5.1: Frank & Louis
The twin suns were shining brightly over what had been a misty morning in Diso City. The seemingly unknown spot in the galaxy had been firmly put on the map as a must see, for media tourists, Bounty Hunters and those hoping to attach themselves to some wealthy pirate, they thought they could snare but the authorities could not.
Avery stepped out of his Lion S Class and headed towards the sign of “Frank & Louis Used Spacecrafts”. Louis was doing the day shift and was just finishing his latest daydream of owning the yard on New Station when Avery walked through his door, “Buzz!”
‘Morning,’ said Avery coolly.
‘Ah . . . morning . . . everything okay with the S Class?’ Asked Louis, a little concerned at the sudden appearance of one of the dead Marie Bonny’s business friends.
‘Yes fine, just needs a bit of a clean-up and a service.’
‘I can see to that. How long are you here for?’ asked Louis.
‘Not too long, have a few loose ends to tie-up then I will be gone for good.’
‘I take it you heard what happened to Bonny?’ said Louis.
‘A little bit, that’s why I’m here. I need to speak to her father, Jim. I owe him an explanation; what can you tell me Louis?’ asked Avery.
What I heard via Frank, who heard it from Henry, the barman at Bariki Bar, that the assassin was a woman, flying a Wild Cat, not your usual ship you see in this neighbourhood. An eyewitness said that Bonny gave her one hell of a fight before taking a direct hit: she did not die without dignity and pride,’ said Louis.
‘Good. I’m glad to hear that.’
‘You realize that there is a large reward out on your heads, you and Phillips have been named. It was said that the bounty hunter thought Bonny was you. I’m surprised you have even dared to set foot back here.’
‘I had no choice. There is unfinished business for me here. Louis, can your system tell me how many Wild Cats there are in the galaxy?’ asked Avery.
‘Sure, tells me so I can price them if I ever see one. Those things are rarer than Manx. Are you planning to go after her?’
‘You know I am.’
Louis tapped away, them said, ‘W.I.L.D.C.A.T., lets see know.’
The computer whirs and started to print out a list of owners, places of registration and repairs carried out. The system allowed Louis and Frank on normal occasions to track the history of a craft, so that they could be sure that it was not stolen, and that all the modifications and repairs claimed by a prospective trade-ins or purchases were correct.
Louis pulled the printout off the ancient printer, the paper made a familiar ripping sound as he did so.
‘How many?’ asked Avery.
‘Fifty-two,’ replied Louis.
‘How reliable is that information?’ asked Avery.
‘Well said Louis, pushing his glasses onto his face. We haven’t had a bum report from it. I would say it would be 99% correct. The only anomaly would arise from a client visiting a rogue planet to have modifications done, such as having battle weapons fitted in Ross 154 and wanting to keep that one quiet. But, apart from that, nothing misses the system,’ said a confident Louis.
‘Okay, how many females?’ asked Avery a little pushily.
‘Captain Avery. I realize that this information is valuable, and I would surely like to just give it to you. However, I have problems of my own, which I need sorting, such as a competing yard on New Station, stealing half of our trade: it is killing us. Frank spends half of his spare time trying to win enough money at the Hotel Arumba’s casino, attempting to raise enough to buy them out. And of course, there is a large reward out on your head, which for a man like me – in my position - is more tempting than you realize.’
‘Louis you do realize, that there are two others that would revenge my death and would not stop until you were lying dead on your carpet there,’ he pointing at the mat, ‘with your buzzer signalling you demise.’
‘That I believe, Captain Avery,’ replied Louis.
‘However, I’m not a heartless man Louis. I will cut you a deal. I would like to help you raise this money for you and Frank to buy out your rivals on New Station - but I won’t give you the money - I will instead show Frank how to win it. Where is he?’
‘Gone home two hours ago,’ replied Louis, ‘be back at seven tonight.’
‘Okay, what time does he change with you?’
‘Seven the next morning,’ replied Louis.
Avery looked at Louis with pity in his eyes, and said, ‘Okay, tell him that I will be back here at seven tomorrow morning, and I will help you win the money you both need, in return for that list. Just tell me how many of those fifty-two are females.’
‘Okay Avery, I don’t see the harm in telling you. I trust that you are going to help us out of our situation. There are three females on this list, from what I can tell. Shouldn’t take too long to track each one down, I reckon.’
‘That is all I need to know for now Louis;’ said Avery, ‘tell Frank, to have FF100, 000 on him for when I return, I will make sure that he puts another two zeros on that. That should secure you enough dough to buy out your competition on New Station.’
