Banished Worlds (15 page)

“Look, I thought I was clear on this. I’m not leaving without Kevin.” She folded her arms and stood, starting at me.

“Same problem,” Roberts told her. “Even if he were here and not out there on the surface, we have no code for him.”

“I don’t care. I want him here, or I’m staying.” Her sixteen years were showing, and I realized in that moment that I was getting old, or soft, or both. My attention had drifted off of the matter at hand.

Jenkins had been shot, was down and in pain, but not out. He pulled a knife and slashed at my left leg, just getting me with the tip. The cut was not deep; it was a distraction and an opening for Nelson.

Nelson must have been watching Jenkins more closely than I, because he brushed the rifle barrel to one side and punched me. His angle was bad, his blow hit more of my shoulder than jaw, but it gave Jenkins a second opening, and he cut me on the outside of the thigh. Nelson and I staggered several steps away as we fought for control of the rifle. I had also dropped the pistol in our struggle.

Behind us, Jane was shrieking and clutching at Roberts who was trying to push her away to come to my aid. Roberts got close to Jenkins who grabbed her leg and pulled them both down to floor level since he could not stand.

Nelson jerked the gun free and rolled away from me. He came up to a kneeling position with the rifle pointed at me. “Stop, Harry, just stop!” Nelson ordered. Slowly, he got to his feet.

Jane had been pushed out of the three-way fight as Roberts fought for the knife. She bolted for the ship, and better cover.

“You two also stop! Stop, or I shoot Harry!” Nelson yelled at them.

I could hear it in Nelson’s breathing; he was exhausted. As was I.

Roberts released her hold on the knife and rolled completely away from Jenkins, and out of his reach.

“You still need her, Nelson.” I wanted his attention only on me and not on her.

“Oh shut up, Harry.” Nelson took a deep breath, but it did not appear to help him any.

“What now, Nelson? You’ve got the gun pointed at me, now what?”

“God I hate you, Harry. I hate you more than I ever did before.” He lowered the barrel of the gun a hair. The weapon was getting heavy, and his labored breathing was getting worse. “Tell me, Harry, tell me you’re more concerned with getting Garrett’s daughter off planet than you are with saving Marty’s little girl. Complete the mission, Harry.” Again, he aimed the gun level at me. “She’ll do it for you. She’ll reprogram the damn ship computer, so I can get onboard too, or she’ll watch you die.”

“Marty?” I said confused, and wondered if I had one too many hits to the head while I’d been here.

“Yes, Harry, stop playing dumb. Tell her to fix the ship, or I’m going to shoot you dead.”

“Both of us,” Jenkins said from his position on the floor. “We both go.”

Nelson turned the rifle and fired one round, then turned the weapon back my direction. He looked to Roberts. “Fix the ship, or I kill him next.”

I looked to Roberts. “Marty’s daughter?”

“Martin Isaac Aston. Roberts was mom’s maiden name. I changed my name when I joined up and became an agent,” Roberts explained to me.

“Enough of this. Fix the ship, or I kill both of you.” Nelson waved the rifle back between us.

“Nelson, shut up and let me think. Let me talk to Roberts.” I looked to Marty’s daughter. “Is there any way to override the programming, reset it to let him onboard?”

Roberts shook her head. “No. I can’t reprogram the system, not from this planet.” She stopped and looked sharply at Nelson. “I might be able to disable the computer and launch blind, on manual. Maybe, but that is a long shot.”

“Okay, Nelson, she has a plan. Something we can try,” I inform him.

“Anything that gets me off of this planet is fine. Everyone get on the ship, now! One trick, one hint of a trick, and I will kill everyone, including Jane.”

“Marty’s daughter,” I said struggling with disbelief.

“Not now, you two.” Nelson waved us toward the ship entry door.

Roberts entered first and headed forward toward the cockpit.

I entered and looked for Jane, Price, and Daiman. Price was in an acceleration chair. He was not watching us, but holding his head from the beatings. He had been Nelson’s leverage against Mia until I had returned. I saw Jane half crouched behind Price, and the acceleration chair he sat in. He sat up facing us, but his expression showed he was clearly in pain. I did not see Daiman.

