Victorious Dead (The Asarlaí Wars Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  “Completely understand, but could we have some privacy?” Vas looked around at the gahan. None of them had said a word, but they seemed to be there because Savan was.

  Savan nodded to Marli, waved to the gahan, and they all left together.

  “Okay, that’s one thing. What the hell is your second? They are looking at him like he’s their god.”

  Marli watched the door for a bit, then turned back to her. “He’s a telepath, unrated and unsanctioned. They were all traumatized, something that started before the shootout. Someone had been messing with them before they went to that building—someone other than our extra Deven. Savan’s keeping them calm—the following him aspect has been a side effect of whatever had been done to them.” She flashed a grimace that would have been very impressive if she’d not been wearing her human glamour. “The empress has a lot to answer for.”

  Vas waited to see if she would expand on that, but then moved on. Whatever the empress was doing, she probably deserved to have a pissed-off Asarlaí after her. Plus, Vas had enough of her own things to worry about.

  “What was the other question you wanted to ask?”

  “Deven said something about a death wish? I’m not sure how much we’ll be seeing each other, but it does seem like whatever is going on is going to involve us both. I need to know if I can trust you.” Marli wasn’t completely trustworthy. Vas had no doubt she’d do what was on her agenda regardless of who it went against. But someone with a death wish was an entirely different type of trouble.

  “Fair enough. I wouldn’t take anyone else with me. Deven was wrong in that, and I blame his mostly still recovering status. I have been alive far longer than I ever wanted, immortality sounded like a good idea, originally. But it’s gotten old. It’s not a death wish, it’s a desire to be free.”

  The longing in her face only flashed for a moment, but Vas caught it. She couldn’t understand what it was like to be alive for thousands of years. No one aside from the woman before her could.

  “It must be lonely,” Vas said.

  “It is. But people like Deven help.” The wistful sadness remained for a moment.

  Vas nodded. She could understand where Marli came from even if she’d never understand her circumstances. She also knew when to drop a subject. “I’d like a report on that fake Rillianian cruiser. And you should let Savan know that he can contact my mind-doc if he wants to work through the gahan’s issues. She’ll be finished with her short-term hibernation in a few days.”

  Marli nodded. “Definitely. I’ll have Savan send what he has. And thank you. I’m afraid my people were far more adept at causing mental issues than resolving them.”

  Vas noticed Marli was leading her to the engineering rooms. Clearly, while her particle mover was far more advanced, it was still better to use the primary circuits.

  “Where are you headed now?” Vas said more to make small talk than anything else. Having the Scurrilous Monk as backup had been more than handy, but Vas knew Marli had her own agenda.

  “Back to tracking our little empress,” Marli said then led them down the corridor to the mover. “She’s up to something and it’s not good. And if it involves that cursed planet my people mutated, it is very not good.” She hit a few buttons on the simple panel in front of the mover. “And you?”

  Vas stepped up on the platform. “I still have to find what was left behind. Aithnea left the buoy for some reason, and it might have another purpose aside from just talking to the core. But she also left something in another system.” Vas had told her about Aithnea but felt weird telling her where the other stash of information was.

  The look on Marli’s face said she probably already knew exactly where Vas was heading, and why. “What about your job?”

  “Damn, forgot about that, or was trying to,” Vas said. Had Ramoth not tracked them down, and his daughter not attacked them, Vas wouldn’t be worried about whatever it was he’d hired them for. But that had changed.

  She didn’t know yet if he was going to get his belongings back. She’d never betrayed a job before, but he started it.

  “Safe travels,” Marli said as the world vanished.

  Vas reappeared in the med lab. An odd tingling took over her extremities as she solidified, then vanished when she shook her limbs. She’d need to mention that to Terel, and she’d need to stop using the damn particle movers.

  “Captain!” Pela snapped to attention. That was another bad side effect of the damn things. They seemed to randomly put people wherever—at least Marli’s did. The one on the Warrior Wench only went where it was supposed to. Of course, knowing Marli she might be sending people exactly where she intended.