‘How come you risk your life doing a bank job, when you’re telling me you can beat the house in a casino?’ asked Louis.
‘Gone are the days that I can enter any casino and make enough to last me a year or two. I got sloppy, got caught out once – spent some time inside — this put me on The List. Every casino around knows I’m a professional, apart from new ones, who only get The List from the date they open. A kind of an insurance policy, by the old firm, who run the majors, to stop them from getting too big too soon. It allows guys like me to slip through the loophole. It works well for everyone - except the new boys. The rule puts many potentials off. But that is the nature of the game: it is a risky business that is for the gambling type. You see how it works Louis?’
‘Yes, I get the picture, nice work if you can get it,’ replied Louis.
5.2: Back at Sleepy Ridge
Jim was on his porch swinging on his old rocking chair comforting himself. A month had past since he had read of his daughter’s demise at the hands of an unnamed bounty hunter.
The Federation Police had paid him a visit, enquired about Marie’s connections with a Captain Avery and Phillips. The Council had after some discussion, released the information they had gathered in order to widen the net to catch these perpetrators, Phillips’ and Avery’s names had been banded about freely in the Federation, Empire and Republic jurisdictions, nowhere it appeared, was safe for either of them.
However, Avery knew that the last place they would expect to find him was the very place that he was going to go.He had hired a sky-car from a dealer at the spaceport, used his false identity, as paperwork. Avery took this precaution whilst in the Eta Cassiopeia System as soon as he had heard the tragic news of Marie’s death. Money it seems could buy you most things.
Avery landed his sky-car next to Jim’s pick-up. Jim, left the porch and was walking towards his latest visitor.
‘What do you think you are doing turning up here unannounced?’ shouted Jim through the glass of the car.
‘I can bring her back Jim!’ Avery shouted back.
‘What do you mean bring her back?’ replied Jim, now banging both hands on the glass.
‘Let me out of the car and I will explain,’ requested Avery.
‘I don’t trust you; you steal my daughter away from me on some hair-brained scheme: she winds up dead. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t contact the authorities right now?’ asked Jim.
‘Because you don’t have any form of communications here Jim and I have this laser gun!’ was Avery’s candid reply, as he waved the gun in front of the window.
‘Alright you leave me no choice but to hear you out. I suppose, I should blast you with my hunting gun but I kinder like you Ben, if that is your real name. Come inside, let’s drink some green tea and calm down.’ He said lifting his
hands from the glass.
Jim backed-up, allowed Avery out of his vehicle. He followed Jim inside the cabin, and was struck by spread-out copies of the Diso City Gazette, on the kitchen table, with regular reports of Marie’s life, her family and the robbery that took place in a system light years from here.
He sat down, flicked through them, seeing his name appear randomly. Jim was busy firing up the stove for their brew, and Avery had noticed in the papers that Jim had been marking horses in Diso City’s races held every Saturday, at the Federation run racecourse.
‘Had any luck with the horses Jim?’ inquired Avery.
‘Not as yet. I’m just tracking form at the moment. I mean to go down to the track and start putting my research into action soon enough,’ replied Jim, as he placed the kettle on the stove. ‘Do you follow the horses Avery?’ he asked.
‘I haven’t tried my luck at horses yet Jim, but I might whilst I’m here.’
Avery looked again at Jim’s system; there were piles of single sheet reports under each other: he went through them. He could see that he was following the same horse or the same jockey, and when the horse or the same jockey won he had put a * next to the form. What was apparent to Avery, and no doubt Jim, was that when a certain jockey was paired up, they always won. This appeared to have slipped the notice of the bookmakers, as the occurrence was so far apart, that the chances of it being picked-up were minute. Jim had noticed what a computer could not: a pattern!
It appears Jim had been doing this ever since he retired, as there were hundreds of sheets neatly piled up on each other.
‘When is Frankie Peterson riding Prophet’s Dream next Jim?’ Avery asked.
The kettle on the stove had begun to whistle, and Jim silently poured two mugs of hot water, in which contained fresh green tea leafs.
‘You’ll have to leave that for a few minutes, let the leaves infuse for a while.’ He said, passing Avery a mug and sitting down at the table. ‘What is this you say about "Bring Marie back?"’ he said avoiding Avery’s question.
‘I know this guy -’ said Avery.
‘What sort of guy’ interrupted Jim.
‘I did this job in this faraway system; know as Veedfa, sold some equipment to a Diso City based hi-tech company.
‘Veedfa, never heard of it,’ said Jim.
