“I didn’t want it to come to this, Thandie. No one else has to die. Step back and walk away. Let me leave in peace.” Saskia’s calm tone chilled Thandie and ran icy fingers down her nape.
“You killed Lopez. Why?”
“He locked me out of the bloody shuttles. I could have been far away from here by now, but it’s taken me every second to unjam what he did.”
She swallowed back the forming lump in her throat. A nearby console glowed with a combination of green and red lights. The shuttles were still offline, and Saskia must have been trying to override it.
“Did you also take the engines and A.I. offline?”
“A necessary price to guarantee my freedom from this farce. A Commodore whose chief concern is his cock, and a government that doesn’t care about the people beyond its closest borders. I found a new cause to serve, Thandie. You can come with me.”
Thandie stiffened. “Excuse me?”
“Come with me,” she said again. This time she lowered her gun to her side. “You’ll have the best cyberneticists at your disposal. Modifications the bloody Lexar won’t allow because of their stupid religious hang-ups. Think about your future and come with me.”
Behind her, one of the shuttles began its startup routine. The engine hummed to life.
“That’s treason.”
“So? It’s a small price to pay. What did they teach us at United Command? Sometimes, a little sacrifice is required for the greater good. Don’t you have a little sister in brain cancer treatment? She could benefit from their research,” Saskia pleaded to her. “They could have fixed her by now and allowed her to live a normal life.”
“No… Xander said—”
Saskia shook her head. “Don’t make me laugh. Vargas is a brilliant tool, but he won’t take the steps needed to further his work. Any intellectual knows you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.”
“Saskia, you sabotaged the ship and now we’re under attack.”
“They came for me, and the moment you allow me to leave, the attack will end. Don’t force me to kill you, too. You’re the perfect candidate, Thandie. Don’t you understand that we’re working for a cause willing to improve this galaxy?”
“They’re murderers, Saskia! You saw with your own eyes what they’ve done. They’re abducting innocent children and subjecting them to torture. If you’re with them, I’m not letting you get on that shuttle.”
“So be it.” Saskia lifted her arm and leveled her weapon at Thandie’s heart.
Chapter Eighteen
When Xander arrived at the medical bay, technicians had already received their assignments from Kathleen. They rushed to and from the stockroom to gather necessary supplies and made portable first aid kits. O’Reilly arrived out of breath, bearing an armload of nanite core gel. As the base of almost all medicinal products that went into the field, it served as the binding glue for bio-stitches and anti-toxins.
Xander’s hands began to cramp, so he stopped to sweep his fingers through his hair in frustration. A visceral headache pounded behind his eyes, but too much work remained to take a break. “Hand me another pack, O’Reilly. We’ll need about…”
“I’ve kept count, sir. We require one for every man aboard the ship and five for every medic. This marks ninety-three.”
“Xander, can you tell us what we’re walking into?” Hart finally demanded.
As the leader of the medical department, Oshiro had another task ahead of him. It became Xander’s duty to lead preparations for deploying their combat medics into a possible battle situation. And he didn’t believe in leaving his men in the dark. “All right,” he agreed quietly. All eyes fell upon him. “I don’t think there’s any harm in telling you what’s happening. Due to the severity of the situation, it’s to the benefit of everyone to remain completely aware. We have a possible hostage situation involving a marine thought to be killed in action.”
“Who?” Davis asked curiously.
“Kaiden Lockhart sent a Royal Marine distress signal to his brother while we were on Elora.”
Kathleen raised both brows. “No shit?”
“Three hours ago, Jem picked up an emergency distress signal from him and patched it to Chief Lockhart. He confirmed its authenticity. We’re looking at the recovery of a man who has been missing for five years and subjected to the unknown. We need to be on our game.”
She shook her head in pity and resumed her work at the station. “You have a thousand doses of nanomorphone left in quantity, Xander. You’re getting low.”
“What do we have as a substitute?”
