by M. D. Cooper
“Please…just—”
Anna pushed past the woman and walked out of the kitchen, threading her way through the corridors to a rear staircase that led up to the second floor where Jace’s study was located.
She finished off the pastry and sucked her fingers clean before she approached the door. Anna disabled the glow from her outfit—Jace had complained about it more than once—and rapped her knuckles on the door.
“Come,” Jace’s voice rasped from within.
Anna opened the door and walked boldly into his study to see Jace sitting in one of the chairs before his desk, his wife sitting opposite.
“Anna?” Jace’s brow rose. “I wasn’t expecting you—ah, the wine. You want to join the serving staff, do you?”
Anna flushed and shook her head. “No, I just met a servant on the way up here and offered to take the wine for her.”
“Altruism?” Malorie asked. “I didn’t think there was even a seed of that in you.”
Anna scowled but didn’t respond to the remark. “Would you like me to pour you a glass,” she asked Jace.
“I didn’t ask for the bottle just to stare at it,” Jace grunted. “Glasses are on the sideboard.”
“I assume you’re discussing Verisa’s revelation?” Anna asked.
“Word sure travels fast,” Jace said with a sigh. “I didn’t think you’d know ‘til morning.”
“I’m not just a sexy ass,” Anna replied with her back to Jace as she poured the wine into a glass for him.
“I’ll have one too, Sexy Ass,” Malorie said with a laugh.
Anna nodded silently and poured a second glass for Jace’s odious wife, glad her face was turned.
She brought the two goblets back to the pair, wishing all the while that she had some sort of poison she could slip into Malorie’s drink—something fast acting and terribly painful.
Anna passed out the glasses and took a seat, eliciting a cold look from Malorie.
“You sending a ship?” Anna asked Jace.
He nodded. “Within the hour. It’ll take six days to get there, two to get insystem to the station. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
“I still think you should go,” Malorie said before taking a sip of her wine. “You have connections in Ventra. None of your captains can pull it off as well as you.”
Jace shook his head. “You know it’s as likely as not that Verisa is playing us. I’d rather be here to keep working her over.”
Malorie snorted and touched her chest. “Seriously, Jace. You’re looking at the best in the business here.”
“You?” Jace asked, his voice rising as he set his goblet down. “You told the lab techs to patch her up, then you patched up her girl toy too!”
“Do you have any idea how much more it’s going to suck for Katrina to be out there in the hot sun tomorrow? She’ll spend the whole time knowing that she’ll be in agony again before long. Once it sets in, she’ll crave the relief. I’ll dole it out bit by bit; a salve at night, maybe a blanket, a bit of time on the medtable. By the time you get back, I’ll have her licking my tits. Well, I’m not into girls, but I’ll get her to lick Anna’s. She’d like it.”
Anna frowned at being the target of such a statement. “I don’t know. Verisa’s clearly not the aristocrat she pretended to be when she boarded—”
“Well, yeah,” Jace interrupted. “You all had no clue she was a Streamer.”
Anna drew a long breath. She wanted Jace gone from Revenence Castle just as much as Malorie, but if they both pushed him to leave, he’d dig in his heels.
For some reason, he’d decided she was a moron—a notion Anna would savor disabusing him of some day—so he’d be prone to go against whatever she suggested.
He was so predictable. No wonder his wife had played him so well all these years.
“I mean that she has serious combat skills. Anyone can get caught in the Streamer; Verisa was an operative of some sort.”
“You underestimate me,” Malorie said with a gentle laugh. “I’ve turned my share of ‘operatives’.”
“OK,” Anna shrugged. “I just thought that maybe Jace should be around in case things get out of control.”
“Anna, if you think that Malorie can’t run things in my absence, you’re a bigger fool than I already consider you to be.”
Anna shrugged. “Just giving my thoughts. None of us expected her ship to make an FTL jump just hours after the Havermere’s techs boarded, either. She’s full of surprises.”
“Well, so long as that collar is on her neck, those surprises will stay bottled up,” Malorie replied. “Was a bit of a worry, decreasing its attenuation while the medtechs worked on her, but she wasn’t able to get free—or she didn’t try. Lowered my estimation of her a bit, if I’m honest.”
Jace nodded. “Well, the table would have put her under if she had made a move. She probably suspected we had a backup plan.”
“Either way, you should stay,” Anna pressed. “That just shows that Verisa is savvier than you think.”
“Anna, would you shut up already? I can make up my own mind. I’m going to go to Ventra. I need to make sure that things get done right when we find her ship.”
Anna held up her hands defensively. “OK, just trying to make sure we get what we need from her.”
“Go make sure somewhere else,” Malorie said, eyes narrowed and expression curious as she regarded Anna.
