Deep Space Endeavor (9 page)

Collin nodded, the thought of killing pirates settling his mood, if only a bit, and they
jumped in the speeder, unaware that they were being followed.

______

Jesse had made good time on the run. He lay on his stomach in the sand, a half a kilometer from the outpost and looked through his visor to gather information. After nearly fifteen minutes, he had identified almost forty-five pirates. He had also seen them moving a large group of children and a few battered adults. They were being marched from one large building to a barn almost a hundred meters away. He noticed that his friends were not among them. He remembered the giant snake with the severed head he ran past and thought they had gotten out before the pirates arrived. That scenario troubled him because he was sure the snake was Kimi’s handiwork, but where else could they have gone, then? It was not likely they were lost, and they had plenty of time under the cover of night to make it back to the ship. Even if they couldn’t get to their speeder, they should have been able to jog the distance.

The settlement itself wasn't very large at all, it probably housed less than two thousand people. The buildings were squat and sand whipped. He could see vestiges of the once festive original colors of
the buildings, but it looked as though the outside appearance of the buildings had not been maintained in some time. The result was that every building in the settlement had a dull light maroon hue to it. The set up of the settlement spoke to its purpose. Several streets of two story row houses lined the north and west of the settlement. The entire eastern half of the settlement held a dozen large storage facilities. The Town center consisted of the tallest building in the settlement, a five story government building which was the only building with a polished outward appearance. Flanking the government building was a small school to the left and an emergency services center to the right. To the south of the settlement were three small restaurants and four stores advertising various merchandise outlining what looked like a children's park. There was a wide street that began next to the park and went to the government building at center of the settlement. Opposite the park, across the street was a heavy equipment storage facility. Large two story barns outlined the settlement having been built approximately three hundred meters apart. On the outskirts of the settlement, he could see the unfortunately familiar sight of two of the snail like pirate ships. He knew it was bad news that two ships had landed and were both still here.

As the number of p
irates he counted kept getting higher, Jesse had begun to wish he brought the warriorbots with him. They were not yet tested in situations involving civilians, and although he was fairly certain that they would not fire on unarmed civilians, he hadn’t wanted to take that chance unless there was no alternative. He arose from his perch and ran two hundred meters to take cover behind a boulder. He would have to commando crawl the rest of the way across the open field to reach the storage building the prisoners had just been moved from. He guessed that the pirate captain was using that building as a makeshift command center.

Upon reaching
the building, he looked in the window and saw what he believed to be the two ship’s captains. They were presenting themselves via live feed to their commander. The commander was visible on vid display, and he was glad he saw it. He had heard one of the captains address him as “Mighty Garrinoras.” Now he had a face for the name.

Garrinoras was a large man of a species not quite hu
man, but not too far off. He looked human in every respect, except that his skin was pale green, and instead of hair he had a thick fin of some sort on his head. The fin stood about an inch and a half high and almost gave Garrinoras the look of having a Mohawk. Jesse made a mental note find out the name of his species. After nearly a minute, he had learned that their arrival had nothing to do with him, although they were on the lookout for him. It had something to do with clues and artifacts that led to a vast treasure. Apparently, two important clues were found here on Kaldor. There were clues aboard the ship that had been dug up near the outpost as well as a couple others that they were getting ready to bring to Captain Janus. This, Janus, as it turned out already had some of the clues and felt they were closing in on this treasure of the ages. As Jesse continued listening to them talk about the treasure of Ameteo, he wondered about how vast a treasure it must be that they would take over an entire town just to find a clue. They were also capturing slaves they could sell to finance their treasure hunt and were waiting for a transport to take them off world. There was, however, also a reward available for any pirate that captured him.
The ship must have gotten out a vid transmission before we destroyed it,
he thought as he pulled out a rations bar and started off towards another building.

______

As soon as he had excused himself from the strange trio, Captain Topanar alerted one of his covert agents to follow them and report back. He then put in a priority message to his uncle, Eliphaz Topanar, the Sub-Mayor of Kaldor City. Any change in the arrangement with the pirates was to be brought to his attention immediately. Added damage and added pirates meant added funds for the Sub-Mayor and his family. The Topanar’s had not been born to nobility like many of Kaldor’s other politicians had. They had to claw, scrape and cheat their way to respectability. If that meant having to make deals with the likes of Garrinoras, then so be it, the alternative was far less desirable.

Eliphaz Topanar was now Sub-Mayor of Kaldor City, which meant he was the third most powerful person in the most powerful of the planet’s three districts. The only people more powerful were the
Governor and the Mayor. The planet Kaldor had an ideal political setup for him to take advantage of. Each district had a capital city and the surrounding cities and towns located on the main continent. There were also nine outposts for each district that supplied most of the essential natural resources located on one of three subcontinents.

The capitals of the other two districts were Ocean View City and the City of the Skies. Capital city was built on the precise coordinates on the continent where all three districts met, and it was from there the governors would govern. Every fifteen years, the people would elect a new Chairman from the three current governors. That meant Topanar had only eight more years to become a governor, if he wanted to be the planet’s next ruler. He would be mayor soon enough. That part of the plan was well under way, and may have even been completed.
He had arranged for the Mayor and his wife to take a tour of Outpost Twenty-Three yesterday. By now, Garrinoras’ men should have done the rest. After that, the next election for governor was only about seven months away and he was sure he could carry the sympathy vote after his close friend and mentor had been killed in a tragic pirate attack.

