King's Sacrifice

by Margaret Weis

  "Coming up on the Lane, my lady. Or at least that's what I assume it is. The readings are identical—"

  "The Corasians stole our technology, so it's probably a Lane. The coordinates are in the computer. " Maigrey took her place behind Agis, looked out through the bridge's viewscreen. "I've plotted the course as nearly as I can, all things considered. What are our escorts doing?"

  "Flanking us. Six to port, six starboard."

  "They don't seem much interested," commented Xris. He had left engineering, come to watch the attempt at the Jump.

  "They're not," said Maigrey. "If they were, they'd have six hundred out there, with a net around us. But, then, why should they be suspicious? Escaping from them, making a run for it is the last thing they expect us to do. We're in it for the money, remember? They figure we'll meekly follow where they lead. They're going to be shocked as hell when we blast off in the opposite direction."

  "There may be six hundred of them waiting for us on the other side."

  "I doubt if they can figure out where we're going. This move of ours is bound to baffle the collective mind. It's so completely illogical. And by that time, His Majesty's fleet will have arrived. That should keep them occupied."

  "Coming up on the Jump, my lady." Agis sounded the alarm that would send everyone conscious aboard ship scrambling.

  Maigrey sat down, strapped herself in, waited, watched the Corasian escorts floating leisurely alongside. They'd be floating leisurely alongside nothing in a moment.

  "I've determined our destination," she said. "I've found what appears to be either several large asteroids trapped in an orbit around a small sun or else the remains of a planet. This is where we'll find Abdiel. The system's near the edge of the Void, which makes sense from his viewpoint. In case anything went wrong, the mind-seizer could always slip back to friendly territory. It's uncharted, far from any major Corasian population centers, so that he won't be disturbed in his work. And these fragments are the only objects of any size anywhere near the coordinates that could successfully support life."

  "How did you come to know these coordinates of yours, sister?" Xris asked, blowing smoke.

  "How could I not know them?" Maigrey muttered, not for him to hear.

  "That mind-link thing?"

  The stars disappeared, the Corasian escort vanished. Maigrey stared into endless nothing.

  "Yes," she said aloud. "That mind-link thing."

  "Jump completed, my lady," said Agis.

  "Thank you. How long until we arrive?"

  "Less than twenty-four hours, my lady."

  "Very good." Maigrey unstrapped herself, rose to her feet. "I'll send Sparafucile to relieve you. You'd better get some rest, Agis. Xris, are those engineers regaining consciousness?"

  "Yeah. They're not feeling real well. Looks like they're suffering from the galaxy's worst hangover. But they'll be able to take over when the time comes."

  "Good. I'm going below, to have a little talk with our ship's captain."

  Maigrey left. Xris watched after her, then sat down, took the twist from his mouth, examined it.

  "You married?" he asked Agis.

  The centurion shook his head. "My lord does not permit married men to serve in his Honor Guard. Divided loyalties, he says, make a divided man."

  "You sign a contract?

  Agis glanced at him, smiled wryly. "A contract is a man's name on paper. It may bind him legally, though that's not certain. Witness the number of lawyers flourishing in the galaxy. We swear an oath."

  "Oaths can be broken, same as contracts."

  "Yes," replied Agis quietly, "but, if so, the oath breaker cannot pass the responsibility to another. The matter is between him and God."

  Xris leaned back, propped his flesh-and-blood leg on the console. "I'll stick to lawyers."

  Maigrey entered the captain's quarters without knocking and interrupted what appeared to be an extremely interesting conversation, on Tomi's part, at least. The captain was leaning near Brother Daniel, talking to him in argumentative tones. She snapped her mouth shut when Maigrey came in, cast a swift glance at the priest, and sank back into her pillow. Closing her eyes, she seemed to have fallen into her drugged stupor.

  Brother Daniel was flushed scarlet. Seated in his chair, hands folded together, he had not been looking at the woman, consequently missed that conspiratorial glance.

  Maigrey guessed what Tomi must be thinking. "Brother Daniel, report to Xris on the bridge. I want you to take a look at the engineers, make certain they are recovering from the effects of the drug."

