Rider Express

“Against humans, top, against humans,” Amhatiens said as he stepped up beside Kray. The Enforcer bent at the pivot where its torso joined the tracked bottom, lowering itself closer to them. “We can get it unwired.”

“Keep moving.” It said and turned its head to scan Amhatiens.

“Guys, can we get a reset on this one?” Kray said and turned to find a lab-coat fiddling with a control box. The Enforcer straightened and the lights installed in the head-sensor went dark.

“We can get around the use-of-force protocols with one of these,” The lab-coat said and held up the portable controller. “If we take them off the autonomous setting. Our biggest concern is integrating the controller with our combat units. It won’t do to have someone dedicated to carrying this thing around.”

“Run it through the node-pack,” Amhatiens said. “The system is designed to be used with remote piloted vehicles. I can’t imagine this would be much different. All it would take is some tweaking.”

“We thought of that,” The lab-coat said. “It’s the control system that shows the most promise so far. We’re trying to integrate the AI software into your node-system. Theoretically it’s similar to the municipal networks the robots were designed for.”

“Guys, check it out!” Kray and Amhatiens turned. Harley pointed out the second Enforcer to be uncrated. Empty Rapier tubes were being test-mounted on the universal tips at the ends of the Enforcer’s arms. It looked ugly, and somewhat frightening, all business.

“Look at that thing,” Kray nodded approvingly. “Now if we had more maybe we could do something with them,” He turned the lab-coat with a hand to the shoulder. “How soon are these going to be ready?”

The lab-coat chewed his lip and pondered. “Maybe a week.”

“Since we brought them in, you should let us take them out. How about it?”

“You may get your wish,” The lab-coat said. “I heard that the zappers have moved out of Solstice and are moving this way. They probably want to finish this before next Gale.”

***

Horseman Station

Ajax walked slowly through the Circle R Bazaar, feeling the weight of the L-12 laser concealed in his pocket, following the back of Flick’s head as it bobbed through the crowd. His old fixer was a man of habits that had not changed in a decade at least. Up by second shift, out to the Bazaar for some food and some browsing, then to the Dock Inn Ring for the rest of the shift. At the end of shift it was back to the Bazaar for lunch, then to a holo-parlor or the small station arena for his entertainment. Ajax smiled as they moved out of the bazaar. The dark interior of the Dock Inn Ring would suit his needs to a touch.

At the middle of second shift, the place was mostly empty. Ajax slid up to the on-duty security officer slumbering head-down against the auto-bar. A few booths against the back deck were filled with transient merchant crews in quiet conversation. Flick slid into a booth away from the rest with his back to the entrance and started his shift-work.

“Salutis, Flick.”

“Ajax? What are you doing here?” Flick said and managed a look of surprise as Ajax slid into the seat across from him. “I heard you got busted sneaking into Sol system. I should have known they could never hold you,” He smiled and thrust out a hand. After several awkward moments he let it drop. “What’s wrong? You don’t got a handshake for an old friend?”

“I learned some things in Sol system that changed our relationship.” Said Ajax.

Surprise changed to confusion. “What do you mean?”

Ajax folded his hands in front of him to hide them trembling. “There was an interdiction fleet waiting for me at my penetration point. The point that you gave me. You set me up.”

“Ajax, I had nothing to do with it, I swear to you,” Flick said and held up his hands, suddenly aware of his peril. “You’re my best operator.”

“Save it,” Ajax said solemnly. “I spent time in Hell because of that bogus penetration point. I’ve already done enough of that.”

“It was a legit point!” Flick erupted. He turned as the security officer at the bar stirred, then went back to whatever dream-world was escaping him. For others there was no escape. “How was I supposed to know that Customs Authority expanded that control zone? Ajax, we’ve made a lot of credits together. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. How can you sit here and accuse me of this?”

“It’s called a logical conclusion, Flick. See, my regular points were doing just fine, but you didn’t know where they were,” Ajax said. “I take your advice, I get sent to the Deepcore. That’s all the logic I need.”

Flick recoiled as Ajax took out the L-12 and set it on the table. “Whoa! Ajax! What are you doing? Put that away!”

“It’s called payback, Flick, for bad advice,” Ajax said. “I wish I could say it was nothing personal, but the truth is that I’ve been dreaming about this since I jumped out of Sol system.”

