by AJ Super
“I want to know where the damned Star is,” Malcam bellowed. “Are you going to tell me, or am I going to shoot both of you?” The monster of a man steadied his pistol at Nyx and the captain, his finger on the trigger.
“Fais-le. You don’t have les couilles,” Nyx hissed. “Do your worst.”
Malcam cocked the hammer back on his pistol with a tick-click.
The door whooshed open on the second tier of the bridge. He glanced over his shoulder.
“No one is shooting either of those two.”
Nyx looked up and sprang to her feet, saluting.
Malcam un-cocked his pistol and saluted with his free limp hand. “ExO on deck,” he drawled, mouth thinning.
“Did you clear the ship before you started your hunt for the Star, Mr. Harris? There are protocols.” The ExO of the Medusa walked around Malcam, his smoky-bronze face hard and umber eyes stern.
Nyx sighed, and her shoulders relaxed a little. As ExO, Kai wouldn’t let Malcam shoot anyone.
“First, we gather the living crew. Of which, there are”—Kai looked around the bridge— “at least eleven in the hold awaiting transport to the Medusa. It is your operation, Mr. Harris, isn’t it? Where is your oversight?” He strode down the ramp off the side of the second level, long, lean legs taking him quickly to the side of the headless Thanatos ExO. He stared at the body, unflinching, and pushed a hand through his own black-brown hair.
Malcam sputtered, “I have other teams on it. I didn’t want Nyxie here absconding with something valuable.”
Kai tipped his head. A grin lolled across his face. “We’re in space. Where is she going to go?” He looked at Nyx as she knelt by the captain, an arm around Matthews’ shaking form. “And where is the Star, Nyx?”
“Matthews.” She paused. “Captain Matthews says he destroyed it.”
Malcam’s face grew crimson. A vein popped from his temple. “He’s lying. She’s lying.”
Kai bobbed his head. “That may be. But we’ll determine that at a later time. Right now, Malcam, you have a job to do that you aren’t doing. Gather the crew for sale. You know how it works.”
“Respectfully, ExO, but no,” Malcam growled. “I have as much right to find that weapon as the two of you. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To help her find the Star.”
“You don’t need to find it, First Officer Harris. You just need to do your job.” Kai strode up to Malcam and squared his shoulders to the bullish man.
“Just because she’s someone’s pet…”
Nyx stood, body tense. Even though both Kai and Malcam had grown up with her on the Medusa, they had never gotten along. “I’m no one’s pet.”
“Says the woman who goes to his bed every night,” Malcam spat.
Matthews eyes sparkled as he looked up at Nyx from the floor. “Ohhhhh. I see. Love triangle.”
Nyx glared down at him, lips tight, confused. He had just been a trembling mess, but now he was fine. Was he actually ill or faking it? She nudged him with a toe. “What’s up with you, Captain?”
He shrugged. “I’m only a shadow.”
She raised an eyebrow, but before she could speak again, Malcam leveled his pistol at Kai and barked, “I told you to step away, ExO.”
“And I told you to leave, First Officer,” Kai said, drawing his weapon.
Nyx crossed her arms. “Well, this is a mess. What are you two doing exactly?”
“I’m protecting you,” Kai said.
“I’m protecting my prize,” Malcam said simultaneously.
“I am perfectly capable of protecting myself.” Nyx uncrossed her arms and pulled Matthews from the ground. “And I don’t see any prizes here. It’s gone. And the captain’s quite clearly brain-blown. Maybe time dilation sickness, thanks to your brilliant plan, Malcam.” She paused. “Unless you mean that the Thanatos itself is your prize?”
“Now, that can’t be. Captain Xaoc wants to slag the Thanatos. Doesn’t want the competition. He’s tired of the dregs of the trade lanes.” Kai tipped his head and tightened his finger on his shiny silver pulse pistol’s trigger.
Nyx bit her lip. Her father didn’t talk business with her. On the Medusa she was merely a Second Comms Officer.
Malcam clenched his jaw. “Of course not. I meant the Star.”
“A prize that can destroy worlds,” Matthews whispered.
