Captain Avery The Galactic Bank Heist

8.1: Phillips’ Find

  Captain Phillips had no idea what he was looking for, all that he had was a hunch, a full tank and a burning curiosity to see what in humanity’s name was out here. Phillips liked putting himself in danger, it made him feel alive and he had become somehow addicted to the rush it gave when he put his life at risk.

  Phillips was on his own, and did not feel at all comfortable with the fact that he may not be coming back, now that his ship and booty would potentially be lost out here for eternity. Still, if he made it back, what a story to tell drinking partners and others. Where was Captain Avery now Phillips wondered; probably settled down in some out of the way place raising a family with Captain Bonny. How mind numbingly boring, he thought, too much adventure to be had in a universe teeming with life and experiences.

  ‘Now where did Eric say that I should head?’ Phillips flipped over the beer matt and examined it. He began to count the planets as they slowly drifted passed his window ‘One, this is going to take me a long time, this system is spread out.’

  He decided to put the autopilot to work and to head for his bunk located behind his flight deck. He pulled the curtain to stop the lights from his control panel from stopping him from going off and from waking him up.

  Phillips was awoken by the shaking and tilting of his ship, as if someone was taking it for a joy ride. He pulled the curtain open to see what was happening. He could not quite believe his eyes when he saw this strange looking creature with humanoid form laughing and pulling at the controls wildly.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Phillips as he jumped down from his bunk and pulled the crazed figure off the control seat.

  ‘Just like to play,’ said the green creature with red eyes. I like your ship, very fast...I want to play some more!’

  ‘No,’ said Phillips, realizing that he must be dealing with an adolescent alien.

  ‘I’ll show you what you are looking for,’ said the alien kid with a sad look.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ said a quizzical Phillips.

  ‘You want our rubbish don’t you? You are after are old stock. Want to take it back to sell for zillions do not you? Ha-ha!’ laughed the alien.

  ‘Ah, well as you say it, you may be right. Not sure what I’m looking for.’

  ‘I know of something that will blow your lots minds.’

  ‘Really!’

  ‘Yep,’ said the alien climbing back into the captain’s chair.

  ‘And all you want is to play; I mean fly my Manx for a while?’

  ‘Yep, just wanted to take it for a spin. I’ve never seen or flown anything as fast and manoeuvrable as this,’ the alien’s eyes narrowed as he was working out a trade deal that would satisfy both parties. ‘I want to trade technologies.’

  ‘Okay, you are welcome to carry on your test drive and to download the manufacturer’s information off the computer’s driver, so you can take it back to - wherever you come from - and sell, or build reproductions of this.’

  ‘Deal?’ said the alien teen holding out a long twisted fingered hand.

  Phillips looked into his red eyes, there seemed to be no malice there, he decided that he was not in much of a position to bargain, so he shook hands. ‘Deal,’ Phillips said.

  ‘Great!’ said the teen as he pumped the speed up to maximum and as the craft flew forward; he did a full 360º spin and laughed, ‘Hahahaaa!’

  Phillips felt a bit helpless in his situation, he had no control over his ship, his life, his future at present he had put it all in the trust of a wild teenager!

  ‘How did you get in here anyway?’ asked Phillips.

  ‘Heard you, come to see what this funny noise was. I heard it some time before, recall. Haven’t heard such sweet sounding old engines like this ship has.’

  ‘So you just teleported in here?’

  ‘If you like, just teleported if that’s what you call it. Isn’t this craft great?’ The teen said as he pulled back on the controls and sent the craft lifting up at such an obtuse angle, that Phillips and things that were not tied down began to float in the cabin due to the gravity control’s delay.

  ‘Ah come on fella,’ said Phillips, ‘you’re going to rip this ship to pieces flying like that!’

  ‘I’m just testing its durability, this was made the old fashioned way, no shortcuts in this beast.’

  ‘All handmade I was told.’

  ‘Your species make me laugh, wasting your time working and building things with your hands. Don’t you know there are so many more important things to do to occupy yourselves?’

  ‘I don’t like working. Not for very long anyway. I think you might have a point, though until we get more tech-know-how we are stuck as a species doing that drudge stuff. I don’t like robots anyway.’

  ‘No not robots, just need to think about stuff to make it happen.’

  ‘Have you had enough fun yet?’ asked Phillips.

