Never Surrender (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 16) Read online

  She looked over her shoulder at her man, “That was before he got into their ship’s computers and located another small slaver group operating near one of the commercial Gates, trying to deliver slaves under the auspices of paying off transfer fees.”

  They were in his ship's computers?

  She turned back to Chrillen, “Don’t worry, we already found the destruct codes and changed them. We aren’t sure how you got the message to it, so we changed the passcode.”

  Chrillen’s lips pressed together. That explained why he hadn’t felt the explosion rock the space station. “Just kill me now, because if not you, other Skaines will certainly do it.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Tabitha smiled, “You will get punished, trust me. I’m not big on slaps on the hand.” She looked at the Skaine, “but I’m the law, so justice will be a part of the program.”

  Tabitha stood up, looking over the three Skaines all sitting on the floor, their backs against the bar. She raised her voice, “I really appreciate all of the information you guys have provided. Your lives will be spared.”

  “Grab one each, guys. I’ll take this one.” Tabitha reached behind Chrillen and grabbed a fistful of his clothing. She pulled him up, one armed, and turned him around, his face looking behind him at all of those in the bar. Most of them were smiling, a few of them looked like they were thinking how to use the information they now knew.

  For one, they now knew that the three aliens could pick up a Skaine without straining. They watched the little procession leave the bar. Tabitha stopped and looked to her right, “Denigh?”

  “Coming, Ranger,” the station manager moved to join the alien who was easily holding the Skaine leader behind her back. She didn’t seem to be bothered by his weight, at all.

  “Please show me to the jail area. I don’t want to litter your space around here with new items that your customers would have to dodge.”

  “Of course,” Denigh nodded as he stepped through the door, holding it for the three aliens as they walked out. “Please head down that direction,” he nodded to the left, “I will follow as soon as everyone is out.

  Denigh could hear a Skaine complaining loudly ahead of him. As he came around the corner, the female had stopped and stepped next to the wall. The reverberations from Chrillen hitting the side of the hallway twice, then his quick request to have her stop beating him against the wall and that he would shut up echoed down the hall.

  The rest of the walk to the jail area was pleasant. Many of those at the station had heard the rumors, and they’d stick their heads out of their businesses or come out to see the three aliens carrying the Skaines like sacks of food.

  It was almost like a parade the rest of the way to the jail.

  —

  Denigh punched the button on his phone, “Comms?”

  “Sir?”

  “Please confirm the QBS Achronyx has provided final call?”

  “Yes, station master. I confirmed with Station Control the QBS Achronyx is outbound and they have the Skaine ship slaved … err, poor choice of words, station master, they have the Skaine ship following them.”

  “I don’t think they are worried about inanimate objects, comms. So, the Humans are gone and the Skaines and the Skaine’s ship with them?”

  “That is correct.”

  “Thank you,” Denigh replied and lifted up his finger, leaning back in his chair.

  On his desk, were three small columns of coins. Two worth one-hundred and forty credits, and one, the middle column of coin, worth two-hundred credits.

  He kept looking at the money sitting there, wondering what to do. For whatever reason, he felt it was special, and needed to be saved. He reached for his tablet and punched the video button, routing a connection to a friend.

  “Hello, Tro’lick speaking,” responded a female’s voice.

  “Hit your video,” Denigh spoke.

  Tro’lick’s face came up, and she smiled, “Denigh, haven’t seen you in a while. Did you hear about the fight in the bar?”

  How had the fact that he was part of the story get dropped? “Yes, Tro’lick, I’ve heard. I had a good seat for it, as a matter of fact.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes,” Denigh punched a button to turn on a camera on the back, “Do you see these three piles of coin?”

  Her face got closer to the camera, “Yes?”

  “Did your story include the Skaine paying off someone?”

  Her mandibles opened a moment, “That was you?”

  “The very same,” he replied, “I was wondering. I would like to encase these three piles of coins and commemorate them.”

  “Why?” she asked her mandibles askew in confusion.

  “I just think these coins are going to be special in the future. They will be the coins that started the Skaines downfall. Certainly in the Eubos system, but maybe in this corner of the Galaxy.”

  His friend looked at the screen, not saying anything for a moment, “You think this money is that special?” He nodded to her. “Ok, then you stay put, keep the video on those piles and while you’re at it, have security pull all video from the bar to you walking down the hall and into your office.”

  It was Denigh’s turn for his mandibles to exclaim confusion, “Why?”

  “Because,” she told him, “If they are that important, we will need to confirm those are the coins, with proof. And if we can?” She smiled, “They might be worth a thousand times more than their value sitting on your desk, Denigh!”

  She laughed at the look of astonishment on her friend’s face.