Kai’s face lit up, and he relaxed his grip, lowering his weapon. “Those who can destroy a world can control the universe.”
Malcam eyed Kai, then holstered his revolver.
Nyx grabbed Matthews’ arm and steered him up the stairs to the second level of the command deck and towards the door.
“Where do you think you’re going with him?” Malcam growled.
“I’m taking him to the Medusa’s brig. Where else would I be going? My father will want him, regardless. He’ll pay to know what’s up here.” She poked Matthews in the head. “At least I will get some credit for bringing what little information we’ll get from him.”
“It’s still my mission. I’ll take him.” Malcam ripped a stumbling Matthews away from Nyx.
Nyx tensed. To get at memories meant mind-stripping, and it gutted everything from the mind: personality, the ability to eat, breathe, and, ultimately, live. They would pull all the captain’s memories, everything from childhood and his first kiss to the day the Thanatos ran aground on the singularity. And they would get the Star of Erebus. Captain Leo Matthews’ mind would be gelled.
Then he would die.
Nyx couldn’t let that happen without talking to him first. He had whispered her maman’s name. He knew something about her maman, and she needed to know what that was. She could remember so very little, and her father was a vault. From the moment of her death, on his orders, not a soul mentioned her name on the Medusa, not that there were many crew left who knew her maman. Her father had changed over the entire ship, for reasons Nyx didn’t know, just a few days after Nue’s death. The only original crew left from that far back in her childhood were Kai, Malcam, her father, and their Sia. She couldn’t be sure that Malcam or her father would share anything they learned… or even Kai, if he was ordered not to speak about it.
If Matthews knew her maman… Nyx bit her cheek. She needed to know what he knew, time dilation sickness or not.
The mind-stripping would also cost her father a lot of money. It was capital he didn’t have. Yet. Until the sale of the Thanatos and her crew, they would keep the captain alive. But alive and healthy were two different matters. They would torture Matthews until he let something slip.
The only way to prevent that was to keep him off her father’s ship.
“I’ll take him to the brig.” Nyx reached to grab the captain by the elbow, to get him away from Malcam.
“No.” Kai put a hand on her shoulder. “Malcam will do it. Go ahead.”
Before Malcam could take a step, Matthews broke free of the hulking man’s grip and threw his arms around Nyx’s neck. “Mon petit papillon,” he muttered in her ear. “I have a secret.” Nyx turned her head. Her nose grazed Captain Matthews’ nose, their faces were so close. His breath was hot, his voice barely a whisper. “You’re standing on it.” He grinned, straightened, and held his arm out to Malcam, who yanked him roughly out the door and into the tan-paneled corridor.
The hairs on the back of her arms stood. Mon petit papillon. That was the third time he’d called her that. Her maman used to call her that. A faint memory whispered on the gossamer wings of a butterfly, so pale she couldn’t catch it, overshadowed by Matthews’ voice echoing in her head. “I have a secret. You’re standing on it.”
As the door whispered shut, Kai strode to the captain’s chair, running his fingers along the long lines of the black leather. “She’s a good ship. Too bad she’ll be slagged for parts. I mean, she needs a little work now from the damage and minor breaches, and the deck needs a good swabbing in here, but… tales of the Thanatos do strike fear into the hearts of good, space-faring Blacke
rs.”
“ExO Ionas, do I sense a bit of sentiment?” She walked up next to him and placed her hand on his.
Kai twined their fingers together, wrinkled his brow, and laughed. “Maybe a little.” He paused. “Look, I don’t want you to have more trouble with Malcam. Be careful around him. I’ve been hearing things. There are rumors of mutiny going around. He’s at the center. And if he finds the Star… He’s Elysion, through and through.”
Nyx tipped her head, puzzled. “Elysion? I don’t know what that means.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just be careful,” he warned.
3
Nyx stood in front of her father’s smooth oak desk. Made from Earth wood and a couple hundred years old, it was worn on the edges and blackened with age, giving it a rich, dark finish. In her head, she ran her fingers along the silky edge. Her father’s legacy. She had played on that desk when she was little. She had bounced on his knee, squealing with laughter. That was before Nue, her maman, died. Afterward, she couldn’t remember a lot of warmth from her father, just the softened edge on an old desk.
