Excerpt

1

A Heist in the Hurricane

Triastram Chronastamp: 001249:04:15:12:15

The thud of a Terraxian body hitting the floor filled the aggrieved party's quarters aboard the warship known as the Hurricane. An electric shock knocked the large male of the ridge backed and heavily scaled race unconscious. He still breathed deeply even after an attack sufficient to kill most others.

Argent Aquilus Second-Feather, Argent to his small crew and even smaller number of friends, stood over the body with the crackling shockspear. To verify unconsciousness, Argent kicked the body with his right lower dactyl. The ugly cuss might be faking.

Argent mumbled to the nonresponsive body. "You are lucky I'm a mercenary with a conscience. Anybody else in my crew would have killed you without a second thought."

Argent killed only when no other alternatives existed. Even though a mercenary unfitting of his family's rank, he held an unspoken moral code. He was entitled to hold himself to a standard, especially if others did not.

A beep from his sci-watch brought his attention back to the mission. The device identified a particular energy signature, hopefully from his desired prize, emanating from a corner armoire with a full-length mirror.

Argent warily walked to the piece and caressed the armoire like a newborn pet. His sensitive talons and feathers searched for imperfections or hidden latches, finding none. No keypads or locks prevented him from opening the cabinet. Argent swung the door and discovered the reason he boarded the Hurricane, a Phantori requiem cube.

Ah, the rush of stealing something precious.

Argent admired the intricate white runes carved into the black, porous block. He traced his feathered fingers over the surface of the artifact from a lost world. Heat, pressure, smoothness, and grit on the surface of the cube, remnants of its previous owners, teased his senses. Argent pushed the cube into his breast pocket and zipped it closed to keep the prize safe.

I hope she appreciates this.

Argent closed the cabinet and peered at his reflection in the mirror. The image revealed how ruffled his silver feathers were and his lean nature testified to his recent diet. Thoughts drifted to a possible trip to Aviara, his home world, to enjoy home-cooked meals and regain a semblance of good health.

The sci-watch beeped and refocused Argent on the job at hand.

Argent checked the status of the incapacitated Terraxian and moved to his second task, the one for which he was hired and why the rest of his crew boarded the ship. He found an access point to the ship's computer network. Argent opened another pocket and pulled out a metal shard twice the length of his foredactyl. With a quick magnetic pull, the shard shot into the interface and disappeared. Immediately, the computer junction lit up and performed a series of unknown actions.

Argent tapped the com-device in his ear to talk with the crew aboard the Menagerie, his spaceship currently attached to the hull of the Hurricane.

"Tex, it's in. You see anything yet?"

Tex, proper designation of TX-187 and the partially sentient droid aboard the Menagerie, responded with a beep. A message flashed across the sci-watch, indicating TX-187 now owned access to the entire Terraxian ship's network and any valuable data.

"I'll trust you to get what you can. Show me where the others are."

The time to gather the crew for their dramatic escape arrived. A detailed map of the Hurricane appeared on the screen of the sci-watch as four dots blinked into existence. Two traveled together and one appeared transfixed near the hidden airlock, the designated exit point and the only thing connecting the Menagerie to the Hurricane. The other dot was Argent.

An ounce of pressure on his mind informed Argent that someone wanted his attention. Orvyn, the crew's Scarabite and resident telepath, facilitated mindlinks between the crew to support radio silence on their jobs. Argent blocked his thoughts from the mindlink for the moment.

Argent checked on the downed Terraxian one more time.

"You should have let me win the bid and saved us both a lot of trouble."

Argent opened his mind to the mindlink. "Orvyn, connect me to Fen only."

"You got it, boss."

"Fen, you there?"

"Yes, everything is ready on my end. I'll meet you near the airlock, dear. See you soon."

"Good to hear. Orvyn, open the mindlink to everyone."

Argent mastered the mindlink through discipline, practice, and help from a friend. Actually, a paramour from Dryax who shared a few tricks. Argent relaxed that control, and the mindlink hit him. A split second later, his brain formed a mental connection with his crew.

"I'm back on. Is everyone in position?"

A chorus of affirmative responses flooded the mental bond.

Argent looked at the timer on his sci-watch. "We have less than ten minutes in this cycle. Hustle back to the rendez-vous point in two minutes."

