The Empress Capsule (Audacity Saga Book 1), page 6
He leaned back in the chair and shut his eyes. He could think faster, see better, without organic vision interfering.
Showtime.
He ricocheted his way out of the ship and out into the sensors, both with his own mind’s senses and that of the ship’s arrays. Xi only had to gently prod him in the right direction twice. He could feel the heat of the grab drive now; it was beyond warm, nearly hot. Ready any moment.
It had been too long since he’d played pong with Union bastards. This should be fun.
“Enemy ship tractor—” Xi began.
The energy beam shot out, reaching for the Audacity before he was entirely ready. He smacked it down, as conscious of his reaction as he was of a blink. In other words, not at all. He’d returned the electromagnetic volley almost before he’d realized it had happened, and mostly he just saw an explosion where the green light had formerly pulsed.
Ah, damn, he’d fragged it. He swore under his breath. He hadn’t intended on disobeying a direct order right out of the gate. Although she technically wasn’t in his chain of command, she was still the commanding officer and therefore the law on this ship.
“Enemy ship tractor beam destroyed,” Xi promptly announced.
“Ha, you took it out!” Fern exclaimed behind him, bubbling with laughter and thumping the headrest behind him hard. “That’ll show ‘em. I’m almost impressed.” He glanced back to see her grin—and the laser pistol ready and warm in her hand, leaning casually against her shapely, red-clad thigh.
“For the last time, Xi, it’s not an enemy ship,” came Ryu’s voice.
“It fired on you,” Xi insisted. “Does that not make it an enemy?” Could an AI sound irritated?
“It tried to grab us. We are noncombatants. Or at least we should be, as far as they are concerned. Apparently the Theroki didn’t get that message either. What are you doing down there?” Ryu snapped. “If you can’t follow orders, I’ll revoke your access and lock you in your cabin until Desori. I said no damage to that ship.”
He struggled for an excuse and found one, stifling a grin in case she had video on the turret. “A reflex, Commander. But you did also say you would prefer not to be grabbed,” he replied. Fern snorted. “I don’t take kindly to Union types running around manhandling ladies without their permission. It’s not polite.”
“And if you had missed?”
“I don’t miss. I didn’t miss, Xi, did I?”
“You eliminated the tractor beam threat, Passenger 6A. I do not have access to your psychology or your targeting intent, so I cannot say for certain if your efforts were accurate or simply lucky.”
“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You are welcome,” came her answer, slightly delayed as if she were unsure of it. “And I would need a dataset of at least sixty shots before I could offer confidence or an estimation of your targeting success likelihood. Two hundred would be preferred.”
Kael snorted.
“Great.” Ryu’s voice came over the comm. “Not only did I pick up a Theroki, but I picked up a cocky one who wants to make friends with our new overly aggressive AI. That kind of figures, doesn’t it, Adan?”
“It sure does, Commander,” murmured the pilot. What was that accent of his?
“I’m not cocky, I’m just perfectly—” His mind’s eye felt a beam from the second ship snake out of the darkness, and energy weapons from the third. He paused to deflect them. Trying to fire a surprise shot from their instant-charge cannons, eh? “Sneaky bastards. As I was saying. I’m not cocky. I just know my capabilities extremely well.”
“Not-enemy-ship weapons attack deflected,” Xi announced. Could an AI be snarky as well as irritated?
Fern behind him snickered. “He sounds cocky to me, Commander.”
“Agreed.”
He couldn’t hold back a smirk this time.
“We should be focused on the Union ship,” grumbled someone else on the bridge.
“Oh, I am. Cocky?” Kael said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am.”
Like scratching an itch on his arm, the sensors warned of the next several incoming blasts, and he put the gun to work beyond his telekinesis, blasting enough force to neutralize them but not deflecting them back at the ship this time. Ah, it had been a long six months with nowhere near enough shooting. Even in strict self-defense, it felt good. Great, even. Holding back was not his usual instinct, so he was glad he was pulling it off. He was willing to bet Ryu wouldn’t have been all that pissed if he had taken out the Union ship, though. He could probably convince her to forgive him.
