Mako Rising - Ch. 1 Part 1

Chapter One

“You’ll find everything to your liking,” Captain Markov told his new business associate.

The greasy man with long hair and three days’ worth of stubble slit one of the packages with his intentionally menacing knife and snorted a bit of the product. “Holy shit, that’s good!” Jacobs exclaimed, blinking back tears from the potent drugs. Necrondan cocaine was all the rage among scum like Jacobs.

Markov started slowly counting off the seconds in his head. “Then we have a deal?”

Jacobs grinned insolently. “We might have if you’d have been smart enough to bring some guards. As it stands, the eight of us are going to be taking this off your hands and very generously letting you walk away with your life.” His pupils were dilated from the cocaine and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from chuckling.

“That is a shame,” Markov said evenly. He was not at all surprised by Jacobs’ double-cross. Unfortunately for Jacobs, his time was almost out. The extra chemicals in the drugs would be taking effect any second now.

“Yeah, it…woah.” Jacobs swayed a bit. “That really is some good shit you gave us. I…I…um, what the hell?” Jacobs toppled over in a heap.

One of Jacobs’ smarter guards drew his gun, but Markov had already tapped the button on his wrist that set off a small explosion inside the crate of cocaine. White powder flew everywhere while the guards coughed and fired their guns in random directions. Markov had already stepped behind the small boulder to his right. Touching a second button opened a door in the “boulder” with a gatling laser and heat vision goggles inside. Donning the glasses, Markov could easily see where Jacobs’ seven guards stood. He leaned around the boulder, still using it for cover while the crooks fired wildly in every direction, and proceeded to mow them down one at a time with his ungodly enormous weapon.

Markov let the cloud of cocaine disperse before he removed his heat vision goggles. He strode forward to where Jacobs lay gibbering in the dirt. All the other thugs were dead. “David Jacobs, you are under arrest for selling illegal drugs, rape, murder, running an unregistered brothel, theft, arson, extortion and just about every other damn law they have on this rock. By the power vested in me by the Google-Exxon Corporation, you are under arrest. And if they ever let you out of prison, which would have to be some kind of miracle, remember this: don’t ever let a man you’re planning to rob choose the location for your deal to take place.”

Captain Markov had hauled Jacobs back to the Mako Rising, thrown him in a cell, and flown back to Masonberg to collect the bounty. Sheriff Ford had greeted Markov warmly, Jacobs was not the first criminal he had brought to justice.

“Boy, I don’t know what I’d do without you sometimes.” Ford smiled as he authorized the transfer of credits to Markov’s account. He was middle aged, with a bushy moustache on his lip and most of his grey hair gone from the top of his head. “If every bounty hunter were as honest as you, why I’d practically be out of a job!”

Markov nodded politely. “Thank you, sheriff. I know you don’t always get the support you need out here.”

“Bah.” Ford waved his hand dismissively. “Them corporate big wigs are all the same. Don’t matter which of them owns this planet, we aren’t worth their attention.”

“That can be a blessing sometimes,” Markov told him.

Sheriff Ford laughed. “Ain’t that the truth? Say, it’s about quitting time. You up for a drink? I’m buying.”

“Then how could I say no?” Markov followed the sheriff out of his office and across the street to Masonberg’s best bar, at least according to Ford.

Masonberg was the hub of activity here on Kardulon, but that was hardly an impressive feat. Kardulon was not rich with minerals, exotic flora or fauna, nor did it have much natural beauty to offer. Perhaps that explained why filth like Jacobs could make a living selling drugs here, nothing else for people to do. It had been colonized because other than being dusty and ugly, it was quite similar to Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. Google-Exxon owned it at the moment, but it had changed hands several times over the years. Perhaps the best thing about Kardulon was that it had been untouched by the AI Wars that ended four years ago.

Ford’s favorite bar was called the Dust Bowl and like most of Masonberg’s buildings it was a sprawling one story building. At least the air conditioning usually worked there, unlike a lot of other places Markov had been on the planet. The Dust Bowl was crowded, the locals tended to start drinking as soon as their shifts ended at whatever job they had to scratch out a living. Country music played at a reasonable volume, pretty girls in tight shirts carried pitchers of beer to the tables, and it didn’t smell too awful except in the darker corners.

The bartender waved to the sheriff as he entered and Ford sat down, leaning his elbows on the bar. Markov took the stool beside him and did a quick scan of his surroundings, more out of habit than an actual worry for danger. Everything appeared to be as it should be in the Dust Bowl.

“Couple pints of porter, Mac,” Ford told the bartender. Mac nodded and got to pouring. “Will you be staying a few days or jetting off as usual?” He asked Markov.

“I’ll leave in the morning, I imagine,” Markov answered. “Only so much work for a man like me on a quiet planet like this.” Mac set their beers down in front of them.

“Cheers to that!” Ford picked up his glass and clinked it against Markov’s. “Quiet is the life for me. You starship pilots are crazy if you ask me. If’n you had any sense you’d settle down somewhere quiet, I know you got enough cash to live like a king on a place much prettier than Kardulon.”

