by Taylor Smith
Terry stood also. “We’re holding a low orbit around the planet. No navigational hazards.”
Cade walked straight to Wards and said, “You did a good job in moving the ship closer to the planet when Criss didn’t check in.”
Ward smiled and said, “Thanks. I just thought –“
Cade slammed him against the wall and held him firmly with his heavy left arm. “And then you questioned every order I gave you, wasting precious time in a dire situation.”
Wards paled. “Sir, I –“.
“Stealth’s tactical advantage is secondary to obtaining the knowledge of what it is you’re trying to hide from. We did not have that knowledge, so we needed to break stealth to find the enemy. Secondly, my sister is aboard that ship that nearly cut our shuttle in half. That’s why I told you not to shoot to kill. I’m explaining this to you for your benefit, since I see a bright crewman in you.” He pressed his crewman harder against the bulkhead before he continued. “But in future situations, when I give an order the only thing out of your mouth will be ‘Yes, Sir, or so help me, I’ll space you myself.’”
Wards raised his head as if to escape Cade’s grasp and nodded vehemently. “Yes, Sir.”
Cade slowly released the man from the wall. He shook his head and placed a heavy hand on Wards’ shoulder and said, “You were right to think about the situation, and act on it as you thought necessary, but never hesitate again. Lives depend on it.”
Wards seemed to calm, and his eyes went to the deck. He nodded and said, “I understand, Sir.”
Cade nodded and turned back to find Terry’s eyes wide and mouth agape, before quickly turning back to his station. Andy, however, sat quietly in his command chair and scrolled casually through reports.
“Captain,” Cade began, “I recommend we re-secure the ship for dark running.”
Andy nodded and replied, “Agreed. Turn the lights out, Mr. Wards. Secure all weapons and reduce our scans to passive only.”
“Yes, Sir,” Wards replied with a less than steady voice. “Securing ship for stealth.”
Cade sat beside Andy and spoke quietly. “What do we do about Saundi?”
Andy was quiet for a moment, his eyes dancing from his screens to empty air as he thought through the situation. “Whoever this is, their stealth systems are way too powerful for the Reaper. We’ll have to bring better equipment to find that ship.”
“What about the science ship we stole from Torj?” Cade said, which brought back memories of his time spent with Criss, and he immediately had to tamp down his worry for her.
Andy’s brow rose. “It’s possible, but we don’t know if it’s been picked up yet. If we could get it back here quickly enough… maybe. That’s a long time though. That ship would probably be gone by then.”
Cade took a deep breath and shrugged. “So we have a fifty percent chance of actually finding the science vessel, and an even lower chance that whoever has Saundi will still be here when we get back.”
“Not the best odds, but we have to do some –“, a light chime interrupted him, and he accepted the priority channel request. “Bridge.”
“Captain,” came Dr. Grant’s voice.
Cade’s chest suddenly tightened at hearing the doctor.
“Good news, Doctor?” Andy asked.
“No,” came the abrupt response. “There are some decisions to be made.”
Andy turned to Cade and said, “You were the closest to her. Can you make the hard decisions?” After seeing Cade’s acknowledgement, he turned back and said, “Cade is on his way.”
Cade left the bridge and made his way aft. The hard decisions, Andy had said. Cade felt numb as he walked.
When he reached sickbay, he braced himself for what he might see. Dr. Grant’s nurse was stocking a cabinet when he arrived, and she motioned him toward a hallway that led deeper into the Doctor’s domain.
He took a deep breath and made his way to a room where the Doctor was studying a large screen that took up most of one wall. On the opposite side of the room stood a large table covered by a multitude of devices. Criss was laying inside the heart of a cylindrical machine, separated from the room by its crystal clear cover. “Doctor?” he said quietly and moved toward the table and his comms officer.
“Ah, there you are,” she said and pressed several commands on the screen. “We’ve maintained her stasis. Miss Hulbert has suffered traumatic brain injury combined with the effects of hypovolemic shock from the primary wound. We’ve repaired the damage from the heart attack, and organ –“.
