StarSet (The Warrior Prince's Claim - BBW Science Fiction Romance)
Page 3
Sweeping into the medical bay, Shala pulled her thoughts back to the task at hand. Slightly ashamed at her relief that it wasn't her own cousin laying there on the table.
It was someone's loved one. And that was tragic enough.
“You look like death,” Tana quipped, giving her a sizing glance.
“Probably because I feel like it.”
The fire-haired scipath grinned. She had a dark sense of humor and a very cynical view, in general.
Yep, to the business at hand...
At least they'd have an idea how far the acquisitioners' technologies had advanced. It was a foul way to come to that knowledge, but it would go on to preserve someone else's life the sooner they could make sense of it.
“So they've moved past the usual neural wipes to something we'd never have expected them to figure out.”
Shala drew a ragged breath.
Her eyes avoided the girl's limp body on the cold, examination table.
“What's that?”
“Memotic transfer.”
“How? What would it transfer to?”
Tana drew a labored breath.
“If the scans Jake delivered are correct, she's in the ship.”
Shit.
Tana nodded grimly at the fall of Shala's expression.
“Like... in the metal?”
Tana shrugged.
“She could be anywhere, but she's not wholly dead. These bastards play for keeps. They'll be back for her and whatever else they came for. And they'll probably transfer her to an AI's body next.”
“Un-fucking-real.”
“You're telling me.”
~
Shala inched out of her patrol gear, tossing the powder blue bodysuit to her bunk, clenching her jaw. How much worse could things get? Any day now, they'd have the enforcer on their asses, and they had the dead girl to catch in the process. That didn't even factor in the complications that would surely arise when the enforcer tried to bring the prince to trial, which he surely would. Along with any staff involved in sanctioning the use of a private deck for Teleran royalty.
It was a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and she was having trouble seeing her way through it positively right now. Every possible turn of events she ran over in her mind led to the worse case scenario.
She'd been in some shit before in her career, but nothing could compare to the way this dilemma looked to be shaping up. Jake's recent scans placed the girl in the hold, by all indications waiting to make her next move. Or reading data. No word back on whether or not any erratic activity had been found in the scans, yet.
If the girl was trying to get into the ship's brain, their problem was a whole lot bigger than what was already a nightmare of epic proportions.
The look on the Captain's face had been pensive, but obviously disturbed as the staff had discussed their options during the mandatory meeting. With so many problems looming, the smartest move was to tackle the biggest first. And that meant isolating the memotic girl wherever she was and somehow finding a way to keep her contained.
It was ironic that a memotic would breach the ship, maybe it's what had been planned the entire time. But so close to the Teleran's version of the Hallow's celebration, it all crept under her skin a little too deeply. There hadn't been a great number of memotics hijacking ships, and for that reason, security precautions against those events hadn't been taken too seriously up to that point. What was worse than the acquisitioners was the acquisitioners with a golden key to the ship's engine systems, security codes, and thruster arsenal.
If the red-eyed bastards got their hands on that, everyone aboard the ship was well and truly done. Those scavengers were the sort to seize the ship with fan fare, even setting up residence on it and flying it straight into unallied territory where it couldn't be touched.
Stepping into the rinse box, Shala flicked on the water, her eyes slipping closed as she fought to calm her mind. Thinking the worst wouldn't help, and she was better than that. She'd been thinking on her feet for most of her life. Surely, she could find the will to do the same thing now.
Nipping her lip, Shala sudsed up with the lemony foam that usually helped her lose herself in the sensuality of it. The warm rivulets of moon water spraying her skin clean from the surfaces of the generators. The heady scents of the nano gels that perfumed her skin. That usually did the drink.
Sighing, Shala finished her rinse and cut the water, stepping out into the fluffy robe that would at least usher her into the realms of deep sleep she'd desperately need before she tackled the main problem: the memotic currently ghosting her ship.
6
Jake lifted the net wand, not sparing a glance Shala's way when he waved his fingers to signal the find in the silver-paneled room. Seeing the gesture peripherally, Shala lowered her own net wand, sweeping over to him as stealthily as she could. If the memotic was stuck in the metal, it would hear their voices, but it wouldn't process anything using vision.
It was the one ace card they had, but it had slowed their time a bit as they worked their way through the entire hold. Squinting at Jake's scanner screen, Shala's eyes widened taking in the telltale blip. Bright, neon pink spiked the panel. Yep. She was in there. Right there overhead, in fact.
Now for the hard part.
Shala grit her teeth clicking the wand to its stun setting, painstakingly adjusting it as soundlessly as she could. She tensed when the tell-tale click resounded anyway, and reactive banging in the metal vents overhead made it clear it hadn't gone unnoticed.
Fumbling with the settings, Shala's hands shook.
They couldn't afford to fuck this up.
It just wasn't an option.
Setting his mouth in a determined line, Jake raised his wand first, its cool, indigo laser line stretching out into the ether, pluming its light strands into splintered off substrands that thickened and stretched as it penetrated the metal.
