Hostage To The Stars: A Sectors SF Romance (2 page)

Detaching her fingers from his sleeve with a reassuring pat, he took a deep breath and crossed the floor to the office. A guard stood at the door and gave Johnny a sideways glance but didn’t challenge him. Not bothering to knock or wait for permission to enter, he slid the portal aside and stepped inside.

“Afternoon, everyone. Somethin’ I should be in on?” Manner deliberately casual, he assessed the group. Shalira sat beside the window, her face set in tense lines. Mike was at the desk, leaning back in his chair, seeming unconcerned but Johnny didn’t like the expression on his face. Two military officers in side chairs faced Mike. Coffee fixings on the side table indicated an attempt to keep the meeting friendly.

“This would be Sgt. Danver?” The senior officer spoke. His companion made a note on a personal AI.

“Retired. As in no longer saluting, taking orders or answering to my rank.” Johnny went to the table and poured himself coffee, squeezing Shalira’s shoulder before he moved to take a chair on the other side of the desk, flanking Mike. “Don’t look like a social call, you being in uniform and all,” he said to the two officers.

“Johnny, this is General Brand and his aide, Captain Legerr. They’ve come all this way from the planetary capital to hand me another mission,” Mike said.

“Like hell you’re going on another mission.” Johnny was blunt. He fixed the general with a stare. “Our last job was the end of the trail for us.”

“Belligerence will get you nowhere, sergeant,” said Legerr. “Read the fine print on your enlistment papers. We own you until we say you can go. The Sectors government spent millions of credits training you and Major Varone and–”

The general held up his hand and the captain compressed his lips in annoyance as his superior spoke in a more reasonable tone. “We’re short on time here. I need a Special Forces operator who’s been hypno trained in Farducci and is intimately familiar with the planet Farduccir Four. It’s a rescue mission and I’m not at liberty to say any more. I’ve already revealed too much, but you occupy a unique position on Azrigone, Major Varone, as head of the ranchers association and a member of the Planetary Council. Command felt you should understand why you’re being reactivated.”

“I’ve told you repeatedly I’m not going. My wife is pregnant; the roundups are due to begin in a few weeks. I have to be here on the planet to co-ordinate the cattle auction for the ranchers’ co-operative. I did my time in the Teams and I was released from duty.” Mike didn’t yield an inch.

“Inactive reserve can be re-activated at any time.” Legerr was equally adamant.

“Our Farduccir job was what, fifteen years ago?” Mike checked with Johnny for confirmation.

“At least. Place is a fucking hell hole. Begging your pardon for the language,” he said to Shalira who gave him a tight smile.

Mike kept his focus on the general. “Surely you have other people more familiar with the current ground conditions? Hypno train them.”

“I’d love to have that luxury but there isn’t anyone else available who can be transshipped in time for the task at hand.” General Brand set his coffee cup aside. “With apologies to Mrs. Varone, we don’t have any more time. We need to be on our way to the capital in five minutes if you’re going to make the rendezvous with the ship ordered to take you to the Farduccir system.”

“Good thing I’m already packed,” Johnny said, the words acid on his tongue.

“You?” Legerr’s eyes widened. “We’re not here for you.”

“Well, you’re getting me. Mike won’t admit it but he’s lost his combat edge, he’s been put back together by the docs so many times he can’t go into the rejuve resonator ever again and he’s needed here.” Johnny rapped his knuckles on the desk for emphasis. He stood and stretched. “We were a team on Farduccir, I know as much about it as he does.”

“I’m not asking you to do this,” Mike said, face red, fists clenched. “Neither one of us is going.”

“The brass ain’t leaving without a guy who fits their specs,” Johnny replied. “I can see that plain. Better me than you.”

Shalira came and put her hand on Mike’s shoulder but didn’t speak. Her face was set in troubled lines as she gazed at Johnny. He gave her a little nod.

