Deep Space Endeavor (10 page)

They were making much better time than they had last night,
Josiah thought as the speeder was about to pass Outpost Twenty-One. “Pull into the settlement and go closely past the second building. Slow down, but do not stop, I’m going to jump out, and then you continue on.” Kimiko had known for quite some time they were being followed, but could do nothing about it while they were out in the open.

“Why,” Josiah asked, “Is everything alright?”

“No, everything is not alright. We are being followed, and I do not wish for our pursuer to know the location of our ship.” she informed.

Josiah and Collin both looked back but could see no one. Collin
, however, knew better than to question Kimi when it came to something like this. He made a left at the second building and slowed considerably. Kimi jumped out and he continued making a right down the next street. As the person tailing them came around the corner, she appeared out of the shadows in a flying sidekick that knocked the man from his speeder bike, dislodging his helmet. As he tried to rise, she knocked him out with an ax kick to the back of the skull. She hopped on his speeder bike and caught up with her teammates.

They continued out of the settlement
and she dismounted the speeder bike and clipped the throttle down. She released the brake and sent it off in the wrong direction. They knew it would be monitored by whoever sent it and they couldn’t let them know the location of the ship. She jumped in the back of the speeder as Collin and Josiah pulled up alongside her and they began making their way back to the ship.

______

Suzy was under the engine compartment, laying flat on her back with her feet sticking out from under the console. She couldn’t believe she was actually fixing an engine on a spaceship. It was true that SAMMI was the brains behind this one, but she had done her share. She had just put the finishing touches on the power line when a thought occurred to her.

“Hey, SAMMI, d
oes the ship’s cloak mask the sound of the engine in any way?” SAMMI’s voice still made her laugh every time she thought about it. She understood how Collin had gotten Jesse and Serge to use the voice of the beautiful receptionist that he was in love with, but she had never quite figured out how they had gotten Nina to agree to it.

“Negative, Doctor Baker, sound
cannot be heard in space, and the cloaking technology is not designed to baffle those sensors. Should we start the engines planet side, the sound would be heard.” SAMMI replied in Stephanie the Receptionist’s feathery voice.

She
was afraid of that. That would mean no test run to see if she had gotten it right. She slid out from under the engine. She tried to wipe some grease from her face, although she imagined she only smeared it more. Then she stood up to stretch her back.

“Looks li
ke we are all done, SAMMI,” she called as she put the last engine plate back in place. “Do you think it’ll work?” She had her fingers crossed when SAMMI’s reply came.

“We have repaired the engines to standard specifications.
They will most likely work, although we will not know for certain until we test them.”

Suzy absently began to clean up the area as she
thought about her missing crewmates. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the frightening bass filled barking of Shadow and Commando. She ran from the engine room to the landing bay to see what all the commotion was about, only to see the crew returning. Everyone except Jesse, of course.
Could things possibly go any more wrong on this mission,
she wondered?

“Tha
nk God you guys are back,” she yelled as she ran over and hugged Josiah. “I was so worried. Did you see Jesse?” Josiah and Kimi exchanged a look that told her they hadn’t.

“He’s not here with you?” Josiah asked; concern etched on his face.

“Hey, who was messing with the engines?” Collin called out, seemingly unaware of the conversation going on in the landing bay.

“Jesse worked on them yesterday, and then I helped SAMMI finish up today after Jesse left this morning.” Suzy yelled back loud enough for Collin to hear in the other room.

“Do they work?” Collin asked.

SAMMI broke in
with the same response she had just given Suzy. “We have repaired the engines to standard specifications. They will most likely work, although we will not know for certain until we test them.”

Collin came running out of the engine room. He took one look at Suzy’s grease stained face, broke into a big grin and picked her up in an even bigger bear hug. “Great job,
Doc,” he started. “Although now that I know you can do this, you know you’re gonna have to help me all the time in the engine room, right?” Suzy smiled shyly, not used to receiving this sort of attention. She shook her head in agreement and he set her back on solid ground.

“This is great news. Well done, Suzy.” Josiah
added. “Now we can go find the Colonel and deal with these pirates. Does anyone have an idea of how we can actually find Jesse?”

Suzy shyly raised her hand and they all looked at her. “Just full of surprises today, aren’t we
, Doc?” Collin said smiling as he shook his head.

