Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank - Basketful of Crap

“Oh.”

“I recovered your autocannon, it’s at your apartment,” Delovoa said.

“How the hell did you get that? I dropped it at the fight.”

“I know. I found it among the wreckage and got a lifter to pick it up.”

“Why would—,” I started, but Garm interrupted me.

“Listen to what he has to say.”

“There were three different corporations there. Intergalactic Brands Ltd, who you were supposed to be engaging. Northern Skies Ltd. The Colmarian Collective LLC.”

“I guess I’m glad it took more than one corporation.”

“But it was one corporation,” Delovoa exclaimed. “They all had the same guns. The same armor. The same tanks. The same APCs. The same bullets. And I took blood samples from the fallen soldiers in each corporation. They’re one hundred percent matches. They only have one soldier—just a lot of him.”

“Then why pretend to be different corporations?”

“They aren’t pretending anymore,” Garm said. “They attacked the telescopes.”

“What?” That was truly shocking if they openly went against the Navy.

“They rounded up all the workers and forced them off the station in transports.”

“The Navy is going to blow us out of space!” I said.

“Maybe,” Garm said. “But they haven’t done anything yet.”

“Why would the corporations do that?”

“We were hoping you could tell us,” Delovoa said.

“Me? How would I know? I’ve been in here for a week.”

“But you met with the corporation when this attack was authorized,” Garm said. “It seems to me they wanted all potential resistance removed from Belvaille. And it has been, for the most part.”

“I didn’t meet with the corporation, I met with a flunky who didn’t have a name and couldn’t afford clothes. I don’t know where their real leaders are or their plans. You deal with them all the time, Garm.”

“No I don’t. I told you I just send out invoices and notices. I’ve actually never met anyone face-to-face. I hadn’t thought it odd until now.”

“Probably because everyone here is a clone,” Delovoa said. “Except the person Hank met.”

“We know they are bringing in military hardware, but we thought it was so they could fight each other. If they are all the same corporation, why do they need an armed space station at the edge of the galaxy?” Garm asked.

“I think your Quadrad sisters might know something about all this,” I said.

“You’re Quadrad?” Delovoa asked, impressed.

“It’s supposed to be secret. But yes, I am. Keep it to yourselves.”

“The Navy is looking for the sisters too. Well, sort of. They’re looking for something they stole. A disintegrator.”

“There’s no such thing,” Delovoa said.

“Yeah, tell that to the Navy. But the Quadrad told me the other sister they paid me to find was going to use the disintegrator on someone here.”

Garm was shocked.

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“I don’t know. You don’t tell me everything.”

“But that’s pretty important! There are not many people she would need to use it on.”

“Yeah, and I’m one of them,” I said.

“I could be too,” Garm spat.

“Excuse me,” Delovoa said politely, “but I’ve heard you two go back and forth before and I don’t think we have time for it.”

We both paused to regroup.

“Bronze is dead,” I said sadly. “I didn’t eat him.”

The second part only slightly confused Garm. But she seemed resigned and merely nodded.

“How many people survived the corporation attack?” I asked.

“Well,” Delovoa started, “just you.”

I headed back to my place on battered legs.

They told me that I likely didn’t have much to fear being out in the open as the corporations, or corporation, didn’t seem interested in the citizens anymore. They had killed everyone they wanted to kill, thanks to me.

We had pieced together the events from the last years and it seemed like a concerted effort to get anyone capable of opposing them off the station. The corporation battles with “innocents” getting caught in the crossfire for instance.

The Yeolenz Flame casino being bombed and my assault on the Ulzaker-Ses club. Things like that had been going on ever since the corporations came. It forced everyone with common sense to leave Belvaille and all those without common sense to end up dead.

There was only a handful of the old guard left and we weren’t going to be mounting any campaigns against a united corporation.

When I came to the new Hank Block I looked up at the street sign for some moments.

I took the pole in my hands and shook it back and forth with all my weight until it began to loosen in its socket. I was able to eventually wrench it from the ground. I stepped on the thin metal plate that displayed my name and bent it back on itself.

I did not feel I deserved a street named after me.

The only good thing I’d seen in a long while was the fact the Gandrine weren’t sitting on my steps.

I walked to my front door when Rendrae peeked out of the adjacent apartment.

“Hank,” he said, looking around anxiously, “we need to talk.”

“I’m not in the mood,” I said, entering my place.

He followed in after me, slamming awkwardly into the door as I was closing it.

“This is urgent! I live in this building now. My home isn’t safe.” He closed my door behind us and locked it.

The fact he hadn’t sent little children, wasn’t in disguise, or modulating his voice meant he was frightened enough to drop that silliness. Still.

“Rendrae, I hate to dispel your delusions, but no one cares about you.”

“Then why did my offices get destroyed by a tank two days ago?”

“A tank blew up The News ?” It sounded pretty unlikely.

“I wasn’t there to see it, but the neighbors were. Nothing else was touched. And they didn’t exactly blow it up, the building is still standing. But they destroyed everything inside.”

“Hmm. So is that what you wanted to tell me?”

“No. Can I sit down?”

“Sure,” I said tiredly.

He sat down, pulling his plump leg up to cross it.

“Have you seen what the Gandrine are doing?”

“No. Well, I tried, but I haven’t heard back.” I thought about that. I didn’t have any messages from Cad and it had been quite a while. It’s possible he could have taken my money and left the station, but I think he would have at least told me in transit.

“I’ve spoken to numerous engineers on Belvaille. The station’s power consumption has increased over a hundred fold in the last month.”

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know what to say.

“Not only that,” he continued, “but I’ve spoken to someone who helped secure one of the corporate freighters to Belvaille. He said inside it had pods that he recognized and were, and I quote, ‘capable of containing infectious biological agents.’”

That sounded bad.

“The soldiers on Belvaille are all biological. Like they’re all the same blood thing. DNA.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, I’m tired. Delovoa said they were all the same. They’re making soldiers. Like in a shop. And they’re all the same. All the corporations are the same one too.”

Rendrae’s head almost exploded. He jumped to his feet and took out his tele to take notes.

“Wait. Go over that again.”

“I’m exhausted, Rendrae. And I’m not the person to ask. Tele Delovoa, he knows how it all works. It never made any sense to me. But that’s maybe the shop they’re building the soldiers in.”

“What if they are storing biological weapons instead?” he asked.