Deep Space Endeavor (31 page)

Jesse laughed at the thought of letting this man attain that kind of wealth. Instead, he said, “That would be a good idea if I could even trust you a little. The problem is, you have already ruined any chance of trust between us several times over.”

Topanar was annoyed and saw this plan was going nowhere, so he added, “How is Mister Gavin, anyway?”

Jesse had to resist the urge to punch him right in his smug face, but he couldn’t take the chance with
Suzy there. He replied, “He’s great, he’s gonna make a full recovery thanks to Suzy. He looks forward to seeing Kora again real soon. We all do.” He let the threat hang in the air while he continued to hold eye contact with Topanar.

Topanar knew his plan wasn't working
, and as he was calling his men to come back over, an aircar landed between Jesse and Topanar’s men. Agent Sandstorm got out of the aircar and opened the back door, revealing the mayor. “I was on my way to your ship, and I saw you standing here speaking with the good captain,” He began. “I had Sandstorm pull over to see if I might offer you a ride.”

“Absolutely, Mister Mayor, thank you.” Jesse responded while helping
Suzy into the aircar and following her in. “Your kindness is humbling; I am in your debt,” he continued.

“It’s the least I can do
for the man that saved my wife and I. Isn’t that right, Captain?” Valinor’s smile could have lit up the city.
He really was good at this,
Jesse thought.

Jesse waved as the aircar lifted off. “We’l
l speak again real soon, Topanar,” he yelled as the aircar sped away. He turned to the Mayor, “Thank you, Sir. He wasn’t gonna let us go, and I couldn’t risk a fight with Suzy there.”

“Don
’t thank me, Jesse, thank Sandstorm, he’s the one that spotted you and surmised you were in trouble.”

Jesse looked at Sandstorm and he nodded his thanks. Sandstorm returned the nod and ke
pt flying. As they landed at
Endeavor
and exited, Mayor Valinor waved his goodbye and Jesse carried Cassie and Josiah's lunch into the ship. He could tell Suzy was upset as she began to speak.

"They were going to use me to get to you, I don't think I should be allowed off the ship anymore. I don't want to put you or anyone else in danger."

"Jesse took his friend's hand and said, "I won't let anything happen to you, Suzy, don't be afraid on my account."

She just smiled as she realized the whole crew would have said the same thing, but she still didn't want to chance anyone getting hurt protecting her. She was grounding herself until the treasure hunt was over.

Jesse let the crew know about the run in with Topanar, and they all agreed that it only meant he was getting desperate. He warned that desperate men could do unspeakable things, and reminded them to be on their guard. He also made sure they knew to look after Suzy's safety. He did allow himself a smile though, knowing they had Topanar on the ropes.

Chapter ten

______

Later that day, as Jesse was sitting on the couch talking with Cassie in the common room, SAMMI’s voice called over the ship’s speaker, “Incoming transmission for you, Colonel Marcos.”

“Who is it, SAMMI?”
He replied, not wanting to get up.

“He identified himself as the Mighty Garrinoras.”

He felt a flare of annoyance as he said. “SAMMI, we don’t refer to him as mighty. Put him on screen in the bridge, and assemble the rest of the crew.”

As
he reached the bridge, he could hear SAMMI summoning the rest of the crew. He put on his best fake smile as the view screen came to life. “Garrinoras, you are the last person I expected to get a transmission from.” As the smile left his face, he continued. “What do you want?”

“Now, now,
Colonel, that is no way to speak to the one holding your friend’s life in his hands, is it?” Jesse could see Cassie stiffen at the mention of her cousin as everyone else came onto the bridge.

“Apologies, Garrinoras; how may we
be of service to you today?” He poured the sarcasm into his voice.

Garrinoras didn’t seem to notice as he continued. “You have been a pain in my side every step of the journey to this treasure, Marcos. No one has ever given me the kind of trouble you have, especially a human,” the big Zinnebailan began.

"Aw, you're just saying that to make me feel good," Jesse mocked.

Garrinoras mood darkened as he continued,
“What I would like from you are all of your clues, every artifact, and the key, or Mister Reed here dies.” He held up a beaten Enso in front of the screen, and Cassie gasped at the sight of her injured cousin.

Jesse looked over at Cassie, looked back to Garrinoras, and said, “When and where?”

“Not so fast, human,” Garrinoras replied as a smile spread across his face. “I feel compelled to show you how serious I am that you comply fully, and without any deception in this matter.”

