Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  The files the ship referenced were not on the public web. Where she dredged them up from, Dani didn’t want to guess.

  “That’s probably old information,” she lied.

  She could remember Stugg when he’d first joined her crew: mooneyed, moronic and barely thirteen. Then she’d let him work for the Mandalls for a year. Ever since, he couldn’t look at her boots without turning bright red.

  “I only know what the files say. You of all people should understand that trust is gained.”

  The implications had Dani’s jaw clamped tightly closed. She glared into the tangle of pipes that hid Stugg from view and tried not to think about her past. She couldn’t know the truth. Dani had made sure of that.

  Stugg pushed himself backwards out of the compartment a disgusted grimace on his face. He glanced at Dani, sheet white and covered in a thick beading of sweat.

  “Well?” She asked. The boy was afraid of rats, snakes and flying insects… she hoped none of those were what had him on the verge of reviewing his last meal. Though a swarm of bloodflies would love the engine room’s humidity.

  He held up a long tefla-cord. “I found this…banded around a red piece of cloth.”

  Crouching down, she checked the space. A vibrant scarlet lump lay against the dark deck plating.

  Stugg pulled the cord hand over fist, dragging the bundle from the crawlspace. With each tug forward, she could see its shape more clearly and even before the mummified face came into view she knew it was a human body.

  Dani let out a long groan as she pinched the bridge of her nose. The tattoo curving along the underside of his chin was too familiar for her to ignore.

  This situation was only going to get worse. If the Mandalls found out that she had Osiris and one of their dead brothers…. “Shit.”

  No amount of pleading would save her.

  “I wonder who he was,” Stugg said, his voice wavering.

  The remains of the man were bound tightly by the tefla-cord. The discoloration and age of the bag and body made it clear he had died in the bag and in Obie’s bowels.

  “Jarrod Mandall was part of my crew fifteen years ago. After what he did to the captain, I felt that suffocating him in his sleep was not too kind a death for him.”

  Tingling claws scraped beneath her skin and she blew out the breath threatening to choke her. They only had one option.

  “We’re jettisoning the body. Stugg, buzz Kiori and have her help you get it into one of the missile bays.”

  Stugg flinched, looking from her to the body. “Shouldn’t we ask Frank or Theo what they want—”

  “Are you disobeying a direct order?”

  Stugg blinked, and nodded jerkily as he moved to pull the body away. “What are you going to do?”

  “The ship and I are going to have a discussion in private.”

  Dani walked to the lift doors and made a sharp right. She still wasn’t ready to deal with an enclosed space alone.

  Climbing the ladderway to deck three, with her jaw clenched, she said nothing until she was half way down the corridor.

  “You need to tell me right now, are there any more surprises waiting for me? The Captain I understand. What else do I need to know about before my engineer is pulling it out of a crevice behind your parts?”

  As she finished her questions, she entered what had been the officer’s meeting room. She sat at the long metal table and kicked her feet up, looking expectantly at the ceiling for her answer.

  “If all my sensors are functioning properly, no. There is nothing else you need to be aware of…”

  Danielle was just about to let out a sigh of relief when the ship continued.

  “Except the tracking beacon the junkyard owner placed on my hull. I cannot deactivate it on my own. I will need one of your crew to go out and remove it.”

  “Excuse me? When were you going to tell me about that? Before or after someone showed up and took you back?!” Shes said he words through clenched teeth. This was—by far and away—the most annoying job she’d ever taken on.

  “I would have mentioned it sooner. You’ve given me little chance. In the past, it has taken them an average of two point seven three four days to retrieve me from a buyer. It seems to be a strategy predicated on relieving them of their cargo as well as their lives.”

  Danielle felt herself blanch. She hadn’t been the first to get the Breaker off the ground. “We’ll get to that as soon as we can.” She sighed, trying to expel her irritation. “Why didn’t you warn the others?”

  “I did not believe them capable of carrying out the final plan.”

  Another secret the ship was keeping…. “What plan is that?

  “That is classified. If Captain Bowlin clears you for access to the Abolitionist’s plans, that is his prerogative.”

  “Has anyone ever told you you’re a tease, Oath Breaker?” Dani pressed her finger to the bridge of her nose, trying to rub away the tension headache gathering therein.

  Oath Breaker didn’t respond right away… the gentle buzz of her open comm line filling the air.

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Speaking of that… what’s with the pockets of missing data in your memory files?”

  “They’re not missing.”

  “Let me guess, they’re classified too.” She stood from her chair and began pacing the room. “Listen. I know you don’t see me as your captain, but until Osiris gets past the fun bits of healing from cryo, someone is going to need to be in charge and for right now, that needs to be me…”

  “Danielle.”

  “… If you’re not willing to deal with that I can find a way to take you out of the picture. I don’t want to do that but if I have to—”

  “Danielle.”

  “What!” She was tired of the games.

  “The Captain requests your presence in the medbay.”

  *

  Osiris stood in the middle of the room, rubbing the back of his hand where the IV had been.

  Dani stopped just inside the hatch and glared at him. “You know how I can tell you were a captain? You don’t take orders well.”