His chair, cracked brown leather with chipped ebony trimmings, faced the view-screen, shining darkly with an image of the Thanatos. She was a sleek ship, shaped like a sharp egg with a flattened fore and an aft with two stubbed wing-like structures with thrusters for maneuvering in heavy gravity. The ship’s comms system and gravity generators perched on the wing structures, lower profile than most. But sitting so close to the thrusters meant rattling around, which meant the crew would constantly need to fiddle with the comms system and gravity gens out in the black. Nyx wouldn’t have minded. Extravehicular activity—EVA—was peaceful, just her in a suit, breathing her own air, not the recycled air shared with the five dozen or so crew on the Medusa.
Her father coughed and covered his mouth with a white handkerchief, his pale hands shaking. He pulled the cloth away, scowled and folded it, and set it on the arm of his chair, one hand on top of it, the other running through his wild, silver mane. “She’s not an ugly ship,” he said, his voice like scratched steel.
Malcam shifted behind Kai and Nyx. She could feel his eyes boring into her back. He was an outspoken opponent of Kai’s promotion to Executive Officer. It meant that Malcam would only be First Officer and third on the rungs of command.
“How many new crew members did we recruit?” Xaoc rumbled, his stony sepia eyes settling on Malcam. She’d inherited those eyes, though hers tended towards bursts of fire and fury more often than her father’s.
Malcam stepped forward. “Fifty-five. We had to space one woman. Looked like time dilation sickness. Wouldn’t stop screaming.”
Gooseflesh rose on Nyx’s skin. If Captain Matthews wasn’t such a valuable asset, he would have been spaced, too. There was no cure for time dilation sickness, which often drove people from random flights of fancy to violence. Matthews may be better off getting mind-stripped, in that case.
“Operating on half-crew, Matthews?” Xaoc whispered to the absent captain. “Afraid someone would trip over the Star if you had a full boat?” A fit of coughs racked him.
Nyx’s eyes widened, and she stepped forward. “Papa.”
Kai and Malcam tensed.
Xaoc waved her back. “Fall in.”
“Are you okay, Papa?”
Xaoc cleared his throat, “Your compassion is noted. By all of us. Make sure it doesn’t become a weakness. Fall—in!”
Nyx pursed her lips. “Yes, sir.” She glanced behind her at Kai and Malcam’s hardened eyes. They had barely even flinched when her father started coughing. Was her skin supposed to be so thick that even her father’s health shouldn’t concern her? She straightened her spine and stood rigid.
“Harris, have Quartermaster Jian assign menial duties on the Medusa to the Thanatos crew until we off-load them onto the nearest mining colony. And have her send the ranking swabbies and a small repair team from our crew over to the Thanatos to clean up any mess we made. Won’t do to have her all bloodied up and damaged when we sell her. I want her ship-shape before we fly out tonight. And continue to search for valuables.” Xaoc’s eye twitched. “Including that damned Star. I want to make sure the thing is here with me. Anyone caught holding back treasures will be executed. Make sure they all know, Harris.”
Malcam nodded crisply.
Captain Xaoc turned to Kai. “Ionas, you’ll captain her for the duration. You may as well get the feel for your own ship for a bit. I won’t be around forever, and this tug will be yours eventually. Let’s get you behind the wheel for a couple days.”
A pit formed in Nyx’s gut. She didn’t know what she expected. Maybe for her father to allow her to have a rank for once. ExO gets a command, First Officer gets up-ranked by default while the ExO’s gone. “I’m your daughter. The Medusa should be mine. What about me?” she muttered.
“What about you?” He pressed the tips of his fingers together, his rough hands palm-to-palm, and leaned forward on his desk. He stared her down. “Your lack of performance is…” Xaoc shook his head, silver hair spilling into his eyes. “You left your post. To do what exactly?”
Nyx opened her mouth to reply.
He held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear any excuses.”
“I got to Matthews first.” Nyx puffed up her chest.