Before she could answer, a quake tore through the Jemison and tossed bottles of antibiotics onto the floor. One shattered and the others rolled out of sight beneath the table.
“Shit,” Xander swore under his breath. “What was that?”
“Breach detected on level 3,” the ship’s artificial voice announced. “Breach detected on level 3.”
“Level 3 is engineering,” Xander muttered.
“All hands to the shuttle bay. The Jemison is currently under at—”
The glowing nimbus of color surrounding the PA system speaker dimmed and sparked out.
“Jem?” Kathleen called out.
“And now we’ve lost the main ship console,” Davis said. Her brow furrowed in concern. The lights flickered and died, but the backup generator activated and restored power to the medical wing.
“Never mind that. I think Jem tried to warn us of an attack,” Xander said.
Gareth skidded into medical. His flushed face glistened with perspiration. “The lifts dropped offline. I can try to get them goin’ again with the access panel in here.”
“Do it,” Kathleen said. She abandoned the lobby workstation and left it open for his use. “Fairchild, take O’Reilly and get down to engineering. They’re bound to have injuries.”
“You’ll have to use the maintenance hatches,” Gareth called over. He pried off the wall panel and pulled out his datagram to access the electrical module. A dozen red and green lights winked on and off, indicating a disturbance in the system. “It’s goin’ to take me a few moments to get this sorted.”
“Got it!” The two medics grabbed emergency kits and headed out.
What if it was planned? The terrifying revelation crossed Xander’s thoughts, running his blood cold with fear. “Gareth, do you think this is connected to our mission objective?”
“I hope to God it isn’t. Kai’s counting on us, and I’ll tear anyone apart who stands in my way. If… if that really is my brother out there sending a distress signal, we have to retrieve him.”
Xander set a hand on his shoulder. “We will. Calm down and do your job. Focus.”
Gareth nodded. “Thanks. I’m just… after thinking he was dead for all this time, for him to send our special code… It’s got to mean that it’s him, doesn’t it?”
“We’ll find out. Viljoen will have the assault squad ready for the retrieval by the time we arrive.”
Xander’s personal communicator shrieked to life. “Kruger to Medical. I have a man down in the hangar—” Thandie’s voice cut off abruptly before she could complete her message.
“What happened? Did communications drop?” Fear made Xander’s lungs squeeze like a vice constricting his ribcage. Not Thandie. Maybe her link dropped. Maybe systems are down across the board. His breath shook and his heart rate increased despite his attempt to maintain focus. Oshiro had taught him methods to remain under control, but for a moment they failed him. He was terrified of losing her.
“Shit,” Gareth swore. He left the panel and crossed to the medical terminal. “No, comms are still up and running, but Thandie’s is inactive. I can’t get a link to it.”
Xander lingered behind his friend, practically lurking over Gareth’s shoulder. “We need those lifts back up. I can’t evac wounded without them.” Or reach the hangar to Thandie.
“I’m doing everything I fucking can, Xander. Let me breathe! I know you’re worr
ied about her, but I can’t rush this.”
Given a man with a gut wound, Xander knew exactly what to do to save his life. Place him in front of an open series of connectors and power couplings, and he was all thumbs. He grabbed emergency gear while Gareth feverishly worked at the panel.
When the green light above the lift in their hallway blinked on, Gareth slammed the access panel shut. “Done.”
“Kathleen, report to Bishop and let him know the lifts are up and we have an issue down in the shuttle bay.”
The two men arrived on the lower decks within a minute, stepping off the lift as the Jemison rocked beneath another assault.
“Shit. Looks like the pirates.” Gareth directed Xander’s attention to one of the small viewports in the hull. “I recognize the build… That’s the flagship of the Black Jackals. Where the hell did they receive those kinds of upgrades?”
“What do you mean?” Xander asked.
“That’s a bloody military cannon.”
