Andromeda's Pirate

by Debra Jess

  If Kelra said an intelligent alien killed everyone on board the Majesty of the Stars but let her live for reasons unknown, then from now until such time that the Majesty of the Stars proved otherwise, he would believe her.

  Before his thoughts could get any darker or deeper, the door chimed. Kelra didn't even hear it, so Darvik dissolved it. Johza had a questioning look all over his craggy face, but Darvik motioned him and the puppets inside. Once the grav-resister was loaded, Johza made for the door again but stopped when all their ear jacks chimed at the same time.

  It was Rusa. "We found her. We found the coordinates for the Majesty of the Stars."

  Darvik looked over at Kelra, who shut down her artwork. "I'm finished. Let's go."

  She charged past him, not even heading to the door, but opening the gate inside her quarters. Darvik followed her.

  Once on the bridge, frenetic movement of personnel between stations kept him from thinking too much about Kelra taking her seat right beside him.

  "What do we have?" he demanded.

  "Three confirmed beacon signals, sir. It's better than we hoped for."

  There was no time to waste. "Lock onto the nearest beacon. Once we find that, we'll work on narrowing our field. Get ready to break orbit."

  "Wait."

  Kelra leaned forward, her breath tickling his neck, distracting him from issuing his order over her command.

  "Can we download all the records from the station? I mean everything—logs, records, research notes."

  "Why?" he asked.

  "We don't know what else is in that nebula. The scientists found something too far for the station's limited shuttles to reach. That's what convinced them to make a deal with my parents. I…would appreciate knowing what that something is."

  Darvik caught Ezick's eye. The boy gave a small half nod, half shrug. It was possible, but he didn't think it was worth wasting the time. Still, he had decided to trust her, and there was no turning back now.

  "Do it."

  Ezick began his process for breaking into an unguarded system.

  "When he's done, we'll have to blow up the station," Kelra said.

  Darvik fought the impulse to snap at her. Her words sounded too much like commands, and he didn't appreciate it.

  "I'm not going to waste ammunition on a light show."

  "Not for show. If the Silt makes it this far, we don't want them to be able to access the information we have. Also, the explosion will cover our launch point, making it harder for them to track us."

  She was right, Guardians damn her. It was something he would have thought of himself, if not for his distraction. As if Kelra could sense his agitation, which she probably did, she left the bridge.

  He watched her go, part of him wanting to follow her, but he was needed here until they secured the records and fired the cannons. Gripping the armrests on his seat, Darvik counted down until he could give the order to fire the engines. For the first time, he wondered if the treasure waiting at the end of this was worth it.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  At sublight speed and with no slipstream, it still took a week for Queen of Hearts to travel to the last location of the Majesty of the Stars. Despite the beacons luring them in, Kelra, Rusa, and Ezick crunched numbers together to calculate the sphere of space within which Majesty of the Stars might have drifted. Another two weeks passed, but she didn't mind. After a while, the casual but cautious camaraderie between her and the rest of Darvik's pirates soothed her soul. Yet Darvik remained distant, working with Johza and Mirin on recalibrating all the weapons and prepping the munitions for rapid reload.

  She missed him. It was that simple. Without him in her bed, or her in his, she was too restless to sleep. Her sweat-soaked insomnia overrode every dream she'd ever had in the past two decades. While her dreams were coming true, her nightmares stalked right behind them, her body reacting while her conscience raced to keep up. When she closed her eyes, she wanted to bring Darvik into her dreams, the memory of him touching her, stroking her hair, nipping at her breasts. Then she would fall asleep, and her heated sex dreams of Darvik's perfect body morphed into a red-splotched, scarred mess, like her father's.

  After a few days, Kelra found herself massaging her hand over her heart when she was supposed to be inputting new data into her calculations. The familiar twinge of fear griped tighter for a moment, and she knew she had to do something to stop the dreams-turned-nightmares.

