by Sara King
Mari wrung her hands in front of her, shaking her head, so Dallas shut Tommy’s door and turned on her. “What’s wrong?” she demanded. “Spit it out.”
“Those who survive the wash…” Mari began, sweating, “…they are changed.”
“Then, believe me, it was for the better,” Dallas said. “He’s not such a cranky old bastard. Hell, it wouldn’t bother me at all if he got a few synapses re-wired… As long as he doesn’t attack me or my crew, I figure Juno did us a favor by brainwashing him. Besides, he survived the first time she tried. Some special training or something. He’s fine.”
Mari shook her head and turned away, muttering.
Despite Mari’s insistence that there was something wrong with Tommy, he quickly adapted to the ship’s routine, sitting with Dallas with her shift. After some initial nausea, he began eating again, developing a ravenous appetite in the first four hours after waking up. After making sure his brain patterns were stable, Dallas even let him take over for her for a few hours at a time. She judged him to be perfectly healthy and dismissed Mari’s warnings as superstition.
When they reached T-9, however, he refused to leave the ship.
Dallas, overly possessive of Retribution now that she had lost it twice, found it too difficult to leave anyone alone onboard, but Tommy stoutly refused to enter the Hub. She tried everything, even threatening to fire him, but he would not get within twenty feet of the air-lock. She ended up settling for locking him in his room and closing down the bridge with a passcode. Mari she left in the regen room studying a memchip on Utopi customs. Only then was she able to join Athenais and Ragnar for a planetside jaunt to celebrate.
They started in the Silk district. Ragnar and Athenais went to dinner at one of the many fine restaurants while Dallas window-shopped along the busy avenues. It wasn’t quite the fashion district on Millennium, but it was exhilarating nonetheless. Athenais had given her four months of pay for the entire Xenith fiasco and it took her all of two hours to spend it.
“You think you got enough stuff, there?” Athenais said when she and Ragnar came to find her. “You’d think you were buying for an orphanage or something.”
“An orphanage wouldn’t wear Wei Tei,” Ragnar pointed out. “Isn’t that a little pricey, Dallas?”
“How’s it look?” she asked. She pulled the real-wool hat over her head, beaming. “I got it in blue, too.”
Athenais rolled her eyes. “It’s your money, Fairy.”
“That’s ‘Captain,’” Dallas corrected.
The old bat stiffened like she was going to retort and Dallas raised a single brow. Then Athenais’s face twisted in a grimace. “Fine, Captain. It’s your money,” the old broad said. “Now hurry up and pack that stuff on the shuttle. I wanna check out The Shop ‘fore they move it again.”
They rode the shuttle to the Forgotten District and Athenais paid the shuttle driver extra to wait outside. Dallas found it hard to tear her eyes off of her purchases, perched precariously in the back seat of the shuttle.
“What about my stuff?” she asked as they were entering The Shop. “What if he drives off with it?”
“That fat old bastard couldn’t even fit his fist into one of those blouses, Dallas,” Ragnar said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But what if somebody steals them? Knocks him out and runs off? That’s four months worth of—”
“You son of a whore!” The shout silenced the entire Shop, bringing all conversation to an abrupt halt.
Dallas blinked, staring at Athenais. The pirate’s gaze was fixed on someone in the back of the room. She stepped out of the way as Athenais brushed past her, stopping at a table in the far corner.
“How’d you get out of there, you little weasel?”
Dallas took another look at the utterly placid little man in the corner. Her heart fluttered. “Rabbit!” she cried, gleeful.
Rabbit scanned the silent room and cleared his throat. “Stowed away in one of their drug shipments as soon as I realized Juno wasn’t going to listen to reason.”
“You just left us there?” Athenais demanded.
“I knew you could handle yourselves.”
The space pirate slammed her hand down on the table in front of Rabbit. Rabbit looked up and held Athenais’s gaze, unwavering. A tense moment of silence followed before Athenais bellowed, “Giggles! Beer for everyone. On me.” The Shop roared with cheers and spacers shoved each other aside getting to the bar.
“But I wanted Scotch,” Dallas muttered, watching the line form.
“You ready for this?” Athenais asked, glancing from Dallas to Ragnar to Rabbit.
“More than ready,” Ragnar said, his eyes cold.
“Then let’s do it.” Athenais raised her weapon and shot the lock off the door. Then she kicked it in, eliciting a feminine scream from the other side.
Governor Black stood in his sleeping robes, a toothbrush still in his hand. Ragnar rushed him and shoved him to the ground, pressing the barrel of his pistol to the Governor’s skull.
