by Berinn Rae
Darion shouted, “Quiet! Geez, let the woman take a breath so you can ask your questions one at a time.”
They quieted and glanced at Darion. Jamila stood, separating herself from the squirming children, and rushed to hug Alice and Darion.
“I can’t believe you’re alive. How?” She glanced at Galen and he shrugged.
Darion clasped her hand. “Not everyone was killed. As you can see, some were captured as they tried to flee the bombs. We actually hid in a tunnel under the house with several others, and when the bombing was over we tried to sneak out of the tunnels and we were captured. They were taking us on a ship to the Capital where we were supposed to be interrogated and disposed of.”
Alice glanced at Galen. “He had us saved, I’m told. Thank you. It wasn’t fair to have these children’s lives ended so young.”
He nodded. “You’ll be safe where we’re going. I can’t promise there won’t be dangers, but we’re all trying to make better lives for ourselves away from the prying eyes of the government. It’s not easy but you’ll be much better off.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I can’t express how grateful we are.”
The burden of guilt pressed down on Jamila’s heart and she flung her arms around the women again. “I’m so glad you’re safe! I was heartbroken. The attack was my fault. I was careless with the last delivery. I — ”
Galen’s palms landed on her shoulders. “Hush now. It was probably something they’d been planning for months, if not years.”
Alice shook her head and crossed her arms low over her stomach, hunching in on herself. “He’s right. They never intended to let any of us survive for long. There were never any weapons being run into the district like they claimed. They were looking for an excuse to murder us, like they’ve wanted to do all along. It wasn’t your fault, and we’re so glad you weren’t captured, because we heard them say they were going to arrest everyone involved. We assumed they’d already executed you if you weren’t with us.” Her eyes flickered to Galen. “We should have known you would save her.”
He wrapped an arm around Jamila’s shoulders and pulled her back against his chest. “Yes, you should have.”
He nibbled her ear and she tossed him an annoyed glance over her shoulder. “That’s not exactly what you did.”
He grinned. “But I’ll take the credit.”
Darion cleared her throat. “Well, if you’ll excuse us, we need to get the children settled. And some of them have injuries.”
Galen pointed to Alec. “If you talk to him, you’ll be the first he sets accommodations for. And he’ll lead you somewhere to get you some food for all these starving squirts.”
There was an uproar from the children at the mention of food and the women hustled them toward the captain.
Jamila turned in Galen’s arms and stared up at him. She couldn’t keep tears from blurring her vision. “You did this for me, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “Of course. It was hard to miss your reaction when you discovered the attack on the district. If they were alive I had to save them. However, it wasn’t only for you. It would be against everything we’re trying to gain if we let those people go to their deaths. They needed saving, and luckily the mission was successful.”
She pulled him down and kissed him lightly. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
His arms tightened around her. “How could I not? You were so upset. It was worth it.” He chuckled. “Though Alec might disagree.”
She glanced over her shoulder and spotted the tanned man. He had one child on his shoulders, one wrapped around each leg, and one swinging from each hand. She giggled. “I think he would send them back if he could.”
Galen wiggled his eyebrows. “But they’re all his now. Along with women who will gladly kick his ass if he so much as frowns at one.”
“You!” The harsh bark sounded across the cargo bay. Jamila spun around to see Torin eating the distance with long, angry strides.
She flinched and glanced at Galen who grinned down at her. “Nope, you have to deal with him. You pissed him off. He’ll probably spank you.”
She ran her finger down his chest. “I’d prefer if you did.”
“Oh, I will again, but it won’t get you out of this.”
He spun her around and pushed her toward Torin. She gaped at him as he backed up. “Traitor,” she hissed.
“No, he thinks I should get my revenge on you.”
She gasped and stared at Torin, who’d reached her with alarming speed.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”
She grinned at him. “Sorry?”
He growled at her and she jumped. “Okay, so I’m not sorry. I wanted to escape. What you said to me freaked me out and I wanted to leave.”
Galen cleared his throat. “What exactly did you say to her, Torin?”
The frown creasing Torin’s face told her that he’d been backed into a corner. He shifted restlessly on his feet. “There might have been something about the Council not liking humans, and the hand her father had in our creation. And maybe a tiny threat to her life.”
“Torin!”
He bit his bottom lip. “I’d never actually hurt her. It was only a passing thought when I first met her. She’s changed my mind. And I agree I shouldn’t have told her what her father did, or what the Council would likely do to her. It slipped out in a fit of irrational anger.”
Galen placed his hands on her shoulders and ran them down her arms. “The Council isn’t going to do anything to her.”
Torin nodded. “Of course not. We won’t let them.”
Jamila frowned at him. “So suddenly you like me?”
He grinned. “I have no choice. If I don’t show my support, your boyfriend is going to pummel me for convincing you to take off.”
Her gaze shifted to Galen. “Don’t beat him up. It didn’t take much convincing, and I was already looking for a way out when he came through the door.”
Galen cleared his throat. “Torin, I need to talk to you for a second. Away from my prisoner.”
Torin glanced at her. “Right.”
