Vidarr said, “What if we direct life support to the command deck only? We could push any remaining power to propulsion. Even if we only travel five klicks every hour, we’d still eventually move out of the Forbidden Zone.”
Angelica nodded. “Good idea. You’re right, some propulsion is better than being stopped dead in space like we are now.”
Sapphire said, “Bergeron can’t be trusted, but what if I use the device on him? We ask questions, and if he lies, he get zapped.”
“Are any of us willing to torture him?” Jeremy asked. “I find I’ve lost my taste for it.”
“You don’t think he’ll help us? He’s aboard this ship, too. He’s in the same predicament,” Will said.
Sapphire shook her head. “But he’d rather be in the Forbidden Zone. Once across the border, he’ll be in a penal colony for the rest of his days. Especially if my father has a say, and he likely will.”
“We could give him a measure of clemency in exchange for getting us across the border safely,” Will suggested.
“Clemency?” Vidarr asked harshly. “I’ll need a definition of that before we proceed.”
Jeremy said, “How about we don’t torture him to get what we wish? We lie and promise him whatever he wants, and then we promptly turn him over to Olivia’s father, the angry Trade Governor, once we cross the border?”
Will laughed. “I can see he’s public enemy number one, but if he can help us, I’m willing to be the one to lie to him to get what we need.”
Angelica shook her head. “I’ll never trust a word out of his mouth. If we allow him any access to the engines he’ll either destroy us all or send us reeling back toward Lord Harcourt’s Slaver planet. I say we leave him where he is until we get safely across the border. We’ll find another way or just maintain the fragile nature of what remaining auxiliary power we have left. It’s possible—however unlikely—that we’ll have enough to get us across the border. It’s going to be close.”
They exited the conference room onto the command deck. They shut off life support to all parts of the ship with the exception of the command deck, the brig, and the hallways leading to and from those two places. Jeremy and Angelica then worked the controls, shutting down unneeded functions throughout the ship. After a few minutes, they had thirty six percent auxiliary power going to propulsion and a heading aimed toward the closest border.
Angelica sat in the captain’s chair, operating the controls from there, while ensuring the cloak to the ship was maintained.
Jeremy seated himself at the pilot’s console in front of Angelica and to her right side. He reconfigured and rerouted several more systems to reduce their power drain, and got power to propulsion up over sixty-three percent. Velocity was limited. They weren’t speeding through space, but it felt exceptionally good to be headed out of the Forbidden Zone.
“I like seeing you seated in the captain’s chair again,” Jeremy said from the pilot’s seat.
Will caught her eye, nodded once, and smiled. Apparently, he didn’t mind seeing her in control either. She did love him. Her focus then shifted to Jeremy. She loved him, too. No easy choice between the two.
“Me, too,” Angelica said, unable to hide her grin. “Also, I believe we’re going to have enough power to make it across the border. We’ll be on fumes, but I don’t care.”
The memories of being subjugated while in the Forbidden Zone rose to the surface of her mind. She did her best to keep that abhorrent recollection of her time in the gladiator arena as second-class slave bitch out of her mind.
One day she’d have to let the memories back in, and deal with all the anger produced by the mere thought of her unfair confinement. She’d likely fight many exhausting battles in the virtual reality booth to expel her vast fury, but not today. Those thoughts went promptly on the back burner of her mind.
Vidarr and Sapphire spent their time at the communications station, crafting a message to be sent out once they’d crossed out of forbidden space. Will remained where he was, and kept his own council, staying seated at the weapons console. Unfortunately, she’d diverted all power away from the weapons system, so they wouldn’t be able to fire a single shot at any slaver Border Control ship.
Angelica suspected Will was thinking more and more about the bride in his sunset castle dream. Since her tattooed lover was a real memory and not a figment of her imagination, likely his bride dream was real, too.