‘Well,’ continued Avery, ‘I had a chance to look over this equipment, and one of these devices was a life support unit. Not only did it sustain life, in a suspended animation form, there was also a regeneration function, that revitalized a body, if the system broke down whilst suspended animation was in progress, and the body died.’
‘But there is no body Avery!’ stated Jim.
‘Yes I know that, but, the system can rebuild a body centuries afterwards, as long as it has some DNA to go on, it can reconfigure the body and re-instate a host soul.’
‘So she would look exactly like Marie, but would not be that person in character?’
‘That I don’t know Jim, she may be the same but different,’ replied Avery.
‘How does this work, this machine?’
‘The alien technology has been programmed to override the host galaxies soul-server - in our case The Council’s. It will replicate a birth and a soul will be delivered in the same way, but in this case, to a fully-grown Marie, depending on age of the DNA provided. Therefore, if you have a strand of hair from Marie as a baby, then she will be reconfigured as a baby.’
Jim stared at Avery not quite believing what he was saying.
‘Are you sure this is going to work?’ asked Jim.
‘I don’t know, but it could be worth a try,’ said Avery.
‘I just want her back the way she was, the day she left to go on that stupid scheme of yours.’ He said sipping his now infused tea with a tear in his eye.
‘I know Jim; I feel your pain too. I want her back as much as you do, if not more.’ Avery followed Jim’s actions and drunk from his mug. ‘Where is her taxi Jim?’
‘Why?’
‘There’s bound to be a hair from her head in there.’
‘No good, replied Jim, ‘the taxi firm would have power cleaned the inside before passing it on to a new driver.’
Avery stroked his mug with his thumb, thinking about the time he had spent here with Marie. ‘The bedroom’, he said rising to his feet, as he said the words.
‘Of course!’ said Jim, following his lead.
In the spare bedroom, there had been no movement since the day Avery and Marie had left to pick up their crafts from Frank & Louis’s, Jim hadn’t the heart to touch the room since the day he read the news.
‘Here!’ said Avery inspecting the pillow that he remembered Marie’s head lying on, only weeks before. He picked up a long strand of auburn hair, which clearly had come from Marie’s head. ‘Where shall I put it?’ he asked Jim.
Jim disappeared, came back with an empty jam jar, ‘In here,’ he said.
5.3: Corporation X
Avery was travelling back to Diso City in his hired air-car, when he noticed that the vehicle had a mobile communications system. He registered his voice with the control computer and requested a connection to Corporation X. The device dialled an automated voice system, asked for an extension or name.
‘Anthony Reeves,’ Avery said.
‘Just a moment,’ came the response.
‘Anthony Reeves, New Projects, how may I help you?’
‘Tony, it’s me,’ said Avery.
‘What the . . . how did you? .What can I do for you Mr. . . .’
‘Smith,’ said Avery, ‘Harold Smith.’
‘Ah. . . Mr. Smith, nice to hear from you again, our boys are working on your shipment as we speak. I think you’ll going to love what this lot can do.’
‘I have some idea,’ said Avery, ‘I need to meet with you.’
‘Where?’ asked Reeves
‘At the Arumba Hotel, tonight at eight, for a quick drink in the lobby.’
‘Fine, I’ll be there. This better be good.’
The phone line went dead; Avery’s head was beginning to loose the fug he had felt since Marie had died. It appeared to him, that there was always a way out of a bad situation, you just have to stay focused.
Avery sat in the lobby of the hotel, after he had booked a room for Mr. Smith on the top floor, overlooking the plaza in front of the Sky Restaurant. The Diso City Gazette was folded neatly on the table in front of him: he picked it up. The headline read “NEW LEAD IN BANK ROBBERY”. He read on; it appeared that one of the bank robbers, had been spotted in the Veedfa System a few days ago, it explained where this was, and went on to describe a pirate trying to sell jewels at a knocked down price. ‘Current whereabouts unknown, which can only be Phillips.’ The report went on to say that, the net was closing in on these fiends, and that the authorities were doing a great job. ‘Federation controlled media!’said Avery.
He turned to the back page and was looking at the next day’s racing line-up for Diso City’s racetrack, when he saw what Jim Bonny was obviously keeping from him. Running in the 4.15, was Prophet’s Dream, ridden by none other than Frankie Peterson.
‘I don’t believe it!’ said Avery, to an empty lobby that was only frequented by robots going about their business. Avery ripped out the page and slipped it into his new pair of ‘Zipper’ custom-made pants. He hadn’t been to the races before; he had never really been interested since his father was the owner of a string of casinos and gaming rooms across the Beethti System, and beyond. He had watched professionals play using hidden cameras, he had set up as a project, so he could learn all the tricks of the trade; and learn he did.
