“Yes, my Lord,” Mack said, at his most diplomatic, and they ended the call, together.
Mack turned to the Lady Melari, and offered her his arm.
“Let me escort you back to your quarters,” he said, and Melari gave him a happy smile, as she entwined her arm through his. “I take it they are sufficient.”
I hesitated, before following them, and, like Mack, ignored the curious glance Melari cast over her shoulder. At least I wasn’t invisible anymore. This time, I would play the escort, and watch, since that’s what it seemed Mack wanted me to do. Mack, for his part, appeared strangely oblivious to what I was thinking, and gave the lady what looked like his undivided attention.
We delivered Melari to her cabin, and I waited with her, just inside the door, as Mack checked it for intruders.
“Even out here?” Melari asked, surprised, and Mack nodded.
“Even here, my lady. Not because there is likely to be an intruder, but because it’s better to take no risks rather than discover our assumptions were incorrect.”
“Are you sure you’re not Clan?” she asked, and I wondered what sort of life she’d had to even think it.
“The sort where assassination, moral compromise, and danger, are always present. High clan nobility must be constantly on guard—and so must we,” Mack replied, but only in my head, and not where Melari could hear it.
Well, that explained her attitude.
Mack returned, indicating that the room was hers.
“All clear,” he said. “What are your plans for the day?”
Melari gave a long and drawn-out yawn, waving her hand dismissively as she turned away.
“Day?” she asked. “I’ll let you know when I’ve woken up. This is an uncivilized hour to be calling my fiancé.”
I was glad I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“Quit your whining!”
I startled at Mack’s voice reprimanding me through the implant, and drew a hasty breath, as I followed Mack out into the corridor.
“Breakfast?” he asked, once the door closed behind him.
“Sure,” I said, wondering if he’d forgotten the coffee offer he’d bribed me with, in what seemed an age ago.
“That’s breakfast,” he said, “I forgot it would be delayed.
Uh huh. I just bet he had. I didn’t believe there wouldn’t be a similar ‘forgotten’ delay regarding breakfast, until we’d hit the caf and were sitting down with food and coffee before us.
We ate in silence. Me, because I couldn’t think of anything to say. The short time that had passed since I’d made my attempt to run away from him and Odyssey hadn’t left me with a lot of time to think, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do next. Getting to know Mack and his crew hadn’t even featured on the agenda, since I’d never planned to be here this long.
“And now?” Mack asked, jolting me out of my own head.
I jumped and felt coffee slosh over my fingers, glad it had cooled since I’d poured it.
“Now, what?” I asked, playing for time, and hoping he hadn’t meant what I thought he had.
“What are you planning on, now?” he pressed, because, of course, he had meant what I’d thought he had. Damn man was still reading my mind.
He had the gall to smirk at that, but he didn’t let the subject alone.
“Still going to run away?” he asked, and I stared at him, with no idea what to say.
To be honest, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Was I still going to run away? I had no idea. Did I want to spend the next however long working with Mack, and being an Odyssey employee?
I don’t know and oh hell no!—although, that last bit depended entirely on how much I’d made from the however many ops we’d just crammed into the last few weeks. Given the risks we’d faced, and the unexpected opportunities that had come our way, I had my fingers crossed I was getting somewhere close to meeting the colossal sum Odyssey had set for my release.
“Like that is it?” Mack asked, and I realized I’d gotten lost in my thoughts again.
I shrugged.
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” I asked.
Mack glared at me, as though I should have some idea, but Tens interrupted us before Mack could respond.
“You need to take this,” he said, speaking directly to the captain, even though I could hear him, and then Tens added, “on the bridge,” and we were both on our feet and heading for the door, our breakfast dishes and half-drunk coffees forgotten on the table.
I felt Mack’s fear that something had gone terribly wrong, that we were being hailed by Odyssey or GalPol because we’d been found in breach of a law we hadn’t known about, or something. Whatever it was, we made it to the control room in double-quick time.
Tens was waiting for us, when we got there, but the big surprise was that Delight was waiting for us, too. She turned to look at us, as we rushed through the door, eyebrows arched, and one hand on her hip.
“Took you long enough,” she said, and Mack closed his mouth on whatever he’d been about to say.
It was a silence that Tens hurried to fill.
“I have a call on hold from the Clan Corovan,” he said. “Delight is here as Odyssey’s representative. She will observe and advise in Odyssey’s interest.”
‘In Odyssey’s interest’, I thought. Not her own interest, or anybody else’s. Well, this would be curious to see. Delight was not impressed.
“Shut it, Cutter.”
I’d forgotten that she could see into my head, and I shut, looking to Mack for some kind of a clue as to what I was supposed to be doing next.
“Watch and learn,” Mack said, and moved to take the position he had held when speaking with Lord Skymander.
Delight stepped up beside him, and Tens moved to flank her. I followed Mack, standing next to him as I’d done with the previous call. Once we were all in position, Tens allowed the screen to go live.
