CHAPTER 5 - DESTINATION SOLACE
Leaving the ship behind, I walk with the team. The brightly lit corridor is wide and through its large windows, as we pass by, the vast expanse of deep space looms. Stars flicker against the inky blackness and billions of light-years away, three spiral galaxies complete the portrait. So much, so vast, but on the inside, the human traffic here is sparse. This terminal is primarily used for military and government business so this comes as no surprise. The more populated areas would be those on the other side of the station. The Freight and civilian terminals are often filled with hectic workers, tourists, business folk and anyone else with enough credits to burn.
Our ship is in a private, air-locked hangar and after docking, I acquired the usual security code, ensuring its safety from any unwanted guests. As any military operative who have traversed space would tell you, pirates don’t just steel ships and cargo. Selling military grade parts can be a very lucrative business too if you have the right connections. Stepping out onto a wide sidewalk that runs along a busy street, we go over our plans before splitting up. Bull, Terri and Hound head off to find us proper lodging, while Akita and I continue toward the departures terminal to look for answers. We all agree to meet back at an obscure bar and grill…should be about an hour or so.
This Starport, while different in shape, reminds me of many others throughout my travels. The monolithic, manmade, floating-in-vacuum city, complete with vehicles, streets, housing, hotels, businesses and whatever else it takes to make the clockwork run smoothly, has an appeal unlike that of any planet surface. And like all Starports, everything, can be found on various levels. The lower you go, the more industrial and mechanical it will become while the higher, the more open and touristy. The sidewalk and street where we stand is also a part of the huge terminal; a wide and long circular link that connects the three ports of entry. Each of these docking bays and terminals in their entirety is as or maybe even larger than the city of Dunan.
Angry voices fill the air as two cab drivers hang out of their respective windows cursing. I see that stealing each other’s passengers is still a popular sport, and as the debacle escalates to what might become a physical confrontation, we move on. Traffic here is just as busy as I expected. K1 is a popular system. Many corporation and government envoys and agents come to do business with its wealthy planets while tourists show up for all sorts of reasons. It is also a well known pirate hub. K1’s laws allow for off-the-book transactions that might appear questionable elsewhere, making it the perfect breeding ground for illegal substance dealers, and the like to thrive in relative safety. And then there are the freighters; heavy haulers that make hundreds of millions in credits on each run. Finding our Deepcore agents here would be like looking for a needle in space; a daunting task.
As Akita and I walk on, I take comfort with the weight of my Fifty-eight, tucked away near my waist. I can change it from single action to semi-auto with the flip of a switch. Hopefully, I won’t have to use it on this trip. As for the rest of the team; every man has his preference when it comes to a sidearm; except Bull. Even with his dual guns, he rarely ever uses them. His fists and raw power often gets the job done.
Entering the departures terminal, we take our time here and move carefully through the bustle.
“Okay…” I turn to Akita “…let’s do our thing.”
Standing in the busy open space, as the sea of people shuffle to and fro, we search for our target. In all the years of mankind looking to the stars for extraterrestrial life, it is amazing to see that the only inhabitants of space as we know it, turned out to be just us.
“Right there…” Akita nods to what he’s talking about.
His gaze leads me to an attractive travel agent behind a desk with a fast moving line, and we walk casually toward it. Akita follows two people behind me. If my efforts are unsuccessful, then he is all we have left. My fingers slide across the edge of the Credits card in my pocket. Bribery is not my forte' but if it comes to it…
The line moves steadily. This tells me that she is efficient. Her stance is strong and well balanced; shoulders squared, back straight; she’s disciplined. Eyes focused, her reaction time is fast and she speaks with confidence; a trained thinker. This might be a bit more challenging that I thought.
I forget the travel agent and search our surroundings. I wouldn’t know a Deepcore agent even if I saw one. They could be standing right next to me and I’d have no clue. All we have is the name of a ship, but this is good enough for me; I arrive at the desk.
“Hello…”
Her brilliant smile lightens my mood
“…and how may I help you?”
She has a nice voice. Her eyes sparkle and her hair is perfect; another clockwork clone in my book. I pass my fingertips across the scanner on the flat of her desk and wait.
“Hi…” I return the smile; I hope it is radiant enough “…I am in need of your help.” She shifts her head slightly in acknowledgment and I continue “I’m not booking a jump as yet. I am an Earthfront agent and I need information…” I wait, but she says nothing “…a ship docked here not long ago. I need to know where this ship is headed, when it’s set to jump and who’s on it. Can you do this for me please?”
