The Boundary Zone

by A. B. Keuser

  His concern made her draw back. What happened to the man who had seemingly forgotten her in a blown out stairwell. If this was what happened when she threw a beer in his face, she might consider becoming a teetotaler. That’d suck.

  “Yeah, I’m good. He only got in one punch. Cable--”

  “Can’t believe I almost lost you. Doesn’t look like he was any help.” He threw a dismissive hand toward Cable, eyes locked on the dead man.

  Mack bristled at his possessiveness and considered crossing the distance to show him exactly how the man in rags had died. But Bezzon had a fully loaded PK3R in his hands and Mackenzie had no desire to feel its sting just then.

  Raza gave the all clear to whoever sat on the other side of her comm line and squatted down beside Cable, peeling an eye open and checking his pupils.

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I think so.” Raza stood and turned to her. “And you must be Kenzie.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Bezzon said, absently, from where he’d taken up guard of the body. “She doesn’t like being called that.”

  Mack didn’t correct him.

  “The rest of the team is going to be in raptures when they find out we have a new mommy.” Raza’s words were dry, but there was a smile on her burgundy lips.

  “I’m nobody’s mother.”

  “No, but you’re somebody’s sister, aren’t you.” The smile turned sad then, but it disappeared as she looked down at Cable again. “You’re going to owe me, Commander.”

  “Why?” Mack glanced between them, but wasn’t paying attention.

  “We’re bunk mates. So, if you want me to take some midnight strolls… I’m sure we can arrange that. It’s not like anything’s ever gone wrong when a soldier and her CO got cozy.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows and finally holstered her gun.

  “I’m not a soldier and--”

  “Sure you are. Buck gave you Aaron’s old rank. Congratulations Captain Flack. You outrank everyone but him.” She jerked her head to where Cable still sat. “I know you’re good at what you do, and I’m sure we need you… but if I had to guess, Buck saw you and realized she wouldn’t have to requisition new uniforms. You’ll fit into your brother’s just fine. She likes to cut those credits wherever she can.”

  “I’m not sure bunking with you is going to be the fun-time park you’re trying to bill it as.”

  “It could be worse. We could be in a squad bunk. No privacy at all--something you wouldn’t get used to quick. Especially since you haven’t gone through basic.” Raza flashed a smile at Mack and shrugged. “I wouldn’t complain about getting a shower that’s only shared by two if I were you.”

  Her smile vanished and she took a step back, stiffening into a salute.

  Kenzie turned and found herself face to face with a man who’s severe expression only soured when he ran an appraising look over her.

  She didn’t pass muster.

  And she couldn’t be bothered to care.

  With a disapproving glare he turned to the medics, who rushed past to work on Cable. “Status report.”

  “Stunner bolt hit him. Normal cardiopulmonary responses. Minor flash burn on his foot.” The first medic said as the second started him on a drip pack. “He’ll be fine once we get his systems back into alignment.”

  They prepped him for transfer to the gurney board.

  “I suppose we can thank you for this.”

  “Yep.” She didn’t particularly care what he was blaming her for, or feel like having a conversation with the side of his face.

  “Someone is going to have to teach you how to properly address senior officers.”

  “It’s Mersen, right?” He didn’t acknowledge her, but she already knew. “I was conscripted into your little fight against my will, and against the Terian treaty of… whatever year. So, you should be happy to get what little cooperation I give.

  “I’ll help you out, because whoever we’re going after destroyed my home and nearly killed me and several people I love in the process, but I’m not a soldier. That was my brother’s bag, and look where he ended up. So, consider me a consultant.”

  Mersen’s brows raised for half a moment before they dove down and his eyes narrowed.

  “Captain Flack, my orders do not come from you, they come from Admiral Buchanan, so, until otherwise informed, I will treat you as a member of the fleet. Because you did not have the benefit of advanced, or even basic, training, I will let you squeeze by this time without throwing you in the brig. But mark my words, for as long as you are on my ship, you will behave as a functioning member of the fleet and you will learn to stand, salute, and say your ‘yes sir’s.