“Heart attack?” Cade asked.
Dr. Grant grimaced at him for the interruption. “Severe blood loss, Mr. Cade, causes a multitude of problems, including the heart attack your crewmember was subjected to.”
He turned back to the table and asked, “Will she live?”
“That depends on your definition of living, Mr. Cade,” she said emotionlessly. “We did what we could to repair her heart and kidneys, but it’s her brain that I can’t repair.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t have the equipment, nor the skillset to do so. Miss Hulbert has two projectiles measuring approximately one point five millimeters each, embedded in the frontal lobe of her brain. Her saving grace is that it seems none of her organ control was damaged. Her heart still beats, she still breaths, etc.”
Cade listened, but found it hard to control his emotions as he stared at the woman in the glass chamber.
“The stasis saved her life from shock of such blood loss, but I doubt she’ll ever wake up. If, and it’s a very improbable if, she wakes up, she wouldn’t be more than a shell. A burden on whoever has the grim responsibility of –“.
Cade was now staring at the demon doctor, tears streaming down his face.
“I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” She muttered and nodded slowly. She crossed the room and met Cade’s gaze. “I’m very sorry. I know Criss very well, and enjoyed her visits and conversation for several months before you even came aboard. I can’t say that she was like a daughter, but she was a friend. I’ve found that the more I know someone, the more I like them, the more detached I become when treating them. It’s a defensive mechanism that doesn’t always sit well with others, but it’s how I’m able to continue to help someone that I’m close to.”
Cade could understand, although ruefully, and the woman before him could be cold, but at least now he knew why.
“There is good news, though,” she said with a sad smile. “I’m not a neurosurgeon, nor am I adept at the workings of the brain. There are brilliant colleagues of mine on Clew that may have a brighter diagnosis for her. I just need yours, or the Captain’s permission to use the resources here to keep her in stasis.”
He turned back to Criss and nodded. “Keep her alive, Doctor. We’re going home.”
Chapter 12
Haley edged Strix-9 closer to the Reaper. The pirate cruiser had searched for her for a time before activating its meager stealth systems. They were laughable compared to her ship’s advancements, and she now sat off their starboard side less than a kilometer away.
She activated the external visuals and glared at the dark silhouette that filled the screen. “Run home, boys, run home.” She whispered to herself.
She was actually surprised that they gave up the search for her so quickly. If Saundi was indeed a member of the Neese family, she would think that there would be a more thorough investigation taking place right now. But no, they had tucked tail and ran. That fact gave her pause, and also an intense feeling that she was missing something important.
Her only working theory was that her aerial stunt, as entertaining as it was, might have caused some serious injury to the shuttle’s occupants. Perhaps they were retreating with such haste for medical reasons. Surely not; even the most dim-witted would buckle up for an atmospheric egress.
Thinking of the flyby, she couldn’t help but grin. That was fun, and if it didn’t hurt either of them, it should have rattled them around a
bit. They deserved more.
She checked the time, and found it had been over an hour since she last attempted to connect to the Reaper’s guidance system. The actual program was wicked fast, but it all depended on when the shuttle’s data would be downloaded, then accessed by engineering for the virus to be freed. With the wave of a hand, Strix-9’s hacking system activated once again. She scrolled through the menu and found the program that would pair with the virus she’d planted, and activated it.
It was gloriously quick. Data scrolled down her screen and she beamed proudly, then spun her seat a full three hundred and sixty degrees in celebration. After only a few seconds, a new menu appeared with only one option: “Mirror Guidance Now?”
She pressed the floating “Yes” and watched all the system checks turn yellow, and then green as Strix-9 tethered itself virtually to the cruiser.
