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

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Biddy said firmly, taking her hand.

“The aidkit says its concussion,” Phil said and she could hear the relief in his voice. “She needs rest and monitoring, but she should be okay.”

“The Augment…” Francesca’s voice shook with the effort of speech.

“Yes?” Biddy didn’t like the look of fear that flashed across her Navigator’s face.

“He tricked us.  He woke them up.  Every single one of them.”

Chapter 40

Lu Tang raised a hand for silence.  It didn’t work.  The newly awakened Augments had created a cacophony of pitiful wails.

“Where are we?”

“Why am I so cold?”

“What happened?”

And perhaps most irritating: “Who are you?”

This last question came from a statuesque male with striking dark skin that was almost the color of obsidian.  Like the others he was wearing a white robe that was little more than a medical bandage.  The fact that he was shivering did not dispel his overall aura of authority.

Lu Tang raised his voice. “I am…” He paused, his lips of the verge of forming the words Lu Tang, but of course that was stupid now. “I am Kepler.” Why did the name feel so alien?  It was his own after all.

“Kepler?” The black man stared. “I knew a Kepler once.  Played all sides, not to be trusted.”

“Sounds about right,” replied the man who still thought of himself as Lu Tang.

“Can you explain what happened to us?”

“We were captured!” A female Augment, with pale, tight skin that still did not disguise her great age spoke up. “You remember, Augustus, those cretinous humans ambushed us.”

“Ah yes,” Augustus replied, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “We were taken by surprise.  Well, that does not happen twice to an Augment.  We will teach them not to attack the likes of us!  And where were you, Kepler, when we needed you?”

Lu Tang shrank back. “I was… well, I’m not quite sure.  In another solar system, I believe.  But I came here to save you, to awaken you.  Without me you would still be in the freezer.”

This got him some small grunts of approval from the others.

“We must plan our attack immediately,” Augustus said, his voice booming out across the medical bay. “The miners cannot be allowed…”

“There is no point in all of this,” Lu Tang said, his temper failing.  Had the Augments always been so fond of their own voices?  At least he was not like that! “The miners who attacked you are long gone.  We must make a plan, but it must be focused on escape.”

“Escape!  And let our foes go unpunished?” This yell came from a short, white man with pink cheeks.  His augmented features were so misshapen he looked like he had been formed out of putty.

“Your foes are all dead!” Lu Tang shouted.  This at least gained him smiles from most of the others.  A younger augment – female, perhaps only a century old – raised her hand.

“You do not mean that you killed them, do you?” She said quietly.

“No, I do not.”

“How long were we asleep?” The soft voice asked and the hangar finally fell silent.

“How many months?” Augustus asked, a slight tremor in his powerful voice.

“Months?” Lu Tang swallowed. “I have bad news, my friends.  You were asleep for over seventy years.”

Lu Tang clamped his hands over his ears to stop the wails.  Only the young female was silent, her dark eyes watching him like the endless chasm of space.  He had not prepared for this.  His people, either braying or broken, lost children not the comrades in arms that he had imagined.

He spat on the floor.  The humans.  How low they that been brought by those odious creatures.  He thought of the young medic, battered to the floor by one blow from the short, white Augment with the blotchy face.  Yes, his people were damaged, but they were still strong.  There was still the chance that they might become what they once were.

“Come to me,” Lu Tang said, channeling all of Kepler’s strength. “My friends, I have not awakened you for nothing.  We will have our revenge on the humans.  And we will start here, on this ship.”

Chapter 41

When the attack came, Biddy was only surprised that the Augments managed to get there first.  She had expected Scotclan to come for her before the newly awakened Gods.  Even her enemies were becoming depressingly unreliable.

“Your crew will enter the waste recovery vehicle and exit onto the planet.  You will be a little cramped in there, but you will survive,” Lu Tang said, his voice a calm monotone.  The crew had surrendered to him immediately, just as Biddy ordered.  They were weaponless and vastly outnumbered and she had no intention of giving the Augments any excuse for bloodshed.

“Bastard,” Biddy said, but the God didn’t even flinch. “You know that Scotclan will be here any second, right?  Your friends are going straight back to prison.”

“You are lucky,” Lu Tang said evenly, ignoring her threats while his white robed friends took over the command room. “The others wanted to shoot you on sight.  They have awakened rather tetchy, I’m afraid.”

Biddy bit back a scream of rage as she and her crewmates were led off the Black Maria and onto the tiny maintenance vessel.  On the way there Phil caught her eye a few times, eyebrows raised and she knew he wanted permission to fight his way out.  Each time she shook her head.  Biddy knew that there was a chance they could overpower the Augments, but not without losing half the crew.  The newly awakened Gods were not carrying stunguns: they had proper laser rifles and they looked like they were dying to use them.

Once the crew were all onboard, Lu Tang stood in the doorway.  The other Gods had already hurried away to do