An empty cube room with ashen walls served as the training center of the Neimun. Ceiling panels distributed an even white light. A single pillar with a single screen stood in the center. Lieutenant Soel conversed with a short black-haired man in a white caftan. As Destiny approached the man clad in white lifted her hand and kissed it gently, which caused her to redden slightly. Fade refused to receive a brief hand shake from either man. Bert stood to the back.
Soel feigned concern, “I called you here so you could tell Destiny the truth about the situation.”
“What truth?” Destiny asked, “What’s he talking about?”
“Your father’s been taken hostage because I have a price on my head in Buldethia. He’s probably already dead.”
Her eyes opened wide as her lips pursed a second, then quivered. She held back at tears as she glared at Fade.
“You’re not joking, are you?” she said, “Don’t even say that!”
“We’re going back to Hakkut. We’re going to try and rescue him.”
“This is all my fault. We have to leave now!”
“It’s not your fault. Soel’s taking the Neimun off course to get us within range.”
Soel patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. “The letter concerning your father’s capture is on that central computer. Fade has already seen it. He didn’t want to worry you before something could be done.”
“Destiny...”
She rushed towards the pillar. As she approached, the screen displayed the text of the threat Fade received. She turned to him, “You should have told me as soon as you knew. It’s not your job to protect my feelings. How dare you keep me in the dark!”
“Don’t be so hard on him, Kitten.”
“Shut up and stay away! Both of you!”
No sooner than Destiny touched the pillar than she felt something sting the tip of her index finger. She raised it, curiously looking at the dab of blood that dripped out. The pillar melted into the floor. A cage materialized around her. Her finger pulsed as something flowed deeper into it. Her vision began to darken as her hearing dimmed. She turned, unable to speak as her eyes glazed over. Her knees slid over the floor as she awkwardly grasped for Fade. She couldn’t feel, see, or hear anything around her. So she fell back, clasped her knees, and remained perfectly still.
“What did you do to her?!”
Fade punched at Lieutenant Soel but he dodged right. Soel ignored the feint and dodged again to the right. He hopped back. Fade launched a feint to the right and countered with a left for the gut. Soel dodged again but with less confidence. A false feint sent Lieutenant Soel against the wall with a punch to the gut. Destiny shrieked and clutched her stomach.
“Stop it! If you kill him, the girl will die,” said the doctor as he pressed a control switch. It forced Destiny’s vocal cords to relax, her lips were still moving, but nobody heard what she said. He readjusted the frequency and Destiny stood like a statue.
Lieutenant Soel struggled to his feet, “If you kill me, then she’ll be trapped forever. Her body is brimming with robotic cells that give us complete control over her actions. Unless I give the command, the cells won’t deactivate, leaving her trapped. Only my voice will deactivate them. As an extra security measure, I’ve programmed them to hurt her whenever I feel pain. The Buldethians have some exceedingly rare and expensive technology.”
“You have no reason for this. I agreed to work for you.”
“I’m keeping her safe and out of your way. You should thank me. This is the deal. You’ll bring the crystal to me in return for this pretty young woman, before I’m to give this ship back to the empire. You’ll work for me without joining the Imperial Military”
“And if I don’t find the crystal in time?”
“Then I order the microscopic robots to disassemble her.”
Bert pulled out his model forty-two, which registered clearly as being completely drained, “I ought to kill you now. Anyone who hides behind a hostage to get what they want isn’t worth their weight in dog meat. If you want this crystal so bad, why don’t you quit the military and search for it yourself?”
Soel laughed, “That would be too high risk, especially considering that I have people who are completely willing to do my bidding for me. You don’t have any other choice.”
The man in the white caftan stepped forward and threw his outer garment to the side. He wore the black and red of the Buldethian service underneath, “The robots are programmed to disintegrate within a few weeks, whether or not they take her along is completely up to you. What do you think of it, Buldethian technology at its best?”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Consider it an insurance policy on my behalf. I’ll release her into your custody, free and clear, once I receive the first crystal,” Soel said, “I’m a soldier of my word.”
“You better keep it,” Fade said.
“The transport will guide you to my treasure. It has a robotic arm that should prove useful. If that fails there are environment suits folded in the sleeping compartment. We’ll exchange the girl for the crystal at the Dofu Space Station before I’m slated to relinquish the Neimun.”
“Why do you want that crystal so much you’re willing to risk pissing me off? If anything happens to her, you’ll wait and see your life flash before your eyes.”
“You have no options mercenary. I have your favorite crew member hostage. If you kill me, she dies, and you become an enemy of the empire and have nowhere to run. On the other hand, you work with me and you get a chance to save the empire, to get your ship back. When you put it all together, I am ensured that you won’t blow off this task. I dare you to try and betray me.”
Fade clenched his teeth, “When do I leave for the crystal?”
