Children of Junk (Rogue Star Book 3) (9 page)

S
olomon worked as fast
as he could given the pressure. He’d been at it almost nonstop for a day and a half. He had to stop soon and sleep, his mind kept wondering from the task at hand to Dorn threatening Emily. Solomon looked over at her, asleep on her cot. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her, it was his fault she got dragged into this. Damn it! He found a mistake and had to delete two lines of code. His hands trembled with exhaustion. What had turned out to be a good excuse to drag the process out and thus extend their lives a few more days now threatened to cause Emily real trouble. Well, he’d do what he could do as fast as he could do it.

Solomon looked away from the screen and rubbed his dry, scratchy eyes. He only had a couple hours work left, but if he tried to do it now he might screw up the whole program. He yawned. A few hours sleep then he’d finish up, cross his fingers, and hope Dorn didn’t kill them on the spot. He stood up from the hard chair, his back popped and his legs ached like he’d run a mile. Definitely time for a nap.

The door slid open and Dorn entered. “Is it ready?” He sounded desperate, almost terrified. Emily sat up and looked back and forth between them, wide eyed and afraid.

“A few more hours and I’ll have it. I have to rest. I can barely keep my eyes open.”

Dorn dragged the remote out of his pocket and pointed it at Emily, his hand trembling. “No rest, no excuses. Finish it now.”

“I can barely keep the screen in focus. If I continue now I’ll screw it up and have to start over. You’ve waited this long, is a few more hours that important?”

The door slid open and a nightmare floated in. The man, at least Solomon assumed it had been a man at some point, had a black weapon’s module grafted below its left elbow, someone had replaced the top of its head with a steel dome from which wires ran to a lens in its right eye socket. Its body below the waist was gone, replaced by an oblong antigravity unit. Horrifying as the amalgamation was, Solomon was most concerned about the weapon’s module. It was clearly Void tech and if Dorn had gotten a hold of it, helping him was even more dangerous that Solomon first thought.

“You’re too gentle.” The monstrosity’s voice hissed and crackled like a comm unit stuck between frequencies. A blade snapped out of the weapon’s module and it drifted over towards Emily. “I will remove her hand. If the program is not ready in one hour I will remove the other.”

Emily screamed and looked at Dorn. “This wasn’t part of our deal!” She ripped the collar off and tossed it across the room.

Deal? She was in on it. He slumped back down into his chair. She’d been in on from the start. She tricked him into liking her so Dorn could threaten her and he’d do whatever they wanted. How could he have been so stupid? Marcus said you should trust no one you haven’t gone to war with. But did he listen when a pretty girl paid attention to him? No, he jumped in with both feet, eyes clenched firmly shut.

“Solomon!”

Her scream dragged him back to the moment. The cyborg thing was only a couple feet from her now. Solomon took in the scene and felt nothing, all his protective urges washed away by her betrayal. A part of him wanted to see her lose a hand, to see her suffer for making a fool of him. The practical side of him pointed out that if her suffering wouldn’t get him to do what they wanted the monster would soon turn its attention to him.

“Alright! One hour, just leave her alone.”

The cyborg spun to face him, the lens in its eye extended and twisted, then slid back. It nodded once, the blade snapped back into its housing. “I will return in an hour. If I see no images of the council chamber the woman dies.”

It flew back out the door, leaving a shaken Solomon to figure out how he’d get three hours’ work done in one. Dorn shot him one last, pleading look then followed the monster out. It looked like Dorn and that thing had some issues. When they had gone Emily ran over and hugged him.

“You saved me. Thank you.”

Solomon shrugged her off and turned back to the computer. “Who do you think they’ll cut when they’re finished with you? Now shut up and let me concentrate.”

She flinched as if he’d slapped her. What did she expect now that he knew what she’d done? If by some miracle they got out of this mess alive he never wanted to lay eyes on her again and he fully intended to send the nastiest virus he knew to her hypernet address.

