by Kal Spriggs
“You son of a—”
Ariadne pushed him to the side, “Look, I’m sure we can come to an arrangement. However, if you let Pixel die, I’ll guarantee that we’ll kill you. We may well kill ourselves to do it, but we’ll kill you. Let’s talk bargains here,” Ariadne said. “We have three hundred kilograms of gold. That kind of thing takes a long time to move, more than an hour.”
“Where did you lot get that kind of treasure?” the Wrethe said.
“Who am I talking with?” Ariadne asked calmly.
The high pitched voice gave a hyena like laugh, “Spine among you all. You may call me Ghost, the fear that it evokes in some I find gratifying.”
“Okay, Ghost,” Ariadne said. “Let us get our engineer out of there, get him patched up, and give us time to move the gold—”
Anubus reached over her shoulder to flip off the intercom switch. “You aren’t giving it my gold,” Anubus growled
“He’s right,” Eric snapped, “That Wrethe will just kill us when it has finished toying with us first.”
Ariadne looked back at the pair of them and she rolled her eyes, “Oh, really, you think I want to give it the gold?” Eric could see that her face had gone hard, and her eyes seemed to smolder. Eric winced as he thought he saw flames flicker in her eyes. “I’m trying to delay, and to get Pixel out of there before he bleeds to death.”
Oh, good, she’s angry now, that means she’s actually thinking instead of her fluff head crap, he thought. “Oh, I hadn’t expected that kind of thing from you, good plan,” Eric said.
“Thanks so much for the vote of confidence,” Ariadne rolled her eyes again. “Now get with Crowe and find a way to take the bridge back. “I’ll try to get Pixel out of there alive.”
For a moment she reminded him of his first platoon commander back when he was just a private in the Centauri Commandos. Eric gave her a sharp salute, “Yes, ma’am.”
Behind him Rastar snapped off a technically improper but very impressive four-limbed salute of his own, and even Anubus seemed impressed by her change in attitude.
“Dude, she’s totally perfect as the XO,” Rastar said loudly as they hurried away. Eric heard him sniff loudly, “Say, does anyone smell burning hair?”
* * *
It took Eric longer than it should have to find Crowe. He finally found Crowe and Elena in close conversation in the lounge. “What the fuck are you doing here? We need you to unlock the bridge,” Eric said.
Both of them looked up at him in surprise. “Eric,” Crowe smiled thinly, “How are you?”
“I’d be better if we had killed this damned Wrethe and stormed the bridge already, and put a bullet through that damned Chxor’s brain,” Eric replied. He looked over at Elena, “Oh, and I know you must feel bad about leaving Pixel unprotected. You don’t need to blame yourself over that, it’s my fault entirely.”
“What?” Elena asked. “Oh, yes, I feel terrible about Pixel.” She wiped at her eyes and Eric felt his heart twist. He hated it when he made beautiful women cry. “Do you think he will be okay?”
“We don’t know how bad this Ghost hurt him,” Eric said. “Ariadne will try to get us in there to get him out. In the meantime, we need to secure the bridge. We can’t accomplish anything if we don’t control those two essential areas of the ship.”
Crowe glanced over at Elena, “Are you sure about this?”
“Of course I’m sure, Mike’s clearly lost it. Either this psychic controls him or Krann offered him a better deal for our betrayal. He gave Krann a weapon, for god’s sake,” Eric shook his head. “And just looking at the tactics, we need the bridge before we go after Ghost. We can control the automated doors from there, as well as other stuff.” Eric waved a hand at that. He didn’t really know what other controls there were aboard the bridge, but he doubted that they wanted someone hostile in control.
“Look, Eric, I know you’re a real focused guy…” Crowe said.
“Crowe has just discussed potential contingencies with me,” Elena said. “Such as the fact that your ‘friend’ Ariadne had a conspiracy with Anubus, Rastar and Pixel. She had them all convinced that a rogue psychic tampered with the election for captain and that it was either Crowe, Krann or myself.”
“What?” Eric frowned. Now that he thought about it, Mike’s actions, particularly his votes for Ariadne and Krann had seemed rather suspicious.
