He Who Fights and Runs Away (Broken Dark Season One, Episode One)

By Taylor P. Davidson

600 years from now, mankind has left Earth behind. The Milky Way is filled with seed colonies and teems with human life. Yet despite all our advances in science, we have yet to surpass our most primal natures. We carried all of our greed, wars and decadences with us into the stars and our far flung worlds are every bit as dangerous as Earth is now.

Lord Alasdair Donaghue, Duke of the British Stellar Dalcross Systems, has tried to remedy this with a second war on alcohol. But just as bootleggers emerged in the United States of America in the 1920’s, Prohibition has opened the door for criminals to grow rich once again. Famed for her resourceful and ruthless nature, Lisa Tant is one such smuggler. She has grown bold and confident with her ever growing infamy and it is on Calgany Space Station that she faces her reckoning. Betrayed by someone in her own crime syndicate, Tant finds herself the focus of the Alcohol Enforcement Agency and must flee the space station with her crew, cut off from her ship with seemingly nowhere to run.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Taylor P. Davidson
• Release date: Jun 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311132116

Taylor P. Davidson

Taylor P. Davidson was born in Manchester, England, and moved to Norfolk when he was very young. Living in Norfolk’s wide, open fields and sweeping forests, Taylor grew up on steady diet of fantasy and science fiction, with authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, H. G. Wells and J. K. Rowling being among his favourites. They have become prominent figures as inspiration for his work and heavily influence everything he writes.Taylor studied biology at the University of Manchester and he is now training to be a radiographer at the University of Leeds. He plans to balance his writing with his career and is currently juggling his projects around his studies, work placements with the NHS and a busy social life.

Book preview

He Who Fights and Runs Away

Broken Dark

Season One, Episode One

Taylor P. Davidson

He Who Fights and Runs Away

By Taylor P. Davidson

Copyright © 2014 David Taylor

Smashwords Edition

Taylor P. Davidson is the pseudonym of David Taylor

Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means other than that in which it is published.

All characters and situations in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons or events are entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Broken Dark: Episode One

Acknowledgements

About the Author

For Travis

Your advice and support helped make this book possible.

Introduction

From the days of our ancestors, those forgotten few who birthed us all, mankind has gazed awestruck into the heavens above. Night falls and the brilliant blue sky rolls away, allowing us a brief glimpse into a universe we will never fully understand. Yet we do not need its secrets to bathe in its beauty. Its empty blackness resonates in the depths of our souls, kindling a longing in our hearts that we can never fill. Mankind has always loved space and we have always coveted the stars; gemstones in an ocean of black. Stars have passed judgement over the most terrible of our failures and have been the proud witnesses of our grandest triumphs. They are the silent observers of our history and lives.

Our lust for the stars has always united us as brothers and sisters whether we knew it or not. Our need to leave our planet behind—to explore the wonders the universe holds—burns with every beat of our hearts and every lungful of air. It is the drive that eventually dragged the creeds of humanity together and allowed us to become more than what we were. With technologies our noble ancestors could not have even dreamt of, mankind left Mother Earth behind. We terraformed and seeded far flung planets; we built great space stations that glittered above our brave new worlds, monoliths of glass and steel.

But just as we are unable to ignore our lust for the stars, we also yield to the basic drives and instincts that have kept humanity alive for so long. We took our wars with us into the heavens; we carried into them all of our petty hatreds and hungers for more than what we have. Black still stands against white; Islam against Christianity; the rich against the poor. They are the shackles of our success, decadences that have always kept mankind in check.

Yet there have always been those who seek to break the chains that bind us. Religions strive to better men and women. Laws help to maintain peace in our societies and give justice to those unfairly wronged. But there are only so many hearts and minds they can touch. Drugs, alcohol, sex, jealousy: all can be as detrimental to mankind as hate and greed. And so it is in the Celestial Empire of Great Britain in the year 2622 where another reckoning with decadence is made. Lord Alasdair Donaghue, the Duke of the Stellar Dalcross Systems, declared a second war on alcohol: the vice that fuels so many of our crimes and petty hatreds. The Empire is dubious of this ‘second’ Prohibition; sceptical of its success and reluctant to part with an industry that is worth trillions in pound sterling. But the Alcohol Enforcement Agency was formed to enforce Lord Donaghue’s new laws. Prohibition Agents were trained and granted special powers to bring bootleggers to heel and utterly end the illegal distribution of alcohol.

But the Empire was right and its citizens are not so easily tamed. Violence and crime is more prevalent than ever in the Stellar Dalcross Systems. Bootleggers operate in organised rackets that have corrupted almost every office of government and society. Ships and vessels glide through space, docking in neighbouring systems and loading their holds with a liquid that is now worth more than gold. The captains of these ships have become experts at slipping through Lord Donaghue’s nets undetected; they have become true masters of spacefaring and their hearts dwell forever in the broken dark.

And of all the worlds and cities that know the illegal sale of alcohol, one settlement has risen above all others in the ambition of its crime. Calgany used to be famous for being the first space station to be called home by three million people. Now it is known for being the cesspit of the Empire, filled with gangsters and bloated on the riches of underhand dealings and forbidden vices. Its halls are awash with blood and all know Iain Clay is to blame, the kingpin of the largest crime syndicate to have ever existed.

