Andromeda's Rebel

by Debra Jess

  About time.

  “Don't you ever threaten her again," he growled, just loud enough for her to hear.

  Joran didn't look the least bit intimidated. He pulled away from Daeven, who didn't fight to keep hold of his friend.

  “I’m not selfish," she said, raising her voice to match Joran's. "It's all I have left to give. If I can remember, others can remember too."

  They stared at each other, not acknowledging Daeven at all. He might have brought her here, but this was her fight. Probably the first of many.

  Finally, Joran looked away. "The unbridled passions of youth. You two make me sick."

  He stalked away from both of them. Daeven replaced him, brushing back her curls with his hand, which bounced around her shoulders with each angry breath, calming her down. His beseeching eyes silently asked her to wait to see where Joran would lead them.

  Joran worked his way back into her line of sight, looking at her but talking to Daeven. "What will you do when she gets her memories back?"

  "My job," Daeven said, not looking away from her. "Just as I've been doing."

  "With her by your side?" Joran picked up his abandoned cup of claffien to point in Tamarja's direction.

  "Yes."

  "And if she doesn't want you after she remembers what happened to her?"

  "Will you help me?" she asked before Daeven could answer. She didn't want to hear his answer. "Can you help me?"

  Joran dismissed her with a wave. "Get out of here. Both of you."

  Daeven placed her hand over hers. "Let's go."

  She followed him back outside, into the driving rain. "I'll take you back to Facility Prime now."

  They didn't talk at first. After Daeven swung into a lane, he set the floater for automatic, letting the computer control their height and speed.

  "You two are Shadows, aren't you?" The words seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was the only conclusion that made sense.

  Daeven nodded. "Yes."

  It surprised her that he admitted it so quickly. She didn’t know if she should be flattered at his trust in her, or suspicious. "And Joran doesn't care if my association affects Jita or the director. He only cares if it affects you."

  Daeven nodded again.

  "What are you two planning here?"

  "I can't tell you that."

  "Why? Isn't that why you brought me to Joran?"

  "I brought you to Joran because he can help you recover your memory. I can get the Black Wave for you, but I don't have any medical training. I can't tell you how much is too much."

  "But Joran does have that training?"

  “He’s a doctor. He’ll figure out how much to use and how best to administer it.“

  Her head started to throb, but she ignored the warning sign. “A doctor who tortures people?“

  "They make the best kind."

  She couldn't stop the flinch as the fog clouded her eyesight. By the Stars, had she been tortured before? By a doctor? She breathed deep and focused again on Daeven. "If he's going to help me anyway, why is he so angry?"

  Daeven turned back to the floater's controls. "We have our mission. It doesn't include returning ‘pets' memories. He's angry because there's value in your plan. If Black Wave can destroy Manitac's memory block, then we have the first step in breaking down the entire puppet system. You've placed him between a rock and a hard place. Completing our mission or helping 'pets." Daeven reached over and took her hand, but Tamarja pulled it away and he didn't pursue it.

  "Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?"

  Daeven sighed. "Tamarja, I know everything looks black and white to you, but it's not that simple. Joran and I are not in a position to make that sort of decision. We have other people we have to consider before we alter our mission parameters."

  She let it go as her headache increased. Maybe Joran was right―she was selfish. Maybe she should stop searching for her past now, before she caused someone else to be hurt. Maybe her past really wasn't worth the effort. Yohzad seemed to think so, but Daeven indicated otherwise. They both knew who she was, had read her record. They both had something to gain and to lose depending on what happened to her with the Black Wave experiment. Who was right?

  She hadn't figured out the answer by the time they approached the security check at Facility Prime.

  "Be still," Daeven ordered as he slowed the floater to a crawl.

  "What's wrong?"

  "No AuRaKaz security."

  Tamarja frowned. The guards at the checkpoint wore only Manitac gray. That couldn't be good.

  "What should we do?"

  "Nothing. Act like everything's normal."