Nelson stopped at the door. “Where’s Daiman?” he asked.

Jane twisted aft and pointed. “He went into the hatch over there.”

“Something about checking power systems,” Price added.

Nelson still held the gun trained on me as he entered. He did not see Daiman, until Daiman jumped him.

I heard the shot and felt the impact, but did not feel hurt. I jumped for Daiman and Nelson. There was a second gun shot, and Daiman dropped. I pounded my fists into Nelson’s face, smacking his head against the deck plating, then jerked him to his feet. My adrenalin was pumping, and I was going to beat him to death, and would have if Roberts had not grabbed me. She pulled me away with her left hand and brought the rifle barrel up at Nelson’s face.

“Get off of my ship, Nelson, get off now!” she ordered.

He looked down the barrel at her, through blurry eyes with blood covering his face from my fist. “And if I don’t, what, you’re going to shoot me? What’s the difference?”

“If you leave now, I will ask about coming back for you with a transport. No DNA code needed. Otherwise, yes, you are a dead man.”

Nelson grinned. “You can’t kill me, you’ve never killed anyone. It’s hard the first time, harder when it’s someone you know, and harder still when they are looking you in the face.” Nelson started to step forward.

“Do you doubt that I will kill you?” I bent down, collected Daiman’s fallen gun, and pointed it at Nelson’s face.

Nelson glanced at me, then looked to Roberts. “You’d side with him against me?” he questioned.

“Only until I’m dead and probably even then,” Roberts replied. “Now get off of my ship.”

Nelson worked his way to the door and left.

Roberts followed him and I followed her. She walked him out to the outside landing area where she closed and locked the door to the launch platform. Mia Roberts turned to me. “Come on, it’s time to get off of Tirus.”

“That’s good, because I am very, very tired.”

“You do know you have been shot, right?”

“I was wondering about that, but it doesn’t hurt. So I figured if I looked, it might start hurting. Is it bad?”

Mia slipped her shoulder under my arm and helped me back to the ship. “It looks painful to me, but I’ve never been shot. You seem to have lost a lot of blood between the knife cut and the gun shot.” Mia guided me to an accelerator chair and strapped me in. “Price, can you move, can you get Jane strapped in, or not?”

“Yes, Captain Roberts,” Price said and got out of his chair.

Roberts hurried to a cabinet, grabbed a med kit, and can back to me. She put a needle in my right arm and hung an IV bag from my accelerator chair. After that she packed bandages into the gunshot wound.

“That’s all you get for now. I need to get us in the air and you to a hospital. Price, lift off in five minutes, be in your chair by then.”

Roberts moved to the pilot’s seat and started typing information into the shuttle computer. Systems around us started energizing, lights winked on and off, systems registered, and power came on-line.

“I’m initializing the computer DNA scan, it will make your skin feel itchy for a few minutes while it records us,” Roberts told the group.

“You were serious about the DNA stuff,” Jane said to Roberts.

“Completely,” Roberts told her and returned her attention to prelaunch.

“So you really couldn’t have brought Kevin with us?”

“I’m sorry, no.”

Jane covered her face, and I could hear that she started to cry.

“You need a hand. You need me to do anything?” I asked.

“You are feeling better because of the IV, but no. You just sit there. Besides, like you know anything about flying a ship?”

“I was convicted for it, you saw the file.”

Mia Roberts turned to face me. “There’s a big difference between what you were convicted of and what you did.” She grinned at me. “Besides, you were innocent.”

“Pardoned, there’s a difference. I’ll explain that to you one day. That is if you ever get us the hell off this planet.” I laid my head back and closed my eyes.

Price stopped next to my chair. “I’m going to give you a shot for the pain.”

“I’ve been shot, that’s what caused the pain.”

He put a needle in my arm, then double checked my chair restrains.

“You need to practice more before you do that, it hurt.”

“Price, sixty seconds, find your seat!” Roberts yelled back over her shoulder.

I watched him move to his seat and strap in. He was trying to relax, but he was hurting from Nelson’s beatings.

