Kill Shot: A Remnant of the Commonwealth, Book Two (3 page)

Eve smiled and bowed her head. “Forgive me, but I did not expect an Ishek in the spaceport. I thought the elatori would be too paranoid to let you inside the wall.”
It may not have been politically correct, but it was the truth. The elatori were determined to keep its citizens on the planet. It seemed unusual that they had allowed an Ishek to work at the port.

The Ishek bowed his head. “I have family
here, and even the elatori know I will not leave them.”

Eve nodded, understanding the sentiment perfectly. She bit her lip, afraid to ask the question that threatened to bubble up from with
in her. As it turned out, the Ishek was better at reading humans than she’d thought.

“What is it?” he asked. “What is it that you are trying not to say?”

So much for being diplomatic,
Eve thought. “I was just wondering why you didn’t leave, you know, before it got this bad.”

The Ishek was silent for a moment
, and she was afraid she had offended him.

“Do you think I foresaw these happenings and did not act?” he asked, his feathers appearing to stand up on end. “If
, for one moment, I had suspected things would have turned out the way they have, then I would have taken my family and fled. As it was, I owned this shop. I inherited it and thought I could see the bad times through.”

Eve spread her hands in what she hoped was a placating manner. “Forgive me. I meant no offense.”

The Ishek nodded, and his feathers lay back down along his body. “I did not see the danger until it was too late, and now I cannot leave.”

Eve hesitated
, then said, “But why not? Surely you can find passage on one of the ships in port?”

“I could,” the Ishek agreed, “but I will not leave without my family.” He sighed and said in a slower voice, “Besides, none of the transports would take us
, as it would endanger their landing privileges.”

A thought suddenly occurred to Eve
, and she spoke without thinking it through. “What if I know of a ship that is only coming here once, a ship that could smuggle you off-world?”

The Ishek regarded her in silence for several moments
, then looked toward the front door. “Is this a trick?” he demanded, “another way for the elatori to put me out of business?”

Eve blinked in surprise and to
ok an involuntary step backward. “I’m sorry, but it’s not a trick at all.”

Molly also took a step backwards; her eyes were wide and she looked back and forth from Eve to the Ishek.

The Ishek was breathing fast now and his eyes had gone a bit wild. “I already told you that I would not leave my family.”

Eve nodded.
“And if I said there would be room for them as well?”

The Ishek looked around again
, and then he took on a defeated persona. “It does not matter. I cannot pay for my own passage, much less the passage of my family.”

Eve smiled, feeling that for the first time she was about to make a positive impact on the ship and its crew. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, “I think we can come to an arrangement.”

Chapter
3

Aaron led the small group of cargo skiffs back to the ship. He was pleased with the time they had made. There were still several hours of daylight left and they were returning from the last delivery run. He had gotten a little nervous when they took the last ten pallets to Ibet-ak. He didn’t really think the Isheks were dumb enough to rip off the very people who were supplying them with weapons. The chances of the Ishek defeating the elatori in a confrontation were minimal, but without more weapons, those chances went to zero.

As it turned out, he had worried for nothing. As on all their other delivery runs, the Ishek had taken the guns and supplied them with the emethium ore. The Ishek truly seemed an honorable people
, and he hoped they survived their coming confrontation with the elatori.

Reaching the
cargo bay ramp, Aaron slowed only slightly as he drove the skiff up the steep slope. He sped right on past Terry and parked the skiff neatly in one corner of the hold. The other skiffs were soon parked beside his.

“How’d
it go?” Terry asked as he walked over.

Aaron shrugged. “
Easy peasy,” he answered and then he stretched. He had worked into the early morning hours restacking the pallets and then had gotten up early to start delivering them; he was looking forward to a nap. A snicker pulled him up short and he turned. Russell, Susan, and Eric were smiling; even Thomas was smirking at him.

“Easy peasy?” Terry asked, and he
, too, wore a smile.

“
Sorry,” Aaron said, feeling his face go warm. He had heard the term from Molly and he thought he knew the gist of it. “Did I use it correctly?”

“Yes,” Russell answered slowly. “Although, I wo
uld’ve bet that you never would’ve used that term, much less actually use it correctly.”