Haley gladly allowed a burst of happiness to breach the three-year-old wall of anger and hate that had inundated her life for so long. She leaned back and smiled so brightly that her cheeks began to hurt. That little program, that beautiful little alphanumeric wonder had just given her the key to taking Clew down.
All that was left was to wait. With the pirates practically flying her ship for her, she was now simply along for the ride. It would only take another day to exit the Bonnell system and jump, and then probably another day until subspace egress into Clew space. When that happened, they should be close enough to Clew Station for her to get a read on its position, course and speed.
After enjoying her moment of triumph, Haley activated the camera system in Strix-9’s holding cell. There was no mission parameter that could be satisfied now by her having Saundi as a prisoner. She was two days from her main objective, and she could focus purely on personal curiosities.
It only took the gas ten minutes to counteract the effects of the patch Haley had placed on her prisoner’s neck, and Saundi began to stir.
Haley watched patiently as the woman woke up. She savored the moment of panic the woman exhibited, and then enjoyed the tantrum. Saundi tried to rip the padding from the cell’s bunk, no doubt to throw it across the miniscule space in the cell. It would have been entertaining to watch, had she succeeded, since the mattress would undoubtedly bounce right back at her.
Finally, Saundi calmed, and she sat motionless on the floor just in front of the bunk. At that point, Haley kicked back in her ship’s cockpit with her feet on the console. She lazily rocked side to side, becoming bored with the scene, when Saundi suddenly leaned forward and slammed her head into the hard edge of the cell’s bunk.
Haley shot forward in her seat as Saundi fell to the floor. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled and activated the medical monitoring equipment in the cell. The screen swirled for several seconds as it interpreted the scan data, and then displayed the results. All of Saundi’s readings were elevated, but nothing out of the ordinary. The conscious estimate got her attention, as it told her without doubt that her captive was very much awake.
She leaned back and shook her head. “You’re crazy, girl,” she whispered and decided to just let the woman lie there. She wasn’t about to go into that cell, so she kicked back again and got comfortable. Besides, she needed to impress upon Saundi that ridiculous tactics such as this wouldn’t garner her even the slightest attention.
“Hey!”
Haley awoke with a start. She quickly realized that she’d fallen asleep and looked at the view screen to find Saundi standing in the middle of the cell, a dark streak of dried blood marked the wound on her forehead from her earlier stunt. Her brow knit, and she leaned forward to find it had been six hours. She stood up and stretched.
“Answer me!” Saundi continued as she paced back and forth in the tiny cell.
Haley blinked rapidly to shake off the sleep and double checked her ship’s position in the solar system. They were at least another ten hours from the edge and the point where subspace could be entered safely.
She turned back to the holding cell screen and activated the comms. It was time to begin. “Sit down,” she said knowing her voice would be disguised, and watched the screen for a reaction.
Saundi paused at finally reaping some attention and then crossed her arms. “Water,” she said with an indignant scowl.
Haley grinned and selected an option on her panel.
In the cell, a small compartment slid open to reveal a bottle of clear liquid. Saundi hesitated, then picked the bottle up and opened it. She smelled it first, and then asked, “What’s in it?”
Haley tilted her head as she watched, but didn’t reply.
Saundi shrugged and took a drink. She seemed to wait for something, and then finally sat down, realizing she hadn’t been poisoned.
“State your name.” Haley said.
Saundi leaned back on her bunk and shook her head. “You first, creepy synthesized-voice person.”
Haley shook her head. Saundi would be difficult, of course, but she had the time to dig around before they entered subspace. She brought up the Fleet records for Saundi Adair and said, “Records indicate that Saundi Adair died three years ago during a dispute between the denizens of Clew Station and a pirate faction known as the Deshi.”
Saundi sat quietly on the bunk.
“Your patch declares you as part of the crew of the No Quarter,” Haley continued, “also thought to be destroyed during that battle.”
Saundi perked up at that, and stared upward to the small dot near the ceiling that concealed the cell’s video pickup. “How’d you know that?”
