The Relic (The Galactic Thieves Book 1) Read online

  Laender thought that maybe a solid bit of acting was in order.

  “Thank the gods you are here,” he said as desperately as he could muster. “I thought I’d be derelict for months!”

  “What’s on your ship?” said the man coldly.

  “Just me and some trinkets. I’m a trader. My name is Laender. You are?”

  “Reycort. What kind of trinkets?”

  “Basic things,” Laender said, as if it didn’t matter. “Qeluvian Sparks, Denalik Idols, rations…” then he trailed off as if looking around. He knew what they wanted, but he wanted to act like it meant nothing to him. “Let’s see, I have a couple of bundles of Washerclots, a few bags of Yon Spices, both the zesty and tart kinds.”

  “Anything worthy of our helping you out of a pinch?” said Reycort with a tilt of his head.

  Laender slumped his shoulders, trying to convey worry. He knew that he wasn’t much of an actor, but he’d succeeded enough times to know that his prey wouldn’t notice. The greed of his audience outweighed his performance skills.

  “Not really,” he said, finally. “Mostly just your basics. I did pick up something a couple of stations back on a hunch. An ancient thing. Not really even sure what good it’s for, to be honest. The guy I got it from seemed to be pretty adamant about getting rid of it, though.”

  Reycort sat forward. “What is this thing?”

  “A relic of some sort. I really don’t know. Probably nothing.”

  “We’ll take that as payment,” said Reycort after a few seconds. Then he suddenly got a bit chummy. “Drop your shields and we’ll come on over to your ship and help you get everything back on line.”

  “That would be most appreciated,” Laender replied, feigning relief. “It’s been a stressful few days.” He tapped on the panel as if he were working through security. In reality, it only took a couple of keystrokes. There was a loud clank. “There,” he said to Reycort. “You should be able to board now.”

  Reycort nodded and the screen went blank.

  Using the outside cameras, Laender watched as The Reycort moved in and attached to his ship. An instant later The Kless was clandestinely connecting cabling through the hull of The Reycort. It would only be a matter of minutes before he had complete interface control over Reycort’s ship. Even if, by some off chance the boarding goons were able to take over Laender, his ship wouldn’t let them get any further.

  He stood on the balcony that overlooked the ground level and the main hatch. As the hatch opened, a number of men and women poured through, moving to each side until Reycort finally stepped in.

  “Just up here,” Laender called down.

  Reycort was taking in the area, obviously searching for weaknesses and threats.

  Laender activated the controller and all their weapons powered down.

  “Weapons down,” said one of the men.

  “Mine too,” agreed another.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” said Laender as he walked down the circular stairway. “I had one of those BlastStoppers installed about a year ago. You’d be surprised at how many criminals there are out there.”

  “Turn it off,” said Reycort.

  “Why? It’s just me.” Laender laughed tightly. “Surely, I pose no threat to your crew, guns or not.”

  Reycort pulled out a knife and took a step toward Laender.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Laender said with his hands up in surrender. “I don’t want any trouble. I just want my ship fixed. You can take all the supplies for all I care. I can replace them.”

  “Planning on that anyway,” Reycort said and then looked around appraisingly. “Probably easier just to take this ship off your hands.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t act so surprised. If you’ve been out here as long as you say you have then you know full well I ain’t gonna just take your stash of goodies and go. Why do that when I can take the whole damn ship? Probably make a killing on something this size.”

  Laender’s fake nervousness faded in that moment. He lifted his hands and began to mockingly clap at Reycort.

  “Just what I had expected,” Laender said. “The problem is that you have to take the ship from me.”

  “I don’t see the problem,” Reycort replied as he brought the blade up to Laender’s throat.

  “I suppose you have me now,” Laender said with a sigh.

  “Seems that way,” Reycort said with a grunt as the rest of his crew surrounded Laender.

  “Such a pity,” Laender said before looking into Reycort’s eyes. “May I ask you something first?”

  “Last wish?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

  “Go on.”

  “Will you tell me the secret?”

  “What secret?”

  “The secret of life?”

  Reycort squinted at him and began pressing the knife harder. “You’re one of those nutjobs, eh?”

  Laender spun inward, pressing his back against Reycort’s chest and slamming the underside of the burly man’s right bicep. The knife dropped and Laender hit the floor, kicking Reycort’s legs out from under him. Then he grabbed the knife and placed it on Reycort’s neck.

  It had happened so fast that Reycort’s crew didn’t have any time to react.

  “Have them back away,” he commanded quietly.

  Reycort shooed them and then said, “Special Ops, eh? You can’t whip us all.”

  “On the contrary, I can,” said Laender matter-of-factly, “but I would imagine only your existence is pressing to you at the moment.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I’ve already told you,” said Laender.

  “Ship fixed? Done.”

  “No, that was a ruse. My ship is fine. Actually, my ship has already overtaken your ship. What I want is for you to tell me the secret. I want to understand.”

  “Right,” Reycort said in a voice of a man who’d been in turbulent situations before. “I’m no philosopher, pal, but I would say that the secret of life is to get what’s yours, yeah? That’s all we’re trying to do.”

  “To get what is mine?”

