CYBORGHEART Page 5

  “I’m going to make a deal with them. A smooth transfer of cargo from your ship to theirs as long as they agree to take me, too. After all, if you’re right and I was once a pirate myself, what have I got to lose? In a few short months I might end up running the whole ship.” He paused with his hand hovering over the “respond” button. “I do need to know one thing, though—what is this amazing cargo you’re transporting? You’ve hinted a couple of times that it’s more than just grain or dressmaking supplies. Give me the details, Brent.”

  “We’re carrying Ferrox plants,” Brent admitted miserably. He saw no point in trying to keep it quiet any longer. In a few minutes the pirates would storm the cargo bay and see for themselves, anyway. In fact, he suspected they’d been tipped off ahead of time, perhaps by those who had loaded them on in the first place. “The Earth colonies use them for medicinal purposes.” He lowered his eyes. “Prepared another way, though, they have a different—and in some circles, far more desirable—use as a recreational drug.”

  “Ah. Hallucinogenics. The perpetual Holy Grail of smugglers and pirates. An excellent bargaining chip. Well done, Captain.”

  “Don’t do this,” Brent begged one last time. “I already told you it’s not over yet for you—for us. I want to help you. Why won’t you let me?”

  “I may not remember everything, but I have a feeling I’m a guy who’s used to helping himself. I wanted you to believe in me, Brent. I'm sorry I’m not what you wanted.”

  “That’s putting it mildly.”

  Grunting, Sirgi turned and opened a communication channel to the pirate ship.

  ****

  Within minutes, the deal had been struck. The Raptor’s captain, either recognizing a kindred spirit in Sirgi or planning to betray him later, agreed to his offer of personally handing over the cargo and remaining with it after the Lady Bountiful had been set free.

  His parting shot to Brent had been a literal one—a blast from Zillah’s weapon that had jammed the command center’s hatch, sealing them inside until the cargo had been transferred and Sirgi himself on board the Raptor.

  Maybe they were better off being trapped inside until the transfer was over, Brent thought grimly. They could summon Border Patrol as soon as the whole mess was a thing of the past, and he’d already ordered Inya, Zillah, and his second security guard, Grizel, to barricade themselves in the medcen until further notice.

  Morosely, he watched the screen as the pirates lined their hull up to his own cargo doors, the metal claw and boarding tube extending toward them. Soon Cargo Bay One would be swarming with pirates. Sirgi would stand and watch as they lifted and loaded the precious Ferrox plants he’d promised his father he’d deliver safely to the medical center on Earth Colony XIV. The bitter taste that rose in his mouth threatened to gag him.

  “I still can’t believe Sirgi turned out the way he did,” Hari was saying, and Brent realized he’d been speaking to him for some time. Lost in his own angry thoughts, he hadn’t heard a single word. “He really seemed better than that.”

  “Yeah, he sure did,” Brent grumbled.

  “I mean, he looked like a cop to me—”

  “Enough, Hari! We don’t need to go over it all now. There’ll be plenty of time to figure out what went wrong later.” At least, Brent hoped so. Miserably, he returned to watching the screen. The pirate ship’s metal claw had opened wide, baring its fearsome spikes and clearly getting ready to clamp onto their cargo doors. Yet its forward progress had stopped, the claw suspended halfway between their two ships.

  “Hey, Captain, look!” Daras yelped, pointing. “Where did that come from?”

  Brent squinted, stunned to see a burst of light streaking the dark backdrop of space. Some unknown object had launched itself at the Raptor, careening forward with the force and speed of a deadly warhead. And it seemed to have burst from the general vicinity of Cargo Bay Two.

  “Holy…” Hari began, but before he could complete the thought, the Lady Bountiful rocked sideways and flung all three of them to the deck. Brent saw a flash ignite against the Raptor’s hull, followed by a series of short but powerful explosions that rippled down the side of the ship.