As the
y walked toward the bridge, she was explaining, “This was actually Jesse’s idea. He rigged up a transmitter. It’s not powerful enough for communication, but it is powerful enough for SAMMI to track, and he had me implant it in his arm. SAMMI, activate the Colonel’s tracking beacon.” They all watched the screen as the red dot came up in one of the buildings in the settlement. After a minute, they noticed that the dot wasn’t moving. Then Josiah articulated what they were all thinking. “He’s hurt, captured, or worse. We need to get moving now.”

“H
ere’s the plan,” he began. “Collin, you are going to fly the ship cloaked into the settlement. We’ll de-cloak, and you destroy any fighters or mounted weapons they have. Disable the gunships on the ground and take out their weapons, but leave them in tact so we can get a look at them after the battle. Also try and take out whatever they are using to jam communications, but that is a secondary objective. After that, Kimi and I will repel in with the four warriorbots. The bots will lay down cover fire while Kimi and I will go find Jesse. Collin, you put the ship down right next to the building and we get Jesse aboard. Any questions?”

There were none; everyone knew what they needed to do.

Josiah knew this was a long shot; they were alone in a hostile situation with no real knowledge of the enemy. They were up against an unknown number of enemies and they were attempting an infiltration designed to rescue a man they couldn’t even be sure was still alive.

The fact of the matter was Jesse Marcos would do the same for any of them, in fact he was only out there alone
right now because he had been trying to rescue them.

Kimiko was very quiet, even for her. Josiah knew she was
thinking about Jesse. He knew she loved him and wondered if they would ever actually give romance a try.

She
had dated some guys over the last few years, but it never seemed to work out, and he suspected it was because she was always comparing them to Jesse. Jesse, on the other hand, had not even looked at another woman since Rebecca died and Josiah wasn’t sure he ever would. Although he hoped that Jesse would eventually give it a try with Kimi. He came over and put his arm around her and she let him. “He’s gonna be okay, Kimi, haven't you heard, Colonel Marcos can't be killed.” His attempt at humor did little to console her.

She just leaned on him and whispered; “He has to be, Josiah. He has to be.”

Chapter four

______

Six years earlier
……

Kimiko woke up to the sounds of an argument in the next room. She did have a headache as Jesse’s doctor friend had said she would. She failed to mention that the other side effect would be falling asleep, unless of course she fell asleep from her wounds, which she noticed had been well tended. Amazingly enough she didn’t even feel any pain. As she strained to hear what was being said, she noticed she was no longer bound. It would seem they believed her. She could make out the voices, but could not distinguish who was speaking.

“But she tried to kill you.”

“That's true, but she didn’t have a choice, and she did try to get the hit called off.”

“There’s no way you can trust that woman. She’s an assassin, Jesse.” Kimiko thought that was the doctor’s voice.

“Suzy, listen, I have to do this.” He sounded like he had reached a decision.

“I just don’t want you going
after these people, they're dangerous. You’ll get yourself killed, and you’ll probably get Josiah and the Rockets killed, too.” Kimiko could hear the plea in the doctor’s voice.

“
We're not going after them, not at first.” He was resolute. “First, we save her family, and then we get her and her family safely out of the line of fire.  Then I go after them. Do you think they're going to stop coming after me? The only way I can be safe and keep the people I love safe is to make sure they are no longer in a position to come after me.”

Kimiko started to get out of bed. She wanted to get into this conversation, but she was unsure if her opinion was welcome. She couldn’t believe that Jesse wanted to help her after she had stabbed him in the back, literally. She knew they could never truly be friends after what she had done, and she didn’t blame him for it
, but somewhere in her mind, she held out hope.
How can I ever forgive myself for betraying him? How could it be that this same man wishes to help me now?
She thought as she listened at the bedroom door.

H
e continued, “After Rebecca's accident and .... Polisia. I've been out of it. Nothing in life gives me joy anymore, I have no purpose. Helping Kimi gave me a little purpose, I started to feel a little more like my old self. Now, after her family is safe, I need to take down these people that tried to kill me. This will be my new purpose. Maybe it’s not the best thing to do, but at least it’s something.”

At that,
she opened the door and entered the room. Suzy met her with a distrustful glare while surprisingly, Jesse came over, with a look of concern in his eye. “Kimi, are you alright?” He asked, not quite meeting her eyes.

