Steven Campbell - Suck My Cosmos

“Can you tell if the Ontakians are there?” I asked.

“It’s a huge ship. I just made some really general scans. It will take a lot of hours to—oh, wait, there they are,” he said.

“Really?” Garm asked.

“Well, I just saw two moving regions of unscannable space on the ship.”

“Where are they specifically?” Garm asked.

“How should I know? I don’t have a dreadnaught blueprint handy,” Delovoa said.

Garm muted her tele for a moment and whispered to me.

“Has Delovoa gotten a lot snarkier since he chopped himself apart?” she asked.

“Not really,” I answered.

“Can you tell where they’re headed in a general sense?” Garm asked, after unmuting her tele.

“No, I don’t have them on scan any more. I only have three telescopes under my control and they weren’t designed for tracking small objects like this.”

Garm looked to me.

“We should go to Shelter,” she said.

I nearly spit out my food. Nearly. But I wasn’t wasting calories on my floor.

“That seems like a really horrible idea,” I said. “Even at full strength I wasn’t in any shape to fight them and now I’m…” I indicated my reclined posture.

“You have Delovoa’s big torch, right?” she asked.

“So? Who knows what they have. More bombs, probably.”

“Hank, there are Ontakians over there on a somewhat operational dreadnaught. The most powerful warship in the galaxy.”

“A Boranjame ship would crush it like a bug,” I countered.

“Do you have a Boranjame world-ship handy?” she asked.

“Look, we don’t even know if the weapons are active on Shelter. And even if they are, it must take a crew of thousands to fly a dreadnaught,” I said, terrified of leaving my very comfortable bed.

“Tens of thousands, actually. But it doesn’t matter,” Garm said. “What if they just fly away? Our whole fleet couldn’t stop it. What if they a-drived? If Shelter falls into the hands of the Ontakians, they could repair it and eventually destroy this entire System and everything in it—including you and your fat mouth!” She said, slapping at my hand as I shoved more food down my throat.

“Maris-To has been working to get Shelter restored. He’s certainly not going to blow up Belvaille,” I said.

“But you said Maris-To didn’t know about the Ontakians. Maybe they have been using him . Maybe their goal from the start was to get Shelter restored and commandeer it.”

“Then…we would be in trouble,” I said weakly.

It actually did seem like a very real and frightening possibility as I thought it over.

“We have to go,” Garm demanded.

“At least get Malla and MTB to help us,” I pleaded.

“They have to keep up their part. Shelter is the size of a city. A big city. We won’t be able to find the Ontakians without those telescopes.”

“I don’t want to find them,” I grumbled.

“It’s better we meet them now. Even if Maris-To is best friends with the Ontakians, nothing good can come from anyone having control of that ship,” Garm said.

“Chin up, sir,” Cliston said to me.

“I almost got my chin blown off a few hours ago. I’m trying to keep it tucked away.”

“Then good luck, sir,” he amended.

I had all my equipment, which mostly consisted of Delovoa’s torch. I had lost my Gravitonic gun at the Governor’s. I carried the last grenades from my armory, a knapsack of tools, and a lot of food.

I drank about a gallon of coffee to try and counteract my lethargy, but it wasn’t working.

Garm was in her infiltration outfit. It appeared to be black, unadorned fabric, but I had seen that every possible surface held some hidden pocket with a weapon. She wore a tiny backpack and carried two thick pistols, one on each thigh. Both were different models.

“What are pistols going to do against those guys?” I asked her, on seeing the guns.

“Didn’t you view the diagrams?” she said.

I didn’t remember any diagrams where her pistols suddenly turned into pulsars capable of actually hurting the Ontakians.

“Cliston, if I don’t come back, give all my stuff to MTB. So he has to pay taxes on it,” I said.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine, sir. In any case, your will is made out to the city of Belvaille itself,” he said.

“Still? I guess I haven’t updated it in a while.”

“I could change it for you if you like, sir. I possess the legal credentials,” he said.

I stared at him.

“If I get back, we need to talk about just where the hell you came from, Cliston.”

“As you wish, sir.”

Garm and I drove to the port with me yawning and eating the whole way.

When we got there, I called Zzzho to pick us up.

“Is that a Keilvin Kamigan?” Garm asked, peering inside the ship.

“Yeah,” I said.

She looked at the beat up taxi and did not seem happy.

“Come on, he flies me all the time,” I said.

We got in and disembarked.

“Zzzho,” I spat, “have you taken any fares to Shelter lately?”

“Sure. Lots of people coming and going now. I guess they’re using it for apartments,” he buzzed.

“A lot of Tech people?” Garm asked.

“Sure. They had to fix it up first,” he said.

It was all plausible. Not even a cabbie who was used to flying around Shelter was suspicious.

“Who do they report to?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Not sure if it would be Housing or Tech or what. And Ray’Ziel is dead anyway,” he said.

No one would know they were fully restoring the dreadnaught until it was well along. And then Maris-To would have only the most trustworthy of his engineers handle things from then on.

MTB teled from the Festival.

“They are recalling all the C.O.’s. We have to abandon the telescopes,” he said.

“Recalling you to where?” Garm asked.

“To headquarters. Get this, it’s by order of the Governor,” he said.

Garm turned to me.

“Is it possible you were wrong about him?” she asked me.

“No way. Spoons don’t lie. Malla should also leave. It could get dicey there without MTB’s Central Authority protection,” I said.

“Malla can take care of herself,” Garm replied coolly.

“Aren’t you supposed to be all grandmotherly and concerned?” I asked her.

“She’s a way better fighter than I am,” Garm answered.

“Oh.”

“Hey, you guys seeing that?” Zzzho asked us.

“What?” Garm answered.

We looked outside the taxi and could see some bright flashes in the distance. It didn’t appear to be normal lights from ships.

“What is that?” I asked.

Suddenly, a huge light briefly flared and vanished. It bathed our ship and monetarily blinded us.

“That was a freighter exploding,” Zzzho said.

“How?” Garm asked.

“The Central Authority ships are attacking vessels. Look around,” he said.

We were strapped pretty tight in the taxi, and it wasn’t exactly designed for sightseeing, but there were flashes of light in every direction we looked.

“There is an order being broadcast that all ships need to cease movement or dock. I’m making for the nearest ship,” Zzzho said.

“No. Take us to Shelter,” Garm stated.

“Look around, lady. We aren’t going to make it. I’m not going to ignore the Central Authority when they’ve already shown they’re willing to blow up vessels,” Zzzho said.

“But they’re doing it for a reason. This is a power struggle amongst the nobles. You’re just a taxi,” Garm said.

“Exactly! It would take them one shot to pop this shuttle,” Zzzho buzzed.

“Maybe we should dock, Garm,” I said.