Perilous Hunt: Fallen Empire, Book 7

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Only because a charming woman hasn’t worn him down yet,” Alisa said.

  “A conniving woman, more like.”

  She bared her teeth at him, barely resisting the urge to do more. It wasn’t professional to wake someone up in the middle of the night and punch him in the stomach. Unless one’s profession was hired thuggery.

  “Thank you for so graciously answering my question, Doctor.” Alisa turned away before the fingers she had curled into a fist decided to do something.

  “Captain?” Alejandro said gruffly as she walked away.

  She stopped in the intersection. “What?”

  “If a conniving woman did get Tiang to agree to operate on Leonidas, I would assist with the surgery.”

  She stared at him, her first thought that Alejandro wanted to take the position she assumed she would take, holding a stun gun on Tiang to make sure he cooperated. But he must mean that he would assist with the actual operation, handing the admiral tools and watching monitors, perhaps.

  “I would also like for him not to have nightmares,” Alejandro added. Just as Alisa was going to nod and think semi-kindly thoughts toward him, he added, “I’d also be happy for him if he could screw whoever he wanted. Preferably not Alliance wenches.”

  “You’re such a wonderful friend to him,” Alisa said.

  “Blessings of the Sun Trinity upon you,” Alejandro said with a sarcastic bow and backed into his cabin.

  Once again, Alisa started toward NavCom, but the sound of a spoon clinking in a mug stopped her. Was Tiang in the mess hall now? She grimaced. How much of that conversation had he heard?

  After waffling with indecision for a moment, Alisa headed to the mess hall, where she did indeed find Tiang. Seated at the table, he wore socks, a shirt, and trousers, his clothes as rumpled as usual. He plucked at crumbs on a plate while stirring something steaming in a mug with his other hand.

  “Captain, may I implore you to command your security officer to bake more brownies?” he asked, looking up at her.

  “I think he’ll make more brownies for you without commands or imploring, as long as you call it grilling rather than baking. He lowers the lid on his barbecue and puts the pan inside.”

  “I don’t care if he bakes them by the heat of his armpits. They’re quite wonderful.”

  “I, er.” Alisa not only didn’t know what to say, but she worried she would now have that image stuck in her mind every time she sampled Beck’s food. At least Tiang wasn’t frowning at her and making pointed looks back down the corridor to where she’d been talking to Alejandro. Maybe he had been so forlorn at the empty brownie plate that he hadn’t been able to listen to them. “I agree that they’re wonderful, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  Tiang smiled cheerfully. His eyes were watery—allergies to the dust bunnies in the less frequently used cabins? He had to be the least admirally admiral she had ever encountered.

  “Sir,” she said, coming in to sit across the table from him. “You said you could fix some of the, ah, adjustments that the empire made to Leonidas.”

  “If he agrees to join the Alliance, yes. I was ordered to ensure that was a stipulation of the surgery.”

  “By Admiral Hawk? Does he truly have the authority to recruit ex-enemy commanders? For that matter, does he actually outrank you? Isn’t he retired?”

  “Medically retired, yes, but he’s very popular and well-connected among the high command staff. I am… most days I can’t remember the names of the command staff. I can list thousands of types of neurons, mind you. And tell you what they do.”

  “That’s impressive, sir.”

  “My military colleagues rarely find it so.” Tiang laid his spoon—which turned out to be a tea infuser—beside his mug and took a sip. “But yes, I’m certain that if Hawk granted a battlefield promotion—or recruitment—it would be honored.”

  “The empire took something from Leonidas,” Alisa said, deciding on an angle of approach. “I don’t know if he ever asked, but it’s a foregone conclusion that they wouldn’t give it back.”

  “Likely not.”

  “Now, you’re here, or Hawk was, offering what they took but trying to take something else in exchange for it.”

  Tiang frowned. “We’re not trying to take anything from him.”

  “You want his honor.”

  His frown deepened.