  She was watching Tomi closely, saw her black eyes flick open in involuntary astonishment. The eyes shut quickly again, however.

  Brother Daniel stood up. "Yes, my lady."

  "And then go to your quarters, lie down, get some sleep. Your duty here is ended," Maigrey added, seeing him start to protest. "The captain will soon be returning to the bridge. You have done an excellent job, Brother Daniel. You are to be commended."

  Raising his gaze from the floor, the priest looked once at the woman lying on the bed. Her eyes had opened again. Confused, she was staring at him, her expression pleading. Was she begging him to stay? Hoping, perhaps, that he'd turn on his leader?

  Brother Daniel regarded Tomi steadily, calmly. Turning then to Maigrey, he said, "Thank you, my lady," and left the room without another word, without a backward glance. The door slid shut behind him.

  Tomi glared at her.

  "All right, bitch, you got rid of him. What for? So you can kill me, not have to worry about him?" Her voice was slurred, her eyes open, but unfocused.

  Maigrey came near the bed, stood over it. "You can drop the act, Captain. It isn't necessary. I ordered Brother Daniel to stop giving you the drug. What did you think? That you'd managed finally to seduce him?"

  Tomi blinked, her eyes narrowed. "If this is some sort of trick—"

  Maigrey leaned down, shut off the paralyzer on the woman's hands. "No trick."

  Tomi, continuing to watch her warily, sat upright.

  "Your hands and feet will feel numb for a while," Maigrey continued. "It takes the brain time to readjust. You won't do much walking around for an hour or two yet. After that, I presume you'd like to shower, change into your uniform. Then, if you'll come to the bridge, I'll show you our location when we come out of the Jump, give you a report on fiiel consumption. You should have enough left to make it back safely across the Void.

  "As for us, we'll be disembarking shortly. You'll have to run the ship by yourself for a while. Your lieutenant's injury wasn't serious. He's making progress, but he's not in a fit state to resume his duties yet. As for the passengers, if I were you, I'd leave them in hibernation until you return to our galaxy. Raoul has prepared enough of the drug to keep them under. That will, of course, be your decision. Any questions?"

  Tomi was staring at her, incredulous, suspicious. Her limp hands dangled between her knees. "Where are the Corasians?"

  "Gone. We shook them when we made the Jump. I presume we'll run into them again before long. It is their galaxy, after all. But, by then, hopefully you will have joined up with His Majesty's fleet"

  "His Majesty." Tomi was still fuzzy. "His Majesty who?"

  "I'm sorry, Captain. I really don't have time to explain it all to you. I trust that someday you will come to understand."

  "You're not turning us over to the Corasians?"

  "No, Captain."

  "You re giving me back command of my ship—an unarmed cruise liner—in the middle of an enemy galaxy—"

  "On the fringes, Captain. It's not as bad as you suppose."

  "And I'm supposed to team up with some king? What's he king of? A penal colony?"

  "You can do anything you please, Captain. It's your ship again, or it will be in about six hours. I'm offering you what I consider to be your best chance of survival."

  "Yeah, well, don't do me any more favors, bitch."

  Tomi removed the paralyzers from her ankles. Balancing
herself on the nightstand, she tried to stand. Her feet wouldn't support her. She tottered, started to fall, and sat back down on the bed. Swearing softly, she reached down, rubbed her feet and ankles, attempted to bring some semblance of life back to them. Putting her hand on the nightstand, she struggled to stand, swayed unsteadily a moment, then managed to hobble from the nightstand to the bureau, grabbing hold of it just before she fell.

  Looking up, her face glistening with sweat, Tomi saw Maigrey, watching her. "You enjoying this, are you, bitch?"

  "I was waiting to see if you needed help," Maigrey answered calmly.

  "I don't. Not from you. And not from that weak, gimpy-handed virgin you brought—"

  Maigrey reached out, caught hold of Tomi's arm. The captain tried to twist free, but Maigrey's grip was strong.

  "Listen to me, Captain. And this is just between us, woman to woman. That 'gimpy virgin' as you term him was strong enough in his beliefs and what he perceives as his duty, both to his God and to a man who is his friend and lord, that he was able to overcome not only his desire for you, but his love.

