Phoenix in Flames

by Jaleta Clegg

  Change that. He hit me whenever he saw me. I had another black eye and a split lip. He usually only smacked me once or twice before leaving again. I could live with it. I still tried to find a way out every chance I got. Matthias didn't give me any more chances. He kept me chained except when I was in the bathroom and then I knew someone was always just outside the door, ready to beat me senseless at the first excuse.

  I lay on the bunk in my underwear and wondered idly where we were this time. We'd made two jumps since Tireo. With each jump we got farther from the Phoenix. I hoped Jasyn was on my trail. I hoped she hadn't given up completely on me. I would owe her my life, again, when she rescued me. I had to keep saying when, not if. If would kill me.

  The ship slid through the jump point, downshifting to normal space. At least the ship was in fairly good shape, I thought halfheartedly. It wasn't as good as the Phoenix, but I was prejudiced.

  The door slid open. Matthias crossed the room and glared at me.

  "What now, Matt?" He hated it when I called him that. I did it deliberately.

  He slapped me. I winced appropriately.

  "How did you tip them off?" he growled.

  "Who? I've been chained up to this bunk for what, five days now? Or has it been longer? How did I tip who off?"

  "I don't know how but you did." He unlocked the cuffs on my wrists and ankles. He grabbed me and pulled me off the bunk. He dragged me across the cabin and out into the main room. "How long?" he shouted at Kolly.

  "They'll be in range in less than ten minutes," Kolly answered. "What are you going to do with her? They know about the compartment. I got that much before they cut off the com."

  Matthias yanked me by my arm into the last cabin. He slammed me into the wall face first. He ground his hand into my back, holding me in place.

  "Stay there," he ordered.

  "What are you going to do with me?" I asked.

  "Don't worry, it won't hurt. Much."

  He jammed a needle into my arm. The whole room started to spin around me. He let me go. I fell to the floor, staring at nothing. His face was going fuzzy. I tried to blink and couldn't get my eyes back open. It was weird. I was completely aware of everything but I couldn't have moved if my life depended on it.

  Matthias picked me up and shoved me into a medunit. The machine reacted just like it was programmed to do. Wires snaked out, attaching to my arms and chest. A mask snapped over my face. Air brushed past, pushing its way into my lungs. Matthias draped a blanket over me.

  "Sleep well," he said. He patted my leg as he left.

  I tried to move, to get out of the bunk. I couldn't. Whatever drug he'd given me had knocked me for a complete loop. I was hyperaware of everything around me but I couldn't move. I could barely breathe.

  The ship was quiet for a moment before the loud clanging of a grappling hook attaching echoed through it. The ship creaked and groaned. Another moment of silence was ended by a docking clamp locking on the ship. The machine above me hissed and gurgled.

  I heard the airlock cycle. Boots marched into the ship.

  "This is harassment," Kolly objected. "I cooperated with you. I sent you the full manifest."

  "You have three outstanding convictions for smuggling. Your ship is subject to search and seizure," an official voice informed Kolly. "You and your crew will assemble here. And captain, for your sake I hope we don't find anything we shouldn't."

  There was a confused sound of many feet before it got quiet enough for me to hear again.

  "This is your full crew?" the official voice asked.

  "Just like it lists on the manifests," Kolly said.

  "You are supposed to have six crew total. He isn't on the list. Who is he?"

  "A passenger," Kolly said. "There isn't anything on my license that says I can't carry passengers. He's paying and it doesn't cost me more than the use of a bunk."

  "Then where is your last crew member?"

  "She had an accident with a coolant hose. She's in the medunit. Another day or two and she should be fine."

  "Do you wish medical assistance?"

  "No. Like I said, another day or two and she'll be good as new. She's always been a bit clumsy."

  The door to the cabin slid open. Their voices were suddenly much louder. Someone crossed the room and poked the medunit.

  "Your identification?" the official voice asked in the other room.