  The room still had one bio-bed. Deven was asleep in it, but the containment field told her he was asleep with assistance.

  “Sorry about the drop in. Marli has an odd sense of humor.” She nodded to the bed. “How is he?”

  Pela went to her patient. “He’s finally resting—yes, I did have to chemically assist with that.”

  “Where’s the security?” Vas didn’t want to look at Deven sleeping. His appearance on the deck had caused a flood of emotions, ones she didn’t want to deal with now.

  “Out front. They said that was a better spot.” Pela went back to her desk. Pela was a more than competent assistant and a physician in her own right. But she wasn’t very social.

  Vas knew when she’d been dismissed, and left the chamber. Fron and Lise were engaged in a game of tiles, and not paying attention to the door.

  “He could have gotten out by now,” Vas said and stared down both women.

  “Captain! Sorry, we thought we were guarding against someone coming in. There was a rumor of robots.” Lise scooped her tiles into a pouch and sealed it shut all while never taking her eyes off Vas.

  Vas wasn’t one to dissuade games of chance, as long as it didn’t interfere with the job. That Deven could have been out the door before they noticed meant it was a problem. “No, you are here to keep Deven in his bed. I want one of you inside that chamber, and one of you out here. Under no circumstances are you to obey any order he tries to issue. He’s still very ill.”

  Both nodded and snapped more or less to attention. “Aye. But, Captain, I thought he’d died with Jakiin?” Lise asked it, but they both looked to have been thinking it.

  Vas knew the longer explanations would be coming—not now. “It’s complicated. Just know that for now, he doesn’t leave this room unless I or Terel say so.”

  They both nodded and Vas went to the next med chamber. She’d assumed since Ragkor had been up and about and Terel hadn’t been screaming about decontaminating the entire ship, he was no longer in a decon chamber.

  Her guess was correct. Gon stood at attention outside of the smaller med room next door.

  “I assume he’s sedated?” Vas said.

  Gon scowled. “No, Captain, Terel made him promise to stay put.”

  That was one in a long list of the differences between her two seconds: Ragkor meant what he said. Deven had a far broader understanding of truth, reality, and promises.

  “Keep watch,” Vas said and unlocked the door.

  Ragkor was keeping the word of his promise, he was still in the room. But Vas was sure Terel had intended for him to rest, not to be working on one of the med computers.

  “And what part of recovery are you following?”

  A sheepish look crossed his face, but he didn’t move away from the computer. “I thought I could use this time to figure out what was going on with your robot friends. They shouldn’t have been able to do what they did.” The shudder that crossed his face was more disturbing because that was the first time in all the months she’d known him that he’d looked that disturbed.

  Vas walked around to see the screen. One corner had a slow-motion vid of the robot parts regenerating. The other three quadrants were filled with formulas that Vas had no idea about, and that she was sure no one else on her ship did. “Did you study robotics?” Vas knew it was
n’t offered at the standard universities, but no one knew what the military was actually doing.

  Ragkor’s pause said her suspicion was correct.

  “Aye, but I’m not supposed to talk about it.” He refused to meet Vas’s eyes.

  “Ragkor, look at me. Are you in the military now?” Something about his reaction worried her. She knew that he’d said he’d been kicked out, but at this point she felt the need to question everything. A plant wouldn’t be unheard of by the military behind the Commonwealth.

  “No, Captain. Not anymore.” Again, he turned away.

  “Ragkor, if you do not look me in the eye to answer me, I will have Gon drag you to the brig until I can find a prison ship to leave you in. When did you leave military service?” A chill built in her gut.

  Ragkor better never play tiles with her crew. His face gave her the answer before he spoke. “Two months ago, Captain. I quit right before the Commonwealth went dark. Three days before, in fact.”

