[Istanbul]

Chapter 4: On the Lam

On the Lam, Pt. 1

Jezra cursed. "I can't see anything through this window."

"Well, standing around here isn't gonna get us to the Yasashiikaze. Let's go Tiger," I said.

"Follow me," she replied.

She stepped out the door of the Lumpy Stew. I was right behind her. I glanced around furtively as I stayed on her heels. I saw a couple guys with low hanging, baggy pants and hooded sweatshirts pulled low over their faces several steps to the right of the door we had just left. Luckily, we needed to go the other way. Hopefully they wouldn't be a problem.

The passageway was dimly lit, just like it was on our way in. But, other than the pair of street thug looking guys, there was no one walking about any more. We walked at a quick pace, but kept an unhurried look... I think. Surprisingly, Jezra whipped out a make-up case and started doing something to her face while we were walking.

'She's watching the mirror,' I realized.

"They're following us. Don't look," she said quietly.

"I saw them when we walked out. A pair of hoods, right?"

She nodded.

"Why do you think they're following us? Why didn't they just try and mug us right away?"

"They're making sure we don't go the other way. When we round this bend, start running to the ship. I'll take them and hold them up, so you can get out of here."

I was about to protest when we rounded the slight bend in the corridor and she took off running. "GO!" she yelled.

I took off full tilt just a couple steps behind her. Several meters ahead of us was the T-intersection. The right turn led to the elevators, the left turn... I had no idea. Two more pairs of toughs chose that moment to step from each side of the T, brandishing their close-combat weapons of choice.

"No way am I leaving you behind!" I shouted.

Jezra angled towards the pair on the left, so I angled to the right. There was a guy and a girl. I didn't really get a good look at them except to notice that the woman had a meter length of chain and the man had a 30 cm long knife.

I was just 10 meters from them now. I reached behind me and grabbed my sticks from my pocket and unslung my stick bag with my left, still running full tilt. The thugs leered at me, waiting for me to run by. I had no such idea.

At the last moment I charged and changed my heading directly at them. Right then, I unleashed a power move straight from my college days. Of course, I was only seven months removed from graduating from Edgerton University on Hypsos, but, I digress. The move is called the 'Takeout Slide', used for breaking up double plays. Believe me, when you have a 200 pound ex-third baseman (and outfielder) slide through you, the results on the receiving end aren't pretty.

I was able to catch them both by surprise. I slid through them and scrambled quickly to my feet. The thugs tried to as well, but I kicked the man in the jaw. The girl whipped at me with her chain, but I blocked it with my padded bag and struck back with the butt of my sticks, knocking her down again.

I looked over at Jezra, just as she slugged one of the two toughs she faced to the ground, joining his companion, who had a knife sticking from his shoulder. I quickly covered the small distance between us and slipped my bass drum mallet from my bag. I handed it to Jezra. She had just enough time to give me an incredulous look before the trailing pair joined in the fight.

She stepped into the first guy and buried the head of the mallet into his belly with a two-fisted swing. He doubled over, dropping his knife in the process and she walloped him on the top of his head. I dodged the swing of the second man's billy club and played a paradiddle on his face with my sticks.

"C'mon Tiger," I said, "Let's get out of here!"

Together, we dashed to the elevators.

To be continued...

[Istanbul]

On the Lam, Pt. 2

The elevator seemed to be crawling. There was some pathetic music playing, Kenny E or C or something like that. For some reason that kind of sappy music gets played in elevators a lot. We had sent all the elevators off and grabbed the last one, while our ambushers regrouped. They’d be on our tails again in a minute, so we needed to keep hurrying.

The door of the elevator opened, revealing the better lit corridors of the hangar deck. On Evening’s End Station, and all the unreg stations actually, there are five long hallways with the passage going across the width of the station outside of the elevator bank. Bay 92 is in Corridor 2 (as they’re labeled), so we dashed to the right. Even the fighter bays are quite large, and with each being two wide, except for the ones on the outside wall of the station, we had a ways to go to get over to our corridor from the elevator opens up in front of Corridor 3.

