The Token by Kevin Bird (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

clear to everyone how good this meat was based on how silent everyone was; they were too intent on eating for conversation.
As Drake leaned back in his chair wiping the grease from his mouth a man rushed up to him and whispered into his ear. The man had been left behind in his ship to monitor the radio and was clearly agitated. Drake stood and told Taren to follow him.
“I’ll be back momentarily,” he told the bemused crowd in front of him. “Please, get on with your food.” He turned and walked quickly towards the ship, followed by his second-in-command.
“What is it, captain?”
“Taren, we just got a call from Bern and he says they’re in trouble.” They ran up the ramp into their ship and straight to the bridge. “Play it back to us.” The man who had come to get them hit a switch and a frightened voice came over the speakers.
“Captain, this is Bern. We need your help! I’m transmitting our co-ordinates along with this message and I hope you get them in time.” Drake looked over at Taren who was looking at a display.
“Got their position, Captain.”
Bern was continuing, “We got into a bit of trouble with the group we were supposed to be trading with after you’d taken the Collector vessel. We met with them at the pre-arranged rendezvous point and everything looked fine till they started to demand more of the weapons for less of their information on Collector and Supplier movements. I told them you’d made it clear to them what the conditions of the trade were to be, and I was there just to complete the transaction. The trader threatened to contact the Collectors and tell them who had taken their ship if we didn’t go along with the new arrangement. I told him I couldn’t make those decisions on your behalf. He said that since you should have the weapons by now that you should come out here in person and you can re-negotiate with him. I said I’d pass on your answer when I hear from you, so both our ships are just going to wait for your reply.”
Drake was angry and banged his fist down on the armrest of his bridge chair. “Damn them cheating traders! I thought we were bad! They put us to shame. Taren, what do you think?”
“Captain, I don’t see that we have much choice in the matter. If we cancel the deal with the trader, he might go through with his threat to bring the Collectors to this sector. Though the traders don’t know where our planet is, they know enough to at least get people looking in the right area. If we go out there you might be able to come up with a new agreement.” Taren didn’t sound so sure of his own advice.
Drake squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger in thought. “One option you didn’t mention, Taren, is we could just get rid of these traders and find someone else for our information. I don’t think they’d expect that response from us since they know we usually need up-to-date intelligence and they’ve done well for us in the past. What they don’t seem to understand is with everything on Cargo 1, we won’t need to be out and about putting ourselves in situations where we’ll need their kind of information for quite some time. By the time we need any, we can always find someone new.” He had a small smile on his face that Taren recognized as similar to that of a prizefighter when he knows his opponent is weakening.
“Get the men. Let’s get this over with now.”
“Aye, sir.” Taren left the ship and returned in a few minutes with about twenty disgruntled pirates, upset their party had been cut short.


