Star Trader Update .006

006.01

We crept quickly through the open port. “We’re in,” Tim announced in a whisper to Sam and Ma-rye-a aboard ship.

“Straight ahead until the first junction and then right,” Ma-rye-a guided us back in her own whisper through our Ears.

We made the turn and immediately the whole tunnel went dark. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

“Shit!” Tim exclaimed just as a soft light came on in his hand. “Hadn’t really expected that.”

“You think they know we are here?” I had reached out when the lights failed and caught hold of his suit. I found myself still clinging to it with a tight fist.

“It’s either good news or bad. Good would be that the lights always go out when the doors close to save energy. Bad news would be we tripped something.” Tim moved ahead. “We’ll know soon enough.”

I let go my death grip on his suit. Sam decided earlier we would be less easily detected if we went in the port in suits rather than in a pod. His reasoning was that small objects are often ignored as space debris and later jettisoned with the regular waste disposal cleanup. We made it in fine, but now we were in the dark.

We edged our way down the hall and took another right per Ma-rye-a’s directions. She was leading us to the point the security system went dark. Dark – good point.

I heard Tim hiss another superlative through his teeth. He came to an abrupt halt.

“What?” I asked straining to see around his bulk in the hallway. Once I saw, I wished I hadn’t tried so hard. Standing in our path, in the light of Tim’s flashlight were two programmable matter guards.

“I think we have the right place,” Tim said and flicked off his light pitching us back into total darkness.

*****

006.02

I could feel something crawling up my ankles, encasing my legs, moving up my thigh. I tied to move, but seemed stuck to the floor. “Tim!”

“Move!” he shouted.

“I can’t.”

I felt his hand grip my arm and then both his hands caught my shoulders and yanked me free. “Move!” He shoved me forward into the black.

I stumbled and found myself stuck again. Tim ran into me.

“Shit!” He thumbed on his light.

I don’t know if it was better to see what was happening or not. The programmable matter had turned into a liquid substance and was oozing up our legs trying to restrict our progress toward the door. It was to my waist and still rising. It looked like I was pulling on a jet black wet suit. Tim was being overtaken too. He was struggling to get something out of his pocket before the matter enclosed it.

“Damn, Damn, Damn it!” He cursed as he fumbled in his pocket. He flipped whatever it was out just as the matter reached the top to seal it off. “Yes!!!” It was some sort of device and he flicked a switch on it with his thumb. The light immediately went out again.

I felt the matter fall uselessly at my feet in a pile. I reached down and tentatively felt something that seemed like a loose drape around my feet.

“What just happened?” I asked. My breath was coming in gasps. I had been so frightened. I could just imagine the matter coming up over my mouth and then my nose and suffocating me. I have a great fear of suffocating. A lot of spacers do.

“It was an EMP pulse,” Tim explained. “Got us out of that, but now we’re back in the dark, our blasters won’t work, our Ears are dead and we are locked in a hallway without a way out." He took a deep ragged breath. "But hey, the matter isn’t trying to make us into mummies anymore.” I could just imagine that roguish grin I love so much plastered across his face in the dark. “Let’s see what we can do.”

I heard him step by me and walk toward the door. I followed the best I could navigating by sound. He must have put his hand up to the door, because amazingly it swooshed open effortlessly. It wasn’t locked. We were immediately bathed in light from inside. It took my eyes a moment to adjust from the pitch black of the hall.

Daniel was there. We had found him.

*****

006.03

There were three huge Valarians blocking our view of everything but Daniel’s feet. I recognized his boots. When the one closest to us turned, we got a clear view of Daniel. I had expected bruising. I had braced myself for torture and blood. I had never expected anything like this.

Daniel was sitting in an emerald green velvet conform chair. His feet were up. I could see the steam rolling off the top of the mug on the table to his right along with a plate of very tasty looking pastries and chocolates. The Valarian to his left had his hand and was carefully applying polish to this nails. The Valarian to his right was topping off the steaming concoction in his mug and the one that had turned motioned us forward in a friendly fashion.

No restrains. No bruises. No blood. Wait till I get my hands on him. The rotten little puke!

*****

006.04

I angrily stalked past the Valarian and up to Daniel.

“Hey,” Daniel said. “What’s up?”

I smacked him in the shoulder spilling his drink down his front.

He jumped to his feet knocking over the nail polish in the Valarian’s tentacle hand. “What was that for?” He shouted as he wiped at the hot liquid with a napkin.

 “For scaring the hell out of me. What’s this all about?”  I waved my hands in the general direction of the three Valarians and his nifty little set up. “You taking a vacation you didn’t tell me about?”

“We’re just finishing up our negotiations.” Daniel smiled at the largest Valarian. “This is Warsy. A-Factor to the Valarian Council. We just struck a deal for my Nano Program.”