  “That’s what he would feel he was giving up if he accepted your offer. I don’t believe that,” she said, touching her chest, “but I always thought the Alliance was far superior to the empire. I honestly don’t understand the reasons for his loyalty completely, but I understand that he is loyal. And honorable. I believe that once you earn his regard, he wouldn’t do anything to betray it.” Assuming that regard wasn’t at odds with some mission the empire wanted to assign him. She thought again of those messages he had received, messages he hadn’t brought up with her yet.

  “Mm.” Tiang sipped from his mug, the steam curling about his nose.

  “Perhaps, if someone were to give him a gift instead of always wanting to take things from him…” Alisa said.

  “You think that would result in him joining the Alliance?”

  “I don’t know,” Alisa said. She was tempted to lie, but knew Leonidas wouldn’t approve of her being dishonorable on his behalf. “Probably not. But perhaps in the future, there would be some moment when he had to choose between seeing you—seeing us as enemies or as allies. If the Alliance had helped him, perhaps he would choose to see it more favorably.”

  Another, “Mm,” was all Tiang offered.

  She thought about stuffing his tea infuser up his nose, but Leonidas would probably consider that dishonorable too. Or at least inappropriate. Much like her humor.

  She smiled sadly, thinking of the stern looks he had given her in the months they had known each other. She also thought of the times he had touched her hair and given her gentle smiles. Of how he had defended her and watched out for her in countless situations, even though she was the enemy, someone who had not only served the Alliance but who hated his empire and would never see eye-to-eye with him when it came to politics.

  She sighed and rubbed her forehead. She wanted to help him. It might have started out being about sex, at least in the main, but she thought of the conversation she had overheard, that he might have, as she had once worried, a shorter life expectancy because of what he had volunteered to become. Thinking of it made her eyes film with moisture. Shouldn’t he be able to sleep peacefully for the rest of his life? However long that might be? Shouldn’t he be able to have a family if he wanted one? To not have to always worry about falling asleep, for fear of letting his guard down and hurting someone? If there was a chance that the surgery could help with more than sexual function, wasn’t it worth fighting for? Wasn’t he worth fighting for?

  “I hope you will at least consider my words, Admiral,” she said, groping for another argument that might sway him. “He’s worth having as an ally. A friend.”

  “I am considering them,” Tiang said.

  “Oh?” Alisa looked up, meeting his eyes. She wanted to ask for more details, but she made herself say, “Thank you,” and back away from the table. It sounded like a small concession, and that was enough for tonight. She wanted to press him, but if she pushed too hard, he might balk—out of simple human stubbornness—at the realization that she was trying to manipulate him. Or connive, as Alejandro had called it. The jerk.

  “Good night,” she said, heading out of the mess hall.

  “Captain Marchenko,” Tiang said.

  She looked back, but he was gazing toward the rec room hatch, his eyes unfocused. “Yes?” she asked.

  “I’ll do it.”

  Her heart tried to spring out of her chest. She couldn’t help herself—whether it was appropriate or not, she ran in and hugged him. He blinked, holding his tea out so it wouldn’t spill.

  “Thank you, sir,” she blurted. “When?”

  She shouldn’t push, but s
he wanted to lock him down. He wouldn’t go back on his word now that he had given it, would he?

  “Is this the time for it?” he asked, frowning at her. “Aren’t we on an important quest for the Staff of Lore?”

  An important quest for Jelena, was more what Alisa had in mind.

  She opened her mouth to point out that they couldn’t quest for anything until Mica unraveled the smashed computer system, but Tiang spoke again first without prompting.

  “No, but perhaps you’re right,” he mumbled, gazing into the distance again. “Alejandro said there was a sufficient facility on the station, and it wouldn’t necessarily be safe for Colonel Adler to join me in a hospital on an Alliance home world. But we are far from help if there should be complications. Of course, Alejandro is a trauma surgeon, is he not? Yes, I believe I’ve read about him before.”

