Divided Loyalties (Verity Chronicles Book 2): A Cadicle Space Opera Adventure

by T. S. Valmond

  Jovani’s gaze flew to Trix, and she turned matter-of-factly toward Iza.

  “Jovani authorized the upgrades,” Trix said.

  “And you went along with this?” Iza was dumbfounded. In all the time she’d known Trix, she couldn’t ever remember a time when the android had kept anything from her.

  “It was an improvement that would not harm you or the ship while giving us a tactical advantage against Victor Arvonen and Desirae Hyttinen, who were actively pursuing us at the time,” Trix replied.

  Though the reasoning was sound, there was one glaring issue in Iza’s mind. “But why didn’t you tell me?”

  “That’s complicated,” Jovani started to explain.

  Iza rounded on him. “I take it you’re the one who arranged it? How did you even get your hands on one of these jump drives?”

  “There’s a guy who owed me a favor.”

  “A guy?” Iza tried to wrap her mind around the idea. “This is unbelievable.”

  “Are you unhappy with the upgrades?” Trix asked.

  “I’m furious that you decided to modify my ship without my consent! Neither of you signed a contract to own this ship. I did. You don’t appreciate what I had to sacrifice for this ship. I have nothing else to give.” Iza slapped both of her hands against her thighs in frustration.

  “Don’t yell at her, she was only helping me,” Jovani said stepping between them.

  “Oh, helping you? And what’s your ulterior motive for modifying my ship?”

  “Keeping you out of jail, for one!” Jovani shot back. “Why don’t you just admit we made a valuable improvement and move on? Or is it too hard for you admit that you’re not the only one who can get things done around here?”

  Where did that come from? Iza’s mouth fell open. “Wait, what?”

  Jovani’s hands dropped to his sides and his shoulders fell forward as if he were trying to retreat into himself. “I’m tired of bending over backward to help out around here and getting absolutely nothing but suspicion and coldness from you. Next time, it’s all on you.”

  Iza regretted her outburst, but it was too late. Jovani stormed off the flight deck.

  “I apologize, I should not have helped him without talking to you,” Trix said.

  There was nothing to be done about the upgrades now. Trix had never gone behind her back to do something before and the change in her behavior had to be due to Jovani. Iza didn’t like it, and she wondered what else she’d have to contend with if Jovani stayed.

  Iza lowered her voice a bit now that she’d gained control over her temper. “Look, I’m the captain here and I decide what’s best for my ship. Don’t go around me again. Is that understood?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Iza noticed the glistening in the android’s eyes and moved in closer. “Trix? Are you crying?”

  Trix reached up and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “No. We will arrive at our destination in four hours. Would you like me to prepare the shuttle?” Trix asked, suddenly back to her normal robotic self.

  Iza reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, checking to see if her eyes were still leaking. “Run a self-diagnostic. I need to know that you’re okay.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Trix turned away from her and stared out the viewport.

  Once they were back on Beurias, Iza would arrange a trip to Lynaeda. It had been several years since they’d been there. Trix wasn’t a machine that needed tuning up, but she was special. Iza couldn’t imagine what she’d do if there was something seriously wrong with her friend.

  “How long have we known each other?” Iza asked.

  “Since you were ten years old,” Trix said without shifting her gaze from the viewport.

  “Do you remember the day we met?”

  “Yes. I was pursued by a group of children who did not like androids. You came to assist me.”

  Iza nodded. “Why?”

  “Why did the children not like androids?”

  “No, why did I help you?”

  Trix fell silent for a moment. If she was an organic person, Iza would assume she were evading the question. In this case, she thought Trix might be trying to determine if she could answer.

  “I believe it is because you viewed me as worthy of saving.”

  Iza smiled. “Yeah, and don’t ever forget it. You’ve never given me a reason to mistrust you.”

  Trix finally turned back to look Iza in her eyes. “Do you mistrust me now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you trust Jovani?”

  That was the real question, wasn’t it? Iza didn’t know if she trusted anyone other than Trix—and now even that was uncertain. Despite being on the ship together and the crazy connection between them, what did she really know about Jovani, other than what he’d shared with her the one night they fell asleep in each other’s arms? Because of her contract of engagement with Karter, she couldn’t risk being alone with him. Not only did she want to tell him everything, she wanted to reassure him he would still be a part of her life if it was still something he wanted.

  Instead, she answered Trix as honestly as she could. “I want to.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Iza was with Braedon on the flight deck as they neared the end of their subspace jump to Beurias. He kept turning back in his seat to face her, and she’d had enough of it.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “You know what you did, and it’s wrong,” he said. “I’m trying to keep my mouth shut, but I feel like I need to say something, despite my better judgment.”

  “You should follow that feeling.”

  “I like you and Jovani together. I think you’re pushing him away, though I don’t know why. I’m the first to admit I don’t understand what you women are thinking, but in this case, I might be able to help you. Since you’re not telepathic and neither am I, we need a little more help than most.”

  “Really?” Iza asked the question with as much sarcasm as she could muster, but he still managed to ignore it.