Haley’s head reared back in confusion. She knew the pirates didn’t advertise the names of their ships beyond the patches they wore, but it wasn’t a secret that that ship had perished three years ago. She decided not to answer, and watched Saundi in her cell.
“Haley?” Saundi asked.
Haley’s eyes widened, and she slammed the comms link mute control to the cell with a curse. She stood up and paced several steps away from her seat. There’s no way Saundi could have known who she was, or that she was still alive. Then how –.
“It had to have been her,” came Saundi’s voice from the speakers. “She must have mentioned it in a report, or something.”
Haley leaned up against the wall with a sigh. Saundi didn’t know after all. She was guessing at how the No Quarter was known to the Alliance, and had only pegged her as naming the No Quarter in a report. She moved back to her command chair and reactivated the comms. “Tell me about Haley,” she said.
Saundi laughed at first, but then got very quiet. She shook her head and said, “If you know my ship was destroyed, then you’re Alliance, and you have Haley’s report. So you have her whole file… you know more than me.”
“Tell me anyway,” Haley growled. Anger filled her, and she couldn’t help but allow some of that to slip out. This woman had feigned friendship for years, and then destroyed her life.
Saundi lowered her head and crossed her arms petulantly.
“Tell me!” Haley shouted to the screen.
“I killed her!” Saundi shouted back as she leapt to her feet. “I killed my only friend in the universe! Is that what you want to hear?” She slammed her fist against the door to the cell, tears streamed down her face in a mixture of sadness and anger. “I was supposed to protect her, and I killed her!”
Haley drew back, her anger replaced with shock at the anguish Saundi suddenly displayed.
“Is that what this is about?” Saundi continued, screaming in the tiny room. “Is this payback for killing Haley? Then do it! Space me!”
All Haley could do was to stare in confused interest at the screen. She hadn’t expected such a reaction from Saundi. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but nothing on this side of regret, and especially not such an intense shame.
Saundi’s face was scrunched in rage one minute, and then dropped in sadness the next. She moved slowly back to her bunk and lay down with her face to the wall.
Haley leaned forw
ard quickly as she recognized what was happening. During their time in the academy, she’d seen Saundi upset many times, but on rare occasions the girl would withdraw from everything around her just as she was doing now. If she allowed it, she knew it would be hours before she would get another reply. “Who was she?” she asked.
“Go to hell!” came Saundi’s muffled reply.
“You said it yourself: you killed her,” Haley pushed. “What does it matter now?”
No response.
Haley thought for a moment and then said, “Varsoe.” The old man in the crypt had called her Haley Varsoe. Her gut wrenched at the possibilities of this, but she’d dismissed it as a confusion tactic to buy time.
Saundi turned back to the video pickup and stared, her face still wet with tears. “Who are you?”
“Tell me,” Haley repeated.
“Like I said,” Saundi replied and lay her head back down. “I killed her.”
Haley cut the audio and video feed to the cell and stood up. Again she paced across the small nerve-center of her ship. Haley Varsoe. The name repeated through her mind, and she felt a wave of unease come over her. She stopped pacing and stood akimbo facing the hallway that led toward the holding cell.
She could suit-up and face Saundi personally, dig more information out of her. She could resort to the sensory torture she’d tried on Jerry to try and pry details from the woman. Neither option appealed to her.
After a few moments she decided that she was too emotionally involved to continue a proper interrogation. If she’d learned anything from her time speaking with Jerry, it was that she had to recognize her own limits during such situations. She needed rest, anyway, real rest.
She double-checked her ship’s systems, shut the cell com link down completely, and retired to her quarters. The subspace ingress would probably scare Saundi to death. At a time before today, she expected that she’d enjoy watching her panic as the ship shuddered and groaned at the gravitational effects of interstellar travel.
On larger ships, entering subspace without a transit tank was suicide. Strix-9 was small enough, and advanced enough, to keep its miniscule habitable areas safe from being crushed into soup.
