Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (8 page)

“Sure. Be my
guest.”

“You’re a hot
piece of meat, but you must know that, right?”

Daniel spat out some
of his drink in surprise. “Beg your pardon?” He wiped his face and the counter
with a napkin.

“I’ve been
looking at you for a while, from over there.” She pointed at a sofa nearby, where
many barely dressed humanoid females sat. Vol’Rans, Brins—all sorts.

“Not interested,
but thanks.”

“How would you
know? I’m very good at what I do.”

“I have no doubt
you are.”

“Look, you seem like
a nice guy. You can have the first pass for free.”

Daniel had never
paid for sex before and even the idea of a freebie didn’t sound that appealing
in his current state of mind. On the other hand, he’d started having a serious
crush on Fillio in the last few weeks but he hadn’t had the guts to ask her out.
Perhaps having fun with a pro would take his mind off things for a while.

“Free, you say?”
as he passed his hand in front of his mouth.

“First pass only,
but believe me you’ll want more of me.”

Daniel had
converted plenty of quadrinium into credits.

“Let me pay for my
drinks first.”

“Okay, big boy.”

The barman droid
came immediately when Daniel raised his hand.

“What can I do
for you, sir?” said the droid with a steely voice.

“How much for the
beer?”

“It’s on the
house, sir.”

“What? How come?”

“Obsidian covers
your orders. They pay for your tab.”

“Of course they do.
Would they pay for her as well?”

“They would if
you bring back the receipt.”

“Right. Thanks.”

“No, thank you,
sir,” said the droid, before moving on to the next customer.

“Hear that, baby?
You can screw me all you want for free, it looks. Should I call some of my
friends?”

The mental images
from this professional pleasure specialist were getting out of hand and Daniel was
aroused.

“Let’s just start
with the freebie, okay?”

She smiled and
closed her eyes. “Sure, let’s go, champ!”

He accompanied
her through a series of corridors. They arrived at a door and when she put her
thumb on the lock, the door unlocked and slid open. Light progressively came on
within the room. A simple bedroom with a huge bed, illuminated with red and
rose light sources from the ceiling. The light predominantly fell on the king-size
bed.

“Get in, hot
stuff.” She gestured him inside.

What was with
this girl and all the cutesy names? he wondered as he took two steps inside.
That was his last thought before feeling a sharp pain in the back of his head,
and everything turned dark.

When he came to he
was in an entirely different place. He opened his eyes slowly, but what became
apparent even before his sight was restored was that he was seated and couldn’t
move his limbs.

Crap! I should
have known better.

He squinted and
saw two blue-skinned humanoids. One was very well built and the older one had a
seriously crazy look. They were looking at his side arm.

Great! Way to
think with the wrong brain, Dan!

“Can I help you
guys? I seem to have taken a wrong turn to the toilets.”

The old man
growled and threw his gun on a table nearby. They both approached him. “That’s
funny,” said the old man, gesturing to the younger one.

He clocked Daniel
with a strong right jab.

“Ouch!” said
Daniel.

“Where’s your
friend? The one named Chase.”

“Who?”

Another jab, this
time a left one, sent his head and some blood flying to the other side.

“Gentlemen, I
think you made a mista—”

Before he could
finish, the younger one punched him in the guts. For a moment Daniel thought he
would refund his meal. Instead, he spat some blood on the floor and kept
playing dumb.

“Nice to meet you
too.”

That awarded him
another punch in the face, which cut his left eyebrow. Soon blood flowed into
his eye.

“We clearly
started on the wrong foot here. What was the question again?”

“Where is your
friend Chase?” repeated the older guy.

“I don’t know any
Chase.”

Another punch.
Daniel was starting to see stars.

“We can do this all
day,” said the younger guy.

“I’d rather you didn’t,”
said Daniel, spitting yet more blood onto the floor.

“Then talk!”

“What about?” he
said, beaming at them with a wide smile.