Aaron shrugged. He never would have spoken like that when he was in the military, but his military life
now seemed like a distant memory. He glanced at Terry. “Any problems here?”

Terry shook his head. “No, but Eve just got back about ten minutes ago, and she seemed rather excited. Told me to have you come find her as soon as you got back.”

Aaron frowned. He was developing a tendency to expect the worst, but he didn’t think Eve’s news could be that bad. After all, if she really needed to talk to him, she would just have had Terry call him on the headset. He thanked the engineer and then went in search of Eve.

He found her a short while later in the
kitchen whipping up some dinner. From what Aaron could tell, it didn’t appear to be anything fancy. Russell and Susan had followed him out of curiosity.

The ship’s kitchen was well
equipped but not fancy; it was intended to be functional. It was located on the middle deck in the front half of the ship. The ship was divided into two pieces. The front half was the crew quarters and living area, as well as the bridge. The rear half of the ship was engineering and the cargo hold. Just to the rear of the kitchen were the storerooms and freezer. The ship could hold a rather large number of stores, but they currently only had a limited supply on hand. On the other side of the kitchen towards the front of the ship was the mess hall. It wasn’t anything fancy; it, too, had been designed to be functional. The mess hall consisted of five small tables, each surrounded by a handful of chairs locked to the deck. There was a retractable wall between the kitchen and the mess hall that could be pulled back so that food could be served, but it wasn’t used much.

Eve broke
out into a grin when she saw Aaron poking his head through into the kitchen. She left the food she had been preparing in Molly’s hands and hurried over.

“I got good news,” she called out as she got close.

“Good,” Aaron said, the feeling of apprehension lessening some. “What is it?”

“You’re going to have to give me that full share sooner than you thought,” Eve responded
with an even wider grin.

Currently
, Eve was getting a half share of the profit. That meant that after expenses were paid, anything left over was split among the crew. Aaron, as the captain, got two shares and the ship got six.

Confused
, Aaron shook his head. “I’m assuming that you’re not talking about your cooking.”

Eve’s smile faltered a bit
, and her eyebrows pulled down in irritation. Aaron knew the woman was putting her all into the cooking, but he needed to distract her if she was trying to renegotiate.

“No,” Eve said slowly
. “I think I’ve found us a side job. There’s a small outfitter who’s about to be put out of business by the elatori–”

“Why?” Aaron asked, interrupting.

“Because he’s Ishek,” Eve answered. “He waited too late to flee, and now he can’t get permission to leave. He wants us to get him off of Bathia.”

Aaron considered the idea. He liked her motivation
, and he hoped she exercised the proper caution; a spacer couldn’t just go around offering to break the law by smuggling.

The one problem he saw with Eve’s plan was that Bathia didn’t use the standard credit as currency. They still used a paper currency that wasn’t accepted anywhere else in the
galaxy. There was a place in the spaceport that changed Bathia’s currency to standard credits, but any large sums that changed hands would draw attention.

“How does this Ishek intend to pay us?” he asked.

Eve’s smile came back in full force. “Did I mention that he owns an outfitting shop that the elatori are trying to put out of business?”

“Yes,” Aaron answered slowly, not seeing where this was going. “Has he been able to store up some credits?”

Eve shook her head. “No, but he’s willing to make a trade; you know, like bartering.”

“What’s he got to offer?” Aaron asked.

“Anything and everything in his shop.”

Aaron blinked several times quickly; it was an offer that had not occurred to him.
“And does he have anything of interest to us?”

Eve nodded. “Absolutely. Why don’t we go and take a look?”

Eve
led Aaron and Susan back toward the spaceport’s main exit. Molly had wanted to come as well, but Eve insisted the girl finish getting dinner ready. If things went well, they might need to get an early start going through the outfitter store.

They followed the road back to the spaceport’s exit. A
lthough the sun was still up, the customers were already beginning to crowd into the bars. They turned south and walked almost to the end of the road. It was a good distance and most of the traffic cleared out quick once they’d left the area surrounding the bars.

The outfitter
shop looked rundown. The exterior paint was peeling and discolored. The rock-fused sidewalk was cracking in several places, and small weeds sprouted from those cracks and arched out over the walkway.