Shala's wand joined it, fanning out, as well, once it penetrated the metal, fast fabricating itself into a wide agent they hoped would block the memotic's path before the girl made a break for it. The beams holding up the vents would thicken at certain junctures and slow her if she did, but they didn't have a lot of time to contain her if she managed to jump levels sooner than their reflexes were able to serve them.
Shala watched the screen of her net wand, nipping her lip as the ends of the merged net closed around a foggy mass. Her gut leapt with preemptive relief when the device nearly flew from her hands, and she struggled to keep it from slipping through her fingers.
“Fuck, she's strong.”
“Ridiculously so,” Jake agreed, visibly straining.
A sharp pull nearly threw her from her feet following their short discourse, and she had to set her heels to hold her own against the memotic's strength.
“Hit the alert, Jake? If I move, I'll lose my grip.”
“Got it.”
The alert rang out with an ear-splitting cacophony, and the memotic's formidable tugging half-dragged Shala to the far wall of the deck, slamming her hard against the screens. Jake fared only somewhat better, his upper body strength helping him to hold his position with trouble albeit successfully. The strain of his muscles was clear into the show of ripples indenting his suit as he grit his teeth and pulled back against the memotic with all of his might.
“We needed way more than two officers here.”
Shala grunted.
“Only two of us are trained to run the wands. They didn't have options.”
“Funding is everything, 'aye.”
Setting her back against the wall, Shala forced her strength against the girl thing, pulling back with everything she had. The girl's strength was impossible, but Shala's inner warrior had kicked in. The one who'd taken down a Vel shifter in the Thek plains of Sector 5 when it was poised to take an entire village. The one who forced it into submission. A glint took her eye that matched her determination, and glancing at her, Jake seemed to draw strength from it, as well.
“Flick the switch, Jake. She's closed in.”
“I got her. Stars, Shala! I got her!”
~
Shala fell back against the corridor wall, drawing a breath, chest heaving before she dredged up the energy to make it to her bunk. Containing the memotic was a sure victory, but it took nearly everything she had out of her. And they still weren't finished with their list of problems. Problems of the gargantuan sort.
She was having trouble straightening her head around it.
They could at least deliver the enforcer's daughter now. Perhaps not in the form he'd like, but an artificial body wasn't the worst case scenario for the girl. She might even have a family someday, if he ponied up enough for a top shelf model.
That wasn't what was troubled her.
The enforcer had a reputation for vengeance, and the prince would still be in his cross hairs for nearly killing his daughter, and sending her out of her biological body for good. Technology just wasn't up to a level that would allow Tana to merge spirit with form and make it marry. It was easier with nano-physiology. The success rate was high enough to pretty much guarantee a successful merge. But he wouldn't entirely get back the girl he knew. And he'd surely want repayment for that. As much for his sense of justice, as for his face.
Prince Tarik would undoubtedly be dragged to trial, and the news hadn't even been broken to the Telerans, yet. When they did find out, a whole new kettle of problems could emerge.
They might remove themselves from the allied forces.
They might seek vengeance against the allied forces, and declare war.
It all had to be handled just right, and the Captain didn't have a track record for that sort of thing. If anything, he had a tendency to cave where diplomatic relations were concerned. And in a power-struggle between the Tavalar and the Telerans, he'd be forced to pick a side. Picking the side of the Telerans was career suicide, and everyone knew it. It had been the very reason they'd all danced around the subject in their meeting.
Shala pushed back from the wall and made her way down the corridor, her fingers flitting the key code at her door when she reached it. Her eyes glancing the message box beside her code panel, a heady thumping took her heart at the sight of a gleaming blue invite card, tendrils of silvery light threading through its depths in intervals.
Taking it in hand when her door opened with a swoosh, she entered her unit with a mind distracted further, the sound of her beating heart flooding her ears. Swiping a finger down the card screen, her eyes widened when a decorative, Teleran script rose to the surface. Translating it was easy, and warmth surged her limbs as she read it. It was an invitation to Eiowa. The Teleran version of a Hallow's event.
As the Prince's escort.
7
It was a certain problem. A delicious problem, but one she didn't dare allow herself to revel in. She'd been an investigating officer in the incident that the Prince would surely be dragged into Galactic court for, and getting too close was already breaking the rules of the allied forces. There was to be absolutely no fraternization with the displaced. It was an offense that would ensure she never got a job on a city ship again, and worse than that, she'd be blacklisted in general, if she accepted the invite. Lucky to get a job mopping floors on an allied forces ship.
It wasn't fair. To be this intensely attracted to him, only to suffer it knowing she could never act on it. And maybe that wasn't even what he wanted. But their chemistry... It was quite literally out of this world.
Alcohol wasn't the solution she wanted to ease her mind now. She needed her wits more than ever, and she was still reeling from the struggle she'd shared with Jake to overtake the memotic. No, she'd needed something that reminded her of home. An escape that would console her heart on several levels. A place she could forget the present in, as much as was possible. Somewhere she could remember what mattered, and reconnect the strands of a heart torn away from her when she had to leave Kalion to join the allied forces. The only place aboard that would afford her that kind of peace was the Holo Sea.
