Chapter Nine:
Tortuga
The Urtish, whose
name was Zed apparently, shoved Jimmy and Pix into the box before
squeezing in after them, leaving his chair-gun on the ground outside
of the box. The door closed and everything went dark.
"So, uh,
Zed...it's kinda cramped in here," Pix said after a few moments
of silence.
"I know, it
is." Zed didn't sound particularly annoyed to be jammed in up
close to two aliens he had never met before.
"Wait, aren't
you going to tell us to shut up?" Pix asked.
"Nope. In fact,
I'd love to hear more about you, mostly so I know how much you're
worth when I sell you."
"Great."
Pix nodded, her pink eyes bobbling up and down in the darkness.
"Greeeat. We get to be sold into slavery in a box smaller than
my closet!"
“Well, to be
fair...” The Urtish said, then paused. He kept pausing. “Uh,
wait, sorry, my timing is-”
The floor of the
blue box dropped out from under them. Well, it didn't really drop,
but rather dropped a few inches than started to click downwards, as
if each click was a ratchet not quite engaging. Jimmy put his hand on
the wall and felt it sliding against his palm – they were moving
down a shaft. The clicking sound continued and the elevator continued
to go down, and Pix managed to slid around the Urtish – apologizing
softly every few seconds – until she stood beside Jimmy and could
hold his hand. He smiled at her, even if it was too dark for her to
see.
After what felt like
forever, the elevator hit the ground with a loud CLANG!
Zed barely
staggered, but Jimmy almost took Pix down. Zed grinned at the two of
them as they struggled to stay afoot – Jimmy could tell, because
Zed had used bioluminescent toothpaste recently, though it was only
visible in the darkness of the elevator.
The door opened and
light bust into the chamber, blinding Jimmy and Pix for a moment.
"Welcome to
Tortuga!"
“One second!”
Jimmy siad, holding up his hand, still rubbing his eyes.
Zed sighed, shook
his head, and muttered something that his translator helpfully picked
up and piped out at full volume: “Pansy ass human eyes.”
###
Tortuga seemed
instantly familiar to Jimmy. It sat in a cavernous room that was
almost the exact shape and layout of the elevator junction that they
had taken into the Armory. Where Tinsel and Tortuga wildly diverged
was what had been crammed into the place. Buildings of every species
and architectural style were smashed together with gleeful disregard
for safety or urban planning. Graffiti was splashed on every wall and
sidewalk. There were human neons, Yetel pictographs that blazed in
infrared and UV light that Jimmy knew would blind him if he looked at
them too long, Slor scentdibbles, and freaking Basilisk hacks that
skirted the edge between provocative street art and potential war
crime.
It was beautiful.
But it was also dangerous.
Jimmy rubbed at his
eyes, and looked at Pix, who was shaking her head. “Have these
people ever heard of restraint?”
“No,” Jimmy
said, though he was just guessing.
"That's just
about right," Zed said, slapping him on the back. "Oh, look
who's come down to visit."
Jimmy and Pix looked
up, even though Pix's eyes were kept closed. "Who is it?"
She whispered.
"I'm guessing,"
Jimmy bit his lip.
"That's my
mom's jacket," Edna spoke with a prim, almost pinched voice. She
looked nothing like anything like Jimmy expected. She was thin as a
reed, had a pinched, almost ugly face that made her look closer to
thirty than twenty despite her being Anna's daughter – though, the
relationship didn't seem to be a blood relation, as she had no tail.
She wore a simple, body-hugging jumpsuit that had been covered with
hanging straps and catches that themselves were wrapped around a
profusion of useful gadgets and tools. The most disconcerting thing
was that she looked like she could and would kill you if you twitched
in the wrong direction, at the wrong time, or with the wrong intent.
Or, even, the right intent.
The
Yetel soldiers and the Xorquin had been too alien for facial
expressions to matter. But this girl was human through and through.
She looked like she was half a hat from shooting Jimmy right there.
