by AJ Super
His breathing was steady, peaceful. They had tumbled before, but nothing like this. This was comfortable. She was content. Even happy, despite what had just happened. They’d taken their time, yet he was insistent, hungry, and so was she.
Sweat beaded on her chest as she adjusted, her warm skin sticking to his. She rested her head just below his collar bone.
They should talk about how they would handle their relationship and the crew. They should talk about her role as ExO and his as captain. They should talk about…
“We should talk about Erebus,” Nyx whispered.
Kai kissed the top of her shaved head. “What about her?”
She barely felt her bruises anymore, her body a warm mass of spent energy. “She’s dangerous.” Nyx was dangerous, too. She paused. “We can’t just let her have the Kokou. Or if we do, we can’t just let her sail it back to where it came from. She’ll infect everything.” Which meant she could control everything, too.
“Mmm.”
“Are you listening?” Nyx elbowed him gently.
“Yes. I’m thinking.”
“Do you often think with your eyes closed? While you’re snoring?”
“What? I wasn’t snoring. I don’t snore,” Kai said indignantly.
“She’s an AI.” What did that mean about her?
“Right.”
“So why not treat her like one? Figure out a way to shut her down?” Figure out a way to shut Nyx down.
Kai sat up. “Why? She’s sentient. She followed orders. She wants to be respected. Liked. I think she wants a family and wants to be more human. You saw how eager she was to strike a deal with me, just for human contact, human acceptance. That’s something.”
Nyx frowned. “I suppose. But what if it isn’t?”
“You said yourself she isn’t a god,” Kai said, and it sounded almost like a complaint. “I still can’t believe I’ve been revering something that would destroy an entire race for the fun of it. That my gods could be something so… fragile.”
She shifted her head on his chest, looking up at him.
“Humanity, that craving to be human. That’s something that can be leveraged. I’d hate to think that a god could be so easily manipulated,” he whispered.
Nyx sat up and ran a hand over her freshly shaved scalp. “Do you plan on using that leverage then?”
“She’s too powerful to be left to her own devices.”
“Be careful, Kai. If she does have feelings, craves humanity, that’s a dangerous game you’re playing.”
“Who’s playing a game? I fully intend on bringing her into the fold. I’d rather have her as part of the crew than as an accessory. She’s not an android. Crew members think for themselves, make choices, make friends. Accessories are nothing but space trash that I can use and lose. I need her to be useful. She is the ship, after all. If she gets mad, we all get floated.
“Which reminds me, ExO, you’ll need to see to it that the Sia docking station gets moved to Erebus’ quarters so she can recharge in private. Crew members get crew quarters.”
“Yes, sir.”
She hoped Kai knew what he was doing. It might be dangerous, playing with the feelings of a barely-formed consciousness, leveraging Erebus’ need to be liked—maybe even loved—for control over her.
Kai pushed a small button on the nightstand and the time flashed on the ceiling. “Damn.” He rolled out of bed and searched for his pants. “As for the Battle Station, I want it destroyed. This isn’t the time to unleash Erebus on the universe, and I want everyone to know what we have. I think Sarama can cobble together a recording based on our conversation with Commandant Athena Grey that insinuates they were destroyed by the Star of Erebus. Everyone assumes it’s a weapon of mass destruction, not a confused and needy AI. Let’s let them know we have it, in one shape or another. Send out the message on a broad-wave channel and follow it with the fiery destruction of the Kokou. Let’s hold this universe hostage.”
Nyx stared, agape. He couldn’t be that reckless. “Doing that will make us a massive target. Malcam especially…”
A wicked grin crossed his face. “Let them come at us. Let him try. We can mount a counter-offensive and get Matthews back. I want to know a couple of things. Like where did Matthews get the Star in the first place? If she is one of the Seven, then we know there are six more.” He gave her a smirk. “Assuming you’re not one of them, where do we start looking for the other six? What do they do? I need Matthews back here to answer some questions.”