“Please, Solomon, I didn’t have a choice. I borrowed money from him then I couldn’t pay it back. When he made me an offer to work it off I had to do it. You’ve seen what these people are like. You know what they would have done to me if I hadn’t done what they wanted.”

He looked at her. She had tears in her eyes and trembled from head to toe. He felt nothing, no pity, no sympathy, the bitch had used him to save herself and now they were both probably going to die. One of them at least deserved it. “I don’t care. Now shut your mouth so I can try to save both our lives.”

T
he
Star
emerged
from hyperspace in stealth mode about a hundred thousand miles from the coordinates Nina had provided. The jump had only taken an hour and now on the main screen, magnified so they could get a good look at it, floated Dorn’s space station. It looked like something a kid would cobble together out of spare blocks. Three cylindrical units connected by rigid walkways formed the bulk of the structure. Marcus counted five heavy weapons emplacements. At the top the ore hauler connected to the station via an extended docking tube, three long arms ending in claws emerged from the station to hold it in place.

The scanners picked up over a hundred life forms on the station and twenty on the hauler. That was a hell of a lot more to deal with than eight mercenaries.

“I don’t suppose you have a plan?” Iaka said.

“I’m working on it. If I just knew where he was it would be so much easier.”

Marcus turned his attention to the scanners. There were life forms everywhere. He guided the ship around the station, trying to find somewhere to dock without everyone in the place noticing. There were several airlocks, but if they were locked he’d have to blast them open which would draw every guard in the place. He reached the far side and stopped. The hanger of the ore carrier didn’t have a door, just a forcefield. That seemed insanely risky. If the ship lost power they’d lose their atmosphere.

He eased closer and focused his scanners on the hanger. There were no life forms present. It couldn’t be that easy. He scanned for traps, explosives, or computer controlled cannons guarding the hanger entrance and found nothing. Someone had left the back door open. Who would be that stupid?

There was nothing for it. He flew them closer and still nothing detected them, nothing obvious anyway. Marcus shrugged and flew through the forcefield. Nothing happened, not even an alarm sounded, they were in. He landed gently, expecting at any moment to see guards pouring through the door in the far wall. Marcus left everything running, the shields and cloaking device up and the auto-guns on. Anyone approaching the ship would get a face full of plasma.

He turned to Iaka. “Do you want to wait here or come with me?”

She got up. “He’s my friend too, I’m coming.”

Marcus grinned. “Then let’s go.”

They headed back to the hold. Marcus accessed the weapon’s locker and examined his selection of death dealers. He would have preferred to wear his armor, but it made way too much noise to be of use sneaking around. A pair of his new blasters rested in a two gun belt and he strapped them on, that should be enough firepower. Next he slipped on a chest harness with a micro-shield generator. That would take care of any small arms fire. Next he filled a satchel with a variety of bombs and grenades along with a hand scanner loaded with Solomon’s bio-signature. He finished up by strapping on his gauntlet.

“One of us should take an ion pistol.” Iaka examined his collection of weapons and shook her head. “Are there more than last time?”

“Not a lot more, and now we don’t need an ion pistol.” He patted his new blasters. “These are the latest in Vencar shield penetrating blasters. Dra’Kor hooked me up with four of them after we ran into the Void assassins.”

When Iaka had what she wanted from the weapons' locker, including her own personal shield, he looked her up and down. His gaze lingered on her curves more than her weapons. At last he nodded. “Almost ready.” He clipped an identifier chip to her weapons’ belt then clipped one to his own. “There, now the computer won’t blast us by accident when we leave.”

“That’s good to know.”

Outside the ship, Marcus went over to the two fighters and placed a remote detonated bomb on each one. He walked up to the door leading deeper into the ship and understood why they didn’t worry about losing atmosphere. A six inch thick shielded blast door separated the hanger from the rest of the ship. Marcus doubted a direct hit from the
Star
’s main cannons would penetrate it. Perfect, he was inside, but only marginally better off than when he was outside. How the hell was he supposed to get through a door that thick?