They hadn’t discussed what would happen to the three of them after Will found his family. Angelica was abruptly saddened by the possibility that he wouldn’t be a part of her life anymore, whether or not he had a wife. She shook off the moisture welling up in her eyes, trying to make an unscheduled entrance, and tried to think positively.
She absolutely loved Jeremy, but she also loved Will. The three of them being together forever was as close to perfection as she’d ever dreamed about. But then again perhaps a threesome life in their future wasn’t realistically possible.
Will was a prince, after all. He’d have responsibilities to his home world, even if it turned out that he didn’t have a wife. Plus, Angelica wasn’t looking to be a princess. She wanted to go back to her life as a pilot for the Dalton Prime Corp.
Given her recent starring role in that DMR film with Will and Jeremy, she hoped her future career as captain was still a viable option.
Vidarr stood from the communications console. “I’ll go check on our prisoner. If he’s awake, I’ll sedate him again.”
Angelica nodded. “Thanks, Vidarr.”
Will lifted his head and asked, “How long until we cross the border?”
Angelica pushed some buttons to confirm her calculations and then pushed out a long sigh of relief. “At our current rate of speed, less than half an hour.”
Everyone on the command deck smiled broadly. Freedom was so close they could almost reach out, pluck it off a tree, take a big bite out of it, and taste liberty’s sweet juices running down their throats.
Until Vidarr rushed back onto the command deck and said, “Bergeron’s not in the brig. I’m not certain how, but he’s escaped.”
A sudden explosion rocked the ship from below decks, the meager propulsion they’d managed to get out of the auxiliary power source slowed considerably, dropping from half of what it had been.
Then the robotic command deck’s computer voice came through the speaker system, and said, “The cloaking function will be deactivated in ten minutes.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jeremy jumped up from the pilot’s chair the moment the explosion sounded. His first thought came right out of his mouth completely unfiltered. “What the fuck?”
Angelica said, “What was that?” at the exact same time.
“Do you think it was Bergeron?”
“Of course it was. It had to be.”
“He’s an engineer, in retrospect was it foolish to believe the brig could hold him?” Jeremy asked no one in particular.
“He didn’t escape because he’s an engineer,” Angelica said. “He’s not that good. He escaped because he’s a sneaky criminal, and he covered all his bases. He must have known he’d end up in the brig at some point, if he got caught.”
“How much life support do we have?” Vidarr asked.
“An hour, maybe, but that figure is subject to change based on whatever just blew up,” Angelica said hotly. “I don’t see any hull breaches registering on my scanners, do you, Jeremy?”
“No. Whatever blew up was internal. But I don’t see anything obvious that’s been destroyed. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t bad. I’ve shut down pretty much everything to keep power to the cloak, life support, and propulsion. Whatever just blew up slowed propulsion by half.” Jeremy moved toward the door, saying over his shoulder, “We should go to engineering and—” He was suddenly cut off by a voice over the ship-wide speaker system.
Bergeron’s self-satisfied-sounding tone came through loud enough to make Jeremy’s ears hurt. “Did you actually think I wou
ldn’t have allowed for the possibility of ending up in jail?” he asked with an amused tone.
“You all have wildly underestimated my capabilities. In case you’re wondering, I hid a universal key in every one of the rooms in the brig, even the storage space there. It wouldn’t have mattered where you put me. I was prepared for every eventuality. Also I just blew up one of the two auxiliary power sources aboard ship. If only I’d had more explosives I would have blown up both of them, but this should slow the ship enough down for my purposes.”
Jeremy said under his breath, “Should’ve left you on the planet with Gamblar.”
Angelica pushed the button on her captain’s chair console. Her voice came through the speakers clearly, asking, “What is your purpose, Bergeron?”
“My purpose, Angelica, is to get back to Lord Harcourt’s realm, insinuate myself next to his side in the arena, and to collect my due. Then I’ll promptly have your memories wiped from your mind again so that you can gleefully suck my cock every night once we’re alone together there. Or rather every other night, since I also wish for Olivia to do the same on opposite nights. The two of you can take turns servicing me, how’d that be?”