  “Lieutenant Crioce will be in charge of getting you settled.” He nodded to Raza. “See to it that she learns her place. And quickly.”

  “Medcheck, sir?” Raza asked, still stiffly at attention.

  “I don’t care where you take her as long as I don’t have to look at her anymore.”

  With a nod, Raza grabbed her by the arm and turned for the exit hatch. If the woman hadn’t been taking her away from Mersen, she might have objected to being treated like a convict. Scooping up her duffel by the hatch, Mack let the woman lead her along without protest.

  “He’s a blustering bag of hot air,” she said, once they’d cleared another five hatches, and were safely inside the Dendratic. Alone.

  “I’ve never seen anyone stand up and spit in his face like that. If it weren’t for... other circumstances, I’d say you were destined to be an underground hero among the crews.”

  She didn’t want to know why her new neighbors might already be set against her.

  “Call me Mack,” she said, mostly to end the silence.

  “Well, Mack, I’m Raza, but you already knew that. You need to get used to calling people on the ship by their rank real quick. Within our squad it’s not going to be an option, but elsewhere, it can get you into real trouble”

  “Where are we headed, quarters or med bay?”

  “I’d prefer quarters, but I think we need to make sure you’re up to snuff. “Raza gave her an oddly conspiratorial smile. “The rest of the crew is going to throw everything they’ve got at you… you don’t know how many of them wanted that Captain title you stole. And besides. I have a feeling you’d like to be there when the Commander shows up. He is your only real supporter here, after all.”

  “Ever feel like you’re walking into enemy territory, naked and with a sign accusing them of intimate relations with a selian slug?”

  “Every damn day. But you get used to it.”

  Mack doubted that.

  Twelve

  The gray ceiling above him wasn’t what cable expected. Acoustic mesh covered conduits Cable knew held the wiring that kept the ship in working order. He’d been here before. Too many times.

  He catalogued his surroundings without moving. More training than suspicion.

  “Stop trying to figure out how you’re going to kill us all, Whitney.” Mersen stood on his right, hand now at his arm. “Can you sit up?”

  Cable tensed, despite knowing the man beside him. He took two more breaths and forced himself to sitting.

  “Glad to see you showed up in time to play savior. When’s the medal pinning ceremony?”

  Mersen laughed and leaned back in his chair. “I doubt I’ll get something new to stab myself with in the morning. How are you feeling?”

  “Like I got punched by a torpedo.”

  “Well, that’s good.”

  Cable shot him a glare, but Mersen only smiled.

  “Now that you’re awake, I have news.” His smile faded, and Cable could guess where their conversation was going.

  “The Curran is still missing. Our tips on where Maeltar had it have all proven to be false leads. Our only guess is that she’s deep in the boundary zone… and there’s more, but I’ll let you read the briefing on it.” He popped both of his thumbs. “Any pressing questions?”

  “Yeah, wher
e the Hell is Kenzie.”

  Mersen stiffened and answered as though taking the trouble was beneath him. “Captain Flack has been remanded into Lieutenant Crioce’s custody.”

  “She’s not a prisoner.”

  “No, she’s a soldier who doesn’t know how to take orders. If I was like her, I would have already sent Admiral Buchanan a report on how idiotic assigning her to anything other than a basic training instructor was.”

  “That’s because you are sane, and Buck clearly isn’t.”

  Mersen stiffened. “Clearly six months on a nearly-civilian posting has done some damage. Or maybe you’ve spent too much time around both Flacks.”

  “Don’t.” Cable’s warning was met with rolled eyes, and he added, “She’s been forced into the same career that killed her brother. Why shouldn’t she be a little belligerent?”

  He scowled at the deck plating between his feet, now and nearly growled. “Aaron Flack killed himself. I don’t care who pulled the trigger. ”

  “She’s not her brother.”

