Nightmares & Dreams: A Science Fantasy Space Western: Eydulan Series Book 2 (3 page)

Kat says, “Ok then Whisper, how do we get off the planet?”

“I’m still calculating, but in every scenario so far we turn into small specs of space dust.”

Kat leans her head back against the cockpit chair. There had to be some way of getting off the planet. If they are monitoring things, then maybe they could cut or stop it. That could take care of the Guild, but what about the Foremid?

“Hey Whisper?” Kat asks, “Are you hacking into the Foremid too?”

“Not currently no, but I can.”

“Do it, and tell me what they are doing right now.”

“Blast.” Whisper says annoyed. “We’re too far away. I’m getting a signal but nothing strong enough for me to connect to.”

“What if we were on the planet? Would that be close enough?”

Gravan says, “That’s an awfully big risk. What if Whisper can’t hack into the alien tech, then were stuck down there?”

Whisper says, “Ape, please. There isn’t a computer system made by you fleshy things that can keep me out.”

Kat stands up, “See. There’s your answer Gravan, she can handle it.”

He lets out a breath. “Fine. If you think you can do it Whisper, then lets try it.”

***

Another half hour goes by giving Kat time to shower. She steps into the shower. It was connected to her room, like an on-suite. Gravan hated that word, which was one of the technical definitions. He said it just didn’t sound right, and was stupid that they call it that. Kat never agreed out loud. She did think the term was odd, but had never heard it called anything other than a connected bathroom. So having a word that meant that, which also bugged Gravan, was all the better. The mixture of sonic pulses and small amounts of hot recycled water begin to wipe away tension that was building since they arrived at Starz. The water filters through the ship and gets reused everywhere it can. The only time it really goes away is when they drink it. The water is almost hot enough to burn her skin off, as she likes to say. It just makes it easier to relax when there was hot water running over her head.

She just wants this job over with so she can be done with the delivery game. There is an image that she has been placing in her mind, her and Gravan on a wooden front porch, swing, watching the twin suns of Raspiel go down. Gravan showed her a picture off one of the hills near where they were going to be. The suns setting, trees, rolling hills overlooking a small lake and river. It was paradise as far as Kat was concerned.

After seeing that picture she has put her house there in her mind, and Gravan with her. Once they settle down, their won’t be need for a ship like Felicity. She had thought about turning it into the house. Whisper will inevitably have something to say about apes, shelters, and the beautiful sacrifice of her metal husk. At least that what Kat thinks she will say. Maybe Whisper will like it just the same. They will still have the connection to the interstellar-net hub, gathering all the information from the other planets and solar systems. Whisper might like the idea of all that reading time with her
not trashy
romance novels.

Touching the off button, the shower fades and she lets herself drip looking down into the drain telling herself,
just this one last job.
The mirror always fogs when she gets out of the shower even though the amount of water is low, she keeps the temperature so high it steams up anyway. There is a fan above the mirror she turns on and it blows loudly as Kat looks for her hair brush and spray in conditioner. Her hair was far too oily feeling earlier. Just like Whisper told her three days ago, she needs to take better care of herself.

Gravan’s voice talks over the speakers, “Hey Kitty Kat, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, just getting ready. I always feel better after a shower, and with the way everything is going, I might not get another chance to get one.”

“Very funny. Seriously, how are you? You’ve been distant the last few days.”

Oh now he wants to talk, when we are about to go flying into the jaws of the Guild, but when everything is fine he’s all bottled up. Plus what’s this whole
you’ve been distant
thing. He’s the one that’s been distant.

Kat keeps her frustration in check and says, “Nothing’s wrong Grav. Let’s just concentrate on the job and making it out in one piece.”

“Alright, but we have a long time ahead of us to be together on that tropical planet. I love you Katrice and don’t want you to bottle things up. It never worked for me.”

“What is it with everyone thinking that I have something wrong with me?”

“Who thinks you have something wrong with you?”

“You and Whisper.”

“What was Whisper saying about you?”

