STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS Page 9

  One of the key strongholds on the home spiral arm was Shortchild, a military and factory world. Its primary, Capella, was a Class G yellow sun, quite similar to Sol. Shortchild was suitable for military purposes not only because of its position, but because of its density and mass, 1.12 Earth standard, supplying a heavy concentration of metals vital for the construction of both fortifications and starships.

  Because of its defensive importance, Shortchild was heavily defended. A large Federation fleet patrolled the sun’s seven planets. Recently the sophisticated Sheffield synchronous satellite defense shield had been placed around Shortchild itself.

  The Capellan system was not a hospitable area for pi-mercs, to say the least, but this was where the Starbow was headed.

  Captain Tars Northern and Navigator Dansen Jitt were at the helm when the Starbow broke out of Underspace, far enough beyond the Capellan planetary system to prevent interference from mass distortion and to elude Federation sensor sweeps.

  Laura Shemzak sensed the transition, and so was not surprised when the guardian robots—whom she had gotten to know reasonably well by now—opened her cabin door and bade her follow to the dining hall.

  “Mealtimes have a ritualistic quality here, don’t they?” Laura said casually to Napoleon Bonaparte. “Three per ship’s day, attendance mandatory for all crew at supper …. Who makes the rules?”

  “Why, the captain, of course, mademoiselle,” answered Napoleon. “Is this not as it should be?”

  “Does the ship belong to him?”

  “Belong?” The robot smiled. “Belong to the captain? Ah, that is a difficult question to answer.”

  “Well, I’m not exactly asking any kind of philosophical head knocker!”

  “That statement might easily be debated, mademoiselle.”

  “And by the way, Nap. What the hell is a mademoiselle, anyway?”

  “A robot term. Highly complimentary, mademoiselle.”

  “Just checking. Can’t be too sure about what people are jabbering about here.”

  Napoleon and the others ushered Laura into the dining hall.

  The entire human crew was seated—thirty men and women, at least half of whom Laura did not know.

  Laura, who knew that it was not mealtime but who felt perverse and cantankerous enough after her incarceration to exaggerate the coarser aspects of her behavior, glanced down at the table, then looked up. “Where’s chow?” she demanded.

  “This is a meeting, Laura Shemzak,” said Captain Northern solemnly, holding a glass.

  “Dammit, if you can drink, why can’t I eat?”

  Silver Zenyo cast an exasperated glance at the ceiling. Captain Tars Northern lifted his glass and tinkled ice cubes. “Water, Laura. You know. H2O. Have some if you like. It’s very refreshing, and if you must know, I never drink before an operation in which I am to be personally involved.”

  Laura seated herself. “So. You can just drop me off and I’ll get my blip-ship and come back.”

  “I wish it were that simple, Laura,” said Northern. “If you will remember, we are variously known to the Federation as either pirates or mercenaries. Now, what do you think the Shortchild authorities would do if they found the Starbow under their noses?”

  “So how do we propose to deliver our young protégée to her destination without endangering ourselves?” a young man whom Laura did not know asked.

  Silver Zenyo placed a final buff to her fingernails, then looked up, smiling maliciously. “Why don’t we give her a spacesuit and give her a push in the general direction?”

  “Is that red polish for those claws, Silver,” asked Gemma Naquist, “or have you had a recent kill?” “Sticks and stones, darling,” returned the lacquered beauty.

  “Children, bickering is not appropriate here,” Captain Northern said, his voice cold and calculating. “Dr. Mish has a few words.”

  The doctor cleared his voice and set down his always present sensor board. “Our cloaking device will work up to a certain point. Of course, an orbit around Shortchild is out of the question.” He chuckled for a moment, then resumed dead seriousness again. “An orbit around the fifth planet will be sufficiently close and safe enough. We can then dispatch one of the shuttlecraft, which I have suitably disguised as an interstellar vessel. Laura Shemzak can be delivered to the capital city, Montezuma, where she will obtain her XT vessel. After that, both ships will rendezvous at the Starbow, and we can judiciously retreat to Underspace to decide what the next move will be.”

