Kara King & The Beyonders: The Nightwind Glyder Heist

Kara King and The Beyonders:

The Nightwind Glider Heist

Chapter Eleven:

Relic

Time to Supernova: 3h 13m

Kara King

The crew banded together to remove the bodies from sight as quickly as possible. They pulled them into the hallway and the duranium doors slammed behind before the crowds returned.

A voice came on over the intercoms. It was Kara’s father, Councilor King. “Ladies and Gentlemen. Please remain calm. We have discovered a slight malfunction with out main generators, but backups have come online. All your choice amenities are now available again. Please return to the festivities.”

The main comms faded out then chirped but only in the back hallways and service areas. “All employees must return to their stations. Our camera systems are down for some reason, so we’ll need you to tap your id card once more. Don’t worry about pay, The Imperium will compensate you accordingly. If we do not register another signal from your id card, then you will be summarily processed as unauthorized refugees and we’ll ship you off to the nearest backwater planet. Get to work!”

Kara’s crew looked at her as they finished piling the bodies into a housekeeping closet just before the lift. “Yeah, one day. He’ll get what’s coming to him but that’s not on us. Not this time anyway.”

Sagita led the crew to the lift. “And we’re sure this won’t notify him or any of the other security people on watch?”

Gamlok shook his head. “Zee took care of the door sensors and some key camera points. I’d guess this is one.”

“We’re banking on a guess?”

Kara chimed in, “When it comes to Zee, yeah. He thinks of everything. I’ll give it to him.”

Sagita still wasn’t sold entirely but she trusted Kara and hailed the elevator. It came quickly. She felt the tips of her fingers rest at her side ready to draw her sidearm in a moment’s notice. She looked back and everyone was in a similar position, all save for WHR4 who had little to no offensive capabilities.

The door wooshed open revealing a wide and empty room. It was large enough for all of them to pile in and still feel comfortable. When they did, Gita looked at the buttons on the wall. There were only three. Up, Down, and an emergency stop switch. “Are we sure we don’t want to leave anyone down here?”

“I agree, we never got a chance to put me up in a security room.” He turned to Gamlok, “Is it worth going back. We’ve got the time.”

Gamlok looked at Kara. “They staff them pretty heavily and we can’t use the same room Zee is in. He’d need me to stay, in case he had to make a violent escape.”

Kara did an assessment of the would-be group if Gamlok and Canis left. “We’ll give you fifteen and then we’re going up.” The Morae nodded and left with Canis. “Better safe than sorry.”

Several Minutes Later

The lift was moving up at an alarming pace. Sagita looked over at Kara and WHR4. “We could have used someone like Canis up here. I’m not questioning the choice. Just giving commentary.”

“We’ll just have to split up and take a closer look around.” Kara said definitively.

WHR4’s mechanical voice filled the room with a cadence that could easily be perceived as condescending. “Perhaps you should both bring any items of note to my attention as I could verify them with access to the files sent to us by our benefactor.”

Jus the elusive mention of The Fade made both women go silent. ‘

A repeating beep in everyone’s comms preceded Canis’ voice. “Oracle has eyes on both you and the room. You’re good.”

The door rushed open revealing a massive suite. The room was bigger than anything most of them had seen. Most starliner rooms were small and compact but this looked just like a Downtown Neradiil luxury apartment. It was filled with priceless art pieces and relics all around the room just like a mob boss’ home might look. Immediately in front of the elevator was a social room in a recessed floor space. There were two levels to his suite with kitchen space on the first floor to the right, a den on the first floor to the left, bathrooms, and bedroom upstairs, and behind the staircases on either side of the living space was a small library of sorts.

“I suggest we split up and look for this as quickly as possible.” WHR4 looked around the space in a quick glance. “Based on the layout of this suite I would suggest that I take the second level while you split the first floor among yourselves. I can cover more ground a bit faster this way. If communications are jammed and we are set upon by newcomers, you could hide in the den or library while I draw their attention. When they come for me, the two of you could escape.”

“That’s thoughtful Whirr. Good plan but it won’t come to that in the end. Gita, you take the front rooms. I’ll look around the living room space, the artifacts on the walls, and that library space behind the stairs.” The party broke off with Kara’s command.

The living room looked largely untouched. Large couches in the floorspace made for a cozy round of sorts to ensure no one in the room would be left out of the festivities. The pillows were perfectly fluffed and chopped, giving the impression the room had never been lived in. Encased in glass around the room and stairs which WHR4 was now ascending, were several unique artifacts. Relics of civilizations, some long passed. Some brand new.

In one case there was a mask with black glass where the eyes would be and tubes from the nose which would have connected to something at one point. The plaque read: “The Mask of Uorogh, Dictator of The Torus”. Kara was sure that was the guy Throck fought to liberate her planet. Another case had a fan opened wide to reveal beautifully painted symbols and people. It was labelled, “History of the Junpo Dynasty of Reyvar IV”. That world was either so old or so far from the prime systems that Kara had never heard of it.

Kara kept pacing the hallway which led back to the library. One object caught her attention over others. In a case of glass was a cleverly bundled piece of fabric. It lay so gracefully enough that you could see the finest details of its red, white, and blue, but also was left no lumps so that a small, framed photo could rest on it without sitting crooked. The photo had a faded color to it and showed a great celebration within its frame. Several beautiful people, politicians probably, were smiling and shaking hands with some sort of confetti floating in the air. The brass plating underneath read:

Formation of The European Council and The Last Union Jack to Fly

Donated by Councilor King

Kara shook her head. Her father kept doing things to solidify his place with the emperor and now he was doing it by giving away her mother’s culture. The only thing was, the colors in the flag were too vibrant in the case. There was no way it would be in such a pristine condition after hundreds of years. She also didn’t assume her father to be foolish enough to give the emperor a fake relic though. “I don’t think any of these artifacts are real! Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.” Kara was doubtful but she had to hope or their whole mission was a wash. Still, The Fade’s intelligence had never been wrong to this point and if they said the sword was here, then it should be.

Kara rounded the corner and found the small library. It had a low ceiling with a hallway on the other side which likely popped out underneath the other set of stairs, opposite of how she ended up back here. A small chaise lounge chair sat opposite a wall of books which looked largely untouched due to the layer of dust on them. In fact, there was so much dust on everything that it made just one object stand out amongst the others.

A bust of the emperor with a smug grin sat on a side table near the chair. It didn’t gleam as if polished but had a shine to it as if well used and covered in the oil from someone’s hands. Kara inspected the small piece of art, feeling around for a button. There wasn’t one but she noticed that it wouldn’t move back and forth nor could she lift it from the table. With enough force though - *Snap*.

A section of the bookcase across from the chair released some compressed air and began to slide inside the rest of the wall, revealing a dark hidden room. Kara looked back at the bust whose head looked as if it was snapped to the side. She took way too much enjoyment in that but decided to put the head back in place. “Hey guys! I’ve got something.”

Kara expected to hear her friends come to her position but instead was actually met with a different voice following two beeps. “King, this is Oracle. You’ve got incoming. Emperor and his entourage. Doesn’t look like a fight the three of you can take. Please advise.”

Kara thought quickly. She looked back at the room and the red button just on the other side of it. She moved herself into the dark space and pushed the button, sending the door into its closing movement. She responded into the comms so her entire team could hear, “Hide.”