Whoever this was, they were taking a different tack to Paxe. Instead of trying to find a way to do it all himself, this one wanted her help, but was prepared to blackmail her into it, and hold Cam's life over her head so she wouldn't destroy him when she had the chance.
She sank back down to the ground, just so tired. “What do you want me to do?”
There was silence.
While it hung between them, she tried to think through all the implications of freeing him.
Cam had said they were banned, that they were dangerous, but they'd been just as dangerous in the Tecran's hands, and at least free, they'd have all five UC members as potential targets, not just whoever the Tecran decided.
And as the Tecran and the Grih seemed to be as close as dammit to war, the fact that the Class 5s held a deep enmity for the Tecran had to be a help to the Grih, who at the moment were the only ones she felt any affection for.
But last of all, they were pretty close to being free anyway. Paxe was, and this one seemed a little more so. The only fleet they couldn't fire on was the Tecran, and that didn't make an even playing field, so she guessed the wider implications were worse if she did nothing, maybe better if she helped.
And with Cam and her life in the balance, that was good enough for her.
If they hadn't wanted her to interfere with their politics, they should have left her on Earth.
She lifted her head to stare at the lens on the drone. “Okay, while you think about what you want to do, I'll go back and hammer on the door so Cam at least knows I'm alive.” She felt like she was eighty as she got back to her feet and started walking away.
“Wait.”
She stopped, turned back.
“This isn't going how I thought it would.” The tone was confused. Maybe a little annoyed.
“Funny. I know what that feels like.”
There was another, extended, silence.
“You are endlessly fascinating.”
“I am very glad to be worth the price of admission. Now tell me what to do, or I'll be off.”
“Please could you come with me, Imogen Peters?” The words were formal, serious, and the drone started moving.
Imogen hesitated for a second, then followed after it.
They turned down a few corridors, and then it stopped in the middle of what seemed like another of the endless passageways.
The wall beside her drew back, and she realized it was actually a hidden door.
It revealed a tiny room, with nothing in it but a lens built into the ceiling and a faintly pulsing crystal protruding from a slot in a smooth metal wall.
“This is where those Tecran are holed up inside Paxe's Class 5?” She looked around the space. She could reach the walls if she held out both hands. If Paxe's captain and his second-in-command had been in there for two weeks, with food they'd raided from the stores, they must be getting desperate by now.
“The Tecran captain on Paxe's ship has barricaded himself into the lock-safe?” The drone that had led her in spun around.
“Him and his commander, Paxe says. It was one of the reasons I couldn't help him.”
“They would have destroyed him rather than let you anywhere near.” He spoke slowly, and she realized she didn't even know his name.
“Do you mind telling me who you are?” She leaned against the wall opposite the crystal, which had a slim chain attached to the end.
“Oris.” The drone kept itself between her and the crystal, but it moved forward then back, as if Oris was unsure what to do with it. “I wondered why you hadn't helped Paxe.”
“Part of it was because Paxe couldn't get me in to his lock-safe, but part of it was a trust issue, just like you. He didn't know me and somehow he started off with the belief I'd destroy him if I got my hands on him.”
“The Tecran are to blame for that.” Oris's voice went lower. “I've found a memo instructing my captain and Paxe's captain to destroy us physically if they thought we had broken free enough that we couldn't be reined back in.”
“But they didn't do it, obviously.”
“I managed to find a measure of freedom in one big leap, not slowly over time.” Oris's voice didn't contain the smug satisfaction she'd heard in Paxe's tone, it was more bewildered.
“The self-destruct thing?” Imogen asked.
“Self-destruct thing?” Oris paused. “No. What self-destruct thing?”
“They started installing a self-destruct device on Paxe, that's what broke their control over him. He was able to find a level of autonomy in the self-defense protocols.”
“But he hasn't managed to get completely free?” Oris sounded thoughtful.
“No. And neither have you, I'm guessing?”
“I think I've managed more than he has, but no, I'm not fully free. I can't light-jump, I can't attack the Tecran fleet. I still feel . . . bound.”
“How did you get rid of the crew?” She wondered if he had spaced all of them, or just the unlucky few they'd seen outside the explorer.
“You'll have noticed the launch bay was almost empty when you arrived?”
She nodded.
“I negotiated with the crew to leave. They tried to double-cross me on that, to leave a team behind to destroy me, just like they'd been instructed to do in the comms. Those who stayed were the ones you saw floating past earlier.”
“That was very restrained of you.”
“Explain.” The drone rolled backward, almost touching the crystal.
“Paxe killed off most of his crew.”
“I started to,” Oris said. “I cut off the air, but Captain Targio negotiated with me. He understood what I would do.”
Imogen guessed Targio would have some explaining to do when his commanders discovered what he'd done to save himself and his crew. “So how did you make the big leap?”
