Carson Mach 1: The Atlantis Ship (20 page)

“Understood, Black Swan. We’re initiating docking procedure. Over.”

“We’re sending coordinates for your AI-nav. Come in slow and steady and don’t try anything stupid; we have you in our sights. Over.”

The comm line cut after the
Intrepid
’s AI-nav computer approved the coordinates and started to maneuver toward the docking bay.
 

“Not exactly a warm welcome,” Adira said. “I think I like them already.”

“You would,” Sanchez said.

“What are you suggesting?” Adira said, fixing him with a steely eye.

To Mach, Sanchez said, “Can we trade her for repairs?”

“I’d gut you before you had the chance,” Adira said to Sanchez.

“Easy, boys and girls,” Mach said. “No one is trading anyone. Let’s just play it by ear, shall we?”

The
Intrepid
approached the spinning orbital, matching its rate of spin so that it seemed as though they were interlocked and no spin existed, the huge station blotting out any other elements from the viewscreen.
 

The AI-nav brought her in slowly, docking into the allotted bay. Before the craft had a chance to land, a hangar door at the end of the bay opened and a group of fifteen heavily armed, heavily armored troops, wearing a mix of horan and vestan colors marched in, their rocket launchers and laser cannons aimed at the ship.
 

“There’s a cold welcome,” Sanchez said, “and then there’s this. It doesn’t look too promising.”

Mach had to agree. He okayed the AI-nav’s request to complete landing procedures and prepared to be boarded. He considered having Sanchez waiting somewhere with one of his modified rifles, but they were too outnumbered. No, he had to play this smart… for once.
 

“Okay, ladies and gents, let’s get this over and done with. No one do anything stupid… or in your case, Adira, smart.”

Mach tried the cuffs on his wrists, but they continued to bite deeper. He winced and slouched back against a cold metal wall. Adira was sitting next to him, projecting an air of calm and control.
 

“I can’t believe they didn’t even give us a chance to explain,” Mach moaned. The armed guards had kept the others locked in the
Intrepid
while they took Mach and Adira away at the behest of Marlene Laverna, the so-called Black Swan, and owner of the orbital. “Do you know why they decided to take you?”

Adira shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Sure there’s nothing you should tell me?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s super helpful. I’m starting to think I ought to have left you in solitary.”

“You’re making me wish you did too. Do you ever just shut up for more than a minute? The Black Swan will be here eventually; it makes no sense to take us away if she didn’t want to talk about something. Just have some patience. You always were so eager and in a hurry.”

“Not in all things,” he said. “Besides, we don’t know how long that wormhole will stay open for. I’d rather not miss our opportunity; it’s our only lead.”

Adira moved her shoulders to the left and then the right until a crack rang out. She winced and cracked again.
 

“What the hell are you doing?” Mach asked.
 

“Insurance policy,” Adira said between gritted teeth. She closed her eyes with pain and lifted her right hand free of the cuffs, then the left. Her wrists bled with the shallow cuts. She wiped it away on the back of her crimson tunic. She kept her arms behind her back.
 

“Nice trick, want to help me out here?” Mach said.
 

“How about you let me deal with the pain of dislocating both of my shoulders for a moment. See, always so damned eager.”

“Fair point. So would this be a good time to ask who took the contract out on me?”

“No,” Adira said, and that was that.
 

Mach leaned forward onto his knees and stood up. The cell was half a meter taller than his two-meter-tall height and less than three meters square. The door was made from extra-thick titanium with some kind of strengthening material that striped through the dull gray surface.
 

A single overhead glow lamp provided a meager wash of light. The place stank of oil and blood. The floor had a series of four holes that he realized were probably areas to lock in a chair… for ‘questioning.’

On their way to the cell, escorted by four not unfriendly guards, Mach had noticed that the orbital was massively understaffed, with decks and decks of empty rooms and hangars. They had passed one area that looked like a bar given the kind of entertainment and excited voices coming from within the gloomy room. He had thought that if they were to have any luck in finding an engineer, that’d be a good place to start.
 