  "Ren Matthias," Matthias answered. I was surprised at his candor. "I'm a businessman from Kaylonna."

  "And your business at Zerinas?"

  "Setting up a new business here. Looking into prospects. If I tell you more, it might sour the deal. Check it if you want."

  I heard paper shuffling. The person poking the medunit started looking through bins and storage lockers.

  "Your ship will be searched," the official voice said. "You will remain here."

  Boots thundered through the ship. I heard them opening everything. They searched through every bin and locker.

  "Sir? You should see this."

  I heard a latch click. I could imagine them opening the smuggling compartment. I wondered what the official voice would have to say about that. I didn't have to wait long.

  "And what explanation do you have for this?"

  "Protection for sensitive cargo," Kolly said. "Do you have any idea how bad piracy is anymore?"

  "Piracy or smuggling? Which side are you working?"

  "I have legitimate cargo to deliver," Kolly answered. "There are no rules against hidden compartments on ships. There is nothing in there. You can't charge me."

  "They had no time to dump anything, sir, we were watching them."

  "Then I guess this time you got lucky. Clear the ship."

  Boots moved through the ship again. I heard the airlock cycling.

  "We'll be watching you, captain," the official voice said.

  I heard more boots and the airlock cycling again. The docking clamp was released. The ship drifted free. Someone let out a long sigh.

  "Good thing they aren't checking id records," one of Kolly's crew said.

  "Even if they did, they won't find anything," Matthias said. "I took the liberty of fixing your records. Call it part of my payment."

  "You could have told me," Kolly said.

  Matthias chuckled. "It worked, you can thank me later."

  I heard general muttering in the main room. Matthias came into the cabin. He stood over me and poked the medunit. It shut off, retracting the mask and wires and tubing. I felt a sting in my neck.

  "Wake up, Dace," Matthias said. He slapped me.

  The new drug he'd given me interacted with the first drug. My muscles twitched. I suddenly couldn't breathe.

  The medunit beeped urgently. My chest convulsed, trying to draw in air. My muscles were fighting each other. I struggled, feeling myself begin to float away.

  Matthias swore and slapped me again. It didn't help. He rolled me onto my side and pounded on my back. He rolled me onto my back. I flopped like a dead fish, hands twitching feebly. My fingers tingled. He pried open my eyes and stared at me. I saw panic in his face. He was about to lose his big paycheck.

  He raised his hands over his head and brought his fists down on my chest. It was hard enough to crack my ribs. It was also enough to break whatever spasm his drugs had caused. I gasped in a breath. My ribs creaked. Pain shot through my side. I gasped in another breath then coughed.

  Matthias leaned over me. He grunted and punched buttons on the medunit. I heard it beeping. Nothing attached itself, though.

  "Bring me the cuffs," Matthias ordered.

  "You didn't kill her?"

  "Just bring me the cuffs, Kolly."

  Kolly sauntered away. Matthias hovered over me until he came back, carrying both sets of cuffs. Matthias locked me up to the medunit bunk. I was limp, unable to resist. It was as if my body were asleep but my mind was wide awake.

  "It's set to monitor her," Matthias said. "That stim should have woken her back up."


  "Should have, it just about killed her."

  "Shut up, Kolly."

  "I will when you pay me the rest. You get off on Zerinas. I'm not taking you any farther."

  Matthias smashed Kolly against the wall.

  "I paid for you to take me to the sale on Galveston. You are going to do that or you are going to die, slowly and painfully. Is that clear or do I have to make an example of one of your crew?"

  Kolly gargled something unintelligible. Matthias let him go.

  "How long on Zerinas?"

  "Two or three days, maybe," Kolly said. "I have to deliver the cargo or it will look suspicious, especially after the Patrol already stopped us once."

  "You make any wrong moves and I'll make sure you die. And your family, what there is of it, Kolly." Matthias moved to stand over me again. "You take me straight to Galveston. I pay you the rest and you can go to Hades for all I care."