“Probably scavenged off a ship…”
“Face facts, Xander. If they scavenged a military cannon off a ship, that means one of ours was lost in battle. Have you heard reports to that effect?” the man asked grimly.
“I know. We’ll consider those ramifications later. Right now, we need to get to Thandie.”
The passageway took them directly to the hangar. The double doors remained dark and unresponsive, but that was the least of Xander’s worries. The sight through the window chilled him.
“What in the hell is going on in there? Why is Sassy holding a gun on Thandie?” Gareth asked in bewilderment. “Christ, that’s a body on the floor!”
“Thandie!” Xander banged on the glass.
His arrival drew Saskia’s attention to the viewing portal. Thandie capitalized on the distraction and charged. The two women struggled for control of the weapon until Thandie struck Saskia’s wrist, forcing her to drop it. The weapon discharged the moment it struck the floor. Sparks exploded off the nearest shuttle and left a charred, circular dent in the metal.
Xander held his breath, a helpless observer to the chaos beyond the unbreakable partition.
Gareth swore. “We’re locked out.”
“Can you hack into it?”
“Already on it,” Gareth muttered from the dataport beside the door. “With the ship offline…”
The two women exchanged blows, matching strikes and kicks. As a cyborg, Thandie had strength on her side, but Saskia weaved in and out of the fight to avoid her opponent’s powerful right hook, always coming back with two punches of her own.
Blood trickled in a crimson river down Thandie’s chin. She shrugged it off and maintained her guard.
“Gareth, what’s taking so long?”
“Workin’ as fast as I can, I swear to you. I have to get into the wiring to disable the magnetic locks.” His expression of intense concentration dissuaded Xander from questioning him further.
Xander’s pulse thundered between his ears, blood racing through his veins. A year and a half ago, he’d been completely helpless when news reached him of the ECF Orlando suffering losses during a meteor storm. When he had learned that the water supply lines burst and that his wife’s H2O tank had drained on the floor during transport, life had barely been worth living afterward. Despite all efforts by the flight attendants to keep her moist and comfortable, despite other passengers donating their glasses of refreshment, she had suffered an excruciating death—and he hadn’t been there to help her.
He’d never considered himself a praying man, especially not to the Lexar’s gods, but he hoped anyone listening heard his pleas.
Not Thandie, too.
Gareth growled and swore at the panel, while Xander paced in a circle, raking his hands through his hair.
Then Thandie’s cry of pain reached him through the shatterproof glass, and all control he’d carefully maintained for the past year since the Glenn came apart. Xander slammed his fist into the thick pane. Pain spiked up through his wrist but he ignored it and struck again. And again.
A crack fractured through the window.
Thandie hit the floor and rolled in a desperate bid to get away from her attacker. Saskia got ahold of the gun and fired.
“No!”
Glass shattered beneath his next strike. He barreled through the opening and sped across the hangar.
Xander collided with Saskia. Something pinched his bicep, and the gun flew from her hand.
Then his entire world became red rage and fury. He hit her again, and again, slamming and shaking Saskia against the floor. Hands took him by the shoulders and arms, desperately pulling at him. Voices shouted, barely penetrating the haze of fury.
“Xander!”
“Doc, Doc, you gotta stop! You’re killing her!”
“Vargas, let up, man!”
Faceless, familiar voices broke through the fog, though he recognized Viljoen on one side of him and Gareth on the other, both trying with little effect to pull him off. Other hands joined their efforts.
“He’s not budging!”
“Commander Vargas, you’re killing her.”
Abernathy grabbed him around the arm, and Viljoen tried to pry his fingers loose from Saskia’s throat. She wasn’t moving anymore, though he felt her weak and thready pulse beneath his thumb and knew an ounce of pressure would be all it would take.
Then the cool touch of familiar hands framed his face, and he glanced up to see Thandie crouched in front of him. “Xander, stop. It’s done. She can’t hurt me anymore.”
