Read Whisper & Fury: Eydulan Series Book 1 Online
Authors: Mark Brandon Powell
Whisper & Fury: Eydulan Series Book 1 (12 page)
Bob smiles and throws his arms open wide, “Katrice it’s good to see you. The last time was…”
Kat cuts him off, “Bob. What’s the deal with sending us into a war-zone? Plus don’t you understand the meaning of easy?”
Bob holds his hands in the air, palms facing Kat, “Sorry. I just got word about the no fly. The job is still an easy one. Well, easy for you two.”
“Bob I swear, the next time I see you I’m going to…”
“Kiss me?”
A shiver runs down her spine, “Ugh, no.”
“Hug me?”
“Never happen.”
“Thank me for the wonderful pay.”
“I’m going to wring your neck, that’s what.”
“But Katrice we get along so well and you’re wearing the most delightful clothes.”
She looks down at her shirt which had slipped down showing off more of her cleavage than she ever wanted Bob to see. Quickly covering herself up she says angrily, “No Bob, we don’t get along well. You’re going to pay us double.”
Bob’s eyes go wide. “I can’t do double. I’ll go 70/30, have to have my cut too.”
“80/20, and that’s my final deal. I’m betting you wouldn’t be able to find another ship that
can
deliver this in the next two hours. Plus I’m not going into a war-zone for the peanuts you just tried to pay us.”
Bob squints his eyes and rubs his chin. There is a long pause before he replies, “Fine, deal. I just got a bonus payment from them anyway. Requesting it come sooner. Get it down there and fast. You do that I will pay you eighty percent of what the total job is.”
Kat nods, “Good.”
“Then it’s settled. Always good doing business with you Katrice.” Bob turns his head to Gravan. “You too Gravan. You don’t speak much do you?”
Gravan laughs then shakes his head.
“Right. I’ll leave you two to it.”
The screen goes dark, and Kat turns to Gravan. “Why didn’t you say something when he said he wanted to kiss me?”
“You seemed to handle it well enough without me intervening. Plus it’s fun to watch.”
Fury laughs, “Yea Kat that was funny.”
Kat says, “Hey I don’t want to hear that from you Fury. That guy gives me the creeps. I hate dealing with him, but he is the least creepy and most reliable out of the choices we have. For a criminal.”
Whisper says, “Yes it is funny that she gets so easily flustered.”
“Whatever Whisper.”
Gravan laughs, “Hey you two, don’t pick on her. It’s a human thing.”
Kat says, “Gravan, don’t encourage them. I didn’t get flustered.”
“Whatever you were you got him to cough up more pay, which is good but doesn’t solve our dilemma on how to get down to the planet in the first place.”
“We stealth it.” Kat says firmly. “That’s all we can do. We need that money to help us live the good life. That and it helps those people on the surface. Then once we’re down there we can warn them about the attack. Win-win-win. Am I right?”
Gravan says, “Then how do we get off the planet once we’re down there. The stealth only works in space with recirculating the extra heat. It won’t work on entering or exiting a planet.”
Whisper says, “I have already plotted a course. Fling in at the south poles will give us cover from their scanners thanks to the strong magnetic fluctuations there. It will disrupt either side from seeing us getting close to the planet. Once we hit the atmosphere we’ll light up like a beacon on their scanners, but they won’t be able to do anything. They aren’t monitoring ground flight traffic, only planet exit and entry. So we just fly to our destination and make our drop.”
Kat says, “Ok then Whisper, how do we get off the planet?”
“I’m still calculating, but in every scenario so far we turn into small specs of space dust.”
Kat leans her head back against the cockpit chair. There had to be some way of getting off the planet. If they are monitoring things, then maybe they could cut or stop it. That could take care of the Guild, but what about the Foremid?
“Hey Whisper?” Kat asks, “Are you hacking into the Foremid too?”
“Not currently no, but I can.”
“Do it, and tell me what they are doing right now.”
“Blast.” Whisper says annoyed. “We’re too far away. I’m getting a signal but nothing strong enough for me to connect to.”
“What if we were on the planet? Would that be close enough?”
Gravan says, “That is a awfully big risk. What if Whisper can’t hack into the alien tech, then were stuck down there?”
Whisper says, “Ape, please. There isn’t a computer system made by you fleshy things that can keep me out.”
Kat stands up, “See. There’s your answer Grav, she can handle it.”
He lets out a breath. “Fine. If you think you can do it Whisper, then lets try it.”
***
Kat steps into the shower, the mixture of sonic pulses and small amounts of hot recycled water begin to wipe away tension that was building since they arrived at Starz. The water is almost hot enough to burn her skin off, as she likes to say. She just wants this over with so she can be done with the delivery game. There is an image that she has been placing in her mind, her and Grav on a wooden front porch, swing, watching the twin suns of Raspiel go down. Grav showed her a picture off one of the hills near where they were going to be. The suns-set, trees, rolling hills overlooking a small lake and river. It was paradise as far as Kat was concerned.
