Black Hull (20 page)

“GR—how many times will you ask me that?
It doesn’t deserve an answer.”

The droids bickered, heading toward the
exit. They entered a shaded aisle when a man sprang upon them. Blasts rang out
before either droid could make a sound. In the fading energy of his blasted
circuitry, XJ mustered the energy to speak one question to their hooded
assailant:

“Who—are—you?” he sputtered, the amber
light in his eyes flickering.

“I am the force of darkness,” the man
said. Both of the droids’ eyes dimmed and turned off. They were lifeless on the
ground. The attacker picked up one leg from each droid and dragged them away.
Though neither droid was alive to hear the man, he spoke further to them:

“And all the things man calls good will
perish before my day is ended. For all that humanity has produced, and called
good, hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace,
nor help for pain. And we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused
alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night.”

Through acrid smoke, as if rising from a
grave, one of Sera’s victims reanimated.

“Where’d he go? Where’s that tainted
motherfucker?” he said, twitching. The innards of his neck, exposed and
cauterized from a gun blast, leaked brackish fluid. He reached into his pocket
and grabbed a syringe, jabbed it into his thigh, then grunted.

“They ran off. Three of them,” said a
shaky bartender. “I already called it in to the UCA, Graice. You can’t go
chasing after them, you need medical attention.”

Longjaw wiped a glob of blood from his
shoulder and threw it to the floor. He looked down at his two dead companions.

“He’ll pay with his life. They all
will.”

“You’d better not kill them. You want a
reward don’t you?” came a voice from the corner of the room. A face poked
through the haze.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Longjaw.

“A nightmare to those I hunt.”

“What’s my bounty mean to you?”

“Half of the reward is mine.”

“Like hell it is.”

From the choking cloud stepped a greasy
face speckled with black grit and wire. The left side of his face was gone,
sunken behind a globe of rubbery flesh. His right eye shined predatory hunger.

“I know how to get them,” the
half-headed man said, licking crusted lips.

“Bullshit.”

“I followed them since they landed. They
left their droids. They’ll be back.”

“How do you know they won’t abandon
them?”

“Because I’m tracking the bitch’s taint
right now. They’re heading back to port, twelve blocks down, at Griswall
Station.”

“
Half
—and if you’re lying—”

“Thought you’d come around. I’d do it on
my own, but I can’t collect the bounty. No license.”

“Shut the fuck up and start moving.”
Longjaw grabbed another syringe and repeated his injection.

“You ready?” Sera asked.

“Sure, why not?” Mick replied.

“You sure you want me to hang back?”
asked Axa.

Sera looked at her body, wrapped like candy
in a bodysuit. “You draw too much attention. Watch the cargo.”

The Fogstar’s bay door opened. They
stepped down into the hissing blue light of Griswall Station.

“Follow me,” she said. They ran between a
row of docked light-classes toward the nearest skyscraper alley.

“What street was their stand on?”

“XJ said he’d be hopping all over. We’re
going to need a lot of luck.”

“This might not be worth it—you said you
might be tainted. What if they’re tracking you?”

She stopped and turned to him. “It’s not
a question—I am tainted—they
are
tracking me. And there’s not a damn
thing either one of us can do about it.”

“So why run the risk?”

It’s her lot or mine now. Every second
we stay here fucks my chance to get home even more.

“Right—why run the risk? I’ll leave
Teddy and dad behind—the collective purpose of my life—why risk
your
family for
mine
?” she said, staring hard. “You’re one hell of a
selfish—” A siren interrupted,  sounding from Griswall Station behind
them. Gun blasts erupted, the sound of a struggle, a female voice shouting,
engines igniting.

“The ship!” Mick said. Sera had already
sprinted past him to reach the hangar floor. She paused where the alley met the
landing zones. Curled in blue light, and through a thick squall of electric
smoke, the Fogstar rose toward the exit hatch above, then disappeared into sky.

“Fuck!” she said. She sat down,
defeated.

“All the droids,” Mick said, sitting
beside her.

“The taint doesn’t matter after all,
does it? It’s not
me
they’re after—it’s what I’m worth—which is
everything on that ship.”

How many times can I beat the odds? From
the cold alone of space—lifeless, engineless, trapped—to another spacetime full
of the same bad hands. No ship. No prospects.
A sadistic voice
replied:
There is something different this time—there’s a target on your
back now.

“I’ve got to get the hell off this rock.
Richest planet, and for all the wealth, the most lawless—it used to be the
poorest places that were the most cor—”

“Shit!” Sera screamed, digging her
fingers into her temples, at once fully grasping the loss.

“Let’s keep moving. Nothing we can do
but find another ship and break planetside.”

“We
have
to find XJ and GR.”

“You’re still worth something aren’t
you?—if you have a taint and the UCA wants you, we can’t waste time wandering
the streets.”

“UCA’ll come. But I’m not going anywhere
without the droids.”

