Chronicles of a Space Mercenary - Vengeance   ...coming soon.

Sample;

When I woke I had the craziest idea I couldn’t remember where I was or how I had gotten here. I must have gotten really drunk last night I thought as I sat up and looked around my odd appearing cabin, though for some reason couldn't remember the episode- what a waste. The oddities began piling up this morning though almost immediately, just as they might the morning after a hard night out, but that wasn’t this at all. This was something different which I didn’t recognize.  First I couldn’t find the head in my own suite of cabins- it just wasn’t where I thought it should be. I activated the corridor hatch twice before deciding the head couldn’t be in the corridor. After finding it in a place I was sure it had not been before- I stopped myself because by now I was also sure I was still sleeping. I pinched myself hard but that only hurt. “Ouch.” I said. “I’m not dreaming.”

After using the head- despite its odd seeming location- I was then surprised to find that my clothes were lying crumpled on the floor next to my bed when I didn’t remember putting them there. It wasn’t that I don’t throw my clothes on the deck I just simply didn’t remember doing it. The more I thought about it the less I was able to reconstruct of the previous evening’s activities. Actually I couldn’t remember a damn thing I realized, but figured the odd memory lapse and my weirdness just must have been me this morning- it wouldn’t be a first to wake feeling oddly hungover- at least that’s what I thought then. 

I did feel out-of-place though, I reflected as I slowly pieced together and regained my disjointed senses, though why they were disjointed was the mystery. Normally if I woke not knowing where I was it was because I had gotten intoxicated on some alien concoction Tanya had convinced me to try or woke in a place I had never been before or hadn’t been in a long time. Like a Federation jail for instance. I’d been in a Federation jail a few times throughout my life and the morning after when I wake for the first time in that cell it was always the same. Long moments of disorientation while I searched around the small cell for a way out, the confusion only ending when I finally realized there was no way out. I wasn’t in a Federation jail however and I knew for a fact I hadn’t gotten stupid intoxicated because I always paid for it the next day- no matter what the intoxicant. Despite the oddities I felt great.

I felt really good in fact, better than I could remember in quite a while. The usual anguishes of a normal morning after were strangely absent. Of course I would drink my hot-jolt all day- mostly to recover from the night before but also to keep the senses alert late into that coming night. Then while raking it in on the tables the usual nightly drinks and other exotic pleasantries which were available on any Kievor Trade Station, night after night or at least until I was bust. The mornings after were always the hardest part of my day, except this morning after. In fact I felt as if I hadn’t contaminated my body in years, which I knew of course to be untrue. I polluted my body regularly. Nor was I craving my hot-jolt! Normally I couldn’t get my eyes fully open until the second or third cup- and which was really suspect- and though somehow not needing what I normally couldn’t live without made my hot-jolt anyway and headed for the hatch, still with that odd sensation that it was in the wrong place. Chalking it up to the unknown because excessive thinking in the morning, even if I felt good, was a waste of valuable energy I could spend later on the card tables. I activated the real hatch meaning to depart only to find Tanya with fist raised outside in the corridor, getting ready to start beating on my hatchway. She did not look pleased. 

“Most of my jewelry is missing Marc!” Tanya snarled. “The hall feeds have been tampered with also- they should have shown the thief going in and out but they don’t- and since you are the only one with the authority to tamper with those feeds I expect you to explain to me where my jewelry is.”

“Good Lord.” I said as I took a big gulp of my hot-jolt.

Tanya's cabin was so full of material things there was barely room to get into it. The safe containing her jewelry opened after Tanya put her eyeball in front of the retinal scanner and the huge door swung open on frictionless hinges. The safe was packed full.

"Most of it's missing!" Tanya snarled.

"There isn't room for any more." I said dubiously, apparently not quite as awake as I thought. "If most of it’s missing where were you keeping it?"

Tanya looked confused for a moment then turned on me; "Don’t try to confuse the issue! I know what I have and most of it's missing! Now I want to know what you're going to do about it?"

"I’ll check the feeds." I said just to get away from her. There was no way she could have put more jewelry in that safe- and she was claiming thatmost of it was missing! I’d seen her safe before and as far as I could tell there was nothing missing, much less most of it. So combined with Tanya’smissing jewelry and my own inauspicious morning wondered what other insanity this day might bring?

Chapter 2

My mind must be playing tricks on me I thought, befuddled in some way, as I became confused as to which way to go to get to my Bridge. As I looked back and forth both ways down the corridor, not sure which way to go, clopping footsteps which began to approach proved to be Bren coming around the far corner down the corridor to my left;

“Which way to the Bridge?” I asked with a ridiculous grin when he had come close enough to be heard in a conversational tone of voice. I felt stupid but really couldn’t remember which way I was supposed to go, in which direction lay my own Bridge! I was really out of it, I thought, not imagining the half of it. 