Argent recognized Rocker's polite voice through the mindlink. No one would guess he was a stone-cold killer.

"Did you find what you needed, friend Argent?"

"Rocker, focus on the escape from this Terraxian piece of trash." The cube was a secret. The curt response by Argent reflected a pang of guilt for not confiding in his crew. Argent concealed his thoughts of guilt from the mindlink as he raced toward escape. Though he determined it was worth the risk, Argent broke their trust, and they didn't question his intentions.

The Terraxians, far more concerned with the distraction to cover the mission, remained clueless about the true aspirations of the heist. Real success meant not realizing they were robbed until long after Argent and his ship departed from the sector.

The fact his crew killed five of the reptilian sailors commanded respect from the spiked-throated serpents chasing them through the metal hamster tunnels. The aliens respected killing, when necessary, but theft drew their ire as a cowardly and disrespectful act. Thieves deserved a painful death by the most agonizing means possible; torture followed by an icy suffocation in the vacuum of space. Because of that, Argent feared being trapped aboard this ship.

Argent ran through the hall and followed the schematics on the sci-watch until he joined his crew at a T-intersection within the Hurricane's innards. They acknowledged him in the mindlink, and he focused on the departure with an immediate decision; left, or right? The deadline neared, as every second created an ever-narrowing window for escape.

The Menagerie crew sped through the guts of the alien spaceship. Their path illuminated only by red emergency powered markers on the floor of a shadow filled maze. Light was unnecessary to sense the beasts following them. Terraxian's razor-sharp claws provided a soul crushing clacking cacophony on the metal floor. The noise from the tapping talons exceeded the volume of the ear-splitting clarion from the emergency sirens. As annoying as the sights and sounds of the vessel were, cloying smells of molted reptilian flesh and excrement were more crippling. Terraxians relished in their lack of hygiene.

Frantic looks and perspiration emphasized the crew's thoughts with only the constant slapping of Kraxam's feet and Rocker's tentacles providing a break from the clattering. Kraxam, a Draconi and former slave of the Monger Conglomerate, stood over eight derets in height and brandished claws sharp enough to slice the steel walls. Rocker, a walking Octiopod and trained assassin from the planet of Elmari, wore a plexi-glass helmet because he required water to breathe.

The Terraxian ship featured rotating rings and arms that shifted on a consistent schedule. The next rotation occurred in a matter of minutes. If the team missed their exit point, the next window for escape arrived thirty minutes out, an unsurvivable period on the Hurricane for the thieves.

"Which way, Orvyn?" thought Argent.

"Left, but you have company that way."

Argent pointed left as a visual guide for the team in the dim red light of the hallway. His silver feathers flashed in the darkened hall like a beacon. He fell behind as the others raced through the corridor. "Orvyn, tell Tex to get the ship ready to launch. We are incoming in thirty seconds." Argent's hand found a solid square hidden inside his breast pocket, a reminder of why they were aboard this ship. His gut rumbled from the guilt.

Argent trusted that aboard the Menagerie, TX-187 already pre-programmed the launch sequence, as well as the air lock withdrawal, while waiting for the crew. He also knew TX-187 programmed the pickup for the cargo to complete the job and the jump into the nearest lightspeed lane. From his experience, Argent assumed that TX-187 also calculated the time to complete the entire sequence to judge the crew's performance.

Back aboard the Hurricane, the crew reached the last corner of the maze. A thump resulted as an unseen body bounced off the metal wall when Kraxam, the golden armored Draconi, ran into something transparent.

"Hey!" came from an invisible bystander with a female voice. "I'm lucky you didn't kill me."

The voice belonged to Fen, a Phantori with the abilities to become invisible and shapeshift. As part of the plan, Fen boarded the Hurricane at the prior space dock. Then, once the team blitzed aboard the ship and distracted the crew of the Hurricane, she freed the desired cargo from the hold. A crazy plan that worked several times in the past.

Kraxam reacted harshly and roared out of instinct to the surprise.

Fen lifted her invisibility, and the girth of the Draconi dwarfed her. She was nearly as tall as Argent, but her Phantori body appeared narrower, like an image stretched slightly out of proportion. Fen's cerulean eyes shined as her lithe red body stood with hands on her hips, daring Kraxam to do something.

Argent's courage rose with a glimpse of the shiny blue irises. Fen had that effect on him.