Zevortro

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  “That’s it! Just keep holding it steady. I’ve almost got it!” Jessie said.

  Zevortro looked at what he was carrying, and he almost threw up. They had been able to cut away the side of the container with the lock on, but that was the easy part. Before it could float away, Dalila ordered someone else to grab the other end. Once he had, Dalila told them all why, and Zevortro had almost stared in horror. On the back of the cut-off piece of the container, there were five batteries connecting to the explosives. Each battery was connected to a metal piece that the blast lock was on. Jessie explained that the batteries were what activated the explosives. The only thing to do was slowly remove the batteries from the metal plate. Then Jessie would slice through all the wire at the same time with a rifle’s blade. Something about how that was the only attachment that would grow big enough. Bryke was looking at the explosives, and he had said he could disarm the trigger portion. All he had to was slowly remove the part connected to the wires. And the best way to do that was by standing in front of the explosives, hence they were removing the batteries.

  “Okay, that’s it!” Jessie said with a grin. Slowly, he removed his hand from the battery and it floated free. “That’s it, the last one is next. How are you doing Bryke?”

  Bryke looked at the mass of explosives and nodded, a strange look on his face. “Yeah. I’m sure that these are blasting charges. And made with a recipe that I know how to neutralize. But this makes a bigger boom than you said.”

  “How much bigger?” Zevortro asked horror in his voice.

  Bryke kept looking at the explosives before looking up at him. “Oh, I would say. This is enough to crack the island down to the bedrock!”

  Zevortro felt his heart seize and he almost passed out in horror and fear. To think that he was holding the thing that might destroy the island in his hands. All he needed to do was keep calm, and hope that he wouldn’t mess this up. “Well, at least this will be fast if we fail.”

  “Don’t think about that! We’re almost done!” Jessie said as he slowly moved his hands down. Throughout the whole ordeal, he had been floating upside down. That way he could move the wires the right way, and not mess it up. It was out there, but it worked.

  Zevortro could only watch as Jessie worked and he looked at Dalila as she held the other end of the container piece. She was looking straight at Jessie as he worked, and he could admire that. She and him were the same, and she must have trusted him. But he had to admit, that he thought this was something beyond normal. There had been a time when he had wondered what it would have been like to be a Bounty Hunter when he was younger. But if this is what Hunters experience? Then he was quite happy with his chosen path!

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Jessie

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Jessie slowly removed the last locking bolt from the battery. As the other bolts floated ‘above’ him, he slowly moved the battery away from the container piece. Looking at the other batteries as they floated freely, he slowly moved his hand away from them. “Okay, now the hard part. Move that piece away now, slowly, when I say stop do it.”

  “Got it!” Dalila said softly. She nodded at Zevortro and they slowly took a step away from the main container.

  Jessie watched as each wire slowly came together. He had to be sure. He would get one strike, and then they would be dammed. That was it, he just needed to wait until…….NOW!

  Pulling off his rifle from his back, he sliced down and activated the blade. As he did, he moved the warmth he was feeling into all of his arms. As he did so, his arms became faster. In one movement, he cut each wire at the same time, as fast as the wind.

  He looked at the wire still connected to the cut-away container piece and the blast lock. He saw sparks from them, and then he chuckled. “You can stop, we’re alive!”

  The others all looked at him as he made himself able to look them in the eyes again.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Why didn’t you tell us you were doing that!?” Zevortro demanded as he and Dalila let go of the container piece.

  Jessie only looked at them and shrugged. “I needed to move fast. And that worked best if I could concentrate on this. So how long to declaw the bombs?”

  Bryke looked at him for a few moments, glaring at him. Finally, Bryke spoke. “Give me ten minutes, we can take apart the rest after. So what is this?”

  “Good question. Let me look at this,” Jessie said as he looked at the silver machine the explosives were placed on. He looked up and down, not finding a control panel on it. “The activation panel must be under the container still. We’ll remove it once you’re done.”

  “Yeah, that’s the best idea here. So get back and let me work,” Bryke said gruffly.

  “Then perhaps I can get a report?” Duncan asked from behind them all.

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Duncan

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Duncan smirked as he saw them all turn and look at him. But it was the fact that Bryke had a hand to his chest that caused Duncan to smirk. The fact that they were so caught up in this container told him how deadly this was. But still, the prankster in him was happy. “So what could we have here?”

  Jessie looked at what was revealed and Duncan saw him hesitate.

  Without a second, Duncan nodded. “With me Jessie! The rest of you stay here, and then we’ll talk to Leonator!”

  “Yes sir!” Jessie said with a sigh as he moved towards Duncan.

  Duncan didn’t wait, he just turned and walked towards the south face of the shield. He aimed at a location between that point and the east, and then he looked over his shoulder.

  Everyone looked away and went to work, and Duncan just sighed and shook his head, smiling. People never changed it seemed.