We ran as fast as we could and rounded the corner to Corridor 2. Bay 92 is way down at the far end, but we ground to a halt. Jezra pushed me against the wall, into the alcove of Bay 76’s personnel door.

“There’s three more of them in front of 92,” Jezra hissed.

I peeked. Sure enough, there were three more in front of our door. I pressed myself back against the door. Unfortunately, it chose that moment to open. I fell into a dark hangar bay with dim red lighting. I was so surprised that I just lay there for a second without making a sound. Jezra leapt inside after me, with her dagger in hand. Instantly, the door shut behind us. But the lights flickered on overhead, revealing a dark-haired, rugged man. He was wearing a worn Quantar flight suit, but the faction’s insignia was missing. In fact, his uniform had no markings on it whatsoever. And in spite of the Quantar facial features, he had a Phoenix sitting behind him.

“Thanks for not making me come after you,” he said darkly.

“Who are you?” I asked. He remained silent, standing with his arms crossed, gazing intently at us. I used the moment of silence to examine the hangar. It was quite neat, with a few supply crates and weaponry stacked around the walls.

“You’re asking the wrong question, Rookie.”

“What’s the right question?”

“The question you should be asking is, ‘Why am I not spacing you both and taking the credits?’” he said. “For two reasons: One, there’s no love lost between me and the Club; Second, someone’s paying me quite well to get you off this station alive.”

Jezra and I looked at each other.

“Why should we trust you,” Jezra questioned. “Who ARE you?”

“Because you’re not dead. If you don’t know who I am, too bad. That situation isn’t one that I’m going to change,” the pilot stated. “Now it’s time for you two to shut up and get out of here.”

The rugged man walked over to a ladder that led to a hatch in the wall above the level of the hall outside. He climbed the ladder quickly and typed a code into an access panel to the side. The hatch slid open.

“Let’s go,” Jezra said, prodding me.

We quickly followed the man up the ladder and entered the service tunnel. It was two meters tall and about the same width as the hallway. There were various hatches and panels decorating the tunnel in great numbers. The man led us quite a distance, until we reached a hatch marked Bay 92 Access.

To be continued…

[Istanbul]

On the Lam, Pt. 3

We looked over the hangar. They had broken in and posted a guard on my ship. The mystery man pulled a weird looking gun out of a jacket holster and started to aim it at the guard.

“Don’t worry, it’s a tranquilizer gun,” he said, as I was about to motion him to stop. He pulled the trigger and there was a soft pop and a whisper of noise. The guard slumped to the ground without a cry.

Jezra and I scurried down the ladder as fast as we could. The strange pilot disappeared.

“What should we do with this guy?” I asked.

”Lock him up in one of the pods. Come on.”

We both grabbed an arm and dragged him up to the ship. I typed in my code and the cargo ramp opened. Quickly, we stowed him in a pod and closed the ramp.

We ran into the ****pit, where I strapped in and transmitted the launch code. Our ship was being raised into the ceiling as a bunch of the thugs burst into the bay. Moments later, we launched and left a yellow streak of afterburner exhaust behind, all the way to the gate.

End of Chapter.

[Istanbul]

Bovinity
In Hyperial Descriptive Form

Spotted Holstein.
 Wild flying.
  Strategist beyond comprehension.
   Green, and golden.
CaptainCow.
-Istanbul

I couldn’t go forever without bringing in what may be the best name in JumpGate. If not, it’s darn close!

[Istanbul]

Chapter 5: Invasion

Invasion, Part 1

Big Mac and I sat in the lounge of Regan’s Station. I was plucking around on my guitar. It wasn’t plugged in, so that I wouldn’t bother BM, since he was reading Heavy Loads: The Magazine for Space Truckers. The girls had gone off to Quantar Core in Regan’s tow for some mystical female tradition.

It had been a week since the trip to Evening’s End. Not much had really happened since then other than a retirement party for a pilot I didn’t really know. I got shot down bringing in adult beverages to the party by a prohibitionist. (It was kind of ironic, since I don’t drink the stuff, but the prohibitionist does). Anyways, the retiring pilot gave me 10 million credits out of his bountiful wealth, so I was sad that I wouldn’t get the chance to get to know him.

