As Josh roared out of Belle, he picked up an escort of about twenty Nagini. They swirled around him but didn't get in the way. It distracted him and he kept an eye on them, but he hurried as fast as he could toward the first warehouse.
When he stopped, the snakes didn't back off as they usually did. Hesitating to get off, he watched them for a few seconds then muttered, "I can't wait all day for you stupid things. I've got parts to get."
He slipped the vibro-knife out of its sheath and stepped down from the fliter and moved out of the shield. Two eight-foot long Nagini came at him. His knife came up in a defensive move but the snakes didn't threaten him. Instead, they weaved their strange dance around his body. They stayed close to him as he opened the door to the warehouse.
Josh's skin crawled at the thought of the Nagini so close, but the pressure of needing parts kept him moving. The other snakes stayed outside the warehouse doors, but the two smaller ones stayed close to him as he gathered parts.
After loading the third part, Josh muttered, "I could get this done much faster if you two weren't here. I have to keep watching you instead of concentrating on the parts. Why don't you go back outside to play? Where were your grandfathers when I needed them to attack those spaceships? Look at the pounding we took because it took so long for them to get there."
He continued to mutter to the Nagini as he went down his list. The longer he worked, the more comfortable he became – until one of the snakes would brush up against his spacesuit. Then his hand would flash to his knife.
At last, he filled the fliter and lashed his load down. He had to take his time going back to Belle because the heavy load made the fliter difficult to fly. When the Nagini tried to come in the airlock with him, he said, "No, you don't. I've had your company long enough. You aren't coming in here."
He grabbed one and shoved it away from the airlock. The other chased it. Josh slapped the close button on the airlock. Cherry's voice came over the intercom, "Who you talking to?"
"Some pests that wouldn't leave me alone. I had to throw them out of here to be able to close the door."
Cherry chuckled, "Maybe you should be nice to them and start training them young. Then you could get them to attack spaceships or pirates that come on yours. Don't mess with those little ones though. Get something fifteen or twenty feet long."
"Ha! Those are all I can stand. Do you want those things flying around inside of Belle?"
"No, you could do it when I'm not around."
Josh just shook his head. The inner door opened and he quickly off-loaded the parts. He cycled back through the airlock to go get another load. Checking the time, he saw he had already been at it for three hours. His inner alarm ticked louder.
It took Josh another six hours to gather all the parts on the list. His escort stayed with him the entire time and tried to get in the airlock each trip. Josh shoved them outside every time. Lemmy had some more requests but Josh said, "You'll have to do with these parts for now. We have to get that other ship hidden. We can get more parts the next trip."
After the last load of parts, Josh unsuited and grabbed a bite to eat. Then he headed to the cockpit to start the preflight checklist. When Lemmy told him she had the parts secured, he took off.
Cherry continued to monitor both remote detectors but saw no signs of spacecraft in the solar system. Josh piloted Belle searching for the last Zlata ship. He found it five hours later. It had wound up deeper in the asteroid field.
The Captain called as he flew into the asteroids, "We found both ships. The smaller one dug itself a hole in the ground. My friends covered up as much of the damage as they could. I'm not sure if it will be hidden from space, but at least they won't know for sure what it is without landing and digging."
Cherry said, "That's good news. What about the big one?"
"We know where it is. Now comes the problem of trying to disguise what happened. I'm actually calling you from outside that one now."
"How bad is it damaged?"
"I'm not sure. We haven't even looked at it. We did a sweep and found all of the crew dead. That last stop plastered most of them against bulkheads or seatbelts. It must have been a really rough landing."
Josh muttered, "It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch."
The Captain asked, "What was that?"
Cherry said, "Nothing. Just our pilot getting a little sentimental about that crew. We have one ship hidden in the asteroids and just found the second one. We'll have it hidden in a few hours."
"Good. Any sign of more visitors?"
"Not yet. I'll let you know when I see something."
As the Captain broke the connection, Josh spotted the Zlata spaceship on the view screens. He maneuvered Belle closer. Cherry used the tractor beam to grab it. He said, "I guess I should go over and check this one out, too."
"Yeah, we don't want any of those thugs finding out about our asteroid. Be careful, we could have another spaceship drop into this system anytime now."
Josh watched Cherry jet to the other ship a few minutes later. A remote sensor followed him inside. The inside of this ship was much the same as the other one. Dead bodies floated in the empty passageways. All power inside had been sucked out by the Nagini.
After a quick search, Cherry called, "What do the scanners say?"
"You're the only visible life form on the ship."
Cherry tried a few other places where someone might hide contraband but didn't find anybody. He returned to Belle. Before Josh could fly away, the alarms from the remote detector went off.
