“I’m trying!” Mac yelled back. “We weren’t hit directly, at least not by anything big. This is from the explosion.” A second later the spinning stopped.
Vas pulled on her harness. Some of the pressure was still there, but it was returning to normal.
“How did you know that was going to happen?” Terel sat across from Vas, and it was clear the doctor was itching to do a full examination on her to find out that very answer for herself.
“I didn’t know it was going to explode.” Even as she said it aloud, Vas knew she had known. Not exactly what was going to happen, but that something was. Specifically, something very bad was going to happen. Far stronger than her normal gut instincts, this was almost a command. Which was almost as disturbing as the fact that they’d been three minutes away from being space dust.
“I did know something was wrong,” she finally admitted both to herself and to Terel. “I have no idea how, but in those last few minutes I knew something was horribly wrong.”
“Maybe you’ve been hanging around Deven too much and it’s catching,” Terel said. After a few moments, she laughed. “I’m kidding. Telepathic abilities aren’t contagious.”
“I know that.”
“Right. Then why did a look of terror flash across your face?”
Terel had her there. However, there was no way in hell she was going to discuss the disaster of last night with anyone, not even her best friend. She didn’t want to know what secrets lurked in others’ brains. Ever.
She gave Terel a shrug. “Anyway, somehow I picked up on something. I just knew we had to get out. Call it highly honed skills of too many battles.” She flipped open her comm. “I presume the ore hauler is destroyed?”
“Yup.” Mac’s distracted voice indicated he was still fighting the shuttle over something. But he was too good of a pilot to let it win.
“Are we going to have to call for someone to come get us? Or is it fixable?”
“Captain! It’s always fixable.” Mac was clearly insulted that she would even imply such a thing. “I have never lost a ship yet and I don’t plan on doing so. We should be ready to rendezvous with the Warrior Wench in a few—” A pinging cut him off. “Hello, what’s this?”
“Mac? Was that an alarm?” Vas was ready to take her chances with the shuttle’s internal stability and remove her straps to go to the front when he took too long to respond.
She was just loosening her buckles when he came back on the speaker.
“Sorry there. We’ve got a visitor who wants to make sure we’re all right. She’s asking if we need help.” Mac laughed at something only he could see. “And I’d say let this lady help me anytime.”
Another sense of foreboding hit Vas, this motivated by knowing Mac’s taste in women. “Is it a pretty brunette with an odd accent?” The woman who had ordered the dead man to charge the Warrior Wench hadn’t said she wasn’t in the area, just that she couldn’t get here in time.
“Ah, you know me too well, Captain.” Mac said. “She said she can pick us up—”
“Cut communications with her. Now.” Vas unbuckled the restraints, and then made her way to the command portion of the shuttle. The heavy boots in the suit kept her stable, but the systems clearly weren’t working properly. It took her longer than intended to get to the front.
Mac turned toward her from the pilot’s chair. The screen was still up but the volume cut off. The face growing more animated in her silent speech was the woman who had ordered the dead man to attack her ship.
“I said cut the connection. And get a hold of Deven. I want the Warrior Wench here as soon as possible. Do we have any maneuverability in this bucket at all?”
Mac rocked back in his seat as she reached forward and cut the contact with the woman. “She’s just trying to help.”
“Get Deven now.” Vas tapped the dark screen. “That woman sent a message to the corpse on that hauler, a message as to where we would be. And she called us by name.”
Mac winced, but called up Deven. Vas started speaking as soon as her second-in-command appeared.
“Deven, there’s a ship closing in on us. They were the ones who sent that ore hauler on its attack vector and most likely the ones who just detonated it. I need you to get here now.”
“That ship is closing in on you too fast. We won’t make it in time if they decide to go after you. You’ll be in weapons range in less than five minutes.” She heard him bark commands, but she knew his judgment on ship abilities was never off. If he thought they couldn’t get there in time, they couldn’t.