Avery ordered some drinks from the service droid. He knew Tony was a stickler for time keeping, and had had a drink with him before after the Veedfa job, and remembered that he liked his white wine. Avery got himself a glass of red from Sigma Draconis.
Tony arrived as the droid came back with a tray with one glass of red and one white.
‘Don?
??t you just love technology?’ Tony said as he sat down opposite Avery.
‘Depends on what it can do for me I suppose,’ responded Avery.
‘Well, what can Corporation X do for you today, Mr. Smith?’
Avery reached into his pants, and pulled out the jar containing Marie’s single strand of hair and put it on the table in front of Tony.
‘Oh no! - I know what you are thinking Avery,’ said Tony sitting back in his chair.
‘What?’ asked Avery.
‘You want us to recreate someone, right?’
‘Right.’
‘Why, and who is it?’
‘It’s Captain Bonny, from the bank job and we were engaged to be married.’
‘I see.’
‘Can you do it?’ asked Avery.
‘It will cost you Avery.’
‘Name your price.’
‘FF1,000, 000,’ said Tony, smiling and nervously playing with his hands.
‘Done!’ said Avery, stretching out his hand to seal the deal.
‘You know that I am risking my job for this Avery?’
‘And I haven’t taken any risks for your corporation, bringing in highly illegal alien technology into this system?’ Avery retorted.
‘Okay, Avery, you got paid well for that!’ argued Tony.
‘And you will get paid more for this, than I did for weeks of work!’
‘That’s true Avery.’ Tony paused to calm the situation down, and then carried on, ‘In theory, once I’ve set up the rejuvenation program — should take up to five days to complete the cycle - not that we know what purpose they had for such a complex procedure. The delay, I predict, will be in obtaining a birth soul from The Council. I hear from researchers that there could be a waiting time of up to sixty-four hours after a request is lodged.’
‘I see,’ said Avery, pretending he did not know what he was talking about, but he looked interested.
‘It has been speculated,’ continued Tony, ‘that the alien civilization that built these things, could form humans to use for their own ends - if they got enough human DNA to process this effectively. Souls could be diverted to vast plants producing slaves, soldiers or worker colonies - it does not bear thinking about too deeply. Let’s just hope that this device is unique, a one off, with a program that was only built as a safety mechanism for suspended animation malfunction.’
‘I’m sure you’re worrying about nothing,’ replied Avery.
Tony took the jar and placed it gently into his padded thumb-coded briefcase.
‘Give me a call in five days time Avery, and we should have you a walking talking Marie Bonny for you to purchase.’
Tony finished his glass, placed it on a passing trolley droid, got up from his chair and headed for the electric doors that took him out onto the plaza. He crossed over to the left-hand side of the Sky Restaurant and down into the underground that connected the Hotel District to the City Centre. He slid his ID chip that had been inserted into the palm of his hand over the reading device and preceded down the stairs to meet the up-train to the city.
He travelled the three stops to the high-tech valley on the other side of the city headed out of the station towards the massive skyscraper with “Corporation X” up one side of the building; not easily missed by couriers, which was always a good thing when dealing with highly sensitive new technologies.
He slipped through the revolving doors into the lobby.
‘Hi Joe,’ he said to security as he used his ID to enter the complex.
‘Working late Anthony?’
‘No, I just forgot to do something before I left,’ I’ll be back down soon.
‘Okay,’ replied Joe.
Tony entered his research lab, placed the contents of the jar into the life support unit and turned the dial to rejuvenation: it began to whir into life.
5.4: Sigma Draconis
On the only habitable planet in the Sigma Draconis System, wine connoisseurs consider Drachma as a place of pilgrimage. Tourism makes up its second most profitable sector after wine production. It is said that the grapes on the whole planet derive from one single vine found growing wild some five hundred years ago by early Imperial explorers. This over time has been engineered by nature and science to produce a diverse range of wine regions, production methods and vineyards.
One such owner of a large vineyard was Charley Reed. He had taken refuge here some years ago, after his wife a famed bounty hunter had met a sticky end after being lured to a beauty spar and drowned in a bath of Kirik’s milk. Charley soon worked out that he had better take himself and his daughter off to somewhere that revenge killers would find it difficult to trace them. What better than setting up a fancy façade of a wine company selling to all regions of the galaxy? It would appear that they had been established since time memorial and that the family company he had bought out would still have the families name on the label – it came with the property.
Katie, his daughter, had spent too much time travelling and acting as a cover for her mother to leave the bounty hunting trade alone, and sure enough, Katie had left once she had enough to buy her first fighting ship and went off seeking her fortune.
