Space Rats and Rebels: Fools Rush In (Episode 1 of a 3 Part Serial) Read online

  * * *

  Dael tried hard to make amends during the meal, but Bres ignored him. Dael was handsome…in a dark, devilish sort of way…she supposed. But he obviously knew he was handsome. Far too full of himself. She found Smash much more appealing (or so she kept telling herself).

  He’s really very attractive, she decided, admiring the captain’s clean-shaven face and his tawny hair streaked with gold. The burly men of Titan all wore beards and had black hair and eyes. Smash’s eyes were deep pools of breathtaking blue. A girl could drown in those eyes. What a way to go. And what a build. Broad chest, muscular arms and legs… You could tell he was a powerful man. Short by Titan standards, but plenty tall enough for her.

  What a fine match he and I would make, she was musing when snapped back to reality by the object of her daydreams asking if he was boring her.

  “Oh no, Captain! I’m most interested in how your brave band began. Please tell me more.” She fluttered her lashes at him. “You’re very young to have done so much.”

  “Not that young”—he cleared his throat—“but I did start early, joined the Galactic Merchant Corps as soon as I’d earned cadet status from the Spacers Academy. Served till I saved enough for my own ship, then became an Independent. The fourth quadrant felt too small for me by then, and I wanted to see the rest of the galaxy. At first it was just SAM and me, but during a layover on Ahz, I signed on Xu-fu. SAM insisted on it.”

  “Insisted?” Braun half choked on a mouthful of Baldinian butter bread. “Don’t you mean that after computing the pros and cons, your robo recommended you hire him?”

  “I wish. But SAM’s more the sort to demand. He said that since I was as closemouthed as a betti-wiff, I had to hire someone for him to talk to or his voice-drive would crash. Or something like that.” Smash took a sip of hot kofy. “Also, he just loves mugwup, and I don’t. I signed on Xu-fu because he was the only mugwup-playing gadgeteer I could find in a hurry.”

  “You hired a crewmember so your robo would have someone to play with?” Braun stared.

  “And I’ve never regretted it. Xu-fu’s a wicked fighter and top rate techno. And he’s good company for SAM.”

  Braun stared some more.

  “Well, maybe I do spoil SAM, but he works so much better when he’s happy. I hate seeing him depressed. We’ve known each other for ages,” Smash said, like that explained everything.

  “But robos can’t be happy or sad. They’re machines!”

  “Shh, whatever you do, don’t let SAM hear that. He’s very sensitive.” Smash waggled his brows, then went on with the story:

  “The three of us crossed the galaxy together, hopping from sector to sector, hauling freight, trading this for that. We lived aboard the ship and never stayed anywhere too long. There was always something bigger and better to see. We chased a lot of rainbows.” He grinned. “But we caught a few, too. We made good money”—the grin faded—“until the last VOR died without an heir…and Kronos Kkrypt slipped his slimy way onto the throne.”

  “And instigated his Imperial farkin’ Federation,” Dael muttered under his breath.

  A somber shroud fell over the table. Bres pushed aside her plate as though no longer hungry. Smash didn’t blame her; he’d lost his appetite, too. He stared at his bowl of Mvanese noodles, seeing ashes and dust, smelling smoked worlds, tasting bitter regret… He should have rebelled sooner. They all should have, the whole damned galaxy. Really damned.

  United we stand, divided we fall.

  It was an old, old axiom, older than time perhaps, its origin unknown, long lost in the distant past—but never truer than in this dismal present. If the solar systems had stuck together from the start, Kkrypt couldn’t have gotten so far so fast.

  But the Galactic Senate, where all worlds had a seat and a voice, had unraveled when the clearest voice was silenced by unexpected death. The hereditary Voice Of Reason, who cut through confusion and quieted conflict with graceful inbred skill. When a VOR spoke, all listened.

  Without one, the senators had fallen into endless debate. Too many mouths, not enough ears. While they’d bickered among themselves over what to do, how to proceed, Kkrypt had sneaked in through the backdoor and planted himself on the empty throne. Kronos Kkrypt was the villain, but he’d been aided and abetted by pandemic indecision and failure to act.

  “I actually thought it was a good thing when he first came to power,” Smash confessed.

  “We all did.” Braun heaved a rusty sigh, then reached for his daughter’s plate. Nothing, apparently, interfered with his appetite. “Hate to see good food go to waste,” he mumbled.

