Asteroid 6969: Tiger Gold Read online

  She clenched her teeth. Remembering Lance hurt almost as much as hanging from her wrists.

  Okay. Time to try to plan her escape. But that would be next to impossible unless she got a hold of a weapon. Heidi got up, and on wobbling legs, patted her way around the rough, damp, cell walls. There was nothing she could pry off and use to cut or stab.

  She got on her hands and knees and felt along the floor, cringing at some of the things she touched, slimy, horrible things. But nothing sharp, nothing useful to her.

  Wiping her hands on the rough cloth around her shoulders, she climbed back on the bench and huddled. Lance! Why had she ever met him? Now her plight was even worse than Hades because with him, she’d known what paradise could be.

  They had fallen in love, and he’d promised to marry her as soon as he got his ship registered. Shivering, Heidi pounded her fist into the stone wall and cursed. How had the Condozzis gotten wind of their plan? Why should they care? No, that was stupid. The Condozzis had vested interest in everything that might make a profit on the asteroid. Usually, all the money passed through Condozzi hands. Fanny had to deal with the unscrupulous bastards…because they forged the papers needed to get people onto Federation planets. With a legitimate ship the Condozzis would be circumvented and that wouldn’t suit them at all. Not one bit.

  Again her thoughts flew backwards, to just recently, when she and Lance had gone to Fanny with their plans.

  * * * * *

  “I like it.” Fanny put her hands on her hips and smiled. “It’s a great plan, nearly foolproof and safe. It will all depend on the forger, of course, but if we can get a good one, we’ll be in business.”

  “I can start airlifting as soon as I get the papers.” Lance nodded out the window, to where the red light made everything look dipped in blood. They were in Heidi’s bedroom. Lance had come to see Heidi, and Fanny had come in to see Lance and hear the news from space.

  Lance hooked his thumbs in his pockets and said, “Let me have a list of the first ten people you want lifted out of here, and I’ll get things started.”

  “Who is doing the forgery?” Fanny couldn’t keep the sharpness of worry out of her voice. For ten years she’d used the same man, and he’d died. Now, with Jock gone, there were no more good papers to be had.

  “I think I found someone.” Lance shook his head. “I didn’t tell him everything, just the bare facts—that I needed papers for my ship but couldn’t pay Federation prices, and that I’d have passengers who needed valid passports, too.”

  “How soon can you get them?” Fanny asked.

  “As soon as I get the money. I have to go away for a while—there are some contracts I managed to grab. A couple deliveries, mostly harmless shipping, and if all goes well, I’ll be here in six months with the money and the papers.”

  “You’re leaving already? But you just got here! And for six months?” Heidi felt her insides curl up and shrivel with grief. “Can’t I come with you this time, please? You said you’d take me, and I won’t cause any trouble, I promise.”

  “He said ‘mostly harmless’.” Fanny patted Heidi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, time will fly. We have a lot of work to do before he comes back.”

  “Right.” Heidi was not looking forward to cleaning Fanny’s Fandango House of Pleasure and Fantasy, various dance establishments, bars, etc. But it was time. Every year or so they took the place apart, chased out the furzbas that had made their homes in the crawl spaces and attics, and cleaned and aired the place from top to bottom. In provision, the place had closed down and wouldn’t open again for a fortnight.

  “I’m sorry I won’t be around to help clean.” Lance gave her a wry grin. “Actually, we do the same for the spaceship every year or so…you’ll see. It’s fun.”

  “Right.” Heidi gave him a hug, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and pressing herself to his flat, hard chest. “You better be careful and take care of yourself, Captain Rocket.”

  “Yes’m,” he said, holding her tightly.

  Fanny cleared her throat. “Well, have a safe trip, Captain Rocket. Heidi, I’ll be in the laundry room.” She closed the door behind her.

  As soon as Fanny left, Lance’s mouth found hers and began a sexy, slow kiss. Languorously, his tongue dipped between her lips, and slid across the edge of her teeth. Heidi’s blood seemed to rush through her veins, making her head spin. She let go of him and fell back on her bed, gasping.

