Hostile Legacy, page 1
part #2 of Afterwar Saga Series
HOSTILE LEGACY
THE AFTERWAR SAGA
BOOK 2
JAMIE MCFARLANE
CONTENTS
Preface
1. Spidey Senses
2. Last Minute Training
3. Happy Face
4. Trouble
5. Customs
6. Paradise
7. How to Make Friends
8. Secrets of Stoneville
9. No Good Deed
10. Scraping By
11. Without a Net
12. Ghost Stories
13. Rotten Deal
14. Hunting Casper
15. Mulligan
16. In the Shadows
17. Acrid Clues
18. Crow Throat Stew
19. Shades
20. Deal With The Devil
21. Crossed
22. Adrift
23. Deal Gone Wrong
24. Voice of the Dead
25. Penumbra
26. Good Faith
27. Contact
28. Uneasy Allies
29. In Too Deep
30. Legacy of War
Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Also by Jamie McFarlane
PREFACE
Sign up for the author’s New Releases mailing list and get free copies of the novellas; Pete, Popeye and Olive and Life of a Miner.
Click here to get started:
http://www.fickledragon.com/keep-in-touch
1
SPIDEY SENSES
“You know, racing is expensive,” Addy said, kicking back her chair to find a precarious balance. Addy was my girlfriend and my sister, Olivia’s, best friend.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
Two months had passed since we’d rescued Cassius’s mom, Jennifer, from pirate thugs. Life had been tense due to threats from the newly anointed thug leader, Togan Prince. Fortunately, Neo Firma’s constabulary and Shore Patrol had filled the vacuum created when the Kaboo Primacy gang folded after an unprecedented cleansing by an outside force. That force? A gunslinger named Jimmy Bang who worked for the enigma, Dorian Anino. The trade for Jimmy’s help had been simple. We allowed Dorian to perform medical scans on me and Olivia. In return, Jimmy calmed things with Kaboo, and we got to talk with our parents back in the Dwingeloo galaxy.
The bad I was talking about with Addy was our racing funds. Racers at heart, we had pooled our earnings. Racing is expensive. Every credit is used for sled repair. While we’d both been on a winning streak, the news couldn’t be good. I was a good enough mathematician to recognize that.
“Not stellar,” she said. “If I wasn’t working at Celina’s diner and you weren’t cleaning skimmers, we’d need to sell off a leg or something.”
“Yours or mine?”
“I’m not sure yours would fetch much,” Cassius said. “And maybe no leg-selling jokes, huh?”
Addy winced, and I shot her a dark grin as realization struck. Cassius’s mother had lost a good portion of her leg to an injury sustained during a murder-for-hire incident. The whole thing is a long story, so I won’t get into it here. The story has already been told. Fortunately, Jennifer was getting along on a new prosthetic, and under most circumstances, it was hard to tell she’d been injured.
“Sorry, Cass,” Addy said. “We’re down two hundred forty credits after fuel, repairs, and storage rental. Although some of that is for Bandit.”
“It’s funny,” Olivia said, leaning against Cassius affectionately.
“It doesn’t seem funny,” I said before she could continue.
“No. It’s not funny that you’re broke. That’s … well, that’s funny, too. No. Remember how everything Dad touched on his adventures turned into money? Pirates attacked, and he took their ships and sold them. Suddenly, he was flying cutter-class warships and staying in upscale hotels on Mars.”
“That’s because he had Uncle Nick,” I said. “You guys are stuck with me and Cass.”
“Don’t drag me into this,” Cass said. “I seem to remember you guys have an emergency stash. A few gems or something.”
“Won’t help if we can’t get ahead,” Addy said. “If we keep burning our funds to the ground, we’ll be stuck as waitstaff and algae cleaners for life.”
“Not me, I’m a proud member of Neo Firma’s Space Corps,” Cassius said proudly.
“You monitor a mostly automated spaceport,” I said dryly. “I get that it’s better than scraping muck from skimmers but tell me that’s what you want to be doing when you’re forty.”
“You bring up a good point, Q,” Addy said. I beamed. I liked it when she complimented me. Call me shallow if you need.
“Oh?” I asked, wanting her to continue.
“Yeah, you got me stumped,” Cassius said grinning. “That’s new for Q.”
“Now that we’ve taken care of the local emergencies, perhaps our resident psychic could clue us in as to what the future holds,” Addy said. The lightness in her voice was accompanied by an underlying edge.
Addy’s apprehension was justified. Olivia had drawn Addy and me through an unstable wormhole and we’d given up nearly everything to follow her. There had to be more than waitressing and muck cleaning in our new futures. Don’t get me wrong. We’d done the right thing by coming, but there had to be a bigger reason. That there was racing made it more pleasant, but it wasn’t enough.
“You’ve been patient, Adeline,” Olivia said, unperturbed. “You have as well, Quinn. I am grateful to be surrounded by people who make me better.”
Ordinarily, I’d have called her out for patronizing us. The thing was, her talents were real, as were mine. She was about to drop a figurative grenade into the punch bowl.
