Starbreaker

by Amanda Bouchet

  Novalight’s short-term goal of creating super soldiers would be satisfied, and the long-term repercussions around the galaxy would be all to his benefit. That didn’t seem shortsighted to me, but maybe he only lacked foresight with things he kept close to the vest.

  Or with things he actually cared about in his sociopathic way, like Tess’s mother. Did he regret causing her death?

  “Finish the story,” I urged. “Before we go, I need to know. That day you took the Overseer’s AI… What happened?”

  She glanced at her watch again, pursing her lips. “When he left his office with that scientist—likely to murder him—the Overseer left the invention sitting on his desk, all set up with the special injector. Knowing him, he wanted to inject it alone, all gleeful and triumphant with some horrifying plan in mind.

  “I’d heard the instructions. The inventor had explained everything in detail, and as soon as I was alone again in the office, I got out from my hiding place and grabbed it. I thought about just taking it—saving it for a rainy day or something—but that didn’t seem permanent enough. I also didn’t want the Overseer to have it, to use it, the way he used everything and everyone else. I didn’t plan on becoming a rebel thief at the time, but even at eight years old, I knew the best way to keep it from him and safeguard myself was to appropriate it before he could.

  “So, I just picked it up and did it. I injected the AI into my palm before I could think about it too much or frighten myself out of it. My whole hand prickled and then went numb for a while. Long enough to really scare me, actually. I remember shaking so hard my teeth rattled. I knew AI in humans was totally illegal, although I didn’t know much about Wei-Peng yet. I was terrified I’d already started turning into a robot. I kept poking at my hand and not even feeling it.”

  Tess lifted her left hand between us and flipped it back and forth, staring at it like a foreign object. “The numbness spread to my wrist but then stopped. I had to get out of the office before the Overseer came back, so I put the empty injector in my pocket and snuck out. The coast was clear. The house never had many people in it. Mom and I weren’t really allowed to see anyone, unless we were involved in something official on Starbase 12 or accompanied somewhere by the Dark Watch. He isolated us as much as possible. I think it was this weird drive to keep Mom to himself—as if that would make her need him. I crept to the kitchen without crossing paths with anyone, dumped the injector into the garbage compactor, and mashed the shit out of it. Repeatedly.”

  I tried to picture the house where Tess first lived and came up with a big empty tomb, completely lifeless. Totally different from my childhood experience, with happy parents, cats sprawled on laps, music always playing, overflowing bookshelves, and no fear. It never even occurred to me to be scared of life until much later. That kind of naivety doesn’t last, but kids should have it. Tess obviously hadn’t.

  “I thought the lab was in his house. What about those scientists? The ones taking your blood? Or guards?”

  “The lab was underground with a separate entrance. The house was guarded, but the soldiers stayed at the doors. They didn’t move around the place.”

  “So, inside it was just…who?” There must’ve been help. I doubted the Galactic Overseer made his own bed or cooked meals for himself.

  “Mom, the Overseer, me, a chef and a housekeeper who didn’t live there, the occasional handyman, and Uncle Nate, if he was around.”

  “No cameras?”

  She snorted. “The Overseer was smart enough not to record what he was doing and saying, especially anywhere near his private office or that underground lab where he was illegally experimenting on his own daughter without her consent. His public image is what sustains him now that he can’t just blow up planets and blame it on war anymore. Any kind of generalized outrage wouldn’t stroke his ego, which is all he really wants from the entire universe.”

  “He wants to be liked. Needed, even.” Shocking as it was, his desire for affirmation came through in a lot of his moves. The paternalistic, overarching control of everything. The constant reminding that he’d brought us peace. Large-scale atrocities would tarnish his image, so he used pinpointed brutality to keep an entire galaxy in line. What better way to get everyone to like you than to get rid of anyone who didn’t? That could change a mind fast. Or at least keep most people from expressing their true opinions.

  Where did super soldiers fit into his plans? He already had the Dark Watch.