“It’s been pinpointed to a cliff on the western edge of mount Calderra. As a cover mission, you’ll find out how vitrolo is being smuggled to my men and disrupt the supply chain. A good man is out of action because of that drug.”
-----
A smoky cold chilled deep as the sulfuric scent of burnt fusion liquid filled the docking bay which housed an S119 transport, a rectangular ship with low powered thrusters. The light duty Imperial transport had been repainted the black and red colors of the Buldethian fleet with the designation code S614 in red on the side. The Buldethian markings would be a help on Hakkut shortly, but Fade doubted how far he’d get in Imperial space. He ascended the staircase of the prop that kept the vehicle from resting on its hover pads. The he inserted the key card. The locking sphere turned. He slid the hatch open. Two square windows dominated the control room. Bert took a seat in the back. Nicole smartly saluted her commander and then followed them inside. Ace came from the back of the fighter bay. He walked briskly past Lieutenant Soel with a quick salute and boarded the transport.
“Leaving so soon?” he asked once inside.
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Where is that girl of yours? Isn’t she going with you?”
“She's some things to work out.”
“I see, so you got what you wanted already/”
Fade seethed, but returned to his seat.
“Good luck out there, scum bag,” Ace said before leaving.
“You too.”
Fade brooded as he waited for clearance. Nicole entered and sat beside him. He slammed his fist on steering console, denting the rubberized coating.
“Welcome aboard my transport. Paid with the blood of the innocent.”
“No one is completely innocent.”
“You think more like me than I do.”
“Is that an honor or an insult?”
“I don’t know, but I think I could care less.”
“Then do so. Your mechanic reviewed the ship and cleared it for flight, everything is sealed up. She’s ready to fly.”
“I’m waiting for permission.”
“The Lieutenant informed me that I’ve been dismissed from his company. According to him, he knew me all along, even when the others were fooled, but I doubt it. He told me I’ll be assisting you from here on out, unless I want to return disgraced to civilian life. I don’t think he would have been so kind if he didn’t begrudgingly respect me.”
“Care less about your life history.”
“Working with you is going to be…” she sighed, as permission to leave the docking bay came over the radio. The hatch of the Neimun opened.
The muddy snowball with the brown ring over its center, the planet known as Hakkut, appeared. White wispy ice clouds flew around its poles, lasting for mere moments, and then appearing again. In the southern hemisphere Mount Caldera burned. The volcano used to be covered by deep glaciers.
The Neimun warped out not long after the S119 reached a safe distance. Pink beams rose from the planet’s equator to greet the arrival of the Buldethian fleet. Soel pulled a risky maneuver. He used the Neimun’s hyperspace drives right after Fade’s transport was free of the ship’s influence to escape, but escaped with little time before the battle began.
-----
The remaining Buldethian Cruisers viciously returned fire against the aging planetary cannons. The capital city, Grand Hakunia, became covered in a mass of purple and pink explosions. Orange orbs spread over the temperate belt like an infection, leaving craters wherever they faded. Troop transports floated to the surface. Planetary infrastructure disintegrated under the weight of Buldethian guns. A consecutive series of explosions lit Hakkut’s orbital space as the entire system of artificial satellites exploded. Debris peppered the S119 forcefully enough to cause its shields to activate. As the last desperate guns of the planetary garrison were silenced, they entered the southern hemisphere. Upon reaching the surface they hovered along the ground before shooting northward.
Fade hollered for his lieutenant, “Can we rig some weapons to this coffin?”
“If we can land at our base, I may be able to improvise something.”
“Something good?”
“This is an emergency evacuation transport. My options would be limited.”
Bert turned to Nicole, “Hey kid, anyone ever tell you that you got no meat on your bone?”
She didn’t respond, he shrugged, “Then again, not everyone is born stacked like myself.”
Without so much as turning the back of her fist smacked Bert’s jaw hard enough to make his teeth clatter.
“Sorry buddy, stronger than you look! We should fight some time. I’d enjoy that.”
Fade halted the transport before the personal entrance of his hanger. The small door remained partially buried amidst the snow, a thick glaze of ice covered it. Fade pulled the vehicle parallel to the door and waited for the heat of the transport’s exhaust to melt the ice. Bert kicked the door open to loosen the remaining ice. Nothing remained inside. The front wall of the hanger stood like a deceptive prop on a movie set. An ugly series of shallow craters was littered with debris. Bert’s lip quivered with an angry frown as he looked back. Fade had not seen the devastation on his approach, or he would have avoided the hanger altogether.
“It’s gone! Everything but the wall we saw on the way here! It’s all been gone. Worse, it was done long before the bombing started. The craters are about thirty-six hours old considering the snow pack. All my big guns were in there. All my big guns! They destroyed my big guns.”
Fade shook his head, “Then we don’t have time for this place, let’s go.”
Bert couldn’t stop looking towards his boots, “What’s next on the agenda?”
“I have to make a stop nearby.”
Fade tucked in his uniform before tying his trench coat loosely.