Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  “Ric, she’s not.” Si held his hands out in front of him, a pleading look on his face.

  “I know what this is, Cap. She’s an imposter, she has to be. She fits what I think your Yella might have grown up to look like, but it can’t be her. Someone’s using your past to get to you.” He swung back to her. “Hey, not a step further.”

  Dani stopped where she was, crossing her hands over her chest and turning her focus to Si. He was going to have to get them out of this. She was out of long speeches.

  “Listen to me, Ric. There are some things that are seriously wrong right now. You killing off Yella’s crew isn’t going to help any of them.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t need to hack the snake to pieces, I just need to chop off its head.”

  The gun rose and fired as Dani blinked. She heard the sickening crunch of bone as Osiris wrenched Ric’s hand away. The gun clattered to the floor. Heat scorched through her side as the laser etched its way across her ribs.

  She sank to the floor, her left hand instinctively going to the wound. Si held Quince’s knife at Ric’s throat as Kiori busted through the doors, her gun, comically large on her small frame, held directly in line with Richter’s head.

  Si pulled the knife away, moving to help Dani back to her feet.

  “I’m okay,” she said, as he moved to pick her up.

  She saw a slow movement behind Si as Richter, cradling his broken arm loosely, moved for the gun laying on the floor a foot behind Si.

  “Tempt me.” Kiori said, her gun pressing against the base of Richter’s skull as his eyes traveled back, trying to see the person holding the gun to his head.

  “Danielle Cholla. It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.” His eyes went back to the key. “I never expected Dan’s little girl to turn into a pawn for the Mandalls.”

  “Watch what you say, Richter. You may have brain damage because of me, but you were never stupid. Don’t start now.”

  “Come on, ‘Siris. It’s obvious you crossed over…. Obie was right. Why not just shoot me now? If you’re the Pääom’s new lapdog, why not slice a laser through my brain and be done with me?”

  Kiori’s gun was in Richter’s throat in a flash, “I could.”

  “Kiori, no! Put him in the brig.” Dani had seen enough death.

  Quince kicked one of the loose chairs fists clenched at her side and a death glare trained on Ric. “I want him dead, Cholla.”

  Dani stared her down. “He’s going to sit in the brig. He’s going to suffer through coming out of cryo without stims or sedatives. He’s going to go through hell, then we’re going to decide what happens to him.”

  “At least set the break, Dani.”

  She set a cold glare toward Si. He had no place to undermine her authority. Not here. Not now.

  “Kiori, I want you to put him in the brig and you stay with him. Quince, you don’t go near him. In fact, you’re to go to your quarters.” Dani turned back to her weapon’s specialist. “If she so much as opens the brig hatch, shoot her. Put a bullet someplace that’ll hurt like hell, but won’t kill her.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to see that Mari is taken to the infirmary—”

  “No.” Dani cut her off. “It’s not ‘all the same to me.’ Get to your quarters and stay there until I come for you.”

  Kiori pressed the gun further into Richter’s ribs, shoving him toward the door. Quince watched them go, her teeth grating audibly, before storming off in the opposite direction. Waiting for them to leave, Dani sucked in a hard breath, and as the hatch slammed shut behind Quince, she sank to the bench, a hand gripping the metal table tightly.

  “Fucking hell that hurts.”

  Si stood at her side, hand on her shoulder. “Come on, time to be macho is over. We need to get you and Mari down to the infirmary.”

  “Yeah, let me stop at the comm panel first.”

  Si helped her over to the comm panel and she pressed in the connection to the bridge. “Mopeña, I’m pretty sure this bucket can fly herself for a while. You and Lyz get down here to the kitchen. I need you to bring Mariposa to the medbay.”

  “Dani, what’s going on?” Lyz asked, her small voice echoing in the vastness of the mess.

  “I don’t think I could explain it even if I was sure.” She cut the comm and let Osiris pull her through the hatch, down the corridor and into the lift.