“Or instead, why don’t you go fuck yourself?” Angelica asked impolitely. Jeremy smiled internally at her forceful attitude, but she probably shouldn’t piss him off. They didn’t know where he was or what he was doing to the ship.
“That’s no way to treat your future master, Angelica. The truth is you’ve been a very naughty slave girl. You should have let me come with you the last time we were in this predicament, instead of shoving me inside that transport with the rest of the crew. It’s your own fault you ended up in the gladiator ring. I had much different plans for you. If you’d allowed me to stay aboard the Mirage, I would have been with you when your sabotaged life pod crossed over into District Six space. Instead of being a slave bitch in the gladiator’s arena, instead I would have become your whole world. But you fucked everything up when you tricked me onto the emergency crew shuttle.”
“Thanks for that clarification. I’ll stand by my initial statement. Go fuck yourself, Bergeron,” she yelled into the speaker. She slammed her palm down on the speaker button to end her portion of the conversation. “As satisfying as that was, it isn’t helpful,” she said.
“In fact,” Bergeron continued, broadcasting as if she hadn’t spoken, “both of you ruined all of my carefully thought-out plans. First Olivia, the trade governor’s haughty, unapproachable daughter, with the beautiful sapphire eyes, hit her head and spent weeks unconscious. I’m the one who thought up your slave name, Sapphire, did you know that?”
Across the command deck, Jeremy watched as Olivia crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, and managed to look even angrier than Angelica, but only barely.
Jeremy moved closer and put an arm around Angelica, and said in a low tone, “He must be in a bio-containment suit somewhere. We shut off all the life support everywhere else except for here and the brig.” She nodded, and an odd smile shaped her lips. He knew that look. She was shrewdly calculating her next move.
Bergeron continued, “So Lord Harcourt sent me out to get another female.
“I’d seen you around the docks of Bravura for quite a while, Angelica. I wanted you, but it took me forever to sign onto the Dalton Prime Corporation with their strict standards. Once I did, though, I took the first opportunity to bring you to heel. Both of you were supposed to be mine to fuck in the Den of Iniquity. I was cheated, but no longer. I’ll have my due.”
Angelica looked at the command console. “We are so close to the border, I’m not sure why he doesn’t turn the main engines back on.”
Jeremy said, “Well, we do ‘wildly underestimate’ him. Then again, why would he? The Slaver Border Control ships will pick us up the minute we aren’t cloaked. They will also take us right back to Lord Harcourt.”
As if it had been listening to them, the robotic computer voice on the command deck said, “The cloaking function will be deactivated in eight minutes.”
Bergeron’s voice came over the speakers again, answering their unasked questions. “The way you configured the auxiliary power to keep the cloaking device operational was clever, Angelica. I see that you learned something from me by putting your own secret code in play. Now I can’t access the main engines with my battle simulation pass code. Since I already used up all my explosives, and I can’t blow anything else up, we’ll just have to wait until the time runs down. But that’s okay. Once the auxiliary power is gone and we’re visible, I’ll enable the main engines, direct the ship back to Lord Harcourt’s realm, and get a head start.”
“There must be something we can do to stop him,” Vidarr said.
“We don’t even know where he is,” Jeremy added.
Angelica asked, “We can shut off life support to the brig, right?”
Jeremy said, “Yes.” Glancing at her determined face, he knew she had a plan.
“Why would we?” Vidarr asked.
“Either he’s hiding somewhere between the command deck and the brig or else he’s in a suit somewhere.” She pushed several buttons and the auxiliary power to propulsion boosted, although not enough to get them across the border before the cloak was disabled.
Jeremy smiled to himself, remembering what a great strategist she was. “I know what you’re doing. It’s a smart move.”
“Explain it to the rest of us not currently a part of your special wavelength,” Vidarr said.
