Krac's Firebrand (7 page)

“I don’t know. She was gone by the time I woke up. I spent half the night working on the thrusters. I planned to take the navigation module apart and see if I could repair it. I left it on my workbench. When I woke up, Skeeter was gone along with the navigation module,” Froget said. “I’ve checked all the major dealers and they haven’t seen her. Ti’Death is going to roast my legs and eat them while I watch. I just know it.”

“She’ll turn up. She always does,” Hornet assured the little green male. “The girl has one of those human angels watching over her.”

“She needs a whole army of them. It’s the only way they could remain sane,” Froget muttered, dropping his head onto the bar. “Pour me another one, Hornet. I need it.”

“Red and black bugs, huh,” Hornet chuckled.

Froget just groaned and wrapped his hands around his drink. His eyes closed as he quickly blew out the flames and downed the drink. He was going to need a lot more before the night was over.

*.*.*

Skeeter bit her lip as she walked down the narrow, dark alley. This is where Artemis said she could get the new navigation module. At least, she thought it was where he said she could get it. Was it level one or eleven? God, she sucked when it came to remembering numbers and stuff like that.

I should have just told daddy I’m not a good pilot,
she thought.
I should have just told him I wanted to be an artist.

Instead, she had been too afraid of disappointing him. She really wanted to make him proud of her. If she could only be good at something. She was horrible at maiming and dismemberment. She fainted at the first sign of blood!

She was horrible with numbers and could barely keep track of the balance of credits in her account. She had made a mess when she had tried to work in the firm. She thought if she could pilot one of the freighters that might be fun. After all, she could work on her art between Spaceports and there was always lots of interesting stuff that she could use to create new pieces. What she hadn’t taken into consideration was she was lousy at piloting, knew nothing about repairing engines or navigation without instrumentation and before she could get on the Spaceports she had to dock with one which came back to the fact that she was lousy at piloting.

I do love the little space scooters,
though,
she thought with a sigh.
Those are fun.

She felt bad about damaging the thrusters again when she hit the pirate ship. She thought Froget might forgive her if she returned with a new navigation module. That hope led her to her current situation.

She snuck out while Froget was still asleep. He had worked all night. She knew because his cussing and the loud banging on the pipes kept waking her up. She thought if she could surprise him with the new module he wouldn’t be so upset with her. She hadn’t meant to hit the thrusters when the pirate ship came after them. She thought it was the main engines.

Instead of disappearing into the vastness of space, she had stalled the engines when she overcompensated. She had gotten nervous when Froget yelled at her and she didn’t do well when she was nervous. She ended up hitting the orange button with the minus on it that meant backwards when she meant to hit the green button that meant go very fast. She thought if she color-coded the buttons different colors it would help her remember what each one did.

Instead, she ended up backing into the front of the pirate ship as they came up behind them. She knew the damage must have been bad because the alarms sounded. Her dad said that alarms in space were not good and she needed to find out what was wrong or get to the escape pod as fast as possible.

Luckily, Froget had been able to turn them off and get them going before the pirates had a chance to board them. Not that it was likely to happen as there had been a huge flash of light behind them before a shockwave had caused more alarms to go off. Froget was able to shut those off too, thank goodness.

“There it is!” Skeeter breathed in relief when she saw a dim flashing light that said Parts.

She hurried forward, pausing to look around before she pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the walls were lined with all kinds of parts. There were three men standing inside. One behind the counter and two in front of it.

Skeeter pushed the hood of her cloak back and smiled. “Hi, I need a part for my freighter. Do you mind if I look around for a few minutes?”

Chapter 8

Banshore Spaceport

Krac scowled at the men surrounding him. For the past two weeks he had been following one lead after another. Each one led him a step closer to finding the men who kidnapped Violet. Unfortunately, he was still no closer to finding out who the leader of the New Order was or where he might find him.

