Seaghdh smiled. A thrill rippled through him whenever she spoke his language. Time to begin rebuilding whatever trust he’d broken. “Authorization, yellow-kawlth—no, here.” He made sure she was watching and punched in the code. “It describes a sound sequence. Yellow-kawlth-885.”
“Authorization code, yellow-kawlth-885, acknowledged and accepted. We’re green across the board.”
“Green across the board, aye,” he said, powering the engines hard and fast. “No time for a checklist. We want your father’s ship inside the protection of the shields and you working on that lieutenant of yours.”
“Dad’s got Tommy? Good.”
“Unless he’s broadcasting in some fashion we can’t detect,” he said, throttling up. “If he is, then we have to work faster than the Chekydran.”
She grabbed a headset and requested bay door clearance. The bulkhead rumbled open and the shuttle shot out into the darkness.
“Ever piloted a Claugh fighter shuttle?”
She glanced at him, a wary look in her eye. “No, but the specs look similar to TFC’s midrange interceptor.”
He nodded. “You have plenty of hours on that ship. Good. Take over. I want to make sure the Ykktyryk five man keeps a respectful distance.”
Ari’s head jerked up, and she shot a look at sensors, then at the view screen as she covered his controls, waiting for him to turn them over. Her accomplished hands took the helm.
Blood rushed straight for Seaghdh’s lower body, recalling her skilled touch from the night before.
“They’re still here?” she asked, yanking his attention back to the view screen. “A five man? They can’t hurt us. Are we sure this isn’t a lure? Something designed to get us out from under the Dagger’s shields and guns?”
“Damn it.” He bolted for weapons.
Ari swore. “I need to tweak sensors. You okay with it?”
“Advise the Dagger to scramble her fighters and you can do anything you want,” he countered.
The anticipation in the sly grin she tossed him shorted out his brain. He blew out a shallow breath and forced his attention back to weapons. Grabbing a headset, he patched in to Eilod on the bridge of the Dagger. “Full scan!” he said. “All sensors at maximum. That five man . . .” He spun. “Ari! Missiles incoming!”
“Acknowledged.” She slammed the shuttle’s engines to maximum and wrenched the controls. The ship dove hard. Gravity generators whined in protest, then failed. An alarm warbled, then fell silent when Ari slapped it off.
Seaghdh grabbed his harness and fastened himself to his chair. His lasers read hot, and the targeting system chirped as it homed in on the missile.
“Save your ammo,” she said. “The Dagger’s shields took the steam out of it. It won’t catch us, which means they’re trying to drive us.” She flipped the throttle hard to starboard.
Seaghdh felt as if his stomach had torn free of his body and hit the bulkhead behind him. She pulled out of the dive and the Sen Ekir hung before them, shields flaring as a missile impacted.
“Clearing the Dagger’s shields in three, two . . . Right on cue,” she grumbled. “Incoming. We’ve got an Erillian Aggressor on intercept. Cravuul dung. They were hiding behind Dad. Their weapons and shields read hot. They’re firing! I thought they wanted me alive! Get our shields online!”
“Returning fire,” Seaghdh said, then cursed as the shuttle jounced. Sparks blew forward from a panel on the aft bulkhead. An alarm shrieked. “Fighters are scrambled!” he hollered above the din.
“Damn it!” Ari shouted and silenced the alarm. “Direct hit to the shield generator.”
Something cold uncurled in his stomach. They’d been had by someone who knew the Dagger’s sensors couldn’t read through the Sen Ekir’s energy exhaust and who knew the precise layout of the Lughfai ’s systems. “Firing missiles.”
The Lughfai took another two hits. Cabin lights died. Emergency lighting winked on. Seaghdh lobbed a barrage of laser fire at the mercenaries.
“Gods damn it!” she snapped as a missile hit them dead center.
Laser fire and another missile jolted the ship. The panel in front of Ari exploded. She ducked and cursed. Several alarms wailed at once.
“Sen Ekir! Sen Ekir!” Seaghdh bellowed. “Clear the shields! Clear the Dagger’s shields! The fighters will close on the attackers.”
“Captain Seaghdh,” Ari’s father answered. “Our sensors indicate that you’ve lost life support. We are lowering our shields. Prepare for teleport.”
