Space Assassins: The Complete Series 1-5, page 83
Of course, the increasingly groggy victims would be guided from public view by well-meaning bystanders just as their awareness began to wane. Bystanders who just so happened to have an empty room for them to rest in.
By the time they got there, thanks to the careful prompting and redirection at the hands of the Wampeh and his friends, the spell would have taken full hold, and they would be unable to remember pretty much anything about the period leading up to their luxury incarceration.
Three of the four were happy to sample the free delights the young woman with violet hair was offering, but the fourth politely declined, carrying on about her business, acquiring items to stock her ship with.
“This will require a more direct approach,” Hozark quietly said to Demelza as he observed the lone holdout make her way through the area.
“I shall handle it,” she replied, moving off to shadow the woman.
Demelza quietly cast a painful spell, twisting the woman’s nethers in a painful way.
“Oh, are you okay?” she asked when the woman stopped and leaned against a wall.
“Just cramping,” she replied. “A bit early, is all.”
“Oh, I get them something fierce,” Demelza said, holding out a brown, knotted stick pulled from her pocket. “I’ve got some turkot root, if you want a piece to chew.”
Turkot root was a well-known natural pain relief remedy for feminine issues, though it was not as commonly used in this part of the galaxy. And in a situation like this, the innocuous little twig was worth its weight in gold.
“Thank you so much,” the woman said, gratefully accepting the offering.
“My pleasure,” Demelza replied as the woman began chewing the root. “I’m just glad to help.”
The spell embedded in the root was undetectable to all but the strongest of magic users, and even then, only if they knew what to look for. It was almost as effective as the one used in the pastry Henni had so proficiently foisted off on the woman’s crewmates, and within just a few minutes the ailing holdout was on her way to joining her crewmates.
“Do you need help?” Demelza said. “I think you should lie down.”
“I have work to do.”
“You don’t look up to doing anything, let alone work,” Demelza said. “Look, I have a room quite close by. I have errands to do, but if you want to use it for a little while until you feel better, it would be my pleasure to offer it to you.”
The woman hesitated, pondering the offer. Then a new wave of pain washed over her, just as the grogginess began to increase.
“Maybe just for a little bit,” she said. “Thank you for being so kind.”
“Women have to look out for one another,” Demelza said with a warm, sisterly smile that utterly concealed her true intent. “Come on, let’s get you horizontal. I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better once you lie down.”
Chapter Twenty-One
It hadn’t exactly been the smoothest execution of a plan the team had ever pulled off, but the end result was all that mattered.
Four Council crewmembers were slumbering in a deep stasis spell in a rented room, none the wiser to what had befallen them. And if the group was successful in commandeering their ship and carrying out their cure-stealing operation, they would have the vessel returned just as they’d found it before the crew had even regained consciousness.
But before they could make their flight to Nagus to steal the cure Hap so desperately needed, the remaining three crewmembers aboard the soon-to-be stolen ship had to first be removed from the equation. And it needed to be done in a way that would leave them unharmed and unclear as to what exactly had happened to them.
It would be a bit of a task, but if they could pull it off, the crew would all wake in a few days, perfectly healthy and unharmed, though perhaps a bit confused at where the time had gone.
Shimmer cloaks would be the order of the day for this aspect of the operation. Fortunately, there were no heavily powered users anywhere near, so the odds of detection were incredibly slim. Even so, the Wampeh had to be quick. Speed could often overcome what fortune might not.
“Rotza, what the hell is up with the door ward?” the woman currently in command asked as a shrill warning rang out in the command chamber. “It’s triggering, then resetting over and over.”
“No idea,” her burly associate replied. “You think Fawnti screwed up the casting?”
“It’s not like her, but maybe. Take a look, will you? Before this noise drives us both insane.”
The man chuckled and rose from his seat. “Back in a minute,” he said, then trotted off to see about the faulty door wards.
The door looked perfectly normal, and the wards did appear to be in place. More importantly, the annoying noise had finally stopped. The Council crewman heaved a sigh of relief. This was going to be easier than he’d originally worried. Whatever had been the fault seemed to have resolved itself, though spells rarely did so.
“Well, that wasn’t too hard,” he said with a chuckle.
He didn’t see the Wampeh coming.
Even if Hozark had not been hidden beneath his shimmer cloak, he moved and cast his spell with such speed that the poor fellow would never have stood a chance.
The spell flew true, stunning the man to the deck, a quick follow-up spell locking in a firm state of stasis, ensuring he would remain unconscious for the next week.
Hozark studied the fallen man slumbering at his feet. A bit stocky, but similar height. And fortunately not one of the more difficult races to mimic. If he possessed tentacles rather than arms and legs, the next step would be quite a bit more challenging.
Mind you, he was a master Ghalian, and it could be done, but with so little time to adopt the man’s appearance, it was guaranteed to be somewhat flawed, even with his considerable skills.
“Well, that wasn’t too hard,” Hozark said, repeating the one sample of the man’s voice he had heard before taking his place. “Well, that wasn’t too hard.”