“I’m sorry for the delay,” he replied, lying smoothly. “The captain was on another call, and Odyssey insisted on having its representative present.”
“How did they even know we were calling?” the Corovani lord challenged, and I saw it was not Andreus.
“They did not know you were calling, now,” Tens explained. “They only knew you would, and left orders in place.”
“Orders?”
“We are under contract.”
The Corovani snorted.
“Several contracts, if my information is correct,” he said.
Mack cleared his throat.
“Our contracts are not your business,” he said.
“They are, when you are in breach of them.”
“Are you referring to the contract we held with Lord Andreus Corovan?”
“A contract with one of us is a contract with all.”
“Those terms were not in this contract,” Mack said. “This contract was made while we were under duress; it was made under false pretenses; and”—Mack held up his hand to still the Corovani’s protest—“and Lord Andreus did not have the permission of either the Corovans, or Clan Hazerna, to make it. He was not acting in anyone’s interests, but his own, as dictated by the arach.”
Up until the point that he said arach, Mack had been facing a very angry lord. At mention of the star-faring spider race, the lord froze.
“Arach?”
“Yes, my lord. The arach. They had manipulated Andreus into acting for their interests.”
There was the sound of hurried footsteps in the background of the Lord Corovan’s call, and he looked off-screen, his eyes widening at whatever he saw. He had just time to turn back to the screen and say “Please, help us,” before the call ended in darkness.
“On it,” Delight said, and then glared at Tens. “You need to release the teleport lock,” she said. “I promise I will not take the Lady Melari from this ship.”
Tens hesitated, and then nodded.
“Done,” he said, and Delight disappeared in an all-too-familiar
silver glow.
Tens said nothing, after she had gone, but stood still, staring into space for several minutes. Mack waited until the comms specialist had finished whatever it was he was doing through his implant, and I waited, too. I even took a leaf out of Mack’s book, and didn’t say a word.
“Is Melari still on board?” Mack asked, when Tens blinked.
“Yes.”
“Did they try?”
And Tens smiled a very satisfied smile.
“Oh, yes.”
Mack mirrored Tens’ expression, and took his place behind the captain’s console.
“Case,” he said, “you’re needed on deck.”
He turned to me.
“Can you do navigation?”
“Some.”
“It’ll be enough for this. I’ll have Case and Tens keep a half eye on what you’re doing.”
I nodded, and slid into the seat he indicated, wondering why he didn’t call up his navigator.
“It’s early.”
For that matter, I wondered where the standing watch were. No ship left its command center unattended in flight.
“I stood them down. I needed privacy for that last call.”
Man had an answer for everything.
“It is my ship.”
Again, with the slight emphasis on ‘my’. Anyone would have thought the man had a hard-on for the Shady Marie.
“Shut it, Cutter.”
Tens snickered, but the laughter was gone and his face was a perfect blank, when Mack snapped his head towards him.
Case came on deck, shortly after. She hurried over and seated herself behind her console.
“Where to, boss?”
Mack rattled off a string of coordinates, and Case slipped the flight helmet over her head, and got to flying. I felt the drives power up in a fraction of the time I was used to, and wondered what she was doing. Mack explained.
“We’re in a hurry, Cutter. No time for niceties.”
“We’re not going back to the station?”
“We’re taking the long way around. Find out where we are, and plan us some contingencies. I’m calling Skymander. Case, get the crew in their pods.”
Pods?
“Ride might get bumpy.”
Not what I wanted to hear.
35—Delivery
With the ship moving swiftly towards the furthest warp point, Mack put a second call through to Skymander. He flagged it urgent, but none of us quite expected the image that came on screen, when Skymander answered.
The lord was not in the lounge he usually took calls in. In fact, I couldn’t tell where he was. It looked like he was standing in a doorway, with his back to a much larger room. He was also far from his well-groomed norm. His hair was in wild disarray, his jacket buttoned oddly, and he was breathing heavily as though he’d just run a race... or fought a battle.
“My lord, are you okay?” Mack asked, and Skymander blushed.
“Fine,” he said in a tone that discouraged further enquiry, as he quickly changed the subject. “You said it was urgent.”
“We must close our contract early.”
Skymander frowned, and his color subsided.
“You wish to make the delivery, early?”
“We are on our way.”
“Stand clear of the warp point. We are coming to you.”
Skymander ended the call, and Mack looked to Case. He ended up saying nothing, but the navcom showed us slowing, and I felt the ship give an almost imperceptible shudder.
“Keep the crew in their pods,” Mack said. “Tens. Are the fire teams in position?”
“Done.”
“Keep the weapons off-line, but stand-by with the shields. I don’t want to send the wrong message.”
“Done.”
“If anyone needs the head, now’s the time.”
We went, but not all at once. No one wanted to get caught short, but none of us knew how long it would take for the Skymander’s Flag to appear through the jump point. Personally, I hadn’t thought he was that close, but that depended on the speed he’d anticipated travelling at, when he’d said he wouldn’t be at High Costral for three standard days.
If he decided he needed to go faster, who knew how much he could cut that time by.