“Negative!” Ari shouted. Blood ran down her face from a cut in her forehead. “It’s a trap, Dad! It’s exactly what they want!”
“Ari,” Seaghdh said.
Something in his voice jerked her around to face him.
“The aggressor is powering their tractor beam.”
She glanced at the panels and shook her head. “We won’t make it. We’re hemorrhaging air. It’ll be a body recovery.”
Teleport distortion broke the rage exploding through Seaghdh’s chest but not before he heard Ari’s “Damn it to all Three Hells, Dad.”
CHAPTER 23
ARI materialized with Seaghdh beside her and recognized the medical bay aboard the Sen Ekir.
She leaped for Raj’s desk and flipped the com switch. “Get this ship inside that damned shield! Now!”
“Do not use that tone of voice with me, Alexandria,” her father snapped. “I have plenty of people yelling at me. I don’t need to add you to the list.”
Frustration choked her for a moment. Ari clenched her fists and managed to say, “On my way.”
The Sen Ekir lurched. She relaxed. The Dagger had them on guidance.
“What do you think you’re doing?” her father demanded. “Release this ship immediately.”
“Belay that!” she shouted. “Dad! I think I’m a payday to those mercenaries. Dead or alive. I’m guessing they prefer dead. They obviously don’t care about collateral damage. With the Sen Ekir on guidance, the Dagger can keep us close enough to protect us with their shields and their mass. They’re helping.”
Her father snorted in derision. “After ordering me to Kebgra for a body retrieval? What in the Three Hells is going on, Alexandria? The only reason I’ve done anything they’ve ordered me to do was the possibility that I’d have you back.”
Ari blinked, speechless. Her dad wanted her back? Again? Something warm unfolded inside her chest.
“Dr. Idylle,” Seaghdh said, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Please power down, sir. Ari and I are in your medical bay.”
Raj chimed in. “I’m finishing an autopsy sequence on the body we brought in. Once I’ve cycled through decon, I’ll be right there.”
“No need,” Ari replied, grabbing a steri-pad and wiping the blood from her face. “Superficial head wound. Looks impressive, amounts to nothing. You got Tommy?”
“Who?” her father queried.
“The body. A former crewman. He was taken when my shuttle was snatched,” she said.
Seaghdh held up a hand and shook his head.
She raised an eyebrow at him but closed her mouth. Did he not want her to air their suspicions until after her father had finished his examination of the corpse?
“The Chekydran did that to him?” Her father sounded shaken. “You know what happened to that boy? How could you do this to me, Alex, forcing me to look at what those bastards did to one of our own? At what they tried to do to you?”
“Sir,” Seaghdh interrupted when Ari opened her mouth to answer. “Let us get cleaned up. Then we’ll answer as many questions as we can. May I speak with my ship for a moment?”
Her father must have acquiesced. Pietre said, “Patching you through on channel two.”
Ari opened the line and turned away to finish scrubbing the dried blood from her face and hair.
Seaghdh confirmed, in Tagrethian, presumably so her father could understand, the destruction of the Lughfai and subsequently of the mercenary ships.
“Please con
vey our sincere appreciation to Dr. Idylle and his crew for their swift rescue of Captain Idylle and of you, Auhrnok Riorchjan,” Eilod said. “Captain Idylle. My cousin warned me that your grasp of tactics rivaled his own. He misspoke. You surpassed him by spotting that trap before it could crush us in its jaws. Thank you.”
Turning back to the panel, Ari raised her eyebrows and flinched. Wrinkling her forehead hurt. “Flattery will get you whatever you like, Your Majesty,” she quipped, smiling. “We’ll get to work untangling this mess.”
Eilod chuckled. “I can still charge you with spying, you ingrate,” she said in Claughwyth.
“Why, thank you, Your Majesty,” Ari countered in Tagrethian. “It is kind of you to say so.”
Seaghdh, eyes dancing, covered his mouth with his hand.
She grinned at him.
“With Dr. Idylle’s permission, I request that you check in on the hour, Auhrnok,” Eilod said. “Dagger out.”
Ari closed the line.
“You’re the Auhrnok baxt’kal Riorchjan?” Pietre demanded over intraship.