He didn't see
any guns in her sprawl of tools, but the two burly men behind her
looked more than willing to use the shredder rifles they had strapped
onto their shoulder.
"Uh, yeah,"
Jimmy took it off in a hurry and held it out to Edna. "It was
the only thing of her's we could bring that didn't get stolen."
Edna bit her lip.
Her expression softened, and for a moment, her ugly face reworked
itself to look about Jimmy's age – a strange changing of lines, the
set of her jaw, and frownlines smoothing away. Then, the hardness
flowed back up like a sewer tide and she took the jacket. She looked
at it, sighed, then handed it back.
"Thank you,"
she said, almost too soft to hear. "I don't want it."
Jimmy took the
jacket back and slipped it back on. It was his jacket now. And it was
comfortable like no one's business on top of that. He thrust his
hands into his pockets as Zed spoke somewhat plaintively. "They
owe me at least-"
Edna threw him a bag
of coins. "Zed, make sure that Xorquin doesn't get in."
Zed, who was busy
gaping at the bag he had caught, nodded. "Y-yeah. He won't get
past me."
He turned around and
hustled back into the blue box elevator. The elevator went up and
Jimmy turned back to Edna. There was a moment of silence –
interrupted only by the crowds of Tortuga doing their own thing –
they acted as if two burly men with shredder rifles on their
shoulders were nothing much of a much. Of course, Jimmy wasn't
entirely sure why he should
react like they were anything much of a much, considering how much he
had to deal with.
"Well."
Pix broke the silence. "We made it."
She reached down and
tugged her shirt up, revealing her data port. "Here's the data.
Now, we're not going to move," she glanced at the two men with
guns. "till we figure out terms."
"What's going
to stop me?" Edna asked.
"Well, this,
this is going to stop you." Pix grinned. "I can wipe every
bit of data if you shoot us, and you'll have to shoot us to get us to
do anything we don't want to do." She raised her eyebrows up.
Jimmy worked on keeping his face as blank as humanly possible – Pix
was bluffing people with guns. If they called the bluff – they'd
find out that Pix didn't and couldn't interface with the crystal.
Edna looked like she
wanted to kill them again.
"Hey, mowing us
down gets you nothing. And all we need is some protection. Shouldn't
be that hard, right?"
"Fine!"
Edna thrust her hand out. "You have a deal!"
Pix glanced at
Jimmy. He gestured with his head. Take it, he tried to say with his
eyes. Pix grinned, and took the hand that was offered.
They both squeezed
as hard as they could.
Edna winced. But Pix
let go first, rubbing her hand. "I've got reinforced bones. Hard
to break."
"I killed more
people by the time I was twelve than you have in your life."
Pix managed,
somehow, to look nonchalant, but her eyes whirred as she clamped her
iris down. After a moment, she said, "Well, what now?"
"Now? Now we go
to our base, pay off whoever we need to pay off, then decrypt the
information." Edna sighed. "But first, is there anything
you need? Food?"
"YES!"
###
The city of Tortuga
writhed with life. People were constantly doing things, twitching,
bouncing, running to and fro. Xorquin clattered at one another,
Urtish smoked their heads off, Tette<click><click>...sat
there, but they were probably thinking really really loudly. Slor and
Yetel that seemed to have forgotten, or were just ignoring, the war
outside bargained and traded. Robots hummed in the sky, and the few
E.L.Fs that were mixed among the profusion of aliens hawked their
services from virtual street corners - Holograms and augmented
realities shaped storefronts, turning cubical-sized physical
locations into sprawling buildings, like dimensions were unfolding
before your eyes – dimensions full of drugs and sex and bootleg
guns.
Edna and her
bodyguards flowed through the crowd like water through more water.
And Jimmy really
needed to work on his similes.
