“I’ve got two, no, three ships on sensors,” Skip reported. Kori and Steve were in the common area looking over the terrain details Baxter had been sending. The ship’s SI added, “Looks like about ten minutes out.”
Kori looked at the ceiling. “How far are Jax and Naomi?”
“Maybe fifteen, twenty at the most. Their skimmers don’t have very sophisticated computers. They’re not on my passive scopes yet.”
Steve looked at the ceiling. “And those transports?”
Baxter answered, “They made their drops and headed out. Both are parked about two kilometers from the back of this valley. I’ve got eyes on one of the strike teams. The other was moving west when I lost visual. Both teams are well armed.”
Skip added, “I was able to pick them up, sporadically.” The main entertainment screen updated with an aerial rendering of the valley and surrounding terrain out to five kilometers. The two transports were red squares. The two attack teams were red rectangles. The inbound craft were red circles. The Osprey was a green circle. Baxter was a green triangle.
“Lot of red,” Steve observed.
“Yeah, but they don’t have a me,” the combat droid huffed, certain of his abilities.
“Let’s hope,” Kori said.
* * *
“Jax, Naomi, we’ve got inbound,” Skip said over the shared comm channel.
“Sit rep?” Jax asked.
“Kori and Steve are prepping now in the armory. Baxter is on walk about. The two strike teams are in place. Baxter is shadowing one of them. I’ve got the other on tactical, but we don’t have weapons on them.”
“Copy that.” He consulted the small computer display in front of him. “These things have pretty shitty nav software, but I think we’re about fifteen out. They’re fast, but not that fast.”
“The inbounds will be skids down in just under ten,” the ship’s SI replied.
Jax pushed the throttle on his skimmer all the way to the stops. Several indicators lit up. On the small display, a warning appeared showing that prolonged use of the throttle at full power may damage the craft and cause forfeiture of any security deposit. Jax saw Naomi’s skimmer follow suit, keeping pace with his own.
From her skimmer, Naomi asked, “So, is there a plan for when we get there?”
Jax smiled to himself. “I’m sure something will come to one of us.”
Naomi groaned and reached out to the small console in front of her, tattoos glowing around her face and hand. The small display in front of her blinked, then went to the familiar scrolling-code mode.
* * *
“The lead freighter is hailing us,” Skip announced.
Kori and Steve had moved to the bridge for a better view of the situation. Kori smoothed her hair back, tightening the piece of cloth that held it in place. She looked at the communications screen mounted from the ceiling and nodded.
The screen came to life, filled with the face of a stern woman of Asian descent. “We are here for our goods.”
“Hello to you, too.” Kori smiled. “We’re finalizing a few things, if you can give us a few minutes?”
“We’ll be landing in two minutes. Our representative will meet you at the nearest set of modules to your ship.” The screen went black.
Steve looked at her. “That went well.”
She shrugged. “Well, we already know they’re planning to kill us, so ...” She looked at the ceiling. “Baxter, get ready.”
“Always am,” the combat droid replied.
The two humans headed for the staircase. Kori stopped at Rudy’s station. “Keep Jax and Naomi informed.”
The droid’s head made a full rotation, his optic sensors spinning. “Will do. Be careful.” Kori patted the small droid on the head as she passed.
As Steve and Kori exited the Osprey, Kori pointed past the mouth of the small valley they’d parked in. “There.” In the distance, two heavy lift freighters were rumbling their way to the ground, their powerful lift engines churning up a minor dust storm. The third was hovering over them in an over watch position.
“Reassuring,” Steve murmured, nodding toward the hovering vessel. A hatch on the nearest ship opened and three people emerged. Kori and Steve walked toward the trio, stopping at the agreed upon ore module.
“Hi.” Steve waved as the trio arrived.
“Hello,” the lead man said, bowing. He looked at the large ore modules. “You were successful.” He looked Steve up and down. “But you are not Jackson Caruso.” The other two, a man and a woman in crisp black suits, were staring at Kori and Steve, sizing them up. Kori noticed that the woman was the same one from their earlier conversation. Above the neck of each of their immaculately tailored suits were the barest hints of tattoos.
Kori took point. “You’re right. Jax... Jackson is unavailable at the moment. He asked us to welcome you. He’ll be along shortly.” She gestured to the set of ore modules nearest them and the one a hundred or so meters away, closer to the two freighters. “As you can see, we’ve retrieved the two train cars’ worth of ore, as agreed.”
The leader of the trio nodded to his associates. One moved to the nearest set of modules, the other headed toward the further set. “And our specified lots are accounted for?”
Steve and Kori nodded. This time Steve answered, “Yes, sir. You’ll find the designated lots in each set of modules.”
The man bowed his head, “Excellent work.” He looked past Kori and Steve toward the not too distant walls of the valley. Knowing what to look for, Kori spotted the smallest grin form on his lips. He turned and looked first at the nearer of his associates, the woman, who had a handheld scanner in her hand. She nodded. The third of their group had a similar scanner and nodded his confirmation. The leader of the group nodded, then removed his gPhone from his pocket. He smiled at Steve and Kori. “Thank you.” He looked down at his phone, thumb poised over something on the screen. Over his shoulder, Kori saw his two associates remove pistols from inside their suit jackets. From recessed panels on the hovering freighter, two blaster turrets emerged.
His thumb twitched toward the gPhone only to explode in a red mist.