It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to work.
His disguise firmly affixed, Hozark strode to the command center and stepped through the door. The acting captain swiveled in her seat.
“So, what was it?”
“Well, that wasn’t too hard,” he replied as he stepped clear of the doorway.
She cocked her head slightly. “What’s up? You seem a little bit off.”
Hozark shrugged and flopped down into the nearest seat.
“Why are you in Fawnti’s seat?” she asked. Hozark could feel her pulling on her konus ever so slightly.
Whether to cast a spell or just check her crewmate for possible illness, he did not know. Nor did he care. The spell he whispered wasn’t the strongest available to him, but Hozark dropped the woman before she could complete whatever it was she had in mind.
This bit was far easier than anticipated. The third was not in the command center at the moment, and that had left him a bit of freedom to remove this one from the equation in a gentler manner than would otherwise have been required. But that still left one more to deal with.
He hurried through the ship, casually looking into every compartment as he did, stun spell at the ready. Hozark then opened the ship’s external door and gave the slightest of nods to the empty space beside it, where Demelza was waiting to make her entry.
The disguised Wampeh and his cloaked friend strode to the command center.
“Ah, she’s a bit small,” the sturdily built woman noted. “How about the other one?”
“Not aboard the ship,” Hozark replied.
“Well then, I guess there’s nothing for it,” Demelza replied, applying an extra bit of somewhat uncomfortable, but quite efficient, Ghalian disguise spells to help mask her larger frame and make her appear smaller, like the woman at her feet. “So, the remaining crewmember?”
“Unknown. But their absence is something of a problem. We cannot depart until he or she returns, lest we have the ship’s theft reported. This changing of their security plan is clever, and may force us to alter our own plans accordingly.”
He activated the ship’s forward observation spell, an image appearing on the solid hull where the magic allowed in the outside view. The two Wampeh scanned the area, watching the milling people.
“It seems we are going to have to call in the others to help us locate this remaining––” Hozark paused. “Oh, my. You cannot be serious.”
There, plain to see, was the missing crewmember, walking right back to the ship, happily munching from a large container of food in her hand.
“He stepped out to get a snack?” Demelza said, joining Hozark’s disbelief. “Security was disregarded in this manner when the craft is clearly well-stocked and a valuable target?”
Hozark shook his head. “I take back what I said about their discipline. This is just sloppy.”
“Extremely,” Demelza agreed, affixing her disguise more firmly in place. “But it does save us a prolonged search.”
“True,” Hozark replied as he slapped a big smile on his face. “Now, let us greet our crewmate.”
The man cleared the wards on the door and stepped aboard, then made his way to the command center, crunching loudly as he walked.
“I hope you brought some for us,” Hozark called out while he was still in the corridor.
The man looked up from his treats with a guilty expression on his face. “Uh, I thought you said you didn’t want anything.”
Hozark folded his arms across his chest with a disapproving stare. The man was so busy trying to think of something to say that he didn’t even notice Demelza’s slightly off disguise, nor the stun spell she was casting.
He hit the deck in a heap, an excuse still forming on his lips.
“Well, that was a pleasant surprise. We could have spent a great deal of time hunting down a lone crewmember in this place,” Demelza said as she hoisted the man up over her shoulder with ease. “I shall get this one stowed with the others.”
“Excellent. I shall retrieve the others in preparation for our departure,” Hozark replied.
The woman nodded once, then carried the slumbering crewman to the cargo storage area, where the other two were already safely tucked away in large containers, carefully padded to ensure their safety should the flight get rough.
She sealed the man in, like the others, and double-checked their stasis spells. All was properly in place, and the trio would slumber soundly until the wake-up spell was applied. That would be done when they returned the ship after it had served their purposes.
Normally, they would allow them to wake at their own leisure. But as this was a crew of seven, it would be imperative they all came to at the same time. With the four in the city and the three aboard the ship rousing at once, and all unsure what had happened, they would all jump back to work as if nothing had happened.
Embarrassment was funny like that, and fear of it could make people do a great many things not in their best interests. And that could be manipulated. Something the Wampeh Ghalian were experts at.
Demelza tidied up and put everything in place. Should anyone board the ship, for whatever reason, there would be nothing to suggest a hostile takeover of the craft. All that remained was bringing the others aboard. After that, they would begin their run for Nagus. And that would almost certainly be a great deal more challenging than this.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Happizano was pale and sweating, yet was also cool to the touch. He drifted in and out of consciousness as the magical compound attacked his system from within.
At least his cries of pain had ceased, though not for good reasons.
“We have acquired the vessel,” Hozark notified his friends. “The crew is safely tucked away, and Demelza is prepping the craft for liftoff as soon as we transfer young Happizano aboard.”
“So let’s get to it,” Bud said. “No time to waste; the kid’s not doing well.”
“I still think we should just get him to the Council people with the cure,” Laskar said. “I mean, yeah, I know they’ll take him, but how do we know we’ll be successful on Nagus? He’s looking really bad, and this might take too long.”
