Victorious Dead (The Asarlaí Wars Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  Vas felt herself being pulled through the hull of the Fury. The ship and everything around her looked vague and ghostly, like that other galaxy had when she first woke up. She was moving, but couldn’t feel her body. Nor could she see Marli or Mac.

  A moment later she slammed into something and the world was solid again.

  Hands were reaching out to take off her helmet. The room was bright, but even with the lights partially blinding her, she could tell she wasn’t in her ship.

  “We had to get you ourselves. The Warrior Wench is having operational problems,” Marli said as she came into view and helped Vas sit up. She was wearing a clean suit, including mask. Never a good sign. “We need to get you both out of your suits and into a clean room for detox. You did a doozy on that poor old Fury. It was leaking more fluids than I thought it had in it—some of them probably a few hundred years old.”

  “This one is waking up too,” The voice was male and came from the left where another clean suited person was taking off Mac’s helmet. Vas let out a sigh of relief as his shock of red, spiky hair popped out.

  Marli’s folks were efficient. They had both Vas and Mac stripped, cleaned and waiting in robes in another white room within five minutes.

  “I can’t believe that,” Mac slumped on his clean white cot, and then flopped backwards on it. “I had to be saved by her!”

  Vas settled in. Resting wasn’t her thing but she knew there was no way Marli was letting either her or Mac go anywhere until she was sure they were clean. What she was pissed about was there was no way to contact her ship, and aside from a few, “they’re okay now” comments, Marli gave her no information. She also wanted to find out how in the hell a hologram was able to pull them over. Chances were that Marli’s hologram had been able to act as a guidance system for something like the Wench’s particle mover. One with a very disturbing way of transporting people.

  Granted it was hard to carry on any type of conversation when you’re ripping clothes off people and putting them through a detox cycle. But Marli could have stuck around to answer a few questions.

  “You have a problem with women saving your ass? Considering how many times I’ve had to save it, I wouldn’t have thought that would have been an issue for you.”

  “No. I mean, not you, or my crewmates…this is different.” Mac’s wistful air was only getting worse. He was between women right now and prolonged exposure to Marli was not going to do him any good. Vas needed to keep Mac away from Marli—at least until she was allowed to tell him what Marli really was.

  “You’ll be glad to know that you are now both clean. Had to dump those suits though.” Marli came through the door, but left it open.

  Vas peered out into the hallway. She’d be lying if she didn’t say she was nosy about this ship.

  Marli laughed. “I could give you a tour or an update, but I figured you both might want to change.” She tossed piles of fabric to them then turned around. “Look, even giving you privacy.”

  Vas dropped her robe and started changing into the simple loose pants and shirt.

  Mac stood there for a few moments, then turned around himself, and changed as well.

  “The Fury is in pieces, but I have as much of it as I could get in a decon bay down below. It will take a while, but you can have them back eventually. The inside was almost more messed up than the outside. You two are very lucky you didn’t explode.”

  “What the hell happened to my ship?” Vas pulled the shirt on and tightened the drawstring on the pants. She looked like she was wearing pajamas. She looked up sharply when Marli didn’t immediately answer. “Well?”

  “That’s complicated,” Marli said, then looked past Vas. “You having a problem there, boyo? I could come help if you need.” The wink she gave Vas told her that Marli was completely aware of Mac’s feelings for her.

  Mac fumbled a bit, then turned around. His shirt was half tucked in and the tie from the pants was so knotted up, Vas was sure he’d have to be cut out of them.

  “He’s fine,” Vas said and turned back to Marli. “My ship?”

  Marli nodded and motioned for them to follow her. “The good news is that it appears we shut down the breach and you successfully destroyed the shadow ship before it got away. The bad news is there is now no way to tell how long that had been on your ship. I’d been scanning you guys regularly since you lost Deven and I never picked up on it.”

