Bryce

“I think that I’d like that,” I answered.

The job Lysc was talking about was probably going to have something to do with the delivery, and I was interested, if only to satisfy my curiosity. What I wasn’t interested in, was whatever leverage Teolix just had me hand deliver.

Whatever it was, had obviously given Lysc confidence that we were competent, and that she could control us. My mind was racing with possibilities, but I narrowed it down to just two that I thought Teolix could actually manage. It had to be information we didn’t want out, or something to do with the ship.

If it was information, then Lysc already knew, and it was too late for us to do anything. If it was something to do with the ship, then I needed to know about it before we met tomorrow evening.

“Excellent! The technician is Doctor Samuel Navarro. He’s legit and works out of the central district, so you shouldn’t have any issues finding him. Mention my name and tell him it’s for a job. He’ll do a rush order off the books,” Lysc explained.

“Thank you. I’ll set up the appointment when we get back to the ship.”

“It’s nothing, captain. Navarro appreciates the business and you’re still paying for it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have one last match tonight.”

“Of course, it was a pleasure meeting you,” I said.

We both stood and shook hands before Lysc turned to Nikko.

“Nikko, go gather a few of your pups and collect the cargo from the Captain’s ship,” Lysc ordered.

“Yes boss,” Nikko replied.

“Actually, Nikko, if you could wait a moment,” I interrupted.

“Is there a problem, captain?” she asked.

“Nothing major, except for Teolix’s poor taste. The crates are gold plated. You’ll probably want to send extra security to transport them,” I said.

“Of course they are. Teolix has all the subtlety you would expect from a dragon.” Lysc laughed. “Nikko, take Rashka with you. She’ll hate it, but she’s in deep from the shit she pulled last month.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Dezra, give the captain a ride back to her ship. Wait there for Nikko and the pups to show up.” Lysc turned to address me. “I hope you don’t mind hosting for a little while, captain.”

“That won’t be a problem,” I responded

Lysc left to fight in her match, and Dezra led us back through the maze of hallways to the auto-shuttle.

“That went better than expected,” Dezra commented.

“It certainly could have gone worse,” Sora added.

“I’ll breathe easier once Nikko collects the crates,” I lied.

“It won’t take long unless Rashka gives him trouble.”

“Is she likely to?” I asked.

“Rashka owes the boss, so she’ll help, but she’s going to do her best to piss off Ni-”

“Captain, we have a problem.” Sora interrupted.

“What is it?” I asked.

“About a dozen people just entered our hangar, they’re all armed. I already sent a message to Sami, and she’s on her way to warn Thea.”

I immediately started casting a shield spell around Sora and myself. When I noticed Dezra pulling out a mean-looking knife and pistol, I included her as well.

“How heavily armed?” I asked.

“A few rifles, but mostly small caliber pistols. One of them even has a bat.” Sora replied.

“A bat?” Dezra asked.

“A wooden one. It’s even wrapped in razor-wire and everything.” Sora laughed.

“Dezra, how far are we from the hangar?”

“A few minutes, not long. I’ll try to speed this thing up.” Dezra replied before closing her eyes, presumably accessing the auto-shuttle commands through her feed.

We landed soon after and the three of us jogged towards the hangar. We stopped just outside the doors, where we could hear a male voice arguing with Thea.

I glanced around and found an empty metal trailer that didn’t appear to have anything combustible in it.

“Dezra, do me a favor and don’t get involved here. I don’t want to piss off your boss by getting you wounded before we negotiate a job, It would make me look bad.”

Dezra didn’t seem happy with my request, but I ignored her response. Instead, I cast a levitation spell on the trailer, causing it to lift two meters off the ground and then brought it closer to me. She stopped complaining as I cast another spell, causing the floating trailer to increase in temperature until it was glowing red.

I kept adding more mana to the spell until I reduced the trailer to an amorphous glob of molten metal. There was enough heat coming off of it that I had to adjust the shielding spells or risk cooking all three of us.

“How many did you say there were, Sora?” I asked.

“14 total, and none of them are armored,” they replied.

I was maintaining three modified shield spells, a levitation spell, and an overloaded heat metal spell.

The levitation spell was the only one of those that I would categorize as above a beginner level, but concentrating on 5 spells at once took a lot of focus and I would need at least one more to deal with that many people.