A blaster in one hand and his gauntlet ready on the other he moved over beside the control panel. He’d feel like an idiot if he didn’t at least try to open the door. Beside him Iaka had her own weapon out, a grim expression on her face. She looked ready for a fight and that reassured him. He reached for the button to open the door and looked at her. She nodded once and he hit it. Nothing happened. Well, that had been a dim prospect anyway.

“Damn it!” He slammed his gauntlet against the door. It made an awful clang drawing a wince followed at once by a smile. If he couldn’t open he’d have to get someone else to do it for him.

He pounded on the door with the grip of his blaster. The noise hurt his ears, but someone on the other side had to hear it. He kept at it for a full minute until a light flashed on the control panel. The doors groaned and moved. He slipped to one side and Iaka went to the other. The door parted enough for him to see a single figure on the other side. Marcus sent a stun pulse into his face. The person dropped and the door continued to slide open.

When it had opened all the way Marcus crouched beside the unconscious figure. He looked young, with a shaved head, and some sort of port built into his chest. His left arm ended in a three fingered metal claw. Marcus shook his head. What the hell had they done to the kid? “Grab a leg.”

Marcus grabbed one, Iaka took the other, and between them they dragged the unconscious man into the hanger. “What do you make of him?”

“Looks like someone used him as a subject in an experiment,” Iaka said.

“I somehow doubt it was voluntary.” They dropped the unconscious man’s legs on the floor. “We need to get moving.”

Beyond the blast door was a long hall stretching left and right as far as he could see, dull gray steel broken by an occasional scuffed stainless steel door. Marcus took out his scanner and switched it on. Now that he was inside the ship he hoped to get a fix on Solomon's location. According to the scanner he needed to go forward and to his left. He went to the first door to his left and it opened at his approach. Another hall stretched out before him.

He checked the scanner, three hundred feet forward and to the left. Marcus slipped down the hall, ears straining for any sign of opposition. In the distance some machinery wheezed and clanked, but nothing that indicated trouble. They eased their way down the hall. Marcus forced himself to relax his jaw before he broke a tooth.

A motor whirled to life behind him. Marcus spun, leveled his blaster and fired. His blast blew a hole through the chest of an armless man with steel tentacles growing out his back. What sort of horror show had they wondered into here? He winced at the scream of the blaster. That shot would draw every guard in the place.

“What was that thing?”

Iaka shook her head. “I have no idea. I’m a biologist, I study nature. That thing and the other one we left in the hanger have nothing to do with nature.”

Marcus couldn’t argue with that. He checked the scanner again, another hundred feet. He picked up the pace, no longer worried about his steps clanging on the metal floor. After the blaster shot it sounded like a whisper. Marcus stopped in front of a door that didn’t open at his approach. A control panel on the wall beside it had a number pad and a message requesting he input the access code. Marcus switched his gauntlet to EMP mode and input a small lightning bolt. The panel sparked and the door slid open.

Inside Solomon sat slumped over a computer terminal. Seated on a cot on the far side of the room was the girl he’d only seen in the security recordings from their hotel. He’d found them at last.

S
olomon didn’t even lift
his head at the sound of the door opening. “It’s done, will you please leave me alone,”

Marcus stepped into the room. “I could do that, but I thought you might like a lift out of here.”

Solomon spun around so fast he almost fell out of his chair, his sigh of relief so pitiful Marcus could only shake his head. “I didn’t think you’d be able to find us.”

Marcus grinned. “It wasn’t easy I’ll tell you. You can thank Princess Lande. Her security people had Dorn under surveillance.”

Solomon got up and staggered over to him. He had dark circles under red eyes, it didn’t look like they’d let him sleep for days. Solomon stumbled and Marcus caught his friend before he fell. He helped Solomon over to the empty cot. “I really need a nap.”

