Armageddon Theft: An Arek Lancer Novella Read online

  The officer nodded, hopeful.

  “Commander, Captain.”

  We both turned to see Inhito leading a woman through the crowded hold, weaving around people and bags of belongings. The small woman was crying and I thought I recognized her. The mother with the four children. Inhito had his arm around her, both of them searching the faces that were all now turning to watch them. Kaylia was behind them, worried.

  “It seems we are missing someone,” Inhito told us, checking his tablet. “Madam Certy’s husband is not on board.”

  “I checked everyone’s cards,” the officer replied double checking the list he held. “Everyone was accounted for.”

  “Did you check everywhere,” I asked Kaylia. “The storage rooms and airlock?”

  I checked engineering as well.

  “You’re sure he’s not here,” I asked looking down at the woman. She was crying harder now, looking out at the crowd, looking for the familiar face.

  “Positive,” Inhito said and the woman nodded.

  “But he’s checked off,” the commander said again, showing Inhito his own tablet.

  Looking down at it, I could see the list of names. Sure enough, they were all cleared.

  “Do you remember who checked in under that name,” I asked.

  The Storwo shook his head. I didn’t blame him. I watched most of them enter and couldn’t tell who was who, let alone single one person out.

  I glanced at Inhito. He was rapidly scrolling through the tablet, searching. The poor woman just stared out into the distance, looking into the buildings beyond the crowd.

  Madam Certy mumbled something quietly in Storwoi, the native language. I didn’t understand a word.

  “He went back to get some personal effects,” Inhito translated. “He should have been back already.”

  I didn’t think it really registered with any of them what all this meant. Someone was on board using the husband’s card.

  A rumble of thunder shook the Wind, causing everyone to shift and catch their balance. A young child started crying from somewhere in the ship.

  I looked out past the buildings and could see a storm building. A big one. Lightning slammed into the water, sending up massive geysers. A wall of almost solid rain was coming our way. What we had now was nothing like that storm coming. It was still a good distance out, which was good because we had a more immediate problem.

  We had a stowaway.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  From a distance the city of Touryon had seemed bleak. Not just from the circumstances. It was all gray stone, blocky and drab. Up close as I ran through the city streets, it was still gray and all stone but there was nothing drab about it. There were designs carved into almost every surface. No straight lines to them, whorls and swirls, circles. Some formed pictures, others just random imagery.

  The Storwo themselves were bright, skin and hair both, so they saw no need to decorate their city with colors. But they still decorated it.

  I wanted to stop and study some of the art. It would soon be lost forever but we were out in the city for a reason.

  The commander of the guard, Hunio, ran ahead of me. He knew his way around the city. I did not. It was an awkward run for me as I had to move slower to not outpace the shorter Storwo. My instinct was to go full tilt, as fast as I could. But I couldn’t. Hunio was going as fast as he could.

  Luckily the city was nearly empty, most of the remaining citizens were either on the Wind or in the crowd that was now dispersing, going back to their homes to wait out the oncoming storm.

  Two and three story buildings, close together, blocked my view of the ocean beyond so I couldn’t track the storm but I knew it was going to be a bad one. We could feel the thunder as it shook everything around us. The flashes of lightning were visible through the gaps. Lots of flashes.

  The Wind needed to be in the sky now. The atmosphere was already going to be rough because of the storm front and the closer it got the worse it would be. Even though a spaceship like the Wind could travel to a planet’s surface, it was still ungainly and heavy. No real maneuverability. It was no starfighter.

  But instead of leaving I was running through the city looking for a lost husband.

  We heard a crack and a crash, the sound of glass breaking.

  It had come from a building down a side street to our left. Hunio paused, looking down that way. I stopped next to him.

  “Come on,” I said, motioning at him to continue. I needed him to guide me through the city.

  I could tell that he was torn. He knew we needed to find the husband but he wanted to find out what was happening. Turned out that Hunio was not military, he was law enforcement.

  This was not what we needed right now.

  Not sure why I was out here hunting down the husband but I was. Any potential looting was not my concern.

  Dammit.

  I took off running down the street, heading for the noise. I could hear Hunio behind me, pushing to catch up. This street ran straight, nearly identical buildings and homes on either side. About a hundred feet down we found the source of the noise.

  Glass, real glass and not polycarbonite like most windows, littered the ground. Small pieces, big pieces. All came from a shattered window, large, that looked into a nearly empty shop. Standing in the street, the heavier rain starting to come down, we could see shelves and display cases. Along with two Storwo.

  They stared at us in shock, frozen in the act of pulling some clothing or something out of a recently locked case. Their eyes looked down at my holstered blaster and at the rifle Hunio carried. There was no way these two were older than sixteen. The clothes they wore were soaked and ripped, old and frayed. They had been pulling newer clothes out.

  I looked down at Hunio and shook my head. He nodded.

  “Go home,” I said to the two Storwo. They just looked at me blankly, not understanding.

  Hunio repeated it in Storwoi.

  They didn’t move so we did. We could hear them grabbing the clothes and running away.