The rage receded and he came back to his senses, but his hands continued to shake long after he dropped Saskia to the hangar deck and rose to sweep Thandie into his arms.
Saskia gasped in a starved breath and huddled against the floor. Medical swarmed into the hangar as Viljoen took charge, barking out orders for restraints on Saskia and medical attention to Xander and Thandie.
All he wanted, all he needed, was her arms around him. Aware of her injuries, he hugged her close and buried his face against the top of her hair, just breathing her in.
Thandie pulled back and looked up at him. “Did she get you? When the gun went off, I swear my heart stopped.”
“I’m fine. She only grazed me.” He’d barely felt the bullet or even registered he was shot until he noticed blood trickling down his arm.
Full lighting returned online. “The ship has returned to online status. All services will resume shortly. Please standby,” Jem’s calm voice announced shipwide.
“C’mere. Let me look at you.” Xander led Thandie aside to check her over. One of the medical teams arrived but he waved them off. Sometimes, Xander preferred to do the work over delegating authority to anyone else. Thandie was worth that time.
“She broke your nose.” Saskia had also gashed Thandie’s forehead, but it was nothing a few nanites couldn’t set right. He drew his penlight and swiftly assessed her for lingering effects from the fight. “Pupillary reflex looks fine… how’s your head?”
“She killed Lopez,” Thandie whispered instead.
“I know, Thandie. But how are you?”
“Maybe I should ask you that.”
“I told you, my arm is nothing.”
“I’m not talking about your arm.”
He drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I’m good now. I lost control, and I’ll answer for that, but I’m in my right mind again.”
Thandie kissed his forehead and whispered, “Thank you for rescuing me.”
“Anytime.” He released his pent-up breath, opened his eyes, and smiled at her.
“Hart to Vargas. We need you in medical. Creswell lost footing in a maintenance shaft and jammed an abductor cable in his left cyberleg during the fall. I’d wrench it back in, but I’m likely to fubar the entire thing. We need you.”
Xander paused. He turned his face toward the link pinned to his lab coat. “We have injuries in the shuttle bay, Hart.”
“Go. I’ll be okay,” Thandie smiled fleetingly
and squeezed his hand. “Creswell needs you. Elizabeth can stitch me up.”
“I’ll check in on you when I’m done, I promise.”
Leaving Thandie in a state of need hurt him to his soul, but he trusted her care to his medical team and made his way back to the ward. With systems back online, the Jemison engaged engines and began evasive maneuvers. Xander had felt uneasy with the previous stillness of the ship and took reassurance from the familiar thrum of power coursing beneath his feet.
They may have rooted out and neutralized the traitor in their midst, but they still had one hell of a firefight ahead of them with the enemy.
And the enemy had military tech.
Xander and the other doctors had their hands full with injuries ranging from mild bruises to second- degree burns. Realigning Creswell’s damaged cybernetics hadn’t taken more than ten minutes, before he moved on to the other crewmen hurt during the explosion in engineering.
“I can’t believe they’re still attacking us.”
Xander glanced up from his work, occupied with applying a neat line of bio-stitches to a marine’s injured scalp. “Stay away from that viewport, Kath. It’s small, but if movies have shown me anything, it’s that we should never leave a blasted thing to chance.”
A few other members of the medical team nervously shot glances at the translucent portal to the world beyond their ship. Occasional bursts of cannon fire lit the open void of space like a thousand stars all combusting at once.
“Agreed,” Oshiro said from the mouth of the corridor that led into their open lounge. He and Davis approached from the examination rooms.
Kathleen reluctantly stepped away from the small window. “How’s our traitor?”
“Properly secured under an armed guard in the treatment room,” he replied.
“Hogwash is what it is. The bint hobbled our ship, killed one of our men, and now we’ve got to play nice with her?” Davis demanded.
O’Reilly snorted. “After the beating Doctor Vargas gave her, no one’s playing nice with her. You can’t interrogate corpses.”
Xander Page 20
