DJ's Mission by A. E. McCullough

want?”
    Deputy Hagan slowly relaxed his grip on his weapon
and nodded. “You are entirely correct, Hunter Falcon. I apologize for my
partner’s behavior.”
    Deputy Bunnell lowered his head. “I just wanted to
say that your ship is a beauty. I’ve never seen the likes of it.”
    DJ knew that he’d insulted the egos of the local
LEOs – Law Enforcement Officials – with the ease at which he’d put them at such
a disadvantage however he didn’t want to alienate them completely nor make them
angry at him. Now was a time to allow the Sheriffs a chance to save face.
    “That’s okay Deputy Bunnell. It is partially my
fault. I am always a bit on edge when I’m on a hunt. I apologize for my threat
and handling of the situation and I thank you for the compliment on the Aetós.
I tend to agree, she is a beaut. Sylvan designed and constructed, I won her
almost a decade back gambling and she’s served me well ever since.” All this
was in the back story Iaido had created for him and logged somewhere out in
cyberspace. It was a logical explanation for him to have such a unique ship,
especially since the Aetós hadn’t been seen in this sector in over seven Terran
years.
    Deputy Hagan nodded. “That must’ve been a lucky
hand.”
    “Nope. Craps. I actually won her on back to back
rolls of snake-eyes. It was the luckiest two rolls I’ve ever had.” With that,
he turned his back on the sheriffs and moved into the main section of the
Saturn Galactic Spaceport.
    It wasn’t nearly as busy as Haven but it was
busier that what he’d expected. His suit continued to scan for possible threats
and nearly went into overload since everyone in sight carried a weapon of some
sort. He actually had to disable the ‘target threat’ function of his suit. The
major downside was the fact if there was anyone following him at the moment,
his suit wouldn’t be able to warn him or track them. It was back to the use of
eyeballs 101 but right now that was the least of his worries.
    UR-L8 whistled to get his attention. “This unit is
pleased to be this close to home and is looking forward to reuniting with
mistress Kaitlyn.”
    DJ waved a hand to quiet the ‘bot. “Stow that
talk. We’re walking into the lion’s den.”
    UR-L8 had no idea what the Staff Sergeant meant
with the obscure reference to some sort of mammal’s house but understood that
the intention of his command ‘stow’ meant to ‘put away’ which was enough to
know that he wanted this unit to remain silent.
    Their passage through the spaceport’s busy
walkways seemed to become less crowded as he approached. DJ noticed that many
of the travelers and workers gave him a sideways glance as he moved past, some
even openly stared. He imagined that he must look rather daunting in the Red
Falcon armor, which is probably why Iaido had crafted this persona in the first
place. It is so far removed from his normal personality that no one would ever
have suspected that the original Red Falcon was actually Iaido ‘Achilles’
Spartan. And since the Falcon had never been seen without his armor, he was able
to take over the role. Which of course, allowed the imposter to do the same
thing but that wasn’t his concern right now. Finding a way to get Kaitlyn off
of Titan safely was his only mission.
    DJ did notice several other deputies stationed
strategically around the starport but he only spied two Coalition officers.
They looked to have just arrived on Titan and were having a deep discussion. DJ
was certain he hadn’t met the blonde before; a looker like her would be hard to
forget. However, the salt and pepper haired commander looked vaguely familiar.
It was probably just someone he’d served with during his time in the service.
With a flick of his eye, he shunted the image to a file and added a reminder to
do a database search later, just in case.
    When a shadowy figure disconnected itself from a
nearby corridor and discreetly fell in behind him, DJ was too busy to