Kill Shot: A Remnant of the Commonwealth, Book Two (8 page)

“What?”

“We’re opening the door in ten seconds
, and if you’re on this side of the room, we will shoot you,” Aaron said, slowly and clearly.

“Shoot me? What the fuck?”

Aaron slowly started counting down from ten. Russell and Susan moved closer to him on either side. Aaron pointed his gun straight at the door. Russell stood on his right aiming his carbine forward but across Aaron’s body. Susan was on his left and she aimed her carbine forward but to the right.

Eve nodded her head, once again being reminded of the military. With the way they held their guns
, they would have the entire cabin covered. She took a deep breath and said a silent prayer that Thomas did as he was told.

When Aaron’s count reached one, he entered a code and the door opened.

Eve held her breath, half-expecting to see Thomas to charge from the door and get shot down.

Aaron stepped into the opening; Russell and Susan were pushed up against his sides. Still, they didn’t fire.

Aaron turned and looked at her, motioning with his head for her to come closer.

Eve nodded and quickly pushed her cart forward. Aaron and the other two had disappeared into the cabin, and she quickly followed.

As she rounded the door, Eve’s eyes flew across the cabin, taking the scene in. Aaron stood just in the center of the room, his plasmic trained on Thomas. Susan had moved to the left and Russell to the right; they, too, had their guns permanently trained on Thomas.

Thomas was standing next to the door that led to the bathroom and he looked angry enough to bite someone’s head off.

No one had spoke yet, and the only sounds were the occasional squeaking of Eve’s cart.

“What the fuck is going on?” Thomas demanded, breaking the eerie silence.

“You and Eric assaulted Aaron,” Susan said.

“Assaulted? We were having a discussion and then he shot Eric.” He blinked suddenly, as if just remembering something. “Did you kill him?” he demanded
, and there was a ferociousness in his tone that made Russell tighten his grip on the carbine.

“He’s still
alive,” Aaron replied. “He’s in the med bay getting treatment.”

Thomas nodded and some of the fury seemed to ebb away. “What’s this crap about of assaulting you?”

Aaron’s answer was one word, “CAC.”

Thomas’s forehead wrinkled
in confusion but only for a moment and then the robot entered the cabin door.

“Yes, sir?”

“Please show the recording,” Aaron said.

“Of course, sir.”

Once again the pale-blue image was displayed. It filled the room, taking up the space between Thomas and the rest. His eyes were glued to the scene, while Russell and Susan never took their eyes off Thomas.

CAC played the recording through the point where Aaron had thrown Thomas against the wall.

“Pause,” Aaron called out and looked at Thomas.

Thomas pulled his eyes from the image and looked at them. “See? It was a discussion that got out of hand. He hit Eric and then me.”

“Placing your hands on the captain of a ship is considered assault,” Susan answered.

“Bullshit! I was trying to break up a fight. Eric was just trying to get his attention.”
He sounded like he meant it.

“Really?” Aaron asked quietly. “CAC, please continue the playback.”

The recording started again and this time it only ran for a few seconds. It ended with Aaron shooting Eric.

“Back it up five seconds,” Aaron said
, and the robot complied. The image stood frozen with Eric drawing a gun from his pocket.

Thomas looked up at them. His eyes were a bit wider now and he seemed rather pale. He didn’t speak immediately, but tried several times to swallow
; it was as if his mouth had suddenly gone dry. He shook his head and tried again. “I’m sure it was just a reflex. He would never have used that gun.”

“Doesn’t much matter at this point,” Aaron said.

“So . . . so what are you going to do with us?” Thomas asked. His eyes studied them each in turn.

“We’re kicking you off the ship,” Aaron replied. “We’re just trying to decide if we’ll be planet-side when we do.”

It took a moment for those words to register and then Thomas actually got paler. “Now wait a moment. It was a mistake, things got out of hand, but you can’t kill us for that.”

“Incorrect,” Aaron stated coldly. “I mo
st certainly can. The question is will I.”

Chapter 10

The next four days passed without incident. Jessica kept Eric unconscious and Thomas remained in his cell-cabin. So far, Thomas hadn’t tried anything, but it was probably only a matter of time. If a prisoner believes he’s been condemned to death, then he’ll try anything to remain alive.

The rest of the crew
remained somber. They avoided large groups and only gathered in small bunches. No one seemed to want talk very loudly; it was like they were at a wake and wanted to be quiet.

For his part, Aaron was completely unsure of what to do. On the one hand, he would just prefer to let Eric and Thomas off on some strange planet, but that could cause problems. He didn’t think Eric or Thomas would turn in the crew to the Miram Union. Both men wer
e fugitives, so contacting the Union would only get them into trouble. It would be difficult for either man to create legal problems for the crew without endangering themselves.

It wasn’t the authorities that Aaron was really concerned about. There were really two worries. First, they could hold some kind of personal vendetta, track the ship, and maybe attack or cause problems while they were in port.
To Aaron, this seemed rather unlikely.

