Salvage Merc One: The Daedalus System (23 page)

Twenty-Four

“No!” I managed to yell between upchucks. “Mgurn! Stop! I’m good! She’s good! Everything is good!”

“You do not look good, Joe,” Mgurn argued, his voice really loud. “You look wounded and like you are bleeding to death.”

“Not my blood,” I said. “Well, yeah, it is my blood, but a different me. It’s Mighty Minotaur Joe blood, not human Joe blood. Or most of it is. Some is probably my blood, too. Long story. Just don’t shoot Alya!”

“Hmmm,” Mgurn mused. “Is this one of those times I should ignore you and do the smart thing instead?”

“No! It’s not one of those times!” I straightened up, wiped the sick from my chin, and pointed at the ship. “Stand down, Mgurn! That is a direct order from your number, do you hear me?”

The ship hesitated then landed on top of the door and started to power down. It took a minute, but Mgurn showed himself as a small hatch directly under the nose of the ship irised open, and a ladder extended down to the surface of the iron door. He climbed down fast, brought an H16 to bear on Alya, and motioned to me.

“Come on, Joe,” he said. “Let’s get you into the med bay and get out of this insane system.”

“She’s coming with,” I said and nodded at Alya. “No arguments, Mgurn. Open the cargo ramp so she can get inside the ship.”

“He does not need to argue,” Alya said. “I will argue for him. I am a lost cause, Joe. I cannot leave here. If I do, I will be stuck in this form forever.”

“You already are,” I said. “Duh. Come with us and be free or stay here and be a prisoner. Those are your choices. Ignore the whole Naked Snake Lady thing. That’s irrelevant. I mean, have you seen some of the races in this galaxy? You are far from the most foed up. We will need to get you a bra, though, or a tank top at least, because the boobies are distracting.”

“You are an ass,” she said, but cracked a small smile across her fanged mouth.

Finding a quality orthodontist would be a good idea too, but I didn’t say that.

“What about my soul?” she asked. “Don’t you need to salvage it?”

“I have a theory,” I said. “Just came to me when I was telling Mgurn not to kill you. If I’m right, we don’t need to worry about your soul. If I’m wrong, well, it wouldn’t be the first time, and we’ll deal with the consequences when they come.”

“How right do you believe you are, Joe?” Mgurn asked.

“Fifty-fifty,” I said.

“So your usual,” he replied.

“Exactly,” I said. “I’m totally still on my game even with Minotaur gore on me and my body broken as fo.”

“Miss Horne,” Mgurn said. “I will open the cargo ramp for you. But, I must admit I am not comfortable with you boarding our ship. I would prefer if you remain in the cargo hold for the duration of our return trip to SMC headquarters.”

“Of course,” Alya said. “Mgurn, is it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mgurn answered.

“You’re a good assistant,” Alya said. “I wish I had one such as you when I was Salvage Merc One. It may have saved me from my unfortunate fate.”

“Yes, well, thank you for the compliment,” Mgurn said. He motioned with the H16. “But if you will slowly, and I do mean slowly, make your way to the rear of the ship as fast as possible, we can lift off and get out of here.”

“Mgurn, she can’t go slowly and as fast as possible,” I said. “Make up your Leforian mind, buddy.”

“I understand what he means,” Alya said. “I will go slowly and also make sure I do not hold you up.”

“That would be appreciated,” Mgurn said.

He tapped at the tablet strapped to his hip, and I could hear the distinct grinding of gears as the rear ramp descended onto the iron door.

“We need to oil those gears,” I said as I staggered my way over to the iron door, careful not to slip and fall in the Mighty Minotaur Joe sludge. “That ramp is loud enough to wake the dead.”

Mgurn looked around, his eyes wide with alarm. He tightened his grip on the H16.

“No, buddy, I don’t mean wake the dead here,” I said. “There aren’t any dead to wake.”

“Are you certain of that, Joe?” Mgurn asked. “There are an awful lot of skeletons.”