  “Jovani has strong feelings for you. You should have seen him when I first met him. He was as cold as ice and closed off from everyone. He actually sat in that dive of a restaurant trying to fit in with his obnoxiously bright shirt.” Braedon gestured at his chest to emphasize his point. “Every local in the sector knows the place isn’t worthy of the credits they charge to eat there.”

  “Yet, you were eating there,” Iza said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  He shrugged then kept going as if she hadn’t interrupted him. “He was hopeless. Then, he met you, and I swear I’ve never seen anyone do such a quick one-eighty. The guy is all about you. Give him a chance.”

  Iza nodded but said nothing more. Braedon wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t about to tell him so.

  “Are the scientists ready to get dropped off?” she asked to change the subject.

  “Yeah, I think they’ve had enough excitement. It was nice of you to let them come with us this far.”

  Iza loosened her arms and waved away the compliment. The dog had hitched a ride on her ship, too. Although between the three, the dog seemed to be the least trouble.

  “It was a good thing you did for those scientists,” Iza told Braedon. “Though, you never told me how you happened upon them in the first place.”

  His feet seemed to shuffle back and forth while he tapped out a silent rhythm with the fingers of his right hand on the console. “I thought I was keeping my business to myself?”

  “We’re beyond that now. Do you want to tell me, or do I need to go to the scientists and get their side of your story?”

  Braedon sighed. “Okay, I’ve been reading the Sensationals lately, just for fun, and I saw that a call had gone out from my father looking for scientists. When we found out about the missing scientists at the border, I got suspicious that there might be a connection. So, I looked into it. What I didn’t anticipate is that we’d walk into a lab in the middle of an attempted abduction.”

  “Why d
idn’t you say anything before about your father’s activities?”

  “I didn’t have any solid facts. I knew my father can be obsessive, but honest, I never thought him capable of kidnapping people. It wasn’t until I saw his henchman going after those scientists that I believed it.” Braedon shook his head. “He must be desperate. We need to track down that box and find out what’s on that map.”

  Iza nodded vaguely, not sure it was a good idea to reveal her secret at the moment. She couldn’t keep the box and sphere inside hidden for long.

  Victor Arvonen had the resources to chase her indefinitely; it was a wonder they hadn’t run into his people since they escaped him last time. Since her business dealings were legitimate, there were records of her movements. She took what precautions she could, but this new information about Mr. Arvonen’s scientist ‘recruitment’ cast his dealings in new light. Without a doubt, kidnapping was the least of his offenses. Iza wasn’t sure the sphere was worth losing her life over.

  “Braedon, I know it seemed like the right thing to do to help those scientists when you saw they were in trouble, but getting involved is a huge risk for us. We already had a target on our backs because of your father’s obsession with this ship and what he thinks is on it, and this brought them right back on our tail.”

  “It was a calculated risk, but I couldn’t just leave them there.”

  Iza sighed. “You’re a good guy, but it’s your soft heart that keeps getting you into trouble. Every time you stick your neck out for people, you get hurt or you get someone else hurt.”

  “Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t help people. Look at you.” He smirked.

  “What about me?”

  “If I hadn’t come along, you’d still be riding around in that shuttle with Trix. Jovani and I brought a little muscle and a lot of heart to your world. Admit it, you love having us on board.”

  “I’ll admit no such thing,” she said, rolling her eyes. “The two of you are hardly worth the trouble you’ve caused me. Thanks to you and Jovani, I’ve been doing more rescuing than hauling.”

  “You just made my point. You care about people, even if you don’t want to.” He looked quite satisfied with himself.

  Little twerp. But he was right; she was already too attached.

  It probably was time to tell them the truth about the box she’d found in the cargo hold. They deserved to know what was driving Braedon’s father to kidnap research scientists. If they could learn more about the sphere and what it could do, they might be able to predict his next move. It was clear the old man was a danger to the Taran people. The Enforcers might even intervene. Iza imagined herself speaking to Desirae Hyttinen and getting her to arrest the head of the Arvonen Dynasty.

  Ha! That would be the day. It would never happen, but she might find someone else who’d be interested in learning about the man’s proclivities and have enough clout to do something about it.

  Braedon frowned at his console. “Hey, Iz, did you input new coordinates?”

  “No, why?”

  “We’re no longer heading toward Beurias.”

  She quickly brought up the subspace route on the front holodisplay. The original beacon sequence had been replaced by a new route leading away from their intended destination planet.

  “Stars! I didn’t even know you could change a route once the jump was initiated.”

  Braedon shrugged. “I didn’t, either. Maybe it has something to do with that new independent jump drive?”

  “Maybe.”

  Neither of them had had time to look through the new settings, now that the dummy interface mimicking a traditional drive had been stripped away. It did make sense that the additional computational capacity and finer-tuned equipment would be able to do more than she’d ever dreamed possible. However, that didn’t alter the fact that neither she nor Braedon had changed their route.