After seeing that picture she has put her house there in her mind, and Grav with her. Once they settle down, there won’t be need for a ship like Felicity. She had thought about turning it into the house. Whisper will inevitably have something to say about apes, shelters, and the beautiful sacrifice of her metal husk. At least that what Kat thinks she will say. Maybe Whisper will like it just the same. They will still have the connection to the interstellar-net hub, gathering all the information from the other planets and solar systems. Whisper might like the idea of all that reading time with her
not trashy
romance novels.
Touching the off button the shower fades and she lets herself drip looking down into the drain telling herself,
just this one last job.
The mirror always fogs when she gets out of the shower even though the amount of water is low, she keeps the temperature so high it steams up anyway. There is a fan above the mirror she turns on and it blows loudly as Kat looks for her hair brush and spray in conditioner. Her hair was far too oily feeling earlier. Just like Whisper told her three days ago, she needs to take better care of herself.
Grav’s voice talks over the speakers, “Hey Kitty Kat, how are you doing?”
“I’m fine, just getting ready. I always feel better after a shower, and with the way everything is going, I might not get another chance to get one.”
“Very funny. Seriously, how are you? You’ve been distant the last few days.”
Oh now he wants to talk, when we are about to go flying into the jaws of the Guild, but when everything is fine he’s all bottled up.
Kat says, “Nothing’s wrong Grav. Let’s just concentrate on the job and making it out in one piece.”
“Alright, but we have a long time ahead of us to be together on that tropical planet. I love you Katrice and don’t want you to bottle things up. It never worked for me.”
“What is it with everyone thinking that I have something wrong with me?”
“Who thinks you have something wrong with you?”
“You and Whisper.”
“What was Whisper saying about you.”
Kat goes though everything that Whisper and her talked about.
“Oh, that is serious. I didn’t even think to ask you if you were taking care of yourself. I just assumed.”
“Well it’s nothing you need to worry about now. I can and will take care of myself.”
“Kat, we’re a couple. It’s ok to let me help. I need your help with things too. God only knows the things I would have killed myself with over the last few months if I didn’t have you around.”
Kat think back over the last few months they were getting together everything they needed. The last couple of jobs had been bad, but nothing as bad as what they were about to go flying into. It wasn’t something that she liked to dwell on. There are too many feelings that come to the surface when she does.
“Yea Grav, I know.”
“Good, then I’ll see you on the bridge in fifteen minutes. Whisper is flying the ship into position. I’m getting all of the equipment together, anything you need?”
“Just you.”
“Same here. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
He is always so frustrating, and sweet, and obnoxious, and Kat loves him. She just wants him to be more sweet and less man’y. She files those thoughts away for later, and gets dressed.
The bridge is silent until Grav walks in. He says hi, and then it goes back to silence. The monitor shows the small moon of Starz getting closer. Once they get out of view of both parties Kat and Whisper are going to fly the ship at top speed to the planet’s southern magnetic pole, and enter the atmosphere there. Kat is nervous. She hasn’t entered a planet going that fast before, but it’s the only way to not get picked up by sensors.
Rounding the moon, the sun of the system comes into view as the ships around the planet start to disappear. Kat takes in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, she closes her eyes and tries to concentrate. She blocks out all of her thoughts about her hair, Grav, her paradise, and goes blank. It was something that she learned while working for her psyco ex. All the things that she had to do while undercover, and in the covers, that she didn’t want to do. She had to do something to protect herself, even if she still has nightmares from them.
Fury says, “Engines coming online now. Shields at full, weapons online. Stealth systems rerouting and storing heat.”
Whisper says, “Everything’s green, just waiting for your orders Kat.”
Kat takes one last deep breath. “Whisper, Fury, lets roll.”
My whole life I had a large imagination. When I played, with my Legos or running around outside with my friends, it wasn’t just playing. I was in a different place, I was making worlds. I would dream up stories and settings, where I would normally be the lead, or at least be looking through their eyes. Playing video games was a normalcy for the escape into some uncharted and untold world where adventure awaited, which fueled my own creations.
Insomnia had been a problem for me most of my life. This was another area that I was able to fill the space with waking dreams, praying that I would be able to get to sleep. It wasn't till I met my wife in July 2011 that I really started to contemplate what I wanted to do with my life. She was able to show me how happy I could be, just by coming into my life. So I figured that I could, and should, do that for my professional life.
I started to read more books. I had been a visual entertainment consumer for much of my life, even though most of my gaming consisted of role playing games, of a heavily text base nature. Not having the visual feedback was a different feel. I liked it.
It wasn’t until after reading a few self-help books that I started contemplating what made me happy and how I might be able to turn that into a career. In August of 2012 I had a long conversation with my wife, who was supportive of the idea, and I started to write.
Cypher Theorem: The Zero Class was finished and self-published on October 5th of 2013. From there it’s all history.
Cypher Theorem Series:
Lightning’s Limit (Short Story 1)
Other Works: