After the Crown

by K. B. Wagers

  “Ever my luck,” he said.

  We sat in silence. It was one of the things I’d always loved about Hao. He could sit for hours without so much as a word.

  “Majesty, they have the wounded loaded up and are headed our way,” Cas said.

  “Thank you, Cas.”

  He nodded and headed toward the edge of the ramp to keep watch. Hao snorted and I elbowed him.

  “Baby-faced children bowing and scraping to a former gunrunner. It’s the end times.”

  “Don’t tease him, Hao.” I didn’t attempt to keep the snap out of my voice. “He’s doing his best.”

  Hao blinked. “I wasn’t teasing him, Your Imperial Majesty.” He gave a flourishing, mocking bow from his seat.

  “Oh hush.”

  “He’s got big shoes to fill from the sounds of it. You know you will lose two BodyGuards if your Emmory dies.”

  “I am fully aware, Hao.”

  He folded his hands together and shook them slightly. “Forgive me. It was not my intention to upset you.”

  Whatever I was going to reply with was lost when a pink-haired young man bolted down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of Gita. He bowed. “Captain, we must go.”

  Hao jumped from the pallet and I scrambled off after him. “How long, Dailun?”

  The kid shrugged a slender shoulder. “Five minutes, maybe.”

  “Get us ready. You leave on my word only.”

  Dailun nodded at Hao and took the stairs two at a time back up toward the bridge.

  “Cas, what’s their ETA?” I asked.

  “Two minutes. Indula’s flying.”

  “Tell him to floor it and to fly right up to the ship. Tell the others to be prepared to bail quick.” I turned back around and pointed a finger at Cas. “And if anyone tries to say we should leave them I will personally kick their ass.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “What kind of explosives do you have?”

  Hao arched an eyebrow at me. “What are you thinking?”

  “Buying them some time.”

  “Sha zhu, we were friends once. But even then I would have told you this—those are Saxon Shock Corps Marines incoming; five minutes and this ship is off the ground.”

  “Then you will leave me on the ground.”

  We stared at each other, the seconds ticking away with each beat of my heart. I wasn’t going to beg or plead. The Hao I knew was a man of honor, and he’d already promised to take me off Red Cliff.

  Still it seemed an eternity before he nodded, muttering a series of his favorite curses. “I have bottle rockets.” He looked at Gita. “And I will need my weapon back, my dear.”

  Gita eyed him but handed him his gun.

  “That’ll do nicely.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s just like old days.”

  “Right.” Hao snorted. “Except if you get killed this one is going to take me apart in ways I’m certain I wouldn’t enjoy.”

  “It’s likely. However, I’m not planning on dying today.” I dropped into a crouch and headed down the ramp. Scanning the landing field for targets, I selected what looked like a private short-range freight bus and lined up my shot as the headlights appeared in the distance. Behind us I heard the sound of a truck engine revving and tires screaming as they hit the pavement.

  “Gita, go help them unload.”

  “No, ma’am.” She shouldered a BR launcher with a shake of her head. “Cas said to stick with you. I’m sticking.”

  “We’re going to have a talk about the chain of command when we get done here.”

  “He said you’d say that, ma’am, and technically he is my chain of command. So, either way, I’m still staying.”

  “Fine. See that stack of crates on the far side of the freighter? We’re firing at those.”

  “Can I shoot the Saxon aircars?” Hao asked. “I don’t want to get you into any political trouble—” He yelped, rubbing at his shin.

  “I’ve already shot the king of the Saxons today, Hao. Don’t think I won’t shoot you, too.”

  “I was just asking.”

  “Shut up and fire.”

  The explosions rocked the darkness.

  20

  We booked it back to the ship before the pieces of the aircar and other assorted debris had fallen back to the landing field.

  Indula and Zin carried Emmory up the ramp while Iza and Kisah rushed Caterina from the vehicle into the ship. Alba followed with Stasia, my maid supporting my chamberlain around her waist.

  Tanish pulled Fasé, who was unconscious, from the back. He made it two steps before the blast streaked out of the darkness, slamming into his back.

  “Bugger me.” I tossed the BR launcher to Hao and sprinted toward them. Gita was on my heels. “Get him!” I shouted.