  José smiled as he popped out of the medic’s office. “I told him he could take it out, Danielle. Don’t get so huffy, I remember a time when you couldn’t get to sleep at night because Si was coming in the next day. Now you’re all business. I miss the old days.”

  She sent a look his way and hoped he would understand he needed to stop. “We all do, but they’re not coming back.”

  José’s face fell and he looked to one of the beds, avoiding her eyes. “I didn’t mean—”

  She felt like crap for it, but soothing his bruised feelings would have to wait. She turned to Osiris. “You wanted to talk to me?”

  “It’s about the squeaker.”

  She snorted an irritated laugh and looked up to the ceiling. “You told him before me, nice. How is he supposed to take care of it? I’d reprogram you if you had the chance.”

  Si stepped forward and quickly whispered, “Seriously, don’t piss her off. Threatening her isn’t something you want to do.” His gaze darted to José, and he said, “I think Dani and I need to have a word, captain to captain.”

  He gave them both a wide smile. “Sure thing, but don’t forget we’ve got a poker game that’s been on pause way too long. It’s time we get back to that.”

  “Just as soon as we get some things sorted out.”

  “Go check on your quarters again. If you don’t like something, give her hell.” Dani nodded to the ceiling, and watched as her uncle left. “Your ship is going to drive me crazy. I think we need to get some things straight about who’s in charge here.”

  Si’s jaw stiffened. “Right, that would be me.”

  “N—”

  “Dani, you’ve been on this ship for a handful of hours, I spent over a year on her before I was forced into cryo. I know some of her… quirks a little better than you. One of those things is that Obie likes to be treated like a person, but unlike
a person, she doesn’t understand sarcasm and she can hear everything you say. Everything.” He gave her a look weighted with warning.

  “My crew is not going to follow you.”

  “I don’t care if they call you captain. I don’t care if all the commands come through you. Consider me a silent admiral, but you need to remember: Obie’s the one who’s really in charge here.”

  “Fine. Right now, I have to go scrape a bug off the side of the ship. Do I need to ask your permission to do that?”

  “No.” Si gave her a strangely conspiratorial look. “But I’m coming with you.”

  “What?” The last thing she needed was to be out in the void with a man she didn’t trust.

  “I know the exterior of the ship better than anyone, I’ve done over fifty walks on her hull. If anyone can get you to the squeaker and back in one piece, it’s me.”

  “I’ve done more than enough space time to be able to handle it on my own.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

  “Yella, please, let me come with you.”

  The nickname sent prickles across her skin. “You’re making my day all kinds of complicated, you know. My employer would have wanted me to shoot your cryonic ass full of holes.”

  “But you didn’t.” A smile pulled at his still bruised and swollen cheek. “Are you sympathetic?”

  She flinched away. It was a question Pääom officials asked nearly daily during the conflict. She took two measured breaths trying to keep the bad memories at bay. They washed over her anyway. Grabbing hold of the table beside her, she fought. She failed.

  One boy from her class, Jeba, had said yes. A class clown to the end, the official looked him straight in the eyes and gave him a second chance.

  His black gloves had gripped the club secured on his belt. “I don’t think you heard me, Boy. Are you sympathetic?”

  “Yes, Official,” Jeba had said, turning to wink at her.

  Fifth in their pre-med class, and still stupid enough to die.

  Danielle stood behind him, a column of fear, as the official frowned down at him and motioned with two black-gloved fingers for a soldier to take Jeba away.

  Joking or not, Jeba never returned. She found out what happened to him six years later. It had been worse than anything she’d been able to imagine.

  Si touched her shoulder and she jerked away.

  The memory faded, leaving her with nothing more than the shivering dread and the sickly feeling in her stomach. She looked away from Osiris, stricken with that same fear—as though martial law was still in place. “That’s a question I have not been asked in years.”

  “And that’s not an answer,” he said, seemingly oblivious to her momentary panic.

  “Are you an official? If I say yes will you drag me away to the camps? Or will you blot me from existence yourself? That question should be burned from our language. It should never be asked again, and if I could, I would find any official who has ever uttered those words and I would kill them myself.”

  He stared at her, his passive expression unreadable.

  She turned away, looking to the cabinet behind him. There were pills inside that would make the memories stay away…. Pills. Stronger than the ones she’d taken earlier.

  Biting her tongue, she ignored that urge. “What is your plan now, Si? Are you going to take over the ship, try to win a war that ended a decade ago? Obie’s hinted at a Final Plan, but won’t tell me what it is.”

  “Those plans are best saved for another time. Let’s work on making sure no one tries to come take Obie away from us.”

  Something in the way he said it made Dani wonder if Si wouldn’t be happier if they let themselves be caught.

  Dani sighed and turned her head toward the ceiling as she asked, “Where did Kiori put the EVA suits, Obie?”

  “They have been stored in the exigency room for the time being.”

  “Well, that’s the perfect place for them, but where is it?”

  Si placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke to Obie though he still looked at her. “Don’t bother with the schematics, I’ll show her the way.”

  Shrugging him off, she moved to the medbay’s comm system and gave him an irritated glare. “Keep quiet and no one will be the wiser.”

