A ship screamed overhead, and everyone looked up to see the QBS Augustus hovering just behind the three Skaine ships.
“Just making sure none of them decide to run,” Jun said in their implants.
The humans below nodded.
Katsu was looking around. “We’re missing one of the captains. I don’t know where he hid, but he managed to.”
“We’ll find him,” Hirotoshi told him.
“Was it Beans or Blue?” Ryu asked.
“Beans,” Katsu told them.
“Not important right now,” Hirotoshi reported. “They are all facing us now.”
“Surround and conquer.” Ryu drew his sword and settled into a fighting stance.
“Surround and conquer?” the other four echoed.
“Kill the motherfuckers,” Tabitha added succinctly. “Chaaaaaarge!”
“Anyone who stands down—” Hirotoshi began, but Tabitha cut him off.
“Hell, no! I do NOT agree to that!”
“Kemosabe,” Hirotoshi shot back. He could see Ryu, Kouki, and Katsu staring at him with shocked looks on their faces. They had never seen him countermand one of Tabitha’s orders in this way, or try to take control of a situation.
However, in this case, he worried that Tabitha’s grief might drive her to do things that she would later regret.
He figured she could always kill the Skaines after the fight if it turned out they needed killing. She couldn’t un-kill them if the reverse turned out to be true.
The Skaines decided to force his hand, however. Of the fifty or so left, ten decided to rush Tabitha at once, and Hirotoshi slid into action immediately.
“Hai!” He sliced up, to take the attacker closest to him, and then down, pulling up quickly to avoid lodging his sword in the Skaine’s collarbone.
Katsu and Ryu circled around to the back of the group. The other Skaines were still hanging back, having apparently decided to take Hirotoshi at his word. A few of them had put guns on the ground.
Tabitha had dispatched the first and second attackers and was currently sidestepping a third, who had run at her with a knife. She lashed out at him with her elbow as he stumbled past her and grabbed his arm, breaking the joint with her other hand and catching the knife when it fell from his nerveless fingers.
“I don’t know why you bothered,” she called to Hirotoshi. “None of them will do anything other than try to kill us.”
Hirotoshi and Katsu spun in unison, cutting down the last two attackers, and Hirotoshi nodded deeply to Tabitha.
“I apologize for speaking out of turn, Kemosabe.”
Tabitha opened her mouth and closed it. Adrenaline was still pumping through her blood from the fight, and she realized she wasn’t done fighting yet. She wanted to feel the impact of her fist against a few more faces.
She was almost angry enough at everything to want one of those faces to be Hirotoshi’s. These Skaines were hardly a challenge, after all. She wanted a real sparring session.
And she wanted to take one of those swords and lay into the rest of the group.
They had known.
They had been well aware of the kind of trade they were getting into, and she wasn’t just going to stand by and watch them get away with it while Shin—
She looked around, struggling for calm.
Hirotoshi, wisely, did not approach her. It was Ryu, still cleaning his blade, who came to stand next to her to survey the group.
“There is one captain to judge at the moment,” he told her. “Over there.” He nodded to the left. “Hirotoshi tied him up and left him for you. The other…we don’t know. They set up the deals, though. Every captain here was complicit in that trade.” His voice went to a murmur and he nodded toward the slaves, adding, “We need to figure out how to get them somewhere safe, too.”
Tabitha managed to nod. The mention of the slaves steadied her. What they needed was to get the chains off and get somewhere that they could rebuild their lives or get safe passage home—and hopefully keep themselves safe until she’d managed to wipe out every Skaine bastard in the universe.
What they didn’t need was to witness a bloodbath.
She went over to Vel’un first and pushed him onto his back with her boot. “You. Start talking.”
He glared up at her. “What I did was perfectly legal. You have no right to—”
“Wrong answer.” Tabitha’s eyes went red, and she hauled him up by his neck. He choked and spluttered as she pulled him close to her face. “Where did you find these slaves? And remember, they’re right there and I can ask them.”
