Part 3
There was a rumble from the ship. The hangar lights went out, replaced by a series of red flashing lights and rotating beacons. A computerized voice repeated, "Collision detected." There was a rumble again. Jack had run over to the console in the hangar and brought up the ship's local scanner, there were several small objects orbiting the ship, one large object just inside scanner range. The com system popped up with an open channel.
"Someone's knocking." he yelled, "Guess we better find out what they want."
He leaned over the console, "Unidentified attacker, this is DSM Fortune's Prospect. We are dead in the water, repeat we are without shields and have minimal power, break off your attack."
"This is Commander Wolf O'Donnell, Cornerian Defense Force: Star Wolf squadron, we have reason to suspect you are harboring a fugitive. Surrender immediately."
"Commander, we're a damaged mining vessel awaiting a repair crew, no other personnel on board. Break off your attack, repeat break off your attack."
"Fortune's Prospect, this is your last warning. Surrender and prepare to be boarded.
"This isn't Lylat, CDF doesn't have any rights out here." Krystal said. "What's Wolf up to?"
"Friend of yours?" Jack looked at her with eyebrows up.
"My old squadron, the bad one." she said hanging her head down. "When did Wolf get so professional with the coms?"
"Fortune's Prospect, what is your response?" Wolf interrupted. "Transponder signal is coming from inside your ship, you are harboring a fugitive."
"Commander, I salvaged a vessel from the planet below. I am the only one on this ship. I will grant you permission to dock with it and inspect it yourself."
"No! You can't trust him." Krystal pleaded. "Whatever he agrees to, he won't honor it. They're after me, I can take my ship and just go with them."
"You're right about the CDF not having rights out here, this is a human controlled system and everyone within the CDF that has access to this area of space knows it. Something is wrong, either they're idiots and sent him out here knowing it would cause an incident or he's doing something he shouldn't be and the CDF doesn't know about it. I want to look into this a bit more. I need you to take the tram back to engineering and follow the hall. There's a saferoom there that doubles as an escape pod. They won't know you're here."
"I won't run from them anymore. I'm tired of running away." Krystal walked to the tram, Jack followed behind her.
"I'm not telling you to run away. If they see you and decide to take you, I can't stop them. Commander O'Donnell said you were a fugitive and it would reflect badly on the HSF if I stopped them from arresting you. It's best if they don't know you're here."
"I don't know." Krystal shook her head, "This is all new to me. I don't know what I could be wanted for."
"They've got something on you or they wouldn't be out here, just lay low until we know what's going on."
"Fortune's Prospect, your request for a boarding is acceptable." Wolf barked into the com. "Open your hangar and prepare to be boarded."
"Understood Commander, hangar doors opening." The massive doors groaned and rumbled as the hydraulics struggled to move them. The Star Wolf team quickly entered the hangar and jumped from their ships. The deafening roar of the doors closing behind them.
Wolf walked over to Jack, blaster drawn. "You must be the guy on the radio, and a human no less." he sneered and pressed the blaster to Jack's face. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me where the pilot to that ship is?"
"I have no idea, it was in the wreckage of some facility down on the planet's surface. We picked it up as a mineral deposit. Like I told you I salvaged it and brought it up here two days ago. The pilot is likely dead or long gone from here. The transponder you've been tracing must have come online when the ship was repaired."
"You fixed this ship in two days time, and you can't even fix your own?" he looked at Panther and Leon. Something's not right with this. Search the ship, I want it taken apart."
"It's halfway there already." Leon snickered as he walked over to Krystal's ship. "Look at this repair job, top of the line stuff here Wolf."
"I'm not interested in the ship, I'm interested in it's pilot, find her! Now! I'm going to see what the human knows." Wolf turned and pointed his blaster. "Now, you say you found this ship, wrecked on the planet below, brought it up here, and began repairing it. Is that correct?"
"Yes." Jack answered flatly.
"And what about the destroyed facility on the surface, there is no way that ship would have survived a blast like that. So you're either lying or you pulled that ship out before the place went up." Wolf's voice became more tense. "I had a very good friend down there, Dr. Issen. You know the name? He hates you, all of you. He wanted you out of this territory, I think he was planning to kill you."
"I think you're right." Jack smiled. "The question is, how did you know about us and the good doctor?"
