Delroy Versus the Yshtari Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  1: The Ruthless Baron

  2: Soliloquy of a Villain

  3: Planet Fall

  4: Love at First Sight

  5: Escape to Prison

  6: Snack Time

  7: Prelude to a Royal Feast

  8: Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

  9: Angel in the Darkness

  10: Plan of Attack

  11: The Great Negotiator

  12: Delroy Stew and Other Delectables

  13: Snot Soup

  14: Compound Problems

  15: Pink Death

  16: Betrayed

  17: Sacrificial Offering

  18: Bye Bye Bot

  19: Death Dance

  20: Sacrifice

  21: Revenge

  22: Salesman of the Century

  23: All in Good Taste

  24: A Lover’s Reward

  EX1: Bought a Bot

  EX2: Rutherford’s Revenge

  About the Author

  BigWorldNetwork.com

  Copyright

  DELROY VERSUS THE YSHTARI

  Copyright © 2013 - Berin Stephens

  All rights reserved.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserve above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales is entirely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  The publisher does not have control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party web sites.

  Managing editor - Amanda Meuwissen

  Associate editor - Michelle Kisbee

  Book layout/Cover design - Mario Hernandez

  A BigWorldNetwork.com Book

  Published by BigWorldNetwork.com, LLC

  202 North Rock Road | 1303 | Wichita | KS | 67206

  www.bigworldnetwork.com

  First U.S. Edition: April 2013

  Printed in the United States of America

  by Berin Stephens

  Twelve, young person’s themes suitable only for readers of twelve years and older.

  BigWorldNetwork.com

  Kansas

  1: The Ruthless Baron

  1: The Ruthless Baron

  The starship shook as metal scraped against metal.

  “Minx, what was that?” I asked.

  My butler-bot, Minx, turned a metallic head on his boxy body my direction and said in his nerve-grating, shrill voice, “Sorry, sir. Docking procedure is now complete.” I swore to myself that if I could ever get enough credits to buy one of the new LX-350s, I was going to do it. After this job.

  “Is Killer ready?”

  “Uh…” Minx paused as his outdated processor tried to come up with another lame excuse.

  I mumbled to myself, “It is so hard to build good minions these days.”

  “Sir?”

  I looked up at him from my command chair. “What’s wrong with him this time?”

  “His torso still doesn’t turn, and the blaster on his left arm won’t fire. Oh, and the stunner still has a short in it.”

  “Great. Did you at least get his voice processor fixed?”

  “Not exactly, sir. He only speaks German now. Not sure why.”

  I just hoped Killer would still sound menacing. That was all I really needed, but with my luck, he probably sounded like a German bar maid. I stood up from my chair. “Let’s go.” I wrapped my cape around myself and walked to the docking bay door. Minx rolled ahead of me to the control panel. I put on my best, award-winning smile and nodded for Minx to open the door.

  “Are you sure this plan will work, sir?” Minx asked.

  “It’s fool-proof. Soon, I’ll be rich.”

  Minx pushed the button. The door opened half-way and stopped. Minx stood there, staring at it for several seconds. My growl prompted him to try the button again. The door made a whining noise but refused to open any further.

  “I thought you said you’d fixed that.” It was difficult to maintain my pleasant smile while gritting my teeth. So much for my grand entrance.

  Minx rolled over to the door and used one of his arms to push on the edge. The door squealed before it popped the rest of the way open. The LED lights on Minx’s flat-screen face depicted a smile. I hated that smile.

  I realized I was scowling at him when I saw the passengers of the ship we had just docked with. A middle-aged couple stood on the other side of the air lock with confused expressions. I quickly put my smile back up and strode across the access tube and onto their ship. “Greetings, good people,” I began. “I wanted to personally welcome you to my sector.”

  The man tilted his head. “Your sector? Just who are you and why did you forcefully dock with our ship?” I felt grateful this law-abiding citizen didn’t have any weapons, or he probably would have been aiming a gun at me at this point.

  Suckers.

  I maintained my smile as I bowed. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Baron Rutherford.”

  The man’s jaw dropped. “B-Baron Rutherford? As in Rutherford the Ruthless?”

  “The same.” Okay, so my name is really Delroy, but Delroy the Ruthless doesn’t quite have the right ring to it. Besides, the real Baron Rutherford wasn’t using his name anymore. And, as he had worked so hard all his life to make it strike fear in the hearts of ordinary people, I just couldn’t let it go to waste.

  The man and woman looked at each other and took a step back as I swept into their small cabin. Cozy. I noticed a door open a crack with at least two children peeking through it. So, a family. They were the best. Parents would do anything to protect their children; especially from me. Well, not me, but the ‘me’ I was pretending to be.

  “What…what do you want?” the now submissive man asked.

