Chapter 2: Phaon

"Who the fuckin shit sent you!" Onzlo spat, his red face looking more garish in his neon orange jumpsuit, as his surprised face greeted his visitor.
"Nice to be appreciated, Onzlo" Solo calmly smiled and sat down opposite the energy grid. "How's it goin?" Solo flicked the switch of the small box Dicey had lent him.
Solo cut Onzlo's protests short and in a low voice told Onzlo about Dicey's plan to continue with the salvage. Onzlo's reaction was to roll his eyes, a grimace appearing on his mouth as if he had just eaten something distasteful.
"I loose the best find a man could have," Onzlo's voice quivered as if on the verge of tears, "And all Dicey can think of is to turn YOU onto it!"
"Keep your voice down, Onzlo" Sole glanced around him nervously at the guard monitoring prisoner communications. "We don't want any undue attention, now do we?"
"If it doesn't bloody fuckin rain, it pours!" Onzlo shook his head.
Solo let him calm down for the moment and then quietly, before their brief time was up, told Onzlo the "plan." Or, at least, a plan. Onzlo didn't have to know that they hadn't really put anything together yet.
Comforted with tales of very talented rogue unemployed mining engineers who owed their lives to Dicey, Onzlo was at last encouraged, not only to calm down, but to part with the whereabouts of the ship. The news was not good. The find was at least a thousand miles away in the Draaksama Range, near a crater lake. It was good in that it was far from any civilized site, but bad when Onzlo told Solo that the Viscount's men had confiscated the smuggler's ship.
"Any chance they'll find the location in your memory banks?" Solo asked.
"Naw, wiped em clean when I landed. This find's too good. I put it all on a disc. You'll find it in a locker at the Spaceport. Dicey's got the key." Onzlo beamed at his own apparent cleverness.
He also went on to tell Solo that there was one heavy earth mover already in place at the sight, as well as a box of explosives. Just as their time was coming to an end, Onzlo leaned forward and tapped the energy grid for emphasis, stupidly unaware that the gesture would draw attention from the guards. Solo then realized Onzlo was drunk, though where he got the Synthol, Solo could only guess at.
"There's just one more thing, Solo" Onzlo hoarsely whispered.
"What's that?" Solo tried to appear nonchalant, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see one of the guards in a room overlooking the visiting room frantically gesture and point to Onzlo and Solo.
"I think I should tell you before you go," he said then paused.
Solo could see the guard leaving the room above them. "Yes?" he tried to be calm as he urged Onzlo to continue.
"Onzlo appeared to think a bit." "I found out that there are some ore miners who've made a claim to the place where the ship is. I saw their camp from orbit the last time I was there, but they didn't see me. They're too far away. I've got a contact in the Bureau of Mines." he confided.
"Do they know about the ship?" Solo asked.
"Don't think so. Their camp is miles from the site. There's three of them, I think. All brothers."
Just then, three guards came into the room, startling all the gathered visitors. Hushed conversations in Talyo and Americ stopped as Solo was hauled to his feet and dragged outside.
"I'm going to want that money when you get out of here!" Solo yelled at Onzlo, still trying to carry on with the act. Onzlo didn't have time to reply.
Outside, Solo was roughly frisked. They found the "box" right away. One of the guards held it up to Solo's face.
"What's this?" the guard demanded.
"It's a privacy box," Solo shrugged. "What of it?"
"It was engaged." the guard explained, "And I want to know what you two talked about in there."
Solo swore inwardly. If Onzlo hadn't drawn attention to them, the guards wouldn't have tuned in, or rather found out that they couldn't tune in to their conversation.
"I'm waiting," the guard snarled.
"He was telling me a family recipe for Tang root pie," Solo offered. "Been in the family for generations. Big secret."
The guards didn't look amused.
"Actually," Solo went on to explain, "I was conducting some sensitive business before I came here. I just forgot that I had the box turned on. That's all." He smiled but since they didn't, he figured they didn't believe him.
The guard questioning him dropped the box and smashed it with his boot.
"You going to talk, offworlder? Or do we have to make you?"
Solo shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you and you know it. And as far as I know, privacy's not a crime here. O.K. So I brought a forbidden piece of equipment in here. You want to lock me up for that? I doubt I'll get ten days, but go ahead."
The guard shook his head. "We're not going to bother with locking you up, Solo. We can wait. Punks like you end up here or the morgue, one way or the other."
They let him go and he started to walk out when one of them hit him from behind. After they had worked him over a little, one of them, examining Solo's (Id card or papers), told him while pulling up Solo by his hair, "We're going to keep our eye on you, Solo."
"Sorry boys," Solo replied through bruised lips, "You're not my type."
The next kick knocked him out.
When he awoke, he heard the sounds of phlegmatic Talyo being screamed in a curse. He was in a dumpster in Avalon. He groaned, checking his body but finding no permanent damage, crawled slowly out. A domestic fight was going on somewhere but he ignored it.
Phew, he thought. Other's apparently thought so too as they grimaced and moved out of his way. Solo didn't care about the way he smelled. He was going to be rich.