  "Yes, he loves you, Captain. Loves you despite the fact that he knows you were only trying to use him. Or maybe he loves you because of that. He understood that your one thought was to try to save the lives entrusted to you. You may not believe me, but we never intended to turn you over to the Corasians. If Daniel had thought that you were in any real and imminent danger, he would have aided you in a minute, as he was about to do when the Corasian threatened you."

  "You're damn right. I don't believe you."

  "It doesn't matter. I want you only to understand and believe one thing. Brother Daniel is truly a priest. He has been one since he was a child. His life is dedicated to his God. He has taken vows of obedience, poverty . . . and chastity. If it is any consolation to you, Captain, in revenge for what you've suffered, you managed to hurt him deeply in return.

  "I don't blame you for what you did, Captain. Neither does Brother Daniel. Remember this, though. You'll recover from what happened to you. The drug will wear off. The memories of the terror will soon fade. You'll be a hero, a celebrity, when you return to the galaxy. I'm no seer, Captain Corbett, but I predict that this adventure will be the making of you. That you will glean from it fame, wealth, status.

  "But not him. Not Brother Daniel. He will be forced to bear, for the rest of his life, the scars of the wounds you inflicted on him. Dreams of you will torment his nights. Memories of you will interrupt his prayers—and all the while he'll know that you were just using him, that you despise him. He will ask his God for help and, for him, that help will be forthcoming. But think about suffering like that, Captain, before you ever again call Brother Daniel 'weak.'"

  Maigrey let loose her grip on the woman, turned and walked out the door.

  Tomi stood, clutching the bureau to keep from falling. On it she saw, where he had left it, the soft leather scrip that belonged to the priest. Fingers feeling stiff and clumsy, she fumbled at it, opened it.

  The scourge lay there, neatly coiled together, the thongs stained dark with the young man's own blood.

  "Just using him." Tomi's eyes filled with tears. "A lot you know . . . bitch."

  Chapter Four

  Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile, Pondering his voyage . . .

  John Milton, Paradise Lost

  The woman and her male cohorts were on the bridge when Tomi entered. Maigrey stood staring at one of the monitors on which the captain could see portrayed a star map, featuring a smallish star, orbited by what appeared to be an asteroid belt. The soldier was at the helm, die cyborg manning the ship's long-range scanner. The half-breed lounged against a console, legs crossed, arms hidden inside his rags. The priest, Brother Daniel, leaned over the woman's chair, talking with her quietly, apparently discussing the image on the vid before diem.

  Tomi glanced out the viewscreen. They had come out of the Jump. A star, presumably the one portrayed on the map, could be seen, burning hotly in the distance. She couldn't see the asteroids or, more likely, fragments from a broken-up planet. The Belle was on the far side of the star, keeping the star between the planet's remains and the ship. No Corasians in sight.

  Maigrey had glanced around on hearing the door open, greeted Tomi with a cool nod, then turned back to her viewing of the map on the screen. The men looked up from their work, as well, gazes flicking over Tomi with varying degrees of interest—the soldier, uninterested, remote; the cyborg, cynical and amused; the half-breed, dark, shadowed, lethal. In his hand, she noticed suddenly, glinted a knife.

  Tomi ignored him, ignored the others, looked only at the young priest, the only one who had not looked at her. Brother Daniel, standing with his back to her, must have guessed, from the reaction of the others, who it was who had entered. But he did not turn around.

  "Captain is armed," reported the half-breed, eyeing the lasgun Tomi wore defiantly at her side. "You want me to take weapon?"

  "Only if she starts making a nuisance of herself," Maigrey answered.

  Tomi felt distinctly her own helplessness—armed though she was—against these people. Her skin burned, her fingers curled over the gun, tucked into its holster on her hip. But the vague and desperate plan she'd formed, while in the shower, to seize back control of her ship, take these people prisoner, bring them to justice, crumbled and dissolved. She'd worn the gun mostly out of bravado anyway, and the lurking suspicion that this was still, somehow, all a trick, that she would be seized and taken prisoner again. And she'd use the gun on herself first before she let that happen.