Bren didn’t even bother looking his disgust at me, which I think was the most suspect act yet this morning, just pointed back the way he had come and kept walking- right past me without so much as an adieu! Now I knew I had gotten intoxicated last night and pissed everyone off and now they were going to get even with me this morning. What a waste I thought for the second time, at the same time wondering how much more trouble I would be in if I did it again today and couldn’t remember everything I did again tomorrow? As it turned out I wouldn’t need to do anything else today to get in any more trouble. It was waiting for me on the Bridge and wearing Melanie’s guise, though I knew this wasn’t Melanie. I knew who this was.

“I’ve been waiting for you Marc.” Melanie purred the moment I came on the Bridge. She was sitting in my pilot’s chair in a dress that concealed almost nothing, limpid eyes pouring lust and submissiveness that would have entrapped forever any weaker man. She got up and began walking towards me the moment I came on the Bridge. I slapped the ships-com next to the hatch;

“Tanya get the hell up to the Bridge.” I said and Melanie came to a halt, a glitter to her eye, then I added; “This isn’t about your jewelry- Melanie is back under Katon mind control.”

Tanya arrived as I finished speaking- never underestimate Tanya’s speed I reminded myself as she entered. “If she’s back under Katon mind control then she’s the thief.” Tanya growled.

“Thief!” Melanie said, automatically changing her stance from seductive to aggressive, not afraid of Tanya one bit though I didn’t think she would stand a chance- no one stood a chance against Tanya in one-on-one combat. I’d seen her in action too many times.

“That’s enough.” I said stepping in between the two of them but facing Melanie; “You are under Katon mind control. You fought it once and beat if before and you can do it again.”

Her face went through several emotions as she delved into her memories and came up with the one I was talking about, it seemed so very long ago now, but she could clearly see she was doing the same exact thing again. “Why was I doing that again?” She asked as she noticed her near nakedness as if for the first time. “And why in the hell would I dress like this for you! It’s you and Meerla who are together.” She said as she left the Bridge, over her malady for the moment, it appeared, but who in the hell was Meerla? Just another mystery I wasn’t going to try and unravel at the moment, or at least I wasn’t going to until I turned to Tanya and saw the look in her eye.

“What’s going on here?” Tanya demanded.

“Having an odd day as well?” I asked with an amusing little twist of my lip- I could laugh I wasn’t the one missing most of my jewelry. Last Chance was my only real possession as well as my home and she was fueled, stocked and ready to go. I had a few credits in my Kievor account but if those were missing it would only mean we’d have to pull out a day or so early. Not that I truly thought Tanya’s jewelry was missing, but there wassomething odd going on here and odd things needed to be investigated.

“I believe I am.” Tanya admitted. 

“I think we all are.” I said. “Shall we take a survey?”

Chapter 3

Everyone was having a weird day it seemed, but where was I supposed to go with it once I had established that something odd was going on? Everyone was reporting peculiarities that morning but that’s all they were, just small oddities and no reason to become overly alarmed that I could detect. I was sure there had to be some logical explanation and I thought about asking the Kievors but if something odd/bad had happened to us it would have been the Kievors who had done it and I would save my inquiry for when I had some real questions to ask- as well as better knowing what can of worms I might be opening.

“You son-of-a-bitch Marc.” Tanya swore as she came charging onto the Bridge. My blaster came out of its holster all of its own accord and for the first time ever I held a weapon against Tanya. I immediately put it away but could hardly believe how quickly I had been willing to pull it. I normally wouldn’t pull my blaster unless I meant to use it and I assuredly hadn’t meant to use it against Tanya, no matter how pissed off she was.

“What did I do now?” I asked as the carbon slid back into its reptile-skin holster. “Sorry, just jumpy today.”

“Quick too,” Tanya said with a measuring look, “but that’s not why I’m here. I want to know where all those Kievor-credits came from if you didn’t sell my jewelry.” She demanded. “I don’t care how much you got for them, they weren’t yours to sell.” If she had a second thought about the fact that I had drawn on her I couldn’t see it in her face. What I saw in her face was her wanting to know where my credits had come from if I hadn’t sold her jewelry and I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

“What Kievor-credits?” I said, because for a certainty I didn’t have many.

“I don’t have any idea how you got so much for those pieces. I don’t care that you got so much for them. What I do care about is getting every one of them back, Marc, and I know what each piece looks like down to the minutest detail!” With that said Tanya turned on her heel and stormed from the Bridge.

“You stole Tanya’s jewelry!” Bren said from his station. “You’re despicable.”

“Why are you here?” I asked. I meant the Bridge antagonizing me and he knew it.

“Something crazy going on Marc.” Bren said. “I think we should depart.”

“Depart the Trade Station!” I demanded as I queried the Kievors for my account balance. The sum that appeared on my screen was absolutely impossible. “We won’t be departing any time soon.” I said. There was obviously some error here and I was going to spend as many of those errors as I could before the accounting mix-up was fixed. “I’m going aboard the Station.” I said as I rose. To hell with the oddities, I’d get drunk and maybe kill a few jewelry festooned reptiles to try to appease Tanya, but these credits had not come from Tanya’s jewels- there were enough credits in my account to fill Last Chance with the rarest and most expensive jewelry in the Universe- and I was going to get to the spending of it.

