The Matriarch by Frank Dravis

Author:Frank Dravis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, galactic adventure
Publisher: Six Factors Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Junko

In Orbit Above Dianis

“Junko!” The hatch hung open, and Krch stood in the opening.

“What, twik.”

“I told you not to call me that. Geezer said we’re gonna keep hanging out here until you find that cutter. There ain’t no freaking cutter out here, Junko. We’re wasting time. You said our bonus clause called for four tons in sixty days standard. We’ve already burned five days. What the stars, Junko. This is bullshit. We ain’t finding no cutter. Ain’t no IDB here. You—”

Junko pulled his plasma pistol and leveled it at the Tweeunar. Her mouth hung open. Tweeunars did not have teeth but a mouth of abrasive sucking tubes which were stone-still in the face of the blaster.

Lounging in the pilot’s chair, the mining foreman looked up from his tablet. He was on his fourth erotic romance novel in the five days they’d been hanging out on the edge of the Dianis solar system. “Don’t shoot Krch, Junk. We’ll need her dirtside.”

Junko emitted a belly-deep growl, “You sure?”

Krch’s gaze flicked to the mining foreman.

“Yea. Let her live. I know she’s a real piece of work, but we’ll just waste more time finding a replacement.”

Junko, the contract owner and proprietor of all the gear—some said junk—around them, lowered his blaster, but when the Tweeunar started to speak, the gun rose.

“Don’t, Junk, we’ll all regret it,” said the mining foreman, trying to find his place where the imprisoned princess was about to lose her clothes.

The standoff between Junko and Krch persisted.

“Aaach.” The foreman tossed the tablet on the console and climbed out of the chair. He wondered what bothered Junko more, Krch’s constant haranguing or the way her mouth tubes slurred her speech. Stomping over to the cracked holo-table, he zoomed out the grid to display the whole solar system. “Where do you think the IDB are?”

“The moon,” Junko said, not taking his eyes off the Tweeunar.

“Which one? Which moon?”

“Dianis’,” came Junko’s growl.

The foreman zoomed in on Lonely Soul and studied it for a moment. “You think they are on the dark side, waiting for us to make our move?”

“Yep.”

“A honey pot,” mused the foreman.

“Yep,” said Junko, holding his gun steady on the Tweeunar.

“They can’t watch the whole planet. Of all those sites we got in the scan data from the Intruder, there’s got to be some of them we can sneak into when the site rotates away from the moon. Contract intel has been right so far. All the IDB gear has been pulled. If there is an IDB enforcement cutter,” and his eyes shifted to Junko’s gun, “and I’m sure there is,” he said hurriedly, “then it is definitely hiding. Sneaky bastards. But that means it can only check the planet when it comes out unless it has stealth drones orbiting the planet.”

Junko holstered his gun but kept his eyes on Krch. “There’s no counter-shift barrier up, so we can shift in,”

“Their surveillance drones have to be in passive mode,” said the foreman. “Tomorrow at 11:30 AM, Dianis local, the sun will be at Noon relative to the site.

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