by Wen Spencer
It was starting to dawn on him what Orin meant. What a stupid time for realizations.
"How hard can this be?" He asked the calves. "Take the damn fruit to Paige! Just hand it to her!"
The calves all talked, but he got the impression that none of it was meant for him.
Fine. That didn't work. He'd throw the stupid fruit at her. The ship was high enough that if he stood in the stairwell, no one on the dock could see him. Fruit falling from the sky might confuse the Mary's Landing people, but Paige would probably realize that he'd be desperate to get a tracer on her.
Turk glanced toward the monitor to check Paige's position on the dock and groaned. He was already too late. There must have been a sedative piggybacked on the DNA sampler; Paige was being lowered carefully to the stone while a newly arrive woman stomped and shouted in Minotaur. The new Blue had also brought more armed guards, these in combat armor; apparently they were expecting trouble of some sort.
Turk swore and flung the fruit across the room. Now what?
He had to get off the ship unseen. He had to be able to follow wherever they took Paige.
* * *
The Mary's Landing people must have decided long before they hit the harbor to take Paige. It was the only way to explain how quickly they had acted. It had only taken Turk three minutes to get over the far side of the minotaur boat, into the water, and swim around the stern to the dock. By then, however, they'd already whisked Paige away. There was no sign of her.
Killing them all was starting to sound like a good plan.
Turk swam a little farther down the dock to where a stack of crates shield him climbing upon to the stones. There, he tucked himself shadows and scanned the crowd in front of the minotaur ship. There would be grunts with no clue where Paige was taken, but higher ranked humans would know. He only needed to get one of them alone and beat the information out of them.
Luckily one of the officers volunteered, breaking away to head down the dock alone.
* * *
"Who are you? What do you want?"
"Where is she?" Turk growled.
"Who?"
"Paige." The name didn't mean anything to the man. "The woman that came with the minotaurs."
"The blue castaway?"
"Yes."
"Her blood test came up positive for hCG, though, God knows how. She was taken to Blue Care to determine if we want her to go to term."
What was he talking about? Was Paige really sick? "What's hCG?"
"Human chorionic gonadotropin." The man read the confusion on his face. "She pregnant. She's at least two weeks or more for it to be picked up by the tests. Scans need to be run to see if we want the child she's carrying. We didn't think humans could cross-breed with minotaurs, but she's half-Red, so anything is possible. If it's not a minotaur-mix, we'll probably abort the pregnancy. We like to control our stock."
"She doesn't belong to you!" Turk growled.
"She wouldn't have been able to pay the fine for wearing a restraint, not as a castaway. We have leash laws for a reason."
My God, a leash law here? For someone born as a human? Just like on Paradise, the law was nothing more than a reason to take what you wanted.
And then, it sunk in.
Oh my god, I'm the one that made her pregnant!
He couldn't keep the shock off his face. Where the minotaurs had been inscrutable, Turk saw the man read Turk's dismay, and he recognize the disappointment that filled the man's eyes.
"Oh, it's yours, not the minotaur's." The letdown colored the man's voice too. "That explains it. I know a Blue will fuck anything, but I had doubts she could have accommodated that bull."
Turk snapped the man's wrist. The man screamed shrilly, like a rabbit only maimed by a dog. "Where is Blue Care?"
"On the ship! In the Blue quarter! Gala Deck!"
Turk knocked him unconscious and then snapped his neck. He couldn't risk the man coming to before Turk found Paige and he didn't have time to tie up securely. There was a pile of steel rods beside them. He slotted two through the man's belt and rolled him off the dock.
Had to get to Paige before these monsters that always acted as if he was the animal killed their child.
* * *
Using Moldavsky's renderings of the harbor and Mikhail's blue prints of Queen Mary's, Turk was able to plot a route that would keep him out of sight as he scaled up the side of the ship to a service access hatch tucked in among the "folds" of the figurehead's dress. It had the second advantage that it gave him a good view harbor. The Red Gold was nowhere to in sight. Hardin set his trap and left.