  ‘No,’ said the teen.

  Phillips just had to sit there strapped in whilst the teen ripped the Manx around moons, up and over, barrel rolls and loop the loops.

  ‘Okay, I’m done,’ he finally said. ‘Here we are,’ he said as he landed the ship on the distant moon. This is our junkyard. Nobody comes here much, only one of your kind has, you are the second.’

  The moon was littered with space junk, old ships, and life support domes for sustained environments and so much more.

  ‘Take your pick!’ said the teen.

  ‘You said that you had something special, something that would blow our species minds?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right, it’s over there,’ said the teen pointing out of the side window.

  It was a strange lozenge shaped pod, about the size of a land based rail travel carriage. It had no visible entry to it, but had screens placed along its sides for viewing something, possibly what was happening inside.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Phillips.

  ‘It’s a pre-world observation device.’

 

  8.2: Back at Corporation X

  ‘So Reeves, what is going on?’ asked Sam Humphries the CEO of Corporation X.

  ‘I might as well come clean, working on a possible cloning exercise, not your usual embryonic research. No, this is real reproducing of tissue and life sourced from a dead individual.’

  Sam looked Tony up and down; he admired him, had him put up the ladder, as he liked his tenacity and inventiveness. Tony shifted in his trademark crumpled leather jacket he wore out of hours.

  ‘Does it work?’ asked Sam.

  ‘I am about to review the results this morning.’

  ‘Well come on, don’t just stand there, let’s go and have a look!’ said Sam much to the surprise and relief of Tony.

  Both men rode a couple of travel-boards to the nearest lift and took it to the fifth floor, placed the boards down and exited, floating to the lab which had been carefully sealed up, thinking no one would notice.

  Sam cut through the tape with a laser-cutter in the face of his watch and opened the door with his wrist key. Inside could be seen a body, moving slowly as if asleep within the incubation chamber.

  ‘She’s going into hibernation mode by the looks of it,’ said Tony.

  ‘Who is she anyway?’ Sam asked.

  ‘She’s that pirate who got blown to bits a few months ago, by that bounty hunter outside of New Station. We acquired a sample of her DNA from her pirate fiancé. He wanted to bring her back. In fact, he was the one who supplied the machine. We know him only as Mr. Smith, that’s all. Sold us this unit six months ago for a lot of money, as you may remember?’

  ‘Yes, yes I remember. I had to put the transaction to the board. It wasn’t easy to secure the funds and if you remember, I put you in charge of the project.’

  ‘Yes, and I am grateful for the opportunity to prove myself. I Hope you don’t think I have overstepped my remit?’

  ‘It depends Tony, on what you have produced and its financial potential to the organization.’

  ?
??I see, well, I’m not too sure we should be messing around too much with this sir. I think it has dangerous implications if it was to fall into the wrong hands.’

  ‘Explain,’ said Humphries.

  ‘Well, you can see that it can reproduce a human from their DNA, so in theory, it could be used to produce an army or slaves in a production centre, full of these rebuilding from recently dead people’s DNA. You can see what I’m getting at sir?’

  ‘Yes, I see the potential, maybe for a prison colony; yes maybe this could work to trap criminals who have not done their sentence for their crimes.

  ‘Why, you’ve already proven that it works! This is amazing Tony, just amazing! I can’t wait until the board hears about this. Oh, this will make Corporation X into a leading force in the Galaxy. I am going to be famous finally; I have always wanted to see my picture in Science Quarterly. Quick, we need to write up this research and publish it.’

  ‘I’m already on it Sam. I’ve got Reginald working on a write-up, we will pass this to you and you’re welcome to publish it as long as Reg. and I can keep the money we were offered to carry out this experiment.’

  ‘Fine, fine, I don’t think it will make a difference once we have this in production and selling it to governments and their satellites.’

  At that moment Tony received a call on his watch that there was a visitor waiting for him in reception and all the details the visitor would give, was that his name was Jim.

  Jim sat in the reception area, looking at the science magazines and space exploration bios books that littered the coffee table in front of the sofa, that were placed there to persuade the waiting client, to regard Corporation X as a high end operation. For Jim, it conjured-up images of space travel, which just made him nauseous and feeling like running to the restroom.