Nyx creased her brow, watching Kai throw on his tee-shirt. “Hopefully Malcam hasn’t found a way to mind-strip him yet. It’s expensive, so unless they’ve hauled in something recently…”
He sat with his boots in hand. “There are other ways to coerce someone to talk. And Malcam is good at the more brutal ways of that. I would worry more that Matthews is faking his madness.”
She pulled the blanket closer to her. The thought of the man being tortured chilled her. “If we rescue him, we need to rescue the rest of the Thanatos crew, too.”
Kai jerked upright, one foot in a boot. “No.”
“Why not? They know this ship. We need more crew.”
“First, they don’t know her anymore. Erebus reprogrammed her. She’s running like she just got off the assembly line. Second, at least half of them must’ve been sold off by now.”
“So, we save the ones left.”
“Third, they’re loyal to a different captain.”
“They’ll be loyal to the person who saved them. And their captain’s ill now.”
He shoved his foot into his boot. “The answer is no. The mission will be for Matthews only.” He walked to her side of the bed and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ve got to check in on the deck. Will you assign someone to move Sia’s charging station?”
Nyx waved him off.
Lips tight, she glared at the door as it slid shut behind him. He would plan his little rescue mission for Matthews, but she would get her way. This was going to be a package deal, all or nothing. She would rescue Matthews and the Thanatos crew.
13
The cook shut off the lamps in the buffet line behind her as Nyx glared down at the minimal contents of her tray. Protein wafer rations and a single cup of water. Très délicieuse.
The metal tables glowed dimly in the low light of the cafeteria. A crew member swept the floor while another alternated between wiping tables and quietly stacking chairs in the nearly empty mess.
Laughter hurtled through the silence. The crew sitting at the table whispering and giggling without glancing her way made her stomach knot. She didn’t know how they felt about her as an ExO or as the overthrown captain’s daughter, or anything, really. Did they even see her as one of them at all?
Nyx went to join the three who sat in the middle of the empty hall.
Emlyn and Raphael’s laughter roared. Falak’s spiky red head bounced. “It’s not funny. I almost cooked myself.”
Nyx smiled. “Bikram yoga.”
The laughter stopped. Raphael quickly snaked his hand from Falak’s across the table, and Emlyn turned to look at her, perplexed.
Nyx smiled at the two blushing men. There was nothing to be jumpy about on the Thanatos with Kai and her as officers, though their experience on the Medusa probably would belie that.
Emlyn scrunched her freckled face. “What can we do for you, ExO?”
“You’re talking about the EVA suit temperature. Forty-point-six degrees Celsius. Falak, you joked about it in the airlock… but I looked it up. It’s the temperature to practice Bikram yoga. The man who previously wore the suit was probably a yogi, or something.”
They all continued to stare.
Nyx smiled weakly. “He probably liked the heat while he worked and exercised.”
Falak ran a hand through his spikes. “That’s… interesting.”
Raphael and Emlyn glanced at each other.
Nyx had hoped that, as command deck crew, at least Emlyn and Raphael would
be more open to talking to her. Even Falak, after sharing their EVA adventure, had something in common with her. Her shoulders slumped. If these three couldn’t be comfortable with her, there was no way she’d be able to win over the rest of the transplanted Medusa crew.
“You shaved your head,” Raphael said. “Nice.” He pulled his dark ponytail over his shoulder. “Been thinking of getting rid of mine, too.”
“Don’t you dare!” Falak gasped. “You have the best hair.”
“Says the preening peacock with his phoenix-red spikes.” Emlyn giggled.
Raphael grinned. “I said, thinking. Haven’t gotten serious about it.”
Nyx smiled. It was a start. She shouldn’t push it. “Have a good night.” She pivoted to leave and paused. “Falak. Thank you. For saving me.”
Falak’s cheeks matched his hair. He bowed his head. “What was I supposed to do? Let you float? You’re the ExO.”
Nyx flicked her hand. “That doesn’t mean anything. You were quick. And you still accomplished the mission at hand. You saved me. You saved everyone on this ship. If we gave medals, you’d get one. I’ll see to it, when the time comes, that you get a proper promotion.”