The next punch,
an uppercut, sent Daniel and the chair backwards and he crashed onto his back, unable
to prevent his head from hitting the floor. The impact made his head throb.

“Stop taking us
for imbeciles,” said the older man while the younger one set Daniel and the
chair upright. “We saw you coming with the Gorgar and the Droxian. They’ve been
asking for your friend Chase all around the station. Still want to pretend you
don’t know him?”

“Look, guys, I
can see you’re serious about getting information out of me. And as much as I
hate getting bludgeoned to death, I don’t see how I can help you here. You must
have me mixed up with someone else. I have, well, had, a very familiar face.”

“Perhaps we
should start cutting pieces off you. Perhaps that will jog your memory.” The
older man took a knife from behind his back.

“I don’t think it
will. And really, if the point of the exercise was to jog my memory, perhaps
hitting me repeatedly in the head was an exercise in futility, don’t you
think?”

The men looked at
each other, trying to understand what Daniel had said. That’s when Daniel sprang
forward with the chair and hit the old guy in the guts with his head, and then landed
unceremoniously on his side. The older man dropped his knife and Daniel tried
to catch it with his tied hands, but he wasn’t fast enough. The younger one
kicked the knife away and started pounding him with one kick after another.

Brilliant plan,
Dan!
he thought, when he was about to lose
consciousness.

But then the door
behind him slammed open and he heard two shots. When he managed to look up,
both men were lassoed by an energy beam.

Thank god
.

Tar’Lock was
already untying Daniel as Ryonna approached the two men. She then looked at
Daniel and saw the many bruises on his face. “Which one did that to you?”

Daniel pointed
towards the younger one with his chin.

Before he could
open his mouth Ryonna punched him so hard it sent him flying towards the wall.
His back hit with a satisfying, bone-cracking sound. He lost consciousness and
collapsed onto the floor.

The older man’s
look changed immediately and he seemed genuinely worried about his partner. But
that look turned to terror when Ryonna stepped in front of him.

“Why did you
attack my friend?”

He started
trembling.

“Wait!” said
Daniel, getting help from Tar’Lock to stand up.

Ryonna raised an
eyebrow.

Daniel came and
unleashed four jabs to the guy’s face in quick succession. The last punch sent the
old man to the floor. Daniel spat blood on him and looked at Ryonna. “Now you
can ask your questions,” he said, attempting to smile despite the sorry state
of his face. “I’ll be distributing the punching, if you don’t mind.”

Ryonna smiled back
and nodded. “So, old man, what’s your name and why did you attack him?”

He took his head
in his arms and groaned.

“If I have to ask
one more time I’m gonna start tearing limbs off you and your friend there.”

“Please don’t,”
said the old guy, shaking his open palms in front of him. “My name is Tor’Tak. Please
don’t hurt my younger son. He’s all I have left.”

Ryonna growled.

“Right, we are
looking for Chase Athanatos. My son heard you two asking around the station
about him. So as soon as this one was alone, we decided to grab him and ask him
nicely about it, but he wasn’t cooperating.”

Daniel raised his
bleeding eyebrow. “Ask nicely?”

“We knew you were
lying.”

“No, seriously,
ask nicely?” Daniel took a step forward and the old dude crawled backwards.

“Please don’t hit
me!”

“Then start
talking and fast, before I show you ‘nicely’ what I have in store for you!”

“Alright,” said
Tor’Tak, his hands extended in front of him pleadingly. “I’m looking for that
Chase character because he killed my other son, Tron’Tak!”

Ryonna and Daniel
exchanged a look.

“That doesn’t
sound like him,” said Ryonna.

“Well, we’ve
obtained security cameras. He killed him!”

“If that’s the
case I’m sure he had good reason, and from the way you’ve treated my friend
here, I can see it runs in the family.”

“What should we
do with them?” asked Daniel.

“Space them. They’re
scum, like almost everyone else on this station.”