  Kolly scuttled out of the room.

  "Just think of the payday," Matthias muttered. "You're worth too much to too many people, Dace. You'd better be worth it to me."

  He left the room.

  I drifted for a while. The ship landed and it grew very quiet. I slowly slipped into sleep.

  I woke when someone punched buttons on the medunit. My eyes snapped open. One of Kolly's crewmembers stood over me. She glanced down at me while she turned the medunit off. She looked old and mean, but she also looked bored.

  The ship was shut down. We were landed somewhere. Now was my chance. I lay as limp as I could while I hoped she was there to unchain me.

  She was. She unfastened the chains on my legs before unlocking the cuffs. She grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the bunk.

  "Time to move," she said.

  I stayed as limp as I could, waiting. She turned away, dragging me towards the door. I did a good impression of barely being able to walk. I sagged in her grip. She turned impatiently to me. My knee caught her in the gut. My fist connected with her face while she was curling around her middle. She crumpled to the floor. I stepped on her as I ran for the door to the cabin.

  It was open, but the hatch wasn't. I didn't stop. I didn't care that I was only wearing my underwear. Anything was better than staying here. I hit the controls for the hatch. It was locked.

  I hit them again. I was too close. I could almost taste the air on the other side of the hatch. I pried at the control panel with my fingers. If I could pop it off, I could have the hatch open in seconds. I didn't have seconds.

  Matthias grabbed me from behind and threw me on the floor. I landed in a heap. He followed me, kicking me wherever he could reach. I crawled away, trying to squirm under the tiny galley table. He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet.

  "That was stupid, captain."

  He slapped me. I spit at him. He hit me again. And again. And again.

  I did my best to pass out and finally succeeded.

  Chapter 28

  Another useless day spent chasing elusive facts that would prove false, Lowell thought. Any file he managed to find and decode turned out to be planted. He was outmaneuvered at every turn.

  He drummed his fingers on his desk. He'd tried everything. He was too buried here, too close to too many people who wanted him powerless. Patrol Headquarters was nothing more than a trap. He had no freedom of movement. He had no way to access anything that mattered.

  He sighed and wondered how long he could keep up the pretense of working. It had been over a week since his visit from Kidri and Seya Maharta. He hadn't been able to verify anything they had told him. His not so hidden requests for information on the current situation at Besht resulted in a flood of meaningless reports. He had dutifully read through all of them, searching for some clue to the truth. He had found nothing. If Besht had joined the Federation, he was going to have to hear about it through the news, like everyone else. If Commander Wexford had taken the Fleet with him, he was going to have to learn about it the same way. No one in the Patrol building would ever tell him anything useful.

  It was almost evening, almost time to leave. He watched the clock slowly tick away two minutes.

  "Screw this," he muttered. It was almost an hour early. He was leaving anyway.

  He pushed himself away from his elegant, empty desk. He opened the door to his office. His secretary looked up from her desk. The rest of his staff glanced at him then back to their work.

  "Is there something I can do, sir?" the secretary asked.

  "I'm leaving early," he informed her.

  "Is anything wrong?"

  He wanted to shout at her that everything was wrong but it wouldn't have solved anything. It might have gotten him sent to medical for a full evaluation. He smiled at her instead.

  "I just want some personal time. Even High Command needs a vacation sometimes."

  "Very good, sir," she said. "Enjoy your evening. Will you be reporting back in the morning?"

  "I'll call and let you know."

  He walked out of the office. Their stares followed him, he could feel it. He knew if he turned around none of them would actually be looking, though. He didn't bother with such juvenile tricks. He was feeling much too old.

  He walked out of the building, oblivious to the salutes he got. The evening air was warm and soft. The sun was just sinking below the horizon. He stopped, staring up past the towering buildings at the sky. The blue was tinged with pink and gold. Streams of flitters made black specks across the perfect blending of colors. People walked around him on all sides. He watched the sky for a while, hands in his pockets even though the uniform was never designed to be worn that way.