“That’s fine, but not just now.”

“Marcus, they’re coming.” Iaka had her head stuck out the busted door. “We’re cut off.”

“How many?” Marcus eased his friend down.

“A lot, all them like the ones we’ve seen. It looks like a bus ran into a scrap hauler and they got all smushed together.”

“Shit!”

“Marcus.” Solomon groaned and leaned forward. “Be careful, they’re using Void tech.”

“How in the galaxy did this lot of misfits get access to Void tech?”

It didn’t matter, they needed to get through them and back to the
Star
. He dug a grenade out of his satchel, walked to the doorway, pulled the pin, and threw it down the hall. A couple seconds later an explosion that made his blaster shot seem quiet shook the floor. He stuck his head out, smoke filled the hall and a few bodies lay on the floor. Beyond them indistinct figures moved in the haze. He might have bought a few minutes at best.

“I need to get to the bridge. Can you hold the door by yourself?”

Iaka stared at him for a moment. “Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.”

Solomon levered himself off the cot. “I can help.”

“You can barely stand.” Marcus helped Solomon over beside the door and shrugged out of his grenade satchel. “Here. When Iaka tells you, throw one down the hall. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

“Tell me you have a plan.” The desperation in Iaka’s voice strengthened his determination. He’d get them all out of this no matter what.

“I do. It’s not a good plan, but given our circumstances I’m going with it. If you feel the ship start to rattle hang on to something.”

Iaka grabbed the front of his shirt, yanked him close, and kissed him hard on the lips. “Don’t you dare get yourself killed.”

“Not a chance.” Marcus pulled his blasters and laid down a barrage of fire. He ducked out the door and ran in the opposite direction from the freaks at the end of the hall.

He made it to the end without so much as a stray blast skipping off his shield. The hall branched left and right. He went right on instinct. Truth was Marcus had no idea how best to reach the bridge, he moved based on what he saw when they circled the structure outside. He ran a few strides then skidded to a halt in front of a lift.

Before he hit the call button a monstrosity with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a spider skittered out from a side hall and started toward him. Marcus put two blasts through its human torso. It collapsed, but the spider legs scratched at the metal floor, making a horrid screeching that set his teeth on edge, as they tried to reach him. Two more shots through the center of the its mass elicited a shower of sparks and the legs went still. Marcus shuddered and hit the call button. He’d never especially liked spiders, and he found he liked giant half metal half human ones even less.

A chime sounded and the lift doors opened. A surprised, mostly flesh and blood, four armed alien stared at him for the instant it took Marcus to put a shot between his eyes. The unfortunate alien’s head blew apart like an overripe squash hitting the floor. The dead alien slumped to the ground half in and half out of the lift.

“Sorry about this.” He stepped over the corpse, turned, and kicked it clear of the doors.

They slid shut and Marcus studied the control panel. He hit the top floor. It looked from the outside that the bridge sat at the highest point of the ship. Tuneless instrumental music played as he shot up five levels. Another chime sounded and the door slid open revealing a large room with half a dozen computer stations. Three all flesh and blood aliens with spiral horns shouted about intruders and seemed uncertain what they should do about it. He’d found the bridge. Perfect.

Marcus fired a blast into the ceiling and the crew fell silent. They stared at him with wide eyes. “Who’s in charge?”

One of the aliens stepped hesitantly forward. “I’m master Karrik’s second in command.”

“Do you pilot this ship?”

He shook his head and pointed at one of the others. “He’s our pilot.”

“Excellent, I didn’t want to shoot the wrong person.” He turned his focus on the pilot. “I’d like you to fly us out of here. Now.”

The pilot looked at his commander. Marcus leveled his blaster at the second in command’s head and fired a screaming shot that skimmed past his ear to burn a shallow divot in the floor. “Your compliance isn’t optional. Do it, now.”

The pilot needed no further prompting. He rushed to his station and started typing commands. A vibration ran through the hull as he powered up the engines. “I can retract the docking tube, but the claws are controlled in the station.”

