OMEGA Exile

  Chapter 9

  _______________________

  Our next dozen assignments were as uneventful as could possibly be. Joni was beginning to get agitated at the lack of any real detective work involved with the cream-puff missions that made up our schedule. The pace was slow, and the inspections slower.

  After a particularly docile check, Joni said, “Are random inspections ever done?”

  “It used to be a common practice in the AMP. If you finished up with a ship, and another was in the vicinity, it was up to the inspector if they chose to call that ship in or not. I used to do it at least once per week back in the day.”

  “Why aren’t they done anymore?”

  “I’m not sure. If I had to guess, it's because detectives aren’t interested in the extra paperwork. And if the ship you stop happened to be owned by a politician or one of the families, you get a hard time from command. Not worth sticking your neck out.”

  Joni nodded. “So, is it not legal to do them now?”

  “There are no laws against it, or written procedures. Are you suggesting we do a random inspection?”

  Joni grinned. “I'm suggesting exactly that. I think we should throw a hook out for the next ship that enters our space. Maybe we can catch something.”

  I agreed. The next ship to enter our vicinity was a personal cruiser belonging to the trade commissioner of Javax V. The Javax colony specialized in the mining of ores and the fabrication of steel used for shipbuilding.

  When we stepped aboard the Wrellis, the commissioner was indignant. “What is the meaning of this? I passed inspection on SS7 yesterday!”

  Joni said, “In accordance with the shipping laws of the Salton Empire, random inspections are to periodically take place. I would like to offer you the option of reporting all contraband on this vessel before the inspection begins. I'm told the fines levied for such are substantially lower than those where contraband is discovered. Is there anything you would like to report at this time?”

  The commissioner waved his finger. “I don’t know who you think you are dealing with, Detective, but I have friends in high places, and when I report your names to them, I will be sure to let them know I felt I was being harassed!”

  Joni smiled. “Commissioner, I am sure you are well respected in your colony. An arrest and a heavy fine would not be viewed as popular for an elected official. I will give you one more opportunity to declare any contraband you might have aboard.”

  The commissioner’s finger turned into a balled fist as he turned for an electronic pad. “I'm going to scan each of your badges for my complaint!”

  I stepped forward and my badge was scanned.

  “Mr. Beutcher, I hope you don’t mind losing one of those stars!”

  Joni stepped up.

  “And Miss… Salton.”

  The commissioner looked up with a worried expression.

  Joni nodded and offered a wide grin. “You were saying, Commissioner? You have a complaint?”

  The commissioner offered a half scowl. “I suppose the meaning of your smile is that my complaints will go unheard.”

  I said, “That's a good assumption, Commissioner. Would you like to take this opportunity to declare any contraband?”

  The commissioner took several minutes to compile a listing of the illegal materials on his ship. The list included a number of banned food substances, including coffee, a dangerous pet, and a blaster rifle that far exceeded the power output limits placed on civilian sport and hunting weapons. When we said goodbye to the commissioner, he was sulking.

  As the ramp-way of the Daunte closed, Joni said, “Wow, did you see the hate in his eyes?”

  “I would guess you enjoyed that immensely. Now, before we leave, I would like to consider using your discretion to try to flip the commissioner from someone who outright hates you to someone who might see you as a possible ally.”

  Joni squinted an eye. “Why would I do that? The guy was being an ass, and he's getting what he deserves.”

  “Our job out here is not to piss off every guy we find carrying a little contraband. It's to discourage the flow of the small stuff while we search out the big scores. I would bet your commissioner would be willing to trade information for a little discretion on our part.”

  “Information?”

  “Any confiscation we made with cause will go in as public record. Mr. Thomas might be willing to cooperate if you were to offer to use some of your discretionary power in the name of catching the big crooks. We took his stuff. If we leave him with his dignity, he may actually be grateful. Besides, I would guess he would be one to favor having a Salton on his side.”

  Joni frowned. “Well, I’m certainly not on his side, but I get where you're going.”

  Joni opened a comm channel. “Commissioner Thomas, I have an offer you may want to entertain for a moment. It may be beneficial to both you and me.”

  “I'm listening.”

  “I have it within my authority to use discretion when it comes to the confiscation of what is considered minor contraband. As I'm sure you understand, Detective Beutcher and I are in the business of preventing the large-scale flow of illegal trade goods—trades, which by the way, hurts your legitimate businessmen. I may be willing to remove the ‘confiscation with cause’ selection on my report of this incident, essentially keeping your name from being entered in the public record.”

  “Keep talking.”

  “If you were to offer knowledge, even hearsay, of any larger illegal transportation operations, I may be willing to use the discretion I just spoke of. I find it better to make allies and friends, rather than enemies when given the opportunity. Would you perhaps have any knowledge that might sway my decision on your case?”

  The commissioner was silent for several seconds. “I may have something for you along those lines, Miss Salton. What assurances do I have you will keep your word should I offer you this information?”

  Joni laughed. “I’m sorry, Mr. Thomas, I can offer no assurances other than to say I will take it under strong consideration. If the information you have is worthwhile, would it not be in my best interest to have you as an ally and not an enemy?”