  “What did you say about them taking orders? I guess he did. Just not from you.” she rambled, pressing her hand to her side and wincing.

  “I really thought they would, Yella. I’m so sorry.”

  She sucked in a pained breath as he half-carried her into the med bay. “We’re spending way too much time in here, if you ask me.”

  “No arguments there.”

  He set her down and she dug through a drawer, pulling out a long gauze pad. Her eyes fell on the skin welder hanging on the wall next to the bed Richter had been in. Her day was going to get worse before it got better.

  “Here,” Osiris said as he pressed a cold bottle into her hand.

  She spun it around in her hand, reading the small white label slowly as black spots clouded her vision. “I can’t take this.” She set it on the table in front of her and tried to breathe through the pain.

  The hatch swung open and a mop of bright red hair bounded in, Mopeña behind her carried Mariposa, depositing her on a cot. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine, help me get this shirt off.”

  Lyz moved the shirt over her head slowly, the fabric tugging as it separated from the already clotting blood. She winced at the pain, but the way her muscles clenched only made it worse.

  Angling a mirror, Dani saw the full length of the wound, and let out a defeated sigh, “Grab me the skin welder, it’s too long to risk leaving it to a bandage.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. Hurry up before I change my mind.”

  Si stepped in front of her and she put her hand on his hip to hold herself up as she pulled out the bottle of antiseptic and moved to clean the wound. She bit down as the stinging tore through her side. It felt like vicious spiders were gnawing at the insides of her rib bones.

  He smoothed the hair back from her face. “Dani, you need to take something, that welder hurts like a bitch.”

  She smiled through a grimace. “I’ve seen your scars, you don’t need to tell me how you know that. I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with a welder, too. I know how bad it’s going to be.”

  “Then please. Take this, or let me find something else.”

  She shook her head, closing her eyes against the flood of pain that caused.

  “Dani…?” Lyz glared at her. “Why can’t you take it?”

  “You know why. I don’t need a scolding, I need you to get over the fact that I did it again and recognize that I needed to be something other than a puddle on the deck plating.”

  Lyz opened her mouth and shut it again before throwing her hands in the air. “Fine, I’ll leave off my normal schpiel as long as you acknowledge that you’ve heard it before.”

  “Yeah, yeah, addictive, habit forming… I’ll turn into an ugly green fly.”

  “Yella….”

  “I know, Si. It’s going to feel like someone’s got an actual welding torch to my side. I get that. It’s why I can’t do it—if it was just stitches, I’d be fine on my own—right now, I need one of you to take care of this.”

  She watched Si blanch, looking quickly to Lyz.

  “Don’t worry. I got it. You can have your hand broken.” Lyz gave them both a look that told Dani she was seconds from a patented eye roll and sigh combo. “Lie down.”

  Lying down on her uninjured side, Dani took a deep breath, closing her eyes as Si took her hand and she didn’t have the energy to pull away. “She’s probably right you know, you can grab me one of the stress balls they have in the back cupboard.”

  “You’re not going to break my hand.” His fingers trailed along her collarbone and she ope
ned her eyes.

  “Si—”

  Before she could finish her thought her ribcage lit on fire. A scream ripped from her throat, her hand clenched around his… and then darkness.

  NINE

  Si watched as Adilyn’s eyes fluttered open, she blinked at him, her expression full of a confusion he remembered unfortunately well. He sincerely hoped she wasn’t going to kiss him.

  “I had the weirdest dream, Si.” Her eyes crossed and focused on him, a smile spreading across her lips as she said it.

  Si forced a smile of his own. “Chances are it wasn’t a dream.”

  “I dunno, if it was real, you wouldn’t still be dressed.” Her fingers ran along the sleeve of his shirt.

  “I don’t think the system flush has fully taken hold yet.” He stood, trying to make the movement seem less stiff, the real Adi would be back soon and he knew it was better for both of them if he kept his distance. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “That doesn’t feel like some sort of a dream?” She paused, blinking again. “Rhoda and I were playing Four Squares in the… mess. No, Rhoda was in the hold… when. I remember Jarrod. He forced me into one of the cryo tubes on deck ten… the ones we were supposed to use if we wound up with any political prisoners….”