“Watch the door, Captain York. You won’t want to see this.” Athenais walked up to Black and squatted in front of him. Leaning in close, gun to his temple, she smiled and said, “Remember me, Governor?”
“I don’t know who you are!” the Governor whimpered. “Please, take anything you want. Just don’t hurt—”
Athenais, furious that he didn’t even remember her, hit him with the butt of her rifle. “It’s Athenais, you stupid bastard. You killed my crew and sent me to Orplex.” She narrowed her eyes. “Or maybe I need to jog your memory.”
“Athen…” The Governor’s voice dropped away as Ragnar pushed his face further into the carpet. “Oh, God.”
“That’s right,” Athenais said. “Make your peace now. You’re not going to survive the night.” She stood and walked over to an exquisite carving of a duck in blue stone. “This is good. Did you buy it with my money?”
“Please, just listen,” the Governor whimpered. “I can explain—”
“Shut up!” Athenais snapped. Ragnar mashed the Governor’s face deeper into the floor, stifling further comments. She moved to the window and glanced out the curtain. “Did you know, Governor Black, I worked as an assassin once? Was good at it, too.” She moved away from the window and walked to the bookshelf, taking an ancient text from the shelf and examining it. “Gone with the Wind. You’ve got good taste, for a backstabbing viper.” Then she recognized the little crack in the spine and her eyes narrowed. “I should’ve known.” She held up the book. “You took this from Howlen, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry,” Governor Black cried. “Please, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know—”
“Didn’t know I’d come after you?” Athenais interrupted, waving the book at him. “Didn’t know I’d get off of Erriat?”
“It’s not as bad as you think!” the Governor said, his voice muffled by the carpet.
Athenais’s face contorted and she charged over to him and ripped his head from the floor by his hair. “Not as bad as I think?! So you didn’t backstab me, destroy my ship, kill my crew, and send me to the biggest Hell in the Quad?!”
“No!” Black whimpered.
Athenais yanked harder. “No what?! Am I missing something?”
“They’re alive!” Governor Black sobbed.
“Who’s alive?!” Athenais shouted into his ear, threatening to tear his head from his spine.
“Your crew! Oh God your crew!”
Athenais dropped his head and stood. “He’s lying. Shoot him.”
“No!” the governor screamed. “They’re all alive, I swear!”
“You lying bastard.” Athenais lifted her rifle, aiming at Black’s terrified face.
“Please!” Black screamed. “I can take you to them! Right now!”
“I saw you blow up Beetle, Governor,” Athenais said across the length of her rifle. “How stupid do you think I am?”
“I thought you might try to betray me,” Black cried. “I had Beetle boa
rded and took your crew as collateral. Then I realized I could make even more off of the shifters. I needed the money. I’ve got gambling debts, a mortgage, a family…”
“Good thing they’re on vacation or they’d have to watch their daddy’s brains get splattered across his designer nightgown,” Athenais said.
“Oh God,” Governor Black whimpered. “Please. They’re alive. I can pay you back for your ship. Just let me show you!”
“You’re a damned moron if you think that’s gonna work on me twice, you two-bit sleazebag! There’s one place for people like you! Underground!” She pressed the barrel of her rifle against the Governor’s temple, furious.
“Attie.”
Athenais took several long breaths, sighted down her gun on Governor Black’s skull, then lowered her weapon, scowling at Rabbit.
“What if he’s telling the truth?” Rabbit was frowning at the Governor, who was now sitting on the floor, hugging his knees and crying.
“Oh, come on,” Athenais scoffed. “You don’t actually believe…”
“What if it’s true?”
Athenais scowled down on the huddled form, then bent and grabbed his hair in a gloved fist. “You listen to me, Governor. You’re about twenty seconds from an energy blast between the eyes. If you don’t answer every question to my satisfaction, I will kill you, you understand?”
“Yes! Oh God yes!”
Athenais released his head roughly and the Governor collapsed into pitiful sobs.
“Now,” Athenais said, “Where are they?”
“The city jail,” the Governor whimpered. “They’ve been there ever since I blew up Beetle.”
“I saw the bodies you showed me, Governor. Explain that.”
“Reproductions,” the Governor whined. “I boarded Beetle illegally and kidnapped people. Elections were coming up! I couldn’t get involved in a scandal! Five missing spacers… My publicist told me I had to cover it up, make it look like an accident. We hid them, got rid of you, and fudged the Docking Authority report, made it look like that stubborn S.O. officer did it. That gave us an excuse to board his ship and confiscate the shifters. It was great publicity. The people of this planet love to see the Utopis brought down a peg.”
Athenais glanced up at Ragnar, desperately fighting the surge of hope that was rising in her breast. “Take us to them.”
