Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Do we need her?” Kalb jerked the tip of her rifle toward Kim’s chest.

  The galaxy suit underneath her biohazard suit would protect her from a couple of shots but not from sustained fire.

  “No,” Dubashi said, walking back into view. “Ironic that we never did. Shoot her.”

  Kim trembled with anger and fear, but she refused to beg for her life. She glared at Kalb, willing the shields to fall and for the base to be destroyed before they could escape.

  The door opened and someone in black armor bowled into Kalb an instant before she fired. Rache. It could only be Rache in that armor.

  His momentum carried them out of Kim’s view, Dubashi leaping back before being taken down as well. Clatters and thuds echoed from the walls, armored punches against armored bodies. A wrenching squeal sounded as Rache roared in anger.

  Dubashi reached for a weapon as his two robots rushed away from Kim’s side and toward the fight, but he must have thought better of engaging. He hurried out the door.

  Kim almost roared Coward! after him but clamped down on the word. The fewer opponents Rache had to battle, the better.

  General Kalb yelled in pain, but then the noise was cut off with a sickening crunch. Something was hurled across the lab and crashed into a Glasnax wall. Her body? Or Rache’s? Kim had lost sight of everyone, even the robots.

  “There are containers full of a deadly virus over by the rockets,” she yelled, realizing that the fight might break open the ones she hadn’t had a chance to incinerate.

  “I’ll do my best not to break them,” came Rache’s voice, surprisingly calm amid what sounded like wrecking balls clashing together.

  “Thank you.” She rolled her eyes at her ludicrous response.

  An even more ludicrous, if only for its extreme politeness, “You’re welcome,” came back.

  Another shudder went through the lab, rattling equipment and vials. It was fiercer than the first one. Kim imagined Jorg’s fleet firing relentlessly at the moon’s surface while the mercenary ships scattered, doing nothing to impede the Kingdom attack.

  Two more men ran into the lab, and Kim groaned. Dubashi had sent reinforcements.

  But, no, she realized as her mind processed what she’d seen. The two men wore the silver liquid armor of knights and carried the trademark pertundos. An entire stream of crushers came in after them.

  “Don’t kill the guy in black armor,” came Casmir’s voice from the doorway.

  Kim sagged in relief. She’d never been so pleased to see him walk into a room.

  Tristan came after him. Good. She was relieved that his team had all made it.

  “That’s Rache!” Bjarke roared.

  “Who we’re definitely not worrying about picking a fight with right now,” Casmir said firmly as he looked around. “You and he can punch each other senseless once we get off this base.”

  “Over here.” Kim couldn’t wave but lifted a few fingers.

  Casmir rushed to her chair. “One second. Let me find the controls.”

  Another shudder coursed through the complex. A snap came from the ceiling, and Kim watched in horror as the cement split and a crack ran to the wall.

  “I think Dubashi’s shields are failing,” she muttered.

  “They just need to hold long enough for us to get back to our shuttle,” Casmir said. “And for me to bask in the glory of getting to rescue you. I never thought this would happen.”

  Kim rolled her eyes. “I’d rather hoped it wouldn’t.”

  But she couldn’t bring herself to feel embarrassed. Not now. She just wanted to get out of this alive.

  “I’m rescuing her,” Rache said, stepping into view. “I was here first.”

  “You were busy wrestling with robots like some super villain’s cannon fodder.” Casmir found the controls that released the chair straps. “Look, I hit the button. That makes me the rescuer.”

  “Please, you’re the damsel in distress. Zee probably carried you here.” Rache sprang forward to grab Kim’s arm and help her out of the chair.

  “I ran all the way on my own two legs,” Casmir said.

  Kim tried to wave away the help—it wasn’t as if she’d been injured—but Casmir gripped her other arm.

  “Rache, did you see Dubashi?” Casmir asked.

  “See, yes, but he ran away while I was tackling the woman aiming a rifle at Kim’s chest.”

  “Damn, I was supposed to kidnap him. But I do see why you prioritized Kim.”

  “I thought you would.”