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  How bizarre, Shi-tan thought as he looked around the multi-story shopping and eating area. It was just off of the exit from coming aboard the huge space station that had been formed out of an asteroid, and so far he was impressed.

  He hadn’t been allowed to fly all around the exterior of the asteroid. He would have enjoyed a chance to see if there were soft points and a closer look at the large dish on one side of the station, but everyone seemed to be prohibited from getting too close to that side

  “Raaak’d,” a voice called from behind him. Shi-tan continued moving forward and then stepped off to the side to get out of the way of someone trying to get around him. He had followed the damned son of the King for his bounty, and now he was here in this completely new alien station tracking him to this...place. He looked around.

  These aliens looked like a multi-color variant of Torcellans.

  Except, feisty.

  Feisty Torcellans, Shi-tan liked that thought. Feisty is good. He looked around, trying to find a bar and his eyes noticed a store selling the tablets the agent who checked him in had spoken about. He headed in the direction of the store.

  A few minutes later, he had a tablet and an understanding how to use the programmed translation capability. He changed the tablet to use a language he readily could read and lifted it up. Sure enough, the signs all over the place started changing into a language he could read. He swept it across the different levels and then he pointed it at the end of the large cavern.

  There was a huge sign for a bar.

  Shi-tan smiled and pulled the tablet down.

  All Guns Blazing was a name that he understood. Certainly, a bar after his own heart.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Charrlock Mining - Asteroid 9881 - Eubos System

  It had taken the Yollins in the small mining company operations group about thirty seconds to realize their internal communications had been subverted. The alien’s system had turned off the connections between the front operations office and those who were a few hundred steps across the surface of the asteroid in the main mine.

  The Yollin in charge of the mining operations might have sent one of his subordinates to see to the problem. But, the very imposing alien spaceship was hovering, with its guns pointing at his office, right outside.

  They were relatively safe where they were, but getting information to the mine itself, and the compa
ny owner who happened to be in the mine checking on things for the last couple of hours, was impossible.

  “Attention Charrlock comms,” Br’ockchrellick’s communications worked again! He grabbed the microphone, switched the comm over to the correct frequency and hit the button.

  “Hey Boss, we got a problem out here,” he started.

  “No,” an alien voice came back. The aliens were speaking Yollin, but they certainly weren’t Yollin. “What you have is an annoyed Ranger who is tired by your lack of communication. So, are you going to talk with us, or shall I just start blasting away?”

  Brock, short for Br’ockchrellick, looked down at his communication systems. Everything was correct, but he wasn’t speaking with the mine. He slowly clicked the button to talk, “This is Charrlock comms, Second Lead Brock speaking. Who is this?”

  “This would be the Empress’s Ranger Tabitha speaking. We have some horse trading to do with your mine manager, would you be so kind as to…”

  The stop in communication surprised Brock, and he looked to see what changed when the voice of the alien came back online interrupting his efforts, “Never mind, I see that we have a new group coming out of the mine right now.”

  —

  Chan’on, the mine and the companies owner was pissed. He had lost contact with the main office, and those guys had not sent anyone to check on those in the mine. This was against safety regulations.

  Safety regulations he had written himself.

  Now, he was walking back to the operations center to tear Brock a strip off his back. “He’s getting too complacent,” he grumbled to himself.

  “Sir?” one of his two assistants asked.

  “Nothing,” he called back over their intercom before making sure he was on mute this time.

  “Brock, come in you poor excuse for a … for a…” Chan’on stopped at the mine’s opening when he saw the craft hovering right above the asteroid. The ship moved with the slight gyrations of the asteroid.

  Getting this close to the asteroid for a ship that size was beyond insane.

  Someone really good was piloting that ship. His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed activities at the back of the ship. Two turrets that looked like they were big enough for him to crawl into, turned around and pointed right at him and his two assistants.

  —

  Tabitha watched the three Yollins stop at the mine entrance. They had on suits that were more rigid than ship suits but weren’t up to the same level of protection of the armor Kiel used. Still, she didn’t want to get into a fight and be punched by one if she could skip that part.

  “Achronyx, patch me into the helmets of those new Yollins behind us.”

  —

  Company owner Chan’on wasn’t too surprised when his comms system crackled to life. He was surprised to hear the alien’s speech pattern. It was Yollin, but … different.

  “Attention, individuals coming out of the mine,” she spoke. “I am Ranger Tabitha, of the Etheric Empire. I have been sent to stop the use of slaves here in the Eubos system.”

  “Fat chance of that,” Chan’on grumped in his helmet, “those damn Skaines…”

  “Are sitting in a ship above me right now, and I have more I’m sure I’ll speak with soon,” she interrupted him.

