“I do think, given the silence, that we should assume anti-Kingdom people are in charge.” Casmir pointed at the station. “Then, if we’re wrong and Kingdom people welcome us with open arms, it’ll be a plus. And if not…”
“If not, they could be targeting us to fire upon right now.” Asger tapped a button on the control panel, and a shield status display flashed at 100 percent. “We’re not defenseless, but we’re a more vulnerable target than the warships. It’s possible the station will use us to make a statement.”
“Which is why Ishii should fire at us first.”
“Uh—what?”
“If the Osprey fires at us and orders us to return at once, then the station will think we’re fleeing and we may be on their side.” Casmir leaned over and patted Asger’s armored arm. “Suggest that to him chip-to-chip, please, and then use the comm, which we’ll assume is being monitored, to call him a hairy turd not fit to command. And then prepare to impressively evade his attacks—though maybe if we took a little damage, it would lend verisimilitude to our ploy, eh?—and go skidding into the station by the seat of our pants.”
Asger gaped at him throughout this speech. “I thought we were only brainstorming and that you weren’t presuming to make decisions for us.”
“Things were taking too long. This is simpler. Chip-to-chip to Ishii, please. Or I’ll contact him. I’m positive he won’t mind shooting at me.”
“Oh, I’m positive too.” Asger faced the control panel, his hands flat on it, not moving. Because he was debating or because he was sending a message?
“I see it may not be advantageous to be caught standing next to Professor Dabrowski,” Tork observed from behind the pods.
“It is because of his impulsive nature that Casmir Dabrowski needs a bodyguard,” Zee said. “That is why we are here.”
“It is why you are here.”
“Why are you here?”
“To offer advice. I have extensive knowledge of this system.” After a pause, Tork added, “Also, Professor Dabrowski said we might be able to acquire a telescope if there’s a gift shop here.”
Kim rubbed her face. Maybe they did chat all night while Casmir was trying to sleep.
“Tighten your pods.” Asger’s fingers burst into movement. “The Osprey is going to fire at us, and then the Eagle is going to take a few pot shots too.” Asger looked over at Casmir. “It’s not a bad idea. Which one was it?”
“Number three,” Casmir said. “We probably shouldn’t judge it until we see if it gets us a free pass into the station.”
“Right.”
The comm panel flashed with an incoming message.
“Dabrowski,” Ishii snarled on the open channel, “get your scrawny ass back here. That shuttle belongs to one of the king’s personal knights. As if your betrayal isn’t getting you into enough trouble as it is. You’re dead if you ever return to System Lion, do you hear me?”
Casmir blinked. Maybe he hadn’t planned to be the one exchanging vitriol with Ishii.
He recovered quickly and tapped the reply button. “Did you really think I was going to help you and the king after he threatened me and my family? I’ve already arranged for their secret escape from System Lion, and I hope I never see that backward hell again!”
“You won’t because we’ll blow you out of the stars.” The comm ended, and the firing began.
Asger accelerated in a burst that had Kim’s stomach knocking out her vertebrae. A massive railgun blast sailed past, scant feet from the rear of the shuttle. Her pod hugged her tight, and she closed her eyes as the craft accelerated and decelerated, then lurched sideways. A groan came from Casmir’s seat, suggesting that their manic flight might be overcoming even a double dose of his space-sickness medication.
An alert flashed on her contact, not affected by her closed lids.
Scholar Sato? Chi’s words came in. Are you, by chance, in the shuttle being fired on outside of our station?
Yes. She almost told him it was a ruse, but reminded herself that Chi wasn’t himself friendly to the Kingdom, and withheld that information. We’re coming to help you.
There was a long pause, even though there shouldn’t have been any lag time now.
Are you sure?
We’re trying, she amended as Asger jerked the shuttle into some wrenching, twisting move that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Why didn’t you respond to me earlier?
I was unconscious.
Sleeping?