  Daeven accelerated enough to float the vehicle into the scanner. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Daeven's posture had changed. He sat ramrod straight and dropped his hands to his lap, closer to his weapons.

  He remained tense as the large gears swiftly passed the scanner over the vehicle. Surprising herself, Tamarja didn't match his posture. She felt calmer than she had on the road. She knew what to expect here, surrounded by Manitac. Manitac, for all their attempts to keep people off their guard, were pretty predictable when it came to bullying and intimidation. She had become accustomed to those behaviors over the years.

  The blunt demand for their IDs didn't faze her. She located her disc, while Daeven used the one in his finger.

  Daeven guided the floater to the nearest parking spot and dissolved the doors. He shot out of the floater before she even had time to release her restraints. She had to run to catch up to him.

  More security met them at the compressor. There had never been a security checkpoint inside the garage. Something had happened, something they had missed while talking with Joran.

  Again they passed through the checkpoint with no questions. Daeven remained tight-lipped, though she could see he wanted to demand answers.

  The compressor window opened at the edge of the atrium. Even before they exited, Tamarja could feel despair weaving through the air. There was no bustle of activity, no comms chiming, no employees walking from one station to another. Even the sun had abandoned the room as the clouds thickened above.

  A knot of hostesses gathered around their station, whispering. Tamarja thought she could hear one of them cry. She touched Daeven's shoulder to make sure he followed her as she approached the group. She immediately looked for the bright-red hair of her friend, but Jita wasn't there.

  "What's wrong?" She tried to push herself into the huddle as far as she could, keeping her voice down.

  The group parted. They all knew who she was, if not through their assignments, then through Jita.

  She recognized one of them sitting on a stool in the middle of the group. "Nagrit. What's wrong?"

  "It's Jita," she cried softly. "Manitac's taken her."

  "What do you mean, ‘taken her'?" Tamarja demanded. She really didn't need an explanation. She knew what had happened.

  "The grays just swooped in and told her she was being reassigned and took her away.“ Eyes filled with tears, she leaned in and whispered, “They're going to make her into a ‘pet, I’m sure of it."

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Aura ripped the ear jack from her head with such force that she snapped the receiver. Hardly the first ear jack she'd broken since arriving on Dawn's Landing, and it wouldn't be her last. Scooping up the remnants of the broken tech, she tossed it in the recycler while simultaneously pulling a new one out of the desk drawer.

  Ramsey knew to always keep a backup nearby.

  Connecting the new jack, she secured her private channel. "Ramsey, report. What's going on out there?"

  Ramsey's face appeared, floating in the air, her hair askew and her eyes tired. "So far we have twenty-three missing persons reported. They're trying to scoop up entire families. Leave no witnesses behind, no one who will hold a grudge, no one who will put themselves at risk looking for the missing."

  "Trying?"

  "Word is spreading fast. They tried to
grab one family, but the father was working late. Someone warned him, and he warned the family. They've disappeared, but not with Manitac. We're trying to find them now."

  "Who? I want a list of names and which departments each person was assigned to. I want a second list of those they tried to grab and failed. I need to know if any of them were assigned to the project. Specifics, Ramsey. We can't afford to let anyone attached to the project get off world."

  "We can't afford to let any of our people get off world," Ramsey commented, her voice brittle.

  Aura closed her dry, tired eyes. How long had she been up? Before the sun rose? The extended days this world graced them with could be a heavy burden when there was work to be done. "Yes, of course. I meant that. You know I did."

  Ramsey relented with the touch of a sad smile. Ramsey had stood behind her half her life, guarding her back. She wouldn't let the project fail now, not when they were so close. "Yes, I know. I'm transmitting the lists now."

  Aura didn't bother acknowledging receipt of the material as her gaze quickly darted from name to occupation and back again. "None of the missing are attached to the project?"

