Sean-Michael Argo - Hard Cargo

With the deal done, but the cargo still changing hands, the captain decided it was time to give Orion a taste of station food and perhaps something stronger than recycled water. Sura knew Samuel would disagree, though the marine was busy with Meridian offloading the ink-rock and making sure Rubicon got everything they paid for. Dar’s tablet would chime when the exchange was complete and full payment transferred, so until then it appeared there would be little harm in taking a moment to enjoy the station.

Sura was soon seated at a modest eatery at the bottom level of the core deck, sipping a powerfully lemon flavored liquid from a small metal cup not much larger than a thimble. She watched and smiled as Orion did his best to be polite about the food. Captain Dar had been living and working in the black for so long he’d forgotten just how vibrant and delicious food harvested in real gravity from real dirt could be.

Orion had certainly spent his early childhood eating the reconstituted station food aboard Pier 13, and the bland processed meals of Grotto when they were still living on Baen 6, though his formative years had been on Longstride. The youth had grown his own vegetables, hunted his own game meat, and knew what real home cooked food had the potential to be.

For all the joy she’d felt at his first glimpse of the Dagda, there was a bittersweet core, for she knew that so long as they were spacefarers what meals they could have here were likely the best he’d ever have again. Orion was making a show of enjoying a slice of re-hydrated meat even as Dar was unknowingly making a fool out of himself by going on and on about the quality of a spear of re-hydrated asparagus, and Sura couldn’t help but feel a warmth spread through her as she watched them. Dar would never replace Samuel, but the bond between the captain and the youth was strong; Dar had been there for the boy during several of the years while Samuel was off at war.

“Well, isn’t this a charming picture,” sneered a voice. Suddenly, Jayce unceremoniously slid back a chair and seated himself at the table along with them, his sudden presence seeming to suck all the air out of the immediate area, his smile hollow and his eyes burning with malice, “It’s like you don’t know what’s happened.”

For a moment nothing was said, as Jayce moved his piercing gaze from Sura to Orion, and finally to Dar. It had been a few years since they’d dropped him, and while it was perfectly reasonable that he might find work that would bring him to the station, he had the look of a predator in his eyes.

The merc made a show of taking the metal cup of lemon liquid that Orion had not yet had the courage to touch and tossed the contents into his mouth.

His other hand was under the table, and as he swallowed the distinct sound of a slide being racked made everyone go still. He’d chambered a round and left the slide open in order to make that very gesture, and he now had their rapt attention.

Sura could see out of the corner of her eye that three other rough looking men, presumably compatriots of Jayce, had taken seats at the other table with Braden and Corbin.

“The only major event I am aware of is the fact that you have joined us uninvited, Jayce Rinn,” uttered Captain Dar in a low steely voice, his usual bright demeanor gone cold as he took a sip of the hoppy station grog from a personalized chalice he usually carried on a belt loop. “I bear you no ill-will, and removing you from the crew was just business. I would be disappointed to make this personal.”

“You left me on Cressida with a decent severance, so I got no quarrel with you. I wouldn’t come all the way out to the Dagda just to feud with a bunch of prospectors anyway, though I’m glad your choice in ports is still somewhat predictable. I figured it was a fifty-fifty chance you’d offload here or on Taloc,” snarled Jayce through a false smile. He set the tiny cup down and produced a data tablet from his jacket, which he activated and slid across the small table to Dar. “Oh, Captain, my Captain, I don’t give a spit about you or your crew, that was just a job. This is an opportunity.”

Captain Dar said nothing as he read what was on the tablet. Sura watched him closely, not daring to make eye contact with Jayce. She’d felt uncomfortable around him from the start, and though it had taken much in the way of private insistence with the captain, she was only too happy to see the merc cut from the crew. The others that replaced him might not be that much better, but there was a difference between killing for pay and killing for pleasure, and she knew Jayce was the sort of man who relished both.

Suddenly, Dar’s expression darkened, and he sighed deeply as he set the tablet on the table and slowly, deliberately, pushed it over to Sura.

“Before anything else is said, Jayce, give her a moment to read,” growled Dar in a voice that broached no argument. “She must know what is at stake.”

Jayce simply kept smiling, and as Sura picked up the tablet. She almost felt like he was more excited for her to read than the captain. It was an acquisition order, a request for the forcible recovery of a human asset, issued by Grotto Corporation. However, it was not an internal order, instead, it was being openly offered to any recovery element of sufficient capacity to apprehend, detain, and transport the asset. So Jayce was on Dagda as a bounty hunter, and why he would be coming at them in such a threatening manner was beyond her.

Then she read the name of the human asset.

Samuel Hyst.

“That’s right, pretty eyes,” snarled Jayce, and just as Sura reached into her duster and put her hand round the grip of her pistol she found the muzzle of Jayce’s weapon pressed painfully under her ribs. “Easy now. Don’t think I won’t drop you right here, bitch. Sammy has a wife and a son, I only need one of you to make this go my way.”

“Sura, please,” said Dar, his eyes pleading as he held his hand flat against the table, palm up, “He won’t do anything we don’t make him do. Let’s be reasonable.”

“What?” asked Sura, not moving her hand away from her pistol, though remaining still in spite of the fact that Jayce kept pressing the pistol harder into her side.

“Ain’t it obvious?” cooed Jayce as he leaned in closer to Sura but kept his eyes on Dar, his breath sending prickles up her spine as he spoke. “Your Reaper goes without a fuss and his family doesn’t have to die.”

Everyone was silent, the captain staring daggers at Jayce and Sura doing her best not to make eye contact with anyone. A storm raged in her mind. She didn’t trust herself not to spring into action if she met the gaze of Orion or Dar. The captain broke the silence after a moment’s pause.

“Jayce, this can be done without blood. If a low rent merc like you is holding a Grotto acquisition order then that means you have a sponsor who brokered the lead, so your cut is already reduced, no sense in risking any more of what’s left,” said the captain, which got a sharp intake of air from Sura even as his statement seemed to visibly ease Jayce.

“Then we have an understanding,” smiled the mercenary turned bounty hunter.

“If it’s not you then someone else will come along,” sighed Dar, his cold expression now turned to fatigue.

Sura locked eyes with the captain. “Just like that?” she rasped through gritted teeth, her blood boiling.

“He’s right, you know. That’s an acquisition order from one of the Grotto Anointed. It came through about a week ago. You’ll have every bounty hunter and enforcer in mapped space looking for him, and for a reward that big they’ll never stop,” Jayce explained matter-of-factly, in syrupy tones, as he slid a blade from his hip and held it in reverse against his forearm before putting his arm on the table, hiding the knife from sight but making sure that Sura and the captain knew it was there. “So why don’t you drop the hard cargo and fly away with no worries. You and the captain here can cut through all that sexual tension once and for all.”