The Iron Admiral: Deception

by Greta van Der Rol

  “What’s wrong with her?” The words clanged through a swirling red mist of fear and nausea.

  “Nothin’. She’s acting.”

  Her body burned. She gasped for air and the pain in her stomach was unbearable. She vomited abruptly, explosively and they let her go as she groaned, her body convulsing in violent spasms. She vomited again, felt her body empty itself and smelled the stench of urine and feces and death.

  ****

  Sean looked down at Allysha writhing and moaning in the filthy dirt, one shaking hand brushing at the vomit on his shirt. “Ally.” The stink was horrible, made worse in the close confines of the passage. Panic pounded in his brain. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her.

  Orac knelt beside her, checked her pulse, then stood, dusting his hands.“We’ve got to go, O’Reilly.

  They’re death throes. She’s dying.”

  Dying. She couldn’t be. “What went wrong? What was in that dart?”

  “Dunno,” said the other man. “It was just supposed to make her more manageable. Maybe she’s allergic. Come on. The fighting’s stopped. They’ll be coming back.” He tugged at Sean’s sleeve.

  “Hadn’t we better make sure?” Orac pointed his weapon at Allysha’s head.

  “No.” Sean pushed his hand down. “You’ve got the machine. She didn’t have time to get anything. And the last thing I want is the troops down here.”

  He took a last look at Allysha’s inert body. “Sorry it had to end this way, Ally,” he whispered. “So very sorry.”

  He turned on his heel and hurried with the others along the dark tunnel.

  ChapterTwenty-Four

  The landing seemed to take forever as the gunship slowed and lowered gently onto its pads on the deck.

  Saahren, eyes narrowed at the blast of escaping gases, stood at the bay entrance, Trooper Commander Eildon and Senior Commander Ernshaw on either side and just behind him. Even before the engines wound down the med team appeared, with the sled carrying Allysha. He hardly glanced at it, his eyes on the officers coming behind, murder in his heart. Somebody would pay for this; pay for her. Somebody.

  He forced himself to be calm and cold.

  Bristol, as the most senior, stepped forward and saluted.

  “Well?” asked Saahren after he had returned the salute.

  Bristol licked his lips, defensive and angry as well as nervous. “They don’t know what’s wrong with her—”

  “I have already been advised of Miss Marten’s medical condition, Lieutenant. I want to know how it happened.”

  “She shouldn’t have been there,” said Bristol, frowning. “She was in no condition.”

  “We have had this conversation, Bristol.” Saahren spoke quietly, giving his voice an edge. Idiot.He’s wasting my time . He held the man’s gaze, then very deliberately turned to Lieutenant Sakara, and pointed at her. “Lieutenant Sakara—you tell me what happened.”

  “There were two rooms with info systems, Sir,” she said, nervous but clear. “Allysha… Miss Marten sent us in pairs to the two rooms and supervised our work. Then she found out about another machine in another room, the room in the cellar, so she went to work on that.”

  “Was she alone?”

  “No, Sir. I think Lieutenant James went with her, Sir.”

  “And was that the last time you saw her?”

  “Yes, Sir. Until they found her in the ptorix tunnel.”

  The filthy, dank, ptorix tunnel, lying in vomit. “Lieutenant James.”

  “Sir!” James stepped forward and saluted.

  He looked calm enough, except for the nervous tension around his eyes. And nervous he should be.

  “You accompanied Miss Marten?”

  “Yes, Sir, with one of my troopers.”

  “What happened next?”

  “The building came under attack, Sir,” answered the young man, chin up, back straight. “I deployed my force to defend the property.”

  “You deployed your force,” echoed Saahren softly.

  “Yes, Sir.” James swallowed, the skin around his eyes tightening.

  “You left Miss Marten on her own?”

  “Yes, Sir.” The words came out strained, muted. “But I locked the door, Sir. Nobody could get in.”

  “But somebody did.”

  “There was a ptorix doorway. We… I didn’t notice it. They must have come in through there.”