  I scooped up Fasé, the Farian as light as a child, and dove behind the vehicle for cover as more gunfire tore through the night.

  “He’s dead.” Gita punched the side of the vehicle with a vicious curse.

  I squeezed my eyes shut for just a second and whispered a prayer for Tanish’s family.

  “Hao!”

  “Yup!”

  Thankfully, time apart hadn’t dulled Hao’s inexplicable ability to anticipate my needs.

  “Need another round!” he shouted, and caught the bottle rocket someone threw back at him from inside the ship. In one smooth motion, the gunrunner reloaded, stood, and fired.

  Heaving Fasé over my shoulder and hoping that Gita was following, I ran for the ship with everything I had.

  I made it to the ramp before the stinging pain of a shot to my leg put me down on a knee. Fasé dropped to the ramp, her head hitting with a dull thud. Hao grabbed her, dragging her up into the ship.

  I rolled off the ramp, firing my Glock, trying to buy Gita enough cover to get clear.

  A silver-haired man marched through the flames toward the ship. I shot him in the left shoulder, and he jerked backward but kept coming.

  “I’m out!”

  Gita locked her fingers on my collar and hauled me onto the ramp as Hao laid down fire until the Saxon was forced to seek cover.

  “Dailun, go go go!” Hao shouted over his com, and leaned back down, grabbing Gita’s outstretched arm and pulling both of us into the ship as the ramp closed.

  The ship jerked off the ground and banked sharply. I slid partway into the cargo bay before Hao managed to grab me more securely around the waist. “Everyone hang on to something,” he shouted.

  It is neither thrilling nor a rush to have your life in someone else’s hands. Instead it’s terrifying, leaving you feeling powerless and just a shade desperate.

  So while Hao’s pilot juked and dodged through what I imagined was the defense grid’s response to any ships leaving the planet, I started making a list of all the things I had to do.

  “Let’s get off this rock pile, first,” Hao whispered in my ear. “Worry about what to do later.”

  “How did you—”

  He laughed at my confusion. “I know that look, Cressen.”

  “My name’s not Cressen.”

  “I know that, too. To be honest, I’m not sure I can call you Hail. It feels weird in my mouth.”

  And it would be a miracle to get him to use my title. I’d noticed the only time he’d used it so far it had been coated in sarcasm.

  “I’m not sure any of my Guards will let you.” I rolled my eyes. “Who’d you steal the ship from?”

  “I bought it, sha zhu. As I said, life has been good to me lately.”

  Alarm bells in my head joined the ones ringing through the ship as Emmory’s vitals went from bad to worse.

  “No, bugger me. No.”

  More alarm bells joined the first set. “Let me go.” I pinched Hao until he yelped and let me squirm from his grip. The sudden loss of an anchor sent me crashing into the bulkhead as the ship went sideways. I picked myself up and skidded across the cargo bay to where Emmory lay. “Hao, I need your medic!”

  Emmory’s
heart was slowing. Whatever Fasé had done wasn’t enough, or moving him had shaken something loose. My smati shrieked a warning about a collapsed lung, and his chest wasn’t moving the way it should. The bandages Stasia and Caterina had wrapped at Leia’s house were pristine, which meant he had to be bleeding internally.

  “Don’t, Emmory, please don’t.” I knew my plea went unheard. Just like it had when my father died.

  The flatline tone sliced through my head.

  “No!”

  Zin’s cry ripped through the cargo bay and my heart, an anguished scream of unimaginable loss. My own devastation was only a fraction of what Zin was feeling, and yet it destroyed me.

  “Hail,” Zin said, turning to me. The hopeless despair in his eyes was too much to bear. I slapped my hands on Emmory’s chest, intent on trying to restart his heart.

  Fasé lunged upright from where she’d been lying and shoved me to the side. The Farian was suddenly awake and moving with greater speed than any of us, muttering under her breath as she pressed both hands to Emmory’s unmoving chest.

  The flatline tone stopped, and a steady—if weak—heartbeat echoed in my head. Fasé went gray and collapsed onto Emmory, jerking everyone back into motion.