Hozark had to give the man a bit of credit. For a callous bastard, he did seem to have a genuine concern for the boy’s health. But it was still simply not an option. The Council would cure him, certainly, but they would never get him back once he’d been secreted away.
And given what his father was doing in the interest of sparing his son, the boy’s life did not outweigh those of the thousands who would fall if Visla Jinnik were to continue his terrible work.
“I admire your concern, Laskar. However, that is simply not an option. The damage that could be unleashed would be far greater than any we have seen so far. Our best chance is to cure the boy at Nagus. But you are correct that time is of the essence. And therefore, we must move him to the Council ship we have commandeered immediately. We leave as soon as he is aboard.”
Henni, Bud, and Laskar all glanced between themselves. Apparently, the talk about bringing Hap back to the Council outreach ship had been going on for a little while. But they respected Hozark’s strategic mind, and as distasteful as it might be, they knew he was right about what they had to do.
“We’ll box him up and head out at once,” Bud said. “Henni, you want to give me a hand?”
“Sure,” she said, uncharacteristically restrained in her demeanor. It seemed even she was taken down a notch with her concern.
Happizano was carefully tucked away in a cargo container, well padded for his comfort, and with adequate openings to allow for proper air flow. That was then loaded onto a floating conveyance and moved to Bud’s loading bay door.
Bud, Henni, and Laskar had put worker tunics over their usual attire, adopting the semblance of the many porters who were delivering goods to the ships across town in a constant stream.
“Okay. Let’s do this,” Bud said. “Lead the way.”
Hozark stepped out in front and walked the most direct path to the waiting vessel. It was far enough from Bud’s mothership that by the time they arrived, there would be no risk of anyone noting anything unusual about the cargo.
For all they’d know, it was being delivered from within town, just like all of the other loads being brought aboard the adjacent craft.
It took longer than they would have liked, but it was essential to make their progress seem as normal as possible, and thus, they were forced to move at the same pace as the other porters. Soon enough, the precious cargo was loaded into the Council ship, and Hap was transferred to one of the bunks and carefully tucked in.
Bud and Laskar were ready to make their way back to their ship, but Henni opted to stay at Hap’s side, dabbing his sweating brow with a cloth and watching over him as he fell in and out of a fitful sleep.
“We’ll meet you at the moon location,” Bud said as he and Lasker stepped off the Council craft.
The plan was for them to park the mothership a safe distance from Nagus, out at a moon orbiting one of the worlds farthest away from the planet. It was a fair bit of distance, but it was imperative that their getaway ride was nowhere near the incursion, just in case things went wrong.
It shouldn’t have been an issue, and there was no reason to believe Bud’s ship would be needed to provide an emergency rescue, but they’d learned long ago that it was far better to anticipate the worst outcome and prepare for it, just in case.
“Very well. We shall see you there,” Hozark replied, then closed the doors behind them. He and Demelza then prepared for their flight to the red sun system and lifted off.
Things were about to become very interesting. An incursion on a Council world, in a stolen Council ship, no less. It was sure to be a challenge, and one with very high stakes. Hozark was confident in their odds, but he could not help but worry if the boy could hold on long enough for their success.
* * *
Uzabud tucked away his ship in a quiet crater on a moon orbiting one of the farthest planets from Nagus. The system’s red sun’s rays still made it this far, but it was a frigid, dead orb incapable of sustaining life.
That made it a perfect place to set down and hide the ship.
Normally, Hozark and Demelza would have utilized their shimmer-cloaked craft to make a silent approach and landing, followed by a rapid and stealthy incursion under their own personal shimmers.
But this was a Council stronghold. A world quite likely containing one or more powerful magic users. It was simply too risky flying any shimmer craft into the atmosphere. The scrutiny was already high, and only Council ships were allowed to land in the first place.
But flying a shimmer ship in this instance contained more risks, as their adversary knew what to expect. If they even had the slightest suspicion the Ghalian assassins would make an attempt for the cure on Nagus, then they would be specifically looking for Ghalian shimmer magic.
That left just one option. The stolen ship.
After a quick liaison on the moon, the crews consolidated aboard the Council craft and prepared for the attempt on the greenhouses of Nagus. Bud loaded up his gear aboard Hozark and Demelza’s ride and settled in for the approach.
Laskar, however, drew the short straw and was selected to stay aboard the mothership to keep it primed and ready to go in case they needed to make a hasty escape.
“I don’t even have a long-range skree,” he lamented. “What if you need me?”
“If we need you, we’ll be flying back at you at high speeds,” Bud said. “Trust me, you’ll hear us coming when we get within range. Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.”
“You suck. You know that?” Laskar griped.
“You know you love me,” his pilot joked. “Anyway, stay alert. Hopefully, we’ll be back sooner than later.”
And with that, they went their separate ways.
The flight to Nagus was short, Hozark executing a small jump to the planet’s orbit to make their arrival appear just like any of the other Council craft arriving at the world. They began their descent through the exosphere, where the magical wards in place around the planet automatically recognized them as an approved Council ship.