“No, no! Please
don’t space us. We have money!”

“We don’t need
money,” said Ryonna sharply. “It so happens we’re also looking for Chase. However,
tell us what happened and why Chase killed your son.”

“He tried to
double cross a bounty hunter named Keera. Chase helped her and they left the
station together.”

“I don’t see
Chase killing anyone for no reason. You’re not telling us everything.”

The old man
looked down.

“Speak! Now!”

“My son tried to
rape her.”

“There you go,”
said Ryonna and turned to Daniel. “Like I said, scum.”

She took out her
blaster and shot them both in the head without a trace of hesitation or remorse.

“What the fuck,
Ryonna!” shouted Daniel.

“Seriously?
You’re gonna shed a tear for these pieces of garbage? God knows what they would
have done to you if we didn’t track your locator beacon.”

“You told them
you wouldn’t space them?”

“So what? I
didn’t lie. Look, they’re not spaced.”

Tar’Lock stood on
the other side of the room, his arms crossed. “Alright, let’s not debate this
any further,” he said. “Ryonna, apologize for killing these two dumbasses and
let’s get going and try to find more information about this Keera character.”

“Apologize?” said
Daniel his eyes wide.

“She can’t
un-kill them now, can she?”

Ryonna holstered
her blaster and put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Daniel, I
shouldn’t have iced them.”

“Could you sound
even less insincere than that?” He exhaled without hiding his frustration.

She waved her
hands over her head and, as she walked out of the apartment, gave Tar’Lock a
stern look. He simply shrugged in response.

The
Valken
exited hyperspace. Chase took the StarFury out of the docking bay, exited the
ship and micro-jumped the rest of the way. As soon as he arrived he engaged his
cloak. He scanned the area and detected a large fleet at the border of his
sensor range. Zarlack warships, about thirty of them, behemoth class.

“Looks like my
brother is up to something.”

Another energy
source appeared on his radar, behind the moon of the third planet of the dual
star system into which he had jumped.

“Now what is
this?” He approached the coordinates and soon a huge installation appeared before
him.

Another shipyard.
More ships were being constructed. He saved the coordinates in his ship’s
memory and jumped back towards the
Valken
. Soon he was back in the
ship’s cockpit.

“So?” inquired
Keera.

“There’s a fleet
of Zarlack ships not too far from here, a rather sizeable one. And a shipyard
too.”

“Should we do
something about it?”

“Nah, we don’t
have the firepower. I saved the coordinates. I’ll give them to the Earth
Alliance. They can choose whether they want to come and destroy the target.”

“What about the
fleet, though?”

“I don’t know,
and honestly I don’t care at the moment.”

“Perhaps your
brother is in one of those ships.”

“Perhaps, but
even if that was the case, we can’t do shit about it for now.”

“You could
perhaps board one of the ships cloaked?”

“No, it’s too
dangerous. The cloaking on my StarFury only lasts minutes, and when it turns
off, the ship doesn’t have shields anymore.”

“I see, so next
stop? Earth?”

“Yeah, let’s get
back—” he hesitated “—home.”

“Alright, but
Earth is too far for us to reach in a single jump. We’ll have to make a fuel
supply run halfway.”

“Sure, whatever
we need.”

She nodded,
selected a system midway on her holo-starmap and fed the jump coordinates to
her ship’s onboard navigational computer.

“Jumping to
Thetra-Six.”

The
Valken
hummed for a few seconds and they jumped into hyperspace once more.

Chase thought
about this fleet of ships. While Earth was well protected, both with satellites
and a huge fleet, this many ships could still do a lot of damage. He surprised
himself thinking about strategic ways of fighting them.
Not my fight anymore
,
he reminded himself.

“You want to warn
your friends? Do you think they’re heading towards Earth?”

“I have no idea. The
Earth Alliance now offers multiple targets of interest. There’s also Droxia.”

“And soon the
Obsidian.”

“Well, they can
burn. I wouldn’t shed a tear.”