Chapter 4

Last Chance powering up and lifting from the deck of the dock was about as discernible to me as my own face in a mirror but I was sitting on the toilet when it occurred and by the time I got to the Bridge we were in warp.

“You son-of-a-bitch!” I swore at Bren, though it was already far too late. 

“There are about thirty Katon Destroyers right behind us.” Bren said cheerfully as I landed in my pilot’s seat with the intention of bringing us out of warp and turning us right back around- then removing his and everyone’s clearance to navigation. I was going back to the Station and I meant to have a good time spending those credits- and I was going to take a good long time about doing it. Then Bren’s words sank in and I realized fully what he had done. There would be no going back to the Station now. We wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near any of the local Stations- not with the Katons fully alerted. I sank back in my seat, defeated.

“Why?” Was all I could ask.

“Yes why?” Tanya said from the hatchway. “I would especially like to know.”

“Because I remember everything.” Bren said.

“Everything about what?” Tanya growled, not at all amused, still very much wanting her jewels back but at least now the attention off me.

“About you and Marc being Alartaw.” Bren said. “For some reason I am able to remember. The rest of us weren’t Alartaw, so we probably just got standard mind-wipes, but mine didn’t work. First I started seeing mathematical equations I knew I’d never seen before. Unbelievable ways to combine atoms to…”

“In layman’s terms.” I interrupted, his words stirring strange memories I couldn’t remember and beginning to give me a headache- would the anomalies continue unabated forever?

“You made a deal with the Kievors to…” Bren began and an hour later had us convinced- but not by his words alone. All of us were on the Bridge by then and listening to what he had to say, but it was the science he was talking about and showing us on a screen that caught my and everyone’s interest- not that any of us knew what the hell he was showing us other than that it was entirely new; “I can build the computer which will give us trans-metal. I can recreate every bit of the Alartaw technology I learned during our stay and it’s at exactly the same technological level as the Kievors. It may be the very pinnacle of scientific possibility! I just need the materials.” Bren said, after which I could think of little else, and I didn’t mean whatever the pinnacle of scientific possibility meant- I meant the computer which would turn Last Chance into a trans-metal gravity powered ship. There was little else I could think of after hearing that.

“That’s really helpful.” Tanya said scornfully. “What yard is going to take us in with thirty Katon Destroyers following us?”

“Saying all of this is true,” I said to Bren and ignoring Tanya, “and we really were the Emperor and Empress of these Alartaw, why wouldn’t the Kievors just have killed us? Hell, they even paid us. Doesn’t make sense!”

“Kievor honesty.” Manuel said. “They lived up to their end of the deal. I guess their word is the one thing the Kievors won’t tread upon.”

“The deal is finished now though.” Melanie said. “That’s why the Katons are after us- the Kievor have informed on us.”

“I know it wasn’t you.” I told Melanie with a mocking smile I just couldn’t stop from slipping onto my face. “I hadn’t rebuffed you yet.” I said. To that response I got the glinty look she had given me earlier, except no mind control behind it this time.

“We’ll never be able to return to a Kievor Trade Station. None of us!” Janice said. “The deal’s concluded and I bet it burned their asses that they had to keep their word but it must be some kind of code they live by and won’t break. I honestly can’t believe they did it but I know if we put ourselves in their hooves again they’ll kill us for sure.” 

“We’ll never be able to return to a Kievor Trade Station and all those Kievor credits.” Is what I lamented.

“I grabbed a few as a contingency.” Bren said, picking up a duffel-bag I hadn’t noticed sitting on the deck near his feet. He picked it up and opened it; it was full of Kievor credit vouchers, millions worth.

“How in the hell did you get into my account?” I demanded. 

“It was part of the arrangement.” Bren said with a smile at my demand, everything now clear in his mind, especially the years he had spent studying Alartaw technology. “You left standing orders with the Kievors to give us full access to your account. I got them right after you and Tanya left and I’ve been carrying them since.”

“If Marc and I were the Emperor and Empress of these Alartaw, this race which is just as technological as the Kievor, how did we end up back in Kievor hooves and where are these Alartaw?” Tanya asked, I think that question at the top of everyone’s mind at this point.

‘Our ship was damaged. We were in battle and took a massive hit- as usual you were leading the attack when where we should have been was in the vanguard- that’s where the Commander is supposed to Command from.” Bren gave me a scowl at this but these were things I didn’t remember and only smiled at him in return- he could make up anything at this point and I was just supposed to believe it! Bren went on; “I was knocked unconscious- I remember that much- there was a blinding white explosion and then nothing more, but the wreckage of our ship must have been pulled aboard a Kievor Trade Station and the Kievor kept their word. They returned all of us to our original lives as they had promised they would.” 

“How was the war going?” Tanya asked. I smiled at her as well, knowing her underlying thought- she wouldn’t be the Empress of an Empire that no longer existed.

“The war had been an uphill battle ever since the destruction of the Alartaw worlds, but somehow Brune kept pulling us through,” Bren answered, “though I’ll never understand how.”