Falak straightened, carob-brown eyes wide. “Really?”
Nyx nodded. “Really.”
“Can you get me out of swabbie duty, too?”
Nyx raised an eyebrow, while Emlyn snickered and said, “Always looking for an angle.”
“Quartermaster has us all on a rotating schedule now. Captain’s orders. Besides, even the captain’s swabbing decks.” Raphael pulled out his data reader from a deep pocket in his burnt-orange overcoat. “See the little entry right there. Got you on it too, sir.” He handed the reader to Nyx.
The thin glowing screen illuminated a short list of duties for each crew member. Not one member was immune to cleaning. Hers started the week she returned to duty and were almost entirely related to dusting corridors and sweeping the mess hall. It was as good as another week of hiatus, keeping her as far from command as possible.
She handed the reader back to Raphael, trying not to show her rage. “Do you know what they’re doing on the bridge? Is it a quiet night?”
Emlyn flinched at the steel in Nyx’s voice. “They’re prepping a recording of some kind. Other than that…” She shrugged.
“We all have orders to kick you off the command deck if we see you,” Raphael confessed. “Under threat of permanent swabbie duty. None of us wants that.” He glanced at Falak. “We all remember what that was like on the Medusa.”
Nyx sighed.
“But,” Emlyn hastened to add, “my console’s been acting up, and I can’t get Engineering to come up and fix it.” She elbowed Falak, who grabbed his side. “I heard you like to fiddle with things, and I would love it if you could take a look.”
Nyx stood straighter. “Where did you hear that?” These three were relatively new recruits on the Medusa, so she hadn’t really crossed paths with them much before everything got messy.
Emlyn smiled wickedly. “I’m good at finding out what people can do. So… my console? I actually would love it fixed.” She glared at Falak.
“Don’t look at me that way,” he whined. “I have a stack of hardware orders to take care of first.”
“I can help you with that,” Nyx agreed, “and it might give me a chance to tinker with my console, too. Speed up responsiveness. I can say I’m helping out Engineering on some fix-it projects.” She smirked. “Kai knows I love to tinker and that I’d want to jigger with my station. I bet he’ll be okay with me fixing yours.”
Raphael held up his hands. “I want no part in this. You ladies keep your conspiracies.”
Falak paled. “I’m glad I’m down in Engineering, where I can’t get in the middle of this one.”
“Actually, you can do me a favor,” Nyx said. “I need the Sia’s charging station brought up to crew quarters for Erebus. Can you get that taken care of while I thwart the captain’s attempts to keep me off the deck?”
Falak’s shoulders sank. “I suppose I’m getting dragged into this, after all.”
Nyx put a hand on his back.
“Fine,” he sighed.
She patted him and pivoted to the door, sloshing the water in her cup. “Thanks. I’m not sure how I’ll repay you, but I’ll repay you.”
Emlyn snorted. “Actually, having my console sorted will be payment enough.”
“No swabbie duty?” Falak smirked.
Emlyn swatted Falak on the back. Raphael burst with laughter. Maybe there was hope Nyx could bond with this crew, after all. That they could be the family she wanted.
Raphael nudged Emlyn as Nyx started to walk away. “Ask,” he whispered.
Emlyn cleared her throat and Nyx stopped. Nyx raised an eyebrow and turned back to the three. “Ask me what?”
The freckled Weapons Specialist paused, unsure. “We were all wondering.” She looked around the table at the two young men. “Is Erebus safe? I mean, is it safe for her to be aboard the ship with us?”
Nyx carefully arranged her expression to neutral and relaxed. They were as worried as she was. But really, they were likely worried about the wrong person. Even though Erebus could decide at any moment to space the entire crew, and Nyx had no idea if they could get her off the Thanatos if push came to shove, Erebus still wasn’t the one who had vented the Kokou.
She forced a reassuring smile. “I think it’s just as safe as having me or Kai run the show. There’s never any guarantees, but if you treat her as you would any other good mate, I’m sure you’ll be surprised.”
Emlyn’s shoulders relaxed. “You mean, be friends with her?”