  He couldn’t think of a gentle way to break the news, so he told her the truth. “It’s about fifteen years later.”

  Her smile faded and her mouth opened gently, it closed again when she swallowed, her gaze flickering to her hands. “Fifteen?”

  “Yeah, and I’ve got more bad news. The War’s over.”

  “That doesn’t sound like bad news.” She smiled weakly, her eyes unfocused as she looked to something beyond the ceiling.

  “We lost.”

  He watched her brow furrow at the news.

  “Then how are we still afloat?”

  “We were found by the right people.” He let his eyes wander over Mari’s sleeping form to the bed on the far side of the infirmary where Yella slept, still unconscious from her encounter with the skin welder. Lyz had kindly run to his cabin to fetch her a new shirt. “I think Obie knew she’d be our best chance.”

  She followed his gaze and her mouth screwed into a pucker as she leaned back against her pillows and squeezed her eyes shut. “I think I’d rather go back to my dream….” As she said it, a worried look crossed her face, “Richter? He was in the tube already. Is he okay? Did Mandall really sell us all out?”

  “Your second question has too long of an answer to get into now, besides hearing it might make you pull a Paddock.”

  “A what?” She glared at him and for a moment, he thought she would hit him – it had become the general direction of their interactions in the months before they’d undergone the deep freeze.

  “Never mind…. New slang. I’ve felt left out too long, so welcome to the club.” He waved away the words as though they never existed. “Richter isn’t doing well…. Part of that’s his own damn fault, part of its mine.”

  “What’s going on? Where is he?” Her head turned quickly to the other beds in the infirmary.

  It didn’t escape his notice that her eyes stopped on Yella again, and didn’t move from the bed in which she lay until he started speaking. “He’s in the brig. He got some crazy notion that two of her crew were out to sell me back to the remaining Mandall brothers.”

  “How many dead?”

  He tried not to laugh, Adi knew Ric just as well as he did. It would have been his first question in her position. “None from that incident, one other unrelated.”

  The lie slipped through his teeth a little too easily. If he was honest, every death on this ship was related… they all traced back to Obie. “He tried to take our rescuer out too, had to break his arm. In the end, she got by with a gash that needed the skin welder.”

  “Then she was lucky.” Adi turned back to look at Dani. “How long have you been defrosted?”

  “A little over a day, I think.”

  Adi nodded as if that fit into her thoughts well. Her mouth turned down in a sour frown.

  As she stared at him, he tried to remember why he’d had her assigned to the Oath Breaker, and wondered if his life would be easier right now if it had been some other engineer in his medbay. The answer to the last question he knew was an unequivocal yes, but no one knew Obie’s engines like Adi – she’d designed them.

  “When she wakes up, I’ll have her make sure you’re okay, then I’ll see about getting you out of here and back to your old bunk.”

  “Sure you don’t want to put me in the brig too?” Adi asked.

  “Planning on killing someone?”

  Her eyes slid from him to Yella. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Yella’s done nothing to deserve your wrath.”

  “Yella? You’re on a nickname basis already?” She snickered, and then scowled as she put the puzzle pieces together. “Oh my Go— Si? That’s not your Yella.”

  “Dan’s dead.” He turned to her and let his face collapse into the hollow expression. “They all are. As of last night, Yella is the last of her entire family. I intend to keep her alive. José is in cold storage on the other side of that wall.”

  Adi’s features softened, but Si wasn’t convinced of her sincerity. “Whatever you say, Si. I will never trust a woman who isn’t afraid of white pants.” Si turned back, he hadn’t noticed.

  As she said it, Lyz stepped from the back room,sniffling and pulling gloves from her hands and tossing them in the nearby trash receptacle. “I don’t care if Dani threatens to kill you. She cannot see his body, am I clea—” She stopped, her wet eyes locked on Adi. “Oh, you’re up.”