  “Direct hit!” Daras cried once the excitement was over and they had clambered back to their feet. Even Brent could hardly believe what he was seeing. Disabled, the Raptor veered sharply away from them, the once-fearsome claw hanging limp and powerless at its side. “Took them completely by surprise! Where the heck did that come from?”

  Brent turned to Hari as soon as he had caught his breath. “Sensor readings?”

  “They took a huge hit, apparently right in their power center. It’s not devastating or life-threatening, I don’t think, but they’re not going very far for a while.”

  “Excellent. Call in the Border Patrol.” Brent smiled, looking forward to watching the uniformed authorities swarm the debilitated pirate ship with a claw and a boarding tube of their own. Soon afterward, though, a terrible thought struck him. “Hari—was…was Sirgi in that pod?”

  Hari bit his lip and turned back to his sensors. Soon he glanced up with obvious relief.

  “Life reading right outside Cargo Bay Two, Captain. I’d say it’s likely to be him.”

  Brent muttered thanks to the universe under his breath. He’d already started for the hatch when he remembered that it wouldn’t open.

  “Border patrol acknowledges our message,” Daras informed him as he stood examining the unmoving slab of metal in front of him. “They’re sending a ship over at hyperspeed. It should be here in an hour or two. With any luck, the Raptor will float peacefully until they arrive.”

  “We…we’re not going to just sit and twiddle our thumbs until then.” Brent placed his palms on the door and tried to force it sideways. “Let’s see if we can break out of here somehow.”

  “I’ll help,” Hari said, moving over to push alongside Brent. Daras, meanwhile, began punching buttons on his console in rapid succession.

  “There’s got to be a way to override what he destroyed,” he said, typing madly with a determined expression on his face. “Everything on this ship has an emergency manual backup. He wouldn’t have known that.”

  The three of them worked together in intense concentration, until Brent felt sweat oozing from every pore of his body and Daras had resorted to some fairly colorful curse words seldom heard outside of the rougher bars on various out-of-the-way starports.

  “All right, here it goes,” he said at last. “I think I’ve got this hatch thing figured out.”

  He pressed a few more buttons, stabbing the last one with a little flourish. At the exact same moment, Brent felt the metal door shift beneath his and Hari’s desperate grip.

  The two of them tumbled to the floor in unison as the hatch popped open. On the other side stood Inya, Zillah, and Grizel, their mouths open in shock.

  “Captain, we saw an explosion—” Grizel began, but Brent pushed past him on his way down the passageway.

  “Hari will explain,” he called over his shoulder as he raced toward the cargo area. “No time now!”

  ****

  Sirgi was standing in the passageway outside Cargo Bay 2, just as Brent hoped he would be. He was still wielding the stolen weapon, holding it at his side with the muzzle pointed at the deck. He shrugged and gave Brent the same lopsided grin as he rushed toward him and stopped just a few meters away.

  “Those pods are really crazy, aren’t they? Good thing I remembered they could double as guided missiles in a pinch. Sorry I had to destroy mine, though. I’m sure you and Inya wanted to study it. Still, you never know. Maybe you’ll find another one someday.”

  Brent got directly to the point. “You saved us—and the cargo.”

  “A purely selfish act. I figured if I did something heroic, I might earn a pardon from your government officials. Hopefully they’re as easily manipulated now as they were back in my day.”

  “That’s not the only reason.
You know it.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Sirgi shifted his position a little, flexing his fingers around the gun. “You don’t know what’s in my mind.”

  “The border patrol’s coming. They’re going to have to take you in. I guess you know that.”

  Sirgi nodded. “I’m ready to try this your way.”

  “I’ll wait for you. I’m pretty sure you know that, too.”

  “I had my suspicions.”

  Brent stepped forward, moving slowly and keeping his hands spread in front of him to reassure Sirgi he wouldn’t attack. Sirgi opened his arms, too, and kept the weapon pointed at the floor while the two kissed. When they stepped apart, he handed it to Brent grip-first.