Raymont swore, kicking himself. Nothing had turned out. Onzlo's ship had been impounded, where he didn't know. That was a wash. His inquiries about heavy movers, load lifters, anything that might help them in their task had also fizzled out. None of them had the money to rent or buy the stuff. As for stealing it, equipment like that was kind of hard to hide.
One thing though, he could tell the others, was about his finding someone who claimed to know something about the ship they were after. A librarian at the main Avalon branch claimed that he had specific information about the ship, as was willing to part with it - for 500 fucking pounds. Dia, Raymond swore. He doubted that they could scrape together half that much in credits, let alone pounds. Raymont also doubted Dicey could help them. She was facing a stiff fine for harboring a fugitive and had to hold on to every shilling she had.
Raymont's only hope was that one of the group had something they could sell to raise the cash. Either that, or he'd have to shadow the librarian and find some other "persuasion" to get him to tell. Raymont didn't want to travel that road though. Not unless he absolutely had to. Avalon police were tough, and they didn't seem to like offworlders and showed it in their treatment of people like Raymont. Only money could buy respect. Raymont thought about it. He was going to have a lot of respect in a few months. Thinking of his father he vowed he'd burn the galaxy with it.

The next day, everyone gathered to tell what they had found or discovered, or what luck they had had in gathering supplies for the trip. It was then discovered, with sheepish dismay, that most everyone had just gone home to bed, assuming that someone else would take care of it.
"You guys are the movenist groovenist do nothings of all time," Shakes sneered.
Tesse glared at him. "Be nice Shakes, or I'll forget I promised not to hurt you anymore!"
Shakes coughed and found it convenient to visit the john at that specific time.
As he exited, Solo and Raymont came back in from their journeys to add what they had found. Solo looked like he had run into trouble. N'iall thought he could actually count the boot marks on the pilot's face.
Dicey, taking an occasional puff from a pipe, went into the back room and brought out her "conquest" for the night. He was tall and lean, and as Tesse's and Thorn's jealous eyes approvingly wandered over him, he was also obviously very very very handsome. Also, he was probably very hard up, having put up with Dicey as a bedmate.
"Children, " Dicey announced, "I want you to meet Joe Grange. He's a scientist and I'm cuttin him in to our little deal." And she glared at Solo, "And I don't want to hear any crap from you!"
Solo didn't have to say anything. The look on his scabbed and roughened face was enough to tell what he thought of the addition of this "pretty boy".
It was Bug that voiced the party's concerns. "But Dicey," his whiny voice protested, "that's not fair. What do we need him for?"
Though both Thorn and Tesse had some immediate possible answers to that question, they remained silent.
"I owe Joe here a favor! So, he's in." That was all Dicey was going to offer.
Joe nonchalantly made himself comfortable, sitting down between N'iall and Leon.
"Hey," he announced, "I already know the score. You're just going to have to cut me in now."
Raymont leaned over Joe's shoulder, picking his own nose with a very long pointed knife. "There's a remedy for knowing too much, you know," he put his face right into Grange's.
Rather than coming to Joe's rescue, Dicey just disappeared back into the back room. Solo smirked with bruised lips. Her protection didn't run very far it seemed. Joe looked around him. All eyes watched his every movement and no one was smiling.
Tesse cleared her throat. "Maybe we'd better tell what we've found and make our plans."
"O.K.," Solo agreed, "But after that, I still want to get to know our new `friend' here." He laid a heavy hand on Joe's shoulder. Joe tried to swallow but the lump in his throat wouldn't go down.

Back to Space Master Page

Back to Main Page