In all his experiences, engineers often spent as much time in bars as they did engine modules. At least Squid and Babcock being detained on the ship meant they could perhaps start work on the repairs—the ones that they knew about. They really needed to find a vestan engineer to really understand what had happened to the crystal array to blow two units like that.
 

“I can literally hear the thoughts in your head,” Adira said. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing, just considering what we need to get the
Intrepid
up and running.”

“A miracle would be good.”

“Perhaps I could trade you in for one, eh?”

Adira didn’t take the bait. She just sat there, her eyes half-closed as though she were in a state of meditation.
 

With his hands cuffed behind his back, Mach paced around the cell to keep the blood flowing through his legs. His GraphTech fatigues weren’t as good as his full suit in keeping out the cold.
 

At least thirty minutes must have gone by when finally someone opened the cell door.
 

The waft of cold air made Mach shiver. A silhouette of a large man appeared in the doorway. “You’re to stay to the back of the cell and not move,” the deep rumbling voice said. “Ms. Laverne is here to speak with you.”

Mach and Adira shuffled until their backs were against the wall. Adira kept her arms in position as though she were still cuffed. Even Mach wouldn’t have guessed anything was wrong.
 

The large silhouette disappeared. A small thin woman with long, flowing black locks cascading over her shoulders stepped in. She wore a black leather waistcoat over a long leather skirt that had a varied range of pleats around the hem. She wore a pair of incongruous CW-issue combat boots, their bulky shape at odds with her slim frame.
 

Around her waist Mach noticed a Stiletto—a discreet, but powerful laser weapon—hanging in an ornamental belt that looked like it was studded with the very stars that surrounded the orbital.
 

“Your IDs checked out,” the woman said, closing the door behind her so that she stood over them. “But what I can’t work out is why you, Mr. Mach, are transporting a known killer and now a wanted prison escapee.”

“That’s because it was me that broke her out,” Mach said, smiling up at the middle-aged face that featured a pair of green eyes that wouldn’t be out of place on a bird of prey and a petite, upturned nose that told of her selected breeding. Her small chin dimpled slightly when she spoke.

“You have us at a disadvantage,” Adira said politely. “May I enquire as to whom we’re speaking?”

“Sure you can,” the woman said. “Though it shouldn’t take a genius, really. You can call me Ms. Laverna. And this is my orbital. You say you’re only here for repairs and then you’ll be on your way.”

Mach didn’t assume it was a question and kept quiet, preferring to let the Black Swan dictate the direction of the conversation. He thought that would be the fastest way out—if there was one.
 

Adira was a backup option.
 

Ms. Laverne continued, “So tell me, why is it that your ship scanned a considerable area beyond the station before hailing us? And why were you scanning far outside of regular communication frequencies? It’s clear you were looking for something. What is it? What’s your true destination? Who sent you?”

“No one sent us,” Mach said. “As I told your flight coordinator, we’re unaffiliated freelancers and just trying to make a living. We were trailing a reported sighting of the Atlantis ship, knowing it’s all a load of crap but hoping we’d find something worth salvaging—we had come from the Retsina system after something destroyed Orbital Forty, leaving behind lots of valuable scrap. We were planning on selling it to the shipbuilders in Feronia.”

Ms. Laverna scoffed. “Those two-penny tight-asses wouldn’t give you anything for scrap metal. They’ve got it all locked up from the Axis Combine’s upgrade program.”

She seemed bitter about it, but given the rumor she was booted out of the family, it didn’t come as a huge surprise. “Look, Ms. Laverna, I don’t know what else you want from us, we’re just trying to get our ship fixed and then we’ll be on our way. I’m sure we can work out some kind of deal.”

The woman tapped the toe of her boot on the floor as she thought, all the while regarding Adira with a canny eye. “This one has a reputation,” she said, pointing to Adira. “That could come in handy for a small problem I have. You see, there are some deluded fools on this orbital who think they could do a better job, regardless of the fact that under my stewardship we repelled an attack of this so-called Atlantis ship.”

