Dandelion: Last Stand, #5

By Blaze Ward

When Tessa and Last Stand get hired to inspect an old wreck for overlooked cargo, they find far more than they expected.

 

Enough weapons to start a war. Or at least a revolution.

 

But Tessa has been hired to do a job, and she will.

 

Regardless of the cost, to her, or the rest of the galaxy.

 

Book Five of the Last Stand, a shiny, new space western science fiction adventure series full of bright characters, messy worlds, and all manner of ethical conundrums. 

 

Start first with Lost Dreams and then continue on and pick up the rest of this series!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Jun 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781644703571

Blaze Ward

Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer,  The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places. Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!

Book preview

Dandelion

Dandelion

Last Stand

Book Five

Blaze Ward

Knotted Road Press

Contents

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

Scene Five

Scene Six

Scene Seven

Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Scene Ten

Scene Eleven

Scene Twelve

Scene Thirteen

Scene Fourteen

Scene Fifteen

Scene Sixteen

Scene Seventeen

Scene Eighteen

Read More

About the Author

Also by Blaze Ward

About Knotted Road Press

Scene One

Tessa studied the stars as she floated through space, trying to decide if any of them formed patterns she might recognize. It was one thing to sit on the bridge of Last Stand and watch out a window. Something entirely else to be in a semirigid Cargosuit with nothing but vacuum around you.

Ahead of her, a big, dead starship was coming into focus piece by piece.

Any reason we didn’t simply dock with the ship, stop its tumble, and board? Wyatt asked, floating along beside her.

Ship’s supposed to be abandoned, Tessa reminded him. Tumbling for a reason, after the cops chased it here, shot out the engines, then captured the pirates when they hit the escape pods.

It’s not like hardly anybody knows where this thing is, Wyatt pointed out.

Tessa nodded inside her suit, where he wouldn’t see it. Bao Li had hired her to come out here and take a look at the hulk. See if there was anything worth salvaging. How she’d gotten the vector was a trade secret the woman hadn’t been willing to share.

Tessa assumed somebody on the old crew had finally gotten out of prison and sold the information for enough yuan to live on. Or a corrupt cop hitting his retirement.

She didn’t know if the whole crew of the old Carrack-style cargo carrier Dandelion had been executed for their various crimes, and hadn’t bothered looking it up. Even asking around would cause other people to perk up and maybe decide to come snooping themselves.

Easier to just get a solid vector from Bao Li, some up-front expense money, and a promise to be open-minded about what Tessa might bring back later.

Bao Li was a fence, as well as a fixer. If you had problems with the local authorities on Newhall, she fixed them for you.

For a price.

She also hired criminal vagabonds like Tessa and her crew for odd jobs that didn’t fit the mold of a legitimate businesswoman.

At least she paid well.

And her latest request was for Tessa, Wyatt, and Last Stand to come out here, off the dark edge of the Tywich system, and take a look at what scanned just like a tumbling rock.

Do we know what that woman is expecting us to find? Wyatt continued, changing tack when she didn’t answer.

Ship was a pirate, Wyatt, Tessa replied. That cargo got confiscated a decade ago. Bao Li thinks that maybe some of the things stuffed in smuggling compartments got overlooked. And maybe they’re still worth something today.

Ship’s a beast, Wyatt noted as they got closer to the hatch Fin had identified earlier as being the best bet to board. We ain’t got that much space.

She only wants the valuable stuff, Tessa countered. Hulk’s not worth hardly anything. Old Carrack that had been blasted a few too many times. Not like pirates are known for keeping precise maintenance cycles anyway. They wear a ship out, then somebody lands them in a boneyard. Somebody else comes along later and slowly strip mines them for parts. Eventually, nothing left but old steel that other someones will melt down and cast into new ships.

She heard Wyatt grunt in his own helmet, but he didn’t offer any sage advice at that point. Probably for the better.

Last Stand kinda fit into that category. Old and worn. Randovall Nucleonautics Light Tumbrel that Tessa had named for the events on Vinoris when she’d been kidnapped into the losing side of a rebellion. And somehow survived.

Her ship was a passenger-configured freighter. Old and fourth-hand. Zaddinul manufacture so hard to find parts, plus weird styling and measurements.

Zaddinul soul, too, so sometimes a pain in the ass, but Last Stand would never surrender. Like her.

The ship in front of them was a cousin, but the men flying her had supposedly surrendered. Been taken in by Johnny Law and most of them hung, if Bao Li had told her the right story.

Not always a given, out in Hawkswold Sector. Lot of crime on the Periphery. Too many people and not enough jobs. The rich folks in charge liked it that way, because they could always find people desperate enough to do ethically squishy things.

At least nobody had suggested that they try going straight again.

Hadn’t worked last time. Wasn’t likely to work next time.

Not unless she was part of a revolution that was successful.

The day was young.

We’re here, she announced, twisting until she landed like a cat, magnetic feet first onto the side of the metal hull. Wyatt was even more graceful, but it was a physical activity that might involve him getting to shoot people.

He always took those seriously.

Nobody listening on any channels I can find, Fin said over the radio.

He was using a low-power broadcast today. Auntie Maru had dialed things down so that the whole system wasn’t listening in as they started doing a thing some folks might view as grave robbing.

Tessa pulled a rebroadcasting unit from a pouch on her thigh and attached it to the hull next to the hatch. It would use the whole body of the ship as an antenna, so she could be inside where signals wouldn’t necessarily reach, and still talk to her husband and crew.

Without all of Tywich system listening.

Hatch was half-closed. Too tight for even a Softsuit to safely slip in, let alone a tall woman like her in a Cargosuit or a beast like Wyatt Nakada.

Wyatt was already turning the manual wheel to open the airlock hatch. Control panel on her side didn’t show any power, but that was after a decade drifting through space at a low enough speed that Dandelion would be another generation or two making it out of this solar system.

Fast enough and far enough out to no longer be a navigational hazard. And not even the only such ship in the process of being lost forever in this system.

They got inside and she went to work on the inner hatch while Wyatt stood guard behind her. No gravity aboard. No atmospheric pressure. Not even power, but she figured that there might be a few batteries still running somewhere.

Life support and engines were always the biggest power drains. With those off, the rest could hum quietly.

For a decade?

She’d see. Bao Li had paid her a nice stipend to look, on the understanding that Tessa was an honorable businesswoman and would report back with what she found. Or what she could steal