  Another restless night followed by a day of calculations increased her frustration, which grew on the building blocks of near misses. What would she have done to a crew member on board the Silt if she caught them hiding their health problems? First, she'd order them to them to sick bay. Then she'd kick their ass for not going sooner on their own. Well, most everyone on board the Queen of Hearts was exhausted, so there was no one to order her to sick bay or to kick her ass. She would have to go on her own initiative.

  "Welcome back." Nazaniel's bright smile dimmed before she could answer him. "What’s wrong? You look as if you're about to drop into a black hole."

  "I'm already there." She needed a short but deep inhale before continuing. "I…haven't been sleeping well. If you have a sleep aid, I could use one. Nothing heavy-duty. A mild dose should do the trick."

  Nazaniel turned his back to her, reaching into a drawer. "Is Darvik still ignoring you?"

  She should have known Nazaniel would notice their…what? Separation? Estrangement? Very little happened on the Queen of Hearts that its doctor didn't know about.

  "We're keeping our distance," she agreed. "At least for the moment."

  "I see." With a light touch, he attached a small wristlet to her left arm. Once attached, she could sense the adhesive sticking the delivery system on top of one of her veins. "This should do the trick, but I would remove it before you leave the ship. You don't need the distraction of having another gadget following you around. Darvik is going to have every last piece of equipment following your every step as it is."

  "Thanks." Before she could turn away and head toward the compressor window, Nazaniel stopped her with a light touch to the shoulder.

  "You know he wouldn't do this for anyone else."

  "He told you?"

  Nazaniel hesitated. "No. He hasn't talked to me at all, but that's because I know. I know him better than myself. Last I had heard, he was going to refuse your request. Changing his mind…that's not something he does lightly. He doesn't want to lose you, but you put him between an asteroid and a black hole. That's what has him tied up so tight right now. He wants to protect you, but for the first time in his life, he doesn't know how."

  "The rest of you will be safe if something goes wrong over there. You'll be on the Queen of Hearts."

  "And again, he's torn between having to choose between you and the rest of us. Every person on board this ship is here because they want the life. I'm here because my brother needed me. You…you say you just want to find your ship, but you don't want any of the riches, just tokens of your childhood. That isn't enough for the others to understand why you have to be first."

  It was time—time for her to confess to all of the pirates. But how? "It's my ship."

  "Which means nothing out here."

  She knew that. "Is this why everyone has gone out of their way to be nice? They want to suck up to me for information? To figure out what I'm really going to do on the Majesty of the Stars when I'm alone over there?"

  "Not entirely, but yeah. They're confused. We believe you when you say you don't want anything other than holos and toys, but those things wouldn't drive you to join Manitac's navy, captain one of their ships, and become the one damn captain who could match Darvik in close space combat. There's something else, and it's causing friction. They're making contingency plans just in case you go rogue."

  Contingency plans? Her silence…Darvik's silence…it had gone too far. "What sort of conspiracy theories have they concocted?"

  Nazaniel shook his head, knowing he'd said too much al
ready, but he couldn't back out now, not while pinned under her “I'm the captain and you will answer me” gaze.

  "We figure it's possible that you're still working for Manitac. When you go over the Majesty of the Stars and get her fired up again, you’ll have access to the weapons and communication systems. At that point, you’ll signal the Silt and give them our coordinates. The Silt arrives, and the Queen of Hearts is caught between the Silt and the Majesty. Two ships versus one and either Darvik surrenders, or he doesn’t."

  Wow. A conspiracy theory run amuck. "Well, that's quite brilliant, and yeah, I would have done that if I were still working for Manitac. I'm not, though, and yes, there's another reason that I'm going through the hatch first. Darvik knows why."

  "Which is the only reason why no one has dragged you into the black room. They trust Darvik, but they are beginning to wonder if his judgment is still sound. We all can sense that you’re not just an affair to him. You mean more, and yes, I personally would like to see him have what our parents had, but this whole situation has fueled our doubts."