  “Let’s get out of here.” By the time they reached the exit, Kim managed to extricate herself from their overly helpful grips. “Wait!”

  She remembered the canisters she hadn’t had time to incinerate and rushed back, relieved to find them on the floor where she had left them. While the men waited, she destroyed them, trying not to think about what might have happened if Rache and the others had broken them during their battle.

  Bjarke and Asger, having utterly destroyed the two robots, surged out ahead of the group and took the lead, racing through the corridors toward a lift. Tristan came behind Kim, Casmir, and Rache, followed by the squad of crushers.

  When Casmir reached the lift, he waved at a sensor, and the doors opened. Even without a wireless network, he must have found a way to give himself access to everything.

  The entire group crammed in, which Kim wouldn’t have thought possible, but the crushers melted and flattened themselves against the walls.

  “Are we going to hunt for Dubashi?” Bjarke asked, surprisingly looking to Casmir. Deferring to him?

  The lift lurched to a stop, and the lights went out as more tremors wracked the base.

  “We better get out of here while we can,” Tristan said.

  Casmir hesitated. “The blueprints show more than ten ship bays in the base in addition to the one we came in through. Even if we had time to look for him, he would probably have taken off before we guessed right.”

  The lift groaned, then lurched back into motion as the lights came back on, dim emergency lights.

  “Better to survive and fight another day,” Rache said.

  Casmir shook his head bleakly but didn’t object.

  They exited the lift on the top level of the base. Huge pieces of rubble scattered the floor and the lights flickered. Kim and Rache started off in one direction, then paused when Casmir and the others headed the other way. Kim realized they’d been brought in through different hangars.

  “This way, Kim.” Casmir waved for her to follow as the knights and crushers pounded off ahead of him.

  Rache looked back at her. “Are you coming with me or him?”

  Kim remembered Dubashi’s words that Rache had taken his offer, that he was on his way to assassinate the king. She shook her head. She would not go with him on that mission, and she highly doubted she could talk him out of it. Maybe she would try, but not from his ship. If she had any chance of clearing suspicion and doubt from her name back home, she couldn’t spend any more time with him.

  “I can’t come with you.” Kim didn’t mean the words to come out laced with disappointment or condemnation, but she feared they did. “I’m sorry.”

  She waved, then turned and didn’t look back as she ran after Casmir and the others. It wasn’t as if she could have seen the expression on Rache’s masked face even if she had looked at him.

  33

  Casmir sat in a pod on their shuttle, his elbows on his knees, his hands gripping the back of his head. They’d kept Dubashi from hiring all those mercenaries and sending them off to invade System Lion, but Kim had just filled him in that Dubashi had likely gotten away with two rockets filled with a virus so lethal it fell into some special planet-killer category.

  “There’s more,” Kim admitted from the pod next to his.

  Casmir groaned and lifted his head. “What?”

  They were flying away from the base, with Tristan, Bjarke, and Asger up front in navigation, the men cursing and gasping and oohing
as the Kingdom ships pummeled the moon. Automated weapons on the surface fired back at them, but the efforts seemed half-hearted.

  Casmir couldn’t care less about the moon, not if Dubashi had already gotten away. Bjarke, who was piloting their shuttle, hadn’t said anything about another ship escaping the base, but Casmir assumed the formerly wealthy Miners’ Union prince could afford slydar. He might have slipped away with ten ships, for all they knew.

  Kim spoke in a voice so low Casmir almost couldn’t hear her. “Dubashi said that Rache accepted his contract, to assassinate Jager and also Jorg if he can.”

  “He’d do that without a contract or any money, wouldn’t he?” Casmir asked. “The answer must be yes, because he was in that room when Tristan informed all the mercenaries that Dubashi is out of funds and can’t pay.”

  “Is that what happened? I wondered where all the mercenary ships went.” Kim waved vaguely toward the forward display. “Dubashi said he still had assets and that Rache was willing to accept some of them. Maybe he’s getting an asteroid belt or mining ship in exchange.” She hitched a shoulder. “I gather he had a… thing about going to assassinate Jager and that he’d been waiting a long time for someone to give him this mission.”