“Hey, that’s my
home!”

“You should
move,” said Chase, smiling at her.

She punched him
affectionately on the shoulder. “Well, I don’t really have a home. The
Valken
is my home. At least currently.”

“No relatives,
husband, boyfriend, something?”

She looked at him
quizzically.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she
replied. “And no, I’m an only child and my parents died a long time ago. As for
my personal life, it’s none of your damn business,” she said playfully.

“Really?” said
Chase. “Like we haven’t discussed mine in enough detail.”

“Well, you’re a
talker. You can’t expect everyone to be so forthright.”

“Alright. I was
just trying to make conversation anyway.”

“I’m kidding
Chase, and no, I don’t have a husband or a boyfriend.”

“Ok, good.”

“Good?”

“Poor choice of
word.”

She gave him an
incredulous look.

“What?”

“Nothing, big
boy, nothing at all.”

“Let’s change the
subject.”

“You brought it
up.”

“I know. I’m
starting to wish I hadn’t.”

“Oooookay.”

“Look, Keera, this
flirty banter is fine, but I
. . .
I just lost the woman I loved more than anything in this world. And while
you’re very cute and even remind me of her at times, I have no intention of
letting anyone get that close to me ever again.”

“That’s sad. And
sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I actually fancy women since we’re
sharing openly.”

“Oh
. . .”

“Sorry, dude.”

Chase growled and
she laughed.

“So you never had
a
. . . man in your
life?”

“I did once, but
men are pigs. They tend to cheat a lot.”

“We’re not all
pigs. Just saying.”

“I can see that.
And you’re right. I just happen to like the company of woman more. That is,
when I need a little sexual release.”

“No serious
relationships then?”

“Not at the
moment, no.”

“Before?”

“Yeah, once upon
a time.”

“What happened?”

Her expression
changed.

“You don’t have
to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“She
. . . she was murdered.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“So was I. That’s
actually when I became a bounty hunter. That scumbag was my first warrant.”

“Really? So you
got him?”

“I did.”

“He’s in prison
now?”

“No, I killed the
motherfucker.”

“I see.”

“Don’t give me ‘I
see,’ Chase. You’re doing the exact same thing here.”

“True. I’m
curious: did it make you feel better?”

“I thought it
would, but it didn’t bring her back, you know? And it was the first time I took
another life as well. Scumbag or not it’s a heavy thing. I still have
nightmares about it, sometimes.”

“I understand.
Did you kill other people since then?”

“A few. In self-defense
though. Goes with the job.”

“And some
warrants I suppose?”

“I never take
execution warrants. Well, except this one; but it’s optional.”

“And,
theoretically, would you kill Argos if you could, to get a higher reward?”

“I don’t think so.
Alive he’s still worth more than six lifetimes of collecting, and definitely
more than I could ever need.”

“We’ll have to
kill him. Argos isn’t the type of person who can just be captured.”

“Yeah, I’ve got
that from our previous conversations about him.”

“You won’t try to
stop me when the time comes?”

“Could I?”

“No, but I’d
rather you didn’t try.”

“I won’t. I mean,
life is precious, and it sounds to me like he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.”

“He wouldn’t. In
fact, should we go through with this, you’ll have to obey my wishes and stay
back when the time comes. I can’t risk him using you in any way to protect
himself. I had the chance to kill him and
. . .”

“How come you
didn’t?”

“At the time,
Sarah was still alive, and he told me she would die if I killed him.”

“Well then you
made the right choice.”

“I thought I did,
now I’m not so sure
. . .”

“Why are you
saying this?”

“Because I’m not
sure he was telling the truth. I think he bluffed so I would spare him.”

“I’m sorry,
Chase. I hope you get your revenge, but if you’re anything like me it won’t
make you feel any better. I mean, the man I killed was a total scumbag. He
. . .
he raped her before killing
. . .” She started crying.