“Uh, well, pretty certain,” I admitted. “I mean, there shouldn’t be any dead to wake.”

“So you do not know,” Mgurn said.

“Okay, no, not really,” I said. “It is technically possible there are dead here that we might wake up.” I nodded at the iron door as I tried to climb up over its edge to get to Mgurn. It was a big door, it was a big edge. “But if any dead are around to wake up, and I’m excluding the skeletons because they haven’t woken up yet, I think your entrance would have already done the trick.”

“That seems plausible,” Mgurn said and helped me to my feet.

“Is it? Good,” I responded. “I wasn’t sure. My head hurts.”

“Your head always hurts,” Mgurn said. He looked at the ladder and sighed. “You will not be able to climb that.”

“I will not be able to climb that,” I said in almost exact mimicry of his voice.

“I am here for less than five minutes, and you are already mocking me,” Mgurn said. I almost apologized, but he kept speaking before I could. “It is good to have found you, Joe. I was worried.”

“Well, thanks, buddy,” I said. “I’m sorry you were worried, but I’m glad you found me too.”

I draped my unbroken arm over his shoulders, which meant he had to stoop low since he was over two meters tall. It wasn’t graceful, but he managed to help me get to the ramp and up into the cargo hold quicker than I thought my body could handle. Probably because he was basically carrying me the last stretch there.

Alya had settled herself in a corner, using cargo netting as a makeshift seat.

“You good?” I asked her.

“I am,” she replied. “Please be prepared for the worst, Joe. I know you are trying to help me, but I do not know what will happen when we leave this place. The labyrinth has had its hold on me for so long, longer than you can imagine, that I fear I will waste away to nothing when removed from its circle of influence.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’ll still have its influence on you,” I said and tapped my head. “That’s what post-traumatic flashbacks are for.”

She did not smile. Mgurn sighed.

“What?” I asked. “Too soon?”

“They have not created a measure of time that can define how too soon that was, Joe,” Mgurn said. “I will get you to the lift and up to the med bay now. Miss Horne, please make sure you are secure. This could be a very bumpy lift off.”

“I’ll stay down here with her,” I said. “Keep an eye on her.”

“No, you will not,” they said together.

“Sweet baby sheezus,” I muttered. “This is going to be a long trip home.”

“Go to the med bay, Joe,” Alya said. “I will be fine here.”

“We don’t know that,” I said.

“We do know that you will not be fine if you remain in the cargo hold instead of seeking proper medical attention per SMC regulations,” Mgurn snapped.

“Damn, chill, buddy,” I said. “I’ll go up to the med bay. But once we’re off and I’m cleared, then I’m coming back down here.”

“If that is your choice,” Mgurn said.

“Yep, that’s my choice,” I replied. I gave Alya a smile. “See ya soon.”

“Get well, Joe,” Alya said.

We’d gotten to the lift when she called my name again.

“Yeah?” I asked, turning painfully. Maybe Mgurn was right, maybe the med bay was a good idea. “What’s up?”

“Thank you,” Alya said. “I wanted to say that in case I don’t get a chance later.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “But no need to thank me. I wouldn’t have made it through what I made it through without you. We’re going to have to talk about that at some point.”

“Yes, I suppose we will,” she said. “Go rest up.”

I nodded, and Mgurn helped me into the lift. The doors shut, and he glanced down at me.

“She is not a threat?” he asked. The defensiveness was gone from his voice.

“Not to us,” I replied. “She may be a threat to herself, but who isn’t, right?”

“I am not sure what that means, but if you are any indication, then yes, you are always the biggest threat to yourself,” Mgurn said.

“Flatterer,” I said.

By the time we got up into the med bay, and Mgurn had the med chamber open and waiting for me to crawl in, I was pretty much asleep on my feet. I will not say that Mgurn had to lift me up and set me in the med chamber like a baby. Not going to say that. Or that I might have asked him to read me a bedtime story. That for sure didn’t happen. Nope.

