Crossfire (Star Kingdom Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Half the people on this ship are altered in the same way as the astroshamans.” Jess lifted her prosthetic hand and curled the fingers, then flexed them. “Well, maybe not in the same way. Those guys are usually interested in becoming one with their machine parts and achieving spiritual enlightenment, not kicking bad guys’ asses. But you’d be finding a poison that would take out the crew as well as our enemies.”

  Corporal Xi, one of the men gathered at the other table, jumped on top of it. Trays rattled and a cup flew off as he pantomimed a sexual act.

  “Are you sure we’re not the bad guys?” Yas asked, looking glumly down at the chemical structure of a poison he was researching.

  Jess waved a dismissive hand at the men. “We’re just tools. Rache gets to decide if we’re used for good or evil.”

  “Corporal Xi is most certainly a tool.”

  Jess snorted. “Good or bad, at least in regard to us, depends on whether you’re pro-Kingdom or anti-Kingdom. Sometimes, we’re fighting for pirates or Miners’ Union barons, and it’s just a matter of deciding who’s the lesser evil.”

  “I think if you use poison to kill your enemies, you’re evil even if you’re rescuing school children.”

  “So find something that doesn’t kill. Couldn’t you temporarily paralyze people or otherwise mess up their nerve connections?”

  Yas tapped his tablet, trying to think if he knew of such an agent.

  “I doubt the captain requires that we be able to toss in some toxic gas that kills everyone before we go in,” Jess said. “He probably just wants to stack the advantages in our favor, since it sounds like we’re going to be doing the equivalent of storming some ancient Kingdom castle with giant walls and moats and dinosaurs in the moats.”

  “I believe you’re thinking of alligators.”

  “What’s the difference? They’re green and scaly with giant teeth, right?”

  “I gather you didn’t have either in your habitat when you were growing up.” Yas only knew of one moon that had been seeded with some geneticists’ notion of what ancient Earth dinosaurs had been, based more on texts than any preserved genetic material. It was a tourist park. Alligators, however, filled an important ecological niche and existed in many places that had been terraformed with swamplands.

  “Nah, our government decided that having giant predators around in an enclosed space station with a million humans wasn’t the smartest idea.”

  Corporal Xi jumped down from the table and started trading punches with a private. Yas couldn’t tell if it was a game or a genuine fight. One man flew backward, skidding on his ass across the deck.

  “Yes, predators can be tedious.” Yas flicked a casual finger toward Jess, not wanting to point out that she looked like she hadn’t been sleeping, lest she think he was going to pressure her about an exam again. “How are you doing?”

  “The usual.” She shrugged and gazed toward a porthole. “I have mixed feelings about going after astroshamans. They don’t seem quite so alien and strange to me these days.” She flexed her prosthetic fingers again and lowered her voice. “I thought the captain’s main goal was to keep the Kingdom from getting that gate. It seems like that’s what’s happening right now. Someone else has disappeared with it. Why can’t we stand back and let that play out?”

  This was the first time Yas had heard her question Rache, and he found himself also lowering his voice, feeling they shouldn’t be overheard. “We saw four warships. Maybe he thinks it’s likely that the Kingdom will find and recover the gate, if there’s nobody else to oppose them.”

  “Maybe. I just…” Jess shrugged again. “I guess I’ve been a little curious about the astroshamans of late. It’s said that some of them know how to rewire the gut and the brain so their people are more rational and less swayed by emotions. I was trying to find some studies on how that might affect dreams and the power of memories, but there wasn’t much out there. I’m sure they do plenty of research, but they don’t publish their findings on the public networks. They’re reclusive, but if you want in, and you meet the qualifications…” This time, she waved to her eyes, though one had to look very closely to tell they weren’t biological organs.

  Yas tried not to find her admission alarming, that she’d found herself intrigued enough to look up astroshamans. Thoroughly.