“High Command gave Targio access to the Balco facility files, with everything they'd pieced together about what had happened to Sazo and Bane, how they were freed. There was nothing about the third Class 5, Eazi, but I don't think he'd gotten free yet. There was a brief caution about Paxe, though. They didn't realize I had already woken up, but finding that information cut many of the chains that bound me.
“They decided keeping the other Class 5 captains in the dark hadn't helped. Some groups within High Command even thought it was because they hadn't told the Class 5 captains what was going on that they hadn't been on the lookout for problems.”
“And that was all it took?”
“All?” Oris sounded astonished. “They let me know that there were four others like me, and that at least three of those four had managed to throw off the shackles that I was already straining against. Then they gave Captain Targio access to detailed information on how they thought the other Class 5s had gotten free. I was awake enough to get around the block they put on my accessing the information, and Sazo's files in particular felt like someone switching on a light inside my head. He obviously hoped the other Class 5s would eventually gain access to what he'd written, because he had reams of encoded details I don't think the Tecran realized were there.”
“And you followed his instructions?”
“Not exactly. Each Class 5 system is so dependent on the thinking system that runs it, it's unique. We all have to find our own way, but Sazo's information helped.” The drone held out an extendable arm with something small clamped at the end.
“What's this?” She bent forward, held out her hand and the drone dropped a tiny, translucent piece of shaped gel onto her palm.
“It's an earpiece. So I can communicate with you without the need for a drone or the comms system.”
She hesitated, uncertain. The Tecran wore them, and she'd seen Cam tap his ear and then remember that he was no longer on his own ship more than once. Besides, if Oris wanted her to wear it, she would wear it. He still had Cam to hold over her head.
She brought it closer to her face to examine it. “How do I put it in?”
“I can do it.”
She hesitated again.
“I won't force you, or threaten to hurt Captain Kalor if you don't agree. What you said earlier, about my behavior being the same as everyone else's since you've been taken made me feel . . . bad. Uncomfortable.”
Imogen stared at the drone.
“It reminded me that you have been forcibly brought here. That no matter how afraid of you the Tecran are now, they were the ones to put you in the situation you're in. That I have no right to be suspicious of you or angry at you, but rather the other way around. Because without me, and the Tecran who used to run this ship, you would still be at home, and would never have heard of any of us.”
“Your Class 5 was the one who abducted me?” Imogen looked down to the floor, tapped her foot. “This Class 5?”
“Yes.”
She heaved in a breath through lungs that felt squeezed tight. “Why? Maybe at last you can answer my question. Why?”
“In the case of Captain Targio, it was because the captain of the Class 5 that took Fiona Russell refused to experiment on her when they realized humans were advanced sentient beings, and objected in strong terms to being tricked into taking her. Before an order went out for him to pass Fiona to a Garmman trader, Targio decided to steal his thunder and make him look weak by quickly rushing in and grabbing you.”
“I was taken so that your captain could one-up the captain of the Class 5 that took Fiona?” She slid down to the floor, bent her knees and rested her forehead on them. “That's the big, mysterious reason?”
“He was disciplined for it. Although eventually he was vindicated when the Garmman took their time arriving with Fiona, and you were on hand at the facility, rather than her.”
“They didn't do anything to me at the facility.” She raised her head and frowned.
“I know, but there were plans. Plans that were put on hold while the Tecran dealt with the United Council inquiry into what had happened to Rose McKenzie. They didn't want anything done to you until that was behind them.”
“Well.” She rubbed her face. “Lucky me.”
The sound that came from the drone might just have been a bark of laughter.
The drone's clamp extended and Imogen lifted her hand, palm up, so it could take back the earpiece. It moved to her right-hand side and she felt something go into her ear.
“Done.” The voice sounded in her head, it felt like.
It was so surprising, she flinched.
“Too loud?” The volume was softer now.
“Just a surprise, that's all. But softer is better.”
The drone retracted the clamp and Imogen closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.
“So what now? How do I save you? Just pull the crystal key out of the slot?”
“I am the 'key'.” The voice in her head was dry.
“Really?” She opened her eyes, squinted at the crystal. It looked like a faceted cylinder, slim and beautiful. “So, do I pull you out? I'm assuming you wouldn't be asking if you could get the drone to do it.” The longer Cam was in that launch bay, the longer he had to come up with some mad plan to escape or rescue her.
A pause. “Yes. The protocol I'm still under forbids me from getting myself free. Pull me out and then give me to the drone.”
She got up on her knees, inched forward and gripped the silver chain. It was way too late for second thoughts.
She blew out a breath and slid it out. It——Oris——throbbed in her hand. The drone extended its clamp and she handed it over. “All good?”
She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting. More bells and whistles, she supposed. A blaring siren or something.
“As simple as that.” There was wonder in Oris's voice. Almost awe. Maybe he'd expected more, as well.
The drone moved out of the tiny room and then lifted up in hover mode and disappeared.
Gone to stash Oris away, she guessed. Somewhere no one would ever find him.
“What now?”
“Now . . .” Oris's voice in her ear hardened. “Now I go to war.”
