Bad Rock Beat Down (The Milky Way Repo Series Book 2) Read online

  “Did you do this?” Nathan said. “Did you bring them here?”

  The sheriff paused. “I need to rest up for tonight, Captain Teller. Good luck.”

  Nathan watched as the sheriff pushed his way past a woman doing an impression of a unicorn with a plastic horn prosthetic mounted on her forehead. He stepped back inside.

  “We need to get out of here,” Cole said.

  “We can’t lift off with the crowd this close,” Nathan said. “We’ll burn them alive.”

  “That probably wouldn’t be good for business,” someone with a thick Southern drawl said from the top of the ramp. Nathan turned and saw a skinny white guy in a costume leaning against the hatch. He had a vest of white bones draped over his scarecrow thin torso. A black cape hung off his shoulders while a matching loin cloth kept him legal. The whole ensemble was finished off with platform boots adorned with silver skulls. Ratty looking brown dreads spilled off his head. He stepped inside and a thin black girl followed. She had a fly away afro standing out at all angles and wore a black dress shredded for an undead effect.

  Nathan stepped closer. “You must be Bone Daddy.”

  The young man spread his hands wide. “We must all be who we are and yes, I am the Bone Daddy. However, you may call me Luscious.” He waved a hand at his companion with an exaggerated sweep. “This is the lovely Natasha.” They both sat down on the couch nearest the hatch. Natasha curled into him and wrapped her arms around the singer.

  Nathan introduced himself. “Your bank says you haven’t made your payments. We’re here to collect the ship. If there is anything you’d like to remove, now would be the time. I’m also going to have to ask you to move your fans back. We need to lift off and I don’t want to harm anyone.”

  Luscious grinned and clapped. “That’s quite a speech. I bet that works on most people when you show up and try to steal their ship.”

  “Nobody is stealing anything,” Nathan said with exasperation in his voice. “If you don’t pay your bills this is what happens.”

  Luscious motioned to Cole and Duncan. “Get your boys and get off my ship before I have you thrown off.”

  “You have that backwards,” Nathan said. “Get up, get your stuff and get off.”

  Luscious smirked and winked at Natasha. She opened a small plastic envelope and dumped something into her mouth. She smiled and chewed, making a crunching noise. Luscious leaned over, gave her an open mouthed kiss and Nathan could see his tongue fishing around inside her mouth. He broke it off after a moment and leaned his head over the back of the sectional sofa. After a moment he shook, snapped his head forward and opened his eyes wide.

  “Damn, that is amazing!” He threw the envelope to Nathan. “You want some before you go?”

  Nathan saw a stamp on the plastic that said “Diamond K”. It held some kind of clear crystal inside. He handed it to Cole.

  “Look at you old man,” Luscious said. ‘You come in here with a couple guys and you think you’re going to take what belongs to me? I can get a dozen Choir Boys up that ramp and they’ll throw you into that field over there before you can blink twice. That’s what my fans call themselves, by the way, ‘Choir Boys’. Isn’t that just delicious?” He licked his lips over yellow teeth. Natasha giggled beside him.

  “You do have the numbers on your side,” Nathan said.

  Luscious’s tongue snaked out over his lips again. “I do.”

  “You mind if I ask how you fit all those people in here?” Nathan said. “I wouldn’t think you could fit more than a couple dozen.”

  “This here is the plane for the band, repo man,” Luscious said and stood up. “It’s just for me, the Choir and our special guests.” He extended a hand to Natasha and she stood up. “Everyone else finds their own way.”

  “So they bum rides?”

  “Whatever, man. Now, it’s time for you to get off my ship. Natasha and I need some rest before the gig tonight.”

  “You sure we can’t just take it?” Nathan said.

  Luscious stepped up and Nathan saw his bloodshot eyes and the dark pools of his dilated pupils. His platform boots almost made him as tall as Nathan. “Do I need to get some help up here?”

  Nathan held up his hands. “Hey, no problem. We’re cool. Isn’t that right, Duncan? We’re cool?”