  However, he was there for a good reason and nothing would put him off from seeing his daughter again, even if he had to take a moonwalk, he would gladly agree to it.

  Tony appeared with a little apprehension. He had not even bothered to take his coat off. He still had not properly arrived for work and Tony began to think that his day could not get any weirder.

  ‘Are you Anthony Reeves?’ asked Jim.

  ‘That’s me, what can I do for you?’

  ‘You have my daughter here. I’ve been sent by Captain -’

  ‘Ah yes, you must be Mr. Bonny. Marie, she is in hibernation mode at present. We still don’t know if this experiment has worked successfully. It may be a good thing you are here; we could possibly reduce the shock of the situation if you are present when we turn the life support off and she sees someone she is familiar with,’ said Tony.

  ‘Okay, let’s go. I can’t help being eager to see her again, you understand of course?’

  ‘Yes of course, I understand, can’t imagine the pain and suffering you must have been through. Follow me.’

  ‘Jim, call me Jim.’

  ‘Jim, let’s go and have a look what this machine has produced shall we? And call me Tony, I insist.’

  Jim picked up his flight jacket and proceeded to the lift behind Tony. Although Jim would never venture into space, he liked to give off the impression that he was a big-time space adventurer with his flight jacket with various badges he had bought from the inter-web for affect.

  As Jim entered the room behind Tony, he could see his daughter peacefully sleeping as if in a coma, she was naked but Jim hardly noticed, only that his daughter had returned to him from the dead.

  ‘As you can see Jim, Marie is in a comatosed state. When I turn the machine off, like this,’ he hit the deactivation button, ‘she should in theory wake up.’

  Jim looked at him with hope in his eyes. The cover lifted up Marie awoke, sat up and said the word, ‘Dad!’

  8.3: Avery Arrives in Sigma Droconis

  Avery had managed to cross out two names on his list. Rachel Reynolds of the Vega System turned out to be a Real Estate Agent with a taste for classic spacecraft.

  She said that, ‘It gave that wow factor when I meet clients in space ports, when selling inter-system,’ she quite enjoyed the interview.

  Avery was forced into continuing the interview regarding her pride and joy the Wild Cat. It was clear to Avery, that there was no way she was moonlighting as a Bounty Hunter. No need to kill her, he thought, though he had had a quiet dislike for Real Estate Agents. This however, did not give him a good enough reason.

  Then there was Sophie Sanchez of Ross 154. She was a hairdresser for the stars of the galaxy. Not much to say about Sophie, apart from her long legs that Avery had trouble avoiding to look at whilst he was asking Sophie about her Wild Cat.

  ‘One of my clients bought it for me as a thank you,’ she had said.

  Avery thought there was more to it than just cutting him a haircut that helped him win a medal for best male lead at the All Worlds Film Prizes. Still, she seemed pleasant enough, too pleasant to fire her lasers in anger that was for sure.

  That left just one possibility: Katie Reed, in the Sigma Draconis System. Avery arrived at a vineyard port purporting to be a reporter for Classic Space Craft Magazine. He had turned up at Rackham’s Ranch, half expecting to find his old friend.

  Avery landed in the deserted star depot, nothing else there, no transport for the owner, no stock ready for distribution. Had they left? Or was there life here?

  Avery walked down his hydraulic steps, once they had popped out, he had almost made the mistake of stepping onto them before they had, and would have ended up being launched off his temporary slide on the way down. Not something he considered as a good entrance or good for his health.

  As he made his way to the house, a dog - not an angry dog - but one that had a stick in his mouth and just wanted to play confronted him.

  Avery obliged, and continued his walk through the vines to the estate house, when he spotted the dog’s owner.

  ‘Hector, where are you? I have told you about running off. I’ll have to tie you up if you don’t start behaving yourself.’

  ‘Hello Rackham,’ said Avery, a little surprised to see his partner in crime.

  ‘Hello Avery, what the . . . I saw someone landing?’ he was lost for words and was as surprised as Avery was to see his old friend.

  ‘Long story Rackham, I didn’t know it was you, "Rackham’s Ranch", very appealing, I take it this is your retirement plan?’

  ‘Yes, you found me. What do you want Avery? I have retired. No more job offers please, you know I have a problem saying no to adventure.’

  ‘No nothing like that, it’s Marie.’

