The Empress Capsule (Audacity Saga Book 1), page 22
They were quiet for a moment.
“Fuck,” he said softly. “Sorry you had to go through that, Commander.”
“Fine, fine, call me Ellen. But only while we’re drinking.”
“You sure?”
“You know about my chip. About Paul. My name seems casual by comparison. Not many more dark spots about me to know.”
“Aside from who you work for.”
“Well, that’s not a dark spot. That’s a bright one.”
“Throwing me clues now? I’ll take it. But are you going to call me Kael?”
“Only while we’re drinking.”
“I’ll settle for that.”
“Okay, now your turn. Tell me about this Puritan operative. Or whatever war story you prefer.”
That was kind of her, to not push it. But the darkest stories of his past—Asha—he had no desire to touch this moment. Especially when those feelings had almost welled up just a few minutes ago. They were too raw.
Vala it is.
“My last mission… didn’t go so smoothly, I guess you could say. She was a resident scientist in the location I was guarding, and I was dumb enough to think I loved her.”
“I’m seeing a theme to these war stories.”
“Me too. Our stupidity. Anyway, I’d been trying to find a way out for a while. I was conscripted for life.”
She smirked. “For life? That’s a dumb rule. Another one just asking to be broken. Wait, did you say conscripted?”
“Wasn’t my choice. Long story.”
“You didn’t choose to become a Theroki?”
“Nope.”
“So all the surgeries, all the…”
He shook his head. “Not something I wanted. But that’s another burn wound for another time. It could have been worse. Faros wasn’t a great life by any means, so it was tolerable for a while. But then you start to wonder, is this it? Really? Just stand around and do as I’m told till I get killed doing it?”
“Surprised you didn’t end up in the army instead.”
“Faros IV is still out of either side’s control, and it was back then too. It’s mostly gang and mafia run.”
“Which one were you?”
He tapped at his forearm, although she couldn’t see the gang tattoos at the moment. “You gotta be born right to be in the mob. Gangs are the ones that conscript runts like me.”
She snorted. “If you’re a runt, I don’t want to see the bigger pack members.”
“Heh. I don’t think you’d be too intimidated. What they achieve in size they sacrifice in smarts, if you get my drift.”
“Could you remove the chip yourself? I couldn’t.”
“No. And I hadn’t even thought far enough to think what I wanted exactly. I’m still not sure. Just something different. Something more. I’ve done enough guard duty for a lifetime, and it just seems like a fool’s gamble to keep rolling the dice when on the one hand you get killed and on the other hand there’s… also getting killed? Nothing much more than that. I’m not afraid of death, but I’d like it to be for something better than being told to keep people from coming through a door. Something I understand.” Maybe even something noble.
Something worth it.
“Seems like a very reasonable desire.”
“I hadn’t said anything about it to anyone, though. Then this scientist, she brought it up on her own, suggested all sorts of possibilities for freedom and… more than that.” Freedom, love, sex, family—so much more. Whispered sweet nothings right in his ear. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud, even in the relative dark of the bar. To admit how naïve he had been. “None of that was ever sincere, of course, but I fell for it. Maybe the chip makes you gullible. Part of those obedience algorithms? I don’t know. I thought it was incredible luck. In hindsight, she may have been a telepath and just damn good at hiding it. Not like your little one.”
“Well, Isa’s only fourteen. And I can’t convince her to want to hide it.” She winced at some memory.
“Maybe that’s a good thing. At least it’s honest. I think this scientist was just ultimately telling me whatever I wanted to hear.” Even more, had she actually stirred the desires in him? He hadn’t remembered having these longings before she’d teased him with them. Perhaps in order to crave chocolate, you had to have tasted it. “She suggested a way to ‘loosen the reins’ without destroying the chip completely. Maybe find a way to keep it secret. We were usually cut off from other Therokis for a good six months at a time, so I decided to let her try. My decision, to be clear. For once. I told her how to find the chip, which ultimately I think is what she was really after. Of course, the chip tried to defend itself, but she was pretty good. She was scientist enough to alter the chip, but she was more than that. Altering it was mostly brute force anyway. Scratching into and frying the right places. I don’t know. I suspect she was a much better operative than she was a scientist, but I didn’t realize that until it was too late.”