  “Take me into custody. I won’t fight you this time.”

  Chapter 6

  “They’ve had him in that damned interrogation center for days,” Brent griped as he and Inya joined the small crowd assembling in a Border Patrol courtroom. A quick glance to the front of the room confirmed that Sirgi hadn’t been brought in yet, though a few harried-looking officials were walking back and forth, delivering documents and checking the recording equipment. “I hope he’s all right.”

  “He was being detained, not interrogated. You know they wouldn’t hurt him,” Inya soothed, patting the sleeve of his best jacket, which he’d donned especially for court. Though Brent doubted he’d be called as a witness, especially since this was just a preliminary hearing, he thought it wise to be prepared. Besides, if things didn’t proceed in a way he considered fair, he planned to request an audience with the highest official he could collar afterward. “I’m sure they did everything they could to come up with the truth. Remember, their resources are much better than ours.”

  “I wish I could trust them like you do.” Brent fidgeted in his seat, impatient for the hearing to get underway. “Anyway, he saved our lives and, by extension, the lives of every patient who was waiting for that cargo. Surely that must count for something.”

  “They’ll do what’s right. Let’s not forget, you secured him the best council in the galaxy.”

  Brent nodded, feeling only slightly better about the whole situation. He knew Inya had called in a personal favor with one of her own people, bringing in a brilliant advocate to defend Sirgi. The Odelisqs’ reptilian brains were known for their incredible retention of detail, making them not only excellent scientists, like Inya herself, but sharp legal minds whose services were highly valued. In addition, their lizard-like features meant that their expressions weren’t always readable by opposing council, giving them the advantage in court as well as human poker games.

  “At least maybe I can visit him in prison…assuming they’ll let me.” Privately, Brent doubted it. Given Sirgi’s immense strength and mental agility, he’d be sentenced to one of the maximum-security planet colonies for sure. Such facilities paid no more than lip service to the ideal of prisoner rehabilitation. Being locked away for life in one of those compounds meant exactly that.

  “Don’t give up hope yet,” Inya said. She gave his arm another squeeze. He had to admire her loyalty. She had never made any secret of the fact that she didn’t trust Sirgi. Yet for the sake of her regard for Brent, she had put her own emotions aside and stood beside him. That was true friendship, as far as he was concerned.

  Finally, everyone rose as the proceedings got underway. The first to enter was the uniformed Border Patrol advocate. His slightly fluorescent skin tone marked him as one of the colonists from Mars or another Terraformed world, where the artificial suns wreaked havoc on people’s complexions. Brent, like a lot of native Earthmen, tended not to trust colonists in positions of authority. They had no real legal traditions of their own, so they followed the statutes slavishly, refusing to consider precedents set by human history or even human nature. He considered that a bad sign.

  The presiding magistrate followed, a long-necked fellow that reminded Brent of an Earth insect, the praying mantis, though with a patch of bright green hair. Last came Sirgi and his advocate, who stood glumly behind a table on the left side of the room.

  Once everyone had taken their positions, the magistrate nodded and tapped his gavel on the raised bench. A uniformed guard signaled for Brent and the others to take their seats again.

  “We are here for a preliminary hearing dispositive of the future of this defendant,” the Mantis announced in a voice that trilled slightly, again like an insect’s. He nodded to the Border Patrol representative. “Please state the charges you wish to bring so that we may officially record them. From there we will proceed to a formal trial if I find such warranted.”

  “Thank you, Magistrate. In fact, the Earth Council moves to drop all charges against the defendant.”

  The court fell silent in shock.

  “What the—?” Brent said when he could speak again. A ripple of conversation buzzed around the chamber. Even Sirgi looked stunned. His Odelisq defender, predictably, revealed no emotion that Brent could interpret.

  The Magistrate leaned back in his chair and banged his gavel for silence.

  “This is most unusual,” he said in his warbling tone. “Please explain your position.”