  The corridor they were going down was long, white, and boring. Vas wasn’t upset that there wasn’t anything to see, as what was going on in her head was more than enough.

  “You’ve been what?” Vas stopped, but honestly, she wasn’t that shocked—she was more surprised Marli and all her high tech hadn’t picked up the breach attached to her ship.

  “Following you. I knew Deven wasn’t going to stay dead.” Marli shrugged and kept walking.

  “And yet you didn’t see something your own people created?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Vas froze and turned to Mac.

  He was still watching Marli’s ass, it being enough ahead of them to make a great target. But Vas knew eventually her words were going to slam into that lust-filled brain.

  Marli did too. She stopped and turned around, then held out one hand and Mac stopped in his tracks.

  “Can he be trusted? If my people really are back—and those ships aside, I have an extremely hard time believing that—then my being around won’t be so dangerous. I have to still go by the assumption that I am the last.” As she spoke she slowly raised the hand she was blocking Mac with. He rose with it. When his feet were a few inches off the floor, he stopped rising.

  Vas walked around to see better. Mac’s eyes were open and he looked like he’d been about to say something. It was as if he was frozen in time.

  She looked to Marli. So calm, so dangerous. Vas sometimes forgot how powerful even a single Asarlaí could be. If she didn’t answer exactly how Marli wanted, Mac’s neck would be broken before he came out of whatever state he was in.

  And Marli wouldn’t have the least bit of remorse and would probably still expect things to be the same between the two captains.

  It was a simple matter of survival. Marli couldn’t let anyone come after her as the last Asarlaí.

  Vas took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Mac was impulsive, reckless, and high strung. He was also part of her crew and her friend, either of which she would fight to the death to save. Her issue now was to believe Marli’s identity was safe with him and believe it enough to save their lives.

  Vas knew it wasn’t just Mac’s life on the line right now.

  She stared into his unseeing eyes. He’d been with her for ten years. In that time, she’d almost spaced him at least thirty times.

  “Yes,” Vas said finally. “He’s an idiot a lot of the time, but a damn loyal one. He won’t betray you, ever.”

  Marli smiled and gently lowered Mac to the floor. “That’s good enough for me.”

  “What of it, boyo? You okay with me being the last, full-blooded, immortal, bloodsucking Asarlaí? I can promise you that I am not at all like my dead people.”

  Mac stood there blinking frantically, then put out a hand against the wall. “But you don’t look like…I mean…you….” He slid down to the ground and studied Marli’s feet.

  “I wear a glamour, all the time. I know you saw holograms of beings claiming to be Asarlaí, and I still have my doubts. But that is what I really look like.” She folded her arms but didn’t change.

  Vas recalled that Deven said in all the years he’d known her, Marli had only shown her real form a handful of times.

  Mac was on the ground nodding and muttering to himself. Finally, he pulled himself to his feet. “Okay. I’m okay.”

  Marli smiled, turned around and kept walking.

  Vas came up alongside her pilot. “You sure you’re all right about this?”

  He watched Marli and his eyes still drifted down to her ass. But he looked back to Vas immediately. “Do
I have a choice? Yeah, I think I’m okay—she’s still sexy as hell though.” He’d dropped the last part so low that Vas couldn’t tell if he was talking to her or himself.

  “I heard that, boyo,” Marli said and gave a sexy twitch. “Thank you.”

  Vas stepped past Mac. “That’s great, but back to my question—how come you didn’t pick up on something they did?”

  Marli stopped in front of a pair of ornate double doors. “Because I’m thinking they aren’t Asarlaí. Breaches were a common attack ploy, but never anything like that.” The doors slid aside and Vas let out a whistle.

  The Warrior Wench had a command deck that almost made Vas cry when she first saw it, and that had been when she was focusing on being pissed about her missing ship.

  This command deck made that one look like it came off a five-hundred-year-old ore dweller. The area was huge and all of the workstations curved out from the walls. It came with four high-end pilot slings that looked even more advanced than the one she had.