Good, good. This was good practice. He was able to deflect everything with ease, and the computations for equal and opposite force to neutralize shots seemed dead-on. At least that part of his augmentation remained intact.
“Not-enemy shots inc—” Xi started to announce. “Shots deflected.” A pause. Kael smiled. “The not-enemy ship has powered down its weapons.”
A handful of whoops went up from the bridge and the hold. He smiled wider in spite of himself. These ladies did not take his skill for granted, at least. It had been a long time since he’d inspired cheers from anyone, certainly not guarding the lord regent or on the endlessly boring royal Stedler patrol on Exodus before that. Cheers felt… surprisingly good.
“You have a Foundation cyborg onboard.” Lieutenant Saders’s angry voice came over the comm.
Kael was glad Unionie couldn’t hear him scoff. As if the Foundation cyborgs were even half his speed. He doubted the mythical Foundation even existed. It seemed more like a scare tactic the Union threw out there every time they needed someone powerful but faceless to throw under a lander in place of whatever real and corrupt organization they were trying to protect. If the Foundation was real, he’d never seen any evidence of it. Only rumors and shadows.
“We should—” Saders started again.
“You won’t,” Ryu cut him off. “This is freespace. We’ll be seeing you. Thank you for the dance, Lieutenant.”
“You destroyed our tractor drive. You will pay for repairs—”
“No, we won’t. Perhaps you’ll think twice about trying to board peaceful vessels by force in freespace. That’s a cheap price to pay to learn your lesson. Don’t bully where you have no jurisdiction. Of course, you can send our donors the bill if you’d like.”
“At what address?”
“Exactly. Now piss off.”
Kael choked back a laugh even as he heard snickering come up from the bridge comm and erupt behind him into a giggle.
“We will be issuing a report. This is an outrage. We will not forget this, Ryu.”
“Perfect. See to it that you don’t.” A click sounded, presumably Ryu closing the channel, and he let out a low whistle. Damn. Next time, he wanted to be on the bridge when she put a Union boy in his place. That sort of thing was always fun to see, but he had a feeling seeing a woman who couldn’t be a quarter century old ream a Unionie a new one would be twice the fun.
“Take us out of here, Adan,” snapped Ryu. “Show them our taillights, please.”
“For the last time, Commander, this ship does not have taillights.” The pilot and his intriguing accent again.
“Oh, I doubt that will be the last time. What? I like the expression. I’m an old-fashioned kind of gal.”
“Yeah, right.”
Chapter Three
“Shut it, Xi,” Ellen snapped from her seat in the main meeting room. Damn voice commands were only good for when you didn’t want to get up. She checked Sidassian’s location on her tablet again—still in his cabin. Good. Now that they were clear of Helikai, the team needed to huddle.
“So you think he was one of them or what?” said Nova, running a hand through her short orange hair and propping her boots up on the white quartz meeting table. That kind of lack of military decorum still got slightly under Ellen’s skin—a hard habit to break. But the crew seemed to enjoy bending and breaking old rules once in a while. Rewriting them to be more fun. Sometimes Ellen let them, sometimes she didn’t. Boots on the table weren’t hurting anyone. Right now. At least they weren’t muddy.
“I’m willing to bet it’s him, yes. You recognize him?” Ellen replied.
Merith was stabbing at her tablet display, her dark eyes glaring. “I’ll have the armor footage up shortly.”
“I wouldn’t recognize one of them,” Zhia muttered, tucking a braid of silver behind her ear.
They paused, waiting for the footage. For a ship practically the price of an outsystem planet, how did they still spend so much time waiting for computers? Hell.
“He noticed your mural in the office,” Ellen offered.
Zhia’s brown features brightened, eyes twinkling. “Oh?”
“I did a terrible job of explaining it. Who is it by again?”
“T. S. Eliot.”
Ah, yes, the TSE at the bottom. “I’ll try to remember that for next time. You never explained to me what it means.”
“You’ll figure it out someday, jagiya.”