  “Fine by me,” Laura said. “Just stick me in my blip and I’ll be happy as a Venusian clam sucking its pearl.”

  “Laura, please allow Dr. Mish to finish,” said Tars Northern. Something in his tone shocked Laura into silence. He was the essence of authority now, serious as a black hole in a ram scoop.

  “Yes, well, there is one other matter that needs to be discussed, Miss Shemzak,” said the doctor. “I am embarked upon a very important scientific project … yes, I know that you believe the Starbow to be just a pi-merc ship with a rollicking bunch of cutthroats and villains to man it, taking their loot where they can get it. But there is much more here than is immediately apparent. For my project I need a certain rare metal.”

  “Yeah. Attilium,” Laura said, regaining her spunk and ignoring the glare from Captain Northern. “That’s the transuranic you were rooting round for on the Zeke. You said something about the Creature from the Planet X needing it. Extensive dental work?”

  Captain Northern sighed, and the doctor’s eyes gleamed with good humor.

  “Only on the jaws of entropy, actually,” the doctor continued. “But yes, that is the element we seek, and as it happens, there is a supply on Shortchild. We’d like to get our hands on some of it, Laura, and we’d like you to help us.”

  “You will be accompanied by myself and at least two other crewmembers, Laura,” said Captain Northern after a moment of silence. “You will tell the authorities that you were rescued by a mining crew—us—who have brought you to Shortchild. Leave the rest to us.”

  “And sell out my bosses, huh?” Laura said. “This attilium must be pretty important. Probably gets a good price on the black market. I heard Cal mention it once … said he used it in his quantum mechanics experiments. What are you guys trying to do, make a super-bomb to blow up the galaxy or something?”

  “For heaven’s sake,” said Silver Zenyo, “are they substituting sewage treatment plants for breeding vats on Earth?”

  “Ours can be a violent life at times,” said Captain Northern. “But we do not live for death. Perhaps, Laura, if we learn that we can trust you, you might come to appreciate what we are trying to do here as a group, and as human beings in a troubled time.” There was a kindness and a patience in his voice that for some reason infuriated Laura.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said contemptuously. “Wonderful. I’m so impressed. What do you guys think you are, then, Robin Hoods stealing from the rich, giving to the poor? I’ve never seen such a sorry military group in my life. If I ever get back to the Federation, you can bet I’m going to tell them not to worry so much about some of the sad-sack pi-mercs cruising around the galaxy like lice. I’m sure that some of the guys in the Navy are going to get a real yuck from the fact that pi-merc brains hide themselves behind dyed flouncy hair or particularly ugly fright masks.” She laughed derisively. “But then, most of you haven’t got a hell of a lot to hide.” She smirked. “And these robots are such—”

  Laura was enjoying her speech so much she did not notice Captain Northern’s action until it was too late.

  The man stood, his face like rock, then leaned across the table and grabbed the top of Laura’s jump suit. Hands knotted into fists, he dragged her across the table until her face was only a bare centimeter from his own.

  “This is my home,” said Captain Tars Northern in a hard but low voice. “And this is my family.�
�

  Laura was so surprised she could not move to defend herself before Northern thrust her away from him, hurling her back into her chair. The chair tipped over, sending Laura sprawling on the floor.

  “I am captain here, lady,” he continued, muscles and veins knotting in his throat. “And I demand respect.” His eyes blazed fiercely.

  The robots helped the shaken woman back into her chair.

  Captain Northern took a drink from his glass. “Now, I and my crew”—he smiled—“and perhaps even the Starbow would very much like an apology from that very attractive but very big mouth of yours.”

  Laura began to smoke inside with fury, but she said nothing.