“Jakiin and I have two of the Furies up and ready to fly. A Flit wouldn’t hold against that cruiser closing in on you, but they might.”
She swore to herself. She didn’t trust those rusting antiques, but judging from the information she was gathering on the cruiser heading toward them, he was right. The Warrior Wench only had eight of the small fighter Flit ships onboard, and that wouldn’t be enough to go after a cruiser.
“I hate to say this, but go ahead. Have the Warrior Wench close in as quickly as she can, but get those rust buckets of yours out here.”
“Aye. Hang on, we’re coming.” Deven cut off, leaving Vas to stare at the ship closing in. The flashing red comm light indicated the cruiser was still trying to contact them.
“Captain, are you sure that’s the woman who ordered the attack?” Mac said his hand far too close to the flashing comm button for Vas’s comfort.
Reaching around him, she turned the comm to deny and the flashing stopped. “Yes, I’m sure. I know it shocks you to learn this, but beautiful women can be evil too. I saw her and heard her. She knew where we were going to be and when.” Folding her arms, she glared at him as she saw his hand twitching toward the button.
“I know beautiful women can be evil. I work for you don’t I?” Mac’s face flashed red the instant the words were out of his mouth. “Not that you’re evil, or that I think you’re beautiful. I mean you are, beautiful that is, but I don’t think of you that way.”
Vas laughed at his attempt to save himself in spite of the situation. “I think you should just shut up now. Don’t worry, I know what you mean. Or rather what you are attempting to mean. Have Deven and Jakiin launched yet?”
Mac gave an audible sigh of relief as he turned to the console. His fingers flew over the keyboard and an image of the two Furies heading toward them appeared.
“Excellent.” Vas stayed back.
The Furies took up position in front of the shuttle. After a few more minutes Mac got the shuttle’s systems back up. The cruiser was just entering target range. First one Fury, then the second fired up weapon systems. The cruiser reduced speed, but didn’t stop. Nor did she fire up her weapons.
Vas let out a breath. She had no worries of the Warrior Wench’s ability to keep that cruiser in its place, but she really didn’t want to see if the two Furies could take it down.
After a few tense moments, both Furies powered down their weapons.
“Deven, what the hell are you doing? Just because she’s not flashing weapons doesn’t mean she’s not planning on it,” Vas yelled at her second in command. “She’s still moving forward in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Deven’s face appeared on their screen, the odd-looking Fury pilot equipment closing in around him. “I know that. I also know who she is. She wants to meet on the Warrior Wench. Can the shuttle move now?” There was a tone in his voice, one that told Vas she wasn’t going to be happy. Not that she was already. How in the hell did Deven know and trust someone who’d sent a bomb after her ship?
“We’re not meeting anywhere. I heard her issue orders to the idiot flying that hauler, orders that mentioned us and told him to get to us first. Yes, this shuttle can fly, but I’m not turning my back on her.”
The lead Fury, most likely Deven, pulled back closer to the shuttle. He often did that, his piloting mimicking what he would do if he were standing there. “Vas, I trust her.” There was an almost palatable pain in
his voice and face now. “I don’t want to discuss it over the air. I don’t know how secure these things are given the current situation. However, I trust her at this point. We need to hear what she has to say.”
Vas let an army of swear words tumble around her head before she spoke. The question was did she still trust Deven? As pissed as she was at him, the answer still was the same—she did. She wasn’t happy about it, but she trusted him in matters of the ship and crew. “Damn it, Deven, you and I are going to have a very long conversation when this is over. Escort her in. I want you and Jakiin on either side of that cruiser. Blow her out of the sky if she steps one toe out of line, friend or not.” Vas nodded toward Mac. “We’ll come in from behind.” Not that the shuttle had any weapons to speak of, nothing that would even make a cruiser think twice. However, Vas didn’t want that damn ship behind her.
