The Lost Colony (Lost Starship Series Book 4) (6 page)

“You were part of a conspiracy to kidnap an officer of Star Watch. You’ll lose more than your shipping license but also your freedom, and possibly spend the rest of your life on a prison planet.”

“I pay my taxes,” Lucas said as if that was something he should say.

“I very much doubt that,” Maddox said. “You’re a smuggler. We both know that. Now, I want to know, what happened to me at the gambling table tonight?”

Lucas stared at Maddox before looking away. He shrugged once more, almost as if deciding “What the heck, I’ll tell the truth for once.”

“You became limp and vacant-eyed during the game,” Lucas said. “Esquire Noble asked if everything was all right. You didn’t reply. He told us he would take you to the infirmary. You didn’t resist as he helped you up. What were the rest of us supposed to do? The esquire was a reputable person. We thought nothing of it.”

“As I recall,” Maddox said, “I was winning at the time. What happened to my chips?”

“All I can tell you is that I don’t have them.”

“That wasn’t the question,” Maddox said. He sensed that time was running out. Something was wrong here. Lucas was too confident for a weasel confronted by an Intelligence officer.

The tip of the stimstick glowed once more. Lucas was thinking again. He said, “I don’t know what happened to your chips. I lost too much money tonight and left early.”

The smuggler fiddled with a tungsten ring on his middle finger as he said that. Maddox was sure Lucas was lying about the losing.

“Who is Esquire Noble?” Maddox asked.

“The man who escorted you from the table.”

“Do you know him?”

Lucas twisted the ring again before shaking his head.

“Who are you meeting here?” Maddox asked, deciding to switch directions, hoping to throw the smuggler off balance.

To give himself more time, or so it seemed, Lucas laid the stimstick in the ashtray. “Stay and find you if you like. I’m sure you’ll find it illuminating.”

Had the man changed his mind? Whatever the case, it was time to accelerate this. Maddox slid his pistol through his belt, smiled, and stepped directly in front of the desk.

That must have made Lucas uneasy. The man grabbed for his laser.

Maddox proved faster, plucking it from the desk. With his other hand, he took the communicator. “Just what I need,” he said.

Lucas swatted at Maddox’s forearm. For just a second, the captain saw something glitter underneath the tungsten ring, a tiny spike aimed at his flesh. He snatched his forearm out of the way. The hand swept past. Abruptly, Lucas stood, trying to prick Maddox a second time by swinging once more. The captain was too fast for that. He flicked his arm out of the way, and backhanded the back of the smuggler’s hand with his other hand.

The undoubtedly poisoned tip must have caused Maddox to hit too hard. Lucas’s hand continued the swing in a parabolic arc, propelled by the blow. The smuggler ended up pricking the side of his own arm. Lucas jerked his hand away and stared at Maddox with an accusing glance.

The color drained from Lucas’s face. He took a step back, then a second one. He opened his mouth to say something. Instead of completing his thought, his eyelids fluttered and he crumpled onto the carpet. His legs twitched. His entire body thrust up spasmodically. Then, he moaned and his body stilled as he quit breathing.

Maddox watched the display with fascination. That could have been him. Why had Lucas tried to murder an Intelligence officer?

Abruptly, Maddox punched an emergency code into the communicator. He put it to his ear, hearing a harsh buzz from the speaker. The communicator worked, but something or someone jammed the signal. This was getting complicated.

Maddox studied the dead smuggler. Could the man have a jamming device on his person?

Walking around the desk, Maddox knelt beside the corpse, feeling inside the jacket. As he did, people entered the room. Hadn’t Lucas said he’d summoned others?

Maddox looked up, his eyes widening with surprise. Three Spacers regarded him.

The Spacers were short and slender with deep-space tans, wearing blue uniforms that were tight around the throat. Each wore dark goggles and skintight gloves. They were the last people Maddox would have expected here.

A Spacer woman stood in front of two men. She drew a projac—a stubby, hand-held weapon—aiming it at Maddox.

“Hands up,” she said. “You are under arrest for assaulting and possibly murdering a Spacer national.”

-3-

Maddox regarded the woman’s impassive features. It was difficult to get a good read of her because the goggles hid her eyes. Why would Spacers be here?

A premonition of having made a terrible miscalculation struck the captain. He was in Shanghai. This couldn’t be the…

“Is this the Lin Ru Hotel?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “This is our Earth embassy.”

The Spacers had odd conceptions of territory. What other people rented out rooms in their headquarters building? Still, if this was the embassy, this was technically Spacer territory, or more aptly said that legally this made it a Spacer vehicle governed under their…
unusual
code of conduct.

It meant the woman had a legal right to arrest him, and he lacked a legal right to resist.

If he could have placed his call, a Star Watch combat team would have been on its way already. That might have made even more legal complications, but it would have let headquarters know he was here. As it was, Maddox was still very much on his own and possibly in a sticky situation.

“You are not complying with my order,” she said. “Are you resisting arrest?”

Spacers were intensely literal and known for their lack of humor or ability to understand shades of meaning. Maddox decided to mollify her and dropped the laser.