  Lance reached down and stroked her cheek. “Take off your clothes,” he said, his voice hoarse.

  “No, you take them off.”

  He undid the buttons on her jeans and slid them off, pulling her underwear off with them. His hands shaking with haste, he peeled off her shirt, tossing it to the floor. Then he yanked off his own clothes, shirt, socks, and pants flying to different corners of the room.

  By Hades he was gorgeous. Heidi loved the velvet softness of his skin, the spicy taste of his mouth, and the feel of his cock as it pushed past her labia and drove into her sex, filling her completely. The thought made her mouth go dry.

  Outside, a motor roared, and someone called a greeting. The wind sent sand hissing across the windowpane, and beneath her back her sheets bunched and slid.

  “Touch me,” Lance whispered, lying down by her side. He took her hand and laid it against his cock. Heidi grasped his cock and pumped it, and soon his penis hardened. When it was stiff, Lance kissed her one last time, and then turned her over and pulled her up to her hands and knees.

  “Magnificent,” he breathed. He drew a finger gently over her cunt. “Hot, wet and ready,” he said, pressing his penis to her, and with a little moan of anticipation, pushed it against her labia. Heidi widened her knees and arched her back, gasping as his cock slid into her pussy.

  Lance waited until she’d adjusted to his size, then he drove into her, holding her hips for purchase, pulling and pushing her as his cock slid in and out of her sex. Heidi needed to touch herself. Her clit was throbbing, so she put her hand to it, and slid two fingers around it. She could feel his cock penetrating her from behind while she rubbed her hard little clit with her fingers.

  When she felt Lance’s cock start to jerk as he ejaculated, her own orgasm hit her, knocking her nearly senseless with its intensity. She hardly knew where his body ended and hers began. With a deep sigh, Lance slid off her back, turned her around, and gathered her in his arms. She wanted to stay like that forever, curled up with her lover, arms and legs entwined. When he tried to get up, she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him back onto the bed. “No, stay a while longer. Please?”

  He gave his irresistible warm chuckle and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I’d like to stay in your arms forever, Heidi. But I’ve got a hankering for something to eat. I haven’t had anything all day. And I have too much to do to get the ship ready. I’m sorry.”

  He kissed her tenderly, his mouth and his lips telling her silently how much he loved her and how much he’d miss her.

  The next day he left.

  A week later, Gront Condozzi showed up at the door.

  * * * * *

  By all the damned souls in Hades, why did she have to be downstairs at that moment? Gront had been standing in the doorway, against the red light, and she had only seen a black silhouette. She had thought it was a customer, and had smiled.

  He said later it was her smile that did it. “Ain’t no one ever smiled at me like that,” he whispered thickly into her ear. Thank Hades he hadn’t recognized her as the scrawny little girl who’d run away from his clan so many years ago.

  Her skin shuddered at the memory and bitter tears scalded her cheeks. She had only been trying to be friendly. Gront had taken her smile for a come-on. Even though Fanny’s Fandango House of Pleasure and Fantasy was closed for business, he’d come back to see her. He had even brought her a bouquet of flowers one day. Flowers! Where had he gotten those? Flowers came sometimes from a Settler’s planet by spaceship, but they were hideously expensive.r />
  “No, I can’t accept those. I’m engaged to someone else, I’m sorry.” She’d tried to explain on the third day he’d come to see her, and then he’d asked who she was engaged to.

  “The captain of a star freighter, Lance Rocket,” she’d said, exasperated by his incessant advances and questions. For three days now Gront had come to Fanny’s Fandango House of Pleasure and Fantasy, various dance establishments, bars, etc. to woo her, and she was tired of it. She was tired of Gront, tired of cleaning, and heartsick from missing Lance.

  He’d gone all still then, and his eyes had narrowed. “You engaged to that fellow come looking for a forger? The one that took our good forger away?”

  Heidi looked up, startled. “What do you mean, took him away?”

  “He needed papers done, and the forger seemed to think working for Cap’n Rocket would be better than workin’ for us,” Gront snarled.

  “I don’t know anything about that.”