“Ajax, please!” Flick said and looked over his shoulder for security. He’d gotten very pale. “I swear on my father’s name that I had nothing to do with you getting hooked. Just don’t burn me.”

“I just have one question, Flick. How much did they pay you to set me up?”

“Ajax, I have a confession to make,” Flick said as a drop of fear-sweat rolled out of his thinning hairline. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“Go on.” Ajax said.

“A couple years ago, before you left, it was the usual station cycle when this guy comes to see me,” Flick said, his eyes fixed on the L-12. “He says he has to talk to me about some business. He says that he knows I do a lot of fixing for you. He says that it would be in my best interest for me to give you a new insertion point for your next trip into Sol system.”

“Did you know this person?”

“I never seen him before then. He wasn’t a stationer, I can tell you that. I thought he was crazy or something. He said that he had enough information to get me vented out the nearest airlock. If I went along it was a cool hundred thousand in SOLC credits. If not, he was going to station security, and he just sits there, like he was ready to wait for an answer until the end of time.”

“Your cut of my last run would’ve been more than that,” Ajax said and slipped the L-12 under the table. “Why didn’t you just call in some favors and have him taken out?”

“It wasn’t like that. This guy was serious business,” Flick said and locked eyes with Ajax. It was usually Flick’s nonverbal sign of honesty. “There wasn’t a wet-worker on the station who would’ve come back from the job. This guy said he came all the way from Procyon to make this happen.”

I made too many enemies there, Ajax thought and said, “How much of the hundred thousand have you got left?”

“All of it.” Said Flick.

“As of now I’m ending our business relationship. The termination fee is a hundred thousand in SOLC credits. If I don’t see it in my TIL account before I ship out, my last day on Horseman Station is going to be yours as well,” Ajax added a casual lie as he slipped the L-12 into his pocket. “I have people watching the shuttle decks, so don’t even thing about skipping out.”

“Fair is fair, but watch yourself, Ajax. I don’t know what you did to this guy but I wouldn’t cross him again. Not unless I couldn’t avoid it.”

“Thanks for the advice, pal.” Ajax said and slid out of the booth. He decided to keep the L-12. Flick might want to keep his credits. The price of a reasonably talented wet-worker would allow him to keep most of them.

***

The code to the hab-unit still worked, Ajax discovered, as he punched it in and the door slid open. He stepped through the doorway into the interior, then closed his eyes and took a deep, nasal breath. It still smelled the same, like scented candles, body oil, and unwashed clothes.

“Cloe?”

“Who’s there?” A younger female voice called out from the attached shower stall. The door to the stall opened slightly and a head full of damp, yellow hair poked out. Ajax squinted and tried to identify her. It was Cloe’s daughter Sylva, several years older than he remembered, now a young woman instead of a girl, very pretty- her mother’s influence. “Mel, is that you?”

“What’s up, squirt?” Ajax said. Sylva shrieked with joy and ducked back inside the mist-shower. The shower door slid open and she emerged, glistening with mist and utterly naked. She ran into Ajax’s waiting arms and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. “Is your Mom around?”

“She’s at the bazaar,” Sylva said as she released him. “I thought I’d never see you again. You’ve been gone so long.” She slugged him in the arm as punishment for his long time away.

“Sorry,” Ajax said and rubbed the spot where she’d socked him. “I told you that I’d be back, Syl. It took more time than I expected, though. Is your mom still single?”

“You could say that,” Sylva said as she pulled a robe off the hook next to the shower stall and donned it to Ajax’s relief. Her young, naked body was inspiring lustful urges deep from deep within him. He averted his eyes from her pink, alert nipples and small thatch of pubic hair. “Last month it was an engineering tech, six months ago it was some Rider Express pilot, last year it was a security officer.”

“What about now?” Ajax said and slid into the table/booth built into the wall, something he’d done a thousand times before.

“She’s in transition,” Sylva said and removed a sealed pitcher from the thermal-conditioner built into the table/booth and poured a plastic glass full of clear water. The drink was set on the table before him. “I guess she’s just sick of stationers. Too many of them are on Serenity anymore. She decided that she won’t engage any man without a job, especially because of that.”