“And the gun in your belt, please,” she said. “Put it on the floor.”

He stared at her, debating options.

“I will burn you down if I must,” she said. “A Spacer national is prone and you were molesting his person.”

“Taren Lucas the III is a Spacer?” Maddox asked.

The woman nodded curtly.

That didn’t seem right. Maddox said, “Earth records indicate otherwise.”

“I believe you are attempting to employ delaying tactics against me. Either you disarm immediately or I will fire. You have three seconds to comply.”

Maddox plucked the pistol from his belt, dropping it beside the laser. Spacers did not make idle threats.

“Stand up,” she said.

Maddox stood, assessing the situation as he did.

The woman must be a provost officer. By their circular pectoral patches, the two men were provost sentries, Marines in Star Watch terms.

Spacers were one of the major political entities in Human Space. Before the alien Destroyer, the key political forces had been the Commonwealth, the Windsor League, the Wahhabi Caliphate and the Spacers. A handful of other political conglomerates existed but none of any major significance.

As the name implied, the Spacers did not have a planetary abode, but lived in vast home ships. They did not claim any star systems as such, but traveled away from conflicts. The nature of their nomadic society had led to political conservatism rather than the radicalism practiced by the New Men. Spacers involved themselves in trade, exploration and mining, making their greatest technological strides in gas giant extraction. The most closely guarded secret among Spacers was the location of their giant industrial vessels.

The majority of Spacers were of Southeast Asian origin, particularly from Old Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Wahhabi Caliphate had gone to war against the Spacers thirty years ago, inflicting the most devastating losses against the Ninth Thai Fleet.

“Your uniform suggests you belong to Star Watch Intelligence,” the woman declared.

Maddox nodded.

“This is an official spy mission then?” she asked.

“No. I was brought here under duress.”

“I doubt that.”

“I’m not suggesting a Spacer did it. In fact, an android brought me to the Lin Ru.”

The woman looked as if she’d tasted a lemon. “We neither use nor condone the use of androids.”

“I am aware of that.”

The woman spoke with growing distaste. “Is the android presently in the embassy?”

“In one of the basement kitchens,” Maddox said. “You’ll find two of them, both dysfunctional.”

Her head twitched in the negative. “I do not care for the direction of your allegations. In fact, by saying androids brought you to the Lin Ru you slur the embassy. That suggests this is a setup. I will have to inform the ambassador’s secretary.”

“As you wish,” Maddox said.

“You are unnaturally calm. You must not be aware of the penalty for assaulting a Spacer in a ship. It is death by asphyxiation. But since we are not in space, death by any other means will suffice.”

“I understand, but I did not assault Taren Lucas. He assaulted me and I defended myself. His own treachery killed…er, incapacitated him.”

She sneered. “The evidence tells a different story.”

“Examine the video.”

She shook her head. “There is none to examine, as we do not allow recording equipment on our premises.”

Maddox shook his head at Murphy’s Law in action. The one thing he’d believed Lucas had told truthfully ended up being a lie. It figured.

“By the authority invested in me as the Provost Officer on the bridge, in this case, in the embassy,” the woman said, “I declare you guilty.”

“I appeal your verdict,” Maddox said.

“And I reject your appeal.” She raised the projac, putting pressure on the trigger.

Maddox realized she planned to kill him on the spot. The knowledge almost froze him. Instead, he shouted, trying to startle her.

She flinched. Then, her arm stiffened as she retargeted.

The delay allowed Maddox time to remember the knife tucked behind his back. He reached there, grabbed the handle and flung the kitchen utensil at her gun, hoping to knock it out of her hand. At the same time, he threw himself to the side, rolling.

The projac fired. A bolt of power sizzled, singeing the right top shoulder of Maddox’s uniform.

The spinning knife reached her, the tip entering the back of her hand in a nearly perfect throw. She cried out in pain, dropping the projac.

Maddox was already on his feet again.

“Restrain him!” she shouted, clutching her injured hand with the knife still sticking in the flesh.

The sentries came at Maddox. He towered over them and had to outweigh both combined.

Maddox shouted again, lashed with his left foot, sweeping the feet out from the first sentry. Maddox twirled martial-arts style, hopped onto his other foot and leg-lashed the second sentry. It catapulted the man so he crashed over a bed and disappeared from view onto the other side.

Seeing freedom, Maddox bolted for the door. The first sentry, who lay on the floor, hit one of Maddox’s ankles in passing. That tripped the captain so he sprawled onto the rug. Like a spring, though, he bounced back up. That gave the sentry time to lunge at Maddox as he drew a shock rod. With a loud sizzle of power, the rod stroked the captain’s left leg. It went numb, and Maddox fell back onto the rug.

The captain lacked the same speed the second time. He rose, balancing on one leg. The first sentry scrambled upright with his shock rod. The second was still unconscious behind the bed.

“Hold,” the woman said.

The sentry glanced at her.

Maddox might have lashed out. He refrained, as the woman aimed the projac once more, using her left hand. She pressed her bleeding right hand against her torso.