The station computer suddenly spoke, “Attention, incoming subspace signal.”

I laid my guitar down on the couch and dashed from the lounge. The Ops Center was across the hall, so it was just moments until I was patching in the signal.

“Sr. Lancer Kabul, Sir!” I said.

“Istanbul, what is the status of the prisoner?”

“Pretty sullen, but he’s still secure. Any chance of getting him collected soon?”

“Definitely, in fact that’s the reason I called. We have a ship incoming to pick him up. We need access to be granted within five minutes, before it gets in sector.”

“That may be a problem, Sir.”

“How so?”

“Regan is off station, and she’s the only one who can set access rights.”

“Well, see what you can do. The sooner we can do this transfer, the better. Code name is Sickle. Kabul out.” At that, the signal cut off.

I quickly keyed the comm to try to get Regan. “Pilot not available,” flashed on the screen. I mused for a moment. I paged Big Mac. “Hey, I need you in here,” I said. Then I got to work on the station mainframe.

Big Mac strolled in moments later as I was in the beginning of a heart to heart discussion with Regan’s core processor.

“What’s up mate?” he asked.

“We have a transport incoming to pick up the prisoner, but Regan isn’t here to set up the access. I’m going to try to convince Harmony to let it in, but who knows if that’ll work,” I replied.

“What can I do to help?”

“Try to get a hold of one of the girls if you can and watch the sector scanner for any activity please.”

“Will do.”

To be continued…

[Istanbul]

Invasion, Part 2

Harmony, the central computer of Regan’s Station is named after a Carebear. It has a high pitched voice and a propensity towards giggling like a schoolgirl. And, like all computers, makes everything more complicated than it needs to be. I had already had some limited conversations with it, so I knew I had to tread carefully.

“So, what do you think Harmony? Can you give access to Sickle for us?”

“Nope, only Regan can do that,” it said brightly.

“I know… but Regan isn’t here and we have that ship coming in to get that rascal from the brig.”

“Oh! I wanted to talk to you about him anyways! You know, you should really try to get along with him. Maybe if you sat down to lunch, you two could become friends!”

“Harmony! Every time I bring him his food he tries to strangle me!”

“Oh you little crybaby! Like you couldn’t handle a couple hours of being strangled.”

“C’mon Harmony, we only have a couple minutes before Sickle gets here. Will you please give it access?”

“Nope!”

“Do you really like having that prisoner here that much?” I asked, slightly exasperated at this point. I looked over at Big Mac. He didn’t seem to be having any luck either.

“Naw… I think he’s cute!” came the reply.

My jaw dropped. “What?! You think he’s CUTE?!! Ok, look at Big Mac over there… do you think he’s cute too?”

“Oh yeah… he’s a total hottie,” Harmony said cheerfully. Big Mac grinned at me.

“I rest my case.”

“You mean you don’t want me to give Sickle access now?”

“No! I mean yes! Or whatever! Please give Sickle access!”

“Why should I?”

I had a blinding flash of insight. “For the… harmony of the galaxy of course!” I said. “The police can find out more information from him and we can put an end to this crime ring.”

“Hmm.” The computer appeared to be mulling the logic of my argument.

Then, “I’ve got Regan on the comm,” Big Mac said.

“Good. Patch her in,” I replied. I quickly explained the situation to her and asked her if she could set the access remotely somehow.

“I think so,” said Regan. “Harmony, emergency code, Carebear Stare. Grant access to Sickle.”

“Ok, Regan, granting access now.”

Moments later, Big Mac called out, “Just in time. Sickle in sector now in a Turkey. Inbound.” As soon as he said that, the priority comm line started flashing. “Looks like a signal from Octavian Space Security HQ. Opening Channel.”

It was Sr. Lancer Kabul… and he did not look pleased.

To be continued…

[netburnr]

Very nice story man, very nice.

Keep going! I want to know what happens next