“Captain Gant. I’m sorry…” It’s like she had the answer at the ready before I decided to ask the question “…but it is against our regulations and laws to give information of this nature to anyone without the proper authorizations.”
I absorb her smile. She’s almost robotic.
“I understand, but its Earthfront business. We are tracking known criminals and this information would go a long way to…”
“I’m sorry Captain Gant, but it is against policy…”
I slide the credits card across to her but keep my fingers on it.
“…twenty five thousand Creds. All I need is the destination, crew and time of launch.”
She doesn’t even look at the pre-programmed card. “Captain, if that would be all, I kindly ask that you please step out of the line.”
This is done. I know when I’ve hit a brick wall so I nod courteously and move away; it is up to Akita now. I take a walk and then sit in a plush chair at a distance where I can see him clearly.
“She’s by the book…”
“Don’t worry Cap…I’ve got this…”
Even on coms, I can recognize his intensions. He is next in line and I wait…
“Hello, how may I help you?”
“Hi…” Akita’s voice, but he doesn’t give his fingers to the scan “…I was standing in line, thinking about whatever it was I was thinking, and then I saw you. And I decided that unless you have your next meal with me, I’m not leaving this terminal.”
There is no sign of amusement on her face “You don’t remember what you were thinking before you saw me?”
She’s not buying it.
“How could I…what is there to remember after seeing you?”
I don’t believe it; she’s smiling.
“You’re good…” She says “…I’ll give you that. But I can’t.”
“I don’t mean you any disrespect. Please, I hope you didn’t take my compliment this way…”
“No, it’s not that. I can take a compliment…but I’m already spoken for.”
“You’re married?”
“No, I’m engaged.”
“What’s your name?” Akita plows on.
“Why do you want to know?”
“A beautiful girl such as you must have a beautiful name. I must know it.” and as Akita waits for her answer, I am yet again mystified by him.
“Riara…” she says it softly.
“I was right…” Akita continues without missing a beat as another smile lights her face “…seriously, when do you get off work..?”
“I don’t even know you?”
“How could you, if you don’t get to know me?”
“You don’t even know me?”
I think she is at a loss for words now.
“I know, that the lights O’ Galactic, astronomical the more, I bespeak you visit mine, and to yours invite that I explore.”
What the hell was that? Was that poetry? When did Akita start quoting poetry?
“I get off in two hours…coffee and sandwiches, nothing else.”
“Coffee and Sandwiches..? That’s more than gold as long as it’s with you.”
“I’ll meet you at The Vienna. It’s a café not far from here. If you are the kind of person you appear to be, you should be able to find it.”
“What do I appear to be?”
“I’ll let you know if we meet again.”
I remain seated and after Akita walks away and out the main doors, I follow.
********
I stretch my hand and a sticker-covered yellow taxi, hovers to a stop in front of me…thing looks like a flying ad-board.
“Gascloud nine…”
The driver, no more than eighteen, sticks a wild looking head of lime green hair out the window “…eighty creds man!”
I get in and in a moment we’re off. I’ve left Akita at the café to do his thing. With a little more than luck, we will have the information we need and be on our way in good time. How he does it..? I wish I knew. It’s some kind of natural gift, I guess, or maybe it’s his eyes, green and bold, or the hair, shoulder length, shiny-black and straight. It couldn’t be his build…but we all have military grade bodies. Whatever it is though, he has got more of it than the rest of us.
I am on my way to meet up with the rest of the team. Until we hear from Akita, we are stuck here so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
“You know what I love about our job?” Is what he told me before I left him at the café “...even though we’re always on the go, we can still find time to enjoy the finer things.”
I looked at him and saw nothing more than the anticipation of having yet another woman to add to his trophy wall. It is the same with him every time. He had given me that sly grin of his and I couldn’t help but laugh; what else could I have done?
********
It has been six hours since I left Akita at that café, but I received his message a half hour ago and now, I’m in the cockpit of the Mirage with holoscreens up and information about Deepcore streaming across them. I wonder what Mirana is doing. I wonder if she’s wondering about me. I can contact her, but as much as I want to, I don’t. What would I say? It is times like these I wish I had Akita’s gift with the opposite sex. Of all the people I have ever known, none could win the heart of a woman as easily as he, the difference between us however, is that he does not know how to keep it.
The onboard system alerts me that the airlock has been opened. One of the holoscreens shows Pitbull, Hound and Terri on their way up and as usual when we make port for more than four hours, Akita is nowhere to be seen.
The doors of the cockpit cabin slides apart.