“Here’s Danver’s service record,” Legerr said, handing the AI to the general as if Johnny wasn’t standing right there. “He does have all the qualifications we require. Doesn’t have to be an officer. Might actually go more smoothly if he’s not, given the details.”

“All right, Sgt. Danver, you’ve talked your way into assignment. Meet us at the flitter in four minutes.” The general bowed to Shalira. “Thank you for your hospitality, ma’am.”

The three friends stayed silent until the portal closed behind the soldiers.

Mike exploded from the chair, pacing the office. “This whole deal smells. I don’t want you to put yourself in harm’s way,” he said to Johnny. “I probably could have put up enough resistance, called in favors to keep myself on Azrigone.”

“Hey, we both know you ain’t up to it and your wife needs you,” Johnny answered. “And General Brand would have you loaded in a fast transport under cryo sleep if he had to, long before you could pull strings. So let’s take the easy way out here and send me. End of discussion. I’ll be fine, sounds like a simple extraction raid. We’ve done enough of those. Save the favor calling for a more important day.”

Shalira ran to the door. “Don’t you dare leave until I get back. I have a present for you.” Holding the portal open, she gave him a stern admonition. “Promise me, Johnny.”

“I think we’re counting down from four minutes, your highness.”

She gave a shriek of dismay and hurried off, heading toward the staircase.

Mike and Johnny looked at each other. “This whole deal has a bad smell to it,” Mike said, resting his hip on the edge of the desk.

“Anytime the brass tell you it’s a simple mission, you know it’s fucked six ways from Sunday already,” Johnny agreed. “All the more reason I should go. I’ve got no ties, no wife with a child on the way.”

“I owe you.”

He shook his head. “Consider it my gift to the baby.”

Mike got another cup of coffee, burning off nervous energy, Johnny knew. As he stirred cream into the black liquid, he said, “I wish we had a way to stay in touch. I could try to arrange backup if things go south, but you don’t have the fastlink implant.”

“I might be able to help.” Shalira stood on the threshold, out of breath. “The three of us are pretty tightly connected after what we endured on Mahjundar.”

“I rode in early because I had a gut instinct something was wrong here,” Johnny admitted. “But I don’t know that I could project even a general sense of danger across Sectors. I’m sure not psychic. I won’t be sendin’ you any telepathic messages.”

The princess came to him. “I was saving this for your birthday, but I think you should have it early.” She handed him a small box.

Johnny opened it carefully, setting the lid on the desk, and removed a small gold medallion, less than an inch across, stamped with the winged, lion-like mythical creature recognized as the hallmark of her family, on her home world. The cherindor’s eyes gleamed, as if flames smoldered in the two slivers of gemstone. He felt a momentary tingle in his palm, like a small electrical charge, and let the token dangle from its chain, wrapped on his fingers.
 

Shalira touched her fingertip to the pendant as it swung in the air. “I don’t know if there’s any power left in the shards of the gem, but I wanted you to have a piece of it. On my planet, a warrior who rendered the level of service to an Imperial princess you gave to me, would have received much more valuable rewards.”

He cupped his hand behind her head and gently drew her closer, kissing her cheek. “You didn’t need to give me anything, but I’ll treasure it.”

Releasing Shalira, he looped the thin gold chain over his head and settled the tiny circular pendant on his neck. “We don’t usually wear personal items on a mission but for you I’ll make an exception.”

She hugged him tight and Mike gave both of them a bear hug. “You bring your ass home in one piece, that’s an order, you understand?”

“Sure. Just another day.”

“The only easy day was yesterday,” Mike said, quoting one of the aphorisms of their branch of the service. “Watch yourself.”

Johnny understood his friends were reluctant to let him go and probably feeling guilty about him volunteering in Mike’s place. In his heart he knew there was no other choice he could have made. He’d have lost it if he’d emerged from the mountains later to find his cousin drafted and gone on another mission, especially without Johnny to watch his six. Some of the trouble they’d gotten into on Mahjundar was due to Mike’s loss of the finely honed instincts developed to keep an operator alive. Of course Johnny himself wasn’t in any better state, but at least he didn’t have the distraction of a pregnant wife waiting at home. He ended the hug, stepping away toward the door. “I don’t want to incite Captain Legerr to threaten us all with court-martial, so I’d better go. See you in a month.”