Markov chuckled. He never asked Sheriff Ford’s opinion of his life style, but he got to hear it every time he came to visit. Out of the corner of his eye, Markov noticed several male sets of eyes turning towards the entrance. Hopefully it was just a gorgeous woman, but Markov remained wary just in case.

“And you laugh. Just like you always do. I never understood why you quit the army, Markov. You’re a man who needs a war to fight.”

“I hear he got sick of his commanding officer and couldn’t stand to look at the ugly son of a bitch anymore,” a gruff voice said from behind them.

Markov turned to see his old commander standing behind him. “General!” Smiling, Markov leapt up from his barstool to embrace his friend. “What brings you all the way out to Masonberg?”

“You, of course!” Lexianna, who had been the reason for all the turned heads, said. Tall for a woman, with unbelievable curves, Lex had her hair bright red this time. She was, as usual, wearing a dress so tight that it looked painted on. “Now budge over, Garis and let me give Markov a hug.” Lex wrapped her arms tight around Markov’s middle and he found it difficult not to sneak a peek down at her magnificent chest.

“Sheriff Ford, allow me to introduce you to General Siderus and our good friend Lexianna,” Markov said.

“The General Siderus?” Ford gasped. When Markov nodded, the sheriff whipped his hat off and enthusiastically shook Siderus’ hand. “I can’t believe I’m meeting you in person! The man who finally beat the AI! And not just beat them, obliterated them!”

Markov and Siderus shared a familiar look. Destroying the AI had not sat well with either of them. Siderus did a good job of keeping a smile on his face, as he always did when he met a fan.

“Do you mind if I borrow my former lieutenant for a moment?” the general asked.

“Not at all, anything you want! Mac, anything he orders is on me!” Ford moved down the bar to boast about having just shook General Siderus’ hand.

Markov took his friends over to an unoccupied booth where they could talk privately. Siderus and Lex sat across from him. The general was not quite as tall as Markov and a year younger, but there was just a hint of grey in his dark hair.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t a social call,” Siderus said by way of preamble.

Markov smiled. “I knew it wasn’t.” A man like General Siderus did not have time for a social life.

“Still haven’t put a crew back together?” the general asked.

Shaking his head, Markov answered, “Nope. Ursula was on board for a little while after her last stint in jail, but she moved on like she always does.”

“Well, you’re going to need a crew for this one. I need you on Dartmax. There’s been an incident in their bio-research lab. I’ve already arranged for a scientist to meet you there, she’s an expert in her field…but she’s not that great with people,” Siderus warned.

“Dartmax…” Markov pondered. “That’s a McDonalds-Wal*Mart planet, isn’t it? Let me guess, they made a colossal blunder and came to you to keep it secret from the other corporations?”

“Something like that. You’ll understand when you meet with Doctor Monroe, but in the mean time I have other preparations to make. I need someone I can trust on this. Someone who will know what I would do if I were able to be there,” Siderus said forcefully.

“Anything, general,” Markov assured him. Obviously, Siderus couldn’t discuss the sensitive details here in a bar, but Markov wondered what could upset the general this much.

Siderus nodded. “Lex will transfer the pertinent data to your ship’s computer. I’ve already arranged for a rather obscene fee to be deposited into your account, with double that when you finish the job.”

“Then I’d best get started. Lexianna, a pleasure as always. General, I won’t let you down.” Markov stood and left for the spaceport.

Markov sat in the pilot’s chair of Mako Rising as he quickly scanned the data Lexianna had sent him. “Holy shit,” he breathed. Colossal blunder did not even begin to cover what McDonalds-Wal*Mart had done on Dartmax. A bio-weapon originally developed at the end of the AI War had escaped and destroyed the colony. Deaths topped ten thousand before the evacuation was completed. There was a detailed biology report for the plant-based organism, but it was well beyond what Markov could understand.

It was no wonder that General Siderus wanted Markov to help him out on this one. No one was going to understand the gravity of holding a new species’ fate in your hands other than the few officers there with Siderus at the very end of the AI Wars. Unbidden, Markov’s thoughts strayed to Irene, but he quickly reburied those memories.

Markov fired up the engines and announced his departure to the control tower. A half-hearted “go fer it” was all the clearance he received from the night shift docking officer. The Mako Rising climbed into the atmosphere and left Kardulon behind. While it was possible to make an FTL jump from within a planet’s atmosphere, it was generally a terrible idea. Faster than light creates a bubble around the engine and transports everything inside that bubble to the programmed destination. Using the FTL drive on the landing pad would have taken a large chunk of the pad with him. Markov punched in the coordinates for desert hellhole his old first officer called home.

The Mako Rising’s conventional engines kicked off and the FTL drive fired up. A ship needed to be stationary for at least thirty seconds to make an FTL jump, which was an eternity in a combat situation. The necessary calculations by the ship’s computer finished just as the FTL drive reached optimum power and Markov executed the jump.