“Too late how, exactly?”
“Well, after she’d altered it, things went sideways. First of all, she tried to install something else along with it, some kind of add-on, but it failed spectacularly. You know we Therokis can short-circuit things. My original chip somehow fought the add-on and won. Still in here, but partially fried to a crisp. It even smoked.” He smirked.
“Wow. Maybe you should have Dremer get it out. Are you sure the scientist was a Puritan?”
“She said so, but doesn’t sound like one, does she? Maybe I should get Dremer to check it out. Although my track record with trusting people to open me up hasn’t exactly been a good one.”
“I can stand over her and look cold and intimidating if you want. I’m told I’m good at that.”
“Oh, you are. But then I’d be trusting you and her. Two chances for me to be wrong.”
She smiled crookedly at him. “If you didn’t trust me, you wouldn’t have come on my ship.”
“Sure I would have. Maybe I was planning to kill you all.”
She snorted at him. “Yeah, right. If you didn’t trust me, you wouldn’t be fighting off your brother Therokis over me.”
“Hey, you’re my ride to Desori.” He stifled a grin. “And your people were going to kick their asses.”
“So you won’t admit you trust me. Even over beers. I see how it is. Back to your story, I guess. So the smoked add-on was the first sign of betrayal? I take it there were more.”
“Yes, well, she was right pissed when that didn’t work, so she blackmailed me. That was where I actually did luck out, though. Something unexpected had come up, and the mission was ending. She took off before… well, before she could get caught with her fingers in the cookie jar.”
“But left the cookie jar behind?”
“Yep. That’s fine by me, though. As soon as the chip was altered, I could tell she hadn’t meant any of the stuff she’d claimed.” He sighed and shook his head. That she hadn’t loved him was what he really meant. Chip in, he hadn’t been able to remember what that had even felt like. But once the deed was done, it had all been clear. “And I mean, she did try to slit my throat on the way out to prove it.” He’d broken her arm in exchange, but she’d gotten away as he’d gone for a med kit.
“Sorry to hear that, Kael.” He looked up at her, not realizing his gaze had been trained on the table for so long while thinking of Vala. The sound of his name in that deep, lovely voice was new and surprisingly alluring.
“It’s okay. My wounds don’t seem that bad compared to yours.” He’d never felt responsible for the deaths of a ship full of people. No, all his failures were relatively personal. Glory be, that he’d never been in command.
“Well, yours is still ongoing. But let’s hope it turns out better for you, huh?” She raised her bottle and held it out to him.
He clinked his against hers in a toast. “Inshallah,” he said softly. “Inshallah.”
Chapter Ten
Ellen’s boots hit the ground of the Teredark moon with a soft puff of dust spreading outward. Kael, Nova, and Zhia touched down just beside her, bouncing out of the airlock, and one of the drones hovered along behind them. Thankfully there was some gravity on this hellhole of a moon. Oh, it was terraformed, and low, pale-yellow grass spread across the dusty plains around them. But Teredarks had a different definition of livable than most species. The molted husk of a small Teredark sat on the horizon, dust piling up around it to form a freakish skeleton of a future dune.
Zhia shuddered. “God, I hate those things. Like giant centipedes.”
“Or millipedes. They always kinda reminded me of centaurs,” Nova offered, sounding much less leery.
Ellen pointed the way with her multi and took the lead, the rest of them following.
“Centaurs?” Zhia shook her helmet. “They are nothing like horses or humans.”
“But they have great upper-body strength.”
“Your mafia planet background is showing,” Zhia said. Ellen raised an eyebrow. She didn’t tend to snipe like that unless she was deeply uncomfortable.