“I don’t blame her,” Ajax said with a chuckle. The Serenity problem in the Alpha Centauri system was as bad as it was in Sol. “The funny thing is that I didn’t realize how much I missed you two until I was light-years away.”

“You missed me?” Sylva said, clearly delighted. “Then how come it took you so long to get back?”

“Syl, the only thing I can tell you is that I was stupid. I got caught doing some things I shouldn’t have been doing,” Ajax said and took a sip of the water as Sylva slid into the table/booth across from him. “I lost a lot of good time I’m still trying to make up for.”

“You want to start right now?” She said coyly and swung her legs back and forth under the table.

“Way ahead of you, squirt,” Ajax said. “That’s what I wanted to see your mom about. Do you know when she’s supposed to be back?”

Sylva’s reply was cut short by the nearby sound of things hitting the deck. Ajax turned to find a shocked Chloe in the open hatchway, standing over a broken bag full of Smleck and leafy greens scattered over the floor. She lifted a trembling hand to her face that was very pale.

“Mel?” She said as Ajax slid out of the table/booth and moved to pick up the articles she’d dropped. “I can’t believe it.”

“Salutis,” Ajax said and refilled the bag she’d dropped. “How are you, Cloe?”

“I heard you were in some Sol system prison,” Cloe said. “How’d you get out?”

“It was a big misunderstanding,” Ajax said and picked up the bag. He carried it to the counter. “It just took a while for things to work themselves out, that’s all.”

Cloe was standing toe-to-toe with him as he dropped the bag on the counter and turned. There were gray streaks in her still lustrous brunette hair but the sparks in her green eyes were as bright as he remembered. Like all stationers, she put in her required time on the gravity bike, her muscles were as tight as her daughter’s were.

“Now you’re back for good?” Cloe said in a voice tinged with hope. “You haven’t mentioned what’s going on in your life, Mel.”

“I got a job with TIL,” Ajax said. “That’s not exactly accurate. They had a job for me that I couldn’t pass on. It pays better than what I’m used to. The only problem is that they got me on the move all the time.”

“You aren’t moving back to the station then?” Cloe said as Sylva slid away from the table and moved to the bin where their clothes were stored. “It was nice of you to stop in.” She brushed past him and commenced storing her groceries. The hurt and disappointment in her voice was plain.

“I can’t make excuses, Cloe, you know what kind of life I have. You always understood that. That’s why we get along so well, our understanding.”

“Honey?” Cloe said and turned away from him to where Sylva was slipping into a black station coverall. “Can you excuse us for a little while?”

“Sure, Mom,” Sylva said and zipped herself in. “I have to get to advanced studies anyway,” She pecked Ajax on the cheek as she moved to exit. “Be nice to him, OK?”

“Don’t worry, honey, we’re just going to talk.”

Sylva rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right,” She waved. “Mel, are you going to be around for a while? You don’t have to leave right away do you?”

“Sure, squirt,” Ajax said over his shoulder. “I’ll be around for a few cycles.”

“Then stop back again before you leave,” Sylva said. “I’ll make you some homemade smleck.”

“I can’t wait,” Ajax said and turned his attention back to Cloe when her daughter disappeared through the hatch. He pondered as he watched the hatch close. “She’s turning out to be beautiful. I never would’ve imagined that little tom-cat could bloom so well.”

“She’s really the thing that keeps me going,” Cloe confirmed. “Especially since I don’t have the foundation of a regular man in my life. You were as close to that as I’ve had since Syl was born and her father left,” She shook her head. “I sure can pick ‘em.”

Ajax reached over the table to take the hand that Cloe lowered from her face.

“Don’t say that,” Ajax said and gave her hand a squeeze. “The only mistake you’ve made is in letting someone else decide who the father of your baby was going to be. That’s a big hole to dig yourself out from. I never promised that I was going to be the best match for you. I just wanted us to have some fun while it lasted.”

“Is that all I was? A lark?” Cloe said as if hurt. “Let me tell you something, Melvin Kinkaid, I loved you. I thought that just maybe I’d gotten through to someplace inside you that only I could touch. And what happens? You get a hot tip and off you go, rocketing off to fek-knows-where. So long, Cloe. Thanks for giving my dick some nice attention but it’s time to go.” She threw her hands at the hatch then sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “Can I ask you something? Why did you come back?”

