Life City had order. There were laws, and if a person broke those laws, that person was punished according to their crimes. The punishment for many crimes was death. It was the only way to keep the city clean.

Blake stepped into his quarters, sat on the bed. Rork’s base was inside of the Gulch—at the center of Life City, deep inside an old mining shaft. The drive down was a spiral that always made Blake dizzy every time. He leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees.

He wasn’t a murderer. At least... not in the same way most of the drops on Acheron were. There were a lot of murderers from the planet born portions of the population too, but not as many.

I’m a murderer through selfish inaction, Blake thought.

After Acheron was an independent planet, free from the grip of the Alliance, where would these people go? Blake couldn’t see them staying on the planet. How many tens of thousands of murderers would be set free upon the galaxy to kill again?

Blake sniffed. Murderers here never had to stop killing. They wouldn’t stop killing after leaving.

A knock came at the door. Blake got up and opened it. It was Razen. “What is it?”

“Rork wants to see you.”

Blake nodded as he stepped outside of his room into the hallway. The walls were made out of sheet metal and lined with pipes. Rork’s base was not without running water and electricity. “Thank you.”

Razen nodded and set off down the hall in the opposite direction as Blake headed for the reception chamber. Blake was breathing heavily by the time he opened the door.

Rork was talking to another clan member about the acquisition of new refugees that had left some other faction to come and live in Life City. “Fill the positions, Mr. Hague. You can never have too much of one thing.” Extra resources would be traded to other factions.

“You asked to see me?” Blake said.

Rork held his tongue until Hague left. Then he said, “I’ve just received a message from Silverman’s man, Mr. Threscher.”

“What did he say?”

“The Alliance has launched a mission to find Ambassador Silverman and the Retuailian Diplomat.”

Rork wouldn’t call the Retuailian “the alien” like a lot of humans would. He liked the idea of being smart. Refined. The warlord was a smart man.

He probably knows he’ll be a part of intergalactic affairs at some point, Blake thought. Rork was a leader. And he knew how to lead well.

“They have sent two special operations commandos to do the task,” he continued. “Since you failed to acquire the guidance system for my missiles, I’ve decided I will acquire them by other means.”

“Other means?”

Rork stroked a leaf on one of his plants sitting in sunlight that shone as a bright circle through one of the hollowed out skylights. There was a thin layer of cloth over the hole to defuse the direct sunlight. These plants were still tender. “You will find out later. For now, I want you to ride out and collect this batch of prisoners, the commandos included. Mr. Threscher has given me the exact coordinates of the drop.”

“Bring the commandos?” He paused. “Here?”

“They’re here to search, not to fight,” Rork said, turning back to Blake. “I can use this to my advantage.”

Freeing Acheron was not a black or white idea. It was grey. Very grey. Helping Acheron become an independent planet was the right thing to do. Loosing thousands of murderers across the galaxy however, was accessory to whatever crimes those murderers would commit.

Politics…

“Am I boring you, Mr. Halls?”

Blake shook himself. “Of course not. What do you want me to do with the commandos when I get back?”

Rork smiled. The man never smiled simply out of joy. He smiled when he was privy to something nobody else was, when he had the upper hand. “Bring them directly to me.”

“Yes, sir,” Blake said, then left the room, heading back for the vehicle bay. He felt a little queasy just thinking about going back up that damn spiral.

* * *

“Head in that direction,” the Cerberus guard said, pointing. “You’ll find a city inside an oasis. “Good luck.” He turned around and got back inside the shuttle with his armed guards.

Dan shielded his eyes from the harsh sun as the shuttle lifted off, kicking up dust. He watched the shuttle as it got smaller and smaller, finally disappearing into the clouds.

Most of the other twelve or so prisoners looked around, confused. Scared. Dan was thankful he was not in their position. This was only temporary. And even though most of these poor bastards were murderers and other scum, he almost felt sorry for them as he watched their eyes. They were probably wondering what awaited them in this hellhole.

Shane glanced in Dan’s direction before turning to follow the other prisoners. The plan was to follow them to the Gulch where Silverman and Kolivar were being held so they would blend into the crowd. The two commandos were just two more prisoners.

About thirty minutes later they were in the high dunes, skirting the base of a small chain of red mountains.

Dan frowned as he saw the man at the bottom of the dune. He was on his stomach peering west at what looked like a ship. The Kerris.

“Move,” Shane growled at a prison as he pushed him aside. He started making his way down the dune at the front of the pack.

