Argonauts 1: Bug Hunt Read online

  “And don’t call me sir!” Rade said.

  two

  Rade was jerked violently in his seat.

  “Sorry,” Harlequin said. “Dragon hole.”

  The coastal city of Yorokobi was situated between an ocean on one side and mountains the other. Legend told that ethereal dragons, bearers of positive feng shui energy, made their homes in the mountains. When the dragons made their way to the ocean to drink, the holes in the buildings allowed their positive energy to pass through unobstructed, ensuring good vibes for everyone involved. At least that was what Rade had been told. While he didn’t believe in ethereal dragons, those holes certainly provided a good getaway route. As long as Harlequin could properly steer through them, of course.

  The plan was to stay low, keeping the shuttle close to the designated sky-tram lines until they were well outside the city limits, at which point they would accelerate into orbit. The intention was to avoid the anti-aircraft cannons that Kenzo had situated along the high walls that encircled his palace. Kenzo basically owned the city council, and had full authorization to fire those cannons whenever he pleased. Such was the way of life on the frontier planets, where warlords ruled the day and the little people made do with what scraps they could get.

  Lui turned his head toward the rear portal and his eyes defocused as if regarding something on his Implant.

  “Guess his children have learned what happens to those who mess with the Kyor Yoko clan,” Lui said. “Or whatever they’re called. And the lesson is: those who mess with them, are really successful.”

  Rade glanced through the rear portal and zoomed in. There was no sign of the palace, which was blocked by other buildings. Good. Rade was worried that Harlequin had kept them in the line of sight of those anti-aircraft cannons all that time. Thankfully not. Lui must have been reviewing previously recorded footage taken by the aft cameras when the shuttle departed.

  “Have a look,” Lui said.

  Rade accepted the feed. Video from the rear-view camera filled his vision. The timestamp indicated the footage was taken forty-five seconds ago. The video played at one tenth normal speed, and Rade could see all the details of the receding palace, from the spires and domes to the enclosing walls. A large gash had been cut into the west wing where the harem had been, and the entire western tower had crumbled. Shaw’s handiwork.

  “Nice work, babe,” Rade said, dismissing the feed. “But did you have to take out the entire west wing, including the tower?”

  Shaw shrugged in the seat beside him. “You’re the one who’s always telling me I have to aim higher.”

  Rade shook his head, chuckling softly. He glanced one last time through the rear portal, but saw no signs of pursuit. For the moment.

  “And why not let Harlequin call you sir?” Shaw said with a mocking grin. “You don’t work for a living anymore.”

  He looked at her crossly. “I’m not an officer. With the emphasis on the sir.”

  “Old habits die hard,” Lui said. He was seated across from Rade, beside TJ. “Once a navy man, always a navy man.”

  “Never a navy man,” Rade said. “A MOTH.” That stood for MObile Tactical Human, an elite force within the navy specializing in guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency.

  “Ex-MOTH, now,” Lui said. “Though personally, I never really understood that whole cultural divide thing. Like, why we had to call every non-MOTH a member of Big Navy, as if everyone with a different rating was lower than us or something.”

  “That’s because they were lower than us,” Rade said. “We were the best of the best. Still are.”

  “Oh please,” Shaw said, rolling her eyes. She was getting good at that.

  Rade frowned, then looked back at Lui. “She says that now. But wait until we’re alone in my stateroom tonight.”

  “Our stateroom,” Shaw clarified.

  “You guys,” Lui said, shaking his head. “You’re like two adolescents in love for the first time.”

  “Are we?” Rade said. “I don’t know about that. There’s nothing adolescent about what we do when we’re alone.”

  Lui half threw up his arms. “Quit your bragging. Some of us don’t have girlfriends aboard, remember.”

  “But you got TJ,” Harlequin said, turning back to wink.

  “Ah merda,” TJ said. The clamps of his seat retracted, and he stood. He wasn’t wearing the arm assemblies of his jumpsuit, allowing him to show off the tattoos of mechs and rivets inked into his bare skin.