  The commissioner replied, “I suppose.”

  I was impressed by the way Joni Salton took on a senior politician who had made his living through making deals with others. Her offer was all possibilities with no promise. If the information was worthless, Commissioner Thomas had no one to blame but himself.

  As the commissioner was released and we pulled away, I said, “You handled that like someone who had been doing it for years.”

  Joni smirked. “I’ve seen enough politics in my life to know how a negotiation goes when you have the upper hand. Now, we have this information; what are we going to do with it?”

  “You're the acting officer. You came by this information through your thorough investigative activities. I believe that makes it your decision either to pursue this or pass it off to the captain for another detective to check into.”

  Joni shook her head. “Uh, no. I am not handing this off so we can get another squeaky-clean inspection added to our schedule. We have eight hours until we're due on the Fromrider for an inspection of its seed cargo. I think we look into this now.”

  “Detective, set the course for the path of the Angel’s Fire. If we bust a freighter loaded with bleurgh, you will get recognition, whether you want that recognition or not.”

  Joni pulled up the nav screen and set the course. “Bleurgh, the name alone should tell you to keep away from that stuff. I don’t get why so many people enjoy getting blotto-ed. I like to be aware of whatever's going on around me.”

  “There are a lot of people out there who lack the drive and ambition you have. They feel trapped in their existence, and that substance offers them an escape. Some don’t seem to care it is addictive and they will crave it for months after doing even a single dose.

  “What I find strange is it has a nearly identical effect on almost all s
pecies. It's a near-perfect drug for corrupting the masses. It’s cheap and easy to distribute. I heard some of the outer colonies offer hits as part of their weekly pay packages. Those workers will be enslaved to those companies for the rest of their lives.”

  As the Angel’s Fire came into view on the nav screen, an all-stop order was sent. An angry captain first refused to comply and was quickly persuaded under threat of a complete power system shutdown. Every ship in the AMP and then again in the New Alliance was required to have a shutdown circuit integrated into their systems. Noncompliance was met with an immediate confiscation of a ship and its cargo, and an arrest of its captain with a lifetime sentence imposed. In my forty years of service, I had never come across a ship without the circuit being active.

  As Joni and I stepped out onto the deck, the manifest administrator met us with his logs. “We're on a tight schedule, detectives. You will find the logs in order, as an inspection was performed at SS9 only two days ago.”

  Joni said, “Thank you, Mr. Dapner. Now, if you could direct us to hold number four. We would like to perform a spot inspection.”

  Roger Dapner stood with a stunned look on his face. “Wha... what? Why number four?”

  Joni smiled. “Either we can follow you to the inspection door, or you can lead us.”

  The administrator began to raise his hand to press the comm button on his arm pad. I took note of Joni having her hand on her blaster as she reached out.

  Joni grabbed the administrator’s wrist. “Alerting the captain will not work in your favor, Mr. Dapner. Full cooperation may yield a lenient judge if contraband is being transported by this ship. As detectives, we do have discretion over what we include in our reports. A favorable report can make a world of difference to your future if an issue is found.”

  I slowly shook my head in a warning to three crewmen who had picked up hand weapons in an attempt to defend their administrator. After I tapped my finger lightly on the side of my blaster, the three men stepped back into the shadows of a dimly lit maintenance area.

  The administrator slowly lowered his hand. “This way.”

  Hold four had one large container sitting in its center, magnetically bonded to the deck plating. A quick scan yielded a positive result for bleurgh.

  The administrator was read his arrest rights, and electronic handcuffs were powered on, binding his wrists behind his back.

  Joni said, “The logs show sixteen crewmen on this ship. How should we handle this?”

  “I would round up and bind the crew, set a nav course for the station, and ride this transport back to victory. That container has thirty thousand liters of bleurgh in it. That's a major score for any detective, let alone one who has yet to finish her probation period. I would ask this, how does your uncle feel about the transport of bleurgh? This ship is under subcontract to Motlin through a third party. You have to dig to find it, but it's there.”

  Joni shook her head. “From everything I know, my uncle has never been one to allow the open transport of anything like that. I know it shows up in the outer colonies, where inspections are performed at a much lower frequency, but this ship was headed for Gelnac. That’s right in our neighborhood. Thirty thousand liters is enough to keep a quarter of that planet zonked for several months.”

  I looked up at the container. “I would guess most of it is headed for elsewhere. Either way, it stops here.”

  As I turned away from the container, I was confronted by a crewman wielding a large knife. I spun quickly to the left, taking a hard but glancing blow to my left rib cage. As my attacker passed me by, Joni dropped to the floor as she pulled her blaster. A single shot caught the assailant in the upper chest. As the ion bolt expanded, a spray of blood, guts, and bone fragments burst outward, covering Joni as she rolled away.

  With the attacker dead, I turned my head back toward the door just in time to see a second crewman raising a blaster of his own. Before I could draw, Joni fired a second bolt that was just as precisely sighted as the first. The crewman exploded backward into the hallway as a third attacker came in from behind him. I dropped to my right knee, took aim, and negated his attempt at assault as my strike impacted and exploded from his right arm, knocking him backward, again into the hall.