  "These doubts are going get all of you killed. If someone hesitates because they think I've compromised Darvik—"

  "You have to tell us what to expect. We have to know why you're going through the hatch first."

  Kelra closed her eyes against the image of Rusa, Johza, Ezick, Mirin, and Nazaniel…especially Nazaniel, rolling their eyes in disbelief over her tales of killer aliens. It shouldn't have bothered as much as it did. The humiliation she felt as a child hurt more than she'd ever admit, but it also fueled her rage. She withstood the emotional hole created by the disbelieving doctors of her childhood, and she'd withstand it now. Learning how to control her emotions hadn't made the memories hurt less, but it did force her to find her inner power, the side of her that didn't care what anyone else had thought about her motivation. She swore she would show them, and she had, but this part of the journey she had to complete on her own.

  Nazaniel was right, though. Belief or not, the other pirates had a right to know what she’d told Darvik so they could keep their faith in their captain.

  "I'll make this right."

  Nazaniel nodded. "I hope so, for all our sakes."

  Once again Kelra turned to leave, but again Nazaniel called to her before she stepped through the compression gate.

  "I want you to find what you're looking for, Kelra. I hope you and Darvik can make this work."

  It was nice to know she had his support, though that might change if he knew why. There was no hope for it. She would tell the truth, and Darvik will still let her onto the Majesty of the Stars first and alone.

  Before she confessed, she had another situation she had to handle. Stepping out of the window brought her to the landing bay. The shuttle she would use to transfer to the Majesty of the Stars sat there, decontaminated and fueled, ready to fly at a moment’s notice. Inside, she found the fire douse and other equipment stacked and secured. What she needed, however, was inside the normal weapons compartment embedded closer to the passenger area. Lucky for her, Darvik hadn't sealed the weapons with an encrypted lock. Inside there were four handguns. She pulled one out, holding it to check the weight. It already had the plasma packs installed.

  Retreating from the shuttle, she had to pause as three puppets crossed her path. They headed toward the compression gate and she followed them. Three other puppets stepped out of the window before her set got there. They must be changing shifts.

  Puppets could learn simple tasks, and most didn't need a lot of instruction. She followed the retreating set into the window and appeared in the corridor near Mayla's room. A quiet knock led to the door dissolving before she'd lowered her hand.

  Mayla stood there, but said nothing.

  "May I come in?"

  Mayla stepped away so Kelra could enter. "Remember I promised you I would visit?"

  The other woman nodded, but her eyes were still blank.

  "Good. I'm keeping that promise. How are you feeling?"

  "I am well."

  "Are you eating enough?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you require anything?"

  "No."

  "Good. We're still trying to get you new clothes. The ones you are wearing now are worn and should be replaced."

  "Thank you."

  Kelra sat on the edge of the bed, so Mayla would know she could sit down too. "Tell me, when the alarms on this ship sound, what do you do?"

  "Leave my work, retreat here, turn off the compression gate, and lock my door."

  Those instructions were more complex than they sounded. "Have you done this?"

  "Yes."

  From her pocket, Kelra pulled out the plasma handgun. "Do you know what this is?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you know how to use one?"

  "No."

  "Have you ever seen one used?"

  "Yes."

  "I would like to show you how to use it. Someday, you may need to defend yourself, or the other—" She almost said puppets, but she suspected no one had ever called Mayla a puppet to her face. "—people you work with."

  Using her new ear jack, Kelra flicked through a series of images until she found what she needed. "Do you see this uniform?"

  "Yes."

  "It's all gray. If the alarms sound, and you see people wearing this uniform, you shoot only them, not members of the crew of this ship, understand? Only gray uniforms."

  "Yes."

  "It's important that you do. Now, let's get started. You have a lot to learn."

  For two hours, she reviewed the basics of how to shoot the laser firing handgun. Of course, in the cramped quarters where Mayla lived, she didn't have a lot of room. But after a bit of practice with it in stun mode, Mayla soon had the skill to hit several makeshift targets Kelra projected on the wall. Not dead center, but enough to put a person on the floor.