  *****

  The building was like any of the others. Two stories, gray with elaborate carvings. An exterior staircase led to the second level, windows looked out onto the street. The neighboring buildings were so close there was no alley between them.

  Nothing special, nothing to mark it as the one. But Hunio said it was. The door was closed, the glass windows intact. There was nothing suspicious about the building at all.

  That was what made it suspicious.

  It looked like no one had been there in days.

  Your family is on one of the last ships, if not the last ship, off your dying planet and you’re not there? Yeah, no way was he missing the ship on purpose.

  I was afraid of what we would find.

  The storm was closer, the raindrops heavier, the wind stronger. Thunderclaps were closer together, the lighting flashes near constant. From here I could look down the street straight to the ocean and it was scary. Dark clouds, the lightning and the waves were high. The drops were thick, almost hurting as they hit.

  We ran across the street and under the exterior stairs. They provided some cover, but the wind was blowing the rain sideways against us.

  Hunio knocked, loudly to be heard over the storm.

  Pausing he waited. Nothing. Knocked again.

  He tried the door. Locked. He knocked again.

  We didn’t have time for this.

  I pushed Hunio out of the way and took a couple steps backwards. Raising a booted foot I slammed it against the door. The wood cracked around the handle and I kicked it again. The door flew open to reveal an empty house.

  No lights and what I could see was a mess.

  Hunio pushed past, weapon raised and I followed. My blaster was still in the holster. I didn’t think we were in any danger.

  The room was dark, no lights and the windows closed and shaded. Furniture, smaller scale for the smaller Storwo, was scattered everywhere. Drawers were pulled open, various pieces of art and
other objects thrown and tossed aside. Only the important stuff was taken and the room looked as if someone had tossed it looking for the important stuff. Every room would look like that.

  Hunio was heading for the stairs against the far wall when we heard a thumping. Random, hard, like something hitting the ground. It was coming from a back room. Hunio moved slowly in that direction but I just walked past him.

  He gave me a dirty look that I ignored.

  We didn’t have time for this.

  I opened the door onto what looked like a kitchen and dining room, Storwo style. Dark gray cabinets made out of that wood like material, a small table, everything a little smaller. Thankfully their ceilings weren’t that much lower.

  Inside the room, on the floor, was exactly what I thought we’d find.

  A male Storwo was tied up. Polyline bound his feet together at the ankles, more holding his wrists together behind his back. A piece of clothing was stuffed in his mouth. His eyes were huge as he saw me walk in, scared.

  Madam Certy’s missing husband.

  I held my hands out to the side, showing I meant no harm.

  “It’s okay,” I told him, not sure if he understood Tradelan.

  Moving aside I let Hunio in behind me and the bound man seemed to breath a sigh of relief.

  This room wasn’t as messed up as the others. It was the eating space. No need to bring food and nothing else of major importance would have been in here. In the back corner of the building with no windows or doors, there wouldn’t be much chance of any sounds getting outside. You’d only hear someone if you were inside like we were.

  A good place to hide someone.

  Hunio pulled the cloth out of the man’s mouth and he started speaking in non-stop Storwoi. I didn’t catch a word of it but I could guess.

  “He says he came back to get a picture that he had forgotten,” Hunio translated as he went to work on the man’s bindings. “Someone hit him from behind and he woke up here.”

  Yep, just what I figured happened.

  “Did he get a look at the person that hit him?”

  Hunio asked him in Storwoi and the man replied. It went back and forth a couple times.

  “No,” Hunio replied with a hint of disappointment.

  Probably hoping for one last arrest.

  A crack of lightning followed by thunder that shook the house signaled that it was time to go. At this point, it didn’t matter who had hit the man. We had to get him to his family and get off this planet before we were grounded by the storm.

  We stepped outside into a wall of rain. Thick drops blown sideways from the wind. Worse than before. These were hitting with force and in a steady sheet. I couldn’t see more than a couple feet in front of me.

  Hunio helped support Mister Certy and we started pushing our way back to the ship. Luckily the wind was behind us, helping drive us, but we were soaked instantly.

  *****

  My back felt battered and bruised. I kept the two smaller Storwo in front of me, trying to protect them. The wind driven rain, thick and heavy drops, felt like being hit by rocks. There was no one else out and about, the sane people riding out the storm under shelter.

  The Wind should have been in space by now.

  I stumbled as a strong gust came in from the side, rain splashing us. It dripped from my hair, into my eyes, down my face. There wasn’t a single part of me that wasn’t wet.

  The rain was a wall in front of us, clouds moving in to make it all dark. No lights were on in the city, adding to the darkness. I hoped that Hunio was able to tell where we were going. The sound of thunder and cracks of lightning were getting louder, getting closer.

  My mind went back years. The rain and wind, darkness and strength of the storm, reminded me of a mission during my Earth Expeditionary Forces Special Operations days. I couldn’t even remember the planet or the details, they blurred together after a while, but the details of that storm stuck with me. Rain dripping off my rifle, off my helmet, struggling to see the objective. So much like it was now.

  I shook my head, sending wet strands of hair flying, as I brought myself back to the present.