  I casually looked at my nails for dramatic effect before answering his question. “I don’t ask for much. I mainly wanted to warn you that this is a dangerous sector of space. Space pirates and the Yshtari carnivores are known to attack undefended ships. I can help you.”

  “Help us?”

  “Yes.” I strode across the cabin but stumbled when I tried to keep from tripping over a toy spaceship. I hoped I made it look smooth. I spread my hands out as I said, “For a modest protection fee, I can assure you safe passage through this sector. Surely, you’ve heard about the space liner that recently disappeared?”

  By now, Minx had rolled into the cabin, awaiting my orders.

  The woman spoke, her voice trembling, “But we don’t have any money to spare. We spent the last of our credits buying this ship.”

  Great. But I knew better than that. “I am willing to accept other forms of valuables. Gold, artwork…” I glanced at the rear door with a sly smile. “Children.”

  The woman let out a sob. “We’ve got some gold, and jewelry. Take it, but not the children, please.”

  Works every time.

  The man’s brow furrowed and he stood up st
raighter. “Wait a minute. You’re one of the richest men in the galaxy. Why do you want us to pay you a fee?”

  “John, don’t,” the wife begged, putting her hand on her husband’s arm.

  The man stepped toward me, his fear diminishing. “And I thought I’d read that Baron Rutherford had died in a crash a year ago.”

  Crap.

  I put my pleasant, salesman smile back on. “Rumors. True, I was in an accident, but I survived.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed. “No, I don’t think so. I’m sure of it.” He pointed to the airlock. “Get off my ship.”

  Okay, plan B. I nodded to Minx. He activated the remote he had concealed in his housing. I changed my smile from pleasant to sinister. I poured as much malevolence as I could into my voice, something I had learned from my days in a traveling Shakespeare troupe; I played Macbeth three times. “You leave me with no choice.” I snapped my fingers, again for dramatic effect.

  The sound of treads rolling over sheet metal came from the other side of the docking doors. If I couldn’t convince these people to comply, I knew that Killer would. The couple looked at each other and took a step back. They recognized the sound.

  We heard metal scrape on metal. The treads had quit rolling. “Wie gehts,” Killer said from the other side of the airlock. Well, at least it wasn’t a German barmaid voice, but it sounded like a friendly waiter ready to take an order. At that moment, I wanted to turn Minx into a toaster.

  Treads began to roll again. At least Killer’s appearance should strike fear into them. I waited for the fearsome battle-bot to roll into the cabin and put these people in their place. Instead, another crash sounded, followed by another friendly, “Wie gehts.”

  Minx leaned his head over and looked through the airlock. I took a step back and did likewise. There stood Killer, in all his menacing glory, stuck on a part of the door that hadn’t receded into its slot.

  Fortunately, I had a plan C. I pulled the laser pistol from the back of my sash and pointed it at the couple. People on my side of the law have no problem violating the weapons ordinances. “That’s it! Give me all your valuables.” When they didn’t move, I added, “Now!”

  The couple jolted into motion as they began to scramble through the cabin. The last thing I remember was a smile crossing my face just before I heard a zap and everything went black.

  When I came to, I found myself lying on the floor of the control room on my ship, the Rutherford’s Revenge. Minx stood over me with that cursed smile of his beaming down. “I am so glad you are okay, sir. Can I get you a drink?”

  I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked around. We were cruising at full speed through space. “What happened?” I felt for my pistol, but it was gone. I got up and stumbled to the hidden cabinet where I kept my spare pistol.

  “Sir, you might want to sit down when I tell you this.”

  Great. I grabbed the pistol and turned around to sit on my command chair. I then noticed that my cape was gone; I really liked that cape. “Minx, what happened?”

  “Well, sir, this is rather embarrassing, but it appears that Killer’s stunner short-circuited again and sort of accidentally went off.”

  I looked around for the battle-bot, but didn’t see any sign of him. “Where is he?”

  “Um, well, sir, you won’t like this.” My glare prompted him to continue. “Well, you see, after you lost consciousness, the people from the other ship took Killer and anything that looked valuable, which wasn’t much, and then they left.”

  “Why didn’t they take you?” If only I could have been so lucky.

  “They already had an LX-350 model and didn’t want an outdated butler-bot, it seems.”

  “Then turn us around and let’s go get my stuff back.”

  Minx flashed his electronic smile. “We can’t, sir.”

  “And why not?” My hands were gripping the arms of my chair so tight that the foam cushion on one side broke off.

  “Well, they sabotaged the controls to send us into deep space.”

  “Then fix them!”

  “I tried, sir. Truly, I did, but all I managed to do was to steer us toward Yshtari space. My apologies.” The LEDs showed that smile again.

  And then I shot him.