No. They gassed four levels of the station. To ensure compliance. They kept it going for more than twenty hours.
Kim’s mouth dropped open. She’d used the chemicals in the sickbay labs to craft a few homemade knockout grenades—technically, knockout vials—but at small dosages that would probably only make people groggy unless they took a big sniff. Even then, they would only lose consciousness briefly.
That’s insane, she replied. People could have died.
People did die. It was a blanket dose, not designed to accommodate variance among individuals. I’ve already heard of six who never woke up. Two were children.
Kim felt sick for reasons that had nothing to do with Asger’s mad maneuvering. Was the president responsible?
Station Civil Security. They’re loyal to him, yes. Nobody has seen the president in two days. We’re not even sure if he’s alive. Right now, a group of loyalists calling themselves the Bakas Vengers have the admin and control levels. I’m not sure if they control communications. There was an attack, and someone tried to knock out the comm array. I’ve heard. This is all being reported to me secondhand by Princess Tambora, who refuses to stay in the lab and hide with me. She is driving her bodyguard insane.
What’s she trying to do? How old is she? She sounds young. Kim would look her up later, when Asger was done trying to turn their stomachs inside out. Right now, even sending messages and reading Chi’s replies threatened to make her sick.
She is twenty-one, and she has a jet-powered float chair that she rides through the corridors like a flaming chariot. She’s refusing to accede to my wisdom.
What’s she trying to accomplish? Kim wondered if she should mention that Casmir wanted to rescue her. This probably wasn’t the time. Once they made it onto the station, she and Chi could, she hoped, have a long discussion.
She wants to escape and to help me escape with my freezers and the samples she ordered and came personally to pick up. It’s a noble thought, but she only has an advisor and a bodyguard. Neither is able to control her.
This was sounding more like someone who would be a friend of Casmir’s—or maybe be one of his students—rather than Princess Oku’s. The one time Kim had met Oku, she had seemed quiet and refined.
They have a ship in a shuttle bay, but there are security robots guarding it. They’ve been stunning anyone who attempts to leave the station—I think both sides are afraid the other side will get reinforcements that will turn the tide of the battle if they let anyone go.
Tell her to stay in the lab with you. We’re trying to get to the station. Once we dock, assuming they’ll let us, we’ll come for you. Send a map of how to get to your lab, if you can. I—
A massive jolt wrenched the shuttle, and Kim would have been thrown headfirst into the forward display if her pod hadn’t held her tight. The hull groaned, and the force pressing against her changed from forward to back, up to down. It felt like the shuttle was tumbling head over heels through space. Was that even possible?
“We don’t need quite so much verisimilitude, Ishii,” Asger muttered.
Casmir groaned, and the sound of him throwing up followed. Kim’s stomach wanted to join in, and she took quick deep breaths, trying to steady it as Asger steadied the craft.
“We’re flying around the station’s rings,” Asger said. “The warships should stop firing now, since they’ll risk hitting the station if they don’t. And since I think they’ve made their point. Shit, Casmir. Did you puke on the back of my pod?”
Casmir groaned.
“And the ceiling?”
“To be fair,” Kim said, “the ceiling was where the deck used to be a minute ago.”
A giant strut passed in front of the display, and Kim had the sense of them circling it.
“It’s on the deck too. Damn, Casmir. Does anybody fly with you twice?”
“Just Laser,” Casmir said weakly. “She’s a hero.”
“She should get a medal. Maybe a statue.”
“All I had to give her was a patent.”
“All right, everyone be quiet. I’m going to try to comm the station. Let’s hope they’ll answer me after that display.” Asger tapped the comm panel. “Tiamat Station? This is the recently liberated shuttle, Thor’s Hammer. I’m carrying refugees Professor Casmir Dabrowski, a roboticist of some renown back in the Kingdom, and Scholar Kim Sato, a bacteriologist who works for Parvus Biologia. They have a lab in your station, and the senior researcher there should be able to vouch for her.” Asger glanced at Kim.
