by Tammy Salyer
The brief fragment of consciousness I’d experienced was caused by the blast concussion from the Nova exploding. But it had been too close; the blast crippled the MCACS and caused more injuries among the unprepared crew. Most escaped with minor bruises and abrasions, but David had been unable to brace himself because of his sight limitations. He had several broken ribs caused by a heavy gear locker slamming into him, and Venus’s right arm was fractured from the blast’s force shoving her against the flight control console. Because of having been strapped to a stationary gurney as soon as Strahan carried me on, I was the only one aboard that wasn’t hurt. At least, not more hurt. Despite her injury, Venus was able to coax the MCACS back under control and Vitruzzi, escaping with only a few minor contusions, had immediately gone to work helping the injured. With luck and sheer strength of will, the crew patched the ruined ship together enough to fly it within shuttle range of the Sphynx. They got me to its onboard infirmary and an emergency surgery kept me alive. Vitruzzi had been accumulating specialized medical equipment for some time through both legal and black-market transactions. Thanks to her criminal initiative, she had what she needed to save me. After the surgery, I’d been interred in a pressure suit and given several blood transfusions, but despite all of it, another four days had passed before I came out of the coma. Vitruzzi hadn’t believed I’d make it until I started breathing on my own again, a week ago. Since then, a constant IV diet of tissue regeneration- and hemo-stims has brought me a few steps closer to a full recovery everyday. This is the second time I’ve woken up from unconsciousness aboard the Sphynx. I’d really like it to be the last time.
There are other questions: Like how did we escape being tracked down by Corps ships detached to the Fortress’s aid? And what happened to Rajcik? No one has the answer to these. And that worries us all.
* * *
We’ve been back at Agate Beach for two days and I’m at the point where I can stand and even walk a few feet before pain and exhaustion force me prone again. I’ve asked to be helped into David’s room a few times, but so far he hasn’t been awake. In his weakened condition—he’d barely been able to stay on his feet while fleeing the alpha-zero hangar—he needs to retain all the energy his body can summon to help him heal and Vitruzzi has kept him sedated. His ribs are knitting gamely, and she’s been running tests to determine what the Admin did to his eyes, trying to figure out whether or not he’ll ever see again.
The settlement’s makeshift hospital occupies three of the smaller rooms inside the mine. Brady had warned the people living here while we were still en route about the possibility of Rajcik attacking them. Since then, everything necessary to keep the settlement safe, fed, and protected has been brought inside the network of underground shafts and caves, leaving the outdoor settlement virtually abandoned. Everyone now lives in a constant state of alert. We can’t take any chances that Rajcik won’t try and get his revenge. He may not have cleared the station before it flared into a billion blazing fragments. But what if he did? Neither Vitruzzi nor I have forgotten his promise to destroy Agate Beach. Not for a second. The Sphynx and her short-range shuttle sweep the skies night and day, and a rotating schedule of locals continuously monitor the radar systems from the subterranean control room.
I hadn’t been able to walk off the Sphynx on my own two feet and the inability to help out has been frustrating. I’m tired of being an invalid, relying on others. It’s time to get back to the Aly who never asks for help and gets it done on her own. Leaning over to pull on my boots is a textbook lesson in misery, but once they’re on, I carefully push myself upright and begin a slow, methodical shuffle next door to David’s recovery room.
He’s stretched out flat on the bed, looking pale, worn, and haggard. If I didn’t see the beat of his pulse in his neck, I might think he was dead. Then, to my surprise, his eyes peel open in slow motion as if he’s falling asleep in reverse.
“Hey, little sis.” Fatigue and injuries make his voice soft.
Lurching to his bedside as fast as I can, I wrap one of his white hands in both of mine. It’s not as cold as it looks. “Hey. How did you know it was me?”
“Easy. You’re the only one who doesn’t walk in and start prodding me or pulling on these tubes sticking out of me.”
I grin. “How are you feeling?”