“On some mining colonies,” Vel’un spat. “I can’t breathe.”
“Maybe I should put one of those collars on you.” But Tabitha dropped him to the sand with a sound of disgust. “So you went in, captured them, and were going to sell them, and you want me to believe that’s just totally legal, and furthermore, that you see no problem with it at all?”
“It…” Well, it was a gray area, taking people from sovereign colonies. “I don’t see anything wrong with it!”
“That’s disgusting,” Tabitha held back the kick she so desperately wanted to give him. “You’re slime. Skaines like you are the reason I’m here, ridding the galaxy of every single one of you fuckers I find. You aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last.” She pulled out her Jean Dukes and fired. “You have been judged as guilty. No one will remember you,” she told his body. “And that was for Shin.”
“Kemosabe,” Ryu called. “We found the last captain.”
He and Hirotoshi dragged forward two Skaines who had evidently been hiding amongst the slaves, holding them hostage with sidearms and telling them not to make a sound and betray that they were there.
They were thrown onto the ground in front of Tabitha, and she stared down at them with distaste.
“Well?”
“I’m innocent!” the Skaine protested. “I didn’t know what Vel’un was up to! I’d told him I wanted to call off the trade because it was slaves, and then you showed up.”
“I think that’s a big fat lie,” Tabitha said sweetly. “A really big fat lie. Just as big a lie as Vel’un saying he didn’t see anything wrong with trading slaves.”
“He was the one who called you on us, though!”
Ah, yes. That lie. Tabitha didn’t want to expose Guildert, either. They might need him again. “Well, that was an error in judgment on Vel’un’s part, wasn’t it? He thought you were going to cheat him.”
“Cheat him? For that lousy stock?” The captain looked at the slaves contemptuously. “They’re all skinny and weak, and…” His voice trailed off in horror as he realized what he had admitted.
“Uh-huh.” Tabitha shot him and turned to the other Skaine. “Who’s this?”
“The first mate, I’m guessing.” Ryu rolled his eyes. “He’s blubbering too much for us to tell, though.”
The first mate was, indeed, crying big crocodile tears as he wailed something only half-intelligible about how he hadn’t known, or maybe he had known, but what could you do? Times were so hard these days.
Tabitha shot him and sighed as the body hit the ground.
“What do we do with this lot?” she asked no one in particular.
“The QBS Nor’easter is close enough,” Hirotoshi suggested. “They should have both the space and the time to get these people back to their homes, or bring them somewhere else safe.”
“Oh, right.” Tabitha looked at the slaves. “No, I meant them.” She nodded to the rest of the Skaines. “I say we take them with the slaves and us, but in a different ship…that maybe ‘accidentally’ gets vented into space.”
“Kemosabe.” Hirotoshi’s face was grave. “It was one thing to fight the crew before they surrendered. Now they have, however, and unlike the others, they are not attacking you. To commit wholesale murder…”
Tabitha sank her face into her hands and rubbed at it for a while, working on herself before looking up with a different light in her eyes. �
��Right. I won’t stain Shin’s memory with unethical actions as a Ranger.”
Tabitha stalked over to the group of Skaines and her lip curled as they flinched away from her. She put up two fingers, just an inch apart. “But please, please try me just a little, and I will accidentally backhand your head off your shoulders so fast you will blink your eyes as you watch your body collapse. Capisce?”
They might not know Italian, but they all knew when to nod.
Tabitha made a disgusted noise and nodded to the Tontos. “Let’s get the slaves onto the Augustus. I’d give them a Skaine ship, but I’m not sure they’d know how to fly it. And if they were held captive on one…”
“It might be the last place they want to be now,” Katsu finished, understanding. “I will begin loading them onto the ship.” He waved at Jun to land as Hirotoshi began giving orders to the Skaines.
Those orders were sprinkled liberally with reminders not to attempt to evade the Empress’ orders against slavery “on pain of death.”