  “What is it?” Rade glanced at his overhead map. Several red dots had appeared behind them, weaving through the buildings in pursuit.

  “Enforcers,” TJ said.

  “Should have brought the Hoplites,” Lui said.

  Rade dismissed the clamps holding him to his seat and scrambled upright.

  He had to hang onto the bulkhead as the deck suddenly jerked beneath him.

  “I thought you fixed the inertial compensators?” he asked TJ accusingly.

  “They are fixed,” TJ said. “If the compensators weren’t active, your insides would be smeared along the inside of that wall right now.”

  “Sorry,” Harlequin said. “Had to initiate evasive maneuvers. We’re taking heavy laser fire. Aft armor won’t take many more hits.”

  Rade hurried toward the rear of the cabin. He paused outside the small pod-like structure affixed to the port wall, and glanced at Shaw, but she was filing her nails.

  “Not going to wish me good luck?” he said to her.

  “Why?” Shaw didn’t look up. “You got this.”

  He knew she did that merely for show, putting on a brave face for the men, and the freed women. But he saw right through her.

  Rade entered the pod, while TJ entered the one opposite him.

  Rade took a seat and wrapped his hands around the trigger mechanisms, and his Implant linked him to the aft right turret. The AI was already firing, but he usurped control: instantly the inside of the pod faded away, and he had an unobstructed three hundred and sixty degree view of the outside of the shuttle. In fact, it was as if the shuttle wasn’t even there anymore, nor his body for that matter.

  He controlled the rightmost rear turret, TJ the leftmost, and the remaining rear guns were manned by the AI.

  Rade zoomed in on the pursuers. He spotted the enforcers TJ had spoken of. The robots had boarded air stallions—small, ridable quadcopters with weapons mounted underneath. He counted about thirty of them out there. He couldn’t see their incoming laser fire, of course—the nanosecond pulses were emitted on the infrared band.

  Rade aimed at one of the pursuers. The turret’s built-in AI compensated for the evasive movements of the shuttle, and he got a lock and fired. The enforcer went down.

  A missile alert sounded. The Model 2’s equivalent of a Trench Coat activated, sending out thirty-four seekers to intercept the rockets; meanwhile the craft dove.

  The Model 2 shuddered as the shockwaves of multiple detonations reached it.

  Rade continued firing, taking down two more pursuers. But the enemy began moving in evasive patterns, too, and it became extremely hard to hit any of them with the lasers. He launched a few missiles, but they deployed anti-rocket countermeasures of their own.

  “Too many of them,” Rade said. “We’re going to have to take the bird into space. Harlequin, those models of air stallions aren’t space capable, are they?”

  “I don’t believe so,” Harlequin said. “But you do know, once we leave the cover of these buildings, we’ll be exposed to the palace cannons.”

  “I’m well aware of that,” Rade said. He returned his turret to fully automated mode—the AI would have a better chance of hitting the enforcers than him at that point. Then he left the pod and returned to his seat. He noticed that TJ was already strapped in beside Lui.

  TJ shrugged. “Sometimes you got to know when to let the AI do its job.”

  “Take us up, Harlequin,” Rade said as the clamps secured him in place.

  “We’re recei
ving a connection request from the city mesh network,” Harlequin said. “From Kenzo. Would you like me to tap him in?”

  Rade hesitated. Then: “Do it. Voice only.”

  “You’re never going to get away with this, Rade Galaal,” Kenzo said. “I’m going to hunt you down for the rest of your days. Short as they will be.”

  “You’re welcome to try,” Rade replied. “But don’t you worry, Kenzo: if news reaches me that you’ve dipped your wick into the human trafficking cesspool again, I’ll be back. And I might not leave so much of your palace intact next time.”

  He quickly closed the connection, not wanting to give the warlord the last word.

  “I really hate it when people make threats like that,” Lui said. “Because they usually follow through. We’re going to have to deal with him again someday, mark my words.”

  Rade flashed a fake smile. “Nah. He’s a big teddy bear. Wouldn’t harm a fly.”

  “Riiiight,” Lui said.