  Saahren sucked air into his lungs, shoving down the anger simmering in his gut. Self-control. He had to keep his self-control. “Lieutenant James, when you were sent on this task, I personally gave you a very specific instruction, in this very place.” He pointed at the deck. “What was that instruction?”

  James took a deep breath and replied, “That Miss Marten was not to be left alone, Sir.”

  Saahren nodded, calling on all his will power to keep his rage from boiling over. “Now tell me, Lieutenant, what part of ‘not to be left alone’ did you not understand?”

  James sweated. The entire hangar bay seemed to be holding a collective breath. “I… Sir, I made a decision on the ground. She told us to withdraw, to go and do what we were trained for and let her get on with her work. It made sense.” He swallowed again, looking wretched.

  “So you ignored a specific order from me and obeyed the instruction of a civilian.”

  “Sir, I thought—”

  “You thought? Not for long and not very well. Didn’t it occur to you that you were being attacked because of who you were sent to guard? Didn’t you even think to leave one trooper? One?” He raised a rigid finger.

  “She wouldn’t let me, Sir,” James whispered. “Said she’d just get in the way.”

  “Oh, get out of my sight.” His fingers twitched. He wanted to hit, punch, shake. “Commander Eildon, I’ll want a report.” He rounded on Ernshaw. “I’ll want a report from you, too. You have an hour for a preliminary investigation. Include an estimate of how much more time you’ll need. I amnot happy , gentlemen.”

  He returned the salutes automatically and strode away, fists clenched, before he hit somebody. James.

  He’d love to bury a fist in the incompetent fool’s face. But he couldn’t. Little enough consolation that his displeasure would percolate down and James would suffer at his own commander’s hand. If she died…

  if she died.

  He headed for the med center.

  The nurse sitting at the reception desk started when he walked in and dropped a couple of sheets she was holding onto the floor.

  “Sorry, Sir,” she muttered as she bent to retrieve them.

  “Fetch me Doctor Tam,” he said as gently as he could. He was used to the consternation that his presence often caused but right now it irritated him.

  The doctor appeared through the doorway of the med lab, wiping his hands on a towel that he tossed with expert accuracy into a destructo unit. Thank goodness it was Tam and not some over-awed young idiot.

  “She’s a very, very sick girl,” Tam said without preamble. “We’ve pumped out her stomach contents and placed her on internal medication to clean up all the toxicity in her body. I have to tell you, her life’s hanging by a thread. If we turned off the life support systems she’d be gone in half an hour.”

  Saahren nodded, hoping his anguish didn’t show. “Do you know what happened?”

  “We’ve been conducting tests. I understand she had two lots of pain suppressant in a few hours, as well as treatment for a broken arm. Normally, that’s not a major issue but the people who tried to kidnap her drugged her as well. The drugs clashed and the compounded effects have left her very ill indeed.” He hesitated. “For what it’s worth, that was probably why they abandoned her. She would have been in a lot of pain and there would have been convulsions, vomiting and diarrhea.”

  That pointless word ‘if’ arose as it always did. “And how is she now?”

  The doctor rested one buttock on the edge of the desk. “We’ve cleaned her up and attached her to machines. You know the story. You can see he
r if you want. But she won’t know you’re there.” His tone

  was businesslike but the look in his eyes was compassionate.

  “I know. I’d just like to see her for myself.”

  Tam gestured at the door and Saahren stepped inside.

  Allysha lay peacefully on her back as if asleep, her face so pale it appeared almost bloodless, her luxuriant dark hair lank and lifeless against the pillow. By her side, the life support systems monitored her vital signs and kept her body working, the silence broken only by the periodic clicks of the system.

  “We’ve injected medibots to clean up the toxins,” said Tam. “If we got there in time, she’ll be okay. If we didn’t…” he shrugged.

  “How will you know?”

  “See here?” Tam pointed at one of the monitors. “This tells us the level of toxicity. While it’s below this level, she can stay alive—although the machines are keeping her functioning. If the reading drops below here, she can function on her own; if it gets above here, not even the machines can keep her going.

  There’ll be nothing left to function.”

  “Will there be side effects?”