“Yeah, get lost,” Jace grunted. “I’m sure there’s some pleb you can go slap around somewhere.”
Anna rose and sketched a bow. “Fine, I’ll make sure Katrina gets back to the fields tomorrow. You may think she’s not a threat, but I plan to keep an eye on her.”
“Not too early,” Malorie said. “I want her to have some good memories with her lovegirl to remember when she’s back out there, baking in the sun.”
“Fine,” Anna replied as she turned and walked from Jace’s study.
The medtable can attenuate the collar…. Verrry interesting.
THE VOYAGER
STELLAR DATE: 01.01.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Voyager
REGION: Edge of the Hercules System
“This has to be the system,” Carl said from his seat in the Voyager’s cockpit, gesturing at a highlighted point of light on the holodisplay.
Carl shook his head. “No way. Kanda isn’t likely to have a lot of friendly ports for a Blackadder ship—especially the Verisimilitude. Jace must have an in with someone in the STC to remove his departure logs, but I can’t see him docking here.”
“Because it’s close, and there’s no overarching stellar government. They have a council, but mostly every world and major station runs itself.” Carl brought up the Hercules System on the holo, pausing to admire the clarity of the display that the Voyager provided. It was as though the cockpit ended right in front of him, and he was staring out into space.
“Right,” Carl replied and pointed at one of the terraformed worlds. It orbited a half-MJ gas giant two AU from the star, a younger Sol analogue. The world itself was more massive than Earth, but also larger, making for just under one g on its surface. “The world is called Ganys. I’ve heard that Blackadder ships are often docked in the stations around it.”
Carl shrugged. “One person’s pirate is another’s hero…or at least customer.”
“Or trading partner,” Rama said, speaking for the first time since Carl and Troy began discussing destinations.
“It’s close, too,” Carl said. “We can be there in a week—maybe less, if the DL isn’t too dense around here.”
Troy commented.
Carl gave a short laugh. “Yeah, well, a lot of human space sucks balls. Sure, Bollam’s did too, but at least there we knew where we stood. KiStar was a decent employer, too.”
“I always wanted to leave,” Rama stated. “Stars…I tried to get berths on half a dozen ships, but the decent ones were fully crewed, and the ones that would accept me…well, most of them weren’t places I’d’ve fared well.”
“That’s a rather clinical description,” Rama said with a shake of her head. “But it’s not about sex, it’s about power; people who feel inadequate taking it out on others.”
“Can we get back on track?” Carl asked. “Why we never left Bollam’s is moot now. We’ve left, and we need to make a decision.”
“We better be right,” Rama said. “We’ll lose two weeks.”
“We’d lose a lot longer trying to scour this system,” Carl replied.
Carl sighed. I know Troy is worried about Katrina, I’m worried about Juasa, as well, but he doesn’t have to be such an ass about it all the time.
“Fine, I’m gonna go get some grub and then dive back into your library,” he said as he rose from his seat and left the cockpit.
As he slid down the ladder, he could hear Rama scolding Troy for being such a grump—as though that would change the AI’s behavior.
SEPARATION
STELLAR DATE: 01.01.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Jace’s estate
REGION: World of Persia, unknown system
Katrina and Juasa’s bodies were intertwined on the cold stone floor when the guards came in some hours later. Katrina checked her internal clock and realized that it was 05:35. They were late today.
“Juasa, get up,” one of the guards said. Katrina recognized him as one of the nicer ones. He never pushed or shoved—a small consideration that spoke volumes to her.
“Wow, you actually know our names,” Katrina said with a grin as she lifted her leg off Juasa and rolled to the side, though she still clasped her lover’s hand.
“Shut the fuck up,” the other guard said as the two women slowly rose.
“That’s ‘Shut the fuck up, Verisa’,” Katrina said with a smile.
The second guard raised his hand to hit her, but Katrina stepped back.
“Easy guys, we’re just reveling in not feeling like shit this morning.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” the first guard said before gesturing to Juasa. “C’mon, you’re going to meet the lady.”
“And you,” the second guard said with a wicked grin, “are going back to the fields. I guess you haven’t learned your place yet.”
Katrina’s gaze met Juasa’s, and they both nodded before Juasa left with the first guard. The second waited a moment before gesturing toward the door.
“OK, get a move on.”
Katrina walked past, and the guard slapped her ass.
“Nice to be able to do that without getting your shit and pus all over me,” he said with a laugh.
Katrina bristled, but had to admit that she’d take a slap on the ass if it meant she had enough skin on her ass to slap.
The guard directed her down the route toward the postern gate, in the opposite direction from where Juasa had been taken. When they reached the gate, a pair of guards—male, like the rest in the castle—leered at her before opening it.
“You look like my kid colored you in,” one of them laughed as she passed.