He considers the question for a minute, taking inventory. “I think it will be a couple of days before I’m ready for a rugby match, but nothing really hurts. Captain Vitruzzi is ninety-nine percent sure that the shit that screwed up my eyes—she says they’re retinal ganglion-inhibitors—will wear off. That’s a relief.”
Patches of fading blue bruises still mark his arms and the top part of his chest not covered by his gown. His face is the only thing that looks really bad, even though it’s probably the least of his injuries.
“When did you wake up?” I ask.
“Just a couple hours ago. I told Vitruzzi not to bother you if you were sleeping. How are you doing?”
“I’d say fantastic by comparison.”
This makes him grin crookedly, only using one side of his mouth so he doesn’t reopen the split in his lower lip. Watching him lie there, something inside me, some wall of emotion that I’d defiantly controlled, finally lets go.
“I shouldn’t have left you on Obal 3.” Guilt withers my words into skeletal leaves that crackle to the floor, and my eyes fill with water.
“Don’t be crazy, sis. If you hadn’t, we’d both be dead.” His eyebrows are furrowed with concern, that older brother expression that always makes me feel as if I’m still seven years old. Squeezing my fingers in his strong hands, he says, “You had to run, and you did. And then you pulled off the most amazing rescue in the history of the universe. You did, little sis, you and these people, and you saved my life. Don’t beat yourself up, because there was nothing else you could have done.”
Wiping away the tears and trying to smile, I say, “Yeah, okay, you’re right. You damn near threw me through that door anyway. I’m lucky you didn’t break my ribs.” He knows I’m just covering it up, but the important thing is that he’s safe now and on the mend.
We settle into silence for a while, no sound in the room except filters drawing out the stale air. I know he still needs to rest, but I can’t stop myself from asking, “How did you know what Rajcik planned to do with the Nova? And why didn’t you tell me?”
He doesn’t respond for several seconds. “I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to get hurt; I figured what you didn’t know couldn’t be used against you.”
“Dammit, David, I’m not a kid…”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s my job, okay? You’ll always be my little sister.” His smirk has turned into a grimace, but not from the pain in his body. “Besides, I wasn’t sure until after what happened at New Sweden. A couple of nights after Rajcik told us about the Fortress job, I was working in the wiring shaft under the com console. There was a short in my bunk’s intercom and I traced it back to the panel down there. As I was finishing up, someone pinged us and then Rajcik came in and answered before I could get out of there. It was T’Kai. I was actually kind of glad to be there, to get to hear for myself what was really going on. We’ve both always known better than to trust Rajcik.”
He shifts, trying to get a little more comfortable, and I think about ending the conversation so he can get the rest he needs. But I don’t. “They argued about New Sweden. T’Kai wanted him to pick up a team of non-cits living there and use them on the job. Rajcik refused; he said he wouldn’t use anyone on a job that he didn’t know. T’Kai threatened him, things got ugly. I could see Rajcik’s reflection in the VDU through the floor—I thought the whole deal was about to get blown, the way he reacted. But then he relaxed and gave in. A few days later, right before we were supposed to get there, he asked me about security around Tunis City, wanting to know how to get clearance, how to get close to the Capitol Building. I kind of laughed, you know, because it’s impossible to get in th
e Capitol Building’s air space. I told Rajcik that a ship, a known ship like the Temptation, had no chance. The closest we’d ever get to Obal 10 would be one of its port moons, and then we’d still probably be shot down. It made me really uneasy, Aly. And that’s when I started to think he had other plans for the Nova.”
“So I got us out of the deal at New Sweden. I thought T’Kai might change his mind and set up an ambush, but I never thought Rajcik would do what he did. Jesus, how could we work for a man like that? When he killed all those people, I realized he was tying up loose ends. He wasn’t going to let anything come between the plans he had, not even T’Kai. Whatever excuse he gave T’Kai must have worked, or maybe T’Kai was desperate, I don’t know. But I knew it was time for us to cut loose too.”
