The Continuum Dealer: the Mercenaries

By Robert Colling

In the fifth installment of The Continuum Dealer series, the Brethren, led by Jaikayus and Sloan, have rebranded themselves mercenaries and offer their services to all, including the banking planet. Lee, Raul, and Hannah help Ethan all they can, but can they protect him from the hooded figure attending all his naming ceremonies. Other personalities from Ethan’s past round out the cast of characters driven by jealousies and greed. Strange adventures await all on bizarre new planets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664134942

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Copyright © 2020 by Robert Colling.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/09/2020

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Contents

Chapter 1 Mercenaries

Chapter 2 Hannah

Chapter 3 Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 4 The Banking Planet

Chapter 5 Lee

Chapter 6 Freja

Chapter 7 Angel Wall

Chapter 8 The Brethren

Chapter 9 Planet Waran Six

Chapter 10 Len

Chapter 11 Aile Wei

Chapter 12 Sanctuary

Chapter 13 Cochon Cochon

Chapter 14 Rivals

Chapter 15 Raul

Chapter 16 Precinct 3

Chapter 17 The Palace

Chapter 18 Space Walk

Chapter 19 Endgame

Chapter 20 Education

Chapter 21 Colors

Chapter 22 The Baby

Chapter 23 Automatons

Chapter 1

Mercenaries

Jaikayus was organizing his thoughts and he pictured his voice sounding full of mystery. Sloan, I hope this grabs your attention! You and I are going to rob the bankers on the banking planet and steal millions of credits right from under their noses without them even knowing it happened. That should pique her interest.

The small skip ship floated through deep space without power. Sloan looked out the window at the endless dark. The running lights were off, and the ship moved slowly forward into the cold black punctuated only by the fewest of distant stars.

Are you warm enough? Jaikayus never took his eyes off the dead front view monitor.

Warm enough…I guess. Sloan folded her arms tightly under her coat.

It’s been at least an hour since I jettisoned the ships locator beacon. Jaikayus reached for the power switch but thought better of it. Let’s give it one more hour and then we’ll be off.

Sloan’s forehead wrinkled. Off to where? I hope you have some kind of plan to keep me out of jail. Why did you break me out anyway?

To answer your first question, yes I have a plan for what’s going to happen next. I also have a plan that covers the thing after that. You should know something about me. I pride myself in planning three steps ahead. I am way out in front of anything the police could think of, that’s for sure. As to why I broke you out of jail, well let’s just say you figure into my upcoming plans to steal millions of credits.

Do you think Colonel Meyers survived? Never mind. Care to fill me in on your big master plan?

I can share two things with you right now. I want us to be co leaders of the Brethren going forward. You bring an affinity to most of the Brethren that were somehow hurt by the Continuum Dealer. I think, no I know, we’ll work great together.

Sloan tried not to sound too curious. And the other thing?

The Brethren are officially out of the revenge business. Our primary mission will no longer be bringing an end to the Continuum Dealer concept.

Sloan knew she had to let him talk it out. She would pretend to be interested and he would blab about all his big plans. For now, just keep talking mister.

This time Jaikayus turned and looked straight at her. We’re going to make the Brethren the most sought-after mercenaries in the universe. We’re going to rebrand ourselves as an army for hire. I’ve already set the wheels in motion. Right now, our Brethren brothers and sisters are spreading the word. Most have already started military training. Planets will be lining up for our services and that means a large amount of credits.

That all sounds very exciting. Sloan was sounding snarky on purpose. A new calling. A new direction.

Jaikayus picked up on her tone. I expected you to have some trouble with this. Let me take this last bit of time before we power up to make my case.

Look, I’ve been at this for many years. Yes, I kept myself invisible, but that was the only way the others would accept my direction. I gave them a specific objective… Sloan took a breath.

Jaikayus cut her off. I’m sorry, but I have to interrupt. I think any outsider would say that your leadership proved a failure to the mission and ineffective to the end results.

Sloan slumped back in her seat.

Jaikayus continued, Look, the Continuum Dealer is not dead, and you ended up in jail. There it had to be said. I promise you I won’t mention it again.

Sloan groaned under her breath.

Listen, I’d like to tell you the whole plan right now. And, yes I know you think I’m stupid for revealing everything.

Sloan sat up and settled in and tried to find her best poker face.

In a nutshell, my plan is all about credits. The universe runs on credits, everybody knows that. Well I intend to grab some, maybe a lot, for myself. You and the other brethren will be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Then, when I’ve got enough, I intend to fly off somewhere and retire. You’ll be free to resume your personal calling to remove the Continuum Dealer, and you’ll have the credits to do it right this time.

So, your big plan is to rob a bunch of people on different planets by pretending to be a mercenary force?

"Why rob a bunch of different places when the credits are basically all in one place?

Sloan couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing. You mean to tell me your big plan is to pull a banking planet heist. Sloan made her voice sound slow and dimwitted, Gee, I’m sure nobody ever thought to try that before.

Jaikayus smiled and discarded her comment. Phase one is to get all the brethren on board and trained. We will then hire ourselves out to planets in need of our services and develop a spotless reputation. Once we have all positive reviews, we’ll immediately go into phase two.

Sloan’s tone was flat. Is that when you plan to attack the unsuspecting bankers? The banking planet is one of the most strongly guarded and fortified planets there is. Is that when your elite force of mercenaries will slip in undetected and take all the credits?

The banking planet’s guard is made up of one rather small police station that monitors threats from off world. Yes, they have the absolute best planetary defense that credits can buy, but it’s actually aging and somewhat out of date. You see no ones attacked the banking planet or tried to rob it in some time now. The police there have become complacent.

So, what’s phase two?

A large number of our brethren will feign an attack on the banking planet. The police there are set up to repel a small gang of thieves. They’re not set up to defeat a large attacking force. They will try their best to shoot down a few attacking ships. Once they sense that they will be overwhelmed, they will send out a call for help from any nearby travelers. That’s when you and I and the rest of the official Brethren mercenary force will answer the call and quell the assault.

Sloan was catching up now. They’ll be so grateful that they’ll hire us as reinforcements to their police squad.

Jaikayus was grinning. Exactly, and they’ll even pay for our services.

I don’t want any of the attacking Brethren hurt…

No, don’t worry, we’ll use nothing but stun guns and ship disablers.

I suppose there’s a phase three…?

That’s the best and final part of the plan. In phase three we’re going to take shifts in the police rotation guarding the banking planet. I have personally purchased, at some great expense, a coded credit skimmer, at least that’s what I like to call it.

Sloan looked skeptical. I’m sure the banking planet has people who look for things like that.

Sure, everyone looks for a skimmer on credits that are on their way in. If someone gets paid then they know how much should be in their personal account. This device skims credits on their way out. Credits that the bank moves to other investments.

Is that possible?

I’ve tried it on a very limited scale. Remember, I’m only skimming small change, fractions of credits if you will. It works just great.

Sloan was doing the math. Small fractions? You’ll be there forever. Years.

Jaikayus looked briefly out the window when he thought he saw a ship go by. You’re thinking too small. How many planets do you think there are now? Well there are thousands. We’ll be skimming just a little from each planet and every one of their transactions. Credits get moved and invested millions of times a month. I’ve projected we’ll all be stinking rich by the end of the second month. We’ll leave out ensuring the banking planet that they are safe and no longer need our services.

And then you’ll let me do what I want with the Continuum Dealer?

Sure. Jaikayus frowned. "I wish you could see how your revenge mission is so passé. I won’t go into it