Chapter 1

Jim jumped as the proximity alert started shrieking a warning. “God damn tourists” he muttered as he opened communications. “Unidentified craft, this is station prime one, you have entered restricted space, divert your course NOW!”

The com crackled a shrill female voice pleading “prime station HELP! the pilot and co-pilot are dead.”

“Shut down your engines,” he calmly responded. “There should be a multi-levered handle all connected at the top, push them all the way forward until they lock in place. Silently he watched as the ships engines shut off, but the ship was still moving. “Hell of a way to start a day.” he growled as he readied a grapple beam to slow and pull the ship in.

Pulling it to the hanger, he began to lock down almost all the station, manual instead of electronic locks on doors (he found they were much to easy to hack) and headed down to the ship. As he approached, his long legs eating up space, he stopped dead in his tracks. There at the hatch of the ship was a young teenage girl/woman crying and shaking, staring straight at him, her chest heaving, gulping for air, hardly wearing any clothes.

“I am Jim Stock, this is a private station owned by my family.” (well what was left of his family) “You will have to leave as soon as possible.” (he didn’t like company especially the uninvited kind) he snapped out. The girl broke down and started sobbing, muttering to her self. “They are all dead. Oh my god, I can’t believe they are all dead.” Falling out of the hatch, she just lay there, pooled on the deck like a useless lump of flesh.

Jim was about to step forward when the intruder alert went off “what the hell!?” Grabbing a plasma rifle next to the door, he opened his mike, “Computer, status report.”

A mechanical voice answered “five, level 6 armbots converging near the open hatch.”

“Level 6. Shit, bring up security fields and shields, place around the ship protect the girl” he shouted into his com link, as the first appeared and started firing.

As Jim started returning fire, he shouted, “Damn it girl, move your ass NOW!” Taking out the first 2, he knew it wouldn’t get any easier as these were the more intelligent bots that learned as they went. He could see the other three taking cover as he got a shot off and disabled the arms of the third. The girl looked up at him then at the bots as they dropped and ran screaming toward him.

“Increase to full combat mode now” he growled into the com.

“Increasing now, all internal batteries online, shields to full.” Dozens of specially made turrets came out of the walls and started blasting away, taking two more out at the beginning.

“Status report” he barked.

“Four units inoperable, three of those, no activity mechanical or electrical, one unit damaged one arm and leg inoperable,” the mechanical voice droned on, “advise more protective cover”

Smirking, Jim thought “Would a direct, tight, em pulse directed at the last bot be enough to disable it? I’m unsure of the shield rating of a six, analyze!”

“Searching ... such a pulse would disable mechanical, but upon further analysis I have detected a tri-cobalt explosive, advise immediate evacuation”

“No shit, ya think?” Jim felt the weeping puddle of female at his feet clutch at his leg as he spoke, “Direct pulses at both of the last two operational bots, drop blast shield and door, then evacuate the space, make sure they are all gone before you close the outer hangar doors.

“Compliance Captain,” the voice answered back “beginning procedures now.” Jim watched as the shield door began to lower. Grabbing the girl, he pushed her to the airlock, her small frame offering no resistance to him as he hurriedly got her through and slammed the hatch closed.

“Report, Dickie” he snapped out.

“Applying the bursts now sir, they are immobilized, starting evacuation” Dickie replied.

“Bring it up on display.” As a picture of the hangar appeared before his eyes, thanks to a synaptic implant installed years ago when he was still in the stellar space forces, and he was allowed to keep it as a reward for his service.

“Report.” he said as he searched the bay.

“Four of the bots are gone, one completely deactivated is still in the bay, no activity. The bomb is unarmed, but still active, recommend removal.” Dickie droned back to him.

“Okay, keep it in the bay, bring up shields, we don’t know if the others will...” suddenly there was a huge explosion astern, Jim held on as the force of the blast hit the shields. “Damage report!” he ordered as the girl at his feet began to scream, her green eyes wide in terror.

“No external damage to report, the blast weakened shields astern and port 5%, other than those we are green on all boards.” Dickie stated. Breathing a sigh of relief, he could now turn his attention to the quivering, incoherent female latched onto his arm and as he now noticed drawing blood with the nails of her hand.

“Miss, you have to let go so I can do a med scan on you” he gently started to pry her hands from arm.

“NO!!!” she screamed pulling closer to him, “NO, NO, NOOOOO!” Jim sighed as he cupped her soft, tear stained face.

Gently tilting her face up to look into her eyes, her deep emerald colored pools of fear, “Look at me,” he gently prodded her. “What’s your name?”

“My name? I...” she swallowed hard, “I am Amber Joltaline” her voice cracking, shaky at best, as she looked deep into his eyes, she almost smiled with relief and started to fall as she lost consciousness.

“Ah, damn it! Couldn’t you have at least waited til I got you to med bay?” Touching his ear, he said “Dickie, I need med bay opened, bio-bed one started, a med transport to meet me on the way there.”

“Compliance Captain” it chirped in “would you like the shock kit also?”

“Yes Dickie, that would be advisable.” Then he thought, “also have the med bots prepared, I want her checked out, if she is who I think she is, we need to prepare all safe guards, I am afraid that those armbots weren’t the last we are going to see. I want the station on high alert, no unwanted visitors in without MY clearance, hell NO visitors without my verbal acceptance.”

As Jim rushed the girl to med bay he felt his whole damn day just went from really bad to completely fucked up. The med scanners had been at work for an hour and had already found 50 deep space micro homing beacons buried deep within her skin. So far, that was all. Shit, someone wanted her and her family dead for certain. Taking a swig of syntho-rum, feeling it burn down his throat, the preliminary reports were coming in now. The emperor and his family were missing, their shuttle vanished as if it had never exited hyper-space at the appointed coordinates. “Shit! Shit! Shit! I don’t need this right now, I got enough crap going on right now.

Going back to the hanger, he looked at the markings on the side of the shuttle, “Dickie confirm markings on right side of the shuttle.”

“Searching ... confirmed, royal shuttle of the high emperor, the same that was reported missing 2 days ago, should I report this to the high hall of councilors?” Dickie asked him.

“No, not yet, you don’t send level 6 assassins without some type of inside info. This was well planned, make sure all beacons have been deactivated and destroyed, that includes all you find on the ship.”

“Should I dispose of the bodies sir?” Dickie asked without emotion. Jim was startled for a moment,

“No I need to investigate further.” He stepped toward the shuttle, “are all internal defenses off?” he asked.

“Yes sir, they were off when the shuttle arrived.” Dickie replied “They seem to have been off for quite a while.”

As Jim stepped into the shuttle, he stared at the bodies (or rather what was left of them). Sighing, he moved to the cockpit at the front of the shuttle, here the carnage wasn’t as bad, but it was still bad enough. One body was cut in half, not much blood so it must have been a high intensity beam. The other he could see hadn’t gone without a fight, obviously he had pissed it off and had been hacked to pieces.