I’m fine Jesse; I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation….”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “I’m sorry that I had to put you down so hard, I couldn't risk letting the fight continue and I'm sorry I was so angry while I was questioning you. I do want you to know that I am going to do my best to rescue your family and get them to safety."

“Jesse, it is I that should be apologizing
. The fact of the matter is; you hurt me far less than I would have hurt you if the situation had been reversed. I lied to you and tried to kill you, and yet you still want to help me. I can't even look at myself right now, I'm ashamed of how weak I was. I wish I had had the strength to do the right thing. I hope you can forgive me someday."

“
I don't know, but I will try. I am going to help you though,” he started.

“But,” she
interrupted. “I have to agree with Doctor Baker, I have no wish to see you die trying to hunt down my master. I do consider you to be my only friend.” As she said those last words she thought she saw a slight look of pity cross the doctor’s face. "I do have one question," she began again, looking a little confused. "How is it that my injuries have been healed so quickly?"              

"Suzy has helped to invent a new medical technology that can heal wounds quickly and we placed you inside of it to take care of your injuries. You were actually a bit of a guinea pig. The
technology hasn't been tested on too many people yet, but I thought you would want to be at full strength for the road ahead.”

______

Present day
…….

Jesse awoke, but kept his eyes closed and listened. He could hear four, no, five adults in the room with him. He also heard a whole lot of children. He knew he was a prisoner of the pirates and he knew he was in trouble.

“We a
re to be executed!” He heard a deep male voice say as if it were a foregone conclusion. “The five of us and the unconscious one will be executed publicly. The children are all to be sold as slaves to punish the settlement for the pirates we killed.”

This was bad
, he thought.
He was in a cell with thirty or more children about to be sold into slavery. While he and the five other adults in the cell were apparently to be executed.

Deep Voice spoke again, this time in a chastising manner. “Back away from him, orphan,”
he shouted. As Jesse opened his eyes he could see a little face with big brown eyes hovering about three inches above his face, studying him.

“May I help you?” H
e asked a smile forming. His question apparently startled the little girl enough for her to jump back and run into a corner. He noticed that no one else seemed to be near her.

As she slowly made her way back towards
him, Deep Voice again yelled, “Stay back, orphan, or I’ll give you a good backhand.”

Jesse looked at the little girl and asked with a smile, “Your name is Orphan?”

“No,” the little girl protested. “My name is Kiah.” A look of shock crossed her face as if she had never spoken before. She cupped her hand over her mouth and crawled away. He suppressed a smile as he said, “It's okay, Little One, my name is Jesse.”

An annoyed look came across Deep Voice's face as he began to speak
; “Orphans are considered outcasts. On Kaldor, it is common social practice to steer clear of them.”

“Really?”
He replied before he could stop himself, “That seems pretty stupid. Is it considered taboo for an orphan to talk to another orphan?”

“I suppose not
,” Deep Voice replied with a sigh.

“Good!”
He smiled, “Because I happen to be an orphan, too.” He said this for the shock value alone. In truth, his parents had died in an explosion during the Pack war almost ten years earlier, which technically did make him an orphan.

One of the other men, a mercenary of some sort by the look of him, began laughing. “Do you see, Mister Mayor,” he chided. “All outsiders think the
way orphans are treated on Kaldor is ridiculous. How can a society as advanced as Kaldor still be so backwards in the way they care for those in need? They are not a problem that you can hope will just go away.”

Jesse realized how hungry he was and checked in one of his pockets. He was surprised to find that the pirates had left him the ration bars that were in the pocket alongside his calf. He pulled one out and took a big bite. Everyone else in the cell was
staring at him as though he had lost it.

“What?” H
e asked while chewing his food. “Am I breaking some other kind of social taboo or something? From the look of things, the pirates have already fed you guys some sort of…. um goo, but I’ve barely eaten in the last two days.”

Kiah sidle
d up close enough to touch him and looked covetously at the ration bar. “She came in with you after we were fed,” the mercenary offered. Jesse looked down at the little girl he had risked his life for and broke off a small piece of the ration bar.

“Don’t feed it,” Deep Voice boomed. Jesse shot the man a glare and tossed the rest of the bar to Kiah while he ate the small piece. Kiah’s eyes lit up, and she scampered away with the food. She began eating the ration bar as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks, which in reality she probably hadn’t.