  It wasn’t that there was anything inherently evil about their religion—they were a lot less likely to cause trouble than the Star Striders—other than their disturbing tendency to find humanity to be lesser, something to evolve away from, rather than something that could be accepted and improved as it was. Yas was mostly concerned that her desires stemmed from whatever nightmares and emotional pain she experienced as a survivor of the attack she’d described, the only one in her family to survive.

  “It’s true that many people have found solace by embracing the various religions out there,” Yas said, not wanting to suggest that he could help her find a better solution if she would simply come to sickbay for an exam, “but the surgery you described wouldn’t likely be reversible, so you might want to talk to some people who have had it done before making a decision.”

  “Yeah. Maybe I can chat with some of them while Rache is poisoning them and Xi is trying to blow them away.”

  “Perhaps you could find some members of the religion who weren’t directly responsible for taking the gate,” Yas said seriously, even though she’d been sarcastic. “If we end up at Tiamat Station, there are a few astroshaman communities. I even had a couple come in as patients. There are often complications to cybernetics surgeries.”

  “Tell me about it.” Her mouth twisted, and Yas wondered how much tinkering had been required before she’d become a fully functioning human being again. And he wondered if she felt physical pain, not just emotional pain.

  He stretched his hands across the table toward her, wishing he could take hers into his, but her hands were in her lap, and she was gazing toward the porthole again. He let his fingers press against the cool surface instead.

  “If the captain is able to help me clear my name, and I can walk through the station without being shot, I would be happy to introduce you to some of the astroshamans there. I remember there was a woman I operated on who designed virtual-reality games, and was kind of like you.”

  “Plagued by demons of the past?”

  “She’d been in an attack and had the surgery done to save her life. And she was snarky.”

  “I guess that’s almost as good.”

  The men at the other table fell silent, the fight ended, and they all sat demurely. Yas spotted the reason. Captain Rache had walked in. He headed for the trays stacked in the dispensing station but noticed Yas and Jess and detoured toward their table.

  Yas tapped his tablet so his research showed on the screen, wanting Rache to know he was working on the assigned problem, even if he’d shifted to thinking about non-deadly ways to achieve the objective.

  “We’ll pass through the gate later today,” Rache told them without preamble, glancing at Yas before focusing on Jess. “Two of the warships diverted to Modi Moon, and two others appear to be delivering robots and supplies to rebuild those refineries, so we’ll have a head start, assuming we guessed right and are going to the correct location.”

  “System Hydra?” Yas asked.

  “System Hydra. We have to assume that Fleet will figure it out and be right on our tails. And that we may have to battle them as well as the astroshamans. Chief, I need you to spend the rest of the trip ensuring the ship is in top shape. If any parts were damaged during the refinery-station incident and weren’t repaired to optimal, let me know, and we’ll pick up replacements. We can stop at the Outpost Zeta on the way into Hydra.”

  “You really think their Fleet will figure it out soon enough to be a problem?” Jess wrinkled her nose, perhaps not having a high opinion of the Kingdom soldiers.

  “Yes,” Rache said. “I’ve learned that Professor Dabrowski and Scholar Sato are on one of those warships
.”

  His matter-of-fact tone changed slightly for the announcement, but Yas couldn’t quite read it. It didn’t sound like wariness or dismay, which Yas might expect. It almost sounded like eagerness. Some desire to pit himself against his clone nemesis again? Or could Kim Sato’s presence mean something to him? She had saved Yas’s life, so he hoped Rache didn’t harbor some resentment toward her.

  “You think that’ll make the Fleet ships more dangerous, sir?” Jess asked dubiously.

  “Dabrowski is immune to the gate’s pseudo radiation, and Kim knows how to cure people who encounter it and aren’t immune. That could give them an advantage we don’t have. And Dabrowski’s like a neophyte fighter who ends up winning with a lucky punch, because he’s so unpredictable that you can’t use logic to defend against him.” Rache shook his head. “Just make sure the Fedallah is in top condition.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jess said. “I’ll get you a list of parts.”

