Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 0: Tanya (21 page)

“I couldn’t outrun a cosmic wind in this thing!” Felone snapped. “Are you kidding me?”

“You won’t have to,” The Kievor replied, “if you’d care to take a look at her weaponry. She’s also equipped with a military grade auto-targeting system that wasn’t part of this ship’s original equipment.”

Felone had to agree that for what the ship lacked in thrust it more than made up for in weaponry. It possessed no less than four independently targeting photon cannons and slews of plasma cannon, more than could be counted from her vantage. It would be perfect for keeping Jason at bay but she’d never catch Adjudicator either. It would have to do for the time being though.

“I’ll take it.” Felone said.

“We rather thought you might.” The Kievor replied.

Chapter 55

Jason hadn’t fled quite as far as any of the parties who w
ere interested
would have imagined, nor had he in actuality run away at all. He was very much present and accounted for and an interested observer to all that was occurring, though presently at a hidden locale, at least until he could devise a plan of attack.

Whatever his next step was to be, and for the present he had no idea what that next step would be, it would have to be planned based on the outcome of Tanya and Felone’s fight. There did remain one thing he
was
sure of though, and it was that if Tanya and Felone found one another on the Kievor Trade Station, and of no question was the fact that they would
definitely
be looking for one another, then there would be one hell of a battle! That was why he had left Felone when he did, because he
could
get that lucky, if whatever Gods ruled the Universe happened to be smiling down upon his black soul at the moment, and
there could end up to be one less battle he had to fight when it was over.

Jason wasn’t so much a fool as to think he could flee and get away indefinitely unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life running and hiding, and he did not want that. He wanted a resolution as quickly as one could be safely secured. Jason could not know for certain- it was surmised- that Felone had realized he had seen through her but she had been right about one thing; that she had not been able to hide her devious plot from him. It had been more than c
lear enough for Jason to see
written plainly in her
cold eyes and recognize
what it was; treacher
y of the blackest sort. She
decided to end their business relationship, and such endings with Felone were always violent and permanent. Why share when she could have it all? Felone was not good at hi
ding her thoughts as she was
too volatile and unstable for that. Jason wasn’t going t
o be the patsy at the end of
this, at least not without a fight, and now the fight was out in the open. He had defined the rules, as he always had. He was the Handler for a reason.

However, even if he
was
wrong about Felone planning to dump him at this time, it
was
growing clearer by the year that the day when Felone would decid
e to cut loose was coming and
sooner rather than later, but Jason seriously doubted he was wrong about this. He was seldom wrong when it came to reading people- that was his greatest asset if truth be known- and he was damned if he was going to help Felone kill Tanya only to have Felone stab him the first time he turned his back on her.

Most likely she would just
come straight forward and kill
him with her bare hands, an act in which Felone particularly reveled, and not the way
Jason wanted to go out. A person could scream a long time in Felone’s tender embrace. Now she would have to get past Adjudicator’s guns before such an opportunity would present itself, and Jason had to smile as he sat back and sipped his whisky, pondering the unknowns.

He had all the time in the Universe to figure it all out. He wouldn’t have wanted to be in either Tanya or Felone’s shoes at that precise moment, and since he was assuredly in the most secure position, why did he then have such an uneasy feeling that had nothing to do with the expensive whisky he was drinking? The whisky was smooth but his stomach was troubled.

Chapter 56

“You may now purchase the location of your enemy.” The air said without any warning at Tanya’s right ear. Tanya didn’t jump, but it was close with as hair-trigger ready to fight as she was at that moment. She held up a hand to signal to those in the corridor behind her. They were all in one group now, spread out down the corridor on high alert and weapons up and at the ready; an extremely formidable party even on a Kievor Tr
ade Station. Everywhere they
searched everyone seemed in a hurry to take care of business they had elsewhere, but Tanya hadn’t known how else to go about it without splitting their party and subjecting themselves to Felone’s guerrilla warfare tactics, so splitting the group was no longer an option she was willing to consider without being able to purchase Felone’s location. Felone would pick them apart piecemeal. But now her location was no longer to be a secret.

“Agreed.”
Tanya said.

“Your quarry has departed the Kievor Trade Station, as of twenty-four seconds ago.”

“Thanks so much.” Tanya said, but it was a blessing in disguise because now she could force Malcomb and the children out of her vendetta. She couldn’t fight the way she wanted with them in the way, and she was damned if she was going to be responsible for the deaths of any more of these children, hard eyed and mature in every way that they were. “We’ll be parting ways now Malcomb. There’s nothing more you can do to help me at this point.”

Malcomb just looked at her and Tanya saw the resolve that was there, but she was fairly certain she would be able to outmaneuver him this time. Tanya wasn’t sure what her next step would be but of one thing she could be fairly certain; it would not be a direct space attack. Her little Starfire would be no match for Adjudicator and probably not against whatever new ship Felone had acquired. Tanya had some thinking of her own to do, but she would do it
while
she was getting as far from Malcomb and the children as she could.

“As you say.”
Malcomb said, but Tanya suddenly didn’t believe him. The resolve was still there in his eyes large as life.

“Don’t try to follow, Malcomb.” Tanya said seriously. “There’s nothing that can be done now and I’m just going to find a place to lay low. It’s over.”