Setting her lips, Shala decided that was just where she would go.
Packing a light dinner, she made her way to it, shutting off her scan serv and traveling the lesser frequented corridors to get there. Now wasn't the time for a chance run-in with anyone or an inopportune path-crossing with the Captain. She didn't have anything to give him right now.
Right now, she was taking care of herself.
Lifting her chin, she swept through the Holo doors, a sad smile touching her face as the simulated wind blew a sweep of hair across her cheek. Stepping forward, she crossed the small bridge over the sands and made a seat at the water's edge.
She was quiet for awhile after that, solemn, and just at the verge of the emotional waterfall already forming a lump in her throat. On Kalion, she and Nineh made a playground of the waters. Her cousin was a halfling, too, but Nineh's other half wasn't human. Her father was born on Tenta in the water itself. It made her something of a mermaid, and the games she liked to play always involved the lagoons and water's edge.
Shala had taking a liking to it, too, but mainly because Nineh was the closest friend she'd ever had. And a protector of her heart when Shala ran in with the less-friendly Kalions who didn't appreciate the fact that her father wasn't Kalion, himself. It was a double-standard, sure, but halfling children who were afforded true welcome were always the seed of a Kalion father to a human, or other species, taken as a mother.
Born of a ship side romance between cadets, Shala was something that had simply happened. But as far as the purists of Kalion were concerned, she was a human seed, and therefore not truly of a Kalion line in the eternal sense of things. To them, she'd been swimming around in her father's body before she'd even met her Kalion mother.
Plenty of Kalions considered the purist assertions absurd, but there'd been enough of a rift planetside to make Shala's life very uncomfortable.
Struggling to swallow the lump in her throat, Shala blinked the tears from her eyes when they refused to be held back a moment longer. Kalion was home, and she'd been written off like the undesirable version of a halfling she was. Kalion purists had more respect for Tentai people, and Nineh was treated with far more welcome when she happened upon them in various circles, even if few worried over her now.
Shala grit her teeth.
They should be doing more to find her. Point blank.
Pulling out her scanserv, Shala stared at it blankly before activating her photo archives. She hadn't been through them for at least three months, hoping to keep her wits about her on this mission. Any reminder of Nineh tended to throw her off of her level for awhile, and she couldn't afford that sort of distraction. Swallowing around the lump in her throat, she flicked to the folder she'd reserved for pictures from home, and clicked it open.
Memories came rushing back as she stared at the arrangements of thumbnail cubes, and she had to clench her jaw to fight the tears back. Sniffing, she clicked on the first of the images, one that caught a snapshot of a day by the water with Shala and her cousin in their moon-scaled, swim dresses. The fine, pinkish scales on Nineh's legs shone iridescent, caught in the rays of the sun, and she had the kookiest, most giddy smile on her gorgeous, wan face.
She's always been such a ray of light.
A day on Kalion without her always seemed to lack something. Life in general now was sorely wanting. Shala had mourned her for so long, her mother had been forced to ask for a temple priest to intervene. Perhaps, it was the aid of the temple spirits that had made her able to stand and go on with life without her very best friend.
Wiping the wet from her cheek when her tears fell, Shala flicked to the next image. A snapshot of Nineh riding a gargantuan flipper. She'd always been bold like
that, not that flippers were dangerous in themselves, but her cousin had been a biddy thing, and if she hadn't such an intimate connection with the water, she could have easily lost her grip and fallen into the depths.
Shala squeezed her eyes closed, flicking the scanserv archive off with a glance at the next picture. It was too much. Maybe she shouldn't have come at all. She knew what she was doing. She was punishing herself for not having found her cousin, yet, but it would do no good in the grander scheme of things.
All she could do was keep looking.
If she allowed herself to believe she wouldn't find her now, she'd fall back into that dark place she never ever wanted to revisit again. She had to be strong. For Nineh. Joining the allied forces would have been in vain if she gave up looking now.
Her cousin was a rare beauty, and even if the acquisitioners had her, they wouldn't part with her for paltry credits. She was probably being treated very well, untouched while she was on the low market, and for all of the horror of it, Shala knew her cousin was strong enough to keep her mind through it all.
Starting at the sound of the staff hail striking the air, Shala frowned and tucked her scanserv into her pocket. Stars forbid she got a moment of peace when she really needed it.
When duty calls on Telera one: drop everything.
Grumbling, she rose up and gathered her things, her eyes flicking up to take one last look at the Holo waters. The image of a coiling tail piercing the surface made her smile through her tears, and wiping the wet from her eyes and cheeks once more, she turned to go, heading back to her room to get suited up and make her way up deck for whatever ordeal awaited her next.
~
The look on Captain Von's face told her everything she needed to know, and Shala instantly tensed when she stepped into the meeting unit. A quick pan of the long table ensured whatever issue had her hailed was very grim. Probably not the time to mention the invite then, thought she'd certainly have to answer it at some point.