  Casmir flicked his fingers and dropped his head back into his lap. He didn’t want to say assassin-Rache was inconsequential, but he cared a lot more about the possibility of horrific biological weapons being deployed on his home world than he did about the king’s life. Jager had bodyguards. Casmir’s family—everybody he knew and cared about—did not. Few of them even had galaxy suits or other self-contained suits that could protect them from a virus.

  “We have to warn Jorg.” Casmir grimaced, remembering his last attempt to interact with Jorg. And that Jorg had Qin and Bonita now.

  “About Rache?” Kim asked.

  “About Dubashi and the rockets.”

  “Ah. Yes. We should warn Jager, too, even if there’s no way to know if a courier ship will be able to get through the gate before Dubashi does.”

  “At the least, any messages should get to Odin before he does.”

  Kim leaned back, a brooding expression on her usually expressionless face. She was probably worried that Rache would get himself killed trying to get to Jager. If Royal Intelligence had picked up one of the same slydar detectors that Shayban’s people had, it was very possible.

  Casmir wondered if he should comm Rache, now that they were away from the moon and had access to the system network again, and suggest working together to get Dubashi. Would Rache even consider it? Probably not. Not if he’d accepted a contract from him.

  Still, Rache might be their only way out of this system. When Kim had made her choice at the lift not to go with him, Casmir had almost pointed out that both shuttles might end up going back to the Fedallah. He didn’t want to be stuck with Rache or ask him for another favor, but he had borrowed this shuttle and should return it. Further, he worried they didn’t have a way to get to the gate or even back to Stardust Palace. This shuttle didn’t have the fuel to reach either destination.

  He hoped, perhaps vainly, that Jorg had left the Stellar Dragon adrift and that it wasn’t too badly damaged. Maybe they could fly it to the palace.

  And then what? Casmir rubbed the back of his neck. How was he supposed to get Bonita and Qin back? Could he barter the information about Dubashi and the virus for them? Somehow convince Jorg to drop his friends off at Stardust Palace? Didn’t he have to go there, anyway, to pick up the crushers?

  Casmir smiled thinly, imagining Jorg’s frustration when he found out that the pristine new crusher army wouldn’t take orders from him. He might be delayed for days there while he tried to figure out how to reprogram them.

  Unfortunately, neither Dubashi nor Rache would be delayed. Casmir assumed they both had fast ships, ships with slydar that could run the blockade without being seen, and would continue straight on to Odin.

  He sat up as a thought occurred to him.

  “What is it?” Kim asked, watching him.

  “Maybe nothing. Maybe something.”

  Casmir composed a message.

  Kyla Moonrazor, I thank you for the tip about Dubashi’s finances. We were able to dig into his banking information and convince a lot of mercenaries that they don’t want to work for him right now. Unfortunately, he slipped away from us with… How much should he admit? What would an astroshaman from another system care about the Kingdom and its citizens? But she would probably find out anyway. She could surf the networks as easily as he could. A weapon that could wipe out all human life on Odin. I don’t know where you are or even what you’re doing in this system, but you mentioned having the ability to take control of the wormhole gate for your people. Is there any chance you’re willing to do so now? Or in the next couple of days? I’d like to keep Dubashi from escaping this system and invading ours. At least until we can get to the gate and deal with him.

  Casmir debated before sending it. He’d already promised to help her find a hiding place for her people. What more could he offer? A crusher? He doubted she would be impressed; she could probably make them or something similar herself. But it was all he had to bargain with.

  There’s little I can offer you for your assistance, but I have been making new crushers and giving them out as presents. If you’re interested in one, let me know. Thank you.

  He signed it and sent it, expecting a delay again. Wherever she was, it wasn’t anywhere close to Dubashi’s base.

  “Wow,” Tristan murmured from navigation. “They blew up that entire half of the moon. And then some. I knew Prince Jorg was a vengeful bastard, but wow.”