“…Brought a little something for you Cap…” Terri hands me a bag full of Kedenian chocolates. I smile and pop a Pine fruit Mocha in my mouth.
“I forgot how great these taste.”
“I know you and chocolates bro…I got your back, but you still owe me...”
Terri laughs and I am instantly transported back to a time when the most urgent thing in our lives was getting home on time so our parents wouldn’t go ballistic.
“Hey Cap…” Terri again “…you remember the mochas we stole from Colin Simpson?”
I grin with the memory “Yeah, he cried and blamed his brother while we ate them all on the roof of his house, how could I forget.”
“You were a bad influence on me you know that?”
“And now the roles are reversed so we’re even.” I pop another chocolate in my mouth and savor the smooth sensation of it, gliding like honey coated happiness along my tongue.
“Cap…” Terri’s looking at me as though I am doing something I shouldn’t “…No eating before the jump…”
“…Yeah, yeah…” I put the bag of goodies away.
I had left the guys at the bar shortly after eating. I couldn’t bring myself to indulge in the usual pleasures of making port. Not even with Nilani, the very beautiful and interested hostess who offered me her services…what is wrong with me?
“Where’s Akita?”
“…at the hotel with his newest victim. Riara…” Pitbull deliberately bends the name for added effect “…said he’d book us out when they’re finished.
“Well he’d better be finished soon, ‘cause time’s running out.”
We all get to work. Preparing the flight systems for launch would take five minutes but in forty five, we are going to have to get moving in order to get our holding slot. The volume of traffic passing through this Starport has every ship making a jump, lined up in the queue three hours before launch. I wish I had contacted Mirana. Once we leave this system, communications will become difficult. An underlying current drives the urge to hear her before we leave, but duty…or is it fear..? I prefer duty…duty forces my attention back to the task at hand, and then the door opens, Akita stands there smiling; it is time to go.
********
Deep six is due for launch in two hours and forty minutes. Their destination is Solace Five; an industrial ice planet in the Solace system roughly two hundred light years away. They are a crew of four, made up of a Commander Pierce Larson, Captain Juno Gallagar, Sergeant Mark Riley and Captain Janet Barlow. And quite conveniently, Riara has booked our jump right after theirs. How can I not be awed by Akita’s achievements? And like the rest of the crew, what I want to know is how he did it.
The Mirage’s engines are online and awaiting our command. In a few minutes the outer airlock would disengage and we will be on our way to the Jump Gate. I look around the cockpit. These are all good men and even more…great friends…brothers, and after our six years together, I could not have asked for a better unit.
“So Akita…you know what we all are thinking, spill…” Terri asks the question before I do. Akita gives the usual grin and then tells about his time at the café. How he talked her into showing him around the station. Their common interests and the like, their spark of chemistry, according to him, and her willingness to spend some quality time at the hotel.
“I thought she was engaged?” I just remember this fact.
“Not anymore.”
And yet again, Akita burns a hole in my mind. How the hell does a stranger get a beautiful, intelligent woman to hook up with him and break off an engagement in less than twenty four hours?
“I offered her a better life.”
“What life? When are you going to see her again?”
“When we get back to Keden…”
“What makes you think we’re going back to Keden?”
I should not have asked this. They all look at me with funny eyes and Pitbull jumps in.
“…Two words Alpha…Mirana O’Canon...”
I ignore their smart-ass grins “Okay let’s say we do go back to Keden…are you saying that you’re giving up your life of womanizing for this girl?”
“Yep…”
Everyone reacts to this with individual expressions of “not-this-again” and while I thumb through the virtual keys in front of me…“Well forgive us, but, I gotta see this to believe it. It’s not exactly the first time we’ve heard this declaration.”
“Believe me Alpha, I mean it this time…”
“What was the poetry thing about?”
It’s what I’ve wanted to ask ever since he recited it. It turns out that it was from a book he saw on her side of the desk. “Poetry is a hobby…” None of us believed him. What’s interesting about Riara though, is not that she gave Akita her private com-code, but the fact the he gave her his. This relationship will definitely be an interesting one to watch.
We put on our helmets after the laughter fades, and as our flight suits seal up, the ship shudders when the artificial gravity outside is replaced by vacuum. The conversation dies. The main lights in the cockpit go out and all that remain are those from our Holoscreens.
With gentle touches and jolts, Terri and the Semi-Autopilot guide us out of the small hangar and into the tunnel system of the Starport. Ships of all classes bearing various flags and emblems representing nationalities, corporations, alliances and the like can be seen in their respective hangars. Some behind sealed airlocks and others either being parked or leaving. One ship, an imperial transport vessel docking not too far away, boasts the symbol of the Raiku Dynasty across its hull. The red and black Starship, labeled Raiku IV, belongs to one of the few known empires in the galaxy, if memory serves me correctly, about fifty or so thousand light years from earth.
