Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (28 page)

The inner doors opened and the cavern like space dock
was bathed in light.

Toormis opened the canopy and quickly climbed down. He
was met by two Volen men in space flight uniforms but no insignia of any kind.
Their uniforms were also dirty and the men were clearly agitated by this
unexpected visitor. They noticed Toormis had a light expansion sabre on his
belt plus blaster.

“You got the 44?”

“Yes, replied Toormis and went to his Starfighter and undid
a panel on the back of the fuselage. He pulled a long rectangular case out and
snapped the panel back in position. He removed the cover to reveal a Sabre Mk44
light expansion rifle. He removed the trigger mechanism, put it in his pocket
and handed the weapon over.

The closest smuggler eagerly grabbed it. He knew it
was illegal but that meant nothing to him. This very rare weapon was capable of
shooting a sharp packet of light great distances and exploding the enhanced
light upon impact or whatever
distance
it’s
calibrated. It dramatically burns the target depending on the skill of the
user. It kills very quickly and silently leaving no weapon’s signature.

“The trigger,” he said holding his hand out.

“The fuel and circuits first, then the trigger,”
Toormis replied and reached in his pocket and brought out his hand held remote
computer for the Starfighter. The movement caused the two smugglers to
instinctively reach for their blasters but checked themselves when they saw it
wasn’t a weapon. That reaction easily seen by Toormis was exactly what he
wanted to know. These men had no intention of letting him go and getting his
Starfighter was their main objective.

The smugglers connected a fuel line to the Starfighter
and started filling the spacecraft. They produced a case of basic circuit
boards and opened it for Toormis. He took three boards and slipped them in his
flight suit pocket.

“What are you doing in these parts, Irrimus man?”

“Got lost when a navigation
malfunction set me off course.
Lucky I found you.”

“You could say that. We heard someone blew a big hole
in Ennack.
Seems like there’s quite a reward for those that
did it.
You heard anything about that?”

“No, communications have been malfunctioning as well,
only just came back on line before I found you” Toormis replied showing no
emotion or nervousness but felt the tension in the hanger increasing. He also
knew there was someone else in the dock but couldn’t locate them. He turned and
walked up to the fuel line connected on his ship and adjusted something on his
computer. “Fuel has finished,” Toormis said and as he turned saw two blasters
aimed at him and out of the corner of his eye saw a third figure brandishing a
blaster rifle between some boxes.

“The trigger, hand it over?”

Toormis slowly put his hand towards his pocket and
withdrew the trigger mechanism. He still had his handheld computer in his other
hand and as he moved his arm forward to present the trigger to the smugglers he
pressed a button on his remote. Suddenly, all the lighting including the rear
landing and spot lights on his spacecraft came on with full power. A warning
siren came on simultaneously with ear deafening volume. Toormis dived away to
his left drawing his blaster. Three blaster shots narrowly missed him and
slammed into the floor of the space dock. Toormis returned fire as he rolled
away hitting one smuggler who remained standing in the stomach; he died before
he hit the ground.

Toormis rolled over and over and took cover behinds
some drums. The siren was still wailing loudly, Toormis had his helmet on
protecting his ears and the smugglers were clamping their hands to their ears.
Toormis fired again and again. Something in one of the boxes around the man
with the rifle exploded and flames splashed over everything nearby including
the smuggler. He screamed and tried to run back into the dock. Toormis took
instinctive aim and fired hitting the man in the centre of his back killing him
instantly.

Toormis suddenly felt fear and he looked behind him
and saw a blaster aiming at him by the third smuggler who was now standing in
the open very close to him but was in great distress with his ears. The
smuggler motioned Toormis to turn off the noise. Toormis pushed a button on his
remote computer and the noise ceased. The smuggler staggered forward
threatening him and Toormis dropped his blaster and took off his light weapon
as the smuggler indicated and dropped it. “You’re too valuable to kill, Irrimus
man, there’s a big reward for you but wounded you’re just as valuable,” the
smuggler said and reset his blaster for heavy stun with a narrow beam and aimed
it at Toormis’s legs. At that range it would probably break his legs.

Toormis’s eyes darted around him, there was no escape;
he was a dead man!

The smuggler’s head suddenly exploded and Toormis
ducked instinctively. A great geyser of blood shot up from the smuggler’s neck
as his body collapsed into a soggy writhing heap on the floor. The clattering
sound of a blaster bouncing on the stone floor came from just under the
Starfighter. Toormis looked up and saw the Administrator half slumping out of
the cockpit.

 “I assume you are the pilot of this craft. I
suggest you find their money. You may need it,” the Administrator said weakly
before collapsing unconscious half hanging out of the cockpit. 

Toormis stood looking around him, his body shaking and
he felt lightheaded with relief. He quickly snapped out of it when he realised
there is an Echo Class fighter prowling somewhere outside, this battle isn’t
over yet. He quickly recovered his weapons and stowed his Sabre rifle away
carefully. He easily found the food and water supplies for space craft and took
as much as his ship could carry. Carefully he placed the Administrator back in
his seat and washed his face with cool water. He accessed his reserve survival
gear and gave him a shot of concentrated slow release vitamins and minerals and
another of a relaxing agent for the extended affects of space sickness. Some of
the paleness of the Administrator left his face and he looked a little more
comfortable.

