Banished Worlds (3 page)

“Get me Nelson right now, or I’ll jerk that helmet right off of you.” My temper flared a little. I was very tired of people, agents especially, bossing me around.

She was fast and accurate. The female agent hit me in the gut, and I hit the deck on my knees. She grabbed me by the right shoulder and jerked me to my feet. “Shower and food, then you can speak to Agent Nelson.” She started back up the corridor with me in tow.

I could breathe by the time she tossed me, clothes and all, into the shower. My escort did her job and watched without moving a muscle, or speaking to me the entire time as I showered. I tried to stretch the pain out of my right shoulder and back, in the hot water. The pain was not horrible, but it definitely affected my motion and temper. The shower, however, helped with the motion. I dried off and got dressed in fresh clothes. My old stuff was tossed into the trash recycler. I didn’t even get a minute to get my belonging out of my pockets before my old clothes were destroyed. I was informed that I would not be able to take them to the planet with me anyway.

My escort, hands off, guided me to the mess hall. It happened to be empty, other than two cooks. After serving me, they too left. I did not ask if it was by design that we were alone, or if it just happened to be that way. I walked over to a table and sat down. It was a long table, but narrow. My escort stood a few feet away.

“Look, I’m not going to hold it against you that you tried to break my shoulder. Nelson trained you, and I know how he is. I was trained by him too. Sit down, we’ll start again. You can even tell me your name.”

“I’m fine with how we started. Eat, and I will show you to Agent Nelson.”

“Sit down, tell me your name, have a bite to eat,” I offered with a smile. “I promise not to make you use your armor on me again. Surely, you can sit.” I picked up my knife and fork and started cutting my steak. “This is the first syn steak I’ve had in eight years. The only meat on a prison planet is from real cattle, pigs and chickens. They’re all bloody and gamy tasting, but people love’em, let’s say they prefer them.” I took a bit of my food and chewed, enjoying the rich flavor of the synthetic meat fiber. “Not me though. Give me a good syn steak any day of the week.” I looked up at my escort, held up a piece of steak, and motioned her to sit down. “I promise not to bite you. You don’t even have to tell me your name yet, we’ll just talk.”

Slowly, she moved to the table and sat down across from me. “So what do you want to talk about?”

I chewed another bite of my food, and swallowed. “Energy,” I said and pushed my plate off to one side. I glanced off to one side of the room.

“What?” she asked looking from me to my plate. I could tell from the tilt of her helmet that direction.

I was ready for her this time and grabbed her left wrist just long enough to slip the fork into the control pad that powered the armor. One minute she had full power to the armor, the next it was just so much heavy clothing. I dragged her across the table and smashed her helmet-protected head down hard several times. It stunned her. I was very tired of armored agents having the upper hand and my escort gave me an opening. I unsnapped the latches of the helmet and pulled it off, then pressed her unprotected throat against the hard edge of the table with my weight on her head and back. “You move, and I break your damn neck, clear?”

“Yes.” She struggled, but not enough to try to get free.

“Good. Now, what is your name, Agent? And make it fast.”

“Roberts, Agent Roberts.” She coughed from the pressure I held on her throat.

“Good, don’t make me ask you anything twice when we get on the planet, or this will have been the best part of our relationship, clear?”

“Yes.”

“What? What was that, Agent Roberts?” I pushed down just a little harder.

“Yes, sir, Agent Danbeu.”

“God, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone call me that. Thank you for your cooperation.” I leaned back, pulled my fork out of the control circuit, and let Roberts go.

She jumped back the instant I released her, stabbing at the reset to the control pad.

I watched her as I pulled my steak back over in front of me. “Half an hour and it will reset. You will have full power again and be able to again kick my backside.”

“You two don’t have that much time.” Nelson stood in the doorway to the mess hall.

I had seen him out of the corner of my eye when I was holding Roberts pinned to the table. She could not have seen him from her position, and he did not stop me which made me very curious. “Can I finish my steak?” I asked and got a positive nod from Nelson. I picked up Roberts helmet and held it out toward her. “You dropped this.”

She snatched it away from me, but did not put it on. With the armor powered down, it was only a heavy, shiny hat. Roberts turned to Nelson. “I’m sorry, sir, I let him get a hand up on me. I didn’t know there was a design flaw in the power unit control pad. It won’t happen again.”

“Forget it. Remember what I told you, all of you, Harry is a very bright boy, so be careful next time. Go join the others and I’ll bring Harry along when he is done.”

“Yes, sir,” Roberts replied. She shot me a quick, unreadable look as she exited.

“She’s a kid, Nelson, what the hell is she doing out here, and on a mission to Tirus of all places?”

Nelson walked over to me and sat down. “Twenty-two, God, she’s just twenty-two and so damn bright, Harry. A real brain in that rock hard head of hers.”

“A real cute head too,” I said and continued eating.

“You keep your mind on the mission, not on what Agent Roberts looks like. Just don’t talk to her if you don’t have too. You’ll need her and that brain when you’re leading this mission dirt side. Don’t bounce it on anymore tables, got it?”

“What, you’re not going?”

“Too many people in charge then, you know that. One boss, lots of soldiers.”

“So I’ll be in command, do your other agents know that? They know the clear chain of command?”

“I’ve told them and will tell them again before we drop you.”

“Land,” I corrected him.

Nelson shook his head. “Prisoner drop is your way in. After you hit the dirt, it’s all up to you to find the girl and Roberts has your egress instruction. You’ve been on Lark, you know the culture of a prison world. None of them have that, and that’s why you’re here. That’s the only reason you’re here. The rest of the team is all backup, muscle if you need it. Except for Roberts and Price, they are brains, agents yes, but not the muscle type. They’ll listen to you, but don’t push it.”