Case steadied the ship at a safe distance from the warp point, and I wondered how Skymander knew where we’d be. What if we had our warp points mixed? There was at least one other way into and out of the solar system.
“Not from the direction he’s travelling in,” said Mack.
I thought he might be about to explain, but Tens interrupted.
“Incoming. Stand by.”
We stood... not literally, but we waited, and then something began to emerge from the warp point, and our boards lit up.
“Case, back her off. Tens, keep those weapons tied down, and check for port breach.”
Port breach?
My boards showed nothing, but they weren’t hooked into security. I used the implant to hot-step across to Tens’ security array, and pulled the feed into my head.
“Holy fuck,” I murmured, but Tens, Mack and Case all ignored me; they were far too busy: Case, because she was getting the ship out of collision range; Tens, because there were flashes of yellow flaring and fading throughout the ship; and Mack because he was overseeing it all.
I touched nothing, but I watched everything, and plotted several course resolutions Case could use if she needed them. These I sent over to her console, as I watched the big ship roll in, and saw patches of red begin to bloom along the hull.
“Get those, Cutter,” Tens said, and I watched another dozen amber flares go live on the lower decks.
I didn’t bother asking how Tens knew I was in his system. I didn’t care. No doubt we’d be having words about that when this crisis was over. Right now, I needed to make sure those comms mines didn’t get their greasy little claws into our ship’s systems.
Suweet!
Tens had loaded some pretty good protection into the defensive array. I tweaked two of them and watched the red blotches shard to nothing. That didn’t help with the alert for an all-systems intrusion coming through the comms lines.
“Fuck!” which only goes to show that Tens is as potty-mouthed as I am when he’s under pressure.
I didn’t need him to tell me which line of green needed to be dealt with, first. Tens was still working to repel another wave of amber, and I didn’t want to know what was happening to the men and women trying to teleport in. I sure as shit doubted they were being returned to their point of origin.
“Where I can, Cutter. Where I can,” and Tens sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth.
I chased down the first wave of green, blocking it with a hastily thrown program designed to act like a dam wall, which blocked and then dissipated the attacking code. The first one worked, and I flicked a second out and into the path of the other attack.
That one didn’t work so well, the attack pile-driving through the block, and continuing to the ship’s central processor.
“For fuck’s sake, lock it down!” and I didn’t need an explanation to know that Tens was talking to me.
The first stream was stopped, but that second stream was operating in a more aggressive format. Not entirely my beast, but, whatever. I guessed whoever was running the code was used to meeting defenses head on, which meant they could probably outgun me in the coding department, which meant I should try something different—and I probably couldn’t take them on in the aggression department, either.
Right, so subtle it was.
I let the code go past me, so to speak, ignoring Tens’ squawk of frustration as another three teleport attempts blossomed and failed. As the line of green slid by, infiltrating further into the system and heading for the security section, I slammed a worm into the center of it, and let the damn thing, loose, limiting its spread to the aggressor code, and ordering it to dissipate once the target coding was gone.
I watched as the
green stream broke into slivers, and then sharded to nothing.
“Nice work,” Tens breathed, and we waited for the next attack.
Case kept the ship backing away from the behemoth coming through the gate, and I sent her a revised plot, one that took her through the wormhole, if she needed it. None of us were really ready for the brief flash of a half-formed figure that appeared and then disappeared from the control room. We definitely weren’t prepared for the secondary flash that put Tens’ console out of commission.
“Down!” Mack shouted, and we dived beneath our consoles, even Case, although the ship suddenly rolled to the left, and I guessed she’d hooked into the controls with her implant and was planning on flying it blind.
“Not good,” I muttered, but I didn’t see that she had much choice.
“Perfect,” said Skymander, from the center of the command center, and I peered out from under the console to see him standing in the center of a circle of heavily armed men. “I see I chose a worthy team.”
I might have answered that, except there was another line of green racing for the ship’s core system, and I was having none of it. I threw down a blocker, and then tried for the same sneaky side-shot that I’d tried before. This time, the virus bounced off and then blew apart, and I had to think of something new.
Bastard, I thought, and let loose one of the hound-dog programs Rohan had given me. The intrusion software turned, and faced up to the doggie, the two code constructs circling each other for all the world like two dogs sizing each other up for a fight.
“Not a bad analogy,” Skymander said, but it wasn’t him that had stooped beneath the counter to press a Blazer 54 up tight against my rib cage. “Mack?”
“Stand down, Cutter.”
I caught the eye of the guardsman, holding the Blazer, and hoped Skymander wasn’t made of the same stuff that had formed Marl and Bendigo. I was tired of having to grow bits back.
“Out.”
The guardsman moved back, taking the Blazer with him, and I followed, moving slowly out from where I’d taken cover. When I straightened up, I found that Mack, Tens, and Case were already standing behind their consoles, their hands raised.
“Troublemaker,” Tens whispered, inside my head, and I rolled my eyes, lifting my own hands, and stepping away from the controls.
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