By David C. Daoust
Hugo did what he could to keep the children clear of the gruff men that now marched through the Rovers’ corridors. They were thugs, one and all, and they acted as though they owned the place. The Captain that led them, Dutch, actually scared the old Jinn. Hugo did what he could to keep from shaking; gripped his cane a bit tighter than ever before. The lizard-man knew his eyes were a size wider -and unblinking- but doubted anyone would notice considering his fairly unique visage.
The thugs did not like that they were unable to communicate with the Rover over the comms. And really it was starting to make less and less sense to Hugo as well, considering they were able to communicate amongst themselves… though he supposed that was because the mechas were rigged through the local server the game was on– Maybe?
Apparently, the thugs had tried to hail them, tried to communicate with the Rover… found the silence hostile, and instead took the whole vehicle into the Heavy Freighter’s massive hold. Around the time the rover was being winched into the much larger ship, Hugo started hiding the children. Soon after, he hid the old couple, then the bots…
It did not take them long to hack the hold’s locks– the thugs invaded… found nothing but the Old Jinn sitting on the bridge.
The Captain of the Dirty Damsel had questions. Questions about the ‘Battle Drones’, which would be what the hidden crew of the Rover had come to call ‘Spider-mechas’. He had had questions about how these drones came to be scattered across the moon, rather than tucked safely within the hold of the nearby light freighter, half-buried in the dunes outside. But most of all he had questions about where the pilot of that ship may be.
“Colin didn’t just give you access to the hold,” Dutch stated. “Someone cut into it. Someone broke in.”
The Old Jinn’s scaly old lips seemed to tighten and scrunch around as he mauled the best possible answer.
The truth was easiest…
“It wasn’t me,” Hugo rumbled out of his famous vocal cords, “Truth be told, I don’t know how they got into the ship to start with. And I’m not sure who, exactly, did the deed… All I know is that these drones wrecked the nearby settlement of Grady… and were now roaming the moon like scavengers…”
“Scavengers like you?” Dutch pressed, “Like the rest of your Crew. Come on—I know you’re not out here alone. You can’t run this thing by yourself…”
“That’s not actually true,” the Old Jinn gestured to the Battle Drone sprawled through the bridge, “Once it spliced into the system…”
“Bullshit,” Dutch took an angry step forward, threateningly, “Think I can’t tell when I’m being lied to? Who’s all on this vehicle… where are they? What else are you hiding?”
Hugo’s heart skipped a beat. He knew if he was not protecting others, he may have spilled everything he knew, then and there—and that was just in reaction to a step forward. When the old thug grabbed him by the neck and lifted him in his chair, constricting his throat, he thought he may die. Hugo was too old for this. His heart raced as his mind stumbled over anything… Margo had mentioned a Colin, mentioned Colin on a number of occasions! Claiming he would be out of his mind trying to find her. All so he could return her ‘real form’, this all stopped when she got access to the Sun Particles in the hold… but before that, it was all she would talk about.
“The Red Faction,” Hugo sputtered out, gasping for breath, “Colin was taken aboard the Red Faction ship before they fled the moon!”
It was true, whether it was the same Colin, Hugo could not say.
Dutch released him, let him drop back into his chair.
“The Red Faction’s proving to be a thorn in my side,” the old thug muttered to himself, “You met Colin? You witnessed this?”
“No, I mean, I heard a Colin got taken by the Reds,” Hugo felt a bit ashamed that he said anything, he found himself backtracking now that he was out of the man’s grip, “Look, I don’t even know if it’s the same Colin…”
“I believe you,” Dutch stopped him, simply, as he walked off the bridge, leaving the old Jinn to try and get his bearings; try to get his breathing back to normal, his pulse to stop racing.
“Turn this thing out,” Hugo heard Dutch command his men in the corridor, “There’s more here than just this retired Troubadour. Find them. I want to know what they know!”
It was around the time a series of concussive blasts rocked, not only the Rover, but the entire ship that enveloped it, that Hugo started to wonder what the rest of the crew was actually doing.
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