  Duncan nodded and threw him a wink. “Most definitely, Nathan. We are cool.”

  “Good,” Luscious said. “Now go.” Natasha smirked and laid a kiss on the singer.

  Nathan and Cole moved to the top of the ramp. The crowd jeered them and threw empty cans in their direction. Almost everyone made an obscene gesture of some kind. Nathan spotted the sheriff leaning against the hood of his float car parked against the fence on the far side of the field behind the crowd. The lawman tipped his hat in Nathan’s direction.

  Luscious stepped close to Nathan’s ear. “Nice try, boy, but I learned how to deal with bill collectors and repo men back in Louisiana. You’re just lucky Mars doesn’t have gators.”

  Nathan cocked his head toward the singer. “Just remember, I offered you the easy way out.” He turned back to Duncan. “Now would be good.”

  Duncan tapped a control on his mobi and a hissing noise issued from beneath the port side wing. Nathan watched as a cloud of green gas expanded out toward the crowd. They fell back slowly and then started to run, scratching madly as they did so. Screams filled the air and Nathan saw Sheriff Talliger stand up straight next to his ride.

  Luscious leaned out to take a look. “What the hell is that?” He said. “What did you do?”

  Nathan smiled. “Looks like you have a coolant leak, young man. Don’t worry, it’s not toxic but it will make them itch something fierce.” Nathan turned to Cole. “Would you please show Luscious and his girlfriend off the ship?”

  Cole stepped up, grabbed a handful of Luscious’s bone costume and shoved him down the ramp. He managed to stay upright all the way down and ran a few steps onto the tarmac before coming to a stop. He turned and opened his mouth. “You don’t know who you’re messing with! It’s not just me!” Then he started to scratch the exposed skin on his chest. He turned and ran away from the ship.

  Cole turned to Natasha but she held her hands up. She slipped off her heels and ran down the ramp through the fog at full speed. Nathan slapped the ramp controls and it retracted into the ship. The hatch shut and locked itself.

  “We need to move fast,” Nathan said. “That won’t stop them for long.” He turned toward the cockpit and saw Tricia sitting on a couch. She waved to him.

  “I guess you’re getting your ride back to Earth,” he said.

  “I guess so.”

  Nathan couldn’t help but notice the nurse had a very nice smile. “Would you like to ride up front? There’s a second seat and I’m sure it’s less of a bio-hazard than these couches.”

  She stole a glance at the couch she had been sleeping on before answering. “Sure. Why not?”

  The two of them sat down in the cockpit and buckled in. Nathan keyed the intercom. “Guys, are we clear? Is there anyone around us?”

  “Good to go back here,” Duncan said. “I also got a message from Marla and Richie. They’re up in the air waiting for us. They say the sky is clear for takeoff.”

  “Clear on my side, too,” Cole said, “although Bone Daddy and his crowd look very pissed off.”

  Nathan switched to the radio and called the air traffic control tower. “Viking 2 ATC, this is Hell’s Breath requesting liftoff clearance.”

  “Clearance denied, Hell’s Breath. Sheriff Talliger is requesting you power down and prepare to be boarded.”

  Nathan smiled. “Copy that, Viking 2 ATC. Please pass along our apologies to Sheriff Talliger and let him know we wish him the best of luck with his pest problem.”

  Nathan put power to the engines and pulled back on the yoke. The ship lifted
off with a jerk and climbed into the sky. The ship responded sluggishly, Nathan noticed, and flew like a wounded duck. He couldn’t wait to get back aboard his own ship.

  “You must be brave to have flown in this thing for a couple months,” Nathan said.

  Tricia smiled. “I’m usually too busy to notice the flights.”

  Nathan returned the smile. “That’s probably for the best.”

  Thirty minutes later Nathan extended the ship’s refueling boom at an orbital station and started taking on enough fuel to get them back to Earth. Once he completed the coupling he turned to the communication system and put in a call to his contact at the bank. An Asian man answered and smiled at him from the monitor.

  “Hello, Nathan,” the man said. “How are you?”