The molten metal divided into 15 melon sized spheres as I channeled a telekinesis spell and started them in a swift orbit above our group.

There were certainly more practical ways to kill people, but channeling 6 simple spells, even when overloading them with extra mana, was easier on my meridians than a single large spell. Besides, I was hoping to intimidate the thugs enough to avoid a fight entirely.

All of that casting had taken me a few minutes and I could hear the conversation inside the hangar getting heated, so we entered.

Of course, ‘we entered' wasn’t actually an accurate way of describing it. Dezra stayed back as per my request, and I couldn’t see Sora anywhere. I assumed that had to do with their syndicate training, but the result was me walking into a large hangar, seemingly alone with 14 thugs. The only other person was a very angry Thea standing on the ramp of the ship wearing a pink apron and waving a spatula around. Intimidation was probably off the table.

“Oh, hey captain! Where’s Sora?” Thea shouted.

Fourteen pairs of eyes, two rifles, about a dozen pistols, and one razor-wire-wrapped bat, all turned towards me.

“So, you’re the captain?” bat-guy asked.

He also had a pistol, but when you bring a bat to a gunfight people are really only going to remember you for the one thing.

He was standing in the middle of the formation, which meant he was probably their leader. My sympathies went out to the group of thugs.

“I am. May I ask what you’re doing here?”

Of course, I already knew what they were doing here. But, I would feel better about what was probably about to happen if they self-incriminated a little first. I also wanted some information, and I figured they would be more vocal while they were still alive.

“That’s simple, really, we came to collect your docking fees.”

“We already paid our fees,” I stated

“You paid the port authority, but these hangars are owned by the Syndicate and there’s a 30% import tax,” bat-guy smiled.

“But since it’s your first time here, I don’t mind changing that to a measly 50%.”

Literal robbery aside, 30% was absurd. Especially on top of official taxes and docking fees. If they were trying to charge that to Teolix, then I had a pretty good idea what this delivery had been about, and there was one other problem, they were Syndicate. We couldn't let them leave the hangar alive.

“Thirty percent? You charge that to every ship that comes to Drassun?” I asked.

“Just those who dock in Syndicate hangars,” bat-guy clarified.

“But, I thought the Syndicate owned all the hangars?” a random goon asked helpfully.

“Well, how about that? I guess we do. Now, we’re just going to walk onto your ship, take what we like, and then leave.” Bat-guy got a creepy look on his face that sent chills down my spine. “And if you’re real polite about it, then that will only include you, and not your angry friend on the ramp.”

I quickly launched one of the molten spheres at the camera hidden in the corner of the hangar. I was pretty sure that I knocked it out before Thea killed bat-guy, but it was a near thing.

Some of the syndicate thugs reacted fast enough to get a few shots off, but none of those penetrated my shield before I could fling 10 orbs at the remaining thugs.

Once the screams died down, three of the thugs were on the ground with deep red gashes across their throats surrounding a still spotlessly clean Sora, bat-guy was a charred husk, and the rest all wore morbid masks of once molten metal. The hangar was a grisly mess, but it had all been over in just a few seconds.

“I may have underestimated you, captain, and you too, navigator.” Dezra called from the entrance of the hangar.

I didn’t want to cause any further damage to the floor, so I dropped my remaining orbs on what was left of bat-guy and canceled the rest of my spells.

“You definitely underestimated her,” Thea said.

She was radiating an aura of smugness as she eyed me in a way that would have even made Sora blush.

“Pride is a sin, Thea,” I joked.

Thea only intensified her suggestive stare. “Yeah, it’s one of my favorites. I can show you the others in the captain’s quarters later tonight.”

“Hah! Are they always like this?” Dezra asked.

“They are, and it’s completely insufferable,” Sora answered. “I’ll show you to the bar, It’s how I usually deal with them.”

“I’ll meet you up there. First, I need to speak with Samira." I shouted after them.

Thea stayed behind, and once Dezra had gone up the ramp, she wrapped me in a tight hug. I returned it, burying my nose in her hair.

“You okay?” she asked.

I nodded, not speaking. Instead, just immersing myself in the smell of burnt cherry wood to block out the much less pleasant scent that was filling the hangar. I eventually broke the embrace and walked onto the ship.

“Come on, I really do need to talk with Samira, we might have a problem with the ship.”