The Reaper Diaries # 18: Redemption, Part 9
25 Nov 2015Michael Wolfe
The journey back to Eravate was uneventful, but good for everyone. There wasn’t much room for running around, and I sure as hell wasn’t used to having company with me, but it wasn’t half bad. Kyndi had a number of games on her tablet and personal comm device, which Katie happily played. She was starting to re-discover her voice, and could almost hold a conversation. Nods and shakes of the head were still her preferred mode of communication, but she didn’t seem nervous about walking up to us like she had in the past. Almost immediately, she decided that Kyndi could be trusted to help her with things like showers and changing clothes, since she still didn’t like to be alone. By day, we jumped from system to uncharted system, inching closer to Alliance space. By night, we both sat down with Katie and made sure that she was comfortable and warm before going to sleep. She still liked to sleep with her door open, and since her room faced ours, it always helped if she could see us. When our door was open, we smiled at each other until she was all the way asleep. And when our door was shut, Kyndi would roll back towards me, reach out, and- well… that’s none of your goddamn business.
We docked at a large, well-appointed station in Alliance space to stretch our legs and stock up on supplies. It was about the most leisurely time I had ever spent at one- visiting the restaurants (and not just bars, for once!), the parks, and taking Katie clothes shopping with Kyndi was almost as alien an experience as being forced to work in a mine. We even stayed the night, renting a big hotel room with a giant viewport by the beds. And when Kyndi and I bought food, we bought real food, not deep-space rations. Katie had had enough of those.
It was just as well that we stayed the night, because I had been meaning to do a few equipment swaps for the Last Chance. I had a mining module fitted, and packed in some limpet drones. I figured that it would be a handy alibi if anyone asked any questions. Nothing to see here, folks- just a young couple and their adorable daughter carving out a living among the asteroid belts.
As it happened, no one questioned us. We were just another Cobra going from point A to B, jumping from system to system, crossing Alliance space, and finally making it into Federation space. The plan had been to get my Vulture out of the smuggler’s hideout, since anyone might be looking for us would know about my ship. I didn’t figure on anything like that happening, though, since both the Legion and the Angels would have provided the mother of all distractions while we were on our way out of Pegasi.
Finally, one more jump- and Eravate came into view.
Though I was accustomed to the Cobra, I was itching to get back into the Hand of Blue. Kyndi had been sitting next to me in the co-pilot’s chair, and breathed a sigh of relief. Behind us, we could hear Katie softly singing to herself as she played on her bunk.
“Well, here we are.”
I took a sip of coffee out of my thermos. “Yep. Now let’s get down there and back into my ship.”
She smiled and cocked her head my way. “You know, speaking of getting back into ships… I can think of someone who’s short a ship right now.”
I laughed. “Still sore about Cassius taking your Diamondback?”
She shrugged. “Actually… no. I had been meaning to sell it anyway. Cargo hold was too dinky.”
“Well, I was going to offer you this ship when all this is wrapped up anyway, but since you brought it up- you want her?”
Kyndi looked around and ran her hand along the side panel. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. She runs good, she’s roomy, and every time I’ve sold a Cobra, I always regret it later.”
She turned to me and smiled. “Plus, she’s got some good memories in her. I can’t say that for many ships.”
I nodded. “Well, she’s yours then. As soon as I go back to being Matthew Lehman, we’ll take her to the nearest DSV and get her titled in your name.”
“Thanks, Matty. I mean it.”
“My pleasure, darling.”
I exited supercruise and tried to remember what side of the planet Rax’s hideout was on. Ship traffic was normal, with lots of the normal ships showing up on the scanner, but something was… off. A few lights on the display started flashing, ones I hadn’t had to worry about in awhile.
Kyndi turned to me. “Trying to remember where you parked?”
I furrowed my brow. “Trying to figure out why this Anaconda is scanning me.”
The giant ship in question had jumped in-system a few minutes after we had, and had also been taking a route to Eravate IV. It didn't bother me, since there were lots of ships, and the planet was a popular destination. But for it to drop out at the same place as me- that was a little unusual.
She took a deep breath and checked her own displays. “Well, it could be Authority. We ain’t exactly taking a standard orbital route in.”
Showing concern, she looked down again. “No, it ain’t that. Shows it’s winged up with a couple of Vipers- bounty hunters, maybe?”
Something wasn’t feeling right. It was considered rude for one indy pilot to scan another without a friendly comm greeting first. Another warning light was now flashing.“Well, they’re scanning our cargo now. I’m going to turn around and do a looky-loo of my own.”
I banked the Last Chance around in a nice, gentle loop and turned to face whoever was trying to take a peek at me. I saw the spinning icon on the Anaconda’s readout get through processing the data, and-
Oh, fuck.
No way I was reading this right. I squeezed my eyes shut and re-opened them to make sure.
Yep. Same as before.
<Ship identified, Anaconda class>
<Ship name: Jackson’s Folly>
<Registered to: Benedict, Luthor A.>
I turned the ship around and gunned the engines. Let’s hope I can outrun them to the surface. From behind us, I could hear Katie say “whoaaaa” as the greater than normal ship roll pushed her around on her bunk.
Kyndi looked at me in alarm. “What the hell is going on?”
I gestured behind me with my head. “Get her strapped in, darling. This thing just came full circle.”
Behind me, the Jackson’s Folly and Vipers had suddenly kicked it into high gear as well.
The comm crackled. A man’s voice came over the line. “I believe you have what’s mine, commander. Lower your shields and throttle down. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”
Kyndi ran back into the cockpit, got seated, and mouthed “Who the hell are they?”
I shot her an apologetic glance. “You’ve come a long way for one little girl, Benedict. Let’s just settle this like honest crooks and you tell me how many credits it’ll take to make this whole thing go away.”
Laughing. Laughing is never good with these guys.
“Oh, you are a special one! You have no idea who I am, do you?”
I keyed the comm, still gunning for the planet’s surface.
“No, but I’m guessing a bribe is out of the question?”
I had outpaced the Anaconda, but the two Vipers had been able to keep up. Laser fire started raking the shields. Kyndi transferred power away from weapons to compensate.
“It ain’t about money, Titmouse. It ain’t even really about the little one you’ve got onboard.”
I hit the boost, which was a risky thing to do when breaking atmo, but I needed to shake these guys.
“Well, I’m really sorry about whatever it is I did, but don’t you think you’re taking it a little personal?”
More laser fire. The Jackson’s Folly was following us into the planet’s atmosphere, causing it to become a giant fireball. Ballsy move for Benedict to make, since those things were damn near impossible to handle over a planet.
“Personal, you little sack of shit? You’re talking to me about personal when you threw my father over a ledge?”
Oh shit. Walt had been this guy’s father?
Kyndi turned to me, fear in her eyes. Our shields were still being beat down, and there wasn’t much power left to divert to them.
“Matt, what the hell did you do?”
There…. this is the valley… Jane City is just over there… if I can just make it into the abandoned mine…
“Kyndi… you’re the smart one… how the hell did they track us?”
She looked at me blankly for a few moments, and then, a look of absolute dread crossed her face. She looked back where Katie was strapped in, then back at me, and then down to her lap.
“She’s tagged. How could I have forg-? She’s tagged, Matt!”
I veered the ship to the side, dodging a burst of laser fire. “Tagged? What the hell does that mean?”
Kyndi looked back again. “It means that she has a tracking beacon inside her body somewhere. As long as it’s there, they’ll always know where she is!”
Oh, shit.
“Ok, so… I’m guessing that removal isn’t a simple operation?”
She frantically hit some buttons, diverting the last of the weapon power to shields. “It’s simple to remove, just hard to find. It’s tiny, and buried just under the skin. Doesn’t leave a bump or anything.”
I thought fast, and weighed our options. I didn’t like what I came up with. Not one damn bit.
There it is. The mine shaft. At least the Anaconda can’t follow us down there.
“Kyndi?”
She was still manipulating the controls. “What?”
“I need you to go in back and talk to Katie. Find out exactly where they tagged her.”
Kyndi immediately understood what I wanted her to do. “Matt, if you’re talking about- no! I’m not doing it!”
WHAM!!
We both pitched forward, rocked by the cannon blast that took out the Last Chance’s shields and impacted on the armor.
I regained control of the ship- I goddamn hate flying atmo- and turned to Kyndi. “You’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to do it right the hell now!”
Another hit impacted, causing the ship to rock. Some of the internals were registering damage.
Kyndi looked back again, and started breathing hard. “No, I won’t, I can’t!”
The entrance was coming up. I didn’t want to, but I needed to decelerate… making me an even easier target.
WHAM! One thruster was registering critical damage. The Cobra was starting to become a real bitch to handle. And comms… comms were totally fried. Well, I don’t need comms to land the damn ship.
