The Price of Conquest

Tyler eased the Gamble down toward the Conquest's hangar, a smile growing on his lips. Apparently, he wasn't going to need the card he had taken from Kressa; the hangar's main doors stood wide open.

As the Gamble settled onto its landing gear, parallel to the hangar's open doors, Tyler peered into the shadows of the building to get his first look at his new ship. A wave of disappointment washed over him. Navinatu said the ship was heavily modified, but the vessel looked the same as any other freighter of its class and size Tyler had seen. Then again, Navinatu had said the information wasn't confirmed. Still, modified or not, the ship was immeasurably superior to what he currently flew.

Tyler shut down the last of the Gamble's flight systems, stood, and stepped from the control room. He paused at the airlock and glanced down the corridor at the door to the hold.

What had Kressa been doing back there? And how did Sangrey escape the security cuffs? Had Kressa found and released him? Or did Sangrey manage to get them off by himself and make some sort of ruckus to attract Kressa's attention? What if his method for opening the shackles was still in the room?

Tyler shrugged and opened the Gamble's airlock. Even if Kressa somehow managed to get the cuffs off, there was no way she could get out of the hold. Wilier criminals than her had tried and failed.

Tyler stepped from the Gamble and crossed the short stretch of tarmac to the hanger. He paused briefly to study the Conquest again, then jogged down the left side of the ship and up the boarding ramp.

A moment's search around the outer airlock door revealed the access pad hidden behind the lock's dimly glowing scanplate. He entered the code Kressa had given him into the keypad.

Nothing happened.

Tyler felt a momentary rush of anger. Had Kressa lied to him about the code? Perhaps he misremembered it, or entered it incorrectly.

As he reached to try again, a mechanical hum sounded from his right, above and below the body of the ship. An instant later, a deafening roar and blindingly bright light filled the hangar.

Tyler crouched instinctively, squeezed his eyes shut, and pressed his hands to his ears. Searing heat washed around him.

A seemingly interminable amount of time later, the hellish barrage stopped. The air around him reeked of ozone.

He looked up cautiously, careful to take shallow breaths of the hot air.

Before he could begin to make sense of what had just occurred, it started again, and the landing upon which he stood began to retract into the body of the freighter.

Senses overwhelmed, he leapt from the ramp and landed gracelessly on the hangar floor. He scrambled to his feet, dashed the few short meters to the hangar's service door, opened it and slipped outside just as the storm of light and sound stopped again.

He glanced in through the open doorway.

A pair of heavy pulse cannons hung from the aft corners of the Conquest's belly, pointed out the hangar's open main doors, and Tyler could see one of what he assumed to be a second pair on the ship's roof. Outside the hangar, the aft section of the Gamble glowed red-hot where the cannons had burned a sizable hole through the ship's hull.

The cannons began to retract into the body of the ship, and an anti-personnel turret dropped from the center of the vessel's belly. It swung toward Tyler.

Cursing, he ducked out of the doorway and ran for the front corner of the hangar.

I should have killed the bitch when I had the chance, he thought angrily. But he knew now, as he did then, he never could have done it. And he feared it had absolutely nothing to do with any desire to take his bounties alive.

* * *

Huddled under the cot in the Gamble's hold, wrapped in a rough blanket, and sheltered by the metal framework of the bed and the bulk of Sangrey's body, Kressa cringed as a second salvo of sound and heat erupted above her. Then it stopped, and her commlink chirped.

"Kressa, are you okay?" Connie asked over the link.

"Yeah, I think so. Is it safe to come out?"

"I believe I've done all I can without further endangering you."

"What about Devin?" Kressa asked as she wriggled cautiously out from under the cot. "Where is he?"

"He exited the hangar through the service door nearest the airlock."

Kressa looked at the bulkhead above the cot. Connie's shots had punched a ragged hole halfway up the side of the Gamble. Bits of burnt metal and other materials littered the hold, and the air remained heavy with heat and chemical odors.

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Kressa pulled the blanket out from under the cot and threw it over the lowest edge of the seared opening. Immediately, the material began to darken and smoke. She pulled herself painfully up onto the smoldering cloth, trying to ignore the blisters that formed on her skin wherever it came near the hot metal, and then she let herself tumble through the hole to the tarmac below.

She bit back a pained cry, then looked up in time to see Devin dash toward the Gamble, keeping the front and left wall of the hangar between himself and the Conquest's guns.

