Kara King & The Beyonders: The Nightwind Glyder Heist

Chapter Ten:

Promenade

Time to Supernova: 4h 0m

Canis Odo

The doors to the promenade of The Nightwind Glyder had long been open. This area of the ship had to be the largest space on the ship. It almost looked modeled after those twentieth and twenty-first century earth malls. Several floors with walkways on either side of a long, seemingly endless parade of stores, food vendors, and art exhibitions. In the center of the long stretch was a wide tube. An aquarium tank stretching from floor to ceiling with fish hailing from too many planets for Canis to count. Occasionally an add for a shop on the strip or a food vendor would flash across, indicating tube which appeared to be solid glass actually had some sort of display or projection function.

Canis had been waiting on the third floor with a glass in hand. People watching was a wonderful pastime of his. Security seemed a bit lower than he expected which, to be fair, meant their plan was going well. They had laid enough distractions that the emperor’s guards would be too busy looking behind them to notice they had left the path ahead less protected than they should have. Still, there was one problem.

Canis looked down several floors to a wide set of duranium doors. Beyond those doors was a hallway that led to the lift to the emperor’s suite. In front of those doors were still five guards with sleek black laze rifles. In front of them, nothing but ten paces of space. Enough for them to see anyone coming and fire.

Something else caught Canis’ eyes near that central aquarium fixture. On the first floor, between a set of shops, a small door opened. From that door a set of rough looking individuals were revealed. These were his people. Sagita looked wounded and poorly attended to. Gamlok looked rough around the edges, but then again, he always had. WHR4 was with them nearly looking as straight as ever. Close inspection would reveal electrical burns on his fingers and singes over his plating which made the tuxedo paintjob look like an old, faded suit borrowed from a family members moth-ridden closet.

Canis whistled at them, sending all eyes up to him. He nodded to a lift they should take to meet him.

On the third floor, the party sat at the Japanese style eatery and bar Canis had posted up at previously. Instead of taking one of the booths recessed into the floor however, they sat at the bar. They swiveled on their seats so that they faced the promenade each with their own beverage.

“So, any ideas,” Gamlok asked.

Sagita suggested, “wait for a shift change?”

Canis looked at his timekeeper. “Not unless its within the next three hour.” They were all quiet for a moment. Canis turned around to order another drink. The entire bar was a small izakaya restaurant with ten seats total at its u-shaped bar. Behind the bar was a small well and workspace but the food was prepared on a small metal table in a kitchen behind a curtained off doorway.

“What if we-” WHR4 was cut off by what sounded like an explosion in the distance. The lights instantly went out then began to flicker. The central tube became covered in televised static, making it useless as an aquarium. The Promenade was filled with an ear-splitting whistle at first that settled into just an annoyingly loud buzz.

“Looks like were out of time.” Gita got up and ran towards the lift instinctively but that failed to function properly during the technical outage. They could see some people running around frantically on every floor until a klaxon went off from a handheld vocal projector. A voice followed.

“Please remain calm! We are working to get power back momentarily. Please enjoy the free drinks at your nearest bar.”

Canis had a small stroke of genius. He ran over to the already nearly abandoned Japanese bar. “Come on! We have to get out of here!” He urged the attendant, but they looked more confused than afraid. A parade of people went by Canis and his allies in the walkway. “You heard that explosion! We have to get to the escape pods and our ships. Come on!”

The urging finally moved the attendant to throw down their apron. They ran off with Canis who only stayed with the bartender until they got into a crowed rushing for one end of the ship. Canis dropped to a jog, then a walk, then turned around when he was sure the attendant was caught up in the pack mentality and forgot Canis’ face in the excitement.

Canis moved past the group and hopped over the bar. “That just felt like a way of getting free drinks with extra steps,” Gamlok noted now pointing at the empty bar.

Canis turned around to face the group from where the bartender once stood. His line of sight just missed it. He turned around and tore the curtain covering the doorway down. Cleared the metal table just beyond and looked past the group over the railing and down at the doorway they’d been spying on.

Gita nodded. “I’m smelling what you’re stepping in.”

“I’m fairly certain that’s not a phrase but at least you understand.” Canis traded places with Gita and motioned for Gamlok and WHR4 to follow him. They found the stairs down to the first floor. There were only signs of a crowd once being there. Still, around the corner there was the nearly imperceptible sound of feet shuffling as if someone were resituating a stance, maintaining position but getting comfortable.

Canis raised a hand to stop his allies. He took a few steps away and commed Gita. “Can you see us.”

“Just barely catching the shine from Gamlok’s head but full visibility of hallway.”

Canis was thankful the sound of her voice was coming from inside his own head due to the implant. Traditional comms wouldn’t have worked over the static. “How many?”

“Still five.”

“Right. Well. Let’s go with ‘Danger’.”

“Heard.”

Canis came around the corner facing the guards. Gita could quickly see through the scope of Singularity that he threw his hands up to show innocence. An obviously hidden weapon behind him would indicate otherwise, but the guards couldn’t see that.

“No please! I’m just looking for a safe place. The-”

The guards raised their guns.

“No its just that the mob went that way and-” a plasma bolt seared the ground near his feet. Clearly a warning shot. Canis dropped his hands and looked offended. “Danger.”

Two shots in rapid succession took out the guard on the far right and the one in the center that fired at Canis.

Gamlok came around the corner and wildly threw a laze knife. It missed the guard on the left but another shot from Gita took out another guard and it gave Canis enough time to pull out his pistol. He fired a round into the chest of the distracted guard. One guard remained but he didn’t quaver or attempt to run. No, he firmly placed a shot in Canis. The Aranaki spun to the ground.

Gamlok kept moving like a train and tackled the guard to the ground. They began to send a message out, but the Morae hammered his fists into the guards helmets like a primal monkey trying to crack a coconut. The glass face shield of the helmet broke. Then everything behind that broke in a mess of glass and blood.

“I’m on my way,” Gita messaged.

WHR4 approached Canis and flipped him over. His tunic was burned and then sealed with a hot slag that stuck to his skin at his hip. “The shot is cooling. We have to pull it now, or it will cause much more pain later to remove.”

Canis groaned and then yelled, “Just do it!”

Gamlok rushed over and straddled Canis in a half guard position, leaving the wounded hip open for WHR4 to operate. The droid opened the tip of its finger to reveal a surgical laser. Canis writhed underneath Gamlok but WHR4 kept at it, pealing away the slag like a pancake sized scab.

By the time Gita made it down to them, the procedure was done, and Canis was now digging his fingers into Gamlok’s arm as an antiseptic spray was applied to the wound. They stood him up but he was too weak to move on his own. WHR4 moved with him as a crutch closer to the door when they all heard their comms beep.

“Fixer, this is Crown. We’re good.” She sounded out of breath. The duranium doors that led to the emperor’s lift opened with a woosh and Kara was behind it. She looked wet in a sweaty, sticky kind of way with a thin glisten to her skin.

The static disappeared and the art displays returned to their normal advertising or clear glass display. Kara looked at the aftermath of the scuffle. “Let’s get these guys put away back here and press on, yeah?”

The group looked around and then at Canis who nodded. If he could press on, then they certainly would. Beyond that elevator ahead should be the room which kept the artifact they came for. They were so close. Gita looked at the clock on her sundrytech. Just over three hours until nova. They could do it, but they were officially calling it close at this point.