FTL jumps are not fun. Unless of course you are one of those sick and twisted pilots who can’t seem to get enough of having your innards smashed into atoms, scrambled about, tossed into a crack in the universe, and then dumped back out halfway across the galaxy in a shape that is hopefully similar to the one you left in. Markov was mostly used to it after spending his early years in the military, but civilians had to be strapped in and sedated before travelling via FTL. Some of the kookier cults did not believe in FTL travel and launched themselves out into the stars with their passengers either frozen in cryostasis or on massive farm ships that would – hopefully – keep them in food and oxygen during their decades or centuries long flight. Unfortunately, a lot of them ended up falling prey to pirates now that FTL ships were small enough and cheap enough for individuals to own them.

Markov glanced out the window at the aptly named planet New Sahara. He shook his head. “You would settle in such horrendous place, Liam.”

*

“You can’t save him, doctor.” The woman tugged at his sleeve insistently. There were other patients to see. Patients who would be much easier to save.

“Honey, did you spend nine years practicing combat medicine on marines too stupid to quick hurling themselves at an endless horde of killer robots?” Doctor Liam Lafayette growled as did his best to quickly cauterize all of the boy’s internal wounds. He had been mauled by one of those damn giant lizards that came closer to the settlements as they got hungrier; and everything on New Sahara seemed to be starving these days.

“No,” she admitted. Liam could hear the disapproving frown in her tone of voice.

“Then kindly let me work,” he snapped. If he had been in any kind of reasonable hospital rather than a tent city in the middle of an unending desert the boy would have been in no danger at all, but if wishes were fishes no one would live on New Sahara.

The bleeding was bad, but Liam had seen worse. Back when the captain had been a lieutenant he had gotten half his guts torn out by a Screamer and Liam had patched him up right there in the field. He had had the best equipment the AT&T-Boeing corporation could buy, of course, but still. If he could save that stubborn son of a bitch then he ought to be able to save this sweet little kid. Liam wondered what the captain was up to these days. Hopefully he was avoiding Irene, but with the captain that was hardly a smart bet to make.

“Doctor,” the woman said nervously. She was supposedly healer of some kind, but her knowledge was rudimentary at best. This was her clinic that he had been working out of for the past three weeks. Middle aged and bossy, Liam kept forgetting her name.

“Dammit woman, not now, I said!” Liam was very close to closing up the last of the boy’s wounds.

“But doctor, the Marauders are back!” She insisted fearfully.

“Then tell them to wait!” Liam snarled.

A cruel laugh answered him. “That will not be possible, I’m afraid. You see, doctor, I’ve returned with more men and we won’t be frightened away by silly tricks with flashy chemicals. I want my protection money.”

“In a minute,” Liam told the Marauders’ leader calmly. Just one more…there! Now all he had to do was close the kid up and he would be right as rain…not that the boy had ever seen rain, but that was a tangent Liam didn’t need to pursue.

A sickening thud interrupted Liam’s pleasant thoughts at having just saved a small boy’s life. The lead Marauder had slammed his long, curved knife down into the patient’s heart. “I think now would be better for me,” the Marauder said through a crooked-toothed grin.

Liam’s nostrils flared. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Give me my money, plus an additional twenty percent for the insults you gave me last time we met.”

What Liam gave him instead was a blast from the cauterizing laser right in his eye. The man screamed as he died and Liam dove for cover, which was limited in a small tent. Drawing his gun, Liam fired at the shins of the men he could see from under the desk he taken refuge behind. A salvo of return fire greeted him and one blast ripped into his shoulder. Laser wounds hurt like hell, but they were less messy clean than exploding bullets. If he survived, that is. Plus, anything was better than drowning.

The unmistakable, yet utterly unexpected sound of a gatling laser spinning into action and firing in quick, controlled burst replaced the sound of the Marauders’ solar powered pistols. “Captain?” Liam called out when the gunfire died down.

“Who else brings a gatling to a doctor’s office?” Captain Markov answered.

Liam climbed out from under his desk with difficulty. “What the hell are you doing here, man? Not that I mind, naturally. Your timing is as impeccable as ever, but good Lord!” The Captain stood in the entryway of the tent with his favorite preposterously large weapon slung across his torso. Tall and thin, the captain had his blonde hair cut short just like he was still a marine, but at least he had a smile on his face. Those had been rare since the war ended and rarer still after Irene had double crossed them. Again.

“I’m putting the crew back together. General Siderus needs us,” the captain told him. “You’re my first stop.”

“No Irene?” Liam asked warily.

“No Irene,” Markov assured him.

“Thank God. Where’s the healer woman? Did she survive?” Liam looked around. The patients who had been able to had fled, the others had either fainted or were screaming in terror.

“I’m here, doctor.” Hana – that was her name! Hana stood shakily.

“There are sedatives in that case, give them to the screaming ones. Here are enough credits to make sure the boy gets a proper funeral. Take care of that for me, will you? I have to leave now with my friend. If you have any sense you’ll leave too. The Marauders aren’t the only gang around, others will be keen to move into their turf.”

“What the hell were you doing on New Sahara?” Markov asked as they left the sweltering tent for the unbearable heat outside.

“Can’t bloody drown on a desert planet, now can I!”