  “I’m good, Bao,” Nathan said. “I’ll keep this short because I know what faster than light communications cost. We got your ship back from the rock band.”

  “That is excellent news. Job well done.”

  “Oh, don’t congratulate me yet. It looks like they had livestock living in here.”

  Bao’s face wrinkled. “Too bad. We’ll inspect it and have it cleaned, of course. That model has quite a resale value as long as it’s flying.”

  “I wish you luck,” Nathan said. “Our ETA back to Earth is about four hours as long as we don’t run into any problems with the short-range light speed jump.”

  “That’s about six o’clock local time,” Bao said. “Will you join me for dinner at The Lantern? I may have another job for you.”

  Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Something good?”

  “Let’s just say it’s a substantial opportunity if you’re up for something a little more risky than a flight to Mars.”

  “Okay,” Nathan said. “I’ll see you there.”

  After refueling Nathan programmed in the course for home and stood up. Tricia played a game on her mobi. “I’m going to do a walkthrough of the ship, make sure everything is all right.”

  Tricia nodded. “Should I just stay here? What if something happens?”

  Nathan shrugged. “The ship pretty much flies itself from this point on. Just don’t touch anything and you’ll be fine. Duncan and Cole are sitting right outside, so if you need anything just let them know.”

  “Okay.”

  Nathan wandered back through the cabin. Cole slept on one of the reclining couches. Duncan studied a readout on his mobi. Nathan nodded to him. “How are we doing?”

  “The ship’s fine. Green lights across the board and there’s no problem with the engines.”

  Nathan nodded. “Good. Let me know if anything changes. I’m going to go below decks and do a look around.”

  Nathan made his way down the stairs to the lower deck. The lights in the ceiling activated when motion sensors detected his presence. He shook his head at what he saw.

  The cargo hold appeared as messy as the upper deck. Suitcases, trunks and crates holding gear lay strewn about the area. Nathan took a few minutes and secured the larger pieces with tie down straps. They didn’t need anything heavy shifting around down here during their flight. The smaller items went into bins anchored to the deck.

  Nathan came to a pallet covered by a blue tarp. He lifted it to take a look underneath.

  “Whoa.”

  Plastic wrapped bundles were taped up and stacked on the pallet. He took out a pocket knife and slit the shrink wrap while holding the bundles in place to grab one. It weighed about a kilogram. He held it up to the light and examined it. The contents of the bundle resembled broken crystals, exactly like the drugs Luscious and Natasha had used back on Mars.

  Nathan counted the rows of bundles and did a quick calculation, coming up with five hundred bundles, each with packets inside stamped “Diamond K”. He licked his lips and thought about what he should do. Legally, he had a requirement to turn in any contraband he discovered but he rarely found anything and when he did, it could be a hassle to deal with customs. He didn’t know anything about this crystal but odds are it was worth a lot of credits and, quite frankly, he needed a lot of credits.

  He searched among the piles of luggage and saw a black duffel bag in one of the bins. He unzipped it, pulled out the few articles of clothing inside and stuffed them into another bag. With a quick glance over his shoulder to ensure he was alone, he reached through the plastic wrap and pulled out some of the bundles. He could get twelve in the duffel without making it bulge. For a moment he reconsidered, but then thought about the pile of bills he had to pay and zipped it closed.

  He hefted the duffel bag and found he could carry it without a problem. The tarp went back over the pallet and he tied it down with a few elastic cords. When he got back to the upper deck Duncan had nodded off and Cole snored lightly. He walked past them into the cockpit and dropped the bag on the side of the pilot’s seat away from Tricia. She continued playing her game and never noticed. He sat down and took a look at the controls.

  “Everything okay down below?” She asked.

  “Other than it being a pigsty? Yeah, everything is okay. I had to secure a bunch of loose stuff. Is everything all right up here?”

  “I guess so,” she said. “No alarms went off.”

  “That’s good,” he said, as his left hand fingered the duffel bag. “It looks like we’re all set.”