“Don’t worry, just give the engines full power. Something will give.”

The pilot swallowed. “I have no idea what might happen if I do that.”

Marcus leveled his second blaster at him. “I pretty sure I know which button to punch to get the engines going. I promise you, whatever happens, it’ll be better for you than what’s going to happen if you don’t do what I say.”

The trembling pilot nodded and swiped forward across his station. Marcus braced himself, never taking his focus off the three members of the bridge crew. The vibrations increased, rattling the hull. The hauler shook and metal shrieked. All at once they surged forward. Marcus staggered. The second in command fell on his face and the third member of the group shot him a narrow eyed look. Hopefully the guy wouldn’t do anything stupid. He’d killed enough people over the last week; he didn’t need to add another one to the list.

One of the stations lit up and alarms sounded. “What is that?”

“Damage report.” The second in command got to his feet. “It sounds like you broke Master Karrik’s ship.”

“If Dorn loses nothing more than a ship before this day’s over he can consider himself lucky.” Marcus leveled his gauntlet and stunned all three of them in rapid succession. He needed to get back to Solomon and Iaka and off this dying ship.

S
olomon couldn’t believe
his eyes. When he learned they were on a ship he figured Marcus would never find him, but there he stood in the doorway, the familiar grin in place. Solomon almost wept. Now, mere moments after he believed himself safe for the first time in days, blaster fire was pounding the wall a few feet from his head and he had a satchel of grenades on his lap. He leaned out, trying to see past Iaka. A crimson bolt charred a black circle on the doorway six inches from his face. He jerked back to a safe distance.

“Solomon, grenade.” Iaka fired a steam of blaster bolts down the hall.

He pawed through the satchel. There were explosive grenades, smoke grenades, a couple ion grenades, even an adhesive grenade. “What kind?”

“The kind that blows up!”

Excellent, Marcus had brought the most of that kind. He grabbed a round one, pulled the pin, and threw it through the doorway past Iaka. An explosion rocked the hall and for a second the enemy fire stopped. Iaka leaned back from the open door; sweat plastered her hair to her face.

“What’s Marcus doing?” Solomon asked.

“The same thing he always does, make it up as he goes.” She sounded annoyed. Getting trapped then shot at would do that to a person.

A vibration ran through Solomon. “They fired up the engines.”

A few seconds later the horrible shriek of metal tearing followed by screams from out in the hall. Iaka stuck her head out into the hall then pulled it back in. “They’re running away. Somehow he did it.” She shook her head as though not believing it.

Another rattle followed by an explosion. Smoke from something billowed down the hall. “Don’t celebrate yet,” Solomon said.

More of the awful screeches followed by more explosions. It sounded like the ship was breaking up. The freaks from the hall probably ran toward the escape pods. That didn’t strike Solomon as such a bad idea just then.

Emily bounced up from the cot. “We have to get out of here.”

She ran toward the door. Iaka reached to try to stop her, but Solomon shook his head. “Let her go.”

Emily darted out the door. Iaka turned to look at him. “She might get killed out there.”

“I doubt it. Emily works for Dorn, she has from the beginning. Meeting her was all a setup.”

“I’m sorry, I know you liked her.”

A different, higher pitched squeal sounded, saving Solomon from the awkward conversation. “I know that noise. That was the ship’s cannon firing.”

“Marcus left the outer defenses on when we left. Someone probably tried to reach the fighters in the hanger.”

The ship lurched again, throwing Solomon against the wall. Who the hell was piloting this thing? Now he knew why Marcus wanted them to hold on to something. “I have to say this isn’t his best rescue ever.”

Iaka smiled. “Has he had that much practice? I mean saving anyone except you and me?”

Solomon laughed. “You’d be surprised. He might not act like it, but Marcus is a sucker for someone in trouble.”

