Annoyance flashed across her father’s face. He didn’t come forward to help. As he’d always said, her pets were her responsibility.
Fortunately, as Chasca strained against her grip and kept barking, letting everyone know the spawns of evil were standing a few feet away, one of the servants jogged forward with a leash. Maddie also came out of the bus.
“I’ll take her, Your Highness.”
Between the three of them, they managed to clasp the leash to Chasca’s collar, and Maddie pulled her toward one of the interior buildings. Oku called a thank-you after them as Chasca struggled to get free and rush back to protect her. Oku hoped there weren’t any more crushers lurking around the compound.
When her dog was inside, the barking fading, Oku faced her father again. Finn was smirking, probably whispering to their father about how he wasn’t the troublemaker in the family.
“Dog versus crusher,” Finn said. “There’s a match that wouldn’t go well for one of the combatants.”
Their father waved him to silence. “Why have you been corresponding with Dabrowski, Oku?”
She gathered a steadying breath, her nerves frayed. “He had an idea for one of my biology projects, and then he roped in Kim, and they’re both working on it. I hope they’ll be able to return home soon, and this will all end.” She waved toward the sky. “Is there any hope of that, Father?”
Maybe if she directed his attention to the war, he would forget whatever he was thinking about her and Casmir.
“Do you have feelings for him?” he asked bluntly.
Finn’s mouth dropped. Why was he even here? Oku wanted to shoo him away.
“Not really.” Was that a lie? Oku didn’t know. They’d only met face-to-face twice. She would call Casmir a friend after all of their messages back and forth, but she could tell her father meant more than friendship. “I know you expect me to marry some prince or emperor or king. I’ve avoided developing romantic feelings for people.”
“Good. Does he have feelings for you?”
Something in his expression made her think that was the question he’d meant to ask first. As if it didn’t matter if she had feelings for a man, but if Casmir reciprocated them, then that was a problem.
“I’m not sure.” And she wasn’t. But then she remembered that recent video, the BEE MINE? spelled out in flowers.
Casmir had been goofing around, but the joke had seemed to hint of more than feelings of friendship. Which was surprising, considering how little actual time they’d spent together, but she’d been propositioned by knights who’d only known her from afar, claiming they had fallen in love with her radiant beauty. A turn of phrase that made her want to gag, not return their supposed love.
“Maybe,” she amended quietly, hoping she wasn’t betraying Casmir by admitting that. But she didn’t want his family to be turned away, and maybe now, her father would understand why she had to help them. “Isn’t he working for you? Wouldn’t it be a good thing to ensure his family is safe while he’s off with the Fleet?”
“He’s not with the Fleet right now. It’s questionable whether he’s helping us at all or if he’s working toward his own ends.”
Fear curled through her veins. What was Casmir doing out there? He wouldn’t work against the Kingdom, would he?
“He doesn’t seem ambitious,” she said, careful not to defend him too strongly, lest her father believe she was besotted or something silly. That would make it easy for him to dismiss her arguments on this subject. “What ends would he be working toward?”
“Anything that isn’t obeying the crown is treasonous.”
Oku didn’t know what to say to that. Casmir was a civilian, not a soldier or a knight. Surely, he’d never sworn to obey the crown. Kingdom subjects had gained their freedom long ago—nobody was a serf without rights, without freedom and independence. If her father didn’t know that, he hadn’t studied the history and social sciences books that her tutors had given her when she’d been a student.
“He has proven himself valuable though,” her father said, stroking his chin thoughtfully now. His eyes were narrowed again, this time in speculation rather than suspicion, she thought.
Oku had been less worried when he’d simply been angry.
“It would be better to get him back, if he has indeed gone astray, and turn him steadfastly loyal to the crown, as Admiral Mikita was to King Ansel all those years ago.”
Finn continued to look puzzled. And maybe a little disappointed that Oku wasn’t being yelled at.