“Fate has decreed you to die,” she told Maddox. “There is nothing you can do to evade the penalty.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Maddox said. Gingerly, he put weight on his shocked leg. It had gone numb. Once he realized he wouldn’t topple, he studied the woman.

Despite her insistence, she seemed hesitant to kill him outright. Had curiosity stung her? If so, he must cultivate her curiosity to prolong his existence.

“I’m surprised a provost officer isn’t curious about androids invading her embassy,” Maddox said.

“The answer is simple,” she told him. “I didn’t believe you about the androids. I’m curious concerning your combat technique, however. The knife-throw with a kitchen utensil—it was fantastically well executed.”

Maddox nodded as if embarrassed by her praise. “Star Watch Intelligence teaches its operatives intuitive techniques. This allows us to use any item at hand, turning it into a deadly weapon.”

That wasn’t true. He had gotten extraordinarily lucky with the throw. But sometimes people were happier with outrageous answers. Besides, it was good for the Spacers to believe SW Intelligence had superlative agents.

“I’m impressed with your sentries,” Maddox said. This seemed like a good moment for a compliment. “They fought much better than I had anticipated.”

The woman gave a curt nod, saying flatly, “Our sentries are the best.”

“I’ve heard that, of course.” Maddox shook his head ruefully. “Until this moment, though, I hadn’t believed it.”

“Your Earth-centric prejudice blinded you,” she said.

“No doubt true,” he said.

There was a pause. She regarded him more closely. By her stiffening features, it seemed she had decided to continue with the execution.

“Do you know?” Maddox said, a second before she raised the projac higher. “Androids are notoriously difficult to stop. It’s possible you, as a Spacer, don’t realize this.”

The woman seemed to consider the idea. Spacers had a well-known pathological hatred of androids. Maddox had forgotten the reason for this hatred. Sometimes, however, people who had an intense loathing of a thing also had a secret interest about the subject.

The woman delicately licked her lips, slightly bending her head forward, indicating curiosity. “Did…did the android possess a name?”

“Yes,” Maddox said, “Esquire Noble.”

The woman stiffened in outrage.

“You recognize the name?” Maddox asked.

“This is unwarranted,” she hissed. “You mock us in our own embassy after slaying a Spacer national. You…”

Her cheek muscles bulged as she ground her teeth together.

“Who is Esquire Noble?” Maddox asked, astonished by her reaction.

“As if you don’t know,” she said. “That is the ambassador’s name.”

Maddox frowned. Hadn’t the android worn the livery of a Woo Tower employee? Why would someone make an android to look like the Spacer ambassador?

“Lucas lied to me,” Maddox said. “He’s the one who told me the android was named Esquire Noble. I think he was playing a trick on me.”

The Provost Officer said nothing and didn’t twitch a muscle as the projac aimed at Maddox. Finally, she said, “Describe this so-called android.”

Fearing the android might look like the Spacer ambassador, Maddox said, “It was tall with gray hair.”

She relaxed her stiffness a fraction. “Esquire Noble is stocky by our standards. His strength is also legendary.”

“Ah.”

She motioned the conscious sentry to go and help the unconscious one. The man did so while keeping his distance from Maddox.

“Where did you say the androids were again?” the woman asked.

“I fought them in the lower levels but they managed to escape,” Maddox lied. According to her description, the androids had looked like the ambassador. He didn’t want her inspecting them while he was around. The woman was trigger-happy. He needed to escape the embassy and get back to Star Watch Headquarters.

“Tell me what happened with the men outside this room,” she said. “You obviously assaulted them.”

“I did,” Maddox agreed.

“Since you freely admit your guilt—”

“Provost Officer,” Maddox said, “I was kidnapped from Woo Tower earlier this evening. Soon thereafter, the android forced me into your embassy. I have been trying to escape ever since. The men outside this room hindered me. That is why I was forced to defend myself.”

“That is a serious allegation,” she said.

“Thank you,” Maddox said.

The woman frowned. “I do not understand your reply.”

“A kidnapped person has an obvious right to defend himself. This right I used.”

“By attacking legitimate guards and assaulting a valued guest of the Lin Ru?” she asked.

“I thought you said Lucas was a Spacer national.”

She became silent as her projac lowered some. “It’s possible I spoke too hastily. Lucas was in the process of applying for Spacer status.”

“Provost Officer—”

“Yes?” she said.

Maddox had almost accused her of bias. Spacers were extraordinarily proud of their rigorous thought. She seemed touchy, and a direct accusation might have a negative effect. That wouldn’t do as long as she was the only one with a weapon.

“Taren Lucas was at a Woo Tower gaming table tonight,” Maddox told her. “Someone slipped me a drugged drink earlier. I believed Lucas had a hand in that.”

This seemed to finally get her attention. “Explain,” she said.

Maddox told her about the card game, the slipped drink and his coming to while entering the Lin Ru.

The first sentry had helped the second to his feet by now. They stood behind the woman. While keeping the projac aimed at Maddox, she stepped beside the sentries. They conferred together in Spacer cant.