Making Trouble Read online

  TROUBLED

  SPACE

  Volume 3: MAKing Trouble

  By

  A.K. DuBoff

  TROUBLED SPACE: VOLUME 3 - MAKING TROUBLE

  Copyright © 2018 A.K. DuBoff

  All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, reviews or promotions.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Publisher: BDL Press

  Cover Copyright © 2018 A.K. DuBoff

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1: Shifting Focus

  CHAPTER ONE: Poor Planning

  CHAPTER TWO: Wheeling and Dealing

  CHAPTER THREE: The World through Another’s Eyes

  CHAPTER FOUR: Turning up the Heat

  CHAPTER FIVE: Distractions

  CHAPTER SIX: The Spice of Life

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Infiltration

  CHAPTER EIGHT: Eye on the Prize

  CHAPTER NINE: A Job Well Done

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  About the Author

  TROUBLED SPACE

  Volume 3: Making Trouble

  Doing the right thing is okay—so long as there’s still a good payday.

  Jack Tressler and the crew of the Little Princess II are bored. Despite repeated attempts to go legit, they’re drawn to the allure of black market dealings. Their latest venture: covertly transporting passengers.

  With their spaceship not quite up to snuff for a high-paying client, they decide to get the vessel detailed. However, through a series of miscommunications, the crew inadvertently finds themselves taking on more passengers than they’d planned—and being the latest addition to a human trafficking ring.

  With a dangerous pirate gang known as the Blue Rabbits expecting delivery of their human cargo, Jack and his friends hatch a daring plan to free the innocent workers. That is, so long as they get to take home some loot in the process.

  CHAPTER 1:

  CHAPTER ONE: Poor Planning

  — — —

  After years of thievery, getting shot at, and running for his life, Jack Tressler faced the greatest danger of his life: boredom. Again.

  In all fairness, the majority of his thieving attempts had gone terribly, he’d never actually been shot, and most of the running for his life had involved hiding, but the boredom was real, and it would consume him if he didn’t find an outlet.

  He gazed at the faces of his crewmates on the Little Princess II as they lounged in the common room. “So, are we going to do this or what?”

  Alyssa, the captain of their luxury yacht, rolled her eyes. “You’re insane.”

  Jack brushed a lock of his sandy hair away from his cybernetic left eye. “You told me I couldn’t have the cabin near the common room because we were going to have guests, so it’s long overdue for us to have other people on board.”

  Alyssa raised an eyebrow beneath her dark, side-swept bangs. “But human trafficking?”

  “No, not trafficking. Covert transport, we’ve been over this.” Jack sighed as he repositioned on his favorite couch. “We’re going to be helping people.”

  “This is going to backfire so badly.” Alyssa pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers.

  Jack was used to the captain shooting down his suggestions, but he’d learned during their past two years together that persistence paid off. The crew had been growing increasingly antsy over the four months since their last job, and they needed a new project for the sake of their sanity. Seeking out a job on the wrong side of the law wasn’t new to the crew, but they’d already accomplished what few had achieved: a payday large enough to set them for life. It had only taken two weeks for the first signs of restlessness to show, and Jack had known then that it was only a matter of time before they’d be back in the game. It would only take a little more nudging to get the rest of the crew rallying behind him.

  “Let’s face it, we’ve been lucky in the past,” Jack continued. “Took out a few bad guys, made enough credits to buy this ship. But what good is that if we hang around here doing nothing all day? We have an opportunity here to make a positive impact on people’s lives.”

  “Jack is right; there’s an important distinction here,” Triss said, tucking a length of her long, red hair behind her ear as she leaned forward. “People are going to hire us to bring them elsewhere. That’s totally not the same thing as trafficking.”

  “Exactly,” Jack said. While it was unusual for Triss to side with him over Alyssa, considering the captain was her longtime partner, he welcomed the vote of support.

  “Slight problem.” Finn half-raised one of his perfectly manicured hands. “How are we going to get people to pay us to do that?”

  “Which brings me to the next point,” Triss continued. “We need a business plan.”

  The notion of offering a covert transportation business for people looking to disappear had come about through a recent unfortunate incident involving a dissatisfied wife of a wealthy businessman. All of the shooting, running, and hiding had reminded Jack and his team that they actually enjoyed those things. As much as they aspired to become legitimate business people, that’s not how they were wired.

  “I think ‘business plan’ might be a little too formal a label,” Finn pointed out while he swept his hand over his dark wave of hair styled on top of his head.

  “Yeah, we’re more of a run-with-a-vague-idea kind of group,” Jack agreed.

  Alyssa sighed. “Here we go again…”

  “All right, we need a strategy,” Triss restated.

  “How do you propose we get a customer?” Finn asked Jack.

  “I dunno.”

  “This was your idea!” Alyssa shook her head. “Let’s just forget it and think of something else.”