"Being the hero if Corneria has it's advantages. The best one, besides the money, is access to all this secret information they keep on that big station that orbits the planet. Like a whole civilization building out here just out of reach. Do you know how much leverage those secrets have given me? Who would have thought a handful of useless diplomats would be hiding all this?" Wolf raised his arms and looked around the hangar. "But back to the reason I'm here. The pilot of this ship is wanted for smuggling a dangerous and toxic substance out of Lylat, for the murders of several innocents on various planets and stations, for the destruction of an advanced forward research facility, the death of it's controller, and an uncounted number of civilian lives. It seems she's taken to attacking human ships as well, she might have blown up some crippled old mining vessel recently. If you turn her over to us, we might let you go and that attack won't happen. She's completely crazy and not to be trusted."
"You seem to know alot about what's going on out here." Jack followed Wolf with his eyes. "I'd guess you have your hands in alot of it."
Krystal had climbed in behind the tram where the others couldn't see her. She listened to Wolf, trying not to burst out yelling. He had to have known her telepathy was fading, how else could he have set her up? He was trying to frame her for the things he was doing when the CDF wasn't looking, those 'murders' were contracted by Wolf to her through a middleman after she left Star Wolf. She never picked up on any of it, Wolf continued.
"There's alot of profit to be made in unrest. That's the mistake I made before, I was the unrest and it earned me a price on my head. The Anglar war fixed that and now I'm a hero in Lylat. They'd rather have me building homes back on Corneria, showing the people that I care about their plight. I don't build things, I destroy them, for credits. So now I need a new conflict to get the team back in action again and what better than a little skirmish with the new humans to get the credits flowing again?"
"You're trying to provoke a war with the HSF?" Jack looked at Wolf, stunned by what he was hearing. "Did you see what they did to the pirates out here? There's no way they would attack Lylat with anything less than a full fleet operation. We'd roll over you, your squadron, and the Cornerian Defense Force."
"And that is the problem I'm trying to solve." Wolf grinned, "You see, I'm not a bad guy, I don't want a full scale war. Wiping out the CDF would really cramp my finances, so I start a little skirmish by dropping this toxin from Venom on one of the smaller human stations here in this system. I blame it on the bounty hunter that took something from a recently destroyed research facility. Your military launches into Lylat looking for her, the CDF trades a few shots with your fleet, some ships get blown up then I save the day by turning the little blue bounty hunter over to your commanders and go home with a generous payout from the Cornerian government. I get the reward without taking the risk and she gets what's coming to her for skipping out on the team. I just need to find her."
"I already told you the person you're looking for isn't here." Jack stood upright, looking down at Wolf. "And for the record, I blew up that facility and shot the Doctor, I was the one that took that sample. It's HSF property now along with this salvaged fighter. The situation has been taken care of, I'm afraid you came out here for nothing."
"I'm getting tired of this." Wolf barked, his claws at the ready, "I know she's here, she didn't really think a new paint job was going to hide that ship from me did she? And I loved the new name, Kursed. So dark and mysterious. She played her part so well, tipping the balance out here in my favor by doing jobs I couldn't be seen doing. I couldn't believe how easily she fell for..."
Jack had heard enough, he kicked Wolf in the stomach. Wolf fired his blaster wildly and collapsed to the ground. As he struggled to regain his breath the human picked him up and began walking toward one of the Star Wolf ships, Wolf struggled to fight back, clawing at his attacker. He managed to break free of Jack's grip and tried to flee, Jack grabbed him and tossed him into the side of the Star Wolf ship that was docked nearby striking Wolf in the head with his fist and knocking him to the ground. Jack grabbed Wolf by his neck and lifted him off the ground.
"Put me down." Wolf struggled to speak under the human's grip, "I'm not above cutting you in on this deal. The other two don't even need to know. What do you say?"
"No." Jack answered. As Jack and Wolf fought, Leon and Panther returned from scouting the rest of the ship.
"Not another soul Wolf, the ship's empty." Leon said as the tram door opened. "Wolf!" Panther and Leon drew their weapons and started, firing at Jack who still had Wolf pinned against his ship. They hit him in the shoulder and in the leg, he fell to the deck, dropping Wolf and taking another hit in the side while trying to drag himself back behind a nearby console. Krystal had made her way out onto to the hangar deck during the fighting and stood behind Panther and Leon, who hadn't seen her. Wolf climbed into his ship and closed the canopy, gasping for breath as he powered up the ship's systems.
"Give up, you're out classed." Panther yelled. "We're the best squadron in Lylat and we're talking what we came for."
