Free Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance by Ronald Wintrick Page A

tirade. I didn’t bother looking down which would have been as good as saying I thought the potential for betraying evidence existed. I would never betray myself in such a manner no matter what my laundry schedule looked like.
    “I wash my clothes.” I said, though it was possible I had been wearing the same for a few days. Drinking Old Home bourbon, watching old movies and eating recycled protein mush- in whatever delicious flavor you like- had been my sole occupation for a while now though I’d been expecting this sooner rather than later. “What do you want?”
    “It’s been over a month since Bren activated the beacon.” Tanya said. “I thought I might bring this to your attention.”
    “Thanks. I’m aware.” I said. “You know I don’t spend every waking moment drunk.”
    “We’re all concerned about the state of the Alartaw,” Tanya said, “that they’re not responding to our beacon.”
    “So we plotted a course to a known Alartaw world three weeks ago.” Bren said as he walked in right on cue making me wonder how many hours a day they spent rehearsing these things and plotting against me. A good many was my guess and why I spent my free days getting drunk. Bren went on; “You were seeding worlds with hidden Alartaw bases, so the rest of us have pooled our memories and have been able to deduce the locations of many of these star systems. The closest we could determine is now less than a week away. We thought you might need at least that much time to sober up.”
    “ Everyone remembers everything now?” I asked. I still couldn’t remember a thing of it but didn’t wait for a response as I turned for the hatch. The response came of its own accord in the form of the warp-proximity alarm again - but this time I ignored it as I continued on my way.
    “I’m not doing this one.” Tanya said stopping me dead in my tracks. The tone of her voice was enough. Tanya didn’t screw around when it was serious and she was already over the warp-scan imager as I turned around so I knew this one wasn’t a test of the system.
    “Who’s knocking this time?” I asked as I took the fresh cup of hot-jolt out of Bren’s hand and headed for my pilot’s seat.
    “I kinda wanted that.” Bren said. “That’s why I made it.”
    “I kinda need it.” I replied as I harnessed and gulped holt-jolt. “Who’s knocking Tanya?” I asked for the second time.
    “It’s a long way back but it doesn’t appear to be the Kievor.” She said.
    “Who does it appear to be?” I asked.
    “Doesn’t appear to be Alartaw either.” Tanya said. I didn’t ask again but when I turned to look back at her she had a strange happy look on her face I’d seen before. She finally answered as Bren got impatient and leaned over her shoulder to see for himself. “You are not going to believe it.” She said.
    “They are persistent.” Bren said to Tanya.
    “You’re kidding me.” I said.
    “Nope.” Tanya replied. “They’re a long way back and an even longer way from home but as far as I can tell there’s at least twenty of ‘em. They are persistent if nothing else.”
    “How in the hell do they keep catching up to us?” I asked.
    “You really want me to explain that?” Bren asked as he looked up from the imager.
    “Nope.” I said as I unharnessed again and turned to Tanya. “You won’t need me for anything else. You can blow them right out of warp and our troubles are over.” I was headed for the hatch but I paused to watch the expression on Tanya’s face as she opened up the cannon on the Katons behind us. It was always a revelation to witness her emotions at such times but her face fell into a little moue and she looked up at me.
    “Nope.” She said. “They’re too far back. The cannon won’t reach them. We’ll have to fight this out in person.” I gave her another measuring look and seeing it clearly in her eyes- the resolve to put the Katons off our trail forever- there was very little that objecting