Since the Queen Mary was a spaceship that was never meant to land or even dock with a space station, the hatch's lock was overly simple. The lock could be easily operated by someone in a spacesuit but still was idiot-proof. If the security system was active, the lock would report the hatching opening and closing. Turk dismantled the lock and bypassed the security system. He half-expected to find the hatch rusted shut, but it swung open to an area that had been an airlock. The second set of door, though, had been salvaged. He ducked into the ship and closed the hatch behind him.
The only light was from red emergency LEDs at floor level. A series of similar light stretched out in a line of red dots to his right. Turk crouched in the dark, checking his map, as he let his eyes adapt to the dimness.
The ship was designed so the crew could move throughout the entire ship, maintaining it, without the passenger's awareness. The airlock had opened to one of the many maintenance elevator shaft. As a ship that never landed, and gravity was maintained by acceleration, the now horizontal shaft had once been vertical. This close to the figurehead meant he was on a top floor. Blue Care was one of the lower floors, in other words, in the direction of the Queen Mary's massive engine. From the stale air and the dust on the floor, the people of Mary's Landing no longer used this service elevator. In theory, then, Turk should be able to get to Blue Care without being seen.
* * *
The problem with theory was that it was often proved wrong.
There were two types of hatches opening to the maintenance elevator shaft. One type was like the one he'd just come through, leading to the outer hull. They weren't blocked. The other opening, due to the reorientation of gravity, should have been straight up and down. For some inexplicable reason, the Mary's Landing people had filled the now vertical service corridors with gravel.
At the first corridor opening, Turk knelt down, scooped up handful of pebbles and let them filter through his fingers. Why in the world? He examined the other side of the corridor that now led upwards through the ceiling. It had been a bulkhead that would function as an emergency airlock at one time, but now a plain sheet of steel was welded over the corridor.
The second and third shaft were also blocked. He checked his map again, grinding his teeth in frustration. There had to be some way into the ship, this area had some current function, otherwise the outer hatch wouldn't have been in such good working order.
Two more levels down there was the massive conservatory with the hydroponics gardens. He headed for it, growling in anger at the Mary's Landing people. No wonder they used Fenrir instead of their own ship to experiment on, it had far too much mass to jump intact.
* * *
Turk opened the door to Blue Care to hear Paige's howl of anger and frustration. His heart leapt to his throat. Was he in time?
They had her pinned to a table with wrist and feet restraints. Her knees spread wide, giving them access. The five people around her were formless bodies in white that he struck down. All he could see clearly was her, naked and helpless, screaming.
Was he in time?
Once the people who did this to her was dead on the floor, he tore off her restraints. Paige bolted upright and nearly pitched head first off the table.
He caught hold of her. "Easy, easy."
"Get me out of here." Paige sobbed and clung to him. "I don't think I can walk."
He scooped her up in
to his arms. "Did they . . .hurt you?"
"No," she whimpered.
He carried her out into the dark hall. He needed to get her back to Hoto's ship, out of the city and out of this world. He didn't want their child growing up here. Then he nearly stumbled with the sudden realization that the most horrible part of this world was a mirror to his own universe. Mary's Landing was all the other United Colonies. Paradise had had a Blue quarter and Blue Care just as well as red pits. That there might have been just as many Blue trapped on Paradise waiting for the return of the nefrim, only more helpless than their Red counterparts.
The Novaya Rus Empire only differed in that there were no Blues. And until the nefrim war was ended, neither Ivan nor Mikhail could institute the kind of changes for Reds that Viktor had done with the Blues.
"The Red Gold isn't in the harbor," Paige said.
"I know."
"Ethan is here."
"Screw the mission." Turk growled.
Paige let go of her hold on his neck to punch him in the shoulder. "I need to find Ethan. That's what we came here to get him, damn it, and we're going to do it."
"You're naked and drugged."