Through my window, the dense Eversteel floor of this monstrous manmade chamber is lined with thousands of well lighted grooves. Five hundred feet below us, it slides by as our computer system, now on full auto pilot, guides us via Digital Magnetics; a computer generated magnetic field that enables our ship’s AI to work in unison with that of the Starport.
We’ll be arriving in Solace via the Starport Argos and by the calculations on my Holoscreen; our time in hyperspace will be two hours and forty two minutes.
According to our history books, Hyperspace in the movies of old was as simple as hitting a few buttons and strapping into your seat; if only it was that simple. Unlike Hyper Light, the forces at eighty three point three, three, three Light Years per hour are so astronomical, that no human body would be able to survive it without Magnatech. Every flight suit uses Magnetic Technology to keep the wearer in gravimetric stasis. In other words, no one is ever conscious during time in hyperspace, be it for a few seconds or many hours.
My com alerts me of an incoming transmission.
“Starship Mirage…K1 traffic control has you in sync for launch in forty minutes; stand by for guidance on link.”
“Starship Mirage copies stand by.”
No one ever gets accustomed to the anticipation of the jump. Although you don’t feel the trip, that initial jolt as you enter the slipstream of hyperspace always gets you. Outside, as we exit the docking bay, the expanse of deep space fills my vision again. Most of the complex and its many bright windows lie behind us and the Jump Gate, even though it reads four miles away, still looms above us like a monstrous cylindrical mountain. Blue, red and white electrical surges, arc and split along the surface of the gate, giving the appearance of an oversized Rail gun. Now that I think of it, I guess that’s what it is in actuality. This is an interesting revelation because if it is indeed a giant rail, that would make us, the projectile.
Our cockpit lights up in dim flashes as the highly charged currents ripple more and more rapidly across the barrel of the Gate. Then without a sound, it spits our Deepcore targets from its mouth in a flash of light, and they are gone. My com crackles to life.
“Starship Mirage you’re cleared for taxi. Twenty minutes to jump.”
My heart gives me that unusually large thump. “Mirage copies twenty to jump. We’re ready for taxi, all is a go.”
“Control acknowledges copy, stand by for loading.”
The world around us glides by like a dream as our ship is ferried toward the Jump Gate. The ride is flawlessly smooth. The station is no longer visible from our windows and as always before any jump to another system, I often wish there was another way.
“Here we go…”
None of us responds to Akita. The looming structure before us has our minds in its hold. The red lights that line it in some areas, the monstrous yellow K1 painted on its base, the undulating energies that crawl along its surface, the giant opening that awaits us as we begin the loading sequence; it just never gets old. Were it not for the cooling system in my suit, I know without a doubt that I would be sweating like crazy right now. Goose bumps rise and fall across my flesh even though I try hard to remain calm. The gate gradually changes from vertical to horizontal as the Magnetics alter the ship’s angle of approach. In actuality, we are the ones who are changing angle. Slowly, eventually, we get to the open rectangular chamber and slide sideways into place; The groan of the gate’s giant mechanized doors fill my ear as they begin to move and then our ship finally comes to a stop.
As the massive doors seal themselves shut, darkness envelops us. My eyes adjust to the computer lit cockpit. All is quiet. Every man at this point would be preparing, in his own mind, for the sensations to come; so why am I thinking of Mirana?
“Mirage…Control has you ready for launch to Solace via Argus, rep live.”
I look toward Terrier and he gives me a thumb’s up. I respond.
“Control…Mirage is ready for launch, all systems are a go.”
I make the extra effort to keep the nerves out of my voice.
“Control copies all systems are a go. Jump is initiated…twenty seconds.”
The com goes dead. Here we go. There is no turning back even if we wanted to. The silence is mentally deafening. I imagine the crazy arcs of electricity that run up and down on the outer skin of this cannon. There is no countdown to zero, just the fact that at some point within the next twenty seconds, we will be in hyperspace.
A hammer slams into my chest. I think it’s my heart but it’s not. The sudden movement catches me off guard and the ship pushes me further into my seat. A single strand of blue electricity surges through the tunnel ahead, lighting up the cockpit in a brief flash.
“…BLAM!”
It’s the last sound I hear as the sensation of being electrocuted grips and twists the insides of my stomach, and everything goes black.