“That loyalty was won because of Mikita’s love for Princess Sophia, his desire to prove himself to her.” Father looked Oku up and down, as if seeing her for the first time. Or, more accurately, as if debating for the first time if Oku could be used as some prize to win a man’s loyalty.
Oku couldn’t make herself smile. The idea nauseated her.
“These people may stay.” Father gestured magnanimously to the auto-bus. “If you come with me to record a message once things settle down. And after you’ve rested and cleaned yourself up.” He waved at her rain-dampened hair and whatever grime plastered her face after traveling through the debris in the city. “Do you agree?”
Did she?
Two spaceships flew past overhead, the fiery orange of their thrusters visible against the gray clouds. One ship fired at the other before they disappeared from sight beyond the Citadel walls.
Her father kept watching her, as if he wasn’t worried at all about the chaos that had descended on Odin. Soon, another boom came from the city, another bomb dropping.
Oku couldn’t send Casmir’s family back out there. It galled her that her father would do so if she didn’t play this game with him. But what else could she do?
“I agree,” she said quietly.
14
Yas woke up in his cabin on the Fedallah, red lights coming on and a speaker announcing, “We are engaging in combat. Report to battle stations and prepare for high-speed maneuvers.”
He tossed his blankets aside as the warship spun and veered off in a new direction, his stomach objecting as acceleration fought with the ship’s regular spin gravity. What was going on? The last he’d heard, they were detouring to Stardust Palace to pick up someone—Rache hadn’t told him who.
He scrambled to tug on his galaxy suit as the promised high-speed maneuvers continued, then wobbled to the door. Yas headed toward sickbay but paused when he came to the intersection that branched off toward the bridge.
“Computer, are there any injured waiting for me in sickbay?” Yas asked.
The ship’s AI answered. “Sickbay is currently empty.”
Curiosity spurring his decision, Yas trotted to the bridge, pausing to grip handholds on the walls when the maneuvers grew intense. A faint shudder emanated from the deck. Were they firing? Or was someone firing at them? Or both?
He knew he should report to sickbay, but if nobody was waiting for him, a couple of minutes shouldn’t hurt…
When Yas entered the bridge, he found Rache standing behind his seat, gripping the back with one hand and his other balled into a fist that his chin rested on as he watched the forward display. Yas looked in time to catch a missile striking the hull of a ship and burrowing in before it exploded. Violently.
Pieces of the vessel—it looked to have been a freighter—flew in a thousand directions. An alarm flashed as one piece streaked straight toward their bridge—or whatever camera was transmitting to the forward display. Yas jumped as it hit. But it didn’t damage the camera. The display continued to show bits of the lifeless ship, the larger remains of the wreck dark and deprived of power.
And the crew dead?
“We were attacked?” Yas couldn’t remember experiencing any surprise attacks for as long as he’d been on board. The Fedallah’s slydar hull usually kept enemies from locating them.
Rache’s black mask turned toward him. “Not exactly, Doctor.” His tone was dry.
The helmsman whooped. “That’s one Kingdom bastard th
at won’t be going home.”
“Oh,” Yas muttered with realization.
Had Rache veered off from his destination to blow up a Kingdom ship for no reason? Was he being paid?
“What about the shuttle?” Rache asked.
“It’s accelerating away from us, still on course for Stardust Palace, sir.”
“Can we catch it before it gets there?”
“I don’t think so, sir. It’s fast, and it didn’t slow down to help with the fight.”
“It was ordered not to,” Lieutenant Amergin reported from the comm station. “I just decrypted their transmissions back to the Chivalrous. The prince’s people said for the shuttle—there’s a knight aboard—to make it to the station and find the bacteriologist.”
The bacteriologist? Could that be Kim Sato? Yas couldn’t imagine who else might be working with the Kingdom fleet.
Rache looked sharply at Amergin. “The knight is on the shuttle? He wasn’t on the freighter?”
“Yes.” Amergin checked a readout. “Confirmed. Sorry, sir. Looks like I got it wrong before.”
Yas was confused about everything except the long stare that Rache gave Amergin. The mask hid his eyes, but there was no doubt to the ice in them. Amergin had made a mistake.