“Guilty,” Seaghdh replied.
She noticed that her dad didn’t take Pietre to task for his language. Shaking her head, she clicked off the com.
“On the table with you,” Seaghdh ordered. “I’ll clean that cut.”
“Raj will be here shortly,” she said, hopping up.
He peered at her, remembered distress intense in his expression. “We missed being vaporized by seconds, Ari. Let me touch you.”
Gentle heat expanded within her, pressing against her insides, growing too big to be contained by skin and bones. She wanted to smile at him. She couldn’t. Ari took a deep breath and gambled.
“In the shuttle,” she said. “You asked me . . .”
He laid a finger on her lips. “Enough fear. Sit still.”
She subsided, discontent roiling her insides. She was sick to death of being afraid.
He dabbed antiseptic on her forehead, sprayed wound sealant, then activated Raj’s regen beam.
“Did you mean to make me fall in love with you?” she asked, her heart trembling.
He froze. Elation and desire flared in his eyes before he closed them and drew in a long, slow breath.
She heard the regen click off and his arms went around her. He pulled her hard against him. “Gods know it’s what I prayed for,” he murmured, “but no. I didn’t dare hope. Say it again. Please?”
She breathed a shaky laugh and wrapped her legs and arms around him, feeling suddenly more powerful than she’d ever felt in her life. “I fell in love with you.”
Seaghdh leaned back and grinned, his roguish smile heightened by the suggestive glitter in his eyes.
She ran a hand up his chest.
He kissed the scratch on her forehead.
Alarms erupted. She leaped out of his grasp, pushed off the table, and stared in horror as the bulkhead doors slammed shut.
“No.”
“What is it?” he demanded. “Ari? What?”
“Quarantine! By the Twelve Gods! Quarantine!”
The alarms died.
“All personnel report! By the numbers!” Raj’s voice commanded via intraship.
“Dr. Linnaeus Idylle, cargo bay,” her father said, concern thick in his voice.
Ari stomped across the bay, swearing, as Pietre, Raj, then Jayleia reported in with their locations. Grabbing up bits of medical equipment, she strode back to Seaghdh’s side and flipped the com switch. “Captains Ari Idylle and Cullin Seaghdh. In baxt’kal quarantine.”
“Alex!” her father barked. Only her dad could get so much reproach and worry into one word. “Symptoms?”
“None.” She shot a look at Seaghdh.
He shook his head.
“For either of us. Damn it. Sampling blood now. Link me up. You know this isn’t my forte.”
“Initiating double backup of all files. Shutting down non-critical ship’s systems. Routing power to processing. Direct computer links in ten,” Pietre said.
“Link from cargo, Pietre!” her father ordered. “Raj? Get back down here! Clear containment! Secondary diagnostic refit!”
“Agreed. On my way,” Raj shot.
She heard him scrambling around before he cut the link. It made Ari smile despite the adrenaline flooding her body, making her hands shake.
Seaghdh’s fingers closed over hers as she set Raj’s leech atop a blue vein showing through the skin of her arm. She glanced at him.
“Deep breath,” he said. “We’re not dead yet. You’ve got the best people in the galaxy right here to help.”
She nodded.
“Dr. Idylle,” Seaghdh raised his voice for intraship. “Contact the Dagger and advise them of our situation. If you’ll permit, sir, Turrel can link you to the Royal University of Medicine. You will have the full cooperation of the best minds in the Claugh nib Dovvyth.”
A moment’s hesitation and then she heard her father move closer to his com speaker. “I will have Pietre patch you through from medical, Captain. I will afford your people access to our files, but I ask that you speak with them directly. I am a scientist. My diplomatic skills are . . . lacking.”
Seaghdh winked at her wan smile. “Understood.”
She thumbed the switch on Raj’s leech and closed her eyes. Sampling blood didn’t hurt, but in the past six or seven months, she’d developed a strong preference for having her blood on the inside of her body. The device beeped twice. Sample complete. Opening her eyes, she snapped the vial out, tagged it, and set it in the analyzer.
She snapped another vial into the leech and nodded at Seaghdh. “Need an arm.”
“Just an arm?”