  "No. None. They were just unlucky enough to catch the attention of the officers we toured yesterday. They grabbed so few only because we managed to shove the ‘pets under their noses in most locations. You did a brilliant job making those transfers from the mountain to the facilities. You made it seem as if we employ twice the number of ‘pets we actually do."

  "Thank our pilots. They followed orders and didn't ask questions. The collision with our shuttle might have bought us an extra hour or two, set Manitac behind schedule. Where are the pilots now?"

  "Detained in the mountain, after they transferred back the ‘pets. We need to keep the pilots under wraps until we're sure they won't betray us if Manitac decides to interrogate them."

  "Let's hope those pilots see the light and Manitac won't demand that we turn over the pilot who collided with my shuttle. Otherwise, ending this raid is going to get a lot more difficult."

  "Any word on the detainees?"

  Aura shook her head. "I logged my protests with Cyrek just before his recall to Jarvis Station. He's halfway to the spaceport by now. That's probably where they're holding the detainees."

  "I don't trust him."

  "I don't trust him either, but he is our liaison. He's promised to do everything he can to ensure that the detainees are treated well, if not released."

  "That won't matter if they're wiped."

  "None of this will matter if we get caught."

  Bitterness scalded Ramsey's sigh.

  "Did you know any of them personally?" Aura inquired, lowering her voice. Ramsey's husband had disappeared just before she and Aura met. Ramsey too had made a vow to take down Manitac. Luckily, Aura had found her before the Shadows.

  "No. I try not to get too…close…too involved. The hostess though, Jita Tessier, she was the one on the shuttle for the tours, the redhead. I checked her record prior to assigning her to the shuttle. It's clean, highest rating. Well respected and well-liked by her colleagues. She choked on that tour though. She knew what was happening, knew the risk. Someone scared her, but there was nowhere for her to run once I assigned her to the tour."

  "Don't blame yourself, Kaylin. You know where the blame belongs. Now who scared the hostess? My pilot? Chase? Could she have done it?"

  "I don't think so. Chase wears a collar, but she's not wiped. She's probably experienced with Manitac tactics and disappearances, but I can't see her risking Manitac shutting down her collar."

  Aura frowned and waved her stylus around. "Wouldn't her collar have shut down when the warship arrived? Like all the other ‘pets?"

  Ramsey blinked at the idea. "That would be likely."

  "Where was she when the warship arrived?"

  "I don't know, but I'll find out."

  "Fine, but that's not your priority right now." Aura turned her attention back to the list of detainees. "You said Manitac was trying to grab entire families."

  "That's correct."

  "I only see one listing for Tessier. Does she have family here?"

  Aura waited while Ramsey cross-checked the hostess's file, closing her eyes as the muscles in her chest contracted. She really needed to get to medical for that re-an therapy before the contractions got out of control. She could not afford to fall ill now.

  Ramsey reappeared, her face floating next to the list. "She's related by marriage to the Teloris. That's the family we can't locate. The father, Ianyin, is an engineer attached to the project. I'll bet you a year's wages he's got his wife and children in the mountain."

  By the Stars, the cavern was both the safest and most dangerous place on all of Dawn's Landing. Probably in all of Andromeda. At least the children were there and would be safe for now, but it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. “That's a bet I'll have to take, and it's no guess that he's the one who tipped off the hostess."

  "Jita," Ramsey said.

  She always made it a point to remind Aura of the real people behind the titles. Aura hated that she needed that sort of reminder. She was letting Manitac eat away too much of her soul.

  "Yes, yes, Jita. I hate this as much as you do, sacrificing people, but we can’t keep security tied up searching for people we don't want found. The project must keep the secret at all costs, or we risk losing everyone on Dawn’s Landing. Quietly call security off the hunt. If Manitac wants to pursue the Teloris, make security available, but let's not be too available."

  "I'll arrange for more security to be assigned to the Black Wave investigation. That'll keep them busy."

  Aura agreed before cutting the connection.

