Attack Ships, page 2
part #2 of Starwing Elite Series
“One of these days,” Tank mentioned to me as we made our way through the throng, “I’m going to come up with a list of all the things I’ve heard from the civilians about our pack.” He chuckled a bit.
I was interested in any stories he possessed. I’d encountered some whoppers myself since we left our standard tour and transferred to this system to combat the Roka menace. Those religious fanatics were a problem anywhere the local governments made a mockery of justice. Sometimes it was hard to remember the middle word in UDF was “Democratic”.
“Let’s see,” he began. “There is the one about all men who are accepted into our pack must be virgins and Captain initiates them.”
“That one isn’t too far off,” I laughed. “At least it was true for me.”
“Rare case,” he pointed out. We stopped to look at some toys for the kids back on the Hard Rain. Tank picked one up. “You’d turned eighteen the day before your pledge. Captain thought you needed to learn a few things. If you weren’t so green, she’d have assigned you to another woman closer to your own age for the first night.” He sat one the toy back down.
“Did you ever hear me complain?” I asked him.
“No one ever does. Sometimes she when she brings them back for a week of remedial training.”
“I don’t recall that’s ever happened. Not since I’ve been on board.”
“It happened before you came on board,” He replied. “Or so I was told. The story is that every assignment a certain new pledge had for two weeks complained about his attitude. After a week of reassignment to Captain, there was never another complaint.”
“I guess it helps that she makes the roster,” I laughed.
We caught up with the rest of the pack that were sent down with us. I turned to make sure Imani and Precious were still following in the rear. They were. I’d wanted Imani to keep her back a bit. My excuse was that Precious needed to be seen with us so that everyone would know about her change of status. If any of her Roka former comrades saw Precious, they would know their little assassin was under our control. The local UDF Security Commander wasn’t keen on the idea. She’d dumped Precious on us weeks ago, but the commander finally came around. I was certain there was surveillance on our little captive every second.
However, the truth was that I didn’t want Precious too close to me. After the last paranormal encounter with her, I didn’t want to risk another occurrence. Up until now, it only took place if I made physical contact with her. I could read her eyes and knew what went on in that twisted little head, but no out-of-the-body experiences. That changed back in the Goat Squad office. It’s one thing to read about the perverse pleasure a psychotic gets from hurting someone, another to feel it firsthand.
When we managed to catch up with our packmates, they were involved in a card game at the food court. Brynne and Cierra sat across from Sherwood and Rin. All four tried to figure out the hand each other held. I stopped before I could see what any of them had. The others didn’t like playing with me around, there was a rumor I could influence the outcome of the game. However, it wasn’t the least bit true. My abilities were limited to sporadic moments of danger. I could see into the mind of an opponent, but only glimpses. Those few images were all I normally needed to keep us alive. When Precious came around, it was the first time I could see far into a person’s mind.
“Oh, here’s Corwin,” Cierra said when I approached. “Stop the game; he’ll make sure Brynne wins.” Brynne was my assignment for the previous evening and we’d parted this morning on very good terms.
“You know I can’t do that,” I laughed at Cierra. “Even if I could, why ruin the game for all of you?”
Brynne smiled and looked over Tank and my shoulders. “Where’s your baby girl?” she asked with a bit of sarcasm. “I didn’t think daddy was allowed to leave her alone for long.”
“Knock it off,” I snapped at her. “Precious is only my responsibility. You know I can’t sleep with her.”
“She was awful lonely when you were out on patrol,” Cierra commented. “I saw her light up when you came back from the last mission. She has eyes for you. Maybe Captain will let her stay.”
You don’t want to know what’s behind those eyes, I thought.
“So,” Rin spoke up. He was one of the quiet types. “You think we have a mission coming up? You seem to be good and picking up on these things.”
“Soon,” I told him. “Something is coming.”
“How can you be sure?” Rin asked me. “I don’t see how your special abilities always work.” He grinned and tossed back a drink he nursed.
“I just have,” I spoke, as I tried to find the words, “a way to seek things out. It doesn’t always help me. Sometimes it works against me. But it’s always there when I need it. Can’t explain anymore.” I didn’t want to tell him what I’d suspected over the years, that I was part of a long-term breeding program.
Captain decided who was fit to have a baby and who wasn’t. She kept close records of the genetic line of everyone in the ship. Whenever our numbers slipped too low, as from an engagement with hostiles, or we needed to plan ahead, she went and consulted those records. My own parents were matched in another mothership ages ago. They’d loved each other, as did everyone on the ship. Their love to each other was special. It always was with parents. However, there was no way to deny the Goat Squad had me in their sites years before they’d made contact. The same for Tank and some of the others on the ship. They wanted to know who had paranormal potential and who was just lucky.
A few minutes after Tank and I sat down at the table, Imani showed up with Precious in tow. I noted that Precious now sported a cute dress that reveled her pert little breasts and shapely legs. She didn’t appear to be a kid for once. She’d even toned down the distant look in her eyes, although they narrowed when she spotted me.