“On pain of pain,” Tabitha muttered to herself as she strode up the gangway into the Augustus. “I’m not just going to kill them if they throw away this chance. I’m going to make it hurt.”
She expected a snarky response from Achronyx, but of course, Achronyx wasn’t here. She sighed and crossed her arms, and looked at Jun as he made his way down the hall toward her.
“What is it, Kemosabe?”
“We’re going to get the Achronyx back,” Tabitha told him. “It’s our ship. I don’t like working with this loaner. It’s a fine ship,” she added hastily, for some reason worried that she would hurt its feelings, “but the Achronyx is home.”
Chapter 10
Nickie
Rebus Quadrant, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter, Main Galley
Carefully, Grim topped off the last bowl from one of the several pots he had been cooking in. It had all gone considerably smoother once he was aware that some Skaine spices spontaneously combusted. Plus, he had someone who actually spoke Skaine with him helping out now.
He and Durq were loading the food onto a few carts when Nickie poked her head in from the corridor. Durq scuttled away and hid in the closet when Nickie stepped the rest of the way into the room.
Grim kept loading the carts. “Perfect timing. You can help me deliver these.”
“Uh, no?” Nickie corrected immediately, shaking her head. “I don’t do manual labor. That’s not on my résumé.”
Grim eyed her for a moment, frowning.
“We were just at a space station,” he pointed out. “Weren’t you specifically supposed to be finding people to do some of the heavy lifting while we were there?”
Nickie cleared her throat. “I did,” she replied primly. She clapped her hands and, beeping and buzzing, the four new house bots bumbled into the kitchen behind her. “Meet Meredith’s new minions!” She threw her hands out to her sides with all the flair of a stage magician. “Pretty fucking great, aren’t they?”
Grim didn’t answer, and it became apparent that he wasn’t paying an ounce of attention to her. He stared at the bots, mandibles flaring slightly as he tried to figure out something to say. Finally, he simply plopped on the floor and started cooing over the nearest one.
“I’ll call you Brandy,” he informed the copper-colored one and laughed in delight when it continued loading the carts for him. The silver one, the gold one, and the red one (summarily dubbed Lefty, Lucky, and Bradley respectively) trundled in its wake to help.
Nickie watched for a few moments in disbelief before ducking out of the kitchen again. She had only made it a few steps down the corridor when Grim called after her. “You know we’re still going to need your help, right?”
Nickie kicked the wall with one foot, mumbling, “Sonofabitch,” under her breath.
“My mother was a lovely woman,” Grim replied, poking his head out of the kitchen. “And someone needs to make sure none of the Skaines get out while the food’s being delivered. That, I’m sure, is on your résumé.”
Nickie wasted a few more seconds muttering under her breath before she reluctantly agreed, still grumbling, “I told you I don’t fucking do manual labor,” as she trudged after Grim and the bots.
“And now you do,” he returned pleasantly, sparing her not a single ounce of sympathy.
Rebus Quadrant, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter
Nickie shoved the empty cart back into the galley with a bit more force than was strictly necessary. She didn’t feel a bit of remorse when she heard Durq yelp in surprise. She wasn’t sure where Grim had wandered off to in the two minutes since she had last seen him, but she was pretty sure she was going to kill him when she got her hands on him. She was exhausted.
You did at least get to know your new ship to some extent.
Meredith didn’t seem to have any sympathy for Nickie’s plight either.
I could have just looked at the maps, Nickie grumbled in return. I didn’t need to walk the whole fucking rig, and it’s not like I need the cardio.
Meredith didn’t reply immediately, but Nickie got the impression that the EI wished she had eyes to roll.
We have roughly two hours until we can drop off the Skaines.
Nickie waved a hand in vague acknowledgment and turned toward the bridge. When she got there, she found Grim setting up dinner on what looked to be a folding card table and a pair of stools. Simple food, but considerably better than what Nickie might find in a can in the back of a cupboard. And more importantly, there were two glasses and a bottle of Yollin whiskey.