  I turned and grabbed Joni by the arm, dragging her as I ran toward cover behind the large container.

  As I rounded the corner, I slung her petite frame around behind me. I released her arm as I turned back to face the door.

  Several seconds passed before Joni stood behind me, rubbing her forehead. “What did you do that for?”

  “I was trying to save your life.”

  Joni half laughed. “By slamming my head into that container? Thanks, but I think I would have done better out there.”

  As she finished her complaint, three more crewmen entered the room with their blasters firing.

  I yelled out, “I would be careful what you are shooting at! This substance is flammable! You hit it and this whole ship goes up!”

  Joni asked, “Bleurgh? Is flammable?”

  I waved back behind me with my free hand. “Shush! I’m trying to buy us some security.”

  Joni winced as I again yelled, “I just sent an alert out for backup! Give up now, and I'll designate you as uninvolved crewmen in my report!”

  As I peered around the corner, I could see the lead crewman directing the others toward the back of the tank. I turned back to see Joni was no longer behind me. In a moment of panic, I ran to the back side of the container. The two other crewmen were standing with grins on their faces and their blasters raised. I was caught.

  I slowly leaned over to set my blaster gently on the deck. As I began to rise up, I was again caught by surprise as two ion bolts entered the crewmen through the tops of their heads. I was soon awash in a heavy spray of blood and brain matter as their heads and upper torsos exploded.

  As I reached down for my weapon, the third crewman called out from behind me, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Before I could turn, Joni dropped from the top of the tank, hammering the butt of her blaster into the man’s skull. Her blow was only glancing, and with an immediate reaction the man spun, striking her square between the eyes with the ball of his elbow. As he turned fully toward her, I reached and raised my blaster, placing a bolt hard into the center of his back. The spray of blood and guts once again covered Joni as she lay sprawled out on the floor, knocked unconscious from the crewman’s elbow.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of further movement at the doorway. It was the ship’s captain, holding a blaster to the back of his nav officer’s head.

  The captain said, “You will have no more trouble, Detective.”

  Two additional crewmen then appeared behind the captain with their blasters raised. One moved in front of the captain to take control of the nav officer.

  The captain lowered his weapon. “Is your partner dead?”

  I looked down. “No. But she'll have a massive headache when she wakes up.”

  The second crewman with the captain moved in to place a hand on the still-cuffed administrator, pulling him to his feet.

  The captain walked up to the container. “Is that what I think it is?”

  I nodded as I placed my blaster back at my side. “Thirty thousand liters of addiction and torture. Can I guess your administrator and nav officers are new?”

  The captain shook his head. “I’ve known each for at least a dozen years. It’s sad to see what the lure of quick money will do to a man, especially with times getting as tough as they are. These two have been well paid, and each is only six years from a pension that would have given them a modest but comfortable life. I know their families.”

  I could see the look of distress in the captain’s eyes as he looked at the remains of the crewmen. “They all had families. With this criminal activity, the company will not pay out any benefits to their wives or children. They were all good men.”

  I shook my head. “They
were not all good men, Captain. They may have been at one time, but not when they died.”

  I turned back to help Joni as she began to wake up. “Thanks for helping me, Knog. Were you just going to let me lie there in that pool of blood?”

  “I’m not a physician. I was always told to let a person wake up on their own after a knockout. If they don’t wake up, you go for help.”

  Joni pinched the bridge of her nose as she squinted her eyes. “What happened?”

  I laughed. “You took an elbow right between the eyes. Why didn’t you just shoot him?”

  Joni stood silent for a second as she gathered her thoughts. “I wanted him alive for questioning. I was expecting him to be the one knocked out. He must have had a skull that was an inch thick.”

  I turned to the captain. “Can you set a course for SS5, Captain?”

  “I can. We have showers too, if you'd like to clean up.”

  I shook my head. “Thanks, but no. We have a shower on our ship.”

  I turned to Joni. “Go clean yourself up. I’ll get started on our report.”

  Joni looked at me with a strained expression. “Our report? This was my bust, remember?”

  I offered a smile. “You're correct. Captain, could you have your men bring her a towel? She would like to get started on her report.”

  The captain gestured to a crewman, who immediately turned and left the bloodied hold.

  The captain looked back at the container and then back at Joni. “I would say someone might get a star out of this.”

  Joni shook her head. “I couldn’t accept it, Captain. I’ve only been at this for about a month. I have too much to learn before I earn a star.”

  The captain looked back at the container. “Suit yourself, young lady, but capturing thirty thousand liters of blue death says otherwise.”

  Joni looked at the slash across the thick shirt of my uniform. “How about you? You OK?”

  I pulled open the cut with two fingers. “I’m all right. You don’t fight Gruntas with a knife; our skin is too dense. He gave me a good scrape, but nothing serious.”

  Joni again squeezed the bridge of her nose as she repeatedly blinked her eyes. “Thick skin, I’m kind of envious of that right now.”