The dead male at the medical tower had given him his first clue. While there was no identification on the male, Krac had been able to link him to the Tillman Corporation back on Earth through facial and DNA scans. Tillman was one of the largest suppliers of weapons for the Earth’s military.

The founder was also a contributor that funded the research lab that developed him. Richard Tillman had remained free because there had been no trail of paperwork that lead back to him. Krac knew better, but Anastasia made him promise to not go after Tillman as it would prove his point that Krac should have been destroyed instead of set free. Instead, she promised to have him watched so she could bring him down publicly, a fact that caused open hostility between her and Tillman.

Video feeds from the apartment where the nurse lived showed the shadowy face of one of the other males, the one who held Gracie. Krac had finally been able to make a facial match after piecing together numerous images. Harden Blake was a mercenary for hire who was wanted in at least three star systems for the murder of prominent political figures. He had found the nurse dead in one of the exam rooms at the medical center. From the evidence in her apartment, she and Harden had been lovers.

It was the piece of information he had been downloading when Kordon alerted him that had been his first big break. A personal starship belonging to Richard Tillman was requesting emergency clearance to depart from Zion. He had tracked it to Banshore Spaceport. It would appear that his movements were being tracked as well based on his welcoming committee. The only way that was possible was if the sleek starship that Anastasia had commissioned for him had been tagged with a tracker, or worse, there was a traitor within Anastasia’s inner circle.

One of the men spit on the ground before grinning at him. He held a long laser whip in his right hand, tapping it against the palm of his left. Krac watched as his eyes ran up and down him with a sneer of contempt.

“You don’t look so big and mean for being a monster,” he chuckled menacingly. “If you live, we’ll see how good you are in the fight rings.”

Krac stared intently at the man. He would be the second to die. The man to his back and left would be the first as he held a dart gun. He could process and control being shot better than drugged. If these were Tillman’s men, and he was positive they were, then Tillman would have given them the drugs that could neutralize him. He could not take a chance on that. The other four men would die at random.

“Where is Councilman Jefe’s daughter? If you tell me, I’ll kill you quickly. If you don’t, I will make sure I take my time. Believe me, I know many, many ways to prolong your death,” Krac said quietly.

“Fill him with a low enough dose he can feel the whip, Sal,” the leader of the group ordered. “I want him begging for us to kill his ass.”

Krac didn’t wait any longer. With a slight shift of his weight, he kicked out backwards. His booted foot caught the man holding the dart gun in the throat, crushing it. He ducked and swiveled, grabbing the dart gun as it fell out of the dying man’s hand as he grabbed his shattered throat. Completing the circle on his heel, he fired a dart into the man with the whip. He decided he wanted him alive.

He ejected the second dart in the gun into his hand as he stood up. He swung out with both hands. His right hand smashed the butt of the gun into the third man’s jaw while his other drove the tip of the second dart into the fourth man’s forehead, piercing his brain.

He
grabbed the man whose jaw he had broken and pulled him in front of him as the fifth and final man lifted the laser pistol he had drawn and fired. The man in Krac’s arms jerked as his chest was riddled with laser bursts. Krac pulled the laser pistol from the dead man’s waist as he let the body fall and fired a single shot between the last man’s eyes.

Twirling the pistol in his hand, he tucked it casually into the waistband of his pants before bending and effortlessly throwing the unconscious male over his shoulder. He wanted answers and he was going to get them. The male was about to discover the true meaning of wishing he were dead.

*.*.*

Skeeter glanced sideways, keeping her eyelashes lowered as she picked up parts that she didn’t have a clue what they went to. Since she wasn’t sure what the part she needed was called she didn’t want to ask the men. Besides, the two at the counter didn’t look like they were the kind of men who were very helpful. For that matter, neither did the guy behind the counter.

“We need to make contact. Tell the Leader that the gray bastard is breathing down our necks. We’ve sent some men to stop him, but if we don’t deliver the package soon and disappear, we are in trouble,” the meaner-looking of the two said quietly. “We need more men to kill him.”