“What I’m afraid of,” Crowe said, “is that she is the rogue psychic.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Eric said. He looked between their faces. Both of them looked serious and he felt a twinge of doubt, “Isn’t it?”
“Think about it,” Crowe said, his voice low but intense, “Mike voted for her in the first election. Then in the second one he voted for Krann, so did Simon, who we’ve both seen spend more time than usual around Ariadne.” Eric frowned as he thought back. It seemed unlikely, to say the least. “And Elena told me about a psychic she had to hunt down, one that used Chxor bodyguards because their minds are more easily influenced. And think about the other candidate: Run. Both of them she could have controlled more easily than you could access a computer.”
“That seems a little far-fetched,” Eric said. Even so, some of Ariadne’s actions took on a far more sinister cast when he stopped to think about them. “And besides that, you voted for Krann the one time. And Mike voted for Ariadne in the first election, if she hadn’t voted for him, she would have become captain.”
Elena shook her head, “That’s the thing, Eric.” Her sharply accented voice seemed to put particular weight on her words. “Crowe was not present at the second election,” She saw Eric’s look of consternation and shook her head, “Trust me, I remember too, or I thought I remembered at least. But then Crowe told me his story, how he got a message from Mike to check out something with the communications systems near the bow. And when he got back, the meeting was over. More than that, I checked the door logs and the access times for the system. He was there, not at the election.”
“I would sooner have voted for Anubus than that damned Chxor,” Crowe said.
“That’s crazy, that would mean either someone impersonated him or…” Eric trailed off. He felt his blood run cold. I can’t have misjudged her, not that badly, he thought, she’s a fluff head and she cares too much about people, she’s soft…right?
“Exactly. Someone must have implanted his presence on our minds. And who’s the one person we know is a psychic?” Elena’s cold blue eyes stared into Eric’s, and he had to look away from that gaze. “What’s more likely, that we have two psychics aboard or that we have one rogue psychic who has manipulated us all from the beginning? Psychics are rare, Ariadne as much as told us she hasn’t encountered any others besides her brother in her entire life, yet now we must believe that there is a second one aboard this ship?”
Eric shook his head, “But how… no, that doesn’t make sense, why would she have Krann and Mike fortify the bridge? For that matter, Krann has accessed the navigation computer.”
“I don’t know,” Crowe said. “But she seems damned eager for us to storm the bridge. Which is why I say we delay. We pressure her and find out what she wants. We leverage what Ghost is doing, use this disruption to her plans to crack her.”
Eric took a step backwards, “Now you can’t be serious. Every moment we delay gives Ghost more time to escape. Worse, whatever… whatever the goals of the rogue psychic -whoever it is-we know that Ghost intends to kill us.”
“Do we?” Elena asked. “Remember, Ariadne has messed with our minds before. How much of what we heard is real? Perhaps—”
“You’re talking about a Wrethe that killed an entire freighter already, then hunted down and ate the survivors,” Eric snapped. “Chopped some of them up for later and put them in a cooler for that matter.”
“You are right,” Elena nodded. “We should not let paranoia drive us too much. However, we need to find out Ariadne’s goals. And we need to stop her.”
Eric raised one ey
ebrow, “Really, stop a psychic with mind altering powers? How do you recommend we do that, exactly, ask her nicely?”
“There’s one certain way,” Crowe said softly. “We kill her.”
“No. No way,” Eric said. He closed his eyes and he saw Ivanna again, as she choked to death on her own blood. “That’s off the table.”
“It’s the only way,” Crowe said. “Nothing else will work. Unless you think we can trust her after what she’s already done?”
“No,” Eric shook his head. “We don’t know anything yet. This is all supposition. Rampant paranoia. I will not kill her without some kind of proof.” Yet as he said that, he realized that he had just admitted that under the right circumstances he would kill Ariadne.
“Which is why we need to delay her, prevent our attack on the bridge for as long as possible. Put pressure on her,” Elena’s thick accent seemed to bore into Eric’s head. He met her gaze again, and her blue eyes seemed almost to glow with intensity. “I do not want her to die, either. She has seemed nothing but kind to me. Yet if she is the source of this attack, if she has manipulated us all along…”
“She’ll have to die,” Eric whispered. He buried his face in his hands. “I’ll do it, but we have to be sure. Absolutely sure, not just suspicions.”