  Alisa found the way Tiang was arguing with himself a little odd, but she kept her mouth shut, waiting to see if it would come out in her favor. In Leonidas’s favor.

  Finally, Tiang faced her, his mug clasped in his hands. “If Leonidas is willing to go forward in the morning, I am willing to try it.”

  “Thank you.”

  Alisa kept herself from hugging him again, instead spinning toward NavCom. No, toward her cabin. She wanted a private spot from which to comm Leonidas. She had to tell him all about it. Would he accept? Or would her efforts prove for naught? He had seemed calm enough back on Arkadius when Tiang had mentioned failsafes in his brain that were designed to kill him rather than allowing enemies to tinker with him, but would fear make him hesitate in the end?

  Her step faltered before she reached the intersection. The failsafes. She had almost forgotten. How could she have? What if something did happen? What if Tiang and Alejandro couldn’t handle it? What if Leonidas… died?

  She gulped. After all he’d been through and all the battles he had walked away from, just in the months she had known him, it was hard to imagine it being possible for Leonidas to die. But what if, after surviving so many external threats, something went wrong while he was under a surgeon’s scalpel, and there was no way to keep his brain from imploding or whatever the hells happened when those failsafes were triggered? Hells of a name for the term. Wasn’t a failsafe supposed to protect something from catastrophe? Could she trust a man with rumpled clothes and watery eyes to be as good as he thought he was? Had any of the cyborgs he’d operated on back in his imperial days died while he was working on them? For that matter, when was the last time he operated on a cyborg? Since the Alliance didn’t have any of them yet, it had to have been a while.

  “Alisa?” came a soft query from the night-dimmed corridor.

  She swiped a sleeve across her eyes. “What?” she asked gruffly, not wanting her emotion audible in her voice.

  Not that it mattered. That was Stanislav leaning out of his cabin. No doubt, he could read her emotions as easily as her thoughts. She missed having true privacy.

  “Do you want to talk?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Ah,” he said softly, sounding stung.

  “Listen, I just—I don’t know you. If we go fighting pirates and imperials and bounty hunters all across the system for a few months, and you don’t betray me during all that, then maybe we can talk. But I don’t want to confide in a stranger.”

  “Was that… an invitation to travel with you and have adventures?” Stanislav asked.

  “No. I mean, I don’t know. Let’s start with the not betraying me part and work from there, all right?”

  “I’m not here to betray you,” he said quietly, his face in the shadows. He was wearing his black robe again. Maybe he slept in it.

  “Why are you here? You said you needed a ride to the temple. We went to the temple. Then we left the planet. And you’re still here.”

  “I needed a ride because I’ve realized that Tymoteusz having the staff is a bad idea.”

  “You didn’t realize that the instant he expressed an interest? The instant you helped steal it for him?”

  “I didn’t intend to give it to him when we took it,” he said dryly. “I was interested in studying it, and I thought I could keep the others from taking it away from me. I was only working with them because of Tym. I hadn’t seen him in twenty years when he landed in my front yard, asking for help.”

  Alisa shifted her weight, looking for a way to end the conversation and flee. Stanislav kept missing the point about how she didn’t want to confide in him and share confidences with him until she knew him better. She didn’t want him to share confidences with her either. Besides, she was far more interested in talking to Leonidas right now and discussing the surgery.

  “Perhaps you’ll wish for more details another time,” Stanislav said, and bowed. “I’ll let you go.” He peered around the corner in the direction of the mess hall. “And I shall hope the surgery goes well for him.”

  “Thanks,” Alisa mumbled and headed toward her cabin.

  As her hand settled on the latch, she froze. That odd, distracted look that had entered Tiang’s eyes when he agreed to do the surgery.

  She spun. “Stanislav,” she whispered, stopping him from reentering his own cabin.

  He turned toward her, his face impossible to read in the dim lighting.

  “Did you do that?” she asked, still whispering. She jerked her thumb toward the mess hall.