“I’m really
sorry. That experience with Tron’Tak must have brought back bad memories then.”

She nodded and wiped
her tears. “Yeah, well, even though I knew I was making the universe a better
place by ending her murderer, it still didn’t make me feel better. I mean,
besides squeezing the trigger. That
. . . definitely felt good at the time.”

“I’m sure it
did.”

“But he is your
brother. If I feel like shit for taking that scumbag’s life, how will you feel
about ending your own brother?”

“I don’t consider
him as such.”

“Does that really
make a difference?”

“I think it does.
I didn’t even know I had a brother. I don’t have memories of him. Heck, I don’t
even have my own childhood memories. Therefore, I don’t think it’d feel like
killing my brother. It would just feel like killing someone who deserves to
die, ten thousand times over.”

“I hope for your
sake you’re right, Chase.”

“Plus, I won’t
have to live with guilt after that.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Forget about it.
Do you mind if we change the subject?” A tear ran down his face.

“Sure.”

Chase didn’t want
to stay alive, of that he was certain. The only reason he still breathed was
because Argos was still alive. Once that was dealt with, he could leave this
world in peace.

“Please promise
me you won’t do anything stupid.”

The question
startled him. “What do you mean?”

“I know that look.
You know very well what I mean.”

“I can’t make
that promise, sorry.”

“Life’s a bitch,
I know. Still, it can be wonderful.”

“I remember, but
it can’t be anymore, not for me.”

“You don’t know
that! Sure you lost the love of your life, but there could be another one out
there. I’m just saying.”

“Even if that
were true, I would never take the risk again. I am a Fury. For some reason shit
gravitates around me on a daily basis, so no way!”

“I understand
that. That’s also why I never tried to forge any new, long-term relationship.
I’m also afraid of what could happen.”

“Once was
enough.”

She nodded. “Boy,
we need to change the damn subject, or start drinking something to forget.”

“How long till we
arrive at the refueling station?”

“About fifteen
hours.”

“Then if you have
a strong drink, or something else perhaps?”

“Sorry, no drugs
on board the
Valken
. One of my rules. I’m a recovering junkie myself. I
have a killer whisky bottle from the Zentak priesthood of Kal’nor, though. That
stuff will knock your socks off and disinfect your inner plumbing all at the
same time.”

“That sounds
really good about now.”

“I’ll be right
back,” said Keera as she left the cockpit.

Chase looked
outside at the lightshow of hyperspace travel and, without realizing it, he
fell asleep.

Soon he was
engulfed in a green liquid, feeling helpless, trapped and scared like every
other night.

*  
*   *

Daniel waited on
the
Iron Fire
for Ryonna and Tar’Lock to return. He went to the
infirmary and was patched up by a medical droid. He preferred taking a skeleton
crew on this mission. He had asked Yanis to install the same neuronal interface
on the
Iron Fire
that Chase had used on the
Hope
. Even though he probably
couldn’t manage it as well as a Fury mind, he liked using the link.

He stared at his
ship’s empty bridge, wondering what would happen if Chase didn’t want to come
back. He would make him if he had to. This nonsense had to stop! Daniel wanted
his friend back. But first they needed to find him.

A beep informed
him that the shuttle had landed back on the
Iron Fire
. They had
returned. He waited for them on the bridge.

“Any idea where
he went?”

Tar’Lock scowled.
“No, I’m sorry.”

“What now then?”

“I don’t know,
Daniel. Perhaps we should head back home?”

“No, what have
you learned about Keera?”

“She’s a bounty
hunter. Apparently she registered for a big warrant.”

“Perhaps that’s
what we should follow.”

Tar’Lock clicked
nervously.

“What now? Why
did he make that noise?”

“And
he
can talk,” objected Tar’Lock.

“The warrant is
for Argos’ capture,” said Ryonna, gesturing for Tar’Lock to drop it, which only
brought another series of clicks of frustration out of him.

“That explains
why he left with her.”