Still, all the
scrambling Jimmy and Pix had to do to keep up with Edna proved to be
worth it: Soon, she led them to a restaurant built out of sheet metal
with smart cloth strung between the gaps. The front door had a sign
painted in glowing colors: BBQ. The scent that wafted from the
deliberately less than perfect seals around the walls and cloth was,
well, it sure beat the sewage out of protein bars. Jimmy's mouth
filled with spit and his stomach growled. Pix started to giggle, then
she sniffed loudly, and made a face.
“Like what you
smell?" Edna cocked an eyebrow.
"Very yes."
Jimmy grinned. Pix shrugged and shook her head at the same time.
"I dunno,
smells to spicy to me."
"Oh, Pix,
nothing can be too spicy,
didn't you know that?” Jimmy asked. Pix stuck her tongue out at
him.
One of the body
guards, at a gesture from Edna, opened the door and ushered them
inside. The room was dark and the smell was even stronger. Various
people, mostly displaced humans, were eating there. From what Jimmy
could see, the meat was slicked with a thick, delicious, and very
brightly glowing sauce – it made the tables shimmer like embers in
the rather darkly lit place.
Edna, Pix and Jimmy
were seated by a pleasant E.L.F. waitress with a really big grin and
three menus tucked under one armpit. The bodyguards sat at a
different table. The waitress handed out the menus, and Pix got to
flipping with a will. Jimmy chose a salad he knew he'd enjoy, then
glanced at Edna, who was watching them both.
"Okay,"
she said, softly. "This place is pretty safe for talking, but
Jack might have gotten a few bugs in here."
She slid out a small
circle of metal and plastic with a dome on-top. Her thumb pressed
down on the dome and it lit up bright red.
"This'll make
sure any listening devices at this table won't work. Our guards-"
The body guards
started to talk loudly about the latest football game. Their table
was close enough that the conversation overlapped and covered their
whispers.
Jimmy nodded.
Clever. Cleverish, at the very least. He looked at Pix, and saw that
she was still looking through the menu.
"The first
question I have is: Can you translate anything on the data crystal
into stuff we can understand? Wait, no, my actual first question is:
Who is Jack?" Jimmy asked.
"If it's in
Xorquin, we can translate it. And he's a rival crime lord, no need
for you to worry about it."
"Well, there is
something else." Jimmy glanced at Pix. "What did you call
that stuff? That security stuff?"
"I called it
security stuff." Pix grinned up at him, closing the menu with a
snap. "The accurate name would be hardware scrambling programs.
They screw up the power allotment of whatever you plug it in. Makes
it short itself out. That's why it hurt when I tried to log into it.
Not that I need to log into it to delete the files. And why it melted
his computer." She jerked her thumb at Jimmy.
Edna nodded. "We
can handle that but first, food." She whistled and the waitress
came back, brushing a flop of green hair away from her eye. "I'll
have the Brahman ribs. Double sauce. And a beer."
The waitress didn't
even ask for an ID.
"Do you have
root beer?" Jimmy's ears burned and he looked down.
"Beer, got it."
The waitress grinned. "What do you want with that?"
"But, I-"
"Salad."
Edna broke in. "He was looking at salads."
"Salad?"
The waitress shook her head. "Young men need meat. I'll get you
some ribs."
"But I'm-"
"And you'll
have?" The waitress looked at Pix.
"Steak. Rare.
Not bloody or anything. But rare. And I'll take a beer too."
The waitress walked
off, leaving Jimmy feeling profoundly out of his depth. He looked at
Pix, who winked at him.
"Pix," he
whispered, leaning in next to her. "We're underage."
"So?" She
grinned. "I drink."
Jimmy's blinked.
"You what?"
"Oh, not to
excess, and definitely when I'm not driving. Which is easy, cause I
don't own a car."
"You
drink!?" Jimmy gulped, his throat suddenly dry. Why did this
feel so creepy? Other kids drank, and Jimmy knew intellectually that
drinking a bit of alcohol before you were twenty-eight wouldn't turn
you into a horrible layabout drunkard. But, still...it felt so weird,
to freak out about that
when
he had been dealing with guns and murderers and criminals.