  He hesitated before answering. Alisa groaned. That was answer enough. A confirmation.

  She strode through the intersection to join him again. “I thought I talked him into it,” she said. “That I persuaded him that it was the right thing to do.”

  Stanislav lowered his chin. “You were not unpersuasive.”

  “But he was going to keep saying no?”

  Another hesitation.

  “Damn it. You can’t just mind control people into doing what you want. Or what your relatives want.” She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. Had he truly manipulated Tiang on her behalf?

  “It’s important to you,” Stanislav said.

  “Yes, but you can’t—when you do things like that to people, it’s why they don’t like or trust Starseers.”

  “He need not know.”

  “That doesn’t make it any more acceptable.”

  “You’ve used Abelardus to influence people to your gain before,” he pointed out.

  “To keep people from killing us, yes. Not for personal needs.”

  “You’re willing to risk a great deal for Leonidas’s personal needs.”

  “But not this,” she said stubbornly, groping for a better argument, a way to make the differences clear. She was right, wasn’t she?

  “My method of influencing someone is little different from how a woman uses sex appeal to manipulate a man.” One of his eyebrows rose.

  “I wasn’t doing that.”

  “You hugged him.”

  “Afterward. Out of gratitude. I’d send Beck in to wave brownies under his nose if I wanted to manipulate him. I was just trying to argue my side and convince him that my side was right.”

  Stanislav’s other eyebrow rose.

  Alisa glowered at him. She wasn’t wrong. She hadn’t been using sex appeal. How could anyone think her sexy right now? In her faded, oft-patched clothes, she was almost as rumpled as Tiang.

  “You wish me to undo my influence?” Stanislav asked.

  “Yes.” Except if he did, Leonidas wouldn’t get his surgery. “No.” She balled her fingers into a fist. “I don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you talk to Leonidas?”

  “And get his opinion on whether his surgeon should be coerced by a Starseer into operating on him? I can already tell you what he’ll say.” If she was going to do this, she couldn’t tell Leonidas about Stanislav’s dubious help.

  “See if he wishes to do it,” he suggested. “If not, then my coercions don’t matter.”

  Alisa huffed in exasperation, as much at the situation as at him. But he was right. If Leonidas di
dn’t want to go through with it, then there was little point in fighting with Stanislav or admitting to Leonidas what he’d done.

  She returned to her cabin and grabbed her comm unit. Her armor case hummed softly in the place usually occupied by her fold-down table. Hopefully, setting her water glass, snack plate, and hairbrush on it wouldn’t distract it from repairing the armor inside.

  “Mica?” she asked, comming her before Leonidas. If she had already learned where the shuttle had headed, the surgery would have to wait, regardless of what Leonidas wanted or what Stanislav had done. Alisa wouldn’t put Leonidas ahead of Jelena. She loved him, but she couldn’t do that.

  “Where’s my coffee?” Mica asked by way of a response.

  “I didn’t realize you had put in an order.”

  “I’m over here working through the night. I figured it would be assumed.”

  “I’ll make you some and come visit. Any progress with that console?”

  “There’s a circuit board dented in the shape of an android butt,” Mica said.

  “Is that a no?”

  “I’m working on it, but I haven’t been able to find replacement pieces. You can’t just hammer a hard drive back into shape the way you bang out Beck’s armor.”

  “Any chance of finding backup files somewhere on the station?”

  “I’m looking, but the Starseers don’t upload anything to the sys-net. It’s as if they don’t approve of their files mingling with grub files.”

  “I’m sure our files are as inferior as we are.”

  “No doubt.”

  “Is Leonidas there?” Alisa asked.

  “Yes, he’s watching the door while Beck and your new buddy bond.”

  “Bravo Six?”

  “You forgot to take him back to the ship with you. He’s missing you. He refers to you as Lady Captain.”

  “Tell him we’ll be glad to have him help us navigate the asteroid belt once we figure out where the shuttle went.”