“It wasn’t up to me,” Ajax said. “The company sent me out here. If they hadn’t, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to get back here.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Cloe said. “Why did you come back to see us? You don’t owe us a goddamned thing.”

“I wanted to see how we’d changed,” Ajax said. “I wanted to make sure you were all right. I wanted to see you.”

Cloe surprised him by standing and sliding into the booth/table next to him. “I wanted you to be Syl’s father.”

“You don’t need a man,” Ajax said and reached into the inner pocket of his flight jacket for the micro-disc he could feel inside of it. “I always figured that the only reason you needed one was because you were afraid to be alone.” He removed the disc and tossed it onto the table.

“What’s that?” Cloe said and dropped her head onto his shoulder.

“An apology,” Ajax said. “For all the things you wanted that I couldn’t be.”

“I missed you, Mel.” She said.

The disc was coded and authorized for 100,000 in SOLC credits. It was his only compensation for the only woman he’d ever considered for matrimony.

***

Leslie Spenser was wishing he could turn the bright lights in his cubicle down instead of off when the door bell sounded. He got up from his leafy dinner and went to answer it. A stony-faced station-magistrate was standing in the corridor when it opened.

“Admiral Spenser?” The magistrate said.

“Yes, that’s right,” Spenser said and wiped his mouth. “It’s ex-admiral now, thank you. Can I help you?”

“The station manager has a situation he asks your advice on. Are you available?”

“Retirement usually makes that a certainty,” Spenser said and tossed the napkin into the cubicle. The door closed behind him as he followed the magistrate down the corridor. “What sort of situation?”

“We’re not sure,” The magistrate replied. “Facts are still being analyzed. There seems to have been an accident of some kind.”

“The transmission came from the outer boundary. We estimate that a ship came out of transit prematurely: two light-weeks away. We downloaded a transmission from a NorCom ship. It exploded shortly afterward.”

Spencer sat at in the chair the young Magistrate indicated and said, “Play it, lad.”

“This is the USS Pickett, mayday- mayday! Requesting a clear channel, any receiving station, stand by for downlink. Sending now!” The captain of the Pickett shouted. His wide eyes twitched as a repeating, automated, warning urged the crew to “evacuate now.” He was numb, ashen, a dead man. He leaned out of the picture to initiate the data dump. The captain turned, startled, as a loud wrenching sound came from behind him. The screen fuzzed and went dark as Pickett stopped transmitting.

The Magistrate used a remote control to change the video feed. It was a paused frame taken from the telescope array at Horseman Station. An arrow had been included by analysts, pointing one of the larger, brighter stars- USS Pickett coming down the corridor from 61 Virginis. The footage rolled for less than 10 seconds start to finish. The dot started moving toward the bottom left of the picture. It shifted several millimeters before increasing in size and brightness times ten. The light took Pickett away as it faded.

“Who got the data dump?” Spenser said as the remote changed the view yet again. Pickett’s technical data.

“We got some of it, I think,” The Magistrate said. “The transmission went out over the guard channel so everyone in the system heard it. Not the same for the data dump though. It’s encrypted in military code so we might not be able to read it.”

“Then send it to someone who can read it,” Spenser said. “Are there any military ships in system? If there are, send it to them, let them decipher it.”

Yes, sir,” The Magistrate said and activated his com-unit. “Compile a record of all the military ships inward or outbound.” The record came back nearly empty. 2nd Fleet hadn’t stopped for a station-call. “Ok, we have a NorCom tug on their way out, USS Barlow. They’re making for the Sol jump-point.”

“How long until they initiate transit?” Spenser said. The Magistrate repeated the question into his headset microphone.

“Forty-one hours. Should we contact them, sir?”

“I recommend it. Just make sure you find out what it is before they leave for Earth. Remind them that we have agreements on intelligence sharing. Especially when matters of NorCom or Centauri security are involved. If it’s important enough for you to disturb my retirement, it’s important enough to know about once they get it decoded. Make sure you tell them I said that.” Spencer rubbed his hands together and chortled quietly. “Thank the maker. It seems that fate isn’t quite done with me.”