"The drugs will wear off. Ethan will have clothes. I'm going to find my brother if I have to walk there myself."
"Alright, alright. We'll search for him."
"We don't have to search. I know where he is."
* * *
Paige clung hard to her rage. There was a vast ocean of fear just below her anger that would swallow her up if she let go. They'd taken her so easily. She hadn't realized the DNA test was more than just a test. She hadn't even realized she was drugged until the world slanted sidewise. While she couldn't talk, the newly arrive Blue explained to the minotaurs that she was sick, and she laid helpless on the ground, terrified that Hoto would helpfully explain she had a mate on board. But the minotaur only nodded and asked about his pumps.
But what truly horrifying was the way they treated her in the medical facilities. They handled her like she was a dead fish, slicing off her clothes, and pinning her to the table for butchering. How they so causally discussed how she was pregnant and if "it" was worthwhile to "let" to go to term. As if they had a right to murder her child! And they nearly did. And would try again if they caught her.
Fear washed up against her anger, threatening to flood her with its cold, dark dread. She fought the urge to run blindly back to Hoto's boat. Once she turned up missing, that would be the first place Mary's people would look for her. And they would search—Turk had arrived covered in blood. She didn't even want to guess at the death count. She didn't want to be happy that the bastards were dead.
So she focused instead on the fact that Ethan could have gone to Ya-ya instead of coming here.
Ethan's workshop was set up in the cavernous shuttle bay of the Queen Mary. Like the workshop at Ya-ya, a vast array of salvaged human and alien parts sat scattered in the space. Paige quietly slipped through the machinery, searching for Ethan, with Turk trailing behind her, a thunderstorm dripping with blood.
She found him at a drafting table. "You!" she snapped and caught him by the collar. "Give me your shirt."
"Paige!" Ethan only stared at her in surprise. "What are you doing here? Why are you naked? Who's the Red?"
"Give me your shirt," Paige growled. Damn if she was going to explain it to him.
"We've come to rescue you," Turk said as if was the voice of reason between the two of them. Yes, whirlwind of death was the sane one.
Ethan turned to face Turk with all the signs of male dominance kicking in. "Well, you've made a mistake. They're not holding me here against my will. You didn't need to come."
"You're coming with me," Paige growled lowly.
Ethan blinked at her tone. "You can't just show up and expect me to leave with you."
Paige grabbed Ethan by the collar and slammed him against the wall, surprising even herself with the violence of her reaction. "You killed all those people. Hundreds and hundreds of people at Fenrir's Rock. The Lilianna is gone! You killed them all! Our family. You killed our family!"
"No I didn't," Ethan said. "We were going to move the engine and there wouldn't have been any danger . . ."
"They're dead!" Paige cried. "Who the fuck cares what you planned to do? Dead, Ethan, dead!"
Ethan stared at her and then took off his shirt and handed it to her. "Paige please. If someone torched the Rosetta, would it be your fault for putting it where the idiots could get their hands onto it? What if it was Orin that did it? Would it still be your fault?"
"Talking hypothical situations is not going to change things." She brusquely pulled on his shirt. She considered demanding his pants too, but decided not to, as he was smaller in the hips than she was.
"What if Orin burned the Rosetta?" Ethan continued with his idiotic argument. "Would it be your fault?"
"Orin wouldn't do that!" Paige snapped.
"But what if he would?" Ethan cried.
"He wouldn't!" Both Paige and Turk said.
Ethan ignored Turk to focus on Paige. "If you thought he would, yes, you might be responsible for not stopping him, but you're so, so, sure that nothing would move to that. But you're wrong. Our family can do horrible things."
"What?" Paige cried. Damn the man, he was being a Blue on her now; twisting words to make himself seem innocent.
"I had it all planned," Ethan said. "Everything carefully planned. But then, Jack found out what I was doing. We fought. He refused to see the necessity. He kept focusing on the trivial."