“Here it comes,” I said with dread in my voice. Olivia’s premonitions or guidance or … heck, I don’t know what it is, placed us at risk. What I hadn’t figured out was if it was good timing that we showed up in time to rescue Cassius’s mother or if that was part of some giant, master plan. It felt random.
“Don’t be dramatic, Quinn,” Olivia said. Through our twin connection, she communicated amusement at my reticence. “A settlement on the planet Curie is experiencing trouble and needs our help.”
“Let me guess. Pirates,” I said.
“I do not think so,” Olivia said. “I believe they relate it to the war.”
“They’re having a war?” Cassius asked, tapping on his electronic pad. “There’s no report of anything like that.”
“Kroerak War,” I filled in. There was only one war that was so familiar it required no name.
“Uh, that’s over,” Cassius said and gave me a look like I was dumb. “The bugs are dead. I’d think you’d be read up on that.”
“Perhaps we could add this to the sensitive topics pile,” Olivia said, stroking his arm affectionately. Like Addy with Jennifer’s leg, the Kroerak War wasn’t something we joked about. Too many people close to our parents had died.
“Sorry,” he said immediately.
“No harm, Buddy,” I said. “We’re good.”
Like Addy, Cassius had a quick tongue that often landed him in trouble. The four of us were a tight-knit group and there was no room for easy offenses.
“Do you know what kind of trouble?” I asked.
Olivia was tapped into the ancient alien species, Iskstar, like I was but to a greater extent. At the Iskstar's bidding, and out of a sense of duty to the species who’d shown my parents how to defeat the Kroerak, we’d left our parents and warm beds behind. By myself, I’d never have made the leap, but Olivia was convinced there was a larger purpose. I just hoped it wouldn’t get us killed.
“No,” she answered.
“Oh, Babe, that’s not much to go on. Curie’s a long trip from here,” Cassius said.
“You speak the truth,” Olivia said. “I am grateful to be around such stalwart companions.”
“Well played,” I said, lifting an eyebrow in appreciation of her easy turn of words.
“What I’m saying …,” Cassius started again.
“I understand, Cass,” Olivia said, placing a finger on his lips. “There is no reason to travel to Curie. We don’t even know the name of the settlement that struggles. It is a shot in the dark. Your feelings of confusion and concern are understandable and valid.”
“But …,” Cassius added.
“You’re learning,” I said encouragingly to him.
Olivia was preoccupied with looking out the windows of Bandit, the scout ship / clubhouse we’d brought from home. That Cassius was waiting for an answer from her suggested his learning wasn’t complete. She’d said what she was going to on the matter. She was going to Curie. The only question was who was coming along.
“Eighty percent covered by highly arid territory composed of sand and rock formation. There’s a small green zone that at one time was considered among the top high-end luxury resort destinations in the settled systems. Curie at one time boasted a population of seven hundred million,” Addy read. “Hit hard by the Kroerak, due to the compressed nature of the densely packed, transient tourist populations, the casualties on Curie during the brief war were ninety-five percent. Since the war, the citizens of Curie have taken significant steps to revive a once-thriving economy. Their efforts are limited by stable population growth.”
“Where’d you get all that?” I asked.
“It’s on an information page,” Addy said. “Word of warning, don’t drill in on the memorial pictures of the war. It gets graphic quickly.”
Of course, we were all in our early twenties and therefore that was the first thing we did. Even Olivia, who wasn’t often tempted by immature impulses. Addy wasn’t kidding. The pictures of mass casualties and rampaging Kroerak were raw. One picture caught my attention. It was that of a beach scene, where happy, colorful flags announced an organized gathering. Standing on a long wooden table was a Kroerak warrior tearing apart an unarmed man wearing nothing but a swimming suit.
“They had no warning,” I said, my throat constricting.
“That’s not possible,” Addy said. “They had to know the Kroerak were coming.”
“Curie didn’t have a defensive force. At least not one of any significance,” Cassius said quietly. “People believed the Kroerak would pass over Curie since they presented no viable military threat.”
“That’s not how Kroerak operated,” Addy said. “The warriors were essentially starving from the long trip. Their primary motivation was to eat.”
“So we learned,” Cassius said. “Grünholz was lucky that its population was spread out and not connected by land masses. Even so, the Kroerak figured out how to zero in on radio signals.”
“Ugh,” Addy said.
“Talk to me, Liv. How does this work? Are your spidey senses limited at range and you need to get closer so you can home in on a signal like the Kroerak did with our radios?” Cassius asked.
“Spidey sense?” Addy asked. “What are you saying?”
“No, no, no,” Cassius said. “I refuse to believe you’ve never seen a Spider Man movie. There have been hundreds of remakes. It’s the most re-created story ever turned into video. And yes, a dude gets bitten by a spider and has powers. One power is that they can sense danger—spidey sense. It’s a thing. Move on.”
“You know, it’s your responsibility to get us caught up with humanity’s current culture,” I said. “We’re not from around here. You can only blame yourself for any holes in our education.”
“Most days I tell myself that you guys are all right,” Cassius said. “Sure, a little weird. Uninformed certainly. You haven’t struggled too much, but you’re nice, so I let things slide. Some days it’s too much.”