Hi
s image faded and was replaced by a ship in space. The ship was a freighter in good condition. The dual bridge led Jesse to the conclusion that it was the
Catamaran,
even as Wennagal said the name. The
Catamaran
was a fine ship, and kept in good repair. Elegant curves flowed from the dual bridge all the way to the stylish casings for the powerful sublight engines. She was silver with a lavender hue and Jesse could tell by one look that the
Catamaran
was more than she appeared to be. He knew how much Cassie and Wennagal loved that ship, and he felt his heart sink as he anticipated Garrinoras' intentions. Jesse could still hear Garrinoras speaking as he began yelling, “Garrinoras, don’t do this. I’ll give you everything you want right now, please, leave the
Catamaran
be. You don't have to do this.”

Cassie caught on to what Jesse was yelling about, and a look of terror came over her face as she realized that Garrinoras intended to destroy the
Catamaran
.

H
e continued, “We can make the trade today. You have my word, no tricks. Everything we have on the treasure, including some information you may not even know about, for the
Catamaran
and Enso. Please, you have my word we will cease pursuit of the treasure.” He hated to grovel before the pirate, but he couldn’t bear thinking about what the loss of either her ship or her cousin would do to Cassie. She had come to him, a complete stranger, desperate for help and now that they were no longer strangers, but friends, maybe even more, he couldn't let her down. He had to find a way to save the
Catamaran
.

“Ha ha
ha,” Garrinoras' voice boomed through the transmission. “To hear the great Jesse Marcos beg for the survival of his pathetic girlfriend’s insignificant ship is laughable. Are you not the same man that singlehandedly thwarted the Jarlevian invasion of Earth? Are you not the same man that brought the entire Asian Dawn criminal organization to its knees? Are you not the same man that ended the war with the ravenous Pack? And now look at this great warrior, reduced to begging for a lowly pathetic freighter. I almost don’t believe the stories now. I wonder what kind of groveling I will hear for her useless cousin. I know of young Topanar’s artifact and his map, and they will soon belong to me as well.”

Jesse was confused,
how is it possible that Garrinoras could know any of that
, he asked himself. As he looked around the bridge, he could see they were all thinking the same thing.

“You look confused,
Colonel. Let me clear it up for you. Kora told all of those things to Joldas Topanar. Young Topanar then told his uncle, Sub-Mayor Topanar,  and before his arrest, Eliphaz told them to me in exchange for some… shall we say… future considerations. To answer your unasked question, yes, I know all about how you are here in our galaxy on an exploratory mission for another year or so and I don’t care. You have challenged the Mighty Garrinoras, and you must be punished.”

“Don’t do this, Garrinoras, please.”

“Let me hear your woman beg,” Garrinoras laughed.

“Please,” Cassie’s voice sounded like a whisper, “She’s all I have.
We'll do whatever you want, please don't do this.”

“Not good enough,”
his voice boomed, “You destroy my ships, I destroy yours.” With that, the bridge of
Endeavor
watched in horror as a powerful beam destroyed the
Catamaran
in one shot. A collective gasp went up from the crew, and tears began to roll down Cassie’s face.

“I will leave you to contemplate what has just happened. Be prepared for my next transmission, Mister Reed’s life depends on it
.” The transmission ended, and the stunned silence of the bridge took over.

Jesse looked at Cassie, tears streaming down her face, and he said, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Cass. We’re going to get Enso back. We’re going to get him back, and then Garrinoras
is going to pay. You have my word."

As h
e touched her shoulder, she flinched away, “I trusted you, Jesse,” she yelled. “I trusted that you could help me, but I was wrong. You can’t help me; no one can. Now I have nothing. The only family I have left is about to die, and all you have are fake clues and empty promises.” She turned and walked away, angry.  He watched her go, and as he did, his heart was breaking.

“She didn’t mean that, you know.” Wennagal offered with a somber look on his face. “She knows you have done everything in your power to help her, and you have broken no promises. You only promised to do your best, and you have done that. She will realize in time, Jesse.”

Wennagal looked sad as he spoke and Jesse realized that he had just lost his home as well. He looked at his Qualoosh friend and replied, “Thank you, Wennagal, but she’s not wrong. I have no clue how we are going to get Enso back alive, and that’s our priority. You guys may have just lost everything, but I’m not going to let you lose Enso, too.” He was resolute; he had to get Enso back, and he had to make Garrinoras pay. Cassie was going to need some time alone, as was he. He didn't understand why her comments had stung him so much as he left the bridge to think about his next move.

Kimiko watched Jesse leave and could not believe Cassie had lashed out at him like that. She understood that Cassie had just lost her ship, but why lash out at the one person that was
actually trying to help you. The more she tried to like Cassie, the less she did and she realized that it didn't just have to do with her feelings for Jesse, she just didn't like the kind of person Captain Reed was.