I heard a soft pop, but not the noise I would have expected from an engine flare at launch. The escape ship shot up and out of its launch tunnel and straight into the night sky. The next minute we were in space.

This escape ship did not come with portals to look out of, only a small screen for the pilot, but I could see the stars on the screen. I also watched the planet’s defense satellites spin in our direction. They were there to keep prisoners from escaping, and would shoot down anything that did not transmit the correct authorization codes.

Mia typed on her console in an unhurried manner as more satellites changed directions and began targeting us. We were off of Tirus, and I was very tired. I watched intently because I did not want to go through all of this to become space junk and debris.

“Mia, satellites!” I said.

She looked over at me and grinned. “Harry, what satellites?” She tapped her console, and all of the satellites disengaged and returned to watching the planet. “You didn’t think they had me learn the DNA codes and not the satellite overrides, now did you?” She grinned at me, then turned back to her console. “Just sleep, Harry. I got it from here.”

CHAPTER 10

The smells were wrong, and they woke me as I opened my eyes to find the lights set to a low level. I was reclined and staring at a dark ceiling. I lifted my hands up, expecting to find dried blood, but they were clean, even my nails were clean. I started to sit up and groaned in pain.

“You need to just lay there. I’m surprised you’re awake at all. The surgeons only just finished working on you an hour ago.” Mia Roberts stepped into my line of site. She was clean, hair pulled back in the ponytail again, and standing there in polished body armor.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Medical ship, Martials Grace. You went to sleep after launch, and as soon as we hit orbit I sent out a mayday, medical emergency. Martials Grace answered.”

I motioned her closer and patted the bed.

Mia sat down on the edge.

“Martin Isaac Aston Roberts,” I said.

Mia shook her head. “No. I used dad’s initials, as an acronym, and mom’s last name. I officially, changed my name to Mia Roberts.”

“Wendy Aston, all grown up. You would have been fourteen when I went to prison. You look completely different, other than the eyes. I guess that’s why I couldn’t place you, but you felt familiar to me. I just couldn’t figure it out.”

“I’m taller, I’m a woman, not a child. Fourteen when you went to prison, more like twelve the last time we would have seen each other. You were still dad’s partner.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” I said. It felt dirty to have noticed, worse to have acknowledged it. I looked away.

“It’s okay. Wendy was a little girl that went to the parks with her parents and her dad’s partner. I’m Mia, an adult that thinks you’re kind of noticeable too.”

I looked back. “Not to change the subject, but Price, Jane, how are they?” I looked into those crystal blue eyes and almost forgot I’d asked a question.

“Price is in the room across the corridor. He’s fine. Minor injuries from the punishment Nelson and Jenkins inflicted.

Mia touched my hand, and that was when I realized she did not have on her armored gloves. Her skin was warm and soft.

“What about Jane?” I inquired.

“Garrett’s ship is due here in twelve hours. She is in isolation and prep. I couldn’t stop it.” I felt her hand shake. “I didn’t know, Harry. I swear I didn’t know the reason for the mission. She’s just a kid.”

“I know that, you don’t have to tell me.”

“When Garrett gets here, they are going to cut out any parts he needs, whether it kills her or not. And I brought her here.”

“We, we brought her here. I need two things Mia, eight hours sleep, not one minute more, and a suit of body armor like that, in my size. Can you do that?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Eight hours, no more. I’ll need Price when I get up too.”

“What are you thinking, Harry?”

“Nothing, nothing for you to worry about.”

Mia leaned close. “You tell me, or you’ll sleep for a week,” she whispered. Her lips smiled, but I also saw the icy fury in her eyes.

I reached up to her neck and pulled her to me. I kissed her and let her go. “If I tell you, Marty’s daughter might be headed to a prison planet like his partner. I can’t do that.”

“Your partner won’t help you blindly. Daddy taught me better than that. Eight hours, then you tell me the plan.” Mia stood up. “I do have a question. Should we go back for Nelson? I promised I would ask, I did not promise who I would ask.”

“Let me think about that. No.”

“Get some rest if we’re going to cause trouble later.” Mia turned and left the room.