  2: Soliloquy of a Villain

  2: Soliloquy of a Villain

  I don’t know how long I sat there staring at the front viewscreen as stars zipped by. The Rutherford’s Revenge continued to plummet through hyperspace toward the unknown sector dominated by the man-eating Yshtari. I didn’t care. After all, I had just lost my battle-bot and my cape, which can be quite depressing.

  After a while, I stood up and walked over to where Minx stood, hunched over. He did this every time I shot him; he’d collapse and shut himself off. I hit his reset switch and his LED face came back to life.

  “Am…am I still alive?” he asked.

  “Yes. I only shot you in the foot. You’ll be fine.”

  “But I don’t have feet. I have treads.”

  “Same thing.” Every time we went through this routine, I felt a little guilty. True, robots don’t feel pain, but it made me realize that I needed to learn to control my impulses. Someday.

  I went back to my seat in order to work myself up into a good depression. It had been a while since I’d done that, so I figured I was past due. And there wasn’t much else I could do at the moment other than bemoan my fate.

  “Where have I gone wrong?” I asked myself as I buried my head in my hands.

  “If I may be so bold, sir, I don’t think this life of crime that you had envisioned is right for you. You don’t seem cut out for it. My personality assessment chip informs me that you would be much better suited to do something that requires delicate motor skills. Like knitting, perhaps.”

  I put my hands over my ears. The last thing I needed was to be psycho-analyzed by a robot.

  He continued, his voice penetrating right through my hands. “I think it all started when you left the Shakespeare troupe and decided to use your acting skills for illicit gains.”

  I looked up at him. “They are not illicit gains! There is a lot of loose money floating around in this galaxy, and all I’m trying to do is gather it up so that I can get filthy stinkin’ rich and buy my own planet to retire on. What’s wrong with that?”

  “It’s the way you go about it, sir. For instance, trying to swindle the retirement away from those people at the rest home on Neelix III.”

  “I wasn’t swindling. I was only setting things up so that I could get their leftover money after they…well, you know.”

  “And then there was that meat-flavored plant you found and tried to pawn off to the inhabitants of Tyron VI as beef. You should have known that they’d have it analyzed before they bought any of it.”

  “All I was doing was selling a product. It’s not my fault it didn’t contain any protein.”

  “And then you keep pretending to be Baron Rutherford so that you can extort money from people.”

  “It isn’t extortion. This is a dangerous part of space. All I’m doing is offering a protection service.”

  “But, sir, what you’ve done is closer to armed robbery.”

  Crap. Minx was right. I closed my mouth when I couldn’t come up with an argument.

  The scanner began to beep. Minx, who stood next to it, turned his head to look. “Uh, sir. We’re heading toward a solar system.”

  “That’s nice,” I said, trying to ignore him. I had more important things to think about. “Armed robbery? I’m not some low-life thug. I’m an actor; a good one.”

  “Sir. You don’t understand. We’re heading straight toward an asteroid belt!” His panic mode started to insert itself into his tone.

  “Of course, there’s no money in acting. All those lessons
, all those rehearsals, and what do I have to show for it? I always had to work a second job just to keep my bills paid. That’s not right. My skills deserved better pay than that.”

  “There is no way we can navigate through an asteroid belt without steering. You need to do something, sir.”

  I waved my hand dismissively. “You take care of it. I’m busy.”

  “Sir, my left tread is not working. I can barely move. We’re going to crash.” By now he’d worked his voice up into a frenzy.

  I leaned back in my chair. “I mean, don’t I deserve a life of luxury? I’ve worked hard my whole life and have nothing. Nothing. Sure, my mom is proud of me and loves to brag about her son, the actor, to her bridge club. But admiration from a bunch of old ladies isn’t getting me ahead in the world.”

  “Sir, we only have three minutes until impact.” Now he was rolling around in a circle and flailing his metal arms above his head.

  “But armed robbery? How did I get from offering a security service to armed robbery? Maybe I should consider a different career path.”

  Somehow, Minx had maneuvered himself to be right in front of me. He reached out and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. “Sir, you must snap out of it. We are about to die!”

  That worked like a glass of cold water in the face. “Die?”

  “Yes, as in blow up in a blazing ball of flame.”

  “Dying isn’t good. Why are you bothering me? I’m trying to think.” I lifted my blaster pistol and pointed it at him.

  He let go and rolled back. “Please don’t, sir. I only beg of you to save us. I don’t want to die.”

  I aimed at his right tread. That way, I could leave the room and he wouldn’t be able to follow me. But no, I realized, shooting him wouldn’t help me feel any better. And there was this whole dying in a fiery crash thing that I wasn’t too fond of. “How can I save us? We don’t have any controls and no parts to repair them.”