His breathing has sped up and I can see the effort hurts his wounded ribs, so I try to end the conversation. “Forget it. You need to take it easy. We can talk about it later, if you want.”
He ignores me. “So after New Sweden, I told him you and I were getting out after the Admin paid up and we got our cut. I thought he’d try to convince us to stay, or threaten to kill us, something. But he acted as if it didn’t matter. It was what he said that convinced me he was never planning on selling it. ‘You and your sister do what you want, David. After we get that bomb, there won’t be anyone left to stop you.’ It wasn’t hard to guess what he meant.
“The only thing more important to Rajcik than money is destroying the Admin. If he had the Nova, he finally had the opportunity to really hurt them. I couldn’t kill him, not with Thompson and Fedchenko in the way, so I waited until we were on Obal 3 and tried to get away.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know that now. But I was so concerned with protecting you, I didn’t know if you’d believe me. And I didn’t want anyone else to know I suspected what Rajcik was planning. Maybe they were in on it too, I didn’t know. Maybe Ortiz could have been trusted, but there wasn’t enough time. The most important thing was getting away from Rajcik as soon as we could. I never thought we’d pull off the assault on the Fortress anyway.” He’d sat up on his elbows while relaying the story. Now he eases back down to his pillow with a strained expression. “I’m glad I was wrong about that part, little sis. I mean, he probably had help infiltrating the station from T’Kai, but if you hadn’t figured out a way to get in and outmaneuver their security, I wouldn’t be here right now.” His voice trails off and his eyes close again.
I want to tell him that it’s time for him to stop treating me like the little sister who used to come crying to him whenever I skinned an elbow or took another hammering from Dad. But I know it won’t do any good. So I don’t say anything and watch as he drifts back to sleep.
* * *
Two more weeks pass and not a sign of Rajcik. People are beginning to move topside again, but no one takes any needless chances. The colony’s radars are watched night and day. I’m stronger now, but Vitruzzi hasn’t let me leave the infirmary yet—more because there’s nowhere else for me to sleep than because of my injuries. David still has tunnel vision, but his sight is returning.
I’m standing next to the infirmary counter, my weapons broken down and the pieces laid out in neat rows, when the familiar sound of Strahan’s boots approach from down the hallway. I catch myself smiling and put the Sinbad’s barrel up to my eye before he notices. Staring intently down the barrel, I examine it for any excess carbon.
“Need help with those?”
Lowering the barrel, I see him grinning at me. He holds out his hand, revealing a round, ripe grapefruit. The yellow-pink skin shines with droplets of glistening oil, making it look like the roundest, juiciest, most appealing piece of candy ever made. “I saved you one.”
“I haven’t seen a grapefruit since I was a kid. Thanks. Someday you’re going to have to show me how you manage to grow these things.” Saliva begins trickling into my mouth. I’ve only been back on solid food for a few days, and the dehydrated nutritional bars I’m so used to eating aren’t putting a dent in my appetite. I take the fruit and begin to peel the thick skin off, relishing the sweet smell, and drop the peelings onto my work rag.
“If you stick around, I will.”
I don’t look at him, but I know he catches the way my hands pause for a moment. “Sure.”
“Aly, listen.” He reaches out and gently wraps a callused hand around one of my wrists, urging me to stop and look at him. “You are staying, right?”
I gently retrieve my wrist and put the grapefruit down on the rag. “I don’t know. I mean, Agate Beach doesn’t really need more people, and the kind of trouble David and I could bring—it’s not really worth it. Not for you guys, anyway.”
His brows wrinkle in a look that says he’s not buying my bullshit. “Who are you trying to convince? You know you’re not protecting us by leaving, so don’t act like you think you are. We bought our troubles, and we can deal with them. And what would you and David do anyway? Where would you go?” He finishes matter-of-factly, “Your friends are here.”
I look intently into his sepia eyes, trying for the first time to imagine what it would be like not to be on the run. To belong somewhere with people who actually care about each other, about me.
