at us, then it emitted a brilliant white flash.

  I didn’t remember hitting the gondola floor, but when I came to, my bionetic clock told me I’d been out for only seconds. While the stun itself had been short lived, the after effect lingered. A persistent white fog pervaded by a monotonous tone filled my mind. I wanted to open my eyes, but couldn’t remember how. I’d been stunned before, but never like this, never so completely isolated from my body. I gave up trying to see and forced my scrambled thoughts to form a single word.