  No one made a move toward her, however. No one—except the half-breed—paid any attention to her at all.

  Her head ached, the after-effects of the drug. Her legs were wobbly, she was more than half-afraid she might pass out. But she'd be damned if she gave them the satisfaction. Besides, she had to admit she was now extremely curious to know what was going on.

  "I wish we could scan it," Xris said, talking through the twist in his mouth. "I don't like going in there blind."

  "Not a chance. They might detect us. And we won't be going in blind," said Maigrey. "Here. I've drawn a diagram for you."

  "How the hell do you know what it looks like, sister? You been there?"

  "No, but I've seen it. Just one of my little talents," she said with a smile that twisted the scar on her face.

  "My lady, we've received a signal from His Majesty. The fleet has safely crossed the Void. They're now coming out of hyperspace.

  "Right on time."

  "According to the code, they're taking up position on the edge of the Void, my lady, awaiting our coordinates."

  "Send them to Dion. Private code. No one else."

  "Yes, my lady." A pause. "Coordinates received. Transmission ended."

  "Are we picking up any sign of the fleet on our instruments?"

  Feeling awkward and self-conscious, her head throbbing,

  Tomi walked defiantly over to join them. She was aware, the entire time, of the half-breed's suspicious, watchful gaze.

  "No, my lady," answered Agis. "Not this far away."

  "Then I doubt if Abdiel will."

  "What would he do if he did, my lady?" Brother Daniel asked.

  Tomi found her gaze straying to the priest's hands, clasped before him. She remembered their touch, strong, yet gentle. ...

  "The Corasians could dump their computer files, make it impossible for us to tell if they've got the complete plans for the space-rotation bomb or not. Or, if they have the plans but haven't transmitted them yet, they might be driven to do so."

  "But they'll know were there when our planes touch down."

  "By then, hopefully''—Maigrey glanced at the cyborg— "they'll be too busy."

  "And what about my lord?" asked Brother Daniel softly. "Once the mind-seizer knows we're there, isn't it possible that he will . . . will—"

  "Kill Sagan?" Maigrey finished bluntly. "No. You see, Brother Daniel, Abdiel always prefers using
live bait. If Sagan was dead, I wouldn't come. How long will it take Phoenix to make the Jump from the Void to these coordinates?"

  Agis referred the matter to the computer. "Four hours," was the answer.

  "What's Phoenix going to do? Burial detail?" asked Xris.

  "If His Majesty doesn't hear from me, or if I tell him we've foiled, the warship will attack and destroy the planet."

  Xris blew smoke. "Nice to know that if we're captured, we won't suffer long."

  "I thought you'd appreciate it. Now, as I was saying before we got off the subject, this is a blueprint of where we're going. The structure appears to be several years old. These rooms you see here are filled with various types of machinery. I'm not certain, but I would guess that it was used as a sort of service station for the planes on the outer perimeter."

  "It looks like a goddam ant farm," said Xris, studying the detailed schematic that appeared on the screen.

  "Typical Corasian design—everything built below the planet's surface, no need to cope with temperature fluctuations and atmospheric disturbances aboveground. Easy to generate a breathable atmosphere for the slave labor ... or for the mind-seizer and his disciples."

  "We get in . . . where? Through these cavelike things?"

  "Yes. You and your men follow this route to the mainframe computer, located here. You will break into the files, determine how far along they are on actually building a space-rotation bomb. Find out, too, how much information on the bomb has been sent into the Interior."

  "How many Corasians do you figure we'll run into?"

  "An outpost like this would normally have several hundred. But I'm not certain. It appears that they've ceased functioning as a refueling stop. Probably concentrating all their efforts on manufacturing this bomb."

  "Several hundred, huh. And while we're breaking into computers, what will you be doing, sister?"

  "What I have to. It's no concern of yours."

  "Except if you decide His Majesty should blow us all to hell."

  She smiled without warmth, pale and cold as moonlight. "We're going into hell. Death's the way out. And now, if there are no further questions ..."