“Scholar Tom Chi,” she put in.
“We’re requesting asylum. Do you copy?”
Asger continued to fly close to the station as they waited, not yet presuming to head to the docks and locks area. Kim got another look at a strut. It was covered with a lumpy gray material that reminded her of mycelium packing material she’d seen used for shipping medicines. Maybe it was something to insulate the station against radiation. All of the Kingdom stations were buried in asteroids and used the rock as natural insulation. This one was exposed to space, its rings spinning to give gravity to its wide cylindrical core.
“Thor’s Hammer?” came a woman’s voice over the comm. “That’s a cocky name for a little shuttle, isn’t it?”
Kim was inclined to agree—she hadn’t even known Asger’s shuttle had a name—but she kept her mouth shut.
“It belonged to a knight.” Asger’s voice came out stiff.
He had been careful, Kim noted, not to identify himself when he sent his message.
“That explains it then, doesn’t it? I’m afraid we’re not able to provide asylum to you or anyone else at this time. As you might guess from those brutish warships, we have problems of our own. We—our faction—also don’t have control of the shuttle bays today.” Her voice turned bitter. “You should have come five days ago. We were in a better position then. We thought… It doesn’t matter. That was before the Kingdom entered the system. Completely unopposed.” The bitterness was dripping from her teeth now. “What are the water worlds doing? Waiting to see if they blow us up before they send ships?”
“Tell her we’ll take control of the shuttle bay we land in and hand it over to her,” Casmir whispered.
“What was that?” the woman asked.
Casmir raised his voice to be heard from the back seat. “This is Professor Dabrowski, ma’am. Fugitive of the Kingdom. We’re willing to help you in exchange for our asylum. I assume you’re among the independent forces who oppose Kingdom rule?”
“You can bet your ore I am.”
And originally from one of the mining colonies, Kim thought.
“And the president who’s been sidling up to the Kingdom controls the shuttle bays?” Casmir asked.
“We don’t know where he is right now, but his people control it, yes. And his damn robot army.”
“Did you say robots, ma’am?”
Only Casmir would get excited at the idea of the enemy having a robot army.
“We can definitely help you take over that shuttle bay,” Casmir said.
“If you can get in, you’re welcome in the station, but I don’t think you’ll find this is the sanctuary you’re hoping for.”
“Anything is better than a Kingdom warship, ma’am.”
“Tell me about it.” The channel closed.
Asger twisted to look back at Casmir. “It’s a little alarming how easily you spout anti-Kingdom propaganda.”
“If Ishii wanted me to say glowing things about his warship, he should have put me on the payroll.” Casmir patted the back of Asger’s pod. “Find us a nice airlock or shuttle bay guarded by robots, please.”
“I will do that if you find a towel and sanitizer and clean my ceiling.”
“Can it wait until we have gravity again?” Casmir rested a hand on his stomach.
“No. Things fall and spatter on innocent people when there’s gravity.”
“Ah, yes. Unfortunate.”
Casmir released himself from his pod and pushed himself toward the lav, patting Zee and Tork on the way past. The shuttle was traveling slowly enough now that there wasn’t much danger of being creamed against the back bulkhead.
Kim was bemused, as always, that Casmir didn’t have the robots clean up his mess. It had never bothered him to use the mindless cleaning robot back home for that purpose, but he seemed to elevate androids—and crushers—to something akin to human status.
“Did the king really threaten you and your family, Casmir?” Asger asked quietly as he guided the shuttle around the curve in the great cylinder, and numerous shuttle-bay doors and airlocks came into view.
“No. I think he’s more subtle than that. He’s giving me a chance to prove myself. I’m hoping the only thing at stake if I fail is my own livelihood and right to live on Odin, not that my parents or cousins or anyone I care about will be in danger.”
“And do you think taking a shuttle bay back from Kingdom-loyal troops will accomplish that?”
