by Elin Wyn
“They’re all gone.” Ronan’s rough voice bit the words out. “These are my brothers, dead, but they still won’t let us go. They’re here, waiting for another round of experiments, for the Hunters to try and pry secrets from our bones.”
He moved to another tank, and I followed. “You want a goal? My goal is to kill every Hunter on board this ship, before it starts all over again.”
“What about us?” I whispered.
He ran a hand through his tangle of hair. “I don’t know, I hadn’t planned on you.” His gaze hit me, wild eyes anguished. “I couldn’t have left you there, but I can’t stop. I can’t fail them.”
I left his side to examine the tanks, and their occupants, more closely. I’d never seen technology like it, more fitted for the lab than a cargo hold. The gel immersing the bodies ebbed and flowed slightly. Obviously some sort of circulation system. But why?
I studied the panel at the side of one tank, but the controls were utterly foreign, baffling.
I turned my attention to the men, still, quiet and cold inside the tanks. Circling once, the second time I passed through more slowly, examining them as if they were patients.
All men in the prime of life, tall and broad, obviously muscled, with no visible wounds or cause of death. A third pass, looking for the slight details I could barely manage to make out through the semi-opaque gel. All six seemed to be very close in age.
He’d said brothers. I glanced at Ronan, then back at the bodies. All with varying hair colors and skin tones. Perhaps brothers in arms?
The movement of the gel rocked the head of the body closest to me to the side, and I bit back a little gasp. The hair floated away, revealing a clearly pointed ear tip. I hurried to review the next, and found the hint of a fanged incisor peeking out from his lips.
Besides their exceptional builds, the rest looked completely normal as far as I could tell. But they all bore a certain wild stamp to their features.
It marked Ronan as well.
So many questions, but only one came to my lips.
“Who created you?”
Ronan
Nadira stayed quiet as we headed back from my brothers’ obscene graves. I explained about Doc, the Daedalus, the attack.
“I’ve heard of Doctor Lyall, of course.”
“What?”
Nadira pointed to her chest. “Doctor, remember? She’s a famous geneticist. There are entire procedures named for her. You can’t get through med school, certainly not any advanced courses, without learning about her.”
She frowned. “But I’d been told she retired, passed away decades ago.”
I snorted. “Got tired of playing by the rules. I doubt she ever planned on retiring, wanted to play mad scientist until the end.” My throat burned. “Batty old thing.”
Nadira slipped her hand into mine, and I nearly stumbled in surprise. “I’m sorry. About your brothers, and about her. She can’t have been an easy mother figure, but you sound fond of her.”
“I was. We all were.” She’d never made us feel less because we were made, altered. Instead, she joked about envying us, her ‘perfect boys.’ I shoved the sorrow away into the little box I’d made for it in my mind, stuffed it down, and locked it away.
Vengeance first.
When we approached the hatch leading to my hideaway, Nadira pulled back.
“Can we look for more medicine for Loree? Do we have time?”
I nodded, slowly. This was the long period of the day that the Hunters disappeared. Usually I rested, got ready. But apparently nothing about today was going to be usual.
“What does she need? There’re drugs in the lab.”
“I know.” But she paled, fear flashing in those eyes.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing lightly. “They’re not going to take you again. I promise.”
“I just want to check what’s there. Maybe they have something better for her than what was in storage. And,” she swallowed, “those people. I left them.”
My gut knotted. “I don’t think you can save them, honey.”
Blonde hair flew as she shook her head in denial. “I have to at least try, there has to be something I can do.”
“This is a bad idea.” But I led her to the lab anyway.
I stood guard at the door while she went from patient to patient.
Only five remained.
If we were anywhere else, she’d look like any other doctor doing rounds in a hospital ward. Scrutinizing vitals, assessing for infection, checking progress.
But here, every examination hit her like a physical blow, until finally I stepped in.
“Stop it.” I turned her away from the body of the old woman in the last bed, cold, but not cleared away yet, and pressed her into my chest.
Her breath came in ragged gasps and then quieted. “I have to help them. But there’s nothing I can do. If we were back at the Capitol, or a major world… Void, even at my clinic back on Orem, I might be able to do something.”
She tilted her head up, face pale, but determined. “I’ve never killed before.”
I stroked the pale strands of hair back from her face. “I’ll do it.”
Nadira shook her head. “You have your fight. This is mine.”
One by one she visited them again, this time she spoke to them, random chatter, nonsense really, but it didn’t matter. Every one had been tortured, their bodies abused to the point their minds had long left.
One by one she mixed the vials, injected them, and sat holding their hands or what was left to hold, until they were still.
After the last of the Hunter’s victims had been dosed, she stood, eyes closed, oblivious to the world. I stood by her, waiting.
“This isn’t on you, Nadira. This is the Hunters’ doing.”
She rested her head on my upper arm, shoulders still stiff.
“And you have another patient who needs you.”
“You’re right.” she mumbled. “Loree asked for...”