T
he ship kept lurching
, first one way then the other, it was all Marcus could do to make his way down the short, curving ramp to the central command station. Both engines had failed and lights kept popping on the damage control station. He needed to get the external monitors working so he could see what was happening out there. He stumbled, caught himself on the command chair, and slid into the seat. The control panel looked simple enough. He flipped a switch he thought controlled the main screen and sure enough it came to life.

Two monstrous ships with eight arms protruding from a central cockpit like some sort of giant octopus tore at the hauler. Each of the arms ended in a different tool. Cutters, bashers, metal shears, plasma cutters, and several other tools he didn’t recognize were not so slowly reducing the hauler to scrap. It wouldn’t take long before they did so much damage that the automatic mitigation systems could no longer maintain the atmosphere. Marcus hated to admit it, but this wasn’t his best rescue ever.

He studied the control panel a little closer and found nothing that looked like computer controlled weapons. He shook his head. Screw it. He got up and ran for the lift door. Another tremor about knocked him off his feet, but he caught the frame of the lift and pulled himself in. He hit the switch to take him back down and prayed he’d make it before those ships tore something that controlled the lift.

The chime sounded and the doors slid open two levels above where he wanted to be. Staring at him, eyes wide and terror filled, was Dorn Karrik. Marcus grinned at his luck and punched the horned prick square in the face. The old man went down hard. Marcus grabbed his ankles and dragged him into the lift. The doors shut and the speaker buzzed and crackled as it tried to play the awful music.

Once again the chime sounded, this time on the correct floor. The doors slid open and thick greasy smoke billowed in. Marcus crouched down under the noxious cloud. What the hell was burning? He grabbed Dorn’s ankle and dragged the unconscious kidnapper behind him. He retraced his steps back to the prison room. No freaks presented themselves and no one shot at him. Looked like the rats had abandoned the sinking ship. They had the right idea.

Marcus stopped outside the door. “It’s me, don’t shoot.”

Iaka and Solomon waited just inside the door, him sitting and her standing. “You’re okay.” Iaka hugged him. “What’s going on with the ship?”

“It’s being torn apart. We need to go.” Marcus looked around. “Where’s the girl?”

“Gone,” Solomon said, his voice glum. “Don’t worry about her. She was working for Dorn the whole time.”

Marcus grinned. “Speaking of Dorn.”

He stepped out and retrieved his now groaning prisoner. “I brought you a present.”

He pulled one of his blasters and offered it to Solomon grip first. “He’s all yours. Just make it quick. We’re almost out of time.”

Solomon shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. “Let’s take him to the council for a proper trial. Much as he deserves it I don’t want his blood on my hands.”

Marcus shrugged and hauled Dorn to his feet. The old alien staggered but didn’t fall. “Suit yourself. Let’s go.”

He shoved Dorn out the door ahead of him. If anyone got shot let it be the one who got them into this mess in the first place. As he feared no one took a shot at the old crook. Well, they had a ways to go yet; maybe someone would blast him and save them the time and trouble of a trial. The little group started down the hall, walking crouched to avoid the smoke.

They hadn’t gone far when they had to move close to the wall to skirt a pair of gaping holes in the floor. All around the holes were bits of bloody flesh and twisted metal. Those grenades had been worth the money. When they cleared the aftermath of the battle and reached the end of the hall Marcus grabbed the back of Dorn’s collar and shoved him toward the door to the hanger.

Marcus paused to punch the deactivation code to the
Star’s
external defenses then shoved Dorn through. A charred, smoking, unrecognizable corpse lay on the hanger floor a few feet from the unconscious man. Marcus had no idea who or what it had been, but he saw no metal, just burned flesh, so it wasn’t one of the freaks attacking them.

A green bolt flashed through the smoke and splashed against the door a foot from Marcus’s head. He leapt to one side an instant ahead of a second blast. Those looked like disruptor blasts. Solomon had warned him his captors had access to Void tech. This certainly confirmed it. “Everybody down!”