As
he answered his communication alert, Eliphaz Topanar was surprised to see his nephew’s face. “Hello, Joldas. It is good to see you.” He greeted.

“Thank you, Uncle Eliphaz. It is good to see you as well.”
he responded. “I’m afraid this isn’t a social call, Uncle,” he continued. “I have just had a visit from three offworlders that were near Outpost Twenty-Three when Garrinoras' men attacked yesterday. I don’t know how they escaped the pirates, but they had the look about them of seasoned warriors. They had a lot of knowledge of the pirate’s patterns of attack on the outposts, and I think there was even more that they were not telling me. I have an undercover agent following them, hoping to gain more information on our visitors.”

“That is all very interesting information,”
he replied with a shake of the head. “But it does not really seem like the sort of thing I should be worried about, or even informed about, Nephew.”

Joldas smile as he
continued his briefing. “I have not yet gotten to the most important part, Uncle. The offworlders told me the pirates had been brutal, more so than usual. They were even sending out patrols to round up anyone they missed. They were taking people prisoner, and they have occupied the outpost. This seems to be in clear violation of our arrangement.”

Now
he was interested. If the pirates deviated too far from the plan, it might come to light that the Mayor is there sooner than he would like. People might start digging into how it came to be that the Mayor was there and why his escort detail was not with him. He was not prepared for that, he needed time to cover those tracks, and these offworlders might prove a hindrance. Nothing could be allowed to interfere with his plan. It was he that convinced the Mayor to make the trip. It was he that convinced the Mayor to use a professional off world security team. And, it was he that tipped off Garrinoras to the fact that the Mayor of Kaldor city would be there, relatively unguarded. From there it had been child’s play to get Garrinoras to take the bait. The public execution of the Mayor of Kaldor City would cement his reputation as the most notorious pirate in the Lawless Sector.

“Joldas, find those three offworlders and detain them indefinitely,”
he ordered. He needed them out of the picture. His nephew’s next question was predictable.

“On what charges, Uncle?”

“Hold them as suspected off world spies, or think up something even more creative if you’d like. Use your imagination. Just get them off the street. Do you understand? Call me when it’s done.” Before Joldas could reply, the connection had terminated.

______

As Jesse stealthily moved from building to building, he came across two pirates having some fun at the expense of a young girl who looked to be maybe seven years old. He knew he risked capture, but he had no choice, he had to intervene. The poor child was terrified. She was a cute kid, but too thin and filthy. It looked like the girl hadn’t eaten or bathed in weeks. He would have been heartbroken to look at the child, even if she hadn’t been in the process of being tormented by pirates.

The
re were two pirates, one reminded him of a Jarlevian, but not as big and the other was Mannagore, a species he was already beginning to despise. They were tossing the helpless girl back and forth, purposely dropping her, kicking dirt in her face, and the more she cried, the more they laughed. He had to end this and get the child to safety before he could carry on trying to find his friends.

Jesse made his presence known by leveling his blaster at the Mannagore and calling out, “If you touch that child again, I will kill you where you stand.” The pirates almost jumped out o
f their skin when they saw him with his blaster aimed.

After they had composed themselves, t
he Mannagore was the first to reply. “Humanssss, not the smartest creaturessss, are they, Kal?”

The other pirate answered, “Apparently not. He just got himself captured for a little piece of street trash. Not a
smart move.”

As
Kal was speaking, the Mannagore looked at the child and smiled. It then raised its hand, extended its claws and fell backward after Jesse put a shot right between its eyes. Before the other pirate could even draw his blaster Jesse dropped him, too. He picked up the little girl, still sobbing, and began to run with her.

Hi
s blaster wasn’t loud, but if anyone was close by, they would have heard it. Even if they didn’t, they would be by to find the dead pirates soon enough. He knew he had to get some distance between them if he hoped to save the little girl. As he ran, he tried to comfort her, but he knew that would be a difficult task. She had been through a lot. “I’m Jesse,” he said in not quite a whisper. “What’s your name?” When no reply came, he continued. “I’m gonna try my best to make sure nothing bad happens to you, Little One, I promise. Let’s get to safety, shall we?” Although, from the looks of her, safety might not have been a concept she would understand.

As h
e was making a break for one of the pirate’s speeders, he heard a voice from behind call out, “Hold it right there, Human.” He half turned to see two alien pirates with blasters trained on him. He rolled to the side, protecting the little girl, and fired twice, dropping both pirates, but it was too late. Other pirates had seen him and there was no way he could fight his way past forty-five or more pirates alone while trying to keep a child safe.

H
e continued running for the speeder, but blaster fire began lighting up the air around him. He could smell the burning air as each shot flew by in a spectrum of intense heat and color. The little girl just buried her head in his chest and cried harder. He made it to the speeder, but there was a code required to start it, and he didn’t have time hack it. He looked at his new companion, and instructed her to keep her head down. She did as instructed, and he began to return fire. He had already taken three hits but his battle suit was fine. He fired back and saw another pirate go down, then another, then two more, and finally another.

T
he blaster fire stopped and he looked around.
Maybe he would have time to hack the speeder after all.
He thought he might be able to get away, until he heard the distinctive sound of a small missile launching. He threw himself on top of the little girl and hoped his battle suit would live up to the billing.

______