  It was the best she could do for Mayla and the others. If the Silt found them, and if they managed to board the Queen of Hearts, Darvik and the pirates might choose death over capture, except Ezick. He would fight to the bitter end to save his sister. Arming Mayla was a long shot, but it was better than nothing. And even though she was just a ’pet now, she was still a person underneath what Manitac had done to her. Kelra couldn’t stand the idea of her getting captured and treated like cattle.

  "One more thing," Kelra said before rolling down her sleeves. "If the alarms blare, use the gun to destroy the compression gate. Don't bother locking it. Shoot the lock so it can’t open at all, just like you did the targets."

  "I understand."

  Kelra had to wonder if Mayla truly did, but she couldn't worry about things she couldn't control. Not now, based on a theoretical boarding. Darvik spent two years outwitting her, and she was the best strategist Manitac had to offer. Whoever this Silt guy was, he'd have to have an armada to subdue the Queen of Hearts with Darvik Hart at the helm. Manitac wouldn't waste the resources on one pesky pirate.

  Checking the time, she realized how close to dinner it was. "Mayla, do you need to go to the kitchen now?"

  "Yes."

  "Okay, let's find a place to store the gun, and then we'll go to the kitchen together."

  The safest place for the gun was in the top dresser draw, under some underclothes. The Z-nips were there as well, but she didn’t have time bring them back to her room. Best to leave them here. Mayla wouldn’t use them without orders.

  Exiting the compression gate into the wardroom, Kelra made her way to the table filled with hungry pirates. As usual, Nazaniel pushed her chair back so she could sit. His eyes said more than his welcome. She had to bring up the topic of the alien, but she'd wait until the meal was served, when the puppets would be in the kitchen.

  Once Mayla set the plate before her, Kelra picked at her food, pretending to eat, but in fact, her appetite failed her. Looking around the table, the others ate as if they had no concerns, about her or the mission. One glance at Nazaniel, though, said more than any word. He stared at his p
late , but she knew he was watching and waiting to see what she would do.

  To her right, Darvik kept his eyes lowered, not acknowledging her at all. She had to tell them now. Holding back information any longer would only create more problems once she was on board the Majesty of the Stars. In her heart, she'd been relieved when Darvik imposed his conditions. Never, in all her years of planning this mission, had she considered having anyone at her back. Inclusiveness? Acceptance? Not even on board the Silt had she trusted any of her fellow officers completely. Doing so risked a metaphorical knife in her back.

  Unlike her old crew, she trusted this crew, but not only because Darvik trusted them. Right now at this moment, on the eve of her stepping onto a ship with a creature that might kill her, it might be her only chance of giving and accepting trust. And if she were being honest with herself, it was more than that. These people weren’t just a crew—they were a tight-knit family unit that would go down fighting for one another. They deserved to know the truth so they would be safe. And belonging to something like that, trusting people like that and receiving it in return had to be amazing.

  She wanted to know what that felt like before she died.

  One last sip of billibloom juice for courage, and then she set the glass down harder than necessary, so all six heads turned toward her.

  "I have a confession to make." She paused to make sure everyone was listening. Darvik put down his 'fresher while Nazaniel twisted in his seat to face her. "When I first came on board, I told you what you wanted to hear about this quest to find the Majesty of the Stars. To an extent, I told you the truth, but I didn't tell you everything. I couldn't tell you because…well, I was embarrassed. Whenever I've spoken to people before now, they didn't believe what I told them. If any of my doctors or Guardians had believed me, I might not be here today. But they didn't believe, and here I am, on the verge of finding the playground of my childhood."

  Ezick narrowed his eyes, not trying to hide his suspicions. The aggressive postures of the other three confirmed what Darvik had said—they'd been talking about her and her possible ulterior motives. They were ready to attack for any perceived betrayal, and she deserved it.