  Jack rubbed his palms on his thighs. “Fine, you want a strategy? I say we head to Caleron and put up a ‘cabin for rent’ sign.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you have?” the captain asked with obvious exasperation.

  He shrugged. “What else would we need?”

  “Jack, the entire purpose of being covert is undermined when you hold up a sign telling people what you’re doing!” Alyssa exclaimed.

  “Okay, so not a literal sign, but we can ask around,” Jack said. “Either way, that’s the system where we can get our feet wet with this sort of thing.”

  “I have heard gossip about it being a hub for shady dealings,” Finn agreed.

  “I’m not sure that ‘shady’ is really the clientele we want to capture,” Alyssa cautioned.

  “In all fairness, those are the kind of places where people—even respectable ones—go when they’re trying to disappear,” Triss pointed out. “We need to find someone at the midpoint of their journey looking to transfer to more comfortable accommodations for the second half of their escape.”

  “You might be onto something there,” Alyssa agreed. “It was the part about getting Merica away from her home when we ran into trouble last time. Someone who’s already mounted the main escape and double-crossed their hired help would probably be much more agreeable.”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah, they wouldn’t do more than one double-cross.”

  “Definitely not,” Finn concurred.

  “Okay, so we�
��re agreed we go to Caleron?” Triss asked.

  Finn grinned. “Sure!”

  Alyssa released a long breath. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “I’m, like, ninety-five percent sure this is going to be easy,” Jack assured them. “You can find anything and everything in Caleron.”

  “If you say so.” Alyssa rose from the couch and wandered to the bridge.

  A moment later, Triss set down her tablet. “I guess I probably need to fly the ship, too.”

  “That would help us get there, yes,” Finn said.

  “It should only be, what, an hour from here?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, something like that,” Triss replied.

  He nodded. “See you then.”

  Triss departed.

  As soon as she was out of the common room, Jack leaned forward on the couch toward Finn. “That gives us time to watch another episode of Space Rangers.”

  “They’re going to yell at us,” Finn cautioned.

  “We’ll keep the volume down. Besides, they can’t stop us while they’re piloting.”

  “There’s auto-pilot, Jack. And even without that, one person can easily fly the ship.”

  Jack thought for a moment. “I’m gonna level with you: I just really want to watch Space Rangers.”

  Finn rapidly clapped his hands with a squeal. “Who am I kidding? I do, too!”

  They grabbed pillows from the couches and dumped them in the middle of the floor. Jack turned on the broad viewscreen on the side wall of the common room, keeping the volume low. He pulled up the video queue for their latest reality show sensation.

  He flopped down on his stomach next to Finn, resting his elbows on the pillows.

  “Space Rangers! Bringing justice to all,” Jack and Finn sung along to the theme song in whispers.

  “You’re watching Space Rangers, aren’t you?” Alyssa shouted from the bridge.

  “Psh, no!” Jack shouted back.

  “You’re too quiet in there—you must be up to something bad.”

  “What do you have against the show, anyway?” Finn replied while the episode began.

  “You start acting ridiculous,” Alyssa replied.

  Triss snorted. “What do you mean ‘start’?”

  “Well, they get worse.”

  Onscreen, two soldiers wearing black armor were running through a spaceport after a shirtless man wearing clown pants. They tackled the guy and pinned his hands behind his back, slapping on a pair of cuffs.

  “Busted!” Jack and Finn whisper-shouted in unison.

  “Ugh, they are watching it!” Triss exclaimed in the bridge.

  “That’s why,” Alyssa explained. “When you watch too much of that show, you always threaten to pounce on random people and shout ‘busted’!”

  “In all fairness, that guy’s pants were really ugly,” Finn said.

  “It’s not the fashion police.” Alyssa groaned.

  “Well, it should be,” Finn maintained.

  “I just want to tackle and cuff someone,” Jack said.

  “More likely, we’ll be the ones getting cuffed.” Finn smirked. “Not that that’s always a bad thing.”

  Jack shook his head. “Shh, we’re missing the show.” He focused his attention on the screen.

  A new set of Space Rangers—not that they could be distinguished through their faceplates—were zooming across a dusty field on hoverscooters in pursuit of a woman on her own hoverscooter. She kept glancing over her shoulder at the two rangers in pursuit.

  “Oh, man, they might not catch her.” Jack gripped his pillow.

  “They always catch the perp,” Finn replied. “But this is a good one!”

  The three hoverscooters reached a boulder field of rock monoliths standing seven meters high.

  “They should have brought in a chopper when they had the chance!” Finn’s eyes were glued to the screen.

  “She might actually loose them in there.”

  The camera following the two rangers swung side to side as they wove around the treacherous boulders. Jack and Finn gasped and breathed sighs of relief with each near-miss collision.

  After two minutes of intense pursuit, the boulders thinned out and the woman ahead of them gunned it on the straightaway.

  A spark lit in Jack’s organic eye. “You know what time it is?”