Angelica pushed out a breath. “The thing is, none of the bio-containment suits aboard this ship have longer than a fifteen minute capacity without replacement filters or extended oxygen packs.”
The command computer said, “The cloaking function will be deactivated in six minutes.”
“Okay but in less than six minutes, this ship is going to uncloak at the busiest part of the Forbidden Zone border, likely there are double the Border Control ships looking for us courtesy of Lord Harcourt. Or the auxiliary power will run out and Bergeron will use his battle simulation code, enable the main engines, and we’re off exactly where we started.”
Angelica crossed her arms, looking very satisfied. “All of the replacement filters and the extended oxygen packs on this ship are currently in my command deck conference room. I gathered them along with a suit and stowed them there before I left the ship, before I realized I’d have to leave in a life pod because of an imminent ship hull breach explosion and the minimum safe distance countdown.”
“Okay, how does it help us?”
Angelica answered, “Finding a new air supply might give Bergeron something else to focus on instead of doing any more damage to the ship.”
Olivia called out. “I located him.”
“Who? Bergeron?” Jeremy asked.
She nodded. “He’s in the service tunnel between here and the brig.”
Angelica said, “And I just shut off life support everywhere except the command deck. So now, he has less than fifteen minutes to locate a filter or give up breathing.”
She looked at her handheld computer. “And another benefit is that with life support contained to only the command deck, we’re currently moving toward the Forbidden Zone at eighty-one percent power. Based on auxiliary power remaining, I’ve calculated that we’ll be right under two klicks away from the border when the cloaking device fails.”
“Perhaps we have enough auxiliary power to get us past the border before they catch us.”
“We can dream.”
“And Bergeron can hold his breath.”
“We may be doing the same thing—”
At that moment Bergeron came over the speakers again, interrupting Angelica before she could finish her sentence.
Unfortunately, Bergeron wasn’t talking to anyone on board the Mirage. “Hailing District Six Border Control. S.O.S. My ship is disabled. I’m near the following coordinates.” He then proceeded to give their exact location over the airwaves.
Angelica and Jeremy shut down ship
-wide communications, but Bergeron’s message was already gone. It was only a matter of time before a Border Control craft showed up in their location to catch them.
A warning bell sounded. On the panel in front of them, Jeremy saw a ship already approaching them. Fuck.
Border Control was about to be in the perfect place to capture them once the cloaking device deactivated.
Jeremy brought the communications back up, on the hand-held command computer only, sending his own S.O.S. message into space. Likely it was a useless endeavor, but it made him feel better.
“The cloaking function will be deactivated in four minutes.”
Four more minutes of freedom. Jeremy lowered the command deck’s handheld computer, placing it on the captain’s chair. He then turned to Angelica, took her in his arms and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Maybe there wasn’t. At this point he wasn’t assured there would be a future for any of them. He wanted one last good thing to remember before all hell broke loose.
She kissed him back, but soon broke the tight embrace. “I’m not ready to give up yet, are you?” Her speculative gaze drilled a passionate look drilling all the way to his soul. I love you, Angelica.
Jeremy smiled. “No. I just wanted to kiss you because for the next four minutes, I know that I can.” After that, who knows?
* * * *
“The cloaking function will be deactivated in two minutes.”
Still pressed in Jeremy’s arms, a powerful rage rose inside Angelica at Bergeron’s actions. It had been building since directly after his message went out to the District Six Border Control.
They all circled around the captain’s chair, and the five of them brainstormed, trying to come up with a plan, any plan that would save them. Bergeron had screwed them royally, and they didn’t have an obvious play.
In the moment, she wished she had a gladiator sword. Likely she’d destroy lots of stuff and put holes in the rest. Then again, if she had a weapon in this completely frustrating moment, likely she’d slip on a filter mask and search out Bergeron to use the primitive weapon on him. But it wouldn’t help their situation.
Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 28
