October 17, 2517
BOOM!
The thunderous explosion reverberated across the compound as the heavy iron gates of the Mission at Mission Hill were blown off their hinges, each reinforced door scything through the air, cartwheeling across the courtyard, throwing off bits of rusted shrapnel each time they impacted on the hard dirt surface.
One section of gate came to rest at the foot of the entrance of the white-bricked church, its vine-wrapped steeple standing defiantly against the blue sky. There were several outbuildings on either side of the church, and the compound, enclosed by a high stucco-covered wall, contained a few gnarled willow trees, their branches hissing in the wind.
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The star field surrounding Desdemona twinkled and shimmered as the space yacht continued to take sensor readings in search of Shenmue’s lost shuttle.
Worth and the Doc chose to confer with Jonah, who was still flat on his back but very much on the mend, in the ship’s infirmary, while they awaited Shenmue’s arrival. Worth rigged the ship’s comm system so they could converse with YJ and Wild Sky.
“I’m thinking, if I were them, and I’m stuck there, I would be ‘we’ve got this amount of time left, which gives us enough time to get to the closest planet…’” Jonah said from his infirmary bed once Worth explained the situation to him.
“Maybe they panicked.” YJ said over the ship’s comm.
“And there’d be a now or never moment where if we don’t leave now we’re not making it,” Jonah said. “And we told them we were coming back, but for all they know we got shot up, or in prison.”
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Desdemona and Shenmue continued their speedy departure from Santo.
Doc Tulsa retrieved a stretcher from Desdemona’s well-outfitted medical bay and with Worth’s assistance got Jonah extricated from his blood-soaked pilot’s chair. They wheeled Jonah to the infirmary.
Shenmue received a wave from Wesley Ferris:
Mr. McKittrick congratulates you on your acquisition. You are instructed to deliver the item to Sherrod & Sons Repair Dock on Bedford Island, New Melbourne at your earliest convenience. Contact details are appended to this message. Please give Sherrod & Sons advance warning of your arrival, and, as always, please exercise discretion in the discharge of your duties.
Sincerely,
Wesley Ferris, Esq.
“Okay then,” YJ said. “So we have our destination.”
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Desdemona and Shenmue streaked away from Santo, engines straining as they fought to escape the planet’s gravity well. They were followed by three attack bug fighter craft, engines flaring blue-white as they attempted to catch up.
Worth continued to extract Desdemona’s pulse beacon from its recessed housing deep in the guts of the luxury yacht, surrounded by shiny Newtech control systems that weren’t just top of the line, they were above the line.
Doc Tulsa remained in the corridor, cleaning up the spilled narcotics from the wine cask.
Jonah rode the wave of numbness pulsating from his midsection and fought to keep his head clear as his hands played across Desdemona’s slick control surfaces. He could tell from the power levels and throttle settings that Desdemona was a fast ship – certainly the fastest he’d ever flown. He was reasonably confident that she would be able to outrun the attack bugs if need be. He fed more power to the ship’s thrusters and easily pulled ahead of the approaching craft.
YJ gritted his teeth as he watched the streamlined space yacht slip ahead of his decidedly lower-performance vessel. He played with the idea of going for hard burn, but he hadn’t even decided on a course heading.
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Jonah sagged back in the pilot’s acceleration chair and passed out, blood running from his mouth, as Worth and Doc Tulsa made their way to the bridge.
Worth holstered his pistol, a look of concern on his face. Jonah was their ticket offworld, and he definitely did not look to be spaceworthy at the moment. He was slumped in the pilot’s chair, his head lolling, as a nasty-looking knife wound along his abdomen oozed blood.
“I got this,” Doc Tulsa said as he shouldered past Worth, ignoring the nearly headless corpse on the floor as he rushed to the side of his wounded crewmate. He was already rummaging through his pockets to find a spare painkiller ampule. He estimated the correct dose and slapped the derm to Jonah’s arm.
Jonah’s bloodstream was hit by a speedballing freight train of endorphin. He sat upright, ignoring the gash in his side. “I’m okay!” he slurred confidently. “Let’s start preflight!” His fingers played across the glass control interface, leaving bloody smears in their wake.
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The crewmembers cooled their heels at their budget lodgings in Capital City, waiting for Declan Jenner to send for them. In the meantime, Shenmue had been transferred to a nearby repair dock courtesy of Tao Barker, who had also dispatched a bevy of licensed mechanics to give the freighter a thorough overhaul.
Wild Sky had let the repair crew on board, but kept out of their way as best she could. She was feeling quite a bit better. Her headache persisted, but her battered body was feeling less stiff and sore by the hour.
One day turned into two.
“Why don’t we get back to Jenner instead of waiting?” YJ said.
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“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Jonah said to his crewmates. “We go to Baron Otello and somehow get him to think that we’re Federal Marshals, and we suspect one of the members of Desdemona’s crew has been engaged in smuggling. We tell him we don’t want to attract any media attention, and that we don’t want to cause his operation any trouble, and if there’s a way we can have some plainclothes officers just go quietly to the ship, bring some investigation equipment with them, gather some evidence, and then leave, and oh yes, if he doesn’t mind calling ahead to the ship so there’s no confusion, then we’ll just pop in, take care of our business, and pop out.” He smiled. “Nobody needs to know about it, and there will be no media attention, and no scandal if he co-operates. And we, well we’re here to let him know because we figured that courtesy dictated that we let him know what’s going on before his yacht gets raided publicly.”
YJ smiled. “I think that’s a good plan. We just need to sell it.”
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Shenmue left the chaotic clouds of Branson’s Mark behind as YJ guided her through the upper atmosphere.
“I thought we’d never get off that rock,” Worth grumbled. “How is it that three days felt like eight months?”
No one had an answer.
The crew set about their various tasks as Branson’s Mark receded behind the ship until it was a slightly brighter speck of light than the other specks of light in the Black. Worth stationed himself in the engine room, trying to get a handle on the various issues plaguing the beleaguered transport. After examining Wild Sky’s charts, Doc Tulsa decreed that she could be moved to her personal quarters, freeing up both the passenger dorms and the infirmary. Jonah assisted the Doc in moving Wild Sky, strapped onto a stretcher, up the stairs and down the ladder (a tricky set of maneuvers, that) where they transferred her to her own bed. Worth and Jonah had quickly set her quarters back to right after having ransacked it twice, but their ability to fold clothes was inadequate to say the least – sleeves and pant legs trailed from overstuffed dresser drawers, and the door to her wardrobe hung askew. They couldn’t get the tatami mats on the floor to fit right, and now they were overlapping and dog-eared.
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The next morning, the crew convened in Shenmue’s common area to plan their next move.
“Let’s prioritize,” Worth said.
“We’re already here,” Jonah said. “Right?”
“How did I know you were going to say that?” the mechanic replied.
“Yeah, the situation’s pretty clear,” YJ said. “We’re going to leave Shenmue here, we’re going to get to the island and see what we can find, so in case we don’t repossess this fantastic yacht, we have something to pay for repairs.”
“Makes sense to me,” Worth said. “We’re still looking at a hefty repair bill, even with the stuff we salvaged from Haruna.”
“So we grab the stuff from the island, fly to Osiris, repossess the Desdemona, leave Shenmue on Osiris for some extended maintenance, and get her completely fixed up, using the stuff we grabbed from the island.” Jonah said.
“Yeah,” nodded YJ.
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