Dan was close behind. When they reached the bottom of the dune the man gasped and flipped to his back. He looked at the group, wild eyed. Dan pointed a finger. “That’s the pilot of the Kerris,” he told Shane in a whisper.

The man’s skin was reddening from the hot sun. “How do you know that?”

Dan moved closer to the pilot. “Get up.”

“Wait, who are you?”

“Shut up and get up,” Shane said, jerking the man to his feet.

The pilot glanced toward the Kerris with a knowing look, then inspected the prison garb on Dan’s chest. He narrowed his eyes. “Who the fuck are you?”

Dan punched the pilot in the stomach. Not hard, just hard enough to make him jerk and wince with the pains. He couldn’t double backwards because Shane was holding him by the shoulders. Dan leaned forward until his mouth was beside the pilots head. “We’re here to help. Shut up and go along.”

The pilot’s eyes widened for an instant and then he calmed down. Dan pushed him aside as he turned to the other prisoners watching. “What the fuck are you looking at?” He waved his arms for emphasis. They slowly moved off, coalescing into another group, still watching the Kerris with mixed excitement and curiosity.

He turned back to the pilot. He was a tall man with short, dark hair and a square jaw. “Are you the captain of the Kerris or the first officer?”

The man glanced at the other prisoners, shifted his ballance.

Shane moved to face the man. “Look, we’re Alliance spec ops. Now answer the damn question.”

The pilot stuttered. “Yes... yes, I am the captain of the Kerris.”

Shane smiled, his bottom lip twisting. “Now that wasn’t so hard.”

Dan nodded toward the Kerris. “Who are your friends down there, Marcus?” He knew the captain’s name from the mission briefing.

Marcus didn’t seem surprised Dan knew his name. “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I came up here to get an IC out and when they arrived. They took the Ambassador and Diplomat Kolivar away.”

Dan moved passed Marcus, knelt down to grab the EOD unit.

“They’re stripping the ship,” Marcus said.

“No shit,” Shane said. “I can see what’s happening from here.” He moved up to the edge of the dune and got down on his stomach so he wouldn’t present a viewable target.

The prisoners with them were beginning to make their way across the dunes toward the oasis city in the Gulch called Life City. Good. Dan didn’t need them interfering.

Shane waggled his foot.

The audio recorder, Dan thought. He glanced at Marcus, gestured for him to move up beside Shane. He did and Dan pulled out the audio recorder. On the orb was a tiny logo with the name Yanis Industries, inscribed into the device.

Ms. Yeun hadn’t shown Dan how to use the device before, but he’d had time to play with it a little before they left. He squeezed the little orb and the sides clicked. As soon as he let go, tiny grapplers poked out of the device. Dan could toss this on Shane’s lower pant leg and the device would connect like a bur and stay there unless discovered.

Dan’s heart beat a little faster as he leaned forward to touch the recorder to Shane’s leg. And then Shane turned over onto his back.

Dan flinched like a raw recruit on the first day or training. Shit!

Shane narrowed his eyes. “We’re wasting time here.”

Dan wanted to smack himself. Now the bastard would be suspicious! He nodded, got to his feet. “What about him?”

Shane turned to Marcus. “We leave him—he’ll only get in the way.”

It was true, but Dan needed to get Shane’s mind off of what just happened. “We might need him.”

Dan and Shane were effectively the same rank, so neither of them could make the decision as if it were an absolute. Dan tapped his neck behind his ear. “MC?”

“Yeah, it’s Taver here,” the voice said inside his head. “The man’s expendable.”

It was going to take Dan a while to get used to hearing a radio transmission coming from inside his skin. “Bullshit. He’s coming with us.”

“Your call.”

Shane gave Dan a look that said “No-fucking-way.”

Dan nodded to Marcus. “You’re coming with is. Just follow our lead and try not to get in the way, okay?”

A weight seemed to lift off of the captain and he nodded fervently. Shane shook his head minutely and started walking toward the other group of prisoners who were just beginning to disappear behind a dune.

“MC,” Dan said. “We’ll let you know when we’ve reached the Gulch.”

“We’ll know when you reach the Gulch,” the old man said irritably. “We can see you on the damn satellite right now... Don’t you shake your head at me, soldier!”

Dan chuckled.

“Tell Ms. Yuen she can get laid when I get back.”

“She can hear you, Threscher! Now shut the hell up.”

Shane turned around with an ugly little smirk on his face.