Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench

by Marie Andreas

  His moves were even more graceful, lighter, and freer than before. His opponents might have been made of light, but he was the one who moved like it. He wove in between them, striking strategically as he flowed through, leaving them staggering but not fallen. Vas would have used their closeness to try to force one attacker to accidentally injure one of the others, but Deven kept them all separate. It was as if he just happened to be having five different battles at the same time.

  His movements were hypnotic and Vas found herself holding her breath as she watched. After five minutes, he dispatched the first, the pikeman, but it was more as if he hadn’t wanted to kill the hologram rather than him not being able to.

  She heard Terel’s intake of breath as Deven did a round dive and came up, cleanly dispatching the two sword-and-dagger fighters in one long, sinuous strike. Vas saw the same look that was probably on her face. Complete awe. And more than a little attraction. Deven wasn’t by any means Terel’s type; she didn’t date humans. However, no one could watch this dance without being swayed by Deven’s charms. He moved as if in a lover’s game; he just happened to be armed.

  He drew himself up for another pass and quickly killed the remaining three holograms. The music in the room built and he held a pose as if waiting.

  Vas studied her impressive second-in-command. It was really too bad she refused to get involved with one of her officers. And downright depressing that he was a telepath. Right now dragging him into her suite sounded like a damn fine idea.

  Taking a deep breath, she forced her hormones under control. He might not always be one of her officers, but he would always be a telepath.

  “Now you know why I keep him on board.”

  Terel raised one eyebrow. “Oh?”

  Vas smacked her and winked. “His fighting skills, of course.”

  There was no way Deven could have heard them—Vas recognized the glass as a specialized soundproof composite—but he broke from his pose and nodded to the hidden room. With his arms out he bowed deeply. His grin told Vas he’d known they were there the entire time. Show off.

  “Come on. Let’s go,” Vas laughed and she headed back to the door. “We don’t need to build that one’s ego any more.”

  She marked the exact location of the room entrance on her map panel, and then resealed the door as best she could. Gosta could secure it and block any viewing of the holochamber.

  “You still thinking about Deven?”

  Terel’s words pulled Vas out of her thoughts. “What? No, where’d that come from?” She scowled at Terel. “I was thinking how we needed to block that damn room, or rather block the hidden viewing area. Why would I be thinking about Deven?”

  “No reason. However your heart rate shot way up when he was out there.”

  “And yours didn’t?” Vas didn’t doubt Terel had been able to discern an increase in heart rate. One of the reasons her people made such great doctors was their incredible ability to pick up on physiological changes in others, regardless of the species. “Come on, you were focusing pretty tightly yourself. Deven’s got a great body; it would be a crime not to admire it.”

  Terel folded her arms and peered down at Vas, something she obviously could do well, but usually didn’t. “Nothing…else?”

  Vas smacked her friend’s arm, and then continued back to the command deck. “No, nothing else. He’s great to look at, but he’s a crewmember and telepath.” She shivered. “You know how I feel about telepaths.”

  “You and your primitive views.” Terel sighed and walked ahead to the lift that would take her back to the med lab. “Whatever you say. Don’t forget to come back down to the lab tomorrow. I might have some more ways to fight those blood trackers.”

  Vas waved Terel off and continued down toward the command deck. Terel was imagining things.

  The command deck was its usual controlled chaos. Gosta was up to his upper elbows in computer parts. Literally, his long sleeves were pushed completely back and his second elbows could be seen, something that rarely happened.

  “What did you find?” Vas waited until she was at his shoulder before speaking.

  “Damn it, Captain!” Gosta swore as he jumped a good foot in the air.

  Vas tsked, and walked around him to her command chair. To be honest, she rarely sat in them much; they made her feel like a bull’s eye for trouble. Even this one with its molding fabric and fancy design made her nervous. Maybe one day she’d design a ship with a command chair not in the very center of the deck.

  “You know, Gosta, it’s great how engrossed you are in your work, but we are mercenaries. You really need to pay more attention to what’s going on around you.” She leaned back and called up the specs. They were heading back to Tarantus IV’s space station. Deven had mentioned some idea about checking out the pub she’d gotten her lunch at. Perhaps they could also see about finding the guy who ran into her.

  He was reaching and she knew it. Vas didn’t think they’d find a clue about who poisoned her there. Or who slipped those blood trackers into her. Whoever Deven’s mysterious acquaintance was they didn’t seem to think they were the same person. Which made sense. Why track someone down if they were going to be dead within thirty days?

  Gosta continued to grumble. “I should think I wouldn’t have to worry about it when I’m on the ship.”

  Vas didn’t look up but threw the map panel directly at Gosta’s head. A snap and a few swear words told her he’d caught it, but only barely. She didn’t bother to hide her grin. “Getting better. You always have to be prepared. It’s the only way to stay alive in this universe.” She closed the navigation view screen. There was nothing to do on that front but wait until they got to the station. Hopefully they could at least find a short-term job there and it wouldn’t be a total waste of time.