  Alarmed, Chan’on looked up at his display on the inside of his suit’s helmet, realizing his microphone was on. He sent the command to turn off his mic, but it continued to stay on.

  His mandibles clicked twice in agitation, and Chan’on took two more steps out of the mine and looked up. Sure enough, way up above, was one of smaller Skaine slaving ships. “Hey!” Chan’on turned back to looking at the ship near him, “I run a tight company here, we don’t have any slaves.”

  “I am aware of that,” she said, “I’m here to ask you if you need workers? Because these Skaines are going to die if you don’t.”

  Chan’on thought about it a moment, then started walking towards the entrance to his operations offices. “I suppose the least I can do is talk,” he admitted. Then glanced up at the alien ship hanging above him as he walked underneath it. It was large enough he felt he could reach up and touch it, but not so large it seemed bulky.

  It was, he conceded, a very svelte ship.

  “Your ship or my offices?” he asked, not even bothering to see if his mic was on. His communications infrastructure was obviously in their control.

  “Your offices are suitable, Company Manager Chan’on. Ranger Tabitha out.”

  The frantic voice of his second in command immediately came over his comms when the alien dropped off. “Chan’on! Chan’on! We have company! … Oh,” Brock stopped yelling when his boss walked out of the shadows of the ship.

  “I’ll be there in a moment, set up the meeting room for visitors,” Chan’on told his second.

  Anything else he needed to say, he would say after he got this damned suit off.

  —

  The QBS Achronyx slowly pulled up from Asteroid 9881.

  Inside the mining company’s operations and communications room, Chan’on and Brock watched the human ship turn gracefully, then saw the Skaine ship turning to follow as both ships left.

  “That,” Chan’on stated as he watched the two ships rapidly disappear on the video monitor, “was the strangest experience I’ve had in my life.” He stopped looking at the video camera.

  Brock turned to his boss, after glancing at the monitor one last time, “You think these Skaines will work well for us?”

  “They have seven years of work, then they can go free. If they don’t comply, their own technology will punish them,” Chan’on shrugged, “They had the choice to accept her punishment for slavery.”

  Brock chuckled, “Boss, I’m not sure ejection without a suit into space is a choice.”

  Chan’on shrugged, “That head guy, Chrillen, straight up told her no. Said some things I didn’t realize you could even translate into Yollin, and looked straight into the video camera and bragged how she was too nice to kill them.”

  Brock shivered, ‘Do not ever mistake compassion for inability to implement Justice, Skaine.’ The Ranger had answered Chrillen. Damn, it was like she shut off all emotions. The next thing those watching knew, she had grabbed the Skaine and told a video bot to follow them. Then dragging him, as he screamed, she took him into the airlock. By then the Skaine started pleading, as he finally understood there was no bluff in her. The Yollin watched the video as she tossed the Skaine out of the airlock, her suit providing a helmet that no one realized had been folded into her collar.

  “It was a good message,” Chan’on admitted as he stepped out of the comms office, “I’ve got to make sure our two new recruits are situated with their equipment.”

  “What was the message?” Brock asked, thinking back to the video of her flinging the dead body into space.

  “When she says the punishment for slavery is death,” Chan’on called out as he turned the corner to walk down the hall, “she means it.”

  QBS Merideth Reynolds

  The bounty hunter, Shi-tan, downed his fourth glass of Coke. He had tried three different drinks these humans called beer, but the alcohol was playing with his perception, and that wouldn’t be allowed.

  If a fight occurred, he wanted to be able to remember it. Although, looking around at those in the bar, it seemed a sedate group.

  Shi-tan smiled when the next glass of the brew was dropped off at his table. The alien was male, but Shi-tan didn’t care. The alien was strong and graceful. Therefore, enjoyable to watch as he took care of those in his group of tables.

  There was something not…right here. Shi-tan looked around and could feel the emotions from those around him leaking danger, and he could feel the desire from most here in the bar area to fight.

  But a fight wasn’t happening.

  He had asked a few people about the alien he was trying to find and received no information.

  He turned the tablet back on and paged around using the inter
face. He hit one button and jerked his hand back.

  The tablet had created a 3D effect.

  Slowly, he moved his hand into the picture and found he could manipulate the different screens easily. Putting the tablet on the table and leaving it there, he stood up from his barstool and moved to his right, looking at the table.

  He couldn’t see anything. Shi-tan moved to the other side of the table.

  Nothing again. Finally, the bounty hunter walked all around the table, and it wasn’t until he was back in front of the tablet, that the screen could be seen again. Well, that wasn’t totally true, there were about ten degrees on either side when he leaned over.