  “Yeah, right. You know…cash, sex, power, the good life…that kind of thing.”

  Laender stood and backed away from Reycort. His crew rushed in to help him to his feet.

  “I’m afraid there must be more to it than that,” said Laender after careful consideration. “I have plenty of money and I can get sex whenever I choose. I also have what you would consider a good life, meaning that I can go and do essentially anything that I want.” He tossed the knife back to Reycort, butt-end first. “No, I fear that there is something more that you cannot consciously tell me. It’s something that hides in the recesses of the mind. Something that you can only share as you pass from this life.”

  All their knives came out.

  The first one moved in with a quick jab toward Laender’s stomach. He turned slightly as the blade passed within millimeters of his gut, then grabbed the assailant’s wrist, taking a quick step in the same direction as the attack before violently twisting the opposite direction while cracking the man’s arm. The scream was deafening as the man flipped over and hit the floor, putting an obstacle between Laender and the rest of the attackers. A quick tap of his foot on the fallen man’s temple silenced his whimpering.

  The next two jumped toward him at the same time.

  Moving quicker than any man has a right to, Laender hopped to the left, closer to the female attacker. She cut down with her blade, trying to slice into Laender’s shoulder, but he slid under the attack and brought his arm up powerfully, knocking her feet out from under her. She landed on her back with a thud as her attack partner jumped past and scored a cut on Laender’s shoulder. Spinning with the slash, Laender threw out his fist and tagged the attacker so hard on the back of his head that the man was knocked out. A quick kick to the groaning woman ensured that she, too, was completely incapacitated.

  Only three were left, including Reycort.

&nbs
p; They spread out, obviously getting the idea that using a bull rush was not an effective tactic against the likes of Laender.

  Reycort motioned the other two to go further to the sides.

  “Last chance, asshole,” Reycort warned.

  “I agree,” Laender responded, noting the three fallen around him.

  Reycort shook his head and snapped his fingers.

  The two goons charged in. At the same moment, Reycort threw his knife directly at Laender’s chest. It was a smart move, but Laender had fully anticipated it and he was already rolling toward Reycort as the blade sailed harmlessly overhead. Rolling up, he punched Reycort in his solar plexus, slamming the man back against the wall, knocking him out.

  Laender then tapped the button on his armband that signaled his computer to activate the SFAQL (Shoot First, Ask Questions Later). Within seconds, the remaining henchmen were disabled as projectiles sliced through the edges of their flesh, painfully cutting their bodies without causing deathly damage.

  It was time for more experiments.

  VULTURING

  As it turned out, Muffins wasn’t in our future. I was checking in on Sam when the lights dimmed.

  “What is it now, Penn?” I asked over the comm.

  “Ask Blue. She’s the one who requested 30% power on the scope.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Blue, talk.”

  Her face popped up on a few screens. “It’s probably nothing,” she said, which was a sure sign that it was something. “I’m seeing a heat flare in the middle of nowhere. Want to check it out?”

  I glanced down at Sam, who looked like a hamburger I once ate. The Table had her back on track, but, as usual, it didn’t feel a duty to do its job pretty.

  “Make sure we don’t take any more power from Sam. If that’s possible, then we can see what it is.”

  “Great,” Blue said. Her voice had that edge to it, like she’d been told she could open one birthday present a day early.

  “From a distance, Blue,” I barked.

  “Yeah, Kat,” she said.

  The screens went dark.

  I rolled my eyes, which gave Sam something to grin about. I could tell her smile hurt like hell. I mean, it usually hurt Sam to smile, but a broken jaw probably made it unbearable. Max squeezed her sister’s hand and held it close to her chest. Poor kid. I could tell she felt guilty as hell. The two of them had it coming though. Maybe now they would get along, I remember thinking.

  I left Sam’s side to find Blue. I suspected that the heat sig was somehow related to The Relic job. Mushasho was a neutral, but he’d followed Reycort for the same reason I had. And if Musasho was out here, then it was likely other thieves were scouting nearby. It made me nervous. So I repeated my order to Blue and made sure Penn was privy.

  “LONG distance, you two,” I repeated.

  “Roger that,” they said in unison.

  I found Blue at the nav screen. I glanced over her shoulder at the control panel.

  “Reycort?” I asked.

  I grabbed my holster from its hook on the wall and slid it onto my belt. The Z12’s heft always gives me a false sense of comfort.

  “Too soon to tell. Nothing identifies them yet. But I think there are two sigs.”

  I snapped and unsnapped the button on the holster. Nervous habit of mine when I’m thinking. After a dozen snaps, Blue gave me a look.

  “Sorry,” I said, trying to stop. “We need to re-outfit our ship. If these are competitors and they get a whiff of us, we’re easy targets. Got it?”

  “Kat, come on,” Blue said, exasperated. “I get it, dude.”

  “I’m not a dude, Blue.” I hate it when she calls me that.

  “You act like one sometimes.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing...” she said, pushing some buttons to pass the time. I made to walk out of the room. “...sir,” she added, pushing my buttons.

  I ignored her and opened the comm. “Penn, if you can get close enough for a visual I want you and Max with me if the situation calls for it. The rest of you get on the escape pod if things go to shit.”