I turned to Kyndi. “Listen to me: if you don’t grab a knife and cut that thing out of her right the fuck now, all three of us will be fucking dead in ten minutes. I have a plan, but we’ve got one shot at this. MOVE!”
Kyndi opened and closed her mouth. Without a word, she got up.
I was beginning my descent into the hole. Doubtless, the Vipers had seen me go in, but so far hadn’t followed me. Good. That buys me some time.
Behind me, I heard the soft noises of Kyndi talking to Katie, urgently but gently. A few moments later, I heard a cry of pain from Katie. And another. And another.
Kyndi returned, one hand bloody. In it was a tiny, tiny chip. There it is, I thought.
I moved the ship out of the way and hit the floodlights. I spun it on a horizontal axis, looking for- there. In front of me was an SRV that looked to be in workable shape.
“Is that the plan?” Kyndi was eyeing the vehicle skeptically.
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the plan. Now pop open the utility access. I need to grab me a mining drone. And give that chip to me!”
Kyndi looked at me in confusion as she handed over the bloody piece of hardware. “What the hell are we going to pull down here?”
***********************************
C’mon, c’mon, get down here.
The Cobra’s cargo elevator was dropping one of the mining scarabs I had picked up to the ground. I raised the plasma rifle I had been gifted from Kumos, turned the settings to maximum, and-
PEW!
The entire cave lit up with the minty green blast. I blinked a few times, and saw that I got the exact result I had hoped for: the outer casing of the drone was slag. Good. I bashed it with the butt of the rifle, clearing it away.I turned to Kyndi.
“Can you get that SRV running?”
She hopped up on it and opened the hatch. A few moments, and the power plant started to kick on.
“It’s on!”
I ran up to her, still sitting in the driver’s seat. “Good! Now I want you to point it towards that tunnel, put something heavy on the pedal, jump out, and let it go!”
Kyndi opened her mouth a few times. “You want me to do what?”
I pointed again. “Make it go down that way. Now!”
Running back to the drone, I ripped open its main terminal. Where is it, where is it?
Hundreds of yards away, the SRV careened wildly down the long, narrow tunnel. Kyndi hadn’t pointed it precisely where it needed to go, but it was able to bounce along corners to get a hell of a long way down. Good.
She ran back up me, breathing hard. “So why the hell did I just send our only means of escape own a dead-end cave?”
There! Menu, options, troubleshooting… test mode! Bingo!”
I looked up. “Because of the rats.”
Her mouth dropped and her face twisted up. “What? Nothing you have said in this cave has made a shred of sense!”
Homing beacon disabled… Katie’s chip firmly installed… let’s do this.
Í took her arm. “Don’t worry about that right now! They’re coming! Move!”
We ran back up the ramp, and Kyndi went to push the button to retract it. I spun around- “Don’t! Leave it down! “
I ran up to Katie, still whimpering slightly, holding her hand over the back of her neck where Kyndi had dug out the chip. I dropped to a knee and gave her the best hug that I could.
“Katie… I’m so sorry that Kyndi had to do that… she needed to get the chip out so that the bad people couldn’t follow us here. I know it hurts right now, baby. You understand why she had to do it?”
I was looking at Katie hard in the eyes. Slowly, she sniffed and nodded.
“Ok, good. The bad people are coming, and now, we have to hide.”
I looked up at Kyndi. “They’re coming down the shaft right now. Here’s what you need to do.”
*************************************************
Jesus Christ, I hope I haven’t killed us.
I had done all I could do with the plan. Now it was time to hide, and hope, and not allow yourself to breathe.
Just stay silent, Katie.
The Last Chance was totally powered-down. Now, it was as silent as a tomb, and almost all pitch black. All three of us were hiding inside, but not together. I had improvised the best I could. Kyndi and I were in the personal storage lockers, but since there were only two, that had left Katie. She had been swiftly lowered into a spacewalking suit, and then put into storage. Two layers of hiding, but also terrifying for her.
I had assumed that the Kumos would show up with scanning equipment, so I had to hope that our flight suits would be enough to mask any heat signal Kyndi and I were giving off. The spacewalk suit I wasn’t worried about. If there was any body heat escaping that thing, I would demand my money back from the manufacturer. Katie would be perfectly safe in there.
If the Kumos didn’t go rummaging around too hard.
And if they didn’t find one of us.
Heavy footsteps. Flashlights cutting through the darkness. This was it.
Don’t. Fucking. Breathe.