“I don’t think we could have caught the shuttle, anyway,” the helmsman offered into the chilly silence that had descended over the bridge. “It had too much of a lead. What heading, sir?”
Rache, still staring at Amergin, said, “Continue to Stardust Palace.”
“We going to hunt down the knight there, sir?” The bloodthirsty assassin Chaplain was on the bridge, fondling one of his knives.
“Very likely.” Rache looked away from Amergin and toward the display. “We’ll find him.”
Amergin sagged with relief, as if he’d dodged a blow.
“I can do that, sir,” Chaplain said.
“We’ll see,” Rache murmured, shifting around to sit in his seat as the helmsmen altered their course.
The Fedallah regained its usual smooth flight.
“Are we already on Dubashi’s payroll and taking out Kingdom ships?” Yas asked quietly.
He kept any judgement out of his tone, since he didn’t know what was going on. If that reference to the bacteriologist had been about Kim, Yas didn’t have to ask why Rache would get involved. But why would a knight be sent to find her? Wasn’t she already on the Kingdom’s side? Working as an advisor?
“No, Doctor. Not yet.” Rache looked at him. “But thanks to a transmission we intercepted earlier, I know that knight is trying to pick up the same person we’re going to pick up. A person who doesn’t want to be picked up by the Kingdom.”
“And she wants to be picked up by us?” Yas asked dubiously.
Kim hadn’t been delighted by either of Rache’s previous kidnappings of her. And he was still confused as to why she would be avoiding the Kingdom.
“She requested it,” Rache murmured, the words for Yas’s ears only.
“Kim?” Yas would feel like an idiot if they weren’t thinking of the same person.
“Yes.”
Yas groped for a way to ask his other questions, knowing Rache might not want to talk about it—about her—in front of the bridge crew.
“Your station during combat is not on the bridge,” Rache said before he could speak.
“Nobody’s injured and in sickbay yet,” Yas replied, though he knew he was in the wrong and it was a dismissal. His curiosity would have to wait until later to be sated.
As he started for the exit, the comm pinged. Yas paused.
“Incoming message, sir. It’s coming from a moon halfway across the system. Prince Dubashi’s base.”
“Oh?” Rache asked. “He hasn’t contacted us directly before. Put it on.”
The face that came on belonged to a gray-haired woman, not Dubashi, but she wore a black uniform with a lot of silver trim, numerous medals, and tiny braids dangling from epaulets, so Yas guessed she was a high commander for the prince. The two Miners’ Union families in Yas’s system had their own militias, and with all that Dubashi was trying to accomplish, it wasn’t surprising that he also did.
“Captain Rache,” the woman spoke formally. “I am General Kalb. His Greatness, Prince Dubashi, has noticed that your ship is in the system but isn’t on course for our base, as most of the mercenaries who received our invitation are.”
“They spot us because of the fight?” someone whispered. “Or they got something that can see through the slydar?”
Rache held up a finger for silence on the bridge.
Kalb glanced to the side at some readout. “You appear to be on course for Stardust Palace. Is this correct?”
A few of the bridge officers exchanged worried looks. She could detect them somehow.
“I am not in the practice of announcing my destination to the galaxy,” Rache stated, his voice cool.
There was a delay as the transmission crossed the distance to the base.
“Nonetheless, we’ve been watching the larger mercenary ships in our system and are aware of their movements. If you are going to Stardust Palace before coming to our meeting, please confirm. We have a mission we would pay you to carry out.”
“What’s the mission?” Rache asked.
“Our agents report that a Star Kingdom microbiologist is harbored there. His Greatness wants her brought here alive and will pay fifty thousand Union dollars. He also wants the Kingdom roboticist Casmir Dabrowski, who is also there, dead, and will pay the same. We require the body as proof of his demise. Accomplish these small tasks, and we will pay you well before we offer even more through a contract for your entire ship. We want to give you the opportunity and honor to serve us in our war against the vile Kingdom.”