But
then again, he expected
that
stuff to shock him. But drinking and being underaged slipped back his
growing jaded shell and stabbed him right in the back, because it was
something close to normal.
Pix interrupted his
inner thoughts. "What? You don't drink?"
"Well, no! And
where did you get the drinks anyway?"
She snorted. "It's
not like it's Red Sand or Dust or anything, Jimmy. I just nicked some
of Richy's secret stash."
The waitress came
back with some tall, frosty drinks. Jimmy looked at it. Pix knocked
her dink back and hiccuped. Jimmy sighed. Edna sipped her beer,
taking it slower. Jimmy scowled at her, then tried to drink a whole
cup of beer at once, without ever having tasted it before.
Ow. That had been a
mistake.
Pix snorted and
slapped him on the back. He grinned at her. "I feel warm."
"That will
happen."
"You're looking
prettier by the moment."
"Don't you know
you're not supposed to judge people by their looks?" Pix asked.
Jimmy sipped again,
knowing to go slower this time. "You're also getting smarter by
the moment."
"That's
better." Pix poked him in the nose.
Edna glared at them.
Jimmy shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. It had been almost two days
since her mother's death. It had to be tearing at her insides. Jimmy
felt rotten for his good mood. He shifted in his seat and coughed.
"So, uh."
He bit his lip. "Are...your mom was a-"
"No, stop."
Edna looked up at him. "I can't feel anything right now. We're
in the middle of a tense situation, and I'm young and I'm a girl.
This gang isn't a bunch of enlightened, modern people." Her eyes
went flinty hard. "I can't let them see weakness."
"Ah."
Jimmy felt cold despite the beer. He sipped again. "Those body
guards, are they loyal?"
"As loyal as
anyone can be in this stupid city." Edna grumbled. She played
with one of their bottle caps, using her fingers to scoot it around.
Jimmy felt a weight on his shoulder. Pix's head.
"Not very, eh?"
Pix sighed. The waitress came back with the ribs and steak. Jimmy had
to admit it smelled really good. And, heck, Edna was paying. Might as
well enjoy the steak. It was not the best steak he had ever eaten but
it wasn't the worst. Good. Pretty good even. Pix made soft mumbling
sounds as she ate her.
"No, not very."
Edna picked the conversation up again with ease. "Now, once this
meal is done, we are going to make it to HQ. There, we can translate
for you, and then we can dicker over how much this is worth us. Who
knows-" Edna shrugged. "You two might be good business
partners in the future, if you play things smart and don't screw up
what leverage you have."
"You've got to
be insane." Jimmy leaned forward. "We're not criminals."
"Fine."
Edna shrugged. "But knowing I'll get more use out of you is one
more reason why I should not just sell the info and then ransom you
off."
Jimmy scowled. Pix
sighed, sitting up. She said one word that summed up everything Jimmy
thought.
"Shit."
###
The super computer
in Edna's hands was less impressive looking than Jimmy had hoped for.
It looked like several other computers that had all been stitched
together. But, as Pix whisper-explained to him, the older junk acted
like a failsafe. So, if the Counter-Defense Protocols failed and the
crystal tried to short out the machine, the old junk would die rather
than the new and shiney stuff. If the CDP did work, then the old
stuff would wire the info to the new stuff and it would get cracking.
At least...he thought that was the translation of what she had
excitedly whispered. She had said “quantum” a lot, though. There
was only one question that Jimmy had.
“Won't Edna
realized you bluffed her?”
Pix blinked, then
shrugged, and mimed crossing her fingers: I don't know,
she seemed to say. Lets hope not!
Jimmy crossed his
fingers. Barring treachery, this was their ticket home. And, in case
of treachery, he was ready to...
To sign up with
Edna, if she either called their bluff or just demanded it
either-way. He knew Pix wanted to run. To try something heroic and
brave and futile. Before Friday, Jimmy knew he if he was in a life or
death situation, he'd want to run and try things that were brave and
futile and heroic. Before Friday, he hadn't kissed a girl. He hadn't
drunk beer or known just how amazing it was to...