  “I appear to be,” Adi said, glancing pointedly at Lyz’ hair and then at the tattoos on her arms.

  “Good. We’ll need another pair of hands since your boy decided to shoot our cook.”

  “Tough bag, that one. I know how to use the rehydrator and the microwave.”

  Lyz stared at her, her face an emotionless void that did not make sense with her wild hair and neon lipstick. “That’s encouraging,” she said flatly and turned to Si. “I’m going to go see if I can wake her up, I found something topical that should help with the pain…” Her eyes shifted to Adi as though she wanted to say something, but didn’t feel comfortable with it around his unfrozen ex-wife.

  Instead of continuing, she turned and walked to the other side of the room.

  “My, my, were we captured by an all-female crew? No wonder you’re okay with someone else on board being called captain. And just think, when we were being pushed into the cryo chamber, their biggest concern was who they could sneak into their dorm rooms.”

  “Nice to see your personality wasn’t affected by the deep freeze. I’ll have to check and see if they’ve developed a pill to clear that up for you.”

  “Love you too, honey.” Her words, bit off viciously, stung at him.

  He ignored her as he moved to where Lyz stood next to Dani.

  “Uncomfortable reunion?” She didn’t look at him, but he didn’t need a cold glare to know when a woman was mad at him.

  “Adi falls back on her incredible ability to push people away when she’s stressed.”

  Lyz brushed a hand over Yella’s forehead, moving back her hair. “Why’d you get divorced?”

  “We got married on a stupid bet, went through the motions until we were twenty and then called it quits.”

  “I’m sure Dani will be glad to hear that.” Lyz smiled at him. It was a clear threat.

  “Frankly, the less Yella knows about that, the better.”

  Lyz gave him a strange look. “Then you probably shouldn’t be talking about it over her.”

  “I won’t when she wakes up.”

  Lyz turned away, her mouth pinched shut as though she was suppressing a laugh.

  “What?” Si looked down at Yella, nothing had changed.

  “She already is.”

  He turned to look at Yella, her eyes screwed shut, not t
he picture of peaceful slumber she’d been the a moment prior.

  “It’s easier for me to focus on the fact that my side isn’t really glued to the inside of a furnace if I keep my eyes closed. You were saying something about fixing that, Lyz?”

  Si closed his eyes, trying not to think of how that conversation must have sounded to her. As much as he hated to admit it, he hoped the pain had drowned out most of what he’d said.

  “I’m not going to give it to you until you answer my question.”

  “I think Si would agree with me that blackmail and mutiny can sometimes be considered the same thing. Even if you are my best friend, I should shoot you.”

  “You go right ahead and threaten me. We both know you never would, so it’s not going to change a thing.”

  “What’s she talking about?” Si asked, looking between them.

  “She won’t tell me where the pills are.”

  Yella let out a pained breath that might have been intended as a laugh. “Because you’re going to toss them.”

  “As the present medical officer on board, you of all people should know why.”

  “José wouldn’t have given them to me if he didn’t think I could handle them.”

  Si placed a hand on her shoulder. “Yella, look at yourself. You’re in so much pain, you’re on the verge of blacking out again. If you hadn’t taken those pills, it would be a mild irritation.”

  Lyz leaned down, so she was face to face with Yella and pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I know what it’s like. Remember, I was there, too. I know. Those pills can be wonderful. They can help you get through the fact that José’s gone… but they don’t let you move on. Feeling nothing isn’t healthy. You should know pain pills aren’t the answer. I know you’re stronger than they are. You can do this without them. If you get addicted he— they win.”

  Yella glared at her, but there was a smile on her lips. “Don’t think I don’t know when you’re stealing my lines.”

  Si tried to smile, and had no clue what his mouth ended up doing. “Tell her where they are. We’ll help you get through it without them. The right medication is one thing, these pills….”