  The front screen took up the entire forward section of the command deck and was currently focused on the Warrior Wench and the stars beyond. All except one two-foot-high section in the corner. The colors there were odd and numbers scrolled across it too fast for Vas to read.

  “Like it? I demand nothing but the best.” Marli pointed to the screen. “As you can see, your ship is intact. The black that’s on there is simply residue, although considering what that residue is, I’d get it off as soon as possible. I did what I could, but there might be things we’re not seeing.”

  “I thought you said that they had been having troubles?” Vas was trying to stay focused, but damn if this deck didn’t work its magic on her.

  Mac drifted over to one of the empty pilot slings and was fondling it. If he started drooling, Vas was sending him back to their ship.

  “Oh, they were. You cut it close, but destroying the breach when you did saved your ship. It wasn’t visible until you started attacking it, but they had broken through to your systems. They would have gained full control of your ship possibly as soon as that ship you blew up launched.”

  “It’s okay now? We’re sure?” Vas couldn’t focus on what almost happened. She needed to get moving on what was happening.

  “Yes.” Marli looked like she was about to say more, but then shook her head. “How about we get you two back on your ship, and we finish tracking down this missing Deven? I agree with your doctor. The genetic make-up is breaking down rapidly for the other two, therefore this one is probably also in bad shape by now.”

  There were so many questions she needed answers for. So many that Marli would only tell her when she was good and ready. Marli wasn’t anyone’s true ally. She worked for herself and if what you were doing dovetailed with her goals of the moment, great. Vas needed to keep reminding herself of that.

  “Agreed, as long as you’re certain my ship isn’t in danger.” Vas followed Marli as she left the deck. Mac trailed woefully behind. If he had to choose between Marli and that pilot sling, Vas wasn’t sure of his choice.

  “I am so sure of it, I’m going to ride over there with you,” Marli beamed as if this was the best news ever.

  Vas clenched her fists to keep from saying what she thought. Then she reminded herself that Marli could probably send herself on board Vas’s ship anytime she wanted. And with that super high-powered hologram trick she could spy on them regularly.

  “And, I’ll be bringing some familiar faces. Or, really, face.” Marli went down a side corridor. This one also had double doors, but they were far more serious looking than the deck ones. They also moved slowly to open. “Welcome to our med lab.”

  It looked like a warehouse full of medical supplies. Marli led them to two giant tubes. More like bio-beds encased in high-pressure glass and steel. The first one held the pirate Deven. His snarl seemed to be permanently fixed to his face. There were bruises along his jaw and right cheekbone—clearly, he’d put up a serious fight when he tried to escape.

  “How did you finally stop him?” Vas figured the way Marli stopped most people doing things she didn’t like would have left a battered and dead body in this case.

  Marli shrugged. “I dropped my glamour. Only a few of my crew have actually seen me, so I had my second clear the deck first. But one look at the real me, and he folded like a cardsharp with a laser pointed to his head.”

  Vas moved on to the next tube. This must have been the one she spoke to. It was odd, both the gahan Deven and the pirate Deven looked like Deven. By themselves she would have sworn either were Deven, just acting in a role. But this was Deven. There wasn’t anything she could put into words, but it was her Deven. She peered closer. There were light crisscrossing scars on his face—like the ones she’d seen in her almost-dead vision of him, only fainter.

  She looked back at the pirate Deven. Lots of other scars and recent bruising, but nothing like the other one.

  “What is it?” Marli asked. She and Mac had stood back, but now Mac was peering into both tubes.

  “The scars,” Vas went back to what she was thinking of as the real Deven. “When I first saw him in my head, or wherever we were, he had these tiny scars all over him. Like he’d walked through a plate of glass.” Her hand reached out before she thought about it. But the tube stopped her from touching him.

  “Or exploded,” Mac said.