Ari pursed her lips to keep from smiling at his teasing tone. “I have a distinct appreciation for every bit of your anatomy, Seaghdh. Blood can be sampled from any visible blood vessel regardless of location.”
Someone choked back a laugh via intraship. Seaghdh looked horrified. He’d forgotten the connections were open ship-wide. Or was he horrified by the thought of blood being taken from someplace other than his arm?
“Forearm sufficient?” he inquired, sounding sheepish.
“Yes. That vein will do nicely.”
“I’ll disable intraship and we can discuss your appreciation of my anatomy without your family eavesdropping,” he whispered into her ear as she took a sample from him.
She glared at him.
He leered back.
Her heart flip-flopped in her chest.
The leech beeped.
“All done,” she said. She tagged his sample and spent several moments entering information into the computer, creating a new medical file for him in the Sen Ekir’s system.
“Sampling complete and in the analyzer, Raj,” she said.
“All right. I’ll want a full scan,” Raj replied, “but no sequencing. You’re going to have to set this up, Ari. I don’t have a link yet. I’ll talk you through it.”
“We don’t have a sequence on file for Seaghdh.”
“I know.”
“Dr. Annantra can provide that,” Seaghdh said.
Ari nodded. “That’ll save time and processing power.”
“Agreed,” Raj said.
“Computer links are first priority,” Pietre called from wherever he was working. “Unless anyone wants to override that.”
“Nope,” she said. “I’m going to need every last one of you.”
“Almost there,” Pietre replied, a hint of surprise in his voice.
“Have a seat, Ari,” Raj said. “We’ll get analysis underway. It’s a simple, multi-command process.”
Raj walked her through several screens’ worth of test commands. The analyzer closed and cycled into action.
“Direct link initiated,” Pietre announced. “Raj can read your screens, Ari, but you’ll still have to issue keyboard commands.”
“Thank you, Pietre,” she and her father said simultaneously.
“Hailing the Dagger,” Pietre repl
ied. “Patching into com channel four.”
“Acknowledged and my appreciation, Mr. Ivanovich,” Seaghdh answered. He glanced at Ari for confirmation that his finger hovered over the correct button.
She nodded.
He hailed his ship in his own language, asking for Turrel and a secure channel.
“Turrel. Quarters secure. Sonic shield enabled. Narrow com beam, encoded,” Turrel said by way of greeting.
“Kirthin,” Seaghdh said. “We’ve got an outbreak.”
Turrel swore.
“Have Dr. Annantra transfer a complete copy of my medical file to Dr. Idylle. I’ll also need a link to the head of the Royal University’s director of . . .”
The screen in front of Ari lit up with results. “Spawn of a Myallki bitch.”
“What is it?”
“You want the director of virology, preferably someone with a specialty in Chekydran pathology,” she said.
“Alex?” her father prompted via intraship.
“Now we know why the thrice-damned bastards didn’t kill me,” she said. “The Chekydran seeded a disease in me. It just went hot. They sent me back as a time bomb. Baxt’k! Turrel, listen to me. Lock down that ship. Teleporters, shuttles, fighters. Nothing leaves the Dagger except data.”
“By the Gods, Ari,” Turrel snapped. “I didn’t dodge genocide to die in a Chekydran plague. Baxt’kal Three Hells. You were with the queen.”
“Everyone,” Ari retorted. “You. Sindrivik. V’kyrri.”
“The Auhrnok,” he breathed.
She dropped her head to rest on her forearm. “Twelve Gods. I am an assassin.”
CHAPTER 24
TURREL took Ari at her word. He locked down the Dagger hard and fast. Eilod, angry and frightened, demanded that Seaghdh transport back. He refused.
“With luck, Eilod,” he said, “only Ari and I were exposed. Let’s keep it that way.”
An hour later, Dr. Annantra called. She had three feverish crew members in isolation.
Ari traded a look with Seaghdh. He shook his head. He felt fine. Her heart lifted a little.
Raj traded notes with Annantra. Dad managed to confirm that the strains infecting Ari were related to previous Chekydran diseases, but he’d found indications that someone had spliced in something new, something their shipboard systems couldn’t recognize without a sequence and structure readout. Sequencing the illness in the detail they’d need would take days. Ari doubted they had that kind of time.
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