Deadly Cargo (Jake Mudd Adventures Book 1) Page 3

  Kharn had fought with the Planetary Council on Cracia for years, struggling to convince them of the potential of the Cracian people, and their place among the more advanced civilizations in the galaxy. Tired of waiting for his plans to be implemented, he ignored the Council's rulings and began to form his own society within that which already existed on Cracia. His actions were deemed treasonous, and he was given a choice between death or exile.

  Long before the Council passed judgement upon him, Kharn had quietly prepared behind the scenes. When their judgement came, he had already secured vast resources off planet through untraceable channels. Though he wanted the rise of his people to begin on their home world, he was prepared to do his magnificent work elsewhere. The so-called rulers of his world were too short sighted to embrace his superior vision.

  "Time will tell," Kharn said. A foot taller than the other man, and with broad shoulders, he held his hands behind his back near his waist, long bony fingers interlaced. He wore a uniform like the other man's, but darker, which contrasted with his light gray skin. He stood facing the large indestructible crystalline glass window that afforded him a view of the wall of mountains on the horizon, the border keeping the creatures of the Untamed Lands outside the plateau he'd claimed long ago to build the base, the womb for his new civilization.

  His science officer slowly looked up at him, seeing from the position of Kharn's boots that his emperor faced away from him. "And…if the resistance—"

  Kharn spun around and shouted at the man, "Do you doubt me?"

  The science officer lowered his gaze. "Never, Great Kharn."

  Kharn eased his tone. "Good. The people of the Untamed Lands are simple un-evolved creatures. All they might dream of contriving, I have already accounted for. It is unfortunate that many of them left the honorable place I bestowed upon them. It has slowed our progress, but more laborers are coming. I have seen to that."

  "Of course, my lord."

  "We will expand our operations then. The current situation will be resolved soon enough. My new friend sent us a gift. Your daughter is on her way now to retrieve it for us."

  "You sent Nadira?"

  "She is loyal."

  "Yes, my lord."

  "And she loves her father, I'm sure." Kharn turned back to the mountains in the distance. Bands of reddish-orange and gray clouds stretched above the peaks. "Now, leave me."

  The man bowed before stepping backward to the door and leaving.

  CHAPTER 6

  J ake stepped back through the door of Halcion Station. Nadira stood in the middle of the room, staring at the dead Cracian. Jake slung his bag over his shoulder and pushed the bulk of it around to his back as he walked into the room.

  “You OK?”

  She didn’t take her eyes off the body. “He would’ve shot me to get to you.”

  “I know.”

  “You weren’t using me as a shield after all.”

  “Not my style.”

  She turned to face Jake. "Thank you.”

  He walked to her, but then past her. “If you are shot today, I’m going to be the one to do it. So, don’t worry.” He spoke in stride, not looking at her, as he headed for the door at the back of the room.

  She stood there without a retort.

  He stopped in front of the open door the Cracian had come through. “We’re going to your pod, right?”

  “Uh, yes,” she said. Then she glanced at the body once more before catching up to Jake. “You have the case?”

  Jake patted his go bag.

  He let her step in front of him, then he followed her.

  They passed through two more rooms, one with lockers on two walls and a couple of benches, the other a smaller room with a single table in the middle and chairs in around it. No decor. No life. Just a couple of empty rooms in a now unmanned outpost on a far-out planet with its own particular set of problems.

  She opened a door at the back of the room. On the other side, a set of stairs carved from the stone and dirt of the ground led down fifteen feet into one of the channels Jake saw on his landing approach. The pod sat a few feet past the bottom of the stairs.

  “So, we’re rolling our way there?” Jake said.

  “The seats inside don’t roll. Gyroscopes. But yes.”

  Nadira stepped over to the ten-foot-diameter metal sphere. Originally silver or the metallic gray of steel, the ball wore an uneven coat of caked red dust and dirt accented with discoloration from scrapes all around and a large gouge near the bottom. That spot, packed with grit, held a mix of browns and reds, with flecks of white. From where Jake stood, the ball appeared windowless.

  "Looks like it's seen better days," he said.

  She glanced back at him. "So do you."

  She's good.

  He moved closer, behind her. She raised her right hand, touching the sphere. A seam in the ball appeared as a panel moved out. She stepped backward, and Jake did as well to avoid blocking her movement. She turned her head away from the pod.

  Jake watched her cup her hand against her face next to her mouth and eyes. He craned for a look in front of her at the raised panel on the pod. A loud whoosh sounded as the pod blew out a strong jet of air through the opening all around the panel. The ejected air whipped up a red cloud of dust that rolled over her shoulder and into his face.

  He blinked and rubbed his eyes while he coughed the dust out of his mouth.

  She chuckled.

  The panel lowered to the ground.

  “Thanks for the warning,” he said.

  “Ok. I did that on purpose.” She smiled at him before turning and entering the pod through the opening. Jake followed, lowering his head to clear the opening.