Ellen pursed her lips. She wasn’t so sure about that. “Any luck, Merith?”
“Ninety-five percent.”
Ellen groaned. “Okay, let’s assume it is him. I’m figuring there’s a couple of options. Either it’s all a coincidence and this has nothing to do with our raid—”
Nova snorted, fiddling with the golden cross that always hung round her neck. “Not likely.”
“Yeah, but it’s possible. Have I told you I don’t find your interruptions charming, Sergeant?” Or your boots on the table. Let it go, Ellen. Let it go…
“Uh, I apologize, Commander.” She popped a piece of gum into her mouth as if to quiet herself.
Ellen straightened and continued. “Another option is they figured out we attacked them and sent him after us. Or we missed something.”
“And he has it?” Zhia said, sitting forward.
Ellen nodded. “Yes. I figured two out of three, we want him onboard. And Dremer approved it with her scan.”
“Dremer approved it? Why?” Nova asked.
“Probably wants to dig around in his hardware,” Merith muttered. “Or his software.”
“Or his wetware.” Zhia grinned.
Nova sat up, dropped her boots, and smacked Zhia on the arm.
“What, you didn’t notice he… was a he?” Zhia’s dark eyes were positively sparkling with amusement now.
“No, because I’m a professional, unlike some of us.”
Ellen cleared her throat. “Okay, what are we doing, people?”
Zhia sobered, straightening. “We should have someone guarding him in case your theory that he’s been sent to kill us is correct.”
“He could also have orders to spy and then kill us.” Merith looked up, disturbingly brisk in her analysis. “Scan’s done. Is this him?”
She swiped her tablet display onto the big board, and they could all see the image of the downed Theroki beyond the half wall. Someone—Nova, Ellen thought—walked up and looked down at him, getting a clear view of the familiar tank-and-chainsaw-assaulted armor.
Ellen nodded. “That’s the armor. I’m sure of it. But do you have a hall shot on ship, so we don’t have to rely on my judgment?”
Merith nodded. “Give me a minute.”
“Okay, so guarding him, someone on the bridge via cam? So he doesn’t know we’re doing it?”
Xi’s voice suddenly piped up, making Ellen jump and look up warily. “I can also be of assistance in this capacity if necessary, Commander.”
“How so?”
“I naturally record all crew member movements, searches, and activities.”
“So ‘Big Brother,’ ” Zhia muttered.
“What?” Nova asked.
“Never mind.”
“My efforts ensure ship security.” How an AI managed to sound so indignant, Ellen didn’t know. The ones she’d dealt with back on her Union ship hadn’t been half as snarky, but perhaps the tech had advanced since then. Or perhaps it was Simmons’s meddling.
“That’s what they all say,” Zhia said. Nova snickered.
“I do not know the ‘they’ that you are referring to. Most crew member activities are not stored for any great length of time,” Xi continued. “But I can place Passenger 6A’s logs in a higher priority queue, to ensure completeness and redundant backups. Would that be desirable?”
“Sure, that sounds good,” Ellen said. Any sophisticated spy would be able to get around such a thing or would at least guess they were being recorded, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Additionally, while we are speaking, I would like to report that Passenger 6A has stored something in the utility cabinet in his cabin.”
Ellen snorted. “With the cleaning supplies on the floor?”
“Yes. I suspect this is the… special plant bits you referred to?” Maybe Simmons had ordered an extra-special smart-assed AI model just for her.
“Thank you, Xi,” Zhia said quickly. “That’s very helpful.”
“You’re very welcome, Lieutenant Verakov.”
“That could be the research we missed,” Nova said, propping her boots back up with an especially loud crack of gum. “We should try to get a look at it.”
“I did get him to admit his oath is engaged to protect it.” All three faces round the table frowned at Ellen. “We’re going to need to be very careful, however we do it. We need a plan. A good one. No need to endanger our lives or his if it truly is just plant bits. Maybe Dremer or Levereaux can do something with a remote scan.”
“It’s probably shielded,” Zhia pointed out.