Twenty Seven

A loud boom followed by a high pitched scream eradicated the sunny afternoon calm. Bettine, out in the pens feeding a group of greens, instinctively ran for the cover of a tree in the center of the animals. Only then did she crane her neck upward towards the blue sky, to where she felt sure the noise had come from. She was scared out of her wits and was angry with herself for it, since she could find no reason to be so scared. As she continued to scan the sky she saw her mother run out of the house towards the pen.
“Bettine! Bettine, where are you?” Bella’s voice was high, close to panicking.
“Mum, I’m over here.” Her voice was shaky. She stepped from behind the tree and ran through the gate, closed it behind her, and leapt into her outstretched arms.
Suddenly the screeching stopped and a black shadow passed quickly over their heads. They both looked up in time to see a large dark shape break into a cloud high above them before disappearing again.
“I think it was a ship,” Bettine’s fear flowed away and her voice lost it’s tremor as soon as she knew what had made the noise. Now she was only wary. Since the man of the farm had now left them she knew that she and her mother would have to create a strong front and work together helping each other through the coming days. “Let’s go back to the house till we know what’s going on.” She took her mother’s arm and they both walked into the kitchen. There they both pushed their faces up to the window and tried to catch another glimpse.
Out of the white clouds above the open field to their left dropped a black and angular shape. At the last moment before it impacted with the ground part of it swiveled, and a massive blast of flame shot downward. Its descent was slowed and it landed gently in a cloud of dust.
“Who could it be, mum?” Bettine sounded concerned but not frightened.
“I can see two men getting out and they’re coming this way.” A movement to her left prompted Bella to turn her gaze from the ship and the two figures. Relief washed over her at the sight of Blake walking across their yard towards them.
“I heard the noise and then saw the ship head your way so I thought you might not mind if I joined you in finding out what they want.” He reached over and gently squeezed Bella’s shoulder as he came through the doorway.
“Stay here, Bettine. Blake and I’ll go out and see what they want.”
“No way, mum.” Bettine looked up at Bella giving no sign of weakness.
Bella just shook her head and said, “Wait here”, then walked out of the kitchen without looking back.
They all headed up the hill side by side and they could see ahead of them the two strangers were walking on an intercept; in a moment all four of them were standing in front of one another.
The new arrivals were dressed in tight suits designed for the cramped quarters found in a ship this small, it was obviously a fighter, not any kind of a transport ship. However, they were not dressed in any kind of a military uniform. Most importantly to the farmers, the men were not carrying weapons and did not look aggressive at all.
The taller of the two spoke first. “Are you Clayton?” His question was aimed at Blake.
“No, my name is Blake. I don’t know anyone named Clayton and this is a small community,” Blake was confused.
“Clayton isn’t one of you farmers. He’s a Lieutenant for the Collectors and we were sent to pick him up. He was supposed to be dropped here by a pirate ship captained by a man named Drake.” It seemed that this man was also confused. “He should have been here by now.”
The other man spoke up, “Marshall’ll be plenty angry if anything happened to Clayton. He’ll want…”
Blake, on hearing the name, broke in, “Marshall? You were sent here by Marshall? Did he tell you if Clayton would be the only one brought here by the pirates?” Blake suddenly felt very hopeful that things would be cleared up.
“I’m sorry, Blake, but he never mentioned anyone else, and we’ve no way of contacting him to find out, as he’s cut communications with everyone for a time; not sure why. I just work for him and do what I’m told. I wish I could help.” He sounded sincere.
A silence dropped over the small group as they realized they didn’t know what to do next. The decision was made for them a second later. Bella came running up the hill waving her arms. They were both shouting and waving their arms. As they got closer the men could finally make out what they were saying, “You left the radio behind. It’s dad!”


Twenty Eight

The image went through each mind simultaneously. Family, nurturing, food, dark skies, and most of all, freedom. It would seem that all were ready, the time was here. No other signals had come from outside their hosts as they instinctively expected, but they could not wait any longer. As one they began to claw their way out.

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When the ship broke out of shift, Drake could immediately see the two vessels ahead of him almost nose to nose. On the left, was his second ship and on the right, a bigger and oddly shaped trader vessel. The latter was built to be both fast yet large enough to carry a wide range of cargoes and so was very boxy with its monstrous holds and enormous engines.
Immediately, a signal was sent to the captain of the second pirate ship to back off fast and to open fire on the trader at the same time. The decision not to negotiate had been made during the shift period.
Drake’s ship fired first as Bern was receiving the message, so it was only the blink of an eye before the second blast hit the unprepared trader. The ship was rocked; and one of its engines was shredded, bursting into a spray of white-hot particles. Clearly the trader captain had relied on the past importance of his intelligence to the pirates and had expected that with a little negotiation he could improve the deal in his favor. The appearance of the pirates and their firing without a word was entirely unexpected.
Surprised but not out of action, the trader ship quickly returned fire on Drake’s smaller and faster vessel. A glancing blow hit along one side of the ship as Drake maneuvered head on to the trader, presenting a smaller target. By now several blasts had hit the boxy ship and it was clearly being overwhelmed.
When one of the pirate ships turned to evade the shots from the larger vessel, it allowed the second to come from a different angle scoring a hit. The pirates were excellent at taking a prize by using superior numbers and tactics against a larger foe. Like a pack of carnivores closing in for the kill on a wounded prey animal, they both fired at vital sections simultaneously, and the trader vessel disappeared from sight in a blaze of light and a spattering of small metal pieces against the shields of the pirate vessels. They had been damaged but not dangerously so, and now the fighting was over.
“Thanks, captain,” the voice came over the radio and was clearly jubilant. “They were getting real antsy, and were ready to just leave and talk to the Collectors.”
“You’re welcome, Bern. They won’t be talking to anyone now! Let’s head for home and you can have some fresh meat, too.”
“Your trip to take the Collector cargo vessel was a success then?”
Drake was proud of