Her eyes narrowed. What did they want to discuss that she couldn’t be privy to? They stepped away and she crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Galen. They were probably talking about her escape attempt. She sighed. Hopefully Galen would trust her not to do it again, but she’d probably ruined that. He’d probably punish her for it and not in the really great way he had in the pod.
Someone tapped her hard on the shoulder and she turned to see one of the refugees standing behind her. He was strangely clean and filled out for a man from Haven.
“Jamila Clearborne?”
“Yes?”
White hot pain pierced her chest stealing her breath. She glanced down and saw the knife planted in her sternum. She hit the ground on her knees as Galen shouted her name.
Chapter Eleven
His heart stopped. The assassin raised another knife. He was too close. Galen couldn’t make it. He pushed his legs to the limit to make it across the cargo bay. Alec reached them first. He grasped the attacker’s head and twisted. A crack filled the bay and Alec dropped the man.
Galen dropped to his knees and slid the last three feet to Jamila’s side. He gathered her into his arms. She reached up and grasped the knife but he quickly stilled her hands.
“No, no, don’t pull it out. It will bleed more.”
She moved her hand to his cheek. “You’re crying.”
He swiped at his face. “I’m fine. You’ll be okay. It’s nothing.”
She was going to die. Here in his arms after he’d promised he’d keep her safe. This was his fault. He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight. Not with all these strangers in the room. What was wrong with him? He should have been here to take this blow for her. He knew she had enemies.
He took a deep breath. He needed to be strong for her now. “Are you in pain?”
She frowne
d. “No.”
Torin knelt next to him. “Good. You’ll be alright. Medic! Get over here now.” Only years of working with Torin allowed Galen to detect the note of panic in the man’s voice.
The doctor dropped down by them and pulled bandaging out of his bag. “Get me a gurney,” he muttered absently as he packed cloth around the blade.
Jamila’s eyes slipped shut as her pulse slowed under his fingers, and horror roared through his head. “Doc, she’s dying. Do something!”
Torin cleared his throat and shifted his weight. “Galen, the wound is fatal. You know that.”
The doctor grunted. “Fuck that. We can save her if we get creative.”
Galen took his eyes off Jamila’s still form. “What do you mean?”
“What do you think? We’ll alter her. Replace her heart and accelerate her healing. Help me get her on the gurney — gently. I want her jostled as little as possible. We have to hurry.”
The doctor supported her feet while Galen lifted her shoulders and set her on the gurney. The medical instruments came to life with the howls of alerts for a critical patient. The flat, shrill tone of the heart monitor indicated her heart had stopped, and it took all his training to stop from breaking down. If the doctor thought he could save Jamila, the man might need Galen’s help.
“Computer, hibernation sequence.”
“Initialized. Warning. Patient in critical condition. Forty-two point six minutes remaining to reinitialize heart and lung functions before brain death occurs.”
The doctor pushed the floating gurney out of the cargo bay. “Galen, keep up. I have to talk to you.”
He followed the man, numb with shock. They entered the lift and Torin crowded in after him.
“Okay, we have to act fast. Like I said, my team can save her, but she’ll never be accepted by her people again, so unless you plan to keep her here, I don’t know what to do. She could go undiscovered for a while, but the government on Larus, as with many core planets, is very strict about their physicals due to diseases and the desire to catch the sort of thing we’re about to do to her.”
“Save her. I don’t give a damn.”
Torin rubbed the back of his neck. “Galen — ”
His hands curled into fists as he fought not to hit his friend. “I was never going to let her leave anyway, Torin.”
“Does she know that? Because I’m pretty sure she’ll want to go back eventually. What about her father?”
He growled. He refused to let her die, no matter what the cost. She could hate him if she wanted.
The doctor cleared his throat. “I’m leaving it up to you, Galen. She is your prisoner, after all, and I hope, for her sake, more. Usually I’d want to have the patient’s approval, but I’m telling you now I won’t get that chance.”
“I already told you to do it. Do whatever it takes.”
The lift slid smoothly to a stop as the doctor regarded him. “Good.”
• • •
Galen paced away from Torin for the thousandth time.
“Oh my God. If you don’t stop moving, I’m going to knock you out. You’re driving me up the walls.”
Galen glared at him. “If it was the woman you loved in there, you would be worried too.”
He snorted. “I am worried. I like Jamila. How many women have the balls to taser a cyborg and risk braving open space filled with hostiles to survive? And from the short time I’ve spent with her, I’ve enjoyed her company. But unlike you, I’m still calm. Barret is probably the best doctor in this galaxy, and he has cyborg technology and genetics at his command.”
Galen collapsed into the chair next to him. “But it’s been hours.”
“Yeah, well, this isn’t simple surgery. On a core planet she’d be dead.”
Alec slipped into the small room they were waiting in. The grim set of his mouth and stiff movements immediately set Galen on edge. “What is it?”
Alec tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. “Look, I know you’re having a personal emergency, but we’ve got some next level shit happening upstairs.”
When he didn’t continue Galen jumped to his feet. “Well, let’s not pause for dramatic effect, Alec. Spill.”