“Great, this day just keeps getting better. Why didn’t you mention that before I beat her head on the table?”

“Like you said, she’s young and has to learn not to trust men like you.”

I took another bite of my steak. “Like us, Nelson, men like us. After all I learned my nastier manners from you.”

“Finish up, we have a short briefing, then you’re away.” Nelson leaned back in his chair to wait for me.

***

On our walk, deeper into the body of the President’s ship, a raised voice caught our attention. We followed it to the source.

“You will do no such thing, Doctor. This matter is closed, and I expect your discretion on this.”

“Mr. President, is everything all right?” Nelson asked from the half open doorway.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on planet by now?” President Garrett stared at me. He realized after a second that I was looking at the massive, and from the looks of it recent, scars on his chest. Garrett pulled his shirt closed with a sharp motion and threw a hateful look at Nelson.

“Yes, sir.” Nelson reached for the door. “We are headed to the briefing now, sir, then off to Tirus. Sorry for the interruption.”

Nelson and I continued to the transfer control room. It was filled with agents. Roberts stood off to one side, talking to a short, skinny guy that looked younger than her.

“All right people, you’ve heard this before, but we are going to cover it again.” Nelson pointed to one area of the room. “I want the travelers to collect there, so your boss knows who’s who. That’s right. Your boss on this mission is Harry. You have all had time to read his profile, I hope you did, and learned something. Harry is a nicer version of me, but not by much.”

“A lot Nelson,” I added, watching the room of agents.

“Everyone move,” Nelson ordered.

Roberts was first to relocate. The skinny guy moved with her. Two of the three agents that had plucked me from my apartment walked over. They did not look happy to join my team. Two agents, I had not seen until now, joined the bunch. One was an older female who did not look happy. That left six agents in the room not on the mission, and of course, Nelson.

“As you all know, Sergeant Price is a prison system technician out of research and development, so for this part of the briefing I’ll turn the deck over to him.” Nelson waved at Roberts and the skinny guy next to her moved to the center of the room.

“Thanks, Agent Nelson.”

I noticed Nelson tense briefly when Price addressed him.

“First off, and don’t bother arguing this, but since we are going in as prisoners,” Price made little quotation marks in the air with his fingers, “you can’t bring your guns.”

“What? How the hell do we defend ourselves?” This came from the older female agent. Several others voiced the same concerns. I watched and studied my team.

“And you can’t bring your body armor.”

“This is stupid, it’s a prison planet. We have to be able to defend ourselves if we are to go after the President’s daughter,” one of the male agents argued.

“Relax, people, first hear the little guy out,” I ordered.

“We’re not on the planet yet, don’t tell me what to do,” the same agent told me.

“You were on the planet and under my command the minute you walked over to that group,” I replied. He and I stared a long minute at each other.

The agent reached toward his sidearm, but Roberts was faster. She stopped his right hand with her left, pulled her Taser sidearm and placed the weapon against the side of his throat.

He froze, as did everyone else in the room.

Roberts leaned close to his ear and whispered.

He looked sideways at her, then back to me and smiled.

Roberts released his arm and holstered her weapon.

“You were saying, Sergeant Price,” Nelson said to the group to get us all back on topic.

As Price started up again, I watched Roberts. She gave me an unreadable look, then turned her attention to Price.

“Yes, as you all know, no weapons or powered body armor are transported to the prison planets on a routine drop, and that is what this has to look like if we are to get in, find the girl, and get out.”

“One of the reasons Agent Danbeu is here, is to get your team equipped once you make dirt fall,” Nelson tells the group. “From all of our reports, prison planets have their own systems and rules, but they are all pretty much the same. Since Agent Danbeu has lived in one and knows our agency protocols that is the reason he is in charge. Go ahead, Price, tell them what they can have.”

Price walked over to a large storage locker, opened it and pulled out a rack of clothing. “You get this. You will find your names on the hangers with your clothes.” Price pulled one article of clothing off of the rack. It looked like heavy T-shirt material. “This is second skin armor, pretty new stuff, that has been proven very good when subjected to testing, and provides some level of protection.”

“Armor?” asked the older female agent.

“Yeah, it won’t take the kind of punishment your regular armor will. It won’t give you added physical strength that is not its purpose. It will stop most blunt weapon attacks from things like clubs, or stuff like that. Knives can’t cut it, on a sweeping strike, but will penetrate if the strike is a straight thrust with enough force. Small arms fire will be stopped if you are a great enough distance away. Close quarters it might help.” Price completed his dissertation.

“This should be fine to get us started. Prison planets pretty much work the way Agent Nelson said, from what I know. New prisoners come in with nothing, they hit the landing pad and are pretty much left alone to wander around, get in trouble, and learn not to get into anybody else’s business. That’s the way Lark is and I imagine Tirus ain’t a lot different. We should have no trouble getting in and disappearing into the crowds. Asking questions shouldn’t be an issue either,” I told the group.

“Remember, Danbeu is in charge down there, and trust me he is one mean, smart cookie.” Nelson surprised me with a handshake. “Fast trip, and good luck. Okay, people, strip out of your gear and get dressed in the second skin armor and the clothes provided,” Nelson ordered.

I walked over to Roberts as she moved to the rack. I took her arm and pulled her to a far wall. “So what did you tell your friend?” I asked.

Roberts looked across at me, and for the first time I really saw how crystal blue her eyes were. That in itself was a distant and painful memory.

“I told him we needed you, for now, and later I would help him kill you.”

“Good work,” I replied and returned to the equipment rack. My hanger only had the second skin armor on it, as they had issued me new clothes after my shower. I took off my jacket, shirt, and T-shirt, then pulled on the second skin. “Hey, Price, how do I get a larger size in this second skin armor?” I pulled on the heavy material to try to stretch it for comfort.