• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“That’s right. Never has, never will. Smell that? It’s like an engine bearing has burned out.” The man’s voice changed. “Control Aleph-One, it’s a cargo skimmer. It’s unoccupied. It may be a drifter. Jotay’s checking out the autopilot.”

“I am?”

“You are.”

The other man sighed.

They were silent for a couple more minutes, then Jotay said, “It looks like it was slaved to another skimmer, part of a cargo convoy, and its memory was not correctly purged. It would have shot off as soon as it was activated. Maybe even still be receiving signals from the convoy master.”

“Well, flush the program and take it back where it belongs.”

“Why me?”

“Privilege of rank, sonny. I was hired three days before you.”

Wedge heard the skimmer power up and go gliding off, its driver still complaining. The other man wandered back toward the bunker’s south face, chuckling and muttering to himself.

Falynn chuckled, too. She whispered, “He’s going to have a fine time parking that thing with the brakes not working.”

Kell’s opponent stood, his face red, twisted with anger.

“I really ought to stop you,” the guard said.

“Well, you can do that, or you can get your bets down.” Then Kell twisted to avoid the mechanic’s charge. He swatted the man’s outstretched hand away, continued the twist into a full twirl, and gave the man a slap to the back of his head as he passed. The mechanic staggered, off balance from the extra momentum, and went to his knees.

The mechanic came up with a belt hydrospanner in his hand. This wasn’t a small, around-the-house tool, but a heavy metal implement two-thirds the length of a man’s arm.

Kell dropped his pose of aggressive amiability and assumed a proper fighting posture, left foot forward, hands up, weight balanced. He’d hoped that potentially deadly weapons wouldn’t enter the mix. He’d obviously hoped in vain.

The mechanic charged again, but something in his body language told Kell he was changing tactics. Instead of sidestepping, Kell held his pose, ready to stop-thrust or body-check the man. It was the mechanic, though, who stopped short, swinging the hydrospanner in a horizontal arc that would have connected solidly with Kell’s rib cage if he’d duplicated his earlier move.

Kell twisted aside—and the head of the spanner hit him a glancing blow, an impact that kicked the breath out of him and sent him staggering back. He thought he felt a rib give way.

The mechanic, confident now, followed up instantly with another swing.

Kell didn’t try to dodge this one. Despite the pain in his left side, he twisted, adding energy to the punch that connected with the mechanic’s wrist. Kell felt and heard something break in the wrist. The hydrospanner flew free, clanking into the side of Kell’s maintenance skimmer.

Kell followed through with a left that rocked the mechanic’s head, then spun around in a kick. He tried to make it look more awkward than it had to, but gave it full force when it connected against the mechanic’s jaw. The man uttered a grunt and fell hard to the duracrete.

Kell turned to the guard. “Call this in. He just assaulted me with intent to kill. My career here may be shot, but I’m taking his with me. Get me Central.” He suddenly felt drained and was having a hard time breathing.

The guard shrugged and moved to comply. Tyria took a breath, preparing to jump in with an objection, but the mechanic’s partner, who’d exited his skimmer during the fight, spoke up first. “Wait. Please.”

The guard paused.

Kell said, “Why?” He tried to bring his labored breathing under control. It wasn’t working. Still, that added to his act, made it easy for him to simulate fury.

“He’s a good man. Just tense. Let him sleep this off, I’ll redo the servicing on the shuttles, nobody will report anything, you keep your job, he keeps his job—what do you say?”

Kell took a couple of breaths, as deep as he could bear, and turned to Tyria.

She shrugged. He could read worry for him in her eyes, but her tone was light. “Might as well. Fewer reports.”

The guard in charge said, “Fewer reports.”