  “So what’s in there?” Duncan asked once they were

  “No idea boss, but it's illegal for sure,” Jessie said bluntly.

  Duncan winced, his mind going dark places. That was what he had thought and feared. The things stored in the escape capsule didn’t make sense. Why were the shield emitters and the computer consoles even here? And now this blast lock thing. All in all, someone in the company was dirty.

  “This is going to be a headache! So what are you hoping for? Military weapons? Drugs we can feed those Unicorn things if they come back?” Duncan asked with a grin.

  But that Grin died when Jessie only scowled.

  “No, not drugs, no way,” Jessie said bluntly.

  “And you know that how?” Duncan asked and Jessie shrugged.

  “Well, simple,” Jessie said. “They don’t transport them raw anymore. Most of the stuff out there is all synthetic. Just take a gene scan of the raw product. Then put it in a data driver and make a program so it deletes itself after a numbered usage. That way the makers make money and need to go back to their supplier. Just put it into a biomarker then see the stuff locally.”

  Duncan blinked and then he started to growl and flex his hands. That was how the criminal groups moved drugs these days. That opened up a new avenue in an old investigation. And that showed him who the culprit was. “Oh, that makes all the sense in the world! So that’s how the ship still has a drug problem! I knew that scum was lying!”

  “Wait, Chief? What do you mean?” Jessie asked fake worry in his voice.

  Duncan’s head shot to Jessie who was looking at anything but him. “You heard something about it?!”

  Jessie stayed silent and was about to say something when they ran out of time for any of that.

  “It's done! Let’s open this thing up!” Bryke voice rang out.

  Duncan looked at Jessie and scowled. “Later. I think I need to pick your brains. For now, let’s handle this.”

  Jessie nodded, his eyes clouded. Duncan turned and then scowled as he turned and walked back towards the container. If he was right, then one day, he didn’t know when or where. But one day he would have a nice long talk with that man. A talk involving his fists!

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Jessie

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Jessie nodded as he followed after Duncan. There had been a few times over the last months on the ship that he had heard whispers. Here and there, just deckhands killing time. But if he was wrong, that a biomarker was making drugs. Then someone with medical knowledge was involved. And since nanites let any being overlay instructions over Augmented Reality. Well, the maker could be anyone.

  As they reached the others, he looked at Bryke who was grinning.

  “Easily as simple as cutting blast charges back home. You'd think masterminds would make it harder!” Bryke said with a smirk.

  At those words, Jessie went still. Bryke was right, they would have made it harder. With everything he had learned as a bounty hunter about crime families, they didn't do easy. There were few if any reasons for that, and none of them were good. In fact…. “No.”

  “Jessie?” Terra asked as she put a hand on his shoulder.

  He heard her, but he didn't react. His mind was going at light speed as he made connections. No matter what he did, everything lined up.

  “We need to break this open now!” Jessie said in a rush. He moved towards the container and pulled out a pistol. As the energy blade flashed to life, Zevortro put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Hold on, what's wrong?” Zevortro asked calmly.

  “Yeah, man!” Bryke asked, his tone carrying a note of worry. “You're acting like a tractor's going to overload or something! What's going on?”

  Jessie looked at them and then gazed at Dalila. “You ever hear about the Slumber Prison Dalila?”

  “What? I'm sorry what did you say?!” Vivis asked horror in her voice. The others all stepped back, shock on their faces.

  “No! You can't mean that this is?!” Dalila demanded. When she saw the look Jessie shot her, and she swallowed. Looking down at the container, Jessie saw the shock and disgust on her face. “Well, that’s something. But this is beyond anything I ever heard of. I mean, really!? One of them, here and now!?”

  Duncan nodded. “It fits. Stars help me it fits. But there's only a small chance I'm right. I mean, what are the chances? So we need to show us what this is, now.”

  “Wait, wait! Are you saying that this is a nova damned prison cell!?” Duncan cried out, shocking the deckhands nearby.

  As Jessie nodded, Duncan looked at him and then his mouth dropped open. Then he glared at the container as Jessie cut apart one of the corners. Throwing a look at the others, he started to move. “Well, don’t stand there, move it! Keep cutting, then let’s see what this is!”

  Jessie only nodded as he ran to the final corner. As the others moved to pull away the cut-off piece, Jessie nodded. Reaching his goal, he cut down and in a moment, it was done.

  He threw the piece on his side away and looked at what had been hidden. He started to swear as he saw what he had feared he would.

  “Then this is?” Terra asked slowly as Jessie pulled apart the rest of the container.

  What was revealed was a long silver cylinder on an alcove on its side. The cylinder was fogged up, and completely white. The other side of the explosives had a keypad, and there was something on a plate above it.

  “Yeah. This is a Hibernation Prison alright. Who knows how long whoever was in here has been asleep?” Jessie said, anger and sorrow in his voice.

  “Or why they’re in this thing!” Dalila said bitterly.