  The ship leveled out. Hao rushed forward with Indula, my Guard gently moving Fasé to the side.

  “She’s still alive, Majesty,” he said. “But her pulse is slow. I’m assuming that’s not a good rhythm even for a Farian.”

  “Get her to medical—” I broke off. “Keep an eye on her, we need to get Emmory stabilized first.”

  “Henna, we have a medical emergency in the cargo bay. Coming your way.” Hao’s face was grim, but he effortlessly coordinated the chaos around him.

  Zin pulled me to my feet as two other crew members rushed up with a stretcher. They loaded Emmory on. I grabbed Zin’s hand and we leaned on each other as we made our way to medical.

  I knew Hao’s crew; once there would have been shouted greetings with backslaps, cheap shots, and crude jokes. Now there were only hesitant nods, sidelong glances at my BodyGuards, and so much awkwardness I wanted to scream.

  I shoved the feeling back into the pit of my stomach, where it festered and burned, focusing instead on what Henna was saying.

  “Bad, bad Cres—my apologies, Your Majesty.” Henna and I had once been friends. Now the lanky one-eyed blonde wouldn’t meet my eyes as she studied the scan above Emmory’s chest. “Have to open him up. Alive, but still bleeding.”

  “No.” Zin protested the news or the plan, I wasn’t sure which.

  “Zin, Henna knows what she’s doing.”

  “Farian can’t save.” Henna looked over her shoulder where Indula laid Fasé’s unconscious body on a bed. “Out of juice. Out of time. Get out.”

  “I won’t leave him.” Zin gritted the words as he sank to the floor. I dropped with him.

  “Don’t. Don’t you dare,” I said, cupping his face in my hands. “He’s alive, Starzin, you have to hold on. For him. For me, please. Don’t leave me here all alone.”

  Henna raised her eyebrow and turned the scan on Zin. “Dying, too. Sympathetic. Interesting.”

  I looked up. “They’re Trackers, Henna. Bonded.”

  “Artery in bad shape. Lots of blood in chest, collapsed a lung. The other is on its way out. Have to save this one to save both,” she said, referring to Emmory’s lung or Zin—I wasn’t entirely sure which. Henna dismissed Zin and turned back to Emmory. “Any of your people have medical training?”

  “I’ve had some,” Stasia said from behind me. “I’m the one who patched him up originally.”

  “Good. You help. The rest of you get out of here. Hao, others in cargo bay should live, but little girl’s arm needs to be set.” Henna’s gray eye was unfocused and she gnawed on her thumb. Her genius mind was already spinning faster than a ship’s warp drive.

  Henna Brek had once been a brilliant surgeon with the roving Med-Fleet, but a hijacking and a three-year hostage situation resulted in the deaths of many of her co-workers, Henna’s lost eye, and a large chunk of her sanity.

  Unable to pass the psych profile for any of the major hospital corporations, she’d drifted like space rubble until she’d been caught in Hao’s orbit.

  Like so many of us. The misfits of the misfits. And Hao was the king.

  I pressed my forehead to the window outside the medical bay.

  “You’re not staying here, Majesty. We need to look at your leg.” Cas slipped an arm around my waist and tried to pull me away.

  “I can’t leave them.”

  “Yes, you can. Help your Dve out.” Hao slid under my other arm. “The next door down is the secondary room, Caspian.

  “I’m going to patch up her leg, BodyGuard, so don’t shoot me.” Hao boosted me onto the table and turned to the cupboards to rummage for supplies.

  I reached out and threaded my fingers through Cas’s. “I’m okay. So is Emmory. Henna’s one of the best out there.”

  “He died, ma’am.”

  “I know.” And Fasé brought him back to life. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen, even though I’d been right next to her when it happened.

  “Majesty, those were Shock Corps troops down on that landing field.”

  “I know.”

  “What is going on?”

  “That I don’t know,” I said over the com link. “And we’re blind until I can get ahold of Caspel or someone back on Pashati.”

  “You two done talking about me?” Hao asked.

  I smacked him. “The worlds don’t revolve around you. Can I use your com relay?”

