“Coming up on the spaceport, master.” B4 replied.
“Right.” Ax straightened. She leveled out the Curious Maiden and brought her between the running lights for approach. “Landing gear down.” The ship pivoted around lowering its landing feet. With precision Ax brought the ship down to rest with an easy thud. Howard sat behind the two chairs watching what was happening. He started to sweat and cough at the approach.
“What’s wrong? Getting cold feet for this dangerous mission?” Ax looked back.
“No! Of course not, I’ll go through with it. We just need to be as discreet as possible. This place may be a garden spot in the galaxy, but there are still killers here.” Howard gulped.
“I’m one of them. You just keep your mouth shut; let me do the talking so you don’t end up like Daren Nevil. I wouldn’t want to explain that.” Ax ended her discussion by pulling down the lock clamps for her ship. “B4 stay aboard. In case of trouble I’ll tap my wrist communicator and you’ll find us on the locater. Any questions?”
“Yes, how will I know you are done?” B4 asked.
“We’ll come back.” Howard spoke up.
“I’ll be back; Howard will be getting transport elsewhere, not with me.” Ax laughed deeply through the helmet. She disengaged the safety on the exit and the hatch lowered to the ground. A rush of forest wind came through the ship and she could smell the indigenous trees, their saplings and the type of leaves. She got up and started to the exit. On her way she grabbed her most concealable weapon, the flame thrower and concealed it in one of her side pockets of her pants.
Howard followed sheepishly; he seemed nervous and distraught over being on Elis Prime. Ax thought it odd; his nervousness didn’t seem like his character, a cold, hard killer. He showed no remorse in killing Daren Nevil and yet here he was a coward. Ax kept her eyes on him as they walked off the ramp.
She was very careful with her identity even here on Elis Prime, she encountered others who hunted bounty hunters and her name appeared more than once on different planets. She then decided at that point to conceal even her real name from some of the databases. She didn’t usually kill anyone unless the contract called for it, then she showed no remorse. It resulted in her being wanted for murder though; it wasn’t true, even the police of the planet had wanted the man dead. The charge was bogus of course, trumped up by officials who knew the case. It didn’t matter now; she was away from that planet, seven years away. By now she hoped people would forget her mistake.
She walked out onto the tarmac and breathed in the crisp air through her filtered mask. She looked out to the city and could see different species of alien crossing the busy streets. A group of aliens with highly pronounced foreheads came closer to her and her passenger/hostage.
“Here’s our welcome committee.” Ax muttered under her breath. She tried to appear taller as the aliens drew closer.
“Markis Cordly, It’s been awhile since we have seen your ship. Are you making deliveries to the outer rim territories?” The first grey alien asked. He was cloaked in an auburn robe, his head was shaved exposing his four tendril hairs making his long ears stand out from his head.
“Greetings, I’m just delivering this man Howard Joneson, he has business here. I merely want supplies and fuel. Are you still working with dura-plates?” Ax bowed down to the towering alien. She figured she needed to get in the good graces so she could get off planet without a hitch, although blowing up an electro-chemical planet was not the ideal quiet exit.
“Yes, we still use the valuable metal. You are welcome to stay as long as you need to.” The grey alien bowed and glared at Howard as he left. Once the aliens were out of view, Ax turned to Howard.
“I want you to find the location of the main plant. Do that and I’ll do the rest. I expect a full compensation for the trouble I’m going through. Any questions?”
“Yeah, where do I meet you?” Howard asked slyly.
“Meet me? No, no, no we’re together on this. You are not going to be out of my sight at all. If you pull anything I need to know about it. You are not going to run off and set me up for failure. You got that?” Ax glared at the man she was forced to accompany.
Howard gulped for a moment and then stared into the black visor of the breathing mask. “I understand, but what can I do right now to pull that off?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, I’ll show you our mainframe computer and you can hack into the central processing core of your organization. You still have access, of course you do. Once you have established where it is we’ll procure some transportation to our location and be dropped off. B4 then will pick us up when we have successfully delivered an implosion bomb. Come on let’s go get you into that system.” Ax finished as she escorted Howard back aboard her ship.
Inside she pushed Howard toward the mainframe in the lower bowels of her ship. She made sure he didn’t venture toward the front of the ship where her quarters were. B4 was in constant communication with Ax. As she explained the intricacies of her system, B4 related the information that Ax had requested.
“According to planetary scans there are large concentrations of electro-chemical energy in fifteen to twenty facilities across the planet. One signal stands stronger than all the other ones. It is located twenty miles from our present location. Its energy output is at least three to four cities strong. This is very strange, there are no other energy sources going to the building. Whatever that complex is, it is generating an enormous amount of power. What makes it more difficult to annihilate is the planet defense system, anything unauthorized gets shot down and then they are hunted to the source. I just thought you would like to know where we stand even though you have already chosen your path. I will await your call for when you arrive outside the facility. I am now transferring the coordinates directly to your visual display.
You can access it through your wrist computer and draw up the map to where you are going and even how to get in. I hope I have been of help.”
Acting like she hadn’t heard a word of what B4 said she continued to guide Howard to the Ecological Cleansers program. Howard shifted under her watchful eye and then went to work imputing his data to lead him to the direct blueprints of the facility they were going to. Ax smiled underneath her helmet. ‘This was what I wanted in the first place.’ She thought to herself.
“Ax Darnell, this is your information you will want. I don’t want to be seen at that facility. I don’t have access into the building, I’m not important enough.” Howard stuttered.
To Be Continued...
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