Casmir had returned with sani-wipes, and he pushed himself toward the ceiling. “It sounds like they are robots loyal to the president’s security forces. As far as we know, the president isn’t officially a Kingdom subject, so I don’t believe we’re taking action against Jager or the Fleet personally.”
“Do you know yet how you’ll suborn those robots?” Kim asked.
“No, I haven’t the foggiest idea what make and model they are, and we’re not close enough yet to attempt to hack our way onto their local wireless networks.”
“Would anybody else have been more comforted if he’d said yes?” Asger asked.
“Yes,” Kim said.
“Yes,” Tork and Zee said as one.
“I don’t know his new android very well yet,” Asger said, “but I’ve already got the gist that it’s an alarming thing if they agree with each other.”
“What’s alarming,” Casmir said, pushing off the ceiling and toward Zee, “is how far vomitus can travel in zero-g.”
As Kim watched him clean his robot, she realized she’d broken off in the middle of her conversation with Chi. She tried to establish the connection, but once again, he did not answer. She hoped the princess on the float chair hadn’t led an angry mob to his lab.
Yas came up to the bridge personally to let Neimanhaus know his mole was benign, at which point the bridge crew ribbed the lieutenant about how something so ugly was most certainly not benign, and found the view on the display even more alarming than the one from his last visit. The Fedallah had flown away from Xolas Moon’s blue-and-white ice and was in a stationary position near Tiamat Station.
Normally, Yas would have boiled with excitement and hope at being so close to his home, but there were four Kingdom warships surrounding the great spinning cylinder. Yes, surrounding. He shuddered at the precise way they had located themselves at four points around the station.
“Join me, Doctor,” Rache said and headed for the briefing room.
When Yas trailed him inside, he expected to find more crew there, waiting for a briefing to start, but the room was empty, save for another display showing the view of the station and the warships.
“Is this an alarming and unexpected development for you too?” Yas pointed to the Kingdom fleet. “Or what you expected?”
“I’ve been more focused on learning the moon’s secrets, but as soon as Neimanhaus let me know the warships had passed Xolas by, I realized they might have been ordered to deal with the unrest here. You remember that image of your president shaking Jager’s hand on Odin.”
“Do you think he’s responsible for your former president’s assassination?” Rache asked, as if he could read Yas’s thoughts.
“I’d make him a suspect if I were doing an investigation.”
“You are doing an investigation, Doctor. You and Amergin. He’s picked out a handful of parties that would have gained from an alliance with the Kingdom, or even rule by the Kingdom, but only Chronis directly gained leadership and power after Bakas’s death.”
Yas nodded.
“My first thought when I saw all these warships was that this is a perfect time to sneak in and get some submarines, but if it’s possible to dethrone the new president and clear your name while we’re here…” Rache spread his gloved hand.
“You know that’s what I want, sir. Just let me know what I can do to help. Also, I think you can only dethrone royalty. Throne-owning royalty.”
“Not true. The word has evolved over the millennia and means simply to remove someone from a position of authority or dominance. No thrones are required.”
“I stand corrected.”
“An Old Earth author once said, ‘If you are afraid of being lonely, don't try to be right.’”
Rache didn’t sound annoyed or like he truly meant to censor him, but Yas bit his lip, realizing that was perhaps too apropos for his life. He’d been proud of how often he’d had the answers as a doctor on Tiamat Station, of how often he’d been correct. It had taken being rousted from his life and having his world turned upside down to realize how lonely a life it had been.
And had anything changed for him here on the Fedallah? He’d deemed the majority of the mercenaries to be thugs and had avoided anything but superficial interactions with them. Except with Jess, but he was always so sure he could heal her of her addiction—and that she must deep down want that—that he feared he’d driven her away. Even when he hadn’t brought it up, she’d probably sensed it. Sensed that his desire to help her stemmed out of the certainty that she was wrong and hurting herself. And that he was right.
Crossfire (Star Kingdom Book 4) Page 22