Kat goes though everything that Whisper and her talked about her cybernetics.

“Oh, that is serious. I didn’t even think to ask you if you were taking care of yourself. I just assumed.”

“Well, it’s nothing you need to worry about now. I can and will take care of myself.”

“Kat, we’re a couple. It’s ok to let me help. I need your help with things too. God only knows the things I would have killed myself with over the last few months if I didn’t have you around.”

Kat thinks back over those last few months. They had been gathering together everything they needed for the trip. Money was one of the biggest ones. The last couple of jobs had been bad, but nothing as bad as what they were about to go flying into. It wasn’t something that she liked to dwell on. There are too many feelings that come to the surface when she does. Losing everything in her life again, it would almost make her freeze in fear. So she just doesn’t thing about it.

She says, “Yea Grav, I know. I love you too.”

“Good, then I’ll see you on the bridge in fifteen minutes. Whisper is flying the ship into position. I’m getting all of the equipment together, anything you need?”

“Just you.”

“Same here. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

He is always so frustrating, and sweet, and obnoxious, and she loves him. Kat just wants him to be more sweet and less man’y. She files those thoughts away for later, and gets dressed.

The bridge is silent until Gravan walks in. He says hi, and then it goes back to silence. The monitor shows the small moon of Starz getting closer. Once they get out of view of both groups Kat and Whisper are going to fly the ship at top speed to the planet’s southern magnetic pole to enter the atmosphere there. Kat is nervous. She hasn’t entered a planet going that fast before, but it’s the only way to not get picked up by sensors.

Rounding the moon, the sun of the system comes into view as the ships around the planet start to disappear. Kat takes in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, she closes her eyes and tries to concentrate on the way the ship feels in her hands. She blocks out all of her thoughts about her oily hair, Gravan, her paradise, and goes blank. It was something that she learned while working for her psycho ex. All the things that she had to do while undercover, and especially in the covers, that she didn’t want to do. She had to do something to protect her mind from going crazy, even if she still has nightmares.

Fury says, “Engines coming online now. Shields at full, weapons online. Stealth systems rerouting and storing heat.”

Whisper says, “Everything’s green, just waiting for your orders Kat.”

Kat takes one last deep breath. “Whisper, Fury, lets roll.”

Felicity’s magitech engine hums to full power as Kat is pushed back into her chair. She has roughly thirty-seconds before she needs to do an all stop on while aiming the nose of the ship at the pole preparing for entry. She is almost positive that if she was piloting one of her regular fighters from the Earth Empire, this maneuver wouldn’t work. This is where trusting Felicity and Whisper comes in.

The ship rattles having the engines go from a crawl to full. She knew what she had to do, but hopes everything stays in one piece.

“Full stop in five.” Kat says bracing herself for the shift, squeezing her hand around the controls. “Two, one, full stop.”

The inertia as Felicity’s back end sways to line up with the pole makes Kat’s stomach flip over as she rocks against her belts that have her strapped in. Through it all she somehow stays focused on controlling the ship.

She says, “Whisper, anyone notice us?”

“No activity with the Guild, and I’m now connecting to the Foremid.” There was a short pause, “Nothing there either, we’re clear. Now hurry up and enter the atmosphere you deformed biped before they do spot us.”

“I’m going to wipe your memory and change your settings if you don’t watch it.”

Gravan jokes, “Wait till we get out of here to do that.”

Kat just looks at him and then rolls her eyes. She lines the ship up and proceeds to enter. The stealth system will only give them two to three-seconds before it overheats and their entry lights up the atmosphere. They could have tried to go in quicker, but it runs a high risk of ripping the hull apart. Even with the magitech shields Kat doesn’t think Felicity would hold together through that. It might have been an APC, but it was made for stealth, not speed. Kat takes a deep breath and counts in her head as she watches the console,
one one-thousand… two one-thousand
. The ship begins to shake as they hit the atmosphere. The heating coils indicator starts to creep up on the console reaching its max.

