DusktoDust_Final3 Read online

  “I’m a spook. I have my ways.”

  Carpenter seethed. “Are you telling me you’ve been following us since Prospect?” He slammed him harder against the wall. “What do the Peaks have on us? Are they on their way?”

  “No,” Letsego said, “but you’d be far better off if they were.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Letsego studied Carpenter’s eyes. “You really have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?”

  “What? Windcorp getting in league with raiders?. It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard today.”

  Letsego laughed. “It’s a lot deeper than that.”

  Carpenter wasn’t amused. “You are going to tell me what’s going on right now or I swear I’ll put a bullet in you.”

  “It’d be easier if I showed you.” He pointed to his helmet which lay on the ground.

  “What, you want me to put that on?”

  “There’s a recording on there that shows everything that Windcorp is up to.”

  “And what’s to stop you from killing me while I’m watching it.”

  “If I wanted you dead, I would have shot you back there.” But I might change my mind later, Letsego thought to himself. “But if it makes you happy…” he reached into his belt and pulled out a pair of cuffs.

  Carpenter cuffed him to a pipe in the storeroom they now stood in. Then he put the helmet on and pressed play. Twenty minutes later he took it off. There was a disturbed look on his face.

  “I told you,” Letsego said flatly.

  It took a moment for Carpenter to find his words. “What was that?”

  “Some kind of alien tech. And now the Federation has gotten their hands on it.”

  “You’re telling me that Windcorp is selling alien weaponry to the Federation. That’s why you’re here?”

  “No, I’m here tracking you, the scumbag smuggler who delivered the stuff.” Before Carpenter could counter, Letsego continued. “Look, Carpenter. I followed you here without orders. That means command doesn’t know that I’m here. That means that as much as I want to put a bullet in your brain for what you did to my team, I’m not going to, because you are the best, hell, you are the only way I am getting off of this asteroid.”

  Carpenter looked at him quizzically. “What are you talking about? Why don’t you call the cavalry? Tell your Peak buddies to come and crash this party.”

  “Did you hear what I said? I am out here on my own. I don’t have any way of contacting them, and if I did I don’t think they’d come. You’re the pilot. I need you to fly me out of here.” Carpenter did not look convinced. “You saw the recording. You saw what that weapon can do. The Federation is on its way right now to Prospect. I don’t care what side of the law you are on. You cannot let this happen!”

  After a long moment, Carpenter reached out and grabbed Letsego’s wrist. “I guess I don’t have a choice.” He unlocked the cuffs. “I’m never going to be able to steal a ship without help. I guess I have to trust you.” He handed the helmet back to him. “Who are you anyway?”

  “Staff Sergeant Letsego, Peacekeeper Intelligence.”

  “So what’s the plan, Staff Sergeant?” Carpenter patronized.

  Security was clearly heightened throughout the base. David and Letsego made their way cautiously through the corridors in the direction of the landing bays. They had traded in their previous outfits for some more appropriate attire attained from a raider’s unsecured locker. David now wore a tattered tunic and armored spacers pants. They fit well enough but smelled like a garbage heap. Letsego was dressed similarly.

  David let the PK lead. It seemed like he had a general idea of the layout of the base. And from behind David could keep a better eye on his new partner. Contrary to what he had previously said, he didn’t trust the intelligence operative. How could he? The man had let Alana die.

  David tried to contain his anger. Part of him knew that blaming Letsego for her death was flawed. It was Castle who deserved to pay. But another part of him wanted to strangle Letsego for not acting sooner. And another part of David wished that he hadn’t acted at all, that he would have been allowed to die in that airlock.

  These morbid thoughts plagued David’s mind as he navigated the asteroid. He finally he quelled his impulses, reasoning that if he died on this rock Alana’s death would be in vain. And he couldn’t get off the asteroid without the help of the Peacekeeper.

  They reached the landing bay. It wasn’t the same one that Catalyst had landed in, but it would do. Raiders were moving about conducting maintenance and loading and unloading equipment. There were dozens of craft scattered about the landing pads, all in different states of repair. David just needed one.

  “What now?” David said. This was the Peacekeeper’s plan. He’d rather step back and watch him screw it up.

  “Can you fly any of these?” Letsego asked.

  “A handful.” David scanned the ships. There were a wide variety. He figured he could handle most of them. The real question was what condition were they in. “That one.” He nodded towards a sleek interceptor that he recognized. “She’s fast and looks to be well maintained. She’ll do.”

  “How long will it take to get her started?”

  “At least five minutes. You sure this plan will work?”

  Letsego hefted his rifle. “You just get that thing started. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  David grabbed his arm. “Hey, we’re not going anywhere if you don’t open the bay doors. Once you draw the guards away you gotta get to the control room.”

  Letsego shook out of his grasp. “Don’t worry, Carpenter. If I fail, you’ll know pretty damn quickly.” With that he disappeared down the corridor.

  David didn’t like this plan one bit. It relied far too much on the Peacekeeper successfully accomplishing his part and not enough on David. David’s task was easy; get the ship started. The Peacekeeper had the more difficult task; distract the raiders and open the landing bay doors. The first part would be easy. The second was more difficult. The controls for the door were located in a control room somewhere. Letsego would have to find it, open the doors and get back to the ship before the raiders realized what was going on. There were a lot of places the plan could go wrong. David would have felt a lot better if his partner was someone he trusted, like Alana.