  27

  V as turned away. He’d been with her for a month longer than that. Everything—his being broken, down on his luck, kicked out of the military—all was a plant for her to take him in. Someone from the Commonwealth knew she’d lost Deven, and knew she’d need a new second-in-command. Not that he couldn’t have come in as a regular crewmember, but his qualifications were perfect for a second.

  “Why?” She was too furious to get more than a single word out. Forget about the prison ship, she was going to space him.

  “It was part of my job. It wasn’t all a lie, Captain. I was disbarred and dishonorably discharged, like I told you. But a month before you found me, I was approached by a Commonwealth paramilitary group. They reinstated my commission and wiped my record clean. All I had to do was get on this ship.”

  “And report to them? I trusted you.”

  Ragkor got to his feet slowly. He obviously was still recovering from his radiation poisoning. Or he was afraid of moving too quickly around Vas.

  “That’s it. They never asked me to report anything. They ordered me to get in with this crew and wait for commands. I never received any.”

  Vas had to turn away to keep from attacking him. She’d had to cut ties with the Commonwealth after they disavowed knowledge of the destruction of the world Lantaria—and the three merc crews who hadn’t been able to get off the planet fast enough in the slaughter. She’d kept all information from their news sniffers, hiding even what ship she was on.

  “They told you to get on the Warrior Wench? Then didn’t give you any orders? I will have Flarik and Nariel work on you—I will get to the truth.” Flarik had ways of questioning that went far beyond anything that would be used in a courtroom. And mind-docs could be used for more than healing. Together they made a dangerous pair.

  Ragkor blanched, but stayed at parade rest. If anything he looked sad rather than scared. “No. They ordered me to join your crew. They only said a ship name once, the Victorious Dead. I had no idea who you were, or who this crew was. I found a way to get my life back, and I took it. I am sorry.”

  Vas still had her back to him and she closed her eyes. “Once you knew us, what would you have done had they ordered it?” Whatever his answer was, she was still going to have Flarik and Nariel question him. It was a difference of it being an interrogation or a questioning.

  “The first day, I would have told them anything. I didn’t know any of you. After that, nothing. I woke each day with dread that they would try to contact me with orders.”

  Vas turned. He was still standing there, hands loosely clasped behind his back, but there was a resolution there that hadn’t been before. Keeping him was dangerous, but letting him go might be even more so. And while the old Vas might have actually spaced him, she really couldn’t do that now without better cause. As she was reminded again, the old Vas was gone.

  “Would you be willing to work against the Commonwealth, against the military, if the need comes about?” She’d know more of what he could be trusted with after Flarik and Nariel had their talk with him, but having Ragkor on their side could come in handy given the right circumstances. She didn’t have the luxury of being personally angry with him. Those fighter ships had come in with Commonwealth coding. The assumption had been they were pretending to be Commonwealth—but perhaps they actually were and the formerly relatively ‘too massive to be too evil’ government had now pared down and changed direction.

  “Without question, Captain.” Ragkor didn’t even pause before he spoke.

  Ragkor had been a good officer on her ship, and saved at least three of her people from a fiery death when a job went south two weeks ago. She’d trusted him with her ship.

  Finally, she nodded. “Tell no one except Flarik and Nariel. When Nariel awakens, you three will have a nice chat. We’ll talk after that. Until then, Terel will tell everyone you’re still in recovery and cannot be disturbed. But if you leave this chamber before I say so, I will leave you on a prison station.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Ragkor said.

  “Now get back to your studies. I want a full report in twenty hours.” Vas waved toward the monitor he’d been working at. She’d tell Terel the truth, so the doctor would go along with the too ill to interact ruse. But better no one else knew. Some of her crew had serious problems with the Commonwealth military. That Ragkor had been kicked out had been the only reason they’d accepted him. This would blow that to hell.

  Vas stalked up to the deck. She had a lot of mysteries going on, and she didn’t like mysteries. “Gosta, has there been any recon in the area of the Clionea explosion?” She took her seat with a sigh. Maybe she was feeling edgy because she missed mercenary work. Or she needed a nice, simple bar fight. Preferably an exceedingly large one.