“And help Mace,” the larger male growled. “He shot Mace. He needs help.”

“Shut up, you moron,” the male hissed, glancing at Skeeter, who quickly picked up a long cylinder shaped device. “We need to talk in private.”

“Back here,” the male behind the counter grunted. “Don’t take anything without paying or I’ll cut your hands off,” he yelled out at Skeeter.

Skeeter looked up at him with wide eyes. “I’m not a thief! I have credits,” she replied indignantly.

“Just remember what I said,” the male snapped before he jerked his head. “Back here.”

Skeeter watched in the reflection of a large piece of metal as the fat yellow male behind the counter unlocked a wide door and pushed the top of the counter up. She breathed a sigh of relief when the men walked through the opening and disappeared through a door behind the counter area.

Now, she could really look for what she needed without worrying if they asked her questions she couldn’t answer. She pulled the small part that Froget had removed from the navigation module. Even to her untrained eyes it looked burnt.

She quickly scanned the shelves closest to her before moving to the ones closer to the counter. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see what was on the top shelf but she was too short. Turning, she scanned the room. Her eyes lit on a small crate with a handle on it.

Skeeter glanced toward the doorway where the men had disappeared before glancing back up at the shelf. It wouldn’t hurt to take a quick peek. She hurried over to the crate, deciding she would rather look for herself instead of waiting to ask any of the scary men. She was surprised at how heavy the little crate was considering it looked like it was empty.

She was breathing heavy by the time she set it down next to the shelves. Standing on it, she looked at abundance of parts. She set the broken piece down on the top shelf and ran her hand around over some parts that were closer to the wall. Her hand wrapped around one item that looked similar to what she needed when a small whimper caught her attention.

Skeeter looked over her shoulder, puzzled. She shrugged her shoulders thinking she must be hearing things and was about to turn back to her search when the whimper sounded again. This time, a little louder than the first time.

“Who's there?” Skeeter whispered loudly.

“Mommy?” A tiny voice whimpered. “Mommy, I’m scared.”

Skeeter’s eyes widen in disbelief when she realized the tiny voice was coming from the crate she was standing on. She scrambled down off of it and knelt on the floor so she could look through the mesh covering one side of the small box. Her breath caught when a pair of vivid green eyes, filled with tears, gazed back at her from a dirty face.

“Oh my,” Skeeter whispered. “What are you doing in there?”

“Bad… bad… men… hurt my daddy,” the tiny little girl whispered. “They… took me from my mommy. I want to go home. Pretty please. I want my mommy and daddy.”

Skeeter’s eyes filled with tears as she heard the pitiful plea. Memories of her own parents, now faded by time, flashed through her mind. She reached her fingers through the wire in comfort. Her eyes skirted toward the doorway in the back again.

“How about you come with me?” Skeeter whispered back. “I have a big freighter. I bet we could find your mommy and daddy. It will be like an adventure. You have to be really quiet though, so the bad men don’t know.”

“Like hide-and-seek?” The little girl asked excitedly. “I like that game. Mommy made Uncle Krac play it with me. He said you have to be really, really quiet. Mom said I’m not supposed to come out until someone says the magic words.”

“Ally, ally in come free?” Skeeter responded with a grin.

“You know how to play that game?” The tiny figure asked.

“It’s one of my favorites. My dad could never find me,” Skeeter giggled. “Let’s get you out of here.”

The little girl nodded and put her fingers to her lips. Skeeter looked over her shoulder again before quickly undoing the wires holding the mesh closed. She reached in and helped the tiny figure as she crawled out of the small box. Her lips tightened in anger when she saw the dark tracks of dirt where the child had been crying.

“My name’s Skeeter,” Skeeter whispered as she picked up the tiny body. “What’s yours?”

“Violet,” she replied, laying her head on Skeeter’s shoulder. “I’m hungry.”

Skeeter ran her hand down along the girl’s thin back and hugged her close. “I’ll fix you something as soon as we get back to the
Lulu Belle
.”