  The shuttle jerked to the left.

  “As expected, now that we’ve left the cover of the city, we’re receiving incoming flak,” Harlequin said. “Unfortunately, it’s not restricted to the palatial cannons. Kenzo seems to have called upon a few friends throughout the city to join in the barrage. I’m initiating additional evasive maneuvers, and launching decoys. Things are going to get a little rough.”

  Multiple flashes outside the various portals alerted Rade to the presence of the flak. That, and the occasional shudders evoked by the shockwaves of near misses. Rade was jerked often in his seat.

  “So now we have to dodge flak and lasers,” Lui said. “Wonderful.”

  “Harlequin, punch it!” Rade said. “Get us the hell out of here.”

  “I’m already at maximum ascent speed,” Harlequin replied calmly.

  The flashes continued unabated outside.

  Rade glanced at Shaw, who hadn’t looked up from her nails. Some of the other women meanwhile were openly weeping or whimpering.

  “Do you have to do that at a time like this?” Rade asked her. While he knew the nail thing was just an act, it still made him nervous.

  She shrugged, continuing to focus on her filing. “At least I’ll go out looking good.”

  “Babe, you always look good.”

  She finally looked at him, and beneath the fear there was a hint of warmth in her eyes. “Thanks.”

  The shuttle shook so terribly that she lost her grip on the file and it clattered to the floor.

  A klaxon sounded.

  “Warning,” the shuttle’s AI intoned. “Lateral stabilization failure. Warning.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” TJ said.

  “We took a hit on the left engine,” Harlequin said.

  Rade glanced through the rear portal. The ground was spinning far below.

  “Can you stabilize us?” Rade said.

  “Trying...” the Artificial replied.

  Shaw sat back and closed her eyes. She wrapped her fingers around her seat’s armrest, her grip so intense that her knuckles turned white. One of her hands reached out searchingly for Rade’s, and he gave her his own. Her fingers tightened around his palm, the nails piercing his flesh like claws. He gritted his teeth, but dismissed the pain.

  I can endure a bit of agony for my girl. If we’re to die here, I want to do so holding her hand. The pain be damned.

  The thought repeated in his head that he shouldn’t have allowed Shaw along for the mission. How did he let her convince him into bringing her?

  Stop that line of thinking. She was essential to the plan and you know it.

  Still, if anything had happened to her in the palace, he would have been destroyed inside. It was a small consolation that at least if they went down now, in the shuttle, they both would be lost.

  “Got it,” Harlequin said. The klaxon faded. “I’ve stabilized our ascent. Our evasive abilities have been reduced however. We’ll need some luck to get through this.”

  “On the plus side,” Lui said, “A side benefit of the flak is it’s taking out the enforcers. Look at the map.”

  It was true. On the tactical map, about half of the pursuing red dots had vanished outright, and the rest were receding as the air stallions reached their maximum heights and were forced to drop out of the pursuit.

  The flak slowly subsided, until in moments it ceased entirely.

  “We’ve reached the upper atmosphere,” Harlequin said. He turned around in the cockpit. “We did it.”

  “Harlequin, radio ahead to the Argonaut,” Rade said. “Tell Tahoe to initiate deorbital pre-burn as soon as we’ve docked. Let’s not overstay our welcome, shall we? Who can say how many nearby ships Kenzo has influence over out there?”

  “Roger that,” Harlequin said. “Decelerating to line up with the Argonaut.”

  Rade felt the zero G then and his stomach began to do belly flops.

  He accessed the nose video feed and saw the Argonaut drift into view. The Marauder class vessel was small and sleek. It was favored by space pirates and smugglers for its speed, maneuverability, not to mention ample weapon mounts, with space left over for a respectable cargo haul. Mercenaries liked the vessel for the same reason.

  The gray hull was battered in places, and obviously overdue for repair. Rade had promised to pour in the funds necessary for her upkeep soon, once he finished paying off his men, anyway. Yes, as soon as his men were paid, he’d have the ship holed up in dry dock for a full four weeks. By then his men would have spent all their earnings anyway, and would be up for the next mission.

