Coldside Ambush Site, Near Qimmiq Port
Krandermore, Survivor’s Refuge
4453.2.29 Interstellar
Janus swerved as another rockjaw clambered out of the sand. He had flashes of their flight from Prometheus Base as a stubby rock talon almost caught his leg. The rockjaws were blockier and slower than triliths, but it still filled him with that same familiar terror he’d felt when he realized the monster stories he’d heard as a child were true.
Pop! Crack! One of the bigger rockjaws broke into three pieces, spattering the ground with neon blue ooze.
“Spread out and draw them out!” Mick said cheerfully, pumping the foregrip of his grenade launcher before tagging another rockjaw with a flashing red remote charge.
The rockjaws lumbered after the team, nowhere near as fast as their Irkallan equivalents, and Mick timed the next detonation to knock a rockjaw the size of a hauler cab into one of its pack mates, who promptly savaged it with blows from its blunt talons.
“They aren’t too smart, are they?” Lira said.
“No,” Koni said, easily avoiding another rockjaw as it climbed out of the sand and grit. “Or fast. It’s a wonder they were able to catch the convoy, let alone disable all the haulers.”
“I’m getting some kind of signal from the site,” Ryler said. “I think… No, it cut off.”
Crack! Mick blew another rockjaw’s front legs off.
The creatures decided they’d had enough. A few of them started digging themselves back into the sand while a trio of smaller ones loped away from the team toward the opposite end of the bowl.
“Let them go,” Janus said as Mick and Koni started to chase after them. “We’re here for the cargo and answers.”
“Fine,” Mick said. “But I’ve got dibs if they come back.”
***
Once the site was secured, Janus called the crawlers in, and the elder and her officials disembarked to take inventory. The haulers had been disabled by damage consistent with a rockjaw attack, although one of unusual ferocity.
The cargo was gone. Since it was supposed to be four loads of high-end water purifiers, and the boxes had been taken intact, it was unlikely the rockjaws had done it. Janus’s heart broke for Khulan, but there was nothing they could do, and the young trader went from thinking she was in the clear to having lost everything all over again.
Janus tried to focus on checking the vehicles. From the drivers’ testimonies and the pattern of damage, the lead vehicle had been hit first by several of the buggy-sized creatures.
The question was, why? Janus and his team had basically been parked on top of a pod of rockjaws, and the creatures hadn’t attacked until Mick blew the first remote charge.
“Hey, Ryler?”
“Yeah?”
“You said you caught some kind of signal when the rockjaws attacked, right?”
The cultist froze, eyes glowing blue behind his helmet visor. “Yeah. There was a signal spike from these vehicles at around the same time, and it cut off after Mick cracked a few of them open.”
“Are we talking ‘rockjaw queen’ signal or ‘faulty equipment’ signal?”
“More like ‘someone tried to kill us’ signal,” Ryler said. “Want me to test that? I could broadcast the same frequency and see if the rockjaws go berserk.”
“I’m game,” Mick said.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“We are not game,” Lira said. “How about we make a wild leap and assume weird signals and weird behavior are a weird coincidence?”
“Can you find the source of the signal?” Janus asked.
“Not when it’s not broadcasting,” Ryler said.
Janus sighed. “All right. Koni, you go update the elder on what we’re doing while the rest of us—wait a minute, you were a boat captain, right?”
“Yes,” Koni said, amused.
“Then you might know where to hide something small and valuable in a vehicle.”
Koni smirked.
“Good,” Janus said. “Ryler, you brief the crowd. Mick, you’re on security. Lira, Koni, and I are going to take this thing apart.”
***
It took another hour to find the source of the signal. In the end, it was a combination of Lira and Koni’s devious minds and Janus spotting a non-standard electrical feed after looking at the wreckage of the lead vehicle and the more intact second vehicle.
The transmitter was nothing special, but they did confirm that it still had power and that it had been triggered remotely.
The team met with the elder, Khulan, Gibson, and Tenoch in the lead crawler.
“You can’t prove I had anything to do with this,” Paddack Gibson said.
Tenoch shifted uncomfortably.
Koni fixed her clanmate with an icy stare. “You can see where this is going, can’t you, Tenoch?”