“Yes!” the Governor cried, jumping up. “Thank you!”
“Keep in mind,” Athenais warned, “If you try to run, try to get help, alert the guards, anything, I will kill you first. Understand?”
“Yes, I do, thank you!” The Governor hurried to the door.
Athenais and Ragnar followed him, guns at ready.
“Why’s he not dead?” Dallas demanded in the hallway outside.
“He’s taking us to my crew,” Athenais said.
The Governor nodded vigorously.
“What, Beetle’s crew?” Dallas gave her a look of disbelief. “And you believe him?”
“He’s dead if he’s lying,” Athenais pointed out.
“He was dead as soon as you two walked into the room,” Dallas said. “What’s he got to lose?”
“Nothing,” Ragnar said. “Let’s go, Governor.”
The Governor had them all pile into his shuttle and drove them into the heart of the city. He stopped outside the city jail, babbling his gratitude. Athenais left her gun with Dallas in the shuttle and Ragnar followed the Governor, his pistol pressed into his back. He led them up the stairs and into the front of the building, where the weapons-detector went off at Ragnar’s gun. There was a tense moment where the guard drew his pistol and demanded that they surrender their weapons, but it passed when the Governor claimed that she, Rabbit, and Ragnar were his bodyguards.
“They’re down here,” the Governor said, leading them down several flights of stairs and through dark mazes of cells.
“I don’t like this,” Ragnar muttered to Athenais.
Athenais was also feeling uncomfortable. The rows of bars were making her hair stand on end. She hated prisons. She’d had too much experience on the wrong side of the bars.
“Here we are,” the Governor said.
Athenais stiffened as he flipped on the light, expecting a trap.
There were no guards lurking in the shadows, no firing squad training their guns on them. Athenais sucked in a breath at the four pale-faced prisoners that looked up at them, shielding their eyes from the sudden light.
“Took long enough, Captain,” Goat muttered. “We was beginnin’ to think you forgot ‘bout us.”
“And I was just starting to get comfortable,” Dune complained, getting off a cot.
“Speak for yourself,” Squirrel said. “No offense, Goat, but I think I lost my sense of smell.”
Athenais let out the breath she was holding.
“What happened to your arm, Captain?” Pete asked, staring at the fingers jutting from her shoulder. “That’s downright creepy.”
“Long story,” Athenais said, slumping against the bars. “Really long story.” She gestured at the cell door. “Let ‘em out, Governor. I just got word they all just received government pardons.”
Governor Black frowned, looking around them in bafflement, obviously trying to find the source of her information. “They…did?” Then, at Athenais’s raised eyebrow, he blinked and babbled, “Oh, of course they did! Such upstanding citizens… What a huge misunderstanding!” He gave a nervous laugh and reached for his personal passcard, which he swiped at the door entrance.
As the Governor hurried to enter the cell release codes, Rabbit sidled closer, watching His Excellency with a befuddled frown. “Did he just say, ‘upstanding citizens?’”
“I think he did,” Athenais said.
“Okay,” Rabbit said, shaking his head. “That cinches it. I’m taking a vacation.” He pulled out his personal comm and started talking to someone about goats and masonry crews.
“Come on,” Athenais said, as her bedraggled crew filed out of the cell in front of Governor Black, “Let’s go get us a drink.” She turned and led them from the building, following Rabbit.
“I know you just saved my ass,” Goat said, as they walked out, “but you think you could throw something over that thing in your shoulder?” He licked his lips, grimacing at the inflamed and puffy fingers jutting from her shoulder socket. “Yeah. Uh. It’s really grossing me out, Cap’in.”
Athenais licked her lips, remembering her promise to the airheaded little ditz. In the silence that followed, she caught Rabbit pausing in the hall in front of her, giving her a raised eyebrow. Clearing her throat uncomfortably, she muttered, “It’s Carrot until we get off T-9.”
Everyone in the hall stopped and looked at her.
Athenais ducked her head, her throat burning as she cleared it again. “Captain York said so. Until I get a new Beetle retrofitted and get us the hell outta here, I owe her for saving my life.”
“Carrot,” Dune said, at the same time Squirrel blurted, “Did you just call her Captain York?”
“Yeah,” Goat said, “you feelin’ all right, Cap’in?”
Rabbit, who had stalwartly insisted that Athenais hold up her end of the bargain, once he’d learned of it, cleared his throat pointedly.
“I mean Carrot,” Goat corrected, his crooked teeth showing in a huge grin. “You know,” he said, sounding almost thoughtful, “that’s got a real ring to it.”
Face burning, Athenais shoved through them and went to wring the little twit’s neck.