Katrina thought of a few choice responses, most having to do with surprise about his over-muscled body being able to pump enough blood into his dick for an erection, but she bit her tongue and walked through the gate and across the narrow bridge that spanned the moat.
A variety of unpleasant predators swam in the waters below them, and Katrina was glad her footing was steadier today than on previous passages.
On the far side of the moat, a car waited, hovering above the road. Anna stood next to it.
“I have it from here,” Anna called out to the guard before looking at Katrina. “Get in the back.”
“I have to escort her,” the guard said, his tone conveying more than a little frustration with Anna. “You’re just a guest. You can’t take responsibility for her.”
“Malorie has asked me to have a private chat with Katrina,” Anna said with a shrug. “But you can call up to her and double-check, I’ll wait.”
Katrina opened the car’s door and turned to look at the guard. He took a deep breath and then sighed. The man clearly did not want to bother Malorie.
Jace’s wife must be a real bitch if she instills this much reticence in the guards.
“Fine,” he said at last. “But stay on the road where I can see you. If you turn off, I’ll call it in.”
Anna grinned at the man and nodded. “Of course. I don’t plan on running off with her, she’s collared after all, can’t go far like that.”
“Just go, already,” the guard said and folded his arms over one another.
Katrina took a seat inside the car, and was surprised to see Anna take the other seat in the back.
“Trust me that much?” Katrina asked.
“No, not really, but it has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?”
Katrina shrugged, surprised that Anna was capable of being so pragmatic. “I suppose it does. Have you learned anything already, or are you just looking for a little ‘me’ time?”
Anna shook her head and reached into a bag at her feet. “Here,” she said, pulling out a small container. “This salve will protect your skin from the sun. Not completely, but you shouldn’t be a mass of blisters by day’s end.”
Katrina took the container, twisted the lid off, and began to apply the cream to her legs.
“You wouldn’t happen to have some clothes in there, would you?” she asked with a rueful chuckle.
“Somehow I think our friend Liam wouldn’t let that fly,” Anna replied. “Besides, I don’t want you to get too comfortable, you might forget our deal.”
“Of course,” Katrina said as she rubbed the cream on her arms. “Did you learn anything of use? Not that I’m ungrateful for this.”
“Well, I helped convince Jace to leave in search of your ship last night.”
Katrina’s eyebrows rose at that. She hadn’t expected Anna to be so effective. She thought the woman would operate as more of a distraction than anything else.
“Now we’re back to just the lady of the house,” Katrina said. “Though she’s probably the more devious of the two.”
Anna nodded. “Yeah, I get that impression as well. She also said the techs got some stuff from you, and that they should have it decrypted in a few days.”
Katrina snorted. “Yeah, they got some stuff. Just a bunch of random bits. They thought they had forced their way past my defenses, but I just shunted them where I wanted.”
“Aren’t you worried that I’m playing both sides?” Anna asked. “If I told Malorie that, you’d be back on that medtable before you could say ‘oh, fuck’.”
&
nbsp; “I think you’d play both sides if it suits you,” Katrina replied as she twisted her hair on top of her head, and applied the cream to her neck and face. “But right now I’m pretty certain that you and Malorie are not aligned at all. Even if you were, I’m not afraid of that medtable.”
“They lessen the effectiveness of the collar when you’re on it,” Anna said.
Katrina turned her back toward Anna and handed her the cream. “I know. Do my back, would you?”
Anna sighed and took the cream. “So if you knew that, why didn’t you get out?”
“Because they didn’t turn it down that much. I wasn’t able to disable the collar before they finished.” Katrina knew she ran a risk sharing that information with Anna, but the worst-case scenario was that they didn’t put her back on the table. It was a small risk, though. Other than getting her to share her secrets, the table was the only way for the techs to get at them.
“Then that’s what I’ll figure out,” Anna said. “Either the table can be altered to turn your collar down too much the next time they patch you up, or I can find how it works and steal or replicate whatever it is.”
“Didn’t take you for an engineer,” Katrina said.
“You don’t start at first mate, you know.”
Katrina shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Anna handed the container back to Katrina. “I’m not doing your ass.”
She took the cream and twisted in the seat, covering her rear and the backs of her thighs, before going over her body once more.
“I gotta ask, what precipitated this kindness?”
Anna shrugged. “We’re going to be partners, right? I want to keep you in one piece as long as possible.”
“You’re so altruistic,” Katrina said with a disbelieving laugh.
Anna shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’ll still come by and cane you this afternoon.”
“You’re all heart.”
The car stopped at Liam’s field, and Katrina stepped out of the car into the bright morning light.
“Have a good day at work, dear!” Anna called from inside the car before pulling the door shut.