He turned on his heel and left the room, marching out of the house to the waiting shuttle, not bothering to grab his pack from the camping trip. The military would issue him what he needed and the Supply Officers probably wouldn’t let him take his own gear. He had his favorite knife and a pair of customized Mark 27 blasters – what more could he need?

A week later, after being rushed across the Sectors in a high speed transport courier, Johnny was dropped off at a military space station by a pilot who couldn’t leave fast enough. Standing in the corridor, his bag at his feet, Johnny rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the stiff feel of the utilities he was wearing. He hadn’t had a new, regulation uniform in years. Special Forces went for a much more casual approach to military life, due to the unusual nature of their assignments. He waited for whoever was assigned to collect him, which also chafed his raw nerves. Being at the beck and call of an unknown unit ran contrary to his combat experiences. Sure he’d been on missions with mixed branches of the military but only under the direct command of his own officers. Men and women he trusted to have his six.

“Sergeant Danver?” A young ensign came rushing up.

Johnny reminded himself he had to salute. Damn, this returning to active duty thing was a pain in the butt. “Yes, sir, reporting to Station 50 as ordered.”

“The team is being briefed now. We’ll have to rush.” The ensign barely acknowledged the salute before pivoting and retracing his steps through the corridor he’d just traversed. “Follow me.”

With his jittery escort, Johnny arrived at a briefing room a few moments later, interrupting the senior officer at the front conducting the briefing. “Nice of you to join us, Sgt. Danver.” Sarcasm oozed from the ostensibly friendly greeting. “Better late than never. Take a seat, Captain Scortun can introduce you to his team later.”

Johnny dropped his bag next to an open chair and put his butt in the seat. The Farduccir planetary system rotated on the AI screen so he guessed the briefing had begun only moments before. The officer droned on with statistics and general information about the planet and its moons. Johnny tuned the lecture out and assessed the eight man squad seated at the table. Crisp uniforms like his, regulation haircuts, not Special Forces. Sector regular forces? Going in on an extraction run for a high value target? Fucked before the mission began. He tuned into the briefing as a holo of a woman appeared on the display.

“As you’re all aware, the Farduccir system was a major battle zone between the Sectors and the Mawreg at one time, heavily contested. The Sectors had a huge presence there and the local economy boomed,” the briefing officer said. “Then the war moved on to other areas and Farduccir became a backwater. We abandoned a lot of bases and gear in place, which the pirates have capitalized on. Their current modus operandi is to lure in or outright attack vessels in the nearby Sector area making the transit between hyperspace points. The raiders take the cargo and the passengers, who are then either sold into slavery – the Shemdylann pirates have been observed coming and going from this area – or ransomed for large sums of credits. The ransom business is quite lucrative and well established.”

“The Sectors needs to clean this cesspool out,” said a man in an expensive business suit, seated at the side of the room.

Johnny studied him for a moment, wondering what his role here might be. Why was a civilian at a major ops briefing?
 

“We don’t disagree, Governor.” The briefing officer was all deference. “But the Sectors’ Command has other priorities.”

Governor? As in Sector 55 governor Petr Gurgins? Why would a high gravity politico like him be here?
Johnny studied him more closely.

“The most recent casualty of the pirate activity was the
Star Swan
, a medium cruise liner. Normally a ship this size wouldn’t have been a target but the captain dropped out of hyperspace to effect a minor repair. The pirates also traveled out of their normal territory to grab the ship. We think someone on board may have been paid to disable the ship at the preset co-ordinates. The captain followed protocol, surrendered.”

Johnny’s opinion of that protocol was unprintable. Once you were in the pirates’ hands, anything could and often did happen.

“The cruise line personnel and the ship itself have already been ransomed thanks to the company’s K&R insurance.”