Kressa rolled to her feet, struggling to ignore the pain from the pulse gun burn in her side, and ran toward the right-hand wall of the hangar.

"Connie, as soon as I'm clear, fire on the Gamble again," she said into her commlink. "Target the engines."

"Affirmative."

Kressa reached the hangar and ducked around the side. Connie began to fire again.

A sharp, sizzling crack drew Kressa's attention back to the Gamble.

The shots from the Conquest splashed harmlessly against the ship; Devin had activated the shields.

Connie tightened her aim. The beams of all four of her heavy pulse cannons pounded at the same spot in an attempt to weaken the Gamble's shields.

A movement out on the landing field caught Kressa's attention. Three groundcars were speeding toward the hangar. Then Kressa heard the Gamble's engines fire, their roar nearly drowned out by the continuing sounds of the Conquest's guns echoing inside the hangar beside her. She watched helplessly as the Gamble lifted from the ground.

Connie kept her guns trained on the ship. An instant before the hangar's roof blocked the shots, the Gamble's shields collapsed and the Conquest's guns tore at the ship for a brief moment. Then Connie was forced to stop firing to avoid hitting the hangar's roof.

Kressa looked away from the rapidly ascending Gamble as the three cars drew up in front of the hanger. Two of them bore the markings of port security, but the third had the insignia of Commander Vel's planetary defense forces.

Armed and uniformed men and women leaped from the vehicles, Commander Vel among them.

Kressa stepped around the corner of the hangar.

Several pulse guns turned in her direction.

"Guns down!" Vel motioned to the soldiers to holster their weapons. "What's going on, Kressa?"

"You've got to stop that ship!" She pointed to the tiny speck of the Gamble, and then bent to clutch her side as the pulse gun wound sent another spike of pain through her body.

"Are you okay?" Vel asked.

She nodded, breathing hard. "Stop that ship. Garth's Gamble."

Vel pulled a commlink from her belt and called her flagship, the Cheops.

"They'll try to catch it," she told Kressa, and then glanced at one of the nearby soldiers. "Get a medic out here."

"Don't bother," Kressa said. "There's a med-unit on the Conquest. Why are you here?"

Vel ordered her people to stand down, and then turned back to Kressa. "Didn't Connie tell you?"

Kressa remembered Connie had called while she was on board the Gamble, but she hadn't given the computer a chance to speak. "Tell me what?" she asked Vel.

"About your friend, Tyler."

Kressa glanced at the sky above the port, but the Gamble was out of sight. "What about him?"

"My intelligence people got back to me about him. He's a bounty hunter."

Kressa smirked, then grimaced as another twinge of pain shot from her side. She let out a slow breath between pursed lips. "Yeah, I figured that out."

"I called, but Connie said you were with Tyler." Vel took Kressa's arm and led her toward the Conquest. "I told her to warn you, and then I headed for the main port. When I got there, Tyler's ship had moved here. I got here as fast as I could."

Kressa smiled weakly. "Thanks."

As they approached the Conquest's port side, the boarding ramp extended and the airlock door opened. Vel helped Kressa up the ramp and into the ship. Kressa directed her into the room that contained the med-unit.

Vel insisted Kressa take a seat, a request to which she gratefully complied, and then the commander began to set up the unit to treat Kressa's wounded side. Her commlink beeped as she was helping Kressa settle into the treatment bay. It was the Cheops.

"Commander, we intercepted the Garth's Gamble just outside of the atmosphere. It ignored our hails and jumped to hyperspace. The ship was too deep within Vsuna's gravity well for a safe jump. Readings from the vessel indicated the field was highly unstable when the drive was activated. It's unlikely the jump was successful."

"Do you know where it was headed?" Vel asked.

"Destination appeared to be the Terran system, although it's unlikely it made it. The vessel could be anywhere between here and there, or anywhere else, for that matter. The ship was barely space worthy. Its aft section was depressurized, and we detected atmosphere leaks in other sections. It's unlikely anyone survived the jump."

Vel looked at Kressa. "What would you like me to do?"

"Nothing. Let him rot. If he's still alive, he won't be for long. I'm sure as hell not going to miss him."

Vel gave her a long look, and then shrugged. "Let it go, Cheops. You did what you could. Good work. Vel out." She looked at Kressa again.

Kressa met her eyes. "Is that run to Ilek still available?"

Vel nodded.

"Tell Nait I'll take it."