"Trivial?" Paige cried. "That you're working with Mary's Landing? That if they control access to the Sargasso that every single person with adapted blood, no matter how removed, will be property?"
Ethan had the gall to look hurt. "Why can you trust Orin but not me? Why would you think that I would ever that happen?"
"Orin has always thought of family first," Paige said. "You've always thought of only yourself."
Ethan gave a short scoffing laugh. "You're—You're equating childhood squabbles over candy with the willingness to destroy my family. I have a plan. It's a solid plan."
She had enough of him. They had to leave before they realized she'd escaped, leaving a trail of dead behind her. "Well, it just got changed. I didn't come all this way for nothing. You're coming with me."
He edged away from her, hands up. "And when the shit hits the fan, it's going to be all my fault even though you waltz in here and didn't even bothered to find out what I'm doing."
She hated arguing with Blues. With Blues you never knew what was the truth and what was a clever stall. But Ethan was right. If things went wrong because she triggered something like Jack had . . .
"What's your plan?" She gave up and asked.
Ethan was at least smart enough not to look pleased at winning. "Mary's Landing is set on returning to normal space. Short of killing every single one of them, the only way to keep control of the situation is to succeed before they do. Paige, just think about it. They have all the pieces. They always did. Multiple human warp engines. Parts to modify them. Aliens with the knowledge of how their systems work. Blues that can translate."
"So you just going work with them? After they killed your family and leveled Fenrir? Grow a spine, Ethan."
"If you'd been on time," Ethan growled. "The Lilianna wouldn't have been there when Mary's Landing arrived. I wouldn't have had to explain why I was working with them. Jack wouldn't gone all Red on me and tried to smash all our work. None of that would have happened if you—been—on—time."
"Don't you even try to blame this on me!' Paige snapped.
"You're doing the same thing by blaming me!" Ethan said. "I wasn't the one that pulled the switch that activated the engine. I wasn't the one that started the fight. Jack had thrown me overboard; I was adrift in my own little sea. I am no more to blame than you are."
"Only in your own mind," Paige said.
Ethan glared at her for several minutes, as if by force of wil
l he could change her thoughts. Finally he looked away. "The reason why Mary's landing is so bent on returning is that they have something to return to. They were the richest of the human race. They have empires of wealth waiting for them."
"All the original passengers are dead," Paige said. "How can they think that after all these years, that wealth is going to be just handed to them?"
"Back then, there were laws put into place to protect travelers," Ethan said. "DNA samples were taken and estates were established, holding things in trust if and when survivors or children of survivors could come forward."
"The Nefrim War has claimed more than one fortune," Turk said.
"I didn't say it was a reasonable expectation," Ethan snapped. "Also the Mary's systems are failing. Better back to normal space than to Ya-ya, where they don't have a power base."
"And this relates how?" Paige said as Turk murmured, "We don't have time for this."
Ethan ignored Turk. "What Mary's Landing doesn't realize is I'm the grandson of Tsar Viktor Volkov. I have my own power base to return to. Hardin tells me that the Novaya Rus still grovel to statues to grandpa."
"Ethan, you idiot!" Paige cried. "No, you don't have anything to go back to! They cloned Victor! Hardin knows that."
Ethan started to shake his head. "I'd be able to tell if he lied . . ."
"Ethan, Fenrir's engine went back to normal space and they sent a ship here. A Novaya Rus ship. A ship that is captained by one of Victor's clone. That's why I'm here. If anyone goes back to normal space, I want it to be someone like grandpa, not these idiots you're helping."
"Ivan Viktor Volkov is Tsar of the Novaya Rus Empire," Turk said in his thick Russian accent.
Ethan stared at Turk as if seeing him for the first time. "They cloned Viktor?"
"Yes!" Paige cried and Turk nodded.
"The angels told me to go back." Ethan said with dismay. "They told me to go back to save mankind."
"Save mankind?" Turk asked.
"Yes." Ethan nodded. "They want me to recover the Shabd and take it back to normal space to end the nefrim war."