“The ones that mattered were on that
ship—they’re as good as sold.”

Sera stood and punched Mick deep in his
gut. He balled up, squealing.

“You lay down and wait to die. As far as
I’m concerned, we part ways here.”

She kicked him in his ribs, then his jaw.
He rolled, drooling a long strand of globular blood that carried a shattered
tooth.

“Fuck you,” he muttered as she walked
away.

She turned back, cocked her leg, ready
to strike down again; before she could stomp, a pathetic gleam in his eyes paused
her—his sad face beat into her soul, a vision of the past. Mick lay coughing,
trying to slide off his back so he wouldn’t drown in the blood flowing from his
mouth. She touched gently on his side with her heel and rolled him so he could
breathe.

“This is where things fall apart. Get as
far away from here—from me—as you can,” she said, then ran away.

Alone on the wealthiest world in the
Messier 82 galaxy. Would the healers here be open to trades? I know where a
tainted felon wanders.

“Have you seen an XJ model droid?” asked
Sera.

The alien merchant laughed at her as the
sun fell behind them between two spires of crystal.

“Oh no, you’re serious?”

“I am.”

“No idea lady, but listen, you come back
tomorrow. There’ll be a great sale. But the sun’s setting, and I’m going in for
the night. And you’d better get off the streets looking like that.”

She looked down at her chest—red
splatter adorned her jacket: Mick’s blood.

“Someone might get to thinking you’re up
to no good,” the alien said, carrying his rolled awning off. He stopped and
looked back at her: “In fact, that man there might think such a thing.”

Sera turned to see she had a
pursuer—from a block away, a man in a cloak walked swiftly toward her. She
jolted out of sight into a narrow drainway between two skyscraping spires.

“What rough beast…” drifted a voice into
the sun-blocked drainway. Sera gripped her pistol and crouched flat against the
wall.
“It’s
hour come round at last.”

“You won’t take me easy.
Leave me be
,
and you might live to see another bounty.”

“You think I’ve come to cash you in?”
said the cloaked man, stepping into the drainway. “You think the pleasure of
material is what I seek?” A chuckle bounced between the narrow pass.

“I don’t know what the hell you want,
and I don’t give a shit. I’ll blast your head off if you take another step.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness,
only light can do that. But I do not seek to drive out darkness—I intend to
make it all the more complete—for humanity has sounded its identity clearly to
the universe: it is a note of cancer, ” said the man, stopping.

“Who are you?” Sera said, recognizing
his voice.

“You see me plain before you.”

The figure bent into a narrow ray of
light, revealing his face. A blank pair of brown eyes stared from a pale,
shadowed face. He smiled.

“I am the Force of Darkness.”

“FOD.”

“Where is the plantless man?”

“What?”

“Your uncle told me about such a man who
travels with you now—on whom he could not detect a plant.”

“In a gutter, dead. What’s he mean to
you?”

“He might mean the end of all things, if
I can press my purpose upon him. Lead the way Sera.”

Karen?

I see you so clearly, the outline of
your cheek. Stay here. Please.

I need your eyes. Soft, blue, mine
forever—we agreed on that.

I smell you—do you know that I can? You
must, fragrant musk of rose, you wore it for me.  

Your warmth. Silk body. Legs forever.
Your red lips. Hold me…

Karen?

Why can’t I hear you. I see you. You
must see me. The lines of your mouth. Your breast, my pillow.

I can’t remember your voice.

A line of blood ran into a silver grate
from Mick’s body. Two forms approached him from behind. One nudged him, then
again harder.

“Mick,” Sera said.

He didn’t move.

“Roll him over,” said FOD. Sera kneeled
down and turned Mick onto his back.

“You’re back? I knew you’d come back,”
Mick smiled through blood-soaked teeth.

“Do you know why?”

“You want me—you still want me, don’t
you? You never wanted me to go home.”

He strained to reach up, grab her, pull
her close. She recoiled.

“No. Because he’s going to help me get
my ship back. And
he
needs
you
.”

Mick looked for the first time at the
thin figure next to Sera—FOD peered down, his shadowed visage mirroring Mick’s
broken smile.

“Get up friend,” FOD said, extending his
hand.

“Who are you?” asked Mick, taking it and
standing up.

“I’m the one who will get you home.”

“Good. She’s been promising me that
forever, and as you see, I’m still here, worse for the wear,” Mick laughed
deliriously, looking at Sera as he wiped red drool from his chin and rubbed it
into his pants.

“I will need a favor from you.”

“Seems that’s what everyone needs from
me.”

“You don’t have a plant. There’s
something you will have to do for me.”

“Kill more god damn robots? How about
starting with her?” Mick said.

“You want to stay in the gutter?” Sera
said, pressing past FOD.

“I’d like to see you put me there.”

“Relax. This situation is bad for both
of you. You’ve both love that is missing, I know. That is your anger. The
uncertainty of whether you will ever see them again.”