Josiah could feel the tension in the air so thick you could a
lmost cut it. “I hope Jesse is not the only one trying to come up with a plan.” He said, as he looked to his three friends. “We should retire to the common room to see if we can figure something out as well.” Everyone followed him into the common room, while Suzy excused herself to check on Reece. He had made it past the critical first twenty-four hours, but he was in no way out of the woods. There was still no guarantee he would wake up when she released him from the medically-induced coma.

It didn't take her long to realize she was upset,
about what had happened to Reece, about the demise of the
Catamaran
and she was upset by how hurt Jesse looked at Cassyanna’s outburst. She knew they had gotten closer over the last few days, but he must have really developed feelings for her to be
that
hurt by her words. He tried not to show it, and no one but she and Josiah would probably even recognize it. But it was there. After she checked on Reece, she was going to go check on Jesse, too. He needed to know that Cassie didn’t really blame him for what had happened. After all, her ship had been taken before they even met and Garrinoras could have destroyed it at any time, which begged the question; why now?

Reece was still in
stable condition as the medbots vigilantly stood watch. Suzy wasn’t too thrilled with his brain activity, but everything else seemed to be healing as expected. Suzy grabbed Reece’s hand and whispered, “You stay with us now, Reece." She remembered how annoyed she would pretend to be whenever he would tease her of flirt with her. She knew he meant nothing by it; “just a bit of fun,” he would say. Now, she would give anything to hear her friend make fun of her neat rows of medicines, or see him smile as he told her she had beautiful eyes. She hadn't known him long, but she did consider him to be a friend and hated to see him like this.

She
left the med-bay in search of Jesse. She found him in his quarters at his desk. He was deep in thought and hadn’t even heard her come in. She sat on his bed and softly called his name. She knew from years of experience that it was never a good idea to startle a Special Forces soldier.

H
e looked over to her and smiled, “Hey, how’s Reece doing?” he asked.

Suzy looked at him and smiled a little bit sadly as she answered. “I’m not crazy about his brain activity, but he is progressing. He made it past the first twenty-four hours. Now it’s just a waiting game.”

“When he wakes up, I’m going to make sure he knows that it was you that saved him, and that he should probably stop teasing you.” He replied with a smile.

“I honestly don’t mind the teasing; it’s just his way. How are you doing?” She asked, changing the subject.

“Me, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” He said, just a little bit defensively.

“I ask,”
she began patiently. “Because Cassie just unloaded on you for something that wasn't your fault, and I know how much you’re starting to like her. I ask, because I know you’re blaming yourself for the destruction of the
Catamaran
, for Reece’s condition, and for Kora’s betrayal. I ask because I know you were worried about me during you run in with Topanar. Shall I go on? Because you know I could.”

H
e just looked at his friend. It was scary how well she knew him. He decided to give her question a try. “I’m not really sure how I am. I am blaming myself for all of that…”

“None of which is your fault,”
she jumped in.

H
e smiled as he continued. “I should have spotted Kora earlier. I should have taken Reece with me to the Mayor’s to stop him from doing something stupid. I should have known better than to go out with you alone while we are on Kaldor, with Topanar trying to get any advantage on us, what did I think would happen? I know the
Catamaran
wasn’t my fault, but I feel like I failed Cassie in a major way. I just have to figure out a way to get Enso back to her, Suzy. I can’t fail her again. She has nothing left.”

“She has us, Jess,” Suzy reminded him. “She has a home on
Endeavor
, and she has you now. And that’s a pretty good start, if you ask me.”

“It’s not gonna be enough, Suzy, we have to save Enso.”

“Well, I’ll let you get back to it, then,” she replied as she stood to leave. She bent over and gave Jesse a kiss on the cheek. She hugged his neck as she was leaving, and it reminded him of how much he missed Nina. He wished Nina were here with them. She always seemed to know what to do and say in these types of situations. She must be going crazy not knowing if
Endeavor
made it through the matter conduit or if any of them were even still alive. At least she still had Serge and Ariel to comfort her.

______

Garrinoras was pleased with himself. Everything about that conversation went his way. He had gotten the great human, Colonel Jesse Marcos, to beg. He blew up Captain Reed's prized ship and he knew they would give him whatever he asked for in order to procure the good captain's cousin. It was going to be even more fun seeing the look on their faces after he killed Enso Reed. Then, they will be out of his way and broken-hearted. Such is the fate of all who trifle with the Mighty Garrinoras. He might not stop there either, he might just kill them all out of spite. That thought actually brought a smile to his face. It didn't last long as his first mate approached.