The sound of Cherry and Lemmy's running feet sounded as Josh eased Belle closer to a large asteroid. He flipped the shield on to invisible. As Cherry slid into the co-pilot's seat, he asked, "Is it the ones we expected?"
"I don't know. I wanted to get us close to this rock and then set the shields."
Cherry's fingers flew as he checked the detector. Lemmy moved to another seat in the cockpit. All three strapped on seatbelts and drew them tight. Cherry said, "I'm pretty sure that's them."
He fine-tuned the images from the detector to show a spaceship much like the one they had on the tractor beam. As the three watched, another one appeared several thousand miles from the first. As the two ships moved along the asteroid field, the tension in Belle rose.
When the ships approached the asteroid where they had found Belle, the huge Nagini appeared. They rapidly swam toward one of the ships. It opened fire on them.
Cherry tuned the comm to the frequency that the Zlata had used before. The three in Belle's cockpit heard the frantic cries for help. The second ship started to move closer, but saw that the first ship's weapons had no effect on the gigantic snakes.
Their forward progress slowed to a stop. The other ship increased speed with the Nagini's noses on their stern. The second ship changed direction and tried to hide in the asteroids. The smaller snakes swarmed out and launched in pursuit.
A few minutes later, both ships reached jump speed and winked out of sight as they vanished into hyperspace. Josh said, "That's crazy. Why couldn't they have done that with the ones around Orlowa?"
The remote detector near the planet beeped to let them know that another ship had appeared. Cherry groaned, "Now what?"
Josh said, "That seems to be their pattern. A couple sneak out here by the asteroids and the others appear near the planet. It wouldn't surprise me to see a couple more pop up."
Lemmy asked "What are we going to do? I don't have Belle repaired enough to get into a big fight."
Josh said, "I don't want to get into a big fight. Too much chance of us losing. Yep, there they are. Two more. Cherry, do you think our trick with the rocks would work again?"
"I don't know…"
His voice trailed off as the three watched an incredible scene develop. The five gargantuan Nagini appeared out of nowhere. They came into sight only a few hundred yards away from the largest ship.
Suddenly, t
wo throngs of smaller snakes popped into view behind the two smaller ships. In seconds, all of the animals were attacking all three ships. Screams of panic came over the comm. All three ships flew in different directions. After a few seconds, their weapons winked in rapid fire.
One of the smaller ships slowed, then drifted. The energy signature from it ebbed like water disappearing into sand. The other two ships broke away from the Nagini and jumped to hyperspace. The last comm they heard said, "…leave this place and never come back. I don't know what those things are, but we hit them at least a dozen times with no effect. Tell the boss it's too dangerous to come here anymore. Maybe that's what happened to the —"
The comm went silent. Josh and Cherry stared at each other. Lemmy said, "You'd better get this ship hidden. Looks like we have one more to salvage."
Cherry made a strange noise almost like someone being strangled. Josh just grinned as he started getting Belle ready to move. As they flew to their asteroid, Cherry called the Captain to tell him what happened.
Once they had the spaceship stored in the asteroid, the three collapsed into bed. The next morning at breakfast, Lemmy asked for more parts. Josh and Cherry looked at her list after she headed to the rear of the ship to supervise the repair work.
Cherry said, "Half the stuff on here isn't in the warehouses."
"Yeah, she's added to the list she had before we went to Orlowa. We'll have to go to another planet to even get a start on this list. Trouble is, we need some money."
"While you get the parts you can, I'm going to go see what those ships have. Maybe I can get into their computers and find out about any accounts they may have."
"If they have very much, we should share some with the Captain. He's taking care of six more kids. I don't know where his money comes from, but I'll bet any help would be appreciated."
"Yeah, I may have to call him to check for accounts for that big one. Might as well hit them any way we can."
Josh nodded in agreement as he stood to go suit up. Cherry rose as well and they both headed to the rear.
As Josh made his last trip into Belle's airlock, a smaller Nagini tried to sneak in. Josh muttered, "I should let you in to see if you burn in atmosphere or just shrivel up. I'm just too tired to deal with Lemmy's reaction. Shoo! Get out of here."
A twenty-footer appeared at the open door. Josh's heart raced as he reached for his vibro-knife. He keyed the comm, "Cherry, I hope you're in Belle. I have a twenty-footer eyeing me. If you're outside, you may have to wait for awhile."
"I'm inside. I finished about fifteen minutes ago. What is it with you and those things? Some sort of love affair?"
"Read my lips." He gave Cherry the raspberry.