“First of all, Giant Guy, her name is Kiah. Second of all, she’s a little girl, not an ‘it’. And third, what is wrong with you people? We’re about to be executed, and all you can think to be mad about is someone showing kindness to a little girl.”

Deep Voice looked like he wanted to pull Jesse’s arms off, and he looked like he might be able to do it
, too. Even the Mercenary looked a little worried. He really was a large being. The man was humanoid in build, standing almost six foot five and relatively muscular under a little midsection flab. His skin was a deep purple with metallic specs that almost looked like glitter, and his eyes were vertical slits. His face and hands were smooth, but purple hair covered the rest of his exposed flesh. Due to his skin tone, it was hard to tell if he was angry, but his body language said fight. Then the unexpected happened, he began to laugh.

“You’ve got guts, h
uman, I’ll give you that.” He continued. “My name is Grimm.”
The name is fitting,
Jesse thought. “The mercenary is Reece, and allow me to introduce Mayor Valinor and his wife Seeja of Kaldor City. Lastly, the other mercenary is Tania. She was with Reece on the Mayor's protection detail.”

By this time, Kiah was sitting right next to Jesse, holding his hand in her two little hands. He hadn’t even noticed her until she took his hand. He smiled at her and then looked back to Grimm.

"Look, I'm really not trying to upset you, or mock your culture, but how is it possible that your society can be against helping orphans? It seems excessively merciless. I mean, haven't they suffered enough losing their parents, and it's certainly not their fault, why pile it on?"

Reece
and Tania looked intently at Mayor Valinor as he replied, "It all started almost four centuries ago when a plague hit Kaldor. Our doctors were unprepared for it and to this day many believe it was a Zinnebailan biological attack. We could not develop a vaccine quickly enough and it spread throughout the entire continent. The plague left many adults dead, and in the aftermath, orphaned children ran amuck, led by the older ones. They looted, they murdered; it was utter lawlessness until the military put a stop to it, killing many of the orphans."

Jesse couldn't believe what he was hearing
, and from the looks of it, neither could Reece as he asked the Mayor. "Did anyone think to check the orphans out medically before they started killing them? It's possible that the plague did something to their brain chemistry."

The Mayor sighed as he answered, "To be honest, no one really knows. Due to the planet-wide panic, records from that era are
... spotty." He looked around as he began again, "Another unforeseen effect of the plague was a tainted food supply, which meant many of the survivors were going to starve to death. That situation was actually how we came to start using the sub continents as resource outposts, but in the interim, what little we had was closely rationed and since the orphans had been such a problem, they were left out of the rationing. From that point on, anytime someone was orphaned, if they didn't have family that could take them in, they became outcasts in our society. Eventually, it just became the norm, and to this day, orphans are treated as trouble and most grow to become criminals."

"
Of course they grow to become criminals. They are never cared for and basically treated with suspicion their whole lives. Children need to be cared for and raised, not thrown away." Tania added with a passion that made Jesse think she might be speaking from experience.

Seeja looked at her husband as though they had had this very conversation
before. He looked at Jesse, Reece and Tania and said, "I believe you are right and I am in a position to do something about it. If we escape this situation, I will begin to initiate change in the way orphans are treated and cared for.

Satisfied that the conversation was over, Jesse asked,
“Do any of you know how many pirates are out there?” He was ready to begin formulating a plan of escape.

“I counted seventy-five landing in two ships and eight fighters,” Reece offered. “The fighters can lift off quick, so the pirates don’t need to stay in them, not that they are expecting any more tr
ouble. They have eight speeders, of which four have mounted weapons. They also have two mounted particle cannons.” Reece’s assessment, although a bit depressing, was very impressive. Jesse thought he must have had some extensive training.

"And they have set up a jamming station on the other side of the settlement." Tania offered as she stood and looked out of the cell.

Tania was an attractive woman. Her battle hardened nature would have probably been a bit intimidating to most men, but she intrigued Jesse. She stood about five foot-four with shoulder length silver hair and she wore a black military-cut uniform that was perfectly tailored to show off all of her positive attributes. She had expressive brown eyes and a no-nonsense attitude. Reece was almost six feet tall with dark hair and dark eyes. He was also wearing a black military cut uniform. His hair was significantly longer than a standard military cut but a common length for civilian life. He looked as if he had been a soldier a long time before becoming a bodyguard.