"Like hell you are." Jack yelled. "There's a large object just in range of this ship's turrets, I'm betting that's your squadron's carrier. The asteroid defense system has been tracking it since you approached the ship. You have 10 seconds to get your filthy asses back to your own ship or I'll turn the guns on and reduce it to slag."
"You really want us to believe you've got guns on this thing?" Leon said mocking Jack's words. "And that they actually work?"
"Take your chances." Jack said. "You won't make it out of range before they target your fighters too. You can take whatever you want, but you don't get very far beyond those doors." Leon hesitated, looking at Panther who was standing nearby.
"Panther, back to the ship!" Leon ran toward his ship with Panther following close behind. Krystal looked at Wolf, who had taken refuge in the cockpit of his ship, he had seen her and yelled at the others. Panther stopped, turned and smiled.
"Krystal my love, you've been away for so long." Panther spoke in a soft voice. "I had almost forgotten how gorgeous you are, but it's come back to me. As I knew you would." Krystal tensed up at his words, her hand on her blaster. She relaxed and stood there, brushing he hair back. She smiled at Panther and took her hand off her weapon.
"Panther!" Leon yelled. "10 seconds!"
"Don't worry about the guns, they don't work." Krystal began walking slowly toward them. "Like everything else on this heap, they're sad and broken." She pointed to Jack, propped up beside the console. His face was pale, sweat dripping from his forehead. His jaw clenched as Krystal spoke. "He's not going anywhere, just let him sit there."
"You haven't changed, have you my love?" Panther opened his arms and walked toward Krystal. "And I bet you have the sample? Maybe we can go back home and celebrate? You, me, and someplace cozy? Doesn't that sound nice? There is alot of money in that little vial."
"I have changed Panther." Krystal walked toward him, her body swinging. She looked at him and smiled as she grabbed the blaster in his hand and twisted, breaking his grip and seizing the weapon. Jack had gotten to his feet while the pair was distracted and grabbed Leon from behind, stripping the weapon from his hand and tossing him across the hangar. Leon scrambled to get back to his feet and started running toward his ship.
"What are you doing? I thought we'd be together again. Wolf was going to let you live, he promised me." Panther whined, staring at the tip of his own blaster. "We were going to clear your name, all you had to do was come back to us."
"Go back to your ship Panther, and get out of here." she raised the blaster again. "Before he turns the guns on." Jack opened the hangar doors as Panther sealed the canopy on his ship, looking at Krystal in disbelief. The Star Wolf team blasted out of the hangar and back to their ship, just outside. Jack reached up and activated the turrets. Only five of the three dozen responded, firing rapidly into space, their shots echoing in the ship's cavernous interior. The Star Wolf ship turned and took off at full thrust, it's engines glowing brightly. Krystal helped Jack to his feet.
"Thank you for standing up to them. I don't know why you did it, but I am glad you did. Are you alright? I saw you get shot."
"Just a few grazing shots, I'll patch them up after you're gone, it's nothing to worry about. I still had the welding shield on me when they attacked." he pointed to a metallic wristband on his right arm. "That helped to disperse some of the laser shots, they got through the shield, but it wasn't enough to be lethal. It still hurt like hell though."
"This may seem odd, but I'm happy you didn't hurt Wolf and the others too badly. I don't like any of them, but I do have a past with them."
"I need them alive." Jack said, "I need to know who sent them out here and what they are planning. The drones bugged their ships as soon as they docked, I should have some intel on them in a few days. To be honest, I was a bit worried it would come to killing. I wasn't sure what you were planning when you walked over to one of them. You could have turned my whole operation over to them, it sounded like Wolf was willing to cut you a deal to go back to Lylat with them."
"He'd have never followed through with it. Besides, I didn't want to be that person anymore."
She put her arms around him resting her head just below his chin, he cradled her head with one hand and held her close with the other. Krystal could hear the human's heartbeat, even after the fight, it was calm and steady. She looked up at him, her bright green eyes met his, they were brown, dark, and sad, almost burdened.
"I'm sorry for the way I was before." She said. "After what you've done for me, you didn't deserve that. I haven't had much to look forward to these last few years. Now I think I do." she looked at him and smiled.
"I'm not what you're looking for." he said, pushing her back slightly. Krystal paused for a second, and looked at the floor.
"I'm sorry... I just thought... I... I suppose you're right. I guess you're still recovering from what happened to Miri."
"I haven't heard that name in a long time." He looked at her, "If you've been through my things, I think you know all you need to about her."