  “The Galactic Alliance was breaking apart. We needed someone to hold things together,” Bres reasoned. “Who could have guessed it would go so bad?”

  “Me,” Smash said. “I moved around enough to see what was happening right from the start. But I tried not to look too close. I told Xu-fu and SAM there was nothing we could do about it, so we’d just mind our own business and steer clear of the trouble spots. Gods, I was dumb.”

  He toyed with his spoon. “It got so every port we landed in had either been reduced to rubble or was under Federation control. And everywhere the Feds were, we were halted, boarded and searched. Our cargoes were scanned, sometimes confiscated—if it was something they wanted. Or wrecked, if they were bored and looking for sport. Once they jettisoned a full load of ag-cult supplies so they could try out a new F-ray they’d just stolen from someone else. The crowning blow came when we wanted to set down on Hathor, Isis-3’s middle planet…and we couldn’t find it. It had been atomized by Fed warships. Why, we never did find out.”

  The spoon snapped in two in his hand. “It was a peaceful world…they had no weapons… But I did. And right then we spied a Fed war-cruiser bearing down on us. They transmitted an order to hover so they could scan our cargo. I transmitted back ‘Here, scan this!’ Then dove under them and hit their stern with my lasers. Before they could fire their tail guns, I arced up and over, zapping them port and starboard on the way. Battle cruisers are built for power, not fast turns. They were twenty times bigger than my trader-ship, but I flew rings around them. Literally.”

  “Fun stuff.” Dael chuckled.

  Smash echoed it. “Very. But all good things come to an end. SAM monitored two more cruisers moving in, so we hauled ass out, knowing we were now outlaws, and there was no turning back. I remembered this asteroid base had been abandoned, so this is where we headed to lay low for a while.”

  “Except my crew and I were already laying low here,” Dael said. “I was a pirate by profession even before Kkrypt seized control.”

  Bres gasped. Everyone knew the RATs were pirates. But they raided only Imperial ships, and only as an act of rebellion. It appeared she didn’t approve of piracy for personal gain. Of course, she hadn’t approved of Dael much anyway.

  “You don’t have to sound so smug about it,” she told him.

  “Ah, but I was forced into it by circumstances of birth,” he defended himself. “My father was a royal high-lord who raised me as a prince. Unfortunately, he raised my nine older brothers the same way. When he died, and his wealth was divided, I, as the youngest, received almost nothing. I was driven away from home to make my own fortune.”

  “By theft?” Bres glared.

  He gave her a wounded look. “But I only stole from rich ships that could afford it. And I never hurt anyone. Much. I was a nice pirate.”

  “But I convinced him to be an even better one.” Smash shot him a smirk.

  “He beat the stuffing out of me, actually,” Dael admitted. “But in the end we joined forces. I had to agree with him that the Feds were bad news for everyone—and his romp around the cruiser proved hit-and-run tactics were a viable way to fight them. Maybe the only way.” He shrugged. “What the hek, in my line of work I’d never expected to die of old age anyway.”

  “And that’s how the RAT fleet was born,” Smash finished. “There weren’t many of us to start with, just Dael a
nd his pirates, and me and my little crew. The rest of our members joined us after we’d freed them from the holds of an Imperial prison ship.” He glanced from Braun to Bres. “You two are the first to find your way here on your own. I sincerely hope the Feds aren’t as clever.”

  Bres shook her head. “I still think it was pure luck that we found you. And I refuse to believe the Imperial Federation could be lucky. They don’t deserve it.”

  Beep-beep-beep—

  Smash jumped to his feet. “Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me. Dael, take care of them.” In several great strides, he bounded from the room.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Braun demanded. “What’s that noise?”

  “The signal that our scanners have picked up a battleship,” Dael said, “and it’s Smash’s turn to welcome them. Come with me and you can watch the fun on the viewers.”

  On the way there, Braun pulled Dael aside. “Bres may believe in luck, but I, for one, don’t understand why Kkrypt hasn’t yet discovered your base. I’m sure he’s been trying—and hard.”

  “No doubt. But he’s probably trying too hard, searching all the most hidden spots, while here we sit almost in the open. That’s the way his convoluted mind words. It took simple, straightforward thinking like your daughter’s to find us, while Kkrypt imagines everyone is as devious as he is. We do take a few precautions, though, like always attacking from a different angle, and never with our base at our back, so they can’t be sure where we’ve come from.” He touched a small shiny square on the wall, and a door slid open. “Here’s the view-room. Just watch.”