  “Now, on that lovely little panel is a secret room, one right behind holochamber number one. I want it ready for cargo and it’ll need to be better masked. If I can find it, inspectors can as well. Also, it views holochamber one. You’ll need to block it immediately. Close the chamber until the work is done.” She glanced around her crew. “Not that I don’t trust some of you, of course.” A few of the most likely voyeurs looked away quickly.

  “Anything further?” Gosta leaned against his open console, looking almost smug.

  “I believe so, yes.” Vas studied him; he had something. “What? Did you find something interesting in your playing?”

  “Interesting.” He snorted and laid the map panel down. “You could say that. I’m getting closer to breaking the lock on the core.” He frowned. “Whoever put it up was good. Really good. Far too good to have been working for Skrankle.”

  “Crap.” Vas drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair, watching as the soft fabric filled each dent the moment her finger rose. “Which makes it all the more important we get it open, yes? Can you tell who did it?”

  Gosta shook his head wearily as he closed up the console. Most likely he hadn’t even gone to bed yet. “No, and that’s almost as worrying as the level of effort they put into it. There was a very specific reason they put it in here. I am loath to break it until I know why.

  “One other thing, I think I found a pattern with the parts.” He uploaded another panel and brought it to her.

  With a sigh she took the panel. “What’s this?” It looked like a child’s art project. Green lines circled around yellow dots and purple squares.

  “That’s the pattern.” Gosta leaned over and tapped on the screen. “See here? These gray pieces are the parts of our ship. The lines are shipping lines, and dots are major warehousing planets.”

  She handed it back with a shake of her head. “What are the purple squares?”

  Gosta was like a kid with a new shiny toy. “I don’t know yet. But it’s something.”

  She rubbed the heels of her hands on her eyes. Had she really only been awake for a few hours? Her brain felt as mushy as it had the night before.

  “Great, Gosta, really great.”
She patted the tall man on his arm. “But I don’t see the pattern.” She raised her hand quickly. “I’m sure it’s just me and my poor human mind, but if you say it’s there, I believe you. You just tell me when you’ve got it all figured out, okay? I’m sure—”

  A siren cut off her next comment.

  “What the hell is that and someone shut it off!” Vas screamed to be heard over the blaring. It was as if someone had taken a standard proximity alarm and enhanced it by a hundredfold.

  “Sorry, Captain.” Mac’s voice came out of the blessed silence, which followed the end of the siren. “This was the only emergency alert the system had. You need to get down to engineering, fast.”

  Vas started swearing as soon as she heard Mac’s voice. “Why do I need to get there fast? And why in the hell does this ship have that…thing…on it? Gosta, pull that program ASAP, or at least make it civilized. Well, Mac? Why do you need me?”

  “There’s a body here. Or two. I can’t tell.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Gosta, you’re with me.” Vas ran toward the lift. “Xsit, find Deven, I’m assuming the klaxon hit the whole ship, but make sure he gets down there. Hrrru, find out if there have been any breaches. I need to know what we’re dealing with.” Her crew turned to her in shock. No one had ever gotten aboard the Victorious Dead, and the idea that there might be intruders on their current ship was foreign to them. “Now, people! We have a situation. Move it!”

  Gosta jogged up behind her.

  “Are you armed?” Packing her snub blaster already, she had freed two larger guns from hidden compartments in her command chair before she ran for the lift. She pounded the keys to send the lift to engineering the instant Gosta passed the threshold.

  “No, I—”

  She shoved one of the blasters at him. “I didn’t think you were. When we get down there, stay behind me.”

  He took the weapon, but wasn’t pleased. “There is no way anyone could have gotten on board. Mac was probably drinking.”

  “Possibly.” She made sure both of her weapons were primed before she ran out of the lift as it opened on the last level. “Or someone got on when we were running away from Lantaria.”

  Normally she would have said that would be impossible, but she’d never had an evac like that before.

  Vas slowed down her jog as she neared the partially open door for engineering. She should have told Mac to wait outside of the room so she knew there wasn’t a surprise waiting.

  Pointing to the door, she motioned for Gosta to keep to the other side. He nodded once and they moved into position.

  Mac hadn’t said they were under attack, but bodies didn’t appear out of nowhere. In addition, knowing Mac, he may not have noticed if there was a person hiding.

  Trading her snub blaster for the larger weapon, she slid up to the doorway, and nudged it completely open with her free hand.

  “Don’t come any closer. I’ll shoot!”

  “It’s me.” Vas sighed and pulled up the nose of her blaster. “Drop your weapon. Gosta and I are coming in.”

  Mac still had his own snub blaster out, but he holstered it as soon as she and Gosta came into view. “Needed to make sure. I was afraid there was someone down here and they were going to come back.”

  Vas shook her head; at least he called out before blasting his captain. “Where’s the body?”

  “Or bodies.” Mac turned a weird shade of green. “I’m not sure whether it’s one or more.” He turned and led them toward the back of engineering.

  On the Victorious Dead this section was mostly storage. This ship had extra equipment added but what exactly it did was something her engineering people would have to determine. From the dust blanketing the floor, no one had been down here in a very long time. Only a single set of prints went in and out. She sighed and sheathed her weapon. “Gosta, call off the security detail. We’re fine.”