  He finished wrapping the bandage around my leg. “You should get some rest. This just grazed you, but you’re probably at the end of your rope, sha zhu.”

  “Messages first. Then I promise both of you I’ll sleep.” I slid off the bed, testing my leg before I put my full weight on it. There was pain, but the leg held instead of buckling, so I hobbled down the corridor after Hao.

  “Dailun’s about to send us into warp,” he said, the warning just fast enough for me to brace myself.

  The familiar disorientation washed over me and settled, and the eerie stillness of the bubble filled the ship.

  “Your new pilot is better than Hoss.”

  That was saying something, considering that my former pilot had been a survivor of the Terran Wars and was awarded a Medal of Honor for his cover of the escape of several Solarian Conglomerate civilian ships during the mysterious Shen attack of Colony 17.

  Then he’d been tossed out of Earth Conglomerate’s Defense Force for one too many grandstanding buzzes past the council building.

  I kind of missed Hoss. I didn’t know what had happened to him. My still-hazy memory of the fight on Sophie was filled with some major holes on everything that didn’t include Portis.

  “We’ll put you up in the secondary crew area. There’s a lock on the door at the front of the corridor and a large sleeping area in the back.” Hao continued down the corridor as the ship evened out into the smooth Alcubierre/White bubble of warp. “Whatever you need is yours, just ask.”

  “Thank you. I’ll pay you for the supplies.”

  “It is a gift.” He waved a hand.

  “I will pay you.”

  “A gift,” he repeated. “We are still friends, are we not?”

  I studied him for a long moment before answering. For a large chunk of my life Hao had been father—older brother, he would say with a grin if I ever voiced the words out loud—friend, mentor, and protector. I’d once trusted this man with my life, trusted him as much as Portis.

  I couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d been here just when I happened to need him most. Whether it was providence or dangerous coincidence remained to be seen.

  “We’re friends,” I replied finally with a smile. “And thank you.”

  “Dailun, give us the bridge for a few.”

  “Hai.” The young man dipped his head and left us alone.

  “Com, Hail,”
Hao said with an exaggerated bow and a look on his face that confirmed how odd my real name felt in his mouth. “I wouldn’t stay on long. We’re clear at the moment in warp, but they’ll be tracking for us and I’d rather not make it easy for them to find our path. One hell-bent run for safety a day is my limit.”

  I nodded. “I’ll keep it short.”

  Hao paused, but then left us alone without saying anything more. I connected my smati to the ship’s computer and entered Caspel’s private link.

  “Majesty? You’re alive.”

  “I am, and in better damn shape than you. What happened?”

  Half of Caspel’s face was bandaged, his left eye hidden beneath a swath of white. “It’s a long story, ma’am, and I’m sure this line is no longer secure.”

  I gave him the quick and dirty version of events. “Is Alice alive? Tazerion? How many of the matriarchs?”

  The view shifted and in the dim light of the room he was in I could make out Alice and Taz on the far side. He gestured them over.

  “Majesty,” Alice said, smiling in relief. “We are very glad you’re not dead.”

  “That makes two of us. Are you unharmed?”

  She nodded. “I was visiting Tazerion in the hospital with Captain Gill when the attack happened. They sent men looking for him, but Dr. Flipsen bought us enough time to escape.” Alice swallowed. “They killed her, Majesty. Shot her right in front of the hospital for aiding traitors of the ‘new Indrana.’”

  I swore viciously.

  Caspel returned his camera focus to his face. “I don’t have many more answers for you, ma’am. I am truly sorry. The conspiracy went deeper than any of us imagined. I missed it. As of right now Phanin’s troops have control of Pashati and the rest of the system, as well as twenty-eight other imperial planets we know of. They have at least half the matriarchs and their families in custody. No one has seen or heard from Matriarch Desai.”

  “Caterina is with us. I sent Masami and Sabeen to the Solarians, but then told them to run for it when we realized what was going on with Trace and Phanin. I don’t know if they made it.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “On a ship.” I smiled. “No more than that. I’ll check in again when we’re somewhere safer. If you hear from Admiral Hassan, tell her to keep the fleet hidden and to wait for contact. I’ll let her know where to meet me when it’s safe.”