Both men knew better than to argue at this point. Deven silently moved with Jakiin into flanking positions, and Mac fired up the engines to follow the cruiser in. Vas was satisfied, or almost. She flipped open a comm to the Warrior Wench. “Gosta, get a small security detail to the docking bay. Deven and Jakiin will be followed in by a shuttle off that cruiser. Make sure it only has one life form on it and that it docks in the security section. Escort our guest to my ready room and keep her there.”
“Aye, Captain,” Gosta responded. If he wanted to ask more, he managed to hold back his curiosity.
With a final glare at Mac just because he needed it, Vas went back and resumed her seat.
The flight back was brief, and her crew stayed out of her way to the command deck. Since they followed everyone else in, Vas was the last one to get to her ready room. Deven, Gosta, and the striking brunette were all chatting quite comfortably by the time she got in.
Luckily none of them had dared to take her seat. With a nod to the two men and a glare at the woman, Vas slid into her spacious chair. She took her time getting settled, then turned toward the woman.
“So do you want to tell me why you ordered that corpse in my hold to charge my ship?”
The woman’s smile made her even more mind-numbingly beautiful. Vas could see she would get whatever she wanted from men, or women who fancied women, regardless of the species.
“Well, Vas—might I call you Vas?”
“Captain Tor Dain will be fine.”
Again the flash of beauty, this time in a nod and grin. “Understood. Captain Tor Dain. I think you misunderstood my command. Although to be honest, I’m not sure if the person you found was my man Ghassil. I’d like to check the body if I could?” Something must have shown on Vas’s face for she sat back a bit. “In a while then. Once you’ve heard me out.”
“Why don’t we start with who you are and why you knew where this ship was? We’re a registered mercenary ship in case you hadn’t noticed. Last time I checked our travel paths are private.” Which was one of the few benefits of being a legit mercenary instead of one of the rogue ones. The rogues got more money, but they also ran the risk of the Commonwealth smacking them down like a fly. Moreover, there was no protection of their movements.
Deven leaned forward. “Actually, I’d like to make the introductions if I could. Vaslisha Tor Dain, this is Marli. We’ve been friends for a very long time.” He paused, looking carefully at the woman. “Over one hundred years.”
“What? She’s like you?” Vas reached for the blaster in her desk out of instinct, but held off grabbing it. Crap, another long-lived telepath?
“It’s okay, Captain. I’m not like Deven, and I assure you I’m not a telepath. And in a way, we have met.” Her grin was softer, more real than before. “Or at least I’ve met your blood.”
Vas rocked back in her chair and studied the ceiling for a few seconds. Well, she’d wanted to know about Deven’s mysterious friend, hadn’t she? She just hadn’t realized it would be a beautiful woman with a command cruiser and a rampaging ore hauler.
“You’re the one who gave me the antidote to wipe out the last of the poison and found those trackers. Thank you.” Vas nodded to the woman. “But that still doesn’t address your man trying to ram a highly modified ore hauler into the side of this ship.”
Marli steepled her fingers in front of her face as if weighing what to say. “He wasn’t trying to charge your ship; he was trying to stop the ore hauler. It was automated with some program we couldn’t crack, he intended to find out who had rigged it, why, and if he couldn’t disconnect the command, to destroy it. He’d been on it for the past three days trying to find those things out. I last spoke to him thirty-two hours ago. He never answered my last hails.”
Vas got up and paced. Sitting and thinking didn’t go together for her. “How did you find out about it, and why wouldn’t you just warn us?” She turned to Deven, “Did you know about this?”
He shrugged and raised his hands. “Not until I opened the comm and ordered her to back off when I was in that Fury.” He turned to his friend. “They fly very well by the way.”
Vas swore. “They came from her too?”
“I’m glad.” Marli beamed a smile that bounced around the room. “I figured if anyone could get them running you could. Although I do admit I didn’t think they were going to be used against me.”
“If you had told me you were now in possession of a command cruiser I would have been more prepared. That happened recently I assume? Or did you just have it waiting for you?”
