Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

Even so, the man kept surprising her. Few people outside of the Rouen Colony had ever bested her in hand-to-hand combat. Dana had twisted the truth when she’d told Maddox that she—Meta—was an engineer. Everyone in the Rouen Colony was an engineer, just as, in the preindustrial past, most people had been farmers.

Meta’s real specialty was fighting—not as a soldier, but as a bodyguard, enforcement agent and assassin. She had trained many years for her attempt against Baron Chabot. He’d owned the contract to the Rouen Colony.

The heavy G mining world could have doubled as a prison planet. During her time there, indentured colonists had slaved eighteen-hour shifts running the diggers. Because of the grueling gravity, the work wore people down at astonishing rates. The history of her planet and people went back to Baron Chabot’s grandmother. To aid in producing greater quotas of ore, the grandmother had decided on human modifications: making stronger workers through genetic alterations for endurance under extreme conditions.

The Rouen Colony was located in an independent star system. Such genetic alteration was against the laws of the Windsor League and the Commonwealth. In any case, Meta had trained in secret. The mine coordinator had believed she had a greater chance of success than others would due to her beauty.

From her childhood on, Meta had drilled in clandestine affairs. The endless memory courses, weapons training, stealth, security procedures, she knew it all. Finally, when she’d turned eighteen, Meta had boarded a packet to the baron’s regular gravity world. It had taken her three humiliating years before she gained access to his castle as a maid. Then one night, Meta had slipped into the baron’s quarters and throttled him to death in his bed. His eyes had opened long enough to gape at her for his final seconds of life.

Instead of fierce elation at his inert form, she’d felt sick at her deed. It had been her first kill. Staggering through the empty, enemy halls, she had found herself in the kitchens. At that point, she realized many security cameras had recorded her passage. Escaping the baron’s planet had proved hard. Worse, the political assassination failed to produce the desired effect. Instead of freeing the people of the Rouen Colony, the baron’s heir had passed stricter laws—and he’d placed a fantastic reward on Meta’s head.

Pirates hijacked the liner where she’d stowed away. They had uncovered her presence, and it would have been deadly for her to remain on the liner once the pirates left. It had been one of the baron’s luxury cruisers. So, she joined the pirates long enough for them to enter a Commonwealth system, where a Star Watch patrol captured the ship.

The authorities sentenced her to Loki Prime along with the rest of the pirate crew. Temple Savants reached her drop pod before anyone else did. The first thug tried to throw her down to start a rape train. He was the second person she killed. The Temple Savant boss had been impressed. Meta had slain the rapist with a single punch to the head. The boss made her his bodyguard and lover. The man had disgusted her, but better to deal with one than fifty at a time.

A year ago, Doctor Dana Rich landed on Loki Prime, and things began to change soon thereafter. Dana had taught the Temple Savants things, improved on their weapons and compound defenses. Then, she poisoned the boss one night. Meta was the only one who knew. Dana took the pig’s place. She made Meta her bodyguard, and that’s all she had to do.

Captain Maddox was right about one thing. Everyone on Loki Prime dreamed of getting off. It comprised a good third of their conversations and plans. The hard truth that all of them knew was that none of them would ever leave the horror world.

As she stretched out on the bunk, Meta grinned with delight. Her skin was clean and felt fresh for the first time in years. Maddox had let the medical station inject her with antibiotics. Soon, the germs and spores crawling inside her would be dead, and she would feel like her old self again. She didn’t think Maddox would be able to outfight her then, not as he had on the planet.

Meta’s grin widened. She’d seen him eyeing her. Oh yes, she knew that look. Her teachers had taught her to use such things to her advantage. She had been a pirate once before— No, forget about piracy. This time, once I own the scout, I’ll go legitimate. Maybe I’ll head to a Windsor League planet, start my own security agency .

Putting her hands behind her head, Meta wondered if Captain Maddox had spoken the truth about the New Men. The two golden-skinned men walking off the shuttle— Thinking about what had happened on the surface, she shuddered.

Meta had never met people like them. Their eyes had been harder than stone. Handsome like devils, they had remorseless attitudes. Maddox had guessed right about them. The Star Watch Intelligence captain seemed to do that a lot. The golden-skinned men had gathered the nearest Temple Savants. One fool tried to knife the shuttle leader. The golden-skinned man had caught his wrist and broken it easily. Then, he’d grabbed the offender’s throat and squeezed, crackling the neck bones as the knifeman gurgled to his death.

Five Temple Savants had bellowed with outrage, charging. The second New Man had drawn a gun faster than Maddox could have done. Before anyone realized it, five Temple Savants lay dead on the ground with smoking holes in their foreheads.

“You act like beasts,” one of the New Men said. “So we will treat you as beasts.”

The torturing began soon thereafter. If the orbital missiles hadn’t struck, Meta was certain the golden-skinned devils would have slaughtered the entire tribe.

Had more of their kind truly invaded the Oikumene? Were the New Men as unstoppable as Maddox said? By her actions, Dana didn’t believe it. Meta also knew that Dana Rich considered herself the smartest person alive. For over a year, Meta had seen the truth of that. She wondered if Captain Maddox realized just whom he’d taken aboard his scout.

There came a rap at the hatch.

Meta sat upright. “Wait,” she said. “Let me get dressed.”

“I’ll give you thirty seconds,” Maddox said.

Meta had shed the fur bikini some time ago, dropping the pieces into a disposal unit. She now put on a bra and panties, pulled on pants and buttoned a blouse. It was a Star Watch uniform for a rating. On impulse, she pulled on socks and slipped her feet into shoes. Lastly, she checked herself before a mirror. Hmm, she pulled out a string and let her long dark hair cascade to her shoulders. Picking up a brush, she combed her hair.

“Meta?” Maddox called. “Are you presentable?”

She considered jumping him when he entered, knocking him out. But why make the attempt so soon? It would be better to regain her full health before striking. Until then, she would lull the man. Despite his cunning, that should be easy enough. He was young, and she had seen the way he looked at her when he thought she wouldn’t notice.

Sitting on the edge of her cot, she said, “Enter.”

The hatch opened and Maddox ducked in. He had his gun hand on the butt of his weapon. The pistol was in its holster. When he saw her on the bunk, he removed his hand and snapped the flap shut.

“It looks as if you’ve made the adjustment to ship life easily enough,” he said.

“What’s the situation?” Meta asked. “Has Dana cracked into the space beacon’s software?”

“Not yet,” he said.

“How long do I have to wear this?” she asked, pointing at the anklet.

“That depends,” he said.

Meta raised an eyebrow, and she forced herself to smile at him.

Maddox smiled back.

Men were so simple. Her teachers had taught her that.