Nyx nodded. “Why not?”
Emlyn glanced at the others. “Why not?” she echoed, and the table answered with grins.
14
Nyx lay under the weapons console, multi-colored wires dangling in her face, making her scabs itch. Emlyn hadn’t been kidding. Her console wasn’t working right. A power redistribution module had been intermittently shorting, causing the console to lose power. She was lucky it hadn’t happened when they needed weapons. Not that the weapons had been working until Erebus had been released into the Thanatos’ entire network.
Commandant Grey’s thin-lipped grimace dampened the mood of the command deck as she towered over the bridge on the view-screen. Kai wandered in front of the image, arms crossed. “Playback.”
Nyx set aside the burned redistribution module and watched the screen upside-down from her inconspicuous workspace under the weapons console.
Erebus hovered near Sia’s console, staring at Kai as he paced around his captain’s chair. He paused his pacing as the recording played on the screen.
The blue-uniformed woman on the screen pulled the front of her double-breasted jacket. “Je suis commandante…” The screen dissolved in a fuzz of white noise. The commandant resolved on the screen again. “Grey.” The screen dissolved into white noise again, and Commandant Grey appeared again, a sour look on her face. “The Star of Erebus…” More white noise, and audio only. “The weapon…” A flash of Commandant Grey’s blue eyes fired through the white noise of the broadcast. “Exist.”
“Okay.” Kai sighed. “How do the timestamps look?”
“Je ne sais pas,” Sarama drawled in Queen’s Speech from her seat on the second level of the deck. “I wouldn’t pick at them too hard, but on first, maybe second glance, they look legitimate.”
“As soon as we blow up the Battle Station, send that message.”
FCO Sarama nodded.
Kai turned to Erebus. “I need you to program the self-destruct on the Kokou.”
Erebus stiffened. “I’m on the Kokou.”
Nyx replaced the power redistribution module, slid out from under Emlyn’s weapons console, and sat up. Her bruises were beginning to ache from laying on her back on the hard, variegated floor.
Kai smiled. “But you’re also here. And here is where you matter.”
Erebus frowned. �
��Would you cut off a hand? An arm?”
“No.” Kai’s brow furrowed. “But we need to keep you from being discovered as you are. Just for now. There are better ships out there to become a part of. More strategic ships. For now, we need people to think you are a simple program, not who you are. They’ll come to destroy you if they knew the truth.”
“They’ll come to control her regardless of what you show the universe,” Nyx mumbled as she stacked a tray of wires and spare parts into her little tool kit.
Kai’s face burned. He walked to the console and bent over Nyx, seated on the metal floor. “Better they underestimate her power and intelligence.” He crossed his arms. “Don’t question my judgment on my bridge. Especially when you are on rest. Speaking of, why are you here? Get off my deck.”
Nyx smiled and rattled her electronic screwdriver at him. “I’m not done with the modifications to this console yet. You want your weapons running tip-top, don’t you?”
He ground his teeth and turned to Erebus. His face softened. “Look, I know that you want more, Erebus. But right now, the Thanatos will have to be your home, your body, your consciousness. If you spread and people find you, people will be afraid and come for you. This way, you may be smaller, but you’ll have us. Me and Nyx and the Thanatos. Your family.”
Erebus glanced at Nyx. “I see.” Her face blanked. “Self-destruct initialized. In cinq, quatre…”
Kai turned to the view-screen. “Put up the Kokou. Record.” He quickly ran a hand through his hair. “To the universe at large. This is the starship Thanatos, and I am Captain Kai Ionas. We are in possession of the Star of Erebus and behind me…” The Battle Station Kokou began crumbling in flames behind him on the screen, first in small spurts out of tiny ports, then in spectacular mushroom clouds as the explosions reached the nuclear warheads aboard the ship. “Is a once mighty Navy vessel, brought down by the destructive power I now hold. For those of you who do not fear flying in the black, fear it now. If you cross our path, be warned. We will board you. We will take your ship, your cargo, your crew. What you have is now ours. And if you fight, you will die. No one can save you. Not even your queen.”