  “No. If she recovers, she’ll just need some time to get her strength back. Make no mistake, this experience will take its toll.”

  Saahren brushed a lock of hair from her forehead with his fingers and swallowed the lump in his throat.I love you, Allysha. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me now . “Keep me informed.”

  ChapterTwenty-Five

  Saahren’s personal comlink woke him from sleep. Doctor Tam. He sat up, a knot in his stomach.

  “Saahren.”

  “She’s stabilized, the toxicity is dropping and she’s beginning to stir,” Tam said. “She’s over the worst of it.”

  “Thank you.” The relief flooding through him turned his muscles to jelly. Scrubbing a hand through his hair he swung his legs out of the bed. The awful fog that had surrounded him for the past two days lifted slightly. “Can I see her?”

  “Certainly. Just don’t expect miracles.”

  He pulled on his uniform and made the trip to the med center in record time. She did look brighter; not so pale or so silent. He slid into the chair beside the bed. Her fingers twitched; he took her hand in his, her skin cool and smooth in his grasp. Had he seen her eyelids flicker?

  “Allysha?”

  Her eyelids fluttered once, twice. A slight frown, a quick glance around and then a tiny smile as she recognized him. “Hi. What…?” Her voice was a croak, a whisper, fragile as new frost.

  “You’re back onArcturus . You’ve been very, very sick.”

  “Mm.” She frowned again. “Yes. Down there. In a tunnel.”

  “How do you feel now?”

  “Okay.” She closed her eyes then opened them again. “Tired.” A pause. “Are the others okay?”

  “Yes.” Almost choking with relief, he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “Did you see who did this to you?”

  She nodded and a look of pain flashed across her face. “Is there some water?”

  He took the bottle from the unit next to the bed and helped her sip a little.

  “It was Sean.” She spoke so softly he had to listen carefully.

  O’Reilly. Again. He swallowed down the anger. He’d have the bastard. Soon.

  “He was waiting for me.”

  “Waiting for you? How?”

  “They set Astin up. When they knew I was onArcturus . Sean knew I’d figure it out. He waited for me to find him.”

  “You shouldn’t have been left alone.”

  “They would’ve killed the trooper,” she murmured. “It wouldn’t have made any difference.”

  Maybe not, but even so. It would be some time before Lieutenant James was trusted with an assignment again.

  “They?” he asked.

  She moved her head in a barely discernible nod. “There were three of them.” She paused and added, “They took the computer.”

  “Yes. We didn’t get much. But we didn’t lose you.”

  The weapons cache, of course, but no information on the distribution network, no names. He found it hard to care.

  “Ah.” Her smile was weak. “I might be able to help you there. Is my comlink here?”

  “Yes.” He lifted it from the desk.

  “Select you. You’ll have to do it manually.”

  Frowning, puzzled, he picked his name from the list.

  “Here’s your data,” she said in his head. And suddenly in his implant he had the network and the names.

  “How…?”

  “I loaded it into my implant when I was checking the machine out.”

  “You’re wonderful, you know that?” He brushed the side of her cheek with the backs of his fingers. At least they’d get something from this debacle. He hoped it was worth the price. “I’ll get this to Ernshaw.”

  She lay with her eyes closed while he used his implant to connect to Ernshaw. “Start your best and most trusted analysts on this, SenComm,” he said, “and get it to Admiral Leonov, code five.”

  For a moment Saahren thought she’d gone to sleep again but then she asked, “Has anyone told Jingsu yet?” He saw her pain, deep in her eyes.

  “Vlad did it himself.”

  She nodded again, still sad but thoughtful. “They won’t do anything awful like throw her out of her accommodation?”

  “No. She’ll be repatriated to her home planet or wherever she wants.”

  Her eyelids were beginning to droop.

  He took her hand again, engulfing it in his. “I’m sending you back to Malmos. The doctor says you’ll recover but you need rest and air and comfort. You won’t get those here. When you wake up again, you’ll be far away. But you’re always in my thoughts and my dreams. I’ll come to see you as soon as I can.” He could still see a sliver of green under her lashes. He turned her hand over, his eyes locked on hers, and pressed his lips to the mound of her thumb, kissing it as he would her mouth, willing her to understand.