  Vas shook her head and stepped back. This wasn’t the time to become melancholy—they needed to get this last copy and get her Deven back together. “Exactly. And I thought I saw them on the gahan Deven, but even fainter. But the pirate Deven doesn’t have them. What was this Deven like? I spoke to him briefly, but since one copy is a fighter, and one is a lover, what was this one?”

  “That was it, he was Deven.” Marli shrugged and looked down at him. “He appeared on my ship. I knew he was dead, so I thought maybe I was finally losing my mind. But my crew all saw him too. He couldn’t explain where he’d been, or what had happened. Only that he needed to get back to you.”

  Vas looked down at him again. He was far more relaxed than she’d ever seen him, even when he was passed out cold. “Terel had said that telepaths all have one major area of strength, but that Deven had two—sex and fighting. What if this separation is somehow tied to his esper skills?”

  “That might be,” Marli said. “Even I don’t know much of his people. They were not well known to my kind. And like I said before, something had been genetically changed in him.” She looked up at Vas. “Did you misplace him at any point? Say in the last seven years?”

  “I don’t keep track of my crew all the time,” Vas said and ignored the snort from Mac who was still studying the pirate Deven. “He’d take trips of his own from time to time. He did die a few years ago though, had a burial service and everything.” Vas grinned at the mini-war he and Terel had had after that. Sneaky bastard stated that he wanted a physical burial on his card on file with the good doctor, so when she pronounced him dead after a battle, he went in the ground.

  And caught up with them five days later after crawling out, and hitching a ride on a mining ship to find them. He’d claimed he had been in a deep coma.

  Vas now knew he had been dead.

  Marli thought about it for a moment, then shook her head and turned to go back out into the hall. “No, this would have been something done to him, not the dying thing. That is unique to his people by the way—contrary to recent events, even my people don’t come back once we’re dead.”

  “Captain, the Warrior Wench is asking about their people?” The voice pinged over the comm system and Marli shrugged.

  “Tell them we are on our way. I’m sending specs over as to the space I’ll need.” Marli flipped open a small console she had on her arm, then looked up. “You might want to tell them it’s okay. They seem to be getting twitchy.”

  “I don’t have a comm,” Vas had automatically reached for hers then recalled it went out with the destroyed clothing and space suit.

  �
�Here,” Marli said and held up her arm to Vas. “Tell them we’re coming in ASAP with a few beds in tow.”

  Vas felt silly talking into Marli’s arm, but relayed the information to a relieved Gosta and an annoyed Terel. The doctor did not like having her territory messed with.

  “You can head over now, but it will take a little bit for Terel to get the med lab ready,” Gosta said.

  Marli flashed a smile and motioned toward the ceiling. “Send us over now, Savan.”

  Before Vas could protest or comment, the world faded and a moment later she was standing on her own command deck.

  16

  A larms blared through the ship and it looked like every console on the deck was flashing at once. Vas would have appreciated more warning. Clearly Marli’s transport system was far above the one the Wench had.

  Vas was grateful that whatever weird mishap that had happened when Marli pulled them off the Fury didn’t happen again. She wanted to ask Marli if that was normal, but wanted to do it alone. Mac had been rattled about Vas seeing another galaxy and she didn’t need to mess him up more.

  Although finding out your recent crush was the sole survivor of a long-dead, insanely powerful race probably bumped out anything else right now.

  “Can you ask them to drop their weapons?” Marli had her hands up, but was facing a security detail of five of Vas’s people. All had blasters aimed right at Marli’s head.

  “Down, folks, she’s cool, we’re fine. A little warning on the entrance next time?” Vas said. Marli shrugged and lowered her arms. That it was done a second before Vas’s people lowered their weapons said a lot. Vas held no false belief who would have won if they had actually fired upon Marli.

  “Sorry for dropping in like this, but we’ve lost some time.” Marli spun around and faced Gosta. “The ship is clear now, correct?” He nodded slowly but kept looking to Vas.