“This is a surprise,” Sherwood spoke when he saw her. “I wondered when you were going to get her something more appropriate. She looks rather nice.”
Sherwood was the loader on Tank’s FAS crew. He came from another Starwing ship and pledged in at age eighteen, as so many of us did. He wasn’t quite thirty. I watched his eyes trace over Precious’ subtle form.
I really needed to have that talk with Captain.
“I think she looks cute,” Imani spoke as she touched Precious’ hair. “I took her to a stylist and had this fixed.” Precious now sported a shorter cut that made her look older. We didn’t know her exact age, but guessed it to be twenty.
“Nice dress,” Cierra commented. “At least she doesn’t appear to be a little kid anymore.”
I also noted that Imani no longer held Precious by the hand when she was out with her. I couldn’t see the ring on her thigh, as the dress touched Precious’ knees. I doubted it did much good, Precious made them think it controlled her, but the brief image I had when we mind tripped let me know she only found it a distraction.
“Excuse me, sir,” a voice said at my elbow.
I turned to face a young man of no more than twenty. He wore the same jacket everyone else associated with the agora had on today.
Before I could ask him what he wanted, the young man turned and looked at Precious. The reaction was instantaneous. I could feel his blood pressure rise a few degrees and noted the flush in his face. In my mind, I could feel the attraction he felt for her. There was something in that little woman that brought this out in people. I toyed with the idea that it might be based on pheromones, but I put that one away. With her big eyes and innocent look, Precious played the innocent girl lost amidst the stars angle to the maximum. I was sure she’d learned it over the years as a survival mechanism, just as our pack had learned to become astonishingly pragmatic. We were joyous and yet warlike, a closed society and yet with few boundaries within that circle.
“Did you want to see me about something?” I asked him. It was hard to get people’s attention when she was around; another thing I’d noted.
“Uh, yes,” he responded. He turned in my direction. “There is a call for you at the atrium desk. You need to take it. You are Corwin Hardrain, correct?”
I winced a little. The last name was seldom used, as we all took it. You took the first name of your own free will the moment you pledged into the pack, the second was given to everyone on board. Even when you retired to one of the colonies or repair stations, the mothership name stayed with you. Whenever you heard the second name used with the first on the ship, it meant someone was angry with you.
“I’ll take it,” I told him. I turned to my packmates who were still around the table. “Give me a few minutes; I think Captain wants to talk to me.” I turned to Imani. “Guess you’ll have my responsibility a bit longer.” I followed the attendant back to the atrium desk.
2
“That woman with your party,” the attendant asked me as we made our way to the desk where the phone waited. “Is she part of your group?” I could tell he was nervous.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“Well, she doesn’t seem to be part of your group. She’s not dressed the same way.” He glanced down at my uniform, the one we were always instructed to wear outside of the mothership. It saved time if you needed to locate a packmate in an emergency.
“She’s my responsibility,” I told him. “Not one of us, but the local UDF Security Commander dumped her on us when she was captured."
“Captured?” he asked.
“She was part of a Roka cell that tried to kill all of us,” I explained.
I saw him shiver. “And you have her with you?” he questioned. “Running free?”
“She’s not free,” I responded. “We have ways to keep her in line.”
I reached the atrium desk. The attendant introduced me to the woman on duty. She reminded me of that security commander in the aftermath of our retaking of the station. The commander was a few minutes late when she found out Precious and her cell were on their way to our banquet. If I hadn’t sensed something wrong about the wait staff, all of us would be dead. The commander would’ve arrived to find a room full of corpses.
“Just a minute,” the woman told me and picked up a phone from below her counter. She placed it in front of me and plugged it into a socket.
“There you go,” she told me. “Go ahead and take the call.”
“Corwin here,” I spoke into the receiver. “Who’s calling?” I had to be sure.
“Who do you think?” Captain said on the other end. "I would have thought Goat Squad had you seeing the future by now."
“Thank you, Captain,” I laughed on my end. “But thus far it is a lot of meditation and sitting. Too much more and I’ll have to see Cherish about some cramping meds.” Cherish was the medic on the ship. She was still trying for a child with Randolph.
She made me excited, no hiding it. Captain had a way of keeping us all in line. I’d watched Tank’s knees tremble one time after he’d had a major disagreement with her in an assembly. She went up to him later and said a few words. I don’t know what she said, but the woman he was assigned to that evening had a dreamy look on her face the next day.
“We are being re-deployed soon,” she continued. “You and your packmates need to come back. I’m sending the supply shuttle down to pick you up. I’m sending the mother of your child down as pilot.” This had to mean that Britani wanted to talk to me about something.
“Captain,” I spoke in a lower voice. “I need to talk to you about Precious.” This wasn’t the best time to bring it up, but at least I didn’t have to worry about her picking up on what I said. Precious had a tendency to be around me every time I wanted to talk to Captain.
“If this is about assigning her to you,” she growled on the other end, “and I mean for any reason, the answer is ‘no’. How many times do I have to tell everyone that she’s hands off until I figure out what to do with her?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this,” I answered, glancing around at the people who walked around the atrium, “but I’ve had some intense flashes from inside her mind.”