  Pressing the sequence to call the bridge, she said. “Willy, work with Gill. Get us stopped. I’m heading out for a quick hull walk.”

  “Everything alright?”

  “Nothing to be alarmed about. I’m just checking into something.”

  Cutting the line, Dani cued the all call and spoke quickly. “Break time, kiddos. Your bunk assignment is in the computers. Look them up, find your new temporary quarters and stow your gear. Once you’re done, get back to your posts and be ready to depart whenever the time comes. We’ve got a little further to go before you get any real time off.”

  She let go of the button on the wall, imagining the grumbles that echoed about the bulkheads below her. Si took her hand and she shied away from it. Giving him a look she hoped spelled out that she wasn’t the woman he’d left behind.

  The exigency room was compact. One wall lined with glass cases occupied by the puffy suits the rebels preferred a decade and a half ago. Directly in front of her, the interior hatch of the decompression chamber sat dormant, its interior light inactive. Something about the silence of the compartment ran a shiver down her spine.

  Pulling her EVA suit from the oversized bag, she quickly checked the seals.

  “What are you doing?” Osiris pulled her arm away from the suit, letting it sag to the ground like a deflated husk.

  Danielle looked to the rack of marshmallow men suits hanging in their cases along the back wall. “I’m not going to use one of those. Who knows what fifteen years of rotting away on this deck has done to them?”

  “That suit doesn’t look substantial enough to keep out the hard vacuum.”

  “I’ve never had a problem with it before. Lucky for you, you’re going to have to risk it in that, because no one on this ship is tall enough for us to have ever considered getting one that might remotely fit you.” She picked the suit back up and adjusted the pressure settings. “Make sure that thing is in working order. If you find a way to die out there, I’ve still got to deal with Oath Breaker. We both know she’d be madder than hell if I let something happen to you.”

  He picked up the marshmallowlike suit and hooked it into an old style pressure measure. “Listen, I know you’re pissed off that I had to wake up. I’m not trying to be this much of a burden.”

  Dani deflated and wet her lips, trying to decide just how to say what she wanted to say.

  “Si, people want you dead. They’ll want me dead the second they find out I’m helping you. I need to keep you underground as long as possible.”

  “I am not the sort of man who hides from an enemy.” He said it through gritted teeth and a tight smile.

  “What do you call fifteen years of cryo?” She would not be the first to back down.

  His body went rigid and he turned to her slowly, his voice low and forceful when she said, “I was placed in that meat locker under duress. Why do you think I was clothed? You of all people should know that’s not standard procedure.”

  She really didn’t care how he got into that mess; all she cared about was getting out of their current predicament.

  “Listen. I’m going to do my best to do my job and keep you alive at the same time. That’s why I haven’t made you public knowledge among the crew. That’s why I’m letting you have this modicum of authority. I don’t want to shove you back in cryo, and I’m pretty sure your ship won’t let me.” She unclenched her fists. “Frankly, I’m not sure how she let someone put you in there in the first place.

  “Fact of the matter is, you’re coming with me because I don’t think letting you out of my sight is a good idea right now. As for the man who put you in cryo, he’s been dead a long time. Obie suffocated him in the engine room. Stugg found him about an hour ago. If we didn’t have a teenag
er on the crew, we might never have gotten him out—though Goo might have been able to crawl in there too.”

  He was silent as he watched her.

  She pulled off her boots and set them to the side.

  “Let’s make a deal, shall we?” He said as she pulled her shirt over her head.

  He swallowed and seemed to lose his train of thought as she pulled off her pants—the Pääom had disabused her of any notions that a person’s body was sacred or private. Sliding into the legs of the EVA suit, she took advantage of his startled pause. “What sort of deal is that? I do as you say, or you get Oath Breaker to kill me?”

  “Not quite. I’ll save that one for later. For now, my thoughts were more along the line of: I accept that you’re genuinely trying to help and you stop being so… hissy.”

  She couldn’t stop the snort that came then. “I am not being hissy. There is only one person in my crew who throws hissy fits, and if you tell him that he will try to take your head off with a baseball bat.”

  “Well, maybe the definition has changed since I hit the deep freeze.” He moved to her side and looked down to the tab at the bottom of her suit’s opening, zipping the seal, he said, “I am not trying to trick you. Soon enough you’ll see, I’m trying to help. And Obie is not the enemy.”

  Something in the dark flecks of his brown eyes worried her.

  “Please tell me you’re not going to kiss me again are you?” She said it as she turned away, blinking. “Fine, you take point so I know you don’t have anything sketchy planned.”

  “I strongly advise against this plan. You are not fully recovered from stasis.”

  “Then you should have told Yella about the squeaker before you defrosted me.” He said it under his breath, almost a sigh.

  There was a groaning of twisted metal, but Oath Breaker—it seemed—took Si’s word as a command from God. She waited, pressing her fingers further into her gloves. He had his black button up uniform shirt off and she looked away, biting her tongue as her mind went to a past she didn’t want to remember.

  She sat on the bench, adjusting the clips and straps on the suit’s boots.