Yes, to love
someone. To be near someone who loved you for your flaws and your
qualities. To be held. And before Friday, he hadn't known how
alarmingly final death was, how absolutely fast it could happen.
He didn't want to
lose that. So, Architects help him, he was going to do anything to
live.
He looked at Pix.
She connected her eyes with him. She smiled, slowly.
Yes, he thought.
Anything.
Edna slid the data
crystal into the computer. "Note." She held her finger up.
"This computer doesn't have a copying drive. That is a different
computer entirely."
"Good."
Pix crossed her arms over her chest. She paused, then whispered to
Jimmy: “It really doesn't.”
Jimmy nodded. If he
couldn't trust Pix about computers, who could he trust?
Edna scowled, then
pushed the start button. The center computer whirred on, humming
softly. Something dinged and the central housing rotated till the
center computer and the outer computer were connected. Information
sparked down the wires, the entire machine humming now. The view
screen flickered on and Jimmy grinned at Pix.
"It worked."
Edna stepped back, rubbing her hands together. "Watch and let's
see how much this is worth."
First, there were
the indecipherable diagrams. Then, the Xorquin that Jimmy remembered
from so long ago, appeared on the screen.
"James,"
he said. "I am going to send this message to you and Monica by
way of Walter." He sighed. "It's true. The crazy bastards
are really planning it. The schematics...they detail the entire plan.
James, I th-"
Jimmy closed his
eyes a moment before the shot rang out. That part he still remembered
all too well.
Edna scowled.
"Computer, play back the first bit of the message. Frame by
frame, only going forward by command."
The first frame. Now
that it didn't go by so fast, Jimmy saw that the lettering was
translated as well. First, it showed a series of symbols: A square
thing, a stick figure daggit, a half circle and a small blue box.
Then it showed one of Harbinger's thousands of shuttle ports. The
words "open" appeared and the shuttle port opened, letting
out a shuttle. Something was attached to it, a big bobbly something.
The word next to it translated after a few moments of whirring from
the computer: Antimatter Warheads (5,000,000,000 Megaton Yield)
Jimmy gasped. Pix
put her hand over her face. Edna's reaction was far more prosaic:
“FUCK!”
The next frame was
the shuttle attaching itself to one of Harbinger's engine pod. When
it left, the AM-bomb stayed behind. The shuttle went back into the
shuttle port. The last diagram, now it was labeled, turned from a
nonsensical cone to a estimated blast damage and radiation exposure
from the rupturing of the engine pod.
The thing Jimmy
noticed the most was how the cone of radiation was aimed right at his
city, at his people's home. And then the expected casualty charts
showed up. If the Xorquin's plan was right, it would sterilize the
entire sewage deck – blasting it with enough hard radiation that
even Harbinger's inexplicable hull wouldn't be able to stop the
humans from dying. And they would die fast...die with their hair
falling out and vomiting up blood.
Jimmy felt sick.
"Those
bastard," Pix whispered.
Edna slammed the off
button on the screen, shutting down the images for the moment.
"Monica....James.
Those are my parents names!" Jimmy blinked. "I got no idea
who Walter is...but..."
"What?"
Pix looked up at him
"It's just a
theory." Jimmy waved his hand. "It's not important. What is
important is...what the hell are we gonna do about that!?"
He and Pix looked at
Edna. She was still staring at the screen as if she could still see
the projected casualty lists on it. Then, she turned to face Jimmy
and Pix. She drew in a deep breath...then let it out. "I have no
idea."
They all looked at
one another.
"Well, this is
it." Pix stuck her hands in her pockets. "We're going to
die."
Jimmy looked at her
again. “Pix, you said that last time.”
Pix tried for a
smile. It looked like a death's head grin. “It's still true, isn't
it?”
Jimmy couldn't argue
with that.
###
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