“Let’s get this over with,” Ellen cut in. “There’s the entrance.”
A dull hole like a badger’s cave slumped against a boulder. She had to admit she didn’t love the idea of heading in there either, but Simmons had gotten a last-minute bit of intel that some of Arakovic’s colleagues had touched down on this moon. That was more of a bite than they usually got, so it was enough for her.
If only she didn’t have to deal with Teredarks at the same time. Ugh.
They silently descended into the hole, Nova in the lead. At first, the ground was rough, truly like something an animal had dug out, but about twenty feet down, steps appeared. The soft running lights on their armor lit the way until they reached a heavy door.
“You’re on, Adan,” she said softly.
The drone wordlessly hovered forward, a light switching on, and they watched as it inspected the door. Abruptly, a bolt of energy arced out and hit one of the drone’s blades, sending it careening. Traps. But the drone steadied itself and persevered.
For the briefest moment, she cut Kael out of the channel. “When governments fail to police science…” she said softly.
“Science will police itself,” Zhia finished, her voice smug. Smiling.
“Damn straight, chicas.” Nova cleared her throat. “We got this.”
Ellen cut Kael back in, hoping he was none the wiser, and she kept her ears tuned, listening to the outside feed for any sounds that they’d been detected. Her sensors showed nothing on the other side of the door, but Teredarks tended to run cold and not show up well on thermal. Still, after barely two minutes, the door thudded and emitted a soft hiss.
“Open sesame,” said Adan grandly.
“Thanks,” she grunted.
“I’m headed up for the drone to watch the entrance. Good luck!”
The drone seemed almost cheerful as it buzzed back up and out of the hole. Ellen could not say the same for herself. Nova swung the door open, but no alarms blared. Either Adan had done his job well or the place was deserted. They headed inside.
A dark corridor led about twenty feet farther down at a slight angle. Dust was thick on the bottom, stirring with their steps, and Ellen was beginning to doubt their lead. If colleagues of Arakovic’s had been on this moon, she didn’t think they’d been here. It didn’t seem like anyone had been here in quite some time. A mist clung to the floor as they got farther down, and they waded in.
The corridor suddenly flattened out and split into two tunnels. Both looked equally dark and empty.
“Shit, which way?” Zhia started.
“Are you getting any life readings on your armor? Anyone?”
Nova shook her head.
“Nada,” Zhia said. “Place seems deserted now.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Ellen frowned. “I think this is a dead end. We’re never going to find her.”
“Don’t say that, Commander,” Nova said, clapping a gauntlet on her shoulder. “There’s only so many holes to crawl down. We’ll find her eventually.”
Ellen sighed. “Let’s split up to scout and come back. Theroki, with me this way. You two, that way. Meet back here in exactly two minutes with a report.”
Kael started down the corridor without another word, and she started after him. Zhia seemed to hesitate at the pairing, but what was Ellen going to do? If Kael was loyal to any of them, it was to her. She’d brought him on this ship. Sending him off with one of them wasn’t fair.
They sped up to a quiet trot, reached the end of their first corridor, and followed its turn to the right. The mist grew deeper. “What do you think this is?’ she said quietly to Kael as she ordered the suit to check the atmo.
“Maybe fog condensing,” he said slowly. “Maybe poison gas. My suit isn’t sure.”
The faint light grew brighter, but its source still wasn’t in view. They jogged farther, another left turn and then down some stairs, before a window in a sidewall came into view.
A window into a door, she realized. Light poured out of it. Maybe not deserted after all. Kael reached the window first and stopped short just as her armor reported back.
“Shit—there’s a sedative in the air,” she murmured. “Not fog.”
Kael didn’t say anything, just looked openmouthed into the window. Ellen stepped closer and peered inside. Human men sat curled in balls on the floor of a stark cell, shirtless and bony.
Like they were starving.
“Jesus. There’s, what, a dozen of them in there?” Ellen whispered.