“Who’s talking about Loree? I need patching up regularly, remember?”
It wasn’t much of a smile, but I’d take anything that pulled the shadows from her eyes.
“Let’s see what else the bastards have here. Darkness, I’ll just take it all.”
She moved over to the permisteel cabinets, started sorting through vials.
“I forgot to look for a commlink, a tablet, anything like that. Have you seen one?”
“Why?”
Nadira moved to another bank of shelves. “Loree wants one.”
Alright. Not exactly an answer, but close enough. “You’re not going to find one here.”
“Why not?”
“I’m pretty sure the Hunters get their orders directly.” She turned, brow wrinkled, and I tried to be clearer. “Sort of internally?”
She gnawed her lip, thinking. “Like a commlink in their heads?”
I stopped, the image of masses of pink writhing flesh under shattered domes flashing before me. “Sort of like that, sure.”
She sagged a little. “I promised Loree I’d look. I know she’s looking forward to using one. And I’m looking forward to finding more about this ship. Where it’s from.” She shot a look full of meaning at me. “Where it’s taking us.”
“Right now it’s not taking us anywhere. Feel the decks. There’s nothing, just the faintest hum. Engines are up only enough to keep us from drifting, I’d bet.”
“Are you sure?”
Where the ship was going hadn’t been a concern of mine, fell outside my self-imposed mission parameters. Still didn’t alter the fact I didn’t hear engines.
“Yup.”
“Then as long as they don’t find us, we have more time to make a plan.”
“I told you…”
“I know. That’s your plan. Nothing says I can’t have my own.”
Couldn’t argue with that. “And for that, you need a tablet?”
“Yes.” Her lips pressed together in a firm line.
/> “Well, come on. There’s more to the ship than the lab.”
With a final look behind her, she followed me into the corridor.
“Is it still safe?”
“Should be.” Damn it. This was full of complications. I should take her back to the safe room, lock her in, and get on with the hunt.
But I’d let too many people down already. Instead, I took her hand, led her further into the dark.
“If I tell you to get back, you do it, right?”
She puffed, not quite a laugh, not quite a snort. “I don’t even know how to throw a punch. I’ll take hiding very seriously.”
“We get out of this, I’m fixing that.”
Ice gripped my heart at my own words. I hadn’t thought of surviving this. Not since the night my brothers died. I rubbed the scar at my throat, grateful she hadn’t noticed my slip.
“Maybe there’s something left in the staterooms?”
“Nothing like what you want. But I know where to find it.”
“How?”
I paused at the lift, then headed for the maintenance stairway. Too close to the time the Hunters emerged from their hidey hole to risk being caught in a small metal box.
“Because I’ve spent days searching for weapons, tools, anything I could use. Saw a commtab, wasn’t any use to me, but I know where to go back for it.”
We went up one flight, then another.
“What happened to all the people on this ship?” Nadira whispered.
“Don’t know.” Didn’t really care, either, but she did. “I’ll get you the tablet, you can find out.”
“Loree could, yes.”
As we approached the hatch leading from the stairs to the deck, I motioned for silence. “Stay close,” I mouthed.
I cracked the door open, stretching every enhanced sense I had to pick up any sound, any movement.
Nothing.
But I still kept my voice down. “It’s clear.”
Nadira wrapped her fingers around mine as we stepped into the echoing corridor.
Not like the posh staterooms, or the utilitarian lab, this deck had been designed for both efficiency and quiet comfort.
The reason lay at the far end of the corridor.
The bridge waited behind a locked door I hadn’t been able to crack. After the first few attempts, I hadn’t really bothered. Unless the Hunters were hiding in there, it didn’t matter.
But what we wanted was the chamber down the hall. I slid open the door, scanned the room quickly and ushered Nadira in before closing the door behind her.
“What was this?”
“Captain’s quarters would be my guess, from the positioning, and the size.” This section of the ship hadn’t been affected by the hull breach, and when I’d searched for weapons, the captain’s personal effects still lay scattered across the surfaces.
Nothing had been moved since my visit.
Unlatching the drawer next to the workspace, I found what we’d been looking for.
I handed the antiquated hardware to Nadira. “Can you use it?”
She took it, tapped the side and it flickered to life. “Not a chance. But I’ll bet Loree can.”
It went dark again. “If we can find a power source.”
Long minutes were wasted searching the room again, until finally she held up a flat, black rectangle. “Think this is it?”
I used the blade of my knife to ease it apart at one of the seams and sniffed the interior. “Should be.”
“Seriously?” She shook her head, the ghost of a smile around her lips.
“Do you want to be sure?” I snapped the case back together. “Irocian power. Should be good for a few hundred more years.”
“Good.” She held it with the tablet, looked around again at the empty room. “It was nice here, once. But I don’t want to come this far from the safe room again.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.” And I didn't plan to think on why the idea bothered me so much.
She headed towards the cabin door. "Let's get back. I'm worried about Loree, we've been gone for too long."