  Inside, the two took their seats. Jake put her confiscated gun into his bag. Then he shoved it down beside his seat, away from her. He left his own blaster holstered on his side, shifting in his seat until he found a comfortable spot.

  The interior of the pod made good use of the ten-foot diameter of the sphere. Two seats took up most of the space, but the curved walls made the area feel more spacious than it otherwise would have seemed. There was a window after all, large, covering a third of the circumference of the sphere. The two seats faced it. Below the bottom edge of the window were the controls for the pod. A single panel, seven buttons and a couple of levers, the sort with horizontal grips that move along a single arc forward and backward.

  Jake noticed the sphere had a seam on either side of the window. He peered under his seat, then at one of the seams.

  “The sides of the outer sphere rotate,” Nadira said. “The middle doesn’t.”

  “That’s good.”

  “So, when do I get my blaster back?”

  “When I become more concerned with someone other than you shooting me.”

  “You mean like a thousand Cracians when you try to take the payment marker from them without giving them the case?”

  “Who says I’m not going to give them the case?”

  “You’ll help me rescue my father, won’t you?”

  “Just drive. We can deal with all that when we get there, and you can fill me in on their base and where your father is being held on the way.”

  Nadira pressed a button on the panel in front of them, and the pod door behind them closed.

  The view out the window in front of them was of the earthen trench in which they and the pod rested. No turns visible, except at the end, though Jake couldn’t tell for sure. The trench extended to the limit of his vision. The high walls of the ravine shifted in color as the wind blew the clouds overhead, moving the shadows and spots of light around on the dirt.

  She reached to one of the two levers. “You don’t get queasy, do you?”

  “I think I’ll manage.”

  She pushed the lever all the way forward, full throttle. The sphere moved at such a rate that the walls of the trench shifted into a reddish-brown blur. There was no acceleration. It went from stop to full speed. Jake put his hand over his stomach. Nadira ch
uckled.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Good,” she said, “but it’s the turns that’ll get you. Hang on.”

  He cocked his head toward her and glared at her with wide eyes.

  The sphere sped toward the trench wall ahead, then, without any loss of speed, shot off to the left. Jake groped at his side for something to hold on to. He didn’t find anything on the sphere to grip, so he clenched his bag.

  “You gotta be kidding.”

  The pod raced ahead. He groaned for a second, then checked himself, glancing over at her to see if she noticed.

  “Another turn,” she said.

  After a minute of this routine, she pulled the lever back halfway and the pod slowed. It still moved quite fast, but Jake’s stomach settled.

  She looked at him and grinned.

  “I’m glad that was fun for you,” he said.

  “Thanks. Took me half a year to get used to it. It doesn’t bother the Cracians. They designed the pod system.”

  “So, tell me about them,” he said. “Who’s their leader, and how long have your people been fighting them?”

  “Hiding from them is more like it. We haven’t had the means to fight them. There are too many of them, and my people aren’t trained or equipped to take them on.”

  “But there’s a resistance developing, right?”

  “Some of us escaped capture in the last round of raids. A hundred or so. We've tried to do what we can to stop Kharn. But a lot of those that escaped just kept running. They moved to the Untamed Lands, where the Cracians won’t follow them. They joined the others there.”

  "Kharn?"

  "Their leader."

  “But you and your father didn’t keep running. Why?”

  “We thought we could stop them. We just needed more time. My father is a brilliant man, and he knows about their technology. He worked with them, developing it in exchange for leniency for our people. He secured a guarantee from Crassus Kharn. But then, when he found out what he was building, my father refused to help any more. Then the mines dried up. And the hunts started.”

  “What were they building?”

  “My father never told me.”

  "And the mines?"

  "Resources for their research, I guess. I heard the mining needs changed over time."

  “What about the others that escaped, the ones that didn’t run to the Untamed Lands? Maybe they can help us.”

  “I’m taking you to them now.”

  CHAPTER 7

  J ake learned from Nadira about the Cracians as the two of them hurtled through the channels dug into the dry Daedalon soil. She told him of the weapons the Cracians used on her people in the hunts. Not just the blasters and rifles, but creatures. After she described them, Jake called them hounds.

  Four-legged creatures, as tall as a man, the hounds, or crag beasts, were native to Daedalon. They came from the Untamed Lands, but after settling on the planet, the Cracians captured a few the beasts. Once they broke the animals of their wild ways, they trained them and conditioned them to follow orders. They became creatures of war. The more peaceful Waudure used them for travel and protection.

  “So, the Cracians aren’t native to Daedalon either?” Jake asked.

  “No,” she said. “Though they pretend they are. They were here before us, and they told us this was their planet. But after my father started working inside their base he learned more about them. They colonized this world to mine it.”

  “What were they mining?”

  “They call the ore, drast. Our people call it lenura.”

  “What do they want with it?”

  “We’re not sure. The last time I could ask my father about it, he told me they’re storing it underneath their base, in a natural cavern. But that was long ago.

  “And those we’re going to meet,” Jake said, “you think they'll be willing to help us rescue your father?”

  “Yes. They came here with my father and me, to Daedalon, I mean.”