Vas watched the banter then raised her voice. “Okay, back on track, folks. Original question, how did you know where we were and what that ore hauler had planned?”
“I was tracking you.” If she was embarrassed at all about her actions, Marli certainly didn’t show it; her warm brown eyes were sincere. “Those blood trackers are easy to follow if one knows how.” She raised a hand as both Deven and Vas spoke at once. “Your blocking is working. Whoever the person is who got them into your bloodstream, they can’t sense you. I can because I coded to them when Deven brought them to me.”
Vas seriously thought about getting that blaster after all. As if her life wasn’t messed up enough at this point she had this woman to deal with?
Luckily, even Deven didn’t look happy about that. Maybe he didn’t completely trust this exotic woman.
“Marli, you didn’t tell me—”
“I know I didn’t, darling.” She cut him off with a pat on his cheek, as if he were no more than a child. “But sometimes I have my own reasons.” A delicate frown crept across her face. “However, I really need to see if the body you have brought back is my man. He was a good person.” For a brief moment Vas thought she saw sorrow and an age far older than this woman could possibly be. It vanished in an instant.
“I still need answers.” Vas folded her arms and leaned forward. “Whoever you are, you’re following us, or me, for some reason. According to you, someone else was as well, and they were the ones behind the attack.”
“Yes. Can we see the body now?” Marli rose so gracefully Vas could have sworn she floated to her feet.
Deven rose as well. “I hate to say this, Vas, but you might as well talk and walk. She’s even more stubborn than you.” He rolled his eyes and slid open the door. “Trust me, I know how stubborn both of you are, let’s just go see the body. Marli can fill us in as we walk.”
Vas thought about arguing, but she wanted to know who the dead man was as well. Instead she left the room, and then dropped back to Gosta. “Can you stay up here on the deck? I don’t think her crew would try anything with her on board, but I don’t completely trust her. She’s not telling us anything.”
Gosta nodded, and then ambled over to the command chair. “I’ll call you if anything interesting happens.”
Vas smiled then caught up to the other two. “Now, about why you were following us?”
“She is tenacious, isn’t she? Reminds me of a younger you.” Marli’s comment was for Deven, but her smile was for Vas. “Or a very much younger me.” She studied Vas for a few moments while they wait
ed for the lift.
“Very well, if you are like me you’ll want it blunt. You deserve that much. Someone poisoned you with the drell, yet another someone wanted to track you through your blood. Both are extremely rare and unusual things by themselves, together they are unheard of. I wanted to see who was trying to make you a pawn and who was trying to remove you from the game.” She tossed back her long hair and leaned against the wall of the lift as it lumbered down to the med level.
“About a week ago, not too long after Deven left, I heard rumor of a stolen ore ship. Actually one of the pirates living on the same rock I was visiting got stone drunk and was bragging about his latest job. Stupid idiot fell into my lap telling me he’d programmed an ore ship to go after some silly brothel barge and had been paid obscenely for the job.” She gave a light shrug of her slender shoulders. “I broke his neck after he told me all he could.”
Vas was the only one surprised by the comment. Marli looked like a pampered aristocrat, but those delicate hands and heart were obviously much harder.
“After I found out the trajectory, I called up the Scurrilous Monk, my ship’s name by the way, do you like it?” The switch from cold, matter-of-fact killer to proud ship momma was swift.
“It’s unique, I’ll say that. Do I even want to know how you got that name passed through?” Deven laughed as he led them off the lift.
“Probably not, but I do love the name. Reminds me of old friends.” The vicious grin that followed made Vas almost want to ask for the story behind it.
She did find herself laughing along with Marli. She couldn’t help it. The woman was even more outrageous than she was. “Okay, I like the name. But if you could get your man on the ore hauler, why didn’t you just shut it down?” Actually she knew the answer, probably the same reason she didn’t blow it out of the sky when she first found out about it.
Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench Page 16