Whisper says, “Stealth offline and venting. Sensors on both sides sensors are now picking up a large thermal fluctuation, but they haven’t reported us yet.”

Gravan says, “Great, now lets hope no one is watching the sensors.”

“Too late, a message has been sent to all Guild ships requesting the ID of the landing spaceship on the planet. Kat do you want me to disrupt it?”

Kat says, “Just try to mask our ID. We won’t need long to unload, thirty minutes tops. Keep monitoring them.”

“Obviously.”

Breaking through the upper atmosphere smooths out the ride. The sensors on Felicity pick up all the local channels, which were silent before they entered the planet. Every channel was filled with distress calls asking for help, food, or medical assistance. Kat listen in on one of the channels. A mother pleading to save her child, Kat on the next a leader asking for rescue because everything was destroyed by the Gluttons. The next few channels were more of the same, and she just turns them off.

Gravan places his hand on her shoulder. “It’s ok Kat, we can’t do anything for them right now. Lets get the supplies to our buyer and at least help them out.”

Kat nods and places her hand on his, “You’re right, one thing at a time.”

Things like this always ate away at her. Why a government would ever let their people die, starve, get sick, or be fodder in a war. It was just like during the rebellion, civilians caught in between just trying to have a life. It makes her sick. The powerful fighting for power while the people suffer. Some of her feelings about this came from her time with Ryker. It was the only good thing he opened her up too. He was one of the leaders of the Conglomerate, and explained to her how everything was wrong in the universe. How the Empire, Guild and Conglomerate were ruining everything. Most of his talking was just bs, for other people to think that he really cared about the little guy. When all he really wanted was all the power for himself. That’s why he placed himself with that mage woman, and started a rebellion.

There was a five minute flight time to their client from where they entered. Whisper chimed in a couple of times saying that the flesh-bags were starting to get smart. They didn’t accept the fake ID and they are trying to find the anomaly in their systems. They were only going to have an hour before the attack started, and then they might be stuck planet side for however long that takes. Getting caught planet side would have been the worse case scenario for Kat. She tells Whisper and Fury to keep the engines running and FTL drives warm while they are unloading because once they are done it’s going to be a quick escape.

The town they land near is next to destroyed. The landing pad is the only thing that isn’t in rubbles. A tall man in a long brown coat with a white beard comes out of one structure that has less damage than the others. Kat calls her buyer on the radio and confirms white beard is him. His name is Jon. Kat lands Felicity on the landing pad, and a few dozen people come out of the building behind Jon. They are all wearing tattered clothes, and have a look of desperation. Its at times like these Kat always gets nervous. She doesn’t know the people, they’ve just been attacked, and she would put money on them being desperate enough to try something stupid. That makes a bad situation for them if things do goes south. Gravan calms her down, like he always does right before they land. He pulls up his shotgun blaster hanging from his hip stands near the cargo hold door and smiles at her.

As the cargo door opens Jon walks up and waves. Kat’s heart rate jumps as the men start to pile up behind him. Without Whisper on her wrist she feels naked. She had gotten used to having her around. Since they need to be ready for a quick escape Kat had to leave Whisper on the bridge. Sure she could have just wirelessly controlled Felicity, but it just never works the same. With at least four hundred ships surrounding this planet, there can’t be any room for error. Which means her personal feelings about having protection for the drop get put aside. There was always the blaster she kept hidden under the control panel for the cargo door if she needed it.

Gravan walks ahead and down the ramp to shake hands with Jon. They exchange a few words, and Kat watches. Gravan never taking his left hand off the butt of the blaster. Thirty men come in and out of the cargo hold grabbing the boxes and carrying them out. One of the few perks of being the captain, not having to unload. With all the cargo unloaded, she walks over to Jon and exchanges introductions. Something she always like to do when things go right.

After that she says, “Jon there’s something I’ve been debating telling you but I can’t keep it to myself. Also don’t worry, I’ll give this one to you free of charge. The Guild is planning on attacking the Gluttons in about thirty minutes. If you have shelter underground, get you and your people there.”