  Gront had gone stomping off muttering angrily, and Heidi had forgotten all about it, until three days later…when she’d been kidnapped by that lowdown, stinking rabble of the Condozzi gang.

  She gave a sob and clenched her hands into fists. Now she was a prisoner, and Lance was a million light-years away…life couldn’t get much worse.

  Then the door to her cell opened, and an icy, sardonic voice said, “Well, well, well. Miss Heidi High and Mighty, here for her lesson in submission. This time, don’t count on your spacer lover to save you. I hear he’s off making deliveries.”

  Ivan!

  Things had just gotten worse.

  Chapter Six

  Pirates

  Anyone found owning an unregistered spaceship and carrying cargo without a permit can be arrested and tried as a pirate. (See “Rules and Regulations” section 1212, pg. 400,009) Pirates are the scourge of the Federation. Most of them live on abandoned asteroids and can be found in disreputable space bars. Space bars on disfranchised asteroids are where the dregs of civilization hang out, and the Federation strongly recommends that registered spaceships avoid them at all cost. The worst pirates capture Federation cargo and kidnap Federation citizens and sell them for ransom. A certain “Ivan the Terrible” is one such pirate. He is believed to be in the vicinity of the Magellan Cloud and was last sighted on XXX (Name deleted from Dictionary—Asteroid has been voided.). Most pirates, however, stay on the fringes of the galaxy and eke out a miserable existence on derelict ships.

  - From The Revised Galactic Dictionary, page 82,877 – “Pirates”

  The call had come through when he was halfway to Sarge-Main. Fanny’s voice, crackling over the radio, begging him to come back.

  “She’s gone! They’ve taken her!”

  When Lance finally grasped what had happened he didn’t hesitate. The cargo would wait. He had to go save Heidi.

  * * * * *

  Lance stared at the map in his hand. It showed half of Asteroid 6969. “Where is the rest of the map?” he asked.

  The man in the lean-to stuck a toothpick in his mouth to clean his teeth. “Ain’t never been the rest of the map. All that part is off-limits, unexplored, and downright dangerous.” He spat the toothpick into the metal bucket near his feet and leaned back in his creaking chair. “Tell me something, boy. Why does a spacer like you want to go crawling around on the dark side of Asteroid 6969?”

  “Because I think the Condozzis have a hideout behind the border of night and day, and I need to sneak up on it.” Lance handed the man the map. “What better way than from the dark side? Asteroids don’t rotate, they…”

  “If I need a lesson about space, I’ll ask,” groused the man. He narrowed his eyes. “You came looking for the best miner before everything shut down, well, you found him. Ask me a question I can answer and I’ll try to help ye. I’m doing this for Fanny, you know. She told me to help ye out, but if you think I know about the dark side of 6969, well, you’ve come to the wrong man.”

  “You must have some idea of where they’d be.”

  There was a long silence, while the man scratched his whiskered chin and pondered. Finally he said, “If, and I say if’, they have a hideout, I would say it’s backed onto the mountain range. That way, they could get to it without going through the night side. No one in their right minds wants to go into the night side. The way I figure they have an entrance through one of the mines. So, again in my opinion, it ain’t too far out there, but it’s damn well protected.” He cleared his throat and pointed to a place on the map, not too far from New Dodge City. “My bet would be there.”

  He’d pointed to the tallest mountain peak. Lance’s heart sank, but he tried not to show it. “Would this be an educated opinion, or just a wild guess?” Lance asked.

  The miner chucked dryly. “Let’s just say that I know this asteroid, and I know the mines. I’ve been through most all the passages, and none of them would make the kind of hideout that would suit the Condozzi gang. But there are a few places I haven’t been. Plus, a few years back, I heard a story from a miner who claimed he saw lights coming from the side of this mountain. At the time, I figured he’d had too much to drink. Look, son, I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but if I were a betting man, I’d stake my last tiger gold nugget on this.”

  Lance stared pensively at the map. At least he had a good idea now of where the Condozzi gang’s hideout could be. He’d have to circle around the mountain peak and come in from the dark side. “Any thoughts at all about what might be out there?”