  “Have you noticed how most of his galactic broadcasts are from his home office, though? Making them feel nice and personal? For that, he brings in a camera.” Grimly mocking, Tess said, “He’s such a concerned leader. Such a family man, a poor widower who lost his wife and child. The galaxy is all I have left, and I’ll protect it. Don’t mind me while I strip away your fundamental rights. Preserve the peace!” She rolled her eyes.

  Hatred lodged deep in my throat with a chemical sharpness. He murdered his wife and thought he’d murdered his child. There were no words for that level of wrongness.

  “People buy into it. He can be convincing,” I said. Among other things, the Overseer was more of a liar than I’d ever suspected. Maybe he was even lying to himself.

  “Believe me, there isn’t a nanosecond that goes by when that man isn’t acting out of pure self-interest. He pretends well, but he can’t see a thing outside of himself.”

  In that case, it was even more terrifying to think what he might do next “for the good of the galaxy.” It seemed impossible to me now that most people across the eighteen Sectors were just going about their daily lives, keeping their heads down, and not worrying about it. Successfully ignoring all the fearful moments, accusations, and announcements that didn’t sit right. That had been me, too—before Tess.

  Tess glanced at her watch. “Shade, it’s time.”

  “I know, baby, but I want you to listen to me first. I don’t give a damn if you’ve got a computer in your hand. Or for a hand. It doesn’t matter to me at all.”

  “Okay.” She nodded like she wasn’t convinced. “I can try not to touch you with it—if you want.”

  How could she possibly think I’d reject any part of her? “You unlocked me.” I picked up her left hand and placed it flat over my heart. “Just like you open doors, you opened a new life for me. I’d imprisoned myself in a situation I hated more and more every day, but I didn’t see any way out of it. You broke me out. You freed me, just like you free books, and food, and cure-alls for people who need them and are denied that precious resource.”

  Tess’s fingers pressed against my chest. “You freed yourself, Shade. You chose.”

  “But you gave me the reason and the strength. Because you’re the strongest, bravest, most resourceful person I know.”

  Her gaze dropped to her hand over my heart and then rose again. “I’m pretty sure you’re stronger.” Her half-hearted joke redirected my words on purpose. She wasn’t getting away with that.

  “I’m not talking about muscle, Tess. I’m talking about the ability to make difficult decisions and carry through with them. That AI. The Black Widow. Leaving me on the Squirrel Tree when I deserved it. And I’m especially talking about the incredible inner strength it takes to forgive.”

  She drew in a sharp breath.

  “If we didn’t have to go, I’d show you exactly where I want your hands on me. Both of them. And I’d fucking lick starshine onto your skin.”

  Her eyes flared with interest. “No time. Frank is probably having kittens right now—no offense to Bonk.”

  I bent my head. I wasn’t leaving without a kiss. The moment our lips touched, Tess wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back, pressing her body into mine. The contact was fast, but fierce and true, and that was all I needed right now. We were still on the same page of the story I wanted to write together. Tess was mine, I was hers, and now I was ready for my first heist.

&nbs
p; Chapter 15

  TESS

  Another hundred meters and we’d be in. A multilevel plasma-shielded entrance loomed before us, several large platforms beyond the invisible barrier teeming with activity. Vessels, people, crates, and cargo. Personal belongings. We were just another ship in the crowd as the seventy-eight-story station housing about ten thousand soldiers switched crews. Family leave or a different assignment for those headed out. A new post for the ones arriving. Us—breaking and entering.

  Unless we bungled the security check.

  Shade eased the Queen Bee closer, maintaining his spot in line. Two ships to go, and then it was our turn. It was hard not to stare out the clear panel at the massive guns pointed in our direction. Firepower like that could cut this little cruiser in half. Decimate it in just the second it took for one of those high-powered energy beams to hit.