  There was a long silence then Rackham said, ‘Ah, I think I know what your about to say.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘Well let’s just say, I know why you’re here Avery. You’ve come to pay a house call on a certain Katie Reed.’

  ‘How did you know that Rackham?’ asked a surprised Avery.

  ‘I worked it out for myself, seems that my neighbour’s daughter is your fiancé’s assassin.’

  ‘I see; you knew?’

  ‘No, I just know that she took someone out, I wasn’t sure who that was.’

  ‘So where can I find this Katie Reed?’ asked a tired and travel weary Avery.

  Plenty of time for that my old friend, let us go and have a drink to celebrate you finding your quarry.’

  The men headed for the house, Hector followed, the sun was beginning to set and Avery - who had never been to the Sigma Draconis System before - was beginning to fall under its charms.

  ‘It’s a nice bit of the universe,’ said Avery, as they reached the porch of the large house.

  ‘Yes, I like it. I wasn’t sure about it but after talking to a few advisors on retirement and fund management, I decided that it was the place for me. Not that it is for everybody, bit of a no-no if you don’t like wine and sunshine.’

  Yes, I see what you mean, not that I’ve been overly keen on wine and sunshine. I could take it or leave it. I have my own retirement plan, which incl
udes Marie. If all things work out, then I think we can put our plans into action.’

  ‘I don’t quite follow’ said Rackham, leading him into the kitchen and selecting a bottle from the racking.

  ‘Well you remember me telling you about my trip to Veedfa?’

  ‘Yes, still don’t know where that is, but carry on.’

  ‘Well, I picked up a piece of equipment that has the potential of restoring life from a DNA sample.’

  ‘Okay, so how does it work?’ asked Rackham pouring a couple of large glasses of wine and passing one to Avery.

  ‘I’m not totally sure; the "boffins" at Corporation X seemed to understand the science part. One of them agreed to carry out the experiment for a fee, and the process should be complete by now.’

  ‘So what are you doing here?’ asked Rackham.

  ‘Her father’s there, seeing the results. I’m not sure if it’s going to work, I just need to finish off this job first before I can go and see her.’

  ‘I understand,’ said Rackham broodingly, ‘do you need a hand?’

  ‘No, it’s something I have to do myself, a vendetta - it’s a personal thing.’

  ‘Very well, let me just tell you this much. I’ve spoken to Katie Reed, she is a young girl, and she can’t remember what happened to her over in Zeandin. I quizzed her on the whole thing. Realized that she may have gone after one of us. I couldn’t quite work out who it was, but when she mentioned she was paid 3.5 million Imperial Dollars, I knew she had taken one of our number.’

  ‘What did you do Rackham?’ asked a concerned Avery.

  ‘I had my shaving knife to hand, I would have skinned her alive if she had not made a run for it.’

  ‘So she was spooked, therefore, she might have taken flight!’

  8.4: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

  ‘Hello there,’ said Avery the following day at the front door to Charley Reed.

  ‘Hello yourself, what can I do for you?’ said Charley.

  ‘I’m James Wyatt, I work for Classic Space Craft Magazine, and I’m travelling the galaxy interviewing female owners of Wild Cat space craft.’

  ‘Oh, you want Katie, she’s not here.’

  ‘That’s a shame; I was hoping to interview her for the next issue.’

  ‘Katie left in a hurry, not quite sure where she went, did not say too much, just that she wasn’t coming back home for a while.’

  ‘Oh, I see, no way of contacting her I suppose?’

  ‘No, I don’t keep her number to text, her type of work doesn’t allow for it.’

  ‘What sort of work does she do?’ asked Avery adjusting the tie on his slick suit.

  ‘She’s in the removal business.’

  ‘Right, maybe you can give Katie my card when you see her next?’ Avery handed over a nice fake business card, of which he was particularly proud.

  ‘Yes sure, I’ll pass it on when I see her next. As I said, I don’t know when that will be,’ said Charley trying to close the door on Avery.

  ‘Okay, thanks Mr. . . .’

  ‘Reed, Charley Reed.’

  ‘Thanks Mr. Reed, I look forward to hearing from her.’

  ‘Clink’ went the door and the knocker clapped against the receiver. Avery wasn’t done yet though, he decided to try another trick.