“Maybe, but we were able to detect organic matter in our initial scans. Dremer did. Maybe she can get more out of it with more time. Failing that, we’ll need to find a way to take a peek without his knowledge—or without his cooperation.”
Nova frowned. “Do you think the brig would hold him?”
“Depends on his upgrades and if he’s in his armor or not.”
“I can think of a way to take care of that.” Zhia snickered.
Ellen ignored her. “Xi, can you and the doctors get me a report on whatever upgrades you can find?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“No, but more seriously, I think sedation is probably a safer bet than the brig,” Zhia offered. “We could see about getting a tranquilizer gun or something. I’ve heard stun guns don’t work on them.”
Ellen nodded. “I’ve heard the same, and I don’t want to find out when it’s our only nonlethal option. We need others.”
“If he tries to attack us,” Nova said slowly, “why are we so concerned about defending ourselves nonlethally?”
“Because the oath programming they use will force him to attack us,” Zhia said. “But his secret package might be something totally unrelated to our mission. We shouldn’t kill him—or risk dying ourselves—if there’s actually just gourmet popcorn in there someone wants really super secretly badly.”
Nova snickered but said, “Point taken.”
“All right. Zhia, talk to the doctors about our options for tranquilizers. Get Jenny on it too and raid the sick bay and med kits for anything that might help. What else? Maybe some kind of gas? That could knock us out too. Just get us some options. I’ll put someone on watch on the bridge all shifts. Check the schedule later. Anything else?”
“And if he’s actually not up to anything and just trying to get a ride home to see his parents?” Merith asked softly.
Ellen let out a long breath. “Then we should have no problems.” She hoped. “Make sure you remind everyone that we’re in passenger mode and no discussion of the Foundation outside this room and my quarters. Even in closed cabins.”
Nods all around. They knew this drill. It kept them in good practice for keeping secrets while they were on land anyway.
“I’ll get Simmons to dig up what he can. Anything else?”
“Hey, wait.” Zhia slowly rubbed her chin. “What if we get him off the ship?”
“Off the ship? How are we going to do that?” Nova shook her head.
“I don’t know, but if we could get him off somewhere risky, maybe he’d leave the capsule behind. And we could try to take a look at it while he’s gone.”
Ellen’s brow furrowed. “I did suggest he’d need to pay his way by working security. I was thinking just standing guard outside, but if Simmons’s scan comes up relatively clean—”
“He’s a Theroki, Commander.” Zhia’s expression was dubious.
“I said ‘relatively.’ If it’s clean-ish, we could use him to fill in for Nagnar on the next couple missions. We’ll need the help, and maybe we can separate him from whatever’s in his cabinet temporarily.”
“Are we talking about the same thing? With us on missions?” Nova sat even farther forward now. “C’mon, how are you going to explain what we do on them?”
“Well, either way, he’ll know we went off somewhere. We can station him outside the ship. Or put him somewhere that blocks his view but covers our asses. We’ll come up with something.”
“How do we know we can trust him, Commander?” Now Nova was starting to sound like Fern. Probably all that time spent together.
“We don’t,” she said, intentionally chipper. “But we’ll give him one of our guns.” Their custom multirifles had advanced algorithms that sought to avoid friendly fire—and could be disabled remotely. “And you’re all badasses. The three of us can take him if we need to.”
Zhia pointed toward the ceiling. “Can we at least put Mo up high in case we need backup during missions? Somewhere she can cover the ship and us, if possible?”
“Sure. Good idea. I knew there was a reason I kept you around. Other than the poetic murals, I mean.”
“Well, somebody’s gotta watch your back from telekinetic brutes trying to stab it.” She grinned.
“And you get the job,” Nova said, standing and folding her arms. “Aren’t you lucky?”
Stable flight path achieved, crew consulted, and dead tired, Ellen retreated to her cabin for a few moments. She flopped down onto her bunk, its firmness reassuring beneath her as she rubbed her temples. Soft guitar chords drifted through the air—she’d forgotten to turn them off earlier—and she forced a deep breath of the cold, clean air.