Lord Donaghue is determined to restore Calgany to its former reputation and has ordered the Alcohol Enforcement Agency to respond in kind. His Prohibitions Agents have focused their attentions on Clay’s dealings and Agent Aiden Wallace was given command of the operation. The patriot has decided the time is ripe to strike and plans to arrest all of the gangsters known to deal in alcohol in one decisive, ambitious raid. The time of the bootlegger is nearly over. The time of a peaceful and prosperous society is at hand.

Episode One

[Location]: Calgany Space Station

[Mother Earth Standard Time]: 15th June 2627

[Local Time]: 2nd March 0243 Since Settlement

The weight of purifying Calgany weighed heavily on Aiden Wallace as his car moved in on a warehouse. The success of Operation Hammer Stroke could bolster his career, making him so well known that a directorship position was all but guaranteed in years to come. But success was key, and failure to arrest Iain Clay would almost certainly have the opposite effect, disgracing him enough to set his future prospects back by decades. That was the main reason he wanted to arrest Lisa Tant himself. They did not have enough evidence to move on Clay yet, but Tant—who was wanted for smuggling alcohol, murder and resisting arrest in at least half a dozen systems—was one of the most notorious bootleggers in his crime syndicate. Tant would be a prestigious arrest and would go far in demonstrating his competence and resolve to the Alcohol Enforcement Agency’s directors.

That was, if he ever got to her warehouse. The sirens of his police entourage wailed loudly and there were enough flashing lights to dazzle a blind man, but the shoppers that surrounded them seemed to pay little attention. They parted around his convoy begrudgingly, thronging together into disgruntled crowds that lined the sides of the road like curtains. He was in a pedestrianized area, he supposed, on a Saturday evening in one of Calgany’s busiest commercial districts, but he had hoped that its shoppers would have diminished by this late hour. They had not, and packs of civilians muttered discontentedly amongst themselves, frowning and pointing at the cars they were effectively slowing to a crawl.

Aiden sighed and ran a hand over his clean-shaven chin irritably. I can get out and walk faster than this, he thought. He tried busying himself to take his mind off the journey, readjusting his tie yet again and subtly checking his hair in his reflection in the window. The face that stared back at him was so tightly drawn with anxiety he barely recognised it. Yet it had his prominent, aquiline nose and those familiar eyes that were almost as dark as pitch. He sighed again, turning towards Laura Reid as she finally broke the silence that had settled between them.

They’ll be long gone by the time we get there. And that’s even if we get there, which I seriously doubt at this rate. Can’t the driver go any faster?

Aiden resumed his study of the shopping district through the window. Brickwork shops rose around the edges of the boulevard, three stories high with flashing, colourful signs above their doors that bore the names of renowned retailers. Everywhere he looked, advertising films played through endlessly on wall-mounted screens or were being projected upwards as giant holograms from the ground. Even the trees lining the centre of the boulevard had been seized for marketing, with a plethora of posters pinned to their trunks. Tant has nowhere to go, Laura. The police are moving in on her ship as we speak, even as others bear down on Iain Clay’s known associates. Smile. There’s nowhere on this station she can hide; no friends she can turn to. Calgany will finally be free of bootleggers and the alcohol they sell here.

Even so . . .

Aiden turned towards her again. Her face, which he often thought looked slightly angular because of her strong jawline, was puckered into a frown and she chewed her bottom lip vigorously. Something’s on your mind.

Laura was silent for a moment. You’re sure that bringing the police instead of our own shocktroopers was a good idea? I’m not being funny, but they aren’t even in the same league as our guys. And besides, Tant will hear these sirens half a mile away.

She will.

And you’re okay with that, are you?

She’s supposed to hear them.

Laura stared at him for a moment, her mouth hanging open What do mean ‘she’s supposed to hear them?’

Come on, you know who we’re after here. Tant and her crew are professionals; they’re dangerous. You must have read their profiles? Tant is as an ex-Imperial officer for one thing and will know exactly how our shocktroopers would hit her warehouse. And if she’s not there herself, the chances are Dempsey or Burke will be. Between an ex-officer and two urban guerrillas who lived through the Livingstone campaign, I don’t know who’s worse. What I do know though, is we should avoid a firefight at all costs.

So you want them to run?

Yes, Laura, I want them to run. Like I’ve said, there’s going to be one hell of a shootout if our shocktroopers confront them. We’ll overwhelm them in the end, of course, but we’ll lose men on both sides and I want them in prison for what they’ve done—all of them—not in a morgue.

But they won’t be in prison, will they? God knows where they’ll be if you let them escape.

Aiden laughed. I said I wanted them to run, not escape. Believe me when I say that’s not going to happen. We’ve got this whole section sealed down tight—there’s no-one getting in or out of it without having to go through a checkpoint first. And to make things even worse for Tant, our shocktroopers and the police are hitting all of Clay’s known associates as we speak. Tant—

Will have nowhere to run to, Laura finished. I don’t know, Aiden, even sealed off this section’s still a big place. This plan’s risky. I . . . I don’t like it.

Aiden shrugged. You don’t have to. Just remember that the police know these streets and have informants in all the gangs that operate here. Wherever Tant goes to ground, someone will hear or see and then it’s game over.