  “Certainly. Over the course of the past few days, we have been running a series of tests on the defendant. This was essential, since his identity was in question.”

  “And?”

  “And the results suggest that the man recovered by the Lady Bountiful is, in fact, a police official who was once known as Sirgi Meliq. Originally, it was believed that Officer Meliq had been lost, along with his crew, when his ship was destroyed in a magnetic storm. Further research suggests, however, that this man was actually the victim of a mindwipe and subsequent identity switch performed by a criminal who had escaped custody on board the doomed vessel. It was the intention of the criminal in question to divert the attention of authorities to the man in the pod, while assuming Meliq’s credentials as his own. With the crew already dead—murdered, we believe—he believed no one would ever know the difference. He did not, presumably, comprehend that his new life as a member of law enforcement would last only a few hours—until the magnetic storm wreaked havoc on the stolen ship.”

  Another buzz swept through the courtroom. Brent turned to Inya and felt tears sting his eyes. Her hand clasped his and squeezed it.

  “I told you,” she whispered.

  The Odelisq leapt to his feet, too. “Magistrate, my client’s conduct since being rescued would appear to support my learned friend’s discoveries. He assisted the crew of the Lady Bountiful in saving their cargo—and, more importantly, preserving their lives—when faced with attack from a band of modern pirates.” His green lips pulled down in an approximation of a human scowl. “I am sorry to say we have not yet obliterated the problem.”

  “And his memory?” the magistrate asked. “Can it be restored in time?”

  The Border Patrol advocate nodded. “Slowly, with treatment, he should start to regain his memories. We believe he will recall everything in time, or at least enough to make his life complete again and integrate his past and present personality traits. We also feel that with some updated training, Sirgi Meliq will be an asset to our current society.” He seemed to be struggling to mask a grimace. “In fact, Commander Lodd plans to offer him a commission with Border Patrol—assuming you approve the dismissal of all charges, of course.”

  The Mantis thought for a moment, staring at Sirgi. Finally he nodded. “Very well. Request granted. Best of luck to you, sir. I hope you enjoy living in our century. We may have our problems…but as with any society, striving to solve them is what helps make life worth living.”

  Brent’s mind whirled as Sirgi offered some suitable ceremonial response. The banging of the gavel terminated the hearing, and suddenly everyone was standing and milling around again.

  “Go,” Inya said, pushing Brent toward Sirgi. He rushed over to the council table, where the advocate was congratulating Sirgi.

  “So
I’m some kind of hero,” Sirgi was saying in a trembling voice. Brent saw the muscles in his throat flex as he tried to contain his emotions. “That’s a nice surprise, considering I woke up a wanted criminal every morning for the past week or so.”

  Brent pushed his way forward and held out his hand.

  “Sirgi, I’m so sorry. If only we’d had the resources to investigate the situation properly…”

  “Not your fault,” Sirgi said, clasping his hand. “It was these damned synthetic muscles. Do you know each one actually has a serial number printed on it somehow? Turned out they could match them up to old medical records from almost two hundred years ago. I admit, I never would have thought of that. Good thing people nowadays are smarter than they were in mine.”

  “I doubt that,” Brent was pleased to see that old lopsided grin return to Sirgi’s face. “Anyhow…if you’ll accept my apology, maybe we could start over?”

  Laughing, Sirgi tightened his grip on Brent’s hand and hauled him in close. “You bet,” he purred in Brent’s ear. “Dinner and a hotel room afterward?”

  “Yes. And before you accept that offer from Border Patrol, I have a proposition for you. It turns out I need a new crew member. My father agrees that my ship needs an entire security overhaul. We’re way too vulnerable to attack.”

  “I’ll enjoy talking about that. I have a proposition for you, too. I have to warn you, though—it’s a bit…adult in nature.” His hand slid down Brent’s thigh, just discreetly enough that no one else in the room could see it. They looked like two friends embracing. But Brent knew it was only the start of a far more interesting connection.