As she stepped out I caught the faint acrid scent of the enemy.
Grabbing her waist, I spun her behind me, then leaned out the partially open door.
A Hunter stood facing the bridge doors, its back to us. So far it gave no sign that we had been detected.
But that wouldn't last. I might be able to cross the corridor, get back to the stairwell and down. Nadira would never make it.
I eased back into the room. My heart beat loud enough in my ears I couldn't believe the Hunter hadn’t already come for us.
“Hide. Quietly.”
Nadira searched my face and, instead of me comforting her, she ran a hand down my cheek, a featherlight touch that hit me with the weight of a hammer.
“You have to come back for me.”
“I will.” Apparently, I couldn't refuse those eyes anything.
I didn't watch to see where she hid. If the Hunter won, it wouldn't matter.
As I crept towards it, I loosened my knife from the sheath, readying for battle.
Erich faded through the wall, matching me step for step as we approached the Hunter.
“I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about us.”
“Of course not,” I growled, striking.
The Hunter spun away and my blow went wide.
I ducked under his lunge and came around with a vicious slash to where its kidneys would have been, if it had any, but it dodged.
The half-healed shoulder injury dragged at me, the cracked ribs made getting enough air impossible.
The Hunter got in two sharp blows to my chest and I staggered back.
“You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing,” Erich commented from the side.
I dived and rolled past the Hunter, slashing at its arm as I sprang to my feet.
It grabbed the blade and for a moment my opponent and I tugged at each other, until finally the metal snapped, sending us both staggering back.
“You're not making any sense.” I snarled at Erich, fighting for balance.
“That's funnier than you realize, Ronan.”
But there wasn't time to figure out what he was talking about.
The Hunter recovered faster than I did. It lunged at me, wrapping its massive gloved hands around my throat.
I should've taken that rest period after all.
Hell, there were a lot of things I should've done or shouldn't have done.
My vision faded and I remembered the twelve of us standing in a pit, the Hunters’ poisons running through our blood until we were crazed, the voice from the screen demanding we fight.
And I was still fighting.
Void, I was tired of fighting.
“There isn’t anyone to fight for anymore,” Erich whispered.
Except for a pair of bright green eyes and a woman strong enough to win her own battles, even if they were different from mine.
She was waiting.
And I’d promised.
With the last dregs of my strength, I brought my hands up between the Hunter's arms and snapped them down, breaking his grip.
It rolled off, stunned. I knelt over it, pinning its shoulders to the deck with my knees as I slammed the hilt of the broken knife into the dome again and again.
With a bone-grating crunch, it shattered, a splinter driving deep into the pink mass within.
When the Hunter finished twitching beneath me, I used the wall to pull myself to my feet, little by little.
The Captain’s quarters were empty.
“It's safe now.” I tried to call for Nadira, but my throat refused to cooperate.
I checked under the work table, not there.
Not under the bunk or in the narrow closet.
Finally I found the thin crack in the wall and opened the partition for the privacy booth.
“No!” With a yell, Nadira sprung at me, swinging what might have once been a closet rod wildly over her head.
&
nbsp; “Hey,” I croaked, and winced when the rod impacted my shoulder. She might not know how to throw a punch, but maybe we could start with staff work. There was a natural talent there.
“Ronan?”
The metal bar fell to the deck with a clatter and I pulled her into my chest with my good arm. “It's all right. You can patch that one up, too, honey. Let's get out of here.”
Halfway down the first flight of stairs, I heard it.
By the second landing, Nadira could hear it, as well.
“What is that?”
“The engines. They’ve started.”
Nadira
When we got back to the room, Loree was awake, pushed up against the headboard of the bunk.
“What's going on?”
I hurried over to the desk, swearing again at the loss of my chrono. It didn't matter. We weren't exactly in a situation that I was going to be able to carefully time dosages. But I should have been back sooner.
“You'll need this.”
She pushed away the injector.
“What I need is to know what’s happening.”
Ronan shook his head at the two of us and sank into the chair behind me, tilting it back until his broad shoulders rested against the wall.
Loree pointed at him with her chin. “He looks like he needs a doctor as much as I do. Why don’t you work on him while you tell me what’s going on, and then we’ll decide if I’m sleeping through it?”
There were times I thought being a doctor would be fabulous if it weren't for the patients. I refused to decide if this was one of them.
Ronan didn't even flinch when I hit him with the injector filled with pain meds.
“Anything in particular I should take a look at?”
“Shoulder seems out,” he grunted.
I inspected it. All in all, he wasn’t in as bad shape as last time. The vicious bruising around his throat looked terrible, but there wasn't much to be done about it. Some rough slashes across his lower arm. Looked like a jagged edge. Broken blade, maybe?
Maybe I should have done a second residency in battlefield medicine.
“We've got some good news and bad news again. Decide what you want first.”
Loree didn't take long to think about it. “Bad news first. Always.”