  The man pursed his lips. “The worst danger is the cold. It’s as freezing cold as outer space. The thing you have to worry about is that.”

  “I know, but the asteroid’s been hollowed out so much and mined so deep, I’m willing to bet there are warm currents running through the night side.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Besides, with a high-tech spacesuit you can go anywhere.” Lance shrugged.

  “But can you get away from the night beasts? There’re big creatures out back. I’m thinking there be monsters out there, some we ain’t never imagined in our worst nightmares. They don’t dare cross into daylight, but they are powerful fierce and dangerous. Let me tell you something, Captain Rocket. Not one man ever came back from an excursion to the dark side. The Federation closed it and made it off-limits for a reason. Best try to think of another way to rescue your princess, Captain.”

  “Thanks, but I’m going anyway.” Lance tossed a credit onto the man’s desk and strode out of the tiny room into the street. Heat and dust assailed him and he pulled his bandanna over his face. He’d promised to get Heidi off this rock, and by Hades—he would!

  He thought of her, her hair as it brushed his cheek, and the memory of her scent filled his nostrils. He closed his eyes. His chest felt tight and he could hardly breathe.

  If anything happened to her, his life would have no meaning. Stupid saying, but true. He had fallen for a strawberry blonde with freckles and skinny legs, a smile as wide as Glitch Gully and tits that fit just right in the palms of his hands.

  He shook his head and stared down the street. In the distance, the rugged outlines of the blasted mountains showed against the scarlet sky. On his left the red sun glowed in the sky like a mad ruby, and on his right was a veil of black, all that was visible of the dark side of Asteroid 6969.

  No one had ever gone there. But he had to. Somewhere, in that darkness, near that the big, pointed peak, was the Condozzi hideout. He was sure of it. No alien monsters lurked there. Only monsters of a two-legged variety haunted that area, killing anyone who dared poke around in their territory. What were they protecting? Lance scratched his head. The Condozzi gang wasn’t very big, and they certainly didn’t do any work that anyone could speak of. But they managed to live in relative comfort on a blasted-out shell of an asteroid.

  Fanny paid for her food and water with credits eked from visiting spacers, space pirates, and whatever riffraff landed in the spaceport. But how did the Condozzis live? Sure, they’d had a forger, but th
e fellow had been reticent in explaining what he’d done there. Maybe he’d better have another talk with that fellow. He might even know where the hideout was, although Lance knew he was probably reaching for straws. Well, only one way to find out.

  He had left the forger in his ship. He flagged down a scoot, a sort of glider-scooter, all that was left of the Federation public transport system, and pushed the button for the spaceport. He had to push a couple times—the scoot, like most of the asteroid, was in disrepair. But with a jittery lurch the scoot streaked off, and he arrived at the spaceport entrance in a matter of minutes. It took another three minutes to get to his ship, parked in the nearest berth in the terminal.

  The door gaped open. His ship was empty. Laser scars on the doorjamb showed it had been forced open. A small spatter of blood showed that someone, at least, had put up a fight. In the cargo hold, nothing but empty crates were left. Whoever had done this had been fast and thorough.

  Lance squatted and peered carefully at the marks on the floor. Then, standing, he went through the ship from bow to stern, but not a soul was left. And the commands had all been ripped out of his navigation center. The pilot’s cabin had been ransacked as well. The crew’s quarters hadn’t been spared, but the damage was superficial there.

  Lance thought of his crew—Jack the mechanic, Dobby in charge of cargo, and Raffery the copilot and general maintenance man. And Quill—the forger. They had better be safe and sound, or there were going to be some very sorry Condozzis out there. He had no doubt who had ransacked his ship, none at all. Fury consumed him, but he was good at controlling himself. Acting in anger never led to any good. He took some deep breaths and got his calm back.

  He kicked at the empty crate, then, whistling tunelessly, pried off the cover of a hidden crawl space. His smuggling days were nearly over, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten rid of all his equipment. In the crawl space, he had a high-tech spacesuit, night goggles, and some of the weapons he’d collected on his various journeys. He used to be pretty good with a blaster.