Elena and Crowe both nodded, yet their reasonable agreement made Eric’s heart sink further.
“Of course,” Crowe said softly, “We will make sure of it.”
* * *
”Mister Striker,” a cultured woman’s voice spoke from behind Eric.
He turned to find the Nova Roma Ambassador behind him, flanked by her pair of marine guards. She looked as confident as before, and her dark eyes met Eric’s gaze without hesitation.
“What?” Eric asked impatiently.
“I had heard this pirate has threatened to kill us all,” Alara Vibius said, “Is this true?” The sharp edge on her voice immediately put Eric’s back up.
“A Wrethe has seized the engine room,” Eric said as patiently as he could manage. “So get out of my way while we try to deal with it.” He decided not to mention the other chaos aboard, if only out of spite. The woman could learn to ask more nicely if she wanted to know more.
“What exactly does that mean?” She demanded. “Do you have some sort of plan? Have you tried to negotiate with it?”
“Yes, we have a plan. And we’re pretty sure it plans to kill us regardless of what we do for it, so we’re trying to delay it while we prepare a response.” Eric paused, then shrugged, “Ariadne is talking with it right now.”
“Well, perhaps someone competent could discus things with this pirate,” the Ambassador said, her voice showed exactly what she thought of an amateur engaged in such discussions.
“If we find someone for that, I’ll let you know,” Eric said as he turned away. He did not trust the woman, especially not with Pixel’s life. The engineer needed help, and fast, and Eric had a low opinion of bureaucrats that normally manned such posts, and an even lower one for this privileged and spoiled woman in particular.
“Mister Striker… Eric, please wait,” she said behind him. The slight catch in her voice stopped him, and when he turned, he saw tears in the corner of her eyes.
Eric told himself not to believe that, but as much as he hated himself for it, he felt immediate sympathy for her. Damn me, but she’s pretty when she’s not trying to be a bitch, he thought.
“Yes?” Come to think of it, she looks beautiful enough when she is a complete bitch.
“Please, this is my life on the line as well,” Alara said. “I know I can be difficult… but this is my job, this is what I do. Allow me to help, please don’t send me back down to that damned cargo hold like a child sent to her room.” Something about the way she stood, the almost fragile set of determination on her face, and the openness that she showed, now of all times penetrated Eric in a way her abrasive arrogance had not.
“Very well,” Eric said. “But we have an injured man in there, our engineer. We need him alive and well. That’s the main priority, no matter what else we agree to, we need to get Pixel out of the engine room alive, understood?”
“Of course,” she nodded.
“Alright, follow me. I’d recommend you keep your bodyguards close in case this goes bad. Your ship suit as well, because we may end up in vacuum soon enough,” Eric said. He led them up the stair well and then down the corridor to where Ariadne waited with Rastar and Anubus.
Lines marked Ariadne’s normally happy face. She looked worried, but a part of Eric wondered how much worry came from the danger to their friends and how much came from how her plan had unraveled. That is… if she has a plan, Eric thought, assuming Crowe and Elena aren’t just paranoid.
“The Ambassador here has offered to negotiate with Ghost,” Eric said. He cocked his head, “You know, might not be a bad idea to bring them in on those drills that we had planned.” Eric paused, “Though,I don’t think even I would think to do a drill to fight two different enemies in charge of the bridge and the engine room at the same time.”
“Yeah, seriously, this is ridiculous,” Ariadne nodded, but the worry on her face did not decrease. “We need to get Pixel out of there, Eric, I don’t know how much longer he can last.” She wiped at her eyes, “I sent my mind out… he’s hurt pretty bad. Ghost punched its claws into his chest—” Ariadne choked back a sob. “He’s unconscious.”
Eric turned to Alara, “You’re on.”
She stepped up to the terminal without a word. Rastar pressed down the call button, and Alara Vibius spoke, “I am Alara Aurelia Caelia Vibius, daughter of Duke Vibius, whom am I speaking with?”