“Great,” I huffed. “We thought you had been kidnapped. That you were being tortured. We’ve been hunting for you for days.”

“For days,” Tim echoed.

“Sorry,” Daniel apologized. “Good to see you Timothy,” he acknowledged Tim’s presence.

Daniel turned to Warsy. “She is such a drama queen,” he apologized.

Warsy pinwheeled over to the prep unit ordered two steaming mugs and brought them back to Tim and me. “We never hurt,” he informed us. “Rare intellect should not be harmed.”

“Rare intellect my ass,” I said. I slammed the mug down and stalked out the door toward home.

I heard Daniel ask as I left, “What did she want to do, find me on death’s door?”

I heard Tim slurp up a swallow of his hot drink. “It might have been better for you if she had.”

*****

006.05

“I am really sorry I worried you, but it wasn’t my fault,” Daniel said for the umpteenth time since returning to the ship. He was lucky I let him onboard - he and his infamous bodyguard. “We were negotiating. They wouldn’t let me talk to anyone.”

I huffed and kept working on installing the gun turrets I purchased at the GTD weapon’s sale. Tim left yesterday after we found Daniel safe and sound being wined and dined by the Valarian Council. I got the impression he didn’t want to stick around for the fireworks he knew were bound to go off between Daniel and me.

“They disabled my team. I had no way to send you a message. Believe me, I wanted to.”

I continued to give Daniel the cold shoulder. I had already ranted and raved until I was hoarse. I never imagined they would not use force to get what they wanted. I guess that is the human mind for you. I just assumed torture and mayhem. The Valarians never had any intention of hurting him. In their eyes his talents needed to by nurtured, rewarded.

“Believe me, I wanted to contact you. Tell you I was all right.”

First, they offered to put him to work with a very generous salary – more than generous, astronomical. He refused. Never liked working for anyone but himself, he told them.

Next, they literally promised him the moon (or planet as the case may be) in order to get him to forget/destroy his Nano Nav Program. They offered him his own planet. They thought that was pretty darn big and tempting. They didn’t want to be refused. However, he did refuse. He liked his current location.

“Did you want to find me bruised and bloody?”

I gave him the evil eye and a disgusted look. I picked up my ratchet and thought about making him bruised and bloody for worrying me half to death.

What he wanted from the Valarians was currency, enough to set him up for life and allow him to buy or invent the gadgets that his imagination could think up. Figures were thrown out and bantered back and forth over glasses of chilled Muldavian wine, savory Kackus cheese and aromatic Homdolt bread. The Valarians wanted assurances that he would not meddle in their navigational programs which were essential to their economic stability. Daniel wanted to be assured of a market for his future programs. The Valarians were more than willing to take first-right-of-refusal for anything he invented.

There were some small things to iron out – unlimited access to equipment for Daniel’s lab and a free-pass for transportation anywhere, anytime. The dude made out like a bandit and left the Valarians thinking they were getting off cheap. I was not going to let him off so easily.

Cassie was so glad to see him alive that she almost blew a circuit. Daniel immediately scrubbed her memory of the Nano program. Turns out he hadn’t even needed to threaten the Valarians with the NET release. They wanted him, his knowledge, his ability to think outside the box, in short - his brain.

Daniel squatted down beside the Maximum Jacket Driver and put his hand on mine as I worked to lever the gun into its mount. “Aren’t you glad I wasn’t hurt?”

I couldn’t pull my hand away I was balancing an 80lb gun. “Of course, I am. But, do you know what you put me through? I have a very vivid imagination and it went wild when you disappeared.” I finished placing the gun and shoved the lock pin in place. I leaned into him and he put his arm around my shoulders. “I was so worried.”

“I know and I’m sorry.” Daniel squeezed my shoulder. “But, I will make it up to you. How about I treat you to dinner at you place of choice and buy you the biggest box of Muldavian chocolates we can find?”

“You’re not getting off that cheap, but it’s a start.” I picked up my power jack to tighten the bolts on the gun. “Get out of my way so I can get this done. I’m hungry.” I wonder if I could negotiate a monthly supply of Muldavian chocolates.

We have another four days and Daniel will be back home, bodyguard and all - safe and sound.

*****

006.06

I’ve already picked up a new gig. The Krackow moved in on Olympus. They did some major damage before the Galactic Officials found out. Personally, I thought the Galactic team kept better track of Olympus. It was my understanding that it was patrolled regularly. Guess not regularly enough.

Anyway, the Galactic Office has called in anyone who wants to make deliveries of equipment or help repair the damage. I’ve always wanted to see Olympus. There are so many fantastic stories of it. I threw my hat into the ring. I managed to pass their background check. I will be picking up prefabs and supplies for the village they will have to build for the workmen onsite.

I can’t wait to meet a God.