“Alright then.”
Malcomb said with the hint of a small smile. “If that’s the case, then you have the time to say your goodbyes this time before you go.”

“I’ll stay in touch.” Tanya said as she impulsively gave Malcomb a big hug. She held him for a bit and then pushed away. “It’s time for me to get going. This isn’t goodbye.”

No it isn’t, Malcomb thought as they watched Tanya walk away. It wasn’t goodbye at all, but he was sure Tanya already realized that. He had seen that in her eyes even though she was refusing to admit it.

“We are going after her, aren’t we?” Jerin asked. Jerin was second in command and he knew Malcomb as well as Malcomb knew himself.

“Of course we are.” Malcomb said. “I’m surprised you had to ask.” But it was said lightheartedly. Of course they were going after them, once he figured out how they were going to do it. He had a lot of thinking to do.

“Good.” Jerin said. “The men will be pleased.”

Men
, Malcomb thought, knowing why Tanya wanted them out of it, but the code by which they lived forbade their leaving any enemy behind themselves. Where they had lived the only way to survive had been to make your enemies know that to start something meant it would continue until it was finished. There was no forgiveness within the ghetto, and there could be no forgiveness here or now. Through the discipline by which they lived Malcomb had forged many honorable young men and women who had gone on to escape the ghetto, so the code- and the honor it upheld- meant that this could not be over until it was completely over. Simply put, it was a matter of honor and blood.

Chapter 57

The craft was a whale and moved like one, and new ship and owner were moving forward together under their own thrust for the first time. Felone relaxed and felt confident at the controls. She could fly anything with wings or without, at home and an expert in any cockpit or bridge, familiar with every computer or targeting system ever written with human code, and if she didn’t like any of the operating systems or programs the ship
came
with she’d write new ones herself.

She had been the brains of the Organization
from the beginning
, the technical expert, and Jason just a Handler
- though a good one and that why she had tolerated him. In the end he had proved to be
little more than a
n over self-
glorified
bumbler. He
would never have been able to run the Organization on his own. Further Jason had always liked the good life, going out, partying and living the life of the
jet
-setting playboy, while Felone had spent her decades sitting in front of innumerable computer screens, or often enough wiring them herself, on her nonstop quest for knowledge. She was now eager to see how Jason would
handle
himself without her to tell him what to do!

Felone could
not
feel the inertial reaction of the thrust of the massive quad engines once they were lit and burning at full throttle, as they began to slowly accelerate the monstrous ship. The stabilizing regulator of the ship’s environmental gravity control was completely dampening any noticeable feeling of the acceleration, and that meant her new ship was
really
slow. Her enhancements, unique to only three people now living, had left her highly attuned to anything and everything physical, to a much higher degree than with normal humans. So it was immediately obvious they would not gain enough velocity to make a
jump
before
they reached the limit of the Kievor’s Safe Zone, but with her new ship’s weaponry, most notably the four independently targeting photon cannon, she would gladly look forward to a direct and immediate confrontation with nearly anyone who wanted one.

Felone was really not in a good mood at this point though, despite her returned feeling of security. Whoever had owned this ship before her had allowed the worst kind of conditions aboard ship imaginable, and the ship was indescribably filthy. The accommodations had been designed for the lowest paid class of sailors as well, because those would have been the only ones willing to crew her. Even the Captain’s quarters would have been more like a closet within Adjudicator than a suite.

She would have thought that in a ship so large they could have made the accommodations for her sailors just a bit more comfortable. Jason would pay dearly for stealing Adjudicator and the comfort with which Felone was accustomed. Felone wasn’t a jet-setter, but the only comfort to be found upon this old relic
was knowing
that nothing smaller than a Battleship was going to disturb her security. She supposed she would have to work on the rest later.

The targeting system was busy identifying all the numerous ships, thousands upon thousands surrounding the Station, but it wasn’t pick
ing up the one signature she
hoped would be there. She had hoped that Jason had been fool enough not to leave when he had the chance, possibly hoping to pick off either her or Tanya as they attempted to depart and not expecting
her
to come out in a miniature battleship! With her massive ship’s photon cannons now charged at full capacity he wouldn’t know what hit him until it was far too late, but the
signature wasn’t there. She had programmed her acquisitions program with Adjudicator’s exact specifications, and if it had been there somewhere among these masses of ships, no matter what name its identification beacon was broadcasting, her program would have recognized it.

“Damn!” Felone swore.
“Why does everyone always have to do everything the hard way!”

Far beyond the limit of the Kievor’s Safe Zone they finally reached a stable velocity for jump and Felone and her ship disappeared into the ether.

Chapter 58

Tanya didn’t move Starfire from where the orange tractor beam placed it just outside the hull of the Station until her own acquisitions program had determined that neither of the two monstrous ships which were now her enemies were lurking and waiting for her. Neither were present, both were gone, and it a shame they couldn’t have eliminated one another in the process as was often common when ships with such firepower battled one another.

Tanya took a moment to marvel upon the Kievor Trade Station bulking next to her. The curving hull of the Station was visible for many kilometers in any direction she looked, before the curvature of the Station vanished below the horizon. Massive! If it wasn’t for the shiny trans-metal and the endless miniature-like ships coming and going
everywhere Tanya wouldn’t have been able to tell she wasn’t on a natural world, so very vast and wholly encompassing was the Station.