Six hours later, and the med chamber woke me up with that awful bleep bleep bleeping it does. It has other alarm sounds, but my guess was that Mgurn had locked in the most annoying one just for my sake. Such a giver, that one.

After a quick, and much needed, trip to the lavatory, I worked my way up to the bridge. Slowly. The med chamber may have cleared me, but my body was not exactly on board with the stress of walking and moving and breathing and living.

I slumped into the co-pilot’s seat when I reached the bridge since Mgurn was in the pilot’s seat and looked like he had zero intention of moving. I was good with that.

“How’d you get the ship back?” I asked.

“It took me a while, but I had plenty of time to search for it since I did not have you to look after,” he answered.

I let that one go.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I am attempting to figure that out,” Mgurn said.

“Yikes, that doesn’t sound good,” I said. “Are we lost?”

“We are not lost, no,” Mgurn said. “I am just unsure as to how we leave the Daedalus System. The quantum backdoor planet is no longer on the sensors, so I am trying to work out an alternate route.”

“Take the long way,” I said. “We aren’t in the same hurry we were when we got here. Point us out of the system and hit the thrusters.”

“That could take weeks, Joe,” Mgurn said. “We do not have enough supplies on board to last weeks in space.”

“We don’t have enough supplies?” I asked. “How can that be? We had plenty when we left SMC headquarters.”

Mgurn turned in his seat and stared at me. “How long ago do you think that was?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I don’t know. A few days, maybe? Not more than five. No way.”

“We have been gone for two and a half months,” Mgurn said. “I have been searching for the iron door for six weeks. It took me two weeks to find the ship. We were together for two weeks prior to our separation according to the synchronized chronometer.”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” he replied.

“No,” I said again.

“Yes,” he replied again and held up a hand. “Do not continue to say no. We have been gone for two and a half months.

“Yowza,” I said.

“Yowza would be an appropriate response,” Mgurn said.

“I thought so,” I said. “So, time is different in the Daedalus System. It’s not Sterli time foed up, but close. Are the SMC Bosses worried? Any long range messages from them? A voicemail or two?”

“There has been no communication from SMC headquarters,” Mgurn said.

“Good to know they care,” I muttered.

I stared out at the planets that swooped and zoomed across the system. There wasn’t much of a pattern to their movement anymore, but it was far from pure chaos. I know pure chaos, and that was not it. Neither synchronicity nor chaos. The Daedalus System had gotten the Joe treatment, and it was confused. I have that effect on everything.

“Weeks, huh?” I asked. “That’s the quickest we’ll get to a working wormhole portal?”

“That’s the quickest we’ll get to an off-grid wormhole portal,” Mgurn said. “I searched the ship’s database and found logs of quite a few of the backdoor trans-space channels. Unfortunately, nothing about the Daedalus System is listed any longer. It is as if it wiped itself from the database as soon as we arrived.”

“Cheeky system,” I said and flipped off the view screen.

“Indeed,” Mgurn said. “Leaving does not appear to be as easy as our arrival. If only it was as simple as flying through a door again.”

I sat straight up and grimaced as pain swept through me.

“Go back,” I said. “Turn the ship around and go back.”

“What?” Mgurn asked. “Go back where, Joe?”

“To the iron door,” I said. “To the labyrinth. We aren’t done.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” Mgurn protested. “That is not a good idea, Joe. No, that is a bad idea. A very, very bad idea.”

“I didn’t say it was good idea,” I replied. “It’s just an idea.”

“A bad idea,” Mgurn replied.

“The only idea,” I insisted. “You say we can’t survive for weeks more out in space. I think I know why we can’t find an easier way out. Because we just left the way out. Go the fo back, Mgurn. That’s an order.”

“I’ve been flying around for weeks trying to find you and as soon as I do you are back to throwing orders in my face,” Mgurn said and sighed. “Welcome back, Joe.”

I clapped him on the shoulder.