  Frank’s intel gave us the access code belonging to a maintenance crew arriving sometime today from a Dark Watch ground facility on Ewelock. That code was the reason we needed to maintain a tight schedule, get here sooner rather than later, and do our work quickly. If that new crew had already checked in, we were screwed. We’d have to run with our tails between our legs and hope a phaser beam didn’t blast us into oblivion. If they tried to check in while we were still inside…

  Yeah. That would be a problem, too.

  The plan was good but not foolproof. As far as heists went, this one balanced out at about medium-high risk, with a few too many variables orbiting the core of the operation for any of us to go into it entirely confident of our success. The payoff for the DT Mooncamps would be huge if we pulled it off. But there were no guarantees in this business, and suddenly, I wondered if I’d made a bad choice when Shiori needed me most.

  We moved up one more spot in line, and Frank started rattling off our jobs again. Going over the plan at least eight times before we actually got started was as much a part of Frank as his cheeky smile.

  I looked over my shoulder into the back section of the cruiser as he started his final rundown, pointing at Caeryssa first.

  “You’ve got the first unit. As soon as Tess detaches the food hold, use its thrusters to move away from the spacedock. You’ll have a monitor showing you nearby objects and distances, but it’s not like flying a ship. It’s a glorified hover crate, bigger and pressurized. Just avoid whatever’s out there and get enough free space around you for the Unholy Stench to pick you up.”

  Caeryssa nodded, just as she had the first several times. Her tightly pulled-back hair and angular features made her look austere and humorless, especially in that Dark Watch uniform. She smiled, ruining the dour vibe. “I got it, Frank. Relax.”

  Frank didn’t relax. If he’d had the room, he would have paced. “Asher?”

  “Here, Boss.” Asher’s voice came to us over the coms. “Like we agreed, I’m staying back until the time’s right. Don’t want to make anyone suspicious.”

  “Same.” Merrick spoke for the first time since our initial device check. We’d arrived outside of Ewelock together, he’d grunted, and that was that. “I’ve got the Stench on our starboard side. We should still be off the station’s close-range monitors.”

  There was way too much traffic around a big rock like Ewelock for the Dark Watch to worry about ships farther out, especially on a station turnover day with tons of activity. No one would give a second thought to a couple of cargo cruisers hovering in high orbit, probably just recharging.

  “Good. Good.” I hoped Frank looking like a bobblehead meant he was satisfied, because we were next in line once the ship ahead of us cleared out.

  I turned back around and peered through the clear panel. The midsized vessel in front of us didn’t go anywhere.

  “They usually this slow?” Shade’s fingers drummed against the long, strong thigh that filled out his Dark Watch uniform to perfection. I didn’t like seeing him in these clothes, though. It was too close to the reality of less than a month ago.

  “You tell me.” I shrugged. “I don’t usually come in through the front door.”

  His mouth flattened.

  Shit, I didn’t mean… “Shade—”

  He cut me off with a shake of his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I took a deep breath, trying not to look at those huge guns or think about the fact that I’d just thrown Shade’s past in his face again. He’d accepted a freaking AI inside my body. Why couldn’t I let this go?

  We still didn’t move up, so I turned back around. Frank had stopped bobbing his blond head up and down in order to nag Caeryssa again.

  “Asher will tell you when to reverse thrusters and stop. Hopefully, whoever’s monitoring the supply attachments from the station will just think it’s a normal pickup. We’ll be two cargo cruisers switching out some storage units. By the time they verify the schedule, or even figure out who’s supposed to be verifying it today, we should be long gone.”

  Caeryssa gave a simple thumbs-up, used to Frank’s game-day repetition. I pursed my lips. That was one of the variables I didn’t like. It seemed like a lot to hope for that organization would be that out of whack, but if we worked fast, we should be all right.

  Should. I caught my cheek between my teeth.