“Because of Spider Man,” Addy said dryly.
Olivia picked up Cassius’s large hand and brought it to her mouth. She kissed the back of it and smiled at him. “The trip to Curie will no doubt require many days. Perhaps you could put some thought into the movies you’d most like us to watch. I would enjoy learning about your spider fascination.”
Addy and I watched as Cassius, who’d been mostly joking, melted under Olivia’s attention. He must have noticed our looks and shook his head. “And we’re just going?” he asked, looking at her. “No room for discussion?”
“I must go and will understand if you’re unable,” she said. “I’d still like to watch these movies you find so interesting.”
Cassius looked at me and even with my limited skills, the plea was as evident as his breathing. He was asking to be rescued from having his life turned upside down at the whims of Olivia’s feelings. I had bad news for him.
“Ooh! They have a lot of racing on Curie,” Addy said, interrupting any response I might have made. “And Grünholz Limited races count for qualification. If we can fix the sled up, we can get into Unlimited races. There’s a big one on the north side of the green zone at about one o’clock. It’s a town called Rim. Kind of a weird name, but whatever.” She paused and blanched.” Eek, two thousand for Limited entry, twenty for Unlimited.”
“Do they talk about the purse?” I asked.
“Yeah, more open than you’d think,” she said. “Sixty percent to the venue, top five spots pay out. Number five only gets half their entry fee. Number four gets all of it back. The real money is in the first three spots.”
“You guys are hopeless,” Cassius said. “You don’t have the money to enter either of those races.”
“Unless we get Celina to sell those gems,” I said. “We’re going to need travel money.”
“Shouldn’t we use that money for emergencies?” Olivia asked. “What if you enter the race and don’t even place?”
“It could happen,” I agreed. “But what if we placed? Look, maybe we don’t go for Unlimited, but take another shot at Limited in a bigger venue? Four thousand credits isn’t ridiculous and it could pay off.”
“You’re not serious about this, are you?” Cassius interrupted.
“You’ve seen them race,” Olivia said. “We’ll need money. Racing is excellent cover for why we’re there. Perhaps we could look at the other venues and start smaller, get a feel for Curie.”
“And you could see if your spidey sense twangs,” I said enthusiastically.
“Tingles! It’s tingles!” Cassius objected. “There’s no twanging.”
“That’s not how a spider web works.” I gave Cassius a moment to draw in a breath to object. I loved pushing his buttons. “Something picks or twangs the thread and that alerts the spider. The prey becomes trapped on the sticky thread and the spider comes and wraps it up like a burrito. There’s definitely no tingle. Does a spider man eat burritos?”
“Stop,” Cassius said quietly hanging his head while shaking it slowly back and forth. I’d hit a nerve.
“We have work to do,” Addy said. “First on the list is to finish repairs on the sled. Before we do that, she needs a name. I’m tired of calling her racer or sled.”
I grinned at an idea that struck me and wondered if Cassius would catch the reference. “Smokey,” I offered.
Addy gave me a confused look. “I don’t get it.”
“Our ship is Bandit, so Smokey. Then we’ll have Smokey and the Bandit,” I said. Addy continued to stare at me, nonplussed.
“You’re serious,” Cassius said. Joy emanated from Olivia as she anticipated the conversation. “This isn’t an accident. You’re referring to an ancient and, by all accounts, terrible movie.”
“You know, my dad used to play music for the entire ship’s crew right before crap was about to get real,” I said. “Have you heard East Bound and Down?”
“No, but we’re going to, aren’t we? There are so many better movies for naming spaceships and racing sleds. Why?” Cassius asked.
“Hey, AI, play Jerry Lee’s East Bound and Down over the PA,” I said.
East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'
We gonna do what they say can't be done
…
To Cassius’s credit, he allowed the song to finish. “I’ll make that list,” he said, looking at Olivia. “It’s not his fault, he just needs to be educated.”
“Okay, so Q, you and Cass are in charge of fixing up Smokey so she’s ready for a Limited,” Addy said. When she saw me ready to object, she held up her hand. “No, Quinn, no Unlimited. We haven’t even watched a race on Curie. We don’t know what we’ll be up against. We crawl before we walk.”
I sighed in defeat.
“That is wise. We will not have family to lean against if we run into financial troubles,” Olivia said. “I will speak with Celina about selling our emergency gems.”
“I need you guys to hold on before you talk about me flying out with you,” Cassius said. “Mom and Aunt Cel aren’t going to be okay with that. Imagine the conversation – Hey Olivia feels like there’s a problem we should look at on Curie … Yeah, I know, there are bad people out there … No, I don’t know much more than that … Well, Olivia says she’s going either way … No, I wouldn’t jump off a cliff …”
“Welcome to most of my growing up,” I said.
“You’re such a liar,” Olivia said, throwing half a meal bar at me. I pretended that I was going to let it hit me in the face but caught it at the last moment. In a quick motion, I tossed it back at Cassius, who was surprised at its arrival but managed to close his hand on it all the same. Without wasting time, he pulled the half bar from the wrapper and tossed it down the hatch.