  Tamarja could do nothing but sit on the edge of her bed while Daeven contacted security. Not for the first time since she had moved in, she wished she had a view pane so she could focus on something other than the bare walls. Daeven paced back and forth, but Tamarja was too tired to try to make sense of his one-sided conversations. Instead, she leaned back on her elbows and let her mind relax. Thinking of nothing gave her clarity; she didn't have to try so hard to push away the fog that continued to pester her.

  After what felt like hours, Daeven shut down his jack and sat next to her on the bed. "We have twenty-three missing people, including Jita."

  Curling her fingers into fists, Tamarja nodded, but agreeing did nothing for her pent-up anger. "What about her family?"

  "I'm not sure." Daeven ran a hand through his hair. "They're missing, but they're not on any Manitac list of personnel transfers. That's what they're calling it—personnel transfers."

  "Where could they be?" A brief thought of the warship in the mountain. That was the only logical location for the Teloris, but Jita hadn't made it into the mountain. Her brother-in-law must have warned her but had been too late. How could she get to a secret cavern when she probably didn’t know it existed? Tamarja caught Daeven in a hug, lowering her head to his shoulder, partly to seek comfort through contact, but also to hide her own confusion about what to tell him and what to keep to herself.

  "I don't know, but here's what's odd: almost all of security has been ordered to investigate the Black Wave suicides. We are going to round up anyone suspected of having ties to the drug market."

  Tamarja lifted her head. "What? Why? That's not half as important as freeing Jita."

  Daeven pulled her back toward him, a warm embrace, so she could lean on him once again. "Jita's gone. There's nothing we can do for her. Manitac is going to hold her at the spaceport until they can transfer her to Jarvis Station, then to their warship. After that, they'll take her to a med station where she'll be wiped and reassigned. They won't bring her back here though. They won't assign her to a place where she’d be recognized.“

  "We still have to try to get her back.“ Tamarja pulled away from Daeven. “We can't abandon her."

  "I don't see where we have a choice. Manitac is the ruling power out here. Unity won't help; they're too deep in Manitac's
pocket to interfere, especially this far out on the frontier."

  "The director?" Tamarja’s throat tightened around the question.

  "Why would she care? She can just hire a new hostess to replace her."

  Then why did the director have a warship hidden in the mountain? She was still convinced that only the director could keep such a project hidden from Manitac's view. Did Daeven know about the warship? Did the director use the entire security force to keep people away from the mountain? No, there hadn't been any security at the portal she found, and none inside the mountain itself. It would seem the director preferred camouflage to brute force in protecting her secret. Daeven probably had no idea what the mountain contained.

  Should she tell him? Would he believe her? And how would it change their situation? Could she fly the warship and rescue Jita and the other detainees?

  She shook her head at the notion. She didn't even know if the warship was armed or if it required an entire crew to operate. It didn't appear that big, but looks could be deceiving. The more dangerous the ship, the more likely she would at least need a copilot to navigate while she performed dangerous out-of-atmosphere maneuvers. Maneuvers she didn't even remember how to execute—if she had ever known how to execute them at all. She was only what Manitac had trained her to be—an atmosphere bound shuttle pilot, nothing more, nothing less.

  That was, of course, assuming she could steal the warship in the first place.

  Big, warm hands cupped her face, tilting it up until she looked into Daeven’s gentle eyes. The sympathy etched all over his handsome face made her heart skip a beat.

  “I’m sorry, I truly am. I wish there was more we could do. But right now, our hands are tied.“ The raw honesty in his voice touched her on a deep level.

  The warmth of those amazing, callused hands swept away all thought, all worry. If only for a moment, she allowed herself to get caught up completely in him.

  Raw emotion roared to life as if crashing through a wall and tumbled her back onto the bed. Holding on tight to Daeven, she dragged him down with her, kissing him but still not able to get enough of him. Surprised by the turn of events, Daeven quickly planted his hands on the pillow so his full weight wouldn’t crush her. Lips sealed together, Daeven relaxed his arms, slowly lowering himself on top of her.