  “I doubt anyone was even left on it.” Bjarke growled. “I’ve located the Stellar Dragon, and it’s damaged. There’s no life on board. Damn. What did Jorg say when he spoke to you, Tristan? To Casmir?”

  Casmir sank back, a weariness almost as deep as he’d felt when he’d had the Plague seeping into him. The infiltration hadn’t been that hard, not his part, nor had it taken that long. Maybe his weariness came from this constant worry that he wouldn’t be able to make things right and go home. He’d never be able to hug his parents again, or go to gaming nights with his friends, or see one of his students graduate and get a great job.

  Or ask Oku for that coffee date. She wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him now that her father was offering her up as some prize. Who knew if Casmir was even the only one Jager had made that offer to? Maybe they had called up a few admirals while they’d been at it.

  He couldn’t forget that caged look in Oku’s eyes. For the first time, he couldn’t bring himself to replay one of her videos.

  Fortunately, when Casmir didn’t reply right away, Tristan, who had heard the gist of that conversation, summed it up for Bjarke.

  “I can’t believe he would do that, kidnap innocent civilians.” Bjarke sounded so disappointed.

  Casmir wondered if this might be the first waning of his steadfast loyalty toward the crown.

  “I can,” Tristan said.

  “Do we go to the Dragon?” Bjarke looked back at Casmir. “Or try to join up with the fleet?”

  Casmir raised his eyebrows, shocked that Bjarke would defer to him or ask his opinion. He’d expected to have to wrestle the knight—or have Zee wrestle the knight—to get him to go to the Dragon.

  “Are you only asking me because you’re afraid the fleet will shoot us down if we zip in close in one of Rache’s shuttles?”

  “That did cross my mind, but I can comm them. And this is his unmarked shuttle.” Bjarke’s gaze shifted to Asger, then to Tristan, and then back to Asger.

  Casmir waited before giving his answer, sensing that Bjarke was trying to figure something out. Or maybe his heart had already figured it out, and he was trying to rearrange his rational mind in a way that could accept it.

  “Even though we didn’t manage to catch Dubashi,” Bjarke said slowly, swiveling to look at Casmir again, “I’m not convinced we did the wrong th
ing by disobeying orders. Dubashi would have escaped that regardless.” Bjarke waved toward the demolished moon. “And if he’d succeeded in hiring those mercenaries, mercenaries with ships totaling more than double what Jorg brought to the battlefield, I think Jorg and everyone out there would have been killed. No, not Jorg. He was over here, picking on Bonita’s ship.” Bjarke clenched his jaw, indignation and rage burning in his eyes like hot embers in a fire.

  Nobody else was surprised by Jorg’s actions. Not now. Bjarke had been late to arrive at his conclusions.

  But Casmir didn’t blame him. Bjarke had spent his whole life loyal to the king, loyal to the system that rewarded him. If anything, Casmir was delighted that he seemed willing to consider another option now.

  Tristan cleared his throat. “If it’s at all possible, I would like a ride back to Stardust Palace. I don’t regret coming, but I… didn’t even say a proper goodbye to Nalini.”

  Casmir nodded. “Take us to the Dragon, please, Bjarke. Let’s see if the ship is repairable. If not, we’ll have to turn ourselves over to Jorg.”

  Or Rache, Casmir added silently. But Rache may have already taken off on his mission. Even if he hadn’t, would he welcome Bjarke and Tristan onto his ship? Even his relationship with Asger was iffy. Kim was the only guarantee, and would she, knowing what she knew of Rache’s plans, even be willing to go?

  Casmir did not ask.

  “El Mago!” Viggo’s voice rang from the bulkheads as Casmir and the others stepped out of the airlock and into the cargo hold.

  The Dragon’s damage had been apparent from the outside, including an exterior hatch door that had been ripped off, but they had managed to dock the shuttle to it. As they’d come aboard, they had passed some of Viggo’s repair bots working on sealing breaches in the hull—fortunately the inner airlock hatch had not been completely ripped off—but Casmir was already creating a list of things he would have to do to make the freighter space-worthy again. Right now, the Dragon was floating like a derelict in the shadow of an asteroid.