  With the look Mersen shot Cable, the two med techs shrunk away, eyes darting to the view ports. And Cable knew he was in for a tongue lashing.

  First, I don’t give a damn that Admiral Buchanan drafted her. I know it’s against several laws, but that’s not my problem. Where the admiralty is concerned, I take orders and that’s that. Mackenzie Flack is your problem, so make sure she stays out of trouble. No one wants history to repeat itself.”

  “And secondly?” Cable asked through clenched teeth.

  “Drafted or not, she’s your subordinate. We both know what sort of trouble that can lead to.”

  “She shouldn’t be here, and if you think I’m going to do anything to risk her safety, you’re more of an idiot than Darius Bezzon says.”

  “I suppose that comment means you’re not going to be happy he was part of the two man team that cleared the hive before we got there.”

  “I won’t be happy until that man is a hundred light years away.”

  Mersen’s face softened as he leaned back against the netting that served as the chair’s backrest. “How did you manage to get yourself into this big of a mess, Cable? You were on a child’s errand with that station and you still managed to walk into the path of danger.”

  If Aaron had been the one saying it, he’d have accused Cable of mooning danger, and calling out taunts.

  They were both wrong. This person that was coming after him wasn’t something he’d sought out.

  “Did you get an ID on the guy who shot me?”

  “We ran a DNA match.” Mersen handed over the tablet with the man’s dossier. “He’s a deserter. Last time we caught wind of him, he was working for Maeltar. Looks like there might be a connection with this KaRapp figure after all.”

  “I want to talk to him.”

  “Can’t. He’s dead.” Mersen stood and cracked his knuckles. “There was an arc flash. It’s why you’ve got a new pair of boots over there.”

  He pointed toward the chair where they sat and explained the events as Kenzie had laid them out.

  Cable heard them, knew the points that were lies and kept going back to the arc flash. She’d said she wouldn’t trigger one… but if it had happened, he knew it wasn’t on accident.

  Mersen left once Cable promised to send him a detailed report. A report that was going to be full of things he should be written up for. Things that made perfect sense on a station like Celesta, but weren’t fleet-ship-standard.

  He took the pad Mersen left behind and started pulling his thoughts together, a jumbled mess of information he’d sort through when he had a full comp screen on which to do so.

  The doors to the room opened with a whoosh and a nurse entered, her fingers clamped tightly around a medi-pad. She set the tablet into its docking station.

  “The doctor will be with you in a moment.” She said tersely as she busied herself.

  “With the number of medical staff aboard the Dendratic--.”

  She looked up at him sharply and then her expression softened. “The chief medical officer wants to deal with you herself.”

  Of course she did.

  “Doctor Pakovic will be in just as soon as she’s done with that traitor’s sister.”

  He might have growled, with the way she flinched after she pressed the scanner to the inside of his elbow.

  But it didn’t deter her. “If I didn’t know he was dead, I’d think he’d disappeared to have gender reassignment surgery. They look just alike.”

  They didn’t. Not if you knew them both, which the nurse clearly didn’t.

  She had to be new. Anyone who’d been in the fleet for more than a month would know more than just who Aaron was and what the fleet had approved for internal knowledge. She’d know that he was not the person to snipe about him at.

  She left then, and the doors stood open long enough for him to find Kenzie among the beds and diagnostic equipment.

  Kenzie turned to look at him, as though she knew. He only hoped Raza would keep her away from the worst of Aaron’s hate club until he had the chance to explain.

  She smiled, but it vanished quickly as the nurse took over with her. The doctor stepped in and his view disappeared with the gentle hiss of a seal.

  Cable had the sinking feeling he wouldn’t see that smile again.

  He needed to get to her, to explain before someone else could open their stupid mouth and ruin everything. He needed to tell her why. He needed to tell her he was sorry.

  He needed... to sit down.