The Wrethe gave its hyena’s laugh, “That’s quite a mouthful. I do so love the Nova Roman fetish with names. I go by Ghost.”
“Well, Mister Ghost, we have something of a standoff,” she said. “You may have realized it, but we have a number of capable marines and troops aboard this ship. You might well destroy it, and possibly kill us, but I doubt that you will get off this ship alive if you do not give us some sign that you bargain in good faith.”
“You think your threats concern me?” Ghost demanded.
“Not threats, observations,” Alara said, her voice cold. “I acknowledge that you must have several capabilities at both combat and tactics to act as a pirate with any level of success. However, we have aboard a contingent of Nova Roma Marines, who have much experience with pirates. Besides that I have auxiliaries with military training from the Confederation and the Colonial Republic. Whatever your talents, you cannot face a unified military force by yourself and survive.”
“So, you are their leader… or their treasure they protect, then?” Ghost said. “How interesting. How much, I wonder, would Nova Roma offer for you in ransom?”
“Nova Roma does not negotiate with kidnappers,” Alara said. “And in truth, your actions are already close enough that I wonder if we should not simply storm the engine room and take our chances.” Eric nodded at that, though he saw Ariadne frown. Eric knew well enough that any nation or organization that showed that they would pay out to kidnappers or terrorists in turn drew those types in the future. If they killed those who sought such blackmail, regardless of the hostages, they often lost fewer people in the long run.
“Very well,” Ghost said. “Yet I fail to see where this conversation has headed. I will not leave here empty handed, and you seem to imply that you will not give me what I want. So why don’t I just activate my program and kill you all?”
“Give us a show of good faith,” Alara said. “Let us get our wounded man out. We will send two men in to get him—”
“One man, unarmed,” Ghost said. “And in return, you will start to move the gold aboard my ship.” The high pitched growl sounded very intent.
Eric spoke, “We can’t get aboard your ship, the turret-”
“I will deactivate some of my security systems by remote, as well as open the cargo compartment. If you attempt to access any other part
of my ship, I will know. I will not allow that. If you attempt to attach anything, beacon, bomb or whatever to my ship, I will know. I will not allow that. Any attempt by the one you send in to retrieve your engineer to attack me or affect the ship’s systems in any way, I will know and I will not allow. Am I understood?”
“Agreed,” Alara said, her voice haughty. “We will send one man down to retrieve him.”
Ariadne turned to Rastar, “Get Run ready. I’ll go in—”
“No, I’ll get him,” Eric said. He didn’t want to go in there unarmed. However, if Ariadne was the rogue psychic, then the last thing he wanted was her anywhere near the Wrethe. She might well warp Ghost over to her side, and then they would really be screwed. Or she might take it in her head to kill the Wrethe, but without complete knowledge of what Ghost had done to their systems, that might well make it worse.
Particularly if Ghost had a dead man switch.
“Okay,” Ariadne gave him a nod. “Be careful and get him quickly. He grows weaker as we speak.” The concern on her face seemed completely legitimate. Everything about her seemed that way, yet Crowe’s insinuations made too much sense.
I hope we are both wrong, he thought. He gave Ariadne a smile that felt wooden, “Don’t worry about Pixel, I’ll get him out of there alive.”
* * *
Eric hurried down the corridors and stopped outside the engine room hatch. Ariadne had said that Pixel lay only a few meters inside the aft access hatch. She had also warned him that Ghost stood nearby and that something about the Wrethe’s suit seemed ‘odd.’
Eric activated the hatch and as it opened, he raised his hands. “I have no weapons. I am here to retrieve my friend.” He glanced over his shoulder. Rastar and Anubus both waited down the corridor. Mandy and Miranda had taken up positions at the forward access hatch. Eric really hoped that they would not have intervene. If they did, Eric would probably need as much attention as Pixel.
“You may enter,” Ghost said. The Wrethe’s strange high pitched rasp held more menace in person. Eric clenched his jaw, suddenly angry. He hated the bastard, and he decided then and there that when they killed the Wrethe, he would get to finish it off.