“Oh, I’m sure you have.”
“The girl’s a psychopath. She likes to torture and kill people.” The second sentence was lower. Some things you don’t want broadcast to the public.
There was a silence on the phone. I could tell Captain realized I was serious. After a minute, I heard her speak again.
“Tell me what you saw,” she said.
I told her about the way she’d been abused all her life. How she discovered her joy of slicing up former clients with a knife. I only went into detail once. This was over the vision I’d had of her inside the burning Hard Rain. But I made sure she knew it connected with everything else.
“You do realize this is only your personal gnosis,” she told me. “There is nothing to back it up. All we know is that she was part of a Roka cell. Hell, she can’t even speak much of our language. Why should I take any of what you say under consideration? Another Captain might think you’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with a captive.”
“Because you know me, Captain. You know I wouldn’t make this up.”
“I know you believe it,” she replied. “And it is consistent with what we know about her, based on Cherish’s examination. How is she now?”
“Fine, she acts like an innocent captive in public. Imani is with her now. She bought a dress for her and she doesn’t resemble the scared little rabbit anymore.”
“If what you’ve told me is true, why hasn’t she tried to kill anyone? That ring won’t stop her unless it’s activated.”
“She…” I tried to find the words. This was not going to be easy. “She’s in love with me, Captain. I can tell. I’ve heard it in her head. She wants me bad. She wants to have children. I think it’s the only reason she’s been on such good behavior.”
“That really doesn’t surprise me. Hell, we’re all in love with you Corwin. Don’t you recall your pledge? You supposed to be in love with everyone on the ship. Not the same kind of love, of course. You have a special relationship with Britani because of Kyle. Your erotic desire is supposed to be limited to the women of your pack. One at a time. She’s been with you on every assignment. That will have to change.”
“She’ll know everyone is on to her if that happens.”
“Let me think about this,” Captain told me. “Just get everyone back here. And not a world about this to anyone else. Word of this gets out and Goat Squad will scoop her up in an instant, and because you've hid it this long, I'll lose you too. Hard Rain can't do with only one seasoned combat pilot, Tank is good but he's not that good. I want to handle this internally. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll change the roster so that you are with me tonight. No one will find that odd as I haven’t had any of the men sent here in a few weeks.”
“And Precious?”
“Bring her along. I’ll deal with her too. Now get up here!”
I heard the phone disconnect.
Britani greeted us on the shuttle as we climbed aboard. It was built for maximum cargo space and had little room for passengers. It didn’t even have much in the way of armaments, since it wasn’t supposed to be used in a hot zone. Naturally, I sat up front in the copilot chair with her while everyone else strapped in behind us. I glanced back and noted Imani had forced Precious on the other side of her. She wanted to give me some time with Kyle’s mother.
“I think we may have a match for Kyle,” Britani told me as the shuttle cleared the outer atmosphere and flew into a higher orbit to find the Hard Rain. “I talked to Captain early today. There’s a trade option with the Great Khan before they return to patrol duty.” She focused her attention on the horizon of the asteroid below us, but watched to see my reaction out of the corner of her eye.
“They’re not part of our Order,” I spoke. “Can’t Captain find a ship for him that is Starwing?”
“All full up,” she explained. “If we want to get him placed by the time he turns eighteen standard years next month, we have to act now.” She turned and looked at me. I could see the outline of Kyle’s face in her.
I rubbed my head and tried to think of something to say. She was right; the worst scenario involved him stuck on the Hard Rain for another year or two, not part of the duty roster or the sleeping schedule, in limbo, until a slot opened on a Starwing mothership. Or have him sent down to one of the colonies with the elders. A young man needed time to travel with his pack and get to know his mates.
“You realize they don’t have the same values that we do here,” I pointed out to her. “Kyle will have to fight to get a wife, and she'll he his alone. If he wants more, he has to earn them. The Horde also don’t let their women fight. They might live longer, but it seems a bit stifling.”
“And they only get to sleep with him,” she added. “No, I don’t like a lot of what I hear about the Horde, but they are brave warriors and value honor, that is a good thing, and we need to get him placed. He can do the same trial and pledge later if it’s a good fit. If not, he’s free to leave that order or find another one.”
You were only allowed to trial with three Orders. If the third one failed, you had to leave.
I reached out and touched her hand. “We’ll talk to him,” I said. “Make sure he knows what the Horde is like. As you said, he has to trial with them for a year anyway.”
Britani squeezed my hand with hers. She turned and looked ahead. “Oh, hey, that’s the ship, forgot how close it was.”
It was still morning shift when we arrived at the Hard Rain. The first thing we discovered was that an assembly had been called by Captain and we needed to get over the main hall.
Imani transferred Precious back to me once we’d changed back into our work clothes in the ready room. She took off Precious’ new shoes and placed them in a locker we’d reserved for her a while back. Imani slapped the ring controller in my hand and made sure Precious saw I had it.
“She didn’t give me any trouble down there,” Imani informed me. “Here, I found a way to conceal that damn ring.”