  Rache nodded, grabbed a tray, and walked out.

  “Hm, he calls Dabrowski by last name and Kim by first,” Jess mused. “Isn’t that interesting?”

  “I think he’s spent more time with her.”

  “Makes you wonder what he was doing down on Odin, doesn’t it?” Jess smirked.

  Yas thought of the expressionless and aloof Kim Sato and couldn’t imagine her flinging herself into Rache’s embrace—into anyone’s embrace—for a wanton sexual encounter. “I assumed he needed new socks and masks and prefers Kingdom wool to synthetic materials.”

  Jess laughed and clasped one of his hands. “You should make jokes more often, Yas. You’re not bad at it.”

  Yas swallowed, abruptly aware of nothing else but her hand resting atop his, fingers warm where they touched his. That was her human hand, though he wouldn’t have minded a touch from the prosthetic one. From any part of her.

  “Thank you,” he managed to get out.

  She patted his hand, then took her tray to the disposal, the food barely touched, and walked out. Yas hoped she wouldn’t decide to take up a new religion and leave the Fedallah, especially when he was stuck here for another four years and seven months… but he knew there was a lovely park on the way to that astroshaman community he’d mentioned taking her to, and he couldn’t help but imagine walking through it with her while holding hands.

  “I just need to survive four Kingdom warships and countless astroshamans first,” he muttered.

  6

  Kim walked with Casmir to the shuttle bay, worried that he was being sent off to investigate a frozen, spaced android that he believed had been placed as a trap. Why did Captain Ishii think Kim wasn’t expendable but Casmir was?

  That irritated her. On this particular mission, wasn’t he the least expendable person here? He had the gate immunity, was the one who’d been narrowing down likely locations where it had been taken, and had the engineering background to perhaps figure out the gate well enough to turn off its defenses. Though she hadn’t gotten a chance to tell Ishii that yet. She’d been distracted by the assassination attempt and hadn’t run into him since then.

  She paused. Maybe she should tell him now. Before Casmir was sent off into danger.

  “Kim?” Casmir paused a few steps ahead of her.

  She caught up. “I was debating whether Ishii would send you off to do a dangerous thing if he believed you were the best bet to turn off the gate’s defenses. I haven’t yet suggested that to him. Maybe I should do so before you go.”

  “I’m not sure he’ll believe that, especially since I doubt it’s true, or that it would stop him from sending me. This is my job, after all. I’m probably more experienced with androids than anyone on his crew.”

  “You don’t think there’s another roboticist on a crew of five hundred?”

  They stepped into the lift, and he ordered it to the shuttle bay without hesitating. Kim frowned.

  “I’m sure they have an occupational specialty for repairing robots, but I’ve got almost thirty years of experience doing a lot more than repairs, and it’s not like I had to split my time between academic studies and learning combat and how to be a good soldier.”

  “Thirty years ago, you were three.”

  “What’s your point? That’s when my father got me my first robot kit to assemble—a toy knight on a motor bike that you could program to zip around the kitchen and flee the fearsome predator living in the apartment.”

  She squinted at him.

  “We had a cat when I was younger,” he explained. “Anyway, weren’t you cozying up to bacteria by the time you were three?”

  “Not until I was five.”

  “And here I thought you were more advanced than I am.” The lift doors opened, and Casmir bumped his shoulder as he stepped out, then apologized to the door.

  “I’m definitely more advanced than you.”

  He grinned at her as they headed down the wide corridor, passing refrigerated holds and storage compartments.

  “Even if he has robotics specialists,” Kim said, “I think he’s making a mistake by considering you more expendable than me.”

  “He may have been sarcastic about expendability. He’s sending one of his men along.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t like that man. If his kitchen staff is anything to go by, his crew isn’t that appealing.”

  “Don’t worry.” Casmir waved at the sensor to a set of oversized doors, and they stepped into the shuttle bay. “I’ll be careful. I have some pretty good guesses about how an android might be booby-trapped and what to look for.”