Yas held his breath for Rache’s reaction. That Dubashi wanted Casmir dead was old news, but why would he want Kim?
Rache didn’t react at all. “If I encounter these people on the station, I will keep your offers in mind. Rache, out.”
He made a cutting motion to Amergin, and Kalb’s face disappeared, replaced by the remains of the ship they were flying through.
“How’re they tracking us, sir?” someone asked.
“Amergin will find out,” Rache said.
“I’m on it, sir,” Amergin said.
“Let me know if that shuttle slows or changes course and we have a chance to catch it.” Rache headed for the bridge doors.
“Yes, sir.”
Yas followed Rache out. As soon as the doors shut behind them, he whispered, “Why would a Miners’ Union prince want Kim?”
Could Dubashi have some need for custom bacteria to be developed?
“I don’t know,” Rache said.
“Do you know why he wants Casmir dead?” Yas knew about the bounty, but he didn’t think anyone had ever told him why it existed.
“I assume because of his genes and what Dubashi thinks Casmir might become to Jager.”
The genes that Rache shared. Could Dubashi know about that half of the equation? What if Dubashi was trying to lure Rache to his base because he also wanted him dead?
Or maybe Dubashi didn’t care about Rache’s cloned genes. It wasn’t as if Rache would ever become an ally to King Jager. But was Casmir an ally of his? And if so, would it truly make a difference in a war? Having met Casmir, Yas had a hard time envisioning him following in the footsteps of the legendary war hero Admiral Mikita.
“I’m going to my quarters to do some research,” Rache said when the lift doors opened, “into why Dubashi might be in the market for a bacteriologist.”
Yas couldn’t think of anything good.
“I think this is the place, though it’s not… what I expected.” Kim stopped in front of a Glasnax door etched with a human-sized toadstool.
Throughout the station, potted trees and flowering bushes were typical decorations, but here, to either side of the door, half-decomposed logs stretched, elevated above the floor on stands. A variety of co
lorful mushrooms grew out of tidy holes drilled in the wood, their earthy aroma mingling with the scent of decaying wood.
“I had no expectations,” Asger said. “This lives up to them.”
“You don’t have to come in.” Or follow me around, Kim did not add.
It would be a while before the Fedallah reached the station, but she didn’t want Asger lurking around her when Rache made his incursion to rescue her. Correction: rescue them. Kim hoped Rache would give her an hour’s warning, so she could tell Casmir to grab his things and meet her up here. She also hoped they could slip out without Asger knowing. Given that Rache had threatened to kill their friend if they crossed paths again, Kim wanted to keep them far away from each other.
Asger shrugged. “I’ve completed my mission, so I don’t have much to do until my ride gets here. Since I sent back my shuttle, I gave up my autonomy. Unfortunately. Prince Jorg is sending a shuttle.” He looked at her, hesitated, then shook his head. “Until then, I’m assuming that my mission is to wander around looking decorative on a hostile space station.” Asger lifted his purple cloak.
He was wearing his full armor and armed with his pertundo and a stunner. Since Casmir had made friends with the sultan, nobody had objected to Asger, Kim, or Casmir wandering around.
“Maybe it won’t be hostile to the Kingdom for long,” Kim said. “Casmir seems to be charming the sultan.”
“You think his charm is powerful enough to repair the damage Jorg did by offending the princess?”
“His charm plus a crusher might. For a robotics lover, it’s a winning combination. Let’s hope it’s enough. Our fleet needs allies to take back to System Lion for the fight, and it sounds like Shayban has a lot of ships.” Kim didn’t see a door chime, but a small plaque on the wall proclaimed that the laboratory hours had begun, so she stepped up close enough to trigger any sensors. The door slid open.
Asger stuck close behind her as she entered, reminding her of Zee looming protectively. She wondered again why he was with her. If he had nothing to do, he could be doing it with Qin and Bonita on the Dragon. The last Kim had heard, they were still looking for work, another cargo to haul or a criminal with a bounty on his head.
Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6) Page 19