“Aly, we want you to stay.” He pauses. “I want you to stay.”
I draw a quick, almost nervous breath and realize: this is what it feels like to be home.
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CONTRACT OF BETRAYAL
Spectras Arise Trilogy, Book 2
Tammy Salyer
ONE
I’m rushing over the hot desert skin of the planet, pushing the Rover at top speed just for the fun of it, hitting sandbars and bouncing high off the ground at times. It’s good to get out of the mine, and late fall on Spectra 6 has come in with enough of a cool breeze blowing through the brown hills to keep me from sweating rivers every time I step outside. I’m moving too fast to really accomplish what I’m out here for—Bodie asked me to gather some samples of a newly engineered species of brush at the base of these eastern hills—but at the moment, I’m enjoying myself too much to care.
The sand is compacting into hard earth as it rises into the baked hillsides, so I steer the Rover south to flank them and give myself a few more minutes of fast-moving freedom. I come up over a finger of the closest hill, the front tires rising vertically for a moment before falling flat back to the earth—and I see it. A transport ship is sitting on the flat plain two hundred and fifty meters from my position. Immediately, I lay off the accelerator and pray that the sound of the Rover’s engine doesn’t echo against the hills and give me away. The ship could belong to anybody, including people it would be best to avoid.
A culvert at the base of the nearest hillock provides me plenty of cover to be hidden from the ship’s view and I coast into it, kill the engine, and switch on my wrist VDU to contact the control room at Agate Beach, where someone is always listening.
“Beach control, this is Aly. Do you copy?”
“Erikson, it’s Mason. What’s up?”
“I’ve got a ship I’ve never seen before out here by the Torarua Range. Can you get me V?”
“Wait one.”
Vitruzzi’s image comes into focus on my VDU within seconds. “What’s going on?”
“I’m about thirty klicks east of the Beach, at the base of the Torarua Range. We’ve got some company. Looks like a transport ship. Admin manufactured. Did they contact you?”
“We haven’t been hailed and”—she turns to confer with Mason—“there’s nothing on radar. Have they seen you?”
“Negative, as far as I can tell.”
“What’s their status? Does it look like a crash? Can you see any registration marks?”
“No, I just got a quick look before I got out of sight. It doesn’t look like a crash. No smoke, no burns, no runners. But the
y’re pretty far from Hell’s Gate.”
“We’ve been expecting a delivery from an old friend. It could be him. I’m on the way. Do me a favor and just hang tight. Don’t let them see you. But if you can keep them from going anywhere, try. We don’t want anyone unexpected flying around the Beach.”
“Affirmative.”
“We have your grid. Be there in twenty.” There’s a click as she breaks the link and my VDU screen fades to black.
Cautiously pushing the Rover’s clamshell hatch open, I decide to climb to the top of the culvert to keep eyes on the stray. If they decide to launch, I’m not exactly sure how Vitruzzi expects me to keep them from going anywhere, but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it. There’s no movement around the ship. From my vantage point, only the stern is visible, and I’m looking straight into the engine outflow chambers. They look clear and operational, and the inner coils have a slight reddish glow. Still hot; they haven’t been here long. The fact that our radars at the Beach didn’t pick them up indicates that they’d entered the atmosphere from another part of the planet and flown in the direction of the settlement below radar. Whether they intended to use stealth or if it was only coincidence is impossible to know, and it makes me nervous.
Five minutes pass and hot, stagnant air pools in the deep depression, baking my skin as if I were in a convection oven and sending streams of sweat dribbling from my hairline to the tip of my nose. Keeping my movements to a minimum, I switch on my carbine’s scope, ratchet up the magnification, and peer through. A light breeze blows a welcome puff of cooler air on my face but also carries the noise of hydraulics. Panning to the left and right helps me pinpoint the cause of the noise, and I finally make out a ramp lowering from the ship’s bow, the wind grabbing up a flurry of dust when it hits the ground.