  David moved into the bay and made his way towards the ship. The interceptor was small, some type of modified Harbinger class. It would be a tight fit for two people, but what it lacked in comfort it would make up for in speed and agility. And they would need both if they were going to escape the Belt.

  The interceptor sat in a corner of the bay. There were two raiders working on it. They were in the middle of detaching a fuel hose. David approached them casually.

  “She almost ready to go?” he said in a gruff voice. “The boss wants me to take her out.”

  One of the raiders looked at him puzzled. “What are you talking about? This is my ride. Who the hell are you?”

  “Is she almost ready to go?” David repeated.

  “She’s topped off on fuel. Just have to load the missiles.” The raider puffed his chest out. “But you ain’t taking her anywhere, buddy. This here’s my bitch.”

  This was good. David wouldn’t have to worry about fueling the ship. The lack of ammo was unfortunate, but hopefully he wouldn’t need it anyway. He smiled at the raider. “Thanks.” The response further confused the man.

  “Did you hear what I-”

  Before he could finish, David had struck. The blow from the butt of his rifle sent the raider to the ground. Another blow sent a spray of blood into the air and left the man unconscious, his nose shattered and a large gash on his forehead.

  The other raider dropped the hose he was carrying and reached for his own weapon. He didn’t have a chance. David was on top of him before he could draw. He grabbed the raider from behind and brought him to the ground with a choke. Ten seconds later h
e was also knocked out.

  David stood up and looked around. He was relieved to see that his actions had gone unnoticed by the other raiders in the bay. Wasting no time, he dragged the two bodies into the shadows and then returned to the interceptor. He did a quick walk around of it. He was going to have to expedite the preflight inspection. Luckily, everything looked in order.

  He climbed into the cockpit. The controls were a familiar layout. He would definitely be able to pilot it. Now he just needed the Peacekeeper to create the distraction. He couldn’t start the engines now or all the raiders in the bay would be alerted.

  His hand hovered over the engine ignition. Letsego was late. It should have gone off by now. David started thinking of his options. If Letsego had failed he was now on his own.

  But he hadn’t failed. At the far end of the landing bay an explosion ripped two starships apart. Immediately every raider in the vicinity rushed over, grabbing firefighting equipment. Secondary explosions from ordinance and fuel continued to rock the asteroid. The diversion was working.

  David punched the ignition and the interceptor’s twin engines roared to life, though, with the commotion across the bay he was the only one who noticed. He took a deep breath to clear his head. Then he systematically started checking all of the interceptor’s systems, every few seconds glancing up at the bay doors. Each time they had failed to open. Damnit, Peak, he cursed to himself. This whole charade is worthless if you don’t open those doors.

  The bomb had been six sticks of EL-6 plastique they had stolen from one of the weapons lockers. Avoiding the eyes of the raiders, Letsego had attached the explosives to the hulls of the ships and affixed them with wireless timers.

  To his dismay, he had set the timers too short. Now, he found himself only halfway to the bay control room with the entire base rushing past him towards the sounds of the explosions. He did the best he could to fight against the crowd, only receiving a handful of questionable glances from raiders.

  He rounded a corner and found himself at the doors to the control room. He gripped his rifle tightly, hoping that the raiders who were supposed to be manning the room had been drawn away by the explosions. He wasn’t so lucky.

  There were three men in the room when the doors hissed open. All turned with surprise when he entered. “Who the hell are you? This is a restricted area.”

  Letsego didn’t bother responding. Seizing the element of surprise, he raised his rifle and fired. As one of the raiders dropped, the other two dove for cover while reaching for their own weapons. Letsego quickly ducked behind a desk, just in time to avoid a hail of bullets.

  He returned fire, but soon found himself effectively pinned by the raiders’ assault. He glanced around the control room for a way out. The room was small with a large window on the far side overlooking the bay. He wouldn’t be able to use a frag grenade without injuring himself in the blast. But there was ample cover. If he could move from behind the desk he might be able to outflank the assailants.

  As the bullets chipped away at the ceramic desk, Letsego reached into his pocket and retrieved a smoke grenade. Thumbing the safety, he rolled the device across the floor. Gray smoke soon began to billow, encompassing the tight space.

  The raiders began coughing. “What the hell?” one of them shouted. Their firing became erratic.

  Letsego stayed low, and using the concealment of the smoke, moved out from behind the desk and attempted to flank the raiders. The smoke worked both ways. The only way he was able to locate the men was by their muzzle flashes. He reached a position perpendicular to where he had been and opened fire.

  He dropped the raiders in two quick bursts. The room fell silent with the lack of gunfire. He stood up cautiously. Walking slowly over to the raiders, he checked the bodies. They were dead.

  Letsego didn’t find pleasure in taking life, but this had been necessary, just like killing the troopers had been. He put the thoughts out of his mind and moved toward the control panels.