"I wanted to know how you met her." She looked at the floor, "I know I shouldn't have looked in there. I wanted to know more about you, I didn't really trust you." Jack sighed and looked around, rubbing the wound on his arm.
"About 3 years ago, we had a report from one of our informants about a black market colony on one of the moons around Alpha VIII. There were a bunch of them in the system and we did our best to wipe them out when we found them. It was strictly CSU work because the smugglers would scatter if they knew we were coming. You could buy anything in those places, advanced weapons, narcotics, security codes, star charts for smuggling routes, exotic pets, even people if the price was right. I found her toward the end of my mission, left to die locked in a cage. She didn't have any family, nowhere to go, from what she told me she had been taken from a ship that was trying to get out of Lylat. She fought them off every time they tried to touch her and they roughed her up pretty bad for it. After that they couldn't sell her off, no one wanted a scarred up trophy girl, so they kept her in that cage. I agreed to take her in and settled her on one of the joint colonies in Alpha, I stayed around as often as I could to make sure she was alright. At first she was very cold and withdrawn, it took her awhile to get over her ordeal. I'm surprised she came out of it with her sanity intact, she's got an unbelievably strong will. I can't go into too much detail, I promised her I would not talk about it and she will not talk about it with anyone. Eventually she opened up, all it took was some nice clothes and a bit of freshening up, she said I made her feel pretty again, and to be honest, she cleaned up quite well. You've probably seen how it ended."
"So why keep going?" Krystal's eyes welled up again.
"To keep it from happening again. I'm in a position to stop things like that from happening, not many people are. I owe it to Miri and to everyone in this system to continue to do so. She's gone, there's nothing I can do to change that. I have a job to do and she had to move on. That's the way it is sometimes."
"I still can't see it." she shook her head. "Wait, she had to move on?"
"Yes, she was tired of me being gone for weeks at a time." he looked at her puzzled. "When I finally got the Prospect operational I came to see her and tell her my plan, I wanted her to stay with me while I put the team together and finished repairing the ship. She was gone, her necklace and ring sitting on the table. She didn't leave a note, and she never said goodbye. She was with me for a year, maybe a bit longer."
"But the necklace was broken, and the scorched ring and news report."
"The burned one is mine, it was damaged in a shootout while I was on assignment. I don't wear it anymore now that she's gone, there really isn't a point. They were her idea, I don't know where she got them, they're some kind of lifetime friendship symbol. I've done alot of traveling and I have never seen anything like them, they glow when they get near each other. I guess she broke the necklace when she went to take it off, she took the pendant that was on it with her. As for the news article, I found her name in the list of passengers. Oddly, she had used my last name. That was the last heard of her, she was working on one of the stations in Alpha system."
"I thought she had died on that transport ship." Krystal looked upset. "You haven't tried to track her down at all?"
"No." he said. "It isn't fair to her to sit and wait for me to come back, wondering if I'll even come back. Even if she regretted leaving, it still wouldn't be right for her to go through that."
"I guess it wouldn't. But isn't this life lonely?"
"You've been living it too, what do you think?" he put his hand on Krystal's shoulder. "I imagine there's someone you need to go seek out too, and you've got the sample from Venom and your bounty to collect."
"Keep the sample, it's no good to me without Issen. As for his bounty, I'm not going to collect it, Kursed died on that planet. Besides, now that I know Wolf had been the one giving me the jobs, I don't want to do this anymore. He's probably fabricating some kind of story to make me look bad." Krystal walked toward her ship, "You've done more for me than you can possibly realize. I have my spirit back, I don't know if I can ever repay you."
"I don't want you to try. Just go, get out of here before they come back. You've got the transponder if you need to find me. I'll open a jump portal to take you back to Lylat, it will save you alot of time, just go through it full thrust and don't go near the sides and you'll be fine. You have an ally and a friend here Krystal, don't forget that." Krystal climbed into her ship as the hangar doors groaned open. She waved to Jack propped up against the console, he saluted her and began to hobble toward the tram. She slowly pulled out of the hangar, no sign of Star Wolf. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of light. Directly infront of the Prospect was a massive swirling vortex, it seemed to open right in space itself, a torrent of white and blue streaks defined the entrance. She slowly approached it, the interior of the portal looked like a swirling wall of static, at the other end she could see the stars of Lylat just beyond. Krystal remembered the human's instructions and went through full thrust. As she came out the other side and banked to look back into the portal, it closed rapidly and then vanished.