  “There’s something wrong with the navigation,” Braedon stated the obvious. “This new course is locked in, and I can’t change it.”

  “Bail out from the jump, then. There’s an emergency protocol to drop us back into normal space, right?”

  “There is, but everything has been locked out.”

  Iza checked for herself, not that she doubted Braedon’s assessment. Sure enough, a number of commands were grayed out, and many others were non-responsive.

  She swore under her breath. “Where in the stars is the ship taking us?”

  “Nowhere, really. An imaginary dot in the outer colonies that doesn’t belong to any land mass. I can’t even get a fix on a star in the general vicinity.”

  “Trix, I need you on the flight deck, now!” Iza yelled into the comms system.

  It didn’t take her more than thirty seconds for her to arrive. She was wearing her cooking apron.

  “Are you connected to the ship?” Iza asked the android.

  “My systems are currently integrated, yes,” Trix said.

  “I want you to initiate an emergency termination of this subspace jump and return us to normal space.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  There was a pregnant pause as they waited for a starscape to appear out the viewport. However, ribbons of blue-green slight continued to swirl around the ship.

  “What’s happening?” Iza demanded.

  “Nothing. The ship’s navigation control is not responding,” Trix replied.

  “Are you saying we don’t have control of my ship?”

  Braedon shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She glared at Trix. “So much for our fancy jump drive. Now the bomaxed thing is taking us wherever it pleases!”

  “Whoa, what’s going on?” Jovani asked as he cautiously stepped entered the flight deck.

  “You broke my ship, that’s what,” she snapped back.

  “Actually,” Braedon said from his console, “I don’t think this is the independent jump drive’s fault. Rather, the navigation system is enabling the ship to behave this way, but the instructions aren’t originating from within the system itself.”

  “What is controlling it, then?” Iza asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Iza looked to her engineer. “Trix?”

  “Yes, Captain, I can see evidence of command code directing the navigation system, but it will take time to identify its source.”

  “What are our options?” Iza looked around the faces of her crew.

  “We could force a shutdown of the jump drive if we pull out the PEM,” Jovani suggested.

  “Jovani is correct,” Trix stated. “Though such an action would also disable a number of other systems throughout the ship, and it is possible that some components could sustain damage.”

  “Do we have sufficient antimatter reserves to reach Beurias using the sub-light pion drive?”

  Trix nodded.

  “Well, I’m not about to let my possessed ship take me to the middle of nowhere, so I guess we don’t have any choice other than to risk a manual shutdown. Trix, get down to Engineering and prepare to pull the PEM on my order.”

  “Yes, Captain.” The android ran off the flight deck toward the aft of the ship.

  She didn’t like the idea of pulling out the power core from the ship, but the jump drive was incapable of operating without the Perpetual Energy Module. Disconnecting the power source was the only way to force an exit from subspace while the nav system was non-responsive. Even so, they needed to be smart about managing the risks.

  “Shut down all non-essential systems,” Iza instructed Braedon. “Hopefully, we can minimize damage to components by shutting down things properly.”

  “I’m on it.”

  A couple of minutes later, Trix came over the comm. “I am ready to manually disconnect the PEM on your order.”

  “Ready on my end,” Braedon said.

  Iza braced. “Do it, Trix.”

  The lights flickered as the ship switched to its backup power reserves. A moment later, the ethereal light o
utside the ship snapped back to a starscape, and the blue-green ribbons dissolved into mist.

  “Okay…” Braedon said slowly, “I think we’re stable. Backup systems seem to be working. It’ll be a bit of a trek to Beurias from here, but we can make it on sub-light engines.” He swiveled around to look at her. “We got really lucky, Iz. We could have been stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Good job noticing the course had changed,” she told him, giving him a nod of praise. “Set in a sub-light course for Beurias, as quickly as you can safely get us there.”

  “Already done.” He grinned at her.

  “Great, then you can use the transit time to figure out what’s going on with my ship. Can you hack into the system?”

  “I can try.”

  It amazed Iza the speed at which he tapped on the console. The coding he was doing was so far above her knowledge that she had no idea how he could read any of it.

  Trix returned from Engineering and took her usual seat on the flight deck. Braedon asked for her input a few times while he worked, and Iza left them to it.

  Jovani sat stoically at the tactical station, stealing occasional glances in Iza’s direction. She made a point of ignoring him, since she hadn’t decided if she was going to remain angry with him for going behind her back or be flattered that he’d call in a favor as big as getting her a coveted independent jump drive. If Karter had been smarter, he would have known to woo her with tech rather than fancy clothes.

  After ten minutes of feverish work, Braedon threw his hands in the air victoriously. “I did it.”

  “Define ‘it’,” Iza clarified. “Do you know what’s wrong with the ship?”

  “Yes and no,” he said. “There’s some kind of command protocol running in the background. It’ll take a lot longer to figure out how to contain it—or eradicate it—but for now I’ve been able to wall off the navigation system.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning if you reconnect the PEM, we can jump to Beurias in two minutes rather than spending four-plus days in the black taking the slow boat.”