God's Bounty Hunter (Biddy Mackay Space Detective Book 1) by T Olivant (reading in the dark .txt) 📕

“The portal drive?”

“Correct.  But when they discovered that it could be used as a weapon, they refused to hand it over to their prospective buyers.”

“Who were?”

“The biggest mining gang in the Fuller system.  The ones that eventually pretended they weren’t just a bunch of criminals and called themselves the Council of Eritree.”

“And they imprisoned your Augments?  Why would they do that?”

“To try and force the others to give them the portal drive.  But the other Augments refused.  They were willing to let their friends rot in some hidden prison if it meant stopping the humans from getting hold of the portal drive.”

“You think that was the wrong choice?”

“I don’t think they should have just handed over the device.  But should they have abandoned their fellow Gods for decades?  Left in the hands of their enemies?  No, that I cannot forgive.”

Biddy really wanted out of the cell.  The Augment’s pain was clear to see, but she didn’t want to get involved with this cause of his.  It had disaster written all over it.

“Why does it have to be you that saves them?” she asked. “What about the other Augments?  That one that’s always on the news, Tolly, isn’t it?”

Lu Tang actually hissed at her. “The worst of them all!  A hypocrite and a thief.  I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen to me.  He didn’t even care!”

“All right,” Biddy said, in what she hoped was a soothing voice.

“Do you know when the humans started to think we were Gods?”

“Ummn, not really.” Biddy did know, or at least she thought she did.  Only her version of the story was wrapped in the language of the Faithful that her grandmother had taught her.  When looking a God in the face it seemed pretentious to talk in such a way.  And bone shudderingly embarrassing.

“It was when we did the first miracles.”

“Miracles?”

“Any technology to those that do not understand it can appear miraculous.  We gave humanity the stars.  That was our miracle.  Now you have a chance to pay us back.”

Biddy flinched. “I will think about it,” was all she could think of to say.  As she let herself out of the room, she saw the God watching her.  His eyes were dark and unreadable.

Chapter 32

The wall thumped in a constant rhythm.  Lu Tang ignored it.  He had made his decision, for better or worse, and now he had no interest in the prisoner next door.

Would Mackay come to his aid?  If she had been a true member of the Faithful he would have been fine, but trust his luck to come up against an atheist.

Religion.  It had worked so well for them at the start.  It had seemed perfectly natural that the humans would worship beings that were so much more advanced than they were.  But it had ended badly.  They had moved on, forgotten their Gods like some long-dead relatives that no one cared about even if they were happy to live off the inheritance.  Mackay hadn’t even cared when he’d told her about the missing Augments.  Humans were a parasitic lot all right.  Happy to take what they could get but unwilling to help when they were needed.  He would be perfectly content when the whole lot of them burned.

There was a scraping noise from the cell door and the food hatch opened.  Crude technology, but effective.  A hand pushed a tray through, then the panel locked shut once more.

Lu Tang wasn’t hungry, but he went to collect the tray anyway.  A square of some sort of protein ration and some pseudo-fruit.  Not exactly his favorite kind of nutrition, but it would keep his body adequately fueled.  There was still a good chance that he would have to fight his way off this ship, so it was important to be prepared.

He sat down with the tray on his knee and picked up the protein square.  Underneath was a small black datapad.  He stared at it for a moment.  The protein square was chewy and he worked it around his mouth, masticating it into submission.  He swallowed.  Then he very gently laid the tray beside him on the bed.  He looked around the cell.  There must be cameras there somewhere, but he couldn’t see any.  Well, he had to trust that whoever had sent the datapad also knew that he was being watched.  So the decision had been made for him.

He picked up the datapad and switched it on.  A message lit up the screen.

Continue to Eritree immediately.  Let nothing stand in your way.  You must save the lost ones.  Remember, this is the only way to heal yourself.

The screen went blank once more, and try as he might he could not turn it back on again.

He picked up the pseudo-fruit and bit into it.  It was sickly-sweet, on the edge of becoming rancid.  But he managed to swallow it down anyway.

How dramatic, he thought to himself.  It was rather a disappointing move from the Voice.  Lu Tang had always detested the need for drama.  And yet, the message itself could not be denied.  His family was waiting for him on the planet below.  Sometimes he felt like he could sense them down there, dreaming their terrible dreams.  He would save them.  He had spent too many decades being alone.  It was time for that to change.

He put the datapad back on the tray.  Should he try to conceal it?  Probably.  He stared at the black rectangle.  Who had placed it on the tray?  Someone working for the Voice, he supposed.  Did that mean that he had an ally that he didn’t know about?

Someone on this ship was trying to help him.  Could it be Macleod?  She seemed the most likely option, but wasn’t she still locked in her cell?  It certainly wasn’t the Detective,