  “My goodness, Silver,” said Captain Northern, “and I thought you were the champion pouter of this galaxy.”

  Laura said, “You know where you can stick your goddamned apology, Northern.”

  Northern threw the cold water in her face.

  With a scream she lunged for him, but the robots grabbed her and held her still.

  “In this kind of circumstance, one wishes that the ancient practice of keelhauling were possible in space,” Captain Northern said. “No apology forthcoming, Mademoiselle Shemzak?”

  “I’d rather burn in hell,” she spat, hating him as she had never hated anyone before.

  Captain Northern shrugged. “Very well. Then we will accept your nonapology in the spirit with which it was given. Now, Laura, can we get down to business?” The captain turned to the doctor. “Shall we get on with the details?”

  He refilled his water glass.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dr. Mish’s plan, supplemented by Dansen Jitt’s mathematical computations and Tars Northern’s commonsense, worked absolutely flawlessly until the party disembarked at the Montezuma spaceport and walked through the sophisticated Security stations. At that point, they met with trouble.

  A great deal of trouble.

  The robots had done a bang-up job on the shuttle, installing a battered jump-stasis engine as well as worn-out mining equipment that the Starbow had scavenged somewhere. Tars Northern, Gemma Naquist, and a robot specifically prepared for the attilium heist stepped into the pinnace along with Laura Shemzak as soon as the Starbow had established orbit around Capella’s fifth satellite. Because of its smaller bulk, the pinnace was able to use its jump-stasis equipment within the solar system, thus considerably cutting down on a long jaunt, and also masking its point of origin.

  As soon as they dropped out of Underspace, the comm channel blared with demands for their identity. A nearby Epsilon-class skip-cruiser soon intercepted, scanned, and found them acceptable for admission to Shortchild. Captain Northern expertly guided the shuttle down through the planet’s atmosphere, slipping through wisps of clouds, whooshing above seas and continents, until they reached a huge city with towering buildings and magnificent highways.

  Laura Shemzak watched all of this from her grav-couch, safely webbed in against the G forces. She watched Captain Northern’s hands dance over the controls and for the first time realized how beautiful and delicate those hands were. The bastard was a jumbled mass of contradictions. She could not help wondering what those hands would feel like on her skin—and then caught herself, remembering her hurt pride, and how much she wanted to hurt him in return. She hated him, and that felt right and good and normal, because he deserved it, she thought as the shuttle’s rocket fire tasted the spaceport’s permacrete. She would get even with him someday, she promised herself, and the promise salved the smart of her ego.

  “Right, Shemzak,” Captain Northern said. He looked bizarre in his space tech’s outfit. The others had dressed the part of space miners. Northern had swabbed his face with an ointment that encouraged rapid beard growth, so that now he had a nice stubble. He looked wonderfully grubby. “You’re the star of this show. Let’s disembark.”

  A transport vehicle awaited them on the cooling pad.

  Their plan was simple enough. Laura would get them passes to the city, then go about her business. The others would then locate the attilium, acquire it, rush back to the shuttle, and return to the Starbow. There they would meet with Laura and take off.

  Suckers, Laura Shemzak thought as the transport whined to the docking station. I’m gonna get in my blip and just fly. I’ll deal with you, Captain Tars Northern, when I return from rescuing my brother.

  The Federation soldiers were waiting for them at Security.

  “Captain Tars Northern?”

  Northern blinked. A dozen guns were aimed at the party. “You must have the wrong man,” he said.

  “We don’t think so, Captain Northern,” said the man behind the helmet. “You and your friends are under arrest. Laura Shemzak, please step out of the line of fire. Welcome to Shortchild, Pilot Shemzak. You are brave servant of the Federation, and we have suitable accommodations awaiting you.”

  Laura laughed. She turned, patted Northern on the cheek condescendingly, then walked away.

  “Laura,” Northern said, confusion written all over his face. “Was this just a ploy to trap me?”

