What May Come
Please see chapter 1 for author's notes.
Chapter 3: Better and Better
Harlan stared at the figure in front of them. He was a little smaller than Radu—maybe an inch or two—but he had the same curly blond hair down his back. His ears were mostly hidden by the headband pinning his hair back, but there was no doubt that the lines extending up from his jaw led into spirals.
"I said, 'What do you need?'" the boy repeated a little louder.
"Um," Goddard shook his head. "We were told you might be able to help us. You and someone named Aslinn?"
"He's my partner." The boy didn't relax his guard. "It might help if you told me what the problem was."
"Our sh-ship got stolen by the Spung," Radu tried to explain. "The rest of our crew was onboard."
The boy rolled his eyes, tossing the hood onto the table and shrugging off the cloaking material. "What makes you think we might be able to help?"
He didn't wear protective gloves, Harlan noted absently, before focusing on the question. "A guy on the docks said you guys might be able to give us a hand." Although he wasn't sure what a kid would be able to do against the Spung Empire.
The boy muttered something under his breath that Harlan couldn't make out, and then studied them for a moment before shaking his head. "Give me a minute." He stowed the cloak and the box—whatever it was—in one of the lockers, and then moved towards the crew. "Come on, no point in you telling the story twice. 'Sides, Az curses a lot more creatively than I do."
Assuming 'Az' was Aslinn, Harlan fell into step behind Goddard and hoped that whoever they were meeting was this kid's mentor. And preferably not another Andromedan… after two years of dealing with Radu he suspected that he could deal with this other kid, but having an adult Adromedan around would bother him. Probably a lot. He glanced at Radu to see how he was handling their guide, and found him staring curiously while trying to look like he wasn't doing so. For his part, Jacie seemed to be mostly ignoring them, cutting through the corridors with practiced ease. "Where are we going?" Harlan finally asked.
"After I pick up dinner, back to our quarters. Better to talk there. You people like pizza?"
"You like pizza?" Radu asked in surprise.
Harlan grinned. They'd long since established that while Radu could eat most human foods, he disliked the majority of them.
"They've got some good toppings here. I'll get one of the kind I like—you probably will too—and one of some human kind. That should be enough for all of us. Aslinn's never very hungry after seeing the doctor. What kind do you two want?" he asked, glancing back at the commander.
"Just cheese," Goddard replied, raising an eyebrow at the teenager.
"Yeah, cheese is good."
"All right." They reached what appeared to be a food court. "Wait here, I'll be back in a moment." He ignored the money that Goddard tried to hand him and disappeared into the crowd.
"I hope Kyldarian knew what he was talking about," Goddard muttered, staring after him.
"Maybe he's this guy Aslinn's assistant or something," Harlan suggested. "He's barely as old as we are."
"Believe me, Mr. Band, I noticed. I don't think he—"
Radu shook his head, waving his hand to get him to stop speaking. "We should wait until we get back to our quarters. He can h-hear us if he wants now."
Harlan glanced around the noisy concourse. "You sure about that? I don't know how anyone could make out much of anything in this mess."
"It's just a matter of concentration."
Harlan didn't have an answer for that, although he did wonder for a few moments how many conversations Radu had overheard that he shouldn't have. He was saved from his thoughts by the return of the Andromedan boy, this time carrying two rectangular boxes.
"Come on, this way." Jacie led them to a residential area slightly nicer than the one they were staying in.
The room they entered was built along the same lines as theirs, although slightly larger—a kitchenette area off to one side, and an entertainment center built into one wall, but instead of fold-down bunks the other wall held two permanent bunk beds with a built-desk underneath them that extended the length of the wall. At least Harlan assumed it was a desk…it was hard to tell what was under the piles of diagrams and compupads and models on it. Other diagrams were tacked up to the walls, and the floor was littered with pillows and a few more diagrams thrown in for good measure. "What do you guys do, diagram every ship that comes through here?"
"I design sensors," Jacie said with a shrug. "Aslinn does most of the work on the power sources. Working the docks pays for our hobbies."
"I thought you did salvage?" Goddard asked.
"Where'd you get that information?"
"We promised we wouldn't tell," Harlan explained.
"Well, we do on occasion, but not enough to pay for everything." He nodded for them to take seats on the stools facing the kitchenette. "Want anything to drink?"
"Water?" Goddard asked, seconded by both members of his crew.
Jacie slid a few bottles across the counter, put the pizza cartons and plates next to them, and then leaned back against one of the shelving units. "Help yourselves."
"You aren't eating?"
"Too early for me, but I don't want to go out again later." The door slid open, and he grinned. "Hey, brother, we've got company."
"No kidding. Who are they and what do they want?"
Harlan stared at the approaching figure—Aslinn, he assumed. He was human, and older than Jacie…by maybe five years. At most. A redhead only an inch or so shorter than Goddard, he wore the same kind of half-sleeved jumpsuit his partner did, although his had the addition of a sling around his neck supporting his right arm.