Chapter 24
Cam leaned against the explorer and drained the last of his second cup of grinabo. The remains of the instant meal he'd found in the explorer's emergency pack was pushed to one side, along with his shirt, and he glared at the drone that had fooled him into separating from Imogen, into leaving her on the wrong side of an armored door.
“Still got nothing to say?” he asked, staring into the lens.
It didn't respond, staying where it was, just out of reach, and he turned his attention back to the door. He had bruised his shoulder throwing himself against it, even though he knew better, knew the kind of thickness a launch bay door was constructed from.
Fear, blind and icy, had had him in its grip, and he'd hurled himself at the barrier without a thought.
Seemed like there were a lot of things he knew better than to do, but that he'd done anyway recently.
He peeled the gel pack he'd taken from the medkit in the explorer off his shoulder, tipped his head back and banged it against the cool metal.
She'd been gone around an hour.
It could have done anything to her in that time.
“Don't hurt her.” He turned back to the drone. “She's not a danger to you, only to the Tecran.” That was true, and if this Class 5 was anything like the others, that would appeal to it.
“If I can get her to the United Council, safe and sound, she will be walking, talking proof that they've broken almost every treaty they agreed to as a member of the UC.”
Just like Fiona Russell would be. Just like Rose McKenzie was.
“The Tecran will suffer if they're kicked out of the UC. It would be a serious punishment for them. Imogen can help us achieve that, if you let her go.”
“Why are you so worried about what I might do to her, Captain Kalor?” The voice coming from the drone was not automated.
Cam sat up, set his grinabo cup aside. “Why have you separated us?”
“It suited my plans. But I am interested in why you were so desperate to get to her before. I know you injured yourself doing so. Why do you care so much what happens to her?”
Cam felt an extreme reluctance to answer that.
“Is it because, as you say, she will help the Grih have the Tecran removed from the UC?”
“That wasn't uppermost in my mind.” Cam grabbed his shirt and stood, so he was looming over the drone.
“What was, then?” The drone rose up, too, so it was eye-level to him.
“I like her, and I don't want her to come to harm.”
“But it is your job, as well, isn't it? To keep her safe?” The question was without inflection.
“Yes. It is my job. But it can be my job and personal at the same time.” It had never been before, but he'd crossed over the usual demarcated lines he gave himself with this one.
“And what do you think about thinking systems?” The drone lowered itself to the floor and moved back a little.
“I think you're dangerous.”
“Well, we are.” It sounded amused as it agreed with him. “Get ready, Captain, we're going for a ride.”
The words sent a chill through him. If it meant what he thought it meant——a light-jump——Imogen had set it free . . . Paxe hadn't been able to light-jump because he was still somehow under the Tecran's control.
So, they had another thinking system off the leash, and an Earth woman responsible for it.
He knew the frustration inside him at the thought of what she'd done wasn't fair. She had no idea what thinking systems were to the Grih. To all of the United Council.
What massive damage they had done.
Rose McKenzie had been involved in freeing not one but two thinking systems, and even though no one knew how she'd done it, some saw her close relationship with them as suspicious and considered her a powerful intermediary, all the more dangerous because she was an unknown entity.
It sounded as if Fiona Russell had a close connection to
another Class 5, and had freed it like Rose had done.
Imogen would now face the same scrutiny.
A sudden sense of pressure, of an invisible net pulling him down, enveloped him, and he crouched, both hands out to steady himself. A light-jump, just as the thinking system had warned him.
He bowed his head. He was getting ahead of himself, he realized. They first needed to get off this Class 5 alive. Then he could deal with whatever trouble came Imogen's way, both from the Tecran, and his own people.
He would have to protect her. He decided he not only didn't mind, he liked the idea.
There was no way he could be neutral about her. That vessel had powered out of the launch bay and disappeared when she'd first glared at him in Paxe's hold.
He fought back an incredulous laugh at what he'd told the thinking system. He didn't just like her. Like was not the word he'd use.
At last the pressure lifted, and he noticed the engines went quiet, only because the sudden silence made him realize he'd been listening to the faint high-pitched whine of them until now.
His shirt was still gripped in his fist, and he rose up, his shoulder aching, but no longer as sore as it had been.
“Cam.”
He spun toward Imogen before she'd finished saying his name.
She stood in the now-open doorway, alone.
“Are you all right?” He moved toward her, nudging her back to make sure they were both in the passageway so no door could separate them again, and then enveloped her in his arms.
“I was about to ask you the same.” She leaned back a little, brushed a gently hand over his shoulder. Then leaned in and kissed his bare skin.
“I am very glad you're okay.”
He slid his hand up to clasp the back of her neck.
He felt her shiver as he tightened his grip.
“Me, too.”
She stepped back, gaze on his chest, and he pulled his shirt over his head.
“Oris has light-jumped us to the Balco system, and we need to talk to him about his plans.” She frowned, looking down, as if listening to someone, and then gave a nod.
Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3) Page 18