Aaron barely noticed the exterior. His eyes were constantly moving, scanning the street and nearby buildings for anything out of the ordinary. This offer see
med like it was almost too good and that made him nervous. He cast a quick glance at Susan and she shook her head; at the very least, she couldn’t sense anything wrong.

Eve pushed the door open and led the small group in.

Aaron’s eyes widened at the sight of the racks of clothing, ship’s stores, functioning robots, and even some serviceable ground transports.

Eve had been watching him and her smile grew. “Told you,” she said simply.

Aaron didn’t respond. Once again that thought arose,
Seems too good to be true.

A small Ishek waited just inside the doorway. He bowed as they approached. “Greetings,” he said simply. “My name is Uri-al
o.”

Aaron bowed in return and performe
d the obligatory introductions and then he paused. He wanted the Ishek to approach the subject of smuggling him off Bathia.

Silence descended for a few moments. Uri-alo also seemed reluctant to suggest any law
breaking. The silence was finally broken by Eve.

“So,” she said, seeming slightly put off, “I explained to Aaron the terms of the deal we agreed to. We get you and your family off-world
, and we can have anything in the store.”

“Family?” Aaron asked, interrupting Eve. “Did you say family?”

Eve’s smile faltered a bit. “Yes. Did I forget to mention that?”

Aaron nodded. “Yes, you did.” He turned to Uri-alo. “How many in your family?” he asked.

“Sixty-seven,” Uri-alo said promptly.

“Sixty-seven?” Aaron repeated
, and he glanced toward Eve; the smile was completely gone from her face.

“Yes, sixty-seven,” Uri-alo answered, and he looked resigned. “Is that too many? I will not leave a single one of them.”

Aaron shook his head. “No, it’s not too many. We can carry that many passengers. Things may be a bit tight, but we can make it.” He waved his hands in a generally upwards direction. “So where is it that you want to go?”

“Bella-Sul III,” Uri-alo said quickly. “I have family there and they will help us.”

Aaron was pretty sure that he had never heard of Bella-Sul III, but he still knew exactly where it was located because of the military experiments.

Many times over recorded history, scientists had tried to create cyborgs
: half-man and half-machine. Without fail, those experiments always ended in disaster. Eventually the subject went insane and not just insane but psychotically insane. Cyborgs did exist, but they were simple machines—arm and leg replacements, and pacemakers, etc. No cyborgs were allowed that involved attaching computers to a patient’s brain. The scientists who had experimented on Aaron had tried a new approach. Instead of cutting into his brain, they had modified a basic flu virus, altered its DNA to include the galactic encyclopedia, and then injected it into his body. It was an organic computer that interacted with his brain. He had an endless supply of information accessible to him. In this instance, it supplied him with the location of Bella-Sul III.

Aaron found the thought of being a cyborg terrifying. The only one who knew his secret was Susan, none of the others knew he was a cyborg. Susan was a telepath, and Aaron couldn’t have kept his secret from her anyway, but he had another reason for telling her. He had asked her to keep a watch on him, and to kill him if he started going insane. Susan had promised she would, but Aaron doubted whether she would be able to follow through if the need ever arose.

“I’ve already looked the location up,” Eve said. “It’s not far out of the way. It shouldn’t take more than a day or two to divert to Bella-Sul.” She looked nervous, like the deal she was pushing was in danger of falling apart.

Aaron nodded. Based on the information the organic computer was giving him
, the side trip should take slightly over a day. The delay in their schedule wasn’t the problem.

He motioned to Uri-alo. “I can carry you and your family to Bella-Sul III. However, I cannot get them into the spaceport. You’ll have to manage that on your own.”

Surprisingly, the Ishek smiled. “I believe that will be easy enough.”

Aaron stared
at him. “Easy?” he repeated. “Even with all this security?”

Uri-alo nodded. “I occasionally have family come and help me with the store, and since there are twelve citizen entrances to the port, I can spread the group between the entrances.
The security forces will not realize that so many of my family have come here until after we are gone.”

Aaron shrugged. “That’s up to you. You get them here
, and I’ll take them off-world. But here’s the catch,” he said, emphasizing the words, “I take off tomorrow, with or without you and the others.”

After a moment
, Uri-alo nodded.