When Lucius came around he was still slumped on the deck. He licked the dryness from his lips and tasted his own blood. The hold was dark and they didn’t seem to be moving anymore. He gingerly pushed himself up and sat motionless for a moment. The skin on his hands and face felt tight where the blood had dried, but apart from that he seemed okay. A cursory search with his hands suggested there were no serious injuries apart from cuts and bruises, and even they had started to heal. He scratched at the scar tissue around a gash in his leg.
“Are you still there Sepherene?”
I am busy.
“Busy putting me back together again eh?” he said, and grimaced at the sound of his own voice. Haar spice hadn’t changed, the come down still gave him the worst headache ever.
Taking hold of a beam, he began to pull himself up, noticing a faint light approach under the door into the front of the transport. Moments later it was joined by the hushed tone of voices.
“Whatever you’re doing you best make it quick, we’ve got company,” Lucius muttered under his breath.
The door opened and light from the corridor beyond cast a long, white shaft into the hold. Lucius crouched in the dark shadows as three figures walked in.
A tall man with a shaved head stepped in first and was consumed by the gloom. “We need to move and unload the cargo onto the beach before the harbour patrol are onto us. Shon, get the lights on.”
A woman standing in the doorway lifted her arm and tapped out a brief combination on the digital control pad strapped to her forearm. When she had finished she lifted her hand and covered her nose. “Ugh, what’s that smell?”
Lights flickered overhead and long strips of fluorescent tubes lit the hold.
“Damn it,” the tall man said. “Some of the crates have broken, how in hell’s name did they get out of the cargo pens.”
Another man pushed past the woman and entered the cargo bay. “I secured ‘em all before we left boss. There shouldn’t be any out.”
Shon moved back into the corridor and re-appeared seconds later carrying small face masks. “You best put these on or we’ll end up as high as kites,” she said, tossing the face shields to the two men.
“It was your job, Cal, so it’s coming out of your share,” the tall man said, moving further in and fixing the mask in place.
“Ahh, come on boss, that ain’t fair,” Cal replied, muttering something else that was lost within the face shield as he applied it.
Lucius still remained crouched in the corner of the pen even though he’d been lit up like a Christmas tree after the lights were turned on.
“Something’s not right Iolaus, I’m not getting any reply from the transport convoy,” Shon said, moving her fingers across the control pad. “They should be here by now.”
“Shit! Can anything else go wrong today?” Iolaus yelled, striding past Lucius’ pen without stopping. “Start getting the crates ready for unloading, Cal.”
Cal began to move but stopped when his gaze fell upon Lucius. At almost the same time, Shon spotted him and reached for the sidearm holstered on her leg.
Lucius sprang to his feet and held out his arms. “Don’t do anything stupid, I’m not here to hurt anybody.”
Iolaus stopped and turned as the energy cell in Shon’s pistol hummed to life. “What are you doing on my ship?” he asked.
Lucius considered his reply looking first at Iolaus and then at Shon’s pistol. “I stumbled onto it looking for somewhere to sleep whilst you were docked on Italus. I’m just somebody who’s ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all.”
Very good, a little dishonest, but completely believable.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Oh nice of you to show up,” Lucius whispered without thinking.
“Did you hear that?” Cal blurted. “He’s bugged!”
Shon moved towards the pen and stopped short, staring at the twisted beams and battered door. “You should be dead, how did you even get in there?”
“Look if you just help me get out I’ll be on my way and we can forget that this little meeting ever took place,” Lucius said.
Iolaus walked back towards them all. “You’re not going anywhere my friend and if you are working for the law then I can assure you that you’ll be the first to get a round in the head if they try and board us.”
Shon’s control pad bleated out a high pitched whine and she took her eyes from Lucius and studied the screen. “We’ve got two law skimmers converging on our position.”
Iolaus glowered. “Fetch me my rifle Cal, and you best grab the assault cannon. Shon, activate the ship’s ground defence system.” He turned back toward Lucius as Cal scampered into the corridor. “And what to do with you?”
“Let me out and I’ll help you,” Lucius replied with a shrug.
Looking at Shon, he nodded. “Scan him, and if it comes back clean then get him out of there. The more hands on deck the better chance we have of getting out of this mess.”
With that he marched back towards the corridor.
She raised her arm and hesitated. “What if he is the law though?”
“If he tries anything then kill him. If not then I’m sure they’ll do their damnedest to kill us all when they get here anyway,” Iolaus replied without breaking step, and then he was gone, leaving only Lucius and Shon left in the hold together.
The control pad beeped as she touched its surface before waving it in front of him. When the scan had finished it beeped a few more times and flashed green.
“Looks like you’re clean,” she said.
“I could have told you that,” Lucius grinned.
Frowning at him, she holstered her pistol and walked around to the pen’s mangled door. “How in hell’s name am I supposed to get you out of here exactly?”
“Well cursing won’t help,” Lucius said moving back in front of her again. “Move out of the way a minute,” he added, gripping the central beams.
She took a step back and folded her arms. “Why, what are you going to do, pull the beams apart?”
Raising his eyebrows, he gave a smirk and took hold of the steel uprights. Squeezing groves into the solid metal he felt a fleeting resistance to his efforts before they creased and bent outwards revealing a gap large enough for him to wriggle through.
Shon’s eyes widened and she took another step away from him. “H-how did you do that?” she stammered, reaching for her pistol again.
“It’s alright,” Lucius insisted. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The law are here and they are setting charges on the rear-loading door.
“Already,” Lucius said. “They didn’t hang around.”
Shon frowned. “Who are you talking to?”
You cannot kill any of them Lucius, they are only doing their jobs.
“Like the temple guards were in Italus,” he replied.
That was different, they were being controlled by Lernaean.
He sighed. “Alright, if you say so.”
Lucius went to move towards Shon and felt her pistol press against his stomach.
“If you’re talking to the law then I’ll kill you,” she threatened.
He placed his hands on her shoulders. “I swear to you, I’m not talking to the law. We need to get out of here though, they’re going to breach the hold any minute.”
She pulled away. “How do you know that?”
They are coming now!
Lucius lunged forwards and grabbed her in an embrace. The detonations behind him sounded a fraction of a second after the bark of her pistol. The energy round struck him in the stomach at point blank range causing him to stagger back into the path of the blast from behind. He felt like he was being squeezed between two titanic forces and struggled to catch his breath.
“Did it penetrate?” he coughed, the droning aftermath of the explosion still ringing in his head.
No, I managed to deflect it away. Fortunately for you it was only a pistol.
“I don’t feel very fortunate,” he said, sucking in a lungful of spice-tainted air.
Armoured bodies started to appear through the jagged breach as lawmen filed into the hold. Shon was already moving into cover, firing wildly with her pistol at them. Lucius felt like he was caught adrift in the middle of a typhoon as the lawmen replied with bursts of their own gunfire.
I think it would be best if you found some cover while I try and stop the internal bleeding.
“That might be easier said than done,” he said, dropping to his knees.
