Blade Witch: A Science Fiction Holiday Novella by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2019-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Eric strode onto the bridge with the sort of controlled violence he usually reserved for training bouts in the gym. The frown tugging at his mouth promised trouble. “Bandits.”

“We know!” Kid shouted. The AI was a tad excited. Martha had executed stage one of her bandit-deterrence plan. Kid loved it.

“I’m sorry,” Eric said. “I underestimated my family. Or overestimated their sense of decency.”

Martha kicked back with her boots on the edge of the console panel. “Keep clenching your jaw like that and you’ll crack your teeth.”

“I’d like to crack my cousin’s troll-thick skull. Did you ever question why the Cobweb was so affordable?”

So slowly as to be ominous, the Blade Witch lowered her feet to the floor. “Go on.” It was one thing for the Runestricken family to play with Eric’s fate. However, altering hers would cost them, especially since she’d assumed responsibility for a juvenile AI’s future. No one threatened Kid.

“My cousin Bjorn trades on Messine. What I didn’t know is that he is a part-owner of the spacedock junkyard there. When he heard of your interest in the Cobweb and your destination—Lyonesse for Thanksbee—he gambled on you. Apparently, he is involved in some discreet antiquities smuggling.”

“What the star hells did he put on my ship?”

“No illegal antiquities,” Eric said hurriedly. “He inserted a key into the frame of an air filter.”

Martha turned to check on the status of the three bandit ships onscreen. “Air filters. The one thing I installed myself. Something that had to be replaced for the journey and wouldn’t be discarded before Lyonesse. That’s why there was a delay in their arrival.”

She slapped her hand down on the console. “They used me. That’s what the general was after. A thin veneer of legality. Write off the journey as for Merchant Security, just for tax purposes,” she quoted him bitterly. “That lying sack of—”

Eric covered her mouth with his hand. “The general is still my grandfather.”

She bit his hand.

“Ow! Witch.” A smile dawned in his eyes. She hadn’t drawn blood.

She scrambled back. “This is no time for games.”

He glanced at the screen. Another bandit ship had appeared. “Sadly. The key is believed to open a Zhiren asteroid tomb discovered five years ago.”

“Tomb raiders! Your cousin sent tomb raiders after my ship?”

Eric watched her hands. Blades had appeared in them. “Don’t stab the messenger, sweetheart.”

“I am not your sweetheart.” Every word was vicious. Every word believable. Whatever indulgence she’d granted to Eric’s flirtation died.

Under his breath he cursed his cousin.

“What are tomb raiders?” Kid demanded.

“Tian.” Martha breathed the name as she analyzed the situation. “From Lyonesse it’s a straight run to the Zhirens’ ancestral planet of Tian. At Lyonesse your cousin would have had someone break into the Cobweb and retrieve the key, then courier it on to Tian, and then, to the asteroid.”

“My family knew I’d insist on staying with you, so they kept the information from me until now.”

“Until the bandits are on our tail,” Noah said. “Dude, your family are guano.”

Kid had a contribution.

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