  I worked my way down to the abandon hatch, detouring into the arsenal room to grab some weapons. I hung five blasters from the pod’s walls. If we had to abandon our home, we’d do it armed to the teeth.

  “Kat, you’re gonna want to see this,” Penn’s voice echoed through the halls.

  “Bring the visual up on number four-seven,” I said, activating the pod’s screen. “What the fuck?” was all I could manage because I couldn’t register what I was seeing at first. It was stupefying. Reycort was smarter than that. It probably wouldn’t have been obvious to a land lubber, but to someone who had only breathed tanked air for two years, I spotted it right away. “Why is Reycort’s ship just sitting there?”

  “No idea,” Penn said.

  “Blue?”

  “No sign of a ship battle,” she answered.

  I tried to figure out the scene on my screen. Two ships, cold boosters, attached by a single portal. “So Reycort leeched that ship and then he didn’t leave anyone behind to protect his own? Fuck, what an idiot.”

  “Yeah,” Penn said. “I thought he was better than that.”

  “There has to be a reason,” I said back. “But I’m not going to worry about that. We’re taking it.”

  “Excuse me?” Blue asked.

  “We’re taking Reycort’s ship. Now. Max, you’re with me. Penn, get us linked to his aft.”

  “Ma’am?” Sam’s voice scratched across the ship on every comm. Just listening to her talk made me hurt. Clearly, the Table had welded her teeth shut. “That’s not a good idea,” she croaked. “What if Reycort is on the new ship with The Relic?”

  “I’ve thought of that, Sam. Now get some sleep.”

  “But won’t he—”

  “I’m sorry I was unclear, Sam,” I said sternly. “Shut the fuck up and get some sleep.”

  That did the trick.

  I opened up a line to Penn’s headset.

  “Tag the new guy. If they try to escape, chase them. I’ll pursue in Reycort’s Yenemen,” I said.

  Penn paused, then asked the obvious question. “You know how to fly that thing?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think you didn’t answer my question.”

  “Exactly.”

  OBSERVANCE

  By the time he had finished with Reycort’s crew, Laender had hit the 282 mark and was still without answers, so he decided to try something different.

  He had taken Reycort and tied him tightly to the decompression chamber so that his face was pressed against the portal window. Once everything was secure, Laender reentered the ship and sealed off the compartment. All that was standing between Reycort and the vacuum of space was the opening of the external door.

  Laender waited patiently for Reycort to awaken and come back to his senses before he flipped on the communications channel between the two rooms.

  “Hello, Mr. Reycort.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Reycort said as he struggled to move. “Where’s my crew?”

  “I have need of answers, Mr. Reycort. My entire existence has relied upon knowing about life. Everything I strive for relates to finding that answer.”

  “Where the hell is my crew?”

  “They were unable to answer my questions,” Laender said as he tried to understand the hostility that Reycort was showing.

  “You fucking bastard,” Reycort said. “I’ll rip every limb from your body.”

  “I don’t see how that is possible, Mr. Reycort. Now, what say we work together on helping me find the answers I seek?”

  Reycort had stopped struggling. He had a look in his eye that Laender was not used to seeing. Typically his subjects were full of fear. They begged and pleaded. Rarely were they stoic in their final moments, but Reycort was different. His face held a cold expression that Laender found promising.

  “You are different,”
Laender said.

  “Go fuck yourself,” Reycort replied through gritted teeth.

  Laender leaned in, looking into the older man’s eyes. “Have you the answers I seek?”

  Reycort didn’t reply.

  “It is important that you tell me what you know, Mr. Reycort.”

  Reycort smirked. “Yeah, I know the answers you’re looking for, asshole, but I’ll be damned if I’ll tell you anything.”

  “This is quite distressing, Mr. Reycort,” said Laender while folding his arms. “I had hoped you would be more cooperative. Many of your crew were cooperative, though they didn’t have the answers I had hoped for.”

  “You son of a bitch.”

  “If you could just look in my eyes, Mr. Reycort,” said Laender while pressing the air-lock button, “this will all be over soon.”

  * * *

  Laender closed the airlock and signaled his robots to clean up the mess.

  Mr. Reycort had lied. He’d housed no answers. He was just another number in the list of subjects that lead to nothing but disappointment.

  Returning to the main bridge, Laender found that there was a new ship in the quadrant. It was running on low power and seemed to be staying far away from his position.

  “Stealth?” Laender mused as he pulled up the details on the remote vessel. “An M-Class Franth with heavy armor and weaponry. Interesting.”

  He pulled up the scrambler data and filtered through until he found the underlying transponders. Running them through tracers he found that the ship belonged to someone named Kat K. This was obviously an alias, so Laender continued his scouring until he landed on her actual information.

  Katherine Marian Keep was her full name. She was born on Uthan in the Paleon System. Married once. No kids. Three sisters, one dead. Parents were listed as casualties of the Uthanian Raid. She’d been arrested on numerous counts of thievery and smuggling. In each case, she’d made bail and was cleared of the charges. Obviously, she had some backing.

  Laender pulled up her latest mugshot and sat back slowly.