Silently, Nickie reconsidered her determination to kill him. Instead, she dropped onto one of the stools. There was no fanfare as they started eating.
“So, what next?” Grim wondered after a minute.
“We drop off our cargo,” Nickie told him. Her gaze focused on the distance as she brought up the Skaine job database on her HUD. It was bustling with activity still. “And…we deal with some of the shadier goings-on, I think.”
Grim sulked at her as he groused, “Do we need to talk about that while we’re eating?”
“Slave-trading, weapons-trading, mercenary operations…” Nickie mused as she scrolled through the listings, ignoring Grim’s protests. “It’s all pretty fucking gross, yeah?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “So, we should do something about it. Just…you know, productively.”
“Productively?” Grim paused with a fork raised halfway to his mouth for a second before he carried on eating.
Nickie heaved a sigh. “Look, if I’m going to be doing vigilante work, I would at least like to turn some sort of a profit from it. It’s not like anyone’s going to pay me a goddamn thing if I just blow whoever picks up a job to pieces and then whoosh on my way.”
Grim held up his free hand in a placating gesture. “Far be it from me to tell you how to be a vigilante, but what do you have in mind?”
“I mean, we’re on a Skaine ship,” Nickie replied, gesturing around with one hand. “The system has all the relevant flags and markers. Meredith is just masking them. We could totally accept jobs, demand part of the payment upfront, and then fuck everything to high hell once we’re on site.”
Grim hummed a contemplative note. “Wouldn’t the ship get blacklisted fairly quickly?”
Nickie opened her mouth to reply, but Meredith cut her off.
“I can scramble the ship’s identification beacon between jobs,” she supplied. “As far as the system is concerned, a different ship would be applying each time.”
“So then we get paid to ship a bunch of slaves or whatever it might be at the time, show up, free the slaves and start a revolution, and then we fly off into the night,” Nickie concluded. “And no one will ever be the wiser about who we actually are.”
“Unless you decide to dramatically announce yourself again,” Grim remarked dryly.
“Look,” Nickie pointed her fork at his face, right between his mandibles, “I needed a dramatic moment, and the stationmaster had it coming.”
>
“If you say so.” He returned his attention to his meal. “I can’t argue with freeing slaves anyway, even if we probably won’t actually start any revolutions.”
“The plan is foolproof,” Nickie assured him, picking up the bottle and pouring herself a healthy amount of whiskey. “Or at least fairly workable, and that’s good enough for me.”
That determination made, she picked up her glass, threw her head back, and drained it in one long swig.
Rebus Quadrant, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter
The ship slowed as it approached the docks of Memento Luna.
Approaching with caution was probably unwarranted. The planet wasn’t exactly well-armed, and it wasn’t prone to violence. By the time the Granddaughter had docked, the worst that had happened was that Meredith had had to fudge a few reports to satisfy the docking master.
She noted dryly to Nickie that his title seemed a little grand, given the circumstances.
As Grim cleaned up from dinner, Nickie mused, “It’s a pretty low-tech colony. Pretty unlikely any of them will be able to radio off the planet unless a ship is basically on top of them, and no one ever comes here. There’s nothing to really hurt them unless they turn on each other, so they’ll all be as snug as bugs in a lot of really ugly rugs on the planet with no way to come after us.”
“Are you done assuring yourself you’re not murdering them all through neglect?” Grim wondered. “Because if we don’t get finished quickly, the docking master is probably going to come see what we’re here for even with Meredith running interference. Small colonies are nosy.”
Nickie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Meredith, patch me through to the ship-wide intercom,” she instructed, pulling her communicator out. She waited until she could see the patch-in process complete in the corner of her vision before she began to speak.
“To the several dozen Skaines still in residence on my ship,” she began, emphasizing her ownership as emphatically as she could without holding up a neon sign. “We’re now docked on Memento Luna. To anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a tiny little spit of a colony at the ass-end of nowhere. Communication is limited, and it gets a single commercial trading vessel each solar year.”
Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright Page 9