  He hadn’t even realized he’d stood until a wave of gut clenching nausea gripped him.

  The doctor pushed him back down without looking at him. “It’s just you and me now, Whitney. No point in pretending you don’t feel like three day old dog shit.”

  “Crusty and turning white?”

  She gave him a dour look and rapped his knuckles with her stylus.

  Doctor Pakovic was old enough, she could have been his mother.

  Precisely because she was. Not that they publicized that fact.

  “Would you like to tell me what Aaron Flack’s little sister is doing on my ship? And with no apparent orders to join the civilian survivors awaiting offload to a transport vessel?”

  “All the blame for that lies with Admiral Buchanan.”

  She let out a groan that all too often accompanied mention of the admiral’s name. “So she’s our responsibility now.”

  “Mine, actually.”

  His mother hadn’t met Kenzie before they arrived on the ship, and he had a feeling she knew he’d been keeping them apart.

  “Kenzie has a way of making people do things... say things... they might not want to.”

  “She and Aaron shared that trait.” She gave him a look. “And what did she make you do while you were chasing her around that derelict station?”

  “I’m inoculated to them.” He was lying, and he didn’t care that she knew it.

  Pausing, she glanced toward the closed door. “She seemed worried enough about you."

  "I'm the only one on this ship who's working to figure out how to get around Admiral Buchanan's conscription."

  She snorted and tossed a glove into the trash receptacle.

  “She’s smarter than my son if she wants out of the line of fire.”

  “If I don’t step into it, someone else will.”

  “And I pushed so hard for you to follow in my footsteps.”

  “I did. You save people with a knife and needle. I do it by kicking down doors and getting rid of gangsters and feudal factions.”

  She sent a smirk of a smile his way and tapped in a few more commands. “You are lucky to be alive, you know. Those grounding rings are old tech, but they seem to have worked well enough.”

  “Walk me through what she told you again?”

  There were discrepancies, and he gave her his thoughts.

  “That’s not possible. One or both of you should have third degree burns. That,” she pointed to hi
s still unshod foot. “Is not the only injury that occurs when you're that close to the discharge reported.”

  “Well, you should have seen the other guy.” He laughed, despite the fact he still hadn’t seen the man’s remains.

  “I have. That’s how I know that something’s wrong.” She glanced toward the still-closed door. “You say she threw herself on top of you?”

  He nodded.

  “I think I need to do some research.”

  “Mom,” he stopped her with a hand on her arm. “She’s okay, right?”

  “Aside from a few erratic readings--nothing outside the parameters of her file, she and Aaron were both diagnosed with a heart condition when they were infants.”

  He already knew that.

  His mother flipped through more screens. “Kenzie is probably ready to kick your ass if you took her to a sparring room right now. Of the three of you, she came out of that altercation as if nothing had happened. Wire scrapes and a small bruise.”

  Good. He nodded, trying to figure out what else needed to be done.

  Setting the tablet aside, she patted his shoulder. “I’ll work on getting her out while you’re gone.”

  “You could mark her unfit for duty right now.”

  “I love you Whitney, but I don’t falsify medical records for anyone.” She threw him a small smile. “Even if it’s for the woman who is my only hope of ever seeing grandchildren.”

  Talk like that was exactly why he’d endeavored to keep them apart. Kenzie didn’t want kids. He didn’t either. But his mom wasn’t about to give up hope.

  He didn’t acknowledge those hopes.”

  “One of us will figure something out. And I’m sure I can find a few more willing to help.”

  “I’ll keep my ear out. Who knows what I can swing.” She pulled up an injection pen and stabbed him. “But then, I'm just the doc. I treat my patients, and that's all I need to know." There was a sly smile on her lips. She knew exactly as much as she wanted to, and not an iota less.

  "You and I both know you're more important than that."

  "Of course."

  She left him with a pain patch, a kiss on the forehead, and orders to try to keep himself from getting killed this time around.