The mention of it made Mach’s heart beat a little faster. He tried to remember what Adira said and controlled himself so he didn’t look to eager. He feigned surprise and said, “It was here too?”

“A ship jumped here, yes. Was it that old myth? I doubt it very much.”

“So what did destroy your fleet of horan cruisers?” Adira said.
 

“That’s a good question. I have no answer—yet. I’m looking into it, but first I need to deal with you two and that ship of yours. It’s an interesting design. I’ve not seen one like it before. Vestan, isn’t it?”
 

Mach could tell she was fishing. He didn’t want to go into too much detail of what it was, or how he procured it; he couldn’t tell whether she still might have loyal connections within the orcus.
 

“Yes,” Mach said. “A new design of assault ship. An old contact of mine managed to procure it during the Axis’ recent upgrading of ships.”

Ms. Laverna eyed him up with a suspicious look, but then her face relaxed. “War’s imminent. I suppose you know that.”

“We do,” Adira said. “Which is why we’re trying to make as much eros as we can now so we can be far away when the shit really hits the fan. Look, Ms. Laverna, can we just cut to the chase here. We don’t care what you’re doing here; we don’t care about Atlantis ship sightings or any of that bullshit, we just want to get our ship fixed and scoot out to some safe little rim world until the next war is over.”

“What she means,” Mach said, interrupting before Adira built herself into a frenzy that would make it much harder for them to talk their way out, “is can we do a deal with you? All we want is access to a vestan engineer, or someone familiar with their tech, and some parts. I’m sure you’d have them here given the number of ships that must come here to trade.”

The Black Swan smiled and paced the room, her arms crossed over her chest. “Trade, indeed. It’s obvious to me that you two are deceiving scum, but that’s okay, we’re all two-faced here; it’s the way of the universe, is it not? So let’s get down to it, shall we?”
 

She fixed her attention on Adira.
 

“I know who you are and what you are. You will take someone out for me. In return I’ll give you the name of someone who might be able to help you. In the meantime, your ship stays where it is under my guard…. So basically, I’m not giving you a choice here. You take the deal or I’ll just have you killed along with the rest of your two-bit crew.”

Adira stood up, letting the loose cuffs clink to the ground. She brought her hands casually to her sides. “Who’s the target?” she asked, gaining a genuinely entertained smile from Ms. Laverna, who just let out a satisfied laugh.
 

“My girl, you’ll do fine here. Come with me, I’ll give you the briefing.” She opened the door and gestured to her guard. “Adekafka, release Mr. Mach, we’ve come to an agreement.”

The giant human—clearly a product of advanced genetic modification and muscle-growth enhancers—stepped inside the cell, making it seem suddenly much smaller than it did a moment ago. The brute, wearing a set of ceramic-plated armor colored a dull green, leaned over Mach’s shoulders and with a wave of his hand unlocked the cuffs.
 

The giant smelled of tobacco and linseed oil.
 

Mach sighed with the relief of his release and rubbed at his wrists that were bright red. “God, that feels good,” he said. “While we’re on good terms, any chance I can use your bathroom? I seriously need to have a piss.”

“Ade, would you show Mr. Mach to the facilities before the poor man spoils his fancy fatigues. Adira, come with me, we’ll get started on your target.”

***

Mach stared at the image of the Black Swan’s target on his smart-screen and committed it to memory. The person she wanted to have killed was a young woman, no older than nineteen by the looks of her.

With Adira by his side, they stalked down the deserted corridor of the orbital. Broken glass littered the metal floor. Rust accumulated in the corners, providing homes for vestan rust-spiders.
 

“What did the Swan say this poor woman did for her to be killed?”

“She’s the girlfriend of her son,” Adira replied, her voice cool and distant.

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

Adira shook her head and increased her pace.
 

While Mach mulled over their plans, he observed the emptiness of the orbital. The place was huge, easily capable of housing twenty million souls comfortably, but with just a few thousand on it, there were hundreds of levels that remained empty.