I reclined back, deeper into the bed, and tried to think of what to do about Jane Garrett. She was a kid, like Mia, my last friend’s daughter. I told myself I should not be thinking of her. I had to focus. I needed to figure out how to fix this without Jane being cut to ribbons. I closed my eyes to think.

***

“How are you feeling?” Mia stood to my right side, mostly, facing my direction.

“Like I was shot through the abdomen, oh wait, I was,” I replied and saw concern twist her expression to a stern study of me. “I’m okay, the armor helps a lot.” I touched the body armor chest plate. “It does a good job of keeping all of my parts in the right place.”

Mia had not wanted me up and moving so soon after the surgery, but there was no choice. We had to protect Jane, and daddy was on his way.

“I’m fine.”

“If that changes, you let me know.”

“Concern yourself with Price, this all hinges on him. You’re sure Price won’t flip on us. He is, after all, turning on Garrett to do this.”

“I know, and so does Price and Jane.” Again there was a sideways look from Mia. “Just because he knew the mission was an organ retrieval, doesn’t mean he liked the idea. A guy like Price and what he does, his skill set, well, his options are still limited. One call from someone as powerful as President Garrett, and he won’t get an R & D job at a fast food place, let alone a real R & D job.”

“I don’t know that it has changed,” I pointed out.

“Well, he has his limits too. It was easier to not think about it before he met her. Now…” she stopped. “Now, we can trust him.”

“One way or another, this problem is about to be over.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek. It hurt, and the movement pulled at my surgery stitches, but I did not let it show.

“When this is done we have to work that out too,” Mia told me. “And be warned, I’m not listening to anything about our age difference, or that dad was your partner before you went to prison.”

“It’s all true though, but you’re right, business first.” I checked my body armor. It was strange wearing armor again, and at the same time it felt good.

“I can hardly believe that he’s willing to cut up his own kid to stay alive.” Disgust filled her tone and the look on her face told me that Garrett was lucky to not be here at this moment.

Our plan, such as it was, would not work if Garrett got himself beat to death by one of his agents. The fact that it bothered her so much told me that daddy had raised her right.

“I can’t believe anybody is like that,” Mia repeated.

“They all are. All the ones in charge will sacrifice anyone to stay in charge. That also is why they have agents,” I mentioned to her.

“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing to be an agent. You didn’t seem to dislike the job when I was a kid. Or was I too young to notice?”

“No, you didn’t miss anything then. The job was good when I worked with your dad before I transferred to Nelson’s team. I thought it was a step up, and your dad tried to warn me, but I was too stubborn, didn’t listen.”

“Dad quit after you went to prison. He blamed Nelson, but I didn’t see it. I blamed you for your mistakes.”

“Agents that will do anything, move up. Agents, like Nelson, get those positions because they will do anything for the people in charge. I learned that too late. My mistakes were mine, just not the ones that were public. Eventually, it comes back to haunt you.”

“Haunt you how?” she asked.

“Nightmares, if you’re lucky.”

“And if you’re not lucky?”

We heard the ships connect and the airlocks cycle.

“Prison and nightmares,” I explained. I straightened up ready to meet our guests. “Put your helmet on,” I ordered.

She pulled her headgear on, polished to a shine, and set to opaque. Mia Roberts disappeared inside the agent body armor. Her armor was combat ready if we needed that. With my helmet off, I had full armor strength, but not full protection.

We waited. The hatch cycled open and in marched a small squad of fully armored agents with assault rifles. The agents filled the room and filed into the rest of the medical ship without a word to Roberts, or me. After several minutes, one agent approached, and faced me.

“Where is Agent Nelson?”

“Tirus, he missed the flight. I need to speak to Deputy Administrator Collins right away,” I informed the agent in front of me.

The slight tilt of his head to the left told me he was listening to instructions from someone through his armored helmet headset.

“If you could, please relay that message to Deputy Collins.” I knew that whoever was on the other end of his helmet headset would hear me.

The agent looked to Mia. “Who are you?”

“I am Agent Mia Roberts, Extraction Team expert and currently, the Agent in charge of this mission.”

“Agent Roberts, you are relieved, report to center command on our ship for debriefing,” the agent told her and turned his attention back to me. He was a person used to giving orders once.