"My name is Commander Goddard; these are two of my crewmembers, Harlan Band and Radu. Our ship was taken by the Spung, and we heard that you might be able to help us."
"Where'd you get that information?"
"We can't tell you," Goddard responded.
"Really? Well, what's the story?"
That was directed at Jacie, who shrugged. "Don't know, was waiting for you to get back. What's the verdict?"
"I can stop wearing this thing day after tomorrow, and then another tenday of 'light usage' before I get to go back to real work. You get anything done?"
"Not much. Haven't been able to stabilize the power relays. Figure you take a look at it and see if you can come up with some kind of static strip to draw off the extra power."
"That's fair." He glanced at the crew of the Christa, moving to stand next to Jacie. "Sorry, ongoing project. So your ship got stolen by the Spung?"
"Yeah, with some of our crew onboard," Harlan agreed. "Who knows what the Spung will do to them—we have to save them!"
"Where are they taking them?"
Goddard shook his head. "No one could tell us."
"Would tell you, more like," Aslinn commented dryly.
"The person who claimed the ship was W-warlord Galzaz, and the Killcruiser Ch'cov," offered Radu.
"And you think we'll be able to help you?"
"We heard that you had some contacts that might be able to get us some information," Harlan explained, and Aslinn refocused on him.
"A-and if you have a ship and have brought people out before…" Radu added, hope in his voice.
"Contacts? What contacts are we supposed to have?" Jacie asked curiously.
"I don't know, but that's what he told us. Maybe you know someone inside the Spung Empire?" Harlan guessed. That would explain how they had gotten other things out of the empire.
Jacie shrugged in response and then frowned and moved towards the door. "Don't know how that helps get your ship back."
"I spent the day looking for ships non-Spung ships that travel in Spung space," Goddard put in. "All I found were a few well-armed unaffiliated merchants. And apparently yours."
"Damn, I didn't realize anyone had spotted that," Aslinn muttered.
"Huh?" Harlan glanced over at Goddard who was frowning suddenly.
"Well, if you can't help us, I guess we'd better be going." The commander moved to stand.
"Too late," Jacie offered from immediately behind them. "You know way too much that you shouldn't."
"What do you mean?" Harlan asked. "We came to you for help!"
"Yeah, well, that's how a plant works." Aslinn smirked. "We help you, and you shoot us in the back. No thanks. Jace…"
Harlan felt himself jerked upright, and realized that Jacie had a grip on his shoulder while his other hand was wrapped around the commander's upper arm. "What are you doing?"
"For now, locking you up, later depends—don't try it, kid, breaking their necks would mean next to nothing to me."
Harlan caught Radu's stricken look as he backed away. "What…?"
Aslinn did something complicated to a wall panel and electrical beams came down from the ceiling to form a rough enclosure. "Into the cage, please."
Jacie nodded at Radu to enter first, and then tossed Harlan and Goddard after him. Aslinn entered another command and the number of beams doubled, effectively cutting off any entrance. "Here's dinner." Jacie pushed the pizza boxes through. "No telling how long you'll be in there."
"What are you going to do?" Goddard demanded.
"Check out your story, figure out who's trying to trap us."
"We aren't trying to trap you, we need your help!" protested Harlan. This was ridiculous. Two StarDog cadets and one commander trapped by a couple paranoid dock workers… what was wrong with them?
Aslinn shrugged. "Maybe you were set up too. Don't suppose you are to tell us where you got your information now?"
Harlan glanced at the commander, who nodded. "Fine. Kyldarian, down on the docks. He set Radu and Harlan up with jobs, and when he heard what happened he thought you might be able to help."
Aslinn and Jacie exchanged glances, and Aslinn shrugged again. "We'll see. And then we'll decide what to do with you."
"What do you mean, wh-what to do with us?"
"If you're working for the Spung, I've got no issues tossing you out the nearest airlock," Jacie said with a shrug. "If you're working for the Triiad…well, it's the same thing to me, actually. If you're getting played also…it doesn't change the fact that you could get us killed with the 'information' you have."
Goddard threw up his hands. "We're just trying to get help, we aren't working for anyone! Our ship was taken. Dock M-21—check that. Her name is the Christa."
"Don't worry, we will. Jace…"
"Yeah, yeah, deal with Kyldarian."
The two of them exited the room, and Harlan looked over at the other two. Radu had his head cocked to one side, listening to something, and Goddard was glaring at the door. "Now what?"
"I don't know, Mr. Band." He reached out to touch one of the electrical beams and was thrown backwards into the wall. "Not that."
"There aren't any sp-spaces big enough we could slip through," Radu added, studying the cage walls.
Harlan nodded agreement, looking up at the emitters in the ceiling. The cell itself took up a good portion of the back wall…perhaps 10 feet long and 5 or 6 feet deep. "I don't think we can just turn them off, even if we could reach them. This station keeps getting better and better—who the hell builds a holding cell into someone's living quarters?"