Kai shot her a warning stare, and Malcam snorted behind her.
Xaoc flicked a cold glance at Malcam. He pivoted in his chair to face the screen behind him. “It doesn’t matter who got where first. He’s in the brig now, and that’s all that matters.”
“He knows something about maman,” she blurted and closed her eyes. She hadn’t meant to say anything. But it was out now. “I want to talk to him.”
Her father slowly swiveled his chair back to face her. “You won’t have time. You’ll go to deck swab duties as soon as the Thanatos is sold and scrapped. Until then, if you want a rank so badly, you’ll act as Executive Officer to Kai on the Thanatos.” He glanced up at Malcam over Nyx’s shoulder.
The rage boiled off the large man behind her. She didn’t need to turn around to see his seething face. Her father had gone against years of traditional consequences for failure to follow orders. Her father was bending the rules for her—more than bending them. He broke them.
She tightened her fist. There would be consequences on the Medusa for her father’s actions, and consequences for her, too. She hated her father for it. It separated her from the crew, made them wary of her and resent her. This was just going to cause rebellion on the Medusa. Her father had to know the thin line he was walking. This would blow that line to pieces.
But she was grateful, too. This meant that she would at least have a chance to find the Star and find out what secret Matthews had hidden on the Thanatos.
“You are all dismissed.” Captain Xaoc spun his chair to the view-screen.
Kai and Malcam saluted, elbows high, hands crisp.
Nyx’s eyes remained affixed to the Thanatos. She’d get one week with a rank. That was more than she’d hoped for. It meant she’d be able to search for the Star of Erebus. She snapped her wrist to her forehead.
Her father glanced over his shoulder and then back at the Thanatos.
Malcam and Kai slid out of the room. Nyx turned to follow.
“Stay for a moment, Nyx,” Xaoc said.
She eased to face her father.
“It’ll be good to have her out of the skies. I’ve been relegated to the secondary shipping lanes for far too long. With the increased presence of the North American Union and the African Continental Governance and their privateers, the black seems to be getting smaller.” Captain Xaoc stared at the Thanatos from under his bushy silver eyebrows, lounging back, relaxed.
Nyx looked at her black boots. With no time to change before being called into her father’s office, she still wore the sweaty maroon jumpsuit. She frowned. She should have at least showered and changed.
Her father smoothed his hair back. “I had to make an example. You�
�re lucky. Anyone else would have been sold or seen the black for such an egregious neglect of duty.”
“Why don’t you space me, then?” Nyx said. “It’s not like I’ll ever get out of swabbie duty once they junk the Thanatos. And the ExO rank was just to piss off Malcam, wasn’t it?”
“I have my reasons. You do deserve to advance, but you shouldn’t have left your post, and there are consequences. There are ways to advance from the bottom. When I’m gone, you’ll…”
“How? I want the Medusa. Or even the Thanatos.” She pointed to the screen. “Why can’t we keep her? Do you really want me whoring myself to Malcam or Kai for a piece of this ship?”
“There are other ways.” Xaoc bowed his head. “The boys earned their way in the ranks. It’s the way it’s always worked. Even your mother knew. She worked her way up the same way you will.”
The mention of her maman hung in the room between them.
Nyx grit her teeth. “You mean how she whored her way to the mighty Xaoc Marcus’ bed?”
Captain Xaoc closed his eyes. “Your mother did no such thing. She was a brutal beauty, to be sure, but she didn’t have to use anything other than her wit to get where she got.”
“And where was that?”
His expression fell. “Sometimes more than brute strength isn’t a good thing. Sometimes trying to be smart leads you down the wrong path.”
“How?” Her father was buckling, speaking of her maman for the first time in years. “How is thinking a bad thing? Why is it that you strive only for the strongest to be on this ship?”
He lowered his head. “We live in a universe where only the strong will survive.”
“Is that why you let Malcam plan this heist?”
“It went according to plan.” He flicked a finger. “Not Matthews getting time dilation sickness, of course, but everything else. And I finally have the Thanatos.” He twisted around to the view-screen. “You’re just as tough as she was, aren’t you?”