“Sir,” Roberts piped up. “I don’t know you, and my orders are to deliver the package and Agent Danbeu, to Deputy Collins. You can’t relieve me.”

“You are relieved, Agent!” he snapped at her. He turned to face her. “Don’t make me have you dragged off of this ship.”

“Respectfully, sir, no.”

“Hey, call Collins like I asked,” I suggested again.

An agent came running into the bay between our ships. “Sir, comm is down throughout the ship. They only work in this bay. All ships personnel are gone. These are the only two people onboard,” the runner reported.

The agent in charge of the squad looked from me to Roberts. “Where is everyone?” he asked.

“As I stated, I must deliver my cargo to Deputy Collins, sir.”

“You don’t have the girl, Agent, she’s not onboard?”

“Yes, sir, she is not. You have a deadline and a problem. My cargo, Agent Danbeu, has the girl’s location, and I have Agent Danbeu. I need to speak to Deputy Collins right away.”

I pushed the agent back a step to get his attention. “In other words, no Collins, no prize.”

Even though his helmet was opaque, and I could not see his face, I could feel his desire to hit me. He restrained himself. “Sergeant, watch these two.” The agent in charge turned on his heel and marched out of our ship.

“I think we have his attention,” I said with a slight grin at Roberts.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“It’s amazing what food, sleep, and good drugs will do for you. Yes, I’m fine.”

We stood in the cargo bay waiting for almost an hour before the agent returned at the right elbow of Deputy Administrator Collins. The agent stood as still as a statue and Collins stared at us. After a minute, Collins addressed Roberts directly.

“Where is the girl, Agent?”

“We would like to discuss that with you privately,” I said and was ignored.

“Agent Roberts, tell me where Jane Garrett is, or I’ll drop you back on Tirus,” Collins threatened. He was a powerful man, and had a ship full of agents at his command. His threat could be made real very quickly. He stared hard at Roberts’ face shield.

“I’ve been there, I can survive. I’m even a little popular there,” Roberts answered. “Can the same be said about President Garrett, will he survive?”

Good girl, I thought, but did not let my thoughts show.

“Clear the room,” Collins ordered. None of the agents moved. “I said get out!” he yelled this time. The agents all started for the hatch except for the one at his right elbow.

I looked at this agent, then to Collins.

“He can’t leave. The senior agent has to stay as long as there is a government official engaged with hostiles. And yes, you were listed as hostiles the moment you refused his order earlier to hand over the girl.” Collins looked back to Roberts. “All right, we’re alone. Where is Jane Garrett?”

“You’re going to like this,” I offered.

He glared at me.

“Okay, maybe not so much.” I looked to Roberts, then back to Collins.

“We loaded Ms. Garrett, and the crew of this ship, onto the medical ship Escape, on course for Rei Gali Space Station,” Roberts reported.

“My place. They are at my place,” I added with a little grin. Then I lost my smile. “Everybody meets there and we finish this mission. No arguing and no “we can’t do that.” This is the only way this happens in time to save President Garrett’s life.”

“And you, Deputy Administrator Collins, you will travel with us. Your ship can follow, and I’ll give them my course,” Roberts told Collins.

Collins looked to me, then to Roberts. “Agent Nelson trained both of you?” he asked when he already knew he had. It was in our records, and Collins struck me as the type that, if he could, he studied every person he had dealings with. Our records would be easy for him to access.

“Yes,” Roberts replied.

“I’m going to have to speak to him about his training methods.” Collins raised his right wrist to his mouth and spoke softly into the communications link before he looked to Roberts. “I’m ready when you are.”

I went to the hatch and cycled it closed. “Agent Roberts, head to the cockpit, get us underway.”

“Agents Danbeu and Roberts, if we miss the deadline because of this little stunt you are pulling here, you will wish we had left you on Tirus.” Collins headed for the door out of the cargo bay.

Roberts passed him and took the lead to the cockpit. She strapped into the pilot’s chair and I sat down in the seat to her right. Roberts brought the displays up, and on our screens we had Collins’ ship, a large, heavily armed military transport in high orbit around Tirus.