  Finding the bay door controls was not easy. The smoke still lingered in the room and Letsego could hardly see a foot in front of his face. He carefully inspected all of the controls. They were labeled in Arabic, which made the search even more difficult. Eventually, he found them.

  He scrolled through the control screen until he found the correct menu and then initiated it. Outside the window, the giant doors at the far end of the bay began opening. Even through the smoke, Letsego could make out the distinct green hue of the energy field. It would hold in the atmosphere, but only for a limited time. Now, he had to get to back to Carpenter so they could get off this rock.

  Letsego heard the doors slide open behind him. Someone stepped into the room and then they hissed closed again.

  “Hey, who’s in here?” a voice said.

  Letsego aimed on what he thought was the source and fired.

  “Shit!” the voice exclaimed. “Get a team to the control room right now!”

  Damnit! Letsego had missed. It sounded like the raider was calling for backup.

  Crack-crack-crack!

  The raider was firing blindly through the smoke. Letsego instinctually ducked. He was in the completely opposite position of where he had been before. If he had had time he might have chuckled.

  The next burst from the raider impacted against the bay window. Letsego listened as cracks in the glass continued to spiral. Then it shattered.

  With the window shattered, the smoke quickly dissipated. Soon he could see fully out into the bay. From behind cover, he heard the door hissed open again.

  “Where is he?” a voice said.

  “Behind the main console.”

  Letsego didn’t have much time. He fired blindly over the top of the desk, hoping that would keep the raiders’ heads down for an extra second. Then, without looking at the attackers, he climbed up onto the control console and jumped. In the back of his mind he mused that for the second time in less than a week he found himself jumping out of a perfectly good window.

  The control room was higher off the ground than he had thought. It had to be at least fifteen meters. Gravity seized Letsego and pulled him down.

  His fall was broken by the hull of a starship. It probably saved his life, the metal being a more forgiving surface than the hard concrete floor of the landing pad. He tucked and rolled, but found himself in the air once again as he fell off the hull onto the ground.

  He landed on his feet, but pain shot up his right leg. He stood up, testing it to see if he could walk. It was painful, but he could make it.

  Suddenly, bullets stitched the pavement in front of him. He ducked for cover and looked back up at the window. The raiders were firing down on him. He looked to his right, where two starships were still blazing as raiders continued to fight the inferno. Some were looking in his direction after hearing the gunshots.

  Letsego looked at the far corner of bay. He could see an interceptor spooling up. That had to be Carpenter. It looked like the ship was ready to go. But how was Letsego going to get there with a bum leg and the raiders on his tail.

  Just then, Letsego saw muzzle flashes from the interceptor. He glanced back up at the window. Carpenter was suppressing the raiders.

  “Run!” Carpenter’s voice echoed through the large cavern. Letsego didn’t need to be told twice. He ignored the pain and took off sprinting across the pavement, weaving through the starships. It was at least two hundred meters to Carpenter’s ship.

  David held the rifle against his cheek and continued to place well aimed shots downrange from his seat in the cockpit. He had to conserve his ammunition. He only had two magazines left. He watched Letsego run across the bay. The raiders were coming at him from two directions now. They were closing fast.

  David dropped another five raiders. But they kept coming, some toting guns, others wielding melee weapons. They continued to close the gap with the Peacekeeper.

  When Letsego was within forty meters of the interceptor, David put down
his rifle and pulled out two grenades from his pocket. With all his might, he heaved each grenade into the air. The dual detonations sent the raiders diving for cover.

  With the raiders stalled, Letsego was able to cover the final distance to the interceptor unimpeded. He climbed up into the cockpit and strapped in.

  “Took your damn time,” David commented dryly.

  Letsego pulled the hatch closed behind him. “I took care of my part. Now get us out of here.”

  David was in complete concurrence. He initiated the repulsors and then pushed the throttle into the red. The craft leapt forward, passing the bay doors, through the energy field and into the vacuum of space.

  They were not home free yet. They couldn’t launch to hyperspace until they cleared the Belt. And it would take some fancy flying from David to get there.

  An alarm went off on the copilot’s console. Letsego leaned over to inspect it.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” David demanded.

  Letsego nodded. “Crescent just launched fighters. They’re closing in.”

  “Not for long.” David redlined the engines. The space outside passed by even faster.

  Letsego braced himself. “Are you crazy?! You can’t navigate an asteroid field at this speed.”

  “They’ll never be able to keep up. We can’t fight them. We have no weapons.”

  “You picked a ship with no weapons! You have got to be the dumbest criminal ever!”

  “Stow it,” David snarled. “Can you navigate?” He clenched the steering yoke as the interceptor barreled hazardously through the Belt.

  Letsego nodded. “What do you need?”

  “Pull up the nav computer. I need you to plot a solution back to Prospect.”

  The Peacekeeper started working on the console. David hoped he actually knew what he was doing. Once again, memories of Alana flashed through his mind but he choked them back. He needed to focus all his efforts on dodging the giant rocks outside.

  He continued flying the interceptor out of the Belt. At the speed they were going even David was feeling uncomfortable, but the distance between the interceptor and the raiders continued to grow. Soon they were two thirds of the way out of the field. David glanced over Letsego. “How’re we doing?”