“Government ships are on their way. According to our intelligence they were alerted by a tracking device placed in someone on this vessel.”
He shook his head. “That’s not possible; everyone is scanned on their way out of the cargo bay.”
“Yes, but we don’t know every tiny piece of new technology they come up with. Something slipped past us. It might even have been activated later. Everyone is having an in depth, three dimensional scan to try and locate the device.”
The door to the operating room hissed open.
“And you’ll need to be scanned as soon as possible.”
“Sure.” Galen faced the doctor without giving Alec a second thought, even though his mind screamed that this was the thing to panic about. But he was too worried about Jamila to focus on that. When did I choose love over my duty to my people?
“Well, Doc?”
The man beamed. “She’ll make it. She’s out of it right now. On the good drugs. But they should wear off within the hour.”
Relief swept through Galen and he swayed dangerously. Torin grabbed his shoulder and lowered him into a chair.
• • •
“I replaced your heart with one that is mostly mechanical. I altered your genetics enough to accelerate healing. Of course, there are side effects to even that alteration. Immunity to almost any illness. Perfect eyesight. Possibly some increased mental acuity.” Barret sighed. “There really are some genetic alterations the core planets should embrace again.”
Jamila massaged her temples. If she were capable of getting headaches anymore, she’d definitely have one. “They won’t. What am I supposed to do now?”
Galen squeezed her hand. “What you always would have done. Stay here. You’ll be safe here with me.”
She glanced down at her lap. She loved Galen, and wanted to stay with him, but she’d always hoped that maybe she could go back to see her father. Eventually he would get the charges against her dropped and she would have had enough freedom to travel back to her home. She would miss him. And there were things she wanted that she’d left behind. Pictures of her mother and her home on Earth. Things that couldn’t be replaced. What about her friends? Most had been shallow, and stopped hanging out with her once her partying had stopped and she’d ceased blowing ridiculous amounts of money on them, but a few stuck around, and would worry about her.
Here she had no family. She had one person on the entire ship that didn’t hate her guts and want her dead. Well, scratch that. The doctor had saved her life, so he must at least be objective enough to realize she was an asset. Torin hadn’t killed her yet either.
Her biggest concern was the cyborg Council. She knew they wanted her dead, and everyone but Galen would support them. She didn’t want Galen hurt if he decided to fight against them. What kind of life could she have here? Before, she’d wanted to stay. Now she had no choice.
Galen smiled. “Don’t look so worried. It will work out.”
Barret nodded. “It will. You’re almost one of us. You’d never be accepted back home, so it will soften the blow to some cyborgs when they find out who your father is. We can always keep that as well concealed as possible. Though, your face is splashed all over the newsfeeds.”
“Barret,” Galen growled.
The older cyborg cleared his throat. “Right. Never mind. I need to scan you both for tracking devices. You’re the rare few that haven’t been checked.”
Chapter Twelve
Jamila and Galen sat in complete silence in the tiny shuttle that was headed back toward her planet, and right into the hands of the government.
She sighed. She knew Galen didn’t believe her. She wasn’t even sure she could blame him for that. After all, how could a person not know about a tracking device in their body, especially since it h
ad been implanted deep in her right buttock? It was so deep and larger than the one in her arm that an injection couldn’t have put it there. She tried to remember the last time she’d had a surgery or anything that would have given an opportunity for its placement. Anytime in her drug induced, lost party year would have been perfect. She didn’t remember the majority of that year — she’d spent most it passed out.
She’d tried to explain all this to Galen, and promised that she didn’t know anything about it, but he hadn’t even glanced her way since he’d been given the news that she had a tracking device that they’d missed in their initial scans. He’d somberly told the commander of the ship that he would take her back himself so the rest of the crew wouldn’t be at risk. Torin had protested, claiming Galen had more of a shot with some wing men covering his ass, but Galen knew this was the last trip he’d take. He’d told Torin as much. Anyone with him was going to be captured with him.
He’d resigned himself to his fate.
It pissed her off. She’d asked if they could remove the tracking device, but he’d been stubborn about it. He was convinced she knew about it, and wouldn’t trust her on his ship or the station.
And so he was taking her back.
It hurt that he didn’t trust her. She loved him, and he was willing to give her up. But then, he was protecting a whole civilization of people who would be killed if they were found.
She sniffled, unable to hold back her tears. Now that she didn’t have a choice, she’d discovered she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay with him, and the kids he’d saved for her. She didn’t want to go back to a world where she wasn’t wanted and where the government was going to murder innocent people. She wanted to be a part of resisting them, and helping these people create a life.
“Galen — ”
“Be quiet.”
“Can’t we talk about this?”
“How many times do we have to have this conversation?”
She rammed her fist into his arm and he glared at her. “Until you fucking listen to me, you stubborn bastard.”
“You have nothing to say. You betrayed me. That’s all it is. I can’t really blame you. You were kidnapped for nefarious purposes. You said you’d do what you could to make sure we wouldn’t succeed and you’ve done it.”