  “You said the Cracians captured your people and brought them here?”

  “That’s right. All of us arrived here on the same ship. The ones we’re going to see worked with my father.”

  The pod made another turn, but since they still were moving at half speed Jake’s stomach took less offense.

  “What kind of work?”

  “Engineering projects, and research. Propulsion systems and those types of things.”

  “Could your father’s work with the Cracians have something to do with one of those projects?”

  “I don’t know. It was all very secret. But I think it was something else.”

  The view down the trench darkened to near black.

  Jake looked up through the large window on the front of the pod. The sky, barely visible, seemed to be moving. “What’s going on? A storm?”

  “They happen every day at dusk and dawn. It’s why these trenches were constructed. Nothing that isn’t bolted down can withstand the winds and the sand. The storms cover a good part of the planet’s surface.”

  “Good thing I sent my shuttle back up.”

  Nadira tapped one of the buttons on the panel in front of her. Lights on the front of the pod came on. They illuminated the sheets of dust that rained down as the winds above the trench carried large volumes of the loose surface soil across the opening to the channel. Pings accented the heavy static noise coming through the pod’s metal walls as the sphere shot through the wild cloud filling the trench.

  “We’re almost there,” she said.

  The pod approached an intersection with three pathways. She moved the other lever and pressed a couple of buttons. The sphere took them down the left opening.

  As they sped down the trench, she pressed and held a button on the panel. “It’s Nadi. Move the gate.” She released the button. Static came through a speaker in the pod.

  The sphere sped on. Jake saw the end of the trench ahead. A dead end. No turns. No opening. Just a wall of dirt.

  “It’s Nadi. Open the gate unless you want a wrecked pod blocking your door.”

  Static.

  “I don’t see a door,” Jake said. “You want to slow this thing down?”

  She didn’t slow the pod. She pressed the button again. “Someone answer. I’m not stopping. The storm’s getting too big out here.”

  “The gate’s open, Nadi. Sorry. You caught me at dinner. Had food in my mouth.”

  The sphere moved to within a few hundred feet of the dirt wall at the end of the trench.

  She pressed the button. “Jafir? You always have food in your mouth. Stand clear.”

  “Clear.”

  Jake pointed to the dead end and looked at Nadira.

  She let the pod speed on. He gripped his bag again and cocked his head down a little, as if that would help him deal with the impact.

  The pod shot into the wall at the end of the trench. Red sand blotted out the view through the window, but the pod didn’t stop. A moment later, the sand slipped off the outside of the window.

  Jake released his grip on his bag.

  The pod slowed and then stopped. He looked around out the window. They had passed through a thick sheet of pouring sand. Now the pod sat inside a rectangular cavernous room. Metal lined the floors, ceiling, and walls.

  Nadira pressed three buttons in sequence. The lights on the exterior of the pod went off and the sphere’s hum, which Jake hadn’t noticed before, quieted and then fell silent. She got out of her seat as the panel door behind them opened. He grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulder as he stepped out of the pod behind her.

  Nadira stepped clear of the pod as a pile of sand and dirt slipped off the top of the sphere landing on Jake’s shoulder. He shrugged and flicked the rest off himself with his hand.

  Nadira headed down the room, moving the left side to walk a path marked by a painted line on the floor. “Follow me.”

  Jake noticed two more transport pods ahead, parked. He felt the chill of the room, then he not
iced the other difference in the air compared to what he felt outside Halcion Station. Moisture.

  He spoke to Nadira, who continued walking down the painted path in front of him. “Why’s the air different here? The temperature drop. The humidity. The storm?”

  “No. These caverns are sealed, locked off from the storm and the air outside. I’ll show you. Just follow me.”

  They walked for another minute, still in the same massive room. Nothing in it but the two of them and the three transport pods behind them. They reached the end and stopped in front of a recess in the metal of the wall at the back of the bay, or docking station, or garage. Whatever they called it. A painted rectangle outlined the recess in the wall.

  “Now what?” Jake asked, as they stood there facing the wall, no handle or doorbell to be seen.

  “Just stand still.”

  He stood still, feeling the comforting weight of his blaster holstered at his side.

  Nothing happened.

  “Yeah,” he said, “your guy’s on the ball again, I see.”

  “Just try not to lay your charm on so thick when you meet them. OK?”

  “So, now I’m charming?”

  The recessed panel on the wall in front of them slid to the left. A man stood on the other side of the opening. His cheeks bulged. He chewed for a second, then swallowed. Jake spotted the other half of the sandwich in the man’s left hand, which rested down at his side.

  “Hey, Nadi. Who’s your friend? Not a Cracian, I can see. At least you aren’t that stupid. You know you’re not supposed to bring anyone here.”

  “Where is he, Jafir?” She stepped past him and walked into the small room. She walked by the few chairs and a large metal crate serving as a coffee table. She went to a computer display embedded in the wall at the other side of the room.

  “He doesn’t want to talk to you,” Jafir said. “He told me to see what you want and then to tell you no.”