The second concern was that they might give information to other criminals. Aaron assumed that his ship would be breaking the law frequently. The other smugglers and various criminals would be their competition. The last thing he wanted was for Eric and Thomas to make the se
crets of his ship and crew well known. This option was the more dangerous of the two. Although, the ship could leave this sector of space if necessary.

There also was the option to space them but Aaron really didn’t want to do that.
He wasn’t ignorant of the crew’s mood. The talk of spacing the two men was weighing heavy on them.

He wanted this whole situation over with, and it was a relief when Jessica contacted him to say she was ready to wake up Eric. Aaron
told her to go ahead and then sent out a ship-wide message for the crew to gather in the med bay.

The crew did as instructed and within twenty minutes were fully assembled.
They stood in a loose-knit semicircle along the wall across the room from Eric’s bed.

Aaron and Russell were the last two to arrive; they had stopped by Thomas’s cell. Aaron walked in front, next was Thomas with his hands bound, and last was Russell
who held a M3 carbine pointing at Thomas’s back.

Aaron moved on the near side of Eric’s bed and Russell nudged Thomas to the far side.

“What the fuck is going on?” Eric demanded. His eyes were watery, but he looked alert. “No one will tell me anything.”

Aaron looked around and was pleased to see CAC standing beside Kyle. He had requested the robot
be here for this and was pleased his orders had been followed. “CAC, please show the recording.”

CAC didn’t answer but stepped forward slightly an
d once again projected the pale-blue replay of the corridor encounter.

Aaron was pleased that CAC stopped the recording on the image of Eric with the handgun.

Eric watched the recording in silence and then shrugged. “So? I drew the gun. You just kicked my ass. It was instinctive.”

“Really?” Aaron asked. “Laying hands on the captain can be
interpreted as assault.”

“Please,” Eric huffed, “it’s about as far from assault as possible.”

“Eric,” Thomas said, speaking for the first time, “they’re talking about spacing us.”

“What?” Eric demanded. “That’s some sort of sick joke, isn’t it?”

“No,” Aaron replied calmly. “I’m allowed to space you for assaulting me while underway.”

Eric looked simply dumbfounded. “But that wasn’t what we were doing. I was trying to get your attention and that’s all. I swear.” There was a brief moment of silence, finally broken by Thomas.

“What if you drop us off at the next port, and we promise to forget we ever met you?” Thomas asked.

Aaron didn’t reply, his eyes flicking back and forth from the calm Thomas to the suddenly panicky Eric.

“Yeah, man,” Eric said a bit breathlessly. “Just let us go. We won’t cause problems for you.”

“It’s not like we could turn you over to the Miram Union,” Thomas said. “You let us go and you’ll never see us again, and we’ll forget that we ever knew you.”

Aaron pulled his eyes from Thomas to Eric. Eric was pale and sweaty now.

“Yeah, you won’t hear from us and we won’t tell anyone about you, ever. I swear!” Eric said.

Aaron took a deep breath and cast a glance at Susan. She nodded her head slightly. So as far as she could tell, they were telling the truth. He resisted sighing in relief. The last thing he wanted to do was to kill a member of the crew, even these two knuckleheads.

“All right,” Aaron said slowly. “We’ll let you off when we reach Sargas.” Both men breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t look behind him, but he got the feeling that a good number of the crew were also
relieved. He held up a hand. “If we ever see you again, we’re going to assume you’re up to no good. From now on, we’ll shoot you on sight.”

“Don’t worry,” Thomas said
, and he was actually smiling. “You let us go and you’ll never see us again.”

Something about the words bothered Aaron. He was sure that Thomas meant they would just go their own way, but there was a second interpretation. It might also mean he wouldn’t see them again because they would sneak up behind him and shoot him in the back.

The meeting broke up and the crew filtered out. Aaron and Russell hung back to return Thomas to his cell.

Several times Aaron glanced at the crew as they left the
med bay. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed like they were more loose, more relaxed. That sense of depression and worry was gone or at least had lessened dramatically. Eve even winked at him on the way out the door.

“You ready?” Russell asked.

Aaron turned toward Russell and Thomas. Russell still held his rifle at the ready, but it was obvious that he had relaxed. Why would Thomas try anything when they were already going to set them free?

“Let’s go,” Aaron said, motioning toward the entrance.

It took them another eleven days to reach Sargas and every last member of the crew was happy when the ship returned to normal space.

Thomas had remained locked in his cell-cabin. Twice a day meals were brought to him, and three times Aaron and Eve had brought him extra clothes from his normal cabin. He seemed relaxed, eager to leave, and no longer stressing.

Four days after waking up, Eric had been moved to the cabin next to Thomas’s. The bones in his shoulder had been fused and the tissues regenerated. The regeneration process made the skin around his shoulder
look weird; it had an almost mottled look. It must have itched too, because he was always digging at it. Jessica assured him that the skin would return to normal in time.

The rest of the crew seemed to be in better spirits, but still anxious to get the voyage over with.
It seemed they were bored and the new gym was used rather extensively.

The grayish-black emptiness of the wormhole disappeared and was replaced by
the normal black-starry view of space.