Josh shivered as the huge snake eyed him. He closed the airlock as quickly as he could. After the airlock cycled, he backed the fliter inside. As tired as he felt, he took the time to secure the fliter to the deck. Checking the netting on the load, he decided it would be secure until Lemmy needed it. He climbed out of his spacesuit and headed to the galley.
At the galley he spotted Lemmy and Cherry already sitting at the table. He said, "You're the android. You should have been getting these parts. You don't get tired."
"Oh, but I do in a way. My charge runs down and sometimes I can barely drag myself across the deck. What are you griping about? You should see what I found on those two ships and see some of the stuff our prisoner is saying. He's about broken and soon we'll be able to ask him anything."
"Maybe tomorrow. Right now, I just want to eat something and go to bed. This has been one lo-o-ong day."
Lemmy piped up, "'With the parts you've been getting, I'm making good progress in putting Belle back together. In another week or ten days —"
Cherry said, "Ten days? We need to be jumping to another planet."
"You can. I can work while we're in hyperspace."
Josh said, "We don't want to be too far behind that pleasure ship. We still don't know their route and I want to catch up to them."
Lemmy asked, "What are you going to do when you catch up?"
"I'm going to put them out of business."
Josh walked to the counter and put a little bit of food on a plate. Filling a large glass with a drink, he sat down. He slowly ate, not even paying attention to the bickering of Cherry and Lemmy. After a bit, he pushed the plate back. Draining the liquid in the glass, he set it on the table and shuffled to his quarters where he collapsed on his bed.
The next morning Josh slept much later than normal. When he finally awoke, he crawled out of bed, got dressed and stumbled to the galley. The room was empty so he fixed breakfast and sat down to eat. As he stuffed the last bite in his mouth, he contacted Belle to find out where the other two were.
Belle projected two 3D images. One showed Lemmy busily directing the robots repairing the damage to the spaceship. The other showed Cherry sitting in the situation room. His attention was riveted to a view screen, so Josh assumed he must be interrogating the slaver again. After taking care of his dishes, he walked toward the situation room.
Entering quietly, he saw that he had been right. Cherry asked the little alien another question as he walked in. The man's answers seemed like random rambling instead of a clear response.
Josh stood for several minutes while Cherry finished his line of questions. Cherry saw him out of the corner of his eye and waved him to a chair. Josh shook his head no and quietly slipped out to find Lemmy.
After talking to her for a few minutes, Josh went to the cockpit. He programmed in a jump to Orlowa. Then he started searching a copy of the shuttle's database. Looking at the different planets it had visited, he made a list of places they would need to travel to.
Next he viewed the copies of the databases of the two Zlata ships, scanning for the same places visited by both. Vidar seemed to be prominent in all three ships' travel itinerary. Josh searched their databases for information about the planet and then looked at the star charts for that region.
Josh muttered to himself, "This should be our next destination after we take care of business on Orlowa. I think they may have most of the parts we need for Belle and I'm sure they'll have information about that floating sewer these slavers use as a pleasure palace. I want to get my hands on them."
Cherry walked in and asked, "What was that? Are you ready to eat?"
Josh glanced at the clock, surprised to see that he had spent the day studying the databases. He said, "I said I want to get my hands on some more slavers. It's time to shut them down."
"I agree. I got that little jerk to talk a little bit."
"When I was in there, he seemed to be babbling."
"Ah, but babbling can give you a lot of answers if you do it right. I know a lot of passwords, account numbers and planets where they are located. I just have to work a little more to tie the account number to the password and to the planet."
"How long are you going to need? You're going to have to feed that slime soon."
"I've had some nanobots do it already. I also gave him something to drink. He didn't even realize what happened. I can keep him like this indefinitely."
"You didn't answer. How long?"
"I don't know. He's had some serious conditioning to resist the way he has. Are you in a hurry to get somewhere?"
"Yes, see this. Vidar – that's where we're going after we finish on Orlowa. I'm pretty sure we can get most of the parts for Belle that Lemmy wants and I know we can get information on Exurbiu Entertainment. What did you find out about credits on those two ships?"
"There's a little over 500,000 credits available if we can figure out how to transfer them to us. I think we need to talk to the Captain. Maybe he has some ideas."
Josh brushed a strand of hair out of his face. His eyes unfocused for a few seconds before snapping back to the present. He said, "Let's eat and get to Orlowa. We've got people to see and places to investigate. Can we tow o
ur prisoner and leave him someplace in orbit?"
"I think we can take him to the planet. We'll get the Captain to care for him. You know the Captain has a few questions for him. Belle, call Lemmy to the galley. We'll eat and discuss our plans."
Chapter 29