  “Time to boost,” Finn said in unison with one of the space rangers on the screen.

  The two hoverscooters accelerated as blue electricity crackled around the rear engine port. They raced forward to either side of the woman’s hoverscooter. When they were abreast with her, they moved their vehicles into a slight ‘V’ to pin her control bar with the noses of their craft.

  “Got you now,” one of the rangers said in a husky voice.

  “I didn’t do anything wrong, officer!” the woman exclaimed.

  “That’s for the jury to decide.” The second ranger grabbed the throttle of her hoverscooter and decelerated.

  The three craft slowed in unison. When they came to a rest, the first ranger grabbed the woman from her hoverscooter and forced her to kneel on the ground with her hands behind her back.

  He cuffed her. “Busted!”

  Jack and Finn cheered.

  “That was a great chase!” Jack grinned. “Man, I wish there were more like that.”

  Onscreen, the scene transitioned to a rapid series of shots with space rangers chasing suspects on various vehicles and across different terrains. “Up next, we bring you highlights from the greatest chases yet!”

  Finn melted. “This is turning out to be such a good day!”

  The next hour flew by with a series of the most epic chases Jack had ever seen. While some of the spectacles were familiar, many were completely new, which underscored the need for them to marathon the forty-seven previous scenes of Space Rangers at some point, assuming Alyssa and Triss didn’t throw them out the airlock at the very suggestion. In the interest of self-preservation, Jack and Finn agreed to keep the plan to themselves for the time being.

  As the episode wrapped up, the view out the window in the common room changed from the streaked stars of hyperspace to a standard starscape with a green haze shrouding the view.

  The green gas clouds were a well-known feature of the Caleron System, notable mostly because the materials interfered with long-range scanners. This allowed the system’s activities to go largely unregulated compared to other areas in the galaxy. When it came down to it, despite the glorified Space Rangers shown in videos, the actual Galactic Space Force was understaffed and had no means of properly policing every system. Places like Caleron that were already headed two steps in the wrong direction were easier to let go than trying to rein in and continue managing.

  Jack turned off the viewscreen and returned the pillows to the couch. As he was about to set the pillows back in their proper place, the green-hued light streaming through the window highlighted a sea of crumbs around the couch frame. “Did I do that?”

  Finn seemed to have noticed a similar graveyard on his own couch. “Some of these look fossilized. I don’t think we’ve had the Little Princess II for long enough to have that happen.”

  “Ew.” Jack scrunched his nose. “Did we not clean this ship when we bought it from the dealer?”

  “I thought he cleaned it for us.”

  “The state of the couch suggests otherwise.”

  Finn stood motionless for a moment. “We’ve been sitting in filth for the past month, haven’t we?”

  Jack crouched down and wiped his finger over the black baseboard. Shiny chrome was left in its path. He jumped back to his feet, hastily wiping his finger on his dark pants. “Yes. Yes, we have.”

  Finn scowled, holding his hands in fists against his chest. “Now I’m afraid to touch anything.”

  “We were just on the floor!”

  “I don’t want to think about it.” His friend shook his head.

  “What’s going on in there?” Alyssa shouted from the bridge.

  �
�We just realized the baseboards are supposed to be chrome,” Jack replied.

  “That’s not possible,” Triss replied after an extended pause.

  A moment later, she appeared in the corridor that led to the bridge. She knelt down and ran her finger along a different section of baseboard.

  “Oh, stars!” She recoiled with horror.

  “Yeah, like we were saying,” Jack said, still unable to move from his standing position. He shifted his cybernetic eye to the ultraviolet setting—something he’d learned to avoid under normal circumstances—and was greeted by the sight of several pools and splatters on the furniture and walls. His mouth dropped open. “I think someone died in here.”

  “What makes you say that?” Triss asked.

  Jack swallowed the bile rising in his throat. “You don’t want to see what I see.” He hastily cycled the image back to normal, but the gruesome image was burned into his memory.

  Triss held her arms to her chest in much the same manner as the two men. “We can’t have a passenger in here until this ship gets cleaned up.”

  “A passenger?” Finn wailed. “What about us?!”

  Jacked stared at him with wide, haunted eyes. “I can’t un-see what I saw. You don’t want to know what’s invisible to organic eyes.”

  Finn shuddered. “I need to get out of here!”

  “What’s going on?” Alyssa asked from the bridge.

  Triss wrapped her arms around herself. “Alyssa, find us a detailing service!”

  CHAPTER 2: Wheeling and Dealing

  — — —

  The moment the Little Princess II was docked at the Caleron Station, Jack dashed to the main access hatch. “Blood… So much invisible blood…” he murmured.

  “I can’t believe we’ve been rolling around on the floor.” Finn took a shaky breath. “I thought they were black. I really did.”

  “I don’t understand how it could be so filthy,” Triss said. “I mean, we’re in space. It’s not like we’ve been tracking mud in from outside.”