  Kim held her tongue, but when she spotted Captain Ishii and a young officer by a shuttle being prepped by a robot grounds crew, she vowed to use this opportunity to speak with him.

  “Professor Dabrowski?” a chipper young voice asked. The officer walked—no, that was more like skipping—away from Ishii and toward Casmir. “It is you. I heard you were here. I thought about coming to see you, but the captain said you weren’t to be disturbed.”

  The young man—a lieutenant, his insignia said—bounced to a stop in front of Casmir and started to salute. He seemed to realize that wasn’t the correct address for a civilian and switched it to a bow and an offered hand. He had buzz-cut black hair and a strong jaw, but something about his goofy grin made Kim think he would fit in more at Casmir’s robotics lab on campus than here on a military vessel.

  “Davy Grunburg?” Casmir clasped the offered hand for a vigorous shake.

  “You remember my name.” The lieutenant straightened, and his goofy grin grew wider. “You were the best assistant professor ever. Your classes were so much more interesting than Professor Nowak’s. Have you made full professor yet?”

  “Yes. I even have tenure. Which may theoretically mean I still have a job when I return home, even though I’ve been MIA for months now.”

  Casmir looked down at his hand. Grunburg was still shaking it.

  He realized it and let go. “Sorry, sir. Uhm, Professor. Professor, sir.”

  Ishii was scowling at what appeared to be an unexpected reunion, and he rolled his eyes at Grunburg’s fumbling.

  “I remember you saying you were going into the military,” Casmir said. “Because of your father, right?”

  “Yes, my father the admiral.” Grunburg smiled and shrugged. “It’s a family tradition. I promised him I’d serve at least six years before going out into the civilian sector, and he promised he wouldn’t be terribly disappointed in me.”

  “Funny how much military service has more to do with parental expectations than a desire to protect the Kingdom and swear oaths to the king.” Casmir looked over at Ishii.

  Ishii’s scowl deepened. “You two, load up. You can reminisce about Dabrowski’s teaching style while you’re flying over to pick up that android. I imagine it involved a lot of things blowing up in the lab.”

  “There’s not much in a robotics lab that can blow up,” Casmir said. “You’re thinking of chemistry. Explosions come out of Professor Andric’s lab all the time.”<
br />
  “Whatever.” Ishii pointed toward the open hatch. The robot crew had finished fueling the shuttle and was retreating.

  “You should come to one of my classes sometime when we’re both on Odin, Sora,” Casmir said. “You could see what we do in the lab. You might find it fun. At the end of the semester, we have competitions, which I know you’re a fan of.”

  “The drone races were excellent,” Grunburg said wistfully as he climbed into the shuttle.

  “I’ll bet,” Ishii grumbled and shooed Casmir toward the hatch again. “There are oxygen tanks inside in case anything happens to the shuttle. Check your galaxy suits before you launch.”

  As Casmir was about to climb in, the doors opened, and Asger raced in with his pertundo in hand, as if he expected to face a legion of angry pirates. But his long legs took him toward Casmir, his scowl more than matching the one lingering on Ishii’s face.

  “You weren’t going to tell me you’re leaving the ship and going into danger? You are the worst body that’s ever been bodyguarded.” Asger frowned, as if he knew that only made dubious sense, but he was too flustered to correct himself.

  “It’s a good thing you’re such a flexible and adaptable bodyguard then,” Casmir said. “If a touch grumpy.”

  “You’d be grumpy, too, if you had to work with you.”

  “It’s true that not everybody finds me as charming as Kim does. She’s lived with me for seven years, bless her, and doesn’t find my antics grump-inspiring.”

  “I close the door and lock myself in my room a lot,” Kim said.

  Asger gave her a look that may have been confused, disbelieving, or sympathetic. She wasn’t as familiar with him and had a harder time reading his expressions than she did Casmir’s.