  He made his way back to Rackham’s Ranch and returned to his Lion S Class, lowered the steps and went up after they had popped out, and made his way into the control room. Avery booted up his analysis system and plugged in an update that he had purchased whilst in the Vega System.

  This should do it, he thought as the upload completed. He rebooted the system to imbed the new version. ‘Right!’ he said rubbing his hands together at the prospects.

  Avery set version 3.1 to investigate the space around Drachma. A scan was underway, the improvement from 3.0 was that this version not only could carry out an investigation of a planet’s intergalactic travel from the safety and comfort of a terrestrial location but it also gave you a reading for the type of ship that left the hyperspace trail. A trail usually lasted for sixty-four hours, so it would make sense if Katie Reed had taken off in the last couple of days, Avery would find it.

  Avery investigated the results; it showed his own entry trail from Ross 154. Others from nearby systems Lialalia, Zeessze and Encea.

  ‘Nope,’ said Avery. He carried on scanning, and came across two exits. One to Formalhaut and the other to Zeandin. ‘That’s odd’ said Avery, looking at the results. He asked the system for the details of the Formalhaut report.

  ‘Freighter,’ said the system, ‘non-descript, no more details.’

  ‘That’s not it,’ said Avery, as if he had struck up a conversation with the female voice. He clicked on the second fading hyperspace trail. The system buzzed.

  ‘Wild Cat NX,’ said the system, ‘Mark II, destination Zeandin.’

  ‘Got you,’ said Avery powering up the Lion S Class. Avery did not see the need to tell Rackham he was off. He was his own man and so was Rackham.

  Once airborne and out of Drachmas’ atmosphere, he locked onto the trail and hit hyperspace.

  Within moments, he was back in the Zeandin System mulling over his next move. What was she doing here, no doubt after some more money from The Council? There was another three heads to hunt and she knew the location of one: Rackham.

  ‘Dam,’ said Avery to himself, why didn’t he think, Rackham was now in danger, he had to act fast. Okay, still operate as the reporter from Classic Space Craft Magazine, follow her into the space station, and pin her down for a meeting.

  Avery hung around the space ship parking area, went to every floor trying to locate the Wild Cat NX, at last he saw it parked up next to an old Leopard Mark I.

  He thought about booby-trapping the vehicle. No that would be too dangerous, might take out the entire space station. What about just shooting her when she returned to the ship - might miss. No a face-to-face, under the table job was the only guarantee. He put a card with a note on her door and waited to see if she would respond. He waited, out of sight, but could still see her craft from the above level.

  Finally, she returned, Katie picked up the note, read it and pulled out her communicator. Avery pulled his out, and set it to silence, just in time. There she was, on the other end of the line. Avery picked up.

  ‘Hi, James Wyatt, Classic Space Craft Magazine.’

  ‘You’re interested in doing a feature on my Wild Cat?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right, great interest in these, especially those flown by females like you. Can we meet for a quick coffee?’

  ‘Yes, sure, I’ve only got a few hours left, so I will need to make it brief.’

  ‘Fine, it shouldn’t take long. I only need to take down a few details that’s all and we pay up front.’

  ‘Fine, meet you in Coffee Laing in ten minutes?’

  ‘Okay, see you there.’ Avery hung up, picked himself up from his hiding position under a parked spacecraft, brushed himself down and took the nearest lift to the foyer.

  Katie was waiting for him as he entered; he smiled and indicated that he would get hers as well as his. They sat together for a while and Avery began asking his questions.

  ‘So how long have you owned your Wild Cat?’

  ‘About five years now. It used to belong to my mother,’ replied Katie.

  ‘Do you use it for business or do you only use it for pleasure flights?’ continued Avery. ‘So is this your first visit to the Zeandin System or have you been here before?’

  Suddenly Katie felt trapped in her seat, whilst Avery had a gun pointed at her stomach under the table.

  ‘Why do you ask?’ said Katie, beginning to sweat.

  ‘Oh, we like to give our readers a little bit more information about our subjects’ lifestyles,’ replied Avery.

  ‘Yes, I’ve been here only once before.’

  ‘Good payday was it?’ the look in Katie’s eyes gave it away, Avery fired.

  She was dead, her head l
ying in a pool of hot, bitter, coffee.

  Avery’s messenger beeped, it was Anthony Reeves: ‘The rejuvenation was successful!’

  9 CAPTURE