  Chapter 2

  Almost four hours later Nathan slotted the Hell’s Breath for descent orbit insertion and completed the deceleration process he’d started an hour ago. The blue and white curvature of Earth’s sky stretched out in front of them.

  “That is beautiful,” Tricia said.

  “Yes it is,” Nathan said. “Views like this are one of the perks of the job.”

  Tricia pointed toward the ground. “Is that Europe? Usually I’m sitting in the back and don’t get to see anything like this. Oh, it is. There’s Italy.”

  Nathan smiled. He hadn’t been this comfortable near an attractive woman in a while. A year and a half ago, he had broken up with his last girlfriend because of his obsession with his ex-wife, Celeste. He had even paid a software developer to recreate their honeymoon. His girlfriend wasn’t too happy when she caught him. Then Celeste’s starship had been hijacked by a religious cult, bringing her back into his life when he delivered the ransom. He scrunched his nose. This was not the time to think about those days. He pushed the thoughts out of his head and focused on Tricia.

  “We’ll be crossing over Asia in a few minutes and then you’ll get to see the Pacific Ocean,” he said. “It’s amazing from up here. If we get lucky and there isn’t any cloud cover you’ll be able to see all the different island chains.”

  The ship jolted and she gripped the arms of her seat. “Is something wrong?”

  “Braking thrusters,” Nathan said. “We’re just slowing down for our reentry. You’ll see a light show then. The plasma envelope that forms around the ship is bright red, orange and yellow. It looks like liquid fire.”

  She grinned. “That sounds exciting. I’ve never been in a position to see it before.”

  “It’s really something.”

  As the braking thrusters cut off and Nathan trimmed the attitude of the ship, Duncan and Cole crowded into the cockpit doorway. “Are we coming up on reentry?” Duncan asked.

  Nathan nodded. “Yeah, the thrusters worked as expected and we’re green across the board. Maybe they took better care of this heap than we thought.”

  Cole looked at Duncan. “Are you sure about the hull? You did your inspection pretty quickly back on Mars.”

  Duncan shrugged. “We’ll make it. Today isn’t the day we explode in a fireball.”

  “No,” Nathan said. “Not today.” He smiled and saw a smile form at the corners of Tricia’s mouth.

  “We better not explode,” she said. “I owe a ton on my credit accounts and you know the bank is greedy enough to co
llect from my mom. No exploding.”

  A small smile appeared on Nathan’s face. Tricia clearly wasn’t going to put up with anything from the guys. He nodded at Duncan. “Where’s your wife?”

  “I spoke to her a little while ago. Marla has the Blue Moon Bandit about three thousand klicks behind us.”

  “Good. Maybe you guys should strap in. We’ll start reentry in a few minutes.”

  “Yeah,” Duncan said. “Come on Cole.”

  Nathan’s hired muscle grunted. “I’m just saying, you walked around pretty fast back there. What if you missed something? I don’t want to end up as a smear of ash in the upper atmosphere.”

  Their voices faded as they moved back into the cabin. Nathan shook his head. “You know there’s nothing to worry about, right? If we had the slightest doubt about anything we would dock at an orbital station.”

  “I’m okay,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “You seem to know what you’re doing.”

  A few minutes later the ship jolted and bounced. Everything started to vibrate and Tricia raised an eyebrow. “I can assume you expected that?”

  “We’re hitting some air now and slowing down. It’s perfectly normal.”

  “Hey Nathan,” Cole called from the cabin. “What are you doing up there? I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

  Nathan smiled. “Don’t listen to him. He can be kind of a pain in the ass to fly with. I’m going to check things out.”

  Nathan turned his attention to the readouts and made a small adjustment. The ride smoothed out. “That’s better.” He glanced up at the cockpit window. “Oh look, there’s the plasma.”

  Orange and yellow fire licked all around the cockpit as the ship plummeted through the atmosphere. Tricia’s eyes grew wide. “That’s amazing!”

  “Sure is,” he said. “It’s just friction but sometimes it’s my favorite part of a flight.”