  She smiled; her fingers flexed around his cheek briefly before her eyes closed completely.

  Saahren sat beside her for a few more minutes, watching her breathe and collecting his thoughts. She looked peaceful now, but the bruises were still there, her lip still swollen. Surely the end was in sight.

  O’Reilly. Now there was a man he was most anxious to meet. He hoped O’Reilly would refuse to divorce her. Then he could kill him.

  He leaned over the bed and kissed Allysha’s forehead. Never again; he never, ever wanted to be so close to the agony of losing her.

  ChapterTwenty-Six

  Allysha sat on the grass and flicked pebbles into the sea, thirty meters below. The waves rolled in from the horizon, glittering lines across a crinkled carpet, until they reared up and toppled into foaming battering rams that slammed head-first into the cliffs. Boom. So violent and yet so strangely calming. A slight breeze, redolent of ocean, stirred her hair. She sat here often, alone yet safe within the confines of the hotel, a refuge owned and maintained by the Fleet to enable traumatized members to recuperate. She felt stronger now, strong enough to do something. This morning she’d swum ten laps in the swimming pool without feeling exhausted.

  The trouble was very definitely what to do.

  She’d had plenty of time to think while she lay, weak and drained, on her bed, staring at the ceiling. At first she didn’t even think, just drifted like flotsam in an ocean of dreams. Events replayed. She could stop them and rewind them in her mind. What happened here? What had she thought there?

  Okay, she was prepared to admit that she had feelings for Chaka Saahren. Okay, she loved him. She could even think of him as Chaka, now. In her mind, she rested her forehead against his chest in warehouse 30-Hector. Safe. She could smell him, feel the texture of the uniform against her skin. He’d visited her in hospital a few weeks ago, sitting beside her bed, tall and dark. They’d only let him stay for ten minutes and she’d been half asleep most of the time. He’d held h
er hand the whole time and he kissed

  her forehead before he left. Flowers were always there at her bedside. Only now the note was different.

  No name, just ‘I love you’.

  The surf boomed. A particularly large wave shattered itself on the unseen rocks and salt spray rose above the grass.

  The grand admiral, now. That was a different matter. Thoughts of Jossur still tugged at her mind. She was prepared to accept that all the facts she could find supported Saahren’s account that the planet had not been bombarded from space. But her father had still died there, along with millions of innocent ptorix,

  even if it was a legitimate military target. And what about Xanthor? He’d said, at a public meeting in Shernish, that the Confederacy Fleet had bombarded Jossur. Why?

  A hunting seabird floating on the air currents folded its wings and plummeted into the ocean to emerge a moment later with something wriggling in its claws. The bird struggled into the air on pumping wings and canted east along the cliffs.

  And what about Sean? Allysha couldn’t bring herself to believe that he wanted to hurt her. Twice he’d tried to… what? Catch her? Take her somewhere? Three, if you counted Tisyphor and that fellow—what was his name—Tepich. Yes, she’d been gravely ill the last time, but that was because Sean

  and his friends had drugged her when she was already drugged. A soporific, the doctors had said. It wasn’t supposed to kill her. She wondered what they wanted from her. Some sort of systems work, obviously. That was all she had to offer.

  It didn’t matter anyway. She wanted a divorce. Saahren’s—Chaka’s—face drifted into her mind. She picked at a piece of grass with her fingers. He wouldn’t be content with anything less than marriage.

  He’d

  said so, on Tisyphor and after the Fleet Ball. He’d also said he wouldn’t kill Sean, but that Sean had better sign the divorce papers when the time came. She had no illusions about what might happen if Sean was stupid enough to refuse. She might love Chaka but he wasn’t ‘nice’. And marriage… marriage to a grand admiral? He routinely chatted with presidents and ministers, commanded millions of people. And she, Allysha Marten, was just a gifted techo from an edge planet. Was that what she wanted? She wished he really was just Sergeant Brad Stone; or even Senior Commander Brad Charters. Then it would be easy.