  Laura spun on her heel. “I don’t do that kind of thing, Northern. I’ve told you nothing but the truth. I haven’t the faintest idea why they were expecting you, and frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

  “Sure you do,” said Northern, a grim smile on his face as he turned to the Federation commander, “So tell me, how did you know … ?”

  “We were told to be prepared should you or your cohorts arrive with Pilot Shemzak. The orders came directly from Earth.”

  “Kat!” said Northern. “My God, Gemma. Kat Mizel turned us in!”

  “Maybe she was pissed because you didn’t go back for her,” said Gemma. “Hell hath no fury—”

  That was when the robot made its move. “Captain Northern,” it cried, stepping to the fore. “Contingency Plan C—”

  “No!” said Northern.

  Energy rifles erupted. Within a moment the robot was riddled with smoking holes. It collapsed, shuddering.

  Soldiers jumped forward and grabbed the humans. Captain Northern was hustled forward. He did not resist until he was even with Laura. Then he stopped with such power and suddenness that the soldiers on either arm were almost hurled onto the ground.

  His eyes were blue, Laura realized as they found her … so blue they were almost black, but blue nonetheless.

  “I apologize, Laura Shemzak, for accusing you of betraying me,” he said. “You are not that way, are you?”

  And he smiled.

  Laura shuddered. For the merest moment that dark blue gaze seemed to bore so deep into her that ….

  She looked away. Stuff and nonsense, she thought.

  The soldiers resumed their grip on Northern and took him away.

  “Farewell, O princess of the starways,” Captain Tars Northern called out as though addressing a distant balcony. “I pray you find your fascinating brother and spend the rest of your days in sibling bliss!”

  “And I hope you rot on some forsaken prison planet!” Laura called after him, not really knowing why she was so furious.

  Northern began to laugh.

  Soon he and his companions were swallowed up by the exit.

  “Damn him!” Laura murmured.

  “I’m sure that a man of Tars Northern’s reputation will be dealt with in a suitable fashion.”

  Laura turned and found herself facing a corpulent man dressed in high Federation garb. He offered her his hand and she reluctantly shook the damp, pudgy thing.

  “Allow me to introduce myself,” the man said, chin working above a pile of tie, collar, and dewlaps. “I am Charlang Dubo, Governor of Shortchild. Overfriend Zarpfrin directly contacted me concerning your capture by these four renegade pi-mercs. Thus I was ready for their arrival. I count myself fortunate to be of service to yourself, to Overfriend Zarpfrin,
and to the Federation.”

  “Underspace radio quark spurt, huh?” Laura said. “That’s damned expensive. Captain Northern must be pretty important.”

  “I believe that the Overfriend has a personal score to settle with Tars Northern,” the smarmy fellow said, beady eyes taking in Laura with great pleasure. “And now, my dear, the Overfriend mentioned a starship named the Starbow. My dreadnoughts are poised to pounce upon this vessel, just as soon as you let us know where it is!”

  “Yeah,” said Laura. “That’s Northern’s boat all right.”

  “Then you can direct us there, Pilot? This would be a great service to the Federation. A ship like the Starbow is a slippery devil to capture and must be approached on tippy-toes, as it were.”

  Laura frowned. “You know, Governor, if I knew where that damned thing was, I’d sure as hell tell you. But it just let us off and zapped right back into Underspace.” She didn’t know quite why she was protecting the Starbow, but the self-righteous pig standing beside her had instantly antagonized her.

  “But Captain Northern must have designated a rendezvous point!” Dubo said, brow beetling.

  “If he did, I don’t know what it was. He took me down here, you see, so he could get past your security and pull off some kind of heist. That was the bargain, and that’s all I know. So ask him, Governor. Not me.”

  “Ah. I see. Alas, some torture might be necessary before we could extract that information from Captain Northern.”

  “Where are you taking him?”

  “Central Detention, Quite near the XT Experimental Factory, actually.”