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

He tilted it so that none of the other occupants of the van could see the writing, but they were all staring out the window at the approaching spaceship anyway.

Now you must wake them.  Wake them.  Wake them so that they might wake the others.

Lu Tang smiled as the doors of the van opened and the Black Maria landed on the rocky terrain just a few meters away.

“Let’s go!” Mackay shouted, and the Augment helped the humans to push the trolleys onboard the ship.

The datapad buzzed once more.

Do not let them leave.

A pang of irritation passed through the Augment’s mind.  The Voice ought to have trusted him a little better.  He had no intention of letting the Black Maria go anywhere.

Once all the pods were onboard, Mackay shut the airlock behind them.

“Right, let’s hope that the Geek has a plan to get us out of here.” Mackay said, walking away. “Are you coming?  I thought we might wake up one of your friends.  See what they have to say for themselves.”

Lu Tang let his face fall into an eager smile.

“Let me just run an analysis on the hibernation pods.  I want to check we’re doing it correctly.”

Mackay shrugged. “All right.  Meet me in the main hangar in five minutes.  Then I’m waking up the first Augment whether you’re ready or not.  I want to know what the hell I’ve risked my career for.”

If only you knew, Lu Tang thought as he watched the Detective turn and walk away.  Then he plugged the little datapad directly into the ship’s cloud and let it do its work.

Chapter 39

“Why aren’t we moving?” Biddy said as the screen in front of her stayed infuriatingly blank.  The Black Maria should have been speeding out of orbit.  Instead it was still on the surface of Eritree.

“Some sort of catastrophic systems failure,” the Geek said from her left.  That had been the first sign of crisis: the Geek hardly ever came into the command room.  They must be in some pretty deep shit, Biddy had thought when she saw the hooded figure arrive.

“What do the twins say?”

“They’re in the engine room but they don’t think it’s mechanical.  They’re blaming the software.”

“Which makes it your problem.”

The Geek flinched. “It must be, but I can’t work out where.  Or how to fix it.”

Biddy rubbed her palm into her eye socket. “You’ve got to.  We’re sitting ducks down here.  Once Scotclan work out where we are they can just take the ship right out from under us.  We need to get into orbit!”

The Geek turned back to his screens and said nothing.  Biddy looked to Hastings.

“Can we fly the ship manually, without the software?”

“No chance,” the Captain said.

“All right, then I want you all to work on a plan B while Geek fixes the problem.” Her crew turned back to their consoles but she could tell by their slumped shoulders that they thought it was hopeless.  She banged her hand down on the desk in front of her. “And where’s Lu Tang?”

“In the medical room with Francesca and his frozen friends.  You think he had something to do with it?”

“Well, he’s the only person on this ship that I don’t trust.  But I don’t see why he would sabotage the Black Maria – we’re doing exactly what he wanted us to.  Still, I don’t like him being down there with Francesca.  And I can’t radio her because the systems are down.  Kenzie, go down there and get her to come up here will you?”

“Sure.” The girl hurried out of the room.

A noise Biddy had been barely aware of suddenly grew louder.

“What’s that?”

Hastings turned around. “Are the engines coming back online?”

“Still dead,” the Geek muttered, his hands flying over the console.

“Then what…” Biddy ran to the port side of the command room. “We still have manual window guards, don’t we?”

“Yes, but they need to stay down in spaceflight.”

“We’re not in flight.  Hastings, Phil, come help me raise them.” It took all the arm strength of the three of them to lift the metal covering over the window.  Then they could look directly onto the surface.

“Scotclan.” Hastings said, stating the obvious.

“Chief Campbell’s ship.” Biddy said, staring through the whirling dust clouds. “And another two ‘tec cruisers flanking it.  They’ll touch down in less than five minutes.”

“I guess it’s flattering that he thinks he needs reinforcements,” Phil said.

“He doesn’t know that we’re a sitting duck.  Geek?”

“Still nothing.”

The door to the command room opened and two figures staggered in.

“Help me!” Kenzie panted as she struggled to support Francesca’s weight.

“What happened?” Biddy cried as she ran to the navigator.  A nasty red welt was raised across the young woman’s temple.  Francesca’s eyes had rolled back in her head.

“Phil, the aidkit from under the –”

“Already got it.” The bodyguard lifted Francesca easily and laid her on her back on the floor.  Then he placed the probe from the kit to her temple.

“The Gods have gone!” Kenzie gasped.  Her face was white and she looked like she might throw up.  Biddy felt the panic rise up in her throat, but she grunted and pushed it back down.  This was no time to give in to despair.  Not yet, anyway.

“Sit down, Kenzie,” Biddy said as she led the girl to a chair. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know!  Francesca was just lying there, she was hardly breathing, and I couldn’t get the medical equipment to work because the system was down.  I didn’t know what to do!”

“You did the right thing bringing her here.  What about Lu Tang?”

“Gone.  Blessed be, all the Gods have disappeared.  The pods were empty.”

“‘Tec!” Phil’s voice recalled Biddy to her injured navigator.  Francesca’s eyes were open.

“I’m