  He sighed and dropped his gaze back to the plaza around him. The stream of officers on duty change was increasing. He could turn around and head back for his plush apartment, deep in Patrol territory. He knew it was monitored by at least seven different groups. His every breath was recorded, his every move watched. He couldn't face it, not tonight. He started walking, across the broad stretch of plascrete that separated the Patrol from the civilians.

  He pulled his rank pins from his collar as he passed into the shadow of the tall buildings that surrounded the Patrol complex. He wanted to be anonymous, at least as much as he could be. He was sure someone would follow him, if not several someones. He made himself not care.

  He walked until a sign caught his eye. He ate dinner at a bustling restaurant. The table next to him was full of people celebrating something. He ate alone and wished he had someone to share with.

  He left the restaurant and wandered farther through the city. He spent a while in a bar, watching people laughing and singing and talking and fighting. He missed Paltronis. He knew the rumors about them and halfway wished they had been true. She'd been his friend, nothing more, but that by itself was more than he felt he could have asked from her.

  He watched people and realized how isolated he'd made himself. He used to justify it, telling himself it was necessary to his job. Maybe it was, but it made a lonely life.

  He left the bar more depressed. He walked the streets, not paying attention to where he was headed. Force of habit carried him back to the Patrol compound and his apartment.

  He stood in front of his door, tired to the bone but too restless to sleep. What good would it do to keep going through the motions? His job was a farce. He had failed. The Empire was self-destructing. He sighed and thumbed the lock.

  The door slid open. He stepped inside. The door slid shut. The lights glowed softly.

  Everything in the room was deep blue or silver, the official Patrol colors. He had a sudden craving for bright orange and purple decor. Anything but the reminder of who he was supposed to be.

  He crossed the room then opened the drapes. It was only a viewscreen pretending to be a window, but it was better than staring at the tastefully understated Patrol emblem woven into the curtain fabric. He hit the controls for the viewscreen. Its silver surface shimmered and cleared to show a view of deep space. Stars burned clear and cold. He stared at it for a long momen
t.

  "Lights off," he said.

  The room controls responded. The lights dimmed, leaving him standing in the glow of the viewscreen. He backed slowly, dropping into his favorite chair. He'd spent more nights than he wanted to think about sleeping here, staring at the viewscreen until his eyes glazed over. He still didn't find any answers.

  He closed his eyes, sinking down into the chair. Paper crackled under the cushion. His eyes popped open. Paper in his chair? He sat very still. He was being watched, he knew it. He also knew how to jam the devices watching him.

  If he jammed them, whoever had planted the bugs would want to know why. Was it worth it for a piece of paper buried in his chair? It could be nothing, a stray bit that had slipped into the chair and was missed by the cleaning staff. It could be something important, though, left by someone who knew how closely he was watched.

  He closed his eyes again, shifting his weight. The paper crackled. He was tempted to just leave it, but his curiosity demanded to be satisfied. The only real question was whether he was going to fuzz out the bugs or not. He sighed, pretending to be falling asleep. He slipped his hand along the edge of the cushion. He could just feel the edge of the paper. It was more than a scrap. His heart sped up in excitement.

  "View one forty seven," he said to the viewscreen.

  It obediently winked to silver. Flashes of static danced across the screen. He'd programmed it years ago and never thought he'd have to use it. It was a special view, one that interfered with just about every frequency used for surveillance.

  He moved quickly, sitting forward and pulling the paper out of the chair. He smoothed out the wrinkles. Dace's face looked up at him from the page, her picture pulled from an old file. He read the words under her face and froze. His shoulders sagged. He'd lost again. He was powerless to stop them.

  No. Not this time. He was going to pull out every favor he'd ever been owed. He was going to do whatever he had to for her.

  He put the paper on the low table in front of his chair. Someone had the nerve to kidnap Dace and put her up for auction. He was going to stop them, in whatever way he could.