  “Nothing new,” he said. “A salvage drone came through a few hours ago, but it drifted off without doing a full scan. The radiation in the area should keep people away for a while.”

  Vas nodded. She still hadn’t solved any of Aithnea’s mysteries, aside from that she knew at some point Vas was going to need a computer to speak to a ship’s core, but she didn’t want anyone disturbing that area.

  She looked down at the schematic for the storage center for Ramoth’s job. After all, she had the key card copy; they could go get it done. His prior harassment of them left her torn. Part of her wanted to find out whatever it was he was risking so much to get. The other part didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of nagging her into action.

  “Captain?” Xsit said. “Captain Marli is heading out. She wanted to wish us luck, and she’ll find us when she needs to. She’s going to hunt elsewhere.” As Xsit spoke, the Scurrilous Monk blasted away.

  So much for long goodbyes. It was handy having another ship at her back though. Unless there was a big mercenary job, Vas had always preferred a single ship, easier maneuverability if they needed to bug out. Plus, the rest of the ships at the station at Home were mostly shuttles or troop movers. Nevertheless, having an insanely armed warship like the badly named Scurrilous Monk at her back had been handy.

  “Noted. Call Grosslyn at Home and patch him through,” Vas said. She might have an idea to resolve a number of issues.

  “Aye, Captain. Ah, it’s dead of night on his continent right now.” Xsit’s voice went up a bit.

  Vas waved her off. “Good point. This isn’t urgent, but when the sun comes up out there, send the call through.” She turned to her navigator. “Gosta, how is the salvage of the Victorious Dead going?” It had been a short while, but her crew could move fast when needed. Or when bored.

  “They got the ship pieces out of the asteroid belt three hours ago. They should be on their way toward Home at this point. Do you want me to contact them?” The distraction in his voice told Vas a salvage crew was far less interesting than whatever he was doing.

  “No, that’s fine. Give them a few more hours.” It would take a while to make sure none of the pieces of the ship were booby-trapped. Even though they appeared to have been abandoned by t
he Rillianian monks when their plan fell apart, leaving surprises for your enemy to find after you’re dead wasn’t uncommon. Once they were certain they were clear, they’d have to hook the chunks to long haulers to bring back to Home.

  The refuse and metal surrounding the ship pieces was actually a blessing in disguise. It was no doubt going to be a pain in the ass to remove, but it was protecting the interiors of the pieces from space. Salvaging ships was something she and her crew did when they were first starting out and needed troop transports. She knew they could get the ship they loved back together easily.

  “Okay, we’re going after that thing Ramoth wants.” She didn’t say it to anyone in particular, but was surprised when a familiar deep voice answered right behind her.

  “Aye, Captain. We need to finish that job.”

  Vas turned out of her chair. Yup, Deven stood there. Not in medical clothes this time, He wore a loose dark green sleeveless tunic and fitted black leather pants. He looked so much like he always did it punched her in the gut. Aside from his still much longer hair being worn loose.

  Vas shoved her reaction aside. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” She looked around but no medical staff followed him. “I saw you a few hours ago. You were in a medical coma. For your own good.”

  He shrugged. “I’m better now.” The grin he flashed wasn’t a good sign.

  Vas grabbed his hand, reminded again that those esper bracelets still hadn’t been replaced, and dragged him forward. “Ready room. Now. Gosta, you have the bridge.”

  Vas waited until the door slid shut on both of them before she let loose.

  “What in the hell are you doing? I wanted to ease you into what happened, but since that isn’t going to work, I’ll be blunt: you died. More than died, you blew up. Into tiny little pieces of space dust by deliberately over-firing a damn Fury to save us and a bunch of refugees.”

  She stabbed him in the chest, but kept yelling. “You died. Dead. No longer living. Then you show up in the body of a gahan. Then a pirate. Then sort of yourself. You went from dead to being all over the damn place! And you don’t think that warrants staying in bed a few days?”