“Yes. How do we get them out? This place is reeking with that gas.” Kael glanced around, then stopped suddenly, looking behind them.
“Stop all movement,” came a reedy voice from behind.
Ellen whirled.
One of a Teredark’s many spindly arms pointed a laser pistol at the temple of a delirious young man. “Lower your helmets,” its high, reedy voice ordered. “Or we’ll be having crispy laser cakes for the prisoners tonight.”
Elle’s armor reported on the Teredark—high-quality, heavy-weight 4TC Union-standard Teredark armor, able to withstand laser and knockout pulses. Known neck and hip weak points to laser pulse. 8WFO Raven pistol, primarily a ballistic weapon actually, with one or two laser charges. Figured he’d talk up the thing. Her armor continued to search for additional munitions.
“Do you see a way out of this?” Kael whispered. “You’re the genius.”
“Slag off, Kael,” she shot back. She opened her external comm channel to her speakers. “Let him go. This is between you and us.”
The Teredark shook his head. “No. He is a prisoner. You are intruders. Lower your helmets and surrender.”
Elle narrowed her eyes at him. One armor shot at his neck would be risky, but if she could pull it off fast enough… Would it take a sustained pulse? She likely didn’t have time for that, nor to look up just how weak the neck joint was. Teredarks were notoriously good at withstanding some of her other options—the nonlethal chem attack of the Red Death, the heat ray that was the Grill setting. Bubblegum sticky foam would take too long to deploy. And they already had a cloud of fog around them, so making one wouldn’t help anything.
Shit, it was laser, bullets, or bolts. As usual, but to a very small target this time.
“Drop your weapons.” He pressed the pistol harder, tilting the young man’s head at an awkward angle.
Ellen raised her arm straight out at the shoulder, multi in hand as if to drop it, and readied her gauntlet beam. When she dropped the rifle, she could maybe get off one good shot. She’d have to pray it would be enough. There was no way in hell she was lowering her helmet. Kael followed her lead, holding out his own multi as well very, very slowly.
“Do as I say or one of you is getting—” it clicked.
SONGBIRD. The word shrieked through her mind, sending her staggering backward. No no no, not again—
Arakovic.
When silence fell in her mind again, her right hand clutched over her ear—or really, her helmet. Stupid instincts. The other arm had dropped. She glanced wildly at Kael, who stared back with wide eyes.
“What the hell was that?” he said softly into the comm channel.
“You heard it too?”
“Yeah—what are we dealing with?”
“You don’t want to know.” She swallowed.
“You know. Tell me.”
“Songbird was Arakovic’s program. The one they—”
SHE REJECTED US.
I’m not supposed to be able to hear you anymore, she screamed back in her mind. None of us are supposed to be able to hear you.
SHE REJECTED MOTHER.
It didn’t seem that the voice was even talking to her.
She eyed the Teredark. It had turned its weapon away from the boy and toward her.
AS EMPTY AS A HUSK. AS HARMLESS AS A FLY.
“I am not harmless!” she shouted into the air. Ah, hell. Only harmless people had to shout things like that.
AS INEVITABLE AS DUSK. HER TIME TO DIE.
I have enough poets, thank you very much. And I am not going down to one, you hear me?
TAKE HER.
But it wasn’t talking to the Teredark either. The centipede-like alien kept its pistol trained on her as something else reached into her neck, slithered down her left arm, bent it at the elbow, and tried to hit the helmet retract.
She wrenched her right arm free, sloppily throwing the rifle between the wayward arm and her head. Some barrier, any barrier, anything.
Slowly, her arm began to bend again, trying to swivel out around the gun. She growled low in her throat, fighting to straighten her arm with every ounce of strength she could muster.
It wasn’t enough.
Shit. If she was going down, she should have warned the others long ago.
“Zhia, Jen—get out,” she barked into the comm.
Her voice echoed dully, and she wasn’t certain if it was getting picked up into the channel.
“Hostiles and some kind of telepath here and—”