  “But someone’s been murdered, Captain!” Mac pulled out his blaster again. “The killer could still be on the ship.”

  Vas stopped walking and motioned for Gosta to do the same. “Mac, how many sets of footprints do you see?”

  He glanced around, scowling as it hit him. “Two. Well, one going back and forth.” He holstered his weapon with a sigh. “Mine. I see my tracks going back and forth.”

  “Now that we know we’re not under attack, could you show us this body? Or whatever it is you saw?” Vas studied the equipment they passed as a sullen Mac trudged further back into the room. Whatever this equipment was, it was new and huge. She’d have to get Bathshea and her best people down here immediately. Bodies aside, Mac might have made a valuable find.

  She was determining if the new equipment should be sold as a lot or individually when she rounded the corner and stopped short.

  “I give up. What is it?” Gosta finally broke the silence.

  “This is a head, I think.” Mac stepped back to let the other two come forward.

  “It’s definitely more than one. Either that or it’s a mutant, or an unknown species,” Gosta muttered as he paced around the pile of dead flesh before them.

  “Okay, given the odds of it being an escaped mutant range from slim to none, what is it?” Vas stayed back. Death didn’t disturb her—in her job she dealt with it far too intimately for it to do so. However, this pile of melted flesh and bone made her skin crawl.

  “An excellent question,” Terel said from behind them as she, her assistant Pela, and Deven entered the area. All three were loaded down with medical equipment. Deven still wore his workout gear. Had he been working out this entire time? His stamina was terrifying sometimes.

  “Since I’m not the person here with the five or six medical degrees, I’m going to leave all of you to answer that question. Deven and Gosta, you’re with me.”

  Deven glanced up from adjusting a spectral scan, and then arched his brow at Terel.

  “If you don’t mind, I could use him. We’re likely to be down here for a bit.” Terel didn’t smirk, but Vas heard it in her friend’s voice.

  Vas glared at the room in general and her med officer and second-in-command specifically. “If it won’t be too much trouble, I’d like both of you to come see me when you’re finished.” She started to head out then turned back. “Call Bathshea to come down and figure out what this equipment is when you’ve moved that out. I need to see what we have here. And no one touches any of the shiny machines until then.”

  “Any idea what we have in there, Gosta?” Vas asked as they left engineering.

  He shortened his long stride to match hers. “The dead or the machinery?”

  She punched in the command to call the lift. On her old ship the command panels were utilitarian, clean, chrome. Everything on this ship wore golden swirls and ostentatious lettering. Even on this level. As if any of the former guests would have been down in engineering. “Either. Both. I don’t like mysteries, Gosta. I really don’t. Yet more and more of them keep being dumped into my life. It’s starting to annoy me.”

  “I wish I could say I solved some of them,” Gosta said as he entered the lift after her. “However, I have no idea what that body was, nor the machines. And so far we don’t have a clue as to who those ships were at Lantaria, or why they slaughtered a bunch of mercenaries.” He frowned. “Actually, they may have destroyed the entire planetary population. I haven’t been able to reach anyone on Lantaria since we left orbit.”

  She leaned against the smooth lift walls and closed her eyes. “That’s not good. It’s compounding the not good that already exists.” With a sigh she opened her eyes. “Would having more people assigned to you help anything? I can take you off all command shifts. You can spend a few days solving some of our problems.”

  Gosta nodded. “A few folks in the tech lab might shed some light. But solving which thing?”

  “I don’t care.” Vas walked past him onto the command deck. “I just want something resolved.” She took a cursory glance at the crew. Nothing seemed to be going more wrong
than usual. “I’ll be in my ready room. Xsit, you have the bridge. Gosta, go recruit who you need and tell Hrrru to get back up here and take over nav duties.” She palmed open the door. “Any more emergencies go to Deven.”

  She was able to spend a good three hours dealing with the stupid day-to-day paperwork that piled up with any large company. Considering the upheavals her nice, orderly world had been going through lately, the mundane work relaxed her.

  Perhaps a bit too much.

  The dream was more vivid than before, but still Vas couldn’t see what was behind her. Only the wind ripping into her back as she ran. Sand the size of hail flew around her, obscuring anything else. A shape reached out, but whether to help her or hurt her she couldn’t tell. She was too terrified to do anything except run.

  An abrupt shaking freed her from the terror. But she came up swinging and flattened Deven before she realized who was shaking her.

  Vas bounced back, shaking out her fist. She’d hit him hard and not well. Probably did more damage to herself than him. “Damn it, don’t do that!”

  “Tell me about it.” He rubbed his jaw then got to his feet. It was impressive that she’d taken him down with a single blow. Of course, now her hand was going to swell up like a balloon. “You fell asleep on your console. When I came in you were twitching and whimpering.”

  She glared at him from the food dispenser where she got ice for her hand. “I do not whimper.”

  Stepping forward, he wiped the side of her face. His frown deepened. “You were crying.”

  A quick check in the small mirror near her dispenser validated his assessment. Any thoughts of what she had been doing fled her mind. Slowly it came back. She’d been working on forms, then the wind. The wind what?