“Yes,” the Verazlan said.
“It probably started small,” Koni said. “A consideration for a speedy resolution on a case that was obviously in his favor.”
“Just keep your mouth shut, Tenoch!” the Pugarian warned.
“The problem with Pugarians,” Koni said, “is that they just don’t know when to stop, do they?”
Tenoch swallowed.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Ryler asked. “He got greedy. He retrieved the goods from the site before the judgment was final.”
“I did no such thing!” Paddack Gibson snapped. “Maybe she stole them when her drivers faked getting attacked!”
Janus nodded slowly, glancing at Koni. “And I suppose we’d find some of your water purifiers in Khulan’s storage units as soon as the judgment made them yours.”
Paddack closed his mouth and swallowed.
“Can you track the people who took the cargo?” Janus asked Ryler. He pointed at the sky.
“By satellite?” Ryler asked. “Of course. Let me just connect to the ship.”
“That’s going to take time,” Janus said. “I can’t imagine the elders back in Veraz are going to be pleased their aspirant team was delayed.”
“There is no need to imagine,” Koni said. “If I find out you have lied to me, Tenoch, the consequences will not stop with you.”
Janus winced at the threat. Tenoch was dirty, but Janus would have stopped short of threatening the man’s family.
Tenoch looked at the Pugarian trader with bitter resentment and said, “I believe I have allowed myself to be taken to a place I do not wish to be, Honored Sister. Can you help me find my way home?”
The Pugarian turned. “You cowardly piece of—”
Khulan leaned across the cabin and slugged him.
Koni ignored the punch and smiled at her clanmate. “There is always a way home, brother, for those willing to make amends.”
***
All in, the stop in Qimmiq Port had cost the team six hours, and Janus was eager to make up for lost time.
They hit the road hard, pushing east by southeast toward the coldside settlement of Cosmogen Manufacturing. They were fully in coldside, now, so they were “suits on and sealed in” until they reached their destination. Janus’s goal was for them to drive twelve hours and rest six, with short stops every two hours.
At the first stop, he sat next to Koni and opened a private comm link. “How are you holding up?”
“I am eating protein paste through a port in my helmet, Janus Invarian,” Koni said. “This is made from bugs, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Janus said with a smirk. “It grows on you.”
“Please don’t say that,” Koni said, and Janus laughed. “Do you think I did the right thing back in Qimmiq Port?”
Janus took a drink from his drink tube. “Do you think Tenoch will abide by your judgment?”
Koni shrugged. “I left copies of the pronouncement with Khulan and the elder, and I’ll make sure he followed through when I return to Veraz.”
“You mean, ‘If you return to Veraz?’ right?”
Koni smiled behind her visor. “How could I not make it with your team keeping me safe?”
Janus chuckled and shook his head.
He had to admit Koni’s judgment had been everything he would have hoped for during his days as an outsider in Prime Dome. She’d forced Paddack Gibson to pay for the delivery in full and replace Khulan’s trucks. On top of that, the Pugarian lost his eastern trading license, and the elder was going to make him issue a public and recorded apology before the Qimmiqans ran him out of town.
As for Tenoch Cuauhtémoc, she sentenced him to make restitution to all those he’d wronged—as tallied by the Qimmiq Port elder and Paddack’s counter-testimony—before going back to Veraz and throwing himself on the mercy of the council. Koni’s recommended sentence was a year as an attendant in the Hall of the Fallen, which Janus wholeheartedly supported.
“Hey, Ryler,” Janus said on the team channel. “Whatever happened with Martial?”
“Who is Martial?” Koni asked.
“A guy who left Janus to die one time,” Mick said.
“Martial’s doing fine,” Ryler said. “Last I heard, he was serving as a maintenance tech on a Gracian support caravan.”
“Huh,” Janus said.
“You expected more?” Ryler asked.
“Not really,” Janus said. “I guess not everyone gets a great redemption story.”
Ryler raised his palms in the classic void-suited gesture for Who knows.
Janus squeezed a little protein paste into his feeding port. It tasted bland—maybe of almonds and vanilla—with a crunchy texture Janus hadn’t really thought about until Koni brought it up.
Not going to let it bug me. Hah! Janus thought. He was just glad to be back on the road.