  Too bad they weren’t going to be paid for anything they’d just done.

  Then there was the small problem of meeting the monthly loan payments...

  I gotta stop doing these missions of mercy. We had a good thing going here, and I had to go and ruin it.

  Shaw’s grip didn’t let up until they had docked.

  “Tahoe,” Rade transmitted after they’d landed. “Are we deorbiting yet?”

  “We are,” his first officer responded over the comm. “I’ve set a direct course for Chitsu Gate.”

  “Good.” Rade turned toward Lui. “Show the passengers to their temporary berthing area. I want them bunked with the other women, if possible.” He wrapped an arm around Shaw. “We’ll be in our stateroom.”

  When Rade reached the cramped quarters he shared with Shaw, he left her on the main bunk. She sat there, seeming a bit shell-shocked. Rade had nothing left to comfort her with, however. He needed to cave out.

  He went to the adjoining compartment, the head, and locked the hatch. He lay down on the hard deck in front of the toilet and stared unblinking at the overhead. He erupted in a cold sweat.

  His mind was in a faraway place. He was bringing his mech platoon across a desert world. The sand got in everything, clogging up servomotors, treads.

  From the dunes erupted black forms. Aliens.

  His brothers began to fall. He heard screams. Explosions. Trench Coat launches.

  Something wrapped around his mech and pulled him into the sand. He couldn’t move.

  An AI’s voice repeated three words in the background.

  “Warning: armor penetrated. Warning: armor penetrated.”

  three

  A knock on the hatch roused him from the depths.

  “Rade,” came Shaw’s muffled voice. “You all right in there?”

  “Never better,” Rade said, scrambling to his feet. “Had to take a big dump.”

  “For an hour?” Shaw said.

  Rade glanced at the time in the lower right of his vision. An hour had indeed passed, though from his point of view he had only just entered the compartment a moment ago.

  “Uh, yeah,” Rade said. “Did I mention it was big? I’ll be out in a sec.” Lowering his voice, he tapped in his first officer. “Tahoe, any signs of an intercept out there?”

  “No,” Tahoe responded over the comm. “Everything is dead quiet out here.”

  That was what Rade had hoped. Ke
nzo wouldn’t tell the authorities, or press charges. He was too afraid of getting put in jail. Though there was still a chance there might be some civilian vessels out there willing to do the warlord a favor.

  “I switched over the Argonaut’s registry information shortly after we left orbit,” Tahoe continued. “That’s probably helping. We’re now a trader from Sirius, hauling a cargo of Peruvian beets.”

  “Peruvian, huh?” Rade said.

  “Yup,” Tahoe said.

  A rather commonplace foodstuff like that wouldn’t attract too much attention. Especially at the Gate. If Tahoe had chosen something rarer and more valuable, they would have had to fend off greedy custom officials intent on securing bribes.

  “Where are our guests?” Rade asked.

  “We’ve had to set them up in the cargo bay,” Tahoe replied. “There wasn’t enough room anywhere else. I’ve got one of the gastronomic robots attending to their needs.”

  “Perfect,” Rade said.

  He left the head and entered the main compartment. Shaw was sitting on the bed with her arms crossed underneath her breasts.

  “What?” Rade said.

  “You zoned out again in there, didn’t you?” Shaw said.

  Rade sighed.

  “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” she pressed.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, babe,” he said.

  “Just tell me that I’m not going to lose the Rade I know and love,” she said. “Tell me that the killer has gone back to his cave.” She got up off the bunk. “Tell me that you’ll hold me.”

  “I’ll hold you,” Rade said.

  She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tight. The top of her head came up to his neck, and he rested his chin on her hair.

  “Shaw, my Shaw,” he said.

  “My big warrior,” she said softly. Breathlessly.

  Rade pushed her away and she gave him a hurt expression.

  “I have to get to the bridge,” he said.

  She lowered her gaze and nodded quickly. “I’ll go with you.”

  “I hope so,” Rade said. “You’re my astrogator, after all. And not just of the ship.”