Now Katie had returned after being - she can not remember where - with a large sum of money, 3,500, 000 Imperial Dollars in her credit account.
‘All I can remember dad is going into the space station in the Zeandin System off the planet Zeneel. Andrew’s Station: I remember the name now.’
‘I was following a group of traders from the Diso System. I thought that Zeandin sounded interesting, have not been there before. I guess I was hoping to pick-up some work there. Nothing happening in Diso except an assassination job on a politician, paid for by some anti-Federation terrorist group. It paid well, but these sorts of jobs can follow you around, like a bad smell.
‘I decided to give it a miss. I must have been at a loose end, so I followed some multiple hyperspace trails and that’s it - until I left with more money than I have earned in a decade. Not that I’m complaining dad, but what did I do there and for whom?’
‘Well, I’ve checked the papers on Diso and small snippets here on news channels indicate, that a group of robbers stole a freighter full of a banks assets and hyperspaced them to an unspecified restricted system,’ said Charley.
‘Did it say whose jurisdiction the Zeandin System came under? I can remember it from my school books but never really took much notice of governance in those days.’
Charley opened a draw, took out a Trade Spoke, and began a search in the kitchen they found themselves in, the night after Katie, had landed her eye-catching Wild Cat in the massive loading bay, of her father’s estate.
Each estate acted like a self-contained spaceport, tourists arrived to visit and wine left in vast quantities, via freighters that would visit once a year. Some wine was sold to tourists in the shopping outlet provided on site. Accommodation was also all in house, so to speak, and there was always a steady flow of guests, catered for by the site’s student population, who visited to work and get drunk for free on good quality wine.
‘I’m sure I’ve sent wine to this space station before, Andrew’s Station you say?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ replied Katie.
‘Ah yes, here we are. I supplied the only bar there three years ago. I was paid by, let’s see now,’ as he pushed the screen, ‘Oh,’ a look of astonishment swept across his face, ‘The Council,’ he said looking at his daughter. ‘So why was The Council offering such high rewards for a bank job they had no interest in?’
‘Beats me dad; unless it was more to do with where the robbers took the freighter.’
‘Yes, I think you may be onto something there.’
‘But where?’ asked Katie.
There is only one place that is out of bounds by order of The Council that is under their jurisdiction,’ said Charley.
‘Of course dad!’ replied Katie.
‘The Sol System,’ they both said in unison.
Captain Rackham had been dreaming of the day he could finally settle down and enjoy his retirement. It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford it; no, it was more the fact that he couldn’t get piracy out of his system. He had enjoyed the thrill, but now it was his time to sit back and put his ill-gotten gains into something solid and permanent. So that is why he bought a large wine estate on Drachma in the Sigma Draconis System. The previous owner was happy to except his Panther XL full of bank vault items, gold, silver and hard currency in Federal Franks and Imperial Dollars; not that an estate on the planet was easy to come by. This estate, which he renamed Rackham’s Ranch was one of only three to come up in the past ten years; so he counted himself lucky that he had secured it the year before he made his final move in life.
Business was good, and the harvest he had overseen was to all who commented, the best in three generations. His bank account was full and he could afford to live off the interest, even if there was no harvest that year or for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he liked being in business legitimately. It gave him a sense of pride that he had not felt since his family had their own farm back in Diso.
Farming was farming, he thought, as he checked on his vines using a hover-bike, the quickest way to get across his vast acreage. He hadn’t met his neighbours, who had run their estate with business like precision, having a great shop, restaurant and guest facilities. For Rackham, this was too much, he was happy to have people look around, sample his wares and even buy a bottle or two, if they wished, but he had no need or desire to sell out to market pressures.
‘I wonder how Avery and Bonny are getting on?’ he said to Hector, his faithful four-legged companion, who went with him everywhere on the back of the hover-bike.
Rackham had totally shut himself off from the outside world: No media reached his ears in months. He was happy not hearing about events on any other planet, system or galaxy. He was only interested in Rackham’s Ranch, his own world and drinking high-grade wine every night. Besides, the only people he cared about were either dead or on the run.
‘What is that Hector?’
The sun had hit the surface of an unusual spacecraft, which was parked in the spaceport next door to his vineyard. It was close enough for Rackham to identify the shape, and to know what ship this was.
‘That’s a Wild Cat. I’ve only seen two of these in my lifetime, and one of those times was outside Andrew’s Station in the Zeandin.’
Hector just barked. He decided it was high time he introduced himself to his now interesting neighbors.
6 OTHER BUSINESS