  Hunio turned us down a street and ahead I saw a light in the dark. Small, but getting closer as we struggled with the wind and rain hitting us in the side. Buildings started to block the storm and we could see the light turning into the open loading ramp of the Nomad’s Wind.

  Four shadowed figures stood on the ramp, two further down and two at the top. Three were about the same height and one was taller with a tail. Details got clearer. Kaylia and Inhito lower on the ramp. Madam Clerty and the one called Dresla at the top. Dresla had her arm around Clerty, pointing towards us.

  One of the two Storwo in front of me ran forward, racing as fast as they could. The husband dashed past Kaylia and into the arms of his wife. Hunio and I walked up the ramp, a steady stream of water falling from us to join the river that ran down the ramp.

  You’re a mess.

  Kaylia smiled at me, stepping back as I flicked water from my arm at her.

  The three of us walked to the top of the ramp, watching the Clertys move deeper into the hold. The wife was crying, not caring that her husband’s arm around her was soaking wet. They huddled close together, stepping over others who pulled their things out of the way to not get wet from the stream coming from Mister Clerty.

  “Thank you,” Inhito said.

  I nodded scanning the interior of the cargo hold, looking at all the faces I could see. I wondered which one was the stowaway, the one that had knocked out Clerty and stolen his ID. I wanted to find the bastard and throw his ass out.

  But we didn’t have time.

  “Prep the engines,” I told Kaylia. “Get us ready to go.”

  She nodded, running through the hold, lightly moving around the people. She was almost dancing. Show off.

  I heard receding footsteps, turned and saw Inhito and Hunio walking away.

  “Aren’t you coming,” I asked.

  Hunio continued but Inhito stopped.

  “We must prepare for the next ship,” he told me looking over his shoulder.

  I wanted to say something, anything, but wasn’t sure what to say. We both knew the chances of there being another ship were slim to none.

  He continued walking down the ramp. I stepped up to the edge, watching him join Hunio at the bottom. The wind and rain had picked up again, their forms nothing but dark shapes as they ran to the nearest building. I watched for a bit before hitting the button and closing the hatch.

  I walked through the cargo hold, moving around the refugees. Nowhere near as nimble as Kaylia had been. I left puddles of water behind me.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Wind shook as it broke through the atmosphere. The storm was stronger here, winds pushing the ship around. My ship had wings, great gray ones coming off the wedged shaped blue metal body, with the engines mounted on those wings. It was what allowed the ship to go on planet. No wings, like some ships had and especially the larger ones, and they couldn’t enter atmo. The wings also created nice big areas for the storm to hit.

  Wind, rain and lightning.

  The bridge door was open. I’d left it open so I could hear the activity throughout the ship. There wasn’t much, everyone was trying to hold onto something. I could hear people grunting and mumbling as the ship was buffeted every which way.

  Next to me, strapped into her chair, Kaylia had a death grip on the console.

  I had a death grip on the controls.

  A spaceship’s inertial dampeners helped with dissipating the g-forces of space travel, but it did nothing for the turbulence in a planet’s atmosphere. Just a little bit more and we’d break through the storm.

  “This is fun,” I said and glanced at Kaylia. She rolled her eyes.

  I laughed.

  The ship could take it. The storm was nothing really, not to the Wind. It just made for a bumpy ride. As long as we didn’t take a direct hit of lightning.

  Rain splat
tered against the view window, sheets of it, making it impossible to look out. We could hear the drops breaking as they struck. Everything was gray, rivers of water running down the window blocking all sight.

  The sound stopped, the sheets falling away and we could see the black and white dots of the stars ahead of us. We’d broken through the storm. The ship settled and I released my grip.

  “Smooth sailing,” I said. “Can you do a quick run through the ship and make sure the passengers are okay,” I asked Kaylia.

  She unbuckled herself from the harness and left the bridge.

  “Excuse me,” I heard a voice say and looked over my shoulder.

  Dresla stood in the doorway, turned around and watched Kaylia make her way through the ship. She turned and looked out the view window, mouth dropping open.

  “Never been to space,” I asked.

  “No,” she replied and stepped onto the bridge.

  Didn’t ask permission of the ship’s captain, which would be me, but if she had never seen space from this angle then she’d never been on a ship before and considering the circumstances, I could cut her some slack.

  I angled the ship, turning the window so it was looking out at the larger ships beyond. They were pretty distant but visible, not much detail but I saw Dresla take another step. She was in awe, amazed.

  “Never get tired of the view,” I said.

  And it was true. I never did.

  “It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve seen stars from the ground of course but this,” she paused and waved her hand vaguely at the window.

  I adjusted the Wind, turning away from the ships in orbit and into deeper space. We broke atmo away from the rogue asteroid but could see the moon and some other asteroids further off.

  “Got about an hour before we can hop,” I said keying in the navorders.

  “May I,” she asked pointing at the co-pilot’s chair.

  I nodded. Kaylia wouldn’t mind.

  Dresla sat down, having to kind of jump to get into the chair. She looked like a full grown adult, and a good looking one at that, but was the size of a child. I’d never realized how much of the Wind was sized for average human adults.