Yiee Dharle was the older brother of Yiel, and leader of the Command Mineral Cartel that mined many of the asteroids of the banned regions for metals that they used to manufacture weapons in the proud tradition of the Dharle family. Command are all former members of the Hafjeris military, either the Flight or Ground Commands, and they were chosen by the Dharle family to smuggle resources from the Banned Regions and onto the planet Hafjeran. This is the secret of the Dharle family success at weapons manufacturing, and though mining the banned regions is illegal for inhabitants of Hafjeran, the family avoids penalties by employing their cartel that technically does not reside on the planet, but generally lives in outposts in the banned regions. The Cartel has managed to secure resources within the banned regions, and they are in a constant state of conflict with other criminal organizations to maintain their control in the area.
Yiel Dharle was furious to learn of the death of his brother. He was on Hafjeran when he got the news and he took off in his ship toward the banned regions. He yelled at everyone who had been out scavenging with Yiee.
“What happened to my brother?!” Yiel said at the largest outpost where his cartel gathered. It had been taken over from Fhetatian miners who has terraformed most of the asteroid.
They answered with embarrassment and showed him video from the encounter with the small ship of Whadgaf Jiris.
“My brother was murdered by some Hafjeris lady with fat green wings?” he yelled and swung the mace-like weapon that he was known to carry, that would explode tiny buckshots in the direction of impact, and he decapitated an unfortunate member of the cartel. His head flew far and it was full of holes like Swiss cheese.
“Find her! I want to know how she was able to kill an entire ship of our soldiers!”
On Frial’s crewship, the mad man is nervous. His assistant, the woman known as Restili is tied up in the main command room for her attempts to incite a mutiny, but she smiles defiantly. Her family, the lauded Rhaldeg family of Hafjeran, sent a ship in pursuit of the crewship with the goal of wiping it from existence. Restili had been blackmailed into Frial’s service, and the Rhaldegs thought it best to kill her and erase any evidence of her embarrassment.
Most of the crew is gathered in the main command room. Restili is bound to a wall and occasionally Frial slaps and spits at her, and she always smiles in response. The Druinte with the bomb strapped to eris neck minds the engine controls. The other member of the crew is also Druinte and e too worked for Frial out of fear for eris life; Frial has compromising pictures of the Druinte engaged in sexual acts, knowledge of which will make erim a pariah on the planet Druont.
Everyone in the command room sweats except for Restili who knows that she will soon have the revenge on Agent Red that she wants, even if it costs her and everyone on board their lives. She feels no fear, she has no reason to. Every member of the crew had agreed to this plan, including Sevi, the ship nurse who had much practice buttering up superiors as she rose through the ranks of the Universal Infirmary on Oin, and she had produced a command performance to convince Frial that she was betraying Restili’s plans for mutiny. In actuality, every member of the crew was prepared to die for their sins and Restili knew that her family would rather see her, and even innocent people, die, rather than news of her financial transgressions at her job spreading around Hafjeran. Frial was too giddy at the ease with which his plan for revenge on Whadgaf had unfolded to avoid being outsmarted by his crew and he is nervous for the first time on his journey as he eyes the nearing banned regions through the command room front-exterior display monitors. The only good news Frial has in the moment is that apparently Whadgaf is stopped and has been for a while. Maybe she was hijacked, he chuckles nervously to himself. It was the only sure bet that she would meet her demise with his fate looming largely unpredictable.
Whadgaf and her new shipmate, Sib, are all business on the humanitarian throughway to the banned regions. Sib monitors the engines and various thrusters, while Whadgaf navigates the ship almost recklessly through the fast, but orderly moving traffic. They are so close to the banned regions now that warp speed is both unnecessary and dangerous.
“We’re making good time,” Sib says as she charts their steady progress toward the ship of Agent Red. “I’m going to send a communique, beg them to meet us at the next fueling station.”
Whadgaf smiles, “Let me do it. I owe him one.”
This is her message:
You lying, splay-winged jafara, I thought this was all about me. I thought you wanted to best me and then vanquish me? Why all the hostages?
If you want to kill me, avenge your weak, wingless family, those inbreed cowards that were only good for a blood shower, then you will stop at the next fueling station and take your revenge.
You can’t blow me up because I’m not in your ship. I’m sure you noticed that my tracker has moved on your map in some time now. And that Rhaldeg ship is closing in. You don’t have much choice at all. If you want me, stop now.
Sib and Whadgaf see Frial’s crew ship descend to the nearest fueling station in their tracking display, and the Rhaldeg ship is not far behind.
Whadgaf and Sib are the last to land. They see a contingent of the crew of the Rhaldeg ship standing next to it in uniforms that identified them as an official security delegation of the Rhaldeg district. The ship has its laser cannons focused on Frial’s ship as he disembarks using Restili as a human shield.
“We need a plan,” Whadgaf says urgently. They have not been noticed by anyone involved and they watch the scene unfold as many other bystanders do.
“I have a friend close by with a compatible spacecraft,” Sib explains. “I don’t think that we can out run them, but if we can get my sister, we can slip away and merge with my friend’s ship, disappear in plain sight.”
Whadgaf has Sib put the plan in motion as she leaves the ship and flies to land between the two hostile parties.
“No one will die here today!” Whadgaf yells as her wings grow in a flourish and glow a resplendent green.
“Just you Jiris!” Frial says with a maddended laugh.
“Both of you, Restili Rhaldeg and red wings,” a Rhaldeg officer yells, “both of you are to follow me immediately.”
Sib had decided to sneak onto Frial’s ship as she rescued the Druintes and her sister who hugged her and cried.
“I was ready to lay down my life as restitution for the trauma my daughter has suffered,” Sevi says through sobs.
“She is safe sister, we must get off of this station. Get to my ship and I will hail our true savior, the fearless Whadgaf.”
Sevi leads her fellow crew members to Sib’s ship.
“What will it be you Rhaldeg thugs?” Frial yells. “A shoot out?”
Whadgaf grabs Restili in a flash and leaves Frial with no cover. The Rhaldegs open fire at Frial and in the direction of the blur of green that Whadgaf leaves in her wake. She makes it to Sib’s ship before the Ointite and her sister, and the two Druintes.
Frial is hit multiple times, but he is wearing protective gear that buys enough time for him to retreat behind his ship. He sees his crew boarding a smaller ship in the distance and he smiles his most maddened smile as he triggers the bomb on the Druinte. Eris head explodes to the horror of eris compatriots. The other Druinte is petrified at the reminder of Frial’s leverage over erim and he backs away from the ship as the doors close and the ships powers up for take off.
Frial has more tricks up his sleeve. His ship has a remote control that he produces from his pocket, and he operates the ship to crash the Rhaldeg vessel, to disastrous results. Half of the fueling station explodes and hundreds perish.
But not Agent Red, who collects his remaining crew member, confiscates a ship, and speeds away from the banned regions.
Whadgaf and her new crew, Restili Rhaldeg of Hafjeran, and the sisters Sevi and Sib Swite of Oin, decide to spend time recovering in the safe zone of the banned regions following their ordeal. Sib arranged for Sevi’s daughter Yule to meet them there after a few days RET, and they recuperated in the Banned Regions Branch of the Universal Infirmary.
Whadgaf had won the race; but the war continues. Agent Red will not rest until he is dead.
PRL Serials 