“Money
hey
?”
Toormis said thinking out loud. That’s not such a bad
idea, something to trade with. He climbed down the ladder of his Starfighter
and quickly searched the space dock and hanger. There were creates and boxes of
many different items. Toormis would have loved to have gone through it all,
there was everything from expensive alcohol to crates of blaster power packs
but no money or security boxes of any kind. He found a small room in the back
with expensive electronic components. He searched and searched, keeping some
electronic components which were very hard to come by but no money. He shrugged
his shoulders and was walking out when a worn area of rock caught his
attention. Inspection resulted in nothing but when he put his hand on the wall
beside the worn area, his hand became part of the wall. “Oh!” he said as he
realised it was a holographic image projected to a section of rock wall. He
then saw a pinprick of light coming from the ceiling and grabbed a nearby pole
and blocked out the light transmission. A safe came instantly to view embedded
in the wall. It had a simple locking mechanism but would need the key. He went
back out into the space dock and searched the two bodies of the smugglers he
had shot with no luck. Reluctantly he searched the headless body, once again
with no luck. He then noticed a lump in the congealing blood on the floor with
a shiny piece of neck chain sticking up. With a pointed tool he lifted the
chain up and a thick metallic key came out of the blood. Wiping it with a cloth
he went back to the safe and opened it.

Toormis blew a whistle as he looked at the almost
countless amounts of Confederate credits stacked neatly in separate packets. He
looked around and saw a bag of expensive electronic components and emptied them
on the floor and filled it with the credits. After filling the bag he noticed a
satchel at the back of the safe. He took it and opened it as he walked back to
his Starfighter. He pulled out one of the many cubes in the satchel. He was
intrigued at what it was; he had never seen Norfian learning cubes before, only
heard of them. They covered everything from The Articles of Intervention
through to Starfighter tactics, how to care for pet fish or even how to run a business.
Wow! He thought
,
these smugglers took the risk to
break the Trigeal quarantine of Norfis. Toormis put the learning cubes along
with the bag of credits in with his Sabre rifle.

The Starfighter was now ready for flight but Toormis
ran to the tactical centre of the Space Dock and conducted a scan of the
vicinity from the many relay probes deployed in the nearby space. He located
the Echo Class fighter directly behind the asteroid waiting in ambush. Toormis
decided exactly what he needed to do, a direct frontal assault using the
superior speed and firepower of the Starfighter plus absolute surprise. The
pilot won’t be expecting that.

 The Starfighter engines hummed to life as
Toormis lifted the landing skids and hovered. The blaster banks on each side of
the ship’s nose were activated and when they reached full charge Toormis
deactivated the force field protecting the atmosphere of the installation and
fired. The inner and outer dock doors exploded in a massive sheet of flame, the
air pressure of the smuggler’s station blew the shattered doors outwards and
the contents of the hanger hurtled into space. The Starfighter flew out with
the massive amount of debris but turned sharply up and over the top of the
asteroid and flew directly at the Echo Class fighter, its pilot caught
completely by surprise. His shields disintegrated and his ship exploded with a
direct series energy bolts from the nose blasters of Toormis’s Starfighter.
Toormis banked sharply to starboard avoiding the massive heat and explosion of
the Echo then circled back around and stood off the asteroid at a safe
distance. Without emotion of any kind Toormis fired a torpedo and watched as
the silver dot flew directly at the asteroid and impacted with a little flash,
then WHAM! The asteroid disintegrated into thousands of streaking balls of
trailing light.

“Nice shooting,” came from a voice from behind
Toormis.

“You did some pretty good shooting yourself back
there. Thank you,” Toormis replied.

“Oh, you’re welcome. I’ve never liked Volen personnel
anyway. Who are you?”
Asked the Administrator.

“Welcome to Irrimus Starfighter IR - EJ75. Pilot,
Commander Toormis at your service.”

“Thank you,” the Administrator said softly, “where are
we?”

“Sector 21 BA on route to Zion. Do you remember
anything?” Toormis asked.

“The last thing I remember was the Trigeal probe and
something to do with the Black Priest. How did I get here?”  

Toormis thought carefully about his answer and decided
not to tell him about his close call with being assassinated, I may still have
to, he thought. “You were abducted by the Assengi and held in a cell on Ennack.
Lord Ambrae and I rescued you. Lord Ambrae was killed in the mission and we
managed to get this far but we are being hunted by the Trigeals, Confederate
Space Command and now the House of Volen.”

“Lord Ambrae dead!
How, why?”

“You don’t know do you?”

“Know what?” the Administrator said feeling very weak
but very concerned and wanted to know what was happening.

“The Emperor is dead. His body is being kept alive but
as far as I am aware he’s gone. All I really know is that Irrimus is under
threat of Trigealian Intervention and somehow you’re involved. Lord Ambrae
decided it was not safe for Irrimus that you remain on Ennack but he was killed
in the mission to get you out and I’m unaware of what his intentions were after
that, he didn’t tell me. His ship exploded and blew a sizeable hole in Ennack,
a T334 was involved.” Toormis explained.

“Thank you, I am very sorry to hear about Lord Ambrae.
He was a great leader.” The Administrator now realised the truth about the T334
and Johe were now known to the Trigeals. They were probably going to
intervene
Irrimus to suppress a probable rebellion with one
of their T334 pilots involved. He had no way of knowing if they knew about the
Earthman.

“Are you hungry?” Toormis asked.

The Administrator realised he was starving; he hadn’t
eaten for some time. “Yes I am.”