Aaron was sitting i
n the captain’s chair, directly in the middle of the bridge. His mind had been wandering, thinking about the crew. He realized he was smiling as he looked out over the distant star. Sargas primary was dim, but they were still a long ways away.

Adam sighed deeply from the pilot’s seat
, and Aaron realized just how pleased everyone was to get here.

“Adam, lay in a course for Sargas,” Aaron began but broke off when Susan spoke quickly.

“Captain, we’re getting a message from the comm satellite. Audio only,” she said. Upon arrival, the first thing that the ship would do was broadcast its ID; in this case, it was broadcasting a fake ID in the name of
Soaring Freedom
. The comm satellite checked the ID and forwarded any messages in the queue.

“On speakers,” Aaron said quickly. Even as he spoke he wondered what bad news this was.

“Hello, Aaron,” a man’s voice said. It was a voice they all knew well; it belong to Sebastian Locke. “It was good to hear from you and actually a bit fortuitous as well. I will be on Redamor on 422. If you could make it, I might have an immediate job for you.” The message cut off with a click.

“That’s it?” Aaron asked
, and Susan nodded. He was surprised that his message to the smuggler had been answered so quickly.

The 422 was part of a standard way of telling time.
The first three digits were the number of years since the fall of the Akkadian Dynasty, and they were typically left off when one was referring to the current year. The 422 meant the fourth month and the twenty-second day of the year. The complete date would have been 788.422, as it had been 788 years since the collapse of the Akkadian Dynasty. Even though days and months were different on every planet, the time had been set up using Akkadia Prime’s days and months as a reference, and it allowed the known galaxy to have a standard date. Even the backwater planets used the old empire’s calendar.

Susan was busy punching away at the navigation terminal.
“Redamor is a six-day trip from our current position. If we leave right now, we might just make it.”

Leave right now?
Aaron thought. “Is there time to drop our two malcontents off on Sargas?”

Susan shook her head. “No. At least not if you want to be at Redamor in six days.”

“Goddamn it!” Aaron said quietly. It seemed that nothing was ever easy. He took a deep breath and climbed to his feet. “Re-route us to Redamor. I’ll go and tell the crew.” He could have just made a ship-wide announcement, but he preferred to do this a bit more personable.

Aaron found most of the crew gathered together in the galley. They were not eating, just sitting at the tables and talking. Grady wasn’t here, but he tended to stay by himself most of the time. They all looked up as Aaron entered, smiles slipping away.

“What’s the matter?” Eve asked.

Aaron smiled at her, not surprised in the least that she had been the first one to sense his mood. He was beginning to think that Susan wasn’t the only telepath in his crew. “Nothing really, but we got a message from Locke. He says that he may have a job for us if we can get to Redamor in six days.”

“And can we?” Kyle asked.

“Yes, but we won’t have time to drop Eric and Thomas off on Sargas. We’ll have to let them go once we get to Redamor.” Aaron shrugged. “They won’t like it, but it’s better than the alternative.”

“They might cause trouble for us on Redamor,” Eve said slowly.

“If they try anything, I expect each and every one of you to defend both crew and ship,” Aaron replied. He made eye contact with each person, but only Terry and Eve held his gaze.

The crew was a bit quieter when Aaron left the galley but not much. It seemed
the crew believed like Aaron—that Eric and Thomas would disappear into the wind.

Aaron turned his steps towards the two
cabins they were using as makeshift cells. He touched the Horace Special holstered on his hip just to make sure it was there. He could have asked Russell or Susan to come along, but he didn’t think it was necessary; Eric and Thomas had been quite a bit more docile once they’d found out they weren’t going to be shoved out the airlock.

He took the ladder rather than the lift and quickly found himself outside of Eric’s cabin. Using his command code, he had the computer show him the inside. Eric lay on the bed, which was pretty much all he did these days. His hands were behind his head and he was staring at the ceiling.

Sighing, Aaron punched in a code and the door slid open.

Eric sat up, staring at Aaron. “Are we there?” he demanded.

Aaron shook his head, remaining in the doorway. “Been a slight delay. An old friend wants us in Redamor, so we don’t have time to land on Sargas.”

Eric’s jaw clenched a few times, making him look even scarier. “I want off of this fucking ship!”

Aaron tilted his head and smiled slightly. “You can get off right now, but I suggest you wait until we get to Redamor.”

Eric glared at him for a moment and then lay back down.

The trip to Redamor was uneventful and Aaron found himself spending a great deal of time in the “gym.” He had never spent much time working out. He had done plenty of calisthenics in his military days, but that hadn’t been voluntary. He found lifting weights and running on the treadmill peaceful.

He quickly noticed that he wasn’t the only one. Except Grady, most of the crew spent time in the gym. This had been a long haul, and they were all going a bit stir-crazy. It could be annoying though; nothing like getting up early for a run and then both treadmills being occupied. He adjusted his schedule and started getting up even earlier. It wasn’t a big deal and he rather enjoyed being alone in the gym.

He made a mental note to try
and find some other items for the ship that would help pass the time. Sometimes these long trips were required, and he wanted his crew to be content.