  “Once the Stench is done attaching you, I’ll be free of the security hub and ready for pickup. We’ll jump to Nickleback and get out of the Endeavor’s way. The Endeavor picks up Jax first. Same system: thrusters to get loose and make some room for yourself, reverse to stop, Merrick directing you and steering his ship so that everything lines up for the vacuum seal. Shade, welcome to your first galactic heist, by the way”—Frank levered up and reached around Shade’s seat to give him a hearty clap on the shoulder—“detaches the fourth cargo hold and does the same as everyone else. The Endeavor jumps ASAP, because somebody will’ve started asking questions by now.

  “Tess, you get back to the cruiser. Fucking own that Dark Watch uniform and look like you belong every step of the way. Kick some poor sap while he’s down, if you have to. You’ll blend right in. When you’re back on board the cruiser, screw waiting in line to leave. Just fly the fuck out as fast as you can and don’t get hit.”

  Turning forward again, I mumbled a confirmation, my mind already filtering through the hundreds of things that could go wrong with this. Teaming up was a little complicated to begin with, and Jax and I were working with a whole new crew now. We’d never been through a heist before with Shade or Merrick, and now Sanaa and Gabe were part of the mix. It felt like a fumble somewhere, from someone, was inevitable.

  The midsized vessel in front of us eased forward onto one of the platforms. Second-thought jitters hit me with a vengeance just when it was too late. Our outside com button flashed, and Shade reached forward to open the channel to the security base.

  I had to clench my fists in my lap to keep from grabbing his hand and snatching it back. We still had the Bridgebane info drop. Shiori to save. Reena Ahern to break out!

  Shade hit the button. A thousand volts of electricity zapped my heart and sent it kicking against my ribs so hard my breath stopped. Adrenaline flared out. This was it. No turning back. Full speed ahead. Oh great Powers. Crap!

  “Ewelock Security Hub to incoming cruiser,” a bored male voice droned over the now-open channel. “State your purpose and code.”

  “Maintenance crew 32 coming in for duty from down below. Security code 149 354 990 Beta Echo Charlie.” Shade severed the sound from our side.

  I looked at him, a little wide-eyed. Wow, he’d kept his voice really even. I didn’t think he was as calm as he sounded, but he’d done a good job at pretending.

  A long pause followed. No answer.

  Shade glanced at me just as my back started to sweat. I shook my head at his unspoken question. No, I didn’t think a response from the station should take this long, either.

  My unease building, I swive
led in my seat, turning around to gauge the rest of the crew’s reactions. Behind me, Jax sat with his shoulders rolled forward, his forearms braced on his thighs, and his tense back all hunched up over him. His narrowed gaze never left the outside com button. Frank half stood behind Shade’s seat, his blue eyes the only color in his face as he watched the station’s entrance with a worried scowl. In a third-row pull-down seat behind him, Caeryssa started to twitch. Her legs launched into rapid-fire nervous bounces that made me want to leap into the back and sit on her. I could practically see the perspiration beading on their foreheads.

  I swung back around, a ball of dread ballooning in my windpipe. Holy Sky Mother, what were we thinking?

  Frank was going to hit one food hold during the moving day confusion and take off with it. Now we were stealing four? With two unarmed cargo cruisers coming into the line of fire? And five of us going onto the Ewelock hub, with me left there alone?

  My breath sawed in and out. Only an idiot wouldn’t be scared shitless, right? But didn’t big jobs always feel like this? A tangle of sweat and fear and near-regret with the potential reward keeping you too invested in the process to back out? If we pulled this off—when we pulled it off—we’d have a whole lot to show for our efforts. Food for the DT Mooncamps for months. That was where I needed to focus.

  My breathing turned easier, and my pulse started to even out. No one had fired on us. Nothing was technically wrong yet.

  “This doesn’t feel right.” Shade’s mouth drew down as he lifted a hand to his controls and got ready to drop us out of line and run.

  The outside com flared to life again. One bright flash undid all my calming work. Nerves clanged inside me like cymbals and jarred a hard beat from my heart.

  “Crew 32, did you mean Beta Echo Echo Charlie?” the same uninterested voice asked.